Trama

Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.

After Katrina, police sergeant Terence McDonagh rescues a prisoner, hurts his back in the process and earns a promotion to lieutenant plus an addiction to cocaine and painkillers. Six months later, a family is murdered over drugs; Terence runs the investigation. His drug-using prostitute girlfriend, his alcoholic father's dog, run-ins with two old women and a well-connected john, gambling losses, a nervous young witness, and thefts of police property put Terence's job and then his life in danger. He starts seeing things. He wants a big score to get out from under mounting debts, so he joins forces with drug dealers. The murders remain unsolved. A bad lieutenant gets worse.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In the aftermath of the Katrina, in New Orleans, Sergeant Terence McDonagh has a severe damage in his column rescuing a prisoner in the flooded jail. He becomes addicted in painkillers and cocaine to relief his incurable pain and is promoted to lieutenant. When an African family of smalltime drug dealers and their two children are executed, the abusive Terence is assigned to be in charge of the investigation. He depends on the testimony of a reluctant fifteen year-old boy that had witnessed the crime to open a case against the powerful drug lord Big Fate; however the teenager escapes from his custody to England and Big Fate is released. The frantic drug and gambler addicted lieutenant seeks illegal means to get drugs for him and for his girlfriend prostitute Frankie Donnenfeld and to pay his increasing debts. Despite the surveillance of the internal affairs, he associates to Big Fate and his gang providing inside information about apprehension and shipment of drugs and living his life on the edge.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In August 2005, Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) is a New Orleans police sergeant. While cleaning out a locker after Hurricane Katrina, he notices that a prisoner was not transferred and was left behind. While packing up another officer's locker, he notices paperwork indicating that a prisoner may still be present in the jail, which should have been evacuated due to rising floodwaters. On investigating, he finds a prisoner indeed about to drown; he and his partner, Stevie Pruit, mock the man's predicament and debate waiting for the fire department to do the job, but ultimately McDonagh jumps in to rescue him. The department decides to treat the incident as heroic, and McDonagh is given a medal "for extreme valor in the line of duty" and promoted to lieutenant. But he has suffered a serious back injury because of the rescue. As a result, he is prescribed Vicodin which he will most likely need to take for the rest of his life to manage the pain.

Six months later, McDonagh is now not only addicted to painkillers, but is habitually using several other drugs including cocaine and cannabis. His girlfriend Frankie Donnenfeld (Eva Mendes), a prostitute, also does cocaine and they often share drugs. He has convinced Officer Heidi (Fairuza Balk), a former co-worker now in another police division, to bring him drugs sent to the evidence room, in exchange for sexual favors from him.

McDonagh has become estranged from his father Pat (Tom Bower), a recovering alcoholic who can only bring himself to attend to his Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and nothing else, and his equally alcoholic stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge).

McDonagh uses his position as an officer to bully people like Officer Mundt (Michael Shannon) who is in charge of the evidence locker and steal more drugs by making them not present in the arrest in the first place. He also shakes down suspected rich addicts in the street (as they come out of bars) and steals their drugs on pretext of conducting an official investigation into drug peddling.

McDonagh is assigned to investigate the murders of five illegal immigrants from Senegal, who were killed for selling drugs in a gang leader's neighborhood. McDonagh knows from his sources that the territory belonged to Big Fate, but he has no evidence against him. The sister of one of the dead immigrants says that the house got a delivery from a local store on the afternoon of the murder. McDonagh finds the witness's grandmother Binnie Rogers (Irma P. Hall), who works at a nursing home. McDonagh finds the boy hiding in the nursing home, who says that he witnessed the murder, and that it was Big Fate & his 2 associates.

The gang leader, Big Fate (Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner), has two associates: Deshawn "Midget" Hackett (Lucius Baston) and Gary "G" Jenkins (Tim Bellow). After both the associates are arrested, Big Fate willingly comes to the police station with his lawyer. The grandson testifies to the DA against Big Fate. Without the grandson, there is no case against Big Fate.

Later, McDonagh can't find the grandson / the delivery boy who was the only witness against Big Fate & he threatens to kill one of Binnie's patients to make her divulge where the witness has gone. The old woman has sent him to stay with her family in England, to prevent him from getting involved in gang affairs and probably be murdered on Big Fate's orders to prevent him from testifying. Binnie and her patient file an official complaint against McDonagh and he is now under internal investigation.

As they try to gather evidence against Big Fate, McDonagh goes back to a hotel room where he finds Frankie beaten by one of her clients, a seemingly well-connected man named Justin (Shea Whigham). McDonagh threatens Justin and takes $10,000 from him.

In addition to dealing with the murder investigation, McDonagh gets in trouble with his bookie Ned Schoenholtz (Brad Dourif) for not paying his debts of $5000. McDonagh fails to get a traffic violation against Ned's daughter squashed, which angers Ned even more.

Justin is the son of the biggest property developer in town. The gangster/Developer Dave (William M. Finkelstein) now demands $50,000, five times the amount stolen from Justin, as compensation and gives McDonagh two days to get it. Dave had kept Frankie hostage, and McDonagh was OK with his associates forcing themselves upon Frankie, if he could get those extra 2 days to make the payment. To save Frankie, McDonagh hides her at his parents' place.

As a result of his treatment of the Binnie and her patient, McDonagh is reprimanded by his department and is on modified duty and his gun placed in the evidence room. McDonagh goes to Big Fate and they become partners, with McDonagh supplying Big Fate with police information so he can move his drug shipments around unimpeded. In exchange, McDonagh gets $15K per shipment.

McDonagh now has enough money to pay off his debts to his bookie and uses his surplus earnings to place a new bet. Unknown to the bookie, McDonagh had attempted to fix the game he was betting on, by threatening to arrest the quarterback on charges of possession. The quarterback takes himself out of the game, but still McDonagh ends up winning the bet.

During a celebration of the successful partnership between McDonagh and Big Fate, Dave shows up, demanding his money. McDonagh offers him a cut worth more than $50,000 from a bag filled with pure heroin, but the gangster wants to take it all. Big Fate and his crew end up killing the gangsters.

To further celebrate their partnership, McDonagh implores Big Fate to smoke crack cocaine with his "lucky crack pipe." He does, and McDonagh later plants the pipe at the murder scene of the Senegal family. Ned pays $10K to McDonagh for the bet and thanks him for taking care of his daughter's speeding ticket. Justin withdraws the complaint against McDonagh and squares all issues. Things finally fall in place for McDonagh.

The department uses the new evidence to arrest Big Fate and his cronies, but when he and McDonagh are alone with Big Fate, McDonagh's partner, Stevie Pruit (Val Kilmer), threatens to kill Big Fate, as Pruit does not want him to have the chance to escape conviction. McDonagh is outraged at this idea and arrests Big Fate, showing that despite his addictions he can still perform his duties as an officer. McDonagh is later promoted to police captain.

One year later, McDonagh appears to be sober, as does Frankie (who is pregnant with McDonagh's child) and McDonagh's parents, but it turns out that McDonagh is still taking heroin. He encounters the prisoner whom he saved at the beginning of the film, and the man, recognizing McDonagh, exclaims that McDonagh saved his life. The man has been sober for almost a year and offers to help McDonagh finally escape his own addiction.