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Building cars is hard. We know this. But did you know that making movies and TV shows is also hard? Yeah, who knew! One of the hardest parts of making a movie is set design. The whole purpose of media is to transport the viewer into a different, but still believable world. Cars are a huge part of any piece of art set in the last 100 years, but some directors only see the jump cuts and close-ups, and treat cars like an afterthought. 

Which is why I asked you earlier this week about what bad car casting takes you out of the moment. From forced product placement to cars that just didn’t fit the character, you guys came up with a tidy list of cinema car sins for your fellow Jalops to pursue. The once-humble, now highly desirable classic Bronco makes two appearances on this list. We get it, they’re cool, but come on. Make it make sense! 

Every adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

The story is set in 1922. The cars that the main characters drive are almost always from much later, due to them being more stylish and visibly appealing for the screen, but completely historically inaccurate.

From DiRF

It bothers me (for several reasons) that the down-on-her-luck main character in Bridesmaids drives a rust free AE86 (or 85) in Wisconsin.

From Jake Wetherill

In Mare of Easttown, a teenage kid in a working-class Philly suburb had an absolutely mint early 70’s Bronco. Easily a six figure car.

From David Spiese

Not a car, but in Terminator 2 it always drove me nuts that John’s dirt bike which was clearly something like a XR100 4 stroke, sounded like a 2 stroke….would it really have been so hard to find him a yz80

From Bmied

Not any specific show/movie, but any time a random all black government Suburban is keeping up with the main character(s) on a motorcycle or in a legit fast car. I’m sorry, but momentum is a thing, and there is no way that Suburban can brake/turn/accelerate as fast as the car/bike the heros are in.

and

Also, don’t forget, for the driving/chase sequences, it’s usually a new, or fairly-recent model year Suburban, but if one crashes and/or explodes, suddenly it becomes a Suburban from ten-to-fifteen model years prior.

…or if it’s an Escalade, then it will suddenly become a Tahoe or Yukon with Cadillac badges slapped on it when it gets destroyed.

From SnakeJG and DiRF

Not really the worst, but possibly the most recent. In Apple’s recent Cape Fear remake Amy Adam’s is a lawyer married to another successful lawyer. They live in a big fancy house and are members of high society and she drives a late model Hyundai Sportage. I was surprised how much this bothered me.

and

I’m bothered any time I see a Hyundai Sportage, period.

From m a t h e w and Randomizer

Matrix Reloaded was just a GM infomercial and was distracting at times. Totally unnecessary.

and

The explanation I saw (aside from “GM gave us free cars”) was that The Matrix was spending excess computational resource handling the freeway chase and the compromise to keep things smooth was to populate fewer distinct vehicles, hence you get a bunch of blandly colored GMs.

and

The parking garage they start out in, just before hopping into the Cadillac™ CTS™, was like a freaking Cadillac museum… pretty jarring.

potbellyjoe, seansee, DiRF

Bruce Wayne driving a Jeep Renegade in Batman vs Superman.

From William Getz

In the movie Ambulance, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character is out of work and desperate for money for his child’s illness/surgery. He tells his wife he’ll figure something out. Then he drives off in a fully restored first generation Ford Bronco.

From Ours Blanc

Surprised no one said it yet but the brand new Hyundai Santa Fe they started driving is season 2 and 3 of the walking dead. Not only did it really not make sense but it was so obviously a plant

From Gerrit DeBoer