Car accidents are standard blockbuster material. Searing them into your memory takes a great director and just enough realism to put you right there in it. Here are six that will stay with you.
Disturbia
The most memorable scenes of car accidents are those that happen in an instant, to ordinary people. Just take the accident sustained by Shia LaBeouf in Disturbia. When the black SUV in front of him swerves to avoid the stalled car in the road, you know he has no chance. While Shia’s reflexes are superb, it doesn’t stop the multi-car pileup, which leads to his father, in the passenger seat, dying.
No Country For Old Men
The way hired assassin Javier Bardem is blindsided by a car running a red light also makes incredible use of realism. He never sees it and neither does the viewer. Bardem’s performance, exiting the car and wandering in a daze, is so spot-on that there’s a brief moment where you’re almost sympathetic toward him. But the you remember that he’s a villain responsible for multiple homicides (including Kelly MacDonald in the scene just before), and all that sympathy disappears. But the brilliance of the accident remains with you.
Death Proof
Even for a car crash scene, this one is truly not for the squeamish. The viewer is forced to endure a head-on collision caused by psychotic stuntman Kurt Russell in his “death proof” vehicle multiple times. The injuries sustained by the four carefree girls are varied and sickening, just as they would be in a real-life collision. The one positive note is that Russell’s “death proof” vehicle isn’t enough to save him at the end of the movie.
The Dark Knight
Bruce Wayne looks surprisingly hale and hearty after getting t-boned in his Lamborghini Murcielago, which counts as casual transportation for him. But I suppose when you’re the richest man in Gotham, wrecking a half-million dollar car isn’t that big a deal, right? And besides, saving his hapless employee, Coleman Reese, from assassination was completely worth it.
Rush
The crash in Germany which left Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda (portrayed by Daniel Bruhl) with serious burns to his face is depicted in Ron Howard’s most underrated movie and is painstakingly recreated. Losing his helmet in the impact, Lauda sits helpless, exposed the flames of his burning car for a virtual eternity before his life is saved his fellow drivers.
Inception
Being just one level of the dream world created in Cillian Murphy’s psyche, most of the cast drives off a bridge in order to wake up the other team in Murphy’s next dream level. It’s difficult to explain, but it may be the slowest car accident in movie history. Filmed through the lens of Christopher Nolan, it becomes one of the most memorable, as well.
The average moviegoer may not be able to relate to being a superhero or a world-class hot-rodder, but being in a vehicle at that moment everybody dreads is another matter. These six cinematic car accidents from the last decade are sure to make you wince.
Sources
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2012/4/12/Niki-Lauda-s-Infamous-Ring-Crash-Recreated-for-Rush-7708333/
https://braunslaw.com/practice-areas/car-accidents/
https://gizmodo.com/5709292/the-definite-inception-dream-layer-map-drawn-by-christopher-nolan-himself
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