| Director | Scott Frank |
|---|---|
| Genre | crime thriller film, drama film, heist film |
| Runtime | 99 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $16 million |
| Box office | $5.4 million |
Driving at night with his lights off on a rural road to show off the dancing fireflies in the dark, high school hockey star Chris Pratt crashes into a combine. Two of his friends are killed, while he and his girlfriend Kelly survive. The crash leaves Chris with lasting mental impairments, including anterograde amnesia, disinhibition, and anger management issues, and ends his promising hockey career.
Four years later, Chris and Kelly, who lost her leg in the accident, no longer talk. Chris takes cognitive therapy classes at the life center to re-learn life skills, including the simple sequencing of daily tasks, such as showering, to compensate for his inability to remember. He writes down notes and reminders in a small notebook. He is emotionally supported by his roommate, a blind man named Lewis, and receives financial support from his wealthy family, from whom he is emotionally distant. He works nights as a janitor in a small-town bank, where his friend Ted, a sheriff's deputy, checks in on Chris every night. As he practices sequencing, Chris tries to convince the bank's manager, Mr. Tuttle, to allow him a teller job, to no avail.
Chris comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. Their leader Gary, who knew Chris from high school before his accident, befriends him and uses his accomplice, a woman with the stage name Luvlee Lemons, to seduce him. Gary manipulates Chris into going along with their scheme by using his insecurities and limitations since the accident, causing Chris to start lashing out at his friends, including Lewis. Lewis, who recognizes that Luvlee is manipulating Chris, confronts her, and she leaves Chris and the gang before the robbery.
On the night of the robbery, Mr. Tuttle acknowledges Chris' strengths and offers to discuss the teller job. Chris has a change of heart but the gang forces him to empty the vault at gunpoint. Ted stumbles upon the robbery; in the ensuing shootout, Ted kills two of the robbers, and fatally wounds Gary before one of the other members, Bone, shoots Ted dead. Escaping in the getaway car, Chris discovers the stolen money in the trunk and realizes that the gang was planning to kill and frame him for the whole thing.
Gary and Bone take Lewis hostage to get the money back. Using his sequencing skills, Chris hatches a plan to save his friend and take down the robbers. He sneaks into his parents' home to take one of their guns, hides it in one of the money bags, and buries the money at the road of his accident. The robbers force him to take them to the buried cash.
While Chris digs in the snow, Gary's wounded condition deteriorates. As Bone prepares to shoot Lewis, Chris shoots Bone dead with the shotgun he stashed in the money bag. Gary collapses and dies. Chris returns the money to the bank and turns himself in, but the FBI investigation concludes that he was not responsible due to his mental condition; because the robbers failed to disconnect the video surveillance, the FBI sees that Chris was forced to act at gunpoint.
Chris and Lewis open a small restaurant together with a loan from Mr. Tuttle. As Chris reflects on his accident, he reconciles with his father and hopes Kelly will forgive him and that one day he will find the courage to apologize to her.