TREATMENT FOR ‘SAFE’

Inspired in style from the gritty urban tale Heat by Michael Mann, this film

takes the heist in a new direction. An obsession that was there in Heat is

translated to just one character Brandon, who knows only one thing, how to pull

scores. The opposing character is not a cop and neither is he a hardened

professional like Brandon. He is his brother who lacks the professional vigor and

lives with his past. His past with his abusive father and where his brother instead

of helping, abandoned him.

In the clash of these two personalities and between past and present this

film will unfold and ultimately resolve. On the one side is Brandon living in the

present, who becomes haunted by the past (his relationship with his family), and

on the other side is Harry living in the past and haunted by the present (the

unexpected visit from his brother). The setting which is a lake town, where

memories get caught up in the water will be the backdrop and add to the

poignancy of the brothers’ lives. There will be no use of flashbacks or

documentary footage on the past. It is from the point of view of Brandon that the

story will be told. That’s the reason we do not start the story when they were

young boys because the story starts when Brandon’s present becomes haunted

by the past in the form of his dysfunctional hand.

Like the film Man’s Castle by Frank Borzage, the script starts off at night in

a park. Brandon is feeding the pigeons. We tilt up from the pigeons to him. The

echo of the pigeons can be heard in a distance. A lone man walks up to Brandon
and disappears behind him. He hands him an envelope before leaving. The

envelope contains information about the score. A suspenseful opening is how we

enter into Brandon’s world. And the dichotomy of a space that is both ‘safe’ and

dangerous. The park is home and also dangerous.

We then follow him through the robbery, which is shot in cold blue light of

the street that filters through the curtains of the house he is robbing. We

associate his present timescape with blue light. The safe that he is cracking

however is lighted by a warm table lamp. Slow enchanting music emanates the entire

process beckoning him from his repressed childhood memories. His hands begin

shaking and he throws the table lamp away flooding the room back again with blue light.

His crew leaves him there.

He has no family and street is his home. He walks the streets, has a meal

on the go, sleeps in the bus. The man who gave him the job comes after him and

he is left given chase in the street. Act one ends with him coming to his

hometown and in front of his childhood home. One question that the audience will

undoubtedly ask is whether Brandon is lonely. He certainly becomes alone after

being abandoned by his crew. But the script will not dwell on this.

He goes at midnight to his family home because that’s his normal working

hours and rings the bell. Realizing it would not be appropriate to meet someone

this late at night, Brandon goes back to his car and watches the door. Harry

comes out. ‘Kids, they’re gonna kill me’ he mutters and goes back inside the

house.

Our first introduction of Harry reveals his deep seated anxieties and trouble
moving forward because of his past. This scene again will have the blue light

washing outside of the house and warm light coming from inside the house

playing on the correlation of color coded memories to the characters. The cold

blue of early mornings are generally associated with Brandon’s drive to move

forward, and scenes set in glowing orange hue of late evening are generally

associated with Harry and his being caught in the whirlwind of past. These mostly

deal with Harry blaming Brandon of not living up to his dream of being a good

brother and citizen.

Brandon introduces himself to his brother and receives a punch in the gut.

Harry is polite enough to lift Brandon and bring him inside the house. Brandon

after seeing the family photograph of Harry with his wife and kid congratulates

him on having a kid. ‘Thanks, won him in a lottery’ replies Harry in a selfdeprecating

attitude. He also breaks the news that their parents are no longer

alive. This is the scene where Harry is throwing punches at his brother

continuously but not connecting. Though this last one hits Brandon who is tearyeyed.

Harry comes to console him but he shrugs him away and leaves.

Harry comes up to the room and tells his wife Rachael of this strange

incident. Rachael, a hard working mother though her face shows little of the facial

lines that are forming, reassures her husband that his brother will not destabilize

their family dynamics. Their son Adam, 5, hurries up from his bed and enters their

room ending their conversation. Rachael takes him to the bathroom and freshen

him up while Harry looks out at the rising sun on the the window at the rising sun

in the city of Detroit.

Brandon goes to one of the abandoned houses and breaks in. Later in the

evening he comes out to the local grocery store and sees that Kesab the store

manager who was there when he was a child is still there. He finds an abandoned

puppy, takes him inside the house, and feeds it some milk. Later that night, his

parents show up in his dream telling him that they had high hopes from him and

that he did not live up to their expectations. Visually, they will be black silhouettes

in the night. At one point in this memory, his father moves forward revealing his

face, representing Brandon’s repressed memory finally coming into the light as he

remembers their faces. He wakes up from this disturbing dream.

Harry comes in the morning to see his brother painting the abandoned

house and asks him if he has gone crazy. ‘Listen’. ‘Will you come down and talk’

he asks him. Brandon stays on the top of the roof. ‘I think I am good here, what’s

up?’ ‘So you here for good?’ Harry again asks to which Brandon says ‘Yes, think

so’. Harry invites him for dinner. Brandon finally comes down. ‘You ain’t gonna hit

me’ he jokes. I think we are past that, Harry replies. ‘Sure I’ll come down the old

memory lane for dinner, no talks about the past though okay, I don’t want you

getting senti[mental] on me’ Brandon says. ‘Sure I gotta run to work now’.

Brandon asks him where he works. The Power and Water department of Detroit.

At dinner, there is introduction between Rachael and Brandon. Sensing the

awkwardness of the brothers conversation, Rachael broaches the subject of

Brandon possibly working with Harry, that way they could spend more time

together. Brandon agrees and Harry is left with no option but to concede. At this

moment they do not know what Brandon does and he manages to conceal his
true professional identity. He goes back to the abandoned street. He has set up a

bed in the house and patched up the walls and ceilings. Him patching up the

house is a quenching of a desire to make back what he had lost, namely a family.

At this point there is a change in the character. Brandon has taken that call to the

past that he had managed to repressed. Harry on the other hand is still holding on

to the past and only when he addresses his relationship with his brother will he

change and move forward.

The next morning, Harry picks up Brandon for work. They go through the

tunnels. Harry showing the electric and water pipes to Brandon. At one point

there is only one light coming from the end of the tunnel. Harry who is walking in

front of Brandon turns back but can’t see Brandon. Brandon however can see the

silhouette of Harry from the light at the end. Harry almost thinks he has lost

Brandon in the tunnels and panics. Brandon a few seconds later reaches Harry

and holds his hand. ‘Got you’ he says.

‘Shit I almost thought I lost you. Be careful of these walls’. Harry replies.

This is also a moment that we begin to sense abandonment issues that Harry has.

He had been abandoned by his brother and this is where he feels his brother

abandoning him again.

Later that evening they go out to have a drink where Harry in his drunk state

finally tells him he shouldn’t have gone away. Brandon isn’t drunk and never is,

though when he hears his brother he feels moved and realizes that his brother is

still burdened by the past. So he shares his little secret with him. Why he left and

and what he does? He says that he wanted to make it out in the world on his own
and always fancied himself running his own crew. So he left and never looked

back. Since then he had taken down some major scores and lived in luxury until

last year when his hand began shaking and he could no longer do the thing he

was so skilled at. The two brothers reach some form of understanding. This

scene takes place in a busy bar that sets a fresh tone and sets their relationship

in the midst of countless others.

The next day at work they are tasked with fixing the pressure sensors of

the water pipes in one of the tunnels. When they reach there they see that the

pressure from the water has damaged the pipe and broken the wall. Harry goes

inside the cavity to access the situation but the wall comes down upon him.

Shocked, Brandon hurries to the opening and asks for help. They manage to

rescue Harry but his leg is broken. Retired at home, Harry and Brandon go for a

drive. One evening while passing the lake, they stop at the shore and recollect

their childhood days spent at the lake. Harry breaks down about his relationship

with their dad, how he had been abused as a child. He said that their mother got

very sick and died in poverty because they couldn’t pay for her treatment. While

he was trapped in the tunnel, he had a recollection. He was looking out of the

window at night and his brother was leaving but he didn’t have the courage to

leave with him.

He works in the office for sometime but finds the job to be too fast and

makes him feel too weak. Meanwhile it starts raining and the paint that Brandon

had painted on top of the roof, begins dripping. Harry quits his new job and has a

talk with Brandon. Brandon realizes Harry won’t be able to make it in the world on
his own. The next day in the early morning, Brandon goes to his house and asks

him to rob the superstore with him. ‘It’s not like its a mom and pop store, this

money affects no one’ Brandon tells him and convinces him to go along with him.

Harry tells Rachael that he is going out of town on the night they are

robbing the super store for a job interview. Outside the superstore, Harry gets the

jitters when Rachael calls. He picks up the phone and talks to her. ‘Come on you

can do it. Say after me. I can do it.’ Harry gets the last morsel of strength from

Rachael and makes up his mind to go along with Brandon. They rob the store and

meet at the abandoned house that Brandon had been living in. Brandon gives all

the money to Harry, ‘initiation money’ he says.

Harry buys a house near the lake and spend his time there away from

Rachael and Adam during the days and returns at night. One night while he is

sitting on the dining table contemplating his life, Adam comes to the table and

asks his dad to put him to sleep. Harry tucks him in bed and tells him a story. “In

a fairy land, there were all the things man could ever want. And everything was

perfect. It was so perfect, that people were bored. So God put a price on

everything and gave them money to be exchanged. Then some people started

stealing money and kept them in safe houses. Everyone was angry all the time.

They asked God to change things. So this time, he told them everything is free,

money has no value. But the people didn't believe him.” Adam is long asleep.

Brandon finds Harry in his home that night. Harry tells him that he wants to stay

with his family, spend time with them but can’t cause he gotta put a front of a job.

Why can’t he go on a vacation with his wife to the Bahamas? Brandon tells him he
can and he’s got to rob a bank first that he has been scouting for some time. This

bank has cash up to two million dollars. Harry backs off but the lure of so much

money pulls him back in.

Rachael and Adam go to the bank on the day they plan to rob the bank.

They go inside and rob it like you see in any other American movie. They hide that

day at Brandon’s house. Harry later goes back to his house and finds Rachael in

sobs. He tells her that they will go to Bahamas to change their mood.

‘Don’t you get it. Two men robbed the bank. I am traumatized. I don’t think going

to Bahamas can solve it.’

‘Okay I’ll take a leave from office and I can spend the next month with you.’ He

says.

The news of the heist hits all the neighboring towns and Brandon calls up Turp,

one of his earlier crew member to ask him what they are up to. Turp lets him

know that the crew is very impressed by what he pulled in Detroit and want him

to come back in. He says he’ll think about it.

Harry has a talk with Brandon and asks him why he is acting strange. Brandon

says that they have been called on by a larger crew to take down a bigger

operation out of town. Their cut would be five million each. Harry tells him he’ll

think about it. Brandon says he can’t refuse, now that they have got this ahead in

the game. Harry goes back to his family that night and sees that Adam is having

trouble sleeping. He sits next to him and tries to sing him to sleep. ‘Why did you

leave us dad?” Adam asks. Harry is surprised. ‘Leave you. I didn’t leave you.’

‘Yes at the bank you ran away.’

‘I wasn’t at the bank. Who told you this? Did mom tell you this?’

‘No, I saw your shoes. They were the same one. They were torn just like yours’

‘Come on. Its just a dream. You were having a bad dream and you woke up’

‘Dad, are you a bad person?’

‘No. I am a good person.’

‘I knew it couldn’t be you. Goodnight dad’. Harry kisses him goodnight.

Next day Harry sells the home he had bought by the lake and puts the

money along with the money from the recent heist in a trust fund for his son. He

goes back to Brandon’s home and refuses to go again on a heist. Brandon says

that it was good working with him and says he needs to go now, join his crew

back. ‘I was never a family man’ he says. Harry shakes hand with him one last

time. ‘Do come home for dinner’ Harry says.

Harry is eating dinner with his family. But the doorbell never rings.
 SYNOPSIS FOR ‘SAFE’

I have a very personal connection to the feeling of being an outsider and not

belonging anywhere. As life has progressed I realized that it was more due to the

choices I made to live outside and be an artist, leaving my family behind. It is out

of these impulses that the character of Brandon is born. He too left home only to

pursue the life of a safe cracker which was his art. Only midway he realizes

psychosomatic symptoms are hampering his progress in that field and he finds

himself pursued by the gang that had hired him to crack a safe and steal some

documents. He leaves town and returns to his hometown where he learns his

parents are dead and that his brother is troubled by the past to move forward in

life. I wanted to explore the relationship between two estranged brothers as that

is something I can relate to. As the story unfolds they develop a bond and they

open up to one another. Brandon reveals that he is safe cracker and a robber and

Harry reveals that he was physically abused as a kid by their father and that their

mother died because they didn’t have enough money for her treatment. Brandon

plans to get his brother out of poverty and convinces him to rob a superstore with

him. Later they rob a bank only to discover later that Harry’s wife and kid were in

the same bank at the time. Traumatized by the experience and by his five year old

son’s recollection that he had seen the robber wearing his father’s shoes, Harry

puts all the money he had stolen in a trust fun for his son’s education and vows to

never steal again while Brandon returns back to work with his old crew.
 INTENTION LETTER

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be an artist. I have been painting

since I was ten years old and have always tried to express my vision in some form

of art be it painting, sculpting, and video. Film was a rich medium to work in with

its complexities in narrative, point of view, and metaphors while at the same time

being very accessible to the masses. I went to Wesleyan University in the US, to

study film where we watched films from a wide variety of perspectives and also

diverse backgrounds. I believe being amongst a group of fellow filmmakers will

be a crucial step in us gaining from each other’s perspectives and me growing as

an artist.

Though I do not have personal experience cracking a safe, I take it as a

metaphor for accessing the parts of life and relationships we have tucked away

and forgotten all about. Brandon is absorbed in his work and has tucked away his

past away. But now he can’t concentrate on his job and has to crack a real locker

of his life. My relationship with my brother has been estranged because of my

identity as an artist. I wanted to resolve my relationship fictionally through the

relationship between Brandon and Harry. They come together and reach some

form of understanding helping each other.

Other themes I wish to explore through this is the identity of a professional,

born to do only one thing in life. For me it is expressing myself on a large canvas,

for Brandon it is cracking a safe. But what happens when he can’t do that one

thing. His/Her life would be thrown in a turmoil. Usually we have some personal
relationship to fall back on. The interesting thing in the professional world is you

can’t discuss your personal problems with professionals. If you are no good, you

are out. Brandon doesn’t have any personal relationships neither in the beginning

nor at the end. So this story though resolves his relationship with his brother, it

leaves him at the end again alone.