EDGAR WRIGHT’S BABY Driver is currently in the cinema and getting rave reviews. So now seemed like a good time (any excuse really) to look back at some of the greatest car chases to grace the silver screen.
It would be easy to list 60 high-octane classics: Mad Max, The Italian Job (original of course), most of the Bond movies, all of the Fast and Furious films, Motorway, To Live and Die in LA, Rendezvous… OK, you get the idea.
But I had to narrow the list down to just six. Tough job, but at least the research was fun. I think the final list will please most film fans and petrolheads alike. Popcorn at the ready…
1. Bourne Supremacy (2004)
I sometimes feel that the super-quick editing techniques currently favoured by many Hollywood directors can often ruin a chase scene (I’m thinking of the The Dark Knight), but Paul Greengrass uses this style well in the Bourne Supremacy to give us a quick paced chase that doesn’t leave us wanting an aspirin when it is all over.
The chase takes place through the streets of Moscow and Jason Bourne is ruthless in his quest to escape the pursuing Mercedes Gelandewagen been driven by Kirill, a Russian Secret Service assassin sent to kill him. Bourne rams cars out of his way and pinballs off others and by the end of the chase there is practically nothing left of his yellow Russian Gaz Volga taxi.
2. The Blues Brothers (1980)
“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.”
“Hit it.”
An auspicious beginning to one of the most outrageous car chases in cinematic history and proving that not all chase scenes have to be so serious or realistic. Elwood and Jake Blues in their Bluesmobile are chased by what looks like the entire Chicago police force but the Brothers end up jumping a police car and the police end up crashing into one another causing a massive pile up.
The chase reaches absurd levels with the ‘Illinois Nazis’ in their Ford Pinto falling from the sky, straight through the ground creating a hole which another car falls into. Sure, why not? This is a pure cinematic romp with copious amounts of car carnage and laughs along the way.
3. Taxi (1998)
The final chase scene in Taxi (the original French movie, not the awful American remake) is masterfully choreographed like an elegant ballet, albeit one that takes place on the scorching tarmac of Marseilles.
It is beautiful to watch and heartstopping too, as all great chase scenes should be. Taxi is more about the visuals of the cars chasing each other than the actual cars themselves, although the pimped out Peugeot 406 is pretty cool.
The film is a vehicle (excuse the pun) for director Gerard Pires to show off his skills and he makes excellent use of aerial photography to show the cars weaving in and out of traffic and chasing each other off an unfinished road. It’s not just Back to the Future that has flying cars.
(Yes, this is a Russian version.)
4. Ronin (1998)
The director of Ronin, John Frankenheimer, was an amateur racer and had plenty of experience when it came to staging car scenes as he already directed the epic Grand Prix back in 1966.
It was these skills that made the chase scenes in Ronin so spectacular and the fact that he filmed the stunts ‘live’ really heightened the reality factor. The climatic chase scene through the crowded streets of Paris really gets the adrenaline pumping and there is an added frisson as Natascha McElhone in her BMW 535i is pursued by Robert DeNiro in his Peugeot 406 through tunnels much like the ones where Princess Diana had been killed just a year earlier.
5. The French Connection (1971)
Director William Friedkin gave cinema goers a never-seen-before dose of reality when it came to car chases thanks to his use of dash cams and handheld camera work. This car chase is a little different as Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle, commandeers a Pontiac LeMans to chase an elevated train, not another car. The pursuit is relentless and your senses are bombarded with sounds of screeching tyres, beeping horns, crashing metal and breaking glass.
We witness people getting shot, cars smashing into each other and a terrifying moment as a lady pushing a buggy nearly gets taken out by the car. By the end of the frantic chase you are just as exhausted as Popeye Doyle, although he still finds the energy to catch, and kill, his man.
6. Bullitt (1968)
This list wouldn’t be complete without including one of the first (and arguably greatest) car chase movies of all time. Steve McQueen’s Ford Mustang bouncing through San Francisco as it is pursued by a black 1968 Dodge Charger is an iconic scene.
One of the best things about this scene is the lack of music. The moment McQueen tears across the traffic to try shake off the other car, the score stops and the sound of screeching tyres, gunning engines and gear shifts become the soundtrack. It makes the scene more realistic and gritty and it engages the audience more.
The close-up shots of McQueen makes us feel as if we are in the car with him, albeit screaming loudly and holding on for dear life. McQueen, of course, doesn’t even break a sweat.
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