Tom and Gage discuss Harold Ramis' The Ice Harvest from 2005. The Ice Harvest is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Scott Phillips. It stars John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Connie Nielsen, with Randy Quaid and Oliver Platt in supporting roles. It was distributed by Focus Features, and it was released on VHS and DVD on February 28, 2006. It is the last Focus Features film released on VHS format. The Ice Harvest grossed $10.2 million worldwide. Plot On Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, lawyer Charlie Arglist and pornographer Vic Cavanaugh prepare to leave town after stealing $2 million from their boss, mobster Bill Guerrard. However, icy roads force them to postpone their getaway. Vic holds the cash when they split up, biding their time until the roads clear. Charlie visits Sweet Cage, a local strip club owned by Vic and run by Renata Crest, a woman whom Charlie has long lusted after. She deduces he is hiding something. Charlie hints at the money, and she suggests they run away together. Taking advantage of the perceived situation, Renata asks Charlie to steal an incriminating photo of herself and a local politician from Vic and give it to her. After talking to his friend Sidney, a bartender and bouncer at Sweet Cage, Charlie goes to another strip club owned by Vic, the Tease-O-Rama, and takes the photo from a safe. Before he can leave, Roy Gelles, one of Guerrard's enforcers, arrives looking for Charlie. Charlie hides in the men's restroom as Gelles enters. The enforcer reads aloud a graffito written in red sharpie on the wall above the urinal, "As Wichita falls, so falls Wichita Falls". After evading Gelles, Charlie goes to a restaurant/bar, running into his friend Pete, who is married to Charlie's ex-wife Sarabeth. Pete is drunk and decides to tag along with Charlie for as long as it takes to pass out. Charlie calls Vic from a pay phone, where he sees the same red graffito written above the phone. Charlie says that Gelles is in town, but Vic dismisses this, as he knows Gelles has family in Wichita. Charlie returns to Sweet Cage and gives Renata the photo. She says that Vic had called to warn Charlie that Gelles was indeed tailing them. Charlie takes Pete home, where he passes out on the living room floor. Charlie "borrows" a Mercedes Benz that Pete had bought for Sarabeth, because Pete had vomited in Charlie's car. He drives to Vic's home and finds Vic's wife shot in the head and lying next to the Christmas tree. Vic arrives and reveals that he has locked Gelles in a trunk. They take Gelles and the body of Vic's wife in the Mercedes and drive to a lake. Gelles continues to yell at them from the trunk, claiming that Vic shot his own wife. Annoyed, Vic shoots into the trunk, silencing Gelles. As Charlie and Vic get the trunk onto the lake dock, Gelles shoots it open from the inside, hitting Vic in the process. After Gelles gets out, a standoff ends with his death. Vic falls into the frozen lake as the dock collapses. Charlie realizes that Vic was going to kill him, so he drags Vic's wife to the collapsed dock and slides her into the lake, knocking the pleading Vic underwater. After discovering the money is not in Vic's bag, Charlie runs back to the dock to save Vic, but he has already drowned, entwined with his dead wife. Returning to Sweet Cage, Charlie finds that Guerrard has come to town, and has tied up Renata. A struggle ensues, ending with Charlie stabbed in the foot and Guerrard dead. Charlie and Renata return to her place, where he finds the money hidden in her closet while she showers. It is revealed that Vic and Renata planned to run away together after killing Charlie. Charlie shoots her before she can cut his throat with a hidden straight razor. While driving out of town with the money, Charlie sees Sidney on the side of the road with his kids in a motor home and stops to offer assistance. Sidney says that he is out of gas, so Charlie lets him siphon some out of the "borrowed" Mercedes. As Sidney tries to restart the RV, Charlie takes out a red sharpie and writes "As Wichita falls, so falls Wichita Falls" on the back of the motor home, revealing that he was the one writing the graffito all over Wichita. Sidney gets the motor home started and, after accidentally knocking Charlie down when the RV lurches backwards, he drives away. Charlie gets up and returns to the Mercedes. Pete wakes up in the back seat, and the duo drive away together for breakfast and warmer weather.
