History Film / Bullitt

Directed by Peter Yates.

* ArchEnemy: Walter Chalmers and Johnny Ross to Frank Bullitt.

* BadassDriver: Have you seen that chase?
* BigBadEnsemble: Walter Chalmers and [[spoiler:Johnny Ross]].

* IkeaWeaponry: The assassins' Winchester shotgun.
* IncrediblyObviousTail: The chase scene starts with this.
* TheInformant: Eddy, who Bullitt meets with at a cafe.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Walter Chalmers.
* OutDamnedSpot: The ending. Bullitt stands in his bathroom washing his hands and pondering just how badly he's screwed things up. Or just how much his girlfriend Cathy is right about how callous he is about the violence he faces on the job. Note that the last shot is a closeup of his holstered gun and spare rounds.

* SloMoBigAir: During the chase scene.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: While the film is unrelated to the Zodiac killings, [[Creator/SteveMcQueenActor Steve McQueen]] based Bullitt on San Francisco Inspector Dave Toschi, who invesitagted the case.

* WitlessProtectionProgram: Johnny Ross, a member of TheMafia, wishes to provide State's evidence and is put in witness protection. Then Mafia hitmen find him and blow him away, forcing Frank Bullitt (who was part of the protection detail) to prove that it wasn't the result of the SAPD being corrupt or incompetent. [[spoiler:Turns out that the man who set it up was Johnny Ross himself, who told the Mafia where to find him so they would kill a body double and, with everybody thinking him dead, he would go off and live large in another country.]]

* FakingTheDead As it turns out, the real Johnny Ross was playing just about everyone in order to escape scot-free by faking his own death.

%%* WeaponStomp

* KarmaHoudini: Chalmers.

[[JustHereForGodzilla Best known for]] a legendary, nearly ten-minute-long ChaseScene in which [=McQueen=], largely eschewing stunt men, famously drove a [[CoolCar certain green Mustang]] all over San Francisco in pursuit of two bad guys in a black Dodge Charger. Also one of the first chase scenes filmed with cars at full speed instead of using [[UnderCrank sped-up film]] as a cheat.

Best known for a legendary, nearly ten-minute-long ChaseScene in which [=McQueen=], largely eschewing stunt men, famously drove a [[CoolCar certain green Mustang]] all over San Francisco in pursuit of two bad guys in a black Dodge Charger. Also one of the first chase scenes filmed with cars at full speed instead of using [[UnderCrank sped-up film]] as a cheat.

Highly influential 1968 cop movie set in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco. Creator/SteveMcQueenActor stars as the eponymous Lt. Frank Bullitt, a TV dinner-eating, workaday CowboyCop (in fact, he's the TropeMaker) who goes after the [[TheMafia Mafia]] hit men who killed a witness he was protecting.

* RatedMForManly: The film not only stars Creator/SteveMcQueenActor, but it basically created the ChaseScene.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: While the film is unrelated to the Zodiac killings, Creator/SteveMcQueenActor based Bullitt on San Francisco Inspector Dave Toschi, who invesitagted the case.

* FamousLastWords: "No wait. Now look, he told me—" Renick

* BigBad: Walter Chalmers and [[spoiler:Johnny Ross]].

* BigBad: Walter Chambers and [[spoiler:Johnny Ross]].

* CoolCar: Bullitt's Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang 390 CID Fastback (ask a gearhead if they can recite that if you need proof) has become so iconic that Ford has released two Mustang Bullitt editions over the years. Also, the black Dodge Charger R/T driven by the hitmen.
** Said black Charger R/T was not only so much faster than the Mustang that the crew had to remove two of its spark plugs and install thin tires from a base Charger to slow it down, but it survived the repeated jumping and abuse of the chase scene filming with ease, while the Mustang needed constant repairs. Cool car indeed.
*** Specifically, there were two of both cars, but only one of the Chargers was an R/T. Afterwards, one Mustang had to be destroyed for liability purposes,[[note]] At one point the oil pan on one was ripped open during a rather hard downhill scene, spewing smoke and oil everywhere; you can see it if you watch carefully.[[/note]] and the other was sold to a production crew member, and disappeared sometime after [=McQueen's=] death.[[note]]Until [[http://jalopnik.com/the-lost-bullitt-mustang-may-have-been-discovered-in-me-1792985833 it showed up again in 2017]], having spent the intervening years in a Mexican scrapyard and been bought to rebuild into [[Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974 Eleanor!]].[[/note]]The R/T Charger was sold to [[http://www.ponysite.de/charger_welch.htm Arnold Welch]], the non-R/T was sold back to the Chrysler dealership, repainted yellow [[HonestJohnsDealership and sold to an unsuspecting customer]] (the same thing happened with ''Film/VanishingPoint'').

* CowboyCop: Regarded as the [[TropeMakers Trope Maker]], also a fine example of an UnbuiltTrope as things don't turn out quite how we'd expect.
** Creator/GlennFord in ''Film/TheBigHeat'' is kind of a CowboyCop, but more along the lines of TheUnfettered working for a hopelessly corrupt police force. Bullitt is probably the first pure example.
* DaChief: Captain Bennett. Unlike most examples of the character type, he's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who gives Bullitt freedom to run the investigation in his own way, and takes the cop's side against Senator Chalmers.

* FakingTheDead[=/=]DeadPersonImpersonation: As it turns out, the real Johnny Ross was playing just about everyone in order to escape scot-free by faking his own death.

* OutDamnedSpot: The ending. Bullitt stands in his bathroom washing his hands and pondering just how badly he's screwed things up.
** Or just how much his girlfriend Cathy is right about how callous he is about the violence he faces on the job. Note that the last shot is a closeup of his holstered gun and spare rounds.

* EveryCarIsAPinto: T

** Bullitt and Cathy talking about how he might be getting too callous about violence in his job.

* ArchEnemy: Walter Chalmers and [[spoiler:Johnny Ross]] to Frank Bullitt.

*** Specifically, there were two of both cars, but only one of the Chargers was an R/T. Afterwards, one Mustang had to be destroyed for liability purposes[[note]]Until [[http://jalopnik.com/the-lost-bullitt-mustang-may-have-been-discovered-in-me-1792985833 it showed up again in 2017]], having spent the intervening years in a Mexican scrapyard and been bought to rebuild into [[Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974 Eleanor!]].[[/note]], and the other was sold to a production crew member, and disappeared sometime after [=McQueen's=] death.[[note]] At one point the oil pan on one was ripped open during a rather hard downhill scene, spewing smoke and oil everywhere; you can see it if you watch carefully.[[/note]] The R/T Charger was sold to [[http://www.ponysite.de/charger_welch.htm Arnold Welch]], the non-R/T was sold back to the Chrysler dealership, repainted yellow [[HonestJohnsDealership and sold to an unsuspecting customer]] (the same thing happened with ''Film/VanishingPoint'').

* ThickerThanWater: Pete Ross helps his brother Johnny escape the Chicago hit in the opening. (He's told afterwards that the Organization will find somebody else to to the job... and Pete will pay for it.)

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The book ''Mute Witness'' describes Frank Bullitt as a cop who "eats a lot of ice cream and never solves a case". The rights were originally secured for a movie to star Creator/SpencerTracy, who more closely resembled the book's version of the character.

* ShallowLoveInterest: Jacqueline Bissett, as Bullitt's girlfriend Cathy, does two things in the movie. First, she looks very very pretty. Second, she has one scene where she guilt-trips Bullitt about getting too callous about his work. That's it.
** Though that one scene does have a lot of significance that comes to bear in the ending.

*** Specifically, there were two of both cars, but only one of the Chargers was an R/T. Afterwards, one Mustang had to be destroyed for liability purposes[[note]]Until [[http://jalopnik.com/the-lost-bullitt-mustang-may-have-been-discovered-in-me-1792985833 it showed up again in 2017]], having spent the intervening years in a Mexican scrapyard and been bought to rebuild into [[GoneInSixtySeconds1974 Eleanor!]].[[/note]], and the other was sold to a production crew member, and disappeared sometime after [=McQueen's=] death.[[note]] At one point the oil pan on one was ripped open during a rather hard downhill scene, spewing smoke and oil everywhere; you can see it if you watch carefully.[[/note]] The R/T Charger was sold to [[http://www.ponysite.de/charger_welch.htm Arnold Welch]], the non-R/T was sold back to the Chrysler dealership, repainted yellow [[HonestJohnsDealership and sold to an unsuspecting customer]] (the same thing happened with ''Film/VanishingPoint'').

* RatedMForManly: The film not only stars Creator/SteveMcQueen, but it basically created the ChaseScene.

* RealityHasNoSoundtrack: The score drops out of the movie as soon as the car chase starts in earnest. The rest of the chase is a symphony of screeching tires, revving motors, and shotgun blasts.