Law Abiding Citizen free essay sample

The movie, Law Abiding Citizen, begins with a man and his daughter at a table working on individual products. A woman, presumably his wife, is in the kitchen preparing dinner when there is a knock at the door. The man answers the door and is immediately assaulted with a baseball bat. He is then tied up and stabbed with a knife. Bound on the floor, he watches one of the two assailants beat and rape his wife. His daughter who is watching from the other room is carried off by one of the assailants. The movie fades to black as if the man has lost consciousness. The next scene is of two men discussing their careers and ambitions. From the conversation, we are led to believe they are lawyers which is confirmed when we see a team of them discussing cases, research, and deciding who will try which cases. Nick, one of the duo we were introduced to earlier, is summoned by the DA (Cantrell) who wants information about the Shelton case. We will write a custom essay sample on Law Abiding Citizen or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Cantrell is told by Nick that the case went sideways due to an imperfect system. He references a particular judge, Judge Burch, leading the audience to believe this may be why the case â€Å"went sideways†. Nick states that they should make a deal in spite of the little girl having been killed. He doesn’t want to chance losing the case. He states that â€Å"some justice is better than no justice at all†. We are then taken to a room where Nick is sitting with the husband, Clyde, the man from the first scene of the movie. Nick proceeds to tell Clyde that one of the two men who assaulted his family has agreed to testify against the other. Clyde seems confused about this decision and wants to know what will happen to Darby if he testifies against Ames. He is told that Darby will plead guilty of 3 rd degree murder and will probably serve 5yrs. It is then that we find out that the judge ruled that the DNA evidence is inadmissible under the exclusionary rule. This is a legal principle which holds that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the defendants constitutional rights is sometimes inadmissible. The forensic evidence including the blood found on a shirt is deemed inconclusive. Clyde is told that even though he witnessed the assault, his testimony will not be reliable because he blacked out. After arguing with the attorney, Clyde is told â€Å"It’s not what you know it’s what you can prove in court. † Upon seeing the growing horror and desperation on Clyde’s face we are left feeling dissatisfied with the justice system and the loopholes that are sometimes present within it. We leave the husband and move into a courtroom where the deal is struck. Here we see that Nick, as the prosecuting attorney, does not like the way this case has turned out. This is especially evident when Nick tells Darby to please mess this up so he can destroy him. As Nick is leaving the courthouse with Cantrell he questions his judgment before talking to the gathered press. During the talk with the press Darby, the man who agreed to testify, shakes his hand and thanks him for being in his corner. Nick quietly tells him to get away from him and notices the husband staring at him. Nick then heads home to his wife and unborn child. Its been 10 years and Ames is being prepared for lethal injection. Nick and some of his fellow attorneys are present for the execution. Ames’ last statement is that he didn’t kill those people and that the wrong man is dying there today. As we are watching the injection it appears that something has gone horribly wrong, Ames starts convulsing and screaming. There are veins visible all over his body. Outside while trying to figure out if the machine is corrupted or has been tampered with, Nick is presented with a bottle that was found taped behind the machine. The bottle has can’t fight fate scratched into the front. Clarence Darby was heard saying this phrase multiple times during his time with the police. Darby receives an anonymous phone call and is told to look out of the south side window of his apartment where he see’s approaching police cars. He runs out of his apartment and fires a gun at the police cars before fleeing onto a rooftop. His mysterious caller calls back and directs him to a police car where the officer has been rendered unconscious. At gunpoint Darby forces the officer to drive. They arrive at an abandoned warehouse under an old bridge where we discover the cop is really a disguised Clyde. He uses a toxin to paralyze Darby and tells him he will still be able to feel everything. Darby is taken into a warehouse and hooked up to a table with saline and adrenaline. Clyde points out various tools and proceeds to describe to him the torture that he is about to go through. We then see him start up a video recorder and use an electric saw to cut off Darby’s legs. After the discovery of Darby’s body the police look for possible motives and discover that Clyde Shelton owns the warehouse where Darby’s body was found. When the police come to arrest Clyde he is standing in the doorway wearing only a bracelet that says daddy. Clyde is taken into custody and escorted to a cell where he is questioned . In the meantime a package arrives at Nick’s house and is opened by his daughter, it contains a video of Darby’s execution. Nick, thinking this is an open and shut case, walks in and congratulates Clyde off the record and tells him that the world is a better place without people like Darby and Ames. On the record he asks Clyde if he’s sure he wants to waive his right to counsel, then proceeds to question him about the murders. He asks if Clyde murdered Clarence Darby and is answered that he wanted him dead, he killed his wife and child. He asks about Rupert Ames and is told that Rupert Ames deserved to die. That they both deserved to die. Nick then asks if Clyde arranged both of the murders and is told that he planned it in his head, over and over again. That it took him a long time. Nick thanks Clyde and starts to walk away when he is told to cancel his 12:30 lunch with Judge Roberts. To go ahead and cancel the rest of his week. He then has his words thrown in his face†¦. it’s not what you know its what you can prove in court. That he has not said anything that could incriminate him in a court of law. What father wouldn’t want those things to happen. Clyde then states he wants to make a deal. He tells them if they get him a nice bed then they will get his full confession. At the sentencing trial the DA’s office asks the judge to hold Mr. Shelton without bail. Clyde tells the judge that he finds it highly prejudicial, even constitutionally offensive to keep him detained without bail and he proceeds to point out a case Day v. McDonough, docket #041325 to make his point. When the judge agrees with him he begins to mock her, stating that he can’t believe she was about to let him go considering that he allegedly just killed two people. He states that he fed her a couple of legal precedents and she jumped right on it. That she treats the law like its an assembly line and does she have any idea what justice is. He then asks her repeatedly whatever happened to right and wrong. Back in the cell Clyde proceeds to give Nick a detailed confession just as he promised and admits that he has another confession, thus he wants another deal. This time he wants a steak dinner from Del Frisco’s restaurant and he wants his iPod. This is all in return for the life of Bill Reynolds, Darby’s attorney. He tells them to make sure his meal is there by 1:00 pm and he will give them Mr. Reynolds location. The warden aggravated by his demands delays the meal. This delays the search effort and results in the discovery of Mr. Reynolds body. He was hooked up to an oxygen mask that was scheduled to quit working at 1:15pm, if they hadn’t been delayed he would have been alive when they got there. While this is happening Clyde uses the bone from the steak to murder his cell-mate. The warden has him moved to solitary confinement The DA pulls some strings and finds a man that knew Clyde in the past. They find out that he is what they call a brain, someone who can kill people without being in the same room with them. That he has a gift for it and he is the best. They are told that if Clyde is in jail it’s because he wants to be there. That he’s a born tactician and every move he makes means something. They are advised by their contact to walk into the cell and put a bullet into his head because they won’t be able to stop him otherwise. We then see Nick and Cantrell talking to Judge Burch. They ask her to wrap Clyde up in legal tape to limit contact and access to the outside world. She then asks them if they want her to violate his god given civil rights in the name of some murky sense of the greater good. After given a yes, she says she‘s game. She warns them it won’t stick for long. After she hands over the signed paper, her cell phone rings. When she answers her head explodes and she falls over dead. It’s unclear if the phone exploded or she was shot. Clyde while being questioned by Nick over the death of the judge states that he is at war with the broken thing that brought them together, referring to the justice system. Clyde then tells him he has another deal release him and drop all charges by 6am or he kills everyone. As 6am rolls around the legal team anxiously await’s the next call for another victim. Everyone releases a breath when nothing happens at 6 am. As they get into their vehicles preparing to leave there are several explosions and we get a close-up of one of the lawyers face before her car explodes. The lawyers are assigned a security detail and their families are evacuated. They suspect he has an accomplice but struggle to find any connection to anyone. Clyde warns the lawyers that he is just warming up, and that he is going to bring the whole diseased temple down on their heads. One by one all of the lawyers start questioning whether they are responsible for all of these innocent lives lost because they did not proceed with a trial for mr. Shelton’s family. The next casualty is Jonas Cantrell when his vehicle is gunned down and then blown up by an automated machine after the funeral of their colleague. After this many deaths the city is put on lockdown. After a tip and cross referencing the buildings sold in the area in the last ten years, they find out that clyde owns the building across from the jail. While investigating the building they discover a tunnel that leads directly to the jail. Clyde has been coming and going as he chooses. Posing as a janitor, Clyde infiltrates city hall and plants a bomb directly below the room holding a meeting of the fbi, homeland security, the sherrifs department, the philly police department and the mayor. The movie comes to a conclusion when Nick corners clyde in solitary and asks him to stop what he’s doing. Clyde is holding a cell phone in his hand one call and the bomb that he has set up will explode. Nick tells him that it is a decision he will have to live with for the rest of his life. Clyde says he’s sorry and calls the number. Nick shuts the door and runs out of the building, we then hear ringing. They have moved the bomb to Clyde’s cell and handcuffed it to his bed. Clyde sits on his bed and stares at the bracelet his daughter made for him while flames crawl up the wall behind him. We see Nick walk across the parking lot as part of the building explodes. This movie shows us the downside of the justice system and all of the things that can go wrong if proper protocol is not followed. It focuses on some of the issues that the law enforcement community faces when trying to put violent offenders behind bars. In protecting everyone’s civil rights, sometimes the bad guys don’t get the justice that is deserved. Increasingly criminals are using these loopholes to get reduced sentences that may help put them back on the street sooner. As part of the law enforcement community we should strive to make sure that things like this rarely happen. If a person commit’s a crime they should be punished accordingly. It is a harsh reality that criminals must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I have to agree with Nick in these instances it’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove in court. That must be one of the most frustrating things to deal with. Another issue that I noticed in the movie was the blatant abuse of power. For instance, in the scene where the DA’s are talking to the judge they ask her to wrap Clyde up in legal precedents to restrict his access to the outside world. She says, â€Å"let me get this straight, you want me to violate his god given civil rights? † â€Å"ok, sure. † Instances such as these are one of the leading causes of the bias’s that people have against the criminal justice system. Law abiding citizen free essay sample Law Abiding Citizen is a 2009 American thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay written by Kurt Wimmer and stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. The film takes place in Philadelphia and tells the story of a man driven to commit multiple murders while targeting not only his familys killer but also a corrupt criminal justice system. Law Abiding Citizen was released theatrically in North America on October 16, 2009. [3] The film was nominated for a Saturn Award as the Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film of the year, but lost to Inglourious Basterds, and the film also garnered NAACP Image Awards nominations for both Jamie Foxx (Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture) and F. Gary Gray (Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture). [4] Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Soundtrack 5 Release 6 Reception 7 See also 8 References 9 External links Plot[edit] In a 1999 Philadelphia home invasion, Clarence James Darby (Christian Stolte) and his accomplice Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart) kill the wife and daughter of Clyde Alexander Shelton (Gerard Butler) before his eyes. We will write a custom essay sample on Law abiding citizen or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) is unable to use DNA hard evidence to securely convict both accused. Unwilling to take a chance on lowering his high conviction rate, he makes a deal with Darby, letting him plead guilty to a lesser charge and receive a reduced sentence in return for testifying against Ames. Ames is found guilty and is sentenced to death. Darby is released after a few years. Shelton feels betrayed by Rices actions and by the justice system in general. Ten years later, Amess time on death row is up. Unknown to the prosecutors and the witnesses, the cardiotoxic drug usually used in executions has been replaced with ananticonvulsant, causing Ames to die an extremely painful death. Evidence relating to tampering with the drug implicates Darby. An anonymous caller alerts Darby as the police draw near, and directs him to a remote location. Shelton, disguised as a cop, reveals himself as the caller and paralyzes Darby with puffer fish venom. He straps Darby to a table and slowly dismembers him as revenge for murdering his wife and daughter, videorecording the gory proceedings. When Darbys remains are found, circumstantial evidence tentatively ties his death to Shelton. Despite knowing the evidence is weak, Shelton surrenders himself into police custody, where he points out the flaws in Rices case against him. As he leaves the interrogation room, Rice receives a phone call from his wife, and learns that Shelton had sent a copy of the Snuff film of Darbys demise to his house, traumatising his daughter. He initially refuses to bargain with Shelton in order to get a confession. But District Attorney Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) orders Rice to make a deal. In court, Shelton represents himself. He successfully argues that he should be granted bail, then berates the judge for accepting the bullshit legal precedents he himself cited and for being too eager to let madmen and murderers back on the street. The judge jails Shelton for contempt of court. Shelton demands a porterhouse steak lunch be delivered to his cell by a specific time, in return for telling where to find Darbys lawyer, who was reported missing three days earlier. Rice agrees, though the lunch is delayed by a few minutes due to the wardens pedantic security measures. Once he has his meal, Shelton provides a set of coordinates, where Rice and the others find Darbys lawyer, buried alive but suffocated when his air supply ran out while Sheltons lunch was being delayed. Shelton kills his cellmate using the steaks bone, forcing the warden to secure him in solitary confinement. Cantrell arranges a meeting with a CIA contact and brings Rice. They learn that Shelton has previously worked with the agency, creating devices to assassinate people in imaginative ways, such as a necktie that kept getting tighter when it was tied, thus strangling the victim. Further, they are warned that Shelton is capable of killing anyone he wishes. During a meeting with Rice and Cantrell, the judge is killed when she answers her cell phone and it explodes. A number of Rices assistants are killed by car bombs, one of them Sarah Lowell (Leslie Bibb). As Rice and Cantrell leave the funeral of Lowell, Cantrell is killed by a weaponized bomb disposal robot. The mayor (Viola Davis) puts the city under lockdown and promotes Rice to acting District Attorney. Rice learns that Shelton owns an auto garage next to the prison. A tunnel from the garage leads to a cache of guns, disguises, and other equipment below the solitary confinement cells, and secret entrances to each cell. He and Police Detective Dunnigan (Colm Meaney) realize Shelton wanted to be in solitary, allowing him to easily leave the prison without detection and commit the murders. Evidence in the tunnel points Rice to Sheltons next target, city hall, where the mayor is holding an emergency meeting with city officials. Rice and his men cannot find Shelton, but discover evidence pointing to a cell-phone-activated suitcase bomb in the room directly below the meeting. Shelton returns to his garage after planting the city hall bomb, then returns to his cell. He is surprised to find Rice waiting for him. Rice berates Shelton for taking revenge because of the pain he suffered. Shelton suggests another deal, but Rice refuses this time, saying that he does not make deals with murderers anymore, and thanks Shelton for teaching him that. Rice and Dunnigan secure Shelton in the cell and leave. Despite being pleased that Rice had finally learned his lesson, Shelton dials the cell phone on the city hall bomb. Shelton realizes too late that Rice has moved the bomb to his cell and the cells entrance to the tunnel has been sealed. Shelton looks upon his daughters bracelet with a sense of sadness, accepting his fate as the bomb explodes