SYNOPSIS
Cindy is a RealGirl™ genetically engineered to be the perfect companion, but when her owner forces her to commit a hideous crime, Cindy, with the help of disillusioned Police Chief Rebecca Chalmers, must break free of her programming—before an unstoppable corporate assassin wipes out everyone involved.
Inspired by Fargo, The Terminator, Blade Runner, and the early films of Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Wind River) and Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario.)
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
CHARACTERS
Nick Dewson
30s - 50s. Software engineer with a nebulous tech job. Has never met you but thinks he’s smarter than you. Has lots of interests instead of hobbies, skills, or friends. Would be in over his head in a kiddie pool. Insufferable board game connoisseur, porn addict, knows way, way too much about craft beer.
Rebecca Chalmers
40s - 50s. A former homicide cop in Edmonton who semi-retired to Rosshaven. Friendly and patient but a little bored of how slow her new town is, thinks maybe she made a mistake moving out here. Can turn on her old skills in interrogation and investigation like a light switch. Cat lover, bad with technology, loves a good coat.
Cindy
Age Indeterminate. Cindy was designed to look anywhere from 16 to 25 but she has aged far beyond her original lifespan. She was manufactured ten years ago.
Cindy was programmed according to Nick’s specifications: Primary attributes: docile and mischievous, secondary attributes: Good Wife, Virgin Whore. Her age, Nick’s abuse, the violence she experiences during the story, and the kindness she receives from Rebecca, cause her to break free of her programming.
Lee
20s - 30s A skinny little weasel of a man, coasting through life. The dark mirror of Nick: stupid but thinks he's smart, but without the privileges Nick was given (and thinks he earned.)
Solon
30s Smarter than he looks, but he gets more respect as a solid wall of muscle and bone than an intellectual. He'll stick with Lee until the smaller man becomes a liability, then discard him.
The Auditor
Age indeterminate. A lethal, implacable, unstoppable corporate asset dispatched by Cindy's makers when things get out of hand in Rosshaven. Genderless, ageless, designed to be ignored and forgotten the moment they pass. Superhuman strength and intelligence. A walking weapon, the auditor is the dark side of policing: absolute power with allegiance only to the absolutely powerful.
“We’ve got enough to toss them both away forever. Ask yourself: does she deserve that?”
“A snow-covered field on one side, machine-planted trees in perfect rows on the other: looking down the rows you can see for miles, but all there is to see is more trees.”
SETTING
Rosshaven, Ontario and environs (Could substitute for any central or eastern Canadian province / midwestern or northeastern State).
Sometime in the near future, 2030-2040. No to flying cars or giant holograms, yes to environmental damage and social upheaval. (And genetically engineered people built to customer specifications, like combat chassis and personality programming.)
Rosshaven is modelled off the hundreds of small towns in southern Ontario, specifically Acton in the Halton Hills region. The town has one intersection, one elementary school, and one high school. Most residents are farmers or remote workers. People keep to themselves. The economic divide is large: poor farmers and other townies, rich remote workers who can live anywhere.
Sometime in the past, the province took full control of all local police forces—and then slashed the provincial police budget. Rosshaven doesn’t have a local police department; they have a provincial police station with three officers to look after an entire region. Most grievances are handled beyond the traditional justice system anyway: the cops mostly serve to write citations in order to generate income for the province.
It’s early winter, late October/early November. There is thin snow on the ground, and it is grey and overcast throughout.
Locations
Rosshaven
A small town with no more than 10,000 residents. One main street.
The Rosshaven & Arthur Police Stations
A small-town police station with a big main seating area, kitchenette, interrogation rooms in the back, and a basement for records storage.
Funeral Home
A small-town funeral home that also serves as the town morgue—think Silence of the Lambs.
Tacky Tech Bro House
Nick’s house is an old A-Frame farmhouse that he has inherited. It has been decorated based on Instagram accounts with no sense of cohesion or order. A single man lives here, and it serves only as a place for him to work, watch TV, and store his shit. A natural, woody palette.
Fancy Tech Bro House
The opposite of the above: carefully crafted and considered interior decor, more privacy in the architecture and groundskeeping. A darker palette—forest greens and granite greys.
A Cabin in the Woods
Modest and cozy.
A Farmer’s Field
As it sounds.
A Strip of Highway
Trees on one side, field on the other.
A Gas Station
Exterior only.
A Seedy Motel
The front door opens onto the parking lot. Two beds, a TV, and a bathroom in the back with a shitty tub.
A Dive Bar
A bar on one side with a big TV, booths, and a small stage at the back.
Forest with a Frozen Lake
Behind Rosshaven PD, a small section of woods slopes gently down to a frozen lake with land visible but distant on the other side.
“A few deaths, a few fires in a small town? No one will notice.”
BREAKDOWN
ACT 1 — A random murder of a hospital patient in a field reveals the existence of humans-the-aren't-human to Rebecca. Meanwhile, Nick hires Lee and Solon to involve Cindy in a bank robbery so he can get a refund from the company that made her.
ACT 2 — Lee, Solon, and Cindy rob the local bank. Cindy,doing what she's told, murders the three employees. They flee, activating the auditor, who arrives to clean up the situation. Rebecca learns the identity of the murder victim in the field and their connection to everything. The auditor kills Lee and Solon and then targets Nick and Cindy.
ACT 3 — Rebecca hides Nick and Cindy in the police station. Rebecca shows Cindy kindness and empathy, despite the horrible thing she's done. When the auditor attacks, Cindy breaks free of Nick's control. Rebecca kills the auditor and hides Cindy away in her old family cabin.