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— by Ben Cosgrove
More than style, status or the promise of the open road, the one aspect of motoring that has always had across-the-board appeal is the expectation of speed. People like going fast. They like standing on it and seeing what the sucker can do. No wonder, then, that video games featuring tricked-out, super-fueled, asphalt-gobbling beasts are among the most popular on the market. With Electronic Arts dropping "Most Wanted," the latest entry in its "Need for Speed" series, on November 15, now seems a fine time to take a look at some of the greatest car chases to ever roar across the big screen. Fasten your safety belts.
 "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004)
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Clocking in at nearly two hours, "The Bourne Supremacy" still flies by, largely because there are so many freakishly entertaining action sequences — and because Matt Damon has, oddly enough, evolved into a credible action star. When he's handling a gun, breaking other people's bones or driving a car, one senses that he actually knows what he's doing. The centerpiece chase-and-crash scene here, involving speeding cars in a busy Moscow tunnel, has that same quality of believability: It's intense, and verges on hurtling out of control, but all the while director Paul Greengrass and stunt coordinator Dan Bradley make us feel like we're right there.
"The Italian Job" (2002)
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In a movie that features Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, Mos Def, Jason Statham and a slew of other fair-to-excellent actors, it's a tribute to this flick's chase sequences that most people immediately think "Mini Cooper!" whenever the film is mentioned. With the deceptively cute Minis careening not only through the streets of L.A. but down stairs, onto subway tracks and every which way but legal, this might just mark the apex (or nadir) of movie product placement. But so what? The chase scenes really do rock.
"Ronin" (1998)
An adequate thriller with a great cast and a silly plot, "Ronin" is primarily cited nowadays for featuring a couple of the finest car-chase scenes ever filmed. Shot largely in the narrow, winding French streets of Paris and Nice, the chases are notable not only for the ingenuity involved — they feel real — but for the expression on passenger Robert De Niro's face as he's holding on for dear life. Characteristically, he opted to be in the cars during some of the scenes rather than let a stuntman take his place, and he doesn't look like he's acting; he looks genuinely freaked out and terrified.
"The Rock" (1996)
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The very moment that felon John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) — the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz — steals a Hummer and begins bombing around the hilly streets of San Francisco, the audience knows it's in for a loud, violent ride. (This is a Michael Bay film, after all.) But when Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) commandeers a yellow Ferrari in order to give chase, the scene vaults from the realm of the merely enjoyable into that of the utterly, preposterously, bombastically classic. Cars are wrecked. Fruit stands are (of course) obliterated. A trolley car goes bye-bye. Rewind. Watch it again.
"Terminator II: Judgement Day" (1991)
It's the stuff of nightmares: Robert Patrick, playing a relentless robot assassin from the future named T-1000, pursues you in a huge tractor trailer. Happily, you have an ally — another robot from the future, played to perfection (hmm, how odd) by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're on a dirt bike. You're about to be squashed into jelly by ol' T-1000. Suddenly, Schwarzenegger's robot — a lowly but quite game T-800 — swoops in on a Harley and plucks you off your bike and onto his. The chase is on. You escape — for now ...
"The French Connection" (1971)
William Friedkin ("The Exorcist," "To Live and Die in L.A.") directed this near-perfect, gritty crime caper, and if he'd never worked on any other films he'd still be a legend for the white-knuckle chase scene in this flick. You know the one: Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) pulls a civilian out of his car and hops behind the wheel in order to chase down a French assassin fleeing on a New York subway train. Barreling through the streets of Brooklyn beneath the elevated subway line, screaming, honking, cursing, almost flattening other cars and moms with strollers, Hackman puts on a show that any Formula One team — or livery cab driver — would be proud of.
"Vanishing Point" (1971)
For fans of impressionistic, quasi-existential road-racing movies, the early 1970s were an embarrassment of riches. In "Vanishing Point," Barry Newman plays Kowalski, a near-mythic Vietnam vet piloting a 1970 alpine white 440 Dodge Hemi R/T Challenger from Denver to San Francisco while seemingly every authority figure on the planet wants him not only stopped, but dead, dead, dead. The entire movie is, in essence, one long chase scene, although sometimes it's tough to tell if Kowalski is the predator or the prey.
"Bullitt" (1968)
While Steve McQueen's signature film is rightly celebrated for its epic, high-octane, rubber-burning chase through the streets and hills of San Francisco, it's worth noting that the scenario ends with a couple of badly messed-up cars: Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (McQueen)'s 1968 GT 390 khaki-green Mustang lands in a ditch, while the Dodge Charger carrying a couple of very creepy hit men flies (literally, it takes to the air) into some fuel tanks, sparking a hellish and quite satisfying explosion. Good times.
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Photos: Electronic Arts, Inc.
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