Pieces of Her

It is Andy’s 31st birthday and she and her mother, Laura, are having breakfast at a diner; Andy has just finished her shift as a night shift police dispatcher. Laura apologizes for bringing Andy back home to Belle Isle, Georgia three years earlier. At the time, Laura had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and Andy moved home from New York to take care of her. Laura went through chemotherapy and completely recovered. Now, Laura has a serious talk with Andy about moving out of the apartment over her garage. They also talk about Andy’s stepfather, Laura’s ex-husband, Gordon, who would have advised the same.

A woman and her daughter interrupt the pair’s breakfast to thank Laura, who is a speech pathologist, for working with the former’s father. Suddenly, Andy hears popping sounds, and the women standing at their table are shot and killed. Laura tackles Andy, who hits her head against the diner’s window. A man points a gun at Laura, who shields Andy. The gunman demands that Andy shoot him, thinking she is a police officer because of her dispatch uniform. Laura faces down the gunman, who is out of bullets and tries to stab her with a knife. The knife goes through her palm, and she then stabs it into the gunman’s throat. The gunman moves, and the knife rips through his throat, killing him.

Young Andy had a crush on a boy in ninth grade. Because of him, she joined the science fair. When she presents her rocket to her teacher, the boy sees her notes and shows, through his response, that he is not the person she thought he was, leaving her disgusted. Andy tries to burn the rocket using lighter fluid and blows out her eardrum. This feeling, which she thinks of as “The Sound,” returns during the scene in the diner. The two women and the shooter are dead, and people are looking through the windows from the mall. Laura is finally able to shake Andy out of her shock, and tells her not to talk to the police or sign a statement. Laura’s ex-husband Gordon arrives, and Andy realizes that he, too, is coaching her on what to say to the police. She knows, due to her police dispatch experience, that a shooting like this will attract not just local, but federal law enforcement as well.

At the hospital, while they wait for Laura to be checked out, Detectives Lisa Palazzolo and Brant Wilkes arrive and want to talk to Andy, but Gordon, who is a lawyer, stops them. Palazzolo says she will provide what information she has, if Andy does the same. She identifies the shooter as 18-year-old Jonah Helsinger. He had killed his girlfriend and her mother (the women at the diner) because the former had broken up with him. However, although the breakup was the reason for Helsinger’s shooting, the detectives could tell from his possessions that he had been planning it for some time. Helsinger had wanted Andy to shoot him because being killed by police was part of his plan.

The detectives then interrogate Andy about her and her mother. Palazzolo shows Andy and Gordon a recording of the shooting: It appears Laura purposely killed Helsinger by pulling the knife through his neck after she impaled him. The detectives continue to question Andy, but she retreats into silence. Laura comes out in a wheelchair and tells the detectives that she is signing herself out and wants to go home. Palazzolo tries to interview Laura, but she adamantly refuses. Palazzolo leaves, and Laura asks Andy what she told her. She tells Andy that she must move out of the garage apartment right away, because the latter needs to learn to survive on her own and she herself deserves some time alone. Andy gets sick and goes to the bathroom to vomit. Palazzolo finds her and says she just wants to help. She places her card on the counter and leaves.

Andy leaves the bathroom, taking Detective Palazzolo’s card. Everyone in the hospital waiting room is watching the news, which is broadcasting the video of the diner shooting. Andy meets a man in an Alabama baseball cap, but puts him off after his attempt at conversation. Laura exits the hospital, ready to leave, and reminds Andy that she has to move out of the apartment that night. Laura, Andy and Gordon get in the car. Gordon reveals that Jonah Helsinger is from a prominent law enforcement family, and that the media will probably focus not on the shooting, but Laura’s actions in the video. In other words, she may be charged with murder. They drive off, as the man in the Alabama hat watches.

Andy takes a shower, gets dressed, and begins packing her things; meanwhile, Laura and Gordon argue. The former remembers that, when Laura divorced Gordon after 14 years of marriage, it was abrupt and unclear. Andy knows very little about her biological father, only that his name was Jerry Randall, he was from Chicago, and he died when she was a baby. Jerry’s parents are still alive, but they are racists, so Laura and Andy don’t contact them. Gordon comes up to Andy’s apartment, and they share a drink. He tells her that Laura has agreed to pay off her student loans and wants her to go back to New York. The pair agree that New York is not the answer. On the news, they see one of Andy’s high school friends talk about Laura. The pair talk about the shooting, and Andy wonders how Laura was so calm and decisive in the moment. Gordon leaves, and Andy continues packing.