Suicide Kings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Suicide Kings
Directed by Peter O'Fallon
Written by Don Stanford
(Short Story)
Josh McKinney
(screenplay)
Starring Christopher Walken
Denis Leary
Henry Thomas
Sean Patrick Flanery
Jay Mohr
Distributed by Live Film
Artisan Entertainment (DVD)
Release date(s) September 6, 1997(Toronto Film Festival)
April 17, 1998 (USA)
Running time 106 min
Language English
IMDb profile

Suicide Kings is a 1997 American movie, starring Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Johnny Galecki, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, and Henry Thomas. It was based on Don Stanford's short story, The Hostage, and directed by Peter O'Fallon.

Contents

[edit] Plot Details

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Moving in a non-linear fashion somewhat reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, the movie follows the exploits of a group of young 20-something rich kids, in New York City, who are plotting a kidnapping of a former mob boss in order to save the sister of one of the friends. The movie opens with Charlie Barret (Walken) walking to his private table in an upscale night club kind of restaurant, only to see three young men sitting at his table - Avery (Henry Thomas), Max (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Brett (Jay Mohr). Charlie happens to know who Avery's father is, who is a very successful business man, and after an initial reluctance, is willing to go with the boys for a 'night on the town'.

As the scene progresses, it shifts back and forth to the planning of what they're going to do to Charlie - they plan to kidnap him by strapping him to his seat and use some chloroform to knock him out. Naturally, things don't go as smoothly as they wanted, and Charlie tries fighting back - but eventually succumbs and is knocked out.

When Charlie wakes up, he sees himself surrounded by the three and a fourth friend T.K. (Jeremy Sisto), dressed in a doctor's uniform, checking his vital signs. It's soon revealed that Charlie 'used' to be Carlo Bartolucci, a mob boss, who has since left the crooked life and has been going the straight arrow. The boys then explain that Avery's sister has been kidnapped, and that the ransomers (Frank Medrano and Brad Garrett) are demanding $2 million for her release. Avery's father has the money in terms of assets and such, but not in cash. They figure that Charlie still has connections to get that kind of money to the gangsters, and they want his cooperation. To ensure that Charlie knows how serious they are, Charlie is shown his pinkie finger, complete with a signet ring, cut off and floating in a bowl of ice - since the same was allegedly done to Avery's sister.

Charlie, though tied down, flies into a rage, stating "I'm looking at dead men." However, he eventually agrees to help them, because their intentions are good. He contacts his lawyer, who in turn contacts Lono (Denis Leary), Charlie's bodyguard, asking him to track Charlie down and to find out what's really going on. Lono goes about his own investigation, asking for (and in some cases beating out) information from people. He goes to the waitress, Jennifer (Nina Siemaszko) who worked that night when Charlie was kidnapped, and a friend of Charlie's, Lydia (Laura San Giacomo) (during the course of these conversations, an added back-story is shown about both Lono and Charlie, including how Charlie got his signet ring). He finds out information about the boys, their where-abouts, and even about the ransomers.

Charlie, meanwhile, uses his wise guy experiences to his advantage. A fifth friend, Ira (Johnny Galecki) shows up - it's Ira's house that they're in, and apparently Ira didn't know a thing about what they had planned, expecting only a night of poker, beer and porn. Charlie starts playing the boys off of each other, slowly getting information out of them, including how they got into this mess in the first place. Lono informs Charlie that the kidnapping is actually an "inside job", and Charlie begins to suspect one of the boys. After much cajoling and piecing information together, its revealed that Avery was actually the one responsible for getting his own sister into trouble. The boys had, spent a wild weekend in Atlantic City, where they dropped tens of thousands of dollars on various bets. Avery had gotten in over his head, and had to come up with a way to pay off his $50,000 debt. The two debt collectors approached him and told him they would 'kidnap' his sister, so that they can get the ransom money from his father, and no one would get hurt. Avery agrees, but then the ransomers get greedy, and instead of the $50,000 that was owed them, they want $2 million dollars instead. Included in this is Max, who Avery went to for help, because Max and Elise (Avery's sister) were dating, until Avery's father forbid it.

Lono eventually makes his way to Ira's house, which is revealed to be in Long Island somewhere, and has Charlie removed from his restraints, around the same time that the money is sent to the two debt collectors. Despite what has happened, Charlie still wants to help the boys out though, maybe because he sees them as good kids who have gone in over their heads in desperation. Charlie goes off in his limo, and the boys each go their separate ways, except for Ira, who’s already at his own house. Avery thinks that his sister is in Lennox Hill Hospital, in New York City, where the ransomers said that they will drop her off at, but when he arrives, she is not there. Charlie and Lono find out who the ransomers are, and they go to their apartment. When they see that the money came from Charlie, they tell them that they didn't know it was his money, if they had known, they would have never taken it. Charlie asks them where the girl is, and they tell them that there is no girl, that it was all a host, just to get money from the father. Then Charlie and Lono hear a noise from behind a close door, and thinking that the two small-timers had lied to them, Lono kills them. Lono opens the door, expecting to find Elise, but instead it was the two thugs' cat. That's when Charlie realizes that they weren't lying after all.

The scene then shifts to a boat in the ocean, where Max climbs up to the deck after swimming - and sees Charlie's signet ring. Charlie and Lono figured out what had REALLY happened—Avery did, indeed, owe the two thugs $50,000, and they had suggested the scheme to Avery, but Max and Elise wanted to run away with each other also. So Elise came up with a plan - they would fake the kidnapping, ask for $2 million, and the thugs would get $1 million for playing along, while Max and Elise would walk away with the other million, using not only their friends, but Elise's brother also, as pawns. Although Charlie understands why they did what they did, he needs to set an example—and has Lono kill both Max and Elise, walking off with the rest of his money.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • This was Peter O'Fallon's feature film debut after being known primarily as a television director (he directed several episodes of Northern Exposure).
  • 8 Actors in this movie are also in Stephen King films/tv series.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • The film also features two alternate endings, both of them 'lighter' in content to the movie ending. In one of them, Charlie allows Max and Elise to live happily ever after with their $1 million. In the other, Charlie allows them to live, but takes his money and Lono shoots holes in the boat, causing it to slowly sink. However, the endings didn't 'test' as well as the movie ending, and it was also felt that Max and Elise needed to pay for the grief they put everyone through.


Spoilers end here.


In the Scene when the bartender is kicking out Avery and Max. Max (Sean Patrick Flanery) accidentally says "we're just waiting for Jay to get back from the bathroom" instead of Jay Mohr's Characters name Brett.

[edit] Tagline

  • Their plan was perfect... They weren't.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/u/i/Suicide_Kings_c4be.html"
In other languages