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Lesson 5
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9 Replies
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Ira Drower’s Action Track
I learned this track can add the sizzle with fight scenes, escapes, chases, etc.
Answer these questions to create your Action Track:
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1, what action could
naturally show up in this movie?
A cat and mouse chase where it flips from the hunted becoming the
hunter.B. Considering the Mission and Villain Tracks, what action could
work for this track?Shoot-outs, advanced Alien weaponry, feats of strength and cunning, chase scenes with a wolf pack.
C. How can the action start well, build in the 2nd Act, and escalate
to a climax in the 3rd Act?Start as a chase and hunt until it becomes a deadly battle as the Alien Predator runs out of time.
2. Select the types of action you’ll use:
Discovery: Prof Warner activates his teleportation device inadvertently sending a signal to an Alien Predator.
Purpose: The signal is a beacon for the Alien Predator.
Fight/Kill: Alien Predator kills two local hunters on restricted military land. It hides the bodies.
Purpose: Show the power of the Alien Predator and that it will not hesitate to kill.
The Order: Universal Planetary Council sends a spy to eliminate Alien Predator.
Purpose: Insight into hidden opponent, the Planetary Council.
Track/Hunt: Frank tracks an unknown entity he believes is the Alien Predator.
Purpose: Show Frank’s unique skillset of superior senses and agility. Using the sense of smell, IR detection, sight, and electrical impulse detection.
Dangerous Situation/Capture: Frank and his assistant capture an Alien and return to the Alien prison.
Purpose: Show Frank’s daring and capabilities in difficult spots. No fear, take charge guy.
Hunt/Chase: Frank tracks the Alien Predator using 4X4 off-road vehicles and his wolf pack.
Purpose: Action chase where the Alien is bounding between trees as Frank and his wolves follow the moving branches.
Escape/Evade: Alien Predator evades Frank using mimicry and cloaking to avoid Frank.
Purpose: To show the capabilities of the Alien Predator to hide and escape.
Fight: Alien Predator fires a prisoner restriction net it stole from Frank’s jeep, ensnaring one of the wolves.
Purpose: To show Predator’s ingenuity to improvise an escape.
Shootout: The Alien Predator tries a frontal assault on the cave entrance using laser blasters and grenades to blow down the cave wall to the inner prison control center.
Purpose: Increasing action as it is running out of time to reach Prof. Warner’s teleportation device.
Fight/Escape: Frank uses conventional weapons against the Alien Predator and forces it back into the forest.
Purpose: Frank uses superior tactics from previous military experience to fend off the Predator.
Discovery: Frank discovers other entities want to kill the Predator before he catches it.
Purpose: Frank must catch it first to obtain his pardon.
Fight/Capture: Frank battles Alien Predator with blades using trickery to capture the Alien Predator
Purpose: To show it was the human side of Frank that allowed him to defeat a stronger foe.
Taking Hostages: Frank is forced to trade his prisoner for his kidnapped girlfriend.
Purpose: To show other opponents are forcing Frank’s hand.
Escape/Rescue: Frank’s girlfriend is recused by the wolves who attack. The Alien Predator temporarily escapes.
Fight to the Death: Frank must fight a gang of assassins sent from the Alien Predator’s home planet to kill it.
Purpose: Frank will protect his prisoner even if it means his life.
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Bob Rowen’s Action Track
What I learned doing this assignment is to keep writing and not worry about perfection; Also how to zero in on a possible Action Scene sequence.
1. Answer the Action Questions:
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1, what action
could naturally show up in this movie?
DISCOVERY, DANGEROUS SITUATION, FIGHT, ARGUMENT, FAILED HIT, ACCUSATION,
ATTACK, AMBUSH, CAR CHASE, ESCAPE, CONSPIRACY.
B. Considering the Mission and Villain Tracks, what
action could work for this track? DISCOVERY,
DANGEROUS SITUATION, FIGHT, ARGUMENT, FAILED HIT, ACCUSATION, ASSAULT,
CONSPIRACY.
C. How can the action start well, build in the 2nd Act,
and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act? DISCOVERY (company’s lying), ARGUMENT (profit over safety), DANGEROUS SITUATION (nuclear accident under reactor), ACCUSATIONS (confrontation at
safety meeting), FIGHT (barroom
fight between Hero’s few and many company men), FAILED HIT (Hero ran off road and documentation disappears), ASSAULT (Villain and Hero go
from verbal to physical confrontation in reactor control room and Hero is
fired), CONSPIRACY (Hero is
made a national security risk),
REQUITAL (Villain is victimized by his own doing).
Sequence of Action Scenes and the purpose of each in the story:
1. DISCOVERY: Prater (Hero) learns the company is lying to its employees about the safety of occupational radiation exposure and further, the government is in bed with the company.
Purpose: Causes a naïve Prater to reexamine his faith in corporate America and the government.
2. ARGUMENT: Prater engages Edgar (Villain) over a disagreement with Prater’s concern regarding needless and senseless radiation exposure…putting profit over safety.
Purpose: Pits Prater against Edgar moving forward in the story. Prater continues to be a threat to Edgar’s role of protecting and promoting a failed and dangerous technology in order for the Far-West Electric Company to “go-nuclear”.
3. DANGEROUS SITUATION: After a number of serious set-tos with Edgar over radiation safety issues, Edgar assigns Prater to a job under the reactor where a horrendous nuclear accident happens. Edgar was aware of what would happen prior to the job assignment.
Purpose: Edgar’s misguided but intentional goal is to cause Prater to suffer from radiation poisoning and perhaps death or at least cause him to leave the company…if he survives.
4. DISCOVERY: After “mysterious” highly radioactive particles showed up at the plant and during his routine weekly environmental tour, Prater finds the constant air sample monitor missing at the elementary school located downwind from the nuclear facility.
Purpose: Prater confronts Edgar regarding the company’s decision to remove the most important element in the nuclear plant’s environmental radiological monitoring system. After threatening him, Edgar makes clear Prater needs to learn the difference between being a technician and a member of management.
5. ACCUSATION: Prater causes a ruckus at a company safety meeting as he publicly exposes illegal and immoral management conduct.
Purpose: To make what’s happening at the nuclear facility a matter of public record because the minutes of every monthly safety meeting can be made public as a requirement in the plant’s operating license.
6. FIGHT: There is a barroom fight between Prater’s small group of supporters and a large number of Edgar’s company men (nuclear plant employees who disagree with Prater).
Purpose: To establish the violent discontent within the ranks of the nuclear workforce due to Prater’s perceived threat to employee livelihoods.
7. FAILED HIT: On his way to meet with a Wall Street reporter, Prater is run off the road and crashes. An injured Prater escapes the scene but his documentation disappears.
Purpose: The pro-nuclear forces want Prater dead.
8. CONSPIRACY: Edgar coordinates with company officials and law enforcement to create a confidential police report that is sent to the FBI.
Purpose: To make Prater a national security risk so he can never again obtain a security clearance.
9. REQUITAL: Prater learns at his My Mendocino Diary book signing that Edgar was diagnosed with terminal cancer and committed suicide.
Purpose: To reveal Prater is doing well and Edgar was victimized by his own doing.
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Frances Williams Action Track
What I Learned doing this Assignment is what is the purpose of Heroes vs Villains in an action movie.
What action could naturally show up in the movie?
We see Alexi and her daughter sitting on a subway car, when a man approaches them and demands that she give up her daughter, she is punched and kicked to the ground and her daughter is taken.
Considering the mission and Villain Tracks what action could work for this Track?
While Alex is in the Hospital, she devises a plan of attack and retaliation.
How can the Action start well, build in the 2nd Act and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act?
Alex is sleeping in her apartment when she hear noises coming from downstairs, and is ambushed bu 3 armed assailants
2. Select the types of action you’ll. Use Fight,
Ambush,
Alexi is sleeping in her apartment when she is awaken by a loud noise coming from the down stairs of her apartment, she goes downstairs and is ambushed by 3 masked men carrying automatic weapons
Purpose: create a sense of danger.
Chase
Alex sees a car of armed leaving the scene at her apartment, she gets in her car and chases behind them. A shootout occur. The car flips over on its back and everyone in it is killed.
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The Action Track
What I learned doing this assignment:
Create a rough draft of your Action Track.
1. Answer the Action Questions:
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1, what action could naturally show up in this movie?
Road rage encounter and threats, fist fights, escalating into guns and shooting; and later a tank a microwave weapon (Havana Syndrome).
B. Considering the Mission and Villain Tracks, what action could work for this track? DISCOVERY, CHASES, HOSTAGE TAKING/KIDNAPPING, FIGHT, SHOOTOUT, RESCUE,
ESCAPE/EVADE, DANGEROUS SITUATIONS, INTERROGATIONS, TORTURE
C. How can the action start well, build in the 2nd Act, and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act?
Ken confronts Burlyman after he cuts off a pallet carrying pickup truck
DISCOVERY: Judge Ken witnesses reckless driving incident that severely injures a boy walking out of a learning center.
Purpose: Creates interest in why he gets so upset about reckless driving because his wife got killed by someone texting and driving.
CHASES: down the reckless driver, Burlyman, that caused the boy harm and confronts him.
Purpose: shows that Judge Ken is not afraid of a fight/confrontaion.
DISCOVERY: Judge Ken gives out rotary phone sentences in which offenders have to turn in their smartphones for rotary cell phones. Also Judge Ken gives out long sentences of 364 days, the max for county jail which is unheard of in today’s world.
Purpose: to show he is serious about avenging his wife’s death and do something about societal decay and deliver justice.
HOSPITAL SCENE in which Kirill’s people are monitoring the status of the boy and they see the mother of the boy talking to Judge Ken and Judge Jason: “Get the bastard who did this to my son.”
Purpose: escalates the action into Act 2.
CHASE: A car tries to hit Ken and Jason driving back from the hospital and they chase but the car gets away by an insane evasion down an arroyo.
Purpose: escalate the action and show the bad guys are fight them because they stumbled into the bad guys’ subversion operation.
KIDNAP: Kirill kidnaps Judge Jason’s wife.
Purpose: Draws Judge Jason and Ken to have to rescue her and shows the immorality of Kirill.
RESCUE: Judge Jason and Judge Ken go to save Judge Jason’s wife from Kirill and his Lilputins.
Purpose: To get Jason’s wife back and correct the injustice or at least set up the need for fighting injustice of Kirill’s actions in Act 3.
ESCAPE: Kirill gets away with Burlyman
Pupose: The evil prevails temporarily until Jason and Ken can counter-attack.
COUNTER-ATTACK: Judge Ken and Judge Jason somehow get a mini tank or an M1 and attack Kirill’s compound but are thwarted when Kirill’s men blow up the tank tracks.
Purpose: To kick ass and take names but it has a minor set back, they haven’t slain Goliath yet.
FINAL SCENE: Judge Jason kills Kirill with a microwave weapon and Judge Ken kills Burlyman with his .22 cal umbrella after a long hand to hand battle.
Purpose: To finally kick ass and send Kirill into the after life and Burlyman too. To give the audience satisfaction of the good guys winning and justice accomplished.
2. Select the types of action you’ll use.
A. Chase/Pursuit X
B. Fight X
C. Shootout X
D. Rescue X
E. Escape/Evade X
F. Competition
G. Dangerous Situations X
H. Interrogation X
I. Torture X
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Gary Holland’s Action tracks.
What I learned was putting this track on paper gives insight on what I have and what I need to add.
Discovery – An alien ship crashes on Earth in 1947… the artifact is found. Many years later, using the crash fragments, a scientist constructs a one of a kind fighter jet… the artifact in control.
Purpose – Give insight on how the artifact shows up and what was done with it.
Fight – The hero is chosen to test fly the fighter when all hell breaks loose… the arrival of the visitors.
Purpose – Gives insight on the sheer confusion… the hero takes over the best he can but the artifact is in complete control.
Fight/Evade – They must fight ten high tech alien fighters and evade an outside force that causes the destruction of Las Vegas… then deal with a black energy that invades their cockpit to force them to land.
Purpose – It shows the aliens are not playing around.
Escape – A scientist is in the rear seat on the test flight. She uses an untested program to force the artifact from the receptacle…… it works… the black energy fades away, but the artifact is now compromised.
Purpose – The hero and the scientist.
The order – The hero goes into hiding at a safe house until orders come… his girlfriend delivers the orders.
Purpose – It brings the girlfriend into the mix.
Ambush – The woman for hire finds them at the safe house and attacks the girlfriend only to show mercy for a pregnant opponent.
Purpose – Insight that the woman for hire has a conscience.
Discovery – A fake artifact pops up, courtesy of the scientist… this is vital to the mission.
What action could take place – Aerial assault… hand to hand combat… alien weapons play.
Action start – The arrival of the visitors.
2nt Act – The destruction of the safe house, forcing the hero, his friends and the woman for hire into the lower levels… where the fun begins.
Climax – The full out attack on the alien planet… save the girl… finish the mission and get the hell out of there.
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Beth Zurkowski Action Track! “What I learned doing this assignment is always go back and check your notes.”
Create a rough draft of your Action Track.
1. Answer the Action Questions:
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1, what action
could naturally show up in this movie? a fight scene.
B. Considering the Mission and Villain Tracks, what
action could work for this track? chase and pursuit, fight Interrogation, torture,
and escape.
C. How can the action start well, build in the 2nd Act,
and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act? The action starts out with fighting
20 family members that are men and women before Velda can get Patty to safety.
Then comes a chase scene with a pursuit. Then the father hires 12 marital
artists who capture Velda and Patty where Velda is interrogated and
tortured and she escapes after rescuing Patty. Then there is another chase
and fight scene where she fights bad guys with her own MMA group who use
swords and calls the father for her own and fights him to the death in a
sword fighting match. -
Bob McCord’s Action Track
What I know/learned from this assignment is that guys doing paperwork don’t just start shooting, but they have to, and early. Set up and sequence must be quick to magnify conflict and create action. Two tracks, admin and action, have to finally give way to one fast-paced showdown set up by the paperwork. The sequence of the Bourne script was most instructive.
1. Qs for Action Track:
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1, what action could naturally apply in this movie?
Admin hassles and arguments that lead to manipulation and threats, then to shooting, assaults, sabotage, more shootings, more hassles, chase, escape, shootout.
B. Considering the Mission and Villain Tracks, what action could work for this track?
All the above, moving from admin to threats, then shootings, to resolution and death.
C. How can the action start well, build in 2nd Act, and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act?
Then action really starts with an attempted hit on the Hero and ends with the definite death of the Villain by the Hero. In between the action switches between admin and guns.
2. Select the types of action you’ll use.
A. Chase/Pursuit
B. Fight
C. Shootout
D. Rescue
E. Escape/Evade
F. Competition
G. Dangerous Situations
H. Hassle
I. Threats
J. Sniper shot
K. Leverage of others
3. Sequence the action scenes to deliver your story. Give us your list of action scenes and the purpose of each scene.
1. CHALLENGE: Hero told by in-house experts that the client has no chance to win. Hero picks apart their objections, shows them misreading, how to interpret, better insight, and a real opportunity to win. Purpose: Set up Hero as authority who knows his stuff and can lead them to winning bid.
2. ADVERSARY REACTS: Competitor Villain learns that hero has joined opposition. He begins to fashion counter bid. Purpose: Shows Villain knows of Hero’s skills and danger. Alerts us to conflict.
3. ADMIN HASSLES: Hero encounters difficulties with basic status and authority of badges, clearances, approvals, etc. He makes calls and decisions to resolve. Purpose: Show how Hero takes charge, commands resources, and pushes back against the power of Villain from a long-ago relationship.
4. THE ORDER: Villain realizes this conflict could draw attention to his “wired” opportunity to secure millions. Kill the Hero, now. Purpose: See how Villain is rattled by Hero taking him on, threat of loss, and raises the stakes for the Hero.
5. SNIPER SHOT: Hero meets key expert for first time when they are shot at. Bullet kills expert, Hero hides. Purpose: Elevate tension and threats in competition and to Hero. Must step up defense of self and others.
6. ESCAPE: Hero returns to room for stuff and gun. Calls client to tell him it will take more than words to win. Purpose: We are now beyond just contract competition. Hero has to decide to quit or proceed with stakes now redefined.
7. MORE HASSLES: Death of key expert is a big obstacle to winning. Now police investigation, budget worries, client confusion and fear, community leaders question hiring of Hero. Purpose: Show us how pressure builds, support diminishes, tension mounts as Hero focuses on job and how to stay alive.
8. THREATS: Villain enraged at failed hit on Hero. Telsl the Hero to back off or die. Sends out a new squad of shooters. Purpose: We feel the tension, danger, fear, time running down–and the Villain’s desperation.
9. ASSAULT: Hero shot at again by 2 hitmen. Picks them off, but is wounded, hides, tells other personnel. Purpose: Escalation of violence and pressure. We get reactions from others affected by the project. Fear.
10. HERO FIRED: Client can’t take it anymore. Prospects are bleak; salvage what can, maybe subcontract. Purpose: Stakes are much higher, so is loss. Offer the Hero a way out while still alive.
11. LEVERAGE OF OTHERS: Community leaders rally to provide protection and resources to complete proposal. Purpose: See that all is not lost, but very tenuous. Will effort be enough to win?
12. HERO PICKS OFF MINION: Villain calls in more chits from commanders;they send special ops snipers to finish the job, expecting no resistance. Hero resists, shoots, but can’t continue as defender. Purpose: Audience anxious–how will Hero get to the finish line if they keep distracting/shooting at him?
13. ATTACK: Villain takes charge, but not well. Discovers that Hero has joined forces with community police who have come to arrest Villain. FBI is involved now because of Villain tampering with government contract and personnel. He grabs a weapon and runs for the safety of the base. Purpose: High stakes, high motivations. We see desperation yet resolve of Villain. He could prevail.
14. DANGEROUS SITUATION: What started out as two-man conflict has escalated into combat between stakeholders. People could get killed. But they keep coming. Purpose: Shows us that the stakes got higher not only financially but personally for all the players. Who will reduce the risks?
15. MORE SHOOTERS: Special Ops comes in , police and community members join forces, base police run to stop the intrusion at the fence. Purpose: Escalation, tension, Hero could be overwhelmed.
16. EVADE: Villain makes it onto base with his credentials, but is wounded from the pursuing cops. The police can’t get on base, so Villain has a head start. But Hero can–the administrative hassles resolved with him receiving passes and clearances. Purpose: Tension with insight into both Villain and Hero. They’ve met before. Both determined and all in.
17. SHOOTOUT: The SpOps team has turned on the Villain, under orders the commander has in his hand. They point rifles. He tries to shoot but Hero shoots first, wounds him. Purpose: Can he do it? Hero shoots through his pain; he can’t and won’t fail.
18. HIT: Hero reminds Villain of how he helped Villain win a big contract years ago when they worked together. Did it again this time, not for Villain but for Hero’s brother. Bang. Purpose: Villain’s desperation not as focused as Hero’s resolve. Professionally, Hero won.
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Chris’s Action Track
What I learned doing this assignment is: it’s difficult creating new scenes we haven’t seen hundreds of times before.
Select the types of action:
Chase/Pursuit: The hero, on the run from the authorities, races through the city streets on foot while being chased by police cars.
Fight: The hero battles a group of henchmen in a warehouse, using his military expertise to take them down one by one.
Escape/Evade: The hero must outrun a pursuing helicopter as he makes his way through thick woods/brush.
Dangerous Situations: The hero must navigate a treacherous mountain pass in order to catch the villains before they escape.
Shootout: The hero engages in a gunfight with the mercenaries, exchanging bullets and ducking for cover.
Interrogation: The hero finds himself on the receiving end of a brutal interrogation by the villains, who are trying to get information from him
Torture: The hero has flashbacks to illegal torture he witnessed at Gitmo.
Rescue: The hero swoops in to save a group of innocent civilians who are caught in the crossfire.
Competition: The hero must engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the villain as they compete to see who can outsmart the other.
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Jeannine Hegelbach’s Action Track
A. Considering the concept from Lesson 1,
what action could naturally show up in this movie?
B. Considering the Mission and Villain
Tracks, what action could work for this track?
C. How can the action start well, build
in the 2nd Act, and escalate to a climax in the 3rd Act?A
One on one combat, bacom, street fight, gladiator fight, gun fire, helicopter chases, car chases, infrared night vision camera on the border, infrared cameras and satellite images for catching illegal immigrants at the border, prison escape, kidnapping, deception of gang members so they kill each other and prison guards, shank weapons to overwhelm prison guards, memorizing codes for unlocking prison locks, hiding under vehicles, placing bombs in the prison that detonate at a certain time, knowledge of chemicals used to make bombs, escape from gang prison full of violence, super-prison highly armed and new facility with fingerprint scans and codes, torture with bamboo growing underneath him, rats that are hungry that will eat him alive, sleep deprivation, set fire to the vehicle with a body in it, so the police thinks he is dead, jumping on a high-speed train from a bridge, disguise and faking the identity of the doctor of the CIA program,
Inspired by Houdini, super flexible,
What I learned doing this assignment is, that thinking about the action made me come up with a new USP and ideas for how to twist the story to make it more interesting without effort.
1. INTERROGATION Jordan is blindfolded and captured in a room, tied up in shackles to a desk. An agent questions him in Spanish about his brother’s disappearance. Jordan has no idea what has happened to him. Behind a window somebody watches, puts out a Cuban cigar…
2. TORTURE Jordan did not get water for 2 days. He is dehydrated and sleep deprived. He gets waterboarded. Back in his cell he can’t sleep because hungry rats attack him and try to eat him alive.
3. LOCKED UP Jordan gets transferred into a maximum-security prison with rival gangs.
4. ATTACK In the overcrowded cell Jordan must fight gang members to secure his place in the pecking order.
5. SOCIAL ENGINEERING In order to escape from prison he starts heating up two gangs against each other.
6. PRISON REVOLT During the prison revolt that he starts, he can escape the cell and takes a prison guard hostage with a shank.
7. DECEPTION He takes the guards clothes and his weapon locking him up and drive out of the prison with a car.
8. SNIPER His escape gets noticed through an implant he did not know he had, and snipers shoot down his car. He must cut out the implant and flee into the desert by foot.
9. DEADLY ENVIRONMENT Without water he collapses in the desert, but then is discovered by illegal immigrants who give him water and food.
10. BORDER CROSSING Together with the illegal immigrants he tries to cross the border to the US, they get captured.
11. ESCAPE They want to take DNA samples and Jordan gets into a combat, escapes, and jumps from a bridge onto the roof of a high-speed train.
12. UNDERGROUND Jordan arrives in Houston and hides out trying to find out what happened to his twin brother and where he might be.
13. POLICE The police are looking for him and they want to arrest him in a backstreet in Houston. He disarms two police officers and kills the two arriving teams as well. Now he is definitively on the run. In the first police car he runs the system and sees that his brother is reported missing.
14. NIGHT ATTACK At night back at the motel a group of CIA agents try to assassinate him. He kills them all.
15. NEW CLUE In the dead agents pocket he finds a chipcard with an address of a CIA headquarter. He decides to go there.
16. DISGUISE A guy with a similar stature like him leaves the CIA facility for lunch and Jordan sedates him with a syringe, steals his clothes and cuts of his finger for the fingerprint ID. In his wallet he finds his doctor’s card.
17. NEW CLUE When he must hide behind his papers, he accidently sees that his brother is under the “care” of this doctor. He searches the facility and the patient rooms to find his brother.
18. RESCUE Finally he finds his brother, but he seems to be unconscious and with a big scar on his shaved head. They have given him a brain implant. Beckster shows up. Jordan is trapped.
19. COMBAT Beckster fights Jordan, but he cannot kill him.
20. KILLING MACHINE He activates the brain implant from Jordan’s brother to go after him, he assumes that Jordan will kill everybody but not his brother. Beckster is ready to watch this spectacle go down like a gladiator fight. But Jordan kills his brother.
21. BACK UP Now Beckster is alone in the room with Jordan and he is going after him. But suddenly Jordan’s Brother wakes up again. Jordan has reprogrammed him secretly. They both fight Beckster together and kill him.
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