8 Most iconic cars in film history

There are few things in life more liberating than the open road and having the means to traverse it. Where will you go? What will you see? Who will you meet?

Cinema also poses these questions when you are watching a film for the first time. Both cinema and the open road can benefit from an iconic car adding a bit of magic to the experience.

An iconic car looks special, has character and can contribute to illustrating whatever story is being told.

Of course that’s not to say that great films always need iconic cars—clearly you wouldn’t want one turning up in a medieval epic because that would just be weird! But if the story allows for it, an iconic car can really help.

With The Grand Tour back on Amazon Prime and the Formula One season drawing to a close, now is a timely moment to buckle up and feast your eyes on the most iconic cars in film…

This car was way ahead of its time quite literally, because it was a time machine. Back to The Future was released in the year 1985, from which teenager Marty McFly winds up travelling back to 1955 in a DMC DeLorean sports car converted by scientist Doc Brown.

The DMC DeLorean sports car has become synonymous with 1980s pop culture, giving the car itself a place in cinema and motoring immortality.

Remarkably the DeLorean sports car was the only model ever produced for sale by the DeLorean Motor Company.

Credit: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_C13-035-005, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The most iconic of all the James Bond cars is the beauty that is the Aston Martin DB5. MI6 give Bond the car as part of his mission to investigate gold smuggling by baddie Auric Goldfinger.

Naturally, the Bond version of the DB5 was loaded with gadgets such as a rear bulletproof screen, tyre slashers, machine guns, battering rams and an ejector seat among other curiosities.

The James Bond version of the Aston Martin DB5 was the work of special effects man John Stears, who also created the lightsaber, the Death Star, C3PO and R2D2 for Star Wars.

The Mini Cooper’s status as one of Britain’s best loved cars was cemented by a classic of the crime caper genre, in which a criminal gang led by one Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) attempt to carry out a huge gold robbery in Italy using three Mini Coopers and a coach.

If you’ve never seen it then you need to put that right.

Credit: Martin Vorel

When a racing driver acquires an innocent-looking Volkswagen Beetle, he is in for the ride of his life after he finds out that “Herbie” has a mind of his own.

Herbie was perilously close to actually being a Volvo after Walt Disney set up a casting call for a range of cars, but luckily the Beetle got the gig.

When the world is threatened with nuclear weapons, James Bond works overtime to prevent a catastrophic attack on New York City. Bond uses the Lotus Esprit S1 to escape under the sea, because of course the film version converts to a submarine.

The one used under the water is now owned by Elon Musk, who said many years ago that he plans to try converting it for real.

Brothers Jake and Elwood Blues are on a “mission from God” to put their blues band back together in order to raise money for the Roman Catholic orphanage in which they were raised. The adventure begins in their former police car, the Bluesmobile, which is a 1974 Dodge Monaco.

With their dark suits, shades and soulful music, they make the Bluesmobile the coolest cop car in film history.

The Bluesmobiles used in the film were genuine former police cars.

Inventor Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke) and his flying sports car gave children an adventure for the ages in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Lionel Jeffries played Grandpa Potts, even though the actor was younger than Dick Van Dyke. Jeffries went bald relatively early in life and once tried wearing a toupee, but was of the opinion that it “looked like a dead moth on a boiled egg.”

Credit: Jonathan Stonehouse, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Seen most recently in the 2021 sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Ectomobile is the vehicle of choice for New York City’s favourite ghost-busting team. It’s actually a Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance, and seeing it weathered in storage in Ghostbusters: Afterlife was an effective way to get fans nostalgic for the original films.

Ectomobile or otherwise, these are all funmobiles that have earned their place in the pantheon of iconic cars in film!

Banner image credit: JMortonPhoto.com & OtoGodfrey.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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