Log Line
Teenager discovers his family are real pirates from another century.
Script Info
Script Type: Feature
Genre: Adventure
Est. Budget: Less than 10M
Screenplay Synopsis
Skim across emerald green waters off the coast of early 1700's Africa, beautiful aquatic life swims below, dolphins and yellow fin fish, then moving toward two large wood built battleships firing upon each other above the tranquility. Loud roar of cannon fire and black smoke, see familiar skull and cross bones flag raised high over one ship lead by pirate Captain William Kidd, as he squares off against the British Navy bombarding his ship, sudden blast destroys the quarter deck mortally wounding Captain Kidd, sending his ship and men to the bottom of the open sea…..Modern day rap music. Loud smashing of hard plastic helmets, crushing blows and grunts, camera spins around inside the view of fourteen-year-old quarterback Johnny Kidd’s helmet, as he’s smashed to the ground under a crushing pile of pop warner football players. Best friend and center Otis offers a not so gentle hand up, as pretty Jordan, toughest player on the team, runs up and slaps Johnny across the helmet for not passing again to her. Jordan and Johnny lock eyes, and we know she wishes they we’re more than friends. Watching from the stands, Johnny’s sea-salty grandfather, Frank, gives two thumbs up, but knows it’s a hopeless fight on the field. Grandpa Frank worked the seas all his life, Johnny’s father Robby, a popular newspaper sports columnist, and mother Maggie, chairperson of the Treasure Bay waterfront restoration committee, don’t like Frank’s bold tales of blood thirsty pirates and lost treasures that always capture Johnny’s attention. Johnny’s older sister Anne, has just left home and moved in with boyfriend, Calico Jack, a Harley Davidson motorcycle rider, much to her parent’s disdain. Local treasure salvage operator, Don Gaspar, mysterious and handsome, is one of Maggie’s biggest donators for the waterfront restoration project. Gaspar has been looking for the lost treasure of Espanola for over thirty years and holds the lost contents to an ancient treasure chest in a warehouse right in the middle of the restoration project. Grandpa Frank and Gaspar are hiding a buried past together.
Grandpa Frank has a strange survey map, like a pirate’s treasure map, he keeps notes and charts, and teaches Johnny to read the night time sky with an old mariner’s spyglass. Frank tells Johnny the story of the fierce sea battle between the British Navy and the famous pirate captain William Kidd, whom was related to them, and after being blown up and sinking to the bottom of the ocean disrupted a buried treasure chest on the sea floor that held Poseidon’s all-powerful trident. Captain Kidd took the trident and raised his ship to the ocean’s surface, to sail the seven seas seeking revenge against the British and other enemies. Johnny learns of the notorious Spanish pirate Jose Gasparilla, who would do anything to get the trident from Captain Kidd and rule the seas. Frank tells Johnny his is part of an ongoing story from the past, now telling him that only Johnny can find the key to the lost treasure chest that holds Poseidon’s trident.
Soon after Johnny’s fifteenth birthday, Frank suddenly dies leaving Johnny wondering if his story about Captain Kidd was true. Best friends Jordan and Otis try to console Johnny, as now with their help, they begin to search through Frank’s ancient notes trying to solve the mystery of the survey map which Johnny is certain leads to Poseidon’s lost trident.
Salvage operator Gaspar wants Grandpa Frank’s survey map. Johnny discovers a hidden message inside Frank’s spyglass which leads him and his friends to the Tampa Bay Nautical Museum. They find additional clues etched on the hand guard of Spanish pirate Jose Gasparilla’s original cutlass boldly on display. The next stop is Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are followed by Gaspar and his henchmen. The teenagers make it to the stadium just as a midday solar eclipse occurs, and Johnny using the spyglass, witnesses an incredible burst of celestial light striking the playing field revealing where the treasure chest holding the trident is located – right on the fifty yard line! During the huge half time performance, the teenagers make their way toward the middle of the field, avoiding security and crawling under a temporary stage set up for the half time band Coldplay performing above. They start digging and discover a small metal box with a skeleton key hidden inside.
Johnny and his friends are captured as they try to leave the stadium. Gaspar appears on the scene, taking the skeleton key to Poseidon’s chest. With the help of sister Anne and some of boyfriend Calico Jack’s Harley motorcycle riding friends, the teenagers escape the stadium and make way for an old light house on the sea shore where they are caught underneath and narrowly escape a tidal flood after finding another clue to the chests whereabouts. They see Gaspar’s salvage vessel tied on the docks in the restoration project area and go there. Parents Robby and Maggie now follow with the Tampa Bay police in hot pursuit and discover the teenagers and the treasure chest holding Poseidon’s trident are in Gaspar’s possession.
Gaspar inserts the key found at the stadium and opens Poseidon’s chest, releasing a brilliant golden light now engulfing and transforming everyone into their true forms of pirates from the past except Johnny. Gaspar is transformed into Gasparilla his true identity, while Robby, Maggie and Anne change to their pirate alter egos and do battle with the pirate crew, as now Johnny, Jordan and Otis pitch in among the chaos, fighting the pirates on deck, and pushing Poseidon’s chest overboard back into the sea where it came from!
Gasparilla’s ship begins to shake violently, as now another brilliant flash of enormous light engulfs the deck, and the shape of a man begins to appear – Grandpa Frank, now the form of the younger Captain Kidd. Johnny’s grandpa has got unfinished business with avowed enemy the bloody pirate Captain Gasparilla, as the two legendary pirate captains do battle for the all-powerful trident.
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