Film series: The ultimate car chase in Ronin

Car chase sequences in films are a lot like guitar or drum solos in music. Most are just pure indulgence that add nothing to overall story and can end up feeling contrived. However, there are those rare instances where the solo becomes the most noted element – think Mark Knopfler’s Tunnel of Love string-picking or Slash’s moment in Guns ‘n’ Roses November Rain. The same applies to the car chase sequences in Ronin, John Frankenheimer’s classic double-dealing masterpiece that is now over 25 years old. 

Credit - MGM

As impressive as the car sequences themselves is the fact that there was more than one of them in the film and all felt entirely necessary to the plot. Inspired by the chase from The French Connection with Gene Hackman barrelling through grimy suburban early 1970s New York, Frankenheimer was determined to come up with something so sensational it would make other film makers think twice about trying to better it. For this reason, CGI (computer generated images) were not an option – everything had to be done for real and filmed as it happened. 

Life for the film crew was made a little tricker when Frankenheimer sacked the original stunt driving team while filming in the south of France. To replace them, he brought in ex-Le Mans driver Jean-Claude Lagniez and his team of precision drivers. It proved a masterstroke as they knew how to drive at high speed and in very close formation, and they all trusted each other implicitly. 

Credit - MGM

It also helped the film’s appeal that Frankenheimer had an eclectic taste in cars for his chase sequences. The first gets under way in Paris when a deal to buy guns goes wrong and the hired team of mercenaries has to make their escape in an Audi S8. It’s been claimed the film crew did not have permission for this set piece, but the truth is Paris’ police chief told his officers to stand back and let the crew get on with their job. What we see on the screen is an Audi S8 being driven to its limit as it slides over cobbled streets in the wet night. It’s a masterclass in car control, but more was to come as the action heads to Nice. 

Still with the Audi as part of its vehicle line-up, the team also have a Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 on hand to deal with the real baddies’ Peugeots and Citroen XM. What follows is a superb blend of all-action driving. There’s sliding, drifting, tyre smoke, crashes and the eventual getaway of the team we’re rooting for, led by Robert De Niro and Jean Reno. What you cannot see in this part of the film is the cars used as camera tracking vehicles were Porsche 911s with their front bonnets removed to allow the filming kit to be fixed in place.  

Credit - MGM

Frankenheimer reckoned this was the only way to get as close as possible to the chase in real time. And to make sure the reactions on the actors’ faces was genuine, the director used them whenever possible to drive the cars. In the section based around Nice, actor Skipp Sudduth, who played fixer Larry, was at the wheel of the Audi S8 after he asked Frankenheimer to do the driving. The director’s response was “I don’t wanna see any brake lights.” 

However, it’s the following chase that brings the action back to Paris that is maybe the most memorable. For starters, it lasts for nine whole minutes of the film, putting it up there alongside the Bullitt and The Italian Job sequences for the longest in a film. Again, the director insisted on full realism for this madcap run through Paris, with De Niro and Reno doing their best to keep up in a Peugeot 406. Meanwhile, Natasha McElhone’s character Deirdre thrashes a BMW 535i as hard as it can be in a bid to escape her pursuers. Sat next to her is Jonathan Pryce, who plated the shadowy Seamus in the film. Afterwards, Pryce said every bit of terror seen on his face was genuine – no acting was needed. 

Credit - MGM

To make sure the actors’ terror was real, Frankenheimer used four BMWs and five Peugeots, with one of each car cut in half and grafted on to the back of a Mercedes rig car for the close-ups. However, the driving scenes all have the actors at the wheel on the left-hand side, but the cars themselves were right-hand drive so a stunt driver could go flat out while giving the appearance of the actor doing the work. 

The carefully choreographed sequences needed more than 300 stunt actors as pedestrians and drivers, with 100 driving to a precise plan when McElhone’s BMW drives the wrong way up busy Paris streets. Among the drivers used for the scene were Jean Pierre Jarier, a former Formula 1 driver, while Le Mans aces Michel Neugarten and Jean Claude Lagniez drove the BMW and Peugeot respectively. Watch the film closely and you can see De Niro’s terrified face is a reaction to Lagniez’s threading the car through seemingly impossible gaps and at speeds of up to 100mph in traffic. 

Credit - MGM

Did John Frankenheimer succeed in creating definitive car chases, in what was a film about former spies and mercenaries rather than a car flick? He certainly raised the bar while acknowledging all of the greats that went before. He also made it far more difficult for anyone to outdo Ronin as one of the all-time best at what can often be a limp scene linking two parts of a film. However, impressive as these solo stand-out sections are, it’s also a credit to Frankenheimer, the cast, and crew that these chases didn’t end up as the only memorable elements of the film – it all hangs together and is a movie many of us will watch again and again. Next time you do, keep a close eye on those actors’ faces to see their reactions – Frankenheimer is yet to be bettered for this as a director. 

Is Ronin one of your all time favourite car chase scenes? Let us know in the comments below!