Synopsis
HERO DOG
Contemporary Drama of homeless dog finding love and building a family
WGAw Reg.# 1547969
HERO DOG is a family film that opens with true-life stories of the hero dogs that inspired the film: Roselle who led her blind owner from the burning World Trade Center in the 9/11 attack; Stacey Mae who visits handicapped children and the elderly to comfort them; Bino who served in Iraq and as a border guard dog, and now teaches Wounded Warriors and their canine companions how to navigate successfully; Harley who alerts his deaf owner to sounds, vastly improving his quality of life; Ricochet who washed out as a service dog as she liked to chase birds, and now surfs with handicapped people, a you-tube video of her going viral with 3.3. million hits and counting; and Sadie, a canine accelerant detector for arson cases and fire prevention demonstrator.
Hero Dog then opens with a homeless LA streetmutt being stalked in the darkness by a nearly demented animal control officer, Ed Bughouse. Evading Bughouse, the dog passes a firehouse with an engine returning, and moments later comes upon an apartment building that’s on fire. His barking has no affect, and he dashes back to the firehouse where a young fireman, Jack Ballantine, is just leaving for home. Jack realizes that the dog wants him to follow him and is led to the fire.
Jack calls in the fire, but before his firemen buddies arrive, a woman clutching a blanket with a child stumbles from the building screaming for help as she lost her other toddler in the building. Jack calms her enough to find she last saw the child on the second floor hallway while the dog sniffs the blanket that held the child. Jack rushes into the building, surprised to find the dog following him and disregarding his command to stay, going up the stairs with him. He follows the woman’s directions while the dog, sniffing, goes the opposite way. The dog finds the child and barks then begins pulling the child to safety. Jack comes back and picks up the child. But when the stairs collapse as Jack steps on them, he falls protecting the child and is knocked unconscious. The dog leaps down to the lower floor, hurting his foreleg but hobbling out to bark to the arriving firemen for help then going back in to start dragging Jack and the child to safety. The other firemen get the child and assist Jack who carries the dog out with him, everyone getting out safely as the firemen begin battling the blaze.
Jack lays out a blanket for the injured dog as he goes to be checked over, the relieved mother thanking him. The dog suddenly finds Bughouse trying to catch him again and hobbles away with Bughouse pursuing him. Jack is surprised to find the dog missing and learns from a fellow fireman it was running from a dog catcher. He looks for him, but the dog is nowhere to be found. Jack is interviewed on how he found the fire by an attractive fire investigator for the arson task force, Linda Weston, and then heads home, keeping an eye out for the dog but not seeing him.
Meanwhile, the dog is unable to outrun Bughouse with his injured paw and is shot with a tranquilizer dart. As he passes out, he tries to hide under a dumpster, but Bughouse finds him.
Jack can’t get the dog out of his mind and the next day goes around to the animal control centers, finally locating Bughouse and forcing him to admit he has the dog. Jack claims the dog is his, saying his name is Hero because that’s what he is – a hero. He gladly accepts the citation Bughouse gives him for not having the dog registered, Hero thrilled to get out of the cage and in the car with his new owner. Jack finds, however, that Hero doesn’t want to stay in the firehouse and indulgently takes Hero to his apartment even though he’s not permitted to have pets. He even has to give in when Hero insists on sleeping on the bed with him. The next day the landlady discovers Jack has Hero which is against his lease and he informs her he’ll be moving at the end of the month. Jack takes Hero to Dr. Bloom, a veterinarian who tends Hero’s injured leg as well as providing the shots and papers needed for registration. Jack then gets Hero his new tags and a breakaway collar.
A young arsonist breaks into a computer store and uses accelerant in the wall to burn down the shop. As he leaves out the back, he drops a handkerchief he used to wipe accelerant spilled on his clothes.
Jack is on an exercise treadmill in the firehouse, Hero jogging on another one next to him, when the alarm sounds and they take off, Hero riding with Jack on his engine. As it’s night and the store is empty, Jack makes Hero stay back as they spray the fire. Hero takes a walk and sniffs out the accelerant-soaked handkerchief behind the store. When the fire is out, Jack again sees the attractive fire investigator Linda and talks with her, telling her he has a degree in fire investigation but didn’t use it as there were no openings and then he decided he liked being a firefighter. (Not until they’ve established a relationship will Jack reveal that he got the degree largely as his significant other didn’t like him being a fireman, but wasn’t crazy about him being a fire investigator either, Jack then breaking off their relationship.) Hero impresses both of them when he picks up scent of accelerant at the back door of the computer store and then alerts them to the presence of the accelerant-soaked handkerchief in the parking lot that proves the fire was arson and provides DNA of the arsonist though no matches will be located.
Linda has Jack and Hero to lunch at her lavish LA house, her wealthy husband having died several years earlier, just she and her nine year-old daughter, Lisa, and Evelyn McAllister, Linda’s own Mrs. Doubtfire housekeeper, living there along with their pet poodle, Gracie who Hero is attracted to. When Jack mentions he’s looking for a new place to live having been evicted for having Hero, Linda offers Jack the use of the guest house by the backyard pool as it would comfort her to have a fellow firefighter living so close. She also encourages Jack to apply for a position as a fire investigator as he has a degree in the field, saying that Hero can become a canine accelerant detector.
Moving into the guest house, Jack finds Linda has a wealthy boyfriend and is a bit jealous. He talks with Chief Meriwether Lewis, head of the Arson Task Force, and begins the process of joining the department and taking Hero through the canine accelerant detection course, becoming Linda’s partner after they officially graduate from training (all of them going to the beach to celebrate, Hero encouraging Gracie to romp in the water when she is initially afraid until Hero encourages her (no puppies though as Hero has been neutered).
The arsonist sets fire to another computer store where Hero uncovers accelerant and they get a shoeprint they believe belongs to the serial arsonist. The mastermind behind the fires, head of something called ’endnetarchy’, alerts the arsonist that they have his DNA and sends him out of town, a second arsonist to take his place.
Linda and Jack grow closer and eventually she drops her earlier boyfriend. The second arsonist sets fire to a computer server facility where Hero again uncovers accelerant. As they’re leaving the fire scene, Hero sniffs the accelerant on a man in the crowd who flees. Hero chases him and is attacked by the man wielding a knife. Defending himself, Hero bites his wrist and tears his bloodied shirt but is knocked unconscious and the man gets away. When Jack and Linda find the unconscious Hero, they rush him to the veterinarian who finds his skull hasn’t been fractured and he should recover.
Going back to where Hero was injured to search for evidence, Jack and Linda find the knife and bloody ripped shirt and they reason that the arsonist might have sought medical attention. At a hospital, they get the name and address of a man who was treated for a dog bite an hour after Hero’s attack. From the name on the mailbox at the man’s address, they learn he does live there. They’re surprised when Chief Lewis turns down their request for a warrant, telling them to forget the lead as he’s worried the man may sue the department for Hero attacking him. Linda uses a detective friend in the police department to get information on the arsonist, and when they go to his apartment, they find the man fled just a few hours earlier, someone smarter than him evidently having alerted him to the danger of being tracked down from his visit to the hospital. Let into his apartment by the manager, they find evidence that his roommate wore the same style of shoes in the same size as the suspect they identified from the first two arsons. Linda asks the manager to call her if anyone returns or he learns anything more.
They pick up Hero who is sedated but happy and recovering, taking him home where he’s greeted tenderly by Lisa and Gracie and Evelyn. Their meeting with Chief Lewis, however, doesn’t go at all they way they expect. He berates them for not obeying his order to leave off following up on the man they tracked through the hospital records, telling Linda he is going to reassign her. Speaking privately with Jack, he fires him and Hero. Linda is staggered when he tells her the news, threatening to quit herself though Jack talks her out of it. He cleans out his desk and heads home.
Once there, he’s glad to find Hero and the others out by the pool, Hero evidently recovered. He gets a call from Linda who’s had a call from the apartment manager who’s picked up the mail for the suspected arsonist, including a phone bill he thought might help. She’s going to a fire scene with Chief Lewis who is going to evaluate her, asking Jack to go get the mail for the arsonist. He tells her he’ll call her if there’s anything of interest, but she says her cell phone battery is dead so she’ll call him. Hero is so eager to go with him that Jack can’t refuse, and then Gracie is insistent on going along, Jack relenting. He picks up the phone bill and goes with the dogs to an outdoor internet café, using his laptop to get a reverse directory search on one phone number that appears on the bill a number of times. He’s shocked to find it’s listed to a Meriwether Lewis, the unusual historical first name leaving little doubt it is the chief.
Jack rushes to the arson task force office to find where Linda and Lewis have gone. They are at a fire scene in a large industrial building that has had its top floor burned. Jack and the dogs rush to the scene. Just as they’re entering the building, on the top floor Lewis sprays Linda with mace and pushes her into the open elevator shaft where she grabs on the edge. Hero, followed by Gracie and, further behind, Jack, race onto the floor, Hero grabbing onto Linda to keep her from falling while Gracie drives off Lewis. When Jack appears, Lewis flees and Jack and Hero pull Linda to safety.
Gathered around the backyard pool, everyone celebrates. Chief Lewis is in jail, the arsonists are ready to testify against him, already revealing he started the anti-internet group endnetarchy because his son was ruined by something he posted on the internet. Jack and Linda are a couple, Hero and Gracie love one another, they’re all fine and a family in the making.
HERO DOG
Contemporary Drama of homeless dog finding love and building a family
WGAw Reg.# 1547969
HERO DOG is a family film that opens with true-life stories of the hero dogs that inspired the film: Roselle who led her blind owner from the burning World Trade Center in the 9/11 attack; Stacey Mae who visits handicapped children and the elderly to comfort them; Bino who served in Iraq and as a border guard dog, and now teaches Wounded Warriors and their canine companions how to navigate successfully; Harley who alerts his deaf owner to sounds, vastly improving his quality of life; Ricochet who washed out as a service dog as she liked to chase birds, and now surfs with handicapped people, a you-tube video of her going viral with 3.3. million hits and counting; and Sadie, a canine accelerant detector for arson cases and fire prevention demonstrator.
Hero Dog then opens with a homeless LA streetmutt being stalked in the darkness by a nearly demented animal control officer, Ed Bughouse. Evading Bughouse, the dog passes a firehouse with an engine returning, and moments later comes upon an apartment building that’s on fire. His barking has no affect, and he dashes back to the firehouse where a young fireman, Jack Ballantine, is just leaving for home. Jack realizes that the dog wants him to follow him and is led to the fire.
Jack calls in the fire, but before his firemen buddies arrive, a woman clutching a blanket with a child stumbles from the building screaming for help as she lost her other toddler in the building. Jack calms her enough to find she last saw the child on the second floor hallway while the dog sniffs the blanket that held the child. Jack rushes into the building, surprised to find the dog following him and disregarding his command to stay, going up the stairs with him. He follows the woman’s directions while the dog, sniffing, goes the opposite way. The dog finds the child and barks then begins pulling the child to safety. Jack comes back and picks up the child. But when the stairs collapse as Jack steps on them, he falls protecting the child and is knocked unconscious. The dog leaps down to the lower floor, hurting his foreleg but hobbling out to bark to the arriving firemen for help then going back in to start dragging Jack and the child to safety. The other firemen get the child and assist Jack who carries the dog out with him, everyone getting out safely as the firemen begin battling the blaze.
Jack lays out a blanket for the injured dog as he goes to be checked over, the relieved mother thanking him. The dog suddenly finds Bughouse trying to catch him again and hobbles away with Bughouse pursuing him. Jack is surprised to find the dog missing and learns from a fellow fireman it was running from a dog catcher. He looks for him, but the dog is nowhere to be found. Jack is interviewed on how he found the fire by an attractive fire investigator for the arson task force, Linda Weston, and then heads home, keeping an eye out for the dog but not seeing him.
Meanwhile, the dog is unable to outrun Bughouse with his injured paw and is shot with a tranquilizer dart. As he passes out, he tries to hide under a dumpster, but Bughouse finds him.
Jack can’t get the dog out of his mind and the next day goes around to the animal control centers, finally locating Bughouse and forcing him to admit he has the dog. Jack claims the dog is his, saying his name is Hero because that’s what he is – a hero. He gladly accepts the citation Bughouse gives him for not having the dog registered, Hero thrilled to get out of the cage and in the car with his new owner. Jack finds, however, that Hero doesn’t want to stay in the firehouse and indulgently takes Hero to his apartment even though he’s not permitted to have pets. He even has to give in when Hero insists on sleeping on the bed with him. The next day the landlady discovers Jack has Hero which is against his lease and he informs her he’ll be moving at the end of the month. Jack takes Hero to Dr. Bloom, a veterinarian who tends Hero’s injured leg as well as providing the shots and papers needed for registration. Jack then gets Hero his new tags and a breakaway collar.
A young arsonist breaks into a computer store and uses accelerant in the wall to burn down the shop. As he leaves out the back, he drops a handkerchief he used to wipe accelerant spilled on his clothes.
Jack is on an exercise treadmill in the firehouse, Hero jogging on another one next to him, when the alarm sounds and they take off, Hero riding with Jack on his engine. As it’s night and the store is empty, Jack makes Hero stay back as they spray the fire. Hero takes a walk and sniffs out the accelerant-soaked handkerchief behind the store. When the fire is out, Jack again sees the attractive fire investigator Linda and talks with her, telling her he has a degree in fire investigation but didn’t use it as there were no openings and then he decided he liked being a firefighter. (Not until they’ve established a relationship will Jack reveal that he got the degree largely as his significant other didn’t like him being a fireman, but wasn’t crazy about him being a fire investigator either, Jack then breaking off their relationship.) Hero impresses both of them when he picks up scent of accelerant at the back door of the computer store and then alerts them to the presence of the accelerant-soaked handkerchief in the parking lot that proves the fire was arson and provides DNA of the arsonist though no matches will be located.
Linda has Jack and Hero to lunch at her lavish LA house, her wealthy husband having died several years earlier, just she and her nine year-old daughter, Lisa, and Evelyn McAllister, Linda’s own Mrs. Doubtfire housekeeper, living there along with their pet poodle, Gracie who Hero is attracted to. When Jack mentions he’s looking for a new place to live having been evicted for having Hero, Linda offers Jack the use of the guest house by the backyard pool as it would comfort her to have a fellow firefighter living so close. She also encourages Jack to apply for a position as a fire investigator as he has a degree in the field, saying that Hero can become a canine accelerant detector.
Moving into the guest house, Jack finds Linda has a wealthy boyfriend and is a bit jealous. He talks with Chief Meriwether Lewis, head of the Arson Task Force, and begins the process of joining the department and taking Hero through the canine accelerant detection course, becoming Linda’s partner after they officially graduate from training (all of them going to the beach to celebrate, Hero encouraging Gracie to romp in the water when she is initially afraid until Hero encourages her (no puppies though as Hero has been neutered).
The arsonist sets fire to another computer store where Hero uncovers accelerant and they get a shoeprint they believe belongs to the serial arsonist. The mastermind behind the fires, head of something called ’endnetarchy’, alerts the arsonist that they have his DNA and sends him out of town, a second arsonist to take his place.
Linda and Jack grow closer and eventually she drops her earlier boyfriend. The second arsonist sets fire to a computer server facility where Hero again uncovers accelerant. As they’re leaving the fire scene, Hero sniffs the accelerant on a man in the crowd who flees. Hero chases him and is attacked by the man wielding a knife. Defending himself, Hero bites his wrist and tears his bloodied shirt but is knocked unconscious and the man gets away. When Jack and Linda find the unconscious Hero, they rush him to the veterinarian who finds his skull hasn’t been fractured and he should recover.
Going back to where Hero was injured to search for evidence, Jack and Linda find the knife and bloody ripped shirt and they reason that the arsonist might have sought medical attention. At a hospital, they get the name and address of a man who was treated for a dog bite an hour after Hero’s attack. From the name on the mailbox at the man’s address, they learn he does live there. They’re surprised when Chief Lewis turns down their request for a warrant, telling them to forget the lead as he’s worried the man may sue the department for Hero attacking him. Linda uses a detective friend in the police department to get information on the arsonist, and when they go to his apartment, they find the man fled just a few hours earlier, someone smarter than him evidently having alerted him to the danger of being tracked down from his visit to the hospital. Let into his apartment by the manager, they find evidence that his roommate wore the same style of shoes in the same size as the suspect they identified from the first two arsons. Linda asks the manager to call her if anyone returns or he learns anything more.
They pick up Hero who is sedated but happy and recovering, taking him home where he’s greeted tenderly by Lisa and Gracie and Evelyn. Their meeting with Chief Lewis, however, doesn’t go at all they way they expect. He berates them for not obeying his order to leave off following up on the man they tracked through the hospital records, telling Linda he is going to reassign her. Speaking privately with Jack, he fires him and Hero. Linda is staggered when he tells her the news, threatening to quit herself though Jack talks her out of it. He cleans out his desk and heads home.
Once there, he’s glad to find Hero and the others out by the pool, Hero evidently recovered. He gets a call from Linda who’s had a call from the apartment manager who’s picked up the mail for the suspected arsonist, including a phone bill he thought might help. She’s going to a fire scene with Chief Lewis who is going to evaluate her, asking Jack to go get the mail for the arsonist. He tells her he’ll call her if there’s anything of interest, but she says her cell phone battery is dead so she’ll call him. Hero is so eager to go with him that Jack can’t refuse, and then Gracie is insistent on going along, Jack relenting. He picks up the phone bill and goes with the dogs to an outdoor internet café, using his laptop to get a reverse directory search on one phone number that appears on the bill a number of times. He’s shocked to find it’s listed to a Meriwether Lewis, the unusual historical first name leaving little doubt it is the chief.
Jack rushes to the arson task force office to find where Linda and Lewis have gone. They are at a fire scene in a large industrial building that has had its top floor burned. Jack and the dogs rush to the scene. Just as they’re entering the building, on the top floor Lewis sprays Linda with mace and pushes her into the open elevator shaft where she grabs on the edge. Hero, followed by Gracie and, further behind, Jack, race onto the floor, Hero grabbing onto Linda to keep her from falling while Gracie drives off Lewis. When Jack appears, Lewis flees and Jack and Hero pull Linda to safety.
Gathered around the backyard pool, everyone celebrates. Chief Lewis is in jail, the arsonists are ready to testify against him, already revealing he started the anti-internet group endnetarchy because his son was ruined by something he posted on the internet. Jack and Linda are a couple, Hero and Gracie love one another, they’re all fine and a family in the making.