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The Top 10 Movie Car Chase Scenes Of All Time

by Craig Howie | AOL Autos

Which star do you most associate with car-chase movies: Steve McQueen or Michael Caine? Gene Hackman or Burt Reynolds? Although most car-chase movies pack some serious A-list talent, we like to think that in many cases the real star in this particular movie genre is the car: from McQueen's super-tight Ford Mustang in Bullitt to the stripped-down Dodge Charger in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. But which movie has the best car-chase scene in history? We take a look.

#10 Cannonball Run (1981) | Video Clip

Almost everyone knows that Hollywood's cheesy celebration of America's intercoastal car culture is one big car chase involving spectacular cars, including a Ferrari 308 GTS, an Aston Martin DB5 and a gorgeous opening sequence where a Lamborghini Countach makes short work of a Pontiac Firebird police cruiser. But perhaps less well known is the original coast-to-coast sprint run undertaken by speed racer Erwin George Baker in 1914. The 11-day drive made his name in the New York press, who forever associated him with the Chicago Express steam train christened "The Cannon Ball." Trivia: The ambulance driven in the movie by Burt Reynolds and sidekick Dom DeLuise was a modified Dodge Tradesman used by Car and Driver editor Brock Yates when he tried to resurrect the famous race in the 1970s, as part of a protest against the onset of 55 mph speeding limits nationwide.

#9 Death Proof (2007) | Video Clip

Quentin Tarantino continues to push the limits of speed and taste in Death Proof, a stock car- and violence-infused tale that features for a quarter of its run-time a fantastic chase sequence involving a stripped down bad-ass 1969 Dodge Charger and a heavily modified 1970 Dodge Challenger with a girl -- actress and former stuntwoman Zoe Bell -- splayed on its hood. Apparently, Tarantino came upon the idea for a "death proof" car after filming the car-crash scene in Pulp Fiction and telling a friend he wanted to buy a Volvo for safety reasons. The friend informed him that a decent movie stunt team could easily "death proof" any car for him. Hence was born the Death Proof movie concept. And Stuntman Mike. Doesn't that name still give you chills?

#8 The Fast and the Furious (2001) | Video Clip

Car chases ostensibly over a half mile, otherwise known as street racing, received attention when The Fast and Furious lifted the lid on a high-adrenaline racing scene that burgeoned in popularity in Japan and the U.S. in the late 1990s. The movie explored the phenomenon through a fictional world of ultra-hip hijackers who used heavily modified Japanese cars to steal high-end electronic componentry. It's a cops and criminals yarn with a high-octane twist that features some seriously customized old-school cars including Honda Civics, Toyota Supras and a Mazda RX7 -- though if you look closely, a retro Dodge Charger also features, too. Drift racing (highlighted in the '06 follow up Tokyo Drift), where drivers work in teams while skidding all four wheels around a tight circuit, now features at many events on the IRL circuit, catching a tailwind from the movie's popularity. Look out for new Fast and the Furious soon.

Top 20 Selling Vehicles

#7 Mad Max II: The Road Warrior (1981) | Video Clip

You'd be hard pressed to name any of Mel Gibson's cobbled-together vehicles in his 1981 sequel to Mad Max -- which may boast the highest number of chopped and recharged V8s outside of Havana, Cuba -- but that doesn't stop The Road Warrior being considered a car-chase classic and one of the best action movies out there. Motley collections of cut-throat bandits, nomads and braggarts populate Australia's barren, dystopian landscape and blow-up any number of heavy machines, including police cars, motorbikes and a big-rig fuel tanker. It's all in their quest for that all-important and -- in a post-apocalyptic world -- rare substance: fuel. The explosive 20-minute chase scene to end the movie still exhilarates nearly 30 years after the movie's release. And don't we all want an engine intake like Max's infamous "blower?"

#6 Vanishing Point (1971) | Video Clip

A Dodge Challenger R/T gives you some serious leverage when you're involved in a bump-and-run two-car contest on a one-track road in the middle of the American west -- and it's the only road out of the desert heat. Stanley Kowalski, a renegade Barry Newman, used five separate first-generation Challengers, including the 375-horsepower 440 Magnum, to full effect in forcing numerous hapless drivers off the road on the hazard-ridden 15-hour sprint from Denver to San Francisco as he's pursued by cops, racers and bandits alike. Dodge released its highly anticipated and heavily retrofitted Challenger update in 2008, with the film's cult following no doubt waiting patiently for any word on a commemorative Vanishing Point model.

#5 Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) | Video Clip

We're not talking about the remake starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie, which boasts some pretty spectacular car-chase sequences itself, but the 1974 original that features a 34-minute chase sequence over the Long Beach, California ports complex that some consider the best ever captured on celluloid. A mediocre cast and stilted dialog may put off many, but the film that centers around a group of car thieves and their bid to steal 48 cars over a couple of days accomplishes what it set out to do: Exhilarate viewers in movie theaters and destroy as many cars as possible (in this case, 93). An amazing collection of Mustangs, Rolls-Royces and Cadillac limos make up the list that car thief H.B. "Toby" Halicki -- who did all his own stunts -- is given to steal for a South American drug lord. Few, though, compare to the films's famous 1967 Ford Mach 1 Mustang, christened "Eleanor" and driven by Halicki, that even makes it into the 2000 remake.

#4 The French Connection (1971) | Video Clip

Gene Hackman bumping and weaving his way around the intersection of Stillwell Ave. and 86th St of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, while pursuing a bandit on a subway train offers to this day a fantastic driver's eye perspective of driving through New York at rush hour. We're just kidding. But the chase featuring a 1971 Pontiac LeMans remains a classic as a result of its impromptu crashes that weren't supposed to be part of the action but were left in the sequence after several stunt drivers mistimed their entrance into the car chase, striking Hackman's car instead of narrowly avoiding it as he chases a train-bound drug dealer. The sequence took several days to shoot even though the chase's screen time is barely two-and-a-half minutes. Director William Friedkin also put together a similarly fantastic car chase in 1985's To Live and Die in L.A.

#3 The Italian Job (1969) | Video Clip

Michael Caine's famous "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off," has become a familiar refrain among Italian Jobs fans who love the British actor's Cockney twang and the 1969 comic car caper that saw a collection of car thieves attempting a high-stakes bank heist in the Italian city of Turin. Indescribably hip on its release, and a personification of Cool Britannia, the famous car chase featuring three red-white-and-blue Minis motoring through tight streets -- and even indoors -- was a landmark in quirky and fun car-chase sequencing and cinematography. The 2003 remake cleverly twinned audience appeal with the film following the 2001 release of BMW's new MINI that featured in the updated film, leading some to suggest it was merely a two-hour commercial for the new model. Trivia: Turin, or Torino, forms part of Italian car giant Fiat's moniker-- Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino.

#2 Ronin (1998) | Video Clip

Although it will never be regarded as Robert de Niro's best dramatic performance, 1998's Ronin doesn't land on our list for its dialogue. In unbelievable realism, viewers are treated to chase scenes with sport sedans such as a BMW M5, Peugeot 406 and, perhaps most famously, an Audi S8. Plenty of police cars, trucks and motorcycles meet their end and more than 300 stunt drivers were employed to give the real-time chases scene an air of metal-crunching realism amid a character-driven plot that involves CIA operatives, mercenaries and multiple double-crosses surrounding a mysteriously valuable briefcase. There are few actors that can capture the mixture of terror and exhilaration involved in a car chase quite like De Niro, while Jean Reno is the only actor who could make driving a Peugeot an exercise in steely manhood. Director John Frankenheimer pretty nearly perfected the art of filming gritty car chase sequences in 1966's Grand Prix.

#1 Bullitt | Video Clip

Bullitt is perennially voted one of the best car movies of all time and we're comfortable following suit. In the 1968 classic, real-life racing enthusiast Steve McQueen barrels after bad guys on the streets of San Francisco in an epically cool 1968 Ford Mustang in a delicious "Highland Green" color (McQueen even did most of his own stunts for the movie, too). In a cityscape that gets most drivers nervous for its ups and downs, San Francisco proves the ultimate car chase backdrop. Lieutenant Frank Bullitt is not only one of the coolest cops of all time, he proves to be one of the best wheelmen we've ever seen. This is a must-see film and hands-down the best car chase movie of all time.

THE COCA-COLA FORMULA!

The Coca-Cola Recipe

Where The Coca-Cola Formula Came From

This Coca-Cola formula appears to be the original formula to Coca-Cola. An author named Mark Pendergrast wrote a book about Coca-Cola entitled For God, Country and Coca-Cola. In writing this book he was able to interview just about anybody he wanted within Coca-Cola, and was also granted access to the vast archives of Coca-Cola. In reviewing archive material, he was presented with a book labeled:

Account and formula book belonging to Dr. J.S. Pemberton while a druggist in Columbus GA.

He was told this was an early formula book (which would jive with the Columbus GA label). However, while reviewing the book Pendergrast came upon a recipe for "Celery Cola" and quickly realized that this was not an early formulary guide of Pemberton's. This was in fact a formulary book produced shortly before Pemberton's death, and there was a good chance that it contained the original Coca-Cola formula.

Pendergrast knew that "Celery Cola" was the recipe Pemberton was working on at the time of his death, and he was also aware of the story of Pemberton's apprentice and an old formulary book. The story went that a young man named John P. Turner went to apprentice with the elderly John Pemberton, and not long after starting his apprenticeship Mr. Pemberton died. Young Mr. Turner went back to his home of Columbus, GA., and took one of Pemberton's formulary books with him. In 1943, a son of Mr. Turner's happened to show the formulary book, which did contain a recipe for Coca-Cola, to a member of Coca-Cola's board. The board member managed to acquire the book from Turner's son, and no one had seen the book since (or at least until Pendergrast found it in their archives).

As Pendergrast looked through the old pages of what remained of Pemberton's formulary guide he came upon a page that was unlabeled except for an 'X' at the top of the page. Sure enough, he had found an original Coca-Cola formula. This is the formula that is shown above.

Pendergrast was also able to get confirmation that the above recipe was the original. At one time Coca-Cola was looking at selling a version of Coca-Cola in the Soviet Union. The company sent one of their people, Mladin Zarubica, to the U.S.S.R. and provided him with a slightly modified Coca-Cola formula. Zarubica was instructed to again modify the recipe to produce a clear Coca-Cola, however Coca-Cola later changed their mind and decided to wait awhile before selling Coke in the Soviet Union. In any event, Pendergrast interviewed Zarubica, and he showed Pendergrast the formula that Coca-Cola provided him. It was the same as the formula Pendergrast found in the Coca-Cola archives, except that the last two items (coriander & neroli oil) were missing. It even had the same misspelling of "F.E. Coco."

Over the years the Coca-Cola formula has been changed.
Asa Candler changed the formula, shortly after he acquired it, to stop imitators (at least 10 people knew the original formula when Candler bought the rights to Coca-Cola). Candler also added glycerin as a preservative, removed the cocaine, reduced the caffeine, and replaced the citric acid with phosphoric acid. In later years there may or may not have been further minor changes, but certainly corn syrup is now used as the sweetener instead of sugar. The flavoring component was also changed by Asa. He referred to it as 7X, yet Pemberton's formula only had 6 ingredients. Most likely, Asa added Lime Oil to the flavoring base and removed much of the lime juice (chemical analysis bears this out).

Asa wanted to keep his version of Coca-Cola completely secret, and he created a system whereby the ingredients were stripped of all labeling, and were referred to by numbers 1 through 9. Asa Candler and Frank Robinson were the only two individuals who knew the Coca-Cola formula or were even permitted into the lab. Lastly, all invoices were intercepted by Asa. When the company grew to the point where he could not handle the invoices himself, he had his suppliers use his numbering system of 1 to 9 on their invoices. This numbering system has since been figured out, and been reported in several books, and breaks down as follows:

Merchandise # 1 is sugar

Merchandise # 2 is caramel

Merchandise # 3 is caffeine

Merchandise # 4 is phosphoric acid

Merchandise # 5 is a coca leaf & cola nut extract

Merchandise # 6 is probably lime juice, but was incorporated into merchandise # 7 as an oil

Merchandise # 7X is the flavoring mixture

Merchandise # 8 is vanilla

Merchandise # 9 is probably glycerin, but is no longer used

1According to an article in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 4, 1996 Frank Robinson, the great-grandson of the co-founder of Coca-Cola, was willing to sell a Coca-Cola formula that was in his grandfathers handwriting. However, Mr. Robinson was going through a divorce at the time, and his wife was claiming that the formula was given to her as a pre-marriage gift. A judge has recently decided the formula belongs to Mr. Robinson, but I have not heard if Mr. Robinson still intends to sell the formula. In any event Coca-Cola claims the formula is a fake. Do to clues released about the ingredients of this formula (if genuine, which is likely) the recipe was produced after Asa revised the Coca-Cola formula, but before the cocaine was removed.

This page is in NOT sponsored, endorsed, or anyway affiliated by Coca-Cola, and all trademarks are the property of Coca-Cola.

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2008   Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack. 1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2008 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.   Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school. 1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. 2008 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark.Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.   Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students. 1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. 2008- Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.   Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. 1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman. 2008 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.  Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.   Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school. 1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock. 2008 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.   Pedro fails high school English. 1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college. 2008 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.   Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed. 1957 - Ants die. 2008- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with  domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.   Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher,Mary.  Mary hugs him to comfort him. 1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2008 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy .

 

TO ALL THE KIDS