Short Time (1990)

Plot Summary

Detective Burt Simpson has always been careful and cautious his entire life to the point where his obsessive tendencies to plan everything out has put an unhealthy strain on his marriage. With only one week left to go until his retirement from the Seattle Police Force, he goes in for a routine medical exam. However a bus driver is also undergoing a routine drug test and fearful that his results will be positive and cost him his job; secretly switches his test samples with Burt's.

Misdiagnosed with a terminal illness and given only a few weeks to live, Burt finds that his life insurance settlement will only pay a minimal amount for death by natural causes but if he were to be killed in the line of duty, the settlement would be $320,000. Determined to ensure that his estranged wife and son are well taken care of, Burt immediately volunteers for double-duty in the worst crime-ridden neighborhood of Seattle in the desperate hopes of ensuring that he is killed by any means necessary.

In short order, Burt begins searching for dangerous, high-risk situations from a car chase with machine gun wielding criminals to even a hostage crisis with a bomb but instead of dying, finds himself awarded with medals for acts of valor and heroism. In between, he decides to live the remaining days of his life to the fullest; buying an expensive sports car that he always wanted, reconciling with his wife and confessing that he loves her, spending time with his son, and taking his long time partner Ernie Dills out to a classy restaurant and telling him how much he treasures his friendship before he gives Dills the keys to his new sports car.

However, Burt's bizarre and erratic personality shift causes Dills to become concerned over his strange behavior and remembering Burt's medical exam, hunts down his doctor to discover Burt's terminal condition. However, Dills quickly realizes that Burt has been misdiagnosed.

Burt meanwhile is in pursuit of a notorious psychopath known as Carl Stark and the pair engage in a fierce struggle, culminating in the pair dangling from a window washer's platform off a high rise building. Ernie manages to tell Burt via loudspeaker that his test results were a mistake, but it is too late as Stark and then Burt fall to their deaths. Or so it seems.

Burt's leg gets entangled in the ropes, saving his life and the now retired cop subsequently attends the now deceased bus driver's funeral out of respect for the "man who gave me back my life". As Burt, his wife and son, and ex-partner Ernie get into the car; a pair of police cruisers go rushing by in pursuit of a fleeing vehicle and Burt instinctively begins to chase after them before he remembers that he is retired now and stops turns around to drive off with his family along with his friend, Ernie in tow.