BELOW LEVEL 7
A screenplay by
David Orange

Story by David Orange Based on Actual Events

Genre: Action, Horror, Romance
107 pp.



Logline:
When a bitter, former Special Forces sergeant goes up a mountain to kill himself, a surprise visit by his daughter and her disappearance ignite this desperate father to save his girl from the most sinister cover-up in American history.


Story Synopsis:
SAM DAWSON, a former Army Special Forces sergeant, copes with the bitter failure of his last mission and is wounded in the heart while his wife, in his absence, has taken up with another man.

Sam is supposedly hunting big game on a New Mexico Indian reservation. The truth is, this battered warrior, both in war and on the home front has him inching closer to pulling the trigger on his meaningless existence.

CARLA, his young college coed daughter, suspicious of her father’s erratic, drunken behavior, pays Sam a surprise visit that halts his suicide attempt for now.

When Carla arrives at the Reservation only to vanish under mysterious circumstances, Sam, energized with a purpose, morphs into combat mode. But, after a quick, fruitless search at the abduction site, the local authorities stall his efforts by blaming the local Res Indians, claiming they are often drunk and rowdy. However, Sam senses the powers in this remote area are hiding something.

But one native Indian, BILLY TWO SNAKES- an aged shaman points Sam to a mesa mountain plateau. Billy tells that his much younger wife was snatched away years ago from those below and waited for her return. Together, the stubborn efforts of these two very different men, Old Billy tries to convince Sam of the dark secret housed below the mountain. An underground military facility there supposedly closed years ago has been rumored to have been taken over by an off-world presence, causing high strangeness on the Res! It seems these Indians have had skirmishes with the invaders for some time.

While invoking native history and folklore, Billy believes Sam to be the reincarnation of their ancient Indian warrior god. Sam dismisses Billy’s talk and hallucinations, for he smokes too much peyote! Regardless, the old shaman enlists tribe members to help in this epic struggle with those below Level 7 rumored to be conducting medical experiment crimes against humanity.

Sam also dismisses the wild stories of the horrors occurring inside the base. He becomes a believer when evidence confirms a geologist-engineer with black (classified) U.S. projects, upon retiring, disclosed in lectures of bizarre experiments with humans going on inside the base. Soon after, this brave whistleblower was murdered in a gangland-style killing. Following that killing, a security officer at the facility leaked horrifying photos of those controlling the base of craving for the chemical booster in human blood. The informer officer and his family have since disappeared from the face of the earth.

Sam is very aware that to solve the mystery of his daughter’s abduction, he has to rely on his unique Special Forces skill-set and, above all, his determination to stand a chance.

Fighting him every inch of the way is a hidden sector of the American government that knows why people are disappearing on the Res and will do anything to protect the frightening Faustian bargain behind it.

Sam sticking his nose into the Off Limits underground military base makes him a marked man. He avoids getting killed several times on the run, once even strangely saved by a herd of Bighorn elk.
Sam admits that his weakened heart needs help; he recruits two former Special Ops buddies with many sought-after skills.
The rag-tag forces of Sam will also include local Indians, even old Billy calling on animal spirit guides to help save the abducted girl and hopefully his long-lost wife.

In a strange twist of fate, Sam also gets unlikely help from EL-TE, a half-human/half hybrid forced to work below for the conspirators. Though El-Te is sensitive and caring for humans, can this hybrid's “other” side be trusted?

Among high octane action, Sam and his team breach the underground facility to make it to Level 6 (Nightmare Hall), only to hear the screams of human victims echo through the corridors. They must free the captives from their doomed situation and expose the sinister crime scene lair to wake up the entire planet to their dangers lurking Below Level 7.