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NORTH 40

A Special Ops soldier, whose grief over the loss of a son has torn his family apart, takes them on a vacation hoping to relive happier times, when a perilous situation forces them to pull together to survive. Ordinary People meets Straw Dogs in this Hitchcockian thriller.

Emmett Truman has never been able to put behind him the loss of a son killed in the 9/11 attack. His grief has closed him off emotionally from his wife and especially his second son, Charlie.

Hoping to relive a happier time, Emmett takes them back to the remote village in the Rockies where the whole family had their last happy vacation together. Almost as soon as they arrive, the power goes out and stays out. Inexplicably even cell phones stop working, and the town is totally isolated from the rest of the world.

People quickly become fearful, imagining theres been an attack or apocalyptic event, which feeds right into the hands of the sheriff, Carter Lee, and his local militia known as Homelanders, who have been training to survive any threat or emergency. As supplies run critically short, the Trumans increasingly become the scapegoats for everything from causing the blackout to a freak accident that kills three Homelanders. The pressure cooker in which they find themselves adds to the familys conflicts, which threaten to explode into violence between father and son.

At first Carter Lee encourages the hostility against the Trumans  Emmett is a competitor for power and the towns respect  but it soon boils over and out of his control. He puts the Trumans under house arrest presumably for their own protection, but it also makes them sitting ducks.

If Emmett initially returned to Little Eden to save his family, now he literally needs to save their lives. Using skills learned as a Special Ops soldier, he booby-traps the house and turns it into a fortress. Father and son are forced to work together to survive, and they do because of a combination of their unique personal skills.

North 40 is the story of how Emmett Truman saves his family from both external and internal threats. He outwits their attackers while learning to love his surviving son.

It's Ordinary People meets Straw Dogs with a large splash of Hitchcock.

Written by:
Format:
Screenplay
Starring Roles For:
William Hurt
Susan Sarandon
a young Matt Damon
In the Vein Of:
Straw Dogs
Ordinary People
The Birds
Posted:
07/18/2010
Updated:
01/23/2024
Author Bio:
From a young age, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that took him around the world many times. En route, he found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.

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Contest Results:
Capital Fund (First Place) [2016]
Screenplay Festival (Finalist) [2016]
Slamdance (Finalist) [2010]
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