Richard Chance
Played by: William Petersen
"Guess what? Uncle Sam don't give a shit about your expenses. You want bread, fuck a baker."
- "I'm gonna bag Masters and I don't give a shit how I do it."
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Chance screws up multiple times in the film, gets multiple people killed including himself, and doesn't fool Masters for a second.
- Cowboy Cop: This trope to a T! Withholding evidence, sleeping with his informant and not informing his superiors his plans.
- Idiot Hero: Chance never thinks about the consequences of his actions at the best of times, but taking the handcuffs off of Cody is astonishingly stupid.
- It's Personal: Wants to bring down Masters because he murdered his partner, Jimmy Hart, early on in the film.
- Jerkass: Chance isn't exactly nice to his co-workers (save his partner), and treats his girlfriend/informant Ruth like garbage.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chance is an extremely abrasive risk-obsessed Cowboy Cop, but he strongly believes in friendship and partnership, and is sympathetic when Cody claims his daughter is sick in hospital. These values bring Chance nothing but misery.
- Meaningful Name: Chance is a thrill-seeker and goes to extremely risky lengths in his pursuit of Masters.
- Sociopathic Hero: By the mid-point Chance has been established as one, engineering a robbery to get the money Masters asked, but even before that, he casually mistreats Ruth, and he says he'd immediately get her back in jail should she ever stop being his CI.
- Thrill Seeker: Much of his motivation. He engages in base jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, and gets a huge rush from the Car Chase.
- The Unfettered: Early on, he states: "I'm gonna bag Masters, and I don't give a shit how I do it." He spends the rest of the movie proving it.
John Vukovich
Played by: John Pankow
- Became Their Own Antithesis: By the end of the film, Vukovich has gone from a stickler for rules and regulations to a more renegade federal agent willing to bend the rules so long as he gets results.
- By-the-Book Cop: To a certain degree.
- After meeting Chance at his house following the discovery of Jimmy Hart's murder, he agrees with Chance's statement "I'm gonna bag Masters, and I don't give a shit how I do it", not knowing that it's Not Hyperbole.
- He chastises Chance for stealing Max Waxmans little black book after the Pasadena P.D responds to Waxmans murder by Masters for attempting to rip him off, stating that the police would have let them copy it after it was booked into evidence.
- He does state however that he is not a snitch in response to Chance questioning his resolve as his partner.
- During the chase and shakedown of two small time credit card thieves, Vukovich gives the thief he was chasing a nasty kick in the back after forcing him against a chain link fence for questioning.
- He vehemently objects to Chances proposal to rob fence and undercover F.B.I. Agent Thomas Ling of his $50,000 in order to get the front money to pay for Masters counterfeit money, but eventually agrees after being bullied into it by Chance.
- He initially picks up and slaps Masters back to the ground before drawing Chance's gun and aiming at him, but still can't bring himself to shoot Masters in cold blood. This give Masters the opportunity to grab a plank of wood and beat Vukovich to the ground with it. He then covers Vukovich in shredded paper with the intention of setting him on fire but is shot in the gut by Vukovich before Masters has a chance to, causing him to drop the lit piece of paper into the puddle of gas that Masters happened to be standing in.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: The botched robbery and Chance's death traumatize him to the point that he ends up killing Masters, completely pushing him over the edge into becoming the same kind of rabid cowboy cop that Chance was.
- Taking Up the Mantle: By the end of the film, he's taken up after Chance so much that its implied he's going to end up sleeping with Ruth.
Rick Masters
Played by: Willem Dafoe
- Anti-Villain: Keeps his word, and never breaks a contract. Woe to those who fail to do either.
- Cop Killer: Murders a U.S. Secret Service agent early in the film.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: An exceptionally gruesome example in that Vukovich shoots Masters in the gut with Chance's revolver, causing Masters to drop the lit piece of paper he was holding into the puddle of gas he happened to be standing in. This causes Masters to be engulfed in flames, as Vukovich empties the remaining five shots of .357 Magnum into Masters, yet Masters doesn't die from the gunshots and continues to scream in pain until he FINALLY falls over dead.
- Evil Virtues: Takes extreme pride in his level of crafstmanship, and his reputation.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Lives a rather refined lifestyle; he has a nice house with art everywhere (most of which can be assumed to have been done by him), wears nice clothes, appreciates modern dance and is overall sophisticated for a criminal.
- True Art Is Angsty: Burns self-portraits and creates arty pornography videos interspersed with footage of him crying.
- Wicked Cultured: Is an aficianado of modern dance, produces avant-garde paintings which impress professional artists, and critiques an associate's taste in art before shooting him in the face.
Bianca Torres
Played by: Debra Feuer
Bob Grimes
Played by: Dean Stockwell
Ruth Lainer
Played by: Darlanne Fluegel
Carl Cody
Played by: John Turturro
Jim 'Jimmy' Hart
Played by: Michael Greene
Thomas Bateman
Played by: Robert Downey Sr.
Jack, Masters' bodyguard
Played by: Jack Hoar
Jeff Rice
Played by: Steve James
Max Waxman
Played by: Christopher Allport
Thomas Ling AKA F.B.I. Agent Raymond Fong
Played by: Michael Chong
Judge Filo Cedillo
Played by: Valentin de Vargas
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite Chance disrespecting him to his face, he's ultimately willing to release Cody into Chance's custody.
