Hot Fuzz - Plot

Plot

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), an extremely dedicated police officer in a London Police service, performs his duties so well that he is accused of making his colleagues look bad. As a result, his superiors transfer him to "crime-free" Sandford, a town in rural Gloucestershire. Once in Sandford, he immediately arrests a large group of under-age drinkers, and a drunk driver who turns out to be his partner, PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), the son of local police inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). Danny, well-meaning but naive, is in awe of his new partner. Angel struggles to adjust to the slow, uneventful pace of the village. Despite clearing up several otherwise unnoticed crimes, including confiscating a naval mine and a number of unlicensed firearms, Angel soon finds his most pressing concern is an escaped swan. His attention to the letter of the law makes him the target of dislike and mockery by his co-workers. Angel and Butterman eventually bond over drinks at the local pub and action films such as Point Break and Bad Boys II.

A series of gruesome deaths shock the town; Angel investigates, believing them to be murders. He attempts to arrest Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), the manager of the local Somerfield supermarket, and member of Sandford's Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA), under suspicion of murdering the victims due to their involvement in a lucrative property deal. Skinner is able to provide plausible explanations for all of Angel's charges, and a solid alibi.

Disappointed and concerned that he has become paranoid, Angel returns to his routine policing with Danny. However, he overhears a shopkeeper inquire about the 'killers'. He realizes that he was wrong in suspecting the murders to be the actions of one person. He takes his multiple-killer theory to Inspector Butterman, who asks him to sleep on it.

When Angel returns to his hotel room he is attacked by a cloaked figure. He knocks the attacker unconscious, discovering it's Michael Armstrong (Rory McCann), the trolley boy at Somerfield, sent by Skinner to kill Angel. Tipped off by Skinner on Michael's walkie-talkie, Angel heads to the nearby castle where he discovers the truth: Inspector Butterman and the NWA are obsessed with keeping Sandford's "Village of the Year" title, murdering anyone who they see as a threat to the village's image (even for frivolous reasons). The late Mrs Butterman had put everything into helping Sandford win the first "Village of the Year", but travellers ruined the park the night before the judges arrived, which drove her to committing suicide. While fleeing the mob, Angel discovers the bodies of various "problem" people whom the NWA had disposed of, but then Danny corners and stabs him.

Having tricked the NWA into believing that Angel is dead (having stabbed a packet of ketchup in Angel's notebook), Danny drives him to the village limits and releases him, insisting that he knew nothing about their true activities. Danny urges Angel to go back to London, reasoning that no one would believe the truth about Sandford. At a motorway service station, Angel sees Point Break and Bad Boys II on a nearby DVD rack and is inspired to stop the NWA. He drives back to town and arms himself with the guns he confiscated earlier, and with Danny's help engages the NWA in an increasingly destructive series of gun fights, taking down most of them non-fatally. After persuading their colleagues of the truth, Angel and Danny take the battle to Somerfield: Skinner and Inspector Butterman flee, and are pursued by Angel and Danny (who catch the swan en route) to the nearby model village. Angel fights Skinner one-on-one, until Skinner slips and impales his mouth on the spire of the miniature cathedral, which interestingly, didn't kill him. Inspector Butterman then holds Danny, his own son, hostage and attempts to escape in Angel's car, but crashes into a tree when the swan attacks him from the back seat.

Angel's former superiors arrive from London, begging him to return as the crime rate has risen without him, but Angel chooses to remain in Sandford. Back at the police station, Tom Weaver (Edward Woodward), the last remaining member of the NWA, attempts to shoot Angel with an antique blunderbuss, but Danny dives in front of Angel and takes the shot. As Weaver tries to reload, Angel kicks a rubbish bin in the chest of Weaver, causing him to fall into the confiscated naval mine, which then rolls over him, triggering it and destroying the station. Angel tears through the rubble, distraught as he uncovers an unresponsive Danny.

One year later, Inspector Angel lays flowers on a grave marked "Butterman"; it is revealed that Danny has survived and the grave is his mother's. Danny is now a sergeant and Angel the head of the Sandford Police Service, and the two head off to patrol Sandford.