Zero, Ben's Project : Movies : Amazon Studios

Zero

A man wakes up in a medical facility, strapped to a bed and confused at how he got there. We follow his current predicament from his first person perspective as he works to escape and through third person flashbacks we learn how he got here as he slowly remembers.

Synopsis: A man, Ted, awakens in a medical facility strapped to a table. We see through his eyes that he is trapped here, and as he calls out for answers he only receives ominous sounds from outside the door that he is unsure of the source. He begins to struggle to get out of his binds and remember how he got here.

We flash back to a residential living room as a gunshot rings out. We are in third person and see the form of a man, Ted, covered mostly in shadow, looking up at the woman on the sofa, Sarah, who's thigh he was just kissing only to see she is dead with a gunshot to the head. He screams out of shock and whips around to see two men in suits with drawn guns standing in his doorway.

We come back to Ted strapped to the bed. He gives up struggling with his binds, clearly frustrated. He looks around and sees a table full of tools, and with a little struggle he is able to reach a scalpel. He slowly but surely cuts through one of his restraints and begins to free himself.

We return to the darkened residence where one of the gunmen, with his weapon trained on Ted, puts a hand to his ear. He begins to talk, and Ted realizes he has an earpiece and must be talking with his boss. Realizing this may be his last chance to escape alive, Ted turns around and begins to run. He jumps over the sofa, and as one of the gunmen alerts the other that he's escape he lunges to the back door. Ted narrowly escapes as a bullet zings by his head, embedding itself in the doorframe.

Back in the medical facility Ted gets off the bed on unsteady legs. After he is sure of his center of gravity he heads to the door, but when he tries it he finds it is locked. Ted scans the room for other options, seeing a large glass window diving the room he's in and a viewing room, as well as a desk and some cabinets, as well as chair in the room with him.

We cut back to Ted in the past as he is running across a field towards a fence and a large building. We see the two gunmen within 10 yards behind him, both at full sprint to keep up with him. Ted reaches the fence and hops over, as he lands he doesn't pause at all as he begins to try to find an entrance to the building and hopefully some help.

Ted, back in the facility, is trying all the draws and cabinets. He pulls out draws filled with little more then cotton swabs, syringes, bandages and the usual hospital fair. He dives into cabinets, garnering similar results. As he pulls himself out of the last cabinet, breathing heavily from the effort, Ted's eyes land back on the chair he'd seen before, then he turns his gaze back to the observation window as he exclaims an elated "Hmmm...." as an idea strikes him.

We begin to cut back and forth more quickly between the two scenes building tension. Ted runs through the parking lot and around a corner as his still mostly hidden figure finally gets fully covered by shadow. Back in the facility Ted is picking up the chair and then throws it full force through the window. Back in the past Ted rounds a corner to find himself trapped in a dead end as he hears the two gunmen approaching. In the facility, Ted passes through the now broken glass and tries the door on the other side finding it unlocked. In the past we find Ted silhouetted as the gunmen finally reach him.

Ted steps out of the door in the medical facility, and is greeted with the terrifying sight of the hall filled with creatures that could best be described as zombies. As we look out from Ted's eyes we see a mirror on the wall at the intersection of two hallways in which we see all of Ted clearly for the first time. We zoom into the camera only to be switched to a third-person view of Ted. He is a 20 something man, pale as death with dried blood around his mouth and a red hole, the hole a gunshot, right in the top of his chest, right where he couldn't see it before.

We go back to the past, looking over the shoulders of the two gunmen with their weapons drawn. Ted steps further into the light and we see him just as pale, with his face covered in blood. One of the gunmen speaks to the other "We need it 'alive' so preserve the head." Ted takes a more aggressive step forward as one of them shoots him directly where the bullet wound we just saw on him is.

There is a quick rewind as we go all the way back to the living room, before the men broke in. Ted and Sarah are seated on the sofa, Ted looks a little pale but Sarah is glowing, radiant with life. They have a beautiful dinner and champagne laid out before them, lit by candle light. Its a perfect romantic evening as Sarah asks Ted about his setting up such a wonderful dinner. Ted brushes it off then proceeds to kiss Sarah's lips, then her neck, her shoulder, and all the way down to her thigh. Sarah is blushing at his persistent attention but is loving every minute. As Ted reaches he thigh he gives it a kiss, but then something overwhelms him as he lunges back in and bites her leg, taking out a chunk in his teeth. Sarah screams out in pain and fear, but Ted can only respond with animalistic grunts as he chews at her flesh. There is a flash of headlights outside and the screech of tires then the two gunmen kick in the door and one fires a shot, hitting Sarah in the head.

We return to the facility, Ted is no on his knees, crying as he recall's what he's done, what a monster he is. He runs to a nearby zombie, trying to provoke, trying to get it to bite him, to kill him, even crying out to it. But it is all to no avail, the zombie seems to see nothing appealing about eating. As Ted falls back to his knees the camera pans to the door to the room in which Ted was first trapped. On it is a chart with a large sticker. The sticker read:

MILITARY QUARANTINE: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

and the rest of the chart reads:

NAME: Theodore Helken

RACE: Caucasian

SEX: Male

DIAGNOSES: Unknown Virus

NOTES: Patient Zero of new virus, to be quarantined to prevent possible outbreak

Latest Work

Creator: Ben Glasthal
Genres: Thriller and Suspense, Action and Adventure
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Creative Notes:

This is a first draft really and was one of the first scripts I had written as I learned proper formatting. There are some notes I may have in there that are unnecessary but seemed correct to me at the time. The script could use a fresh set of eyes on it for sure.