A young Andre Davis attends the funeral of his father, who was a police officer murdered during one of his shifts. Ninteen years later, Davis becomes a successful police officer working for the NYPD. Struggling with the legacy of his father, Davis has earned a reputation for hunting down and killing "cop-killers", although he claims they were all in self-defense and is uncomfortable with the label. One night, Michael Trujillo and Ray Jackson, two small-time criminals and war veterans, take a job to ransack a winery and steal several kilograms of cocaine it was keeping. The heist goes wrong when they realize there is more cocaine than they were expecting and police officers casually arrive at the location. They are forced into a shootout where Ray guns down the officers. Michael chastises Ray for putting them in jeopardy due to the officers' deaths. Davis is assigned to the case. Narcotics detective Frankie Burns is assigned as Davis' partner. Davis and Burns come into conflict with FBI agents, who attempt to take over the case. With the reluctant approval of the deputy mayor, the FBI, and the officers' precinct head, Captain McKenna, Davis asks for the island of Manhattan to be locked down. However, they are only given until 5 a.m. to catch the criminals. Now on the run, Ray and Michael coerce their liaison, Bush, to persuade their handler to give them a bigger cut in exchange for their identities changed for their escape. They are given more money and their fixer, Adi, gives them new identities and tells them to depart for Miami the next morning. Davis and Burns manage to identify Ray, Michael, and Bush in the resulting investigation. Bush is gunned down by Butchco and Dugan, who get there first. After catching Butchco planting his backup sidearm on Bush's body and briefly scuffling with him, Davis becomes more suspicious when a team of police led by Lieutenant Kelly quickly manages to locate Adi's apartment. Adi is mortally wounded by the policemen but manages to give Michael two flash drives and the password for them before Michael and Ray escape. Davis and Burns manage to catch up to Michael and Ray; after accidentally killing a civilian, Ray is mortally wounded by Davis. Michael then holds Burns at gunpoint and tells Davis about the drives and how suspicious everything is before escaping. Burns chastises Davis for letting Michael escape despite Davis' supposed reputation for killing those who murder cops. Michael manages to hide in a hotel room, where he unlocks the contents of the drive and realizes that McKenna's precinct was involved in trafficking the drugs from the winery and earning profits for it, and that all seven of the cops he and Davis had killed in the shootout had been corrupt. After another chase where Michael abandons his money, Davis manages to corner him in a subway train and convinces him to surrender, promising to keep him alive. Michael is suddenly shot by Burns, who had also boarded the train and claimed that she thought Michael was still holding Davis at gunpoint. Davis berates her for shooting Michael, who secretly hands over the drives, along with the password, to Davis before dying. As the police congratulate the two for their efforts, Davis discovers that Burns had contacted Kelly before Adi's apartment was raided. The next morning, McKenna arrives at his home to find Davis holding him at gunpoint, having found out the contents in the drives. McKenna reasons that the officers were struggling to survive on a measly pay, which forced them to go into drug trafficking, but that fails to convince Davis to walk away. McKenna, along with an arriving Butchco, Dugan and Kelly – who were all on McKenna's payroll – open fire on Davis. Davis kills all of them, including McKenna, who refuses to surrender. Burns, whom Davis deduced was also allied with McKenna, appears from behind and holds Davis at gunpoint. Davis convinces her to give up after revealing that he had already leaked the information online, and that he doesn't want her daughter to live without her mother should she get a life sentence for killing him. In the aftermath, Davis solemnly drives off on one of New York's bridges in the sunset, with the drives beside him in the cup holder.
21 Bridges was released in the United States and Canada on November 22, 2019. It was previously scheduled to be released on July 12 and September 27, 2019.
Home media
The film was released in digital download on February 4, 2020 and also released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 18, 2020.
Reception
Box office
, 21 Bridges has grossed $28.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $21.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $49.9 million, against a production budget of $33 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Frozen II, and was projected to gross $10–12 million from 2,655 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.3 million on its first day, including $770,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $9.3 million, finishing fourth at the box office. The film fell 37% in its second weekend, making $5.8 million and finishing sixth.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on 129 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "21 Bridges covers its beat competently enough, but given its impressive cast, this cop thriller should be more arresting than it is." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4 out of 5 stars, with 57% saying they would definitely recommend it.
