Bringing Out the Dead

In Manhattan, paramedic Frank Pierce has depression, insomnia, and occupational burnout having not saved any patients in months after botching the resuscitation of Rose, a homeless teen. He has begun to hallucinate Rose's ghost. One night, Frank and his partner Larry respond to a dispatcher's call by the family of a Mr. Burke who has entered cardiac arrest. There, Frank befriends Burke's distraught daughter Mary, a former drug addict, and discovers Mary was friends with Noel, a drug addict and delinquent who is frequently sent to the hospital. After a few minor calls, Frank and Larry respond to the aftermath of a shooting, where Frank notices two vials of "Red Death" heroin roll out from a surviving victim's sleeve. While in the back of the ambulance with Frank and Noel, the victim attempts to repent for his drug dealing ways but dies before they can reach the hospital. The next day, Frank is paired with the charismatic, fervently religious Marcus. The two respond to a call to a man reported to be in cardiac arrest in a club. When they arrive, Frank diagnoses that he is, in fact, suffering from an overdose caused by Red Death. As Frank injects the man with Narcan, Marcus starts a prayer circle with the baffled club-goers, and just as his preaching climaxes, the overdosed man regains consciousness. On the way back to the hospital, Frank visits Mary's apartment to tell her that her father's condition is improving. Mary tells him that her family hosted and fed Noel for a complete year, and that her father showed more care for a stranger than for his own children. Frank and Marcus then respond to a call from a young man whose girlfriend is giving birth to twins. Frank and Marcus rush the two infants and mother to the hospital, where Marcus brings the mother and healthy twin to the maternity ward, while Frank attempts to revive the other twin with the hospital staff. The hospital is unable to revive the smaller twin, and a dismayed Frank starts drinking before Marcus joins him and crashes the ambulance into a parked car. They are unharmed and laugh the incident off. The following morning, Frank sees Mary leaving the hospital and follows her to an apartment block; Mary tells Frank that she is visiting a friend and he escorts her to the room. After waiting a while, Frank barges in and discovers that it is a drug den run by a dealer named Cy Coates. Mary admits that she has turned back to drugs to cope with her father's condition, and as Frank tries to get her to leave, Cy offers him some pills. In a moment of desperation, Frank takes the drugs and begins to hallucinate, seeing more ghosts of his patients. Once sober, he grabs Mary and carries her out of the building. While visiting a comatose Burke in the hospital, Frank starts hearing Burke's voice in his head, telling Frank to let him die, but he resuscitates Burke instead. In his third shift, Frank is paired with Tom Wolls, a fervent and messianic man with violent tendencies. The pair respond to a call to Cy's drug den where a shooting has occurred, and find Cy impaled on a railing. Frank holds onto Cy as emergency services cut the railing but both are nearly flung off the edge before being pulled back up. Cy then thanks Frank for saving his life and becomes the first patient Frank has saved in months. Afterwards, Frank agrees to help Tom beat up Noel, and chase him down. Frank starts to hallucinate again, snapping out of it just as he comes upon Tom beating Noel with a baseball bat. Frank saves Noel. As Frank visits Burke again, the voice pleads for death once more, and Frank removes Burke's breathing apparatus, causing him to fatally enter cardiac arrest. Frank then heads to Mary's apartment to inform her that he has died. He hallucinates Rose's ghost for a final time, obtaining her forgiveness. Mary accepts her father's death. Frank is invited in and falls asleep with Mary. == Cast ==