Get Ready For F9 With A Look At How Movie Car Chases Have Changed In The Past 100 Years

The latest movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise opens in U.S. theaters next week (June 25), but F9 is already raking in the dollars overseas as it lures in thousands of moviegoers with the promise of some spectacular car chase action.

Right from the first movie, FF films have been far more focused on entertainment than being technically accurate, and we’ve already reported on some slightly questionable physics involving magnets in F9.

But if you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief, we don’t doubt that the combination of highly skilled stunt driving and some clever CGI trickery will deliver some incredibly thrilling chase sequences.

Movie chases have certainly come a long way, as this short documentary from Insider explains. It starts off with a clip of silent-era daredevil Buster Keaton driving right in front of a train, in what looks like the dumbest, most foolhardy stunt ever, before explaining that the director actually filmed the sequence backwards, then reversed everything in the edit. It’s a great reminder that while previous generations of moviemakers didn’t have the luxury of modern CGI technology, they still had plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

It goes on to explain how chases were transformed in the late 1960s by the compact Arriflex 35 II camera. While previous chase scenes had most been badly faked using rear projection, the Arriflex 35 II was small enough to take the audience inside the car, as in the 1968 Steve McQueen movie Bullitt.

We also learn how directors filmed at different speeds to create a certain look to a chase, and how many modern movies, like Tokyo Drift, are often filmed thousands of miles from where they’re supposed to be set.

A word of warning: though this video is about car chases, it’s clearly not been made for, or by, a team of hardcore car enthusiasts. So you’ll have to put up with some baby talk (‘this is a muscle car’) and the occasional automotive inaccuracy. But don’t let that put you off, because it’s still a really interesting watch, even if only to see some great behinds the scenes footage of some of your favourite car movies.