Cruising is a 1980 crime thriller film written and directed by William Friedkin, and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino and Karen Allen. It is loosely based on the novel by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker about a serial killer targeting gay men, particularly the men associated with the leather scene in the late 1970s. The title is a double entendre, for "cruising" can describe both police officers on patrol and men who are cruising for sex.