The trailer for the live action Street Fighter movie is out, and some fans are pretty stoked that one famous scene made the cut. Based on the Capcom video game franchise, the upcoming movie includes Street Fighter II‘s bonus stage where a player can destroy a car for extra points. The model of the 16-bit car was never stated but it was clearly based on the Lexus LS400, and the movie recreates that scene with a real UCF10.
My brother and I played countless hours of Street Fighter II when it came out, but the car-breaking bonus stage always pained me, even as a kid. Essentially the player is given a time limit during which they can beat the crap out of an innocent car. Why? According to the Street Fighter wiki,
In the storyline, a man takes cars that do not sell and offers prize money for those who manage to break a car within a time limit with their bare hands for $10 per try. The idea unexpectedly became a big hit, with many people going to the harbor to give it a try.
Let’s dive into that a little deeper. Street Fighter II came out in 1991, and based on the American flag on the boat in the background and the (period incorrect) yellow-on-blue license plate this scene looks like it plays out in California. The Lexus LS400 went on sale for the 1990 model year in the US, so the car would have been only a year old or so.
The LS400 was a huge hit for Toyota, moving over 40,000 units in its first year. It outsold its European competitors, sending shockwaves across the luxury car industry. It’s highly unlikely that in 1991, an LS400 would have languished on the sales lot.
We can’t help but wonder if writers created the backstory based on news reports of US auto workers taking sledgehammers to Japanese cars, which made big headlines in Japan in the 80s. It would’ve been unseemly to include the politics of trade wars in the game and easier to just go with “a car that does not sell” without elaborating on the reasons why.
Several sequels also contained bonus stages in which cars were vandalized. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999 had players pummel a Mitsubishi Pajero, and Ultra Street Fighter IV in 2014 included the wanton destruction of an S180 Toyota Crown.
What’s most interesting is that the former’s bonus stage took place in a junkyard, and the non-punchable cars in the background include a blue R32 Nissan Skyline, what could be a white T140 Toyota Corona, and a gargantuan Subaru 360.
The origins of Street Fighter’s bonus stages can be traced back to the 1989 Capcom arcade classic Final Fight. In that game’s bonus stage the player can bash a car that resembles an S130 Toyota Crown. It was a bit more realistic, as the player could use weapons like a steel pipe, which tend to cause a bit more damage than bare hands and feet.
It made slightly more sense narratively as well. In Final Fight the car belongs to a bad guy, who enters the frame and sees the carnage and falls to his knees, crying, and exclaims “Oh my God!” You can’t help but feel for him. It was a pretty big deal back then when video games emitted any kind of noise resembling an actual sentence, so you know this was done for maximum emotional impact. Villain or not, you simply don’t fuck with another man’s vehicle.
The progression from Toyota sedan to off-roader also takes place in Final Fight‘s Metro City. Perhaps it was a reflection of real-world trends in which SUVs were becoming status symbols. In 1993’s Final Fight 2, the bonus stage involves the butchering of another Mitsubishi Pajero.
That brings us to the new Street Fighter movie, probably the fourth or fifth attempt at forming a narrative around a game in which two players beat each other up. The very end of the trailer shows a fighter beating up an LS400.
He straight up kicking the hood off of its hinges without somehow damaging the sheetmetal itself. The movement is so swift it creates sparks. We know it’s not meant to be realistic, and the movie definitely looks like it’s going for more cartoonish visuals. Well, at least it matches the tone of the game. The movie is scheduled to open October 2026.
