- Movie Genre: Dark Humor; Crime; mystery; comedy; adventure
- Target Audience: Adult,Young Adult
- Actors: Trey Wilson, William Forsythe, Sam McMurray, Nicolas Cage, John Goodman, Holly Hunter
- Duration: 94 min
- Director: Joel Coen; Ethan Coen
- Studio & Production Company: 20th Centry Fox
- Release Date: 08/03/1999
Convenience store robber H.I. "Hi" McDunnough meets police officer Edwina ("Ed") as she takes his mugshots and photographs his woodpecker tattoo before one of multiple sentences in prison. During a later stay, Hi learns that Ed's fiancé has left her and proposes after being released. They marry and move into a desert mobile home, and Hi gets a job in a machine shop. They want children, but Ed is infertile and they cannot adopt due to Hi's criminal record.
Hi and Ed learn of the quintuplet sons known as the "Arizona Quints" born to regionally famous furniture magnate Nathan Arizona. They kidnap one of the babies, whom they believe to be Nathan Jr., intending to start a family. Once home, Hi's former cellmates Gale and Evelle Snoats arrive after escaping from prison. They convince Hi to shelter them and tempt him to return to his former life of crime. That night, Hi has an intense nightmare of monstrous biker Leonard Smalls.
Hi's foreman Glen visits with his large and unruly family on the next day. Glen and wife Dot offer parenting advice amid their children's misbehavior, but when Glen suggests that he and Hi exchange wives, Hi punches Glen in the face. That night, Hi succumbs to the temptation to rob a convenience store while buying diapers, leading to a chase with police and a pack of dogs that he manages to outrun. As Ed and Nathan Jr. sleep, Hi decides to leave his family to join Gale and Evelle in a bank robbery.
Glen returns the next morning to fire Hi, revealing his inference that Hi and Ed kidnapped Nathan Jr. Glen threatens to turn them in unless they agree to give him and Dot custody. Gale and Evelle overhear this and, following conflict with Hi, kidnap Nathan Jr. themselves. Once freed from bondage, Hi joins with a despondent Ed to rescue the baby. Meanwhile, Smalls approaches Nathan Arizona and offers to return his son for $50,000, but indicates his plan to sell the baby on the black market when Nathan Sr. refuses to pay.
Gale and Evelle grow attached to Nathan Jr. The two nearly leave him behind at a robbed convenience store and promise never to give him up, but again forget Nathan Jr. during the bank robbery. A dye pack explodes in their stolen money sack, covering them and the getaway car interior with blue dye. The distraction allows Smalls to capture the baby before Hi and Ed arrive. In the ensuing struggle, Ed grabs Nathan Jr. while Smalls severely beats Hi. Hi uncovers Smalls's woodpecker tattoo, which matches his own, and ultimately manages to kill Smalls by detonating a hand grenade on Smalls's jacket.
Remorseful, Hi and Ed sneak back into the Arizona home to return Nathan Jr. but are caught by Nathan Sr. Upon learning the reason for the kidnapping, Nathan Sr. sympathizes and does not report them. When he hears that Hi and Ed plan to divorce, Nathan Sr. advises them to "sleep on it".
In the final scene, Hi sleeps beside Ed and has a series of prophetic dreams: Gale and Evelle willingly return to prison upon realizing they aren't ready for society, Glen is ticketed by a Polish-American police officer following "one Polack joke too many", and Nathan Jr. becomes a football star after receiving a Christmas gift football from "a kindly couple who wish to remain unknown". The dream ends as an elderly couple, perhaps Hi and Ed, enjoys a holiday visit from a large family of children and grandchildren. Hi reflects on the reality of this dream and his conviction that he and Ed have the ability to be good and raise a good family, "if not in Arizona, then somewhere close...maybe it was Utah."