The film begins on Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas. Charlie Arglist, (Cusack) a mob lawyer, has just stolen a duffel bag full of money from his employer with the help of Vincent "Vic" Cavanaugh (Thornton). All they have to do is act casually and unsuspiciously until they leave town. Vic takes the money while Charlie spends the night visiting his client's strip clubs and evading suspicion. Early on, he meets up with Renata (Nielsen), a strip club owner after whom he has secretly lusted. She hints at spending the night with him if he can produce a certain photo of a local politician's indiscretion for blackmail. Things begin to go sour when a henchman of Charlie's boss comes looking for him and Vic. The body count mounts as the ice beneath Charlie's "perfect crime" begins to slowly crack.
The film repeatedly mentions Wichita Falls, a city in Texas, with the line "As Wichita falls... so falls Wichita Falls". This line appears to have little to do with Wichita, Kansas. This line was not in the book, but was written by one of the screenwriters.
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls is the title of a CD by jazz artists Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. The CD was recorded September 1980, at Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway, and released by ECM Records in 1981.
The dark ending of the novel was entirely replaced (although it appears as an "alternative ending" on the DVD release).
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