DEADHEADERS Episode 1 - "Bike Thief"

DEADHEADERS Episode 1 "Bike Thief" Main characters and a pecking order are introduced when, late one night, a Yukon towing a small boat pulls into the parking lot of the Dead-End Diner along Metrocity’s riverfront. A logging truck is the only other vehicle in the lot. MAX, an imposing man (late 50s) steps out from behind the wheel with his passengers: frumpy BUMPER (30s), charismatic RANDY (late 30s) and wide-eyed MYLES (mid-twenties). All four wear Metrocity Transit Bus Operator uniforms. Inside, KAITLYN serves TRUCK DRIVER at the counter while Max and company take a booth. It’s apparent these Bus Operators did not arrive at the Diner directly from their shift as dark plans of what remains to be done dominate the conversation. Max holds court while Myles looks especially frightened. Randy admits he’s freaked out by the evening’s events while Bumper jokes about protruding bones as he decides his order. They are startled when a police cruiser arrives, stopping outside their window. Tension mounts as the cops (ROGER and CLAIRE) enter. Roger exchanges niceties with Kaitlyn, who’s already pouring them coffee. Suddenly, the cops arrest Truck, dragging him from the restaurant. Laughing with relief, the four Bus Operators – DEADHEADERS – having “crossed their I’s and dotted their T’s” try to convince themselves they’re out of the woods. Months earlier, Myles is fired in humiliating fashion from a car rental company. Dinner with SIS and his brother-in-law BRODY reveals Myles also recently lost his mother to cancer and his girlfriend to world-travel. Brody offers to help a reluctant Myles get work as a Bus Operator for Metrocity Transit, saying it’s a good job with potential to move upward. But after a few whiskeys, Brody hints at a dark work-related event in his past. Myles’s only escape from his stalling life is mountain biking in The Hills, north of the fictional Metrocity, where he’s almost killed by a logging truck. Eventually, Myles is called by Metrocity Transit. As one of a dozen new hires, he reports to Metrocity Transit’s administration building on fenced-in property for training. Unfortunately for Myles, his beloved mountain bike is cut from the chain link that first day. Myles discovers six weeks of training is barely enough to deal with the outrageous incidents he soon faces. His quiet demeanor and shy tendencies make dealing with unruly passengers, aggressive traffic and difficult road conditions a challenge to him. He feels imprisoned by the system, trapped and alone despite being surrounded by strangers. Early on, he backs a 60-foot articulated bus into a lamp post, knocking it down across a parked car, immediately putting his career in jeopardy. Myles adapts, growing more confident and competent driving behemoth machines along busy streets. Despite the late shifts and ennui, Myles becomes a professional, courteous Bus Operator. When Myles meets the enigmatic BRIDGE, he falls for her as she keeps him company on her way home from work. Meanwhile, after a close call in downtown traffic, a sticky confrontation with a punk BIKE COURIER foreshadows a fatal accident. Winter brings slick, snow-covered streets. WHYTE, a Jamaican-born senior man and Transit Union leader on the verge of retirement, helps Myles avoid a collision and offers him some inciteful driving tips while divulging he is a friend of Brody’s. Cold weather brings in the vagrants who use the bus as shelter. One night, Myles meets Max who (after treating Myles to a coffee while spewing twisted, hateful wisdom) proceeds to pummel DRUNK in the back of Myles’s bus, tossing him, unconscious, into a snowbank. Myles is sickened by Max’s violence and recalls Brody’s warning to avoid him. Episode one ends one late night, mid-January, as Myles deadheads back to the barn through a desolate downtown core. While in a sneezing fit from a cold virus, Myles runs down a young man on a bike. He’s panicked by the crushed body and smashed bike (he’ll soon recognize as his own) under the articulated bus when another bus rounds the corner, stopping close behind. Myles is in shock, standing in the blood and the slush as the driver climbs out and approaches. It’s Max, who makes an offer Myles is too afraid not to take… *Quarterfinalist, Filmatic - Pitch Now Screenplay Competition Season 6 *Semifialist, BlueCat 2024 Screenplay Competition I am currently producing the opening scene as a teaser through Motion Capture and Unreal Engine to support this material. Visit cinemotion.la/deadheaders for updates.