To celebrate the Blu-ray and DVD release of Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, we have compiled a list of The Top 10 Car Chases in movie history; chases which featured some of the best ever on-screen driving, amazing stunts, and stunningly beautiful cars, all being pushed to the very limits.
Released on 15 June 2012, Safe House will be the first release from Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd with revolutionary UltraViolet™ capabilities, and features a gripping, action-packed, Bourne-like, tale about a rookie CIA agent who’s tasked with both protecting, and delivering a dangerous traitor to his bosses, before unknown forces and track them down and kill them both.
Ronin (1998)
Cars including; BMW M5’s and Audi S8’s battled through tunnels and drove against traffic in this film about a former intelligence agent trying to track down a secret package wanted by international sources. As well as starring Robert De Niro and Jean Reno, a total of three hundred Formula 1 stunt drivers were used to navigate their way through the narrow streets of Paris and Nice when shooting scenes for Ronin.
Bullitt (1968)
Driving a 1968 VS Ford Mustang Steve McQueen did the majority of his own stunts behind the wheel in the iconic car chase that now, forty years on, is still mentioned when discussing the best movie car chases of all time. It took director Peter Yates three weeks to shoot the car chase that roamed the streets of San Francisco, and saw the cars reaching speeds of up to 110 miles per hour.
The French Connection (1971)
Driving a 1971 Pontiac Le Manse to pursue a killer speeding in front of him on a raised train, Gene Hackman starred as Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection; the film which is often credited as the film that made him a star, won five Oscars®, features the iconic scene in which the car chases a train, and saw the majority of scenes being shot without proper permits, leading many unwitting bystanders having to dodge the speeding car and train!
The Italian Job (1969)
Featuring Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, a Jaguar E-type and the iconic red, white and blue mini’s motoring through tight streets (and even the indoors) of Italy, Michael Caine’s famous line “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” has become a favourite among Italian Job fans, and lovers of the classic 1969 car chase that sees a collection of car thieves attempting a high-stake bank job in Italy.
Safe House (2012)
Driving a maroon BMW 7 series whilst trying to get ex-intelligence officer Tobin (Denzel Washington) to a new safe house before he is captured, Safe House’s rookie CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) leads the action packed film into a car chase through the streets of Cape Town, both showing off his driving skills and beating up Washington at the same time as trying to navigate this intense high-speed car chase.
To Live and Die in LA (1985)
Driving a Chevrolet the wrong way down a freeway, William Petersen stars as Richard Chance and portrays a Secret Service agent who continues to take chances with his own life, in order to catch the counterfeiter who killed his partner. Director William Friedkin ingeniously used low mounted cameras to enhance the sense of speed in this dramatic chase.
Blues Brothers (1980)
Driving their 1970 Dodge Monaco’s Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s alter egos try to wreck as many cop cars as possible, in one of the most famous Hollywood car chases of all time, in the film which sees Jake Blues (Belushi) and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) trying to raise money by staging a big gig to keep their childhood convent boarding school open. The movie saw the record for the most cop cars destroyed in a film, and as a result director John Landis had to come to an arrangement with Chicago retailers, and local authorities, obliging him to rebuild everything that was destroyed during the shooting of the movie.
Grand Prix (1966)
Winning several Oscars, this three-hour epic by John Frankenheimer follows the fate of four Formula 1 drivers during the 1966 F1 Season. Featuring real life footage of races, with cameo appearances from famous F1 drivers including Jean-Pierre Sarti, Graham Hill and Nino Barlini, Grand Prix was one of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 1966.
Death Proof (2007)
Using his 1969 Dodge Charger, a deranged stunt man (Kurt Russell) hunts down young women and kills them in a series of staged collisions in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. Tarantino used real action sequences, rather than CGI to add authenticity to the crashes, and actually came up with the idea of a “death proof” car after filming a crash-scene in Pulp Fiction and deciding he wanted to buy a Volvo for safety reasons, shortly before a friend informed him that any reputable movie stunt team could easily ‘death proof’ it for him.
Vanishing Point (1971)
A white 1970 Dodge Challenger was used in these amazingly daring scenes that sees a chase cross traffic and slide along dirt roads at high speeds, in an action packed film with some of the best stunt driving ever recorded Vanishing Point director Richard Sarafin allowed Hollywood stuntman Carey Loftin to design and execute the driving scenes.
 
Safe House is out now on Blu-ray and DVD, from Universal Pictures, and you can read our DVD review of the film here.
