G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:32 am
This topic spools out of the Casting Topic. A few years ago, a friend and I for fun started writing a Live Action GI Joe movie. The details are fuzzy but I'll try to remember as much as i can. We got about three fourths of the way through it but couldn't come up with a strong, exciting closing act. We decided to go with the strong back story Larry Hama created in the comics, rather than the cartoon. The story was told through the eyes of Ripcord, who had just been recruited to the Top Secret Anti Terrorist Quick response task force code named Delta Something, but by which all the team members referred to as GIJoe. The main Joes were
Ripcord
Snake-Eyes
Scarlett
Stalker
Roadblock
Flint
Lady Jaye
Duke and/or Hawk ( cant remember)
with supporting "cameos" by
Breaker ( comic relief)
Wild Bill
and most of the original team, many only as visual cameos, so you'd know who the character was, but they wouldn't have more than a line at most ("Oh hey! Rock and Roll!" etc..)
I think I threw Cover Girl in there as well, since you can never have too many hotties in a movie.
The Bad Guys were
Cobra Commander
Zartan
The Drednoks ( again, many of these were visual cameos with no meaty dialogue)
Dr Mindbender ( much more of a serious aide de camp/right hand man to CC and less of a whining douche)
Stormshadow
And of course, lots of Vipers.
There was going to be a quick pre-credit sequence where a depressed, drunk guy leaves his ranting brother's house and then you are cutting back and forth between him a family until their cars collide.
CREDITS
Story opened on Ripcord's first day. He was transferred to the "Motor Pool" for reasons he cant fathom since hes a decorated HALO jumper with lots of active combat experience. We are intro'd to the main characters and "The Pit". he then gets tossed into an emergency mission to a Banana Republic alonf with SE, Roadblock, Clutch(?) and Wild Bill to protect and escort a Scientist out of a revolution setting at the US Embassy. ( I think we even called it Sierra Gordo). This sets up the first main action sequence where the good guys escape on a C-130 under heavy artilley fire from skeevy Central American "soldiers".
In the course of the film you realize Zartan is posing as the scientist and the real scientist is already in the hands of Cobra so they can use him to gain access to some macguffin.
The second act revolved around Cobra taking over a skyscraper and the Joe team confronting them in and around the building, but it actually being a diversionary tactic, while Stormshadow broke into another highly secure building nearby to steal the previously mentioned macguffin. There is a lot of cool fighting inside the building and whatnot. This eventually leads to a HUGE car/helicoptor/tank/motorcycle chase thru downtown. Very exciting stuff.
The third act, being nebulous in how we wanted to make it better than our first two kick ass acts, involved GIJoe discovering Cobra's lair and their "plans" for some terrorist act ( which I think we were going to make a red herring plot twist at the end). So Team Joe descends on Cobra hideout. There are BIG battles with cool vehicles and shootouts between Vipers and Joe, but also a personal, kickass ninja sword fight between SE and SS. I was going to have the iconic revealing of the matching tatoos being one of the final shots of the movie. No biggie for those that know the lore, but a big !!!!! for novice movie goers. In the end Cobra Commander gets captured, the Joes win ( but really not since Cobras true objective was completed), Stormshadow gets away.
There were a few VERY QUICK flashbacks about Snake Eyes, such as him getting the news about his family, him getting recruited up in the Sierra mountains, him getting disfigured in the coptor crash interspersed.
The two main couples were going to be very different, one was going to be a slow building story SE/Scarlett, while the Flint/Lady Jaye was played for banter and comic releif. These two obviously want to bone, but instead they just trade barbs at one another while shooting bad guys.
Ripcord
Snake-Eyes
Scarlett
Stalker
Roadblock
Flint
Lady Jaye
Duke and/or Hawk ( cant remember)
with supporting "cameos" by
Breaker ( comic relief)
Wild Bill
and most of the original team, many only as visual cameos, so you'd know who the character was, but they wouldn't have more than a line at most ("Oh hey! Rock and Roll!" etc..)
I think I threw Cover Girl in there as well, since you can never have too many hotties in a movie.
The Bad Guys were
Cobra Commander
Zartan
The Drednoks ( again, many of these were visual cameos with no meaty dialogue)
Dr Mindbender ( much more of a serious aide de camp/right hand man to CC and less of a whining douche)
Stormshadow
And of course, lots of Vipers.
There was going to be a quick pre-credit sequence where a depressed, drunk guy leaves his ranting brother's house and then you are cutting back and forth between him a family until their cars collide.
CREDITS
Story opened on Ripcord's first day. He was transferred to the "Motor Pool" for reasons he cant fathom since hes a decorated HALO jumper with lots of active combat experience. We are intro'd to the main characters and "The Pit". he then gets tossed into an emergency mission to a Banana Republic alonf with SE, Roadblock, Clutch(?) and Wild Bill to protect and escort a Scientist out of a revolution setting at the US Embassy. ( I think we even called it Sierra Gordo). This sets up the first main action sequence where the good guys escape on a C-130 under heavy artilley fire from skeevy Central American "soldiers".
In the course of the film you realize Zartan is posing as the scientist and the real scientist is already in the hands of Cobra so they can use him to gain access to some macguffin.
The second act revolved around Cobra taking over a skyscraper and the Joe team confronting them in and around the building, but it actually being a diversionary tactic, while Stormshadow broke into another highly secure building nearby to steal the previously mentioned macguffin. There is a lot of cool fighting inside the building and whatnot. This eventually leads to a HUGE car/helicoptor/tank/motorcycle chase thru downtown. Very exciting stuff.
The third act, being nebulous in how we wanted to make it better than our first two kick ass acts, involved GIJoe discovering Cobra's lair and their "plans" for some terrorist act ( which I think we were going to make a red herring plot twist at the end). So Team Joe descends on Cobra hideout. There are BIG battles with cool vehicles and shootouts between Vipers and Joe, but also a personal, kickass ninja sword fight between SE and SS. I was going to have the iconic revealing of the matching tatoos being one of the final shots of the movie. No biggie for those that know the lore, but a big !!!!! for novice movie goers. In the end Cobra Commander gets captured, the Joes win ( but really not since Cobras true objective was completed), Stormshadow gets away.
There were a few VERY QUICK flashbacks about Snake Eyes, such as him getting the news about his family, him getting recruited up in the Sierra mountains, him getting disfigured in the coptor crash interspersed.
The two main couples were going to be very different, one was going to be a slow building story SE/Scarlett, while the Flint/Lady Jaye was played for banter and comic releif. These two obviously want to bone, but instead they just trade barbs at one another while shooting bad guys.
