Billy Bob Thornton’s Classic Thriller Is Still His Greatest Movie 28 Years Later

Billy Bob Thornton’s performance in Sam Raimi’s 1998 thriller *A Simple Plan* remains one of his finest, showing a subtler, more morally complex side than his current role in *Landman*. The film follows three rural Minnesota men whose discovery of a crashed plane and more than $4 million draws them into a tightening spiral of greed, secrecy and violence.

Thornton plays Jacob, who initially seems naive but reveals a keen interest in the money, while his brother Hank, played by Bill Paxton, struggles with whether to keep it or report it. Brent Briscoe plays their friend Lou, and the story is adapted from Scott B. Smith’s novel. The article argues that Raimi’s restrained direction and the cast’s grounded performances make the men feel like flawed people rather than stock criminals.