Lesson 11

[Jack Young]

What I learned doing this assignment is that I had not really thought through the scenes to create real conflict for the characters. This assignment helped to go through the scenes to throw more at my characters and to make them become more resourceful.

Jack Young Scene Requirements Pass 2 for “STREAM”

TEASER

INT. SWIMMING POOL – DAY

Michael, age 7, falls into a pool. Blood clouds the water around his head. At first he fights to stay alive, then he closes his eyes and floats to the bottom of the pool.

Start: Michael falls into the pool.

Challenging Situation: He has a wound to his head and is injured.

Conflict: The water is overcoming him.

Action: Initially, he fights to survive, but with a head injury, he succumbs.

Finish: He has lost the battle and rests on the bottom of the pool.

INT. DREAM

Michael falls into 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. Michael reaches out to touch the disk and as he does, the seal turns into a round dimensional gateway. He’s now looking into an ancient world where a Sorcerer stands working his evil magic. The Sorcerer turns as if he has seen Michael watching him and gives him a menacing look.

Start: Michael, his eyes closed, finds himself peacefully floating in a strange ocean of souls.

Challenging Situation: As he opens his eyes, he finds himself facing a huge ancient stone seal that is moving towards him.

Conflict: The huge stone disk (Seal) moves closer and closer, almost on top of him.

Action: The stone seal turns into a dimensional gateway that looks into an ancient world of a sorcerer. The sorcerer gives Michael a menacing and threatening look.

Finish: Michael is pulled back to reality by the voice of his older brother calling his name.

EXT. POOL – DAY

Michael’s brother, James, age 11, resuscitates him and warns him of future events to come.

Start: Michael finds himself back in the world being awakened by his brother. He’s laying on the side of the pool, his brother over him.

Challenging Situation: Michael gags on the pool water, trying to breathe.

Conflict: His brother turns Michael’s body to the side so he can expel the water.

Action: Michael expels the water and is able to breathe again.

Finish: After Michael has recovered, his brother tells him of a fantastic adventure that awaits him but requires that he must find the “Professor” (“You’ll need faith and alliances”)

ACT I:

INT. HOUSE – KITCHEN – DAY

Michael’s wife is standoffish as he gets ready for work. He pops more aspirin as he gets ready. His wife is worried about his continual severe headaches. She suspects that Michael is having an affair and doing something illegal on the side. Michael works a “big” deal on phone while trying to be obscure about it, raising more suspicions with his wife.

Start: Michael goes through his usual pre-work routine.

Challenging Situation: His wife is not only concerned about his abuse of painkillers, she’s internally brewing over the affair he’s having at work.

Conflict: Diane sends obscure signals that she’s upset with him about suspected affair.

Action: Michael detects her hidden anger with him while he tries to work a big deal with a friend on the phone.

Finish: Michael maneuvers his wife by avoiding her as much as possible and escapes to work.

INT. MICHAEL’S CAR – DAY

On his way to work, drives through the rioters on the street that are looting and burning buildings. He almost kills someone as they attack his car. He climbs out to see if he’s okay and he’s attacked by the protestor as he helps him up. Michael barely escapes as he notices another protestor carrying a sign that reads “Find The Professor” After he notices the sign, the protestor disappears.

Start: Michael is driving to work like he normally does.

Challenging Situation: The car passes through rioters who are burning buildings.

Conflict: Rioters attack the car and throw objects at the car.

Action: Michael maneuvers the car through the crowd and almost hits several protestors.

Finish: Michael finally gets through the violence and threat and receives messages from the other side.

INT. AMERICAN BANK – FORECLOSURE DEPT – DAY

At work an elderly woman comes to his office upset that she’s losing her home. She recognizes Michael’s last name. Turns out she lived near his mother and he and his brother used to cut her lawn. She asks about his brother. Michael says he’s dead. She talks about her dead husband and never having kids then takes out a gun from her purse. She commits suicide in front of Michael. She has an eerie, cryptic message for Michael before she fires. Secretary at work 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.

Start: Michael begins a usual day of work as a foreclosure specialist at the bank.

Challenging Situation: An elderly woman pulls a gun from her purse. Michael believes she will shoot him but she turns the gun on herself and commits suicide.

Conflict: Michael’s secretary creates a situation over an ended affair.

Action: The police arrive and assault Michael, believing he’s an active shooter. He gets struck in the head during the process.

Finish: Michael is released by police and later gets a phone call from friend that their stock deal has serious problems.

ACT II:

INT. LOCAL BAR – DAY

Michael stops at bar to get a drink and to get his head together. At bar, news on the bar TV talks about riots. A 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 receives phone call from the 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 before in the laundry room on her husband’s clothes in the last year. Secretary corrects her “six”. She slaps the secretary.

Start: Michael tries to escape the chaos of the day and his problems.

Challenging Situation: The secretary shows up to challenge Michael over his ending the affair.

Conflict: He learns she “assisted” in developing foreclosure cases (Unethically) and informed on him to the FBI. Diane confronts Michael’s girlfriend.

Action: The FBI starts to arrest Michael and he has stroke and passes out.

Finish: Michael is carried away on stretcher to the hospital.

INT. HOSPITAL – DAY

After a dream about his older brother that takes Michael into his brother’s world, his suicide, his funeral, and his father blaming him for his brother’s death. 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. The 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 he’s blind in one of his eyes.

Start: Michael is in the hospital.

Challenging Situation: Doctors determine that Michael has brain cancer and is dying.

Conflict: Diane is upset with Michael for the affair and his illegal business dealings.

Action: Michael has to confront his infidelity and possibility that he is dying and a criminal.

Finish: Michael feels that something larger than him is happening and it’s connected to the Professor.

EXT. HOSPITAL – DAY

Diane helps Michael to car as debris blows down street. Michael now has a patch over his blind eye. A newspaper page wraps around her leg, almost attacking her. She freaks out as the paper fights for her attention as she tries to pull it away and put Michael in the car. The obituary page describes Michael’s death in 3 days. Michael says he needs to find the Professor.

Start: Diane helps Michael leave the hospital.

Challenging Situation: Michael has lost sight in one eye and one of his legs is numb. Diane must help him to the car.

Conflict: A newspaper fights for her attention to reveal Michael’s destiny.

Action: Diane freaks out as she reads Michael’s obituary to him in the car.

Finish: They leave the hospital traumatized by recent events and news.

EXT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

Diane and Michael drive several hours to the professor’s mansion in Iowa. The Obituary page is whisked away by wind before she can show anyone at the house. A dark and brooding sky warns of impending events. The Professor’s odd housekeeper believes that they are a couple of nuts and won’t let them in. Diane forces her way in while holding her child and trying to guide Michael in. They find the Professor in the kitchen with the floor covered with Corn Flakes. He’s trying to decipher a strange pattern displayed by the Corn Flakes.

Start: Michael and Diane go to the professor’s house in Iowa.

Challenging Situation: The couple is challenged by an odd housekeeper.

Conflict: Diane forces her way in to see the Professor.

Action: The Professor is trying to decipher a pattern on the floor.

Finish: Diane recognizes the pattern as “MW”, the initials of her husband’s name.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

At Professor’s mansion, they meet the young astral team. The Professor tells Michael about the stream in the astral plane. Diane doesn’t believe it. She thinks the Professor is crazy. The Professor and his team take Michael and Diane into the astral plane to show them the raging stream and the souls being captured in it.

Start: Michael and Diane are introduced to the Astral team.

Challenging Situation: Michael and Diane are told an outrageous story about souls being stolen. They are taken into the stream where Diane gets accidentally pulled into the stream.

Conflict: Diane refuses to believe it the Professor’s story and wants to immediately leave with Michael and their son.

Action: The Professor offers to show them proof…a visit to the Astral plane where Diane gets pulled in by a soul passing by. The Astral team pulls Diane to safety.

Finish: Diane and Michael are convinced that it is real and what the Professor is saying is the truth.

ACT III:

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – NIGHT

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.

Start: Diane is told that Michael must die to enter the stream.

Challenging Situation: Michael is not ready to die and Diane is not ready to let him go.

Conflict: Thomas becomes upset that they have gone to an extreme amount of work and Michael is letting everyone down.

Action: Diane leaves with Michael. The Professor has to restrain Thomas from going after them. The Professor tells Diane and Michael that with Thomas’s device, there’s a good chance that Michael can return. Thomas gives him a strange look and later confronts him with the logic that when Michael shuts down the stream, he shuts down his way back.

Finish: They leave in their car.

INT. CAR – NIGHT

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.

Start: Diane is driving the car away from the Professor’s mansion with Michael and her son.

Challenging Situation: Michael is dying. Mankind needs a hero.

Conflict: Diane is not ready for Michael to die and is fleeing with Michael to save him.

Action: Michael comes to the realization that he is dying and that his son’s future family depends upon him taking a chance to stop it.

Finish: Michael convinces Diane that if this crazy idea works, he will not only help their son but everyone. He doesn’t have a choice.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – NIGHT

Michael and Diane tell Professor they will do it. Later, Michael has a vision where he sees his dead brother and follows him from the house. He finds himself back at the pool where he had drowned. His brother reveals to him that he had pushed his brother in the pool to teach him to swim. Michael had then hit his head on the edge of the pool and fell in. His brother admits that he got scared and ran. He later returned and pulled his brother out. Then, as it starts pouring down rain, his brother tells him that “..they’re watching you” as the rain turns into a swirling vortex.

Michael sees the ancient one (sorcerer) appear through the vortex. The ancient sorcerer looks directly at Michael. He shakes his long deformed forefinger at Michael. Suddenly, the vortex transforms 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.

Start: Michael leaves the mansion after seeing a vision of his brother in the rain.

Challenging Situation: Michael, with only one good eye, can barely walk with the crutches in the rain.

Conflict: He struggles to chase the vision of his brother to the pool behind the mansion.

Action: As he reaches the pool, the pool changes to the one he drowned in as a boy. He relives the drowning experience again. This time, he discovers that his brother had pushed him in, causing his drowning.

Finish: His wife saves him from being run over by a truck and takes him back to the mansion.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – BEDROOM – NIGHT

Michael awakes to find that his wife is not in bed. He checks in on his son who is asleep on a makeshift bed on the floor. He goes downstairs and follows a light that is on in the study. He enters and finds his wife standing near a full wall of books reading one of the Professor’s books on the Astral world. They have a conversation about what happened to them, Michael’s ambition, their desires for a family, careers, etc. Michael almost falls as he uses his crutch to steady him while moving across the room to the window. There’s a full moon. He talks while watching the moon about needing Diane to forgive him before he dies. She’s still upset with him about recent events and has no idea how she’s going to deal with the financial and legal mess he’s leaving behind. She’s having a hard time being sympathetic.

Start: Michael awakes at night.

Challenging Situation: The last night before he dies, he struggles to get forgiveness from his wife. They argue about the legacy that Michael is leaving her and his son.

Conflict: Diane can’t help being upset about the situation and it’s gonna get worse.

Action: They argue and Diane agrees to sleep on it.

Finish: They return to bed.

INT. DARLINGTON MANSION – LAB – DAY

Thomas stops Michael’s heart while he’s in the environmental pod. He remembers that he wanted Diane to forgive him before he died and struggles to get out as he dies. Diane lunges to the pod and demands that they stop it as he dies, missing the opportunity. Moments later, their young son, who has been standing on the stairs watching, screams out that they killed his father.

Start: Michael has his heart stopped to send him into the stream.

Challenging Situation: As Michael dies, his wife remembers his last wish and tries to stop his death. She fails.

Conflict: The son is upset at the death of his father.

Action: Diane rushes to her son to consul him to no avail.

Finish: Diane must remove her son from the lab as he’s screaming and kicking.

ACT IV:

INT. ASTRAL PLANE

Michael enters the Astral plane as a disembodied spirit. The Astral team, now disembodied spirits, guided by the Professor, ensures that Michael enters the Stream and is on his way to the other side.

Start: Michael, now dead and a soul, is drawn into the stream.

Challenging Situation: The Astral team is racing along side the stream trying to verify that Michael has entered. Except that they see other souls but not Michael.

Conflict: As they race alongside the stream trying to find Michael, one of the young Astral team members gets pulled into the raging energy stream. The others panic and report back to the Professor, who is monitoring their mission from inside the mansion.

Action: Finally, just before they think his “cord” will pull apart killing the astral team member, he is suddenly pushed back out of the stream by no other than Michael. The team member’s life is saved.

Finish: Michael is now visible in the stream. He waves and is on his way.

INT. WALKER HOUSE – DAY

Diane’s parents, concerned about their grandson, come to a hotel in town. When Diane takes her son to the hotel hoping her parents can calm him down they call the police. Using the son’s help, the Police find Michael’s body and seize it. Michael’s body is seized by the police and taken to the morgue. Diane is arrested and taken away.

Start: Diane takes Nick (her son) away from the mansion because he’s upset over the death of his father.

Challenging Situation: It’s impossible for Diane to explain what happened to Michael not only to their son but even more impossible to explain to her parents.

Conflict: Her parents call the police and the police believe they are investigating a murder or cult killing. Since Diane refuses to cooperate, the police are able to rely on Nick’s memory of where the mansion is located.

Action: The police raid the mansion and find Michael’s body in the pod. Thomas convinces the Professor to run for it while he stays with Michael’s body. The police aren’t buying any of it.

Finish: Diane and Thomas are taken away and the coroner takes Michael’s body.

ACT V:

EXT. DARLINGTON MANSION – DAY

The Professor escapes while Diane and Thomas have been arrested and Michael’s body has been taken to the morgue. The Professor uses his technique of creating a material representation of himself (You’ll see him do this and explain in a later episode) to materialize in the jail with a gun. He sits in a meditation position on the floor of a white work van and closes his eyes. The dust and debris in the jail swirls like a dust storm and the Professor materializes inside the police station holding a gun. He forces the police to release Diane and Thomas then jails the local sheriff’s staff. When they leave the jail, the materialization dissolves into particles on the ground. The door of a van waiting in the parking lot opens and the Professor steps out. The Professor warns Diane that if they don’t get his body back, he will not be able to return.

Start: The Professor escapes from the police at the mansion.

Challenging Situation: The Professor must quickly find a way to get Diane and Thomas out of jail and recover Michael’s body or all hope of return for Michael is gone.

Conflict: The Professor has a gun that he has also materialized as part of his astral projection trick. The staff in the sheriff’s office believes it is a real gun and cooperate.

Action: The Professor gets Diane and Thomas released from jail and they escape, while the sheriff’s staff is locked up.

Finish: Diane and Thomas escape with the Professor in an old work van.

INT. MORGUE – NIGHT

Thomas picks the lock on the back door of the morgue. The Professor makes a comment about studying lock-picking at MIT. Thomas, the Professor, and Diane enter the morgue and search out Michael’s body. They find the main refrigerated storage area that has numerous bodies covered on metal tables. As Diane lifts the sheets searching for Michael, she reveals numerous grotesque dead bodies that alarm her. After several bodies, the Professor pulls her to the side and tells her that he and Thomas will find Michael.

As they’re looking for Michael, an old janitor sees the freezer door open and closes it as he continues mopping. Thomas hears the door close and lock. He runs to it and can’t get the door open. The Professor finds Michael’s body. Diane joins the Professor as he checks Michael’s body temperature. He doesn’t like what he sees. Thomas rushes over to check Michael. The Professor tells him that they need to get Michael out of there so they can control his temperature. Thomas tells him that they’re trapped inside. Diane rushes to the door and pounds on it yelling for help. The janitor has headsets on listening to his portable radio and doesn’t hear her yelling for help. Diane pleads with Thomas and the Professor to do something. The Professor sits down, closes his eyes and crosses his legs. Diane questions why he’s sitting down and meditating at a time like this.

In the hallway, the janitor removes the mop from a bucket of water and plops the mop down on the floor. Suddenly, the water in the bucket begins churning and spinning. It spins higher and higher as it forms the professor’s body. The janitor starts to put the mop in the bucket when he realizes that the mop water is now spinning up into the air and has created a resemblance of the Professor. The Professor gets the janitor to go back and unlock the refrigeration door.

After the door is unlocked Thomas pushes Michael’s body out with Diane as the Professor comes out of his meditation. The water that was a materialization of the professor drops to the floor. A large puddle of water covers the floor. The janitor reaches down and touches it.

Start: They arrive at the morgue to get Michael’s body back.

Challenging Situation: When they find Michael’s body in the refrigeration room, they accidentally get locked in by the janitor.

Conflict: They can’t get out of the room.

Action: They must come up with a plan to get out of the locked room.

Finish: The Professor is able to project an image of himself to get the janitor to unlock the door.

INT. OCEAN OF SOULS

Michael arrives in the Ocean of Souls (Heaven). He sees the old lady from the bank drive by his old house. She waves and stops her car. She asks him what he’s doing in Heaven. She says that she saw his brother earlier but that God came and took him away. She asks if he’s seen her husband because she can’t find him or her friends. Later, Michael is plucked from the Ocean of Souls by a huge syringe shaped object that appears in the sky. He runs from it, not sure what it is. As he runs, he runs past the lady he talked with earlier as she’s plucked from her car. The car vanishes as he runs down the street.

As he’s running, he finds himself running onto a battlefield in Afghanistan. Suddenly an explosion rocks the area. Michael dives to the ground. A hand gently packs him on the back. His brother’s voice assures him he’s okay. He turns to find his older brother dressed in full battle gear with his weapon. His brother asks him what he’s doing there. As he starts to explain, his brother gets off a few rounds at the enemy. As he tries to have a conversation, his brother sees one of his men go down from enemy fire. He takes off to save him and another explosion goes off. Michael runs to him to help. His brother’s leg is blown off but his brother seems calm as he starts tying a tourniquet around it. Michael tries to help tie it. Suddenly, the strange and alien syringe looking object appears in the sky and starts lowering towards them. Michael spots it and knows what it’s capable of. Michael tells his brother they have to go. His brother tells him to leave him and go. Michael doesn’t want to leave him and tells him that he loves him.

As Michael runs the device sucks him out of that world.

Start: Michael finds himself in a new reality that resembles Heaven.

Challenging Situation: Michael finds himself in a reality that is anything but Heaven.

Conflict: Michael finds himself in a war zone with his brother.

Action: Michael’s brother gets injured and Michael tries to help.

Finish: Michael is plucked from “Heaven” by some alien device.

EXT. PLANET OF SEALS – DAY

Michael is thrust into a bright light. He steps into it and instantly falls to his knees. He looks down at his hand that rests on some strange alien soil and rocks. Suddenly a snap of a whip induces a sharp pain in his back. He moans and stands. We now see his face as he It’s the shape of Michael’s head, but it’s covered with a gray leathery skin that has brown veins running all through it. Another snap of a whip registers more pain. Michael instantly grabs the whip and pulls on it. The creature snarls and yanks the whip away from Michael.

Michael is now on alien soil standing among a foreign and unfamiliar landscape. A strange grotesque creature that is black, resembling a bat, with large black wings, hovers in the air holding a whip. What is happening to Michael is happening to hundreds of other who have just arrived and are being urged to form a line down a alien landscape. In the distance are factories spewing black smoke into the air. Beyond that is a huge, black forest of trees.

Start: Michael arrives in a new reality.

Challenging Situation: Michael is in a different reality in a new synthetic skin and is being whipped by some alien creature.

Conflict: Michael grabs the whip of the creature whipping him.

Action: Michael is forced into a line of others just arriving in this world just like him.

Finish: Michael disappears into the line of others like him into a strange new alien world.

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Scene Requirements

What I learned doing this assignment is every scene must contain a start, a challenging situation, a conflict, action, and a finish. Most of my scenes contain all these, but some still need work. It’s challenging.

Current Beat Sheet

Teaser:

EXT. THE BLACK SEA DURING A STORM – DAY (1846)

A man stands on the poop deck of an Imperial Russian Navy Ship of the Line watching a lifeboat, overflowing with survivors, rolling and pitching in high waves, moving toward him from a stricken sailing ship. He makes a frame around the scene with his hands.

Start: Black Sea during a stormChallenging Situation: A sailing ship with crew and passengers is in danger of sinking.Conflict: The Russian Navy Ship of the Line struggles to let down a lifeboat and rescue team in the wind and high seas,Action: Full of survivors, the lifeboat valiantly pulls away from the doomed sailing ship.Finish: The man on the poop deck watching the lifeboat pull away from the doomed sailing ship place makes a frame around the scene with his hands.

INT. ART STUDION OIN THEODOSIA – DAY (A MONTH LATER)

Dressed in an artist’s smock and breeches, the man applies finishing touches to the same powerful rescue scene, rendered in oil on canvas.

Start: Same man from the poop deck applies finishing touches to a painting of the rescue at sea.Challenging Situation: Recreating the powerful rescue scene.Conflict: Action: Applying paint to canvas.Finish: The painting is powerful. Even a novice would recognize it as a masterpiece.

Act 1:

INT. LONE MOUNTAIN COLLEGE – FACULTY OFFICE – DAY (PRESENT)

Holding a soft bristle brush, a hand in a surgical glove dusts the same painting, now obscured by an accumulation of grime and discolored varnish. The hand belongs to Dr. Sophie Wolf.

Start: A gloved hand holding a soft bristle brush dusts the same painting, no obscured by an accumulation of grime and discolored varnish. The hand belons to Dr. Sophie Wolf.Challenging Situation: Removing the dust from a painting without harming it.Conflict: Action: Sophie looking through the eyepiece of a digital camera sees the outer covering of dirt and old varnish moves to the background while the original artwork moves to the foreground. Suddenly, she puts down the camera and brushes dirt away from the artist’s signature. The painting is signed by Ivan Aivazovsky.Finish: Sophie calls her father, Zhora, on her mobile phone.

INT. ZHORA’S APARTMENT – SAME

Zhora sits at a dining room table ,which doubles as his desk, translating a Russian document into English. Koshechka, al loafing cat, sprawls on top of the table amid the computer, printer, books, and papers. Zhora’s phone rings.

Start: Sophie tells Zhora the painting she’s cleaning for Falisa, Zhora’s fiancée, is signed by Ivan Aivazovsky.Challenging Situation: Conflict: Zhora argues against Sophie’s theory that the painting is a genuine masterpiece by Ivan Aivazovsky. When she wants to more about the painting, he tells her it belonged to Falisa’s deceased husband, Pasha, who took all his secrets to his grave.Action: Talking on the telephone.Finish: Zhora warns Sophie to tell no one of her suspicions. ”Trust no one.” Sophie promises to keep the painting safe.

INTERCUT – TELEPHONE CONVERSATION between Sophie and Zhora.

Sophie asks Zhora, her father, about the painting she’s cleaning. It’s signed by Ivan Aivazovsky, one of the world’s best seascape painters. Zhora tells her it belonged to Pasha, Falisa’s deceased husband. He was a man who had secrets and who took all of them to the grave. They arrange to meet at Falisa’s to discuss her other paintings.

Start: Sophie tells Zhora the painting she’s cleaning for Falisa, Zhora’s fiancée, is signed by Ivan Aivazovsky.Challenging Situation: Conflict: Zhora argues against Sophie’s theory that the painting is a genuine masterpiece by Ivan Aivazovsky. When she wants to more about the painting, he tells her it belonged to Falisa’s deceased husband, Pasha, who took all his secrets to his grave.Action: Talking on the telephone.Finish: Zhora warns Sophie to tell no one of her suspicions. ”Trust no one.” Sophie promises to keep the painting safe.

INT. LONE MOUNTAI COLLEGE – SOPHIE’S FACULTY OFFICE – DAY

Sophie conducts an Internet search of Aivazovsky sales. If genuine, the painting could be worth more than $5 million.

Start: Sophie conducts an Internet search for Ivan Aivazovsky. If genuine, the painting she’s cleaning is worth over $5 million.Challenging Situation: She has in her possession a very valuable painting that should be under guard somewhere.Conflict: Is the painting really by Ivan Aivazovsky?Action: Turning the painting backward on the easel she finds a line of Cyrillic script that translates to this: Rescue at Sea. For Demyan Sazanov, a seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy and a man of valor – 1846. Then carved into the wooden frame, she sees “Immortal Movement” and jots the words into her notebook.Finish: Mobile phone rings. Her friend, Olivia Carr, wants to show her the Russian Art Exhibition catalog.

INT. SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM – DAY

Sophie dusts the back of the Aivazovsky painting. She finds a line of Cyrillic script that translates to, “Rescue at Sea. For Demyan Sazanov, a seaman in the Imperial Russian Navy and a man of valor – 1846.” She finds these words carved into the canvas’s wooden frame: “Immortal Movement.” Introduces museum curator, Olivia Carr. She calls Sophie and arranges to pick her up for a lunch meeting.

Start: Olivia Carr, curator at a noteworthy, San Francisco museum, wants to show an art exhibition catalog to Sophie.Challenging Situation: What does Sophie do with a possibly valuable painting while she’s out with Olivia/Conflict: Sophie doesn’t want to break away from what she’s doing, but Olivia Carr ends the call before Sophie can say no.Action: Sophie is examining the painting. Olivia is walking and driving.Finish: Sophie hides the painting in a secret drawer under the top of her worktable.

INT. LONE MOUNTAIN COLLEGE – SOPHIE’S FACULTY OFFICE – DAY

INT. PIER 39 RESTAURANT – DAY

Over lunch, Sophie and Olivia discuss the Russian Art Exhibition both are working on. During their conversation, Vitaly Burundukov and Logan Johnson are introduced. There is also the mention of delegates from the Russian consulate being invited to the exhibition. We find out that Sophie’s scholarship is behind the Russian Art Exhibition. We also learn that she doesn’t want much personal publicity. It’s curious. Why not?

Start: Sophie and Olivia sit at a table sipping wine, nibbling Italian bread, and perusing copies of the Russian Exhibition catalog.Challenging Situation: Olivia gives Sophie an invitation for two to the Russian Art Exhibition’s opening reception. Sophie can take a guest if she wants, but she doesn’t know anyone. The only people she associates with are nuns.Conflict: Olivia would have listed Sophie’s major achievements and her photo in the catalog because it’s on Sophie’s scholarship that the exhibition is based.Action: Eating, perusing the catalog.Finish: Olivia asks Sophie if it worries her that the only people she associates with are nuns.

Act 2:

INT. FALISA’S HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – DAY

Aleksei Lukin and Kazimir Nasonov pack three of Falisa’s Old Russian Masters into two portfolios. There should be four. They are missing one and they are worried about it.

Zhora and Falisa surprise them in the act of stealing the paintings. Kazimir fatally shoots Falisa and seriously wounds Zhora. The two get away with the paintings in a black SUV while their victims lie on the ground bleeding.

Start: Aleksei Lukin and Kazimir Nasonov are in Falisa’s living room packing three unframed paintings into portfolios.Challenging Situation: There should be four paintings. What are Aleksei and Kazimir going to do about not finding the fourth.Conflict: Aleksei is angry with Kazimir for shooting Zhora and Falisa.Action: Kazimir fires his silenced 10mm Smith & Wesson, fatally wounding Falisa and critically injuring Zhora.Finish: Aleksei and Kazimir speed away from Falisa’s house in a black SUV.

INT. SF INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – DAY

We meet Vitaly Burundukov and his French model girlfriend, Aimee La Roux heading for the terminal exit.

We also meet FBI Agent Bill Hillman and his ten-year-old daughter, Lucy, there to meet Bill’s mother, Hannah. She is coming for a visit to babysit Lucy while Bill is in Russia giving a talk on organized crime.

Bill receives a telephone call from San Francisco Police Detective Dave Sharp, who is seeing Zhora into an ambulance. Dave found Bill’s card on Zhora and made the call to let him know Zhora thinks the shooters were enemies from his past and that Zhora’s worried about his daughter.

Bill tells Dave he’s headed for the hospital and that he’ll take care of Sophie.

Start: Introducing Vitaly Burundukov and his French model girlfriend, Aimee La Roux.Challenging Situation: Bill hears from San Francisco Police Detective Dave Sharp that Zhora has been critically injured by Russian shooters and Falisa’s been killed. Dave tells Bill that Zhora thinks the shooters were enemies from his past.Conflict: Does Bill take Hannah and Lucy home, or does he go directly to the hospital where his informant lying near death.Action: Removing luggage from the baggage carousel.Finish: Bill tells Dave he’ll take care of Sophie.

Act 3:

EXT. SF PARKING LOT – DAY

Aleksei and Kazimir turn over the stolen paintings to Iosif Emin. Iosif is angry that there was a confrontation that ended in shooting.

Iosif sends Aleksei and Kazimir to break into Zhora’s apartment with the objective of finding and stealing the fourth painting.

Start: Introduces Iosif Emin. He’s the one giving orders to Aleksei and Kazimir.Challenging Situation: Iosif receives only three stolen paintings. Where is the fourth?Conflict: Iosif is furious that there was gunplay and Zhora and Falisa were shot.Action: Transferring paintings from SUV to Iosif’s car. Aleksei receives a photo of Zhora and his home address with instructions from Iosif to find the fourth painting. It must be at Zhora’sFinish: Iosif warns them, “No more collateral damage.

INT. ZHORA’S HOSPITAL ROOM – DAY

Sophie arrives in Zhora’s hospital room and finds him in critical condition. He’s accompanied by FBI Agent Bill Hillman, who is watching out for him.

Sophie learns that Zhora has not been entirely truthful with her. Ignoring their U. S. Witness Protection Program restrictions, Zhora has been working for Bill as an informant, putting himself in jeopardy of being identified by FSB.

Bill tells Sophie that he will protect her.

Start: Sophie arrives at Zhora’s hospital room. There she meets FBI Agent Bill Hillman.Challenging Situation: Sophie finds out that Zhora is not just a Russian translator. He’s also been working as an informant for Bill, putting them all at risk of being found out by the FSB.Conflict: Bill tells Sophie he will take care of her. She tells him she can take care of herself.Action: Talking around hospital bed. Finish: Bill takes a seat outside Zhora’s hospital room to protect him against another attempt at his life.

INT. ZHORA’S AND SOPHIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Aleksei and Kazimir break into Zhora’s and Sophie’s apartment. They search the place for the missing painting.

They are surprised in the act by Sophie’s return home.

Start: Aleksei and Kazimir break into Zhora’s and Sophie’s apartment and turn off the alarm.Challenging Situation: They need to shut off the alarm before it sounds.Conflict: Aleksei and Kazimir argue over how to treat the cat, Koshechka.Action: Aleksei searches the house. Kazimir opens the gate down the backstairs for a quick get awayFinish: Aleksei and Kazimir hear Sophie’s key turning in the door lock,

Act 4:

INT. ZHORA’S AND SOPHIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Returning home, Sophie realizes there are intruders in the apartment and calls Bill for help, but he doesn’t pick up. Sophie is on her own.

She bumps into Aleksei and sees his face as he and Kazimir are making their escape. It’s a terrifying experience that ends with her falling down the stairs onto Bill who is arriving late.

Bill and Sophie search the apartment to find out what the intruders were after. They conclude the intruders probably were not FSB and they might be art thieves after Falisa’s painting.

Bill sees a photo of Yelena Tebieva and learns that she is Sophie’s mother. He hopes with every fiber of his being that Zhora has not been in contact with his wife since he arrived in the U. S. She could point the FSB to Zhora’s and Sophie’s whereabouts.

Start: Sophie returns home to find intruders (Aleksei and Kazimir) in her and Zhora’s apartmentChallenging Situation: She calls Bill for help but he doesn’t pick up. She’s on her own with the intruders.Conflict: Bill goes to access Zhora’s safe. Sophie tells him she doesn’t have the combination. Bjut he already knows it by heart.Action: She bumps into Aleksei, sees his face, backs away, falls down the stairs, and lands on Bill.Finish: Sophie realizes that the intruders were art thieves, not FSB. They were after the fourth Old Russian Master.

Act 5:

INT. FALISA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Bill and Sophie break into Falisa’s house to find out whether her paintings are stolen.

The paintings are gone.

The conclusion is that the shooters were art thieves, not FSB.

Bill finds a key to a unit at Ocean Beach Self Storage in Falisa’s kitchen and pockets it.

Start: Sophie and Bill break into Falisa’s house, still cordoned off with crime scene tape.Challenging Situation: They need to find out whether Falisa’s paintings are missing without attracting the attention of the police.Conflict: Action: Breaking and entering, searching Falisa’s house.Finish: Bill finds a key to a unit at Ocean Beach Self Storage in Falisa’s house.

EXT. ZHORA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Bill takes Sophie home. He’s afraid the thieves might return, but Sophie reasons that they already know that the painting is not there.

He makes sure Sophie is locked into her apartment and leaves for home.

Start: Bill drops Sophie off at home. She finds Koshechka.Challenging Situation: Should Bill leave her all alone, knowing the art thieves are still on the loose.Conflict: Sophie insists that the art thieves already know the painting they are looking for is not in her apartment.Action: Finding and picking up Koshechka. Bill making sure the door is bolted.Finish: Bill and Sophie saying goodnight to one another through a bolted door.

INT. Bill’s House – Night

Bill puts Lucy to bed.

Bill and Hannah eat in the kitchen over pie and coffee. We find out that Bill is a widower, that Hannah wants to see him and Lucy happy, and that Bill is perfectly happy to be a single dad.

Start: Bill puts Lucy to bed. Challenging Situation: Hannah is trying to encourage Bill to find a new mate. He’s happy the way things are.Conflict: Bill tells Lucy to put her mobile phone away. She doesn’t want to and sulks.Action: Bill kissing Lucy goodnight. Hannah serving Bill coffee and pie.Finish: Bill tells his mother, “We’re good the way we are.”

INT. ZHORA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Sophie sits on her bed holding a photograph of Zhora, worrying about whether or not he will live or die.

Start: Sophie sitting on her bed holding a photograph of Zhora.Challenging Situation: Sophie is afraid of losing Zhora. “Please be okay, Papa.”Conflict: Action: Finish: Sophie holds Zhora’s photograph.

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – SCENE REQUIREMENTS

What I learned from doing this assignment is the importance of outlining. I wonder if they do treatments in Binge Worthy TV?

THE ART OF SECRECY

Teaser:

Lincoln is pulled apart by an angry mob at a Baltimore train station.

Start: Transferring between trains, Lincoln looks worn out, but calm. He smiles, gets in the carriage with Mary.

Challenging Situation: The large crowd presses in. The horses can’t move. When the driver asks them to move, the crowd won’t budge.

Conflict: As Lincoln stands in the carriage and gives a speech of reconciliation and the need for Americans to unite behind democracy and be a light of hope to the world… a gang member grabs his ankle and pulls him down. Within seconds, he is swept away into the seething, roaring mob.

Action: Lincoln is torn apart by the vicious mob.

Finish: Mary lets out a bloody scream. A top hat flies through the air.

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.

Start: Kate walks past a sign advertising a fireworks display for the new year, 1861. She walks past a Chicago landmark.

Challenging Situation: The wind is brisk.

Conflict: Kate stops walking, looks up at the stairs leading to the offices of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. After a solemn moment, she turns and walks away.

Action: She stops walking, takes out a newspaper clipping: Detective Wanted for the Pinkerton Agency. She turns, looks back at the offices.

Finish: With a determined gait, Kate climbs the stairs leading into the offices of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

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.

Start: Kate is a young widow looking for a job. She wants to be independent. She’s not looking to get married any time soon: been there, done that.

Challenging Situation: Kate applies for a job for which there is no precedent: there has never been a woman detective.

Conflict: Pinkerton tells Kate there are no clerical openings. She corrects him: she’s applying for the detective job.

Action: Kate explains to Pinkerton that women have their ways of obtaining information that men don’t have. They’re more easily trusted. And better observers than men. Besides, she would welcome the opportunity to put her acting skills to use.

Finish: Kate becomes America’s first woman detective.

INT. FELTON’S OFFICE – DAY

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

Start: Pinkerton, modestly dressed, is a little intimidated by the plush office of the railroad president.

Challenging Situation: Felton tells Pinkerton that men in red shirts hang out under the rail bridges leading into Baltimore. There are rumors they plan to burn the bridges.

Conflict: Felton explains to Pinkerton that if the red shirts burn the bridges, there will be no way to send troops from the Northern states to Washington. He emphasizes that his rail line is the only way northern troops can come to the aid of Washington. If the rail bridges burn, Washington will be vulnerable and unprotected, given how President Buchanan has refused to build up defenses. Southern mobs will be free to attack the capital and make it the center of the Confederacy.

Action: Felton explains the situation using a model diorama in his office.

Finish: Pinkerton agrees to take the case and find out what the red shirts are up to.

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.

Start: Pinkerton returns home to his wife and two sons and then goes to a secret room where a black family is hiding.

Challenging Situation: How to get the family on the road to Canada without getting caught.

Conflict: The family fears the last leg of their journey. If they get caught, they will be sent back to the plantation. And if they make it, will they be able to live happily in a new country? Pinkerton shares his own experience of being cut off from his homeland, Scotland, and being hunted for his activities supporting democracy and workers’ rights. You’ll be fine.

Action: Pinkerton gives the father and son lessons in how to be a Cooper, a maker of casks and barrels. He tells them they will need these skills when they get to Canada.

Finish: Pinkerton sends the family off. An emotional farewell.

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.

Start: Kate enters the office a little shy about her newfound fame.

Challenging Situation: Pinkerton shows Kate the newspaper story about her success in the Adams Express case. He’s very proud of her and for what she has done for the agency.

Conflict: 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.

Action: Pinkerton refuses. He won’t be blackmailed.

Finish: Pinkerton tells Kate that the Baltimore team’s investigation is far too dangerous for a woman. Any woman. And not to take it personally. But Kate won’t talk with him about the details of the Adams Express job.

EXT. STREET – DAY

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

Start: Pinkerton exits the door to his offices, looks up at the sky. It’s raining. He bursts open his umbrella and only gets to the bottom of the stairs where the reporters surround him.

Challenging Situation: Kate is getting more notoriety than Pinkerton. How can he keep this horse in its stable?

Conflict: At first, the reporters crowd around him and he can’t move. Then he breaks through them and they follow him.

Action: The Newspaper reporters follow Pinkerton down the street and hound him with questions.

Finish: Pinkerton looks flustered as he makes his way down the street in among a cluster of umbrellas.

INT. PINKERTON’S HOME – DAY

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

Start: Tension at the dinner table. Kate is conflicted.

Challenging Situation: A goodbye dinner for Pinkerton who will be leaving for Baltimore. Kate is to help oversee the family in his absence.

Conflict: Pinkerton’s boys misbehave, excited to have a dinner guest.

Action: Pinkerton tells Kate that he has changed his mind and assigned her to the Baltimore team.

Finish: Kate is happy, excited to be going.

EXT. TRAIN STATION – DAY

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

Start: Waiting to board on the station platform, Pinkerton checks his watch.

Challenging Situation: Pinkerton is trying to get his team aboard the train without attracting attention. It’s a secret mission after all. But Kate is late.

Conflict: A reporter spots Pinkerton. He freezes.

Action: Pinkerton works his way to the last car before boarding, the reporter following him.

Finish: Kate arrives and another detective on the team gets her onboard. Pinkerton confronts her about the necessity of secrecy. Making your connection is essential to maintaining secrecy.

EXT. STREETS – DAY

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

Start: Lincoln starts his walk with a brisk step.

Challenging Situation: Lincoln tries to maintain proper composure on the outside for what is heart-wrenching in the inside.

Conflict: Lincoln is conflicted about leaving his home for Washington and leaving Willy’s gravesite.

Action: Lincoln shakes hands and embraces his dear friends. The men choke up; the women cry. Everyone’s worried about what may happen to him.

Finish: Now Lincoln meanders, a bit of a lost soul.

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.

Start: Kate is excited.

Challenging Situation: All the passengers are huddled next to the stovepipe heater at one end of the train car. Pinkerton’s team is huddled on the other end.

Conflict: Pinkerton tells Kate that because she is a woman, she will not be allowed to go deep undercover. It’s far too dangerous for a woman.

Action: Using a foldout map as his guide, Pinkerton lays out the plan to discover who the red shirts are and what they are up to. Do they plan to burn the bridges? And, if so, why? Is it a Southern plot, like Felton has suggested? Or is this some kind of gang thing?

Finish: Kate sulks.

Act 2:

EXT. STREETS – DAY

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

Start: Kate walks the streets of Mobtown wide-eyed.

Challenging Situation: How is Kate going to find out anything about the red shirts who hang around the base of the bridges?

Conflict: Kate gets pushed around because the Southern sympathizers see her as a Northerner.

Action: Kate notices well dressed gentlemen make surreptitious hand gestures to one another as they pass each other on the street.

Finish: Finding it odd, Kate gets Pinkerton and has him confirm it.

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.

Start: Kate, now Miss Dixie, makes her entrance in a dress covered in little Confederate flags with an umbrella to match. Pinkerton, now Mr. Hutchinson, wears a fine suit with a bowler hat and a Palmetto pin on his lapel.

Challenging Situation: How are Kate and Pinkerton going to find out anything in this city hostile to newcomers?

Conflict: Angelina, sitting at a neighboring table with her husband, Rhett, compliments Kate on her dress. But Rhett examines Pinkerton suspiciously.

Action: Angelina and Kate strike up a nonstop conversation and excuse themselves to the powder room.

Finish: Rhett doesn’t like stockbrokers like Pinkerton. He’s a volunteer fireman with the local hook and ladder association. He works for a living. But Pinkerton impresses him with skyrocketing firearm stocks.

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.

Start: Lincoln listens intently to the heated conversation, but doesn’t say a word.

Challenging Situation: How to get Lincoln to Washington safely and without being ridiculed.

Conflict: The team argues over railroad maps and routes.

Action: Lincoln is presented with two choices: Take the direct route and risk mockery or worse by the Southern sympathizers and slaveholders, or… take the much longer northern route through New York.

Finish: Lincoln chooses the longer, more populous northern route because it will give him an opportunity to meet the people he will lead.

INT. HOTEL LOBBY – DAY

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

Start: Kate and Angelina sit together and laugh like sisters.

Challenging Situation: Angelina invites Kate to her home. Better not slip up here.

Conflict: 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. How? Kill Lincoln. Burn the bridges and block northern troops from aiding Washington. Attack the capital and make it the capital of the new Confederacy. Kate declines to go to her home because she’s afraid to be around Rhett, a powerful man.

Action: Angelina explains to Kate who’s who in the Mobtown world.

Finish: Angelina tells Kate that Rhett isn’t home. It’s Friday night. He always has business on Friday nights.

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.

Start: Kate and Angelina enjoy their tea together.

Challenging Situation: Angelina receives word that Rhett is too drunk to make it home alone. She had better come get him.

Conflict: When Kate is alone, Rhett shows up in the doorway, totally plastered. He comes on to Kate.

Action: Kate turns the tables and threatens the greatly confused Rhett, who falls backward into the doorway and confesses that Ferrandini is the one she should talk to if she wants in on the plot to assassinate Lincoln when he passes through Baltimore.

Finish: Angelina shows up in the doorway perplexed.

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.

Start: Pinkerton is stunned to learn his barber is the ringleader of the assassination plot.

Challenging Situation: How to get close to Ferrandini without tipping him off?

Conflict: Pinkerton acknowledges that Ferrandini is his barber and the one he has been pumping information from.

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

Finish: Kate and Pinkerton set up a ruse that targets Ferrandini.

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.

Start: Kate circulates the room, the social butterfly. Laughing, having a good time. Pinkerton enters, angry.

Challenging Situation: How to get Ferrandini to trust Kate without getting caught?

Conflict: Kate and Pinkerton stage a shouting match in the plush lobby. The staff try to put a stop to it, to no avail. Ferrandini is amused.

Action: At a crowded luxury hotel lobby, Hutchinson attacks Miss Dixie for being soft on the Union. Kate attacks him for being a money-grubbing firearms merchant.

Finish: Ferrandini defends Kate, takes her under his wing. Tells Pinkerton to get lost.

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.

Start: As always, Lincoln listens attentively while others talk and shout their views.

Challenging Situation: How to protect the President-Elect when there is no budget to do so?

Conflict: The retired military men argue about who should be in charge of protecting the President.

Action: Lincoln is presented with a plan of an armed guard of soldiers protecting him throughout the journey. Lincoln declines. It would make him look weak and fearful.

Finish: Lincoln expresses his thanks to the men, mentioning that he has no fear, for no American would ever willfully murder an American President.

INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM – DAY

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

Start: Kate slips into a dining room where Ferrandini sits waiting for her.

Challenging Situation: Kate goes rogue, agrees to a secret meeting with Ferrandini.

Conflict: Kate is venturing into a close relationship with the enemy that could get her hung on Pratt Street. And she’s doing it without Pinkerton’s guidance.

Action: Kate learns the broad details of the assassination plot. The existence of the KGC and the hardship of organizing and recruiting gang members for the plot.

Finish: Ferrandini asks for another dinner. Kate says yes.

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.

Start: Pinkerton wants answers. What was Kate thinking?

Challenging Situation: How can Kate navigate between two men: Pinkerton and Ferrandini.

Conflict: Pinkerton demands that Kate cut off her relationship with Ferrandini. It’s too dangerous. Let me handle it.

Action: Kate won’t agree to cut off the relationship with Ferrandini. It’s too important and she’s made important headway.

Finish: Kate leaves. Pinkerton simmers.

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.

Start: Kate shows up a little nervous. Ferrandini tries to calm her.

Challenging Situation: Kate must walk a thin wire, balancing her goals as a Union spy with her feelings.

Conflict: Kate is in a situation with Ferrandini, her feelings in conflict with her job.

Action: Kate learns about the KGC and its efforts to recruit and organize the gangs of the city for the assassination plot.

Finish: Kate feels herself caring for a man she must betray.

Act 4:

INT. HOTEL BARBER SHOP – DAY

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

Start: Pinkerton pretends to be excited about an arms manufacturing investment.

Challenging Situation: Pinkerton tries to buy Ferrandini’s trust. It’s working.

Conflict: It’s hard for Pinkerton to separate from a large sum of money.

Action: Pinkerton, as Hutchinson, pays Ferrandini a huge sum of money for his investment in the arms trade to help the South.

Finish: 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.

Start: Lincoln and Mary pack for the long journey.

Challenging Situation: Mary brings up her recommendations for members of the cabinet.

Conflict: Lincoln bristles at being pressured.

Action: Mary has a tantrum as Lincoln isn’t listening to her.

Finish: Lincoln has to tell Mary flat out that she can’t make cabinet recommendations. He’s the president. Mary pouts.

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.

Start: Pinkerton snoops around a slaughterhouse.

Challenging Situation: In search of physical evidence, Pinkerton is caught snooping around a slaughterhouse.

Conflict: The Blood Tubs debate about what to do with Pinkerton. They can’t figure out what he is up to, so they decide to dunk him.

Action: The Blood Tubs dunk Pinkerton in a tub of pig’s blood. Pinkerton emerges gasping. The Blood Tubs laugh hysterically.

Finish: 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.

Start: Pinkerton performs the hand gestures that get him into the warehouse.

Challenging Situation: Pinkerton has to pretend to be enthusiastic about a white supremacy ceremony.

Conflict: Pinkerton, a supporter of the Underground Railroad, must join in the racist glee.

Action: Ferrandini sponsors Pinkerton in the elaborate ceremony.

Finish: Pinkerton has to excuse himself and throws up.

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.

Start: Pinkerton is sick about having to participate in the drawing to kill the President.

Challenging Situation: Kate and Pinkerton struggle to figure out their next move.

Conflict: Kate and Pinkerton realize they must find physical evidence to present to Lincoln’s handlers if they are to have any chance at stopping this plot from happening. If they fail, they could be hung and the Union split in two.

Action: Kate and Pinkerton agree that he must go to the drawing in hopes of finding some physical evidence that can be delivered to Lincoln’s handlers.

Finish: Kate commits to working on a plan to communicate what they know to Lincoln’s handlers. Physical evidence or not.

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.

Start: Lincoln walks up to Willy’s gravesite, takes off his hat. Speaks in a low, broken voice.

Challenging Situation: Lincoln must endure his hardest goodbye. He must say goodbye to his dead son, Willy.

Conflict: Lincoln wants to stay close to Willy, his dead son, but Washington calls. This is going to hurt — a lot.

Action: Lincoln tells Willy his secret, deeply felt reasons for answering the call to Washington and why he must go. Democracy is the hope of the whole world. It must not die. No matter the cost.

Finish: Lincoln slowly puts his hat on, struggles to walk away from the gravesite.

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.

Start: When Pinkerton enters the room, he is greeted enthusiastically by his new friends, his fellow Knights. As the newest Knight, Pinkerton gets a lot of unwanted attention.

Challenging Situation: 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.

Conflict: Outwardly, Pinkerton shares in the enthusiasm for what is about to happen. Inwardly, he’s sick.

Action: As a new Knight, Pinkerton is given his number determining his order in the drawing.

Finish: Pinkerton tries to stay out of sight in the back of the room, hiding his true feelings.

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.

Start: When Lincoln arrives at the train station, he’s surprised to see so many of his old friends and neighbors gathered to stay goodbye to him.

Challenging Situation: A lot of people here and the weather is not cooperating. A light rain starts. No one moves.

Conflict: Lincoln wants to stay with his friends, but he’s being pulled away to Washington.

Action: Lincoln delivers an extemporaneous, heartfelt goodbye to his friends at Springfield.

Finish: 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 confides to Pinkerton that he has planted 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. Cut.

Start: When Ferrandini sees Pinkerton, he walks up and greets him warmly. My dear friend, thank you for your support.

Challenging Situation: Pinkerton would like nothing more than to disrupt this evil meeting, but he must keep his violent temper under control.

Conflict: Ferrandini confides to Pinkerton that he has planted eight red ballots instead of one in the drawing to choose who will have the privilege of assassinating the President.

Action: It’s Pinkerton’s turn. He walks up to the front of the room, draws a ballot, pauses, looks over at Ferrandini.

Finish: Ferrandini smiles at him.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Scene Requirements

What I learned is: Firstly, apologies this is so late coming. I had a family crisis to deal with over the course of the last few months, but fortunately, all is well now and I have the time and space to resume classwork. What I learned in this assignment is how to structure the essential components of each scene and transform an essence-only beat sheet into a more fully realized outline that focuses on the fundamentals. I’ve been doing this process since MSC, so this wasn’t entirely new to me, but in the case it did allow me to identify some flow problems and some acts which were overwritten with too many beats. I still am missing a key scene linking the events of Act Two to the midpoint, but I’m confident I’ll figure out that in time. Also, my Act Four is too short — only three scenes at present. But again, I’m sure I’ll be able to work that out soon… possibly the next lesson will give me a breakthrough.

BEAT SHEET

Teaser:

INT. LAB – DAY

New information reveal: Jude awakens to the sight of takeout coffee. A masked man is dousing the lab in gasoline to set it ablaze. He has already poisoned everyone in the lab via the other coffees… except Jude. Jude watches as the man destroys a specific set of microscope slides. Then he holds a gun to Jude’s head and offers him the quick way out—drink the coffee. Jude stands his ground. The masked man pistol whips him unconscious again. Lights up the place–the lab burns around Jude.

Act 1:

INT. LAB – DAY

New information reveal: Jude and his team tensely study the remains of an ancient body. They discover traces of a substance in the DNA that can cure cancer. It’s going to work this time. But Jude is manually extracting the “cure” from the ancient remains – and the process is radioactive, causing the specimen to decay if he uses too much. His higher-up is pressuring him into fudging the data to announce that the procedure works at the shareholders’ meeting – as he tries to concentrate. He handles it perfectly – but the test is a failure—the sample is too old to withstand the process.

EXT. OFFICE BUILDING – DAY

Jude wanders the city listening to calming tapes – “everyone is not against you.” The city traffic and people seem to be following him and closing in. Everything triggers a memory of what happened to his brother – an intense bout of paranoia – which overrides the calming tapes. He senses someone following him. He ducks into an alley, waits for the person’s approach, leaps out to confront him… except it’s just an innocent bystander. Embarrassed and rattled, Jude returns to his tapes… when someone else strongarms him into a car.

INT. PRIVATE MUSEUM – DAY

Jude is marched in as a prisoner, told to sit and wait. He protests but no one will answer him. Marks enters, gives him a tour of the relics including two mummies that could be his for the testing—offers him a plum position at Monolithic pharmaceuticals. Jude doesn’t agree with his aggressively for-profit philosophy – thd job would be the world in exchange for his soul. But Marks won’t let him leave until he signs the contract. Jude uses his knowledge of the relics and remains here to show Marks how little he knows. Marks makes a spur-of-the-moment decision that causes world markets to tumble just to sweeten the deal. Jude still refuses, despite leading on to think that would make the deal. Stands up to power and leaves.

INT. POSH BAR – NIGHT

Dres resisting getting hit on by a presumptuous, powerful man… eventually entertains him–and impresses him with a business plan to 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 hedges suddenly, excuses herself to the women’s room, but he follows her. She calls her assistant to get out of it, but he’s unhelpful. Finally, she gives in and goes along with him.

EXT. SHAREHOLDERS’ GALA – NIGHT

Dres is really a con artist and the “assistant” is her partner Shales – whom she’s trying to convince to fold the con. She can’t afford to be this exposed – especially around this crowd. But Shales wants his cut – and has spiked brass knuckles. Shales hits her in the gut with the spiked knuckles. Smokes meth and threatens to kill her like he did their last partner. She relents, enters the building to go through with it.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ GALA – NIGHT

A disheveled man attempts to enter. The security guards strongarm him. He fishes out an invite… and ID to match. They admit him. He is nervous to go through a metal detector. Gets out of line, tries to bypass them – but there are security guards cordoning off every other way into the ballroom. Door security is still eyeing him and radioing to the others about him. He gets back in line. Goes through, is cleared without incident.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ GALA – NIGHT

Jude’s boss hands him a prepared statement, pressuring him to lie… and he’s up to speak. Threatens him – do this or he’s fired, along with his perks and family health insurance. He has a dilemma – tell the truth and be washed up or lie and compromise his ethics. He stands to speak, surveys the audience. Tears up the prepared statement, and starts his own speech railing against the current state of healthcare for profit… when Catherine has a dissociative episode. Her delusion is a duel from seventeenth century England.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ GALA – NIGHT

Dres sells the CEO on the con. But the CEO is onto her. She tries to get away when he grabs her by the arm. He holds her and already has security closing in. During the struggle, she slips her phone into his pocket, starting a scan/transfer. He’s having her arrested – when he’s shot.

INT. SHAREHOLDERS’ GALA – NIGHT

The disheveled man takes out a 3-D printed automatic rifle, approaches the stage. He hesitates in whatever purpose he has here, because Catherine is distracting him and everyone else. Someone sees the gun and calls out. The disheveled man massacres everyone. Dres ducks and makes for the exit, moving through a sea of people dying or wounded and begging her help. He has Jude point-blank, but recognizes him. Catherine springs up, jams the gun. The disheveled man is thrown off-guard by Catherine’s attack. The cops shoot him. Dres fixates on Jude as she slinks away, fascinated that he wasn’t killed. Dres makes it to an exit where Shales is waiting.

Act 2:

INT. ER – NIGHT

Catherine is physically fine, but Jude is more concerned about the episode she was having. Deeds interrupts Jude’s examination of her. Deeds praises her heroism while giving him digs for freezing. Jude wheels her into neurology, carries on testing her brain even as Deeds pursues with more questions about why the shooter stopped upon seeing him. Jude tells Detective Deeds the shooter was a high-level Pharma engineer who just signed a lucrative contract with Monolithic. Jude reads the scan – and realizes she has advanced brain cancer.

INT. COMPUTER REPAIR SHOP – DAY

Dres is now worth half a million as she and Shales transfer the money from the dead CEO before the accounts are frozen. She goes online, but Shales is watching her – doesn’t want to get caught because she does something stupid. And he won’t let her throw her money away.She distracts him by claiming one of the men in line is a cop she noticed earlier – makes him check if any more are surrounding the building. While he’s looking away, she donates her entire cut to go-fund-mes for people who can’t afford their meds.

INT. LAB – DAY

He pushes his research to find the cure… but the process is still a failure… no specimen that hold can sustain the extraction. There’s one more specimen left and the museum wants it back. His lab assistant wants him to stop, won’t let him test it – if he costs the program any money, they’ll pull the plug. Lab assistant starts shutting down the equipment. Jude grabs him, tears his coat. Suddenly, the system reacts – it’s a success. Blood rich with the element in the DNA. It’s from the fragment of the assistant’s coat. It’s from the woman who was with the CEO of the lab equipment corporation.

INT. AIRPORT – DAY

Dres is in line to board her plane for the getaway when she overhears an airport ticket agent being talked into quitting her job after being denied a promotion. An irate person in line demands they attend to her. Dres picks the irate person’s pocket, causing her to have to stand aside as she fishes around for her ID. Dres gets in the ticket agent’s face and tells her to cut that person out of her life because their advice sucks. She should facie the boss who turned her down and demand the promotion. If he doesn’t give it to her, bring a plane down. She cancels her ticket, researches Jude.

INT. MARKS’S PENTHOUSE – DAY

Marks checks in on the home health visit for his daughter. His daughter is having a great day and they plan for her college, what she’ll study, where she’ll live. Suddenly, she loses control of her bowels in the midst of their walk. She drops the pretext and wants to talk about final steps. Suddenly, an implant goes off, causing a ringing in his ears. He ignores it, refuses to talk of anything but a cure. He snaps at the staff to clean it up, berates the home health nurse and doctor, threatens to crush them. But he’s told the diagnosis – his daughter is dying – won’t be long now. He turns to the tv to see the markets in freefall because of his decision earlier – all this power and he can’t save her. The ringing in his ears is too much. He leaves her, his hand shaking… with fear.

EXT. ROOFTOP GARDEN – DAY

Marks puts on a mask on the elevator up. When the doors open, everyone there is masked… and waiting in judgment for him. The Leader lists his failures in humiliating detail, sentences him to The Penance Room. 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.

Start:

Challenging Situation:

Conflict:

Action:

Finish:

EXT. SECLUDED COURTYARD – DAY

Dres approaches an unmarked grave, retrieves a keycard buried there… when Jude shows up. Approaches her as a friend. She regales him with a history of this place he didn’t know—a tranquil moment… then suddenly pulls a knife and interrogates him. Demands to know why they didn’t kill him. Then, someone shoots at them! He has no idea what she’s talking about. He looks around for an escape… and spots a sniper’s rifle-site glinting in the sun. They’re shot at.

EXT. SNIPER’S ROOST – DAY

Jude cowers from the gunfire. He spots the sniper, realizes Dres was the target of the earlier shooting. He realizes has to attack the sniper—he’s in position. 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. COURTYARD – DAY

Dres returns to her questioning – either he’s one of them or they need him. He doesn’t know who “they” are. She’s done with him.

Jude is in shock that he killed a man. Des holds the knife to his neck again. He just stares at the body, doesn’t care if he dies – he was meant to heal people not kill them. Dres questions him. Jude questions her back. She snaps him to attention – they’ve got to clean this up. There will be others, and police. He’s an all-in accomplice – follows orders to destroy the body.

EXT. SNIPER’S ROOST – DAY

Dres is In control of everything – total cover up. They have to move the body without leaving more evidence – and it won’t stop bleeding. She has him put gravel over the blood has been draining in, roll out a plastic tarp she had planted there and roll the body onto it. He notices a birthmark in the shape of a symbol. Then carry it across the courtyard. Jude is rattled and bad at this… she’s annoyed and time is of the essence. She questions him about how secret this meeting was – and he realizes everyone knows where he was going, who he is. He’s blown.

INT. CHEMICAL COMPANY – DAY

Dres 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. Jude is aghast at the next part of this process – but she calms and focuses him, assuring him she’ll get them both in the clear. They need to get the body to the vat around the manager on duty. The manager has heard them. He knocks over another barrel on another row to call the manager’s attention to it. Then rushes back to help Dres dump the body…except she’s gone. He has to do it himself. He runs out to the street and sees suspicious faces everywhere. Overwhelmed by paranoia.

INT. JUDE’S APARTMENT – DAY

Jude is paranoid and panicked, afraid he’ll be caught. He bursts in the door, out of breath. Blows off work, wires in to news reports. But Catherine is home; she’s starting to wonder about her mind. He can’t tell her anything, but wants to speak from the heart in case he’s hauled away. Special report comes on TV – but it’s just a report on the mass shooting at the shareholders convention. The shooter acted alone. Sees blood on his sleeve, rushes to the bathroom to scrub. Realizes he smells of chemicals, strips, gets in the shower. Catherine gets in with him. He relaxes, realizes no one is after him. They make love… then he checks his phone. Still nothing… until he hears a click and sees a glitch. Someone is actually tracking him. He breaks the sim card.

INT. LAB – NIGHT

Jude sneaks into the lab after hours, but feels watched from the security cameras. analyzes the DNA. The night guard questions him on why he’s there. He has to lie that he’s scanning a sample that got delivered to the wrong lab. The guard fixes him in a penetrating stare. The scan is taking way too long – 300,000 people in the database and it’s going one at a time. The computer is recording his activity. He looks up the symbol… but can’t look away from the camera light and the indicator that the keystrokes are being recorded. It’s against protocol to go on the Dark Net, but he overrides it. Full-on paranoia – the Dark Net screen is filled with conspiracy theories about the symbol. A rabbit hole he must go down.

EXT. ROOFTOP GARDEN – NIGHT

Marks rides the elevator up, masked, breathing heavily beneath, palms sweating. Bows in the elevator, prostrates himself as the doors open, falling on the mercy of the cabal… But when the doors open, it’s a private, friendly meeting with just the Leader. While outwardly friendly, the Leader is threatening him – impressing on him that he will be tortured and killed if he doesn’t kill Jude as well. The Leader takes him into his private chambers and Marks sees the door to the archives, but is forbidden to enter or even inquire about it. The Leader relaxes the restriction and removes his mask. Marks, sensing a test, opts to keep his on. Marks goes to the archives door–sees an elaborate symbol-laden device that serves as the combination lock. About to try the handle when the Leader tells him it’s laced with poison… maybe. The Leader slips, making a comparison to the cabal as a casino, always winning as long as people show up to play… and with disease they always will. He didn’t specify just “cancer.” There may be other cures.

INT. CONSPIRACY THEORY RADIO STATION/ROOFTOP – NIGHT

Wisnewski, a brash conspiracy theorist, finishes recording his podcast with an

outrageous theory. Signs off with trust no one. Goes to the roof to smoke… when Jude emerges from the shadows to talk to him. Wisnewski is armed, holds a gun on him. Jude diagnoses him with lung cancer, promises him a cure instead.

Jude needs info from Wisnewski, but Wisnewski doesn’t trust him because he left all this behind – thinks he’s part of the establishment now and wants something in return as bona fides – data from his lab. Jude realizes this was a mistake, withdraws.

INT. JUDE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

He’s out of the conspiracy lifestyle for good. Professes to Catherine that he’s here for her. But realizes she’s having another bout. She’s scared, inconsolable. She wants to see a doctor—but he wants to keep the diagnosis from her and just cure her instead.

He hangs up the call to the doctor. Plans a vacation instead—to deal with the PTSD of that night. Then, he gets an alert – the DNA comes up with a match – another Pharma employee, who recently went to work for Monolith. It is a conspiracy after all.

Act 4:

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM – HIGHRISE – DAY

Using real-world resources to demystify this conspiracy–Jude appeals to a powerful Big Pharma CEO with ties to the Justice Department to find out about the guy/sniper who recently left. But the CEO is stonewalling him, deflecting. When Jude presses him, the CEO warns him not to turn over this rock. Jude grabs his arm, lifts his sleeve to reveal the same symbol/birth mark on him. CEO excuses himself to make a call, then will tell him everything off-the-record. The CEO has collapsed of a heart attack in the men’s room.

INT. ACTIVE SHOOTER’S HOUSE – DAY

Funeral—solemn and respectful… it’s for the shooter from the shareholder’s convention. Jude approaches the shooter’s partner, who doesn’t want to talk, thinks he’s a reporter. Family members intervene to remove him. He tells them he’s a colleague – but gets caught in a lie. Gets up to the body and checks it for the birthmark/symbol.. And discovers it. The family closes in. He evades them by ducking into a catacomb—because he knows that’s how the old remains were kept. Then comes up and surprises the partner again. The partner tells him the shooter 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. Jude presses him for more, but the partner loses his cool. Jude gets ejected in the midst of a shouting match.

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 (masked) announce he’s already seen his wife for the last time. They’re going to kill him regardless, but they’ll kill Catherine if he doesn’t hand over the sample. He lies about the sample at his house being the only one. He grabs a pair of scissors from the desk and palms it. Tries to work up the courage to use it when Marks calmly calls him out on having it. If he wants to be a soldier, he needs training. Marks spares him, against his orders. And strongly urges him to rethink the offer from Monolithic.

Act 5:

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.

Jude jets off to get to the lab to make the cure with the blood sample he didn’t tell them he had, but his assistant is all in a tizzy – can’t get started because the servers are down. Jude races there, but an overturned car has caused a traffic jam. Jude, as an MD, is obligated to treat the injured… except he sees the driver of the crashed vehicle has the birth mark – it was a suicide mission designed to delay him from the lab. Jude hurriedly ties a tourniquet to the leg of the surviving driver. Takes the man’s cell phone because he left his own in his car, and calls the lab to warn them. Jude gets there, warns them – only to be pistol-whipped unconscious by the IT guy.

INT. LAB – DAY

(Intercut with previous scene) Bad first day on the job. IT tech guy arrives late, got lost on the way because his GPS wasn’t working… then admits it’s because he couldn’t figure out how to work the GPS. The servers are down for the whole lab and everyone’s agitated and angry – they’re on a time crunch here, boss’s orders. He checks out the servers and goes pale – he’s never worked on servers like this. This is his first job, fresh out of college and he’s only read about these servers once sophomore year. He rushes back to his trunk and takes out a dog-eared textbook. The lab assistant catches him. He apologizes and has to call in for his boss to come… but sets down the cardboard carrier of poisoned coffees we saw at the beginning and offers them in consolation. By the end – Everyone is dead. As the lab assistant gags blood and dies, the IT guy fixes on a mask, takes out a gun. He’s a killer in waiting.

INT. LAB – DAY

The teaser replayed.

EXT. HOMELESS SHELTER – DAY

Dres gets word of a new, easy mark—getting drunk at a posh bar. It’s actually Jude luring her into a trap—give him her DNA or he’ll sick the police on her for her other con… which will make her a sitting duck for them. But since he’s forcing her to do the thing she never would, she forces him back: infiltrate them. They didn’t kill him—twice—which means they need him. He drunkenly goes into the mens room so she’ll follow him… then surprises her from behind the door. She pulls her knife but he doesn’t flinch. Instead calmly bolts the door to isolate them. She promises Jude – if he can get her inside, to the people making these decisions – she’ll give him as much of her DNA as he needs to make the cure.

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 is hat-in-hand, begging for the job he turned down. Marks listens condescendingly… and Jude doesn’t see that he has a gun under the desk. Marks is offended by Jude’s turndown last time they met. Puts him to the test – offers one of the mummies from his private museum to be tested on. Jude performs his process on the mummy in Marks’s museum—extracts a cure for cancer… As he does so, Marks suspects he has an ulterior motive for joining the crew… the lab fire being a tip of the iceberg. Jude calls Marks out on needing the process for more than he’s saying, since it still doesn’t work and he knows this. He’s got it! But once again, the radiation destroys the sample before the cure can be made stable. Jude starts to explain that he’s in a bind – but Marks reveals he’s already issued a statement and his lawyers have already talked to the investigating officer – Detective Deeds – to say that Jude wasn’t at the lab because he started work here last week. He’s already covered, now that he’s sold his soul.