#186. Car Chase Draft!
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
This bonus episode skips the usual banter and drops straight into a snake draft in which Sonny, JVL, and Mike each pick their three all-time favorite movie car chases, JVL going first. Final boards: JVL takes Bullitt, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Ronin; Sonny takes the Matrix Reloaded highway chase, The French Connection, and Spielberg's Duel (agonizing over Baby Driver before going with his heart); Mike takes the Goldfinger pre-credits Aston Martin/Lotus sequence, the wordless opening drive in Drive, and the demolition-derby finale of The Blues Brothers, with a rueful nod to the Fast Five vault chase he never got to pick. Along the way they swap trivia and tangents: the French Connection chase was shot without permits, with stunt driver Bill Hickman hitting an actual, unplanned car in the 26-block, 90-mph run while director William Friedkin rode along filming; the elevated highway in The Matrix Reloaded was purpose-built in Australia and shot from both directions to look bigger; and there's a detour into Roger Moore's slide-whistle car jump in The Man with the Golden Gun, plus Sonny floating (and getting shot down on) the low-speed standoff in Way of the Gun as an honorable mention. The episode closes with the trio recapping their boards and teasing a listener poll to crown a winner.
From the show notes
We'll put a poll up on Tuesday for you to vote. Don't want to spoil any of the choices.
Full transcript
Mike00:00:00Welcome back to the Sub-Beacon. It's a bonus episode. And guys, we are drafting car movie car chases, car chases in movies, best one, favorite one, whatever it is. I don't know. What do we do? What are we doing here? We're doing the snake, snake draft again.
JVL00:00:28Who's going first? Why don't we, why don't we let JVL go first? Cause I think he was last in our last draft. We'll go JVL, Sonny, and then, and then me last. Oh, I hate going first. Um, but I'll do it anyway. All right. Um, bullet number one. It's a number. So here's the thing. I've never just seen the movie. I've only seen the car chase and I've watched the car chase like 15 times. And is Steve McQueen driving a green Ford GT chasing down a Dodge Charger over the hills of San Francisco. And it is so visceral and real. And it is, there's a reason that everybody calls it the most iconic car chase ever, ever put to film. Yeah, that's a good one. I mean, I don't think anyone's gonna, I don't think anyone's gonna, you know, ding you on that one. That's a, that is, that's a good number one pick. I know what you're going to pick when, when you, who goes, who goes, I think, you know,
Sonny00:01:28tell me what I'm going to pick. You are either going to pick Matrix Reloaded or Fury Road. No, it's Matrix Reloaded. Definitely. I don't think Fury Road counts. Fury Road's like a whole movie. Just that's one car chase. Fury Road is the car chase. Fury Road is the car chase. The Matrix Reloaded, like I say this all the time and sometimes people laugh at me, but I'm, I'm right. I'm right. That the, the middle hour of the Matrix Reloaded is the best hour of pure action filmmaking that any American film has done in the last 25 years. Like, it's just like this, the sequence that starts, uh, the sequence that starts in the Chateau and runs through like Harold Perrineau going, yes, yes. When they, when they, when Neo grabs, uh, Morpheus off the top of that truck, that's the, that is, uh, you could even go like a little before that, but like that, that bit in particular is just like pure action filmmaking. I mean, they literally built, the Wachowskis literally built a highway in Australia and they, they ran, they ran it one way and then they came back and did it the other way to, to make it feel like a much, much bigger thing. Um, it holds up today. I mean, it's still, it's like, there's a lot of digital work in it, but there was also a lot of practical work in it and it melds together. Uh, it holds together better than a lot of similar stuff today. But I mean, like you've got, you've got Trinity on the motorcycle riding, uh, riding it backwards against traffic. You've got the, the, uh, uh, like the agents hopping on the cars and flipping them over. I mean, the whole thing is just amazing. It's really good. I mean, it's just absolutely top three. And then on top of that, on top of that, you have like an actual hand to hand fight scene inside one of the cars while the car chase is going on between, between Trinity and Morpheus and the ghost twins. I like, it's, it's amazing. The whole thing, it is again, like no American film has topped that in the last, I don't know, uh, 24
Mike00:03:28or 35 years. It is perfectly like just this side of camping, you know, like it doesn't go in that direction that the later Bond movies go in terms of because like, like, there is the man with the golden gun. Oh, look at that JVL.
JVL00:04:12This is the car. I am. That's the car. Oh, yeah. And it actually has the ejector seat, too. That's like there's a thing. If you pull it, the this here, let's see if I can. Can you do it? Not breaking. I believe you. I believe you.
Mike00:04:28Um, I because the because the other the other like Bond car chase that I love, but somewhat ironically is the one from the man in the golden gun where they're in Vietnam and like he's driving and he's he's got what's his name? Uh, the the the the sheriff Sheriff Pepper in the car with them who's like happens to be in this movie, too. And they're like screaming like the bridge is out and James Bond like goes over the broken bridge in Vietnam and the car does a flip in the air and then lands on the other side. But for some reason, some moron in post production decided let's add a slide whistle to that leap over the over the, you know, the the Mekong or wherever they are. And like, it's so bad. It's good. But uh, yeah, gotta go with Goldfinger. Is that the Lotus? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I'm trying to remember now. Um, I had the matchbox car of that. James Bond Lotus. And when I was, you know, like seven years old, that was my favorite of all the James, all the matchbox cars I had. All right. All right. So you get a number two. You get to here. Oh, I get to you. That's right. That's right. Um, so I think I, okay. So I've, I don't know if you call this a chase scene, but the open. So tell me if I'm wrong on this, but the opening to drive is like one of my favorite scenes. Yeah, we'll call it. We'll count that. Yeah, that counts. Uh, which is like, cause I believe this movie, like they're the first like four minutes have no dialogue. It's literally just him driving around in this car. It's just, I saw it like at a, like a time I was really getting into movies and I just thought this was like the most cinematic thing ever. Um, so I love drive. Drive has a couple of great sequences. And that first one is I think the best of them because it is like the way it works is like, what if a car chase was for real? What if, what if a driver was actually trying to, you know,
Sonny00:06:28lose the cops and like, um, you know, get away. And I, I love that movie and I love that sequence. Um, but, uh, but yeah, no, I think that counts. That, that absolutely counts. All right. Excellent. Well, there's my number two pick, uh, Sonny. What is, I mean, the funny thing about drive of course, is like the, the way they marketed that movie as basically a fast and furious knockoff. Right. And it's like closer to something like a European art house movie. Yes. Like, and, and there was a, there was a loss. There was actually a lawsuit. People were like, this was not the movie I expected. I demand my money back. Wait, a lawsuit. Yeah. There's Google it. Drive by the producers who financed it or by the ticket by the ticket buyers. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. They were like, we, we demand a better movie. All right. Uh, I'm going to go with a classic. I'm gonna go with a classic here. Uh, the French connection. Got to get the French connection. Uh, because, you know, look, this is a, I mean, the fact that I got it at five, frankly, is a, I know it was a big win for me. I almost went with French. I think there's a, I think there's an art. I mean, I would assume if you were doing a list like this, number one and number two are usually going to be bullet and French connection. Uh, the French connection chase through the, the, you know, the underpasses and, um, so do you know the story behind this? No. So, uh, they didn't have the permits. Oh yeah. Yeah. To shoot this.
JVL00:07:58And, uh, the first couple of takes through it, the stunt driver, Bill Hickman comes over to William freaking and says, this is crap. And freaking gets mouthy with them. And, and Hickman says, you get in the car with me and I'll show you what it should look like. And so freaking gets in the car with him and just freaking in the car with a camera and the stunt driver. And he just starts filming and he drives 26 blocks at 90 miles an hour. And in fact, there was a real car crash where he goes and hits and the car he hits is a white car that he hits is in the movie. And it's just like a guy who would just like left to drive to work. It's like the new Hollywood clipped by the, the difference between that and fast and furious X fast X, where, as you say, Sonny, when they line up to race in Brazil for their obligatory, you know, street race, uh, none, none of those actors are in cars. None of those cars are real. And none of the actors or fake cars are in the same geographical location at the time of shooting is, uh, it's like a perfect, and you could really example of the, you know, how, how moviemaking has changed.
Sonny00:09:12Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I like it's, it is, it's kinetic. It's kinetic in a way that, uh, a lot of, a lot of stuff is not, it has weight. It has weight. Uh, so I get to here, right? Yes. Correct. Uh, I'm going to take fury road.
JVL00:09:28I'm sorry. The, yes, the entire thing is a car chase. The whole movie is a car chase and it's amazing. Uh, and then with my next, my next one, I'm going to take the, the in Ronan, which is absolutely one of my favorite movies, uh, favorite spy movies. There's a car chase through Paris in there and it's all old school. I mean, this is like a return to the seventies filmmaking and, uh, it's just fantastic. Like everything in that movie is fantastic.
Sonny00:09:58That's fair. Those are my three. I feel like with bullet fury road and Ronan, I'm in very good shape. Yeah. Those are, those are, those are pretty good picks here. Um, I, my, my problem here is that I can, uh, I got, I got a couple of different options here. Got a couple of different. Can I make a suggestion? Sure. Way of the gun. Low speed car chase in which the cars are moving about three miles an hour. I mean, they're just using the cars as cover and it manages to be both funny and tense at the same time. I don't think, I don't think fabulous sequence. I don't think that. Okay. All right. Well, okay. Uh, I, I, here are my two options here. I'm, I'm torn and I, I, I can't imagine these are going to be huge fans with any of the voters out there, but I don't do this for the voters. I do this for me. Do it for you. Um, uh, option number one is everything. King size option. Number one is Steven Spielberg's duel. Great movie. I don't know if you've guys, I don't know if you guys have seen it recently. Uh, but it, it really is considering it was essentially made for TV. It's amazing. Just, uh, just real tense. I mean, like actually terrifying in the way that few movies really are. I mean, the idea of being a, just a guy driving around and you got this monstrous truck on your bumper, you know, uh, tormenting you like a great, great movie. Um, really tense. Steven Spielberg. Who knew, who knew he could direct a movie? Um, great kids go in place. Great, great flick. But I'm all, I'm torn between that and baby driver, the Edgar Wright. Those are my opening sequence and baby drivers. Really good. Everything in baby driver is really good. And baby driver does have, does a very specific thing that I really love, which is making the car chases, uh, almost like musical numbers. Like the, the, the sound, the way the soundtrack interacts with the car. He's doing a lot of, I don't know. I'm very torn on this. I have to go the end of the day. I got to go with dual just because my boy, Steven Spielberg, number one filmmaker. He's the, he's the, you want to give, you want to give this guy a leg up, you know, he needs, he needs, he needs a, he's got, he's had a rough patch here, but this is, you know, number one, number one movie, uh, film director, possibly of all time. Steven Spielberg. I, I, I love dual. It's great. Uh, people should watch it. And, uh, I
Mike00:12:28again, I was very torn here because I, I, I think baby driver is actually weirdly underrated now. Yes. Um, but Mike. All right. So I was going to go with baby driver, but since you mentioned it, and since you already talked about it, even though you didn't pick it, I'm going to have to go with my number two, which I, cause I thought you might mention baby driver. So I'm actually going to pick for my last pick here, the blues brothers, where they, where they, where they destroy all the cars there at the end sequence. That's a great sequence. And it's real, you know, it's like, that's like another
JVL00:12:58one where like all the cars like actually got beat up. So I'll go with the blues brothers with baby driver as my, uh, as my real pick. But, uh, uh, but, but I gotta go with my heart here. If you had seen fast five, you almost certainly would have picked that for the sequence in which they, you get a little bit of it in fast acts. They, where they drive through Rio de Janeiro. I think it is maybe towing a bank vault. Yeah. And, uh, when you see the full version of that, it really
Mike00:13:28is exceptional. Yeah. All right. Well, fast five is the only one of those movies that is, I think, good. All the rest are bad. That one's okay. It's passable. Wrong. I'll have to think about maybe not, not seeing, um, wherever it's streaming. Uh, okay. So just to sum up before we go here, uh, JVL, uh, with, uh, his picks for the best car chase scenes in movies. Number one, bullet number two, Mad Max Fury Road. Number three, Roanoke. Sonny. Number one, Matrix Reloaded. Number two, French Connection. And number three, Duel. And me, Mike. Number one, Goldfinger. Number two, Drive. Number three, The Blues Brothers. That's all we're going to give to this bonus episode. Remember, subbeacon.com. Thanks for listening.
Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →
Comments
Loading…