Steve McQueen stars in this classic action movie about Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco detective who has become hardened to crime. He is assigned by an over ambitious politician Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to protect a key Mafia member who is due to appear in hearings that would catapault Chalmers into the public eye. But the safe house is ambushed, his friend is murdered and the witness is critically injured.

Bullitt decides to search for the origin of the leak and the killers himself, despite Chalmers trying to interfere and shut down the investigation in a bid to keeping the hearings going. The film features one of cinema's most famous car chases, and expert driver McQueen performs all his own stunts.