Greatest Chase Scenes:

1984 - 1989

Against All Odds (1984)

Director Taylor Hackford's film-noirish drama was most notable for its 2 and 1/2 minute impromptu car chase (or street race) along LA's Sunset Boulevard (about 18 minutes into the film), between two open-topped cars: a red 1983 Porsche 911 SC Cabrio (driven by Jeff Bridges (as aging football player Terry Brogan)) and a black 1982 Ferrari 308 GT Quattrovalvole (driven by James Woods (as nightclub owner Jake Wise) with a white dog in the passenger's seat).

Remarkably for a car chase in which they weaved in and out of dense traffic and through intersections, there were no wrecks or damage done to either vehicle. At the start of the race, Jake taunted: "Let's see if you still got balls, Terry."

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

This sequel contained a thrilling roller-coaster-like chase in which Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), American singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Indy's young sidekick Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) were chased by cultish Thuggees in underground mine-shaft carts, including a tense tug-of-war with Short Round suspended over a lava flow between two carts.

Also, there was the climactic "bridge" scene in which the heroes were pursued onto a rope bridge and surrounded by Thuggees and the villainous high priest Mola-Ram (Amrish Puri) -- Indiana Jones growled at Mola-Ram: "Prepare to meet Kali... in hell!" and then cut the bridge.

The Terminator (1984)

James Cameron's original Terminator film featured the suspenseful scene of the unrelenting pursuit of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) by the killer cyborg from the future, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in a stolen police car, through an underground parking lot and then onto the public highway.

Later in the film, they were also chased by the Terminator riding a motorcycle and shooting at them with an assortment of weapons. Their truck crashed and ended upside-down, while the Terminator's bike also crashed - and the indestructible cyborg was run over by a tanker-truck, but was able to revive and commandeer the oil truck to continue the chase, until the truck was blown up.

Back to the Future (1985)

In this film was the memorable scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) created a makeshift skateboard ("It's a board with wheels) from a little boy's scooter and evaded bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) and his gang chasing him on foot and in their car by hanging onto the back of a pickup truck.

He eventually caused them to crash into a manure truck (they screamed "Shit!" as they crashed into it, in this PG-rated film, and Biff vowed: "I'm gonna get that son of a bitch") -- this scene would be referenced, with variations, in the next two sequels.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

In one of William Friedkin's greatest films, with its most- and well-remembered car stunt and chase sequence, US Treasury Secret Agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen before CSI) drove a tan Chevrolet - with his partner John Vukovich (John Pankow) in the back seat; they had just witnessed the unexpected murder of Thomas Ling (Michael Chong) (revealed later to be an undercover FBI agent) as they daringly robbed him of 50ドルK in fake cash (held in a concealed money belt under his shirt to be used to trade for stolen diamonds). It appeared that Ling's armed associates had fired their high-powered weapons above them and accidentally hit and killed Ling.

The two undercover FBI agents Chance and Vukovich realized that they were now regarded as criminals to be hunted, and were being followed by a vehicle with two of Ling's accomplices; Chance was driving as they were pursued in an exhilarating nail-biting, chase through back alleyways as they swerved to avoid semi-trucks and other traffic, chased a Santa Fe train and crossed tracks in front of it, and descended down the concrete walls lining the LA River; and then, they realized that they were being pummeled by bullets from guns aimed at them from all directions, and cars seemed to appear out of nowhere and completely surround them on all sides.

The climax was a "Wrong-Way" freeway car chase as Chance announced: "We're goin' this way" -- Chance drove his tan Chevrolet up LA's 710 Long Beach Freeway exit ramp directly into multiple lanes of oncoming traffic - and at top-speed near-missed every one of them - yet caused the jack-knifing of a tractor-trailer!

[Note: One astonishing shot was an over-the-shoulder driver's POV shot of the entire freeway, showing the oncoming cars from far ahead.]

The pile-up of cars behind them allowed them to evade their pursuers, but they found themselves in an unfamiliar junkyard area as the sun was setting; Vukovich yelled out: "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"

Running Scared (1986)

In this action/comedy by director Peter Hyams, two wise-cracking Chicago cops, Ray Hughes (Gregory Hines) and Danny Costanzo (Billy Crystal) (in a Yellow taxi with bullet-proof windows, and two innocent passengers, a priest and a nun) chased after cocaine-smuggling drug lord Julio Gonzales (Jimmy Smits) in a black Cadillac limousine.

The pursuit began at the airport and traveled on the interstate, and then through the city streets, as Gonzales ordered his driver: "Do whatever you have to do to get us outta here, OK?" The limo crashed through a railroad crossing, and sped along the train tracks, and then mounted onto the rails as both cars entered a tunnel. The vehicles barely avoided a head-on collision with one of the CTA's Red Line subway trains, and Danny reported by radio that they were on the city's elevated train tracks: "Pursuit has left the interstate, now we're on the L."

Eventually, Julio's limo crashed into another train on another subway line, and their car was flipped over, although they escaped just before impact. Surveying the damage, the two cops spoke to each other:

Danny quipped: "Why weren't we on that track?"
Ray shouted back: "Oh, now you're gonna criticize my driving?"
Danny responded: "It's just that you get to do all the dangerous stuff, and I get to parallel park."

Akira (1988, Jp.)

This Japanese anime film contained some of the most kinetic sequences in animation history.

In the film's opening scene set in Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019 following WWIII, two rival gangs of cyberpunks attacked each other through the streets of the dystopic, futuristic metropolis, culminating in a game of chicken between teenaged delinquent hero Kaneda and the rival Clown gangleader.

The Abyss (1989)

James Cameron's film included a thrilling underwater chase scene between two submersibles, one manned by estranged couple Bud and Lindsey Brigman (Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the other by the pressure-sick SEAL leader Lt. Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn).

It culminated with Lt. Coffey sinking in his damaged submersible Flatbed into the deep Abyssal Trench, screaming as his submersible imploded, with Bud and Lindsey left stranded in their own leaking mini-sub vessel Cab One.

Back to the Future, Part II (1989)

This sequel featured two Hoverboard scenes, including a reprise of the Hill Valley skateboard chase scene around the town square in the future year of 2015, and another tense scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), riding a hoverboard, retrieved Grays Sports Almanac from young Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) in 1955 as Biff drove his vehicle (with Marty hanging on for his life) into the river road tunnel.

Earlier in the same sequence, Marty was being chased by Biff and his cronies at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance -- he was distracted by another Marty playing "Johnny B Goode," forcing the first Marty to figure out a way to eliminate Biff's goons without interfering with history.

There was also an earlier scene in the year 1985 in which Marty was chased to the top of Biff's high-rise casino "Pleasure Paradise" by Biff's goons and by Biff himself wielding a gun to murder him. Marty seemingly stepped off the building to commit suicide (he actually stepped atop the flying DeLorean time machine-car and was whisked away by "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd)).

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

In the memorable "Young Indy" prologue scenes, a teenaged Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) was chased by cave-robbing treasure-hunters atop a circus train, with Indiana acquiring his trademarks: his phobia about snakes (by falling into a snake-filled car), the cut on his chin (using a whip for the first time) and his fedora (given to him by the head treasure-hunter).

There was also a speedboat chase that culminated when an adult Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) was stuck on a speedboat with his pursuer as the boat was chewed up by the screws of a tanker.

Also memorable were the escapes by Indiana with his father Henry (Sean Connery):

1. when German fighter planes were chasing them -- one was dispatched when it entered a tunnel with them, shearing its wings
2. when Henry wisely used his umbrella to frighten a flock of seagulls that pelted the plane and caused it to crash (Henry proudly said: "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne -- "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees... and the birds in the sky"

In another scene, Indiana had to rescue his father being held inside a tank while on horseback - at one point, a jeep was blown off the tank, and Indiana and the tank commander fought on the tank's treads.