What's better than ransom?

[TI Irwin]

So a family is at home, and the husband is away. BOOM, criminals enter the house and hold the family at gunpoint.

Cut to the husband. This is a "tiger kidnapping" where the criminals are forcing him to do tasks and threatening to kill his family if he refuses/screws up.


Here's what I was hoping for ideas on:

WHAT IS THE CRIMINAL'S OBJECTIVE?
I feel that bank robberies and ransom are too cliche a motive for my bad guys.
I was hoping for another idea on what they want the husband to do that they can't do themselves. This would more than likely relate to the husband's occupation.

I was thinking along the lines of having him set up an assassination but that also seems a little cliche.

What I also think would be cool is if the criminals had "good" motives in some way. This is not essential, but at the very least I want them to be after something other than greed.

Any ideas?

Thanks - TI

 

[Buddy Greenfield]

I would do very Hollywood kookiness with the hostage takers wanting him to kidnap someone for them.

Make the hostage takers some kind of Liberation Army and give the Husband a mistaken past (that the Family’s kids rightly think is just some old embellished tall tale, like the time Dad helped the CIA, for 3 days, 25 years ago), and make it go down at and on some “Big night” like the EmptTV awards. (Then you can A-B between what the Family is up to and what the Dad is up to. -Like the neighbors or relatives pop in, and it’s a fiasco of gathering complication at home of course.)

So the Dad is forced by this Liberation group to try to kidnap a visiting foreign dignitary (The Prince of Sumfuck Island, who also has a hit song) at the awards, but as luck would have it, some other REAL (non-bumbling) group also wants the Prince captured or dead, and the Dad becomes in the thick of it helping to save the Prince while also kidnapping him for himself, and of course the Mom really was in the CIA (It’s how her and her husband met), so she is all slick and drugs the hostage takers, but in the ensuing calamity The Relatives and Neighbors are also drugged, the Teen Daughter has a crush on the Prince, and the Son wants to be a "freedom fighter", and who knows how it all ends, but it's kooky.

-Thanks-

 

[Cracker Funk]

I called it.

 

[Cracker Funk]

Cracker, don't copy Lethal Weapon...

A far superior storyline would be a nuclear weapon plant covering up a ecosystem problem and agents from that plant kill a Boston detective's daughter because she's part of a green peace hippy group and that detective makes it his life's work to find and kill the murderers.

Haha! Out of nowhere, it just popped into my head. I finally get this. But you got the wrong actor, bro.

GIMME BACK MY SON!!!

 

[Alcove Audio]

How about something along the lines of "Suddenly" (Frank Sinatra, 1954) combined with the idea of a forced (Fill In The Blank)? The peril to the protagonists family versus the harm he inflicts upon the family he holds hostage could create an interesting psychological/character study.

 

[TI Irwin]

I hate being the 1st post on the 2nd page. You never get read. I'm going to pray to Krom.

Bah, it's OK Murdock.

TI never responds to my brilliant ideas for his scripts. Look at the last thread he asked advice on. I offered an awesome murder mystery where the only evidence was the Google Earth camera truck... Brilliant...

I feel like Einstein.

Fellas, I read all the posts and I take every suggestion under consideration. I play around with each of them in my head and see what fits. I don't believe in such a thing as bad ideas when it comes to writing so I don't dismiss any ideas.

You just have to give me time to let my mind work and play with the ideas you guys have given me. Just because I don't respond to them does not mean I disregard them. And I'm writing about 20 different things right now so I shuffle between projects quite a bit so it takes time for me to come back to ideas sometimes.

Ironically enough, it is your "weapons plan" idea ROC that I've become most interested in on this one thus far.
Here's why: I wanted the criminals to be doing something "good" right? Well destroying plans for a weapon does just that, and it helps the theme I was going for.

But I'm not saying anything definitive until I've made up my mind because I don't want to discourage other people from giving ideas that no one has thought of yet. Dig it?

 

[Adeimantus]

TITLE: FORECLOSED

by
TI Irwin


FADE IN:

Retired Hit Man and wise-guy, Bennie Pagliacci, has just lost his entire retirement investment in a Wall Street ponzi scheme, his prized Porsche has just been repo’d, and he has 30 days to vacate his dream home or be evicted. Forced to rent out a room to hairstylist Clarence Washington, Jr., who is also in foreclosure on his home, Bennie is not in a good mood when three young thugs break in, thinking he must have a bundle in his retirement account and demand Bennie withdraw his 401k, or Clarence, between filing his nails and cooking delicate plates of Indian curry for everyone, gets whacked. Bennie is only too happy to agree and sets off on his bicycle (not yet in repossession) to take on MegaBank Corporation. As the thugs grow fonder of Clarence's cooking and his attention to their fashion faux pas, Bennie infiltrates the bank fully intent on bringing it to its knees.




Starring Joe Pesci as Bennie, and Chris Tucker as Clarence.

 

[TI Irwin]

TITLE: FORECLOSED

by
TI Irwin


FADE IN:

Retired Hit Man and wise-guy, Bennie Pagliacci, has just lost his entire retirement investment in a Wall Street ponzi scheme, his prized Porsche has just been repo’d, and he has 30 days to vacate his dream home or be evicted. Forced to rent out a room to hairstylist Clarence Washington, Jr., who is also in foreclosure on his home, Bennie is not in a good mood when three young thugs break in, thinking he must have a bundle in his retirement account and demand Bennie withdraw his 401k, or Clarence, between filing his nails and cooking delicate plates of Indian curry for everyone, gets whacked. Bennie is only too happy to agree and sets off on his bicycle (not yet in repossession) to take on MegaBank Corporation. As the thugs grow fonder of Clarence's cooking and his attention to their fashion faux pas, Bennie infiltrates the bank fully intent on bringing it to its knees.




Starring Joe Pesci as Bennie, and Chris Tucker as Clarence.

I had a more dramatic and serious tone in mind, but I think it would make an excellent comedy. The characters would be able to bounce off each other pretty well I think. And Chris Tucker is a comic genius.

 

[Brooksy]

Humiliation. That is much better then a ransom public humiliation. Doesn't just ruin a bank account but it can ruin a whole person.

 

[TI Irwin]

What I'm thinking as of now... In a nutshell.

The protagonist is a scientist working for a major pharmaceutical company. A branch of the company that the protagonist is not a part of discovers either:
a.) The cure to cancer.
or
b.) A neuro-toxin that can be used as a chemical weapon.

Due to the nature of the research, the pharmaceutical company has extreme security measures that prevent anyone who does not work within from accessing the data.

So, the antagonists come up with a plan to get the protagonist to steal this data thus the kidnapping/ransom.

Option A: is they give the research away for free to save many lives.
Option B: they destroy the research to prevent the loss of life.
Alternative look: the antagonists are still bad guys and the wish to sell the information on the black market.

As the protagonist does the bidding of the kidnappers he begins to discover what his company was actually working on and then understands what's really going on.

Then something goes wrong, and there's a cliffhanger ending involving the family...


Thoughts on that?

 

[TI Irwin]

I should also mention that what I want the audience to get from this is to start thinking about what the value of human life is.
I want people to be thinking, "would I threaten an innocent family to save millions?"

 

[wheatgrinder]

my riff.. partially inspired by others here..


its a chain kidnapping. 15 or so seeming unconnected people are forced to force each other to kidnap each others families... The first is told he must kidnap the 2nd persons family and make him kidnap the third persons family and so on.

(some crazy literary device is needed to pass out kidnapping assignments)

Once all the victims are in place, and an automated KILL switch is turned on.. the 15 people are brought together to. ...

(you fill in the cliff hanger)

 

[Cracker Funk]

I'm sorry to be Negative Nancy, but this entire thread is just a little to Jigsaw ("Saw") for me.

TI, for either of your options, how is the antagonist even aware that the cure for cancer or super-weapon exists? Before going public, I would think either of these things would be highly confidential and very tightly gaurded.

How about plain and simple revenge?

 

[TI Irwin]

I'm sorry to be Negative Nancy, but this entire thread is just a little to Jigsaw ("Saw") for me.

TI, for either of your options, how is the antagonist even aware that the cure for cancer or super-weapon exists? Before going public, I would think either of these things would be highly confidential and very tightly gaurded.

How about plain and simple revenge?

No worries and that's a good point about Saw. I wasn't thinking about saw at all when I came up with this, but I see the similarities now that you mentioned it. I'm going in a completely different direction, however. This is more to ask the question, "Would you kill an innocent family to save a million lives?" rather than "What is your own life worth?" as Saw does.

I absolutely agree that such information would be very well protected. That's why (in my mind) the antagonists would need the protagonist in the first place, instead of just walking into the building with guns.
As to how they find out about the project... I don't know, maybe the company has a leak? Maybe the antaginists hacked the pharmaceutical's system for the information? Maybe someone working on the project was killed?
Regardless, I don't think I would go that far into their planning, because this would be filmed in the perspective of the protagonist. You're only even find out what the real reason his family is being held hostage at the end... then again, I suppose that would make an interesting hook before I cut to the family. Hmmm...

Revenge? Any suggestions on how I could provoke similar thoughts as relating to the theme with that approach?