The Contract

In the snow-capped Appalachian mountains, the serenity of a quiet night is shattered when a man, KEATON, 35 and fit, plows through the fresh snow cover on the game trails. He's bleeding from a shoulder wound, and his right arm is useless, held up by a makeshift sling made from his trenchcoat's belt. He tells himself to keep moving as his mind wanders to earlier events. He's in his office. Keaton is a private investigator, and a girl's mother is hiring him to find her daughter, a teen runaway who is getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Keaton has reservations, and he initially declines the case. The mother, however, produces a very fat envelope and slaps it on his desk. Ten thousand dollars, she says. Forty more when he brings her back. Keaton feels like he is going to regret this. In the present moment, stumbling up the snowy hill with one good arm, Keaton realizes he was right; he regrets this. Back to a montage of Keaton performing detective duties. He researches the girl's cell phone; does research on the family to find any enemies they may have; and rousts some local toughs. He opines that sooner or later, every trafficking job in the city leads back to the Russian mob, and their leader, a man called FAT PASHA. While surveilling the Russians' hideout, he sees a beautiful woman entering the building and shakes his head. Finding the girl, he realizes, will be easy. Getting her back will be the hard part. Keaton is back in the wilderness. This time, he is visited by a shade from his past - a man named SHILOH. It is clear, pretty early on, that Shiloh is not with Keaton, but is either a ghost or a fever dream - and neither is an appealing option for Keaton at this moment. Shiloh looks at Keaton's wound and asks him who shot him. Keaton flashes back to a nice restaurant. The woman opposite him at the table is the same woman he saw through his camera lens. Her name is ANYA, and she is an assassin for the Russian mafia. They have a history between them. Anya's distracted; Keaton tries to engage her, but she is distant. When Keaton grabs his drink, however, Anya cautions him not to drink from it; there's enough fentanyl to kill the entire restaurant in that beverage. It turns out, Anya has taken up a new contract: Keaton. She did this because the other primary killer for the Russian mob, a man named Dmitri, would have taken the contract otherwise, and Keaton would not have a chance. This way, she can give him a 24-hour head start. Keaton asks that, if she is going to give him a head start, then why the fentanyl? In case she changed her mind, Anya says. She kisses Keaton and then exits the restaurant. Back to the wilderness; Keaton is starting to fade, which Shiloh mocks. They banter back and forth and Keaton suggests that he's like Tinkerbell; if Shiloh would clap for him, maybe he'll come back to life. Shiloh scowls; he only has one hand. Keaton finds a vet clinic in the middle of the snow-capped landscape and breaks into the cabin. This draws the ire of an old VETERINARIAN, who thinks Keaton's come to steal some drugs. The vet helps Keaton when it becomes obvious he's been shot. Keaton requests a cocktail of drugs and adrenaline to keep him going. The Vet tells him that if he doesn't get to a hospital by morning, he's going to bleed out. Keaton tells him he doesn't have a choice, but he has to keep going to save the girl. The vet eventually stabs him in the heart with a needle full of adrenaline. As Keaton screams... ...we revisit the moment where Keaton is shot...by Anya. She keeps to her code, even to the point of shooting one of her henchmen who gets a little too excited and tries to finish off Keaton. He manages to escape, but is being pursued by Anya and her goons into the forest. Back outside in real time, heading to the final meeting at a ski lodge with Fat Pasha. The night is almost over. Shiloh notes that Keaton has a death wish; all he has to do is to drop this quest to save the little girl, and he'd be able to live. Keaton says no; he took the mother's money, and that's his contract. He's going to get the girl back or die trying. Keaton remembers being in bed with Anya, 8 hours before she must fill her contract. Keaton realizes the only way to escape this predicament is to have Fat Pasha cancel the contract - which he won't want to do - and rescue the girl before Anya kills him. And Anya doesn't miss. He thinks back to what the mother said about herself, and Anya confirms that the mother has a lot of grief and self-loathing, which gets Keaton thinking. Anya tells him she doesn't like his odds of survival; Keaton responds by initiating another round of lovemaking with Anya, who responds to him in kind. Now, at the ski lodge, Keaton calls out Fat Pasha. He brings the girl and his goons, including Anya. It's revealed that Keaton knows why the girl was taken - her father is a hedge fund manager and he's being blackmailed to launder Pasha's money. Keaton works at making a deal to let the girl go; although initially rebuffed, Keaton lets Fat Pasha know that he's got all of his accounts and he can have them frozen instantly if he does not leave the mountain alive. Fat Pasha acquiesces, even going so far as rescinding the contract on Keaton's head. At this, Anya celebrates by shooting Fat Pasha in the face. Gunfire erupts across the ski lodge in the morning. In the final scene, Anya is driving Keaton's car, with the girl in the front seat, and Keaton in the back. As they head towards the hospital, it looks like they pass Shiloh, although nobody reacts to his presence. Shiloh nods as Keaton is being driven past him, on the way to safety.