10 of the Best Movie Foot Chases

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email

apocalypto

A well crafted movie foot chase is a thing of beauty. Sure, you can have all forms of transportation speeding after each other in scenes that get the heart racing, but there’s something about seeing individuals pounding pavement, exhausting themselves silly in the hope of reaching something or someone ahead of them. There are many, many great sequences to pick from, but we’ve managed to cut it down to a few. From the suburbs of L.A., to the South American jungle, here are 10 of the best movie foot chases.

Point Break (1991)

Kathryn Bigelow’s much-loved actioner sees Keanu Reeves going after Patrick Swayze in a Ronald Reagan mask. A breathless detour through the burbs, Point Break‘s now-iconic foot chase manages to include an angry housewife and a dog thrown as a weapon.

Death Sentence (2007)

Sure, there’s the usual empty cardboard boxes placed there to be knocked over and there’s the requisite restaurant kitchen to run through, but this energetic foot chase from the Kevin Bacon-starring thriller culminates in one impressively long take, through various stories in a multi-level parking lot. Death Sentence marked one of director James Wan’s first features away from the horror genre.

Fast Five (2011)

This action-packed foot chase through Brazil’s favelas manages to juggle various characters, hand-to-hand combat, and plenty of bullets to become one of the franchise’s best non-car chase scenes. Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker put in the energetic work here.

Casino Royale (2006)

Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond saw him put in one hell of a physical performance, as evidenced by the epic chase scene between him and professional free runner Sebastien Foucan. It’s an exhausting sequence, highliting that despite managing to keep up with this bad guy most of the way, Bond simply doesn’t have all the skills.

District B13 (2004)

As with Casino Royale, the physical art that is parkour also plays a big part in our next entry: French action flick District B13. World-recognised parkour and free running expert David Belle does what he does best in this truly awesome chase scene. He may make it all look easy, but it goes without saying: Don’t try this at home!