A Simple Plan
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A Simple Plan is a novel by American novelist Scott Smith. It was published in 1993. A movie based on the novel was made in 1998 and directed by Sam Raimi.
A Simple Plan is predominantly a moral tale which deals with issues of greed, the American dream and the nature of good and evil. The main characters are depicted as everyday people who have "normal" values and ambitions, and thus their actions are intended somewhat as a cautionary tale. The value of human life quickly becomes the highest priority perverted by the pursuit of easy wealth, after which all else follows in attempts to hide wrong-doing.
[edit] Synopsis
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The novel's main character is Hank Mitchell, a middle-class family-man-to-be who works as an accountant. One day Hank goes to visit his father's grave, accompanied by: Jacob Mitchell, Hank's shy and slow-witted elder brother; Lou, Jacob's drinking-buddy. Despite having less-than-fond memories (and therefore little respect) for their father, Jacob supplies his poorly-maintained and uncomfortable pickup truck for said excursion. En route, Jacob is cut off by a fox and veers his truck into a ditch, wrecking the shoddy vehicle. All three men pursue the fox into the woods so Jacob can kill it. They lose the fox and instead find a crashed plane whose pilot has been killed. Inside the plane is a gym bag with $4,400,000 in one-hundred-dollar notes.
Hank wants to turn the money over to the authorities. But Jacob and Lou, both mired in poverty and unemployment, want to keep it. They compromise: Hank will hold onto this money and NOT SPEND ANY OF IT until spring thaw, when the plane is discovered. Then, if there is any mention of the missing cash, they will burn it. If there is no mention of the money, however, they will split it three ways.
The threesome bring the cash back to Jacob's truck. Suddenly, local Sheriff Carl Jenkins pulls up to see if they need help with the truck. Hank tells Sheriff Jenkins that they were just on their way back from the cemetery and swerved to avoid hitting a fox. Jacob cuts in and tells the Sheriff that they heard a plane with engine trouble. After Jenkins drives off, an infuriated Hank scolds Jacob over the comment, feeling it was better to leave everything unsaid. Jacob explains that the more honest they are about things, the less Carl (or anybody else) will suspect them.
Hank goes home and tells his pregnant wife, Sarah, about the plan. She is initially reluctant, but quickly warms to the idea; at least she and Hank won't have to worry about how they'll pay their bills, or what kind of upbringing they can afford for the daughter they're expecting.
Gradually, however, the plan becomes increasingly complicated. The following day, acting on a brainstorm from Sarah, Hank and Jacob return to the plane. They plant several thousand dollars in the cockpit...reckoning that, when the plane is found, nobody will ask if there was more. Jacob is guarding the truck when Mr. Pederson, the local barber, pulls up on a snowmobile. Pederson is after a fox that's been stealing his chickens. He notices some tracks in the snow and proceeds to follow them, believing they're the fox's. (They were actually made by Hank.) Jacob knows that if Pederson keeps following the tracks, they will lead him to the plane. Accordingly, he hits and--he thinks--kills the barber (actually, Pederson is only incapacitated), as a shocked Hank looks on from the woods.
To cover for his brother, Hank drags Pederson and his snowmobile to a nearby creek...intending to stage things so that everybody will think Pederson had an accident while chasing the fox. On the way, however, Pederson regains consciousness. Hank is caught between a rock and a hard place: if he helps Pederson, Jacob will go to prison--likely taking Hank and Lou with him. So Hank finishes what Jacob started (and what both brothers thought had already been done): he suffocates Pederson himself. There is no mention of foul play in the news reports.
Through Jacob, Lou discovers that Hank murdered Pederson. Having already racked up a sizable gambling debt (because he anticipated becoming a millionaire in the near future), Lou uses this information to try and blackmail Hank for a third of the money now. Hank explains that the money is in storage, a day's drive from their location, a lie. They are terrified at the prospect of Lou turning Hank in, not just soon, but in years. Soon after Lou reveals his blackmail threat, Sarah gives birth to their daughter, who they name Amanda.
At Sarah's urging (again), Hank and Jacob set out to counter-blackmail Lou. All three men go out for a night of drinking. Later, back at Lou's house, the Mitchell brothers con Lou into saying he killed Pederson; while he's roleplaying, Hank is taping. Then Hank reveals the tape to Lou, who grabs his gun as the Mitchell brothers start to leave. Jacob grabs another rifle from his truck and, thinking Lou is about to shoot Hank, shoots and kills Lou first. Lou's girlfriend Nancy hears the shot, finds Lou dead, grabs his gun and tries to kill both brothers. But Hank uses Lou's shotgun to kill her first.
Hank phones Sarah, intending to turn in Jacob and himself immediately thereafter. But Sarah has a better idea: stage the situation to look like a domestic dispute. Yet the success of this plan requires it to appear that Nancy was having an affair with Sonny, her and Lou's neighbor. So Hank goes next door and calls Sonny over to Lou's house. When Sonny arrives, Hank pulls the shotgun on him, orders Sonny to strip naked, and then executes him. Then Jacob makes it clear that he's uncomfortable with the set-up; Hank can't risk his brother confessing to the police, so he shoots Jacob as well. Jacob survives long enough to go into surgey, sending Hank into a panic, but he then dies. The police believe exactly what Hank hoped they would.
Later, Hank decides to buy Sarah two lavish birthday gifts. He buys her a piano on sale, but also spends nearly their entire savings on a Florida condo at an auction, assuming that the fortune will easily cover the expense. Unfortunately, the auction turns out to be a scam, and Hank loses the vast majority of their savings, leaving them with less than $2,000. With his savings gone due to his carelessness, the same sort that he killed others over, he and Sarah need the money more than ever.
Soon afterward, Carl informs Hank that the FBI is looking for a lost plane with $4.4 million on board. Carl introduces Hank to FBI Agent Baxter, who asks Hank where he and Jacob heard the plane go down. Sarah is uncomfortable with all of this and double-checks Agent Baxter's identity; it turns out the real Agent Baxter is on field duty elsewhere. It doesn't help any that the $4.4 million was ransom money demanded for the release of kidnapped teenager and toiletry-heiress Alice McMartin...whose magnate-father paid up, in vain, after finding his entire household staff massacred by the kidnapper. Actually, Alice's kidnapper murdered her without even waiting for a response to his demands. Worst of all, Agent Baxter's picture looks like that of a man identified as Alice's murderer. Hank realizes that the money he, Jacob and Lou took from the plane was that kidnapper's ransom. He tells Carl that his and Sarah's baby's is sick, that he has to go home--leaving Carl to guide "Agent Baxter" to the plane himself.
Later the same day, Hank is called in for questioning by the police. He learns that Baxter killed Carl, and was killed himself while resisting arrest. Hank also learns that the money which Baxter was looking for (and which Hank, Jacob and Lou found) is marked: every tenth bill had its serial number recorded. It's just a matter of time before the numbers start popping up in banks; when they do, the bills will be traced.
Realizing the money is worthless, Hank calls Sarah...who informs him that she has already spent one of the $100 bills. Hank frantically inquires about where she used the money--a convenience store near an airport--and goes there to steal back the bill. He pulls a machete on the burly cashier and demands the $100 bill. Instead, the cashier demands Hank leave. When Hank refuses, the cashier locks the two of them inside and attacks Hank, gleeful at the thought of crippling this robber. Hank must then kill the cashier simply to save his own life. As he cleans up the body, an elderly woman stops by the store, demanding to be let in to buy a bottle of wine as a gift. Hank tries to shoo her off, but she will not relent, and he decides to murder her. As Hank prepares to kill her with the machete, he rambles on about his crimes to her, who doesn't understand. She calmly pleads for her life before he murders her. Hank escapes with the $100 bill, and the police never suspect him.
Hank then goes home and burns the money over Sarah's protests. A few years later, Hank and Sarah have another child, a boy, who they name Jacob. A few weeks later, Amanda nearly drowns in a wading pool, suffering permanent brain damage. Their savings spent, the town donates money to them to help cover the costs of her treatment, with the widows of Pededrsen and Carl contributing. Nonetheless, Amanda is now disabled, unable to go anywhere without a teddy bear that her uncle had given her as a present. Hank and Sarah both feel as if this is punishment for their crimes. They are far worse off than they were before; Hank has become destitute, like his father, they will never be able to afford the things they want, and the guilt over their actions haunts them relentlessly througout their every moment.
The novel ends as Hank laments his weakness, wondering how normal people such as himself could succumb to such great evil.
