"Critical Mass" (dark thriller, police procedural, medical thriller, atomic thriller, ironic)

Read the full SCREENPLAY (Critical Mass)

TAG LINE:

The Human Antibody, serial killer with a twist.

SYNOPSIS:

Los Angeles : BOYD, a California blond, is a failed medical student.  He has become the "Friday Killer," compulsively strangling a random victim every Friday.  He sees himself as The Human Antibody, a reflection of society as an autoimmune disease with himself at the center.

Hiller, the detective hunting Boyd, suffers from fatigue and a strange feeling of detachment.

A bizarre coincidence pushes the action into crisis mode:  A shootout between mercenaries results in a small atomic bomb being hastily stashed at the house where Boyd is staying.

Finding the bomb convinces Boyd of his true mission as destroyer/martyr.  He is now primed to destroy Los Angeles . Hiller, knowing nothing about the bomb, closes in on Boyd.

It turns out Boyd's horrible compulsion and despair is caused by an allergy to a factory chemical emitted on Fridays.  Hiller's problem, too, is an allergy.

A standoff at the factory: Boyd's thumb is pressed on a detonator switch designed to go off when he lets go.

Boyd dies when Hiller's careful marksmanship shatters the bomb apart into useless but radioactive pieces.  The factory is sealed up tight for 900 years of quarantine: a monumental reminder.

STATUS: Fourth draft

COMMENTS:

Original screenplay by Stephen Arthur. Copyright SXA.  Rewrite for MTA/Persik Productions, Los Angeles (option lapsed).

[Stephen X. Arthur, www.sxa-portfolio.com Vancouver BC Canada ]

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"The Catalyst" (topical science fiction, psychological thriller, ironic drama)

TAG LINE:

A man confronted with his younger clones embarks on a crusade to change their characters while on the lam from a sinister eugenics organization.

SYNOPSIS:

Thirty years ago the first successful clones of a man were made from the cells of a young geneticist named Claman.  They were born from the wombs of women who were sterile and wanted to bear children by any means necessary.  They never knew the nature of the real "father."  Follow-up studies were conducted as the children grew up.  Behind all this, someone wanted to prove something crucial about human personality: that we are fated, as tight as a straightjacket, to the program of our genes.

The story begins with Claman's personal reaction to the behavior of his younger clones as he monitors them in their adulthood.  He sees them becoming like him and is unexpectedly filled with loathing as they start to mirror his own faults and life mistakes. 

He sets out on a mission to change them, to stop them from becoming like him.  This sets into play a Fugitive-style series of events...

STATUS: Treatment

COMMENTS:

Story by Stephen Arthur. Copyright SXA.  Series pilot or feature. Based on short script, "Take Two," copyright SXA.  Ahead of its time when written, topical now.

[Stephen X. Arthur, www.sxa-portfolio.com Vancouver BC Canada ]

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