Sacrificial Lambs

Screenplay Type
2024 Young Or Golden Writer
Logline or Premise
An action-packed pandemic thriller that follows one desperate mail carrier who’s horrified by the number of older people dying on his route just after they receive their vaccine. A chance encounter with a rogue news investigator sets him on a path toward unraveling a vast and deadly conspiracy.
First 10 Pages

Engines ROAR, brakes SQUEAL. TREVONE JOHNSON floors his postal van through traffic, under heavy pursuit. Choppers hurtle toward him. Why didn't he listen to his wife LISA when she said don't get involved?

TEN DAYS EARLIER. Trevone is running his usual mail-carrier route when he finds himself front-and-center for the end of a dramatic car chase. A nervous man exits the pursued car and screams, "It's all a scam! They're killing them!" He tosses Trevone a notebook and pen—then is shot dead! Cops take the notebook, but not before Trevone snaps a pic of its first page and the strange list of ingredients written there.

Things get weirder. Along his route, senior citizens tell Trevone the ongoing "Elder Flu" pandemic is killing them in mass numbers. The ones who survive aren't receiving their social security checks. What's going on? And why is the news report lying about the guy Trevone saw shot? Trevone is the kind of man that when he sees an injustice, he wants to do something about it, so now he's motivated to get involved.

Back at home, Trevone hears about the flu pandemic and is worried for scotch-swilling MAMA, so he takes his family for vaccinations. He notices Mama's shot is labelled differently. Why? He shouldn't start asking questions. Yet he does, going to news reporter BEVERLY and asking her to help him look into it. That triggers more attention. A limo with powerful businessman CONNOR follows him. The FBI shows up at his house asking questions. Then the unthinkable—Mama collapses, dead. Trevone puts two and two together. But is he correct in thinking the vaccine killed her?

No. He finds out that it's something else. He's caught and beaten but makes a daring escape. Then he discovers why Connor has been after him the whole time and he's on his way to Beverly with the evidence. But Beverly is chased, then murdered.

Connor phones Trevone. He has Lisa and the kids hostage, and Trevone has twenty minutes to bring the evidence, or Lisa and the kids die. No! How is Trevone gonna make it in time?

He barely does. As the shootout starts, Lisa goes down and Trevone thinks she's dead. He flees the scene with the evidence. And that brings us back to the opening car chase. Engines ROAR, brakes SQUEAL. CRASH!

When Trevone is trapped and dying, Connor reveals his reasons for killing the elderly. Connor leaves thinking he has what he came for, but Trevone outwitted him. Trevone is a hero… and finally, safe at home with Lisa.

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