| Director | Jon Avnet |
|---|---|
| Budget | $60 million |
| Box office | $79.4 million |
Police psychologists review video recordings made by Detective David "Turk" Fisk in which he discusses how much he admires his partner of almost 30 years, Detective Tom "Rooster" Cowan.
A serial killer is called The Poetry Boy for his modus operandi of murdering criminals and leaving short poems with their bodies. Turk and Rooster investigate the murder of a pimp named Robert "Rambo" Brady. Less experienced detectives Karen Corelli, Simon Perez and Ted Riley are also on the case. When they find a poem on the body, the cops deduce it is Poetry Boy's tenth victim. There is tension among the detectives since Turk is living with Perez's ex-girlfriend, Corelli.
Other victims of Poetry Boy include acquitted rapist Jonathan Van Luytens, and a Catholic priest named Father Connell, a child molester whose victims included Poetry Boy. Russian mobster Yevgeny Magulat survives an assault by Poetry Boy, then shoots at Perez's house and rapes Corelli.
Suspecting Turk of being Poetry Boy due to his marksmanship skills and psych evaluations, Perez and Riley arrange to secretly observe a meeting between Turk and suspected drug dealer Marcus "Spider" Smith. Expecting Turk to reveal his homicidal tendencies, he's instead proven innocent by having a firearm inconsistent with Poetry Boy's, and reciting a humiliating poem that is also inconsistent with the killer's style. Perez and Riley leave the scene unsatisfied, and Rooster then kills Spider, dropping his journal during their confrontation.
Turk discovers the journal, in which Rooster predicted Spider would be Poetry Boy's fourteenth victim. Rooster puts Turk in front of a video camera and forces him to read it, revealing that Rooster is the actual David Fisk/Poetry Boy, while Turk is actually Tom Cowan. Rooster admits losing his faith in the justice system when Turk, whom he admired, planted evidence to incriminate a man previously acquitted on charges of child molestation and murder named Charles Randall. The injustice turned Rooster into a vigilante serial killer.
Turk chases Rooster to a construction site, tries to resist Rooster's attempts to goad him into killing him, but is forced to shoot him. Rooster begs Turk to let him die, and Turk calls off the paramedics, allowing Rooster to succumb to his wounds.
Turk becomes the coach of a youth girls' baseball team, and Corelli cheers from the bleachers.