LAST CHANCE

My first ten pages are attached in PDF format.

Tag: Stand-by-my meets Frozen for boys.

Synopsis: Last Chance spec screenplay is the story of …

… two modern-American thirteen-year-old boys, Antoine and his best friend Alan. Antoine is Black and originally of Cajun and Louisiana heritage. Alan harks from the Virginia area and is pudgy and White and his lineage is somewhat hillbilly, as shown in his home life.

Both Antoine and Alan are awkward teenagers, with certain idiosyncratic behaviors. These two different boys have formed a very strong friendship. And, they accidently set out on the adventure of a lifetime.

The two boys set off to explore the Civil War battlefields, but first must fill-up on doughnuts. They explore into an ancient cave and caverns until they pass a collapse and enter into an old mine, where they find a beautiful underground chamber. Alan builds a candle-bundle to illuminate the chamber, but, a spider drops onto him, which causes discomfort and terror, and which then leads to him dropping the candles into an old keg of explosives, which ignite a fuse.

Antoine demands that Alan to "put out the fire" and Alan acquiesces and drips dribbles of Coke into the old keg. Antoine disagrees with the slow dribble and he seizes the two liter bottle of Coke, and sprays the whole bottle, but he fails to extinguish the fire, and the keg ultimately explodes, nearly extinguishing the lives of the two boys, who contemplate abandoning the cave, because they expect that the authorities will be searching for whoever blew-up the mountain.

However, they two youth are captivated by a bright sunbeam which arrives after the explosion. They decide to now explore where this sunbeam came from. Antoine races to the sunbeam, while Alan is delayed while he adjusts his undergarments: recent frights caused a leak or two.

Antoine exits the mine right into the end of clash during the battle of Chancellorsville, 1863. He is immediately confronted by the evil Rebel psychopath, Justus, who believes that Antoine is an escaped slave. Just before Justus can execute Antoine, Alan shows up and saves Antoine.

Antoine, being a modern American boy, and thinking that he has visited a Civil War re-enactment camp, shoots off his mouth, whereby Justus delivers a painful rebuttal. The boys realize that the cave is a time-portal, and they are now in real trouble and their lives hang in the balance. Justus is reprimanded a dollar for damaging Alan's "Slave." The boys later split the loot.

NOW, the tensions rise as the Rebels are decimated by a Union counterattack and the boys are nearly killed again, but this time, by the good guys. At the top of the battle, Justus flees back into the cave, showing the Rebel psychopath to also be a coward, in addition to being a killer.

Antoine is befriended by two Yankees who try to save him from slavery. They mistakenly think that Alan is a slave master, and speak to him roughly. Antoine meets a kindly medic, Doc McCloy, who patches him up, and sends him back to Alan. The modern medical care of 1863 leaves a foul taste in Antoine’s mouth.

The two boys sit and watch the goings-on around the Union camp until the evil Rebel Justus's murders are brought to light, which causes the camp commander great consternation, whereby the two boys decide to exit 1863 Virginia, which is much too rough for them.

The two re-enter the mine and leave old Virginia. However, the murderous Rebel Justus follows them back to the modern times.

The two boys decide to have doughnuts for lunch, and poor old Alan springs for the doughnuts, but he pays for them with a new Confederate old silver coin, which causes Mr. Stone to think something funny is going on.

Before Mr. Stone can get to the bottom of the silver coin, Justus, who followed the boys, springs his murderous ways onto poor old Mr. Stone, who gets a few shots off. Justus murders Mr. Stone in front of the two boys and makes off with his modern semi-automatic pistol, their doughnuts (cinnamon rolls) AND he steals Alan's bicycle.

At this moment, the boys must decide what to do: are they mice or are they men? These two grow up quick and take the fight back to 1863 to bring the evil Justus to justice.

The two boys decide to follow the murderous Rebel back through the cave and mine. They arrive just after Justus murders his own compatriots and flees back toward Rebel lines. Before Justus escapes back to Rebel lines, he learns that a Lt. Ralston has prized Gen. Stonewall's pistol. Justus thinks this pistol will give him magical powers and bring certain victory to the South.

When the two boys arrive back in 1863, they are promptly arrested as spies. Luckily, they again meet Lt. Ralston who takes them to Captain House, who deciphers there story. The hunt is now on for the Rebel Justus: recover the modern pistol before the Rebels can make copies.

However, the situation is not exactly as deduced by the boys: the Rebels are not going to make copies of the gun; they are on the move to take over the mine and seize modern Virginia.

Lt. Ralston tracks Justus and plots a way to retrieve the stolen modern pistol, but he is thwarted when he accidently attacks a much larger Rebel force, which routes his recon troops. They pay a terrible price. Antoine is nearly lost and Justus learns the truth, where the hunted now becomes the hunter.

Climax finds the boys fighting to prevent the Rebels from retaking modern Virginia AND recapturing the evil psychopath Justus, so that he can pay for Mr. Stone's murder.

Alan's experience with blowing up mines now comes in handy. He builds large firecrackers to contain the Rebel Justus and capture him.

Life and death is at stake, when Lt. Ralston is shot and Antoine must protect and defend his new friend and also his own life, as all that stands between victory and defeat is Alan and him.

In the final climax, Antoine shoots and injures Justus and Alan is ordered to close the cave, which he does with his expert use of firecrackers.

Antoine has saved his friend, Lt. Ralston, but he is fading. So, Antoine fire off the last of his revolver shots in order to call in the Police, who arrive and arrest the murderer. The paramedics arrive and save and transport Lt. Ralston. More paramedics arrive, and they save Justus, too. Alan learns that the state will patch-up Justus, so that they can later put him down. Alan questions this logic, proving that he has grown into a man, except that his persistent fright induced pee brings some embarrassments. But, this is little consequence and both he and Alan are offered Police jobs for their heroic capture of Justus.

Justus is wheeled away, groggy, but the fight is still in him, which sets up the possibility of a sequel or two.

In a fitting ending, Alan’s youth and immature state conspire to teach him another valuable growth lesson, as he walks home alone, but now as a vital young man.

Enjoy,