The French Connection

Car-on-car chases may be ten-a-penny, but car-on-train? An altogether rarer beast, nailed by Gene Hackman in the early 70s with fender-bending aplomb. The film picked up five Oscars – Best Director and Best Picture among them – and, if there’d been a category for ‘Gnarliest Car Chase’, we’re pretty certain it would’ve walked away with a sixth. Free from ridiculous moments of gravity-defying madness, Detective Jimmy Doyle’s tyre-squealing romp through New York in a Pontiac Le Mans triumphs thanks to a gritty realism that’s become all too uncommon in the age of Bullet Time.