| “ | This isn't about selling out its about getting paid (Andre Shame: So good people gotta die so you can get paid?) I was gonna cut them all in, I told them all i said you know we can split the money five ways. And do you know what they said only if Shame was down. And we both know they wasn't going to happen. (Andre Shame: So you made a deal with the devil) | „ |
| ~ Sonny Rothmiller reveals to Shame at the Palisaides Mall they he killed the other detectives during the mexico raid because they wouldn't take Mendoza's bribe without Shame. |
Sonny Rothmiller is the secondary antagonist of the 1994 action comedy film A Low Down Dirty Shame.
He is a former LAPD Detective turned DEA agent that hires his former colleague Andre Shame to a missing persons case to search for Angela, Shame's ex girlfriend in order for her to testify against drug lord Ernesto Mendoza who survived his shooting at the hands of Shame and faked his death in order for her to come out of hiding. It is later revealed that Sonny is a mole in the DEA working for Mendoza and they wanted Angela dead for stealing $20,000,000 of his drug money.
He is portrayed by Charles S. Dutton who also played Dr Douglas Grey in Gothika and Captain Jonas Cutter in the Nickelodeon series Are you Afraid of the Dark?.
History[]
Background[]
In 1989, Sonny Rothmiller a then Los Angeles Police Department Detective along with Andre Shame and a team of detectives infiltrated Mexico to apprehend drug lord Ernesto Mendoza. During the raid, Shame shot and killed Mendoza in a shootout but the other detectives were killed leaving Shame and Rothmiller as the only survivors from the raid. Unknown to Shame, Rothmiller turned on the other detectives and killed them because they wouldn't take Mendoza's bribe without Shame. As a result of this Shame was left alive to take the blame. The head of the unit Captain Nunez attempted to fire Shame for botching the raid but instead a guilt-ridden Shame quit the force in disgrace. As for Rothmiller he left the department as well and joined the Drug Enforcement Administration Agency eventually reaching the rank of Special Agent.
A Low Down Dirty Shame[]
Five years later in 1994, Sonny comes by Shame's new office where his former colleague is now a private detective running his own private investigating business. He asks Shame if he would like to work a case with him. Shame asks about it and Sonny reveals to him that Mendoza is still alive and hires Shame to find the only witness who would testify against him: Angela. She has escaped from the witness protection program in New York and is in Los Angeles. Shame at first refuses not wanting to worry about the events in Mexico but decides to take the case after seeing the chance to arrest the man who took everything from him.
At a restaurant, Shame finds Luis his former childhood acquaintance and his friends having dinner and tells him to give Mendoza a message: that he knows that he is alive and is coming for him. Shame then ends up in a fight with some henchman before engaging in a Mexican standoff with Luis and his friends before leaving. When Shame arrives home he is attacked with metal batons by two of Mendoza's henchman and warned by the now alive Mendoza to back away from the case before he gets killed.
Shame then tracks Angela to a posh hotel and calls Sonny. Unknown to Shame, Rothmiller is actually working for Mendoza having been his mole in the DEA. At Mendoza's mansion he orders Luis to bring him Angela and to kill Shame. Angela informs Shame that she has been in witness protection for the past six months and she would've testified against Mendoza a long time ago except someone tip him off and he got away just before the Justice Department moved in which forced her to flee after Mendoza found her location. Shame realizing that Rothmiller is a mole with Mendoza helps Angela escape from Luis and the rest of Mendoza's thugs. He then drops Angela off at his partner Peaches' apartment.
Back at his mansion, Mendoza is having a party when Sonny comes by angry with Mendoza for sending his henchman to the hotel to find Angela before he would. Mendoza claimed that Shame had started the mess by trying to take his business his life and his woman and that it is all about business to regain his $20,000,000 in drug money that Angela has stolen from him. He intends to kill both Shame and Angela in the process. Rothmiller goes on a rant until Mendoza uses his dagger to threaten him. Sonny says that things are getting out of hand and that Mendoza would let him take care of things from there on out. Mendoza agrees and tells Sonny to leave as he has a lot cleaning up to do but not before slitting one of his own henchman's throat for failing him.
When Shame kidnaps Luis and takes him to an abandoned building he demands Mendoza's location. Luis refuses and Shame causes him to stumble into a meeting of white supremacists'. While Luis is being chased by the mob he tells Shame that Mendoza owns a club in Hollywood and asks him to give him a ride. But instead Shame leaves him at their mercy where the supremacists' beat him.
Shame arrives at the nightclub and exchanges words with Mendoza before the two get into a Mexican standoff where Mendoza uses his date as a hostage. Wayman, Peaches roommate and Shame's acquaintance attempts to get his attention and Mendoza uses the distraction to shoot at Wayman and escape while Shame saves him.
Near an LAPD safehouse Mendoza is with Sonny in his limo saying that he thought he was going to take care of things and complaining about Shame almost killing him at the nightclub. Sonny says he is on top of everything before instructing the driver to pull over. He then gets out and goes to the abandoned apartment serving as the safehouse before busting through the door and shooting and killing the detectives who were assigned to guard Peaches. After chasing Peaches through the apartment and down the fire escape. Mendoza and Sonny decide to kidnap her to lure out Shame.
While Shame is making love to Angela at a motel, Mendoza calls him and informs him that he has Peaches and will exchange her for Angela and his drug money. The two agree to meet at the Palisades Mall which is owned by Mendoza himself. Shame agrees and tells him to bring Sonny along too.
At the Mall, Mendoza and Sonny along with Peaches and two of Mendoza's henchman meet Shame and Angela at the escalator. Sonny finally admits to Shame that during the raid in Mexico he killed the other detectives because they wouldn't take Mendoza's bribe without Shame. He left Shame alive to take the blame. Mendoza asks about his money and Shame says to exchange the girls first. Shame turns on the escalator and tells Peaches that he hopes she good as she said she is revealing that he has hidden a gun on the escalator. Mendoza tells Angela that before he kills her they are going to make love one last time. He soon discovers that instead of Angela it is a mannequin prompting a shootout to ensue. Shame kills one henchman and Peaches takes the gun and shoots the other henchman. After gunfire was exchanged, Peaches and Shame escape.
Sonny later finds Angela with the money in the parking garage and she attempts to seduce him by taking off her blouse and playing with her breasts. Sonny however says that he isn't turned on and attempts to kill her by raising his gun. She reacts quicker by unlatching her gun from her bra strap and shoots Sonny repeatedly until he falls down. She then finishes him off by shooting him in the head.
Trivia[]
- Shame and Rothmiller were fellow officers of the same unit in the LAPD but Sonny revealed his betrayal and corruption by killing the other detectives and accepting bribes from Mendoza because the other detectives wouldn't without Shane involved.
- He is the only antagonist that dies at the hands of another antagonist Angela after he rejected her advances and attempted to kill her before she reacted quicker and killed him first.