Bullitt movie storyline. Chicago, Illinois, hoodlum Johnny Ross defrauds his Mafia associates and escapes to San Francisco, California, where he agrees to testify before a Senate subcommittee on crime headed by ambitious politician Walter Chalmers. At the request of Chalmers, Detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt is assigned to protect Ross, who is hiding out in a dilapidated hotel; two gunmen manage to enter Ross’s room, however, and seriously wound him.
Chalmers then warns Bullitt that he will destroy his career if Ross dies. When Ross is stabbed to death in the hospital, Bullitt persuades a member of the hospital staff, Dr. Willard, to help conceal the death, and he sets out to investigate the case. The Mafia gangsters follow him, but Bullitt escapes in an automobile chase through San Francisco that ends when the Mafia car crashes into a gasoline pump and explodes.
Despite the objections of his girl friend Cathy, Bullitt retraces Ross’s movements and eventually learns that the dead man was a decoy, and that the real Ross plans to leave the country under the name of Albert Renick. Tracing a phone call Ross made to a San Mateo motel, Bullitt drives there with Cathy and finds a murdered woman with $30,000 in traveler’s checks made out to Albert and Dorothy Renick.
Bullitt then learns that Ross has booked a seat on an overnight flight to London, England. He races to stop him at the airport, but runs into Chalmers, who admits that he sent him to guard the wrong man and demands that the real Ross be taken alive. After an angry exchange with Chalmers, Bullitt goes after Ross, chases him from a departing plane onto the runway, and finally kills him as he tries to escape.
Bullitt is a 1968 American action thriller film[4] directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D’Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner was based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness, by Robert L. Fish, writing under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score, arranged for brass and percussion. Robert Duvall has a small role as a cab driver who provides information to McQueen. The star of the movie, a 1968 Mustang Fastback, was sold at Mecum Auctions for a record price of 3.4 million dollars ($3.7 million including auction fees) on January 10, 2020.
The film was made by McQueen’s Solar Productions company, with his partner Robert Relyea as executive producer. Released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box-office smash, later winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Best Sound. Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Bullitt is also notable for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, which is regarded as one of the most influential in movie history.
About the Story
It is a Friday night in April 1968 in Chicago. Johnny Ross works with his brother Pete; both are involved with organized crime, and the mob is after Johnny Ross because he siphoned off $2 million of their money. Johnny escapes a mass of gunmen outside his office, then greets Pete in the garage of their office building. The two exchange brotherly greetings and go on their way – Johnny drives past yet another attempt on his life while Pete telephones his higher-up and tells them that Johnny escaped.
Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. A man goes to a hotel and asks the desk clerk for a message for “Johnny Ross”, and seems surprised that no message is there. The man takes a cab and has the driver stop by a phone booth, where the man makes a pair of calls, one of them long-distance. At that point, Sgt. Don Delgetti of the SFPD awakens his partner, Detective Lt. Frank Bullitt, at his apartment. Bullitt has been trying to get some sleep after a case that stretched to 5 AM that morning and grumpily chats with his partner.
After showering and getting dressed, Frank Bullitt is driven by Delgetti and another policeman, Sgt. Carl Stanton, to the plush mansion of politician Walter Chalmers, who is entertaining a vast pool of guests at a function. Chalmers tells Frank of a star witness who will testify against the mob – Johnny Ross – and who needs protection through his appearance to testify on Monday morning. Chalmers clearly hopes to use Ross as well as Bullitt to the benefit of his political career, and leaves Frank and his two partners to guard Ross at the Hotel Daniels, a flophouse near an overpass of a highway.
Frank, Delgetti, and Stanton meet the man who had inquired about a Johnny Ross letter, and the man is puzzled about Chalmers putting him up in such a cheap hotel. After phoning his boss, Captain Samuel Bennett, Frank arranges three shifts to guard Ross, with Delgetti going first, then Stanton, then Bullitt.
Around 1am the following morning Stanton gets a call from the front desk claiming that Chalmers and a friend want to see them. Stanton has the two men wait, then calls Frank, who realizes something is wrong and rushes to the Hotel Daniels. Stanton then notices the door to their room is unchained, just as the two men – one white-haired, elderly, and fairly short, the other dark-haired, wearing glasses, and tall, – kick the door open and shoot both he and Ross. Stanton is hit in the leg, crumples to the floor and is kicked in the face by one of the hit men. Ross is shot in the upper chest, neck and head and is thrown back into the wall next to the bed.
Delgetti and ambulances arrive before Frank does, and Frank accompanies Stanton in the ambulance ride to the hospital, where the injured officer describes the gunman, identifies the gun brand (a Winchester pump-action shotgun), and relates that Ross unchained the door, to the puzzlement of Frank.
Captain Bennett arrives at the hospital after getting a report on the hotel from the SFPD crime lab, and after getting what he can from Frank warns him that Chalmers is livid upon learning of this fiasco and will try to lay the blame on the department in general and Bullitt in particular. For his part, Bullitt is ready when Chalmers arrives and questions him; Chalmers demands to know how Bullitt fouled up the protection detail and Frank pointedly asks Chalmers about Chalmers’ deal with Ross, but the oily politician vows to ruin Frank’s career if Ross dies – even to the point of requesting a different doctor be assigned to Ross.
A white-haired man – the shotgun killer – appears at the hospital and asks a doctor about a friend of his with a gunshot wound; the doctor tells him that it might be the man on the second floor (Ross), then phones Bullitt. Frank has a policeman guard Ross’ room, and when a nurse spots the shotgun killer untaping an ice pick from his leg, Frank chases him through the hospital. Bullitt nearly corners the man in the physical therapy wing in the basement, but the killer eludes him and escapes.
Bullitt (1968)
Directed by: Peter Yates
Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, Georg Stanford Brown, Justin Tarr, Felice Orlandi, Mary Benoit, Barbara Bosson
Screenplay by: Alan R. Trustman, Harry Kleiner
Cinematography by: William A. Fraker
Film Editing by: Frank P. Keller
Costume Design by: Theadora Van Runkle
Set Decoration by: Phil Abramson, Ralph S. Hurst
Art Direction by: Albert Brenner
Music by: Lalo Schifrin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Seven Arts
Release Date: October 17, 1968
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