Wizard of Odds
STORY SYNOPSIS:
They say to be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it.
From his cell in Mt Dredd State Penitentiary, Angel Medina begs God for a
second chance. What he gets is a prison riot that sends him pitching off
the third floor cellblock to certain death on the concrete floor below.
Angel awakens in the darkness of a stadium-seating movie theater, his own
life playing out on the screen before a capacity crowd. A strange, glowing
man – Chance, the Angel of Death, or as he prefers to be called, Minister
to the Mortality Impaired – rewinds the movie of Angel’s life about 6
months and offers him what he prayed for - a second chance.
Angel is a boxer, strictly bush league, but he’s got promise, a potential
that his cantankerous, crusty trainer, Babyface Crimp is determined to
bring out – whatever the cost in pride and flesh.
Babyface has had a checkered career, unable to decide between boxing and
ballet, and trains his tough-as-nails fighters in both pugilism and pas
dea deux. They hate it.
Joey Tate is a putz, a parasite, a leech - yeah, a boxing manager looking
to ride some poor chump for all he’s worth, then toss aside his battered
carcass for another. He entices Angel with visions of fame and glory,
ultimately convincing him to fire his current manager – his father Miguel
– and hire Joey.
And
that’s just the beginning of a series of wrong choices and bad decisions
that lead him up the ladder of boxing success – and down the ladder of
human decency.
Angel meets the woman of his dreams, Elena Caylin, while running from the
police. Actually, she was the one who turned him in because she
mistakenly thought he was robbing her pizza joint and harming her
daughter. She then helps him escape, and they bond while hiding from the
cops in the bottom of a dumpster.
A
single mother of seven-year-old Amy, Elena’s day job is piloting a
ramshackle small plane around the skies of the city towing advertising
banners. But at night she studies diligently to try and achieve the
impossible dream – to earn her rating to fly jet aircraft.
Angel pursues the two things he loves – boxing and Elena – unaware of twin
pieces of information: 1) Joey is setting up Angel to take a fall for the
local Mob boss, and 2) Joey and Elena have a history together – he is the
father of her child.
For
a while all is bliss, his career blossoming, his love life soaring. But
with unbridled success comes unbridled pride – a pride carefully
cultivated by Joey, who continues to drive a wedge between Angel and
Elena, Angel and his father, Angel and everything he was before. Joey is
out to make himself indispensable.
Joey sets Angel up for a shot at the title – a bout with the reigning
champ. And I do mean set-up. Angel gets the fight of his dreams, but has
to throw the match. Unbeknownst to Angel, Joey and the Mob boss have been
grooming him for this all along, carefully choosing his bouts to drive the
odds up, then when he loses the big match, his shadow handlers make a pile
of cash.
When Angel categorically refuses and pounds Joey into guava, Joey frames
him for murder, a murder Joey committed. Angel is tried and sentenced to
life in prison, and begs for a second chance...
Which is where this all began. Chance asks Angel if he really means it,
“I'm only authorized to act on a Sincerity Rating of 80% or more...” Angel
jumps at the chance – quite literally. Chance flings him through the
movie screen and back into his life, where he not only miraculously
survives the fall, but is fully acquitted of the crime.
Life returns to the fast lane, a new match with the champ scheduled, and
Angel throws himself into training. It truly is a second chance – except
with Elena, who won't give him the time of day. He begs her to come to
the big fight, but she refuses – that is the day she solos for her jet
rating.
Joey, who is now on the lamb for the murder he framed Angel with, is out
for revenge, but cannot get near Angel without risking a flat nose and
toothless grin. So he plots. The Mob boss, who knows a good opportunity
when he sees one, bets everything on Angel, knowing that for him a win in
the ring equates to getting even with Joey.
The
big day arrives, and Angel holds his own in the ring with the champ,
Babyface calling the plays from the corner, Miguel once again his manager,
and father. But Elena is not there. During the fight Joey, not showing
the sense God gave a tick, drugs Angel's water bottle in spite of dire
warnings from the Mob boss.
Under the influence of Joey's mickey, Angel gets mercilessly pummeled in
the ring. He goes down hard, down for the count. As the referee ticks
off his litany, Angel manages to open his eyes and sees a vision – Elena.
It must be a vision, because she is not dressed in her normal chic but
cheap attire, but is adorned in a jet pilot's flight suit.
The
vision brings Angel to his feet on the 9-count. Staggering around the
ring, he realizes it's not a vision – Elena is really there. Her presence
energizes him, the surge of love overcoming the drug in his veins. At
Babyface's urging, Angel adopts a graceful dancer's stance and clobbers
the champ with a spectacular spinning pirouette that would do Barishnikov
proud.
Before the ten-count is even up to three Angel is in Elena's arms, the
circle of life complete.
Except, of course, for a furious Joey who leaps out of the crowd with a
gun trained on Angel. But before anyone can react, Chance, jovial
Minister to the Mortality Impaired, drops out of the sky and onto Joey,
flattening him to the floor. Chance grins up at Angel and Elena, “There's
no place like home.”
Outside, Elena leads Angel to her Harrier jump jet conveniently parked in
the lot, and they rise slowly into the air above the cheering crowd.
Kicking in the afterburners, the starcrossed lovers swoosh over the
glittering lights of the city and into the golden moonset. |
