"Bullet" with Steve McQueen

[Smitty's Retired]

The movie "Bullet" with Steve McQueen on TCM. I never get tired of that movie. Sure messed up a nice Charger R/T tho.

[dagger dog]

Bullit,Bullet or Boolit? Great car chase ! Like his Diamondback Colt.

[marlin39a]

I just picked up the movie at Christmas. Watched it twice. No AR-15's, WonderNines, computers, cellphones. How about the Pre-Fax machine & the Ancient Hospital!

[Smitty's Retired]

Bullit,Bullet or Boolit? Great car chase ! Like his Diamondback Colt.

Your right, I spelled it wrong. It's actually "Bullitt"!

[cbrick]

Don't worry too much about the charger. When they crash expensive cars they buy a wrecked junker, do whatever it takes to make it run for the scene and crash that. Odds are that the one crashed in the scene had the opposite side (away from the camera) wrecked or something about it that made it worth little. They also will have a really nice one of the same car that does not get wrecked, or dinged, or scratched.

In the TV series Dukes of Hazard they kept a running count of 80 "General Lee's" across three model years. The only real changes in the model years were the tail lights and most of them weren't worth much. Whenever you saw them "fly" the General Lee over something the car you saw drive off was not the same car you saw fly, it destroyed them. A close look at the tail lights often showed this. Whenever you "fly" a car like that the motor in front is so heavy it always lands on the grill, to counter this the trunk was filled with sand bags.

Rick

[dagger dog]

Your right, I spelled it wrong. It's actually "Bullitt"!

Yeah but they ought to do a remake, and add the parts to the script about him casting his own LSWC and then they could call it BOOLIT.

They could show the part of him pulling wheel weights off the burning Charger !

[DLCTEX]

One one episode of Dukes O H I saw the front fender wrinkle as the car hit, then it drove away unwrinkled.

[L1A1Rocker]

The movie "Bullet" with Steve McQueen on TCM. I never get tired of that movie. Sure messed up a nice Charger R/T tho.

I want that mystery transmission from McQueen's Mustang. That thing had something like 10 forward gears in it man! (yes, that's sarcasm but it still fun to count the gear shifts lol)

[L1A1Rocker]

Don't worry too much about the charger. When they crash expensive cars they buy a wrecked junker, do whatever it takes to make it run for the scene and crash that. Odds are that the one crashed in the scene had the opposite side (away from the camera) wrecked or something about it that made it worth little. They also will have a really nice one of the same car that does not get wrecked, or dinged, or scratched.

That for the most part is correct. New motorcycles are wrecked a lot. You used to see Harley's all the time in movies. Until HD stopped "giving" the studios the bikes under their advertising budget. Why? Because the bikes were always wrecked. I think the last movie that had HD as a "sponsor" was Bakaroo Bonzi. Also, do you know how many brand new Trans-Ams were wrecked filming Smokey and the Bandit? IIRC it was double digits.

But, like I said you're mostly right. I recall touring Alamo Village (the studio in west Texas) one summer. The folks there were just finishing on putting a wrecked helicopter back together to blow it up. One of the skids was re-made with 2X4s. No kidding.

[Gliden07]

When I was a kid my Father was a school Teacher, every once in a while he would borrow a movie projector from the school and we would have a movie night at home (obviously pre VCR)!! He would get different movies from a friend of his in the Audio Video Dept (he had 4 or 5 different ones). Bullet was one of the movies he had and my favorite!! It was a Big Deal back then we would make Popcorn and get to have a Soda or two!! Great memories with my Family and a Great movie!! Bought it on DVD but its no where near the fun I had when I was a kid!

[cbrick]

That for the most part is correct.

But, like I said you're mostly right.

Gee thanks.

I spent 34 years working in the transportation dept. of motion picture and TV. That's what I did for a living. I spent 2 seasons working the Dukes show among numerous others and feature films. It's not for the most part correct and it's not mostly right, it is correct.

In 34 years I watched an awful lot of vehicles get destroyed in front of a camera, in 34 years I never once saw a new Harley get wrecked on purpose. Such vehicles are loaners from PR houses (not from the mfg) who contract with the mgf for whatever the product may be. The PR house is paid by the mfg when they get their product in front of a camera. The PR house works with the studios to supply the studio with the vehicles and contracts are signed before any vehicle is released. The studio is 100% responsible for that vehicle, if it's wrecked they bought it. Cars, bikes, trucks and nearly anything else of any value you could name is obtained this way. If it is to be wrecked they don't get it through the PR houses, they buy it outright upfront whether it's a car or a toaster oven.

Rick

[Idaho Mule]

cbrick, somehow, someway I detect that you have experience with this "flying car syndrome". Years ago I too studied this phenomena, and I found that the front end would dive EVERY time, regardless of launch velocity--those particular experiments were conducted with a 1964 Plymouth Valiant powered by the huge 273 cubic inch V8. After a few years break there in research (had to wreck one marriage) I began experimenting again. This time was with a '51 Willy's PU retrofitted with a 283 Chevrolet motor. Same results, only worse front end "sink". My only conclusion is that the Valiant was a much more aerodynamic vehicle and thusly "flew" better. More studies will be reported on soon as youngest son just got his drivers licence. JW

[frkelly74]

Oddly, The thing that captured my attention in the brief amount of time I was able to watch this movie was the lack of tempered glass in the doors when the fugitive bad guy was shot through the glass and then fell forward through the glass finishing its destruction. Just look at all those knife like shards of glass, danger danger danger.

[cbrick]

Just look at all those knife like shards of glass, danger danger danger.

Not glass. It's a plastic, looks very much like glass but breaks without sharp edges. They use it for windows or things like when a guy gets hit in the head with a beer mug. It's rather fragile stuff but they make all sorts of stuff out of it because of the safety. Just a special effects trick & why it didn't break like safety glass.

Rick

[WILCO]

I love that movie! Bought it for myself many moons ago at Walmart. Sure do love seeing all that old detroit steel burning rubber.

[frkelly74]

Not glass. It's a plastic, looks very much like glass but breaks without sharp edges. They use it for windows or things like when a guy gets hit in the head with a beer mug. It's rather fragile stuff but they make all sorts of stuff out of it because of the safety. Just a special effects trick & why it didn't break like safety glass.

Rick

Well, now my disillusionment is complete. I will hereafter be unable to suspend my disbelief.

[cbrick]

Well, now my disillusionment is complete. I will hereafter be unable to suspend my disbelief.

Hehe . . . If you only knew how much of what you would swear you just saw you didn't.

Rick

[bob208]

bunch of us went to see it when it came out we were seniors in high school. i always liked the white pontiac firebird that showed up in every where in the chase.

[thehouseproduct]

Gee thanks.

I spent 34 years working in the transportation dept. of motion picture and TV. That's what I did for a living. I spent 2 seasons working the Dukes show among numerous others and feature films. It's not for the most part correct and it's not mostly right, it is correct.

In 34 years I watched an awful lot of vehicles get destroyed in front of a camera, in 34 years I never once saw a new Harley get wrecked on purpose. Such vehicles are loaners from PR houses (not from the mfg) who contract with the mgf for whatever the product may be. The PR house is paid by the mfg when they get their product in front of a camera. The PR house works with the studios to supply the studio with the vehicles and contracts are signed before any vehicle is released. The studio is 100% responsible for that vehicle, if it's wrecked they bought it. Cars, bikes, trucks and nearly anything else of any value you could name is obtained this way. If it is to be wrecked they don't get it through the PR houses, they buy it outright upfront whether it's a car or a toaster oven.

Rick

I heard the A-team van had a custom mid mounted motor to prevent it from landing grill first....

[Echo]

I read somewhere that the bottles they broke over guys heads (gals, too) were made from rock candy, and thin, so they would break nicely without putting a bunion on the receivers headbone...
And it makes sense that a car will nosedive when driven off something - the front wheels become non-supporting while the rear wheels are still on solid ground. I saw a stunt driver doing it off a ramp, and there were collapsible mini-ramps that dropped after the front wheels went over them, to give a bump up to counteract gravity trying to drop the front end...