Billy Bob Thornton pleads with his brother in A Simple Plan.image via Paramount Pictures
By
Chris Williams
Published Jan 28, 2026, 7:42 PM EST
Chris Williams is a writer with more than 20 years of experience writing about film.
He began his career working as a reporter for the Advisor and Source Newspapers in Shelby Township, Michigan, where he also served as the resident film critic. He has also written for Patheos and CinemaNerdz. Since 2020, Chris has written the Chrisicisms newsletter, which features reviews of recent film releases and thoughts on a variety of subjects.
Chris holds a B.A. in communications and an emphasis in journalism and an M.A. in communications with an emphasis on media arts and studies, both from Wayne State University in Detroit.
He lives in the Detroit area with his wife and his son and daughter.
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Three years after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi returns to theaters this month with Send Help. The film, which stars Rachel McAdams as a woman who gets the opportunity to turn the tables on her bully boss (Dylan O’ Brien) after they crash on a deserted island, is Raimi’s first non-IP film since 2009’s Drag Me to Hell.
While his comic book movies helped revolutionize the genre, Raimi is always best when he scales back the scope and shakes off the restrictions of big studio properties. And he never did it better than in 1998’s A Simple Plan, which found Raimi tightening his focus and exploring his characters’ darker sides with a mix of horror and humor. As Send Help crashes into theaters, Raimi’s best film is worth a revisit.
‘A Simple Plan’ Is a Bleak Morality Tale
Image via Paramount Pictures
Based on Scott Smith’s novel, A Simple Plan stars Bill Paxton as Hank, a husband and father-to-be living a quiet life with his wife, Sarah (Bridget Fonda). While in the woods with his brother, Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and their loutish friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), the trio find a downed plane containing a dead pilot and a bag full of cash. The men figure the cash is drug money and hatch a plan to keep it for themselves. But suspicion, jealousy, and bad timing quickly cause everything to unravel.
A Simple Plan is a dark and violent movie that weaves in lies, betrayal, and murder as it builds to a heartbreaking final showdown. While often labeled a thriller, it’s also a horror movie about how arrogance and greed can cause an otherwise good person to make wicked choices. Unlike Raimi’s other horror movies, A Simple Plan lacks a supernatural element and instead concerns the darkness and evil lurking in the hearts of ordinary people.
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Posts By Adam BlevinsPaxton and Fonda are excellent as a couple whose desire for a better life leads them to do unspeakable things. Sarah begins as the voice of reason, but it’s not long before she’s pulling the strings like a modern-day Lady Macbeth. Paxton was always a capable everyman, and Hank is a nice guy on the surface who views himself as better than many of his neighbors, which eventually results in disaster when he clashes with Lou’s insecurity. Thornton steals the entire film as possibly the only innocent person in the entire scheme, a man only wants acceptance. He’s the only sense of conscience in a film full of characters with dirty hearts and bloody hands; it’s one of Thornton’s best performances, and it earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
‘A Simple Plan’ is Right in Raimi’s Wheelhouse
A Simple Plan was a departure for Raimi, whose career at that point focused on frenetic, gory genre movies like the Evil Dead trilogy, the superhero monster movie Darkman, and the energetic western The Quick and the Dead. A deliberately paced thriller with no flashy camera work earned him critical attention – the film sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert called it one of the year’s best movies. It was seen as a step toward prestige for the director, who followed it with the gothic ghost story The Gift and the baseball romance For the Love of the Game before being tapped to bring Spider-Man to the screen.
But A Simple Plan has many of Raimi's hallmarks. There’s a streak of dark humor running through the plot’s twists, turns, and ironic reversals. The camera may remain stationary for the most part, but Raimi still ratchets up the tension to nearly unbearable levels. He crafts an icy Midwestern setting that’s just as crucial to the story and its themes as Evil Dead’s cabin or Spider-Man’s New York. And while the gore is dialed back, he doesn’t shy away from the violence, particularly in a tense standoff inside a farmhouse involving a shotgun that feels just a step away from Evil Dead’s over-the-top carnage.
Raimi has often focused on morality tales and characters who must face the consequences of their actions. The Evil Dead films explore the fallout of meddling with forces they can’t comprehend, the Spider-Man trilogy explores responsibility and self-sacrifice, and in subsequent years, he made Drag Me to Hell, a rip-roaring horror fable about ambition and corporate greed. Raimi’s films often see his characters (and actors) suffer as a result of their choices, and by the end of A Simple Plan, Hank’s life and relationships are forever altered by one bad decision.
Will ‘Send Help’ Be Another Raimi Success?
It’s too early to know whether Send Help will be another hit for Raimi, but it looks promising. After years of being mired in intellectual property purgatory with Oz the Great and Powerful and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s exciting to see him tackle an original idea again. With two strong leads at its center, it appears Raimi is again tackling a story of individuals in moral conflict while in a heightened environment. Based on the trailer, Send Help brings back Raimi’s jet-black humor amid its carnage and psychological horror. And while it’s too early to truly tell, there appear to be no supernatural elements at play. All this seems to be reminiscent of A Simple Plan, and fans would do well to give his best film another look before his newest hits theaters.
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Explore Sam Raimi's career and more by subscribing to our newsletter. You'll get curated director retrospectives, sharp film analysis, and thoughtful recommendations that make revisiting classics like A Simple Plan more rewarding and guide what to watch next. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.A Simple Plan is available to watch on Fubo in the U.S.
A Simple Plan
Like Follow Followed R Crime Drama Thriller Release Date December 11, 1998 Runtime 121 Minutes Director Sam RaimiCast
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Bill Paxton
Hank Mitchell
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Billy Bob Thornton
Jacob Mitchell
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Bridget Fonda
Sarah Mitchell
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Brent Briscoe
Lou Chambers
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A Simple Plan
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