Summaries

Synopsis

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University law student Charlie Farrow (Patrick Dempsey) wins a poker game with his roommates, who are amazed by his consistent good luck. His employer, an automobile mechanic, assigns Charlie to deliver a customer's Porsche to Atlantic City, New Jersey. When the car breaks down near the town of Sawtucket, Connecticut, Charlie leaves it with a mechanic, then asks a taxicab driver (Peter Williams) to take him to a good restaurant. Based on his customer's car and destination, the driver incorrectly concludes that Charlie is a wealthy gambler, and takes him to the Smokehouse, an illegal gambling casino.

At the casino, Charlie joins a poker game conducted by dealer Karen Landers (Kelly Preston). Denny Halloran (A.C. Preston), an ill-tempered gangster who has lost steadily throughout the game, blames Karen for his bad luck and insists on dealing the next hand himself. When Charlie wins the hand, Karen advises him to leave the casino while Denny is in the restroom. Denny intercepts Charlie at the exit, but trips and strikes his head on a marble counter, which kills him instantly. Karen witnesses the incident and advises Charlie to leave town. Charlie returns to the waiting taxicab and explains his plight to the driver, who reveals that Denny was the son of crime boss Matt Halloran, and pushes Charlie from the car.

Charlie runs to the repair shop to find it surrounded by gangsters, and the Porsche destroyed by a runaway bulldozer. Meanwhile, in his office at the dog track, Matt Halloran (Ken Pogue) is offered condolences by Police Chief Travers (Marc Strange). Although the crime boss wants revenge against his son's purported "killer", Travers insists on following legal protocol. Matt Halloran wins the argument by threatening the life of the chief's son. Mr. Halloran offers his men $50,000 to capture Charlie alive, and circulates a photograph of Charlie Farrow to the news media.

At the police station, Detective Martins (Christopher Lawford) is puzzled by the case, noting that Charlie has no criminal past, and would likely not survive a fight with Denny Halloran. His colleague, Sergeant Halsey (William S. Taylor), advises Martins not to question the logic... hinting at the rampant corruption in their town.

That evening at nightfall, Charlie calls Chief Travers from a telephone booth, asking for police protection. He gives the chief his location and waits nearby while another man enters the booth. Seconds later, Halloran's thugs abduct the man in the booth, while police officers O'Rourke (Michael MacRae) and Smithy (Tom McBeath) follow Charlie, hoping to capture him for the reward.

Charlie takes refuge in a bowling alley, where a vigilant cashier notifies Matt Halloran by phone. Henchmen Marv (Sean McCann) and Sammy (James Kidnie) are deployed to the bowling alley, and after a harrowing pursuit through the pin-setting apparatus, Charlie escapes to find O'Rourke and Smithy waiting outside. Ignoring Charlie's request for police protection, the two officers turn him over to Sammy and Marv. Sgt. Halsey appears, demanding to know why the officers have been ignoring calls from the station. When Charlie breaks free and runs toward Halsey, O'Rourke fires his gun and accidentally kills the sergeant. Sammy and Marv leave the scene in a panic, while O'Rourke notifies the police dispatcher and tells them that Charlie is responsible for the shooting.

Charlie commandeers Halsey's car, with the two corrupt officers in pursuit. Although Smithy is shaken by their colleague's death, O'Rourke is determined to get the reward, and threatens to implicate his partner in the shooting if he refuses to comply. Meanwhile, Det. Martins informs Chief Travers that witnesses at the Smokehouse all gave dissimilar accounts saying that Charlie killed Denny Halloran intentionally, causing him to question Charlie's guilt. The chief dismisses Martin's concerns, noting that Charlie has killed Sgt. Halsey.

With the entire mob-connected police force and Halloran's gang searching for him, Charlie tries to blend into the crowd at a shopping mall. Karen Landers notices Charlie among the shoppers and makes her way toward the exit, hoping to avoid him. When Charlie's photograph appears on a television broadcast, he is confronted by Bill, a mall security guard. Charlie grabs Bill's gun and disappears into the crowd as Det. Martins orders the exits blocked. Realizing he is trapped, Charlie falsely alerts the crowd to the presence of a bomb, and joins the stampede toward the exits. He recognizes Karen Landers in the parking lot and climbs into her car, begging for her assistance.

Upon arriving at her home, Karen tries to run away from Charlie, but he promises to leave after he telephones the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to report this and to report the huge corruption in this Mafia-owned town. Unknown to Charlie, the FBI traces the call and directs the local police to Karen's house. O'Rourke volunteers himself and Smithy as the first to enter, intending to kill Charlie, unaware that Karen and Charlie are speeding toward the city limits, planning to expose Matt Halloran and his control over the entire town to in the national media. Two of Halloran's thugs intercept Karen and Charlie, and chase them through an amusement park, riddling their car with bullets. The thugs strike a utility pole and are electrocuted by downed power lines.

When Charlie takes Karen to the hospital for a minor bullet wound, he is discovered by O'Rourke and Smithy, who pursue him through the hospital parking structure. Charlie steals a pickup truck and rams the police car, causing it to teeter on a ledge five stories above the street. He counterbalances the car by leaning on the bumper, but it breaks loose and both officers are killed in the fall. Charlie surrenders to police, and is taken into custody by Travers and Martins. Suspecting that Charlie is innocent of his alleged crimes, Travers intends to deliver him to the FBI office in a neighboring county. However, Sammy and Marv appear from behind and force the car off an embankment, leaving Travers dead and Martins unconscious.

Charlie is taken to Matt Halloran's office at the dog track, where he tries to explain Denny's accidental death. The cold-hearted Halloran beats Charlie unconscious, then orders Sammy and Marv to drop him from the roof of the building. As they throw him over the edge, Charlie grabs onto Marv's pants and climbs to safety, while causing both gangsters to fall to their deaths. Halloran sees his henchmen fall past the window and alerts Frank, his security chief. Frank chases Charlie into the kitchen, where he is knocked unconscious and relieved of his gun. Charlie takes refuge in a shed containing the track's mechanical rabbit mechanism. Halloran inadvertently activates the device as he fires his gun through the door. The crime boss corners Charlie inside, but is impaled on the mechanical rabbit. In the final shot, Detective Martins bursts through the door and is astonished by Charlie's unlikely victory.