Some movie cars are built to look fast. Others are built to look like they might eat you.
In 2019 the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles pulled more than 40 vehicles from science fiction and fantasy into one show, Hollywood Dream Machines. We went back through the museum’s photos this week and noticed something. A surprising number of them are dressed for Halloween. Teeth on the bumper. A skeleton on two wheels. A black sedan that lays down a smoke screen.
That show closed in 2020, but its spirit moved upstairs. The museum’s third-floor Omaze Hollywood Gallery now runs Cars of Film and Television, a rotating lineup that has included the 1989 Batmobile, the Back to the Future DeLorean and Ghostbusters‘ Ecto-1. So think of this as a field guide to the spookiest machines the Petersen has put on the floor. The lineup changes without notice, so check the museum’s list before you go.
The Alligator, Death Race 2000 (1975)
Frankenstein’s ride in Roger Corman’s cult road-race satire. Underneath is a Chevrolet Corvette. On top is scaly green paint, a row of spikes and a mouth full of teeth. In the film, drivers score points for running people down, which makes this the rare car that was designed to frighten. Fifty years on, it still does!
The Batmobile, Batman (1989)
Tim Burton’s Gotham was a Gothic city, and it needed a car to match. Production designer Anton Furst looked at jet aircraft and war machines and came back with nearly 20 feet of black, built on a 1967 Chevrolet Impala. The Petersen’s car is the promotional one, and it actually runs. Batwing fins, a turbine mouth, not a single friendly line on it.
Black Beauty, The Green Hornet (1966)
A 1966 Chrysler Imperial that dresses like it’s headed to a funeral. Customizer Dean Jeffries finished it in four weeks, and on the show it could throw out a smoke screen, scatter tacks behind it to shred the tires of anyone following, and watch the road ahead through a television camera. Black Beauty only lasted one season on TV, but it’s the car people remember.
The Moto-Terminator, Terminator Salvation (2009)
Our favorite costume in the bunch. Skynet’s robot motorcycle was built to hunt on its own, so it looks like the skeleton of a bike, all exposed pistons and ribbed metal where the bodywork ought to be. Put it in a dark garage and nobody’s going in there.
The Light Cycle, Tron: Legacy (2010)
The one that glows in the dark. Two rings of light for wheels and a body that disappears into black, like a ghost of a motorcycle. It’s the closest thing here to a jack-o’-lantern.
The Tour Explorer, Jurassic Park (1993)
The Explorer isn’t scary. What’s chasing it is. Few paint jobs bring back a racing pulse like this green, yellow and red, and anyone who saw the film in 1993 can still hear the footsteps in a cup of water.
And the one we’d call first: Ecto-1
We don’t have a photo of this one from the 2019 set, but it belongs on any Halloween list. Ghostbusters‘ Ecto-1 started life as a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor, from a coachbuilder better known for hearses and ambulances. It joined the Petersen’s Cars of Film and Television gallery when that show opened in 2022.
The ones that only came for candy
Not everything in the show wanted to scare you. The DeLorean time machine is here (the Petersen’s is the only one that appeared in all three Back to the Future films), along with the Mach 5 from Speed Racer and the electric blue Lexus LC 500 from Black Panther. Then there’s a flamed hot rod and a wedge-shaped police cruiser that look like they took a wrong turn out of a costume party.
If you go
The Petersen sits at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard on LA’s Miracle Mile. The Hollywood cars live in the third-floor Omaze Hollywood Gallery, and the big show right now is A Fast & Furious Legacy, on view through April 2027. Movie cars rotate in and out, so check the museum’s site for what’s parked there this week.
More cars that look like they came from somewhere else: Joshua Vides turned real cars into black and white drawings, and our guide to retrofuturism is full of the dream machines that came before these. Headed to LA? Start with our design tour of the city.
