One Zero Zero and Closing
In Pre Production
Based on the original one act play by Lynanne Rockhill
Vietnam War – 1966
Victor Moore is a 20-year old U.S. Air Force Forward Air Control pilot. He is alone with his girlfriend, Anita, as they say farewell to each other before he leaves for his mission to Vietnam. It is a sensitive and fearful goodbye, as they share their affections and commitment to each other. Afterward, Anita soon discovers she is pregnant with Victor’s child. Her mother insists she see their doctor and friend for a secret abortion. Anita refuses and leaves home to have the child and then finally because of the inability to support the child, gives the infant up for adoption.
In Vietnam, Victor flies a 0-1F Cessna plane and eventually is shot down by a SAM missile. The Vietcong capture and torture Victor. He escapes his captors and for two years, he survives the dangers of the Vietnam jungles and the horrors of the underground tunnels before he is finally rescued and returned to the United States.
New York City – 2005
Victor is now a 65-year old, homeless Vietnam veteran, who suffers every day in his dark world of PTSD. It left him no choice but to remain in the jungle, the urban jungle, to be alone and survive on the city streets and parks so that he could hide and cope by his own rules. Victor meets John, a black homeless man, who becomes Victor’s closest friend.
A street gang attacks Victor in the park, and they quickly realize Victor is a tough man with a great deal of anger. Victor seriously wounds two gang members, and the others promptly flee the scene. The gang returns to the park for revenge and they mistake John on the bench for Victor, stabbing John several times. Victor appears and fights them, receiving two broken ribs. John is taken to the hospital, but Victor refuses, and he goes off alone to try to nurse his injuries.
John is released from the hospital and returns to the park. He is with Harriet, a black homeless woman, who is a caregiver to the homeless people on the streets. Harriet offers hope to the homeless through her kindness and casual readings from the Bible. John introduces Harriet to Victor because of his injuries. John knows Victor needs help, but Victor’s distrust and pride rejects Harriet. Because of Harriet’s persistence toward Victor, he eventually allows her to be closer to him. Her compassion and nursing abilities helps Victor heal his broken ribs. And when Victor becomes afflicted with an illness, he accepts Harriet’s help. Through Harriet’s care, Victor’s anger becomes broken like a mustang to a saddle.
Then one morning, Victor wakes to find Harriet gone. John breaks the sad news to Victor that Harriet was sent to the hospital. She was very sick. Harriet dies from cancer. Victor is now lost again.
*****
Captain Philip Bryant, U.S. Marine Officer, and pilot of a USMC UH-1N HUEY helicopter. He is fighting outside the city of Ramadi, Iraq, and becomes seriously wounded in battle. He is sent back home to his family and, while on leave, Phil’s childhood friend and veteran comrade, Danny O’Malley, tragically commits suicide to find release from his suffering with PTSD. Phil’s wife, Jenny, grows anxious with thoughts of losing her husband to PTSD or to a battle if he decides to return to service. She worries about how their 5-year old daughter will cope with the loss of her father.
After Phil’s mother passes away, his father reveals to him a long-held family secret that he is adopted. The news shocks Phil, and he’s not sure what he should do about it. His family is not actually his family, but they are family, and his real family is somewhere outside his world. He comes to the realization that he needs to try to search for his biological parents. This quest sends him on a journey that changes his life.
Phil’s hunt takes him from Camp Lejeune to Savannah, Georgia, then to Miami, Florida, where he meets a new sibling and examines the personal effects left by his biological father to his biological mother. And it is in New York City, where he finally meets his biological father, Victor Moore.
Two men, each a U.S. veteran from different wars, see themselves as misplaced with no identity. They seek, each in their own way, an answer that will justify the void in their life created by circumstances beyond their control. Two men, who face each other for the first time, uncover the hole that has been buried for a very long time and they find that each has been the other’s root in a struggling family tree. It is a story that shows emotional hunger and pain, but speaks of truth, love, and sacrifice.