Toronto Star 30th May 2001
The Last Chapter
Michael Ironside, Roy Dupuis, Marina Orsini and Frank Schorpion
star in this raw, testosterone-fuelled, six-hour mini-series about the world of bikers
that is practically ripped from the headlines. The Last Chapter is a
carefully researched dramatization about a sub-culture that is as complex as it is brutal,
fascinating and repellent.
The Triple Sixers is one of the largest outlaw biker gangs in the world. Its business is
loansharking, prostitution and drugs. The gang's domain stretches from Halifax to
Vancouver, with one important exception - they have no chapter in Ontario. Zip O'Connors,
head of Montreal's Triple Sixers Chapter, is determined to move the gang into Ontario. Michael
Ironside plays Champagne, the man picked by O'Connors to spearhead the campaign to
take over the province.
Champagne sees the advantage of joining the Triple Sixers, but his lifelong partner and
friend, Ross Desbiens, does not. They make a secret deal - while Champagne establishes the
Triple Sixers chapter, Desbiens will organize all gangs opposed to the Sixers. The
territory will be divided, the members will stay in line and the two men will share the
profits.
But their carefully conceived plan falters. The murders begin and it becomes clear that
Champagne and Desbiens can't control the bloodshed. Their longtime friendship begins to
shatter as hostilities mount and the circle of killings comes very close to home in an
all-out biker war.
In a bizarre convergence, both the police and the tradition-minded Mafia greet the
mounting hostilities with alarm. Each in their own way, and each for their own reasons,
struggles to keep a lid on the warfare that threatens to spill from the back streets onto
main street, catching innocent citizens and "honest businessmen" in the
crossfire.
The Last Chapter, set in Toronto and Montreal, looks at the world of outlaw
biker gangs from the inside - portraying the strict codes of behaviour and the hierarchies
behind them with unprecedented clarity. The story takes us into the homes of the men and
their families, as well as their clubhouses, the bars where the drugs are sold and the
streets where their victims are dying.