Wheelmen(2005)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
Thanks to the efforts of Barney and the drivers of Venture Limousine Service (especially Nick and Andy), the kidnapping plot by some unseen powerful men against the U.S. Vice-President is foiled. All the conspirators are found and arrested off-screen, and the V.P. reinstates Barney as a member of the Secret Service. The V.P. also offers Nick a job as his personal ambulance driver, but Nick politely declines, preferring to remain with Venture Limousines.

By the following year, Nick is in a committed relationship with Gwen, and they have both adopted Arthur.

LONG VERSION:
One day, Nick (Richard Burgi) and Andy (William Gregory Lee) pick up Barney (Rainn Wilson), a weird and suspicious-behaving man, from a local baseball field. Over the course of the day, they – with the help of their fellow drivers at Venture Limousine Service – lose two unnamed goons driving a black van whom Barney claims are pursuing him, head “east” on Barney’s instructions and end up somewhere on the Arizona desert highway, and find Arthur (Alexander Gould) – a kid whose newborn life was saved by Nick six years ago when Nick was still working as an ambulance driver and who recently befriended the man – hiding in the back of the limousine, wanting to be around Nick instead of his abusive father. Nick calls the Social Services worker (and his burgeoning love interest), Gwen (Erin Daniels), on the limo’s cell phone and informs her that Arthur is with him, but even though he has no desire to let the boy be returned to his father, Gwen tells him that he needs to bring Arthur back to Los Angeles by tonight. Soon after, Barney gets a hold of the phone and destroys it, claiming that they need to sever all communications, then commandeers the limousine and drives it out into the desert, where it ends up getting immobilized in the sand.

After Nick accuses Barney of being crazy, Barney tells him and Andy that he is on a mission to save the Vice-President of the United States (James Avery) from being kidnapped. He then hands Andy a big envelope that he earlier tried to give to him and Nick along with orders to keep it somewhere safe, and after Andy checks out the documents inside of it and tells Nick that “Secret Service” is written on them, Nick demands for Barney to explain himself. After first reminding them of how the Vice-President is coming to Los Angeles the day after tomorrow to have a meeting with the members of the Global Trade Federation (G.T.F.), he goes on to explain that this meeting is just protocol; it is already a matter of public record that the V.P. is in favor of the U.S. joining the G.T.F., and he will be going back to Washington D.C. next week to cast the deciding vote in the Senate. However, Barney informs Nick and Andy that he recently discovered that there is a global conspiracy masterminded by a lot of “very powerful men” to kidnap the V.P. and then brainwash him to convince him against voting to join the G.T.F., and the proof of this conspiracy is all in the envelope’s documents. When Andy asks Barney where he got these papers, he answers that he got them from some of his sources; he was a member of the Secret Service up until he got fired last month. He then explains that one of his jobs was determining which threats against the V.P. were real and which were not, but a lot of ones that he gave top priority to haven’t surfaced yet, so he was labeled as being “too jumpy” and then given the boot. Unfortunately, the kidnapping tip came in after he got released, and no one at the Secret Service will listen to him about it and he can’t get close enough to the V.P. to warn him. When Nick expresses disbelief about this and again calls Barney crazy, Barney tells him that he knew that Venture Limousines was supplying the drivers for the V.P.’s motorcade, so his plan was to leave the envelope with them and then skip town because, ever since he got his hands on those documents, people have been trying to kill him. Andy declares that they need to get a car and get back to Los Angeles right away so they can save the V.P., but Nick still doesn’t completely believe the whole story and shows more concern about getting Arthur back to the city. Nick tells everyone that they need to make their way back to the highway and hitch a ride back to Los Angeles with someone, but after Andy points out that they are at least a few miles into the desert and Nick himself notices that it will be dark soon, Nick changes his mind and decides that they will all sleep in the limousine tonight and then walk back to the highway first thing in the morning.

After morning dawns, Nick, Arthur, Andy, and Barney hike along the highway until they stop to take shelter at a closed-down motel and find a working phone. Not long after Arthur leaves them to use the bathroom, the van-driving goons catch up to the three men and pull their guns on them (having randomly found out that they were in the Arizona desert from Venture’s boss, Tony [Jack McGee], at the company’s office while they were there intimidating the dispatcher, Terry [Dwight Ewell], for their whereabouts). As the goons force the guys to walk into the desert (with Arthur presumably having kept himself hidden in the motel bathroom) so they can kill them in a secluded spot somewhere, Barney tells them that they won’t be able to pull off the kidnapping because his fellow Secret Service agents will keep the V.P. from leaving his limo if they spot anything suspicious. However, Goon #2 (Jeremy Roberts) informs him that they are aware of that, so they plan on using a helicopter to hijack the limo. After the goons get the trio to stop once they reach a secluded area, they make ready to shoot Barney first, but Goon #1 (Brent Sexton) tells Goon #2 to kill Barney with the gun they found in the limousine instead of using his own gun. However, neither of them knows that that gun is just a paintball gun (which Nick uses to calm rowdy passengers in the limo), so after they shoot a paintball at Barney’s head, their confusion over this gives Nick and Andy a chance to attack them, which buys Barney the time to pick up one of the goons’ guns and force them to surrender.

The trio take the goons back to the motel, bring them into one of the rooms, and tie their hands behind their backs, and while Barney interrogates them, Nick uses their cell phone to call Terry. However, Terry strangely doesn’t answer, and the only information that Barney gets out of the goons is when Goon #1 tells him that they don’t know who their boss is. Nick ultimately decides to leave the goons bound and locked in the room, but not before telling them that they will send somebody to pick them up in 48 hours. When they step outside, they find a luxurious car parked out front, and Arthur then calls out for them to come to the swimming pool out back because he just found something there. The guys come up to the pool and find a mysterious beautiful woman taking a swim in it, and after Barney asks if the car is hers, Andy asks her if she can give them a lift. She tosses them the keys without a word, and they give her their thanks before driving back to Los Angeles with Arthur (who she is and why she was willing to help them is never explained). Nick drops Arthur off at Gwen’s house, and after he has Gwen promise him that she will not let Arthur’s father know where he is until he returns, she kisses him and tells him to be careful. When he, Andy, and Barney get to the office, they find a girl named Linda (Sandra Peck) there, who was just hired by Tony to take over Terry’s duties. She tells them that Terry left for Palm Springs (undoubtedly because the goons scared him so badly), and when Nick asks her what drivers are on the street tonight, she replies that none of them are; the Secret Service has them all sequestered at a secret location and is not permitting them any outside contact until after the motorcade business tomorrow.

The next morning, Gwen calls up Nick and tells him that Arthur took off while she was sleeping and he must help her find him. Nick agrees to assist her, and after he tells Andy and Barney that he is leaving to go help Gwen, he tells Andy that he is putting his trust and faith in him to help Barney save the Vice-President. Andy and Barney end up putting on – respectively – dolphin and eagle costumes, then join a group of G.T.F. protestors picketing outside of the building where the meeting is taking place and wait for the motorcade to arrive. When it does, Andy goes up to Percy (Jason Kravits) – who is driving the limousine the V.P. is riding in – and reveals himself to him, then tells him that he needs to see the V.P. Soon after, Barney comes up to the window and identifies himself to Steve (Greg Collins), the agent sitting in front with Percy, and Steve decides to let him and Andy inside, after which the V.P. demands to know from Barney what this is all about. Meanwhile, Nick and Gwen pause in their search to talk about Arthur, and when Nick suggests that Arthur may have returned home, Gwen informs him that that is unlikely because his father is now in jail. She then tells him that she plans to start looking for a foster family for Arthur as soon as they find him, and Nick gives Gwen a facial expression that states that he wants to adopt Arthur. However, she quickly picks up on this and tells him that that will never happen because Social Services won’t give custody of a child to a limousine driver. Nick tells her that he will do whatever he has to do in order to adopt Arthur, and Gwen tells him that she would gladly let him take Arthur in if this decision was hers to make because she thinks that he would make a great father. As they share a kiss, Arthur suddenly appears beside Gwen’s window.

Barney gives the Vice-President the complete rundown about the kidnapping plot and the helicopter being used as part of it, and he also tells him that some of the other Secret Service agents are involved in this scheme, but he doesn’t know which ones. The V.P. asks him what they are going to do, and Andy tells the V.P. that Barney will fill him in on the plan while he gets the other limo drivers up to speed, and he tells Percy to wait five minutes before he gives the signal. He then exits the limo and informs the other drivers to wait for Percy’s signal, and soon after, Percy gives the cue over the microphones for all of them to go, after which they pull away from the building and take off in different directions around the city. The conspirators in the helicopter quickly lose track of which limousine contains the V.P., and several Secret Service agents pursue the limos in their own vehicles. However, despite managing to catch up to every limo, the agents fail to find the V.P. in any of them. After Nick, Gwen, and Arthur hear about the breakup of the motorcade over the radio, Nick tells the others that he must get going, so Gwen and Arthur get out. Nick heads back to the office, and soon after his arrival, Andy comes in with the V.P., who is wearing Barney’s eagle costume, and Andy tells Nick that Barney will be here any minute with the Secret Service. Shortly after Tony comes in demanding to know what is going on (having heard about what just went down over his personal radio), he gets introduced to the V.P., and then Barney comes in with two agents. Suddenly, Barney notices Linda pulling out a handgun and taking a shot at the V.P., and though he tackles her to the ground, the bullet winds up hitting Andy in the chest, since he saw her as well and stepped in front of the V.P. to shield him. Nick and Barney put him in a limousine and take him straight to the hospital, with Nick calling ahead and letting an old E.M.T. colleague of his know that he is coming. After getting to the emergency room, Andy is quickly operated on and saved from an untimely death.

As Nick, his co-workers, Tony, and Gwen are visiting Andy in his hospital room, the V.P. suddenly shows up with Barney. Nick informs Andy that the Secret Service found and arrested all the conspirators, and they even found Terry, who then happily enters the room. As for Linda, they found out that she was part of a different conspiracy to overthrow the government that Barney had also been keeping an eye on. The V.P. commends Barney for his work and welcomes him back to the Secret Service, and after telling Nick that he is in his debt, he informs him that his personal ambulance needs a new driver. Nick thanks him for the offer but declines it, telling him that he prefers to remain where he is, and the V.P. replies that it is an open-ended offer, so he can take some time to think it over. Tony thanks the V.P. for all the kind things he said about his limousine service in his recent television address, and the V.P. invites him out to play golf with him. Nick leaves the room with Gwen, and soon after, she informs him that she has placed Arthur with a foster family, but it is only a temporary home until a more permanent home can be found for him. Downhearted, Nick tells her that he was hoping that he would get to spend a little more time with him, and she replies that they will.

We next see Arthur at school at the end of the day, and he has just finished telling some of his classmates all about what happened with the V.P. and how he and his friends saved him. However, none of them think that he is telling the truth, except for Cindy (Aimee Roldan), who caught the tail-end of his story and tells him that she believes him and would love to hear the whole story tomorrow. Suddenly, Nick, his co-workers, and Gwen all pull up in a limousine in full view of the disbelievers wearing birthday party paraphernalia, since Arthur’s birthday occurred recently, and Nick asks him if he wants to join them on a special mission for the V.P. After Arthur gets into the limousine, Nick soon admits that there is no special mission; they are just going to meet Andy. When Arthur asks where he is, we see Andy back at the desert motel and sitting in front of the swimming pool, and he attempts to coax the mystery woman out of there with her car keys. Sure enough, she soon appears, and she gives off signals indicating that she wants to get intimate with him.

The movie then cuts back to the opening scene, which is taking place on Arthur’s birthday the year after the film’s events, and Arthur has just finished telling the whole story to Cindy again, who has never ceased to find it romantic. We then see that Nick and Gwen are in a fully committed relationship, and they have also adopted Arthur in the interim and are now preparing a King Arthur-themed birthday party for him. The movie ends with the limousine workers, Gwen, Arthur, and Barney dancing together at the drivers’ favorite bar.