The Best Movie Car Chases, Ranked

At some point in any self-described cinephile’s life, it’s pretty much obligatory to go on a Spielberg deep-dive, as you would Kubrick or Scorsese—otherwise you’ll likely miss Duel, one of Mr. Hollywood’s first movies, made four years before he would change the summer movie landscape with Jaws. Steeped in Hitchcockian suspense, the whole film—made for TV, and originally aired on ABC as part of its Movie of the Week series—is essentially one big chase scene, centered on an unassuming salesman who wrongs a truck driver and finds himself subject to the worst bout of road rage in the history of traffic laws. By shooting the truck in tight, low-angle close-ups, emphasizing its size and heft, Spielberg turns it into a bonafide movie monster; come to think of it, you might describe Duel as a horror movie more than a road thriller, such is the film’s sheer sense of terror.

6. The opening getaway chase from Drive