The River Card

JOSEPH, a hitman from Chicago, listens in on a phone conversation between his target and the target’s young daughter. Although the conversation is brief, it instills a hint of empathy in the hitman. After carrying out the hit, Joseph realizes that the target could easily be him someday. Joseph tells his boss, GREGORIO, that he’s done with the business and wants to move away with his family. Gregorio sends Joseph on a suicide mission, and if he’s successful, he must leave Chicago indefinitely. Joseph pulls it off and relocates to Denver, Colorado. Twenty years later, Joseph’s daughter ISABELLA dies in a car crash. Shortly after, while playing Texas Hold ‘Em online, Joseph becomes a poker buddy with BELLA, a lady who resides in Chicago. Bella develops cancer. She requests that Joseph take her dog, SADIE, as a favor. Still grieving the loss of his daughter, and nothing else to live for, Joseph agrees to return to Chicago to get Sadie rather than having her shipped. Joseph rents a motorhome and tells his wife GRETA that they should take a road trip. Joseph and Greta head to Chicago without Greta knowing the truth. While at home, Bella deals with the effects of the cancer and a crappy ex-boyfriend, MIKE, who wants to take Sadie away. On the highway, Joseph and Greta aren’t getting along, and eventually Greta explodes with emotion. Greta asks about Joseph’s grief, as he seems emotionless. They finally reach Chicago. Mike steals the dog. Joseph leaves Greta with her aunt and tracks down Mike and threatens him. Mike returns the dog. Joseph is kidnapped and beaten by Gregorio’s henchmen. Joseph is forced to kill his next target or Greta dies. After the kill, Joseph is set free. While driving back to Greta, Bella calls Joseph, thanking him for Sadie’s safe return. While Bella is still talking, she collapses. While in the hospital, Bella asks Joseph to mail a letter to her parents. Joseph finds the letter at her apartment and discovers newspaper clippings that indicates Bella was raped and her rapists were acquitted. It comes to light that when Joseph was a young boy, his mother was sexually assaulted, and her rapists got away with it. As a new favor, Joseph tracks down Bella’s rapists and holds them up in an abandoned warehouse. Joseph transports Bella from the hospital to the warehouse to confront her rapists. Bella, with her last dying words, begs Joseph to let them go. After she passes away, Joseph gains the meaning of forgiveness, allowing himself to become emotional for the first time since childhood. Joseph lets the rapists go free. He returns to Greta no longer bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders.