Fargo

FARGO is a crime drama set in Minnesota in 1987. Jerry Lundegaard (WILLIAM H. MACY) is a car salesman in Minneapolis who has gotten himself into debt and is so desperate for money that he hires two thugs (STEVE BUSCEMI and PETER STORMARE) to kidnap his own wife. Jerry will collect the ransom from her wealthy father (HARVE PRESNELL), paying the thugs a small portion and keeping the rest to satisfy his debts. The scheme collapses when the thugs shoot a state trooper and two innocent bystanders in rural Minnesota, drawing local Police Chief Marge Gunderson (FRANCES McDORMAND) into her first homicide investigation. At first unaware that the homicides are connected to a Minneapolis kidnapping, Chief Gunderson draws closer to Jerry Lundegaard as his situation further unravels. It is in this scene that we see Marge start her police investigation.



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HIGHWAY

Two police cars and an ambulance sit idling at the side of the road, a pair of men inside each car.

The first car's driver door opens and a figure in a parka emerges, holding two styrofoam cups. His partner leans across the seat to close the door after him.

The reverse shows Marge approaching from her own squad car.

MARGE
Hiya, Lou.

LOU
Margie. Thought you might need a little warm-up.
He hands her one of the cups of coffee.

MARGE
Yah, thanks a bunch. So what's the deal, now? Gary says triple homicide?

LOU
Yah, looks pretty bad. Two of'm're over here.

Marge looks around as they start walking.

MARGE
Where is everybody?

LOU
Well – it's cold, Margie.

BY THE WRECK

Laid out in the early morning light is the wrecked car, a pair of footprints leading out to a man in a bright orange parka face down in the bloodstained snow, and one pair of footsteps leading back to the road.
Marge is peering into the car.

MARGE
Ah, geez. So... Aw, geez. Here's the second one... It's in the head and the ... hand there, I guess that's a defensive wound. Okay.

Marge looks up from the car.

MARGE
... Where's the state trooper?
Lou, up on the shoulder, jerks his thumb.

LOU
Back there a good piece. In the ditch next to his prowler.

Marge looks around at the road.

MARGE
Okay, so we got a state trooper pulls someone over, we got a shooting, and these folks drive by, and we got a high-speed pursuit, ends here, and this execution-type deal.

LOU
Yah.

MARGE
I'd be very surprised if our suspect was from Brainerd.

LOU
Yah.
Marge is studying the ground.

MARGE
Yah. And I'll tell you what, from his footprints he looks like a big fella –

Marge suddenly doubles over, putting her head between her knees down near the snow.

LOU
Ya see something down there, Chief?

MARGE
Uh – I just, I think I'm gonna barf.

LOU
Geez, you okay, Margie?

MARGE
I'm fine – it's just morning sickness.
She gets up, sweeping snow from her knees.

MARGE
... Well, that passed.

LOU
Yah?

MARGE
Yah. Now I'm hungry again.

LOU
You had breakfast yet, Margie?

MARGE
Oh, yah. Norm made some eggs.

LOU
Yah? Well, what now, d'ya think?

MARGE
Let's go take a look at that trooper.


BY THE STATE TROOPER'S CAR

Marge's prowler is parked nearby.
Marge is on her hands and knees by a body down in the ditch, again looking at footprints in the snow. She calls up to the road:

MARGE
There's two of 'em, Lou!

LOU
Yah?

MARGE
Yah, this guy's smaller than his buddy.

LOU
Oh, yah?


DOWN IN THE DITCH
In the foreground is the head of the state trooper, facing us. Peering at it from behind, still on her hands and knees, is Marge.

MARGE
For Pete's sake.
She gets up, clapping the snow off her hands, and climbs out of the ditch.

LOU
How's it look, Marge?

MARGE
Well, he's got his gun on his hip there, and he looks like a nice enough guy. It's a real shame.

LOU
Yah.

MARGE
You haven't monkeyed with his car there, have ya?

LOU
No way.
She is looking at the prowler, which still idles on the shoulder.

MARGE
Somebody shut his lights. I guess the little guy sat in there, waitin' for his buddy t'come back.

LOU
Yah, woulda been cold out here.

MARGE
Heck, yah. Ya think, is Dave open yet?

LOU
You don't think he's mixed up in –

MARGE
No, no, I just wanna get Norm some night crawlers.


INT. PROWLER
Marge is driving; Lou sits next to her.

MARGE
You look in his citation book?

LOU
Yah...
He looks at his notebook.

LOU
... Last vehicle he wrote in was a tan Ciera at 2:18 a.m. Under the plate number he put DLR – I figure they stopped him or shot him before he could finish fillin' out the tag number.

MARGE
Uh-huh.

LOU
So I got the state lookin' for a Ciera with a tag startin' DLR. They don't got no match yet.

MARGE
I'm not sure I agree with you a hunnert percent on your policework, there, Lou.

LOU
Yah?

MARGE
Yah, I think that vehicle there probly had dealer plates. DLR?

LOU
Oh...
Lou gazes out the window, thinking.

LOU
... Geez.

MARGE
Yah. Say, Lou, ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J2L 4685?

LOU
Yah, that's a good one.

MARGE
Yah.

The police car enters with a whoosh and hums down a straight-ruled empty highway, cutting a landscape of flat and perfect white.

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