MARGIN FOR TERROR
A quiet Independence Day is shattered when six vicious bank robbers armed
with automatic weapons, crash the gates at the Bayview Luxury Condominiums.
As the police surround the complex, the robbers round up the few dozen
residents not on summer holiday, and hold them hostage in the Recreation
Room. A room filled with pool tables and weight benches becomes a
concentration camp of spoiled yuppy prisoners.
Ted Burns, head of the Tenants Association, advises them to stay calm,
cooperate fully, and let the police take care of the problem.
But when a crack SWAT Team is lured into the maze-like condo complex by
the robbers, then ambushed; two of the tenants, Don Lawrence and Tom
Braden decide the only way to survive is to take charge of their own lives.
Become inter-dependent.
Escaping from the robbers, they begin a deadly game of hide-and-seek,
turning Bayview into a war zone. Armed only with kitchen knives and Don's
Desert Storm training, they begin to kill the robbers one by one in the dark and
empty pathways between buildings.
The robbers retaliate. Killing a hostage every half hour until the police
grant them safe passage and a helicopter. As the battle between Don, Tom,
and the robbers escalates outside, a different sort of battle begins in the
Recreation Room. Linda Braden uses psychological warfare against the lead
robber, Richard Stark, to try and stop the slaughter. It's a battle of wits which
could end in Linda's death if she's not careful.
"MARGIN FOR TERROR" is the story in the tradition of "Die Hard", "Desperate
Hours" (1955) and the North Hollywood bank robbers about average, middle
class suburbanites, forced to fight for their independence.... And their lives.
"MARGIN FOR TERROR" a screenplay by William C. Martell
For a copy of this script... E-mail me! wcmartell@ScriptSecrets.Net
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.
