DeCosta revised Screenplay

Sin Titulo...

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - TONY'S ROOM - NIGHT

ANTONIO (TONY) VELA types on his computer. The blinds are pulled, window open and Tony can hear sounds of a party outside. He listens to JOHN O'HAYES' voice on his phone's speakerphone

JOHN O'HAYES

Make sure you encrypt and lock all the system files for the program when you save it

Tony types away for a second.

TONY

OK we're all good

INT. JOHN'S HOUSE - JOHN'S ROOM - NIGHT

John 's room is cluttered and dim. CHRISTOFF MODRIC is sitting on John's bed with a laptop

TONY (OVER PHONE)

God, Kiara's party won't shut up, why does she have to throw these things every weekend?

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - TONY'S ROOM - NIGHT

Tony's mom knocks on the door. He turns off the monitor and picks up his gaming controller.

TONY'S MOM

Why are you in on another Friday night? I thought you were going to Kiara's tonight.

TONY

I can't this weekend, I have too much homework again..

MOM

You know, one of these days you're gonna regret staying in your bubble your whole life. Good night Tony.

Tony's mom leaves and he turns his monitor back on.

Scene 2:

EXT. BEHIND TONY'S HOUSE - KIARA YAMAMOTO'S BACKYARD - NIGHT

Kiara looks up at Tony's window and sighs. She sneaks through a board in the fence into his backyard. She knocks on the first-floor glass door and waits. It opens to reveal DANIELA VELA, Tony's sister one year younger.

DANIELA

Hi Kiara! Come on in!

Kiara stomps up the stairs and knocks on the door.

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - TONY'S ROOM - NIGHT

Tony turns off the monitor and picks up his controller.

TONY

I'm still doing homework Mom.

The door opens and Kiara walks in. She shuts down his download computer.

KIARA

I can't believe I actually thought you'd come this time. How could you miss my birthday party?!

Tony looks down at the floor.

TONY

I don't know how I forgot, I'm so sorry Kiara - I've just been so busy with-

KIARA

Shut up Tony, don't even bother.

Kiara leaves and Tony peers out the blinds to her party. He sighs and goes to bed.

Act 2: Establishes a problem

Scene 1:

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - 7:40AM MONDAY

Tony reads a story in the paper about a brutal murder. There's also a bigger story and headline about a crackdown on illegal downloading. He shows Daniela.

DANIELA

Wow, that's so stupid. Why is it that illegal downloading gets more attention than a local murder?

TONY

I know, I'd say people have their priorities a little screwed up...

Scene 2:

INT. AT SCHOOL - IN HALLWAYS - MORNING

Tony dodges people as he walks to class with his head down.

INT. AT SCHOOL - IN CLASSROOM - MORNING

Tony walks in and looks around. Class is empty. Mr. Aliano startles Tony by standing up from behind his desk.

TONY

Jesus! ... Good morning

MR. ALIANO

Good morning Tony, have a good weekend?

Tony studies his face, squints eyes

TONY

(hesitantly) Yeah, it was alright I guess...

Tony sits down. Mr. Aliano looks at him and smiles.

MR. ALIANO

Well that's just grand...

Class begins and Tony pulls out his laptop. He types away. Mr. Aliano walks up and Tony shuts his windows. Mr. Aliano confiscates the machine.

MR. ALIANO

Tony, we are beginning the discussion, you can have this back after school today.

INT. AT SCHOOL - MR. ALIANO'S ROOM - 3:00PM

TONY

Thanks Mr. Aliano, it won't happen again

MR. ALIANO

Just be careful what you get yourself into, Tony.

Tony takes his laptop without a word and leaves. He looks back once and Mr. Aliano is looking at him.

Scene 3:

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - TONY'S ROOM - AFTERNOON

John and Christoff are over.

TONY

...And he was totally staring at me. Plus when I left, he said something about "being careful what I get myself into, whatever that means"

JOHN

Yeah that is weird. Do you think he saw all your downloads? Cuz they're cracking down on that hard now. I hear he's pretty good with computers...

CHRISTOFF

Or maybe it's something else- Tony, you did shut down the program before you gave him your laptop, right??

TONY

Well, yeah except I couldn't shut down the whole computer, he was right there immediately. And I also can't find the folder with some of the security codes..

JOHN

I think we're gonna be fine, but we just have to be extra careful at school. You have the codes backed up on your external drive, right?

TONY

Yeah I do. And you're right, we gotta be careful who sees what we're doing...

The three boys type away on their computers.

Scene 4:

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Tony hears a knock on his glass door to his backyard. He opens it and Kiara walks in. She sits down next to him very close. He scoots away a bit.

KIARA

You know, my birthday party was a blast last night. You shoulda been there though, I missed you...

His eyes are down.

TONY

(looking down) I'm really sorry Kiara, I just got sidetracked working on my-

KIARA

Stop. Enough with the excuses. You could hear my party from your room, but you're too scared to get out of your bubble. I'm trying to reach out to you, but if you keep pushing me away eventually we won't even know each other anymore. We've been friends for so long, but for some reason you're still so scared around me.

Tony is silent, looking down.

TONY

I just have a lot on my mind. The program I'm writing with John and Chris is really long. I'll try harder once I finish it.

KIARA

I know, I just miss my friend.

TONY

Hey, so have you seen the newspaper today? There was a murder on Bellomy Street. There's a headline in the paper.

He hands Kiara the paper.

KIARA

Yeah I briefly saw this, but it's hard to notice with the huge headline about downloading staring me in the face.

TONY

Yeah isn't that so stupid? Everyone downloads, even the people who are supposed to enforce the law do it..

KIARA

Meanwhile there's a murderer on the loose in town.

They watch TV in silence. Tony is visibly unsure and worried.

Scene 5:

EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF SCHOOL - APPROACHING CAMPUS - 7:55AM TUESDAY

Tony walks next to Daniela with a newspaper in his hand. The front page shows another murder headline, noting it is victim number 2. But again there's a huge headline about local students being caught running a file hosting site.

TONY

This is such bullshit, yesterday 3 students were arrested for downloading while another murder happened. I wonder if there are any cops even investigating that thing or if they're all too busy arresting kids for sharing music.

DANIELA

Well, we can't do anything about it - just have to be careful. Besides, that won't happen to you, there are so many other people doing it.

INT. IN SCHOOL - ALIANO'S CLASSROOM - MORNING

Tony gets to Aliano's class and notices 2 empty seats.

MR. ALIANO

Good morning guys, today we're gonna continue our discussion about...

Tony studies Mr. Aliano. He sees Tony and Tony looks away.

INT. IN SCHOOL - ALIANO'S CLASSROOM - END OF CLASS

INTERCOM

Please send Anthony Vela to Dean Johnson's office, Anthony Vela to Dean Johnson's.

Scene 6:

INT. IN SCHOOL - DEAN'S OFFICE - MID MORNING

A man in a black suit is waiting inside with the dean. He has a pistol on his hip.

MAN

Hello Mr. Vela, my name is OFFICER CLARK of the Department of Homeland Security. I'll get straight to the point. Yesterday, numerous illegally-downloaded programs, videos, and music were found on your computer, along with a dangerous program that has the potential to hack into any computer accessed to the same network as you. This could get you into a lot of trouble with the law, you know. What do you have to say?

TONY

I am sooo sorry, Officer. That music and video is mine, but I will delete it all, I swear. And the program is just an innocent cheat for a game that I play with my friends. It's online and we were going to use it to sabotage other players, I promise.

CLARK

Well, it doesn't look good, but I'll let you off with a warning this time, just as soon as I wipe your drive.

Clark presses a few buttons and the screen goes black. He gives the computer to Tony.

INT. TONY'S HOUSE - TONY'S ROOM - NIGHT

Tony is working on his computer, speakerphone on his desk.

JOHN

(over phone) So he just wiped your drive and let you go?

TONY

Yeah, it was a pain to reinstall all the programs, but I had everything backed up here anyway. Everything's back and running again. That was a close call though - we have to be more careful about what we bring to school...

Tony hears a scream from outside his window which is promptly cut off. He goes to the window. A black figure hops Kiara's fence into the street. It runs to a shadow and disappears.

EXT. OUTSIDE KIARA'S HOUSE - HER BACKYARD - NIGHT

Tony runs up to the back door and throws it wide open.

INT. INSIDE KIARA'S HOUSE - HER LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Tony finds Kiara in a pool of blood, wrists cut and a razor in her hand. He looks terrified.

EXT. OUTSIDE KIARA'S HOUSE - HER BACKYARD - NIGHT

There are officers and caution tape.

OFFICER 1

Sorry buddy, there's no evidence of murder, not one hair, fingerprint, or sign of distress.

TONY

No sign of distress?! How do you explain the gash on her face?

OFFICER 1

It looks like she hit her head when she became too weak to stand. When someone slits their wrists they usually pass out and fall hard.

TONY

This is bullshit! Why won't you take this seriously but the stupid government is busy busting people with ACTA and SOPA?!

OFFICER 1

Listen kid, I'm telling you what happened, it's up to you to decide you wanna believe the truth or not. For God's sake there was a suicide note.

Act 3: Climax Reached

Scene 1:

INT. AT SCHOOL - MR. ALIANO'S CLASSROOM - ONE WEEK LATER, MONDAY

There are a few empty seats in the classroom and everyone seems depressed.

MR. ALIANO

Good to have you back Tony. We missed you this last week.

TONY

(mumbling) Good morning

Tony sits and looks down.

INTERCOM

Anthony Vela to the Dean's office, Anthony Vela to the Dean

INT. AT SCHOOL - DEAN'S OFFICE - MID MORNING

Officer Clark is standing next to the principal's desk when Tony walks in.

CLARK

You know Tony, I figured that a run-in with the Department of Homeland Security would convince you that what you were doing was very serious. I'm disappointed to find that you decided not to comply with our request to stop your downloading and program.

TONY

How did you know that? Did you track my machine?

CLARK

Of course we did! You can't expect us to allow a program like that to go unmonitored! All your computers are tapped. You had your chance, but you didn't take it seriously. Maybe now you will.

Officer Clark cuffs Tony.

Scene 2:

INT. DHS HEADQUARTERS - INTERROGATION ROOM - AFTERNOON

Tony is sitting on a chair at a table. Another officer sits across from him.

OFFICER 2

Here's what's gonna happen, Mr. Vela. You are a potential terrorist threat to the safety of this country. You're going to a sad lonely place if you don't help yourself out. You can tell us who you're working with on this project and we'll see what we can do for you. If you don't, you can just take your chances.

TONY

(after silence) I'm working on this alone, I wanted to use it with my friends but they have no idea I'm doing it. Please let me go though! You can wipe all my computers - all that work took months and it would be impossible to restart the project! Please! I haven't hurt anyone!

OFFICER 2

I'm afraid we can't do that, Mr. Vela. We need to be proactive and you'll be held indefinitely until some of the higher-ups can look at this case.

TONY

(furiously) Why is the Department of Homeland Security spending time picking on kids who are writing amateur hacking programs anyway?! My friend was murdered -- MURDERED!! And the authorities just swept it under the rug! Doesn't that deserve more attention than ACTA or SOPA or whatever that crap is?! Your priorities are so mixed up! There's a serial killer in my city and all the government is doing is tracking kids with illegal music!

OFFICER 2

Listen, Mr. Vela; this is extremely important. Our focus is on right here and now. Whatever happened to your little friend in the past is done. As for your other buddies, we'll find them even if you won't lead us to them. it's only a matter of time.

Officer 2 walks out and Tony's head falls to his chest.

EXT. OUTSIDE DHS BUILDING - STREET - EVENING

Officer Clark walks out with Tony and puts him in an armored vehicle.

Fin :)

Revised screenplay

http://www.ryantsao.me/Screenplay2.pdf

Revised Screenplay

Outline

Setting: New York City

Scene 1:

Lauren Traina is protesting in New York about the rise in taxes in the government. She is amongst thousands of people who want to cut government spending and they insist that the government lowers government spending. They want a society where everyone is on their own and there is little government involvement. They believe that people should be left alone and the government should have little power. When the President of the United States comes out to speak, crowd stampedes toward him, pushing Nicole to the ground. She is trampled by the stampede and blacks out.

There is a crowd of people in Times Square. They are waiting for the President to come out and speak

Protestors Yelling: The government should get out of lives!!

Close in on Lauren and her friend

Lauren: Isn’t this awesome?! The government has to get out of our lives! We can take care of ourselves!!!!

Friend: Yeah!!! F$*k the government!

Just then, the President of the United States walks out. The crowd starts screaming and as he tries to calm them down they get more riled and start stampeding towards him. Lauren is pushed to the ground.

Friend: Lauren! Lauren! Are you okay?

The crowd is pushing the friend further and further away from Lauren as she is trampled by the stampede. The scene ends with Lauren struggling to get up but then finally gives up and closes her eyes.

Scene 2: Lauren wakes up in a bed she is not familiar with. Her sister is sitting by her side and gets very excited to see that she has awoke. Her sister tells her that she has been out for 10 months because of trauma to the brain and during that time there has been a revolution where the President of the United States was killed and Congress was taken down. The United States is no longer; the North American continent is now anarchy. Lauren is at first slightly scared, but then thinks it might actually be a good thing. Government involvement was not that great anyways. The scene ends with Lauren and her sister, Nicole, go outside to see what life is like now.

Lauren opens her eyes. She sees her sister, Nicole, sitting next to the bed.

Lauren: Nicole? What happened? Where am I?

Nicole: Eyes widen and smiles brightly: Oh my gosh!!!!!! I can’t believe it! How are you feeling?

Lauren: Tired, but overall fine. How long have I been out?

Nicole puts her head down and shakes her head. Lauren can tell something is wrong.

Nicole: Lauren, you have been in a coma for ten months.

Lauren: What! How can that be? What has happened? Have the protests been going well?

Nicole: Lauren, at the protest in New York, someone shot the President.

Lauren: What?!

Nicole: Yeah, it got really crazy. There was a group of people who had guns who fired at him at the same time.

Lauren: What happened? Are the gunmen in jail? What did Congress do about it?

Nicole: There is no Congress anymore. The protestors became very radical and wanted an anarchy so they took out anyone with political power.

Lauren: So…what are we now? Are we still the United States?

Nicole: No.

Lauren: Well I am sure that it will probably won’t be bad. I mean, how bad could it have gotten in 10 months?

Fades out

Scene 3: When they are walking around, the city is obviously different than it was before. It is somewhat post-apocalyptic but not as destroyed. It is much dirtier and there are a lot of people just sitting on the street. they see different atrocities around, such as stealing, over-exposure in public, and breaking into buildings. Lauren is saying that once people get used to this knew freedom, people will calm down. Nicole is not so sure. Nicole talked about how even though the anarchists probably meant for the best, but this was not the way to go. They should have taken different, more democratic measures to get what they want.

As they are walking outside the house.

Lauren: By the way, where are we? Why are not we in our house?

Nicole: People broke into our old house and we had to leave. We now live in Jersey.

Lauren: Ugh, that kinda sucks. People will calm down though once they get used to being free people.

The two women see a burglary taking place.

Lauren: What the hell?!! What is going on? Someone has to do something!!

Nicole: Like what?

Lauren: I don’t know, just something. I mean that is someone’s business.

Nicole: Well there are not any laws against doing this. There are not any laws at all.

Just then, they see a man approach the burglar. They then get in a fight over the goods and begin to punch each other.

Nicole: Lets get out of here. It is gonna get crazier.

Lauren: How so?

Nicole: More people are gonna come to fight over the stuff.

Lauren: Why?

Nicole: Because no one will stop them.

Lauren: There are probably reasons that people are doing this though, I mean at least they have the freedom to do what they want!

Nicole: Lauren, are they really free right now?

Lauren: What do you mean?

Nicole: I mean yeah they can do whatever they want without the possibility of going to jail or any other sort of trouble, but really? This is not freedom. To get ahead around here, you have to screw people over.

Lauren: Isn’t this just capitalism in the simplest of forms then?

Nicole: Capitalism at least was controlled somewhat by the government. People could feel safe in their own homes and towns.

The two girls run towards the next town over.

Scene 4: The girls go to the next town over and they run into some of Lauren’s old protestor friends. They are looking for scraps on the floor and looked sad and run down. They realized that they were happier in the life they had before.

The girls are walking and see Lauren’s friends

Lauren: Hey guys! How is it going?

None of the friends say anything. They look at each other and keep walking around the street, searching for any from of food or clothing.

Nicole: I would not bother. A lot of people are like this now. They don’t really care about friends or people anymore. Just getting food.

Lauren: What the hell has happened? Why is it like this?

Nicole: Well at first when the protestors took down the government it was not that bad. People were still going to work who still had jobs and people were exchanging goods.

Lauren: Then why is it like this now?

Nicole: Well this guy Tony Costa De started to round up forces and then began to take over people’s homes and business. He started a colony and monopolized the three major cities adjacent.

Lauren: Well, why did not people leave then?

Nicole: All the other cities are like this too! Gosh are you stupid? Don’t you realize that this should never had happened! We were so much better off with a government who actually took care of us when things like this happened!

Lauren: No it actually is not that bad. Once people calm down…

Nicole: People will not calm down. This is how things will be forever if we don’t do something about it.

Lauren: Like what?

Nicole: Well the first thing we can do is take down the colony.

Scene ends with them just looking at each other.

Scene 5: The girls rally troops together to take down the colony. People are at first reluctant, but then realize that this is the only way for them to get life somewhat good again is to take down this colony.

Scene begins with Lauren and Nicole going up to a group of homeless teenagers.

Lauren: Join us. Come and take down the colony.

Homeless teen 1: Your crazy. Go away and let me be.

Nicole: Seriously, if you want your life better, you have to do something about it. We cannot do it alone.

Homeless teen 2: How can we?

Lauren: rally everyone in town

Scene 6: They get a large group and grab weaponry and go and take down the colony with force. They succeed and the scene ends with Nicole realizing that the government is actually a good thing.

A large group of people are rallied in front of Lauren and Nicole

Lauren: Okay everyone, are you ready?

Crowd: Yes!

Nicole: Okay let’s go!

The group walks to the colony’s main house. The colony leader, Tony Costa De, orders the colonists to fire upon the crowd.

Lauren: Everybody fire!

The crowd fires guns and knives at the colonists. Since the crowd is larger than the group of colonists, they take the colonists down easily.

Nicole: This is great!!! But what do we do now?

Lauren: I have no idea. All I know is that there has to be some form of regulations or people will go crazy.

Nicole: Okay…so how do we do that?

Lauren: I don’t know but it will probably take a while before things are back to normal.

Scene ends

The Final Screenplay

Fade In:

Ext. OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM IN THE HALLWAY

The kids are outside waiting for the teacher to arrive talking amongst themselves.

Dissolve to:

Int. INSIDE THE CLASSROOM-FIRST DAY OF CLASS

The kids take their seat and the room quiets down as the teacher goes in the front and introduces himself.

Mr. Bush

Good morning class. My name is Mr. Bush and welcome to Origins of Terrorism

Students

Good morning Mr. Bush

Mr. Bush

In this class, we will discover the origins and the political motives of terrorists. We will see their perspectives in accordance to ours.

Pan to:

Student #1

What do you mean by perspective professor?

Mr. Bush

Terrorism has rather narrow definition for us. It has a strong connotation than that. One must remember that terrorism is about perspective. You don’t know it yet but you will.

Student #1

Okay?

The other students look perplexed. The mumble and talk amongst themselves in

Confusion.

Dissolve to:

Some weeks later in the class

Hakim

Voice

(Internal Monologue)

I wonder what will be discussing. I really hope that they do not concentrate on Islamic Radicalisms.

Int. The classroom scene:

Mr. Bush

Today, we will be discussing Islamic radicalism. We shall watch this video about Islamic terrorism around the world and 9/11.

Cut to:

Show the clip of the 9/11 attacks and around the world.

Snap Zoom:

Mr. Bush

Islam is said to be a religion of peace. What do you think perpetuates such behavior?

Student #2:

No offense to the Muslims but Islam is like the kid in the corner of the room. If you leave it alone, it won’t bother you. If you mess with it, it will overreact and cause a lot of trouble.

Student #1:

I never understood why they are committing Jihad. I don’t anything from the Qur’an yet I don’t know the purpose of this.

Mr. Bush:

What about the other terrorist groups? What about the Christian groups that we have discussed?

Student #5:

Yes, there are some extremists in some religion yet it seems that the Islamic fundamentalist does the most?

Student #4:

I beg to differ. Some does just as much. Remember the incident in Israel where this one guy took an AK during a Muslim gathering and killed dozens and injured hundreds more?

Hakim:

Internal Monologue

I wonder why the central discussion of this class has been my religion. I realize that there has been a lot of events revolving around my faith yet it seems that they never discussed the other ones. Our book discusses some yet concentrates more on my religion.

Mr.Bush:

This goes back to the idea of perspective doesn’t it?

Hakim:

Raises his hand

In actuality, there is much more to that. Everyone commits terrorism. America is also susceptible such behavior.

Student #3

Some say that but we merely tried to help the situation. We do not mean to be a burden. In fact we should be the one that feels that way since we are taking it upon ourselves to help.

Hakim:

You may feel that way but the fact is that more civilians have died in the bombings of the US that terrorist killed.

Students:

Murmuring in the background.

[end scene]

Act II

Dissolve to:

Ext. in the square

Hakim is walking from another class. One of the students from the previous class sees him.

Snap to:

Student #2 is walking with another one classmate of Hakim. They want to confront him from the previous class.

Student #2:

Hey Hakim, could you come here for a second

Hakim:

Hey guys, Can I help you with something?

Student #2:

What was that you said during class today?

Hakim:

I merely said what the people already knew.

Student #2:

I beg to differ. How does America not help the other countries in the Middle East? Our People are dying and that is what you say?

Hakim:

You misunderstood me. I mean no offense. What I am merely trying say was that terrorism cuts both ways? It is not only one side. Do you finally understand what Mr. Bush was saying about perspectives?

Student #2:

Understand? All that I need to understand is the fact that we never started this.

Hakim:

If it were only that simple, then I would yield.

Zooms to the face of Student #2

Looks livid. Clenches his fist and knocks Hakim. He falls to the ground and looks at the Student #2 and #3. Panting heavily. Little blood on the side of his mouth

Switch zooms between the face of Student #2 and Hakim

Student #3

Whispers to himself

Life would me much easier without religion.

[end scene]

ACT III

Brighten to show Settings

Ext. OUTSIDE CLASSROOM

Student #8

Approaches Hakim and inquires the small clotting beside his lips. She then touches the wound and inquires:

Hakim, what happened?

Hakim

Nothing, don’t worry about it. I was fooling around with some friends and we got careless.

Student #8

If you say so, then I’ll stop asking. Hey, Mr. Bush is coming let’s go.

Over the door shot:

The kids line-up and enter the room

Int. INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

After watching some more movies, Mr. Bush discusses

Student #2

I find Islam paradoxical since they say they are a religion of peace yet they take part in all of this war, in the Middle East, in the Europe, and in Asia. More than that, It has the potential to incite oppression.

Hakim

I feel that is rather unfair?

Student #4

How so? I don’t follow a particular faith if can be frank but many of today’s extremists come from Islam doesn’t it?

Mr. Bush

Let’s not jump to conclusion here. There are Radicalists in all religion. In Judaism, Shintoism, Hinduism, there are those who want to make this religion superior.

Student #2

Yes, but that was a long time ago….

Hakim

Interrupts the student

What about the what’s happening in India right now? What about the religious oppression of Tibet? There are many more out there too than I care mention.

Mr. Bush

Yes you are right. Let me address those. The one in India is a simple exaggeration of Muslim grievances. A conflict that was started by Muslims and the Hindus retaliated. The China Tibet relations are also different from the India problem. That is the issue of independence than religion.

Does any body want to contribute their ideas?

Student #3

I also agree with Mr. Bush. Tibet and China is a totally different than the other one example

Mr. Bush

It is a stretch I agree.

Hakim

But…

Bell Rings

Mr. Bush

UNFORTUNATELY, that is all the time we have let’s continue next class

The other students look at Hakim and stare for a while. Hakim on the other hand keeps his head low.