Jesse Stone: Thin Ice
Encyclopedia
Jesse Stone: Thin Ice is the fifth film in the Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone novels
Jesse Stone is the lead character in a series of detective novels initially written by Robert B. Parker. They were among his last works, and the first series in which the novelist used the third-person narrative...

 film series aired on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 television network starring Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....

. It is based on the character from the successful book series created by the late Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker
Robert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also...

. Unlike the preceding four movies, the film is not based on one of the books.

Plot

The film begins with the attempted assassination of State Police Captain Healy, while he is on a stakeout. Jesse is also wounded in the attack, but is able to get a couple shots off at the assailant and save Healy’s life. Healy winds up in the hospital and reveals to Jesse that he wasn’t on a stakeout, but that he was spying on his nephew, whom his mother believes is sleeping with his saxophone instructor. Jesse begins investigating the shooting despite protests from the Paradise town council. The town council members feel that the police department is already spread too thin and are becoming frustrated with Chief Stone. A main concern of theirs, and Internal Affairs, is the six shooting incidents he’s been involved in since his arrival in Paradise. The shooting incident with Captain Healy really ruffles their feathers because he wasn’t supposed to be out “moonlighting” with the state police. They also don’t like that Jesse ran Officer D'Angelo out of the department because he didn’t like him. The town council liked him very much because he wrote three times as many parking tickets as the other officers, and manned the speed trap into the town, bringing in substantial revenue for Paradise. Jesse refuses to have the speed trap manned, because he feels it is unethical, and eventually cuts down the tree that blocks the speed limit sign so the speed trap won’t work anymore.

Meanwhile Jesse continues his regular phone calls with Jenn. She is contemplating moving in with Elliot, and Jesse tells her it would be unethical for her to move in with her producer. She hangs up on him. Jesse also continues his therapy, but Dr. Dix seems to be having trouble himself. He visits Jesse at his office and confesses that he misses being a cop. Seeing that Dix is in need of a friend, Jesse offers to buy him dinner.

Jesse continues to investigate the shooting of Captain Healy despite being told not to. He questions Gino Fish about the shooting, but gets nothing. He also talks to Sister Mary John, who indicates that it may have been linked to underage prostitution, and gives him three names. Once again Jesse contacts Gino Fish, knowing his distaste for prostitution, and without diming the person out directly, Fish indicates to Jesse that he would focus his investigation on the second name Sister Mary John gave him, Teddy Leaf. Meanwhile Jesse begins sleeping with the Internal Affairs officer who is investigating him, Sidney Greenstreet. He uses his influence with her to get some information on Leaf, and begins following him. When he reveals this to Captain Healy, Healy gets very upset and tells Jesse not to pursue Leaf because he is extremely dangerous. Jesse ignores this and pursues him anyway, threatening Leaf in a bar bathroom. Greenstreet warns Jesse that he had better tread carefully, because she knows how he works: he sets people up. Jesse then gets Leaf to follow him to an apartment with Suitcase's help, and blindsides him. He ties him up in the apartment and anonymously calls the police who then bust him for breaking and entering, and carrying a weapon; both parole violations that get him locked up for a long time. Jesse figures this is better than nothing, since they can’t get him on the shooting.

Subplots

The main subplot of the film concerns the search for a missing child. Elizabeth Blue comes to Chief Stone asking for help investigating the disappearance of her baby boy. The case was widely publicized seven years earlier as the disappearance of “Little Boy Blue.” A body was found with the baby’s hospital wrist band, but the mother is convinced it was not her son, and even left her husband over the matter. Her conviction comes from a letter she received two years earlier postmarked Paradise that says “Your child is loved.” Jesse feels compassionate towards the grieving mother, but believes the child is probably dead after all these years and that the letter could have been from anyone.

Rose disagrees and begins investigating on her own. Jesse fears investigating a cold case from New Mexico will make things even worse with the town council, but he does not stop her. Rose reaches a dead end after investigating all of the seven year old children in the town. But then Suitcase suggests that the person may have left town after writing that letter two years ago and that Rose should be checking school records from two years ago. She does this and is led to Stephanie Morton. They discover that Morton had a baby boy the same time that Baby Blue was born, but that he died at birth. No one knew that the baby died, because Morton went on vacation to New Mexico right after the birth. There she kidnapped Baby Boy Blue and brought him home, passing him off as her own unbeknownst to anyone else. She left her dead baby in the New Mexico desert with the stolen Baby Boy Blue’s hospital wrist band on. Chief Stone, and Rose go to Morton’s house to confront her with what they now know, but they discover that Little Boy Blue died two years earlier in an ice skating incident. He was skating and wandered out onto thin ice, broke through and died. Morton suffered hypothermia trying to rescue him, but was unable to save him. That is when she sent the letter to Baby Boy Blue’s mother. Upon returning to the police station, Jesse finds that he has been suspended without pay pending an investigation. Not wanting Elizabeth to hear the news from the media, Rose and Suitcase agree not to arrest Morton until Jesse can tell Baby Boy Blue’s mother personally. The film ends with Jesse traveling to New Mexico to give Elizabeth Blue the news.

Cast

  • Tom Selleck
    Tom Selleck
    Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....

     as Jesse Stone
  • Kathy Baker
    Kathy Baker
    Katherine Whitton "Kathy" Baker is an American stage, film and television actress.-Career:Baker began her career at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, performing in several of Sam Shepard's plays before getting her break in an off-Broadway production of Fool for Love opposite Ed Harris...

     as Deputy Rose Gammon
  • Kohl Sudduth as Deputy Luther "Suitcase" Simpson
  • Stephen McHattie
    Stephen McHattie
    Stephen McHattie is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:McHattie was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia....

     as State Homicide Commander Healy
  • Leslie Hope
    Leslie Hope
    Leslie Ann Hope is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Teri Bauer in the Fox show 24 where she played the wife of the main character Jack Bauer.-Life and career:...

     as Internal Affairs Officer Sidney Greenstreet
  • Jessica Hecht
    Jessica Hecht
    Jessica Hecht is an American actress, known for numerous Broadway appearances and TV roles.-Background:Hecht was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the daughter of Lenore, a psychotherapist, and Richard Hecht, a physicist. Jessica moved with her parents and her sister to Bloomfield, CT, at the age of...

     as Stephanie Morton
  • William Devane
    William Devane
    William Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...

     as Dr. Dix (Jesse's psychiatrist)
  • Saul Rubinek
    Saul Rubinek
    Saul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...

     as Hasty Hathaway
  • Fulvio Cecere
    Fulvio Cecere
    -Early life:Born to Italian parents, he attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, but after one year he realized that acting, not law, was his true calling. He took acting classes at UCLA and starred in a wide array of television and feature film parts over the next few years...

     as Teddy Leaf
  • Camryn Manheim
    Camryn Manheim
    Camryn Manheim is an American actress known primarily for her roles as attorney Ellenor Frutt on ABC's The Practice and Delia Banks on CBS's Ghost Whisperer and as Elvis's mother, Gladys Presley in the 2005 mini-series Elvis....

    as Elizabeth Blue
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