Rush (1991 Film) - Plot

Plot

Seasoned undercover narcotics police officer, Jim Raynor (Jason Patric), is told by his superior, Lt. Dodd (Sam Elliott), to choose a partner from a group of recent police academy graduates for his undercover investigation, which has been ongoing for two years. His choice of Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh) surprises Dodd, but Raynor is confident she is the right fit for what he needs.

Raynor explains to Cates that all they will have is each other in this assignment. They are caught between the legal world and the illegal underworld, belonging to neither and only able to trust one another. This is a difficult and demanding job, one that will take them both to the brink. Though initially startled by Raynor's intensity, Cates insists she is capable of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Later at Raynor's apartment, he teaches Cates how to properly shoot up heroin. Cates informs Raynor that she was instructed how to expertly fake drug use at the police academy, which prompts a strong rebuke from Raynor. He informs her in no uncertain terms that she will be put in situations where she will have to take the drugs they will be buying. The drug dealers they will be doing business with are not stupid, and if she tries to fake drug use in front of them, she will get both of them killed.

Raynor and now Cates's main objective in their operation is to take down the cunning, mysterious, and powerful drug lord Will Gaines (Gregg Allman). While Raynor (and the Tyler police department) is certain Gaines is the main drug boss in Tyler, Texas, Gaines is an expert at avoiding detection, and deeply mistrustful of Raynor. Unable to secure access to him, Cates and Raynor buy large quantities of drugs from minor dealers in Tyler. These drugs are cataloged and given to Dodd, along with information detailing who they bought the drugs from. Raynor and Cates quickly go from pretending to be lovers to the real thing.

As Raynor predicted, Cates is soon put into a position where she is forced to inject drugs in front of a drug dealer. Raynor tries to intervene and tell the dealer that "his lady doesn't fix", but the dealer insists at gunpoint. Cates first tries nervously to talk her way out of the situation, then yanks off her jacket and with shaking hands begins to prepare a heroin shot as Raynor had taught her. Seeing her high level of anxiety, Raynor takes the prepared needle from her and injects it into her arm. While the dealer watches approvingly and laughs, Cates quietly vomits off screen.

Soon enough, Cates is addicted to the drugs she has to use to maintain her cover, and Raynor arrives home one day to find Cates combing the carpet, desperately searching for any crumbs of drugs that may have fallen. Raynor nurses Cates through her withdrawal while appearing largely unaffected by his own drug use. However, over the course of the film he becomes even more addicted than she. Eventually, both are able to get clean, but remain traumatized and scarred by their drug experiences.

Though they have successfully infiltrated Tyler's drug underworld, Raynor and Cates are no closer to obtaining evidence against Gaines. Under pressure from the department, they falsify evidence against Gaines in order to secure his arrest and indictment. They move into a small trailer awaiting the beginning of the trial. Cates is startled awake one evening by the barrel of a shotgun caressing her face. A gunfight ensues in which Raynor is shot in the thigh, striking his femoral artery. Cates frantically goes for help, then returns to the trailer to find Raynor barely conscious. She holds as he dies in her arms.

At Gaines's trial, Cates is on the witness stand. During testimony she mentions that she has resigned from the police force. Her testimony sticks to the fabricated story Raynor and she concocted, and appears to earn the support of the jury and courtroom spectators. When she looks directly at Gaines, however, he slides two fingers down the bridge of his nose, mimicking the movement of the shotgun that eventually killed Raynor. Stunned, Cates retracts her statements about Gaines's involvement in the drug trade, and testifies that they were ordered to fabricate evidence by the Chief of Police. This of course secures Gaines's acquittal.

Gaines, now a free man, gets into his car. He notices someone hiding in the backseat and is killed with a shotgun blast to the face. The killer is never shown, but the impression is that it is Cates.