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2026 Chevrolet Tahoe ReviewDuster Puts the Spotlight on Forgotten Muscle Car
Duster brings ‘70s swagger back to the small screen with Josh Holloway behind the wheel of the classic Plymouth muscle car.Celebrating ‘70s Vintage Cool
It used to be a television and movie mainstay, the roguishly charming lead character whose personality is embodied in their car (often a sleek, tire-squealing sports car). Think Steve McQueen’s Highland Green fastback Mustang in Buillitt, Bo and Luke’s The General Lee in The Dukes of Hazard, or Jim Rockford’s Trans Am Firebird in The Rockford Files. Such automotive sidekicks have largely fallen out of fashion, albeit with notable exceptions like John Wick’s Mustang. When producers J.J. Abrams (Lost) and LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead) began brainstorming a new crime show set in the 1970s, they knew an automotive co-star would be central to the show’s throwback appeal.
(HBO) Max’s Duster is an overt homage to the crime capers of the 1970s, complete with a swaggering rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold lead, played by Josh Holloway driving a classic muscle car and a spunky never-say-die female lead played by Rachel Hilson. Casting, both human and vehicular, is stellar. The titular car is of course a Plymouth Duster driven by Holloway’s Jim Ellis, driver and bagman for a Pheonix crime boss. Ellis’ opposite is a newly minted FBI agent Nina Hays (Hilson) who drives a note perfect Plymouth Belvedere. Note that both characters drive Plymouths; the Mopar allegiance runs deep.
Duster’s central plot of revenge, overlapping criminal intrigues, and whodunit mystery does its best to balance its pulpier elements with equal doses of humor and pathos. Not an easy needle to thread but in keeping with the shows and movies Duster sets out to emulate. Holloway plays Ellis with all the swagger and charisma of a latter-day Burt Reynolds while Hilson’s headstrong Agent Hays complicates the typical plucky female lead (she’s even the first black woman FBI field agent!) by adding an unerring thirst for justice that’s more personal than professional.
Duster Opens with a Banger
Duster makes clear from its opening credits that it’s a show where automotive mayhem will have a central role. At one time, a hallmark of HBO’s prestige dramas were their killer opening credit sequences, think Tony’s commute in The Sopranos or the vampire fever dream of True Blood set to Bob Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothing.” More recent shows like Game of Thrones and The Last of Us have eschewed these evocative openers for staid, dare I say boring, opening credits that are the reason streaming platforms have a “skip intro” button today.
Duster offers a return to that earlier form of table-setting with a wild and raucous Hot Wheels-style stop motion car chase complete with explosions, jumps, and even a full loop. Despite being obviously done in CGI, the sequence adds analogue touches like the shallow depth of field you’d naturally see when filming old-school scale models. It’s playful, intricate, and dazzling; it’s engaging enough that you’ll find yourself forgetting to hit that “skip intro” button even multiple episodes into the season.
Duster’s Plymouth Duster
So, why the Plymouth Duster of all possible muscle cars? First, the choices for a hero car were narrowed by the shows and movies Duster intended to evoke. That meant the Firebird Trans Am used in Smokey and the Bandit, The Rockford Files, and Knight Rider was off limits. McQueen had his Mustang; Kowalski his white Challenger and the Duke boys their Charger. The car needed to reflect the non-conformity and individualism of Ellis, and the Plymouth Duster fit the bill nicely as a more obscure muscle car that arrived late to the scene with an inaugural 1970 model year.
As Producer/Creator LaToya Morgan explained to Esquire magazine: “We circled the Duster, which had its heyday for only six years. It was a car that had a reputation for being fast and good, but not a lot of people knew about it. We wanted that in our hero car, a car that had personality.”
The Plymouth Duster debuted in 1969 for the 1970 model year in 340 and 360 variations. Ellis’ Duster is a 1970 model year 340, the performance version from that first year. As such, his Duster runs a 340 cu.-in. LA-Series V8 with a four-barrel carburetor and a 10.5:1 compression ratio good for 275 horsepower and 340 lb.-ft. of torque. A Cherry Red paint job is accented in black; hood pins and a rear spoiler compliment the semi-fastback roof line giving the Duster charm to match Holloway’s charismatic smile. Production hasn’t skimped on the telling minor details either with grace notes like the dog tags hanging from the rear view (Ellis and brother were Vietnam War veterans) and a period correct 8-track player under the dash.
The show hits the ground running with a chase scene through the desert. In the tradition of The Dukes of Hazard, Ellis manages to do a lot of Jeep stuff despite the Duster being a muscle car and easily evades the bad guys all with a smile on his face and his niece enthusiastically riding shotgun.
Of course, Jim Ellis’ Duster isn’t the only car that neatly personifies the character who drives it. There’s also Agent Hays’ blue Belvedere (racing alongside the Duster in the opening credit sequence as well) and the purple ’56 Cadillac convertible driven by bowling alley-owning baddie “Sunglasses.” Production designers have done a fabulous job filling in the background with period correct cars, from vintage muscle cars like the Mustang, Nova, and Firebird to more ordinary fair like the Ford Ecoline, AMC Matador, and International Harvester Scout.
Between car chases, colorful characters, and criminal capers, Duster is a throwback TV show with vintage appeal.
