The scene opens on a man tied up in a chair. He has a cut on the right side of his face, that is bleeding. Tears roll down his eyes. Another man walks into view, and hits the man on his right leg, with a baseball bat. The man screams in pain, but his screams are muffled by the gag in his mouth.

“Tell me what I want to know.” The attacker asks.

The man shakes his head, and the attacker hits the mans left leg with a baseball bat. We hear the mans muffled screams again.

The attacker picks up his cell phone.

“Release the demands.” The attacker says.

The opening credits roll

‘Chariot’ by Gavin DeGraw plays.

MBN

And Mac The Movieguy Productions Present

LL COOL J
is

CARTER WINSLOW

CARLA GUGINO

Is

HARPER JORDAN

JULIAN MCMAHON

Is

CHAD COOPER

MEKHI PHIFER
is

MALCOM PALMER

ALLISON MACK

Is

RENEE TAGGERT

And

RICHARD DREYFUSS
is

VIC WARNER

SPARKS

Created By Mac The Movieguy

Written By Mac The Movieguy

Episode 3

Home

The scene changes to a bar, where Carter, Chad, Malcom, Harper, and Renee are all sitting at a table, drinking. Carter also has a tray of nachos in front of him that he is rapidly consuming.

CARTER
All I’m saying is, without Kobe, the Lakers don’t stand a chance this season.

HARPER
That’s crap, and you know it.

CHAD
Alright then. Who? Who will take it.

CARTER
I’m hoping Kobe and the Lakers.

CHAD
But if Kobe doesn’t come back?

CARTER
I dunno. The Rockets?

The rest of the group moans.

HARPER
Look, I’ve got faith in my Lakers. I think you need to have faith too.

RENEE
What about the Clippers?

MALCOM
What?

The rest of the group rolls their eyes at Renee.

MALCOM
The Clippers couldn’t win the title if they were the only team in the NBA.

CHAD
Wait a minute. What if it was the Clippers vs The Bulls.

MALCOM
I dunno, the Bulls have fallen a long way…

CARTER
It’d be close.

Vic enters the room.

VIC
I hope you guys aren’t too drunk.

CARTER
No sir. I’m still working on my nachos.

HARPER
One beer here sir.

MALCOM
One here.

RENEE
I don’t drink. This is just club soda.

They look at Chad.

CHAD
Six?

Everyone groans.

CARTER
What’s up?

VIC
LAPD wants us on the scene. There’s been a ransom demand. And we know where they’re keeping John Doe.

CARTER
What, did they use a phone?

VIC
Yes.

The scene changes to outside a warehouse looking building, in a rundown area of town. The van is pulling up.

“The Sparks are here.” A random cop says.

The team gets out of the van, in full attire.

VIC
Malcom, you’re standing in for Chad.  I can’t have him as the middleman. Not today.

CHAD
So I’m the backseat?

VIC
Yeah, you’re luck I’m letting you go in at all.

Renee begins to set up her laptop. Vic approaches the officer in charge.

VIC
Why’d you call us?

“Fourth floor. Empty. Our sniper on the roof caught a glimpse of the man with a bomb attached to his chair. No sign of anyone else.”

VIC
Do you think someone else is in there?

“Yes.” The officer replies.

Vic motions to his team to head in the building.

VIC
Fourth floor boys, and tread softly.

Carter grabs a shotgun from the van.

CARTER
And carry a big stick.

The scene changes to Carter, Harper, Malcom, and Chad standing outside a warehouse door.

HARPER
Do we even know who we’re looking for?

CHAD
We’re looking for a bomb. You see, we diffuse bombs. That’s what we do.

Harper gives Chad a stare.

CARTER
Both of you. Quiet.

Carter bashes the door open and enters the dark room. He turns on a flashlight that’s attached to his gun and immediately begins sweeping the room. Chad follows, gun in hand, also sweeping the room. Malcom and Harper bring up the rear.

MALCOM
It smells like…

HARPER
What IS that smell?

Chad’s flashlight catches a glimpse of a man, tied to a chair.

CHAD (into headset)

John Doe sighted.

Chad moves toward the man.

The camera pans over to Carter who has basically swept the entire room.

CARTER (into headset)

Room clear.

Chad reaches the man, and notices there is a bag over his head. He looks for the bomb, and notices the timer is at 15 seconds.

CHAD
HARPER! 15 Seconds!

He continues to look at the timer, noticing it is not advancing. Harper and Malcom rush to the bomb. Chad moves in front of the man, and removes the bag over the mans head, to reveal someone completely different, and someone who has been rotting for quite some time.

CHAD
Oh SHIT!

Chad stumbles back away from the man.

CHAD (into headset)

It’s a decoy!

Carter rushes to the rest of the group.

CARTER
What?

CHAD
He’s dead. He’s BEEN dead. This isn’t our guy.

CARTER
You sure?

HARPER
Decoy.

The team looks at each other and heads for the door. As they reach the door, they hear a beeping sound. Chad turns around to see that the timer has started, and the bomb is now at 13 seconds.

CHAD
GO!

The team runs out of the room and heads down the flight of stairs.

The scene cuts to outside as everyone watches in horror as a large explosion comes from the fourth floor. Fire shoots out the windows.

VIC

Damnit!

Vic throws down his headset, thinking his team is lost.

Seconds later, the team comes running out the front door. Vic and Renee run over to them.

VIC
What happened?

HARPER
It was a decoy. Already dead body, bag over the head, a bomb that looked dead.

VIC
Looked dead?

HARPER
I wasn’t gonna waste my time with a decoy. It might not even have been a real bomb. For all we know, he’s still in that building!

VIC
You think?

CARTER
Usually, a decoy is used to pull people to the opposite side of the street.

The team looks behind them at a pizza place.

CARTER
No way.

Carter grabs his gun and heads toward the pizza place. He finds out immediately the front door is locked.

CARTER
AHA!

Harper, Malcom, and Chad join Carter as Carter smashes in the front window.

“Stay back!” a voice shouts.

Carter heads toward the voice, that sounded like it was coming from the back of the store. Carter steps behind the counter to see a dead body of one of the pizza boys. Carter sweeps through the back door and into the back room.

CARTER
LAPD! DOWN!

Carter is fired upon by a man hiding behind a refrigerator. Carter sees the man in the chair, and two men entering the back door.  Carter whips back out of the room, and turns to Chad, Harper, and Malcom.

CARTER
Harper, Malcom, they’re gonna take John Doe out the back. Go.

Harper and Malcom run back out of the store.

CARTER
I’ve got Man 1 behind a fridge, blind firing.

Carter sweeps back around the corner to see the two men dragging John Doe out the door. The man behind the fridge fires again. Carter fires on the man, hitting his hand and knocking the gun from his hand.

CARTER
Chad! Go! (to the man behind the fridge) GET DOWN! NOW!

Chad runs into the room and out the back door.

The scene cuts to behind the building with Harper running ahead of Malcom. She reaches just in time to see the 2 men dragging John Doe out the back door. She stops when she sees John Doe.

HARPER

DAD!

The two men look at Harper, and Malcom also looks at Harper. They pause for a second, and John Doe looks up, terrified, at his daughter.

HARPER
LET HIM GO!

Harper raises her gun at the two men.

MALCOM
DROP YOUR WEAPONS!

The two men throw John Doe into the van and hop in. Harper runs after the van as it peels away. Malcom follows. Chad comes bursting out the back just as Malcom runs past. He follows Malcom.

The scene cuts back into the pizza place with Carter and Van (who is now in the room) handcuffing Man 1.

CARTER
Where’d your boys take him? Huh? Who is he to you?

“You have no idea who you are screwing with.” The man replies, in broken English. “I’m gonna fuck you up.”

CARTER
I know exactly who I’m screwing, my wife. And you think you’re gonna fuck me up?

Carter grabs the man and throws him against the wall.

CARTER
Whose got the gun?

Carter grabs the man and throws him to the ground.

CARTER
And whose the one with the cuffs on?

Van looks a bit nervous at this scene of semi-police brutality.

Carter puts his knee in Man 1’s back.

CARTER
Listen. If John Doe dies. I’m gonna fuck YOU up.

Two uniformed officers walk in, and Carter hands off Man 1 to them.

The scene cuts back to the streets with Harper chasing the van through traffic.  Malcom and Chad are following right behind.

The scene cuts back to outside the police station. Carter and Van are exiting, as a police car pulls away with Man 1 inside. Carter and Van approach Renee.

RENEE
I’ve got them.

Carter and Van move over to Renee, along with a couple of other officers.

RENEE
OK, so this city basically uses traffic cameras, and by using that…

She pulls up some images of the chase.

RENEE
And by tracking Chad’s cell phone…

VAN
He had his cell phone with him? On the job?

RENEE
There they are.

Renee pulls up a map on her computer, with a red dot representing the van. An uniformed officer immediately calls his troops to go to that location, and look for the van.

Back on the street, the van is gaining distance on Harper, who seems determined to catch the van. The camera cuts to Chad, who finally tires out and stops running.  A helicopter now appears on the street.  The van enters an intersection and slams into another vehicle. Almost immediately, the driver gets out and runs, and the vans side door opens and one of the guys from before gets out and runs. The camera pulls into the van to show the other guy pulling out a bomb and ungagging John Doe. He opens John Doe’s mouth, with a struggle.

“If you open your mouth. You die.” The man says.

The man puts the bomb in John Doe’s mouth, and a switch is pushed down.

We cut back to Harper who is almost at the van, watching the man jump out of the van. Police cars suddenly pull up, and the man is trapped by two cop cars. Harper hops in the van, and we see Malcom getting closer.

HARPER
Daddy.

Harper sees the bomb in her fathers mouth.

HARPER
Don’t move, I can fix this.

Her father starts crying.

HARPER
Just bite down on it. Bite down.

Harper pulls her toolkit out of her pocket.  Malcom reaches the van.

MALCOM
I’m tired of running. I’m never running again.

Malcom stops when he sees the bomb in the mouth. He pulls out his headset and puts it on.

MALCOM (into headset)
Renee?

HARPER
Thanks.

RENEE (off screen, in headset)

Yeah.

MALCOM (into headset)
I need to know how to disable a pressure bomb. It’s in John Doe’s mouth.

HARPER
Frank. His name is Frank.

Harper looks at her father.

MALCOM (into headset)

John Doe is Frank. Frank Jordan.

RENEE (off screen, in headset)

Alright, I’ll lead you through it. We’re already en route to your location.

HARPER
Everything will be OK dad.

RENEE (off screen, in headset)

My first suggestion is, get your fingers inside his mouth and push down on the trigger.  Then have Harper dissect it from your hands.

Malcom looks at Frank’s mouth, and notices that the two corners aren’t touching his teeth.

MALCOM (in headset)
Gotcha.

Malcom reaches for Frank’s mouth.

MALCOM
You gotta trust me on this.

Malcom puts his fingers on the corners and pushes down on the trigger.

MALCOM
Alright, open wide.

Frank opens his mouth and Malcom pulls the bomb out.

MALCOM (into headset)
Alright Renee. What next?

Renee, Chad, and Carter step in the doorway to the van. Renee sets her laptop down on the floor of the van and climbs in.

RENEE
Alright.

Renee grabs Harper’s toolkit and looks at the bomb. She takes out the small screwdriver and undoes the front casing to the bomb, revealing the wiring. She looks back at her computer, and takes out the scissors from the tool kit. Renee cuts the white wire only.

RENEE
Good to go.

Malcom releases his grip, and nothing happens.

CHAD
Just one wire? All those colors, and you only needed one wire?

RENEE
Yeah. A lot of them are decoys that would have set the bomb off if I had cut them.

Harper and Frank embrace.

“I’m so sorry…” Frank says, crying into his daughters arms.

Carter helps Renee out of the van.

CARTER
You’ve been holding back on us. Why don’t you do the field work?

RENEE
You guys know where I belong. Not in the field.

MALCOM
I thought you did fine.

Van walks over to congratulate his team.

VAN
Good job. Very nice job Renee.

Van turns to Malcom.

VAN
You outran Chad. Everyday you’re making me feel better about my decision to add you to the team.

Malcom steps out of the vehicle and shakes Van’s hand. Harper steps out of the van and helps her father out of the van. Van turns to Harper.

VAN
Are you OK?

HARPER
My legs are sore from running, but I think it was worth it.

“Thank you… Thank you all.” Frank says, to the whole team.

HARPER
I’m gonna ride with my dad back to the hospital, if that’s OK with you.

VAN
Take the day off. You earned it.

MALCOM
Yeah, if anything else happens. Renee can cover it.

Harper and her father walk over to an ambulance.

CARTER
They got all three of the men.

MALCOM
Do we know who they worked for?

CARTER
Not yet. I’m sure we will soon though.

The scene cuts to a locker room, days later. Harper and Renee are wrapped in towels, changing after a shower.

RENEE
I’m glad you’re back.

HARPER
Thanks. It’s good to be back.

RENEE
How’s your father?

HARPER
Adjusting. He’s still really nervous about going outside.

RENEE
What’d those men want with him?

HARPER
He doesn’t know.

A knock is heard at the locker room door.

MALCOM (Off Screen)

Harper, can I come in?

Renee, looking very shy, moves out of sight of Malcom.

HARPER
Yeah.

Malcom enters the room and crosses to Harper.

MALCOM
I just wanted to welcome you back.

HARPER
That couldn’t wait?

MALCOM
Well.. that and… the report is in.

HARPER
And?

Renee moves back around to hear the news better.

MALCOM
They had the wrong guy. They were looking for a snitch in the witness protection program and went after your father on a false lead. Your father was picking up a pizza when they made their move.

HARPER
So… my father went through all that… and it was all just a mistake?

MALCOM
Yeah.

Harper in a fit of rage turns and punches the row of lockers next to her.

MALCOM
Hey, it’s OK…

Harper starts to cry, and Malcom embraces her, letting her cry on his shoulder. After a couple of seconds, she stops and looks up at Malcom.

HARPER
Thank you.

Harper and Malcom stare at each other for a moment, before she leans into him and kisses him. They kiss for a couple of seconds before stopping. The camera pulls back away from them and shows Renee, who quickly pulls back around the corner, and leans against the wall. She looks really confused.

The screen fades to black.