Whenever an actor from Hollywood’s Second Golden Age passes away, my immediate instinct is to think about the iconic car movie/s they starred in. Paul Newman, James Garner, Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman. They all have one. Curiously, I don’t think Robert Reford ever did.
The sad news today is that Robert Redford passed away at age 89. He’s most famous as an actor, starring in a list of all-timers like Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Sting, and All The President’s Men. He was also a talented producer and director, with a career that spanned six decades.
In all that time, I don’t think he ever made a great “car” movie. He was even in a film called The Chase, which notably features a train sequence, but few car moments (instead, you get a lot of Robert Redford running and Marlon Brando complaining that Texas is too big).
I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Redford does, however, appear in a film with a perfect movie car. If you’ve seen the top shot, you know what I’m talking about. If not, I’ll run you through the cast of the film, because that’s what I did on the phone with Jason, mostly because it’s incredible.
Robert Refdord… Sidney Poitier… Mary McDonnell… River Phoenix… David Straitharn… Ben Kingsley… Timothy Busfield… Donal Logue… Dan Akroyd!
It’s an early hacker film and, unless you’re David and haven’t seen anything, it’s the best movie you’ve never seen: Sneakers.
The film was moderately popular at the time, but I think it was misrepresented in its original trailer as more silly caper than substantial drama. While it’s funny and not too heavy, Sneakers is a legitimate and rather prescient surveillance state thriller that nicely fills in the gap between The Conversation and Enemy of the State.
It stars Redford as Martin Brice (or Bishop), a Vietnam War-era student hacker who goes on the lam, only to reappear as a “sneaker,” which is essentially a security consultant who tests security systems by trying to break them. He and his team get assigned a mission by two furtive NSA agents, and everything goes wrong, leading to the only car chase I know of between a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and a Mercury Sable:
Again, not a car movie by any modern standard, the film does include a chase, an extremely memorable scene involving Redford being kidnapped by a car, and one that has Straitharn’s blind character being required to drive an old van.
The Karmann Ghia is what I remember, though, and is extremely fitting for Redford’s character, as cinema fashion site BAMF Style pointed out in a retrospective of the film:
Redford’s character zips through the City by the Bay in a classic Karmann Ghia convertible, weathered but reliable like the then-56-year-old actor himself.
[…]
Martin Bishop drives an orange 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible, its production dating back to his pre-fugitive days. While it’s never explicitly stated, it’s possible that the idealistic Martin had dreamed of owning one during his early days as a “sneaker” and finally obtained one after channeling his abilities to find success as a legitimate consultant.
The car just works in this context, and the one chosen for the film is just imperfect enough to be believable. Redford’s Bishop/Brice is a little too much of an idealist to drive a 911, but also too much of an aesthete and an adrenaline junkie to drive a Beetle. The Karmann Ghia is right in the sweet spot.
In his private life, Redford does seem to have enjoyed cars, including owning a gorgeous Porsche 904 GTS. His good friend Paul Newman is far more famous for being a racer, though Redford was the one who got him into racing in the first place, leading to an extraordinary ongoing prank involving a melted Porsche.
You can watch Sneakers on YouTube Movies with ads. Otherwise, I highly recommend renting it, as it’s impossible to be disappointed by this movie.
Top graphic images: Universal Pictures/Sneakers
Sneakers is one of my favorite movies. probably came out at just the right time for me as i was in High School then, but love the movie to this day. Epic cast. some really funny moments and keeps you entertained all the way through
“My name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport. verify me”
Even as a teen the first time I saw it, one of my biggest gripes with that movie is how she has a hard time getting him to say ‘passport’. I get that her forced attempt furthers the suspense because he later figures out what she was doing, but getting someone to say passport in a conversation just wouldn’t be that hard. Just talk about international travel.
One of the most memorable parts of that movie (for me) was the blind guy driving the truck while Redford’s character (mis)guided him over the radio. For some reason, that truck smacking into the building at the end has been seared into my brain since the first time I saw it.
And to this day I think about that awkward scene every time I hear the word “passport”.
Great movie.
“There’s going to be a ….. slight drop.”
By far, Johnny Hooker is my favorite Redford character.
“Luther told me you could teach me something. I already know how to drink.”
I loved Sneaker when it came out and rewatch it pretty regularly. In fact every time The Bishop posts an article on this site in my head I’m picturing Robert Redford sketching amazing car designs that I love but will never be able to have.
I love that I am amongst fellow nerds. Sneakers is a fantastic movie. You just don’t want to take it 100% seriously.
-“Let’s do what we did in Mexico City!”
-“I didn’t know you could do THAT in Mexico City.”
It also demonstrated very early voice recognition technology.
“Organized crime?”
“Don’t kid yourself; it’s not that organized.”
I also think the lovely green Porsche 912 his character drove in Spy Games is also worth mentioning. Also, fully agree that Sneakers deserves more recognition. Great movie!
Maybe only because of how old I was when it came out, but for me Sneakers is the better movie. No contest on the Irish Green 912. Even just pulling in and out of the parking structure it was fire.
Sneakers is my favorite Robert Redford movie. I’ve watched it dozens of times since it first hit cable TV when I was a kid. I’ve got it on DVD now, so I’ll have to watch it again tonight.
Whenever I think of Redford and cars, I think of the fantastic line from his very underrated paranoid spy thriller Three Days of the Condor, as a pro offers him some advice about trying to go home.
“It’ll happen this way. You may be walking, maybe on the first sunny day of spring. A car will slow beside you, a door will open, and someone, maybe someone you know and trust will get out. He’ll smile and offer you a lift…”
My day job involves research in the field of computer security, but I completed my undergraduate work during the latter part of the phone phreaking era. I recall seeing this in the theater when it first came out and loving it; I even have a copy on Laser Disk. (!)
I watch it every so often. Although there are some areas of disbelief, I still really enjoy it, even for the *slight spoiler* of the nemesis showing future tech-bro lack of ethical behavior. There’s also a Cray-1!
Back in the Jurassic era, I worked at a timesharing firm and got to connect to a Cray-1 using a 300 baud acoustic coupler. Good times!
Foreshadowing Brad Pitt’s Ghia in “Once…In Hollywood.” A tribute?
Also, a Porsche in “Downhill Racer.” One of my favorites.
https://www.insidehook.com/autos/robert-redford-downhill-racer-porsche-911
+1 for Downhill Racer for sure.
This has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it.
It came out at the tail end of when you could get away with phone phreaking stuff, and during a period of time when I was spending quite a lot of time on irc channels with folks in australia and new zealand. The early internet, right before the world wide web hit the scene.
So you can go through all that and not bring up …
COOTYS RAT SEMEN
My mom forbade my brother and I to keep repeating that on the drive home from the theater. Didn’t work. She took us to a LOT of Redford movies….
Late 70’s, Westport CT. RR rented a house near me one summer. We must have had similar looks as locals frequently mistook me for him and would stop me; causing some commotion and then disappointment. However, my wife was impressed.
Happens to me ALLLLLLL the time…
Beats being “recognized” as Keith Partridge…
All I ever get is Toby McGuire or Frodo.
I keep getting mistaken for Rick Rubin.
All the fucking time.
The worst part is that people don’t bother to say ”are you Rick Rubin?” They just start talking to me amout whatever project they are working on, or that book he wrote.
You gotta go back farther in time: “Robert Redford appears in a memorable Porsche scene in the film Downhill Racer (1969), where his character, David Chappellet, rides in and later drives a yellow (sometimes described as “Bahama yellow” or orange) late-1960s Porsche 911T in the Alps. This car actually belongs to the character Carole Stahl, played by Camilla Sparv. The scene most associated with the Porsche occurs after Carole and Chappellet ski together; they then drive the car back into town, stopping on a mountain road to swap seats so that Redford’s character can take the wheel. The sequence showcases Chappellet weaving through traffic and driving through snowy mountain roads, providing one of the film’s standout moments for both car enthusiasts and cinema fans.
This Porsche scene is a brief but iconic moment in Downhill Racer, emphasizing Redford’s penchant for speed and the film’s alpine setting, as well as highlighting a rare instance of a standout movie car originally being owned by a female character onscreen.”
Amazing life; RIP king
He drove a killer forest green longhood 911 in Spy Game
Actually really impactful to me; so many heros drive some overpowered exotic, and in this one it was just an understated aircooled 911, in an understated color. Really made me want to own a 911. And now I do.
Dude seemed cool AF
Redford drove a very cool air-cooled 911 twice in Spy Game, also starring Brad Pitt. He drives the car once in the beginning and once and the very end.
Oh. I just read that it’s a 912. I have no idea whether that’s true, because I know practically nothing about air-cooled Porsches.
It’s still cool, though.
I remember Hackers, never saw Sneakers. Sounds like light fun.
What if he drove a VW Thing?
I watched both back in the day, Sneakers is wayyyy better.
No movie containing Stephen Tobolowsky should ever omit him from the cast list!
Cleveland 116
San Antonio 109
Hadda look up that one!
Werner Brandes!
” i want peace on earth”
“I represent the US Government, they don’t tend to to that”
” a Winnebago then?”
“…an extremely memorable scene involving Redford being kidnapped by a car”
That would be extremely memorable – as most kidnappers are people who frequently use cars – but never a car all by itself*.
(*Until Tesla self-driving, of course…)
He was in a dirt bike racing movie, though in typical Redford fashion it wasn’t really the focal point of the movie. Little Fauss and Big Halsy.
I am old enough to have seen Sneakers in the theater and really loved this movie after expecting it to bore me to death. My step mom was a Redford fan and we went to movies a lot back then. But I did truly love the movie after such low expectations.
For me & my mom, it was all the Burt Reynolds movies in the 70s/80s. And Grease.
I was lucky enough to avoid Grease but I did see all of the Smoky & the Bandits in the theater. That last one… yikes.
I remember watching that on Speedvision’s Lost Drive-In movie series with Bruce Dern hosting. I miss that.
I could tell immediately the movie from headline. Great movie.
They have further car tie ins. The figure out the route of a car by the frequency of expansion joints on a bridge. Completely unbelievable for the day but still good fun.
And a cocktail party.
That made him an honorary blind man.
I recently re-watched Sneakers, it still holds up. I got on a Poitier kick after purchasing a Columbia Classic collection featuring To Sir, With Love.
100% Right. This is one of my absolute favorite 90s movies. The characters are well built, the story makes decent sense, bits of humor lightly undercut the tone, keeping it from getting to heavy and dark.
My voice is my passport. Verify me.