Narc (film)

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Narc
Directed by Joe Carnahan
Produced by Ray Liotta,
Michelle Grace
Written by Joe Carnahan
Starring Jason Patric
Ray Liotta
Chi McBride
Busta Rhymes
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 17 December 2002
Running time 105 min
Language English
Budget ~ US$7,500,000
IMDb profile

Narc is a 2002 film about dirty cops involved in policing the drug trade. It was released to critical acclaim and, for an independent film, moderate success. It was written and directed by Joe Carnahan. Tom Cruise was one of the producers. The plot centers around the efforts of Detectives Nick Tellis and Henry Oak to find the murderer of an undercover cop. As they proceed in the investigation they engage in suspect tactics and give viewers a glimpse into the seedy side of undercover work.

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[edit] Storyline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Eighteen months after undercover NARC Nick Tellis was fired for killing a pregnant bystander during a shootout, he is persuaded by Detroit Police Department to return to the force to investigate the murder of another NARC, Calvess. Tellis is reluctant as his wife disapproves of him risking his life, and wants him to spend more time at home with their baby son. However, he decides to read the files on the case and eventually agrees to the case, on two conditions. The first is that he will receive a job at the station if he secures a conviction. The second is that another detective, veteran Henry Oak, who was Calvess's street colleague at the time of his death, comes with him.

The two begin to rapport whilst carrying out a violent investigation. Oak reveals that his wife died of cancer, and that they never had any children together. He recalls a case decades prior, where he found a ten year old girl naked, who had been sold for prostitution by her father for rent money. Oak became enraged and beat the man to a bloody pulp. Meanwhile, Tellis's wife gets more and more distressed for her husband's wellbeing. Tellis visits Calvass's widow Kathryn, and asks her questions on the relationship between the two of them while he was on the street, hoping to make a decision about his own private life. Oak turns up at the house during the conversation, and is furious that she is being persistently interviewed by policemen.

Tellis and Oak visit the scene of an apparent murder of a crack smoker, who was shot dead in his bath. Tellis discovers the gun was never cocked, and that in fact the man was using it as a bong when it discharged, killing him. After this lead turns out fruitless, Tellis and Oak visit the house of a man who was involved in the stand-off eighteen months ago that started the film. They find incriminating evidence, but nothing concrete that suggests he carried out the murder of Calvess, although they do find a police badge. However, the man turns a gun on them both, shooting and injuring Tellis, before Oak is forced to neutralize him, killing him in the process.

Tellis returns home to be confronted by his wife, who leaves him as she can no longer bear to see him endangering his life. Tellis and Oak are told that the case has been closed, as the suspect in considered to have been the man they interrogated previously. They are furious as they believe the killer has yet to be found, and continue their investigation independently. Oak determines that the main suspects are hiding out at an auto body shop. They tie the men up together and Oak attempts to force a confession out of both of them. Tellis is getting increasingly suspicious of some of Oak's tactics, especially after viewin many files that suggest he had been repeatedly discharging a lady who has been arrested on several occasions. Oak finds many police issue guns in the trunk of one of the men's cars, including that which belonged to Calvass, and attacks both men violently, at which point Tellis steps in to calm him down and return in a few minutes. When he leaves the room, Tellis locks it, turns on the tape recorder, and asks for the truth. The dealers explain that Calvass was the one who blew Tellis's cover eighteen months ago, causing the shootout. They also recount Calvass's degeneration into chemical dependency. On the day of the murder, Calvass tried to make a deal with the two dealers, but it went badly. At that point, Oak arrived at the other end of the tunnel. Calvass went for his gun, which was the mens' justification for attacking him. The two men then ran off as Oak neared them.

Tellis leaves the room and confronts Oak, telling him that the dealers claim that Oak shot at both of them four times, leaving a wound on one dealer's shoulder, before murdering Calvass himself for being a drug addict. Oak denies this, but the issue of his relationship with Calvass's wife Kathryn is then brought up. As it turns out, Kathryn was the ten year old girl Oak found all those years ago being prostituted. He either considers her a daughter he never had, or she is his illegitimate daughter, depending on your interpretation of the discussion the two policemen have. He has since been protecting her by discharging her of several crimes when she was in her teenage years. Tellis then tells Oak that he is going to make the arrest on his own, but Oak beats him with a shotgun and enters instead. He turns the tape recorder back on and tries to beat the confession out of the two men, and threatens to shoot them. Tellis breaks into their car, retrieves a gun, and enters the building. He is forced to shoot Oak when he refuses to put his gun down. Tellis runs to aid Oak and, realising he's dying, pleads with him to tell him the truth about what happened on the night Calvass died.

Oak explains that, in fact, it was Calvass who shot at the dealers as they ran away from Oak, leaving the shoulder bullet wound. Oak had an argument with him, explaining that after many years he had finally had enough of defending Calvass and was going to turn him in to the Police Department. Calvass grabbed his own gun and shot himself. Oak has been protecting his name and family ever since so that Calvass's wife can have his pension and support their two daughters. Oak then dies in Tellis's arms, leaving the confession on tape. The two dealers are arrested, and Tellis has a few minutes to decide whether to hand the tape over to the police, a decision we never discover as the film's credits roll.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links

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