Plot
Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter whose alcoholism costs him his job, family, and friends. With nothing left, he goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. As he drives drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he almost hits a woman in the crosswalk, Sera (Shue), who chastises him. Ben checks into a sleazy motel called The Whole Year Inn. As he looks at this the wording changes to "The Hole You're In." Meanwhile, Sera is a prostitute for an abusive pimp, Yuri Butso (Julian Sands), a Latvian immigrant. Polish mobsters are after Yuri, so he breaks his relationship with Sera in fear that the Poles may hurt her, and is murdered (off-screen) shortly afterwards.
On his second day in Las Vegas, Ben meets Sera, on the street where he first met her, introduces himself and offers $500 to go to his room for an hour. Sera agrees to go to his room, but Ben does not want sex. Instead, they talk and create an odd relationship. Their relationship is doomed; Sera has to promise Ben she will never ask him to stop drinking, and Ben is not allowed to criticize Sera's occupation. At first the two are stable, as Ben is "totally at ease with this (Sera's prostitution)." However, each becomes frustrated with the other's behavior. Sera attempts to get Ben to eat but Ben stumbles for more alcohol. Sera begs him to see a doctor. Ben, furious but intoxicated, brings another prostitute (Mariska Hargitay) to Sera's house. Sera returns home and throws Ben out. Shortly afterward, she is raped and beaten by three college students, and the injuries make her occupation obvious. After being evicted, Sera receives a call from Ben, who is on his deathbed. She visits Ben and they have sex. They fall asleep, and when Ben wakes up, he looks across at Sera, who is lying on top of him, and dies while holding her as she sleeps. His last word is "wow".
Read more about this topic: Leaving Las Vegas
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)