Erin Brockovich 🎥 2000 Movie Info

Plot Summary

Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three living in Hinkley, California. After being injured in a car crash with a doctor, she files a lawsuit. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win, but Erin’s explosive courtroom behavior under cross-examination loses her the case, and Ed cannot return her phone calls afterwards. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office, apparently working. She says he told her things would work out, but they did not, and that she needed a job. Sympathizing with Erin, Ed gets her a paid job at the office. Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen, a fellow Hinkley resident.

Erin is surprised to see medical records in the file and visits Donna, who explains that she had kept all her PG&E correspondence together. Donna appreciates PG&E’s help: she has had several tumors, and her husband has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but PG&E has always supplied a doctor at their own expense. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, “Because of the chromium”. Erin begins digging into the case and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is seriously contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, but PG&E has been telling Hinkley residents that they use a safer form of chromium.

After several days away from the office doing this research, she is fired by Ed until he realizes she has been working the entire time and sees what she has found, and rehires her. Erin continues her research and, over time, visits many of the community’s residents and wins their trust. She finds many cases of tumors and other medical problems in Hinkley. PG&E’s doctors have treated everyone and think the cluster of cases is just a coincidence, unrelated to the “safe” chromium.

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