Hitman Eddie Lorca is sitting in his apartment and watching his girlfriend dance. He gets a call from his boss, Scorpio, with a new assignment. Eddie tells him that he'll handle it in his own way and charge his usual fee of $25,000. Once he hangs up, Eddie gets some cologne from his case filled with assassin weapons. He tells his girl that he has a contract, and maybe he'll call her.
Jim gets his briefing from a fisherman's tackle box and is informed that Eddie will arrive in Los Angeles on a flight. He has a contract with the most powerful underworld leader in the region, codenamed Scorpio. Jim's team has to stop Eddie from killing his target, even though they don't know anything about the target or how Eddie intends to kill him. They must also determine Scorpio's identity.
At the final briefing, Jim tells the others that Eddie does everything at random. Eddie selects the method of murder at random at the last moment, since if he doesn't know what he's doing than no one else can know, either. They have to get close to Eddie and know what he's doing at the same time that he does. Barney shows Jim photos of the "blank" hotel that they've prepared based on the type of hotel that Eddie favors. He'll need 20 minutes to prep the hotel. Jim warns that if they lose Eddie then they'll lose their chance to identify Scorpio.
Eddie arrives at LAX.
Jim and Dana go to the hotel and enter the hidden control room in the back. Barney and a team of IMF agents are standing by.
Willy is posing as a cab driver at the airport and sees Eddie comes out. The hitman goes to a payphone and chooses a hotel name at random in the phone book. He goes over to Willy's cab, but reconsiders and goes to the next cab... with Paris driving. The cab is bugged, and once Eddie says that he's going to the Bower Hotel, the hotel team goes into motion producing all of the hotel materials with the Bower name. Paris tells Eddie that it'll take 20 minutes to get there, but Eddie points out that the phone directory says 15 minutes. Paris has no choice but to play along and say he can get Eddie there in 15 minutes, and drives off with Willy following.
As the team works, Barney insists that he needs 20 minutes. Jim figures that it all depends on Willy and continues tracing the route from the airport to the hotel.
Paris tries to make small talk with Eddie, who notices that Paris is going ten miles under the speed limit. Paris sees him watching and speeds up. Jim goes outside and checks the agents putting the signage on the hotel exterior. Meanwhile, Dana sets up surveillance equipment in the hotel room they plan to put Eddie into.
Willy goes to a stoplight control box ahead of Paris and sets it to red when he sees Paris' cab. He then radios to Jim, who marks off where Paris is on the map. Eddie grows increasingly impatient, and Willy finally switches the light to green. They still need five minutes to set things up. Meanwhile, Willy has a truck pull in front of Paris at the second checkpoint, and then radios to another track to pull up behind the cab. The first truck fakes a stall, and Eddie tells Paris to drive up on the sidewalk. Paris has no choice to do it when Eddie threatens to walk, and Willy tells Jim that they couldn't hold Eddie any longer.
The IMF team completes the setup just as Paris pulls up to the hotel. Jim takes the desk as the manager, and Eddie comes inside just as Barney ducks out of sight. Once they hear what room number Eddie requests at random, Barney attaches the correct room number that they've picked out and appropriate numbers to all of the surrounding rooms. Paris and Willy come in and join the others, and they watch on the monitors as a maid brings Eddie towels.
Eddie takes out a putter from his case and practices with some golf balls that he brought. At 2:28, Eddie leaves the room. Barney and Willy take up position as cab drivers, and Eddie goes to a payphone across the street. The IMF determines what number Eddie is dialing, and a woman answers. She says that she's Flo, the bagwoman for Scorpio, and Eddie tells her to meet him at the Bower. He gives her the address from the phone book cover, and she says that she'll be in there in 45 minutes.
Paris calls Flo back and, impersonating Eddie's voice, tells her to meet him at a nearby park. Jim calls Barney and Willy back in, and Dana listens to the recording of the bagwoman's voice and work out how to impersonate it.
At the park, Paris waits and rolls the dice. When Flo arrives, Paris continues impersonating Eddie's voice and confirms his payment delivery. Back at the hotel, he shows the others the information on the target. He's a black man, William Barton, president of a local construction union, and Barney is the only one who can double for him. The instructions say that Barton will be in his hotel room from 4:30 to 5:00 working on a speech alone. Barney puts on a suit and Jim takes a photo of him to put in the packet in place of Barton's photo.
Dana goes to Eddie's room posing as Flo and gives him the packet on his target. He has Dana sit down while he goes over the file, and Dana flirts with him to stall for time so they can swap Barney for Barton. Once he goes through the packet, Eddie says that they have plenty of time until he goes there. Eddie notices that the phone number to call for payment is different than the one he dialed earlier, and says that Dana isn't the girl he talked to earlier. He points out that the girl he talked to earlier sounded sexy, and Dana tells him to drink up.
Jim and Barney tell Barton what's going on, and Barton agrees to go with Willy while Barney takes his place. Once they're alone, Jim puts a tap device on the phone and looks around. Meanwhile, Barney takes a dummy out of a case.
Jim goes back to the hotel and sees Dana on the monitor, kissing Eddie. She asks for another drink, and Eddie tells her to be upfront with being Scorpio's bagwoman. When he takes her hand, Dana slaps him and he yells at her to get out. She snaps back at him, saying that she doesn't get until he does, and storms out. Eddie considers the weapons in his case and Paris puts on h is cab driver's uniform and goes out to the cab. However, when Eddie walks off, Paris loses him in traffic.
Once Paris reports in, Jim calls Barney to inform him that they lost Eddie and Paris will be in the room across the hall from him. Meanwhile, Eddie calls Barton's hotel, the Knickerbocker, and requests the room above Barton's. The clerk agrees and Eddie has him hold the room for a few hours.
Barney sets up the dummy of himself at the desk in Barton's room.
Eddie arrives at the Knickerbocker and goes in via the fire escape. He breaks into the hotel room he reserved, He rolls the dice and then chooses the golf balls. Eddie then calls Barton's room and hears the phone ring below via the air vent. Jim and Dana listen in as Barney answers the phone. Eddie poses as a local union member and asks to come up and meet with him. Barney agrees and Eddie says that he'll be there at 4.
The hitman takes out a small timer and then squeezes the golf balls--made out of plastic explosives--into a wad. Eddie then ties a piece of string around the ball of explosives, inserts the timer, sets it for three minutes, and lowers the bomb down the shaft to Barton's room. He ties off the string to the vent and then calls Barney again to make sure that he's there. Eddie says that he's coming up, and then leaves the hotel. Willy spots him coming out and Jim figures that Eddie has already set up the hit. Eddie goes to a nearby phone booth and calls Barney, and Barney prepares to answer it. Drawing on his memory of the room, Jim realizes that Eddie has lowered a bomb via the vent near the phone, and tells Barney to get out. The bomb goes off, and Paris confirms that Barney got out just in time and is only stunned.
Willy gives the signal and an IMF agent posing as a bystander runs out of the hotel and says that "Barton" was killed in the explosion. Eddie hears him and, satisfied, calls Dana's number to get his payment. Dana gives him an address to meet her at, and Eddie heads there. As he approaches Dana, a car pulls up and a passenger guns down Dana. Eddie discovers that the money is fake, and a "dying" Dana tells him that Scorpio tried to get Eddie as well as her. Eddie hails a passing taxi--driven by Willy, and gives him an address. Dana removes the squibs and the others pick her up.
Willy takes Eddie to the address and pulls up to an estate. The hitman goes in via the side window and confronts Scorpio. He shoots, and Scorpio shoots Eddie. Jim and the others arrive and confirm that both men are dead. Scorpio was Alfred E. Chambers, and Paris calls an ambulance and the police. Meanwhile, Jim picks up Eddie's dice and rolls them... and they come up snake eyes.
Written by Gadfly on Aug 5, 2017