But at 8:02 a.m., hungover NYPD detective Jack Mosley (BRUCE
WILLIS) is assigned a seemingly simple task. Petty criminal Eddie
Bunker (MOS DEF) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00
a.m. and needs to be taken from lock-up to the courthouse, 16
blocks away. It should take Jack 15 minutes to drop him off at the
courthouse and get home.
Broken down, out of shape, with a bad leg and a serious drinking
problem, Jack's role on the force is simple - clock in, clock out
and stay out of trouble in between. He's in no mood to deal with a
punk who's been in and out of jail for more than half his life. But
beneath the punk in Eddie lies a man committed to turning his life
around and constantly searching for "signs" that will lead him to a
brighter future. Jack knows better, though - people don't change.
In Eddie he sees only a pathetic rat who was offered a sweet
deal... a rat he will be rid of soon enough.
When Jack shoves Eddie into the back of his car and pulls out into
the morning New York city rush hour, he doesn't notice the van
looming behind them. His head throbbing, and Eddie's flair for
conversation only making it worse, Jack stops off at the local
liquor store to pick up some breakfast. As Eddie waits inside the
locked car, fuming at getting stuck with Jack as his escort, he's
suddenly faced with a much bigger problem - a loaded gun pointed at
his head. Jack emerges just in time to prevent Eddie's execution,
killing one assassin and narrowly escaping a second.
When Jack calls for backup, homicide detective Frank Nugent (DAVID
MORSE) and his team are first to arrive at the scene. Eddie
suddenly goes pale - one of the detectives on Nugent's team is the
man he is supposed to testify against. In an instant, Jack's
quickie trip downtown turns into the nightmare of a lifetime: the
criminals that want Eddie dead are actually cops.
There's a history between Jack and Nugent - a dark history that
Jack has been desperately trying to forget. And as Nugent is quick
to point out to his old friend, Eddie's testimony threatens to
bring them all down. Nugent offers to stage a mock hostage
situation in which Eddie is killed and Jack does what he does best
- walk away.
But this time, Jack has been pushed too far and seizes his last
opportunity to do the right thing. A split second before Nugent's
team can execute Eddie, Jack sets in motion a chain of events that
will irrevocably impact all of their lives.
Battling against time and the corrupt cops gaining on their every
move, Jack and Eddie fight their way to the courthouse block by
gut-wrenching block. These are Jack's streets, too - and he won't
go quietly. In Eddie, he finds purpose, hope and the strength to do
something he should have done six years ago. And Eddie begins to
see that all of the "signs" he's been following were meant to lead
him to Jack.
It's the story of how two men change - and change each other -
during a tense 16 block struggle between life and death.
release date: 20 April 2006
