Until Death (2007)
Until Death is a 2007 American vigilante action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and directed by Simon Fellows It was released direct-to-DVD on April 24, 2007. Van Damme plays Anthony Stowe, a corrupt police detective addicted to heroin whom everybody hates. After being shot in a gunfight, he falls into a coma. Months later, he recovers and decides to use his second chance at life.RELATED:
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Plot.
New Orleans narcotics detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a heroin addict who is teetering on the edge of oblivion, and he could not care less. At the moment, he is trying to bring down his former partner Gabriel Callahan (Stephen Rea), who has become a drug kingpin. Callahan is trying to, and slowly succeeding at, taking over the New Orleans underworld. Stowe botches a sting operation against Callahan, resulting in the death of fellow cop Maria Ronson (Rachel Grant), whose fiancé, fellow cop Van Huffel (Adam Leese), nearly comes to blows with him over it. Chief Mac Baylor (Gary Beadle) has a very blunt chat with Stowe, who is dismissive.
Stowe is approached by fellow cop Walter Currie (Trevor Cooper) to help his nephew beat a drug-dealing charge; he instead turns Curry over to Baylor, who fires him. After barricading himself in the station bathroom, Walter confronts an unrepentant Stowe and condemns him for betraying his fellow officers.
That night Stowe meets with his estranged wife, Valerie (Selina Giles), who tells him that she’s pregnant, but that he’s not the father. Valerie, whose marriage with Stowe is close to collapse, has been seeing a man named Mark Rossini (Mark Dymond), the gym teacher at the school she is principal of. But he may not be the father either.
Stowe brashly accuses Valerie of being impregnated by Callahan, and she tells him she never wants to see him again.
The only thing keeping Stowe from total collapse is his dogged pursuit of Callahan. But he drunkenly stumbles into an ambush masterminded by Callahan, and is shot in the head by Callahan’s right-hand man Jimmy (Stephen Lord). Stowe undergoes emergency surgery, and ends up in a coma. Months later, he recovers to the point that he opens his eyes, and is transported to his and Valerie’s house to recover properly.
Seven months later, Stowe is slowly learning to talk and walk again.
He manages to survive an attempt on his life by someone posing as a police officer. Eventually, Stowe attempts to get his job back but Chief Baylor refuses in light of having discovered his heroin addiction. The coma has led to his decision to become a better man, and to right some wrongs. He reconciles with his wife, although awkwardly, and gives Walter a significant portion of insurance money that compensated his time in a coma. Finally, he visits the grave of fellow police officer Serge (William Ash), who once saved Stowe’s life but has been killed by an unknown attacker following another failed sting operation.