Trailer
Plot summary
Walter Chalmers is in San Francisco for a Senate subcommittee looking into organized crime, and he needs Chicago mobster Johnny Ross alive to testify against the organization. The guard detail goes to Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, with Sergeant Delgetti and Detective Carl Stanton taking shifts at a hotel on the Embarcadero. Chalmers tells Bullitt that Ross's safety is his responsibility, and that any failure will cost him. Captain Sam Bennett, Bullitt's superior, gives him a free hand in the case. Men with guns reach the hotel room, and the Monday hearing depends on whether Bullitt can keep his charge out of their hands.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bullitt (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- McQueen based his performance on San Francisco inspector Dave Toschi, later known as an inspector on the Zodiac Killer case, whom he worked with before filming, and he even copied Toschi's unique fast-draw shoulder holster.
- While the climactic chase was being filmed, an out-of-control car full of dummies tripped a wire and set off a costly setup in flames too early; editor Frank Keller salvaged the near-catastrophe with a juxtaposition of images that made the explosion appear to go off on time.
- One of the drivers in the chase said the Charger, with its larger 440 Magnum engine and 375 horsepower against the Mustang's 390 engine and 325, was so much faster that the drivers had to keep backing off the accelerator to stop it pulling away.
- Robert Vaughn initially refused the role of Chalmers, feeling the plot was too thin. Decades later, when he considered entering politics, he found that people could not take him seriously, or found him untrustworthy, because they remembered his performance in this film.
- Steve McQueen tried to buy the car back in 1977 and was refused. Its owners drove it 46,000 miles as their family car before putting it in storage in 1980, and after restoration and authentication Mecum Auctions sold it for $3.7 million on January 10, 2020.
- In February 2022, Steven Spielberg was announced as director and producer of a new film centerd on the Frank Bullitt character for Warner Bros., conceived as an original story rather than a remake, and Bradley Cooper was cast as Bullitt that November.
- Katharine Ross was offered the role of Cathy, Bullitt's girlfriend, but she refused it because she felt the part was too small.
