This Could Be The Most Bonkers Car Chase You've Never Seen Before

Let Burt Reynolds transport you through an apocalyptic town-scape in a Pontiac Trans-Am in one of the most fantastical car chases ever committed to film

Adam Hurlburt

13 Dec 2015

Burt Reynolds and the Pontiac Trans-Am: a quintessential American combination, like Batman and Robin, or chilidogs and type two diabetes. If you grew up in America in the 1980s, you grew up watching this cocksure, mustachioed chewing-gum aficionado evade armies of ham-fisted cops across a Kentucky-fried nation of perpetually collapsing bridges. (And if you were anything like me you nearly choked to death taking your BMX bike off a homemade ramp with a mouthful of Big League Chew.)

1977’s ‘Smokey and the Bandit” and 1980’s “Smokey and the Bandit II” are American petrolhead classics, but they don’t contain the dynamic duo’s craziest scene, arguably the most bonkers car chase of all time.

In 1978, Burt Reynolds and another ’78 Pontiac Trans Am - red this time - teamed up with “Bandit” director Hal Needham for “Hooper, The Greatest Stuntman Alive.” The film climaxes with a chase scene so absurd that Needham could’ve lifted it from the pages of Salvador Dali’s dream diary. It’s four minutes of pure chaos in which Reynolds and co-star Jan-Michael Vincent, who occupies the driver’s seat, powerslide their Trans-Am through an American town disintegrating beneath the weight of apparent apocalyptic mass hysteria.

This Could Be The Most Bonkers Car Chase You've Never Seen Before

Motorcycle riders ditch their bikes for no reason, a Mustang slides off the road into an open grave (or something), an ambulance hilariously be-bops a man in a wheelchair through the front of a hospital, everything explodes, including, of course, the only bridge out of town. Luckily this particular Trans-Am is equipped with the rare rocket booster dealer option allowing it (or rather a tube-framed car custom built for the jump) to clear the 456-foot gap with relative ease.

Hooper’s catalyst for all this chaos is the filming of an earthquake scene in Reynold’s character’s last movie as a stunt man. But the chase is much more fun devoid of context.

This may very well be the most insane car chase ever recorded. What do you think, CTzens? Got any wilder suggestions?

Comments

This will remain the greatest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_8UgGZXio&ab_channel=SandeepShah

Except for the fact that it doesn’t actually have a car chase.

While this scene is indeed “bonkers”, I still prefer the 1974 Gone in Sixty Seconds. While making this movie they crashed over 200 cars, totally 93 of them. Best part? They filmed the entire movie without a single permit. Can you imagine trying to do something like that today?
For your entertainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v_eerDEARc

I absolutely agree. While Bullit has probably the most defining car chases ever filmed, and Blues brothers have most wrecks and impossible stunts, nothing comes close to this one.

And the whole case was done by only one car. Some of the crashes weren’t even scripted, but they kept them anyway.

Love the original gone in 60 . whole movie was filmed illegally on Sundays . the crash on the highway when HB takes out the light pole was a total mistake and they kept it … CA dot never found out who did it

Not to mention that it’s also the longest car chase in movie history. The chase takes up more than half the movie. The ending to the chase I believe is the best car chase ending too, I mean pulling that beat up car into a car wash, then stealing a fresh one and driving off like you had not just broken every traffic law is an awesome ending.