FARGO is a crime thriller set in Fargo, Brainerd and
Minneapolis during the frigid winter of 1987. It is the story of
a crime gone wrong and the pursuit of the criminals.
Jerry Lundegaard (WILLIAM H. MACY) is a car salesman
in Minneapolis who has gotten himself into debt and tries to
end his money woes with a scheme. He hires two thugs
(STEVE BUSCEMI and PETER STORMARE) to kidnap
his wife, Jean (KRISTIN RUDRID). The idea is that the ransom will be paid by the wife's wealthy
father, Wade Gustafson (HARVE PRESNELL), paying the thugs a small portion and keeping the
rest to satisfy Jerry's debts.
The plan quickly starts to unravel. Immediately after the kidnaping, the
thugs, on their way to a remote cabin up north, are pulled over by a state
trooper on a deserted highway near Brainerd. They shoot him, as well as
two innocent bystanders, drawing very pregnant Police Chief Marge
Gunderson (FRANCES McDORMAND) into her first homicide
investigation. Meanwhile back in Minneapolis, the woman's father, Wade,
when told by his son-in-law about the ransom demand, begins to suspect
that something else is afoot. He wants to deliver the ransom himself,
which of course will foil his son-in-law's plan to intercept most of it.
At first unaware that the homicides are connected to a Minneapolis
kidnaping, Chief Gunderson draws closer to Jerry Lundegaard as his
situation further unravels. The story draws to a head with
the characters converging--Wade Gustafson confronting
the kidnappers, aiming to save his daughter; his son-in-law
aiming to stop him; and Police Chief Gunderson aiming to
solve a murder whose connection to the staged kidnaping
gradually becomes clear.
