Campaign Trailer: AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

This is the trailer for a proposed sequel to That Game, the one that really busted open the HTHD style in the first place. I have been reluctant to return to that particular well (for exactly the above reason), but that doesn't mean I haven't given it some serious thought. 

You should really play this music to accompany it.

EXT. LOS ANGELES SKYLINE – DAY

We see the towering skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles, set against a hazy smog-yellow sky. There is smoke rising from several points in our field of vision, from ground-level fires.

LAZARUS (V/O)

These are the end times.

EXT. RIOT – DAY

We see a large camp of protesters in a plaza outside a corporate building. The people here are evocative of Occupy and also the large-scale protests we have seen around events like the G20 in Toronto. There are a dozen tents set up here, and many people are holding signs or wearing t-shirts with the word AWAKEN! printed on them under a stylized EYE design. There are several fires burning here in trash cans or oil drums, and the people here are tense, as though waiting for something terrible to happen. We see their mouths moving as they chant, and we can see them playing instruments or beating on drums or noisemakers, but cannot hear them...

LAZARUS (V/O cont’d)

This country has become a corrupt and decadent empire, undone by its own greed, spreading its sickness to every corner of the planet. The people who came here in search of a dream have found only ashes and false glamour.

REVERSE ANGLE – PROTESTERS POV

We see a huge force of RIOT POLICE in black body armour and helmets with opaque faceplates approaching in a skirmish line, banging nightsticks against bulletproof shields like the dark soldiers of some medieval tyrant.

LAZARUS (V/O cont’d)

The freedom, justice, and equity they were promised in song and story have proven as hollow as the smile on a painted whore.

The RIOT POLICE CHARGE, as TEAR GAS GRENADES are launched into the crowd of protesters. The protesters begin to scatter and panic; we see some trying to protect themselves against the gas, while some launch themselves at the police and are BEATEN DOWN quickly, and others attempt to break and run.

PROTESTER – CLOSE

We see a female protester, barely sixteen, stagger blindly toward an group of armored RIOT POLICE. They close in and we see them knock her to the ground and deliver a series of brutal HITs with their nightsticks.

LAZARUS (V/O cont’d)

We have been waiting for this moment. Waiting for the lost and the desperate to turn on each other, for the cities to burn and the bodies to choke the rivers...

BLOOD SPLATTERS on the faceplate of one of the riot cops’ helmets.

INT. BOARD ROOM – DAY

We see a group of SHADOWY FIGURES standing in the foreground, against a PANORAMIC WINDOW facing out over the city. Smoke rising outside suggests that this scene plays out overlooking the police raid below.

LAZARUS (V/O cont’d)

And soon it will be time to feast... as we did while Rome burned...

The SHADOWY FIGURES raise glasses of champagne in a toast. FADEOUT.

WNF PRODUCTIONS

PRESENTS

EXT. DIVE – NIGHT

We see an establishing shot of a small, run-down bar at the side of a California highway. A familiar battered 1958 Cadillac convertible with distinctive tail-fins is parked in front.

MARCHBANKS (V/O)

The six of us are all that remains of the Highwaymen.

INT. DIVE – NIGHT

Inside, we see a group of six sitting around a table. Two shall be described in only the vaguest terms, as they are not-yet-created characters played by Amanda and Eric; the other four are ROSA ALVAREZ (Michelle Rodriguez), an athletic young Latina woman, 30ish; ERIC MACON (Carmine Giovinazzo), a blond-haired young man in a denim jacket, 30ish; KAT COBBLER (Katee Sackhoff), a slim young woman with odd, elfin eyes, 20ish; and SETH MARCHBANKS (Martin Freeman), a worn-down looking man in his 40s.

ROSA

What the hell happened? We haven’t been gone that long.

MARCHBANKS

After the battle with the Nightmare Man, the Highwaymen scattered... returned to their usual hunting grounds. But someone was waiting--

FLASH CUT TO

EXT. SKEEZY MOTEL – NIGHT

We see a group of SINISTER FIGURES in the foreground moving in toward a run-down motel with a flickering neon sign near the road. We see there is a big Harley parked outside one of the rooms.

MARCHBANKS (V/O, cont’d)

--Someone organized. I estimate at least half a dozen kill squads, operating all over the United States.

INT. MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT

We see EASY (Ron Perlman), a big hairy biker-type inside the room. He is peering out the window, and clearly can see something bad’s going down. He slides away from the window and presses himself against the wall, behind the door. He ratchets the pump on a SHOTGUN and takes a deep breath –

MARCHBANKS (V/O, cont’d)

Our people were good...

A CLAWED DEMONIC HAND bursts through the wall and grabs Easy around his face and neck. He opens his mouth to scream, and FIRES HIS SHOTGUN into the ceiling, before we CUT TO BLACK.

MARCHBANKS (V/O, cont’d)

But they didn’t have a chance.

INT. DIVE – NIGHT

Back to the dive. Rosa and Kat are agitated.

KAT

So someone sold us out? Someone inside the Highwaymen?

ROSA (dangerous)

And the six of us are all that’s left. Three of us have an alibi, pendejo – we were in another dimension for the last four years. These two I don’t know from shit. But you, you knew everyone who joined a Lodge...

She grabs Marchbanks by the collar and pulls him across the table. As she does, she pulls his tweed jacket aside, and we can see that Marchbanks is wearing a PROSTHETIC ARM on his left side.

MARCHBANKS

As you can see, I barely survived an attack myself... if not quite unscathed. Nadia was killed protecting me. She went down fighting a dozen demons single handed while we escaped. I wouldn’t have survived without these two.

ERIC (trying to calm her down)

Rosa, he’s telling the truth.

KAT

Someone doesn’t want the Highwaymen getting in the way. But who? And why?

EXT. CORPORATE RETREAT – DAY

We see a Helicopter landing just outside a lavish corporate retreat. The building is in a wooded area beside a lake.

THE HELICOPTER - CLOSE

LAZARUS and a group of men in expensive suits – corporate raider types – climb out in slow motion. Lazarus (Christopher Eccleston) is tall and slim, with neatly styled hair and mirrored sunglasses.

MARCHBANKS (V/O)

We believe a man named Lazarus is behind it. He is an agent of a wealthy consortium of some kind, people connected at the highest levels of government and finance...

THE COMPOUND – MEDIUM SHOT

The camera pans across the beautiful vista of the lake and we can see, on an island, a large STONE STATUE that dominates the scene. It is of a gigantic, sinister OWL.

MARCHBANKS (V/O)

Lazarus has enormous resources at his disposal, including intelligence assets,  and we have learned he is almost certainly a sorcerer of great power.

INT. DIVE – NIGHT

A sombre scene as the words sink in.

KAT

What are we going to do?

ERIC

What can six of us do against someone with that kind of power?

Rosa stands.

ROSA

We do what Van Cleef taught us. Saddle up and throw down.

A Bill Templeton

GAME

MONTAGE:

We see a quick flash of several scenes:

• Kat begins to SHAPESHIFT, and we see her features run like quicksilver.
• Rosa and Eric are barreling through a forest in the Cadillac. Eric is driving like a madman while Rosa stands facing behind them, firing at (unseen) pursuers; we shift into SLOW-MO as she ejects an empty clip from her automatic and Eric tosses her a full one as though anticipating her needs – it flips end-over-end and she catches it, slapping it into the gun in a single, fluid motion. She fires!


• We see the L.A. skyline at night; there is a strange glow around the top of one of the skyscrapers, and a STREAK OF LIGHT travels up into the sky as we hear a THUNDEROUS BOOM. The sky seems to TEAR OPEN, revealing a strange misty OTHER DIMENSION. We can see an ENORMOUS EYE staring out.

KAT (V/O)

This is not a war, Rosa. This is a rescue mission!

MONTAGE CONTINUES:

• The Cadillac zooms down a desert road that seems to vanish into the distance.
• A series of shadowy figures move through a gate into a darkened lane – which suddenly lights up to reveal a CREEPY CARNIVAL MIDWAY.
• A hand enters the frame and spray-paints the AWAKEN! EYE on a brick wall.
• The Cadillac screeches to a stop beside WHITE STONE STEPS. As the camera pulls back, we see that the car is stopped in front of the LINCOLN MEMORIAL in Washington, D.C. The sky is a nightmarish, unnatural RED.

LAZARUS (V/O)

How much are you prepared to lose to save the world?

INT. LINCOLN MEMORIAL - NIGHT

Lazarus stands over Rosa, who is lying on the ground bloodied and beaten. He holds the point of a sword to her throat.

LAZARUS (triumphant)

You’ve already died once. You should have quit while you were ahead.

ROSA (defiant)

I was about to say the same thing, cabrón.

Rosa’s legs flash out, sweeping Lazarus’s feet from under him and knocking him to the ground. She rolls away, grabs a sword lying nearby, and comes up in a crouch. She CHARGES AT THE CAMERA WITH A BATTLE CRY and we CUT TO BLACK.

COMING SOON