Script File

Air Heart Manuscript

Air Heart is a dual-plot, interwoven story by R.W. Bell. The first story is a historically accurate account, interlaced through flashbacks, of the final days of Amelia Earhart’s harrowing fight to survive following her famous crash and disappearance. The second is a present-day speculative fiction tale about a young girl with a winning theory about where to find Amelia’s lost Electra and her struggle to avoid the mistakes of her idols.

Logline:

Sky, A 16-year-old student pilot secretly taking flying lessons against her father's wishes, hatches a plan to find her idol, Amelia Earhart's lost plane. When a double-crossing businessman strands Sky and her father on a remote Pacific Island in a ploy to steal Sky's discovery, she must reveal her piloting skills before the man escapes with the credit for her historic find and the resolution to a 90-year-old mystery.

Theme Stated:

Theme stated by the Bookstore owner to Sky:
Sometimes when you search really hard for something, you don't find what you're looking for, you find what you need.

1000 Word Synopsis:

The story opens in the present day aboard the cockpit of a Cessna 172 where Sky, a 16-year-old girl who dreams of flying like her idol, Amelia Earhart, successfully lands her first solo flight. During this harrowing sequence, the story flashes back to July 2nd, 1937, aboard the famous Lockheed Electra 10-E piloted by Amelia Earhart, just as she and Fred Noonan decide to alter course from Howland Island and head south along the line of position 157/337. They boldly steer the aircraft over the open sea with enough fuel to propel their ill-fated flight for another 3-4 hours.

Sky is fixated on continuing her flight lessons, but her father, a merchant marine, forbids her from flying. Sky's Mother died in a small plane crash years earlier, and her father doesn’t want Sky to lose her too. He keeps the circumstances of her mother’s death from Sky to protect her from the pain of the loss he lives with. Sky’s grandfather secretly supports her pilot lessons while her father is away.

While presenting her science fair project about Amelia Earhart's disappearance, a local businessman who runs a deep sea salvage company shows interest in Sky’s theory about the plane’s whereabouts. Sky postulates that the aircraft may have crashed on the reef of Gardner Island at low tide on July 2nd, 1937. She demonstrates with a computer model that at high tide, the plane’s empty fuel tanks are buoyant enough for the Electra to float off the reef and sink nearby, gliding softly to the seabed. Rick Haywood, a local businessman who operates a deep sea salvage service, offers to finance an expedition to find the plane, enlisting Sky's father as first mate. During the expedition, Sky finally convinces her father to tell her the truth about her Mother's death.

In Act 2, the salvage ship is en route to the Pacific via the Panama Canal crewed by Sky, her father, Timmy, the love interest of Sky, and nephew of Rick Haywood, who is at the helm. In another flashback, (this one to 2017) Sky's Mother pre-flights a small Cessna equipped with pontoons. Upon takeoff, the engine stalls, and the plane flips upside down. It comes to rest in a shallow lagoon. Rick Haywood, now the captain of Sky’s present-day salvage operation, is the first to arrive on the scene.

In the present day, the salvage vessel emerges from a storm. The captain reports to the crew that the ship has a damaged radio and must stop at Hull Island. The businessman sends Sky and her father ashore, where they encounter a local with another radio set with a transmitter damaged by the storm, but the island manager reports he should have it operational within days once he retrieves some parts. Sky observes the man also has a small boat and puddle jumper pontooned Cessna. The aircraft is similar to the aircraft in which Sky’s Mother perished while piloting, and to the one in which Sky is taking lessons.

Back aboard the salvage ship, now at Gardner Island, the story’s midpoint is a false high when Sky's theory proves correct. The expedition locates the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane! They raise it to the ship's deck, and the captain recommends they return to Hull to report the find via radio, hopeful that the island manager there has now repaired the transmitter. Sky and her father return to shore, but no sooner do they depart aboard the dinghy; than the businessman sets a return course without them, stranding them on Hull Island and stealing their quarry. Stakes are raised as another storm develops to the northeast. Sky and Bruce learn through a secret transmission from Timmy aboard the boat that Captain Rick Haywood is responsible for causing the plane crash that killed Sky’s mother 10 years earlier.

Back on shore, the sole occupant of Hull is nowhere to be found. His boat is gone, and the radio is still inoperable. Sky has an idea. She fires up the Pontooned Cessna and reveals her piloting skills to her dad as she convinces her father that they can reach the departing salvage ship and confront the businessman before the ship enters the brewing storm.

A final flashback to 1937 on the 5th day of the search for Amelia shows the final moments of Amelia and Fred’s crash as they frantically fight rising water in the Electra and transmit their final wishes in accordance with the account recorded by 15-year-old Betty Klenck, who was listening to her family’s shortwave radio in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Sky predicted, we experience the heart-wrenching moments of Amelia’s final distress call as the aircraft floats off the reef and sinks, flying to the ocean floor.

Aboard the salvage ship, the seas are rough. The Electra is sliding around the main deck. The captain struggles to secure it. He climbs into the Electra’s cockpit to tighten a fastener as a massive wave sweeps the antique aircraft off the deck with the captain aboard. The sea swallows the plane again. We see the flashback to 2017 again. This time it’s clear that the businessman standing near the inverted Cessna consciously chooses not to rescue Sky’s mother many years ago.

In the finale, Sky’s father pulls her out of the sinking Cessna they’ve crashed into the ocean near the listing salvage ship. They climb aboard where Sky’s father finds Rick Haywood hanging for life from the side of the ship where the Electra had pulled him overboard. Sky’s father dispatches Rick with the same complacency to help that Rick offered to his wife years before. Her father takes control of the drifting vessel, and they see the radio is working after all. The nefarious captain had lied about it being damaged. Sky releases Timmy, who she finds locked in his cabin by his uncle for revealing his murder of Sky’s mother. Timmy, Sky, and her father head for Pearl Harbor to complete the unflown leg of Amelia’s famous world flight, promising each other that they will continue the search for Amelia Earhart’s lost Electra.

  • Ryan William Bell
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay, Other
  • Genres:
    Adventure, Drama
  • Number of Pages:
    135
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Ryan William Bell

R. W. Bell has spent nearly two decades steeped in the impenetrable world of the defense industry. He has led development efforts on covert projects ranging from the fabled US Army Comanche Stealth Helicopter to cutting-edge aircraft survivability equipment for the Ministry of Defense. He holds a Top Secret clearance and three advanced degrees in aerospace engineering. He is a helicopter pilot and operates drones for the US government. His work on electronic warfare systems and countermeasures has sent him across the globe to dozens of countries and undisclosed locations. R. W. Bell never expected he’d write a book, until he had to.

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