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Negotiating their way through the extremely dangerous city streets (all around there is tribal anarchy, armed gangs and military personnel), Lenny and Mace end up at the Retinal Fetish nightclub. Lenny finds Faith but gets thrown out by Philo's bodyguard before he can say more than a few words, although it's clear that she doesn't want to see him. Persevering, Lenny ends up with a clip left for him anonymously at the club. "Jacking into" the disc Lenny finds himself participating in the rape, torture and murder of his friend Iris. Sickened beyond belief, Lenny shows the clip to Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore), also an ex-cop. Max is working for Philo but assures Lenny that he'll find out what he can from the Police. Meanwhile Lenny remembers that Iris left something in his car, which he and Mace retrieve from storage. Two cops ambush them, and seize the clip, but Lenny and Mace manage to escape by driving off of the docks and into the sea (worth seeing!).
Luckily Lenny gave the cops a dummy clip and he settles down to see what was so important to Iris that she died getting it to him. It turns out to be explosive stuff, a fuse which could ignite the city into the worst race war ever. Through Iris's eyes Lenny witnesses the brutal assassination of Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer), a black figurehead of similar stature to MLK, at the hands of two corrupt cops. Since Philo was Jeriko One's promoter and associate it's clear why Faith is in such danger, and why everyone seems to be trying to kill Lenny and Mace. Obviously someone wants this clip very badly (it's possible that the conspiracy reaches to the highest levels). In the riotous New Year celebrations of the end of the century, Lenny has got to find a way to save himself and Faith as well as ensuring that justice is done, by making the vital clip public.
Stealing freely from Blade Runner, and other such apocalyptic films, the atmosphere of this LA is pure madness. Armoured vehicles roam the streets, lit up by petrol-bombs and the staccato flash of machine-gun fire. Through this kinetic, visually overpowering landscape Lenny and Mace pass unharmed. However, the hostile crowds simply look like groups of extras looking angry while the chaos of LA seems too over-the-top to be believable. Unlike many similar films, there is no cohesive community structure which would allow the city to function (such as the confusing but necessary street markets of Blade Runner). Everything is a shambles, apart from the smart businessmen in their sharp suits; the thing is, who do they sell to in such a place? The script reflects these troubled times by veering wildly around, touching on a multitude of interesting ideas but only capitalising on one - SQUIDs. These are fantastic devices (the method used to integrate first-person experiences into the movie is technically excellent) and it's easy to see how you could become a wirehead.
Ultimately though the separation induced by SQUIDs, where the wearer retreats into someone else's past, is equalled by our disconnection from the characters. Lenny is a real slime, using everybody he knows for his own selfish designs, and it's hard to see who could like him. Why Mace, a fundamentally decent and hard-working mother, feels that she should put her life on the line for him (their relationship is never reasonably clarified) is beyond imagining. The central premise is excellent however, taking a step beyond virtual reality, and the power of such a device is incredible. If only Strange Days had explored this line further instead of trying to pack several movies into some sort of future-noir. Voyeuristic but disappointing.
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