The instigators is about two thieves who must stick together after a robbery goes wrong. The film is now available on Apple TV+.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Summary of the plot
Rory, a former marine mechanic, confesses to his psychiatrist Dr. Donna Rivera that he is having suicidal thoughts. He is in debt and cannot bring himself to face his son until he has paid it off.
Rory is contacted about a job by a man named Scalvo, who works for a crime boss named Mr. Besegai. When Rory meets them, he is introduced to Cobby, an ex-convict.
Besegai wants them to rob the city’s mayor, Miccelli, who is expected to be re-elected in the runoff election, and throw a party on election night.
The party will bring in a lot of cash, which Rory and Cobby will steal along with Scalvo. All three will receive 10% of the stolen money.
However, Rory makes another deal with Besegai: no matter how much they steal, Besegai must pay him $32,480, the amount he needs to repay his debt.
Rory and Cobby decide to steal from the mayor and begin preparations with Scalvo. They don’t know that Scalvo has been hired to kill them once the job is done.
Cobby and Rory are very different. While Cobby never stops talking, Rory, who is clueless and harmless most of the time, only smiles or talks when necessary.
On election night, Rory, Cobby and Scalvo infiltrate the hotel where Miccelli’s party is to take place, but everything goes wrong from the start.
Miccelli unexpectedly loses to his opponent Choi. There are more employees in the kitchen than expected and there is very little money in the safe.
While fleeing with the little cash they stole, Rory, Cobby and Scalvo meet the mayor and his team. Scalvo decides to rob them at gunpoint.
A shootout ensues in which the police chief and Scalvo are killed. Cobby is also shot, but still helps Rory escape with the stolen items.
The two then hide in the beach house of Mr. Kelly, the man whose bar Cobby often visits. Rory and Cobby now have Miccelli’s bracelet.
The bracelet is engraved with the code to Miccelli’s safe. Miccelli refuses to give in until he has all the money in his office safe.
He sends the feared police detective Frank Toomey to retrieve his bracelet. Meanwhile, Besegai asks his subordinate Dechico to make sure that Rory and Cobby are killed before they are captured.
Rory contacts Dechico to update him on the situation and ask for his help, whereupon Dechico sends a thug named Booch to kill her.
While they wait for help, Cobby tells Rory how he took the blame for his brother’s crime and ended up in prison. His brother later suffered an overdose.
Similarly, Rory tells his story to Cobby, who advises Rory to get to know his son, as he believes that his son would be happy to see him despite his financial problems.
When Booch arrives looking for the bracelet, Cobby realizes how important it is. Rory and Cobby defeat Booch and take the bracelet.
Rory then takes Cobby to Dr. Rivera and asks her to treat his gunshot wound. He promises to turn himself in once he gets his $32,480.
Dr. Rivera only agrees to treat Cobby if Rory claims he took her hostage, because voluntary treatment would be a violation of the law by aiding and abetting escape.
Dr. Rivera eventually calls the police after treating Cobby. She wants Rory to turn himself in, but Rory refuses and leaves her house with Cobby. She decides to join them to make sure Rory doesn’t kill himself.
The three then break into Mr. Kelly’s bar, where they are eventually found by Toomey. He makes them hand over the bracelet and takes Dr. Rivera to safety.
However, the police officers waiting in front of the bar have no chance of arresting Rory and Cobby because there is an explosion in the bar and Rory and Cobby manage to escape again.
Explanation at the end:
Cobby and Rory’s new goal
Now that Cobby and Rory are wanted as criminals and have nowhere to go, they consider what they will do next. While Cobby wants to flee to Canada, Rory wants to rob a bank.
They disagree with each other’s ideas, but finally find a goal that suits both of them: to rob Miccelli, who still hasn’t given in.
Cobby figured out that the numbers on the bracelet were the code for Miccelli’s safe and memorized them before giving the bracelet to Toomey.
He believes Miccelli’s safe was filled with a lot of illegal cash from years of kickbacks and bribes. Miccelli refuses to vacate his office for Choi because the money is still in the safe.
The two steal firefighter uniforms and set fire to the town hall in order to blend in with the other firefighters and get into the building undetected.
Miccelli gets his bracelet back, but is unable to get his money out of the safe when the fire alarm goes off and he has to evacuate the building.
A hostage-taking leads to a hopeful solution
Cobby and Rory don’t know much about how firefighters work, so it doesn’t take long for another firefighter to realize they’re imposters.
The couple lock themselves in Miccelli’s office and prevent the fireman from breaking down the door by taking Miccelli’s lawyer Alan hostage.
Cobby and Rory have grown closer during their misadventures. When Miccelli calls for snipers to shoot at them through the windows, Cobby risks his life to save Rory.
Cobby and Rory open the safe and find it full of cash. At the same time, Dr. Rivera is sent into the building to negotiate the release of the hostage.
Inside, Dr. Rivera gets Rory to talk about his feelings and he confesses that he doesn’t want to die anymore, which increases her relief and joy.
Rory decides to turn himself in, but Dr. Rivera knows that if he does, he will be killed and asks Rory and Cobby to run away.
They take some money from the safe and throw the rest out the window. The cash in the safe causes chaos and confusion in the crowd on the street, allowing Rory and Cobby to escape.
Rory and Cobby’s surprise release
Rory is now ready to go to Canada with Cobby, but her plans are thwarted by Toomey, who finds and arrests her after her escape.
Before they are arrested, Rory and Cobby give him two hard drives containing evidence of all the bribes Miccelli has received over the past twenty years.
The two hard drives contain information on accounts containing hundreds of millions of untraceable dollars. If Rory and Cobby are prosecuted, the hard drives will be presented as evidence by their lawyers.
The new mayor Choi decides not to prosecute them, hides the information about these accounts and keeps the money for himself. He drops all charges against Rory and Cobby.
Although Rory failed to get the money he needed, he remembers Cobby’s advice and sets off to meet his son, no longer ashamed to face him.
Dr. Rivera had previously concluded that Cobby felt lonely and abandoned by everyone, and had advised him to learn to be a friend in order to get a friend.
After his release from prison, Cobby meets Dr. Rivera, which marks the beginning of their friendship.
Meanwhile, Besegai and Dechico are found dead after attempting to cross the border into Canada on foot and without suitable footwear.
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