Q:Build a movie plot around this: What was the upfront payment? $20,000
A:
This article needs an improved plot summary. (May 2016)An undercover ex-cop named Francine Driver (Carla Gugino), who poses as an assassin, meets a dentist Nick (Zachary Quinto) in a Los Angeles bar. Nick wants his wife Karen (Lauren Lee Smith) dead. He does not have the upfront payment of $20,000, but he promises he can get it for her before the night is over. When he leaves, Francine meets a young man named Henry (Aaron Tveit), a photographer who charms her before stealing her wallet and running off into the night. Her wallet contains the device used to record her conversation with Nick, and the evidence is incriminating.This begins Francine's frantic search through the bars and clubs of Los Angeles. As she journeys, a number of characters are introduced. There is Henry's sister, Teresa (Emmanuelle Chriqui), an exotic dancer. There is Teresa and Henry's father, Dodge (Robert Forster), an ex-con who gives his son the most baffling of advice and has a strange fixation on bones. There is Nick's patient, Aldo (Danny DeVito), a gangster who can get Nick his money ... but only by roping him into participating in a heist. There is a bartender named Camilla (Amber Valletta), who is having relationship problems with her divorced upstairs neighbor. There is June (Rosario Dawson), a hatcheck girl for an exclusive nude ping pong club. There is Francine's superior, Sam Salazar (Josh Hartnett), who is always addressed as Officer but is actually a detective. Then there is Francine's ex-husband, Emmit (Gil Bellows), who has something Francine wants.