Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Joe Carnahan, ‘Copshop’ tells the story of two people behind bars, Teddy Murretto and Bob Viddick, who are separated by mere inches. While the police believe them to be relatively petty criminals, the unlikely duo’s real intentions are far more sinister. As it turns out, Teddy is on the run from a feared hitman, who is revealed to be none other than Bob. Stranded between the two forces of violence lies Valerie Young, a rookie police officer who simultaneously acts as their mediator and disciplinarian. Over the course of this neo-noir action film, a perpetual struggle for control forces all three characters to bring out and confront a part of themselves they haven’t seen before. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Copshop Plot Synopsis
‘Copshop’ begins with a man named Teddy Murretto haphazardly riding an unmarked police vehicle, which breaks down on the outskirts of the town of Gun Creek. There, Teddy picks up a fight with Valerie Young, a rookie police officer, who promptly detains him at the station. Unbeknownst to her, this has been Teddy’s intention all along, as he is currently on the run from some dangerous people and deems the station to be the safest possible place. What he doesn’t expect, however, is for Bob Viddick, the hitman after him, to follow the same tactic and wind up in jail for a petty crime. As the two stand two bars apart, Bob patiently waits for his plans to unfold at 12 noon, when his pre-planted device triggers the fire alarm. Making use of the commotion, Bob attacks and disarms Sergeant Mitchell, but is stopped by Val before he can kill Teddy.
As the chaos settles down, Val talks to both the detainees and learns that Teddy is actually a fixer with ties to the mob, and was pressured into working with the FBI due to mounting evidence against him. This detail makes him a direct enemy of the mob, which is where Bob comes in. Prior to this, Teddy was running away from a group of corrupt LAPD cops, some of whom might be within the system. As the conversation transpires in the holding cells, a rival hitman, named Anthony Lamb, takes over the rest of the police station in search of Teddy and shoots Val in the process. However, she manages to lock herself in the cell room just in time, with only Teddy and Bob there to help her.
Meanwhile, Mitchell turns out to be a corrupt cop and adds to the murders committed by Lamb. When their attempts to break into the cells fail, Lamb suggests breaking through the walls and begins digging. Realizing that she has no way out, Val reluctantly lets Teddy go, but not before Bob tells him that his ex-wife and children have been killed by corrupt police agents. Upon hearing this, Teddy goes into a mad rage, taking out corrupt police officers, while Bob exits detainment shortly after, defeating Lamb in combat. However, just when things seem settled, Detective Deena Schier appears on the scene, revealing herself to be the mastermind behind the operation. With this, all the relevant players are now pooled together in a single police station, which more resembles an all-out battlefront.
Copshop Ending: Does Bob Kill Teddy?
‘Copshop’ ends with Bob gunning down Teddy and fulfilling his contract after enduring a rollercoaster of chaos. Although the game of will-he-won’t-he is pushed to its limits at numerous points in the movie, its final moments still manage to throw a curveball by introducing a new antagonist: Detective Deena Schier. The LAPD officer is the one who shot Teddy at the very start of the movie, and while it appears that she is here to finish the job, her first shot is surprisingly aimed at Val. In a way, both Deena and Val stand at the exact opposite ends of the spectrum, as while one is deeply ingrained in the corruption of the system, the latter actively tries to break free from it, even if it means risking death. In this case, while the bulletproof vest briefly saves her from Deena, it is Bob who ultimately comes to the rescue.
In taking over the reins from Deena, Bob essentially reclaims his antagonistic position in the story, and fittingly, his next move is to do the one thing he has been itching to do this entire time. As Teddy helplessly lies on the ground, Bob wastes no time in killing his target. Notably, there is a major difference between how Teddy reacts to Bob and Val when their respective guns are pointed at him. While he still believes that there’s a chance to talk Val out of killing him, in Bob’s case, Teddy simply accepts his fate, and the fact that he has been beat. Given that the entire movie has been framed as a long chess match between the two seasoned criminals, Teddy’s submission to death comes from an understanding that he has no way out of this mess and must pay for his actions in the most twisted way imaginable.
Another detail of note in the final murder sequence is that Bob specifically uses Deena’s gun to finish the job, even when he is already armed with a pistol prior to confronting Teddy. Earlier in the movie, we see the hitman take numerous shots at Teddy from across the prison cell, only to miss him every single time. If the prison bars can be interpreted as a sign of both these characters being trapped within a system, then their final showdown reflects a larger transformation. Bob, no longer shackled, essentially retakes control of his abilities and finishes the job he single-mindedly set out to do. As such, the switch to the shotgun is meant to be both dramatic and definitive, as the hitman is taking no chances this time in determining that Teddy is dead.
How Did Bob Survive the Gunshot?
While the movie ends with Bob’s victory over Teddy, the path to this triumph is marked by bloodshed on both sides, especially when Teddy shoots at him in the washroom. Although Bob believes that they have entered a temporary truce over Lamb, Teddy simply outsmarts him, possibly for the first time in the entire film. However, it is important to note that the scene is intentionally designed as a blink-and-you-miss-it exchange, and we never actually see Bob get shot or fall to the ground, dead. Instead, there is a brief cut of him ducking to the side, which indicates that he might not have even been hit, but simply escaped to bide his time. This theory is also consistent with how he shows no real injuries upon his reappearance and is able to take out two people in quick succession.
Another potential explanation for Bob’s miraculous survival is much simpler and takes after Val’s decision to don a bulletproof vest. Given that Bob is an experienced hitman, it makes sense for him to be wearing a vest underneath his clothes as well, in which case it would be significantly harder to take him out, especially for someone like Teddy, who isn’t used to a gun. However, in this scenario, while he is protected from a critical hit, Bob is still shot and essentially put in the same bracket as Val and Teddy prior to his death. For these three battered individuals to duke it out is one thing, but it is Bob’s actions in the aftermath of Teddy’s death that raise concerns about his health. Still, given his utter lack of care about any potential injuries, it is more likely than not that he simply dodged the bullet.
Will Val Catch Bob? What is His Real Name?
In the final sequence of ‘Copshop’, Bob kills Teddy and then takes over a police car, before making his grand exit with weapons, money, and a bag containing Lamb’s severed head. The latter detail retroactively explains why Bob was briefly absent from the final showdown, while also reiterating how everything essentially ends in his complete victory. Still, there is one variable that he doesn’t quite take into account, that being Val’s tenacity for putting criminals behind bars. Despite being seriously injured and in an ambulance, she decides to take matters into her own hands and give Bob chase once again. As such, Teddy’s death facilitates the next stage in the story, pitting two characters against each other yet again, except this time it’s the hitman and the cop.
While Val races down with her ambulance, a radio announcement details Bob’s description on loop, and in it, we hear his real name for the first time: Robert K. Viddick, which indicates that he is likely to become a town-wide target very soon. While this is bad news for the mob as is, Bob doesn’t seem to be worried too much and instead enjoys the ride by playing some music. It is here that his arc synthesizes with that of Val’s, as both characters tune into the same song, “Freddie’s Dead.” The song’s lyrics are directly meant to parallel the plot of the movie, showing how Teddy has died, and that the story has moved to its next cat-and-mouse chase. This sense of cyclicality is also shown in how Bob escapes with a stolen cop car, much like how Teddy did at the start of the movie. Just like that time, it is Val’s job to round up the lawbreakers, and she is not one to back down.
The final chase sequence being open-ended is likely an intentional choice on the creators’ part, as the game is now between two equally powerful convictions, and can tip either way. Another important detail is that Val, and potentially even Bob, is seriously injured, and at this point is running on fumes. Though the chase might not have a predictable end in sight, it speaks to the larger thematic backbone of the movie, where the battle against crime is rendered as a never-ending pursuit. While the majority of the cops seemingly join the system and reap its benefits, Val rejects that offer in spirit by rejecting Bob’s suggestion to go home and be at ease. Instead, she now takes over his place in the narrative, chasing down her next target no matter where the journey takes her.
Why Did Bob Save Val’s Life? Is Deena Dead?
Bob’s decision to save Val’s life is among the most curious changes of heart in the movie, and reflects the person behind the garb of a hitman. Although he has the perfect chance to kill Deena after she takes out her targets, Bob risks it all to ensure that Val walks out of the station alive. This is most likely to thank her for letting him out in the first place, but also because he does not see her as someone who deserves to die. Throughout the movie, we only see Bob attack the people who are after his life, and Val is not one of them. To that end, he has no reason to get his hands dirty with pointless bloodshed. Still, there is a level of perplexity to his decision to let a police officer go, knowing how she can be the key to tracking him down in the long run.
While it initially appears that Bob’s decision to save Val has backfired, with her going after him, it is more probable that he doesn’t mind the chase in the first place and instead lives for the thrill. Thus, even if the two characters butt heads once again, it will not be a bout without mutual respect, especially now that their common enemy is gone. Still, there is no explicit confirmation of Deena’s death in the final minutes of the story, and while we see Bob land a shot at her, the story itself cautions against easily assuming a person’s exit from the narrative. In the grim scenario where she makes it out of the fiasco alive, Bob now has the entire LAPD, and potentially the FBI, after him, and the same holds true for Val. In a way, this gives them a second mutual enemy, showing yet another way the cycle might continue.
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