2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Buddies Brian and Roman (Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson) were pursued by cops in a race across Miami, resulting in damage to 16 police cars, 2 Jeeps, two classic cars, and one yacht.

[The second sequel was titled The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) and was set in Japan. It featured the most complex race/chase scenes of the series, incorporating the perilous practice of "drifting" (sliding sideways on all four car tires as a way of negotiating turns).]

Bad Boys II (2003)

Jamaican gangsters tossed cars (15 Mercedes Benz) from a transporter at detectives Will Smith and Martin Lawrence driving high-speed on the freeway, resulting in carnage/damage to dozens of cars on the freeway, the transporter, and a boat.

The film also featured the disturbing and controversial fascistic characters of the two detectives, who aimed a gun and threatened a 10 year old boy, made wisecracks while tossing corpses out of a morgue transport vehicle onto a freeway, and demolished a Cuban tent city with tanks.

The Italian Job (2003)

This remake of the 1969 original starred Edward Norton (as mastermind criminal Steve Frazelli), Charlize Theron (as "vault and safe technician" Stella Bridger), Donald Sutherland (as veteran safecracker John Bridger) and Mark Wahlberg (as the young heist leader Charlie Croker, replacing Michael Caine from the original).

It included a heist of $35 million (in gold bars) in Venice, with a boat chase through the canals, and then in Los Angeles a year later, the re-stealing of the heisted gold from Steve Frazelli by Charlie and his vengeful gang -- the amazing action sequences in downtown Los Angeles began with an overhead view of a trio of Mini Coopers (red, white, and blue) driving down the sidewalk of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and careening down stairs to enter an LA Metro subway station and rail tunnel.

In a race to get to the tracks, they had to speed past a Metro train with only seconds to spare; afterwards, the group of vehicles retreated from gunmen on motorcycles, and navigated through the narrow storm drain tunnels or tubes into a Los Angeles River bed, where they also had to evade Steve piloting a helicopter in the air and race through a pre-planned Los Angeles traffic jam.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

This film featured an incredible 12-minute, 100 mph, with- and against-traffic freeway chase sequence between the evil, white-suited albino Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment) (driving a black Cadillac Escalade EXT), who were firing at driver Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a silver coupe carrying freedom-fighting Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and The Key Maker (Randall Duk Kim), resulting in numerous overturned and damaged cars. One of the Agents jumped and then leapfrogged from one moving car to the next, smashing them down in this spectacular sequence, to get to the hood of their silver vehicle. When their tires were shot flat, Trinity stole a black Ducati 996 motorbike from a transport truck and grabbed the Key Maker as her passenger, ending up traveling toward the traffic on the busy freeway.

Soon after, Morpheus found himself atop a freight truck fighting in mid-air against one of the Agents after grabbing the Key Maker from the accelerating bike. The sequence ended with the surprise appearance of Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) in a dark blue '67 Firebird, who caught Morpheus ("Gotcha") as he somersaulted backwards off the top of the truck and landed on her hood. Morpheus then leaped back onto the top of the truck from there to try and save the Key Maker.

The sequence ended with a head-on collision of two 18-wheelers, resulting in severe damage as the two freight trucks crushed into each other like an accordion, exploded and produced black smoke and flames - while Neo (Keanu Reeves) miraculously flew like a superman to snatch both Morpheus and the Key Maker who were sailing through the air from the impact, saving them from certain death.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

A thrilling crane-truck-motorbike (and other vehicles) chase occurred on downtown Los Angeles streets between the Terminator T-850's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) police motorcycle, the Terminatrix T-X's (Kristanna Loken) giant wide-load truck (with a mounted crane), and John Connor (Nick Stahl) who was driving Kate Brewster's (Claire Danes) Toyota Tundra animal hospital pickup truck (with her 'kidnapped' in the back).

Driverless multiple vehicles (remotely-controlled) and other parked vehicles were destroyed, including many cop cars and dozens of other cars, fire vehicles, and other emergency-response vehicles. During part of the sequence, the Terminator clung from the end of a massive construction crane mounted on a truck that smashed him through buildings.

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

As in the first film of the series, this sequel also featured an extended high-speed car chase through the crowded streets of Moscow between injured CIA agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) who was driving a hijacked yellow taxi, hired Russian assassin Kirill (Karl Urban) in a stolen black Mercedes SUV, and multiple police cars.

There were multiple collisions and spin-outs, and the chase (including an exchange of gunshots while driving) ended in a spectacular tunnel crash when Kirill's vehicle hit a concrete exit abutment. Bourne satisfied that Kirill was about to die from his injuries, walked away from the scene.

I, Robot (2004)

1. A highway tunnel attack by dozens of robots on Detective Spooner's (Will Smith) moving car
2. A robot attack that demolished a house with Spooner inside
3. Thousands of robots chasing Spooner and Sonny (voice of Alan Tudyk) under a malicious AI's control

Casino Royale (2006, UK)

One of the most exciting and spectacular foot-chase scenes ever recorded, called the Parkour Chase, was set in the African-island nation of Madagascar at a crowded local mongoose-cobra fight.

007 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) (and a second junior agent Carter (Joseph Millson)) were tracking a scar-faced, freelance terrorist bomb-maker named Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). Bond's assignment was to fight the funding of terrorism. When the suspect received a text message ("Ellipsis"), Mollaka became suspicious after Carter kept touching his earpiece and blew their cover, and he made a run for it.

During the lengthy sequence through jungle and into an ocean-side construction site, Bond hotly pursued Mollaka - at one point commandeering a large New Holland bulldozer-tractor. As both scaled steel girders high in the sky, three individuals lost their lives (one construction worker was pushed and two police guards were shot by Mollaka). Both of them climbed cables on towering cranes and fought precariously before jumping to the ground and free-running through other buildings under construction.

The chase ended at the Nambutu Embassy (Mollaka was an employee there), where security alarms sounded and Bond found himself under-fire and breaching diplomatic protocol. He grabbed Mollaka as a hostage and used him as a human shield, as Mollaka was shot in the leg.

Bond threw his hostage out a second-floor office window into a courtyard, and then, when cornered and surrounded by troops, he surrendered and dropped his weapon, but quickly drew a second gun from his belt, killed Mollaka, and shot at a gas tank-canister to cause a massive explosion and cover his escape.

Happy Feet (2006)

There were two exciting chase sequences by lethal predators who were in pursuit of young dancing Emperor Penguin Mumble (voice of Elijah Wood):

• by a hungry leopard seal whose jaws almost caught Mumble, but he was able to thwart the seal when both ended up on the surface of the ice
• the breathtaking attack by two killer whales who tossed Mumble and penguin holy man-charlatan Lovelace (voice of Robin Williams) into the air several times

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

This blockbuster sequel featured some of the most kinetic, elaborate stunts/chases ever filmed.

One was the action-packed scene in which Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), while tied on a spit by cannibals, turned into a "fruit shish kebob" - then toppled off a cliff and was hung upside down as the fruit caused weight shifts, and plummeted down through many rope bridges to hit the ground and flee.

Then, in homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Sparrow was chased by angry natives through the shallow shore water and grabbed onto his departing ship Black Pearl at the last minute to escape - and mockingly waved at his pursuers.