An action thriller film out and out, God is a Bullet employs the already repetitive genre of a guardian figure having to go and rescue his family member, most often his daughter, from goons. The film follows the plot of police detective Bob Hightower seeking out and rescuing his teenage daughter Gabi from a violent cult, and is adapted from a novel of the same name by Boston Teran. Although the novel and, of course, the film make claims of being inspired by true events, the extent of truth and fiction cannot be traced since no specifics are mentioned. While mostly over the top and slightly stretched, God is a Bullet makes for a decent watch overall.
Spoilers Alert
‘God Is A Bullet’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
God is a Bullet has Nikolaj Coster-Waldau playing the police detective in a small American town, where he stays alone after getting divorced from his ex-wife. The detective, Bob Hightower, still keeps in touch with the ex-wife, primarily because of their adolescent daughter, Gabi. Bob and Gabi often meet with each other, and the girl loves spending time with her father too. On the night of Christmas Eve, Bob drives by Gabi’s house and waves her goodnight while returning home from work, like he perhaps often does. The father and daughter are supposed to meet the next day, on Christmas morning, but Bob is rather surprised when Gabi does not turn up, which is unusual. He starts to grow concerned as Gabi is not picking up calls either, and Bob finally gives his ex-wife’s house a visit.
An absolute horror show awaits Bob at this house, as he first finds the dead body of her ex-wife’s current husband, tied up and hanging almost like in a ritualistic presentation. Soon, the woman’s body is also found in the swimming pool, and she has clearly been shot dead. Amidst all of this, Gabi remains missing, and Bob starts to investigate any leads to find her. Unbeknownst to him, a violent cult gang had actually broken into the house and killed the couple before kidnapping Gabi. Fortunately for Bob, a young woman named Case Hardin soon calls in, claiming to have information about where Gabi might be after news about the incident is published. When the detective meets her, Case reveals that the work looked exactly like that of a criminal cult gang led by a man named Cyrus. Although Bob’s colleagues at the police department warn him otherwise, the man puts faith in Case and takes her help in searching for Gabi, despite knowing that Case was a member of the same cult gang until recently.
Why Does Case Decide To Help Bob?
Once the premise is set, God is a Bullet follows a fairly simple and even predictable plot line, which involves Case helping Bob track down Cyrus and his gang. The film, instead, puts some stress on the strange bond that the two characters gradually form between them. The strangeness begins with the fact that Case and Bob are very different individuals from each other, especially since Case had essentially grown up with the cult members. Case had actually been kidnapped by the cult when she was just a young girl, perhaps even younger than Gabi is at present. The film begins with a scene of this very incident, as Case had been to a grocery store with her mother one day when the mother left her alone for a short time. Within this time, the girl was kidnapped by Cyrus and his gang, and despite the mother’s best efforts, she could never get her daughter back.
Instead, Case had grown up with the gang, given the characteristic tattoos on her body and face, and was introduced to a life of violence and abuse, both of drugs and her body. It was only recently that she had decided to quit the gang following a certain incident, about which she shares with Bob once the two grow close. Case still carried around the memory and grief of being separated from her mother, and the woman still kept looking for her mother subconsciously. Because of this, she approached a random woman in a grocery store, thinking her to be her mother, and was left quite scarred at realizing that she was not. Although Cyrus was not fine with Case leaving the gang and had beaten her up for wanting to leave, Case had managed to come out. It was not necessarily to look for her mother that Case had left the gang, for she does not really make much effort to do so, and she doesn’t even know how to do it. But instead, the incident at the grocery store perhaps made her feel guilt and shame for sticking with her kidnappers. Since she was now a grown woman and therefore had some agency in her hands, Case perhaps wanted to leave the lowly life of drugs and false faith behind to have a new start.
But Bob’s search does not allow Case to rest easy, and she feels a sort of obligation almost to help the man, or rather, help his young daughter. Case was obviously in the same position as Gabi once, and over the duration of the film, it is suggested that Case had a belief that her mother had not done enough to search for her. In a sense, Case does feel that she was abandoned by her mother indirectly, and it is largely because of this reason that she readily helps Bob, even though he does not ask for her assistance. The woman does not want any other girl to go through similar abandonment and abuse, and she wants to rescue Gabi as much as Bob. With time, though, there are also other reasons for Case to act in this manner, particularly when she gets to know Bob better.
Unlike Case, Bob has had a normal life in his small town, regularly visiting church, and has immense belief in his faith. Initially, the man dismisses Case and her way of life solely based on the fact that all that she does is considered sin by his religion. When Case tries to question the point of such religion too, Bob is angered by her and almost lashes out against the woman. But over time, Bob gradually realizes and accepts the pointlessness of his faith and admits how everything he knows about life is falling apart right in front of his eyes. It is clear that Bob was a man with a firm belief that nothing bad will happen to him if he does not intentionally do anything wrong and that even in his most difficult times, his faith and God would instantly ease his pains. Instead of any of this actually happening, Bob has to finally acknowledge Case’s point that the bullet is the only true equalizer and that it is the only true God.
Despite his differences, Bob is a good-hearted and kind man with no wrong intentions whatsoever. This is very apparent to Case from the initial days of their meeting, and with time, she does start to feel for him. As a woman accustomed to every man taking advantage of her body, she really takes note of this virtue in Bob. Instead of trying anything wrong with her, Bob always looks out for Case; he protects her from danger, and when the time comes, he even refuses to hand her over to Cyrus, even though that would instantly get him Gaby back. Therefore, Case also helps the man because she wants to genuinely help him and not just his daughter.
Can Bob Save His Daughter From Cyrus And His Gang?
Bob initially has personal restrictions against resorting to violence and killing people, perhaps owing to the fact that he is a police officer by profession and has therefore always been on one particular side of the law. But when he realizes the threat that he is facing, and as the man grows more desperate to save his daughter, Bob does not mind shooting people dead any more. Surely these events chip away at who he is, but beyond a point, Bob Highwater just acts as a man blind to save his child and avenge her pains. When Cyrus sends word that Bob and Case need to kill a man named Errol and steal money from him, the police detective does not hesitate. He and Case get inside Errol’s house, and Bob pulls the trigger on the man. Errol had actually been a business associate of Cyrus, selling drugs and possibly being involved with human trafficking as well, and Cyrus now wanted Errol to be removed.
Taking the hundred thousand dollars with them, Bob and Case then reach the meeting spot fixed by Cyrus, but the vile man wants Case in return for Gabi. Bob disagrees with this deal and instead gets ready to face the wrath of the entire cult gang. Before the action begins, Gabi is returned to her father in a seriously injured and shocked state. Although the girl can hardly speak, her first words to Bob are to ask him to kill every single man in the cult gang. A great deal of action and violence follows as the entire gang of Cyrus tries to kill Bob and Case while the two fight back by themselves. Incidentally, Cyrus himself is not part of this battle, and he instead just sends his henchmen and gang members to fight for him. By the end, though, Bob and Case manage to kill all of them, with even Gabi having to kill a man when he tries to attack her. Despite all their consciences and morals being heavily marked by the absolute bloodbath that they had been a part of, all three of them survived till the next morning. As help arrives, Bob is actually able to save his daughter from the cult gang, even though Cyrus still remains free.
‘God Is A Bullet’ Ending Explained: Did Case Get Her Revenge On Cyrus?
For a long time now, Case has also been seeking revenge against the atrocities that Cyrus has committed against her. Despite having had chances earlier, the woman could never do it, as she had been groomed from a young age to look up to Cyrus as a godly figure. Along with being dependent on the vile man, Case also had feelings and emotions for Cyrus, as is often the situation between an abuser and his young victim. But now, at the end of God is a Bullet, Case is able to detach herself from these toxic ties, and she decides to step out for one final mission. Although she kisses Bob for the first time now, establishing a romantic relationship between the two, Case asks to be let go, and Bob has to agree.
Case then goes to a particular shack in the middle of nowhere and waits for days, keeping an eye out on a nearby house that she knows to be a safehouse for Cyrus. The man does eventually show up at the place, and Case uses this opportunity to sneak into the house. After killing all of the guards at the place silently, Case then confronts and kills the delirious Cyrus. Once her revenge has been taken, Case then also goes over to a certain address that Bob had given her earlier, as this address is her mother’s current residence. Using his sources in the police, Bob had found the mother’s address and had also learned that she had desperately searched for Case for five years before eventually moving away. With this pain healed as well, Case stops herself from meeting her mother, especially after seeing that the woman has settled into a happy life and has finally moved on from the pain of having lost her daughter.
Case knows that getting back to her mother will unsettle the woman’s life and family at present, and so she refrains from doing it, despite hurting from the decision. Instead, Case returns to Bob, who is evidently glad that she has come back to him, and God is a Bullet ends with this happy reunion.
