Silent movie history: the first-ever on-screen car chase in cinema
We typically associate a thrilling car chase with a Hollywood blockbuster, such as the Fast and Furious franchise or a James Bond movie. Watching extravagant car chases can be highly entertaining, making us wish that we were in the driver’s seat ourselves, narrowly avoiding injury in exchange for a hefty dose of adrenaline.
There have been many fantastic car chases executed on the big screen, such as the climactic sequence at the end of Thelma and Louise or the thrilling chase in The Dark Knight. Most of them are achieved using trained professionals, carefully ensuring that no real injuries or fatalities occur during filming.
However, as computer-generated technology has become more accessible and realistic, special effects have often been used to create safer and less destructive car chase scenes. Yet, filmmakers have been featuring these sequences long before cars were even developed into the kind of vehicles we are familiar with today.
Back in the early days of silent cinema, several filmmakers featured car chases in their movies, although the cars looked considerably more wagon-like and much less flashy. There are several notable early chases, such as in Lois Weber’s Suspense from 1913, which is most likely the first car chase directed by a woman.
The first-ever car chase, though, is agreed to be in Runaway Match, directed by Alf Collins. The British director made the five-minute short in 1903, with France’s Gaumont Film Company distributing it. It sees a couple drive off in a car to get married, only for the bride’s disapproving father to chase after them to break up the loving couple. To his misfortune, the car breaks down in the middle of the road, leaving the couple to snigger and clap their hands in amusement before waving and driving off.
After the couple is married, the father turns up and is initially angry, only for his daughter to introduce him properly to his new son-in-law. The pair seem to hit it off, and they all drive off to a seemingly happy end.
The car chase doesn’t exactly have the same bombastic nature as a sequence with Vin Diesel behind the wheel, but it is a fascinating artefact from the silent era. Contemporary audiences would’ve perhaps found the scene as exciting as a high-octane stunt that we see today; after all, many audiences were terrified by the image of a train coming towards the screen when Train Pulling into a Station was screened in 1896. Cinema was still in its infancy in the early 1900s, and seeing even the most tame car chase would’ve likely caused a visceral reaction in the audience.
Car chases have come a long way since then, and it is the 10-minute sequence from Bullitt that is often considered the first proper car chase in mainstream Hollywood history. The scene features Steve McQueen driving a dark green Ford Mustang through San Francisco, stunning practically everyone who witnessed the lengthy yet gripping chase upon its release.
Yet, Collins’ car chase came 65 years earlier, suggesting that cinema could be used to thrill and depict action-packed sequences. While the chase in Runaway Match is nothing compared to the ones we see on our screens today, it paved the way for one of cinema’s most exciting action movie staples.
