"Miami Vice"
By
Gary T. Hagan
beanandginger
Fade In:
Episode One: Sunset of reason
A haggard man is sitting in silence on a desert hill in the American Southwest. He is dressed in dirty jeans and an un-tucked flannel shirt as he watches the sunset. His face is not visible. A man in a black suit climbs up the hill behind him. The man sitting on the hill has his back to the other man. The man in the black suit looks out of place and struggles to make it up the hill. Loose rocks and dirt tumble down the hill as you see only his black dress shoes struggling to make the ascent. Black suit man makes his way to the top and stands behind the sitting man. The two men are poignantly silhouetted against the setting sun. The scene breaks to a close up of the man on the hill. A bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon is sitting beside him. He sounds a little drunk as he speaks. All that is visible is his jaw and grizzled beard as he speaks to the man in the black suit.
Black Suit Man
It's starting again.
Man on the Hill
It's not my problem. I've done my time.
Black Suit Man
You can't dodge this.
Man on the Hill
Why not. We're all lucky we came out alive and sane the first time…well, alive anyway.
Black Suite Man
You call this living? You're an adrenalin junky. You always have been. Without it you know as well as I do that your next move has always been the nearest bottle.
The old man on the hill scratches his jaw and becomes retrospective. The scene changes to the early 1970s. The old man is now back in college. He is James-Elliot, a wide receiver for Miami University. The scene is a football locker room.
James-Elliot is a clean cut (if immature), cocky, short haired country boy from Kansas. He's also a hard partying college football player. The players are all sitting in the locker room talking about the party the night before, the girls, the drinking and the post-game party. James-Elliott is a junior wide receiver. He's one of the team captains, has solid stats, and is getting noticed by NFL scouts. Coach snaps them to attention and gives a pep talk. James-Elliot remembers some fading words….
Coach
Find destiny in yourself. Find your inner strength, did deep in your heart….
The coach's speech ebb's away as the Man on the Hill's memory fades and he snaps back to the present.
Black suit man
You have responsibilities.
Man on the Hill
In this life the only responsibility you have is to yourself. It's the only way to stay alive.
Black Suit Man
What about your responsibility to your partner and your team?
Man on the Hill
I've had lots of teammates, they were all a disappointment.
The haggard Man on the Hill becomes retrospective again, thinking back to the same time as before only now it's after the coaches speech and he, James-Elliot, is speaking to his team.
James-Elliott
I know a lot of you guys are worried about scouts being here and playing well. I just want to say that win or lose I will play my hardest…not for the coaches, not for the scouts, not for the school, but for you guys, my teammates, because when we walk on the field out there we are all we got.
The scene changes to the Sugar Bowl game against UCLA, still in retrospective. The atmosphere is electric and the scouts are in the stands. On the way out of the locker room with the rest of the team a seedy looking guy stops James-Elliot.
Seedy Looking guy
Hey James, if you drop most of your passes out there today, I can make you a rich guy.
James-Elliot
Get lost pal.
He ignores the man and late in the game James is having the game of his life. Late in the fourth quarter he catches a screen pass and scrambles for a 94 yard touchdown sealing the Miami victory. However, the coach puts him in on the ensuing kickoff with only a few seconds left on the clock and James-Elliott gets hit by one of his teammates accidentally and blows out a knee.
The scene changes to a hospital room still in retrospective.
James-Elliot is despondent. His hopes of an NFL career are over. He gets checked out of the hospital by his dad and in the days after the game he falls into a deep depression and begins drinking heavily. He uses his knee injury as an excuse and continues to use one of his crutches as a cane. He refuses to rehab his injury.
The scene changes to after party for the football team still in retrospective.
James-Elliot is still hanging out and drinking with his former teammates but they keep talking about and planning for next season without him. They make fun of him because he acts crippled and use the term "Sonny" like "Sonny can you help a poor cripple cross the street". James curses them and tells them he hopes they lose next season. He falls down as he storms out of the party drawing more barbs and taunting from the crowd. James is now an outcast and no longer part of his beloved team.
The scene changes back to the present day on the hill as the sun is going down on the horizon.
Black Suit Man
Time is almost up for you and your partner. Only you can stop what's coming for both of you.
Man on the Hill
It will kill me. I'm all worn out and no good to anybody.
Black suit man
You'll die anyway if you don't. There was a time when you were the best. You can be again. You need to be again.
Man on the Hill
I'm too far gone. You know, every man has a black heart, a heart of darkness. It's a place they tap into during the worst, most adverse circumstances. It's how they survive. That place transforms men into a beast capable of unthinkable things, a reckoning force that is unstoppable. Most men live quiet lives and never have to visit that dark abyss. I have been down that hole and back…with my college injury, in NAM, with the women I've loved, and on the job. The last time I crossed that line into darkness I became someone else. I decided to give in to the dark and become the worst beast I could be…and I found out I was good at it. I nearly didn't come back. You can't ask me to go back there again. I won't be able to climb out this time.
Black suit man
You're wrong. Each time you've faced the worst and come out stronger. You were at the top when you quite. You owe it to your partner to try.
The haggard Man on the Hill becomes retrospective again.
The scene changes to 1971, a series of bars and seedy locations:
James-Elliot now has a rapid decline and spirals into continuous drunkenness with low life's who remember him as a star athlete. He loses the crutch but still walks with a limp. He stays up day and night partying, gambling, carousing and associating with bad people. He discovers he mixes easily with gamblers, pimps, drug pushers and users, prostitutes and petty scam artists. He learns to navigate the tough street life. He stops going to school and he loses his scholarship. He engages in some marginal criminal behavior. He experiments with drugs but has a bad reaction. He wakes up in an alley in a pile of trash. He is repulsed and realizes he needs to pull himself out of the gutter but doesn't know how. Finally James-Elliot gets locked up for drunk and disorderly. He doesn't have his identification with him. In an attempt to conceal his identity he gives the cops the first name "Sonny" to book him under.
The scene changes to James opening his draft letter, then a meeting with the draft board, then a meeting with his father, then basic training, finally him looking out a military transport plane window as he flies over Miami stadium. He talks with another recruit on the plane.
James-Elliot
Hell one minute I was getting drafted by the NFL and the next I'm being drafted by the good ole USA for a tour in the East Asia league.
At first James-Elliot had been bitter and tried to get a deferment because of his bad knee, but the draft board refused his appeal. After talking with his dad he decided it was just what he needed to straighten up and start over. James Elliot then dedicated himself just like he did in sports. He underwent a transformation as he went thru basic training. He honed his body and his mind. His injury was a now in the past. He was stronger and wiser than ever. James-Elliot was off to Vietnam.
Scene changes to a village in near Cambodia in 1973, still in retrospective, where an all-out firefight is occurring.
James-Elliot leads his unit against a group of Vietcong holding a small village east of Cambodia. As they fight and kill the Vietcong they go out of their way not to harm the civilians. He runs out of ammo in his M16 and is forced to kill three Vietcong with his 45. Cal. sidearm. After the shooting stops the unit is sitting and leaning on some debris. James-Elliot says the Vietcong never seem to stop coming and how futile it all is.
There was an older guy, about 34, who had just joined the unit named Butch. The guys all said Butch was crazy because he enlisted. Butch looks at James-Elliott earnestly.
Butch
Sonny, let me tell you something. We're the US Marines. We are not the perfect solution. But we are the last, best hope of preventing chaos in hell.
James-Elliot
Why did you call me Sonny you son of a bitch?
James-Elliot blew off what Butch said and grabbed him by the shirt demandingly. He was plagued by painful memories of his college teammates making fun of him.
Butch
Cause your ten years younger than me! Now get OFF me.
The group was pulling James-Elliot off Butch when a Vietnamese teenager walked up to them and blew himself up, killing all of James-Elliot's unit but only slightly injuring him. James-Elliot is left holding Butch in his arms as he died. Butch's last words were burned into James-Elliott's brain, "we are not perfect. But we are the last best hope of preventing chaos in hell."
Later, while getting patched up James Elliott is suddenly ordered to bug out with the MASH unit. While on a helicopter to a transport ship James-Elliott learns that Saigon has fallen and the US is bugging out.
The scene changes to May 1974, back in Miami.
James-Elliott returns home emotionally distant from the war and the loss of his unit. Using the GI bill he finishes his last year of college but is once again despondent after he graduates. He starts dating a girl, Carol Ann, and for a while he is happy again but still emotionally distant.
Looking for a job he comes across an ad recruiting for Metro Dade Police. James-Elliot goes to the precinct and fills out an application. Once they find out he is former military James-Elliot is brought in for an interview with Lt. Rodriguez.
Lt Rodriguez
So, Sonny, you wanna be a cop.
James-Elliot
Why the hell are you calling me Sonny?
Lt Rodriguez
Oh Sonny I know all about you. Your college football days, your injury, NAM, and your bust for drunk and disorderly. Some people think a bust won't show up in a job interview but we do our homework. You are the Sonny in this jacket that took the D&D bust back in 71 right? Is it a mistake?
James-Elliot
No there's no mistake, that's me.
LT Rodriguez
So one more time for the record your name is "James-Elliot "Sonny" Crockett – correct?
Crockett
Yeah pal you got me. What next?
LT Rodriguez
Well Sonny, thanks for being honest... and welcome to Miami Metro Dade PD.
James-Elliott becomes known thereafter as James "Sonny" Crockett.
The scene changes back to present day, it's almost dark now. The two men are just silhouettes.
Black Suit Man
You're the last best hope your partner has and he needs you. The team needs you Crockett.
Close up of Crockett's face now becomes visible as he slowly looks up at his old friend and Lt. Martin Castillo, as he hauntingly replies.
Sonny crockett
The last best hope of preventing chaos in hell….
The scene changes back to retrospective in Miami, 1974.
Crockett works his way thru the police academy and begins working the streets as a beat cop coming face to face with the underbelly of Miami's criminal elements. He and Carol Ann get married. The job takes its toll and Sonny soon become emotionally distant again. He begins drinking heavily again and begins having flashbacks of Vietnam. Even though Sonny develops a reputation for hitting the booze hard and being a loner his arrest record and police record are excellent.
The scene changes to six years later May 1980 still in retrospective.
Since Crockett has a degree he is soon promoted to Detective but as his professional life advances his personal life becomes rocky. Since he is now a detective he is on more important cases, frequently undercover, keeping odd hours, dealing with snitches and lowlifes of all sorts and keeping irregular hours. James Sonny Crocket becomes known as an excellent detective who can mingle easily with the criminal element, can handle himself in any situation due to his street sense and military training but also who is a lone wolf and reckless with his own life. He has a hard time dealing with authority and adapting to the "real world" when he is not undercover or on the streets. His partner soon requests a transfer but gets an offer to join the DEA instead leaving Crockett on his own. Sonny is once again abandoned by his team.
The scene is back in the present day with the Old Man on the Hill and the Black Suit Man
Castillo
I know everything you've ever been a part of has been violence and disappointment. I can't change that. But you won't find redemption in that bottle. Maybe there is no redemption for men like us. Everyone experiences hardships in their lives, some maybe more than their share. There was a time I would have gone into any battle with you. I need that man now.
Crockett
Look Lew, I'm not on the job anymore. If you're saying Rico is in trouble and if you're coming for me then this is personal and when it's personal it gets messy. No rules, no snitches, no Metro-Dade PD, No Feds, no DEA. If you are coming for me this has to be off the books and if that's the case we are going all in - hard and heavy.
Castillo
Rico needs us – whatever it takes. The Crockett I knew would never abandon his partner no matter what the stakes.
Crockett
And exactly what are the stakes?
castillo
Rico's son is alive. Calderone hid him just before the explosion that killed Calderon's sister, the boy's mother. He was raised by a cousin and now he has taken over the family drug business. He holds Rico and you responsible for the death of his mother. Rico was kidnapped from New York. We believe he is being held hostage somewhere on a remote drug refueling island in the Bahamas. Since you've been off the grid they likely couldn't locate you…but sooner or later they will.
Crocket
So what your telling me is I'm in this jackpot like it or not. Let me guess, Calderone is the cat, Rico's the cheese and I'm the mouse. When I get there we both die.
Castillo
We need to find Rico and get him out.
Crockett
Marty you may be missing one important fact. If this is Rico's kid, Rico wouldn't want a full assault. If the kid is the head of Calderone's drug empire that's the only way. Martin, if we kill Rico's kid he'll hate us and wish he was dead as well. (IN AN ONIMOUS TONE NOW) I already told you…to do this thing I will have to go back a place in my head and my heart that I'm not sure I can control. What you don't understand is that when I came back after being Burnett I never really got all of myself back. Burnett is still in here, in the dark, waiting for his turn again…waiting and more violent that ever.
Castillo
I will take care of the kid. But I can't do this alone. You're the only one who Rico will trust. And if he trusts you, you can get him out.
Crockett takes a last swig of his now empty bottle of bourbon and angrily throws it against a nearby rock face shattering the bottle.
Crockett
You know what you asking me to do here?
Castillo
Yes. You can handle it.
Crockett (Sarcastic Tone)
Awe hell. I'm outta bourbon anyway. What else have I got to do but sit in the wide open spaces and enjoy life right? But you gotta promise me one thing.
Crockett stands up, dusts himself off and squares up face to face in an angry and serious tone, waving his finger in Castillo's face. Castillo returns an unflinching gaze.
Crockett
Martin, you gotta promise me that if I lose it again you'll put me down. If you want me to go all in on this ONE hand, well fine pal YOU got it. But if I become Burnett again you gotta put me down…and I mean down where I won't come up again.
Crockett walks a few steps away as the scene shows Castillo gazing sternly at the fading sunset in deep thought. The scene is a close up of Castillo watching the sunset and then panoramas slowly around to view Crockett over his shoulder.
Castillo now becomes retrospective and remembers back to some tense times with Crockett and Tubbs. Previous episode footage / scenes play out as the episode ends.
FADE OUT
In ensuing new episodes, key episodes of the first two seasons of the original series play out in retrospective form to serve as backdrop for the new story line and revive the series.
Episode Two: Crockett in present day as he reluctantly goes back to Miami to work with a special official / unofficial task force to find Tubbs. Includes retrospective flashbacks to Brother's Keeper Pt 1. Crockett is reinstated as a deputized contractor (same status as old informant Noogie "The Noog Man" Lamont). Old Miami Vice teammates are present and new Vice team characters are introduced. Also Crockett lays low from the Cartel by using familiar and new toys as the team makes plans to get to Rico.
Episode Three: Castillo gets killed by Calderone Cartel while targeting Sonny. Retrospective flashbacks to Brother's Keeper Pt 2 and present day Déjà vu with Crockett's former Lt. Rodriguez getting killed on Sonny's boat. Crockett begins to slip back into the ultra-criminal Burnett. New Vice foes emerge alongside the cartel.
Episode Four: Present day Crockett must find out what Castillo was into before he can find and help Tubbs. Retrospective of the hunt and killing of Calderone. Crockett finds a confidant in the new younger team.
Episode Five: Crockett bonds with the new Miami Vice team in an effort to find Tubbs. But their team has a mole. Calderone's return retrospective and present day the new vice team begins to coalesce as a special unit to combat a growing menace.
Episode Six: The reveal with Tubbs being held captive by his son he thought was dead now the heir to the Calderone drug empire. Secrets are revealed about the Vice team. Crockett goes deep into Burnett – can he make it back? A vice team member surprisingly emerges as the new star.