Hey all, this is a treatment i wrote for a movie i hope to one day turn into a full fledged script. This is only the tentative first two acts (out of 3). Tell me what you think
I should tell you that it's set during the Great Chicago Fire, and that The Sands is like a 19th century red light district in Chicago. enjoy
Act 1.
1864, Samuel Porter returns home from serving in the Civil War. His family throws a party for him. At the party, Porter goes into his cellar to get some wine and is followed by a bearded Southern man, Jeremiah Keating. Keating corners Porter and reveals that his brother served and died for the Confederacy. Before Porter can plead for his life, Keating shoots him with a shotgun he had been brandishing.
Before Keating leaves, a man (Frank Walker) who had heard the blast calls into the cellar to see if everything is alright. Keating walks up the cellar stairs and goes to shoot Frank, but is out of bullets. He runs off, warning Frank to keep his mouth shut.
At the trial for the murder, Frank is brought upon the witness stand. At first he plays the ignorance card, but after a look of grief from the Porter family, and a reassuring look from his wife, who is holding their three year old son, Frank with obvious reluctance points out Keating as the murderer. Keating flies into a rage, screaming of Southern injustice. He pleads to the judge for mercy, citing that he is about to marry his pregnant fiancée. It is no matter though, as the guards begin to escort him out. Before they reach him, he lunges at Frank. At first it seems he has missed his target, but another look confirms he has slit Frank’s wife’s throat and that blood is dripping on their child. Security pounces on Keating before he can do anymore damage. Frank’s wife dies in his arms.
1871, seven years later, Frank lives with his 10 year old son Oliver in an apartment next door to Patrick Leslie. Oliver goes to a friends house for a birthday party. When he returns, he shoes his father a pearl-handled pocket knife he won at a raffle at the party, and informs his dad that a fire has started on the other side of town. Frank tells him to go off to bed, and that the fir will be out by morning.
When they awake, panic has stricken the city. The fires have spread and are fast consuming the city. Patrick rushes into their home and tells them to pack their things, he has a friend with a horse carriage willing to help them out of the city. When the family packs three suitcases worth of items, they head out. The streets are literally littered with people rushing past them, trampling animals and even homeless people underfoot. Patrick spots their aids across the street loading their belongings into the carriage.
PLOT POINT I
Inside of a jailhouse, the silhouettes of two police officers are seen. They are discussing what to do with the 400 odd prisoners in the midst of the fires. They decide to let them go from the basement cells. The guard gets the order to release the prisoners and begins unlocking doors. At the third door he is grabbed by a burly man with a white tank top and suspenders who shoves him to the floor and takes the keys. He begins to unlock the doors screaming of freedom. After one cell is nearly emptied, we see Jeremiah Keating’s brooding figure slowly exiting the prison. He joins a band of released fugitives who have decided to band together in a looting binge. Just as the group steals a horse and carriage of their own, Keating notices Frank loading crates onto a cart. He walks off toward them, and as Frank helps Patrick load things on the carriage he covers the mouth of Oliver and carries him off to his band. Frank and Patrick hear a faint cry and realize Oliver is gone, then he sees Keating’s gang riding off into the flames of the city with his son. Frank chases after them and Patrick follows.
Act. II
Frank fights the crowd to catch Keating and his band who have his son. Patrick catches up to him and is told the problem. Sam informs his friends that he will stay in Chicago and help Frank find his son. After they regroup, they follow the wagon which is only faintly in their sights.
Keating tells the gang that Oliver is his son from a pre-prison marriage. Then he tells them that he knows of a “fund” in a brothel located in the Sands that has a few thousand dollars. The band decides to go toward the but on the way they will raid select establishments, against Keating’s wishes. Frank and Sam continue to fight through the crowd, with little success. They decide to go on the rooftops for a faster pursuit. On the roof he sees that they have disappeared from sight. Sam figures they are probably looting the town so going to all the major shops would be wisest.
A montage of the band’s looting is shown spliced with scenes of Frank and Sam pursuing them. As the day comes to a close Frank walks into a jewelry store and hears a man whimpering in the corner, his leg broken. He tells Frank that he was attacked by a gang of men who had a young boy with them and overheard they were going to a brothel in the Sands, but he doesn’t know which one. Frank offers to help him out of the flames, but the man declines knowing he is close to death and how important a son is. Frank leaves and tells Sam the news.
Keating sits in the wagon with the gang members telling them that time is of the essence and that once they get to the brothel’s money, all the looting would seem petty. The band’s leader, Mike Scott, disagrees and says the looting is insurance is the “brothel treasure“ proves to be not as lucrative as they believed. He says that the only thing petty is the fact that they have to look after Keating’s boy. A fight is avoided. The wagon passes a horse drawn cart with a man standing on top of a piano calling out to all the homeless saying the fires are a gift from God to all the poor. Keating shoots him.
The band stops at a liquor store and the men smash the barrels and drink freely. From a few rooftops away, Sam hears the commotion and tells Frank. They make their way toward the bar, when Keating spots them, he yells warning at the men that he saw police on their way. Scott’s men rush into the carriage, but leave a hefty counterpart behind, who has passed out from drink. Keating starts fire to a building next door to the store.
Frank and Sam make it down and into the bar just as they leave and spot the wayward criminal. Sam slaps him awake and asks where the band was going. He spits in his face and tells them nothing. Fires start spitting into the room and the street outside. Frank grabs the man and slams his face and body against an iron door that has flames on the other side of it. His skin sizzles as he confesses that the band is going to Mother Bingham’s brothel. Frank lets him go and leaves with Sam.
Two young boys are shown re-starting fires in a saloon and when they come out, they are met by a man in union uniform. The man asks them what they are doing, and they look very frightened. He says that he represents the US military sent to set things straight in Chicago. He then shoots the boys and behind him is a large group of about 100 men in uniform. The man, Maj. Joeseph Richardson, tells the men to teach a lesson to any other criminals looting the city.
The band stops at a garment shop and one of the members goes in alone for the money while the others rest and drink. Scott and Keating have another war of words about their methods. Before anything breaks out, the man that went in crashed through the upstairs window, after being thrown out by a large man who is protecting his money. The band goes in after him, sans Keating. When they reach the large man, he bests the first two and grabs Scott and threatens to slash his throat with a knife. Just as he is about to kill him, Keating, who climbed in through the window shoots him in the back of the head, sending his brains splattering on the opposite wall.
When the gang returns to the wagon, the boy is gone, Keating is enraged. He says that they have to find him, but Scott says that progress is necessary. The band ends up abandoning Keating as he searches for the boy. Keating looks into a nearby hotel that has been evacuated, though it has only been partially burned. He calls out the boy’s name and suddenly he his blindsided and tackled by Frank Walker. They fight through the halls and when separated Keating says he doesn’t know where his boy is. Frank calls him a liar and pulls a gun out. Keating talks his way out of getting shot saying that with him dead, they won’t be able to find George. Frank agrees, but Keating mutters “or he‘ll join your wife“ and in a rage, he shoots at Keating who ducks, and the bullet hit’s the wood and ignites it. Frank charges at Keating and they hit the wall of flames. Keating gains the advantage by taking his gun out and shoving Frank against a window. Patrick appears from the stair well, but is shot by Keating. Keating tells Frank that he wanted to kill him and his son in the Sands and let them die with the niggers and the whores, but he has little recourse now. Keating cocks the pistol but before he can fire, George runs from another room and stabs Keating in his right calf. At this points, the flames are reaching a tremendous height Frank steps out of the window and reaches for his son to join him, but Keating grabs George’s leg and shoots at Frank, causing him to slip and fall from the window. Keating points the gun at George and fires but it is out of bullets. Instead, he grabs the boys collar and limps as fast as he can down the stairs and out the back way. He tells George that they are heading toward the Sands.
PLOT POINT 2:
Frank falls from the ledge and as he regains his vertical base, two uniformed men come from behind him and seize his arms. Gen. Richardson comes up and informs Frank that he is now in custody of the United States army for vandalism during the Chicago fire of 1871. Frank tries to tell them that it wasn’t his intention to start the fire. In any case they throw him into a detention cart with three other prisoners. Frank asks where they are going, and Richardson replies that they need to round up the scoundrels that occupy the Sands.
As I said, it aint nowhere near finished. Any ideas on how to continue.end it would be welcome.
appreciate it
