The film opens in medias res to LAPD Sergeant Eldon Perry, who is pacing in a motel room with a shotgun and pistol.

Five days earlier, four people are killed and one wounded when two men, Darryl Orchard and Gary Sidwell, rob a convenience store in order to gain access to the office safe.

Van Meter, a corrupt cop who often encourages his subordinates to fabricate evidence, visits Orchard and Sidwell's house later that night and takes the money stolen from the safe, admonishing them for behaving recklessly during the robbery.

Van Meter assigns Perry and Keough to investigate the robbery, providing a false alibi for Orchard and Sidwell and telling them to pin the crime on someone else.

His assistant, Beth Williamson, pulls files on the two men and sees that a man she previously had anonymous casual sex with is Keough.

[2] In February 2001, Kurt Russell had signed on to star in the film which would be directed by Ron Shelton from a re-write David Ayer performed of the initial Ellroy penned script.

"Ron Shelton's Dark Blue is another harrowingly cynical dirty-cop movie in the recent tradition of Training Day and Narc.