6 Badass Motorcycle Chase Scenes

A good motorcycle chase is a thing of beauty. Although they haven't completely disappeared in today's action landscape by any means, finding a good chase (as opposed to something like in Ultraviolet) is a rewarding thing for me as an action movie fan. Here is a list of a few that I think stand out. Some may be iconic, some may be obscure - but they're all pretty badass.

The Matrix Reloaded

This entire sequence was a personal highlight in the second installment in the Matrix trilogy. I'd highly suggest pulling this off your DVD shelf and watching just this scene again; it's amazing how the Wachowski's choreographed every aspect of this chase and filmed it in such a way that the audience is never so dizzy that we question what's happening on screen. The motorcycle scene in question ends at about the 2:30 mark in this video, which unfortunately won't allow me to embed onto the site.

The Great Escape

Steve McQueen is an unquestioned master of the filmic chase scene. He played the lead role in Bullitt, which features one of the best car chase scenes of all time, and he was also an action junkie in real life. In this short clip from The Great Escape (rent/Netflix it if you haven't seen it), McQueen didn't actually perform the famous jump over the wall - but he did most of the other stunts in the film. (In an earlier scene, he dressed as a German and chased "himself" on another motorcycle because of his skill as a rider.)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

There's a reason James Cameron is one of the best action directors working today, and one could argue that reason is on full display in the motorcycle chase from T2. Unfortunately, embedding is disabled on the clip, but you can go here to relive the glory on YouTube.

Mission: Impossible II

People give me a lot of crap for liking this movie. Say what you will about the final product as a whole, but it's hard to argue the ending chase isn't totally badass. Paramount has a pretty good lock down on most of their clips out there on the internet, but I found a parody "alternate ending" that shows off a tiny portion of the chase I'm referring to. I did manage to find the full chase scene on some weird-looking foreign site, so check that out here if you dare.

Escape to Athena

I had never heard of this movie before I started researching this post, so I was surprised to stumble across this scene, which features some pretty slick maneuvering through tight corners and back alleys. Anybody out there seen this movie? If so, let us know how it is in the comments section.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

What I said before about Paramount locking down their clips applies here as well. If you do a search for this chase scene, you'll most likely find a bunch of LEGO recreations...and this clip, sped up and set to the tune of "Yakety Sax." The quality is horrible, but at least it might inspire you to dust off your copy and re-watch it. That is, after all, the point of this post.