Hot Fuzz

PLOT

PC Nicholas Angel, a high-achieving officer of the London Metropolitan Police Service, is promoted to Sergeant, but his colleagues arrange for him to be reassigned to the small rural town of Sandford, Gloucestershire, a regular "Village of the Year" winner. Angel is soon frustrated by the mundane nature of the village and his lazy and incompetent colleagues. His partner, PC Danny Butterman, is a fan of buddy cop films and son of Inspector Frank Butterman, Angel's superior.

Martin Blower and Eve Draper, the two lead actors of a local production of Romeo and Juliet, whom Angel had pulled over earlier for speeding, are murdered by a cloaked figure wielding an axe, who disguises it as a car accident. Angel is the only officer who suspects foul play. Sent to resolve a dispute, Angel discovers a stash of illegal weapons, including an old naval mine, and locks them in the police station. Angel warms to Danny, and they binge-watch action movies at Danny's home. That night, wealthy land developer George Merchant is attacked in his home by the cloaked figure, and killed in a deliberate gas explosion.

Angel suspects that the killings are connected to a recent property deal. A local journalist, Tim Messenger, approaches Angel at a church, claiming to have information, but another cloaked figure dislodges the spire atop the church’s steeple, which falls and crushes Messenger’s head, killing him. Leslie Tiller, the village florist, tells Angel about her plans to sell her house to Merchant's business partners. While Angel is distracted, she is stabbed in the neck with her garden shears; Angel gives chase but loses the killer. Angel suspects Simon Skinner, the sinister manager of the local supermarket, as the property deal would have built a rival supermarket, but Skinner has an alibi.

Angel is attacked in his hotel room by one of Skinner's employees, Michael "Lurch" Armstrong. Angel knocks him out and learns of a secret Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA) meeting at Sandford Castle. Angel confronts the NWA, led by Frank, who reveals that they carried out the murders, staged as accidents, for various petty reasons as each victim supposedly threatened Sandford's chances of winning Village of the Year. Frank's motive is his late wife Irene had put everything into helping Sandford win the first "Village of the Year", but travellers ruined their chances the night before the judges arrived, driving her to suicide. Angel flees and falls into the castle's catacombs, where he finds the corpses of the NWA's other victims. Danny appears and fakes killing Angel. Pretending to dispose of the body, Danny drives Angel away and urges him to return to London for his own safety. At a petrol station, while paying for petrol, Angel sees a rack of the films he and Danny bonded over and decides to return to Sandford.

The next day, Angel arms himself with the confiscated guns. He and Danny engage in a shootout with the NWA. When Frank sends the other officers to arrest them, Angel and Danny convince them that Frank is the culprit. Frank flees and the officers besiege the supermarket, with Skinner fleeing in a car with Frank. After a car chase, Angel corners Skinner at a model version of the village, and Skinner is impaled through the jaw by a miniature church steeple, while Frank is caught after being attacked by a swan that Angel and Danny had in their car earlier.

Angel's former superiors arrive and ask him to return to London, as the crime rate has risen heavily in his absence, but Angel decides to remain in Sandford. While the Sandford Police are going over the paperwork of the arrests, the elderly Tom Weaver, the last NWA member, bursts into the station wielding a blunderbuss. He shoots at Angel, but Danny jumps in front. In the resulting struggle, Weaver accidentally activates the naval mine, killing himself and destroying the station.

One year later, Angel has been promoted to Inspector and head of the Sandford police, and Danny is Sergeant. After visiting Irene's grave, the two drive off to their next crime scene.

CAST

Simon Pegg as Nicholas Angel,

Nick Frost as Police Constable Danny Butterman

Jim Broadbent as Inspector Frank Butterman,

Paddy Considine as Detective Sergeant Andy Wainwright,

Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner,

Bill Nighy as Met Chief Inspector,

Billie Whitelaw as Joyce Cooper,

Edward Woodward as Tom Weaver,

Bill Bailey as Sergeant Turner,

David Bradley as Arthur Webley,

Adam Buxton as Tim Messenger

Olivia Colman as PC Doris Thatcher,

Ron Cook as George Merchant,

Kenneth Cranham as James Reaper,

Peter Wight as Roy Porter,

Julia Deakin as Mary Porter,

Kevin Eldon as Sergeant Tony Fisher,

Martin Freeman as Met Sergeant,

Paul Freeman as Rev. Philip Shooter,

Karl Johnson as PC Bob Walker,

Lucy Punch as Eve Draper,

Anne Reid as Leslie Tiller

Rafe Spall as Detective Constable Andy Cartwright,

David Threlfall as Martin Blower,

Stuart Wilson as Robin Hatcher

Rory McCann as Michael Armstrong/"Lurch",

Cameos

Robert Popper as 'Not' Janine

Joe Cornish as Bob

Chris Waitt as Dave

Eric Mason as Bernard Cooper,

Lorraine Hilton as Amanda Paver,

Patricia Franklin as Annette Roper,

Stephen Merchant as Peter Ian Staker,

Tim Barlow as Mr Treacher,

Ben McKay as Peter Cocker,

Alice Lowe as Tina

Maria Charles as Mrs Reaper

Steve Coogan (uncredited) as Metropolitan Inspector

Peter Jackson (uncredited) as a criminal dressed as Father Christmas

Cate Blanchett (uncredited) as Janine,

Garth Jennings (uncredited) as a crack addict

Edgar Wright (uncredited) as a shelf stacker

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

the second film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy by Wright, Pegg, Frost and producer Nira Park.