Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton is a 'fixer' for Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, a prestigious New York City law firm. The film opens with Michael leaving a poker game late at night and driving to Westchester County for a client. He stops when he sees three horses on a hill, gets out of his car, and moments later his car explodes behind him. The story then rewinds four days. The firm has dispatched Michael to Milwaukee to deal with a crisis: Arthur Edens, the lead litigator on a six-year, $3 billion class action lawsuit against U-North — an agricultural conglomerate accused of knowingly allowing its weed killer to cause hundreds of deaths — has suffered a manic episode mid-deposition, stripped naked, and effectively sabotaged the case. Michael bails Arthur out of jail and discovers he has stopped taking his psychiatric medication. Arthur, now fixated on a children's fantasy book called 'Realm & Conquest' (which Michael's son Henry had described to him), interprets its themes as a call to expose the truth about U-North. He slips away from his hotel and returns to New York. Meanwhile, Karen Crowder, U-North's general counsel, discovers that Arthur possesses a confidential internal memo — signed by U-North CEO Don Jeffries — proving the company knew its product caused the deaths at the center of the lawsuit. Crowder contacts two private operatives, who begin surveilling Arthur and bugging his apartment and phone. Michael tracks Arthur down on the streets of Manhattan and confronts him about calls he made to Anna Kaiserson, a plaintiff who was being deposed during Arthur's breakdown. Arthur realizes his calls are being monitored, and records a message to his own voicemail announcing he will go public with the memo. Karen orders the operatives to act; they break into Arthur's apartment, murder him with a lethal injection, and stage the scene as a drug overdose. Michael, suspicious of Arthur's supposedly accidental death, discovers that U-North had been on the verge of settling the lawsuit just days earlier and that Arthur had booked Anna a flight to New York — facts that don't fit a suicide. He breaks into Arthur's sealed apartment with his police-officer brother Gene, finds Arthur's annotated copy of 'Realm & Conquest' (which contains an illustration matching the horses and barren trees he saw in Westchester), and pockets a receipt from a copy shop. At the shop, he learns Arthur had made 3,000 copies of the incriminating memo. Firm managing partner Marty Bach offers Michael the personal loan he had been seeking — to cover a failed restaurant investment with his troubled brother Timmy — but conditions it on Michael signing a sweeping non-disclosure agreement. Michael accepts, pays off his debt, and apparently drops the investigation. That same night, the operatives — who have been tracking Michael — rig his car with a bomb and detonate it after he walks away to approach the horses on the hill. He survives and goes into hiding with Timmy's help. Michael then goes on offense: he arranges to meet Karen Crowder alone before a U-North board meeting at which she plans to propose a settlement, and goads her into offering him $10 million for his silence. Karen agrees. Michael reveals he is wearing a wire, with Gene and NYPD detectives listening. As police move in to arrest Karen, Michael gets into a taxi and rides away.

Sources: Wikipedia