SCREENPLAY:
PURSUED
written by ROBERT BRUINEWOUD
GENRE: sci-fi/horror/action
LOGLINE:
When a job ends with her friend dead, a homeless getaway driver flees into the outback, only to find herself pursued by something far more terrifying than the murderous criminals she’s running from.
INTRODUCING PURSUED:
Pursued is a sci-fi/action feature about Jan, a homeless, getaway driver, fleeing across the Australian outback after a simple job goes bad. Fleeing from her employer, and the white-supremacist motorcycle cult he attempted to ripoff, things go from bad to worse when a “big, black tumbleweed thing with claws” joins in on the pursuit.
Audiences have always enjoyed stories of down-on-their-luck people who, despite their exceptional abilities, must constantly battle against society’s entrenched prejudices while pursuing their chosen profession. Pursued takes this setup and ratchets up the stakes. Not only must Jan look after herself, she must also protect a naïve bystander from both, the criminals pursuing her and a ravenous Tumbleweed.
In addition to the external threats pursuing Jan, she must also battle her own physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. A fatigue so intense that, despite the her fear and anger, she has trouble staying awake and trusting what she sees. This makes keeping control of a speeding car, on the broken asphalt road, even more difficult.
The struggle to, figuratively, keep one’s head above water while dealing with a stream of new complications, is something modern audiences are, unfortunately, only too familiar with. And so, watching Jan doggedly battle on, is something audiences will find easy to relate to and cheer for.
Pursued begins in the relative safety of suburban Australian at the start of a summer day. We meet Jan, down on her luck and living in her car, but still cocky. Not long after, we find her in the middle of the outback, in the dead of night, rich beyond her dreams, but exhausted and terrified, and fleeing for her life.
Despite the bulk of the story being set in the outback, Pursued features a fun mix of characters ranging from an assorted array of criminals from the big cities, a handful of quirky locals, and an odd, middle-class couple out on a road trip.
Pursued is a fun mix of (dare I say it?) a Guy Ritchie-esque crime caper, 1970s hi-octane, car-chase movies, and an otherworldly creature feature, in which our protagonist triumphs by doggedly “keeping on going in the hope something turns up”.
Screenplay and Pitch Deck for Pursued are available to read at Script Revolution or you can request it directly from me via my contact form.