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Day 7 Assignments
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“What I learned is that sequencing the dangers to the protagonist make your thriller more thrilling.
Judith’s Life-Threatening Sequence – Lesson 7
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Villain’s plan is to make Emily’s life miserable and kill her and take over her life.
List of dangers in order:
1. Her sister fakes her death and kills their mother. We don’t see her face.
2. Their house catches on fire and the windows blow outwards.
3. Emily is almost run down by a car on her morning run.
4. The movers for her paintings arrive late and there is almost no time to set up for the gallery opening tonight, a fully booked affair.
5. Rachel shows up unannounced at Emily’s gallery show. Says she wants to make up.
6. Emily confronts her competitor artist for the gallery show, and they have a loud fight.
7. Rachel kills the artist that is jealous of Emily’s gallery show and blames it on Emily. She is arrested.
8. Adoption agency thinks she’s a drug addict. They got an anonymous phone call.
9. Someone broke into Eugene’s business and stole his research.
10. Her paintings get burned at the gallery and she lost all that money or must do paintings over for customers.
11. Rachel destroys Emily’s painting supplies in the barn/studio.
12. Her sister poisons her and Emily loses the baby.
13. Rachel arranges to make it look like Emily’s husband is having an affair.
14. Emily calls her mom’s nursing home and finds out she is dead in a fire along with Rachel.
15. Emily finds one of her paintings from the gallery in Rachel’s car and confronts her about it.
16. Rachel tries to kill Emily when she comes to confront her of supposedly being dead.
17. Rachel tries to kill Emily’s husband.
18. Rachel kills the detective who is going to tell Emily about her mother’s death and Rachel’s supposedly death.
19. Rachel kidnaps Katie the little girl Emily is adopting.
20. Rachel kills Emily’s best friend when she tries to keep her from kidnapping Katie.
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Judith, I can’t wait to see your script become a film!
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What I learned is Kamiri’s threatening situations are higher up the hierarchy of needs and are not just about survival.
Patricia’s life threatening situations
- Kamiri is being surveilled at Bubble
- Kamiri could have her reputation and career ruined if she whistle-blows and loses her job again
- Danger to mother by Xtopher – he gives Kay a Ver-2
- Betrayal by Xtopher (a second one) – Kamiri has had her heart broken already
- The threat that Kamiri’s secret could be revealed – former hacker and led a co that spied on kids thru their AI-powered dolls.
- Public humiliation. Unable to get another job as tech whistleblowers are shunned.
- Violation of her own moral code/loss of self-worth if she doesn’t figure out how to blow whistle covertly
- Forced to live with her mother – a fate worse than death
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Jack’s Life-Threatening Sequence
What I learned from this assignment is somebody’s got to think they’re going to die, or the audience must think that.
CONCEIVED
The first villain, Professor Matthews, has a plan to use Victoria’s frozen eggs to have a son with royal blood. Victoria sees she is in danger when she confronts the professor about how her eggs were used. Then, when she transfers them to a cryogenics lab the second villain, Jung controls, she is unaware that the professor switched her eggs for Kayla’s, and this puts Victoria’s and Kayla’s relationship in danger when the truth comes out.
The second villain, Jung, wants to use Victoria’s eggs to clone her, then mate her clone with his clone in his fifty-year plan. In order to get her to cooperate, he hacks her accounts and uses her eggs as ransom.
Other potential dangers include Victoria losing her accounts if others find out she’s been hacked. In addition, Kayla’s life is threatened when she discovers the truth and threatens to expose Jung.
SEQUENCING:
1. Victoria hears a boy is born who is related to her.
2. She confronts Professor Matthews who tries to convince her the boy’s genes have been enhanced with his gene-editing process and she should be proud.
3. She demands her eggs and Professor Matthews switches hers with Kayla’s.
4. Jung then steals them from a cryogenics lab which he has been dealing with to obtain DNA from the lab’s other clients.
5. Jung, now with the eggs he believes are Victoria’s, but are really Kayla’s, says he doesn’t need Victoria any more and she should be eliminated.
6. Kayla’s life is also in danger when she discovers what happened and seeks revenge.
CASTING CALL
1. The first Villain, Bo, has a plan to use fake casting calls to scam girls into zoom calls with his paying clients who are looking to take advantage of beautiful women by pretending they will have a role for them in a TV show or feature. When Sandi bumps into his plan, falls for the scheme and is drugged, she is almost raped.
2. Victoria seeks revenge and faces danger.
3. Villain 2, Angela, who is an Iranian spy masquerading as a porn star, has a plan to use Sandi to accomplish what she alone can’t: to copy the information from Fareem, a Saudi oil baron who wants to be head of OPEC. She places Sandi in danger when she lies and tells Sandi she needs the information for her own porn business to get customers.
4. Red herring Fareem tricks Sandi into believing he wants to take her on his jet to San Fran for lunch, then come back, when in reality he is stealing her to become one of his sex slaves in Riyadh. Sandi is in danger when she takes the flight and Victoria is in danger when she comes to the rescue.
SEQUENCING
A. A photographer who gives Sandi headshots places her in danger by getting her a singing gig at Bo’s lounge, because Bo has a sex agenda for Sandi.
A. Bo drugs Sandi, then discovers she’s a virgin and decides to sell her to Fareem with coaxing from Angela, one of the porn stars he manages.
B. Angela befriends Sandi with gifts and tells her Fareem can make her a star, putting Sandi in danger without Sandi knowing it.
C. Angela further puts Sandi in danger when Angela convinces her to copy information from Kareem’s computer.
D. Sandi’s sister Lyla is put in danger when she discovers Fareem’s plan to fly Sandi away and drives to the airport to stop them.
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Friends in High Places Life Threatening Sequences of Events 2022-05-10
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
The villain’s plan is to be able to get away with murdering Las Vegas single, middle aged socialites, projecting upon them in his taking revenge on his ex-wife for having affairs with other uniformed men. This has been since he as a former NYPD detective had been crippled in a shooting and became impotent as well. His wife and her latest lover have been on the missing persons list for the last thirty plus years.
Upon our hero Warren recently trying to come to terms discovering he is authentically clairvoyant, recognizing this only now for the first time in his life at 21, it is because he sees horrific future events which these in themselves suddenly threaten him so he might not be able to marry his college sweetheart, Jodi, frightened of his newfound but turned horrifying gift. This becomes immediately apparent after Warren unintentionally envisions the death of her grandmother a day before she unexpectedly has a stroke.
His college psychology and research professor, Dr. Gary Keller, attributes Warren’s newfound “spiritual gift” to have possibly been caused by having a childhood head injury unnoticeably causing at the time the pineal gland at the bottom of one’s brain to have been affected, determinably responsible for Warren’s latent prophetic clairvoyant ability, more than a decade later. The opening scene begins with Warren at 8 years old falling through a basement new home construction basement window and being hit between the eyes by a sliding large rock. As he lies unconscious on the dust filled basement floor, we are shown an ethereal white being coming out of him through his chest in a whoosh which then enters back into him. This accidental injury lands Warren in the emergency room for stiches. This mysteriously sets up immediately a mystery for the viewer which is followed throughout the storyline events. These visitations however are not apparent to Warren however, intriguingly only to the viewer.
Warren goes to the Las Vegas PD to report yet another disturbing envisioned murder but which he can’t share with Jodi. It is that of his soon to become mother-in-law which is to happen shortly into the future caused by the Socialite Strangler, at-large in Vegas, already up to his fifth victim. In doing so, Warren inadvertently meets the wheelchair bound LVPD Chaplain Peter Anello who unbeknownst to everyone ends up only to be discovered in the last scene of the story not to be wheelchair bound at all and is this highly sought to be apprehended serial killer. Because the Chaplain continues to milk Warren for more of his visions though under the guise of giving him scriptural advice against communicating with spiritual entities which Warren no doubt is unaware, it is insinuated that it’s these spiritual entities which are the means allowing him to have his visions of the future.
Because the Chaplain is a killer, Warren’s life is put into danger as well if and when he might come up with certain information he sees in his visions which he without hesitation shares with the Chaplain, having trust in a chaplain which he welcomes as his only port in the psychic storm raging out of control now suddenly in his life. By Warren trusting him, letting the Chaplain know these things, it causes danger unnoticed at the time by the viewer because the viewer doesn’t know the chaplain is the serial killer. This information threatens the Chaplain, unbeknownst to the viewer, however, to be exposed and ruin his cover and as he might choose to kill Warren as well to avoid this. Letting the audience not know the chaplain is the killer until the very end, however creates a more horrific ending to the story. As a side note, I have had a few seasoned detectives read the former draft of the script and to date yet no one, even the producers which have read it had suspected the killer to be the Chaplain, FYI. This is why I cannot reveal the killer’s identity until the end.
The dangers come from:
· Talking about the danger with the killer not knowing the Chaplain is the killer.
· Now having closeness to the villain trusting him
· Danger to someone they know; Warren’s mother-in-law and her family including his wife, and lastly
· The Unknown danger which is the result of Warren participating in his college professor’s research experiment having Warren as the subject go into hypnosis using a cutting edge technique called retro intention normally used to change memories from the past to change a subject’s present psyche. The difference is that using this hypnosis technique is going to instead have Warren enter the collective unconscious, so-named by Carl Jung, the father of psychology. The professor’s theory is that the collective unconscious contains all the thoughts that ever were and those that exist in the future non-local universe devoid of time, matter, and energy. Because there is no time then any sequence of events is devoid of time and matter. This reaches into biblical explanations as to prophetic visions and such things as prayer to change things being heard by the angels of God. For Warren it’s in order to reach the thoughts of the killer and alter his thoughts. This realm is so-named by the professor in his theory, “memories of the future”. Ironically, it seems like a conundrum to describe events which haven’t taken place in the physical universe under the auspices of only the past and the present but not of the future. These actions and the thoughts existing which haven’t been thought by anyone in the physical world yet become the causes for these future actions which Warren is attempting to change or replace other thoughts which haven’t manifested in people’s physical brains so that they turn into actions, yet before they cause these actions to take place in the future. Also the professor’s theory is that “cause does not have to precede effect”. This is a game changer for former scientific thought.
· Danger also comes from the chance that a relationship could end. This would be Warren’s forthcoming marriage to his college sweetheart Jodi who is scared to death to be married to someone who sees the future.
· Danger by the demand to stop pursuing the mystery. Warren’s wife Jodi demands he not use his clairvoyance any more if he wants to marry her and then stay married to her. This would mean if he didn’t participate in the professor’s experiment which he does only to try to stop the vision from coming to pass of the forthcoming murder of his mother-in-law because he doesn’t want to risk losing his wife, then his mother-in-law is going to die. His must get around this by lying to his wife.
· Danger as well comes from the threat that their own secret could be revealed. This is related to a subsequent vision Warren has since he has started participating in the experiment, screwing with other people’s thoughts in order to change fates of other people. Because of his changing fate, it results yet in a new subsequent vision of his wife to be murdered instead of his prior vision that it would be his mother-in-law. Warren has become now the cause for his wife’s murder, more intrigue.
· Danger also comes from other parties who need to solve the mystery first. This appears to be the police, Detective Sergeant Sue Hart. But, then there is no guarantee they could do it before Warren can stop his mother-in-law’s murder first. This is because that relies on the act of the killer knowing he must first retrieve a rake used as evidence to catch him. In doing so this is why Warren’s mother-in-law is to be murdered by the killer; his mother-in-law not fitting the profile of his victims. There is no advanced motive for this killing.
· Danger from other parties who want the villain dead. This would be the Lieutenant Bill Bono who showed no remorse about killing someone shown right in the initial police department scene where Bono asks the chaplain, “Try to tell me you didn’t want to blow the head off the guy who put you in that wheelchair.” It
appears as Bono wouldn’t hesitate taking out the serial killer himself given
the slightest opportunity. -
Michelle’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned is…how to hone in on the situations I’m writing and the importance of increasing the stakes throughout.<div>
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Adam’s plan is to murder those closest to Griffin. It puts Griffin in danger because: is she next?
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Death of her or others around her. As the detectives narrow in on her as a suspect, will she be arrested for murder and lose her job and her livelihood?
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
Physical danger – she could be next
Closeness to the villain
Trapped / Abducted / Arrested
Danger to someone they know
People around them die or are injured.
The unknown
Something that damages their reputationPublic humiliation.
Loss of a job or career.
Betrayal from someone close.
Someone operating covertly around them.
Other parties who need to solve the mystery first.<div>Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
1. Boyd and Ennis are given a Mayor’s award for trying to save the victim of a serial killer.
2. Boyd is involved in a horrible car accident. Doctors know he is brain dead. Doctors talk to his wife about organ donation.
3. During a meeting with her mentor, it is mentioned that the mentor got Griffin the job and that she was fired from her last job. She’s already on thin ice with her job.
4. Griffin publicly fights with her former best friend in front of Adam who is about to receive a heart from a serial killer.
5. Griffin’s former best friend is found murdered. Griffin was the last person to see her alive.
6. Detectives question Griffin and are concerned about her history with the victim and the fight they had.
7. Griffin’s father takes her fishing at the spot where he tried to save the victim of the serial killer years before.
8. The heart transplant surgeon ignores Griffin’s request for answers about a medication given during Adam’s heart transplant. Will he be the next victim?
9. Griffin and her mentor fight. Her mentor ends up dead that night.
10. Before the mentor is killed, she and the hospital CEO talk about firing Griffin for harassing the heart transplant surgeon.
11. Adam is admitted to the hospital very ill with what turns out to be appendicitis.
12. Hank, the surgeon who will operate on Adam has a tense interaction with Griffin.
13. The CEO is paged to come to the hospital for an emergency. Later, he is found there murdered.
14. Detectives bring in Griffin for questioning. Due to lack of evidence, they have to release her.
15. Adams abducts Hank and plans on killing him.
16. Griffin has figured out that Adam is the killer and that he intends Hank to be his next victim.
17. Griffin goes to save Hank. While trying to save him, Griffin is in danger of being killed as well.
18. Griffin confronts her dad after figuring out that he didn’t end up at the crime scene because he was fishing. She finds out that Boyd was a serial killer.
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Sherri D. Coffee – Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned in this assignment is to brainstorm the many ways to threaten the hero in the story.
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that plan put the Hero in danger? Ford is using his lobby firm to hide the money he receives from foreign governments. Charlotte is fresh out of law school and his illegal activity threatens to ruin her career before she gets started.
2. What other potential dangers could the Hero experience as she tries to solve the mystery and confront the Villain? Ford works with some seedy characters. And there is a lot of money at risk if his deception is revealed. And political contributions from the money also would have an impact. As Charlotte uncovers the scheme, she faces dangers from other employees at the firm, politicians and political parties, and foreign governments.
3. From the list of dangers: surveillance/watched; lured into a dangerous situation; people around them die; the unknown; something damages reputation; chance relationship could end; threat secret could be revealed; loss of job or career; someone covertly operative around them; other parties who need to solve the mystery first.
1. The woman who hires Charlotte into the firm is found dead.
2. The investigation reveals Patricia in a compromising relationship with a politician. Charlotte must work with him. Ford watches the relationship for any sign of collusion.
3. Charlotte gets the usb drive with foreign contacts and contracts. She matches with political donations. Finds a pattern. Another employee walks in and almost discovers her find.
4. Charlotte attends a fundraiser and is given a drug that makes her sick. She is rushed to the hospital. She doesn’t know who or why?
5. Charlotte’s disgraced uncle who worked with the CIA suddenly appears in her life. He has been following her and surveilling her activities. Unknown.
6. Charlotte’s uncle knows about Ford’s corrupt money scheme. Ford had him dismissed from the Agency in disgrace. He must solve the mystery before Charlotte to expose the CIA Director as corrupt.
7. Charlotte worries her relationship with her uncle will hurt her career and place her in even more danger.
8. Charlotte attends a dinner and is left alone with the politician. She is afraid. He confronts her about the foreign contracts, and she denies any knowledge to get away. He lets her know the stakes of such an operation.
9. Ford begins to provide Charlotte with more responsibility. He has another employee try to find out more about her.
10. Charlotte finds Ford’s secret files and downloads more information. She tries to meet her uncle but is kidnapped by the politician’s staff. He wants the credit for taking Ford down for his presidential bid. She finds herself in a room being interrogated.
11. Her uncle frantically searches for her while being chased. He must lose the bad guys to find her.
12. Uncle finds Charlotte and confronts the politician. They are on the same side just fighting for the documentation. Ford’s people arrive to kill them.
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Again, I learned planning patience and thoughtfulness, logic and reasoning out how to plan the various sequences, surprises and pay offs, so they make my thriller exciting and well-written to the final unexpected scene.
Life-Threatening Sequence.
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
The villain, Maksim plans on destroying Joe’s life, his family and his business. Every time Maksim executes something devious, someone gets hurt or is dead. Joe, being an ex-CIA, ex-combat marine will do anything, give his life to protect his family or someone that he knows.
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Joe could get in the way of the plan, even by accident and be a part of the negative outcome – being hurt physically, emotionally. Joe could be forced to do something to save or help that is against his spiritual or religious belief – selling his soul with regrets later.
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
Include:
1. Illegal drugs arrive by plane to be spread among Joe’s business & family.
2. Two strange, foreign men stalk the four sisters.
3. The same men set fire/explosion to back casino entrance causing the death and injury of employees.
4. Russian Nanny Elba lives in Joe’s home with Angela and watches his grand twins, as well as Joe’s habits, his family’s coming and goings.
5. Pop Tony’s friends with Mafia men to Joe’s dismay.
6. Joe’s irritated with John B. one of his best friends due to Union contract talks.
7. Stranger well-dressed Viktor, visits Angela’s party to get a pace on the night’s action.
8. Cop slashes their limo driver’s throat, and kidnaps one or more of the Martino daughters.
9. Maksim’s son works in Joe’s Casino, watching and making casino destruction plans with his father.
10. Back to the day’s beginning before the birthday party and kidnapping.
11. Maksim’s flashbacks to when he first met Joe.
12. Maksim and Nikolai decide where to stash the daughter and how much torture to inflict upon her or death?
13. Fruit basket arrives – who is it from? Unknown?
14. Billie-Bob is luring naïve, spoiled Giovana into excess sex, drugs, alcohol and rock & roll nights.
15. Union is picketing Joe’s casino, creating bad press.
16. Flashback shows Margo and Joe’s misfunctioning marriage.
17. Joe speaks with his security head, Otis Rosewell, with concern about the safety of Angela’s birthday party that night. Will the party be safe and successful with all the Hollywood players, Local celebs and politicians present?
18. Francesca states Nick’s been advising Angela on failing marketing strategies. Who hired Nick? What do we know about Nick?
19. Maksim meets with Nikolai/Nick and Viktor to further plan their revenge. Viktor, an MD admits to Russian surgery murders as ordered.
20. Strange young male entices Giovana into addictive behaviors.
21. Nick reinforces his familiarity with Francesca & okays Billie-Bob who works for him – rather than the casino alone.
22. Maksim, Nikolai and Viktor plan which daughter to kidnap effectively.
23. Nikolai lures in Francesca – will she be abducted?
24. Angela’s birthday party continues, as Tony infuriates Joe all night.
25. Hired Billie-Bob seduces, overly drugs Giovana – will she be abducted?
26. Viktor has abducted one of the daughters – which one? Joe can’t locate them.
27. Joe’s over-the-top stressed. His old friend, Dominic, the driver’s dead and which daughter was kidnapped. He doesn’t know and can’t locate them.
28. Flashback shows how Joe caused Maksim growing hatred – to be a cripple and left for dead years before. Maksim has a bad heart and no left leg/a prosthesis.
29. Joe puts a silence lid on all the mayhem with security boss, Otis.
30. To throw another wrench, surveillance witnesses arranged money laundering – how much loss and how long has this been going on?
31. Joe approaches his other enemy, Pop Tony, as his home. Tony refuses to help him, at first. Tony has a bad heart and can’t walk.
32. Giovana is stopped by a cop for bad driving.
33. Francesca has an accident, while being with Nicky, and cannot be located.
34. Union meeting, with John heading it up, goes awry.
35. These setups are to the 1<sup>st</sup> Act break and moving only up to page 40.
36. The rest of the screenplay focuses on finding the abducted daughter and rescuing her. All the while, putting out legal fires, real fires and problems with family members and the casino’s expenditures/earnings. Maksim states, “I have more money than God.” With unlimited funds, he has been planning his revenge for a long while. Maksim states, “Kill him? No, I want him to suffer for a long time. Then I’ll kill him – in front of his family.”
37. Maksim had a love affair with Joe’s perfect wife, Margo, unknown while Joe was deployed, and Maksim desperately loved her, his hate holds Joe responsible for her death.
38. Tony also holds Joe responsible for his daughter, Margo’s death – is he a player in Joe’s destruction? Did he put John B. up to selling out? Is he tied to Maksim’s men?
39. Joe’s Margo had an abortion, not the believed miscarriage – where, who helped her get it?
40. The truth in Margo’s death – how did she die? Who’s at fault?
41. Harvard-grad attorney, Nikolai is really falling in love with Francesca. Will he, programmed since his teens with hatred of Joe, continue his father’s planned wrath? Could he hurt Francesca and her hating him forever?
42. Will John B. be discovered as selling out to Maksim? Ditto on all the various hired-gun employees, including Nicky. Who gets fired, when?
43. Will the daughter be rescued in time before she dies or becomes a drug addicted shell of herself? What country is she being held?
44. Will Maksim kill Joe or visa/versa. Will Joe’s casino live on, managed successfully by his “Four of a Kind?”
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Eric Humble’s Life-Threatening Sequence
What I learned is: you don’t need to overload your plot with any one of the MIS elements. You just need a few focused incidences of each to keep the thriller expectations met. This was a fun exercise that steered me away from action-oriented scenes, which I usually end up writing in spite of my efforts to focus on suspense. It was easier to think through it from the villain’s perspective of trying to keep his plan a secret, and I think I’ve gotten some stronger “suspense” scenes rather than “action” scenes which ultimately would feel off in the script. I’m very excited to see how we will intertwine the MIS scenes. I’ve had so many breakthroughs so far, and I feel like more are to come!
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Leiber is planning to poison the US President before a peace treaty can be signed to end a European war with Russia, so that the smaller NATO countries will be strengthened once the US is out of the way as a superpower.
It puts Raf in danger because he is being set up as the fall guy and will be shot by the Secret Service in the aftermath.
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
The original chef was executed… Raf’s fate?
Raf tries to warn the US President – but only the Chinese president, an enemy, figures out the message and converses with him… which could make him look like a foreign agent and is a breach of protocol.
Someone unseen (Leiber) attacks Raf in the kitchen.
Lured into a trap by the Chinese president – who tricks him into cooking something that another of the world leaders has an allergy to. He’s brought before multiple countries’ security forces. Only Leiber gets him out of it – so he can frame him for his own assassination plan.
Leiber tips off the President, who orders Raf brought before him… about to order Raf arrested as an assassin.
Leiber threatens Raf’s girlfriend – sends him a live video feed of her. She’s being watched and doesn’t realize it.
A Chinese agent among the cookstaff comes at him with a knife so he can find the poison first.
Leiber sabotages the oven to explode and kill him.
Leiber orders the Secret Service to shoot him on sight as an assassin
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LESSON 7
Jeff Hall’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned is…create many potential threats to your hero. Keep the threats coming! This is a roller coaster not lazy river!
1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
My Antagonist, The Tall Man, has an addiction to breathing in souls as they die. He HAS to kill. He has been doing this for years without detection. He lays a trail of death. My Hero, Ben, realizes a trend and follow a trail of death. By doing this he becomes a suspect and accused of multiple murders. He also is in constant threat of being murdered by the Tall Man. By leaving his home, this has cost him his job and his fiance.
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Loss of job, all his relationships including future wife, bodily harm, injury, poverty, starvation, exposure, death, hanging, being brutally slaughtered.
3. From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
Job loss, fiance, injury, hunger, exposure, almost hung, and poverty.
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
a. Ben is trampled as he attempts to save his friend from being strung up.
b. Loses his job for his decision to go after the villain.
c. Loses his fiance for losing his job.
b. Nearly punished for the murder done by the Tall Man.
e. Injured, as he falls off train as he flees to next town.
f. Almost freezes from sleeping in the elements.
e. Other hobos steals everything he has.
g. Shot for the murder done by the Tall Man.
h. Nearly his burned in a fire as he saves the children in the orphanage.
i. Life in danger as he fight the Tall Man on a moving train.
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Mona Miller’s Day 7 Assignment – The Life-Threatening Sequence
What I learned from this? Not sure. It’s hard to keep it simple, and I’m finding it difficult to express thoughts in short simple sentences. At the same time, I can see that helps. My entire story keeps bleeding into what I’m trying to write.
I have multiple life-threatening sequences, as most of the movie takes place on a difficult mountain climb in a remote area.
Act I
1. The official Leader of the expedition (the Travel Agent, who, for a bribe, let our hero join the group at the last minute without vetting him thoroughly) nearly dies in a terrible climbing accident. At great risk, the hero saves him.
2. The hero brings him to an impromptu medical tent set up by Dr. Graves. She tries to save the gravely injured Travel Agent, who’s unable to speak. He needs to be airlifted out to have a chance. Villain magnanimously orders a medical chopper at his own expense and sends Travel Agent home for medical care.
3. Rescue medical chopper blows up, killing everyone on board, including innocent tourist who volunteered to go back with injured Travel Agent. Group doesn’t know that, but audience does.
Act II – the trek continues.
There are a series of climbing accidents and other disasters.
1. Tents/equipment are lost in an avalanche. This leads to different sleeping arrangements. Dr. Graves declines offers from Ali Patel and hero to sleep in their respective tents. Only one other woman on trek. Dr. Graves sleeps in her tent. This woman can seem very suspicious.
2. Food is discovered to be contaminated; there is a water shortage. Rationing instituted. Are some people hoarding?
3. Some of the climbing equipment fails. More near-deaths, falls, injuries.
4. The group’s satellite phone no longer works reliably. They can’t call for help.
5. To help the group, the hero reveals he has his own satellite phone. His sat phone is stolen. Who took it?
6. Someone on the climb discovers weapons in the dead Travel Agent’s gear.
7. That person dies in a freak “accident.” He had shared his discovery with very few people, as far as our hero knows. (He was one of the people.)
8. Hero not sure Dr. Graves is on his side. She seems to be totally against him.
Act. III
1. They are getting very close to the destination – the “indigenous village” [a Potemkin village which is actually the terrorist training camp]. Extremely difficult climb – have to descend into a hidden valley. Slippery, difficult descent. One has to rely on his fellow climber. Is each climber going to help his team mate? Are some of them killers? Climb cannot be done solo.
2. Hero discovers that Patel is armed! Who will help Hero trap Patel? Can he count on Dr. Graves?
3. Dramatic fight. Hero captures, subdues Patel – with Dr. Graves’ help. Patel is tied up.
4. Lackeys of Patel flee when Patel is captured. In their haste, some fall to their deaths.
5. Hero can’t go to “village” with Patel tied up, Patel cannot be trusted not to get his captors killed. Dr. Graves convinces Hero to let her go, deal with medical needs of the “villagers” and she’ll note the layout, how many people, etc. (Important information Brett was supposed to get.)
6. Hero watches over Patel. Hero leaves briefly to check on gear, food, water. Patel manages to communicate with villagers (using Brett’s stolen sat phone) – putting Dr. Graves in serious danger. Will “villagers” kill her?
7. Dr. Graves cleverly protects herself, “villagers” really do need her medical expertise, and she escapes back to Brett and Patel.
8. Hero and Dr. Graves push Patel off the mountain to his [presumed] death. They can’t climb with him tied up, and they don’t trust him.
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Just posted my assignment a few minutes ago.
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Julio Tumbaco’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned is that sequencing provides the structure to create a maximum interest Thriller.
The Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
- In order for ELLA’s plan to work, OWEN must die
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?<div>
- OWEN could be institutionalized
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story:</div><div>
- Talking about the danger (OWEN & ELLA)
- Closeness to the villain (NICOLETTE & ELLA)
- Lured into a dangerous situation (OWEN)
- The unknown (NICK’s death)
- Threats (ELLA’s freedom)
- Betrayal from someone close (OWEN & ELLA)
- NICK wants ELLA dead
- Physical danger (OWEN’s death)
- Danger to someone they know (NICK)
- The chance that a relationship could end (OWEN & ELLA)
- A demand to stop pursuing the mystery (ELLA)
- The threat that their own secret could be revealed (OWEN’s sexuality)
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Daniel’s Life Threatening Sequence
What I learned is that raising the stakes keeps the viewers attention and emotional investment engaged in the story.
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
The Villain’s plan is to cleanse the world in preparation for God’s coming paradise. He is doing that by sacrificing sinners and making criminals disappear. It puts the Hero in danger because he is a Police Detective and is investigating the disappearances, and murders. And as his investigation goes along the evidence starts pointing to other cops and the villain, and what will they do to him if he gets too close?
What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as he trys to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Other than ending up face down in the lake,
He could be set up by the crooked cops to appear crooked.
They could do something terrible to or murder his prostitue girlfriend.
They could keep him under surveillance.
They could spread rumors in the department, ruin his reputation and make him unsafe and not trusted.
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
All of the above will work for the story.
Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
Opens with the hero investigating and is ambushed and shot.
After getting out of the Hospital, he is at the court house and runs into a perp he busted that got off because of a technicality. The crook tried to rub it in the hero’s face and the hero’s response was to slap the perp.
Because of the assault he is ordered to see the police shrink in lieu of suspension. During the session he get the sense that the shrink is probing for something, but he has to play nice so he doesn’t get suspended.
The hero gets cornered by a street informant. The informant wants to know what they are going to do about all of the people that are disappearing, that are being snatched up. He has no idea what the informant is talking about but says he will look into it.
He starts asking around to see if anybody has seen or heard anything. Everyone says no, and the guys in a special unit that should know say they haven’t seen or heard anything about people being snatched up.
The hero and his partner go to see Coopernicus, the wise man of the street to see what the word on the street is. He informs our detectives that people are definitely being snatched up and disappearing. And from what he has heard it looks to be being carried out by pros, people with definate training, maybe lot local by probably cops. And then he asks them about the ritual killings. The cops decline to give any theories or info. The the wise one states that it looks like you have someone freeing souls out there.
The same shooters who ambushed our hero show up at his girlfriend’s condo saying that they need to speak with her. She bought the condo from the estate of an old gangster and it has a hidden room in it. The shooters break in and search the condo and cannot find her. They think she went out of the window.
When the shooters, now maskless are exiting the building the run into our hero. They both give awkward reasons about why they happen to be there and part ways. When the hero get to his girlfriends door and knocks their special knock she comes out of hiding and tell him about the two men teaching for her.
The two men who were searching for her are cops and the hero recognized them. With his curiosity piqued he starts to surveil them. And because they are cops he has to keep this to himself and can’t share what he is up to with anyone.
Our hero has another session with the cop doc. He still seems to be probing for something, and has some odd questions.
Hero still surveilling the two cops, they have no idea that they’re being watched. They lead him to a crime scene that they don’t report. And then they lead him to one of the group sessions of the cop doc.
At his next session he takes the doc up on the offer of the group meeting, and when he goes to the next meeting, and the two cops he’s been tailing are in attendance. Nothing weird or out of place at the meeting just a session with more people. But there was a clear tension in the air.
The hero follows the two to a building and like the time before they spend a great deal of time in the building. Thinking that there is going to be another crime scene. When they leave he goes to investigate. And that is when he is ambushed and shot.
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