Speed of a Car: The French Connection

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French Connection starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider premiered in 1971 and follows two narcotics officers trying to prevent a smuggling job. This true-story based action film contains one of the most novel car chases in all cinema. The main character Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, played by Gene Hackman, chases a hit man sent to kill him, played by Marcel Bozzuffi, through Brooklyn. Their route begins at Bay 50th street station in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, along Stillwell Avenue, into 86th street and ends at the 62nd street station. The chase lasted 26 city blocks under the N subway line.

Every scene was filmed in one take without closing the streets. Two stunt cars were set up along the path. Popeye was supposed to drive around these cars however three crashes occurred, two with the stunt cars, and one actual crash. The director states, in the director's commentary, that the car was traveling at 90 mph during some of the scenes. Did Popeye's car actually travel at 90 mph?

screen capture
The crash with a civilian car (left) and Popeye's car (right) at Bay 50th & Stillwell Avenue.

We timed and measured the distance of various intersections in order to record the average velocity of the car over several intervals. Using a map we measured the length and time between each intersection.

	Intersection (where known)	Time (min:s)	Time (s)	Distance (km)
0	Bay 50th Street Station at Stillwell Avenue	0:26	26	0
1		0:50	50
2		0:52	52
3		0:58	58
4		1:03	63
5		1:34	94
6		1:41	101
7		1:48	108
8		2:29	149
9	25th Avenue Station at 86th Street	2:40	160	1
10	25th Avenue Station at 86th Street	3:18	198	1
11	Avenue V & Stillwell Avenue	3:23	203	0.8
12	Crash at Bay 50th & Stillwell Avenue	3:29	209
13		3:48	228
14		3:52	232
15	86th Street & 19th Avenue	4:02	242	2.4
16	86th Street & 23rd Avenue	4:09	249	1.56
17		4:18	258
18	86th Street & Bay Parkway	4:26	266	1.8
19		4:32	272
20	86th Street & New Utrecht Avenue	4:38	278	2.72
21		5:02	302
22		5:12	312
23		5:35	335
24		5:43	345
25		5:46	346
26		5:49	349
27		6:09	369
28	62nd Street Station at New Utrecht Avenue	6:15	375	4.64

In the film the scenes are shown out of order. If you pay close attention, you may notice certain locations are shown twice. The following graphs show the distances and times of eight selected intersections.

graph

This graph shows the vast discontinuity in the scene shown in the movie. In reality parts of the scene were filmed out of order.

adjusted graph

This graph shows the distance without the discontinuity.

Starting Location	Ending Location	Starting Time (s)	Ending Time (s)	Average Velocity (km/h)
Start of Chapter	Bay 50th Street Station	0	26	0
Bay 50th Street Station	25th Aveue Station	26	149	29.7
25th Aveue Station	25th Aveue Station	149	198	0
25th Aveue Station	86th & New Utrecht	198	278	77.4
86th & New Utrecht	62nd Street Station	278	369	71.3
62nd Street Station		369		0

adjusted graph

This velocity graph was constructed by taking the derivative of the second distance-time graph. Although not shown, the velocity was measured in km/h. According to this graph, Popeye's car does not hit 90 mph despite what the director claimed.

Michael Calamera, Jerard Kneifati-Hayek, Erik Hageman, Geeta Malieckal -- 2005

External links to this page:

The French Connection Car Chase Was "Dangerous" And "Life-Threatening". Jen Carlson. Gothamist (5 January 2015).

Physics on Film

Feature Films
One Reelers
1. Speed of a car: C'était un Rendezvous
2. Speed of a car: The Run
Short Video Clips