High speed chases, daring automotive stunts, and exotic cars are all staples of action movies. Audiences clearly love to watch cool vehicles in action, and they often express their affection for the genre by rating car movies highly. The average American driving experience is filled with mundane commutes and bumper-to-bumper traffic, but these films let audiences vicariously live out their most exciting automotive fantasies. (Here’s a list of the best car movies of all time.)
To compile a list of the most popular car movies according to fans, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a report published by Confused.com, an insurance comparison company that sometimes analyzes data around various lifestyle and entertainment topics. The site created a list of 50 of the most recognised car movies from online listicles and articles, then ranked them according to an average fan score computed from user scores on IMDb, an online movie and TV database owned by Amazon, and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator.
The films on the list come from a range of genres and subgenres. Street crime is a common topic. “Drive” and “Baby Driver” follow talented getaway drivers embroiled in twisting criminal conspiracies. Auto racing is another focus, whether it’s sanctioned competition on a track as in “Rush” and “Ford v. Ferrari” or underground street racing, the basis of the Fast and Furious franchise. (Check out the most watched car chase scenes from action movies)
A few sci-fi films also make the list, featuring extremely modified vehicles – a time-traveling DeLorean in “Back to the Future;” cars and dune buggies customized for a dystopian desertscape in the Mad Max films.
“Duel,” one of director Steven Spielberg’s earliest films, takes an out-of-the-box approach to a car-centric film. It follows a driver on a desert highway who finds himself terrorized by a mysterious figure in a semi truck. The thriller is extremely sparse on dialogue, opting to let the action tell the story.
A lot goes into bringing these films to life, including expert driving from talented stunt people and the destruction of numerous cars. Several of these films are on the list of movies that destroyed the most cars.
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