A Simple Plan (1998)

When three blue collar acquaintances come across millions of dollars in lost cash they make a plan to keep their find from the authorities but find complications and mistrust weaving its way into their plan.

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writers:

Scott B. Smith (novel), Scott B. Smith (screenplay)

Stars:

Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Paxton	...	Hank
Bridget Fonda	...	Sarah
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Jacob
Brent Briscoe	...	Lou
Jack Walsh	...	Tom Butler
Chelcie Ross	...	Carl
Becky Ann Baker	...	Nancy Chambers
Gary Cole	...	Baxter
Bob Davis	...	FBI Agent Renkins
Peter Syvertsen	...	FBI Agent Freemont
Tom Carey	...	Dwight Stephanson
John Paxton	...	Mr. Schmitt
Marie Mathay	...	News Reporter
Paul Magers	...	Anchorman
Joan Steffand	...	Anchorwoman

Storyline

Three diverse characters, for the most part intellectually challenged, find a deserted plane with a bag full of millions of dollars inside. They devise a simple plan to keep the money if no-one claims it. Ofcourse, nothing turns out simple...

---

Plot Keywords:

plane wreck | screenplay adapted by author | found money | bag of money | neo noir | 

---

Taglines:

Sometimes good people do evil things.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

UK Germany France USA Japan

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 January 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Thousand Miles

Filming Locations:

Ashland, Wisconsin, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$390,563, 13 December 1998, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$16,311,763, 16 May 1999

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mutual Film Company, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sam Raimi learned some techniques about shooting in the heavy snow from the Coen brothers, friends of his who had been responsible for Fargo (1996), which Billy Bob Thornton appears in the TV spin-off of.

---

Goofs

In an early scene, Jacob's pickup is coming up the driveway, but the tire tracks at the top of the screen indicate it was parked there prior to it snowing.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Hank Mitchell: [narrating] When I was still just a kid, I remember my father telling me what he thought that it took for a man to be happy. Simple things, really. A wife he loves, a decent job, friends and neighbors who like and respect him. And for a while there, without hardly even realizing it, I had all that. I was a happy man.

---

Connections

References The Birds (1963)

---

Soundtracks

Deliver Me
Written by Christina Schlieske
Performed by Tina & the B-Sides
Courtesy of Sire Records Group
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Simply Terrific

Simply one of the best films of the year, perhaps the decade! A Simple Plan is about three men who find a huge amount of money in a plane wreck. They decide to keep the dough. It's like winning the lottery. It's the American Dream except that " you're supposed to work for the American Dream. But that just makes this better" replies one of the characters.

A Simple Plan stars Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton as two Minnesotan brothers Hank and Jacob who find the money with Jake's friend Lou played by Brent Briscoe.

The film is directed by Sam Raimi, the creator of the Evil Dead movies and there are some suitably macabre and funny Evil Dead touches to this masterpiece, although Raimi doesn't botch A Simple Plan up as he did with Sharon Stone's The Quick And The Dead a couple of years ago. This is a restrained, delicate Raimi.

A Simple Plan instead is on one plane a wry incisive comment on the human condition, but it's also a cautionary tale about the evil good men can do.

The characters are fascinating. Paxton as Hank is the brainy one of the three. He's been to college and has a wife (Bridget Fonda) who's just about to have a baby. Jacob is slow and sad with a big touch of goodness about him. His hair is lank, his teeth are dirty, he's in his thirties and has never had a girlfriend.

Jake gets drunk most days and nights with his boozing friend Lou, and both are unemployed. The prospect of a ton of money is as unsettling and exciting to this lot as it would be to any honest person who becomes suddenly very rich unexpectedly and illegally. This find is guaranteed to turn their lives up side down.

But things take increasingly violent turns until A Simple Plan has the air of a Shakespearian tragedy solidly biased by Hitchcockian twists. Add to this Raimi's weird sense of humour and a Coen Brothers, Fargo like frozen air and you have a superb film that will have you laughing uncomfortably as you ponder the extent to which men and women will go nuts and nasty when greed overcomes them.

Quite rightly both Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton are being touted for big acting awards as a result of their work in this marvellous film.