The trucking movie is a classic American genre. It’s fun for an audience to see truckers ‘gettin er done’ just like ours do every single day of the week. Here’s our list of the most famous tow trucks in cinema.
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
This classic movie made an entire generation of children wonder what it would be like to be a trucker. Burt Reynolds and Jerry reed play two truckers on an adventure, hauling an illegal shipment of beer to Georgia from the Lone Star State while being chased by Jackie Gleason’s vengeful sheriff. This movie enjoyed immense success; not only one, but two sequels were released!.
Flatbed Annie and Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers (1979)
This pulp film depicts two female truckers who become long-haulers after one of their husbands suffers an injury. Fun fact; one of the main actors in this film happens to be the brother of former President Jimmy Carter.
Cars (2006)
This children’s movie about sentient cars found a fan favorite in the character Mater, a talking tow truck voiced by the comedian Larry the Cable Guy. This film enjoyed immense success for it’s combination of skillful animation and celebrity cameos, and was met with a sequel a few years later.
Convoy (1978)
This film is famous for it’s earworm theme song, and pictures Ernest Borgnine as a sheriff agonizingly chasing a crew of truckers, as they form up a mile long (eponymous) convoy i n order to prove the merits of teamwork and family.
Breaker! Breaker! (1977)
The meme king Chuck Norris plays a truck driver who fights off a gang of killer truckers with Kung Fu skills. This movie helped cement Chuck Norris as a household name in action movies.
White Line Fever (1975)
Carol Jo Hummer plays a trucker trying to save his family from hard times, who finds himself battling the mob when he discovers that long haul trucking business has been hijacked by the criminal underground. The title of the movie is a reference to a trucking slang phrase detailing addiction to the process and journey of trucking.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
This John Carpenter film fuses 1980s action, 1970s Kung Fu, and 1950s pulp horror intrigue. Kurt Russell plays a trucker who has to rescue his friend’s fiancee from a cabal of evil criminal magicians in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
High Ballin’ (1978)
This Canadian foray into the 70s-80s trucking movie craze offers it’s own take on the Western genre, portraying Jerry Reed and Peter Fonda as two truckers who have to fight off a group of criminal thugs trying to usurp business from independent truckers. Jerry Reed, who was enjoying fame from ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ both featured as a principal actor as well as recording the theme song for this film, in a bit of type casting.