Number One with a Bullet
Encyclopedia
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
.
) walking into a train station awaiting a passenger. The passenger, Malcolm Chase (Bobby Di Cicco
) gets 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, Detective
s 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 hospitalised. 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 neighbour 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 kerb saluting him.
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....
American police detective film directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Jack Smight
Jack Smight
Jack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...
and starring Robert Carradine
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...
, Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
, Valerie Bertinelli
Valerie Bertinelli
Valerie Anne Bertinelli is an American actress, best known for her roles as Barbara Cooper Royer on the television series One Day at a Time , Gloria on the television series Touched by an Angel and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot in Cleveland .- Early years :Bertinelli was born in Wilmington,...
, Peter Graves
Peter Graves
Peter Graves may refer to:* Peter Graves , American actor* Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves , English actor and peer* Peter Graves , English cricketer...
, Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....
, Bobby Di Cicco
Bobby Di Cicco
Bobby Di Cicco is an American actor. He has starred in several films since the 1970s, but has mostly been involved in television work such as The A-Team. His early work includes the film 1941 by Steven Spielberg, in which he plays one of the main characters, 'Wally Stephens'...
, Ray Girardin
Ray Girardin
Ray Girardin is an American actor. he studied acting at Boston University on the GI Bill, got his Equity card at the Charles Playhouse, then went off to New York where he did a lot of stage work and met his wife Marlene. With a move to Hollywood, he found himself in front of cameras at MGM working...
, Barry Sattels, Mykelti Williamson
Mykelti Williamson
Michael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
and Jon Gries
Jon Gries
Jonathan Francis "Jon" Gries is an American actor, writer and director. He is also credited under the names Jon Francis and Jonathan Gries. He is known for his role in Napoleon Dynamite as Uncle Rico, and more recently as recurring character Roger Linus on Lost...
.
Plot
The film opens with Deputy Reese (Chris DeRoseChris DeRose
Chris DeRose is an animal rights activist, recipient of the 1977 ‘Courage of Conscience’ International Peace Award and a former actor. He appeared on General Hospital, Cagney and Lacey, CHiPs, The Rockford Files and Baretta. He was an on-camera reporter for the television shows Hard Copy and...
) walking into a train station awaiting a passenger. The passenger, Malcolm Chase (Bobby Di Cicco
Bobby Di Cicco
Bobby Di Cicco is an American actor. He has starred in several films since the 1970s, but has mostly been involved in television work such as The A-Team. His early work includes the film 1941 by Steven Spielberg, in which he plays one of the main characters, 'Wally Stephens'...
) gets 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, Detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
s Ronald Barzak (Robert Carradine
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...
) and Patrick Hazeltine (Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
) are told by their and Reese's boss Captain John Ferris (Peter Graves
Peter Graves
Peter Graves may refer to:* Peter Graves , American actor* Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves , English actor and peer* Peter Graves , English cricketer...
) that they have a main suspect of the shooting, that being ex-hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
and robber Bobby Sweet (Jon Gries
Jon Gries
Jonathan Francis "Jon" Gries is an American actor, writer and director. He is also credited under the names Jon Francis and Jonathan Gries. He is known for his role in Napoleon Dynamite as Uncle Rico, and more recently as recurring character Roger Linus on Lost...
), who had a feud with both Reese and Ferris years ago.
At the Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
, Ferris assigns Barzak and Hazeltine to go to Sweet's flat with their colleague Detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Paul Transvestile (John Durbin
John Durbin
- Filmography :* Take Out ... as Hershel Kammer* Sabrina, the Teenage Witch** episode I Fall to Pieces ... as Ed* Angel** episode Quickening ... as Dr. Fetvanovich* The Breed ... as Boudreaux* Star Trek: Voyager...
). 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
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Harry Kaminski (Ray Girardin
Ray Girardin
Ray Girardin is an American actor. he studied acting at Boston University on the GI Bill, got his Equity card at the Charles Playhouse, then went off to New York where he did a lot of stage work and met his wife Marlene. With a move to Hollywood, he found himself in front of cameras at MGM working...
) 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
Valerie Bertinelli
Valerie Anne Bertinelli is an American actress, best known for her roles as Barbara Cooper Royer on the television series One Day at a Time , Gloria on the television series Touched by an Angel and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot in Cleveland .- Early years :Bertinelli was born in Wilmington,...
) 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
Mykelti Williamson
Michael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
) 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
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
, heroin and cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
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
Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....
) 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
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
. Barzak and Hazeltine are slightly injured, but Kaminski receives injuries to the throat. Kaminski survives but has to be hospitalised. 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 neighbour 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
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
with a SWAT Team led by Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
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 kerb saluting him.