Greatest Chicago-based movies of all time

Cafe Society
21

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Sting
The Fugitive

22

While not set entirely in Chicago, a significant portion of North by Northwest takes place there.

Derailed takes place in Chicago, but I think someone told me it wasn’t filmed there.

23

How about the Billy Crystal - Gregory Hines Chicago cop buddy film Running Scared?

24

*The Breakfast Club * was shot in Des Plaines, but I don’t think it was really set as anywhere but Suburbia, USA. <some digging later> John Hughes’ movies are normally set in a fictional town called Shermer. Shermerville was the original name for Northbrook, which is where John Hughes grew up.

As for my picks, it’s almost a coin toss between The Blues Brothers and The Fugitive.

25

Huh? I thought that was a New York movie. Are you sure?

I love Chicago movies. I haven’t seen some of the ones mentioned here, such as Call Northside 777 and Medium Cool. This is a great thread because I can make a list of Chicago movies I need to see.

My list would be:

The Sting
The Untouchables
Bad Boys (maybe not a great movie, but a very good one, and it was my first exposure to the talents of Sean Penn)

26

There was some movie with Jean Reno as a knight time-traveling modern-day Chicago. Not too bad a movie, but it very lovingly showed Chicago landmarks.

27

The Beginning of the End
Peter Graves fights giant grasshoppers in Chicago.

28

  1. Chicago

  2. The Sting (I didn’t remember that this took place in Chicago, but so many posters have mentioned it, I guess it must have.)

  3. I’m waiting for a third one.

29

Blues Brothers
The Fugitive
The Untouchables
Risky Business (Rebecca DeMorney on the El Train)
Ferris Bueller

30

The Visitors, part of which was shot in the parking lot next to my office. I walked out and was wondering what someone was doing riding a horse between the rows of parked cars, so I asked one of the crew. I had never heard of Jean Reno before that.

31

The OP question was for the best movies shot in Chicago, not the worst. :stuck_out_tongue:

32
  1. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (no question)
  2. The Untouchables
  3. Stranger than Fiction
33

Sorry, you’re right. Most of the interiors were filmed in Chicago bars, though.

34

That would be The Fury.

God, I hated that movie.

35
  1. The Blues Brothers
  2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  3. The Hunter
36

Best obscure film set in Chicago: The Monitors. no-special effects sci-fi about aliens who come to earth and run the place better than we could; and for our benefit, not their own (much to the annoyance of the earthlings) Special feature: cameo by Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen!

37

It was made by Second City comedy troupe wayyyyyy before John Candy, Harold Ramis, and that bunch, when it was “Second City” because Chicago was “Second City”, and had guys like Avery Schreiber in it (who played one of the Monitors). Very weird flick that I haven’t seen in ages (and didn’t realize was set in Chicago)

38

Adventures in Babysitting
Thief
About Last Night

39

Actually, that would be Wicker Park.

40

Blues Brothers
The Sting
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off