If you wake up a bit early, you’ll catch episodes of Adam-12 on MeTV. The series from the late ’60s and early ’70s features two police officers cruising around Los Angeles serving and protecting. The Jack Webb produced series made you feel good that the black and white car was on the streets keeping neighborhoods safe from petty thieves, shoplifters and druggies that wore cardigans. End of Watch is an adrenalized update of Adam-12 with a Los Angeles that’s way more dangerous that what Jack Webb imagined. Director David Ayer gives us a more intimate and shocking portrait of his two officers inside the cruiser.
LAPD Officers Brian Taylor (Donnie Darko‘s Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Ant-Man‘s Michael Peña) have been partners for a long time as they patrol South Central Los Angeles. Taylor is making a video project about his life as a cop that also uses footage from their bodycams, patrol car video and even party videos. It’s like he’s making an audition tape for the long running series Cops except he doesn’t need a crew to tag along. A few fellow officers aren’t happy at being taped including Officer Van Hauser (Stranger Things‘ David Harbour) and Officer Orozco (The Barbie Movie‘s America Ferrara) Things don’t go right for them as Sergeant Daniels (Superman‘s Frank Grillo) assigns them to a new zone to patrol. Things get rough quick when one suspect of disturbing the peace flips out. He challenges them to a fight. He starts swapping punches with Zavala in his living room. There’s also video in the movie taken by gangbangers doing a driveby shooting on characters we’ve already encountered on the patrol. Things build up as the duo bust a loud party that features members of the Curbside Locos Gang including Big Evil (Narcos‘ Maurice Compte) and Lala (rapper Flakiss). This moment elevates when Taylor and Zavala pull over a member of a cartel and do a little detective work. They are not ready for the aftermath of this bust.
While this film is nearly 14 years old, there’s a “now” aspect because Taylor and Zavala find themselves dealing with ICE agents when they find a house that’s being used for human trafficking. The ICE agents don’t want to directly share necessary information as they take over a case. This film does not make the federal agents look like heroes.
I like how David Ayer shows a city obsessed with videotaping themselves in End of Watch. Although people in 2012 are using small camcorders. Fourteen years later we’re used to people using their smart phones to not merely record themselves, but live streaming their crimes. I don’t know if David Ayers was influenced, but the movie has the same vibe as The Target Shoots First (1999) which isn’t about cops. It’s about Christopher Wilcha working at the Columbia House Record Club who videotaped his time on the job. Jake has the same attitude as Wilcha.
End of Watch takes the viewer is really along for the ride in this intimate movie. The film is extremely intense in action, but also the emotional bond between the two cops. They are tight as seen by Zavala’s toast at Taylor’s wedding (to Anna Kendrick). End of Watch must be considered one of the great cop movies of our times.
Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer uses the 4K Dolby Vision Presentation. The film was shot on digital video and has a great murky feel of being on the streets. Audio features DTS HD 5.1 Surround and DTS-HD MA 2.0. Like the film getting into tight spaces, you’ll hear the details of their time on the streets. The movie is subtitled in English.
Steelbook to keep the discs extra safe on the shelf.
Blu-ray with the movie and all the bonus features.
Audio Commentary with writer-director David Ayer gets into the creative evolution of the film. He shares tales making the film with so many digital cameras capturing the action.
Fate With A Badge (2:10) promises the film will give a real glimpse of what cops do in the bad neighborhoods of Los Angeles. How the two rely on each other to stay alive by the end of their shift.
In The Streets (2:12) gets into how director David Ayer got the camera so close to the cops. They did create a different kind of body camera to capture their footage. They also ruled four or more cameras on scene. Digital video made this film possible back in 2012.
Women On Watch (2:00) is about the actresses in the film that play fellow officers and love interests. Anna Kendrick talks about playing a woman who has never dated a cop before and discover the culture.
Watch Your Six (2:35) has David Ayer discuss doing a realistic LAPD film. He wants to get into how a patrol cop feels about his partner.
Honors (2:05) is a promo focused on how David Ayer got so much out of his actors. They trained a lot to bring an honest performance to the screen.
Deleted Scenes (46:41) is a lot of extra moments shot with the videocameras rolling including Michael Peña boxing, the cops cruising to tell kids to go inside after curfew, dealing with the cameras, the burning house rescue coverage and more.
Trailer (2:26) lets us know this will be a film told in videos like an extreme episode of Cops.
Shout! Studios present End of Watch: Limited Edition Steelbook. Directed by David Ayer. Screenplay by David Ayer. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Frank Grillo, Jaime FitzSimons, America Ferrera, Cody Horn, Kristy Wu, Natalie Martinez, Anna Kendrick, Cle Shaheed Sloan, Shondrella Avery, Maurice Compte and Richard Cabral. Running Time: 109 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: January 20, 2026.
