At an armored transport company struggling to survive, a company speechwriter with his personal life in crisis fights to maintain his integrity and save lives when a ruthless team of criminals, led by a killer with nothing to lose, begins a deadly campaign of robbery and murder.

SYNOPSIS:

Act 1 Summary

In the cabin of an armored truck, BEN and MARTINEZ fight for their lives, desperately trying to fend off multiple attackers who are hammering the truck with relentless automatic weapons fire. Six months earlier, at a child’s birthday party, Ben, sincere and perpetually impatient, verbally fences with his neighbor, Scott, before going home to argue with his sad wife CLAIRE, about her drinking. At work, as Ben talks to coworker ROBIN about his boss taking credit for another of his ideas, his phone rings. It’s TRACEY, a recruiter with First Armored, an armored transport company, who asks if Ben would be interested in talking about an internal communications job. After interviews with HR exec CHRIS and the intense and driven CEO MICHAEL, Ben gets the job, which primarily involves writing speeches for Michael. Ben struggles with Claire over his more-demanding work hours. When an armored truck messenger is shot to death, Ben, Chris, Michael, operations exec BILL and security director DENNIS are shown the video of the man’s death by Dallas Police SERGEANT WALLACE, after which Ben writes his eulogy for Michael. At the funeral, Ben meets lovely and lonely SONDRA, who soon asks him to lunch. At dinner one night, after the deaths of two more employees, Claire expresses concern that Ben is becoming jaded about the deaths. In a boardroom conversation, the Miami branch is in trouble, and Ben and Chris are told to fix it. Michael shares with Ben that he was once a patrol cop, telling him about a child’s death that ended his police career. Ben accompanies Chris to Philadelphia, where Chris has to fire 15 employees because of poor margins. Ben then travels to Miami where, after dodging the attentions of ALEYDA at a customer restaurant, the truck he’s riding in is attacked. While Ben watches from inside the truck with driver MOORE, messenger ANGEL defends himself against two attackers, killing one.

Act 2 Summary

After the Miami attack, Michael makes sure Ben is okay. Dennis puts Ben and other new hires through real-life attack scenarios with guns shooting marker rounds. After a standout performance by former-Marine MERCER, Ben mistakenly shoots security team member NORRIS when he reaches for his cell phone. Claire invites Ben to lunch, who declines when he’s called to see Michael. Ben talks with Dennis and Bill, who tell him that U.S. performance is poor and no one is getting raises or bonuses. After Claire wakes up on the couch, hung over, Ben tells her to control her drinking, or he’ll take action. Ben is sent to Nashville to take away the branch’s popcorn machine, where he meets beleaguered branch manager TRAVIS and assistant manager Kip. Ben delivers the bad news to assembled employees, while also telling them about new training opportunities. EMILIO and HENRI are enthusiastic, but the surly MATTHEWS is unimpressed, makes a vague threat, flips around the brim of his baseball cap and leaves. Ben tells Travis to fire Matthews. The next morning, a Nashville branch truck is attacked. Ben accompanies Travis to the scene, where the driver has been shot in the arm and the messenger is dead. Ben becomes frantic when the dead man’s phone rings, and Travis assures him they’ll take care of their man. Ben breaks down on the flight home, and a stranger hands him some tissues.

Back at home, Claire calls Ben again for lunch, who declines when Sondra appears. At lunch, Ben shares his challenges with Claire, and Sondra asks if Claire knows they have lunch. Ben says no, and Sondra questions whether he’s doing anything wrong. When he gets home late that night, Ben isn’t hungry, and Claire asks who he had lunch with. Ben hesitates, and Claire flies into a drunken rage. Later, while he’s sleeping, Ben’s phone buzzes with an email from Michael, and Claire wakes up and commands Ben not to respond in the middle of the night.

In Nashville, Matthews meets ex-con SIMS, and they agree to team up for the next armored truck robbery, slated for the following night. At home, Ben and Claire’s dinner is derailed by her dad, who deliberately keeps her on the phone. Afterward, Ben rants about Claire’s very dysfunctional family. She responds that he really shouldn’t wonder why she drinks. The next night, messenger TERRY is headed back to his First Armored truck when Matthews and Sims attack, and Matthews quickly guns down Terry, grabs the money and escapes while Terry bleeds out in the street.

Ben connects with Claire in the morning before heading to the office to hear about the latest deadly attack. Michael sends Ben and Dennis to Nashville, where they meet with F.B.I. AGENT GAINES and see video of the most recent truck attack. As Travis speculates the killers have been through company attack training, Ben sees one of the killers flip around the brim of his cap, and identifies Matthews as the leader. They realize Matthews knows where the trucks will be and when for the next five weeks. Ben, Dennis, Travis and Agent Gaines go to Matthews’ apartment, where a hard-bitten JENNI tells them he’s gone. They find some of the money and high-velocity rifle rounds, but no weapons, and Jenni tells them to take Matthews down.

That night at home, Claire falls asleep on the couch with her head in Ben’s lap, and they profess their love for one another. The next day, while Ben and Sondra are at lunch, Sondra offers herself to Ben. Ben admits he’s very attracted to her, but that he loves Claire and they can’t have lunch anymore. Ben, Michael, Chris and Bill convene in the boardroom to discuss the latest round of layoffs. Ben sees Sondra will be let go, and asks why the orange boxes, for eliminated positions, don’t have names in them. He says if the time comes for him to be let go, he hopes someone puts his name in the box. At home one morning, Ben talks to Claire about watching her asleep on the couch, and she fears another lecture, but Ben says it reminded him of everything he loves about her, pledging not to forget again. Claire comes home late and explains she went to a meeting for her drinking, and Ben agrees to mind his own business while she works things out.

Ben runs into TIM, an old friend, who shares the story of his consulting business and encourages Ben to start his own business. Matthews’ gang grows as he and Simms meet the military-trained Powell, credited with more than a dozen kills in Afghanistan. At the office, as Sondra is being walked out, she and Ben embrace, and she leaves him with a kiss on the cheek. The Brooklyn branch goes on strike, and Michael lets Ben know that if Brooklyn isn’t turned around, it’s the end for the U.S. division. Meanwhile, Matthews meets with Simms and Powell to show them some new equipment: fully automatic AK-47s and 40-round magazines. When Powell asks when they’ll use the new guns, Matthews answers “Tomorrow.”

Ben, Michael, Chris and Bill fly to New York that night, so Michael can give a speech to turn the Brooklyn branch around. Ben gets a text from Mercer, whom he meets in a working-class bar. Mercer encourages Ben to look around at the regulars — all doing whatever they can to get by. Ben is moved, and ducks out to rewrite Michael’s speech. He writes all night, and in the morning rushes to the Brooklyn branch. An agitated Michael says the speech isn’t what he asked for, and Ben tells him it’s what he should have asked for. In the brutally honest speech, as Ben heads outside to shake hands with Mercer on the picket line, Michael pledges to personally help the branch work out their concerns. One by one, the employees respond with applause.

Matthews’ gang attacks again in a bank parking lot. First Armored driver JEFFERS, oblivious, texts on his phone until the machine-gun fire shatters the silence, the bullets ripping through messenger CANTU, who dies instantly, and a FEMALE CUSTOMER. Matthews and his gang grab the moneybags and escape as the truck’s alarm horn sounds and Jeffers looks on in horror. The Female Customer staggers into the bank lobby and falls to the floor, dead. Back at the office, Ben calls Tim and proposes adding corporate communications to his consulting business. Tim wants to know more, and proposes they meet the following week. Tim asks Ben if he’s ready, and Ben says he’s not, but he will be. Matthews is getting ready, too. He shows Simms and Powell additional AK-47s and new 100-round drum magazines, and shares that they’ll need two more soldiers and two trucks for the next heist, the biggest yet, on Black Friday. Michael tells Ben the Nashville employees are scared, and he and Dennis are going back to the branch on Black Friday. After Thanksgiving with BARRY and MARGARET, Claire’s parents, Ben leaves for Nashville after a heartfelt goodbye to Claire.

Act 3 Summary

Later that morning, Travis asks Ben and Dennis to ride on trucks to provide extra security. As Ben meets MARTINEZ and ELLIS, who will be on the truck with him. While he’s suiting up and getting his weapon, Mercer arrives, having been sent by Michael to look after Ben. Mercer says their first stop is a warehouse store with lots of cash, and it’s a long stop. If they’re going to be hit, that’s where it’s going to happen. After arriving at the warehouse store and talking to ANNE, Ellis and Mercer bring back the cash and head back inside for the coin, taking notice of a loitering Simms, while at the same time two panel trucks enter the parking lot, prompting a warning from Martinez.

Matthews and his four-person crew attack. Ben and Martinez are in the truck, with Ellis and Mercer in the store, when Matthews’ gang pins the First Armored truck between the two panel trucks. In the store, Simms draws his weapon and is shot dead by Mercer. Matthews enters the store and sprays Ellie with gunfire, killing him, and then shoots and seriously wounds Mercer. In the truck, Martinez shoots one of the gunmen and crushes another with the truck. As Powell hammers the truck with machine-gun fire, Martinez is wounded when a bullet penetrates the truck armor. Using a gun port, Ben empties his pistol into Powell, killing him. With a news helicopter circling overhead, Claire sees the news report and knows Ben is in trouble. Becoming desperate, Matthews demands Ben and Martinez give him the paper money, and when they refuse he shoots Mercer in the leg. After a quick automatic weapons tutorial from Martinez, Ben leaves the truck, grabs a machine gun, charges into the store and, after a pitched battle, kills Matthews, saving Mercer.

Travis drives Ben back to the branch in a truck, where everyone cheers. Ben ducks out of the celebration, turns in his I.D. badge at the entry window and walks out of the branch, through the front gates and out into the streets. He calls Claire and asks if she’s free for lunch. She asks what day, and Ben says he’s free all week.

THE COMMUNICATOR