Framing John DeLorean (2019) - full transcript

Okay, John.
Can you hear me alright?

Yes, sir.

I'll be talking to you
over this intercom

when I'm out here. I'm going
to pump up that cuff now.

Okay.

The test is about to begin.

Is your first name John?

Yes.

During the first 53 years
of your life did you ever do

anything dishonest,
illegal or immoral?

Uh, yes.



Before 1981, did you ever
engage in an improper

business practice
or put false information

on an official form
or document?

Uh, yes.

Before age 54,
did you ever cheat someone

or take advantage of anyone
in a business deal?

Yes, I would say.

Okay, John. How was it that
time? A little nervous?

Well, like, ahem,
when you get into those

general questions
you start thinking back

about bad used cars
you sold people.

- Oh. Yeah.
- About the..

Maybe the time you..

Yeah, I noticed
that you answered false.



Committed
a little adultery, uh..

- Mm-hm.
- You know, those are..

Uh, I-I must say that,
uh, if you really --

Causes you to think back.

Well, you go through
your whole life.

John DeLorean is one of the
maverick rogues of his day.

And there are very few
of those guys around today.

He was a dreamer,
he wanted to push things

beyond where other people
had taken them.

And in a way that's a marvelous and appealing characteristic

but it's also
extremely dangerous.

John DeLorean was a winner

a loser, a champion,
a relentless fool.

This guy was the
quintessential leading man

that Hollywood producers
dream of

and he was real.

I've always wondered
why a feature film

hasn't been made
of John's life.

I think it'd be a great movie.

Obviously I'd had this dream.

I wanted to build
this, uh, automobile company.

Everybody said
it's inconceivable that

any new automobile company
could survive.

I'm always
interested in the story

of the quintessential outsider

full of ambition and hope
and works his way up

and ascends
to the position he was in.

He had it all,
his own auto empire

a beautiful wife, children.
He was a golden boy.

And of course,
his colossal fall

is almost Shakespearean.

John DeLorean who gave up
a shot at the presidency

of General Motors to build
his own futuristic sports car

is in jail this morning.

The thing that's remarkable
about DeLorean's story

is that it has all of these
incredibly powerful elements.

It's got a marvelous
celebrity couple.

It's got drugs.
It's got drug dealing.

It's got FBI guys.

It's got this incredible
political backdrop.

It's the sort of story
that's, uh, you know

i -- i -- if it hadn't happened,
you wouldn't dare to make it up.

The interesting thing
is all of a sudden now

a number of people
have been back at me

wanting to do
a movie of my life.

It always seemed to be a story

that had been around Hollywood

as early as probably
the early '80s.

Often good ideas, you know

produce several films,
uh, at the same time.

With John DeLorean, I think
it was taken to a new level.

Every single one of these
movies had different people

from John's life,
different family members

different underlying material.

Which made it
this -- this fascinating race

to get the movie made because
each one would have been

a decidedly different story.

Still to this day,
not one's been made yet.

Every so often you hear

"Oh, somebody's gonna make
a movie about DeLorean.

Somebody's gonna make
a movie about DeLorean."

Knock on wood, it'll happen

'cause, uh, I think
i -- it could be great.

He was this kind of
chameleon-like figure

who could appear
one thing to, to one person

and another thing totally
to a, a different person.

And I think in a way,
that's why

so many scripts have been
written about him

because, you know,
he is open to interpretation.

You get the impression that
he is either a beleaguered man

who was discredited
and manipulated

by big business in this country

or he was the greatest conman
to ever come down the pike.

We have an opportunity
this morning to visit with him.

Would you welcome
Mr. John DeLorean.

You shoot him for your purposes
over the arc of how many years?

He ages a bit.

Mostly early '70s
to early '80s..

To early-80s.

So there's a spread

and he ages during that time.

And I wanna see
how his behavior ages.

I need to see clips
that are a range of that.

But driving you all this time

was this desperate need

to make this car thing go.

My pride is so intense
that nothing in the world

would let me let
this business

this car with my name
on it, go down.

That's the corner of his eye.

You draw a straight line
up the brow

overlaps the corner
of the eye.

Well, I think it's got
to come in a little bit.

- It's got to come over?
- Yeah.

Alright,
the involvement with cocaine.

Talk about that.

Well, it's a peculiar thing

because,
you know, in my life

I have never,
ever seen cocaine

touched cocaine, used cocaine

or been in the presence
of anybody --

All the time
I've looked at DeLorean

before I thought
where is he manipulating

and where are the peeks behind
the curtain of who he really is?

And then when you
play the person

you say to yourself forget
about me looking at DeLorean

as a viewer on a TV show
and saying

what's behind
the curtain with him?

When you start to play him,
you go, no, no, no, no.

He's not guilty of anything.

He didn't do anything.
In fact, it's the opposite.

He's a hero in his mind.
He's a hero.

And you, and you, and you
have to play that.

You have to play
who he thinks he is.

And you present him as who
he thinks he is to the world.

And you let the audience
make up their mind.

And that you suddenly thought you were involved with the mob.

And you were frightened
for your life

and your children's lives.

Really what happened..

Let me just show my wife.

She just thinks it's funny.

She just thinks it's funny.

She thinks this whole thing..

She's like "Alec,
like I can't believe

this is what they,
they pay you to do this."

Oh, God.

Wait, what are you doing?
You're doing a movie?

We do re-enactment footage
of DeLorean's drama

his caper, his escapades
and shoot them as a movie

and cut re-enactment footage
into documentary footage

of a movie about DeLorean

and what he did
and what he went through.

And the good news is,
I don't have to bother

with any of that. They do.

I'm gonna just go
put the make up on

and go try to be DeLorean.

For John DeLorean,
growing up in Detroit

every kid's dream was to go into
the auto industry.

One thing you have to understand
about John DeLorean

is he was a brilliant engineer.

And so to start with he had
some really good instincts

and he had great talent.

DeLorean thrived in the car
business first at Packard

for a short while at Chrysler.

And somebody sought him out
at General Motors

and offered him
his choice of five divisions.

He took on Pontiac,
which was the old ladies'

division at the time.

And it was really the place

where he could shine the most.

General Manager,
Mr. John Z. DeLorean.

In those days, the late '50s
and early '60s at GM

Pontiac particularly
was exciting to be there

because they, they were almost
ready to be dropped.

And of course, that was the kind of thing that gave you

the incentive to come up with
new ideas and make them happen.

And I started as a very unsophisticated young engineer.

And I was given an opportunity
to, uh, attain a success

in a business world
far beyond anything

I had ever imagined
I was capable of.

You know,
this was a special guy

who was gonna change
the industry forever

and truly become
a legend at the company.

Scene two-Alpha,
take three. Marker.

The story on the GTO
is that we were about ready

to do a brand new line

and we had
the '64 Tempest to be

in the garage there with John
and a couple other guys.

- Hey, Bill.
- John, you heading home?

Yeah, I was about to.

Wanted to stop by and see
how you were coming along.

Well, I think she's about as
good as we're gonna get her.

He would, uh,
encourage e -- everybody

to, to do something new
and different.

Was hoping maybe
we'd have something

I don't know, sexier?

- You mean sportier?
- Yeah.

More high performance,
you know?

Well, our bigger 389 engine

has the exact same dimensions
as the 326 in here

so we could swap that out,
no problem.

How would the car handle
the extra power?

That's the thing.

Have to fit the appropriate
transmission and rear axle.

But we do that,
it'd definitely be sexier, John.

Shoot, we could even run
this in NASCAR.

I say we do it.

- Really?
- Yeah, absolutely.

But then what? You think you can
actually sell it?

You let me worry
about that, Bill.

I was just gonna drive
it back and forth to work

and I had
a marvelous time with it.

And I found that every time
I lent it to somebody

to use for a day or two,
I couldn't get it back.

And I said, "Well,
there may be a market

for something like that."

What the hell is this?

That's a GTO.

It stands for
Gran Turismo Omologato

which I think is Italian
for fast as hell.

But, uh, it'll beat every car
on a track or American street

and it's still a Pontiac.

Hold on a second.
Turn that off.

The 14th floor is never
gonna go for putting

such a large engine
in such a small frame.

Well, GM forbade putting

a so-called big block beyond,
I believe, 350 cubic inches

in a medium size car.

The guys upstairs approved this?

I don't need their approval.

It's a new product, John.

All new products need
upper management approval.

And John was interesting.

He loved really just figuring
out ways to bend the rules

as much as possible.

But it's not a new product.

It's an options package
on the new Tempest.

And one that puts a real
tiger under the hood.

- It's manipulative.
- It's marketing.

Pontiac is primarily
the division for older buyers.

What are they gonna want
with a hot rod?

We're the division
for older buyers

because that's how
we view ourselves.

We've got to anticipate

what younger buyers want before
they even know what they want.

And once they realize it,
give them this.

So how many you wanna produce?

You're the sales manager,
you tell me.

I was thinking about 30,000.

- You're outta your damn mind.
- John, be reasonable.

I can't imagine us selling
even close to 5,000

but let's start
with that number

and let's hope that
they don't rust on the lot.

At that time,
the sales manager

of Pontiac thought
it was stupid.

And he refused
to schedule more

than I think about four
or five thousand for the year.

It was an outlaw move.

DeLorean snuck it past
the GM watchdogs

by a sort of sleight-of-hand.

It was just
an options package.

Despite his feeling
it wouldn't sell

I think we sold like,
45,000 the first year.

What he figured out
before anyone figured it out

was that this exploding
youth movement

had interest in cars as something that would represent

the way they wanted
to look to the world.

It's the perfect moment
in which John was able to marry

both his brilliant engineering
as well as his marketing prowess

to create the muscle car.

The muscle car era really
advanced Detroit.

It made money.

It made Pontiac.

It made those three letters

GTO, legendary.

There's an odd parallel
between the Pontiac GTO

and John Z. DeLorean.

The GTO was a risk taken.

And I think
it convinced DeLorean

that taking a risk
no one else was willing

to step up to
and making it work

at all costs
was how you did it.

And after you
do it once, why stop?

What I see
about DeLorean for me

he took such risks.

And the problem with people
who take risks like that

is that when they win, when
they make their calculated risk

they become emboldened,
they take more risks.

And then they take risks outside
of their normal sphere.

Between this and the other,

it'll generate, uh,
about four and a half

uh, not less than
four and a half mil.

Risk-taking in the automotive
industry and risk-taking

with a bunch
of drug dealers in a hotel

are two different things
when your confidence

in yourself is very, very high.

You don't make mistakes.
You don't see them coming.

This stuff weighs more..

Gold weighs more than this.

Gold weighs more than this
for God's sakes.

- Yeah. Better than gold.
- Better than gold.

Gold weighs more than this,
for God's sakes.

- Hi, John.
- Hi, John.

- Hi.
- Jerry West. We're the FBI.

But in the end,
when he's arrested

and he tilts his head back

and you have a shot
hopefully looking down

from the ceiling

and his head should
crane up and look right up

into a thing
and look off camera

and he's thinking, and
what, what are you thinking?

We should cut
to what he's thinking.

He's worried about his family.

He's worried
about losing everything.

And there were like,
four or five things

if he just made a little
adjustment here

and made this decision
differently there

all of it would have turned out completely differently.

DeLorean was clearly
a fast mover

at GM in the early '70s.

Whoever makes
the most money at GM

is the most important person.

And everything
he touched turn to gold.

So by the time John
reaches the 14th floor

better known
as the executive level

he's in his mid 40s.

If he just plays
his cards right

he's poised to be the next
president of General Motors

the largest corporation
in the world.

GM was very intentional

on making
executives colorless.

And DeLorean was
a highly Technicolor person.

He wore open collars.
He wore side burns.

He spent his weekends
in California.

And you know what an evil
influence that is.

He gets significant
plastic surgery on his face

to give himself
a stronger jaw.

He starts weight lifting
and losing weight.

He and his first wife separated

and then he started dating
actresses and models

uh, women that were
a lot younger than him

uh, and who
a lot of GM executives

and their wives thought
were age-inappropriate.

I have a reasonably
strong sex drive

which I happen to think is
an important part of any guy.

No man who ever
accomplished something

uh, didn't have
that one characteristic.

He married a second wife, Kelly Harmon. Blond bombshell.

She was 19 at the time.

The General Motors
PR Department

added a couple years to her age

when the press releases first
went out about the marriage.

She lives there in Detroit
for two or three years

becomes disillusioned with
the marriage and leaves him.

And within a year and a half,

he's married
to Cristina Ferrare

the, at that point,
world's top super model.

Then he ended up, of course,
in the fashion magazines

and that kind of thing.

And while that
enhanced his image

outside of the company,
it created problems

for him within.

GM can't stand this.

It's pissing them off.

And he goes back
to them and says

"Hey, what are
you guys worried about?

Look at the sales numbers."

Tom, how do you feel about our
retail sales job this past year?

How do I feel?
John, I feel great.

Both at Pontiac
and at Chevrolet

he was making so much money
for the company.

And all the executives
that he reported to

who were upset
with his lifestyle

upset with him
couldn't quite figure out

how he was doing so well,
but they could see the numbers

and they knew that showed up
in their bonus checks.

And that was
the interesting dilemma

for GM with John DeLorean.

This is Boston Harbor

and those are Volkswagens.

They're coming in.

One of the tragic flaws
of GM and again

this is something
he knew is that the company

was all too willing
to do what it was doing

year after year after year
because it was working

even though they were
ignoring, for instance

the small car market and let it go a lot of time to foreigners.

He saw what was coming
from a lot of these imports

these smaller, more fuel
efficient, better quality cars.

And he knew the writing
was on the wall.

Obviously, I saw
the trends very clearly

and I, and I wanted to react
to 'em a little bit

perhaps more aggressively
than other members

of the industry management.

He had big aspirations.
He wanted to stay at GM.

He wanted to be president,
he wanted to do things

take the company in directions
that they weren't willing to do

because they were so comfortable
being the fat cat at the time

being the number one car
company in the world.

And that
leads to his demise.

There were executives
who resented him.

Probably the most prominent

is, is a guy named Roger Kyes.

It was just a total
difference of opinion.

I think he considered me, uh,
capricious and superficial

and I considered him
a pompous ass.

Those enemies in the company

uh, slowly developed
kind of a cabal

if you will, against DeLorean.

In 1972, they tasked John

with putting together a speech
to talk about GM's quality.

The infamous Greenbrier Speech.

They pre-read all the
speeches weeks in advance.

They noticed that the speech
not only criticizes

the quality of the cars,
but it criticizes a lot

of the executives
that are currently there

some of his own bosses.

And they censored
a lot of the stuff

that he could say
in the speech.

But, you know,
he wasn't gonna let it just

rest at that.

There's nothing.

There's something you forgot.

Well, that's the one
I'm actually giving

at Greenbrier on Saturday.

This is the speech
I should be giving.

What I should
be saying is in here

it's somewhere
buried like Kyes wants.

- You think it's personal, then?
- Oh, sure it's personal.

I wonder how much longer
I can do this dance.

I mean, at this rate,
it'll be ten years of me

pushing papers
that I didn't write

before I'm named president.

And that's,
that's not gonna work at all.

Any thoughts on how
you might accelerate that?

As a matter of fact,
I've got a few ideas, yeah.

If this original speech
were to be leaked

there would be
some blowback, sure.

But I'd be vindicated.

And in this
particular situation

what he wants is
for the public and the press

to sort of shame GM
and push them in the direction

that he wanted
the company to go in.

- Good to see you, Roy.
- And you, John.

And he felt that
by calling these people out

that this was gonna somehow
prop him up and propel him

even faster
into the presidency.

His initial speech
leaked to the press

and it was all over the news
that John DeLorean

is highly critical
of General Motors' quality.

DeLorean claimed his enemies
had leaked these

the speeches out.

Became apparent
that people close to DeLorean

had leaked these speeches out.

You gotta remember
this is a person

who was only rewarded
for taking big risks.

Dangerous moves.

It didn't work.

No doubt, DeLorean was booted
by members of the board

and the corporate directors.

And that forced him out
very abruptly in 1973.

DeLorean is ejected
from the company

and what should have been
a very embarrassing event.

However, he finds a way
at making it all heroic.

Being fired or being 1/7th

or 1/10th of some committee

is a very unappealing
thing to me.

Obviously, it was
very rewarding financially

and it would have been
easy to sit there for another

17 years collecting a, you know,
a half a million

or three quarters
of a million dollars a year

but that really didn't
appeal to me very much.

A full career would have been
another 15 years.

Well, what's he gonna do?

He's going to count beans
with the other executives.

Compared to creating
new, cool products

like GTOs,
it's completely different.

There's no way DeLorean would
have lasted to age 65.

Wow. I can't imagine us selling
even close to 5,000

but let's start
with that number.

I've got another car,
a stainless steel car

you're gonna be
crazy about it.

Yeah, okay.
Good luck with that, John.

No, that's what
the line should be.

T -- the bad version would be

next thing you're
gonna be telling us

"You want to build
a stainless steel car."

In the back of his mind

this concept car
was always stirring.

What he called an ethical car.

Oh, we're doing
a sports racing car here.

It's gonna be designed
to have an eternal life.

And so we're using
a non-corrosive material

so that it'll just stay
together forever and ever.

And, so it's gonna be very
beautiful aesthetically.

He wanted to build
a sophisticated

contemporary looking sports car for the masses.

That wasn't the norm,
you know, if you're gonna get

something that's that exotic

and interesting, you're gonna
have to get a Ferrari

or a Lamborghini where they only make, you know

a few hundred cars a year.

John was trying to make
a mass-produced car.

He set out to compete
with the big boys.

It's difficult,
if not impossible to

to start up a car company.

Really, the last one
you could name

was Chrysler in the 1920s.

And even Chrysler
went through bankruptcy.

There aren't
many people who'd do that.

Who wanna risk it all.

When he left GM, and he more
or less was forced to leave

that became the, the driving
force in his motivation.

I'm gonna show them.

And so, it was part dream
and part revenge.

There it is.
What we always talked about.

What do you think
about being named

the head of the
entire product program

for the first mass-produced car
since Chrysler?

John, uh, look, obviously
I'm, I'm flattered, but..

No buts, Bill.
And I'm not flattering you.

This is what you
and I were built for.

This is real innovation.

Does innovation
include a pension?

- Who's asking?
- My wife.

Well, you tell Nina
that the greater the risk

the greater the reward.

Besides, this finally puts

you in the driver's seat.

Lemonade, boys?

- Bill.
- Thank you.

- Honey.
- Thank you.

And you've got
the money for this?

Oh, yeah,
we've got several sources

of, uh, initial investment.

You two are quite persuasive.

Lemonade was my idea.

It's delicious.

You talk to your wife.

I probably thought about it
and my wife would say we should

probably not have done it,
having been at GM

where money
was never a problem.

You know, you were sort
of gambling and you hoped

this thing was gonna work out.

The company really has
its founding in two people

that's John DeLorean
and Bill Collins.

Collins never reached
for glory.

He didn't have so much ego
that he needed his name

on the product. He was
always behind the scenes.

He was the guy who made DeLorean look good many times.

Bill is a super,
wonderful gentleman.

He is one of the
world's finest men.

He really is.
He is a good man.

And, uh, it was like
his dream, was to do this.

I think from the beginning,
John's major concern

always was fundraising.

So my objective was to start out

building the first prototype.

This was definitely
Bill's baby.

I mean, if there was an issue

that had anything
to do with the car

Bill Collins was the guy
leading the charge.

That played out basically
for the first three years

of the project.

When we finished
the first prototype

it was a huge event
because now we could say

you know, this isn't some

you know, dream kind of fakery
here. This is the real McCoy.

We hadn't solved all
the engineering problems yet

but it was exciting,
it turned out

to be a great car,
in my opinion.

To be part of this thing
that might grow into something

that who knows
where it would go

it was electrifying.

This is a presentation of The DeLorean Motor Company.

Imagine how many
of the men who have headed

each of the major automotive
manufacturers have wanted

to create a product starting
with a clean sheet of paper.

That is what the
DeLorean Motor Company

intends to do.

We were basically a company
with no foundation.

And the less you have
to secure an investment

the more risky
you are to an investor.

And we were pretty risky.

Our asset was John's
background experience.

And so he really had to be what we initially were selling.

John DeLorean
wants to build a car..

You have to portray him as
being on top of the mountain.

being adored
by the world as a savior

of the auto industry.

And we were the dog
and pony show experts.

We'd do the set up.
We'd do the show.

And then at the precise moment

John DeLorean would come in.

They'd actually see the man
and it looked like

he was levitating.

Most of you have already
seen my lovely wife, Cristina.

I know she's likely the real
reason you're all here tonight.

But in all seriousness,
I do have her to thank

along with many others.

In particular,
I'd like to recognize

the man I handpicked,
essentially stole from GM

to head up the entire
DeLorean Motor Company

private program.

Perhaps the finest
automotive engineer

I've ever met
in my entire life.

Bill Collins.

I know that we may be
the new boy on the block

but I also know
that on this, the bicentennial

of the American Revolution,
we can start making

our version of the
American dream a reality.

Allow me to introduce
the first incarnation

in the evolution of my dream..

...our first vehicle
code-named the DMC-12.

The DeLorean Motor Car.

In the early stages

this was all
but the second coming.

It was described
in Detroit as significant

as the invention
of the Ford Model A.

That this was
gonna change everything.

I don't think I've sat
in one of these probably

since my dad
had one on the farm.

There's not much of a tie..

...for me to the car
as much as people would think.

I don't know
if that makes sense.

Being young when this car
was built

you just don't understand

the magnitude
and the gravity of it.

You know, it's flying over your head at 1,000 miles an hour.

And you know, it's like
my dad built this car.

You know,
it's got our name on it.

I mean, when I'm in it
or I see it

I see my father,
I feel my dad.

Uh, but between me
and this car

i -- it's a, I think it's a

love-hate relationship,
probably.

Half the time, I don't even
know what to think of it

you know,
to be honest with you, so..

Probably the,
the closest person

I've ever been close
to my whole fucking life

was my father.

He adopted me when I was,
I mean, two weeks old.

As far as like DeLorean
or DeLorean Motor Company

you know, it was just
dad going to work

dad's building a car.

I had no clue
how famous he was.

Had no clue how famous
my mother was.

I think we moved to New York

probably I would say in '74

because then my sister
was born in '77.

Throughout my life I understood

that there was
this man John DeLorean.

And with this man John DeLorean

came this history of,
um, all the things

that are again iconically
encompassed by the car.

And then there was my dad.

And I understood
that they were

two different people.

When I was little

my dad was at the peak
of everything.

There are pictures of us..

...and I used to say
it's the royal family.

My mom was always so perfect
and put together.

And my brother always
in his perfect little suit.

Oh, we were so cute.

Like seriously,
we were just so cute.

My dad was my best friend.

He just, he taught me
everything.

He taught me how to fish.
He taught me how to drive.

He taught me
how to ride a motorcycle.

This is everything
he had been working for.

This was his dream, I mean,
being married to my mom

having a family,
having an, an apartment

on Fifth Avenue, uh..

...buying a farm out
in New Jersey

having the car company.

That was probably
the best time of his life.

Can you see this well? Is this lit well enough for you?

Because, I mean, I don't..

I'm a firm believer
that that can't be faked.

And now, how happy
she is, I don't know.

And she seems pretty happy,
but she's a kid.

They're always
fairly happy as a rule.

And, but look at
how happy he is himself

the subject of the film.

I don't think that can be..
I think he's very happy.

And I have a picture
of my family.

And I'm a couple
of years older

than my wife
than he is from his wife.

So I get this. I get this.

And the problem
is that he wanted both.

And when you want both,
you can have both

but that's very tough to do.

Cristina, you have been married to this man for seven years.

Tell me about John.

Well, I, unfortunately
for everyone else

all of our other friends,
they do not know John

the way I do.
And if they did --

Well, that may be better.

No, no, let -- let me be
more specific about..

Because most of the people
know John as the

as a businessman
and an executive

but I know him as a husband
and a loving father.

And he is a totally unselfish,
gentle, giving human being.

I grew up and married
Prince Charming.

- Really?
- That's exactly how I feel.

- Yes.
- Alright, John.

Describe her to me.

Yeah, of course,
it would take days, but, uh..

I never in my wildest dreams
ever believed

that my life could be
so complete and so happy.

And, uh, when there's any
kind of a family crisis

she suddenly becomes
the Rock of Gibraltar.

She really is the solid,
stable part of, you know

our relationship whether..

She was very perky.
Peppy. Upbeat.

And, and she is that way
in a lot of the footage

that I've seen.

Do you want me to walk you
to the elevator

like I do every morning?

- No.
- No? Okay.

Goodbye, sweetheart.
Have a wonderful day.

Goodbye, darling.

That's John. Anyway.

But, every woman
who has it all

and who works
and who has children

and who is in love
and who has a loving family

like you cannot be
100 percent at everything.

When I was watching footage,
it was to sort of see

what was the public Cristina
versus what was the personal

where the cracks were.

I just found out
a few hours ago. I know nothing.

I caught a plane. I'm here.

She's so composed.
It's amazing, right?

I mean, I feel like
she was caught in between

what she wanted
things to be like

and, and this is just me
speculating obviously

but, like, what she
wanted things to be like

and then what would,
the reality was.

Not yet. We were just
rehearsing.

- Sit down. Sit down you..
- What are you doing?

And obviously with what
happened in their lives

with John being arrested,
that's a huge..

I think that's sort of like
the culmination of it all.

And, and along the way I'm sure
that in their relationship

there were moments
where she was very much in love

but wondering...you know

he's incredibly driven
and ambitious

and how does she
fit into that picture?

Eventually the car
will get built

but right now I'm trying
to build a brand.

Well, it concerns me where
we're gonna raise the children.

Well, wherever we set up shop

we won't have
to spend much time there.

All that matters is
which government gives us

the most money.

Well, it matters to me.

And it matters to the kids.

Don't worry. It's gonna be
great for all of us.

Trust me.

Northern Ireland's now
experiencing rioting

on a scale not seen
for many years.

Why pick Belfast, Ireland
to build your, your motor plant?

Oh, it's very simple,
nobody anywhere in the world

would come up with
the financing we needed.

Now, nobody else
would go to Belfast

because it's such a terrible,
dangerous place to be.

I read in the newspapers that John DeLorean had secured

the investment he needed
to establish his car project

in Northern Ireland
against the background

of the famous troubles
that was rife at that time.

The long civil unrest between
Catholics and Protestants

scares off industrialists
depriving Northern Ireland

of jobs which it needs more than any other area of Britain.

The unemployment was insane.
It was 30, 40 percent.

And John had something to offer.

Jobs.

The labor government
in Britain at the time

was willing to put
in subsidies, loans

a piece of land.
But here's the catch.

It's got a population that
has never built a car before.

There's no
pre-existing structure

to build a car company there.

And you have to do it
in two years.

I mean, are you kidding me?

And all they have at this point is a hand-built prototype.

So it was a long list
of things to accomplish

to eventually be able
to productionize the car.

It became clear to everyone
that they needed to have help

to weed out all the problems
and actually engineer

this car to be mass-produced.

Well, Colin Chapman
comes into the picture.

Probably the finest
automobile engineer

I have ever met
in my life, Colin Chapman.

I'll introduce Colin now.

Colin Chapman
is the founder of Lotus Cars.

He was a pioneer
in the racing industry.

He dominated Formula 1.

A deal had been struck
with Lotus Cars as a company

and Colin Chapman as a named
individual to engineer

and develop DeLorean cars
that could enter production.

Well, the idea of working with
Lotus sounded like a good idea.

We would all get together
and we'd become

a joint organization and go

finish the production
design work.

Well, when we first
got to Lotus

I mean, right out of the chute,
it was kind of awkward.

Here Bill and I and some
others had spent years

getting us to this point
and then now it was like

Bill Collins and Bob Manion
and whoever else was involved

they can kinda, like, just,
you know, watch us.

And that of course isn't what

I was gonna do and it certainly

wasn't gonna be what
Bill was gonna do.

This is Bill. John in?

Bill, how the hell are ya?

Look, John, I got
the contract you sent over.

I have to say,
it raises some questions.

You've got a lot
in here about Lotus, John

but nothing about me.

Oh, you don't have
to worry about that, Bill

it's just a lot of paperwork.

Uh, you know what you're doing.

I understand that,
John, but I, I thought

this was supposed to be
a collaboration on the redesign

but Chapman's nowhere
to be found.

Well, they're doing
a lot of R&D, aren't they?

That's the other thing.

This, this company
in here, this GPD

I've never even heard of it.

You don't need to worry
about that, Bill.

It's not going
to affect you at all. Okay?

I don't see how that's possible.

T -- they got a hefty line item
in here on engineering

but that's what
we're supposed to be doing.

It just seems like
you're paying twice

for the same thing, John.

Well, I, I.. It must be some
kind of a tax shelter, Bill.

I don't know.
I'm not a CPA. I'm sorry.

John, what am I doing here?

Why am I even here?

I liked Bill. I think
he'd done a tremendous job.

But the moment I found him
reading the contract

it was quite clear that
what he'd already decided

in his own mind was true,
that he was out of a job.

Colin Chapman was
not gonna have

anybody looking over
Colin Chapman's shoulder.

To do business like this, don't you have to be pretty ruthless?

Um, I don't think
you have to be ruthless.

I -- I think you have to
be prepared to make

some unpalatable
decisions at times.

'Cause frequently
you're faced with

making a decision
between two evils

and, and you're gonna
hurt somebody.

John DeLorean himself,
he knew.

He'd arranged with Chapman that

that this is the way
it's gonna be.

Nobody had told the -- the
guys from the US team.

It becomes painfully
clear that Bill

and his engineering team
are out of a job.

And not only that, there's
something very fishy going on

with the finances of this deal.

Colin Chapman was going to
be willing to do things

that Bill would never have
been comfortable with.

And for John, I think that
was an important aspect

to this partnership.

And it was the type of thing
that was so important to him

at the time that he was willing to sacrifice Bill.

"Dear, John, after much
deliberation on my part

"I feel it is obvious to
both of us

"that my participation
in your venture

"is no longer the same
as intended.

"Under the current circumstances

"I feel the only
alternative for me is to

"tender my resignation

"in all my present positions
at this time.

I wish you and the rest
of the team the best of luck."

All these years later..

...it still looks great.

And it would be nice to
have a brown interior.

Well, it'd-it'd been
a long long time

that we'd been
working on the project

and -- and I felt that I was being totally undercut by John

and he really owed me
a hell of lot more than to

treat me the way he did.

And it just seemed like
the time to move on.

Do you remember having
the conversation with John

where you said,
"I -- I'm resigning?"

No, I don't remember.

I just..

I think he was happy to
see me go.

- Do you really?
- Yeah.

He didn't try to
stop you at all?

No.

We're all males

but there's something
to be said about

being the guy that's sort of
the guy that bore the baby

as it were
with the DMC-12.

Before we started filming,
we knew nothing..

...about John DeLorean, really.

We basically
came to the project

because a British
television station wanted

to do something on Ireland.

And I was thinking, "Oh, boy

we can do a -- a wonderful
piece on Yates."

They said, "No, no, we want it to be about automobiles

because everybody in England
just loves automobiles."

Like most of our films,
you know

the idea was to kind of watch
somebody who wants to

fulfill a life dream and, you know, that's who John was.

John Zachary DeLorean certainly
doesn't smile much.

The reason is simple.

The most important project
in his life

is yet to be accomplished.

He was very guarded
because he had so many things

I guess, on his mind
to get figured out all the time.

Uh, we've had some kind of
criticism right from day one.

First, uh, we were never gonna
get the program together.

Then we'd never get
the financing.

Then we'd never build the plant.

I don't think the motor car
manufacturing industries

whether it be America

UK, mainland,
actually ever thought

that it could be done.

Now the critics are
forecasting our failure

two or three years from now.

So, I think as long as you can
always keep your failure two

or three years in the future,
you're probably gonna do okay.

I think DeLorean's problem
was at that time

he needed cars and he needed
cars in a hurry.

You gotta pick the three or four
big markets and go after 'em.

We can't wait 14 months
to start selling.

It was a constant panic of
racing the clock

and it was a damn the torpedoes
and full speed ahead.

It was such a process of
building the car

and seeing
what -- what was working

and what wasn't working.

We've had problems
on the upper control arm

around the ball joint

but we also had
a torsion rod failure

at 41,000 cycles.

Everybody knew that there
were gonna be problems.

The view you took was, well,
yeah, we expected this.

Fine, let's get on and fix it.

It was crazy. Absolutely crazy.

But it was exciting.

You were an operator on
the floor seeing that lovely

stainless steel car going together the way it should go.

That was very rewarding.

You felt part of a family
when you went in there.

Uh, there was absolutely
no trouble

no Protestant, Catholic divide.

One of the proudest
achievements, I think

of DeLorean is that it was
a form of social experiment.

You had for the first time
in Northern Ireland

Catholics and Protestants
working alongside each other.

The social experiment was
beginning to work.

You can have a mixed
work force and be successful.

And two years
and eleven months

we had built a factory..

...we had designed the car.

The cars were built.

And that was the best time

I have ever had working
in any company.

When the first six cars
came rolling out

the news crews were all there..

John was the biggest hero
in Northern Ireland that day.

It's incredible
that he got 3,500 cars

into the United States
on a boat.

We actually sailed
on the damn boat, too.

Uh, because I just was so
excited to see that happen

because I knew he showed
them that he could do it.

Buyers are reported to be queuing up in the United States

for the company's futuristic
Goldwing DMC-12.

And D.A., and Chris,
you watch their movie

and the perception you get at the end is, this is a success.

Everything was hunky dory
and it was great, you know?

We'd succeeded in October '81.

DeLorean is four or five little moves away from victory.

He's on the doorstep
of that victory.

You know in -- in the music
of it it's like Bolero.

You know, John just says..

We don't migrate from that.

He's played a pretty
high stakes game

and he really, really stays
calm and very contained.

And the drama is in him
being contained

while everything
collapsed around him.

Things started to
go south very quickly

um, around the fall of 1981

there was a series of
monumental cockups.

So everything's going really
smoothly. But it's -- it's --

Well, I wouldn't say smoothly.

I don't want to, uh, give the
appearance that, you know

everything's just
absolutely, uh, perfect.

When those cars
first came off the boat

they were just a product
warranty nightmare.

The door won't close.
The gaps are all wrong.

The, uh, window wiper
won't work.

The door mechanism won't work.

You know, that happened when
it -- it happened to me once

getting stuck in the car.
Couldn't -- couldn't open
the door, you know?

We reviewed the car.

It costs more than a Corvette.

It didn't handle that great.
It was kind of slow.

It was not the car
he promised

this fuel-efficient,
high performance car.

It started to go south when

this happened in the teeth of

uh, a diminishing economy.

Now the dream seems
to be fading.

Sales are way down
in the United States

perhaps for economic reasons

perhaps because of some
dissatisfaction with the car.

In a scenario where
there's a few thousand cars

coming to the US, there's these quality control issues.

The lesson that should have been learned from this is

let's slow production down
a little bit more.

Let's figure out a way to
work out all these issues.

Unfortunately,
that's the opposite

of what John decided to do.

He pulled the trigger on basically doubling production.

And what happened?

These cars were backing up
like plague rats

you know, on the docks.

And it was just the wrong,
wrong move.

So the question has to be

well, why did he do this?

It was a typical John
move because

he saw a little angle
in the contract

where if you upped the amount of
people that were working there

and increased jobs

then the government was
supposed to be giving him

an infusion of cash.

And so he thought
he was going to take advantage

of this little clause.

Anyone who deals with
the government knows

that there that's a risk
in itself.

What if the politics change?

What if the administration
changes?

Well, Margaret Thatcher
happened.

We'd had a change
of government by now.

The Conservatives
were in power.

Margaret Thatcher, the arch privateer, was prime minister.

Between Margaret Thatcher
as prime minister and us

there was a secretary of state

for Northern Ireland,
James Prior.

Well, I suppose my role
with DeLorean

was to keep him under control.

Labor government had started
off the DeLorean business.

The conservative government

took a tougher line
towards subsidies

for Northern Ireland
for DeLorean.

DeLorean wanted another

$76 million from the British.

If not, he said,
"There would be layoffs."

I don't care about the British

taxpayers' money
or my own money.

I think the most important thing
is we have some people there

this is a very, very
important part of their life

and nothing in the world

should be permitted
to interfere with it.

John overestimated the fact
that we had created jobs

and that it was the jobs
that would secure

even more money
to keep us alive.

That was not the way
Margaret Thatcher saw it.

She genuinely took the view
that we couldn't go on

pouring a lot of money
after bad.

And in the end
we had to say no.

The result?
We ran out of cash.

Therefore, we were heading
for insolvency.

And that's at the point when

things got
very serious indeed.

We have a group right now that, that has got the ability

to come up with, um,
for sure 30 million and up

you know, upwards of there.

And during this whole process

John's back was really up
against the wall.

He had to figure out a way
to pay some of the money back

to the British government
as well as present to them

a feasible way to keep
the company open

and make it profitable

or else they were threatening
to come in, seize the factory

liquidate the assets

and everyone was gonna
be out of a job.

Today DeLorean said he is looking for outside financing.

All I wanna do is keep
the factory open

so that people can work.
That.. Nothing else.

You last said that
you'd keep the factory open

if it was your last breath.
Do you still stand by that?

I'm still trying.

During the months of, sort of
August, September

we'd had periodic contact
with John DeLorean.

Uh, he on a regular basis

was coming up with
potential funders.

I spent a lot of time
and effort

but I think we're now just
starting out on

um, a very successful
relationship.

Oh, I think so, too.

It just took a while to put
it together and that's all.

The workers and, uh, the people
closest to him at DMC

were being told, "Hey, listen

"everything's gonna be fine.

I definitely have the sources
coming through."

And we were still at the stage

where we were hoping and hoping
that it would go alright.

In terms of having that -- that

you know the first ten million

it sounds like that's gotta be Tuesday, right?

I would say I should be able
to get that going very quick.

The impression we got
at that time was that

John had pretty well
gotten the money

by the 17th of October, 1982.

Hello?

What?

What are you talking about?

We're in the city

in the apartment at 8:34..

Um, the phone rings..

Mom, who was that?

And..

...one phone call,
my life changed forever.

John DeLorean was
arrested yesterday

after he met
with undercover drug agents

who DeLorean apparently thought were going to help him make

a huge profit in a cocaine deal

involving more than
100 kilos of cocaine.

DeLorean's wife,
Cristina Ferrare,
an actress and model

arrived in Los Angeles
early this morning.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

I just found out
a few hours ago. I know nothing.

I caught a plane. I'm here.
I'm..

Everybody was in total shock.

Uh, nowhere in our wildest
dreams did we think

anything like this would occur.

John DeLorean may be the perfect proof of the old saying

"The bigger they come,
the harder they fall."

And we might add, "The more people want to hear about it."

It was just disbelief.

And then the news
just progressively got

worse and worse and worse.

He was expressing
an interest in financing

some type of operation

that would produce quickly

large sums of money

on return from the investment.

I was shocked out of my socks..

...to see him there in this
position that I've never

I'd never seen him in anything

except being pretty much
on top of the world.

The sensational case involves

more than 200 pounds of cocaine

an elaborate undercover
investigation

the end of the DeLorean car,
and much, much more.

It -- it's been said,

it's a cliche now

that the dream had turned

into a nightmare.

Could you imagine how we felt

seeing John DeLorean,
our angel..

I feel like,
there he was going away

and everybody was downtrodden
because we felt sure that, um

he had done so much,
he'd come through again.

But this time
unfortunately, he didn't.

Well, you're walking
out the plant

for the last time today,
how do you feel about it?

- We got nothin'.
- Pretty upset. Yeah.

What're your chances of
getting another job now?

- None at all.
- Not very good at all.

I had to go into
the plant that morning

call the people together.

They'd all heard
the same thing, of course..

And it really was the end.

I was going around
with a auctioneer.

And, uh, he was putting tags
on every piece of equipment.

That was my last day.

The expectation of everybody
working their hearts out

over there to get these cars
built to a good standard

and they felt it was,
it was gonna be their life.

And it all fell apart.
And it was incredibly sad.

I meet up with people
now and then

that...either they worked there

or their dad worked there

or their granddad worked there

and you get the same questions,
"What was it really like?"

It was the best job
that we ever had.

And it was the worst day
of their lives

when it finally closed.

After entering a plea
of not guilty

to all nine
drug charges against him

John DeLorean came out of
the federal courthouse

in Los Angeles with his wife,
model Cristina Ferrare

and the four lawyers
who are now

putting together his defense.

DeLorean said nothing today

but he is reported to
have told his lawyers

he was desperate
to save his company.

DeLorean's lawyers
are preparing to argue

the government
entrapped DeLorean.

Give him some room, guys.
Give him some room.

It was the case of the century for that year.

Because every year
has a case of the century

trial of the century.

So we were the trial
of the century for 1984.

The sidewalks in front
of the courthouse

will be jammed with reporters

and camera crews
from all over the world.

Unless you were there
and you lived it

you don't know how captivating
it was for the nation.

A young entrepreneur started
hanging around the courthouse

steps today hawking
buttons that say

"John Z. DeLorean Cocaine
Trafficking Trial

Los Angeles, '84."

Our public views these as
if it's a bad guy, get 'em

and if it's not a bad guy,
get the government.

It's all really kind of
entertainment to the public.

John DeLorean had some
bad news today.

The Automobile Association
named him dealer of the year.

A businessman down on his luck

tries to make money
in a dope deal.

I mean that's the, that's
the John DeLorean that I knew.

The case was of
overwhelming strength.

Here's the cocaine
and here's your target.

And he's holding up a glass
of champagne, toasting.

To a lot of success
for everybody.

And says, that this is better
than what was it?

Better than something, uh..

It's better than gold.

Gold weighs more than that,
for God's sakes.

Everybody believed
that the events were

showing John DeLorean in
the middle of a drug deal.

One of the things I asked
the jurors very early on was

"Would it surprise you if I
told you you weren't seeing
a drug deal?"

And just hang on
and watch the whole movie.

And at the end,
you're gonna see

it isn't what it
appeared to be.

A real thriller, of course,
which it turned out to be.

Uh -- uh, the case starts with a guy named James Hoffman.

He was the informant.

He was somebody
who had been a major

narcotics trafficker who had
the bad luck of being caught.

And he decided to cooperate.

Valestra.

Mr. Valestra. It's Jim Hoffman,
your favorite CI.

Uh-huh.

You're not gonna believe
who I had a call with.

John DeLorean.

When I got the call
from, uh, the CI..

...who's a neighbor of his.

We were neighbors, uh,
out here in California.

I was across from his ranch
in Pauma Valley..

He says to me, CI,
that John needs some money

and the inference of drugs
was right there.

You seen
the kind of dire straits

his company's in right now..

- Uh-huh.
- He needs cash bad.

And, uh, he doesn't care
where it comes from.

You know, he -- he's gonna
be back in Pauma Valley

at his ranch next week.

He wants to meet me.
We've already set it up.

Seriously, Jim?
You're kidding me.

My hand to God.

This is happening.

I said, well,
see what he's got to say.

Go ahead.
See what he has to say.

Have I ever done you guys
wrong before?

I'll be in touch.

So at this point it's 1982..

Reagan's just announced
the war on drugs.

In a comprehensive attack
on drug trafficking

and organized crime.

In this time period,
a confidential informant

like James Hoffman
can actually make a living

by introducing the DEA
to high-level criminals.

John.

- John, great to see you.
- You too, Jim. Been a while.

And in this case

it's the perfect storm
for John DeLorean.

When Jim first approached John

i -- it seemed like
a very farfetched idea

that he'd be actually
able to help John out.

These investors..

But Jim was throwing out some
numbers that seemed

very alluring to John.

Ten, twenty, fifty million.

I thought your investors might
like to see these brochures

that we have made up
that really can show you

how we're all set to --

Yeah. Um, there's no need.

They're not exactly
the kind of guys

that get hung up
on paperwork, you know.

They're Colombian.

- They in the coffee business?
- You might say that.

They met and the first conversation was not recorded.

So we don't really
know what was said.

And it was when Hoffman
then met with DeLorean.

At that point, Hoffman
comes back to Valestra

and says, "Yeah,
he wants to talk dope."

I say, Really?" I mean, uh,
well, if he, if he said that

we'd better...have him
say it again somewhere.

Which we did.

- How you doing?
- Doing great.

What am I doing,
interrupting your lunch?

No..

And on September 4th

the meeting at
the Lafont Plaza takes place.

That's a one-on-one meeting
with the CI and John.

That, uh, video..

that's pretty explicit stuff.

CI writes it all out.

And the scenarios are right there on the, uh, on the paper.

During this period of time

John now is supposed to
come up with

uh, the 1.8 mil.

That was where it was left.

So he'd have to put some
skin in the game.

Government attorneys in
the John DeLorean trial

today introduced a videotape

that is perhaps
the most damaging

evidence against
the auto executive.

The tape was played as part of the testimony of James Hoffman

a paid undercover informer
who was the government's

key witness against DeLorean.

Defense attorneys describe
the meeting in Washington, DC

between John DeLorean
and the undercover informant

as a clever lure.

And as for DeLorean's
participation

in that discussion,
the defense team says

"There's no harm
in listening to someone else

talk about a drug deal."

For three months
during the trial

we moved to my grandmother's

grandfather's house
in Brentwood.

You know, I play it all out
in my head all the time.

Something will come up and I'll
start thinking about stuff

and -- and -- and, uh,
it'll -- it'll spark a memory

or trigger something.

Guys, no matter what happens..

Hey, we're gonna be fine.

Everything's gonna be fine.

My father was looking at
hard-core time.

And to my parents' credit

they did what they could
to make it as best

a situation as they could.

You know, how the fuck
do you tell your kid

that shit ain't okay?

He just asked me if we're
both coming back from court or..

I am not going away for this.

The jury will see how asinine
this whole thing is

and how they set up an innocent
man, for God's sakes.

What do you think
about this tie?

It's fine.

You sure the brown works?

I mean, I had a blue one on
when they snapped

this picture,
but they can't tell

'cause it's in black and white.

- Either -- either way..
- I don't want it to read black.

I mean, I don't want to
send the wrong message.

- To who, the judge?
- No, to everyone.

Next time they snap my picture,
it could be a magazine cover.

John, either one works fine.

'Cause it -- it'll be in color
if it's a magazine.

Hey!

You have to talk
to the children.

Kathryn. Come and give
Mommy a hug, sweetie.

She seems pretty upset.

Zach, I know you're worried

but I need you pulling for your old man to win this thing

alright?

I just wanna go back
to New Jersey.

So do I. And we will
as soon as this thing is over.

Alright? Zach, look at me.

Your dad's a winner, right?

For me it's a double-edged sword
that I walk all the time.

The evidence is there
that they set him up..

...but common sense
and reality tells me

that he's not a fuckin' idiot.

That he must have known

somethin' was fucked up
at some time.

Come here, sweetie.

I'm gonna wear
the blue tie, okay?

So, it's like, you know,
how the fuck

could you put our family
in jeopardy like that?

Twenty-one days into the John DeLorean cocaine trial

defense attorney
Howard Weitzman says

there's no question that John DeLorean can be seen

and heard on tape
talking about narcotics.

But he says, "The question is

"how far can the government go

in dangling a lure
in front of a desperate man?"

When I look back at this case

Hoffman had said if you give me

you know, a million and a half
two million dollars

three million dollars,
I can get you ten

fifteen, twenty million
dollars back.

John didn't have the money.

And logic would tell you

that that's the end
of the investigation.

Are you sure
he can't put any cash in?

At this point, I don't think
DeLorean can scrounge 20Gs

let alone two million.

Listen, I've been poring
through all these tapes

and I just don't think
we have him yet.

I think he's got it
in collateral.

Okay, but if collateral's
all we get

then it's got to equal
at least that much.

And -- and listen to me.

We have got to get it on tape.

This is my first rodeo, Jerry.

I know how it works.

I'm just, I'm just saying
un -- until now

he -- he's been
real careful about

how he parses
all his words, so..

Well, it's different
than a phone call now.

He's about to walk
into a real bank.

He knows your IC is legit.

So he won't for one second
think that I'm not.

Still, the more drug references
you can slip in, the better.

We got this, Jerry.

Throughout the entire thing

they had to continue
changing the script.

It wasn't going to be, "Here's the two million dollars.

Here's the drug money back."
Boom, you're arrested.

So then it turned into
James Hoffman

the CI convincing him

"Hey, I know this
crooked banker."

- Hey, John.
- Hi, Jim.

- Great to see.
- You too.

Have you been here
in this area before?

I've been in San Jose, uh..

And, of course, San Francisco.

The DeLorean case
was just one of other cases

that I was involved in from
the standpoint of being a

an undercover operator
working at a bank.

So the bank provided
the perfect undercover front.

We finally, uh

shall we say, got together
after all this time.

Yeah, after so many
conversations, right?

Can I get you a cup of coffee?

At this point of the story
John's not gonna put

any actual money into the game.

He can potentially
put up collateral.

Ben Tisa is the one
that's supposed to now set up

an alternative situation
for John.

Uh, we had a particular
suspect, his name was Hetrick

uh, who was a pilot who flew
cocaine in from Colombia.

This particular individual
has been very successful

in his business, okay?

So, the idea came in.

Well, maybe the dope dealer
would invest in

John DeLorean's company.

Uh, John DeLorean being told

the money was going to come
from sale of cocaine.

Would it be possible, um, to
allow this gentleman to have,
say a..

I see no reason why I couldn't
do it from my private company.

Great. That's great. That works.

In John's mind, once again

the genius at bending the rules

finding the little loophole.

Hey, I'll take this money

even if it comes
from drug -- drug folks.

But it's coming through
a legitimate bank.

Enter Morgan Hetrick.

He was somebody that was
flying in hundreds

and hundreds of pounds of
cocaine from South America.

So the government
felt that at that point

that was the best opportunity

to bring both John
and Hetrick down

is to merge the cases.

The government told

Hetrick that John had put in
two million dollars

and that he wanted to do
this drug deal with Hetrick.

And he was given an opportunity

to stay in the deal
without putting money in.

And, uh, uh, he took it.

I -- I -- I think it's a great opportunity for me

from that standpoint.

So in terms of the drug case

you've got hours
of phone conversations

hours of videotape showing John

with these drug dealers
and crooked bankers.

Is the feed secure?

You sure
he's not gonna be able to

hear anything
through this wall?

John still hasn't given
the government anything.

So they have to introduce
this new character

this sort of mob
drug dealer guy.

Show time.

He's really gonna crank
the pressure up on John.

Okay.

When I meet him
at the hotel room

I would be the one that would
be handling the drugs.

All Jim had to do
was put it together

get a, uh, finder's fee

whatever, and me and my network

would be going out to

quadruple the,
uh, our investment.

I'm asking for what..

What're you putting up?

There's no more money from you.

There's no free lunch, either.

At this point of the story

each participant in this deal
is trying to outsmart

and outmaneuver
the other person

for their own gain.

John wants to get money
to save his company.

You've got Jim Hoffman who's leeching off of the government.

He begins to enjoy
this lifestyle of working

with the feds.

And then the feds, they're trying to have that big

big case for Reagan to
tout his war on drugs.

So everyone is hungry
for that one thing

that they want out of this.

When you analyze
a case like this

you realize,
wait, the informant

kind of created this

with the government working
with him and it didn't work.

So they went to a savings
and loan, a legitimate bank

got them to let them
use the premises

you know,
like the set in a movie.

Phase three, they put John
together with Morgan Hetrick

a legitimate, by legitimate,
I mean a real smuggler.

Then they bring in the DEA.

And John Valestra becomes
kind of a mafioso.

And what they
finally came up with

so John would get his ten

fifteen,
twenty million dollars

is they got him to
put up stock certificates.

John with his lawyers,
corporate lawyer, gives them

worthless DeLorean stock
in a defunct company

that had no assets.

Worthless paper.

And the con was reversed
in John's mind.

So he's putting up zero

Mr. Hetrick, the smuggler
goes and gets the cocaine.

And then they call DeLorean..

You're still on the East Coast?

I'm on the East Coast and I can do anything you want.

Uh, it might be conducive, um..

...to you being close by
when this thing goes down..

And they say to him,
"Come to Los Angeles

we have ten million dollars
for you. Come get your money."

Maybe we'll pop a, uh,
a bottle of champagne someplace.

That would be wonderful.

And sit back and relax.

And DeLorean

who can only think about

"I gotta get the money
to the company," comes to LA.

And the government picked him
up, took him to a hotel room

opened a bottle of champagne,
toasted to their success.

And one of the agents said

"Now, John, here's the fruits
of our efforts."

So John, what we're
talking about..

It's gonna be, uh..

And went to the closet, brought out the suitcase of cocaine

and opened it up.

Between this
and the other half..

...it's gonna generate about
four and a half

not less than four
and a half mil.

This is better than in gold.

Gold weighs more than that,
for God's sakes.

That's when DeLorean said

"This is like gold.
This is better than gold."

This is better than gold.

Gold weighs more than that,
for God's sakes.

Classic line on that tape.

Hi, John..

Jerry West.

I'm with the FBI.

And -- and then
he was arrested.

So he wasn't gonna
take the drugs.

He didn't get
the ten million dollars.

Will you stand up, sir?

And he never was supposed
to take the drugs.

He was only supposed to
get the money.

So why would they bring the drugs out and show them to him?

And the answer is
pretty simple.

Well, if you're dealing
with twelve laypeople

in the jury box

you're gonna make them think this was all part of the deal.

John DeLorean says
it's all in God's hands.

That was his reaction
today when six men

and six women began
deliberating his case.

The jurors,
who appeared relaxed

when they arrived
for court today

began their deliberations
shortly before 10:00 a.m.

Los Angeles time.

Outside court, John DeLorean's attorney, Howard Weitzman

expressed the mood
on the defense side.

This is a very difficult time
when a case goes to the jury

'cause you never really
know what they're thinking

or what they're interested in.

These are very hard cases

and it requires
a unanimous verdict.

If he got convicted

he would have received a pretty stiff prison sentence

for sure.

And the government was very
confident in their case.

Throughout the case
the DeLorean defense

has hammered away
at the tactics used

by federal agents in their undercover investigation

of John DeLorean.

Weitzman asked for acquittal
saying, "The government is

in a sense on trial here."

We did not believe

there was an entrapment
defense in this case.

That was a throwaway defense.

After the long trial,
DeLorean's lawyer said

he'll be stunned whichever
way the jury votes.

John DeLorean put it
more simply.

John, how do you feel?

It's in the hands of the Lord.

In the matter of the United
States versus John Z. DeLorean

the jury finds the defendant..

...not guilty
on all eight counts.

Praise the Lord!

Howard.

Well done, Howard. Well done.
And thank you.

Come on, boys.

Back up. Back up.
We got a guest.

Yeah!

What's up, buddy?
Ah, fucker.

Water everywhere.

Sit. You guys gonna chill?

Sit.

Uh, yeah, this is my, uh..

Uh, this is where I live.

You know, so.

It's just this, uh, it's a shitty little apartment.

You know, the paint's
fuckin' peeling, uh..

And, if you find my
housekeeper,
tell her she's fired

'cause she doesn't
do a good job

of cleaning
the fuckin' place but..

So it's kinda,
you know, like, uh..

I don't, you guys,
I don't know if you've seen

the apartment
or any of that stuff

but when people know
who I am and who my family is

then they come over,
they're like

"What the fuck?"

You know, in, even today

I'll see the car
going down the street

and I'm just like,
"It's just fuckin' weird, man."

For me there's a lot behind
the meaning of that car

not just my family name on it

but what that fuckin' car
did to our family.

Are you surprised that,
um, a feature film hasn't

been made about your,
your dad and his life?

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's got all the good
shit in it. It's got cocaine.

It's got fuckin' hot chicks.
It's got sports cars.

It's got fuckin',
you know, war torn.

You know, bombed out
buildings overseas.

It's got fucking
Margaret Thatcher,
Ronald Reagan

the war on drugs.
You got FBI agents.

You got, you know,
fuckin' hardcore drug dealers

but..

...my fear with Hollywood is

they're gonna end it
with him

coming out of the courthouse
with Cristina.

"Whoo-hoo,
fucking acquittal!

Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
Fucking credits. You know?

While that coming out
of the courthouse, you know

ticker tape parade shit
is real..

Look at what it cost him.

The sting operation fell
through. You were acquitted.

Um, your wife Cristina
stood by you

throughout the entire trial

and then

not but several weeks later,
left you.

- Several days later.
- Ah.

You claim to have been shocked
that your wife Cristina

announced her intentions
to divorce you

shortly after the trial.

She appeared on this program,
spoke, uh, of you

and, uh, most wifely of terms.

Here's what she said.

Can't make a judgment right now.
It's not fair.

It's not fair for, for John
and it's not fair for you either

because if you were in
a situation like this

or any one of your loved ones

you -- you will find yourself
defending them

as ardently as
I'm doing with John.

That must make you feel
at the very least

mixed to see that.

It makes you cry, does it?

Yeah, it's pretty,
uh, pretty painful.

At the time,
if I was my mom

the carpet just got pulled out from underneath me.

She's 31 years old, man.

She's still got another
eight, nine, ten

12 years of being
top dog.

And that whole fuckin' career pulled out from underneath you.

Your whole career
has fallen apart.

I was at the top of
my modeling profession.

I've been doing it for 20 years.

The last 15 years I've been at
the very top of it

commanding top money.

And this is July and since
January I've had one booking

and I've made $105.

And no one will have anything
to do with me or my name.

Not at all.

I try not to ask my mom
about my dad.

Not because I think that she
doesn't have any good memories.

More because again

I don't want to

draw up any,
any painful ones.

It was terrible and tragic
what she had to go through.

So, she had to do something
different with her life.

She had to leave
all that behind.

Shortly after all of that
she had her show, AM LA.

She defined who she was.

She rebuilt her life
and she rebuilt it in

a fantastic way.

And credit to her, I get it.
I understand it.

That, you know,
you're trying to keep a roof

and keep a normal

stable household
for your kids.

Guess what?
It's fuckin' gone.

Stability and sanity left the
fuckin' house two years ago

when he got arrested.

I had to do an art project
for school

and we had to do appropriation.

So I appropriated
this painting.

On this side,
there's photographs of

everything perfect.

And as it goes on

I started to put in
the articles

from this perfect life
to this destroyed life.

And on the bumper, it says,
"Destroy my childhood"

for DMC.

- Alright, man. You good?
- Uh, yes.

- We get any last looks on Alec?
- We're ready to go.

That's fine. Let's go.
Let's shoot it.

I'd love to figure out
what's the actual turning point?

When does DeLorean
get to a point

where he could have
turned back.

And maybe avoided everything?

And whether he went on to
complete the car project or not

he would have lived
to fight another battle.

You know, and,
or try another

iteration of all that.

And probably succeeded,
'cause he's a very clever guy.

What's that moment where you
could sit there and go

too late?

Is it the cocaine deal itself?
Or is it before that?

Is it a series of things?

Is it a period of time
where he's doing a few things?

When does John

put in all the chips on
the table and he loses?

I saw the drug trial
as a sideshow.

To me much more substantial

was how DeLorean was
handling the money

that he had gotten to build
the car in Northern Ireland.

You know, every piece of paper tells a story

of what people were doing
and how they were doing it.

Well, this transaction happened
before this transaction

and that led to this
transaction.

I was brought in to
analyze the affairs of

DeLorean Motor Company
and go deep into its affairs

its activities
and its transactions.

We didn't really understand
that at first,

but it turned out to be
the critical moment

in untangling
the affairs of John DeLorean.

And as it became clear
you start to see yet again

another side of John.

When the company was developing in those heady days of

excitement and energy around
the company around John

investors all wanted
to get a piece of it.

You know, in -- in trying to
raise all the capital

John was really
selling himself.

He was selling his image.

Ah, you know, the slogan
"Live the Dream"

that's what people were
supposedly buying into

when they invested
in his company.

And John sensing that interest and wanting to raise money

if it was available
was able to raise

seventeen and a half
million dollars

for the development of
the vehicle.

But as it turns out, the British government had also

put up enough money by then

that their funds were
actually being used

to pay for the development
of the vehicle.

And therefore this money wasn't
needed so much at that point.

And John, seeing this pot of
money, couldn't resist.

Federal investigators
and bankruptcy lawyers say

they have uncovered
another secret DeLorean deal.

This one arranged at a hotel
in Geneva, Switzerland

long before
the alleged drug deal.

A deal had been struck
in Switzerland

with Colin Chapman,
the chairman of Lotus

and the mysterious organization

called GPD Services.

And what's interesting

becomes very clear that Bill Collins was onto something

several years earlier
when he was analyzing

the DeLorean-Lotus agreement.

When I looked at the numbers
that they put together

I said to John,
"What's the deal?"

GPD?

I've never even heard of it.

It just seems like
you're paying twice

for the same thing, John.

Obviously looking back
on it now

there were things going on
behind the scene.

John and Chapman were
trying to figure out

the, uh, game
they were playing with GPD

and trying to get various..

...uh, arrangements
put together.

In the scene we shot yesterday, he hangs up with Collins.

And everybody who's good

they've all got to go.
You know?

Because their goodness
becomes useless to John.

You know, they just
don't do me any good.

Apart from denying that
he had any of the GPD money

John DeLorean is reluctant
to discuss GPD.

Can you give that an answer now to those allegations

about the missing $17 million?

So now we fast forward
into the investigation

and we start peeling back
the layers of GPD.

GPD is supposedly

this middleman company

to deliver certain other
engineering services.

In truth,
it had no other engineers.

It had, it had no facilities

to deliver these
engineering services.

GPD was a mailbox.

GPD is a phony,
a shell company

nothing more than a post office box in a neighborhood branch

of the Geneva Post Office.

Post Office Box 33.

It turns out,
John made a deal with

Colin Chapman at Lotus Cars
that he would send

the seventeen and a half million dollars from investors

into GPD and then Colin
took the money from there

funneled it into European bank accounts, split it with John.

John then maneuvered
that money

back to his own accounts
in the United States

therefore converting
the investor money

into his own money.

I think there's a real
fascinating allegory here.

You did sell your soul,
John DeLorean.

You sold it for the greater
glory of John DeLorean

who was going to whip
General Motors and all these

multibillion dollar,
multinational companies

with your own dream car.

And in that vision,
not only did you jeopardize

the well-being of your family

you've risked yourself
for a jail term

got off because
the government blew it.

Now we have other indictments

which, which indicate that
it's possible that, that

your, that your fatigue
and your egomania

have forced you to use money
for your own purpose rather than

the original intent of
the investors.

That's what seems to be
most apparent to anybody

who gives a cursory review
of the evidence in this case.

Well, as I said early on

I think that we will prove
conclusively

that every single cent was
legitimately and honestly

uh, come by and that all these
charges are totally false.

So, a -- as these questions
are being brought up

and John is preparing to have
to answer these questions

uh, he needed to show
some sort of proof

that made the deal
not look shady.

And that proof was
actually a loan letter

from GPD Services
and a paper trail

that GPD services
was a loan to him

and that he still had
several years before

he had to pay back that loan.

He puts together
these documents

that only he and one other
person would be privy to

and that being Colin Chapman
from Lotus.

Well, several years earlier,
Colin Chapman dropped dead

of a heart attack.

And the only other person

in, you know

this little transaction
was John.

So while I was busy
studying the records

and looking at
financial transactions

the lawyers were busy
talking to Cristina Ferrare.

Cristina testified under oath

that she saw John

working in a large closet

with latex gloves on

signing documents,
backdating them

and then aging the documents
under a sun lamp.

So when the documents would be
forensically examined later on

his fingerprints
wouldn't be on it.

His skin oil
wouldn't be on it

and of course the paper would
have aged under the sun lamp.

And she testified that
she saw him do that.

So, John was very busy
creating a set of documents

in the dark of night, but his wife was watching him.

After reviewing the records,
there came a time

when the trial started
to recover this money

that John had taken
from the company.

And I started to really get a good look at John as a person

and the true nature
of his character.

So, he walks in court one day

and then he looks at me
and he says

"I was on the radio
this morning.

I was talking about you
and your testimony."

He goes, "But I'm not sure
I got your name right."

He said, "Is there one H
in Shithead or two?"

And I said, "Wow."

But by then
I also realized we had him.

In other words, he was acting
out because we knew we had him.

Between us having
the financial evidence

and Cristina would testify

that John had been forging
documents and aging documents

John needed to
settle that case

actually cough up the money

that had been stolen
from the investors

in the DeLorean partnership.

Would you deny
therefore that you had

any of that $17 million?

Excuse me a minute.
I have to get a drink.

John DeLorean was not prepared to answer any further questions

about the missing
$17.6 million.

In the drug trial, John really
could grasp on to that idea of

I was the victim here,
you know?

I got sucked into a situation
of overzealous people

overzealous government that was trying to take me down

as a legitimate
business owner.

In the case of
the money trials

it's very hard to take the
approach that he was the victim

because all of it
was his own doing.

You start to see, you know,
this real true character

this underlying nature of John, not the public persona that

he had worked so hard
to cultivate for years.

He had built this giant
bubble of an image

making him believe he could kind of get away with anything.

This was not
the little guy fighting

the Goliath like GM.

This instead was someone
in his business dealings

who acted like the Goliath

and trampled on
other people's dreams

and really hurt
some individuals very badly.

I'm not a psychiatrist,
but I think that

he was okay in the beginning

and I think he just got
carried away.

I think he could have saved it if he'd had the right attitude.

But I think he thought it was
more important to make a buck

than to be successful.

That is part of
the real tragedy

in going back to the what-ifs.

You know, what if John and Colin
hadn't embezzled that money

and he had still had seventeen
and a half million dollars
at the time

when he needed desperately cash
to keep the company open?

We're the FBI.

By stealing that money

John really painted himself
into a corner.

And he had to find the money
somewhere else.

And to think if he could have
only held on

for a few more years.

Doc!

- Marty! You made it!
- Yeah.

Welcome to my latest experiment.

This is the big one,
the one I've been

waiting for all my life.

- Wow, it's a DeLorean.
- Bear with me, Marty.

All your questions will be
answered. Roll tape.

When Bob Zemeckis and I first
wrote "Back To The Future"

the time machine was
a refrigerator.

And Bob Zemeckis,
the director, said

"Wouldn't it be simpler
if Doc actually built

the time machine into a car?"

And then he says, "And what
if the car was a DeLorean?"

You know,
it wasn't my idea

but I know damn good idea
when I hear one.

This was a damn good idea.

So I said,
"Yeah, that's great."

When this baby hits
88 miles per hour

you're gonna see some
serious shit.

We, I think,
did a great job

in making the DeLorean
glamorous

and endearing it to,
uh, generations of

of movie fans and car fans.

Eighty eight miles
per hour!

If only we'd stayed alive

and we'd continued
for another two years.

You can't buy that
publicity now, can you?

"Back To The Future"

makes the car

and the man truly immortal.

A hundred years from now

people will watch that movie

And the last running DeLorean
may have consumed

its last drop of fuel
and eaten its last piston

but that movie will carry on.

After the movie came out,
about two or three weeks later

we got one of the best
fan letters we ever got

and it was from John DeLorean.

He said that
he'd just seen the movie

he thought it was brilliant.

Uh, and he said

"Thank you for keeping
my dream alive."

You know,
back in a time when

I was lead to believe
films about him were

um, percolating

you know, there were
a couple of them

to my recollection
that people were gonna make.

I get a phone call

and it was DeLorean.

And I have to imagine
he was probably

out of the house, the big house,
and living in this apartment

you know, the scene
that we're gonna shoot today.

Yeah, I was on the phone
with him and he was, uh..

He was like, "Alex, this is
John DeLorean calling."

He's very old.
He sounded older.

He said, "I understand
they're making

"this motion picture
about me

"and, uh, I would be
very flattered

if you were to portray me
in the movie."

I thought, "Wow."

I mean, to have the guy
who's the real guy pick you.

And, um,
and then it went away.

I never heard from him again.

But, uh, I mean, to me

DeLorean is a lot of things.

Every day, you,
I think about who is he..

I have a different answer.

You know, today my attitude
about DeLorean

you watch historical footage
and you get kind of inflamed

'cause you see that he did a lot
of bad things to some people

and he hurt a lot of people
and he stole from people.

And at the same time, uh..

I feel like
he was somebody who..

He just, like a lot of
great American stories

he just perverted some dream
that he had.

You remember the DMC,
don't you? Yeah.

How could you forget it?
It was one of a kind.

It really was one of a kind.

As -- as full as John's life
was those first 60 years

the last 20 years are
actually more simple.

This is one of John's bibles

which he actually gave
to his nephew Mark.

He became a born again
Christian.

Uh, it was a very important
part of his life.

He dated several women
throughout the years

and then ended up
re-marrying late in life.

And then in 2000,
had to declare bankruptcy

in which he lost
his Bedminster Estate

and lived the last five years
of his life

in a one-bedroom apartment.

His whole fucking life,
his whole dream

everything that he worked for

from the time
they broke ground

till the time of
the arrest, gone.

Was it a blow to your pride
to you trying to

shape your life again?

Well, I felt terrible about it
for a long time.

I felt terrible for my children
who've had a..

This has been an extremely
difficult thing for them.

But, you know, life is life.
You go.. It goes on.

Your father is shamed
and goes to jail.

Your family loses
all their money.

Your parents get divorced.

Everything in your world
changes.

And for the next 15 years
of your life

you get chased by,
"Is your father in jail?"

and cocaine jokes
and all of these things

that just followed along
with it.

My entire life,
I had to live it down.

It was, it followed me
for a very long time.

It followed me around
until I started to

get involved into
the DeLorean community.

People used to invite
my dad to

all these car shows
all the time.

And I asked him.

I said,
"Dad, dad, let's go.

You have to experience this."

Knowing how much
he was still loved

would definitely make
a difference in his life.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

It was an amazing experience.

It was, it was everything

I hoped it would be
and then some..

I just met John DeLorean
for the third time.

Document that.

The man is unbelievable.

He really did get to bask

in his glory
a little bit again.

Do you consider
the whole DeLorean dream

to have been a failure?

Oh, I think that
I showed a lot of people

that whether, uh

you know, you survive or not

the key is,
it's like Shakespeare said

"It's better to have
loved and lost

than not to have loved at all."

I gave it the best shot I had.
I tried as hard as I could.

And I think that
I did reasonably well.

I think DeLorean was
very much alone.

Part of the fallout from
compartmentalizing his life

the way he did

is that he really
didn't have anybody

who knew him
through and through.

This is not a man who's looking at his family life

or his friends to qualify

his reason for living.

It's, "What have I accomplished?
What have I done?

What am I doing next?"

That in his mind,
this is what really

reflects on him
as a human being.

When we come around here,
what I'd like to do is

repeat this action.

And just put this down here
and then look up at the car.

And I wanna say something very
specific to him about the car.

No film can tell the definitive story of anybody's life.

Anyone's life is just
too vast

and complex for one film.

But a film could certainly

create the legend of
John DeLorean

and we print the legend.

The legend is what we love.

That's what we should have.

Let's just hypothetically say

that when he went into
the hotel that night

he knew he was walking out

with a suitcase
full of cocaine.

I can't necessarily blame him.

How far would you be
willing to go

to save something you worked
your whole life

for your life's dream?

What would you do
to see that succeed

no matter what?

He always kept trying.

He never gave up the dream.

He never quit believing

that there was a potential
for him to recover

that he was going to invent
the next great thing

that he was going to be able to reclaim his former glory.

He was John DeLorean

and he was John DeLorean
until the day he died.

You know, I think he was still trying to make fucking deals

on that DMC-2

when he got the heart attack.

And I -- I think that would be a good way to end the movie.

You could have him on the phone eating some breakfast

um, with,
an -- an open notebook thing

that you'd show investors
with, you know

all the nice little
pictures and stuff.

Talking on the phone and
then it just fades to black.

Because then that
last image would just be him

working to get that
deal done.

And he just fuckin'..

God pulled the plug
on his ass, man.

You're outta here, buddy.
You know?

Then, you know,
it just goes black and then

John DeLorean died in
Morristown, New Jersey

at fucking 80 years old
on this date, you know?

Never to have fulfilled,
you know, another car company

build another car company.

And, you know, and
I -- I'd be okay with that.

And slate. That's good.

Scene 28 alpha, take two.

Action.

I mean, if we can't get the
money to distribute this movie

what if we sell cocaine to try
to get this movie distributed?

- Sure.
- We don't want to lose, either.

- No.
- I'm counting on you, Sheena.