| “ | Guns Gentlemen? | „ |
| ~ - McDuff and Nash along with their thieves ordering Hank Raffterty and Earl Montgomery to surrender their weapons at the old fort. |
Detective Frank McDuff is the secondary antagonist in the 2003 action comedy film National Security.
He is a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department at the rank of Detective but is revealed to be a corrupt official who is secretly the mole of the main antagonist of the film Nash as he helps him and his thieves gather much goods from the CIA (Crupps International Aerospace).
He is portrayed by Colm Feore, who also played André Linoge in Storm of the Century, Zhylaw in The Chronicles of Riddick, Randall Flynn in Revolution, Donald Menken in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Dollmaker in Gotham, Rudolf Höss in Nuremberg, Sir Reginald Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, John Wolfe in Paycheck and Laufey in Thor.
History[]
After LAPD officer Hank Rafferty witnesses his partner Charlie Reed being killed by the leader of a group of thieves robbing a storage warehouse, he approaches McDuff at Charlie's funeral to ask if he can help with the investigation. McDuff along with Lieutenant Washington refuses to have Hank aid in the investigation as Hank just wanted revenge for the death of his murdered partner and that McDuff could handle it his own way as it is a complicated situation. He informs him that the storage warehouse heist had computer chips stolen before someone did the raid. Hank says he doesn't care about any computer chips and just wants to go after the man who killed Charlie. McDuff tells him that he's a patrolman and not a Detective and to stick to his job. He warns Hank not to interfere with the risk of being fired as Hank walks away. As Hank leaves Washington assures him that they will handle the case.
Later, Hank attempts to help a man named Earl Montgomery into getting into his car but instead Earl race baits Hank to drive him to the point of arresting him for his insults and remarks leading to a bumble bee flying around them to which Earl is allergic to. Hank attempts to save Earl from the bee by swatting it with his nightstick while a man who witnesses the altercation films a video with his camera to make it seem that Hank was assaulting Earl. A Mug shot is later taken of Earl with his face swollen from an allergic reaction to the bee which was mistaken as a bruised face. Hank attempts to explain to McDuff and Washington that it was bumble bee that he attacked and not Earl.
Meeting with the press outside city hall, McDuff assures the reporters that the police department and the district attorney's office are taking the matter very seriously and urges the people of the city to let them do their jobs and to be patient explaining that this is an isolated incident.
Earl later meets with McDuff, Washington and District Attorney Robert Barton to talk about Hank's assault on him where he lies and claims that the bee that came from nowhere almost stung him to death while he was pushed against his car by Hank. He accused Hank of having the bumble bee assist in the assault on him. When asked if Hank assaulted him or not Earl asks how many times he has to say it. So Barton takes the case to court.
Hank is later terminated from the police force, charged with aggravated assault and is sentence to serve six months in prison.
After being released from prison, Hank takes a job as a security guard and continues to investigate Charlie's death. He later encounters Nash and his thieves at a soda warehouse where Earl is also a security guard there. Hank interrupts the heist and when Earl intervenes a shootout ensues with Nash and his men escaping.
When one of Nash's men loses a cell phone it leads Hank and Earl to a semi trailer truck that the thieves were hiding their stolen van in. Earl and Hank get inside and hotwire the van. When an alarm is tripped, Nash and his thugs do a brief shootout and Earl and Hank use the van to escape where they fall on a garbage barge.
With the van lost along with the goods from the heist, Nash calls McDuff (who is later revealed to be his mole) and tells him that they have a problem. Using his credentials as a police detective McDuff puts out a APB on Hank and Earl framing them as suspects in the bridge shootout. After escaping from the cops Hank and Earl realize that Nash and his thugs have a mole in the police department.
After tracing the van owners address and staking it out Earl goes inside to find on a answering machine that McDuff wants Nash to meet him at a marina yacht club. After Nash enters the apartment a shootout ensues with him and Earl as Hank arrives. After saving Earl, Hank sees the tattoo on Nash's arm and realizes he's Charlie's killer. Nash manages to escape after shooting Earl in the leg but Earl's wound was only a graze.
Nash later goes to the yacht club to meet with McDuff but not before he's followed by Hank and Earl. After witnessing McDuff and Nash talking, Hank and Earl identify him as Nash's mole and explain what they know to Washington. They call McDuff and offer to sell him back the beer kegs for $1 million. Nash and McDuff hear about their plans and as has one of their men take Washington hostage first.
The next morning, Hank and Earl meet with Nash, McDuff and their men near the coast at the Old Fort. Nash once again calls Earl a monkey and tells him that he thought he shot him once already. Earl insults him back and McDuff asks Hank if he brought the metal, Hank asks him if he brought the money. McDuff tells him that they will see about that when sees the kegs. Hank tells him to forget about the money and whistles the SWAT team who McDuff reveals that they were imposters. McDuff also reveals that they have kidnapped Washington.
He orders Hank and Earl to surrender their weapons. As Hank drops his gun and clumsily picks it up, Earl takes out his weapon from behind as Nash and McDuff pull their guns and a gunfight ensues as Hank and Earl rescue Washington. McDuff is shot and killed by Earl while hiding behind a van window during the gunfight.
Alternate Ending[]
In an alternate ending, after Hank saves Earl with the crane. Hank is attacked by a wounded McDuff who survived being shot by Earl in the shootout causing Hank to drop Earl in the water. While McDuff and Hank fight, Hank manages to pull the crane up saving Earl again. The crane malfunctions out of control during the fight between McDuff and Hank and Earl pulls out his gun but loses his bullets until he catches one of them in his hand. He saves Hank by shooting McDuff to death and the crane crashes into dark and rusted beer kegs causing Earl to fall off. Hank rescues Earl and they both leave the old fort while Earl holds an injured Hank.
Trivia[]
- McDuff was at first an ally of Hank and seemed to be a loyal member of the police force but betrays the department by siding with Nash to help with the CIA heist to gather much of the goods.
- The Alternate version of McDuff's death scene where he was shot by Earl while fighting on the crane with Hank was filmed first before the theatrical death scene where Earl shoots him while he's hiding behind a van window.