Patrick Fischler

A traveling Pastor heads to his next congregation in order to spread the gospel, lift spirits, and a little more than they expect. To prevent himself from being revealed for his dastardly deeds, he hires two stooges who are meant to pillage the tithing and meet him outside of the city later on. As fate would have it, things don't quite go according to plan, however, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Good works can come from bad situations.

For the past 12 months, DEA agent Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington) and U.S. naval intelligence officer Marcus Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) have been reluctantly attached at the hip. Working undercover as members of a narcotics syndicate, each man distrusts his partner as much as the criminals they have both been tasked to take down. When their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel and recover millions goes haywire, Trench and Stigman are suddenly disavowed by their superiors. Now that everyone wants them in jail or in the ground, the only person they can count on is the other. Unfortunately for their pursuers, when good guys spend years pretending to be bad, they pick up a few tricks along the way.

LAPD Detectives Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are paired as partners after engaging in a boxing match to raise funds for the department & to generate publicity for a city vote on a proposal to increase policemen salaries by 8%. After gaining the upper hand and flooring Lee, Bucky ends up losing the fight and 2 of his front teeth. Lee is well known detective in the department and introduces Bucky to Deputy District Attorney Ellis Loew (Patrick Fischler) & Chief Thad Green (Troy Evans). Lee introduces Bucky to his girlfriend Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), and the trio becomes inseparable. The duo arrest many known mob bosses and become famous. Lee notices the growing closeness between Kay and Bucky. Bucky is shocked when Kay tells him she isn't sleeping with Lee, and later tries to seduce him, but he refuses. He also discovers that Kay has been branded with the initials "BD", for Bobby DeWitt, the gangster whose arrest and conviction for a big bank robbery made Lee's career (Kay testified against Bobby). Bobby is scheduled to be released from Prison in late Jan 1947. Soon after, on January 15, 1947, Elizabeth Short's (Mia Kirshner) dismembered body (all her internal and reproductive organs have been removed and her mouth was carved in the manner of a smile) is found and she is dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the press. Both detectives become obsessed with solving the case. On that day, the duo were apprehending Baxter Smith, the associate of a known sexual predator Nash in a nearby building and were involved in a shootout. Lee saved Bucky's life, and Baxter ends up dead. Nash didn't kill Elizabeth as his victims were all young black girls. Cleo A. Short (Kevin Dunn), Elizabeth Short's Father works at a local diner and has an alibi for the day and time on which Elizabeth was killed. Cleo says Elizabeth was fascinated by the military types and was a bit of a tramp. Bucky learns that Elizabeth was an aspiring actress who appeared in a pornographic film and hung out with lesbians. He goes to a lesbian nightclub and meets Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who looks very much like Elizabeth. Madeleine, who comes from a prominent family, tells Bucky that she was 'very close' with Elizabeth (They had sex once) but asks him to keep her name out of the papers in exchange for sexual favors. She introduces him to her wealthy parents (Emmett (John Kavanagh) and Ramona (Fiona Shaw), sister Martha (Rachel Miner)) almost immediately, to confirm her alibi. Ramona doesn't like Emmett and says he married her for her father's money. She calls Bucky one of Madeleine's male whores and says she wont be insulted like this, in front of a common policeman. While having sex, Madeleine tells Bucky that her dad is corrupt (using old film-sets to build firetrap housings) and that's how he made his money in LA.. It is suggested that Madeleine is very concerned about her image and that she knew Elizabeth looked like her and that she acted in Porno films. That could be a motive to kill her. Lee's obsession leads him to become erratic and abusive toward Kay. After Lee and Bucky have a nasty argument (Lee locates the sexual predator Nash and ends up killing him) about a previous case, Bucky goes to Lee and Kay's to apologize, only to learn from Kay that Lee was responding to a tip about Bobby DeWitt (Richard Brake). Bucky finds DeWitt in the atrium of a building before he is gunned down by Lee, then sees a man garrote Lee before a second figure steps out and slits Lee's throat. Lee and the man holding the garrote fall over the railing to their deaths several floors below. The grief of losing Lee propels Bucky and Kay into having sex. The next morning, Bucky finds money hidden in Lee and Kay's bathroom. Kay reveals that she had been DeWitt's girlfriend and that he abused her. Lee rescued Kay, stole DeWitt's money, and put DeWitt behind bars. When Dewitt was about to be released, his snitch, who introduced Kay to Lee, demanded $10,000. The snitch was Baxter Smith. Lee had eliminated him, in the garb of the Nash shootout. Bucky now realizes Lee was there that night to kill DeWitt and leaves, furious, to return to Madeleine, where he notices photo of Georgie, Emmett's business associate, and a painting of a leering clown. Kay follows him and she is appalled to see Madeleine's striking resemblance to the Dahlia. Bucky starts putting the pieces together and remembers props in another movie matched the set in Elizabeth's pornographic film. The end credits thanked Emmett Linscott, Madeleine's father, and Bucky digs deeper into a story Madeleine told about him using old film sets to build cheap firetrap housing. In an empty house below the Hollywoodland sign built by Emmett, Bucky recognizes the set that was used in Elizabeth's film. He finds evidence in a barn on the property that Elizabeth was killed and butchered there, as well as a drawing of a man with a Glasgow smile. The drawing matches the painting in Madeleine's home and the gruesome smile carved into Elizabeth's face. Bucky confronts Madeleine and her father in their home and Madeleine's mother, Ramona, reveals that she killed Elizabeth. She confesses that Madeleine was not fathered by Emmett but rather by his best friend, Georgie (William Finley). She says Georgie became infatuated while watching Elizabeth film the pornography. Ramona was disturbed by the idea of George having sex with someone who looked so much like his own daughter, and lured Elizabeth to the house and killed her. Before Bucky can decide what to do, Ramona shoots herself. A few days later, remembering something Lee said during the investigation, Bucky visits Madeleine's sister Martha (Rachel Miner) with some questions. He learns that Lee knew about Madeleine and Elizabeth, and blackmailed Madeleine's father to keep it secret. Bucky finds Madeleine at a seedy motel, and she admits to being the one who slit Lee's throat. Although she insists that Bucky wants to have sex with her rather than kill her, he tells her she is wrong and shoots her dead. Bucky goes to Kay's house and she invites him in and closes the door.

Before the credits begin, a dreamlike jitterbugging scene is shown and ends with a girl (Naomi Watts), initially flanked by an elderly couple, stepping forward to take applause; a bed containing a sleeper is shown. A dark-haired woman (Laura Helena Harring) escapes her own murder, surviving a car accident on Mulholland Drive. Injured and in shock, she descends into Los Angeles. Detectives investigating the crash indicate they suspect a woman has made her way down to the city. At daybreak she sneaks into an apartment which an older, red-headed woman is just vacating. In a diner called Winkies, a man tells his companion about a nightmare in which he dreamed there was a horrible figure behind the diner. When they investigate, the figure appears, causing the man with the nightmare to collapse in fright. While the dark-haired woman sleeps, a series of mysterious and sinister phone calls are made concerning her whereabouts. An aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) arrives at Los Angeles airport with two accidental traveling companions; they are the trio seen in the opening sequence. The elderly couple is seen leaving in a blacked-out limousine, smiling ominously at each other and staring ahead. Betty arrives at the apartment, her aunt's, that the dark-haired woman has entered and assumes she is there with her aunt's consent. Betty tells her how happy she is to be in "this dream place". The woman is confused, not knowing her own name and assumes the name "Rita" after seeing a poster for the film Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth. Later, a bungling hit man (Mark Pellegrino) steals a book full of phone numbers and leaves three people dead. A Hollywood director named Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) has his film commandeered by apparent mobsters, who insist he cast an unknown actress named Camilla Rhodes (Melissa George) as the lead in his film. After he resists, he leaves the building and smashes the mobsters' car with a golf club and flees. While he is driving, he receives a call from his secretary informing him that Ray, his production manager, fired all of his staff. She implores him to drive to his office to sort out the situation, but he ultimately decides to go home. Later, he returns home to find his wife having an affair with a man named Gene (Billy Ray Cyrus). He destroys his wife's jewelry with pink paint out of impulse and pushes her against the wall after she starts hitting him. Gene intervenes and throws him out of his house. He later learns that his bank has closed his line of credit and he is broke. At his agent's advice, he agrees to meet a mysterious figure called The Cowboy, who urges him to cast Camilla Rhodes for his own good. To help Rita remember her identity, Betty urges Rita to look in her purse, and they find a large amount of money and an unusual blue key. Trying to learn more about Rita's accident, Betty and Rita go to Winkies and are served by a waitress named Diane, which causes Rita to remember the name "Diane Selwyn". They find Diane Selwyn in the phone book and call her, but she does not answer. Betty goes to an audition that Rita helped her prepare for, where her performance is highly praised. A casting agent takes her to the set of a film called The Sylvia North Story, directed by Adam, where Camilla Rhodes gives an audition and Adam declares, "This is the girl." After casting Camilla as the lead actress, he almost immediately turns around and looks straight at Betty. Betty flees before she can meet Adam, saying that she promised to meet a friend. Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn's apartment and break in through an unlocked window when no one answers the door. In the bedroom they find the body of a woman who has been dead for several days. Terrified, they return to their apartment, where Rita disguises herself with a blonde wig. The two women have sex that night; Betty tells Rita that she loves her. Later they awake at 2 a.m., when Rita insists they go to an eerie theater called Club Silencio. On stage, a man explains in both Spanish and English that everything is an illusion. He is followed by an ornately made-up woman who sings Roy Orbison's "Crying" a Capella; though she appears to be involved in a very passionate performance, she collapses and the vocals continue, revealing that she was lip-syncing. Betty finds a blue box in her purse that matches Rita's key. Upon returning to the apartment, Rita retrieves the key and finds that Betty has disappeared. Rita unlocks the box, and it falls to the floor. The older red-headed woman investigates the sound, but nothing is there. The Cowboy appears in the doorway of Diane Selwyn's bedroom saying, "Hey, pretty girl. Time to wake up." Diane Selwyn (played by Watts) wakes up in her bed. She looks exactly like Betty but is portrayed as a failed actress driven into a deep depression by her unrequited love for Camilla Rhodes (played by Harring). On Camilla's invitation, Diane attends a party at Adam's house on Mulholland Drive. Her limousine stops before they reach the house and Camilla escorts her using a shortcut. Adam appears to be in love with Camilla. Over dinner, Diane states that she came to Hollywood when her aunt died, and she met Camilla at an audition for The Sylvia North Story. Another woman (played by George) kisses Camilla and they turn and smile at Diane. Adam and Camilla prepare to make an important announcement, but they dissolve into laughter and kiss while Diane watches, crying. Diane meets with the hit man at Winkies, where she gives him Camilla's photo and a large amount of money, and they are served by a waitress named Betty. The hit man tells Diane that when the job is done, she will find a blue key. Diane asks what, if anything, the key opens, but the hit man just laughs. Diane looks up and sees the man who had the nightmare standing at the counter. The blue box is shown in possession of the homeless looking monster around the back of the diner. Back at her apartment, with the blue key on a table in front of her, Diane is terrorized by hallucinations of the elderly couple. She runs screaming to her bed, where she shoots herself. In the final scene, a woman previously seen at the club whispers "Silencio."

Guy, an ambitious would-be screenwriter, works as an assistant to demanding boss Buddy Ackerman. Guy tries to cater to Buddy's ever-more capricious demands until he decides he's been pushed too far in what can best be described as an cynical if canny black comedy.