5 Auto Myths that Movies Continue to Perpetuate

Throughout the history of cinema, films have enjoyed a near symbiotic relationship with automobiles. The New Hollywood era of the 1960s popularized the car chase genre, with icons from Sean Connery in Goldfinger to Steve McQueen in Bullit racing through city streets without abandon. From Back to the Future to Ferris Bueller to Mad Max: Fury Road, some of cinema’s most revered films conjure images of flashy cars in action. 

Cinema’s love affair with automobiles has only become more ubiquitous since then. Ford v Ferrari garnered a Best Picture nomination in 2020. The tenth mainline entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise dropped this summer, with an eleventh already in the works. Even the popular video game racing franchise Gran Turismo was recently adapted for the silver screen.  

Since so much of what we know about cars was inherently learned from the movies we watched growing up – and given how much of it is very, very wrong – we thought it best to set the record straight and dispel myth from reality. 

Landing a Jump Means the Car is Totally Fine 

When a car nails a jump in the movies, landing on all fours with cat-like grace, it’s generally able to immediately resume driving in its usual manner. You know, as if nothing out of the ordinary just happened. Even the deadly ending of Thelma and Louise cuts out ambiguously, allowing us to believe our heroines somehow, someway landed from that cliff unscathed. 

Peel back the magical Hollywood curtain and the results are anything but ambiguous. Attempting even minor jumps, or attempting to navigate unorthodox terrain, results in a multitude of vehicular problems: damaged tires, failed suspension, engine issues, etc. Even if the exterior of your car miraculously survives intact, it could be suffering from interior damage. Either leave the jumps to the stuntmen or prepare to make an appointment with our Service Center. 

Nitrous Oxide Equals Hyper-acceleration 

A deus ex machina arrives at the end of many films to abruptly solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. In many of cinema’s great car chases, the unsolvable problem is simply that the hero’s car isn’t fast enough.  

Enter the nitrous oxide button, as made famous in Fast and the Furious, Mad Max 2, and countless racing video games. With a simple push of the N.O. button, the protagonist’s ride instantly shifts into a hyper-accelerated state. The background blurs into a series of horizontal lines as our hero instantly blows past the competition.  

But although nitrous oxide is a great resource to optimize and increase engine power for a brief duration, it’s hardly enough to launch the driver into hyperspace. At most, nitrous oxide raises the engine power by an efficient – but not physics-breaking – 10-15%. 

“Drifting” Makes You Faster 

As made most famous by the third Fast and the Furious entry, Tokyo Drift, drifting is a curious concept. It involves steering a vehicle (usually around “drift corners”) in a controlled skid sideways. In Tokyo Drift, protagonist Sean Boswell must adapt to this constantly horizontal method of driving or get left in the dust by his drifting competitors. 

In real life, drifting is about as impractical as it sounds. Any form of skidding during a race is counterproductive. Rolling in corners, rather than skidding, is how you maintain speed. The next time you watch a Formula 1 race, note the lack of skid marks on the racetrack. It’s as if the world’s greatest drivers know that drifting only equates to a last-place finish in the real world. 

Another thing that hurts more than it helps: downshifting at high speeds. No matter how cool that intro scene from Baby Driver is, trying to mimic it will only result in damage to your clutch plate and flywheel. 

The Elements Don’t Matter 

In perpetually sunny Hollywood, intense weather isn’t the result of nature as much as it is a product of suspense. Unless the director is an avowed storm chaser on weekends, the severe rain and snowfall you see is the result of rigorous set design and/or CGI. Accordingly, cars in these scenes behave just as unrealistically. 

For every I’m Thinking of Ending Things, where Jesse Plemons’ character advocates for the practical advantages of snow chains, there’s the Iceland scene from Fate of the Furious, in which cars speed and drift atop ice as if it’s blacktop. Before you attempt to test your ride’s performance against blizzard conditions, consider that even slightly chillier Autumn weather can result in battery failure. If you fear your battery is deteriorating, regardless of the conditions, bring it over for a diagnosis today. 

A Lone Bullet in the Gas Tank Causes an Explosion 

In movies, a vehicle’s gas flap is the equivalent of a human heart: if either takes a direct shot, it’s all over. In actuality, a single bullet hitting a gas tank will… make a hole in it. For an explosion to take place, a mixture of fuel and oxygen is required, and fuel tanks simply don’t contain the amount of oxygen necessary for such a result. 

We are really hoping this clarification provides relief, not disappointment.  

We also hope you’re able to avoid this situation entirely. But if you do find yourself in a high-octane shootout, please note that hiding behind your car doesn’t actually provide adequate protection. Remember how we said that a single bullet will make a hole in your gas tank? Multiple bullets will make multiple holes from one side of your car to the other. Again, to reiterate, most real cars are not bulletproof. 

Now that we’ve established the difference between fiction and reality, continue to enjoy your movie nights! Just because we don’t live in a world of Matrix physics doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the ludicrous highway scene from The Matrix: Reloaded. 

In the meantime, Gallagher Buick GMC is your home for all your real-world automotive needs. Whether you’re in the market for a new or preowned vehicle, need an oil change, or are looking to service your tires or brakes, we’re here to make you feel like a star.