4 ideas for a thriller opening sequence
1#
Setting: meth lab, two men in radiation suits are making un unknown and mysterious drug. All of their equipment is scientific, but the location is grimy, which suggests that they are criminals or part of a drug syndicate, however they are actually privately hired scientists commissioned to make a new virus which they will use to kill the inhabitants of east LA/London. As they are making the virus, one of the scientists drop a vial on the floor- of course they are okay as they have masks. Their objective is to inject oranges/apples (fruit of any kind) with the said virus and hand them to their selected fruit vendors in east LA/London. These fruit are neatly stacked in a van and are wrapped in normal packaging: what looks like normal fruit from a legit company. They are attacked by an unknown militia with a symbol on their clothes e.g. a burning american flag. They only have gas masks on. They have a fight, a few die, one falls on the floor onto the spilled virus and instantly becomes green/breaks out with leperosy on the affected area. They steal the vials as they believe thats where the virus is, and go for their getaway car. Suddenly a surviving agent limps outside (it is night) and either shoots the driver dead, shoots one of the tires, or blows up the car (very expensive so unlikely). The militia then run around until they see a van parked in the corner of the parking lot, they hot wire the van, and drive off in the van. Then we see that they have the fruit in the back of the van as they drive off, and we have a freeze frame of the fruit neatly stacked with the title “vitamin-V” or “Vitamin-death” or “vitamin-extinction” or just “extinction” or “branches of evil” - could be “rooted” or “grab by the root/extinguish the root” (all are working titles and are deliberately corny.)
Setting: meth lab, two men in radiation suits are making un unknown and mysterious drug. All of their equipment is scientific, but the location is grimy, which suggests that they are criminals or part of a drug syndicate, however they are actually privately hired scientists commissioned to make a new virus which they will use to kill the inhabitants of east LA/London. As they are making the virus, one of the scientists drop a vial on the floor- of course they are okay as they have masks. Their objective is to inject oranges/apples (fruit of any kind) with the said virus and hand them to their selected fruit vendors in east LA/London. These fruit are neatly stacked in a van and are wrapped in normal packaging: what looks like normal fruit from a legit company. They are attacked by an unknown militia with a symbol on their clothes e.g. a burning american flag. They only have gas masks on. They have a fight, a few die, one falls on the floor onto the spilled virus and instantly becomes green/breaks out with leperosy on the affected area. They steal the vials as they believe thats where the virus is, and go for their getaway car. Suddenly a surviving agent limps outside (it is night) and either shoots the driver dead, shoots one of the tires, or blows up the car (very expensive so unlikely). The militia then run around until they see a van parked in the corner of the parking lot, they hot wire the van, and drive off in the van. Then we see that they have the fruit in the back of the van as they drive off, and we have a freeze frame of the fruit neatly stacked with the title “vitamin-V” or “Vitamin-death” or “vitamin-extinction” or just “extinction” or “branches of evil” - could be “rooted” or “grab by the root/extinguish the root” (all are working titles and are deliberately corny.)
Past this, the militia get back to their hideout, one guy goes to ditch the van and sees the fruit. They are an ill organised militia so he takes the van home so he can sell the fruit inside- he believes the virus is in the vials. He sells the fruit to various street dealers for extremely cheap prices, every vendor buys from him and he sells all the poisoned fruit. People then start dying all over the area, so another militia tries to intervene. They track the other militia, see the virus and believe they poisoned everyone. They murder them and destroy the vials. People still keep on dying, the virus has evolved and has become contagious (as water in london has gone through 6 people before your own personal consumption of that water). Mass mayhem breaks out, the government don’t understand what has happened, they believe the militia poisoned the water supply and so shut down all water. This leads to absolute anarchy, people fight and kill each other for water- while the government tries to work out what caused the infection, as the virus was in three different hands, it becomes very ambiguous as to what has actually caused the infection. The government then decides to recall all food and to screen people before giving them government checked food and water. This adds to the chaos, as people are literally starving to death and are fighting for food and water. The government food-centres are raided by rag-tag militias, and so they cannot provide anymore food and have to go into reclusion: they are forced to sit and watch how the situation plays out. This leads to the emergence of our antagonist, the man who fostered the plan to poison the city with fruit. His plan to destroy a part of the city so he could buy up the land and make a fortune, has now been upgraded to the entire city. All of his loose ends are dead, and he is the only one that knows the true cause of the virus. The movie ends with him standing at his balcony, watching london burn, with a large grin and a glass of whatever the poisoned fruit was.
2#School boy, who is a psychopath.
School boy walking home from school, dressed in his blazer, tie and cap. He is skipping and whistling, says hi to other kids, but when he turns down his alley way, he sees a homeless man who is passed out on the floor. He runs away and goes straight into his house, he screams “mum!” “dad?” but gets no reply. He stops, and smiles. He then goes back outside, whilst dusk is approaching and loads the homeless man into a wheelbarrow and puts a tarp over him. He then places him in his shed and begins to torture him. Time passes and we get a shot of the homeless man skinned alive, as if done by a professional. The razor blade in the boy’s hand is dripping with blood. Blackout and title sequence: “NEED TITLE- BUT REFERS TO YOUTH/BIRTH AND VIOLENCE/PSYCHOPATHOLOGY”
School boy walking home from school, dressed in his blazer, tie and cap. He is skipping and whistling, says hi to other kids, but when he turns down his alley way, he sees a homeless man who is passed out on the floor. He runs away and goes straight into his house, he screams “mum!” “dad?” but gets no reply. He stops, and smiles. He then goes back outside, whilst dusk is approaching and loads the homeless man into a wheelbarrow and puts a tarp over him. He then places him in his shed and begins to torture him. Time passes and we get a shot of the homeless man skinned alive, as if done by a professional. The razor blade in the boy’s hand is dripping with blood. Blackout and title sequence: “NEED TITLE- BUT REFERS TO YOUTH/BIRTH AND VIOLENCE/PSYCHOPATHOLOGY”
Past the opening, he is sitting watching his work when his dad walks in. He is drunk but still freaks out. School boy is forced to kill him, and he then hides the body by cutting up his father and burying him in his small vegetable garden that is adjacent to the shed. His mother comes home early in the morning: she is a nurse at the local A&E. She gets worried when her husband doesn't turn up/answer her calls. Hence plays out a murder mystery. Eventually the boy is forced to kill his mother, but then plays it out like they were attacked by a burglar, so he can call the police and look innocent. He is sent to a foster home around 4 months later, after requesting to be away from “abusive” grandparents, he gives himself bruises and claims that he is experiencing domestic violence. He then proceeds to psychologically destroy the other children in the home, and murders a few/drives them to suicide. A detective gets curious, investigates the child and after finding enough evidence, brings him in. He lets him sit in the passenger seat on the way to the station though. The child then forces a knife on him and steals his gun. Just as he is about to shoot the detective, a police car rolls up. A gun fight emerges, the detective is shot but not killed but the child gets a bullet straight through his left eye. We get a pan out of the scene as the cops have the child and are radioing in for backup and an ambulance. The deceptive explains the situation, shows his evidence and the child is committed to an asylum. The movie ends with a shot of the child looking through his barred window, which then zooms directly into his glass eye, showing flashes of all of his murders, like his eye is a television screen. He closes his eye, weeps a single tear and the movie ends.
3#The highwayman
Two guys just finished a robbery, run from robbed bank/shop- get hit by a van as they are crossing the highway, van stops suddenly, guy gets out, checks bodies and picks up money and leaves —have in the opening said man in van waiting near the shop, watching, to appear like he is the getaway driver, but is actually the eponymous hero- The highwayman (title on gear stick)
The highway man’s wife was killed by criminals who were robbing a dinner. 25% of the movie is the flashback of the story of how they fell in love, the struggles he faced, all based on the poem “the highway man” by Alfred Noyes - but of course in modern times.
He now spends his time travelling around the US, tracking criminals and murdering them like they murdered his wife. As the 5th anniversary of his wife’s death nears, he accidentally saves the life of a woman, after brutally murdering three criminals with a revolver and his boot. She falls in love with him, and although he tries to block out any emotions for anyone but his late wife, he begins to fall in love with her. A love story progresses until she suddenly doesn’t come home after work one day (she’s a waitress at a diner). The highwayman then finds out that she’s been kidnapped by her psychopath lover, who was the one who commissioned the criminals to kidnap her previously. The highwayman finds where she is being held, and goes in guns blazing. He gets shot several times but still manages to rescue his girlfriend. As he is running to his car with her, he sees that she’s been shot in the stomach. She smiles and slowly dies in the car while they are on the way to the nearest hospital, which he knows is exactly 16 minutes away: it take 15 to bleed to death. He checks her pulse and realises she’s gone. He then proceeds to drive to the diner where his wife was killed, he loads his gun with one bullet and steps in. This is where the movie ends.
He now spends his time travelling around the US, tracking criminals and murdering them like they murdered his wife. As the 5th anniversary of his wife’s death nears, he accidentally saves the life of a woman, after brutally murdering three criminals with a revolver and his boot. She falls in love with him, and although he tries to block out any emotions for anyone but his late wife, he begins to fall in love with her. A love story progresses until she suddenly doesn’t come home after work one day (she’s a waitress at a diner). The highwayman then finds out that she’s been kidnapped by her psychopath lover, who was the one who commissioned the criminals to kidnap her previously. The highwayman finds where she is being held, and goes in guns blazing. He gets shot several times but still manages to rescue his girlfriend. As he is running to his car with her, he sees that she’s been shot in the stomach. She smiles and slowly dies in the car while they are on the way to the nearest hospital, which he knows is exactly 16 minutes away: it take 15 to bleed to death. He checks her pulse and realises she’s gone. He then proceeds to drive to the diner where his wife was killed, he loads his gun with one bullet and steps in. This is where the movie ends.
4# Kid who gets night terrors, and sleep-runs-away.
The opening sequence is of the kid being chased by police, while he hears screaming voices/scary sounds, like he is in a haunted house. It appears like the kid is a fugitive running from the police, but is actually just running from the scary sounds that he translates from the police. At the end of the sequence, he trips and the police grab him, but don't handcuff him and instead hug and hold him and tell him he is okay. The camera zooms out and the title is in shown in the colours of the sunrise on the clouds. “Daymare”, or “fear casts no shadow”,
The movie progresses past this we see the kid’s night terrors get worse and worse until they are constant, however they become even worse at night. He begins to resent sleep and takes every precaution to stay awake, however this just makes things worse. The movie tracks his growing mental instability until he finally breaks: a black angel picks him up and flies away with him, he is happy and becoming calm and at peace, until he is suddenly dropped into the ocean- a cement block tied to his legs. We see his body sink deeper and deeper in the water until we can no longer see him, and only see the black of the sea. The movie ends here.
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