These are the five coolest science fiction cars in film history

05-11-2019

Let's not kid ourselves. In science fiction films, the cars are the real stars! That's why we are naming our top 5 coolest science fiction film cars!

 

Full throttle into the future

Even if the leading actors in a film often become big stars, for every real science fiction fan, the futuristic vehicles play the real leading role, don't they? They were designed by visionaries, are packed with loads of extra features and they look amazing! The people who made them were often not that unrealistic when looking into the future, as you will soon discover. Come aboard and join us on a journey through the visionary vehicle history of automotive film: Buckle up - let's go!

 

5th place: Off to the foam party with the SAPD Cruiser (GM Ultralite) from "Demolition Man" (1993)

Did you know? All the science fiction cars seen in the film "Demolition Man" with Sylvester Stallone were concept cars from General Motors! The most unusual and spectacular one was the SAPD Cruiser, which really brought the film's police officer Sandra Bullock onto the scene at the time. The model for this was the 1992 low-emission concept GM Ultralite. In the film, the SAPD Cruiser drives autonomously and also has a very special safety feature on board: the "Securo-O-Foam", a safety foam that protects the crew from serious injuries in the event of a crash.

 

Thanks to its the carbon design, the vehicle weighed only 635 kilograms. At the time, wing doors that opened upwards brought that extra cool effect. Who would have thought that, in 2019, they would be seen on all supercars? And the idea of "autonomous driving" doesn't shock anybody these days, does it? Read more about "autonomous driving" in our article about megatrends.

 

4th place: Let the Lexus 2054 from "Minority Report" (2002) give you an extra dose of empathy!

Director Steven Spielberg wanted to create nothing less than the car of the future in his film "Minority Report". Therefore, the vehicle from the criminal dystopia with Tom Cruise, set in 2054, not only mastered magnetic levitation and autonomous driving.

 

It also chose music and interior lighting based on the passengers' mood! Furthermore, the Lexus was unlocked by biometric factors and ordered meals by itself. Well, if that isn't the epitome of machine social skills! What's more, the visionary vehicle ran on fuel cells. There were several versions of the Lexus concept car: the red one was probably the most popular.

 

3rd place: Start vertically with a spinner from "Blade Runner" (1982 & 2017)!

The cars, known as spinners, fire up the protagonists in "Blade Runner" as a flying intervention force. Of course, they are equipped with a jet engine – and all this is based on a VW Beetle! In 1982, film car tuner Gene Winfield used the concept of this famous model from Wolfsburg to breathe life into the science fiction car.

 

When the sequel with Ryan Gosling appeared on screens in 2017, another model won the spotlight: a Peugeot was catapulted directly into the year 2049 as the three-wheeled car of the future.

 

2nd place: Speed in the DeLorean DMC-12 from "Back to the Future" (1985) from time to time!

There's hardly anyone on the planet who isn't aware of the "Back to the Future" trilogy, is there? The DeLorean DMC-12, which played the leading role as a time machine with a built-in flux capacitor, was more of a slow seller on the real automotive market in the early 1980s. That was until Doc Brown and his friend Marty McFly travelled through time with it and made it an icon of automotive history.

 

The DeLorean was chosen as the model because director Robert Zemeckis was a huge fan of its wing doors, and apparently he thought the car looked a bit like an alien spaceship.

 

1st place: Discover your best friend with K.I.T.T. from "Knight Rider" (1982-1986)!

One name will probably be associated with K.I.T.T for life (and beyond): that of David Hasselhoff, the main actor in the "Knight Rider" series. And vice versa! The black supermobile developed on the basis of a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is the epitome of the ultimate science fiction car. Using artificial intelligence (AI), not only could it drive fully autonomously, but it also pleased the series' fans with its character and humour.

 

K.I.T.T. had a turbo-powered hydrogen engine and an 8-speed gearbox, meaning that it was sporty: it managed to speed from 0 to 100 in just two seconds and could even jump through the air thanks to its turbo boost! In addition, it had lots of gadgets on board and its human partner on its arm: Michael Knight was always connected to his automotive buddy K.I.T.T. with a smart watch. And all this in the middle of the 1980s: it's a real science fiction super car and therefore our clear number 1!

 

By the way, have you met P.I.T.T. and Michel? No?! Then you have to take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lbPmn4p7o