I have a problem with a lot of movie police chases. More often than not, the vehicles used are very predictable. Ever since the Bullitt chase scene, it works something like this:
The good guy drives some high-powered muscle or sports car. Ford Mustangs are popular for this role, though any “classic” will do usually.
The bad guys will drive either a similar high-powered muscle car, or a big sedan that would have a lot of guts. A Dodge Charger fits the role nicely, but you could also expect vehicles like Cadillacs and Lincolns or, more recently, tough but fast SUVs like the Jeep pursuit vehicles in the movie “Venom”.
The police will use the period-correct cop cars that are dime-a-dozen or will utilize the “detective’s car” trope. So this is why, instead of Caprices, Crown Vics or piles upon piles of Chrysler products, you’ll see cars like the Pontiac Trans Am in “McQ” or the BMW 540i in the 2000 version of “Gone In 60 Seconds”.
Like I said, predictable. It’s why I enjoy off-kilter chases that throw a wrench into the program. I liked seeing a Chrysler 300 like Angry Grandpa as the pursuit vehicle in “Driver”. I loved the armada of vehicles chasing Brian and Dom towards the U.S./Mexican border in the final chase scenes of Fast and Furious 4…you had everything from Mustangs and Coupe deVilles to a Chevy desert racer, a Ford Taurus and even an Imperial involved. And in the name of weird chase vehicles, add this one to the list: an early 1980s Jeep Wagoneer from the 1988 movie “Shoot to Kill”. It’s full of typical cheesy 1980s chase clichés like the cardboard boxes in the alleyway and the slow-moving trucks getting in the way but when was the last time you saw a full-size Jeep getting thrown around like it was a Dodge Diplomat?
