In order to save their 9-year-old daughter, a reformed ex-crook and his straight ex-wife plunge into crime

SYNOPSIS:

Ex-crook Dan Nichols has learnt his lesson. Intent on being a role model to his nine-year-old Alice, he turns down a lucrative heist.

When he learns from ex-wife Karen that Alice is ill, he sells his car to pay for the diagnosis. But the parents learn with shock that there's no cure; even though one youngster recovered after Japanese stem cell treatment. For in the US, drug trials and FDA approval are still years away.

Dan tells Karen: You get the details of the treatment - I'll take care of the money...

Dan pulls off the heist that he refused, believing problem solved. But then he learns that the experimental treatment involves setting up a Charitable Foundation for other kids with the same condition. And the cost? Four point six million...

With the law on his heels for the heist Dan abseils down a fire hose. He hears of a lucrative refining gig, but someone else is about to be hired. Dan disqualifies his rival to get himself hired.

With his first payment, Dan and Karen rush to put a deposit on the Charity Foundation. But Dan's next instalment is hijacked by the rival.

Hunted by police, missing an instalment and with the kingpin raging at Dan's absences, what first seemed like a cash cow has turned into a raging bull...

To get back the lost instalment, Dan kidnaps his rival's male lover. But the rival claims that Dan has done him a favor because he's had enough of the man ! Hearing this the irate lover escapes and slays the rival. With the way now clear Dan recovers his lost payment.

But the kingpin, furious with Dan's absences, plots to replace him. Dan learns of it and flees but is dragged back in chains. Now the kingpin discovers that his replacement, the rival, is dead. And Dan is now far from cooperative.

The kingpin has Karen snatched, but the job is botched and she's brought in, in a wheelchair -- forcing Dan to cooperate.

Doomed when the refining is complete, Dan tells Karen what she must do. Overpowering a guard Dan sets the lab ablaze. But as Karen starts her escape her wheelchair is smashed. She's forced to drag herself along the ground on her elbows. Seeing her plight, Dan lures the gang away, but in the shoot out is left for dead.

The kingpin double crosses and slays the one surviving gang member, and prepares to flee with the stash. But Dan with the slain gang member's gun, waylays and kills him.

Only half conscious, Dan hears cries. He stumbles back into the blazing lab and drags out an LAPD officer. Then he collapses. Having survived a fusilade, Karen at last arrives with help.

As Dan lies in intensive care Karen shows him how she grabbed the remaining gold ingots. Dan faintly smiles, knowing Alice will get her treatment now.

As Karen and Alice board a flight to Japan, back in the ICU all Dan's monitoring equipment flat lines...

Months later, Alice and Karen both restored to health, enter a cemetery. Alice traces Dan's name on a headstone, lays a rose and presses her forehead to the marble.

She kisses it gently and whispers, "Thanks, dad..."

FADE OUT

WHATEVER IT TAKES