Based on the 1963 novel “Mute Witness” by Robert L. Fish, 1968’s Bullitt starred the king-of-cool Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The movie has become legendary for its mid-film car chase involving Bullitt’s green 1968 Ford Mustang GT-390 pursuing the hit men’s black 1968 Dodge Charger R/T and was the very first to be filmed at actual high-speeds. Film director Peter Yates-- hand picked by McQueen specifically because of his realistic car chase in Robbery (1967)-- hoped to achieve speeds between seventy-five to eighty miles per hour. What stunt driver Bud Ekins (and in less risky shots, McQueen himself) gave him were speeds in excess of one hundred miles per hour. The nearly ten minute chase sequence came after three weeks of intense shooting.

The key witness in a Senate subcommittee hearing on organized crime is none other than Johnny Ross (Felice Orlandi), brother of notorious Chicago gangster Pete Ross (Victor Tayback). Having stolen two million dollars from the mob, Ross seeks help from aspiring politician Walter Chalmers (Vaughn), who calls in Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (McQueen) to provide protection. But the plan goes haywire when two hit men show up at the undisclosed hotel and shoot Ross and his guard. Left for dead, the two are rushed to the hospital where they are sustained in critical condition. When one of the hit men returns to finish the job, Bullitt chases him unsuccessfully. Upon his return to the hospital, Bullitt discovers that Ross has died, but orders that the death be kept a secret.

With the added time, Bullitt traces one of Ross’s last phone calls to Dorothy Renick, a murdered woman with a lot of cash and a schedule to fly to Rome with her husband. After digging further, Bullitt discovers that the man who was killed was actually Albert Benick, an unwitting patsy that the real Ross set up to take the hit for him. With little time to spare, Bullitt races to the airport to try and stop the real Ross (Pat Renella) before he can hop a flight and escape.

The film has achieved an unusual underground icon status, wherein many people are aware of it without really knowing about it. Its portrayal of a vigilante cop defying his superiors would become a staple of the cop drama (see Dirty Harry or The French Connection) and the cinematic car chase would never be the same. In 2001, the Ford Motor Company released a limited edition GT “Bullitt Mustang,” a car that mimicked many design elements of the film’s car, including the exhaust note. A CGI McQueen would drive a 1997 Ford Puma through the streets of San Francisco, a la the chase in Bullitt. Unheralded today was the work of Frank P. Keller, who brought home an Academy Award for film editing on Bullitt. With the exception of two dissolves, every edit in the film is a cut. And Michael Mann, in 1995’s Heat, would mimic almost shot for shot the film’s climax where Bullitt chases Ross around and through the airport-- a sequence that relies solely on sound effects and features no dialogue.