Three ordinary guys in the snowy Midwest stumble upon a plane crash, a dead pilot and a duffel bag stuffed with $4 million in cash. Hank (Bill Paxton) is a yuppie-in-training who originally believes the money should be turned in to authorities. Jacob (Thornton) is Hank's simpleminded older brother who agrees with his white-trash buddy, Lou (Brent Briscoe), that the best plan is to split the cash. As you can expect, tragedy ensues.

Good acting all around in this sleeper directed by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) but Billy Bob Thornton steals the show. When we first meet Thornton's Jacob, our instinct is to laugh at this "freak" - he looks completely ridiculous with his stringy hair, thick glasses and bad teeth. However, Thornton's portrayal goes beyond simple caricature. We see many aspects to Jacob: loneliness, despair, humor, anger, frustration and compassion. In one powerful scene, Jacob tells his brother about an incident in high school when another student pretended to show an interest in him, but it was only a cruel joke. He further confides that he hasn't ever kissed a girl and if the money will help make it possible to meet a woman, then he's all for it. The other two characters are motivated only by greed. However, Jacob is the only one who actually has a dream: he wants to buy the run-down family farm and bring it back to life. Sadly, we surmise that Jacob is doomed from the beginning and this prediction proves quite accurate by the end of the film.