Chicago. The name itself carries a certain weight, a rhythm of steel, wind, and jazz. It’s a city etched into the American psyche, a metropolis of towering ambition and shadowy alleys. For film lovers, that shadow is often cast by one figure: Al Capone. And the light that dared to challenge him? Eliot Ness. Brian De Palma’s 1987 masterpiece, The Untouchables, didn’t just use Chicago as a backdrop; it breathed its air, walked its marble floors, and echoed in its grand halls. The film transformed the city’s architectural landmarks into a sprawling stage for a mythic battle between good and evil, law and chaos. To walk through Chicago today, with the ghost of Ennio Morricone’s haunting score in your ears, is to step directly into that legend. This isn’t just a tour of filming locations; it’s a pilgrimage to the heart of a cinematic legend, a journey back to a time when federal agents were crusaders and gangsters were kings, all played out against the stunning, stoic beauty of the City of Big Shoulders. Prepare to walk in the footsteps of giants, to feel the cold marble where history was made and cinema was immortalized, and to see Chicago not just as a city, but as a living, breathing character in one of the greatest crime stories ever told.
If you’re inspired to trace the steps of other iconic characters, consider embarking on a cinematic pilgrimage to the real-world locations of your favorite films.
The Hallowed Ground of Union Station
Echoes on the Great Stairs
There is arguably no place in Chicago more closely associated with The Untouchables than the grand staircase inside Union Station. De Palma staged here a breathtaking tribute to Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, creating a sequence so masterful it has become as iconic as the film it honors. To stand at the top of these stairs, gazing down the stretch of marble toward the station’s entrance, is to feel an unmistakable chill. This is cinematic sacred ground. The scene itself is a lesson in tension. Eliot Ness, portrayed with stoic determination by Kevin Costner, waits for Capone’s bookkeeper. Yet the quiet stakeout spirals into chaos, and De Palma expands time, stretching every moment into an eternity of suspense. The slow, relentless descent of a baby carriage down the steps, its wheels clacking against the marble, serves as the scene’s metronome, a countdown to violence amid a ballet of bullets. One can almost hear the ricochets, the cries, and the soaring, operatic swell of Morricone’s score, which elevates the shootout from a mere gunfight to a modern legend.
Visiting Union Station today offers more than just film tourism. The Great Hall, next to the famous staircase, is a breathtaking space. Designed by the legendary architect Daniel Burnham, it stands as a cathedral of transit. Sunlight streams through the enormous arched windows, illuminating a vast vaulted skylight soaring 115 feet above the floor. The air vibrates with the energy of countless journeys, the announcements of arrivals and departures bouncing off the Travertine marble walls. Yet, in a quiet moment—perhaps early morning before the commuter rush—you can sense the station’s history. It’s a place created to inspire awe, reflecting the power and optimism of a burgeoning 20th-century America. Walking from the Great Hall toward the Canal Street entrance, you will find the stairs. They are broader than they appear on screen, a grand and welcoming descent. Pause at the bottom and look up. Imagine the sailors in white uniforms, the frantic mother, the stone-faced Ness, and the relentless advance of Capone’s white-suited henchmen. De Palma’s brilliance was in using the space’s inherent grandeur and public nature to heighten the scene’s brutal intimacy. The violence isn’t hidden in shadowy alleys; it erupts in a public square, a temple of civic life, forever marking its pristine beauty with cinematic blood.
For first-time visitors, navigating Union Station may feel overwhelming. It is a vast, active transportation hub for Amtrak and Metra commuter rail. The famous staircase leads down from the Canal Street lobby. The best time to visit for a purely cinematic experience is midday on a weekday or during the weekend when commuter traffic is lighter. You’ll have more space to yourself to absorb the atmosphere without the crush of the morning rush. Don’t hesitate to take your time. Stroll the length of the Great Hall. Sit on one of the long wooden benches and watch the light shift as it moves across the magnificent room. Feel the vibrations of trains rumbling below. It’s a place that links the Chicago of today with the Chicago of the past, merging the real city with its powerful, cinematic reflection.
Capone’s Court: The Chicago Theatre
Where Opera and Violence Intersect
If Union Station serves as Ness’s battlefield, then The Chicago Theatre stands as the grand arena for Al Capone’s dominion. Within the lavish, ornate lobby of this movie palace, Robert De Niro, portraying Capone, delivers his notorious monologue about baseball. He circles a banquet table, emblematic of camaraderie and teamwork, before violently illustrating his own distorted version of it with a baseball bat. The scene is startling, a sudden burst of brutality that perfectly embodies Capone’s magnetic menace. The choice of setting is deliberate. The Chicago Theatre, with its French Baroque elegance, is a people’s palace, a realm of dreams and entertainment. By committing his savage act here, Capone proclaims the entire city his stage, with its inhabitants merely spectators to his frightening spectacle.
Entering the lobby of The Chicago Theatre is like stepping into a bygone age. Opened in 1921, it was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz theater chain, designed to awe. The grand lobby, inspired by the Royal Chapel at Versailles, soars five stories high, encircled by gallery promenades. Crystal chandeliers, gifted by Marshall Field’s department store, sparkle like precious gems. The sweeping marble and ornate bronze grand staircase evokes a fairytale scene. It is atop this very staircase that De Niro’s Capone stands, addressing the press with a confident grin, a monarch in his domain. To stand there is to be engulfed by sheer extravagance. Every surface gleams with gold leaf and polished marble. It exudes a forbidden luxury, an apt reflection of Prohibition-era ill-gotten wealth. One can easily imagine the ghosts of the Roaring Twenties here—flappers and gangsters mingling beneath the chandeliers’ soft glow. The atmosphere itself feels thick with history and performance.
To fully appreciate the interior, the best experience is attending a show. The theater hosts a wide variety of concerts and events, and sitting in the magnificent auditorium is an event in itself. Yet for those on a cinematic pilgrimage, guided tours are also available. The Marquee Tour takes you behind the scenes to stand on the stage where legends like Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington once performed, and more importantly, to linger in that iconic lobby. You can stand at the grand staircase’s base and look up, envisioning Capone presiding over his court. The tour offers rich historical context, not just for the film but also for the theater’s role in Chicago’s cultural heritage. Even if you don’t enter, the façade remains a landmark. The famous vertical “C-H-I-C-A-G-O” sign is one of the city’s most recognizable symbols—a beacon on State Street lighting the Loop for a century. It’s an ideal photo spot, embodying the city’s enduring glamour and serving as a portal to Al Capone’s dark, opulent world.
The Sanctuary of Law: The Rookery Building
Light in the Heart of Darkness
Every hero needs a headquarters, a sanctuary from which to strategize their crusade. For Eliot Ness and his small band of incorruptible agents, this was an office situated in a building of extraordinary beauty: The Rookery. In the film, the soaring, sunlit lobby of this architectural gem serves as the setting for the formation of the Untouchables. We see them gathered here, a small team united against a corrupt city, their noble mission mirrored in the pristine elegance of their environment. The most iconic shot shows the four men descending the building’s famous oriel staircase—a moment of quiet solidarity and resolve, a visual pledge of the justice they are about to pursue.
Visiting The Rookery reveals a collaboration between two of America’s greatest architects. Completed in 1888 by Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, the building presents a powerful, fortress-like exterior. Yet at its core is the luminous Light Court, spectacularly remodeled in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the space shown in the film, and it is truly breathtaking. Wright transformed the court into a masterpiece of the Prairie School style. He sheathed the original iron columns in white Carrara marble, adorned with intricate geometric gilding. Stunning suspended light fixtures, hanging like abstract sculptures, were also his design. The outcome is a space that feels simultaneously grand and intimate, timeless and strikingly modern. Light filtering down from the glass ceiling illuminates the marble, making the entire lobby glow with a warm, ethereal radiance. It feels less like an office building and more like a temple devoted to light and order. Standing in the center of the Light Court, it’s easy to see why De Palma selected this location. It serves as the perfect visual contrast to Capone’s gaudy, theatrical world. This is a place of clarity, precision, and integrity—everything the Untouchables embody.
The oriel staircase, spiraling down from the second floor, is an intricate ironwork masterpiece. While you can’t descend it with the same cinematic swagger as Ness and his team, you can admire it from the lobby. The sense of purpose it conveys on screen remains palpable even when standing still. The Rookery’s lobby is open to the public on weekdays during business hours, making it an accessible and immensely rewarding stop on any architectural or film tour of the Loop. For a richer experience, consider joining one of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust’s guided tours of the building. Knowledgeable guides highlight the subtle elements of Wright’s design and provide context about the building’s storied past. Located right on LaSalle Street in the heart of the financial district, surrounded by other architectural marvels, The Rookery is not just a film location; it is one of the most beautiful interior spaces in the nation—a true Chicago treasure that offered the perfect, luminous backdrop for a team of heroes.
Justice on Trial: The Chicago Cultural Center
Beauty and Betrayal Beneath the Tiffany Dome
As the net tightens around Capone, the battle shifts from the streets to the courtroom. The tense legal drama that marks the film’s climax takes place in a setting of breathtaking civic grandeur: the Chicago Cultural Center. Originally the city’s central library, this building serves as the courtroom where Ness must face not only Capone’s lawyers but also a compromised jury and a corrupt system. The film uses the space’s majestic atmosphere to amplify the tension, with the ornate details offering a stark, ironic contrast to the sordid dealings unfolding inside. The final, intense showdown between Ness and Capone’s chilling enforcer, Frank Nitti, unfolds within these supposedly sacred halls of justice.
It is nearly impossible to capture the full beauty of the Chicago Cultural Center’s interior in words. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most stunning public buildings in the United States. Visitors often find themselves speechless when entering Preston Bradley Hall on the south side of the building. Looking upward, you are greeted by the world’s largest stained-glass Tiffany dome—a 38-foot masterpiece composed of some 30,000 pieces of glass, restored to its original, glowing splendor. With its intricate fish-scale patterns and zodiac signs, the dome casts a soft, colorful light over the hall. The walls are a rich blend of gleaming Carrara marble, mother-of-pearl, and intricate Favrile glass mosaics. This is the very room transformed into the film’s main courtroom. Standing beneath the dome, it’s easy to envision the scene: rows of spectators, the judge on his bench, and Ness realizing with growing dread that the jury has been bribed. The sheer magnificence of the space makes the corruption portrayed in the film feel all the more shocking.
On the building’s north side is another equally impressive chamber: the Grand Army of the Republic Hall and Rotunda. This space features another grand dome, a Renaissance-style stained-glass creation by the Healy & Millet firm. The walls here are clad in deep green Vermont marble and adorned with elaborate, flowing mosaics that list the names of Civil War battles. This area was used for various courthouse corridor scenes, the places where lawyers whisper and clandestine deals are struck. One of the highlights of visiting the Chicago Cultural Center is that it is completely free and open to the public. Known as the “People’s Palace,” it lives up to its name by hosting free concerts, art exhibitions, and lectures. Visitors can explore its halls at a leisurely pace, absorbing the craftsmanship of the Gilded Age. Free building tours offer insights into its history and architecture. The Center perfectly embodies the duality of Chicago itself—a city that produced works of sublime beauty and artistry while simultaneously grappling with a deep-rooted culture of corruption and crime. In The Untouchables, this building stands as the ultimate backdrop for that conflict.
The City’s Artery: The Michigan Avenue Bridge
A Skyline of Confrontation
Although many of the film’s pivotal scenes unfold within lavish interiors, the essence of the movie is deeply tied to the streets and skyline of Chicago. The Michigan Avenue Bridge, officially called the DuSable Bridge, stands at the core of the city’s architectural identity and acts as a vital visual anchor throughout the film. It is the vital link connecting the city’s north and south sides across the Chicago River—a place alive with constant movement and energy. Within the film’s storyline, this locale serves as the setting for the climactic, desperate rooftop chase of Frank Nitti. While the actual pursuit was shot atop the Chicago Board of Trade Annex for safety reasons, the climax, featuring Nitti’s fall, is dramatically framed against the iconic Michigan Avenue Bridge and the Wrigley Building, forever associating this spot with the movie’s intense finale.
Standing on the Michigan Avenue Bridge places you at the heart of Chicago’s architectural grandeur. Gazing north, you are bordered by the gleaming white terracotta of the Wrigley Building and the neo-Gothic magnificence of the Tribune Tower. To the east, the river flows toward the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. Looking south, the Magnificent Mile extends before you. The bridge itself is a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts design, adorned with sculptures that depict scenes from Chicago’s past. It feels monumental—a tribute to the city’s resilience and ambition as it rebuilt itself with flair after the Great Fire of 1871. As you cross the bridge, the rumble of traffic, the brisk lake winds, and the vibrant energy of the crowds combine to embody the city’s pulse.
For visitors, this area offers a rich array of experiences. It serves as the departure point for the Chicago Architecture Foundation Center’s esteemed river cruise, a must for anyone new to the city. This cruise glides along the Chicago River, giving unmatched views of the city’s legendary skyscrapers from beneath the bridge, offering a breathtaking perspective and deep appreciation for the buildings that define the skyline. You can also stroll along the Chicago Riverwalk, a pedestrian path tracing the river’s south bank, providing a more relaxed way to enjoy the views. Take time to explore the bridge houses, which host a museum dedicated to the bridge’s history. The ideal moment for photography is the “golden hour” just before sunset, when the setting sun casts a warm, magical glow over the terracotta and stone of surrounding buildings. Here, surrounded by towering symbols of Chicago’s strength and resilience, you can fully appreciate how the city itself becomes the most vital character in The Untouchables, its stone and steel forming the very foundation of this timeless narrative.
As you conclude your exploration of the Chicago featured in The Untouchables, you depart with more than a mere itinerary of filming sites. You gain a deep sense of the city’s spirit. You’ve experienced the hushed reverence of Union Station, the flamboyant grandeur of The Chicago Theatre, the enlightened elegance of The Rookery, and the civic pride embodied by the Cultural Center. You’ve walked the same ground as Ness, Capone, Malone, and Stone, connecting with a piece of cinematic history intricately woven into the fabric of this great American city. Though the film is a fictionalized tale—a modern myth—the locations are authentic, their history and beauty palpable. They stand today as proud monuments, not only to a celebrated film but to the enduring spirit of Chicago itself—a city that remains, and always will be, larger than life.
