STEEL CHAMELEONS
When seven entertainment androids are stolen from the Delosi Resort in Las Vegas,
Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Androids Investigator KEN O'BANNON jets in to
investigate. In 2020 the possession and use of Androids is highly regulated, and
Nevada is the only state where Androids are legal. O'Bannon has a black belt in Karate
and a suitcase full of high tech gadgets; but doesn't understand why anyone would pay
money for an adventure fantasy with robots dressed as Pirates or Knights In Armor.
Delosi's offers "Dinner, a joust, and a night with an android lover, all for one low price."
What's next? Robots demanding the right to get married?
The missing androids were fitted with 'liquid skin' technology, which allows them to
change their appearance like chameleons. Becoming the woman of your dreams... Or
maybe the man standing behind you. You never know where they are...
Each had recently been factory serviced by the world's top android scientist, Dr.
Zelazny, at Trumbull Manufacturing outside of Las Vegas.
When O'Bannon arrives at the factory, demanding to speak with Zelazny, he's told it's
impossible... but that doesn't stop him from kicking his way past security to Zelazny's
office, where he finds the scientist... dead. A murder victim. On the case is LVPD
Detective BELINDA HOYLE - tough, intelligent, non-nonsense... It's hate at first sight.
They are a bantering odd-couple of investigators, like Dave and Maddy from
"Moonlighting".
Belinda and O'Bannon attempt to question billionaire DONALD TRUMBULL about
Zelazny, but he's evasive. Trumbull hates the ATF&A's regulations and wants to put his
androids in all 53 states. Belinda and O'Bannon want access to all of Zelazny's
records. Trumbull refuses - that's proprietary information. It's as if he doesn't want
Zelazny's murder solved.
Belinda and O'Bannon break into Zelazny's office and discover he last worked on eight
androids - the seven missing androids and a CINDY unit. They track down the Cindy in
the android repair and manufacturing facility... but it attacks O'Bannon and escapes.
They chase it through the spooky warehouse filled with androids and half-built
androids. Belinda tries shooting it... but bullets are powerless against androids.
Eventually O'Bannon corners the Cindy and uses his droid-tazer gun to short circuit it.
When O'Bannon attempts to replay the memory chip, he discovers that it's been
erased. Using a data recovery program on his laptop, he discovers a memory: Zelazny
telling the Cindy unit about an underground railroad for androids...
Zelazny was secretly a member of a robot rights organization.
When O'Bannon and Belinda return to the crime scene... Zelazny's body is gone.
In Zelazny's office they discover shipping orders for seven packages to an address in
Washington, DC.
When O'Bannon arrives in Washington, DC, he finds the address is a warehouse... and
Belinda is already there. When no one answers the door, O'Bannon sends a flying
probe into the warehouse to search. They watch a cell-phone sized screen outside the
warehouse as the probe sends back images from inside... as it zooms around. No one
inside. Lots of boxes, all with a Trumbull company logo. Seven boxes in the receiving
office - open and empty. A scrap of paper with an address...
The address of Senator BETH GORDON, who is on a subcommittee that deals with
androids. Gordon has an eager assistant, Tania, who hasn't been acting like herself,
lately. She's been working night and day on some android rights legislation. When she
asks to deliver her report personally, Senator Gordon gives her a private audience...
Tania attacks the Senator... and uses her liquid skin to *become* the Senator.
That's when Belinda and O'Bannon arrive, and find *two* Senator Gordons. Which is
the real Senator and which is the android replicant? A tense scene, ending with the
replicant killing the real Senator. Then a battle between the fake Senator and
O'Bannon... which is broken up by Secret Service. O'Bannon and Belinda have to
convince the Secret Service that the Senator is not real. Then they shut down the
android permanently.
When O'Bannon attempts to download the android's memory, he discovers that a self-
destruct has been added - he must race against time to get as much information as he
can before it's destroyed. He discovers a plot to replicate three key Senators and
Congressmen on the Committee that oversees Android Laws. And the mind behind the
scheme... Dr. Zelazny! The android scientist is alive - the murder victim was really a
liquid skin android that looked like Zelazny. He's using two of the androids for
security... which only adds up to six of the seven stolen androids. Before they can
discover what the seventh android will be used for, the Senator destructs.
O'Bannon and Belinda race to stop Congressman Conners from being replicated... and
attack the Android before he can take over the Congressman. A huge fight, a chase
through the hallways of the Congressman's office, and a tense moment where
O'Bannon wonders if the guy he's about to kill is the android or a real Congressional
aid. Afterwards, the Secret Service wants to question Belinda and O'Bannon, but they
must race to Senator Whitney...
Which puts them on the Secret Service's hot list. Now they will get no help or
cooperation from the Secret Service.
They find out Senator Whitney is addressing the Senate, and can't get in. The Senator
proposes relaxing the laws on Androids - allowing their sale and use in all 53 states.
The President opposes this, but Senator Whitney believes the public wants androids
and the President will eventually change his mind. "Too late," O'Bannon tells Belinda.
They can't get to the Senator - he's been replaced. So they must find out what the
seventh Android will be used for... and the only one who knows that is Zelanzny.
Back at the warehouse, they use the flying probe to do reckon. Inside the warehouse is
Zelazny and the two big Security Androids. They attack the warehouse, fighting the two
androids. After O'Bannon dispatches his android, he meets up with Belinda... or is it?
After a couple of minutes O'Bannon realizes she's a replicant, fights her... but she takes
Zelazny hostage. Does O'Bannon want to sacrifice knowing what the seventh android
is being used for? O'Bannon doesn't back down. The android kills Zelazny! O'Bannon
kills the android, tries to hear Zelazny's dying words - doesn't understand them.
Zelazny claims he was forced to reprogram the androids. He was for Android rights, not
the android slavery and massive unemployment that will resulot in opening up every
state to an Android work force. So if Zelazny wasn't behind the scheme, who was?
Trumbull enters with Belinda (hostage). He tells O'Bannon that he's too late...
An intern in the West Wing touches the President's "body man"... and *becomes
him*... then kills him and leaves the body in a West Wing closet. The replicant "body
man" passes Secret Service agents, and is allowed into the Oval Office. Where he
touches the President of the United States... and becomes him! The replicated
President asks his Chief Of Staff to set up a televised press conference where he will
talk about Android rights and deregulating the Android industry....
O'Bannon fights Trumbull - a massive, savage martial arts fight to the death! Both are
evenly matched. The fight takes them through out picturesque old warehouse, to the
loft, where Trumbull almost tosses O'Bannon to floor fifty feet below. But O'Bannon
turns the tables, and Trumbull falls to his death.
O'Bannon grabs Belinda and they race to the White House, fight their way into the
press room... and shoot the President as he speaks! They are arrested by the Secret
Service, but the entire nation has seen the press conference on TV... The President of
the United States was an android! Wires, cables, memory chips! Not a human at all.
After O'Bannon and Belinda are exonerated, they go back to their hotel room... Where
a TV broadcast shows Senator Whitney announcing that he's running for president...
There maybe an android in the White House again!
"STEEL CHAMELEONS" is non-stop science fiction action, in the tradition of "Blade
Runner", "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers", and "The Terminator" with a witty,
bantering male and female team and a roller coaster of thrills and excitement in a future
where the lines between man and machine have become blurred.
"STEEL CHAMELEONS" copyright by William C. Martell
To buy this project... E-mail me! wcmartell@ScriptSecrets.Net
To read the script online... STEEL CHAMELEONS.
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.
