The Combination Screenplay

Action adventure trilogy.

THE COMBINATION

Accidently the possessor of the computer instructions needed to activate an advanced hydrogen bomb factory in Iraq, a foreign correspondent has to destroy the factory to save his son.

Theme/Controlling Idea

In the battle between honoring public duty and achieving personal goals, you can choose honor without becoming a martyr.

The Problem

If the correspondent rejects public duty, he saves his son's life, but loses his honor by allowing a belligerent nation to perfect a nuclear bomb.

If he chooses public duty, he prevents the nuclear extinction of hundreds of thousands, but risks his son's life as well as his own.

Value System

Positive value - Honor

Intermediate/contrary value - Passivity

Negative value - Dishonor

Negation of the negative value - Dishonor masquerading as honor

Back Story

RICHARD REDDINGTON, a news specialist on the middle east, had married Jenar, an Iraqi doctor who had migrated to New York. She died six years ago, leaving him to raise JEFFREY, his eight-year-old son. Richard had learned to understand and speak Arabic, but had extreme difficulty reading it. Richard, Jenar and Jeffrey used to vacation in Iraq at the Basra home of Jenar's parents, now deceased. Richard had brilliantly covered the Iraq/Iran war for The New York Herald.

While reporting on the subsequent consolidation of power by Saddam Hussain, Richard placed Jeffrey in a Swiss boarding school, a short flight from Baghdad. When Hussain began uprooting the Shiites in the Delta, Richard rescued his mother-in-law from certain death. Unfortunately, he was spiriting her out of the country just when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Because The Herald missed the scoop, Richard was demoted to the position of European economics correspondent. Richard has female friends in New York and in Europe, but because he now has to cover all of Europe, he has not moved to settle down with any one of them.

While in Iraq, he had learned to fly, and he frequently flew rental planes in getting to his assignments.

Goal

Richard's goal is to regain his prestige as a premier foreign correspondent.

Character

Richard has seen mass civilian terror and destruction. As an award-winning reporter, he has been powerless to intervene or show bias -- he could only paint with words the compelling picture of poverty, oppression and death. A sense of humor has been his defense in the worst of situations. He has a strong moral character. He has been offered many inducements to color his reporting, but he has maintained his independence and ethics. He is well known to be uncorruptable, and that has gained him entrance into the most private counsels in Europe and Asia.

Loyal to The Herald, on three occasions during the Iraq/Iran war he turned down lucrative offers from CNN.

Story

Richard has just left the offices of the Iraqi Trading Company in Munich after interviewing the CEO for The Herald on the effects of the U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Leaving the building, he puts on his sunglasses. He passes a very attractive Nordic woman hurrying toward the entrance.

Suddenly, the building is rocked by a tremendous blast which blows out the upper stories. As Richard falls forward, his glasses fall to the ground. The woman is blown away from the building and lands next to Richard.

A Mercedes Benz with four men in it screeches around the corner of the building and nearly runs over the two, lying prostrate on the ground. As it skids to a halt, Richard looks up at the faces in the car windows. KAMKAR looks down at Richard. The car accelerates away.

Richard examines the mortally wounded woman. She pulls a small combination lock from her cleavage and hands it to Richard. With a German accent, "twelve twenty" she gasps. Richard pounds on her chest, to no avail. As spectators gather, Richard picks up his sunglasses from next to the dead woman and staggers away.

A few seconds later, a second explosion four blocks away destroys the Reichbund Elektronics Factory.

Disheveled and shocked, Richard stumbles into his hotel room and plops on the bed. He turns on the television set. A reporter in front of the remains of Iraqi building questions the police chief about both explosions. No known cause, but the Iraqis have many enemies and Reichbund Elektronics has been accused of trading with Iraq. The studio commentator interrupts the interview to announce that an American tourist videotaped the scene following the explosion. The videotape shows Richard picking up his sunglasses and staggering away from the woman's body. The tape, shot from behind Richard, does not obtain a good view of his face. The commentator states that the police are searching for the person seen on the tape.

Richard is showering when Jeffrey, age 14, calls him from the Swiss boarding school. Jeffrey has seen the tape and thinks the unidentified man could be his father.

Richard, not knowing what he has become involved in, warns Jeffrey not to tell anyone that he is the man seen in the tape.

Richard goes to dinner in the hotel. While dining, he fiddles with the lock. But he has only two of the three numbers. He notices several middle east types slithering through the lobby. One goes to the desk clerk and obtains a number. The men attach a device to the house phone and dial. They go to the elevator. Richard sneaks close and observes that they get off on the third floor -- his floor. He scrambles up the stairs and peaks out into the hallway. With guns drawn, the two men slip the lock on Richard's door and move inside. Richard runs back down the stairs and tells the desk clerk to call the police. Before the police arrive, the two men leave the hotel.

Entering the room, Richard and the police find that it has been ransacked. Now that the bad guys know his identity, Richard reveals to the police that he is the man they are looking for.

At police headquarters, Richard makes no mention of the lock or the dead woman's final words. He says that he was at the Iraqi Trading Company just to get a story on the effect of the sanctions. TAMAR, a Caucasian with a slight accent, apparently not part of the German police, interrogates Richard about his knowledge of plutonium and enriched uranium. Was he aware that the dead woman was employed by the Reichbund Elektronics Company? Richard denies ever meeting the woman before. Was Richard aware that Reichbund was rumored to have researched computerized hydrogen bomb construction for the Iraqis? Sure, The Herald previously had reported it, but the U.S. could never prove it to be true. Tamar asks why Richard has his belt slipped through a combination lock. Richard says it's an heirloom from his high school locker. He wears it for good luck.

Richard rents a plane and flies to Paris. At The Herald's European office he tries to explain the events to his chief, ARLEN MILLER. Arlen is angry that Richard went off on his own instead of staying with the European economic conference. He warns him that one more fuck-up like Richard's at the start of the Iraq/Kuwait war and he'll be back to the police beat in the Bronx. "Your duty is to the paper. Get back to Munich -- and take a train."

On leaving the office, Richard is mugged. With a sack over his head, he is packed into a car and driven away.

At a chalet, he is searched and the sunglasses taken from him. He is interrogated about the dead woman. Why did she give him the sunglasses? Richard says they are his own. They take the glasses from the room to examine them. Disappointed, they return and accuse Richard of being an Iraqi agent. They don't believe his reason for being in the Iraqi building. They accuse him of aiding the Iraqis to build a hydrogen bombs. Richard denies all. They reveal that they are Israelis and advise him that he would be better off working with them since the Iranians will kill him to prevent him from aiding the Iraqis. Richard holds fast. He is given a phone number to call if he changes his mind. He is released, unharmed.

Richard stops at a locksmith shop. It will take two weeks to get the combination from the lock manufacturer. The locksmith writes down the serial number of the lock.

Richard he thinks he is being followed. He takes a cab to the _________, where an exciting chase scene occurs. Apparently two sets of men are after him; some get killed in the ensuing gun fight.

Richard goes to a pay phone and calls the boarding school to warn them to protect Jeffrey. Too late. Jeffrey is gone. Richard returns to the airport, rents a plane and flies to Geneva. When he gets to the school, he receives a phone call. Fly to Baghdad if he wants to see his son alive.

En route to the airport, Richard is chased and captured by Iranian agents, led by Kamkar. They also inspect his sunglasses and try to induce him to reveal that he is an Iraqi agent. Maintaining his innocence, he denies all and he tells them that Jeffrey has been kidnapped to Baghdad. Later, he hears a woman screaming in the next room. He manages to slip his bonds, crawl out on the balcony and peer into the next room. GRETCHEN, her back lashed, is tied to a chair. Richard steals into the room and releases her. She swoops up the contents of her traveling bag from a table and they escape. Gretchen steals a car, and they drive to a Swiss village and rent a room. He cleans and dresses her wounds. They make love. She says she was an employee of Reichbund Elektronics Company. The Iranians captured her to learn the extent of the trade between Reichbund and Iraq. Richard tells her of Jeffrey, but nothing of the combination. She says she wants to get to Iraq because it now is the only place safe from the Iranians. She says she will get the Reichbund Elektronics people in Iraq to arrange for them to enter the country.

The Iranians track them down. Richard and Gretchen sneak onto a train for Italy. In the tunnel from Switzerland to Italy, the Iranians block the track. Richard and Gretchen climb up off the train just before the Iranians explode the tunnel beneath a lake and a flood of water gushes through. Richard risks his life to save Gretchen. As the water recedes, they ride a board out of the tunnel.

In Milan, they have more tender love-making. Gretchen says she will go out and phone her Reichbund contacts in Baghdad. Richard follows her. He sees two more Iranian agents chase and shoot her. He releases the brake on a car and crashes into the agents. He flags down a car and gets Gretchen to a hospital.

Gretchen reveals that she is an Iraqi agent. Her task was to either recover from Richard the microfilm that the Reichbund woman was carrying to the Iraqi Trading Company in Munich or to be sure that Richard went to Baghdad. The Iranians captured her outside the boarding school, where she was waiting to meet Richard.

Richard says he will return for her after he gets Jeffrey out of Iraq.

Gretchen says Jeffrey is at the hydrogen bomb plant and that the Iraqis will free him only if they get the microfilm. Richard should go north of Baghdad on the Samarra Road, past an airfield, exactly 22.2 miles. Be there at eleven o'clock and wait. She tells him to open the bottom of her traveling bag. Richard slits open the bag and finds Gretchen's I.D. and Iraqi passport. He has difficulty reading the documents. She reminds him that Arabic reads from right to left!

It dawns on Richard that the dead Reichbund woman must have read the combination numbers from left to right. He reverses the two combination numbers. He then tries each of the numbers from 1 to ___ for the first number. Using sixteen, twenty and four, the lock opens. Attached to the released part is the microfilm. He relocks the lock.

Richard calls the number the Israelis gave him. At a restaurant to meet an Israeli agent, he is surprised to find Tamar. He reveals the combination and the microfilm. Tamar says it is Richard's duty to prevent the Iraqis from perfecting the hydrogen bomb. Richard says he has his son to save.

Tamar suggests that the Israelis will use every effort to get Jeffrey released or to rescue him -- although that might take time.

Richard has to decide whether to part with the microfilm and take the chance that the Israelis will be able to extricate Jeffrey or to give the film to the Iraqis in exchange for Jeffrey.

Can Tamar substitute a microfilm with a defective set of computer instructions? Yes, and the delay may give the U.N. time to locate the factory. Tamar says he can fax the microfilm to Tel Aviv, get the replacement and meet Richard back at his room in two hours.

Richard makes the momentous decision. He will let the Israelis substitute the film, but says he can't wait for the Israelis to get Jeffrey out. He's going in now -- alone, but will need help to get out. He gives Tamar the microfilm.

Richard goes to a department store and comes out looking like Gretchen. Tamar is surprised to confront a woman instead of Richard in Richard's room. Tamar slips the substitute microfilm onto the lock. After Richard arrives in Baghdad, an Israeli agent will have a car for him in front of the golden mosque at ten o'clock. The agent also will give Richard a locator device to secrete at the atomic plant. Israeli planes will hone in on it. Richard will have thirty minutes to get out of the factory after activating the device. The agent also will give Richard a bracelet which will signal his location to a rescue helicopter afterward.

Richard flies as Gretchen to Baghdad. He has a bandage next to his mouth so that he can barely talk. It also disguises his manhood.

When Richard reaches the mosque, the Israeli agent gets out of the car. He is sorry, but Israel can't send in any planes - the Iraqis have offered peace to Israel in exchange for oil and help in getting the sanctions lifted. Israel does not want Richard to endanger the negotiations. He advises Richard to return to Paris.

Kamkar and another Iranian agent surprise them. Kamkar orders Richard and the Israeli to get into the front seat of a Mercedes while the other Iranian is to drive the Israeli's car. The Israeli car explodes when the key is turned. Richard and the Israeli turn on Kamkar. Kamkar kills the Israeli and Richard kills Kamkar.

Richard drives the Mercedes toward the spot specified by Gretchen. He passes a roadblock using her I.D. and then a small airport. He stops the car at exactly 22.2 miles from the mosque.

At eleven o'clock, huge concrete blocks covered by vegetation slide apart. A nearly completed gigantic hydrogen bomb building on hydraulics rises up from beneath. Iraqis start to work on it, unseen by the prying eyes of American satellites.

Richard enters the building. It is a complex maze of computers. Construction equipment, acetylene torches and explosives are everywhere. The workers look like an army of ants.

Richard is greeted by an army colonel. Before agreeing to give the Iraqis the microfilm, he demands to see that Jeffrey is safe. As Gretchen, the Iraqi agent, he tells the colonel that his orders are to bring Jeffrey back to Baghdad. Jeffrey recognizes his father. Richard unlocks the lock, and the colonel examines the microfilm. The colonel picks up a briefcase and hands it to Richard. As Richard starts to leave the colonel shouts "stop!" Richard is at a loss. "Don't you want to count it first?" the colonel asks. Richard looks at the briefcase and says, "I thought you would never ask." He opens the briefcase and is surprised to see it packed with money. Mumbling his thanks, Richard propels Jeffrey out of the room.

Richard and Jeffrey increase their pace to reach an exit. But alarms go off. The Iraqis must have learned that they have been duped.

Richard and Jeffrey are pursued. Richard swipes a portable acetylene torch to keep the pursuers at bay. The building starts to sink back into the ground as they go through the door. They have to jump to reach the surrounding ground.

Running up a hill, they pass barrels of oil. Richard punctures one and rolls it down toward the rapidly disappearing building. He lights the spilled oil with the torch. The barrel is swallowed by the building.

As Richard and Jeffrey make good their escape, the building goes up in a huge pyrotechnic display.

Richard and Jeffrey swipe a plane at the airport. They elude the pursuing planes. As the plane passes over the Mediterranean, Richard tosses the wig and the bra out. He radios the scoop about the factory to Arlen Miller in Paris.

The Iraqis issue a world alert for Gretchen. They never learn that it was Richard who had thwarted them.

***

The foregoing is the first screenplay of a trilogy. The treatment for the second screenplay also is available. For coverage, go to Mike.

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