Prion
Feature Screenplay, 91 pages
Suspense/Thriller, Sci-Fi
Posted by Robert Hoxie
Written by Robert E. Hoxie
| Score: 54.63 |
| 3 Reviews |
| Score: 54.63 3 Reviews |
America. 2019. Forty nine million have been diagnosed; over twenty million are already dead.
Catherine White, a government-employed neuropathologist, has created a cure. But before a new vaccine can be employed, it first must be tested. Demanding for real test results, her boss secretly sends her to test the new vaccine on the Kuru-infected, cannibalistic tribe of Papa New Guinea.
Meanwhile her ex-husband, Adam, is a butcher who struggles to keep his local meat shop open. Meat prices have dropped to an extreme low and the public is now mainly vegetarian due to the outbreaks. Adam is put in charge of taking care of their daughter Katie, a young and popular teenage girl, who’s on the cheerleading squad.
As Catherine is dealing with the vast jungles and less than civilized people of PNG, Katie is diagnosed. Her life begins a slow depletion. Adam, unable to contact Catherine, has to fight to keep his daughter alive.
It’s epidemic drama, set in the dark days of America’s future. The apocalypse doesn’t come in one day. But instead, drawn on for many years.
ApocalypticCharacter DrivenFuturisticMedicalMonsters/AliensPsychologicalReligious ThemeSupernaturalThrillerViolenceTime Period: Near FutureSpecial Effects: Minimal SFXTarget Audience: Adult
America. 2019.
Catherine White, nueropathologist discovers a cure for a Prion disease that has infected forty-nine million Americans; killing twenty-two million. Her boss chooses to skip the normal testing and sends her to Papa New Guinea to test the vaccine on a cannibalistic tribe who has been infected with their own type of Prion disease, Kuru.
Her ex-husband, Adam, a butcher, struggles to keep his meat shop open, due to people's fear of contaminated meat. He visits his mother, who's longest surviving Prion patient in the world. Doctor Jones, who runs the facility, begs for Adam to allow experimental medicine to be tested on his mother. Adam refuses, keeping a promise to his mom.
Their daughter Katie, a teenage girl who's on the cheerleading squad, has to stay with Adam. She shows early symptoms of the disease, but tells no one. It's not until a basketball game where she collapses during a routine, that Adam realizes that his daughter too, has Prions. He takes her to the doctor where she is diagnosed and given months to live.
Catherine arrives in Papa New Guinea and meets Doctor Stevens, a doctor with field experience. The doctors go to the Prion research center in the highlands of PNG, where they meet, Doctor Henricks, a world renowned Prion Doctor.
Back home, Katie’s life slowly depletes. Adam unable to contact Catherine is forced to close the shop. While away, unable to live with herself, Katie tries to commit suicide by throwing herself off the roof. At the hospital Katie is in a coma and Adam must fight to keep his daughter alive.
Catherine and her team, come across the “ Head Hunters” an aboriginal tribe, who collect the heads of the diseased. The doctors make their way to the hamlet where they meet the Kuru-infected. Catherine injects eight diseased with her cure, including a young girl, Kalik. The team takes back one of the test subjects for observation. That night, upon awakening, Doctor Stevens finds the patient has broken out of his room and seems to be violently reacting to the vaccine. Doctor Stevens is eaten alive. Henricks shoots the test subject. Catherine armed with Henrick’s gun, goes out to the hamlet to save the others.
Adam is forced to use his mother as a experimental subject in hopes of finding a cure to save his daughter. He signs papers and his mother is injected with the medicine.
After fighting off the cured, Catherine is confronted by Kalik. Who viciously attacks Catherine, but is shot dead by the Head Hunters. They are fascinated by Catherine’s blond hair.
Catherine returns home, to find Katie on life support. But it's too late.
Months later…
Catherine, now diseased, is in wheelchair, where on TV she watches her boss being charged with “Act Against Humanity”. Adam, now a vegetable grower, hears something coming from his mother’s room.
He goes into the bedroom, to find his mother with new life. The experimental vaccine has finally cured her.
