[This plot of a film noir-like movie came to me in a dream recently. It evolved with certain scenes, and like in a real movie, what was unclear was resolved within flashbacks.]
A young man arrives at a hilltop overlooking a railroad bridge with the city of St. Louis at the other side of the Mississippi river in view. He thinks about how he will settle in that city, due to his origins it'll need to be the seedier parts of the town.
He reminds himself of the first reason why he's there: He had met the old man, who was sitting in jail, who told him where to find a certain car key, asking him to deliver it to the proprietor of a Motor Lodge situated exactly below this railroad bridge. He'll get five thousand dollars to do this errand. Of course, no questions asked.
He drives down a bumpy road and finds the place: one main building with an entrance office and a small diner connected to it, a sign that says Motor Lodge, and maybe 4-5 small huts.
Once at the entrance counter he asks the good-looking, maybe 40-year-old lady that he needs to speak to the proprietor: To his surprise she says that's her, and she explains that it's only herself, her daughter and the janitor here. He soon sees them, too, a beautiful young woman, about 20 years old, and a frail, elderly man.
The young man shows the lady the key, and she immediately knows what it's about. He asks for his reward, but she says not so fast. First she'd need to check, if the key works and that the old man hadn't done any mistake. That'll take about another hour.
She calls a cab. When it arrives she orders her daughter, who protests, but then obliges, to take the key and get the car. The girl already knows where it is to be found.
So, the young man waits in the diner, drinking coffee, together with the lady and her old janitor. Obviously, they didn't have much to do, there were no customers.
Within an hour the young girl arrives back, and watching her drive the car up the driveway and park it, she's obviously very nervous. She gets out carrying a suitcase. She gives it to her mother and explains she had been careful and found nobody following her.
The lady opens the suitcase, gives it a short look, then takes a pack of dollar bills out of it and hands it to the young man and tells him his job is done. He checks the amount, then tugs it into the inner pocket of his jacket. No questions asked.
But before he starts to leave, they all notice that outside a black car had driven up to the Motor Lodge, and it was now blocking the exit. Two men get out of the car, and even from a distance they very much looked like some mobster thugs.
The strangers come into the diner, their guns already aimed at the three people inside. They separate the young man, the girl and the janitor from the lady who's to stay put behind the counter. They say they want the suitcase; they'll leave with it, and nobody gets hurt.
The lady says no; the suitcase is hers. And so the thugs reveal what the case is all about and why they want it back. The suitcase contains a hundred thousand dollars, which is payment that was to be delivered to their syndicate. It was placed in a car trunk to be picked up a little later. But the old man somehow found out about this transaction, opened the trunk before the next driver arrived and placed the suitcase into the trunk of a different car parked somewhere else but nearby.
The old man was in jail and couldn't redeem his loot anymore ever, so he wanted to give it to the Motor Lodge lady, for unknown personal reasons. An inmate overheard the old man's conversation with the young man and knew where to sell that information.And by way, the old man got his due for this theft.
The lady swipes out a shotgun from under the counter and shoots the thug aiming at her. The other thug watching over the other three captives reacts immediately and shoots the lady, but the survivors can flee in the commotion. The janitor manages to fetch the shotgun and runs out the main entrance, while the girl takes the young man to a back door, where they escape.
The remaining thug follows the janitor outside, where it comes to a shoot-out. The girl and the young man only hear this. but need to find a way to safety. It's all mostly open area, one way a hill upwards, the other to the parking lot, where the shooting is going on, or the lot below the bridge. The bridge pier has a ladder up to the tracks, so they quickly decide to climb up to the bridge.
The remaining thug obviously was successful killing or incapacitating the janitor, as he is in quick pursue of the other two survivors, all the while shooting in their direction. Up on the bridge there's not much way to flee, and the thug is quickly approaching.
Just as the thug arrives on the bridge, only a few feet from his victims, and starts to aim at them, a fast-moving train thrusts over the bridge, the girl and the young man manage to make a fast jump over the tracks before the train hits them, and the thug is jostled off the bridge to his obvious death.
The girl and the young man exchange a glance of relief to each. But before he even notices and feels it, the girl sees that the train had torn off the young man's arm. As he realizes this himself, he gives her a last look of regret, then falls down unconscious, quickly bleeding to death. For a moment the girl is in shock, then she checks, if she can save the man, but all hope is lost. She sees the pack of bills in his jacket, takes it and then slowly starts to cross the bridge in direction of the big city.
No comments:
Post a Comment