This is gonna be a long movie

First third or so of the movie focuses on Jacket and his exploits. All pre-release material leads us to believe that Jacket is the main protagonist, and goes from the prelude to Assault, where Jacket appears to kill Richter, then to the final chapter of Hotline 1, where instead of Jacket waiting on the balcony for the cops, he silently drives home while looking at his picture of Beard on the dash, where he is ambushed and arrested back at his apartment in a twist a la Ryan Gosling in Place Beyond The Pines.

The plot fast forwards to 1991 with Evan as the new protagonist. Manny is a side character that assists in his investigations. The plot more or less goes along the lines of the story, with a sequence involving Richter's past (by the way, he lives) with a rockin' escape scene. Instead of calling Richter, however, Evan goes to lunch with him because sooner or later everyone needs their lunch.

In a departure from the story, Evan's investigations take him to an operating base of 50 Blessings where he meets the Colonel. When Evan finally leaves after getting nowhere, the scene stays on the Colonel where he reminisces about the events of 1985. In a flashback, it focuses initially on Jacket in Stronghold, beginning on the beach. Little attention is given to Beard. As the hotel assault occurs, however, the focus shifts to Beard (who has been seen previously in Jacket's hallucinations) where he clears the hotel. It then moves to Casualties, where it plays out as it did in-game with an extra emotional scene between Jacket and Beard.

We return to 1991. Evan has caught a lead on the origin of the masked killings as his attention turns to the Fans. He manages to stumble upon Execution just as the Fans pull up. The perspective then shifts to the Fans as they rampage through the house, finally finishing with the Henchman, who instead of being a drugged-out, likable character he's a terrified, coked-up mook.

Evan investigates the Fans for the next bit of the story, eventually leading up to Deathwish, where the Fans are suddenly and brutally killed in a sequence told split from both their and Evan's perspectives. Evan makes it to the place just as the Son splatters on the sidewalk before him. Manny arrives on the scene, and Evan listens as Manny executes Tony in cold blood. Having realized what Manny has done, and his one great lead ruined, he drinks himself into a stupor at his apartment.

A week later, in his drunken haze, the first news report describing the attack on the summit plays on the TV. The scene shifts to the summit, where the Colonel and 50 Blessings, in a high-octane, stylish, and violent scene murder everyone in a scene worthy of Hotline Miami. The scene shifts to Richter, where he sees the ghost of Richard (who, up to this point, had not been seen) and accepts his death. The movie ends with every character being fried by the nukes.

This departs a good bit from the game itself, but in my opinion I think this could make a good, but long, movie.