Steve McQueen

Racing through the streets of San Francisco in a nearly 11-minute chase scene behind the wheel of an iconic 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback GT made McQueen a ...

“It was made up of all different types of shots,” said Norman, “like crane shots and shots from a cinematographer in the back seat of the car. While the movie’s Mustang is now iconic, in 1968 the car was chosen because McQueen didn’t think Bullitt would drive a flashy car. “There are several reasons the chase scene holds up,” said Kelsy Norman, the Calgary-based host of the “Speeding Bullitt: The Life and Films of Steve McQueen” podcast. Even today, in the “Fast and Furious” era of pedal-to-the-metal physics-defying car chases, the ferocious scene in “Bullitt” still impresses. In the sequence, Bullitt dodges the assassins, speeds over the hilly, narrow streets of San Francisco, and then flips the script to chase the bad guys. Shot on real streets at real speeds, the cars careen through San Francisco, catching air, as a game of cat and mouse develops until the Dodge crashes, killing its occupants in a burst of flame.