Seven Words That Saved My Life

WGA Registration: 1349206

SPECS

Format/genre: Feature length drama.

Tone: 1980’s period piece. Somewhat dark, edgy coming of age story.

Comps: Perks of Being a Wallflower, Breakfast Club, Almost Famous, Dazed And Confused

Rating: Rated R .

LOG LINE: After losing his mother, a lonely and awkward high school student finds solace in metal music and like-minded friends as they embark on an adventure attending a 1986 concert.

 

Overview: You either loved high school or you didn’t. It either conjures up fond memories or churns up anxiety of the worst time of your life. SEVEN WORDS THAT SAVED MY LIFE covers both. Based on events of my high school years that spanned the mid to late 1980’s, Seven Words drips of mid 80’s hard rock and early Metal nostalgia. Imagine if Cameron Crowe and John Hughes co-wrote a movie about high school in 1986.

 

Characters

Andrew Clark: The young high school student and main character. Shy, introverted and searching for friends.

Peter Clark: Andrew’s father. Kind and hurting dad trying to find common ground with his flailing son. 

Jason: Andrew’s new best friend. Intensely loyal and protective he is Andrew’s saviour.

Natalie: The only girl in the group, she is wild and impulsive, free, loyal and uninhibited. 

Marcy: Neighbour of Peter and Andrew. She is wise, bold and we can tell there is something between them.

 

The Story

Seven Words is a feature length drama based in the outskirts of Chicago in 1986. It is the story of Andrew Clark, a 17 year old high school student who feels unable to fit in… anywhere. It is told partially in the present as Andrew gives an interview for a magazine as he is about to go out and give the commencement at his former high school. He is now a middle aged rock star. He tells his story with help of voiceover sporadically throughout the movie.

 

As I wrote this I felt like the soundtrack was a character all its own. With the likes of Ozzy Osborne, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Beastie Boys and others I feel this could do for the 80’s metal scene what Almost Famous did for 70’s rock. You don’t have to love the music to appreciate the story of friendship, conquering high school and a father and son finding relationship… but it helps! This is my love letter to my teen years and to the early metal scene in the mid 80’s. I can smell the denim and dust on album covers. I can hear the static from the stereo and vibrations from that bass.

 

Andrew likes rock and metal yet has tried to be friends with a girl named PAM and her friends. In an age where musical taste defined who you were and the friends you have, he is lost. Pam tries to be kind but they just don’t want him around and ditch him every chance they get. 

 

Andrew and his father PETER find their relationship strained. Andrew’s mother died a year prior and they can’t seem to connect. Peter tries but they are strangers now. His inability to fit in at school only makes it worse. Peter’s neighbour MARCY tries to help out.

 

Andrew is hospitalized suddenly for a week and is laid up at home. No one visits him. He’s crushed. His dad tries everything to help him. Peter gives him his old electric bass and amplifier hoping that he will find something to be passionate about. He is hooked. Hooked the way that you get when you’re 17. Every moment is spent learning new Metallica songs. He idolizes their bass player Cliff Burton. 

 

Upon returning to school he comes to find that Pam or the others don’t even realize he was gone. She tells him he should find his own friends. He is broken. He decides life isn’t worth it. On the way home he decides to drown himself. Standing on a dam listening to music he ends up hearing a Metallica song that stops him. It has a kick-ass bass part that intrigues him and he goes home and learns it instead. 

 

As Andrew sits alone in the lunch room the next day we see what the seven words are. A group of metal heads ask him over to their table. “Why don’t you come sit with us?” Andrew’s life does a 180. He meets this group of friends who become his protector, his girlfriend (eventually) and his whole life. We are introduced to JASON, who becomes Andrew’s closest friend. A walking, talking ball of confidence and wisdom. We are also introduced to NATALIE, the only girl in the group. Andrew is taken with her.

 

As they embark on a night of adventure trying to see the Metallica show they end up stealing Jason’s step father’s car, get in a huge brawl and Andrew ends up in the hospital. They break him out and go to the concert anyway. These are the adventures that you keep talking about as an older person. As they get to the concert Jason and Andrew realize that he has left his ticket at the hospital. He’s missed it. Unwilling to go in without Andrew, the two sit outside the venue. Will they get in or stay outside together? 

 

When they run into someone unexpectedly Andrew’s life has gone from feeling completely alone to having a group of friends that refuse to leave him even when given the chance. From complete despair to hope and joy. SEVEN WORDS is all about friendships in a time in your life when friends are most raw and infinitely important. It is about the effects that music have on you, especially at this age… and how it can give you something to live for and something to believe in. It literally can save a life.