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Forever Young

During a hostage crisis, an enigmatic man calms his fellow hostages by telling them the story of his one true love and the incredible events that came before it, beginning in the 1500s when he drank from the Fountain of Youth.

Twenty-eight-year-old JUAN CARLOS is struck by a bus and rushed to hospital with severe life-threatening injuries. However, when Doctor GLENN CARISLE examines him, he finds Juan is not as badly injured as the EMTs thought. Glenn fears a mistake and finds records in the computer that state Juan Carlos was admitted to the hospital in 1963 for a broken arm. Glenn becomes intrigued by his patient even while dealing with marital problems.

Glenn searches Juan's possessions and finds Juan featured on an old baseball card for a team that disbanded over a hundred years ago. Juan remains enigmatic after he wakes and becomes interested in Glenn once he observes Glenn having an argument with SARAH. He encourages Glenn to make amends with Sarah and mentions his own wife, MARY, recently died. The men are interrupted when MITCH, a crazed man with a gun, takes people hostage. Glenn and Juan are locked in a storage locker along with LAURA, a nurse, ELLEN, a frightened teenager and PAUL who has a secret of his own.

To calm everyone, Juan tells them his life story and astonishes them by claiming he was a conquistador over five centuries before. He was attacked by a Seminole tribe and Juan ended up in a fight with their MEDICINE MAN. After gouging out his eye, an injured Juan escaped. Finding water, he drinks only to learn this was the legendary Fountain of Youth. Ever since, Juan stopped aging and all injuries heal with astonishing speed. The others assume this is a fictional story.

In a 1940s flashback, Juan spots a man attacking eighteen-year-old MARY SHANAHAN and rescues her. They soon begin a relationship. However, Juan is drafted. Mary fears this will end their romance and they have a fight, prompting Juan to go off to war believing that the relationship over. Not long after, Pearl Harbor is attacked and Mary believes Juan killed. However, Juan returns to her claiming the navy made a mistake. They reconcile and marry.

By the 1960s, Mary begins to notice that he isn't aging. While hanging Christmas lights, he breaks his arm and Mary rushes him to the hospital. The hospital puts his arm in a cast but when he returns home he confesses the truth to Mary. Breaking the cast, he shows his now-uninjured arm to prove his story. Mary refuses to accept the truth but later they are in a car accident and Juan breaks his back. Juan convinces Mary to stay with him until he heals and she finally accepts the reality of their situation.

The couple begins moving often to avoid attracting attention but Mary becomes unhappy. She leaves him and Juan falls into a period of deep melancholy. Eventually, Mary returns. They reunite but it now means they are forced to pretend to be a grandmother and grandson. Dementia strikes Mary in her 90s but she has a moment of lucidity at the end where she thanks him for their life together.

Back in the present, Laura and Ellen believe the story but Glenn is still doubtful. As Juan plans to stop Mitch, Glenn wants to help but Juan knocks him out. Juan tells the others that he was married several times before Mary and implies Glenn is one of his descendants. Juan confronts Mitch and stops him but he is shot in the heart, killing him before his body can heal.

In the aftermath, Glenn learns that Juan was a patient in a psychiatric facility until he escaped a few days earlier. Glenn discovers an article online that reveals Juan was a promising baseball player in 1914 until an accident ended his career. Glenn reconciles with Sarah and then calls his father to ask about their heritage as he now suspects Juan is his relative.

In a coda, Paul enters Highwater Industries where the building has been built around the Fountain of Youth. The man is a detective whose firm has been tracking Juan. The detective gives the Medicine Man a final report.

Script Excerpt
Written by:
Format:
Screenplay
Budget:
Low
In the Vein Of:
Age of Adeline

Posted:
12/23/2022
Updated:
01/11/2024
Author Bio:
Michael honorably served in the United States armed forces and recently retired from the aerospace industry. He has an undergraduate degree in Government and Politics. He has written multiple award-winning screenplays with several more at various stages of development. Currently writes full-time.

Contest Results:
Wiki Contest (Finalist) [2022]
Screenplay Festival (Finalist) [2022]
Boston Awards (Finalist) [2022]
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