Chicago, Land of Vehicular Insanity

[Heel n Toe]

Flashback: The stunt that made Marina City immortal, even if Steve McQueen’s final movie isn’t

From the sidewalk on Dearborn Street, it was 15 floors up. Seventeen, from the river level.

Some accounts split the difference, and had the Pontiac Grand Prix, with a mannequin behind the wheel, flying off the 16th floor of the west tower of the Marina City complex.

It took only one take on Friday afternoon, Sept. 21, 1979. According to the film’s producer, Mort Engleberg, the production crew of Steve McQueen’s final film, “The Hunter,” had two more cars rigged up with dummies in place, in case the first take didn’t take.

The stunt has become the stuff of Chicago legend, more famous than the film itself. In “The Hunter,” McQueen plays a fictional version of a real-life bounty hunter, Ralph “Papa” Thorson. Shot mostly in Los Angeles by “Brian’s Song” director Buzz Kulik, the production moved to Chicago that September, also filming in various locations in the Kankakee River Valley.

In the finished film it’s four shots, in slow motion. In the Tribune, reporter Storer Rowley wrote that the impact of car hitting river was like “a cannon blast ... about 1,500 spectators gasped, gaped, and then swarmed through the stopped rush-hour traffic on Wacker Drive and peered over the rail into the dark waters as the car floated for a few seconds and then disappeared.”

That same month, September 1979, two other movies were filming in town: “My Bodyguard” and, more noisily, “The Blues Brothers.”


More: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-flashback-steve-mcqueen-marina-city-hunter-20190912-rlj2lwxenzchjjtwdgtiwiww2a-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0sMIaI8kaSR1U1uDMl2vpJjna5yY ARQ6Z8Vjd_lIYmnckCGm8gJRGlvLk

“The Hunter” is streaming on YouTube,
Google Play, Amazon Prime and other
platforms.

[speeder]

I can't believe that there was a parking ramp with that little barrier stopping a 17 story plane crash with your car.

The Beverly Center in Los Angeles was recently remodeled with suicide fencing incorporated into the facade because so many people took swan dives from the open air parking ramp down to the street below. Still, there was a waist-high concrete wall to prevent cars from doing the same thing. This is bizarre.

[Jay Auskin]

Originally Posted by speeder

I can't believe that there was a parking ramp with that little barrier stopping a 17 story plane crash with your car.

The Beverly Center in Los Angeles was recently remodeled with suicide fencing incorporated into the facade because so many people took swan dives from the open air parking ramp down to the street below. Still, there was a waist-high concrete wall to prevent cars from doing the same thing. This is bizarre.

Was? You mean still is.

[DonDavis]

Here's the scene from the movie.

[Scott Douglas]

Interesting that in the movie it looks like he's backing up, not going forward. Maybe I missed it.