Film Treatment for "The Shohola Five"

 TITLE:  The Shohola Five

WRITER/CONTACT:  Rob Fulfer - robfulfer@yahoo.com - 615-260-0916

LOGLINE: Five mysterious survivors of The Great Shohola Train Wreck at the end of the Civil War go on to take part in other future disastrous events in American History

OPENING SCENE:  A reenactment of the historic and horrific train wreck that occurred near Shohola, Pennsylvania, in July 1864 as the Civil War was drawing to a close. 

ACT ONE:  Five survivors of the wreck, all Confederate prisoners, are able to slip away during the melee each vowing to avenge their compatriots who were not so lucky as to survive the wreck or the war.   Short intros and back stories of each of the five survivors. 

ACT TWO:  Survivor 1 meets up with John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators in Washington D.C. in April of 1865.  In November of the same year, he witnesses the public hanging of Henry Wirz, the only Confederate office executed as a war criminal. 

Survivor 2 secretly helps sabotage the Sultana steamboat on April 27, 1865, north of Memphis killing over 1,100 people, many of whom were Union prisoners of war who survived infamous Andersonville Prison, an event largely overshadowed by the president's recent assassination. 

Survivor 3 attends the beginnings of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, TN, in December of 1865

Survivor 4 is part of the Jesse James gang that commits the first daylight bank robbery recorded in the U.S. in Liberty, Missouri in February 1866. 

ACT THREE:  Survivor 5 has a change of heart and lends aid and help as a firefighter during the Great Chicago Fire and then on to the Peshtigo Fire which happened on the same day in 1871 with many more casualties but is overshadowed in the news and history by the fire in Chicago.

FINAL SCENE:  Survivor 5 amid the ruins of the Peshtigo Fire weeps for the things he has seen in his short lifespan.  

CHARACTER LIST:  

Survivor One (no last names) - Edmond - a South Carolina blacksmith turned soldier, then prisoner 

Survivor Two - Martin - a barkeep from Memphis turned soldier, then prisoner 

Survivor Three - Edgar - a farmer from Georgia turned soldier, then prisoner

Survivor Four -   Henry - a career soldier, turner prisoner 

Survivor Five - George - the youngest of the group, just 19 from his home in Lebanon, TN 

BACKSTORY/RESEARCH:  The Great Shohola Train Wreck is a real event and the fact that Confederate prisoners did escape without a trace afterwards is true although the number varies from two to five.  The events each survivor participates in is fictitious, but, of course, are true events in American history that occurred after the train wreck.