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THE GREAT SATAN

THE GREAT SATAN
By Morgan Leo Shnell

GENRE: Action
LOGLINE:

Forty years American terrorist Daoud Salahuddin murdered the most beautiful woman he could never have.  Today the Great Satan will avenge her.

SYNOPSIS:

Daoud Salahuddin and his twelve-man terrorist unit infiltrate and attack the joint coordination

center to kidnap Contractor and escape into the night. But behind them a man on motorcycle is following

them as they reach the first safe house. They imprison Contractor inside for later execution

and Daoud then leaves for the second safe house to get some sleep.

He dreams of a 30 year old incident from his past coming back to haunt him; of him watching the

free spirited Persian Girl dancing happily in a bar surrounded by friends and is the life of the party. A

young Daoud watches enraged at seeing her flirt with the men in the bar in particular the First Man we see

with her and discover later to be the Great Satan. The dream ends with the Persian Girl being embraced

by the arms of the Contractor the man he’s just kidnapped. He wakes up terrified and races back to first

safe house to find his men dead and the Contractor calmly waiting for him. He warns him that her husband

is coming after him and suddenly the Contractor overpowers and kidnaps Daoud just as a Special Forces

Unit closes in on their location.

In the back of the car Daoud overhears Contractor on the phone directing him to the cemetery. His

last words he says “my soul to keep, do I get it back?” and the phone goes dead scaring Contractor. With

a concealed knife Daoud frees himself and kills Contractor causing the car to crash. With the Special

Forces unit approaching Daoud goes to hide in the cemetery. There he’s stalked and ambushed by the

masked 5”3’ Great Satan erupting into battle. The SF unit joins the fight and Daoud is cornered until he’s

rescued by his terrorist unit. Before though he attempts to get the drop on Great Satan but he’s mysteriously

vanished and a Black Cat lingers in his place. Also during this time we learn that Daoud’s real name is

David Belfield a radical Muslim wanted for the 1980 murder of an Iranian exile.

Daoud and his team flee the cemetery rendezvousing with their two cars where Great

Satan appears on the roof above and pisses down on Daoud. Enraged he chases him leading them away

from the cars until disappearing and then backtracking. They check the cars for booby-traps and finding

none drive off. But as they drive away a bomb hidden in the headrest of the driver’s seat kills most of the

terrorists leaving just Daoud and his 2ic Eshad behind the wheel. They race to Baghdad on the highway

being chased at first by Great Satan on his motorcycle until turning the tables on him. As they ram him,

Great Satan leaps off this motorcycle and onto the hood of their car. He shoots Eshad through the

windshield forcing Daoud to take control then Great Satan rips the windshield out and attacks him. At high

speed Daoud struggles to control the car and fight off the Great Satan inching a gun to his head. Until

suddenly they collide with an oncoming car. Daoud hits the brakes throwing Great Satan into a barrier wall

and saving his life. Taking no chances he shoots the comatose Great Satan and believing him dead drives

away. As he does he has a flashback to a car bombing that he committed years ago and a disfigured First

Man in the bar holding the dead Persian Girl in his arms. It dawns on him that this is the Great Satan and

also her husband.

The SF unit arrives at the crash scene to help. Shockingly Great Satan rises and they chase him

into a nearby apartment trapping him. Inside the SF unit finds the apartment empty and a Black Cat sitting

on the sofa. What they don’t know but we start to suspect is that Great Satan has turned into the Black

Cat.

Hiding out in Sadr City Daoud meets up with his contact Ismalal who is assigned to infiltrate him

out of the country. He describes the incident with the Great Satan back in the graveyard and Ismalal

explains that he could be Jinni a kind of ancient shape shifting spirit but dismisses this as mere superstition.

Soon though Great Satan locates and attacks building where they’re hiding. Daoud makes his

escape just as Ismalal detonates a bomb and collapses the building. At that same moment the SF

Unit arrives and briefly engage Daoud until Great Satan emerges from the rubble and chases him through

the city. During this Daoud grabs a hostage to use as a shield. “Come on let’s finish this,” he dares Great

Satan to shoot. Shockingly Great Satan deliberately kills the hostage demonstrating how far he’ll go to kill

him. Scared out of his mind Daoud hides in an apartment building and gets ambushed by Great Satan and

fight. During the struggle Daoud manages to push him out the window and falls to the ground. Triumphant

Daoud retrieves Great Satan’s gun looks down on him one last time. He reaches down as if wanting to rip

off the mask and see his face but backs off.

“Killed you and her a long time ago man - long time ago,” or so he thinks.

Avoiding discovery Daoud ducks inside a mosque and prays. He intimidates the people showing

the gun under his shirt then bows down in prayer and when he comes back up he’s alone. Except for the

First Man from the bar scene kneeling right next to him, magically healed and wearing the Great Satan’s

uniform. He’s the husband of the Persian Girl murdered by Daoud years ago. Face to face with his enemy

he admits his true feelings, “I wanted her.” Then pulls the gun but is knocked out of his hand. They fight

over the gun until Daoud succeeds and aims it point blank at Great Satan now down on his knees. But at

this moment of triumph, just as he is about to pull the trigger Great Satan snatches the gun from his hand,

rolls on his back and shoots Daoud dead. His dying last words “I am the Great Satan.”

Second later the SF unit arrives finding Daoud’s body on the floor. They search the mosque but

find nothing. Until they look behind themselves at the Black Cat looking back at them coming to the

frightening conclusion what form the Great Satan can take on.

THE GREAT SATAN

View screenplay
Nathaniel Baker

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