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Alpha Dog is a 2007 crime drama film written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, and released on January 12, 2007. The film is based on the true story of the kidnapping and subsequent events of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in 2000, and the alleged involvement of Jesse James Hollywood, a young drug dealer in California[1]. The film stars Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Amanda Seyfried, Anton Yelchin with Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis.
Set in November 1999, (the real events took place in 2000) Alpha Dog tells the story of Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch), a young drug dealer in his hometown of Claremont, California. Despite being only 19 years old, Johnny owns his own house and car. Johnny has a circle of loyal friends, including Frankie Ballenbacher (Justin Timberlake) and Elvis Schmidt (Shawn Hatosy), the latter of whom does household chores for Johnny to pay his debt to him, but is constantly ridiculed by Johnny and Frankie for being spineless. Johnny's father, Sonny Truelove (Bruce Willis), supplies his son with the marijuana which he makes a fortune selling.
Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster), one of Johnny's friends and part-time distributors, is shown interrupting dinner to ask his father for money to pay a drug debt ($800). After Jake is denied by his father and stepmother, his 15-year-old half-brother Zach (Anton Yelchin) asks to come along with him, which Jake doesn't allow. Later, at one of his many parties, Johnny meets with Jake Mazursky. When Jake tells Johnny that he has failed to collect a drug debt for him, they fight over the money. The fight culminates in Johnny pulling a pistol on Jake and kicking him out of his house after Mazursky gets the upper hand in the brawl. Jake decides to continue the fight by salting an insurance fraud set up by Johnny and a mutual friend, costing Truelove $30,000. In retaliation, Johnny calls Mazursky's boss, claiming to be Jakes parole officer, and tells the boss that Mazursky has been getting in trouble breaking into houses and using speed. As a result Mazursky loses his job and only other means of income. As an ex-con, Jake's chances of finding another job are slim, and he becomes furious with Johnny. Jake and several armed friends therefore break into and trash Johnny's house and steal his television. Although armed, Johnny does not confront them, instead hiding until they leave.
Late in the evening Zach visits Jake, who is with his girlfriend. Zach drinks with them, smokes pot, and tells of his frustration caused by his parents, who treat him like a small child. Zach's mother, upset, phones and tells Zach to come home. Jake drives a drunken, high Zach home, much to his parents' anger. The following day, Zach's father finds a Pipe in Zach's room, precipitating an argument that Zach sneaks out of the house to escape.
Johnny and his friends want to take revenge on Jake, but do not find him at home. After smashing Jake's windows, they leave in a van and happen to pass Zach, who is walking by the side of the road. They see Zach and kidnap him, hoping to use him as leverage to make Jake pay his debt. Zach is initially restrained with duct tape, but this soon proves unnecessary: Zach starts enjoying the situation, now involved in the lifestyle he so envied of his brother Jake. He is then taken to Frankie's house in Palm Springs, California and begins to feel he is amongst friends and enjoys the break from home life with his over-protective mother. He is given alcohol and drugs and loses his virginity in a threesome. He is confident that Jake will soon pay his debt, and that he will then be released.
Johnny, worried about the legal problems kidnapping poses, calls his father's lawyer, who tells him that they can get life sentences for the kidnapping. Johnny then asks Frankie to kill Zach for $2500, but when Frankie rejects the offer, Johnny claims that it was just a joke. Frankie, however, suspects that Johnny was serious and talks about it to one of the girls while they are hanging out at his dad's house. The girl tries to relay the information to her mother but is unable to do so, as it is the mother's anniversary and she is too drugged up on Ecstasy to listen.
Johnny offers Elvis a way to pay back his debt: murder Zach. Elvis agrees and Frankie supplies shovels and duct tape, but refuses to help Elvis dig a grave. Elvis takes Frankie's friend Keith Stratten (Chris Marquette) along, pretending to give him a ride home. Reluctantly, Keith cooperates. While this is happening, Frankie offers Zach an opportunity to escape, but without explaining his concern. Zach does not feel in danger, and stays.
Sonny Truelove and family friend Cosmo (Harry Dean Stanton) show up at Johnny's girlfriend's house in an attempt to stop the situation from escalating. They urge Johnny to release Zach and assure him that they will work to get him a short sentence. The prospect of any jail time at all is unbearable to Johnny, though, and he refuses.
Later that night, Elvis, Frankie and Keith take Zach in a car, pretending that they are taking him home but instead driving him to the shallow grave that Elvis and Keith have dug. As they arrive at the site, two hikers walk past the group. Keith, who cannot bear the fact that that his new found friend is about to be murdered at the hand of one of his most trusted friends, hugs Zach one final goodbye and runs back down the hill to wait in the car. When they reach the grave site Zach becomes hysterical but Frankie promises him that everything will be alright. As his mouth is wrapped with tape Zach gets more and more agitated, but seems to accept Frankie's constant assurances that he will be fine. Suddenly, Elvis hits the back of Zach's head with a shovel, then proceeds to kill him with automatic fire from a sub-machine gun.
The epilogue shows the after-effects of the crime. Zach's mother Olivia (Sharon Stone) is interviewed; she talks candidly about her failed suicide attempts and the loss that she has experienced from her son's murder. All of the gang members are currently serving time, with Frankie serving a life sentence and Elvis on death row. Johnny Truelove was the youngest person ever on America's Most Wanted's list for 5 years before he was arrested by Interpol in Paraguay in 2005 and extradited to California for trial. |
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