How The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen gave us one of Hollywood’s wildest cars

While many movie heads might think of Herbie or Lightning McQueen as the flagship vehicles of the big screen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen gave us one of Hollywood’s wildest cars that deserves much more recognition than it gets: the Nautilus Car.

When Mark Twain conjured up the character of sweet little Tom Sawyer, never in his wildest dreams would the fabled author have thought that he would be a legend of the car world alongside a vampire, an invisible man, and a glorified pirate.

Alas, some 130 years after Sawyer was imagined, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen brought together a rabble of the strangest comic book characters to save the world from the brink of a world war.

And they did so in one of Hollywood’s wildest cars ever.

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The Nautilus Car from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was way ahead of its time

Claimants to the trophy of Hollywood’s wildest cars are in esteemed company.

Whether you think of the Ghostbusters‘ Ectomobile, Marty McFly’s time-machine DeLorean, Bruce Wayne’s Batmobile, or even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the cinema industry has created some truly remarkable vehicles.

But one of the most underrated is the Nautilus Car, piloted by Captain Nemo in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Flying under the radar, this 22-foot-long six-wheeled time piece was a dystopian look at what the 1900s thought the future would look like, whilst taking influence from a comic book vessel.

Created by Art Director Carol Spier, the Nautilus Car is a take on the submarine of Captain Nemo in the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

It boasted a white design filled with Hindu decorations, typical of its Indian Captain.

But in car form, Spier took the chassis of a Land Rover Fire Tender, a V8 engine, and a heck of a lot of fiberglass and steel, to create the ridiculously long car.

Although it might not have been the best vehicle to save the world from imminent war in the film, there’s no denying that this Bentley-looking car is one of the finest vehicles ever made in pop culture.

Two good for Hollywood Boulevard

Practically, though, there wasn’t much to boast about – It’s not quite the Batpod that was so fast that Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway were prohibited from riding it.

Two models were made, and only one could move. The original prototype isn’t road legal, and its bulky weight makes it quite a sluggish car.

Having been originally purchased by The Prop Store, founder Stephen Lane said that he had driven the beauty to Essen and the Lord Mayor’s Show.

It was put up for auction in 2015, where it was originally valued at around $25,000 – $33,000.

As for the second prop, its location remains a mystery.

Maybe Captain Nemo took it back to the Indian Sea, or maybe, somewhere, Tom Sawyer is sitting on its bonnet fishing in a pond surrounded by white picket fences.

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