Synopsis for the Screenplay ONE EYE OPEN (WGA Registered)
by James M. Anderson
561 573- 2031
561 748- 5886
SCREENPLAY SYNOPSIS – ONE EYE OPEN
Knifing effortlessly through an aqua sea, the powerful sport fishing boat MISFIT appears as a speck to the eyes of the man piloting the deadly looking black DEA helicopter. Flying at an altitude of two thousand feet and at a distance five miles behind the vessel, the technological hellhound darts through the wispy low lying clouds above the Atlantic ocean ten miles outside Key West. The chopper pilot radios his partner below, agent Gordon King, who is trailing the MISFIT in a US Customs go fast boat.
“Kingfish, this is Dark Angel. Standing by to boogie.”
“Roger that, Dark Angel. Lets go! “
Minutes later the helicopter and the Customs boat converge to thunder buzz the MISFIT, causing mild consternation to Captain Jack Moon, who is hosting a charter with two Midwestern CPAs who are now cringing on deck. The charter is Moon’s first since he has been horribly wounded by a tiger shark, resulting in the severing of Moon’s left hand, which has been replaced with a stainless steel hook that glints in the blazing sun.
Upon docking half an hour later, Moon is approached by agent King who warns Moon that the DEA is watching him closely because they think Moon might be tempted to fish for square grouper (bales of marijuana) again.
Later that afternoon Moon attends an appointment with a low level functionary at the bank to discuss his delinquent loan for which the MISFIT serves as collateral. Moon is informed that the MISFIT will be seized in three weeks unless he pays the entire debt. A furious Moon bursts uninvited into the bank CEO’s office, confronting the banking official and vowing to scuttle the MISFIT before handing her over. Unbeknownst to Moon, Drake (the Snake) Pittson, a corrupt attorney, has been privy to Moon’s outburst at the banker’s office. Snake’s cunning mind devises a plan to exploit Moon’s desperate situation.
That evening Moon visits Blackbeard’s Ghost, a rowdy Key West bar where his heart of gold sweetheart, Lorilee Lovejoy, works as a barmaid. Lorilee is a beautiful heiress who pleads with Moon to accept her money to pay the debt on the MISFIT. Moon is old school - stubborn and prideful about accepting money, especially from a woman, and he refuses her offer. While conversing with Lorilee, Moon receives a phone call from his slutty, alcoholic ex- wife, who drunkenly screams about overdue support payments for their son Roscoe. Moon dearly loves his son, but as a convicted marijuana felon, Moon can never obtain custody of his son regardless of the mother’s lowlife behavior.
Two men watch Moon from a table in a darkened corner of the bar.
When Moon exits Black beard’s Ghost he is approached by a tipsy Snake Pittson.
“Hey, poor boy, I’m gonna buy the MISFIT from the bank.”
“I’ll sink her first before I let a slimy snake like you touch the wheel.”
“Snakes aren’t slimy, poor boy. If you want to save your boat meet me at the Viper House tomorrow.”
The two men from the bar are listening to the conversation from the cover of a nearby Banyan tree.
The next day Moon goes to the Viper House, a serpentarium owned by Snake Pittson. Moon is accompanied by Raffe Bundy, Moon’s first mate and fellow Vietnam War veteran. Snake gives the men a tour of the serpentarium, showing off the deadly reptiles he adores.
“It’s a rush handling something so deadly and heartless. Their names are beautiful and lethal sounding.
Boomslangs, death adders, gaboon vipers, black mambas.”
Bundy cuts in.
“Black Mama? Wait a minute Pittson. That sounds racist to me.”
“Its Mam Ba , not Ma Ma, Bundy.”
After the tour Snake gets down to business. He wants Moon and Bundy to go to Cancun aboard the MISFIT and pick up a thousand pounds of primo sinsemilla marijuana worth at least two million dollars on the open market. Bring it back to Key West. Fifty fifty split. Moon protests, but Snake assures him that with the fishing tournaments being held in Cancun and Key West that same week it will be easy to mix in with the dozens of boats plying the waters between the two ports. Moon agrees to the scam.
Moon dispatches Bundy to meet Hawk Hernandez, an old veteran friend who runs a helicopter operation in Marathon Key. Bundy and Hernandez discuss obtaining weapons, and they plan their responses to various scenarios they might encounter during the operation.
Later that day Bundy visits the VA hospital where a doctor informs him that he has incurable liver cancer and that he only has a few more months to live. Bundy is stoic. He stops at the Dust-to-Dust crematorium and arranges his cremation. Bundy cautions the manager of the crematorium.
“DON”T STEAL MY GOLD TEETH. My friends know how many gold teeth I have. Okay, amigo? “
Bundy acquires lethal ordinance from Hawk’s militia buddies in the everglades.
On the night of the Misfit’s departure to Cancun, DEA agent Snead frames Snake on a cocaine beef, whereupon Snake agrees to sell out Moon and Bundy and take on Snead and Cox as new partners.
The MISFIT arrives in Cancun, and the men take a taxi to the Mad Dog cantina where they meet with Snake and Snake’s connection, a Mexican named Lobo Loco, a shrewd, vicious bastard if there ever lived one. After calling Moon a coward because Moon refuses to take him shark fishing, Lobo finally offers so much money that Moon can’t refuse.
After Moon and Bundy leave the cantina, Snake informs Lobo that they have new partners. Lobo must kill Moon and Bundy and appropriate the MISFIT. Lobo agrees.
Snake, like Moon and Bundy, is unaware of the deadly intrigue swirling about him. Lobo and agent Snead are the ultimate double crossers. Lobo and Snead meet and conspire to kill Snake, Moon and Bundy.
Moon takes Lobo shark fishing and one of Lobo’s peons dies a horrible death after being crushed and mangled in the jaws of a ten-foot tiger shark. After throwing the body overboard, Lobo chuckles when the peon’s brother sobs.
“Stop your blubbering, idiota. You got ten more brothers at home.”
That evening Moon and Bundy reconnoiter Riohacha town where they will pick up the sinsemilla the following night. Bundy creeps to the window of the stash house where he overhears Snake and Lobo plotting his and Moon’s demise. Snead and Cox enter the room. Snake is hogtied and thrown into a side room. Lobo will kill Moon and Bundy when they come for the load, and then he and Snead will smuggle cocaine to Key West aboard the MISFIT.
When Lobo and Snead depart for a brothel to celebrate their budding friendship, Moon and Bundy take the marijuana and Snake. They are then pursued in a high speed, high seas chase by an enraged Lobo, whose boat is blown out of the water by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Raffe Bundy. The load is cargo netted and hoisted from the deck of the MISFIT by Hawk’s helicopter just minutes before the Coast Guard arrests Moon and Bundy.
Snead and Snake conspire anew in spite of the treachery that has marked their relationship. Snake instructs Snead to let Moon out of jail. Snake kidnaps Lorilee and holds her hostage at the Viper House. Snake calls Moon to the Viper House. Snake drapes a ten foot black mamba across Lorilee’s lush, scantily clad body, telling Moon that he must return the sinsemilla or Lorilee will die. As Snake follows Moon to his truck to make sure he leaves to retrieve the contraband, Bundy leaps from hiding and ambushes Snake, grabbing the mamba, which he holds to the ground until Moon rushes over and spikes the serpent through the head with his steel hook.
Moon chases Snake inside the Viper House where the men hurl glass cages filled with deadly snakes at one another. The crashing of the glass on the concrete floor is followed by the ominous hissing and spitting of crazed vipers ready to strike at anything that moves. Snake heaves a fer de lance at Moon and then runs past him to escape. Moon grabs the reptile by the tail, twirls the serpent above his head like a lasso and then hurls the seething serpent at Pittson’s back. The deadly snake wraps his body around Pittson’s neck before burying its inch long fangs into Snake’s throat. Bundy then trips Snake into a rattlesnake pit where he is struck a hundred times before his agonized screaming ceases.
Bundy has been bitten by the mamba, and he dies peacefully in the arms of his grieving friends who then flee.
Moon arrives at a run down trailer park where his son Roscoe lives. Moon enters a mobile home just in time to prevent a white trash biker from slapping Roscoe. Roscoe begs his father not to kill the biker. Father and son abscond.
Moon is at the MISFIT’s helm. A helicopter can be heard approaching, and soon Hawk Hernandez is lowering a duffle bag filled with cash and weapons to Moon. Hawk’s militia buddies had paid cash for the whole load. It was primo reefer. Moon gives him the thumbs up and Hawk flies away.
A month later Moon, Hawk and the others gather on the MISFIT, which is anchored near Belize. They scatter Bundy’s ashes to the sea.
El Tigre, Lobo’s brother, is meeting with his henchmen at the stash house in Riohacha. He opens a briefcase filled with cash and shows it to the men. He produces an enlarged picture of Moon.DEA agent Rowdy Cox observes from another room.
“Bring to me the head of the gringo who kill my brother, Lobo. He wanted for murder and kidnapping.
He stole a boat, too. The gringo policia will help us find him. Vamanos! “
It is night and Moon is tucking Roscoe into bed aboard the MISFIT, which has been repainted and renamed.
“Dad, what are we gonna do?
“We’re gonna sleep with one eye open, son.”
Roscoe closes one eye.
“Good night, Dad.”
“Good night, son.”
