Hal Needham · 1981 · road

Hal Needham's all-star 1981 road comedy, the sixth-biggest hit of its year, based on the real Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea dash that screenwriter Brock Yates actually ran. A pack of misfit teams races flat out and entirely without rules from Connecticut to the California coast, the law and one another be damned, in everything from a disguised ambulance to a Lamborghini to an Aston Martin. This route follows the run coast to coast, including the two stops, in Pennsylvania and Kansas, that really happened on the 1979 race and made it into the film.

1. 1
   Darien, Connecticut

   Race teams gather in Darien, Connecticut, for an outlaw dash clear across the United States: no rules, no fixed route, no speed limit anyone means to honor, just the lowest elapsed time from here to the California coast. Among the entrants are J.J. McClure and Victor in a souped-up ambulance, two women in a black Lamborghini, a man convinced he is Roger Moore in an Aston Martin, and a Japanese team in a gadget-stuffed Subaru.

2. 2
   Pennsylvania

   The field scatters west, each team with its own scheme for slipping past the law. McClure and Victor run their ambulance flat out with a fake patient and a real doctor aboard, bluffing their way through every checkpoint, until somewhere in Pennsylvania a state trooper pulls the speeding ambulance over and very nearly takes the whole con apart.

3. 3
   Kansas

   On across the plains the racers pour, trading the lead and sabotaging one another with equal glee. In Kansas the lunacy peaks when a highway patrolman, summoned away from a rodeo, stops the ordinary traffic and waves the entire roaring pack of competitors straight on through, the law itself briefly drafted into the race.

4. 4
   Las Vegas

   Into the desert Southwest the survivors press, past Denver and over the Rockies and down through the long empty miles of Nevada, with brushes along the way with bikers, saloons, and each other. The ambulance, the Lamborghini and the rest are still swapping the lead as the Pacific finish draws close at last.

5. 5
   Redondo Beach

   The race ends at the Portofino Inn on the sand at Redondo Beach, California, where the first car over the line takes the trophy. After nearly three thousand miles of mayhem the winner rolls in, and the rivals who have chased one another across an entire continent finally tumble out to settle their scores, more or less, right there on the beach.