Why Do All The Cars Keep Flashing Their Lights? - Ronin (1998) Discussion

[–] coachese68 14 years ago

Actually JM, in Europe the light flashing is used to signal cars to change lanes - that you want to pass them.

You imploring others to love Jesus 100% makes me feel 100% sick

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[–] justxme 14 years ago

Right, people do that. It's called coercion. By the way, JM was talking about the cars coming towards the characters, not driving slower in the same direction.

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[–] carpet_seller 12 years ago

But if you were travelling at twice the speed of the other cars in a chase you would not want the car infront to brake or suddenly change lanes, you would just want to swerve around them , otherwise they would impede your progress, so you wouldn't be flashing them as you approach.

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[–] McTaffity 14 years ago

The cars chasing eachother are flashing the cars in front to make them move out of the way, or at the very least alert them to their presence. When they're on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, the oncoming cars start to flash their lights at the chasing cars to inform them they're going the wrong way. I assumed that flashing lights was a pretty widespread practice for communicating with other motorists the world over, but it has to be said, in this movie it is a little over the top.

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[–] dreamer.ice 14 years ago

It's another way of expressing "what the *beep* is your problem, mate?", the other one is honking relentlessly.

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[–] Corwinn 14 years ago

I lived in Europe for 3 years in Belgium and France. I noticed when I lived there that many Europeans dislike using their horns and prefer to flash their lights instead. I drove frequently in the tunnels around La Defense where the chase scene was filmed and many times saw people flash their lights instead of using the horn.

Also, on many of the manual transmission European cars, the horn is sounded by pushing in the turn signal lever. This means that you can both sound the horn and flash the lights with one hand. I guess if I were in the wrong land driving at that speed, I'd use both as well (but that's just me:)

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[–] justxme 14 years ago

That horn's position is not typical for European cars. It's typical for some French cars (Peugeot, Citroen) but not for German. And the manual or automatic transmission has nothing to do with it.

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[–] bizzach34 8 years ago

So basically it's typical for most of the cars featured in this film.

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[–] ikke_for_let 12 years ago

It's because in most European countries it's illegal to use the horn unless it's a dangerous situation. You learn it in driving lessons. They teach you to use the lights instead. In Europe honking the horn doesn't mean "get out of the way". It means "you are causing danger".

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[–] leighburne 13 years ago

While it's reasonable to assume it was supposed to portray the drivers displaying their anger and shock at seeing someone barrelling towards them on the wrong side of a dual carriageway, I think I read somewhere it was actually some kind of code for the stunt drivers, so that the guys in the oncoming car would know which way the rest of the vehicles ahead of them were going to swerve.

Mind you, now that I read that back, it sounds like it might be bull.

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[–] psdhart 9 years ago

I think I read somewhere it was actually some kind of code for the stunt drivers

maybe I read that there were 300 stunt drivers used in that scene

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[–] jimmysmitsimdb 13 years ago

JMFOX "In the final chase? Really unrealistic and annoying"

It is called a visual horn.

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[–] joegerardi-1 12 years ago

Because they were too busy driving with both hands on the wheel to use the middle finger. :-)

..Joe

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[–] doleman 12 years ago

Haha, glad I'm not the only one who found this extremely annoying. It took away from the actual chase scene, as I found myself waiting for the next oncoming car to flash their lights.

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[–] MikeyEvan 12 years ago

Here in the States people do it to warn oncoming drivers of speed traps or accidents and the such.

Can get a ticket if caught.

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[–] xXnXnXnXx 10 years ago

Oh that happens everywhere, it can be used for more things, forexample in my country there was a funny case that the car that was "alerted" was a cop car, so the driver got a ticket for trying to warn about the speed trap.

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