As long as there have been cars and movies, there have been car chases in movies. And not just cars chasing cars, but helicopters, tanks, motorcycles, and anything else a person could drive — including John Wick on horseback. In fact, the most bombastic car chases and stunts today owe a major debt to the hand-cranked horse and carriage sequences of early Hollywood westerns, which served as the original car chases. Fact is, countless vehicles have been crashed in an effort to deliver the biggest thrills possible throughout the years. And over time, precision driving and advances in technology have allowed chase scenes to evolve into mind-blowingly complex productions.
That said, many of the greatest and most memorable chases in cinematic history were surprisingly simple to shoot, requiring only a few hood-mounted cameras and drivers with nerves of steel. In compiling this list, hundreds of scenes were considered — but only a few made it to the finish line. Put the pedal to the metal and fasten your seatbelts, because these are the greatest car chases in movie history.
17 The Rock (1996)
Buena Vista Pictures
Director Michael Bay is no stranger to action — or action involving cars (he did, after all, direct five Transformers movies). But in The Rock (starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery), Bay discovered a recipe for truly impressive car action. He took one black Humvee, added a yellow Ferrari, sprinkled in plenty of cop cars, and stirred them all up on the hills of San Francisco for one of the most explosive car chases of the decade (and this was before the runaway trolley car got into the mix).
16 The Italian Job (2003)
Paramount Pictures
While the original 1969 version of The Italian Job featured a great chase scene featuring Mini Coopers, it was the Mini-Coop chase from the 2003 version (starring Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham and Yassin Bey) that earned this movie’s way on to the list. A classic crime thriller with bad guys outwitting worse guys, the tactical driving on display as the crew’s mini coopers careen around the streets — and subways — of Los Angeles stands out as one of the best car chases of all time. An interesting fact about the scene? The Minis used in filming it were electric, because the city of Los Angeles wanted to prevent car fumes from getting trapped underground in the subway tunnels (via The Drive).
15 Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)
20th Century Fox
After robbing a grocery store to finance dreams of professional race car driving, Peter Fonda (Larry), Susan George (Mary), and Adam Roarke (Deke) lead Vic Morrow (Capt. Franklin) on an epic chase in a yellow 1969 Dodge Charger throughout Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (directed by John Hough). Though their escape ultimately ends in tragedy, the trio of fugitives evading a police helicopter on the open road and causing a ton of on- and off-road collisions make for some of the most indelible car chase sequences ever.
14 Baby Driver (2017)
Sony Pictures
The opening getaway of Baby Driver features some of the greatest controlled drifting and bootlegger reverses ever on film — in addition to a brilliant game of red sedan “three card Monty” to throw off police helicopters above. Miles (AKA Baby, played by Ansel Elgort) is a wheelman extraordinaire who does his best work to his personal soundtrack. Writer-director Edgar Wright scored a surprise hit with Baby Driver, thanks to plenty of action in and out of the driver’s seat and an amazing cast including Jon Hamm, Elza González, and Oscar-winners Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey.
13 To Live & Die in LA (1985)
MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
Director William Friedkin has a few chase scenes on this list. And while his thriller To Live And Die In LA is a perfect time-capsule of mid-80s Los Angeles, it also features one of the best chase scenes of the decade — filmed in and around one of the most famous shooting locations in the city of Angels (the 6th Street Bridge and concrete bed of the LA River below). While the sequence begins at the bridge and races though loading docks, warehouses — and across train tracks — the editing and camerawork are so up-close and frenzied, no one would blame the audience for getting a little car sick.
12 Bullitt (1968)
Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s almost as if the city of San Francisco was designed expressly for white-knuckled car chases. Throw action icon Steve McQueen into the seat of a green Mustang GT, and the ingredients were in place for Bullitt to deliver some timeless chases. Peeling through the hills, catching air, and screeching around corners, the Mustang featured in Bullitt became one of the most beloved silver screen cars of all time. So much so that, according to Car And Driver, the actual 1968 Mustang driven by McQueen in the movie sold at auction for $3.4 million dollars in 2020, making it the most valuable Mustang ever.
11 Drive (2011)
Film District
The tension in the opening few minutes of Drive builds and hangs in the air like a fog as Ryan Gosling (whose character is billed simply as “Driver”) obeys every traffic law with his hands at 10 and 2 while listening intently to the police scanner. The viewer — and Gosling — know with every passing second that it’s a matter of time before he’ll have to give chase and outrun LA’s finest. The cat and mouse game through alleys, underpasses, and intersections between Gosling and the LAPD — ending in the Staples Center parking lot as a basketball crowd departs — is one of the cleanest getaways ever to hit the screen. DIrector Nicolas Winding Refn (who also directed Gosling in Only God Forgives) creates a slick, stylish mood in every frame of this film, with slow, quiet scenes setting an arthouse pace only to be punctuated by brutal, brief and visceral action sequences.
10 Vanishing Point (1971)
One of the most influential car chase movies ever created, Vanishing Point is the film that made an icon out of a white 1970 Dodge Challenger. From Death Proof (which fetishized the 1970 Challenger) to Do The Right Thing (Samuel L. Jackson’s DJ Mr. Señor Love Daddy takes a page directly from Cleavon Little as DJ Super Soul in Vanishing Point) — and even a 2003 Audioslave music video for the song “Show Me How To Live” that recreated the film — it’s easy to see the far-reaching effect Vanishing Point has had on generations of filmmakers and artists.
9 The French Connection (1971)
The French Connection set many trends for 1970s filmmaking. With its gritty, real feel, and dynamic performance by Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, Friedkin’s movie was the first R-rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. In addition, it features one of the most out-of-control car chases ever filmed courtesy of stunt driver Bill Hickman (also of Bullitt fame) — even if Friedkin claims it was added at the last minute. Still packing a bare-knuckled punch over 50 years after its release, just how crazy was the actual scene? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Friedkin remarked that “Bill Hickman drove 26 blocks at 90 mph…the only thing staged was [when Doyle’s car narrowly avoids a collision with] the woman and baby.”
8 The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
United Artists
The James Bond series has delivered dozens of great car chases over the years. And from The Aston Martin DB5 (which has starred in more Bond movies than any actor to play James) to the Lotus Esprit S1 in The Spy Who Loved Me (which doubled as a submarine), Bond movies have also featured some of the most memorable movie cars. But the AMC Hornet X featured in The Man with the Golden Gun holds the title of the most memorable car sequence in any Bond movie. Legend has it that the 270-degree “corkscrew” jump (complete with slide-whistle sound fx) was not only captured in a single take, but was the first movie car stunt to use computer modeling for its design and staging (via Jalopnik).
7 Smokey & The Bandit (1977)
Universal Pictures
There are more explosive car chases on this list. And faster ones. There are more brutal chases with higher jumps and longer running times. But Smokey & The Bandit is arguably the most charming car chase in movie history. With the very real onscreen chemistry between Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Carrie (Sally Field) making the movie as much as love story as a comedic action film, Smokey & The Bandit became an era-defining classic. As Bandit’s partner Snowman (Jerry Reed) hauls a big rig full of contraband beer from Texarkana to Atlanta, Reynolds and Fields pilot a 1977 Firebird to draw police attention away from the smuggling 18-wheeler. In hot pursuit of them all is the Smokey — the iconic Jackie Gleason in one of the many roles he made immortal — Sheriff Buford T. Justice.
6 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
While one could make a very valid argument to include many of the dozens of car chases featured in the Mad Max series in this list, George Miller’s vision for wasteland car carnage reached an apex with the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road (starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy). After a 30-year hiatus, the stunning cinematography, editing and pacing of this movie delivers some of the most beautiful car clashes ever. From the meticulous detail the production designers brought to every vehicular modification to the strange cast of characters (like the guy playing a flame-throwing guitar like a kind of drum corps for troops marching to battle) — and even a fleet of vehicles driving headlong into a hurricane force sandstorm — Fury Road offers indelible, surreal images throughout.
5 The Blues Brothers (1980)
Without question, The Blues Brothers (directed by John Landis) features the most absurd car chases in the history of Hollywood. Though an earlier chase in the film has Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) Blues leading police right into (and through) a shopping mall, the final chase scene takes every conventional car chase trope and twists it with comedic hyperbole until the audience is left wondering if they really saw what they just saw. With thousands of police (and suburban Nazis) on their tail, the brothers crash their “Blues Mobile” through the streets, sidewalks (and skies) of Chicago in the funniest car chase ever caught on film.
4 Fast Five (2011)
The Fast & Furious series may be the only movie franchise essentially built upon the core concept of a car chase. And it’s certainly one of the most successful franchises of the last 20 years. But for movies designed to up the stakes and outdo themselves every time Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) turns the ignition, it’s actually quite easy to choose just one scene to include in this list: The vault heist in Fast Five stands heads and shoulders above all others. When the crew needs to steal the contents of a vault secured deep inside the police headquarters, they opt to steal the entire vault. Pulling the multi-ton steel chamber behind their Dodge Chargers through the streets of RIo, it slams into and destroys almost everything in its path, including dozens of police cars and entire buildings.
3 Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
H.B. Halicki Junkyard and Mercantile Company
Written, produced, directed by and starring H.B. Halicki, Gone in 60 Seconds features a singular car chase that remains a litmus test for any and all that have come since. Running 40 minutes in length, the tally for destroyed vehicles in this chase stands at 93 (via Driving Line). In the same article, when discussing the many injuries Halicki suffered due to unplanned accidents while filming the dangerous chase sequences, it’s said that the first thing Halicki asked after regaining consciousness from one of his more severe crashes was simply, “Did we get coverage?” And while the 2000 Nicolas Cage remake shares elements of the original’s storyline, the action, crashes and jumps throughout Halicki’s attempts to steal an elusive 1971 Ford Mach 1 Mustang remain as awe-inspiring as ever — and the movie is a testament to the spirit independent filmmaking.
2 Ronin (1998)
MGM Distribution Co.
Directed by John Frankenheimer and with screenplay credits that include David Mamet, Ronin was an espionage thriller set in post-cold war Europe. In addition to plenty of action and intrigue, Ronin (starring Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno) also features one of the most intense and impressive car chases in modern cinema. According to Hotcars.com, the epic chase through the streets, sidewalks and tunnels of Paris required 300 stunt drivers, former professional Formula 1 driver Jean-Pierre Jarier — and the destruction of 80 cars. Frankenheimer was no stranger to filming high-speed car chases, and utilized the same style of camera mounts he employed when directing the 1966 film Grand Prix (which won several Oscars in technical categories and depicted Formula One racing in a visually stunning, innovative fashion).
1 Death Proof (2007)
Dimension Films
According to Indie Film Hustle, Quentin Tarantino’s inspiration for Death Proof was based on how stuntpeople “death-proof” cars with the goal of surviving high-speed collisions. Built on this seed of an idea, Tarantino’s homage to 70s grindhouse movies stars Kurt Russel as Stuntman Mike, a psychopathic serial killer who uses his car as a weapon to murder women (and get away with the crimes, which are written off as tragic accidents). What Mike never counted on, however, were three women in a 1970 white Dodge Challenger ready to outdrive, outlast and outfight him. Zoë Bell (who was Uma Thurman’s stunt double in Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies) plays herself, while Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms portray her friends in the car. Under the guise of taking the Challenger (for sale by owner) out for a test drive and using the opportunity to go joyriding in the car of their dreams, the three encounter Stuntman Mike — and a deadly chase begins.
In perfect Tarantino style, elements of the chase in Death Proof are clearly referential to earlier classic movies. While the women are in the car from The Vanishing Point, Mike drives a 1969 Dodge Charger (Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry). And the car chase itself is divided into two sections. In the first half, Mike pursues the women and torments them in his attempts to crash and kill them. Bell spends this entire half of the chase riding on the hood and holding on for dear life while Mike slams and smashes into them at high speeds. In reference to the scene, Bell said, “There’s no double, there’s no CGI, it’s all practical, and you’re seeing that the person crying is the same one falling off the car. I think, on some deep, subconscious level, it triggers as ‘real’ to the people watching” (via Slash Film).
In the second half of the chase, the women turn the tables and chase Mike down, repeatedly hitting his car as he transforms from sadistic killer to trembling, frightened, apologetic mess. Tailing him through crowded highways and rural countryside, the women force him to flip and crash his car before beating him senseless in the middle of the street, with Dawson delivering a skull-crushing heel to his face (at which point the three jump in celebration and credits roll). Throughout the chase scene, viewers can feel the velocity and peril. It is clear that the actors and cars are moving at high speeds and the danger involved cannot be faked. With incredible driving, death-defying stunts and up-close cinematography—plus the unexpected shifting of gears where the women take revenge on their would-be assailant—Death Proof is shot, edited and shown in a way that pays absolute respect to the grittiest, most intense car chases of every era in Hollywood, but with a fresh spin and irony that only a skilled master like Quentin Tarantino could deliver.
