L.A. Noire - Plot

Plot

The story begins with Officer Cole Phelps on the Patrol Desk at the Wilshire Division 7 Police Station as a fairly new member of the police department in 1947 Los Angeles, California, successfully investigating a murder with his partner, Officer Ralph Dunn. The game follows Phelps' progress through the ranks and through different departments, such as the Homicide department, where he defeats a serial killer (who is depicted as the perpetrator of the real life Black Dahlia murder, and who happens to be the half-brother of an unnamed high-level American politician, a fact which Phelps and his partner are warned by their superior to never speak publicly about), and shows the collapse of his marriage to Marie, after he falls for German lounge singer, Elsa Lichtmann (Erika Heynatz).

When a U.S. Marine from Phelps's former unit is found brutally murdered, Phelps discovers many of his former squad members are being assassinated as well, and after meeting with his old comrade, Jack Kelso (Gil McKinney), he deduces that the men in his unit were selling surplus morphine after stealing a large supply from the USS Coolridge, the ship that carried the unit back to Los Angeles at the end of World War II. The men are being killed by the mob, who control the drug trade and resent the competition.

Further investigations by Phelps and Kelso lead them to discover that the money from the morphine sales is being used to fund a program known as "The Suburban Redevelopment Fund." They discover that while the fund publicly has good intentions — to build houses for homecoming American servicemen — it is actually a front for an insurance fraud scam, run by a tycoon named Leland Monroe (John Noble), where sub-standard houses are built and then fall victim to arson in order apparently to claim the insurance money. This is finally revealed to be only a small part of the fraud, as the true fraud was against the federal government regarding eminent domain. The Suburban Redevelopment Fund aimed to build entire communities, albeit with matchstick houses, to fool the federal government into paying much higher prices for the land where they were constructed, as they are in the path of the proposed Whitnall Parkway in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles. The scam involves local businessmen, dignitaries and even the police chief. It also involves Monroe and a doctor named Harlan Fontaine (Peter Blomquist) and a headstrong member of Phelps and Kelso's unit, corpsman Courtney Sheldon, who is later killed by Fontaine. After a shoot-out at Monroe's mansion by Kelso, it is revealed that the arsonist killed Fontaine and has kidnapped Elsa Lichtmann. It also revealed that the arsonist was Ira Hogeboom, a flamethrower operator from Phelps' and Kelso's unit, whose mental balance was disturbed after he inadvertently killed a large number of civilians at Okinawa.

At the Los Angeles River Tunnels, while trying to rescue the kidnapped Elsa, Phelps and Kelso fight their way through corrupt policemen and thugs trying to stop them from exposing the Suburban Redevelopment Fund scam. Outside the tunnels, the Assistant DA blocks the corrupt chief of police from sending additional officers after Phelps, and makes a deal where he sells out the other Fund conspirators. Kelso kills Hogeboom to put him out of his mental anguish and he and Phelps rescue Elsa and flee from the tunnels while struggling against a sewer level that is rising after heavy rain. Eventually, the trio finds an open manhole that they use get Elsa up to the surface. As the water begins to rise, Phelps voluntarily lifts Kelso to the surface as well; as there is no one else to help Phelps, he says a final goodbye to his comrades as a current sweeps him away, killing him.

Later, a funeral is held for Phelps. Biggs says to Kelso that Phelps was never his friend. Kelso acknowledges that, and says that he was never his enemy. Biggs says that Phelps knew that, as the speech for Phelps finishes.