A newlywed couple find themselves mistakenly on a train that crashes over and over again with a satanic Conductor bent on keeping the train on schedule and the couple with him, forever.

SYNOPSIS:

TITLE: Hellbound Train

WRITER: Aaron Heinrich

FORMAT: Feature/Supernatural Horror/Thriller

LOGLINE: A newlywed couple find themselves mistakenly on a train that crashes over and over again with a satanic Conductor bent on keeping the train on schedule and the couple with him, forever.

COMPS: Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination, Edge of Tomorrow

WHY THIS STORY NOW: We live in a time when anything said about anyone is taken as the truth, especially if a figure of authority says it. Then why not a satanic figure on a train bound for hell who makes sure its newest passengers never get off, whether they belong there or not?

BOARDING THE 663

A huge black train barrels down the tracks in the middle of the night heading toward a distant bridge spanning a deep canyon. The passengers are at the windows, screaming, crying out. They don’t want to die! The CONDUCTOR, an overly neat man with a penchant for humming “This Train is Bound for Glory, stands in the engine grinning maniacally, a large Rottweiler (DEACON) at his side who can also shape shift to a man.

The train reaches the bridge and before it can complete the crossing, the bridge collapses sending it and all the passengers into the canyon. The Conductor and Deacon walk away from the wreckage as the train and the bridge begin to reassemble. Some of the passengers melt, screaming into the ground around it. Others become whole and wait their turn to board the train again. The rest file zombie like to the freight car and climb into caskets. The train is now back on the tracks and we see 663 in blood red letters emblazoned on the side.

HAL and JESSIE LAFLEUR (early 20s) have just gotten married and have planned on what they think will be a romantic train ride through the American West. But their original train is delayed, so they are forced to board a different train - the 663.

Hal is a train buff with a permanent stutter that becomes more pronounced the more excited he gets. Jessie is a strong-willed woman who takes being Hal’s supportive partner seriously. The two of them do not belong with the killers, rapists, philanderers, and embezzlers that inhabit the train they are about to board.

Hal and Jessie get on the 663 without incident. But both are soon met with odd encounters with the passengers – CARL, an old man who tries to warn them about the train and what’s ahead, a drunk in the bar car who is escorted away by Deacon as a man -- and the Conductor who is overly charming to Jessie. Little do they know what awaits them when they reach the bridge.

LIVES ARE AT STAKE

Things take a drastic turn after a dinner in their honor turns into a horrifying, nightmare-filled first night where they see the passengers in various states of death, a freight car full of the

undead, and the Conductor holding them over the side of the train intent on making sure they can’t get off.

When they awake the next morning, the pictures on Hal’s phone from the night before revealing it was not a nightmare. Hal and Jessie realize there is something horribly wrong and they need to get off the train! They try to find a way, but it’s too late. The Conductor doesn’t care that they believe they don’t belong. That’s for him to decide, and he doesn’t make mistakes!

The train crashes and Hal and Jessie find themselves back on the 663 with no memory of being on it. When Hal drops his phone in their compartment and they look through the pictures from their wedding, they see the images of the nightmare encounter on the train and realize they have to get off. But the train’s already left the station, speeding toward its destiny with the bridge.

So, they jump, but find themselves in purgatory, pursued by demons, monsters, and the undead intent on having them to themselves. The Conductor pulls them to the “safety” of the train. Before the train crashes again, Hal records a message on his phone in case they don’t remember.

Hal and Jessie are back on the train going through the same events, but this time Carl offers to help them. They become even more insistent that they don’t belong there after Carl reveals some of the horrible things the people on the train have done to deserve to be there. Maybe the reason Hal and Jessie can’t remember the crashes is because they don’t belong there.

With Carl’s help they make a treacherous trek over the top of the train cars to try to stop the train before it reaches the bridge, only to have the Conductor stop them and force them to go through the crash once again.

ONLY ONE WAY OFF…WILL IT WORK?

Hal and Jessie find themselves back on the train, again with no memory of it crashing. Carl comes to their compartment and shows them the message Hal left earlier and the one Carl left before the last crash. They agree to try one more time to stop the train and kill the Conductor if they can. They get the help of a passenger simply known as the Tall Man who had his back fused by the Conductor so he can’t sit down.

As they make their way to the top of the moving cars, the Tall Man acts as a human bridge …until the Conductor confronts them on top of the moving train before they can get to the train engine.

Hal isn’t going down without a fight. He kills Deacon, and he and Jessie run across the top of the train toward the train engine as the Conductor is forced to deal with Carl and the Tall Man. When he sets Carl on fire, the old man throws himself over the side, hoping for some salvation. In a rage, the Conductor throws the Tall Man from the train, fusing him forever into the rails.

Hal and Jessie fight off the undead and get to the train engine. Hal tries to stop the train, but it’s going too fast. Despite nearly being decapitated by Jessie with a coal shovel and taking three bullets to the chest, the Conductor keeps at them. His wounds healing as fast as they appear.

As the train hurtles toward its eventual crash, Hal realizes the only way off is if they die before the train crashes. The gun they found has two bullets left. One for each of them. It’s murder. Suicide. Wrong on all counts. But it’s their only hope.

The Conductor comes for Hal, Jessie instinctively fires at the Conductor. Hal jumps in the way and takes the bullet instead. On his dying breath he tells Jesse he loves her and he’ll see her on the other side. He falls away from the train into the abyss.

As the Conductor comes toward Jessie, promising a life forever, she points the gun. But before he gets any closer, we HEAR it fire.

We’re back at the train station as Hal walks from the shadows searching for Jessie. A woman with her back to him looks like her. She turns and she’s an old hag who hisses at him. Then Hal hears his name. It’s Jessie! He didn’t think she’d go through with it, but she knew shooting herself after shooting him was the only way to get off the train. They are free from the train and the Conductor...and Hal has lost his stutter.

The moment is broken as a train arrives at the train station in a billow of steam. It’s the 663. The Conductor is at the first car and when the train stops, he calls out “All Aboard.” He nods toward Hal and Jessie, “You’re missing a helluva ride.” Not this time.

The train leaves the station and a black cat jumps up onto the train next to the Conductor where Deacon used to be.

Hal and Jessie watch as the train disappears into the night. They lock arms and walk away from the station as the train whistle blows one more time in the distance. And their phone? It and all record of what happened are left at the bottom of the canyon below the bridge.

THE END

HELLBOUND TRAIN