A police detective reconnects with people from an undercover assignment in her distant past in order to make peace.
Destroyer follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past.—Annapurna Pictures
The plot is devoted to the history of Los Angeles detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman), in her youth working undercover in one of the Californian criminal gangs. Then the mission of the heroine ended in failure, and after many years the leader of the underground organization reappears on the horizon and finds Bell (now a seasoned and ruthless woman), forcing her to return to the old cause.—Peter-Patrick76 ([email protected])
Trapped in a self-destructive world of regret, obsession, and booze, the guilt-ridden LAPD Detective, Erin Bell, stumbles upon an unexpected clue from her painful past. As a result, seventeen long years after a botched undercover operation to capture the violent gang leader, Silas, once more, Erin finds herself on the warpath, hell-bent on settling an old score by reopening the long-forgotten case. Now, the ghosts of the past demand retribution, as Silas seems to have picked up where he left off. However, does Erin deserve redemption?—Nick Riganas
Erin Bell (Kidman) is an LAPD detective who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader (Kebbell) of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past.
LAPD detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) arrives on the scene of a John Doe murder and informs the responding officers Lt. Oshima (Kelvin Han Yee) and Detective Garvas (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) and that she knows the identity of the murderer.Erin has the same 3 dot tattoo on her neck, as were found on the neck of the deceased John Doe.
At her police station a few weeks ago, Erin receives a $100 bill stained from a dye pack in an unmarked envelope. Using a contact at the FBI, she confirms that the bill is from a bank robbery committed by a California gang many years prior that she and her former partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) were embedded in as undercover officers.She tells her superiors that she believes the bill and the John Doe murder to be proof that the gang's leader Silas (Toby Kebbell) is once again active.
Erin remembers that Chris was already working with the gang, and Erin was brought in later, when Chris sensed that the gang was up to something. Through Chris and Toby, Erin was introduced to Silas. Silas is a manipulative gang leader who controls his men and plays with their ego to make them do his bidding. By ensuring that the gang members are always fighting with each other, he makes sure that his own leadership is never under question.
Erin is forced to work her way through the remaining members of the gang in order to find Silas. Erin busts an illegal arms dealer and forcibly takes away his stash of arms to provide cover for herself. Erin knows that a war is coming, and she wanted to be prepared for the same. She begins with Toby (James Jordan), who was arrested but is now gravely ill and living with his mother on compassionate release. Toby is terminally ill and has a couple of months left at the most.She manually stimulates him with a hand job (opens up her shirt, and even spits on Toby's penis) in exchange for the location of Arturo (Zach Villa), a member of the gang who attempts to atone for his past crimes by offering Pro Bono legal services to immigrants.Erin's partner Antonio keeps trying to get in touch with her, but she does not return his calls.
Arturo runs away as soon as he sees Erin, but she chases him down. Arturo realizes that Erin is after Silas and not him.Arturo provides Erin with the location of Dennis DiFranco (Bradley Whitford), a lawyer who launders the money from the original robbery and from whom Erin deduces that Silas is active again because the money from the heist is almost gone. DiFranco knows that Erin is at his house on her own, and not in an official capacity. He says that he knows about Erin's sad story and taunts her. DiFranco's goon attacks Erin, but she fights back and forces DiFranco down.
After threatening him, DiFranco gives Erin the location of the next money hand-off, which is performed by Silas' girlfriend Petra (Tatiana Maslany). Erin tracks Petra, eventually intervening in a bank robbery committed by Silas' new gang. Erin picks a gun from the boot of the gang's van and walks into the bank, shooting the place up and killing some of the gang members. Petra and she brutally injure each other in a fight, ending with Erin abducting Petra.
Via flashbacks, it transpires that Erin and Chris developed a romantic relationship while undercover, with Erin eventually becoming pregnant with Chris' child. At Erin's behest, they decided to become legitimate participants in the bank robbery and planned to take their shares of the heist, report to their superiors that they lost contact with the gang, and eventually quit the force. The robbery was botched when a dye pack exploded in one of the bags, and Silas killed the bank teller who placed it. When Chris attempted to intervene, he was shot and killed by Silas. After crashing the van against a dumpster and seriously injuring Toby, Erin hid her share of the heist and returned to policing, disclosing neither her original plan nor her share of the heist.
In the background is the story of Shelby Bell (Jade Pettyjohn), the 16-year-old daughter of Chris and Erin who lives with Erin's brother Ethan (Scoot McNairy). Shelby hates Erin and has turned rebellious by having a sexual relationship with a nobody called Jay (Beau Knapp). Erin confronts Jay and Shelby when she finds them in a bar, kissing each other. Erin warns Jay that Shelby is 16 and so having sex with her would amount to a sexual assault.
Erin tries everything to turn Shelby away from Jay, but Shelby refuses to listen to Erin and keeps returning to Jay as she feels safer with him. Then Shelby is attacked by a woman when she is with Jay, and Shelby ends up in the hospital with minor injuries. Erin admonishes Ethan for not taking accountability of Shelby. Eventually Erin has to buy Jay off to leave Shelby alone. Erin tries to make amends with Shelby, but Shelby recounts her childhood and says that Erin never made an attempt to connect with her.
In the present, Erin visits a self-storage unit to retrieve her share of $300,000 of the stolen money but finds that the majority (all but $11,000) of it is stained with dye. Silas sends a text message to Petra's phone, instructing her to meet him at the Bowtie Park, where Erin confronts and shoots him, avenging Chris. She returns the next morning to find the police investigating the crime scene, the John Doe murder investigation depicted in the first scene of the film.
With Silas dead, Erin gives evidence of her guilt - where he can find Petra, a stained bill, and the key to her storage unit - to her partner, Antonio (Shamier Anderson). Erin has been bleeding internally for hours, from injuries she sustained during a beating by DiFranco's bodyguard and in her fight with Petra, and she dies while sitting in her car.
