The three men and Hank's wife Sarah (Fonda) go to great lengths to keep the money a secret but begin to doubt each other's trust, resulting in lies, deceit and murder.

After Nichols stepped down, the film adaptation became mired in development hell, with Ben Stiller and John Dahl turning down opportunities to direct it.

It underperformed at the North American box office, grossing $16.3 million, but was critically acclaimed, with reviewers praising various aspects of the film's production, including the storytelling, performances and Raimi's direction.

Having learned from Jacob about Dwight's murder, Lou drunkenly demands his portion of the money from Hank and playfully alludes that he might go to the authorities if he's unsatisfied.

Because of Jacob's mention of hearing a plane, Carl calls the brothers to answer questions from FBI Agent Neil Baxter who is in search of it.

Hank is cleared of wrongdoing by real FBI agents, who reveal that some of the serial numbers of the ransom bills had been recorded, and they will just wait for any marked money to be spent to track down the culprit.

After Scott B. Smith had published a short story for The New Yorker, the magazine's fiction editor learned of his then-unpublished novel A Simple Plan before reading it and forwarding it to an agent.

[7] Nichols spent a weekend reading the book, before contacting Smith's agent and finalizing a deal the following Monday morning.

[10] After learning of A Simple Plan from Nichols, Ben Stiller joined the project[10] and signed a two-picture directing deal with Savoy.

[12] In January 1995, John Dahl was announced as director, with Nicolas Cage set to appear in a starring role, and filming likely to start during the following summer in the southern hemisphere or in Canada during the following winter.

[14] The studio was later acquired by Silver King Broadcasting/Home Shopping Network, whose chairman, Barry Diller, put A Simple Plan up for sale.

[10][12] The project was purchased by Paramount Pictures, where producer Scott Rudin hired John Boorman to direct the film.

Boorman cast Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton in the respective leading roles of Hank and Jacob Mitchell.

[12] Paramount then hired Sam Raimi,[15] who saw the film as an opportunity to direct a character-driven story that differed from his earlier works, which were highly stylized or dependent on intricate camera movements.

[18] Mutual's international partners—the United Kingdom's BBC, Germany's Tele-München, Japan's Toho-Towa/Marubeni and France's UGC-PH—also financed the production in exchange for distribution rights in their respective territories and equity stakes on the film on a worldwide basis.

[7] Smith described the film adaptation as being less violent than the book, explaining that it was Raimi's decision "to be more restrained [and] bring out the characters.

"[15] Filming was scheduled to begin in Delano, Minnesota, but the production was forced to temporarily relocate to northern Wisconsin for enough snow to shoot.

Describing the overall look of the film, she stated, "We created a muted black-and-white color scheme to suggest a morality tale, the choices given between right and wrong.

To match the interior with footage shot in Wisconsin, the art department built a set with real trees and a painted backdrop.

[23] For exterior scenes shot during sunnier filming days, computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used to re-create the overcast skies[23] and counter any inconsistencies caused by the falling snow.

[24] In depicting the shootout in Lou's home, Kivilo's intent was to "keep things quite sketchy in the lighting and not be clear about exactly what was happening."

[27] AllMusic's William Ruhlmann wrote, "There are occasional moments that suggest the composer's more characteristic approach, but his writing is in the service of a smaller, if still intense cinematic subjects, and it is appropriately restrained.

[34] Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, said that the film was "an exceedingly well-directed genre picture by [Raimi] ... [who] does an excellent job of presaging the lethal violence that follows.

[36] John Simon of the National Review wrote, "the dialogue and characterization are rich in detail, and the constant surprises do not, for the most part strain credibility".

[37] Online film critic James Berardinelli praised the acting, and commended Thornton's performance as "the most striking that A Simple Plan has to offer.

"[39] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly described the film as being "lean, elegant, and emotionally complex—a marvel of backwoods classicism.

"[40] Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it a "quietly devastating thriller directed by [Raimi] ... who makes a flawless segue into mainstream storytelling.

"[41] Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "for Raimi, whose mastery of visual effects has driven all of his previous films, A Simple Plan marks a tremendously successful break from the past.

"[42] In a negative review, Richard Schickel of Time stated, "There's neither intricacy nor surprise in the narrative, and these dopes are tedious, witless company.

"[43] Schlomo Schwartzberg of Boxoffice felt that the film "clutters up the story with unnecessary acts of violence and murder, and mainly stays on the surface, offering little more than cheap jolts of melodrama.