Plot: Two new partnerships have a fateful encounter late one evening in Los Angeles in early 1963. Patrolling, Los Angeles Police Department Detectives Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger pull over what they consider a vehicle carrying two suspicious looking men. Those two men are Greg Powell and Jimmy Smith aka Jimmy Youngblood, who indeed are petty crooks - although Powell is more of a minor thug - and who were on their way to commit the latest in a string of robberies. This encounter escalates to a standoff culminating in an onion field outside of Bakersfield, where one of the four is shot dead. Beyond the shooting, the evening does not end as any of the men would have envisioned when the encounter began. In the aftermath of this event, the three survivors recount the activities of the evening in the trial into the shooting and in their everyday lives, the most contentious issue being what happened immediately following the firing of the initial shot. In recounting the event, they contemplate what went wrong and what they would have done differently if given the chance again. That evening has a profound effect on the lives of the three survivors, who have problems emotionally dealing either with what happened that evening or the consequences of their actions that evening, especially in the issue of if the justice system was indeed just both in its process and outcome.
Alternative Plot: Charismatic psychopath Greg Powell (James Woods) teams up with Jimmy Youngblood (Franklyn Seales), a petty thief. Driving in Los Angeles in 1963, they are pulled over by Detective Hettinger (John Savage) and his partner, Campbell (Ted Danson), for an illegal U-turn. Panicked, Powell kidnaps the officers and kills Campbell. Hettinger escapes, and his description of the men leads to their arrest. As both men evade prosecution with legal tricks, Hettinger is racked with guilt over his survival.
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