Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Hang on, shouldn’t that be “don’t do the crime if you haven’t figured out a really good way to get away with it” Who goes into committing a crime expecting to do jail time for it If you make $100,000 from robbing a bank but then spend ten years in jail you’re better off spending that decade working a toilet cleaning job. So yeah, while the actual crime in a movie is usually pretty exciting, it is – as these ten scenes reveal – the getaway that really counts.
10: The Getaway
Doc “no, not the one from Star Trek” McCoy (Steve McQueen) has had a gutful of prison, but his early release comes with a catch: he’s got to do a bank robbery with a couple of guys who’d kill him soon as look at him. So he kills them first, takes the money (and his wife), and heads for the border. This isn’t director Sam Peckinpah’s best film (it’s a lot better than the 1994 remake though), but even on a bad day he’s better than 99% of Hollywood. Plus the real getaway here is leading lady Ali McGraw getting away from her husband (and the film’s producer) Robert Evans and into the waiting arms of McQueen off-screen, who she later married.
9: Matrix Reloaded
Okay, enough time has passed that we can all admit that while the last two Matrix movies were obviously not that good, they did contain a bunch of scenes that were very good indeed. Or even just one scene: the car chase from The Matrix Reloaded, in which Morpheus, Trinity and, er, a guy with a bunch of keys who’s called The Keymaster (no sexy cosplayers dressing up as you, my friend) have to escape from regular cops, agents, those razor wielding ghost twin guys and a whole bunch of regular “duh, what’s happening” drivers. Not only is it full of great moments – c’mon, Morpheus takes out a car with a sword – but they constantly escalate in a way that the films as a whole just don’t. A motorbike race through traffic Yeah, that’s pretty badass – but how about doing the same thing into oncoming traffic a minute later
8: The Robber
Based on a true story, this German film tells the tale of an ex-con marathon runner who finances his training by robbing banks – the twist being that rather than leave a car outside with an engine running, he sprints away from the scene of the crime at a speed the unfit cops can’t match. But what is he really trying to run away from Wait, I can do better: But the one thing he can’t run away from… is himself. Yeah, I could totally get a job writing movie trailers.
7: E.T.
Kids on bikes versus cops in cars This is going to be one short chase. And hey, even if they do outrun the cops, there’s a whole bunch of guys in suits just waiting to rush out and grab them. Yep, call this one in boys, these kids are toast. We just got to… wait… what the… they’re flying
