Action movies from the 1990’s became bigger and more elaborate than ever
and the same holds true for many of the car chase scenes from this era.
Buckle up tight and hold on for dear life.
Here are the top 10 greatest movie car chase scenes from the 1990’s.
Starting off our list at number 10 is “A Short Time” from 1990.
This hilarious car chase involves a detective named Burt, who thinks he only has two weeks to live.
Now he’s attempting to die in the line of duty to collect insurance money for his family.
So he ditches his yogurt
Burt your yogurt!
to take advantage of an excellent opportunity to end his life
in a high speed pursuit with a couple of armed robbers.
What is he trying to kill himself?
The bad guys start to get away, so at a last ditch effort, he sends it through a barrier and off a cliff.
Unlucky for him, he was wearing a seatbelt at the time, so he survived the wreck.
Lucky for us, that means chase keeps going, and gets pretty heated between a red Plymouth Caravelle
and a baby blue Pontiac Catalina.
Burt ends up parking it right in front of the speeding criminals and gets completely t-boned
and still survives!
We’re glad you’re still alive Burt, and that’s why you made it on our list.
Can't you idiots do anything right?
Landing in at number 9 is the movie "Jade" from 1995.
It’s another great car chase directed by William Friedkin.
He’s the mastermind behind legendary car chases from “The French Connection”
and “To Live and Die in LA” both of which have made into our top 3 from the 70’s and 80’s lists.
Be sure to check those out after watching this one.
And check out the legs on this babe.
Wait, oh my God.
No.
This chase gets your blood pumping from the very beginning
and holds it all the way to the very end.
The hilly streets of San Francisco are a car chase wonderland for movies
and that will always be the case.
Chalk full of traffic, tight streets, and a ton of angry Chinese people partying in Chinatown
give this chase everything it needs to hang with some of the best chases out there.
Coming in at number 8 is the movie Taxi from 1998.
This french action movie is about a pizza boy who has some serious skills behind the wheel.
He quits his job to take up racing full time as a taxi driver
and along the way challenges some criminals to a race.
And check out these sweet euro whips.
A Silver 500E Mercedes and a tastefully riced out Peugeot 406.
These three cars dance through city streets, between loading docks, and down a highway
while trying to out do one another.
Mix in a Semi trucks spilling a bunch of valuable water bottles,
some super power car flipping capabilites
and a bridge jump that leads to nowhere,
and you got yourself a bonafide chase from the 90s.
Number 7 is the car rental scene in "Days of Thunder" from 1990.
In this scene, Tom cruise and that other guy decide to take a couple rental cars
on an ultimate joy ride that every teenager dreams of.
And it’s even more special getting to watch two professional NASCAR drivers
get the job done right behind the backs of their motorsport managers.
It’s a short and sweet car chase that really satisfies your appetite.
Number 6 is the BMW chase in "Tomorrow Never Dies" from 1997.
In this chase, bond is driving a tricked out 740IL BMW’s that he can control with his phone
That’s right, Bond was already doing it back in ’97.
They built 17 Aspen Grey BMW’s for this chase, and four were adapted to be “hidden driver cars."
That means the stunt driver was actually sitting in the back seat
driving the car with a tiny steering wheel.
The car that launches off the roof was also modified and stripped of all it’s weight
so it could gloriously soar through the sky like my dreams of becoming a stunt driver.
We are back in the busy streets of San Francisco for this car chase in “The Rock” from 1996
coming in at number 5.
It’s got 1990’s car chase written all over it.
A Black Humvee, A Yellow F-355 Spider, Sean Connery, and internet meme god Nicolas Cage
were all very popular things from this era.
We get more expensive jugs of water exploding from a semi truck that gets decapitated
by the flying brick on wheels.
We get cops taking huge wrecks.
A Ferrari flying through a window.
And a super intense trolley disaster where a selfless conductor
Oh my baby!
manages to buy enough time to save everyone on board,
and sticks it out by his trolleys side until they both explode into what seems like another dimension.
You just f*** up your Ferrari.
Landing in at number 4 is the car chase scene from “Who Am I?” in 1998.
When it comes to action scenes, Jackie Chan really knows how to bring the action up a notch.
And for this film they utilized a bunch of elaborate rigs that helped the car perform
stunts never before scene in car chases while still keeping it realistic enough for the purists.
Like this clean 270 reverse park to ditch the bad guys.
They almost get away and end up being chased up a parking where one of the black M3 sedans
nearly bring down one of the actors off the top floor.
The innovative stunts in this film are what landed it high up on our list.
We’re entered into our top 3 car chase scenes and what better way to start it off
than the classic bus chase from the movie “Speed” in 1994.
There's a bunch of super intense moments throughout the movie
and the suspense of a speeding bus full of innocent people became an instant hit.
Keanu Chases down the bus and sets himself up to ghost ride the whip
while pretending to care about the guy who’s convertible he just jacked.
Sir, I need to take your phone.
And of course, we get some more water to help cool us down from the action.
Leading us to the famous jump over the uncompleted highway, which is pretty hard to top.
Everyone escapes and the driverless bus slams into a plane.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
You’re not going to get a bigger explosions unless you involve an atomic bomb.
And that’s not really a topic we should be getting into right now.
Continuing the list is our runner up car chase from The Terminator: Judgement Day in 1991.
This is one of the greatest and most recognizable car chase scenes even to this day.
Pitching a motorcycle against a terminator powered semi truck
is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever heard of.
That’s until the OG terminator shows up.
I probably watched this harley jump over 30 times because jumping a bike like that ain’t easy
and because the stunt double looks scarier than the Terminator himself.
Look at him, that’s some Michael Myers shit right there.
This chase has water, although not in bottles
and its also got bridge jumps,
convertibles,
sawed off shotguns,
not one, but two terminators, and a major semi truck explosion.
That pretty much checks every box on the list for a great 90’s car chase.
That brings us to our number 1 greatest and most elaborate car chase scene from the 1990’s
with "Ronin" from 1998.
This car chase is as tense and it is realistic.
The stunt driving in this scene is really something to appreciate.
During some moments in this chase, they were using up to 300 stunt drivers all at once.
And to make it seem like the actors were doing all the driving themselves, they actually
used right hand drive cars so that the actors could mimic the same moves as the stunt drivers
while sitting next to them.
This chase doesn’t fall short in any other key factors either
such as semi truck disasters,
innocent civilians getting caught up in the funk,
270 drift entries, and of course driving against traffic on the highway.
There are obvious nods to some of the films we have covered from previous eras
which is what all around makes this the hands down best car chase from the 1990s.
As always we’d love to hear what movies you think should have been on our list.
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