Excessive Force 1993

Terry McCain is a dedicated detective with the Chicago Police Department who finds his instincts tested after a chaotic late-night drug bust against the Italian mafia. The operation ends with a shootout and the mob’s three million dollars going missing. In a tense interrogation, he coaxes a confession from a gangster that the crime boss DiMarco is behind the exchange, but the excessive force used to obtain it renders the confession unusable in court, letting the mob boss walk free. Terry’s captain, Devlin, who is poised to become chief, warns him to rein in his volatile methods because the department’s credibility and convictions are slipping, and his personal code of violence is putting colleagues at risk.

Terry’s life centers on the jazz-club orbit he shares with his friend Jake at Déjà Vu, and his fraught relationship with his girlfriend, Anna, a model who has grown distant. On Terry’s birthday, she is not in touch, and he notices the lack of acknowledgement from his fellow detective and friend Dylan, who doesn’t stop by to say hi. Across town, DiMarco orders a search for the missing money, convinced it’s in the possession of a cop, and his goons begin tailing suspects with ruthless efficiency.

Dylan’s apartment becomes the first target of the mob’s hunt. Dylan is kidnapped, and his girlfriend is murdered in cold blood. The following morning, Dylan’s body is found in a landfill, leaving Terry furious and grieving. In a blaze of anger, he storms a private mafia club in search of DiMarco, beating several gangsters in a bid to find answers. The pursuit of DiMarco proves fruitless that night, so Terry returns to Anna’s place, seeking some solace and a moment to drink away the sting of the losses. Anna, bewildered by the intrusion after months apart, is even more unsettled when Terry reveals that Dylan is dead.

Soon after, another close ally, Frankie Hawkins, is killed in an explosion, and Devlin gives Terry the go-ahead to do whatever it takes to avenge his friends and stop the murders. That night, Terry infiltrates a mafia-run cocktail lounge with one goal in mind: to kill DiMarco. But as he confronts the crime lord, he sees something pitiful beneath the threat of death, and the urge to act softens his resolve. DiMarco remarks that Terry should “keep the money,” a line that deepens the mystery around the disappearance of the mob cash.

keep the money

The next morning, Terry and Anna begin to reconcile as they contemplate a getaway. A newspaper headline shocks them both: DiMarco has been found dead, and witnesses place Terry at the lounge where the killing occurred, making him a prime suspect. A gangster shows up at Anna’s apartment in disguise and pulls a weapon, but Terry overpowers him and ferries Anna to a remote farmhouse for protection. As Terry and Devlin arrange a meeting to clear the air, Terry is ambushed by the mob, and a desperate escape leads him back toward Déjà Vu where he spots Jake talking to a couple of gangsters, deepening the sense that someone on the force is compromised.

Seeking answers, Terry visits another ally on the force, Sam Atwell. Sam lays out a stark history: Devlin and DiMarco have a long trail of corruption, suggesting the chief-to-be may have ordered DiMarco’s demise to keep his own misdeeds from surfacing. Armed with this new truth, Terry pieces together a dangerous path toward the truth, even as he and Anna shelter at the farmhouse and forge a fragile, intimate bond in the aftermath of violence.

Back in the city, Anna tends to Terry’s wounds and the two reconnect, but their renewed peace is short-lived. When the mob closes in, they must move quickly. Terry confronts Jake, who remains the only person who knows where the farmhouse lies, but Jake denies any betrayal and sends Terry away. The plot thickens as Devlin’s sinister ties start to come into focus: Frankie, who had been believed dead, is revealed to be alive and to have killed DiMarco. He has been working with Devlin and the mob in a bid for a share of the missing money, and he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with Terry.

The situation escalates to a rooftop confrontation where Frankie is supposed to kill Terry, but the godfatherly figure of Devlin arrives with a more ruthless plan. In the ensuing clash, Devlin kills Frankie and leaves Terry to a one-on-one struggle. A dramatic twist follows when Devlin is finally toppled from the roof by Terry, who has sustained a broken arm in the fight. The mob’s intrigue unravels, and the pursuit ends with a sweep of violence and truth.

In the aftermath, Terry and Anna visit Jake at the hospital, where Jake is recovering and ready to forgive Terry for the past. The city remains unsettled by the revelations, but the immediate danger subsides as the corrupt network is exposed and dismantled. The tale closes on the couple’s fragile, renewed commitment and a sense that justice, though costly, has at last begun to take hold in a city where power and loyalty were once deeply entwined.