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Chicago Union Station

Chicago, Illinois, United States

225 S Canal St, Chicago, IL 60606

Chicago Union Station is still a working terminal, which is why the Great Hall photographs like a movie set even on an ordinary weekday. Amtrak long-distance trains and Metra commuter lines run through 225 S Canal Street. The public waiting room sits under a barrel-vaulted skylight, with marble columns, wooden benches, and a wide staircase that Brian De Palma used for The Untouchables in 1987. In that film, Eliot Ness and his men fight Capone’s enforcers on the stairs during a daylight raid; a baby carriage bouncing down the steps is the detail people still come to stand beside. The station is not a replica built for tourists. Ticketed passengers cut through the same hall, so the floor that held a shootout is also a concourse. Visitors can enter the Great Hall from Canal Street without buying a ticket. Peak-hour crowds and security are real, and the stairs are a thoroughfare rather than a closed set. Areas beyond the public halls may be restricted. Come for the scene, then remember people are catching trains.

Filmed here

The Untouchables

1987

Scene: The Untouchables staircase shootout in the Great Hall, including the baby carriage on the marble steps.