Plot - Sin City
The Customer is Always Right (Prologue)
In a penthouse on the roof of a skyscraper overlooking Basin City, a fancy party is in progress. A woman (Marley Shelton), dressed in a red evening gown, is alone on the balcony. A man (Josh Hartnett), who is narrating, comes up behind her and offers her a cigarette. They exchange a little small talk, and she mentions that she is frightened, but is tired of running. He tells her that he will save her, and take her far away. They kiss, then he shoots her. She dies in his arms. He says that he does not know who she was running from, but will cash her cheque in the morning.
(On the back of the DVD, Frank Miller explains that the victim in this story (the Customer of the title) is actually committing suicide. The unnamed woman had dated a mobster, and when she tried to break it off, he said that he would kill her in the most terrible way possible. She then used her connections to hire a hitman (known as the Salesman) to provide her with a quick death.)
That Yellow Bastard (Part 1)
Bruce Willis as Hartigan.On the docks of Sin City, aging police officer John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is attempting to stop serial child murderer Roark Junior (Nick Stahl) from raping and killing 11-year-old Nancy Callahan (Makenzie Vega). Junior is the son of the powerful Senator Roark (Powers Boothe), who has paid off many police to cover up his son’s crimes, including Hartigan’s partner Bob (Michael Madsen). Bob tries to convince him to walk away, but Hartigan sucker-punches him, knocking him out cold. Hartigan then makes his way into a warehouse, knocking unconscious two local criminals Shlubb and Klump, who are guarding Roarke Jr’s Jaguar E Type. Junior is inside with the frightened Nancy and two armed henchmen, who are making sure that Junior and Nancy “get along” before leaving them alone. Hartigan shoots and kills the henchmen, but Junior shoots Hartigan in the shoulder, grabs Nancy and runs out to the docks. Hartigan catches up to Junior and shoots off his ear, causing him to drop Nancy. He then proceeds to shoot off Junior’s arm and genitals, before being shot in the back several times by a recovered Bob. Bob tells Hartigan to stay down, but Hartigan knows he must buy time for backup to arrive (as Bob will kill Nancy if they are alone) so he tries to pull his reserve gun, causing Bob to shoot him again. As the sirens approach, Hartigan lapses into unconsciousness presuming that Nancy is safe, narrating himself with the words ‘Little Girl Lives, Old Man Dies’ happy to exchange his life for hers.
The Hard Goodbye
Marv (Mickey Rourke), a hulking thug, is in a hotel room with the beautiful Goldie (Jaime King). After making passionate love, Marv awakens to find that Goldie has been murdered. Sirens sound, and Marv reasons that he is being framed by someone with money and influence. He fights his way past the corrupt police officers and storms the streets, vowing to avenge Goldie’s death. He stops at the apartment of Lucille (Carla Gugino), his lesbian parole officer, to patch up wounds sustained in the fight. Lucille, knowing Marv has a ‘condition’, has difficulty believing his story and unsuccessfully warns him to give up on his mission.
Wood as Kevin in Sin CityMarv heads to Kadie’s Bar in search of information. After a while, he is approached by two hitmen, who order Marv into the back alley behind the bar, where they plan to shoot him. There, Marv beats them to death after they reveal who sent them. Marv then shakes down various informants, working his way up to a corrupt priest (Frank Miller), who reveals that a member of the Roark family was behind Goldie’s murder. Marv kills the priest and steals his car, but is then attacked and shot at by a woman with a strong resemblance to Goldie. Marv, recognizing he hasn’t taken his medication for his ‘condition’ for a long time, considers her to be a hallucination.
Marv arrives at the Roark family farm, where he fights off a wolf, before uncovering the remains of many dead women. He is then attacked by a silent stalker, who he realizes is Goldie’s killer (as only someone silent could have killed her with Marv not noticing while sleeping next to her). Marv is knocked unconscious and awakens in the basement, where the heads of the stalker’s past victims are mounted on the wall. Lucille, who decided to look into Marv’s story after he left, was noticed and kidnapped, and is in the basement with Marv. Lucille reveals that the man Marv fought is a cannibal and Goldie was a high-grade prostitute. She shows Marv that her hand was cut off and she was made to watch as the killer ate it. Having comforted Lucille as best as he could, Marv starts to work on breaking the bars on the window. He sees the face of the killer, and hears him being called away by someone in a stretch limo. Marv overhears the killer’s name is Kevin and quietly swears revenge. Marv breaks free and flees with Lucille, but a group of cops arrive and Lucille, still not convinced Marv was attacked by corrupt police, tries to surrender to them and is shot to death. An enraged Marv kills them off, hearing from their leader that Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark arranged for Goldie’s murder.
Mickey Rourke as Marv and Jaime King as Wendy.Marv goes to Old Town, a section of Sin City reserved particularly for prostitution, because he wants to make sure that Roark is guilty before killing him, and he knows he can find out about Goldie there. Marv is captured and allows himself to be beaten by Goldie’s look-alike, who is revealed to be her twin sister Wendy, in an effort to convince her that he didn’t kill Goldie, figuring she would eventually listen to reason. After revealing that Kevin killed Goldie and the others, Marv and Wendy collect weapons and return to the farm, hoping to finally avenge Goldie’s death. Marv attacks Kevin and severs his limbs before leaving him to be eaten alive by the wolf. Marv takes his head to Cardinal Roark, who reveals that Kevin was a deeply religious boy who began eating prostitutes to swallow their souls. He persuaded the cardinal to join in, and when Goldie began investigating, she was killed. Marv kills the cardinal and is shot by his guards.
However Marv survives his wounds and is beaten by members of the corrupt police force in order to force him to sign a confession stating that he killed not only Roark and Kevin, but the other women that Kevin and Roark killed and also Lucille and Goldie. He refuses to confess, until the DA (also a member of the Roark clan) tells him that if he doesn’t sign the confession, his mother will be killed. After breaking the DA’s arm in several places, he agrees and is quickly convicted and sentenced to death. Hours before his execution, he is visited by Wendy, who thanks him for avenging her sister and spends the night with him, telling him he can call her Goldie. They sleep together in his cell holding each other.
Finally he is strapped into an electric chair and read his last rites before ordering the guards to hurry up as he ‘Hasn’t got all night’. The guards accept his wishes and proceed to electrocute him. After a few seconds, the switch is thrown off the see if Marv is still alive, to which he is and makes one last insult, asking “Is that the best you can do, you pansies?”, to the guards. The switch is thrown on again, and he finally dies, as the doctor checks him after it’s thrown off again and says, “He’s gone.”
The Big Fat Kill
Shellie (Brittany Murphy), a barmaid from Kadie’s, is being harassed by her abusive ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro). Her current boyfriend Dwight (Clive Owen) is disgusted with his brutish rival, and shoves his head into a urine-filled toilet bowl, warning him to leave Shellie alone. An embarrassed Jackie Boy flees with his friends, heading to Old Town to cause further trouble. Dwight follows them and watches them harass young prostitute Becky (Alexis Bledel). Also watching is Gail (Rosario Dawson), one of the head prostitutes and Dwight’s on-and-off lover.
Clive Owen as Dwight.When Jackie Boy threatens Becky with a gun, martial arts expert Miho (Devon Aoki) sweeps down, severing Jackie Boy’s hand with a manji shaped ninja star and killing his friends with a katana. She then causes his gun barrel to backfire and hit him in the head, which somehow does not kill him. After Dwight asks her to finish him, Miho nearly severs his head, making “a Pez dispenser out of him.” As the prostitutes collect the dead men’s money, they realize that Jackie Boy is a well-respected police officer; his death spells a certain end to the truce between the police and the prostitutes, and war against Old Town will be inevitable.
Dwight agrees to take the corpses to the local tar pit, while a traumatized Becky returns home. While driving to the tar pit, he has a hallucinatory conversation with Jackie Boy’s corpse, who taunts him as he is chased by a police officer. Dwight talks his way out of the situation and arrives at the tar pit, but is suddenly shot by mercenaries. Meanwhile, head mercenary Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan) arrives in Old Town and kidnaps Gail, explaining that an informant has revealed everything and that other mercenaries are currently invading Old Town.
Dwight kills several mercenaries but is knocked into the tar by a grenade; he sinks into the tar and nearly drowns before Miho arrives and saves him. However, the other mercenaries have escaped and have taken Jackie Boy’s severed head with them. They chase after the mercenaries and have a car accident, followed by a violent shoot-out that ends with the death of both mercenaries and the retrieval of Jackie Boy’s head. Dwight devises a plan and he and Miho return to Old Town.
As Gail is being tortured, she learns that Becky was the traitor, informing the mercenaries out of fear and greed. Manute receives a letter from Dwight via an arrow from Miho, offering Jackie Boy’s head in exchange for Gail. They meet in the back-alley, where the trade is made, though the mercenaries plan to kill them anyway. Dwight suddenly activates a grenade he had placed in Jackie Boy’s Head, completely destroying it and any evidence that could have been taken to the cops. The other prostitutes of Old Town then reveal themselves on the roof tops surrounding the alley and gun down the mercenaries. Amidst the gunfire, an injured Becky escapes while Dwight and Gail kiss passionately.
That Yellow Bastard (Part 2)
“That Yellow Bastard”Hartigan, who survived his wounds, is recovering in a hospital. Senator Roark (Boothe), Junior’s father, arrives and informs him that Junior is in a coma and all plans for the Roark legacy are now in serious jeopardy. Senator Roark reveals that Hartigan will survive, will be framed for Junior’s crimes and serve the resultant jail term. Additionally, if Hartigan tells anyone the truth, the informed people will be killed. A grateful Nancy visits and thanks him. She promises to write letters to Hartigan every week while he is in prison and departs.
Hartigan complies and goes to jail, knowing it is the only way to protect Nancy and his loved ones, though he refuses to officially confess to the crimes, preventing any possibility of parole. He receives the weekly letter from Nancy as promised. After eight years, however, the letters stop arriving, and then Hartigan receives a severed finger instead. Realising she could have been kidnapped by the Roarks, Hartigan finally confesses to all charges, knowing this will lead to his release and being able to help Nancy. Outside the jail, he reunites with his old partner, Bob, who has come to regret his actions. Bob drives Hartigan to the city, telling him that Hartigan’s wife has remarried and has children. Unknowingly being stalked by a deformed, yellow-skinned man, Hartigan searches for Nancy, eventually finding her at Kadie’s Bar, where she has blossomed into a beautiful 19-year-old stripper (Jessica Alba).
Realizing that the severed finger was a fake and that he was set up so it would lead the Roarks to Nancy, he tries to leave unnoticed but is seen by her, leading her to jump into his arms and kiss him passionately. Knowing they have been ‘made’, they quickly escape in Nancy’s car. Along the way, they are attacked by the yellow-skinned man but Hartigan successfully fights back, though the yellow man escapes, hiding in the back of Nancy’s car. Arriving at a hotel, Nancy reveals that she is in love with Hartigan and tries to seduce him, much to his discomfort. The deformed man returns and attacks them, revealing himself as Junior Roark, though Hartigan refers to him as the Yellow Bastard.
The Yellow Bastard, having been disfigured by the years of surgery necessary to regenerate his missing pieces, leaves Hartigan for dead and takes Nancy to the Roark farm to finally rape and kill her. Hartigan escapes, however, and tracks the Yellow Bastard to the farm, where he is whipping and torturing Nancy. Hartigan kills the guards and then corners the Yellow Bastard and fakes a heart attack to fool him into letting go of Nancy, giving Hartigan the chance to stab him before castrating him (with his own hands) and beating him to death.
Hartigan tells Nancy his plans to reveal Senator Roark’s corruption to the police and finally bring down organized crime in Sin City, in order to convice her to leave him. After Nancy departs, Hartigan, knowing that this would be impossible, and Roark will never stop hunting them as long as Hartigan lives, then commits suicide in order to ensure Nancy’s safety once and for all. Again, he narrates ‘Little Girl Lives, Old Man Dies’, but he is surely dead, this time.
The Customer is Always Right (Epilogue)
An injured Becky departs from a hospital, talking on a cell phone with her mother. While riding in the elevator, she is met by the Salesman, who offers her a cigarette. Realizing who she is dealing with, and knowing he is there to deal with her, she tells her mother she loves her and hangs up.
Directed by: Frank Miller - Robert Rodriguez
Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by: Elizabeth Avellan
Frank Miller
Robert Rodriguez
Written by Frank Miller
Starring Bruce Willis
Mickey Rourke
Clive Owen
Jessica Alba
Benicio del Toro
Brittany Murphy
Elijah Wood
Rosario Dawson
Jaime King
Michael Clarke Duncan
Alexis Bledel
Powers Boothe
Michael Madsen
Josh Hartnett
Devon Aoki
Carla Gugino
Rutger Hauer
Marley Shelton
Music by John Debney
Graeme Revell
Robert Rodriguez
Cinematography: Robert Rodriguez
Editing by: Robert Rodriguez
Distributed by: Dimension Films
Release date(s): April 1, 2005
Running time Theatrical Cut: 124 min.
Extended Cut: 147 min.
