Blood Car 2007

Archie Andrews, Mike Brune, is a vegan kindergarten teacher who buys from Lorraine, Anna Chlumsky’s vegetarian roadside stand. He toils on a concept for an engine that runs on wheatgrass, but his early attempts yield no results until a fateful accident: he cuts his finger, the blood drips into the wheatgrass, and somehow the mixture filters into the engine and makes it run.

Archie tests the car and, hoping to prove its viability, offers a ride to Denise, Katie Orr, who runs a meat stand and is Lorraine’s rival. Denise, thinking Archie can afford exceptionally expensive fuel (30+ dollars a gallon), accepts the offer and agrees to a ride home, but he soon discovers the tank is empty and the car stalls.

Desperation pushes Archie toward another kind of hunt. He begins by pursuing animals, but they do not provide enough blood to power his invention. He escalates to targeting larger prey—predatory people—and, after rebuilding the machine, settles for any victim who can supply the needed energy. The car’s power becomes increasingly efficient, and Archie’s work grows more dangerous and morally fraught.

Meanwhile, the government, tracking his progress, offers him any position he desires if he can manufacture more Blood Cars after the original is destroyed and his existence is erased. The looming question becomes where the fuel for future machines will come from, and the federal agents promise that it will come from society’s most vulnerable: invalids, convicted criminals, and the homeless. Archie agrees, entangled in a deal that binds his invention to a dark future.

As the narrative cuts between Archie’s possible rise to power and the brutal consequences of his creation, images of a chilling ascent are interwoven with the reality of state actions. Government agents murder Lorraine, Denise, his kindergarten students, and anyone else who witnesses the Blood Car’s development, painting a stark portrait of power, control, and the price of progress.