Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider)’s Timeline and Summary
- During a sting at a bar, bedraggled, loyal cop Buddy "Cloudy" Russo gets a switchblade injury from a tweaker he and his partner, Popeye, are shaking down.
- They find some drugs, but no answers as to anything bigger going on in the district.
- Popeye (after making a racist generalization about African Americans) invites Cloudy for an after-work drink. He doesn't really feel like it, on account of the switchblade wound, but his partner all but makes him.
- At the bar, Cloudy attempts to quietly drink his drink, but somehow gets dragged by his partner onto a week-long surveillance of a small-time crook named Sal Boca.
- After the partners gather enough evidence on Sal, Popeye tries to get the Captain to okay some warrants for wiretaps so they can dig deeper.
- Later, Popeye nowhere to be found, the captain tells Cloudy that they'll get the warrants, plus support from two federal agents, including Mulderig, who happens to have a real beef against Popeye for getting another cop killed, and for his general difficult demeanor.
- Knocking on Popeye's door, he tells Cloudy to let himself in. Popeye is handcuffed by a one-night stand to his bed, and Cloudy frees him, giving him a friendly-but-hard time for it, giving him the good news about the go-ahead from the captain.
- Cloudy does his best to keep the peace between Popeye and Mulderig, but it's not easy— all while tailing a handful of local and French criminals. Little by little, over two months, they start to put together the crooks' plan. Just when it seems like they're about to have a break-through, the captain takes them off the case.
- After Popeye is nearly killed by one of the Frenchmen, the partners are restored to the case, and Cloudy sticks with Popeye as they work with the Feds to follow Sal Boca and the other Frenchmen.
- Popeye convinces Cloudy to sit with him and stake-out a Lincoln with French plates that Sal has parked on the street in a remote neighborhood. After some would-be thieves set upon it, they make some arrests and take the car back to the police lot to look for something.
- Something is what they find: a bunch of heroin, to be exact.
- After letting the car go, Cloudy, Popeye, and the Feds do their best to follow it, only to lose it as Charnier is driving toward Ward's Island.
- The cops set up a dragnet, and stop the car on its way back to Manhattan. As it turns tail, Cloudy and all the rest follow Charnier and Sal to the drug deal spot. Cloudy kills Sal in a shoot-out, then runs into an abandoned building to provide back-up for Popeye, who's going after Charnier.
- Inside, Popeye is mad with adrenaline, and Cloudy nearly gets shot at as he announces his presence.
- They hear a noise, and the two begin to cross a large room. Popeye shoots, and the two run in the direction of the target. Cloudy is incredulous, seeing that Popeye has killed Mulderig, and doesn't seem to care. He watches as his crazed partner runs into the next room, and he hears a gunshot.
- Cloudy, having made several good arrests, is transferred out of the Narcotics Unit.