Storyline
Rising Star
Download script for Rising Star

FORMAT: Full length feature

COMP: Seven meets The Rookie

Pages: 89

LOGLINE: In 1986, a veteran detective and his guarded rookie investigate a staged overdose that exposes corruption, a deadly new drug, and a serial killer—forcing the cop to confront the danger of trusting his own instincts.

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Set in 1986, Rising Star follows veteran detective Logan Ford, a worn-down cop whose instincts have carried him through decades on the job, and Malik Edwards, a sharp, guarded rookie whose intelligence and restraint mask deep personal risk. When a sex worker is found dead of an apparent overdose in a hotel room, the case quickly widens to expose political corruption, organized crime, and a dangerous new drug known as Rising Star. As bodies begin to surface—posed like grotesque marionettes—the investigation draws the detectives into a web linking crooked politicians, mob enforcers, and a long-dormant serial killer rumored to have once stalked Philadelphia.

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As Logan becomes increasingly convinced the murders point to his quiet neighbor, a meticulous puppeteer, Malik follows a different trail that leads to a respected social worker with a hidden past. Under mounting pressure and a tightening deadline, Logan’s certainty hardens just as the evidence begins to fracture. When the truth finally emerges, justice proves incomplete: the wrong man is cleared, the right killer remains free, and Logan is publicly rewarded even as his faith in his own judgment quietly collapses. The city celebrates, corruption persists, and somewhere unseen, evil survives—leaving Logan and Malik changed by a case that exposes the cost of mistaking instinct for truth.

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