Character Relationship Map: Jerry and Tom

Characters

• Tom (played by Joe Mantegna) — protagonist

  Tom is an experienced hit man and Jerry's older, more controlled partner. He repeatedly guides Jerry through assignments, kills Karl and the cinema storyteller, and helps Jerry complete his first hit....

• Jerry (played by Sam Rockwell) — supporting

  Jerry is Tom's younger hit-man partner, initially working at Billy's used car dealership before joining Tom in killings. He is anxious, emotional, and often inexperienced, but gradually performs sever...

• Billy (played by Maury Chaykin) — supporting

  Billy is associated with the used car dealership where Jerry works as a youth in the 1984 flashback. The plot provides no further direct scene or characterization for him, but this dealership connecti...

• Vic (played by Charles Durning) — supporting

  Vic is Tom and Jerry's co-worker, rumored to have had an affair with Marilyn Monroe and to have assassinated John F. Kennedy. During a meal he prepares, Vic discusses publishing his memoirs and adapti...

• Karl (played by William H. Macy) — supporting

  Karl is an associate who walks with Tom and Jerry in the 1984 flashback and describes a brutal attack on his nephew by a local gangster. Tom promises to investigate, but Karl becomes frightened inside...

• Deb (played by Sarah Polley) — supporting

  Deb is Jerry's girlfriend, discussed during Tom and Jerry's trip to an out-of-state assignment. Jerry describes a domestic dispute with her while speaking loudly in a cinema. After hearing the story o...

• Stanley (played by Peter Riegert) — supporting

  Stanley is the target whom Tom and Jerry wait to kill in a Chicago bar at the beginning of the film. He keeps them occupied with jokes while they await authorization. After Tom kills Jerry and unties...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Jerry → Vic (Professional Coworkers)

  Tom identifies Vic as their co-worker, and Jerry participates in the meeting where Vic discusses his memoirs.

• Tom → Vic (Professional Coworkers)

  Tom and Jerry describe Vic as their co-worker and later meet him for a meal.

• Jerry → Deb (Romantic Girlfriend And Boyfriend)

  Jerry describes a domestic dispute with his girlfriend, Deb, and later decides to marry her after hearing a tragic story.

• Jerry → Billy (Professional Employer And Employee)

  The flashback introduces Jerry as a youth employed at Billy's used car dealership.

• Tom → Jerry (Professional Hitmen Partners)

  The plot identifies Tom and Jerry as hit men who wait together for instructions and carry out multiple assignments.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Tom → Stanley (Conflict Assigned Targets)

  Tom and Jerry wait in a Chicago bar for authorization to kill Stanley, and Tom later unties him after receiving the order.

• Tom → Karl (Social Longtime Friends)

  Tom agrees that he and Karl are friends with a long history before strangling him.

Story Analysis

A darkly comic crime story about professional violence, emotional detachment, and the collapse of a killing partnership.

Plot Progression

1. The Waiting Hit
2. Friendship Turns Fatal
3. Stories and First Kills
4. Professional Decay
5. The Order and Reversal