The Rookie is a 1990 American buddy cop action thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel, and produced by Howard G. Kazanjian, Steven Siebert, and David Valdes. It stars Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, Raul Julia, Sônia Braga, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Tom Skerritt. Eastwood plays a veteran police officer teamed with the rookie detective played by Sheen, whose intent is to take down a German crime lord in downtown Los Angeles, following months of investigation into an exotic car theft ring.

The Rookie premiered in the United States and Canada on December 7, 1990, grossing $21,633,874 in ticket receipts, just under its budget of $30 million. The film was overshadowed by the continuing success of Home Alone, which opened three weeks earlier and ended up being one of the top 100 highest-grossing films of all time. A financial disappointment, The Rookie was met with generally lackluster reviews. Critics considered it formulaic and shallow, and questioned the casting of the Puerto Rican Julia and the Brazilian Braga as Germans; a scene in which Eastwood was raped by Braga also generated some controversy.

Plot

Veteran LAPD detective Nick Pulovski and his partner Powell attempt to bust a group of criminals loading a truck with stolen luxury vehicles; in the ensuing shootout, Powell is killed. Nick pursues the fleeing truck, but the gang detaches the trailer with him on it. It is classified as a homicide case, and Nick is excluded from investigating further, then assigned a new partner, "rookie" cop David Ackerman.

Nick and David rebuff orders and investigate the gang anyway; they go to a country club for lunch and observe the criminals' leader, Strom. Nick confronts him and gives him Powell's blood-stained badge. Later, they go to a bar so Nick can meet his informant, Felix. David gets in a brawl at the bar during which his badge is stolen; Nick, a regular, defuses the fight. Nick intimidates Strom's associate Morales into cooperating with him by destroying his car at a junkyard. Morales places a bug in Strom's apartment, but Strom and his girlfriend Liesl kill him for botching the earlier theft.

Now desperate for money, Strom holds up a casino. When the manager opens the safe, David and Nick emerge, having heard his plan through Morales' bug. Nick attempts to arrest them, but when David refuses to shoot an unarmed Liesl, they kidnap Nick and shoot David. Strom demands $2,000,000 ransom and takes Nick to his chop shop. Having worn a bulletproof vest, David survives. The police refuse to pay the ransom, and Nick is written off as a dead man.

Determined to help Nick, David goes to the bar and demands information. He starts a huge brawl and several fires, terrorizing the customers. He then tries to find Felix at his dry cleaner's shop but arrives just as a gunman named Loco whacks Felix for being a rat. Loco assaults David and escapes. David goes to his wealthy father for the $2,000,000.

Left alone on the fifth floor of the warehouse are Liesl and Nick Pulovski. She sits on a sofa and sniffs two lines of cocaine. Handcuffed to a chair, he asks for a glass of water. Liesl stands and removes a kimono revealing a lace nightgown. After setting the glass down, she picks up a razor blade. Pulovski is threatened with castration if he can't satisfy her. A camcorder setup the night before records the sexual assault. The live video is shown on the screens of sixteen monitors. After Pulovski reaches orgasm he is warned by Liesl, "Don't lose it".

David calls his girlfriend Sarah from Eugene Ackerman's office. She tells him the cops are looking for him since he has not checked in and that his superior is waiting at their home. David promises to return but is arrested; after realizing that he is being set up, he escapes custody.

David crashes his motorcycle through his own front door to find Loco attacking his wife; in the fight, she shoots the gunman dead. His car reminds him of Strom's garage, where he goes to find Nick. After Nick is tortured and raped by Liesl while being filmed, he steals a revolver and overpowers her but encounters her accomplice Max. Nick kills him, then the pair drops into an elevator shaft and Nick plays dead. Alerted by dripping blood, Strom sees Nick and tries to kill him. David arrives in time to run them off and save Nick. Nick then drives a convertible out the window of the upper floor to escape a bomb planted inside to destroy the remaining evidence, and they continue their pursuit.

Pulovski and Ackerman carjack a van driven by Cruz who Strom sent to retrieve the ransom. He then drives the detectives to an airport where Strom and Liesl wait aboard a private plane with Ken Blackwell. Once a briefcase is exchanged Cruz is killed by Strom. From out of the back of the van come Pulovski and Ackerman. A shootout and chase ensues.

Whilst in pursuit of Strom and Liesl, pilot Ken Blackwell tries to run over the detectives with the plane. After a couple near misses, Pulovski and Ackerman fire at Blackwell. Shattered glass cuts the pilot's face. His vision blurred by blood he accidentally turns the plane onto a runway. A landing jumbo jet hits the private plane with a wing damaging the body. Fire and a leaking fuel tank causes an explosion.

The chase continues with Erich Strom and Liesl running into a terminal. At the end of a Y-shape hall, Strom runs right and Liesl turns left. Ackerman pursues Liesl and Pulovski chases Strom. Liesl runs for her life. She rushes past passengers, shoving a man who tries to stop her, pushing a woman with her back to Liesl, leaping luggage, shooting, and shouting. Strom runs like a criminal trying to escape arrest.

Liesl and David Ackerman's race comes to an end when two security guards with revolvers raised try to arrest Liesl. After executing the men, Liesl turns, Ackerman out of sight. Just after she reloads David Ackerman sneaks up behind her with his pistol aimed. Their standoff ends with Liesl shot in the chest. She's unarmed but Ackerman fires a second shot to her chest followed by a final shot to the forehead. Ackerman who has been haunted by the death of his brother would have been haunted by the life of Liesl.

By a luggage carousel Nick Pulovski fires a shot at Erich Strom. The revolver clicks revealing an empty barrel. Strom stops running, turns, and fires at Pulovski who is struck in the stomach. Strom is about to fire a fatal shot when Ackerman arrives, shouts his name, and shoots him in the chest. During his fall Strom fires a shot hitting Ackerman in a leg. Pulovski crawls over to Strom who assumes the detective will have to call for an ambulance. Pulovski denies this by removing the identical silver bullet on sterling silver chain Liesl wears. Momentarily confused how anyone could know about his necklace Strom realizes Liesl must have told. In an effort to regain some pride and dignity after having it stripped from him by Liesl, Pulovski murders Strom.

Sometime later at the police station, David is finally considered a veteran cop. Nick, now promoted to lieutenant, assigns him his own "rookie."

Cast

  • Clint Eastwood as Sergeant Nick Pulovski
  • Charlie Sheen as Detective David Ackerman
  • Seth Allen as Young David Ackerman
  • Raul Julia as Erich Strom
  • Sônia Braga as Liesl
  • Tom Skerritt as Eugene Ackerman
  • Lara Flynn Boyle as Sarah Ackerman
  • Pepe Serna as Lieutenant Raymond Garcia
  • Donna Mitchell as Laura Ackerman
  • Coleby Lombardo as Joey Ackerman
  • Marco Rodriguez as "Loco" Martinez
  • Xander Berkeley as Ken Blackwell
  • Roberta Vasquez as Officer Heather Torres
  • Hal Williams as Detective Powell
  • Paul Ben-Victor as Felix "Little Felix"
  • Tony Plana as Morales
  • David Sherrill as Max
  • Pete Randall as Cruz
  • Matt McKenzie as Detective Wang
  • Joel Polis as Detective Lance
  • Robert Harvey as Detective Whalen
  • George Orrison as Detective Orrison
  • Paul Butler as Captain Hargate
  • Anthony Charnota as Romano
  • Nick Ballo as Vito
  • Jay Boryea as Sal
  • Anthony Alexander as Alphonse
  • Jeanne Mori as Reporter Connie Ling
  • Jordan Lund as The Bartender
  • Kyle Eastwood as Band Member at Ackerman's House Party (uncredited)

Production

Sets and equipment

Within California, filming was done primarily on location in Saratoga, San Jose and Los Angeles. Various filming sites included Interstate 680 and State Route 87 in San Jose for the opening chase sequence featuring the semi-tractor trailer, the famous Villa Montalvo mansion for the henchmen meeting scene in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Saratoga, and the San Jose International Airport as well as the Mojave Air & Space Port for the final action climax scene, which author Laurence F. Knapp described as "both purgative and objectionable—a vivid, personal exchange of camera angles and vantage points that complicate, rather than conclude." A furniture warehouse on the corner of 4th and Hewitt streets in downtown Los Angeles, stood in as the hideaway for Strom's illegal theft operation. But in relation to same hideaway's demise later in the film, a different building was used in the City of Commerce. A warehouse previously occupied by an auto agency slated for demolition on Flower near 12th Street, stood in for the impending explosion-filled destruction. During an introductory scene, where Eastwood's character pulls up in an unmarked squad car to foil the plans of the car thieves, a z-shaped thoroughfare called Santa Fe Street, provided the perfect secluded background at night which also happened to overlook the Los Angeles skyline. while supervisor John Frazier controlled the special effects. In summing up the filming experience, Frazier said, "You know, things went really well, but you have to give credit to everyone involved. Clint Eastwood and David Valdez really gave us the time and their confidence to do it right. We were never really rushed, which is so important. We were able to do every one of the major shots in one take: the car out of the building, the carrier turning over and the planes colliding. That says something. These guys respect the crew and every job being done. It makes a big difference." On a separate note, author Marc Eliot described the graphic rape scene in the film that gained much publicity as "an explosive sequence, and the only one in the film that people talked about. As obviously provocative and exploitative as it was, ars gratia artis the scene may also be read as conveying Clint's feeling victimized at the hands of a beautiful but bad woman." Offering another take on the scene, author John H. Foote noticed, "Braga looks somewhat embarrassed during the rape sequence, leaving us to wonder why Eastwood the director did not handle the sequence in a different manner. Was he hoping that the film would offer audiences something new?" Author Douglas Thompson bluntly referred to the rape scene as "sadomasochistic" and Braga as a "kinky nymphomaniac ... before she rapes Eastwood she plays around his chest with a razor blade, then gets into torrid action."

Stunts

The major stunt scenes were executed before the camera with no miniatures, no blue screens, while mostly being shot at night.

Among the reviews, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times, mildly complimented the stunts and special effects mentioning, "There are some good ones, including a chase down an expressway, with Eastwood driving his car right up the loading ramp of a semi auto-carrier" and noting that the film was "... jammed with material and the budget was obviously large, but somehow not much pays off. It's all there on the screen, but lifeless." On another negative front, Ebert also criticized Sheen's performance, saying he kept "a poker face and laconic voice through much of the movie, and doesn't generate the kind of vigor and intensity the role needs; a more nervous actor might have been a better choice." Ebert's partner Gene Siskel voiced his agreement; "It's a very depressing experience. Everyone's wasted in the film. The Latino stereotypes, when they get out on the street, are just awful." He went on to state, "... nobody has a good role. Raul Julia is wasted, Sônia Braga is tawdry. This was gonna be a classy international star, it's a joke." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post solidly concurred saying, "Eastwood runs his patented American macho numbers, plays the same limited repertoire of squints, but he's gotten way too long in the tooth to pull them off and the thrill is long gone." Incidentally, another The Washington Post staff writer Desson Howe, dismissed the film as well. He openly wondered whether the film "will have something original about it. Maybe there's a twist somewhere, something to set it apart from the 20,595 other buddies-in-uniform movies made in recent years." In contrast with the buddy film genre though, Pat Collins of WWOR-TV, enthusiastically proclaimed the film to be "The best buddy cop movie of the year." The Variety staff however, added to the general dismay with the film saying, "Overlong, sadistic and stale even by the conventions of the buddy pic genre, Clint Eastwood's The Rookie is actually Dirty Harry 5 since Eastwood's tough-as-nails cop Nick Pulovski could just as easily be named Harry Callahan, ..."

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|style="text-align: left;"|"Clint Eastwood's new film, 'The Rookie,' plays like an anthology of stuff that has worked before in action pictures. It's jammed with material and the budget was obviously large, but somehow not much pays off. It's all there on the screen, but lifeless."

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|style="text-align: left;"|—Roger Ebert, writing in The Chicago Sun Times

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Vincent Canby of The New York Times, expressed his dissatisfaction with the film too. He mused, "The Rookie is an astonishingly empty movie to come from Mr. Eastwood. The screenplay for The Rookie seems to have been pumped up from a script originally intended as a segment for a half-hour television series. There's not much of a story." He wasn't impressed with the special effects either saying, "the movie devotes itself to extended set pieces, mostly chases, which are so lazily thought out and edited that the audience is always ready for the twists that are supposed to surprise." Also in regards to the stunt work, author MK of Time Out in London commented, the "movie is full of caricatured cops and robbers, and punctuated with interminably dull car-chases."

Alternatively though, Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune felt the quality of the stunt work was superb, commenting that they were, "the most spectacular action sequences Eastwood has ever filmed."

Other movie critics, like Jeffrey Lyons of WPIX, applauded the performances of the lead characters and called the film "Tough and gritty. Fires with a full clip. Eastwood and Sheen are terrific together." Giving the film a C+ rating, critic Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly posted, "The Rookie is like a series of garish exploitation set pieces jammed into the shape of a buddy movie." He went further in his criticism saying, "as moviemaking goes, The Rookie is on the slovenly side. The plot makes almost no sense, and Eastwood directs in his usual toneless fashion." But on a lighter note, relating to the film's comedic appeal, he stated, "in this case, the fact that you can't always tell the intentional comedy from the unintentional isn't necessarily a drawback." In agreement on the lack of plausibility surrounding the plot, author Marshall Julius still offered though an almost entirely positive review, giving the film three and a half guns, exclaiming, "As directed by Eastwood, The Rookie is a deliberately silly, knockabout adventure which aims for outrageous and hits a bullseye. We're talking good, dumb, fun. Get your brains out and the beers in, and you're all set."

Box office

The film premiered in cinemas on December 7, 1990. At its widest distribution in the U.S., the film was screened at 1,862 theaters grossing $5,510,056 in its opening weekend. During that first weekend in release, the film opened in third place behind Home Alone and Misery. The film's revenue dropped by 36% in its second week of release, earning $3,512,765. During its final weekend showing in theaters, the film grossed $1,224,696. The film went on to top out at $21,633,874 in total ticket sales through a 5-week theatrical run. For 1990 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 56. The Region 1 Code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United States on September 2, 2003, and includes a digital transfer soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, interactive menus, Eastwood film highlights, scene access, and the theatrical trailer. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on June 1, 2010.

Novelization

In January 1991, a novelization based on the screenplay was released. Distributed by Warner Books, it was written by Tom Philbin.