When a conscientious reincarnation cop uncovers misuse of a soul transferal machine and becomes Public Enemy No. 1, he is forced to come up against the most powerful man on the planet in order to create a new and more just world.

SYNOPSIS:

Stevan Šerban

THE REINCARNATION COP

Feature-length film – treatment

From the story, "The Reincarnation Cop", by Stevan Šerban

WGA number 1755329

Log line: When a conscientious reincarnation policeman uncovers misuse of a soul transferal machine and becomes Public Enemy No. 1, he is forced to come up against the most powerful man on the planet in order to create a new and more just world.

ACT 1

It is the near future, and German scientist Guzengrock discovers a shortcut to reincarnation. He constructs a device, the Golden Cradle, which is able to transfer the soul from one body to another. Whether your body has worn out from age or you have been killed in a Mafia feud, all you have to do is provide a new body that is clinically dead. Guzengrock’s machine is able to separate the soul of the unfortunate, clinically-dead donor from the body, send it on its way, and give your soul a new home in its new body. The patent to the machine is quickly stolen, and any electronics whiz is able to build a Golden Cradle – if someone is willing to pay, of course. Because of the complete anarchy resulting from misuse of the Golden Cradle by the rich and powerful – and criminals too – the World Government prohibits the Golden Cradle.

This proves an ideal opportunity for the powers-that-be to found the new Kasta Religion, which divides society into four castes: the Priest-Teacher Caste, the Administrator Caste, the Guardian Caste and the Worker Caste. This is done for the “good of mankind”, in order to “leave it to nature” to decide whether after death the soul will, depending on its merits, progress, stagnate or regress in its “evolution”. Of course, if you are born into the Worker Caste, that is what you have “deserved”, but so have your children, and your children’s children. The same applies if you are born into the Administrator Caste – to you, your children and all your descendants. Of course, this system suits only those at the top, while schoolchildren of all castes are indoctrinated in the principles of this new religion from an early age. According to the Kasta Religion, members of differing castes are forbidden from mixing – an offense punishable by death for the member of the lower caste. Since the Golden Cradle can be obtained on the black market and is being used illegally, the World Government forms a special Reincarnation Police from members of the Guardian Caste, whose task it is to locate and destroy illicit Golden Cradles.

Reincarnation Officer Banik is a member of the Guardian Caste. He was born into the Worker Caste, but because he lost his parents as a baby he was adopted along with another boy by a family from the Guardian Caste. They were granted the privilege of adopting a child from a lower caste under the condition that the child never learned of its true origin. Banik has been decorated a number of times as the top member of his unit, but there is one blot on his career: a son, from a forbidden relationship with a member of a lower caste. After it was discovered, his girlfriend was publicly executed and his son sent to a family from the Worker Caste, and he has not seen him since. It was only thanks to his exemplary career that he got away with just a suspension. This event impacts Banik greatly in two ways. Firstly he is personally deeply affected by the double loss – of the woman he loved and the son whom he has been separated from and who has lost both parents at the same time, much as he did when he was a baby. Secondly, as a result of the tragedy he has experienced, Banik becomes withdrawn and even more conscientious – and brutal – as a guardian of the system of which he himself has been a victim.

Due to the nature of his work, Banik has contacts with a variety of characters of dubious background. One of Banik’s informers is Pura Motsa, a 12-year-old boy of above-average intelligence from the Worker Caste. Thanks to his contacts on the street, not to mention his outstanding hacking skills, he has proven to be a very useful associate of Banik’s. Pura Motsa is a rebel, and dreams of the day when the Kasta Religion will be abolished and that he will be able to study at university – something currently forbidden to him. Pura Motsa talks about his boyhood dreams with his friend Fiona from the Administrator Caste, with whom he meets covertly. Banik unconsciously attempts to build a father-son relationship with Pura Motsa, trying to at least partially fill the void left by his personal tragedy. Through Pura Motsa, Banik learns that the Golden Cradle is to be used, and manages to prevent the illegal reincarnation of one of the world’s leading criminals – Gorcillo, a trader in all kinds of arms. Because of the unnatural division of society into castes, a resistance movement is formed in the most populous caste, the Workers, which seeks to overthrow the Kasta Religion at all costs and proclaim the equality of all people. The resistance movement frequently organizes protest events, and has its own illegal media through which it tells anyone who will listen that the Golden Cradle has not been done away with and that it is still being used by the rich, and by the criminals tied to them.

The resistance movement has closet supporters, one of whom is Dobra Vila, from the Administrator Caste, a World Government computer and media expert. At one of the anti-Kasta Religion demonstrations Dobra Vila, though disguised, is arrested together with several other protesters. Banik’s brother, who works in the regular police, asks Banik to get Dobra Vila out of custody, as she is a good friend of his, and to wipe the arrest from the record. Banik gets Dobra Vila out of jail but instead of being grateful she hurls abuse at him, telling him he doesn’t know what demons he serves and that he needs to consider his actions.

Prompted by this outburst he goes to the station and sees in the database that there is no deposited soul of the criminal whose reincarnation he prevented. Banik begins to have doubts about the job he has done all his life. He goes to the temple to pray and to try to collect his thoughts, talks to Pura Motsa, checks Dobra Vila in the citizens’ database, does everything he can to try to resolve the doubts that have surfaced in his mind thanks to Dobra Vila. Pura Motsa, in these conversations with Banik, argues with him. He feels a sense of injustice at the fact that he as a member of the lowest caste does not have the right to study for the occupation he is interested in, only what the state imposes on him. One day Banik is on duty and sees an alert go out, triggered by illegal use of the Golden Cradle. He runs to the command centre but finds no-one there, even though several officers should be there to record the illegal reincarnation. He monitors the reincarnation on the monitor and sees the biggest cheese of them all, owner of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals and food manufacturing company, old Baba Jaga himself, being reincarnated in a new body. Acting fast, Banik records the whole reincarnation procedure through the visor-mounted camera above his eye. No sooner has he finished recording the illegal reincarnation than the image disappears from all the monitors and security forces rush into the room. Banik takes them out and flees the station.

ACT 2

Banik goes from being the system’s greatest guardian to its number one enemy. He is pursued by the police, Baba Jaga and Gorcillo. Banik hides with his brother, who lives in the same building as Dobra Vila, but the police quickly find him. In the ensuing shoot-out, Banik’s brother is killed, while Banik wipes out all the police. Dobra Vila comes running to the apartment and sees her friend, dead, and accuses Banik of the killing. Banik has no time to explain and deals her a blow to the head that knocks her out cold. Banik carries the unconscious Dobra Vila with him and makes good his escape.

Banik sits in an abandoned house in the territory of the Worker Caste; he has gagged Dobra Vila and tied her to a chair. Pura Motsa appears with his friend Fiona to help Banik unlock the computer which he ripped out of his car so he could monitor his own pursuit. Dobra Vila comes round and Banik manages to explain to her that not only has he realized that the whole system is one big deception but he also has a recording in his head that can prove it. Dobra Vila tells him that the only way to bring the system down is to play the recording of the illegal reincarnation over the resistance movement’s pirate television station. Banik and Dobra Vila become closer, and he begins to see in her and Pura Motsa the family which the system destroyed long ago. However Banik resists these emotions, having already experienced the consequences of forbidden love. Banik, Pura Motsa, Fiona and Dobra Vila set off to the resistance movement’s base. His powerful enemies do everything to try to stop them.

Within reach of the bunker in which the pirate television studio is situated, Gorcillo catches up with the car Banik and his company are riding in. Gorcillo is no ordinary hardened criminal, he is a member of the Worker Caste and a one-time member of the resistance movement, who has realised that there are other ways of exacting vengeance on the unjust social order, and so has chosen his own path by which to avenge his unfulfilled boyhood dreams. In the ensuing car chase, Banik succeeds in evading Gorcillo for a moment, and takes the opportunity to throw Pura Motsa and Fiona out of the car to get the children out of harm’s way. Gorcillo manages to catch up with Banik and takes him captive along with Dobra Vila to an abandoned warehouse, tying them to chairs. Gorcillo connects Banik, still tied to the chair, to some kind of device, and proceeds to torture him with virtual monsters in order to make him tell where the recording is. Banik does not give in, but Dobra Vila stops the torture, which has become unbearable, and tells Gorcillo that the recording is in his computer in the car. Gorcillo goes to the car and, finding the computer, tells his henchmen to set fire to the warehouse where they have left Banik and Dobra Vila. Meanwhile, Pura Motsa and Fiona have reached the warehouse. Gorcillo’s people set fire to the warehouse and leave, but Pura Motsa succeeds in saving Banik and Dobra Vila at the last minute.

Banik and his company reach the resistance movement and manage to broadcast the recording of the illegal reincarnation. Celebrations break out, a fatal blow has been dealt to the Kasta Religion! Baba Jaga is sitting in his villa with Gorcillo, seething with rage. He hatches a devious plan and via his contacts gets the only official television station to announce that the recording broadcast by the illegal television station is a fake. An arrest warrant goes out for Banik and Dobra Vila, now the number one enemies of the system. Numbers swell at the Worker protests against the Kasta Religion, and the police respond with increasing brutality, ending the demonstrations in bloodshed. The pursuit of Banik and his company becomes the top priority of the entire state system. In order to try to take control over the situation Baba Jaga orders Gorcillo to use pilotless drones to release a deadly virus over the territories of all the castes so that he can sell them the cure and be hailed as the savior of the entire society. All is lost once again.

ACT 3

Banik is in the bunker-studio of the illegal television station of the resistance movement. The leader of the resistance calls Banik over to hear something. Since the resistance movement is monitoring Baba Jaga’s every step, they have managed to record the conversation with Gorcillo. Banik advises them to keep the recording safe, but not broadcast it, for fear of causing widespread panic.

The police surround the bunker and begin an all-out assault on the resistance movement. Banik is forced to leave the bunker in an attempt to foil Gorcillo’s evil plan. The resistance members lead Banik and his company out of the bunker via a secret tunnel to safety. As he exits the bunker, Banik comes face-to-face with his best friend from the police, who is with two more officers. With their guns aimed at one another they stand there for a few moments. His friend asks him whether he knows what he is doing, and Banik answers, “Very much so, but I could do with a little help!” His friend agrees, calls off the assault on the bunker and together with Banik sets off in pursuit of Gorcillo.

They arrive at Gorcillo’s villa. Banik storms the villa with the help of his police friend. They eliminate all of Gorcillo’s bodyguards and reach Gorcillo himself, who has his finger on the button to release the virus into the atmosphere. Banik, knowing Gorcillo’s motives, tries to talk him out of it, arguing that the reason he became a criminal in the first place – the Kasta Religion – will soon be no more. They fail to stop him and Banik shoots him. With his last remaining strength, Gorcillo activates the drones. The drones fly over all the major cities on the planet. Pura Motsa and Dobra Vila sit down at the computer and at the last minute manage to land the drones and prevent a global epidemic. The resistance movement broadcasts the recording between Baba Jaga and Gorcillo. The Workers are out on the streets and the world government falls.