Number One with a Bullet Information

Number One with a Bullet is a 1987 American police detective film directed by Jack Smight and starring Robert Carradine, Billy Dee Williams, Valerie Bertinelli, Peter Graves, Doris Roberts, Bobby Di Cicco, Ray Girardin, Barry Sattels, Mykelti Williamson and Jon Gries.

Plot

The film opens with Deputy Reese (Chris DeRose) walking into a train station awaiting a passenger. The passenger, Malcolm Chase (Bobby Di Cicco) gets off of the train, and is instantly arrested by Reese. However, before Reese can escort Chase away from the station, he is shot in the back and killed, while Chase flees with the owner of the gun who shot Reese.

At Reese's funeral, Detectives Ronald Barzak (Robert Carradine) and Patrick Hazeltine (Billy Dee Williams) are told by their and Reese's boss Captain John Ferris (Peter Graves) that they have a main suspect of the shooting, that being ex-hitman and robber Bobby Sweet (Jon Gries), who had a feud with both Reese and Ferris years ago.

At the Chicago Police Department, Ferris assigns Barzak and Hazeltine to go to Sweet's flat with their colleague Detective Paul Transvestile (John Durbin). They arrive at Sweet's flat and are invited in. However, as they begin to interrogate Sweet, a group of thugs burst in and a gunfight erupts. Transvestile is killed along with two of the thugs. Hazeltine is slightly injured, and the thugs flee, abducting Sweet, and leaving a mortally wounded member of their gang behind. The thug, nicknamed Rotweiler (Artie Ripp), who is bleeding unstoppably, is threatened by Barzak, who demands answers, but Rotweiler dies before answering.

Barzak and Hazeltine are then assigned to find out where Sweet is being held. However, they see Sweet with the leader of the thugs, DeCosta (Barry Sattels), talking and laughing. The pair then discover that the thugs only pretended to abduct Sweet to help him escape from the police. Barzak and Hazeltine ambush Sweet and DeCosta, who drive away at high speed in a van, pursued by Barzak and Hazeltine in a police car. Barzak and Hazeltine lose track of Sweet and DeCosta, but they hear and explosion and find the van on fire crashed into a brick wall.

However, when Barzak and Hazeltine return to the police department, they are shocked to discover from Lieutenant Harry Kaminski (Ray Girardin) that no bodies were discovered in the car. Finding out that the van's explosion was a decoy to attract Barzak and Hazeltine's attention away, Barzak returns to his house to find it broken into and smashed up. He finds his wife Teresa (Valerie Bertinelli) lying on the floor weeping and she tells him about how a gang of hooded thugs broke in, sexually assaulted her, smashed up the house, killed their cat and left. Barzak finds their dead cat hidden in the bin, and reports the happening to Ferris.

Barzak and Hazeltine are then assigned to find and interrogate a man under the name of Casey (Mykelti Williamson) with Kaminski. They arrive at the garage where Kaminski works, and finds a gun hidden in his boiler suit. They arrest Casey, force him into the car, and drive him back to the police department. While being interrogated, cannabis, heroin and cocaine are found in Casey's body. Casey tells Ferris that the gun was to protect him against the gang.

Later, Kaminski asks Barzak if he would want security stationed outside his flat, but Barzak informs him that Teresa is staying with Barzak's mother Linda (Doris Roberts) for a while.

Barzak, however, is attacked while leaving his flat to got to the pub by DeCosta and the gang of thugs. DeCosta prepares to stab Barzak with a flick knife, but is ambushed by Hazeltine and Kaminski. The thugs flee with Kaminski in pursuit and shooting at them. Barzak and Hazeltine discover to search DeCosta's car, which he had left behind, and find Chase stuffed and tied up in the boot.

While Chase is released from the boot, he is taken into the department and interrogated. Chase tells them that when Reese came to arrest him, he was not reluctant, but when Reese was shot, he was going to help, but decided to chase the killer, but was abducted by the thugs, and tied to a chair in DeCosta's basement, where he was treated with hostility, before being locked in the boot of DeCosta's car. When Ferris questions Chase of who killed Reese, Chase is determined that it was Casey.

Chase is released without charge, but is attacked and abducted by DeCosta and his gang. The gang lock Chase in the boot of the car and then bombard into the department. DeCosta breaks into the cell where Casey is being held and they beat him badly, before DeCosta fatally stabs him with the same knife he attempted to stab Barzak with. The gang then climb into the car driven by Sweet and drive away, but are pursued by Barzak and Hazeltine in a car driven by Kaminski. The chase leads to Kaminski's car colliding head on with a Jaguar. Barzak and Hazeltine are slightly injured, but Kaminski receives injuries to the throat. Kaminski survives but has to be hospitalized. Barzak and Hazeltine are forced to continue the investigation without Kaminski.

Barzak visits his mother (Linda) to see how Teresa is. Teresa is still in shock but is not delirious. However, when Barzak is preparing to leave, DeCosta, Sweet and the gang break in, knock Barzak unconscious with a crowbar, causing Linda to faint, and they then abduct Teresa. The gang take Teresa to a basement, blind-folding her, and then reveal for Chase to be the man behind the murder of Reese, but that DeCosta shot Reese.

Meanwhile, Linda's neighbor hears the commotion and calls the police. Hazeltine and Ferris arrive and manage to awaken Barzak. After calling an ambulance for Linda, they leave. Barzak later receives news that Linda had died of a heart attack. Vowing revenge on the unnecessary death of his mother, Barzak and Hazeltine, against Ferris' orders. Go on a search for Teresa.

Barzak and Hazeltine arrive at a warehouse with a SWAT Team led by Sergeant Harvis (Ken Gibbel). They are there confronted by DeCosta and Sweet and the gang. The swat team reign fire over them, killing several gang members and only leaving only DeCosta, Sweet and three others alive. DeCosta, Sweet and the remaining gang members attempt to escape in the car, but are pursued by Barzak and Hazeltine. The chase leads to DeCosta driving his car over a train track, Barzak and Hazeltine attempt to drive over, but fail, and are forced to abandon the car and allow an oncoming train to destroy it. Barzak and Hazeltine pursue DeCosta's car on foot. They begin shooting at it, and the car ends up spinning out of control and colliding with a pile of barrel in a junk yard. The van is then engulfed in flames, killing all but DeCosta inside. A badly burned and bleeding DeCosta manages to come out and shoot and wound Hazeltine badly. DeCosta then shouts that Chase is behind Reese's murder and has Teresa prisoner, before being shot dead by Barzak. Hazeltine is taken to the hospital.

A few days later, Barzak is in the department when Kaminski, who had recovered and was able to return, had found out where Chase's hideout is when he saw him entering a basement. However, Ferris is then forced to announce that Hazeltine had died in hospital after entering a coma. Barzak then vows to find and kill Chase without showing any mercy.

Barzak and Kaminski arrive at the basement. They break in and go and search for Teresa and Chase. Kaminski is confronted by a thug who shoots him in the foot. He manages to kill the thug and tells Barzak he's all right and to continue his search. Barzak eventually finds Chase holding a gun to Teresa's head. Chase blackmails Barzak into dropping the gun. However, Kaminski takes Chase by surprise shooting at him. Despite missing, this causes Chase to duck, therefore releasing Teresa, who runs to Barzak's side. Chase and Barzak engage in a gunfight, wherein Barzak attempts to escape through a hatch, but Barzak throws a grenade at him, blowing him up.

The film ends with Barzak, Teresa and Kaminski driving away from the basement, and Barzak seeing a vision of Hazeltine standing on the curb saluting him.

See also

Films shot in Chicago, Illinois