Deadlines
Rich returns to his dorm room after shooting up his university campus.
Ready to end it all, he is stopped by the one woman that drives him. But is she a force for good?
Question marks drive almost every story. No matter the genre, that’s what good ones do. Horror: Who might the killer target next? Romance: Will our two lovebirds end up reunited or split apart? Thriller: will our protagonist survive the battle?
James Brandon’s script Deadlines packs all such questions – and a few more - into five brief pages. If you like your dramas filled with topical life or death scenarios, this short might be the “answer” for you:
Deadlines opens – literally - with a bang. Gunshots heard from street level; moments later, a numb Richard (20s) storms into his dorm room. If the screams outside don’t make it clear, Richard’s military outfit and the gun he white-knuckles do:
He’s just been involved in some sort of school shooting. Jamming the gun in his mouth, Richard’s seconds away from claiming one last victim.
...until a call interrupts. First by phone. Then his laptop, after a far-too-busy Richard refuses to pick up. It’s Anna: Richard’s girlfriend, and last line to humanity.
That second tactic does the trick. Richard answers… and thus a desperate back and forth begins.
Rich
Go away!
Then:
Rich
Please just go. Give me time.
Time for what, exactly?
An insistent Anna counters:
Anna
I don’t think time is on your side, Rich.
No kidding. But it’s Anna’s next words that give the most pause:
Anna
I like what you did. Couldn’t have
done it better myself. How did it feel?
A more burning question in audience’s minds: what exactly is Anna’s game here? Is she really the mastermind behind the bloodshed below? Does she care what happens to Rich… or is she desperately using compliments to disarm someone she once loved… in a ploy to keep him from harming so many more?
Deadlines may be short, but it’s far from “sweet”. Tense, topical, filled with questions and easily shot (no macabre pun intended here), it’s a dramatic gut punch you may want to hold hostage for your next project. Quick: before your and Rich’s time runs out!