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Day 9 Assignments
Reply to post your assignment.
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11 Replies
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Emmanuel’s Favorite Twists!
What I learned doing this assignment is twists make stories exciting. Sometimes they are subtle, some you don’t notice and then there are huge twists. I never considered a twist in dialogue, only action, but it makes sense now.
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Brad’s Favorite Twists
What I learned doing this assignment is to consider every opportunity to add a twist to a scene, even if you don’t end up using it.
5 Favorite Twists:
Unexpected Attack: Aliyah and Carlos are just innocent honeymooners ready to enjoy themselves; suddenly they become crime victims.I
Unexpected escalation: Just looking for the bag when they see woman wearing Aliyah’s clothes. They follow her and she unknowingly leads them to the thief. When they chase after him to get the bag, he gets creamed by a truck.
Plan fails: They’re ready to kill another thief as they’ve done many times, but Carlos freezes. He can’t kill the thief because it’s a woman. Aliyah ends up in a knife/axe fight with her.
Unexpected ally: Aliyah and Carlos have been captured by Omor Net. They’re toast. One of the girls Omor has as a sex trade prisoner slips them a weapon to kill and escape.
Bad news we didn’t see coming: Carlos and Aliyah finally escape Omor and his gang and are on thief riverboat cruise. We see Omor and a one-handed man who survived their attack board the boat.
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David’s Favorite Twists!
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” It is incredibly challenging to take what is, frequently, a stock situation; a situation that we have become habituated to, and try to change it in a novel direction. Especially, if one does it for every scene, rather than just the easiest ones.
Below, OLD is a SETUP from previous assignments. TWIST is the add-on that changes the situation to a different direction.
ACT 1.
OLD. OPENING. – FBI OFFICE – FBI agents just doing their boring jobs. Saul receives a phone call. Conversation and desk photos show Saul, the Hero, is very happy with his family.
TWIST. Saul starts to leave office. An agent points to his shoulder. Saul sheepishly goes back to his desk, unlocks a drawer and puts his Glock into his shoulder holster.
OLD. ACTION – OUTSIDE SCHOOL – Saul drives up. Has FBI sash-badge on. Chats with cop.
OLD. THEME – OUTSIDE SCHOOL – Conversation with cop. Many people are too stupid to make choices that are good for them.
OLD. INCITING INCIDENT. – OUTSIDE SCHOOL – Saul’s daughter, Joann, and other children are murdered by Cult. Saul is wounded.
TWIST. As the Cultists start chanting, the students and teachers become frightened and start moving back into the school. The cop moves in to break up the demonstration. Ruth pulls a gun, puts the muzzle right on the cop’s chest and shoots him. He drops.
Saul reacts. Pulls Glock. Forgets to release safety at first. Then, training kicks in. Saul shoots several Cultists and rescues several teachers and students. He is changing magazines when a Cultist aims, point-blank, at a child. Saul throws himself on the child. The Cultist can’t miss. Saul and the child are doomed.
THEN:
TWIST. Suddenly, the Cultist jerks around. There is a bullet hole in her chest. The side of her face gets blown away. The camera zooms out to show the cop lying on the ground, firing his weapon. He dies. Saul and child are saved.
OLD. Saul runs to rescue his daughter, shooting at the Cult and saving children along the way. Just as he gets to her, one of the Cult opens up with an UZI and kills the daughter and cripples Saul.
TWIST. Saul has killed several of the Cultists. Ruth orders the rest to withdraw. As they leave, Ruth singles out Saul as the person who defeated her scheme. Saul has his daughter in his arms. He sees Ruth aiming and he leaps behind a low wall. Bullets smash into the wall an instant after they gain safety. The Cultists pile into cars and speed away. Saul and Joann are safe.
THEN:
TWIST. Saul madly hugs his daughter. There is the sound of brakes squealing. Then the sound of tires screeching. A car backs up into view and slams to a stop. Ruth opens up with an UZI. The wall is now a trap. Bullets ricochet from it and slam into Saul and his daughter. Saul wounded, daughter dying.
SAUL
Baby. I’m coming. (Starts crawling to her).
JOANN
Daddy, please, it hurts.
SAUL
I’ve got you.
JOANN
Daddy you’re hurt too. (she touches the blood pouring from Saul’s wounds).
SAUL
Stay with me baby. (Joann dies).
OLD. FIRST TURNING POINT AT END OF ACT 1 – HOSPITAL – Saul is saved from death by medical techniques derived from Alien intelligence. Saul finally grasps what happened.
TWIST. Saul is on operating table. Blood and bandages everywhere. Panicked doctors. There is a large machine near the operating table. The doctors shake their heads. Start to pull off their gloves. A minute passes.
Suddenly, the machine lights up, slides to the table and starts to talk. “Apply AED, Start AED 50-amps etc. etc”. Some of the doctors are startled, but recover quickly. A nurse screams, but is shushed by doctor. This has happened before. Mechanical hands come out with surgical instruments. After a minute, the doctors pull their gloves back on and start back to work.
ACT 2.
OLD. He is appointed to an Agency tasked with protecting the Aliens from the Cult and other enemies.
Interrogation of a suspect. They use a fake video of an Alien eating a live person and threaten him with being lunch.
TWIST. Shortly after Saul has joined the agency, he is told that Cultists never talk during interrogation. He hands the computer tech a description of something and tells him to get it ready as soon as possible. Later the tech hands Saul a small video player. Used above.
OLD. They find the time the bomb is set for and that it will be put aboard a shuttle to an Alien ship. They go to the airport and as they find the package they are fired at and pinned down.
TWIST. One last Cult member has them in his sights, but he is next to the bomb when it explodes.
OLD. DEBATE – AGENCY OFFICE – Weighs Agency methods against legal and ethical solutions.
BOSS
Prisoners mean paperwork, jails, even trials. It’s so much easier to question them when you apprehend them. Afterwards, we only have to worry about our tame coroners.
SAUL
We make the choices who lives or dies? That makes us no different than the Aliens.
TWIST. After Saul brings the prisoner in, his BOSS compliments him on his success. Says he’ll go far. Then he says; “OK now I’ve covered my ass.” Then as above.
OLD. The attack results in a major car chase with Cultists throwing car after car and assassin after assassin against him. An ambush is set up. A wild car chase begins with crashes and shooting. Saul and his partner must avoid injuring people and prevent the Cult from the same.
TWIST. Fight takes place in a mall with drones that can drop grenades. Saul and Sandy twist and turn to get away. Can’t shoot effectively, because as soon as they take aim at one, others attack. They destroy some by commandeering fun-drones people are flying in the park and crashing them into the Cult drones.
THEN:
TWIST. They run into a store where customers at mall took refuge. Doors are closed. Drones can’t get in. They are safe.
THEN:
TWIST. Customers see their weapons and panic. Customers run back out and doors stay open. Dozens of drones enter. They start dropping grenades. Explosions criss-cross store, like Pearl Harbor. No way Saul and Sandy can escape. Then, after suspenseful trys, Saul lights up the smoke detector. The sprinklers start working and the drones short out. They are safe.
OR:
TWIST. Fight takes place in different environment. Sewers, tunnels, fun house, old drive-in, morgue, library, retirement home, armory (Saul was a tank driver), etc.
ACT 3.
OLD. Saul stops Ruth from escaping. She laughs at him, saying she will be released because everyone hates the Aliens.
TWIST. Saul shoots her in her kneecaps, stomach and blows her jaw away. He records her screams. He then closes and locks the door.
OLD. Saul goes back to headquarters. Tells his traitorous boss that he killed the head of the Alien enemies.
TWIST. The boss thinks he killed Benedict, who was running him. Saul learns there is another, more dangerous, Cult leader.
OLD. CLIMAX – BENEDICT’S LAB – Saul fights off hitmen and robots. Turns Benedict into a babbling idiot with his own mind-control device.
Saul is helpless as Benedict gives the order to kill and the robots advance. Just then, Susan about to be killed by robots too, pulls the switch on the EMP device and the robots collapse. Saul drags Benedict to the mind-control device, pins him in place and turns on the machine. Benedict shrieks, writhes and becomes a pain-racked, babbling idiot.
TWIST. Action. Switches between Saul and Sandy. Sandy knows parkour. Can run up and down walls. Balance on pipes. Slide under barriers. She dodges under tables to shoot hitmen. Drops from pipes. Uses Kung-Fu. Saul shoots vulnerable sports on robots.
Hitmen all gone.
THEN:
TWIST. Robots attack with tools: saws, blow-torches, pipes etc. They are killed with water from firehose, Molotov cocktails, paint that covers their vision. One pipe-fitting robot uses a pipe like a baseball bat. It chases Sandy. She pushes a heavy rack on top of it. It starts to push out. When Sandy activates the EMP switch the robots stop very slowly.
THEN:
TWIST. Sandy starts to leave. She doesn’t see that one robot is still moving toward the switch. The robot switches it off. Sandy is now in an open part of the lab and can’t run away. All the robots start to converge on her. She tries to evade, but It looks bad.
THEN:
TWIST. Then, the pipe-robot breaks loose and comes after Sandy. It is swinging the pipe madly. Sandy leads it on so that it starts to smash other robots. She tries to get back to the EMP switch. Other robots get in the way. She moves so they are smashed by pipe-robot. Finally, Sandy gets near the EMP switch and is just about to turn it back on when the pipe-robot swings and breaks the handle. No way to turn it off now.
THEN:
TWIST. Meanwhile, Saul has been battling Benedict. He easily has the upper hand with his bionic arm. Benedict becomes his prisoner. But, when the EMP switch was thrown, his arm becomes normal and the brain implant stops. His reflexes are normal. The fight now goes to Benedict. Benedict is about to kill Saul when the EMP goes off. Saul traps Benedict and uses the mind control machine on him. Saul presses the button that Benedict used to activate the robots and they die. Saul and Sandy safe.
OLD. RESOLUTION – SAUL’S HOME – Saul plays tape of screams to his wife and she begins to recover.
TWIST. Saul comes home. Meets her doctor. Doctor says she won’t recover. Must be institutionalized. Saul smiles. Doctor leaves. Then above.
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Mark Dotz
What I learned form this assignment is… twist don’t have to be mind blowing like M. Night Shyamalan. Twist can be applied all over a script with just a little thought and some solid structure. I did find this exercise difficult and it took me a while to do it.
Identity or Plan Exposed ============ Identity Hidden
Our Hero Damian is the most likely to win at the tournaments. Everyone cheers him on and he is favored in every event, And then the mystery knight shows up and gives Damian great competition.
Damian defeats the mystery knight in a duel and then the kingdom cheers to have her exposed. She says “You are in great danger”, he reaches to take off her helmet and she says “Don’t do it.” He is stunned and watches in shock as she stands up and turns around, takes the money and leaves.
Deceived ====================== Surprising Truth
Archibald praises Damian for his skill and says he has been a good student. Then later that night Archibald and his men attack Damian and attempt to capture him and lock him in the dungeon.
Plan Succeeds ==== Plan Fails
In the fight to capture Damian, Damian has a blade to Archibald’s neck. Archibald begs for mercy so Damian grants it to him. Archibald then immediately has his men over take Damian and knock him out.
Protected =====Attacked
Our Hero’s seem safe in a cave for the night as they get intimate. Then they are woken up by an ambush of Archibald’s men. Using only the tools of nature available to them they defeat the platoon of soldiers.
Support =====Threat
Searching for help, Damian and Isabella go to an old friend, “Brice the brave”, who gives them several old weapons. During the time they stay to clean up the weapons and reshape them, Brice leaves. He returns with more of Archibald’s soldiers, he has turned them in! They run off after collapsing Bruce’s shack of a home on top of Archibald’s soldiers, temporarily trapping them in the rubble as they ride off on horseback.
Plan Fails ========================Plan Succeeds
Damian and Isabella fought some knights and are heading towards safety until they see a fire behind them in the distance. They can’t watch the farm and the village burn and turn back to go help. There is more of Archibald’s knights there ready to attack them. They help the villagers while fighting the antagonist knights and then they escape on horse back.
Lost Resources ================= New Resources
At the castle walls, Archibald’s men are preparing the catapults. Disguise as Archibald’s “men in red” Damian and Isabella begin disabling the catapults. On the last few they are caught, so Damian and Isabella use a catapult to fling out of danger and Damian slams himself against the castle walls.
Unexpected Weapon ============= Surprising Response
Betrayal ======================= Surprising Alliance
On their way to the kings chambers Damian is trapped by a huge man with a mace waiting in the hallway. With no where to go Damian prepares to fight. Out of nowhere an arrow hits the man directly in the head, it’s Brice the Brave! Thanks to Brice, Damian can advance the hallway.
Attacked ====================== Protected
The King, beaten and almost defeated, is given the moments before death to beg for his life, and then, out of nowhere, Isabella kicks Archibald out of the window, sending him to his death on the bottom of the castle walls.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Mark Doddy.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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Janeen’s Favorite Twists!
What I learned doing this assignment is that twists and humor go hand in hand in my Action/Comedy.
INT. MALL SANTA SET – DAY
Once dressed as Santa at the mall, his aging elf sometimes succeeds, sometimes fails to protect him from sticky hands, shrieking kids and impatient parents, but he is the soul of patience.
Added a twist — Secret Service agent is investigating the mall Santa as a possible boyfriend.
INT. SECRET SERVICE OFFICE – LATE NIGHT
The SS agent asks her techie to find out everything she can about this mall Santa — keeps on her daily — techie guesses it’s another possible boyfriend, she says there’s been chatter about an abduction and he has an elf whose asking questions. Banter about investigating boyfriends who always become exes.
Added a reversal, that this time she’s actually investigating a would-be bad guy.
EXT. REST STOP – NIGHT
The SS agent hijacks a weird vehicle – van life van in bad shape, swapping keys and giving cash to a young couple to compensate them, using her FBI credentials so she can give chase without being tracked herself, to tell the parents about the FBI radio.
Added a twist — reversal — now the SS agent is the one trading vehicles and handing off cash to get a worse vehicle than the one she came with,
INT. WHITE HOUSE – NIGHT
He calls off all of the searchers, identifying the rogue FBI agent. The President is shocked to learn that his aide told him his parents were safe in the White House and the people in danger were the doubles so the President could focus on important work and not worry about his parents and it’s the opposite. He fires his aide.
Added a twist — the President thought the doubles were in danger, not his parents, but the aide got it wrong.
INT. PRIVATE JET – DAY
The agent and Santa are leaning on one another in a comfy seat. Santa has a war dream again and imagines Grizzly nibbling his ear, but this time it’s the SS agent. The parents wink as though this was their plan all along.
Added a twist — Changed his dream to Grizzly and real life to the agent.
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Renee’s Twists
What I learned doing this assignment is how important it is to include twists in your script to help keep the audience engaged.
FIVE FAVORITE TWISTS
Set up: The human traffickers killed the hero’s daughter
Twist: The daughter had a son before she died that is now with the traffickers.
Set up: The wife is upset that her husband can’t let go of the past.
Twist: The hero comes home to find his wife has left him.
Set up: The hero goes undercover
Twist: A colleague of the hero exposes him to the trafficker.
Set up: The girl is a strung-out mess.
Twist: She proves herself to be a valuable resource.
Set up:The hero is on death’s door.
Twist: The young boy frees him and helps him escape.
Opening – A flashback of the hero watching his daughter die at the hands of human traffickers.
Inciting Incident – the hero gets a phone call from an associate informing him that the traffickers that kidnapped and killed his daughter have popped back up in Thailand.
Lost Resource – His wife leaves him because he can’t let go of the past.
M1: He goes to Thailand undercover to try and shut down the human trafficking ring that was responsible for his daughter’s death.
A1: the hero must enter the trafficker’s den completely unarmed.
Identity Hidden
V1: the villain recognizes him but can’t place him.
First Turning Point at end of Act 1 – while the hero is undercover, he is shown a young boy to bid on who looks exactly like the hero’s dead daughter.
Surprising Truth – the boy is the hero’s grandson.
V2: the villain sends a different child to the hero’s hotel room.
M2: the hero makes plans with the girl, who used to be friends with his daughter, to rescue the boy and get out of Thailand.
Surprising Alliance – the kidnapped girl becomes an ally of the hero.
V3: the villain realizes who the hero is and sends a group of mercenaries to the hotel room to kill the hero.
Identity Exposed: an associate of the hero is actually working for the human traffickers and exposes the hero.
A2: the hero and the girl kill all but one of the mercenaries.
New Resource – the girl shows that she can handle herself.
M3: the hero decides the mercenary can lead them to the boy.
A3: the hero and the girl steal a car and chase the lone mercenary through the city.
Mid-Point – The hero follows the mercenary to the HQ of the villain.
M4: the hero finds the kid, but must rely on the girl to get him safely out of the HQ.
Trap/Trick – the hero’s colleague leads him into a trap.
V4: the villain sends 20 men to kill the hero.
A4: the hero fights the men, but ultimately loses the battle.
V5: the villain appears and tortures the hero.
M5: left alone, near death, the hero escapes with the help of the boy.
Escape – the hero is able to get away with the boy.
Second Turning Point at end of Act 2 – the villain captures the girl before she can escape and kills her in front of the hero.
M6: the hero finds where the girl put the young boy but is devastated at her loss because it reminds him of losing his daughter.
Crisis – the hero must decide if he is going to go on or cut his losses and go home.
M7: the hero finds a safe place for the boy to stay while he goes back to finish the job.
A5: the hero must get through the villain’s mercenaries to find the villain.
V5: the villain tries to make her escape.
Climax –He tracks her down and they go face to face.
A6: the hero and the villain have a showdown. The hero ultimately wins.
M8: the hero goes back to the boy and they make their way out of Thailand.
Resolution – the hero is back at home with his grandson, telling him about his mother.
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Lesson 9: Twists that Engage Us!
Sung-Ju Suya Lee’s Five Favorite Twists:
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
Audiences expect twists all the time. So, I got to master them. Not as easy as it looks on screen. The example for John Wick was good. I have to think of other twists. It’s still a work in progress. Most of the twists come in Act 2 and Act 3.
Logline:
When a group of old timers at a veteran’s retirement home win the mega lottery, they buy an old cruise ship to sail around the world with their extended families, but Pirates hijack their ship in South-East Asia and the Veterans must face the last battle of their lives to save their families.
#1
Lost Resources: The 4 Veterans lose their subsidy for the veterans’ retirement home, so get kicked out.
New Recourses: They win the mega lottery jackpot.
#2
New Threat: Pirates getting ready (to attack the cruise ship).
Unexpected Support: Later, Kai (one of the Pirate leaders), when he gets his kidnapped son back, he fights the other Pirates, and he keeps his word, that he will leave the cruise ship.
#3
Trap/ Trick: Pirates reveal themselves (once on the cruise ship). Not people smugglers in crisis. They get the drugs inside the ship and ransom money.
Escape: Later, the Veterans and Families must escape. Pirates drown inside the cruise ship.
#4
Plan Succeeds: A Veteran disconnects the Internet (Pirates laptop crashes during ransom transfer), and disconnects lights.
Plan Fails: Later, a pirate fixes the internet, wants the entire mega lottery winnings.
#5
Danger: Blast in the engine room. Fire engulfs the ship.
Reversal: Veterans fight back in order to save the grandchildren.
Surprising Alliance: Crew Z helps to rescue the grandchildren.
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Denice’s Favorite Twists
What I learned doing this assignment is that I didn’t have enough twists in the first act to engage the audience. These are exciting techniques and it will be a challenge to choose the best.
Five Favorite Twists, So Far:
1. ATTACK: Assassin plays with Triple until Assassin gets mad and tries to kill Triple.
2. UNEXPECTED SUPPORT: Assassin kills the men who are after Triple because she
wants to kill her herself.
3. UNEXPECTED SUPPORT: Agent assigned to bring Triple home joins her.
4. TRAP/TRICK: Triple is tricked into being trapped in water tank
5. ATTACKED: Triple confronts Villain her underestimates her.
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Mary’s Favorite Twists
What I learned doing this assignment. I generally put in twists, but these gave me many more “action” twists.
•Set up: Close on Sam sleeping peacefully. Twist is he wakes up to find all his money stolen.
•Set up: Sam is looking for a job with someone he can trust. Twist is he is lured into a trap and kidnapped.
•Set up: Sam escapes into Choctaw Indian territory. Twist is they return him to his kidnappers.
•Set up: Sam and the boys are going to be sold to a Mississippi plantation owner. Twist is Sam’s knowledge of horses alerts then plantation owner that these are kidnapped free boys.
•Set up: Sam and the boys think they will be slaves. Twist is they will be sent home.
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Kathy’s Favorite Twists!
What I learned doing this assignment is I can add in more twists.
Choose any scene that needs a twist or two:
Brainstorm ways to use one or more of these twists:
Anger ========================= Safety
New Threat ====================== Unexpected Support
Plan Fails ========================Plan Succeeds
Identity or Plan Exposed ============ Identity Hidden
Deceived ====================== Surprising Truth
Betrayal ======================= Surprising Alliance
Attacked ====================== Protected
Lost Resources ================= New Resources
It Just Got Worse ============== It Just Got Better
Unexpected Weapon ============= Surprising Response
Trap/Trick ===================== Escape
Reversal ====================== Reverse the Reversal
Tell us your FIVE favorite twists listed as Setup/Twist.
1. Danny is on a boring assignment. (setup) but he overhears a plot to sell stolen antiques. ( twist)
2. Danny follows the trail, traces fingerprints, finds one off the thieves. (setup) Interrogates him, has to let him go. Not enough proof since he is an airline employee. (twist) (M,interrogation)
3. Danny has a rifle. A terrorist has his wife, tells him to put down the gun. (setup) Danny puts down the rifle, but has a handgun behind it and shoots the terrorist.(twist, unexpected weapon)
4. At an auction, the mayor meets the director of Christies. He tells her that they should speak in private. (setup) After shutting the door to a conference room, he grabs her ass and kisses her. (twist) She slaps him. (violence) He says, you’ll regret that, as she hurries out.
5. The next day, the mayor tells his aide to research her finances. A week later, he puts a report on the mayor’s desk. There are suspicious deposits in her bank account from an art gallery. (twist, betrayal) She has been taking bribes and using the money to pay her mother’s nursing home bills. (intrigue) The mayor tells her that he wants part of the money. (twist, competition) She unhappily agrees. (unexpected alliance)
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Linda’s Favorite Twists
What I learned doing this assignment is it helped me get unstuck with sense that were cliched and boring.
Five Favorite Twists:
Setup/Twist: Scene – The commish grills the captured terrorist.
· Deceived > Surprising Truth – The kid feigns he doesn’t want to be part of the group, but is leading them into a trap.
Setup/Twist: Scene – On hunt to find the terrorists who crossed the border.
· New Threat > Unexpected Support – Ambushed by who they believe to be drug smugglers, but they are former border patrol men. When realize who each other are, they link up with them to find the terrorists.
Setup/Twist: Scene: The commish calls Secretary of Homeland, needs more resources.
· Plan Succeeds > Plan Fails – Sec lets him explain his plan, seemingly going along with it, then tells him he needs to get back to DC, not how this should be handled.
Setup/Twist: Scene: Lead terrorist orders the remaining men he needs to get to the border.
· Identity or Plan Exposed > Identity Hidden – Expose that lead terrorist is part American.
· Deceived > Surprising Truth – Terrorists were deceived to believe he was fully one of them.
· Betrayal > Surprising Alliance – Elder terrorist backs him.
Setup/Twist: Terrorists captured at the border.
· New Threat > Unexpected Support – Congressmen who wants to tell a story, asks them about the family situation. Then puts them on a plane to another location in US.
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