Greatest Car Movie Chases

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grober

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There's a review of best car movie chases on 4car. see http://www.channel4.com/4car/feature/features-2006/greatest-movie-car-chases/index.html
Not sure if it features any Mercedes in a starring role. Their role is normally getting smashed. I'm sure this due to their inherent strength being known to the stuntmen who have to crash them. I,m still trying to get over Patrick Swayze's SEC being trashed in "Roadhouse" - great soundtrack pity about the car. For mercedes featuring in the movies see http://www.hampstead.com.au/mb/index.php
 
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There's one in Goldfinger with some older mercedes (pontons / adenauers?) and Sean Connery in the DB5. Not exactly great though!
 
Nice to see The Italian Job in there! Not that I think it's that great, but part of the chase was filmed in Coventry :bannana:

PJ
 
Nice '70's 450SEL 6.9 in Ronin.....
 
Yup Ronin is a classic, I have it on DVD.
 
Driver

There's a superb scene in The Driver where Ryan O'Neill trashes a stack-headlight Merc in an underground car park. One of my favourite car chase movies and very gripping at times

I believe the stunts in Ronin were done with Robert de Niro in a RHD car. He had a fake steering wheel to hang on to whilst one of Remy Julienne's stunt drivers was beside him doing the driving. That would account for the look on de Niro's face at times...

Everything in Ronin is meant to be real with no CGI. I just love that S8 drifting on wet Paris cobbles!

Remy Julienne was responsible for the sequences in the Italian Job and most of the 007 movies as well. His entry in IMDB is longer than any actor's!


Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 
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I'm sure the chase scenes are real ,but there is at least one CGI moment ...

When he bangs the 450sel into reverse from the parking bay after the shoot out , the smoke off the rear tyres just doesn't look real at all.....

Also, the chase at the end with Natasha McElhone in the 'M5' , has anyone noticed that on a rear shot the 'M5' only has one exhaust pipe ..... sure they should have two ;)
 
I liked the film Ronin, but thought the car chase scenes were just to OTT???

The applying of the seat belts in Bullitt spoke volumes.

Game on!!!!! Plus the deep rumble of those old V8's

John
 
Has anyone ever seen the original 1974 movie "Gone in 60 Seconds", by Henry Halicki?
 
neilrr said:
Has anyone ever seen the original 1974 movie "Gone in 60 Seconds", by Henry Halicki?

Yes it's much better than the remake with wots his name in it! The stunt driver in the original broke his back doing the Mustang jump at the end.:eek:

I like the chase through Moscow in Bourne Supremecy, a few W124's and a GWagon get wacked though which isn't so good.
 
The stunt driver who broke his back was Henry "Toby" Halicki who wrote, directed & starred in the original. He died performing a stunt in GI60S2 in 1989.

I did business with him once at his junkyard in Carson (LA County). The place looked like sh1t from the outside, but he had the most amazing collection of cars, automobilia & boys toys hidden away. I was there to bond a grey market Aston Martin Lagonda he'd imprted. He arrived in his BMW 745iExecutive, which he parked next to his desk in his office, which was about the size of a tennis court.
 
My vote has to go to Steve McQueen in Bullit. I remember when I first saw it on the big screen you felt just as if you were really in the car going down those Frisco streets. That soundtrack was amazing. Steve McQueen The guy was just so COOL in that movie.
 
Vanishing Point is my all time fave.The noise of that Big block 440 in the Challenger when he guns it up the expressway on ramp stuck with me from an early age.I just had to own a Challenger one day.Sad thing was the reality was nothing like the film....I wish I had just kept dreaming...

As for Bullit,story goes that McQueen's Mustang had to be beefed up with uprated suspension and brakes,whereas the Charger was straight out the showroom.
 
I like the one in Die Hard or some such. When Bruce Willis is driving what looks like a pre-w220 s-class and he wants to do a skid so he destroys the non-existent under-dash fuse box to disable the ABS and amazingly it works.

He spins the car and plugs the bad guys with a dozen rounds from his machine gun.

It was a short sharp scene and the car came off second best.

My personal fav. is the one from real life when the cops are chasing a stolen S-Class mercedes and they do a classic rear bumper nudge to spin the car but the car simply wont let go of the road and they end up caving in both rear corners.

"The Mercedes super-car sticks to the road like glue "

Not a movie but on those cop shows.
 
Hi All

I can think of 5 ... Bullit, Ronin, French Connection, Vanishing Point, Driver.

I believe Ronin involved Mercedes, all the others involved American hardware.

There were some interesting chases in the '007' series blockbusters but I wouldn't put them in the same league as those mentioned.

REGARDS Phil
 
Tiff said:
As for Bullit,story goes that McQueen's Mustang had to be beefed up with uprated suspension and brakes,whereas the Charger was straight out the showroom.

:) Great story, but never let the truth out!! The first couple of times I watched this excellent film, I was just engrossed in the storyline, car chase etc. but after watching the film several times, and using slo-mo plus pause, the Charger was clearly changed several times during that short chase. When it lands after the first jump?? you can clearly see horrible ripples on the front wing, bonnet, at the next jump, pristine front end with no ripples, this happened a couple of times. No doubt on modern films there are special effects, the ability to speed the cars up on film etc etc.

Steve McQueen was the man, he enjoyed doing numerous stunts, drives, rides (motor bikes in Great Escape) etc. Now we have a James Bond that CANNOT swim!!!!! No doubt he will be seen in numerous car chases and swimming exploits grrrrrr Gone are the days when men were men... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: blah... blah.... blah

John
 
How about Two lane blacktop (GTO and 55 Chevy) and Dirty Mary,Crazy Larry (Charger), also remake of Vanishing Point,which had a Hemi Challenger and a 69 Charger.
 
Tiff said:
The Bullit chase was filmed in different scenes,with amny camera angles of the same shot,how else could the Charger lose (at least) six wheeltrims...:rolleyes:

Great link, and I'm glad it was not just me that took in the seat belt scene ;)

"There's a 'click,' and then you know something big is about to happen," Fraker said. "Then you know you're in for a ride."
 

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