TOP THUMB

Creator: Wash Phillips
Age rating: 17 and older
An Academy dropout and a Bar Exam flunker stumble toward heroism, led by their hobbyist skills. And two hot female fighter pilots make sure the trip’s worth taking.
Project collaboration: Closed
Full synopsis
Synopsis: GILL and GATH, two radio-controlled model airplane experts in dead-end jobs--are enticed by CAGNEY, mysterious, imperious CIA officer—to join the first class of Top Thumb. It’s an innovative (and fictitious) training course for military officers to become drone pilots. “Get paid well for what you do now for free,” is Cagney’s inviting pitch to Gill and Gath, as he proposes they show that civilians can do as good a drone job as uniformed personnel. Naturally, Cagney has a dramatic secret scenario of his own design, revealed at the midpoint of the screenplay.
When Gill and Gath arrive in Nevada for training, they discover their two Operations Officers (Cagney’s “hired guns”) are current military fighter pilots—both females, both Academy grads and both worth a second look. One is Air Force, the other Navy, which works for later action.
No, this is not STRIPES goes Air Force. Yes, it’s funny in spots, serious and hot in others, a special kind of fantasy—just as the original TOP GUN was, but with dernier cri notes of its own. The beats are familiar, but everything else is brand-spanking-new.
When pirates steal the largest Saudi tanker and threaten it and a squadron of other vessels with nuclear disaster, Gil and Gath and their mechanical steeds get to make a difference.
And learn the meaning of the “polyamory” (and how they can get some)!. Read the .pdf to find out!

Latest Work

  • Script 1 - Wash's Original Draft
    05/07/11
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    Creative Notes:
    TOP THUMB is the “world” of TOP GUN, 25 years later. Sharing beats of the original (top box-office of its genre). But no sequel, with entirely new characters, settings, organizations, events beyond that earlier film. Many fighter jocks—who might in earlier times be candidates—now fly drones, and are seldom glad. An homage to the original, with today's reality and a bit of sexy fantasy.
    PDF
    RTF