The Problem With Car Crashes In Movies

Recently I sat down and watched Doctor Strange, which has earned the spot as one of my favorite movies. In all honesty, there wasn’t much that I didn’t like. But as much as I loved the movie, one thing did bothered me: the car crash.

If you’re not familiar with the movie, Strange is driving his Lamborghini Huracán through awful wet weather, along a windy two-lane mountain road. As he’s answering a phone call, he attempts to pass another car, but turns into it. This causes his Huracán to slide off the road, complete a ridiculous amount of flips, and come to a rest half-submerged in a nearby dock.

The absurdity of the crash is impossible to look over. For one, Strange should have been killed quite easily; he walks away with damaged nerves in his hands, but the crash’s severity should have been worse. In all fairness, Doctor Strange is a superhero movie. But that doesn’t excuse the odd and awful car crash.

And that’s the problem. The film industry was once in love with simulating somewhat reasonable crashes fairly—whether it be with ramp trucks or complicated flip systems—in favor of Computer-Generated Imagery, CGI for short. And for people who like to see satisfying but realistic crashes, that can be worse than a punch to the gut.

In modern day film, people seem to forget just how impactful the likes of car accidents can be. Now, most are completely unimportant. In Transformers, for example, Michael Bay uses the flipping of cars and trucks like nothing, completely writing off the toll of destruction.

A solution to the problems can be making the crashes less like eye candy, and make them more realistic. It’s simple, but incredibly effective. If a crash is done right, it can slide past the viewer, all the while serving the purpose. No flashy flips or roll-overs are needed.

For one final example, look at the movie Remember The Titans. The movie follows a high school football team, facing problems like the challenge of integration. But the part we’re focusing on is when Gary Bertier—one of the school’s best defensive players—is involved in a devastating crash.

In the crash, Gary, who’s being cheered on by his fellow T.C. Williams students, goes through an intersection on his car, not even looking where he was going. He then id hit im the side by a semi truck, and is rushed to the hospital.

This scene is one of the most emotional parts of the movie, and it works incredibly well. It works because of the simplicity of it. If you look at it, it’s as simple as a distracted driver flies into a intersection, and is rammed from the side. But what sets this apart from others is the delivery. It’s so sudden.

In the majority of movies, car crashes are either heavily overshadowed to the point where you just want it to happen, or the scene is set so obvious it’s hard to not notice. But Gary’s wreck is in the middle of a celebration. It almost distracts you off Gary’s recklessness, and that he’s not looking at the road. But when the semi truck comes, the collision stops the celebration on a dime.

Nonetheless, the film industry, which once adorned satisfying yet realistic crashes, has been drifting farther and farther away from what it originally was. There have been recent examples of what makes a good car crash, but most are overshadowed by your average loud—and fiery—wreck.

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