Red Jericho

Story Analysis:

A blue-collar James Bond, with a subversive twist of quirky dark humor.

STORY SYNOPSIS:

Network news superstar COLE DANE isn’t quite sure what he’s done to get stuck with this assignment: he’s covering a computer chip manufacturing plant in South America.  The plant needs a little PR and he and a small cadre of reporters are on the nickel tour of the open pit silicone mine. 

He meets LIU XIAOLIN, a Chinese correspondent, and together they watch the local peasants being brutally overworked by the plant manager. However, things turn iffy when World War two-era tanks position themselves on the rim of the sand mine, where the plant gets the silicone it needs for its microchips. 

The plant manager assures everyone that the military often conducts war games at the mine in rehearsal to protect what they consider to be one of their country’s vital interests.  But when modern attack choppers approach, Dane’s gut tells him something ugly is about to happen. 

He also makes note of the strange red insignia on the choppers, from which rappel body-armored commandos, who kill anyone resembling a reporter or plant official.  They allow the peasants to scatter into the jungle. 

The aged tanks are no match for the state-of-the-art choppers and Dane finds himself scurrying to protect himself, his producer, and Liu.  But when his producer makes a run for it, she gets shot and killed, and this brings out Dane’s full fury.  He proceeds to skillfully kill a handful of troops before the rest retreat. 

As the choppers fly off, Dane and Liu discover a device left in the middle of the mine, and it’s counting down.  Fearing a nuclear device, they both run for cover in the massive plant, but when the bomb goes off, it doesn’t explode, but instead radiates intense heat that melts most of the plant and turns the sand mine into a lake of molten glass - scratch one silicone mine. 

Dane and Liu miraculously survive, return to their hotel and report their stories.  Dane then unfurls a secret satellite receiver and plugs into a virtual reality program where he makes contact with ADMIRAL STRATHMORE and CATES, Dane’s commander and old flame.  Dane is actually an operative for the Rapid Response Security Service - the RS2 - an organization blacker than the CIA and more clandestine than the NSA. 

The Admiral informs Dane that silicone mines across the world have been attacked in similar ways, and it’s up to Dane to figure out why and who.  As the VR meeting is concluding, commandos, bearing the same insignia on their body armor as the soldiers at the silicon mine, break into Dane’s room, drug him, log onto the Admiral’s program and warn him to not investigate this matter.

Dane regains consciousness in a dark cave, and surprisingly, with Liu at his side.  They’re both wearing masks that enwrap their entire head and Dane can’t find the latches.  A mysterious voice calls to them, and the voice emanates from a man draped in full Chinese theatrical costume, including a mask. 

This particular character needs no introduction, for Liu instantly recognizes him as YEN LO WANG, the Chinese High Lord of Hell. Wang tells them their masks are made of white phosphorous and any attempt to remove them will result in their excruciating deaths.  And then, like a ghost, Wang’s apparition disappears - he was only a hologram. 

Disregarding the warning, Dane purposely ignites his mask and gets it off before he’s burned.  He does the same for Liu and they escape.

In South Africa, Dane sits in on a meeting at another computer chip plant, where multinational corporate shark TOPPER CEEOH is trying to intimidate the owner, CAVANAUGH, into selling her plant to him, but she won’t budge.  Topper tells her it would be too bad if terrorists bombed her plant, making it valueless. 

Topper leaves, and within minutes, an explosion rocks the facility.  Topper returns and she gives in and agrees to sell him the plant, though now he’s offering a substantially lower price. 

The next day, Dane sifts through the rubble, and runs into Liu, who has discovered that big news stories seem to follow Dane.  Dane finds something interesting, but is thrown off the property by Topper before he can mass any more evidence. 

Dane notices a mysterious figure - a beautiful female figure - shadowing him.  When he and Liu have drinks at the hotel, the female figure reveals herself.  Much to Liu’s dismay, it’s SUBINE RENIOR, a French photojournalist, with whom he shares a painful past. 

Feeling like a third wheel, Liu excuses himself, and before long, Dane and Subine retire to his room for a nightcap.  She shares her hatred for multinationals, and, being like-minds, they warily agree to become partners.  Then she slips him a mickey. 

Before it takes effect, they both don Virtual Reality goggles and Dane shows her his evidence that the South African plant wasn’t bombed by terrorists, it was destroyed by a cruise missile, whose launch was traced to an island off the South African coast. 

Their passions overtake them, but unfortunately for Subine, Dane passes out just before the “big moment.”  Subine makes a secret communication with her people, and Dane hears the whole thing, since he had taken precautions just before being drugged. 

The next morning, they jump in a chartered boat and set out for the island.  They find the missile launcher, but are cornered by more commandos, who Dane dispatches in true kenpo karate fashion with a twig and some stones. 

While being fired upon by more commandos, Dane grabs Subine and starts a mad search for something he arranged to have dropped on the island.  He finds it, and to Subine’s dismay, it’s revealed to be a hot air balloon.  But it’s a specially designed hydrogen balloon, and when Dane ignites it, they rocket into the sky. 

As they waft to safety, he relishes their escape with microbrew and burgers he pulls from the minibar in the gondola.

At the Chinese Embassy in South Africa, Liu uses his Chinese celebrity status to gain access to their computers, where he learns that Topper is COO of a company called Diyu Youxian Gongsi - the Hell Limited Company - headquartered in the Red Jericho district of Shanghai. 

Liu is spooked, because this entire mystery seems to be bound up in ancient Chinese lore about Yen Lo Wang and the Ten Lords of Hell. 

When Dane and Liu discuss this information, Liu also explains his past with Subine.  She let Liu fall in love with her because he was going to interview a terrorist - a terrorist wanted by the French government.  As a French spy, Subine didn’t care if she hurt Liu in the process. 

His career was ruined.  Liu’s advice to Dane: watch Subine with both eyes.  Liu will help smuggle the three of them into China to keep one step ahead of Hell.  Riding into China across the Gobi desert on horseback, they approach the Great Wall, but are attacked by lethal radio controlled jets. 

Dane finds an old Sopwith Camel and manages to out-smart and destroy the jets.  They fly into Shanghai and find Hell’s headquarters, but are shot down and crash nearby. 

Scavenging street children descend upon the wreckage, and Dane, Liu and Subine barely escape.  Commandos from Hell attack the kids, and though it’s not in the game plan to protect street kids, Dane can’t bear their cries.  Unarmed, Dane nevertheless attacks the commandos and dispatches them. 

Liu explains the kids are the escapees from the brutal sex trade in Shanghai, and the kids show their gratitude by presenting Dane with a gift.  The threesome approach Red Jericho and are exposed to the depraved underworld that lives in this infamous, lawless district of Shanghai - Subine is, herself, nearly kidnapped into slavery. 

The doors to the building open and out come a troupe of acrobats, whom Liu recognizes as five of the Lords of Hell.  When the bystanders disperse, Dane knows he’s in for trouble.  Subine abandons Dane and Liu, who are left to a spectacular fight to the finish. 

Dane and Liu eventually defeat these five Lords of Hell, and gain entrance into the building.  Inside, they decide to take the elevator, and while waiting for it, Dane sees and kills a roach, his most hated thing in the world. 

In the elevator, they are suddenly encased in impenetrable Plexiglas walls.  The elevator stops and the cubicle they’re in is hauled away by a forklift.  They pass trough several “clean” rooms, one of which contains a massive supercomputer, another a computer chip production line. 

The plastic box containing Dane and Liu is dumped into a giant trash compactor.  They are about to be crushed when, suddenly, the compactor stops and they are hauled away to the CEO’s office. 

Who should they discover but Yen Lo Wang in the flesh, and Subine holding a gun on him.  She explains that while Liu and Dane were busy fighting for their lives, she had performed her own hostile corporate takeover - at gunpoint. 

And since, because of Wang’s commando attacks, the supply of computer chips are at a worldwide low, Subine figures she could become an international hero by shipping out all of the chips Wang has been making - free of charge.  Poetic justice, she reckons.

Then the corpulent Wang goes into convulsions.  His body splits like a cocoon, and who should come forth but Topper Ceeoh, who gets the drop on them all.  He explains that he’s the real maestro behind the chip shortage, but it wasn’t to corner the market as everyone suspected - he’s infected a little computer virus on every one of his chips, and once installed, he will gain one cent from every financial transaction on the Internet - something that will net him millions of dollars a day, every day. 

And thanks to Subine, his chips are currently being shipped all over the world - free of charge.  Now that’s poetic justice.

To seal the deal, Topper Dane, Liu and Subine in his office, a ready meal for his cockroach collection.  But Dane thwarts this plan, and discovers that Topper has armed five thermal bombs - the remaining five Lords of Hell - to melt the facility back to Hell. 

Dane he gets access to the supercomputer, infects it with a virus of his own, hoping this will allow them to escape.  Instead, it causes the Red Jericho defense systems to activate, and Topper returns, unable to escape from his own plant. 

He plans to use Dane, Liu and Subine as shields against the numerous booby traps, when suddenly the street kids attack him. 

Because they escaped from red Jericho once before, the kids are the only ones who know how to get out now, and Topper is left to his fate, which, as he escapes, Dane notices involves a few million hungry roaches. 

Once outside, the bombs go off, and the building melts into the ground, erasing almost all evidence of its existence.  They rejoice, but Dane isn’t willing to let Subine completely off the hook for abandoning he and Liu during the fight.

Now a big Asian news anchor, Liu is tells his story on television, while in the US, Dane does the same.  Dane goes on to report that Subine has opened an orphanage for the hundreds of street kids in Shanghai - her penance.