Section 5: TREATMENT

Treatment

Synopsis
Brad Hope is a hired assassin. His next assignment? Kill his way up to the top of a gang hierarchy. Personal loyalties are tested however, when he discovers that his main target is the father of his girlfriend. Brad must choose between the love of his life and the ultimate wealth, but he finds not everything is as it seems.

Treatment
The film begins and the scene is set in an alleyway, where the audience can clearly see a pair of legs belonging to Brad running down the alleyway quickly, seemingly in an attempt to escape someone or something. Brad runs into a house, shutting the door behind him quickly. He pulls off a pair of latex gloves, dropping them on the side along with his jacket. He turns silently and looks up into the mirror. He notices a black shadowy figure behind him and spins around, but nothing is there. He goes upstairs into his room and heads to a cork board where a triangular hierarchy structure is pinned up, where all pictures but one, the top one is crossed off. Brad goes to the cork board and picks up a red marker and slowly crosses the picture off. He sits down silently on his bed and turns on his TV, where a murder report is being shown.

(Opening Credits)

There is a time lapse to a month ago, and Brad is eating dinner with his girlfriend Rachel ‘Lopez’ at a restaurant, and we are informed of this due to a running commentary made over the scene by Brad. Brad informs the audience of his career and his normal life behind it.
He and Rachel begin to walk home, and they stop in front of her house. She kisses him goodnight and goes into her home, and Brad begins to walk home. He goes inside his own home and goes up to his bedroom and looks at the corkboard, which only has the bottom line crossed out. As he examines the corkboard whilst smoking a cigarette, the voice over informs the audience that Brad was approached by a firm which requested him to kill these gang members, and a flashback suddenly sends the audience to three months ago. Brad meets up with a woman named Karen Whitefair who informs him that she works for a man named Peter Johnson, who requested him to kill Andy Carter and his gang members in exchange for £10 million.
The scene fades back to Brad lying in his bed and falling asleep. As he closes his eyes, the sound of chaos, such as cars is heard in the background and it cuts to black.
The next day, Brad is heading into the roughest part of the city, wearing a trench coat to protect him from the rain. The streets are still busy, so he silently slips down into an alleyway and ends up at the side of a house. He manages to scale the wall with the help of a drainpipe and picks the lock on the window, slipping inside silently. He makes his way downstairs and hears voices coming from the living room. He glances through a crack in the door and sees a rowdy group of people playing cards and joking around, and in the group, he sees five of the people he is supposed to assassinate and pulls out a gun. He slips it through the gap in the door and with incredible precision, he shoots at them, killing all five of them one after the other. Chaos breaks out in the room as this happens and Brad slips away silently, pulling up the collar of his trench coat and moves out of the house, unnoticed.

He heads home, pulling off his coat and gun belt and leaving them on his bed. He changes into formal wear, and then crosses the five he had just killed off the list, leaving five left. He hears a beep of a horn outside and slips his gun into his tuxedo jacket and walks outside, spotting a taxi waiting for him. He gets inside to find Rachel waiting for her, also in her formal wear. He asks where they’re going and she replies to one of her father’s parties. They pull up in front of a manor house which has rich and obviously influential people going inside of it. Brad follows her inside and the audience see him fight an internal battle when he spots four of the remaining five he has to kill, one of which the voice over informs the audience, is her Andy Carter, the mafia boss. Rachel pulls him over, informing Brad that he is actually her father, and Brad, too shocked to react in any other way replies “You said your name was Lopez” inferring that she used a fake name, and Rachel reveals it was too dangerous for her to reveal her real name.

Andy pulls Brad aside to discuss business opportunities with him, and though Brad is clearly uncomfortable, he smiles and talks with him. After a while, he excuses himself, noticing that the three gang members he was targeting were leaving. He pretends to leave to go to the bathroom but actually just follows them, slipping into the shadows. The men are talking about the recent murders in their gang, and Brad steps out, shutting the doors. The men turn, startled and raise their weapons, and Brad, wide-eyed, holds up his hands in surrender. Upon seeing him, they relaxed and turned away, and Brad moved forward, pulling out his gun. He shoots one, and the other two put up a fight, one of them punching him in the face, but he manages to kill them all.

People are beginning to run towards the sound and noise of the gunshots, so Brad jumps over the side of the balcony and ducks into the bushes to hide. He tries to walk about, but the fourth gang member is waiting for him and the two fight, which lasts longer than any of the previous fights, but ultimately, Brad defeats him.  He is obviously distressed about what has occurred and manages to escape the manor, before walking home, obviously deep in thought. He goes inside, crosses off the four he had just killed and circles Andy’s picture, though he looks apprehensive. He changes out of his clothes, leaving his gun on the bed and leaves, in such a state that he forgets to lock the door and drives off.

As he leaves, a taxi pulls up and Rachel gets out, looking confused and concerned. She goes to his door and knocks, and realized the door is still open. She goes inside and looks around, and goes upstairs to look for him. She goes into his room and sees the gun and the corkboard. She sees her father’s picture at the top and extremely scared and terrified, she quickly runs out of the house, jumping back into the taxi and demanding to be taken to her father’s manor.

Brad returns, and goes into his house, cursing himself for leaving it unlocked, he has obviously made a decision and goes to get his gun and belts up. He leaves the house, remembering to lock it this time and gets back into his car, beginning to drive to the manor. He pulls up outside and scales over the wall, jumping down into the garden. Avoiding the guards, he slips into the house and goes into the main hall and comes face to face with Rachel, who confronts him. He tries to explain everything to her, but she forces him to choose, and in a fit of anger, he shoots her. He goes to find Andy and they face each other in a showdown, and Andy reveals that he is not in fact a mobster, but was merely a rich influential businessman with a lot of bodyguards. Brad calls him a liar and shoots and kills him. He starts to see the shadows and faces of the people he has killed around him, and in fear, he flees the building, and the opening scene repeats itself.

It skips to a month later, and we see Brad is locked in a mental institution and his doctors are discussing his treatment. They are going through his file and speak out loud, revealing he has Delusional Disorder, meaning he fabricated up the existence of Karen Whitefair and Peter Johnson, and there was no money involved in the situation at all. They also note that the stress of killing all these people caused Brad to develop Hypnagogia, which explains the shadows and faces he sees.

The scene cuts to Brad sat in his cell with his knees pulled up to his chest with the shadows surrounding him, never giving him peace.

(Ending Credits)