Fire Sale (1977) Plot Summary Explained

Benny Fikus stages arson to collect insurance money because his clothing store is failing. He recruits Sherman, a man in a mental hospital who still believes World War II is ongoing, and convinces him that the store is a Nazi military headquarters that needs to be destroyed.

• benny fikus
• arson
• insurance fraud
• clothing store
• sherman

Sherman is a patient at a mental hospital who still believes World War II is being fought. Benny convinces him that the clothing store is a Nazi military headquarters, so Sherman thinks he's carrying out a patriotic mission by setting fire to what he believes is enemy territory.

• sherman
• mental hospital
• world war ii
• arson
• nazism

Russell discovers that Benny is completely bankrupt, with the only valuable asset being the surrender value of the fire insurance policy. He cashes it in and splits the money with Ezra to buy more stock for the store, not realizing this creates a major problem since they've already planned to burn the place down.

• russell fikus
• insurance policy
• bankruptcy
• money
• store

While Benny lies in a coma after his heart attack, house painters tell Marion that her husband is "very sick." She misinterprets this as Benny being dead and begins redecorating the home to prepare for a funeral instead of his recovery.

• marion fikus
• coma
• heart attack
• funeral
• misunderstanding

Ezra desperately needs money to adopt Booker T, a 6'8" orphaned African-American teenager, because he hopes the boy will join his high school basketball team. Ezra has only won two games in seven years as coach and faces losing his job, so recruiting a tall player becomes his solution to save his coaching career.

• ezra fikus
• booker t
• adoption
• basketball coach
• high school team

Sherman escapes from the mental hospital and heads toward the store to carry out the arson he was recruited for. He still believes he's attacking Nazi headquarters. The problem is that Russell and Ezra already cashed in the insurance policy, so there's nothing left to collect when the store burns.

• sherman escapes
• arson
• store
• mental hospital
• running

Benny recovers from his heart attack and warns Russell that Sherman is on his way to burn down the store. He realizes the plan has backfired because they no longer have the insurance policy to collect on, making the entire arson scheme pointless now.

• benny fikus
• heart attack
• warning
• sherman
• sons

Ezra and Russell attempt to stop Sherman from torching the store while Ezra also has his wife run his basketball team. They recruit Booker T to play on the team to help Ezra save his coaching career, creating a chaotic situation where they're trying to prevent a crime while also pursuing their own separate goals.

• russell
• ezra
• stop sherman
• basketball team
• chaos