We are all familiar with the Two Guys In A Car set-up. Done properly and you have poetry in motion, quite literally. This scene may in fact be a pivotal moment for certain films. For the characters involved, the car usually serves as a confessional booth. Writers and directors love this scene, almost as much as the audience. Most of the time, the scene is a heavy one. Some of the time, it is light-hearted or comical. And other times, it does not only involve guys. Yes, you read correctly. Women can do this scene as well. Or perhaps a guy and a woman, the combinations are endless.
Here are some of my favorite Two Guys In A Car scenes from various films. In my opinion, they are very effective. They leave us satisfied and smiling. And most important of all, they have us coming back for more.
Training Day (2001)
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears. Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) receives the training of a lifetime from the veteran Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). It’s difficult to isolate just one scene as most of these lessons are introduced to Jake inside of Alonzo’s 1979 Chevy Monte Carlo. Such education requires multiple scenes. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
While cruising the streets, Alonzo brings Jake gems such as “To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf” and “This shit's chess, it ain't checkers”.
Jake and Alonzo discuss the meaning of justice. “What's wrong with street justice?” asks Alonzo. “Oh, what, so just let the animals wipe themselves out, right?” says Jake. From this rhetorical question, we learn that even Jake's logic follows police protocol. The answer to his question is one that he does not see coming. “God willing. F*ck 'em, and everybody that looks like 'em.” says Alonzo.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. When Quentin Tarantino made this film, he revolutionized the story-telling aspect of a screenplay. It opened doors for films like Memento. Tarantino also brought us some of the most meaningless, yet captivating dialogue of all time. One of these conversations takes place in a car. The two guys in said car are Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson).
Jules: So, tell me again about the hashbars.
Vincent: Okay, what you wanna know?
Jules: Hash is legal there in Amsterdam, right?
Vincent: Yeah, it's legal, but it ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean, you can't just walk into a restaurant, roll a joint and start puffing away. You're only supposed to smoke in your home or certain designated places.
Jules: And those are hashbars?
Vincent: Yeah. It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's still illegal to carry it around, but that doesn't really matter 'cause... get a load of this: if you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
Jules: I'm going, that's all there is to it, I'm f*ckin' going.
Vincent: Yeah baby, you'd dig it the most.
Fargo (1996)
Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson. Remember when I said that the Two Guys In A Car scenes feature women as well? I wasn’t lying. Forget for a moment that Fargo is one of the best films of all time. And let us revisit the legendary scene in which Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) and Lou (Bruce Bohne) discuss a crime while driving in their patrol car. Now, put the two together and what you have is one of the best films of all time, because of scenes such as this.
Marge: Did you look in his citation book?
Lou: Yeah, last vehicle he wrote in was a tan Ciera at 2:18am, under plate number he put DLR. I figured they stopped him or shot him before he could finish filling out the tag number.
Marge: Uh huh.
Lou: So, I got the state looking for a Ciera with a tag starting with a DLR, they ain’t got no match yet.
Marge: I’m not sure that I agree with you one hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.
Lou: Yeah?
Marge: Yeah, I think that vehicle there probably had dealer plates. DLR.
Lou: Oh…Geez.
Marge: Say Lou, did you hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?
Lou: Yeah, that’s a good one!
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. In terms of psychological character analysis, it does not get better than The Hurt Locker. In a world where every single soldier wants to return home safely and as soon as possible, Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) stands alone. He is not in a rush to get home. Parental responsibilities and grocery shopping, scares him more than disarming an explosive device with his bare hands. While driving back to base in a Humvee, James and Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) have one of the most surreal conversations in this film, while shedding somewhat of a light on each one’s personalities, intentions and innermost thoughts.
Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James.
James: Well, you're not gonna die out here, bro.
Sanborn: Another two inches, shrapnel zings by; slices my throat- I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents- they care- but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son.
James: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that, amigo.
Sanborn: Naw, man. I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will. I mean, how do you do it, you know? Take the risk?
James: I don't know. I guess I don't think about it.
Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death. You roll the dice, and you deal with it. You recognize that don't you?
James: Yea...Yea, I do. But I don't know why. I don't know, JT. You know why I'm the way I am?
Sanborn: No, I don't.
