Vigilante

In Queens, New York, a young woman (Donna Patti) is raped and murdered in her apartment building. Rubin (Vincent Russo), the attacker, is seen by an elderly woman, but she declines to inform the police. Instead, she notifies a vigilante team comprised of local residents Nick (Fred Williamson), Ramon (Joseph Carberry), and Burke (Richard Bright). They find Rubin on a street corner, bragging to friends about how he evaded prosecution for his crime, and drag him to their van and drive away. The next day, housewife Vickie Marino (Rutanya Alda) comes to the defense of a gas station attendant who is being bullied by Frederico 'Rico' Melendez (Willie Colon), leader of a the Headhunters street gang. When she returns home with her toddler son, Scott, she notices Rico and several gang members parked outside, and calls police for help. Within seconds, the gang enters and assaults her. Scott hides in the bathtub, but gang member Prago (Don Blakely) kills him with a shotgun. Vickie runs to the backyard, screaming for help, and is brutally beaten by Rico. Meanwhile, her factory wielder husband, Eddie (Robert Foster), lunches at a saloon with co-workers Nick, Ramon, and Burke. Patrolman Gibbons (Steve W. James) enters and informs the group that Rubin was found dead in a vacant lot with every bone in his body broken. Nick takes no credit for the murder, but reminds the officer that his neighbors need protection that police and the courts no longer provide. Later, as Eddie leaves work, he asks about the exchange with Patrolman Gibbons. Burke recalls his frustrating career as a police officer, and recommends vigilantism as a more effective form of law enforcement. Eddie returns home to find his house surrounded by police cars. Detective Russo (Randy Jurgensen) assures Eddie that police know the identity of the guilty parties and advises him to file a complaint with District Attorney Mary Fletcher (Carol Lynley). Eddie meets with Fletcher, who informs him that Rico has been arrested. Afterward, Nick recounts a similar tragedy that befell his family, and advises Eddie to carry a gun, rather than allow himself to be victimized. Eddie disagrees, believing an escalation of violence can only lead to anarchy. He attends Rico's arraignment, as does Prago, who pays defense attorney Eisenberg (Joe Spinell) a large amount of cash to assure Rico's freedom. Eisenberg motions to drop the murder charge against the child Scotty, in return for a guilty plea for the assault on Vickie. Mary Fletcher agrees, but demands a 15-year sentence. Judge Sinclair (Vincent Beck) notes that Rico has no prior convictions, despite his 22 arrests, and offers a two-year suspended sentence. Eddie is unable to contain his outrage and violently assaults Rico in open court. Judge Sinclair sentences Eddie to 30 days in prison for contempt of court. With Eddie in prison, Nick and his group try to track down the source of drugs that have been sweeping their neighborhood. Nick chases after a small-time drug dealer named Blueboy (Frank Pesce) in a long foot-chase sequence whom they rough up and make him talk by hanging him by his ankles outside a building. Blueboy caves in and points them to his supplier: a local pimp named Horace (Bo Rucker). That evening, Nick and the group follow and confront Horace the pimp after they watch him beating up one of his prostitutes for not making enough money for his daily cocaine habit. After a short chase through the streets, they force Horace off the road where they torture him to reveal his drug source. Horace tells Nick that a high profile businessman, named Mr. T, is his suppler. After killing Horace, Nick, Ramon, and Burke trace the illegal narcotics trade in their community to Thomas 'Mr. T' Stokes (Peter Savage), a prominent businessman with known connections to organized crime. They ambush and kill him outside his office the following night. Meanwhile, at the prison, Eddie is attacked in the shower by prison bully, Leon (Kim Delgado), and his sycophant, Felix (Burt Pittari) and nearly sodomized, before an older inmate named Rake (Woody Strode) comes to Eddie's defense and subdues both of them. Upon Eddie's release, he joins the vigilantes. They burst into Rico's apartment that same evening as he makes love to his girlfriend, Rosie (Hyla Marrow), and accuse him of killing Scott. Rico insists that he did not kill Eddie's son and blames the murder on Prago, but Eddie shoots Rico to death anyway. But then, Rosie attempts to kill them, and after wounding Burke, gets shot dead by Nick. As the four vigilante's leave, a member of the Headhunters witnesses the group's departure outside the building and informs Prago. As the police investigate the crime scene, Detective Russo advises Patrolman Gibbons not to discuss the killings, believing the media will portray the vigilantes as heroes. Prago takes over as leader of the Headhunters and mistakenly assumes that dirty cops killed Rico. The following night, Prago and the gang ambush a police car and kill both cops, including Patrolman Gibbons, in a hail of bullets. The next day, Vickie is released from the hospital, but refuses to return home, as the trauma left her with no feelings for her husband. Another day or two later, Nick pays a visit to Eddie, who then expresses his intent to leave the city in hope of finding a safer place to live. Nick tries to convince him to stay and fight for his home. A little later, as Eddie is driving through Brooklyn on his way out of town in his van, he spots Prago on the street and recognizes him from the courtroom that day of him being around Rico. Eddie parks his van and follows Prago on foot who soon spots Eddie and attempts to shoot him while Eddie returns fire. A climatic chase sequence begins where Prago hijacks a car and attempts to drive away while Eddie steals another car and chases after him through the streets, evading other cars and pedestrians alike. A police car briefly gives chase, but Eddie manages to knock the patrol car aside and off the road. The chase leads to a local dockyard mill on the East River where both cars crash and Eddie chases Prago on foot again up a storage tower where he confronts him with being the person who killed his young son. Sadistic and insane to the last, Prago admits to killing Eddie's son and then dares Eddie to kill him... who responds by throwing Prago off the tower to his death without hesitating. In the final scene, Eddie targets the last of his enemies: the corrupt Judge Sinclair who sentenced him to jail by planting a bomb under the judge's car in the Brooklyn courthouse parking lot. That night, when Judge Sinclair gets in his car and starts the engine, it explodes, killing the judge. Watching from a distance in his van, the satisfied Eddie drives away into the night.