I kind of like the idea of doing some type of freaky murder mystery movie, here's how my summary would go.
The Characters:
Sherea- Murdered at the start of the film, is Phillip's wife
Phillip- Ex-Federal agent, main suspect in the murder of Sherea among others. Works as a self defense teacher for women
NaOnka- Sherea's sister who is taking Phillip's self defense class
Julie- an experienced police officer assigned to work on Sherea's case
Kelly- A new recruit who becomes Julie's new partner and works with her on Sherea's case
Gillian- Julie's mother
Jimmy- the police chief, a superior to Julie and Kelly
Carlos-One of the main suspects in the deaths of Sherea and other women
At the beginning of the film, we see that
Sherea is murdered by a mysterious masked attacker. It's a brutal and bloody scene and a butcher knife is used as the murder weapon.
Because no evidence was found and there was no real motive to the killing, investigators close the case. The only suspect is Sherea's husband,
Phillip Sheppard, but with no evidence or motive to link him to his wife's death he is cleared.
About a year later, news of another killing sparks a reopening of the cold case.
Gillian, a 63 year old retired nurse is murdered in an almost identical fashion to Sherea. Investigating Sherea's killing are police officers
Julie and
Kelly. Julie is a seasoned and experienced officer and Kelly is Julie's new recruit, a rookie who is learning the ropes. Julie has personal reasons for choosing this case, since Gillian was her mother
Jimmy Johnson however, disapproved of Julie choosing to investigate the killing of her own mother since her personal feelings may cloud her judgement. Julie is not one to back down from what she wants however. That evening Julie went to Jimmy's office after hours in her prom dress, promising Jimmy she would make it worth his while if he gave her the case. Jimmy agreed very willingly.*edit* idea from Jimmy Their main suspect at the moment is Phillip Sheppard, Sherea's wife and now retired Federal Agent. There is no monetary motive, no health insurance taken out on Sherea so it is only a hunch.
Julie and Kelly visit Phillip Sheppard at his new place of employment.
Phillip now teaches classes for women to learn how to defend themselves. Kelly spots a familiar face from Sherea's file.
NaOnka, Sherea's sister, is one of the women in Phillip's self defense class.
After the class has ended, Julie and Kelly interview both Phillip and NaOnka. Phillip explains that after his wife's death, he decided to devote his time to teaching other women how to defend themselves so that they may be able to get out of a situation like Sherea was in. NaOnka expresses similar reason for joining Phillip's class, she is scared and does not want the same thing that happened to her to happen to her sister. NaOnka is at the top of her class.
Julie and Kelly find this to be compelling, but still suspect Phillip may using this Women's Self Defense as a ploy to hide that he in fact killed his wife. But they have no evidence. Julie shares a cell-phone tracking GPS device with NaOnka in case NaOnka were ever kidnapped so that Julie could find her.
Julie, Kelly and NaOnka work together to track Phillip's movements and see what he does before and after he teaches his class. They spot him buying duct tape, antiseptic and pepper spray and spending a long period of time at an abandoned warehouse. This information they find is very suspicious and is reported to
Jimmy Johnson their police chief, who thinks that they have enough information to make an arrest.
The next day however before an arrest could be made,
Kelly is missing. Julie is frantic and freaking out about her partner and fears the worst. Before she can do anything about it,
Carlos Bernard is dragged into the police station. Evidence links him to the murder of Natalie Tennerelli and Stephanie La Grossa and with him being in town that day, they believe Kelly as well. Carlos admits to the murders of Natalie and Stephanie, but denies Kelly. Jimmy thinks he is lying, but Julie thinks he has no motive to lie since Natalie and Stephanie would be enough to give him the death penalty anyway.
On a hunch, Julie rushes to the abandoned warehouse to find Kelly. She rushes in with her weapon drawn screaming Kelly's name frantically. Before she knows it, a dark figure reveals itself behind her and knocks her over the head with a pipe.
When Julie regains consciousness, she finds herself tied into a chair, duct tape over her mouth and her partner Kelly sitting bloody and lifeless in a seat next to her. Phillip tells Julie he will make it very slow and painful like he did to her mother
After hearing about Julie's disappearance, NaOnka decides to track Julie's location via the GPS in her cell phone. Sure enough, she is at the abandoned warehouse. NaOnka also rushes in hoping to save Julie before it is too late.
Phillip hears NaOnka's arrival, and knows he needs to get her too so she can't stop him from killing Julie. Phillip sneaks up on NaOnka and tries to use chloroform on her, but NaOnka uses a martial arts move that she learned from class to break out and knock Phillip down. Phillip is impressed, and a fight ensues.
Meanwhile, Julie is strapped into her chair and is desperately trying to break out and making progress. Her gun is on the desk in front of her.
Phillip and NaOnka are now in an all-out brawl. NaOnka keeps countering Phillip with the moves he himself had taught her in class and neither can get the upper hand. Phillip commends her abilities and shows her an attack which NaOnka has not learned to defend against yet. He captures her in a headlock and begins to choke her, taunting her and mocking her sister Sherea along the way.
NaOnka's fight however gave Julie enough time to break free of her chair. Julie shoots Phillip from the side and stops him. She asks NaOnka to hold gun while Julie cuffs him.
Tom Westman, A criminal psychologist analyzes Phillip and finds that his hatred toward women stemmed from childhood. It turns out that his adoptive mother was Amanda Kimmel, known from the show Survivor. She adopted Phillip as a positive to go along with her beauty queen image, but in truth hated children. She abused and punished Phillip his whole childhood and since then Phillip developed an intense disdain and hatred toward all women. Phillip admits that Gillian's murder was meant to be for Amanda for she would be about the same age, but Amanda had already died of breast cancer and he never got the opportunity to get his revenge.
Julie and NaOnka are awarded honors for their role in bringing down the serial murderer Phillip. NaOnka decides to join the Police Academy and is shown graduating at the end of film and becoming Julie's new partner. A hint as sequel is given when the 2 women are given a new murder case to work on.
