Cars of the Silver Screen

During the course of Hollywood’s ventures into cinematic car chases, there have tremendously exciting moments. At the point of these high speed pursuits through tightly packed streets, the cars often make the viewer forget there is even an actor in the scene. While this may not be what top-paid executives at Hollywood studios want to hear, it’s thrilling for the auto industry. In the automotive field, our little corner of the world, we want the cars to be the stars.

It’s not often that someone can talk about a film that they’ve seen and can talk more about the vehicular star of the show than the high dollar actor’s performance, but it does happen. There are a number of iconic film cars, and many people can easily cite their favorite scene. Whether it is the rolling and gigantic hills of San Francisco or the traffic laden streets of New York, it isn’t easy to make the car shine, but there are instances where it has been possible.

The most famous vehicle of super spy James Bond, the Aston Martin DB5 has cemented a place in not only film history but car history as well. A streamlined and sporty little compact, the DB5, is noted in the Bond novels as being his personal car. The presence of this vehicle in the Bond films and books ramped up the sexiness factor as it became a part of film history. Tricked out with spy-worthy gadgets in five of the six Bond films in which it was features, the DB5 became a highly sought after sports car, despite a hefty price tag. One of the cars from the film, driven by Sean Connery, sold in London for just over $4 million.

What happens when you cross an already popular car with a movie about a series of high speed chases? You get Smokey and the Bandit, and the nearly doubled sales of the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am. Burt Reynolds starred as Bandit in this southern-centric film featuring a multi-state car chase, but the car is the best remembered aspect of this film for many people. The car has remained heavily popular as the film ages, and the original model used as a basis for the car in the movie was recently sold by Reynolds himself, in 2014, for the incredible auction price of $450K!

A movie made in the 80s about a time machine is bound to have a little cheesiness factor, however, the 1982 DeLorean DMC-12 used in the film as the time machine has remained almost ridiculously popular. While the actual version of the vehicle used in the film are in short supply, two of which are owned by Universal Studios, DeLorean attempted production of the “Time Machine” version of this car for sale upon release of the films. An odd looking car with modest sales, skyrocketed to bizarre popularity after the release of the Back to the Future trilogy.

The 90s weren’t as popular in the production of heavily influential movie cars, but there were a couple standouts, most notably the 1993 Ford Explorer XLT used for Jurassic Park. The combination of the imminent threat of carnivorous dinosaurs, and the looming question of whether or not the premise of the film was actually possibly wasn’t overshadowed by the vehicles. However, the Explorers used in the film, could be more easily identified as part of the film than some of its stars. A modified version of Ford’s already hugely popular Explorer, the Jurassic Park vehicles have mostly disappeared, except for one that is owned by Universal Studios.

The Batmobile is part of history, without a doubt. Versions of the vehicle have been massively reproduced, and reimagined for the television shows and films. Batman is a hugely popular superhero, due to the fact that he is nothing more than a regular man with a tremendous amount of money and a lot of gadgets that saves Gotham on a regular basis. The original Batmobile from the television show, was sold in 2013 for over $4million. The reimagining of the Batmobile for the Dark Knight trilogy was largely based on the heavily modified body of a Lamborghini, dubbed the Lamborghini tank.

As a society, we have embrace films as part of our lives, identified with them, and sought answers from them. Cars that we see in films are part of a larger fantasy, the lives of danger we imagine ourselves to have as we’re eating popcorn in our safe homes. It’s no wonder that some of the vehicles in films have massively surpassed the actors and at times, the films themselves, because we fully have accepted the magic in the film world to be part of our magic at home. What’s your iconic film car?