The Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pe�a starrer End Of Watch appears to have hooked audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the police drama premiered. The fast-paced story of two LAPD officers who form a powerful bond as they patrol the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles required both actors to go through months of training and "ride-alongs" with L.A. and Inglewood police officers; the movie itself unfolds a liberal dose of gun fire, fights and some gruesome scenes. But on one patrol in the lead-up to the shoot, Jake Gyllenhaal experienced a true-life horror — a murder.
"On my first ride-along, someone was murdered in front of me," said Gyllenhaal in Toronto. "There was another officer initially on the scene. It was a drug [shoot-out] between gang members. I was probably the safest you can be. And yet I was at the forefront of the danger. There were moments on these ride-alongs when I was afraid. I was amazed with how LAPD took care of us. When there are two actors in the back of the car, you're an added responsibility and Michael [Pe�a] and I were very aware of it."
Gyllenhaal plays Officer Brian Taylor, who patrols the gang-infested streets with Officer Mike Zavala (Pe�a) in the Open Road film, which bows in theaters nationwide September 21st. Directed by David Ayer (Harsh Times, Street Kings), who grew up in L.A.'s long troubled South Central neighborhood, the action unfolds on screen through footage of handheld cameras shot from the P.O.V. of hand-held cameras by police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras, dish cams and citizen-caught images in the line of fire. While there are moments peppered throughout the feature showing moments of levity between the two officers…
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