Shaolin

A Kung Fu Action Screenplay Set in Los Angeles

Log: A Chinese-American Shaolin monk in China is called back to Los Angeles to rescue his kidnapped niece from a Mexican drug cartel using his mastery of Kung Fu.

SUZY CHEN is an adventurous fourteen-year-old Chinese American living in Los Angeles. She’s roller blading through the streets of downtown when, after a chase by members of a Mexican drug gang, she’s thrown into their graffitied van – kidnapped.

MARGIE CHEN is Suzy’s single mother who owns a donut shop. She becomes worried when Suzy doesn’t arrive for work. That night, when she’s completely distraught, there’s a knock on the door of the closed shop. She sees LUIS (DOLL FACE) FLORES, who earned his nick name after having his face tattooed in prison to look like a skull. He shows Margie a menacing video of Suzy on her phone. The ransom demand is $500,000 – and don’t call the police or else. After unsuccessfully trying to mortgage her house and business to raise the ransom, she sees no other choice than to ask help from erstwhile lover and shop regular, JOE FOX. He’s a grungy L.A. detective with a big gambling problem. Margie confides in him. He takes notes, giving her hope that he can help, but leaving the shop he furtively tosses the notebook into a city trash can.

The next day, the van arrives at the sprawling contemporary house of VINCENTE (EL MACHETE) DOMINQUEZ, who is a stylish drug-cartel capo. Inside the van is a GANG MEMBER who stole drugs from El Machete. He sics his killer dogs on the Gang Member.

DAVID (SHUH DUG CHING) CHEN is a Chinese-American Shaolin Monk Kung Fu Master living in a remote monastery deep in a Chinese forest. He’s Margie’s estranged brother. Although they haven’t seen each other in decades, she calls asking that he return to L.A. to help find Suzy. He rejects her request outright to avoid the traumatizing memories of their drunk, wife-beating father. But when their call ends, he receives that Doll Face video of Suzy, and flies to L.A. David rides a bus from the airport. In the rear of it, wearing his orange robe, he’s standing on his head meditating when five NAZI SKINHEADS start a fight. David decimates them.

Margie still lives in their childhood home. When David arrives from the airport, he becomes uncomfortable from the memories. He left, he says, because he failed to defend their mother from their father’s the brutality, and felt like a failure. He ended up in a Shaolin monastery in Portland, Oregon and from there to China. Margie asks David how he expects to get around L.A. He says the bus, but given the urgency, she insists he drive their father’s old Harley Davidson.

The next morning, he sits with Joe Fox in the donut shop. As it turns out, Joe is indebted to El Machete for gambling debts. Acting on Margie’s hunch, David discovers that Joe alerted El Machete to Suzy. Since she’s a virgin, El Machete can sell her for $250,000. Hitting Joe’s excruciating pressure points, Joe gives David El Machete’s address – telling him Suzy is there.

David sneaks onto El Machete’s property. It’s guarded by eight El Machete henchmen. David is discovered before he can enter the house. He defeats all the henchmen, and in the process drives El Machete’s Humvee like a wrecking ball through the house – not finding her in a secret closet.

El Machete and Doll Face take Suzy to a remote warehouse that processes their drugs. A gynecologist is waiting. Humiliating Suzy, he confirms her virginity. Impressed by David’s fighting skills, El Machete calls for a meeting. El Machete tells him that he can make more money betting on David in illegal street fights than selling Suzy. The deal is David has to win five consecutive fights or Suzy disappears. The anything-goes fights, staged in a dilapidated warehouse with rowdy spectators, violates David’s Kung Fu discipline.

As David works his way through a variety of dirty fighters, he and Margie bond again. David reveals his shame for abandoning the family. He visits the grave of his father, telling him that he forgives him for the drunken violence, and at the same time confessing that he actually left because he was afraid of turning into a man like his father. David knows that this painful act of contrition will liberate him from the hate to focus on the fights that would save Suzy.

Through Suzy, El Machete finds out that David is Shaolin Kung Fu Master. He becomes intimidated. Believing that Joe betrayed him, El Machete orders Doll Face to bury Joe alive. They send the video to Margie as a warning.

In counting down the fights, David suffers a terrible concussion. A doctor warns his next fight could be fatal. He and Margie insist there’s no other choice except for him to continue, in defiance of the doctor.

El Machete’s daughter, Ferrari-driving GABRIELA, tells David they can get more money for Suzy than anticipated by selling her on the dark web. Given their additional profit, David must fight another five bouts. As a topper, El Machete says David must throw the last fight because he’ll bet against him, in direct conflict with the Kung Fu doctrine.

Margie urges him not to fight. She blames herself for calling David and realizes that El Machete never had any intention of returning Suzy. David insists he can save her by continuing to fight.

Instead of throwing the fifth fight, David destroys his opponent within minutes. Now there’s a showdown with El Machete. David arrives home afterwards to find one of Margie’s fingers nailed to the front door.

El Machete orders a Mexican biker gang to kill David. He destroys all eight of them in a dramatic take-down on an L.A. freeway. David locates Margie and saves her in a brutal fight with Doll Face and the Gangsters. David pulverizes Doll Face. David makes a rope leash to force Doll Face to Suzy’s hiding place.

Approaching a remote air strip, Doll Face uses the van’s cigarette lighter to attack David. During the struggle, Doll Face drops the hot lighter onto fast-food wrappers in the passenger foot well – causing them to smolder. The intensifying smoke obstructs David’s view as they race towards El Machete’s private jet. The van hits a bump, throwing open its rear doors, Doll Face takes the opportunity to attempt escape. On the verge of blocking the jet, a tire blows on the van, and it suddenly slows down – forcing one of the jet engines into the rear cargo area. Doll Face is sucked into the engine by the rope. The jet stops.

The jet’s entry door opens and the PILOT and COPILOT run. By now, the van is burning. Jet fuel drips from the damaged wing. A terrible fight ensues on the plane between El Machete and 10 HENCMEN. Seemingly outnumbered, David defeats them all. El Machete is incapacitated but alive in the cabin when David hears Suzy in the lavatory. He kicks in the door, and as they run from the jet right before it explodes – killing El Machete.

After David and Suzy return home, Margie asks him to stay and keep the remainder of the family together. He insists that he’s a Shaolin. On the flight to Beijing, however, as passengers continue boarding, David has a sudden change of heart. He returns to Margie’s house where the three of them live as family.

Irwin Greenstein WGA #2309462 Thomasville, GA 443-799-5974