Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The wreckingest car chase ever?


I've posted a few car chase videos here from time to time, but I didn't know about this one!  According to Wikipedia, in the 1974 original version of 'Gone In 60 Seconds':

The film is famous for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 40-minute car chase scene.

. . .

All of the police cars damaged in the film, the garbage truck that overturns, three fire trucks (including two waiting for the cars to clear, and another one stopping to put out a fire) were bought at city auction by Halicki in 1972, for an average price of $200 each. Everything sat in an empty lot for over a year until production began in 1973. Ironically, the fire trucks seen on the Vincent Thomas Bridge during the main chase were real Long Beach FD units on their way to an actual emergency call. The "crash" staged for the film blocked both lanes, preventing the trucks from proceeding until the cars were cleared. Halicki asked the camera crew to film them in case he found a place and time to fit the shots into the movie.

. . .

The pursuit is the longest car chase (40 minutes) in movie history and takes Pace through five cities as he attempts to lose police. Nearly every civilian vehicle seen in close proximity to the main chase (especially in downtown Long Beach) was owned by Halicki. This resulted in several of their being seen multiple times in the 40-minute sequence. The intact "Eleanor" used for beauty shots – in addition to the white Ford utilized by Pace and Stanley – are seen parked amongst the rows of cars in a few Long Beach sequences.

There's more at the link.  Here's the car chase.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.





Wow!

Peter

8 comments:

Murphy's Law said...

And no CGI--it was all really done by stuntmen.

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Peter,

I thought the Blues Brothers chase was the wackiest.

Paul said...

I like the end where he ducked into a car wash as a twin was coming out. He even told them to wax it. The lady who took possession of "her" car was classic.

I remember watching in the theater back then. Loved it. the later version was not as good, in my mind.

Old NFO said...

Yep, so many classic cars... sigh...

Anonymous said...

Old NFO - IF they had survived, most of them would indeed now be 'classics'. ;-)
One has to wonder how many budding film producers have a stash of cars tucked away - just in case.............

Will said...

I've looked, but can't find much info on the Mustang that was used for the stunt driving. Had a full rollcage, is about all. Was the sound actually from that car? (The other Mustang was an automatic.)

The director/driver died while making a sequel, in '89. Killed by a falling telephone pole. His wife got Disney to make the 2000 version, which made a lot of money, $250+million worldwide. Wonder if she got any of it?

Jon said...

I've long maintained that this chase was the longest and best in film history. I have a DVD copy of the film which I watch every so often. The rest of the movie sucked, but the car chase was magnificent!

Mark said...

If 40 minutes is record length car chase for a movie, I'm wondering how they measure it. Wasn't entire Smokey and the Bandit movie one long car chase?