# 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out

44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out is a 2003 American crime action docudrama television film directed by Yves Simoneau and written by Tim Metcalfe. The film stars Michael Madsen, Ron Livingston, Mario Van Peebles, Andrew Bryniarski, and Oleg Taktarov. It is a semi-fictional dramatization of the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, and follows the perspectives of bank robbers Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, as well as various Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers involved in the shootout.
44 Minutes premiered on the FX Network on June 5, 2003 to mixed reception.

## Plot

On the morning of February 28, 1997, various residents of Los Angeles go about their morning: LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division Detective Frank McGregor, investigating a pair of violent bank robbers nicknamed the "High Incident Bandits", becomes dissatisfied with the stresses of policing and prepares to retire; Metropolitan Division SWAT Officer Donnie Anderson is reprimanded for poor coordination during a raid, brought on by the recent death of his father, a 31-year LAPD veteran; Officers Henry Jones and Nicole Gomez detain a thug, Ramon, on a domestic dispute call, and Jones brings him on patrol to convince him to leave the gang life; Officer Jake Harris field trains rookie Officer Bobby Martinez; KTTV journalist Kate converses with McGregor about media treatment of police relating to a case against the Special Investigation Section; Bank of America branch manager Luis Rivera clocks in at the North Hollywood branch at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard; and the "High Incident Bandits", Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, prepare Type 56 assault rifles, drum magazines, and body armor for an armored transport robbery.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu wait for the armored transport on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, but it passes its scheduled stop; angered, the pair decide to rob the Bank of America North Hollywood branch instead. They enter the bank shortly after it opens and take Rivera, the bank employees, and the customers hostage. However, they are spotted by a pedestrian as well as Harris and Martinez, and over fifty police officers quickly surround the bank. Jones and Gomez arrive and send Ramon off with a promise to better himself, while McGregor helps establish a command post nearby; Anderson's SWAT team is also activated, but their response is hindered by having to drive from Elysian Park through heavy traffic. The standoff is broadcast live by a KTTV helicopter as Kate and other reporters flock to the scene, while local residents curiously watch from neighboring buildings. In the bank, Rivera is ordered by Mătăsăreanu to fill their duffel bags with money and surreptitiously includes a dye pack, but new security measures have reduced the money held in the vault and restricted access to ATM money to armored transport guards, leaving Phillips and Mătăsăreanu with less money than they had expected. Phillips notices the police presence and moves Rivera and the other hostages into the bank vault.
Phillips, and later also Mătăsăreanu, exits the bank and begins shooting at the police, damaging cars and destroying a locksmith's shed in the parking lot. The police return fire, but find their 9 mm caliber Beretta 92 pistols cannot penetrate their body armor, and are unable to aim for weak points due to the robbers' heavy suppressive fire. Numerous officers and civilians are wounded by the robbers' fire, and Jones is gravely injured while trying to rescue downed officers; McGregor and Gomez use a police car to quickly extract him under fire before he can bleed out. As the shootout drags on, the dye packs activate, rendering Mătăsăreanu's bag worthless; furious, Mătăsăreanu attempts to shoot the hostages in retaliation, but Rivera seals the vault door in time. Determined to get away with what they have, Phillips and Mătăsăreanu fire at the KTTV helicopter and flee down nearby Archwood Street, with Mătăsăreanu driving their Chevrolet Celebrity while Phillips walks and fires alongside, wounding more officers who lack cover along the residential street. With the bank now safe, Anderson's SWAT team arrives to secure the hostages and rescue the wounded using a bank armored transport, while an LAPD officer buys dozens of AR-15s from a nearby gun store but struggles to get them to the scene.
On Archwood Street, Phillips and Mătăsăreanu split up to escape. While Mătăsăreanu tries to carjack passing cars to replace the damaged Celebrity, Phillips battles the police, but his rifle jams. Switching to a pistol, Phillips prepares to make a last stand but is confronted by McGregor; instead of firing back, Phillips shoots himself in the head while McGregor shoots him in the neck, and Phillips dies. Mătăsăreanu sees Phillips' corpse and attempts to steal a Jeep Gladiator to escape, but the driver activates its kill switch to disable its engine before fleeing; by the time Mătăsăreanu notices, the police, including McGregor and Anderson's SWAT team, have already surrounded him. As Mătăsăreanu battles the SWAT team in a last stand, Anderson realizes they can shoot his unarmored legs from under the vehicles, and manages to shoot him in the foot and thigh, knocking Mătăsăreanu down. Anderson and his team apprehend Mătăsăreanu, ending the shootout after 44 minutes; only then do the AR-15s arrive at the scene. Mătăsăreanu eventually dies of his injuries before paramedics are allowed into the scene.
In the aftermath, the wounded, including Jones, receive medical treatment and recover from their injuries; of those hurt in the shootout, only Phillips and Mătăsăreanu died. The LAPD, previously hounded by the media and the public over controversies and events such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, are overwhelmed by public support for their handling of the shootout, and several officers receive the Medal of Valor for their actions. Life quickly returns to normal, and the North Hollywood branch reopens the next day. The interview segments seen between scenes are then revealed to be part of a KTTV television documentary, and Kate watches McGregor's interview approvingly as he states that "in 44 minutes of sheer terror, not one officer ran away. Everyone did their job, and I think that means something."
The film ends with archival footage of the real shootout as intertitles explain the aftermath and note that firepower concerns following the shootout led to improvements in police armaments, including officers being issued AR-15 rifles on patrol.

## Cast

* Michael Madsen as Detective Frank McGregor (based on Lt. Michael Ranshaw, Officer Edward Brentlinger, Officer Todd Schmitz, and Officer Anthony Cabunoc)
* Ron Livingston as SWAT Officer Donnie Anderson
* Mario Van Peebles as Officer Henry Jones (based on Officer Stewart Guy and Officer Martin Whitfield)
* Alex Meneses as Officer Nicole Gomez
* Ray Baker as Officer Jake Harris (based on Loren Farrell)
* Douglas Spain as Officer Bobby Martinez (based on Martin Perello)
* Andrew Bryniarski as Larry Eugene Phillips Jr.
* Oleg Taktarov as Emil Mătăsăreanu
* Julian Dulce Vida as Luis Rivera (based on John Villigrana)
* Katrina Law as Kate
* Francis Capra as Ramon
* Clare Carey as Frank's Wife
* Dale Dye as SWAT Lieutenant
* J. E. Freeman as Police Commander
* Jay Underwood as "Mr. Entertainment"
* Chris Jacobs as Rick

## Filming

The building in the real robbery was in North Hollywood, but the building used for the bank in the film was a vacant bank in a strip mall in La Habra, California. All of the scenes that are set in the residential streets where the robbers fled were filmed in the actual locations.

## Reception

John J. Puccio of DVD Town gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Apart from the interview interruptions, one cannot fault the way the actual shoot-out is handled in the film, although that doesn't make it any the less frustrating, real or not. [...] What we have is good enough for a television broadcast, but maybe not enough for anything but a rental on DVD."

## In popular culture

"44 Minutes" is a song by the American thrash metal band Megadeth written by frontman Dave Mustaine that appears on their twelfth studio album, Endgame, which was released on September 15, 2009. The third song on the album, the song details the shootout and is named after this film.