Logline: A Doctor finds herself taken hostage in a hospital and forced to follow orders of a murderous group out for revenge.
Christmas in Chicago.
JACK PEARCE walks his German shepherd. As he’s crossing the street, a BMW comes around the corner and hits him. The man goes sprawling. Just as the onlookers rush to help, the BMW reverses and runs him over, breaking his leg.
MT. SINAI MEDICAL CENTER – overcrowded and understaffed. We meet DR. CLAIRE HASKINS – 30.
ELLIE FISHER – 30 – working her residency.
We learn about the Hanson case – there’s a review hearing. Something went wrong. Ellie has been called in for questioning. Claire was the treating physician.
DANIELLE PEARCE – 30′s – very pregnant – delivery due date is actually tomorrow. Her father is Jack Pearce. He’s here in this hospital and is Ellie’s patient.
Claire talks to her patient ALAN FOSTER – 60′s. He may have meningitis. He’s grumpy, wants to go home. Claire won’t release him. He states he was a cop for 37 years where they either charged them with a crime or turned them loose.
We meet WALTER – 60′s – security cop. He should’ve retired long ago.
We meet DR. PATRICE WATKINS – Chief of Medicine. She tells Claire not to worry about the Review Hearing. She states Claire did everything by the book. That just might be Claire’s problem though. She’s too by-the-book. Patrice tells her to learn to trust her instincts more. Sometimes the book needs to be thrown out.
Claire goes to a greasy spoon to have dinner with her father, ALDEN HASKINS – attorney. Alden’s reading the paper. We learn that Jack Pearce is a District Judge.
Claire’s on call at the Federal Prison. Alden doesn’t like the fact that his daughter has to treat hardened criminals. Claire does it to help pay off her student loans. Alden gets a text about a motorcycle he’s interested in buying and leaves.
We meet ERIK – late 20′s. Collapses at the counter. Claire gives assistance. Erik had a concussion two weeks ago and suffers from dizzy spells.
Claire has Erik join her in her booth so she can keep an eye on him while eating her dinner. They hit it off.
Erik’s demeanor abruptly changes. He states Claire will have a patient tonight at the Federal Prison. She will do exactly what Erik tells her. Erik then shows her his cellphone which has a photo of her now captured father. If she refuses, Erik will have her father killed.
They get into the BMW that ran over Jack Pearce. Erik states Claire will do a series of jobs for him. Routine, simple jobs that Claire does everyday.
Her patient is CLAUDE BARSTOW – he’s showing signs of appendicitis. Claire is to get Barstow transferred to the I.C.U. at Mt. Sinai.
Claire goes inside the Federal Prison. To ensure that she does not ask the police for help, Erik has pinned a small mic and camera to her coat. He sees and hears everything she does.
The Warden is apprehensive about releasing Barstow. Barstow is a high-risk prisoner. He’s escaped from prison twice before. Killed a fellow prisoner with his bare hands. Claire tells him this is a medical emergency – if Barstow isn’t operated on immediately, he’ll be dead in a couple of hours. That seals the deal.
Erik and Claire drive back to Mt. Sinai. Erik has a fake Doctor’s I.D. badge. He states Claire’s next job is to get Barstow out of prep and into a private room.
They go to get him transferred and find out Barstow’s already been taken into surgery. They quickly rush to E.R. Just as Barstow’s about to be cut open, he has an allergic reaction to the anesthesia.
Claire gets him stabilized. Barstow is taken out of surgery to be monitored in I.C.U. Close call.
We learn that Erik is Barstow’s son.
Patrice appears and wants Barstow treated as soon as possible and sent back to prison. Claire tells her she needs to monitor him for a couple of hours before she can proceed with the surgery.
Claire and Erik check on Barstow in his room. TWO BEEFY SECURITY GUARDS stand there.
Barstow kills one guard with a scalpel and Erik kills the other, choking him to death with a wire garrote. Erik then uncuffs his father. Freedom. Erik then makes a call.
We see ZEKE and SCULLY, two thugs dressed as Security Guards get off the elevator and head to I.C.U.
They provide Barstow with a set of scrubs and weapons.
Erik takes Claire down to the cafeteria to eat. Claire learns this isn’t about freeing Barstow. This is about revenge. We learn that Erik’s mother was gunned by a cop who turns out to be the patient Foster. And the Judge who exonerated Foster was Jack Pearce. Barstow and Erik are going to kill both men tonight.
Barstow, dressed as a doctor, walks into Foster’s room. Foster knows he’s about to die. Tries to plead for his life. Says it was all a mistake. Barstow chokes Foster to death.
With nothing else to do, Claire reads Barstow’s chart. Learns Barstow is going to die soon. He has a malignant tumor. Inoperable. He has nothing left to lose.
Patrice learns that Foster shouldn’t have been admitted to Mt. Sinai. The admitting Doctor was threatened by people. They had pictures of his family.
The hospital goes on alert. They find Foster dead in his bed. Claire examines him. Finds his eyes pink from burst blood vessels – realizes instantly that he was murdered. Patrice sees this as well.
Unable to stand it any longer, Claire rushes to Barstow’s room with Patrice in tow. She states Barstow is the murderer. When they get to the room, they find Barstow there, handcuffed to his bed. The two fake security guards – Zeke and Sully – stand watch.
Patrice orders Claire to go home. Erik stops Claire from leaving. Shows her his phone which shows her father getting beaten. Erik needs one more job done. He just needs to know which room Jack Pearce is in.
Claire takes Erik to the MRI room. She turns on the machine and locks Erik inside. Because Erik has buckshot in his body, the MRI wrecks havoc upon him. We can actually see the metal moving under his skin.
Claire takes Erik’s phone and dials the number. She tells them it’s over and to release her father.
Zeke answers. Realizes it’s Claire. Now Barstow knows something’s gone wrong. He leaves his room with Zeke and Sully in tow, searching for Jack Pearce.
Erik manages to get out of the MRI room. He searches for Claire.
Claire calls the Head of Security and states Jack Pearce is in immediate danger.
Barstow starts to tear the hospital apart as the search for Jack Pearce continues. Walter, the old security guard, appears, shooting Sully. Barstow shoots Walter in the head, killing him.
Barstow grabs Patrice. He then tells a Nurse, Patrice is going to die unless the Nurse tells him which room Jack Pearce is in. The Nurse tells him the room number.
Barstow enters Pearce’s room and is about to shoot Pearce when Claire enters with the defibrillator paddles. She hits him with the juice, knocking him clear across the room.
Claire now has Barstow’s gun. Barstow gets up and walks towards her. Just as she’s about to shoot him, a SWAT Unit bursts into the room.
Barstow jumps out the room, falling six floors to his death.
The SWAT Leader, CULLEN quickly assesses the situation. Claire tells him about Erik. Cullen is on the radio giving a physical description of Erik to his Unit.
That’s when Erik grabs Claire, holding his gun to her head, taking her hostage.
Erik gets Claire upstairs to the roof where a helicopter, piloting by Zeke, is waiting. Zeke refuses to leave without Sully. Erik shoots him dead and takes over the helicopter.
Claire’s father is inside the chopper.
Erik’s been shot. He tells Claire to fix him up as they fly away to safety.
Claire then learns her father was the third target. He was an assistant D.A, looking to make a name for himself by taking down Barstow.
Claire cleans the wound and injects him with a painkiller and a steroid.
Erik starts to feel better. Claire, gripping her surgical scissors, tells Erik to land the chopper now. She states she’s injected him with a sedative. It’s about to kick in now.
Erik has piloted them over an abandoned waterfront industrial park. There’s docks and an escape boat waiting for him.
Erik fights to stay conscious while landing the copter. He doesn’t make it. He loses control and the chopper kicks off the docks and hits the water.
Everyone inside is thrown about as water starts to stream inside.
Claire manages to cut her father loose as the copter rapidly fills with water. Just as she’s about to swim for safety though, Erik reaches out and grabs ahold of her.
Claire struggles against Erik as the helicopter sinks deeper and deeper. Finally, Erik’s lungs fill with water and he lets go.
Claire swims to safety. The police and paramedics are there. Her father’s fine. Claire’s saved the day.
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C’mon. Really?
This is a connect-the-dot, paint-by-numbers script. The plot twists are so run-of-the-mill that you see them coming miles before they reach you. So what should be tense, suspense-filled sequences instead become mundane, ho-hum scenes that play like a bad episode of CSI: LAS VEGAS.
And please! Being held hostage and forced to follow orders for 50 pages does not constitute character development! What makes a thriller great is great characters. Look at the difference between “SILENCE OF THE LAMBS” and “RED EYE.” One is an Academy Award winner while the other is strictly B-Movie material. Why? The characters are memorable instead of instantly forgettable.
The opening is preposterous. The Judge is run over by a car so he can land in a hospital so he can be killed later on. Why didn’t they just run him over and kill him then???
The backstory about Claire’s mother dying of cancer is a groaner and has no emotional impact whatsoever.
The final twist of having Claire’s father be partially responsible for the murder of Barstow’s wife actually makes me want him to die. You know your script is in trouble when your reader starts rooting for the villains.
Another draft is called for. Claire’s character has to be strengthened. It’s ironic that her character flaw is she’s too by-the-book – turns out, script holds the same flaw.