San Francisco has been the backdrop for many films, due in part to the Bay Area's vibrant filmmaking community and the city's proximity to Hollywood. The production companies of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, along with the animation company Pixar are just a few of the big players who call the San Francisco area home. Among the better films set in San Francisco:
Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947). An offbeat film noir featuring two icons of the genre, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. The city's dark alleyways and side streets are on prominent display throughout the eccentric story of a man wrongly accused of murder and an enigmatic woman who lives in a lavish art deco apartment on top of the Filbert Steps.
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958). While it's not the only Hitchcock film set in San Francisco (portions of The Birds are set here), Vertigo really packs in a lot the city, following a private investigator who suffers from acrophobia as he uncovers the mystery of one woman's peculiar behavior and travels from one San Francisco landmark to the next.
Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968). A very popular and highly influential crime thriller starring Steve McQueen (who also starred in the locally-set The Towering Inferno) and featuring one of the best car chase scenes in the history of cinema.
Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971). Another cop film set in San Francisco (in addition, all but one of the sequels were also set here), starring Clint Eastwood chasing down sadistic killers and asking people if they feel lucky. Well do they, punk?
48 Hrs. (Walter Hill, 1982). Often credited with starting the buddy-cop genre, this flick follows a hot-headed cop who has to team up with a wisecracking convict in order to find two cop killers in the crime-ridden underworld of San Francisco.
Psych-Out (Richard Rush, 1968). An incredibly trippy film with psychedelic music (including an appearance from Strawberry Alarm Clock), recreational drugs, and Haight-Ashbury — Hippies aplenty in this one.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978). Emotionless drones impersonating people and hatched from pods take over San Francisco in this classic science fiction flick.
A whole host of great films have been set at Alcatraz; among them are Escape from Alcatraz (Don Siegel, 1979), Birdman of Alcatraz (John Frankenheimer, 1962), The Rock (Michael Bay, 1996), and the very influential Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967).
Chan Is Missing (Wayne Wang, 1982). Illustrating the problems experienced by Chinese-Americans, this film tells the story of two taxi drivers searching Chinatown for a man who ran off with their money.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy, 1986). In the 23rd century, San Francisco is the home of Starfleet Command and humpback whales have long been extinct. In this installment of the popular franchise, Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew have to time travel to a more contemporary San Francisco to bring back a couple of whales and save Earth.
Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008). A recent biopic on the life of Harvey Milk, the former San Francisco City Supervisor in the late 1970s and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office. This story still holds sway for many San Franciscans given the city's role in the ongoing gay rights movement.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about San Francisco
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in San Francisco - updated May 2024
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San Francisco Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
