Brief

German archeologist Gerhard Denninger, with the help of an oddball German relic hunter and some American soldiers, searches for the secret Cathar treasure during WWII and in the process uncovers the shocking, world-changing truth of Christ's resurrection and the very foundation of Christianity.

What We Liked

THE JUDAS APOCALYPSE is a spellbinding adventure story concerning one man's obsessive quest to locate the secret Cathar treasure. What begins as a tale of treasure-hunting ends as something much bigger, concerning the very foundations of the entire religion of Christianity in a manner so epic the only fair comparison is the work of author Dan Brown, particularly THE DA VINCI CODE. These gradually escalating stakes as a 2000-year-old global conspiracy is brought to light in a highly realistic manner is the best thing about this story, which as a film would be sure to please universal audiences eager for the next fun-filled, high-stakes, globe-trotting adventure. The setting of WWII is an unusual but excellent choice for this story, which provides originality, while a reluctant Nazi as a protagonist is a similarly bold and clever choice. THE JUDAS APOCALYPSE takes a familiar treasure-hunting framework and makes it new through its setting, protagonist, and the exceptionally clever, intriguing, and well-thought-out secret at the heart of the plot. This is that rare kind of story that has the power to get people all over the world talking, and therefore a film adaptation of this story could easily be the next global hit.

Film: Film is the ideal medium for adaptation of this story as the story makes excellent use of three-act structure to take its protagonist from someone fascinated by the Cathar treasure to someone in vigorous pursuit of it and then to becoming the man who uncovered the treasure. The concept of the "secret" at the heart of this story is so clever, creative and original, and the implications of this secret are so vast, epic and world-changing, audiences will leave the theater spellbound by the film they just witnessed and will immediately tells their family and friends about it. This concept is controversial from a Christian point of view, and this will controversy will also get people -- and the media -- talking. In essence, this film's concept is simultaneously a massively powerful marketing tool that, once audiences begin watching the film, will practically market itself. THE JUDAS APOCALYPSE is the next global blockbuster film.

TV: The gradual escalation of the story's stakes as well as the increasingly epic scope of the mystery at the heart of the story provide an excellent framework for a limited series as protagonist Gerhard zeroes in on the Cathar treasure episode by episode while the story's setting of WWII Europe provides an exciting, energetic backdrop that also allows for an infinite number of subplots and characters to fill out the series.

Key points:
1) Incredibly creative, clever and original concept at the heart of the story's mystery plot
2) Exciting blend of WWII period piece and treasure-hunting adventure
3) Makes fresh an old but well-loved genre
4) The concept at the heart of the film will get people talking so much that the film could effectively market itself
5) Strikes the perfect between gravitas and entertainment

Synopsis

JUDEA, AD 33: A young girl watches as Jesus carries the cross, is harassed, and then is crucified.

RENNES-LE-CHATEAU, FRANCE, JANUARY, 1917: FATHER ABBE RIVIERE arrives at the home of FATHER BERENGER SAUNIERE (67), the parish priest (very rich), who has had a stroke. Abbe is here to give the last rites to Sauniere. Abbe speaks with a woman named MARIE DENARNAUD (51), who is Sauniere’s maid. Sauniere confesses something to Riviere; something that makes Abbe tell Marie that he cannot give Sauniere absolution and the old priest will not see the Kingdom of Heaven. Abbe storms out of the house.

AUGUST 2, 1944: DR. GERHARD DENNINGER (60), an archeologist on a German U-boat examines parchment excitedly. He has been seeking the secret Cathar treasure despite no evidence of its existence for 700 years. Gerhard works for the Ahnenerbe – Heinrich Himmler’s Heritage Bureau seeking religious artifacts for Hitler to help establish the 1000-year Reich. Gerhard is a reluctant SS member (required for this job) and secretly he is Jewish.

1939: The devious OTTO RAHN enters Gerhard’s office claiming to know how to find the Cathar treasure. Rahn works for the Gestapo as well, although he hates them deeply and makes little secret of it. He tells Gerhard to meet him at a seedy, highly liberal bar tomorrow night.

The next night, Gerhard goes to the bar. America jazz plays while youths styled as swing kids bop about and openly mock Hitler. There, Rahn rescues Gerhard from the attention of a youth. Rahn gives Gerhard the diary of Abbe Riviere. Some Gestapo soldiers arrive, seemingly looking for Rahn. Gerhard and Rahn split as a fight breaks out between the soldiers and youths. In Rahn’s apartment, Rahn says that when the Cathars were wiped out in 1244, someone escaped with the location of the Cathar treasure, which he passed onto the Knights Templar who created a coded document containing information on where to find the Cathar treasure – and Rahn has the document. He found it in Nova Scotia, Canada. Rahn says the document is somewhere safe. For now, Gerhard must keep the diary safe as Rahn is being followed constantly.

At home in his apartment, Gerhard discovers that the umbrella given to him on the way home by an ally of Rahn named BOBBY – a young, tough gay man -- contains hidden in its handle the coded Templar document. A blond, blue-eyed Gestapo agent arrives at Gerhard’s apartment and begins reading Riviere’s diary, the umbrella at his feet. The soldier takes Gerhard to Gestapo HQ, where Gerhard is interrogated but gives them nothing. Back at home, Bobby arrives and tells Gerhard that Rahn is missing. Gerhard must go to work – he gives Bobby the umbrella to keep safe.

At work, Gerhard is informed by his supervisor that he is being reassigned – to Tibet – with the order coming direct from Himmler. Gerhard must leave right away – there is a car waiting downstairs. Gerhard makes a quick call to the liberal bar, leaving a message for Bobby to say that he must go away for a while, but he’ll be back.

JULY, 1944: Five years in Tibet, Gerhard awaits his opportunity to pursue the Cathar treasure. Rahn died during this time. Gerhard’s superiors announce a return to Germany as the Allies approach, but Gerhard is being sent to Brazil for another similar assignment. He plans to escape when the plane refuels in Berlin en route to Brazil. The plane is shot down by two British Spitfires and crash-lands in a forest outside Berlin, both pilots killed. Gerhard walks to the nearest town where two soldiers give him a lift to his old apartment building in Berlin. There, the superintendent brings Gerhard to the cellar where he kept Gerhard’s things. He finds the umbrella but, rather than the coded document, inside is a key and a piece of paper which reads “A. B. 719.”

Gerhard goes to the bureau office where he steals an Enigma code and types something on company letterhead, needing only Himmler’s signature. He escapes before his bosses become aware of his presence, figuring out meanwhile that the “A. B. 719” may be referring to a locker in the train station. There, Gerhard opens the locker finding the coded document. He pockets it and boards a train, meeting Bobby on the train coincidentally. Bobby is beaten and badly hurt. Gerhard tells Bobby of his plan to use the forged letter to board a U-boat to France. The letter says that the U-boat must operate radio silence immediately, and that Gerhard’s mission is top secret and that the crew must do whatever Gerhard tells them to. Gerhard forged Himmler’s signature on the document perfectly. Gerhard falls asleep. When he wakes, Bobby is dead from his wounds.

Gerhard meets with CAPTAIN FRANZ MEULLER (late-30s), a weathered, war-hardened man, at the docks. The U-boat reaches the beach in France where Meuller tosses coffee on the code key and tells a shocked Gerhard to read it aloud, which he does. Meuller says that code keys are written in soluble ink, so, if this one was real, it would now be illegible. He takes the coded document from Gerhard, forces Gerhard into a dinghy, and disappears inside the U-boat which vanishes beneath the surface. On the submarine, Meuller opens the tube with document inside: boom. It explodes. On the dinghy, Gerhard grins. He had placed a DIY explosive inside. The coded document he hid inside a book which he has with him now. Gerhard paddles to shore and runs into the woods of France.

Gerhard enters an empty farmhouse not long before American soldiers arrive. They spot Gerhard. A scuffle ensues. Gerhard is almost knocked out. One of the soldiers picks up the book with coded document hidden inside and flicks through it. The soldiers don’t believe Gerhard’s description of himself. They tie him to a bed and tell him to wait for morning. Downstairs, one of the soldiers cuts open the book and finds the coded document. They bring Gerhard down and ask him what it is. Suddenly a German vehicle is spotted approaching the farmhouse.

Gerhard greets the Germans as they enter. They’re SS. He says he lives in the house. The Germans are searching for a stray American military unit thought to be in these parts. They want to search the house but Gerhard talks them out of it, showing them the forged letter from Himmler. But two American soldiers fight upstairs, alerting the SS commander, who is alone with Gerhard. In response, Gerhard stabs the commander in the neck, killing him. The Americans kill the remaining German soldiers. After, the Americans threaten Gerhard to tell them the significance of the coded document. Gerhard tells them the truth, after which he is forced to make a deal with the American leader, MARKHAM: they would find the treasure together and split it among them all.

JUDEA, AD 33: A man requests Jesus’s body from the cross so he can bury him. It seems as if this man expects Jesus to rise again due to a substance given to Jesus, and not divinity.

ARLES, FRANCE, 1307: More backstory on this Cathar treasure and Knights Templar is revealed.

BACK TO WWII: Markham asks Gerhard for a direction to travel in and Gerhard, remembering something Rahn once said, says they must go to Carcassonne. Gerhard thinks decoding the document might have a connection to chess and the Knight’s Tour chess puzzle. He tells Markham that the Knights Templar were charged with heresy when stripped of power. The Knights were accused of being anti-Christian, calling Christ a false prophet—the only accusation they never recanted. ROURKE asks for the document as he thinks he might know what to do, as he played chess as a kid. Rourke thinks Bible verses indicate the position of the moves. This triggers something for Gerhard, who locates the starting point of the code.

The men hitch a ride to Carcassonne and by the time they get there, Gerhard has deciphered the code but does not understand the message’s meaning. But he figures out the meaning of one part: a castle. Germans arrive. The Americans get into a firefight with them, killing the Germans but losing one of the Americans as well. They bury their dead comrade. They meet a priest named FATHER AMBROISE who Gerhard asks for help understanding the message. The priest cannot help but in the priest’s home Gerhard notices a painting which gives him a clue. Gerhard asks why the priest lied. Gerhard knows the priest is hiding something. Ambroise gives them the next clue. As Gerhard and the Americans focus on the map, Father Ambroise vanishes.

The men race outside to see Ambroise speeding away in the only truck, obviously toward the location Gerhard has just figured out, which is about two miles away. Markham fetches the two workhorses from the nearby stable. The men speed after Ambroise on the wagon.

Flashback to Sauniere discovering the Cathar treasure. He blackmails the church: he will keep the secret quiet in exchange for wealth. Later the other priest who also knows the truth decides he wants to keep it secret no longer, so Ambroise kills him.

Gerhard and the American soldiers reach the church. There, Ambroise gets the better of them, making them all fit into a deep pit except for Rourke. Suddenly, Otto Rahn appears above the pit. He has knocked out Ambroise. He rescues the men from the pit. Rahn, Gerhard and the Americans find the hidden compartment where the “treasure” is kept. The “treasure” is three boxes of bones and a leather-journal codex. The Americans are disappointed while the Germans are excited. Ambroise watches as he attempts to cut the rope around his wrists. Explosives are buried beneath the crypt – something only Ambroise knows. Ambroise says he will tell them the truth of it all if they untie him.

Ambroise says the codex was written in Aramaic by Jesus’ most-loved disciple, Judas Iscariot. In it Judas says that he was crucified in place of Jesus as Mary Magdalene was pregnant with Jesus’s child and Jesus did not want her to raise the child alone. Judas survived the crucifixion because he drank a substance that made him appear dead, given to him by Jesus’s brother Yakob. Ambroise continues: Paul, the Apostle, was a Roman agent tasked with taking down the Jerusalem Church from the inside. He does so by preaching that Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead, thus converting people away from Judaism and towards Christianity. Judas writes that Jesus went to see Paul and asked why Paul had lied. Paul laughed and asked why Jesus complains – he has made Jesus a God. Paul truly was the Father of Christianity, but for exactly opposite reasons.

In the crypt, Ambroise shows the men that one of the skeletons is Judas. The other two are possibly Jesus and Mary. Suddenly, all are locked in the crypt by Ambroise, who is shot by one of the Americans upstairs – a Christian named LUCAS who wishes to destroy the “book of lies.” As Ambroise dies, he lights the fuse. The men escape the crypt. Lucas shoots Rourke dead. Gerhard distracts Lucas while Markham shoots Lucas dead. They escape the church just as it explodes. But Rahn had gone back for the codex and must have died inside with it as nothing could escape the gigantic blast – only Gerhard and Markham survive it. Gerhard’s backpack was left inside containing the Riviere diary and coded document.

1947: Gerhard is at an archeological dig in Egypt searching for another secret treasure. Later in his hotel room, Otto Rahn is waiting for him – alive. He looks unwell: cancer; Rahn has only a few weeks left to live. He says he is just here for one final farewell. After Rahn leaves, Gerhard realizes that Rahn left him the Judas codex. But Gerhard unknowingly gives it to a thief pretending to be someone else; and that thief sells it to a cardinal of the Vatican Secret Archives, where the codex will be stored in secrecy. But it then turns out that Gerhard had switched the codex, knowing the thief’s true identity all along, and hoping to trick the Catholic Church into thinking they have the codex.

About The Author

Dan McNeil spent much of the 80’s playing in bands around Ottawa, Canada, later writing and recording two albums of original pop rock with his cousin and song-writing partner Steve Casey. The two had some success, winning a number of song-writing contests including the prestigious NSAI (National Songwriters Association International) competition in 2002. Dan turned to novel writing a few years later penning two novels, "The Judas Apocalypse" and "Can't Buy Me Love". He continues to work on music, scoring films and screenwriting.