Operation Avalanche

presents OPERATION AVALANCHE A film by Matt Johnson (RT: 93m, USA, 2015) Sales contact: Nate Bolotin, XYZ Films e: [email protected] 310.956.1554 OPERATION AVALANCHE - SHORT SYNOPSIS 1967: the height of the Cold War. The CIA suspects there is a Russian mole inside of NASA, sabotaging the Apollo program. They send two young agents on a mission to go undercover, posing as documentary filmmakers, there to capture NASA's race to the moon. The real mission - use their access and technology to hunt down the leak. But what they discover is far more shocking than soviet spies... Their government may be hiding a secret about Apollo that could define the decade, and the White House will stop at nothing to silence anyone who learns it. 2 OPERATION AVALANCHE – LONG SYNOPSIS MATT JOHNSON and OWEN WILLIAMS are two young CIA agents who were recruited fresh out of Princeton as part of the Bright Recruits program, a program designed to seek out recruits who weren’t the strongest or the most intelligent but who possessed one very important skill that could not be taught, AMBITION. They arrived at the CIA in 1966 and have been toiling away in the AV Department, making modest research projects. When we first meet them in early 1967 they are in the midst of researching whether or not filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is a Soviet spy. But Matt desperately wants field work and a mission worth of their talents and when they hear rumblings about a new mission called OPERATION ZIPPPER, they make a pitch to their supervisor AGENT BOLES to allow them to put their name in the running for the mission. But Boles says the mission is too big for them and that it has already been assigned. Not one to take No for an answer Matt comes up with a plan; he will use his next presentation slot in front of CIA DIRECTOR BRACKETT to pitch directly to him. His plan is to take him and his AV Team to NASA undercover as a documentary film crew there to document the Apollo Mission. When he proposes this to Brackett, he thinks it is a clever idea, but that no Soviet mole would allow himself to ever be filmed. That’s when Matt reveals his big trick: he has been secretly filming this entire conversation with Brackett from the projection booth. And at this realization Brackett thinks that just maybe this plan could work and he assigns Matt’s team Operation Zipper. The team drives down to Texas and immediately convinces the staff at NASA that they are documentarians. They spend their days conducting interviews with scientists, secretaries and bureaucrats and gathering B-Roll and by night they plant bugs, break into offices in an effort to identify the mole. Their biggest coo is tapping the phone of the director of NASA, JAMES WEBB. While listening to the tap on Webb’s phone Matt hears something shocking, NASA cannot make it to the moon by 1969 as JFK had promised and it seems as though they need at least five more years. That means the Russians will beat them to the moon and in doing so, might just win the cold war. Matt shares this 3 recording with Owen is shocked. He tells Matt to call Brackett, tell him the news and get their next set of instructions. Matt calls Brackett who immediately understands the gravity of the situation and calls for Matt to bring his team home so he can send in a more experienced unit. Matt pleads his case, his team is already there, they could help, but Brackett won’t hear it. Matt is devastated, this was a dream mission and so he does the only thing he can to stay at NASA – defy his bosses orders. Unbeknownst to Owen Matt makes up a new mission called OPERATION AVALANCHE. The mission functions as a back up plan for NASA, should they be unable to make it to the moon OPERATION AVALANCHE would ostensibly fake the lunar landing and create a filmed version of a landing that could be broadcast to the world. Owen can’t believe the CIA would lie to the American people like this and fears it is unethical, but he proceeds with shooting a test in the desert because Owen is good at following orders. The test is a success but as Matt screens the footage to Owen, he is interrupted by some unexpected visitors. Brackett and Boles have grown wise to Matt’s made up mission and come to shut it down and fire him. Owen cannot believe Matt betrayed him like this and that he had him take part in a phony mission that defied CIA orders. It seems like Matt’s goose is cooked, until he screens the test footage to Brackett. It seems it’s pretty good and so in spite of Matt’s defiance, he is allowed to stay the course with Operation Avalanche, only this time Brackett leaves Boles behind to supervise. Matt and Boles don’t get off to a great start as Boles tries to assert his dominance and Matt takes offence, thinking this is still his mission. Owen is still pissed off at Matt for lying to him and so Matt is left on his own to figure out how to fake the moon landing. He gets an idea to look for practical shooting locations in the U.S. that could pass for the lunar surface and when Owen refuses to accompany Matt on the trip (choosing to stay behind with his pregnant wife), Matt goes on the geology field trip with Boles. They slowly start to bond as they visit vast open landscapes like the Grand Canyon and the Barringer Crater. Matt brings his findings home to Owen, but he is unimpressed. NASA just brought actual footage home from a fly by of the Moon and Matt’s photos look nothing like the real thing. Matt wonders how he can get the astronauts to act in 4 front of these actual photos of the moon. When Owen suggests Matt hire a real director for the job, he thinks back to his earlier mission and begins to track down Stanley Kubrick. Fate would have it that Kubrick is in London shooting his very own science-fiction movie and Matt plans to sneak onto the set and hopefully steal some of his special effect techniques. Using a super-8 camera, hidden in a bag, Matt tours the set and learns of Kubrick’s special technique. It’s called front screen projection and it holds the key to how Matt will fake the moon landing. Upon returning from London, Matt visits the CIA to update them on the progress of the mission. He lays out the entire plan for Brackett and the other senior agents and it seems like they are on board. Matt is going to build a fake lunar lander in a film studio in Texas and claim that it is all for his documentary. Brackett informs Matt that his plan better work, or else they will have to go with OPERATION NORTHWOODS. This plan entails that the CIA would shoot down the Apollo 11 rocket and blame it on the Soviets. For the first time Matt realizes human lives are at stake (namely the astronauts) and he cannot afford to mess up the mission. As Matt and his team oversee the production of the LEM and write the dialogue that the astronauts will say when they land on the moon, trouble strikes. They are being spied on at the studio and after a shoot out and chase, are no closer to learning the identity of the men following them. They can only assume that it’s the mole and they have to close up the studio so as not to jeopardize the integrity of the mission. Boles does some due diligence and discovers that the man at the studio was Antonin Lhotsky and that he is a NASA employee and the mole. He tells them that the CIA has captured him and he is no longer a threat. He tries to refocus Matt and Owen on the task at hand. They have to get back to work on faking the moon landing as time is of the essence and that Apollo 11 is scheduled for the summer of 1969, leaving them with only a few more months to complete the mission. But Owen is becoming paranoid. He doesn’t think Lhotsky was the man at the studio or the mole and he thinks that the CIA is following them. He is concerned that they are covering their tracks and preparing to make Matt and Owen the fall guys should Operation Avalanche fall apart. Matt scoffs at this, but it is clearly creating conflict in the group. Especially when Owen confronts Boles about this 5 and Boles reveals to Matt that Owen has been calling Brackett behind his back and asking to be taken off the mission. When the trio finally do get around to shooting the moon landing, nobody is on speaking terms. We see Owen descent the steps of the LEM ladder, playing the role of Neil Armstrong. After production, Matt delivers the film to Boles and strikes the studio, burning all of the evidence. The Apollo 11 rocket takes off without a hitch and it seems everything has gone according to plan. That is until Matt realizes he is being followed. After a long car chase, where Matt and the camera team are shot at, Matt goes to Owen’s house to bring him to safety.

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