Fargo (1996)

The black comedy crime film, Fargo (1996), was written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. In the year 1987, Jerry Lundegaard, an executive sales manager at a Minneapolis car dealership owned by his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson, finds himself in desperate need of money. He devises a plan to have his wife Jean kidnapped. Shep Proudfoot, a mechanic and convicted felon, sets up a meeting for Jerry in Fargo, North Dakota with criminals Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud. They agree to carry out the job. In exchange for their services, Jerry gives them a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera and promises them half of the ransom which he claims is $80,000. However, Jerry’s plans take a turn when he presents Wade with a lucrative real estate deal and believes that Wade has agreed to lend him $750,000 to finance it. He then tries to call off the kidnapping.

Later on, Wade and his accountant Stan Grossman inform Jerry that Wade will handle the deal himself and will only pay Jerry a small finder’s fee instead of the entire amount. Carl and Gaear snatch Jean and take her to a secluded cabin in Moose Lake. During their journey, a state trooper pulls them over near Brainerd for failing to display temporary registration tags. Upon hearing Jean’s distressed cries from the back seat, Gaear shoots the trooper and also murders two onlookers. Seven months pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson launches an investigation into the incident. She astutely concludes that the deceased trooper was writing a citation for a car with dealer plates. Further investigations reveal that two men driving a dealership vehicle had checked into a nearby motel in the company of two female escorts and placed a call to Shep.