Miguel Sandoval

A young George Jung (Johnny Depp) and his parents Fred (Ray Liotta) and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths) of Weymouth, Massachusetts. When George is ten years old, Fred files for bankruptcy and loses everything, but tries to make George realize that money is not important. As an adult, George (Johnny Depp) moves to Los Angeles with his friend "Tuna" (Ethan Suplee); they meet Barbara (Franka Potente), an airline stewardess, who introduces them to Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens), a marijuana dealer. With Derek's help, George and Tuna make a lot of money by retailing pot on the beaches. Kevin Dulli (Max Perlich), a college student back in Boston, visits them and tells them of the enormous market-and demand-for pot in Boston. With Barbara's help, they start bringing the drugs to Boston (Barbara starts by taking 25 pounds of pot to Boston per day on her flights, as her bags are not checked). The demand for the "good pot" skyrockets. As the demand grows, they decide to start buying the drugs directly from Mexico with the help of Santiago Sanchez (Tony Amendola), a Mexican drug lord. But two years later, George is caught in Chicago trying to import 660 pounds of marijuana and is sentenced to two years. After unsuccessfully trying to plead his innocence (by reciting the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Pretty Boy Floyd (Woody Guthrie)") and insisting that he did no more than "cross an imaginary line with a bunch of plants"), George skips bail to take care of Barbara, who is suffering from, and eventually succumbs to, cancer. Her death marks the disbanding of the group of friends; even his friend, Tuna, flees their vacation home in Mexico and is never seen again. While hiding from the authorities, George visits his parents back in New England. While he is having a heart-to-heart talk with his father, George's mother calls the police, who come and arrest him. George is now sentenced to 26 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. His cellmate Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla) has contacts in the Medellín cocaine cartel and convinces George to help him go into business. Upon his release from prison, George violates his parole conditions and heads down to Cartagena, Colombia to meet up with Diego. They meet with cartel officer Cesar Rosa to negotiate the terms for smuggling 15 kilograms (33 lb) to establish "good faith". As the smuggling operation grows, Diego gets arrested, leaving George to find a way to sell 50 kg (110 pounds) and get the money in time. George reconnects with Derek in California, and the two successfully sell all 50 kg in 36 hours, amassing a $1.35 million profit. George is then whisked off to Medellín, Colombia, where he finally meets the group's leader, Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis), who agrees to go into business with them. With the help of main middleman Derek, the pair becomes Escobar's top US importer. At Diego's wedding, George meets Cesar's fiance Mirtha (Penélope Cruz) and marries her. However, Diego resents George for keeping Derek's identity secret and pressures George to reveal his connection. George eventually discovers that Diego has betrayed him by cutting him out of the connection with Derek. Inspired by the birth of his daughter and chastened by a subsequent drug-related heart attack, George severs his relationship with the cartel and vows to leave the drug business forever. All goes well with George's newfound civilian life for five years, until Mirtha organizes a 38th birthday party for him. Many of his former drug associates attend, including Derek, who reveals that Diego eventually cut him out as well. The FBI and DEA raid the party and arrest George. Following George's conviction, he becomes a fugitive. Meanwhile, his bank account-heretofore under Manuel Noriega's protection in Panama-is seized. One night, he and Mirtha get into a fight while driving. They are pulled over by police and Mirtha tells them Jung is a fugitive and has stashed a kilogram of cocaine in his trunk. He is sent to jail for three years, during which time Mirtha divorces him and takes custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Kristina "Sunshine" Jung (Emma Roberts). Upon his release, George finds himself struggling to keep his relationship with his daughter on good terms. George promises Kristina a vacation in California and seeks one last deal to garner enough money for the trip. George completes a deal with former accomplices but learns too late that the deal had been set up by the FBI and DEA, with Dulli and Derek having leaked the nature and location of the action in exchange for pardons for their involvement in his prior actions. George is sentenced to 60 years at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He explains in the end that neither the sentence nor the betrayal bothered him, but that he can never forgive himself for having to break a promise to his daughter. While in prison, George requests a furlough to see his dying father, Fred. His unforgiving mother denies the request, saying a visit would only upset Fred. George is given a tape recorder to record a final message to his father. In the message, George recounts his memories of working with his father, his run-ins with the law, and finally, too late, his understanding of what Fred meant when he said that money is not "real". The film closes with George as an old man in prison, imagining that his daughter (Jaime King) finally comes to visit him. She slowly fades away as a guard calls for George. The film concludes with notes indicating that Jung's sentence will not expire until 2015, and that his daughter has yet to visit him. The film's final image is a photograph of the actual George Jung.

After making a 3-hour fiasco about New York City's water supply, a two-man film crew decides to take it up a notch by documenting life in the private investigator offices of "Boone and Murphy". After making a 3-hour fiasco about New York City's water supply, a two-man film crew decides to take it up a notch by documenting life in the private investigator offices of "Boone and Murphy". Cheating husbands and missing dogs fail to bring in the big bucks however, and after sleeping with the wife of one of their clients Murphy leaves. To stop Boone from having to close down the business the two film-makers must resort to a hands-on approach in the investigations to ensure the completion of their movie. —Signy

Connie, unwed and pregnant, is heading to Boston by train when she meets wealthy newlyweds Hugh and Patricia. The train crashes, and when Connie comes to in the hospital, she is mistaken for Patricia, who died in the crash with Hugh. Connie Doyle is eighteen and pregnant when her boyfriend kicks her out. She accidentally ends up on a train where she meets Hugh Winterbourne and his wife Patricia who is pregnant. The train wrecks and she wakes up in the hospital to find out that it's been assumed that she's Patricia. Hugh's mother takes her in and she falls in love with Hugh's brother Bill. Just when she thinks everything is going her way, her ex-boyfriend shows up. —Shannon Andrews <Shannon.B.Andrews@m.cc.utah.edu> Aboard a train, philandering gentleman womanizer Hugh Winterbourne meets pregnant Connie Doyle (19), who desperately left her hometown being kicked out by her brutish boyfriend Steve DeCunzo. The train crashes, killing Hugh and Patricia, the pregnant new wife he was to present to his family. Connie is accidentally mistaken for Patricia and after hospitalization brought to the late Hugh's grand family estate. There she is warmly welcomed by her 'in-laws', meddling matriarch Grace Winterbourne and her perfect son, Hugh's conformist responsible twin brother Bill. His romantic feelings for his 'sister in law' are reciprocated, albeit awkwardly. Although accepted by Father Brian Kilraine, Grace's favorite guest, and Bill's confident, chauffeur Paco, Connie feels guilty and considers leaving, but that would rob her baby of the far better future only such a rich family can offer. Then the biological father Steve turns up, to blackmail her. —KGF Vissers A woman gets pregnant by her boyfriend, who then leaves her. She boards a train, which crashes and she ends up in a hospital, mistakenly identified as Patricia Winterbourne, a widow who's husband died in the train crash. She comes to live with the rich family of her deceased "husband." Her new life is ruined when the real father of her baby comes back. —Cyndi Kessler <ckessler@hooked.net>

The discovery of the murder of an American businessman, Peter Hardin, and his family, outrages U.S. President Edward Bennett (Donald Moffat), Hardin's personal friend. When Hardin is found to have been connected to a Colombian drug cartel, from which he skimmed over $650 million, Bennett tells James Cutter (Harris Yulin), his National Security Advisor, that the cartels represent a "clear and present danger" to the United States, tacitly instructing him to use force against the men responsible for his friend's murder. Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), appointed acting Deputy Director of Intelligence after Vice Admiral Jim Greer (James Earl Jones) is stricken with cancer, asks Congress for increased funding for ongoing CIA operations in Colombia, believing the funds to be for advisory purposes only. Congress is concerned that the FBI has asked for similar funding increases in the past to carry out covert military ops against state enemies. But Ryan gives a personal assurance that that's not the case. $75M is issued. Keeping Ryan in the dark, Cutter turns to CIA Deputy Director of Operations Bob Ritter (Henry Czerny) to take down the cartel. Ritter insists on Cutter giving him a written authorization before he conducts any covert operations on foreign soil. Ritter assembles a black operations team code-named RECIPROCITY with the help of John Clark (Willem Dafoe). Clark also knows this is black ops and demands payment into his bank account before he moves. The whole thing has been hidden from the U.S. Congress. The team inserts itself into Colombia, with Clark running logistics and Captain Ricardo Ramirez (Benjamin Bratt) of an SF-ODA team commanding the squad on the ground in clandestine search-and-destroy missions against the drug cartel. Their team carries out several hits on planes full of drugs, planning to ship to the U.S. All of them belong to Escobedo. Ryan finds that 3 years ago, Hardin received a large infusion of foreign capital that he invested in shopping malls in the U.S. and posted record profits. It is clear to Ryan that Hardin was laundering money for the Columbian drug cartels. Meanwhile, Bennett sends Ryan to Colombia to investigate Hardin's cartel connection and also to retrieve the $650MM sitting in Hardin's offshore accounts. Ryan would need to establish who Hardin was working for before the U.S. Govt. could seize the money. Greer knows that Ryan has been trapped and tells him to lean on Clark in case he gets into a mess. Jean Fowler (Belita Moreno) is the FBI officer in charge in Bogota and tells Ryan about Escobedo's operations, including Cortez (for whom they don't have a picture). Ryan meets Clark, but Clark doesn't tell Ryan about the hits. Clark takes Ryan seriously when he says he is Greer's man. The cartel leader responsible for Hardin's murder, Ernesto Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval), is enraged when the U.S. attempts to claim the $650 million that was stolen from him and has his intelligence officer, Félix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida), try to retrieve the funds. Cortez did not agree with Escobedo's strategy to kill Hardin since he was a politically connected figure in the U.S. Cortez visits the U.S. and has a new connection, Moria Wolfson (Ann Magnuson), whom he uses as cover for his spying activities. Cortez is careful to hide himself from Moria's friends whenever he meets her. Moria is on Jack Ryan's FBI team investigating the Hardin murders. Meanwhile, Ramirez's team starts cleaning out Escobedo's cocaine factories hidden in the jungles. Bennett sends FBI Director Emil Jacobs (Tom Tammi) to meet Ryan in Colombia and negotiate with the Columbian Govt. for the money (after Ryan had told Bennett that the link between Escobedo and Hardin was established (Hardin was buying coffee from Escobedo, but was paying $6200 per pound), but Columbia would want to keep a large portion of the funds), and when Cortez discovers this (from Moria, whole unwittingly discloses Jacobs plans to Cortez), he plans an ambush, engineering it so that suspicion will fall on Escobedo. Ryan barely escapes the ambush by cartel hit-men (Cortez kills Moria after travelling to the U.S.), but the remainder of the entourage is killed. Ryan returns to the U.S. Escobedo then summons a meeting with other cartel leaders, which Clark's team hits with an airstrike, but Escobedo arrives late and survives. Several women and children also die in the attack. Ryan finds it strange that Moria was killed the same day as Emil. He checks her answering machine and finds a recorded message from a Latin sounding guy. Sound analysis provides a match with Cortez. Ryan also finds that Ritter ordered the airstrike on the cartel meeting. Cortez discovers the American involvement in the strike and meets with Cutter (he faxes Cutter that he knows American troops are in Columbia fighting an illegal war and threatens to expose it) to broker a deal (the meeting happens in Panama). Cortez will assassinate Escobedo and take over the cartel, promising to reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow American law enforcement to make regular arrests to make it appear as if the U.S. is winning the drug war. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all U.S. operations in Colombia and allow Cortez to hunt down Clark's soldiers. Cutter agrees and orders Ritter to get rid of all evidence of their operations and cut off the troops in Colombia from all support. Ryan is played a recording of the conversation between Cutter and Cortez. He hacks Ritter's computer and discovers the conspiracy unfolding in Colombia. The Reciprocity team is ambushed in Colombia by Cortez's mercenaries. Ritter had shut down the satellite link so Clark could not contact the men as they screamed for help. Cutter and Ritter tell Clark that Ryan found out everything and threatened to expose them if they didn't shut it down. They say that Ryan is on his way to Bogota, and if Ryan is out of the way, they are back online. Basically, Ritter and Cutter recruit Clark to kill Ryan for them. Ryan arrives and convinces Clark to allow him to help. Clark calls Ritter and says he killed Ryan and wants the satellites turned back on. But Ritter hangs up on him, proving Ryan's point. They find the team's sniper (Ryan buys a helicopter for $2M and goes searching in the jungles with Clark), Chavez (Raymond Cruz), who tells them that Ramirez and a squad mate have been captured and the remainder have been killed. Ryan visits Escobedo's mansion and shares his intelligence on Cortez. Enraged, Escobedo confronts Cortez but is killed by Cortez's associate. Ryan, Clark, and Chávez rescue the prisoners, kill Cortez, and escape. Ryan confronts the President and tells him he intends to inform the Congressional Oversight Committee about the conspiracy despite the damage it could do to his career. As he walks out of the Oval Office, Cutter asks to speak with him, but Ryan ignores him. Ryan then begins his testimony to Congress.

Back In New York City, Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is in the federal Witness Protection Program using the name Paul Stuart, teaching architecture at a local college. Kersey is invited to a fashion show given by his girlfriend, Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down), who was formerly married to mobster Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks), and with whom he had a daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster). Backstage during the fashion show, O'Shea threatens Regent, insisting that he wants to see his daughter even though the courts removed his visitation rights. O'Shea and his goons are using the garment factory to launder dirty money, and demand that Albert, the factory manager, increase the amount of cash they launder. Kersey sees the bruises on Regent's wrist and learns O'Shea is downstairs. O'Shea meanwhile threatens Albert and insists he has to pass more cash. Albert resists, saying that it will create trouble, and O'Shea wounds Albert with a fabric knife. Reggie intervenes and is wounded as well. Reggie decides he has enough of O'Shea's abuse and takes Albert to the hospital. Tommy threatens Regent , and Kersey enters the factory floor. Kersey confronts O'Shea, but his goombah Tommy threatens Kersey and points a gun in his face. The daughter Chelsea appears and O'Shea leaves. Chelsea shows her mother the blood on the fabric knife. NYPD officers Tony Hoyle (Saul Rubinek) and Hector Vasquez (Miguel Sandoval) visit Kersey at his home. Kersey tells them about Tommy O'Shea and Hoyle reveals that they've been trying to nab Tommy for years. He asks if Regent is willing to testify. Kersey will talk it over with her. That night at a restaurant, Kersey proposes to Regent, and she accepts. Regent excuses herself to go to the ladies' room after spotting Tommy. An associate of Tommy's, named Freddie Flakes (Robert Joy) enters the bathroom in drag and ties her up tightly, and tapes her mouth shut. While mocking her and lecturing her about her possible testimony, he bashes her head in a mirror, permanently disfiguring her face. Flakes leaves, passing Kersey as goes to check on Regent. Kersey goes to the hospital, where he is told by a nurse that Regent will need to have reconstructive surgery. He then talks with Lt. Mickey King (Kenneth Welsh), who admits that they've been working on the O'Shea case for 16 years. Kersey is angered by this, but King wants Kersey not to pick up his old vigilante habits and let the police handle it for once. As this is going on, Tommy breaks into the factory and demands from Reggie information on who he talked to. He threatens him by burning his hand and face, before killing him. Lt. King and female officer Janice Omori (Lisa Inoue) set Albert up as an informant, but Sal sees through his act and runs Flakes down with the car, smashing through the window of a restaurant. Flakes then runs over Omori with the car, killing her. Kersey sees Omori die, but Flakes drives away before Kersey can do anything. The next day, Kersey takes Regent back to his apartment and informs Hoyle by phone that Regent will not testify. He then goes over to Hoyle's house at night and says that she will: Kersey couldn't tell Hoyle over the phone because someone else was listening in. Hoyle informs Vasquez, and they send a cop over. The cop comes over and Kersey answers it. Kersey stops and hesitates at letting him in, recognizing the cop as being Flakes. Kersey informs Olivia to use the fire escape to make her quick getaway, as Flakes and two other men break in and start shooting the place. Flakes follows Regent up to the fire escape, and shoots her in the back. Kersey escapes by jumping off the ledge, and falling into a pile of trash bags. Franke, Chicki (Kevin Lund) and Sal (Chuck Shamata) move in for the kill, but sounds of police sirens interrupt their plans. The following week, Kersey and Chelsea both mourn Regent 's death and watch TV to see that Tommy has been cleared of his involvement in his ex-wife's death. NYPD officer Tony arrives to offer his apologies to Paul, but Kersey orders him and the team sent to protect Kersey off his property. A short time later, Vazquez arrives with Tommy and handing him a court order: since Kersey wasn't legally married, Tommy has claim over his daughter. Kersey fights but gets knocked unconscious. Kersey now becomes a vigilante, and gets his gun ready. Kersey follows Chicki to an Italian restaurant where he orders cannoli. While Chicki is in the restroom, Kersey laces it with cyanide. Chicki finishes one cannoli, but dies shortly after starting the second one, and as he is choking, Kersey pushes his face into the plate. Vasquez reveals to O'Shea that Chicki was killed by Paul. (Revealing two things at the same time: that Vasquez is dirty and O'Shea thought Kersey was his alias Stuart all along). Paul's next target is Flakes who is in the bedroom with his big breasted girlfriend, whom he manages to take out in his fortress-like home and blows him up with a rigged electronic soccer ball. Kersey then calls Hoyle and arranges to meet with him privately. As Hoyle hangs up, he hears another conversation (which signals to him Kersey was right regarding an earlier conversation). Kersey waits at Regent 's house, holding one of Chelsea's dolls until Vasquez comes and points a pistol at Kersey. Without hesitation, Kersey shoots Vasquez. Hoyle arrives and sees Vasquez dead, and finally understands how far deep this goes and Kersey's vendetta mission. Hoyle is in cahoots with Tommy, but finally lets Kersey handle it his way. "I was never here" he tells Kersey as he leaves. As a funeral procession for Flakes takes place at a local church attended by local mobsters, a young boy enters and gives O'Shea a receipt. Back at his headquarters, O'Shea's associates open the crate and it is revealed to contain the dead cop (Vasquez). Tommy talks to Sal back at his house, and the two resolve to take a final stand again Kersey by using Chelsea as bait. Sal grabs Chelsea and Kersey follows Sal, just as Tommy predicted. Back at his house, Tommy hires three more men, Frankie (Scott Spidell), Mickey (Tim MacMenamin), and Angel (Sandro Limotta) to take care of Paul. Kersey arrives at the factory and using his survival instincts, tricks the three into shooting up a dummy in a forklift with the presumption that it's him. Kersey appears and kills Frankie and Mickey and wounds Angel in the leg. Angel is led by Kersey to the plastic machine. Kersey turns it on to wrap him in plastic. Angel reveals Chelsea's location, and is hooked up on the movable rack by Paul. He then radios O'Shea using Frankie's channel, announcing that he is coming for him. Chelsea hears this and easily escapes Tommy's grasp. O'Shea orders Sal to find and kill Kersey. He comes across Angel and mistaking him for Kersey, shoots him. Sal turns off the machine and continues to search. Kersey appears and knocks Sal into a grinder in the next room. The police soon arrive as Chelsea escapes the factory building. Inside, Kersey manages to find Tommy and beats him. Lt. King arrives and is quickly wounded by Tommy. Kersey manages to defeat Tommy by knocking him in a pool of acid, and leaves him to die. The final scene shows Kersey making sure King is okay before he leaves, calling out "Hey Lieutenant, if you need any help, give me a call" before reuniting with Chelsea.