Datsun

Audra Denbrough arrives in Derry on the night of May 29th, 1985, driving a tobacco-brown Datsun rented from National Car Rental at Bangor International Airport. She has flown from England against her husband Bill's wishes, determined to find him after his abrupt departure. The car is her only means of mobility in a strange and hostile town, and she parks it at the Holiday Inn, unaware that Tom Rogan—Beverly's abusive husband—has taken a room at the adjacent Koala Inn and purchased a stolen 1976 LTD wagon. The two vehicles sit nose-to-nose in the adjoining parking lots, separated only by a raised concrete sidewalk, a spatial proximity that foreshadows the violent encounter to come.

The Ambush at the Datsun

After a night of terrifying hallucinations—a voice from the bathroom, a severed head on the television, and corpse-fingers reaching under the door—Audra flees her motel room in a blind panic. She runs barefoot to the parking lot, finds her Datsun, and fumbles for the keys in her purse. As she unlocks the door, a hand falls on her shoulder. She screams, but no one comes. The hand belongs to Tom Rogan, his face swollen and lumpy from his earlier fight with Beverly, his front teeth broken into jagged stumps. He grins at her and says, "Haven't I seen you in the movies?" before forcing her into his LTD wagon. The Datsun is left behind, its keys presumably taken or lost, and Audra is driven away into the night.

The Abandoned Car and the Purse

The Datsun itself is never seen again in the narrative, but its fate is indirectly revealed through the discovery of Audra's purse. When Bill, Beverly, Richie, Ben, and Eddie descend into the sewers on the morning of May 31st, they find the pumping-station manhole cover has been recently moved. Beneath it lies Audra's scuffed leather purse—the same one Bill bought for her in a Burbank leather-goods shop while the song "Sausalito Summer Nights" played. Inside are her Altoid mints, her jewelled compact from producer Freddie Firestone, and her California driver's license with her photograph. The purse is a grim signpost: Audra has been taken into the tunnels, and the Datsun, presumably abandoned at the motel, has become a silent witness to her abduction. The car itself never reappears; it is simply left behind, a piece of the ordinary world that has been violently breached.

Narrative Significance

The Datsun functions as a threshold object—a mundane rental car that becomes the site of a sudden, terrifying transition from the everyday to the nightmare. Audra's flight from the motel room to the car is a desperate attempt to reach safety, but the car, instead of offering escape, becomes the trap. The vehicle's abandonment and the discovery of the purse underground mark the point at which Audra's agency is completely erased; she is reduced to a passive object, her identity reduced to the contents of her handbag. The Datsun thus serves as a symbol of failed rescue and the vulnerability of those who enter Derry unprepared for its horrors.