SYNOPSIS:

A native American youth discovers supernatural elements from his late father’s secret, WWII history and realizes history is about to repeat itself when a series of gruesome murders begin to happen around him. The story takes place in mid-50’s Los Angeles.

RISING HEAT WGA #1676055

Rising Heat Treatment: George Hogue is a Navajo WWII veteran, “codetalker” who died from the effects of alcoholism after the war, when Alex was still in grade school. Due to his depression and addiction, his wife divorces him, leaving their half-Navajo son to be raised on the res. by George’s mother. Early in his life, Alexander Hamilton Hogue is taken from his grandmother’s home in Kayenta, AZ, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to the sweltering, muggy heat of Texas, leaving his mother, who lives in CA, to try and find where he’s gone. Alex was placed in a “white” home in rural Texas by the BIA but finally located by his mother and taken to live with her in her native L.A., in the spring just before his 18 birthday. Alex and his mother stop in Kayenta, AZ to visit family and Alex has an encounter with a wealthy man on the res. who holds great distain for his late father, claiming that his father was responsible for the deaths of some of their fellow soldiers during the war. To “rub it in”, The man gloats about winning George’s hot rod in a poker game and how easy it was to win against a drunk. Alex finds that soon after moving to L.A. and turning 18, he begins to have recollections of his childhood that arise in his dreams. The rising humid heat of an L.A. summer is a bit much for Alex and he wakes up after these dreams in a pool of sweat. (With each incident where Alex gets angry or worked-up, he notices the heat.) At the same time, there is an increase in mob violence in the city, one family battling the other for territory. Alex works a job at a service station and finds it ironic when he inherits an old Indian motorcycle from his uncle, but this allows him to explore his new environment. With his new-found freedom, he finds himself crossing paths with a series of gruesome mob-related murders, committed amidst the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles. The murders are shown with slashing and mayhem but with each murder, the nature of the killer and his methods are not made apparent. The FBI gets involved as the murders increase in frequency and become more gruesome. Tension between mob families begins to build causing more hits between the syndicates in retaliation. Alex finds a common thread of his own that links him to the murders and he begins to wonder if a mysterious man he keeps seeing is the hit man that is committing the murders and is somehow after him. As vivid dreams involving tidbits of information relating to the killings begin to become more frequent, Alex becomes increasingly paranoid and is worried about his life and the safety of those around him. He starts to notice the mystery man carries a shiny device which Alex believes is the murder weapon, and he shows up more frequently in his every-day life. As the FBI begins to move in closer, turning up the heat on anyone involved, they also realize a correlation to the location of the service station and possibly to Alex. The mob is moving in on the killer as well, and using informants through the FBI, begins to suspect Alex is the hitman. They plan on scaring him by confronting him at the station. Instead there’s an incident with the owner, Mr. McCoy, who pulls out a shotgun to protect himself. When Mr. McCoy turns up dead after the mob scare goes bad, the FBI puts Alex directly in its cross-hairs, turning up the heat even more. Alex, enraged and scared at Mr. McCoy’s death, goes out on a hot summer night, to find the killer as well. In doing so he meets up with the hitmen D’Urso and Cullotta who were sent from the mob families to take out the killer. In a climax-building chase, Alex, the two hit-men and their back-up thugs find themselves in a cat and mouse duel to the death with the FBI hot on their trail. Alex finds the adrenaline and fear from the situation causes him to break into a full-blown fever. The mysterious man who has been shadowing Alex shows up and is obviously involved. Alex tries to stay alive while attempting to chase down this mystery-man whom he thinks is the killer. At the pinnacle of the chase, Alex’s body is boiling hot and he blacks-out. As he comes- to, he finds himself standing in the shadows watching one of the hit-men, except his vantage point is from the perspective of a person that is well over 6 feet. His mental state reminds him of images from his dreams except this time he’s completely aware of his surroundings. Alex realizes he is the monster half man-half wolf. And the scattered images from his youth of the skin-walker ritual that created this power, comes fully to his memory. He realizes he is the killer from the news and he finds he has an innate desire to attack and destroy anyone in whom he sense evil. There’s one last sequence of suspense as Alex, in monster form, hunts the hit-men down, taking the men out one by one, saving the most vicious (Cullotta) for last. The FBI moves in, attempting to bag the serial killer amidst the stealthy attacks, only to find Alex, the lone survivor in his normal form. Just when the FBI is about to take him into custody, the mystery man turns up and turns out to be part of a clandestine organization (NSA, CIA, etc.) and they take Alex with them, much to the chagrin of the FBI. The organization has had their eye on him as he was about to turn the crucial age of 18, and have been anticipating the possibility of his changing. They agree to get him out of the hands of the law if he’ll cooperate with them in the future. The shiny object that Alex kept catching glimpses of turns out to be a tranquilizer dart gun that the mystery agent carried, in case Alex should turn into the skin-walker. The agent explains to him that his father had the same mystical talent and was useful to them during the war. They give him the low-down on his father’s exploits and explain what happened to his father in the war. The incident involving 3 U.S. GI’s where the men were all shot, was pinned on George based on the testimony of the only eye-witness – Craig Yazzie. George couldn’t remember anything, and only remembers regaining consciousness after the incident. He was never formally charged as there was only one witness but he was dishonorably discharged and lost his pension, adding to his guilt and depression. Alex asks for the favor of seeing the files on his father and figures out, due to the nature of the killings and details in the file that his father was innocent and the killings were conveniently pinned on George. At this point, he goes to AZ to confront Craig Yazzie, realizing that he pinned the deaths on George so that he could make off with a substantial amount of treasure, obtained from a Japanese estate. In a final chase, Alex hunts down Craig Yazzie and avenges the deaths of the other GI’s as well as his father’s name. The last scene is of Alex down Route 66 in his father’s hot rod - the one Yazzie had won in the poker game…the wind blowing in his hair. The most complex scene as far as special effects, is the reveal when Alex shape-shifts. The story is supported and carried by it's suspense and murder scenes, which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and guessing until the end. This will allow for an efficient budget while maintaining a grand delivery. There are a few scenes in the story which take place in Texas and Arizona but which can be staged locally.