The Big Bang Information

The Big Bang is a 2011 American thriller written by Erik Jendresen and directed by Tony Krantz, starring Antonio Banderas and Sienna Guillory.

Summary

Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) is a Los Angeles private investigator trying to find Lexie Persimmon (Sienna Guillory). Reclusive and eccentric billionaire Simon Kestral (Sam Elliott) is obsessed with finding "the god particle" by recreating the exact situation in which the universe may have formed. As the mystery unravels, Ned becomes unsure about whether Lexie actually exists.

Plot

The film begins with three detectives, Poley, Frizer, and Skeres, who interrogate Ned after they torture him. Ned tells them that five years earlier, Russian mobster Skinny Faddeev gave $30 million in blood diamonds as an advance to boxer Anton to lose a fight against his nephew. However, Anton killed the nephew with a punch and when Skinny was found dead, Anton was sentenced to life. While in prison, a girl named Lexie Persimmon wrote him over 200 letters. Later, however, Anton was released when another prisoner confessed to killing Skinny.

Ned finds this suspicious. Anton gives Ned the job of finding Lexie, whom he has taken a liking to. Ned is sceptical about his job, since he doesn't even have a photo of Lexie. As he starts investigating and finding various clues, people start dying mysteriously. Ned also notices that a black Lincoln is following him and assumes that it is Russian Mafia. Ned finds a lead that Lexie might be in San Celeritas, New Mexico.

He meets a waitress named Fay Neman, a particle physics buff, who helps him. Ned meets Simon, his wife Julie and Niels Geck, a geek physicist who is conducting an experiment for Simon. Simon is only interested in finding the god particle and is indifferent when Julie tries to warm up to Ned. Ned suspects that Julie might be Lexie and decides to tell her what is happening. Meanwhile, Anton tracks Ned down to Simon's bungalow. Ned confronts Julie, but Julie has no idea what he is talking about. Ned and Julie hear gunshots, making Ned realize that Anton is there.

Realizing that he and Anton both have mistaken Julie for Lexie, Ned tries to save her. When the duo head toward the basement, Ned is astonished to find Niels dressed like a girl with a blonde wig. A box containing some cosmetics has the phrase "Lex Parsimoniae" printed on it ( a Latin phrase meaning that when all things are equal, the simplest solution is the best). Ned realizes that Niels wrote the letters to Anton. Anton is angered, while Niels tries to convince Anton to accept him. Niels is armed to placate Anton. In a shootout , Ned gets hurt and passes out.

The story cuts back to present, where it is revealed that Niels and Anton killed each other while the detectives held Ned and Julie hostage. Ned accuses the trio of following him and killing the people he met. He also states that Skinny was killed for diamonds, which his killer never recovered. Ned proves that Frizer, who has a short temper, killed all the people who could have known about diamonds. Frizer admits his crimes, upon which the other villains scold him. Ned takes a look at a glass tank containing a gecko and realizes something. He tells the villains that he knows where Niels stored the diamonds.

The villains take Ned and Julie to the spot where he had confronted Julie after she showed him a hidden shoe box. While Julie and Ned are in the car, Skeres and Frizer go to get the shoe box. Meanwhile, Poley spots Julie and Ned signalling each other and realizes that they are just playing around. He attacks them, but they overpower him and manage to drive the car towards Skeres and Frizer. Skeres and Frizer are disappointed to not to find the diamonds in the box. When they see the car coming towards them, they realize what is happening and start shooting.

Ned manages to shoot Skeres and Frizer, and Julie kills Poley. Meanwhile, Simon finds that Julie and Niels are both missing, but decides to start his final experiment. The experiment creates a rift in the ground. Simon dies while Ned and Julie drive to safety, barely escaping death. In the end, Ned is shown driving the same car with Julie & Fay, whereupon it is revealed that the diamonds were in the glass box containing the gecko. Ned has given the box to Fay while he and Julie intend to live together.

Cast

• Antonio Banderas as Ned Cruz
• Sienna Guillory as Julie Kestral
• Thomas Kretschmann as Frizer
• Autumn Reeser as Fay Neman
• James Van Der Beek as Johnny Nova
• Snoop Dogg as Puss
• Bill Duke as Drummer
• Delroy Lindo as Detective Skeres
• William Fichtner as Detective Poley
• Sam Elliott as Simon Kestral
• Rebecca Mader as Zooey Wigner
• Robert Maillet as Anton 'The Pro' Protopov
• Jimmi Simpson as Niels Geck

Trivia

There are many physics related Easter Eggs scattered throughout the movie:

• The name of the warehouse where Puss is shooting his movie is called Schrödinger's (after Erwin Schrödinger).
• The name of the diner where Ned meets Fay is Planck's Constant Cafe (after Max Planck and the eponymous constant).
• The user name and password for the ATM camera in Planck's Cafe is delta p and delta x, two variables which, along with Planck's Constant, make up the Uncertainty principle.
• Autumn Reeser's character Fay Neman is a reference to Richard Feynman.
• The name of the mafia boss Faddeev is a reference to Ludvig Faddeev, Russian physicist and discoverer of the Faddeev equations in the theory of the three-body problem.