Fire With Fire (2012)
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A firefighter is forced into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a neo-Nazi crime boss after a violent encounter.
The story
Following a grueling day of work, Long Beach, California firefighter Jeremy Coleman and his coworkers contemplate ending the day with a case of 15-year-old Scotch whisky. Jeremy enters a convenience store to buy snacks, but is interrupted by David Hagan, an Aryan Brotherhood crime boss. Hagan accuses the store owner of refusing to sell his store which Hagan wants to further his criminal enterprise. The store owner says he buys protection from the Eastside Crips and the store is in their territory so it would not be useful for Hagan's purposes. Hagan kills the store owner's son and then the store owner. Coleman narrowly escapes.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After narrowly escaping a convenience store where David Hagan, an Aryan Brotherhood crime boss, murdered a store owner and his son, firefighter Jeremy Coleman is targeted. Police detective Mike Cella sees an opportunity to bring Hagan to justice. Hagan, however, mocks Coleman during a lineup, revealing he knows Coleman's identity. Coleman enters the witness protection program, moving to New Orleans and beginning a romance with Deputy US Marshal Talia Durham. When Hagan's hitmen ambush them, Coleman vows to kill Hagan first and abandons protection. Coleman returns to Long Beach, seeking an untraceable weapon from the Eastside Crips. He identifies Hagan's location through a terrified associate, Harold Gethers. After Durham is kidnapped by Hagan's men, Coleman uses his firefighting knowledge to set Hagan's meeting building on fire. He enters the blaze to rescue her. During a final struggle inside the burning building, Durham kills Hagan, and they escape together. Detective Cella later notes that no evidence was left behind to charge anyone for the deaths.
- First release year
- 2012
- Runtime (minutes)
- 96
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- David Barrett
- Writers
- Tom O'Connor · writer
- Cast and characters
- Josh Duhamel · Jeremy Coleman; Bruce Willis · David Hagan; Vincent D'Onofrio · Mike Cella; Rosario Dawson · Talia Durham
- Genres
- action; thriller
- Themes
- Revenge; Vigilantism; Witness Protection
- Tone and mood
- Action; Thriller; Violent
- Premise and plot tags
- Vigilante; Crime; Action; Firefighting
- Reception
- The film received mixed to negative reviews, with critics describing it as a clichéd, mediocre B movie that was 'more silly than exciting' and 'daft, generic revenger.'
- Reported review scores
- Time Out London · score: 3/5 · scale: stars; Total Film · score: 3/5 · scale: stars; DVD Talk · score: 3.5/5 · scale: stars; Empire · score: 1/5 · scale: stars; The Guardian · score: 1/5 · scale: stars
- Production trivia
- The film was released direct-to-video on DVD and Blu-ray.; The film features a score by Trevor Morris.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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