If you’ve always wanted to know which Fast and Furious movie is the fastest and most furious, science has figured it out for you. A new scientific study has revealed the most exciting car chases in movie history – and it was a close race between first and second.
Science’s Top Movie Car Chases
This data comes from the team that brought you the Science of Scare project last month, which determined the scariest horror movie according to heart rate. The study was run by Money.co.uk which brought in a team of experts to analyse the reactions of 100 volunteers to a curated pick of the best movies with car chases.
Similar to the Science of Scare study, volunteers were hooked up to heartbeat monitors as they watched each film. Scientists monitored the average BPM in each car chase sequence to determine the most exciting on-screen pursuits.
The movies with the highest heart rate, up from the average resting heart rate of 64 BPM, made it to the top 20 list.
Taking out the top spot as the most heart-pounding car chase was Australia’s own Mad Max: Fury Road. This isn’t surprising seeing as the entire movie is basically a two-hour-long chase.
Plus it’s very exciting trying to figure out what Tom Hardy is saying at any given moment. Mad Max: Fury Road also has one of the highest IMDB ratings on the list. So it’s not only the most thrilling but also well-loved by audiences.
Coming in second is, naturally, a Fast and Furious movie. In fact, five instalments from the franchise made their way onto the list. Other notable inclusions were The Dark Knight, Baby Driver, The Bourne Identity and, of all the Bond films, Quantum of Solace.
The study also rounded up some other interesting stats, such as the car chase in The Matrix Reloaded being the most destructive at 300 cars. The longest chase went to Gone in 60 Seconds at 40 minutes and Furious 7 claimed the highest grossing car chase movie.
Finally, the study also crowned the most exciting car chase movie actor. Which was, of course, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Interestingly, the numbers also discovered that Fast and Furious movies where The Rock featured increased average heart rates by 6 BPM and were 9.4% better received based on IMDB ratings. Pro tip – cast The Rock in all your movies.