Lesson 7

[David Wickenden]

David Wickenden Life Threatening Sequence

What did I learn is…

This sequence of danger interlaced with the mystery and intrigue will keep the viewer on the edge of their seat in excitement, fear, and anticipation.

1. Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

The Hero is unaware of who the real villain is. Michael believes that the Cult Leader is his enemy. The cult members are chasing the trio and Michael believes the Cult Leader is trying to abduct the women for some kind of ceremony.

2. What potential dangers could the hero experience as they try to solve mystery and confront Villain?

They will chase Michael, shoot at him, knife attack, attempted arrest by bogus police mixed with legitimate police, and burnt by a forest fire meant to coral him and his wards. There is also the danger of confronting the creature that prowls the forest; some monstrous creature that stalks the group and kills their enemies.

3. All of them.

4. Sequence

I. The chase will be on-going.

II. When the cult members get close enough, there is the danger of being shot.

III. Cult members plant drugs at Michael’s cottage and dead body for police to find. Cops want to catch him and might end up shooting first.

IV. Michael will have to fight hand to hand with one cult member with knives.

V. Michael and the mother will have a moment. Afterwards, he has vivid, sexual-violent dreams. This is the first glimmer that things might not be as they seem.

VI. As things escalate, the monster will at first stalk the group—we’ll see through a pair of unworldly eyes. Michael and his group will see flashes of some dark and large creature around their camp. They will see the star being blocked out by something that is flying overhead at night. They will also hear the screams of the creature’s victims.

VII. Michael will race to an observation (fire tower) where he knows a short-wave radio is that he can use to call for help. Police arrive and one rogue officer kills his partner and then tries to grab the women, wounding Michael. The trio escape and the cop starts a fire that will push the trio back towards the other cult members who are still hunting them.

VIII. Hide out in the cave to avoid fire. Another sexual night. This time, first the woman and then her daughter take him in his dream. He wakes up with savage scratches over his body. The daughter transforms and thanks him for protecting her and for helping her become a woman. Michael is weakened and is terrified that the dream was real. That she could kill him at any moment. Find an ancient spear head in cave and forms a spear.

IX. Confrontation between Cult Leader and the trio. Creature appears as a guardian to the daughter. Father and daughter fight with arcane magic. When Michael stops the mother from killing the Cult leader in cold blood, he must fight the guardian with the spear.

X. With the cult leader down, it is up to Michael to stop the girl, before she fully manifests to her full powers and destroys the world. He knocks out mother but is wounded by daughter. Big fight scene, where Michael kills the girl, just as her full powers are filling her.

[Mariannjely Garcia]

Mariannjely’s Life Threatening Sequence

I learned how helpful it is to brainstorm the heroes’ potential dangers to create a sequence of thrills in the story. It sets a clear path for mystery, intrigue, and suspense.

What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

The Villain plans to continue satisfying her elite client with a wine made from young blood. The hero is one of the young women to be used for this.

What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?

From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.

– Threats

– Talking about the danger

– Physical danger

– Surveillance / watched

– Lured into a dangerous situation

– Trapped / Abducted / Arrested

– Danger to someone they know

– People around them die or are injured.

– The unknown

– Someone operating covertly around them.

– Other parties who need to solve the mystery first.

Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.

1. Lured into a dangerous situation. Ariana gets a too-good-to-be-true opportunity to live in the United States for the summer.

2. Talking about the danger. Ariana has a nightmare the night before leaving that looks more like a warning of what’s next to come.

3. The unknown. Ariana’s passport is taken away at the vineyard’s entrance. There is an area off limits.

4. Surveillance / watched. Everybody in the vineyard is monitored 24/7.

5. The unknown. Ariana tastes the wine. It has a rare taste.

6. Other parties who need to solve the mystery first. A client goes to the area off-limits.

7. Someone operating covertly around them. Karen goes to an area where women are locked.

8. People around them die or are injured. Ariana finds the body of the client, who turns out to be the mom of one of the victims.

9. Betrayal from someone close. Karen’s right-hand tricks Ariana into believing he’s helping her.

10. Physical danger. Ariana fights Karen’s right hand. He dies.

11. Trapped / Abducted / Arrested. Ariana is locked in a room.

12. Talking about the danger. Ariana realizes what’s happening at the vineyard and makes a deal with Karen.

13. Threats. Karen tells her if Ariana tries to betray her, she is dead.

14. Physical danger. The vineyard burns. Ariana fights Karen.

[Norene Smiley]

Norene’s Life Threatening Sequence – The Maw

What I learned from this assignment is that there are a wealth of potential dangers and pitfalls that will be useful to raise the stakes and the interest of the story.

Life Threatening Sequence

Villain’s Plan: Gabby vows to take revenge against Maeve Quinn and her family.

The Hero, Archer, is in danger because:

• He asks too many questions, notices when things are not right.

• He is friends with Talulah Taylor, Gabby’s daughter

He is trying to find out about his mother, Maeve Quinn, a Selkie who has left her family and returned to her ocean home.

Archer is Maeve’s first born, looks like herald a stinging reminder of al the things Gabby has lost.

Potential dangers Hero could experience as he tries to solve the mystery and confront the Villain:

• Archer, as an outsider, is a convenient scapegoat for the vandalism.

• Archer and his family have a near car accident on the way to Resolute Island. A van veers out of control on a road running along a cliff, narrowly missing them and racing away without stopping to help.

• When Archer’s natural curiosity has him asking questions in the village, he is treated roughly, ignored, refused help, threatened, only making him more determined.

•When scaling a rock wall at the Eco-Adventure Centre, Talulah’s climbing rope breaks. Archer is accused of cutting it.

• Shrouded figures appear and disappear. Everyone says it is just the swirling fog. Archer feels like he is being watched, making him nervous and willing to take chances to escape scrutiny.

• Something about Oona, the librarian/historian, reminds Archer of his mother, but she denies knowledge of Maeve Quinn and refuses to cooperate with his queries into local legends.

• A fire breaks out in the equipment shed and Archer is accused of starting it. Both he and Talulah had been in the shed together. She does not speak up to defend him, afraid of her mother’s anger.

Archer is questioned by the local RCMP and detained until his father gets him released.

• When Archer and Rowan venture on to the barrens following strange lights thinking they have something to do with Rowan’s disappearance, they fall into an animal trap and have to be rescued from the pit by garrulous and armed Seamus Dromgoole.

• Henry is frustrated and disappointed in Archer, putting more strain on their relationship.

• Archer, Talulah and Rowan are encouraged to explore the Limestone Caves that seem to be a focal point of whispers and rumour. They get trapped when the tide rises. They have to climb the cliff or drown.

Just when Archer feels he is getting closer to solving the mystery of his mother and who is really responsible for the threatening disasters disrupting the community, his sister Rowan disappears. Henry decides to send Archer back to the city to keep him safe. Archer has to act before he loses the chance.

• Archer takes off at night with Talulah to find Rowan despite the dangers at every turn.

Archer thinks he hears his name called from the beach and climbs down to the caves to investigate.

Archer and Talulah are discovered by angry villagers at an ancient ceremony in the caves.

• Archer has to risk his own life to save his sister from the vengeful Gabby.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Norene Smiley.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Norene Smiley.

[Carl Gundestrup]

Carl Gundestrup Mystery Sequence

What I learned: Picking a political hot potato has added great difficulty to my challenge but could create a much broader audience and success. The story is becoming far more complex than I had originally intended or felt capable of creating. But with the tips about creating the cover-up and letting my hero figure it out, it is easier than I would have thought. But it will take a great deal more work to turn this into a logical, functioning Thriller. I feel like I have a piece of granite and have just knocked off the corners in my effort to carve out a masterpiece.

1. The Villain is covering up how covid 19 was created, why it was created, and who is responsible for covid 19.

2. How many ways can you cover the secret? (Those are the mysteries)

*The media Focuses the world on Trump and Russian collusion.

*Water market bat –

*An Accident due to poor Chinese protocols –

*Chinese lies, cover-up, shifting blame, refusing to cooperate in a full investigation.

*Why did Barac wait a month before leaving office to refund the dangerous study against his own Lisa Monaco’s statement?

*Who told him to?

*Why was the white house doing a pandemic scenario four days after the NIH lifted the ban?

*How did Fauci know that Trump would face a pandemic in 2017?

3. Eric gets hit and must find out who and why.

4. A. Eric learns from Cayla that the hit was intentional –

B. Why? (answer) The mystery is that it was an accident. It is that he was driving the same kind of car as the intended victim.

C. Eric saves Cayla from Norman Larusha’s men, and Cayla tells all.

D. Eric talks to Bill Hancock – Cover up, kill Bill – Kill Cayla – (FBI CAYLA’S BOSS IS THE RED HERRING) DOES HE hang Cayla and her partner out to dry or …? (FBI mystery – Cover-up or bait for bigger fish?)

E. Eric bails out Bill. (Villain kidnaps Bill’s son and sends guys to kill everyone.

F. Eric thumps killers and gets the first line of defense, Norman Larusha.

G. Norm makes Eric think; the audience believes it is his machine. We learn that Salyer was killing people Larusha needed dead. 2 reasons bad guys need Eric dead one, he might get information out of Salyer 2. He understands that there is a man that the government people want dead.

H. Larusha dies – who killed him, and who is the person he answered to? His files that Eric has contained the answers. They are encrypted.

I. Save Catherine and set up a love triangle, and Cayla learns about God from Eric and Catherine.

J. Eric learns about Congressman Paul Moss of New York. Moss is dirty but smart. He has kept a running file of killings and deals to keep himself alive. He is the one they intended to kill.

K. Eric learns Moss has sent files to multiple outlets after his demise by the FBI demanding Cayla not look at the file and give it to them. They know they are marked for death whether they open it or not. They don’t have it YET. The file is delivered to Eric’s cabin property which the bad guys did not suspect. Eric won’t find it till the end-ish.

L. Eric gets clues from files to go after Larusha’s contact. He learns Larusha orchestrated hits for the FBI and CIA. Larusha is killed by someone else, but the audience thinks it is a government agency and our Villain is a U.S. Government official.

M. We learn all the media lies are coming from US agencies – The media knows they are lies and continue to put forth THEIR agenda for a Progressive socialist AMERICA.

N. Eric is framed as an enemy of the state, publicly proves his innocence, and turns the tables demanding they put on his helmet of truth.

O. The helmet is manipulated previous to a big hearing, and it works BETTER than he had ever thought possible to frame the bad guys and clear him.

P. Eric gets Paul Moss’s file and Norman Larusha’s decoded, and they bluff to draw out the Villain.

Q. Red Herring FBI boss cleared – Dominic Santoro, and friend of George Soros, is caught as the villain – but we leave the story learning that covid was an accident that turned into an opportunity for their MUCH BIGGER plan to destroy America, the backbone character of the American people and subjugate the world to a single financial system and remove FREEDOM if you do not cooperate with the world bank. Ultimately another step to the subjugation of the world.

[Tina Howe]

What I learned is it’s too early to know exactly which life-threatening situations I’ll use and which I won’t, so I didn’t eliminate any possibilities, but I very well understand the value of this exercise. This list will grow and evolve as the story develops.

Tina’s Life-threatening Sequence Brainstorm

1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

Villain’s Plan: The A.I. Villain uses comatose women as surrogates to illegally create transhuman beings that will one day rule the world.

– Julie’s baby could be harvested at any moment.

– The C-section is to be performed while Julie’s awake.

– Julie’s baby will be taken away and turned into a transhuman.

2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?

– To continue the charade that she’s still comatose.

– When Caretaker Peters discovers Julie’s awake, he threatens to report her to The Operator unless she helps him.

– Caretaker Peters asks Julie to help him escape.

– Medical procedures performed on Julie when she’s awake.

– Torture by The Operator when Julie’s discovered.

– Julie has flashbacks to the accident in which she was driving, her mother was killed, and Julie ended up in a coma.

– Julie sneaks into The Operator’s office and discovers her plan.

– Peters threatens the life of Julie’s baby.

– Julie starts to have labor pains.

– The Operator kills Peters, Julie’s only ally.

– The Operator threatens to kill all the babies to leave no evidence.

– Julie kills The Operator.

3. From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story. These are sequenced (step 4).

1. People around them die or are injured. Julie has flashbacks to the accident in which she was driving, her father injured, mother killed, Julie ended up in a coma.

2. Trapped/Abducted/Arrested. Julie pretends to still be comatose.

3. Closeness to Villain. The Operator talks about Julie’s upcoming procedures.

4. Physical danger. Sometimes with much pain endured and knowledge of her condition,

5. Physical danger. Painful medical procedures performed on Julie when she’s awake.

6. Talking about the danger. Julie’s baby could be harvested at any moment.

7. Physical danger. Julie starts in with labor pains, the C-section will be performed while Julie’s awake.

8. Surveillance/watched: Caretaker Peters discovers Julie’s awake and threatens to report her to The Operator unless she helps him in some way (escape? Bring down The Operator?).

9. Other parties who want the Villain dead. Peters wants Julie to help him in some way (escape? Bring down The Operator?) (but can Peters be trusted?).

10. Closeness to Villain. Julie gets into The Operator’s office and discovers her plan. The Operator catches her, puts her in shackles.

11. Danger to someone they know. Julie’s baby will be taken away and turned into a transhuman.

12. Closeness to Villain. Torture by The Operator when Julie’s discovered.

13. People around them die or are injured. The Operator had suspected Peters, Julie’s only ally, and kills him.

14. Danger to someone they know. The Operator threatens to kill Julie’s baby.

15. Physical danger. Julie escapes the O.R., The Operator and other health workers and security guards in pursuit.

16. People around them die or are injured. The Operator threatens to kill all the babies to leave no evidence.

17. Physical danger. Julie kills The Operator.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Tina Howe.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Tina Howe.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Tina Howe.

[Kimbal Thompson]

Thriller Day 7 assignment: Life Threatening Sequence

Kimbal Thompson

What I learned is many scenes can accelerate several life-threatening sequences.

From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones
that work for this story.: All the above.

Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one
I did for Basic Instinct above:

1. Opens with Richard flying solo as another plane cuts in on his landing pattern causing him to make a second approach and landing. .

2. Flight Instructor (Lou) meeting plane at side of runway, complimenting Pilot and handing Richard an envelope, opened, read and pilot says he must stop his pilot training.

3. Richard arriving home and announcing to his mother that he is leaving.

4. His father returning home and requesting Richard to make a delivery across state lines by the next morning. .Richard states he had to first stop by to see his long-time girlfriend at her house (to break-up).

5..He encounters her parents that are leaving for the evening, before his formerly modest girlfriend lets Richard in and tries to jump his bones, just as her father (a television investigative reporter) returns to pick up something he forgot.

6. Richard makes a hasty retreat and heads for the highway.

7. Richard is stopped in a small-town speed trap and escorted to a late-night justice-of-the- peace trial, pronounced guilty and escorted to jail.

8. Richard tries to make a phone-call, the phone is taken away and he is pushed into a cell of an old stone jail with four onerous inmates.

9. These inmates lead Richard to a dark corner of the cell where a severely wounded inmate lays face-down unconscious on a cot.

10. From the other inmates, Richard learns that the fifth prisoner’s injuries have been in retaliation by those running the county.

11. Richard hopes to get out by morning, compete his errand for his father and send medical assistance back to the jail.

12. Through the wall separating the cells from the jailers’ Richard overhears that he should not have been brought to the jail, and what were they to do with him?

13. The jailers took Richard from the cell and placed him in a small room as they discussed taking him out to “the farm” to disappear.

14. Just as he was about to be escorted out pre-sawn, the exterior door opened and Richard’s father appeared and bailed out Richard.

15. Once away, Richard drove to the airport where he was taking flight lessons and Lou agreed to help him fly his cargo to an airport across the state line.

16. On landing a that airport, another plane cut in on their landing pattern

17. As they were briefly out of their plane, someone crawled into the now empty storage compartment behind the cockpit.

18. Upon takeoff, they were highjacked at gunpoint by Sanchez, who forced them to land at “the farm.”.

19. Landed, they taxied to an old barn, that once inside was a hanger and ordered by Salvatore (who appeared to be the boss) to be taken as prisoners to a small room in a cave below.

20. Salvatore agrees to let them go provided they sign a non-disclosure agreement and fly Sanchez to a specified destination. They agree.

21. Upon take-off, Sanchez bails out at lift-off. Lou deduces the plane is wired to explode and orders Richard to ditch the plane.

22. They bail and hit the ground as the plane explodes a football field length away. They survive and find their way back to the farm acreage.

23. As they traverse the fence-line, an armed patrol jeep approaches.

24. They trick the guard, take his weapons, the jeep, and continue towards the barn.

25. Until they are discovered by Sanchez

26. Salvatore is concerned and checks on the missing patrol jeep.

27. Salvatore exits the hanger for a smoke and Lou knocks him out with the butt of the captured rifle and bind him. Richard wants to escape. Lou wants to find out what’s really going on in the hanger and caves.

28. Lou wins.

29. They enter the hanger through Salvatore’s exterior door.

30. Inside, the jailers from town are attempting to check in with Salvatore. find him outside and begin to cut his bindings.

30. The Jeep driver finds Sanchez, together they find the jailers with a knife over Salvatore and accuse them of hijacking the jeep.

31. Richard and Lou Climb above the hanger offices lowered ceilings and work their way to the cave entrance. They find themselves above the guards’ locker room and overhear the Jailers discuss Sanchez and the exploding plane.

32. Then, Richard and Lou drop into the locker Room, change into Guards’ uniforms and proceed down the cave shaft, first coming to a large warehouse room.

33. Proceeding further down the cave shaft, they are interrupted by a piercing beeping and blinding blinking lights.

34. Looking further ahead, they see massive steel doors bi-part as heavily armed uniformed personnel emerge coming in their direction.

35. They hear the heavy cadence and smell of a diesel engine and see headlights of an extremely large vehicle coming toward them from the direction of the cave b b entrance and retreat to the large warehouse room.

36. Salvatore has sent an armed jailer to the warehouse to await further reinforcements.

37. Meanwhile, the small-town jail inmates have overtaken the few remaining jailers and escaped in one of the small-town patrol cars after taking the Jailers’ uniforms, calling for an ambulance and a state police escort.to take the injured prisoner to the hospital. They are found out while in procession, U-turn with a state police car In pursuit. They are all headed toward the farm.

38. Richard and Lou foil armed guard, steal his Jeep and head up the cave toward th Hanger.

39. Hanger door opens admitting Mayor’s white Cadillac, hanger door closing.

40. Mayor outstretches hand toward Jeep telling them to stop; Salvatore awaits, bullwhip in hand. Mayor says “they’re all yours!

41. Richard and Lou scrape through hanger door just as it closes and scramble onto old crop-duster just as small-town patrol car with escaped inmates with state police car in close pursuit.

42. Hanger doors start to reopen as crop-duster won’t start. Richard and Lou bail out and run toward cornrows in pursuit of Jeep they abandoned earlier.

43. Mayor and Salvatore pursue in White Cadillac in confusion as small-town patrol car with escaped inmates with state police car in close pursuit cut them off. Mayor stops Cadillac and Salvatore and Sanchez head for the crop-duster. Eventually, it starts.

44. Richard and Lou find and start the Jeep, heading toward the taxing crop-duster knowing Sal and San cannot shoot through their propeller and shoot tire of plane. .

45. Sanchez and Salvatore, bolo in hand, exit plane. Lou shoots the Bolo Hand, restrain Sanchez and Salvatore and trade the Jeep for the plane.

46. Lou and Richard get the old crop-duster in the air and head to Lou’s airport. .

47. Escaped Inmates commandeer Mayor’s Cadillac and head south.

48. State Policeman takes injured and Mayor to join others with injured inmate at the hospital.

49. Debbie’s dad, the TV Investigative Reporter has also gone to investigate what has happened at the hospital.

50. In the Hospital, a call is received from the Governor stating that FBI was on their way and all could be released except for the TV Investigative Reporter.

51. Richard Home and receives call from Debbie that her mom would be away overnight to go pick up her father.

52. Richard on way to Debbie’s house.

[Maggie Tsavaris]

Maggie Tsavaris’s Life Threatening Sequence (Assignment 7)

What I learned is: Most—if not all—scenes should probably have a threat of serious danger in them, and writing out this Life Threatening Sequence appears to be—if I’m on the right track, and I would completely love and enormously appreciate feedback here as to whether I’m doing this right—a great way to write a beat sheet of sorts, in that each beat ideally should have a threat to life or limb in it. So cool!

What is the Villain’s plan and
how does that put the Hero in danger?

♦ The Villain’s (Haasim’s) plan is to convince Leyla (the Hero) to use her top secret security clearance to access highly classified details about certain U.S. human assets and turn over those details to him.

♦ If Leyla accesses those details about which she is not on a need to know basis, then she could be found out, arrested, and potentially be charged with and possibly ultimately convicted of espionage, for which she would serve time in prison and thereby lose her freedom.

2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as she tries to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?

♦ Not only could she lose her freedom, but her reputation, career, and income would be destroyed.

♦ She would also endanger her already fragile relationship with her only child (her daughter), potentially putting it beyond the point of no return.

♦ Depending on her sentence if convicted, she could grow old and die alone in prison.

♦ The Villain is luring her into a situation riddled with dangers.

♦ She might be watched/be under surveillance.

♦ She might see people around her be killed.

♦ She might be humiliated if she is caught.

♦ She might be betrayed.

♦ She might be betraying the confidences of others with whom she has worked alongside.

♦ She might be placing in danger the lives of the U.S. human assets (and their families).

3. From the list of potential
dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.<div>

<div>

♦ She risks losing her freedom if she is caught, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

♦ She risks losing her reputation as a highly skilled, dedicated linguist for the U.S. government.

♦ She risks losing her career as a linguist.

♦ She risks losing her income, with which she can pay off the debts her dead husband left her with.

♦ She risks losing all contact with her daughter (who is 22), with whom she already has a tumultuous, volatile relationship.

♦ She might be risking the lives of others around her.

4. Sequence those dangers in order
and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.

♦ Opens with a bomb detonating in a café in Iraq where Leyla and fellow linguist, Eva, are having tea with a local interpreter, Amir.

♦ Haasim rescues them, and he and Leyla exchange numbers.

♦ Back at the base, Leyla is at work when Haasim texts her (on a secure app) to see how she’s doing.

♦ He asks her out, and she says it’s difficult to get permission to leave the base for non-business reasons.

♦ He’s persistent and flirty, so she agrees to try.

♦ She gets a plate of cookies from the DFAC (dining facility). Eva sees her and asks her who the cookies are for, and Leyla makes up a story.

♦ She takes them to her onsite manager, Kain, a man drinking from a thermos of coffee and whiskey and wound up so tight, he’s sure to explode any second. They’re his favorites. He tells her she can go, but for only two hours.

♦ She meets Haasim who tells her he’d like to marry her and give her the life of wealth she deserves.

♦ On return to the base, Eva says she came by Leyla’s quarters to get her for dinner, but she wasn’t there. Eva asks why Leyla looks so happy.

♦ Kain is driving around the base in the dark, drunk as a skunk, and comes super close to hitting them both.

♦ Leyla FaceTimes her daughter. The conversation is strained.

♦ Haasim asks Leyla to get him the names of certain U.S. human assets. He tells her this is for good and peaceful purposes.

♦ Leyla asks the Lead Linguist to be transferred to the quieter graveyard shift. When Eva asks her why she wants the graveyard shift that everyone hates, Leyla says she needs a quiet office with fewer distractions so she can get more translation work accomplished.

♦ Leyla translates a classified document and communicates with an asset named “Rick.”

♦ Leyla starts baking treats for the team leader and lead linguist and hanging around the office, even when her shift is over and returning before the next shift begins.

♦ Leyla accesses highly classified details about an asset known as “Jimmy” and writes it on a paper she pockets. After shift, she texts the details to Haasim, then slips the note under her mattress.

♦ Eva begins to suspect that Leyla is up to something.

♦ Eva cannot get in touch with Amir, the local they had tea with at the café and asks Leyla whether she has been in touch with him, but Leyla has not.

♦ Eva goes to talk to Kain about her concerns.

♦ Kain assigns Leyla and Eva to a mission off-base where Eva is killed by mortar fire right in front of Leyla.

</div></div>

[Carl Gundestrup]

Carl Gundestrup Life Threatening Sequence

What I learned from this assignment:

I learned that messing with conventions can be good, but I am not sure how that will play out in the final scripts. I keep replacing villains because each is just a pawn who is playing a role. Added mysteries are which villain will survive and which will be “taken out.” The show’s biggest mystery is not will America and freedom survive, although that is still a huge question. The big mystery is – who are ALL the players in the plan? How do they fit? Who is the Biggest of the big? Is it one person or a team? Is it separate entities, all with the same goal and striking from different directions? Will they destroy each other to be the “Alexander the great?” Who is good, and who is bad? THEN will America and freedom survive?

1. The Villain’s plan is threatened when Eric talks to Bill Hancock. The stakes increase when FBI agent Cayla enters the picture. When Eric bails Bill out of jail. Eric has gone from a mistake to a possible leak to an obstacle to the villain’s plan. The villain needs to put a stop to this problem. He kidnaps Bill’s son and forces Bill to reveal their location. The villain is thwarted when Eric comes unhinged and kills 3 assassins and takes two hostages, and goes after Norm, the man who is orchestrating the hits.

The man above Norm is clandestinely getting raked over the coals for the failed hit by who we think is the villain. The villain tells Antonio Deltoro, Norm’s boss/contact, that he wants all the guys involved in the failed hit to disappear. Deltoro agrees, but he has his own plan.

Deltoro demands loyalty. He demonstrates loyalty by saving the wounded guys who failed at Eric’s hit. He hides them, and they are told that the villain demanded them dead. Deltoro saves Eric because he wants to make a deal with Eric to get his machine.

Deltoro will kill “his boss, who we think is the villain. Antonio Scalia, the supreme court justice with a “heart attack” at a hunting lodge. No autopsy! “Can you say …Red Herring?” When the time is right to have the greatest impact, it will look as if we cut the head off the snake for a new snake. Then the new snake is killed, and now we are freaked out. That is why this is a trilogy.

1. Deltoro is much farther up the international ladder in the big picture (secret society may be an actual good guy) Eric keeps going up the ladder of bad guys looking for the file that congressman Paul Moss has been keeping. Eric thinks it gives him ALL the answers. Actually, it is just naming the players involved, their clandestine activities, their positions within the government and business, and their ties.

2. The Villain goes on a super offensive. The villain makes Eric an enemy of the state. Hit men from FBI – NSA – CIA. INTERNATIONAL killers are all on the payroll to kill Eric – Cayla – find Bill Eric’s family. The villain attempts to find all of Eric and Catherine’s family to use as leverage. Villain begins going after Eric’s military and work relationships.

3. Eric realizes he cannot win alone. He brings in seal buddies and begins building his own army using Larusha’s sizable fortune. Eric begins using Larusha’s underworld contacts. He makes Eric and Bill enemies of the state. Eric goes public with his defense. His device goes public, and he is forced to demonstrate what it can do. The villain’s minion mess with the device and actually improve it.

[Ken Callaway]

Ken Callaway’s Life Threatening Sequence Tolly’s Rangers

I learned that building this sequence has really put my story into perspective for me and that will ultimately allow me to come out with a stronger story with real, ever heightening thrills.

• Opens on an injured child, blinded in the London Blitz.
  The bleeding boy is handed to a young woman by three witch-like women, dressed
  as nurses.
• Kevin, now a teen with an eye-patch is playing on an
  old boat with his three friends. They are playing “pirates” he is playing “fairy
  hunter.” Kevin attacks, gets hit in the face almost losing his good eye.
• To his dismay Kevin’s doting mother sends him to a week-long
  scout camp with their parish priest. Kevin’s imaginative stories set him
  at odds with the other scouts.
• Along for the outing is the priest’s father, JRR “Tolly”
  Tolkien who has volunteered to tell fireside stories each night.
  Kevin strikes a chord with Tolly and is ridiculed by a group
  of older scouts.
• Kevin taunts their leader, Hugh “Hux” Huxley.
  Hux throws Kevin’s camp gear into a river, he loses
  everything.
• In the village for food Kevin follows a beautiful mystery
  girl.
• First night Kevin hears JRR Tolkien’s fairy girl story, believes the
  girl he saw is a fairy.
  Tolly calls Kevin and his three friends “Rangers.”
• Second day, crafts & war games begin. Kevin accidently
  kills a small fairy then is beaten up by older scouts.
• Kevin saves mystery
  girl, Genevieve Rashwood and her sister from a crazed stallion.
  Kevin notices scouts are disappearing from Camp.
  Third day at camp Kevin confronts Hux, gets beaten up again.
• Kevin hears
  strange noises coming from Rashwood Manor. More scouts disappear from
  camp.
• Day four Kevin and his friends win the war games. The
  four scouts are invited to Rashwood for dinner. Kevin seeks out Genevieve she
  appears to be scared of her sister. Tells Kevin she’s a fairy.
• Kevin sneaks back into Rashwood to confront Genevieve and
  sees Oldfather Rashwood “assemble” and the fairy elders putting the missing scouts into great caverns
  below the manor. (loud noises) Kevin hides in closet finds Genevieve’s sister, she’s dead.
• Day five Kevin learns that Genevieve may have killed
  her sister to protect him.
  Kevin tells Tolly about Genevieve and the fairy plan,
  Tolly finds that Kevin is almost blind and is convinced Kevin is imagining
  things (betrayal)
• Day six Kevin finds out that Genevieve did kill her
  sister to save him. Kevin confronts Hux, accuses him of being a morph. Hux knows about the fairy’s plan.
• Day seven – Genevieve tells Kevin she is insane, her
  name is Grace Greene and that she is an inmate at Rashwood Asylum. Kevin runs
  away, finds Hux dead.
• Camp ends, Kevin is blind as he boards the truck, calls
  for his friends, they are gone.
• Now home, Kevin asks his mother about his birth. She
  admits that he was adopted (betrayal) and does not know his true origin except
  for the three nurses and their stories.
  Kevin’s mother reads him a letter from Tolly saying
  fairies are real to him too.
• Kevin’s mother can’t take care of him so he goes back
  to Rashwood Asylum to learn a trade and finds Grace. Grace discovers Kevin
  he is blind.
• The ending where we learn that Kevin is the blood
  fairy king, he is now teamed with Genevieve. Kevin he gets new eyes (assembled) by Oldfather Rashwood.

[John Stimson]

John Stimson’s Life Threatening Sequence

“What I learned is…?” Potential dangers which presents threats to the hero’s life are what makes thrillers thrilling.

The villain (the mayor of Los Angeles) wants to be the
next president of the US. The mayor is involved in a real estate scheme to
launder a Mexican drug cartel’s money. The mayor is a pedophile and has
been raping boys, starting with his cousin, since he was a teenager.
Either of the revelations would put the mayor in prison, let alone derail
his presidential ambitions. The hero, a former SWAT officer who provides
personal security and does private investigations is working a case
looking into the mayor’s cousin’s life and the wife of the real estate
developer in the money laundering scheme seeks the hero’s protection when
the drug cartel’s thugs attempt to kidnap her.
The hero suspects that he is being surveilled but he
doesn’t think it’s the cartel thugs because they would just attack him
instead of wait. As the hero investigates both the reason why the cartel
is after the wife and the mayor’s cousin’s life and family he meets resistance
and threats from several unsavory characters and law enforcement
officials.
From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones
that work for this story.

– Physical danger

– Surveillance/watched

– Chased

– Arrested

– People around them die

– Thugs or professionals hired to hurt them

– Presence of weapons or thugs

Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like
the one I did for Basic Instinct above.

– The hero has a foot chase in the dark of night through a residential neighborhood in the SF Valley. The hero is a wounded warrior, having lost his foot and lower leg to a bomb in Afghanistan, thus making the pursuit difficult. The hero is shot by the man he was pursuing and left for dead.

– Like William Holden floating in the swimming pool in “Sunset Boulevard,” the hero tells how he got where he is.

– The hero tells the story up until the night he gets shot, which ends just before the midpoint.

– The hero tells about being a driver and personal protection for a Hollywood player at a party in the Hollywood Hills. The player spends the evening with a mysterious man of few words (this turns out to be guy who shoots the hero).

– The hero accepts a case from a man who friend died and he’s curious about that friend’s life; it seems like a routine background check. Until none of the dead man’s family members are willing to talk about him. The hero discovers that the dead man was the cousin of the LA mayor.

– A woman calls the hero in a panic, some men are following her and they look dangerous.

– The hero goes to help her and they are chased by the Mexican thugs from Pasadena to the Pacific Coast Highway in a manic chase sequence. Also, someone on a motorcycle is following the chase, that starts on the Arroyo Seco Parkway and continues along Sunset Blvd.

– With the cartel watching house and business, the hero sneaks into the woman’s husband’s office and downloads records to figure out why her life is in danger.

– The hero investigates the husband death and realizes it’s not a suicide but a homicide.

– He seeks help from friends still on the LAPD but they deny his help and tell him that the case is closed: it’s a suicide.

– The woman stays at the hero’s house but the hero suspects that his house is being watched. Someone breaks into the house of the next door neighbor who helps the hero make sense of the business records. The neighbor a retired CPA figures out the money-laundering scheme.

– The hero returns to his house one night to find a nearly decapitated woman laying in a pool of blood. The hero gets into a fight with the assailant who was still in the house. The assailant gets away and the hero gives chase, where he is shot and the assailant gets away. As the hero lays dying, he remembers the assailant as being the man of few words at the Hollywood party.

– The hero realizes that he’s still alive when a coyote crews on him the next morning.

-The hero wakes up in the hospital handcuffed to his bed suspected by LAPD detectives of killing the woman at his house.

– A menacing man the hero believes he has never seen before tells the LAPD detectives that he is the hero’s lawyer. When the cops are sent packing, the hero vaguely remembers once being on an operation in Afghanistan with the man. The man was a member of Delta Force in country.

[John Duvall]

John Duvall’s Life-Threatening Sequence

“What I learned is that the hero’s safety or life must be under some sort of threat all the way through the script. But beyond threats to his life, they may also be against his reputation, job, or someone close to him.’

ASSIGNMENT

Looking at your Villain’s plan, brainstorm a list of potential dangers the Hero could face. Those could include:

Lured
into a dangerous situation

Father Bloom is attracted to Sister Teresa, is tempted to violate his chastity vows with her.

Talking
about the danger

Father Bloom confesses his temptation to Monsignor Dennehy.

Closeness
to the villain

Father Hargraves urges Father Bloom to report about his investigations into church corruption.

People
around them die or are injured.

Monsignor Dennehy dies in a mysterious fall from the church tower.

Lured
into a dangerous situation

Father Bloom falls into a sexual affair with Sister Teresa

Other
parties who need to solve the mystery first.

Father Hargraves takes control of the investigation into Monsignor Dennehy’s death.

The
threat that their own secret could be revealed.

Father Bloom confesses his affair in the confessional (to whom?)

Someone
operating covertly around them. Surveillance / watched

Someone is stalking Father Bloom and Sister Teresa

Danger
to someone they know

Father Bloom begins to fear that Sister Teresa may be involved in church corruption.

Something
that damages their reputation / Public humiliation.

Rumors emerge about Father Bloom’s and Sister Teresa’s affair.

Threat
of Loss of a job or career / A demand that Bloom stop pursuing the
mystery.

Father Hargraves removes Father Bloom from the investigation after he becomes the subject of rumors.

Betrayal
from someone close.

Sister Teresa denies she’s involved with Father Bloom, contradicts his testimony and cuts off the relationship.

The
chance that a relationship could end.

How does Father Bloom react to Sister Teresa’s disavowal of their love? Does he accept it?

Physical
danger

When he persists in his investigation and finds evidence against Father Hargraves, Father Bloom averts an attempt on his life, and one on Sister Teresa’ life as well.

[Donna Stockwell]

Donna Stockwell’s Life Threatening Sequence

What I learned is these characters are twisted! I cannot believe I can dream up characters and a story like this. This is really getting to be an intriguing thriller!

The Villain’s plan is to make Hadiya make 30 pieces of art, the create an accident — perhaps let the bird out of the cage, and she follows it out and over the balcony to her death… or was she pushed?
Other potential danger hero could come against, while snooping through her apartment and storage room, and eavesdrop on Casey and her “lover” are: poison on leftover alcohol, poison in cleaning supplies – that Hadiya is blamed for killing another artist, pushed down the stairs, car brakes tampered, seduced by Casey’s lover. The could also come from surveillance – constant calls from Casey to Hadi, cameras in the apt & Hadi’s car — Hadi could stumble across the “control room, with tapes, Hadi could be lured into the storage after Casey learns that she discovered it.
Are these other potential dangers all in Hadiya’s head, or are they real?
Other dangers
– the unknown – storage locker
– the unknown –
– knife on the kitchen counter matches nightmare
– cleaning up powder, but clumsy and sniffs the white powder/cocaine
– stalked – cameras in car/apartment, and cars following on way home
– other artists coincidentally die, and make an opening at the art gallery
– stuck door in bathroom, could Casey want her trapped until…?

[Lenore]

Lenore Bechtel’s Life Threatening Sequence

I learned from that sequencing dangers to the hero is vital to build suspense, and that doing so helps flesh out both the characters and the plot.

Melantha, who killed Daniel for remote-viewing her holographic machinery in the church’s belfry, must now kill Daniel’s equally gifted son Elijah before his investigation into his father’s death reveals her sinister plan to kill all of Bellamounta’s Christians.

Elijah faces physical danger planned by Melantha at least four times:

When he activates a bomb by opening the glove box of his father’s wrecked car.
When Cassandra almost lures him into a dangerous situation: an open grave.
When Melantha’s simpleton brother Sonny sprays him with poison chemicals.
When he rides his bicycle down the path from upper to lower Bellamounta, he bumps into a tree trunk blocking the path.

Danger to someone Elijah just met: Lucy Addams, working on a story about Daniel, reviews pictures with Elijah taken by her predecessor on the newspaper’s camera. Many show enough to indicate Daniel may have been having an affair with Sheriff Janeen. Someone spikes Lucy’s afternoon tea so that she falls asleep on the job and awakens with the camera missing. Was it Janeen? And why won’t Janeen believe that Elijah was murdered? Maybe because she killed him?

Betrayal from someone close: When Buzz got Elijah drunk and talked him into viewing his girlfriend undressing in her bedroom, was he deliberately getting him to misuse his gift so that he might lose it? Was his encouraging Elijah’s unusual relationship with Cassandra motivated by knowing her job was to put him in life threatening situations? This idea becomes more likely when Buzz’s sister Zoe, who was model for the hologram Cassandra, comes home for a visit with her family and take an immediate liking to Elijah. Will finding out the details of her experience acting in a movie help Elijah find his father’s killer?

Public humiliation: Longtime residents of Bellamounta knows Elijah’s gift has been limited to seeing animals in distress, but everyone expects the more serious incidents that Daniel viewed will now go to his son, as had happened with Elijah’s great grandmother and grandmother. Only one at a time enjoys the complete gift. Elijah is stunned and humiliated when told of an injured calf dying in a ditch. His fear came true! His drunken prank cost him his gift.

A demand to stop pursuing the mystery: Is Zayden Briggs’ demand that Elijah stop looking for his father’s killer really motivated to protect Elijah’s saftety? Did he kill Daniel because he knew he’d never sell him the property he needs for his exorbitant hotel?

Does anyone care that Daniel had seen something bad enough to be killed for? Sheriff Janeen says she’s scared to get involved. Helicopter pilot Shay Copeland, who flies Elijah to Daniel’s wrecked car, scoffs at the idea until a bomb blows up and almost kills Elijah. Fire Chief Kevin Davis finally believes it when Sonny almost kills Elijah. No one will know Sonny was the sprayer—not even Elijah, but the viewer will know.

Sequence of mysteries:

Daniel’s graveside service: Unnamed people hug a distraught Elijah and oldsters tell him the Gift will now be his. Mention of Daniel’s excellence as a minister. Mention of his grandmother and his great grandmother and the sadness of losing his mother only a few months ago. Assurances that no one will ever replace him Janeen (red-eyed and weeping) tells him she’ll now depend upon him to let her know any crimes being planned in Bellamounta. Melantha assures him he’s right to think someone murdered his father. Zayden tells Elijah his offer to buy the Evans’ property still stands. His wife Vera reprimands him for bringing up the subject at this time.
Buzz assures Elijah that Cassandra was not being disrespectful by not coming to the funeral. They talk about her father’s unreasonable restrictions that control her life. Buzz clearly doesn’t support Elijah’s belief that his father was killed.

3. Nighttime: Elijah goes early to the mausoleum where he meets Cassandra, waits until 10 minutes past their usual time, starts to leave, glances back over his shoulder, and she’s there. She tells him he’s right to think his father was murdered. They talk about their gifts: hers is psychic, his is remote-viewing.

4. Lucy Addams comes to Elijah’s home next door to the church. Daniel’s death occurred on Tuesday, the weekly’s publication date, and the funeral on Friday. Now it’s Saturday and Lucy, a brand new reporter also new to Bellamounta, has the task of writing more than an obituary about Daniel. The story was planned before her predecessor left to report for The Daily Intrigue that publishes exposes. He left behind the newspaper’s camera he used with pictures he’d taken. Elijah is flabbergasted to find many of Daniel and Janeen showing much too much familiarity to each other. In one they are kissing and Janeenl has her hand firmly on his butt.

5. Elijah tells Buzz about Daniel and Janeen possibly being lovers. Buzz says maybe Janeen pushed his mother down the belfry stairs to make Daniel a single man.

6: Cassandra tells Elijah that Daniel’s car contains a clue to his father’s murderer.

7. Helicopter pilot Shay, flying Elijah and Buzz to Daniel’s wrecked car, tells how Janeen was hysterical when he flew her and Fire Chief Kevin to pull Daniel’s body from the smashed car. Also talk about how the airport couldn’t keep operating without eccentric Melantha’s frequent use of her private plane. She was just there yesterday loading the plane with large canisters, probably to take milk to some orphanage.

8. To gain entrance to the car, Elijah and Buzz tear off the passenger door. Elijah crawls in, finds Daniel’s cellphone and pockets it. He opens the glove compartment, hears ticking, and jumps head-first out of the car before it explodes in flames. Both he and Buzz catch on fire and roll in prickly bushes to put out the flame.

9. Shay’s helicopter land and they find Zayden waiting to drive them home. Sonny comes up to the plane with a broom as the men are disembarking. He bemoans the mess Buzz and Elijah make in their filthy condition. Zayden offers Elijah a higher price for his property. Buzz and Zayden argue about his not taking no for an answer.

10. Buzz asks Elijah how he knew to dive out of the car, and Elijah said the tick scared him, and a voice said “Go!” Buzz says that’s proof that he hasn’t lost the gift because of what he viewed the night they both got drunk. Elijah’s not so sure.

10. Elijah finds numerous phone calls to Janeen on his father’s phone and a text to Grayson Crowe which read, “Got a bad one,” with the reply, “I’m here. Come any time.” Elijah calls the number, finds that Grayson is an FBI agent who followed up on Daniel’s tips outside the Bellamounta area. Grayson wondered why Daniel didn’t arrive that day and is sorry to hear about his untimely death.

11. Cassandra takes credit for tipping Elijah off about a clue in his dad’s car. She’s so sorry her psychic skills hadn’t told her about the ticking bomb. Sonny passes and tells Elijah he looks like a guy who loves a girl. Elijah tells him he that ever since he grew that beard, he looks like a holy man. Sonny says, like Jesus? He says Melantha wants him to look like Jesus.

12. Slumped over her desk, Lucy awakens and finds the camera missing. When she call Elijah to ask for more pictures, she tells him she thinks someone put a sedative in her afternoon tea. Who but Janeen would want that camera?

13. Elijah and Buzz ride bikes down The Snake, a winding trail that leads to from upper to lower Bellamounta where they attend high school and are now going for rehearsal for their graduation. Both take a treacherous blind curve without reducing speed.

14. Cassandra and Elijah take a walk, talking about how wonderful it will be when she turns eighteen and can legally leave her father. She yearns to be in Elijah’s arms as much as he years to hold her. She says each time he looks at her, she feels a flush in the pit of her stomach. “Look at me now ‘cause I’m very cold,” she says. Elijah takes off his jacket, looks at her, and puts the jacket around her shoulders. Suddenly she’s gone. Poof! Vanished in thin air. He picks up his jacket, turns on his cellphones flashlight, flashes it around looking for her—finally noticing his next step would have taken him into an open grave. Hearing a sound in some shrubs, he runs there and finds Melantha at the wheel of a backhoe. She was on her way to fill in a grave that had been dug in the wrong place. She was afraid someone might fall into it. No, she hadn’t seen a girl run away.

15. Sitting on Elijah’s front porch as Sonny cleans weeds from the front shrubs, Buzz tries to convince Elijah that Cassandra could not possibly have vanished into thin air, and Elijah says not unless she was a hologram. They reminisce about seeing holograms at Disneyworld, but can’t seriously think Cassandra was one. Sonny tells them he liked Disneyworld, which he got to live close to when Melantha worked there.

16. When Lucy returns pictures to Elijah, she’s very upset at having passed an injured calf that she stayed with until Fire Chief Kevin could get there to take the calf to the town veterinarian. Elijah knows then that he’s lost his gift because if he hadn’t, he would have seen the calf and called for help.

16. In their graduation caps and gowns, Elijah and Buzz ride down The Snake and crash into a tree trunk blocking the path around the blind curve. Though severely injured himself, Elijah drags Buzz, who’s lost consciousness, down toward lower Bellamounta.

17. In the hospital Zayden gives them their diplomas. He says he now agrees that someone is trying to kill Elijah. He offers to pay all Elijah’s college expenses if he will write a will naming him as the beneficiary to receive his house. His wife Vera and his daughter Zoe enter and chide Zayden for his lack of empathy. Seeing Zoe, Elijah says “Cassandra!”

18. In a small hospital room a doctor accesses Elijah’s mental health, and Elijah lies, saying he’d never seen Zoe before this very day.

19. Vera insists that Elijah cannot spend the night alone in his house, so he spends the night at their home.

20. Elijah calls Grayson and tells him of his narrow escapes from death. Grayson agrees Daniel was killed, but without his remote-viewing to show him, he has no way of finding out why.

20. Zoe’s and Elijah’s interaction concludes with Elijah knowing that Zoe recently had a short role in a movie, during which she was required to pronounce A E I O U many times. Her recitation of some of her dialogue was word-for-word what Cassandra had said. Luckily, Zoe has none of Cassandra’s restrictions, and she and Elijah share a first, passionate kiss.

21. Elijah, alone in the church, asks God’s forgiveness for misusing his gift and pleads with Him to give it back so he can find his father’s killer and uncover the danger he’d seen. As he exits he bumps into Melantha, carrying a shopping bag. She says she’s there to water plants.

22. Janeen brings a meal to Elijah who tells her he’s lost his gift and won’t be able to help her prevent crime the way Daniel did. She cries and tells him she’s pregnant with Daniel’s baby, and she wants to have it, but not unless Elijah will accept it as his own half sister or brother. Stunned, Elijah asks her if she shoved his mother down the belfry steps.

23. In bed that night, Elijah begs God to give him back his gift.

24. The next morning in his pajamas, Elijah takes a full trash bag out of a plastic waste can, ties a knot in it, and opens the back door to take it to the trash can. As he steps off the porch, he’s blasted with a spray so hard it makes him stagger and finally fall. Sonny drops the hose, quick-dials his sister Melantha, and then dials 911.

25. Seeing Elijah passed out on the lawn, Melantha—in rubber gloves smiles as she detaches the hose from a huge canister and attaches it to the house’s outside faucet. She grabs Sonny and they run away.

26. Janeen, Kevin, and medics arrive on the scene and can smell the gas that knocked Elijah out. The medics wheel Elijah away, and Kevin detaches the hose and takes it with him.

27. Zoe and Vera watch over Elijah, still unconscious in a hospital bed.

28. Kevin, Janeen, Grayson, and other FBI agents discuss the deadly concoction found in the hose.

29. Elijah awakens, calls Zoe Cassandra and asks her to use her psychic skills to find Daniel’s murderer.

30. Melantha assures a worried Sonny that whatever happens to Elijah, it is not his fault.

31. Elijah awakens and convinces Zoe and Vera that he needs to get out of the hospital. The women are perplexed that he’s wondering where a projector would have to be to project a movie on the wall of the mausoleum. They let him out at home, but he goes to the church and starts up the spiral staircase to the belfry.

31. Grayson follows Elijah into the church and up the staircase. Grayson takes pictures of the machinery there, texts them to headquarters, and is told it’s a sophisticated hologram projector probably able to work in sync with artificial intelligence found in one or many of the attached machines. It can be set to project at a particular time. The FBI has been monitoring a global syndicate they suspect plans to use holograms some way toward their goal of population control—something to gather people together so masses can be gassed simultaneously. Might the canisters Shay saw Melantha putting in her plane contain something other than milk for children?

32. At the airport Grayson’s men unload eight canisters, from Melantha’s plane, open one enough to sniff, and say they’ve found the culprit. Elijah tells Lucy, who has followed them, that she’s going to get the scoop of the century, and she keeps following.

33. Sonny tells Grayson and Elijah that his sister went to the church to pray. He tells Elijah how happy he is to see him well. He was worried.

34. Grayson and Elijah find Melantha in the belfry. Cool and unperturbed, she wants them to be the first to know the treat she has planned for the community. She tells her history—how she studied the art of holograms and artificial intelligence, how she learned to combine both. She has set a timer for the surprise to happen in the sky above the mausoleum in exactly three hours.

35. Fire Chief Kevin orders both firetrucks to speed through neighborhoods announcing over loud speakers for all to watch the sky over the mausoleum at that exact hour. People are abuzz, and Melantha is ecstatic.

36. Melantha ascends to her airplane and finds Janeen and Grayson waiting for her. Janeen arrests her, and she turns ugly and collapses.

37. At the exact hour a hologram of Sonny, looking exactly like Jesus, appears high in the sky and walks downward to earth. His lips repeatedly seem to say, “Meet me at the church.”

38. Using a loud speaker Elijah speaks to the hundreds outside the church and on the road leading to. Then he leads them in singing a hymn.

39. A year later: Wearing his Jesus attire, Sonny signs autographs to an adoring crowd. Zayden gloats and Vera look relieved at the construction in progress, Kevin and Janeen play with their infant baby, Melantha does exercises with other patients obviously in a mental institution. Elijah stops suddenly as he walks with Zoe and Buzz on a college campus. His gifts is back, and he excuses himself to call Grayson. Lucy Addams, now a TV reporter, reports the astounding improvements in Bellamounta—all because the new theme park featuring a hologram of Jesus, which looks very impressive on the TV screen.

[Caroline Fritz]

Caroline’s Life-Threatening Sequence

What I learned: I was having such a hard time figuring out the last half of the second act. This was so helpful and is the reason I took this class again. I figured it out.

Life-Threatening Sequence:

1. Callahan visits his friends in the U.S.; Aaron does not look happy he is there and is acting covertly.

2. Aaron asks Callahan to run to the store; but he doesn’t know his way around. Aaron is trying to set Callahan up to be abducted and murdered.

3. Gabrielle goes instead and ends up kidnapped in another town over.

4. Aaron refuses to get the police involved and insists they drop the money off themselves, putting them and Gabrielle in danger.

5. At the ransom drop, Aaron disappears, thugs show up with weapons drawn, and the police have been alerted. Callahan has to run away; he ubers back to Aaron’s house.

6. At Aaron’s house, Callahan gathers his suitcase and leaves in his rental car; unwilling to be interrogated by the police because he isn’t sure what is going on.

7. He hides out in a hotel using one of his undercover identities and talks to his team back in the UK. They have bad news: the man behind the kidnapping is the arms dealer who is suspected of killing Callahan’s wife three years ago.

8. Callahan’s boss reaches out and tells him the CIA knows he is in the country and are insisting he go in for an official interview at CIA headquarters. It’s a set up!

9. The CIA demands Callahan stop investigating the case.

10. The CIA escorts Callahan to the airport, in effect deporting him from the country.

11. Callahan instead flies to Mexico, where his colleague, Ariana, is waiting for him and where the bad guy lives.

12. Callahan and Ariana set up a plan to rescue his friends.

13. While he is traveling to the villain’s compound, he and Ariana are stalked by thugs and the CIA.

14. His team is lured to the villain’s lair, where a trap awaits them.

15. Outgunned, Callahan and his team have to rely on their wits and cunning to get inside the compound.

16. A firefight ensues while Callahan tries to find Gabrielle’ whereabouts in the compound.

17. He finds Gabrielle in the study and tries to escort her to safety. Aaron comes in, Gabrielle kills him, then turns the gun on Callahan. He has been betrayed.

18. Gabrielle gives her reason why as Callahan tries to defuse the situation.

19. As the CIA is pounding on the door, Gabrielle shoots Callahan and tries to flee, but the CIA bursts in. Another firefight ensues as Callahan pulls himself out of danger.

20. Gabrielle shoots the CIA agents and turns to flee again. Ariana slinks in and shoots at Gabrielle. Gabrielle turns to fire at Ariana, who is distracted by Callahan. Ariana gets hit in the arm.

21. Callahan shoots Gabrielle as she is perched on the windowsill to flee, and Gabrielle falls to her death.

22. Callahan drags himself over to Ariana, who holds her arm. More CIA agents and Callahan and Ariana’s boss, Dalton, burst in.

23. The closing credits are Ariana and Callahan at a tropical resort convalescing.

[Brendan Guerin]

ASSIGNMENT 7

Brendan’s Life Threatening Sequence:

What I learned doing this assignment was a better understanding of how my hero Nat will navigate her way through the villain’s plan, finding ways to upend it, throw him off-course and regain agency at every opportunity.

What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

The Villains plan is to manipulate and control his migrant workers, instil fear to boost his ego and assert his power.

The Villain controls who his workers talk to, what they learn or not about his past. And he plans to control if/when they leave his remote island station and how they depart.

This plan endangers the hero Nat for many reasons;

a) Confident educated Nat believes that being upfront; honest talk is the best way to solve humanity’s problems. She has an inquiring mind, asks lots of tough questions.

b) Nat got married early, divorced, and gave up uni to nurse an over-bearing mum, with little support from siblings. In her late 20s, she’s simply not towing the line anymore, for anyone, especially not a bully.

c) Nat loves animals and quickly bonds with the working dogs on the station. Wayne will later exploit that bond, threatening animal cruelty to manipulate her.

d) Nat has older brothers and has learnt how to detect bullshit when she hears it and doesn’t mind calling it out, infuriating Wayne.

What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain? Sequence those dangers in order and make a list:

Sheer closeness of Nat to Wayne, workers sleep in adjacent dorm, with a broken lock, out on a remote sheep station

Without satellite service, there’s no wifi or means of communication with the outside world.

At the local pub, Nat is put in an awkward situation.

Rifles, hunting knives and other weapons hang in farm sheds and Wayne is moody and temperamental.

There’s no public transport, no street lights, nobody else out here

Nat is at real risk of getting hurt or killed if she’s caught trying to escape.

[Joanna Bielak]

Joanna’s Life Threatening Sequence

What I learned is: That’s the most important part of the creation. Now I know what is necessary to keep the audience’s attention, not for one or two scenes, but for the story. That part of the genre construction was difficult for me (so far), and I didn’t know how to solve it.

1.What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

Beta (Heroine), as a police dept. chief, has the equipment, professional team, and experience to fight against the Villains (Red Fox org.) and they know that. Therefore their every step to gain the main goal is automatically focused on (sequenced):

– her reputation – as a weak policewoman, who is not able to find Leo
– experience – the skills of the police IT team are insufficient to stop hackers
– her career – they want to wile her into their hiding place
– the most dangerous situation is at the climax – Beta’s life is threatened.

2.What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?

Her privacy (and reputation at work) – Beta had an affair with a woman involved in an eco-activist group. She is afraid of the leak.

3.From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.

Point one plus:
Threats – terrorized government
Talking about the danger – Red Fox shows all demands on the giant screen
Physical danger (Leo, citizens)
Surveillance / watched – everyone sees Leo on the screen
Abducted – Leo
People around them die or are injured – citizens
Presence of weapons or thugs – their hacking skills, poisoned starch

4.Sequence those dangers in order and make a list – see p. one plus:
a) missing Leo is in danger:
– he is kidnapped
– Red Fox shows a video with Leo on the city’s giant screen
– Leo is tested in the same way as animal tests are conducted
– looks like his life is threatened (but everything was prepared – fake prisoner and fake chem. tests)
b) citizens’ health is in danger:
– Red Fox are hacking into the laboratory to reveal tests’ data
– they threaten to change parameters at the starch production to poison it