Top 16 awesome movie chases

11. Vanishing Point



Vanishing Point is essentially one long chase sequence, and it tells the tale of Kowalski (Barry Newman), an ex-cop and failed race car driver who now makes a living delivering cars, as he attempts to deliver a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco in less than 15 hours. Hopped up on speed and caffeine, Kowalski goes tearing down the highway at top speed, and all the while his mind is going in the opposite direction and reliving his tainted past.

It's not long before the cops are in hot pursuit, but Kowalski manages to avoid each and every speed trap they lay down for him by fleeing into the desert, where his journey takes a more spiritual and metaphysical turn. Meanwhile, a blind radio DJ named Super Soul (Cleavon Little) is busy spreading the legend of Kowalski to the masses, elevating the driver from outlaw to folk hero in record time. Eventually, Kowalski realizes he's on a dead end road to nowhere, but he's determined to get there as fast as possible, so he puts the hammer down and leaves everyone and everything in a cloud of dust.

10. North by Northwest



In director Alfred Hitchcock's masterful thriller, Cary Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill, a man who finds his life turned upside down thanks to a case of mistaken identity. Early on in the film, Thornhill runs afoul of a group of foreign spies who mistake him for a government agent, and they quickly frame him for a murder he did not commit. Now Thornhill finds himself being pursued by both the spies and the United States government.

On the run and desperate to survive, Thornhill follows a tip from a mysterious woman named Eve (Eva Marie Saint), and takes a bus out to a deserted crossroads, with nothing but hardscrabble desert as far as the eye can see. The moment he steps off the bus, Thornhill is alone, save for a biplane that appears to be dusting crops. However, there are no crops to be dusted, and soon the pilot of the plane has turned his sights toward Thornhill, and one of the most famous chase scenes in cinematic history is on.

9. District B-13



The only problem with this chase scene that opened prolific action producer Luc Besson's District B-13 is that it's so great, the rest of the movie sort of fails to live up to it. As the film opens, K2 (Tony D'Amario) and his gang arrive at an apartment complex located in the heart of the eponymous district, which has been walled off from the rest of the city due to the excessively high crime rates.

They've come to collect Leito (David Belle), but he's ready for them. Utilizing his mad parkour skills, Leito leads his pursuers on an urgent chase that takes them all through the apartment building, and then across the rooftops of the neighboring buildings. Leito manages to escape K2 and his gang, but is soon corralled by the cops, and no amount of fancy jumping or stylistically shot running is going to get him out of a jail cell.

8. Terminator 2



Whatever your feelings toward director James Cameron, his ability to expertly stage an action sequence is undeniable, and that skill is on full display in this breathtaking chase scene from Terminator 2. John Connor (Edward Furlong) just wanted to spend a day playing video games at the mall, but instead he finds himself being hunted by an advanced Terminator made of liquid metal (played with steely menace by Robert Patric). The wily 10 year-old manages to evade his pursuer long enough to hop on his dirt bike and escape into the canals of Los Angeles.

Thinking he's safe, young Connor lets his guard down, only to find that the T-1000 has commandeered a massive tow truck and is once more in pursuit. John tries to get away, but the Terminator won't stop until he's dead. Thankfully, the Governator shows up just in time, and one shot gun blast and a well-timed quip later, the savior of mankind is safe and out of danger...for the time being.

7. The Dark Knight



The Gotham City Police Department just wanted to transport Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to safety, but as usual, the Joker (Heath Ledger) had other plans. Christopher Nolan is a director known for his meticulousness, and this expertly crafted sequence has his fingerprints all over it, and is a marked improvement over the busy and poorly-staged action sequences that plagued Nolan's first trip to Batman's home town. The Joker and his gang take out the cop cars one by one, and zero in on the police van that is carrying the object of their pursuit.

As is often the case with superheroes, however, Batman (Christian Bale) shows up just in the nick of time and quickly manages to turn the tables on the Clown Prince of Crime. After racking up millions of taxpayer dollars in proper damage, and straining audience disbelief with a silly (and ultimately unsurprising) twist, the Dark Knight finally brings down the Joker and saves Gotham once again, even though there's a whole bunch of movie left.