Scene-by-scene breakdown of "The Ladykillers" (2004)

This film was written (screenplay only) by the Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, based on a story by William Rose, and directed by the Coen brothers.

Scene-by-scene breakdown

Time: 1990s

Place: Mississippi

1. Widow Mrs Munson enters the town police station where Sheriff Wyner is resting behind his desk. She reports a neighbor playing loud hip-hop music. After stating several obscure biblical references, she leaves. The Sheriff is puzzled by the meaning of the lesson she’s trying to convey.
2. She returns home, where she lives alone with her cats. The backyard of her home runs down to the river and the casino office where money is processed. Professor Dorr rings her doorbell and, after a comical scene involving her cat Pickles, he asks about her room to rent. After viewing her root cellar he asks to move in and to practice music in the cellar with his friends, She agrees and he then leaves. In this scene we learn of Mrs M’s love for the church and Bob Jones University.
3.  Various scenes, not really a montage, introduce Prof Dorr’s “musician” friends, the “Gang”: Hudson (young, strong, not very bright), Gawain (confident but impulsive), the General (hard working, fit), and Pancake (explosive expert). Gawain has gotten a job working for the casino as a janitor, with access to the money room.
4.  Mrs Munson attends church and listens to a lively baptist gospel choir and a sermon. We learn how devoted she is.
5. Prof Dorr and his friends arrive to practice in the root cellar. They each bring musical instrument cases. They play a boom box to pretend they are practicing. Instead they plan the casino robbery.
6.  A series of shots showing the Gang at work digging a tunnel and emptying bags of dirt taken out of the root cellar.
7.  Back at Mrs Munson’s house, she knocks on the cellar door. They comically hurry to get seated to pretend they were practicing. She came to show Prof. Dorr the fife carved out of wood by her deceased husband. She reminiscences over her husband in a touching scene.
8. Gawain follows a pretty young casino patron and, in an attempt to complement her, won’t stop catcalling her with sexual suggestions. He is fired immediately by his boss, Mr Grudge.
9. The Gang gathers in a Waffle Hut to try to figure out what to do. They decide to get Gawain rehired by giving Grudge a bribe. Pancake’s girlfriend, Mountain Girl, joins the team.
10. Prof. Dorr and Mrs Munson listen to music in her sitting room.  He reads, she knits, and the rest of the Gang prepares an explosion to remove a rock that is blocking the tunnel-digging efforts. Dorr gives Mrs M tickets to a gospel concert in Memphis and has paid for transportation for her. (The plan is the the explosion will occur when she is away.)
11. Knock, knock! Sheriff Wyner appears at the door, telling her he has spoken to the neighbor about the noise. She invites him in. He enters but Prof. Dorr has disappeared. (He has hidden under his bed until the Sheriff leaves.)
12. At the casino offices, Gawain presents Mr Grudge with a box of chocolates, a card with an apology and a $100 bill. Grudge allows him back for a 1 week probationary period.
13. The Gang works on the tunnel in the root cellar of Mrs Munson’s house. Pancake is drilling a rock with a power drill. He tries to relate to Gawain, but merely gets into an argument with him. Mrs. Munson knocks at the door. They rush to take their seats and turn off the boombox. Mrs Munson carries cookies downstairs, announcing she is about to leave with her friend to see the gospel choir concert.. The Gang each take a cookie politely and Prof. Dorr escorts her back upstairs.
14. The rest of the Gang discusses the detonation procedure, which Pancake plans to set off once Prof. Dorr returns.
15. It is now night time. In the front yard, Prof. Dorr escorts Mrs M and her friend to their waiting limo, telling them a story about his crazy father. Just as the ladies get in the limo, there is an explosion coming from the direction of the house. This noise alarms Mrs M but Prof. Dorr comically tries to calm her down and get her on her way to the gospel concert.
16. Dorr rushes inside, greeted by smoke and chaos. Pancake has blown off a finger. Unseen by the Gang, the cat has found the missing finger and has run off. Dorr and the others take Pancake outside and tell Mrs M that Pancake has caught his finger in the sackbut (a musical instrument) and they will rush him to the hospital. Pickles runs up a tree with the finger and the General chases after him. They urge her to leave to catch her concert, promising that the General will fetch Pickles. She does.
17. Now bandaged, Pancake and Dorr discuss the blasting and that they are on track to penetrate the vault of the casino that afternoon.
18. Gawain wheels his garbage bin across the casino floor.
19. Simultaneously, Mrs Munson sings at her church choir practice.
20. Gawain is inside the vault room. He hears a power drill from the other side of the wall. A drill bit breaks through.
21. Simultaneously, Mrs Munson continues singing at choir practice.
22. Pancake and the General stuff bills into garbage bags. Gawain gawks at all the cash. Pancake’s stomach grumbles. He has IBS and it’s an emergency. Gawain helps him get to a bathroom.
23. The General, Hudson, and Pancake take bags of money through the tunnel back to Mrs M’s root cellar. While they do that, Gawain patches up the wall to the vault.
24. Simultaneously, Mrs Munson is finished and leaves her church choir practice.
25. Pancake, Hudson and the General return to the root cellar, greeted by Prof Dorr. They celebrate with a drink. Pancake looks at his watch and wonders why the detonation to close the tunnel has not gone off.
26. Simultaneously, Mrs Munson returns home and makes a cup of tea.
27. Pancake re-enters the tunnel to check on the detonation fuse. He fiddles with it and the timer starts. He gets out of the tunnel as fast as possible.
28. Simultaneously, Mrs Munson returns home and prepares for a tea party.
29. Just as Pancake reaches the root cellar the detonation blasts him out of the tunnel.
30. Upstairs, Mrs Munson feels the explosion and tries to figure out what just happened. She goes to the cellar door, goes down the steps and sees the smoke and a lot of money. She tells Prof. Dorr that she needs to have a talk with him. Her doorbell rings. She looks at the General and tells him, “I told you not to smoke.” She returns up the cellar door.
31. (page 64 or 91) She answers her front door. A bunch of her friends from church enter.
32. Downstairs, the Gang is scared, except for Prof Dorr. They are concerned Mrs M knows what they are doing. “She saw the hole,” one says. Prof. Dorr puts on maximum charm and walks up the stairs to the living room.
33. Prof Dorr asks Mrs Munson for a moment to speak with her privately. Mrs Munson hishes him up and tells him to go back downstairs. She shall go down and speak with him shortly. He leaves. She tells her church friends, “He’s the tenant.”
34. Prof Dorr goes downstairs to his chastised Gang. When Mrs M joins them she treats them like misbehaving teenagers. She insists they come up and play their musical instrument for her group of church ladies. They go upstairs, without Gawain (who is still in the casino offices). Prof Dorr begs off a musical recital and offers a recital of a poem of Edgar Allan Poe instead. At the end of the poem, Gawain arrives.
35. The Gang says goodbye to the group of ladies. Mrs M now wants to know what has been going on downstairs. Prof Dorr tells her a story of the General’s cigarette lighting up a natural gas “motherlode”. As for the money, Dorr says it’s Pancake’s money. He needs the cash to pay for an operation for his common law wife and doesn’t trust banks. Mrs M doesn’t believe it and plans to call the Sheriff. Dorr begs to talk with her in private.
36. They go to the living/sitting room. Dorr confesses that they are criminals but the casino’s money is insured. The insurance company will spread its loss over its other customers at a cost of only a penny each. However, if she lest them leave they will contribute a large sum to Bob Jones University. She thinks about it but doesn’t agree. She says give the money back or I’ll call the police. Also, they must all attend church with her next Sunday.
37. Prof Dorr returns to the cellar and discusses it with his Gang. They decide that one of them must kill her. They draw straws. Gawain gets the short straw.
38. As Gawain sneaks behind Mrs M, with a gun hidden behind a pillow he has a flashback to when he wanted a puppy and his mom slapped him over and over while his siblings watched. Mrs M turns around and confronts him, telling him she’s displeased that he’s gotten involved with that white trash. Gawain slinks back downstairs.
39. Gawain confesses she reminds him of his mother and he can’t do it. He and Pancake get in a fight. Gawain shoots himself in the process and dies.
40. While Prof Dorr distracts Mrs Munson, the general and Hudson carry Gawain, in a large trash bag, out of the house and into their car (a hearse, in fact). They drive off to dump Gawain’s body. Prof Dorr tells Mrs Munson that they plan to return all the money tomorrow morning and to attend church with Mrs M next Sunday.
41. On a bridge over the river, Hudson and the General dump Gawain’s body into a garbage boat heading out to the nearby garbage dump.
42. As Hudson and the General return, Pancake sneaks out with the money, planning to meet Mountain Girl in a waiting VW bus. The General catches him and kills him before he gets away.
43. Prof Dorr watches on the same bridge as the General and Hudson dump Pancake’s body into a passing garbage boat.
44. They return to the cellar and draw straws once again for who should kill Mrs Munson. The General gets the short straw.
45. Just as he is about to strangle the sleeping Mrs Munson in her 2nd story bedroom he accidentally swallows his cigarette and stumbles quietly out of the bedroom and falls down the stairs, dead.
46. Prof Dorr and Hudson look at the General, dead. Dorr tells Hudson he must finish the job. Hudson says he can’t kill an old lady. He’d rather go to prison. Dorr says if he must do it himself, he will keep all the money. Hudson says he can’t allow Dorr to hurt the old lady. Dorr says he’s the brains and runs the operation, while he is just a stupid boy. Hudson points a gun at him. Saying (as in the 1955 version), “Who looks stupid now?” Hudson pulls the trigger but nothing happens. Hudson looks into the chamber of the gun and BANG, he shoots himself dead.
47. On the bridge, Prof Dorr dumps the body of Hudson onto a garbage boat. Just then a piece of masonry from the bridge falls and hits Dorr on the head, knocking him over the railing, his body falling into the garbage boat below.
48. The next morning, Mrs Munson goes to Sheriff Wyner and tells him of the robbery and the money left in her basement. He doesn’t believe her. As in the 1955 film, she says she should just keep it.