Question: What character did the actor John Aprea play in the movie? The credits at the end lists him as 'The Killer', but who did he kill? He wasn't one of the two hit men at the hotel.
Question: Why did they keep showing his weapon at the end, was someone else in the bathroom?
Question: Just after (the real) Ross has been shot at the airport, you hear the babble of bystanders' voices. At one point you apparently hear this exchange: Person 1: "I heard he shot someone" Person 2: "He's a c**t, that's what he is". Is this part of the script, a mischievous foul-mouthed extra or my bad hearing?
Answer: The line is "He's a cop..."
Question: What happens at the end of this film? Was the man who was shot the real man, and who was that guy who McQueen shot at the end?
Question: How did the bad guy have a gun on the flight? He pulls a gun in the airfield chase scene so he had to have it on the plane as he jumped off it.
Answer: Airport security in the late 1960's was not nearly as thorough as it is in present day. Metal detectors didn't become commonplace at airports until the early 1970's.
It was the D.B. Cooper hijacking of a Boeing 727 commercial jet in 1971 that radically changed how airport security was handled. Before that, there was virtually little to no pre-boarding security checks.
Question: How did Bullitt know the specific cab number to look for? Did he call the taxi company to see who dropped a passenger there on Friday, then ask where the cab and driver could be found?
Answer: Being an ex-cab driver, most have a routine. Same areas of town, same routes and same businesses to go where there's most profitable and the tips are good. They also make friends with the owners, to make sure they're specifically called by name, not cab.
Question: What was Justin Tarr's (Eddie) line? Outside Enrico's "Remember Sashu"? Was that the name?
Answer: I think so. Kind of a throwaway line probably to cement that he was an informant and trading in favors was expected. I always felt Billitt's response, "I'll try." was pretty weak.
Question: How did Ross get Renick to go along with the identity switch?
Answer: Money. A whole lot, plus he likely double talked him into believing it was a con job. Ross saying, "I'm running from the I.R.S. or angry ex-wife wanting alimony and child support."
Answer: One of the major themes of the film is Bullitt's attachment to his job, to the point where he has become cold and cynical, which has brought his personal relationship with Cathy (whom we see in his bed moments before) to the brink of collapse. Earlier, he and Cathy had a fight in which it is made clear that she won't wait forever for him to open himself to their relationship, and now he's just come off a very trying, not to say traumatic, assignment. So, at the end, he's staring at himself in the mirror (as one does in films), with two paths: one waits in his bed, and the other is his soul-eroding job, represented by his departmentally-issued sidearm resting outside. It is not clear which he will choose. That's why the gun is the last shot of the film; there's nothing to suggest there's anyone else in the bathroom with him.