Written by Mr. Mouseburger 1st Apr 2006

Kindly submitted by The Doctor

Bill Foster is your average, everyday Joe who has been dumped on by society once too often; his job has been downsized and he has just been through an acrimonious divorce where he was not granted partial custody of his daughter. Therefore it goes without saying that he is a man on the edge. Stuck in traffic during one of L.A.'s hottest days, his grip on sanity finally snaps, and abandoning the car in the traffic, he starts walking a path towards "home," leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake.

Detective Prendergast is on his last day before retirement. About to move with his crazy, demanding shrew of a wife, he takes an interest in a series of crimes perpetuated by a man with a white shirt and tie (Foster). Calling him D-FENS after the vanity plate on Foster's car, he manages to track Foster down to the home of his ex-wife. Foster leaves out the back shooting Prendergast's partner, Sandra, as he does so, and he heads off for the pier. Prendergast, after checking Sandra is ok, follows him.

At the pier, Prendergast thinks that Foster is going to kill his wife, child, and himself (you make the call). He tries to stall him by trying to get him to come along with him to the station, but Foster mentions that it means that he'll see his daughter grow up from behind bars, and he doesn’t want that. He mentions that he wants to make sure his kid is taken care of (implying life insurance), and asks Prendergast if he wants to draw. Prendergast tries to talk him out of it, but Foster's hand is inside his jacket as he counts to three. As he pulls out whatever is in his jacket, Prendergast fires.

Foster pulls out a squirt gun, saying dazedly "I would've got you." He then falls over the side of the pier and into the ocean, dead. This is something of a rarity: a realistic ending for a Hollywood film.