Vengeance(2022)

Plot Summary

• A woman dies in a deserted field in Texas, close to 2 oil rigs.New York City journalist Ben Manalowitz (B. J. Novak) is phoned by a stranger, Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), that one of his many casual romantic flings, Abilene "Abby" Shaw (Lio Tipton), has died of an apparent drug overdose. Ben barely remembers Abby, but Ty says that Abby talked about Ben a lot. Ben firmly believes that his casual flings are a way for him to find the best lifelong partner. Ben has a lot of theories about life, relationships, commitment, or the lack of it, people living in their own individualized time and uses his theories to create podcasts out of it. But his producer Eloise wants Ben to put his ideas into a story, as people like to listen to stories and not ideas.At Ty's insistence, Ben flies to West Texas (5 hours from the town of Abilene, which was itself 3 hours away from Texas) to attend the funeral. He meets Abby's family, consisting of brother Ty, mother Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron), sisters Paris (Isabella Amara) (24, and wanting to be a filmmaker) and Kansas City (Dove Cameron) (17 and wanting to be famous celebrity), younger brother Mason (Eli Abrams Bickel) (referred to as "El Stupido"), and Granny Carole (Louanne Stephens). Ben realizes that he meant a lot more to Abby than what she meant to him. Ty then informs Ben that he suspects Abby was actually murdered, adamantly maintaining that she never took drugs (she attended a party at an Oil rig on the night of her death) and asks Ben to accompany him to find the truth and avenge her. Ty says that in Texas people do not dial the police. He says that they were the 2 men in Abby's life, and she would expect them to deliver vengeance. After conferring with his podcast producer Eloise (Issa Rae), Ben elects to aid them as part of a story he will produce about grief and denial. Ben wants to write a piece on the new American reality, that people cannot accept. As a result, they invent myths and conspiracy theories to cope with their grief. The death of American identity and the need to find somebody to take the blame for it. Ben decides to stay for a couple of weeks and records everything that the family says happened to Abby. At lunch, the whole family says that they believe Abby was murdered. Ben promises that he is good at finding connections between disparate threads and weaving them into a coherent story. He says that he will get to the bottom of the mystery.Ben and Ty meet Ty's friend Crawl (Clint Obenchain), who explains that parties often occur at the oil fields and tells Ben of an area nearby the fields dubbed "the Afterparty", an area between law enforcement jurisdictions where dead bodies have been reported over time. Crawl and Ty suspect Sancholo (Zach Villa), a local drug dealer. They say that Sancholo was obsessed with Abby for years and would call home relentlessly and be on the phone with her for hours.Ben learns that Abby to be a singer and worked with a local producer to record some of her songs. Ben meets Quentin Sellers (Ashton Kutcher), an eccentric record producer and, like Ben, an outsider who is college-educated but has come to adopt Texas as his home. He gives Ben a memory stick with recordings of Abby performing. Quentin says that Texans are super smart but have nothing creative to pug their energy into. Hence, they get into conspiracy theories, drugs and violence. Ben confronts Sancholo to discuss Abby's death, and he reveals he was in Tulsa at the time. Sancholo is also adamant that Abby never did drugs. He says that Abby's body was found 2.5 miles from the actual party, in an area called the "Afterparty". Ben starts to believe that Abby was murdered. Sheriff Jimenez (Rio Alexander) handled the case as the murder took place outside city limits. Jiminez shares all the details and evidence with Ben. He knows that the area of the Afterparty lies along a popular drugs transit route. The after-party is in an area of 4 overlapping jurisdictions, County Police, Highway Patrol, Border Patrol, and City Police.After watching a rodeo with the Shaw family at a rodeo, Ben walks to his car which then suddenly explodes. Ben receives a call from Eloise, telling him that the story is complete - and his best ever - and expects him to now return to New York.More details about Abby are revealed by the Shaws. Granny explains Abby was a drug user (which is a complete shock to Ben as till now everybody claimed that Abby didn't touch the drugs). Ty admits to lying about to get closer to her (supposed) boyfriend. Ben angrily admonishes the Shaw family for living an isolated existence from modern America, as Ty gradually gets angry about Ben's reluctance to come down and discover how Abby died.An exhausted Ben finally reveals that he and Abby were hooking up and were never a couple, and Ty punches him before walking away. After Sharon suggests Abby's drug addiction was fed by the distance she felt from people in her life, Ben included, he miserably records his failure to find a compelling outcome and his own self-loathing.Later that night in Abby's room, Mason mentions how Abby would speak in code with him, saying "1435" (for the letters in "I love you Mucho"). In realization, Ben uses the number to unlock Abby's phone, finding a contact labeled "Ben", which Abby did to make her family believe she was texting with a New York boyfriend (thus the Shaws' misunderstanding). The last few messages indicate that Abby was abandoned by the unknown Texas "Ben" as she lay dying.Armed with one of Ty's pistols, Ben rides with Mason to a party at the oil fields. Ben learns that his car was bombed by Texas Tech Red Raiders fans from the rodeo, merely for him chanting for the Texas Longhorns. Ben finds Ty and Quentin, and the latter invites him to a private tent to converse. Inside, Ben notices a stash of Opioids and witnesses one of Quentin's teenage singers being dragged away to "the Afterparty".After turning off his recorder, Ben elicits a confession from Quentin, who confirms that he caused Abby to overdose and left her at the area of the Afterparty to die. Quentin knew that the Afterparty area was in the overlapping jurisdiction of 4 law enforcement agencies, and hence nothing would come out of the investigation. Ben reveals that he actually recorded the confession on his phone, to which Quentin responds with a speech about the nature of Ben's story and how ever-questioning audiences will shift their negative attention from Quentin (who only "left somebody to die" of their own overdose) to Ben and then toward the Shaws who wanted to exploit Abby's death for their own fame. Ben stops the recording and then executes Quentin with Ty's pistol.Upon returning to the Shaw house, Ben reconciles with Ty and Sharon. Before departing from Texas, Ben remotely deletes all copies of his recordings, electing to keep the story between the Shaws and himself.

Storyline

• Months after a few one night stands, New York City writer Ben finds out a girl he barely knows has died. He's talked into flying to the middle of nowhere in Texas for her funeral where her brother vows to find out who killed her... and seek vengeance.