The 8 best off-road car chases of all time

Because not all car chases take place on smooth pavement


Not all movie chases take place on smooth pavement. While the urban escape or highway pursuit are among the most popular Hollywood go-tos when it comes to vehicular mayhem, there are a number of motion pictures that have walked on the wilder side by choosing venues well off the beaten path to shoot their scenes.

Which off-road car chases are worth a look, even if the movie doesn’t particularly hold up? Here’s our take on the best four-wheeling to have been projected onto the silver screen.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road Handout / Courtoise

The cars: An unending assortment of brutalized metal, customized car-nage, and one giant truck.

The drivers: A similarly motley crew of desert freaks, all chasing down Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa.

Why it’s awesome: It takes phenomenal talent to edit together such a massive, over-arching sequence as Furiosa’s escape from her former employer Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road. What could have easily been a mess of random crashes and explosions is instead a cohesive narrative that continually ratchets up the tension between pursuer and prey. Oh, and a dude named Doof Warrior lays down some sick metal riffs over the entire thing while strapped to the front of a rolling stack of hype-amped woofers.

Fast Five (2011)

The cars: De Tomaso Pantera, Ford GT40 replica, Chevrolet Corvette GS Roadster replica, Oshkosh HEMTT Heist Truck

The drivers: Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner, Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, Matt Schulze as Vince, and Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, stuntman Corey Eubanks

Why it’s awesome: Winching cars out of a speeding train in the middle of the desert using a homemade heist truck is no small feat, nor is dumping three high-end exotics off the back of its flat-bed onto the sand before stealing said monster machine from the bad guys and launching it into the side of a boxcar. Oh, did we mention jumping out of a Corvette as it plummets into the depths of a flooded canyon? That happens, too.

That Oshkosh truck weighed 9,000 pounds and had 500 horsepower. Nicknamed ‘Mongo,’ it featured hydraulic ram steering and up to 20 inches of suspension travel, which meant it could easily handle the real-world stunts shown off in the movie.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The cars: 1984 Freightliner FLA, 1990 Harley Davidson FLSTF Fat Boy, Honda XR 100

The drivers: Robert Patrick as the T-1000, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, Eddie Furlong as John Connor

Why it’s awesome: Wait a minute, aren’t we talking about off-road movie chases? This sequence definitely qualifies, as the majority of this David-and-Goliath battle between a massive Freightliner tow truck and a tiny Honda dirt bike takes place in the San Fernando Valley’s Bull Creek, a concrete canyon that channels one of L.A.’s several captive river systems.

The relentless pursuit of John Connor by the unsleeping T-1000 is perfectly encapsulated by this pursuit, which appears early on and serves to introduce Connor to both his protector and antagonist at the same time. As the truck smashes through obstacle after obstacle, Furlong is plucked to safety from a Harley-riding Schwarzenegger, whose stunt double Peter Kent pulled off a wired jump into the canal that flew the bike in from above, swinging through the air 40 feet down by way of a pair of cranes positioned just out of the shot.

Fast & Furious (2009)

The cars: 1968 Dodge Charger, 2009 Subaru WRX STI, 1972 Ford ran Torino, 1973 Chevrolet ‘F-bomb’ Camaro, assorted cartel off-road trucks and beaters

The drivers: Paul Walker as Brian O’Connor, Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, Laz Alonso as Fenix Rise.

Why it’s awesome: The end of Fast & Furious is a wild, improbably ride that involves speeding across parched Mexican sands towards a mountain wall hiding a secret tunnel network to America. Once inside those subterranean caverns, an incredible amount of high speed driving, explosive crashing, and even vehicle swapping goes on before Vin Diesel executes a cartel member while doing a wheelie in a Camaro built in homage to the real ‘F-bomb’ constructed by Hot Rod’s David Freiburger.

Breakdown (1997)

The cars: 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1987 Ford F-150

The drivers: Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor, M.C. Gainey as Earl.

Why it’s awesome: In this paranoid kidnapping thriller, Kurt Russell’s character is pursued by a psychotic gunman in a pickup down a dirt construction road, only to find the end completely barricaded. It’s here that things get real ‘off-road,’ as facing the choice between a bullet and a bath Russell floors the gas and bounds his Grand Cherokee down a sheer cliff face before splashing it into a rushing river that floats him to safety. It’s one of the more nail-biting moments in a very intense film.

Logan (2017)

The cars: 2024 Chrysler E8, various motorbikes and trucks from ‘the future’ which are mostly disguised Dodge Rams and Jeep Cherokees.

The drivers: Hugh Jackman as Logan, an endless supply of Reaver lackeys

Why it’s awesome: It’s always a good time when moviemakers give us a taste of near-future automotive designs, and providing Jackman’s Wolverine with a limousine as a tool for battering his way out of his own desert compound was an inspired choice — especially when you’ve got the world’s most powerful telepath sitting in the back seat.

The car in question is badged as a ‘Chrysler E8,’ and it does surprisingly well against the usual swarm of machine gun-equipped trophy trucks sent to chase it, even pirouetting across a railroad track just in the nick of time to create a moveable barrier between Logan and his would-be Reaver assassins. The hero vehicles themselves were built off a 2015 Chrysler 300 chassis, wrapping the car in thicker body work that could be removed and replaced as needed to show damage accumulating during the scene. A tube-frame, 500-horsepower stunt car — which looked like the 300-based limos, but was entirely custom built — was used for fence-crashing.

The Living Daylights (1987)

The cars: 1985 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, assorted Ladas

The drivers: Timothy Dalton as James Bond, various NKVD and KGB hatchet-men.

Why it’s awesome: While The Living Daylights is a confused mess of a film, the chase that sees Timothy Dalton’s Bond skate across a frozen lake on a set of skis before plunging down a snowy mountain slope (with an intervening leap through amassed military hardware) is fairly inspired for an 1980s actioner. That he completes the escape sliding through the white stuff on a cello case alongside co-star Maryam d’Abo simply adds spice to an outside-the-box set of stunts.

The film offered one of the best looks at 007’s gadget-laden automobile in a very long time, and three vehicles were requisitioned by the production — including a model with a canvas sunroof that was used to provide better interior light for close-quarters shooting. One of the trio actually made the flying leap in the movie at well over 130 km/h, which ended its on-camera use despite having its landing cushioned by a very high tech pile of cardboard boxes. Yes, really. Eight other cars were fashioned out of various Aston Martin bits — including hand-crafted fibreglass bodies — to provide movable mule to be used in specialized shots.

Fate of the Furious

The cars: 1968 Dodge Charger, Howe & Howe Technologies Ripsaw MS2, 2015 Subaru WRX STI, 2003 Lamborghini Murcielago, MRAP Rhino, Lada Niva, Local Motors Rally Fighter, USSV Rhino XT, Dodge Ram, Akula-class nuclear attack submarine.

The drivers: The entire cast of the Fast & Furious franchise, plus Charlize Theron.

Why it’s awesome: A submarine with a theoretical open water top speed of 40 knots chases down Toretto and crew after breaking through the ice at a remote Russian military base. Also, The Rock grabs a torpedo with his bare hands. And throws it at someone. Or something. Does anything even matter anymore?
