Deadline Auto Theft

When viewed after director H.B. Halicki's second movie, The Junkman (1982), this film becomes an interesting piece of meta-fiction. Most of the movie is a shortened version of Halicki's first film, Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), with a new, lengthy opening sequence and various other new scenes which create a new subplot surrounding Hoyt Axton and the LAPD Auto-Theft Division. In The Junkman (1982), Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) is presented as a fictional film in post-production - this movie's new opening sequence is partially seen being shot in The Junkman (1982), during which Christopher Stone's character comments that Halicki (himself playing a fictional director) was "not excited" by the first three minutes of the original film (train crash investigation), and is therefore filming an entirely new sequence. As such, this film is the result of what is seen being shot in The Junkman (1982), and thus takes place in a different universe. In reality, Halicki sought to improve upon the original Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) by re-releasing it with these new scenes, which are far more extravagant and costly than what was originally shot. Without the different title, it could almost be seen as a "director's cut" of the original movie.

The opening chase takes place entirely in Long Beach. While Captain Gibbs is an LAPD captain, he initiates the pursuit because he is on scene and witnesses his daughter's fiancé's car being stolen. However, the majority of responding units are from the LAPD instead of the Long Beach PD - and these LAPD units are parked in various areas around Long Beach, where they have no business being, particularly at the Queen Mary. All of the detectives who respond are part of Gibbs' auto-theft unit and it is highly unlikely that all would be in Long Beach at the same time working on different jobs. The dispatcher even says that "assisting units are Long Beach PD." Long Beach PD would be the primary pursuit agency, with assistance from the sheriff's department and Highway Patrol (as in the film). Captain Gibbs would be the only LAPD officer involved, as the other detectives and marked units have no jurisdiction in Long Beach.

The original end credits from Gone in 60 Seconds are shown at the end of the movie, along with new credits for the additional scenes. Because this was supposed to be an "original" movie, this creates continuity issues since most of the people credited for the 1974 footage did not work on the new scenes.

Almost all of the sound effects and all of the music has been completely changed for the DVD release, in both the new "Deadline" footage and the old "Gone in 60 Seconds" footage.

Edited from Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)