1999
110 minutes
Directed by: Joel Shumacher
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix
Synopsis
Tom Welles is a surveillance specialist--what used to be known as a "private eye"--but his version of the profession is hardly the stuff to which legends are made. He has modest, home-based practice in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he lives an existence remarkable only for its normalcy with wife Amy and baby daughter, Cindy. Respected but still waiting for a big break that will improve his professional status, Welles spends most of his time on routine cases involving unfaithful spouses and the like. Nothing too dangerous, not too threatening... until a small, innocuous-looking plastic reel of film turns Welles' life upside down, sending him down a sordid and terrifying path into society's darkest corners.
Movie Plot
Movie Plot of: 8mm - Nicolas Cage
A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max (Joaquin Phoenix), Welles relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife (Catherine Keener), family and simple life as a small-town private eye.
Tom Welles, private eye, is hired by a wealthy widow, whose well-known husband passed away recently. She has found a reel of S8-film in a safe. On the film is a cruel slaughtering of a young girl, who obviously does not pretend or act: A snuff-movie. Welles takes up investigation, which leads him to the girl's mother and from there to Hollywood, into the office of a porn flick producer. Welles' rising obsession to solve the case also carries him away from his wife and new-born daughter. But when finally names are at hand, Welles suddenly finds himself on ice much thinner than he planned.
