Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Cast:

Austin Stoker is Lieutenant Ethan Bishop
Darwin Joston is Napoleon Wilson
Laurie Zimmer is Lee
Tony Burton is Wells

What the box says:

Isolated, cut off. Inside an abadoned police station, a handful of cops and some convicts on their way to Death Row must join forces and defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder, who have taken a blood oath to destroy.

From the director of Halloween and The Thing, Assault on Precinct 13 combines elemetents of the classic western and modern thriller to create a cult favorite, one of John Carpenter's very best films.

Plot:

As we get the understandably cool John Carpenter instrumental theme, the credits roll. It’s not as good as Halloween theme, but still is pretty sweet…

Several members of the Street Thunder gang leave a building and are gunned down by the police. We learn from a radio announcement that many automatic weapons have disappeared. 3 guesses on who has them? The warlords of Street Thunder, a Latino, Oriental, black, and white guy each spill their blood in jar for their oath.

Lieutenant Bishop leaves his house and drives to his night’s duty. He is ordered to supervise Precinct 13, tonight.

Special Agent Starker is going to transport 3 prisoners to the state prison. He meets with Wells and the sick Caudell. The warden has Napoleon Wilson in another cell. Wilson is going to Death Row. Napoleon Wilson is cool as ice but doesn’t suck like vanilla. Warden knocks him down when letting him up.

Wells, Caudell, and Wilson are escorted to the prison bus. Starker lets Wilson stretch before getting on the bus. He uses the opportunity to knock the Warden down before leaving. Yes, Napoleon Wilson is our very cool anti-hero type. Wilson is on the bus which heads out.

As Bishop drives towards Precinct 13, he hears about the 6 gang members killed earlier that day. They belonged to the multiracial Street Thunder gang.

Blonde girl and her father are driving through Anderson, bad part of Los Angeles. He wants to convince his daughter’s nanny to move out of Anderson to move in with them. Dad can’t find the street. Blonde girl is asking to get something to eat.

Street Thunder gang leaders gather drive off, readying their silencer equipped weapons.

Bishop arrives at the nearly deserted Precinct 13. It’s peaceful as he enters. The place is filled with packing crates. We’re introduced to Lee the secretary and Julie the dispatcher. The Precinct will be shut down at 10:00 AM the next morning. Bishop grew up nearby the Precinct as a child. He meets with the Captain; Bishop’s job is to baby sit the station until 4:00 AM. The Captain mentions how rough a day it’s been so far, foreshadowing….

The car with the Street Thunder leaders drives the streets of Anderson. The white guy is scoping out random people along the street. They hear an approaching icecream truck. Pull up past it. The Icecream Man gets worried by the slow moving car, he eases the pistol he carries under the dash closer to him.

The prison bus is on the freeway. Starker talks with Wilson. Here, we learn that Napoleon isn’t psychotic. Wilson is pragmatic. Philosophical. Caudell seems to be getting sicker. Starker orders the bus to stop at the closest Precinct. Can you guess where?

Blonde girl goes off to the icecream truck while her Dad calls for directions at a payphone. Street Thunder passes the icecream truck again. Blonde girl gets her icecream truck as the icecream man gets more worried by the ominous car repeatedly passing by him. Street Thunder white gang leader pulls the icecream man from the truck, beats him.

This doesn't taste like Jerry, I mean Cherry Garcia...
The blonde girl heads back to the truck, got the wrong flavor. Street Thunder white gang leader shoots her and then the icecream man. Street Thunder leaders drive away. Dad sees his daughter on the ground, running to her. The dying icecream man tells Dad about the gun he carries in the truck. Dad grabs the gun and chases the Street Thunder car.

Bishop is putting up a sign telling of the new address of Precinct 13 as the prison bus pulls up. Starker meets Bishop, and wants to leave the prisoners in the holding tank until the doctor can see Caudell. Wilson, Wells, and Caudell are placed in the cells. Wilson has yet to find a cigarette.

At 7:00 PM, Dad finally catches up with the Street Thunder car. In the ensuing gunfight, he manages to kill his daughter’s murderer, using all the bullets in the gun. He walks away while the Street Thunder leaders stand over their fallen comrade. Dad is in phone booth about to call the police when he sees Street Thunder gang following him. Dad runs to Precinct 13 as Street Thunder approaches.

Dad is babbling to the desk sergeant, Cheney, about being followed. Cheney checks and doesn’t see anything. Starker is on the phone when the phones are cut. Starker is going to take the prisoners to another station. Lee tells Bishop that Dad mentioned his daughter was shot. Suddenly, the power is cut. Cheney goes outside to use the radio in his car and is shot dead. Bishop goes outside, narrowly avoids being shot himself. The guns have silencers on them.

Street Thunder keeps surrounding the station. Bishop has the doors locked. Before he can warn Starker, the gang manages to kill the prison guards, Starker, and Caudell. Bishop gets Wells and Wilson inside and back in the cells.

The gang is shooting out the windows. Bishop, Lee, Julie, and shocked Dad are on the floor. Then all is quiet. Bishop doesn’t see anyone outside and has Lee keep a watch. Bishop checks on the prisoners but doesn’t tell them what’s happening.

The closest houses are a block away. They would hear anything if the gang used silencers on their guns. The phone line is still attached to the station. Street Thunder cut the phone line away from the station so if anyone heard anything they couldn’t call it in.

Julie thinks the gang is gone. Bishop’s plan is to wait until the cavalry arrives. Street Thunder is blockading the road, too. The gang leaders approach the Precinct. These were the men who spilled their blood earlier for the blood oath. They break the bowl in front of the station and lay a flag beside it. They retreat into the darkness. Inside, no one is sure what just happened other than they’ve been marked. Julie has the good idea of giving Dad to them. Bishop refuses that idea immediately. He came here for help and help he’ll get. RIGHT ON BISHOP!!!

Bishop has Lee let the prisoners out; need all the help they can get. The attack resumes on the station. Several cars slowly head towards the station. Lee gets Wells uncuffed. Street Thunder heads in the back way, shooting Lee giving her a flesh wound on the arm. She Kung Fues the guy and gets Napoleon Wilson free. Street Thunder members are in the station. Wilson is holding the door shut, demanding a gun. Bishop obliges him with an assault shotgun. The gang starts breaking through the windows.

Wells, Bishop, Wilson, and Lee are each packing heat and shooting gang members in a barrel. The attack ends suddenly and all is quiet once more. We see that Julie died. They barricade the doors. Bishop is positive someone had to hear the last gunfight. He finds a large tank of acetylene; bullet hit it, Big baddda boom. Feel a plot point was just mentioned.

Wilson bandages Lee’s arm.

The cars have pulled back, looks like nothing happened. Street Thunder took the bodies of their dead and taken the prison bus and those bodies, too. Wells wants to know what’s going on when Lee mentions the cholo. Wells had a Street Thunder member for a cellmate, the guy was crazy. The cholo means no matter the cost, to the death. Wells plans to make a run for it. Lee manages to convince him the only chance he has is to stay.

Everyone is running low on ammo. Lee doesn’t know where the rest is. Napoleon finally gets his cigarette from her, though.

The police have been hearing reports of firecrackers and gunfire somewhere and a missing phone truck. They don’t see anything and don’t even go around Precinct 13.

The new plan is to get to a car, hotwire it. This is between Wells and Wilson. They actually start doing 1 potato, 2 potato, etc…Wells will have to go and try.

Wilson and Wells head for the basement. Wells goes through the sewage hookup to get to a car and call for help.

Lee is blaming herself for Julie’s death. Bishop, Wilson, and Lee are watching when Wilson thinks the basement is the best place to hole up if the gang attacks again. Wells gets out of the manhole and makes it to a car. Street Thunder spotted Wells who breaks into the car and hotwires it. As he’s driving away, he’s killed by a Street Thunder member hiding in the backseat.

Wilson again states the basement is the best place with them only having 8 shots between them. Dad is carried down to the basement. None of them know what Dad did to start this. Lee asks why Wilson doesn’t leave through the sewers. He stands his ground.

Bishop comes up with another idea: strapping magnesium flares (couldn’t find a flare gun) to the acetylene tank. The only way to get to the basement is through a long narrow hallway. When the gang rushes them, they will hold them back retreating to the basement shooting the tank. Big Badda Boom, thank you Leelo.

A police car drives past Precinct 13 which is completely dark. They drive away. Hear the patter of rain; they see it’s the missing phone repairman.

Bishop is lining up his shot. Hear the gang break into the station. They head to the hallway, a large metal sign is used as shield as they slowly draw back Wilson and Bishop are whacking at the gang members over the shield. Lee is in the basement guarding how Wells got out insuring no one comes in that way. Bishop misses his first shot. Another shot hits, explosion, big badda boom.

The cops arrive in numbers as Street Thunder retreat. The cops check the basement. Bishop, Lee, Wilson, and the shell shocked Dad are there.

Dad is placed on a gurney and taken away. Lee refuses leaving on a stretcher, walks out giving a smoldering glance at Napoleon. The cops try to cuff Wilson. However, Bishop orders them not to do it. Bishop and Wilson walk out together.

What I say:

This has been a called a quasi-remake of John Wayne's Rio Bravo. There are some similarities between them. But, not enough to call this a remake or even the new term "re-imagining" of Rio Bravo. I could go into enough things that are different of this movie, They weren't trapped in the jail as much as they were waiting for the prisoner to be picked up and taken away. With the way, it's been mentioned, I though I should at least acknowledge that fact is Pre-Halloween, John Carpenter.

One of the big problems with John Carpenter seems to be his work is either hit or miss. Halloween, hit. John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, miss. Not every movie can be great. And it can be the producer, screenwriter, etc's fault. You think about Carpenter's work automatically Halloween, Thing spring to mind. In fact, it seems time is becoming more kind to his films like the Thing which is considered one of the more imaginitive and creative horror movies from the early part of the 80s instead of a dreadful movie that came out after ET. Big Trouble in Little China is becoming a cult classic as you read this...

John Carpenter is famous for Halloween. Too bad this movie isn’t as recognized as it should be. There’s no way it would have been made after the 70s. The first half hour has the gang members gunned down and everything is set up for the siege of the station. Bishop having to baby sit the place. The prisoners leaving the county jail and are sidetracked to Precinct 13. Street Thunder members cruising the streets as they decide who to kill. Dad and his daughter are lost in the bad part of town and her brutal death. It's very deliberately paced up until the daughter is shot then it moves into high gear. A lesser director wouldn't have been tried to set the characters up in such a way. A lesser director would have started the movie with Dad hunting the gang down after the death of his daughter and started the action part of the movie 15 or so into the film.

The attacks on Precinct 13 are not going to happen for well over 30 minutes into the movie to slowly introduce the characters. But, when the gang attacks, its fast paced, hard to follow as our outnumbered heroes try to survive the night. This is not an action movie like John Woo would direct. we don't have any of the Mexican standoffs or guys firing the guns sideways, looking cool. These gunfights are fast and not ballet artistic types either. When the gang storms the precinct, its from multiple points. And these are some of the only protagonists in the history of movies that are low on ammo for their guns. How many movies have you heard a cop mention he's almost out of bullets? Very few if at all...

I read a description of Evil Dead as the greatest Spam in a house movie since the original Night of the Living Dead. Well, this movie has to be up there, too. This movie doesn't have enough gore to be considered a horror movie. The fake blood is red, very red...But, with the gunfights, we have one of the best action movies from the 70s in my opinion. You could think of the gang as zombies trying to break into the police station. I can’t think of any of them that actually say a single word. But, the night scenes as they skulk and try breaking into the police station is as familiar as trying to cross Rio Bravo with Night of the Living Dead as I read elsewhere.

We don’t feel any sympathy for the gang. They don’t seem to care whether they live or the die as long as they kill their enemies, sort of like the Fremen without the giant sandworms, honor, or Muad’Dib. They mindlessly swarm the Precinct regardless of the consequences. But, this lack of showing their humanity makes them seem less than human. The death of the little girl shows they have no respect for any life. And more than that, who wouldn't want to go after them for doing what they did to her? You can't help but almost cheer when they start becoming dirt angels.

The way that the Precinct can be so desolate and far away from everyone in the city as they come under siege is hard to grasp. But, the way the gang methodically cuts the phone lines to insure no one will know anything is happening, the cutting of the power, and even the removal of all the bodies seems to be a brilliant strategy. The way everything they did would make no one suspicious is frightening in its ability to work so effectively.

Napoleon Wilson is the prototype for Snake Plissken, only not as cool and without an eyepatch. But, it’s a work in progress. We never learn who he killed to end up on Death Row. Darwin Josten doesn’t look like a bad-azz, looks more like someone's uncle. He does what he feels needs to be done, damn the consequences. But, when the fecal matter hits the turbine propellor, this is who you want to get your back.

Austin Stoker is Bishop. And, every movie that has a character named Bishop will be a cool character. Aliens proved this. Bishop isn’t always right, but determined to do what he feels is right: the way he wants to protect Dad. We can see how Bishop and Wilson are similar in this respect. At least, they didn't start off as antagonistic and become friends in the end. I've seen that happen in too many movies. They knew the only way anyone would escape would be by cooperating. Bishop didn't seem to hate Wilson like the Warden did for one thing. When the chips were down, Bishop realized having the "notorious" Napoleon Wilson with you would be a good thing. Might be one of the first movies where a cop befriends a prisoner and doesn't let him escape in the end.

Actually, the attack doesn’t occur at Precinct 13. It’s Precinct 9 Division 13. There seem to be few things that are out of place to me. They can’t find anymore ammo but have easy access to magnesium flares and a big acetylene tank. Considering this was Carpenter's second movie after Dark Star, but, it was the first real movie he did. It shows the talent he has in putting together such a low budget movie that works so well even more than 20 years after it was made. I can't really see this was a director's first real movie. It just seems so much better than it should by by all rights and thinking that this is Carpenter's first real movie is even more that impressive.

Quotable Dialogue
"There are no heroes anymore, Bishop. Only men who follow orders."
"I don't sit in chairs as well as I used to..."
"Lieutenant, you run this station like Chicken night in Turkey."
"Maybe, they got the good fairy to help them."
"You look like someone spit in your socks."
"No one said anything about the Cholo."
"I was born out of time."
Morals of the Story
Prisoners transported to Death Row are on long enough chains they can use as weapons.
Icecream men carry guns when working.
Prisoners decide things by 1 potato, 2 potato....
Police stations are readily accessible from the sewers.