In the last several years, Hollywood has seen a surge in the number of car chase scenes featured in movies. Some films, like The Fast and the Furious and The Transporter, use these action sequences as their main focus, they are the reason for seeing the film in the first place; if you can think of another reason to watch The Transporter, I’m listening. Others films, like The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy used their car chases as a short adrenaline rushes that brought a significant amount of energy to their respective stories. In recent years, cars engaged in these chases have driven against traffic on the freeway, maneuvered through tiny village streets, ended up in the subway system, gone onto the sidewalks and once, in the case of Lethal Weapon 4, even taken a shortcut through the eighth floor of an office building to catch a suspect. With their budgets in the tens of millions of dollars and the advancements in computer generated special effects allowing more spectacular crashes than ever, Hollywood can create just about any kind of chase scene they want.
Hollywood didn’t always embrace the car chase though. In the late sixties and early seventies, only a few films included chase sequences, most notably in The Getaway and The French Connection. The majority of directors and producers steered away from the headaches of vehicle choreography by simply writing screenplays absent extended car chases.
Writer/director/stunt coordinator Toby Halicki (pictured left) changed that in 1974 with the release of his first film and the initial car exploitation picture, Gone in 60 Seconds. Upset about the film industry’s tentative nature around cars, this top-notch stunt driver and onetime junkyard owner decided he was going to make a film devoted to his great love: driving fast, exotic cars (Halicki was so dedicated to this end that the cast listing of Gone in 60 Seconds features the main car used in the picture, Eleanor). Minus any kind of budget to speak of or backing from a major studio, Halicki accomplished things on Gone in 60 Seconds that had never been done before, and that to this day, no one has ever duplicated.
At the top of this list is Gone in 60 Seconds’ climactic 40-minute car chase scene that wrecked 93 cars. People make a big deal out of that number, Halicki’s widow and former producer/co-star Denice Halicki says. "But that certainly wasn’t the only time in the film when cars got wrecked." Toby Halicki had asked a friend if the production could use his friend’s Cadillac dealership to store cars and prep them for filming. "One time," Denice starts, "His friend greased the wheels on some of Toby’s cars, and when he came driving in towards the Cadillacs, [he lost control of his vehicle] and he took out the entire first line of cars."
"Toby was ahead of his time in everything he did," his widow and former co-star, Denice Halicki says. "Toby’s films are so unique so because there were no special effects used. Nowadays because of insurance reasons, stunt guys just aren’t able to do things like Toby did anymore. They all want to, but they can’t." Denice recounts the famous jump scene in Gone in 60 Seconds. "It was crazy," she says, "Toby and Eleanor [the yellow Ford Mustang] flew 30 feet in the air, and 128 feet forward. It was such a hard landing that it left Toby with a compressed spine." It seems like the kind of thing that stunt guys would be glad not to have to do, but as Denice assures me, stuntmen are a breed apart. "There are scenes in the sequel of Toby hanging from a helicopter with no straps!" Denice says, the amazement still transparent in her voice.
"But you know what? He was just going to do more of the same thing he did in the first one, and make it even more intense, more craziness, with even more cars."
"He always said, ‘I’ll be careful,’" Denice states. "Famous last words, you know? But he loved what he was doing and did it with a passion. If there was any action going on, he’d be standing right there. Everything that was going on, he was right in the middle of."
Tragically, that sense of involvement played a large role in Halicki’s death on set. A few weeks into filming of Gone in 60 Seconds 2, a water tower fell earlier than planned during one of his stunts, killing him.
After Halicki’s death, Denice became fiercely determined to continue his legacy. She began by doing everything in her power to get his first film remade in time for the tenth anniversary of his death. Even with Halicki’s estate still in probate and the rights to his films tied up, Denice caught the attention of director Dominic Sena and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who took on the huge task of making a film honoring Halicki’s memory and staying true to his love of cars, chases, and crashes. The choice of Sena as director on the film is one that still makes Denice proud. "Dominic was a camera man on Toby’s second film, The Junkman," Denice says. "What was so wonderful was that he and Jerry didn’t just remake Gone in 60 Seconds. They put parts of The Junkman in there, along with all these little, subtle homages to Toby. There is even a character in the re-make who gets hurt that they named Toby."
Five years after getting Gone in 60 Seconds remade, Halicki has her hands full keeping Toby and his work in the mainstream consciousness. With the help of people around her, including producer Michael Leone, Denice has gotten all of Halicki’s films digitally remastered and re-released, created a game for Sony PlayStation with 300 different crash sequences, made a documentary about Toby Halicki and the filming of the original Gone in 60 Seconds, and, currently, has plans for a film about his life and a book in the works for the future.
Hollywood will never be able to come close to capturing the essence of the car-exploitation films that Halicki created during the seventies, but Denice is making sure that they’re these turbo-charged moments don’t get forgotten, and that Halicki’s chase sequences continue to be seen as the bar to reach for.
Jennifer Mashuga
