Checkered Flag or Crash Checkered Flag or Crash Checkered Flag or Crash is a 1977 American adventure comedy film about off-road racing through the Philippines jungle, starring Joe Don Baker and Susan Sarandon and featuring Larry Hagman, Alan Vint and Parnelli Jones. It was written by Michael Allin and directed by Alan Gibson. Hard-charging race car driver "Walkaway" Madden (Baker), nicknamed that because of his history of walking away from car crashes, just wants to win the big Manilla 1000 off-road race. Photojournalist C.C. Wainwright (Sarandon) intends to ride with him in that race. But Walkaway just wants to get rid of her. Fast-talking
Glenn Close received rave reviews, as it was noted for being her most subtle and introverted performance yet and a departure from her other roles. Close was asked about the fact of not having an Oscar during the film's awards campaign, for which she answered: "And I remember being astounded that I met some people who were really kind of almost hyper-ventilating as to whether they were going to win or not, and I have never understood that. Because if you just do the simple math, the amount of people who are in our two unions, the amount of people who in