SYNOPSIS:

The recession has gone on too long for best friends Mike and Gene. They lost their jobs and the pressure to find new ones has become overwhelming. Mike is married and afraid to tell his wife. He still pretends he has the same job hoping he’ll get a new one before his severance package ends. Gene is single, his severance package ended a month ago, and is living like a monk. Thoughts of jumping off the 59th Street Bridge have entered his mind but quickly left because he loves himself too much. They’re both convinced that sending out resumes and joining social and work related groups and websites are just big black holes. It’s clear that now is the time for a new way to approach the job market. The question however, is in what way, until Gene discovers an obscure news article in the back pages of the New York Post citing a bank robbery in London. While driving home in Mike’s car, crossing the 59th Street Bridge, they continue to discuss the pros, cons, and possibilities of this bizarre idea until they inadvertently save a former co- worker from jumping off the bridge; promising him a job. The following day Andy, the bridge jumper, is released from the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, with a clean bill of health. That same morning he meets up with Mike and Gene at Starbucks and signs a non-disclosure agreement to become an equal partner in the future robbery of a New York City bank. The boys, in need of a place to plan, study, and research their new jobs, open an office under the fictitious name “The 59st Bridge Consulting Company.” Fortuitously, the company starts to do well and they become forced to hire additional staff. Two months later, one of their biggest clients files for Chapter 11 and defaults on payment to the company, greatly affecting the cash flow of the business. During this same period the boys are having second thoughts on their ability to actually carry out the heist until Mike’s wife Robin, introduces him to a friend of hers who is out of work actor.

THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE