Where The Original Famous Cars From Movies And TV Shows Are Today

When people affectionately look back on their favorite movies and shows, quite often, it's not just the fine acting or a twist in the tale they think about. Sometimes, it's the setting or the special effects, a moment of dialog or the emotional impact of a scene. However, sometimes it's the props, and the most memorable props are often the vehicles. It could be the Hogwarts Express from "Harry Potter" or Arnold Schwarzenegger's Harley-Davidson Fat Boy in "Terminator 2." Vehicle nostalgia could even stretch to the pirate ship from "The Goonies" or the Millennium Falcon in "Star Wars."

Today, however, we are looking at cars and where those original cars are today. The most memorable ones are arguably as important to plot development as the characters. "The Fast and the Furious" would be a silly movie without them, and an absence of the outlandish vehicles in "Mad Max" would result in a dystopian world with much less visual impact. The enduring legacy evoked by movie cars gives us something to look back on. Who could forget that first glimpse of the Batmobile when it roared onto the big screen back in 1989? Or even the Mystery Machine from "Scooby-Doo" if we want to go down the animated path. 

Beyond that, the post-filming tales of these cars are often just as captivating as the movie plots. With the utmost apologies to those whose personal favorite has been omitted, let's find out where some of the original famous cars from movies and TV shows are today. 

The 1963 Aston Martin DB5 is arguably the most iconic movie car of all time. It made its James Bond debut in 1964's "Goldfinger" and followed up that dynamic appearance with 1965's "Thunderball." Driven by the late, great Sir Sean Connery, the silver DB5 had an array of spy-assisting gadgets and features, including a bulletproof shield and an ejector seat.

Since then, the car has had an eventful history. Following "Thunderball," it was sold to collector Gavin Keyzar, who then sold it to Utah jeweler Richard Losee. After keeping the car in his possession for 15 years, Losee sold the silver sports car in 1986 at Sotheby's New York auction. Car collector Anthony V. Pugliese III won the bidding and ensured the DB5 remained in the public eye by attending car shows and Bond events throughout the United States.

However, in 1997, James Bond's most famous ride mysteriously disappeared from a secure hangar at Boca Raton Airport in Florida. Interestingly, the car was recently rumored to have resurfaced somewhere in the Middle East. Christopher Marinello, the chief executive of Art Recovery International, was quoted as saying in the British broadsheet The Telegraph, "There are major automobile collectors in those countries and I have intelligence that the car could be in one of them and may have even travelled between them."

Unfortunately, nothing has been resolved, and according to the Art Recovery International website, a reward is still in place for any information on the much-loved espionage vehicle.

The interesting thing about the time machine from the "Back to the Future" trilogy is that it was initially supposed to be a fridge. However, thanks to John DeLorean's arrest and charge for drug trafficking in 1982, scriptwriters Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale thought it would be hilarious to change the movie's time-travel device to a DeLorean. It's unlikely that even the ingenious "Doc" Brown could get a fridge to travel at 88mph, so with hindsight, it was a fantastic idea.

Of the six DeLoreans used in the series, the car that had the most screen time is the only one available for public viewing in the US. It has been housed at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles since 2016. The other five, plus the extra fiberglass model that was the flying DeLorean we saw in the final scene of the original movie, all met with different fates.

However, Gatlinburg's Hollywood Star Cars Museum claims to have a DeLorean on display, which is stated to have been driven by Michael J. Fox. The museum states on its website that "the cars are all the genuine vehicles from movies and TV shows!" in its FAQ section.

The 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor from the "Ghostbusters" franchise is affectionately called the Ecto-1. Sony restored the original Ecto-1 after it fell into a state of disrepair and put it on display outside its Ghost Corps building in promotion of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." The Hollywood Star Car Museum in Gatlinburg also claims to have an original Ecto-1 from the 1984 movie on display.

During the filming of "Ghostbusters 2," the Ecto-1 died, and a second Miller-Meteor that was used as a prop car in the original movie became the primary car. It was to become known as the Ecto-1A. Unfortunately, it also fell into a state of disrepair following the movie's release but was never restored due to the funds spent on the original Ecto-1's restoration. However, in a strange twist of fate, the aging Ecto-1A was in an ideal state for a return in the 2021 sequel "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" as a dilapidated version of the Ecto-1. 

The opening scene from Breaking Bad was one of TV's greatest ever opening sequences and left many viewers saying the same thing — "What just happened?" The intrigue created by an RV racing through the Arizona desert with the occupants wearing gas masks and police sirens in pursuit set the show up for a full five seasons of full-on drama.

The Crystal Ship, as named by the drug-addicted character Jessie Pinkman, is where he and his one-time chemistry teacher, Mr. White, illegally manufactured hard drugs. Walter White's idea was to leave his family enough money behind after his terminal cancer diagnosis. The Fleetwood Bounder RV was the center of many tense and memorable plot points and is easily the most recognizable mobile home in modern television history.

While many believe the RV to have been destroyed, the truth is that it was a replica that went to the junkyard in Episode 34. The RV lives on and is currently a part of Sony Pictures Studio tours.

Any fans of "The Dukes of Hazzard" show that ran for 146 episodes from 1979 to 1985 will tell you that they must have gone through a fair few 1969 Dodge Chargers. In fact, it's in the hundreds. Depending on your source, anywhere between two hundred to more than three hundred were totaled during filming.

However, during the initial episodes, shooting took place in Georgia before relocating to California. Of those early episodes, six Dodge Chargers were used, with only one surviving. That Georgia Dodge is available for everyone to view at the Volo Museum in the village of Volo, just outside Chicago. It survived the carnage because it was never actually used in filming, thanks to the relocation interruption. However, it is one of Season 1's originals and is the only Dodge to survive the entire series in perfect condition and without restoration.

However, 17 other cars from the series did survive, but are either in poor condition or have had a ground-up restoration. One of those 17 belonged to the show's co-star, John Schneider, who played Bo Duke. Schneider claims the General Lee he had in his possession was a stunt car from the series. Unfortunately, it was crushed by a tree during Hurricane Ida's destructive rampage across Louisiana in 2021. However, other stunt cars are on display, including one in Las Vegas at the Hollywood Cars Museum, while you can witness another at the Hollywood Star Cars collection in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Tracking down where the original Starsky and Hutch car is today is a difficult task. Of course, it doesn't help that Ford produced 1,000 to 1,300 special-edition Ford Gran Torino replicas for sale to the general public in 1976 following the show's runaway success.

However, the striped tomato, as Paul Michael-Glaser affectionately called it, has made appearances. Of the (up to) 10 used in filming the series, a couple have survived. One of those is on display at the Hollywood Cars Museum in Las Vegas, sitting alongside many other famous movie and TV show vehicles. Another was previously at the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA, but that no longer seems to be the case.

Another of the originals was sold at auction back in 2014 for a paltry $40,000 to a private collector. When you consider one of the special-edition Gran Torinos from 1976 was sold for $35,000, the anonymous buyer of the original is lucky the cop duo aren't on his tail.