Plan C (2012)

The mediocre Amsterdam detective Ronald Plasmeyer (Ruben van der Meer) can often be found at the table in a small illegal poker club in Amsterdam North. According to Ronald, it’s a game of skill, not gambling. When his ex-wife and young son are threatened over an outstanding debt to the Chinese man Hao, Ronald has to come up with a way to get the money. He devises a foolproof plan. Ronald suggests to his friend Gerrit (René van 't Hof) that they rob the poker club. The important thing is: no violence. If no violence is used, then only some undeclared cash will be missing. Nobody would go to the police over that, Ronald reasons. Just threats. Ronald will play in the game himself on the night of the robbery, so he’ll have an alibi. Without consulting Ronald, Gerrit brings his former brother-in-law Bram (Ton Kas) into the plan. Ronald doesn’t know Bram, but under time pressure and with Gerrit’s assurances, he agrees to let Bram take part. Ronald estimates they can make off with €30,000, and the three agree that each will get a third of the take. On the night of the robbery, Bram makes sure that he and Gerrit take things especially slowly. Bram insists that they go through the KFC to get something to eat first. The weapons Bram has arranged—an old handgun and an Uzi—make Gerrit uneasy. He gradually loses his grip on Bram, whose unpredictable nature becomes increasingly apparent. Meanwhile, Ronald is at the poker table, taking part in the tournament being held that night. But things there also go differently than expected. For the first time in his life, Ronald seems to be on a good run at the poker table. He could even win more than the €10,000 he needs. Ronald makes a decision. In the bathroom, he tries to call Gerrit and have him abort the “mission” after all. But Bram won’t hear of it. “The machine is already in motion!” Ronald returns to his seat at the table, deathly pale, waiting helplessly for what is coming. Then shots ring out, someone opposite Ronald is even hit by a bullet, and Ronald’s plan becomes completely useless. To make matters worse, Ronald leaves his lighter behind as he rushes out. The next day, the three meet at a roadside restaurant. Ronald is furious and asks Bram why he fired shots, contrary to their agreement. Bram responds nonchalantly: “Plans are made, then things happen, and the plans get changed again.” An argument breaks out over how to divide the take: Bram now decides that Ronald will get less because he hasn’t had to do much. When Ronald refuses to accept this, Bram says he won’t let him have any of it. Gerrit tries in vain to calm things down, but when Bram openly pulls his pistol, Bram and Gerrit leave, and Ronald is left alone. At the station, Ronald’s boss, Peter (Kees Hulst), confronts him with the lighter found at the crime scene. He knows it is Ronald’s lighter, but doesn’t immediately connect Ronald to the shooting. Instead, he thinks Ronald has a secret gambling addiction. Peter would like to talk it over with Ronald. While Peter arranges for Ronald to give a witness statement, Ronald slips away to quickly pick up his son Simon from school. He leaves Simon with his grandmother for the time being, so he can focus again on solving his problems. Ronald can no longer get in touch with either Bram or Gerrit, and time is running out. He leaves a message on Gerrit’s voicemail with a new plan: he’ll accept his smaller share of the take, but perhaps Gerrit can lend him the rest so he can at least pay Hao back. While Bram and Gerrit are literally washing the blood off the money in a hotel room and dividing it up, Gerrit has little say in Bram’s new plans. When Bram has to “take a shit” and wants to close the bathroom door, he takes Gerrit’s phone as a precaution and throws it in the toilet. While Bram sits on the toilet, Gerrit secretly decides to use the hotel room’s landline to call Ronald. But just as he gets Ronald on the line, Bram appears in the bathroom doorway with the old pistol in his hand and shoots Gerrit dead. Ronald finds the hotel through Gerrit’s call and heads straight there. When he arrives, it turns out that the receptionist (Henry van Loon) has also been shot dead. When Ronald enters the deserted hotel room, he finds only Gerrit’s body. Then Bram appears from the bathroom with his pistol drawn. He wants to shoot Ronald, but the old pistol jams. Bram then throws his weapon at Ronald to distract him and flees the room. Bram falls as he runs away, and Ronald comes out of the hotel room with the pistol Bram has just thrown at him. Ronald points the old weapon at Bram, and this time the pistol doesn’t jam, so he shoots Bram dead. Ronald then takes the money, turns Bram over, and leaves Bram’s weapon behind. When he gets to Hao, he pays off his debt with the money, wrapped in a hotel laundry bag. Meanwhile, it turns out the police have a completely different interpretation of the evidence. According to the inspector leading the investigation (Victor Löw), Bram and Gerrit argued in the hotel, Bram shot Gerrit dead, and then fell on his own pistol while trying to get away. There had been a third person involved in an incident at a roadside restaurant, described by witnesses as “bald.” But, the investigating inspector explains to Peter, Ronald’s boss, that it is unrelated to this case. Ronald seems to have got off scot-free and to have had the greatest luck of his life, without realizing it. When he reports to Peter to explain his earlier behavior, he expects Peter to have figured him out. But when Peter lays out the police’s version of events, Ronald realizes that he is not suspected of any involvement at all. It isn’t entirely clear whether Peter is aware of what he is actually doing, but Ronald now realizes that, as far as he is concerned, everything is settled. For now, anyway. In the final scene, Ronald sits at the bar in a café in the morning, relieved, with a cup of coffee in front of him. When four men playing cards ask if Ronald wants to join them, he looks at them for a very long time.