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Go (1999 film)
Encyclopedia
Go is a 1999 comedy
thriller film written by John August
and directed by Doug Liman
, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal
. The film stars William Fichtner
, Katie Holmes
, Jay Mohr
, Sarah Polley
and Scott Wolf
and features Taye Diggs
, Breckin Meyer
, Timothy Olyphant
, Desmond Askew
and J. E. Freeman
.
in Los Angeles
. Adam (Scott Wolf
) and Zack (Jay Mohr
), a couple of soap opera
actors, have been busted for narcotic
s possession. In a plea deal
, they will help Officer Burke (William Fichtner
) set up a sting operation
for Simon (Desmond Askew
), an occasional drug dealer who sells ecstasy
from his cash register at a local grocery store. Unbeknownst to them, Simon has taken a vacation to Las Vegas
. Filling in at his register is Ronna (Sarah Polley
), who is facing eviction
and desperate for the extra paid hours of income. When the actors ask about Simon and where they might buy some ecstasy, Ronna recognizes a lucrative financial opportunity. She offers to "see what she can do" for them, taking down their address. They give her a flier
with the details of a rave
later that evening.
After work, Ronna and co-worker friends Claire (Katie Holmes
) and Mannie (Nathan Bexton) debate the underground drug trade
"rules," such as circumventing Simon to become competing dealers themselves. Ronna decides this will be a one-time-only deal and proceeds to Simon's drug supplier, Todd (Timothy Olyphant
). Todd is suspicious of Ronna's sudden interest in dealing drugs, and that the quantity she has requested is the exact amount that constitutes a drug trafficking felony. Reluctantly, he offers to sell her the drugs — at a higher price. Unprepared for the price hike, she offers to leave collateral
in exchange for bringing the balance back after the sale is complete, and bullies Claire into being the collateral. Ronna and Mannie then proceed to Adam and Zack's pre-rave party. Ronna goes inside to complete the deal, while Mannie stays in the car and downs two of the pills he swiped from the bottle.
Inside at the "party", there's only Adam and Zack behaving uncomfortably, along with an older man (Officer Burke, undercover) who seems overly focused on finishing the drug deal. Ronna quickly realizes something is amiss here, so she asks to use the restroom before completing the deal. When Zack turns to show Ronna the way to the bathroom, he whispers "Go!" to her. She goes into the bathroom, flushes the drugs down the toilet, and emerges empty-handed. She tells Burke she wasn't able to obtain the drugs after all, and to defend herself from further scrutiny, notes to Burke that she is underage to be drinking the beer he gave her. Realizing he is now on surveillance giving alcohol to a minor, and without evidence to hold her, Burke lets Ronna go.
Ronna, in a state of panic, ponders her situation with Mannie, who is slowly succumbing to the effects of the pills he took. She doesn't have the money to buy Claire's release from Todd, and now she has no drugs to sell. In desperation, she shoplifts a large supply of over-the-counter medication from her own grocery store. Finding pills roughly the same appearance as the ecstasy pills, she refills Todd's bottle and returns to his apartment. She explains to Todd that the deal fell through, gives the "stash" back to him, and frees Claire from collateral duty. Ronna realizes that she's still facing eviction and decides to attend the rave to sell the remaining medication as ecstasy. Her scam works, and she quickly makes enough money to cover her rent. Meanwhile, Todd has discovered the fake pills and shows up to settle the score. He sees Ronna and Mannie from afar and chases them through the dancing crowd. Mannie is too high to run and is slowing them both down. Ronna hides Mannie behind a piece of sheet metal, tells him to keep quiet until she comes back, and runs off alone.
Todd catches up to Ronna in the parking lot. He has a few last words with her about the nature of the illegal drug trade, and takes out a gun. At that very moment, a yellow Mazda Miata swerves around a corner of the parking lot and squarely hits Ronna, sending her flying into a ditch. The driver, in panic from seeing Todd with a gun, flees the scene. Todd leaves Ronna for dead and flees as well.
), Tiny (Breckin Meyer
), and Singh (James Duval
) — for some adventures in Las Vegas, footing their hotel bill with the credit card he borrowed from Todd. Shortly after arriving, Tiny and Singh develop bad cases of diarrhea
and are stuck in their hotel room while Simon and Marcus hit the casino. Simon quickly loses much of his money and then wanders into a wedding party on the premises. There, he meets two female guests, with whom he eventually smokes pot and has sex. One of the women accidentally starts a fire in her hotel room, causing Simon to flee naked (clothes in tow) down an elevator.
Putting his clothes back on, he meets up with Marcus back in the casino. Marcus's yellow sport coat gets him mistaken for a hotel employee, even earning him a tip when a customer mistakes him for a bathroom attendant
. This eventually works to his advantage, though, when another hotel guest assumes Marcus is a parking valet and hands him the keys to his Ferrari
. Simon and Marcus jump at this golden opportunity to take the red Ferrari for a spin, winding up at the Crazy Horse
strip club
. En route, Simon discovers a 9 mm pistol in the glove compartment, which he pockets for himself. At the strip club, Marcus warns Simon not to order "champagne" — strip club code for a private lap dance
they cannot afford. However, Simon does precisely that, and he heads to a back room with two dancers and Marcus in tow. Before the lap dance commences, they receive a stern warning from menacing Victor Jr. (Jimmy Shubert), one of the bouncer
s, to behave like gentlemen and not touch the dancers — "or else." Simon hands the bouncer Todd's credit card and he and Marcus enter the back room; the lap dances have barely begun when Simon loses self-control and gropes his dancer. Victor Jr. immediately bursts into the room and begins beating him. Marcus tries to defend Simon and is himself attacked by the bouncer. Simon then draws the gun he found and shoots Victor Jr., wounding him in the arm. Simon and Marcus hastily flee the premises and head back to the hotel.
Simon and Marcus rush into their room and roust up the sickly Tiny and Singh, telling them they have 30 seconds to get up and out. Before they can flee, the Victors Jr. and Sr. (J. E. Freeman
) arrive at their door, so Simon and crew bribe a young boy staying in the next room to open the connecting door for their escape. After a frantic car chase down the Las Vegas Strip
, Simon and his three friends manage to elude their pursuers and reach the highway
back to Los Angeles. They believe they are safe, reasoning that their pursuers would have called the police in Vegas...or so they think. What Simon forgets is that it was Todd's credit card he left back at the strip club.
lovers forced to be decoys in a police sting operation, in exchange for having their own drug charges dropped. In the grocery store parking lot, they test out their hidden microphones; inside, they look for Simon, their usual dealer, but find only Ronna. Later, after the sting goes bad, Burke handcuffs Zack, then makes a bizarre suggestion: Why don't they spend Christmas Eve
at his house? Nervous, they reluctantly accept his invitation.
It is an odd atmosphere in the house, and Zack and Adam have odd encounters with Burke and his wife Irene (Jane Krakowski
). Zack comes out of the bathroom and runs into Burke completely nude; Burke urges him to lie down on his bed and try out some cologne. Adam, meanwhile, meets Irene, who comes on to him and even kisses him full on the lips. Later, when the four sit down to Christmas dinner, Burke explains that he and his wife are the 4th leading sales team in the region for Confederated Products, an Amway
-type retail company, and that virtually everything in the house — from the food to the cologne — is from the company. Burke wants Adam and Zack to sell Confederated products for him. Zack then gets Adam to feign illness to excuse themselves, and they leave the house, uneasy from the evening's events. Adam and Zack engage in small talk and discover that both of them are cheating on each other with the same man, Jimmy, a makeup artist in their television studio. They go to Jimmy's apartment and find out from his sister that he is attending the same rave that they had earlier advertised to Ronna. Adam and Zack show up and get revenge on their mutual two-timing lover by holding Jimmy down and cutting a sizable chunk of his long hair. Satisfied, they leave the party, get into Adam's yellow Miata — and barrel into Ronna, sending her flying into the ditch. Then they see a man with a drawn pistol, Todd, and, terrified, flee the scene.
They stop at a gas station and try to figure out what to do, debating whether Ronna survived the accident and, if so, whether or not the man with the gun finished her off. Adam goes to the toilet where he realizes that he is still wearing the hidden microphone from earlier that afternoon. Panicked, they throw the devices away and drive back to the spot where they hit Ronna. They find her still lying in the ditch, unconscious but alive, and hoist her on top of a nearby car with the alarm blaring. They watch in satisfaction from afar as other partygoers discover Ronna early the next morning and call an ambulance for her.
deal is struck where Victor Jr. gets to shoot Simon in the arm. Just as he is about to get justice, performance anxiety suddenly springs upon Junior and he cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. Claire gets impatient and leaves during his hesitations; as she gets halfway down the hall she hears a gunshot. She flinches and shuts her eyes. Simon calls out: "It's all right... I'm okay!"
Meanwhile, Ronna wakes up in the hospital recovered enough to return to work, happy that, despite the night's batterings, she did indeed make enough money to save herself from eviction. She talks with Claire and suddenly realizes to her horror that she never went back for Mannie, who is presumably still hidden where she left him. They return to the scene and find Mannie there, shivering and terrified, but otherwise okay. They all get into Ronna's car and drive away, and Mannie wonders aloud what they'll do for New Year's
.
(83% from the Cream of the Crop). The film made a profit at the box office, grossing $28.4 million worldwide against a $6.5 million budget.
Because of its irreverent and frequently off-topic dialogue, fast pace, rapidly changing point of view, and achronological format, the film is generally categorized as one of many movies of varying quality that attempted to capture the same style of Quentin Tarantino
's Pulp Fiction
. Leonard Maltin
, who disliked the film, said that Go came off as a "junior Pulp Fiction." However, unlike many of the films in the subgenre, the comparisons were mostly favorable, with Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
stating that "Go is an entertaining, clever black comedy that takes place entirely in Tarantino-land."
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
thriller film written by John August
John August
John August is an American screenwriter and film director. He also writes and maintains the popular screenwriting blog , and develops screenwriter-targeted software....
and directed by Doug Liman
Doug Liman
Douglas Eric "Doug" Liman is an American film director and producer best known for Swingers , The Bourne Identity , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , Jumper , and Fair Game .-Early life:...
, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
. The film stars William Fichtner
William Fichtner
William Edward Fichtner is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break, as William Sharp in Armageddon, and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.- Early life...
, Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
, Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
, Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...
and Scott Wolf
Scott Wolf
Scott Richard Wolf is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series Party of Five as Bailey Salinger and on Everwood as Dr. Jake Hartman. Since 2009, he has appeared in the Sci-Fi series V as the morally ambiguous journalist, Chad Decker.-Early life:Wolf was born in Boston,...
and features Taye Diggs
Taye Diggs
Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice...
, Breckin Meyer
Breckin Meyer
-Early life:Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann , a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. As a child of divorced parents, he lived in California, Texas, West Virginia and New Jersey. He has an older brother,...
, Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
, Desmond Askew
Desmond Askew
Desmond Askew is an English actor of film and television. In 1983 he had the lead role of 'naughty schoolboy' in the promo video of the Wham single Bad Boys. He has appeared in films such as Go , Repli-Kate , The Hills Have Eyes and Turistas...
and J. E. Freeman
J. E. Freeman
J.E. Freeman is an American actor, often cast in tough guy roles.His first movie appearance was in the early 80s actioner An Eye for an Eye in which he plays a tow truck driver who minces words with Chuck Norris....
.
Plot
The film is told out of chronological format, with one of the last scenes appearing first and the story being told from four different points of view. As such, the following summary only generalizes the actual sequence of events which take place.Ronna's story
It is Christmas EveChristmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Adam (Scott Wolf
Scott Wolf
Scott Richard Wolf is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series Party of Five as Bailey Salinger and on Everwood as Dr. Jake Hartman. Since 2009, he has appeared in the Sci-Fi series V as the morally ambiguous journalist, Chad Decker.-Early life:Wolf was born in Boston,...
) and Zack (Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
), a couple of soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
actors, have been busted for narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
s possession. In a plea deal
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
, they will help Officer Burke (William Fichtner
William Fichtner
William Edward Fichtner is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break, as William Sharp in Armageddon, and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.- Early life...
) set up a sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
for Simon (Desmond Askew
Desmond Askew
Desmond Askew is an English actor of film and television. In 1983 he had the lead role of 'naughty schoolboy' in the promo video of the Wham single Bad Boys. He has appeared in films such as Go , Repli-Kate , The Hills Have Eyes and Turistas...
), an occasional drug dealer who sells ecstasy
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
MDMA is an entactogenic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of drugs. In popular culture, MDMA has become widely known as "ecstasy" , usually referring to its street pill form, although this term may also include the presence of possible adulterants...
from his cash register at a local grocery store. Unbeknownst to them, Simon has taken a vacation to Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
. Filling in at his register is Ronna (Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...
), who is facing eviction
Eviction
How you doing???? Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, eviction may also be known as unlawful detainer, summary possession, summary dispossess, forcible detainer, ejectment, and repossession, among other terms...
and desperate for the extra paid hours of income. When the actors ask about Simon and where they might buy some ecstasy, Ronna recognizes a lucrative financial opportunity. She offers to "see what she can do" for them, taking down their address. They give her a flier
Flyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
with the details of a rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
later that evening.
After work, Ronna and co-worker friends Claire (Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
) and Mannie (Nathan Bexton) debate the underground drug trade
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
"rules," such as circumventing Simon to become competing dealers themselves. Ronna decides this will be a one-time-only deal and proceeds to Simon's drug supplier, Todd (Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
). Todd is suspicious of Ronna's sudden interest in dealing drugs, and that the quantity she has requested is the exact amount that constitutes a drug trafficking felony. Reluctantly, he offers to sell her the drugs — at a higher price. Unprepared for the price hike, she offers to leave collateral
Collateral (finance)
In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan.The collateral serves as protection for a lender against a borrower's default - that is, any borrower failing to pay the principal and interest under the terms of a loan obligation...
in exchange for bringing the balance back after the sale is complete, and bullies Claire into being the collateral. Ronna and Mannie then proceed to Adam and Zack's pre-rave party. Ronna goes inside to complete the deal, while Mannie stays in the car and downs two of the pills he swiped from the bottle.
Inside at the "party", there's only Adam and Zack behaving uncomfortably, along with an older man (Officer Burke, undercover) who seems overly focused on finishing the drug deal. Ronna quickly realizes something is amiss here, so she asks to use the restroom before completing the deal. When Zack turns to show Ronna the way to the bathroom, he whispers "Go!" to her. She goes into the bathroom, flushes the drugs down the toilet, and emerges empty-handed. She tells Burke she wasn't able to obtain the drugs after all, and to defend herself from further scrutiny, notes to Burke that she is underage to be drinking the beer he gave her. Realizing he is now on surveillance giving alcohol to a minor, and without evidence to hold her, Burke lets Ronna go.
Ronna, in a state of panic, ponders her situation with Mannie, who is slowly succumbing to the effects of the pills he took. She doesn't have the money to buy Claire's release from Todd, and now she has no drugs to sell. In desperation, she shoplifts a large supply of over-the-counter medication from her own grocery store. Finding pills roughly the same appearance as the ecstasy pills, she refills Todd's bottle and returns to his apartment. She explains to Todd that the deal fell through, gives the "stash" back to him, and frees Claire from collateral duty. Ronna realizes that she's still facing eviction and decides to attend the rave to sell the remaining medication as ecstasy. Her scam works, and she quickly makes enough money to cover her rent. Meanwhile, Todd has discovered the fake pills and shows up to settle the score. He sees Ronna and Mannie from afar and chases them through the dancing crowd. Mannie is too high to run and is slowing them both down. Ronna hides Mannie behind a piece of sheet metal, tells him to keep quiet until she comes back, and runs off alone.
Todd catches up to Ronna in the parking lot. He has a few last words with her about the nature of the illegal drug trade, and takes out a gun. At that very moment, a yellow Mazda Miata swerves around a corner of the parking lot and squarely hits Ronna, sending her flying into a ditch. The driver, in panic from seeing Todd with a gun, flees the scene. Todd leaves Ronna for dead and flees as well.
Simon's story
After recruiting Ronna to cover his shifts at the grocery store, Simon goes off with three of his friends — Marcus (Taye DiggsTaye Diggs
Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice...
), Tiny (Breckin Meyer
Breckin Meyer
-Early life:Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann , a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. As a child of divorced parents, he lived in California, Texas, West Virginia and New Jersey. He has an older brother,...
), and Singh (James Duval
James Duval
James Edward Duval is an American actor, who is most famous for his roles in the Gregg Araki trilogy—Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—in addition to Frank in Donnie Darko, Blank in May, Miguel in Independence Day and Singh in Go.-Personal life:Duval was born in Detroit, Michigan...
) — for some adventures in Las Vegas, footing their hotel bill with the credit card he borrowed from Todd. Shortly after arriving, Tiny and Singh develop bad cases of diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
and are stuck in their hotel room while Simon and Marcus hit the casino. Simon quickly loses much of his money and then wanders into a wedding party on the premises. There, he meets two female guests, with whom he eventually smokes pot and has sex. One of the women accidentally starts a fire in her hotel room, causing Simon to flee naked (clothes in tow) down an elevator.
Putting his clothes back on, he meets up with Marcus back in the casino. Marcus's yellow sport coat gets him mistaken for a hotel employee, even earning him a tip when a customer mistakes him for a bathroom attendant
Bathroom attendant
A washroom attendant, restroom attendant or bathroom attendant, is a Janitor for a public toilet. They maintain and clean the facilities, ensuring that toilet paper, soap, paper towels, and other necessary items are kept stocked...
. This eventually works to his advantage, though, when another hotel guest assumes Marcus is a parking valet and hands him the keys to his Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
. Simon and Marcus jump at this golden opportunity to take the red Ferrari for a spin, winding up at the Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse Too
Crazy Horse Too was a strip club located at 2466 Industrial Road in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada on Industrial Road a few blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip. The club was patterned after the original Crazy Horse Saloon club on Paradise Road, which was owned by Jack Galardi .The club was owned by...
strip club
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
. En route, Simon discovers a 9 mm pistol in the glove compartment, which he pockets for himself. At the strip club, Marcus warns Simon not to order "champagne" — strip club code for a private lap dance
Lap dance
A lap dance is a type of sex work performed in some strip clubs in which a naked or topless dancer performs an erotic dance either in immediate contact with a seated patron, or within a very short distance. With full-contact lap dances, the stripper may engage in non-penetrative sexual contact...
they cannot afford. However, Simon does precisely that, and he heads to a back room with two dancers and Marcus in tow. Before the lap dance commences, they receive a stern warning from menacing Victor Jr. (Jimmy Shubert), one of the bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
s, to behave like gentlemen and not touch the dancers — "or else." Simon hands the bouncer Todd's credit card and he and Marcus enter the back room; the lap dances have barely begun when Simon loses self-control and gropes his dancer. Victor Jr. immediately bursts into the room and begins beating him. Marcus tries to defend Simon and is himself attacked by the bouncer. Simon then draws the gun he found and shoots Victor Jr., wounding him in the arm. Simon and Marcus hastily flee the premises and head back to the hotel.
Simon and Marcus rush into their room and roust up the sickly Tiny and Singh, telling them they have 30 seconds to get up and out. Before they can flee, the Victors Jr. and Sr. (J. E. Freeman
J. E. Freeman
J.E. Freeman is an American actor, often cast in tough guy roles.His first movie appearance was in the early 80s actioner An Eye for an Eye in which he plays a tow truck driver who minces words with Chuck Norris....
) arrive at their door, so Simon and crew bribe a young boy staying in the next room to open the connecting door for their escape. After a frantic car chase down the Las Vegas Strip
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
, Simon and his three friends manage to elude their pursuers and reach the highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
back to Los Angeles. They believe they are safe, reasoning that their pursuers would have called the police in Vegas...or so they think. What Simon forgets is that it was Todd's credit card he left back at the strip club.
Adam and Zack's story
Adam and Zack are actually closeted gayGay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
lovers forced to be decoys in a police sting operation, in exchange for having their own drug charges dropped. In the grocery store parking lot, they test out their hidden microphones; inside, they look for Simon, their usual dealer, but find only Ronna. Later, after the sting goes bad, Burke handcuffs Zack, then makes a bizarre suggestion: Why don't they spend Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
at his house? Nervous, they reluctantly accept his invitation.
It is an odd atmosphere in the house, and Zack and Adam have odd encounters with Burke and his wife Irene (Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...
). Zack comes out of the bathroom and runs into Burke completely nude; Burke urges him to lie down on his bed and try out some cologne. Adam, meanwhile, meets Irene, who comes on to him and even kisses him full on the lips. Later, when the four sit down to Christmas dinner, Burke explains that he and his wife are the 4th leading sales team in the region for Confederated Products, an Amway
Amway
Amway is a direct selling company and manufacturer that uses network marketing to sell a variety of products, primarily in the health, beauty, and home care markets. Amway was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos...
-type retail company, and that virtually everything in the house — from the food to the cologne — is from the company. Burke wants Adam and Zack to sell Confederated products for him. Zack then gets Adam to feign illness to excuse themselves, and they leave the house, uneasy from the evening's events. Adam and Zack engage in small talk and discover that both of them are cheating on each other with the same man, Jimmy, a makeup artist in their television studio. They go to Jimmy's apartment and find out from his sister that he is attending the same rave that they had earlier advertised to Ronna. Adam and Zack show up and get revenge on their mutual two-timing lover by holding Jimmy down and cutting a sizable chunk of his long hair. Satisfied, they leave the party, get into Adam's yellow Miata — and barrel into Ronna, sending her flying into the ditch. Then they see a man with a drawn pistol, Todd, and, terrified, flee the scene.
They stop at a gas station and try to figure out what to do, debating whether Ronna survived the accident and, if so, whether or not the man with the gun finished her off. Adam goes to the toilet where he realizes that he is still wearing the hidden microphone from earlier that afternoon. Panicked, they throw the devices away and drive back to the spot where they hit Ronna. They find her still lying in the ditch, unconscious but alive, and hoist her on top of a nearby car with the alarm blaring. They watch in satisfaction from afar as other partygoers discover Ronna early the next morning and call an ambulance for her.
Conclusion
It is dawn now, and Claire, who does not know what happened to Ronna, leaves the rave and goes to the diner where she usually meets Ronna when they get separated. She encounters Todd; they engage in small talk, then realize they are attracted to each other. They end up kissing and groping in the stairwell of Todd's house, where they are discovered by none other than Victor Jr. and Victor Sr., the Crazy Horse bouncers who are after Simon and have tracked him through Todd's credit card. Todd explains they have the wrong man; he begins to draw out directions to Simon's place, when Simon himself walks into Todd's apartment — ironically, to seek refuge from the bouncers. At first they want to kill him, but Claire points out that she and Todd would be witnesses to the crime. So an "eye for an eye"An eye for an eye
The meaning of the principle, an eye for an eye, is that a person who has injured another person receives the same injury in compensation. The exact Latin to English translation of this phrase is actually "The law of retaliation." At the root of this principle is that one of the purposes of the...
deal is struck where Victor Jr. gets to shoot Simon in the arm. Just as he is about to get justice, performance anxiety suddenly springs upon Junior and he cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. Claire gets impatient and leaves during his hesitations; as she gets halfway down the hall she hears a gunshot. She flinches and shuts her eyes. Simon calls out: "It's all right... I'm okay!"
Meanwhile, Ronna wakes up in the hospital recovered enough to return to work, happy that, despite the night's batterings, she did indeed make enough money to save herself from eviction. She talks with Claire and suddenly realizes to her horror that she never went back for Mannie, who is presumably still hidden where she left him. They return to the scene and find Mannie there, shivering and terrified, but otherwise okay. They all get into Ronna's car and drive away, and Mannie wonders aloud what they'll do for New Year's
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
.
Cast
- William FichtnerWilliam FichtnerWilliam Edward Fichtner is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break, as William Sharp in Armageddon, and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.- Early life...
as Burke - Desmond AskewDesmond AskewDesmond Askew is an English actor of film and television. In 1983 he had the lead role of 'naughty schoolboy' in the promo video of the Wham single Bad Boys. He has appeared in films such as Go , Repli-Kate , The Hills Have Eyes and Turistas...
as Simon Baines - Scott WolfScott WolfScott Richard Wolf is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series Party of Five as Bailey Salinger and on Everwood as Dr. Jake Hartman. Since 2009, he has appeared in the Sci-Fi series V as the morally ambiguous journalist, Chad Decker.-Early life:Wolf was born in Boston,...
as Adam - Jay MohrJay MohrJay Mohr is an American actor and stand up comedian. He is known for his role as Professor Rick Payne in the TV series Ghost Whisperer, the title role in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried, which ran from 2008 to 2010, and the back-stabbing sports agent Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.-Early life:Mohr was...
as Zack - Sarah PolleySarah PolleySarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...
as Ronna Martin - Timothy OlyphantTimothy OlyphantTimothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
as Todd Gaines - Katie HolmesKatie HolmesKatherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
as Claire Montgomery - Nathan Bexton as Mannie
- Tony DenmanTony DenmanAnthony Richard "Tony" Denman is an American actor.-Filmography:*Little Big League , Phil*Angus , Kid*Fargo , Scotty Lundegaard*Go , Track suit guy...
as Track Suit Guy - Taye DiggsTaye DiggsScott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice...
as Marcus - Breckin MeyerBreckin Meyer-Early life:Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann , a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. As a child of divorced parents, he lived in California, Texas, West Virginia and New Jersey. He has an older brother,...
as Tiny - James DuvalJames DuvalJames Edward Duval is an American actor, who is most famous for his roles in the Gregg Araki trilogy—Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—in addition to Frank in Donnie Darko, Blank in May, Miguel in Independence Day and Singh in Go.-Personal life:Duval was born in Detroit, Michigan...
as Singh - J. E. FreemanJ. E. FreemanJ.E. Freeman is an American actor, often cast in tough guy roles.His first movie appearance was in the early 80s actioner An Eye for an Eye in which he plays a tow truck driver who minces words with Chuck Norris....
as Victor, Sr. - Jimmy Shubert as Victor, Jr.
- Jane KrakowskiJane KrakowskiJane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...
as Irene - Scott Hass as Raver Dude
- Tane McClureTane McClureTané McClure is an American singer, actress and film producer.McClure was born in Los Angeles County, California and raised in Hawaii. She is the daughter of actor Doug McClure. She sang in a Latin jazz band, Sweet Honesty, in the mid-1970s, and moved to San Francisco towards the end of the decade...
as Holly - Suzanne KrullSuzanne Krull-Filmography:*Good Luck Charlie - Joyce*Mr. Sunshine *Desperate Housewives *General Hospital *That's So Raven - Dog Show Host*ER *Lost...
as Stringy Haired Woman - Rita Bland as Dancing Register Woman
- Natasha MelnickNatasha MelnickNatasha Melnick is an American television and film actress. She may be best known for her portrayal of Cindy Sanders on the short-lived NBC dramedy Freaks and Geeks.-Career:Melnick was born in Los Angeles, California...
as Anorexic Girl - Robert PetersRobert PetersRobert Louis Peters is a poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He holds a Ph.D in Victorian literature. His poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis...
as Switterman - Jodi Bianca Wise as Ballerina Girl
- Nikki Fritz as Noelle
Reception
Critics generally found Gos fast pace and light-hearted feel appealing, and the film received a 92% "fresh" rating from Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
(83% from the Cream of the Crop). The film made a profit at the box office, grossing $28.4 million worldwide against a $6.5 million budget.
Because of its irreverent and frequently off-topic dialogue, fast pace, rapidly changing point of view, and achronological format, the film is generally categorized as one of many movies of varying quality that attempted to capture the same style of Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
. Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, who disliked the film, said that Go came off as a "junior Pulp Fiction." However, unlike many of the films in the subgenre, the comparisons were mostly favorable, with Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
stating that "Go is an entertaining, clever black comedy that takes place entirely in Tarantino-land."
Soundtrack
- "NewNew (song)"New" is a song by the rock band No Doubt, written by Tom Dumont and Gwen Stefani for the Go soundtrack . It was later included on No Doubt's fourth studio album Return of Saturn .The song is heavily influenced by New Wave music...
" – No DoubtNo DoubtNo Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact... - "Steal My SunshineSteal My Sunshine"Steal My Sunshine" is a song written by Marc Costanzo for Len's third album You Can't Stop the Bum Rush. The backdrop is based on a sample of a short instrumental portion of Andrea True Connection's 1976 disco single "More, More, More"...
" – LENLen (band)Len is a Canadian alternative rock group from Toronto, Ontario. They are best known as a one-hit wonder for their song "Steal My Sunshine" in 1999. The band consists of siblings Marc Costanzo and Sharon Costanzo .-Studio albums:... - "Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix)" – Philip SteirPhilip SteirPhilip Steir is a musician, remixer, composer and music producer.- Life and career :As a drummer, he played in the critically acclaimed band Consolidated he co-founded, which was signed to Nettwerk Records and later London Records. Consolidated released five albums between 1990-1996...
- "Troubled by the Way We Came Together" – Natalie ImbrugliaNatalie ImbrugliaNatalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian singer-songwriter, model and actress. In the early 1990s, Imbruglia was known to audiences as Beth Brennan in the popular Australian soap Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, Imbruglia launched a singing career with the international hit,...
- "Gangster Trippin'" – Fatboy SlimFatboy SlimNorman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...
- "Cha Cha Cha ('Go' Remix)" – Jimmy Luxury & The Tommy Rome OrchestraJimmy luxuryJimmy Luxury, also known as Jimmy Luxury and the Tommy Rome Orchestra, is a two-man swing-hop group from Massachusetts in the United States....
- "Song for Holly" – EstheroEstheroEsthero ,born Jenny-Bea Englishman, is a Canadian singer-songwriter who currently lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc McKinney...
- "Fire Up the Shoesaw (LP Version)" – LionrockLionrockLionrock was a British big beat group, comprising record producer Justin Robertson, MC Buzz B, and Roger Lyons. Lyons replaced recording engineer Mark Stagg in 1995...
- "To All the Lovely Ladies (Radio Mix)" – Goldo
- "Good to Be Alive" – DJ RapDJ RapCharissa Saverio is a British drum and bass, house music and progressive electronic music disc jockey.-Biography:...
- "Believer" – BTBT (musician)Brian Wayne Transeau is a classically trained and Grammy-nominated American music producer, composer, audio technician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter better known by his stage name, BT. He is an artist in the electronic genre...
- "Shooting Up in Vain (T-Ray Remix)" – Eagle-Eye CherryEagle-Eye CherryEagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry is a Swedish musician of African-American descent.-Life and career:Cherry was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of African American jazz artist Don Cherry and Swedish painter/textile artist Monika "Moki" Cherry . He is half-brother of singer Neneh Cherry, his mother's...
- "Talisman" – Air
- "SwordsSwords (song)"Swords" is a song by Leftfield, released as the third single from their album Rhythm and Stealth. It was also their last single release. The song featured vocals by Nicole Willis...
" – LeftfieldLeftfieldLeftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
In popular culture
- The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Trilogy of ErrorTrilogy of Error"Trilogy of Error" is the eighteenth episode of the twelfth season, and the 266th overall, of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was originally aired on April 29, 2001 by the Fox Broadcasting Company...
" is, according to the writers' commentary, based on this film.