The Killing - Recap

Jim picks up his briefing from a cigarette machine and takes it to his car. The IMF mission is to stop Burt Gordon, a Syndicate boss who has recreated the old Murder Inc. Gordon makes bodies disappear without a trace and has made sure that he’s fully insulated. Jim and his team must prove that Gordon is a killer and put him away for good.

Jim assembles the usual team and Barney has Rollin test a device that will make candle flames waver. The leader explains that Gordon has an assistant named Connie who commits the murders, using a knife, and then disposes of the bodies at Gordon’s lumberyard incinerator. They can follow Connie and capture him, but they need to pin the murders to Gordon. Barney has prepared a special sweater for Jim that has eight layers of laminated nylon and chainmail. Rollin has designed a special mask that will disintegrate two minute after contact with the air, and Cinnamon confirms that Gordon has accepted an invitation to dinner from Jim and Cinnamon, his new next-door neighbors.



Gordon is practice-shooting in his own basement rifle range when Connie escorts fellow mobster Lew in. Lew has a list of victims for Gordon to dispose of. Gordon has no trouble disposing of a district attorney, but is hesitant to dispose of a man who has to be dead by the coming Friday the 13th. Lew agrees and Gordon says that he has a dinner appointment. He goes to the neighboring house owned by Jim and Cinnamon, and Cinnamon greets him at the door. She flirts with him and Gordon flirts back, and then they meet with Jim and his “brother” Rollin.

Meanwhile, Barney and Willy sneak over to Gordon’s house. Connie is watching a boxing match on TV so Barney drills a hole in the windowsill and they pump in knockout gas.

After dinner, Rollin asks about Gordon’s business and Cinnamon explains that he’s a family lawyer. Jim is drinking regularly and complains that Rollin holds all the purse strings. Cinnamon complains about his constant drinking and Jim insults her. The candle flames flicker and a nearby tray of glasses rattles. A painting falls off of the wall and Jim says that “he’s back.” Rollin agrees and assures Gordon that it will pass in a few minutes. He then calls out to “Bobby” and tells the spirit to go to sleep.



Connie finally passes out, and Barney and Willy don gas masks and go inside and start working.

Rollin explains that he and Jim have a third brother, Bobby, who died when he was 7. They went swimming and were unaware that Bobby had followed them, and he drowned trying to swim to them. Gordon is skeptical but Rollin insists that is happens when he and Jim are together. After a moment, the mobster tells him about an incident where he thought he could hear spirits crying from the site of a collapsed tenement building. Jim staggers in, clearly drunk.

Barney and Willy rig the paintings, the clock, and the candles with electronic devices. The phone rings and Connie starts to wake up. Thinking quickly, Barney cuts the wire with Connie’s own knife and the two agents go back to work.



Jim pours himself another drink and Cinnamon tells him to go to bed, saying she’s disgusted with him. Rollin helps Jim up to his room.

Upstairs at Gordon’s house, Willy attaches a fake windowsill to the real windowsill. Meanwhile, Barney puts a small radio transmitter in the chandelier and attaches a fake wooden block to the underside of a table.

Cinnamon offers to show Gordon how neighborly she can be and kisses the mobster. Rollin comes in, interrupting them, and assures them that Jim is safely in bed. He thanks Gordon for coming and leaves for the night.

Willy measures off a section of the upstairs floor and drills a hole at a precise spot. Barney splices the cut telephone wire back together.

Cinnamon kisses Gordon again and he starts to respond, unaware that Jim is taking photos of them from the window.

Willy finishes drilling the hole.

Afterward, Gordon and Cinnamon smoke and he figures that she wants something. Cinnamon says she knows what he does and asks him to kill her husband. She assures him that she can pay him whatever he wants once she inherits Jim’s money, but Gordon shoves her away, tells her to forget the whole thing, and leaves.



Barney and Willy finish up and Barney returns the knife to Connie’s hand.

The next day, Gordon receives word that the first of the hits for Lew went successfully. Cinnamon comes over, a bruise on her cheek, and tells Gordon that he saw them together and took pictures. When she warns that Jim will divorce her for cause and she won’t get a scent, Gordon tells her that it’s her problem. Even when she tells him that Jim plans to smear them in the national papers, Gordon could care less. Jim storms in, wearing the sweater, and slaps Cinnamon. He knocks aside Connie and starts choking Gordon, and Connie stabs him in the heart.



Cinnamon is glad to see Jim dead and says that they can tell the police that it’s self-defense. Gordon tells her to go home and act as if nothing happened, and that Connie will take care of it. She should call the police at 3 in the morning and report Jim missing, and never say that he was at Gordon’s house. Cinnamon leaves and Gordon tells Connie to get rid of Jim’s body and leave his car at the airport.

Connie drives Jim’s car to the lumberyard and starts the incinerator. He then tosses Jim in, turns up the gas, and drives away. Jim slips out the back hatch where Willy and Barney are waiting. Connie disposes of the car and reports to Gordon that everything went as planned. Now Gordon figures that they have to deal with Cinnamon.

That night, Barney and Willy set up speakers and a wind machine. Barney has rigged the lighting in Gordon’s house and gives Jim the remote control. Cinnamon then approaches the house and the team turns on the wind machine. She then runs to the door and begs Gordon to let her in. She tells him that her husband is back and is in her house. Gordon brings her in and she describes how Jim’s spirit is haunting her.



Fake lightning and thunder crashes and Rollin arrives, saying he came by to check on Jim. Cinnamon claims that Jim hasn’t come home and she doesn’t know when he’ll be back. Rollin apologizes to Gordon for the intrusion and says that he had a hunch that something had happened to Jim. As he starts to leave, the lights go out and Rollin says that he has a sense that something is wrong. He calls out to Jim and tells the others that his brother’s spirit is there with them. Cinnamon suggests that the spirit is Bobby, but Rollin doesn’t believe it.

Gordon tells Cinnamon to pull herself together and they go into the study. Rollin calls to Jim, who appears outside the patio doors in a flash of lightning. They throw open the doors but Jim has disappeared. While Connie and Rollin look outside, Gordon tells Cinnamon there must be an explanation and shoves her back inside. Once Connie and Rollin return and close the patio doors, Willy sneaks up to the house.

Barney triggers the rigged patio doors to open on their own, and Cinnamon says that Jim’s ghost is in the house with them as the temperature drops. Meanwhile, Willy triggers the fake windowsill on the second floor, which drops a drop chute tied up into a cord. He goes up to the bedroom and the hole he drilled earlier.

Rollin wonders why Jim would come to Gordon’s house, and the mobster insists that he only met Jim the night before. The rigged clock chimes the wrong time and a painting falls off the wall. Outside, Jim sends Barney into position and then triggers the hidden unit on the table to vibrate, knocking off the decanter. Upstairs, Willy walks heavily, causing the chandelier to vibrate. Gordon tells Connie that they’re going up to investigate, but Cinnamon asks Gordon to stay. He reluctantly agrees and tells Connie to check it out., and Willy easily knocks out the hitman.



Barney and Jim continue the fake storm while Gordon wonders what is taking Connie so long. Cinnamon suggests that Jim may have disposed of Jim.

Willy dresses the unconscious Connie in Jim’s clothing and drops him down the chute to Barney. He then pushes the needle of a gas tank through the hole that he drilled earlier and opens the valve. In the study below, the gas pours down in a thick white cloud and Rollin uses a hidden projector to show an image of Jim’s face on the cloud. Jim’s ghost speaks, saying that one of his murderers is dead and soon his wife and her accomplice will join him. Cinnamon begs forgiveness and runs out into the storm, and Rollin goes after her as she collapses on the lawn.

.Jim speaks over the hidden mike, calling to Gordon and saying he’s going to kill him. Gordon goes back inside, throws open the door, and sees “Jim.” He grabs his gun and fires, killing “Jim.” However, the Jim mask disintegrates, revealing Connie’s face.



Willy descends down the cloth chute while Jim calls the police, and then the team makes their escape.

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