Plot

A suicidal loan officer is about to jump off the bank roof after seeing her lover/boss's pregnant wife, when a bank robber grabs her as hostage. She helps him escape.

Shawn Holloway has a miserable life since she was eleven, when her father left her mother and she stayed alone with her problematic mother. Presently she is graduated, works in a bank and is the mistress of her married colleague Matthew Richmond. When she finds that Matthew's wife is pregnant, she decides to commit suicide. She goes to the roof of the building, drinks some vodka, trying to get enough courage to jump to the floor. The neighbors see the scene and call the police to save Shawn. Meanwhile, the bank where she works is being robbed by Charlie Anders and two friends of him. When the cops arrive to save Shawn, the heist is in progress and the police shoot one robber, the driver escapes and Charlie runs to the top of the building. There, he does not allow Shawn to jump off and saves her. They make an agreement: she would help him to escape, and he would give US$ 50,000.00 to her and kill her later with a shot in the head.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Her goldfish dead, her lover exposed as a rat, Shawn Holloway leaves her bank post and goes to the roof intent on suicide. Before she can leap, she's taken hostage by Charlie Anders, a fleeing bank robber. He and his partners have stolen a million in cash and plan to escape to Venezuela. Shawn agrees to cooperate if Charlie promises to kill her once he's in the clear. Parts of the plan go awry, so Charlie has time to try to pierce her bleak manner and self pity, and she has time for reflection. As night falls, their interlude ends: they're each alone, Charlie facing prison as the police close in, and Shawn staring down at a river from atop a high bridge.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

The movie opens with a shot of two people leaping from a bridge into the water below. The camera is panned out too far to determine anything about the two jumpers.

Fade out and back in, 24 hours earlier; in the apartment of Shawn Holloway (Selma Blair), a young woman whose life is going nowhere fast. We then see repeatedly shifting shots of Shawn hanging upside down from her window sill, smoking two cigarettes simultaneously, one in each hand; interspersed with Charlie Anders (Max Beesley), a young man playing a full set of drums.

Shawn crawls back into her apartment and to her bed, where her lover, Matthew (D.W. Moffett) still sleeps. She brusquely awakens him, only to promptly get an earful of laments as to how Matthew is going to explain his all-night absences to his wife, as he hurriedly dresses.

Shawn's relationship with Matthew is going nowhere either, as he's too spineless to leave his wife. Looking gloomy, she stomps into her bathroom and sits down, grabbing a shaving razor and putting it to her wrist, although she's barely able to nick it before she throws the razor aside and grabs another cigarette, having to listen to Matthew drone on about how his wife cancelled a planned trip she was going to take, forcing Matthew to have to back out of a planned trip to Tahoe he'd been planning with Shawn.

After Matthew leaves, a morose Shawn drowns her sorrows in more tobacco, until it's time to shower and dress. But the emotional pressure continues to build until she screams in anger.

7:30 am: Charlie shaves as Shawn has finished dressing. The forecasted weather for the day matches Shawn's mood pretty nicely, although she couldn't care less. And it's about to get worse for Shawn as she grabs her boots, and spots her goldfish floating lifelessly in its fishbowl.

Meanwhile, Charlie is picked up for work by two car pool mates: Billy (Brendan Fehr), who's around his age, and a much older man named Jason (Tom Heaton), who suffers from a prostate condition.

Needing someone to comfort her, Shawn calls her father Lyle (Marcel Maillard), only to find him so wrapped up in playing with a newborn daughter he's fathered with a new wife, that he hardly has any time for her and barely pays attention. Shawn finally tells him that she's doing fine, and hangs up. Grabbing a plastic trash bag, she begins stuffing all of Matthew's things into it.

9:15 am: Shawn is at work as a loan officer for a bank, interviewing a married couple expecting their first baby, who are applying for a home loan. The wife is delighted to hear that they qualify for the loan, but Shawn launches into a droning pitch about how the eventual reimbursement requirements could leave the couple too cash-strapped to put their child through college, or handle any of numerous other 'what-if' possibilities that can arise. The husband is summarily intimidated into wanting to rethink and consider further, prompting the wife to angrily take her feelings out on Shawn.

Shawn picks up the trash bag and goes to see her boss and the bank vice-president... Matthew. She tells him the affair is over, as it's clear she can't compete with Matthew's wife, and sharing him behind the wife's back is proving torturous. Matthew tries to plead for more time for things for the two of them to get back on track. But a surprise visit from Matthew's wife shoots this down rather permanently; Shawn sees that Matthew's wife is pregnant. She's expecting a baby with Matthew.

Shawn sits at her desk, her whole world crumbling around her as she tries to hold back tears. Grabbing a bottle of liquor from her desk drawer, Shawn curls up on the bank building's roof, smoking and drinking, trying to blot out all her misery.

An armored car pulls up to make a pickup from the bank as Shawn climbs up and teeters on the edge of the roof's railing. She's reached the end of the rope and is hoping to work up enough courage to commit suicide.

Two men in ski masks, and carrying guns, jump the armored car pickup and demand the money being loaded aboard. A robbery starts to go down. One of them punches Matthew right in the nose as the armored car drives off.

Across the street, an office worker glances out his window and notices Shawn standing on the ledge, working up her courage to jump. He grabs his phone and calls emergency services to report it.

Police and firefighters arrive to stop Shawn's suicide. The robbers note the arrival and think police are already responding to the robbery. They retreat into the bank looking to run through it and escape.

Billy sits in his car, alone, watching the police. Seeing them look up at the roof, he follows their gaze and sees Shawn. Billy, Charlie and Jay are the bank robbery crew, and Shawn's intended suicide threatens to derail it.

Shawn screams angrily at the cops that they can't stop her from killing herself. Just at that moment, Charlie and Jay, still masked and carrying the stolen money, run through the bank proper. Jay runs out the front doors, running right smack into police responders. He dashes for Billy's car, but one of the cops shoots him in the buttocks. This scares Billy and he drives off in a real hurry, leaving Charlie alone in the bank, without his escape ride.

Charlie panics and charges blindly into a set of stairs, climbing as fast as he can while a pursuing cop shoots at him. With nowhere else to go but to continue up the stairs, Charlie continues climbing. Oblivious to all this, Shawn drinks from her bottle, more and more quickly in hopes it will finally unsteady her balance enough to make her fall.

The cop pursuing Charlie trips and bangs his shin on one of the steps, breaking his pursuit. Unable to open a locked door back into the building proper, Charlie continues running up the stairs.

Shawn is finally ready to jump, and begins leaning further and further forward to meet her maker. But Charlie bursts out onto the the roof and sees her. Grabbing her from behind, he yanks her to safety and menaces her with his gun, trying to sound frightening, and threatening to shoot her if she doesn't cooperate. But Shawn eagerly yells at him to go ahead and shoot her; that it's the biggest favor he can do her right now. At first, Charlie doesn't take her seriously, and the pursuing police officer finally makes it to the roof and begins a stand-off with Charlie, but he backs down when Charlie challenges the cop if he wants Shawn's death on his conscience.

More police arrive, including detectives McGinley (O'Neal Compton) and Reed (Lochlyn Munro). They find that the robbery was interrupted by a call on a woman looking to jump from the roof.

Meanwhile, Charlie is left with a hostage who wants to die, and is ready to provoke him into shooting her. Cornered, scared and only wanting to get away, Charlie manages to make a half-witted bargain with Shawn; help him, and he'll help her. If she acts as a hostage and helps Charlie get to safety, then once he's out of danger, he'll put her out of her misery-- "I'll kill you later (thus the title of the movie)." Shawn has nothing to lose; Charlie has everything. Pulling off his mask, he makes a final plea. Shawn warily agrees to the deal.

McGinley and Reed are settling in for dealing with a hostage situation when McGinley is distracted by a call from his untrusting and needy wife. SWAT arrives on the scene.

To escape SWAT snipers, Charlie and Shawn jump down to another ledge a few floors down and slip back into the bank; Charlie grabbing a woman's coat off a hanger to hide. Inside the coat pocket is a valet ticket that will let them grab a car and escape.

Shawn claims the car with the ticket, but it's a manual clutch that she doesn't know how to drive. Worse, after Charlie sneaks in, Shawn sees two officers inspecting all cars at the gate. Finally he thrusts his own foot down to floor the gas and burst through the gate, alerting the officers at the checkpoint.

Shawn cannot control the car properly, and finally she and Charlie get out and abandon it, running on foot; Charlie throwing aside the coat. The car, which had started to be driven up a hill, rolls back down and whacks into the pursuing police cars, interrupting pursuit.

Charlie and Shawn duck behind a dumpster and then climb into a meat truck to hide. When the truck stops, they hurry out and run through the city, though they can still hear the sirens of police cars searching for them. They keep running until they can no longer hear the pursuing sirens. On a main street, blending in with other pedestrians, they're safe. Charlie and Shawn appear to have made good their escape. All that remains is for Charlie to hold up his end of the bargain and kill Shawn-- exactly what he's never really had the heart or nerve to do. He also reminds shawn of the difference between suicide and murder. To her outrage, he tells her that she'll just have to step in front of one of the passing streetcars and let it run her down.

As Charlie walks away, Shawn does just that; she steps into the path of an oncoming streetcar. Before it can reach her, Charlie runs back and pulls her to safety. Shawn shows she's lifted his wallet and has his name and social security code memorized, using them as blackmail. Frustrated and desperate, Charlie tries to bribe Shawn, though he says she has to do what he says and not piss about it.

11:30 am. McGinley and Reed question Matthew for what he remembers about the robbery. They also ask about the girl on the roof whose intended suicide botched the robbery up. Matthew denies seeing any girl on the roof, although when McGinley describes the girl's brunette hair and black suit, Matthew realizes it's Shawn. He still denies knowing anything about her, although McGinley and Reed can tell by his look that he knows something. Reed begins to suspect that the robbery itself might even be a set-up, with Matthew behind it. McGinley can't deny the look in Matthew's eyes when Shawn was discussed. Another amusing subplot emerges as we see Reed deliver a very detailed lecture on the nature of suicide and people looking to kill themselves. McGinley is harassed by his wife again on the phone.

Charlie finally starts to break through and gets a smile out of Shawn when he puts her cigarette in his mouth backward, in a joking impression of a train.

McGinley and Reed have a composite sketch of Shawn made, and they show it to Matthew. He says the drawing isn't familiar, but he's busted in humiliating fashion when his secretary brings in some papers and looks at the drawing, immediately telling the detectives who Shawn is and that she works at the bank, and that she and Matthew were 'very close.'

Charlie brings Shawn to his ex-girlfriend (Sarah Chalke) Linda's apartment as the ex's elderly neighbor, Mrs. Sabatini (Bethoe Shirkoff), looks on with scorn; she always disliked Charlie. Shawn sees that Charlie has a young daughter with Linda, although the child doesn't know that Charlie is her father. Charlie asks to borrow Linda's car, saying she can report it stolen if it's not returned in two days. Linda shows that granting the favor is going far against her better judgment, as she goes to get the keys.

The two drive in silence, listening to the radio report on the search for Charlie and Billy, who's also still at large. Shawn finally mocks Charlie as spineless and irresponsible in having children and abandoning them. This pisses Charlie off and he puts Shawn in her place with a stern lecture about what really happened-- he spent two years in jail for a petty crime, and Linda stopped visiting him, and started seeing another man. When Charlie was released, he saw Linda with her new man, and Molly thinking that was her father, since he loved her and treated her like a daughter. Rather than blow his cool and start any fights, Charlie forced himself to swallow his pride, and stepped away for his daughter's sake, because the arrangement was right for her.

McGinley and Reed speak to Shawn's father, although it's his wife who tells most of the story about how Shawn's mother drank herself to death after her divorce, and Shawn's father still was a good parent to her, putting her through school and college and taking her to movies.

4:45 pm: McGinley and Reed hear that Jason is out of recovery after the hospital treated his bullet wound. Meanwhile, Charlie and Shawn arrive back at a shipwright building where Charlie has a hideout. Charlie's been refurbishing a boat there that he intends to use to escape to Mexico. Billy hasn't arrived back yet (he's gone to see his girlfriend Heather (Keegan Connor Tracy), an exotic dancer), and Charlie says they'll wait until 11 pm for him. Heather doesn't want to make time for Billy, until he tells her he has a lot of money on him.

At the hospital, McGinley and Reed try to grill Jason about his accomplices. Jason, however, is condescending and obnoxious, refusing to talk without his lawyer present.

Heather has a near orgasmic experience looking at the money from the robbery, and tries to sweet talk Billy into forgetting about Charlie (who's still being sought by the police) and run away with her and the money. Billy struggles to maintain his sense of loyalty to Charlie and to stick with 'the plan.'

As they wait, Charlie continues to break down Shawn's heavy shell of self-pity. They talk about their dreams (Charlie wants to build a restaurant on a beach in Venezuela) and share some life stories. An innocent remark by Shawn about the Hava Nagila dance sparks an old memory in Charlie and he treats Shawn to her first dose of real fun in some time by getting her to dance with him.

11:25 pm: Billy hasn't returned yet, and Charlie tells Shawn they're leaving the boat.

11:40 pm: Mrs. Sabatini watches the evening news and sees a report that includes Shawn's name and inset photo, listing her as the hostage taken in the bank robbery. Mrs. Sabatini immediately recognizes Shawn's face and grabs her phone to call the police. Reed tells McGinley he's gotten Charlie's name and the license plate of Linda's car, which Charlie had borrowed. An APB is already out. Reed puzzles McGinley by reciting more trivia on suicides.

Charlie finds Billy at Heather's apartment and confronts him. Billy doesn't want to leave without Heather (who isn't home at the moment), while Charlie tries to tell Billy that Heather cares far more about the money than about Billy himself. Charlie challenges Billy to convince Heather to run away with him if he has only $5000 of the money.

McGinley and Reed grill Jason at the hospital again, telling him he's looking at life in San Quentin if he doesn't cooperate. Jason isn't scared, believing he doesn't have much longer to live due to his problems with his liver and prostate. But in his bravado, he accidentally lets slip a major clue: That Shawn, hostage or not, isn't 'the fourth one.' There are four people in the robbery plan, not just Jason, Charlie and Billy.

1:15 am: Charlie gives Shawn the $50,000 bribe money he's promised her, and tries to tell her he'll always remember everything she's done for him. Shawn starts to cry again and runs toward the beach, intent on running into the water and drowning herself. Charlie stops her, and she begs him to take her with him. Staying with Charlie is the one thing that will give her something to live for.

A police siren alerts them to trouble: An officer gets out of a squad car and starts examining their vehicle. Despite Shawn's tearful pleas to run with her, Charlie insists on recovering the rest of the money, which is still in the station wagon.

As the officer returns to his car, Charlie sneaks around the front of the car and tries to hurry away. The officer shoots at the car, and Charlie is hit. Shawn races to the car and climbs in, driving away. Reed reports to McGinley. All hospitals and ER's have been put on alert and are being checked. Reed has also found photo booth snapshots in Matthew's office, showing Shawn kissing Matthew, along with brochures for a getaway vacation. Unfortunately this only proves Matthew was having an affair with Shawn, nothing more.

Shawn and Charlie ditch the car at a bus stop and ride a bus, climbing Shawn's fire escape to enter her apartment. Charlie just has a graze wound on the side of his shoulder; it hurts but he'll be okay. Shawn treats it at best she can with some supplies in her medicine cabinet.

Charlie and Shawn hear the sound of entry into the apartment. They blow out the candle they'd been using-- the only light they'd allowed themselves, since police are watching her apartment-- and Charlie readies his gun to confront the intruder.

The intruder is Matthew... and he and Charlie know each other. Reed was right in his theory: The whole robbery was a setup orchestrated by Matthew himself. Matthew invested in what he thought was a sure get-rich quick scheme; a company intended to process chicken droppings into cow feed. Matthew embezzled a quarter million from the bank, only to see it all gone when the cows didn't like the manufactured feed. He hired Charlie to rob the armored car so he could put the embezzled money back before the bank noticed. Matthew hid the stock certificates for the investment in Shawn's apartment; he's come to retrieve them. Matthew and Shawn have it out over their affair (Matthew never intended to dump his wife for Shawn, and sees her suicide attempt, that started the whole mess, as pathetic).

Charlie points out plainclothes officers staking the apartment out, which sends Matthew into a panic. Charlie grabs the stock certificates back and tells Matthew that he needs to walk out, and tell the officer that he came to Shawn's house to pray for her safety. This also creates a distraction so Charlie and Shawn can escape the way they came in, through the fire escape.

Charlie's warning to Billy comes true: Heather blows her stack and dumps Billy in brutal fashion. Billy plus a rather small portion of the robbery money equals nothing that Heather had any interest in.

Shawn tries to hail a cab while arguing with Charlie. She intends to get a ride to the Burrad bridge and jump. Charlie tells her that her self-pity and self-loathing are what drive her to affairs with men like Matthew who care nothing for her, so that her cycle of despair can self-perpetuate. A cab stops, Shawn gets in, and rides off.

3:45 am: Reed reports more findings to McGinley. He's checked all records at the bank going back two months and found enough evidence for an arrest warrant. Matthew was grabbed at the airport and started 'crying like a baby.' McGinley finds it incredulous that Shawn was going to commit suicide over her failed affair with Matthew, and when Reed goes into another monologue of suicide-related trivia, McGinley finally pushes him to admit why he's become such a know-it-all on the nature of suicide: Reed lost a sister he was very close to, that way. She killed herself.

Shawn is dropped off at her father's house. Lyle has little time to express his relief, however: Shawn came to give him the money she was given by Charlie, calling it reimbursement for everything he spent on her after the divorce from her mother. Shawn finally calls her father out on how her mother wasted away after the divorce and Shawn had to take care of her despite being only eleven at the time of the divorce. Shawn understood her father leaving her mother, but could never understand how he left Shawn. Lyle can say nothing as Shawn hurries back to her cab.

Charlie finds Billy back at the boat. Billy tells him about how Heather dumped him. Charlie tells Billy that police only know one more suspect is at large, and Billy hasn't been identified yet. He needs to return home and go straight, and try to rebuild his life.

The cab drops Shawn off at the bridge. After paying the cabbie, Shawn discreetly leaves her purse in the backseat. As she sits on the railing of the bridge, Charlie grabs his motorcycle and drives off. He escapes just as police cruisers converge on the shipwright building. Shawn lights up a cigarette, but can't finish it. Again she wrestles with herself, conflicted on whether to jump. Charlie gives the pursuing police cruisers the slip as Shawn cries miserably.

Morning has risen. Shawn still stands on the bridge. She smiles in elation as Charlie comes riding up. Charlie asks her if she'd wait for him, if he turned himself in for his part in the robbery. Shawn says she'd wait a million years. Having Charlie gives her a purpose in life again.

Charlie suddenly has another idea; they could jump from the bridge and swim together to safety. Shawn just has to trust in him.

Police cruisers approach. Charlie and Shawn stand together on the railing. Together they leap from the bridge, as in the first scene of the movie.

McGinley and Reed arrive at the spot where Charlie and Shawn jumped. They find that Charlie left behind his duffel bag with the stolen money. Recovering it for the bank, the two officers decide to report the young lovers as having jumped to their deaths, and with the money retrieved and Matthew in custody for masterminding the robbery, the case can be closed.

Shawn sits on a rocky beachhead before a small makeshift campsite. Charlie comes out of the treeline, leading a Mexican mariachi band and holding a bouquet of roses. Shawn laughs happily as Charlie picks her up over his shoulder and runs into the surf, carrying her with him.

A series of title cards shows what becomes of the major cast in the movie:

Jason did not die, and now coaches senior volleyball at the prison where he's serving a five-year sentence.

McGinley took his wife on a well-deserved Carribean cruise.

Billy, never identified as a suspect in the robbery, went straight and got a job in construction, and met a new girl.

And the get-rich-quick scheme takes off, as the chicken shit just needed a little salt in order to be processed into a feed that the cows loved. The stock certificates become worthwhile. With the money from the stock, Charlie and Shawn escape to the mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico, open their little cafe together, and proudly serve the finest margaritas in town.