Def-Con 4 (1985)
Three astronauts return to Earth after a nuclear apocalypse.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Vicious Trooper - Geoff Harrington
Troopers - John Allen, Elaine Armstrong, Sam Bardon, Robert Billings, Edwin Cameron, Colin Campbell, Doug Carrigan, Paul Church, Shannon Eamon, Timothy Egan, Peter Falconer, Adam Foss, John Galloway, Kenneth Harrington, Garth Johnson, Rajeev Khokar, Clyde Lefort, Michael MacKinnon, Margaret MacQuarrie, Joanne Morehouse, Alycon Outhit, Bruce Piercy, Tim Reed, Michael Roden, Douglas Scott, Andrew Short, David Sloan, Robert Spiers, Tim Stewart, and James R. Swansburg
Furnace Operator - Jim Liswell
Second Hangman - Daniel Boudreault
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
"It is the day after tomorrow. The ultimate nuclear defense system has been perfected. Security has been achieved. Global conflict is now unthinkable."
On day 407 of the Nemesis Mission, a 15 month NORAD mission flying a nuclear armed satellite capable of sending nuclear missiles to attack places on Earth, Howe is watching an electronic recording his wife Alice (Def-Con 4)|Alice sent him. Alice admits she has decided to cope with Howe being away by just thinking he is dead. Eventually Howe’s sister Suzy joins Alice and says hi to Howe. Shortly after, the recording becomes fuzzy and Howe stops watching the recording in frustration. Jordan goes to test the health of Walker (Def-Con 4)|Walker, who happens to be watching porn on one of his screens, while a news report comes on one of the screens. The news reports says a U.S. tomahawk cruise missile with a nuclear warhead landed in Soviet territory, to which the U.S. Navy blames on Libyan hijackers who stole it from a hijacked vessel carrying 11 tomahawk cruise missiles. On day 409 of the mission, a news alert talks about a possible nuclear incident involving numerous Soviet cities and NATO forces being mobilized along with cruise missiles being dispersed to their covert launch sites. All of a sudden the news relay goes dead and a bunch of alarms go off in the satellite. A message comes onscreen ordering the crew to War 2 status. Walker has Howe check for missile heat signatures to which the screen shows numerous heat signatures. The crew of the Nemesis mission debate if they should deploy the missiles, with Howe expressing caution and Jordan pushing for the launch of the missiles, due to her believing the order to status 1 can’t get through to them. Howe starts flipping through different relay stations, but station after station continues to go dead. He starts to lose it mentally and Walker accepts his family is probably dead, though Howe’s family, who is in a remote area, might have a chance. Jordan’s family, from Detroit is also probably dead. A ballistic missile starts heading towards the Nemesis satellite and Walker launches the missiles against the missile and targets on Earth.
On day 451 of the mission, the crew read data on the survival estimates for the human population projected to 42 days. The entire planet has an estimate of 8.4%, North America has an estimate of 2.7%, Europe has an estimate of 0.8%, South America has an estimate of 24.9%, Australia has an estimate of 4.1%, Asia has an estimate of 10.1%, Africa has an estimate of 11.2%, and Antarctica has an estimate of 72.1%. Howe continues to try and get message relays from his wife who has a transmitter. On day 456 of the mission, Howe gets another message relay from Alice. Alice assumes Howe is dead at this point and says Suzy and some others were blinded from the nuclear blast. Due to the radiation, germs have mutated and have caused deaths, including the death of Howe’s son who was shot and incinerated by others. Alice ends the message by saying she believes she has the sickness also and has been quarantined, but plans on trying to escape from quarantine. Howe tells Walker and Jordan he wants to land the satellite in order to try and help Alice and Suzy. Walker tells Howe Alice is probably dead, which angers Howe. He and Jordan take a vote and they agree to return the satellite to Earth, but Walker, who reminds them he is the commander of the mission, tells them they are staying in space. Later, an alarm goes off indicating priority one and external override which cause the satellite to begin landing, against the commands of Howe. Howe sets the nuclear missiles to go off in 60 hours and then the missiles launch, however missile 11 malfunctions and doesn’t leave the hatch.
The satellite lands on Earth, knocking out Jordan when her seat breaks loose from its seating. Howe and Walker then decide to go and get help for Jordan. Howe hears a sound and knocks on the side of the satellite in response, before digging through the sand. All of a sudden Howe is grabbed by someone, but when Walker helps Howe out, he in turn is grabbed and ultimately pulled out of the satellite, leaving only a severed hand behind. Howe shuts the satellite hatch door and leaves Jordan a recorded message explaining to her the situation, that he is leaving to find help, and that at 0800 he will be back and knock three times and not to let anyone else into the satellite. He leaves the beach and as he is walking along a road, he comes across a group of three Terminals carving up the remains of Walker. Howe throws a piece of the ship at the Terminals and then runs away as they laugh and give chase. As he is running away, Howe sets off a trap set. He is found by Vinny and tells him he is and that he has food. Vinny frees Howe from the trap and takes him to his home. He ties Howe to a chair and questions Howe and Howe tells Vinny of his missions and who he worked for. Howe tries to make a deal with Vinny and tells him he has a four month supply of food within the satellite. After negotiating, Howe agrees to give Vinny one half of the food from the satellite in exchange for a weapon. A Terminal sets off a booby trap and Vinny goes off to investigate after tying Howe’s other arm to the chair. After Vinny leaves, J.J., comes out of the basement and starts to eat some of the food in the house. Howe asks J.J. to untie him and makes a deal with her, if she unties him, they’ll split Howe’s food and sail away together in a sail boat that J.J. knows is nearby. J.J. unties Howe and they both grab weapons and ammo, but Vinny returns and orders them to drop the weapons.
Vinny kisses J.J. then orders her back into the basement and Howe outside so he can shoot Howe and not get blood everywhere in the house. Howe pleads for his life and tells Vinny about Jordan back in the satellite to which Vinny asks about the color of Jordan’s areolas. Howe and Vinny come to a deal, Howe, gets a quarter of the food and a knife while Vinny gets the rest of the food and Jordan. Howe and J.J. are placed into the bucket of Vinny’s armor plated wheel loader, a construction vehicle with a bucket and the group heads to the satellite. Two Terminals attack Howe and J.J., but the Terminals are eventually killed including one being run over by the wheel loader. They arrive at the beach and J.J., who is tied by her neck to a rope, is sent by Vinny to go look for the satellite. Lacey, who works for Gideon (a local strong man), appears along with other Gideon troops and they take Howe prisoner, after already capturing J.J. Vinny tries to escape in his wheel loader, but Gideon’s men trap the loader with a series of ropes anchored to trees. Vinny is eventually captured when he is tricked out of the wheel loader by Lacey who throws a dummy grenade into the cab of the vehicle. Howe, J.J. and Vinny are tied up and forcibly marched back to Gideon’s camp while also passing a group of people being forced to drag the Nemesis satellite into Gideon’s camp. Gideon’s camp appears to be a combination of refugees from the devastation of the war and young men who are the enforcers of Gideon’s rule. Howe is brought before Gideon, who asks Howe if the fallout from the nuclear bombs could have reached Patagonia, revealing Gideon’s motivation to leave the area to find some place less radiated. J.J. and Vinny are brought before Gideon and Gideon sends J.J., who he used to date but ran away, and Vinny to the prison boxes where Jordan is also at. Gideon talks to Howe some more before dismissing him when Lacey reports to Gideon that the Delta S16 had been found. Gideon orders the Delta S16 removed and to then be brought to Boomer, who apparently has the ability to use the machine to find an area free of radiation. Howe is placed in the prison pit next to Jordan and they talk, before J.J. introduces them to Mrs. Boyd, a fellow prisoner, and tells the story of Gideon. Before the nuclear war, Gideon’s father was in the Navy and during the initial assault, was evacuated by helicopter along with Gideon, Gideon’s mom, J.J., Boomer and Lacey along with satellite equipment. During the flight to take them to a secure submarine off of New Foundland, the helicopter crashed; killing Gideon’s father, mother and breaking Boomer’s back. Apparently it was Boomer, under the orders of Gideon, who made the Nemesis satellite come back to Earth. Gideon goes to visit Boomer in a building filled with electronic equipment and brings along a steak which he puts on a grill. The Delta S16 is plugged in to a computer, and Gideon offers him a deal, if Boomer tells him where the survival stations are located, then he will let Boomer go and give him a steak. Boomer tells Gideon the password to get into the Delta S16 system, E Pluribus Funk. Gideon types in the password, which gives him the coordinates of the safe zone, N621720 E190240. Gideon thanks Boomer by dropping the steak he was supposed to give Boomer onto the ground, stepping on it, unlatching Boomer from his harness, which leads to Boomer falling to the mud on his face, and then kicking the steak into Boomer’s face before Gideon leaves the building. Gideon tells J.J., who has been brought before him, his plan to sail with himself, J.J. and Lacey to a survival station still intact. Gideon tells J.J. he forgives her for leaving and he explains why he is so ruthless. J.J. tells him to go fuck himself, and then she is ordered by Gideon to be taken away. Gideon orders a trial to be held in the morning to determine the guilt or innocence of Howe, Jordan, J.J. and Vinny. The four of them are brought into a hangar serving as a courtroom open to the local people. Lacey yells at each of the accused until Gideon arrives. Both Howe and Jordan are accused of crimes against humanity and both are voted by the locals to be guilty. J.J. is accused of treason and she is also found guilty. Vinny is accused of numerous yet nameless crimes and he too is found guilty. All of the accused are sentenced to be hung from their necks until they are dead. During the trial, Boomer is slowly crawling his away along the camp area towards Gideon. The four sentenced are brought before the gallows and nooses are tied around their necks by a hangman. Gideon halts proceedings and pardons J.J., on the condition that she has to pull the hangman’s lever, to which she responds by spitting in Gideon’s face. Gideon then makes the same offer to the rest of the condemned, and Howe eventually steps forward to accept the pardon. Howe is walked to the hangman’s lever and is told he is to pull the lever once a drum beat ends or he will be shot. Right before Howe is forced to make a decision of what he is going to do when the drumming stops, Boomer arrives and shoots Gideon in the leg, which leads to chaos in the camp. Boomer is shot dead, but in the chaos, Howe is able to escape the camp. Gideon’s men chase after Howe, but he is able to escape. Gideon demands Jordan bandage him, but Jordan refuses unless J.J. and Vinny are released from the gallows, and Gideon agrees. After Jordan bandages Gideon, Gideon tells Jordan he promised to not hang J.J. and Vinny, but he instead plans on shooting them. Jordan tries to kill Gideon by injecting him with potassium instead of morphine, but the needle is forcibly used on her instead, killing her. Howe returns to Vinny’s house and takes weapons and ammo. J.J. screams at the prison guards that she wants to see Gideon, but they ignore her and Lacey pees overhead onto the head of Vinny, who is back in the prison pit and drawing a final doodle. Howe arrives at the sail boat to find a couple of Gideon’s men guarding it. When the men spot Howe, he tells them to jump overboard, but finally kills them after one of them not only grabs his weapon despite Howe constantly telling him not to, but also hands a weapon to the other guard. J.J. is finally brought before Gideon, who is preparing to leave and she is seemingly able to convince him to bring her along with him on the sailboat. Vinny is removed from his cell and is ordered against a wall to be shot by a firing squad. Vinny asks to say some last words and gets on his knees and begs the firing squad not to kill him. Howe drives up in Vinny’s wheel loader and shoots and kills the firing squad and then points a weapon at Vinny, to which Vinny says he is with him. Howe grabs the dead firing squad members’ weapons and drives further into the camp. Once Howe reaches members of the local populace, Vinny hands out weapons to them, which leads to a revolt with the locals fighting against Gideon’s men. Howe and Vinny continue through the camp killing members of Gideon’s army along the way. Howe arrives at the prison pit and asks Mrs. Boyd where Jordan and J.J. are, but is told they were taken away. Howe convinces Mrs. Boyd to leave with him, but during her escape she is shot and killed by one of Gideon’s men. Howe goes to Gideon’s office and finds Jordan dead and everyone else gone. Eventually the revolt fails and groups of people are lined up and shot by Gideon’s men. Howe and Vinny arrive at the beach in the wheel loader and spot Gideon’s sailboat floating away. On the boat, Gideon orders Lacey to collect the weapons of two of Gideon’s men who are also on the boat and tells Lacey to also give him his gun. Gideon tells the two men they did a good job and then shoots the two men dead, before ordering Lacey to put all the weapons below deck. Howe and Vinny swim out to the boat and Howe calls to J.J., who is on the deck of the boat. J.J. throws a rope out to Howe and Howe starts to climb the rope onto the boat. Gideon comes up from below decks and J.J. keeps him occupied by kissing him, before he spots Howe and tells Lacey to get him, but J.J. pushes Lacey off of the boat. Gideon grabs J.J. and orders Howe, who has made it on the boat at this point, to jump off the boat or he will slash J.J.’s throat. Howe jumps back into the ocean, and then J.J. and Gideon struggle, before she is able to knock Gideon off the boat with the boom of the boat. Gideon and Lacey make it back to land and back to the camp to find the bodies of those who revolted lying in piles. Gideon doesn’t get to savor the victory long though as the remaining nuclear warhead from the Nemesis satellite detonates, destroying the camp.
About three seconds before the end of Gideon and his men
Howe, J.J. and Vinny sail on to the safe zone location. These final words appear on screen. “The final victory has been won. Mankind can now rest in peace.”