Memorable cars of Hollywood

September 9, 2014 8:21 PM

You may not agree with this list of memorable cars of Hollywood, but it sure is fun scrolling through it.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (39 comments total)

Not agreeing is fun too!
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 8:31 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

One Batmobile was absolutely necessary, two was likely, three was eyebrow-raising, and four, five and six went down from there.
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:52 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh, and unless I missed it - no Aston Martin?
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:54 PM on September 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

Dammit! There is only one true Batmobile (The Barris one, obviously.)! I'm glad to see they included Milner's hot rod. Yet, they're missing the Munster mobiles!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:58 PM on September 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

DeLorean not at the top of the list? DISAGREE.

Aston Martin
You hafta click "Show more" :(
posted by slater at 9:07 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, on the downside, it doesn't seem necessary to me to include every single movie Batmobile variant, and -- much more seriously -- only the 2003 version of The Italian Job? Ridiculous. The 1969 version is hands down in the top 5 car movies ever made. The 2003 thing doesn't even rate.

On the good side, #7. Wasn't expecting that but went looking for it all the same.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:07 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Glad to see the Toronado on the list. I am not a car person but for some reason I find that vehicle pleasing to the eye. HIGH-TONED SON OF A BITCH indeed.
posted by adipocere at 9:08 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Needs more Herkimer Battle Jitney!

DeLorean not at the top of the list? DISAGREE.

It's chronological, so ... the DeLorean should be all over the list!
posted by aubilenon at 9:15 PM on September 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

Every time I read a list like this I regret not buying EVERY. SINGLE. PICTURE. CAR. at the end of the bigger films I've worked on. It's so weird what car, with the right provenance, will bring from a movie fan. Just a metric buttload of regrets.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 9:17 PM on September 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

Cars that should have been included (instead of the batmobiles)
The Jaguar Hearse from Harold and Maude.
The Bullet-nose Studebaker from the Muppet Movie
All the cars from Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
The Pontiac Lemans from The French Connection
posted by 445supermag at 9:18 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

If you'd like to dive head-first into the deep end of Movie Car Land, I give you, The Internet Movie Car Database (IMCDb)
posted by JauntyFedora at 9:23 PM on September 9, 2014

I am saddened by the lack of the Chevy Malibu from Repo Man. Where are the Minis from the (original) The Italian Job?
posted by N-stoff at 9:30 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

oh for petes sake! how could they forget the 1928 Porter from My Mother the Car.
posted by quazichimp at 9:54 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Biggest omission: the Spinner from _Blade Runner_.

Also sadly lacking the Landmaster from _Damnation Alley_.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:57 PM on September 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

61 Ferrari GT California. So choice.

Also, Pussy Wagon.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:02 PM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Mad Max's Interceptor.

The VW type 2 from Little Miss Sunshine.

The Fucking General Lee.

How did Corvette Summer even make this list? I DISAGREE WITH SEVERAL OF THESE AND AGREE WITH OTHERS!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:08 PM on September 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

These numbers, Capt'n, they make no sense! Johnny Dangerously over Ghostbusters?
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 10:09 PM on September 9, 2014

Repo Man.
Back to the Future.
The Big Lebowski.
The Spy Who Loved Me.
Harold and Maude.

I can continue...
posted by Chuffy at 10:30 PM on September 9, 2014

Yeah, there's an Aston, but inexplicably, it's not a DB5.

Oddly enough, if I could have any car off of that list (to keep, not for resale), it'd probably be a 1974 Dodge sedan, with a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant. It'd have cop tires, cop shocks, and would be a model made before catalytic converters, so it'd run good on regular (!?!) gas.
posted by Ickster at 10:32 PM on September 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

I guess this list is movies only and not television (the original 60s Batmobile just sneaks in because of the 60s Batman movie which started the franchise.)

Because:

No KITT
No Beverly Hillbilly jalopy
Not a single Transformer
No Jim Rockford's car
No Starsky-and-Hutch-Mobile
No Columbo's car

And no Great Space Coaster.
posted by device55 at 10:33 PM on September 9, 2014

I liked the BMW 7 series Michael Douglas drove in "The Game". We never heard its engine, just a slight whoosh sound as it passed through the air.
posted by surplus at 11:10 PM on September 9, 2014

You know my dream movie car? You're gonna laugh. The 1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertable from Rain Man. The spear trim. The iconic Roadmaster ports. Even the Fireball 8 engine.

It was up for auction a couple years back. It was expected to go for maybe $80,000 but ended up going for $170,500.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:42 PM on September 9, 2014

Death Race 2000 cannot be a real movie?!?
posted by double bubble at 11:48 PM on September 9, 2014

Jeez ya. Where's the Ferrari California??? And for god's sake where's the goddamned delorean???

Also I drive #19 as my daily driver. Out friggin standing.
posted by chasles at 3:39 AM on September 10, 2014

This list reminds me that I hold Hollywood accountable for glamorizing horrid American cars, which are almost entirely miserable wallowing overdecorated leaden monstrosities with unsupported overhangs like dime store Frank Lloyd Wright impersonations in their exuberant eras and uptight fussily-detailed conservative facsimiles of European and Japanese cars in their blander days. Watching any movie with American cars wallumphing around in car chases just makes me laugh at how, when they stop, they just keep whombomping up and down and up and down like an ocean liner in peril on those slanky, schlubulescent so-called "suspensions." Not to mention that after every scene of a series of American cars going airborne on a scenic San Francisco hill, the director had to bring in a fresh set, as they'd all broken in half upon landing.

At least they put Bette Davis in a black Citroën in Return From Witch Mountain.

Your mileage may vary, of course, though in a Hollywood car, you probably shouldn't expect more than single digits.
posted by sonascope at 4:07 AM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Um,

The Graduate
Until The End of The World
Speed Racer
48 Hours
Fargo
Death Proof
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
A Good Year
Ronin

Just off the top of my head, thinking iconic movie car thingies.
posted by valkane at 4:34 AM on September 10, 2014

...and would be a model made before catalytic converters, so it'd run good on regular (!?!) gas.

It would require leaded gas, which you can buy today, at a price that will soon bankrupt anyone in the 99%. Sorry.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:39 AM on September 10, 2014

Someone I know is still fuming over the desecration of the one-of-a-kind Lincoln Futura, in the conversion to the Batmobile. This guy collects models, posters, and other Futura memorabilia. Every month or so to this day he calls up whoever it is that he holds responsible for that, and with his cheeks red, neck veins bulging, and spittle spraying, screams into the phone, "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, YOU DESTROYED THE LINCOLN FUTURA TO MAKE THE FUCKING BATMOBILE!!!"
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:08 AM on September 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

The Lincoln Futura is a prime example of how we Americans may have occasionally made cars that looked futuristic, but we've built few that were futuristic. Pan down from that summertime misery bubble (having driven a Messerschmitt KR200 in July, I will never see bubble tops as a good idea again) and it's just miles of flubbery mass trying desperately to stay on the road with a live axle and the leaf springs from an 1850s coal cart.

Looked good, though, so naturally Hollywood bought in.
posted by sonascope at 5:28 AM on September 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

It would require leaded gas

I know. I'm old enough to remember the switch to unleaded. The "!?!" was my reaction to gasoline with lead in it being "regular".
posted by Ickster at 5:31 AM on September 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also missing is the Shelby Cobra from Gumball Rally. Although I can't really disagree with the #1 pick, that 1949 Mercury COupe is a sweet ride, and from a very iconic movie.

Also, for those who missed the DeLorean and Ferrari Spyder, you have to click on "Show More" at the bottom. And yes, way too many batmobiles.
posted by Vindaloo at 5:53 AM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Death Race 2000 cannot be a real movie?!?

Seriously, Stallone (when he was just this schlub, not STALLONE) delivers a spot-on, perfect-for-the-movie performance as the most put-upon man in the world. Also the consistent rants about the French.

Though I might have picked Matilda the Hun's Buzz-bomb over the Frankenstein Alligator, which looks like a Corvette that ran into a crate full of carrots.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:58 AM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

The one Bond car they pick is the invisible Aston Martin from Die Another Day? WTF? Seriously?

How does that site work, by the way? I'm pretty sure not all of those text entries were written by the same person. Some were probably not written by native English speakers. So does the site just have you toss your choice into a hat and make a page out of whatever it gets?
posted by Naberius at 6:52 AM on September 10, 2014

You need to click through to see more cars on the list - apologies, I should've mentioned that in the post.

Kind of surprising to see a car from "Uncle Buck" on there. I haven't seen the movie but plan to because although it's not very good: John Candy.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:03 AM on September 10, 2014

American Graffiti was pretty much a movie about cars.
posted by rocket88 at 7:47 AM on September 10, 2014

There are plenty of beautiful cars in American Graffititi but the only one that stands out, to my mind, is the T-bird (usually referred to as "the blonde in the T-bird" -- and don't get me started on Suzanne Somers because she has interesting YouTube stuff about being in American Graffiti *mentally noting for FPP*).
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:16 AM on September 10, 2014

Yeah, make sure you click the "more" link before you whine about cars that ABSOLUTELY MUST BE ON THIS LIST.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:43 AM on September 10, 2014

I had this Batmobile as a kid. The neighborhood bully up the street stole it from me. A few years later, he actually stole my dad's Galaxie 500.
posted by davebush at 1:08 PM on September 10, 2014

Somewhere, Sam Raimi is having a sad. Unless it's on the list somewhere and I missed it.
posted by wabbittwax at 1:10 PM on September 10, 2014