A Simple Plan reminded me of another movie I watched some time ago called "Armored". The two movies actually were very similar, and the idea behind them was nearly the same. Both movies had the idea of paranoia after taking money. In A Simple Plan, Hank was a respectable man, that was dragged into a life of crime, after taking 4.4 million dollars with two friends. His plan was supposed to be straight forward. He holds the money until the summer, at which point the three split it into three, and move away. Obviously, that was not the case. Armored, had nearly the same exact plot. A group of 5 armored truck drivers devised a plan to steal a delivery of over 40 million. They decided to bring in a 6th person, who was also respectable. Originally he did not want to join the scheme, but after being assured that no one was going to get hurt , he finally accepted. The plan was also simple, after a certain checkpoint, the men would drive into a lone warehouse, split the money, and make a run for it.
In simple plan, immediately after Hank took the money, paranoia hit him. Suddenly he decides to bring back 500k, to make things look less suspicious. The solution was not smart at all, and the only reason why Hank stuck with it, was because of the paranoia of being caught. The person that would come to reclaim the money, would quite easily notice the difference between 500k, and 4 million. Hank and Jacob went back to the area, but while they were there, a random old man questioned Jacob about a fox. Instead of acting reasonably, Jacob ends up running over an old man in fear, and Hank decides to suffocate him when he realizes he is alive. Armored had the same concept. The group of 6, met up at the lone warehouse. However a random homeless person happened to occupy the place. Instead of letting him leave, one of the men took out a shotgun and shot him, in fear that he would be identified by the man. In both movies, as soon as this happened, things went down hill, and both sides split.
Luo ends up figuring out that Hank murdered the old man. Hank now feeling completely insecure gets Jacob on his side, and after a confrontation with Luo, the two end up killing Luo and his wife. In armored, the group of 6 also split up right after that one murder. At that moment, the one guy that originally did not want to join the group, ended up locking himself in one of the trucks, and the entire group of 5 turned on him. Over time some of them slowly turned to his aid, but were killed off by the rest.
The general idea, and parts of the plot were almost identical. Both movies had a "simple plan" which was supposed to be succesful without any intereferences. Then because of paranoia there was a pointless death which resulted in a split between the groups.
However ironically some of the smaller details were also exact. In both movies every member of the group was killed except for the "smarter" one that did not want to get involved. Also, in both movies, the money was never used and was infact burned. In A simple Plan, Hank at the very end decides that the money was useless and trackable, so instead of spending it wisely he burns in. In armored, the one guy decides to burn the money to prevent the others from claiming it.
It almost felt like one of the movies was a remake of the other. The only major change was that one movie had 3 regular guys discovering money, while the other had armored truck drivers transporting it. Also A simple plan took place over a number of days, while Armored took place in only one day. Other then that, the movies were nearly identical.
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