Cars fascinate us all, and the fascination begins in childhood. Driving seems like a very cool, big-person thing to do, and little kids the world over go vroom-vroom with all the toys they can to role-play what driving will be like. Of course, then they grow up and realize that driving is mostly a drag, especially when all one ends up doing is driving to and from their offices for work.

Even so, there nothing better than what Steppenwolf once crooned, “Get your motor runnin', Head out on the highway, Lookin' for adventure, And whatever comes our way…” Most of us don't usually head out on the highway looking for adventure, it's true. Our cars are utilitarian commuters. In fact, most cars rarely get pushed to their limits.

Except for the way they get driven in the movies, that is. And all of us have been tempted to floor the pedal to the metal every now and then, right? Though we really shouldn’t, since what they show in the movies involved a little bit of Hollywood magic.

Yes, it looks amazing. No, we would not survive it. So watch and dream people, because it looks way cooler in the movies than it actually is. Remember the way they have stunt doubles for the actors? Well, they have stunt doubles for the cars as well—or else Baby would never have survived the very first scene of the Supernatural TV series, no matter how strong the Chevy Impala may be as a real car. So here are 20 of the coolest movies stunts no car (or driver) could survive in real life.

19 When A Bike Flips Over An 18-Wheeler

Batman is as human as they come, and perhaps this is why he is one of the most relatable superheroes around. He's got no special powers except a load of money, brains, brawn, and good looks. Okay, maybe he isn’t all that relatable, either. Neither was the scene in The Dark Knight, a movie largely known for Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. There is a scene where the Batpod not only blasts through a jumble of parked cars but also manages to flip the Joker’s 18-wheeler in excruciatingly slow motion. It is extremely hard to believe, but frankly, so is the whole superhero franchise on the whole.

18 The Whole Movie That Was Mad Max: Fury Road

This isn’t a movie where we could point out one stunt. The whole movie was a mass of subdued acting by Charlize Theron—playing a one-armed rebel named Imperator Furiosa—and Mad Max, played by Tom Hardy. The whole of the post-apocalyptic movie isn’t for the faint-hearted. The stunts done by vehicles—that do not look like the cars or bikes of this time—are pretty out there as well. Like the people, the vehicles are also scavenged and look strange and chaotic. There are innumerable chases and stunts, explosions and flips, all done by professionals and made to look easy. But they were anything but!

17 That Train Race In Fast and Furious

Friends, family, and fans have all bid Paul Walker an emotional adieu. But his legacy lives on, especially in the movie that kick-started the whole Fast and Furious franchise. In the very first movie, towards the end, both Paul Walker (as Brian) and Vin Diesel (as Dom) are racing against a train crossing in their awesome cars. In an orange Toyota Supra for Walker and a black Dodge Charger for Diesel, both manage to jump the tracks microseconds before a train blasts through, but then the Dodge Charger hits a truck, flipping over the Supra. That moment, in real life, would have caused some serious damage, but in the movie, the car is totaled, and Dom escapes with a bit of an injury.

16 The Real Flip Side Of Nick Fury

The car stunt we talk about in the Captain America franchise doesn’t involve Captain America, but Nicky Fury aka Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, most fans prefer the Captain America franchise because it’s earthier and less about immortals, gods, and other sci-fi jazz the Marvel enterprise loves to employ. The best car stunt scene in this movie is not just the bullet-ridden SUV that Nick Fury blazes across the streets, but when the Winter Soldier fires a mine at the SUV point blank. The car flips over on its back, and this was no CGI, mind you. The car did end up on its back, perfectly executed by the stunt team, in a haze of black smoke, according to IndieWire.

15 The Pontiac Gets Sliced In The Seven-Ups

Roy Scheider (of Jaws fame) plays a cop in the 1973 flick The Seven-Ups. And he’s a cop with a mission. Specifically, a mission to catch the bad guys, even it means driving his car like a maniac down busy Manhattan roads. In one car-chase scene where he is after the goons, he does exactly that, speeding down trafficky lanes that we’d be nutty to drive through in the first place. He ends up on the Taconic State Parkway where he almost loses his head when he drives his car into the back of the parked tractor-trailer. Luckily for the character, only the car loses its head, as its top is sliced off. The stunt was performed by Bill Hickman, the same driver who also excelled in the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt.

14 The Flying Driver In Fast & Furious

There are times when stunts are perfectly timed due to plenty of experience, science, and know-how. Then there are stunts so foolhardy and epic, that there are no words left to describe it. This is what Tyrese aka Roman Pierce does in the sixth franchise of the Fast and Furious, he simply defies gravity. And in the background is a tank gone berserk, taking out every car in sight. So the man literally flies from one car to the other. Yep, it’s crazy and definitely not possible for a human to do. The cars are also pretty accommodating, letting him take off and land like Superman.

13 The 360-Degree Jump-About Bond Car

The Man With The Golden Gun was Roger Moore’s second appearance as Bond but frankly, the movie should have been dubbed The Man With The Wonder Car. As a movie, it was one of the worst in the series, with too much slapstick comedy for it be taken as a decent Bond movie. That only saving grace in a movie riddled with a bad script, bad acting, and bad actors was an incredible car stunt, performed by stuntman Bumps Willard. And it wasn’t done in an Aston Martin; the car used was an AMC Hornet. In the movie, Bond is whizzing through Thailand and decides to jump a broken bridge. The car rotates in the air and lands minus a hitch on the other side, with a very corny whistling sound. No CGI, all real!

12 The Massive Pile-Up In Blues Brothers

So this isn’t a death-defying stunt at all and frankly, it has an underlying sense of humor. In the 1980 Blues Brothers movie, starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, the ending scene was a first for the industry, and actually smashed up a record number of cars. Chased by the cops since one of the brothers has broken the rules of his parole, the last scene shows a number of police cars just piling up on a Chicago intersection. Meanwhile, the two brothers who are on a mission to save an orphanage manage to do so while the cops get out of the pileup and gather their wits.

11 The Original Mad Max With Mel Gibson

There is a scene in the 1979 film Mad Max where a crazed Mel Gibson is out to get the man who caused his family to lose their lives. The villain here is Toecutter, and most of the movie shows Gibson chasing the baddie in his trademark Interceptor. At the very end, the villain is now on a motorcycle, and he turns back to see how far away Gibson’s Interceptor is. He is in for a surprise, though, when he sees an 18-wheeler bearing down on him. Much like the rest of the movie, the end isn’t for the faint-hearted. The bike and the villain are run over by that heavy hauler, and this was a time when there was no CGI at all.

10 That Breathtaking John Wick Chase

Honestly, Keanu Reeves is pretty cool on his own (and then some). And the first thing you associate with Keanu Reeves and moving vehicles is the 1994 classic, Speed—except that he doesn’t actually do any driving in it, it’s all Sandra Bullock behind the wheel there. But if you did watch John Wick, you couldn’t have missed the cool car-fu chase at the very end. Reeves as Wick doesn’t even need to step out of that cool, cool Mustang as he manages to quash the two crime syndicate Suburbans and all the baddies within. All because they killed his dog. Oh, and because he is the best actor-driver in town, according to The Drive.

9 That Bridge Jump In The TransAm

Burt Reynolds turned into an icon after the hit movie Smokey and the Bandit. He plays a happy-go-lucky moonshiner called Bo “Bandit” Darville. The romantic lead in the movie was Sally Fields, and the movie became a huge hit due to the witty repartee and that bridge jump he makes with a TransAm. Remember, this was a time when there was no CGI and the stunts were real, performed by real stunt men with real risks involved. In this case, the film’s director Hal Needham—who was also a stuntman—performed this with a booster rocket strapped to the car!

8 All Bets Are Off In Vanishing Point

According to Hagerty, this was a movie that basically showed Barry Newman playing car delivery driver Kowalski who decides to bet on a lark about how fast he can deliver the car. It’s a Dodge Charger and Kowalski is already buzzed on meds to keep him awake for a long drive. Needless to say, it's one thrilling chase scene after the other, the kind that really keeps the audience on edge. If any one of us would actually have to drive like that, we’d probably drive off a ledge or a cliff in the first attempt itself. Again, this was 1971, and all the driving and the stunts were real and gritty.

7 That Famous Car Chase In Ronin

You cannot help but think about the car chase in Ronin when car stunts are mentioned. The director of Ronin, John Frankenheimer, was a former amateur race driver. And he took his love of car racing and movies and melded the both into a masterpiece of a car chase sequence that is still lauded as being one of the best in history. The final chase sequence was shot all over Paris and used some 300 stunt car drivers. And if the cars feel fast to you when you watch the movie, it is because they whizzed past at speeds of 120 miles per hour.

6 The Revamped Italian Job and Mini Coopers

If you watched the 2003 version of The Italian Job with speakers on mute, you’d feel as though you watching a very prolonged advertisement for the Mini Cooper. Because this car was shown to be like the Bond of all cars or the Superman of all heroes: it could be driven fast, hard, and even inside subway tunnels with ease—and could also heft all the gold that the thieves could pack away in the boot. So three custom-made Mini Coopers raced through the movie, driven by Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Jason Statham, respectively. But don't doubt, they were backed by a team of experts and ready medical aid!

5 The Seven-Time Flip Because It’s Bond

You cannot take a Bond out of his Aston Martin, though you can keep changing the actor that portrays Bond and the specific car model he drives. For many, Daniel Craig has mansplained what Bond should really be like: tough as nails and of course, as debonair as ever. Since Craig, Bond movies have been more about action and less about the adventures with the Bond girls and many appreciate the change. In 2006, Casino Royale featured a car scene in which Craig is racing his Aston Martin to rescue a Bond girl, only to find her tied up in the middle of the road. He swerves the car and it flips—not once, but seven times. According to Road and Track, this stunt became a world record, but an accidental one as the cannon that launched the car had actually malfunctioned and basically mangled the car, as well.

4 The Hood Ornament in Death Proof

When Tarantino decides to make a movie, he does so in style. One half of 2007's Grind House was Death Proof, starring the rather affable Kurt Russell as a villainous stuntman. The movie was pretty stomach-churning, both because of the filming and of course, because of the breathtaking stunts. Zoe Bell is one of the actresses in the movie, and she is a professional stuntwoman herself. She is the one strapped to the hood of the racing Dodge Charger, akin to a hood ornament, as Russell aka Mad Mike barrels towards the heroines, hell-bent on causing chaos. The stunt was all too real, and Bell was actually on the car—not for the fainthearted to see, much less do!

3 When Jackie Chan Stunted In A Car

Normally, any movie associated Jackie Chan comes with plenty of physical stunts. You know, the kind that breaks his bones and has him leaping from one building to another, or smashing into bayside windowpanes, or even vaulting over moving cars. In the 1985 film Police Story, he stunted in a car as a Hong Kong cop trying to clear his name from a frame-up. He chased the baddies downhill through a shanty-town of sorts which ends up causing many explosions and subsequent chaos. In real life, the car itself would have stalled or ended up with a smashed-up engine in the first few seconds, although that would not have made for a long-drawn, if thrilling, scene like the one shown in the movie.

2 The NYC Car Chase In The French Connection

We are back to William Friedkin of To Live and Die in LA fame. He went even further when he decided to make The French Connection with a then young and somewhat fierce Gene Hackman. Copper Jimmy Doyle (Hackman) is chasing a sniper who has got into a train. From there begins a crazy car chase that was actually shot on busy New York City roads with no clearances or permissions. Hackman is shown to be driving from station to station in a pell-mell race against time, bumping and banging into many a car before he can finally go face-to-face with the bad guy.

1 When Trinity Bikes Off In Style

Yes, it was CGI—at least, in part. And it was shot on a specially constructed highway and performed primarily by a stunt woman named Debbie Evans. No, we don’t care. It was Trinity, on a Ducati. Need we say more? Hey, even Reeves (Keanu, aka Neo) dodging those bullets was CGI. (We still watch that scene with jaws agape, anyways.) And what really worked for this scene was that the Wachowskis built, from scratch, at a whopping cost of $2.5 million, a fake freeway just for this chase sequence. They built the “freeway” on an abandoned naval base in California and fenced it with a 19-foot wall. Now, how’s that for commitment?

Sources: thedrive, hagerty, roadandtrack, and indiewire