We Own the Night (film)

Plot[edit]

In Brooklyn, New York in fall 1988, Robert "Bobby" Grusinsky is the manager of the El Caribe nightclub in Brighton Beach, which is owned by his boss, fur importer Marat Buzhayev, whose nephew, drug lord Vadim Nezhinski, is a patron of the joint. Estranged from his father Albert ("Burt"), an NYPD Deputy Chief, and brother Joseph, a newly-minted Captain, he uses his late mother Carol's maiden name, Green, as a part of his work alias and opts to have a good life with his girlfriend Amada Juarez and best friend Louis "Jumbo" Falsetti, with a plan to soon run his own club in Manhattan. Joseph, who has just been named to be the head of a anti-drug unit, warns him that he will lead a bust on the spot with the aim of netting Vadim.


Bobby is locked up for possessing drugs and resisting arrest in the wake of the raid on November 22, 1988, souring his ties with Burt and Joseph, who both bail him out of jail the next day; he and Joseph then come to blows in a harsh feud. That evening, a masked Vadim shoots Joseph in the face outside of his house and firebombs his car, causing him to be confined at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center for 4 months. Bobby agrees to the request of Lieutenant Michael Solo, a comrade of Burt, to go inside Vadim's drug operation behind Burt's back. When the transceiver hidden in his lighter is exposed, he evades death as Vadim is nabbed by the police.


The bond between Bobby and Amada decays while they are in hiding at the Cue Motor Inn, and they prep for a move to the Corona Hotel after Vadim flees from Rikers Island on March 20, 1989. In the midst of a heavy deluge, his men ambush the three-car escort, one of whom fatally wounds Burt with a shot to the neck. Bobby passes out in the rain upon seeing his body, wakes up a few hours later on top of a bed in a suite at the Sheraton near Kennedy Airport, and is upset when Joseph tells him Burt is dead. At the funeral, Captain Jack Shapiro, a colleague of Burt, donates Burt's Korean War combat ribbon to Joseph, and Michael informs him of a Russian cocaine shipment that will be arriving in the area in the coming week.


Amada breaks up with Bobby once he chooses to join the NYPD to avenge his father's tragic death, upset because he neglected to ask for her input or consent in opting to pursue such a risky change of career. Sworn into the force due to his core expertise, provided that he will undergo his required training at the Police Academy once the case is finished up, he questions Jumbo on the night of April 2, 1989, who admits that he betrayed him by leaking word from Amada re the pair's location to Marat. The brothers plan a final sting set for that Tuesday, as he recounts that per Jumbo, Marat's grandchildren, whom he takes to Floyd Bennett Field on Tuesdays, act as his couriers. During the sting, Joseph is numbed by the memory of his prior injury and is thus unable to proceed, and so Bobby chases Vadim into the reed beds. As the police, having cuffed Marat, toss flares, he goes inside, defying Michael's pleas to wait until Vadim comes out. He then spots and kills him with a fatal blow to the chest from his gun.


On November 3, 1989, Bobby, now clad in his NYPD dress blues, graduates from the Academy with honors. Prior to the ceremony, Joseph reveals to him that he will transfer to a post in the Personnel Bureau to freely spend more time at home with his wife and 3 children. As the chaplain states in his opening remarks that Bobby will deliver the valedictorian address after the invocation, noting that he was the highest academic achiever of his class, Bobby eyes a young lady seated in the crowd who faintly resembles Amada and accepts their love affair has ended. During the invocation, the siblings, seated next to each other on stage, softly express their brotherly love.