Genre: Thriller
Plot: After getting laid off from an investment brokerage Dutch begins working from home as a day-trader to make ends meet. Six months in he's had nothing but bad luck and is growing desperate. His losses have depleted his savings and dropped him deep into debt. He's been forced to sell his car, all of his electronics, and is about to be evicted for lack of rental payment. His girlfriend, realizing that a man who can't afford cereal certainly can't afford a ring, and sick of watching her dude fall apart, wised up months ago and dumped Dutch. Another week of losses like this and Dutch will be out on the street with no job prospects.
Inciting Incident: One morning he wakes up to discover an email from one of his old buddies from the brokerage. His buddy tells him that he's discovered an investment newsletter that has incredible success rates called THE INSIDER. For the last 6 months, Dutch's buddy has been following its advice and he's made so much money that he's considering retiring even though he's only in his early 30s. Normally he'd never share such info, but he heard Dutch is down on his luck, so the buddy has signed Dutch up for a one year subscription, which normally costs $10,000. Dutch is completely shocked and grateful, but also a little suspicious at such incredible generosity. But with no other options or hope, he decides he has nothing to lose. He reads through that morning's newsletter and invests $100 on a recommended stock—it is the last money he has to his name.
By the close of the trading day Dutch's $100 has turned into $1,500. How is this possible?, he thinks. Surely it's just a fluke. Gains like that don't happen in a single day. But the next day he follows THE INSIDER's stock tips again and has similar gains. After a week of such success he can't believe his luck. He's turned his $100 into $100,000, almost completely pulling himself out of debt. Dutch writes his buddy to thank him and insist that they meet so they can celebrate, but the buddy doesn't respond. Dutch can't figure out why his buddy has gone silent, but is relieved to finally be putting the pieces of his life back together again
First Act turning point: Dutch receives a phone call from someone with a voice scrambler. The man on the phone congratulates Dutch on his recent windfall and tells Dutch to thank him. When Dutch protests, saying he doesn't understand, the man clarifies: I work for THE INSIDER. We sent you those stock tips to get you back on your feet. You work for us now and will do as you are told. He tells Dutch that $500,000 has been transferred into Dutch's bank accounts and that he will use it to continue trading with stock tips from THE INSIDER, and when the gains reach $10 million in a few days, Dutch will receive instructions on where to transfer the money. Dutch is free to continue to invest his own money, of course, to ride the wave of success and pay himself for his services.
Dutch reels in horror. He doesn't know where the money is coming from — organized crime, or worse — but he knows money laundering when he sees it. And scariest of all is the question of how the shadowy figures behind THE INSIDER are able to manipulate markets to their own ends.
Dutch tells the man that he won't do it: that he'll turn every dime over to the police before he goes any deeper into whatever this is, and share the emails with them. The man on the phone tells him three things: 1) He can make the emails disappear, as if they were never sent, 2) Dutch is too deep in now. The police will never believe him, and 3) The window repair men will be there in a few minutes, and that Dutch shouldn't tip them off as to what is going on.
Before Dutch can ask what the hell #3 means, a hail of bullets come flying through his living room window, completely blowing the window in. The sniper or snipers are using silenced rifles, so it takes Dutch a few moments to realize that the room is being ripped apart by bullets. Dutch drops the phone and dives on the floor. The bullets cease and a few moments later the doorbell rings. Dutch crawls to the door and opens it slowly, assuming his life is forfeit. There stand two local window repairmen, puzzled at Dutch's strange behavior. They say they're here to fix the broken window Dutch called about yesterday. Since the hail of bullets was silenced, the men obviously heard nothing as they drove up to the house.
Dutch pulls himself together and lets the men in, playing along and telling them that the window shattered from bird strikes as they raise their eyebrows. As the men get to work repairing the window, Dutch picks the phone back up. The line is still live. "Good. I'll be in touch." says the voice on the phone, then hangs up. Dutch is trapped.
ACT II: As he is forced to act as a front and make millions for his mysterious handlers Dutch begins looking for information and ways to escape.
Midpoint: Dutch finds out that the buddy who recommended THE INSIDER to him is dead. Dutch's ex-coworkers confirm that his friend had indeed had an incredible "lucky" streak right before his mysterious death, which happened just a few days after the buddy contacted Dutch to lend him a hand. Dutch figures that the handlers are using traders to boost their profits until the trader's profile gets too high, and then they make the unsuspecting trader suggest a replacement for themself as their final act before they kill the trader. Dutch now knows that he must outsmart his handlers or face certain death. The clock is ticking.
Does Dutch use his own earnings to somehow go after his mysterious handlers? But how, and with whose help? Or does he take matters into his own hands and intentionally lose a huge sum of their money to get them to come after him and reveal themselves somehow? Can Dutch outsmart his handlers before his time is up? If he can devise a plan and act quickly enough, Dutch realizes that he is in a unique position to strike back... Now that they've given him financial means, revealed their tricks of the trade, and pulled him into their criminal world, the tables can be turned as Dutch becomes The Insider within the criminal conspiracy, with the intention to bring it all crashing down.