Lesson 10

[Jack Young]

What I learned doing this assignment is a different and simple approach to constructing a script.

Jack Young Beat Sheet

PILOT A/B/C STORIES:

A Story: Michael is a home foreclosure specialist during a world wide no-birth epidemic. Michael is being sought by the FBI for insider trading crimes, is ending an affair with his secretary, and is dying from brain cancer. He must choose to die for his son to ever have his own children. (Runs through Teaser, Act I thru Act V)

B Story: Professor Darlington discovered a possible cause of the no-birth crisis in the astral plane and needs a man willing to forfeit his life to prove his theory. By stopping Michael’s heart to send him into the strange energy stream, the professor is an accomplice to murder and is being sought by the police. (Runs through Act II thru Act V)

C Story: Thomas is a tech genius who graduated from MIT. He is a friend of the professor’s and built the containment pod that will maintain Michael’s body so that he can return to Earth. Thomas’s job is to do everything he can to protect Michael’s body while he’s gone. (Runs through Act IV thru Act V)

The following are the beats:

TEASER

INT. SWIMMING POOL – DAY

Description:

Michael, age 7, drowns and floats to the bottom of the pool.

INT. DREAM

Description:

Michael finds himself in a raging energy stream with souls of people screaming as they whiz by.

Michael finds himself floating in an ocean of thousands of souls. Above him a huge sacred stone seal with ancient inscriptions moves closer and closer towards him.

The seal turns into a gateway. He peers into an ancient world where a SORCERER stands working his evil magic. He turns as if he has seen Michael watching him.

EXT. POOL – DAY

His brother, JAMES, age 11, resuscitates him and warns him of things to come.

ACT I:

INT. HOUSE – KITCHEN DAY

Description:

Michael has a good life with wife and son although he has been eating aspirin like candy. His wife is worried about his severe headaches although she’s harboring some ill feelings about Michael related to his infidelity she suspects.

Michael works a “big” deal on phone while trying to be obscure about it, raising suspicions with his wife.

INT. MICHAEL’S CAR – DAY

Description:

On his way to work, we get glimpses of no-birth riots around town.

INT. AMERICAN BANK – FORECLOSURE DEPT – DAY

Description:

At work an elderly woman is upset about her house being foreclosed and commits suicide in front of Michael. She has an eerie, cryptic message for Michael.

Secretary at work subtly gives Michael a hard time over ending affair.

During chaos of suicide, bank workers think it’s an “Active Shooter” situation and scramble for shelter.

Michael gets call from his friend, Kevin, that something went wrong with stock deal.

INT. AMERICAN BANK – MAIN AREA – DAY

Description:

SWAT team arrives, sees blood on Michael and attacks him, thinking he’s the active shooter. He’s hit with the butt of a rifle.

Later, his head bandaged, he leaves for lunch and to escape chaos.

ACT II:

INT. LOCAL BAR – DAY

Description:

Michael stops at bar to get a drink and his to get his head together.

At bar, news on the bar TV talks about riots.

Old DRUNK at the bar makes jokes about the government experimenting with monkeys to create babies that are half-human and half monkey.

Michael goes to a table and gulps down more aspirin while downing a drink.

His secretary stops in, having seen his car. She confesses that she wants his job and is really the brains behind the foreclosing success at the bank and he’s already been fired and she’s up for his job.

She then tells him that the FBI came by work to arrest him and she told them that Michael was probably at his hangout. As she finishes, the FBI pulls up.

Michael tries to run out the back and runs into the FBI. His headache rages to the point where he collapses.

Diane is called by FBI at home.

She arrives at bar and runs into Michael’s secretary.

She smells secretary and tells her that she’s smelled her perfume 5 times in the laundry room in the last year. Secretary corrects her “six”. She slaps the secretary.

INT. HOSPITAL – DAY

Description:

Michael awakes in hospital. His wife sits on the edge of the bed going over how Michael lost all of their funds, had an affair, broke the law, lied, etc.

Doctor takes Diane out of room to tell her that Michael has terminal brain cancer.

Later, Michael watches a show on TV with the Professor explaining his theory of what caused the no-birth. He tries to change the channel but he’s on every channel. He realizes that one of his eyes is blind.

EXT. HOSPITAL – DAY

Description:

Diane helps Michael to car as debris blows down street. A paper wraps around her leg. The obituary shows Michael’s death in 3 days. Michael says he needs to find Professor. (Why does he think he needs to see him? Need event to tie them together)

EXT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

Description:

Diane and Michael arrive at the professor’s mansion. The Obituary page is whisked away by wind before she can show professor.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

Description:

At professor’s house, they meet astral team and he tells Michael about the stream. Diane doesn’t believe it.

INT. ASTRAL PLANE – DAY

Description:

The Professor takes Michael and Diane into the astral plane and shows them the raging stream and souls captured in it.

ACT III:

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – NIGHT

Description:

Michael and Diane stay at professor’s house. Michael and Diane are told that he must die to enter stream. Diane is against it and leaves with Michael.

INT. CAR – NIGHT

Description:

Michael wants to be forgiven and realizes that without someone going into stream, their son won’t be able to have a family.

Michael tells Diane to stop and talks to her about their family going on through his son. They go back.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – LAB – NIGHT

Description:

Michael and Diane tell Professor they will do it. Thomas preps Michael for the journey.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – BEDROOM – NIGHT

Description:

Michael has a vision where he sees his dead brother and follows him from the house.

EXT. DARLINGTON MANSION – NIGHT

Description:

In the pouring rain, he sees the ancient one (sorcerer) appear through the portal. The ancient sorcerer looks directly at Michael. Suddenly, the portal turns into headlights of a truck.

Someone grabs him and pulls him to safety. It’s his wife. Michael and Diane return to the Professor’s house.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – LAB – DAY

Description:

Michael dies and is thrust into the stream.

ACT IV:

INT. MICHAEL’S MIND

Description:

Michael revisits the highlights of his life as his soul leaves his body.

INT. ASTRAL PLANE

Description:

Michael enters the Astral plane.

The Astral team, guided by the Professor, ensures that Michael enters the Stream and is on his way to the other side.

INT. WALKER HOUSE – DAY

Description:

When parents arrive they call police.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

Description:

Using the son’s help, the Police find Michael’s body and seize it.

Michael’s body is seized by the police. Diane is arrested.

ACT V:

EXT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

Description:

The professor escapes the police.

INT. COUNTY JAIL – DAY

Description:

Thomas and the Professor break Diane out of jail.

The Professor warns Diane that if they don’t get his body back, he will not be able to return.

INT. MORGUE – NIGHT

Description:

They steal Michael’s body back.

INT. OCEAN OF SOULS

Description:

Michael arrives in the Ocean of Souls (Heaven).

Later, Michael is plucked from the Ocean of Souls.

EXT. PLANET OF SEALS – DAY

Description:

Michael steps from a “skinning” chamber. He is encased in a new gray-colored synthetic “Skin”.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Beat Sheet

What I learned doing this assignment is: that the beat sheet provides a solid skeleton that can be read at a glance. I struggled a bit with this, as I always do, because I have a tendency to overwrite. I particularly had a hard time going back to essence while trying to retain everything we have built up from the original essence of each beat during the past few lessons. It still needs a lot of paring down and I need to really ensure my A B and C stories are divided with the A getting the most time, etc. But in getting to the end of this pass, I feel like I have a better handle on its purpose and I’m going to take another pass to shore up the A B and C storylines and cut it down some, both in terms of wording and the number of beats.

Show Concept: A cancer researcher protects an immortal woman whose DNA can cure cancer from a secret cabal of Big Pharma execs out to exterminate all immortals in order to keep the business of disease profitable.

Inciting Incident: An omnipotent cabal is out to kill Dres, who is Jude’s only hope of curing his wife’s cancer. He needs to find out who they are and stop them in order to keep Dres safe.

A STORY: Jude discovers Dres is the cure for cancer, must protect her from the cabal hunting her.

B STORY: Marks is the hunter, in increasing jeopardy from his own cabal.

C STORY: Catherine has brain cancer; police detective on the case.

BEAT SHEET

Teaser:

INT. LAB – DAY

New information reveal: a masked man has poisoned everyone in the lab except Jude, destroys a specific set of microscope slides. He gives Jude a chance to die quickly, but Jude refuses–so he douses everything with gasoline and sets it on fire–Jude included.

EXT. LAB – DAY

Jude slinks away, calls Dres as he watches the lab burn. Tells her that she was right, he wasn’t lucky, he was spared… and that he’s “in.”

Act 1:

INT. LAB – DAY

Jude and his team tensely study the remains of an ancient body and discover traces of a substance in the DNA that can cure cancer. But the procedure causes the body to disintegrate, and there’s not enough to definitively declare success.

INT. BOARD ROOM – DAY

Marks makes a spur of the moment decision regarding insulin prices… and markets go haywire.

INT. MARKS’S PENTHOUSE – DAY

Marks checks in on the home health visit for his daughter… but learns she’s dying of her MS. For all his wealth and power, he can’t save her.

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY

Jude presents the failure of the tests to the Board. He’s pressured into fudging the data to announce that it works at the shareholders’ meeting.

EXT. OFFICE BUILDING – DAY

He’s lost in thought, reminded of the group that tormented his brother to suicide, when

a car tails him – and suited, armed men insist he get inside.

INT. PRIVATE MUSEUM – DAY

The car takes him to Marks, who courts him to work for Monolithic at a price of his choosing. Jude refuses, doesn’t agree with his aggressively for-profit philosophy.

INT. POSH BAR – NIGHT

Dres regales a CEO with how they can use the opioid model for a new depression drug. The CEO insists she accompany him to a shareholder’s meeting while he considers it. She seems scared, calls her assistant to get out of it, but he’s unhelpful.

EXT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

Dres is really a con artist and the “assistant” is her partner Shales – who gets scary with her about trying to back out.

EXT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

A disheveled man paces up and down until security hustles him away…when he shows them an invite.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

The disheveled man is nervous to go through a metal detector… although he passes through.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

The CEO is onto Dres, calls security and dials the authorities – when he is shot.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

Jude has to speak, conflicted about whether to lie or not… when Catherine has a dissociative episode. Her delusion is a duel from seventeenth century England.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ CONVENTION – NIGHT

The disheveled man takes out a 3-D printed automatic rifle and massacres everyone right in front of Jude. He has Jude point-blank, but recognizes him. Catherine springs up, jams the gun. The cops shoot him. Dres fixates on Jude as she slinks away, fascinated that he wasn’t killed.

Act 2:

INT. ER – NIGHT

Jude tells Detective Deeds the shooter was a high-level Pharma engineer who just signed a lucrative contract with Monolithic. Deeds commends Catherine on disabling the gun with her lucky hit, smirks at Jude freezing like a coward.

INT. NEUROLOGY TESTING ROOM – NIGHT

Catherine claims her hallucination must have something to do with a novel she read… but the duel between noblemen was real, not in the book. Jude reads the scan – and realizes she has advanced brain cancer.

INT. LAB – DAY

He pushes his research to find the cure… and discovers it, in an inadvertent blood sample from someone at the shareholder’s meeting – Dres.

INT. INTERNET CAFE – DAY

Shales and Dres transfer the money from the dead CEO before the accounts are frozen – split the $1 million.

EXT. HOMELESS SHELTER – DAY

Dres donates her entire cut to charity, gathers her things to move on… but sneaks into the office to research Jude instead.

INT. BOARD MEETING – DAY

Marks is addressing the Monolithic Board, when he receives a summons that visibly disturbs him and cuts the meeting short.

EXT. ROOFTOP GARDEN – DAY

Marks puts on a mask on the elevator up. When the doors open, everyone there is masked. The Leader lists his failures, sentences him to The Penance Room. Marks, fed up, is about to remove his mask when the Leader cautions him. Marks pitches the room… they need Jude and he couldn’t kill the target without hitting him. He’s given a second chance.

INT. CEO’S OFFICE – DAY

Jude finds the CEO’s wife, distraught, trying to help manage the chaos – because $1 million has gone missing since he died. He questions her about the woman her husband was with, but she doesn’t know.

INT. LOBBY – DAY

A passing employee comments that the CEO used to meet with that woman at the bistro on 51st and 8th… but the “employee” is Shales!

EXT. BISTRO – DAY

Jude confronts Dres, but she gets spooked and zigzags them to avoid being followed. The cloak-and-dagger stuff triggers Jude’s memory of his brother and he stops them.

EXT. SECLUDED COURTYARD – DAY

She details the history of this place from long ago… then suddenly pulls a knife. Demands to know why they didn’t kill him. Then, someone shoots at them!

EXT. SNIPER’S ROOST – DAY

He spots the sniper, realizes she was the target of the earlier shooting. Jude hits him only to discover he’s a hemophiliac. Tries to save him with a coagulent from the sniper’s bag, but sees the guy is still planning to kill Dres. He dumps the pills, fights him, making more bleeds. The sniper won’t tell him why they want to stifle the cure for cancer, so Jude takes a DNA sample only to realize he’s dead.

Act 3:

EXT. SNIPER’S ROOST – DAY

Dres directs him on how to move the body – although he left a trail a mile wide coming here.

INT. CHEMICAL COMPANY – DAY

Reveals one wall is the back of a place filled with vats – she lured them to a place where she could dispose of the body. But she has a mission for him: go to a certain spot and retrieve something beneath a brick there.

EXT. CORNER BENEATH EL TRACKS – DAY

It’s an unmarked grave, and there’s a mask in the dirt. Someone is watching him through a rifle site. Under the mask is a keycard. A drug dealer comes up to him. He says the words she tells him, passes the guy a fifty, gets a bag of Monolithic painkillers. The cover of buying drugs causes the watchers to back down.

INT. CHEMICAL COMPANY – DAY

Dres uses the keycard to access the building – a vast row of vats. She directs him on what to do to dissolve the body… then vanishes on him.

INT. JUDE’S APARTMENT – DAY

He looks up the corner in the news – the only crime there occurred seventy years ago. Assumes that whoever’s buried there is unreported.

EXT. ROOFTOP GARDEN – NIGHT

The Leader holds a private meeting to impress on Marks that he will be tortured and killed if he doesn’t kill Jude as well. But Marks discovers the Leader is harboring a secret trove of cures beyond cancer, possibly even MS… but he’d have to betray him to ever see it.

INT. JUDE’S LAB – NIGHT

There’s a glitch. Jude will never be able to manufacture anything even on a small scale with the equipment they have – only Monolithic has that tech.

INT. JUDE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Catherine has another episode. She’s fragile, so he doesn’t tell her the diagnosis. He hears a tap on his phone. Sees a glitch on his screen… someone is tracking him.

INT. JUDE’S LAB – NIGHT

Detective comes to his lab asking about the initial shooter and Jude’s interaction with him… then inquires about another in Jude’s field. A name he knows, but he’s never met the guy. Turning Point:Accusation: The detective asks why he killed him. Jude is stunned – the other guy is the one who is dissolved in acid.

Act 4:

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM – HIGHRISE – DAY

Jude appeals to a powerful Big Pharma CEO with ties to the Justice Department to negotiate his cooperation with the police. CEO excuses himself to make a call and while he’s waiting, Jude sees the CEO through the window plummeting to his death.

INT. CRIME SCENE – DAY

Police detectives are covering up the murder, claiming it was a heart attack. Jude is outraged until he sees the widow is so scared that she’s insisting he go along with that narrative for all their sakes.

INT. ACTIVE SHOOTER’S HOUSE – DAY

Jude talks to the original shooter’s partner, who tells him he started acting strange after the promotion and eventually had a full-on freak-out when his phone started glitching. He went on and on about someone tracking their movements, listening to them.

INT. SUBWAY – DAY

Jude feels paranoid…and breaks the sim card on his phone before going home.

INT. JUDE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

The picture that tormented his brother, which he hasn’t seen in years, is out on his desk. Suddenly, he’s taken to the ground and Marks and his associates force him to hand over the blood sample so they can destroy it… or they’ll kill him and Catherine. He gives it to them, insists it’s the only one. Marks doesn’t kill him as ordered.

Act 5:

EXT. HOMELESS SHELTER – DAY

Dres makes her pitch: the cabal didn’t kill Jude – which means he’s valuable to them. Infiltrate them and she’ll give as much of her DNA as he needs to make the cure.

INT. JUDE’S CAR – DAY

He races to his lab to synthesize the cure with the blood sample he didn’t tell them he had… but the equipment is all down.

INT. LAB – DAY

IT tech guy comes to the lab to work on the servers. Seems nerdy and like it’s his first day on the job. But he’s brought coffee for everyone to compensate for the inconvenience.

INT. LAB – DAY

Jude gets there, warns them – only to be pistol-whipped unconscious by the IT guy.

INT. LAB – DAY

The teaser replayed.

INT. HIDEOUT – DAY

Shales has overheard, wants in on the con, and insists Dres kill Jude once it’s over – or he will.

INT. MONOLITHIC – DAY

Jude accepts the position, is greeted by Marks… both of them bucking the people who are threatening them by pursuing their own agenda with this gambit.

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – BEAT SHEET

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s very helpful for me to try and stop thinking so much and wait for one thing to lead to another. Instead of trying to answer the question, to just be in the question and wait for the connections to happen.

Concept:

Kate Warne — the first female detective — young, inexperienced, idealistic and recently widowed, tasked with delivering President-Elect Lincoln safely to his inauguration, discovers her true grit as she struggles to create an impenetrable veil of secrecy around the President, while a secret society and bloodthirsty street gangs compete to assassinate him as he passes through Mobtown.

Inciting Incident:

Kate discovers the assassination plot against the President.

The stakes: One could make the case that if Kate hadn’t discovered the plot, it’s possible there would be no United States of America today. It was a vulnerable time.

A Story:

Kate’s story.

Life as a Union spy trying to disrupt the first assassination plot against an American President.

B Story:

Kate and Ferrandini’s conflicted personal story.

Kate and Pinkerton’s contentious father-daughter story

C Story:

Authorities:

Lincoln’s story. Mary’s story. And the stories of the gang members, the KGC members, Lincoln’s secretaries and members of his traveling party, local police and politicians.

Beats:

Act 1:

EXT. STREETS – DAY

Chicago. 1861. The beginning of new year. What will it bring?

Somehow these sentiments are communicated as Kate walks through the windy streets of the city on the way to her interview.

INT. PINKERTON’S OFFICE – DAY

Kate convinces Pinkerton to hire her as the first woman detective. Though Pinkerton hires Kate, he won’t assign her to anything too dangerous. She’s a woman after all.

INTRIGUING WORLD: Pinkerton assigns Kate to a case that isn’t going anywhere: The Adams Express Company embezzlement. Kate goes undercover, befriends the wife of the thief and recovers the stolen money.

INT. FELTON’S OFFICE – DAY

Pinkerton is asked to help protect the rail bridges leading into Baltimore.

INT. PINKERTON’S HOME – DAY

Pinkerton says goodbye to the black family he has been hiding in his home as part of the Underground Railroad.

INT. PINKERTON’S OFFICE – DAY

SECRET IDENTITY: The newspapers cover the story about Kate’s use of a secret identity to befriend the robber’s wife. She’s famous now as the first woman detective.

SECRET: Kate won’t reveal to Pinkerton the details of the case, how a woman managed to do what experienced male detectives couldn’t do, unless he assigns her to the Baltimore team. Pinkerton refuses. He won’t be blackmailed.

EXT. STREET – DAY

Act 1 TURNING POINT- Newspaper reporters hound Pinkerton. They want to know more about Kate.

INT. PINKERTON’S OFFICE – DAY

Pinkerton changes his mind at the last minute, assigns Kate to the team leaving for Baltimore.

EXT. TRAIN STATION – DAY

February. Kate, Pinkerton and his team leave for Baltimore.

EXT. STREETS – DAY

In Springfield, Lincoln walks the tree-lined streets, says goodbye to his neighbors. Deeply felt.

INT. TRAIN CAR – DAY

At the team meeting: MYSTERY: The team’s objective is to investigate a rumor that Southern sympathizers are planning to burn the rail bridges around the city in order to prevent Yankee troops from passing through on their way to Washington.

Pinkerton takes Kate aside: UNDESERVED SUFFERING: But being a spy is more dangerous than being a detective, so she must understand that she will be kept in the background. Because she is a woman, she will not be allowed to go deep undercover.

Act 2:

EXT. STREETS – DAY

Kate and Pinkerton go undercover as Union spies. Finally, Kate gets to put her acting talents to the test.

INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM – DAY

INTRIGUING WORLD: Kate enters Mobtown, the powder keg world of Baltimore as Miss Kate, spirited Southern socialite. Pinkerton becomes Mr. Hutchinson, wealthy stockbroker in the arms trade. Together they set out to learn why the red shirts are planning to burn the bridges that lead into Baltimore.

INT. LINCOLN’S HOME – DAY

In Springfield, Lincoln attends an informal planning meeting with aids in his home. He wants to take the direct rail route to Washington, but he is convinced that it’s too dangerous going through Southern states. He reluctantly agrees to the long northern route through Buffalo and New York.

INT. HOTEL LOBBY – DAY

CONSPIRACY: Angelina takes Kate under her wing, explains to her who’s who in the Confederate world.

HIDDEN AGENDA: Angelina boasts to Kate that her husband is part of a secret society devoted to the expansion of slavery and that there is a plan brewing that will shorten the war to a couple weeks, a month at most.

INT. ANGELINA’S DRAWING ROOM – DAY

Turning Point/Midpoint: In an encounter with Angelina’s drunk husband, Rhett of the Black Snakes gang, Miss Dixie discovers that the rumored assassination plot is real and Captain Ferrandini is the ringleader, the one behind it making it happen.

Act 3:

INT. PINKERTON’S SAFE HOUSE – NIGHT

In response to what Kate has learned, Pinkerton trains her on the art of secrecy and how to be a Union spy.

INT. HOTEL LOBBY – DAY

Deception: The ruse: At a crowded luxury hotel lobby, Hutchinson attacks Miss Dixie for being a Union spy. Ferrandini comes to Miss Dixie’s aid, protecting her reputation.

INT. LINCOLN’S HOME – DAY

In Springfield, Lincoln meets with his volunteer security detail, a motley crew of retired military advisors, full of bombastic hot air about what a great job they will do defending the President from the rebels.

INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM – DAY

Turning Point: Protecting Kate from Hutchinson, Ferrandini has dinner with her. Kate learns the details of the assassination plot.

INT. PINKERTON’S SAFE HOUSE – DAY

CONSPIRACY: Kate hurts Pinkerton when she goes deep undercover on Ferrandini after Pinkerton has expressly forbidden it. It pushes him to the limit. How can he protect her if she goes in deep undercover? Pinkerton struggles with his paternal and professional relationship with Kate.

INT. HOTEL PRIVATE DINING ROOM – NIGHT

Act 3 TURNING POINT – HIDDEN AGENDA: Pursuing Ferrandini as the target, Kate learns about the KGC and its efforts to recruit and organize the gangs of the city for the assassination plot.

Kate is in a situation with Ferrandini, her feelings in conflict with her job. She feels herself caring for a man she must betray.

Act 4:

INT. HOTEL BARBER SHOP – DAY

Hutchinson pays Ferrandini a huge sum of money for his investment in the arms trade to help the South. Ferrandini is impressed and sponsors Hutchinson to become a Knight in the KGC.

INT. LINCOLN’S HOME – DAY

In Springfield, Lincoln and Mary, the ultimate political couple, are packing for the journey when Mary has a tantrum because Lincoln won’t commit to her recommendations for cabinet posts.

INT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Turning Point: Pinkerton undergoes the harrowing initiation ceremony into the KGC. Pinkerton and Ferrandini become best friends.

EXT. SLAUGHTERHOUSE – DAY

Pinkerton is caught snooping around the Blood Tubs slaughterhouse.

ACCUSATION: Accused of being a Union spy, the Blood Tub gang dunks Pinkerton in a tub of pig’s blood.

Before the gang can do worse, Ferrandini rescues Pinkerton.

EXT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Act 4 TURNING POINT – DECEPTION: Pinkerton, disguised as Hutchinson, gets initiated into the KGC. It’s a harrowing ceremony, but infiltration of the KGC is successful. Now he needs them to trust him so he can betray them.

Act 5:

INT. PINKERTON’S SAFE HOUSE – DAY

Although Kate and Pinkerton learn the details of the plot, they struggle to find physical evidence that would prove the plot to Lincoln’s handlers.

EXT. GRAVESITE – DAY

In Springfield, Lincoln says goodbye at the gravesite of his young son, Willy. No matter what happens, I will never leave you.

INT. DRAWING ROOM – NIGHT

Lock In: Embedded in a KGC meeting as Mr. Hutchinson, Pinkerton witnesses helplessly the setting up of the drawing to select who will have the privilege of assassinating the President. It’s real. It’s happening. And only he and Kate can stop it. If they fail, they could be hung and the Union split in two.

EXT. TRAIN STATION – DAY

Lincoln gives an extemporaneous , heartfelt goodbye to his friends at Springfield. As the train pulls away, he remains alone on the rear platform, clutching his chest with his right hand in emotional pain. His left hand holds a small black bag containing the only copy of his inaugural address, a glimmer of hope in the pervasive darkness.

INT. DRAWING ROOM – NIGHT

Act 5 TURNING POINT – DECEPTION: Ferrandini plants eight red ballots instead of one in the drawing to choose who will have the privilege of assassinating the President.

It’s Pinkerton’s turn. He walks up, draws a ballot, pauses, looks over at Ferrandini, who smiles at him.