Plot

Two brothers and a friend, all blue-collar workers, come across millions of dollars in lost cash and make a plan to keep their find from the authorities, but it isn't long before complications and mistrust weave their way into the plan.

Three diverse characters, for the most part intellectually challenged, find a deserted plane with a bag full of millions of dollars inside. They devise a simple plan to keep the money if nobody claims it, but of course--has there ever been such a thing as a simple plan?—Filmtwob <webmaster@filmfreak.co.za>

Two brothers--one a mild-mannered hardware store manager, the other an unemployed slob--and their friend stumble onto $4.4 million cash in stolen money. The new-found booty leads Hank, the store manager (with help from his cunning wife), to great lengths to keep the money a secret from local authorities. The three men begin to doubt one another's trust, which leads to shocking results of lies and deceit.—Joel White <jwhite@enol.com>

When Hank, Jacob, and Lou find $4.4 million inside a crashed plane in a nature preserve, they quickly come up with the plan to keep the money safe until the plane has been found by others and the dust has settled. But Hank's brother Jacob and their friend Lou don't behave as they had pledged; Lou, constantly in financial debt, wants his share soon, and Jacob wishes to renovate their parents' farm. The trusty atmosphere between the unequal partners dissolves slowly, and intrigues are spun. Also, accidents start happening and when an FBI agent comes to town looking for a crashed plane, Hank and his partners get into very deep water.—Julian Reischl <julianreischl@mac.com>

Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton) and his wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) live in rural Minnesota. One of the town's few college graduates, Hank works in a feed mill, while his wife is a librarian. Hank's father always told him that the simple things in life make a man happy, like the wife he loves, or a decent job, or friends and neighbors. Hank had all that and he was a happy man.

When Hank, his older, socially challenged brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe) are travelling in Jacob's pick-up truck (chasing a fox which got into their hen coop) when suddenly the fox jumps in front of their truck causing Jacob to crash it. As they get out to assess the damage (and also chase the fox across the woods), they stumble upon a crashed airplane. Hank decides to look inside the plane where he discovers a dead pilot and a bag containing $4.4 million in $100 bills. The guys believe that this might be drug money. The whole landscape is covered in snow, and it is not easy to see the plane as it completely covered by snow.

Hank suggests turning the money in, but Lou and Jacob persuade him not to. Hank says that it is a large amount of money, and someone is bound to come looking for it. If the plane is found, and the money is missing, that would be classified as theft and robbery. Hank then proposes that he keep the money safe at his house until spring thaw when the snow will melt, and the plane will be found. At that point, if missing money isn't raised, they will divide their shares and move away. The plane is a fair distance away from the highway and the trio carry the money back to their pickup truck.

Sheriff Carl Jenkins (Chelcie Ross) drives by the area and notices the three men after they hide the money in Jacob's pick-up truck. Hank sticks to the agreed script, but Jacob blurts something about a plane. Carl tries to pursue it, but just gets double-talk. After Carl leaves, the three men make a pact to keep the money a secret, but Hank immediately breaks it with Sarah.

Sarah suggests that Hank and Jacob return a paltry sum of the money to the plane to avoid suspicion from local authorities. While travelling on foot to the woods, the brothers come across an old man named Dwight on a snowmobile. Dwight wanted to search the woods for a fox. Jacob, thinking that their cover is blown (when Hank emerges from the woods after doing his job), bludgeons him. Hank panics and says that Dwight is dead and that they need to make it look like an accident. Hank sends Jacob away and drives the snowmobile to the park. When the man regains consciousness, he talks about calling the police. So, Hank suffocates him, then uses the snowmobile to drive his body off a bridge, making the murder look like an accidental death.

Sarah does research and learns that the money was a ransom for a kidnapped heiress abducted by two brothers. Jacob has plans to stay in town after spring and revive the family farm. Hank objects to this as the plan was to leave town as they could never explain the money to the town folks. Jacob says that he resents that their father run the farm down to educate Hank, and thus ideally he should get the farm and have the opportunity to revive it. The following night, Lou drunkenly demands some of the money from Hank, because he has spent recklessly since the discovery. When Hank refuses, Lou threatens to go to the authorities, having learned from Jacob about the old man's murder.

After giving birth to their daughter, an ever more scheming and avaricious Sarah 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. Much to Jacob's dismay, the two brothers visit Lou at his home where Jacob has him drunkenly confess to the old man's murder. Hank records the false confession with a tape recorder. Lou grows enraged when he realizes that the two have conspired against him and pulls a gun on them. Jacob grabs a rifle from his truck and kills Lou to save his brother. Hank then kills Lou's wife Nancy (Becky Ann Baker) with Lou's shotgun when she appears with another gun. Hank and Jacob successfully sell the carnage to the police as a domestic quarrel that ended in a murder-suicide.

Because Jacob mentioned hearing a plane in the woods, Carl asks the brothers to assist an FBI agent, Neil Baxter (Gary Cole), in a search for the missing aircraft. Hank and Jacob meet with Baxter and Carl at the police station. Sarah grows skeptical of Baxter, whom she later discovers to be an impostor; she contacts and warns Hank, who steals a revolver from Carl's office. The four men head into the woods and split up. When he finds the plane, Baxter kills Carl, and engages in a gunfight with Hank. Hank manages to kill Baxter with the gun he had stolen.

Hank starts to concoct another story to tell the authorities. Jacob however announces that he does not want to live with these bad memories; he threatens to shoot himself to end it. He then encourages Hank to kill him instead and frame Baxter for the crime. Heartbroken, but realizing he is trapped, Hank kills Jacob with Baxter's gun.

At the police station, Hank tells his rehearsed story to real FBI agents. As Sarah predicted, the agents do not believe that Hank, an upstanding member of the community, would be capable of such wrongdoing. Although he is ruled out as a suspect, Hank is told that the money was part of a ransom and that many of the bills' serial numbers were written down to track the cash.

Hank realizes he cannot use the money without being caught; he goes home and burns it all. In a closing narration, Hank reflects on his losses; as he tries to move on with his life, the murderous events constantly haunt him.