Fargo (1996)

In 1987, Jerry Lundegaard, the sales manager of an Oldsmobile dealership in Minneapolis, is desperate for money. On the advice of dealership mechanic and parolee Shep Proudfoot, Jerry travels to Fargo, North Dakota and hires Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud to kidnap his wife Jean. Jerry promises them a new Oldsmobile and half of the $80,000 ransom he says he intends to extort from his father-in-law Wade Gustafson, who owns the dealership.

Jerry pitches Wade a lucrative real estate deal and believes Wade has agreed to loan him the $750,000 he needs to finance it, so he unsuccessfully attempts to call off the kidnapping. Wade and his accountant Stan Grossman inform Jerry that Wade intends to make the deal himself and pay Jerry only a modest finder’s fee. Carl and Gaear kidnap Jean and transport her to a remote cabin in Moose Lake. A state trooper stops them near Brainerd for driving without displaying temporary registration tags. When the trooper rejects Carl’s clumsy bribe and hears Jean whimpering in the back seat, Gaear shoots him, then chases down and kills two passers-by who witnessed the scene.