In no particular order:
Bullitt
Ronin
Gone In Sixty Seconds (Toby Halicki’s original, most assuredly not the stupid remake)-this film’s plot is simply a fabrication to wrap around one of the best attempts to outrun the law ever put on film.
The Blues Brothers-just on the basis of the chase through the shopping mall. “Hmm, the new Oldsmobiles are out early this year!”
Agreement here about the greatness of Ronin, love the lack of music for much of it - just engine sounds.
How about a motocycle chase? The Great Escape.
My favorite is still the Peter Bogdanovich comedy What’s Up, Doc?
Ronin gets another vote from me.
I also have to give a nod to the chase scene (involving a motorcycle/plane and a truck) in Wallace & Gromit’s “A Close Shave.” Heh.
Ronin on the serious side.
Blues Brothers on the lighter side.
I could argue that French Connection is better because, unlike Bullitt, there are people and other cars on the street.
I could, but I won’t, because I’d like to ask if Ronin counts twice. And if so, does anyone disagree that the Paris chase tops the Nice chase? (I could make the case for Nice: by the time they get to Paris, DeNiro & Reno have less motivation to continue the chase. Motivation is important for a good chase.)
Also, it was perhaps not the greatest, but the web-slinging car chase in Spider-Man moved me. However, a friend of mine says the flying car chase in Attack of the Clones was superior (where 2002 FX chases are concerned), despite being pointless and badly directed.
Since lieu was already so good as to mention the gut wrenching against-the-flow-of-traffic chase in To Live and Die in L.A. (which, incidentally, is STILL not re-released in VHS or DVD), I’ll mention Jackie Chan’s Police Story (a.k.a Police Force).
It features a car chase through (literally through) a huge hillside shantytown. Unfrigginbelieveable.
Completely on the humorous side:
Jake and Elwood in every car scene they did in Blues Brothers, “Sun glasses?” “Check.”
or
Any Simpsons car chase.
Example:Homer running from The Beer Baron, “Dad, knocking over gravestones is bad luck.” “Really? I heard good.”
Example:Homer fighting with Snake about Lil’ Bandit.
Well, if we want to get into stuff thats not really cars at all how about the Millenium Falcon chase scene from Empire Strikes Back.
Ronin.
Maybe I’m jaded, maybe I’m dumb, but I rented The French Connection because I heard how cool it was and what a great chase scene was in it.
Both the wife and I couldn’t imagine that that scene was what all the fuss was about. And the movie itself was INCREDIBLY dull.
Another nod to “Bullit”
However, there’s a great car chase scene in a Roy Schneider film called “The Seven Ups”. If memory serves me right (which is anybody’s guess at this point), I think the same villians in “Bullit” are being pursued in “The Seven Ups”.
A lot of good ones mentioned here, but my favorite is still Ronin, especially the Paris chase. Two of the things I particularly liked were that they kept the streets filled with traffic, and that they ignored the ‘no innocent bystanders’ convention used in so many other films.
For Bond films, For Your Eyes Only deserves special mention, IMO, for its chase scene with James driving, rolling, and still driving a tiny little 2CV through the Greek (Spanish?) hills.
You know, I too agree that there’s some connection there. Thanks Cholo, I’ll take a look an report back. I think you’re right.
One bennie to Ronin was that there were two chase scenes, each with it’s own character.
After seeing both the Beemer and the Audi 8 in action, I’ve gotta laugh whenever I see a paid Pepsi appear in a scene.Hey, a Pepsi. Wow.
While perhaps not the best, the chase scene with Clooney in ** Out of Sight** is exciting and original.
To Live and Die in L.A. was the first thing I thought when I saw this thread. Since it’s gotten several other votes, I’ll mention a couple others.
There was a made-for-TV movie done in the early 70s called Duel, one of Steven Spielberg’s earlier works. The whole movie is basically one long chase scene between a car and a truck. It’s quite suspenseful.
I’d also like to nominate the opening scene to Lethal Weapon 2 for this thread, at least give it honorable mention.
Duel was good and I’ll second Cannonball Run as well.
(At least the one with David Carradine, the serious one, not that Gumball Rally crap.)
Gone in 60 seconds (the Real one, not the Fake Nic Cage one).
Bullit was cool too, i want to go around San Fran and see if i can recognize some of the streets.
No mention of Vanishing point?
…or The Driver?
There was a great one involving a couple of small Fiats or something like that chasing around tiny narrow streets of somewhere like Marseille. I can’t remember the name of the film but the car chase was epic.