The 6 best winter movie car chases ever filmed

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Anyone can film a car chase on pavement, but have you ever tried even backing out of a basic parking space after winter weather has dumped two feet of snow on the ground?

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, few directors have felt the need to tangle with frozen precipitation when filming their own vehicle-to-vehicle action.

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The 6 best winter movie car chases ever filmed Back to video

But the ones that did make it from the script to the screen are well worth the bad memories of spinning tires and black ice that all Canadians carry with them from birth.

Here are our picks for the best winter movie chases of all time.

The Living Daylights (1987)

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The car(s): 1985 Aston Martin V8, police-spec Ladas, an East German Sno-Cat

The driver(s): Timothy Dalton as James Bond, the elite of the ’80s extra crop

Why it’s awesome: There are three memorable gadget cars in James Bond history: the original DB5, which introduced machine guns, ejector seats, and all the rest; the Lotus Elise submarine; and the Aston Martin V8 from The Living Daylights . The latter features not just steel-cutting lasers, but somehow a set of ice-skis that allow 007 to escape across a frigid lake.

The chase is also notable for balancing tongue-in-cheek humour (tin-can Lada cut in half by a smirking Bond, using a tire-free wheel to cut a hole in the ice to sink the surviving example of Soviet Bloc engineering) with legitimate cool (blowing up roadblocks with missiles that for some reason need an elaborate targeting sequence to hit a truck located directly in front of them).

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Four Brothers (2005)

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The car(s): 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, 1977 Chevrolet El Camino

The driver(s): Marky Mark as Bobby, Richard Chevolleau as ‘El Camino Guy’ (no kidding)

Why it’s awesome: Four Brothers is an overlooked John Singleton film that gives us the only chase on this list to take place during a violent snowstorm. In pursuit of their mother’s killers, Marky Mark and his crew of adopted siblings blast through the streets of Detroit behind the wheel of Wahlberg’s beater Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

Eventually, the assassins are forced into a spin, PIT-maneuver style, before the Olds T-bones the El Camino and sends it flipping to its doom. So what it if most of the maelstrom looks a little too digitally-added? It’s a rare race between two vehicles seldom seen on camera, let alone in the depths of winter.

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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

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The car(s): 1969 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible, 1963 Mercedes-Benz 220 S

The driver(s): Diana Rigg as Countess Tracy di Vicenzo, Ilse Steppat as Irma Bunt

Why it’s awesome: Let’s be clear — Ilse Steppat isn’t actually driving in this chase so much as she is barking out commands to her henchmen from the rear seat, but that doesn’t make the scene any less thrilling. The Cougar is an underappreciated member of ’60s muscle-car royalty, and the novelty of seeing one in a Bond film — especially one set in Switzerland — adds extra spice to a sequence that sees the two Mercs battle it out on a frozen race track amidst a posse of Minis, Alfa Romeos, and other assorted Euro sports machines. Somehow, both cars keep their ski racks intact right up until the final fireball.

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The Fate of the Furious (2017)

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The car(s): Ice Chargers, Lamborghinis, Ripsaws, WRX STI, MRAPs, and, uh, a nuclear attack submarine?

The driver(s): The entire living cast of the Fast and Furious universe

Why it’s awesome: Have you ever wanted to see The Rock bowl a torpedo across the ice and into a bad guy’s truck like he was picking up a spare in a Wednesday night 10-pin league? Or wondered if a Local Motors Rally Fighter had a ‘jump’ button? Or pondered whether a mid-engine Dodge Charger could redirect a heat-seeking missile in mid-air by launching itself into a surfacing Russian sub? Or been curious about the ability of a pack of glacier-bound automobiles to form a protective octagonal hive to absorb the force of the resulting explosion and protect Vin Diesel’s shiny pate?

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Fate is the movie with answers to all the questions you never thought Hollywood would force you to ask.

Borning 2 (2016)

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The car(s): 2009 Audi R8, 2007 Koenigsegg CCRX, 2011 Nissan GT-R, 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco, 1990 BMW M3, 1967 Ford Mustang, 2016 Toyota Hilux, assorted Volvo and Saab police vehicles—oh, and an icebreaker

The driver(s): Anders Baasmo Christiansen as Roy Gunderson

Why it’s awesome: We don’t have enough space to list out every driver in this absolutely bonkers ice chase from Norway’s second-best street racing movie of all time, but Christiansen’s pursuit of his daughter as she rides shotgun with her boyfriend trying to beat a steaming ice breaker to the edge of the frozen sea is one of the most original stunts ever conceived.

Miraculously, most of the supercars and even one Toyota pickup manage to drift across the icebreaker’s bow with mere metres to spare between them and the open ocean, leaving a chasm of water between them and the pursuing police. When Christiansen’s Mustang can’t make it in time, he raises the stakes even further by racing towards the ocean and slamming on his brakes at the last second, breaking off an iceberg that then coasts across the gap on its own momentum. It’s a beautiful moment for both physics and highly original winter car chases alike.

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Spectre (2015)

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The car(s): Land Rover Range Rover Sport, a pair of Land Rover Defender pickups, Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander

The driver(s): Daniel Craig as James Bond, assorted evildoers

Why it’s awesome: A decidedly non-traditional 007 chase where the secret agent has the upper hand in an airplane versus a convoy of snow-bound Land Rovers cutting through the wilderness below. It took a full eight versions of the airplane to film the sequence, only a pair of which were airworthy, with the rest having their wings clipped for their ultimate skid through the barn that was apparently filled entirely with firewood.

Perhaps the weirdest part of this entire chase? At the end, no one is sweating, despite having survived by the skin of their teeth while wearing the warmest of polar fleeces and puffy coats.

Midas’ Chase (2008)

The car(s): 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, 2008 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

The driver(s):  You, me, and everyone we know

Why it’s awesome: Having to get out and give your buddy a push while being chased by a cop car that’s—getting a push is perhaps the most Canadian car chase scenario every concocted. At least until Quebec’s Bonhomme Carnaval steals a caleche and drives it into the St. Lawrence.