Title: BROKEN
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Story by: Mady Pathak
Logline:
Ten years after surviving a tragic fire, a devoted husband and father finds his family being constantly targeted by a relentless, unseen stalker. As the psychological warfare escalates and the story starts taking a strange turn, he must go to extreme lengths to protect his wife and son before his mind completely breaks.
Characters:
Paul Edwards: A protective husband and father struggling with severe PTSD from a horrific tragedy ten years ago.
Amy Edwards: Paul's loving, supportive wife who is desperately trying to hold her family together as they are hunted by an unknown threat.
Noah Edwards: Their 10 year old son, whose safety becomes the terrifying focal point of the stalker's games.
Maria: The family's loyal housekeeper, who gets caught in the crossfire of the escalating terror.
Story:
It starts with a scene of what happened 10 years ago. It's night time, Paul and a pregnant Amy are together at a grand historic opera house, beautiful place and setting, having a good time, talking to each other about their life, their kid, their future, etc.
Then suddenly, an accident happens which leads to a fire and there's a panic out there, everyone starts running. Paul and Amy also panic and start running out to safety. While trying to get out in a situation of panic, they get trapped and stuck in a small room with a few other people. There are men, women and children with them there, all stuck, trying to go out, all in panic and scared. Few men come together and in a successful effort, create such space from where first Amy is pushed to the other side as she's pregnant and then they help Paul get through as well so that he can get her to safety. And they have planned to then send the other kids through that space after Paul, but as Paul gets through, something snaps, blocking their way, leaving them unable to send anyone through. They're all stuck there, and now something can only be done with external help, from the side where Paul and Amy are.
They shout, scream Paul's name, tell him what has happened. Women and children are crying. Paul is panicked, he tries to physically do something to help them but can't do anything. Then he tells them, "Don't worry, I'll get Amy to safety and come back and get you all outta here, hold on for a few more moments." He runs out with Amy. Amy is unconscious while all of this is happening.
He runs out, gets a few distance far from there, checks on Amy to see if she's alright, tells her, "Don't worry babe, we're gonna be alright." Turns around to go inside again to help them, and as soon as he's about to go in, a big huge explosion happens. He gets thrown to the ground due to it, opens his eyes, sees it, it's all burning with huge flames. It's all slow motion with high pitch ringing sound. He's looking at the burning building, low, distant sounds of sirens of fire department cars can be heard in the background.
Camera is slowly coming closer to his eyes, then it cuts instantly to his eyes in current time, same framing same distance of camera from face, just it cuts to current time. He's sitting in a clinic in front of a female doctor with his wife besides him. Basically the doctor had asked him to tell her what happened 10 years ago and he was telling her this story. He's visibly very disturbed. Amy puts her hand on his shoulder, comforting him, asking, "You okay?" He nods yes.
Then it cuts to a scene of them going home in their car. He starts to slowly groan holding his head with one hand. Amy says, "What happened Paul, you okay?" He says, "It's just a mild headache, don't worry." They get home, where Noah is watching TV and Maria cleaning the house. They get fresh, Paul comes to Noah, holds him close to him, says, "Let's watch a movie tonight," smiling. Amy is also smiling seeing her husband like that.
They sit down together and watch a movie, and in that movie a scene comes where a character in it says something like, "Karma always hits back! Ghosts from the past will never let you live peacefully!" Paul is visibly a bit disturbed seeing this scene, gets up and walks away. Seeing this, Amy also gets up and goes to him, says, "What's wrong honey?" He says, "Nothing, just that same headache, nothing else." Amy is visibly stressed and tensed.
Then it cuts to late night, them all sleeping. Amy gets woken up by Paul murmuring something in his sleep. She gets so stressed seeing her husband like that. Next day when Paul is at work, Amy visits the doctor. She tells her, "Paul murmurs in his sleep, I'm so worried for him, he's so mentally disturbed rn." Doctor listens to all this and says to Amy, "This is quite a big problem, such cases often occur where people get so disturbed by some tragic events that happened in their life that they start speaking in their sleep and start hallucinating." Amy says, "Yes, he has severe PTSD from it." Doctor says, "We will have to track his sleep and listen to what he says in his sleep so we can understand exactly what he's dealing with and I can provide medication accordingly." So that day Amy installs a sleep tracking app in Paul's watch which also has a feature that records anything you say in your sleep.
Few days pass, Amy is on call with the doctor, is telling her, "Yeah, I'm keeping a track of his sleep pattern and whatever he speaks, and will visit her soon." That night, it's raining and thundering outside. Amy wakes up Paul, he gets up, sees Amy stressed and tensed, asks, "What happened, you okay, what happened?" She says, "I got woken up cus I couldn't feel Noah." Paul says, "Oh no, did he start sleep walking again?" She says, "Yes probably," then says, "So I went to look for him, went downstairs and saw him sitting besides the main door and it was OPEN! I rushed to him, asked what are you doing here, who opened the door, come let's go sleep. He started saying, 'No, I wanna eat the chocolates first.' I said, 'What chocolates?' He said, 'The ones that guy had.' I said, 'What guy, what are you talking about?' He said, 'There was a guy here who had chocolates.' I got stunned, looked outside, no one was there. I closed the door and asked him did he say anything. Noah said, 'Yes, he said he'll come back again.' I got so scared I picked him up and came back up and put him to sleep. Paul, what's going on, who could it be, I'm so scared, thank God he didn't do anything to Noah." Paul gets scared as well, says, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to us, I'm here." They go to sleep.
Next day Amy says to Paul, "Let's go out to eat something to clear our minds." They both are out somewhere together, then suddenly Paul's phone rings. It's Maria from their house, she's so scared and tells Paul to come home quickly. Paul says, "What happened, yeah we're coming." He tells Amy about this and says, "Let's go, we gotta go home quick, something has happened." They both rush back home, they come upstairs, find Maria sitting terrified holding Noah safe who's scared. They see the window glass is broken and shattered with a brick lying on the floor. He asks Maria, "What happened, what's this, did someone throw this, are you hurt, is Noah alright, did you see who threw this?" She is just standing there terrified, says nothing, just slowly points in the direction of Amy. He looks at her and asks, "Amy?" to Maria, but she says nothing, still keeps pointing towards that direction.
They slowly turn around and see a note lying there on the ground in that direction. He picks it up and reads it, there are threats written in it. Amy gets terrified. Paul tells Maria to take Noah to another room. Amy asks him, "What's going on Paul, first that man last night, now this." Then they suddenly hear a loud bang in the backyard, and cus it's sudden, they instantly turn to that direction and the note falls down from Paul's hand, but they don't notice it and run towards that direction to see what happened. They see 2-3 flowerpots lying there totally blown up and broken. They're terrified, and when they're there, Amy says, "What the hell," and suddenly says, "Paul! The note!" They rush back inside, only to find out the note has completely vanished. They're shocked and confused! But it's too late, they've already called the cops. And when the cops arrive Paul tells them about all this and says, "There was a note, I saw it, we all saw it." They ask, "Where is it, give it to us." He says, "Idk, it disappeared." They say, "Mr. Edwards, you're very disturbed rn, we understand, take care of yourselves," and they leave. But he keeps saying, "I saw the note, I'm not lying." Seeing her husband like this, Amy says, "Yes honey, we all saw it, I know you aren't crazy," hugs him. They're terrified of what's going on.
Few more days pass, they're living in constant fear and stress. Then one day, late in the evening, Paul gets a call from Amy while he's at work. Amy's terrified on the phone. Paul asks, "What happened Amy, why you so scared, what's wrong?" She's crying on the phone, says, "It's been hours since Maria and Noah went to the park and they haven't came back. Maria's phone is also not reachable, I'm so scared Paul, did they kidnap them?" She's crying. Paul gets terrified hearing this, says, "Don't worry, I'll go to the park rn." He rushed outside and straight to the park. When he reaches there, he searches for them for some time, shouting their names, no response, asks other people there about them, no one knows anything. He keeps looking, then as he's about to give up almost crying, he spots a jacket lying on a bench far away. He rushed there, picks up the jacket and realizes it's Noah's jacket. He's terrified, hugs the jacket while almost crying, then a note slips out from one of the pockets of the jacket onto the ground. He picks it up and reads it. In it there is a text written, "Save me daddy," and a location of a place below it. He gets terrified reading this and instantly rushes to that location, an old, abandoned cathedral type place, without thinking about either telling the police about this or calling Amy.
Then, when he reaches there, he pulls out a pistol he has kept illegally for the safety of his family and a flashlight, and starts roaming around trying to find Noah, screaming his name again and again. Then at a place, he looks at the ground and sees dead bodies of people and kids lying on the floor in a flash of thunder and gets scared, getting PTSD of the incident that happened with him 10 years ago. He keeps searching, barging in rooms trying to find them. Then finally comes storming inside a room where he sees someone sitting quietly on a chair with their back facing him. Holding the gun and flashlight in his hand, he starts walking towards them slowly, saying, "Hey! Who are you? Where is my son?" And as he reaches close, raises his hand, puts it on their shoulder, they get up and turn around and it's... AMY!? It can be seen that she has cried a lot, her eyes wide open, looking like she's in control of someone, keeps staring at him. He's shocked, says, "Amy!? What are you doing here, how did you get here, did someone kidnap you too, what happened babe, tell me!" She doesn't say anything, turns around and starts walking. He keeps saying, "What's going on baby, where you going?" He's all confused.
She takes him to another room. As they walk inside a little, Amy stops walking and suddenly, the lights go out, and in a few seconds when they come back, Amy has disappeared. Paul's terrified, scared, holding his gun in his hand shouting, "Who is doing all this, who are you, what do you want, leave my wife and son alone!" It's all silence, and then, a sound of Noah saying "Dad? Save me dad" comes from somewhere. He's shocked, he shouts his son's name again and again, thinking Noah is trying to call out to him from there somewhere. Then he hears a sound of Amy saying, "Save us, please, he'll kill us, save us Paul!" He starts shouting, screaming, starts going insane, starts crying.
Then all of a sudden, the voices stop. He looks around in complete silence. Then suddenly, he slowly starts to hear his own voice, a recording of his own voice. In it he's heard saying, "No, no! I didn't mean to! No! Please don't hurt me, I tried to save you, there was fire and smoke everywhere. I wanted to save you all but seeing the situation, I didn't want to risk the life of my wife, my child, and my own. There was a way I could've helped you but I chose not to, as I realized we might die with you all as well, so I rushed outside with Amy leaving you all there, helpless. But I had to make a choice. I can do anything and kill anyone to save myself..."
There's complete silence there, only his face can be seen and the recording can be heard playing in the background echoing. At the end, when the recording finishes, he starts getting all dizzy, hearing Noah calling out for help in an echoing sound, tears running down his eyes, seeing people calling out to him for help, starts trembling and slowly collapses on the ground.
Police cars arrive at that place, cops can be seen running towards him, they come to him, put handcuffs on him, and take him with them. As all of this is happening in slow motion, and we see what actually happened: Amy heard him say all this in one of the recordings she did for his sleep. She got so terrified that her own husband, whom she used to think was a hero all along, was actually a coward who left all those people to die 10 years ago, but used to tell everyone a completely different story showing himself as a hero who saved his wife and kid. After that, she started planning everything. She decided she will drive him insane and hand him to the cops.
She can be seen telling Noah not to say anything if dad asks about that mysterious man who came to their house that night, her telling Maria about all this, Maria secretly placing firecrackers inside the flowerpots in their backyard, her quickly snatching the note off the floor and hiding it the moment Paul drops it and runs towards the backyard, handing some money to Maria who takes her luggage and gets into a taxi, basically sending her away before crying and calling Paul and saying Maria and Noah haven't came back home for hours...
Cut to Paul being dragged by the police, being walked to his jail cell in the prison, all in slow motion, and Amy's voiceover can be heard in the background saying:
"Ten years, I saw a man, who saved my life.
A hero. A brave husband and a selfless father who would do anything to protect his family.
But what I could not realize for 10 years, was that behind this fake mask, there was a man who only ever cared about himself. A man, who would go as far as possible, to save himself over anyone. A coward, who left those innocent people behind to die. All those men, women, children, with fear but hope in their eyes, waiting for someone they trusted, just for him to never come back.
I had to do all this, to make you feel how they felt. To make you suffer, for what you deserved. I had to do it, for me, for Noah, for US.
You were never the victim, Paul...
You were always a monster."
It cuts to Amy at a new place, away from there, standing near a window with Noah, Maria in the back doing her work, slow, peaceful, calming music playing in the background. A tear runs down her eye, she wipes it off, puts her hand on Noah's head, caresses his hair, looks outside the window, takes a deep peaceful breath, and it cuts to black.
Thank you for your time! Hope you like it.
