Bill Sage

Six friends plan to go for a trip, but once there they begin to experience strange and horrifying incidents. A ghostly presence starts attacking them, but it is only after one of the six people.

In 1999 Seth Davis (Ribisi), a 19-year-old college dropout runs an illegal but successful underground casino in his Queens apartment. His father Marty (Rifkin), a New York City federal judge, disapproves of him and worries that Seth's criminal living may cost him his judgeship. In hopes to get on his father's good side, Seth joins J.T. Marlin, a brokerage firm based in a normal office building in or near Commack, NY, after Greg Weinstein (Katt) comes to his home to check out Seth's business and offers him a job at the firm. Seth agrees and becomes a trainee under Weinstein. Everything seems to work out for Seth in the early days of his job. Arriving at J.T. Marlin, he learns from Jim Young (Ben Affleck), one of the heads of the company, what he needs to do to become a millionaire working at the firm. Seth learns the ways of the company and does very well at his new job. He also embarks on a romance with Abbie Halpert (Long), an ex-girlfriend of Greg's, which Greg shows disapproval of and who often worries about her effect on his friends and workers. Seth also becomes part of the crowd of successful stockbrokers, including Chris Varick (Vin Diesel) and Richie O'Flaherty (Caan), and lives a high-life type of lifestyle with them, usually going out to restaurants with them and seeing their fights with other people. He hits a few snags though, including fights and arguments he has with Greg when Greg becomes too worried about Seth's explosively good work at his job, and when Seth closes down his casino because his employees don't appreciate their significantly increased salaries. Seth is unaware of the dark side of his quickly successful job, as the FBI have been tracking the firm for a period of time. The company is a chop shop brokerage firm that runs a "pump and dump", using its brokers to create artificial demand in the stock of expired or fake companies by cold calling investors and selling them shares at prices set by the brokerage firm, which include a large commission to the brokers (up to three dollars a share for a penny stock). When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares in the market, and the price of the stock plummets. This becomes a problem for one of Seth's clients, Harry Reynard, a family man who is a purchasing manager of a gourmet foods company and is trying to buy a new house. After Seth sells him one hundred shares at eight dollars each, the stock market plummets and gets Harry into an excruciating financial situation. When Harry calls Seth back asking why the investment has done so poorly, Seth (under coercion from Greg) sells him even more worthless shares, convincing Harry to invest his $50,000 down-payment that he was saving for a family home. Seth promises a smooth process in the investment; however this promise does not live up and causes Harry to be abandoned by his family. Now well aware of the firm's fraudulent and unethical practices, Seth becomes deeply unnerved by his work environment and how he has knowingly scammed Harry. After being set up by Abbie (who was working with the police) Seth is arrested by the FBI for the violation of SEC regulations. He is taken into custody by the FBI along with his father, who was taken in for attempting to conceal his son from the federal law - a conversation that was of a taped phone call. Seth is given federal immunity, meaning he cannot be arrested for as long as he agrees to testify against J.T. Marlin once all the suspects are taken into court. He does this on the condition his father does not get involved with the case, as he exchanges that for information on the firm's techniques of selling, relocation if law enforcement gets too close, etc. Seth is released and instructed by the FBI to return to work the next day, only to gather evidence and leave shortly before the FBI raid the building by midday. To deliver evidence that can be used against the firm, he inserts files of investments onto a floppy disk and hides it away. Before leaving, Seth attempts to get Harry's money back by lying to J.T. Marlin the way they do with their clients. Michael Brantley (Scott), one of the company heads, agrees to go along with Seth's explanation, saying that in order to complete the process, Seth needs a ticket sale signed by a senior broker, something that his direct supervisor, Greg, has explicitly said that he would never do. On his way out of the building, Seth leaves Chris a note asking to meet in private, at which point he informs Chris about the raid and convinces him to sign the sale ticket. Chris then hastily gathers a few belongings from his desk and quickly leaves. Seth is then shown walking past Abbie in the reception area, ignoring her, and then leaving the building deciding what to do with his life now that his job and ties with J.T. Marlin are finished. As he leaves, several cars including prison buses are seen speeding into the parking lot from which FBI agents emerge, ready to raid the building.

In 1987, wealthy New York investment banker Patrick Bateman's (Christian Bale) life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiance Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) and for his circle of wealthy and shallow associates, most of whom he dislikes. Bateman describes the material accouterments of his lifestyle, including his daily morning exercise and beautification routine. He also discusses his music collection, with performers such as Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins, and Whitney Houston. His focus on a lavish lifestyle is also evident by his taste in expensive designer clothing and his luxurious apartment. Bateman is having an affair with Evelyn' friend Courtney (Samantha Mathis), while Evelyn is having an affair with Bateman's coworker Timothy (Justin Theroux). Courtney is engaged to Bateman's other colleague Luis Carruthers (who is slightly gay). Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards in a display of vanity. Enraged by the superiority of co-worker Paul Allen's (Jared Leto) card, Bateman murders a homeless man and kills the man's dog. At a Christmas party, Bateman makes plans to have dinner with Paul, with Paul mistaking Bateman for another coworker, Marcus Halberstram (Anthony Lemke). Bateman gets Paul drunk and lures him back to his apartment. While playing "Hip to Be Square" on the stereo, explaining to Paul his opinion and interpretation of the song, Bateman murders Paul with an ax, donning a raincoat moments before, to keep blood off of his clothes. He disposes of Paul's body, then goes to Paul's apartment to stage the situation so that others believe Paul has run off to London. Bateman is later interviewed about Paul's disappearance in his office by private detective Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe), hired by Paul's family. During the night, Bateman takes two prostitutes, whom he names Christie (Cara Seymour) and Sabrina (Krista Sutton), to his apartment and explains to them the improvement he saw in the band Genesis after they moved away from progressive rock toward a more pop rock sound beginning with the album Duke. After they have sex, Bateman tells them to stay, while taking out instruments he uses for torture. In the next scene, the prostitutes leave his apartment bruised and bloodied. In the entire sequence, Bateman makes sure that he introduces himself as Paul Allen. The next day, Bateman's colleague Luis Carruthers (Matt Ross) reveals his new business card. Bateman tries to kill Luis in the restroom of an expensive restaurant but cannot bring himself to strangle him. Luis mistakes the attempted murder for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who flees in disgust. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary, Jean (Chloë Sevigny), to dinner, suggesting she meet him at his apartment for drinks beforehand. When Jean arrives, Bateman, unbeknownst to her, holds a nail gun to the back of her head while the two converse. When he receives an answering machine message from his fiance, he asks Jean to leave. Kimball meets Bateman for lunch and tells him he is not under suspicion. Bateman has a threesome with his friend Elizabeth (Guinevere Turner) and Christie at Paul's apartment. Bateman kills Elizabeth during sex, and Christie runs, discovering multiple female corpses as she searches for an exit. She is chased by a naked Bateman wielding a chainsaw, and as she is running down the stairs of Paul's apartment building, is killed by the chainsaw which Bateman drops from several levels above her. Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn. That night, as he uses an ATM, he finds a stray kitten; the ATM displays the text "feed me a stray cat". As he prepares to shoot the cat, a woman sees him and tries to stop him; he shoots her and lets the cat go free. A police chase ensues, but Bateman destroys the police cars by shooting their gas tanks. Fleeing to his office, Bateman enters the wrong office building, where he murders a security guard and a janitor. In an office he believes to be his, Bateman calls his lawyer Harold (Stephen Bogaert) and frantically leaves a lengthy confession on Harold's answering machine. The following morning, Bateman visits Paul's apartment, expecting it to be full of decomposing bodies and in the middle of a police investigation, but it is vacant and for sale. The real estate broker tells him to leave. As Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues and lawyer for lunch, a horrified Jean finds detailed drawings of murder, mutilation, and sexual assault in Bateman's office journal. Bateman sees Harold at a restaurant and tries to convince him that he is a serial killer relating to the phone message he left the other night. Harold mistakes Bateman for another colleague and laughs off the phone message confession as a joke, saying he had dinner with Paul in London days earlier. A confused Bateman returns to his friends and in a final voice-over narration, he realizes he will continue to escape the punishment he deserves, that there has been no catharsis: "This confession has meant nothing".

Two NYC roommates have a pact to jump off Brooklyn Bridge if they haven't found life partners before she's 30. That's less than a month away. Joe and Lucy are roommates and best friends. Lucy, whose love life is embarrassingly dull, convinces Joe, who is infatuated with a neighbor he's never met, that if they don't have stable romances within a month, they must jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. —Bob Amaden <rumpus@minn.net>