GEOFFREY MAYNARD
SCREENWRITER
BULLETS ONCE FLEW
THE FALL & RISE OF SHEBA
Based on a True Crime Mystery.
PART I - THE FALL
SUMMARY
In the summer of 1979, a Jane Doe's body was found behind the Biscayne Gardens condo complex. This young gamine's demise is one of Miami's greatest unexplored, unsolved true crime murder mysteries.
In this altered history, hard-boiled, tropical noir opus, Miami is ravaged by civil unrest, dual refugee crises, and riots wrought by the brutal police execution of an African American ex-marine (Arthur McDuffie). Simultaneously, a transnational Colombian cartel consolidates its narco empire, spraying bullets at adversaries in a liquor store beside the Dadeland Mall. The attack kicks off a violent turf war orchestrated by GRISELDA BLANCO, the fearsome Colombian drug lord who’s savagely claiming Miami.
Following the attack, Blanco’s Colombian enforcers RIVI, PACO, and VILLEGA ditch their white-panel truck to escape on foot. As responding police cordon off the crime scene, they find the abandoned truck — the interior is armored, reinforced, and stocked with high-powered assault weapons and tactical gear. The truck is dubbed a War Wagon in the news and by authorities who fear that more of them may roam the streets, biding time for an imminent attack.
In present-day, TAIVE (40s), a tenacious internet sleuth and proprietor of an online forum named Digisleuths (a society of open source armchair detectives fascinated with true crime, members obtain clues across the internet to help solve cases). After suffering a recent maternal tragedy, Taive prepares to sell the site when she stumbles across the case of the 1979 Miami Jane Doe. Taive is sympathetic to the tragedy, swearing to identify the victim and deliver her passing’s truth to anyone the young victim may have had in her life. Teamed with Digisleuths, Taive digs up that the Doe was a runaway who street called herself “SHEBA.” And Sheba arrived in Miami in search of opportunity and purpose just as the city plummeted into turmoil.
Taive says good-bye to her boyfriend and adopted child and ventures to South Florida to investigate the cold case. Rain patters, thunder rumbles above her first stop at Biscayne Gardens where Sheba’s body was discovered, but she’s run off by someone inside the building reprimanding her for trespassing. Taking to the streets, Taive locates people of interest — like a questionable medical examiner, before connecting with retired detective AL WEAVER. In 1979 Weaver was a narcotics detective who recovered Sheba's body.
Meeting after-hours at a Miami history museum, Weaver educates Taive on the era and shows her security footage of a crime scene at Miami’s Airport. On-screen, Sheba deplanes and with horrible timing, barrels into Rivi and Paco as they botch a bayonet-stabbing hit job. They escape, and speed off outside on a motorbike. Weaver presents a displayed replica of the bayonet to Taive. She morbidly admires it. Weaver promises to gift her another replica from storage as a souvenir. Taive retains Weaver to assist in tracking down colorful suspects in the case.
As Taive’s investigation heats up, she’s stalked by a shadowy intimidator. But the clues lead an undeterred Taive to discover BAD DOG, the owner of Sheba’s workplace, a topless pastry café in that era. As they talk, we detour to the past, to see there, Sheba forged a friendship with her supervisor ARWYN, a recovering addict. They became roommates living in Arwyn’s Biscayne Gardens condo. Villega and Paco enter the cafe to meet up with Rivi and get briefed on their organization's secret plan. The men sit in Sheba's section and Villega promptly razzes Paco over his lower kill count, pouring gas on their sicario rivalry. Rivi recognizes Sheba from the airport, comes on to her, and invites both her and Arwyn to a Miami Beach club gala that night.
Outside the disco, Rivi arrives on his motorbike. Sheba claims she had owned one and can outride the best. Entering the club, in VIP, Rivi introduces Sheba and Arwyn to more of his underworld cohorts. Sheba is instantly seduced by their gangland influence and nightlife glam. She falls into both Rivi's arms and the Colombians’ fold. Rivi’s shady allies proclaim her “Queen of Miami” while flirting over cocktails and cocaine, when they’re interrupted by a suspicious stranger named LELAND. Rivi is leery of Leland. As tension climbs between them, Arwyn drags Sheba to the dance floor. She feeds Sheba drinks, more drugs, and shows her the "Stiletto Tap,” a sly dance move used to ascertain whether one’s dance partner is a ‘Fed’. A move Sheba later employs on Leland, who raises her red flags. She tells Rivi.
Later that night, on Rivi’s motorbike, Rivi and a coked up, drunk Sheba tail Leland to a parking garage. Riding behind Rivi she burns her calf on the hot tail pipe. They overhear Leland conversing on his car phone, confirming he’s a DEA-compensated informant. They ambush him — together — and in this moment Sheba’s morality hangs in the balance; unaware this flashpoint will come to determine the city’s and her fate.
PART II - THE RISE
SUMMARY
Concluding her tumultuous but hazy Miami Beach night, Sheba sleeps with Rivi. Dawn, she awakens hungover and alone in his bed, bearing fresh motorcycle calf burns. She finds Rivi working out in his living room and cursing at the influx of black Haitian and Cuban immigrants featured on TV news.
Also on-screen, runs the latest development on the McDuffie police brutality trial. Her mind a fog, Sheba has trouble recalling whether or not she killed Leland the previous night. Rivi coldly proclaims — he murdered Leland.
Rivi takes Sheba and Arwyn boating off Miami's coast. While the girls snort cocaine and sunbathe, Rivi and two American cohorts fish out airdropped drug bails from the ocean. Revealed to be drug smugglers, they offer Sheba a live-in job to guard the cartel's high-rise penthouse HQ as a lookout. Once moved in, Sheba tracks airdrops with binoculars and monitors a police radio for all threats, but finds it challenging to work with the other runaways working and living there.
In the present, Taive's shadowy pursuer tails her on Miami’s beachfront. As she evades them, Taive calls Al Weaver who arrives just after her attacker flees. Weaver leaves Taive with pepper spray to use for protection. Later, gripped on her cell phone, Taive learns Sheba’s history from Arwyn, off a lead provided by the Digisleuths’ growing online discussions. Arwyn directs Taive to inspect an iconic clock tower on South Beach bearing a clue that’s etched on a hidden compartment, which reads: “Arwyn hearts Sheba.”
Sliding back to ’79, outside the cartel’s lair, Sheba shows off her phenomenal skills riding Rivi's motorbike. She impresses her boss who’s unknowingly watching nearby; the one and only — Griselda Blanco. Through perverse maternal persuasion, Griselda fogs Sheba's mind, unlocks her dark side, and renames her 'BATHSHEBA.' Morally collapsed, Bathsheba is to train with Rivi, with whom she wages a series of hit jobs as the world's first female motorcycle sicario. Rivi gives Sheba his motorbike to keep. Together, they leave a trail of destruction until Bathsheba's destiny comes full circle at Miami Airport where they execute a successful hit, and flee on Rivi's motorbike — but crash. Rivi ditches Bathsheba to save himself, leaving good Samaritan Haitians to help her.
Present-day — Taive questions Rivi in prison, and he alludes to killing Sheba. Weaver tells Taive an anonymous tip was delivered by mail, which led him and authorities to raid and destroy a major threat to Miami. He suspects the tip came from Sheba. Then, Weaver admits to Taive that it was he who chased her on the beach, attempting to scare her from Florida, afraid that cartel remnants would kill her for uncovering their old secrets.
Back in ‘79 — Bathsheba is recovering in the hospital and being questioned by a detective. Arwyn springs her out and drives her to Rivi's. Bathsheba plots to steal her motorbike back. However, Rivi catches her and takes her to a warehouse where he imprisons her and unveils a dreaded fleet of the lethal War Wagons.
Rivi says he’s poised to eviscerate Miami's black community now seething over the McDuffie incident. He plans to incite a full-on urban uprising race riot so that his cartel may freely flourish in the city’s chaos. When Rivi is distracted listening to the McDuffie trial verdict over a radio, Sheba steals her motorbike, the War Wagons’ keys, and escapes. Bathsheba makes the heroic choice to throw the keys away, returning her to moral ground once more. Sheba stops to write and mail her anonymous postcard for Weaver to locate and terminate the War Wagon fleet.
Returning to Arwyn's condo, Sheba gathers her things to effect her escape from Miami —for good. Arwyn confesses having feelings for Sheba and commits to leave with her. While outside, Rivi, Villega, and a mixed battalion of Marielito and Colombian enforcers arrive at Biscayne Gardens — locked, loaded, and demanding the War Wagon keys; Sheba’s fate, seemingly sealed.
Present-day, live on Digisleuth.com, Taive stands where Sheba's body was recovered at Biscayne Gardens summarizing her investigation. She reflects on how Sheba lacked values, but ultimately died as the city's unlikely savior. Next morning in her art deco hotel, Taive is live again on Digisleuths. Her boyfriend and child arrive to bring her home. A fellow Digisleuth posts a recent Google Earth screenshot of Arwyn taking out trash — looking grizzled, but still residing in Biscayne Gardens.
Arwyn breaks into the room pointing Paco's gun, threatening to kill Taive and her family — the whole encounter broadcast live on Digisleuth.com. Tweaking and full of hatred, a disturbed Arwyn reveals she’s the unseen tenant who chased Taive off for trespassing, and confesses to stalking Taive. Arwyn says she killed Sheba with Paco’s bayonet, saving herself from Paco and accepting her role as his apprentice. As Sheba's life exhausted, Arwyn recalls a positive pregnancy test fell from her hand.
Arwyn nervously trains the gun on Taive’s boyfriend, her finger tensing on the trigger as Taive tries to reach her pepper spray. As Arwyn about to fire, a bayonet bursts through her stomach from behind! She drops dead revealing Al Weaver, holding a bloody replica bayonet — a parting souvenir he brought for Taive.
Back in Georgia, Taive kneels at a small grave and lays down fresh flowers, honoring her stillborn child’s memory and closing her maternal odyssey.
SCRIPT INFO
Script Type: Two-Part Feature
Genre: Crime/Action Drama/Mystery
Length: Part I - Rise 93 pages / Part II- Fall 103 pages
Est. Budget: $10M Per
For business inquiries or script review requests email Geoffrey Maynard:
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