Pursued by her overseer-from-hell in the dystopian New Deep South where minorities and non-Evangelicals are enslaved or worse, a clever runaway slave masquerades as a male circus performer on a life-or-death quest to rescue and avenge her family. (An Award Winning Script! 8 Finalist/Winner, 3 Semi-Finalist, 4 Quarter-Finalist, and 15 Official Selection Awards.)

SYNOPSIS:

NOTE: WeScreenplay gave this script UNCHAINED MELODEE a strong CONSIDER recommendation, with an EXCELLENT rating (top 85th to 97th percentile) for overall impression, concept, plot and dialogue, and 84% for characters and structure. The coverage noted: "This writer has a truly unique voice and perspective. The script grabs the reader’s attention and holds it until the final page."

SYNOPSIS (FOR THE THREE PART LIMITED SERIES)

MELODEE, a MacGyver-clever, runaway quadroon slave races through the woods pursued by her ruthless overseer JAKE SLOCOMB and his henchmen. At a cliff’s edge, when it appears Slocomb will catch her, Melodee fashions sheets into a “parakite,” jumps off, and soars onto a steam locomotive and freedom.

Welcome to the absurdist world of the New Great States of America in the 22nd Century. Climate change has destroyed energy grids. Autocrats and supremacists have taken control. Minorities and non-Evangelicals are now enslaved or killed.

THE SPANIARD, the owner of a traveling circus, enlists Melodee as an aerialist in his show. To ensure she’s not discovered, she hides out “in plain sight” disguised as a White man. At circus stops along the way, she’ll focus on her primary goal—to search for and free her enslaved mother, RUTH, and daughter, MARY.

Melodee tracks Ruth to MITCH WARD’S slave “dealership” outside New Orleans. She frees her and returns to the circus. Melodee tells her mother she's pregnant, and the baby’s father is her previous owner.

Slocomb joins forces with Ward to find Melodee and Ruth. In a hydrogen-powered airship, they spot her as she's practicing her parakite act before that night’s performance. Melodee eludes them but when she returns to the circus, she finds Ruth deathly ill. A grieving Melodee miscarries. She has reached her low point: the death of her mother, the miscarriage of her second child, and a dangerous, uncertain future for Mary and herself.

Melodee locates and saves Mary. Back in Natchez, as the circus train prepares to depart, the Spaniard tells the troop they’re leaving the New Deep South and moving permanently to California. But Slocomb spots Melodee and Mary running late, dashing through the station to catch the train in time.

Slocomb jumps on a train he saw them climb onto, but they jump off. He surveys the car he's in. The passengers are minorities, shackled to their seats. A sign reads “SLAVES ONLY.” Seconds later, Slocomb’s body is tossed off the train. Melodee and Mary reach the Spaniard and the moving circus train and leap on.

In California, the Spaniard decides to free the circus animals just as Melodee recommended. From now on, just like Cirque du Soleil, the Spaniard’s circus will feature only human performers.