FF

I have a quick question to start off the week:

Whatever happened to iconic movie cars?

You know the ones I’m talking about, right? Bullit’s ’68 Ford Mustang…Smokey & The Bandit’s ’77 Trans-Am…James Bond’s Astin Martin DB25…heck, even Doc Brown’s DeLorean.

Once upon a time you used to be able to look at one image of cars like these and be taken back to the movies they were featured in, the stunts they pulled off, how they steered, how they swerved. You might have even wanted one; at the very least, you wanted to sit in one.

Nowadays? Five bucks of you can name the car Dominic Toretto drove in FAST 6 without Googling it.

This isn’t s question of our car movies – perish the thought. Every year it seems like we get a great chase to add to the ever-growing list of great chases (which, for my money, tops out with RONIN). No, this is a general wondering why no modern cars seems to be joining the pantheon. What’s actually mildly ironic in that respect, is that many of the great modern chases employ classic cars!

Is it just because, as one cultural commentator put it, that cars have become cup holders with wheels? That even the very best designed new automobiles look like so many other automobiles that they don’t stick out when we see them in films? Or is there something more to it? Do we not care anymore about such things? Further, do filmmakers not care enough about such things to try to make something iconic out of something modern and something that has become rather common?

I’m not a gearhead, so I could be completely off the mark here, but if you ask me, the last time we got anywhere close to creating something iconic out of a modern automobile was when the remake of THE ITALIAN JOB idolized the revamped Mini Coopers. I feel like that slot should come with a pair of a pair of asterisks for being both a remake and a rethink of a classic design.

What say you fine folks? Is there a modern iconic car in cinema? If not, will there ever be one again?

Edit: One thing I should have mentioned – what I’m specifically wondering about is not just modern films, but modern cars *in* modern films. So while a commenter below mentions a 2007 film, it’s a 2007 film that revolves around a 1970 car. I want thoughts on 2007 films featuring 2007 cars. (RM)

6 Replies to “Road Apples: Whatever Happened to Iconic Movie Cars?”

  1. It’s another retread of land that’s been driven on before, but I’d say the Tumbler in Batman Begins is pretty iconic, it’s certainly the most recent car that I’ve looked at and thought “Yes, that’s how I’d like to commute to work from now on,” and then when it turned into the Batpod in The Dark Knight? It was settled; I needed one in my life.

    Other than that, without hitting Google the closest I can come up with is the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story (and every other Pixar movie), but that’s more me being a Pixar fanboy than anything else.

    1. I call “shenanigans” on The Pizza Planet truck. That was just a regular pickup with a model rocket on the top.

      You might be on to something with The Tumbler though…although even that seems like a spin on an already established car (The Batmobile), and one that you would never see on the road (unlike the list mentioned above). Still, you’re right, if there’s an iconic movie vehicle from this century, that’s handily it.

  2. For me, the most iconic car in cinema is the 1970 white Dodge Challenger from Vanishing Point that was also used in Death Proof.

  3. Is it sad to admit I know Dominic Toretto drove a Dodge Charger as in most of the series?

    I agree with Steven on the Challenger from Vanishing Point and would add: 1955 Chevrolet One-Fifty from Two-Lane Blacktop and 1932 Ford coupe: American Graffiti. All three were mentioned in one of my early posts from five years ago HERE

    I think the real issue is the cars as much as the films. Do we have that many iconic cars these days? Last week, I saw the latest Jason Statham Wild Card, the character drove a forty-five year old Ford Torino GT, I can’t think of a modern car that would have fitted the character.

    1. Your point about iconic cars is what I was getting at when I mentioned “cup holders with wheels”. If I surrounded you with the flashiest of current car models and took off their markings, I’d dare you to be able to discern the Audi from the Mercedes from the Lexus.

      Meanwhile, I can show my 63 year old father a side view of a late fifties Thunderbird and he can identify it down to the year.

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