Crown Vic Movie Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

Police officer Ray Mandel (Thomas Jane) has been patrolling the streets of Los Angeles for twenty-five years in a classic Ford Crown Victoria police car. Tonight he goes to work with a trainee – a young guy Nick Holland (Luke Kleintank), whom Ray must teach all the intricacies of the work of a patrol policeman.

During the trip, Ray, as usual, teases the newcomer in every possible way, but pretty soon it turns out that the evening, as they say, ceases to be languid: in their patrol zone, two scumbags attacked the bank and shot several policemen while leaving. Ray also learned that Jack VanZandt (Josh Hopkins) showed up in their area again, and this guy is a specific psychopath, and a very dangerous one at that.

Their night will be very eventful and heavy. And in the process, Ray will learn a lot about Nick, but Nick learns a lot more about his mentor.

***

This picture is a representative of the well-known genre of films about police partners. And then immediately, of course, “Training Day”, “Patrol”, “Street Kings” and so on come to mind. And “Police Sedan” (in the original, the picture is called simply by the abbreviated name of the famous full-size police car), in my opinion, is a worthy representative of this genre.

The whole film is one night patrol of an experienced policeman along with a green rookie. There is not much action as such here, most of the time is occupied by Ray’s conversations with Nick. And I must say that these conversations are very interesting. Ray has extensive experience in the police, he knows how it all works. He knows what the cops have to deal with. And he knows that in their work it is far from always possible to strictly follow the instructions: for example, in a situation where your life, the life of your partner or someone else’s life depends on your actions.

And Nick has just learned to be a policeman, and all these requirements, charters and protocols are still firmly in his head. And, of course, he is somewhat shocked by the fact that Ray does not always act as it is written in police documents.

Ray, in the course of their work today, will need to solve one serious problem: the wife of his former partner, who died during the arrest of a criminal, is a complete drug addict. And it is not clear with whom she left her nine-year-old daughter. Ray suspects that the girl got to very bad people who use children to deliver drugs.

In the process of clarifying all the circumstances of the case with the girl, Ray will have to consult with another experienced police officer, Don Kosky (Gregg Bello), Nick is present at the same time, so he will also be fully aware of the case.

But the girl is far from the only problem they have to deal with. They will get “entertainment” in full: the same psycho Jack VanZandt, and crazy aunt Claire (Scotty Thompson), robbers, murderers – no, this patrol will not be easy.

And it’s very interesting to watch how they move from the relationship of “mentor teaching the youngster” to the relationship of police partners, who are well aware that at certain moments their life depends on how your partner behaves.

That Ray Mandel is played by Thomas Jane, I found out after watching it. And I was somewhat shocked when I found out: I even thought that this was some other Thomas Jane – not the one who played in “Bloody Thursday” and “The Punisher”. No, it’s the same one. Somewhat, of course, aged and at the same time changed beyond recognition. I don’t know what changed him so much: a short haircut or those stupid brush mustaches “a la Hitler”.

He played quite well. Ray has a lot of experience, in difficult conditions he acts quite calmly. However, he is a living person, capable of experiencing anger or fear. You can clearly see how frightened he is by this Jack VanZandt, with whom he tries not to mess with, and at the same time, Ray is able to act quickly and decisively.

Luke Kleintank played this newcomer Nick very well. A certain amount of confusion and clumsiness at the very beginning, but all this quickly passed after the partners had to deal with a lot of things during the patrol that night. And Nick had a lot to learn, which in a certain way turned some of his ideas about the work of a policeman.

Josh Hopkins as Jack VanZandt is just awesome. This is such a scumbag psychopath, a very bright type. Also very good is David Krumholtz, who played the suffocating Stroke – VanZandt’s friend.

I like this movie. It’s well made. Yes, the picture is quite intimate, there are a lot of conversations of police partners in the closed space of the car, but it was very interesting for me personally to listen to these conversations, a lot was told there. Well, all sorts of combat moments associated with detentions are done quite skillfully.

All this was staged according to his own script by director Joel Sousa, who had previously released four films that had not been released. “Police sedan” is his first more or less prominent picture, which appeared at the most unfortunate time for her – I mean the BLM movement and related stories. Who in the States will watch a movie about police partners now? Few people will watch, a completely unfashionable topic. It’s a pity, the movie is quite good.

Crown Vic movie meaning

Director: Joel Sousa Cast: Thomas Jane, Bridget Moynahan, David Krumholtz, Luke Kleintank, Scotty Thompson, Josh Hopkins, Devon Werkheiser, Emma Ishta, Alex Morph, Faron Salisbury, Gregg Bello

Crime thriller, USA, 2019, 110 min.

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