Bullitt is a 1968 crime drama starring Steve McQueen as San Francisco Police Lt. Frank Bullitt. He is assigned to a case where he will be responsible for keeping a Chicago mobster, Johnny Ross, safe while he awaits testimony in front of a US Senate panel on organized crime. The politician who has set up Ross’s testimony is Walter Chalmers, played by Robert Vaughn. He is an unpleasant manipulative political operative who rubs Bullitt the wrong way. When Ross is critically wounded during a late-night mob hit, Chalmers blames Bullitt even though the attack occurs while Bullitt is off-duty.
(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)
The remainder of the movie is the aftermath of this attack. Ross dies shortly after the hit and Bullitt keeps his death a secret in order to lure the killers back in order to catch them. The two hit men escape Bullitt at the hospital but he finally finds them while they are staking him out. What follows is one of the most famous and still one of the best car chase scenes in American film history. Bullitt chases the killers through the streets of San Francisco and onto an expressway. The finale is a fiery crash and explosion when the gangsters plow into a gas station. The fire burns both of their bodies beyond recognition.
When Ross’s girl friend is found strangled Chalmers demands that Bullitt be held responsible for the ongoing disaster and be punished by his superiors. But Bullitt has found very strange evidence in Ross’s girlfriend’s luggage that proves that the man they thought was Ross was a plant named Albert Renick who was working for Ross but whose death was the work of Ross to fake his own death to escape from mob retribution. And now it is believed that Ross will be leaving San Francisco by jet to Europe using Renick’s name. Eventually Ross is found to be on a plane taxiing down the runway. The airliner is recalled and Bullitt and his partner are waiting as the passengers disembark. But Ross forces his way out of the rear door of the plane and jumps to the tarmac and runs off into the night with Bullitt in hot pursuit. Ross takes several shots at Bullitt with a pistol but eventually after a long chase Bullitt corners Ross as he attempts to escape the airport by shooting an airport security guard. Bullitt finishes off Ross with a couple of bullets to the chest and Ross crashes through a glass door and dies. Chalmers sees his plans in ruins and departs in disappointment. Bullitt returns home to find his girlfriend Cathy, played by Jacqueline Bisset, sleeping in his bed, apparently having forgiven him for the sin of being a policeman. The final image is Bullitt staring in a mirror at his own reflection as if to say, “What kind of life is this?”
I left some stuff out of the summary because it wasn’t that important. Bullitt’s girlfriend Cathy is upset with him because she barges into a crime scene and sees a woman who has been brutally murdered. She feels that if Bullitt can deal with this type of violence, he can’t be the cool laid-back character who listens to jazz music with her that she thinks he is. This seems moronic to me so I always ignore it when I watch this movie. I hope you will too.
I recommend this movie on the strength of the car chase scene. Sure, the police drama is pretty good and the conflict with Chalmers is okay, I guess, but the car chase is worth the cost of watching the rest of the movie and then some. It’s two late sixties American muscle cars running amok on crowded roads at high speed. If you’re an American male you’ll enjoy it.
IMHO the only better car chase scene is the big one in The Blues Brothers.
Yes, back when Ackroyd was still fun.