Brief

A rogue priest joins forces with the Devil to bring down a terrifying, global religious conspiracy and free humanity from abject slavery after death.

What We Liked

The story takes the industry of religion, flips it upside down and, in doing so, highlights its global flaws and imperfections. It is reminiscent of The Good Place, or Lucifer, both of which tackle similar, highly philosophical and psychological premises. It serves its theme quite well throughout, and delivers to its audience a powerful underlying message about what it means to be a religious extremist.

Film: The story gives us access to both an ordinary and extraordinary world, with a go-between character who excels in both. There are supernatural elements that elevate the storyline, an excellent use of theme, and opposing forces that could sustain a standalone feature or a franchise.

TV: Because of its franchise potential and lack of a finite ending, a story like this might fit the television format quite nicely. There is ample room for character growth, a well built extraordinary world to discover, and a seemingly endless supply of story arcs that could sustain several seasons.

Key points:
Global appeal.
Excellent use of theme.
Unlikely duo for leads.
Potential for diverse cast.
Franchise potential.

Synopsis

GABRIEL, a being from another dimension, arrives at a bar. He narrows in on a priest, FATHER IGNATIUS, whom he’s come to kill. The priest fights back and the scuffle. When they are both injured, the priest tells Gabriel that he should ask his dimension’s ‘recruits’ about their experience in the afterlife. Gabriel, curious, decides to follow the priest’s advice.

At home, Gabriel visits the recruits. Recruits are reincarnated souls, who are eventually sold into afterlife slavery. Gabriel arrives at a slave labor factory and meets PETER BELT. Peter tells him that he devoted his entire life to the Catholic church, believing their promises of paradise after death. Gabriel struggles to believe that his family has deceived him, but eventually decides that it’s time to confront his father: God. God is disappointed in Gabriel’s curiosity about the recruits. They argue and God kicks Gabriel out of his office. Gabriel becomes convinced that God will not be satisfied until he rules over the entire universe and all the dimensions.

Gabriel reunites with Father Ignatius and agrees to help him in his mission to kill all the kingpins of his father’s company, The Establishment. Gabriel plans to return home to discover who, if any, is innocent within the Catholic church, to spare them.

Gabriel is confronted by his brother, MICHAEL. He concocts a story about how he’s had a revelation that humans cause their own misery on earth. After a family dinner, Gabriel sneaks into the file room and starts looking for names and locations of God’s inner circle, the Ventus-Dei. Michael appears and they scuffle. Gabriel knocks Michael out and takes off for the transportation room. When he returns to earth, he smashes his tracker/transporter and thus the relationship with his family.

Father Ignatius, also known as JONAH, and Gabriel haul up in a hotel room. Gabriel provides the list of names he pilfered from his own dimension, and Jonah balks when he sees the name of his mentor, ARCHBISHOP BENEDICT. Jonah goes for a long walk alone. When he returns, he takes a long shower. Wrapped in only a towel, Gabriel notices his body full of scars, but doesn’t want to risk angering Jonah by asking about them. Finally, Jonah asks for more information about God. Gabriel reveals that God has a truce with ARAND, who first discovered the possibility of using reincarnated souls for slave labor. Arand controls Islam, while God controls Christianity. For eons, the two have been provoking humans into war and death, in hopes of harvesting their souls.

Jonah begins to leave to seek out Benedict. Gabriel tries to convince him that they need more of a plan. He argues that The Establishment is a cancer and needs to be exterminated from the root. They need to seek out the Ventus-Dei. Gabriel realizes that Jonah still doesn’t trust him. He puts his hands up in the air, weaponless, and tells Jonah to kill him. Jonah, after some hesitation, lowers his axe.

The duo arrives in BISHOP XAVIER’S office. At first, Xavier is unafraid because he knows Gabriel. But Gabriel soon explains the real reason for his visit. Xavier believes that he has a ticket to Heaven in exchange for his service to The Establishment. Jonah chops off Xavier’s arm, with the ticket in it. Petrified, Xavier gives up the name of his Ventus-Dei sponsor: FATHER FRANCIS. Jonah recognizes him as Archbishop Benedict’s aide. Jonah murders Xavier, and the men separate to evade detection.

Gabriel stops for tacos and a beer at a local bar before returning to the hotel room and drinking nearly three bottles of liquor. Jonah returns the following afternoon, with a new, state-of-the-art axe that a friend built for him. They decide to lay low for a while, until the news coverage surrounding Xavier’s murder dies down.

Gabriel asks Jonah about his past. Jonah reveals that his father was a member of the cartel, who decided to part ways with them. In retaliation, they killed Jonah’s mother and sister. Jonah became extremely angry and eventually took over the cartel himself. It wasn’t until he met a nun, SISTER ELOISE, that he started to change his views. Gabriel reveals that his history as a criminal is what caught the attention of The Establishment.

Gabriel and Jonah begin to annoy each other, and eventually Gabriel snaps. He tells Jonah that he cannot continue to blame The Establishment for his position in life, because he didn’t even try to fight for his faith. Jonah physically threatens him with his axe and then leaves for two days. When he returns, Gabriel has created a plan: The Fall from Grace.

Gabriel reveals that the recruits are all given a chemical compound that places them on the radar of his dimension’s technological systems. To take down The Establishment, they must stop the distribution of the drug. Jonah agrees.

Jonah leaves and returns with a stack of cash they he won cage fighting. He argues that if they’re going to go after the Ventus-Dei, then they’ll need money. Gabriel remembers his family’s offshore bank accounts and wonders how they can access them without alerting The Establishment. Jonah employs an old friend, TINY, to move the cash to Cyprus and the Seychelles.

The men ask Tiny to dig into confidential databases to look for members of Ventus-Dei. She agrees, but for $30,000. Gabriel pays her, and Jonah tells her the truth about him. To prove that Gabriel is from another dimension, Jonah stabs him with a fork, and he bleeds purple.

Gabriel and Jonah are having dinner when Tiny calls to inform them of Christian extremist attacks against Islam. Ultimately, Gabriel deduces that this is The Establishment’s latest form of recruitment.

Tiny suggests that they all pose as recruits and try to join the Christian extremist group. She helps them make fake online profiles to catch the attention of the leaders and arranges times for them to meet. In the meantime, Gabriel gives her his broken tracker and asks if she can replicate it, so he can get back to his dimension if need be. Soon, the group discovers that they’ll have to travel to Miami for their meeting with the extremists. Jonah is furious to discover that Archbishop Benedict is his interviewer.

Tiny stays behind while Gabriel and Jonah drive to Miami to meet with Benedict. Jonah is still reeling from the betrayal. Still, he wants to give his mentor the benefit of the doubt. Gabriel is less certain. They arrive to meet Father Francis and trick him into trying to recruit Benedict to The Establishment. When they’re all in the same room, Jonah appears, and Gabriel reveals the truth about Benedict’s aide. Benedict is shocked as Jonah kills Francis. Gabriel asks Benedict to join their cause, to go undercover in the Ventus-Dei and help them expose The Establishment. Benedict agrees.

Gabriel deduces that his father is working with Arand to cause the religious unrest. Soon after, they receive a call from Tiny informing them that The Establishment is onto her. They decide to ambush The Establishment at Tiny’s and instruct her to go underground to evade detection.

Gabriel and Jonah settle in to wait. Four members of The Establishment arrive in the middle of the night. Gabriel hides in the shadows while Michael threatens Jonah. He is surprised when Gabriel emerges. They argue, and Michael reveals that the Christian extremist group was taken from one of Gabriel’s earlier ideas. Jonah feels betrayed, and angry as Gabriel continues to fight with this brother. He is able to stave off Michael and his goons for long enough that Michael is forced to retreat. Gabriel apologizes to Jonah.

Jonah asks Gabriel why The Establishment needs slaves to begin with and learns that human labor is cheaper than using technology. Gabriel asks Jonah why he became a priest, and Jonah cites Sister Eloise’s death. They bond and begin to trust each other for the first time.

With Tiny’s help, the group decides to target ISIS as a means of taking down The Establishment. Gabriel goes undercover to a mosque, in hopes of being recruited. After nearly five weeks, he attends a meeting with IBRAHIM, where they discuss the rise of Christian extremists. The mosque, and the religion, wants to counterattack. They decide to join forces with the Sons and Daughters of Islam.

With Tiny’s help, the trio plans for Gabriel to hack the mosque’s computers. She provides blueprints of an underground tunnel system. Together, Gabriel and Jonah sneak underground. But soon, Gabriel realizes that AALIYAH, Arand’s daughter, has followed them. After some hesitation, Gabriel and Jonah learn that Aaliyah has abandoned her family as well. Gabriel tells her the truth about the Holy War and the believed alliance between their fathers. Aaliyah wishes them good luck and leaves them in the underground tunnel room.

Gabriel receives a call from Jonah, only to realize that it’s Michael on the line. He asks to meet, and Gabriel has no choice but to agree. When he arrives as the designated location, God is waiting. He brands Gabriel as The Devil, meaning that all of Christianity will oppose him. Later, when things have calmed down, Ebony reveals that she’s fixed Gabriel’s tracker. He has the choice to return home at any time.

About The Author

USA Today Best selling Author Monique Singleton writes compelling stories that mix fantasy with realistic psychological suspense and unique insights into the mind of the main characters. As the daughter of a British soldier and his Dutch wife, Monique was born in an English military hospital in Germany. The family toured the world where she was exposed to different cultures in many countries. Finally settling down in the Netherlands she pursued a career in Art and later in ICT. in 2015 Monique started to put the scenes she had running around in her head, down to paper. Scenes led to a story, the story to a book, and the first book to a series. In addition to her writing, Monique still holds down a full-time job as a business consultant. She lives in a beautiful old farmhouse in the south of Holland with her two sloppy monster dogs, some horses, and a cat. The cat is the boss.