SHOW OF FORCE
TOP CNN STORY: Peace in the Middle East. Every country in the
region is signing an historic peace accord under the supervision of
the PRESIDENT Of The United States onboard the USS Stowers aircraft
carrier in the Persian Gulf. Top Gun pilot TOM STONE, his RIO (co-pilot) JUDY BARTON, and the rest of the flight crew watch the
signing on TV in the Ready Room. With the entire world watching,
an assassin kills the Egyptian leader and wounds the President...
then escapes into the maze of passageways on the carrier. An
aircraft carrier is the size of a city, some even have their own
McDonalds, and finding the assassin becomes a problem. Stone gives
chase, captures the assassin, and is forced to kill him. The
assassin's last words: "It is too late! The war has already begun!"
ACT TWO
A massive air war has broken out in the Middle East, with the
President and the USS Stowers trapped in the middle. When the King
Of Jordan insists on leaving, his helicopter is shot down. Tom
Stone and Judy Barton lead the defense of the USS Stowers against
massive enemy attack. It's the Alamo at sea as squadron after
squadron attacks the carrier group. Amazing air combat maneuvers
and fantastic dog fights.
After an attack, Stone and Barton follow one of the attacking
planes and discover that a single country is behind the attacks...
The country Secretary Of Defense Cohen called the greatest threat
to America in the region (Front page LA Times 1/19/98).
Their plan: Sink the USS Stowers, kill the President and the
other leaders, and reclaim the entire Middle East region!
As the attacks against the USS Stowers increase, Stone and
Barton realize the enemy missiles are hitting the ship with amazing
accuracy... They are using radio guided missiles! The assassin has
planted a homing device somewhere on the aircraft carrier!
Then it gets worse: the President discovers that this enemy
country has recently purchased high tech "ship killer" missiles
from the Chinese... missiles designed to sink an aircraft carrier
with a single hit! (Time Magazine 1/19/98, and LA Times Story).
ACT THREE
Now it is up to Stone and Barton to find and destroy the
missile base, while the President organizes a room by room search
of the USS Stowers for the homing device. But the missile base is
heavily protected by the "Black Squadron"... enemy pilots with US
Top Gun training flying US fighter planes (from when these guys
were our allies). In an amazing dogfight, Stone faces off against
the leader of the Black Squadron. In a "High Noon" style shoot out
(in planes, with sidewinder missiles) they blast each other out of
the sky... ejecting at the last minute. Stone, Barton, and the
Black Squadron Leader end up in a para-shoot out! Firing at each
other as they float to the ground. Stone wins the shoot out.
As the missile countdown ticks down to the seconds, Stone and
Barton join a Marine Team to destroy the missile base. Like "The
Guns Of Navarone" they have to sneak into the base, set charges,
and get out... But when Stone gets captured by the enemy General in
charge of the attack, Barton has to help save him. After a final
action scene, the missile base is destroyed, and the President and
Middle East leaders are saved.
"SHOW OF FORCE" by William C. Martell
For a copy of this script... E-mail me! wcmartell@ScriptSecrets.Net
To read the script online... SHOW OF FORCE.
Back to script menu... CLICK HERE.
MY BIO:
I've written 19 films that were carelessly slapped onto celluloid: 3 for HBO, 2 for Showtime, 2 for USA Net, and a whole bunch of CineMax Originals (which is what happens when an HBO movie goes really, really wrong). I've been on some film festival juries, including Raindance in London (twice - once with Mike Figgis and Saffron Burrows, once with Lennie James and Edgar Wright - back to "jury duty" in October of 2009). Roger Ebert discussed my work with Gene Siskel on his 1997 "If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show. I'm quoted a few times in Bordwell's great book "The Way Hollywood tells It". My USA Net flick HARD EVIDENCE was released on video the same day as the Julia Roberts' film Something To Talk About and out-rented it in the USA. In 2007 I had two films released on DVD on the same day and both made the top 10 rentals.
