Best movies like Teenage Thunder

Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After Walsh beats the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death after finding him with his girlfriend, a mysterious power creates Jake Kesey, an extremely cool motor-biker who has a car which is invincible. Jake befriends Jamie's girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie's sweet brother Bill under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis couldn't; eliminate Packard's criminal gang the hard way...

A group of bored teenagers rebel against authority in the community of New Granada.

A teen girl is thrown into reform school for refusing to squeal on her delinquent boyfriend where she ends up meeting his ex-girlfriend and the jealous tempers fly.

David Rice is a man who knows no boundaries, a Jumper, born with the uncanny ability to teleport instantly to anywhere on Earth. When he discovers others like himself, David is thrust into a dangerous and bloodthirsty war while being hunted by a sinister and determined group of zealots who have sworn to destroy all Jumpers. Now, David’s extraordinary gift may be his only hope for survival!

A desperate mother is forced to break the law in order to protect her children from her abusive ex-husband, and rely on the kindness of strangers who help battered spouses to escape their tyrannical mates via an elaborate "underground railway" system.

Down-on-his-luck race car driver Jim Douglas teams up with a little VW Bug that has a mind of its own, not realizing Herbie's worth until a sneaky rival plots to steal him.

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

A rebellious punk of the beat generation spends his days as an amateur dirt track driver in between partying and troublemaking.

A gang of teenage delinquents terrorize a small community by stealing cars and stripping them for parts, then selling the parts to a crooked junkyard owner. The police and an insurance company investigator set out to break up the gang.

A man wrongly imprisoned for murder breaks out of jail. He wants to clear his name, but with the police pursuing him, he's forced to take a beautiful young woman, driving a fast sports car, hostage and slip into a cross-border sports car race to try to make it to Mexico before the police get him.

A driver and a mechanic travel around the United States hopping from drag strip to drag strip in a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air coupe. They race for money, betting with their competitors. The pair gains a young and talkative female stowaway. Along the way they unintentionally attract a well-to-do drifter driving a new Pontiac GTO. This older man, looking for attention, antagonizes their efforts.

While on a business trip, Tom Phillips is in a car accident caused by a reckless driver. Tom survives the accident with a severe chronic back injury which results in him not being able to continue with his current business. The Phillips' buy a motel in the California desert and Tom with his wife Peg and their two children, Tina and Jamie make the long road trip to their new home. As they approach their destination they are terrorized by reckless teenage hot-rodders looking for kicks.

In 1958, two teenagers take their pride and joy, a hopped-up Chevy, and start a cross-country journey to enter it in the National Championship drag races in California. Along the way they hook up with a pretty but dingy waitress who quits her job and hops in their car--and turns out to be more trouble than they thought--drag-race a gang of town punks who lose to to them and then accuse them of cheating, and come up against a local cop who is obsessed with putting these two "juvenile delinquents" in jail.

1956: The shy Jonathan's luck with girls changes when he wins the rebellious Gene as a friend in his last year of high school. Gene is adored by many girls and manages to teach Jonathan a few lessons. Gene himself would rather just be with one girl: his girlfriend Bunny. But since his father is poor, her parents don't accept him.

From his prison cell, young Alan Musgrave relates his experiences of the previous year dedicated to fulfilling every whim of beautiful and self-absorbed high school senior Barbara Ann Greene.

A young man builds a hot rod despite the disapproval of his father, a Juvenile Court judge. Circumstantial evidence points to the innocent teenager when his car is involved in a hit-and-run accident and he must reconcile with his father.

A freewheeling drag racer enters a local championship meet and finds himself head-to-head with the tyrannical town boss who has already arranged for his own son to win.

While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?

Officer Carey Mahoney and his cohorts have finally graduated from the Police Academy and are about to hit the streets on their first assignment. Question is, are they ready to do battle with a band of graffiti-tagging terrorists? Time will tell, but don't sell short this cheerful band of doltish boys in blue.

A football player at Rosedale High School is amorous of one of the cheerleaders, who is going with another guy. Another player can't decide which of two cheerleaders he wants to be with. Meanwhile, the Big Game with Hardin High School is approaching, and a prank war is in full swing.

A young alien falls for a pretty teenage Earth girl and they team up to try to stop the plans of his invading cohorts, who intend to use Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.

A young Mexican/American learns about life both inside and out of the ring when he takes up boxing.

Charlie Cox should have stopped for gas in California. While he's on a cross-country trip with his teenage daughter, Joleen, his car hits empty in a creepy town in Nevada. With nary a drop of fuel to be found, Charlie and Joleen stop for the night at a dilapidated trailer park. There, Joleen catches the eye of two teenage boys, Jimmy and Pinky -- either of whom could be the serial killer currently terrorizing the town.

A sexy but poor young girl marries a rich man she doesn't love, but carries a torch for another man.

The Baxters are a typical happy American family trying to live on too little money. Mrs. Polly Baxter acquires two mysterious trees that got into a nursery shipment by mistake. They turn out to be money trees. After initial problems, Polly decides to spend the money.

Three teenagers with troubled families are unable to adjust at home and in high-school. Tempted with an easy, carefree life they soon pass from misdemeanors into serious crime - and will suffer for it. Sometimes, repentance comes too late.

"Toodles" Waldron, racing enthusiast and the best salesman for J. D. Ward's automobile company, quarrels with his boss; Ward will not let him enter the Santa Monica Grand Prize Road Race, or marry his daughter Dorothy.

Life gets complicated for a taxi driver when it's discovered that he's the spitting image of the murdered heir to a fortune.

Meet the Libner brothers: Marvin (Daniel Stern), the oldest, is a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Buddy (Arye Gross), the middle child, is a timid dreamer. Bobby (Patrick Dempsey), the youngest, is a handsome rebel in reform school. As kids, they fought a lot and as adults, they barely speak. In the summer of 1963, their tough and eccentric father, Fred (Alan Arkin), gives them a task: to bring a 1954 Cadillac, bought for their mother, Betty (Rita Taggart), from Detroit to Miami. As the trip goes on, the three brothers fight and begin to reconnect with each other, while trying to keep the Caddy in mint condition.

Phillip and Dieter nearly suffocate hiding their sexual identity in the face of puritanical small town values. Joined by a mysterious German relative, the three misfits escape to the big city searching for a place to belong.

When the nephews of Phyllis Carter are killed in an automobile crash while under the influence of narcotics, she persuades Police Lieutenant Jim Hahan to use her as an undercover agent.

Story of a salesman lured into the "hot car" racket.

"Black Rebels" (also known as "The Rebel Breed") is about juvenile delinquents--in particular, kids who resort to racially motivated crimes. To combat this problem, the cops send two recent police academy graduates to a local high school to pose as students. However, the guys playing 'students' were 27 and 23 years of age! In fact, none of these teens looked close to being teenager. And, to make it worse, one of these pseudo-teens looks silly, as he's supposed to play a guy who is a biracial Latino--but this effect was achieved by painting his skin--it's quite obvious. And, oddly, some times he is a lot more black-looking than others!!

A fiercely dishonest car salesman hires a new employee who owes a serious debt to loan sharks.

Casper Van Dien of Starship Troopers stars as James Dean, whose remarkable talent and rebel attitude took Hollywood by storm. But as Dean's star begins to rise, his passionate affair with Italian ingenue Pier Angeli (Carrie Mitchum of The Bold and the Beautiful) angers her disapproving mother (Academy Award nominee Diane Ladd) and studio chief Jack Warner (Mike Connors). How did a broken heart, reckless behavior and his relationships with Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and director George Stevens (the legendary Robert Mitchum in his final screen role) lead to Dean's ultimate race with destiny? Connie Stevens, Joseph Campanella and Casey Kasem co-star in this revealing biopic that goes behind the myth to tell the true story of the superstar who lived fast, died young and left a legacy that changed movies forever.

A group of drag-racing fanatics, members of a Los Angeles club, move into an old deserted mansion and set up shop, making it their headquarters. They hold a Halloween masked ball for the club's grand opening, and invite everyone to come dressed as their favorite monster! Oddly enough, the festivities turn sour when one of the bright youths discovers an impostor among them in the form of an honest-to-gosh live monster who's been hogging all the dances with the best-looking girls

A giant lizard terrorizes a rural mid west community with a group of heroic young people led by Chase Winstead attempting to destroy the creature.

A sleazeball (Ronald Long) who supplies women to his public-relations clients explains the rules of the game to his latest acquisition (Jeanne Rainer).

After his kid brother is killed in a street race, a champion drag-racer quits racing. However, a new kid comes to town determined to force him back into racing so he can take his title--and he's already taken his girlfriend.When his younger brother, Steve, is killed racing a hot-rod, Jeff Northup blames himself for the accident since he had built the car for his brother and had encouraged him to race it, with other boys on a special course provided by police detective Ben Merrill, who is working to reduce the city's hot-rod fatalities by providing supervision for the dangerous hobby. Jeff withdraws from participating in races on Merrill's course and, without his leadership, reverts to racing on the streets. "Bronc" Talbott, a newcomer, makes a play for Jeff's girlfriend, Lisa Vernon. Eventually, the taunting-Talbott forces Jeff into a race which results in the death of a bicycling child, and evidence seems to indicate Jeff was at fault.

A cop poses as a member of a stolen-car ring to capture the men responsible for the murder of his fiancee's brother.

An adolescent arrives in a new town where he tries to join the drag-racing crowd.

While investigating a diamond heist, disgruntled cop Harper falls for Holly, the top suspect's main squeeze. When she convinces him to kill her boyfriend and make off with her and the loot, they start down a treacherous path full of dark surprises.

Jane's husband is passionately in love...with Jane's best friend! Before the innocent young Jane catches on, the 2 illicit lovers imprison her in a sadistic mental hospital...where the bedside manner is positively shocking! But with the help of a diligent and amorous detective, the jilted wife gets her revenge as all discover the sultry secret of Mysterious Jane

American-International did not invent the juvenile delinquents-jalopies-reckless driving-hot rodders-build it at home-chicken playing genre of movies. PRC and Monogram started churning them out in the mid-forties as part of their let-this-be-a-lesson-to-you genre, preceded by the zoot-suiter and jitter-buggers films, which was better than the social guidance films teen-agers were being overdosed on at school. PRC did at least use card-carrying members of SAG. This one is a sermon against speeding, and Darryl Hickman has it brought straight home to him when he side-swipes a car and causes a collision in which his best friend is killed---the fate of all best friends in juvenile-theme movies including "Rebel Without a Cause"--- and his mother is injured. Lots of lecturing precedes and follows.

Girl loves hot cars and a rich dragstrip racer. Her parents don't like either one.

To get evidence against a crooked garage owner, a rookie cop masquerades as a hard case who wants a job as a mechanic.

Down-and-out artist Joe Manning (John Bromfield) wakes up from a night of drunken revelry in a jail cell, where he's being held on suspicion for the murder of a nightclub singer.

A kid who wants to enter his car in the drag races joins a rock band to make enough money to do it.

In this violent drama, a young juvenile delinquent gets into more trouble when he gets involved with a gang that steals auto parts and resells them on the black market to pay for their beer parties. It looks as if he might actually turn his life around after he meets a good-hearted woman, when he decides to run a final game of chicken against a juvenile delinquent girl who gets killed in the ensuing crash. The terrified boy then takes his girlfriend and splits. He is later shot-down by the police. Later the authorities learn that the boy was set upon his crooked path by policemen who beat him when he was younger.

Born To Race is the story of Danny Krueger, a rebellious young street racer on a collision course with trouble. After an accident at an illegal street race, he is sent to a small town to live with his estranged father, a washed up NASCAR racer. When Danny decides to enter the NHRA High School Drags, he's forced to seek his father's help in taking down the local hot shot.