15 Of The Most Memorable Audis From Movies & TV

Want to get somewhere fast, in style, and with a touch of German efficiency? Drive an Audi. As the luxury arm of Volkswagen, the Audi brand is instantly recognizable thanks to its iconic four rings logo, each of which represents one of the four segments of the historic Auto Union AG: Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. While top-of-the-line Audis largely sell themselves as best-in-class vehicles, one popular way to market a high-end car is through product placement in popular media.

Thanks to their sturdy bodies and luxury sensibilities, Audi has become a favorite for use in Hollywood movies. Sleeker than a muscle car but more rugged than zippy Japanese compacts, Audi combines form and function in a way that's cinema-friendly. As a result, hundreds of movies, TV shows, video games, and other art forms have featured Audi vehicles in prominent roles, either driven by righteous heroes or dastardly rogues. Here are 15 of the most memorable Audi cars in movies.

"I, Robot" — a film ostensibly inspired by Isaac Asimov's short story collection of the same name — is infamous for its comedically conspicuous product placement. One memorable example is the Converse sneakers presented in the film as vintage kicks from the long-gone year of 2004, which was, of course, the same year the film was released.

However, the film's other big product placement comes in the form of the Audi RSQ, a futuristic concept car developed by the car company to fit the aesthetic of the film's futuristic 2035 setting. The result is an absolutely gorgeous vehicle that's put to tremendous use throughout the movie. At least, until it's destroyed by robots in one of the film's many action sequences. 

This wasn't the only forward-thinking example of product placement from the early 2000s. The futuristic Audi in "I, Robot" comes on the heels of 2002's "Minority Report," which featured a concept car from Lexus to fit in with that film's vision of a sci-fi future.

James Bond has driven a lot of cars over the course of six decades and twenty-five films, but they've usually been either Aston Martins or BMWs. There have been a few tanks in there as well. However, the opening chase sequence of "Skyfall," released to coincide with the franchise's 50th anniversary, features a 2007 Audi A5 B8, but it's not Bond behind the wheel — it is his quarry, Patrice the assassin.

Unfortunately, the Audi doesn't last very long, as it gets rammed off the road by 007 and Eve Moneypenny, who are driving a formidable 2007 Land Rover Defender 110. The Audi is totaled in the crash, but Patrice shoots down a pair of motorcycle cops, causing the car chase to quickly escalate into a motorcycle chase. This then escalates further, with Bond ultimately using construction equipment to rip open the roof of a moving train.

The chase ends with Bond and Patrice having a fistfight atop the speeding train, but it ends prematurely when Eve's misplaced sniper shot accidentally hits Bond, knocking him off the train to his presumed death and allowing Patrice to escape — at least until the film's second act.

After "Legally Blonde" became a surprise box office hit in 2001, work quickly began on a sequel. In 2003 that sequel, "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde," was released. This time around, however, series protagonist Elle Woods had a particularly eye-catching ride in a 2003 Audi TT Roadster.

In this sequel, Elle dresses primarily in fashion-forward pink outfits, and to match, she needed car to sport a complementary color. To that end, Audi pitched in and developed a custom Candy Blue paint job for the vehicle, which was later made available to the public. Anyone with basic knowledge of the color wheel knows that pink and light blue go great together, which makes sense for a fashion-forward icon like Elle Woods.

Series star Reese Witherspoon is developing an Amazon Prime prequel series to the films, entitled "Elle," set during her high school days. It remains to be seen if she'll drive an Audi in the series, but if she does, it had better be Candy Blue.

When your car has been used to smash some bad guys in a film from legendary action studio 87North, you know you've made it big. While 2022's "Bullet Train" is mostly set on the eponymous rail vehicle, the movie manages to squeeze in some good old fashioned four-wheel action.

An early flashback sequence in the film features the duo of Tangerine and Lemon — assassins played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry — in the midst of a high-speed chase. Their vehicle of choice is a 2018 Audi A7 Sportback 50 TDI Quattro S Line C8. With the aid of their driving skills and a few well-placed bullets, Tangerine and Lemon destroy several other vehicles. This being a movie from the studio that made "John Wick," the vehicles don't just get knocked off the road. Instead, they go flying, flipping through the air while aflame before crashing to the ground in heaps of twisted metal.

In a bit of icing on the cake, they take out a pursuing motorcycle by slamming on the brakes, causing the bike to rear-end the Audi at high speed and sending the unlucky driver flying over the handlebars to his doom.

The main appeal of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy is seeing beautiful stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan smooch, but there's always time for a fun car chase to mix things up. The third and final entry in the series, "Fifty Shades Freed," features one such chase set to "The Wolf" by The Spencer Lee Band.

Anastasia Steele (Johnson) shows off some impressive driving skills behind the wheel of a 2017 Audi R8, which she uses to evade her mysterious pursuer and impress her new husband, Christian Grey (Dornan). The sequence is really a showcase for the R8 – one of the fastest Audis ever made — which gets put through its paces by hitting high speeds while weaving through traffic all before coming to a pinpoint stop in a parking garage. It's a cool sequence, and for better or worse it stands out within the context of the rest of the movie, which contains a lot of 'action,' but mostly of a different variety.

Either way, having escaped thanks to Ana's inexplicable driving skills, the newly married couple celebrates like anyone who survives a high-speed car chase would — by making love in the passenger seat of their Audi.

Another Will Smith movie, another sci-fi concept car from Audi. Just like "I, Robot" before it, 2019's "Spies in Disguise" features a futuristic concept car designed by Audi. This time, however, the film was an entirely CGI animated comedy, rather than a live action sci-fi actioner, which allowed the designers to really cut loose.

Since "Spies in Disguise" takes place in a world of and espionage, Audi's concept car was allowed to be a little more over-the-top and delightfully implausible than the comparatively more grounded sensibilities of "I, Robot." After all, "Spies in Disguise" is a movie where Will Smith plays a secret agent who gets transformed into a pigeon by an eccentric genius played by Tom Holland. 

With this in mind, Audi developed the Audi RSQ e-tron, which uses the concept car from "I, Robot" as something of a jumping off point to make a vehicle that would feel at home in an animated, family friendly romp.

Hollywood's second attempt at bringing the "Hitman" video game series to cinemas largely failed to impress critics and audiences. Still, "Hitman: Agent 47" has some great action sequences alongside memorable performances from Rupert Friend as the titular Agent 47 and Zachary Quinto as his nemesis. It's not the smartest movie in the world, but it's a whole lot of fun.

At one point, Agent 47 finds himself behind the wheel of a red 2013 Audi RS7 Sportback C7, which he puts to great use in a pulse-pounding car chase against several villains on motorcycles who chase him through a parking garage. Of course, none of these adversaries last very long and are quickly taken down in a variety of creative and bone-crunching ways. 

Eventually, the Audi is totaled when it's literally torn apart by a group of villains with harpoon guns, but at least the car goes out with a roar, not a whimper. Fortunately, Agent 47 is able to avenge his fallen vehicle by mowing down the bad guys with his signature dual-wielded handguns.

Due to the franchise's focus on Japanese imports and American muscle cars, only a single Audi of note appeared in the "Fast & Furious" series, and it's not even in a key role. Still, it's a memorable scene, even if it's not terribly flattering to the Audi involved.

The opening of "Furious 7" sees Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) take part in the unfortunately-named desert driving event called Race Wars. At this point in the Fast and Furious soap opera storyline, Letty has lost her memory and Dom has brought her to the event in an effort to get her to remember their past together. Though ultimately unsuccessful, Dom does manage to give Letty some useful advice when it's time for her to race.

Letty drives a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda against an opponent in an Audi R8. Unfortunately for the Audi, its inexperienced driver blows a piston — just as Dom predicted — and Letty wins with little effort. Perhaps a future "Fast and Furious" film will really put an Audi through its paces.

Unlike James Bond films, the "Mission: Impossible" movies usually avoid gadget-laden vehicles armed with rocket launchers and oil slicks. That said, Ethan Hunt and his pals do find themselves behind the wheel of some sweet rides, such as the 1999 Audi TT Roadster driven by Thandiwe Newton in "Mission: Impossible II."

Directed by John Woo, the first "Mission: Impossible" sequel features no shortage of outrageously over-the-top action sequences, with the pace set by the opening car chase between IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and cat burglar Nyah (Newton). Nyah drives the Roadster while Cruise is behind the wheel of a 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabrio. The two engage in a flirtatious car chase evocative of the one between James Bond and Xenia Onatopp in 1995's "Goldeneye". In an extra bit of unintentional comedy, they spend most of the chase chatting with each other on handheld cell phones, which is hugely dangerous for real-life driving.

However, this being a John Woo film, the chase ends with Nyah nearly being thrown from her vehicle before she's rescued by Hunt. They then kiss, as "Mission: Impossible II" is just that kind of movie.

In "Taken," Bryan Mills, played to perfection by Liam Neeson, infamously possesses "a very particular set of skills," which he uses to rescue his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from human traffickers in Paris. These skills include hand-to-hand combat, gunplay, and just a little bit of electric torture. He also displays his skills behind the wheel several times, most notably in the leadup to the film's final showdown.

As the villain's yacht rolls down Paris' Seine River, Mills carjacks one of the human traffickers, stealing his 2006 Audi S8 D3. In a moment that can only be described as a straight-up Audi commercial, Mills speeds down the streets of Paris, with director Pierre Morel's quick cuts and shaky camera movements giving the moment a palpable sense of speed. 

Bryan overtakes the boat and parks near a bridge, where he (or Liam Neeson's stuntman, at least), jumps to the yacht and resumes his righteous rescue rampage. Fortunately for any car enthusiasts in the audience, the Audi survives the film relatively undamaged.

"Ronin" is an uncompromising spy thriller about post-Cold War spies embroiled in a heist that turns into a claustrophobic manhunt. Despite this deadly serious subject matter, the film still manages to feature multiple extended car chase sequences. "Ronin" succeeds because of its gritty realism courtesy of director John Frankenheimer, a veteran of old-school white knuckle thrillers like "The French Connection II" and "Black Sunday."

The cars involved in the film's chase sequences aren't high-end supercars. Instead, they are the types of vehicles you'd see on a typical city street. This adds to the realism of the sequences, and makes the inevitable crashes feel more personally believable to the viewer, rather than just a mere spectacle to behold. The R-rated "Ronin" also doesn't shy away from showing collateral damage, with numerous bystanders caught in the chaotic crossfire. 

While the chase through the streets of Paris gets all the attention, a different chase features actor Skipp Sudduth behind the roaring engine of a 1996 Audi S8 D2. He uses the S8 to smash into his target car, quickly turning the car chase into a bloody shootout that ends with a fiery explosion courtesy of a briefcase bomb.

Much to the chagrin of Audi fans, there are no Autobot Audis across any of the live action Transformers films. However, there are three brief but noteworthy Audi appearances in the franchise.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" features the Decepticon Sideways whose car form is a 2008 Audi R8, although he is promptly ripped in half by the heroic Autobot Sideswipe. A character with an identical appearance to Sideways appears briefly in the third film, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." This character is unnamed but it doesn't matter much since he also gets torn apart, this time by series protagonist Optimus Prime.

The fourth film, "Transformers: Age of Extinction," does not feature an Audi Transformer, but a 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TFSI B8 does appear in a brief scene. This moment is notable because it features a cameo from Chinese singer and actor Han Geng, who sits in the car playing guitar. Presumably, he and the rest of the passengers die a horrible death when they and the Audi are lifted into the air by the alien bounty hunter, Lockdown, who uses a magnetic weapon attached to his ship to decimate large swaths of Hong Kong.

In an interview with video game outlet DualShockers, lead writer Dan Inoue described "Final Fantasy XV" as "a fantasy based on reality." This meant that while it included elements like magic, crystals, and sword-wielding heroes fighting all sorts of wacky monsters, it was set in a world that was much more realistic than most traditional RPG video games. As a result, the game featured lots of real-world products, like Cup Noodles, Coleman camping gear, and even a dress by iconic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

This tendency to include real-world brands extended to the game's feature film spin-off, "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV," which serves as a prologue to the events of the game. The animated feature includes the Audi R8 Star of Lucis, a vehicle that, in Final Fantasy lore, is designed by Audi to celebrate the 20th birthday of Prince Noctis, the game's protagonist. Unfortunately, Noctis never receives the vehicle, as war breaks out and the young prince is unable to return home. A single Audi R8 was manufactured to the specifications of the Star of Lucis and was listed for the sky-high price of $470,000.

The original "Transporter" film, released in 2002, saw protagonist Frank Martin (Jason Statham) driving a 1995 BMW 735i. However, all of its sequels had the character behind the wheel of an Audi. Frank's first adventure with an Audi came in 2005's "Transporter 2," where he drove a 2005 Audi A8. The movie really puts the vehicle through its paces though the film's most audacious stunt, which involves scraping a bomb from the underside of his car while performing a corkscrew jump accomplished with the help of CGI effects. 

The third entry updated his Audi to the 2008 model to keep it current with the most recent release. This time, an explosive bracelet is attached to Frank's arm — if he travels more than 50 feet from his car, the bracelet will detonate and kill him. This leads to such outlandish moments as Frank driving his car on top of and then into a moving train, which is as silly as it is awesome. The little-seen reboot, "Transporter: Refueled" starring Ed Skrein and even littler-seen TV adaptation with Chris Vance also have Frank driving Audis, making the car brand a key part of the franchise.

The character of Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, has always driven Audi cars. In the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Iron Man," released in 2008, he drove a 2007 Audi R8, and the 2010 sequel saw him behind the wheel of an even newer Audi R8 V10 Spyder. Tony Stark's close relationship with Audi would continue, with the hero driving a different Audi in nearly all of his appearances, including "Iron Man 3", "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Captain America: Civil War." This relationship culminated in 2019's record setting "Avengers: Endgame," which put the character inside of an Audi e-tron GT two years before the car was made available to the public.

Audi's partnership with Marvel Studios extends past the movies themselves. A promotional ad for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" featured Peter Parker (Tom Holland) taking his driver's test in an Audi. Likewise, an ad for "Avengers: Endgame" starred Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) catching up on advances in technology since the 1990s, culminating in an electric-powered Audi. Simply put, when one thinks of cars associated with Earth's Mightiest Heroes from 2008 to the present day, one thinks of Audi.