The Falling Man

With an evocative title like THE FALLING MAN, all sorts of things are conjured up immediately – from imagery to feelings to emotions and to unpredictability. And that’s one of the delightful things about the script – I never expected it to go where it ultimately went, and for a while, I was wondering – where is this all headed? You introduce seemingly disparate plot threads and you mix all sorts of tangible ideas with a movie-movie-sense of overall story construction, and it all comes together into a very satisfying mix; this isn’t easy to do, and to be honest, it’s one of the more engaging spec scripts I’ve read in a long time. Right from the opening moments with depict the WTC disaster, you’re gripped by what’s on the page, and because the journey with JOHN VICTOR is as compelling as it is, the reader never feels like an outsider while discovering what’s on the page – you’re along for the ride all the way.

And one of the things that you did VERY well was to never make the 9/11 angle feel exploitive. Your idea – how would the guy who unwittingly trained the hijackers how to fly the planes feel after the attack – is something that’s grounded in palpable intensity and emotion and honest questions of morality and redemption and guilt. It’s a tremendous hook to have for the main character, and JOHN VICTOR is an AWESOME lead character. He’s noble, courageous, a man of action, and while he might need to think things out more clearly before getting into it on a physical level, he’s the sort of guy that we WANT TO BE when approaching a movie-star performance like this one. JOHN VICTOR is tailor made for Mark Wahlberg, Sam Worthington, Gerard Butler, or any number of guys in that age-range who can still kick some ass but who can also project the proper amount of dramatic gravitas. And as written, even when JOHN VICTOR lets his imagination get the best of him, we’re always on his side, despite his faulty way of thinking – and that’s because we know, deep down inside, that he’s always trying to do the proper thing.
The action, when it kicks into high-gear towards the middle of the second act, is pretty terrific and thrillingly staged. None of it is ever confusing to understand while it all unfolds on the page, and you’ve left enough room for visual grace notes that can be found on-set if this were to ever be filmed. You get to “blow some stuff up real good,” too – which is always a nice thing when you’re looking for a “night out at the movies.” Because, ultimately, that’s what THE FALLING MAN is – it’s a forceful piece of entertainment, albeit one that has a bit more on its mind that the usual, run of the mill action fodder that’s consistently tossed off to the DTV bin. It DOES feel like something, when you really look at all the ingredients, that would need to be championed by a big-name actor to truly find some traction, because while it’s certainly a work of quality, studios just seem reticent to make these types of film with any sort of prolific regularity.
You have a nice, diverse mix of baddies/thugs, and I loved how you mixed the tropes of the escaped-convict and home invasion conceits while adding in the psychological damage from 9/11, and how it would have affected someone like JOHN VICTOR. At times during the final siege, it felt like you were witnessing a riff on STRAW DOGS – a man pushed to his breaking point in order to protect those he cares about and needing to “take out the trash”, so to speak. And nothing ever felt forced, either – there was an organic quality to the events being depicted, and even if it all exists in “movie-world,” there’s something relevant about the entire package.