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Stuck on this section of my plot.

H

harmonica44

Okay so in this thriller, a violent gang of terrorists are going around creating mass havoc, and will continue to do so until their demands are met. They are secret, keep covering their tracks, and no one knows who they are. The government of course has their policy not to negotiate with terrorists, but the policy does not help stop the acts.

So this rich woman, who has some rich friends and connections, decides that she herself will give them what they want, to stop the bloodshed. However she has to make contact with the terrorists, and do it in secret so the cops won't know. How do you manage to do that when the police will probably be doing a lot of monitoring of personal adds, newspapers, websites, etc. She doesn't know who they are so she will have to make some sort of public announcement to meet them, one way or the other.

So she has to meet them and avoid the cops from finding out, but I also need her to have a motive not to get the police involved. If anything, a character like this wanting to stop the villains, might think that bringing a police sting along, might be a good idea, so I need to make her motives not to, logical. Thoughts? Thanks.
 
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Logically, her motives would have to be personal I reckon to be more believable; the terrorists must have done something to her (could be directly or indirectly) such as killing one of her close friends, family etc, and so she seeks personal revenge, and therefore doesn't want police involvement. That would probably be the more generic way to go about it though :\ just something I thought of quick, if I can think of anything better I'll let you know!
 
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No....thats not Logically at al.....

Also doing a public anouncment on TV wil be a big anouncment te the authorities. She needs to hire a old dog of war, a merc to make contact or a journalist. She has the funds so it wil not be a big problem for her.

Wy not let her be a daughter of a weapons manufacture? And her dad selt a lot to the the coverments of the countries of the terorists. Coverment using weapons on the local public.
So that gives the Terorrists a motive, and it gives the rich woman a motive.....A motive of penance...
 
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What if the heroine has a direct link to the organization, and places an ad in a magazine/news print where every other line has some kind of secret meaning or code?
 
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In order for her to contact them, surely she would have to be able to identify them first to do so? What if one of her 'connections' is a hacker, and when the terrorists call up the government in attempt to negotiate, the call is intercepted? That way she can then find out who they are and is able to contact them?
 
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First of all, I presume you don't want to pay for the advice, so you should state so explicitly, because, if your film becomes the next Blair Witch Project, you may have someone suing you for taking their advice. So put in the disclaimer.

Now, for your question.

If NO ONE knows who the terrorists are, then your rich lady will not be able to contact them; if, however, SOME ONE knows who they are, then she can use her contacts and influences to get that someone to contact the terrorists. So, if the police and FBI are monitoring them, then perhaps she can call MOSSAD or the British secret service to make the arrangements. This will give your film a more international flavor, which can be nice.

As I write this, I'm thinking of the novel and movie, "The Rheineman Exchange", where the Germans and Allies made a trade of allied industrial diamonds for German bomb-sight technology. In real-life, the Germans always had contacts with the allies, and you can read up on those. Furthermore, there have been accounts of many Americans and American companies who were trading with the Nazis before and after Pearl Harbor, and you can also do research on that.

Good luck, and tell us how your plot goes.
 
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It's like that question, "How do you kill a vampire?"

The answer is: however you want!

This is your world you've created. Make up a way to make what you want happen. It's the rules you come up with that have to be adhered to. Why do the police have to monitor personal ads? Why can't she know someone that knows the terrorists?

You make the rules.
 
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In the real world ex-military, law enforcement, etc. quite often go into legitimate corporate and personal security/protection work. This creates a very large, diverse "old boys" network, and these people maintain loose connections with peers still working for their former employers. This is not just hearsay with me. I've gotten to know a guy who is ex-FBI and now works for one of the big banks in NYC; he explained how a lot of this worked. It's nothing sinister the way the conspiracy nuts would have you believe; most of these folks leave government employ because they want to work more regular hours and make better money.

And I sometimes wonder if you actually watch any movies. There's always the military officer who was passed over for promotions, the disgruntled/disillusioned intelligence officer, the blackmail-able insider who is willing to become a mercenary, sell information or is able to be compromised.


So take some real world and combine it with some movie fantasy and mix well.
 
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I thought of a personal reckoning for her. The terrorists did something to her (long story what). But it gives her personal reckoning. But I need a reason for her to not bring the police. Is it logical for a person to think the police will just screw it up or make it worse? Whatever his motivation though, she also cannot plan to murder them, once she meets them. If she murders them, then that changes to much of the plot. But she cannot want to bring the police either, cause the cops cannot know about any of this for the plot.

So whatever the motivation is, it has to be to want to bring them down, but cannot want to kill them, and she cannot be wanting to bring the cops to bring them down.
 
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Sounds like a decent movie plot, I had a few ideas to fix your problem...

-mabe the rich woman has all the necessary skills to find the terrorists herself... mabe shes an ex FBI agent or something, mabe shes studies psychology and knows how to get into there heads (like Hannibal Lector was inside Buffalo Bills head).
-have you established how she got rich? mabe she could have her own private security company (like Mark Wahlbergs character in Date Night) then she would have all sorts of tracking resources at her disposal.
-as for her motives to keep the police away, mabe she knows one of the terrorists personally (then she would have a first step to finding them) mabe she saw the persons face in security footage of the terrorists or something and realized it was her friend/family/etc.

I hope this helps...
 
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Well I cannot have it so she saw the terrorists before. She is not a very main character and this whole thing is only an 8th of the plot or less. It's mainly just used to tie two halves of the script together, so wasn't planning on developing her a whole lot, compared to the much more main characters. Thanks though, I am thinking about all your suggestions and how to apply them.

I am still stuck on how she is going to make contact with them, without the police taking notice and wanting to get involved.
 
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