Perhaps the most compelling reason is one they share: both Henry and Nick are addicted, in different ways, to the job, the adrenalin it churns up, the authority it assigns, the tests of character it imposes.
At the same time, each man has reason to commit to the assignment: Nick sees the murder case as a chance to redeem himself, and Henry wants to avenge Calvess’ death. No surprise, he’s particularly opposed to teaming with a younger “hotshot” named by their no-nonsense captain, Cheevers (Chi McBride, ominously hushed). Self-righteous, tenacious and tetchy, Henry’s understandably obsessed with this case, fuming that it’s gone cold in the past few months (for one thing, it flies in the face of his 93% conviction rate). The second detective is the aptly named Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), erstwhile partner to the dead cop, Calvess (played in flashbacks by Alan Van Sprang). Depressed and reluctant (he’s a recovering addict), Nick agrees to come back, rationalizing that he needs to support his wife and new baby.
Because of his “prolonged contact with the city’s drug element,” Nick’s offered “complete reinstatement” if he’ll play ball. Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is suspended when he’s called to the case deep undercover in that first scene, he was the accidental and now agonizingly remorseful shooter. Both are troubled and angry neither wants to be working with the other. Set in Detroit (much of it shot in Toronto) and some 18 months after this first frenetic scene, it concerns two narcotics detectives working to solve the murder of a third. Similar chaos - formal, moral, emotional - pervades Joe Carnahan’s first feature. It really was about propulsion, it was about go-go-go.” He and editor John Gilroy add that the running camera here is held by a stuntman, the only guy they could find who was “in shape enough to keep up with Jason ,” ripping through backyards and alleys as if there’s no tomorrow. Carnahan says, “This scene is obviously very rambunctious and very high energy and very violent, and very immediate. Then, when it’s over, after one grabs a child hostage and the other shoots his mother, accidentally, it’s still hard to tell.Īs writer-director Joe Carnahan notes on the commentary track for Paramount’s features-packed DVD, his thought for this first scene was, “Why don’t we just jump on the audience’s throat?” And that’s what it feels like: pounding, invasive, unnerving.
At first, it’s hard to tell who’s the good guy and who’s not both characters are so fried and grisly looking. The camera barely keeps up as they charge over walls and through a park, where bystanders watch, frozen. Right smack in the middle of a furious on-foot chase: doors slamming, legs churning, faces twisting, car alarms shrieking, guns blasting.
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