CRASH COURSE The evolution of car-chase scenes When director Rob Cohen read a 1998 article on street racing called Racer X, he came up with the idea of making a movie on the subject. Originally titled Redline, the project later acquired the title of 1954 movie The Fast And The Furious for its use. Now in its ninth instalment, The Fast And The Furious franchise shows no sign of slowing down. The Sunday Times gears up for a look at how Hollywood’s car-chase scenes have evolved.

GET SET, GO MUSCLE-FLEXING DOUBLE TAKE HORSE POWER 3 1950s - 1960s 4 1960s - 1970s 5 1990s 6 2000s As camera equipment was bulky and With the advent of a smaller, lighter and Actors often rely on their stunt doubles One of the biggest innovations in the heavy then, most directors shot chase more rugged camera, a crew could shoot to do the actual driving. However, for cinematic history of the car chase had scenes with stationary cameras on studio entirely on actual streets. The arrival of close-up shots, a special rig is required. nothing to do with cars. In racehorse lm sets. For close-ups, moving footage of muscle cars, with their V8 engines and In action thriller Ronin (1998), a second Seabiscuit (2003), a giant driveable street scenes was projected onto a rear-wheel-drive, also paved the way for steering wheel was outtted in Robert platform with a mechanical horse on it screen behind the actors in a car. more daring stunts. In crime thriller The De Niro’s car. During lming, the camera was built for close-up action lming. This technique appears dated now. French Connection (1971), cameras were captured the actor’s performance behind The rig offered a exible conguration In James Bond spy ick Dr No (1962), mounted on different parts of the Pontiac the wheel while the stuntman beside him with an adjustable driver pod and actor Sean Connery’s steering does LeMans – including the dashboard – to was the one driving. camera units. In crime drama Drive (2011), not seem to match the movement capture every bump and lurch from actor Ryan Gosling’s Mustang was placed on of his Sunbeam Alpine against the Gene Hackman’s the so-called Biscuit Rig, while a stunt unrealistic-looking backdrop. perspective. driver drove the rig. 3 4 UNDER-CRANKING CREATIVE RIG 1920s - present 7 The present 2 Camera operators used to crank a handle Have cam, will travel. Handheld cameras to feed the lm through the camera. To are all the rage as a cameraman can run speed things up, they would crank the or rollerblade along to seamlessly camera slowly, exposing fewer frames, capture a car chase. In the action thriller resulting in sped-up vehicular movement. 2 Extraction (2020), stunt coordinator- However, it had one drawback: human turned-director Sam Hargrave movement would appear jerky and orchestrated a 12-minute, one-shot sporadic. With technological 5 action scene – which he shot strapped advancement, editors can now edit the to the bonnet of a car. lm rate to create the under-cranking effect. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) employed this technique to increase speed for its action sequence. THE IT GUYS The present 8 Unlike the muscle car, the modern car is built to be driven safely. Its on-board TRICK SHOT computer can shut down the vehicle if it 1 1920s detects moves that could endanger the In the early days of lm-making, a driver. To ensure cars can perform stunts near-collision between a train and actor 6 smoothly, the production teams of Buster Keaton in a car for Sherlock, Jr superhero ick Black Panther (2018) and (1924) might have seemed impossible 1 action movie Baby Driver (2017) engaged to nail. The problem was solved by computer programmers to override the shooting a sequence of Keaton driving standard safety features of the systems. backwards while the train was pulling away. The lm was then reversed, creating the near-miss illusion. DIY The present 9 For lming, crews often have to remove airbags, disable features like traction control and the anti-lock braking system, and reinforce the car frame. For Fast & 7 Furious 6 (2013), they went as far as to build a car from scratch. Enter actor Luke Evans’ weapon of choice – the Flip Car. The Formula One-inspired car had a special ramp that sent cars ying. A hydraulic steering system for both the front and rear wheels made it possible for the car to change direction at high speeds.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO... Here is a tribute to some of the most 8 famous cars of the silver screen

What it takes to shoot a four-second stunt of a Toyota 86 ipping on its Best Performance Best Leap Across Best Franchise Best Performance side and smashing Diesel Car: Broken Bridges: Idea Award: For Drift Racing through a show Dodge Charger R/T Pontiac Firebird Lightning And Tofu Delivery: window in the The Fast And The Trans Am McQueen Toyota AE86 latest Fast & Furious franchise Smokey And Cars franchise Initial D (2005) Furious 9 movie (2001-present) The Bandit (1977) (2006-2017)

months 9 8 to plan days 4 to shoot Toyota 86’s Best Best Performance Best Time Travel Best-equipped Safest Car 3 destroyed Weapon: Getaway Car: Machine Award: Spy Car: For Its Driver: Pursuit Mini Cooper DeLorean DMC-12 Aston Chevrolet Nova crew Special The Italian Job (1969) Back To The Martin DB5 (Award retracted members Mad Max and The Bourne Future (1985) Gold nger (1964) the same year) 100 involved (1979) Identity (2002) Death Proof (2007)

MEMORABLE CAR CHASES ON CELLULOID

San Francisco romp Train hunter Aerial Truck dive Freeway Truck ip Convoy chase Opening heist Zombie car chase Bullitt (1968) The French corkscrew Terminator 2: skirmish The Dark Knight (2008) Mad Max: Baby Driver (2017) The Fate Of The The 10-minute Connection (1971) The Man With The Judgment Day (1991) The Matrix A night chase comes Fury Road (2015) Baby, a getaway car Furious (2017) muscle-car chase In hot pursuit of a Golden Gun (1974) Relentless android Reloaded (2003) to a head when The protagonist driver, oors the Villain Cipher sends a pits detective hitman who has In pursuit of his assassin T-1000 A well-choreographed Batman deploys a Max tries to survive audience with his eet of cars to lieutenant Frank boarded an enemy, James Bond chases after its chase sequence that tow cable from his wave after wave of daredevil escape overwhelm a convoy Bullitt against two elevated subway decides to cross a target in a involves cars and a Batpod, hooking vehicular terror sent from the police in carrying a Russian hitmen. The chase river quickly in Ducati motorbike on a starts from the hilly train, Popeye the semi-truck, from a Joker’s 18-wheeler by a tyrannical the adrenaline-lled ofcial in the eighth streets of San detective drives Thailand, road to a storm packed freeway and truck to several baddie. The whole opening sequence, instalment of The Francisco and ends recklessly under the corkscrewing drain, crashing into ends with a head-on street lamps – movie is essentially as The Jon Spencer Fast And The Furious. at the city’s outskirts bridge, catching through the air over everything that collision between two causing the massive one big chase Blues Explosion’s when the villains unsuspecting road a broken bridge. stands in its way. semi-trucks. vehicle to ip on scene. Bellbottoms plays in crash their car. users by surprise. its back. the background.

SOURCE: INSIDER PHOTOS: YOUTUBE SUNDAY TIMES GRAPHICS: SIMON ANG, BILLY KER, CHNG CHOON HIONG