Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: James Morgan
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, John Krasinski, Stephan James, Quvenzhané Wallis
Plot: It’s a sunny day in downton Chicago and the streets are busy, full of people. A man is seen leaving his apartment building. Inside, his father Calvin Peppers (Morgan Freeman) is eating with his grandchildren, Joey and Ivy Peppers (Stephan James and Quvenzhané Wallis). Calvin is reassuring them, telling them that he used to leave the house unexpectedly like that too when he was younger. Calvin was a police officer and so was his son and his grandson also appears to be leaning towards this career. We see the man once again walking in the streets of Chicago. A white windowless van stops at a corner and unknown masked men jump out. They shoot at the policeman and leave the scene as quickly as they arrived. Everyone around panics, a woman was caught in the crossfire. Calvin Peppers looks down on the street after hearing the gun shots and sees his son on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood.
Jackie Sanders, an uptight officer receives the call nobody wants to receive, a colleague died, and he wasn’t even on duty, yet. She was the one who called him to come and do a shift even though it was supposed to be an off-day for Officer Peppers. She told the woman on the phone that she would go tell the tragic news to the family in person. She hangs up the phone and she drive to the Peppers apartment. She knew Officer Peppers was close to his father, not only they lived together, but it seemed like they were thinking alike all the time. She knocks on the door and Calvin Peppers answers. She tells the tragic news to him and his grandchildren, who were now under his guard also learned it. She was unable to shut her mouth, so she told them that she was the one who called her and felt horribly guilty for what happened. Joey Peppers tells her to shut up and find the one who did this, instead of making things worse here and making his little sister cry. He slams the door.
Lowlife aging thug Adam Buchner (Bradley Cooper) has been running an illegal casino in his basement for quite some time. Tonight is no different from every other night and the casino is up and running. Nobody but Adam knows why he started the casino in the first place, rumors tell that he’s paying some sort of debt to someone, but nobody can actually prove it. Only tonight is different from every other night, his casino is about to get raided by police. Adam’s supervising a poker table when Officer Roy Lawrence (John Krasinski) knocks the door down. The policemen start to cuff people and Lawrence goes for Buchner personally. He locks him up in his car and they leave for the station.
Upon arriving at the station, Buchner is thrown into an interrogation room, while the people who were gambling in his illegal casino were thrown in jail. Officer Lawrence enters the room and tells Buchner to wait for Jackie Sanders (Jessica Chastain). She finally arrives, carrying a sports bag. She throws it on the table and it contains cash, the same cash from Buchner’s safe. She grabs a couple of piles and gives them to Buchner. She uncuffs him and takes out a folder from the bag. She says she knows Buchner’s been working undercover on behalf of the police for years, but this time they need him for something bigger than busting illegal gamblers. She says an officer was recently murdered by unknown assailants and they have a feeling it may have been the work of the Fendi family. The officer who was shot arrested a Fendi earlier in the week and it almost compromised the Fendi’s entire operation, so Sanders has a feeling Mike “Chip” Fendi may have sponsored the murder. Adam Buchner asks why he should accept as he’s currently perfectly happy with his role. Sanders whispers something in his ear, we can’t hear what she says. Buchner starts to look scared and he accepts Sanders’ offer. He will wear a microphone on him at all times and must work close to the Fendi family to hear Chip Fendi confess he ordered the murder, a Mr. Big operation as they call it.
Mike “Chip” Fendi is eating lobster in his mansion when he receives an unexpected call. We can’t hear what it’s saying on the other end, but one sure thing is that Fendi doesn’t seem to like it. His face turns bright red and he brutally hangs up. He shoves his plate and it breaks down on the ground. He asks for his housekeeper, but she doesn’t answer. He runs through his house to try to find her, but he doesn’t. He comes back in the dining room and starts breaking down other things, hoping it would lead her to him, but again, she doesn’t show up. He runs again in the house and notices a closed door. He tries to enter, but it is locked. He asks her if she’s on the other side. She doesn’t answer. He kicks the door down, only to find an open window. He curses as he realizes she simply ran away. He breaks down again in the bedroom he just entered. After destroying another room, he finally comes back to its senses. Fendi is a diagnosed bipolar, who also happens to frequently act without thinking, it is an explosive cocktail. He sits down on the ground and starts kissing the cross he’s always wearing around his neck, he does this to calm himself whenever he felt like he crossed a line. He gets up and starts cleaning up, cursing.
A couple of days later, a disgruntled Peppers family pay Jackie Sanders a visit at the police station. They’re worried and angry that nothing happened in the investigation of their family member’s murder. Calvin and Ivy leave the station after being told by Roy Lawrence that they were doing everything they could to find the man who did this, but Joey stays a little. He starts to get annoyed at Sanders for not divulging information about the case and makes vague threats to Sanders, before Lawrence throws him out. Adam Buchner enters the office, he grew a beard and mustache and changed his haircut. He says he’s ready, but Sanders tells him that he needs to take his time.
Two months later
Several men are inside a bar, celebrating. Most of them are drunk, but not Adam. The Fendi family rented the bar for the evening. Adam let his bread grow and doesn’t look like the clean-shaved old Adam anymore. He discusses with some random guy while drinking a beer. At some point, he hears movement across the room. The back doors opened and no other than Mike Fendi entered the place. He sits at a table with other members of the gang, his personal guard if you like. Adam’s determined to enter this elite group. He leaves his stool at the bar and moves to a table closer to Fendi’s. He eavesdrops a conversation about some illegal activities that will go down the following night. Buchner gets up and says its goodbyes to Fendi and other gang members. He gets in his car and drives away. He meets up a couple of blocks further with Jackie and Lawrence who are hidden in a van. Buchner enters the van and he asks them if they understood the conversation Fendi had at the table. They rewind back the tape of Buchner’s microphone, only to find out that can’t hear anything because of all the noise at the bar, Buchner is devastated. He swears to them that heard them talk about something going down tomorrow night. Adam suggests to break in Fendi’s place to try to find evidence, but they warn him that it’s illegal. They tell him to go back and continue his work and not to give up. Buchner leaves the van, irritated.
Lawrence goes behind the wheel and drives the van to the police station. They park in the garage and Lawrence enters his own car to go home, but Sanders goes inside to get something from her office. She turns on the light and sees a folded piece of paper on her desk. She unfolds it and it’s a warning, a warning urging her to do something. She knows who it comes from, she’s absolutely sure it’s from the Peppers kid. It may not be recommended, but she decides to go and confront him at his place, in front of his family. She drives all the way to their apartment complex in the middle of the night and knocks on their door, repeatedly. A disgruntled Calvin Peppers opens the door and asks her what she wants. She searches for the paper in her purse and the rest of the family arrives. Calvin invites her inside. She shows Calvin the piece of paper and admits that she thinks Joey’s behind the threat. Calvin looks at his grandson disappointed. Joey denies the accusation, but Sanders says she doesn’t believe him. Joey starts to get angry and Calvin tells him to calm down. Sanders gets up and goes straight in front of Joey, talking to him face to face. She says they’re working on it and the case was way more complex and difficult than they thought, it concerns a dangerous man that they didn’t think was involved at the start. She also adds that he should start behaving accordingly, because his little antics don’t do nothing to help them concentrate on the case. She leaves the apartment while Calvin is calming his grandson.
Mike Fendi is looking at some documents in his office, as it’s getting darker and darker. He packs some in his little suitcase. He looks at himself in the mirror, his wrinkles slowly taking over from his original face traits. He kisses his cross and goes outside. Adam Buchner is looking at him from a distance with binoculars. He sees him getting inside a limo. Buchner puts on a mask. He waits for it to be around the corner to race to the front gate. He jumps over it and breaks a window to get inside. Officer Lawrence tries to contact Buchner. He rings his cellphone, but he doesn’t answer. It concerns him and goes to tell Sanders. Buchner gets inside Fendi’s home for the first time. He’s trying to find an office of some sort. He stumbles on the broken furniture Fendi destroyed about two months ago. He never hired another housekeeper and never bothered to clean it up. He walks in another room with a desk in it. Adam sits down in a chair and starts reading the various documents on the desk.
Sanders and Lawrence talked for a little bit to try and find where Buchner was. They figured out he must be at Fendi’s place as he suggested the other night. They decide to drive there to make he didn’t actually break in, as it’s highly illegal, even more so when a Mr. Big operation is a hot debate in the legal world. They don’t want to risk the entire operation with this, so they get in their undercover van and drive.
The only thing they don’t know is rather is rather important, especially in this situation. Buchner’s already long gone. He’s driving his car at a high speed in the streets of Chicago. He found out where the meeting was and he really wanted to be there. He saw it as an opportunity to grow closer to Fendi. There’s no way he recognizes every one of his men, he thought. He arrives at a warehouse by the docks and spots Fendi’s group. He blends in with the other guys, until he’s within an arm reach of Fendi. As he thought, nobody told him he wasn’t supposed to be there. Sanders and Lawrence arrive at Fendi’s, only to find out that nobody’s inside. They try to call Buchner. His cellphone starts ringing. Everyone starts looking at him. A gun deal was going through at the docks. Chip Fendi begs his business partners pardon and turns around to stare at Buchner. He slowly walks in his direction and asks him his name. He asks him if Adam thinks he’s more important than him. The cellphone is still ringing. He asks him why the hell doesn’t he turn it off. Fendi tells Buchner that he didn’t see him before and therefore he must be relatively new. Everyone is looking at them now. Fendi kisses his cross and keeps it in his hands. He hits Adam on the cheek with his cross, leaving a mark. Adam doesn’t flinch and spits blood. Fendi notices it and tells Adam he likes him, he seems tough and let this be a lesson for him. He hits him again and goes back to his business like nothing happened.
The same night, still pissed off at the threat Joey made to Jackie Sanders, Calvin Peppers grounded his grandson, who happens to spend the majority of his time watching TV. This is when a TV documentary about Mike Fendi airs. They tell everything they know about the man, from his extravagant lifestyle and fortune, to his bodyguard, all the way to his alleged tendency to kill, or ask people to kill police officers. It catches Joey’s attention. He adds one and one in his head and concludes that Fendi must have had his father killed because he arrested a member of the family. Everyone is asleep at that point, so he goes in his deceased father bedroom and steals one of his handguns. He hides it in his clothes and goes to sleep.
The next morning, Calvin and Ivy Peppers are eating breakfast, while Calvin is shouting at Joey to come and eat with them. He thinks he’s just being lazy again. He knocks on his door and receives no answer. He enters the room, only to find out Joey isn’t there at all and the window is all open. Joey is in fact running in an alley. He left the apartment building with the emergency staircase. He checks under his coat and he still has his father’s gun. Adam, on the other end, is preparing for something else. Fendi is making a move today. He has to meet with a very important politician he has under his payroll and he personally asked for Buchner to come. He wants to teach the man how to act around him, because he sees potential in the man. In fact, he’s inside Fendi’s limo, right now. Sanders and Lawrence are still listening to what people are saying through Adam’s hidden microphone, as always. The limousine stops, they arrived at their destination. Fendi kisses his cross and they get out. Adam walks beside Fendi. Joey tightens his grip on his gun. He looks up and sees Fendi in front of him. He screams his name and takes out his gun. The citizens around start panicking. Joey walks nervously in Fendi’s direction who told his men to back down, because he told them the kid looks like he’s going to shit in his pants. He asks Joey what does he wants. All Joey can say is : “You killed my father”. Fendi sarcastically answers by telling him that he surely watched the documentary about him last night. It triggers Joey who tightens his grip even more on his handgun. Adam sees everything, but Sanders and Lawrence only hear what’s going down, but Jackie knows for sure what’s going to happen. They get out their surveillance van. Adam makes a move and stands in front of Fendi, who’s still mocking Joey. It proves too much for Joey Peppers who fires his gun. The only thing is, he never fired a gun before, his father always regarded them as instrument of death and never wanted his children to handle them, not until they were ready and sadly this day never came for Joey. The recoil took him by surprise and the bullet hit Adam in the shoulder instead. Fendi’s men take out their weapon, as Adam collapses on the ground. Jackie and Roy arrive, screaming to let the kid live. They show them they are police, without mentioning or acknowledging Adam, lying somebody called the police and they take Joey in custody. They leave without making a scene as Fendi’s men already took him back in the limo. Fendi cancelled his meeting. They’re going back to the mansion.
At Fendi’s, the family personal doctor was called in an emergency. He arrived and took out the bullet of Adam’s shoulder. Despite his clothes being bloody rags by now, Adam insisted on keeping his clothes on, not wanting to expose his microphone for everyone to see. After the doctor completed his surgery. Fendi asked for his men to leave and asked Adam to eat with him personally tonight, for potentially saving his life earlier. Adam accepts.
Roy went back to the police station with Joey alone, as Sanders continued the surveillance. He called in what remained of his family and let’s say that Calvin wasn’t pleased with his grandson’s actions. He reads him his rights and the list of accusations and charges they have to press against him. He’s clearly shaken by everything and starts crying.
Adam is in Fendi’s limo again, this time all alone with the man. They get out and enter a fancy Italian restaurant, where Fendi asks for his private room. Sanders arrives near the restaurant too. She parks the van and listens to Adam’s conversations. Buchner and his boss sit down and Fendi starts questioning Adam about his background. Adam refuses to answer, claiming it was something that he wanted to leave behind me and never look back. Fendi claims that he did some research on a man named Adam Buchner and that he discovered that he previously owned an illegal casino, but it closed, he asks why. Buchner tells him it’s different Adam Buchner, as he worked in a grocery store before. A waiter arrives and Fendi orders for Adam. He asks for a spaghetti and orders a meat loaf for Adam. The waiter leaves the room. Adam says it’s now his turn to ask questions. He asks Fendi if he does anything else than dealing guns and killing police officers. Fendi repeats the same thing he said to Joey about the documentary. Sanders is still listening attentively. She feels they’re going to learn something soon. The waiter comes back and gives them their food. Fendi says to Buchner that he knows what is little game is. Adam starts to sweat. He says it’s as clear as day that he’s a cop, a mole. Adam denies vehemently. Fendi tells him everything he knows as Adam is starting to panic a little. He says doesn’t think anybody else as a name like Adam Buchner, so that’s a lie. He knows his little casino closed because the police raided the place. He thinks they offered him a plea deal to get something out of him in exchange of being cleared. Adam says it’s not true, and technically he’s right, he was already a mole to begin with. Fendi adds that he found it suspicious that two police officers dressed as civilians arrived out of nowhere as he got shot, Adam also didn’t want to remove his shirt because it would’ve showed his microphone he’s hiding. He says that he doesn’t know what he wants from him, but he’s not going to get it. At this point, Jackie gets out of the van and gets out her gun, ready to pull the plug on the operation by getting Adam out of there alive. Adam starts to choke on his spaghetti. Fendi says that he indeed asked for policemen to be killed over the years, but the Peppers guy wasn’t one of them. Adam is now on the ground. Fendi tears his shirt apart and reveals the microphone. He covers it with his hand and whispers in Adam’s ear that he poisoned him. It may serve as a warning to other cops who try to get to him. He leaves the restaurant by the front door, kissing his cross, at the same time Jackie enters the restaurant by the back door and enters Fendi’s private room to discover Adam dead, lying motionless on the red carpet. Mr. Big is a complete failure. Fendi got away and they have nothing on the tapes to incriminate him. He's absolutely calm and he rides back home in his limo.
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