Life is full of choices, we hear a Catholic priest say near the beginning of Assault on Precinct 13. The choices we make affect our fate and make us who we are. And it’s hard choices that Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) must make in Assault on Precinct 13.

On a wintry New Years Eve, Roenick and just a few others are on duty in a small police station where they are holding Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), Detroit’s biggest crime lord, overnight because the weather’s too bad to transport him. Before long, the station is surrounded by men with guns who are asking for Bishop. Roenick now must decide whether to give up a known cop killer, or put the lives of everyone in the building in danger.

Roenick soon discovers, however, that the men outside aren’t Bishop’s cohorts – they’re Bishop’s enemies. When the bad guys know that Roenick knows who they are, they become intent on killing not only Bishop, but everyone inside the station as well. Roenick now must face the inevitable decision that he must let his four prisoners –including Bishop – out in order to help defend the building. Suddenly, cop and cop killer are on the same team.

More difficult decisions arise for Jake Roenick, as he leads his group and fights to keep them alive from the pursuing enemy. Though the action comes in spurts, the intensity of the situation is always maintained through a prospect of survival that dims as the morning light draws closer. When the action does come, it’s never anything we haven’t seen before. The men on the outside go down like the flies while the group inside only face danger when they start behaving erratically, which, for many of the characters, is often. Fishburne is as calm as Morpheus while John Leguizamo, who plays a drug addicted prisoner, is as annoying as Leguizamo can get.

In the midst of the chaos, Roenick struggles to take the lead in the situation because of an incident months earlier where two officers had died under his direction. Scared of making decisions that will potentially put other people’s lives in harm’s way, Roenick has been spending the last few months behind a desk where he will not have to make vital decisions. All of a sudden, Roenick must face his fears and make the decision to stand up and make choices that will help solve the problem. Making no choice at all is not an option for Roenick any more.

Roenick eventually comes to terms with himself through the decisions he makes, but we’re never allowed any deeper into who he has become. Content with telling a simple action tale, the film never really gets beyond its own genre walls, and settles for ending the story with a load of dead bodies in the snow. Assault on Precinct 13 is a quick adrenaline rush, but it’s one that will already be gone by the time you leave the theater.