Dancing Soldier

Feature Screenplay

Logline

Having lost his way, Richard Michael reflects back twenty years on a humid gulf coast night with live-wire Eddie. Neither knowing it yet, the friends as close as brothers set out for their final adventure.

Synopsis

In 2003, Richard-Michael slugs through life as a New Orleans Veterans Administration Psychiatrist while raising his daughter. When a box in his attic topples over, memories of a hot 1983 afternoon flood back. It’s here that Richard-Michael, now a young, and his firecracker buddy Eddie unknowingly adventure out on their final day together. From Cafe Du Monde to their podunk hometown, they get into their usual mischief. Eddie’s PTSD inevitably grows out of control. And when Richard-Michael reveals a secret to Eddie, a divergence between them emerges. When Eddie gets into an altercation, a sudden clap of thunder makes potential tragedy inevitable; Eddie, unable to process the death his startling caused, takes his own life. Richard-Michael finds Eddie’s body, knowing he must carry on alone for both of them. Back in 2003, he places Eddie’s writing back in its box. Descending the stairs, Richard-Michael reenters his life reawakened.