The Runner

We open in the midst of the first World War, Indigenous Canadian TOM LONGBOAT is a soldier in the trenches of France, tasked with running 50 miles to deliver a message to a neighbouring camp, requesting backup. Flashback to his childhood. Peaceful and free, Longboat runs through the Six Nations Reservation with the blissful innocence of childhood. An innocence that will soon be lost, as his mother explains that he is being taken to the Mohawk Institute Residential School. The conditions are horrendous. The children are mistreated, abused, and referred to by numbers, not names. On his first day, 11-year old Longboat undergoes highly invasive and traumatic medical procedures against his will. While enrolled at the school, Longboat befriends MARTHA and STANLEY, two fellow students who will suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Mohawk Institute faculty. Ultimately, having had enough, Stanley sets the school on fire and Tom Longboat is able to escape back to his home on the Reservation. Flash forward. Seven years later. Tom is now a young adult, working with his cousin CHUCK on a farm. They work in the fields for very little pay, and pass time racing one another. Tom on foot, Chuck on a horse and buggy. But it quickly becomes apparent that Tom’s athletic ability could be worth something, after he wins a footrace at a local fair, earning him and Chuck $20. They hatch a plan to travel around the country, entering races and betting on Tom to win. In their travels, they cross paths with THOMAS FLANAGAN. Flanagan sees potential in Longboat and invites him and Chuck to work with him and join the Irish Canadian Athletic Club. Flanagan slowly takes over Chuck’s role as manager. Using Tom’s reputation to open a cigar business, making buckets of money off his race wins while Tom gets scraps, flying him out to Ireland to train for the Olympics, and leaving Chuck behind in Canada. But after Flanagan drugs Tom behind his back, causing him to collapse during the Olympic marathon, Tom and Chuck’s trust in him begins to waver. The trio continue their tour, winning races at Madison Square Garden, in Buffalo, on Toronto Island. Tom earns enough money to buy a house for himself and his wife, build a home for his mother, he is on the up and up. Until he isn’t. He loses to his longtime opponent. Quits a race in New York. Quits a race in Chicago. He has lost his passion for running and announces that he has enlisted in the military. We pick back up where we left off. Longboat is en route to deliver the message to neighbouring troops. He and SULLIVAN, the soldier accompanying him, are trapped by German troops. It doesn’t look good for them. News travels back to Canada that Tom was killed in France. In a drunken haze of grief and disbelief, Chuck wanders into a busy road and is killed by a car. His wife remarries and moves on with her life. When Tom returns from war, completely unscathed, he finds that the life he left behind no longer exists and returns to his childhood home. He makes a new life for himself, reconnecting with Martha and finding work in the fields again. Begins racing again. He wins one final race before getting a happy ending. He raises a family with his wife and spends the rest of his days on the peaceful Six Nations Reserve.