There’s always that one moment in films. The part where your mind starts to race, where your heart pounds against your chest. Because even though you’re not apart of the action, even though your not the one being chased, chase scenes are still one of the best parts of any movie.
Chase scenes help to build the action, elevate the tension of any movie and one of the best genres for chase scenes belongs to the world of Sci-fi. From spaceships to post-apocalyptic cars and even killer robots battling each other, here are the ten best chases in Sci-Fi movies.
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Get The Case
It’s easy for many fans to forget that super-hero films sometimes fall into the sci-fi genre, such as Ant-Man and The Wasp. While seen by many fans as a lesser entry into the MCU, the sci-fi caper actually has quite the chase scene that many seem to forget.
After grabbing a shrunken lab, Scott, Hope, and Luis race through the streets of San Fransisco pursued by Sonny Burch and Ghost in a chase full of great CGI, fantastic comedy, and even some suspense and originality in an otherwise forgotten scene.
Escape From New York: The Escape
Typically, when a chase scene happens in a film, they usually involve the use of cars or some vehicle pursuing one another. Sometimes there’s a time limit that strengthens the tension, other times it’s simply about survival, and other times, it’s both.
Escape from New York has a bit of both, especially in its final act. After being forced to save the president and racing to escape the Mayor of the New York prison, viewers were treated to watching anti-hero Snake Plisken in a simple yet awesome car chase.
Star Wars: A New Hope: The Trench
Leave it something like Star Wars to truly elevate and change what makes a chase scene great. In the climax of A New Hope, audiences watched anxiously as Luke flew his way through the Death Star trench, followed closely by a squadron led by Darth Vader.
Filled with epic visuals, real suspense, and even a bit of humor, the trench chase scene makes the climax of A New Hope a true visual masterpiece that entices even the most casual of viewers or newcomers to the world of Star Wars.
Matrix Reloaded: Bonkers Car Chase
When the word sci-fi pops into anyone’s mind, usually their thoughts travel to the world of The Matrix. While the first Matrix film has plenty of memorable chases and action sequences, the sequel is where the action really got a chance to shine, even if just for a moment.
Seeing as how the Wachowski siblings are always trying to push the boundaries of the action genre, this mind-bending, insane car chase ends up being a testament to that, with some impressive CG that helps to make a remarkable chase scene.
Independence Day: Through The Canyon
Put the words, Will Smith, aliens, and chase together and one would get a great combination for a fantastic chase scene straight from the sci-fi classic, Independence Day.
When the aliens begin their invasion of earth, everyone is caught up in it in one way or another, with Will Smith’s character coming across the creatures in a high octane airplane vs spacecraft chase through a canyon that will leave anyone on edge, clenching their seat rest and cheering at the awesomeness that the scene shows.
Back To The Future Part III: Race Against Time
So many chase scenes in films have to do with one person being pursued by another, with the good guy usually getting away. However, every now and then, there’s a scene where the chase revolves around time.
While using a train to power the Delorean in Back To The Future Part III, Doc Brown and Marty McFly encounter a problem when Clara, Doc’s love interest, arrives and convinces Brown to stay in a heart-stopping sequence that, while unconventional, does in a way work as a chase scene.
E.T: Off Into The Sunset
What makes a movie iconic? There are many different factors that go into making a movie an icon, from the story to the score, and yet, what gets most audiences are certain scenes that stick out, such as in E.T.
When a young boy tries to escape government agents with an alien, no one could imagine the chase that would follow or rather, the outcome: a boy, his friends, and an alien flying on bikes over their town and off into the sunset in a truly iconic chase scene.
Jurassic Park: Must Go Faster
While some chase scenes can give birth to iconic imagery, others can bring iconic lines to life. Jurassic Park is known for giving many lines like “Life finds a way” and “Spare no expense” their time in the spotlight and “Must go faster” is no exception.
On top of featuring an incredible animatronic T-Rex, a tense nailbiting chase backed by John Williams score, this brief yet masterful chase scene is punctuated by Goldblums now-iconic “Must go faster” accompanied by the T-rex’s roar that makes this scene a classic.
T2: Judgement Day: Motorcycle Vs Truck
Whenever someone says a sequel will be bigger and better than the original, usually that’s the case. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is one such film to set the bar for bigger and better everything, with action and chase scenes being a prime category.
After being discovered by the T-1000, John Conner finds himself racing through LA from the nefarious robot in a sequence that has it all. From jaw-dropping action to great special effects and a fantastic save from the T-800 himself, creates one crazy big chase scene.
Mad Max: Fury Road: Half The Movie
In the world of cinema, there are movies that have chase scenes embedded in them; ones audiences always search for. Then there is the rare breed. The movies that are comprised of only chase scenes.
The 2015 post-apocalyptic action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road, is a pure chase film. From the moment the movie starts, chases make up the plot, from the deadly dash within Imortan Joe’s mountain citadel to bandit chase in the canyons to the pulse-pounding grand finale, Fury Road simply has too many amazing chases to count.
