BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK
by Si Dunn
HIGH NOON meets AIR FORCE ONE
-- on a moderate budget.
BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK
An Old West town’s new mayor and
its free-spirited school teacher must team up and fight a murderous gang that
has seized many hostages and will kill one hostage per hour until the mayor’s
father, the state governor, releases the gang leader’s brother from prison.
Synopsis
WILL HANSON, troubled son of GOV. JEB HANSON, has been sent into the Texas
version of political exile by his father. In a sham election, Will has been
voted into an office no one else could be bothered to take: mayor of the dusty,
isolated community of Buck Creek.
Will has arrived just as Buck
Creek’s townspeople are preparing to celebrate their remote
settlement’s 10th anniversary. But not everyone is happy. In
Buck Creek’s telegraph office, free-spirited school teacher ANNA BAIN is
pestering the telegraph operator, NASH GRAHAM, trying to convince him to let
her send a message. She has been studying Morse Code, she tells him. Angrily, Nash
throws her out and takes an incoming message of congratulation for the new
mayor from his father, the governor, JEB HANSON. But when Nash leaves to
deliver the message, Anna slips back into the telegraph office and receives an
urgent message from another tiny community. More than a dozen riders who don’t look
friendly may be riding toward Buck Creek to cause some kind of trouble. Anna gives the message to Nash when
he returns. But, angry at her insolence, he tears it up without reading it and throws her out again.
As Will nervously prepares to make his
inaugural speech and the governor’s telegram is read to the crowd, several
RIDERS who seem to be trail-weary cowboys ease into town from different directions, in small groups. They are barely
noticed as they gather at the local saloon. Actually, they are members of the
BO BARRETT GANG.
When Will was a young sheriff in another town, he managed to help put
Bo Barrett’s brother into prison. Now Barrett and his men have arrived with a
murderous plan. They will seize Buck Creek’s only link to the outside world,
the telegraph office, and take many hostages, including Will. Then they will
notify the governor that they have his son, and they will kill one Buck Creek
citizen per hour until Bo Barrett’s brother is released from prison and sends a
message verifying he is free. Buck Creek is so isolated that the nearest army
post is a two-day ride, so the townspeople will not be able get help.
Barrett’s scheme soon is set into
motion with bloody results, but Will Hanson, Anna Bain and the previous mayor,
JOHN RIDEOUT, manage to escape and hide in the town. And there is a growing chemistry between the mayor and school teacher, but no time to act on it.
Bo Barrett hangs his first
hostage, the town’s PREACHER, to show he means business, and the town’s
UNDERTAKER is his next victim. Outgunned, Will, Anna and John can only watch
helplessly from their hiding place, until Anna convinces Will that she can work
a telegraph.
They try but fail to regain
control of the telegraph office. John Rideout is wounded. Anna remembers that
her older brother, ANDY BAIN, a Lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry, sometimes
trains new recruits about 10 miles outside Buck Creek, with strict orders to
stay away from the town. He taught her Morse Code. If she can climb a nearby
hill with a mirror, she may be able to flash a message to him.
It’s a desperate and dangerous gamble. But
Will distracts most of Barrett’s men by challenging Bo to a showdown, and Anna
escapes the town. Will, however, is captured and will be the next hanging
victim unless the governor responds.
As Anna climbs the hill with
a big mirror, she is spotted by two of Barrett’s men. They chase her. She
fights them off , knocking out one and killing the other with part of the
shattered mirror. Now she has just enough mirror left to start flashing a plea for help.
One of the raw troopers being
trained by her brother sees the flashes. Lieutentant Bain reads the message, and he and SERGEANT
HARRIS lead their green cavalrymen on a desperate gallop toward Buck Creek.
They charge into town with bugle blaring and swords flashing and do battle with
Barrett’s men just as Will is being hanged.
Anna runs into the battle and
helps save Will. Barrett escapes the melee, but Will soon chases him down. They
fight to the death, and Will is the survivor.
After the day’s many dead are
buried, a happier time soon dawns. A high-noon wedding is held in Buck Creek.
The mayor marries the school teacher, and they march beneath an archway of
flashing cavalry sabers as they leave for their honeymoon.
#
For more information regarding the availability of this screenplay, contact Si Dunn, Sagecreek Productions, LLC, 3800 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 730-131, Austin, TX 78756-4011, sidunn@hotmail.com.
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