The Rookie (1990 Film) - Plot

Plot

Sgt. Nick Pulovski and his partner, Powell, are assigned to the case of taking down the criminal empire of a German felon, Strom, who engages in grand theft auto and chop shop operations. During an encounter with Strom and his men, who are loading a semi-trailer truck with stolen cars, Powell is murdered. Nick, despite efforts to catch the criminals on the highway, ends up losing them.

Consequently, Nick is removed from the case by his superior, Lt. Raymond Garcia, and given a new partner, David Ackerman, a young officer recently promoted to rookie Detective, who has continual nightmares and is plagued by guilt over his brother's death, believing it was his fault as a child. Against regulations, Nick and David start investigating the Strom case. Nick tracks down a man working for Strom, Morales, whom he forces to cooperate in return for immunity. Morales, under Nick's instructions, manages to plant a two-way radio inside Strom's house without getting caught, but is still murdered later on by Strom's companion, Liesl. Feeling pressured by the authorities, Strom deduces that there is a connection between Morales and another one of his operatives, Little Felix, who has also been secretly working as an informant for Nick regarding the disclosure of his illegal activities at his wrecking yards.

Through the radio, Nick and David learn that Strom is planning to leave the country after robbing a local casino of two million dollars. Strom's men set off smoke bombs inside the casino and capture the general manager, Alphonse, forcing him to open the vault for them. Inside the vault however, are Nick and David, who had conspired with Alphonse to capture Strom. Yet Liesl, knowing of David's naïveté, dares him and distracts Nick long enough for Strom to pin the detective down to the floor. Liesl shoots David in the back; although he is not killed due to his bulletproof vest. But moments later, one of Strom's men, Cruz, discovers that the vault is empty. With police surrounding the building, Strom takes Nick hostage and demands the two million dollars as a ransom. Strom, however, has his hideout rigged with explosives, planning on destroying it with Nick inside while he escapes the country with the money.

In trying to determine Nick's whereabouts, David tracks down one of Strom's henchmen, Loco Martinez, who previously pinched his ID badge at a shady bar. Loco, however, manages to elude David following a violent encounter with him at a dry cleaners where Little Felix is also found murdered. David then decides to turn to his estranged father, Eugene, for help in securing the ransom money, which he reluctantly agrees to. While at his father's office, David's girlfriend Sarah informs him over the phone that Lt. Garcia is at their house waiting to interrogate him. Just then, David is visited by two detectives, who claim that Garcia is at headquarters and has sent them to retrieve him over his alleged forbidden involvement in the Strom case and police brutality. David realizes that there is only one person capable of impersonating Garcia; Loco, with David's badge. David evades the detectives and races home on a borrowed motorcycle. During an ensuing physical confrontation between the two men, Sarah grabs David's gun and kills Loco. David is distraught, as he needed Loco alive to tell him where Nick is being held captive. However, David later notices Loco's car outside their door, a bizarrely colored Lotus, which he and Nick spotted earlier at a warehouse in which one of Strom's mechanics, Max, was working on.

After killing Max in a struggle within an elevator shaft, Nick is rescued by David. The pair only barely escape the warehouse before the explosion by driving a Mercedes convertible through a wall, and later capture Cruz, whom Strom sent to collect the ransom. As the group arrives at the airport, Cruz gives Strom the money and is murdered. Nick and David open fire at the scene as a situation is created where one of Strom's men, Blackwell, in charge of flying him out of the country aboard a private jet, is killed following a collision with a commercial airliner. David later pursues Liesl into the airport and kills her, while Nick attempts to shoot Strom during his own chase, but ends up out of ammunition. Strom shoots Nick and prepares to finish him when David arrives and shoots Strom in the shoulder. Seriously injured, Strom collapses onto a luggage conveyor belt. Nick climbs on, and to avenge Powell and end the homicide spree there, kills him despite Strom's requests for medical attention.

Sometime later, Nick, David and Garcia have been promoted. David is now a detective and Nick the new Lieutenant (though Garcia's new position is left unrevealed). In a scene reminiscent of Nick's first meeting with David, Nick introduces David to another "rookie" cop, Heather Torres, as his new partner.