White Sands is a 1992 American neo-Noir crime thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Willem Dafoe, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mickey Rourke.
An apparent suicide is found in the New Mexico desert with a Briefcase Full of Money containing $500,000. Ray Dolezal (Dafoe), a small town deputy sheriff, investigates. The body turns out to belong to a drug mule named Bob Spencer. Ray, who suspects there is more behind the death than there appears, impersonates Spencer for a meeting with Gorman Lennox (Rourke), only to have two women steal the $500,000. Spencer turns out to have been working for the FBI, and agent Greg Meeker (Jackson) wants Ray to go undercover as Spencer to try to get the money back from Lennox.
White Sands contains examples of:
- Arms Dealer: Lennox isn't an arms dealer, exactly, but he supports the sale of arms to whoever the US happens to be fighting against at the moment in order to keep the military industrial complex going strong, because he is a CIA agent.
- Big "NO!": Meeker wails "NOOOOO!" when he realizes that the briefcase is empty.
- Eat the Evidence: The coroner finds a scrap of paper in Spencer's stomach with a phone number written on it. The paper is so tough and waxy that the numbers are still legible.
- GPS Evidence: A bit of carpet fuzz on Spencer's body is traced to the motel where he was staying.
- Lens Flare: Visible in many shots of people driving.
- Look Both Ways: Ray chases Bodine across a parking lot, only to be knocked down by a car.
- Never Suicide: Ray suspects there's more to Spencer's death than there seems. Turns out he was Driven to Suicide by Meeker.
- Punk in the Trunk: Lennox ties up two Internal Affairs agents and brings them to Ray in the trunk of his car.
- Room Disservice: Ray arrives at his motel to find his room being cleaned by two maids. He doesn't suspect a thing when they later knock on the door... until he finds himself with a gun at his head, whereupon the two search him for listening devices by slicing his clothes off with knives, then steal his briefcase and leave him with instructions on where to meet Lennox.
- Shower of Love: Subverted. Lane Bodine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) offers herself to Ray, who is married, while he's in the shower. The next scene has an FBI agent listening with amusement to the sounds of passionate sex over his hidden microphones, until Ray kicks down his door, whereupon we see Bodine faking the sounds as a distraction.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The two fake maids could have been great henchwomen for Lennox, but simply disappear from the movie after robbing Ray.
