Fictional Writing: Crafting Compelling Stories

Action/Thriller Feature

(Completed Script)  

2026 Emerging Screenwriters Screenwriting Competition - Quarter Finalist

2025 WriteMovies Screenwriting Contest - Honorable Mention

Collateral Damage is a grounded action-thriller about a former Marine Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) tech, Nick Hardy trying to rebuild a quiet life in Montana, only to discover the bomb-maker who destroyed his team in Afghanistan is now hunting him on U.S. soil. 

Like Reacher, it centers on a hardened veteran with elite skills who doesn’t go looking for a fight, but won’t walk away when it finds him. And like The Hurt Locker, it explores the raw psychological fallout of combat, the addiction to danger, and the high cost of survival. With the added twist of a federal agent embedded in his life under false pretenses, the story blends emotional depth, explosive suspense, and moral ambiguity, proving that sometimes the war doesn’t end when you come home.

Collateral Damage is the first explosive chapter in a potential gripping franchise following Nick Hardy, who is haunted by the ghosts of war. It is built on emotional depth, tactical realism, and a hero who isn’t just fighting enemies, but the war inside his own mind. 

War Drama Feature

(Completed Script)

Like Schindler’s List, No Greater Duty approaches war through an intimate moral lens, using restrained visuals to explore guilt, responsibility, and the quiet courage required to protect innocence amid systematic violence. Its brutality is unflinching but always character-driven, elevating the story beyond spectacle into something deeply human and enduring.

At the same time, No Greater Duty draws from Enemy at the Gates, portraying warfare as a relentless, close-quarters trial where leadership, instinct, and sacrifice dictate survival. Set against the raw reality of the war in Ukraine, the film fuses visceral combat with a personal redemption arc, culminating in a final act that transforms a death wish into lasting purpose.

Haunted by a failed mission where he could not save a child, Marine veteran Jack Callahan slips into Ukraine’s war prepared to die, invisible to the country he once served. But an unexpected bond with a resilient woman and the life she hides draws him back from the edge, transforming his search for death into an act of protection—and a final sacrifice that gives his life the meaning he thought he’d lost.

Action/Crime/Drama Feature 

(Working Script)

We Are Live! fuses the gritty, hard-charging realism of Den of Thieves, where obsession, moral gray zones, and high-stakes criminal pursuit drive the narrative, with the aerial spectacle and surveillance of Blue Thunder. The result is a propulsive crime thriller told from both the streets and the sky, where law enforcement tactics collide with cutting-edge aviation, media and social media scrutiny, and the question of who really controls the chase when everything is live and overhead.

 We Are Live follows a disgraced Marine, Cole Travis, whose theft of a priceless and irreplaceable artifact from a Hollywood Hills mansion sparks a high-speed police pursuit broadcast across Los Angeles through traffic cams, dashcams, and news helicopters. What begins as routine breaking news quickly becomes a citywide spectacle, consumed in real time by millions.

Covering the chase from above is reporter Vanessa Cortez, steady and professional until she realizes the suspect is driving her car, the one her boyfriend borrowed that morning. As the pursuit escalates, Vanessa visibly unravels on air, missing cues and receiving desperate messages from Cole, turning a public event into a private crisis played out live.

Psychological Thriller Feature 

(Working Script)

The Final Chapter blends the domestic psychological warfare and manipulation of Gone Girl with the methodical, investigative precision of Seven. 

 Claire is a woman obsessed with true-crime shows (48 Hours, Dateline, Murdaugh Murders), every reenactment and interrogation breakdown imaginable, appears to be using them as escapism from her crumbling marriage. Her husband assumes it’s harmless background noise to drown out life. What he doesn’t know is that she’s studying the patterns, cataloguing mistakes, and engineering the “perfect made-for-television murder”… his. 

Like Gone Girl, it weaponizes marriage, perception, and public narrative, turning a private relationship into a carefully staged crime shaped by what police, juries, and audiences expect to see. At the same time, it channels Seven’s cold intelligence and procedural rigor, following an antagonist who studies systems, patterns, and institutional failures with forensic patience in order to get away with the perfect crime.

The result is a grounded, high-stakes psychological thriller where murder isn’t impulsive or emotional, it’s researched, rehearsed, and engineered. Intimate yet chillingly strategic, the story lives at the intersection of domestic betrayal and researched obsession, asking not whether a crime can be committed, but whether understanding the system better than anyone else makes it invisible.

Comedy/Action Feature 

(Working Script)

War Zone starts in the satirical chaos of Tropic Thunder, skewering Hollywood ego and performative toughness, then quietly pivots into the disciplined, procedural realism of The Hurt Locker. The film’s power comes from that tonal shift, forcing civilians (and the audience) to confront the real cost of war without ever being warned the joke is over."

A scathing, high-octane satire of fame, patriotism, and the absurd lengths Hollywood will go for authenticity. War Zone follows a group of self-absorbed actors embedded with a real Marine unit in the Middle East for a "groundbreaking" comedic war film. But when the fake and comedic elements of this fictional story turn real and the crew is caught in a deadly ambush, survival depends not on their performance—but on their ability to finally stop acting.

What starts as ego-driven entertainment ends in sacrifice, awakening, and a film that captures something no green screen or backlot ever could. The director returns with more than just footage—he returns with a screenplay that tells the truth, and a cast who finally understands what it means to earn the uniform they pretended to wear. This military thriller transcends traditional narratives, blending elements of psychological drama and action to create a compelling movie script that resonates with audiences.

Historical Drama/Thriller Feature 

(Working Script)

"This combines the high-stakes, geopolitical tension of The Hunt for Red October, a global cat-and-mouse driven by military brinkmanship and the fear of catastrophic miscalculation, with the grounded, human-centered moral weight of Bridge of Spies, where history turns on quiet negotiations, personal integrity, and one individual standing between superpowers. 

A modern-day espionage drama/thriller that combines Cold War history and contemporary geopolitical tensions. This blend of history, spy thrillers, and high-stakes military action serves as a backdrop for gripping fictional stories. The narrative explores the enduring legacy of the Cold War and its chilling relevance in today's world, much like a compelling psychological drama.

With modern tensions between global superpowers and the resurgence of Cold War hostilities, The _______ Incident: Shadows of the Cold War presents a terrifying what-if scenario rooted in reality. 

This script promises to engage audiences with its intense screenplay, showcasing the intricate dance of espionage and military strategy.