Film / Homicide: The Movie

Homicide: The Movie is a Finale Movie for Homicide: Life on the Street, directed by Jean de Segonzac, who had directed six episodes of the show, and served as cinematographer on several others.

Al Giardello is now running for mayor of Baltimore, and is about to give a campaign speech a few days before the election when he gest shot three times. As doctors work to save Giardello's life, the homicide unit, made up of both current detectives (Ballard, Falsone, Lewis, Sheppard, Stivers, with Gharty now lieutenant and in charge) and returning ones (Bayliss returns from sabbatical, Bolander from retirement, Howard from the fugitive squad, Kellerman from being a private investigator, Munch from New York City, and Pembleton from retirement) attempt to find the shooter, along with Mike, Giardello's son.

The movie contains examples of:

• The Alcoholic: When Howard asks Shirley Desassy where she was when Giardello got shot, she tells them she was at home, "making love to my bottle of gin."
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Crosetti and Felton invite Giardello to sit with them at the end, but there's a fourth chair at the table. When Giardello asks who the chair is for, they admit they don't know, but it'll probably be someone he knows, and Giardello worries it might be Mike.
  • It isn't clear if Crosetti and Felton are in heaven, or in Purgatory and Limbo.
• As Himself:
  • Then-mayor Kurt L. Schmoke appears briefly at Giardello's campaign stop.
  • Then-Court TV reporter Helen Lucaitis appears as a reporter whom Mike shoves when she's asking him questions about his father's condition.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: When Helen Lucaitis (see As Himself above) asks Mike how he feels about his father getting shot, Mike yells, "HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?!" before shoving her into a bush.
• Avengers Assemble: After Mike, Falsone and Lewis hear about Giardello getting shot while at a crime scene, we see a montage of the homicide unit, headed by Gharty and including Ballard, Sheppard and Stivers, hearing the news, followed by Howard getting the news while making an arrest, Kellerman while at work, Munch while on a case in New York City, Bolander while at home in his pajamas, Bayliss while fishing, and Pembleton while he's teaching a class.
• Back for the Finale: In addition to those listed above, Brodie, Dr. Cox and Russert also come back, though they mostly stay at the hospital. Crosetti and Felton also appear at the end with Giardello in what may be Purgatory and Limbo.
• Beard of Sorrow: In contrast to how he looked in the last season of the show, Bayliss now has a full beard, which may reflect his sorrow about having shot Luke Ryland, even though he later claims to Pembleton it was a case of I Did What I Had to Do.
• Berserk Button: Mike doesn't like it when the media is questioning him or is hanging around the hospital, but he's especially upset when they try to question his grandmother.
• Big "SHUT UP!": When Bayliss admits he killed Luke Ryland, and Pembleton realizes not only that he's serious, but it was an execution, Pembleton angrily yells, "SHUT UP!".
• Brick Joke: When Falsone and Lewis are at the crime scene where Yin-Yang was murdered, Lewis asks Falsone to be his partner at the bar, since Munch is in New York City and Bayliss has departed for parts unknown. Near the end, when everyone is celebrating at the Waterfront, Falsone tells Lewis he's willing to consider being his partner.
• Call-Back: A number of them:
  • Bolander tells Mike about when he was shot and how Giardello reacted to that.
  • Pembleton admits he hasn't spoken to Giardello since when he quit the unit.
  • Bolander and Munch interview John Komen, a member of the African Revival Movement, to rule them out as suspects.
  • Falsone and Howard interview Shirley Desassy, the widow of the man Giardello shot when Giardello thought he was a murder suspect.
  • Mike admits to Russert he came to Baltimore to make things up with his father, but things got strained between them when Giardello called Mike out for compromising an investigation.
  • When an eyewitness tells Bayliss and Pembleton to speak to Bernard Weeks (Reg E. Cathey), Bayliss and Pembleton remember him as the drug dealer they busted by mistake when they were looking for a murder suspect.
  • Bayliss brings up Gordon Pratt, and how he always thought a policeman killed him.
  • Bayliss admits to Pembleton he was the one who shot Luke Ryland.
  • When Bayliss tries to get Pembleton to bring him in for executing Luke Ryland, he reminds Pembleton, "I took a bullet for you!"
  • When he meets Mike near the end, Pembleton brings up the fact Felton was murdered in the line of duty, and Crosetti killed himself and no one knows why.
  • The little girl who is skipping up to Giardello at the end is implied to be Adena Watson.
  • In the Montage Out that closes the movie, we see Giardello welcoming Bayliss to the unit, Giardello refusing to let Crosetti work Chris Thormann's shooting, the detectives coming out to winter weather, and the detectives watching the documentary Brodie made about them, among other scenes, before closing with the detectives spraying each other with water on the roof after a hot night, and a Fade to White.
• Casting Gag: Jason Priestley, whom NBC had wanted to play Munch in the original show, pops up here as Detective Robert Hall.
• Continuity Nod: Dawn Daniels (Rhonda Overby), first seen in "The City That Bleeds", is the one interviewing Giardello when he arrives at his campaign event.
• Creator In-Joke: Eric Thomas James, the man who shot (and ultimately kills) Giardello, is named after the first names of the three writers of the movie - Eric Overmyer, Tom Fontana, and James Yoshimura.
• Crossover: With Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Munch is at work when he hears the news) and St. Elsewhere (though the doctor Ed Begley Jr. plays isn't named, Word of God confirmed it was Dr. Victor Ehrlich, the character Begley played on the show).
• Cry into Chest: When they hear the news Giardello is dead, Howard cries into Danvers' chest, while Ballard cries into Falsone's chest.
• Cry Laughing: Pembleton cries and laughs when Bayliss not only admits to him he murdered Luke Ryland, but also says he wants Pembleton to take him in and absolve him for the murder.
• Description Cut: When Mike convinces Gharty to investigate the people involved in the deaths of some of his family members, Gharty tells Mike he should do it because he knows the people, and Mike calmly approves of the idea of having a casual conversation with them. Cut to Mike giving each suspect he meets a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While Bernard Weeks was not a fan of Giardello because Giardello wanted to legalize drugs, he had no interest in having Giardello killed, though it was more because he thought shooting Giardello would give him the sympathy vote.
  • Eric Thomas James (Eamonn Walker) shoots (and as it turns out, kills) Giardello, as well as Yin-Yang, the drug dealer who sold his son drugs, but he admits to Bayliss and Pembleton he didn't mean to shoot the doctor who was operating on Giardello.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • As much as Kellerman enjoys watching Mike give suspects a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown (see Pass the Popcorn above), at one point, he stops Mike because he realizes it's a dead end.
  • When he wakes up, Giardello reveals to Mike he had his mother bring in food because he won't eat hospital food, and chides Mike for eating bad takeout.
• Evil Is Petty: Gaffney refuses to let Pembleton work on Giardello's shooting, but when Bolander says he's won't work on the case if Pembleton can't, Gaffney tells Bolander he can stay.
  Gaffney: That's the beauty of power - it's arbitrary.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The last person we see before Giardello gets shot is Eric Thomas James at work with his news camera.
  • Pembleton admits to Bayliss the real reason he quit Homicide is because he didn't want to hear another confession. He gets more than he bargained for when Bayliss decides to tell him about shooting Luke Ryland.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Discussed - when Munch runs into Billie Lou in the squad room (see Running Gag below), she wonders if he thinks she left him for Gharty, to which he responds, "Stivers", and her response is, "In your dreams."
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Even with all the policemen at the hospital, someone still manages to get into the operating room and shoot the doctor operating on Giardello.
• Hope Spot: Giardello wakes up from surgery and shares a nice moment with Mike, so while we know from the doctor's warning to Mike the road to recovery will be tough, it looks like Giardello pulls through. Then, after Bayliss and Pembleton catch the shooter, Brodie tells the others Giardello died.
• Imagine Spot: When Mike falls asleep at the hospital, he's suddenly awakened by Giardello, dressed and wanting to take Mike out to breakfast. Then Mike wakes up for real.
• Miranda Rights: After Eric Thomas James admits to killing Giardello, Bayliss tells him he's going to have to read him his rights, to which James snaps he should have the right to have things as they were before his son died.
• Mirror Character: John Komen (from the African Revival Movement) and Karl Miller (leader of a white supremacist movement) both have conspiracy theories about Giardello and his shooting, as well as the organizations they believe were propping Giardello up (for Komen, it's the banks, for Miller, it's the Jewish-controlled media.
• Mood Whiplash: Most of the detectives are celebrating at the Waterfront after Bayliss and Pembleton bring Giardello's shooter in. That's when Brodie walks in and breaks the bad news that Giardello didn't survive.
• Never My Fault: When Bayliss and Pembleton are discussing Eric Thomas James, Pembleton brings this up, claiming he killed Giardello only to avoid confronting his own inadequacies as a parent that led his son to die.
• No Name Given: The homeless man (Lanny Flaherty) Hall, and then Bayliss and Pembleton, interview is credited only as "Homeless Man", and he refuses to provide his name to any of the detectives.
• Off on a Technicality: Bayliss brings up the fact Luke Ryland got off on a technicality for murdering two women over the Internet as his justification for murdering Ryland.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Eric Thomas James lost his son to drug addiction. This is what leads him to shoot Yin-Yang, the drug dealer who sold his son drugs, as well as Giardello for wanting to legalize drugs.
• Pass the Popcorn: While Mike gives a number of people he suspects are involved in his father's shooting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Kellerman is watching and munching on food.
• Pet the Dog: As angry as Mike is about the fact someone was able to get into the operating room and shoot it up, he does take time to ask about the doctor who was shot.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In addition to what's shown in Mirror Character above, Miller talks to Lewis and Sheppard about "mud people", and adds on his radio show, he also talks about the evils of race-mixing.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Lewis and Sheppard go to interview the white supremacist movement, and find a clean, respectable location:
  Sheppard: You sure you got the right address?
  Lewis: Sure I'm sure! You ever know me to not have the right address? Don't answer that.
• Running Gag: Once again, Munch is getting divorced (this time from Billie Lou).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Gaffney orders Pembleton to leave, Pembleton does so, and tells Bayliss to come with him so they can investigate on his own.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Munch is giving a conspiracy theory about Giardello's death, he brings up The Manchurian Candidate.
  • Brodie mentions the hospital they're in is where Edgar Allan Poe was when he died.
  • When Bayliss first admits to Pembleton he killed Luke Ryland, Pembleton thinks he's making a bad joke, and tells him to go to hell, adding, "Do not pass go, do not collect $200."
• Strange Minds Think Alike: When Komen claims the banks were behind Giardello's shooting so riots will take place and they can move in to kick African-Americans out of the city, Conspiracy Theorist Munch admits Komen has a point about the banks.
• Turn in Your Badge: A variation - Bayliss gives Pembleton his badge after asking Pembleton to turn him in for murdering Luke Ryland.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Eric Thomas James shoots Giardello, as well as Yin-Yang, because he thinks drug legalization is wrong, since drug addiction killed his son.
• Wham Line:
  • "Time for one more confession, Frank."
  • Also, when Brodie comes to the Waterfront near the end:
  Brodie: He died. Lieutenant Giardello died.
• You, Get Me Coffee: After Bayliss tells Hall to shut up, Gharty tells Hall to get coffee for himself and adds he'd like a cup as well.