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Ridgeman
Detective Brett Ridgeman
Portrayed By: Mel Gibson
An aging, hard-boiled detective in the fictional city of Bulwark who is put on extended, unpaid leave after his use of unnecessary force on a suspect is publicized.
- Anti-Hero: He's a brutal Dirty Cop with some extremely retrograde social views, but also a loving family man and far better than the criminals he's pursuing.
- Combat Pragmatist: Uses every advantage he can get in a fight, regardless of how low or dirty. During the climactic shootout, he's able to take out the bank robbers with some clever use of Car Fu and a well aimed tear gas canister.
- Cowboy Cop: A deconstruction of sorts. His former partner acknowledges that even though he's extremely competent, his brutality and antisocial personality have held him back from ever being promoted. He's nearing 60 and has the same job he did at 27 purely because of this trope.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has a very caustic, world weary sense of humor and gets into lots of Snark-to-Snark Combat with Lurasetti.
- Dirty Cop: After his suspension, Ridgeman quickly decides to turn to crime.
- Fatal Flaw: Ridgeman is constantly scanning every situation for all the angles, literally listing out the percentage likelihood of all possible outcomes. This hyper-vigilance is what leads him to pull a gun on Henry and make one final demand once they're in the clear, leading to a struggle in which Henry accidentally shoots him even though neither man had any intention of betraying or killing the other. In the end, Ridgeman was too focused on the angles to put any faith in Henry - and even after Ridgeman is dead Henry still sends his family a cut of the take, proving that Ridgeman's suspicion was entirely misplaced.
- Guile Hero: Via extremely quick and clever thinking, he's able to wipe out a trio of bank robbers who significantly outgun him.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Lurasetti's Blue.
- The Stoic: Stays calm and collected even during immensely stressful situations. It's his self-control and quick thinking that gives him a mental edge over the bank robbers during the climactic shootout.
- Would Hit a Girl: Well, he would shoot an armed and dangerous woman in self defense - even if she's an innocent hostage being blackmailed into attacking him. It's a complicated situation.
Lurasetti
Detective Anthony "Tony" Lurasetti
Portrayed By: Vince Vaughn
Detective Ridgeman's younger, more even-tempered partner.
- Did Not Get the Girl: In his final moments he listens to a voicemail from his girlfriend Denise responding to his marriage proposal. The audience doesn't get to hear the voicemail - Lurasetti's only reaction is to say "Not the response I was hoping for."
- Failed a Spot Check: Fatally shot by the bank robbers' seemingly escaped hostage, who was actually blackmailed by the robbers into launching a surprise attack on the detectives.
- Friendly Sniper: Was a sniper in the U.S. Army before becoming a police officer. Comes into play during the heist, in which he makes use of a sniper rifle to suppress the robbers.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In lieu of any profanity, Lurasetti opts instead to say "Anchovies".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lurasetti is troubled by the fact that he and Ridgeman refrained from intervening in an armed bank robbery so they could steal the take later on - especially when he learns just how many innocent people were killed during that robbery.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Ridgeman's Red.
Henry
Henry Johns
Portrayed By: Tory Kittles
A cunning, resourceful ex-con looking to support his drug-addict mother and wheelchair-bound brother.
- A Lighter Shade of Gray: He teams up with ruthless bank robbers who end up executing numerous innocent people, but it's clear he didn't realize how far things would go; he was just desperate for the money involved. Once he realizes the more ruthless robbers were going to dispose of him, he turns on them. He also sends a fair amount of gold to Ridgeman's family after the heat dies down, keeping his word to him. Ultimately, he may be a criminal, but he's not a bad person.
- Due to the Dead: He buries Ridgeman and Lurasetti after the robbery. The graves are admittedly shallow, but that's because he has to get out of there in a hurry. He promises to return and bury them properly when the heat dies down.
- Nerves of Steel: Maintains a calm, reassuring demeanor mostly for Biscuit's benefit during the drive away from the heist, reminiscing with him about their childhoods and casually suggesting they get take-out afterwards as if they were having an ordinarily shitty day at work. It's this cool-headed nature that lets him come out as the Sole Survivor of the heist.
- Properly Paranoid: He brings extra, hidden pistols to the bank robbery that he makes sure to keep hidden from Vogelmann, just in case. This decision saves his life after Vogelmann orders him to dispose of his weapons on the getaway drive.
- Rags to Riches: At the start of the film, he is a recently released ex-con who lives with his mother and younger brother in a small apartment in a bad neighborhood. He walks away from the robbery with a vast amount of gold. Nearly a year after the robbery, he lives in a lavish mansion with his mother and younger brother.
Biscuit
Biscuit
Portrayed By: Michael Jai White
A small-time career criminal and Henry Johns' childhood friend.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Smokes like a chimney while waiting for the bank robbery to end.
- Defiant to the End: He swallows the key to the van in full view of Black Gloves purely to spite his killers.
Vogelman
Lorentz Vogelman
Portrayed By: Thomas Kretschmann
The ruthless, calculating leader of a crew of bank robbers.
- Big Bad: The mastermind behind a heist that ultimately leaves a dozen people dead and primary target of Ridgeman and Lurasetti.
- Creepy Monotone: He never, ever raises his voice, and it just makes him that much more intimidating.
- Dissonant Serenity: Maintains the same calm, clinical tone at all times, whether he's torturing hostages, shooting at the police, or dissecting a man.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Ridgeman shoots him twice in the throat at near point-blank range.
- Nerves of Steel: Is inhumanly calm at all times, even while trapped in his overturned van with a live tear gas canister and with both his men dead or wounded.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: A professional bank robber from Germany who is easily the most brutal character in the entire film.
- The Sociopath: An absolutely ruthless and cold-blooded psychopath who only cares about his score.
Kelly
Kelly Summer
Portrayed By: Jennifer Carpenter
A bank teller and young mother who gets caught up in Vogelman's robbery.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: One of (if not the) most sympathetic characters in the film. She is mercilessly shot to death by the robbers after trying to stop her coworker from sending an email to police, since the robber would have killed everyone if the police showed up.
Melanie
Melanie Ridgeman
Portrayed By: Laurie Holden
Brett Ridgeman's wife, a former cop unable to work due to her worsening Multiple Sclerosis.
- Delicate and Sickly: Is suffering from multiple sclerosis which renders her barely able to walk.
- Fair Cop: A former police officer played by the very attractive Laurie Holden.
Sara
Sara Ridgeman
Portrayed By: Jordyn Ashley Olson
Brett and Melanie Ridgeman's teenage daughter.
- Children Are Innocent: A sweet girl who tries not to let the dire atmosphere she lives in corrupt her.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: She's a good girl who likes to watch nature shows about lions. She especially loves the lion cubs because of how cute they are.
Calvert
Lieutenant G. Calvert
Portrayed By: Don Johnson
Ridgeman's former partner, now his lieutenant.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While Calvert is charged with breaking bad news to Ridgeman and Lurasetti, he clearly takes no pleasure in it. In fact, he seems to respect the two for their otherwise admirable records and agrees with them that the media is wrong in its treatment of the two.
- We Used to Be Friends: Years ago, he and Ridgeman were partners, and a framed newspaper article in his office indicates that the two made a massive drug bust together. Their current relationship is fairly impersonal, and it is implied that Ridgeman resents Calvert for having a more successful career.
Edmington
Mr. Edmington
Portrayed By: Fred Melamed
The manager of the bank targeted by Vogelman.
- Benevolent Boss: He welcomes Kelly back to work in a friendly and courteous manner.
The Robbers
Black Gloved and Grey Gloved Robbers
Portrayed By: Matthew Maccaul and Primo Allon
Vogelman's two masked accomplices.
- Asshole Victim: Ridgeman kills both of them in a very painful and undignified way, and they really, really deserve it.
- A-Team Firing: They kind of just spray down their targets indiscriminately and miss many shots even at extremely close range.
- Co-Dragons: To Vogelmann. They seem to be of equal rank to each other, but he's clearly the one in charge.
- Creepy Monotone: Both of them.
- The Faceless: Both spend their entire screentime in full identical gear, balaclavas and large black goggles, covering everything but their mouths.
- For the Evulz: The only possible explanation for their excessively violent and sadistic behavior.
- Karmic Death: Black Gloves gets his hand and head blown off while helpless and begging for mercy, exactly the same way he killed Kelly.
- Killed Midsentence: Black Gloves, while attempting to surrender to Ridgeman."I need medical atte-" *cue Boom, Headshot!*
- No Name Given: Credited only as "Black Gloved Robber" and "Grey Gloved Robber".
- Politically Incorrect Villain: One of the robbers taunts a Latino mark before executing him in his car - he then places a large sombrero on the dead man's head, for no apparent reason but his own amusement. Later while disemboweling Biscuit's corpse, one of the robbers warns the other not to puncture the liver - "Worst smell in the world, especially for black guys."
