Trama

A movie special effects man is hired to fake a real-life mob killing for a witness protection plan, but finds his own life in danger.

Rollie is an expert in the art of special effects (F/X) and has a reputation built on many low-budget hack-and-slash films (including such titles as "I Dismember Momma") and is quite surprised to find that the FBI has a job for him. He is to stage the murder of a gangster who is about to enter the Witness Protection Program. He agrees, but then things get complicated. All the while, a New York City police detective, Leo McCarthy, is investigating the faked murder and can't understand why the FBI is even less helpful than usual.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

The story opens at a fancy Manhattan restaurant where an elegantly dressed woman is enjoying a night out. As she and her companion enjoy a fine dinner, another man walks up to her with a submachine gun and begins blasting, killing several people. He confronts the woman last and shoots her dead over her pleas.

Suddenly a voice yells "CUT!!" The restaurant is actually a movie set and the murdered woman, Ellen Keith (Diane Venora), pops up. The shooting was a illusion created by her boyfriend, Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) a visual effects wizard. Tyler, working with his assistant, Andy (Martha Gehman), is approached by a man claiming to be a producer who wants to hire Tyler for his next film. At Rollie's shop in SoHo, the producer, after being scared out of his wits by a giant rubber monster that Rollie has wired to his front door, reveals that he isn't actually in the movie business but is an agent working for the Justice Department named Lipton (Cliff De Young). He wants Rollie to work his expertise in creating the illusion that a mob boss, Nick DeFranco (Jerry Orbach), has been killed publicly. DeFranco is set to testify to a grand jury about the Mafia's inner dealings and Justice wants him to appear murdered until the jury hearing. Rollie is emphatically reluctant at first but when he meets with Lipton's boss, Mason (Mason Adams), he's baited into the job when they mention Rollie's biggest competitor in the business. Rollie decides to take the job.

Lipton meets Rollie at his shop and is surprised when he finds Rollie pointing a gun at him. Rollie questions him in a rapid-fire manner and fires a shot with a blank cartridge. Lipton is angered by the exchange but backs off a bit when Rollie shows him how the illusion he'll use works on the monster rigged to his door. It involves a radio transmitter and explosive squibs to simulate bullet hits. Lipton is impressed.

Lipton brings DeFranco by to have him rigged for the illusion: Rollie takes a plaster cast of DeFranco's upper chest and head and builds the plates necessary to place the squibs on the mob boss. Mason later meets with Rollie personally and asks him to be the trigger man since he knows the job and can work the equipment better than anyone else. Rollie becomes very reluctant but agrees with the promise that he'll be fully protected.

Outside the restaurant where the assassination is planned, Rollie and Lipton get DeFranco ready. Rollie notices Lipton playing with the prop pistol and orders him to put it down. At first DeFranco is hesitant to try the radio box used to trigger the squibs because of his pacemaker but Rollie proves the amperage won't have an effect. DeFranco is sent out to the restaurant and Lipton has Rollie destroy the plaster casting of DeFranco's head.

The assassination goes off perfectly and Rollie runs out of the place and jumps in a car with Lipton and a driver. After questioning Rollie about how the stunt went, he pulls a gun on Rollie, saying he's a loose end. Rollie grapples with Lipton and the car careens into a construction site and crashes. Rollie escapes to a pay phone a few blocks away and calls Mason. Mason tells Rollie that Lipton might be a mole they've been looking for. He tells Rollie to stay by the phone and that an NYPD car will pick him up. Rollie gives the phone booth to another person and hides nearby. When the cops show up they riddle the booth with bullets, killing the other caller. Rollie escapes again, going to Ellen's apartment in SoHo. He tries to figure out the turn of events and determines that Mason and Lipton will continue to hunt him.

When he and Ellen wake up the next morning, she suggests he call the media. When she steps to the window and opens the curtain, she's immediately shot through the chest. Rollie looks for her killer with a compact mirror and then has to hide when he hears someone approaching the loft door. He surprises the assassin and manages to tie him up briefly. After he checks on Ellen, who's dead, he beats the assassin, demanding to know if he works for Mason. The assassin puts up a good fight but Rollie eventually knocks him cold with a steam iron and beats him to death. Before he leaves her loft, he takes Ellen's body and places it on her bed.

The NYPD sends a homicide team to the apartment. One of them, Mickey (Joe Grifasi) calls another detective, Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy) to the scene. After getting some of the details, he reports to police plaza downtown and runs into Lt. Murdoch, who'd just had a meeting with Lipton and Mason about DeFranco's murder. Mason and Lipton had played up the angle that DeFranco had somehow slipped them to get to the restaurant. Though Mason gives Lipton and chewing out, it's a ruse designed to throw Murdoch off the trail. When Leo finds Murdoch, he offers to take the DeFranco murder off his hands -- previously, Leo had been the lead investigator who'd brought DeFranco in. Murdoch refuses to give up the case. Leo checks with a records specialist, Velez (Jossie DeGuzman) and finds out that the dead man in Ellen's apartment, Adams, has virtually no information available as to his current position. Mickey arrives and tells Leo that Ellen and Rollie had been a hot item before her murder and that Rollie had disappeared a couple of days before. Leo charges Mickey with finding Rollie's address and Velez with finding out more about Adams.

Rollie places a call to his assistant Andy and tells her to meet him at the boathouse at the Conservatory in Central Park. She arrives, towing a small makeup kit and one of Mason's men. Andy gives the man a boat under the pretext of it being a signal to meet Rollie, but when the man puts the boat in the water, Rollie charges him, pushing him into the pond. Rollie and Andy escape into the park, finding refuge in a hidden chamber under a pedestrian bridge. Rollie explains a little of the situation and disguises them as homeless people. Rollie later calls Mason, using a simple trick with payphones and telling Lipton to meet him at a specific location. When Lipton gets into his car, Rollie throws a garrote around his neck and forces him to drive to a remote location. He takes Andy out of the trunk and puts Lipton in, demanding to know Mason's address. When Lipton refuses, he smashes the rear end of the car into several obstacles until the beaten Lipton agrees to talk.

Leo and Mickey enter Rollie's shop without a warrant, scared by the rubber monster. After looking around a bit, Leo finds a connection: the fake bullet hits to the monster match those that killed DeFranco.

Before he can clear his name, Rollie needs to get his van out of the impound lot on the West Side. Leo had charged Mickey with watching the van. Rollie and Andy sneak into the lot. Rollie has Andy place several small and harmless explosives around the lot as a distraction. Rollie roars out of the lot and Mickey gives chase, following Rollie through the meatpacking district in Chelsea. Rollie and Andy are able to place a few traps that stop the cops but Mickey persists until Andy throws a mannequin into the street, stopping the chase. Rollie suddenly pulls over, thinking something's wrong with his truck. He fools Andy into stepping out and he takes off, not wanting her to get involved any further.

Leo, having found out that DeFranco is staying at Mason's house, wants to go out there and arrest him but his superior officer puts him on suspension for interfering with the case. Leo appears to take it pretty hard but does so to steal the Captain's badge. He goes to Mason's mansion and gets the local police to help him secure the front gate.

Meanwhile, Rollie has managed to subdue several of Mason's guards and sneak into the house. He uses sound effects devices and a mirror sheet to fool some of them into killing each other. Rollie also trips a few fuses to cut power to certain rooms. He tricks DeFranco into shooting out several windows in the living room and falls into the room, allegedly shot to death. When DeFranco tries to leave the house, he touches a door rigged by Rollie to shock him. The surge scrambles his pacemaker and he falls to the floor, near death. Mason gets DeFranco to give him the key to a safe deposit box in Geneva that contains all the money he kept or stole from his Mafia days in cash.

Rollie finds Mason getting ready to leave the house and hold him at bay with DeFranco's Uzi. Mason tries to talk his way out, giving Rollie the key and promising him a large share of DeFranco's money. Rollie considers it for a moment and lays the Uzi down on a sideboard, hovering over it for a few moments. When Mason grabs the Uzi, Rollie tells him it's unloaded and that he'd smeared Krazy Glue on the grips. Rollie pushes Mason out the front door where he's shot to death by the police when he can't let go of the gun.

Leo and the local cops clear the area, finding DeFranco's dead body, as well as that of Rollie. When Rollie's body arrives at the morgue, he slips himself out of the body bag and peels off Latex skin he'd covered his neck and wrists with to fool the paramedics into thinking he had no pulse. He climbs out a window and is stopped immediately by Leo.

The story closes with Rollie wearing a mask of DeFranco's face and emptying the safe deposit box in Geneva. He meets Leo outside and the two drive off.