ALL FALL DOWN
On a quiet Sunday afternoon, Linda McKinney's husband Herb went to the
hardware store and never returned. The police found him, hands bound with wire,
tortured and shot in the back of the head - execution style. Why would anyone murder a
phone systems salesman? FBI Agent Ted Gallaway tells Linda that her husband was
one of six professional thieves known as "The Wrecking Crew" who pulled large scale
robberies all across the West Coast. A month ago they knocked over an armored truck
and got away with almost ten million dollars. Herb double crossed his partners - never
split the loot with them. Linda can't believe her husband had a secret life... and can't
believe he had millions from an armored car heist. Their house is mortgaged, they have
credit card bills... her husband saved all of his change in a jar. Gallaway tells her the
money is hidden somewhere - and it's his job to find it.
The other five thieves are in town, looking for their share... and they think Linda
has it. When they descend on her quiet suburban home demanding their cut from the
robbery, Agent Gallaway steps in to protect her. As the five thieves become more
violent, turning Linda's neighborhood into a war zone, she comes to depend on Gallaway
for protection... but can she trust him?
Gallaway seems more interested in the money than in arresting the thieves. Is
Gallaway really with the FBI? Or is he one of the thieves? Linda's husband wasn't who
he claimed to be... is Gallaway?
Linda must learn to fend for herself, to navigate the lies within lies that were her
husband's life, and fight for survival against a quintette of dangerous armed robbers.
Like "Charade" in suburbia, a twisted thriller about a woman who takes control of her life.
ALL FALL DOWN by William C. Martell
For a copy of this script... E-mail me! Wcmartell@compuserve.com
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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.
