|
Cold Hard Cash
|
|
Synopsis:
Action Romance
Elle, a dangerously beautiful and single-mindedly ambitious young LA fashion industry go-fer, craves big money to go into business for herself so she’s married Vladimir, a rising member of the West Hollywood Russian Mafia who needs an American wife to avoid residency problems. It’s all strictly business until Vladimir falls in love with her.
Hoping to win Elle’s love by bankrolling her sooner, Vladimir steals a briefcase of smuggled cash from his boss, ex-KGB officer Igor Kreulevich, a drug-trade financier. Before Vladimir can present Elle with this gift of love, Igor sends his vicious lieutenants Ivan, Mischa, and Arkady to recover the money.
Elle stumbles in on the trio as they’re trying to torture information out of Vladimir. Now Elle’s in way over her head. She knows nothing about what Vladimir’s done but sees her husband killed in front of her and narrowly escapes with her own life. The mobsters on her tail believing she’s their only link to Igor’s stolen money.
Elle hops in her car and manages to stay one breath ahead of the pursuing Russians as they race past LA’s suburbs and into hilly ranch country. Trying to give the Mafiosi the slip on a country road, Elle ducks behind some roadside rocks as the Russians barrel past. Heading back the way she came, Elle hits a pothole and takes out a front wheel. She pops her trunk looking for the spare and finds the briefcase full of stolen money right where Vladimir stashed it!
Sam Estes is a cynical rancher who’s spent the last 25 years trying to forget his three years of hell in Vietnam. He lives like a hermit since his wife left him and now he’s on his way into town to try to keep the bank from foreclosing on his broken-down ranch. The only things that keep Sam from putting a bullet in his head are force of habit and a stubborn sense of responsibility for his dog, Mekong.
Still, Sam can’t resist stopping to help the knockout clutching a briefcase next to her crippled car at the side of the road. There’s an instant crackle of electricity between these two mismatched misfits. With the Russians nearby, Elle accepts Sam’s offer of a tow into the tiny town of Arroyo Grande. To her, Sam’s another man she can use, even if she is drawn to his simple cowboy charm. To Sam, hardboiled Elle’s a dash of spice in his dead end life.
After the bank’s turned him down, Sam finds Elle stranded in Arroyo Grande’s only café, her car sidelined waiting for parts. Fighting the chemistry between them for all they’re worth, Sam and Elle spar, probing for each other’s secrets, their fierce independence pulling them apart and a force bigger than both of them driving them together. Catching a glimpse of the Russians driving by, Elle surprises Sam by accepting his offer of a place to stay the night and a lift to LA in the morning.
The Russians spot Elle’s car and call Igor who orders them to find out where she is, hold her there, and wait for him to get there.
Sam’s ranch is a hardscrabble wreck straight out of the old west with a couple of horses and too few cows to scratch out a living. The house is not much more than a shack; the phone and power have long since been shut off. Sam and Elle, each desperate in a different way and tossed together by fate, settle in for the night. Sam knows Elle is okay because Mekong accepts her, even showing off his one and only trick of playing dead. Elle hides the briefcase of money under Mekong’s dog bed. She sees Sam as her best chance to get away from the Russians alive. A bond is tightening between them but they both feel now’s no time to do something stupid like falling in love.
Arkady, Ivan, and Mischa spend the night in their car at the ranch gate.
Like fish out of water in this western wilderness, by morning the Russians are frustrated waiting for Igor. Guns blazing, they storm the ranch to snatch Elle and kill anybody else they find.
But they aren’t prepared for how easily Sam slips back into the role of a trained soldier, holding them off, then driving them back to their car for more weapons. Now Sam and Elle are stuck - the Russians block the way to Sam’s truck. The only way out is to jump on one of the horses and head for the hills in a hail of Russian fire as Mekong helps distract the mobsters. As ride they off, Sam takes a bullet in the shoulder.
With Sam and Elle slipping away the Russians act out fantasies from every western they’ve ever seen, taking off after them on horseback as Sam and Elle head for the hills Sam knows so well.
They make it to a shady ravine, but Sam’s wound is slowing them down. By now, he’s pretty angry - what’s Elle dragged him into? Who’s shooting at them and why? This isn’t his fight; he has troubles of his own. Too independent and too scared to tell Sam what’s going on, Elle storms off on foot.
The heavily-armed Russians reach the hills as Sam summons enough energy to take off after Elle only to find her trapped between a sheer drop-off and a snarling cougar! Knowing the sound of a gunshot will alert the Russians to their position, Sam manages to chase the big cat away with a fallen limb. There’s nowhere to go but forward, scrambling up a steep canyon wall toward a cave Sam hopes will offer protection. But they’re out in the open and the Russians nearly get them with a high-powered rifle. Returning fire, Sam manages to hit Ivan.
Sam and Elle reach the top of the slope and duck into the cave. There may be a way out at the other end, but Sam’s never gone that far into the cave before. At least they’re out of sight of Arkady and Mischa who are closing in.
Making their way through the darkness, Sam demands answers. Elle tells him just enough of the truth to keep him on her side. Sam believes some of her story. That and the Russians outside keep him going deeper into the cave where they fight their way past a chamber of spiders, disturb a colony of bats, and slog their way through an underground stream before spotting a tiny dot of light - another way out!
Elle squeezes through and emerges right into Arkady’s clutches! Mischa lobs a hand grenade at the opening Sam is frantically trying to enlarge, sealing the cave and burying Sam alive!
Drunk and disgusted with their Wild West adventure, Arkady and Mischa grill Elle at Sam’s ranch house while they wait for Igor. Out of control, Mischa starts to rape Elle at knifepoint as Sam sneaks up outside, sees what’s going on, waits for his moment, and attacks Arkady. This is just the opening Elle needs - she snatches Mischa’s knife and puts an end to the rape for good.
Sam is exhausted, wounded and Arkady is drunk, but they go at each other furiously as Elle snatches a rifle and the case of money from Mekong’s bed. She jumps in Sam’s truck and guns it. Now is her moment of decision: does she get away with the cash while she can or help Sam? The two men battle in the dust, as she heads straight for them. Sam rolls out of the way in the nick of time as Igor thunders in on the ranch in a helicopter, strafing the ground with machinegun fire!
Sam manages to get into the truck and they take off overland, Igor in hot pursuit. The truck’s hit and burning as a couple of cars full of Igor’s goons race through the ranch gate.
Trying to get back to Arkady’s car and its cache of weapons, Sam and Elle make it to the barn where the briefcase accidentally opens and Sam sees the money for the first time. Suddenly it’s all becoming clear to him, but there’s no time to argue - the Russians are pouring in.
One step ahead of the Russians, Sam and Elle make it to Arkady’s car and take off with Igor following in the helicopter and his men following on the ground. Mekong causes the two cars of Russians to crash into each other - and now it’s a crazed Igor going after Elle. By this time, the money is no longer the issue - nobody makes a fool of Igor Kreulevich!
Elle ducks the car behind some rocks. Igor’s ‘copter swerves to avoid them and comes back on another tack - heading straight for Sam who shoots it own with a rocket launcher.
The place is littered with dead Russians as Elle makes her way through the smoke billowing from the wreckage of Igor’s helicopter. Now it’s time to say thanks and good-bye. Life’s too complicated to get sidetracked by emotions. Sam’s resigned. Maybe he never really believed things could work out for him and a city woman half his age. They have nothing in common, except they’re still alive, which was all they had before they met.
Briefcase in hand, Elle starts off toward Arroyo Grande on foot. She doesn’t get far before she spots Mekong, dead at the side of the road. This stops her cold. Somehow the sight of the dead dog brings all her emotions boiling to the surface.
Sam’s shrill whistle rings out and Mekong springs to his feet, finished demonstrating his only trick. Elle can’t help laughing through her tears as Mekong pulls Elle and Sam together. Surrendering, they fall into each other’s arms as the briefcase slips from her hand. It falls to the ground as they kiss, and the western wind lifts a blizzard of currency to swirl around them.