Synopsis
Doom Drive
Contemporary drama of vigilante justice
WGAw Reg.# 2136919
Original Screenplay by Bruce Macintyre
THE CAMERA come up through the eyes of the body of a young man laid out in a Mexican morgue. A Los Angeles homicide detective examines the body. The medical examiner gives her the suicide note the dead man left in which he admits he was a murderer. When the medical examiner asks who he murdered, the camera goes back down through the sightless staring eye to show the dead man, DR. JIM FIELDING, and his wife, ALISON, at a corporate dinner in a Los Angeles hotel being feted for his successful and money-making invention. Leaving the party, they’re carjacked. She’s murdered, he’s wounded. Saved from suicide by his brother-in-law, MAURY, Jim sets out with Maury to find the carjackers. It’s quickly apparent that their search is hopeless; but when another carjacker assaults them, they kill him.
Jim then decides to build a series of booby-trapped cars, allow himself to be carjacked, and spring the deadly surprise on the carjackers. Maury agrees to help. They obtain an untraceable car that Jim equips with deadly powerful air bags and a remote ignition of the fuel line to cover their tracks. They also plan an escape route should they need it.
They troll LA and two Asian carjackers strike. Maury picks up Jim and they follow as the carjackers kill a man in a drive-by shooting. Jim and Maury force them into a minor accident and the air bags kill them, the passenger’s head ripped from his body. Jim then trips the rigged ignition and the car burns up. The police are baffled by the accident.
Fishing in Mexico, Jim talks with a fisherman about his catch of puffer fish. Over a dinner of the fish, he explains to Maury about the deadly poison, tetrodotoxin, the fish contains. It paralyzes the nervous system so completely that a victim who doesn’t die can appear dead while actually being completely alert. He tells Maury that in Japan, if a person dies from eating fugu—their name for puffer fish—they wait two days before burying the person to make certain he is dead. Jim is drying a bunch of puffer fish livers where the poison is most concentrated.
The next carjacker is sprayed with the poison and stumbles from the car apparently dying. The police come upon Jim trying to clean the car to use it again and there is a chase. Jim and Maury use their escape plan involving the tunnels from the LA River to get away. The police, however, recognize the similarities in the untraceable vehicles and begin an investigation. The poison victim is undergoing an autopsy and the doctor begins screaming for help when he realizes the man is still alive.
Finally, Jim and Maury use an aerosol bomb to incinerate a group of carjacking thieves. A video surveillance tape sets the police on the trail of Dr. Fielding as the vigilante killer. At the same time, the homicide detectives have identified the original carjackers and call Jim in to identify them. Rather than ID them for the police, Jim uses the information to locate them on his own. He and Maury steal the carjackers’ car, equip it with remote control, then confront them at the Griffith Observatory to initiate a chase through the park. The carjackers try to escape when they realize they’re the prey, but Jim sends their car off a cliff. One carjacker survives and escapes into the LA Zoo pursued by Jim. They fight in the bear pit and Jim shoots him in the knees to allow the bear to catch him and squash his skull like a grape tomato.
The crime gives the police all the evidence they need and they come for Jim who escapes. He then turns up dead in his SUV on the Mexican beach where he talked with the fisherman about puffer fish.
The camera comes back up through Jim’s eye as it went down to open the film, showing the LA Homicide detective looking at the body in the Mexican morgue. Satisfied that her suspect is out of reach, she leaves.
Outside, Maury watches her go and then meets the medical examiner who he bribes to take away the body for a quiet burial. Camped on a deserted beach, Maury has to wonder if Jim really is dead. He’s not, returning to life as the tetrodotoxin wears off and they laugh as the birds sail in the clear blue sky.
Doom Drive
Contemporary drama of vigilante justice
WGAw Reg.# 2136919
Original Screenplay by Bruce Macintyre
THE CAMERA come up through the eyes of the body of a young man laid out in a Mexican morgue. A Los Angeles homicide detective examines the body. The medical examiner gives her the suicide note the dead man left in which he admits he was a murderer. When the medical examiner asks who he murdered, the camera goes back down through the sightless staring eye to show the dead man, DR. JIM FIELDING, and his wife, ALISON, at a corporate dinner in a Los Angeles hotel being feted for his successful and money-making invention. Leaving the party, they’re carjacked. She’s murdered, he’s wounded. Saved from suicide by his brother-in-law, MAURY, Jim sets out with Maury to find the carjackers. It’s quickly apparent that their search is hopeless; but when another carjacker assaults them, they kill him.
Jim then decides to build a series of booby-trapped cars, allow himself to be carjacked, and spring the deadly surprise on the carjackers. Maury agrees to help. They obtain an untraceable car that Jim equips with deadly powerful air bags and a remote ignition of the fuel line to cover their tracks. They also plan an escape route should they need it.
They troll LA and two Asian carjackers strike. Maury picks up Jim and they follow as the carjackers kill a man in a drive-by shooting. Jim and Maury force them into a minor accident and the air bags kill them, the passenger’s head ripped from his body. Jim then trips the rigged ignition and the car burns up. The police are baffled by the accident.
Fishing in Mexico, Jim talks with a fisherman about his catch of puffer fish. Over a dinner of the fish, he explains to Maury about the deadly poison, tetrodotoxin, the fish contains. It paralyzes the nervous system so completely that a victim who doesn’t die can appear dead while actually being completely alert. He tells Maury that in Japan, if a person dies from eating fugu—their name for puffer fish—they wait two days before burying the person to make certain he is dead. Jim is drying a bunch of puffer fish livers where the poison is most concentrated.
The next carjacker is sprayed with the poison and stumbles from the car apparently dying. The police come upon Jim trying to clean the car to use it again and there is a chase. Jim and Maury use their escape plan involving the tunnels from the LA River to get away. The police, however, recognize the similarities in the untraceable vehicles and begin an investigation. The poison victim is undergoing an autopsy and the doctor begins screaming for help when he realizes the man is still alive.
Finally, Jim and Maury use an aerosol bomb to incinerate a group of carjacking thieves. A video surveillance tape sets the police on the trail of Dr. Fielding as the vigilante killer. At the same time, the homicide detectives have identified the original carjackers and call Jim in to identify them. Rather than ID them for the police, Jim uses the information to locate them on his own. He and Maury steal the carjackers’ car, equip it with remote control, then confront them at the Griffith Observatory to initiate a chase through the park. The carjackers try to escape when they realize they’re the prey, but Jim sends their car off a cliff. One carjacker survives and escapes into the LA Zoo pursued by Jim. They fight in the bear pit and Jim shoots him in the knees to allow the bear to catch him and squash his skull like a grape tomato.
The crime gives the police all the evidence they need and they come for Jim who escapes. He then turns up dead in his SUV on the Mexican beach where he talked with the fisherman about puffer fish.
The camera comes back up through Jim’s eye as it went down to open the film, showing the LA Homicide detective looking at the body in the Mexican morgue. Satisfied that her suspect is out of reach, she leaves.
Outside, Maury watches her go and then meets the medical examiner who he bribes to take away the body for a quiet burial. Camped on a deserted beach, Maury has to wonder if Jim really is dead. He’s not, returning to life as the tetrodotoxin wears off and they laugh as the birds sail in the clear blue sky.
