Bad guy didn't die

I agree.

There seems to be that unwritten rule in the thriller/action genre that all bad guys must be killed by the hero in the end. This has become too much of a cliché and also makes such movies far too predictable.

Besides, it's a movie about cops. Cops are arresting criminals, they are not "executing" them because they happen to hate them. It's ironic that this movie's ending could be considered original just because the main character is merely doing his job in the end.

I was pleased with that too, when I first watched it I was sure we were going to get a clichéd "hero kills the villain" ending, especially when we were shown the spike.

I'm only going to say this once: stay out of Camberwick Green - Sam Tyler

He didn't kill him because that would be wrong. The whole film is about Nick's moral redemption and him killing Sato would just mean throwing this out of the window. That's why it's so great because the screenplay actually tackles moral issues and stays true to its themes.

As others have said it is quite interesting that this is considered original. Quite sad really. Interesting point: The French Connection has a scene where Popeye (Gene Hackman) kills a criminal and the filmmakers expected there to be a lot of reaction towards that scene. It never happened and somewhere between the release of that film and the mid-eighties it became commonplace for film-cops to double as executioner...

http://www.tBenjaminLarsen.com

Police Story is one

"My god. I'm a tomato"

This is one of the reasons I consider this film to be underrated. Unlike most thrillers, especially where the hero loses someone close to him like a family member, friend or partner, the hero doesn't submit to vengeance. He ends up doing the right and moral thing by simply apprehending the scumbag and taking him to the proper authorities rather than murdering him.

I like that. It's a positive message.

You look at many American Western movies and TV shows including the Lone Ranger, where many criminals including the head boss were killed so a criminal being killed is pretty standard operating procedure even in that time period.

I like the movie The Northwest Mounted Police with Gary Cooper. In that movie, the criminal was challenged to a draw by Cooper, but the guy refused to take the bait. In the end, the criminal was arrested by the Mounted Police; however, Cooper managed to steal him from the Mounted Police to take him back to Texas, so that that is one movie I like where the police just arrested the criminal and then turn him over to the court system for trial and punishment.

I did like the movie Nighthawks where Stallone argue with the British cop about turning police officers into murderers instead of arresting terrorists and bringing them to justice.

Yeah, I like it when Sato was pushing into the detective unit and then he was march down the room in full view of the Japanese police officers. That is another part of Japanese culture where cops take an arrested person and escort him/her in full view of the public to shame them publicity (loss of face).