The 10 best movie car chases
For as long as cars have featured in films, they have been used in chase scenes, with the first recorded example of a movie car chase dating back to 1903.
There’s something about chasing and being chased that wakes up a primal part of the human mind and filming a car chase with the right balance of speed, stakes, drama and creativity has become its own artform.
As it’s become a staple in some genres, many directors, photographers and screenwriters have tried their hands at nailing the formula. We won’t pretend there is a definitive list, but here’s our pick for the 10 best movie car chases of all time.
Note: some scenes linked below contain violence and offensive language intended for adult audiences.
10. The Italian Job (1969)
Being successful in a getaway doesn’t always require having the fastest car; sometimes it’s about being able to go where those chasing you cannot. This is cornerstone to the final pursuit in The Italian Job.
Following a manufactured gridlocking of Turin, Italy, Charlie Croker (played by Michael Caine) and his team pilot a trio of classic Mini Coopers through comically tight spaces to evade the police following a gold heist.
Steered down a museum’s staircase and through foyers, food courts and even storm drainpipes, this classic scene perfectly blends technical driving with humour, and proves you don’t need big horsepower and dramatic special effects to create a great chase.
9. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
The best movie car chases often turn vehicles into symbolic extensions of the characters driving them. James Cameron’s blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgement Day does just that in the film’s first chase scene.
Manning an enormous, hijacked Freightliner tow truck, the T-1000 – a murderous machine devoid of emotion – tries to chase down and kill 10-year-old John Connor as he flees on an underpowered junior dirt bike. Tailing them both, with the sole mission of keeping John alive, is the Terminator (the T-1000’s technologically inferior predecessor) riding a Harley Davidson Fat Boy.
The vast majority of the chase takes place in a narrow Los Angeles’ spillway/flood channel, removing all pedestrians and cross-traffic and allowing focus to remain on how the three characters deal with adversities.
As young John and his small bike prove incapable of outrunning the T-1000’s brutal and imposing tow truck, Terminator has to display more creativity and savvy to best his superior replacement. The chase is short and sweet, but it masterfully reveals details of the movie’s characters that come to fruition later in the runtime.
8. Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Far from the most realistic or logical on this list, the car chase in 2006’s Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift makes the cut for being one of the most aesthetically pleasing in film history.
Pursued by armed gangsters, protagonists Takashi and Sean must flee through busy nighttime Tokyo city streets in cars specifically built for drifting. Ridiculous and superfluous choreography results, but so do some of the most beautiful car chase shots in modern film.
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Sliding between traffic (when there is a free lane right beside them) defies reason, but the cinematography and stunt driving are both impressive as the cars dance and sway side to side under bright lights.
It’s an absurd and fun scene more akin to a dance at some points than a chase, and we love it for it. Also, what other movie car chase has ever gifted viewers with the glorious sound of a screaming Mazda Wankel rotary engine?
7. We Own The Night (2007)
In the middle of a deluge, We Own The Night protagonist Bobby and his partner Amada are being transported to a safehouse in unmarked NYPD cars when the convoy is attacked.
There’s no fancy driving here – no breakneck speed or unbelievable stunts. In fact, there isn’t even music, just an eerie sound of windscreen wipers churning back and forth that slowly mutates into an ominously marching heartbeat as the scene plays out.
We Own The Night’s car chase feels a lot longer than its sub-two-minute duration and is a masterclass in keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. As the tragedy of the scene plays out through vision heavily obstructed by rain, we’re reminded that being in a car can sometimes be more isolating than liberating.
6. Baby Driver (2017)
Blending comedy, action and drama in perfect ratio, Baby Driver’s opening car chase drops us right into the action following a bank heist, while also introducing us to getaway driver Baby.
Suffering from severe tinnitus due to a childhood injury, Baby is usually seen with earphones in and music blaring, meaning he and the audience are often listening to the same song at the same time. Baby’s own daring manoeuvres behind the wheel are also sometimes timed to the music being played, adding a fun and unique dimension to the film’s car chases.
The opening car chase is set to 'Bellbottoms' by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, giving the scene supreme continuity, effortless flow and some genuine humour. Mix in some brilliant sideways action from the 2006 Subaru WRX STI getaway car that would make Ken Block himself proud, and you’ll be hard pressed not to have a smile on your face by the end of this one.
5. The Transporter (2002)
Another getaway driver waiting outside another bank for another group of robbers, but with a very different flair. The Transporter took the car chase and added a bit of swagger and sleekness at its 2002 release.
The chase begins with protagonist Frank Martin refusing to even start his getaway car as security guards surround it waiting for the police. True to his exacting character, this is all because a fourth robber has entered it during an escape engineered for only three. “Three men, 254 kilos, that was the deal,” Frank explains to them, pointing out that the car’s fuel level and suspension tune are no longer optimal, and prompting the group to suddenly ‘dispose’ of one of its members.
While the car chase doesn’t have the most impressive stunt or photography work, it remains highly memorable as the black BMW 735iL getaway car weaves the sunny promenade of Nice, France. Overall, The Transporter’s opening chase teeters nicely enough between sexy, funny and captivating to land on this list.
4. Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
Along with speed and action, it’s often high stakes and emotional investment that make a movie car chase so enthralling. Many story elements come to a head during the final pursuit sequence in the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds.
Memphis Raines is stealing the last of 50 cars needed to save his brother from an untimely demise at the hands of a gangster. There is a deadline for delivery of this final vehicle. Most of the LAPD are waiting for Memphis to try to steal it. The police are headed up by a detective who knows Memphis’ history and how he thinks. Memphis has attempted to steal the car, a 1967 Ford Mustang GT500 named ‘Eleanor’, multiple times before, and has failed at each. Eleanor needs to be delivered in immaculate condition, meaning it cannot be damaged during the chase. There’s a bit going on.
It’s an adrenaline-inducing and even exhausting car chase, with the conclusion deferred every time a new pursuer enters the hunt – and all the while in the background a clock ticks away towards the deadline. It’s not said explicitly how long the chase goes for in the movie’s world, though we could guess it’s about 45 minutes given a '25:00 to deadline' reminder pops up on screen.
A corny and cliched ‘jump to freedom’ ends the car chase, but given how exhausting and high stakes the pursuit is to that point, the audience almost breathes a sigh of relief alongside Memphis when it’s finally over.
3. The Blues Brothers (1980)
"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.”
It’s likely the funniest and most absurd pursuit in movie history, but The Blues Brothers’ dramatic climax is also one of the most technically impressive and ambitious car chases ever filmed.
No CGI or playback manipulation was used to create the scene, meaning stunt cars were often actually doing the ~160km/h speeds portrayed in the film down narrow Chicago city streets. A whopping 60 vehicles were destroyed to produce the chase (103 across the entire film), with 24-hour body shops setup during filming to facilitate its production.
The chase fittingly concludes with the brothers escaping Nazis by pulling off a 180-degree backflip over them, leading to some of the funniest car-related gags in film shortly after. You read every word of the above correctly and we do not have time to explain – just do yourself a favour and give it a watch.
2. Bullitt (1968)
It’s only a matter of time until any ‘best movie car chases’ list mentions this one, but Bullitt, released in 1968, lays claim to one of cinema’s most lauded pursuits, and for good reason.
After clocking a black Dodge Charger that has been following him, detective Frank Bullitt (played by Steve McQueen) becomes suspicious of its occupants. Letting them tail his 1968 Ford Mustang into the tight streets and steep hills of San Francisco, Bullitt soon goes from the hunted to the hunter when he sneaks up behind and starts tailing the Charger. With suspense building, the hitmen inside make a break for it.
As the Charger’s V8 roars to life and the chase is on, the scene is stripped back only to what’s necessary. No music, no dialogue, no special effects.
The chase is raw, with much of the stunt driving appearing ad-libbed and not overly choreographed. Famously, McQueen did much of the driving himself, and the filmmakers opted to leave some of his mistakes in the final cut – a stroke of genius that adds to the brutal and realistic feel of the whole thing.
1. Ronin (1998)
Not one, but two highly acclaimed car chases feature in the 1998 action thriller Ronin, but we’ve gone with the second of them for this list.
The chase takes place in Paris, with one mercenary faction in possession of a briefcase being pursued by another that wants it. Each wheelperson uses vastly different driving styles throughout the chase, as Deirdre (played by Natasha McElhone) throws the rear-wheel drive BMW 5 Series into reckless oversteer and Sam (Robert De Niro) uses much cleaner, more methodical techniques in a front-drive Peugeot 406 chase car.
Direction, editing and photography are all exceptional throughout the car chase, with the viewer never left wondering where one car is relative to the other, despite all of the chaos surrounding them.
Intensity builds throughout the scene, and Diedre’s driving becomes more erratic and desperate as she realises she cannot shake Sam. As she comes closer and closer to hitting pedestrians and other motorists, an impending sense of doom starts to emerge, and it becomes clear the chase is not going to end with someone cruising into the sunset.
Perfectly combining drama, action, plot, character and stakes, Ronin’s car chase is about as good as one could fathomably be, and that’s why it tops this list.
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