Top 20 car stars
From the Ford Mercury in Rebel Without a Cause to the pink Corvette in Barbie, cars have played an integral role in TV and cinema for decades. Here are 20 of the most iconic autos.
1. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The car: 1949 Ford Mercury
Engine: 4.2-litre (255ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Teenage hell-raiser Jim Stark (James Dean) arrives in a new town to try and escape his troubled past. But it’s not long before he falls in with the wrong crowd and finds himself in knife-fights and a deadly game called ‘chickie’ – a variation on ‘chicken’, where the participants drive at high speed towards a cliff and bail out as late as they dare.
What’s the car’s role?
Jim uses the Mercury in chickie, of course, but it is also a big dark symbol of his attitude to authority. Rebel Without a Cause was among the first ‘juvenile delinquent’ movies spawned in the 1950s (Teenage terror torn from today’s headlines, screamed the tagline) and the Mercury became synonymous with JDs. The famous ‘letterbox baseball’ scene in Stand By Me (1986) features a Ford Custom convertible from the same year, and it’s no coincidence that Leo in Grease (see below) also drives a 1949 Mercury.
2. Goldfinger (1964)
The car: 1964 Aston Martin DB5
Engine: 4.0-litre (244ci) six-cylinder
What’s the movie about?
Suave British spy James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to Fort Knox to investigate someone stockpiling gold bullion. The culprit is Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), who plans to raid Fort Knox and thus destroy the world economy. Agent 007 must avoid Oddjob’s (Harold Sakata) lethal bowler hat and win over Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) if he hopes to foil Goldfinger’s fiendish plot.
What’s the car’s role?
The Aston Martin in Goldfinger is the prototype spy vehicle and it forever linked Bond with flash cars and gadgets. It has bulletproof windows, retractable wheel blades that take out a would-be assassin’s tyres, and its smokescreen, oil slick and ejector seat functions help shake off Goldfinger’s henchmen. The Aston has since been referenced in everything from video games to spoof movies. Goldfinger also has two other notable cars: a 1964 Ford Mustang and a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III Sedance de Ville.
3. Batman (1966)
The car: 1955 Lincoln Futura
Engine: 6.0-litre (368ci) V8
What’s the show about?
Millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and his “youthful ward” Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) use their vast resources and ample spare time to fight crime as the ‘Dynamic Duo’, Batman and Robin. In spite of their puny physiques and impractical costumes, they can usually thwart Gotham City’s smartest super-villains within two episodes.
What’s the car’s role?
In the show the Batmobile was supposedly nuclear powered and could get Batman and Robin to criminal lairs at a serious clip. In reality, it was based on the ponderous 2495kg Lincoln Futura, which never got past the concept stage. Described on Wikipedia as “extravagantly impractical even by the standards of the ’50s”, the modified Futura that became the Batmobile was so sluggish, footage of it had to be run in fast-forward to give an impression of speed.
4. Bullitt (1968)
The cars: 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback/1968 Dodge Charger R/T
Engine: 390ci (6.4-litre) V8/7.0-litre (426ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Three cops, including Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen), are tasked with guarding a witness due to give evidence in a mafia case. But when two officers and the witness are killed, Bullitt finds himself on the hit-list of politician Chalmers (Robert Vaughan), who stood to gain from the publicity the trial would have brought. With his job and reputation on the line, Bullitt has to track down the gunmen and bring them to justice.
What’s the car’s role?
In what might be the all-time greatest on-screen car chase, Bullitt (behind the wheel of the Mustang) pursues two suspects in a Dodge Charger through the hilly streets of San Francisco. Note the bouncy, boat-like suspension on the Charger – there are no visual tricks in this sequence. Realism was the watchword, and legend has it car nut McQueen did quite a bit of his own stunt driving. If you like the sound of a V8, you’ll want to turn the volume up on this one.
5. The Love Bug (1968)
The car: 1963 Volkswagen Beetle
Engine: 1.2-litre four-cylinder
What’s the movie about?
Down-on-his-luck racing driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) visits a car dealership where there is a Volkswagen Beetle that seems to have a mind of its own. Jim buys the car and discovers the Vee-Dub is indeed something special. ‘The Love Bug’ helps Jim start winning races again, but then they find themselves up against bad guy Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson), who is determined to beat them in his big beast of an El Dorado.
What’s the car’s role?
Along with Christine and KITT from Knight Rider, The Love Bug (later named Herbie) is one of the few cars on this list that literally has a personality. He is quick and clever, has human traits, and can even use his doors like limbs. He went on to be a big money-earner for Disney, starring in three sequels and joining Lindsay Lohan in the 2005 remake, Herbie Fully Loaded.
6. The Italian Job (1969/2003)
The car: 1968 Austin Mini Cooper S/2003 Mini Cooper S
Engines: 1275cc four-cylinder/1.6-litre supercharged four-cylinder
What’s the movie about?
Some people (mainly English) will tell you the remake is sacrilege. They kinda have a point, in that the remake moves the key action from Turin – hence ‘Italian job’ – to Los Angeles, but the two movies follow mostly the same plot: a band of hard-driving crims plan to create a massive traffic jam that will let them pull off the heist of the century.
What are the cars’ roles?
In both cases the thieves use their diminutive Minis to go where other cars can’t – along footpaths, down stairs, from roof to roof – and make good their escape. Purists will also tell you the 1969 chase sequence is better, and again we tend to agree. The original film has a delectable assortment of cars in supporting roles, including a 1967 Lamborghini Miura and 1967 Fiat Dino Coupé 2000.
7. Starsky and Hutch (1975)
The car: 1974-76 Ford Gran Torino
Engine: 5.8-litre (351ci) V8
What’s the show about?
Two police officers, David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Kenneth ‘Hutch’ Hutchison (David Soul) patrol the fictional Bay City in California. In its first two seasons the show was a darker and more serious crime drama but following complaints about the violence, the producers inevitably toned it down.
What’s the car’s role?
It’s the boys’ big beefy ride, often involved in urban car chases and nicknamed the ‘Striped Tomato’. The show’s influence on The Dukes of Hazzard is plain to see: muscle car, one guy with blond hair, one guy with brown hair, both prone to taking off their shirts. The Gran Torino certainly interested the American car-buying public, and Ford released a line of road-going Torinos with ‘Starsky and Hutch’ paint jobs. One of these appeared in the movie remake 30 years later.
8. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
The car: 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird
Engine: 6.6-litre (403ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
‘Bandit’ Bo Darville (Burt Reynolds) accepts a challenge to deliver some beer from Georgia to Texas in record time, and along the way picks up a hitch-hiking girl (Sally Field) who has deserted a local sheriff’s son at the altar.
What’s the car’s role?
This is a car-chase movie; in some ways the Pontiac is the star and the characters inside are just ballast. The car looks good, it goes fast and it reignited America’s passion for muscle cars after the 1973 oil crisis.
9. Grease (1978)
The cars: 1948 Ford DeLuxe/1949 Mercury Custom
Engines: 3.9-litre (239ci) V8/4.2-litre (255ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Based on the stage musical of the same name, it’s a tale of love found, lost and reclaimed again, set against a backdrop of 1950s high school Americana.
What’s the car’s role?
Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and his T-bird gang have burned the midnight oil to get Kenickie’s (Jeff Conaway) “hunk o’ junk” Ford DeLuxe looking the business. In a dry stormwater drain, they race rival gang the Scorpions for ‘papers’ – in other words, the loser loses his car. When Kenickie is accidentally injured, Danny must take his place as the driver. Despite devilish wheel blades on Leo’s (Dennis Stewart) Mercury Custom, Danny takes the chequered flag and proves the Ford is indeed ‘Greased Lightning’.
10. Mad Max (1979)
The cars: 1974 XB Ford Falcon/1972 Holden HQ Monaro
Engines: 5.8-litre (351ci) V8/5.0-litre (308ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Following an unspecified apocalypse (presumably not global warming, since everyone is still driving V8s), police are fighting a losing battle against looters, maniacs and other unsociable types. When a bikie gang murders his family, one of the cops, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), lives up to the movie’s title and starts a bloody vendetta against the gang members.
What are the cars’ roles?
The opening car chase is perhaps the film’s most memorable, with cops in yellow, blue and red ‘Pursuit’ Falcons chasing down the ‘Nightrider’, a fruitcake in a black HQ Monaro. Initially Max drives a multi-coloured Pursuit car too, but once he switches to ‘Death Wish’ mode he upgrades to a modified XB Falcon coupé – the Interceptor.
11. The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)
The car: 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
Engine: 7.0-litre (426ci) V8
What’s the show about?
Two “good ol’ boys”, Bo and Luke Duke (John Schneider and Tom Wopat), drive around Hazzard County in the General Lee, a burnt-orange muscle car with a Confederate flag painted on its roof (which was the style in the American south circa-1979). Most episodes revolve around a scheme devised by Hazzard’s commissioner, Boss Hogg (Sorrell Brooke), and his bumbling Sheriff Rosco Coltraine (James Best). Now and then a shady character will roll into town with a nefarious plan up his sleeve. To foil these plots, Bo and Luke mostly drive at high speeds on dirt roads. Oh, and their cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) helps out from time to time, usually clad in her Daisy Dukes.
What’s the car’s role?
The General Lee might outrun the police, win a high-stakes race against the villain of the week, or kick up spumes of dirt to get the Duke boys where they need to be. Whatever the storyline, you can bet your life the Dukes will have to slide in through the windows and put pedal to metal. In retrospect, the show’s writers did a remarkable job finding plausible excuses for car chases week after week. The show got a movie remake starring Johnny Knoxville in 2005.
12. Knight Rider (1982)
The car: 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
Engine: 5.0-litre (308ci) V8
What’s the show about?
A lone-wolf cop, Michael Long, is wounded on duty and brought in close to death. Millionaire, Wilton Knight, saves Michael’s life and changes his appearance with reconstructive surgery, to create the ultimate crime fighter, Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff).
What’s the car’s role?
It’s the ultimate weapon in Michael’s justice-seeking arsenal: an almost indestructible car with a sophisticated computer system. KITT (short for Knight Industries Two Thousand) can think, speak, drive itself at more than 200mph (0-60mph in two seconds) and is perhaps the most famous ‘car character’ of all time. TV veteran William Daniels provided KITT’s voice, although his name never appeared in the credits. Various mediocre telemovies followed, and a Knight Rider feature film originally slated for 2012 died in development hell.
13. The A-Team (1983)
The car: 1983 GMC Vandura
Engine: 6.2-litre (378ci) diesel V8
What’s the show about?
Each week the show’s intro voice-over provided the basic premise (and most Gen-X men can rattle it off word for word). In short, a unit of elite commandos are convicted of a crime they didn’t commit. They escape into the Los Angeles underground and become guns for hire, using their skills to help people being screwed over by bad guys.
What’s the car’s role?
The GMC has many roles – it’s general transport, a pursuit or getaway car, and it’s often a base of operations when the A-Team is in the field. It’s also B.A. Baracus’ (Mr T) baby, and we’d pity the fool who tried to harm it. The same model van also appears in the movie remake, although it is, ahem, short-lived.
14. Christine (1983)
The car: 1958 Plymouth Belvedere
Engine: 5.7-litre (350ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Put-upon nerd Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) becomes suddenly obsessed with a run-down Plymouth, which he names Christine. Soon after he buys the car he begins a remarkable metamorphosis, losing the horn-rim glasses, standing up to bullies – well, his car does that, actually – and scoring himself a girlfriend (Alexandra Paul). But Christine is the jealous type, and she has no intention of sharing Arnie with anyone…
What’s the car’s role?
The car is very much a character – from her evil ‘grin’, to her roaring engine to her appropriate choice in music (Arnie’s friend Dennis tries to open her door and Christine’s radio starts playing Little Richard’s ‘Keep A-Knockin’’). Her effect on Arnie is ripe for interpretation: the destructive force of jealousy, the ramifications of drug addiction, and the futility of revenge. In the Stephen King novel on which this movie is based, the author describes Christine as a Plymouth Fury – much more appropriate as a demonic car than the aristocratic Belvedere.
15. Back to the Future (1985)
The car: 1981 DeLorean DMC-12
Engine: 2.8-litre (171ci) V6
What’s the movie about?
Oddball scientist Dr Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) invents a time machine and tests it with the assistance of teenaged student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox). Just as Doc Brown sends Marty back to 1955 in his time machine, Libyan nationalists gun down the doc, leaving Marty stranded in the past. To make matters worse, Marty meets his parents and inadvertently prevents them falling in love – meaning he will cease to exist unless he can set everything right again.
What’s the car’s role?
It houses the good doctor’s time machine – a stroke of genius on the part of the film’s writers. In the rear is a ‘flux capacitor’ (otherwise knows as ‘sci-fi mumbo jumbo’) and when the DeLorean reaches 88mph (142km/h) this device fires up and sends the car and its occupants to a specified date in the past or future. It also gets some handy mod cons, revealed at the film’s conclusion.
16. Thelma and Louise (1991)
The car: 1966 Ford Thunderbird
Engine: 6.4-litre (390ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
A down-at-heel waitress, Thelma (Geena Davis) and a downtrodden housewife Louise (Susan Sarandon) decide to escape their lives for the weekend and hit the road in a Ford Thunderbird convertible. But when a man tries to assault Thelma and Louise shoots him, they become fugitives on the run from the authorities.
What’s the car’s role?
It’s a symbol of freedom – it permits two women to throw off the male-imposed yoke on their lives. The Thunderbird is also complicit in the controversial ending, which sees Thelma and Louise drive off a cliff to escape the fuzz. Is that a kiss they share before they plummet into the canyon? Is it the ultimate feminist statement? Whatever it is, it’s no way to treat a classic T-Bird.
17. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
The cars: 1970 Dodge Charger/1995 Toyota Supra
Engines: 7.0-litre (426ci) V8/3.0-litre (183ci) turbo straight six
What’s the movie about?
Cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) goes undercover in the world of illegal street racing to investigate a hijacking ring. But he begins to question his allegiances when those he has befriended, included ringleader Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), become prime suspects.
What are the cars’ roles?
If there is a car chase that comes close to the legendary Bullitt pursuit, it is the finale to The Fast and the Furious. O’Conner in his hotted-up Supra tails Toretto in his all-muscle Charger. They pull up together at a red light and in the distance is a rail crossing exactly a quarter mile away. “On green, I’m goin’ for it,” Toretto says. Both men rev their engines and it’s generation against generation, old school muscle versus tricked-up technology, roaring V8 versus screaming six. Who will win? Will they beat the train? And will O’Conner bring Toretto in? The film spawned no fewer than nine sequels (and one spin-off).
18. Supernatural (2005)
The car: 1967 Chevrolet Impala
Engine: 5.3-litre (327ci) V8
What’s the show about?
Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, attempt to track down their father who is hunting the demon that killed their mother and Sam’s girlfriend. They are chips off the old block, trained from an early age as monster hunters, and while pursuing their quest in their dad’s old Chevy Impala they save others threatened by malevolent creatures and supernatural forces.
What’s the car’s role?
Supernatural was a dark show and the Impala was about as dark and brooding as a car could get. With a paint job blacker than a vampire’s heart and square fenders lending it a funereal look, it helped define the show’s mood – Dean loved and protected it at all costs, but it often became possessed and turned on the brothers. The Impala also served as a sort of monster-killing Batmobile, the brothers storing their mass of modified weapons in the boot.
19. Gran Torino (2008)
The car: 1972 Ford Gran Torino
Engine: 5.8-litre (351ci) V8
What’s the movie about?
Korean war veteran and former Ford assembly line worker Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is seeing out his golden years a bitter and lonely man. His time in action has given him a chip on his shoulder, so when teenager Thao (Bee Vang) tries to steal Walt’s treasured Gran Torino, the flames of Walt’s bigotry threaten to become an inferno. Turns out, though, Thao was acting under the duress of a local Hmong gang. In a sort of reverse Karate Kid situation, Walt helps Thao fight back against the thugs while teaching him the importance of respect, and in so doing, overcomes his own prejudice.
What’s the car’s role?
It was an interesting choice of car. As other enthusiasts have noted, the Gran Torino was really a C-list sports car in its day, overshadowed by sleeker and more powerful stable-mates and rivals. But it reflects Walt’s personality perfectly: it’s a status symbol that declares its owner’s affluence quietly. And you can’t steal a Gran Torino – you have to earn it.
20. Barbie (2023)
Photo by Jon Kopaloff. Getty Images
The car: 1956 Chevrolet Corvette
What’s the movie about?
Gender roles? Patriarchal society? Unrealistic beauty standards for women? The meaning of existence? Name the socio-political or philosophical topic and you can probably make it fit the storyline in Barbie, as endless online arguments about its subtext would go on to demonstrate. The basic plot: a stereotypically beautiful Barbie doll (Margot Robbie) starts worrying about death and develops cellulite, flat feet and bad breath. In an attempt to find a cure, she leaves the matriarchal homeworld ‘Barbieland’ and visits our world, where her perspective on life is turned upside down.
What’s the car’s role?
The pink Corvette convertible – modified to run as an electric car – literally and figuratively moves the story along and serves as a symbol of Barbie’s power and success. Interestingly, the real-life Barbie doll showed a preference for Euro cars in her early years, driving an Austin-Healey 3000 Mk II, Mercedes-Benz 190SL, Ferrari 328 GTS, Porsche 911 cabriolet and a bunch of campers and RVs before she finally got into an all-American Jeep Wrangler in the 1980s and a red Ford Mustang in 2003.
