Crash Test Dummies

Screenplay draft

Title: Crash Test Dummies
Credit: Written by
Author: richardwboase
Draft date: 22 May 2026
Contact: richardwboase@gmail.com

FADE IN.

INT. ABANDONED WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

Sodium-yellow security lamps buzz overhead. Rain hammers corrugated metal. COLE MADDOX, late 40s, face lined like cracked leather, climbs into the stripped front seat of a late-model sedan. The interior has been gutted; only a racing harness and a dashboard array of blinking sensors remain.

SILAS RENN, early 50s, stands outside the open door in a black overcoat, rain beading on his shoulders.

SILAS
Harness tighter than your last picture. Sensors read chest compression in real time.

Cole pulls the straps until they bite.

COLE
Just tell the car when to hit the wall.

Silas nods to an unseen technician. The engine starts itself. Headlamps flare. The sedan rolls forward on its own, then accelerates. Cole's eyes stay fixed on the approaching concrete barrier. The impact is sudden, metal folding, his body snapping forward against the harness. Glass dust floats in the beam of a single work light.

Silas steps through the settling dust and checks a tablet.

SILAS
First payment already sent. Next one starts at sixty miles an hour.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

Silas and Cole stand beside the crumpled sedan under portable work lights. Deep teal shadows stretch across oil-stained concrete.

SILAS
The human body is just another sensor.

COLE
Some sensors still feel the bill come due.

INT. COLE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

A single bare bulb swings over a narrow bed. Unpaid medical statements are pinned beside faded stunt posters. Rain streaks the window overlooking a wet alley. NORA MADDOX, late teens, pale and thin in a hospital gown, lies in the bed with an IV taped to her arm.

Cole enters, knuckles swollen, canvas jacket soaked. He sets a folded wad of cash on the table without a word. Nora watches him.

NORA
New bruises?

COLE
Work.

NORA
Dad.

Cole stares at the condensation-streaked window.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

Cole meets Silas Renn in the underground test facility. Renn's gloved hands hold a tablet showing contract clauses.

SILAS
Sixty miles per hour. Offset barrier. Vitals logged at five-second intervals. Payment on impact.

Cole signs.

INT. TEST VEHICLE - NIGHT

Cole studies the contract clauses while rain streaks the windshield. The autonomous system hums. He flexes his scarred hands.

COLE
(to himself)
Just numbers.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

Cole climbs into the driver's seat for the inaugural low-speed barrier test. The engine starts itself. Headlamps flare.

The sedan accelerates. Impact. Metal crumples. Cole's body snaps forward. Silence afterward except for the ticking of cooling metal.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

OTIS GREER, mid 40s, stocky with grease-stained forearms and two missing fingers, approaches Cole in the shadows.

OTIS
I can rig a kill switch. Old stunt cable. Extra cash if it stays quiet.

Cole watches him, expression flat.

COLE
Tell me how.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

Cole endures a sequence of controlled spins, rollovers, and offset impacts. The autonomous systems log his vitals. Each crash lands with wet crunch and long silence before the next engine start.

INT. HOSPITAL WARD - NIGHT

FAYE LINDEN, early 40s, in white coat and scrubs, stands beside Nora's bed. A delayed wire transfer notification glows on Cole's phone.

FAYE
Condition's worsening. We cut treatment if the account stays empty.

Cole signs for a higher-speed night trial.

EXT. ELEVATED FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT

Renn's men shadow Cole along the chain-link fence. Wet asphalt reflects distant city lights.

SILAS
(over phone)
Refuse the next spec and the hospital stops.

Cole hangs up.

INT. TEST VEHICLE - EXT. ELEVATED FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT

High-speed run on wet elevated roadways. The car accelerates. Head-on collision at the barrier. Cole is concussed, body limp. The vehicle smokes.

INT. HOSPITAL WARD - NIGHT

Faye stands over the bed.

FAYE
Payments stopped. Treatment halted.

Cole lies in recovery, harness scars visible on his wrists.

INT. RECOVERY ROOM - NIGHT

Dim light. Cole stares at the scars. Rain on the window. He decides.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL PARK - NIGHT

Cole recruits Otis Greer.

COLE
Hidden manual override. Use the old stunt routing.

OTIS
Renn finds out, I'm done.

COLE
Do it.

INT. ELEVATED FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT

Deserted rail spur. Cole overrides the autonomous unit mid-roll. The car spins, data spilling to regulators' receivers. Metal screams. The vehicle stops upright.

Cole limps free.

EXT. ELEVATED FREIGHT YARD - NIGHT

Cole limps past a new unmarked sedan where another strapped figure waits under the same fluorescent glare. Rain falls. City lights reflect off wet asphalt.

FADE OUT.