The Encounter

A small remote town in Texas. Bank robber Stephen Cobbs is arrested after robbing a blinded truck and is taken to a small police station where three people wait. One is Kristin Law, a store owner who has just been released from a mental hospital following a suicide attempt - and who is there to recover her car. The other two are Butch and Cherry... two assassins hired to rescue Cobbs. Kristin leaves the police station just as Cobbs arrives... and Butch and Cherry execute everyone in there to free Cobbs. The three of them are wounded in the process and need medical assistance. While on their run, Cobbs questions Butch and Cherry how could they arrive at such a remote place, to which they explain that they had been hired by their mutual employer, Mr. Flower, to take care of another business, unknown to them. Finding this suspicious, Cobbs takes their guns and abandons them in the middle of the highway, going to meet Mr. Flower on his own. After going to town to meet with a friend, Kristin goes back home. She lives in a lonely house on the highway... and there, she finds Cobbs. Kristin recognizes him as the man she saw arriving at the police station while she was leaving. By pointing a gun at her, Cobbs obliges Kristin to help him clean and stitch his wound in the shoulder. Sheriff Smith arrives at Kristin's house and the tension grows. Kristin assures Cobbs that is only a coincidence and that Smith must be there to buy something from her shop, as he often does. She asks him not to kill Smith and to let her handle his visit. Cobbs threatens to kill Kristin if she says anything about him and she meets with Smith. Smith explains to her what happened at the police station and asks her if she has seen anything suspicious. Kristin says that she hasn't, but that will call him if she does. Smith also asks her how is she feeling after her stay in the hospital. Kristin says that she is trying. Sheriff Smith leaves and Kristin asks Cobbs to leave, but Cobbs tells her that he needs a ride to town to meet with a friend of his. Unable to do otherwise, Kristin agrees. After walking for hours on the highway, Butch and Cherry arrive at the town and hide in a motel. While discussing what to do next, and knowing that Cobbs stole a large sum of money and that he hid it before getting arrested, they decide to partner up and track Cobbs down to take the money away from him and kill him. Butch buys a radio transmitter to hear the police conversations. Kristin takes Cobbs to town. They stop at a clothing store to get Cobbs clean outfits. While in there, Kristin is tempted to escape but ends up not doing it. When Cobbs asks her why she didn't do it, Kristin says that she doesn't see the point of it, as it'd be easier for her to get killed by him this way. Cobbs jokes asking her what makes her so sure that he won't kill her when he is done... and a pissed Kristin punches him, asking him to kill her already if that's what he plans to do. Surprised by her rage, Cobbs apologizes and assures her that he doesn't plan to kill her and that he is even willing to reward her if she plays along. They go to The Armadillo, a bar where Mr. Flower is waiting to meet with Butch and Cherry. Surprised to see Cobbs arriving with Kristin, Flower question Cobbs about what happened to Butch and Cherry, to which Cobbs says that since they caused a mess in the police station, it was wiser to part ways with them and that he is there to take Flower for the money. Flower travels together with Cobbs and Kristin back to the highway, where Cobbs hid the money. After questioning Flower on why he had hired Butch and Cherry, Cobbs concludes that Flower planned to betray him at some point and that Butch and Cherry were supposed to kill him. Flower denies such a thing... but Cobbs beats him and promises to kill him after he gets the money and leaves Kristin. Cobbs asks Kristin to watch Flower while he searches for the money. While doing so, Flower teases Kristin, offering her a bigger sum if she betrays Cobbs. Kristin rejects his offer, and Flower tells her that she is a dead woman. As he continues to tease her questioning her morals, Kristin explodes in anger and beats Flower with Cobbs' gun. As she is almost about to kill Flower, Cobbs returns and stops her from doing so, saying that he is not worthy of it. Cobbs locks Flower in the trunk and they leave. As Sheriff Smith searches for Cobbs, he learns that Cobbs was in The Armadillo to meet with Flower... and that he was along with Kristin. Sheriff Smith calls his deputies on the radio and asks them to meet in Kristin's house... which is then heard by Butch and Cherry. They steal a patrol and head to Kristin's place. Cobbs and Kristin return to her house to leave her there. He pays her for her help... and can't help but ask her about her violent and emotional episodes. Kristin reveals to Cobbs that she is a widow who suffers from bipolar disorder. She tells how she felt guilty after the death of her husband, and how she tried to commit suicide with sleeping pills a few weeks ago. She also reveals that the only reason why she is alive is that Sheriff Smith arrived moments after she took the sleeping pills and confessed to him what she did. Smith made her throw up and took her to a mental hospital... where she didn't really get any better. She can't stand living with herself and continues to have suicidal thoughts, but lacks the guts to go through with it. As Cobbs asks her why she left the mental hospital, Kristin tells him that she simply didn't have enough money to keep paying it... and that she really doesn't hope to get any better. She simply wants to die. Cobbs asks her not to give up and to use that money to seek the help she needs. As he is about to go, Sheriff Smith arrives. Cobbs tries to escape, but Smith arrests him. Smith asks his partner, Deputy Jacobs, to inform the other deputies... when Jacobs hears a knocking in the truck of Cobbs' car. Jacobs finds Flower and, unaware of who he is, he helps him... and sees another patrol arriving - Butch and Cherry. As Jacobs recognizes them, Flower takes away his gun and kills Jacobs, then heads to search for Cobbs... and Butch and Cherry tag along. Since they are upset with Flower as well, they confront him and a big shootout begins. Butch is wounded by Flower. Sheriff Smith confronts them. Cobbs offers his help, but Smith refuses it, not trusting him. Cobbs tells him that they are dangerous people and that he needs to take Kristin out of it. Resigned, Smith prepares a plan to escape... but they are found by Flower, who shoots both Sheriff Smith and Kristin. An angered, Cobbs attacks Flower and strangles him with his handcuffs. He kills Flower. Cobbs then checks on Kristin... but is too late. Kristin has died. A teary Cobbs asks her for forgiveness and prepares to leave when... Cherry shoots him in the back. Cherry asks him for the money and Cobbs gives it to her, asking her not to be greedy as that's what caused that whole mess. Cherry kills Cobbs and takes away the money... not realizing that Sheriff Smith is still alive. Cherry finds out that Butch has died, too. She prepares to leave when her heel breaks. As Cherry tries to fix her shoe, she is surprised by Sheriff Smith, who kills her right away as vengeance for all the deputies she killed. As the police arrive and the bodies are taken away, we hear Kristin's suicide letter (something that she has been narrating all along), in which she says that she tried over and over again, but that she can't live with herself anymore and that life isn't for her, and that only in death she will find peace. She is now in peace.