The Art of the Chase

THE ART OF THE CHASE

The two things that make me most excited for Edgar Wright's Baby Driver are its commitment to realism and the so-crazy-it-just-might-work conceit of the protagonist scoring his getaways to the songs playing in his earbuds.

I've thought a lot about what makes a great movie car chase. For me, the most important criteria are Tension, Verisimilitude, and Originality.  

Without tension, the scene is just a technical exercise.

Without verisimilitude, there are no stakes.

And without originality, the movie risks giving the greatest possible offense to its audience: being boring.

Many people think the cinematic car chase begins and ends with Bullitt from 1968.  It is hard to disagree.  It practically invented the form.  And most importantly, it introduced a levels of tension, verisimilitude, and originality that are unmatched. 

Here are my choices for the eighteen best car chases in cinematic history since 1968, presented chronologically.

For educational purposes only.

Bullitt
Directed by Peter Yates
1968

Real-life speed freak Steve McQueen does much of his own driving in the most influential of all movie car chases.  McQueen approved the hiring of Yates after seeing his previous film Robbery which also featured an extended car chase.  McQueen challenged Yates to top it in Bullitt.  He did. 

Made in an age before digital manipulation, the act of seeing one of the silver screen’s biggest stars putting life and limb on the line to this degree was wholly new.  Every car chase made since owes something to it.  Few moments in film history can say as much.

Drinking Game: Do a shot whenever a car loses a hubcap.  You will be doing a lot of shots.   

The French Connection
Directed by William Friedkin
1971

 When Bullitt producer Philip D'Antoni hired Friedkin to direct, he challenged him to top the chase in Yates' classic. Many say Friedkin did just that with his legendary car/subway chase through Brooklyn.  Friedkin now admits he pushed his crew too far, ordering them to take risks he would never take today.  In the end, no one was hurt and the scene will live forever.  Noted stunt driver and -coordinator Bill Hickman, who was McQueen's prey in Bullitt, doubled as Hackman's driver here.

The French Connection, winner of five Academy awards in 1972 (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Editing), is probably the best movie ever to contain a car chase of this magnitude.  (Mad Max: Fury Road being a close second.)

My favorite element is Gene Hackman behind the wheel.  Unlike the always-cool Steve McQueen, Hackman gives a wild, rage-filled performance.  He's practically sociopathic in his single-minded pursuit to catch the French killer.  

Duel
Directed by Steven Spielberg
1971

Made for television by an unknown 24 year-old director, Duel is essentially a horror movie disguised as a car chase.  A lone driver is targeted for death for no reason by an unseen trucker driving the scariest rig in film history.  Made on a TV budget, Spielberg creates a film of exquisite excitement and tension.  

I've highlighted the final confrontation of the film, where Dennis Weaver's Plymouth Valiant, overheating and losing ground to the tanker truck from hell, desperately tries to escape up a steep grade.  This scene is a masterwork of clarity and pacing.  The sounds design of the final crash is terrific too.

The Seven-Ups
Directed by Philip D’Antoni
1973

Bullitt and French Connection producer D'Antoni steps behind the camera for this mostly-forgotten crime thriller.  Like Bullitt (but set in NYC rather than San Francisco), he starts his chase in the city and ends it on the highway as fellow Connection alum Roy Schneider races after two killers.  Bill Hickman makes his third appearance on this list as the driver of the getaway vehicle.  Also notable for being ending with protagonist Roy Scheider surviving an unsurvivable crash.  The bad guys get away in this one.

The Driver
Directed by Walter Hill
1978

The car chase as hunter cat.  Walter Hill's masterful, minimalist action drama (inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï) stars Ryan O'Neal as a nearly-mute getaway driver searching for escape in the streets of Chicago.  While featuring masterful editing and stuntwork, this scene works best in its quiet moments, as the Driver hides in silent darkness from the police, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.  The reactions of his two passengers as he plays chicken with two cop cars is priceless.

The Blues Brothers
Directed by John Landis
1980

The only chase scene on this list centered on chaos.  This being a comedy, Landis throws realism out the window as the brothers Blues flee virtually every police car in Chicago.  What wins me over is Landis' complete commitment to his idea, as he gleefully smashes a seemingly infinite number of cars with reckless abandon.  The Illinois Nazi gag is pretty great too.

Diva
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix
1981

The bad guy pursues a motor scooter through Paris, first by car, then by foot, ending with a chase through a Metro station.  I love how our prey actually boards a train with his scooter, takes it to the next stop, then rides up the escalator to freedom.  Championed by Roger Ebert for decades, Diva's chase wins high marks for originality and creativity.

The Road Warrior
Directed by George Miller
1981

In Miller's dystopian wasteland, you either chase or are being chased.  A nearly-silent Mel Gibson drives a rig full of priceless fuel (so he thinks) from a gang of punk rock maniacs.  You could argue that this scene is more about guys flying from car to truck and back again than precision driving. That it contains some of the most influential stuntwork in movie history cannot be denied.  It would only be topped by Miller's own work on Mad Max: Fury Road three decades later.

To Live and Die in L.A.
Directed by William Friedkin
1985

Friedkin's gritty masterpiece contains my choice for the best car chase in movie history.  

Friedkin tops his work in The French Connection with this story of two reckless Secret Service agents who will do anything to catch a killer counterfeiter.  It is established early on that William L. Peterson's vengeance-seeking (and slightly) loony protagonist is a thrill junkie who gets off on adrenaline highs, making the joy in his face and he barrels full-speed down the freeway (against traffic!) all the more believable.  (John Pankow’s performance as his absolutely panicked partner only heightens the effect.). Few chases have ever told us so much about character while driving a hundred miles an hour.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Directed by James Cameron
1991

At their core, the Terminator films are about innocents being hunted by an unstoppable force.   Cameron translates that dynamic to this chase, where a teenager rides his dirt bike through the L.A. river while being pursued by a seemingly indestructible, shape-shifting cyborg assassin driving a shiny-new monster tow truck.  Schwarzenegger's entrance in the latter half is beautiful in its simplicity.  The clarity and efficiency of Cameron’s direction is spectacular.

Jade
Directed by William Friedkin
1995

Friedkin's third entry (and easily the worst movie) on this list, Jade nonetheless contains an exquisitely original car chase.   Opening with former Sport Illustrated swimsuit model Angie Everhart being murdered in a gruesome hit and run, it segues into a slow-speed chase through a crowded Chinatown parade, trying to fend off angry pedestrians, before ending with with hunter David Caruso being stalked by his prey along the waterfront.   The tension is off-the-charts throughout.  Like The Seven-Ups, this chase ends with our hero more than a little worse for wear.

Ronin
Directed by John Frankenheimer
1998

Whipping through the streets of Paris, dangerously close to pedestrians, Frankenheimer ups the stakes of Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. by sending his cars racing against traffic through a crowded tunnel.  Take note of De Niro’s performance: He looks absolutely terrified throughout.

The Bourne Identity
Directed by Doug Liman
2002

My favorite Bourne car chase because it is the simplest, Damon plays the entire scene like he’s trying to solve a puzzle.  The chase as pure calculation.

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Directed by Justin Lin
2006

The Fast and the Furious franchise is way too bullshitty for my taste.  No one is ever scared, the chases are absurd, and nothing looks real.  But, for better or worse, they are what future generations of moviegoers will think of when they think of movie car chases. 

I’ve chosen this scene because it contains two moments of real grace.  I love the choreography of the cars weaving through traffic in the tunnel.  And the sudden parting of the Tokyo crowd, allowing the cars to drift through, is undeniably poetic.

Drive
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
2011

Drive is essentially a remake of The Driver and this chase is a re-imagining of Hill’s opening getaway scene.  A silent, stone-faced Ryan Gosling uses calculation and pure speed to deliver his passengers to safety.  My favorite use of silences in any chase, as Gosling hides in the dark from police helicopters, monitoring the police scanner, waiting for the perfect moment to find escape.

Jack Reacher
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
2012

The car chase as western duel.  Tom Cruise (of course) does much of his own driving and his total commitment lends a believability to the proceedings unmatched by any of the chases on this list.

I also love the quiet conclusion, even though his escape into the crowd never completely makes sense to me.

Mad Max: Fury Road
Directed by George Miller
2015

The Road Warrior on steroids.  The sheer scale of the production is staggering.  The ideas contained within are completely bonkers.  The entire movie is unforgettable.  For once, Miller's work was given the praise it deserved at the time of its release.  (His earlier Max films received praise but they were never taken very seriously by film cognoscenti.) That this movie was nominated for Ten(!) Academy Awards would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.

Quarry
Directed by Greg Yaitanes
2016

Cinemax’s little-seen neo-noir has a chase Brian De Palma would love: A long take that never leaves the inside of the pursuit vehicle as it hurtles after its prey.  A terrific scene even more deserving of praise for it was made on a TV-show budget.