You know a movie is good when it has not just one of the best car chases of all time in it, but two of them.
That movie is, of course, the 1998 John Frankenheimer classic Ronin, a murky tale of former spies, shifting loyalties and the classic unrevealed MacGuffin (a heavily guarded briefcase) they are all after.
Starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean (whose character doesn't actually die!) and Jonathan Pryce, Ronin is a truly excellent action movie, but it will always be remembered for those two fantastic car chases.
The first one happens fairly early on and involves an Audi S8, Citroen XM, several Peugeot 605s and an absolutely majestic Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 (of Rendezvous fame) in an instantly iconic chase that involves rocket launchers, a bit of rallying and some brilliant driving - particularly from actor Skip Sudduth, who looks rather unconvincing behind the wheel, but actually did most of his driving stunts himself...
Taking place initially on a winding mountain road, the chase culminates in the streets of Nice in chaotic fashion, with the big Benz being particularly spectacular on the extremely narrow streets.
The second chase is less over the top, but far more hair-raising, taking place on the busy streets of Paris and featuring a BMW 535i (badged as an M5) and a Peugeot 406. The production team actually bought four 535is and five 406s, with one of each being cut in half and towed behind a Mercedes-Benz 500 E so the actors could be filmed driving.
Former F1 driver Jean-Pierre Jarier was also roped in to drive right-hand drive versions of the cars with dummy steering wheels on the left for the actors for a similar effect. This probably explains why Robert De Niro looks so terrified...
The second chase used more than 300 stunt drivers, while several Porsche 911s were used as camera cars, with their bonnets removed and cameras mounted in the frunk to achieve all those spectacular POV and tracking shots through traffic.
Frankenheimer, being the car-guy perfectionist he was, insisted on filming the majority of the chase scenes at 24 frames per second, rather than the common practice of shooting at a lower frame rate and then speeding the film up to make the cars look faster, and he also had all the the cars recorded at a race track to make sure the engine sounds were authentic.
Which goes a long way to explaining why the chases in Ronin are so damn good. And are considered two of the greatest cinematic car chases of all time.