SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
On the run from a lethal assassin, a wily con artist devises a scheme to hide out inside a small-town police station. However, when the hit man turns up at the precinct, an unsuspecting rookie cop finds herself caught in the crosshairs.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Copshop Plot Summary and Synopsis
Con artist Teddy Murretto is on the run in a stolen unmarked police car, which breaks down not far from a Nevada casino. During a brawl outside the casino, Murretto sucker-punches rookie police officer Valerie Young so that she will jail him and protect him from his pursuers.
One of those pursuers, hitman Bob Viddick, gets himself incarcerated in the same small-town jail by pretending to be drunk and crashing a car into the police car Murretto had abandoned, which was being investigated by two state troopers.
Murretto and Viddick are placed in separate cells, initially thwarting Viddick’s plan to kill Murretto.
However, Viddick has planted a small incendiary device at the station’s entrance and when it ignites and the fire alarm goes off, he takes advantage of the confusion. Viddick beats a drunken man sharing his cell and incapacitates the police sergeant, stealing his gun. He is about to kill Murretto when Young interrupts him and returns him to his cell.
While Murretto and Viddick trade threats, a new killer enters the police station — Anthony Lamb, a second hitman hired to kill Murretto. Entering the station with a bouquet of balloons as cover, he quickly murders several police officers. Young discovers the carnage and retreats behind bulletproof glass to the holding cells containing Murretto and Viddick. In a hail of bullets, one of Young’s rounds ricochets and hits her in the abdomen.
Police officer Huber, who has been stealing drugs from the evidence room, reveals betrayal to Young and joins forces with Lamb and they attempt to break through the wall of the holding cells. Murretto explains that he is being hunted down for the murder of a dead man he conned named Fenton.
Murretto and Viddick appeal to Young for the keys to their cells. Murretto manages to convince Young to hand him the keys, to the dismay of Viddick. Young releases him to go after Huber and Lamb.
Just as two of Young’s fellow co-officers are shot by Lamb after they catch them trying to break through the wall, Murretto shoots them dead and attacks Lamb and Huber. He manages to kill Huber before having a standoff in the shower room with Lamb. He manages to distract him long enough to cut his throat and leave him to die.
Viddick shows up and kills Lamb. Murretto pours gasoline all over the room, intending to light the entire station on fire and leave the scene, revealing his true nature.
Just as Murretto is about to leave, he is confronted by Young, who freed herself from the cells. She threatens him to stay in the police station and be arrested, but Murretto lights the place on fire. Young pursues him throughout the area, using a gun Sargeant Taylor had in his drawer, and shoots Murretto.
Using a rifle, he shoots Young, but she discovers a bullet on the floor and is about to shoot Murretto, when her co-officer shoots her, telling her that “she had to do it,” implying she also works for an opposing force. The co-officer is promptly shot by Viddick, who leads Young to safety outside, but escapes in a car.
While taken away by ambulance, Young gets a radio dispatch about a stolen police vehicle from the station.
Copshop Ending
She gets the paramedics to allow her to borrow the ambulance as she goes to drive in pursuit of him, with Viddick and her singing the same song.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).