In New Orleans, a man Jacob Wood was murdered at his job. Two years later his wife Celeste Wood the plaintiff decides to take the weapons' manufacturer to court with the help of Wendell Rohr. They believe that the gun company the defendant was negligent thus partially responsible for their husbands death, because they were making it to easy to buy guns. As trial draws closer the gun companies hire the jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) to pick the best jury so that the gun companies would win. Rankin Fitch is armed with a team of specialists who have high tech gadgets in order to look at the lives of possible jurors to ensure the best jury possible. In the jury pool is Nicholas Easter (John Cusack), who tries to get himself excused from jury duty during the voir dire when saying he has to go home for the madden challenge. This angers the judge and it makes Easter have a spot on the jury. The reason Easter tries to get himself on the jury is so he can persuade the jury to vote for the side who pays the most. Easter is teamed up with his girlfriend Marilee. Marilee and Easter both have a plan that involves Fitch and Rohr. Who ever pays the most will get their desired verdict. When Fitch hears this, he orders Nicolas’ apartment to be raided and then it is burned. Then Marilee gets one of Fitch’s jurors bounced or off the jury. Then she also raises her price from $10 to $15 million for Fitch. Fitch finally agrees to pay Marilee the ransom after one of his witnesses blows up on the stand, crippling, but not entirely losing the case. After Easter receives confirmation that Fitch has wired the money to a Cayman Islands bank, he asks jurors to review the facts of the case. As this is going on one of Fitch's “specialist’s” was trying to find out more about Marilee and Easter and tells Fitch not to not wire Easter the money, but it is too late. The specialist also learns that Easter's real name is Jeffrey Kerr and that Marilee’s real name is Gabrielle Brant. We also find out that Marilee’s sister died in a school shooting when and the town took the gun manufacturer to court. In this trial Fitch was working for the gun company which Marilee’s town lost to so that why they were out for revenge. The jury’s verdict was that the gun manufacturer were liable, and Celeste Wood was received a large amount of money. After this Fitch ran to a bar, which is were Easter and Marlee, who show him a copy of the wire transfer of $15 million, confront him. They tell him to quit what he is doing or else they will fax the transfer document to the IRS. |
A lawyer and jury consultant working for the gun industry think they have the perfect combination of jurors picked out to hand them a favorable verdict. But a man with inside knowledge, and his girlfriend on the outside, have their own agenda - but they're playing a deadly game. |
