Brief

When a Navy SEAL is killed and others wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan, the survivors team up with the deceased soldier’s wife to discover the truth behind the incident. In the process, they discover a dangerous plan that leads all the way to the White House.

What We Liked

- The premise is terrific. Using a video game to out a terrorist and force the hand of political leaders is a great touch. There is action, intrigue and interesting plot elements to keep the audience interested.
- The screenplay is most certainly best suited as a feature film as a one off story or even a franchise. However, a television series spin off could easily be made as well by utilizing and expanding an existing smaller character into a new heroine.
- Key points: Plot driven; Strong characters; Strong premise; Timely; Franchise potential.

Synopsis

Navy SEALs are on a classified mission in Afghanistan when they are ambushed during a raid. Jake is killed in the explosion and two others, Alex and TJ, are both seriously injured as well.

Barely a year after the tragic death of her husband, Jake, Holly is trying her best to get by without the closure of knowing the truth about his death. She has relied a lot of an older man named Frank, who knew Jake. She also takes solace in her sister Tara’s embrace of the Jewish religion and enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews as they celebrate Jewish holidays.

One day coming out of the synagogue, Holly is approached by Alex, claiming that he was with Jake when he died. Holly is skeptical and a bit freaked out even though she thinks Alex is attractive. She checks with Frank, who tells her that Alex is harmless, but now that he is ex-military he is critical of the President. He does this in hopes of getting Holly to back off getting to know Alex, but she isn’t deterred.

Alex approaching Holly tips Frank off that the high level secret from the ambush may be out of the bag. Frank worries that Alex and Holly will team up and discover the truth behind the ambush in Afghanistan and it will be devastating to President’s reputation. He alerts David Lewis, who runs the President’s super PAC, of the situation. David is very interested in this new development since he is trying to help the President facilitate Middle East peace as his presidential legacy and doesn’t want anything to jeopardize that. The President pardoned a terrorist called, Tarig, in exchange for him stopping his jihad and providing the administration with valuable intelligence. He betrayed the President and sabotaged the troops in Afghanistan that led to Jake’s death. If it were to get out to the public, the President’s credibility would be shot. David makes Frank promise to keep that from happening.

The bigger plot that Frank and David are helping the President pull off is risky and has national security implications. The President wants to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and return the prisoners to Iran as a gesture of good faith if they promise to stop their nuclear proliferation. He does not have the support the United States Congress for giving away prisoners and shutting down the controversial prison, so he is planning the entire plot to happen behind the backs of Congress and the American people. He secretly shuts off surveillance on the White House, the prison and Iran to cover up his machinations.

Holly’s sixteen year old nephew, Jonathan, volunteers for the President’s super PAC. David knows of him and of his relationship to Holly and Jake. It’s easy for David to keep tabs on what Jonathan to find out if Holly said anything to him about the ambush and what he might know relating to the death of his uncle. Jonathan has a crush on Ann. She is the slightly older daughter of a big donor who also works at the PAC. David uses her and her relationship with him to get close to Jonathan.

Meanwhile, Holly talks more to Alex and is introduced to TJ. They believe that Frank and David are covering for the President, but they still want to prove that Tarig betrayed them. Holly’s best friend, Susanna works at the NSA with TJ’s dad, Sean. Susanna and Sean are good friends and bond over their shared Catholic faith. Since they both have a personal stake in the truth, they join in on the quest to get to the bottom of what happened.

It becomes apparent to them that they are being followed. They deduce the tail must be of Frank’s ordering. In an effort to stir the pot and get acknowledgement that they are wise to the cover up, they come up with the idea to develop and create a person to person multiplayer video game based on secret footage from the ambush and call it “Where is Tarig.” The game goes viral and alerts Frank, David and the President that their secret is out.

The President is furious when he sees the game and tells David to handle it. David turns it back on to Frank to handle. Tarig is also inconvenienced by the game. He is living in Egypt and is playing both sides against the middle. Not only has he betrayed the United States President, he is double crossing Iran and the Arab states as well. Tarig, being a pilot is tasked by money man, Massound, to fly to Cuba to retrieve the prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and drop them off in Iran. But his betrayal reaches Massound, who plans to do away with him as a punishment. When Tarig is tipped off that Massound and he share the same girlfriend, Helga, Tarig realizes that she is using him to lure him to his death. He manages save himself from being murdered and he plans to flee to Africa to build terrorist training camps. Massound will now have to find another pilot to carry out the United States President’s wishes.

One of the ways that TJ is able to know for sure that Tarig was at the scene of the ambush and is responsible for Jake’s death is that Tarig stole Jake’s good luck charm, a Hand of Fatima, as a trophy and wears it around his neck. Holly confirms that the piece did belong to Jake. As Holly and her group get closer to uncovering everything, Frank gets more and more unstrung. He decides he needs leverage over Holly to keep her from going to the press with her knowledge. In an effort to fulfill the need, he plans to have Jonathan kidnapped. However, the private eye hired to tail Jonathon doesn’t believe in surveilling children so he tips off the family that Jonathan has been kidnapped.

Ann turns out to be an undercover Mossad agent and she helps to retrieve Jonathan and return him safely to his family. Now that the plot is uncovered, Alex and TJ plan to go on the Sunday shows and tell the world.

The President goes ahead with having the prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay and the board a plane bound for Tehran. However, their plane crashes with no survivors. Now the President has no leverage and the Iranians have dubbed him and are performing underground nuclear testing. The President has been made to look a complete fool. In order to save face, he tries to blame it all on David. However, David refuses to take it and secretly leaks the truth the truth to press. Frank still wants to keep Holly quiet so he goes to her house with plans to kill her. Alex and Holly are exploring starting a romantic relationship with Frank arrives. Alex saves the day by silently killing Frank. He hacks into the database to be sure that Frank’s cause of death will be determined as natural causes.

About The Author

Myrna Sokoloff has worked in politics in New York and California. She co-wrote the 2008 movie "An American Carol" and political commercials. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on her second novel.