Benjamin M. Monroe Blog: Ronin’s E34 BMW M5 scene is still one of the best car chases

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Ronin’s E34 BMW M5 scene is still one of the best car chases

It’s Saturday and the weather is getting colder. So it’s sometimes nice to just hang inside, with a cup of coffee and watch a good movie, with leaves falling off trees in the background through the window. A nice relaxing day (I’d love to remember that feeling). As gearheads, we like to watch movies that great car chase scenes. And I mean proper car chases, not Fast and Furious’ dude-bro absurdity. One of the best of car chase scenes of all time is featured in Ronin, with its E34 BMW M5

A badass crime-thriller featuring Robert DeNiro, Natascha McElhone and Jean Reno, Ronin is an awesome weekend watch even without the cool car chase scenes. Thankfully, though, it’s both a good movie and great gearhead entertainment.

In fact, Ronin has two awesome car chase scenes. One featuring an awesome D2-generation Audi S8, which also has DeNiro peaking out of the sunroof of an old, brown Benz to fire a LAW missile at another car (seen below). But the other is the better of the two and it features an E34 BMW M5.

The M5 is driven my McElhone, as she flogs it through Paris, while DeNiro is in pursuit in a Peugeot 406. Now, a 406 can’t keep up with an E34 BMW M5 but with DeNiro at the helm (who actually wasn’t driving but used a fake steering wheel while a stunt driver drove), and the help of a little movie magic, anything can happen.

Now, there’s some debate as to whether or not the BMW in the car chase was, in fact, a BMW M5 and not just a more pedestrian 5 Series. This is because many of the shots in the chase show a 5 Series without an “M5” badge on the front, the appropriate side skirts and regular 5 Series interior bits. However, after some research, it seems that the production crew had both E34 M5s and regular 5 Series for filming. The car was meant to be an M5 but I’m assuming they didn’t want to crash many of those, due to cost, so they had BMW 535is do the really dangerous stuff, like flipping off of a bridge into some sand.

Still, it’s a great car chase, with tons of realistic engine noises, some proper driving and awesome crashes. It doesn’t have any superfluous or unrealistic nonsense that you’ll see in any of the Fast and Furious movies. Just proper, petrol-head motoring.