Black Friday (Formerly: “Twenty Items or death”)
RichievSingularity
?On his first day at Walmart, an ex-marine with PTSD must save his sister after eco-terrorists seize the store and take hostages.
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Thanks for the help guys, I think I’m going to begin outlining. (Yeah I’m one of those writers, I need an outline or I get stuck halfway through and it just sits in the proverbial drawer)
Have you thought of a gender flip? “On her first day a Walmart, an ex-marine with PTSD must save her brother…”
And what’s your genre? Drama, dark comedy?
In any case, let slip the hounds of your imagination and Id! Best wishes.
That’s a good idea dpg.
I got this concept from combining a couple ideas.
1: The first was about a guy who lives in his mom’s basement who created a “Death to Walmart” club. He’s determined to reveal to the world Walmart’s dark secrets, so he get’s a job at Walmart and secretly films his experiences.
His plans are foiled when the people he meets are friendly and genuinely nice. and every time he thinks he’s discovered something bad going on, it turns out to be something else completely
However his club get involved with an actual dangerous group who plan on setting a bomb off in the store and in the end he has to save the store because he has grown to like the people he works with.
2: The second Idea was about a former highly decorated marine who, because of the economy has to get a job at Walmart. His first day on the register is “Black Friday” and it is a slice of life movie where we see the odd customer’s and employees through his eyes.
3: I Saw “Olympus has fallen” and thought, maybe I should add a “Die Hard” factor and make it a little more serious.
Basically at this point it’s a hodgepodge of ideas that need to be streamlined into a cohesive story 🙂
I like the concept though I can’t imagine Walmart would ever allow their name to be used Of course, you can come up with some other name for a mega-corporate discount chain and people will still get the idea.
I believe you are right dpg. However since I work at Walmart I am wondering if wrote the script I could put it up the “Chain of Command” They have this sort of “Encourage the employee” kind of think going on…
Naw, you’re right, they would never go for it.
Maybe call the store We-Mart?
Yeah, some kind of yada-yada-mart.
I like the idea of “empower the employee” slogans. You can use it Act 1 to set up dramatic irony. Everyone hears them so often they roll their eyes, shrug it off as corporate cant. Then in Act 2 and 3, the ex-marine has to take power, exercise initiative — act out the slogans in an heroic manner.
Pointing a gun at the bad guy holding a hostage as protection. “Haven’t your heard, At WE-Mart, the employee’s have the power” BANG! Dead bad guy
(Gotta love cheesy 80’s action one liners)
What’s your final subjective payoff, Richiev? If the ex-marine finds the personal power — the courage and wits — to rescue everyone, can (s)he go back to a dis-empowering day job like that?
What attracts me to your story is it’s potential to tap into the prevailing socio-economic malaise. Which is not just that the 99% are working harder to earn less, but that they also fell powerless to do anything about it. (But then I tend to over philosophize on plot themes.)
Nice comment dpg.
One of the idea’s I had was, the main bad guy just wants money but he recruited true believers who actually have problems with Walmart. (He’s going to leave them holding the bag while he escapes)
Over the course of the movie the Walmart employee’s and the “True Believers” holding them hostage will come to an understanding of one another.
As for the main character, that PTSD idea is terrific. Obviously he/she has to overcome that.