Escape

A fugitive from a chain gang down South attempts escape and gains his freedom from his pursuers—one way or the other.

Type:

Short

Status:

For sale

Page Count:

7pp

Genre:

Drama, Thriller

Budget:

Shoestring

Age Rating:

13+

Based On:

“Escape” (late 1930s-early 1940s), a one-act play by Tennessee Williams.

Synopsis/Details

Three black convicts in a Southern bunkhouse listen while their cellmate makes a run to the tracks for the escape-train north, with hounds and guards in full pursuit. The three convicts hear the sound of a train and then gunshots, and puzzle over the fate their cellmate: escape or capture, life or death, freedom or . . . the final freedom.

Story & Logistics

Story Type:

Escape

Story Situation:

Daring enterprise

Story Conclusion:

Ambiguous

Linear Structure:

Linear

Moral Affections:

Approbation, Guilt, Illegality, Punishment

Cast Size:

Several

Locations:

Single

Special Effects:

Minor cgi

Characters

Lead Role Ages:

Male Adult

Hero Type:

Anti-Hero, Ordinary

Villian Type:

Authority Figure

Stock Character Types:

Bad boy, Everyman, Fall guy, Outlaw

Advanced

Adaption:

Based on Existing Fiction

Subgenre:

African-American, Crime & Gangster, Literary Adaption, Suspense-Thriller

Equality & Diversity:

Minority-Centric, Minority Protagonist

Life Topics:

Approaching Death

Super Powers:

Physical or mental domination

Time Period:

Great Depression (1929 – World War II)

Country:

United States of America (USA)

Time of Year:

Summer

Relationship Topics:

Bonding

Writer Style:

Carl Foreman, Dalton Trumbo, William Faulkner

All content on ScriptRevolution.com is the intellectual property of the respective authors. Do not use or reproduce scripts without permission, even for educational purposes.

Submitted: 2020-Dec-23

Last Updated: 2020-Dec-23

Want to read this script? You must join the revolution first. Don't worry, it's free, easy, and everyone's welcome.

The Writer: R. J. Cardullo

A former university film teacher, I turned to screenwriting several years ago. I have also written film criticism for many publications. A New Yorker by birth, I grew up in Miami and was educated at the University of Florida, Tulane, and Yale. My last U.S. address was in Milford, Connecticut; I am now an expatriate residing in Scandinavia. Many of my scripts (both long and short) are adaptations of lesser-known works by well-known authors. I am happy to re-write, collaborate, or write on demand. Thanks kindly for any attention you can give my work. Go to bio

More Scripts From R. J.

A Temple of the Holy Ghost

In 1950s Georgia, a twelve-year-old girl encounters two teenaged girls, and the result has less to do with boys, clothes, and makeup than with—of all things—hermaphrodites, holiness, and God himself.

Short Comedy, Drama, Family, Mystery For sale 17pp

Wildcat

A ferocious wildcat is loose in the countryside, and it may—or may not—break into an old blind man’s house.

Short Drama, Thriller For sale 12pp

Keela & Little Lee Roy

A white carnival barker confronts a crippled black man who was once kidnapped into carnival work as a “redskin” geek, and the result is confessional, horrifying, numbing—even darkly comic.

Short Drama, Mystery For sale 13pp

A Piece of News

A lonely young woman named Ruby Fisher reads in a newspaper that “Mrs. Ruby Fisher had the misfortune to be shot in the leg by her husband this week”—after which her husband comes home.

Short Drama, Mystery For sale 5pp

Lily and the Ladies

Lily Daw is presented with two choices in life: a mental institution or the institution of marriage; in the end, neither seems palatable to Lily—who may not be as feeble-minded as her guardians think.

Short Comedy, Romance For sale 20pp

Petrified Man

In a Mississippi beauty parlor in 1941, a hairdresser and her customer gossip about husbands, boarders, babies, and the exhibits of a traveling freak show—one of which turns out to be worth real money.

Short Comedy, Drama, Mystery For sale 25pp

Death of a Traveling Salesman

R. J. Bowman, an unmarried traveling salesman, takes refuge from the road one evening with a Southern farm couple—who become the last people he sees on earth.

Short Drama, Family, Mystery For sale 10pp

The Worker

Johnny has been laboring in a mill since he was seven years old, earning money for his fatherless family—until, at age twelve, he decides to run away . . . and retire.

Short Drama, Family For sale 15pp

The Sinner

A trio of desperate figures beseech a god for rescue at sea—only to abandon her once help shows up.

Short Adventure For sale 4pp

The Laugher

John Cleverhouse’s moon-face and grating laugh are enough to get under anyone’s skin—but how far will his neighbor go in order to get rid of the jolly man with the ridiculous name?

Short Comedy, Horror For sale 8pp

An Impractical Joke

In a Nashville mansion during the Civil War, three Union officers discover some women’s clothing, enlist a soldier to dress up in it, and try to fool a notorious ladies’ man—but at a price.

Short Comedy, Romance, War For sale 17pp

Newark to Camden

In 1931, a father, mother, and two of their three surviving children drive south from Newark to Camden, New Jersey, to visit their married daughter—who has recently lost her first baby in childbirth.

Short Adventure, Family For sale 27pp

A Watcher by the Dead

In San Francisco in the 1890s, three doctors decide to test their theories on people’s fear of the dead—only to have death test them.

Short Horror, Mystery, Thriller For sale 13pp

A Tough Tussle

During the American Civil War, on night-time patrol, a Union officer tussles with the Confederate enemy—in the form of a corpse—and loses.

Short Action, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller For sale 6pp

Coups de Grace

During the American Civil War, a triangle has developed between the Union captain Downing Madwell and two brothers with whom he serves—one of them his friend, the other his enemy.

Short Action, Drama, War For sale 4pp

Fool of God

An old Belgian peasant loses his entire family to the Germans in one day during the First World War—only to be confronted by questions of God, man, and self.

Short Drama, Family, War For sale 24pp

Escape

Synopsis/Details

The Writer: R. J. Cardullo

Pages