You know Ehren Kruger. He has written some of the biggest blockbusters of the last 20 years, two of which were the highest grossing films of their respective year: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Further back, in 2002, he scared the hell out of us with The Ring.

My introduction to Kruger was his first theatrical credit: Arlington Road (1999), a thriller centered around domestic terrorism with an ending that blew my mind (I saw it 3 times in the theater and rewatched it several times since). It’s a masterclass in building a conspiracy, creating nail-biting suspense and how to gaslight a character.

Kruger’s latest film, a far cry from his horror and thriller genre pieces in the early aughts, is F1: The Movie in which he reteams with Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski. The film follows a veteran driver who can win championships but his checkered past and previous injuries prevents him from becoming a respected driver on the circuits. An old friend, desperate for a winning team, recruits him to drive his F1 cars alongside a cocky young driver. 

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in 'Days of Thunder'

‘Top Gun’ on a Racetrack

In 1986, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson produced Top Gun, a ground-breaking film following several Navy fighter pilots aiming for the top spot in the program. Like its sequel, this was the highest grossing film of the year and the Navy saw an uptick in wannabe fighter pilots with recruits citing this movie as their reason for joining.

Following on the heels of Top Gun, Bruckheimer/Simpson developed Days of Thunder, or Top Gun on a racetrack. At this time in Hollywood, if ideas weren’t pitched as “Die Hard in a (fill in the blank)” then it was “Top Gun on a (fill in the blank).” Days of Thunder was designed with the same pulse-pounding excitement as Top Gun, introducing the inside world of NASCAR and the struggles of an underdog team and its drivers – a lot of the same elements are in F1: The Movie.

Just like Days of Thunder, F1: The Movie was created to thrill audiences and make them feel as if they’re on the track and experiencing the race. Kruger is no stranger to creating large action set pieces in his screenplays, so after writing several Transformers films and Top Gun: Maverick, it was only logical for him to take on the Brad Pitt vehicle. But racing movies are so popular that there have been dozens of them over the course of 100+ years with many starring some of the biggest movie stars of the time.

This is a brief history of what Kruger was up against.

The History of Racing Movies

Pretty much since there was moviemaking, there were auto racing films. The first one appears to be a short film titled The Speed Kings released in 1913 starring Fatty Arbuckle. It’s available on YouTube and runs about 9 minutes. For the time, the racing scenes are well done and you can spot some of the same tropes still used 112 years later. In 1914, Charlie Chaplin had his own short film centered around racing (not as thrilling though). Both Arbuckle and Chaplin were major movie stars at the time tackling automobile racing when affordable cars had only been around a few years – Ford’s Model T began production in 1908.

The fascination of racing vehicles has never subsided. Car chases in movies are basically a race to the finish line with more obstacles thrown in the way.

Pivotal scenes in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Grease (1978) center around lead characters behind the wheel. Bullitt (1968) and The French Connection (1971) have epic car chases and, in the 1990s, Michael Bay brought his signature “Bay-hem” to several car chase scenes.

Many movies have had professional racing as part of the story, such as Le Mans (1971), Stroker Ace (1983) and Days of Thunder (1990), but few have broken into the mainstream as critical and commercial successes. With changing technology and audience expectations though, filmmakers are finding ways to bring the racetrack to the big screen.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest racing movies of the last 20 years.

Will Ferrell in 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Will Ferrell was the king of comedy in 2006. Coming off a stellar run on Saturday Night Live, he showed his movie star status in man-boy comedies filled with improv like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Kicking & Screaming. Sports were fodder for comedy whether it was Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), The Ringer (2005), Nacho Libre (2006) or The Longest Yard (2006). This doesn’t even include all the other sports-comedies that came after 2006.

The film follows Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) with a George W. Bush-type accent, for which Ferrell became famous for while on SNL, who is the number one NASCAR driver with plans to stay on top. That is until a French F1 driver decides to challenge his status.

Talladega Nights became a hit and is often quoted still today perhaps due to its play on the cultural landscape at the time:

• This was peak ‘Merica’ time and this movie uses that attitude in its main characters
• The French, who openly criticized the Iraq War and not-so-friendly to America, were made the pompous antagonist of the movie via Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) – instead of French fries, people were literally calling them Freedom fries, including Air Force One.
• Sacha Baron Cohen was gaining fame as Ali G and would soon become comedy royalty with Borat (released 3 months after Talladega Nights)
• John C. Reilly was an indie darling who played comedy in more serious, often Oscar nominated films showed his ability to do broad comedy

This movie isn’t as much about racing as it is culture and comedy.

Rush (2013)

There is a certain risk in car racing but the sport has been changed over the decades to increase safety and prevent catastrophic injury or fatalities. That was not always the case. Rush is a true story that takes place in the 1970s - the golden age of F1. It follows two drivers, Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), as they compete for the top spots on the track.

Rush shows how wild and even reckless elite drivers can be amid high-level competition, and becomes a battle of wits and craziness between two high-performing individuals. It then has a trope that all modern racing movies have: a life-threatening accident.

While one of the drivers recovers, the other still races, gaining points and planning to win. He refuses to relent his top spot and, instead of spending the time in the hospital recovering, he heads against the advice of his doctors to rejoin the circuit.

Not all racing movies need to be based on real life events. F1: The Movie certainly is not a biopic, but Rush joins the many films that tell the true story of extraordinary moments in sports.

Christian Bale in 'Ford v Ferrari'

Ford v. Ferrari (2019)

When one thinks about race cars, you’re more likely to think Ferrari than Ford. This was the notion behind Ford’s drive to build a race car capable of winning Le Mans, a 24-hour race. This, like many sports films, follows an underdog who must prove themselves against all odds. Oh, and they only had 90 days to make the revolutionary design changes to even have a car capable of competing in such a race.

Ford v. Ferrari was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and has all the hallmarks of an exciting racing film: cocky driver, suspenseful racing scenes and the hero who overcomes the impossible to win.

Just like many race car movies, this one attracted top talent: Matt Damon, Christian Bale and director James Mangold.

Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story (2023)

Although it didn’t make as big of a splash at the box office, Gran Turismo is an exciting film about a young gamer who wins the spot on a racetrack after mastering the Gran Turismo video game. The movie follows the journey from a bedroom gaming chair to live competition on a track of a gamer who has no business behind the wheel of a real race car. Yet just like many of the sports films that came before it, it’s the underdog story that goes behind-the-scenes that makes it a compelling watch.

Similar to F1: The Movie, Gran Turismo has the tropes one expects in their sports story: former car driver, troubled executive, a business with financial issues and a driver no one thinks should be there.

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Of the countless racing movies and car chase scenes, Kruger had a monumental challenge on his hands. On top of that, he was part of the team that “saved movies” after Covid with a must-see blockbuster-- smash, Top Gun: Maverick, which garnered a high-level of expectation. Using a similar model of previous racing movies as well as the fast-paced spectacle of Top Gun: Maverick, Kruger wove together a high-stakes sports drama that makes people care about characters so that they enjoy the ride even more.