Plot

In the afterlife, Nick Walker, a detective who used to work for the Boston Police Department, is hired by a director of a group of deceased police officers to fight against the renegade ghosts.

In Boston, the dirty cop Nick hides gold that he has stolen from drug-dealers with his partner Hayes in the backyard of his house. However, on the next morning, Nick tells Hayes that he will deliver the evidence to the police since he loves his wife Julia and he could not face her acting that way. Nick and Hayes are assigned to a raid against a dangerous gang and unexpectedly Hayes kills Nick. Nick is drawn by a tunnel and based on his previous experience in the police department, he is assigned in the afterlife by the Proctor to join the Rest in Peace Department that protects the living world from the undead and work with the old-fashioned agent Roy. Roy and Nick accidentally find that Hayes in plotting a scheme to revert the sense of the tunnel to the afterlife and bring the Apocalypse to Earth.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Nick Walker, a narcotics detective with the Boston Police Department, has just been killed in the line of duty. Rather than face judgment to determine his final resting place, Nick is recruited by Chief Mildred Proctor into the Rest in Peace Department (R.I.P.D.). Part of the reason for he ending up in this limbo of sorts is that on Earth, he and his partner, Detective Bobby Hayes, in the process of a drug raid, found a stash of gold pieces, which they took for themselves, Nick doing it solely in the want to make a better life for his wife, Julia. The limbo is also despite Nick, before his death, feeling remorse for this action and vowing to turn in his share of the gold, in the process not turning in Bobby. The mandate of the R.I.P.D. is to go back to Earth to find and destroy deados - dead people who have been able to evade judgment and are now back in human form among the living on Earth - so that they will face that judgment, ultimately sending them "down there" as their final resting place. Initially, Nick, learning that he will be going back to Boston, expects that he will be able to reunite with Julia and avenge his death in this job, that is until he learns that R.I.P.D. members are given new appearances and thus new identities. Nick is partnered with Roy Pulsipher, a longtime R.I.P.D. member who was a southern US Marshal during the Civil War era in his life on Earth. Judgmental Roy, who is not told of Nick's criminal actions, hopes to be able to retire soon to go to his final resting place. In the process of their work, they will discover that the gold pieces have a higher more nefarious purpose which, if in the wrong hands, could spell the end of life on Earth as it is known. As such, Nick tries to do this work while attending to his own initial goals of avenging his death and reuniting with Julia, which may not be easy considering the role of the gold pieces and with Roy and Proctor constantly looking over his dead shoulder.—Huggo

Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) was a cop with a reputation for getting a results when he was brutally gunned down during a violent raid. The next thing Nick knew, he was sitting in the headquarters of the Rest in Peace Department -- a supernatural police force tasked with arresting lost souls who are hiding out on Earth. His new partner Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges) is a veteran sheriff with a knack for spotting a fugitive soul in disguise. Now Roy and Nick are about to face a menace that threatens to upset the ethereal balance between the physical world and the supernatural realm, and should they fail in maintaining that balance, Earth will be flooded with a wave of very angry -- and very powerful -- lost souls..

Seeking redemption, Nick Walker, an otherwise conscientious Boston police detective killed in the line of duty, teams up with Roy Pulsipher, a veteran officer of the Rest In Peace Department, to track down stubborn rogue spirits refusing to cross over. However, dark forces are against them. Now, a sinister plan threatens both the supernatural police force and the fragile cosmic equilibrium between this world and the afterlife. Can the cops from beyond save the day and our souls?—Nick Riganas

Boston Police Department Detectives Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) and Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon) steal some gold they find during a drug-bust. The gold pieces are oddly shaped in the form of a broken disc, and not in the regular bar form. Nick buries his share in his backyard, intending to use it to create a better life for himself and his wife, Julia (Stephanie Szostak). Nick immediately regrets his decision and informs Hayes he intends to return the gold. Hayes wears a particularly bulky St. Christopher charm bracelet on his wrist and says that it was a gift from his grandmother.

During a subsequent raid on a warehouse that day, Nick and Hayes get into a shootout with the criminals inside, and Hayes kills Nick to prevent him from returning the gold. Nick's dead body falls from a height to the ground below. His spirit rises from his body and observes the mayhem in the warehouse, which is frozen in time. Nick comes outside the warehouse and sees a vortex swirling above in the sky.

After ascending to limbo in the afterlife, through a whirlpool and tunnel in the sky, Nick is taken into the office of Mildred Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker) - director of the Boston division of the Rest In Peace Department (R.I.P.D.). Proctor explains that R.I.P.D. is an agency that recruits deceased police officers to patrol the afterlife and capture "Deados", which are spirits that failed to cross over and instead stay on Earth as monsters. Nick agrees to join R.I.P.D. for a century, after Proctor explains that it would stave off a potentially negative final judgment and meets his new partner Roicephus "Roy" Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges) - a crusty ex-U.S. Marshal who lived in the 1800s.

Nick and Roy return to Earth and attend Nick's funeral, where Nick learns that R.I.P.D. officers are assigned avatars, which is how humans perceive them. Nick's avatar is an elderly Chinese man, Jerry Chen (James Hong) a retired Boston Police Department Captain from 1995, and Roy's is an attractive Russian woman, Opal Pavlenko (Marisa Miller) who is an FBI Special Agent. Roy and Nick look normal to each other and R.I.P.D.

After failing to communicate with Julia, Nick accompanies Roy to the apartment of suspect Stanley Nawlicki (Robert Knepper), who transforms from his avatar into his monster form via cumin powder. Nawlicki tries to escape, resulting in Roy pushing Nick out of a 20-story building, and is eventually killed by Roy using a soul-killer bullet that erases him from the cosmos. Roy and Nick argue and Nick throws Roy in front of a bus, causing Roy to lose his favorite cowboy hat. Pieces of gold identical to the ones Nick stole are found in Nawlicki's possession. They return to headquarters and book the gold as evidence. Nick is suspicious that Nawlicki was trying to hide the gold from them even when he was about to die. He persuades Roy to follow up on the investigation.

Nick and Roy then meet with Elliot (Mike O'Malley), Roy's informant, who is also the Fenway Park's scoreboard operator and a Deado. Elliot claims that the gold is junk. Nick leaves the gold with Elliot and watches as he gives it to Nick's old partner Hayes. Nick and Roy follow him to Nick's old house, where Hayes retrieves Nick's share of the gold, leading Julia to believe that Nick was corrupt.

After a brief confrontation between Roy and Nick over the stolen gold, they tail Hayes to a bus depot where he gives the gold to a large ginger-side-burned "Deado" named Pulaski (Devin Ratray). Pulaski refuses to talk and instead pops himself, becoming a hulking monster, which leads Nick and Roy on a public chase that ends with Nick getting the gold but Pulaski escaping. The incident causes enough destruction to make news headlines.

Proctor is infuriated and they are suspended and taken off the case by The Eternals (who are in charge of limbo), while Proctor tells them they are likely to be erased. Nick and Roy have been placed on administrative leave until a hearing can be held to determine their suitability for duty. They decide to continue the investigation on their own after learning the pieces of golds are components of the Staff of Jericho, a mystical device that could reverse the tunnel that transports the dead into the afterlife, returning them to Earth.

Nick leaves and tries to reveal himself to Julia, but she runs away from him. Roy and Nick argue again but make up after Nick apologizes. Nick and Roy visit Hayes, who quickly finds out who they are and reveals himself to be a Deado, having cut a deal to remain on Earth after he was killed in a shootout. He removes his St. Christopher charm that masked his true form and is arrested and taken to the R.I.P.D. headquarters.

Hayes and some other Deados manage to escape by using a device Hayes had smuggled in that slows time for the R.I.P.D. officers, but not the Deados. After stealing the components of the Staff of Jericho they return to Earth. Roy and Nick neutralize the device and end up in a showdown with some of the Deados, who use soul-killers to erase several of the R.I.P.D. officers. While the Deados assemble the Staff of Jericho, Hayes kidnaps Julia to use her as a human sacrifice to open the portal. The dead begin to rain down on Earth.

Nick and Roy arrive and, after killing the Deados, Nick tries to save Julia while Roy destroys the Staff of Jericho and saves the city. The vortex closes and Nick shoots Hayes, erasing him from existence. Nearly dying, Julia sees Nick's true self. They share a passionate goodbye, and Nick tells her to move on with her life without him.

Julia wakes up in the hospital where Proctor, who appears as a doctor, checks on her. Proctor then tells Nick and Roy that Eternal Affairs had their hearings without them. Nick is given a warning while Roy has fifty-three more years added to his service, much to his outrage until Proctor returns his cowboy hat. Roy gives Nick a new identity and Nick is excited until he sees that he now appears as a Girl Scout wearing an orthodontic headgear.