Tom Selznick was an up-and-coming concert pianist until he developed stage fright
while attempting to play a complex piece, "La Cinquette". Five years
later, he is slated to reappear in public for a comeback performance in
Chicago, dedicated to the memory of his late mentor, pianist and
composer Patrick Godureaux. Godureaux posthumously acquired massive
media coverage due to the mysterious disappearance of his vast fortune.
Selznick's return to the stage is due to the encouragement of his
actress-singer wife, Emma.
Before the concert, a house usher hands Tom a folder of sheet music.
In the folder, he finds the manuscript to "La Cinquette" and discards
it. During the concert, Tom finds a note in his sheet music that
threatens to kill him if he misplays a single note. Believing it to be a
prank, he ignores it, only to find further notes that threaten Emma and
a laser dot that tracks his movement. Disturbed, Tom leaves the stage,
shocking the audience. He returns to his dressing room, where he
receives a text that instructs him to locate and wear an earpiece so
that he can communicate with the assassin, Clem. When Tom returns to the
stage, Clem demonstrates his rifle's stealth and range by shooting a
nearby spot without alerting anyone.
Desperate, Tom surreptitiously uses his cell phone to contact his
friend Wayne, who is in the audience. When Wayne's phone goes off, it
momentarily disrupts the performance, and Wayne leaves the concert hall.
As he plays, Tom taps a text message to Wayne, but the usher, who is
revealed to be working with Clem, kills Wayne. Clem tells Tom to look
up, and Tom sees Wayne's body on the rafters. Wayne's girlfriend Ashley
goes to search for him, and she is killed, too. Clem then tells Tom that
instead of performing Beethoven's "Tempest Sonata",
as the conductor originally announced, he must perform "La Cinquette"
flawlessly, as an embedded lock in the piano depends on a flawless
performance. Tom insists he can only do so with sheet music.
During intermission, Tom runs backstage to find the crumpled
manuscript, only to find the janitor has destroyed it. Tom feverishly
listens to the piece in his dressing room and takes notes to help him
remember. Norman, the conductor, announces Tom's solo performance, but
Tom interrupts him and nervously but firmly announces he will perform
"La Cinquette", much to the delight of the audience. Clem warns Tom to
pace himself, so as not to wear himself out. Tom plays the piece
completely free of error, until he gets to the very last note of the
piece, which he deliberately misplays, infuriating Clem. Tom retorts
that the audience does not know the difference, and he receives a
standing ovation, having finally conquered the piece. Tom ignores Clem's
shouted threats and introduces Emma. Much to her and the audience's
surprise, he suggests that she sing a song as an encore. She reluctantly
obliges, and Norman accompanies her. This gives Tom time to find Clem.
He races upstairs and finds the dead body of the usher. Clem chases
him to the light fixture rafters, directly above the piano onstage.
Their struggle causes a rivet to come loose, and to the horror of
everyone in the concert hall, Tom and Clem come crashing down on the
stage. Clem lands on the piano and is killed, but Tom survives. Emma
rushes over to him, they embrace, and he says, "I think I broke my leg".
Later, while waiting for their ambulance to leave, Tom sees the damaged
piano loaded into a shipping truck. Inside the truck, he plays the last
four bars of "La Cinquette" correctly, but nothing happens.
Disappointed, Tom turns away until he hears the gears of the internal
lock system turn and the sound of a metal key hitting the floor. He
bends down to pick it up as the camera cuts to black.
