The story goes something like this. Cage's character, Randall "Memphis" Raines,  was the number one car thief in his home town. But his mother didn't think he was a good role-model for his younger brother and asked him to quit his occupation and leave town. No role model is better than a bad one. Well, his brother choose to steal cars anyway. He got involved with a bad guy that was doing business with a South American "business guy" that had need for 50 specific cars from Ferraris to a Hummer to a Cadillac and a Porsche. Lots of unique cars (See the article containing the list). A deadline was imposed as to when the cars had to be at the docks to be shipped. Well, the younger brother's operation is raided by the police. They get away but the cars they have already stolen are taken by the police. An old friend of Cage's contacts him to give the message that if Memphis doesn't accept the job of acquiring the cars and deliver them by the designated time, the brother will be killed. Devil and the deep blue sea story. So what's a brother to do? He agrees to deliver the cars.

One of the cars, the one Memphis/Cage leaves for last, is a highly modified 1967 GT 500. Cage has more than respect for this particular model of car. Eleanor is the one car he was not able to steal successfully when he was in the business. He and this team locate the one GT 500 in the area, check it out and make the necessary preparations to steal it and the other cars. The local police, who know Memphis/Cage well and are on to the deal, locate the list of cars to be stolen, including the 1967 GT 500. And there is only one in the area. Memphis/Cage calls this car Eleanor. The cops get there just as he drives off in the GT 500. The chase is on. Cage, who did all but the most dangerous stunt driving, races through the streets with the police hot on his tail. "Bullet" this is not, but there are some great scenes. He flips on the nitrous to outrun a police helicopter. Flies down streets and alleys. The top stunt is on a bridge, with the police just behind him. An accident has stopped traffic. The bridge is two way, so the opposing lane is empty. Memphis/Cage sees that there is no way to get around the traffic. He also sees a tow truck getting ready to pick up one of the disabled cars. And it just so happens the bed of the truck is down, like a ramp. The cops know they have him, he backs the GT 500 up towards the cops, to get some running room,  hits the accelerator.  The Shelby hits that truck ramp at speed, flies over a number of cars, remember this is Hollywood, and lands on the other side in a clear area. Then he drives off in the car. (Yeah, right. I bet the car used for the landing folded like an accordion. I doubt if Cage was driving that car. In the original movie the Mach 1 used did survive the landing and actually did drive off. The driver, H.B. "Toby" Halicki, was injured with a compressed spine.) If you want to know what else happened and how it ended, see the movie. 

(I get a lot of emails on this movie and Eleanor, one I got from "Paul" offering some additional information. "The real jump was only made at about 40 mph and Eleanor landed in a huge pile of boxes. The jump in the movie was computer animated. To make the landing seem realistic, a real stunt driver jumped a car from a 15 foot landing at about 50mph, but was not able to regain control of the car. He lost control and rammed into the concrete wall between his lanes and the opposing lanes." thanks, Paul. Crunch! One less Mustang.)

I have also received several comments that the Mustang used was not actually a Shelby. There were several cars used in the movie, they were all Mustangs not one was a GT 500. Read below about the cars used in the movie. The Eleanor sound effects did come from a real GT 500, though.

If you are a car buff or Nicholas Cage fan, this movie is worth seeing. Check out the Shelby GT 500, it comes at the end.