Corrected entry: Steve McQueen performed all his own driving, including a reverse burnout during the chase scene which was not scripted. He had mistakenly missed a turn, but the footage was still kept in the final print.
Corrected entry: When Bullit walks his boss to the elevator in the hospital, the floor number 24 is painted on the wall next to the elevator. But the elevator has far too few buttons to reach the 24th floor. Also, the boss pushes the seventh button from the bottom to leave via the ground floor. (00:32:30)
Correction: It's an express elevator which doesn't go to the lower floors, therefore the buttons start at a higher number.
Correction: In large buildings the elevators are numbered. Each elevator car has a different number. It is useful for maintenance and licensing. It is not the 24th floor, it is elevator #24.
Corrected entry: Steve McQueen smashes the window on the door to get out of the hospital as he chases the assassin. Why doesn't he just unlock it from the inside?
Correction: The assassin had used a mop to wedge the door shut from the outside. I'm sure McQueen first tried to open the door normally and was forced to break the window in the door to remove the mop.
Corrected entry: The famous car scene in this movie almost didn't happen. Neither Steve McQueen nor the director wanted to do the scene. Steve McQueen felt he had done too many movies with car chases in them, but was talked into it by the producer.
Correction: In a March 1987 'Muscle Car Review' article, Carey Loftin, the stunt coordinator for the film said that Steve McQueen was all for the chase sequence and that he even argued against undercranking the cameras for the chase. He wanted it to be as real as possible.
Corrected entry: In the scene at Enricos, where Bullitt is contacting the informant. Bullitt is seeking any and all information about Johnny Ross, a Chicago-based mobster. Lt. Bullitt asks about Ross' brother Pete. If Lt. Bullitt did not know anything about Ross, how did he know Ross had a brother?
Correction: Nowhere is it said that Bullitt does not know anything about Ross. Bullitt wants any and all info, but that does not mean he does not know some things already.
Bullitt spoke to his captain when he first went to Ross hotel room. Captain Bennett said Ross ran the wire for his brother Pete.
Corrected entry: To see the two takes of the chase going down the stepped hill, watch the silver-blue Cadillac, in the intersection. During one take, the first time we get to see a few frames of the yellow cab, the Cadillac does not move. The last we see of the chase through this same intersection, the Cadillac comes to a screeching halt, as the Charger passes through the intersection.
Correction: The earlier camera angle obscures the Cadillac's movement, but the stunt is the same action filmed from multiple angles simultaneously (and shown to us at different times to fake that it's happening again), so no difference can possibly exist.
Corrected entry: When the Dodge crashes into the camera, there is a red flash. If you slow down the scene (on DVD or video) the road is totally empty after the red flash. Where did the Dodge go?
Correction: If it requires slo-mo, it's not a valid mistake. The single-frame of empty street isn't recognizable at normal speed.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the chase scene, when the cars are in street traffic, the rearview mirror shows the driver's face, then, a moment later, it shows the passenger's face. When the Charger crests the "stepped" hill, the mirror shows the Mustang, which is following. The passenger's face is seen a few more times, too, but the view from the camera's POV should show only the driver.
Correction: The mirror could easily have been moved during the driving. Alternatively, the camera angle may have been changed to show the passenger. If you are in a backseat, and move around the seat, you can change the angle of the reflection to see the other passenger.
Corrected entry: In the shot just after the hitman shoots Bullitt's windshield, after the word "Ahead" passes under the camera, an object that looks like either a spent shotgun shell or maybe a projectile to break the car's glass bounces on the roadway, beside the Charger, then it moves towards the camera. Whatever it is, it loses momentum (therefore it most likely came from inside the Charger). It is visible about 11 frames before the smoke from a gun blast (therefore a shell should not be below fast moving cars) and the gun is never sticking out of the side-window far enough for an ejected shell casing to be outside of the Charger, anyway. Although it is noticeable at normal speed, slow motion helps see the object much more . While it looks a lot like an errant shotgun shell, since one end is brighter than the rest of it, its length isn't exactly right for a shotgun shell - it may be a bit too long.
Correction: So it may not be a shotgun shell. It could be something else falling off the Charger, like body trim, or road debris. Not a mistake.
Corrected entry: When the gunman fires the first shot during the car chase, the Mustang swerves violently. However we don't see this shot damage the Mustang. From such an incredibly close range there is no way the shot could have missed and a shotgun blast at this range would have left a sizable hole in the car.
Correction: "No way"? People trying to commit suicide with a hand held gun have missed. Firing from a car moving at high speed, trying to hit a 'violently swerving' target? It's extremely plausible to have missed.
Corrected entry: During the chase scene, one of the bad guys is reloading his shot gun with three bullets. When he shoots the cop, he shoots four times instead of three.
Correction: The shooter loads it once, and never reloads. As such, we see three shells going in, but we don't know one or more shells aren't already in it.
Corrected entry: The gunman is on the back seat when the Charger crashes, but in the next shot (showing the bodies burning) he is in the front passenger seat.
Correction: The Charger has crashed and flipped, and the guy was not wearing a seat belt. He could be anywhere after all that.
Corrected entry: In the leadup to the chase there is a large van and at least one other vehicle between the two cars. After cutting back from a view of the hitman, these vehicles have gone and have been replaced by a white estate with three people in it which is between the two cars. After cutting back again there are no vehicles between the cars. There is a white car to the right of the Mustang, but it only contains the driver.
Corrected entry: With the camera inside the Mustang we hear the tyres squeal when the Charger makes a left at the bottom of the hills. When the Mustang takes the same corner, no squeal. Surely we would have heard the Mustang's tyres squeal too - especially being closer to the camera.
Correction: Not true. The Mustang begins to squeal its tires just a moment before the camera cuts to another location and view of the Charger approaching, but the squeal is definitely there, good and loud.
Corrected entry: During the chase, the same white Firebird turns right in front of the Charger from a side junction three times. Then, a few seconds later, the Charger hits a wall after swerving to avoid the same car.
Correction: Not so. The white Pontiac turning down the hill is a Lemans, the larger sister of the Firebird. Later, at the curved wall, a Firebird is indeed coming the other way, but it's a different car.
Corrected entry: After the charger hits the camera Bullitt has just passed a blue car and then he overshoots the corner. When he reverses and pulls away again there is no sign of the blue car.
Correction: Not true at all. This scene, done in one take, has the Charger and Mustang passing the same blue GTO with a white top. The Charger crashes, then we see the Mustang screech to a halt ahead of the GTO. The Mustang reverses as the GTO pulls over and stops. The Mustang passes in front of the GTO again as it races off after the Charger again. The GTO is always there, partially visible behind the Mustang. See screenshots.
Corrected entry: When Cathy follows the running policemen into the Thunderbolt Hotel room, she stops, then looks around a policeman at the dead woman. She makes no big sound or big movements from that point onward. Bullitt is not facing the doorway and is starting to make a phone call to Delgetti. During his conversation, he turns his head and looks up to see his girlfriend in the room. What draws his attention to notice her?
Corrected entry: The driver of the Dodge Charger during the chase scene with Steve McQueen's Mustang is an actual stunt driver (even in close-up). He is obviously killed when the Charger crashes into (behind) the gas station. After Steve McQueen wrecks his Mustang he goes to the police garage to ask for another car and is told there are none left. Then watch closely...the last car is driven out by the stunt driver of the Charger!
Correction: There is a man with large black glasses driving out of the garage, but his face is not seen. It could be anyone.
Corrected entry: Just before the hit, Stanton rings Bullitt from the hotel room and Bullitt says he will be there in 5 minutes. When Bullit arrives, the injured parties are coming down in the lift. Later Bullitt enters the hotel room and we see photos of the shot man on the wall. So, in the time it took Bullitt to get dressed and arrive, the police had summoned a photographer who took the photos, the medics had arrived, stabilised 'Ross' and prepared him to be moved. That's a lot to do in 5 minutes.
Correction: Saying 5 minutes just means he'll be headed there directly. Traffic or other delays would take longer. When he says 5 minutes, he means he'll be headed there right away, probably after completing something that he thinks will just take a short time.
Correction: Traffic at 1:00 in the morning?
Corrected entry: After the charger bursts away at the start of the chase, Bullitt is held up in traffic and it's 12 seconds before he accelerates away, meaning of course there is a 12 second gap between the cars. Immediately the scene cuts to both cars going uphill. Now there is less than 3 seconds between them. (I timed it.).
Correction: The two shots are not back-to-back in real time. The second shot can be two or three turns later for all we know, and the 'stang definitely handles better in the turns and would make up the difference in very little time.
Correction: McQueen WANTED to do all his own stunt driving, but he simply couldn't perform many of the maneuvers to directorial satisfaction and he was hastily replaced by professional stunt drivers.
Charles Austin Miller