Plot
An insecure, unsuccessful gangster named Jackie Rhoades waits in a cheap, dirty hotel room for his boss, George. George orders Jackie to shoot a barkeeper, or else he will kill Jackie on his return. George then exits, leaving Jackie wrestling with his conscience. Terrified and frustrated, he starts talking to his reflection in the mirror. He puts a cigarette in his lips but finds no match.
A puff of smoke comes out from the other side of the mirror, and he sees a different version of himself in the reflection: a strong, self-assured, confident Jackie Rhoades. Jackie looks into the mirror and asks, "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?" Jackie and his reflection enter a lengthy argument about how badly his life has turned out as a result of his listening to others and never himself. Jackie stubbornly resists the alternate Jackie's request to take over, and tries to flee, but he sees more mirrors in the hallway, the closet and the bathroom, and his reflection continues to argue with him out of each one. Finally, Jackie backs away in terror from the doppelganger he cannot escape. Jackie's double goes closer and closer to the real Jackie, and the screen goes black.
George returns, furious that Jackie has not done his job. "Whattaya gotta say for yourself, Crumb?", he sneers. Jackie turns around, and responds confidently, "I resign! You can have your gun back plus the following." He then kicks and punches a surprised George, throwing him out of the room along with his gun. Ringing the room clerk to check out, he refers to himself as "Jackie—JOHN Rhoades." He then tells the nervous Jackie, now the one on the other side of the mirror, that they're going to make something of their life.
Read more about this topic: Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)