with a bowling ball and a moving car, killing Doug's father. Just a few days after the incident, Larry's incessant harassment causes Billy to fight against his older brother, and when Gloria breaks up the scuffle and discovers a gauze on Billy's back (after Billy knocked the TV dinner and injured himself, and on the newspapers regarding the robbery that Billy was wearing the gauze), Larry immediately tells her that Billy and Doug went streaking and stealing things as evidence, but is still taken away by Ray, who came to cause another argument with Gloria over their divorce. Because Billy has no way to hide any of the evidence, an incensed Gloria reprimands and admonishes him, permanently forbidding him from seeing Doug. Although she knows what Billy and Doug did, Gloria does not know they caused the car crash that killed Doug's father. When Doug receives a mistaken note that his father committed suicide and that the insurance company does not pay for suicide, they decide that it is time to confess to the police as to what really happened. When Billy tells this to Gloria, she describes him as a selfish son and she slaps him across the face in disbelief and breaks down in tears. As the police interrogate Billy and Doug, the family receive word that Gene had finally died. It is then revealed that when Doug attended Gene's funeral, Gloria had forgiven him for what happened. The movie ends when Billy takes the bowling ball that was found after the fatal accident and rolls it down the sidewalk as Billy looks on. Cast Geena Davis as Gloria Conway Harrison Gilbertson as Billy Conway Harry Cook as Larry Conway Ivy Latimer as Linda Conway Joel Tobeck as Ray Conway Sebastian Gregory as Doug Post Sarah Woods as Dottie Post Erik Thomson as Bob Rebecca Massey as Louise Morgan Griffin as Katrina Wendy Playfair as Mrs. Smolensky Production American-born screenwriter Brian Carbee wrote Accidents Happen based on his childhood in 1980s Connecticut, changing his own name to "Billy Conway". He had previously performed in a one person show titled In Search of Mike, which director Andrew Lancaster saw and asked Carbee if he would adapt the show to a short film. Carbee subsequently wrote a novel which served as the basis for his Accidents Happen screenplay. He developed the screenplay through the prestigious Aurora Script Workshop in Sydney,