The Last Boy Scout

During halftime at a football game, Los Angeles Stallions running back Billy Cole receives a call from Milo, a man who warns him to win the game or he will be killed. Cole ingests PCP and in a drug-induced rage, carries a gun onto the field, shooting three opposing players to reach the end zone before shooting himself in the head. Meanwhile, private investigator Joe Hallenbeck, a disgraced former Secret Service agent who was once a national hero for saving the President from an assassination attempt, discovers that his wife Sarah is having an affair with his best friend and business partner, Mike Matthews. After a confrontation, Mike gives Joe an assignment to act as bodyguard for a stripper named Cory. Mike is then killed by a car bomb outside Joe's house. That night at a strip club, Joe is approached by Cory's boyfriend, former Stallions quarterback Jimmy Dix, who was banned from the league on gambling charges and alleged drug abuse. While Cory and Jimmy exchange conversations, Joe waits outdoors and is eventually knocked unconscious by a team of hitmen. Jimmy and Cory leave the bar in separate cars while Joe overpowers the hitman left to dispatch him. When Cory is struck from behind and stops to confront the other driver, she is killed by the hitmen. Joe eliminates two of them as the other one retreats and Jimmy is saved. The pair are interrogated by lieutenant Benjamin Bessalo, and he grows dubious of Joe's behavior. Acting on a hunch at Cory's apartment, Jimmy and Joe find a taped phone conversation between Senator Calvin Baynard, who leads a congressional investigation into sports gambling, and Stallions owner Sheldon Marcone. When Joe was in the Secret Service, he witnessed Baynard torturing a woman in a hotel room and assaulted the senator to liberate her. Baynard retaliated by having Joe fired for refusing to cover up the incident. When the tape is ruined in Joe's faulty car stereo, Jimmy realizes that Cory tried using the tape against Marcone to reinstate Jimmy on the team, prompting Marcone to send the hitmen. Joe saves Jimmy from a second car bomb, and tricks two hitmen into blowing themselves up. However, the explosion destroys the remaining evidence. At Joe's house, Jimmy attempts to use cocaine in the bathroom. However, Joe catches Jimmy and kicks him out. As Jimmy leaves, Joe's daughter Darian asks him to sign a football trading card. She states that Joe was a fan of Jimmy's and never watched another game after he was excluded from the league. Learning of Mike's affair with Sarah, the police assume that Joe killed him and move to make an arrest. Milo, Marcone's top henchman, captures Joe first and shoots detective McClusky with Joe's gun. Marcone has been purchasing senate votes to legalize sports gambling, but Baynard tried to blackmail Marcone for $6 million. Aware of Joe's history with Baynard, Marcone explains it would be cheaper to kill the senator and frame Joe for the murder. Joe is taken to a wooded area and forced to hand a briefcase with money to Baynard's bodyguards, and Marcone's men surreptitiously switch it with a briefcase containing a bomb. Joe is rescued by Jimmy and Darian, and acquires both briefcases after running the bodyguards and Milo off the road. However, Milo survives and while Darian is left to wait for the police, she is abducted by Milo. Heading to the stadium to rescue Darian, Joe and Jimmy are captured and escorted to Marcone's office. Jimmy creates a diversion, allowing them to fight their way free. Realizing that Milo plans to shoot Baynard, Joe goes after Milo while sending Jimmy to warn the senator. Grabbing the game ball, Jimmy throws it at Baynard, knocking him down just as Milo starts to open fire. Joe pushes Milo to the edge of the stadium light platform, where SWAT officers shoot him before he falls into the moving rotor blades of a police helicopter. The briefcase of money is recovered and Marcone, having escaped with the rigged briefcase, is killed when he opens it at his estate. The next day, Joe and Sarah reconcile, and Joe and Jimmy decide to become partners.

Plot from The Last Boy ScoutCC BY-SA 4.0