The Detective Knight trilogy comes to a close with Detective Knight: Independence.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the wonderfully pulpy adventures of Detective James Knight, here’s a quick refresher of what happened last year.  First off, in Detective Knight: Rogue, Detective Knight (Bruce Willis) sought vengeance after his partner, Fitz (Lochlyn Munro), was seriously wounded during a robbery.  Fitz recovered but not before Knight has dispensed some vigilante justice of his own.  The surviving bad guys went to prison but sadly, so did Detective Knight.

Fortunately, Detective Knight was released from prison in Detective Knight: Redemption.  He was released because a cult of people who dressed up like Santa Claus and who chanted, “Ho!  Ho!  Ho!” while committing their crimes were terrifying the city.  With the help of Detective Knight, the police were able to stop the Santa Cult.

In Detective Knight: Independence, Knight is once again on the police force.  He and Fitz are still quick to shoot first and ask questions later.  That said, Knight is trying to make amends with his estranged wife and spend more time with his daughter.  That’s not going to be easy, though, because there’s a new threat in town …. just in time for the 4th of July!

Dezi (Jack Kilmer) is an EMT who has always dreamt of being a cop.  Unfortunately, he’s never been able to qualify for the force.  Even when he shows up at a cop bar and just tries to have a beer in peace, the bartender approaches him with a baseball bat and two detective toss him out of the place.  When Dezi is subsequently fired for refusing to give aid to a wounded man (the man in question was a bank robber and Detective Fitz actually told Dezi to go help a bleeding civilian in the bank and leave the robber to die), Dezi snaps.  First, Dezi steals a uniform, a badge, and a gun.  After dispensing some vigilante justice on some muggers, Dezi decides that he would like to rob a bank.  Yes, you read that correctly.  In just a matter of hours, Dezi goes from pretending to be a cop to pretending to be a criminal.  As the film progresses, it starts to become pretty clear why the police force didn’t want to hire this guy in the first place.

Unfortunately, for Dezi, his fellow EMT and occasional lover, Ally (Willow Shields), had a connection to Detective Knight and soon, Knight is on Dezi’s trail.  It all leads to a 4th of July confrontation on a baseball field.

Even though Bruce Willis is playing the title character, he’s not present for much of Detective Knight: Independence.  As with the other two Detective Knight films, it’s obvious that Willis was only on set for a day or two.  While Willis is still a physically imposing actor, there’s none of the wise guy swagger that made Willis a star.  Instead, Detective Knight is a fairly grim character.  As always, it’s a bit difficult to watch Willis in films like this, especially with the knowledge of his recent health struggles.  That said, the Detective Knight films are definitely the best of Willis’s final films and, despite the limitations imposed by his health, Willis comes across well in them.  Considering that this is Willi’s final film, certain lines hit in a way that they otherwise might not.

As with the previous Detective Knight films, the majority of the screen time is given over to the man that the Detective is pursuing.  Jack Kilmer gives a strong performance as the unbalanced Dezi.  When he first appears, he’s almost a sympathetic character.  The cops were being bullies when they kicked him out of their bar.  His boss was being unreasonable when she announced that, rather than suspend him, she was just going to fire him because she didn’t like his attitude.  When Dezi first puts on his stolen badge and uniform, it’s hard not to sympathize with his happiness because he finally has what he wants.  But almost immediately, the power goes to his head and he loses control.  He becomes a frightening character but still, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him as he yells, “I’m not the bad guy!”  Of course, Dezi is the bad guy and the tragedy of his character is that he’ll never be able to understand why that is.

He’s right, you know.

For those of us who remember him in films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and The Sixth Sense, late-era Bruce Willis films can be difficult to watch and I understand and respect why some people simply can’t bring themselves do it.  And, obviously, several of Willis’s later films do leave one feeling as if the actor has been exploited by filmmakers who cared less about his legacy and more about making money off of his name.  That said, the Detective Knight films do not feel exploitive, certainly not in the way that many of his 2022 films did.  Instead, the trilogy serves as a tribute to Willis and his status as one of the world’s most popular movie stars.  As pulpy as it may be, Detective Knight: Independence allows Bruce to go out on a good note.