Stakeout

Detectives Chris Lecce and Bill Reimers are assigned to the night-shift stakeout of Maria McGuire. The FBI asks for their cooperation in tracking down Richard “Stick” Montgomery, who may return to Seattle. The stakeout sets a tense mood as they watch Maria while Montgomery remains at large.

Montgomery, aided by his cousin Caylor Reese, stages a dramatic escape from Stonehurst Prison. They flee in a truck after a staged brawl with Montgomery’s cellmate, leaving the facility behind. The escape signals that the fugitive is back on the loose and targeting Maria.

The FBI requests Lecce and Reimers’ help in capturing Montgomery. They suspect the fugitive might head back to his old girlfriend, Maria McGuire, who lives in Seattle. The request raises the stakes for the stakeout and ties the case to a personal connection.

Lecce comes home to a divorce; his wife has moved out and taken the furniture. He sinks into despair, feeling the personal life collapse as the case unfolds. The emotional strain threatens his objectivity as the stakeout continues.

Montgomery phones Maria, but the call is cut off before it can be traced. Lecce and the investigators monitor the line for any clue about his whereabouts. The moment foreshadows a direct link between the suspect and Maria.

Montgomery secretly hid a large amount of cash in an armchair prior to his incarceration. The stash becomes a potential motive and a bargaining chip once he reappears. This detail hints at a future life beyond Seattle, if he can reach Maria first.

Lecce begins to fall in love with Maria as the stakeout drags on. The Seattle Police grow suspicious, feeling he might be an ally of Montgomery. The friendship-test intensifies as professional duties clash with personal feelings.

Montgomery and Reese break into Maria’s house while Lecce is asleep in her bed. Montgomery shoots Lecce in the face, but the moment turns out to be a nightmare when Lecce wakes up unharmed. He slips away before dawn, and later at the police station Reimers scolds him for sleeping with Maria and reminds him to stay professional.

Reimers confronts Lecce at the police station, chastising him for his romantic involvement with Maria. He emphasizes Lecce’s duty and reminds him that he remains a good cop who made a serious mistake. The exchange underscores the emotional toll of the case on personal judgment.

Montgomery and Reese kill a cashier at a gas station and try to slip away. A contingent of Seattle officers waits for them outside, sparking a gunfight. Their car crashes into the river; Montgomery escapes the sinking vehicle while Reese is wounded and drowns.

Montgomery confronts Lecce and Maria with the revelation that he hid half a million dollars in a couch he bought for Maria years earlier. He explains the money was meant to buy a life together in Canada, a plan that is ruined by Lecce’s actions. The moment ties money and romance into the plot’s collapse.

After briefly capturing Reimers, Montgomery plans to murder both cops. BC, Montgomery’s associate, arrives on a boat to join the attack. Lecce and Reimers break free; Lecce pursues Montgomery while Reimers heads after BC.

Reimers sneaks onto BC’s boat and the two come to blows as the craft crashes into the water. BC drowns in the sea while Lecce continues the chase against Montgomery. The confrontation escalates toward the film’s final showdown.

The climactic shootout takes place at a paper mill, where Lecce and Montgomery battle amid industrial machinery. Montgomery is shot in the chest and defeated, ending the immediate threat. In the aftermath, Maria and Lecce begin a romantic relationship.