Sam's truck is a yellow 1990 Chevrolet Astro cargo van used by Sam for his gardening business. He also uses it to sell marijuana. The Beast of Bailey Downs was run over and killed by this van. On Halloween, Ginger Fitzgerald completed her transformation into a werewolf in this truck.
Description[]
The yellow cargo van has a logo of the County Regreening Programme on the aft-most side panel and a dashed warning stripe on the rear doors. It is equipped with a roof rack to transport ladders. Inside, Sam keeps several gardening tools such as rakes and shovels, some of which are held in place by a chain link fence on the side walls. The interior is also regularly used to transport plants. The lock on the rear door is broken and doesn't work reliably.[3]
In the movie[]
We see the van for the first time when Sam pulls into the parking lot across the street from the school to supply his waiting customers. He then quickly leaves again.
The next time we see it is when he runs over the Beast of Bailey Downs. This happens on a road behind the little forest adjacent to the Neighborhood Park. Brigitte and Ginger quickly cross the road in front of the approaching truck, narrowly avoiding getting hit themselves. The beast follows them, stops in the headlights and is then completely obliterated. Sam then stops and checks on what he ran over. The front-grill of the van is damaged and blood is sprayed all over the vehicle body. Sitting on the roadside, Brigitte notices the truck.
On the next day, at the local drug store, Jason McCardy invites Ginger to smoke a joint with him. Moments later they are in the back of Sam's truck together with Ben and Tim. Brigitte comes with them but stays outside. The vehicle is parked next to the high school. She recognizes the County Regreening Programme logo on it from the encounter on the previous night and after moving to the front, she notices the damage to the grill. Then she meets Sam for the first time and asks him what he hit. He answers "lycanthrope". When Sam notices the high school kids who are in his truck without his knowledge he throws them out immediately. Trina Sinclair arrives at the scene with her dog and also asks him what happened to his truck. This time he says he tapped a tree. When Trina's dog reacts to Ginger's newly acquired, but still invisible, werewolfness with loud barking, Brigitte drops her folder with the werewolf photo.
Over a week later, Sam arrives at the school in his van and notices Brigitte. He brings her the folder she dropped. On the day after both met at the County Greenhouse, Sam shows up at the sports field during hockey training to speak with Brigitte. He parks his truck on the school parking lot, next to the bleachers.
The final appearance of the van occurs when Brigitte and Sam use it to drive Ginger back home to prepare a new dose of monkshood serum for her. They keep the unconscious Ginger in the back of the truck, where she completely transforms into a werewolf on the ride. Brigitte also shows first signs of her werewolf infection when the recent cut on her palm quickly heals and she appears increasingly dazed. When they arrive in the garage of the Fitzgerald house they notice the slightly opened rear door. After checking if Ginger is still in there, she breaks out and runs into the house.
Significance[]
In Ginger Snaps, cars are harbingers of change and places of transition and transformation. Ginger takes her first steps of transformation away from her previous self when she spends time smoking with Jason and the boys in Sam's van. At the same time, right next to the van, Brigitte exchanges her first words with Sam, who becomes her first person of trust outside her family. Later, the van brings Sam to his next chance encounter with Brigitte. Ultimately the van becomes the place where Ginger completes her transformation. And at the same moment it's the place where Brigitte's werewolf transition becomes tangible for the first time.
In the same vein, Jason's car is the place where Ginger loses her virginity. And the family van is the place where Pamela reveals Brigitte her plans to leave their previous lives behind. In the original shooting script, the final scene shows Brigitte leaving Bailey Downs in Sam's van.
References[]
- ↑ In dialogue, Sam's vehicle is referred to as both a "van" and a "truck". The shooting script describes it as a "box van".
- ↑ Identification based on the Internet Movie Cars Database
- ↑ Sam said he meant to fix this when he sees the open rear door in the garage, implying it was already broken before. Explaining how Jason got into the truck for smoking.