A great movie is made better only by the appearance of a great car. Here are ten movies featuring classic Volkswagens:
1. The Love Bug (1968):
No list about Volkswagen classics in movies would be complete without mentioning a fan favorite franchise featuring a classic Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. The movie that launched the franchise, The Love Bug, is a story about a racecar driver named Jim Douglas that finds himself down on his luck when he finds a Volkswagen Beetle with a tendency to drive itself. When the car follows him home, Jim gives him the name Herbie, fixes him up, and uses him to race.
2. Footloose (1984) and Footloose (2011):
A teenager from Chicago, Ren, moves to a small town where certain types of music and all dancing has been banned. Footloose follows Ren’s attempts to get the town to repeal the dancing ban. Ren drives a yellow 1972 Volkswagen Beetle throughout the movie, and both the original 1984 production and the 2011 remake feature the exact same Formula V model VW Bug, making these movies a double hitter for the Volkswagen classics.
3. Pretty in Pink (1986):
This romantic dramedy from the eighties is about a teenager caught between two love interests, one a long time friend and childhood sweetheart, the other a rich playboy with a kind heart. Our lead, a girl named Andie, drives a pink 1958 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Coupe while navigating her love life.
4. Happy Gilmore (1996):
A rejected hockey player named Happy Gilmore, played by Adam Sandler, discovers his skills with gold and joins a P.G.A. tour to try to make enough money to save his grandmother’s house. The movie features a white 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle that crashes onto the golf course and runs into Happy.
5. 50 First Dates (2004):
Another romantic dramedy, as well as another film featuring Adam Sandler, 50 First Dates is the story of Henry Roth, a man who is afraid of commitment, who meets an art teacher named Lucy Whitmore who he hits it off with until he realizes that she has short term memory loss and forgets him the very next day. Lucy drives a yellow 1973 Volkswagen Thing as she goes on 50 first dates with Henry around Hawaii.
6. Little Miss Sunshine (2006):
Yellow sure is a popular color of Volkswagen in the movies on this list so far and Little Miss Sunshine features another appropriately yellow classic. In this movie, a family labeled dysfunctional at best takes a road trip across the country in a yellow 1971 Volkswagen T2 Microbus so that seven-year-old daughter Olive has a chance to contest the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California.
7. Bumblebee (2018):
Fleeing an extraterrestrial civil war, Autobot B-127 is ambushed and damaged, where he then crash lands on Earth alone in California in 1987. After a very un-warm welcome by the humans on Earth and another attack by the Autobots’ enemy, the Decepticons, B-127 scans and transforms into a yellow 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, where he is later found by a teenager after hiding in a junkyard.
8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019):
In 1969 Los Angeles, California, TV star Rick Dalton and his long-time stunt double Cliff Booth, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt respectively, strive to achieve fame and success in a Hollywood landscape they no longer recognize. Stunt double Cliff drives a baby blue 1964 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia throughout their adventures in this production.
9. Back to the Future (1985):
Not mentioned quite as frequently, Back to the Future features an iconic Volkswagen Type 2 Van in a scene that sees Marty McFly and Doc Brown being chased by a group of Libyans. The van features a blue and white paint job and shares the spotlight with the DeLorean DMC-12 car.
10. The Shining (1980):
Last but not least on this list, The Shining stars Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in a big creepy hotel in the mountains. Featuring another classic Volkswagen with iconic yellow paint, this movie’s VW feature is the 1973 yellow Beetle sedan that the family drives through the mountains to get to the hotel.
Want a Volkswagen of your own? Stop by Evans Volkswagen and take one of your own iconic VWs home today!
