Runner Runner(2013)

Plot Summary

• Richie Furst used to have a lucrative career on Wall Street; this history prevents him from receiving tuition assistance at Princeton, so he funds his master's degree by referring students to online gambling, for which he receives a cut. After the dean threatens to expel him for these activities, Richie tries to win his tuition using his excellent poker skills in online gambling, but he loses all his money to a cheater, something he is able to prove by statistics.Richie goes to Costa Rica to confront Ivan Block, who runs the biggest empire of online gambling websites in the world, including the one Richie lost his money on. After Ivan sees the statistics, he finds coders have coded the software to allow them to cheat. After firing those involved, Ivan tells Richie he'll pay him millions per year for him to assist with the site work. Richie slowly begins a romantic relationship with Rebecca Shafran, Ivan's ex-lover, and Ivan displays no objections to this. FBI agent Shavers kidnaps Richie and threatens to ruin his life in various ways if he does not assist in a conviction of Ivan Block. Shavers cannot do anything legally as he has no authority in Costa Rica, but he takes advantage of this to use tactics that would be illegal/unethical for law enforcement inside the United States. Ivan tells Richie that everyone in the organization ends up confronted by Shavers at some point. Ivan has Richie blackmail Shecky, a gaming affiliate with videos of his infidelity to force him to sign with Ivan.Over time, Ivan's organization is revealed to be less than ethical. He sends Richie to bribe Costa Rica gaming director Herrera with too small a payment, which leads to Richie being beaten. Ivan tells him it comes with the territory of such a wealthy career. Ivan throws Herrera and his bodyguard into a lake of crocodiles, but pulls them out before they are eaten. Richie's friend Andrew Cronin, who works on the software design for Ivan, finds that Ivan is running a Ponzi scheme; the players' accounts have no actual money, and Ivan uses the money as his own bank account, keeping just enough to allow players to cash out when they need to. Cronin disappears and is later found nearly beaten to death. Fearing Richie might be having a change of heart, Ivan buys the massive poker debts of Richie's father and brings him to Costa Rica, using him as a hostage against Richie.When Richie tries to leave the country, Shavers has drugs planted in his bag and offers to overlook it if Richie agrees to cooperate. A local police officer reveals that the police dislike Ivan but that he would buy his way out of any trouble and destroy whoever tried to take him down. Thanks to Rebecca betraying Ivan, Richie finds out that Ivan has been swindling him all along; Ivan is about to move his operations out of Costa Rica, and from the start he wanted to leave Richie behind as the fall guy. Richie gives out massive bribes to all local officials, including low-level police officers. When the movement day hits, Ivan calls to satirically apologize to Richie, telling him he'll be arrested, as Ivan flies away on a private jet.When Ivan lands, he finds he has been betrayed: the bribed pilot has instead flown him to Puerto Rico, American territory. Shavers arrests him as Richie and Rebecca fly away on the private jet. Shavers says they're free to go because Richie left a flash drive with him containing sufficient evidence to convict Ivan.

Storyline

• Princeton grad student Richie, believing he's been swindled, travels to Costa Rica to confront online gambling tycoon Ivan Block. Richie is seduced by Block's promise of immense wealth, until he learns the disturbing truth about his benefactor. When the FBI tries to coerce Richie to help bring down Block, Richie faces his biggest gamble ever: attempting to outmaneuver the two forces closing in on him. — 20th Century Fox Distribution Richie Furst is a Princeton student who's having trouble with his tuition. He first helps other students who want to gamble online for a fee. But when the Dean learns of this he tells him to stop or else. He then gambles online himself and loses but he believes he was cheated. So he goes to where the site originates Costa Rica and shows the owner, Ivan Block, proof that he was cheated. Block then offers him a job which he accepts. He thinks he's got it made it till he learns how Block does business. And an FBI agent who wants to nail Block tells Richie to help him or else. So Richie tries to find a way out. — rcs0411@yahoo.com In Princeton, the student Richie Furst is a former Wall Street broker that lost everything in the stock market crash a couple of years ago. Richie supports himself and pays the institution promoting online gambling in Princeton. When he is denounced by one student to Dean Alex Monroe, Richie receives an ultimatum and is forced to stop his activity. Further, he decides to bet all his savings to finance the rest of his graduation. However he loses all his money and discovers that he has been swindled by the powerful Ivan Block that owns the site. Richie travels to a gambling convention in Costa Rica expecting to meet Ivan, and he meets his lover and employee Rebecca Shafran that gives an invitation to him for the party. Richie meets Ivan that refunds him and invites Richie to work for him. Richie is seduced by the offer and moves to Costa Rica expecting to become rich. But soon Richie is pressed down by the unethical FBI Agent Shavers that wants to catch Ivan but has no jurisdiction in the corrupt country. Soon Richie finds the truth about the disloyal Ivan and he has to find a way out to escape from Ivan and Shavers using his intelligence and money. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil A whiz at the virtual-poker table, bright young Ivy Leaguer Richie (Justin Timberlake) had nearly raised enough cash to pay his tuition when he lost it all in the blink of an eye. Convinced that he's been cheated and determined to confront the swindler, Richie hops a plane to Costa Rica, and comes face-to-face with online gambling mogul Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), who introduces him to a world of wealth and privilege. Meanwhile, the FBI has been watching Ivan, and attempts to strong-arm Richie into turning informant. With Richie's help they could bring Ivan's illegitimate empire crashing to the ground. But who's more dangerous, the entrepreneur who feeds his enemies to crocodiles, or the agents who seem like they're willing to break the law in order to uphold it?. 2 more All