7 Coolest Movie Cars (That Aren’t the Batmobile or Mad Max’s Interceptor)

When you think about notable elements from iconic movies, it isn’t always specific scenes, lines of dialogue, or even costumes that you think of. Sometimes its cars, especially cool ones. There are some movies that naturally lend themselves to sweet rides; movies about racing, like F1 or Grand Turismo feature plenty of really cool cars. Other films have seen very specific cars become almost as iconic as the main character—can you imagine Batman without the Batmobile?

But outside of Batman’s epic ride and the fast cars of racing movies, there are plenty of other very cool cars in movies, cars that have become icons in their own right. These aren’t cars that are the Batmobile or Mad Max’s Interceptor or even some pretty great animated cars, either. These are a wide range of iconic vehicles from some truly iconic movies—and we wish we could test drive literally any of the ones on this list.

7) Herbie from The Love Bug

If you were a kid in the 1970s or 1980s, you know Herbie. First appearing in Disney’s The Love Bug in 1968, the 1963 Volkswagen Beetle isn’t necessarily tricked out or special in any obvious physical way. Instead, the coolness of the car is all in the story, as the titular Love Bug happens to have a mind of his own in the film, functioning pretty much as a sentient car that can drive itself and even becomes a serious race car. With its iconic red, white, and blue racing stripes and the racing number 53 prominently on the front and doors, Herbie is highly recognizable and an absolute classic.

6) The Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers

Much like Herbie, The Bluesmobile is a pretty simple car generally but it does have one standout feature that makes it both cool and completely iconic: the giant, roof-mounted loudspeaker. The vehicle itself is a 1974 Dodge Monaco and, in the story, is a decommissioned police car acquired by Elwood Blues at an auction. Of course, while the car looks cool because of that giant loudspeaker, it also can do some pretty crazy stunts. The car is seen jumping over a drawbridge, essentially flying for short periods of time when jumping things, and even somehow flipping backwards in midair. It’s a very, very cool car. Just don’t try to use the cigarette lighter.

5) The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Sure, the Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off doesn’t really do anything particularly special in the film, but it’s role in the iconic film that makes it a classic and lands it on our list. In the movie, the car is the prized possession of Cameron’s (Alan Ruck) father that he absolutely isn’t supposed to touch, but that Ferris (Matthew Broderick) ends up borrowing and taking on a day trip after ditching school. Shenanigans ensue. While the car is cool in the movie, it’s details about the car used for filming that makes things even more interesting. Turns out, the car used in the film wasn’t actually a Ferrari at all. Instead, the movie utilized so-called “replicars”—replica vehicles that were based on the Ferrari but used very different mechanical parts. Kind of makes the fate of the movie’s Ferrari a little easier to accept.

4) Dominic Toretto’s 1979 Dodge Charger from The Fast and The Furious

The classic Dodge Charger is an absolutely iconic muscle car and appears in a lot of movies and television series but one of the coolest might just be Dominic Toretto’s ride from The Fast and The Furious. It’s also arguably the coolest car in the movie and that’s saying something considering Paul Walekr’s character drives a pretty cool Toyota Supra. Dom’s Charger looks cool, first and foremost. All black, big rear tires, an absolutely massive supercharger on the hood—the car screams power. But it also does some pretty cool tricks. We just don’t recommend trying any of those tricks in a real Dodge Charger.

3) James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger

The world’s coolest spy would naturally have one of the coolest movie cars, though calling his Aston Martin DB5 cool might just be an understatement. Sure, it’s a beautiful vehicle, but it’s the gadgets that make this thing absolutely insane and iconic. What kind of gadgets? Well, there’s the ejector seat, machine guns, an oil-slick sprayer, a ram bumper, and plenty more. But the coolest thing about the DB5 is less about what it did on screen and more about its offscreen adventures. One of the cars used for filming—chassis number DP/2161/1—was stolen from a secure hanger and its location remained a mystery for 25 years before it was located in a “private setting” in the Middle East in 2022.

2) The Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters

If this car shows up after someone says, “who you gonna call?” then you know you made the right call. The Specialized Electronical Vehicular Device, aka the Ecto-1, aka the Ectomobile, is the iconic ride from Ghostbusters, appearing throughout the franchise. It is, hands-down, one of the most easily identifiable vehicles in pop culture. The vehicle itself is actually a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor sentinel, specifically an ambulance/hearse version as Miller-Meteor built other sorts of professional cars like limousines. The real-life cars are actually pretty rare with only around 25 of the 1959 model made and two were used for the movies.

1) The DeLorean from Back to the Future

There really could only be one vehicle in the number one spot on our list and it’s the DeLorean from Back to the Future. You know how it works: the vehicle is outfitted with a “flux capacitor” that allows the car to travel through time when it hits the requisite 88 miles per hour and 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. The car is undoubtedly cool to look at with its gullwing doors, but like some of the cars on our list, it’s the off-camera details that make it even cooler. There were actually three DeLoreans used for Back to the Future and they were purchased from a collector as the vehicles had already gone out of production by the time the movie was made. One car was used for stunts, one for special effects, and one for just normal shots. The cars were also notoriously unreliable and frequently broke down. The whole history of the DeLorean Motor Company and the vehicle itself is a wild and fascinating one and the cars continue to have a strong fan following, even without flux capacitors.

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