The Most-Watched Car Chase Scenes from Action Movies

Director John Frankenheimer, a former amateur race driver, used his love of fast cars in this caper flick starring Robert De Niro and Jean Reno. The movie’s numerous chase scenes are often compared to those in “The French Connection.” Among the cars used were a BMW M5, a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, an Audi S8, a Peugeot 406, and a Citroën Xantia. According to Supercars.com, more than 300 stunt drivers were used in the movie.

“Vanishing Point, a movie made during the turbulent early 1970s, is about a Medal of Honor winner and dishonorably discharged former police officer who bets he can drive a supercharged 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from Denver to San Francisco in fewer than 15 hours. To do that would mean he’d have to average speeds of more than 80 MPH, leading to numerous chase scenes with the police.

The dystopian classic that made Mel Gibson a star featured a third-generation Ford Falcon. The filmmakers converted the Falcon, already juiced with a V-8 engine, into an “Interceptor,” affixing a new nose to the front end, adding flares, and attaching a switch-activated supercharger booster (it’s not real) to the hood for when Max needs to flee.

Ryan Gosling stars as a stunt driver who moonlights as a cool-as-a-cucumber getaway driver in Los Angeles. The opening credit sequence features the nameless driver (Gosling) driving a souped-up Chevy Impala carrying armed robbers through the streets of L.A. while listening to a Clippers game.

Perhaps cinema’s most famous car chase scene featured the king of cool, Steve McQueen, as a San Francisco cop in a green Ford Mustang GT Fastback pursuing the bad guys on his city’s streets. McQueen did most of the stunt driving in the dialogue-free scene, which lasted about 10 minutes. The film made the Mustang GT Fastback one of filmdom’s iconic automobiles.