AllMovie

A type of action, thriller, comedy or crime film which has a great chase or race as a main plot element. While some chase movies involve horses, boats, or even airplanes, the advent of the fast car was the inspiration for the chase movie. Perhaps the most famous of car chases was in The French Connection, where a good portion of the film consists of a single car chase through the streets of New York, followed by a chase on foot through the subways and subway stations. Impossible stunts and jumps are performed in these chases, and every film tries to top the last, putting the viewer in the middle of the action. While primarily cops-and-robbers films, chase film also include spies, criminals after criminals, and bad chasing good.