The Windy City: Chicago on the Small and Big Screen
by NovaBrunswick | created - 6 months ago | updated - 3 months ago | PublicMovies and TV shows set and/or filmed in Chicago, whether fully or partially.
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1. Chicago Fire (2012– )
TV-14 | 43 min | Action, Drama
The story of firefighters and paramedics in the city of Chicago, both on a personal and professional level.
Stars: Taylor Kinney, Christian Stolte, Eamonn Walker, Joe Minoso
Votes: 64,675
The trials and tribulations of a Chicago firefighter crew.
2. Chicago Med (2015– )
TV-14 | 43 min | Drama
The city's most highly skilled medical team saves lives, while navigating their unique interpersonal relationships.
Stars: Marlyne Barrett, S. Epatha Merkerson, Oliver Platt, Nick Gehlfuss
Votes: 29,710
Set at a Chicago hospital.
3. Chicago P.D. (2014– )
TV-14 | 43 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Follows District 21 of the Chicago Police Department, made up of two different groups: the uniformed cops and the Intelligence Unit.
Stars: Jason Beghe, Patrick John Flueger, Marina Squerciati, LaRoyce Hawkins
Votes: 44,963
Obviously set in Chicago, revolving around the police department.
4. Chicago Hope (1994–2000)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
The lives and trials of the staff of a major hospital in Chicago.
Stars: Mandy Patinkin, Adam Arkin, Hector Elizondo, Peter Berg
Votes: 4,697
Set in a hospital in Chicago.
5. Chicago (2002)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer's attention.
Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
Votes: 243,506 | Gross: $170.69M
Can you guess where it's set?
6. The Blues Brothers (1980)
R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Jake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, John Candy
Votes: 214,642 | Gross: $57.23M
Filmed and set in Chicago.
7. The Untouchables (1987)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 331,024 | Gross: $76.27M
Set in Chicago during the Prohibition era. A sort of life story of the notorious gangster, Al Capone.
8. Child's Play (1988)
R | 87 min | Horror, Thriller
A struggling single mother unknowingly gifts her son a doll imbued with a serial killer's consciousness.
Director: Tom Holland | Stars: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif
Votes: 116,864 | Gross: $33.24M
Filmed and set in Chicago.
9. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,231 | Gross: $25.79M
While this movie version is set in 1990s Chicago, the original short story was actually set in Liverpool, England!
10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,822 | Gross: $70.14M
Set in and around Chicago.
11. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 280,080 | Gross: $159.60M
Set in Chicago in the 1930s.
12. The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Henry DeTamble, a librarian, possesses a unique gene that lets him involuntarily travel through time. His wife, Claire Abshire, finds it difficult to cope with it.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston, Michelle Nolden
Votes: 157,974 | Gross: $63.41M
Mostly set in Chicago (or at least, the original novel was).
13. Baby's Day Out (1994)
PG | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
After three kidnappers lose the baby they have kidnapped, both the cops and kidnappers go looking for the baby.
Director: Patrick Read Johnson | Stars: Lara Flynn Boyle, Joe Mantegna, Joe Pantoliano, Brian Haley
Votes: 55,710 | Gross: $16.67M
Set in Chicago.
14. Mercury Rising (1998)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Shadowy elements in the NSA target a nine-year old autistic savant for death when he is able to decipher a top secret code.
Director: Harold Becker | Stars: Bruce Willis, Miko Hughes, Alec Baldwin, Chi McBride
Votes: 77,606 | Gross: $32.94M
After opening in South Dakota, most of the rest of the movie is set in Chicago.
15. Home Alone 3 (1997)
PG | 102 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Alex Pruitt, an 8-year-old boy living in Chicago, must fend off international spies who seek a top-secret computer chip in his toy car.
Director: Raja Gosnell | Stars: Alex D. Linz, Olek Krupa, Rya Kihlstedt, Lenny von Dohlen
Votes: 127,303 | Gross: $30.88M
Set in Chicago, after the second one was set in New York.
16. Little Fockers (2010)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
Family-patriarch Jack Byrnes wants to appoint a successor. Does his son-in-law, the male nurse Greg Focker, have what it takes?
Director: Paul Weitz | Stars: Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson
Votes: 119,106 | Gross: $148.38M
Partially set in Chicago.
17. While You Were Sleeping (1995)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A hopelessly romantic Chicago Transit Authority ticket booth operator is mistaken for the fiancée of a comatose patient.
Director: Jon Turteltaub | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle
Votes: 114,101 | Gross: $81.06M
Set in Chicago.
18. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
R | 94 min | Drama, Music
Tensions rise when trailblazing blues singer Ma Rainey and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.
Director: George C. Wolfe | Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo
Votes: 57,964
Set in Chicago in 1927.
19. The Chi (2018– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama
From Emmy® winner Lena Waithe, The Chi is a timely coming-of-age drama series centered on a group of residents who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption.
Stars: Jason Mitchell, Jacob Latimore, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Alex R. Hibbert
Votes: 7,887
Set in the South Side of Chicago, hence the name ("Chi" or "Chi-Town" is a popular nickname for Chicago).
20. The Good Wife (2009–2016)
TV-14 | 43 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Alicia Florrick has been a good wife to her husband, a former state's attorney. After a very humiliating sex and corruption scandal, he is behind bars. She must now provide for her family and returns to work as a litigator in a law firm.
Stars: Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, Josh Charles, Matt Czuchry
Votes: 82,826
Set in Chicago.
21. The Good Fight (2017–2022)
TV-MA | 45 min | Crime, Drama
When Diane Lockhart's life savings are lost, she must start from scratch at a new firm.
Stars: Christine Baranski, Sarah Steele, Nyambi Nyambi, Michael Boatman
Votes: 32,536
Set in Chicago, as with the preceding series, The Good Wife.
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