Dead Man’s Bluff

A university professor opens the film with a lecture on the primitive accumulation of capital, using the chaotic 1990s to illustrate how wealth was seized and built. The monologue sets a cool, analytical tone for the rest of the movie, connecting economic theory to street-level violence. The frame establishes the film's theme: how power and money reshape lives over time.

Three masked men burst into a tense room in Nizhny Novgorod; the leader lowers his disguise to reveal Stepan, a police officer who wastes no time shooting the torturer in the head. He pockets a scrap of paper that seems to hold a crucial clue. The act sets the stakes and introduces the cast of hardened players.

Stepan reaches out to Koron, Bala, and Baklazhan, recruiting them for a new job that promises payoff and power. The recruitment signals a shift from lone incidents to a coordinated network. The trio becomes key players in the coming crime wave.

The two young bandits, Semyon (Simon) and Sergei, operate under the aging crime boss Mikhalych. They run the gauntlet of extortion, pressing a drug lab to pay protection money. Mikhalych is central to the plan's stakes and the gang's ambitions.

Sergei leads negotiations at the drug lab, but the situation spirals as Simon and Sergei unleash gunfire, killing others and forcing a salvage operation for the missing drugs. They smuggle what remains to appease Mikhalych, whose fury burns hot at their failure. The violent misstep tightens the net around them.

Mikhalych orders a brutal exchange: swap a suitcase full of cash for five kilograms of heroin, to be delivered to an associate. The plan tightens the stakes and foreshadows the heist's fallout. The criminals move to execute the deal that will test loyalties.

On the way, the pair encounter Kaban, a former associate who hints at a life away from crime and even Moscow as a fresh start. The suggestion plants seeds of possible escape from Mikhalych's orbit. The meeting foreshadows forthcoming tensions and choices.

Stepan learns the entire plan from the scrap of paper and hires Koron to intercept the exchange. He also recruits Mozg, his old foe, to chase Koron’s gang and ensure the money lands back in the right hands. The web of loyalty and betrayal tightens as the operation moves forward.

Koron’s crew ambush Sergei and Simon, seizing the money and heightening Mikhalych’s risk. The violent raid escalates the war between rival factions and demonstrates the peril facing everyone involved. The money disappears into the higher-stakes game of power.

Sergei and Simon track Stepan to his apartment, where Stepan confesses and reveals where to find Koron and the heroin. In a brutal turn, Simon executes Stepan, cutting one dangerous thread from Mikhalych’s operation. The revelation shifts the balance of power again.

At Koron's apartment, Baklazhan is found bound but breaks free, grabbing a gun and wounding Sergei before Simon finishes him off. Sergei bleeds on the couch as Lyoshik, a medical student, extracts the bullet. The pair flee with the heroin, headed for Moscow to start anew.

Fast-forward to 2005, Sergei has become a State Duma deputy and Simon works as his assistant, running a securities trading firm as a legitimate front. Mikhalych now serves as their security guard, while Vladik, Mikhalych’s son, acts as an errand boy. The film closes with a sober reflection: Russia’s brutal energy of the 1990s persists in a different, subtler danger.