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Emilio Estevez talks smack to Mick Jagger and manages to dodge 10,000 futuristic dune-buggies at the same time, in this huge car-chase from the movie Freejack. Car chases are a huge part of sci-fi movies. And with Knight Rider coming back next month, we want to pay tribute. After all, no matter how high-concept your plot may be (like time travel and brain-transplants) it always comes down to a bunch of cars zooming around trying to smush each other. Here's part one of our favorites, with clips.
Emilio Estevez talks smack to Mick Jagger and manages to dodge 10,000 futuristic dune-buggies at the same time, in this huge car-chase from the movie Freejack. Car chases are a huge part of sci-fi movies. And with Knight Rider coming back next month, we want to pay tribute. After all, no matter how high-concept your plot may be (like time travel and brain-transplants) it always comes down to a bunch of cars zooming around trying to smush each other. Here's part one of our favorites, with clips.Car chases are woven deep into the DNA of movies, says crime writer Elmore Leonard. We invented cars and movies at around the same time, and both experiences are about speed, exhilaration and technophilia. And you can't write a good car chase — you have to film it. With explosions and crazy weird vehicles. So here are our favorites:
Freejack (1992). Emilio Estevez is a racecar driver, who dies in a car crash. But he doesn't really die, he's kidnapped into the future so Anthony Hopkins can steal his body. Or something. It's all just a set-up for a giant car chase. You can tell it's the distant future because everybody has laptops with video-chat clients in their cars. How else could Estevez tell Jagger he couldn't catch the clap in a whorehouse? CB radio? I also love Jagger giving him driving tips via vid-chat. I want a video Mick Jagger critiquing my driving to be a standard feature in my next car.
Andy Gill, the stunt driver for Freejack also did all the driving for the original Knight Rider, and here are a couple of his favorite stunts:
Death Race 2000 (1975). David Carradine is a super-driver created by the world's greatest surgeons to drive the world's fastest car, which just happens to have jaggedy fake teeth. He's up against Sylvester Stallone in the world's most vicious race, where you win or die. Here's the trailer:
Mad Max: Road Warrior (1981). Mel Gibson is escorting a hella giant oil tanker across the wasteland of post-apocalyptic Australia. But a whole gang of New Wave savages with mohawks and spikes sticking out of their vehicles want to jack him. Crossbows, flaming projectiles, funny helmets and weird-looking machine guns are just some of the weapons they use to try and put Mel off his game, while he gets his swerve on.
Cyber Tracker (1994). Someone in law enforcement took RoboCop a little too seriously, and now all the cops are mean cyborgs. Plus an evil corporation wants to replace political leaders with bots. It's up to Don "The Dragon" Wilson to stop this mess, the only way he knows how... with car chases. Cyborgs are crazy driving fiends in this movie. At one point, a van hits Wilson's car, flips over in mid-air, soars about twenty feet up and then crashes and explodes. Wilson, of course, is unharmed. Cyber-crashes are just better than regular crashes. The shot is so awesome, it appears three different times in the movie's trailer:
Looker (1981). Michael Crichton directed his own weird story about an evil company that scans models and creates perfect computerized facsimiles of them... then disposes of the originals. The company also comes up with a weird hypno raygun that works like roofies... it temporarily blanks out your mind and makes you unable to remember your assailant afterwards. At one point, Albert Finney and a hit-man drive around chasing each other and trying to shoot each other with hypno-rays. D00d, it's drive-by hypno!
Total Recall (1991). This one is more comedy than anything else. Arnie is on the run, with a wet towel around his head to block the tracking device in his skull and a suitcase containing an important secret from Mars. To get way from the spooks chasing him, he steals a JohnnyCab, but first he has to disable the chirpy auto-driver and take control of the joystick steering. Here's the video:
Tomorrow, we'll have the greatest car chases of science fiction from the mid-90s onward. What are your favorites?
Comments
I absolutely LOVE the car chase in The Matrix: Reloaded. It almost makes the movie worth watching.
if the pod race from episode one doesn't make it into the mid-90s onward bracket list i will be sorely dissapointed.
-the cab chase from the 5th element.
-I want to say the highway scene from Matrix Reloaded just because of what that woman can do with a Ducati, but it was ruined by the super-cheesy accordion/semi truck smash at the end of it. CGI for the loss.
Ahhh Mad Max. Before the Jeebusury when he played deranged blokes looking out for his self interest and killing hockey pad wearing punks of ambiguous sexuality. Makes me almost want to wear parachute pants and red leather ties. Almost.
I'll never understand America's (and the internet's, for that matter) preference for "Road Warrior" over "Mad Max".
I know Tango and Cash isn't technically Sci-Fi, but c'mon, they totally hoon out that customized Chevy Pickup...
Maybe you're saving that little nugget for Homoerotic Movie Car Chase Scenes of the '80's day? I bet that's what it is...
I always thought THX-1138 chase was pretty cool. What were those anyway? Chaperrals?
@gina64: Matrix: Reloaded car chase is totally coming tomorrow. It rules!
@tetracycloide: You know, I thought about the pod race... is that really a car chase though? Racing is different... We might have to do a separate post about races.
Mad Max: Road Warrior by a dusty mile.
Hey, what about RoboCop's beginning scene?
"Bobby, can you fly?"
@charliejane: if racing is different why is death race on this list already?
JohnnyCab almost sounds like Jonny Cat. Plus, the idiotic response to "Shit, Shit!" And the capper, "Sue me, dickhead!"
Don't forget Repo Man (also including Emilio Estevez,
coincidentally)...
Well that's easy: FIFTH ELEMENT taxi ride ....
Matrix Reloaded Car chase scene is 17 min long so it's in 2 parts:
part 1:[www.youtube.com]
part 2:[www.youtube.com]
Ronin.
And since Sly is up there already: Driven (groan)
What? No love for "Ice Pirates"?
"Car-chase" immediately brought my mind to Ronin. Silly me to ignore the "science fiction" bit.
But how's about Sly in Demolition Man?
'Brake now, you, Mickey Mouse piece of sh*t!'
@charliejane: Isn't that just needless filler? And why is Death Race up here?
CHILDREN OF MEN!
thx 1138?
@gina64: I was going to point out its omission but apparently there's a time frame to this list not indicated by the title. It's without a doubt #2 behind The Road Warrior which is the best.
@housermag: Because Mad Max isn't post-apocalyptic enough for them. And it's all about the lone hero with no past. Americans love that impossible lone hero with a personal code of honour. Mad Max is about the slow descent into madness of an otherwise good man. And that's why it bloody well rocks.
@aspiringexpatriate: Is from 2006. But I'd certainly count it on the future 00's list. Along with the skiff chase from Serenity (anything that resembles a car counts in my opinion) and the highway chase/battle in Transformers. 28 Weeks Later would also get my vote for the excellent Helicopter chase, despite it's lack of realism, and the fact it isn't only cars. Plus Batman Begins.
Terminator had a good car/motorcycle scene...
Terminator, with the glaring red eye in the cab of the truck. Creepy.
The car/motorcycle scene is from Terminator 2, which I think was a 90's title.
@housermag:
For me its because I want to like Mad Max more, but for the longest time we only had it with terrible images and then dubbed into "American" because the accents were too hard to hear I guess. It made it very bad and cheesy. But that is not the movie's fault. They're both great.
@PriorMarcus: I wasn't arguing for this list, I was arguing for "90s and onwards" as she said "tell us your favourites."
Eh, Batman Begins didn't end logically, so I wouldn't count it. The Skiff scene would be nice, but I just love the foot/car/chase scene in Children Of Men. Because really, who knew pushing a car down a hill could be so intense?
@Garrison Dean: Yes, dubbed Mel Gibson. Cause he's too Aussie. Got to love it.
And Terminator 2 car chase scene has to be a given that it's included, no?
The "floor polisher" race in Space Mutiny. It's officially the best Mike episode of MST3K.
Servo: If I drop the waxing compound I can get this puppy up to 3!
Not technically a car chase, but I would add Tron here as well. And I enjoyed the scene in Jurassic park when the T. Rex was chasing the jeep.
@GenXCub: You stole mine! That chase was awesome.
"We'll be needing BOTH horsepowers!!"
@eli:
Big McLargeHuge!
@GenXCub: thick mc runfast
roll fizzlebeef
@GenXCub: Close. In Space Mutiny, I like the scene where the hero goes into a garage to get a new car, but that car flips over right after he drives it out!!! What the heck was that about?!?
Also, when you were choosing your favorite car chase scenes, what were the rules you used? If there were none, I think it's time to huddle up and do like the spoiler overreaction thing. KThnxBye.
@GenXCub:
Gristle McThornBody
@Trotskyite: I don't remember much about the THX-1138 chase except that the cars were from a manufacturer named Lola.
The Matrix reloaded chase is probably one of the best chases ever. I like old chases too but the matrix was very satisfying.
Terminator 2 came out before both Cybertracker and Freejack. And you'd have to include the scene when Arnie crashes the tractor trailer into the foundry as well as the LA sewer chase to do justice.
Say what you will about Mssr. Bay but the hover bike thingy chase in "The Island" was pretty dope.
Death Race 2000.
@tetracycloide: If the pod race from episode dumb was not scene for scene ripped off from the chariot race in "Ben-Hur"....
That steaming pile would have sucked 0.0000001% less.
Real sci-fi fans do not own/watch/glance at those.
HOw bout BoneCrusher Body Checking a Bus?
@doctor_cos: must be hard to appreciate any works of science fiction if anything derivative can't make it through your impressive filter of elitesm. the pod race was fun to watch, period.
It's not quite a car chase, more a (kind of) car being chased, but the short scene in Aliens where they're hammering the APC out of the complex rocks bells. I think everyone has wanted to leave a car park full of muppets like that at some point..
The best chase scenes in my opinion.(not in order):
Matrix Reloaded(highway scene), Transformers(where they're transforming at 80 mph), The Island(the first chase with the jet bike, and the second chase with the Cadillac Cien supercar), Terminator 3 Rise of the machines(where the TX is chasing them with a huge boom truck),all of the Bourne movies, Liscene to Drive(80s comedy; not really a chase, but the 16 year old kid with no license has to drive his in-labor mom along with the rest of the family to the hospital BACKWARDS because he destroyed the transmission of his grandfather's caddy the night before while he snuck out with it.)Oh yeah, let's not forget Bad Boys 2 ( Michael Bay is insane).
In non-SF, I have a great fondness for the oft-forgot chase in "To Live and Die in LA". On the freeway, going the wrong direction, and awesome effects that have NO CGI. REAL big rigs jacknifing. Take that, new flicks.
that truck-chase in Terminator2 is pretty dope-- i have fond memories of watching on laser disc in surround sound many moons ago.
but may i suggest the Tom Selleck vehicle RUNAWAY? it has that cool little