Plot
Comic book store clerk and film buff Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) watches a Sonny Chiba triple feature at a Detroit movie theater for his birthday. There he meets Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), seemingly by chance. They go to a diner for pie and flirt before heading to Clarence's apartment. After having sex, she confesses that she is a call girl hired by Clarence's boss as a birthday present. But, she has fallen in love with Clarence and he with her.
The next day, they marry. Alabama's pimp, Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman), makes Clarence uneasy. An apparition of his idol, Elvis Presley (Val Kilmer), tells him that killing Drexl, who is also a drug dealer, will make the world a better place. Clarence tells Drexl that he has married Alabama and she has no additional business with him. Drexl and Clarence fight, Clarence draws a gun and kills Drexl. He grabs a bag that he assumes belongs to Alabama. When he tells Alabama he killed Drexl, she sobs and finds this "so romantic."
Opening the suitcase, the two find it is full of cocaine, which was stolen by Drexl. Clarence and Alabama decide to leave for California immediately. First they pay a visit to Clarence's estranged father, Clifford Worley (Dennis Hopper), a former cop. Clifford tells Clarence that the police assume Drexl's murder is a drug-related killing.
In Los Angeles, the young couple plan to meet Clarence's old friend, Dick Ritchie (Michael Rapaport), an aspiring actor. Back in Detroit, Clifford is confronted in his home by gangster Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken), who wants the drugs taken from Drexl, his underling. Clifford refuses to reveal where his son has gone. Accepting that he is going to die anyway, he insults Coccotti by claiming that Sicilians are descended from Black people. Coccotti shoots Clifford in the head and then finds a note on the fridge giving Clarence's address in L.A.
Clarence plans to use Ritchie's contacts with an actor named Elliot Blitzer (Bronson Pinchot) to sell the drugs to a film producer, Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek). Elliot, who has some of the cocaine, is stopped while speeding and is arrested for drug possession. Believing Clarence's story of getting the drugs from a dirty cop, he informs on Donowitz.
Alabama is found alone in the motel room and interrogated and brutally beaten by Coccotti's henchman, Virgil (James Gandolfini). In the subsequent fight, Alabama manages to kill Virgil. She and Clarence talk of moving to Cancún with the money from the drug deal. Knowing that Elliot's cocaine was uncut, and with Elliot "confessing" in order to avoid prison, detectives Nicholson (Tom Sizemore) and Dimes (Chris Penn) conclude that a sizable drug deal is about to go down. Promising him that he can avoid prison in return for cooperation, the two detectives have Elliot wear a wire. Coccotti's men, led by wiseguy Lenny (Victor Argo), learn where the deal is going down from Ritchie's pothead roommate, Floyd (Brad Pitt).
Clarence, Alabama, Ritchie, and Elliot, with the drugs in tow, pay a visit to Donowitz's suite at the Ambassador Hotel. Clarence makes a good impression on Donowitz, complimenting the producer for his Vietnam War film Coming Home in a Bodybag. Clarence excuses himself to the bathroom, where he has another conversation with the apparation of Elvis. Meanwhile, Donowitz and his armed bodyguards are ambushed by both the cops and gangsters who break in at almost the same time. Donowitz realizes that Elliot is an informant and throws a pot of coffee on him. Nicholson then shoots Donowitz, and a shootout begins. Ritchie abandons the drugs and flees. Almost everybody else, including Donovitz, Elliot, Lenny, and Nicholson, are killed in the crossfire, and the bags of cocaine are blown apart by bullets. Clarence is shot as he exits the bathroom. Dimes, who survived the shoot-out, finds one of Donowitz's wounded bodyguards, and kills him for shooting Nicholson. Alabama then shoots Dimes.
As Alabama cries over Clarence, it is revealed that the gunshot had only grazed his face and narrowly missed his eye. He and Alabama escape with Donowitz's money as more police set a perimeter around the hotel. Clarence and Alabama are shown on a beach in Cancún, with a son they have named Elvis.
Read more about this topic: Vincenzo Coccotti
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