Ten Of The Most Underrated Chase Scenes Out There

The Driver (1978)

Everyone likes to talk about famous chase sequences that deserve all the credit they get, such as the epic chase seen in Bullitt.  But here, in no order, we are going to look at some that are lesser known and/or shown less appreciation.  Starting with the final chase from The Driver (1978), a movie that is better than the unofficial remake starring Ryan Gosling.

It features a beastly Chevy Stepside C-10 with a big block engine and lowered front that is actually one of the manliest pick ups in movies.  Of course it goes without saying that a chase directed by Walter Hill would deliver the goods!

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Some people might have forgotten this one.  Be it because they’ve only seen the movie once and arrived late (it’s at the start) or they only like watching the second movie.  The opening to Beverly Hills Cop has a pretty good chase sequence.

I mean did they simply do these things better in the 1980s?  We need to get back to nuts and bolts chase sequences where hubcaps fly at the camera.  What better way to establish the tone for a movie like this than with a chase sequence like this?

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Although some might not enjoy Lethal Weapon 4 as good as the first three, but most will admit it’s still a great movie, you can’t forget this awesome chase sequence.

Richard Donner is a man who knows what he’s doing, employing stuntmen who know what they’re doing too.  I wonder if it would even be financially feasible to pull off a chase sequence like this, for real, on a Los Angeles highway these days.

Son of a bitch get away from my boy!

The Dead Pool (1988)

Back in the day when I was a boy, I used to watch violent movies that featured Clint Eastwood – I’m still glad I was raised on movies like this instead of crap like The Avengers.  Doubly so when it featured R/C cars but also R/C cars rigged with explosives!

Clint Eastwood in a violent 1980’s movie, in a chase sequence with no shaking cameras while being chased by a pissant toy car.  Good grief it’s almost incomprehensibly awesome.

To Live and Die in  L.A. (1985)

First of all, if you haven’t checked out this movie itself then you really need to.  You will really like it.  And if you haven’t watched it in years then you’ll find it has aged very well.

But don’t forget it also has a gritty, high adrenaline chase sequence.  Those Los Angeles canals show up once again. It feels weighty and anxious and you really can’t tell which way it’s going to go in.  Pity they didn’t use that Ferrari 308 GTSi that is in the movie, but I guess you can’t really risk rear ending a super car through multiple takes.

Against All Odds (1984)

It may not be one of the best movies ever released but we are still in 1980s territory here with Against All Odds.  This is a nice chase sequence between Jeff Bridges and James Woods.

Here, gentlemen, we have a Ferrari 308 QV GTSi going head to head with a Porsche 911 Cabrio.  Both are 1983 models.  Now unless I’m mistaken in the real world this Porsche is going to struggle here, the 308 should shrug it off, but maybe Bridges is just a better driver than Woods… it happens!

License To Kill (1989)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpEKOj9ybK8

I’ve had a problem with Bond movies for a while now, I seem to prefer the run from 1987-1995 shared by Dalton and Brosnan where they kind of chased the more standard Hollywood action vibe.  Some Bond purists don’t like License To Kill, but we shouldn’t forget its awesome chase sequence.

I mean maybe all you need to know is that an 18-wheeler drives on 9 wheels, for real.  I can only imagine the pop that scene generated in theatres when this trailer first appeared, it probably sold the movie alone.

Ronin (1998)

A lot of people talk about the second car chase in Ronin, directed by the great John Frakenheimer.  But if you ask me the first is even better.

I knew when I first seen the trailer for this movie, when Robert De Niro emerged from the sun roof of a speeding car and destroyed a pursuer with a rocket launcher, that I absolutely had to see it.  Car scenes were a speciality of Frankenheimer, himself a former racer.

The chase scenes in Ronin used up to 300 stuntmen at a time.  Now that’s old school action you can set your clock to!

The Cannonball Run (1981)

The Cannonball Run, I have to say, is not a great movie.  But man does it ever have some special hardware in it and I’m not just talking about Farrah Fawcett’s equipment.

The intro sequence looks brilliant as it is the first appearance of the Lamborghini Countach in film.  The Pontiac Trans Am was much hyped in Smokey and the Bandit a few years earlier as a muscle car.  But this intro shows what happens when it finds itself going up against a real car, the Countach just toys with it.

The Rock (1996)

Another on the possible list of ‘oh shit I forgot this movie had a chase scene’ and another on the list of ‘oh shit I forgot Michael Bay made a good movie, once’.

A 1992 Hummer is chased by a 1996 Ferrari 355 Spider and from experience I can tell you that that particular car will give you neck problems through brute force acceleration.  The car destroyed though was not a real 355 but a Toyota MR2 ‘Kit Car’ made to look like one.