These iconic Chevys were the real stars of the big screen – Jalopnik

Most great movies feature cars (I didn’t see one in ‘Lord of the Rings’, though), but it takes something special to stick in the viewer’s mind. That’s not to say that movie cars have to be hyper-exotic or ultra-rare, they just have to leave a mark on our memories as deeply as the characters and plot. Even if we just stick with Chevrolet, the list won’t get much smaller due to the sheer number of notable points, but damn it, we’ll try.

Lists of movie Chevys usually start with Bumblebee the Camaro in the “Transformers” movies, although it seems generous to call them “movies.” Transformers is more like a cinematic Chevy ad. There’s also the amazing ’55 Chevy 150 in “American Graffiti,” but the less said about the “modified” (i.e. butchered) Corvette in “Corvette Summer” the better.

There are plenty more cool movie Chevrolets out there, so here are some honorable mentions before we get to the actual list. ’57 Bel Airs play a prominent role in ‘Dr. No,” the first James Bond film starring Sean Connery, as well as the 2016 landmark film “Hidden Figures,” which is about three black women who worked as mathematicians for NASA in the early 1960s. Then there’s the 1970 LS6 454 Chevelle SS John Wick, driving after his Mustang is stolen (the man has good taste in muscle cars). As for Corvettes, Bill Paxton and Arnold Schwarzenegger test drive a red ’59 C1 in “True Lies,” and “The Big Lebowski” goes medieval on a red ’85 C4.

Project X was already a star before it hit the big screen. Bought for $250 by Popular Hot Rodding magazine in 1965, this ’57 Chevy 210’s purpose was to throw modifications at the wall to see what stuck. There was no end goal, it would just keep getting new parts indefinitely. Shockingly, you can still find cheap examples to modify, like this 1957 1957 Chevy 210 we talked about a few years ago.

In “The Hollywood Knights,” Project It was painted bright yellow and rested on Cragar wheels, but its most recognizable feature was the missing hood and enormous scoop. Oh, and Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer were in it sometimes.

The crazy thing is that Project X is still not ready. After Popular Hot Rodding folded in 2014, the car was covered by Super Chevy and Street Rodder magazines. After they folded, it went to Hot Rod. There are all kinds of engines in it, like Dr. Frankenstein trying out different organs for his monster. It features a 502 big block, a ZL1 aluminum 427, a supercharged 376 LSX and now houses the 340-hp electric motor that Cadillac uses in the Lyriq. Maybe next it should go to Garage 54 so those people can put a dozen weed whacker engines in it.

“Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” not only launched Jim Carrey’s career like a rocket, it also proved that cars don’t have to be hip to be memorable. After the opening scene sees an angry, baseball bat-wielding guy shattering the windshield in Ace’s blue 1972 Monte Carlo, he just looks around his shattered windshield (not legal, by the way) as his head hangs out the window. You know, like a dog. Because he’s a pet detective.

Ace has clearly had stunt driver training because he whips that Monte next to a curb with a perfect handbrake turn. As he locks the car, he shouts, “Like a glove!” He also participates in car chases while driving it, and even takes a bullet in the teeth while weaving through traffic (now that I think about it, this movie might not be entirely realistic).

The 1970 SS 454 Montes are the most desirable, although none came from the factory with a LS6 rated at 450 gross horsepower and a four-speed manual transmission (some dealer-built examples exist). However, an LS5 454 with 360 hp is nothing to sneeze at, and the TH-400 automatic is certainly sturdy.

In 1972, smog controls throttled the Chevy big block to 270 net horsepower, but it still had 390 pound-feet of torque at the driveshaft. Only 1,268 454 ’72 Monte Carlos were built, and at least one appears to have terrorized Miami in the mid-1990s as its owner searched for missing pets.

These days, Jack Reacher is played on TV by Alan Ritchson, the sentient soft granite slab, but in the 2012 film “Jack Reacher,” Tom Cruise attempted to be author Lee Child’s 6-foot-2 ex-military police officer. When people discuss that first film adaptation, however, it’s either to focus on how weird fellow actor Werner Herzog is, or to talk about the red 1970 Chevelle SS 396 that was the star of one of your favorite movie car chase scenes, the one where Reacher crashes into an Audi A6.

Chevelles are objectively the best in red, and while it’s not an LS6 454 like John Wick’s, it’s not like 396s are weak. In 1965, the Corvettes, the L78 396, produced 425 hp, and although the engine was subsequently rated at 375 hp, it remained largely unchanged. Additionally, buyers can opt for L89 aluminum heads to remove a lot of weight from the front end; those are much rarer than LS6 454s.

In the movie “Jack Reacher” there were nine red Chevelles in different configurations depending on the needs of the scene. Some had automatics, others had four-speeds. Some had 502s under the hood; others used even more massive 540 cubic inch large blocks. Disc brakes replaced the standard drums at the rear, and cars expected to handle intense cornering received a 12-bolt rear end. Unfortunately, some vintage Chevelles were injured during the filming of this movie, but thankfully no real SS 396s. And respect for Cruise: he did all the stunts himself.

The 2009 reboot of “Star Trek” shows that even in the distant future, it will still be cool to shoot Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” face down on a red 1965 Corvette. JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot may have messed up the series’ timeline and featured more lens flare than characters, but introducing a young James T. Kirk with a Corvette joyride was the best decision he ever made as a director. Plus, judging by the shot of Kirk answering the Nokia phone (wow, Nokia will be turning it over for the next few hundred years) it has a four-speed manual transmission.

In the film, Corvette meets a terrible fate when Kirk narrowly escapes “Thelma and Louise” and takes it off a cliff while the tires somehow screech on dirt, a glaring car-related movie flaw that really bothers you, our readers, as it should. As kid Kirk grows up to become Chris Pine, the ‘Vette crashes into the rocks below. At least that is the case in the film. The real car is fine.

In September of this year, the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky announced that the current owner of the “Star Trek” Corvette, Ray Zielinski, has loaned it to the museum’s collection. There is even the Nokia touchscreen in the center console and yes, that is a four-speed manual transmission. Under the hood is a 327, so it appears that George Kirk, James T.’s late father in the film and former owner of the car, couldn’t find one with a 396.

If I had a nickel for every time someone in a movie uses a Corvette as a ramp, I’d get two nickels, which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right? The first is the silver 1986 Corvette in 2008’s “Wanted,” a film starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy as hitmen. In a scene that the Mythbusters tried to recreate (didn’t work), McAvoy has to kill a target in an armored limousine. The cartoon physics causes McAvoy to speed up in his Mustang, causing it to crouch back. Angelina Jolie slams on the brakes in her ’86 Vette and pushes the nose to the ground. The Mustang runs over the Corvette, turns around and McAvoy shoots his target through the limousine’s stunningly open sunroof.

Then, in 2013’s “The Last Stand,” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first film since leaving office as governor of California, the villain whose name is absolutely irrelevant drives a C6 Corvette ZR1, the best Corvette ever according to MotorWeek. At one point the evil guy is chased by an FBI convoy. So of course he pulls the Corvette in front of the lead vehicle, a Chevy Suburban, spins around, backs up and slams on the brakes, causing the Suburban to run over the ‘Vette and land on its roof.

This car is so awesome and the movie is so crappy that someone on YouTube edited the movie down to just the ZR1 scenes. And yes, it’s for the better.