- A young man's life is unraveled after witnessing a murder that he filmed in his rural town of Cut Bank.
- Dwayne McClaren has been looking for a way out of his small town upbringing of CUT BANK, MT since he graduated high school several years earlier. When he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time, he jumps at a chance to pursue a better life in a bigger city with his girlfriend Cassandra. But luck doesn't exist in Cut Bank, and this perceived good fortune is quickly followed by a flood of bad karma.—anonymous
- Dwayne McClaren (Liam Hemsworth) is a recent high school graduate waiting to escape the small town of Cut Bank, Montana in dreams of getting a job in a big city. When he and his girlfriend are taking pictures and videos with his camera, he witnesses a bloody murder in the background. Horrified at first, he jumps at the opportunity to blackmail and extort money for the video to pursue a better life, but he soon finds his airtight plan crumbling around him as the police and the criminals close in. Dwayne soon learns there is no such thing as secrets in Cut Bank as his brilliant "get rich quick" scheme falls apart.
- Dwayne McClaren dreams about escaping small town life in Cut Bank, Montana, "the coldest spot in the nation," with his vivacious girlfriend Cassandra. When Dwayne witnesses an awful crime, he tries to leverage a bad situation into a scheme to get rich quickly but he finds that fate and an unruly accomplice are working against him. Thrust into the middle of a police investigation spearheaded by the local sheriff, everything goes from bad to worse.
- Dwayne Mclaren (Liam Hemsworth) is a young auto mechanic and former high school football star who desires to get out of Cut Bank, Montana, the small town in which he lives. His attempt to do so sets in motion a series of events that change his life and the town's future. Cassandra Steeley (Teresa Palmer) is Dwayne's girlfriend & supports him in his quest to get out of town.
Georgie Wits (Bruce Dern) is a USPS delivery man, very old & a bit of a pervert. Dwayne accidentally catches Georgie's murder on his camera. But the murderer is hooded. Stan Steeley (Billy Bob Thornton) is Cassandra's father, who upon seeing the video, calls Sheriff Vogel (John Malkovich) for a meeting where Dwayne hands off the video to Vogel.
The murderer turns out to be a Native American guy who hides Georgie's truck in a rental garage, only to reveal that he was in cahoots with Georgie who faked his own death. Derby Milton (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a slightly slow guy who was waiting for a package, that was shown to be on Georgie's truck (now in the garage).
Stan reveals that he wants to sell his land outside town where he has hosted a successful spare parts business & asks Dwayne to check it out. Dwayne visits the site, which happens to be where Georgie is hiding after faking his death, & somehow Dwayne is in control of a plan. Dwayne is about to receive a big payout from the USPS for his services & he intends to use the money to go to California & set up his auto body shop. Joe Barrett (Oliver Platt) is the USPS inspector who has come down from Washington to investigate the death & if he is convinced, will hand over the money to Dwayne. Joe tells Vogel that he will hand over the money to Dwayne as soon as he sees the dead body.
Meanwhile Derby is conducting his own investigation, visits the murder site, measures shoe prints. He traces the Native American who bought that shoe size & visits him to find the location of Georgie's truck. In the ensuing tussle, Derby kills the Native American. Turns out that the Native American was working at Dwayne's auto shop. Stan gives a surprise visit to his spare parts lot & finds Georgie hiding beneath one of his trailers. Georgie kills Stan to prevent him from calling Vogel. But Stan is only deeply concussed. At night Derby comes by to visit the spare parts lot (Georgie had used a cabin envelope with the business address on it to pay the Native American, which Derby found). Georgie insults Derby, when he asks about his parcel. Derby kills Georgie, which is witnessed by Stan who has regained consciousness.
Since Stan had been reported missing by his wife, Vogel visits the spare parts lot & finds Georgie's body, where Derby had killed him. Vogel finds Stan on the property in a coma. At the time Derby was killing Georgie, Dwayne had called Georgie to warn him from a pay phone at a local bar. Derby traces the call & ends up in a scuffle at the bar, which get reported to Vogel. Vogel visits Derby's cabin & finds dead animal carcasses. he also finds a locked room, which is a literal reproduction of a 60's kitchen ad, which human figurines & a lady holding a blue parcel. The same parcel that Derby has been looking for.
Derby corners Dwayne & Cassandra trying to leave town & kidnaps them both. He makes Dwayne drive to the rental garage where the parcel is. He is about to leave them alive, when he realizes that Dwayne tried to trick Derby & had called for help from police. Derby leaves them both to suffocate, but is intercepted by Vogel, who kills Derby & rescues Cassandra & Dwayne.
Vogel pieces together the whole story, with help from Stan, who is now conscious. He tells Dwayne about his stupid intentions to get reward money. To make the original story stick, that the Native American killed Georgie, Vogel plugs 2 bullets into Georgie's corpse in the morgue. In the bargain he tells Dwayne to pass up on the reward money & leave Cut Bank with Cassandra for a better life elsewhere.
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