Screenplay

Crime Travelers Brainwashed ©Paul Aertker 2018 All rights reserved.

 

 

FADE IN.

Darkness. Ocean sounds. A fading fog reveals...

 

EXT. SHORELINE - MORNING

Wind blowing. Seaspray. Cold. Wet. Rocky coast.

 

INSERT: TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINA.

Waves breaking. Fog clearing. A giant slab of ice floating in a bay. Penguins standing on ice. A half-dozen nuns wearing habits scurry across the shoreline. Their flashlights crisscrossing the rocks.

 

SISTER AGNITA is carrying a baby wrapped in a blanket. Behind her SISTER ROSA clutches file folders with papers sticking out.

 

A foghorn BLASTS. The penguins slip into the water. The nuns now racing across the rocks. One stumbles. Her foot stuck. She points across the water. A commercial fishing boat motoring in reverse toward shore. KATE BENES on the back of the boat waving frantically. Sisters Agnita and Rosa wade into the water. It's freezing. They are waist deep when they meet the boat.

 

EXT. BACK OF BOAT - MORNING

Sr. Agnita hands the baby up. Kate leans over the gunwale.

 

SR. AGNITA (Spanish Accent)

This is the one they are after.

 

Kate takes the baby--looks at it and smiles. The baby has

messy hair. Funny looking.

 

KATE

Any word on this boy's mother?

 

SR. AGNITA

We fear the worst for her. But at least her son will be saved by this adoption.

 

KATE

My husband and I would have it no other way.

 

SR. AGNITA

You and John Benes are good people. Please be careful.

 

Sr. Rosa hands Kate a tiny bell. It RINGS. She gives Kate

the files. We see numbers and a name on the folder: LUCAS (KAPRISS) BENES.

 

SR. ROSA (Spanish Accent)

Everything they're looking for is in there.

 

Kate holding the baby and files turns and signals the

CAPTAIN to go. The boat's engines ROAR. Water churning.

 

EXT. OPEN WATER - MORNING

The boat motoring OUT. Windy. The water is rough here.

 

INT. BOAT PILOT ROOM - MORNING

Close-up on CAPTAIN CELIA. She looks out over the water and cuts the wheel. It spins. It doesn't work. Her instruments have gone haywire. Something is dead wrong. She slaps the throttle into reverse and opens the cabin door.

 

CAPTAIN CELIA

Get the life jackets out. Quick.

 

EXT. BACK OF BOAT - MORNING

Still holding the baby and files, Kate runs to the back of

the boat and opens a storage locker. The sea spray

splashing. Kate flings out several life jackets. They are

all way too big.

 

EXT. SHORELINE - MORNING

Nuns rushing along the rocks. Worry as they watch the boat.

 

INT. BOAT PILOT ROOM - MORNING

 

CAPTAIN CELIA still trying to command the boat but to no

avail. She's on the radio. It's dead. She drops the

microphone and crashes the door open.

 

CAPTAIN CELIA

Get the baby and the files off the boat. Now.

 

Kate scans the boat. She spots an ICE CHEST, looks at the

baby, then reacts. She kicks open the ice chest and puts the baby, the bell, and files in. She props open the lid with

one of the huge life jackets.

 

Captain Celia blows a DISTRESS signal.

 

EXT. SHORELINE - MORNING

Nuns moving into the cold water. Grave concern.

 

EXT. BACK OF BOAT - MORNING

Kate and Captain Celia are putting on life jackets.

 

EXT. SHORELINE - MORNING

The NUNS POV. The boat in the distance -- it EXPLODES. Fire and falling debris.

 

EXT. SHORELINE – MORNING

In the aftermath, the ice chest floating among burning boat wreckage. We HEAR the baby cry.

Sr. Agnita rips off her habit and dives into the water. She

swims out and pulls the ice chest (baby and all) to shore.

 

CUT TO EXT. NEVADA DESERT – DAWN

INSERT: 13 YEARS LATER

 

Sand blowing. Hot. Dry. Mountains.

An enormous garage door on the side of a rocky mountain rumbles as it closes. We glimpse the inside. It's an airplane hangar.

 

MOVING TO ...

 

EXT. LAS VEGAS – DAWN

Skyline. Lights. Fake Eiffel Tower.

 

EXT. HOTEL PARKING LOT – DAWN

We SEE the hotel name: THE GLOBE HOTEL. The back parking lot. It's empty. Wooden barricades. It's a construction site. Dumpsters. Sand. Basketball hoops. In the shadows an OLD VAN with smoke sputtering from its tailpipe.

 

Sitting by itself in the middle of the lot between the white

lines is a SHOPPING CART. In the basket, there's something wrapped in blankets.

 

EXT. HOTEL ROOF – DAWN

Shirtless 13-year-old boy in a sleeping bag. Bed-headed

hair. Camping gear scattered around. We HEAR the van's

engine crank. The boy is still sleeping.

Off screen, a baby cries. The boy's eyes open and we

 

CUT TO THE BOY'S POV

We see his personal belongings scattered around. Jeans.

Water bottle. Climbing gear in a plastic bin with the name:

LUCAS BENES.

 

The van engine CRANKS again and this time it coughs to life.

 

STILL THE BOY'S POV

We peer over the roof's edge. Thirteen Floors down. Focus on the van, the basketball hoops -- moving to the shopping cart -- something in that basket -- a baby?

 

LUCAS

What ...?

 

For more, please contact Lauren Sands or Kara Corwin.