Love on the 74th Floor
SaintPeterPenpusher
With help taking too long, A hopeless romantic races against time to save his fiance on the 74th floor of the South Tower on 9/11.
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Oh, and one other thought:
The love relationship also must have an arc. Love relationships can’t be in a condition of stasis; they transform during the course of the story. Jack and Rose didn’t start out as lovers; they became lovers.
One way to do that for a 911 story would be for a backstory where they have recently had a falling out, broken off the engagement. Whoever you decide to make the main character should be the one who is principally to blame for the break up. That character becomes the designated rescuer: he (or she) redeems himself (or herself) by rescuing the other.
Or whatever. The dramatic point is: their relationship must be different at the end of the movie than it was at the beginning, preferably 180 degrees different for the most emotional impact.
It’s James Cameron’s Titanic M.O.: He didn’t rely on CGI candy to sell his epic disaster story because that appeals mainly to only 1/2 of the human race: guys. He framed it with a love story, one that appealed to the other 1/2 of the human race: gals. (And consequently, females were more likely to be repeat viewers.) So it’s critical to get the love story right and I’m not sure this logline does.
Cameron decided (shrewdly) that the main character was the gal, not the guy. It’s Rose’s story in every possible way starting from the fact that she’s the narrator. If Cameron had written a logline for his script (which a player of his stature in the industry didn’t have to do; his name on the title page was sufficient), it would have led off with Rose, not Jack: “When a seventeen-year-old girl trapped in a loveless engagement to wealthy man falls in love with a vagabond artist aboard the ill-fated Titanic….”
Cameron also realized (wisely) that since the maiden voyage of the Titanic had a tragic conclusion, than likewise so would the love story; ergo, Jack sacrifices his life so that Rose may live. The death of one character gives wider dramatic meaning and consolation to the death of over 1,500 others.
Jack doesn’t just enable her to live. Through his influence as the catalytic character, she is psychologically liberated to live her own life instead of the one dictated to her by others. That’s her character arc.
That’s a flaw I see in this logline: the designated character flaw doesn’t seem to suggest a compelling character arc. Some might not view being a hopeless romantic as a character flaw. And if it is, what becomes his character arc as a result of his dramatic struggle? It’s not enough that one (or both) survive. To what is “hopeless romantic” transformed by the story’s end?
The setting seems more important than the story: young man risks his life to save his true love.
So the details and logistics have to be accurate. ?
I would see the movie merely to experience the response of the victims as the horror of their predicament sank in. ?I expect there would be both heroes and villains.
Sounds like a?POSEIDON ADVENTURE type of film, so consider a team of people helping the MC (and hindering him).
The logline is short and I can imagine scenes, good job.
What Tony Edward said.
And it is a touchy subject. The challenge is to tell a compelling human interest story, one with a universal theme, without giving the impression of exploiting a national tragedy for profit and publicity.
yep — the North Tower around 1 hour 40, and the South Tower got hit 2nd… If you set it in the North Tower your MC could witness the South Tower collision and collapse and there would be a greater sense of urgency… remember – no one expected those buildings to collapse. From what I’ve seen (in researching a project around the subject myself 😉 ) most people that got out did by way of a slow methodical march down the stairwells … Some fireman felt there was a chance of them collapsing, but not the general public — yes there was a sense of urgency, but there were a lot of people, and stairs were narrow and long.
…you could have him in the South Tower, her in the North — if he witnessed the North getting hit, then barely escapes the South before total collapse, then the stakes go through the roof in him getting to her in the North — He (and WE… yes, most people on the planet know the story of 9 11, but just pretending an audience member doesn’t…) knows the North will come down…
Just some ideas. I’d read it/ see it — it is a touchy subject, but there are already a number of films out there on it — I might be a biased cos I’ve been researching it for a different story.
Best of luck with it.
The South Tower of the WTC collapsed 56 minutes after being struck — the length of a 2nd Act.
The MC has a clear goal and obvious high stakes this works well as a mechanism to drive the plot forward. However I just can’t see how the story would make sense and how it wold fit into 110 minutes.
I’m not sure about the exact timing of the events that took place in 911.
Is this a story that happens in real time i.e 1 min of screen time equals 1 min of real world time? If so how much time was there between the impact and the tower falling?
Would he have been able to run up the stairs and save her? How much action is there for him to take on his way to the fianc? that won’t be repetitive enough to fill awhile act?
Hope this helps.