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Bullitt chase
Posted on 11/5/26 at 9:02 pm
Posted on 11/5/26 at 9:02 pm
No questions asked and still to this day the best movie car chase ever.
No CGI, they shut down the streets of SF, ran the ford and dodge wide open and the actor drove.
Wanna throw a couple franchises and an actor under the bus but I’m gonna keep it high brow for now.
Bring the hate and opposition but give me a better one for the price.
Posted on 11/5/26 at 9:11 pm to msap9020
quote:
No CGI, they shut down the streets of SF, ran the ford and dodge wide open and the actor drove.
Thinking about how much this would cost modern day
Posted on 11/5/26 at 10:16 pm to msap9020
McQueen chose Peter Yates to direct it on the basis of this scene he'd shot the year before
Posted on 11/5/26 at 10:29 pm to msap9020
quote:
Bill Hickman (January 25, 1921 – February 24, 1986) was an American professional stunt driver, stunt coordinator and actor. His film career spanned from the 1950s through to the late 1970s, and included films such as Bullitt, The French Connection and The Seven-Ups.
quote:
It was the car chase alongside Steve McQueen in the 1968 film Bullitt for which he is usually remembered. Hickman was to do all his own driving; portraying one of two hit men, he drove an all black 1968 Dodge Charger 440 Magnum R/T through the streets of San Francisco, using the hills as jumps.[1]
In a professional driver's touch (before compulsory restraints were introduced in California), Hickman's character buckles his seat belt before flooring it at the beginning of the pursuit by the Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT, driven by Steve McQueen.
The dangers were real: in one shot Hickman accidentally loses control and clips the camera fixed to a parked car.
quote:
Hickman spent some of these earlier days as driver and friend to James Dean, driving Dean's Ford station wagon towing Dean's famed 550 Spyder nicknamed "Little Bastard", and often helping and advising him with his driving technique. He was driving the Ford station wagon and trailer following Dean on the day of Dean's fatal 1955 accident and was the first person on the scene.
Hickman was an extra in Dean's 1951 feature movie debut, Fixed Bayonets!. A rare personal quote from Bill on his friendship with Dean: "In those final days, racing was what he cared about most. I had been teaching him things like how to put a car in a four-wheel drift, but he had plenty of skill of his own. If he had lived he might have become a champion driver. We had a running joke, I'd call him Little Bastard and he'd call me Big Bastard. I never stop thinking of those memories."
In another interview with James Dean expert Warren Beath, Hickman is quoted as saying, "We were about two or three minutes behind him. I pulled him out of the car, and he was in my arms when he died, his head fell over. I heard the air coming out of his lungs the last time. Didn't sleep for five or six nights after that, just the sound of the air coming out of his lungs."
Posted on 11/5/26 at 10:48 pm to Kafka
quote:
James Sherwin "Bud" Ekins (May 11, 1930 – October 6, 2007) was an American professional stuntman in the U.S. film industry. He is considered to be one of the film industry's most accomplished stuntmen with a body of work that includes classic films such as The Great Escape and Bullitt. Ekins, acting as stunt double for Steve McQueen while filming The Great Escape, was the rider who performed what is considered to be one of the most famous motorcycle stunts ever performed in a movie. He was recognized for his stunt work by being inducted into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame
quote:
By the mid-1960s, Ekins owned a Triumph motorcycle dealership in Sherman Oaks, CA, near Hollywood, which became a popular destination for many young film actors including Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood. Ekins helped McQueen learn off-road racing and the actor became an accomplished motorcycle racer.
quote:W/SM on tGE set
Film industry career
Through his association with McQueen, Ekins began a career as a film stuntman. Ekins is best known as the actor who jumped the fence on a motorcycle in the 1963 film The Great Escape, and one of the stuntmen who drove the Ford Mustang 390 GT in the car chase scene in the 1968 film Bullitt. The chase scene led by stunt coordinator Carey Loftin and filmed on the streets of San Francisco, is regarded as one of the most influential in film history
IIRC Bud Ekins also plays the cyclist who skids and slides on the road in Bullitt
Posted on 11/5/26 at 11:59 pm to msap9020
Fun activity—watch how many times you see a white Firebird and a green VW
Posted on 11/6/26 at 7:35 am to msap9020
Love that scene for its simplicity and cool factor. 
Posted on 11/7/26 at 7:00 am to msap9020
Awesome scene. But always seemed like SM was being chased by two of my dad's accountant friends.
Posted on 11/7/26 at 4:48 pm to BabysArmHoldingApple
quote:This was intentional - to make the villains look like everyday people rather than refugees from a '30s Cagney movie
Awesome scene. But always seemed like SM was being chased by two of my dad's accountant friends.
Posted on 11/7/26 at 8:07 pm to msap9020
The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. have outstanding car chase scenes also. Ronin also has a good one. But yes, the Bullitt scene is way up there.
Posted on 11/7/26 at 8:21 pm to JackDempsey
quote:Bill Hickman was the driver
The French Connection
Posted on 11/7/26 at 8:32 pm to Kafka
Interestingly, the first great chase scenes were in... Comedies
Mack Sennett's silents were filled with chases. That's how The Keystone Kops became famous
Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy and Speedy both have great chases. Keaton's The General is essentially one long chase
Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals and Bob Hope's My Favorite Spy both have classic chase climaxes
Mack Sennett's silents were filled with chases. That's how The Keystone Kops became famous
Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy and Speedy both have great chases. Keaton's The General is essentially one long chase
Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals and Bob Hope's My Favorite Spy both have classic chase climaxes
Posted on 11/7/26 at 9:49 pm to msap9020
I really like the fact that there probably are two or three of these Bullit threads a year, and I don't mean to point it out because it's repetitive,
I'm pointing it out because that's just how much people love that car chase
I'm pointing it out because that's just how much people love that car chase
Posted on 11/7/26 at 10:26 pm to JackDempsey
French Connection and To Live and Die in LA were both directed by William Friedkin.
His movie Jade has a really cool slow speed chase.
His movie Jade has a really cool slow speed chase.
Posted on 11/7/26 at 10:34 pm to cypresstiger
quote:
Fun activity—watch how many times you see a white Firebird and a green VW
While your at it count the number of hubcaps the Charger loses... BTW it is more than 4.
Posted on 11/8/26 at 3:22 am to msap9020
Watched it when it first came out and then again at the Dalton in 1970.
My father loved the chase scene, which is why we saw it again at the Dalton.
My father loved the chase scene, which is why we saw it again at the Dalton.
Posted on 11/8/26 at 10:04 am to JackDempsey
An underrated chase is from The Dead Pool where Dirty Harry does the Bullit chase as he is being pursued by an RC car full of explosives.
Posted on 11/8/26 at 1:04 pm to Kafka
Looking at that pic of SM and his stuntman, has anyone ever had a Canada Dry Cola? Never seen that before. Looks like they haven't been around for a long time.
This post was edited on 11/8/26 at 1:05 pm
Posted on 11/8/26 at 7:40 pm to tigger1
my Dad and I saw On Any Given Sunday 3 times @ Gulfgate
Posted on 11/9/26 at 1:00 pm to msap9020
This is what my father showed me when I said Ronin had the best car chase scene I've watched, he was right.
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