L.A. Noire
Following the end of World War II, Cole Phelps (Aaron Staton), a decorated USMC veteran of the Pacific Campaign, returns to Los Angeles, California to live with his family while taking on work as a Patrol Officer of the LAPD. In 1947, working with his partner Officer Ralph Dunn (Rodney Scott), Phelps successfully solves a major murder case and impresses his superiors, who promote him to detective. Working alongside Stefan Bekowsky (Sean McGowan) in Traffic, and then Finbarr "Rusty" Galloway (Michael McGrady) in Homicide, Phelps earns a reputation for solving difficult cases that eventually land him a promotion into Vice. During this time, he begins falling for German lounge singer Elsa Lichtmann (Erika Heynatz) and soon has an affair with her. Unknown to him, Roy Earle (Adam J. Harrington), his partner in Vice and a corrupt cop, uses this information to help several prominent figures in the city, including the Chief of Police, cover up a major scandal by making him a media scapegoat, in exchange for a place in a syndicate known as the "Suburban Redevelopment Fund" (SRF)—a development program that supplies homes for homecoming WWII veterans. When his adultery is exposed, Phelps becomes disgraced in the LAPD, while his wife ends their marriage.
Prior to his demotion to Arson, Phelps had found that several Marines of his former unit had been selling morphine syrettes stolen from the ship that had taken them home, the SS Coolridge, which had later led to most being assassinated by mobsters working for Mickey Cohen (Patrick Fischler), who controlled the drug trade and had resented the competition; most of the stolen drugs remains unaccounted for by the time he is demoted. While investigating a pair of suspicious house fires with his partner in Arson, Herschel Biggs (Keith Szarabajka), Phelps notes a connection between them and a recent housing development, known as "Elysian Fields", but is warned by Earle to back off from tycoon developer Leland Monroe (John Noble). Seeking help to investigate the development, Phelps advises Elsa to refuse a life insurance payout in order to prompt his old comrade Jack Kelso (Gil McKinney), now an investigator for the California Fire & Life insurance company, to look into the matter. Kelso quickly discovers that the development is using unsuitable building materials, and becomes an investigator for the Assistant D.A. whereupon he soon learns that Monroe and his former employer, the owner of Fire & Life, are involved in the SRF syndicate.
Kelso and Phelps eventually learn from their investigations that the Fund is merely a front to conceal its true purpose: to defraud the US Federal Government. Run by several local businessmen, dignitaries, as well as Monroe and the Chief of Police, the syndicate had learnt about the proposed route for the Whitnall Parkway through the Wilshire district of the city, and thus bought the land it would run through. Monroe then built communities of "matchstick" houses, while Fire & Life falsely claimed the land was a higher value, knowing that the government would pay whatever the land was worth in order to gain eminent domain over it. Further investigations reveals that Courtney Sheldon (Chad Todhunter), a headstrong corpsman of Phelps and Kelso's former unit, had been involved in the theft of the morphine. The remainder of the morphine had been given to Sheldon's mentor and pop-psychiatrist Harlan Fontaine (Peter Blomquist), who sold it on to finance the Fund and murdered Sheldon after he began questioning the syndicate's plans. Following a shoot-out at Monroe's mansion, Kelso discovers that the SRF had used Ira Hogeboom (J. Marvin Campbell), a former flamethrower operator from Phelps' and Kelso's unit, to help them with their plans. Hogeboom, suffering from PTSD and schizophrenia after inadvertently killing a large number of civilians on Phelps' orders during the Battle of Okinawa, had been unknowingly manipulated by Fontaine to torch the houses of holdouts who refused to sell out to the SRF, until eventually going insane after he inadvertently incinerates a house with an entire family inside.
After learning that Hogeboom had murdered Fontaine and kidnapped Elsa, Phelps and Kelso pursue him into the Los Angeles River Tunnels as a heavy rain begins, fighting their way through corrupt policemen and thugs. The pair rescue Elsa, with Kelso killing Hogeboom to put him out of his mental anguish. With the water level rising, the group use an open manhole to escape, but Phelps is swept away in the current. Whilst the SRF scam is exposed, several members escape justice to attend Phelps's funeral, each delivering eulogies to his memory, much to the disgust of Elsa. Biggs remarks to Kelso that Phelps was never his friend, to which Kelso agrees but responds that he was never Phelps' enemy.
An epilogue flashback scene soon reveals that Kelso had known about the stolen morphine and Sheldon's involvement, after they and their other fellow Marines found the surplus supply on their ship home. However, Kelso refused to be involved in Sheldon's scheme to sell the drugs along with the other Marines, telling them all that they will lose his respect for them as Marines if they go through with the drug profiting, setting in motion the events of the game.
good versus evil, violence, depressing, plot twist