RACE THE SUN 1996

This movie is a fictionalized account of the exploits of an Hawaii high school tram  (Konawaena Intermediate and High School on the Big Island of Hawaii) in the 1990 World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Halle Berry and James Belushi star in this adventure in which a group of low-income, under-achieving Hawaiian students are inspired by their new science teacher to design a solar powered car for a local competition. Their determination ultimately lands them in Australia in a 2,000 mile race across the Outback.  A must see for any Solar Car Team and one of my personal inspirational favourites NK. See also, The Worlds fastest Indian for a true story of determination against all odds.

World Solar Challenge - Start Line

Directed by  Charles T. Kanganis

Writing credits (WGA)  Barry Morrow (written by)

Race the Sun is a nice little movie which captures the feel of the Australian outback and gives a brief insight into the challenges faced by real life competitors, although very much superficial and glossy, but this is of course just a film.  Race the Sun is undoubtedly inspirational to other would be solar racers, and a timeless family movie, based around the true story of a group of allegedly under-achieving Hawaiian school kids who set out to win a solar car race in Australia.

Genre: Drama / Adventure / Comedy

Tagline: A dream can make all the difference under the sun.

User Comments: A sweet little flick 

User Rating: ***** 5.1/10 (606 votes)

Halle Berry as Miss Sandra Beecher

Halle Berry and James Belushi

MPAA: Rated PG for mild language and a brief incident of teen drinking.
Runtime: 82 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: SDDS (8 channels)
Certification: Spain:T / USA:PG / Singapore:PG

Goofs: Continuity: When introducing herself to the students, Ms. Beecher prints her name on the blackboard. It repeatedly changes between printed and cursive throughout the scene. 

Halle Berry on location

HALLE BERRY

Halle Berry was born on August 14, 1968, in Cleveland, Ohio. The youngest daughter born to African American father Jerome Berry, a former hospital attendant, and Caucasian mother Judith Berry, a retired psychiatric nurse. Halle, and her older sister Heidi, spent the first few years of their childhood living in an inner-city neighborhood. In the early 1970s, Jerome Berry abandoned his wife and children, after which Judith moved her family to the predominantly white Cleveland suburb of Bedford.

Berry attended a nearly all-white public school, and as a result was subjected to discrimination at an early age. Her early bouts with racism greatly influenced her desire to excel. Throughout high school, the determined teen participated in a dizzying array of extracurricular activities, holding positions of newspaper editor, class president, and head cheerleader.

Race the Sun in South Africa 2010

A natural performer, Berry earned a handful of beauty pageant titles during the early 1980s, including Miss Teen Ohio and Miss Teen America. She was eventually awarded first runner-up in the 1985 Miss U.S.A. competition. For a short time she attended Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College, where she studied broadcast journalism. However, Berry abandoned her idea of a career in news reporting before receiving her degree. Choosing to wholeheartedly devote her time to a career in entertainment, Berry moved to Chicago then New York City, where she found work as a catalog model.

As the ‘80s turned into the ‘90s, the aspiring actress began a career in television with a role on the short-lived sitcom Living Dolls (1989), followed by a year-long run on the CBS prime-time drama Knot’s Landing, in 1991. Berry’s first big-screen break came later that year when she was cast as Samuel L. Jackson’s drug-addicted girlfriend in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. More substantial supporting roles followed, including that of a stripper in the action-thriller The Last Boy Scout (1991), starring Bruce Willis; and as the woman who finally wins Eddie Murphy’s heart in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992).

With a few films under her belt, Berry accepted more offbeat roles, making cameos in the rockumentary CB4 (1993), which traced the rise and fall of the titled rap group. 1994’s live-action version of The Flintstones featured Berry as a Stone Age seductress.

Teachers meeting - Halle Berry and James Belushi 

JAMES BELUSHI - 5' 11" (1.80 m)

James Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago. The third of four children - his brother was John Belushi - he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by his improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced him to to be in a school play. After that he joined the school's drama club. Today if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say, "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir - more girls!". He attended the College of Dupage and Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.

In 1977 he joined Chicago's Second City improv troupe and remained for three years. In 1979 Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for Second City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV pilot "Who's Watching the Kids" (1978) for Paramount, and then for a role in the series "Working Stiffs" (1979) (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) for two years. Jim came to national attention in About Last Night... (1986), playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago". He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer, their daughter Jamison and a son, Robert, from Belushi's first marriage.

James Belushi as Frank Machi and Eliza Dushku as Cindy Johnson

SOLAR CAR RACING EVENT A - Z

Race the Sun in Australia 2011

Race the Sun (Sub Dts) (1996)

A dream can make all the difference under the sun - when a bunch of high school misfits in Hawaii, introduced by their new teacher (Halle Berry), attend a science fair in which they draw up inspiration to build their own solar car and win a trip to compete in the 1990 World Solar Challenge in Australia. One of my favourites NK

Eliza Dushku

SOLAR CAR RACING TEAMS DIRECTORY:

 

ORGANISATION A-Z	CAR'S NAME	TEAM NAME
Aristotle Uni of Thessaloniki, Helios	Helios	Faculty of Engineering
Arizona Solar Racing Team - USA		Arizona Solar Racing Team
Auburn University	Sol of Auburn	Sol of Auburn
Aurora Team, Australia	Aurora	Aurora Vehicle Association
Bochum Solar Car Team		Das SolarCar der Fachhochschule
California Poly S University	SLO Burn  Sidewinder	San Luis Obispo
Clarkson Uni Solar Car Team, USA		The Solar Knights
Delft University - Holland	NUNA I & II 2003
Dell Winston School	The Hunter	Solar Car Challenge
Desert Rose, Northern Territory Uni	FUJI DESERT ROSE
Drexel SunDragon Home Page
École de technologie supérieure Quebec	Eclipse V (5)	Éclipse Vehicular Solaire
École Polytechnique de Montréal	Esteban
Eko-Auto  Poland	Eko-Auto
Electron Analytic Corporation	Dark Horse	EAC Skunkworks
George Washington University		George Washington Uni Solar Car
Georgia Institute of Technology	Solar Jackets	Solar Jackets
Heliodet, Germany	Heliodet	Heliodet, Solar Car Team
Helios - Lille, France	Hélios IV	Hautes Etudes d'Ingénieur
Honda Car Company	Honda
Illinois State University	Surya, Ratha, Mercury	Illinois State University Team
Iowa State University	Fusion	Team PrISUm
Jonasun  Japan	Orbit	Solar Car Paviion
Kansas State University	Paragon	Solar Car Racing Team
Los Altos Academy of Engineering		Los Altos Solar Car Team
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Tesseract	MIT
McGill University Monteal, Canada	iSun	Team iSun
McMaster University	Phoenix	McMaster Uni Solar Car Project
Messiah College Grantham, Penns	Genesis II	Genesis II Solar Racing Team
Michigan State University		Solar Racing Team
Michigan Technological University		Solar Car Team
Minnesota S Uni-Mankato/Winona S Uni		Minnesota Solar Car Team
North Dakota State University	The Double Deuce	Sunsetters - Solar Race Team
Northwestern University	N'Uvation	Northwestern University
Nuon Solar Team, Netherlands	Nuon 3	Het Nuon Solar Team
Osaka Sangyo University, Japan	OSU model S	Solar Car Team
Prairie View A&M University	Solaris	Sun Panthers
Principia College	RA 6	Principia College Solar Car Team
Purdue University	SPOT 2	Purdue University Solar Racing
Queen's University Canada	Radiance  Gemini	Queen's Solar Vehicle Team
Red River College	Red River Raycer	Red River College Solar Car Team
Rice University		Rice University
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology		Rose-Hulman Solar Car Team
Southern Illinois Uni Edwardsville	Cougar Cruiser	Southern Illinois University
South Bank University, UK	Mad Dog	South Bank Mad Dog Team
South Dakota School Mines & Tech	Solar Motion	South Dakota Solar Motion Team
Southern Taiwan University Tech		Southern Taiwan Solar Team
Stanford University	Solstice	Stanford Solar Car Project
Tamagawa University - Japan		Tamagawa Solar Challenge Project
Team Futura, Italy	FUTURA 2	Team Futura
Team SunLake - Japan	Phaethon model	Team SunLake TOYOBO
Texas A&M University	Columbia Sunraycer	Texas A&M Motorsports Team
The Power of One  - Toronto	Xof1	The Xof1 solar car team
Tufts University	ANNE E. B. II	Nerd Girls
University of Alberta		University of Alberta Team
University of Arizona	Drifter	Solar Racing Team
University of Calgary		UC Calgary Solar Car Team
University of California-Berkeley	CalSol	California Calsol Team
University of Kansas	Solution, CATalyst	KSU Solar Car Racing Team
University of Kentucky	Gato del Sol II	Solar Car Team
University of Massachusetts	Spirit of Mass 413	Lowell Solar Racing Team
University of Michigan	Momentum	University of Michigan
University of Minnesota	Borealis III	U of M Solar Vehicle Project
University of Missouri -  Columbia	Suntiger VI	The Mizzou Solar Car Project
University of Missouri -  Rolla	Solar Miner V	Solar Minor Car Team
University of North Dakota	Subzero 3	Team SubZero
University of Ontario Institute of Tech		UOI Solar Vehicle Team
Uni of New South Wales SCR Team	UNSW Sunswift III	New South Wales SCR Team
University of Patras, Hermes		Solar Car Team
University of Pennsylvania	Keystone	Penn Solar Racing
University of Queensland	Sunshark	Queensland Solar Team
University of South Australia	Ned  KELLY	SA Solar Car Consortium
University of Texas at Austin	Solar Steer	Solar Vehicles Team
University of Texas at El Paso		Solraycers
University of Toronto	Blue Sky	Blue Sky Solar Racing
University of Toulouse	Heliotrope	Heliotrope Solar Car Team
University of Utah		Vehicle Design Team Utah
University of Virginia		UVa Solar Car Team
University of Waterloo	Midnight Sun VIII	Midnight Sun Solar Race Team
University of Western Ontario	Sunstang	Sunstang USP Solar Car Team
USP Solar Car Team		USP Solar Car Team
Western Michigan University	Sunseeker 05	W Michigan Solar Car Team
Yale University	The John Lee	Team Lux

IF YOUR TEAM OR EVENT IS NOT LISTED HERE,  PLEASE CONTACT US.

A - Z FILMS INDEX

A - Z ACTORS INDEX

Healthier tastes for adventure capitalists

This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2012  NJK.   The bird logo and name Solar Navigator are trademarks. All rights reserved.  All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.       Max Energy Limited is an educational charity.

AUTOMOTIVE  | BLUEBIRD  |  ELECTRIC CARS  |  ELECTRIC CYCLES  |  SOLAR CARS