Shotgun Mouthwash

ZACK TEMPLE (33) is an office worker who hates his job and dreams of becoming a successful comedian. After a bruising reception at a comedy club, he decides to take his own life. Zack lives with his cynical girlfriend, AMBER (27), who appears to have an unhealthy obsession with suicide. She encourages him to end it all. Zack has clearly heard this many times before. However, this time he decides to take her advice. He stands on the ledge of an office building but can't make himself take that extra step. He claims he can't stand his family knowing that he gave up on life. Amber suggests that if it appears he was murdered, he would be remembered in a positive light and it would be easier for his family to accept. Zack likes the idea. Zack's brother served in Afghanistan with a notorious local criminal, SHANE PIKE (29). He told Zack several stories that painted Shane a stone-cold killer. Zack approaches the thug and offers him five thousand dollars for the job. Shane accepts. Shane's younger brother, FRANKIE PIKE (16), is desperate to emulate his older brother in every way. Shane believes this is the perfect job for Frankie's first hit and he offers him two thousand dollars for the job. The next morning Zack is woken by his buzzer. Frankie stands outside his front door in a FedEx uniform. When Zack opens the door, Frankie pulls a gun on him. In that instant, Zack decides he wants to live. He outsmarts Frankie and ends up beating him to death with a baseball bat. Zack is arrested but is released later when the death is judged to be self-defence. Shane swears vengeance for his brother's death. However, he feels it would be to easy to kill Zack. Instead, he tells him he is going to make him know what it's like to lose a brother. Zack hasn't spoken to his brother COLE (28) in years. Cole has been living completely off the grid. Zack tracks him down and finds him living in a motor-home in a run-down industrial estate. Cole, a once-proud marine now has a serious drug habit. The two estranged brothers struggle to reconnect. Zack warns him about Shane's vendetta. Unknown to Zack, Shane has been tailing him. After Zack leaves, Shane pays Cole and visit and murders him. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Amber and Zack met in a psychiatric institute after both had failed suicide attempts. After moving in together, Amber kills herself in their flat. The same flat that Zack still lives in. The Amber we know is just a figment of Zack's imagination. Shane gives Zack one final ultimatum. He must commit suicide or his sister will be next. Zack has begun to value life more than anything else and can't bring himself to end his own. Instead, he decides to save his sister and get revenge for his brother's murder.