Summaries

Synopsis

Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson), a transient, hitches a ride from a traveling salesman on a California highway. The next morning, when the salesman leaves him at the Twin Oaks gas station and restaurant, Frank pretends that he's been robbed. Nick Papadakis (John Colicos), the Greek immigrant who owns Twin Oaks, offers Frank a job as a mechanic. Frank demurs, saying he is headed to Los Angeles for work, but when he sees Nick's beautiful wife, Cora (Jessica Lange), Frank reconsiders.

Sometime later, Frank has settled in, and one afternoon, after Nick goes to purchase supplies in town, Frank locks the door to the restaurant and forces himself on Cora until she reciprocates. A torrid affair ensues, and the next time that Nick leaves, Frank orders Cora to pack a bag and run away to Chicago with him.

At the bus station, Cora reveals that she has $110 in savings. Frank enters a game of craps outside the station, but when he asks Cora for money to stay in the game, she refuses. As Frank changes in his bus ticket for more money to gamble, Cora disappears. Frank finds Cora back at Twin Oaks, where she admits she is afraid that Nick will come after her if she leaves him. Cora suggests that she and Frank murder Nick, and, one night, Frank stuff a cloth bag full of ball bearings for Cora to use as a weapon.

While Nick showers, Cora approaches the bathroom, wielding the bag; meanwhile, Frank stands watch outside, and a police officer, happening to drive past on his motorcycle, stops and chats with him, then drives away. Spooked, Frank honks a horn to warn Cora, but the electricity goes out at the same time. Moments later, Frank finds Cora hysterically crying inside, and Nick bloodied and unconscious in the shower. At the hospital, Nick regains consciousness but is unaware that Cora bludgeoned him, perceiving his fall as an accident. As Nick slowly recovers at the hospital, Cora and Frank continue their affair. Upon his release, Nick's large Greek family hosts a celebration, and Cora ends her affair with Frank; however, she soon changes her mind when she finds Frank composing a goodbye letter and begs him to stay.

One night, Nick goes out with Cora and Frank and becomes very drunk. When the car malfunctions, Cora pulls over to the side of the road, and Frank decides to kill Nick there, whacking him over the head with a wrench. Cora and Frank then push the car into the woods to stage an accident and beat each other up so they appear to be injured by the crash. Before they leave, Frank attempts to push the car further out of view, but when he gets inside, the car topples over and rolls down a hill.

Frank awakens in the hospital where Sackett (William Traylor), a lawyer, interrogates him, accusing Frank of having a criminal record in other cities around the country, and implying that he helped Cora kill Nick in order to secure his $10,000 life insurance policy. Sackett tells Frank the only way to prove his innocence is to sign a "complaint and request for damages" from Cora, who was driving the car at the time of the alleged accident.

After Frank is transferred to a jail cell, Katz arrives, introducing himself as Frank and Cora's lawyer, and forbidding Frank from signing any more paperwork. Nick's insurance company, Pacific Reliance, sues Cora for insurance fraud, and Sackett uses the complaint Frank signed as evidence in court. Cora becomes incensed when she hears that Frank signed the document, and Katz quickly changes her plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" to stall the court proceedings.

Feeling betrayed by Frank, Cora gives a statement to a man named Kennedy, confessing to Nick's murder and implicating Frank as well. Meanwhile, Katz strikes a deal with Pacific Reliance when he informs them that another insurance company, Western Equitable, recently issued Nick a liability policy for $25,000. To avoid being sued by Frank for $25,000 in damages, Western Equitable is willing to pay the $10,000 death benefit to Cora as long as Pacific Reliance retracts their lawsuit against her. Consequently, the charges are dropped, and Katz explains to Frank that Kennedy, to whom Cora confessed, was his assistant, not a policeman like they were led to believe.

Cora and Frank return to Twin Oaks, and shortly after, Cora learns from a childhood acquaintance that her mother is ill. When she leaves town to visit her mother, Frank closes the station and hitches a ride to San Diego, where he has a brief affair with Madge, a circus performer. Frank returns in time to pick up Cora from the bus stop after her mother's death. One evening, as Cora and Frank share a romantic dinner, Kennedy, Katz's former assistant, interrupts, claiming that he still has a copy of Cora's confession in a safety deposit box. When Kennedy bribes them, asking for $10,000, Frank beats him relentlessly until Kennedy divulges the whereabouts of his safety deposit box.

The next morning, Frank holds Kennedy at gunpoint as he drives to the bank where Cora's confession is stored. When Frank returns with the confession, he discovers that Madge has visited the station and told Cora about the affair. Cora tells Frank that he is "scum," and threatens that he can still be tried for Nick's murder, despite the fact that she has been found innocent. Cora picks up the telephone, and fearing that she is calling the police, Frank disconnects it.

The following morning, Frank asks Cora to marry him. After an impromptu wedding, they celebrate with a picnic, during which Cora proposes they sell Twin Oaks, but Frank suggests they stay and raise a family there. As they drive home, Cora leans over to kiss Frank, and he swerves to avoid an oncoming truck. The force flings Cora from the car, and Frank crashes into a pole. He gets out of the car and rushes over to Cora. Finding her dead, Frank weeps on the side of the road.