Brief

A hardened Marine finds himself engrossed in the mystery surrounding his father's death. When his investigation leads to the discovery of a sinister plot to hijack a nuclear-powered laser weapon, he must hurry to put a stop to it before it causes worldwide destruction.

What We Liked

CROSSFIRE is a fast-paced military action/thriller that follows a hardened Marine on a quest to find his father's murderer. It has a lot of moving parts, but the crux of the story rests on the protagonist discovering the killer in a race against the clock, and the destruction of the world. Along the way, he discovers friends and foes but emerges victorious as a character thats easy to root for and engage with.

Film: The story has a defined, singular goal that is strong enough to sustain a film, and the protagonist follows the basics of The Hero's Journey to reach a satisfying conclusion. Along a way, a series of setbacks, twists, and turns, keeps our attention as we root for the protagonist's victory as he opposes the bad guys and fights to avenge his traumatic losses and save the world.

TV: It's possible that the story is a bit too fast-paced for the typical television format, but it may fit the miniseries format quite well. There is more than enough source material to sustain a television show, and a bit of room for expansion in terms of the protagonist's backstory, family dynamic and past trauma. There is a singular goal: find the killer and save the world. And there is a definitive ending, where the protagonist emerges victorious. But along the way, there are twists and turns that keep the audience engaged and invested.

Key points:
Fast-paced.
Suspenseful.
Action-packed.
Global story.
Military story.

Synopsis

JULIA PETRUCELLI (20s) has sex with her older, male lover in a secluded area of a New Jersey community park. He excuses himself to go to his tennis match, and Julia silently wishes that he would stay with her. She waits hopelessly for her lover to return and soon feels a breath on her neck. Believing that her lover has come back, she succumbs to him. But he begins choking her and stabbing her repeatedly. Julia tries to claw away from her assailant, but it’s too late.

DOCTOR DYLAN GALLAHER, an Airforce rocket scientist who has just discovered life-changing, classified research, prepares to go skydiving with his closest friends. Their pilot, GABE, has broken his arm and has been temporarily replaced with ZACH PARKER. Parker takes the men up to the appropriate altitude and instructs them to jump. Gallaher’s three friends pull their ripcords successfully, but Gallaher’s doesn’t open. There is nothing in his pack except a typewritten letter.

FIRST LIEUTENANT NICK GALLAHER is led down the corridor of a North Korean prison. A GUARD picks him up and forces him out into the winter air. Gallaher overpowers the guard, twists his neck, and kills him. He takes the guard’s coat and weapons and is about to try to navigate the terrain when he hears the unmistakable sound of landmine. He sits there, freezing, through the night. When dawn comes, Gallaher vows to become free. He pushes on, leaving his dead captor behind.

SUYOUNG HONG, a child, seeks refuge in his abandoned house. He sees French soldiers approaching and ducks below the window. He decides to travel, under the cover of night, to his cousins in a nearby village. A French truck approaches and Suyoung dives into the bushes. There, he finds a wounded Gallaher. He flags down the French soldiers, who tend to both. DR. STEPHEN BILLINGS patches Gallaher up on a British hospital boat.

Gallaher awakens, and panics that he is unable to see. Billings tells him that he his corneas were scratched by shrapnel, but his vision should return to normal within a few days. COMMANDER BRIAN SHEFFIELD arrives and tells Gallaher that his father has passed, and that he was new orders. Once fully healed, he is to travel to Washington to speak to top brass.

In Russia, PAVEL MAKAROV waits in the shadows to meet VITALY DOBROVOLSKY. A British orphan who was adopted by a pair of Russian spies, DOBROVOLKSY has spent his entire life in disguise. The Russian government has no knowledge of his British past, and he rose through the ranks of the military with ease. He urinates in the nearby river and drops a pack of American cigarettes. When he leaves, Makarov picks it up and prepares to deliver Dobrovolsky’s encryptions to the British government.

CHASE GALLAHER is instructed by his uncle, KAYDEN, to meet with PhD scientist DONALD STRZELECKI, a renowned government researcher. KAYDEN, special advisor to the President, believes that Strzelecki knows something about Dylan Gallaher’s death. Chase rents an SUV and travels to an ice yacht race that Strzelecki is participating in. He waits next to his car as the race begins. About a mile from the finish line, there is an explosion, and several boats go up in flames. Chase and the spectators rush onto the ice to assist the survivors and realizes that Strzelecki is dead. He finds the responding police officers and produces a fake FBI ID, given to him by Kayden the year before. He discovers that there was a typewritten suicide note in Strzelecki’s car.

Feeling that something is awry, Chase returns to his hotel room to call Kayden. That night, Chase awakens to a masked intruder with a silenced gun. The intruder shoots Chase dead.

In New Jersey, CHRISTIAN DELORENZO stands in a classified factory with his business partners, Frenchmen FRANCOIS ROUSSEAU, and KENNETH DADE. They stare at the Crossfire, a military reconnaissance laser beam. Rousseau reveals that Dylan Gallaher’s files prove that the Crossfire is much more powerful than originally believed. DeLorenzo has promised the Russians the technology, to assist them in taking over the oil fields in the Middle East.

The men have developed a plan to trick the US government and NASA into thinking that the Crossfire malfunctioned in space. They will board DeLorenzo’s yacht and meet up with a Russian submarine in the middle of the ocean, where they will hand over the technology, without raising any suspicion. Rousseau asks if he can inform YVONNE DELORENZO, Christian’s daughter, and his lover, and DeLorenzo promises to fill her in when the time is right.

Several weeks later, the launch goes according to DeLorenzo’s plan. They promptly lose connection with the Crossfire, and DeLorenzo falsely blames it on his North Carolina facilities. He promises a replacement, at no cost to the American taxpayers.

AIR FORCE LIEUTENANT COMMANDER RICHARD DRAKE flies Nick Gallaher to Washington. He is escorted to the Pentagon, where he meets with Kayden. Kayden informs him that Chase is dead and begins to sob. Nick consoles him, and he begins to inform Nick of his suspicions. He presents him with five photographs of six scientists, including Dylan, involved in special research for the Department of Defense. All of them died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the conspiracy, Kayden has been told not to investigate it to prevent unfavorable review of the current presidential administration. So, he needs Nick to investigate it for him.

Nick arrives in New Mexico and sees his father’s skydiving poster at the rental car station. He drives to the flight school and meets Gabe, who remembers him from his youth. He asks about the circumstances surrounding Dylan’s death, and Gabe admits that it was suspicious. Dylan left his parachute pack alone with Zach Parker while he used the restroom. And after the incident, Parker drove off never to be seen again. When Gabe asked the police to investigate him, they had already deemed Dylan’s death a suicide and let the matter drop.

After the flight school, Nick meets with COLONEL NOAH WALLACE at the local air force base. Wallace believes that Dylan committed suicide, like the reports say. But after some prodding, he begins to tell Nick the details of his father’s top-secret projects. Dylan helped design a laser beam that could interrupt the flight of missiles and render them useless. With that information, Nick thanks Wallace and continues his journey. He catches a flight to Los Angeles and arrives at Cal Tech. He produces a fake ID card from Kayden that deems him Navy Intelligence and checks into an appointment with RANDOLPH STILES to inquire about the death of the one of the scientists, MARVIN SAMUELS. He learns that Samuels had been buying illegal amphetamines off a security guard before driving his car over a bridge. His job was creating highly classified military computer software and signal processing technology.

Gallaher deduces that Zach Parker must be responsible for the deaths but needs to settle on a motive before trying to track down the pilot. He hurries to his next appointment, where he meets SHARON MURPHY and LEROY CORDERO, close associates of Dr. Strzelecki. He learns that the scientist was working on a strong mirror, that would focus sufficient energy on a target without destroying it. He was under fire for losing track of a test mirror that was tested at the Los Alamitos Naval base, and never made it back to the facility. Cordero still struggles with deciding whether Strzelecki was telling the truth about the mirror.

Gallaher’s next trip is to Vandenberg air force base, to ask about the death of MAJOR JOHN STARK. He meets with COLONEL SHERWOOD JONES and MAJOR RAYMOND HERNANDEZ. The men tell him that one of the propane valves on Stark’s hot air balloon had been welded shut, and a typewritten suicide note was found after the incident. Gallaher learns that Stark worked very closely with Kenneth Dade.

Gallaher arrives at Sinclair Components Inc., a subsidiary of Cal Tech, to speak with GEORGE LEWIS. He is escorted through the high-security facility by a beautiful secretary named LEILANI. Once inside Lewis’ office, he asks him about the death of LEONARD PRICE. Gallaher learns that Price helped develop sensors for NASA, military, and government contracts. He learns that sometimes, the researchers collaborated with Kenneth Dade and THANE MCCOLLIAN. Lewis calls Leilani to escort Gallaher out. He seduces Leilani and takes her back to his hotel room.

Gallaher arrives in Denver and looks up Thane in the phone book. From the television, he hears breaking news about a fatal car accident. He looks up when he hears that Thane is the victim. Soon after, he receives a phone call in his hotel room. An anonymous voice tells him that he has the information Gallaher has been looking for and asks to meet in Littleton. When he arrives, he is assaulted by Zach Parker and one of his thugs. Gallaher tries to fight back. More adversaries arrive and begin shooting machine guns at Gallaher. He uses Parker as a human shield, and ducks beneath a bush. The thug finds him, and they tumble together over a cliff and into an icy river below. Gallaher smashes the thug’s face on a rock and allows the river to carry him downstream.

Nick flies back to Washington to meet Kayden and RONALD PRESCOTT of the CIA. Prescott supplies Nick with a suitcase full of weapons and a bulletproof vest. Kayden gives Nick access to the FBI database and sets him loose on a subfloor of the Pentagon. Nick searches for the names he’s learned in all his meetings, but the only connection that comes up at first is that Kenneth Dade once worked for a subsidiary of Sinclair Components. He keeps digging and learns the name Christian DeLorenzo. He learns that DeLorenzo’s daughter, Yvonne, is the Chairwoman of the Armed Services Committee and is the one who forbid Kayden from investigating the suspicious deaths. He sees a news headline of Yvonne and Francois Rousseau leaving a club. When he looks up Rousseau in the database, he’s able to peg him as the go-between DeLorenzo and Russia.

Gallaher poses as a reporter and arranges an interview with Yvonne. She claims not to be dating Rousseau, but that they’re good friends. Gallaher pulls a Glock from his pocket and reveals his true intentions. Yvonne begins to cry, and Gallaher realizes that DeLorenzo fooled her into thinking his dealings were pure. He has no time to process this however, because the front window the Yvonne’s house is shattered, and several gunned assailants enter. Gallaher ducks behind a sofa and takes out several of them. He feels a sharp attack to the head, and then everything goes black.

Gallaher awakens to Rousseau and Kenneth Dade standing above him. They take his Glock from him and hit him in the head with it. Gallaher loses consciousness again. Meanwhile, in Russia, Vitaly Dobrovolsky is summoned by the Russian government. He learns that he has been chosen for a covert mission. He is to accompany several others to DeLorenzo’s yacht, to oversee the transfer of equipment. In a deal struck with DeLorenzo, the Russians are to transfer shipments of oil tankers as well, but Dobrovolsky is informed that those shipments will never occur. Instead, Dobrovolsky is to slip into the water and attach bombs to DeLorenzo’s yacht. Armed with this new information, Dobrovolksy knows that he must get it to the British government before it’s too late.

Dobrovolsky is escorted to the mission, and he struggles to be alone long enough to read the documents contained in his black briefcase. Dobrovolksy is given a homing device to place onto the vessel. But bad weather and choppy water causes him to drop it out of the dinghy. He and the rest of the men are catapulted overboard. Rescue divers hurry to save them. Dobrovolksy can get some word to the British but is prevented from sending any further communication. He inputs all his information onto a tiny microchip and places it into a cigarette and gets it to a spy pickup spot.

Dobrovolsky convinces the captain of the vessel to make a pitstop so he can exchange arms with an international dealer. After some hesitation, the captain agrees. Meanwhile, British intelligence gets wind of the plot. They team up with the Americans and watch the testing of the laser in the middle of the ocean.

Gallaher awakens on a ship, but he still has his bulletproof vest and a knife attached to his pantleg. He is greeted by DeLorenzo, Dade and Rousseau, who are shocked that he came so close to figuring out their plan.

DeLorenzo and his crew arrive at the rendezvous point. Dobrovolsky comes aboard the yacht and notices a guard guarding Gallaher’s stateroom. Dobrovolsky insists that Gallaher be present for the transaction. DeLorenzo and his men hesitatingly agree.

The British and the US deploy forces to track the ocean meeting. They get sight of the Russian submarine, but it soon falls out of view. Meanwhile, Dobrovolsky asks to interrogate Gallaher. He reveals his identity and arranges for Gallaher to come aboard the Russian vessel, so they can work together to stop the master plan. Dobrovolksy tells him that, if the Russians succeed, the US and Allied forces in the Middle East will all be killed by DeLorenzo’s plot.

Just as the Russians are about to launch the weapon on US and British forces, Dobrovolksy and Gallaher overtake them. Bombs begin to explode around them, and the vessel begins to sink. Dobrovolsky is shot and Gallaher hurries to get him away from the enemy. In the nick of time, they are rescued by US divers. They are originally mistaken as Russians, until Gallaher can explain. They return to Washington victorious.

About The Author

Robert Valletta was selected as a semi-finalist for the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts in Creative Writing. He twice received the annual Josephine P. Farace Award for Excellence in Journalism. He is the author of Under the Silent Sky and A Foreigner's Heart.