GREATEST CLASSIC CHASE
SCENES IN FILMS

Part 3

Introduction: The most frequent type of film chase, the car chase, is almost always between a protagonist/hero (or criminal) and the police (or authority figures), with more than a few vehicles involved in the most spectacular examples. The fast-moving scenes of the chase, typically found in action films, very often feature high-speed maneuvering, crashes, and point-of-view perspectives to enhance the action. For variety, tanks, semi-trailer-trucks, snowmobiles, buses, and other unusually large vehicles have been employed. Having the characters move from one vehicle to another or fight atop the accelerating vehicles adds to the excitement.

The films with car chases are marked by this icon:

For those interested in a book on the subject of greatest car chases in films, see The Greatest Movie Car Chases Of All Time by Jesse Crosse - a unique and exclusive collection of the greatest Hollywood car chases and hot pursuits ever recorded on film.

See these other classic scenes:

(See this site's Film Terms Glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.)

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Greatest Classic Chase Scenes in Films
(chronological) - Part 3
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Film Title and Description of Chase (or Rescue) Scene
Example
The Cannonball Run (1981)

Another chase film from Hal Needham (similar to his earlier The Gumball Rally (1976)), featuring a cross-country, car-crashing road-race from Connecticut to Southern California with the tagline: "You'll never guess who wins". The race was based upon the real "Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash." With Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Jack Elam, Jamie Farr, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Roger Moore, Ratpackers Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, and more. Followed by Cannonball Run II (1984) and Speed Zone (1989).

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

A desert chase scene in which Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) raced after a speeding truck by mounting a horse and overtaking the vehicle. He leapt onto the vehicle, forced his way into the cab, tossed the guard from the passenger seat, kicked out the Nazi driver onto the road, and took control of the wheel. As he drove, there were some hair-raising attempts of Nazi guards in the back of his truck to oust Indy from the wheel; he was weakened when one guard shot him in the left arm. The last remaining guard reached the truck's cab from above. Indy was tossed through the windshield and ended up hanging from a hood ornament in the front of the fast-moving truck. When the ornament bent and cracked off, he grabbed onto the grill. The grill bars snapped one by one as Indy clung to the fender of the front tire.

To avoid being rammed in the back of the car ahead, Indy lowered himself under the truck's engine where he clung tenuously beneath the vehicle. He (oftentimes stuntman Terry Leonard) made his way between the vehicle's wheels to the truck's rear wheel axle - he even was dragged behind the truck while attached by his bullwhip. Eventually, he pulled himself forward and lifted himself up onto the rear of the truck, crawled alongside and back in to the cab, and jumped into the driver's cab. Angered, he threw the driver out through the already-broken windshield. [This stunt paid homage to the stunt performed by Yakima Canutt in Stagecoach (1939) - see above.]

Another famous "chase" scene was in the opening sequence, with an escape from a trap-laden ancient South American temple, including a rolling gigantic spherical boulder, and Indy's subsequent getaway from Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman) and the Hovitos tribe by running to an awaiting airplane.



The Road Warrior (1982) aka Mad Max 2 (1981, Aus.)

This post-apocalyptic film was the sequel to the grim revenge/action film Mad Max (1979). It featured a spectacular, 12-minute chase sequence in the finale, in which "Mad Max" Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) in a semi-trailer fuel-oil MACK truck-tanker was pursued and viciously attacked at breakneck speed by a convoy of bizarre vehicles, souped-up cars and motorcycles, and a marauding savage band of punkish desert vandals wearing hockey-like masks; during the hot chase across the outback, the nomadic warriors flung grappling hooks at the truck, and arrows were shot from crossbows while pursuers lept from vehicle to vehicle; even a fire-bombing gyroplane hovered above the action; the climax occurred when the 40-foot tanker crashed into Lord Humungus' (Kjell Nillson) car -- also killing Wez (Vernon Wells), who was clinging to the front fender of the tanker -- and the giant tanker (filled with sand) rolled over onto its side.

Earlier in the film, Mad Max drove a super-charged Ford Falcon XB Coupe. This film was followed by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).



Christine (1983)

With the famous scene in which the evil red 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine chased one of Arnie Cunningham's (Keith Gordon) bullies, Moochie Welch (Malcolm Danare), into a narrow alleyway and crushed him into a wall.
Project A (1983, HK)

In this Jackie Chan martial-arts action film, a long fight and chase scene featured a foot chase, cycling through crowded, narrow Hong Kong alleyways, a climb up a flagpole, and climaxed with a climb up a clock-tower with a duel and classic plunge from the top by director/actor Chan himself as Navy Master Sergeant Maillong, known as Dragon. The three-story fall was broken by various awnings and other projections along the way. [The film contained a tribute to Harold Lloyd's Safety Last (1923).]

Return of the Jedi (1983)

The famous scene in which Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) battled with Imperial Stormtroopers on flying "speeder bikes" at breakneck speeds through a dense forest.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

With a thrilling roller-coaster chase in which Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), American singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and sidekick Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) were chased by Thugees in mine cars, including the tug-of-war with Short Round, suspended over a lava flow. Also, the climactic "bridge" scene in which the heroes were pursued onto a rope bridge and surrounded by Thugees and the villain Mola-Ram (Amrish Puri) -- Indiana Jones growled at Mola-Ram: "Prepare to meet Kali... in hell!" and then cut the bridge.

The Terminator (1984)

With the suspenseful scene of the unrelenting pursuit of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) by the killer android from the future, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Back to the Future (1985)

The memorable scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) created a makeshift skateboard from a little girl's scooter and evaded Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) and his gang chasing him in their car, and eventually caused them to crash into a manure truck ("I hate manure!") -- this scene would be referenced in variations in the next two sequels.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

A most- and well-remembered car stunt and chase sequence was the one in which undercover US Treasury Secret Agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) drove his tan car up LA's 710 freeway exit ramp directly into multiple lanes of oncoming traffic - and at top-speed near-missed every one of them - yet caused the jack-knifing of a tractor-trailer! (One astonishing shot was an over-the-shoulder driver's POV shot of the entire freeway, showing the oncoming cars from far ahead.)




Akira (1988, Jp.)

One of the most kinetic sequences in animation history was in this film - two rival gangs attacked each other through the streets of Neo-Tokyo on motorcycles, culminating in a game of chicken between hero Kenada and the rival Clown gangleader.


The Abyss (1989)

With a thrilling underwater chase scene between two submersibles, one manned by Bud and Lindsey Brigman (Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the other by the pressure-sick Lt. Coffey (Michael Biehn), culminating in Coffey sinking into the Abyssal Trench, screaming as his submersible imploded, with Bud and Lindsey left stranded in a leaking vessel.


Back to the Future, Part II (1989)

With two Hoverboard scenes, including a reprise of the Hill Valley skateboard chase scene, and the tense scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) retrieved the Almanac from young Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) in 1955 while in a moving car; and the segment in which Marty was stuck in a tunnel with just the hoverboard and Biff bearing down on him with his car; also, the scene in 2015 in which Marty was chased to the top of a high-rise building by an older Biff, and seemingly stepped off the building (he actually was atop the flying Delorean), and the wild 1955 sequence in which Marty was being chased by Biff and his cronies at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance -- and his being distracted by another Marty playing "Johnny Be Good", forcing the first Marty to figure out a way to eliminate Biff's goons without interfering with history.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

The memorable "Young Indy" scenes in which a teenaged Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) was chased by treasure-hunters over a circus train, with Indiana acquiring his trademarks: his phobia about snakes (by falling into a snake-filled car), the cut on his chin (using a whip for the first time) and his fedora (given to him by the head treasure-hunter); the speedboat chase that culminated when an adult Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) was stuck on a speedboat with his pursuer as the boat was chewed up by the screws of a tanker; also, the escapes by Indiana with his father Henry (Sean Connery), especially when German fighter planes were chasing them -- one was dispatched when it entered a tunnel with them, shearing its wings, and the other when Henry wisely used his umbrella to frighten a flock of seagulls that pelted the plane and caused it to crash (Henry proudly said: "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne -- "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees... and the birds in the sky"), and the scene in which Indiana had to rescue his father being held inside a tank while on horseback - at one point, a jeep was blown off the tank, and Indiana and the tank commander fought on the tank's treads.


Back to the Future, Part III (1990)

The finale, in which Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) raced against time to save Clara Clayton (Mary Steenbergen), inching along an about-to-explode train engine, which was pushing the DeLorean in an effort to get it to 88 mph to return Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) to the future - Doc and Clara were saved at the last minute by Marty's hoverboard; also, the final destruction of the DeLorean by a freight train.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

This film had a high-speed, electrifying Flood Control Channel Chase involving a commandeered big-rig tow truck by the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) that crashed through a barricade and landed down below in the concrete-sided, flood control drainage channel in Los Angeles, while in pursuit of young John Connor (Edward Furlong) on a small motorbike. Chasing on a Harley motorcycle, the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) passed the truck, caught up to the kid and grabbed him off the motorbike and swung him onto his own Harley, while firing his rotary-cocked rifle at the truck's tires behind him. The big rig crashed at full speed into an abutment divider which bisected the canal into two channels - while the smaller Harley passed through one of the channels ahead of the massive truck. The rig exploded into flames ignited after the collision. From the inferno, the figure of the T-1000 emerged from the flames as a smooth, chrome-surfaced man - a featureless, liquid mercury-like shape.

(Chase scenes from Grease (1978) and Repo Man (1984) were also filmed in the same location.)

In another sequence, the T-1000's motorbike smashed through the upper-story glass wall of a building - then, the rider leapt onto a hovering helicopter as the bike fell.


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