Build a movie plot around this: What is the name of shoplifter? Warren Beatty
Empire Records is an independent record shop managed by Joe (Anthony LaPaglia). The store is located in a fictional city in Delaware, and, like its employees, is eclectic and unique. The staff is very much a surrogate family, with Joe as the reluctant and perpetually exasperated but loveable father figure. When his young staff experience problems in their personal lives, he routinely reminds them they can seek him out for advice.The film opens with store manager Joe allowing employee Lucas (Rory Cochrane) his first opportunity to close the store, an opportunity Lucas regards as an honour. While counting the day's receipts in Joe's office, Lucas snoops and discovers that Empire Records is about to be bought and converted into a branch of Music Town, a large national music store with many franchises. In an effort to keep the store independent, Lucas takes the day's cash receipts totaling $9,000 to a casino in Atlantic City in an attempt to quadruple it via gambling. Lucas believes this act will create enough money to allow Joe to save Empire Records. Though initially doubling the money, Lucas soon loses the entire amount in one bet on a dice table. Instead of going home he sleeps on his motorcycle outside the store, where he is found the following morning by opening manager A.J. (Johnny Whitworth) and fellow employee Mark (Ethan Embry). He confides in the pair about the previous night's events before riding away, seemingly for good. Joe arrives to help open the store and quickly receives phone calls from both the bank and the store owner, Mitchell Beck (Ben Bode), regarding the previous night's missing deposit.Joe is distracted from immediately dealing with this crisis due to a scheduled store event: Rex Manning (Maxwell Caulfield), a former 80's pop idol, is due to arrive at the store for an autograph session to promote his new album. The staff is unenthused by "Rex Manning Day", and ultimately many of the fans showing up to meet him are either older women or gay men. The employees secretly tease Rex behind...