TITLE: THE GRIZZLY DIVIDE
FORMAT: Feature | Survival Thriller
LOGLINE: A grieving nurse must protect her niece and nephew from a vengeful grizzly after a poacher steals her cub.
COMPS: THE GREY meets A QUIET PLACE

SETTING: Pacific Northwest, Mt. Solider National Park. A vast, untamed wilderness - towering evergreens, jagged cliffs, rope bridges swaying over roaring rivers, and caves carved by time. An unexpected spring blizzard. It’s beautiful. Brutal. Alive. This is more than a backdrop – it mirrors Amanda’s inner storm and becomes both her greatest threat and her unexpected path to healing.

ABOUT ME: I’ve hiked trails across the globe and had more than a few close encounters—with bears, mountain lions, and even a particularly aggressive moose. My travels to over 70 countries and every U.S. state (twice) have deepened my love for untamed places and the stories they inspire. But my greatest adventure is being a father of five. Their resilience, curiosity, and humor are constant reminders of the heart and humanity I aim to bring to every story I write. The Grizzly Divide reflects all of that: bold, emotional, and rooted in survival, both in the wild and within.

MAIN CHARACTERS
AMANDA HARPER (26) is a sharp, compassionate ER nurse with a deep love for the outdoors. Selfless to a fault, she often prioritizes others at the expense of her own well-being. Still reeling from the traumatic murder of her fiancé during a botched robbery, Amanda is caught in a cycle of grief. To move forward, Amanda must confront her pain and find the strength to live again.

Amanda’s brother, DAVIS HARPER (30), is a driven entrepreneur who built a thriving business but neglected the people who mattered most. His relentless pursuit of success cost him his marriage and strained his bond with his kids. Now, grappling with regret and insecurity, Davis drowns his guilt in work… and whiskey.

JUSTIN RILEY (30s) is a desperate poacher and former soldier, hardened by years of following orders and surviving the unimaginable. A single father with a daughter in the hospital, Justin would do anything—legal or not—to save her. He’s lived through more than most men twice his age, and now he's running out of time and options.
Justin’s boss and former Commander, RANGER DANIELS (40s), is broke, broken, and running an illegal animal trade out of a decaying ranger station deep in the wilderness. Once a proud soldier and protector of the land, he’s now a shadow of the man he used to be, hardened by failure and compromise.

MAMA GRIZZLY is a feral force of nature—fierce, relentless, and fueled by loss. For years, she’s migrated from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest, driven by nothing but instinct and the need to protect her young. Her world is simple: survive, defend, endure.

Amanda isn’t running from bears… she’s running from the past.

IN A SEATTLE SUBURB HOSPITAL…
AMANDA has just been placed on leave after a violent ER incident leaves her reeling. Haunted and untethered, she agrees to join her brother and his two kids on a healing hike through Mt. Soldier National Park. One trail. Four hikers. A chance to start again.

But something else is moving through those woods. Something wounded. Something furious.

Elsewhere in the park, JUSTIN tracks a rare grizzly cub, a desperate score for his corrupt boss, RANGER DANIELS. But his success triggers a primal chain reaction—MAMA GRIZZLY, driven by grief and instinct, begins a relentless rampage. One by one, anyone marked by the scent of Justin’s gloves falls victim to her wrath.

By the time they see the blood on the trees, there’s no turning back.

A sudden unexpected blizzard traps Amanda and the kids high in the mountains. With DAVIS injured and separated, and their supplies lost after a rope bridge collapse, Amanda is thrust into survival mode. And something is watching them from the trees.

Amanda and the kids find Justin broken and bleeding, but don’t yet know what he’s done. They take shelter only to face a starving pack of wolves.
Amanda freezes when faced with using a gun to defend her family. Her young nephew steps up to protect the group. The next morning, in front of the remains of a mauled wolf, Amanda knows what she must do… She protects. She fights. She bleeds.

When her niece is injured and Justin’s role in the cub abduction is revealed, Amanda must face not only Mama Grizzly but the trauma she’s buried for too long.
The wilderness strips her down. Grief. Rage. Regret. Only what’s real survives.

To protect what’s left, Amanda becomes the one thing she’s feared… stronger than grief, fiercer than the forest.

After Justin sacrifices himself to save Amanda’s niece, she hatches a desperate plan—luring the very beast hunting them into toppling a tree, creating the only path to their escape.
The final showdown is brutal on a splintered tree bridge suspended high above a raging river. One transformed woman. One desperate grizzly. One doomed ranger. After a harrowing plunge into the icy current, Mama Grizzly reclaims her cub, Ranger Daniels meets his reckoning, and Amanda and the kids reunite with Davis, and she finally finds the peace she thought she’d never earn.

At a newly rebuilt trailhead, Amanda and Justin’s daughter face a plaque for the fallen. Amanda removes her engagement ring and lets it fall into the current. A silent nod from the trees… Mama Grizzly vanishes with her cub. Peace. Forgiveness. Closure.

And for Amanda… a voice reclaimed. A future rewritten.

THE GRIZZLY DIVIDE explores the thin line between grief and rage, and how healing sometimes comes not from escape, but from confronting the wild within and without.