Copshop is a 2021 action thriller film starring Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, and Alexis Louder and directed by Joe Carnahan.
Valerie Young is a rookie police officer who finds herself caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time when con artist Teddy Murretto sucker punches her in an attempt to get himself arrested. Soon after, a professional assassin hot on Teddy's tail, Bob Viddick, also gets himself arrested. Then a rival assassin shows up at the station where Teddy and Viddick are locked up in and all hell eventually breaks loose.
The film was released on September 17, 2021.
This film provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: After threatening to cut off Lamb’s head, Viddick later has Lamb dead to rights and Lamb’s switchblade embedded in his hand. He nonchalantly remarks that he’ll need something bigger to take off Lamb’s head, which Lamb laughs hysterically at. Viddick is nonplussed at his reaction.
- And the Adventure Continues: The movie ends with Val in pursuit of Viddick as she drives off in an ambulance, the two of them singing the same song playing on the radio.
- Anyone Can Die: The moment the second act gets going, nobody is safe. By the time the credits roll, only Valerie and Viddick are still alive.
- Arc Words: "Déjà Vu."
- Ax-Crazy: Lamb.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The final showdown between Valerie and Teddy becomes this after Teddy sets the police station on fire.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Lamb, who is actually the Dragon-in-Chief to Schier, Huber, who forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with Lamb, and after Lamb and Huber are eliminated, Teddy himself becomes the Final Boss of the film alongside Schier.
- Big Bad Slippage: Teddy, who snaps after learning that his family was murdered.
- Big Damn Heroes: After subduing Teddy, Valerie is shot by Schier, who is later killed by Viddick once he turns out to not be dead after all. He then finishes off Teddy.
- Celebrity Paradox: Lamb references Chris Hemsworth's role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which also features Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Quite literally with the handgun Sgt. Mitchell plans to gift his daughter. It bails Val out of trouble during her firefight with Teddy.
- A less literal example is the bullet Pena drops during his mock quick-draw with Val.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The moment Viddick gets his hands on Huber, he promptly rewards him for his traitorous actions by making his death as agonizingly slow as possible, including tazing him and using pepper spray on his open wounds!
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Viddick gets his hands on Lamb, the much skinner, much smaller fighter gets his ass beaten and his throat slashed.
- Dirty Cop: Huber and Schier are revealed to be these, involved in murder, drug trafficking, and assassination.
- Disc-One Final Boss: At first the main threats appear to be Anthony Lamb and Huber. Once they're disposed of, however, Teddy reveals his true colors by seemingly shooting Viddick dead before executing Lamb then setting the police station on fire, and he and Schier ultimately become the final villains of the movie.
- Disney Death: Viddick is seemingly shot dead by Teddy, but he later saves Valerie from Teddy and Schier in the climax.
- Fat Bastard: Huber, who in addition to being a spineless traitor is also very out of shape.
- Faux Affably Evil:
- Anthony Lamb has a goofy, jokey personality. He's also a complete lunatic who guns down anyone in his way while cracking said jokes.
- Huber, while lazy, was presented as a pleasant enough figure, and even after killing Mitchell, he seems obviously regretful of his actions. However, shooting a civilian and raving like a lunatic when called out by Val show that underneath his pleasant enough exterior, is a pathetic, self-absorbed Jerkass. He even kills Brad, his Best Friend, giving him little more than a "sorry".
- Teddy, in the end, is this as well. The second he's out of his cell and dealt with Lamb, his true colors come out. Revealing him to be nothing but a selfish asshole at his core.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted; Val repeatedly references the fallen officers throughout the movie, even thanking Mitchell and Pena posthumously for their help during her fight with Teddy.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Valerie seems to be the only really competent cop in the station which makes the bad guys' job much easier. The sergeant enters a cell to help an injured prisoner and ignores that this puts his back to another unrestrained prisoner. The reception officer sees a picture of a dangerous felon on his computer and when that same felon enters the station, the cop assumes that it is just a coincidence that the stranger looks just like the dangerous associate of a man they have just arrested. Expectedly, besides Valerie, they're all dead before the end of the night.
- Much of this is explained away by the cops saying themselves that they never have to actually do their jobs. More often than not they spend most of their time hanging out rather than working, with their arrests of Teddy, Viddick, and their drunk cellmate being stated outright to be their first taste of action in a long while, leaving them very rusty.
- Hate Sink: As a result of Teddy and Viddick being humanized through their conversations with Val, Lamb being Laughably Evil, and Schier not being in the movie too long, Huber is fairly easily the most despicable member of the main cast, being a whiny, spineless Dirty Cop who turns on his colleagues, even murdering a handful of them himself, including Brad, the only cop in the station who treated him like a friend. When he's killed near the tailend of the film, it's doubtful any tears were shed.
- Hidden Depths: Teddy and Viddick, in spite of their criminal backgrounds and frequent greed, show themselves repeatedly to have more to them than what's on the surface, with Teddy genuinely loving his family and going absolutely mental upon learning of their deaths, and Viddick showing himself to be a man of his word more than once, leading him to save Valerie just in time for the final act of the movie.
- Laughably Evil: Lamb may be a psychopath, but damn if he isn't hilarious with his constant jokes.
- More Dakka: Lamb's choice of firearm, a sub-machine gun with a ridiculously huge magazine.
- Noble Demon: Viddick, the only one of the two prisoners who actually comes to Valerie's aid when freed.
- Off with His Head!: Viddick threatens to do this to Lamb, complete with a Decapitation Presentation to a crime lord Lamb pissed off. At the end of the movie, he has the head and is ready to make good on the presentation.
- Pinball Projectile: A negative example of this; Valerie ends up shooting herself by accident with a ricocheting bullet during Tony’s initial attack.
- Shout-Out:
- The theme from Magnum Force is used to score the opening credits.
- Lamb compares Teddy to Tom Cruise in "that samurai film that nobody watched".
- Lamb mentions Chris Hemsworth as Thor to Huber when Huber tries smashing the wall leading to Teddy's cell with a sledgehammer.
- "Freddie's Dead" from Super Fly is a recurring song in the film and plays over the end credits.
- Lamb calls Viddick “Sideshow Bob” at one point.
- Took a Level in Badass: Valerie, by the climax.
