Bad Cop depicts the life of street cop Angel Alvarez (Damian Chapa), who is stuck in a routine until he saves the life of prominent business man Fernando Benavidez (Javier Rivas) during a gun battle in East Los Angeles. Fernando later hires Angel to head his security team – against Angel’s wife’s best wishes. She wants to maintain her children and her family as she tries to convey to Angel the wisdom that money doesn’t buy everything. Angel gets addicted to the higher salary, and turns a blind eye to criminal activity and the gangster affiliations Fernando surrounds himself with on a daily basis. When he finds himself in a live or die situation in the streets of Los Angeles, Detective Humes (the late David Carradine), an old friend of and colleague of Angel’s, gives Angel needed support – and the key out of a very dangerous situation with the mob.