The 7 best cinematic car chases ever (that aren’t Ronin or Bullitt)

RealMiniNoMore (Forum Supporter) said:

Michael Caine Italian Job. 

JG Pasterjak said:

Tom1200 said:

JG Pasterjak said:

I mean, are you really even involved in a car chase if you don't dip into the LA river at some point? i don;t care if your chase is set in Ames, Iowa or Canberra, Australia, real car chases are always settled in the LA River.

No truer words have been spoken.

People keep starting business where they let you drive a Lambo or a Ferrari on the track. Sure, fine, whatever.

Open a kiosk that lets me rent a Ford LTD to drive around the LA river for an hour and you can have my entire bank account.

Mark Wahlberg Italian Job, then. 

Well played

"You want out of this parking lot? Okay."

I love carnage with my chase scenes.

I find the lack of Gumball Rally disturbing. A real Cobra 427 racing a real Ferrari Daytona is way better than any Batman thing.

I do wish to mention there is a big difference, though, between the best car chase 'sequence' and the best car chase 'movie'. People get confused when this topic comes up about annually. 

Halicki's 1974 Gone In 60 Seconds is probably the pinnacle for me. Those cars back then were not easy to drive, and the audacity of a guy who had never made a movie before to pull it off adds greatly to it. It's a horrible movie, but you don't care in the last third of the film. 

Someone mention L.A. River while I was on the phone?

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Uh oh. Rodriguez Brothers.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

In reply to David S. Wallens :

This is one of our favorite movies..............mostly because of the music.

ddavidv said:

I find the lack of Gumball Rally disturbing. A real Cobra 427 racing a real Ferrari Daytona is way better than any Batman thing.

I do wish to mention there is a big difference, though, between the best car chase 'sequence' and the best car chase 'movie'. People get confused when this topic comes up about annually. 

Halicki's 1974 Gone In 60 Seconds is probably the pinnacle for me. Those cars back then were not easy to drive, and the audacity of a guy who had never made a movie before to pull it off adds greatly to it. It's a horrible movie, but you don't care in the last third of the film. 

Half.  Last half of the film 

A friend ripped the DVD when it came out, split the movie in half, and burned it to two CDs.  CD2 started right when they were driving to the radio station, and "Chariot Ride" was playing.

At least, when "Chariot Ride" was playing with the original audio.

The Bourne Identity?  Great chase with an original Mini around Paris.

Tom1200 said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

This is one of our favorite movies..............mostly because of the music.

One of the best soundtracks ever: Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Fear, Iggy Pop, etc. 

And, here, this one even has a chase scene.

J.A. Ackley said:

"You want out of this parking lot? Okay."

I love carnage with my chase scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IIdGxR-aU6o?rel=0

 

Does this still hold the record for largest car chase? I know it used to.

Original Vanishing Point? Maybe too theatrical or something.

does this count?

My favorite is The Seven Ups.  The Driver starring Ryan O'Neal from 1978 had some good scenes too.

"Against all odds." Brief street race between 911 and Ferrari 308 I think. 

How about "Duel"? Tanker truck chasing Dennis Weaver in a Valiant. 

Not really car chases but still entertaining. 

Not a huge chase, but always loved how the garbage truck caught some air. Also, Batou’s Alfa Romeo SZ (-ish) rules. 

Ok , I have to say it

Herbie , 

yes it's silly but it does have a bunch of old race cars racing ,  

otherwise ,  Gone in 60 seconds because it was filmed a few miles from here , and when It was first  shown the background was someplace you knew , now it's mostly built up.

David S. Wallens said:

I’m going to add two to the list, and they involve a little history lesson.

All the way back in 2001, a car company–BMW, perhaps you’ve heard of them?–promoted its latest wares through, yes, car chases. And car chases involving all the usual ingredients, including crashes, gun play and even more crashes. Think more 007 than CHiPs.

You could watch the shorts on a dedicated site. This was before YouTube and all of today’s social media. Old school.

But, if you were one of the chosen, you could get your hands on a DVD containing the series. I got mine from my dad–I think he got it via the BMW CCA.

To make these shorts, BMW enlisted some of the biggest names possible: Madonna, James Brown, Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, Don Cheadle, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo, etc., etc.

The series starred Clive Owen as the nameless “the Driver.”

“The Hire” series debuted with “Ambush,” and I think it’s the star of the original run.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GW11Lez4elc?rel=0

Why I still put these features on a pedestal all these years later: Each short contains a full narrative that happens to contain a chase. It’s more than just gratuitous cars crashing into things; the chase is needed to move the plot from here to there.

Also, the sound work. Listen as the car knocks over the orange traffic posts. You can feel that hollow “boink” as each one bounces off the BMW’s front bumper.

And then there’s the central character. Despite not saying much, “the Driver” brings in ethics, warmth and humanity. His simple “Buckle up” goes far. 

BMW ended the original run in 2002 but brought back “the Driver” for one more appearance in 2016’s “The Escape.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FcbfH_bBJzo?rel=0

“I might be a little rusty right now, but I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m very good at that.”

I can relate, mystery man, I can relate.

I have the DVDs as well, were they that difficult to get? I can't remember how I came by them... I also have the comic books which are a pretty cool read.

ProDarwin said:

does this count?

French Connection.  

Filmed without a permit, on non-closed roads.  

https://www.slashfilm.com/770714/the-french-connections-famous-chase-scene-was-filmed-in-an-extremely-reckless-way/

And also because of the music, composed and performed by one of my personal heroes, Don Ellis (correction - no music during most of the chase. But for the rest of the soundtrack...)

Speaking of "filmed without permit"...

(And of course, because this is the Internet, the video game characters version)

A favorite of mine - great premise and always cracks me up

Dukes of Hazzard, 2005.  The jump at the end of this scene alone is worth the price of admission.  The soundtrack isn't too shabby either.

I recall the movie Vantage Point had a short but pretty good car chase with a nondescript euro hatchback.

I like the Mini scene in Bourne Identity, that was a good one.