Assault on Precinct 13
The story takes place on a Saturday in Anderson, a crime-infested ghetto in South Central Los Angeles. Members of a local gang known as 'Street Thunder' have recently stolen a large number of assault rifles and pistols. The film begins at 3 a.m. that morning, as a team of heavily-armed LAPD officers ambush and kill six members of the gang. Later, the gang's four warlords swear a blood oath of revenge, known as a "Cholo", against the police and the citizens of Los Angeles.
During the day, three sequences of events occur parallel to one another: First, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker), a newly promoted CHP officer, is assigned to take charge of the decommissioned Anderson police precinct during the last few hours before it is permanently closed. The station is manned by a skeleton staff composed of Sergeant Chaney (Henry Brandon) and the station's two secretaries, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer) and Julie (Nancy Loomis).
Across town, two of the Street Thunder warlords, along with two other gang members, drive around the neighborhood looking for people to kill. One of the warlords shoots and kills a little girl (Kim Richards) and the driver of an ice-cream truck. The girl's father, Lawson (Martin West), pursues and kills the warlord, upon which the other gang members chase him into the Anderson precinct. In shock, Lawson is unable to communicate to Bishop or Chaney what has happened to him.
Just before this, a prison bus commanded by Starker (Charles Cyphers) stops at the station to find medical help for one of three prisoners being transported to the state prison. The prisoners are Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston), a convicted killer on his way to Death Row, Wells (Tony Burton), and Caudell, who is sick. As the prisoners are put into cells, the telephone lines go dead, and when Starker prepares to put the prisoners back on the bus, the gang opens fire on the precinct, using weapons fitted with silencers. In seconds, they kill Chaney, the bus driver, Caudell, Starker, and the two officers along with Starker. Bishop unchains Wilson from Starker's body and puts Wilson and Wells back into the cells. When the gang members cut the station's electricity and begin a second wave of shooting, Bishop sends Leigh to release Wells and Wilson, and they help Bishop and Leigh repel an attempted invasion, though Julie is killed in the firefight.
Meanwhile, the gang members remove all evidence of the skirmish in order to avoid attracting outside attention. Bishop hopes that someone has heard the un-silenced police weapons firing, but the neighborhood is too sparsely populated for nearby residents to pinpoint the location of the noise. Wells is chosen to sneak out of the precinct through the sewer line and hot-wire a car, but is killed by a gang member hiding in the backseat. However, two police officers responding to reports of gunfire find the dead body of a telephone repairman hanging from a pole near the police station, and soon begin to call for backup.
As the gang rallies for an all-out final assault, Wilson, Leigh, and Bishop retreat to the basement, taking the still-catatonic Lawson with them. Protected with a large durable sign, the gang then storms the building and rush the survivors. Bishop shoots a tank full of acetylene gas, which explodes violently and kills all the gang members in the basement. The remaining gang members soon retreat as more police support arrives to secure the station. Venturing down into the basement, the police officers find dozens of badly burned and killed gang members strewn about the hallway, as the only survivors remain are Bishop, Leigh, Wilson, and the comatose Lawson. As the others leave another officer tries to cuff Wilson whom Bishop waves off but ignores the order. Bishop angrily stops him and asks Wilson to walk out of the station with him rather than be led away in chains.
comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, claustrophobic, tragedy, revenge, sadist