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BBC
WORLD SERVICE - S.5
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BRITISH PETROLEUM SCENE 4
INT. BBC NEWS WORLD SERVICE - OFFICE - DAY
(FLASHBACK)
The newsroom hums with controlled chaos. JILL BIRD (40s, sharp, experienced reporter) sits with her EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (50s, world-weary but astute). Jill is still buzzing from the Terramentals' broadcast.
JILL BIRD
(To Editor-in-Chief)
Their answers to a couple of questions, live on air... it's just the tip of the iceberg, Chief. This group, they claim they were framed, assaulted, imprisoned. They're challenging the entire justice system. Conspiracy to the top.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
This sounds like a job for Charley
Temple. She's too young to remember Piper
Alpha, but she'll know Deepwater
Horizon.
JILL BIRD
Agreed. Get her on it if she's available.
The Editor-in-Chief nods. Clearly, these Terramentals have a sizeable axe to grind.
FLASHBACK - EXT. NORTHEYE PRISON - DAY (MONTAGE)
CHARLEY TEMPLE (30s, sharp, instinctively perceptive), a driven investigative journalist, walks out of Northeye Prison. Her instincts are on high alert.
MONTAGE - CHARLEY'S VISITS TO PRISON:
- VISIT 1: Charley exits the prison, an uneasy feeling.
- VISIT 2: The dull blue estate car. Same scratch. Same bored driver pretending to read. Charley subtly takes a photo with her phone, storing it in an encrypted folder.
- VISIT 3: Outside the prison gates. Two SUSSEX CONSTABLES (mid-40s, blonde, smells faintly of pepper spray) approach, all gleaming boots and forced politeness.
CONSTABLE 1
Afternoon, Miss Temple. Mind telling us the nature of your visits to Northeye?
Charley offers a disarming smile.
CHARLEY
It’s called journalism. Try it sometime.
CONSTABLE 1
Just making sure you’re not... aiding and abetting extremist groups.
Charley blinks, feigning innocence.
CHARLEY
You mean the five environmentalists your colleagues framed? The ones who were sexually assaulted and railroaded through a kangaroo court while your force ‘lost’ the CCTV footage? No. I’m good.
She walks off, leaving the Constable gaping.
FLASHBACK INT. CHARLEY TEMPLE’S LONDON FLAT - NIGHT (LATER)
The front door is half-ajar, splinters in the deadbolt. Charley enters, surveying the wreckage. Every drawer upturned. Her laptop, desktop tower, and phone—all gone. No subtlety at all.
A crumpled, unsigned SEARCH WARRANT lies on the floor beside an open dossier marked "OPERATION DORMANT FURY."
She stands very still amidst the chaos. Then, calmly, she slides aside a row of old Murakami paperbacks on her untouched bookshelf. She retrieves a slim, triple-encrypted drive from a false panel. Fresh backups after every visit.
CHARLEY
(To herself, cold)
Good luck finding that, you bastards.
EXT. NORTHEYE PRISON - DAY (LATER)
A grey Citroën intercepts Charley just outside the prison walls. Two PLAINCLOTHES OFFICERS emerge. Charley barely has time to react before she's cuffed.
OFFICER 1
You’re being held for “data violations” under the Espionage Act.
INT. LOTTBRIDGE DROVE - HOLDING SUITE - DAY (FLASHBACK)
A sterile, cold room. Charley sits opposite a metal chair. One of the interrogators, a BLOATED MAN (50s) with a permanent sneer, drops into it, smug.
INTERROGATOR
You’re trespassing on state interests, Miss Temple. Keep digging and you’ll be bunking with your eco-friends in Sing Sing.
Charley leans forward, eyes burning.
CHARLEY
Sing Sing’s in New York, genius. Try reading a map.
The door SLAMS behind them. The lights flicker.
INT. ELIZABETH SWANN - OPERATIONS BAY - CONTINUOUS (FLASHBACK)
JOHN STORM (40s) stands grim-faced before the HAL interface. The AI's display shimmers, pulling surveillance feeds, jail logs, biometric access trails. Charley’s holding cell lights up in 4K clarity. Her heart rate: elevated. Her interrogation: LIVE.
JOHN
She’s in a box. And they’re trying to break her.
He picks up the comms headset, connecting to GEORGE FRANKS (50s, savvy, politically connected).
INT. GEORGE FRANKS' OFFICE - DAY
George Franks doesn’t waste time. He's on the phone, papers flying. With the backing of several sympathetic MPs, he fires off a formal request for immediate release. He demands to know why an accredited journalist has been detained without charges, denied legal counsel, and held under surveillance without court order.
He attaches a portion of HAL’s recovered footage: Charley led to a cell, visibly unharmed, followed by flickers of shadows, unlogged entries, men without IDs.
INT. SUSSEX CONSTABULARY - SWITCHBOARDS - NIGHT
Switchboards are jammed. Press enquiries. Legal threats. The noise is deafening.
EXT. LOTTBRIDGE DROVE - HOLDING SUITE - DAWN
Charley is unceremoniously released. She walks out, smiling, eyes bloodshot but defiant.
CHARLEY
(To no one in particular)
Nice to know they’re scared enough to be this stupid.
INT. BBC NEWS WORLD SERVICE - STUDIO - DAY
A blistering WORLD NEWS SPECIAL anchored by Jill Bird. Charley Temple stands beside her, composed, authoritative.
ON SCREEN: The CLAYMORE PLATFORM, now a warped, blackened skeleton.
JILL BIRD&
The world already knew who pulled the trigger... but Charley Temple revealed why the barrel had been loaded.
CHARLEY TEMPLE lays it out: inspection records forged or missing. Failures to fix leak alarms. Pressure tests falsified. Pipeline breaches repeatedly patched with duct-tape engineering.
CHARLEY
(Calm, damning)
This is what history warned us about: authoritarian erosion disguised as energy security. It smells like oil—and fear.
Ministers decline comment. LORD EVERINGTON (60s), the bombastic billionaire, is nowhere to be found. His Belgravia penthouse is dark. His PR firm returns automated replies.
FLASHBACK - INT. CHARLEY TEMPLE’S LONDON FLAT - NIGHT (LATER)
Charley holds a blank card. Five words in ink:
"End the story or else."
She slides the note into a plastic evidence sleeve, her jaw set. She files for a High Court injunction. This time, she finds a judge who still believes in law.
EXT. COURTHOUSE STEPS - DAY (ONE WEEK LATER)
Charley stands defiant in a navy coat, flashbulbs popping like gunfire.
CHARLEY
They tried to silence me. But all they’ve done is make me louder.
She has been granted full protection from further police interference, citing “gross abuse of process and violation of press freedom.”
SCENE
6 - UNEP SOS >>>>
PROPOSED
SCRIPT ORDER (90-110 pages) - V1.0 DRAFT
SCREENPLAY
ACT
1.
SCENE
1. PROTESTS - Peaceful
North Sea oil pollution protestors are framed and imprisoned,
by a corrupt judicial system.
SCENE
2. PREDATOR - On release the
Terramentals
& smuggler Jorges
Dicaprio, complete a
mini-sub capable of sinking submarines.
SCENE
3. PHOENIX - Terramentals
locate & hijack HMS Neptune in Irish
Sea, Cumbria, using the Predator mini-sub -
knocking out the crew.
SCENE
4. BRITISH PETROLEUM -
Terramentals warn North Sea rig operators to stop. Claymore
rig is torpedoed, Royal
Navy respond.
SCENE
5. BBC WORLD SERVICE - Jill Bird
reports Terramentals rig attacks, world shocked at pollution
cover up. Charley Temple investigates.
SCENE
6. UNEP SOS - The
UNEP ask John Storm to survey North Sea for oil pollution.
Elizabeth Swann detects HMS Neptune radiation leaks.
SCENE
7. RADIATION ALERT - John
& Dan twig radiation from
HMS Neptune possible serious reactor damage. Must warn Terramentals.
ACT 2.
SCENE
8. STEALTH MODE - Storm spots Astute sub, Swann
in stealth
mode, detected as John warns extremists of sub
radiation leakage.
SCENE
9. CHANGE OF COURSE -
Terramentals change course, heading for the
Straits of Gibraltar. Not believing radiation warning.
SCENE
10. U-BOAT 986 - Evading Swann, HMS Neptune navigates
off transport lanes. Swann picks up magnetic signature of U-Boat
986.
SCENE
11. SENATE, UK & EU DEBATE -
Sub
hijacking & rig destruction, alarm bells around world. Deepwater
Horizon shivers down
spines.
SCENE
12. REACTOR LEAK - Terramentals realise John
telling truth, as radiation rector damage detection system HMS Neptune triggers.
SCENE
13. RESCUE TOW - John rescues
Terramentals. MI6 order Neptune
sinking. MOD knew reactor dangerous, want evidence gone.
SCENE
14. LISBON PORT -
Terramentals & Storm, shut Neptune's reactor. Tow, stricken submarine
to Lisbon, prevent MI6 sinking evidence.
ACT
3.
SCENE
15. ROV ATLANTIS - Swann returns U-Boat stealth mode at night,
to avoid tracking. Surveys site,
discovers Atlantis & Nazi gold.
SCENE
16. TREASURE TROVE - John reveals gold find &
threatened. US Linc Truman support. PM, Ed
Thomas, &
Sealord, royal
support.
SCENE
17. BLUE SHIELD - Cleopatra
alerts Blue Shield, Newcastle
University, potential Atlantis find, suggests UNESCO
world heritage site.
SCENE
18. GOLDEN OFFER - Claimants
reward John U-Boat gold find. Agrees 1% cover costs 9% to Blue Shield surveys.
UNESCO grateful.
SCENE
19. GREEN MOBILITY - Galvanized
to action UK hit green H2 button, John gets grants low
income families, Jill
Bird, news item.
SCENE
20. IMO IS GO - The International Maritime
Org green
H2 & methanol,
certification. USA in. China India stay with coal,
gas
& oil.
SCENE
21. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL - John & George
amnesty, pirate
caselaw & video proof set up. Harry & Johnson
charged treason.
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