Build a movie plot around this: What did Brooks do to Smith's pistol? He disabled the gun somehow.
The answer to this question is:
Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is an upstanding business owner and family man, recently honored as the Portland, Oregon Chamber of Commerces Man of the Year (the movie itself was filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana). In his secret life, Brooks is a serial killer, encouraged by his id, manifested as a gleefully sadistic alter ego he refers to as "Marshall" (William Hurt) whom only Brooks can see or hear (conversely, no one can hear him talk to Marshall). While he has refrained from killing for the last two years, Brooks feels the urge rising once again and, spurred on by Marshall, murders a couple in their home. Despite killing them before noticing that their curtains are open, Brooks follows his meticulous modus operandi, cleaning up the crime scene (and later cleaning the car he drove to the murder scene and burning his clothes and pictures he took of the victims) before departing. As part of his pathology, he leaves each of the victims' bloody thumbprints on a lampshade.The next day Brooks attends his weekly meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where he vaguely reveals his addiction without elaborating on the nature. Soon afterwards, his daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker) returns home, having abruptly dropped out of college. She goes on to visit Brooks' business and mentions that she would like get a job with his company so it can "stay in the family." Jane eventually reveals that she's pregnant. Even more worrisome is the appearance of a man who calls himself Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), a peeping tom who photographed Brooks at the scene of the previous day's crime. Blackmailing him, Mr. Smith demands to accompany Mr. Brooks on his next murder.They both grow nervous over Portland Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), chief investigator of the "Thumbprint Killer" case. Brooks hacks into Atwood's personal file and financial records; it turns out that she is an heiress worth more than $60,000,000, who could have gone into the family business but became successful in her own chosen profession. Brooks comes to admire Atwood,...