Car chases are a staple of action cinema. From Bullitt to The Road Warrior, many classic action movies have dazzled audiences with their breathtaking vehicular set-pieces. James Bond unleashed the gadgets from his Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger and Popeye Doyle chased an overhead subway train through New York City in The French Connection. But chase sequences aren’t just confined to the action genre. From slapstick comedies like What’s Up, Doc? and The Blues Brothers to gruesome automotive slashers like Christine and Death Proof, some of the best car chases in film history have come from non-action movies.
What’s Up, Doc?
In between his early-‘70s masterpieces The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, Peter Bogdanovich helmed What’s Up, Doc?, a spot-on homage to classic screwball comedies from the 1930s like Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night. Anchored by Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal’s spectacular on-screen chemistry, What’s Up, Doc? is full of perfectly timed slapstick gags – including a meticulously staged car chase through the streets of San Francisco.
Streisand and O’Neal are pursued through the city by jewel thieves and government agents, first on a delivery bike and later in a decorated Volkswagen Beetle they stole from a wedding party. As it takes the couple through wet cement, a pane of glass, and a Chinatown parade, this chase sequence is as hilarious as it is thrilling.
Christine
From a hotel to a high school prom to a rabid St. Bernard, there’s nothing that Stephen King can’t spin into a spooky horror story. In his novel Christine, the “King of Horror” turned a 1958 Plymouth Fury into a monster. The murderous car is possessed by a demonic force that corrupts and eventually kills whoever drives it. John Carpenter’s film adaptation brought this malevolent car to life in frightening fashion.
In the movie’s most exhilarating set-piece, Christine tracks down the bullies who vandalized her and kills them one by one. She crushes Moochie, blows up a gas station to burn Don and Richie alive, then runs down the bullies’ ringleader, Buddy. This relentless chase sequence instantly establishes the threat posed by this possessed automobile.
The Italian Job
Troy Kennedy Martin’s heist caper The Italian Job is one of the most iconic British movies ever made. Michael Caine assembles a crack team to make off with $4 million in gold bullion from a security convoy. Stealing the gold turns out to be the easy part; hauling it away is a different challenge entirely. The thieves split the gold across three Mini Coopers and take the cops on a wild goose chase. These Minis go for a crazy ride down flights of stairs and through sewer tunnels.
This sequence creates a hilarious juxtaposition between the exhilarating stunts pulled off by a world-class team of stunt drivers and the fact that the thieves are all driving the same goofy automobile model as Mr. Bean.
Death Proof
Quentin Tarantino came up with the perfect carsploitation slasher premise for his half of the double feature Grindhouse. Death Proof stars Kurt Russell as the sadistic Stuntman Mike, who stalks unsuspecting women in his “death-proof” stunt car and kills them in gruesome head-on collisions. In the final reel, Mike finally meets his match as he tangles with a group of stunt performers who are ready to fight back. Tarantino cast Zoë Bell, Uma Thurman’s stunt double from Kill Bill, to play herself in Death Proof, so she wouldn’t have to hide her face during the climactic action.
Bell is hanging from the hood of a speeding 1971 Dodge Challenger being driven by her friend Kim when Mike arrives and tries to run them off the road. What follows is a nail-biting, rubber-burning thrill-ride that stacks up next to any car chase ever put on film.
The Blues Brothers
Not only is John Landis’ The Blues Brothers one of the greatest comedies ever made with one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time; it’s also one of the best car chase movies. During the course of their “mission from God” to save the orphanage where they grew up, Jake and Elwood Blues are chased across the United States by dozens of police cars.
The unbridled chaos of this sequence matches the nearly hour-long car chase in the second half of the original Gone in 60 Seconds. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, The Blues Brothers set a record for the number of cars destroyed for a movie. The stunt team went through 13 different Bluesmobiles and purchased more than 60 old police cars at $400 apiece for the climactic pile-up. 40 stunt drivers were flown in every weekend and the producers ran a 24-hour body shop to repair the cars they totaled for further use in the film. The stunt coordination in this movie – all done practically in a pre-CGI world – is truly mind-blowing.