Brian Petsos plays Harry, a restless freelancer who spends a lot of time with his beloved female pup Jolly and carves out his days under the weight of a sizeable debt owed to a threatening group. Facing the looming pressure to disappear, he plans to head out of town to dodge the obligation. But when he returns home, he discovers that Jolly has been killed. Grief and a simmering, blistering rage push him to recruit his close cousin Cecil, Oscar Isaac to help track down the killer, dragging both men into a ruthlessly escalating cycle of violence.
At a dim bar, the two press a rude bartender, Thomas, for a lead that points toward Bachmeier, a regular visitor who had once supplied Harry with his address. The conversation turns ugly quickly, and Harry’s fury erupts in a moment of reckless violence as he shoots Thomas dead. Elijah Wood plays Thomas, a figure who becomes only the first domino in a chain of bloody confrontations.
Their pursuit then shifts to Tina, a known sex worker who was last seen in the company of Bachmeier. Gillian Jacobs plays Tina, a woman who becomes part of the thread they pull. When Tina refuses Cecil’s attempt to pay for information, she shoots Cecil in the hand, yet the encounter spirals further as Tina and her ally Vicki meet their end at the hands of Harry, whose thirst for vengeance grows almost uncontainable. Amy Seimetz plays Vicki, a figure who signifies the tangled web they’re unraveling.
Their next stop is a law firm where they cut a brutal swath through three unscrupulous lawyers—Bobby, Eichelberger and Danny—who have been withholding information. The confrontation is swift and merciless: Bobby Moynihan plays Bobby, David Rasche plays Eichelberger, and Adam Brody plays Danny. The receptionist, portrayed by Jayne Atkinson, eventually informs them that Bachmeier is at a wedding reception, setting the stage for a dramatic intrusion.
With a sense of inevitability, Harry and Cecil crash the wedding reception, taking guests hostage as they search for Bachmeier. The family at the center of the ordeal is revealed to be deeply dysfunctional, a fact underscored when Angela, Kristen Wiig who is Bachmeier’s sister, speaks to the turmoil within the clan. The night escalates into a brutal assault on the attendees, and Angela herself becomes a target as her husband Gary, played by Garret Dillahunt, is shot during the chaos. A man outside eventually provides Bachmeier’s address, intensifying the pursuit and sealing the sense that no one and nothing is truly safe.
As the tension peaks, the film loops back to the opening moment. Harry pulls up to the same house, leaving Cecil in the car while he approaches an armed Bachmeier at the front door. Bachmeier welcomes him inside as if nothing has happened, and the scene closes with two gunshots fired inside the house, the outcome visible only from a distance on the exterior. The narrative folds back upon itself, underscoring a meditation on grievance, retaliation, and the inescapable pull of vengeance that haunts Harry and Cecil from start to finish.
