Plot
Ralph "Papa" Thorson arrives in a small town in Illinois where, despite being a terrible driver, he captures fugitive Tommy Price for fleeing his bail. Thorson drives to Houston to bring in a dangerous hooligan named Billie Joe, whose kinfolk include Sheriff Strong, a corrupt redneck lawman who warns Thorson not to get involved. Papa ignores him and ends up in a destructive fight with the enormous fugitive, but succeeds in apprehending him.
Thorson drives both Tommy Price and Billie Joe back to Los Angeles, where he collects his reward for bringing them back. However, Thorson vouches for Price, who soon begins fixing things at Thorson's house and becomes one of Thorson's many acquaintances who hang out there.
At home, Thorson is an old-fashioned guy who has a love of antique toys and classical music. His schoolteacher girlfriend Dotty is pregnant and would like "Papa" to be there for her when the baby is born, but his job continually keeps him on the road.
Thorson works for elderly bail bondsman Ritchie Blumenthal, who sends him on dangerous assignments to chase down fugitives in all parts of the U.S. However, Thorson is stalked by psychotic killer Rocco Mason, who was one of Thorson's former convicts.
Thorson is sent to rural Nebraska to bring back two fugitives, the Branch brothers. He flies to Nebraska to the Branch farmhouse, where the two psycho brothers steal his rental car and try to kill him with dynamite. Thorson commandeers a combine harvester and chases the two Branch brothers through a cornfield. A stick of dynamite they drop blows up the car, but they both survive, albeit badly injured. Thorson arrives back at the local airport with the destroyed car on a trailer, and brings the Branch brothers on a plane back to Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Rocco Mason terrorizes Dotty at her workplace, which leads Thorson to try to protect her, but she instead tries to make him give up his bounty hunter way of life and to take her to a Lamaze class. When Thorson grows tired of it and tells Dotty he wishes she would've had an abortion, she threatens to leave him.
Thorson's police friend, Captain Spota, dies by suicide after he is investigated for dealing illegal drugs from the department's evidence rooms, whereupon Thorson starts drinking more heavily.
Blumenthal sends Thorson to a Chicago slum to pick up fugitive Anthony Bernardo, a dangerous ex-con. Thorson and Bernardo exchange gunfire with each other at an apartment building. Thorson chases Bernardo on foot through the streets to an elevated train, where Thorson is forced to climb on the roof of the train to avoid being shot. The chase climaxes at the Marina City complex, where they both steal vehicles and chase each other to the upper levels of the parking garage, where Bernardo is cornered by both Thorson and a dead end. Panicked, the psychotic fugitive steps on the gas in panic, but he overshoots a turn, causing him to accidentally drive off the edge and plunge to his death in the Chicago River.
Returning to Los Angeles, Thorson learns from a badly beaten Price that Dotty has been kidnapped by Rocco Mason, who is holding her at the high school where she teaches. There, Mason disarms Thorson, kills a security guard with an assault rifle, and attempts to kill Thorson. Thorson lures Mason into a chemistry classroom that he has flooded with flammable gas. Mason opens fire, igniting the gas and blowing up the room and himself.
Dottie goes into labor, and Thorson rushes her to the hospital, where he collapses in the lobby. When he comes to and walks back outside, Dotty has already given birth. He holds their new baby, who looks eerily like Thorson himself.
Production
Development
The film was developed by Rastar and set up at Paramount. Richard Levinson and William Link wrote the initial script based on Christopher Keane's biography of the real Ralph "Papa" Thorson. Steve McQueen became attached to star, and Mort Engelberg was to produce. [4]
Peter Hyams was hired to write and direct, but was fired after doing a draft. McQueen wanted to replace him as director, but the Directors Guild of America would not allow it because McQueen had been on the project before Hyams. [5]
McQueen made the film after making Tom Horn . Around this time, he was also signed for Tai-Pan at the highest fee any actor had received. [6]
Shooting
Filming began September 1979. [7] McQueen reportedly did a lot of directing on set. [8]
The opening street scene was shot in Joliet, Illinois. The capture of Tommy Price in Herscher, and payphone scenes with Papa Thorson talking to Sheriff Strong, were filmed in Bonfield. The classic riverhouse explosion early in the picture was filmed on the Kankakee River near Aroma Park. The structure was built for the film, then destroyed. The cabin was taken apart (not destroyed), reassembled and sold for a hunting retreat on an island in the Kankakee river basin.
The airport scene in which Papa picks up the Trans Am was filmed at the Greater Kankakee Airport. Historic downtown Lemont was used for the scene in which Steve McQueen performs a burnout in front of the police officer. Also, the current public works building across from the post office was used as the police station and jail. The cornfield chase scenes between the Firebird Trans Am and the combine were filmed in Manteno. [9]
A portion of the film was shot in Old Town, Chicago, on the El. Scenes involving Papa chasing his quarry "Bernardo" in a parking garage were shot at Marina City. The stunt with the fleeing suspect driving off the Marina City garage and plunging into the Chicago River was recreated in 2006 for a TV advertisement for Allstate Insurance.
Steve McQueen's illness
McQueen was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of terminal lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, on December 22, 1979, the month after filming had ended. [10] He first began to suspect his condition in the autumn of that year, while he was shooting scenes for this film on location in Chicago. The chronic cough he developed a year earlier and shortness of breath became more pronounced, causing some delays in the filming of his performances.
Due to his respiratory problems, his action scenes were entirely performed by several skilled stuntmen. Two notable stuntmen involved were Loren Janes [11] (uncredited) and Thomas Rosales Jr., [12] who played the character Anthony Bernardo.
McQueen would die just three months after the film's release and less than a year after his lung cancer diagnosis, on November 7, 1980. [13]
