THE FILMS

IN THE WORLD / IN PRODUCTION / IN DEVELOPMENT

pot luck / the cold / a thousand guns / war path / the earth above / ghost soldiers

WAR PATH / SCREENPLAY RUSSELL FRIEDENBERG

The year is 2020 and a group of rogue scientists working on DNA engineering and teleportation methods inadvertently develop “The PATH”, (Proton Accelerated Time Highway) a technology that allows them to travel back in time. They begin to covertly send back ‘Scouts’ to recover water, plant and DNA samples as well as infiltrate specific historic events and record data as to what really occurred in history. There is a leak and PATHway Technologies is forced to make a ‘company move’ traveling back thirty days in time, enabling them to hard wall their data and continue their ‘research’ before the government can fully infiltrate their system. But disaster strikes in the form of a government raid, destroying the equipment and scattering the team across time.

One novice scout, CODY HARMON finds himself alone and half naked looking out across endless miles of rolling, grassy plain. His other teammates and their equipment are nowhere to be seen. He struggles to rise but is knocked flat by a fellow scout who materializes on top of him with a bullet hole in his back and expires. Hungry, confused and unsure of where and when he is, he dresses in his comrade’s blood-spattered clothing and begins to walk east. A Lakota hunting party almost kills him before he notices that one of the warriors wears a worn PATHway laminate ID woven into the decorations on his chest. Speaking to them in halting Sioux, Cody desperately fumbles through the dead scout’s wallet, flipping through his Visa, Amex, and Blockbuster cards before finally finding his PATHway ID.

The warriors take him back to the tribe where he is brought before their leader, CHIEF SITTING BULL! Sitting Bull tells Cody that the ID card came from one of their ancestors that came to live with the Lakota a long time ago, and died on a buffalo hunt when the old chief was still a young warrior. Cody now realizes that the PATHway team has been scattered across time and that he may very well be the only member of his team living in the ‘present day.’

Cody is welcomed into the tribe and proves himself a leader as he ‘predicts the future’, enabling the Lakota and their allies to win battle upon battle. Yet, with every battle won, the web of time is changed ultimately resulting in Cody’s inability to foresee events. One unexpected confrontation results in the death of many loved ones and Cody is seen as one who has ‘lost his power.’ No longer trusted he is thrown from the tribe.

Wandering the cold desolate plains alone Cody continues his search for remnants of his team as well as caches of vehicles, communications equipment, and high-powered weapons to arm the natives. Can this one novice scout lead a proud and soon to be defeated people against the westward expansion of the United States? WAR PATH is the story of one man's epic struggle to rewrite one of the bloodiest chapters in history.