Jonathan Hazan

My Treatment

GAMES OF SURVIVAL

Written by

EDUARDO VELASQUEZ

SCREENPLAY – TREATMENT

Miss Skilcat (40) is a sadistic woman whose life work is dedicated to capturing and maintaining children in captivity – teenagers mostly – in her property.

Jonny and Sarah Ann have survived a devastating earthquake that has practically erased the city of Boston from the face of the earth. They have made applications and were accepted to spend the summer at Camp Johnson.

Soon after their arrival, they notice that there are armed guards (men) accompanying Miss Skilcat, the owner of Camp Johnson, everywhere. Once assembled, Miss Skilcat tells the children now in “her care” that “no one will go home until they complete the Game of Cards”. They will go through strenuous training, boot-camp style, before they can play the Game of Cards in the nearby forest.

Through the first day of training, Sarah Ann demonstrates extraordinary skills; she seems to be a skilful archer, firing arrows from her bow to the center of her target repeatedly. During the second training course of the day, Sarah Ann handles a knife like a highly trained soldier, killing every enemy (clay statues) in sight.

Coming back from training, Sarah Ann receives a note telling her to join a group of children in the night.

Sarah Ann takes a girl she befriended (Jessica) with her to the rendezvous. When she arrives, she realizes that the boys (including Jonny) and girls gathered just outside the main camp area have devised a plan to escape Camp Johnson. The guards find them and a fight ensues. Sarah Ann, who had taken her bow and arrow with her, kills one of the guards before Jonny and his friends are captured.

The next day, Miss Skilcat sends the children in pairs to face an obstacle course that seems to be designed for army recruits rather than teenagers. However, Sarah Ann and her partner, Tina, make it through the course successfully.

Miss Skilcat could not be more annoyed. She then decides to send Sarah Ann and Tina to the Game of Cards. In the forest, Sarah Ann and Tina escape capture on a couple of occasions before they manage to run away. Unfortunately, they are re-captured by the guards and brought back to camp. Miss Skilcat does not understand how Sarah Ann could manage to clear all of the obstacles she lays in front of her.

She does not know that Sarah Ann, in reality, is an FBI agent. The teenager is there to stop the woman from capturing and incarcerating more children.

When Sarah Ann and Tina are retuned to camp, they are told that they will have to go “rock climbing” that very same afternoon.

Miss Skilcat tells her men to “get rid of them” and to make it look like an accident.

The group of children who has been chosen to go on this sortie walk through the forest for quite a while before they reach a clearing bordering a river, which is rushing downstream toward a waterfall. Sarah Ann is called first to jump from rock to rock toward a large stone in the middle of the river. Not without effort, she returns to shore. Then, it’s Tina’s turn. Tina loses her confidence, slips and falls into the river. Sarah rushes to her rescue, running beside her on the water’s edge until they reach a bridge. Sarah Ann crosses the bridge, lies down and manages to grab Tina’s hand before the rushing water pulls her away to the waterfall.

As soon as Tina is safe and ready to return to camp under the watchful gazes of the guards, Sarah Ann escapes and plunges into the water.

She wakes up at the river’s edge and begins walking through the nearby woods until she comes to a fence and a road beyond and alongside it.

Two horsemen come by as she tries to find a way to reach the road. The horsemen cut the fence for Sarah Ann, but as soon as she is on the other side, they try capturing her. Sarah Ann tosses them both and escapes on horseback to the nearest village where she finds a convenience store. There she buys the necessary items to transform her looks. She comes out of the bathroom with auburn hair (instead of black) and make up on her face.

That evening, Miss Skilcat believes Sarah is gone for good and is ready to punish Tina for her escape. But Sarah Ann re-appears. Miss Skilcat wants to know who she really is. Her investigator has found out that Sarah Ann bears great resemblance with an FBI agent who questioned Miss Skilcat some years ago.

That night Sarah Ann is supposed to sleep in a tent “with the bugs” – which is perfect for what she will be doing. She has stolen one of the men’s walkie-talkies and with some clever changes she transforms it into a “honing device”.

The following morning, the children, including Sarah Ann, Tina & Jonny go to the Gladiators’ field where they are supposed to go through another arduous course. But before they even start the course, the FBI announces its presence on site and begins firing at the guards or at anyone aiming a gun or rifle in their direction. 

At one point, Miss Skilcat joins the fray and fights for her life with Sarah Ann. A shot is fired and Miss Skilcat falls to the forest floor.

An FBI agent by the name of Jack has come to Sarah Ann’s rescue with several other agents. These agents comb the camp for clues as to where the children could have gone and since Miss Skilcat’s body has disappeared shortly after she has been shot, Jack and Sarah Ann do not know what could have happened.

Weeks later, Miss Skilcat looks at her reflection in the mirror of a house from where she intends to oversee the next Game of Cards. A man interrupts her, opens the door of the room and tells her that they’ve brought “a new teenager at the camp”. As he closes the door and before going back to his duty, he communicates with someone, saying: “I found her.”

LOG LINE: Sarah Ann, an undercover FBI agent, escapes a teens’ summer camp run by Miss Skilcat, a woman bent on seeing children suffer through a constant Game of Survival. 

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