Training Day was released on October 5, 2001, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Washington and Hawke's performances but were divided on the screenplay. The film received numerous accolades and nominations with Washington's performance earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor and Hawke being nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 74th Academy Awards.[1]
Jake Hoyt, an ambitious LAPD police officer, is assigned to work with Detective Alonzo Harris, a highly decorated narcotics officer, for a one-day evaluation ahead of Hoyt's anticipated promotion. Driving around in Alonzo's Monte Carlo, they begin the day by catching some college kids buying marijuana. Alonzo confiscates the drugs, puts them into a pipe and tells Jake to smoke it. When Jake refuses, Alonzo threatens him at gunpoint, stating that such a refusal while on the streets would get him killed. Jake smokes the pipe and gets very high. Alonzo laughs, disclosing that it was laced with PCP.
After paying a visit to Roger, an ex-cop turned drug dealer, Jake notices a pair of addicts attempting to rape Letty, a teenage girl in an alley. Jake intervenes while Alonzo watches him get attacked and fight the rapists. After Letty leaves, Alonzo menaces the rapists, but declines to arrest them and Jake collects Letty's wallet from the ground.
Later, Alonzo and Jake apprehend a dealer named Blue, who has crack rocks - revealed when Alonzo makes Blue vomit by sticking a pen down his throat, which fazes Jake - and a loaded handgun in his possession. Rather than go to jail, Blue informs on his employer Kevin "Sandman" Miller, who is in prison. Using a fake search warrant, Alonzo steals $40,000 from Sandman's home. At lunch, the two visit Alonzo's mistress Sara and their young son. Alonzo then meets with a trio of corrupt high-ranking police officials he dubs the "Three Wise Men". Aware that the Russian mafia is hunting Alonzo, they suggest he skip town. Alonzo insists he has control of the situation and trades the $40,000 for an arrest warrant.
Alonzo assembles his squad of narcotics officers, and with Jake in tow they return to Roger's house and use the warrant to seize $4 million, a quarter of which Alonzo keeps and shares with his squad. Jake refuses to take a share of the money, worrying Alonzo and the other officers. Alonzo executes Roger after Jake refuses his order to do so, staging the scene with his men to make the shooting look justified. Infuriated, Jake gets into a standoff with the corrupt officers. Alonzo reveals he orchestrated the day's events to have leverage over Jake and threatens him with the police department's post-incident blood test, which will catch the PCP Jake smoked and end his career. Alonzo promises to protect Jake from the drug test in exchange for his cooperation and Jake begrudgingly complies.
Later that evening, Alonzo drives Jake to the home of a Sureño gangster named Smiley for an errand. As he waits for Alonzo, Jake reluctantly plays poker with Smiley and his fellow gang members, Sniper and Moreno. Smiley then explains Alonzo's situation: by midnight, Alonzo must pay $1 million to the Russians for killing one of their men over an insult in Las Vegas or be killed himself. Additionally, Smiley reveals Alonzo has abandoned Jake and paid Smiley to kill him. Jake attempts to flee but is beaten and dragged to the bathroom to be executed. Moreno searches Jake for money and finds the wallet of Letty, who happens to be Smiley's cousin. After calling Letty and confirming that Jake saved her, Smiley releases Jake out of gratitude.
An infuriated Jake returns to Sara's apartment to arrest Alonzo before he leaves to pay the Russians with Roger's money. A gunfight and chase ensue, and Alonzo is eventually subdued on the street while the entire neighborhood gathers to watch. Alonzo offers money to whoever kills Jake – to no avail. Jake takes the stolen cash to submit as evidence against Alonzo and the neighborhood gang allows him to leave safely. An enraged Alonzo, realizing his plan has been foiled, unravels into a final desperate tantrum and threatens retaliation against the neighborhood, but, knowing he no longer holds any sway over them, the residents ignore Alonzo and walk away during his rant. Alonzo flees for the Los Angeles International Airport, but is ambushed and gunned down by the Russians. Jake returns home as the press reports on Alonzo's death.
Although corruption in the LAPD's C.R.A.S.H. unit was yet to be exposed when Training Day was written, Antoine Fuqua has stated that the emergence of the Rampart Scandal in the late 1990s catalyzed the completion of the film. Denzel Washington also grew a beard in order to emulate the appearance of Rafael Pérez, an LAPD narcotics officer involved in multiple scandals.[3][4] Fuqua wanted Washington's character to be seductive and part of a machine, and not just a random rogue cop. In Washington's own words: "I think in some ways he's done his job too well. He's learned how to manipulate, how to push the line further and further, and, in the process, he's become more hard-core than some of the guys he's chasing."[5]
Fuqua also saw Ethan Hawke's character as generally honorable but so driven by ambition that he was willing to compromise his principles, particularly when following the charming and persuasive example of Washington's character. He has said that he fought with studio executives who wanted to cut the Three Wise Men scene, thinking it slowed the film. He insisted that the scene was pivotal in establishing that at least some of Alonzo's illegal actions were sanctioned by his superiors who regarded unethical behavior as a necessary evil.[6]
Fuqua wanted Training Day to look as authentic as possible, and he shot on location in some of the most infamous neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He even obtained permission to shoot in the Imperial Courtshousing project, the first time L.A. street gangs had allowed a film crew to be brought into that neighborhood. The crew also filmed in Hoover Block and Baldwin Village.[7] Parts of the film were shot on the dead end street Palmwood Drive, where Black P. Stones gang members were seen on the rooftops. Cle Shaheed Sloan, the gang technical advisor of Training Day, managed to get on screen real-life gang members from Rollin' 60 Crips, PJ Watts Crips, and Black P. Stones. According to Fuqua, the actors and crew ended up receiving a warm welcome from local residents. When he was unable to shoot a scene directly on location, he recreated the locations on sets.[6]
There were also two police officers on hand as technical advisors, Michael Patterson and Paul Lozada (the latter from the San Francisco Police Department). Washington, Hawke and other cast members also met with undercover police officers, local drug dealers, and gang members to help understand their roles better.[7]
Training Day was originally scheduled for release on September 21, 2001, and had a strong advertising push.[12] However, following the September 11 attacks, the film was pushed back to October 5, 2001, replacing Collateral Damage's original release date.[13]
Home media
Training Day was initially released on DVD and VHS on March 19, 2002.[14] A Blu-ray version was initially released on August 1, 2006.[15] A 4K Blu-ray version was released on February 28, 2023.[16]
Reception
Box office
Training Day opened at number one, grossing $22.5million, ahead of fellow new release Serendipity in second place.[17] Upon opening, it achieved the second-highest October opening weekend, behind Meet the Parents.[18] It repeated in the top spot in its second weekend, above that week's new release of Bandits in second place, and spent its first six weeks in the Top 10 at the box office.[19] It went on to gross $76.6million in the United States and Canada, and $28.2million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $104.9million,[20] against a budget of $45million.[21]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of 170 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "The ending may be less than satisfying, but Denzel Washington reminds us why he's such a great actor in this taut and brutal police drama."[22]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[23] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[24]
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert said: "Washington seems to enjoy a performance that's over the top and down the other side".[25] Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, praising both the lead and supporting actors and the film's gritty, kinetic energy. He criticized the plot's implausibility, but praised its execution, stating: "Ayer's screenplay is ingenious in the way it plants clues and pays them off in unexpected ways, so that 'Training Day' makes as much sense as movies like this usually can."[25]
Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen gave the film a positive review, stating: "Denzel Washington ventures into the dark side as a seriously corrupt narcotics cop... and the results are electrifying. So is the picture, thanks to taut, sinewy direction by Antoine Fuqua and a compelling script by David Ayer."[26]
Denzel Washington's performance as Detective Alonzo Harris was highly praised by critics. In The Village Voice, Amy Taubin wrote that his "old-fashioned combination of decency and sexiness suggests the African American counterpart to Gregory Peck (in his To Kill a Mockingbird period), as an LAPD cop so evil he makes Harvey Keitel's Bad Lieutenant look like even smaller potatoes than he was meant to be".[27]
On August 7, 2015, it was announced that Antoine Fuqua had decided to develop a television series based on the movie, and had teamed with Jerry Bruckheimer to develop the concept. Warner Bros. Television was shopping the show to the American broadcast networks. Will Beall would write the series, while Fuqua would serve as executive producer, and would direct the potential pilot.[45]CBS ordered a pilot on August 14, 2015. In addition to Fuqua, Bruckheimer, Beall, and Jonathan Littman will serve as executive producers for the series, which is set 15 years after the original film.[46] In May 2016, CBS picked up the series.[47]
In the CBS television series Alonzo is mentioned by Deputy Chief Joy Lockhart when briefing Officer Kyle Craig on sending him undercover at LAPD's Special Investigation Section to investigate Detective Frank Roarke. Frank briefly mentions Alonzo at the end of the first season. The series, starring Bill Paxton and Justin Cornwell, premiered on February 2, 2017, with a 13-episode run as a mid-season replacement.
Filming for the first season had been completed in December 2016, so the run was not affected by Paxton's death on February 25, 2017, two days after the fourth episode aired.[48] The lowest rated drama series on CBS that season, it was canceled on May 17, 2017, the same week the season finale aired.[49]
Prequel
In October 2019, it was reported that Warner Bros. was developing a prequel to Training Day. The prequel follows a young Alonzo Harris in late April 1992, two days before the verdict of the Rodney King trial and the associated L.A. riots.[50] The prequel, named Training Day: Day of the Riot, was set to start production in California in February 2022, but as of November 2024, the film appears to be still in development.[51]
