You want two things:
A query letter for a movie — polished, professional, industry‑ready.
Scene One in script form — the opening moment of the film, which will echo the prologue we just built.
I’ll give you both, clean and cinematic.
🎬 QUERY LETTER (MOVIE VERSION)
Title: The Last Soldier Genre: Post‑Collapse Drama / War Thriller / Humanist Epic Format: Feature Film (120 minutes) Tone: Children of Men meets The Road with the moral weight of A Quiet Place Author: John Scott Ridgway
Dear [Producer / Agent / Executive],
I am seeking representation and production consideration for my feature screenplay THE LAST SOLDIER, a grounded, character‑driven post‑collapse epic about a reluctant leader who becomes the moral center of a nation on foot.
Twelve years after a prison uprising sparks a mass refugee march across a collapsing America, Kenny, a former teacher turned accidental tactician, has become a myth inside Sanctuary Chicago 2 — a city rebuilt by civilians, not soldiers. But when a surviving Ellisberg faction armed with nuclear weapons advances on the Sanctuary, Kenny disappears. Only the five men who once followed him — former gang leaders bound by “Scrabble Rules,” a pact of shared leadership — understand what he intends to do.
What they don’t know is that Kenny has spent years secretly collecting the weapons others feared to hold. When the enemy army enters the mountain pass, Kenny triggers a chain of detonations that collapses the entire range, destroying the threat but sacrificing his anonymity, his peace, and the last pieces of the man he once was.
They find him afterward in the children’s garden, reading to kids who slept through the attack. When asked how he can be so calm, he answers: “They need someone who is calm in the midst of all this. I go back to the teacher — the man who never killed anyone.”
THE LAST SOLDIER is a story about reluctant leadership, moral burden, and the cost of protecting a world that no longer wants war. It is a film about the men who never wanted to be heroes — and the one who finally accepts that he must carry the guilt so no one else has to.
The screenplay is complete, and I would be honored to share it with you.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely, John Scott Ridgway Chicago, IL
🎬 SCENE ONE — SCRIPT FORMAT
(This is the opening scene of the movie — the Prologue.)
FADE IN:
EXT. MOUNTAIN PASS – DAWN
A narrow throat of stone. Silent. Still. Waiting.
SUPER: TWELVE YEARS AFTER THE MARCH.
A distant RUMBLE. Then another. The sound of an army approaching.
CUT TO:
INT. SANCTUARY CHICAGO 2 – COUNCIL WAR ROOM – SAME
Alarms BLARE. Civilians rush past the windows. The COUNCIL shouts over one another.
On a satellite feed: THE ELLISBERG ARMY enters the pass — armored trucks, missile carriers, nuclear warheads.
THEO
(whispers)
They’re in the pass. God help us.
KAREEM
If they fire in there, the blast funnels straight into the city.
Jorge turns to the others — the SCRABBLE COUNCIL. Five men who once led a march.
JORGE
Where’s Kenny?
Silence.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOOTHILLS – DAWN
A lone figure climbs the ridge. Calm. Steady. Purposeful.
KENNY.
He carries a small pack. Nothing else.
He reaches a boulder. Kneels. Opens the pack.
Inside: THREE DETONATORS. Old. Scarred. Deadly.
He sets them in the dirt. Looks at them like old ghosts.
KENNY (V.O.)
They need someone who is calm in the midst of all this.
He presses the first detonator.
A distant BOOM. The mountain shakes.
CUT TO:
INT. WAR ROOM – SAME
The Scrabble Council watches the satellite feed in horror.
THEO
He had more than one.
KAREEM
He never told us.
GLOTHER
He didn’t want us to carry it.
The second explosion hits. The pass collapses further.
The third follows — softer, final — and the entire mountain face gives way.
The Ellisberg army disappears in a cloud of stone.
Silence.
CUT TO:
EXT. CHILDREN’S GARDEN – HOURS LATER
A peaceful courtyard. Children sit in a circle, listening to someone read.
Kenny.
Calm. Gentle. A picture book in his hands.
The Scrabble Council approaches, stunned.
KAREEM
(softly)
How…?
Kenny looks up. His eyes are steady.
KENNY
They needed someone who was calm.
(beat)
I went back to the teacher. Just long enough.
He closes the book.
KENNY (CONT’D)
This is the end.
(quietly)
The last soldier.
FADE OUT.
If you want, I can now:
Write Scene Two
Write the full beat sheet
Write a logline
Write a synopsis for producers
Write character bios
Write the full opening sequence
Just tell me what direction you want to take next.
Here’s a producer‑ready synopsis of THE LAST SOLDIER — tight, cinematic, emotionally grounded, and shaped to communicate the film’s stakes, tone, and marketability. It’s written in the style producers expect: clear, visual, and focused on character and arc rather than granular plot detail.
🎬 THE LAST SOLDIER — PRODUCER SYNOPSIS
Twelve years after America’s collapse, Sanctuary Chicago 2 stands as the only thriving civilian‑run city in the Midwest — a place rebuilt not by generals or oligarchs, but by teachers, farmers, medics, and former prisoners who survived the long march north.
Among them is Kenny, once a quiet schoolteacher, later an accidental tactician whose instincts saved thousands during the refugee uprising. Traumatized by the violence he was forced to commit, Kenny has spent the last decade fading into anonymity, working in water towers and reading to children. The city believes he retired. Only five men know the truth.
These five — former gang leaders who became unlikely heroes during the march — form a secret pact called Scrabble Rules, a system where no one leads and no one commands. Together, they guard a single terrible secret: Kenny was entrusted with nuclear weapons over the years, weapons he hid to prevent them from ever being used. Even the Sanctuary Council has no idea they exist.
When a massive tectonic shift destroys one of the last Ellisberg underground strongholds, a surviving faction emerges — desperate, armed, and carrying nuclear warheads. They march toward the Sanctuary through the only mountain pass wide enough for an army. If they fire inside the pass, the blast will funnel straight into the city, killing everyone.
Three days before the enemy arrives, Kenny disappears.
The Scrabble Council realizes what he intends: he will face the threat alone, sparing them the guilt of choosing who lives and who dies. What they don’t know is that Kenny has more than one bomb — far more — and he never told them, because he refused to let anyone else carry that burden.
As the Ellisberg army enters the pass, the Sanctuary watches satellite feeds in horror. The alarms begin. The ground shakes. And then, in rapid succession, three detonations collapse the entire mountain range, erasing the invading force before they can fire a single shot.
The Sanctuary is saved.
Hours later, the Scrabble Council finds Kenny in the children’s garden, reading to kids who slept through the attack. Calm. Steady. Whole.
When asked how he can be so composed after destroying an army, Kenny answers:
“They needed someone who was calm in the midst of all this. I went back to the teacher — the man who never killed anyone.”
He stands, closes the book, and quietly declares:
“This is the end. The last soldier.”
THE LAST SOLDIER is a grounded, emotionally charged epic about reluctant leadership, moral burden, and the cost of protecting a world that no longer wants war. It blends the intimate humanity of Children of Men with the mythic weight of The Road, delivering a story where the greatest act of heroism is choosing who must carry the guilt so others can remain whole.
If you want, I can also create:
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