Protéger & servir (2010)

Michel Boudriau and Kim Houang, two police lieutenants, have been friends since childhood. Michel, who is naive and very religious, is married and has six children. Kim, who was adopted and then abandoned by Vietnamese restaurateurs, is single and very stingy. The police officers take aptitude tests. After disastrous results, Kim uses his charm to persuade the IT specialist to improve his own scores and Michel’s. Meanwhile, a series of bomb attacks takes place in the Paris region, with the perpetrators demanding 15 million euros. The Minister of the Interior orders Aude Letellier, the police director, to assign the case to the officers who scored highest on the aptitude tests: Michel and Kim are selected. When he meets Aude Letellier, Kim falls for her secretary, Angela, and immediately invites her out. To drive Angela, the very frugal Kim borrows a police car. He does not know that a bomb has been planted in it for a forthcoming attack. The car explodes in front of the police director’s office. Meanwhile, Michel, who writes scripts based on real police cases, is manipulated by Roméro, a con man posing as a producer so he can get hold of Michel’s scripts and use them to plan burglaries more effectively. Aude Letellier, who is behind the bomb attacks along with her driver, persuades the minister to give in and hand over the demanded ransom to the kidnappers. Michel and Kim are assigned to deliver the ransom. Before the officers arrive, Aude replaces the banknotes in the briefcase she gives them with bundles of paper. She also gives Michel a “secure” phone that is, in reality, packed with explosives. As they are about to reach the meeting place, Michel and Kim are attacked by the fake producer Roméro and two accomplices, who steal the briefcase containing the fake bundles and the booby-trapped phone. When Aude calls them, one of the criminals answers, and the car carrying the three crooks explodes. Aude kills her accomplice, her driver, so she can keep all the money. She holds a press conference to pay tribute to the two lieutenants, whom she believes are dead, and to posthumously promote them to commissioners. Angela, who has found the driver’s body, has alerted the minister. He arrives with members of the RAID during Aude’s speech. Kim turns up and is taken hostage by Aude. Michel wounds Kim while trying to save him, but the RAID members shoot the police director. Kim leaves the hospital, where Angela and Michel are waiting for him. Michel tells him that he did not hand over the bag containing the 15 million and gives Kim his “share.” Kim decides to donate it to Father Mignard so he can renovate his orphanage. Michel finally tells Kim that, with part of the money, he was able to produce his police series, in which he is the lead actor, and that it is a success.