EGO, LOVE AND VENGEANCE Screenplay Synopsis
To Maria, Beirut is paradise during the
city’s glamour years in the early 70’s. She jogs everyday and covers a marketing
office for her husband, Ray, when he is traveling. Karim, a local taxi business
owner, caters to her logistic needs. Ray enjoys phenomenal Middle East business
success until corporate meddling and a corporate appointed corrupt Beirut
business agent create problems. Later, terrorist activity forces Maria to move
back home in Cincinnati with her teenage son and daughter. There, she returns to
a regimen of martial arts training and revives her friendship with Tony, who has
been like a big brother since her father died when they were teenagers.
Ray’s boss urges him to hire Gina as an office manager; concealing the fact
she was sent there to spy on him. After reluctantly hiring Gina, she strokes
Ray’s ego and is very cozy with him, even though she is a wealthy banker’s
lover, an affair that started in Washington DC prior to her moving to Beirut.
The banker introduces Ray to Kamil, an arms dealer who offers him a large sum of
money for secret data on his company’s advanced time fused rocket grenades. Ray
reports Kamil’s offer to his CIA contact. A subsequent FBI wiretap ties Kamil to
a corporate executive, and Kamil is also wanted by the British for subversive
activities.
Terrorists kill Gina’s lover with a car bomb, and she returns to the States
when Ray moves the Beirut office to London to escape the terrorist activity.
Maria refuses to join Ray in London, and her relationship with Tony warms.
Six weeks later, the London Daily Telegraph features an article on Ray’s murder
by a terrorist. It includes a file photo of Gina, as a luscious Washington
escort, and states she was seen at Ray’s apartment just prior to his murder and
has since disappeared. Gina’s stepfather calls Maria and tells her he received a
brief note from Gina in an envelope with a Beirut postmark. Maria feels guilty
for not being with her husband and becomes
vengeful and solicits the help of Karim to go after Gina. She agrees to pose as
his deceased wife, Hadari, to avoid suspicion. When they arrive in Lebanon a
militant Lebanese woman, Shib, befriends her and changes her name to Hadie. They
go on a night spy mission and are forced to kill an attacker with a dagger. Shib
then teaches Hadie the art of killing with a dagger she hides on her leg.
After Karim and Hadie move on to Beirut, two rogue militiamen, unaware of
Hadie’s martial arts skills, attempt to rape her and she kills them both. Her
encounters callous her even more. They relocate to a hotel near a mountain
compound, owned by a wealthy Arab sheik, where they believe Gina is staying with
the arms dealer, Kamil. Hadie draws attention by asking the concierge questions
about the compound and Gina. That night she is abducted and drugged, and taken
to the mountain compound where munitions are being stored and sold to terrorist
factions.
After rushing to Lebanon to help rescue Hadie, Tony is troubled when he
discovers that Maria has been posing as Karim’s wife and her name has been
changed to Hadie, and that Shib has passionate feelings for her. Realizing the
discord would impair their efforts to rescue Hadie they suppress their emotions
and work together.
In the heavily guarded compound, Hadie preserves her cover by convincing them
she was only helping her husband locate Gina at the request of Gina’s
stepfather. Militiamen appear with a photocopy of Hadie’s ID card that their
comrades had taken from her before the attempted rape. The second in command at
the compound, Sayeed, sends them away and protects Hadie. She is given a plush
room and meets Gina who recognizes her as Maria, yet agrees to keep her identity
secret. But Gina is now Kamil’s concubine and is hooked on alcohol and drugs.
Sayeed is enamored with Hadie and arranges for an outside friend to contact
Karim who sends a hand held radio for Hadie to communicate. Knowing it
is only a matter of time until Gina reveals her true identity, Hadie
orchestrates an ingenious escape plan. To have access to Sayeed’s office and the
compound basement to implement her escape plan, Hadie befriends Sayeed and
invites him to sleep with her the night before he departs on a trip.
Hadie learns that it was Kamil who had ordered Ray’s murder and she kills him
with a dagger. She then takes Gina with her to the basement where she had rigged
a remote control device to ignite a large cache of explosives. Karim and
Shib blast open the front gate for Hadie, and a series of explosions destroy the
compound and kill the guards as she surges out in a compound vehicle. Tony had taken out the
roadblock guards on the access road.
Karim takes Gina to Tunis with him to teach his children in English. Tony
takes Maria home, only to find her reluctant to marry him. The stigma of being
Hadie has left her feeling unworthy. She tells him she had killed men and
had not been celibate. But Tony’s love for her is unwavering. She asks for his
patience while she rids herself of the raw passion of the Middle East.
Writers Guild Reg. No. 1482071