Nick Walker

"That's sick."

- Nick

Nick Walker is the main human protagonist in the 2013 movie, R.I.P.D.

He is portrayed by Ryan Reynolds.

Plot
Boston Police Department Detectives Nick Walker and Bobby Hayes stole a chest full of gold found during a drug bust, and Nick buries his share of the gold in his backyard, intending to use it to create a better life for himself and his wife, Julia. However, he regrets his decision and informs Hayes he intends to return the gold. Later, during a raid on a warehouse, Nick and Hayes get into a shootout with criminals and Hayes kills Nick to prevent him from returning the gold, framing one of the criminals for the murder.

While ascending through a tunnel in the sky to the afterlife, Nick is pulled into the office of Mildred Proctor, Head of the Boston Police Department of the Rest In Peace Department (R.I.P.D.), an agency that recruits deceased police officers to patrol the afterlife and capture "Deados", spirits that failed to cross over and return to Earth as monstrous ghosts who are capable of great destruction. Nick agrees to join the R.I.P.D. after Proctor explains that it would stave off a potentially negative final judgment for at least a century, and meets his new partner, Roy Pulsipher, a crusty ex-U.S. Marshal who lived in the 1800s.

Nick and Roy return to Earth to attend Nick's funeral, where Nick learns R.I.P.D. officers are assigned avatars, which is how humans perceive them. Nick's is an elderly Chinese man, Jerry Chen, and Roy's is an attractive Russian woman, Opal Pavlenko. After failing to communicate with Julia, Nick accompanies Roy to the apartment of a suspect, Stanley Nawlicki, who resorts to his monstrous form via cumin powder and tries to escape, resulting in Roy pushing Nick out a 20-story building, and is eventually killed by Roy with a soul-killer bullet, that erases him from the cosmos. Pieces of gold identical to the ones Nick stole are found in Nawlicki's possessions and logged into evidence.

Nick and Roy then meet with Elliot, Roy's informant and a Red Sox fan, who is set up to make an exchange with someone, revealed to be Hayes. Nick and Roy follow him to Nick's house, where Hayes retrieves Nick's share of the gold, leading Julia to believe Nick was corrupt. After a brief confrontation between Roy and Nick over the stolen gold, the duo tails Hayes to a public bus depot, where he gives the gold to a large ginder-sideburned Deado named Pulaski. The duo corner Pulaski and try intimidating him by threatening to expose his true form, of which he readily does, escapes and causes enough destruction due to Nick and Roy's intervention that it makes national news. Proctor, infuriated, takes them off the case, but they decide to continue the investigation on their own (despite being on suspicion and soon-to-be erased the next day by The Eternals) 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 and Roy visit Hayes, who quickly finds out who they are and reveals himself to be a Deado, having cut a deal in the afterlife to remain alive after a shootout, and using a spirit trinket that disguises his form. He is arrested and brought to the R.I.P.D. headquarters, where he and other Deados manage to escape using a device Hayes had with him that freezes all the R.I.P.D. officers but not the Deados, and after stealing the components of the Staff of Jericho they return to Earth. Roy and Nick get free of 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, who resorts to his monstrous form, kidnaps Julia to use her as a 'human sacrifice' to open the portal. Nick and Roy arrive and after killing the Deados, including Pulaski, Nick goes to save Julia while Roy destroys the Staff of Jericho and saves the city. Although Nick manages to kill Hayes, Julia succumbs to her wounds and she and Nick share a tearful goodbye.

Julia is revived in the hospital and begins recovery, granted a second chance by Proctor as a favor to Nick. She also reinstates Nick (who was let off with a warning) and Roy (who was got 53 more years added to his already extended tour) into the agency. Knowing that Nick is unhappy with his avatar, Roy pulls some strings to give him a new avatar, which is soon revealed to be a 10-year-old girl scout, much to Nick's disappointment. Nick and Roy then get into their car and drive away.