Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor", in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute. Detectives are waiting and pursue Pace through five cities as he desperately tries to get away. 

Gone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 American action film written, directed, produced by, and starring H.B. "Toby" Halicki.  This was truly an independent film. "Gone In 60 Seconds" was written, produced, directed and distributed by the same man, H.B. Halicki, who also stars and did most of the stunt driving! The 40 minute chase at the end of the movie is obviously cinematic history.  It's the longest car chase in film history and it's off the charts awesome.  It will be remembered by many viewers as the best car-chase film of all time.

To get to this chase though we have to sit through 40 minutes of slow paced car stealing. While watching I thought, "What's so great about this movie?" But once the chase starts shit gets real. 

You know something, Vicinski, I bet five more cars have been stolen in just the time I've been here.

 If you're looking for excellent acting, superb script and special effects....look somewhere fucking else. THIS is a car chase, and once you have seen it you will find yourself wondering why anyone ever considered the pathetic "Bullitt" worth a second thought.  It's that incredibly great. And don't kid yourself about that stinky and unnecessary big budget mainstream blockbuster remake starring Nicholas Cage. The original is still the real way-gone stirring deal -- and always shall remain so. 

I should have read my horoscope this morning.

Trivia:

 93 cars are crashed in this 97 minute movie. 

The scene where the Mustang tags a car on the highway and spins into a telephone pole was a real accident. Star/director H.B. Halicki was badly hurt and filming was stopped while he recovered. The scene was left in. 

Director/star H.B. Halicki compacted ten vertebrae performing the "big jump" in the Mustang at the end of the movie. Fortunately the injury was not very serious, although according to director of photography Jack Vacek, Halicki never walked the same again. 

With the exception of a few extras, the bulk of the by-standers/public in the movie are real people just going about their business who had no idea that a film was being made. This caused several incidents where people assumed a real police pursuit was in progress, with many trying to help the accident "victims". In the scene at the Carson Street off-ramp where the two cars collide after Maindrian drives against traffic, a pedestrian can be seen in the background shouting angrily at the passing police cars for not stopping to help the occupants.  

The scene in which a train derailment is observed in the film was not part of the original shooting script but it is in fact a real train that derailed and when the director heard about this he wanted to incorporate it into the film. 

When Pumpkin tells Maindrian that they have to give Eleanor back because the car is not insured, Maindrian reads the owner's address from a newspaper - 18511 Mariposa, Gardena. This was in fact director/star H.B. Halicki's own real home address at the time. 

1-Baker-11, 10-4. Switch to Open Channel 3. All units, stand-by, 1-Baker-11 is in pursuit. A '73 Ford Mustang, license in the 6-column - 614 Henry Sam Ocean, westbound Ocean Boulevard, against traffic.

The license plate of the Rolls-Royce outside the airport reads "HBH" - the initials of the film's star/director/writer, H.B. Halicki. 

The fire trucks seen on the Gerald Desmond Bridge during the main chase were real Long Beach FD units on their way to an emergency call. The "crash" staged for the film was blocking both lanes and they could not get past until the cars were cleared. Director H.B. Halicki asked the camera crew to film them in case there was somewhere to fit the shot into the movie. There was. 

Nearly every civilian vehicle seen in close proximity to the main chase (especially in downtown Long Beach) was owned by director H.B. Halicki. This resulted in several of them being seen multiple times throughout the 40-minute sequence. The second "Eleanor" (that Maindrian steals from the car wash) and the white Ford that he and Stanley spend much of their time in are visible parked in one street that Maindrian turns into before hitting the boat in Long Beach. The white Ford also shows up in many other shots. 

When Maindrian is first telling Atlee about the new contract, a message on the blackboard behind them is visible saying, "Sgt. Hawkins called about Vacek case" - a reference to director of photography Jack Vacek. 

Harold Smith's dog was actually owned by cinematographer Jack Vacek, and called Flash. All of the hats Maindrian wears in the film also belonged to Vacek, as did the black Pontiac Trans Am being cleaned in the scene where Atlee steals Lyle Waggoner's car. 

According to director of photography Jack Vacek, only 1-Baker-11 was supposed to crash in the final scene. The drivers of the other police cars decided to all wreck as well "for the hell of it". 

All of the police cars damaged in the film, as well as the garbage truck that overturns, were bought at city auction by director H.B. Halicki in 1972, for an average price of $200 each. They sat in an empty lot for over a year until production on the movie began in 1973. 

I'm going to name this car after your girlfriend, 'cause she's a wreck too.

 There was no official script for the movie, apart from several pages outlining main dialog sequences. Much of the action/dialog was improvised and made up by the cast and crew as they went along. This caused many problems for the editor, Warner E. Leighton, who never knew what footage was being dumped on him or where in the movie it belonged. In the DVD audio commentary, he described the script for the construction site portion of the main pursuit as a piece of cardboard with a circle on it. Director H.B. Halicki pointed at it and said, "That's the dust bowl. We went around it twice. There's your script." 

The featured car in this film, affectionately named "Eleanor," is a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach I.  

The workshop scenes at Chase Research were filmed at director H.B. Halicki's real-life workshop, and occasionally filming would stop for several days so he could repair cars to earn money and continue production. 

'J.C. Agajanian, Jr.', who plays a detective in the roadblock sequence at Torrance Mazda Agency, was almost killed when a stunt with "Eleanor" went wrong and the Mustang slammed into his unmarked police car, which he was standing behind. The scene was left in the film.  

Much of the crowd at the gas station where Harold Smith is pulled over after the night-time Torrance chase were part of a real biker gang, who verbally abused the police officers "arresting" the actor and demanding they leave him alone. Being an independent production, the film used real civilians who happened to be wherever they were filming. It was the police officers' bad luck that at the gas station there was a real biker gang filling up. 

In one scene at the construction area where the Mustang has been surrounded, a patrol car roars up a hill in pursuit and overturns. This was a real accident, and the officer inside was nearly crushed when the siren "can" on the roof caved the roof in. The scene was left in.  

Just a shot of me getting home from work.

To achieve the effect of cars sliding into each other when hit by the patrol car at Moran Cadillac, the filmmakers put oil under the tires of the first few cars to help them slide. When it came time to do the stunt, it worked too well and many of the agency's own Cadillacs that were for sale were badly damaged. Director H.B. Halicki had to purchase all of them. 

Parnelli Jones still owns his Big Oly Ford Bronco, and often brings it out to car shows.

The final "big jump" went 30 feet high and cleared 128 feet; Halicki suffered a compressed spine in the landing.  

According to people on the set, after the mishap when a driver missed a mark and caused "Eleanor" to hit a real light post at 85mph, the first thing that Halicki said when he regained consciousness was "Did we get coverage?" 

1-Baker-5, the second unmarked Mercury that joins the main pursuit early on, was supposed to roll when side-swiping the oncoming car as Maindrian drives onto the sidewalk. A ramp was installed against the side of the civilian vehicle but the Mercury's suspension gave out after hitting it, resulting in the car simply sliding along the road on two wheels. Director H.B. Halicki became frustrated at the failed stunt and left the scene at that, but would eventually master the "barrel roll" for his second film The Junkman (1982). 

The car Hallicki drives at the beginning, a 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, belonged to a friend of Hallicki. After driving 100+ MPH, it had loose, hammering lifters, which indicates a serious problem with quality present before Hallicki borrowed it. 

1-Baker-11, are you still with the pursuit?