SFO - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The climax of the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt was filmed at the airport.
• The short-lived television series San Francisco International Airport (1970) was set at the airport.
• In the Dale Brown novel Storming Heaven, the airport is subject to a massive terror attack when Belgian international terrorist Henri Cazaux in an L-610 cargo plane loaded with explosives violates the Class C, B and A airspace (in that order) while being pursued by an F-16 fighter. He parachutes out of the plane, but not before commanding another pilot to fly into the terminal building. The attack almost completely obliterates the main terminal and kills thousands, and leads to protagonist Ian Hardcastle to install anti-aircraft missile batteries around civilian airports should another attack occur.
• Dirty Harry foils a hijacking at the airport in 1973's Magnum Force.
• The airport was featured in the opening of the 1997 comedy film Home Alone 3 when Mrs. Hess (played by Marian Seldes) accidentally took the bag with the remote control car of the antagonists.
• The 2008 film Four Christmases includes a scene where Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn attempt to fly out of SFO, but are thwarted by the fog.
• The airport was featured in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as San Fierro International Airport it was called as Easter Bay International Airport.
• The opening scene of My Name is Khan features the Airport.
• The ending scene of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes features hundreds of people evacuating the city as a deadly virus spreads throughout San Francisco
• The destination of the principal aircraft in the film The High and the Mighty, a Douglas DC-4, is the airport. The film's climax takes place there, but was filmed in Burbank, California.
• The prologue stage and the first area of the first stage of the 2006 first person shooter Time Crisis 4 takes place in the airport.