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Chain Reaction (1996) sees Keanu Reeves as a science student at the University of Chicago who is framed for murder. In a nail-biting chase scene, he trys to escape by running up the Michigan Avenue Bridge (see Magnificent Mile) as it’s raised.

The first Palmer House was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire (see 1871: Great Chicago Fire). The current grand hotel is the third version and is lavishly decorated with frescos, Tiffany light fixtures, and marble floors.

The El tracks are an apt symbol of hard-working Chicago, and they feature significantly in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping (1995). Sandra Bullock plays an El station clerk who falls in love with a handsome commuter. He tumbles off the platform, Bullock saves his life, and comedy and romance ensue.

This lakefront road’s low speed limit is perfect for gawping at the palatial, architecturally diverse homes that line it as you drive north to Evanston and beyond. Art buffs might like to stop at the Martin D’Arcy Gallery at Loyola University, which specializes in art from Medieval to Baroque times.

At the heart of this center is Orchestra Hall (1904), the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A major 1997 extension added office space and the Rhapsody restaurant (see Arts Venues).

The consummate high school comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) stars Matthew Broderick, who skips school and takes his girlfriend (Mia Sara) and best friend (Paul Ruck) on an action-packed Chicago day. At the Art Institute, Broderick and Sara kiss in front of a window designed by Chagall, while Ruck stares intensely at A Sunday on La Grande Jatte–1884.

Wrongly accused and convicted of murder, Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) dodges the authorities led by Tommy Lee Jones to prove his innocence in The Fugitive (1993). He winds up in a pulse-pounding chase through this grand hotel onto its roof, down its elevator shaft, and into the hotel’s laundry room.

Elliott Ness (Kevin Costner) brings down Chicago gangster Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) in the true story The Untouchables (1987). In one unforgettable scene, a shoot-out on a Union Station staircase causes a mother to lose her grip on her baby carriage, which bounces in slow motion down the stairs, saved at the last moment by Ness’s partner.

In Road to Perdition (2002) Tom Hanks is Michael Sullivan, an Irish gangster living in 1930s Chicago. After his wife and young son are murdered, he flees town with his older son. In seeking a safe refuge, they enter a hotel, the exterior of which is the beautiful Wrigley Building. However, the interior scenes were actually filmed at The Hilton Chicago.