The first decade of the 21st century saw an explosion of popular action franchises.
Meaning bigger and better car chases than ever before.
We’re counting down the top 10 best movie car chase scenes from the decade in this week's top 10.
Starting off at Number 10, is Bad Boys 2 from 2003.
This chase involves Will Smith in a silver 550 Maranello, Ferrari’s first front engine car,
and subsequently one of my favorites.
I mean, listen to the sound of that V12 topping out down the highway.
(engine screaming)
And, Martin Lawrence, who can’t shoot a gun, or keep quiet.
(Just shut the f*#% up and let me drive, lets try that.)
Similar to any firework show, every great car chase from this era has a CGI finally.
And I’m just not sure what’s funnier.
The exaggerated laws of inertia,
or Martin Lawrence at any given moment.
Number 9 is the opening chase from Transporter in 2002.
BMW actually provided three black 7-series cars for the making of this chase.
(See what I mean about the shocks.)
The cars were fitted with 6 speed manual transmissions to help make them more maneuverable for the stunts.
And there's a lot of great stunt driving throughout this scene.
The cops make a pretty impressive effort to chase down Jason Statham who gets his way
out of some sticky situations with a little help from our new best friend
good old Computer Generated Imagery.
Jamming into Number 8 is The Bourne Identity from 2002.
This film actually won a World Stunt Award in the category “Best work with a vehicle”
for this chase sequence through Paris where Matt Damon and Franka Potente
flee from the police through the crowded streets.
Director, Doug Liman, used the same stunt driving team
that worked on the famous car chase scene from the movie “Ronin”.
These guys really know what they are doing.
Making this car chase not only realistic, but completely badass.
Number 7 is the car chase from Gary Gray’s “The Italian Job” from 2003.
Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham, and Charlize Theron
did the majority of their own stunt driving for this film.
And get this, Charlize was actually the best driver of the bunch.
Either I need to learn how to become an academy award winning actor, or give up on my dreams
of becoming a stunt driver all together at this point.
The original “Italian Job” from 1969 was one of the greatest chase scenes ever made.
Lucky for us, they went all out on the making of this one.
Shutting down busy LA streets for weeks at a time and using up to seven cameras at once
to capture some of those incredible stunts.
No car chase list is complete without my bestest pal, James Bond, and he completely kills it
with this gnarly car chase scene from “Quantum of Solace” in 2008 crashing into number 6.
The movie barely starts and we already have Bond getting pinned between a semi truck
on a windy mountain road in Italy.
Which is my second biggest fear,
behind crashing into one head on while trying to overtake traffic on the left.
And that happens.
The entire seen has so much fast paced in your face action
that all you can do is watch in awe without blinking.
The tasteful CGI is not over top, but just enough to perfectly compliment the beautifully
choreographed stunt driving that makes this chase an instant classic.
Number 5 is this epic car chase from Gone in 60 Seconds from the year 2000.
Nicolas Cage is back at it, sweet talking his way around the police
in one of the most famous Mustangs of all time.
A 1967 Shelby GT500 fastback named Eleanor.
This car is a masterpiece, and watching it being thrashed around a construction site
is heart wrenching.
We get a lot of intense close calls.
Close enough to make Nicolas Cage beg for forgiveness.
(I need you. Now. Now.)
And some seriously cool wrecks that make you feel like you’re part of the action.
Right up to where the car gets stuck in some traffic.
I can’t tell you how many times my brain has ran through the idea
of launching off a tilted flatbed.
But to actually do it?
well.
We’ll leave that to nick.
Number 4 is the crane chase scene from Terminator 3 in 2003.
If you don’t already know from watching our 80’s chase list, I have a serious phobia
of semi trucks from watching car chases as a child.
And the only thing worse than a semi truck, is a semi truck with steel arms
protruding out of its sides.
This chase has so much destruction it’s almost non stop throughout.
There’s moments when all you hear are explosions one after another.
There’s so much carnage and destruction it makes other scenes look tame.
There’s some pretty dodgy CGI, but if you take a step back and let yourself accept it,
makes for a super trilling sequence that without a doubt will give you at least one serious nightmare.
The chase took weeks to shoot and ended up so far over budget that Arnold himself helped
out with a chill million Dollars to finish the scene correctly.
Starting off our top three is a chase that cemented an unstoppable franchise in
2 Fast 2 Furious from 2003.
The aftermarket car tuning world was as it’s peak,
and this chase was so much more than a movie scene.
It was introducing the public to a booming underground street racing culture and subsequently
made the scene even bigger.
If you’re a fan of riced out sports cars, this chase has all of them.
Like, every single one.
You like Mazdas? got em’.
Civics? got em’.
PT Cruisers?
yup, it’s got those too.
It’s even got Dodge Rams, ramming into a police barricades just for good measure.
Over 20 Police cars were destroyed in the making of this chase, and there was even
a car wreck that happened on accident that still made it into the film.
It was chaos on set, which perfectly represents what was happening in real life around the country.
But with less cops and PT cruisers, of course.
Put on your CGI suits for this chase scene from The Matrix Reloaded in 2003
Coming in at number 2.
The second installment of the Matrix trilogy boasts one of the longest and most complex
chase sequences in film history.
The chase is so intense, that they actually built 7 miles of freeway just to film it.
Samurai swords get pitted against SUVs, Trinity with her gravity defying Ducati,
and people busting Chinese fire drills like we never thought were possible.
They also managed to computer generate the worlds largest accordion.
Which is pretty f@#*ing cool.
Which makes it pretty hard to argue that this chase deserves to be pretty high up on our list.
And our number one car chase of the decade is Christopher Nolan’s epic second entry
in his Batman trilogy “The Dark Night” in 2008.
This chase is so incredible that it has almost too many highlights to mention.
There’s guns everywhere, crazy head on collisions with Batman’s Tumbler,
and explosions all over the place.
Sadly, while filming, one of the talented crew members lost his life when
a camera car crashed into a tree.
A reminder of the dangers and risks that film crews take when making these incredible action scenes.
For that reason it’s important to give credit to the hard word and dedication it requires
to bring you such a wonderfully intense car chase.
And to remember the fallen heroes who helped pave the way to greatness with amazing car chase scenes
just like this one.
Like always, we’d love to hear your thoughts about our list and what car chase scenes you love.
Are there any other movies you think we should have covered?
Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more.