Lifestyle

Fast, Furious & Off the Road

Just how dangerous is the driving in your favourite Hollywood films?

Hollywood has long held a fascination with the car chase. Whether an old-school classic like The Italian Job, or a modern blockbuster like Fast & Furious, the car chase remains a timeless hit. Whist it is fun to watch these death-defying actions on screen, the reality is that these actions would be extremely dangerous.

Here at Jardine Motors we wanted to understand the true ramifications of such dangerous driving, so we analysed some of the most famous car scenes from Hollywood history to find out how many penalty points each driver would accrue on UK roads, and if they would even be allowed to drive afterwards.

We collated a list of UK driving offences and penalties, and then watched popular films featuring car chase scenes, noting down the offences as they occurred on screen. We then calculated the total number of penalty points that the driver may have expected to receive on UK soil, for their dangerous driving.

Here’s what we found…

A common theme

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we didn’t have to look too hard to find driving offences in some of our favourite Hollywood films. Three offences were tied as the most common offence seen in Hollywood films…

One of the most common offences was ‘Driving without reasonable consideration’ for other road users’, which carries the potential of nine penalty points on your driving licence.

The other two joint-top offences were ‘Dangerous driving’ which carries the potential of eleven penalty points, and ‘Exceeding statutory speed limit on a public road’ which can result in a maximum of six penalty points.

Most dangerous scenes

James Bond and Moneypenny racked up an astonishing 131 penalty points during one scene in Skyfall (2012). The scene sees Bond chasing an assailant through Istanbul, with Moneypenny behind the wheel in a Land Rover Defender 110, as opposed to Bond’s usual Aston Martin. The dangerous driving from the MI6 pair would be enough to see them banned from driving ten times over. Moneypenny commits ten driving offences in less than two minutes, including ‘Failing to comply with direction of a constable/warden’.

Another particularly dangerous scene involved Dom of the Fast and Furious series. In The Fate of the Furious (2017), Dom is chased by his crew through New York City. In a wild chase that sees several stories of scaffolding falling onto the New York streets, Dom would have accrued 98 penalty points for his driving, enough to have his licence taken from him eight times over. Appropriately, Dom’s offences include ‘Furious driving’, as well as ‘Leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position’, on this occasion that was due to leaving his car slap-bang in the middle of a busy junction.

Which character has the most to answer for?

By far the most dangerous driver in terms of total points received was Dom from the Fast and Furious series, who racked up 342 penalty points in the scenes we reviewed.

However, the ‘caped crusader’ turned out to be the worst driver based on the points averaged over an entire franchise. We of course mean Batman, and more specifically Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Gotham’s Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). With an average score of 84 penalty points, Batman finishes just ahead of Jason Bourne.

Bourne racked up an average of 80 penalty points per film over the series, with each 80-point haul enough to see him lose his licence six times over. Bourne is one of the few characters to be guilty of ‘Causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving’.

The most dangerous drivers?

Matt Damon’s time as Bourne would have him down as the actor who would have received the third highest number of penalty points in terms of his fictional driving exploits, with at least one chase scene included in every instalment of the Bourne series.

The second most dangerous actor is a James Bond star – but it isn’t Daniel Craig. An altogether more ‘old school’ Bond, Roger Moore would have averaged 91 penalty points for his driving in his scenes as 007, a shocking figure, but not quite the worst out there.

As a result of his time driving the Batmobile, Ben Affleck goes down as the most dangerous driver in the scenes we surveyed. In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Affleck’s driving is out of control, to the extent that he commits serious offences including ‘Causing death by dangerous driving’ and ‘Furious driving’.

In conclusion

There is a reason that chase scenes are restricted to Hollywood movies, and it is a good reason. Dangerous driving can have serious consequences and should not be tried by anyone in the real world. Make sure to drive safely and remember that safe driving can save lives!