Assault on Precinct 13

In South-Central Los Angeles, a local gang, Street Thunder, steals a cache of assault rifles and pistols. At 3:00 am on a Saturday in Anderson, a crime-infested ghetto, a team of heavily armed LAPD officers ambush and kill six members of the gang. Later, the gang's four warlords swear a blood oath of revenge against the police and the citizens of Los Angeles. That afternoon, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, a newly promoted CHP officer, is assigned to take charge of the decommissioned Anderson police precinct during the last few hours before it is permanently closed. Only a skeleton staff remains, including Sergeant Chaney and the station's two secretaries, Leigh and Julie. A prison bus arrives commanded by Officer Starker, who is seeking medical help for one of three inmates being transported to the state penitentiary: Napoleon Wilson, a convicted murderer bound for death row; Wells; and Caudell, who is sick. Across town, the Street Thunder warlords drive around looking for people to kill. One of the warlords fatally shoots a little girl, Kathy, and the driver of an ice cream van. Kathy's father, Lawson, pursues and kills the warlord before other gang members chase him into the Anderson precinct. In shock, Lawson is unable to communicate what has happened to him. As Starker's prisoners are placed in cells, the telephone lines go dead, and the station's electricity goes out. While Starker prepares to move the prisoners back onto the bus, the gang opens fire on the precinct, using weapons fitted with silencers. In seconds, they kill Chaney, the bus driver, Caudell, Starker, and two officers accompanying Starker. Bishop unchains Wilson from Starker's body and puts Wilson and Wells back into the cells. When the gang members begin a second wave of shooting, Bishop sends Leigh to release Wells and Wilson, and the four of them repel an attempted invasion. However, Julie is killed during the firefight, while Leigh is shot and wounded in one arm. The gang members remove all evidence of the skirmish to avoid attracting outside attention. Bishop hopes that someone has heard the police weapons firing, but the neighborhood is too sparsely populated, due to most of the housing being scheduled for demolition, for nearby residents to pinpoint the location of the noise. Wells is chosen to sneak out of the precinct through a sewer line. After hot-wiring a nearby car, he is killed by a gang member hiding in the back seat before he can get to a telephone. Meanwhile, two police officers responding to reports of gunfire find the dead body of a telephone repairman hanging from a pole near the police station and call for backup. As the gang rallies for an all-out final assault, Wilson, Leigh, and Bishop retreat to the station's basement, taking the still-catatonic Lawson with them. They protect themselves with a large, durable metal sign as the gang violently storms the building. Bishop shoots a tank full of acetylene gas, which explodes and kills all the gang members in the narrow basement hallway. The remainder of the gang flees as police arrive to secure the station. Venturing down into the basement, the officers discover that Bishop, Leigh, Wilson, and Lawson are the only survivors. Lawson is strapped onto a stretcher and removed. Another stretcher is offered to Leigh, but, after she and Wilson exchange a long look, she declines it and exits unassisted. When an officer attempts to handcuff Wilson, Bishop angrily intervenes before asking Wilson to walk out of the station with him.

Plot from Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)CC BY-SA 4.0