ACT I: THE SETUP

Essential Story Point #1: The Hook
- Taylor's life has ground to a halt. He does nothing but work at a 24-hour convenience store, eat, and sleep. He has no hobbies, nothing he really enjoys. He appears to be somewhat depressed and unmotivated, content to stay where he's at, just existing alongside his annoying roommate/kind of best friend, Chester.
Essential Story Point #2: Upsetting the Status Quo
- Chester, in another one of his dumb ideas, has lost his rent money at a casino. Since this has happened several times already, their landlord has threatened to evict them if they don't pay this month and last month's rent.
Essential Story Point #3: Doorway of No Return
- Taylor decides to pay for them both this month, only to learn that Chester "borrowed" his emergency cash. Now they both have just a few days to make the necessary cash to avoid being homeless.

ACT II: RISING CONFLICT

Essential Story Point #4: The Initial Plan
- With all options closed, Taylor and Chester decide to take their boss up on a dangerous assignment: survive the coming Cleanse (which is basically the Purge) and keep their convenience store standing. In return, they and all the employees who have volunteered to stay will earn their regular pay, along with a huge bonus, enough to keep them both indoors.
Essential Story Point #5: Midpoint & Mirror Moment
- Things go smoothly for awhile for Taylor and his oddball co-workers. Some kids show up to do pharmaceuticals and drink booze with Mike, the bored drunk who's running the pharmacy and who honestly doesn't care, as long as the kids stay quiet. A couple other people are roaming the halls looking for things to take, but besides that it's been good.
  
  But soon some bikers that Chester mad angry at the casino start attacking, and Taylor and co have to fight to survive. Why are the bikers so angry? Turns out, Chester can be quite the jerk at times, making fun of their boss and his gang, to the point that the biker boss decided that he needed an attitude adjustment.
  
  Taylor is constantly reading a self-help book he picked up called "Are You Happy?" The book is a physical manifestation of his inner depression and lethargy. Meanwhile, Taylor is doing everything he can to keep the convenience store together, fighting to keep himself and his friends alive, along with the store walls.
  
  The bikers team up with a group of college kids looking to cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble. Santiago, the weird guy who runs the loading bay, suggests blowing up the store in order to take all the bad guys out and save themselves, but Taylor is adamant that they don't do this. Instead, he comes up with a series of coordinated attacks to take the bikers and the college kids out.
Essential Story Point #6: All Hope Is Lost
- Taylor's boss' fear destroys their plan, leaving all of them caught. All except for Mike, who's both high and drunk of his ass with the rest of the stoner kids in the pharmacy. The bikers and college kids just left them alone since they're so high they're no fun to mess with. Chester starts getting tortured by the leader of the bikers, and Taylor finally breaks, realizing he could've stopped everything if he had just listened to Santiago in the first place. He comes to this realization after a short conversation with the leader of the college kids, a real douche.

ACT III: CLIMAX & RESOLUTION

Essential Story Point #7: Transformation
- Taylor and another co-worker, Greta, break free. After initially running, Taylor decides that the only way to save everyone is for them to destroy the store. Greta, while initially against this plan, since she needs the extra money to go to a roller derby next weekend, eventually decides to help, because she'd rather see her friends live than to behave selfishly.
Essential Story Point #8: Climax & Resolution
- Greta and Taylor return to Chester and Santiago, breaking the rest of their co-workers out, and splitting up. Taylor's boss, Bob, stands up to the leader of both the bikers and the college kids, finding true courage, while Greta and Chester find Mike, the drunk pharmacist, and ask him and the other high kids for help in exchange for drugs from the pharmacy before it blows. Chester, having learned his lesson to not hurt others for his own benefit (a lesson he learned from being tortured), is concerned about Taylor, but has to put it on hold as both forces start to fight in the store.
  
  Meanwhile, Taylor and Santiago start running around making handmade explosives from items in the store, courtesy of Santiago's weird weapon obsession. As Santiago uses his favorite pair of nunchucks to beat the absolute crap out of one of the college kids who had been torturing him with facts, making him feel inferior and like an idiot, Taylor goes to set off the bombs, only to be stopped by the boss of the college kids.
  
  The college jerk tries to talk him down, reminding him how much the place is worth and what it means to him, both as an easy meal ticket and as a source of stability. Taylor starts to see it his way before realizing that the store had been holding him back. It was where he meet his last girlfriend, his only real relationship, and it was meant to be a pit stop on the road to success. A pit stop that lasted for three years. Sure, it gave him what he needed: money for food and clothes, stability, friends even. But it was a prison, a cage. And it was time for him to break free from it.
  
  Taylor uses the store's intercom to give his co-workers the code word to move: pineapple. He then shoves the college douche aside and runs for it, along with the rest of them, as the store blows up. What remains is full of fire and smoke. Whatever bikers and college kids made it out run away, getting the hell out of there, while the high stoners from the pharmacy sit in the parking lot with Mike watching the fire set against the rising sun.
  
  Taylor and Chester finally make up, cementing their friendship. Bob gives everyone their paycheck, minus the bonus, since they destroyed most of the store. But Taylor's co-workers put together what little money they do have to help them pay off both month's rent.
  
  Taylor has a quiet moment with Chester, where he signs his own check and hands it over to him to pay the rent. He tells Chester that he's finally ready to move on with his life. Chester nods and heads off to save his apartment (and find a new roommate).
  
  Taylor takes a look around at the smoldering wreckage and notices his book, "Are You Happy?" It's a bit burnt, but mostly intact. He smiles, and leaves a smile pile of change to pay for it. The last shot is of sunlight coming in through the only remaining windows, as Taylor leaves, moving forward with his life.

Jake Rodrigues

Aspiring Screenwriter

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