Product 125

Note: all told, PRODUCT 125 has received the following recognition: 8/10 score through the Black List evaluations, Top 10 FINALIST in the Filmmatic Screenplay Awards, Amazon Studios Notable Projects List, Semi-Finalist in the Stage 32 / The Blood List presents: The Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest, Talentville Hall of Fame selection, and a Quarter-Finalist nod from the 19th Annual Fade In Awards.

In the near future, GENIA, 18, is unceremoniously put to death in front of her tearful parents. Having violated the most sacred of laws stating that citizens are not allowed to give birth outside of a designated cycle, Genia is made to serve as the example for this society. DR. CRONIS, the megalomaniac scientist in leading this world, broadcasts her death across the city as an example to his citizens: betray the government and forfeit your life.

A few months later, we get our first glimpse of an earth that has become desolate, with oceans dried up and cities abandoned. Along the Missouri River, civilization still exists and we are introduced to the government that provides the drug extending lives to 125 years, free of disease or any signs of aging, in exchange for a lifelong commitment to work schedules and community maintenance. However, this dystopian society does come with one major hitch – once you reach a predetermined age, people are put to sacrificial death in order to ease the burden on the world’s already shrinking resources. THEUS is such a man who is fast approaching his “sacrifice” date. On the surface, he appears to be set on spending his last few days in peace with his wife, LETA, and daughter, ELPIS, but deep down we sense that there is a greater plan in the works. No matter though because CAIN, the head of the ruthless DEATH SQUAD, arrives the very next morning, telling him that Theus’ sacrifice date has been moved up to today.

Theus, Leta, and Elpis are brought to THE CASTLE, Product 125’s headquarters. Here Theus and other citizens must prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice. While Leta and Elpis get ready to say a premature goodbye to him, CRETE, the son of our megalomaniac leader, tries to talk his father into sparing Theus - but Dr. Cronis refuses to entertain the notion. As a result, Theus is put to death. Suddenly, Leta and Elpis burst into action, disabling one of the Death Squad Members and carrying out the escape plan Theus had devised months prior. Right on cue, they split up to execute their individual goals; however, while Leta escapes, Elpis is captured as she attempts to steal vials of the coveted Product 125.

Though wounded, Leta makes it out of the city via an abandoned sewage tunnel and ends up in a barren desert. GAVIGAN, a former Death Squad member who is in love with Elpis, is there to assist her. But upon her discovery that Elpis did not make it out, all seems hopeless in the moment.

Meanwhile, ORION, the first and greatest human specimen of Product 125, demonstrates in front of a crowd as the government’s propaganda rolls full steam ahead. Dr. Cronis confronts Elpis, who is now a prisoner. He threatens to kill her if she doesn’t reveal information on where Leta is. Elpis attempts to escape as she stumbles her way into a mysterious room filled with several clones of Orion where she is eventually recaptured.

A Death Squad team is sent out into the wasteland to look for Leta.. With no Product 125, they will both die before too long, and they fight with each other before coming to grips with the situation. After finally eluding their pursuers, Gavigan and Leta are confronted by DR. HEPHAES, who has exiled himself from his misguided son, Dr. Cronis, following the murder of his wife and his son’s attempted murder of himself. Leta admits to Hephaes that Elpis is pregnant with Gavigan’s child and they hoped to raise the child outside the city in freedom. They discuss Genia’s symbolic death and the black cloud that hangs over their world as long as there is a law forbidding humans breeding with each other through natural means…they both know that if she is discovered, Elpis will be put to immediate death.

Soon enough, Dimitri, one of the operators at the Castle, does indeed discover that Elpis is pregnant, but before he can reveal her to Dr. Cronis, Crete reveals his allegiances as he injects him with a syringe, knocking him unconscious.

Back in the cave, Hephaes hands Leta a purified booster version of Product 125 that gives her more power for a limited amount of time. He also tells her the current form of Product 125 reverses the aging process when people turn 125, which is why Cronis has to cover it up and kill everyone who reaches that advanced age before the world’s citizens begin regressing. He gives her a syringe of a life expectancy strand of Product 125, as well as a lethal dose of poison. Leta and Gavigan leave on a quest to get Elpis back as Hephaes lures the Death Squad to him and then destroys both them and himself in an explosion.

Leta, and a now-wounded Gavigan, re-enter the city where Leta injects herself with the powerful syringe before she meets up with Hephaes’ grandson, Crete, who has been working in secret with him all along. Together, they sneak back into The Castle and she searches for Elpis as he splits off on his own mission. Not waiting for a rescue, the Orion clones help free Elpis; their leader is a YOUNG BOY who proves to be the original Orion in the midst of the reverse aging process. They are attacked by the Death Squad and Elpis is taken.

Crete inserts a flash drive into a computer that displays a pre-recorded video of his grandfather telling all the citizens about what Cronis has done. Leta defeats the Death Squad and is about to stab Cronis with the lethal syringe, but time runs out on her Product 125 booster and Cronis gets the upper hand and kills her. As Cronis now turns his focus to Elpis, Crete steps in and stops him from killing her – revealing his knowledge of all the secrets his father tried so desperately to bury. Cronis pummels Crete, but in a dramatic series of events, Crete eventually kills his father, thus effectively ending his rule over the citizens of this world. The entire altercation has been broadcast to the citizens who turn on Cronis’ rule and establish a new society.

Months later, Genia’s initial death is memorialized as Gavigan watches Elpis give birth to a baby girl who will be the first child in almost a century to lead a natural life free of government control. The denizens of the city close the movie as we see them working together to create a better world.