The 10 best movie Mercedes-Benzes of the past 50 years (2024)

Mercedes-Benz has often been a luxury touchstone for filmmakers seeking a prop that would easily identify the socioeconomic status of a character.

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The Silver Star’s presence on the silver screen has also expanded past the conspicuous display of wealth, however, finding its way into a number of movies that play with, subvert, or highlight aspects of the brand’s reputation that may not be front-of-mind for audiences.

Here are our picks for the most memorable movie Mercedes-Benz vehicles of all time.

The Rookie (1990)

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The car: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 500 SL

The driver: Clint Eastwood as Nick Pulovski

Why it’s awesome: In a movie about car thieves there are plenty of chances to show off cool hardware. Still, it’s hard to beat the scene where Eastwood’s cop character drives a Mercedes-Benz 500 SL through a second story plate-glass window at full speed while the warehouse behind them explodes with the fury of a thousand suns. With the top down, no less.

Not even passenger Charlie Sheen’s hair gets mussed up in the process, and later on the duo end up driving the car across town for a date with the bad guys

The Hangover (2009)

The car: 1965 Mercedes-Benz 220 SE

The driver: Pretty much everyone in the cast of The Hangover

Why it’s awesome:The Hangover‘s 220 SE is the borrowed-from-his-father-in-law stand-in for barely-there main character Doug’s (Justin Bartha) future, and as such it gets beaten, battered, and nearly destroyed throughout the frenetic comedy.

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Nevertheless, it’s an iconic car that sends a shock of pain straight to the heart of enthusiasts with each and every dent. They built five versions of the car for the movie, but only two – the ‘beauty’ cars used for close-ups and pre-chaos shots – survived production.

Ronin (1998)

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The car: 1976 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9

The driver: Jean Reno as Vincent

Why it’s awesome:Ronin is a nearly impenetrable espionage thriller in terms of plot, but it also happens to have been directed by genuine gearhead John Frankenheimer. As such, it contains some of the most incredible car chases ever committed to film, and they are littered with exceptional automobiles.

An early escapade involving a 450 SEL 6.9 (from Frankenheimer’s personal collection) sees Jean Reno slide the Mercedes-Benz through narrow French country roads in pursuit of a gang of Citroens, all while holding it steady enough for Robert De Niro to fire a rocket launcher out of the German muscle machine’s massive sunroof.

A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)

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The car(s): A Mercedes-Benz Unimog and a G-Class. Oh, and a Sprinter, too.

The driver(s): Let’s just focus on Bruce Willis as John McLane, who pilots both a G55 AMG and a badass ‘mog.

Why it’s awesome: Willis steals a G55 in the streets of Moscow and then proceeds to drive through (and over) almost anything that gets in his way while he tries to hunt down his son. Memorably, the G-Class crunches some Porsches on a car carrier that serves as a bridge from overpass to expressway for Bruce before flipping over a mil-spec 10-wheeler in a serious display of carnage. There’s a bunch of Unimog and Sprinter action in there, too, as Mercedes-Benz corporate really got in on the product placement tip in what is undoubtedly one of its biggest markets.

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The Driver (1978)

The car: 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 S

The driver: Ryan O’Neal as The Driver

Why it’s awesome: This is a movie that’s appeared in past movie roundups, because it has so many cool set pieces for fans of ’70s-era classics. This time we’re underlining Ryan O’Neal’s gymkhana in a parking garage from behind the wheel of a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 S.

His Driver character takes the opportunity to shame some low-end criminals who question his driving skills by putting them through a terrifying ride between concrete columns. He then deftly destroys the Benz piece-by-piece. At the end of the sequence, he calmly suggests they change the plates on the car ‘if they plan to use it again,’ so no one will recognize their beat-down ride.

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

The car: 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

The drive: Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates

Why it’s awesome: Word to the wise: don’t ever watch the entirety of this terrible movie. With that out of the way, we can safely recommend you skip right to the chase where Nicolas Cage escapes an international network of ??? through the streets of London, while being pursued by both a Range Rover and a black cab. For maximum Britishness, Cage manages to crash the C-Class into a double-decker bus (an astounding 50 cars in total were destroyed during this sequence).

Strange Days (1995)

The car: 1997 Mercedes-Benz S500 Coupe

The driver: Ralph Fiennes as Lenny Nero

Why it’s awesome:Strange Days is a near-future sci-fi cult classic about pre-millennial tension and rampant racism in the LAPD that was overlooked in its day, but which feels incredibly relevant when viewed from our current perspective. For car fans it offered a rare sneak peak at the model that would become the 1997 S500 coupe, which was loaned to the production in prototype form nearly three years before it would debut in Mercedes-Benz showrooms.

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American Gigolo (1980)

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The car: 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL

The driver: Richard Gere as Julian Kaye

Why it’s awesome: The opening sequence of Gere driving his 450 SL, top down, into Malibu with the wind blowing in his hair and Blondie’s “Call Me” blaring on the soundtrack has become a cinematic classic, and set the tone for the rest of the film’s frank look at selling sex, lifestyle, and loneliness in yuppie-drenched California. Just make sure to avert your eyes before American Gigolo‘s third act, where Gere’s character pointedly strips his own roadster down in a panic-driven purge.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

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The car(s): 1997 Mercedes-Benz M-Classes

The driver(s): Richard Schiff as Eddie Car, and assorted science lackeys

Why it’s awesome: The ’90s took the reins off of product placement in a big way, especially when it came to automotive brands seeking to hitch their wagon to a rising star. In the first of several flirtations with the Jurassic Park franchise, Mercedes-Benz would provide the production with several M-Class SUVs, which had only recently been introduced.

The brand’s first sport-utility foray was still being marketed based on its off-road prowess, so driving through a dinosaur-laden tropical landscape was exactly what MB execs dreamed of. Each of the trio had its own name (Santana, Fontana, and Montana), along with personalized overlanding accessories noticeable only to the most diehard fans of this disappointing flick.

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Spaceballs (1987)

The car: 2001 Mercedes-Benz SEL Limited Edition…from another universe.

The driver: Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa

Why it’s awesome: When originally built, Vespa’s Limited Edition Mercedes-Benz with the ‘Spoil’d Rott’n I’ plate didn’t have an actual engine, and relied on movie magic to look like it was in motion. After Spaceballs had wrapped, however, designer Dean Jeffries took the hovercraft home and gave it the engine it deserved — allegedly offering a top speed of 100 mph. The driver sat in the back seat (with the just-for-the-cameras wheel still installed up front), and rig ended up having a second, third, and, well, 20th life in a number of other TV shows and films.