A young woman joins an alluring new-age sect only to find herself an unwitting accomplice in a murder plot.
Character DrivenCrimeEpicHistoricalLaw EnforcementPeriodPsychologicalRuralThrillerTrue StoryTime Period: 20th CenturyStory Location: USASpecial Effects: Extensive SFXTarget Audience: Adult | Young Adult
1975-1985, the New-Age movement; framed around the belief that self-inquiry and self-awareness were required to reach peak human experience.
Attracted by the positive messaging of the movement, 18 yr old Jennifer convinces herself that she can become a fully self-realized being and experience a new state of consciousness. But when Jennifer realizes she has zero experience in the area she looks instead to a medley of eastern holy-men and their emissaries who have re-branded themselves for the new-age generation.
With their live-and-let-love motto and alluring red wardrobes, the "Rajneesh” group easily stands out. Guided from afar by their Indian guru, the group also touts an edgy manifesto, novel therapies and a communal lifestyle. Jennifer embraces the group and their guru who, she learns, is on his way to the U.S. When word reaches her that the guru’s arrived, Jennifer’s path takes a jagged turn; from Seattle’s bright city lights to a dusty outpost carved across Oregon’s high desert wilderness.
Fueled by the zeitgeist, Jennifer commits to the group, and their plans for a utopia in the desert. In time, her loyalty is noted by a commune staffer who asks her to join a security cell assigned to protect the guru.
The decision becomes a fateful one when Jennifer discovers the cell’s been ordered to gun down a government official; unable to stop them, she braces for the unimaginable…
But ill-suited as assassins, the plot fails, sending the cell into disarray and Jennifer in an all-out race to alert the authorities.
Her sentence served, she starts a new life, vowing to keep the guru’s orbit as far away as possible, until one day, in spite of her efforts; she is pulled back, through a time portal, to Oregon.
With their live-and-let-love motto and alluring red wardrobes, the "Rajneesh” group easily stands out. Guided from afar by their Indian guru, the group also touts an edgy manifesto, novel therapies and a communal lifestyle. Jennifer embraces the group and their guru, a guru who, she quickly learns, is on his way to the U.S. When a message reaches her that the guru has finally arrived, Jennifer’s path takes a jagged turn; from Seattle’s bright city lights to a dusty outpost carved across the high plains of Oregon.
Capable and enthusiastic, Jennifer adapts quickly to the communal framework. In time, she attracts the attention of a commune lieutenant who offers her a chance to join a security cell assigned to protect the guru. But the decision becomes a fateful one when Jennifer discovers the cell has been instructed, by the guru's deranged secretary, to assassinate a state prosecutor in Portland. Under duress, she fulfills her role but when the team’s shooter fails to hit his mark, Jennifer seizes the moment -- and breaks away…
Her sentence served, Jennifer starts a new life, vowing to keep the guru’s orbit as far away as possible, until one day, in spite of all her efforts; she is pulled back, through a time portal -- to Oregon.
