Suicide Kings
Encyclopedia
Suicide Kings is a 1997 American neo-noir
/comedy-drama
film
, 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
.
) walking to his private table in a 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 Avery's father, 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 passes out.
When Charlie wakes up, he sees himself surrounded by the three men, 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 figure. The boys then explain that Avery's sister, Elise, has been kidnapped, and that the kidnappers (Frank Medrano and Brad Garrett
) are demanding $2 million ransom for her release. 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. Part of the incentive that Charlie help them immediately is that there is a small window of time available where a hospital could successfully sew the finger back on and the clock was running out.
Charlie flies into a rage, stating "I'm looking at dead men." However, he eventually agrees to help them. Part of the reason Charlie decides to help is that it becomes apparent towards the middle of the film that due to life long heavy drinking, Charlie has a major deficiency of Vitamin K, a major component needed for the body to form blood clots: Basically meaning that while a normal healthy person would have minimal bleeding after having his pinkie amputated (Especially considering that T.K. has medical training and bandaged up the wound correctly), Charlie, on the other hand, would continue to bleed to death without proper medical treatment. Charlie then contacts his lawyer, who in turn contacts Lono (Denis Leary
), Charlie's bodyguard, asking him to track Charlie down. Lono goes about his own investigation, asking for (and in some cases beating out) information from people, including the hostess, Jennifer (Nina Siemaszko
) who usually waits on Charlie, and a friend of Charlie's, Lydia (Laura San Giacomo
). During the course of these conversations, an added backstory is shown about both Lono and Charlie, including how Charlie got his signet ring.
Charlie, meanwhile, tries to take the boys' naïvete to his advantage. A fifth friend, Ira (Galecki) shows up — they are in his father's house, and Ira didn't know anything about what they had planned. 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. After much cajoling and piecing information together, Charlie learns that Avery was actually the one responsible for his sister's kidnapping. The boys had, the previous summer, 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 wagering on a basketball game, and had to come up with a way to pay off his $50,000 debt. The two mobsters approached him and told him they would kidnap his sister and take the "ransom" as payment for the debt.
Lono eventually makes his way to Ira's house and has Charlie removed from his restraints, around the same time that the money is sent to the two thugs. The next day, Charlie and Lono meet up with the two gangsters who had kidnapped Avery's sister, around the same time that Avery learns that his sister is not at the hospital where she is supposed to have been. Charlie and Lono figure out that Elise had come up with a plan to fake the kidnapping and ask for a $2 million ransom; the thugs would get $1,000,000 for playing along, while Max and Elise would walk away with the rest. Charlie and Lono track Max and Elise to a boat off a tropical island where, although Charlie understands their reasons for conning him, he has Lono kill them both and reclaim the money.
Josh McKenny, based his screen play on the short story written by Don Stanford in 1996 titled “The Hostage” as indicated in the movie's closing credits. The story and the movie have many similarities; however the new title and some of the adapted screenplay draw clear reference to a similar events that actually took place in affluent Westchester County in the early 1980s when a group of then 20 something’s home from various Ivy League schools over several summers ran a lucrative gambling and money laundering enterprise that grew to become the largest in the Eastern United States. The group with ties to affluent Scarsdale, Bedford, Rye, Bronxville in NY and Fairfield County CT referred to themselves in documents, evidence and later by both the local and national press as vita privare regisio or Latin for "Suicide Kings". The movie makes strong reference to individuals associated with that group and similar events that actually took place including the kidnapping of a high ranking member of organized crime. In both movie and the story the key masterminds of the plot walk away relatively unscathed because of their family ties to top ranking business, and government officials. The laundered funds believed to be in excess of 600 million (est.) were never recovered.
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
/comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, starring Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
, Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
, Sean Patrick Flanery
Sean Patrick Flanery
Sean Patrick Flanery is an American actor known for such roles as Connor MacManus in The Boondock Saints, Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone and for portraying Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as Bobby Dagen in Saw 3D.He is currently known for his role as Sam Gibson on The...
, Johnny Galecki
Johnny Galecki
John Mark "Johnny" Galecki is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as David Healy in the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and as Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.-Early life:Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, of...
, Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
, Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
, and Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas
Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in more than 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.-Early life:...
. It was based on Don Stanford's short story, The Hostage, and directed by Peter O'Fallon
Peter O'Fallon
Peter O'Fallon is an American director, producer and writer for commercial, television and film productions.O'Fallon grew up in Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Film Studies. He began his career in the industry by making small T.V. spots for local...
.
Plot Details
Moving in a non-linear fashion, the movie follows the exploits of a group of young 20-something rich kids who are plotting a kidnapping in order to save the sister of one of the friends. The movie opens with Charlie Barret (WalkenChristopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
) walking to his private table in a restaurant, only to see three young men sitting at his table - Avery (Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas
Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in more than 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.-Early life:...
), Max (Sean Patrick Flanery
Sean Patrick Flanery
Sean Patrick Flanery is an American actor known for such roles as Connor MacManus in The Boondock Saints, Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone and for portraying Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as Bobby Dagen in Saw 3D.He is currently known for his role as Sam Gibson on The...
) and Brett (Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
). Charlie happens to know Avery's father, 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
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
to knock him out. Naturally, things don't go as smoothly as they wanted, and Charlie tries fighting back - but eventually succumbs and passes out.
When Charlie wakes up, he sees himself surrounded by the three men, and a fourth friend, T.K. (Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
), dressed in a doctor's uniform, checking his vital signs. It's soon revealed that Charlie 'used' to be Carlo Bartolucci, a mob figure. The boys then explain that Avery's sister, Elise, has been kidnapped, and that the kidnappers (Frank Medrano and Brad Garrett
Brad Garrett
Bradley "Brad" Garrett is an American actor, voice actor, stand-up comedian, and professional poker player. Throughout he has appeared in numerous television and film roles....
) are demanding $2 million ransom for her release. 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. Part of the incentive that Charlie help them immediately is that there is a small window of time available where a hospital could successfully sew the finger back on and the clock was running out.
Charlie flies into a rage, stating "I'm looking at dead men." However, he eventually agrees to help them. Part of the reason Charlie decides to help is that it becomes apparent towards the middle of the film that due to life long heavy drinking, Charlie has a major deficiency of Vitamin K, a major component needed for the body to form blood clots: Basically meaning that while a normal healthy person would have minimal bleeding after having his pinkie amputated (Especially considering that T.K. has medical training and bandaged up the wound correctly), Charlie, on the other hand, would continue to bleed to death without proper medical treatment. Charlie then contacts his lawyer, who in turn contacts Lono (Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
), Charlie's bodyguard, asking him to track Charlie down. Lono goes about his own investigation, asking for (and in some cases beating out) information from people, including the hostess, Jennifer (Nina Siemaszko
Nina Siemaszko
Nina Siemaszko is an American film and television actress.-Biography:Siemaszko was born Antonina Jadwiga Siemaszko in Chicago, Illinois to a Polish American father, a fighter in the Polish Underground who survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and an English mother...
) who usually waits on Charlie, and a friend of Charlie's, Lydia (Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo is an American actress known for playing the role of Maya Gallo on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! and Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman, and Cynthia in sex, lies, and videotape as well as other work on television and in films...
). During the course of these conversations, an added backstory is shown about both Lono and Charlie, including how Charlie got his signet ring.
Charlie, meanwhile, tries to take the boys' naïvete to his advantage. A fifth friend, Ira (Galecki) shows up — they are in his father's house, and Ira didn't know anything about what they had planned. 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. After much cajoling and piecing information together, Charlie learns that Avery was actually the one responsible for his sister's kidnapping. The boys had, the previous summer, 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 wagering on a basketball game, and had to come up with a way to pay off his $50,000 debt. The two mobsters approached him and told him they would kidnap his sister and take the "ransom" as payment for the debt.
Lono eventually makes his way to Ira's house and has Charlie removed from his restraints, around the same time that the money is sent to the two thugs. The next day, Charlie and Lono meet up with the two gangsters who had kidnapped Avery's sister, around the same time that Avery learns that his sister is not at the hospital where she is supposed to have been. Charlie and Lono figure out that Elise had come up with a plan to fake the kidnapping and ask for a $2 million ransom; the thugs would get $1,000,000 for playing along, while Max and Elise would walk away with the rest. Charlie and Lono track Max and Elise to a boat off a tropical island where, although Charlie understands their reasons for conning him, he has Lono kill them both and reclaim the money.
Josh McKenny, based his screen play on the short story written by Don Stanford in 1996 titled “The Hostage” as indicated in the movie's closing credits. The story and the movie have many similarities; however the new title and some of the adapted screenplay draw clear reference to a similar events that actually took place in affluent Westchester County in the early 1980s when a group of then 20 something’s home from various Ivy League schools over several summers ran a lucrative gambling and money laundering enterprise that grew to become the largest in the Eastern United States. The group with ties to affluent Scarsdale, Bedford, Rye, Bronxville in NY and Fairfield County CT referred to themselves in documents, evidence and later by both the local and national press as vita privare regisio or Latin for "Suicide Kings". The movie makes strong reference to individuals associated with that group and similar events that actually took place including the kidnapping of a high ranking member of organized crime. In both movie and the story the key masterminds of the plot walk away relatively unscathed because of their family ties to top ranking business, and government officials. The laundered funds believed to be in excess of 600 million (est.) were never recovered.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Christopher Walken Christopher Walken Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New... |
Carlo Bartolucci/Charlie Barret |
| Denis Leary Denis Leary Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking... |
Lono Veccio |
| Henry Thomas Henry Thomas Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in more than 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.-Early life:... |
Avery Chasten |
| Sean Patrick Flanery Sean Patrick Flanery Sean Patrick Flanery is an American actor known for such roles as Connor MacManus in The Boondock Saints, Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone and for portraying Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as Bobby Dagen in Saw 3D.He is currently known for his role as Sam Gibson on The... |
Max Minot |
| Nathan Dana Aldrich | Marcus |
| Jay Mohr Jay Mohr Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was... |
Brett "Brad" Campbell |
| Jeremy Sisto Jeremy Sisto Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the... |
T.K. |
| Frank Medrano | Heckle |
| Brad Garrett Brad Garrett Bradley "Brad" Garrett is an American actor, voice actor, stand-up comedian, and professional poker player. Throughout he has appeared in numerous television and film roles.... |
Jeckyll |
| Johnny Galecki Johnny Galecki John Mark "Johnny" Galecki is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as David Healy in the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and as Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.-Early life:Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, of... |
Ira Reder |
| Laura San Giacomo Laura San Giacomo Laura San Giacomo is an American actress known for playing the role of Maya Gallo on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! and Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman, and Cynthia in sex, lies, and videotape as well as other work on television and in films... |
Lydia |
| Laura Harris Laura Harris Laura Elizabeth Harris is a Canadian actress.-Early life:Harris was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of school teachers. She began acting in radio dramas and animation series when she was five years old. As a child Harris was educated at Crofton House School and attended college... |
Elise Chasten |
| Nina Siemaszko Nina Siemaszko Nina Siemaszko is an American film and television actress.-Biography:Siemaszko was born Antonina Jadwiga Siemaszko in Chicago, Illinois to a Polish American father, a fighter in the Polish Underground who survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and an English mother... |
Jennifer |