Tough detective Buddy leads an elite New York City unit to convict felons and jail them for a minimum of seven years. Buddy is trying to find out who killed his partner but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
Buddy, Barilli, Mingo and Ansel, detectives with the NYPD, comprise a secret investigative unit called the Seven-Ups, who, largely undercover, focus on cases leading to felony convictions with prison sentences of seven years or more for the criminals in question. Many within the NYPD who know about the unit don't support the idea of it because of the often unethical way they work on the cases, but their superior, Inspector Gilson, defends the unit solely because of the results. On the sly, Buddy, who is the head of the team, gets much of the information for the cases from Vito Lucia, a childhood friend who still lives and works in the old neighborhood where much of the crime is based. Vito knows that his life could be in danger if the mob finds out that he acts as a snitch for the police. After Buddy starts looking into the loan sharking business of some local mob members, unknown to him some of those mob members are shaken down for a minimum $100,000 apiece, one by one kidnapped for ransom before they are released when the extortionists are able to abscond with the ransom money. The M.O. of the extortionists is for two to act as police detectives bringing the mob member in for questioning, before showing their true colors of kidnapping the person for ransom. The mob has no reason to doubt that the men truly are NYPD gone bad. Buddy even sees one of them taken in, a bail bondsman named Festa with mob ties, he knowing that what he witnessed was not what it appeared on the surface, however unaware that this situation was not a one off in the scuttlebutt he had previous heard about general unrest on the streets. By the time that Buddy learns of the serial kidnappings and the unofficial war the mob has with the NYPD because of it, Buddy and the team are determined to nab the mastermind behind the extortions as it has become more than a professional issue for them.—Huggo
New York City cops wage a war against assorted hoods and criminals after one of their own is brutally killed by a hoodlum. Seven-Ups refers to the minimum jail time each of the crooks will have to spend if they are caught.—Patrick Knightly <[email protected]>
The seven-ups are a secret, elite New York detective squad who are very effective in catching criminals, even if their tactics are questionable. However, what one of the detectives doesn't know is that one of his informants is mastermind of a plot to kidnap loan sharks. The kidnappers get to their victims by impersonating police officers. While investigating one of the disappearances, one of the seven-ups gets spotted and is killed. The situation puts the seven-ups in a precarious position because it looks like they are tied to the kidnappings. So now one detective has to find the murderers and clear the seven-ups' soiled reputation.—[email protected]
A sting takes place at an antique store that is a front for laundering counterfeit money. It is the latest success of The Seven-Ups, a squad of undercover NY policemen whose collars regularly get sentences of seven years or up. Two mobsters are presently in the squad's sights - Max Kalish, a businessman, and Festa, a bail bondsman. However, Buddy Manuchi, the Seven-Ups' leader, gets wind of strange and violent happenings within the mob, unaware that Max Kalish was kidnapped and held until payment of a huge ransom, and now he and other mobsters are in panic mode. Things then go from bad to worse for both The Seven-Ups and Kalish's mob when one the the squad's members is found out and tied up in a car trunk, only to see the real kidnappers grab Cotello, one of Kalish's partners, and blast him and the helpless undercover cop. When Buddy arrives on the scene, the real killers flee, and a mad car chase through the streets of New York blasts onto the country freeway and ends in a savage crash into the underside of a crippled 18-wheeler. The Seven-Ups now probe to find out who is kidnapping mobsters to find the killers of their partner, and Buddy suddenly realizes they have a police mole working for them.—Michael Daly
New York City circa 1973. A business type enters an antique store as a heavily bearded type is shown upstairs by one of the store's owners. A burly deliveryman with a glass water cooler bottle enters and trips over the businessman, smashing up several antiques. A loud argument ensues and uniformed police must intervene - until a painter breaks into the office upstairs and returns with a box wrapped in grocery paper - and containing large wads of counterfeit money.
Thus has The Seven-Ups - a special unit led by Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) and including Officers Ansel (Ken Kercheval) (the phony painter), Barelli (Victor Arnold), and Mingo (Jerry Leon) (the phony deliveryman) - broken up another area of criminal activity. But their unorthodox methods upset Lt. Jerry Hanes (Robert Burr), who has confronted the team's commanding officer Inspector Gilson (Rex Everett) before about their methods only for Gilson to fully stand up for his men. The controversy upsets Manucci, though he is reassured by his CO's endorsement.
Presently the team is gathering information on a crooked bail bondsman, Festa (Matt Russo), as his name has turned up on a wiretap. Buddy consults one of his Mob informants, funeral parlor owner Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Blanco), who presently does not have any new information to give.
Later mobster Max Kalish (Larry Haines) is arrested at his plush mansion by two FBI agents - but they are not FBI agents as they corner Kalish, punch him out, then demand a hefty ransom from Kalish's lawyer. The lawyer and a mob errand boy drive to a car wash where the phony G-men lock the car's doors and steal the ransom; they later dump Kalish in a vacant lot and drive off, and at a museum Moon (Richard Lynch), the longish-haired younger of the two kidnappers, meets his connection where money changes hands for the successful kidnapping.
While walking through his old neighborhood Buddy is summoned by a barber, who tells him of disturbing activity within the area's mafia gang. Buddy and Ansel then become more concerned when they are tailing Festa and he is grabbed by two men (the same gunmen who grabbed Kalish) who portray themselves as members of the District Atorney's office. Buddy and the team then stake out Vito's funeral parlor, where Kalish and other criminals are meeting to decide what to do next; the kidnappers of Festa have already collected several hefty ransoms and want another for Festa, to be exchanged at the same car wash. The mobsters' anxiety shows when a bodyguard starts to whip out a revolver on Vito when he appears. Ansel has infiltrated the ranks of mobsters' limo drivers wearing a wire - but while Buddy and the others are momentarily distracted one of the bodyguards notices the wire. Ansel is taken inside, beaten, and his cover blown.
Kalish, thinking the kidnappers are cops, ties up and gags Ansel and stuff him into the trunk of his fellow criminal Carmine Coltello (Lou Polan), who will drive to the car wash with a tail of gunmen to deal with the kidnappers. When Mingo sees Ansel is not among the limo drivers, Buddy and Borelli jump in their car and follow Coltello to the car wash. Once there, with the mobsters on one side thinking they will catch the kidnappers there, Coltello instead is jumped just outside the other side of the car wash and driven into a next door parking garage. Buddy and Borelli try to get into the place, but only after hearing gunfire - the result when the kidnappers Moon and his driver Bo think it's a setup and gun down Coltello, then blast open the trunk of his car, and are shocked to find a now-dead policeman inside - do they succeed in entering the garage. They arrest the garage worker, Toredano (Joe Spinell) before discovering Ansel's body.
The gunmen then make a break for it and Buddy jumps into his car and a violent high-speed pursuit ensues through the streets of New York City before blasting through a police roadblock onto a mammoth bridge then spilling onto a country highway. Buddy finally catches up to the gunmen but his rammed into the underside of a stricken eighteen-wheeler, and narrowly avoids being decapitated by the truck's rear bumper.
Escaping major injury, Buddy goes with Borelli to the hospital where Coltello is being treated for critical injuries and the body of Ansel has been posted. Buddy is then interrogated by Gilson and Hanes and it is here he learns of the kidnapping of mafia types - and that the Chief Of Detectives (at present involved in a stormy snap press conference with reporters naturally confused and suspicious about the whole matter) believes it to be The Seven-Ups' work.
Vito, meanwhile, is shaken badly by the disastrous turnabout in the Coltello incident, and he confronts Moon telling him to release Festa and lay low. Moon, though, wants none of it, vowing to kill Manucci if he comes calling.
Despite Gilson's orders, Buddy, Barilli and Mingo question Toredano on their own, but, having been physically grilled by the police before to no avail, Toredano provides no information. Frustrated by Toredano's silence, Buddy returns to the hospital where he threatens to remove Coltello's oxygen unless he reveals who shot Ansel. Although surprised when Coltello manages to mutter Kalish's name, Buddy and the others go to Kalish's house and at gunpoint demand an explanation. When Kalish details the ransom kidnappings and mentions his circle of mob colleagues who have been affected, Buddy writes down their names. Later at a diner he compares the list to that of the mob bosses Vito has informed upon and suddenly realizes the connection.
Later that night, Buddy summons an anxious Vito for a meeting and asks for information on Toredano. The next morning, Buddy, Barilli and Mingo arrive at Toredano's dilapidated house. After locking Toredano in the cupboard, Buddy waits inside while Barilli and Mingo hide outside. Soon, Moon and Bo arrive, but Bo spots Barilli and the men shoot each other. Alerted, Moon races away with Buddy in pursuit as Mingo looks after the wounded Barilli. After a chase on foot, Buddy confronts and kills Moon.
That afternoon, Buddy meets Vito and reveals he knows about his betrayal. Insisting that he never did anything to hurt Buddy directly, Vito refuses to accept responsibility for Ansel's death, declaring he had to get money to support his wife and children. Disgusted, Buddy assures Vito he will not arrest him, but will make sure the mob bosses know Vito was behind the kidnappings. Horrified, Vito pleads for Buddy's forgiveness, but the detective walks away.
