Five Famous Movie Car Chases.

There's more to a chase scene than cars going fast with an attitude of menace. The setting has to work, the personalities of the drivers has to come into it and the outcome has to be satisfying.

Tokyo Drift.

The Italian Job.
It's personal. The bad guy did away with Charlize Theron's dad. He has to pay. Charlize and four friends decide to take all of his gold. They do it with lot's of explosives and a fleet of Mini Cooper's. They drive through subway stations, sewers, the L.A. river and a shopping mall. The villain follows in a helicopter, going through a parking garage, not the roof of the garage, but the inside where the headroom is less than what you find in a tight hat.

The French Connection.
The chase scene is famous for bad planning. Gene Hackman follows a train running on an overhead train track by driving underneath it. At one point, a woman with a baby carriage walks across the road and Hackman has to wrestle the car to a stop. The woman wasn't part of the film. She's a real woman with a real baby.

Bullitt.
The chase scene in Bullitt was the first one with muscle cars and really good sound effects. The only music is the sound of pre-emission controlled V8's in Steve McQueen's 1968 Mustang and the 1968 Dodge Charger driven by two hit men over the hills of San Francisco. The two cars duel with other with shotguns, good driving and McQueen-strength cool. Eventually, McQueen chases the two villains off the road into a gas station.

Vanishing Point. 
The Vietnam vet has to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum, from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. The angst and hopeless feeling of the movie reflect Viet Nam era America. The driver doesn't have to speed. He doesn't have to take chances, but he needs to turn off the voices in his head. It isn't all depressing. His girlfriend drives a motorcycle without any clothes. The girl doesn't have the clothes, not the motorcycle.

Two James Bond Chase Scenes.
In "Tomorrow Never Dies" James Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, drives a BMW 750i by remote control. Bond finds his car surrounded by nasties with machine guns. He turns on the remote control and dives in the back seat, safe from the hail of bullets He evades the men with guns by firing a volley of small missiles with lots of explosions, flames and hurtling glass. He jumps from the car and sends it flying off the top of the parking garage into a car rental agency.
In "Goldeneye", Bond, again played by Brosnan, drives a Russian T-55 tank, bursts through a brick wall and chases Russian bad guys through narrow city streets, showing us again how little the walls of buildings mean to a dedicated man with a really, big, heavy tank to drive.

Written by Alex Kurt. Alex is a motor enthusiast. He has recently purchased his dream car, a BMW M5, online and is ready to bid farewell to his old used Mazda. He also loves vintage car and organizes vintage car shows in his local area.