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McQ is a 1974 American Panavision neo-noir crime action film directed by John Sturges and starring John Wayne. It costars Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and Al Lettieri, and features Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston, Julian Christopher (credited as Jim Watkins), Roger E. Mosley, and William Bryant in supporting roles. The film was shot in Washington, making extensive use of locations in Seattle and with a sequence near the end filmed on the Pacific Coast in Moclips, Washington.
Contents
Plot
Before dawn in Seattle, Detective Sergeant Stan Boyle drives around town and shoots two police officers on the job. After the killings, he cleans up at a luncheonette and a police badge is visible on his belt. When a car pulls up, Boyle goes outside and gives the driver a satchel containing his gun. As he walks away, the driver shoots him in the back with a shotgun.
Detective Lieutenant Lon "McQ" McHugh is awakened by a colleague calling with the news that his longtime partner Boyle has been shot along with two other officers. As he rushes to work, McQ notices a carjacker trying to steal his 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. As he is distracted, someone shoots at McQ. He kills the assailant and recognizes him as Paddy Samuels, a professional hitman.
Boyle is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center. McQ briefly visits with Boyle's wife Lois. At the police station, Captain Edward Kosterman is working on the theory that counterculture militants shot his officers. McQ suspects local narcotics dealer Manny Santiago is responsible. Despite a warning from Kosterman to leave the shooting investigation to other detectives, McQ begins tailing Santiago. When he learns Boyle has died from his wound, he follows Santiago into a men's restroom and beats him viciously. Threatened with desk duty, McQ resigns, against the urgings of Franklyn Toms, a field deputy who works as a liaison between the city council and police department.
