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LOGLINE
After a retired military veteran is coerced into trafficking, he must risk it all to save the woman he loves, and their daughter, from the destructive grip of the cartel.
SYNOPSIS
Maxwell Parks (Max) comes to Mexico while on leave from tour in Afghanistan. He meets Esperanza, a free-spirited hopeless romantic who loves her country and her culture, and they fall in love. Max learns of the political turmoil caused by the conflict between the corrupt federal police force and a community organizer, Sebastian Bonilla. He offers to take Esperanza away from this trouble but she loves her homeland, even more than her love for Max. Max leaves to return to finish his tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Thirteen years later, Max returns to Mexico after having purchased a ranch and quickly reunites with Esperanza, who now has a teenage daughter. He comes to learn that Sebastian Bonilla has consolidated his power and created his own cartel that now controls a large region of Northeastern Mexico and he has placed Reynaldo as Monterrey’s zone boss.
​Reynaldo coerces Max into smuggling drugs and migrants to the Laredo border and Max has no choice but to comply. After Esperanza finds out, she urges Max to leave Mexico for his own safety. Max decides to leave until he finds out that Esperanza’s teenage daughter is also his. Despite the growing complications, Esperanza is unwavering in her desire to stay, until she is kidnapped for the purpose of being trafficked. Max must now rescue Esperanza and his daughter and escape to the border before Reynaldo’s wrath catches up with them.
LOCATION
American Coyote takes place mostly in Monterey, Mexico with some several scenes in and around Laredo, Texas. Locations will include reputable and seedy night clubs, motel rooms, public plazas and an airport terminal. As the story unfolds, additional locations include a rural ranch, a bodega, illegal trafficking warehouses and underground routes, roadside checkpoints and the Laredo, Texas border wall.
CHARACTERS
Max Parks
Maxwell Parks is an Army veteran that served in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger. He has an idealistic sense of patriotism for America and can identify with Esperanza’s devotion to her culture and her people. But Max has limited knowledge and experience with the challenges that Esperanza and her people have to endure as a result of the region’s repressive cartel.
Once he becomes established, Max comes to understand the moral and ethical dilemmas that Esperanza and her people are having to endure as a result of the cartel’s strangle hold on the region. Max transforms from a loner who is only responsible for himself to a warrior who is willing to die in order to give a better life for Esperanza and his daughter, Camilla
Esperanza Fuentes
Esperanza comes from humble beginnings. Despite being a poor Mexican native, she radiates abundance and a hopeful optimism for herself and for her country. She is a free-spirited dreamer that loves her culture and her people. Like Max, she is also a patriotic idealist. She understands that her country is ravaged by the cartel but she also hopes that her country can be saved. But this comes at the expense of feeling trapped in her own prison.
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She has a strong desire to see Max retain his honor and integrity and for him not to fall prey to the corruption that the cartel inevitably brings about. But her hope and ambition blinds her to the impending destruction that remaining in Mexico can bring to her and those she loves.
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