Alpha Dog - Plot

Plot

Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) is a young marijuana dealer in Southern California. Sonny Truelove (Bruce Willis), supplies his son with marijuana, which Johnny distributes to his gang of friends, including Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster). Jake owes Johnny a $1,200 drug debt. Mazursky makes a failed attempt at asking for the money from his stepmother, Olivia (Sharon Stone) and his biological father Butch (David Thornton). Olivia and Butch are dealing with their own problems in the form of their rebellious son Zack Mazursky (Anton Yelchin), Jake's half-brother who admires his older brother. A fight between Jake and Johnny results in an escalating series of retaliations, which culminates in Johnny, Frankie (Justin Timberlake), and Tiko (Fernando Vargas) kidnapping Zack off the side of the road. They intend to hold Zach as collateral until Jake pays his debt.

Wanting a break from his home life, Zack makes little effort to escape. Johnny, meanwhile, pawns Zack off on his right-hand man Frankie, who initially offers him a chance to get away. Zack declines the offer, not wanting to cause any trouble for his brother and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Zack stays with Frankie at his father's house, does chores, and ingratiates himself with Frankie's friends, including Keith Stratten (Chris Marquette), and Julie (Amanda Seyfried), the youngest member of the group. By this point a number of hangers-on and friends of the gang know of Zack's kidnapping, though only Susan (Dominique Swain) seems concerned about it.

Frankie grows nervous when Johnny hypothetically offers Frankie $2,500 to murder Zack and dispose of his body. Frankie furiously declines and Johnny claims it was a joke. Instead, Johnny agrees to Frankie's plan to pay Zack to keep his mouth shut. However, after a conversation with his lawyer and threatening phone calls from Jake, Johnny decides the risk of ending up in prison or getting killed is too great to let Zack go. Johnny calls Elvis and offers to erase a drug debt if he kills Zack. Meanwhile, at a raucous going-away party, Zack demonstrates his martial arts skills on Frankie, who realizes he could have escaped at any time. Frankie and his friends still believe Zack will be returning home at the end of the night. Zack has a good time, including hooking up with Julie and her friend Alma (Amber Heard) when they were skinny-dipping in the pool. Julie gives Zach her number and Alma gives him a good-bye kiss on the cheek.

Elvis arrives at the hotel where Zack is waiting to be picked up and struggles with Frankie before threatening him with death if he interferes with the hit. Elvis takes Keith to dig a grave while Frankie offers Zack a final opportunity to go home. Believing he is part of the group and will soon return home safely, Zack prefers to wait at the hotel for Elvis to come back. Meanwhile, Sonny, Cosmo (Johnny's godfather), and Johnny's lawyer confront Johnny, who refuses to call off the hit. Frankie, Elvis, Zack, and Keith arrive in at the grave site. Zack is not aware of what's going on and grows suspicious when a deeply saddened Keith silently tells Frankie he can't go through with it, and, after giving Zack a goodbye hug, goes to wait in the car. Zack sees the grave and begins to break down, sobbing and begging Frankie and Elvis to let him go. Frankie tells Elvis that they shouldn't do it, but Elvis is keen on the job he's been given. Realizing now that there's no going back, Frankie calms Zack down and tells him that he would never hurt him, and ties a weeping Zack up with tape. He is astonished when Elvis violently knocks Zack into the grave with the shovel and then fires at Zack with a submachine gun, killing him. Frankie and Elvis then silently leave.

Despite all the cover up, Zack's body is found three days later. The epilogue shows the aftermath of the crime. Olivia, now suffering from obesity and depression, is interviewed. She talks candidly about her failed suicide attempts and the loss that she has experienced from her son's murder. Susan confronts Frankie over Zack's death and goes to the authorities. Elvis is caught while trying to secure a ride out of L.A. Johnny flees the city and arrives at the house of an old school friend. The friend drives him back to his godfather Cosmo's (Harry Dean Stanton) house, where he enters and is not seen again.

Tiko, Frankie, and Keith are arrested. After being convicted, they all serve their respective sentences: Tiko serving nine years for the kidnapping; Keith serving at a juvenile facility until the age of 25 for digging Zack's grave and second-degree murder; Frankie serving a seven years to life for special circumstances of aggravated kidnapping. Elvis is put on death row for kidnapping and murdering Zack. Johnny, however, is nowhere to be found.

The interviewer asks Sonny how Johnny was able to escape authorities for four years without help. Sonny assures him that he doesn't know where Johnny is. In 2005, after over five years of being on the America's Most Wanted list, Johnny is finally found and arrested in Paraguay. Text on the screen informs the audience that Johnny is in California awaiting trial, and, if proven guilty, faces the death penalty.