welcome home, nick.
oh, i know you, nick. i know you real well.
the hell i can't.
hope her taste in men's better than her taste in christmas.
hey, sis. happy holidays.
jumpy, don't hurt her, now.
so. this is the guy you been waiting for. man of your dreams.
must have a way with stationery.
you better be here to be good to her, loverboy. 'cause she's been good to you.
read a lot about you, nick.
read you're a man of some knowledge.
a man of some travels.
who are you now.
put him in the truck.
you what.
you're not nick mason.
but you were saying you were.
so you could get with my sister.
so you could get down her chimney.
and you think telling me that's gonna help your cause.
is this him!?
is this the fucker you been writing all year!?
is this nick mason!!??
well, he's gonna have to learn to give you some respect.
take 'em.
leave the tree.
i've read your letters, motherfucker. don't play no reindeer games with me.
hell, bugeye. how you doin'? ain't hauling, man, i'm up for the holidays. gonna have myself a holiday.  for a goddamn change.
"my sweet, sexy ashy-lashy, i have been dreaming of you constantly, and knowing you are out there makes these walls not seem so close or so strong or so cold" women live for this stuff. dreaming 'bout your this, dreaming 'bout your those, gettin' x-rated on me here, nicky.  where are we.  oh, right, other side.  "someday i'm gonna take you up by lake s. before i went in, before goddamn millie, 'fore i had my situation, i used to work up at this casino, working security. used to watch for people stealing chips, counting cards, getting piss-drunk, that kinda shit. indian place, they hired this reject outta vegas to run it, got about as much business sense as a buffalo patty. anyways, it's a fun place to run some numbers and play."
you're a good writer, nick. i give this writing an a-plus.
bury this guy.
i promised that when he helped us, we'd be gone! when he helped us! loverboy don't want to play!
and you promised me you'd get your sweetheart to help!
he'd rather die than be with you, he'd make a fucked-up boyfriend anyway. bury him all over the place.
everything.
hey. she says she loves you, nick.
she's getting you to help us.  'cause she knows if you don't, you're dead. you just tell us what we need to know, you two live happily ever after. my sister loves you, motherfucker, and i ain't gonna have you break her heart.
a girl says she loves you, you say something.
heyyy. be nice, convict. we're gonna be working together here. get him back in the rig.
the man who wrote those letters loved ashley, boys. he lived for her love. let's see him live for love.
where's she work?
wrote you a hundred letters, didn't she? where's she work?
what's her middle name?
what'd they call her in high school?
what'd they call her in college?
where'd she drop her cherry?
be more specific.
what's her greatest fear?
wrong, nick. it's drowning.
that's love.
let's get back on the road. it's time to start talking, nick. time to start telling tales --
so when you worked there --
you knew the place --
we're talking, aren't we?
how much money's in that casino? day-to-day.
the hell you don't.
you wrote ash that letter, you told her that story 'bout working christmas eve, bout how they'd send half the security guys home, nobody comin, in that night. and the rest of you got shit-faced drinking hot buttered rum. that a true story now?
you know where the guards are. you know how to get in and out. you know where the money is. we're taking down that casino, convict. you're the guy gonna tell us how.
we got faith in you, nick mason. you're our inside man.
christmas two.
ever since you started night school, you been givin, me headaches, jumpy. headaches. go see what's taking him.
here ya go, convict. we cased the place in the fall, got the layout down. what you're gonna do is show us where each of these doors go, what the upstairs level looks like, where they got the alarms, all of it.
and nick? if you even think about setting us up, giving us some bad information? we go down.  you go down.  now. christmas eve. how many guards are there gonna be?
and which of these doors here lead up to the security level?
what?
i did.
what the fuck are you talking about.
we walked the place for a week.
what?
they wouldn't have changed the security setup.
so what the hell good are you.
wrong, convict. you walk in there, they recognize you.
they recognize him, they'll remember him after the job goes down.
why not.
we'll trust you when we're rich. why not.
bring back some memories, nick?
rather be back in the mountain?
don't have weather channel in the mountain, nick.
sleep good, loverboy. tomorrow you got singing for your supper to do.
take a look what pug's bought for ya.
put it on.
you're a country-western singer up from nashville for the the holidays. visiting your grandma on the lake, driving into the tomahawk for some scotch and slots. you only play the slots, you got that? don't want no dealer friend of yours recognizing you, you sidle up to shoot some craps.
you do.
shut the fuck up. you play what your girlfriend plays. ashley's going in with you. you talk to her, otherwise you don't talk to nobody. you walk the room as many times as you want, but the second you come out, i want to know the run of the place.
you get recognized, convict, you get a country-western funeral.
get out.
you got one hour.
don't tip.
don't. lose.
get in there and watch 'em. watch their every fuckin' move.
where the hell's he going?
get him!
where the hell did he go?
get. him. back.
at the rate you're going, nick.  i'm gonna have a hard time ever considering you family.
how lucky ya feeling now.
a for effort, nick, honestly, a for effort and an honorary degree. i'm surprised you never escaped from the mountain.
nick, here's what we're gonna do. in the spirit of the season, i'm going to give you a chance. i understand you're unhappy. right outta the lockup, here against your will, it's the holidays and there's reruns on
we're each going to get one of these. whichever one of us hits closer to the bullseye.  gets what he wants. you land closer, you get ashley. and you guys get to go free. i land closer.  and we start getting your help.
may the best sportsman win.
damn.
got something to say to me, nick?
what'd you tell that casino manager?
you were talking to him! what'd you tell him!?
maybe something about a robbery?
i been driving rigs a long time, nick. four, five million miles of road. worked for people who wouldn't keep me on less i was driving fifteen hours a day. tell 'em i needed sleep, i needed rest, shit, they'll hire someone else.
dispatcher's screaming for me to haul ass, he's got a load on the runback for me. shipper's making me wait for the pickup, receiver's bitching 'bout the count.
got the cops at the bottom of every mountain, got the dot at the top. and every day, every day, i see all those faces in their little airbag hot wheels, moms and pops and jam- faced kiddies, giving me that look to go to hell and get off their happy goddamn highway. hey. they don't gotta get two thousand miles by sundown, or the gang don't eat come sunrise.
it's time for me.  to be working for me. i want mine, nick. and i need you. did you tell your manager there's gonna be a robbery?
nick. i been trying to hit you.
maybe that'll help sharpen your memory.
tonight we're gonna take another look at that map. and this time you're gonna tell me what i need to know.
start singing.
sing it in pictures, nick.
what's the code?
we got five. putting ashley outside.
no.
i want a map of that security level. every room, every guard, every thing.
no way.
no, you're not.
no gun.
that part, nick.  was planned out the day i read your letters.
not cowboys, nick. not cowboys.
not on christmas eve.
'tis the season, convict.
can't be attracting attention, right?
he wants the money.
whoever she is.
all those letters are about to pay off, baby.  all those letters.
searching for a money man.
-- till he fucked his parole --
that's a book, baby. that's a book of love.
i can't take watching you touch him. i can't take his hands on you.
i've been doing good, though.
didn't have to send me down a fucking mountain.
he'll be dead when he does.
y'know something, baby? if you were my sister? i'd still want to wake up christmas morning with you.
checking out.
that's for the hundred bucks worth of pay-per-view. and that's for the two hundred you took outta your minibar.
you wanted a weapon, convict? you got one.
merry christmas-eve.
commit this thing to memory. every guard, every exit.  don't tape it to your fuckin, wrist: remember it. that's the gospel right there. the gospel. matthew, mark, luke and john.
sits by the water, staring over the lake too. with a white cotton santa beard resting on his chin. he unwraps his roast beef sandwich, pulls his beard down to his neck, and takes a savage bite.
go.
hey, sears! hey, wal-mart!
american beer.
be back, wal-mart. watch my bank.
right at the top of the stairs, right at the top of the stairs.
video room, video room --
map said video room --
map said goddamn video room!
what the fuck is going on??!!!
show's over.
santa claus, santa claus, and santa claus.  would you please bring our.  mapmaker.  to the security level?
i told you not to fuck us with that map, nick. i told you not to, and you did. how am i s'posed to keep my promises now? how's she s'posed to keep hers?
he won't tell us where it is. the powwow safe.
the powwow safe! where is the powwow safe!
the powwow safe where you steal your money! where you cheat your indians!
we know about the powwow safe! we know it's in here! we know how you work! because we know who's worked for you! remember a guy named nick mason!? a security guard named nick mason!?
where is he?! where is he?!
you are lucky, convict. you're spending christmas with the birthday boy himself --
open it.
open it!!!
go!!!
with the wrong fucking guy! we took the place down with the wrong fucking guy! is that christmas?! huh?! is that christmas?!
god bless us every one.
you almost got away with it, santa. got outta the tomahawk, got to your car, got halfway to canada till you caught some ice in the road. by the time you hit bottom down there, whole car was burning like a comet. musta burned up all that money too.
buncha guys in red suits busted in, they'll say. started shooting. they won't be able to remember.  if it was three, or four.  or five. four dead santas and some burned-up cash. merry christmas, the end.
she told me 'bout the convict magazines. had to figure there'd be some boys in the pen with some useful knowledge. with nobody to talk to. nobody to listen. so we stocked up on stationery.
hard life being a trucker's girl.
get in the car.
get in the car!
ash?
ash?