Domino

Plot synopsis:
British-born bounty hunter and bail bonds agent Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) is battered, in handcuffs and being interviewed by FBI criminal psychologist Taryn Mills (Lucy Liu). Domino agrees to tell her story. Mills tells Domino that an armored car driven by a man named Locus Fender was found. Domino was hired by the owner of the Stratosphere Casino to find out where the thieves hid the money.In a flashback, Domino says she and her team were sent to the Fender Compound out in the desert. An RV with shark's mouth livery is seen rolling into a junkyard type property. Domino and two men, all armed with shotguns, get out. They approach a trailer home warily. The woman inside fires at them. Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke) is the best bounty hunter in L.A. and tries to get the woman, Edna Fender, to give up the money. The other bounty hunter, Choco (Edgar Ramirez), throws a dismembered arm close to the woman. They tell her it is her son's, Choco then goes back to the RV where a group of men are watching TV. Choco grabs the man with one arm and marches him back to the trailer home. Edna is distraught but still has a weapon. The arm has a combination tattooed on it and Locus pleads with his mother to get the "decoder"Title sequence and theme song.Back in the trailer home, Edna uses the tattooed numbers and a homemade pie plate decoder to figure out the lock combination of a padlocked fridge. Ed and Domino have a beer and relax while Edna calculates.At an L.A. DMV office a young man, Frances (Kel O'Neill), speaks to someone on his phone. His number is called and he goes to a woman's counter. He gives her a piece of paper with photos and Social Security numbers, he needs the IDs that night. The young man threatens her with the name "Kee Kee", the woman, Lateesha Rodriguez (Mo'Nique), nervously agrees. Domino says this is where it all went wrong but Mills thinks she is lying.Domino then recalls a happy childhood of being raised in England with her father, actor Stephen Harvey, who died young when she was four-years-old (actually Domino's father was Laurence Harvey, a famous actor who died from cancer in 1973 at age 45). After her father's untimely death, Domino's mother Sophie (Jacqueline Bisset) enrolls her in a private boarding school with her pet goldfish (Domino's mother was actually a fashion model named Paulene Stone). The fish soon dies and Domino decides not to invest anyone with emotions anymore to avoid being hurt. The young Domino lifts an American quarter from a church collection plate.Later, her mother watches with fascination a TV clip of the cast of 'Beverly Hills 90210'. Domino is now grown up and plays with nunchuks, and having now settled in Southern California with her mother. She recounts her time at a college sorority in Los Angeles at age 19 where she was bullied by a sorority girl during a hazing for having small breasts. Domino punches her tormentor and is expelled. She finds a scrap of newspaper with an ad for a seminar to learn how to be a bounty hunter put on by the bail bondsman Claremont Williams III (Delroy Lindo). She goes to the class site and signs up, Choco is the registrar and takes the $99 seminar fee. In the class, Ed Moseby and Claremont explain the bail bond/bounty hunter roles. They are surprised to see the sexy Domino take her seat. At break, Ed and Choco plan to split with the cash and exit out the back. Domino notices and chases after them demanding her lessons. She throws a knife into their car windshield. Domino shows off her skill with nunchuks and Ed agrees to offer her a job as a trainee.The next day, the three are walking down a street. Ed is explaining they are looking for Hector Maldonado, who had been arrested for a drive-by shooting. Hector's mother posted bail, but he skipped and they are going to bring him in to collect he bounty for Hector's capture and return. They have found out where he is, at a gang house across the street from his girlfriend. Ed explains to Choco that having Domino with them gives them an advantage. They load up with bulletpoof vests and shotguns. Ed and Domino storm into the house where they are confronted by the alert 18th Street gang, everyone has guns drawn and ready to shoot. Hector had escaped already. Domino imagines a bloody ending but then defuses the situation by offering to do a lap dance if they give up Hector. She grinds one out for the gang leader and they find out where Hector is.Domino explains that Claremont is their boss. She overhears him explaining to Ed that he has an insider in the DMV, who provides info.Six months later, Claremont hires them a driver, Alf (Riz Abbasi), an Afghani immigrant. At a coin laundromat, Ed talks about his past as Domino watches the well built Choco strip down to his briefs. At another take down, Choco bravely disarms a shotgun-holding man. At a bar, Choco stares as Domino rides the bucking bronco machine.Another few months later in 2003, Domino is named Bounty Hunter of the Year to an applauding crowd. Ed, Domino and Choco are now a team. They attend a pool party at Domino's mother's house with Claremont and Lateesha. Choco and Domino flirt.Outside Sophie's house, Choco seems jealous of Ed's attentions towards Domino. Inside, Domino chats with her mother and cleans her handgun.Back in the cop shop, Mills shows Domino a photo of Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken). Domino recounts how the three of them met him through her mother. Heiss, a TV producer, would like to use them for a reality show and wants Domino to front the show. Ed and Sophie bicker for control. Sophie thinks its a bad idea but Domino decides to go for it, to tell her story.On the Jerry Springer Show, (featuring a cameo by Jerry Springer himself) Lateesha is a guest as "Youngest Mixed Race Grandmother". Lateesha explains she is a "Blacinto" and shows a mixed race flowchart with made up racial subgroups. The audience ridicules Lateesha and the show erupts into a donnybrook.Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green (as themselves) arrive at the Domino show filming site, greeting Mark Heiss. They will be co-hosts of the show. The actors are introduced to the bounty hunters and are shown the decorated RV. The show starts filming.At an apartment, Claremont and daughter Kee Kee chastise Lateesha for her act on Springer. Lateesha's infant granddaughter Mira has a rare blood disease and Claremont comes up with an idea. Lateesha hints at it to Domino while driving Kee Kee to school. Agent Mills asks Domino if she knew about Lateesha's fake ID racket.At work, Lateesha's boss tells her he saw her on Springer the day she called in sick. He then explains he found out she tried to pass off her granddaughter as her daughter Kee-Kee for an operation. Lateesha says the operation costs $300,000 but the HMO won't cover grandchildren. The boss gives her two weeks notice, then tells her the FBI is here to talk to her. The agents tell her in 10 minutes Frances will come in and ask for four fake IDs, they want to know what he is up to. Lateesha explains they will be hijacking an armored truck for $10 million.Lateesha explains to her daughter, two nieces and co-worker Raul what has happened, they all agree to help her out.At the Hoover Dam, cops check out the abandoned armored truck. Drake Bishop (Dabney Coleman), billionaire owner of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino, arrives to find his money. The detective, Chris Cudlitz (Jack McGee) offers to show him video. They watch the surveillance tape showing a van pull up alongside the armored car. The tape shows four persons wearing masks of famous First Ladies. Bishop says they are stealing $10M. Claremont phones Bishop and explains he is the owner of the armored car and also a bail bondsman, he can find the thieves with his bounty hunters for a $300,000 finder's fee. Bishop agrees.Bishop's attorney Blake Beckett (Peter Jacobson) calls mob boss Anthony Cigliutti (Stanley Kamel) who thinks it's an inside job. The FBI think Bishop is laundering cash for the mob.In the desert, Locus Fender (Lew Temple) arrives in the van at his mother's. Locus works for Claremont. Locus has the duffel bags of money and says the First Ladies took off at a gas station. While Locus went for a soda the four Ladies drove off in a grey Mercedes, but left the money. Edna tells Locus to put the money in the freezer.In Los Angeles, the bounty hunters cheerfully report for filming, Heiss is monitoring the feed in a second RV. Ziering and Austin Green explain they are going to get four criminals called the First Ladies for kiting checks with fake IDS. Jackie O was Lester Kincaid, a record producer for Lateesha's nieces; Choco roughs him up. Nancy Reagan was a sex addict named Howie Stein, he is busted by the bounty squad at a Porno Anonymous group meeting. Barbara Bush was Charles and Hillary Clinton was Frances, sons of Anthony Cigliutti. The bounty squad arrive at their frat house while an FBI surveillance van watches, the FBI has been spying on the kids for six months. Domino takes down Frances and Choco captures Charles trying to escape, Heiss looks on in amazement at the live video. At a gas station, Domino reports in to Claremont, he tells her to deliver the four to the Sam Kinison Monument in Needles. Domino is puzzled there are no warrants for the four. Austin Green teases Domino as being an act, she breaks his nose.In the RV, Domino and Ed discuss the missing bond certificates, Domino figures it means the four were never arrested. She recalls her pet goldfish. In Needles things get tense, Domino screams at the camera crew to stop, Ed and Choco deliver the four to a group of men in dark SUVs. The two RVs stop for the night at a roadside motel. Choco comes to Domino's room, he talks to her in Spanish to see if she is OK but she doesn't understand. In their room Ed is watching porn on the TV,a frustrated Choco bashes the TV and starts to fight with Ed. He pulls a gun on Ed who tells him to go ahead and shoot. Choco settles down and lowers the hammer.In her room, Domino tries to check out Charles and Frances on the DMV web site. At a highway bridge the four Ladies are on their knees, a man phones for instructions and Beckett tells him to find out where the money is.While Domino ponders what is going on she narrates that the real First Ladies were Lateesha, her nieces and gay friend Raul. Claremont had picked them up at the gas station. The men shoot the four prisoners under the bridge. In the Mercedes Claremont rips Lateesha for getting the college kids involved. The next day Claremont phones Domino and explains Lateesha set up the kids for the ID scam and that they are mobster Cigliutti's kids. Claremont tells her it will be okay if they return the $10M and ask for a $300k finders fee. Domino gathers her squad and tells Alf to destroy all the video from the previous day and that they have to find Locus Fender. Alf drives off in the shark mouth RV as the camera crew RV explodes in a fireball.At a strip joint the squad handcuff Locus. They notice Austin Green and Ziering at the bar and decide to take them as celebrity hostages. As the RV motors down the highway, Locus, Ian and Brian are handcuffed to the ceiling. Domino talks to Claremont on her cell but loses reception, she mistakenly hears him say something about removing Locus' right arm. Domino passes the message to Ed and Choco. Grimly, Choco gets a shotgun and blows Fender's arm off. Ziering and Austin Green are splattered with blood. They arrive at the Fender compound.Domino narrates they found the $10 million in the freezer. Ed asks Edna for coffee and the RV leaves. Unknown to them, Edna had spiked the thermos with mescaline. Everyone in the RV gets groggy and drugged up. Alf loses control and the RV flips over end over end and barrel rolls to a stop. Mills tells Domino the lab confirmed she has mescaline in her system, but likely normal for Domino. Mills begins to lecture Domino about her lifestyle.Back at the crash site, the passengers stumble out of the wreck. Choco and Domino kiss and have sex. A Cadillac convertible stops nearby, the driver (Tom Waits) calls Domino an angel of fire and gives her a quarter. The driver seems to know what is going on and tells them they have offer their lives in return for the little child. The car heads to Las Vegas.Cigliutti is told Bishop had Frances and Charles killed. FBI are eavesdropping. At the Stardust Hotel Domino and gang meet up with Claremont. He phones Bishop who tells them to come to the Stratosphere at 7 pm. Out by the highway bridge the FBI find the four prisoners, they weren't killed after all only buried up to their necks in the sand.Lateesha and her three partners arrive at the bounty hunters hotel room. She tearfully asks for the $300k for the operation. Alf is doing something with the money in another room but they give Lateesha the money she needs.In the interview room, Mills tells Domino this is her last chance to cooperate. Domino accuses the FBI agent of being a sexually repressed lesbian.At the hotel, the group loads up packed garment bags in a cab. Alf notices another man in a turban. They arrive at the Stratosphere and give up their weapons at Security and take the elevator up. Bishop and men with automatic weapons greet them, noticing the two actor celebrity hostages. Bishop has them escorted back to the ground floor. An FBI helicopter flies toward the tower casino and circles the skypod. Inside Cigliutti and armed mafioso arrive. Alf tells Bishop the money is going to Afghanistan to help his people and shows a TV remote set up as a bomb detonator. The mafia men enter the room shooting, Bishop is riddled with bullets and dies. The FBI helicopter takes shots and crashes. In a wild gunfight inside the bounty hunters make for the elevator. Ed and Choco are shot several times and close to death, Domino returns fire against the hitmen and manages to get them into the cab. Alf is also mortally wounded and tells Domino he will give them a chance. As the elevator descends, Alf detonates explosives sending the cab into free fall. Domino alone survives the impact.Agent Mills finishes her report and has Domino freed. She tells Domino that she should think about retiring as a bounty hunter.At her mother's pool, Domino swims and tells Sophie that she loves her.In Afghanistan, boxes arrive in a village filled with US bills.In a hospital Lateesha, Claremont and family watch as Mira enters an MRI machine.During the end credits, there is a scene of the real Domino Harvey dressed in a man's business suit who smiles at the camera as a limo explodes in the background from the falling debris from the Stratosphere explosion.The postscript reads: "In loving memory, Domino Harvey".

Tags: comedy, murder, flashback, satire, tragedy, revenge

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