Stoic 2009

The film unfolds through a series of flashbacks as three inmates — Peter Thompson, Harry Katish, and Jack Ulrich — are interviewed about the apparent suicide of their cellmate Mitch Palmer. Across these interviews, the audience learns the grim truth: Mitch Palmer was subjected to torture and humiliation at the hands of his fellow inmates long before his death, and the three men confess their roles in the escalating abuse.

The story begins with the four cellmates sharing a game of poker for cigarettes, trading stories from their lives before confinement. Mitch wins the round and dares to stake his entire cigarette stash on one more game. The bet flips the dynamic: the loser must eat an entire tube of toothpaste. Mitch loses, and the others press him to fulfill the bizarre punishment. What starts as coercion soon spirals into a chain of coercive cruelties.

Harry, who is in for armed robbery, stages a mock wash-up and wraps a towel around a bar of soap, then targets Mitch with a brutal soap beatdown while the others restrain him. Mitch’s stomach turns as the attackers force him to swallow the toothpaste. Peter, feigning concern, offers a “special drink”—water flavored with salt and pepper—only to threaten Mitch with renewed discipline if he resists. Mitch, wary and wary of the others, is pressured to drink, but he pushes the cup away, and the taunting continues.

The circle of torment deepens when Peter proposes another drink: this time it is tainted with urine and feces from the toilet. Mitch struggles, choking and vomiting as the others loom over him, counting down the seconds and pushing him to comply. The brutality escalates further when Jack, enraged by the violence, physically beats Mitch and belittles him with humiliating commands, insisting that Mitch lick up his own vomit. Mitch’s pleas to stop are met with cold indifference as the others watch, indifferent to the pain.

One of the most shocking moments comes next as the group’s cruelty turns sexual and violent. After a late-night moment where Mitch tries to signal for help via the prison’s emergency intercom, Peter lies to the guards, claiming it was an accident. The trio presses Mitch and violence intensifies; Jack becomes openly enraged that Mitch pressed the emergency button, while Harry stares with a cold gaze and participates in the abuse. The moments grow darker as Harry grabs a mop handle and, in a brutal act, uses it in a sexual assault, then forces the bloodied implement into Mitch’s mouth. Mitch’s state deteriorates into catatonia as the scene plays out, and Peter, plagued by remorse, wavers between guilt and fear.

From this point, the group hatches a chilling rationale: Mitch’s death could, in their minds, lessen their own sentences. They recount an urban myth that the psychological trauma inflicted on fellow inmates can influence sentencing when a cellmate commits suicide. The plan is cruelly clear: Mitch must hang himself. They try first with a TV cord, propping Mitch against a barred window, but the cord snaps under the weight. They try again with Mitch’s bedsheets, lifting him onto a garbage can so he can take a final cigarette. When Harry finally delivers the decisive kick that ends Mitch’s life, Peter is left in tears, while Jack and Harry watch the television as if nothing happened.

The morning after the death, the three cellmates stage a scene for the interviews, claiming to be moved by the tragedy, though Peter remains quietly silent. Harry denies any real involvement, and Jack offers a remorseful confession: he doesn’t fully understand why he acted the way he did and longs to wash his hands clean. Peter, however, is engulfed in tears, insisting the hanging was his idea and that Mitch did not deserve the abuse he endured.

In the closing text, the film reveals the grim consequences of their actions: each of the three cellmates, originally serving 2- to 3-year sentences, receives an additional 8 to 15 years for their roles in Mitch Palmer’s death. Mitch, by contrast, had been serving a 6-month sentence for vagrancy and resisting arrest. The final frames show a fleeting, uneasy sense of connection as Mitch helps Peter perform proper pushups, hinting at a fragile, troubled bond formed in the worst of circumstances.

remember who made the drink

enough of this shit

“already a part of this”