THE 4-HOUR ZONE presents as an intriguing time-travel psychological, conspiracy thriller. The concept of a woman falsely accused of murder, who then travels back in time to clear her name, is a solid premise. The protagonist is put into a life and death situation with high stakes. The premise has good potential to create a tense thriller. The goal is clear. The tone is dark, fitting for a thriller. The opening establishes the tone and there’s a strong backstory involving the murder of the heroine’s father. The first act nicely sets up the ordinary world of Megan, establishing her role as a civil rights advocate and her personal life with her lover. There are several good plot beats in the first act that move the story forward: the release …show more content…
It’s mainly in the second and third act that the structure begins to falter. The second act should be the promise of the premise in which Megan goes after her goal to clear her name, but the series of events become fragmented and they do not always flow fluidly. In addition, the tone and the events become too surreal, and the plot becomes challenging to follow. The story is a bit too ambitious and becomes misdirected when the plot focuses too much on Lucy Mann and several conspiracy theories of past historical events, like the assassination of JFK. The script also focuses too much on the idea that Megan might be hallucinating and psychotic. These scenes becomes too dreamlike vs. realistic. It would benefit the script to stay focused on the goal: unraveling who killed Josh and proving her innocence. The scene in which she tries to stop the assassination of the President really isn’t well connected to the goal of Josh’s …show more content…
This slows the pace and doesn’t feel credible that she would immediately paint. The idea of Lucy being involved in the conspiracy isn’t well understood. It’s also not needed. Her motivation isn’t well understood about the media. The script already offers Denisovich and Collins in the conspiracy. There’s no need for another conspirator. Also, the theme about the manipulation of the media distracts from the real goal. In addition, several conversations are not well focused when they discuss various conspiracy theories etc. Page 10 is a good example of this. On page 54, Megan says she can’t deal with the “stigmatization,” but it’s not clear what she’s talking about. Her VO on page 91 feels out of place. There’s a repetitive feel with the action: there are too many gun battles. Several times Megan gets shot, along with other characters. The repetitive theme of getting shot actually dilutes the tension vs. intensifies it. These scenes blend too much together and remain