A Simple Plan (1998)

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writers (WGA):

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

Release Date:

11 December 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes good people do evil things.

Plot:

Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking for the money. To keep it, all they have to do is wait. IT ALL SOUNDED SO SIMPLE...

Plot Keywords:

Rural | Neo Noir | Murder | Fratricide | Pregnancy

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 14 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. May 21

2:00 AM

TBS

Cast

Bill Paxton	...	Hank Mitchell
Bridget Fonda	...	Sarah Mitchell
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Jacob Mitchell
Brent Briscoe	...	Lou Chambers
Jack Walsh	...	Tom Butler
Chelcie Ross	...	Sheriff Carl Jenkins
Becky Ann Baker	...	Nancy Chambers
Gary Cole	...	Neil 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

Also Known As:

A Thousand Miles (USA) (working title)
Einfacher Plan, Ein (Germany)
Un plan simple (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

France | UK | Germany | USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Iceland:16 | Peru:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KNT | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #36288)

Filming Locations:

Ashland, Wisconsin, USA

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

A scene with Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton was lost by Northwest Airlines in January 1998 while in transit from Minnesota to Los Angeles. The missing scene had been shot in Minnesota. The film was insured, and the missing scene was re-shot.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hank and Jacob are sitting in the car, the window is up, but when Jacob gets out, the window is down

Quotes:

Neil Baxter: But you're not the cold-blooded type, are you Mr. Mitchell?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

So Sleepless You

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.