A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.
San Francisco Police Lieutenant Bullitt's tasked by ambitious Walter Chalmers, to guard Johnny Ross, a Chicago mobster who's about to turn evidence against the organisation. Chalmers wants Ross' safety at all cost, or else Bullitt will pay the consequences.—Huggo
Frank Bullitt, a police detective who works for the San Francisco Police Department, is assigned to protect a witness for 40 hours, issued by the ambitious politician, Walter Chambers. Before the night is over,two hit men break into the witness's room and kills him and wounded a police officer. Knowing this, Bullitt gather up information about the incident and opens up a investigation on his own after his police captain gives him the permission to investigate the crime. When Bullitt opens up the investigation, people around start to ponder about his behavior and his antics on pursuing those who are responsible of the crime.—blazesnakes9
Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses.—Jwelch5742
Lt. Frank Bullitt is selected by Walter Chalmers, a politician with ambition, to guard a Mafia informant. Bullitt's friend and underling is shot and the witness is left at death's door by two hit men who seemed to know exactly where the the witness was hiding. Bullitt begins a search for both the killer and the leak, but he must keep the witness alive long enough to make sure the killers return. Chalmers has no interest in the injured policeman or the killers, only in the hearings that will catapult him into the public eye and wants to shut down Bullitt's investigation.—John Vogel <[email protected]>
On a Friday night in April 1968 in Chicago, mobster Johnny Ross briefly meets his brother, Pete, after fleeing the Outfit. 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. Pete calls his seniors in the mob to say that Ross has 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.
Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on organized crime in America. To improve his political standing, Chalmers hopes to bring down Chicago mobster Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the aid of key witness Johnny Ross (Pat Renella), Pete's brother. Bullitt takes place the weekend before the hearing, from Friday night (during the opening credits) to Sunday night.
Following his theft of $2,000,000 in mob money and subsequent escape from Chicago to San Francisco, Johnny is placed in the San Francisco Police Department's protective custody for the weekend. Chalmers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt's (Steve McQueen) unit to guard him.
Bullitt, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Detective Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel), give Ross around-the-clock protection at the Hotel Daniels, a cheap flophouse near the Embarcadero Freeway. After phoning his boss, Captain Samuel Bennett (Simon Oakland), Frank arranges three shifts to guard Ross, with Delgetti going first, then Stanton, then Bullitt.At 1 a.m. Sunday, while Stanton is phoning Bullitt to say Chalmers and a friend want to come up, Ross unchains the room door (doing it in a way that Stanton does not see); seconds later a pair of hit-men (Paul Genge and stunt driver Bill Hickman), burst into the room and shoot Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding them both.
Bullitt wants to investigate the shooting, while Chalmers, upset, attempts to shift blame on to Bullitt and the department.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 removing an ice pick taped to 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.
Ross dies of his wounds. Bullitt suppresses news of the death, asking Doctor Willard (Georg Stanford Brown) to "misplace" the chart and have the body placed in the morgue under a John Doe identity.
Chalmers arrives at the hospital on Sunday morning and is angered that Ross has disappeared. He is further incensed when he and his police minion Captain Baker (Norman Fell) receive no help from Bullitt. Chalmers places pressure on Bullitt to produce Ross, to no effect.
An informant says that Ross was in town because he stole millions of dollars from the Chicago Outfit. Frank and Delgetti, meanwhile, question the Hotel Daniels desk clerk -- he'd been hit & knocked unconscious by the killers. They get a description of the cab Ross arrived in as well as a description of the driver.Bullitt finds the cab driver Weissberg (Robert Duvall) who brought Ross to the hotel. He is told by the Cabbie that Ross had made a long-distance call and a local call from a pay phone before he came to the hotel. The local call was to a different hotel in San Mateo.After picking up his Ford Mustang, Bullitt is tailed by the two hit-men in a Dodge Charger. An extended chase ensues through the streets of San Francisco to Brisbane. Eventually, the Charger crashes into a gas station, killing its occupants in a fiery explosion.
Bullitt and Delgetti are confronted by their superior, Captain Sam Bennett, as well as Chalmers (who is assisted by SFPD Captain Baker). After being served a writ of Habeas Corpus, Bullitt reveals that Ross has died. Bennett ignores the writ as it's Sunday and lets Bullitt investigate the lead of the long-distance phone call to San Mateo.
With no car, Bullitt gets a ride from his girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset). Bullitt heads to the hotel Ross called, where he finds a woman registered under the name Dorothy Simmons (Brandy Carroll), also murdered. Cathy, who sees the body, is disturbed, and later expresses her fear to Bullitt that he is becoming as cold and unfeeling as the criminals he chases.
While inspecting the dead woman's luggage, Bullitt and Delgetti find two sets of passport and airline ticket folders (both empty), two brochures from a Chicago based international travel agency (advertising one of their Rome vacation packages) and hidden in the pockets of the two sets of clothing, two sets of completed travelers checks for nearly $100,000 each. One set was signed by Mrs. Dorothy Rennick, the other by her husband, Mr. Albert Rennick. Bullitt tells Delgetti to contact Immigration Service in Chicago and obtain the passport photos of Mr. & Mrs. Albert Rennick.
Chalmers arrives at the morgue, demanding from Bullitt a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt demurs, and when the faxed copy of the Rennicks' passport photos arrives, Chalmers is shown to have sent the police to protect the wrong man. The Ross brothers (Johnny and Peter) set Albert Rennick up in order to be killed as "Johnny Ross" so the real Ross could escape the mob. Johnny then killed Dorothy Rennick to silence her.
At the airport, the search of the Rome flight reveals no Ross or Rennick. Bullitt guesses that Ross has booked a reservation on another international flight leaving about the same time. He discovers the real Johnny Ross on another flight (a non-stop to London) booked at the last minute; with a Rome ticket exchanged to pay for the flight.Chalmers makes one last attempt to use Ross for his own ends, which Bullitt angrily rejects before going after Ross. A chase across the working runways of San Francisco Airport ensues.Bullitt boards the plane, but after it is ordered to return to the terminal the mobster escapes. In the passenger terminal, Ross kills a deputy sheriff before being shot dead by Bullitt. A silent Chalmers leaves after viewing the scene.Monday morning, Bullitt arrives home to find Cathy asleep in his bed, having chosen to stay.Bullitt returns home, to find Cathy waiting for him, asleep. While going into the bathroom and starting to wash his hands, he looks up at the mirror and stares at his reflection, wondering if he has become what Cathy fears him to be.
