Tagline: Unite and fight.
A classic head-to-head showdown ignites in Assault on Precinct 13, an all-new update of the 1976 action thriller of the same name. With only a few hours left in the calendar year, Precinct 13, one of Detroit’s oldest precinct houses, is closing. Amid heavy snowfall and unsafe road conditions, only a few lawmen remain on duty for New Year’s Eve.
They are headed by Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), a good cop wrestling with bad memories of a fatal undercover op from the previous spring. Roenick and Precinct 13 have both seen better days. Early on December 31st, deep in the city, formidable crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), is cornered by an undercover cop.
Their ensuing struggle leaves the cop dead — and Bishop captured, by the Organized Crime and Racketeering squad that Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne) runs. Bishop is handcuffed onto a prison bus with several criminals: junkie Beck (John Leguizamo), hustler Smiley (Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins), and gang member Anna (Aisha Hinds).
But the battering snowstorm stops the bus well short of its high-security destination and strands it at the remote Precinct 13 — where, as night falls, the prisoners are temporarily incarcerated. This influx of prisoners irks Roenick, almost as much as visiting police psychologist Alex Sabian (Maria Bello) does. But Precinct 13’s provocative secretary Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo) and salty veteran cop Jasper “Old School” O’Shea (Brian Dennehy) won’t let the increasing workload deter them from celebrating…
…until two masked gunmen break in and attack the guards from the bus. The gunmen are just barely beaten back, and everyone inside Precinct 13 realizes that more will come — to extract crime lord Bishop, but also armed and ready to shoot anyone and everyone else. The cops, looking to the reluctant Roenick for leadership, and the cons, looking to the steely Bishop for an angle, must join forces to live. Fortifying themselves with minimal weaponry and maximum courage, they will not go gently into the bad night. As they fight to the death, the thin lines between good and bad bleed together.
These production notes provided by Focus Features.
Assault on Precinct 13
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello, Aisha Hinds, Drea de Matteo, Gabriel Byrne
Directed by: Jean-François Richet
Screenplay by: John Carpenter
Release Date: January 19th, 2005
Running Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and language throughout, and for drug content.
Studio: Focus Features
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $20,040,895 (56.8%)
Foreign: $15,253,575 (43.2%)
Total: $35,294,470 (Worldwide)