William Friedkin · 1971 · thriller

William Friedkin's 1971 thriller. A shipment of near-pure heroin leaves Marseille hidden in the rocker panels of a Lincoln Continental, bound for New York. Two narcotics detectives working the Brooklyn bars on a hunch tail it across the city - through the stakeouts, the subway feints and the elevated-line car chase that the film is remembered for.

1. 1
   Marseille

   In Marseille, the urbane trafficker Alain Charnier arranges a shipment of extraordinarily pure heroin for the American market, concealed in a car being shipped across the Atlantic with an unwitting television personality.

2. 2
   New York

   In New York, detectives Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo work the bars and street corners of the narcotics trade on nothing but instinct, and pull a thread that leads from a small-time Brooklyn dealer all the way back to Marseille.

3. 3
   Bensonhurst

   Under the elevated line in Brooklyn, a gunman's attempt on Doyle turns into the chase that defines the film - a commandeered car driven flat out beneath the tracks, chasing a hijacked train through the pillars and intersections.

4. 4
   Ward's Island

   The heroin is unloaded and the money paid, and the police close the trap in a derelict building on the island - a confused, muzzle-flashing endgame in which the man they most wanted simply walks away.