A Feature Length Social Thriller
LOG LINE: The ghosts of a slaughtered Native American tribe exact revenge on four privileged white men during a drug-fueled ski weekend.
ACT ONE
Four friends from high school, now in their 40s, meet in the snowy playground of Vail, Colorado for a reunion weekend of booze, drugs and (maybe) some skiing. And while they were once the best of friends, time has worn them down into passive aggressive combatants—all aging white guys with bougie beefs, that feel incredibly out of step with today’s culture.
Paul, a lonely, bitter divorcee is a shell of himself after a brutal separation, can’t forgive Kristian, a pussy-whipped family man (and his erstwhile best friend) for having slept with his high school girlfriend nearly 25 years ago. Kenny, a once glorified high-school sports hero is now an out-of-shape teacher living with his wife and her immigrant parents in a one-family house. Kenny is the keeper of the peace between Kristian and Paul, but is out of practice with drugs and finds himself at the brink of panic and ruining the trip. Dominico, an absolute wrecking ball of toxic masculinity with no moral floor, has one goal: to get as fucked up as possible.
Kenny and Paul arrive first at Denver International airport and are picked up by Kristian. They make short work of getting as high as possible and find themselves traveling to the AirBnB Kristian rented, while Dominico pushes the limits of impropriety on his first class night flight out of NY.
On their way to the AIrBnB, Kenny nearly causes an accident by grabbing Kristian’s wheel trying to avoid a White Deer no one else saw…The AirBnB Kristian rented is a one star shit-box from which they they are kicked out by the host after just 10 minutes. Kristian is getting it from all sides; his wife Trish is constantly calling to berate him and now Paul and Kenny won't stop grilling him about how he screwed up the rental.
Dominico learns mid-flight that their accommodations fell through and mentions it as much to his mysterious seat-mate in first class; Chief Daniel Champoose of the Ute Nation. Champoose tells Dominico not to worry, that he has a place in Vail they can use and hands him a business card with his picture on it.Dominico texts an image of the business card to the the others, letting them know he’s solved the crisis.
Kenny, Kristian and Paul quickly pivot to the new property. Kenny is starting to get uneasy, over-high and keeps seeing things the others do not. Champoose’s house is a huge upgrade from the original AirBnB. It comes complete with a number of amazing amenities including a strange, hypnotic hot tub. Things could not have worked out better.
Dominico touches down in Denver and drives a rental car out to the mountains. Just before arriving (and wildly inebriated) he is pulled over by Officer Redfoot, a native American Vail cop. Despite his skill, Dominico cannot talk his way out of it and it looks as though he is headed to jail. But when Dominico shows Redfoot Champoose’s card, Redfoot does an abrupt about face and sends Dominico back into the night, drunk as hell, for no apparent reason.
ACT TWO
Something bad is happening with Kenny, but no one is sure if it’s because he lost his party edge, or he’s legitimately having a psychotic break. He’s seeing strange animals, hallucinations and is growing paranoid. Either way he is starting to ruin the trip for the others. What was supposed to be an escape from marital worries and responsibility is becoming an epic buzz kill. Especially for Dominico who tries to keep the raging party vibe going at all costs.
Paul continues to simmer at Kristian for his past indiscretions. After a day of middle-aged skiing, and an uncomfortable night of panic and paranoia for Kenny, the friends head out to the resort for one last day of Vail's pristine powder. They travel up the mountain in the gondola, but when they reach the top, Kenny chooses to ride back down to the base lodge where he takes off on his own and makes his way to the Vail Library. There he sits by the fire and tries to collect himself. He is taken over the edge when he discovers a books describing a Native American massacre in Vail carried out by a Colonel named Davos. After seeing more visions of lurking animals outside of the library window, Kenny takes off with the book.
When Kenny meets up with the rest of the boys, he is in full panic mode. Once they return to the house, they attempt to get Kenny to go into the hot tub with them to relax. But Kenny has become completely unhinged and paces the house as the others look in from inside the tub. The weather slowly begins to change. Kenny studies the library book and realizes that the stretch of land filled with slaughtered Utes in the picture matches up with the backyard and hot tub. But more importantly, one of the Ute dead in the picture looks identical to the image of Champoose on his business card. Kenny franticly tries to warn his friends that but he is ravaged and torn apart as the others watch helplessly from the hot tub.
Terror begins to set in for Paul, Kristian and Dominico. They now realize that it something supernatural is at play and they are its target. Before they can react, the weather is upon them. Any attempt to exit the hot tub brings a drastic drop in temperature. From the shadows, animals begin to emerge. Foxes, Elk, and the white deer that Kenny saw earlier—all staring with red eyes, threatening to attack.
ACT THREE
The animals stay on the perimeter, waiting for their prey to come to them. Dominico knows that if they don’t man-up and do something they will most certainly die in the hot tub. After an elaborate pep talk that stirs neither Paul or Kristian to action, Dominico swears his friends off and confronts their simmering feud before running full tilt to the house in a display of idiotic masculinity where he is confronted by a badly burned Ute ghost and is torn apart by the animals in a hideous display of brutality.
Kristian and Paul remain in the hot tub where they have pulled the cover over them for protection and painfully wait with their heads barely inches out of the water. Paul brings all his hate for Kristian to the surface and tells him that Kristian’s wife wanted to have sex with him on their wedding night. They come to blows, with Kristian violently knocking Paul’s head into the wall of the hot tub, killing him. Kristian must now figure out how to survive, while Paul’s dead body decomposes next to him. Kristian steadies himself for one last attempt to survive. Kristian sees Officer Redfoot, (the cop that pulled over Dominico earlier) lingering near the house. This is the lifeline he needs, but after acknowledging Kristian, Redfoot leaves him for dead.
With nothing left to lose, Kristian leaves the tub and attempts to run after him. He is quickly overtaken like Dominico and Kenny before him, by the ghosts of this native and sacred land. Within moments, all evidence of the carnage is gone. No trace of the retribution that occurred remains. As Officer Redfoot drives away, he comes upon another group of middle age, white men on their way to 2 Davos Lane for a well deserved ski vacation with the boys.