True Romance

Comic-book store clerk and movie buff Clarence Worley watches a Sonny Chiba triple feature at a Detroit movie theater on his birthday. Here he meets Alabama Whitman, an attractive young woman he takes home afterward.

After sex, she tearfully confesses that she is a call girl hired by Clarence's boss as a birthday present. She also confesses that she has fallen in love with Clarence in a short time. He has also fallen for her, so they marry the next day.

Clarence is concerned about Alabama's volatile pimp, Drexl Spivey. He is visited by an apparition of his idol, Elvis Presley, who tells him that killing Drexl would make the world a better place.

After assuring Alabama he is only going to Drexl's to get her things, Clarence confronts the intimidating Drexl and tells him to leave Alabama alone from now on. Drexl and his right-hand man Marty attack and subdue Clarence, take his wallet to find out where he lives and threaten to find Alabama there. Clarence manages to draw a gun and kill them both. He grabs a bag which he assumes belongs to Alabama and leaves.

He confesses to Alabama that he killed Drexl, which she tearfully finds "so romantic!" Opening the suitcase, the two find it is filled with stolen cocaine.

Deciding to leave town for Los Angeles, the couple first visits Clarence's father, Clifford Worley, a security guard and ex-cop. Clarence asks to use his police connections to find out if he is in the clear regarding Drexl's murder. His father learns the police assume the murder was a drug-related thing.

Clarence and Alabama take off for L.A., where they look up Clarence's old friend Dick Ritchie, an aspiring actor. Back home, however, Clarence's father is ambushed by a gangster named Vincenzo Coccotti and his men who want their drugs back. Clarence's dad stalls for as long as he can before accepting that he is going to die anyway, whereupon he tells a graphic story that insults Coccotti and his Sicilian descent. He is killed. One of the gangsters finds a note on the fridge giving Clarence's whereabouts at Dick's home address.

Clarence plans to use Dick's contacts with an actor named Elliot to sell the drugs to a wealthy movie producer, Lee Donowitz. But when Elliot is arrested by the police for drug possession, he uses his knowledge of Clarence's drug deal to try to escape prison time by wearing a wire for the cops.

In the meantime, while Clarence is away getting food, Alabama is found by one of Coccotti's most ruthless henchmen, Virgil. He thinks she's cute, but nonetheless viciously beats her to find the cocaine. Alabama bravely fights back and amazingly manages to kill him. Clarence comes home and drives her away.

On the day of the deal, detectives Nicholson and Dimes stage a sting operation to nail Lee, the filmmaker. At the same time, Coccotti's men arrive at Lee's hotel to retrieve the drugs after finding out where the deal is taking place from Dick's stoned roommate Floyd.

Clarence, Alabama, Dick and a terrified Elliot arrive in Lee Donowitz's hotel room to begin negotiations. Lee takes a liking to Clarence and is happy to go through with the deal. He is then ambushed by the cops and the gangsters at the same time, bursting into the room.

In the middle of a Mexican standoff between the cops, robbers and Lee's heavily armed bodyguards, Lee realizes that Elliot has betrayed him. He scalds Elliot with a pot of hot coffee, triggering a massive outburst of gunfire. Lee, police officers, the gangsters and the bodyguards are killed.

Dick tosses the bag of drugs in the air as a distraction and flees. Clarence suffers a grazing bullet wound to his eye when he exits the bathroom and appears to be dead, devastating Alabama. A lone remaining Italian kills detective Dimes just after Dimes shoots Boris, one of Lee's bodyguards. In the alternate version, Alabama kills Dimes in retaliation for the wounding of Clarence.

Clarence revives. He is only partially blinded. Alabama leads him from the hotel and they escape as more police descend.

On a beach in Mexico, a healing Clarence and Alabama are shown as a happy family, playing with a son whom they have named Elvis.