Our five favourite ridiculous car chase film scenes
Whether a car chase scene is downright stupid, somewhat hilarious, painfully long or completely unbelievable – we’re here for it and you should be too.At carsales, we believe a solid movie car chase scene is fuel for the soul. We've previously listed top 10 best movie car chases, top five movie getaway cars and five facts about cinematic car carnage but our latest list is purely in the realm of the ridiculously OTT film car chase scenes. Here are five of our favourite car chase film scenes that are made great by the sum of their parts – cars, stars and pure pandemonium.
Pineapple Express
When stupid is king and brain cells are optional. The ultimate display of one-foot driving is James Franco flouting the law with his foot stuck through the windscreen of a stolen Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Seth Rogen wins the award for worst backseat driver in a completely ridiculous comedy of errors car chase that demonstrates the importance of both functioning windscreen wipers and airbags.
The Bourne Identity
There’s no stopping Jason Bourne, ever – least of all at the wheel of Marie’s ‘it pulls a little to the left’ 1989 MINI Mayfair MkV. With the Paris police in hot pursuit, Bourne mounts pavements, descends steep staircases, dodges oncoming traffic on busy Parisian boulevards and decimates a glass phone booth door, before evading the police by hiding in an underground carpark. It’s around 2:30 minutes of rough ‘n tumble MINI mayhem.
The Transporter
The 1995 BMW E38 735i may be the star of the chase scene, but it’s closely followed by the ever-dashing Jason Statham aka Frank Martin driver/mercenary for hire. As the getaway driver, Statham transports motion-sick thugs through the bustling streets of Paris. The scene peaks when the big Beemer launches off an overpass, landing on a car transporter truck travelling below. With a plethora of police Peugeot’s coming in hot, Statham uses the old ‘zip in front of a moving train’ trick to evade them once and for all. Car chase 101.
The Italian Job
When Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Thereon and multiple MINI Coopers are involved, you know it’s going to be a cracking good scene. The 2003 remake of the 1969 movie shows three modern-day MINI Coopers in a hectic race through Los Angeles. To pull off a master heist, the vehicles descend subway stairs, narrowly miss an approaching train, boost a whole lot of gold bullion and escape a motorcycle pursuit by weaving through the underground tunnels and disused pipes network – frequently getting all four wheels in the air. Not even a menacing chopper can stop them. MINI enthusiasts the world over could be heard saying ‘yeah, that’s doable’.
Red 2
There are many memorable moments in this 2013 star-studded action flick (feat. Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins), but when Catherine Zeta-Jones gracefully drifts a black 2012 Porsche 911 GTS (997) towards Bruce Willis (aka former CIA agent Frank Moses) and swings the door open for a perfectly timed mid-drift driver swap, hell yeah we’re impressed. Willis takes the wheel and havoc unfolds on the street of Paris tapping into around fifty per cent of what this car is made of. Maybe they should have called this movie Drive Hard.
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