All the Plot Questions Answered -- except one
Since no one in the below threads seems to have pulled it all together, here -- based on repeated viewings of the unrated DVD -- is what happened:
- Suzie (Neve Campbell), a poor, underachieving genius, is pissed off at her High School teacher Mr. Lombardo (Matt Dillon) for ignoring her calls when she got busted and for sleeping with another student. She is also pissed off at a corrupt Detective (Kevin Bacon) for killing her friend Davy. She is also pissed off at fellow student (and fellow bi-sexual) Kelly Van Ryan for being rich, for fsleeping with Mr. Lombardo, and for looking like Denise Richards. Suzie comes up with an extremely devious and manipulative scheme which will allow her to get revenge on those she is pissed off at and leave her rich, as well as legally dead so no one will be looking for her.
Suzie is the ONLY one who is really in on every aspect of the scheme (except for the Lawyer - see below). All the others (Lombardo, Kelly, the Detective) only THINK they are.
- Suzie blackmails Lombardo in order to get the ball rolling. As far as Lombardo is concerned, he and Suzie are plotting to use Kelly Van Ryan to scam Kelly's mother out of millions, fake Suzie's death, use the Detective to frame Kelly for "killing" Suzie, get rid of the Detective, then run off together with the money.
- Kelly is brought into the scheme by Lombardo. As far as Kelly is concerned, she and Lombardo are plotting to use Suzie to scam Kelly's mother out of millions of dollars, after which they will kill Suzie then run off with the money.
- In order to frame Kelly, Suzie gets Lombardo to enlist the Detective (Kevin Bacon). As far as Bacon's character is concerned, he and Lombardo are planning to use Suzie and Kelly to scam Kelly's mom, then kill Suzie, frame Kelly, and split the money between the two of them.
- The Detective ends up killing Kelly instead of framing her because he thinks that leaves fewer loose ends, but in the end that doesn't really change anything in Suzie's grand scheme -- which was that she (Suzie) end up with all the money and no one looking for her.
If you re-watch the movie with the above in mind, you'll see that it all tracks. No holes at all -- everyone at all times acts consistently with what they believe is going on and what they think the other characters believe is going on. It's actually a quite impressive piece of plot-craft.
The ONLY plot point which doesn't quite track for me is the Lawyer (Bill Murray). He was Suzie's accomplice from the beginning, but Lombardo obviously doesn't know this, even though Lombardo had to somehow be steered to the Lawyer by Suzie in the first place. And at the end, the Lawyer tells Suzie he is taking his "usual fee". Hard to believe they've done this before.
Anyway, there you have it. Comments welcome.