Plot
Officer Jim Street (Colin Farrell), a former U.S. Navy SEAL and hot-shot cop from the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) and his S.W.A.T. team are sent to stop a gang of robbers who have taken over a bank. His high-tempered partner and close friend Brian Gamble (Jeremy Renner) disobeys an order not to fire on a bank robber, and accidentally wounds a hostage in the process. Gamble and Street are demoted by Captain Fuller (Larry Poindexter), the commander of the department's Metropolitan Division, who is portrayed as a "fussy martinet". Gamble quits following arguments with Fuller and Street, who is taken off the S.W.A.T. team and sent to work in the "gun cage", where he looks after gear and weapons.
Six months after the incident, the chief of police calls on Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) to help re-organize the S.W.A.T. division. Hondo puts together a diverse team, including himself, Street, Chris Sánchez (Michelle Rodriguez), Deacon Kaye (LL Cool J), TJ McCabe (Josh Charles), and Michael Boxer (Brian Van Holt). The team trains together and develops bonds of friendship, and their first mission to subdue an unstable gunman is a success.
Meanwhile, French drug lord Alexander Montel (Olivier Martinez) kills his father and uncle for control of the family's criminal empire. Uniformed L.A.P.D. personnel stop Montel for a broken taillight, detain him, and learn through Interpol that he is an international fugitive. But as Montel is transferred to prison, his associates, dressed as L.A.P.D. officers, attempt to rescue him as he rides the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bus. Hondo's S.W.A.T. team kills the gunmen and recaptures Alexander. As Montel is being brought into the police station in front of reporters, he yells to the TV cameras, "I will give 100 million dollars to whoever gets me out of here!"
The L.A.P.D. makes plans to transfer Montel into federal custody. They plan to fly him away, but a mysterious attacker (it is later revealed to be Gamble) shoots down the helicopter with a high-powered rifle. The police next send out a large convoy, which gang members attack. It proves to be a decoy, and Hondo's team has spirited Montel away in two SUVs. However, TJ has been plotting with Gamble, and the two succeed in taking Montel from the other officers, critically wounding Boxer in the process. Hondo and the rest give chase for a final battle against Gamble's group. Hondo's team is victorious; TJ commits suicide rather than be captured, and Street successfully kills Gamble by sending him under the wheels of a passing train, decapitating him. The S.W.A.T. team delivers Montel to a federal prison to await trial. On the way home to L.A., a report of a holdup in progress comes over the police radio, and despite the team being two officers down and off shift for the past twelve hours, Hondo, Street, Kaye, and Sanchez decide to help anyway.
Read more about this topic: S.W.A.T. (film)
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