A Simple Plan is a 1998 crime thriller film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Scott B. Smith, based on Smith's 1993 novel. The neo-noir film stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. Set in rural Minnesota, the story follows brothers Hank (Paxton) and Jacob Mitchell (Thornton), who, along with Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), discover a crashed plane containing $4.4 million in cash. The three men and Hank's wife Sarah (Fonda) go to great lengths to keep the money a secret but begin to doubt each other's trust, resulting in lies, deceit, and murder.

Development of the film began in 1993 before the novel was published. Mike Nichols purchased the film rights, and the project was picked up by Savoy Pictures. After Nichols stepped down, the film adaptation became mired in development hell, with Ben Stiller and John Dahl turning down opportunities to direct it. After Savoy closed in November 1997, the project was sold to Paramount Pictures. John Boorman was hired to direct, but scheduling conflicts led to his replacement by Raimi. An international co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan, the film was financed by Mutual Film Company, its investors, and Newmarket Capital Group, which allocated a budget of $17 million. Principal photography began in January 1998 and concluded in March after 55 days of filming in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The score was produced and composed by Danny Elfman.

A Simple Plan premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was met with critical acclaim. The film's appearance at the festival preceded a limited release in the United States on December 11, 1998, followed by a general release in North America on January 22, 1999. It underperformed at the North American box office, grossing $16.3 million, but was critically acclaimed, with reviewers praising the film's production, including the storytelling, performances, and Raimi's direction. A Simple Plan earned multiple awards and nominations, among them two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Supporting Actor (Thornton) and one for Best Adapted Screenplay (Smith).

Plot Hank is an accountant at a feed mill in Wright County, Minnesota with a pregnant wife, Sarah. After visiting their parents graves on New Year's Eve, Hank, his simpleminded brother Jacob, and Jacob's friend Lou Chambers stumble upon a crashed airplane in the woods. Inside is a dead man and a bag containing $4.4 million in $100 bills. Lou and Jacob persuade Hank not to turn the money in, so he proposes keeping the money at his house until the snow melts and the plane is found. If the missing money goes unnoticed, they will split it between them and leave town. Seeing their truck on the side of the road, Sheriff Carl Jenkins stops by to help, and Jacob blurts out a mention of the plane. When Carl leaves, the three men make a pact to keep the secret, but Hank later tells Sarah.

Sarah suggests Hank replace $500,000 of the money to avoid suspicion when the plane is found, but says not to tell the others. Hank makes an excuse for Jacob to take him back to the crash site, and surreptitiously returns some cash while Jacob stays by his station wagon pretending to fix a flat tire. Farmer Dwight Stephanson happens by on a snowmobile. Thinking their cover is blown, Jacob bludgeons Dwight with a tire iron. Believing Dwight is dead, and wanting to protect his brother, Hank gets on the snowmobile to take it to a hiding place for the body, but Dwight comes to and tells Hank that Jacob attacked him. Hank suffocates him before staging an accident where it appears Dwight had driven his snowmobile off an embankment.

Having learned from Jacob about Dwight's murder, Lou drunkenly demands his portion of the money from Hank and insinuates that he might go to the authorities otherwise. Sarah later gives birth to her daughter Amanda.

Sarah learns that the money was a ransom for a kidnapped heiress, who was killed by her kidnappers in December. She convinces Hank to frame Lou for Dwight's murder by getting him drunk, tricking him into falsely confessing to the killing, and recording the confession. Though Jacob frightens Hank by seeming to go against him, the two acquire Lou's confession. When he realizes he has been duped, Lou pulls a gun on Hank and a shootout ensues, with Jacob shooting Lou dead. Lou's wife Nancy shoots at Hank, and he shoots back, killing her. Hank and Jacob call the police and say the deaths were a domestic quarrel turned murder-suicide. Jacob, deeply tormented by the things he and Hank have done, begins to have misgivings.

Carl calls in the brothers to answer questions from FBI Agent Neil Baxter, who is searching for the plane. Fed up with the pressure and his own guilt, Hank plans to return all the money to the plane, but is stopped after Sarah confronts him about their lack of prospects and meager lifestyle. As Hank meets Carl and Baxter to begin the search, Sarah discovers Baxter is actually one of the kidnappers posing as an FBI agent to find the money, and alerts Hank, who steals a revolver from Carl's office. The four men split up in the woods to search for the plane. When Carl finds it, Hank tries to warn him about Baxter, but Baxter kills Carl before he can react. Baxter demands Hank retrieve the money from the plane, presuming he is unarmed; Hank shoots a distracted Baxter dead after retrieving the $500,000 from the plane.

Hank starts to concoct another story to tell the authorities, but Jacob balks, saying he cannot live with all that they have done. He proposes that Hank kill him and frame Baxter for his death. When Hank refuses, Jacob puts a pistol to his own head. Realizing he cannot avoid it, Hank kills Jacob with Baxter's gun.

Hank is cleared of wrongdoing by real FBI agents, who reveal that they had recorded the serial numbers of some of the ransom bills, which, if spent, will lead them to the culprit eventually. He returns home and burns the money as Sarah protests and begs him not to.

Cast Bill Paxton as Hank Mitchell Billy Bob Thornton as Jacob Mitchell Bridget Fonda as Sarah Mitchell Brent Briscoe as Lou Chambers Gary Cole as Vernon Bokovsky / FBI Agent Neil Baxter Jack Walsh as Tom Butler Chelcie Ross as Sheriff Carl Jenkins Becky Ann Baker as Nancy Chambers Tom Carey as Dwight Stephanson

Production Development

After Scott B. Smith had published a short story for The New Yorker, the magazine's fiction editor learned of his then-unpublished novel A Simple Plan before reading it and forwarding it to an agent. Shortly thereafter, Smith learned that Mike Nichols was interested in purchasing the film rights. Nichols spent a weekend reading the book, before contacting Smith's agent and finalizing a deal the following Monday morning. Nichols purchased the rights for his production company Icarus Productions for $250,000, with an additional $750,000 to come later from a studio interested in pursuing the project. Smith's manuscript of A Simple Plan was optioned for development at an independent film studio, Savoy Pictures. Nichols later stepped down from the project, due to scheduling conflicts with a planned film adaptation of All the Pretty Horses.

After learning of A Simple Plan from Nichols, Ben Stiller joined the project and signed a two-picture directing deal with Savoy. He spent nine months working on the script with Smith. During preproduction, Stiller had a falling out with Savoy over budget disputes. Unable to secure financing from another studio, Stiller left the film.

In January 1995, John Dahl was announced as director, with Nicolas Cage set to appear in a starring role, and filming likely to start during the following summer in the southern hemisphere or in Canada during the following winter. In November 1995, following a series of box office failures, Savoy announced that it was retreating from the film industry. The studio was later acquired by Silver King Broadcasting/Home Shopping Network, whose chairman, Barry Diller, put A Simple Plan up for sale. This resulted in both Dahl and Cage leaving the production.

The project was purchased by Paramount Pictures, where producer Scott Rudin hired John Boorman to direct the film. Boorman cast Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton in the respective leading roles of Hank and Jacob Mitchell. The film marked Paxton and Thornton's second on-screen collaboration after One False Move (1992). Paxton learned of the novel A Simple Plan from his father five years before securing the role of Hank. He stated, "...for five years, there was a whole list of actors and directors who kind of marched through it. Billy Bob and I were set to do these roles in 1997, and then it fell apart. That was the cruelest twist for an actor, to get a part you dreamed you'd get and then they decide to scrap the whole thing."

Boorman took part in location scouting, and filming was set to begin during the first week of January 1998. When a second investor left the project, Paramount refused to fully finance the $17 million production itself. Although Boorman was able to secure financing, the studio feared that filming would not be finished before the end of winter. Boorman ran into scheduling conflicts, and left the film. Paramount then hired Sam Raimi, who saw the film as an opportunity to direct a character-driven story that differed from his earlier works, which were highly stylized or dependent on intricate camera movements. Raimi did not have time to scout locations due to studio constraints. He relied on the previous areas visited during Boorman's involvement. Rudin considered casting Anne Heche as Hank's wife Sarah Mitchell. In December 1997, it was announced that Bridget Fonda had secured the role. The film marked her second collaboration with Raimi after Army of Darkness (1992).

The film was co-financed by Mutual Film Company and Newmarket Capital Group as part of a joint venture that was formed by the two studios. Mutual's international partners—the United Kingdom's BBC, Germany's Tele-München, Japan's Toho-Towa/Marubeni and France's UGC-PH—also financed the production in exchange for distribution rights in their respective territories and equity stakes on the film on a worldwide basis. Paramount acquired the North American distribution rights.

Writing

The original script that Smith had written for Nichols was 256 pages long, the equivalent of a four-and-a-half hour film. Smith kept Nichols's suggestion of having the story take place in Minnesota, rather than in Ohio, where the book is set. The Minnesota Film Board joined the project and remained involved throughout principal photography. After the novel was published, Nichols left the project during the script's early draft stages. When Stiller became involved, he and Smith spent nine months rewriting the screenplay.

For the adaptation, certain visual changes were made from the 335-page novel. Smith explained that one change involved the discovery of the crashed plane. His script had Lou Chambers "throwing [a] snowball to uncover the plane ... In the book, they're just walking and they find it." Rudin wanted to change the focus of the story to Hank and Jacob, and ordered Smith to shorten the screenplay to 120 pages. Smith explained, "I had to work to make Hank a more rational character, less evil." The shortening of the script also resulted in the character of Sarah having a smaller role, and Jacob's involvement being much larger than in the book. After Billy Bob Thornton was cast as Jacob, Smith omitted the character's overweight appearance from the novel. Smith described the film adaptation as being less violent than the book, explaining that it was Raimi's decision "to be more restrained [and] bring out the characters."

Filming Principal photography