HEATHER’S TOP TEN CAR CHASES

S**t is about to get real.  As an action junkie, chase scenes in movies always get my blood pumping.  But in particular I have a special adoration for good old fashioned chase scenes that are car on car, vehicle vs. vehicle.  This list is inspired by some of the most memorable and most fun that I can remember from my childhood springing all the way to my adulthood.  What I found was an interesting pattern.  Apparently it’s important to include a Semi-Truck in your chase scene.  At the end of the list, we’ll have a head count and see how many semi’s made it.

Not every chase scene has to involve jaw dropping special effects or wild and crazy stuntmen.  Sometimes a little comedy and a big semi truck pounding down the beaten streets of Detroit is all one needs.  This opening scene to Beverly Hills Cop set the pace for this 80′s flick that never stopped it’s same tongue in cheek humor while still conveying a sense of intensity.  The Heat is definitely on.

New, improved, tons of special effects and I love every minute of it.  The bat mobile turning itself into a bike and the wild and crazy joker showing no signs of giving up.  Two slightly demented super heroes and villains facing off in a maddening way that involves a crazy semi (Semi’s are incredibly important to involve in your chase scene!) and this super bat bike.  What can I say this one had me with the rumors, and actually seeing it was like having a brilliant dream realized.  The Dark Knight was one of the best movies of 2008 and this scene was a huge factor in making it even better.

Hackman plows threw the streets of NYC relentless in his goal to capture his mark.  This scene is amazing but most of it’s intensity is owed to Gene Hackman who really made it more than just another car chase as Hackman drives to the elevated train. The speeding and crazy turns down narrow city streets and underpasses displays some the most compelling camera and stunt-driving work ever on film.

The Road Warrior is one big chase scene in its post-apocalyptic setting from beginning to end.  This visionary tale is timeless, and it’s engaging twelve minute chase finale with Max behind the wheel of a tanker truck thought to be full of fuel is the best part of the movie. As the MACK-truck is attacked from every opportunity at full speed by a power hungry motor gang that will stop at nothing to get their fuel.

Again, another film that recognizes how amazing simplicity can be.  An old beaten up mini cooper leads the way evading foreign police and must escape threw creative thinking rather than the brute force of a massive engine.  Jason Bourne who can’t even remember who he was burns threw the streets and finds safety threw instinct and intellect.  This scene is nail biting fun!

This scene has your blood pumping threw your veins.  From the moment that semi bursts out of the overpass the adrenaline rush of this scene is like none other in the movies.  The amazing special effects team and the stuntmen making the T-1000 relentlessly chase down Arnie and Ed Furlong was just a profound moment in action movie history.  It was a perfectly orchestrated symphony of delight.  James Cameron is the man.

Roger Moore was a good James Bond but this 360 jump is clearly his claim to fame, and for me the most memorable thing about his career as Bond.  This shot is one of the most memorable moments in movies period, and the realism of it is what makes it so damn profound.  All the special effects and trickery in the world won’t make this a better scene.  It’s the old nitty gritty rawness of it, and of course the excitement of a Bond flick.

I enjoy the Michael Bay chase scene with Eleanor as opposed to the original.  This may offend some, but I’ve watched this film at least thirty times just so I can enjoy that final forty minute chase scene and that beautiful Shelby elude the police time and time again.  This Shelby may not be the Mach I, but it was one of the first films to really shine light on the cars and bring attention back to the excitement of the “chase”scene.  The original is classic, but Bay’s is too much fun and I love every minute of the melodrama.

Let’s be honest, this was a fun action movie, but it’s real gem is in it’s extraordinary finale involving a series of mini coopers to do it’s final heist.  Overall some my pick the Michael Caine version as a better movie overall, and I wouldn’t argue the point, but this scene with the Mini’s was so highly innovative and exciting it’s impossible to deny.  It is by far the highlight of the film, and one of the best moments in chase scene history, new and old.

This is one of the first movies I can clearly remember watching and being entirely engrossed in.  Watching it on cable TV with my parents on our small “Boob” tube, Duel put the fear of the unknown into me.  Never seeing the truck driver, but just his ominous silhouette, and the grill of what seemed to be a malicious semi, pounding down and never stopping.  This was the Terminator version of vehicles, and terrifying to the very end.  It just goes to show you high speed chase scenes in fancy cars don’t always make the best chase scenes!

And 5/10 of my picks happened to involve a Semi-Truck in a pertinent way!  Go Figure!  Semi’s and chase scenes don’t usually come to mind but maybe they will now!  What are your favorite chase scenes?