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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Screenwriting Discussion    My Work In Progress  ›  Love And War (Comedy/Drama/Thriller) - WIP Moderators: bert
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  Author    Love And War (Comedy/Drama/Thriller) - WIP  (currently 233 views)
PaulJ
Posted: March 29th, 2020, 4:15am Report to Moderator
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LOG LINE: A secret organization recruits genius children, and trains them to become future politicians. After 15 years, they will hold positions for THE NEW REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES. The cult believes that their plan will ensure the survival of the American Empire, as the supreme world power for the next 500 years.

PLOT

--BACK STORY--
There is a secret organization called THE COLLECTIVE, who believes that the achievement of a truly balanced political system in America, is only possible with culturally diversified leaders that disregard his/her own cultural and religious identity.

They believe that religion is the hindrance to humanity's progress. Serving a deity is a drug that diverts our resources to helping the weak, instead of pushing up the strong. For it is the strong who will take us to the next step of our human evolution. They blame religion for having done nothing but divide us, and start unnecessary wars.

The Collective was founded by VICTOR (32), a taxi driver in England. After his divorce, and without children, he who moved to America. He noticed a few miffs here and there, and he thinks he could make some changes. His obsession of Nietzsche ignited all these. He believes that only a person that's free from the burden of morality, can realize his full potential, and thus begins the first phase to our next evolution.

--CHAPTER 1-- "The Invitation" (10 mins)
*please download the script here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/co0y4mf8db48ik8/Love%20And%20War_OpeningAct.pdf?dl=0

--CHAPTER 2-- "The Bad House" (10 mins)
MARA (15) helps his dad FRANCO (40) go from house to house offering CCTV camera installation services. They are both illegal immigrants. Franco crossed the US-Mexican border with Mara when she was only 5 years old. Everyday, the father and daughter duo goes on tour to every first-class neighborhood in Dallas, Texas.

Franco and Mara are hard workers, but since they don't have papers, their pay will always be lower than minimum wage. But their boss TAYLOR (65) is a good person, and to make up for this, he lets them stay at one of his houses that are still under-construction.

They enjoy free rent, but during winter, they just have to bundle up at night for the cold. The falling real estate market forces Taylor to cut-costs, so he can't allow them to turn the heater on at night.

Franco home-schools Mara. He uses his computer skills to tap into the neighbor's wifi and download eBooks for Mara to read. Since the age of 5, her entire childhood has been nothing but installing cameras during the day, and reading her phone at night.

Franco later discovers that her 5-year old starts solving fractions just by watching YouTube videos. From that day on, Franco dedicates his life to finding a way to send Mara to college.

--CHAPTER 3-- "The Benefits of Coffee" (10 mins)
Franco did a non-stop researching of scholarship opportunities, but for an illegal immigrant, the odds are slim. It becomes an obsession, to the point that he goes into petty theft to raise money for travelling expenses. He takes Mara from state to state trying to find college scholarship opportunities for undocumented minors. Franco gets her into these scholarship interviews, but she always gets rejected.

Mara loses hope with these trips. So she begs her dad that they just go back to Mexico, where he can find a better job, and she can go to college, both as a legal citizens. This does not sit well with Franco, so he begs an interviewer to tell her daughter to come back in 6 months for a followup interview, just to give her something to look forward to -- so Mara finds new hope.

One day, Franco is sipping a mocha frappe at Starbucks, hunting for his next victim. He saw a guy leave his phone at the table to go to the bathroom. He steals the phone, unlocks it, and goes through the notes to check for any credit card information, Venmo, CashApp, or Paypal login details he can exploit. Instead, he finds the first draft of The Collective Manifesto. Here are some important points:

THE COLLECTIVE MANIFESTO by Victor Hunt
-The American people have a special calling and responsibility to the human race, and I believe in 3 things.
-First: There is no better world power to lead the human race than the REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES.
-Second: There has never been an empire as humanitarian, as generous, and as virtuous to it's subjected territories as the American people.
-Third: In future threats to humanity's survival, there is no better country to stand as a defender and big-brother to other nations as the American people.
-However, we have wasted this potential by creating threats from within ourselves.
-This is a 50-year plan to make major changes of the Constitution of the United States, and give birth to a New Age of Politics.
-There will be a huge price to pay, and our own people will suffer. Families will be torn apart, brother will turn against brother, but it will ensure the future of the United States as a supreme nation to lead mankind for the next 500 years.
-Join me in this cause, and take your positions as leaders of the NEW REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE PLAN
-Phase 1: A special school for exceptionally minded children.
-Phase 2: Full Control of the Immigrant Population.

Franco thought it was just all bullshit communism or something, but "special school" caught his attention. So he meets with Victor at the same Starbucks to return the phone, and introduced Mara to him. He told tales about Mara's exceptional ability, by just learning stuff from her phone.

Franco admitted and apologized to Victor for unlocking his phone, and reading the manifesto. Victor said its no problem, and that he is glad to meet his exceptional daughter. Franco then admits that he and Mara are Catholic, so they might not agree on the "God is dead" part. Victor says he doesn't discriminate people who don't believe everything in the manifesto. He says that if we can agree on a few things today, let's just leave the rest for tomorrow.

However, Mara has a strong accent, and she is having trouble pronouncing some words correctly. This is because Franco's English sucks, and Mara didn't have any friends, so she has no one to practice English with. She suspects this might be the reason why interviewers don't seem to like her, they're just afraid to be upfront with her. Now she begins to hate her accent; She thinks it makes her sound dumb.

The accent is a problem for Victor, because winning debate competitions is his thing. He was blunt to Mara about this as the reason he can't accept her right now. But nevertheless, Victor encourages Mara to keep working on her accent, and interview her again in the future when she's ready.

But before Victor left, he said to Mara, "You have a calling."; and he gave Mara the phone that Franco stole from him. He said to just watch a lot of Shark Tank.

--CHAPTER 4--The Good House (20 mins)
Victor's dedication to search for scholars became an obsession, to the point that he extends his search abroad. He goes to Mexico auditioning kids. If they get a high-enough score in the IQ test, they get instant US Citizenship. He also visits juvenile facilities from California to New York giving IQ tests; and for those that pass, he offers a fresh new start. This is of course all illegal, so he must have bureaucrats supporting his cause.

He was finally able to start a small private school at a strip mall in Arlington, Texas. He has his first 3 students, whom he loved as if they were his own children. He turned these genius "misfits" into respectable members of society by teaching them elitist ways like dancing the waltz or making French souffle.

15 years later,  Victor's school expands to 10 major cities across America. However, the school gets bad vibes from the church, due of Victor's both nihilistic and materialistic influence to the kids. They are often seen on TV winning every National Speech and Debate Tournament there is, while wearing Ray-bans, and custom-tailored Armani suits. The quick growth is mainly because of the way Victors sells his aesthetic, it became very attractive to teenagers.

Being deemed as a "cult" (which they kind of are) by the church, a petition was passed around to abolish the school. Their stand is that America is not an atheist country, and therefore anything that disrespects God is not American -- and they were successful. All of Victor's schools got closed, its immigrant students deported, and the others back to juvi. Victor went broke, and became homeless, because everything he had, he spent on the school.

He found a job in construction. Clever as he is, he gets promoted to Project Manager, and moved up the ranks fast. 10 years later, he founded his own Housing Development Company. He chose the real estate business for a reason. He wants to re-start his school, but with a twist. His idea is to build tiny boarding schools, with only 1 teacher, and 7 students -- tiny, so it's easier to control and hide from the law.

The Hierarchy of House System:
-At the very top, are THE PRODIGALS. The highest among the Knights, and Victor's first 3 students, which he considers his flesh and blood. The organization refers to them as "Prodigals" because they got deported, and Victor smuggled them back. The Prodigals are viewed as superheroes and survivors in the organization, that is now composed of bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians all over America.
-Each house has a KNIGHT. Usually alumni from his abolished school 10 years ago. He/she is the sole guru and shaman of the house, and reports to The Prodigals.  
-Each house has a LADY or a LORD, who keeps peace and order among the Squires. This is a responsibility given to the best student.
-Each house has 6 SQUIRES, the regular students.

The idea of being locked-down inside a house for 4 years creates a problem for the Knights and the Ladies/Lords of the houses. Squires are not allowed to come out of these house without proper protocol. They often get escapees -- those who can no longer take the bootcamp-type of training inside the house.

These "quitters" are deemed outcasts, and viewed as the weakest among the weak. These are children who had God-given talents, but chose to bury them underground. Victor is not atheist, He believes in a Creator. But its now up to the creation to decide for itself.

To solve the problem of children escaping, everything is provided for them inside. They have prom nights, backyard barbecue, bonfire, and even drunken high school parties inside the house. All to simulate the average American lifestyle. But there are 2 Main Rules-- No Relationships, and No Cellphones. It's just common sense, Victor doesn't want pregnant teenagers, or teenagers hooked on social media.

Besides the usual subjects of Math, Science and Literature, they also teach Music, Painting, Yoga, Martial Arts, Cooking, Acting and Everything. It's the responsibility of the knights to design each individual students' curriculum. Like if he is weak at Math, but has a passion for acting, they remove all Math from his curriculum totally, and replace it with all acting classes-- a product of this system is NANCY (27), the youngest African-American to win 2 Academy Awards for Best Female Actor in a Leading Role. Nancy Summers is also a Black-Female-Rights Activist, Director, Producer, and CEO of Adrift Pictures.

One day every 6 months, the kids are allowed to experience outdoor fun activities like ax throwing, bowling, and escape rooms. But they have to be escorted by PACO (30) a recruited FBI agent. They don't complain, because it's still better than juvy, and totally worth the  citizenship.

--CHAPTER 5-- "I have a Calling" (10 mins)
Mara has never forgotten Victor's promise of a second interview. While installing security cameras, she would play on-loop, YouTube videos to improve her accent. She get's close, but not quite. She remembers Victor as the only interviewer that genuinely listened to her. The others interviewers immediately tuned out once they hear her thick accent, plus the fact that she has no diploma or any record of formal education.

During the Starbucks interview 6 months ago, Victor saw her hunger for learning and told her, "You have a calling." -- this keeps her up at night. What Victor said, gives her a reason to wake up in the morning, survive America, and give his dad's dream for her another day.

One night, Taylor hosted a Bible study for his construction workers at Franco's house, and bought a guest pastor -- PASTOR MIKE (60). During the worship part of the service, Mike asks if he can pray for Mara. To her amazement, he said the same thing Victor said -- "You have a calling."

Mara breaks into tears, and thanks God for sending Victor and Pastor Mike as His messengers, to reassure her that she is called by Him-- Mara is a devout Catholic, and Pastor Mike's teachings are close enough, so it's good enough for her.

HIRO (35), a coyote who works for Victor by smuggling genius kids from Mexico, happens to be a friend of Franco. Hiro holds an ACCEPTANCE LETTER sealed by Victor himself. Sealed Letters like these have been for sale in the Mexican black-market for a very hefty price.

These letters belong to kids who died while crossing the border. For those that make it safely to America, they will simply present this Unopened Letter to the Knight of the House, for an automatic acceptance.

After finding out that this was possible, Franco spent all their savings to purchase this letter from Hiro. Since Victor is at the up and up and you can't just text him, Mara goes to Pastor Mike for guidance on how to survive in a REAL school. She has been home-schooled all her life with no friends, so she is terrified. The pastor gives her a Bible, and tells her to bring it to class everyday.

Mara presents this letter to JULIA (30), the Knight of the Dallas House, and she gets accepted after scoring a 146 IQ. No more cold nights at the "Bad House", as she now shares a bunk bed with CANDICE (15) -- her new best friend/competition. With a clear purpose in life, Mara finally becomes a Squire.

*** There will be more Chapters coming. I'm still trying to tame the story and find out which characters or plot to throw away. ***

--POSSIBLE ENDING--
Mara becomes the youngest Senator in US history at age 30.

Revision History (12 edits; 1 reasons shown)
PaulJ  -  March 29th, 2020, 6:35am
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