NOVOCAINE

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens as Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) gets up and goes to his job as an assistant manager at a bank. He finds his life tedious and he also pines for his coworker Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), who has been there for four months. Nathan meets with a regular client, Earl (Lou Beatty, Jr.), whose wife Betty recently passed, and he is in danger of losing both his house and shop. Nathan quietly agrees to file paperwork for Earl after the holidays, which should give him enough time to try and keep the house.

Sherry later approaches Nathan for a lunch date. He initially declines, but after hearing about what Earl said regarding his marriage to Betty, he decides to take a chance. At lunch, Nathan reveals to Sherry that he has a congenital insensitivity to pain, which led to him being sheltered for most of his life. Sherry witnessed it earlier when Nathan accidentally spilled hot coffee on his hand and couldn’t feel it. He has also not eaten solid foods for fear that he might bite his tongue off, but Sherry convinces Nathan to try cherry pie for the first time, and Nathan’s mind is blown. She invites him to go to an art show of hers later that evening.

Nathan plays video games online with his friend Roscoe Dixon (Jacob Batalon), even though they have never met in person. Nathan mulls over going to Sherry’s art show, but Roscoe convinces him that he can’t keep waiting around for another opportunity like this. Nathan ends up going and hangs out with Sherry afterwards. They run into a jerk that Nathan knew in school who called him “Novocaine” since all the kids knew about his condition and would beat him up for fun. Sherry tricks the jerk into taking shots with Nathan, but it was really shots of ghost pepper hot sauce. Nathan and Sherry go back to his home where they sleep together.

The next morning is Christmas Eve. Nathan feels better than ever and is ready to tell Sherry, but three bank robbers dressed as Santa Claus – Simon (Ray Nicholson), Andre (Conrad Kemp), and Ben (Evan Hengst) – enter and fire their guns into the ceiling. Simon orders the manager, Nigel (Craig Jackson), to give up the code for the vault, but he refuses and gets his brains blown out. Simon then orders Nathan and even hits Sherry to show he is serious. Nathan gives up the code, and the robbers take both the money, and Sherry as a hostage. The robbers force the cops to drop their weapons and end up opening fire on all of them. A desperate Nathan uses his belt as a tourniquet for an injured cop before stealing the man’s gun and car.

Nathan chases the robbers but crashes his car in an alley. He chases Ben into a kitchen, where they get into a fight. The gun gets dropped into a pot of hot oil, which Nathan sticks his hand in. He and Ben struggle until he shoots Ben through the head. Nathan is mortified and vomits, but then takes a pic of Ben’s tattoo and sends it to Roscoe so he can find out from other artists in the area who might have done the work on Ben. He also tries to find out where Ben works to meet Simon and Andre.

Detectives Mincy and Coltraine (Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh) investigate the scene at the bank and learn that Nathan is a suspect. Mincy is able to contact Nathan and inform him that he is believed to be in on the scheme. He insists to Mincy that he is doing this entirely to save Sherry since he doesn’t think the police will act fast enough. Mincy is somewhat sympathetic to Nathan’s endeavor.

Nathan goes to Earl’s shop for help with getting a bullet out of his arm. Earl is shocked by the man’s inability to feel pain, but Nathan thanks him by giving him a fat stack of the stolen cash to help pay off his home. Earl tells Nathan that Betty always spoke highly of him.

Simon and Andre are hiding out at an auto shop, where Andre worries that Ben hasn’t come back (they are brothers). It is then revealed that Sherry is Simon’s sister and that she was in on the scheme the whole time, starting from when she began working there. However, she is appalled by Simon’s murder of Nigel.

Nathan ends up at the tattoo shop of the artist that Ben visited. The man, Zeno (Garth Collins), knew Ben, but he quickly grows suspicious of Nathan’s questioning. Nathan pulls the gun on Zeno but is disarmed by his assistant, who gets accidentally knocked out by Zeno in the fight. Nathan gets thrown against a mirror and then pounds his fists into the broken glass so the shards will stick out. He slashes Zeno twice across the face, taking his eyes out. When he refuses to say where Ben worked, Nathan uses the tattoo pen to black out his swastika tattoo. Nathan then gets Ben’s home address from Roscoe, and Nate tattoos it on his own hand.

Andre learns from Simon that Ben is confirmed dead after hearing it over the police scanners, described to have been done by a “skinny guy in a suit”. Sherry realizes it’s Nathan, and Andre goes to avenge his brother.

Nathan goes to Ben’s home, which turns out to be laced with booby traps. He gets an arrow shot into his leg and can’t get it out before he ends up caught in a snare trap and is hung by his foot upside down. He calls Roscoe for help, but he is hesitant because of knowing that Nathan is involved with a robbery and murder. Nathan convinces him by saying how much it means to him that he rescues Sherry and how Roscoe is his only friend. Roscoe agrees to show up in ten minutes, but Andre shows up first. He tries to torture Nathan in retribution for Ben’s death, but it doesn’t affect Nate and he just pretends to feel pain. Andre almost takes out Nathan’s eye until Roscoe shows up and hits Andre over the head. The three struggle, with Nathan getting a knife through the hand when Roscoe throws one to him, but he puts it through Andre’s foot. They struggle again until Nathan gets Andre’s head between his legs and pushes the arrow in his own leg further until it goes through Andre’s skull. Roscoe creates a diversion for Nathan to get out free when the cops show up. Roscoe is arrested but he lets Mincy and Coltraine know where Nate is going.

Nathan finds the auto body shop and corners Simon at gunpoint. He turns the tables on Nathan by revealing his relation to Sherry and her involvement in the robbery. Simon prepares to kill Nathan, but the detectives show up and shoot Simon in the side. Nathan is taken away in an ambulance for his numerous injuries. When it seems like he is down, he shoots Coltraine through the neck, and Mincy in the side. Simon makes off with the cash and kills some paramedics before fleeing in the ambulance where Nathan is kept. Sherry helps Mincy up and goes with her and Roscoe to chase after Simon, knowing he is heading for a boat to escape with the money.

Nathan regains consciousness and dislocates his thumb to free himself from the cuffs. He uses a defibrillator to shock Simon in the head and crash the ambulance. When Sherry catches up to them, Simon beats Nathan up and fractures his arm, exposing the bone. Simon prepares to kill Sherry, but Nathan injects himself with adrenaline and uses the protruding bone to impale Simon through the head from under his jaw, killing him. Nathan loses consciousness as the medics come.

Nathan wakes up in the hospital weeks later after a medically induced coma and finds Roscoe next to him. Mincy shows up and tells Nathan that he was charged with enough crimes to put him away for years, but because he saved her life and “is a white guy who works at a bank”, he is cut a deal for six months house arrest.

One year later, Nathan and Roscoe are still gaming, but Nate heads out for a date with Sherry. She is serving time in prison but is due to be released within eight months. The two share a cherry pie like their first date. As the meeting ends, Nathan takes a bite and smiles.

Nathan Caine is an assistant manager at a bank with a congenital insensitivity to pain. He falls in love with his coworker Sherry after she invites him to go out and they sleep together. On Christmas Eve, Sherry is kidnapped by three men dressed as Santa Claus after they steal money and kill cops. Nathan steals a cop car and pursues them.

It is revealed that Sherry is the sister of the trio’s leader, Simon, and was in on the robbery. Nathan kills one of the robbers, Ben, and endures numerous injuries without feeling a thing. Ben’s brother Andre, the other robber, goes after Nathan, but he gets help from his only friend Roscoe. Nathan kills Andre with an arrow that’s already stuck in his leg.

Nathan goes to the auto body shop where the crooks work and finds out about Sherry’s relation to Simon and the robbery. The detectives show up and shoot Simon but he kills one of them and injures another. Simon hijacks an ambulance and kills medics but doesn’t know that Nathan is in the back. Sherry and Detective Mincy go after them along with Roscoe. In the final showdown, Simon fractures Nathan’s arm, but he uses the exposed bone to kill Simon before he can kill Sherry.

Nathan serves six months house arrest for his crimes while he maintains his relationship with Sherry while she’s waiting to be released from prison.