framethrowerSign up for free

Cruising (1980)

Directed by William Friedkin · Cinematography by James A. Contner

R102 min57 frames

CrimeMysteryThriller

Al Pacino is Cruising for a killer.

IMDb ↗Watch on Amazon ↗

Stills, screencaps & shots from Cruising

16 of 57 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.

Cruising (1980) movie still: closeup — A dark space is lit only by a singular, bright blue light source. A man is partially illuminated by this…Cruising (1980) movie still: establishing — The frame is filled with a repeating pattern of white stars on black. It is a portion of a flag.Cruising (1980) movie still: closeup — A dimly lit interior room serves as the setting for a portrait shot. A man with dark hair faces forward,…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A patterned sofa fills the foreground of a room with a wooden console table behind. A man sits resting on the…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — Two uniformed police officers sit inside the front cabin of a patrol vehicle at night. The view looks through…Cruising (1980) movie still: wide — A dark urban alleyway features brick structures and a long row of yellow taxis. A man walks slowly past the…Cruising (1980) movie still: wide — A group of men walks through a dimly lit urban alleyway at night. A prominent sign depicting a howling wolf…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A dark, blue-lit room contains four men standing close together. The men wear black shirts and leather gear…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A residential apartment building stairwell features a wall marked with the number five. A young man in a white…Cruising (1980) movie still: wide — A dense patch of trees is lit by a vibrant green glow at night. Two dark silhouettes occupy the center of the…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A spare room with white walls, a bedside lamp, and a portable radio. A man sits motionless on the bed while…Cruising (1980) movie still: closeup — A dimly lit club interior glows with intense blue light against the subject. The subject's lower face is…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A stone wall covered in climbing ivy sits in front of a tree-lined path. A man in a denim jacket rests his…Cruising (1980) movie still: medium — A sparsely furnished apartment room with white walls and a dark sofa. A man sits alone on the sofa in dim…Cruising (1980) movie still: closeup — A decorative American flag wall ornament is constructed from black bars and glowing light bulbs. The stars…Cruising (1980) movie still: closeup — A man's face is illuminated against a dark background of out-of-focus green leaves at night. The man gazes…
Cruising (1980) — © Jerry Weintraub Productions, CiP - Europäische Treuhand

Cruising — official trailer

What is Cruising about?

When New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who preys on patrons of the city's underground bars, young rookie Steve Burns infiltrates the S&M subculture to try and lure him out of the shadows.

Cruising is a 1980 crime thriller written and directed by William Friedkin, and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino and Karen Allen. It is loosely based on the 1970 novel by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker about a serial killer targeting gay men, particularly the men associated with the leather scene. The title is a double entendre, as "cruising" can describe both police officers on patrol and men who are cruising for sex. It was an international co-production between West Germany and the United States.

Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where can you watch Cruising?

US availability for Cruising (1980). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.

Who stars in Cruising?

Who made Cruising?

What does the cinematography of Cruising look like?

Sampled across 57 frames, the coverage of Cruising leans on medium shots (39% of the sample) and wide compositions (26%). Cinematographer James A. Contner keeps 51% of it in soft, low-key light. Night and dusk account for 53% of the frames. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Focus stays shallow in 58% of the frames, isolating subjects from their surroundings.

What is the color palette of Cruising?

The dominant colors across the sampled frames of Cruising (1980) are #090b0d, #2c2d2d, #090f29, #8b8f8d, #d3d3d0, #50504c — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.

  • #090b0d
  • #2c2d2d
  • #090f29
  • #8b8f8d
  • #d3d3d0
  • #50504c

See the full Cruising colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.

Cruising ranks in

A reference database for filmmakers

FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 57 frames of Cruising (1980), and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.

Sign up for freeAPI & MCP docs

Techniques in this film

More films by William Friedkin

More Crime films

Cast, trailer and streaming data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.