8 of the best James Bond Car Chase Scenes
By: Tamir Davies
Last updated: 16 June 2016
James Bond is one of the world’s most recognisable spies! Bond has been around for more than 50 years and still going as strong as ever! There may have been $12,000 worth of martinis made and 44 short affairs with the handsome protagonist, but ever thought about the famous car chase scenes that have dominated our cinema screens. There have been more than 60 car chase scenes to date and with the future Mr Bond in question, there’s one thing we are sure of. An appearance by Aston Martin is needed to rev the engine up a notch and prove it's place as a Bond car!
So in excitement for the next Bond to be revealed, let’s take a look at the famous car chase scenes we just can’t get enough of!
Spectre
Starting with the latest and most hotly anticipated Bond film since Craig took on the role, Spectre had the Aston Martin DB10 built especially for the film. Bond is being chased through the streets of Rome by a Jaguar C-X75, with Mr Hinx behind the wheel. The car chase took 17 nights to film, which was half set in Oxford’s Blenheim Palace.
Diamonds are Forever
The film that was at the height of Sean Connery’s career, Diamonds are Forever featured a high-speed car chase in a Ford Mustang through the streets of Las Vegas. The catch? It was on 2 wheels, and was later nicknamed the ‘alley car’. The chase culminates in the impressive stunt that took the world by storm, as the Mustang passes through a narrow alley tilting on two wheels. However, when the car came out the other end, it was on the opposite side.
Casino Royale
Sitting in the cinema, there was nothing more tragic and horrifying than witnessing the Aston Martin DBS V12 crash during Bond’s pursuit of Le Chiffre. The car was especially modified to withstand the impact. The stunt was perfectly executed and the car rotated seven times while being filmed, and was later confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records on 5 November 2006 as a new world record!
Goldeneye
Pierce Brosnan’s Aston Martin DB5 is hailed for his ability to drive rather than chase in this sequence. Though he is supposedly driving through the mountains above Monaco, he is in fact on a French mountain road. Chasing Famke Janssen;s Xenia Onatopp in a Ferrari 355, the sequence takes you through a game of cat and mouse through twisty roads, leaving you sitting on the edge of your seat!
Skyfall
Only Bond could pull of a high-speed chase through the streets of Istanbul. The opening sequence featured a Land Rover Defender 100 and a motorcycle, making it as fast paced, dangerous and action-packed as remotely possible!
Die Another Day
Rockets, canons and aerial mines are just the bottom of the list of weapons Bond is battling! Bond is in a 5.9L Aston Martin V12 Vanquish and is being chased on ice. A difficult scene to have filmed, it is one of Bond’s most coveted car chases of all time!
Tomorrow Never Dies
Yet another film where Pierce Brosnan works his magic, but with a BMW 7 Series, remotely controlling it as it’s chased around a multi-storey car park.
Man with the Golden Gun
There is only one reason we adore the car scene in this Bond film, for reasons other than it was a jump and not a chase that earned its rights to the best car scenes in Bond films! The famous 1974 jump of an AMC Hornet X, rotated on a broken bridge in Thailand; the first time a Bond car was an AMC.
Feature image credit: Anton_Ivanov / Shutterstock