rogers park bryan wrote:
Aside from the disagreements on the finale...how the fuck can Rust be coming back? Gotta be a prequel right?
One year after the events of True Detective, LA State Police Sergeants Martin Hart and Rustin Cohle are pursuing unidentified suspects transporting an illegal shipment of gold krugerrands. South Africa's apartheid government subsequently charges local consul-general Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) and security agent Pieter Vorstedt (Derrick O'Connor) to warn both detectives off the investigation; they are reassigned to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), after an attack on Hart's home.
It soon becomes clear that both cases are related: after an attempt on Getz's life, Cohle and Hart learn of the former's murky past laundering funds for vengeful smugglers. Getz eventually leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his unscrupulous 'associates'.
Though instructed to leave the case alone, Cohle begins to openly harass the South African consulate, defying Rudd and romancing his secretary, Rika van den Haas (Patsy Kensit), a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder Cohle while Hart deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling circle in the United States to Cape Town via LA.
Seizing Cohle at the van den Haas home, Vorstedt discloses that he was responsible for the death of Rust's daughter years earlier during a botched assassination. He succeeds in drowning Rika, but a vengeful Cohle makes good his escape. He phones Hart, declaring an intention to pursue Rudd; the other policeman willingly forsakes his badge to aid his partner. Rescuing Getz, they head for the Alba Varden, Rudds' freighter, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with millions in drug money.
Cohle and Hart stow away in a crate, engaging the ship's crew when they are discovered. Vorstedt is killed by a falling cargo container, but Rudd retaliates by wounding Cohle in the back. Heedless of his claims to protected status, Hart shoots the diplomat in the head and tends to Cohle, sharing a laugh with him as more LA State Police personnel respond to the scene.