GREATEST CLASSIC CHASE
SCENES IN FILMS

Part 4

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 4
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Film Title and Description of Chase (or Rescue) Scene
Example

Thelma & Louise (1991)

 The car chase in this girl-buddy road film was not fast and furious, but still memorable. Two feminist-empowered fugitive outlaws, Thelma (Geena Davis) - an Arkansas housewife married to a cheating, abusive husband, and Louise (Susan Sarandon) - an overworked coffee-shop waitress, were pursued after killing a rapist, as they drove a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible around in the southwestern US desert (on their way to Mexico) and then into oblivion in the film's final image, as they grasped hands and went sailing into the Grand Canyon.


Army of Darkness (1993)

With an exciting finale and rescue - after time-traveler Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) returned to S-Mart and finished relating his incredible tale about his adventures in Medieval England to a bored co-worker (Ted Raimi), a sexy S-Mart worker (Angela Featherstone) told him that she enjoyed his story. Suddenly, a She-Demon (Patricia Tallman) attacked Ash ("I'll swallow your soul!"), and he dispatched her with a shotgun ("Come get some!").

Last Action Hero (1993)

The many over-the-top chase scenes and car crashes, including a surreal sequence shot inside the vehicle, when action hero Sgt. Jack Slater's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) speeding sports car plowed off the side of an LA fly-over and glided back down to the ground gently. The film also featured a parody of Hans Gruber's (Alan Rickman) Die Hard (1988) slow-motion, close-up plunge from a high-rise building - although he was saved by a crane in this version.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Jack Skellington's (voice of Chris Sarandon) rescue of Santa Claus (voice of Ed Ivory) and Sally (voice of Catherine O'Hara) from Oogie Boogie (voice of Ken Page), by navigating through Oogie Boogie's gauntlet of casino-themed deathtraps (knife-twirling playing cards, gun-toting slot machines (literally one-armed bandits), and a circular saw Wheel of Fortune.)

Speed (1994)

The clever premise of this tense action film was that a Los Angeles city bus was booby-trapped (by a madman terrorist) and ready to explode if it went under 50 mph; it had two amazing sequences - the improbable long jump the bus made over a missing section of freeway, and the finale in which the bombed bus drove on its own and crashed into an airplane.

Face/Off (1997)

This film climaxed with a speed boat chase (filmed with stunt stand-ins for both Travolta and Cage) - with each of them being flung sky-high at its conclusion. Also, the scene in which a helicopter pursued the villains' executive jet, causing it to crash into an empty hanger.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Handcuffed together, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) stole a motorcycle and attempted to escape from captors across the rooftop and through the streets of Saigon, as they were pursued by cars and a helicopter. There was a spectacularly-stunning, high-speed roof-top motorcycle jump - using a bulky 1600cc BMW bike, across the hovering helicopter.

Antz (1998)

With a thrilling "sneaker" scene in which Z (voice of Woody Allen) tried to rescue Princess Bala (voice of Sharon Stone), when she was stuck in a wad of chewing gum under a kid's sneaker that was comparatively the size of a battleship.

Ronin (1998)

This heist thriller contained two of the best white-knuckle, hair-raising, most realistic car chase sequences ever filmed, including a thrilling high-speed one with a blue Peugeot 406 driven by Sam (Robert De Niro) chasing a black BMW M5, driven by Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) in a high-speed, wrong-way race through Parisian streets and a metro tunnel under the Seine River and continuing into heavy freeway traffic. The car chase ended when the tires on Deirdre's car were shot at, causing it to roll and crash, careen off the end of an uncompleted highway, and burst into flames.

The second earlier sequence involved an Audi S8 and a Citroen on twisting and steep streets in Nice in which a car plowed through the waterfront where diners were eating on the street.


Charlie's Angels (2000)

In this chase, ditzy blonde Angel Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), in a white Formula One-styled racecar, chased the Creepy Thin Man (Crispin Glover) in his black racecar around the banked California Speedway (with high-speed 180 degree spins and some racing that went the wrong way). Angel Alex (Lucy Liu) reassured Natalie: "Nat, it's a round track — he's not going anywhere". But then they left the track in the stadium and proceeded out onto the streets of Los Angeles (where people and cars scattered - including an airborne surfboard) - leading to a spectacular wreck of a red car and a game of chicken between the race cars on a suspension bridge.

Chicken Run (2000)

With its exciting escape scene by Rocky (voice of Mel Gibson) and Ginger (voice of Julie Sawalha) from a pie machine, highlighted by the scene inside the lit gas oven - this paid homage to the Indiana Jones films; also, the repeated unsuccessful escape attempt sequence by Ginger and the chickens in the opening montage.
Driven (2001)

Renny Harlan's mindless action drama about international CART auto racing with a script by star Sylvester Stallone, who served as a former racing star and driving mentor for rookie Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) before the competition, and the memorable night-time race through city streets -- including the famous shot of the racers driving past a hotel and blowing a sexy blonde passerby's dress up - a semi-referential nod to The Seven Year Itch (1955).

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

A young, blonde and blue-eyed LA undercover FBI agent, rookie Brian (Paul Walker), investigated a series of diesel hijackings (and a gang's fencing of stolen goods) within a street gang, led by Dominic ("Dom") Toretto (Vin Diesel) with a '69 Charger. Street racers used souped up, nitrous oxide-injected vehicles. The film, directed by Rob Cohen, opened with a violent, high-speed, western-style robbery on an interstate highway of a semi-truck by smaller, black supercharged vehicles. And the finale featured three classic car chases.

[The original film, The Fast and the Furious (1955), was made in the mid-50s. A sequel made in 2003 by director John Singleton, 2 Fast 2 Furious, had Walker as the only returning cast member from the original, in a new setting - Southern Florida, with more high-speed street-racing sequences.]

The Bourne Identity (2002)

In this exciting action-thriller set in Paris, amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) maneuvered away from the CIA and the police in a red, battered-old vintage Austin Mini through heavy traffic with his girlfriend Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) next to him after he cautioned her: "Buckle up" - he negotiated through narrow alleyways, across pavements, up one-way streets, and down stone steps; the extended chase sequence ended when one of the pursuing cop motorcyclists crashed into a Peugeot 405, and they pulled into a parking garage.


Die Another Day (2002)

This Bond film had a spectacularly-inventive and slick car chase/battle scene, in which two cars (Bond's Aston Martin V12 Vanquish and a Jaguar XKR convertible) dueled on the ice face of a frozen lake (at Vatnajökull glacier, in southeast Iceland). The Jaguar was equipped with a Gatling gun centered behind the driver and passenger seats, missiles emerging from the front grille, concealed door-mounted rocket launchers and a trunk full of mortar bombs. It was pitted against the Vanquish, that was manufactured with 9mm machine guns that emerged fom the hood vents, five heat-seeking missiles, two shotguns that operated from the front radiator grille, and an ejector seat. There's also a great hovercraft chase sequence in the film.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Buddies Brian and Roman (Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson) were pursued by cops in a race across Miami, resulting in damage to 16 police cars, 2 Jeeps, two classic cars, and one yacht.

[The second sequel was titled The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) and was set in Japan; it featured the most complex race/chase scenes of the series, incorporating the perilous practice of "drifting" (sliding sideways on all four car tires as a way of negotiating turns).]

Bad Boys II (2003)

Jamaican gangsters tossed cars (15 Mercedes Benz) from a transporter at detectives Will Smith and Martin Lawrence driving high-speed on the freeway, resulting in carnage/damage to dozens of cars on the freeway, the transporter, and a boat. The film also featured the disturbing and controversial fascistic characters of the two detectives, including aiming a gun and threatening a 10 year old boy, making wisecracks while tossing corpses out of a morgue transport vehicle onto a freeway, and the demolition of a Cuban tent city with tanks.

The Italian Job (2003)

This remake of the 1969 original starredEdward Norton (as the mastermind criminal), Charlize Theron (as a "vault and safe technician"), Donald Sutherland (as a veteran safecracker) and Mark Wahlberg (as the young leader), included a heist of $35 million (in gold bars) and featured an escape of three Mini Coopers (red, white, and blue) through an orchestrated Los Angeles traffic jam - they evaded a helicopter as they careened down Hollywood's Walk of Fame on the sidewalk and entered an LA subway station via the stairs.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

A thrilling crane-van-bike chase occurred between the T-800's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) Indian police bike, the T-X's (Kristanna Loken) crane, and John Connor's (Nick Stahl) Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Four cop cars, over a dozen other cars, one bike, one fire-truck, one truck, one 18-wheeler, one fire engine, one van, and one ambulance ended up destroyed.
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

An incredible 12-minute, 100 mph, against-traffic freeway chase sequence between the evil, white-suited albino Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment) (driving a black Cadillac Escalade EXT) and Agents in pursuit of freedom-fighting Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) on a black Ducati 996 motorbike, and The Key Maker (Randall Duk Kim) - including the surprise appearance of Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) in a blue '67 Firebird - with damage to one SUV, 17 cars, 2 Chevy Impala police cars, one Jeep, one truck, and two 18-wheelers.

I, Robot (2004)

  1. A highway tunnel attack by dozens of robots on Det. Spooner's (Will Smith) moving car
  2. A robot attack that demolished a house with Spooner inside
  3. Thousands of robots chasing Spooner and Sonny (voice of Alan Tudyk) under a malicious AI's control

Happy Feet (2006)

The two exciting chase sequences by lethal predators who are in pursuit of young dancing Emperor Penguin Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood): first by a hungry leopard seal, who is thwarted when both end up on the surface of the ice, and the breathtaking attack by two killer whales who fling Mumble and penguin holy man-charlatan Lovelace (voice of Robin Williams) into the air several times.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

This blockbuster sequel featured some of the most kinetic, elaborate stunts/chases ever filmed, including the action-packed scene in which Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), while tied on a spit by cannibals, turned into a "fruit shish kebob" - then toppled off a cliff and was hung upside down as the fruit caused weight shifts, and plummeted down through many rope bridges to hit the ground and flee; then, in homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Sparrow was chased by angry natives through the shallow shore water and grabbed onto his departing ship Black Pearl at the last minute to escape - and mockingly waved at his pursuers.


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