Peter Yates's exciting police thriller contains one of the fastest and best produced car-chase sequences in the cinema; it redefined such scenes for years to come. Steve McQueen is the tough San Francisco detective who senses something awry behind an assignment to guard a criminal witness and soon becomes involved in the middle of Mafia dealings and political intervention. Robert L. Pike's novel Mute Witness was translated into almost purely cinematic terms: what the script lacks in originality is transcended by the direction, cinematography, and editing, which capture in gritty detail this cynical story of politics and policing in the City by the Bay.