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A Simple Plan (1998)

Starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, and Brent Briscoe.  Cinematography by Alar Kivilo.  Edited by Eric L. Beason and Arthur Coburn. Produced by James Jacks and Adam Schroeder.  Written by Scott B. Smith. Directed by Sam Raimi.

Hank Mitchell (played by Bill Paxton) lives simple life in a small northern Ohio city. He seems happy with his modest job as a grain store manager and with his marriage to Sarah (played by Bridget Fonda), who is expecting their first child.  One day, while deep in the snowy woods surrounding the town, Hank, his brother Jacob (played by Billy Bob Thornton), and their friend Lou (played by Brent Briscoe) happen upon a downed aircraft. 

Inside the small plane is a dead pilot and four point four million dollars in cash.  The trio decides to take the money and stash it until an adequate amount of time has passed to where they can be sure no one is looking for it. But things quickly begin to spin out of control. The men become more and more obsessed with the unclaimed money which leads them to paranoia, desperation, and eventually murder.

A Simple Plan, the debut novel of writer Scott B. Smith, was first published in 1993 by St. Martins Press.  It was released to an impressive amount of critical acclaim and spent seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.  With hype on the book continuing to build, it wasn’t long before Smith was hard at work writing on his own cinematic adaptation. 

But it would be an arduous and lengthy road that would lead A Simple Plan to the silver screen. The first filmmaker to take a stab at it was legendary director Mike Nichols, who bought the rights to the book but would eventually bow out of the project. Next up was comedian Ben Stiller who intended to cast Nicholas Cage in the lead role, but when Cage dropped out due to budgetary constraints, so did Stiller.

Next was John Dahl, who was only attached to the project for a short time before veteran John Boorman took over. Boorman hired the cast and scouted the locations, but the film would finally end up in the hands of the least likely director of the bunch; Sam Raimi.  Raimi, who had spent the last three years working in television in effort to spend more time with his young family, had explored a number of films during his hiatus, but nothing yet had panned out. When A Simple Plan finally fell into his hands, he enthusiastically took the job.

A Simple Plan would act as a landmark in the maturation of Raimi’s filmmaking talents.  Instead of filling the picture with the flashy camera tricks and creative effects that he had become so well known for, he decided to take a backseat and simply capture his characters as they told their story. By choosing stylistic anonymity, Raimi gives the audience a passive view of the characters struggles which contributes to its grimly dark tone.

His evolution as a filmmaker did not go unnoticed and A Simple Plan went on to compete for many high profile awards, including Golden Globes and Oscars.  It would also do reasonably well in the box office, considering its low budget and adult demographic.  This was the beginning of a new and improved Sam Raimi; one who could still keep an audience on the edge of their seats, but was smart enough to know when to let the actors take control of the screen.

Budget: $17,000,000

Total US Gross: $16,316,273

Genre: Thriller

Runtime: 121 Minutes

US Release Date: 12/11/98

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Awards:

Academy Awards:
Nominated for best supporting actor and best screenplay based on previous material. 

Golden Globes:
Nominated for best supporting actor.

Writers Guild of America:
Nominated for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published.

Tagline: Sometimes Good People Do Evil Things.

Quote: “Nobody would ever believe that you'd be capable of doing what you've done.”

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