''Bullet'' is a 1996

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...

film directed by

Julien Temple Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including '' The Great Rock 'n' Rol ...

and starring

Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

Donnie Wahlberg Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr. (born August 17, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, record producer, and film producer. He is a founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in the ''Saw' ...

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring as Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's '' The Pianist'' (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Acto ...

Ted Levine Frank Theodore Levine (born May 29, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Buffalo Bill in the film '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991) and Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series ''Monk'' (2002–2009). Le ...

, John Enos III, and featuring early appearances by

Peter Dinklage Peter Hayden Dinklage (; born June 11, 1969) is an American film, television and stage actor. He received international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he ...

and Michael K. Williams. The screenplay was written by Bruce Rubenstein and Rourke, under the pseudonym 'Sir' Eddie Cook. Mickey Rourke was also the

music supervisor A music supervisor is a person who combines music and visual media. According to The Guild of Music Supervisors, a music supervisor is “a qualified professional who oversees all music related aspects of film, television, advertising, video games ...

of the film. The film was shot in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1994 with a significant portion done in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. The film’s release was delayed by over two years and it ended up having limited distribution in the United States in October 1996, a month after the death of Tupac Shakur. It was released direct to video worldwide.

Plot

Thirty-five-year-old Jewish-American convict and junkie Butch "Bullet" Stein (

) is released from prison on parole after serving an 8-year sentence for being an accomplice to a robbery, perpetrated by his friend,

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

gangster Paddy. After his release, Bullet and his best friend Lester ( John Enos III) rob two teenagers for drugs. He also robs drug runner Flaco ( Manny Pérez) and stabs him in the eye, telling him to notify his boss Tank (

) of Bullet's return. He returns to

to live with his dysfunctional family, including his alcoholic father, depressed mother and his two brothers, the older mentally unstable Vietnam veteran Louis (

), and his younger brother Ruby (

), an aspiring graffiti artist. Tank is a local drug kingpin with a score to settle after Bullet stabbed him in the eye while they were serving time together. Bullet seems to welcome the challenge. Tank first pressures Paddy to find and deliver Bullet to him. Later, he tries to have him killed by having one of Paddy's dealers sell Bullet drugs laced with poison. This fails when the drug spot is robbed by gunmen, one of whom proceeds to stab Ruby through the hand with a knife. Throughout the film, Bullet keeps himself occupied by shooting heroin and robbing his neighbor's house for jewelry, which he and Lester sell to an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

gangster named "Frankie Eyelashes" (

Larry Romano Lawrence John Romano (born July 31, 1963) is an American film and television actor. Born in Mount Vernon, New York, he was a regular on ''NYPD Blue'' and the sitcom ''The King of Queens'', on which he played Richie Iannucci. He played First B ...

). He also encourages Ruby to follow his artistic dreams and has a deep friend-to-friend talk with Lester over Lester's potential closeted homosexuality because of his mother abandoning him and his father's passing when he was a child, but he denies it. After the first failed attempt to kill Bullet, Tank gets one of his henchmen to start a fight with Bullet, which is witnessed by Louis and ends in a draw when the henchman breaks his hand. Paddy figures out Tank's attempt to kill Bullet and that he is trying to play him and his associates against one another. He and his henchman Big Balls (

) confront Tank about it, proceeding to kill two of his henchmen, including High Top ( Michael K. Williams). Bullet briefly returns home and apologizes to his mother for everything he put her through over the years. He later goes to a nightclub with Ruby and Lester. Paddy tries to help him escape because Tank is on the way to kill him. Bullet then accepts his fate when he is cornered by Tank and his men and has a final showdown with Tank, who shoots him dead, horrifying Ruby. Soon after Bullet's funeral, Louis gets revenge by sneaking up on an unsuspecting Tank as he tries to enter his club and proceeding to cut Tank's throat, killing him. Louis then leaves Bullet's pet rat (named after Tony Curtis) on the corpse, exclaiming "Payback's a motherfucker" (a line which Tank said to Bullet when he had his henchman battle Bullet). The film ends with Louis watching Bullet's rat prepare to feast on Tank's corpse.

Cast

as Butch "Bullet" Stein *

as "Tank" *

as Reuben "Ruby" Stein *

as Louis Stein * Matthew Powers as Paddy *

as "Big Balls" * Suzanne Shepherd as "Cookie" Stein *

Jerry Grayson Jerry Grayson, AFC is a British naval helicopter pilot who served with the Royal Navy from 1972 to 1980. He is known for being the youngest pilot to ever serve in the Royal Navy. As he flew for the Royal Navy, he was part of the Fleet Air Arm ...

as Sol Stein * Manny Pérez as "Flaco" * Gina Figueroa as Laura * John Enos III as Lester * Gene Canfield as Reiner * Michael K. Williams as "High Top" * Big Stretch/Randy Walker as Dallas *

as Building Manager *

Jermaine Hopkins Jermaine R. “Huggy” Hopkins (born August 23, 1973) is an American television and film actor. Hopkins is best known for his roles as Dupree on The WB sitcom ''The Wayans Bros''. from 1996 to 1998, and as Thomas Sams in the 1989 film, '' Lean on ...

as "Pudgy"

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bullet 1990s crime drama films 1996 films American crime drama films Films directed by Julien Temple New Line Cinema films Village Roadshow Pictures films 1996 drama films Films about heroin addiction 1990s English-language films 1990s American films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links