Inherent Vice (film) Summary

Inherent Vice (film) Summary

The film begins with Shasta Fay coming into her ex-boyfriend's, Doc's, place. She needs him to help her with a man she is caught up with, Mickey Wolfmann, whose wife wants to abduct him and have him committed. Doc agrees and begins to work on the case as he believes Shasta Fay is in danger. Doc follows a tip and goes to look for a man named Glenn who is part of the Aryan Brotherhood. But, Doc gets knocked out and Glenn is dead when he wakes up, and Bigfoot, a Lt. Det. with the LAPD has taken him in.

Doc is let go as the LAPD is not charging him. He is then hired by Hope, a former heroin addict to find her husband, Coy who has been missing for quite some time. She believes he is alive, though she was told he was killed. Doc then meets Coy in a random encounter, and Coy asks him to see if his wife and daughter are okay. Doc doesn't let on that he saw them already, but in a second meeting with Coy at a home in Topanga Canyon confirms that Coy's family is okay.

Doc is told by Jade, a woman he's encountered twice on his investigation, to beware the Golden Fang, which he learns is a heroin cartel that is shipping drugs off the coast. He learns that Shasta was on board the ship the last time it left port. Doc then follows up on a clue left by Shasta and meets a Dr. Blatnoyd who clearly is part of the drug cartel, but using it as power to sleep with young women.

Blatnoyd is found dead on a trampoline, apparently from an animal attack the next day. Doc is told this by Bigfoot who also tells him to look for a man named Puck Beaverton in Chryskylodon, which is run by a cult connected to Golden Fang. Doc loses his tour guides and finds Mickey, who has apparently been brainwashed into giving all of his money away. Doc comes home and Shasta is there. She confesses she has brought trouble onto Doc, but seduces him.

The next day Doc is able to get sealed documents from the Deputy District Attorney whom he's been sleeping with. He learns from the file that a man named Adrian Prussia is paid by the police department as a hitman, and Prussia has killed Bigfoot's partner. Doc decides to find Adrian, but when he visits him is drugged. He's able to escape before being tortured by Adrian's giant Nazi goon who Doc knocks out with a lid from a toilet. Doc then shoots and kills Adrian, only to find Bigfoot there taking 20 kilos of heroine for himself. He takes Doc away and gives him his car back which was impounded, but Bigfoot has put the heroine in Doc's car. The next day Doc gets a call from a former client whom he helped find his daughter. The man has kept the Golden Fang from killing him in exchange for the heroine, which Doc happily gives over in exchange for Coy's freedom, which they agree to. The final shot is of Shasta and Doc riding together in a car.

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