If you’ve never been to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, you have to go. And there’s no better time than this year, as the museum opens up a new exhibit of vehicles from TV and movies that looks cool as hell.
The exhibit is called “Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction and Fantasy”, and it’s particularly exciting for anyone who loves futuristic movies. The museum has vehicles from Back to the Future: Part II, Blade Runner, Minority Report and Mad Max: Fury Road, among plenty of others.
One of the things that make this exhibit so fascinating is that the focus isn’t just on futurism, but a particularly dark and dystopian brand of what tomorrow might bring. And given everything that’s going on in the world right now, that feels very appropriate.
“Hollywood Dream Machines will be the biggest exhibit of our 25th anniversary,” Petersen Automotive Museum’s executive director Terry L. Karges said in an emailed statement to Gizmodo.
“With more than 40 vehicles from the silver screen spread across the museum, the exhibit is an ode to the industry that Los Angeles was built upon,” said Karges. “We can’t wait to explore the fantasy and fictional concepts behind these extraordinary vehicles with the world.”
There are also vehicles (both full size and smaller production models) from A Clockwork Orange, Terminator: Salvation, Black Panther, Blade Runner 2049, Jurassic Park, Tron: Legacy, RoboCop, Iron Man and The Fifth Element.
There’s even a vehicle from Prometheus, arguably the most underrated sci-fi movie of the past decade, which looks amazing. I mean, look at this thing. It’s so big they couldn’t even get it into the main museum. It’s displayed outside.
The exhibit opens this Sunday and runs through to 15 March 2020, so you have plenty of time to check it out. The Petersen hosts an opening reception on the night of Saturday, May 4 with live entertainment, appetisers and cocktails. If you’re in Los Angeles at any point in the next year, add this destination to your list.
Below I’ve included vehicle photos from a handful of the cars that will be on display, from the bizarre “Alligator” of Death Race 2000 to the sleek light cycles of Tron: Legacy.