12/13/23

TERRIBLE TILLY - FRANK J. DELLIPOALO

PRICE: 75,000 +.75%

GENRE: Adventure

LOGLINE: The story of three friends, an abandoned lighthouse, and a tsunami.

SYNOPSIS:

Siblings Olive and Wyatt Conner, along with their friend Tommy, all in their 20s and military brats, begin a rafting trip to the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse off the Oregon coast, despite local surfers' tales. Once on the rock, the weather changes, stranding them overnight.

The next morning, Tommy and Wyatt discover a shipping container on the rocks. Tommy is excited about a potential windfall, while Wyatt has doubts. Olive jokingly suggests it might be full of snakes. When they open the container, they find it filled with Asian Murder Hornets instead of Nike shoes or electronics.

Olive, Wyatt, and Tommy take refuge in the lighthouse tower to avoid the hornets. Meanwhile, earth tremors shake the lighthouse, but Tommy and Wyatt are undeterred from exploring a secret tunnel in the rock, much to Olive's dismay. In the tunnel, they find a secret room and, as the tremors intensify, Wyatt speculates they might be due to US Navy military drills. They discover an old Bible and the headless skeletal remains in a tattered Japanese WW2 uniform, which terrifies Tommy. But before Wyatt can investigate further, the tunnel begins to flood, and they barely escape.

Outside, the hornets remain a problem. Tommy sees an opportunity to close the container door, but as he does so, an earth tremor sends the container, with Tommy on it, into the Pacific's current.

Wyatt and Olive's rescue plan fails, and Tommy drifts out to sea. Olive prays while Wyatt does not. With no other options, Olive calls her father, Admiral Martin Conner of the USS George Washington strike group, on a satellite phone. A US Navy Rescue Helicopter is dispatched before a developing tsunami hits the lighthouse.

Olive is rescued, but the rescue basket carrying Wyatt snaps, dropping him in front of the tsunami. There's no time for a second attempt. The eighty-foot tsunami engulfs Wyatt, leaving Olive devastated.

The mission turns from rescue to recovery. After an extensive search, the pilot spots Tommy and Wyatt alive in the trees on the Oregon coast.

Admiral Conner, overjoyed that his son Wyatt survived, reconsiders his decision to prevent him from joining the US SEALs. He tells Wyatt that anyone who can survive an eighty-foot tsunami is certainly SEAL material.

In the aftermath, the US Navy discovers eight more shipping containers filled with hornets. The Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) collects the containers, applies C-4 explosives, and incinerates them, leaving dead hornets floating on the sea's surface.

However, two worker hornets and a queen are found alive, seen crawling in the sand of Indian Beach.

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