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Car Chase!

Car Chase Why do they run?

Police chases. You've seen them. Someone is a car is running from the police! The culprit is racing up the freeway at a hundred miles an hour. Police cruisers are on his tail and TV helicopters are over head and sooner or later the news caster asks 'The Question', "Why do these people run? They know that sooner or later their going to get caught so why are they running?

Here is the answer! In jail, the inmates are allowed to watch the local TV broadcasts. These inmates have nothing to do but sit around and watch TV. And one of the most popular things they watch are police chases.

Now, the person being chased knows this because he has, most likely, been in jail before. And, yes, he knows that eventually he's going to be caught. But, he also knows that the longer the chase lasts and the more daring the chase is, the more important he will be when he is put in jail because, all the inmates are watching and he will be 'Big man on campus."

So, if we want to stop these dangerous chases all we have to do is stop televising them. Of course, the TV stations that broadcast these chases will not stop because they are more worried about their ratings than they are about the lives of us and our children!

Car chase often describes the pursuit of a criminal by police, and is increasingly captured on film from media and police helicopters. In movies and television a car chase is a scene involving one or more automobiles being pursued by other vehicles. Car chases are ubiquitous to the action movie genre, and some movies are almost entirely built around car chases. They are so popular because they are fast moving scenes with a great deal of excitement, but are not hugely expensive. Due to cars crashing and banging they can contain violence without any harm to individuals and thus secure lower ratings. Car chases often "star" high powered vehicles.

Real life car chases

Los Angeles has many car chases that are captured on film, with news helicopters ready to film the incidents. Many are broadcast live. Some news websites have footage of car chases. In 2002, there were 700 pursuits reported in the city. There was a famous slow speed car chase of O.J. Simpson in 1994. Police have tactics to use in car chases such as the PIT maneuver, and stopping cars with Spike strips.

Princess Diana was killed in 1997 in Paris in a high speed car chase, being followed by French photographers.

The 2005 Macquarie Fields riots occurred in Sydney, Australia after a local driver crashed a stolen vehicle into a tree, killing his two passengers following a high-speed police pursuit. The death of university student Clea Rose following a police chase in Canberra sparked major recriminations over police pursuit policies. Ole Christian Bach was found shot and killed in Sweden after he had been followed in a car chase by Swedish undercover police.

Reality television has combined with the car chase genre in a number of television shows and specials featuring real footage, mostly taken from police or media helicopters of actual criminals fleeing from police.

One of the most bizarre police chases ever recorded occurred when an M60 Patton tank was stolen from an Army National Guard armory and taken on a rampage through San Diego, California, the massive tank crushing multiple civilian vehicles before high-centering on a concrete freeway divider where police were able to get aboard the tank, though had to resort to lethal force when the suspect would not surrender.

Car Chase In film

Although car chases on film were staged as early as the motor vehicle itself, the first modern car chase is generally seen as that in 1968's Bullitt. The chase in this film was far longer and far faster than what had gone before, and placed cameras so that the audience felt as though they were inside the car. Even during the most calamitous scenes, the star - Steve McQueen - could be clearly seen at the wheel of the vehicle. The French Connection further increased the realism. While previous chases had been filmed on closed roads and isolated highways, The French Connection placed the chase in the midst of busy traffic and pedestrians. Further after this was The Seven-Ups, which featured Bill Hickman as one of the drivers who previously featured in Bullitt, which contained a frantic chase again through New York, and was regarded as having many qualities similar to that of Bullitt.

The movie chase that started them all - BullittAs time went on, so did the expectations of the movie car chase. Since Bullitt, car chases featured in movies have continually become more advanced and therefore more entertaining. Car crashes have also formed an increasingly important role, with the destruction of any vehicle often coming as a delight to the viewer. An early example of a staged but startling accident in a movie chase can be found in the 1974 movie MCQ, which featured an incredible rollover, the first cannon rollover in fact, across a beach. The spectacle came at a cost for the stunt driver Hal Needham however, who sustained multiple injuries after setting the explosives too high.

The spectacular and first ever cannon rollover from MCQPerhaps the most typical car chase is one in which a car is being pursued by police cars. In part because car chases are so common many movie makers try to introduce a new twists to them. One of the most famous variations is from The French Connection and involves a car chasing an elevated train. Chases involving buses, trucks, snowmobiles, tanks, and virtually every other type of vehicle (with or without wheels) have appeared in one film or another.

Probably the most complex type of car chase involves going the wrong way in moderately congested freeway traffic (e.g. Ronin, To Live and Die in LA). There are also a number of films that feature complex large-scale chases involving a lot of vehicles in the pursuit, notable examples including The Blues Brothers, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Mad Max 2

Another method of escalating a car chase scene is to have a characters move from one vehicle to another and to fight in or on top of a moving vehicle.

Several television shows have been built around the popularity of car chases, such as the Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider & Airwolf.

In more modern times, the use of computer generated imagery is becoming increasingly popular, and, although costly (and with a careful eye, easily distinguished from a real car chase) eliminates any danger level. While impressive at times, it is often argued that it eliminates the realism of the chase scene, which can then in turn damage the established thrill factor. Recent examples of this computer generated imagery can be found in the Michael Bay films Bad Boys 2 and The Island. An example of a lower budget film using computer generated imagery in a car chase is RSTC: Reserve Spy Training Corps.