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This context comes from the TV "Twin Peaks". It's a scene in which FBI Agent Cooper briefs one of the local officers about the procedures they are going to carry out that day. They are investigating a murder of a local girl named Laura Palmer.

"Let's also run a top-to-bottom on Bobby's vehicle, see what that brings us. Also, check on the autopsy on Laura Palmer and see what that brings in."

I can't find an appropriate definition for "bring in" for this context. The closest I can think of is:

bring someone in (on something) to include someone in some deed or activity. I'm going to have to bring a specialist in on this. Please bring in several specialists to advise on this case. Let's bring an expert in before we go any further.

But this one is only used for including people in situations that you can't seem to be able to handle yourself. Perhaps it's not a phrasal verb at all? Cooper uses bring in the sentence before but in this case, I assume it simply means "produce".

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  • "brings in" is synonymous with "yields" or "gets us" for clues. It is colloquial. Compare setting a gill net for fish. You take the action (set the net) then later examine the results. It may bring fish in, maybe not.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 2 at 23:12
  • Your thought that it means "produces" is on track. But there's an element of waiting for the results which must be retrieved.
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 2 at 23:20
  • Look it up. Bring in has various senses around attracting something, earning something, moving or guiding something. Here it pretty much means get or gather in.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Sep 3 at 10:47
  • @StuartF This is my go-to dictionary. I always refer to it first. The definition I provided in my OP comes from that page. This page or other dictionaries I checked don't contain the sense of "get" or "gather in".
    – Static Bounce
    Commented Sep 3 at 13:31

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You're correct that it means something like produces. Includes is another good word.

If you bring in an expert, you include the expert (and his opinions, etc). If you bring in an autopsy report, you include the report as part of your investigation.

So when you see what it will bring in, you are saying you will see what happens when you include the autopsy report.

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