The automotive world and the film industry have always had a great relationship. Whether it be an action movie with car chases or a romantic comedy about the fashion world, there is always a vehicle or two present.

In the beginning of cinema, directors were still experimenting with what they could do. The first commercially available movie – more of a clip – featured a train driving towards the camera, scaring most of the audience. As filmmaking progressed, so did the automobile. The two became so intertwined that Charlie Chaplin even added a car to some of his films for comedic effect. Since then, the film industry has created some of the best scenes involving vehicles, with whole franchises being centered around cars. Some movies have intricately choreographed chase scenes between the hero and the baddie, while others involve a smorgasbord of cars – all doing something, leading to amazing and award-winning cinematography.

While many films use CGI and VFX to create car chases – and eventual crashes – many directors are reverting to practical effects for a more authentic feel to the movie. Here are 10 of the best car chases in the film industry – not including the Fast and the Furious franchise.

10 Bullitt (1968)

Bullitt has a great car chase scene which includes more than 10 minutes of screen time without dialogue. Even the music stops once the baddies accelerate away. The scene begins with our hero immediately noticing the baddies tailing him – before they speed off onto the streets of San Francisco. The pair driveway too quickly over the hilled streets that the city is famous for, with the protagonist having to reverse at one point, resulting in some serious wobble from the rear axle.

The chase continues until they reach the outskirts of San Francisco, before joining a canyon road where the baddies’ black Dodge Charger R/T and the hero’s green Ford Mustang Fastback can open the taps. There is a bit of a kerfuffle with a man on a motorcycle, but the scene eventually ends in a fireball as the baddies have an accident and Lt. Bullitt almost parks the ‘Stang in a ditch. The scene has become iconic and has been recreated many times over.

Related: Lifetime Ford Fan Finally Builds His Dream Bullitt Mustang

9 The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

The scene starts with James Bond driving through an Italian town with a motorcycle following. Mr. Bond accelerates but gets stuck behind a truck. The motorcyclist sends an exploding sidecar to take care of the white Lotus Esprit, but blows up the truck instead, causing the motorcyclist to fly off the road into the sea below – with 007 making a funny quip. Jaws shows up in a black Audi sedan and starts shooting. They go around corners a bit more, and Bond activates a gadget in the car which shoots a substance onto the Audi, resulting in it driving off a cliff. A helicopter shows up and shoots at the car for a bit, but Bond drives it into the water and the car transforms into a submarine. He then uses a roof-mounted missile to blow the helicopter out of the air.

This is a great scene that had an interesting story. The stuntman who would have driven the car during the helicopter chase wasn’t available at the time of filming, so the production crew asked the man from Lotus, Roger Becker, to do it. He thrashed the car up the hill and did such a good job, he remained the driver for the duration of production.

8 The Italian Job (1969)

The original Italian Job movie had a hilariously ridiculous chase scene between three Minis and some Police cars. The scene commenced with the three Minis – full of gold – driving through Turin, using shopping centers, restaurants, and building entrances as roads. At one point, the cars drive down some steps where a wedding party was just exiting a church.

The chase continues onto a roof of a building, where the Minis outsmart the police car which followed them. They make their way to a storm drain, getting rid of any cars following them. They then meet up with a bus – which they entered using a ramp. While the 2003 remake followed much of the same basic ideas as the 1969 version, it failed to capture the sheer absurdity of the scene. Truly one of the best car chases in cinema.

Related: 10 Reasons Why Gearheads Should Watch The Original Italian Job Movie

7 The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

The Man With The Golden Gun is on this list not because the chase scene was great, but rather because it contained one of the greatest stunts in action movies. As James Bond was busy chasing Mr. Scaramanga, they ended up on opposite sides of a river. Scaramanga then proceeded to drive away from the river on his side, so Bond had to find a way to keep up.

Passing a broken bridge, Bond lines up the AMC AMX and jumps the river while doing a barrel roll. It was an amazing piece of cinema. The most amazing part of the stunt was that it was done in just one take, with a brand-new stunt driver who had never done anything like this before. One of the best practical effects ever.

6 The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix films are not known for their car chases, but one scene in the second film stands out. After Morpheus and Trinity save the Key Maker, they venture onto the highway and the viewer is entertained with one of the best sequences in the films.

From the shootout between Trinity, the Twins, and the Agents, to Morpheus having a fistfight with an Agent on top of a truck – this scene is just brilliant. The music and the slow-motion shots of cars crashing gives a real videogame impression – almost like they were in a simulation of some sort (wink-wink).

5 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road is filled to the brim with great scenes involving vehicles. From the opening sequence where the Warboys capture Max, to the end where the War Rig flips over. One scene which stands out, in particular, is the race back to the Citadel where all the parties which initially gave chase join up when they spot the War Rig driving back.

This scene involves people jumping over to the War Rig and even Max ends up on the Mercedes-Benz tanker truck – before it explodes spectacularly. The chase continues until all the main characters make it onto the Gigahorse (the Cadillac sandwich). Thanks to the director’s insistence on practical effects, almost all the scenes physically happened.

Related: 20 Things That Make No Sense About The Cars From Mad Max

4 Die Another Day (2002)

Die Another Day is considered by many to be one of the worst – if not the worst – James Bond movie ever made. While it is extremely far-fetched and ridiculous in many ways, it remains quite entertaining. Near the end of the movie, James Bond and one of the baddie’s sidekicks – who had an unfortunate run-in with some diamonds – engaged in a chase scene on a frozen lake.

The scene involved Bond’s Aston Martin ‘Vanish’ (Vanquish) and Mr. Zao’s Jaguar XKR Convertible, each trying to one-up the other with weapons – from grille-mounted missiles and hood-mounted shotguns to mortars hidden in the trunk and an automated minigun. Bond even uses his car’s ejector seat to flip back onto its wheels – which was pretty cool.

3 Ronin (1998)

The chase scene in Ronin is simply brilliant. It takes our characters through the streets of Paris – and its tunnels – at break-neck speed. The scene involves a Peugeot 406 chasing down a BMW M5 E34. The scene involved excellent driving with minimal damage to the cars for most of the chase. Robert De Niro’s character even does an impromptu 270-degree turn when a bus blocks his way.

The way the scene was shot was unlike most other chases as the actors were towed behind a car driving at 100 mph. This was because the stunt coordinator insisted that the speed be true to real life and not cheated in editing. The chase scene involved around 300 stunt drivers and various versions of the two main cars for different shots.

2 Goldeneye (1995)

Goldeneye was Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as the British secret agent, James Bond. One of the scenes involved Bond chasing down Colonel Ourumov, who had just kidnapped Natalya, who survived the destruction of the Russian research facility at the beginning of the film.

As the Colonel and the captured Natalya sped off in a GAZ Volga, Bond did the appropriate 007 thing and set off in pursuit in a tank. The ensuing chase is entertaining, and many Lada Riva police cars are squashed under the tank’s tracks. There is a bit where Bond’s tank has a horse statue on top of it and Bond drives through a couple of buildings – just because he can. The best bit of the entire chase is near the beginning when Bond powerslides the tank around a corner. How cool is that?

Related: Here Are The 10 Most Iconic Cars From The James Bond Franchise

1 Vanishing Point (1971)

Vanishing Point can be considered one big car chase scene made into a movie. It follows Kowalski, a car delivery driver, who made a bet with a colleague that he would deliver a white Dodge Charger R/T by a certain time the next day. What follows is a series of events with some great driving – both on and off the road.

The story eventually ends with the police having set up a roadblock using two bulldozers. Kowalski being ‘the last American hero’ refuses to give in to what the world wants, so he plows the Charger into the roadblock at full speed, which causes the car to explode in a true 1970s vehicle accident fashion. It must be said that while the driving is great to look at, the movie as a whole is quite depressing – appropriate for the time.