Usually, the four horsemen of the apocalypse would be a scary sight. But this weekend…hey, those horses could come in handy.
All of Los Angeles is bracing for Carmageddon, aka the impending two-day closure of the 405 Freeway between the 101 and 10 interchanges. The doomsday scenarios about being trapped in our homes are probably all hype. Then again, traffic is bad enough even when all the roads are open. Heck, LAPD even asked celebs to spread the word of the shutdown via Twitter.
To honor all of this, here are five unforgettable cinematic traffic jams to take you into the weekend:
1. Falling Down (1993): Cops, McDonalds, neo-Nazis…Pretty much everyone picked the wrong day to get in Michael Douglas' face in Falling Down. Perhaps the nightmarish depiction of what might happen when you spend too much time commuting on L.A. freeways, the 1993 drama—and short-sleeve white button-downs—haunt us to this day.
2. Office Space (1999): There is nothing flair-tastic about this situation, and get a good look folks, because this is probably what you'll be experiencing this weekend. It's sweet when a flicker of hope beam across Ron Livingston's face as he presses on the gas thinking he can switch lanes, but nope. You're not going anywhere, buddy. That guy on the walker, though, he's goin' places.
3. Speed (1994): Adding a love story to the horrors of gridlock always make things a little better, right? Usually. But in this case, traffic will (literally) kill Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as they try to not only beat the backup, but outsmart the time bomb ready to blow. And this is an ongoing struggle throughout the whole movie! Talk about a stressful situation.
4. Two Weeks Notice (2002): What's worse than being stuck in traffic? Being stuck in traffic in the rain. What's even more worse than that? Being stuck in traffic, in the rain, when you have to pee really bad. It's literally one of the worst scenarios you can be in. Poor Sandra Bullock. First she had to not kill herself by driving a bus fast enough so the bomb won't explode, and now she has to stop her bladder from exploding.
5. L.A. Story (1991): We sometimes—and by sometimes we mean always—wish that we could be like Steve Martin and whip out a gun on the freeway when drivers really get us P.O.'d. Technically, we could. But then there's the law and stuff that would probably get us in trouble. At least we've got movies!