10 Movie Stunts That Went Very Wrong (But Are Still In The Film)
3. A Civilian Vehicle Gets Hit During A Car Chase - The French Connection
The late, great William Friedkin is, both for better and worse, one of the most daring filmmakers who has ever lived, as he proved beyond any doubt in his 1971 Best Picture-winning masterpiece The French Connection.
The classic crime thriller is best remembered for its climactic car chase in which Popeye (Gene Hackman) commandeers a civilian's car in order to chase a hitman who is riding an elevated train through the streets of New York City.
The chase came together late in production and was more-or-less shot guerrilla style, with no shooting permits obtained and only a meagre NYPD presence, meaning that the stunt drivers often ran lights for real and were driving alongside regular folk just going about their day.
As a result, the sequence faced a number of unintended accidents, including a beat where Gene Hackman's stunt driver crashes his car into a white 1968 Ford Torino.
The Torino wasn't a stunt car at all - it was a man simply driving to work who ended up inadvertently caught up in shooting and suffered a fender-bender for it.
The production reportedly paid all the repair costs for his vehicle which, yeah, is the absolute least they could've done.