Plot summary

At 22, Laura Black seems to have it made. After graduating UC-Davis in engineering, she leaves her parents' home in Virginia to head for KEI Systems, a Silicon Valley hi-tech firm specializing in defense contracting for the armed services. On the first day at her new job, her supervisor, Chris, introduces her to Richard Farley, a software engineer employed in a division outside Laura's. After lunch that day, Richard invites Laura to a tractor pull, which she turns down. Farley appears to think nothing of it at first, but the worst is yet to come.Laura soon finds a roommate & starts settling in at KEI, during which Farley continues to offer his attentions with nothing more harmful than baked blueberry bread, sitting in Laura's office awaiting her arrival at 7 a.m. But when Laura gets involved with the company's aerobics classes, Farley can soon be seen stealthily watching from outside. While at a company softball game, Farley approaches Laura & asks to go out later to 'discuss the terms of our relationship'. Laura angrily chews him out and insists there is no 'relationship', other than a professional one. Her best friend, Glenda Moritz, tells Laura if Farley is becoming a problem she should address it with management, after which she cracks a joke and the two of them start laughing. Farley takes personal offense but keeps his distance.That week, Farley angrily approaches Laura at work with a gift. She angrily refuses, but Farley refuses to leave until it's opened. When Laura opens it, she discovers a toy bulldozer, after which Farley sneers, 'if you act like a child, I'll have to treat you like one', and accuses Laura of making 'childish, silly faces' at him during the game. Using a ruse, Farley tricks an HR employee into unwittingly giving him Laura's address. The notes then begin to arrive, either at work or Laura's home. When her roommate urges Laura to act on Farley's implied threats & menacing, Laura brushes it off - until a few days later when the two of them come out to go to work & discover the tires on Laura's VW Cabriolet slashed. Reporting to work late, Laura is immediately confronted by Farley, who menaces her with a veiled threat - 'Either you must live in a bad neighborhood or someone's trying to make you pay attention.' He then goes on to offer to help Laura pick out new tires - even to pay for them. She ignores him & walks into work, after warning him that police had advised her to get a restraint order. Farley then threatens her again. Even when not threatening her, his presence is menacing, such as when he snaps photographs of her in her driveway.After this, Laura goes to her HR department to complain about Farley's unending harassment, but is met with stonewalling. It is apparent the company values Farley's security clearance over Laura's right to be free from harassment, but Penny, the HR manager, agrees to talk to Farley and order him to stay away from Laura. Farley takes the advice to heart, but only at work - he soon enrolls in the aerobics classes Laura attends, and then follows her home afterwards. He also corners her at a gas station, forcing her to flee in a panic. Even when Richard's landlady, Nancy - who he also works with - tells him Laura isn't interested in him, Farley continues to find ways to get to her. Exasperated, Laura tells her roommate she is moving out, but her roommate insists on going with her. The two of them find a new apartment that is in a gated community and apparently much more private.Frustrated by Laura's efforts to stop or avoid him, Farley stealthily breaks into Laura's office at work after hours and obtains access to her security clearance application. By doing so, he obtains the addresses and names of her parents in Virginia, and her two sisters - one in Oregon & one in South California - in addition to Laura's new home address. The fiendish Farley then confronts Laura at work the next day, but when she threatens to call the police, he reveals how much he knows about her family, even events in her life that happened a decade before. He then threatens to go after one of Laura's sisters - or even her mother - if Laura tries to run. Angry & frightened, Laura asks Farley what his intentions are - and why. His response is, 'All I know is, you and I were meant to be together - FOREVER'.By this point, Laura has simply had enough. At her parents' home for Christmas in Virginia, a package arrives for her from California. Knowing she doesn't have anyone else there, Laura opens it - and to her horror, inside is an album titled 'Our summer vacation', with a doctored photograph of Farley and Laura's face superimposed on someone else. Laura breaks down in tears, and tells her family the story of the last six months of harassment she has endured at Farley's hands. Her father angrily volunteers to fly out and make the HR people listen, but Laura talks him out of it & vows to address it herself.Following the holidays, Laura goes back to HR and angrily confronts the manager, but the response is the same - they are more worried about jeopardizing his security clearance. Penny does, however, agree to restrict his access to keep him away from her. Farley is also ordered to attend counseling under threat of termination.Not long after, Laura goes out to a bar with some of her girlfriends, where she meets Sam Waters - an engineer who works for another company. He asks her out, and she agrees. After being questioned by her girlfriends about the handsome young engineer, Laura heads for the bathroom, where she is immediately accosted by the now-menacing Farley. He angrily berates her for getting him in trouble with HR, and then shows his violent side while continuing to threaten her if she does not give in to his demands. He leaves with a chilling message - 'This could escalate, Laura. I might scare us both with what I'm capable of doing.'Immediately after, Farley is hauled into a meeting with Penny and a management official, who find that Farley simply refuses to accept that his harassment is illegal and could lead to firing. Emphasizing they want him to stay, Penny tells him in no uncertain terms that his behavior must cease. Farley then levels a veiled threat at Penny, saying that he has guns, would commit suicide, and that 'others would go'. When Penny asks if he is threatening to kill her, he replies simply, 'Yes - not just you. I'd take others as well', before getting up & walking out. Penny is clearly frightened by this threat, but she wastes no time in terminating him with management's approval.Next day, Chris looks up & sees Farley coming down the hall. He motions to Laura, who glances up to see her nemesis being escorted off the property by security with the contents of his desk in a box. As he passes, Penny comes in, and tells them that Farley has been terminated by KEI, effective immediately. She suggests Laura get out of town for a few days, which Laura does.Unfortunately, the harassment did not end with Farley's termination. He soon finds a similar position with another company, and is quickly up to his old tricks of sending menacing letters and again showing up at KEI. When Laura protests, she finds out the company refused to terminate Farley for harassment but rather for performance issues. Laura is furious - again the company has put Farley's interest ahead of hers.Even when Laura is out on a date with Sam, Farley shows up at their restaurant but does not approach them. Sam angrily gets up to confront Farley, but Laura talks him out of it. He warns Laura that she HAS to take Farley's menacing conduct more seriously, and teaches her how to use his 9-mm semiautomatic in self-defense. Laura is apprehensive, but Sam insists - with a promise he will pick it up the following day if it really bothers her. Laura agrees, kisses him goodnight, and goes to get ready for bed. Hearing a noise in the garage, Laura finds Farley in it, leaving a note on her car. She has the gun at the ready behind her back if he approaches, but he leaves without approaching her. Laura soon comes up for promotion at work, but her security clearance has not come through. Chris tells her Farley is probably the reason behind it, and encourages her to get a restraining order - which she reluctantly agrees to do. Farley is served with a temporary restraining order at his workplace, and Laura soon finds out that she will have a court date later in the week to make the restraining order permanent.Farley proceeds to a gun shop & purchases a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition. He also buys a huge motorhome and starts making his way to Laura's workplace, planning to wait for her to get off work. Unaware Farley is on his way, Laura phones her dad, and tells him about the pending court date the following day. Once Farley arrives, he arms himself with a Benelli shotgun, a .22 Magnum pistol, a semiautomatic 9-mm handgun, a Ruger M-77 rifle, and his new 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun. Stepping out of the motorhome, he calmly walks up to the front entrance of the KEI building. As he approaches, he meets Lawrence Kane, another man with whom he had previously worked. Kane whispers under his breath, 'You can't be serious', when he sees Farley, but Farley simply says, 'Cowboys and Indians!', then blasts Kane at point-blank range with the shotgun, sending him backwards onto a parked car and killing him. As another car approaches Farley, he blasts the car with the shotgun, missing the driver, who quickly retreats. Then Farley fires the shotgun into the plate-glass front doors and marches into the building, shooting at any moving target. As he makes his way up the stairs, he encounters a man coming down, and quickly guns him down with the Mossberg shotgun. Software engineer Helen Lamparter, a friend of Laura's, hears the shooting and runs to the man's side. Farley, halfway up the stairs, turns the shotgun on her and kills her instantly. Making his way to the 2nd floor, Farley kills newlywed 23-year-old Wayne 'Buddy' Williams with the shotgun and continues making his way across the floor. Hearing the shots, Laura's best friend Glenda Moritz comes out of her office - right into Farley's path! Glenda pleads for her life, but the psychopathic Farley levels the Mossberg at her and fires a single round, sending her crashing through the door and backwards into her office, fatally wounded. He then heads for Laura's office, where he ambushes her and seriously wounds her with a shotgun blast to the shoulder. Laura drops to the floor, appearing dead, so Farley leaves her office after he hears voices in the hallway behind him. As employees flee the building, the first police car arrives and officers quickly conceal themselves outside the main doors. Upstairs, Farley attacks 2 men who are making a run for it. Killing the first one with a shot to the back, he wounds the second in the stomach, but the man attempts to escape again. Cornering the man, Farley fatally wounds him with a second shotgun blast to the stomach.By now, the officer in command, Captain Olson, has arrived, and is assuming the worst. But even as employees are evacuated from the building, Olson's second-in-command spots Laura's old supervisor, Chris, running into the building. Officers are unable to stop him as he runs inside & up the stairs.Laura, meanwhile, has desperately tried to dial 911, but finding the line busy, improvises a bandage from a sweater to staunch the bleeding from the gaping shotgun wound in her upper arm. Fleeing her office, she comes across the body of one of the men shot in the back while escaping, and can hear Farley blasting away at the computers & hardware with his shotgun and .22 Magnum pistol. Farley returns to Laura's office, but finding her gone, starts hunting the second floor for her.Outside, the SWAT team has arrived, led by Lt. Bannister. They are quickly filled in by Captain Olson and a command post is set up in an adjacent building. The SWATs are informed of Farley's military history and prepare for what they are likely dealing with. Olson also is informed that Laura - Farley's motive for the shootings - is still trapped in the building. Lt. Ruben Grijalva, a hostage negotiator, also arrives and is filled in by Captain Olson. It isn't long before Farley contacts Grijalva and contemptuously sneers that he plans to 'gloat for a while' and 'would rather kill people than animals - it's not sporting to kill animals'.Laura continues to try to find a way out - and as she does, she passes by Glenda's office. She looks in to discover a horrific scene; her best friend Glenda is fatally wounded by Farley's shotgun blast, and Laura makes her way to the 2nd floor reception area, hiding to conceal herself from Farley as she can still hear the shotgun & pistol. She soon gets into the HR office where 2 women, holed up inside, try to stop the bleeding from Laura's shoulder. After several minutes, though, Laura flees the office, determined not to die, and hides under a desk in a room adjacent to where Farley is talking to police.Lt. Bannister argues for a 3-pronged attack, but Capt. Olson vetoes it as he fears the risk is too great. Laura, calling what she thinks is security's number, reaches Lt. Grijalva and advises him of her injuries. The lieutenant advises her to keep talking in the hope she will not pass out from blood loss, but eventually she does.Regaining consciousness, Laura calls Lt. Grijalva back. He informs her there is no way to send in rescuers to help her; she will have to sit tight. Hearing Farley blasting through the door, Laura hangs up the phone & hides under the desk just as Farley enters the room. The fiend spots the SWAT team moving up towards his position, and contacts Lt. Grijalva and threatens to start detonating explosives unless the SWATs are called off. Capt. Olson calls them off, and Farley continues to rant to Grijalva about his 'persecution' by KEI and Laura's angry rejection of him, refusing to acknowledge any role his conduct might have had. Hearing him in the same room, Laura uses the opportunity to slip through a destroyed security door and down a back staircase to the main floor, where she emerges from the main entrance into the hands of the SWAT team. Lt. Bannister & 2 SWATs help Laura to an ambulance, and she is raced to the hospital. When Laura arrives, she is immediately sent to surgery to repair her damaged shoulder & stop the bleeding. Farley, meanwhile, continues to negotiate with Lt. Grijalva, initially insisting that 'I'm gonna die here, and I'M going to decide when'. He does, however, ask for a diet cola & sandwich from Togo's, which Lt. Grijalva agrees to in return for Farley throwing some of his weapons out one of the building windows. Lt. Bannister offers to have a SWAT sniper take Farley out, but Grijalva argues to try to get Farley to surrender first. Capt. Olson agrees, on the condition that if Farley is unwilling to surrender - 'Get him in front of a window.' Lt. Grijalva agrees, and gets the sandwich & diet cola that Farley requested. When it arrives, Lt. Grijalva points out to Farley that even once he throws out the weapons, there is still the problem of getting the food to Farley. Farley acknowledges this, and Grijalva suggests that he surrender himself. Farley is initially skeptical, but Lt. Grijalva persuades him that he could teach computers in prison. After a few minutes, Farley agrees and emerges from the buliding, into the hands of the SWATs and Capt. Olson's second-in-command, Lt. Shagan. Shagan promptly cuffs Farley and reads him his rights, and as Farley is walked to a police car Grijalva appears with the food Farley had requested. Putting the food in the front of the car, Grijalva watches as the police car drives slowly away with Farley. The film ends with the final outcome of the real-life case: Richard Farley was found guilty of 7 counts of capital murder, and is awaiting the death sentence in San Quentin prison. Laura Black, after 7 major surgeries, regained some use of her shoulder, and as of filming was still working for the company. Following Laura's case - and other tragic stalking cases - the state of California became the first to pass an anti-stalking law.