Best Movie Chases Featuring Unlikely Hero Cars

Unsuspecting hero cars prove it’s not always about horsepower.

I admit, I like watching movies where the latest supercar is chased by blacked-out luxury SUVs full of cartoonish thugs. But sometimes, it comes off more as serving the needs for product placement rather than the writer’s vision. I want to be surprised by the cars a movie director deems worthy of a chase. Pick real, everyday cars I’d never consider for an action movie, or even better, maybe something I never knew existed.

Below, we’ve assembled a list of 7 movies that feature great car chases – but using vehicles most would consider too normal or even just too slow for a movie hero car.

7. Loverboy (1989)

• Cars as Stars: 1969 Jeep DJ-5, Honda Elite Scooter, 1986 Mercedes 300E, 1976 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Ferrari Mondial
• Supporting Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Carrie Fisher, Vic Tayback, Robert Picardo, Kate Jackson

Before Patrick Dempsey was a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, he paid the bills by acting in movies and TV shows. Although just an opinion, I am going to disagree with critics and say Loverboy was certainly his strongest performance and not Meatballs III.

In Loverboy, you will recognize several familiar faces, General/Princess Leia Organa, Mel from Alice, even Richard Woolsey the emergency medical hologram who’s also a member of Board of Directors of The Planetary Society.

Dempsey plays an unmotivated college student who has been cut-off financially by his wealthy parents. In an effort to earn money to get back to college (and his girlfriend), he takes a job delivering pizzas. Hijinks ensue and he ends up as an, ummm, escort?

As is common in these situations, a chase ensues with three disgruntled rich husbands in a Rolls-Royce pursuing Patrick in the Senior Pizza delivery Jeep, while his extremely Italian lovestruck co-worker on a scooter chases after Patrick’s mom. Just another Tuesday in the crazy ‘80s, am I right?

6. The Italian Job (2003)

• Cars as Stars: 2003 Mini Cooper, BMW R1150, International 4700 Armored Truck, MD500 Helicopter
• Supporting Cast: Seth Green, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Mos Def

As far as modern car movies go, this is one of the better ones, especially when you consider that all the stunt driving in the Minis and the incredible aerobatics in the chopper chase were real – no CGI. Acting powerhouse Seth Green puts in a genre-defining performance as the crew’s IT Specialist, “Napster”, while wheelman extraordinaire Jason Statham grunts his way through a typical brooding performance. Hamburger entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg is surprisingly believable as Charlie Croker, the crew’s leader.

The movie starts in Italy, as you might suspect. The first chase involves boats through the canals of Venice. Without giving away too much, stuff happens that makes us love the good guys and hate the bad guy.

We move to LA. The heist is planned and it’s determined that Mini Coopers, the modern BMW-made cars, are ideal for the job. Yes, there’s a product placement element, but it has precedent. Like the original (see below) director, Felix Gary Gray knew exactly how to highlight the strengths of the hero car. While this chase doesn’t feel as ground-breaking or imaginative as the 1969 version, it’s still better than 90% of anything plus or minus a decade.

5. Bourne Identity (2002)

• Cars as Stars: 1989 Mini Mayfair MkV, 1990 BMW K75 RT, 1991 Citroen ZX
• Supporting Cast: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen

At the end of the 1990s and into the aughts, action movies starred Schwarzenegger saving the entire world by blowing up half of it or Jackie Chan fighting 3-dozen ninjas on a skyscraper’s roof with a mop. The spy genre was Pierce Brosnan slapping-fighting his way through tired Bond scripts, while the likes of Robert Redford and Gene Hackman were still leaning heavily towards suspense thrillers.

Then along came Matt Damon as Jason Bourne.

The action was tight and personal. The plot built suspense with nuance and intrigue, rather than explosions. This felt different, real. Part of that realism spilled over into our spy-hero having to make do with what was around him and not via a never-ending bag-of-holding containing everything from laser watches to supercars.

The epic chase scene finds Bourne and Marie in a 1989 Mini, although intentionally patinaed to make it look older. This is a 41-hp car with a 0-60mph time not much shorter than its quarter-mile time. But the action took place on the tight streets and alleys of Paris, with the Mini bounding down flights of stairs, jumping curbs, and sliding its way through Parisian traffic – all while evading police in Citroen cop cars and BMW police bikes that tower above the diminutive getaway car. No fighter jets or tanks, just a lot of e-brake and even more stairways.

4. For Your Eyes Only (1981)

• Cars as Stars: 1980 Citroen 2CV, 1969 Peugeot 504, 1980 Lotus Esprit, 1960 Mercedes Benz O 322
• Supporting Cast: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Desmond Llewelyn, Topol, Michael Gothard

Seeing a James Bond movie on this list is probably a surprise but in 1981, our boy 007 needed a short reprieve from gadget-filled exotics. He did have two different Lotus Esprits in the film, but the best chase scene found Bond in a Citroen 2CV fleeing from two Peugeots full of henchmen. The story’s location takes place in the countryside outside Madrid, Spain despite the filming actually taking place in Greece. Still, the destination blind on a bus says “Madrid” so that’s all the atmospheric-establishing we need.

For those unfamiliar, the Citroen 2CV is sometimes called the “French Beetle”, which is not entirely accurate. Designed in post-war recovery, it was literally intended to replace the horse and cart in the French countryside. Although the name “2CV” is in reference to 2 horsepower, the front mounted air-cooled flat twin actually made around 9 horsepower – Bond may have been better off on foot.

Rumor has it, only one 2CV was needed for filming. This is despite being rolled multiple times and being chucked mercilessly downhill through olive trees. After one roll, Bond and a couple of locals quickly right the car back to its tires – which interestingly, the 2CV was used by Michelin to introduce the radial tire – before speeding away. Bond’s driving skills coupled with the utilitarian Citroen’s legendary suspension is enough for him and co-star to drive away unscathed.

3. The Italian Job (1969)

• Cars as Stars: 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S, 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400, 1962 Aston Martin DB4, 1950 Moto Guzzi Falcone, Morris Commercial LC5
• Supporting Cast: Michael Caine, Benny Hill, Noel Coward, Margaret Blye, Harry Baird, Raf Vallone

If any of the 37 Fast and Furious franchise movies would have been made in the 1960s, they would have been the original Italian Job. This was an early adopter of the car movie trope of assembling the team to pull off the big heist; The Asphalt Jungle (1950) with Marilyn Monroe was probably the first.

The 2003 Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron remake is good, but it gets its “bloody doors blown off,” by the original version. The opening scene itself, featuring a Lamborghini Miura is almost satisfying enough to most car enthusiasts, but the mix of hijinks and suspenseful build-up to the nail-biting caper will be familiar to current fans of the Ocean 11 films.

The Italian Job is as English as films get. Michael Caine and Benny Hill both do their thing with aplomb, but the real stars are the Austin Mini Coopers. Director Peter Collinson leaned into the silliness of using diminutive rally cars as the getaway vehicles in the crowded streets of Turin, Italy. The Minis drive through sewers, on top of stadiums, through buildings, there’s even an example of grand theft poultry that takes place during the big heist. Fun fact– the chase scene was so good, it was recycled in “The Thief of Budapest” episode of MacGyver.

2. Live By Night (2016)

• Cars as Stars: 1928 Buick Standard Six, 1930 Ford Model A, 1929 Franklin 135, 1928 Essex Super Six
• Supporting Cast: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Matthew Maher, Clark Gregg, Zoe Saldana

Gangster movies represent our fascination with organized crime. It started with the Prohibition Era’s broken-nose thugs running booze and moved to the post-war gangs of The Godfather era. Then, in the late 1950s and ‘60s, the action moved to Vegas. The ‘70s saw the rise of street gangs in New York, while the ‘80s and ‘90s headed to LA with international connections.

Now, gangs can mean anything from armed thugs to groups of computer hackers. Live By Night takes us back to the simpler times of bootlegging in ‘20s and ‘30s Boston and Tampa.

Written, directed, and starring Ben Affleck, it shockingly has no Dunkin’ Donuts content. It does, however, have some amazing car scenes – surprisingly exciting for a period when powerful cars had 50 hp and narrower tires than a modern mountain bike. But with plenty of tommy guns, and the fact that everyone involved is driving a car that may or may not be able to outrun a horse, the action is as tense as anything in a Marvel movie.

1. The Love Bug (1968)

• Cars as Stars: 1963 Volkswagen Beetle(mostly), Lamborghini 400, Jaguar E-Type, Ol’ Yaller, 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta, Apollo GT, Shelby Cobra, and countless other race and road cars
• Supporting Cast: Dean Jones, Michele Lee, Buddy Hackett, and David Tomlinson

The Love Bug was the last film Walt Disney worked on before his death in 1966, so some consider it the last “real” Disney movie. It’s full of heart, humor, and countless cool cars.

Besides Herbie, there’s great on-track footage of Cobras, Apollos, and even ‘50s Ferraris. As an added bonus, you get to see Big Willow and the original layout of Laguna Seca. The movie also immortalized Paramount Raceway and Riverside International Raceway, which are no longer there.

The Volkswagen Beetle was already a sales success in 1968, and The Love Bug certainly didn’t hurt its popularity. Surprisingly, Volkswagen didn’t officially license the car for the production. This is a fun movie, and some consider it the best family-friendly car movie ever made. Based on the book Car, Boy, Girl written by Gordon Buford, the charming innocence of the film with the slapstick comedy make it even more heartwarming today. Watching today’s generation — who are accustomed to constant interaction with machines — fall in love with a well-intentioned sentient car, “gives you all the feels.”

The special effects even hold-up and the least believable part of the entire movie is that a down-on-his-luck racecar driver and his mechanic live in a converted firehouse overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Maybe it was possible in the 1960s, but today that place is worth $17-bazillion and is a live/work/incubation-space for 23 venture-funded tech bros.

What’s your favorite movie featuring an unlikely hero car? Let us know in the comments!