21 Bridges

Small-time criminals and former war veterans Michael Trujillo and Ray Jackson take a job to ransack a winery and steal several kilograms of cocaine it was keeping. The heist goes wrong when they realize there is more cocaine than they were expecting and police officers casually arrive at the location. They are forced into a shootout where Ray guns down the officers. Michael chastises Ray for putting them in jeopardy due to the officers’ deaths.

NYPD detective Andre Davis is assigned to the case. Struggling with the legacy of his deceased police officer father, Davis has earned a reputation for hunting down and killing “cop killers,” although he claims they were all in self-defense and is uncomfortable with the label. Narcotics detective Frankie Burns is assigned as Davis’ partner. Davis and Burns come into conflict with FBI agents Butchco and Dugan, who attempt to take over the case. With the reluctant approval of the deputy mayor, the FBI, and the officers’ precinct head, Captain McKenna, Davis asks for Manhattan to be locked down, although they are only given until 5:00 a.m. to catch the criminals.

Now on the run, Ray and Michael coerce their liaison, Bush, to persuade their handler to give them a bigger cut in exchange for their identities changed for their escape. They are given more money and their fixer, Adi, gives them new identities and tells them to depart for Miami the next morning. Davis and Burns manage to identify Ray, Michael, and Bush in the resulting investigation. Bush is gunned down by Butchco and Dugan when they get there first. After catching Butchco planting his sidearm on Bush’s body and briefly scuffling with him, Davis feels more suspicious when a police force led by Lieutenant Kelly quickly manages to locate Adi’s apartment. Adi is mortally wounded by the policemen but manages to give Michael two flash drives before Michael and Ray escape.

Davis and Burns manage to catch up to Michael and Ray; after accidentally killing a civilian, Ray is mortally wounded by Davis. Michael then holds Burns at gunpoint and tells Davis about the drives and how suspicious everything is before escaping. Burns chastises Davis for letting Michael escape despite Davis’ supposed reputation for killing those who murder cops. Michael manages to hide in a hotel room, where he unlocks the contents of the drive and realizes that McKenna’s precinct was involved in trafficking the drugs from the winery and earning profits for it. After another chase where Michael abandons his money, Davis manages to corner him in a subway train and convinces him to surrender, promising to keep him alive. Michael is suddenly shot by Burns, who had also boarded the train and claimed that she thought Michael was still holding Davis at gunpoint. Davis berates her for shooting Michael, who secretly hands over the drives alongside the password to them to Davis before dying. As the police congratulate the two for their efforts, Davis realizes that Burns had contacted Kelly before Adi’s apartment was raided.

The next morning, McKenna arrives at his home to find Davis holding him at gunpoint, having found out the contents in the drives. McKenna reasons that the officers were struggling to survive on a measly pay, which forced them to go into drug trafficking, but that fails to convince Davis to walk away. McKenna, a hiding Butchco, Dugan, and Kelly – who were all in McKenna’s payroll – then open fire at Davis. Davis kills all of them, including McKenna, who refuse to surrender. Burns, who is also allied with McKenna, then appears from behind and holds Davis at gunpoint. He manages to convince her to surrender after revealing that he had already leaked the information online and that he doesn’t want her daughter to live without her mother.

In the aftermath, Davis solemnly drives off on one of New York’s bridges in the sunset, and the drives are shown to be snapped.