A District Attorney is terrorized by the criminal he put away years ago when he was a cop.
In this action thriller, Denzel Washington plays Nick Styles, the assistant district attorney of L.A. The film opens in his early days as a cop on the L.A.P.D. During a carnival, master criminal Earl Talbot Blake creates a scene after a botched drug deal. Styles and Blake confront each other, during which Blake is wounded by Styles and later sent to prison. Seven years later, Blake escapes from prison during a parole board hearing to carry out his revenge against Styles, and what follows is a violent series of events that destroys Styles' career. This sets the stage for one last bloody duel between Styles and Blake.—Stephen Currence <[email protected]>
Rookie Los Angeles cop Nick Styles is at a Los Angeles street fair, where hit man Earl Talbot Blake pulls a double cross on some drug dealers, killing four men. Minutes later, Nick shoots Blake in the knee, and Blake is grabbed by Nick's partner and best friend Larry Doyle. Nick becomes the focus of the media, thanks to an amateur cameraman's footage of Nick disarming Blake. Over the next few years, Nick's career takes off: he's offered a job in the district attorney's office, and his hip media style keeps him in the public eye. Nick marries a woman named Alice and they go on to have two daughters named Lisa and Monica. While Blake is in prison, he vows revenge on Nick. When Blake comes up for parole, he orchestrates a bloody escape -- which includes faking his own death. Blake doesn't want Nick dead. He just wants Nick to suffer in spades. He wants to ruin Nick's life as completely as possible, and then have Nick sent to prison for murder so Nick will know how Blake feels. Blake begins his vendetta by killing city councilman U. B. Farris and planting evidence to make everyone think Nick and Farris are running an underage pornography ring. Blake then kidnaps Nick, forces him to take drugs and have sex with a prostitute, videotapes the whole thing, and then releases Nick. Nick tells everyone that it was Blake who kidnapped him, but everyone refuses to believe Nick because everyone thinks Blake is dead. That night, Blake breaks into Nick's house, and makes a threatening videotape with Lisa, Monica, and an ax in it, but Blake didn't actually do anything to Lisa and Monica. Nick is then suspended from the DA's office, with everyone thinking that Nick is mentally ill because he keeps saying that Blake is still alive. Blake then begins the final phase of his vendetta -- he kills Larry and frames Nick for it. Blake also links Nick to misappropriation of public funds, specifically, the funds he's supposed to be raising for a children's center in a building at the base of the Watts tower. Nick is forced to turn to his childhood friend, gang leader Odessa, for help in clearing his name and stopping Blake once and for all.—Todd Baldridge
This movie centers on two men Nick Styles and Earl Talbot Blake. Styles is a cop who also aspires to be a lawyer, and Blake is a psychopathic killer. Blake is hired to rip off some drug dealers which he does but Styles is there and has his gun trained on Blake. When Blake grabs a hostage, Styles out wits him and arrests him. Blake would be sent to prison. Because someone with a video camera was there, Styles is all over the media and touted as a hero. Styles would then be promoted to detective and a few years later would join the D.A.'s office. Blake only thinks of one thing, getting back at Styles. Seven years later at his parole hearing Blake tries to escape and is killed or so they think. Blake tries to make Styles appear to be crooked. And when he reveals himself to Styles, and when he lets Styles go, and Styles tells everyone about Blake, they all think he is crazy. And when Blake frames him, Styles resorts to a desperate act to prove his innocence.—[email protected]
It begins in 1983. Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) is a mild-mannered rookie on the Los Angeles Police Department, and he's also a law student. Nick is witnessing the beginning of his career and adult life, as he meets his future wife Alice (Victoria Dillard), and he's drifting away from his childhood friend Odessa (Ice-T), who is drifting into a life of crime in South Central Los Angeles, where the two of them grew up.
One evening, while Nick and his partner Larry Doyle (Kevin Pollak) are patrolling a street fair, a hit man named Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow) pulls a double cross on some drug dealers, killing four men.
Nick and Larry intervene and block the escape of Blake and his accomplice Kim (Josh Evans). Styles catches Blake at gunpoint in the carnival, and is forced into a standoff when Blake takes a hostage, using the woman as a human shield.
Nick manages to get Blake to release the hostage by stripping his equipment and uniform off, demonstrating that he has no other weapons or body armor, before placing his revolver on the ground. He has stripped, however, to gain access to a backup gun hidden in his athletic supporter, which he uses to shoot Blake in the knee.
The incident is caught on video by an amateur videographer, and is shown on the TV news, making Nick a local hero and drawing the attention of the Los Angeles County District Attorney Priscilla Brimleigh (Lindsay Wagner) and L.A. City Councilman U. B. Farris (John Cothran, Jr.).
Nick and Larry are later promoted to Detective, while Blake is sent to prison. While Blake is in prison, he vows to make Nick pay.
Now, Nick has since had an eventful career in the Police Department, has gone on to further fame and success as an Assistant District Attorney. He has gotten married to Alice, and has two daughters named Lisa Styles (Kimberly Natasha Ali) and Monica Allison Styles (Aileaha Jones). And his hip media style keeps him in the public eye.
Nick is moving gradually into politics, beginning with raising funds for a children's community center at the Watts Towers with the patronage of Councilman Farris.
At the same time, Blake has continued to nurse his extreme grudge against Nick while in prison, and has degenerated into further violence, fighting against the Aryan Brotherhood. After killing an Aryan Brotherhood member against whom he had a grudge, Blake strikes a deal with the leader of the gang to plot an escape.
Shortly before their escape, Kim, who has been incarcerated with Blake, is paroled, and he plans to assist in Blake's escape. Blake and the Aryan Brotherhood members stage a violent and deadly prison escape during a parole hearing, which only Blake and the Aryan Brotherhood leader survive.
Shortly after, Blake murders the gang leader, shoots him in the knee, and burns his corpse. Kim has switched Blake's and the gang leader's dental records, and Blake expects the coroner to believe that Blake was the one who was killed (due to the dental records and knee injury), thus faking his own death.
Nick is planning a telethon to raise money for his community center, planning to broadcast it from a church where his father, Reverend Styles (John Amos), is a minister. Nick also tries to convince Odessa, who has become a drug-dealer in the neighborhood, to avoid the new center.
Blake has returned to Los Angeles, and is keeping Nick under surveillance. Blake doesn't want Nick dead. He wants Nick to suffer in spades. He wants to ruin Nick's life as completely as possible, and then have Nick sent to prison for murder, so Nick will know how Blake feels.
On the night of the telethon, Blake cuts the power to the Styles house, and then shows up impersonating a utility worker. Blake drugs Debbie (Viveka Davis), the babysitter who's watching Nick's daughters, and takes the opportunity to bug the house.
Blake has sent $10,000 in cash and an anonymous letter to the telethon, posing as an anonymous benefactor. Later that night, after the telethon, Blake and Kim ambush Farris, who is taking the proceeds of the telethon to deposit them at the bank.
They kill Farris, staging his death to appear as a suicide, dressing him in drag, planting underage pornography, leaving a suicide note that implicates Nick and Farris in underage pornography, and stealing the $10,000 in cash.
The next morning, when Farris is discovered, the implications of underage pornography and the missing money lead to a scandal implicating Nick, creating negative and intrusive media attention, and suspicion from Priscilla, who is still the district attorney.
Later that evening, Nick is abducted by Blake, and realizes that Blake is alive, and has murdered Farris. Blake explains that Nick owes his successful life to Blake, while Blake has rotted in prison. Blake and Kim keep Nick for several days, regularly injecting him with heroin and cocaine.
As Nick is drugged and tied up to a bed, a hooker named Wanda (Linda Doná) walks into the room. After stripping, Wanda pretends to be ignoring Nick's weakened objection, and proceeds to mount and rape him. Blake, who had hired her, records the incident on video.
Blake and Kim finally deposit Nick's unconscious body on the steps of City Hall, making him appear as a derelict. When he's found, his colleagues and the media treat his story with skepticism, which is only furthered when he unsuccessfully tries to lead them to the location where he was held, and then the drugs and a gonorrhea infection (from the prostitute) are discovered during his post-release medical examination.
Alice, who overheard about Styles' examination, thinks he betrayed her with Wanda. That alienates Styles from Alice, and he spends an evening on the sofa, drunkenly talking back to the negative media coverage of himself on TV while being recorded by Blake until he passes out.
The next morning, Styles sees that a note has been left on his VCR to play it. When he does, he sees a video of Blake going up to his daughters' room and holding a hatchet over them just before the tape cuts out.
Terrified and enraged, Nick finds the girls' room and the rest of the house empty, with only a note that Alice has taken them to the park. Nick digs his old service revolver out of a nightstand and runs down the streets in his bathrobe to the park. As he's leaving, Kim returns to the house with another videotape.
Tired, hung-over, and disoriented, Styles sees a black-clad figure approaching the stage where his daughters are putting on a play. He tackles the figure and holds him at gunpoint; the figure turns over to reveal that he is nothing more than a clown who is part of the performance.
The incident occurs in front of and is videotaped by several prominent local people, whose children are in the play. This latest incident and his reaction to it cause Priscilla to question Nick's sanity.
When Nick attempts to show her the videotape from his VCR, the tape has been substituted with the video recording of his rape, and Blake has injected unrelated audio recordings of the prostitute and Nick's lines, making their sexual encounter seem consensual.
The tape is, at the same time, released to the media. Nick vehemently protests his innocence and Blake's complicity. He begins to appear to be delusional and paranoid in Priscilla's eyes, and Priscilla suspends him from his position.
Afterwards, Larry, who is the only person willing to believe Nick, approaches him with evidence of Blake's obsession. This evidence was found in his prison personal effects, and Larry reveals that he has a lead that an Aryan Brotherhood-affiliated bookstore is planning to get tickets and fake passports for someone.
Nick and Larry go to the bookstore that night, and Nick beats information out of the owner. Kim is witnessed running away from the store, and Larry chases him down an alley.
Blake ambushes Larry and shoots him repeatedly in the alley, before tossing the gun to Nick, who picks it up, leaving his fingerprints on it. Blake escapes, and Larry dies in Nick's arms. Bizarrely, Nick leaves the scene without taking the gun that implicates him.
Now pursued as a murder suspect, Nick has few options. Desperate, Nick contacts his perhaps last friend, Odessa, for help. Nick evacuates his family from their home and takes them to the housing project that Odessa uses as a drug lab. Putting his family in Odessa's hands, Nick and Odessa's gang initiate a plan to flush Blake out.
After the project building is cleared, Nick goes to the roof and begins raving to the street below, pretending to be deranged and suicidal. The media arrives and broadcasts him live. Believing that Nick will kill himself and deny Blake the satisfaction of seeing him incarcerated, Blake arrives at the project.
Odessa's men spot Blake there, and the plan continues. Nick fakes his own death, by starting a fiery explosion in the building, and escaping. Odessa's gang abducts Kim, and Odessa sends a message to Blake that Nick is alive and intends to get him, challenging Blake to come to the Watts Towers, which is actually comprised of a tall tower and a short tower, both of which have a sharp point at the top.
At the towers, Blake finds Kim tied to the scaffolding, and Kim begins to berate Blake, telling him that Nick is going to get him, and expressing his disgust and disillusionment at working with Blake. Blake fatally shoots Kim in a rage, and Nick emerges, challenging Blake to come after him on the tower.
On the taller tower, they fight, while Odessa and his gang incapacitate the police to prevent them from interfering. They allow the media through, and Nick reveals his plan to Blake, to let the media see Blake alive, which would prove Nick's innocence in everything Blake got him accused of.
They continue to fight, and the battle turns against Nick, until Odessa and his gang connect electrical mains to the metal tower, electrifying Blake while Nick swings clear of the taller tower on a harness. Nick knocks the stunned Blake off the tower. Blake lands on the shorter tower, and the point at the top of it impales and kills Blake.
It ends with Nick, with his innocence proven, coming down from the towers, rejoining Alice and the kids. Nick calls out to Odessa one last time, inviting him to basketball that Saturday. The TV news crews, who had played a major role in Nick's name getting dragged through the mud, are there, broadcasting the latest events that have dramatically proven Nick innocent.
Nick joins newscaster Gail Wallens (Mary Ellen Trainor) on camera as she's broadcasting. When she asks him for a comment, he turns off the news camera, and refuses to comment.
