I'll try to keep this as brief as I can. A group of people survive a plane crash deep in a South American jungle. One of them is a Green Beret (or, at least, he's lying about being one). Seeing the crashed plane, a group of rebels in the area take them back to their camp, as they assume they're working for the government forces (who witness the rebels taking them back to their camp from afar, and assume they're working with the rebels). Govt. forces follow our group and the rebels back to their camp, and attack. In the firefight, our group escapes. Both sides want them dead, so I need both groups to chase them. And I guess I'm looking for a way to make this plausible. It's not a huge camp, so if they both immediately run after our group of crash survivors, they'd inevitably run into each other, and well... they hate each other deeply, and would probably kill each other, lol. So, any ideas for the actual mechanics/scene blocking that could avoid this? Our group is tied-up in a tent when the fighting breaks out, they get out of their bondage, and escape. Currently, I have the rebels see their prisoners escaping and chase after them immediately, and then the govt. forces seeing this and also giving chase. But it just doesn't make much sense from the perspective of their primary goal being to kill each other (it's a civil war). Anyone have any suggestions? EDIT: I guess what also complicates this is that, during the escape, an item very important to one of our main characters falls out of her bag, so they immediately plan on going back.
I think this is very plausible and you'll come up with something that works. I had to think about it a bit but the first thing I could think of was the plot of 'Children of Men' which has a similar situation.
1. Who has the upper hand in the battle, the govt. or the rebels? One sort of has to retreat or even be be routed in order for there to be a reason to leave the camp. Unless... see my fourth paragraph. 2. Why would rebels, whose (I'm assuming prior hidden) camp has been raided, prioritize chasing after these plane crash survivors to kill them? Even if they think these escapees are govt. agents, I would imagine a regroup being the first step after being raided, depending on how badly they've been thrashed. Instead of immediately giving chase, perhaps the rebels could employ tracking and the govt. soldiers possibly just organize patrols if they have more resources. Dogs might be a thing. Either way, I think there's something missing here. Typically this kind of plot would depend on either the pursued group having or being perceived to have something both parties want. Sometimes this is a macguffin, or a princess, or a drug-dealer's son, or simply information. Just wanting to kill them because association with the other side of the civil war produces the question for either faction: are you really running out of people to shoot, to the point that you're going to put all that work into finding these slippery unarmed ones?
Your last paragraph in particular is a really great point, and I'm really struggling with how to rectify it. As you said, they haven't run out of people to shoot, and the two leaders won't abandon their very personal feud to hunt down some guys they've never met. Just can't seem to write my way around this issue. Any ideas? It's a screenplay, hence why I can't really draw it out a ton, and need to be efficient. Just want them to be caught in the middle of this civil war, with both sides out to get them.
First thought to occur to me is that the opposing forces operate on different terrains. The state armed forces control the airspace and road network, carrying out their pursuit along those lines. The rebels, being less heavy military, work through jungles and off-road routes. Each party tries to avoid conflict where they are weak and the opposition strong. Your hapless bunch are caught between the rock and the hardplace, with no obvious escape route.
Maybe look at your themes for ideas? For example, if this is a situational comedy where a convenient misunderstanding and lots of assumptions got the characters into this mess, it would be fitting for convenient misunderstandings by the rebel and govt. factions to also be the reason these civil war crashers are pursued. Other themes might include greed, hasty decisions, desperation, confusion, forbidden love... following those leads might help with inventing concrete reasons for the pursuits that also mesh with the whole story.
Have the prisoners take something from the camp when they escape that both sides want. The secret plans to the Death Star or something. You said one of them was a former Green Berer so they'd know if there was something worth taking.
Green Beret doesn't come on until *after* they escape. Not a bad idea per se, just not sure what some random plane crash survivors would want to steal from a rebel camp. Loving all l these ideas, guys. I know I kinda wrote myself into a corner.
Then to reverse engineer the problem, why would anyone care about hunting down and killing random plane crash survivors? Sounds like you might have a premise problem. Is this a minor scene or the crux of the story?
Because they think that they're special forces, and working for the other side. Government forces see their crashed plane, and see the Delta logo, so they assume they're Delta Force (at the very start of the screenplay, the government forces are torturing a real special forces member for info, and he tells them the cavalry's coming. Govt. forces thinks this is them). At the rebel camp, when our survivors are being questioned, rebel leader believes them that they're just crash survivors, but when the govt. forces descend in the camp (they followed our survivors), rebel leader assumes he's been tricked (when they were first captured, love interest mentioned that our main character was a Green Beret, because she believes him). Sounds convoluted, but it works in the script.
The stakes could include knowledge of some kind. The plane crash survivors could have witnessed or be suspected to have witnessed/gathered intel that a certain foreign country (sometimes a specific politician, like a senator, cabinet member, etc. so the stakes are more immediate and personal) or local faction is in fact covertly arming the rebels. The government may be under the impression that the crash survivors are the dealers themselves, evidence that the US is involved in arming the rebels. They must catch them at any cost.
