Summary
The board of directors is in the midst of a press conference announcing that they are resigning immediately when Tucker barges in to applaud their performance. The reporters start shouting questions at Tucker, but are reported to direct all questions to the chairman. When someone asks Bennington how long the plant will stay open, Bennington says the plant is already closed. We soon watch Tucker smoke and stare wistfully at a row of completed cars and his production line. That is, until he gets in one and starts driving it around the factory floor. The rest of his crew pile in and they realize they only need to build 3 more cars by June 1st to avoid the factory being taken back. So that's what they resolve to do.
Just after, Abe calls Tucker from a greasy spoon joint to tell him that there are two federal agents outside of his house waiting to arrest him. Abe adds that there's a hoard of reporters outside of the police station, and the police are ready to make Preston do a perp walk. Tucker declares, "If they want headlines, I'll give them a beaut!" and drives one of the cars out of the factory. He drives into town and taunts a pair of cops, who get in their car and commence a high speed chase with Tucker. Suddenly, his fast, beautifully designed car is the center of the town's attention, and has caught the eye of reporters too. He finally ends the chase in front of the police station, turning himself in and soaking up publicity.
In another part of Chicago, the trial begins and the press swarms once again. Preston Tucker is being charged with a litany of fraud-related offenses. We watch the prosecutor give a confident opening statement and Tucker's defense attorney give a pretty underwhelming one. The prosecutor quickly puts used car dealers who invested small sums on the stand to talk about how they were lied to. Next, they call Abe Karatz to interrogate him about his past felony indictment. When Bennington is on the stand, Tucker's defender reminds him that nothing has been proven yet. Meanwhile, back at the factory, the crew is hard at work on those final three cars.
But the prosecutors finally get under the Tucker family's skin when an investigator from the SEC gets on the stand and lies about how much money went into designing and assembling the car's engine. Tucker says they're lying because they want the bad information in the paper, in front of the public, so Vera vows to go home and get all the books, since the truth makes bigger headlines. During cross-examination, Tucker's attorney asks an SEC man why a Detroit Free Press reporter was given an office in the SEC's building to write an article that copied verbatim from an SEC report. Tucker's attorney tears into the SEC for this, inciting uproar in the courtroom just before the prosecution rests its case.
Tucker's crew celebrates in the factory, having just finished producing the 50th car a week ahead of schedule. Tucker declares that he wants them to bring the 50 cars to the courthouse the next day, the same day the defense starts its case. But just when those cars roll up to the courthouse, the Tucker family learns that Ferguson has gotten the Tucker Company evicted from their factory so that it can be taken over by a company that builds prefab housing.
The defense team refuses to raise a case, saying that it believes the case the prosecution put forward is so bad as to not require a defense. But, the attorney says, Preston Tucker would like to make his own closing statement. Tucker almost gets ruled in contempt as soon as he starts, as he makes a big fuss about 50 of the Tucker cars sitting just outside the courtroom, inflaming the judge. After a juror demands to hear the rest of Tucker's closing statement, Tucker gives a moving speech about how the dreams of the little guy are squashed in America these days to preserve big business interests, and how everything good that America fought for in World War II is quickly being thrown away. The jury finds Preston Tucker not guilty.
Outside of the courthouse, all of the jurors are piling into Tucker cars, and Abe says it's a pity that the Tucker Company is dead. But Preston tells him it's not a pity, that they achieved the dream, even if it was only 50 cars. They got their win. In the car, as Tucker and his family are driving away from the courthouse, he shows off a drawing for a kerosene-powered refrigerator just big enough to hold two jugs of milk. Tucker's at it again!
Analysis
This is where Tucker turns into a very different film altogether, transitioning from the rise-and-fall story of a man with a dream into a courtroom procedural. This is also the segment where Coppola most directly tugs at our heartstrings, and here he relies on savvy camera work to do much of the heavy lifting. In this final segment of the film, we see the return of the low-angle shot. Earlier in the film, these were used to frame Tucker, giving him a heroic air that lets the audience feel his charisma seep off the screen.
Here, though, we see low angle shots used to elevate a man who has been torn down. Following scene after scene of Tucker pictured in wide angles, we finally get those low-angle, medium shots when he's giving his closing statement. Interestingly, the juror who stands up to demand the judge let them hear the rest of Tucker's statement is also framed with a low angle shot. It's as if Coppola is saying that by simply being an engaged American citizen who is willing to cut through all the noise of the convoluted government system, this juror has become something a hero. This is a significant move, as it tells us where Coppola's real sympathies lie and it also brings to mind the cinema of Frank Capra, who was a major inspiration for Coppola and Lucas when developing this film.
Capra's films were often built around valorizing the hardworking, everyday American, lionizing modest lives lived with nobility and humility. This juror could have been ripped right out of a Capra film and, frankly, this courtroom sequence could have been as well. In fact, much of what's on display in the courtroom in Tucker feels like a follow-up to Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), in which an idealistic young senator played by Jimmy Stewart tries to take on corruption in Washington DC, guided by his humble, heartland moral sense. Tucker's closing statement, although significantly shorter, recalls Mr. Smith's agonizing filibuster. In both cases, the men are depicted as at the end of their ropes, but by sheer tenacity, idealism, and love for the American dream, they win over supporters, and their causes succeed.
And the bit at the end about how Tucker has achieved his dream even if he's only built 50 cars? Consider it Coppola's message to all the dreamers who watch. Speaking from his own experience producing his dream projects through the very American Zoetrope company that those films would tank, he's keen to point out that achieving the American dream isn't tantamount to overthrowing a whole corporate and political system, but getting the chance to do your greatest work despite those. It's a stark contrast to the version of the American dream touted by the likes of Ronald Reagan, as Coppola's version isn't about prosperity or Christian values or freedom. For Coppola, it's about America as a place to accomplish something, no matter what the cost, no matter what the obstacles, no matter what people say about you after.
