BLISS TWIST ... creator notes
Joe Ramirez (luthier, surfer, divorced father) is a local California embodiment of the universal anti-hero who rises to the occasion – he's smart but laid back, emotionally conservative but philosophically independent. He isn't looking for problems – got enough of his own. But when he catches our supposed good guys doing a very bad thing, he can't help fighting back – and it's Joe's gut goodness that provokes heroic action.
Bliss Twist delivers a unique high-order spin on the pandemic-thriller genre. Although we include some sharp New York corporate players and the essential American presidential decision scenes, most of the plot takes place in sleepy Santa Barbara and plays out in private. The ultimate bad guys actually think they're doing the necessary right thing for humanity. They're dedicated to reducing world population and violence – and they have adapted their ethics to okay their actions.
The plot's driving intent (as in a couple other High Heart films) is dramatically to explore imminent med-tech inventions that alter people's brain function on a mass scale, to make us more peaceful, cooperative and happy. The Chinese, Elon Musk, Google, etc are already busy with such research – our plots are just a few years ahead. The general 'mood manipulation' theme will become front-center news-wise very soon.
The primary scientist in Bliss Twist, an unstable genius bioengineer named Martin Harpe, has developed radical viral experiments for the U.S. government – then quit and gone off to study meditation with his psychiatrist wife Gudrun with his spiritual master in Burma. But their entire village over there gets slaughtered – and they have now returned to the States determined to somehow employ Martin's inventive genius to eradicate violence from the human race.
Martin's brother Russell runs a big pharma company back east – and they've now secretly developed a deadly designer virus that they intend to surreptitiously spread around the world – and then offer their antidote ... which just happens to have unmentioned side effects that permanently dull sex urges and aggression, and reduce births. All this is backstory, with the tech details of the bio-med aspect all worked out and realistic. We drop in, with Joe, for the final days of the drama.
SUSPENSE AND ACTION WITH HEART AND SOUL
Joe Ramirez was once an Air Force chopper pilot in Iraq – thus the final action scenes in the air over Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Joe just happens to stumble into the last phase of this plot when he goes to fix a broken window at Martin's reclusive estate. He innocently checks out a private petting zoo there – and notices that even the lions are utterly placid (because they've received the antidote!). Joe is an animal lover and he can see somebody's been illegally messing with these animals.
Joe's old girlfriend from high school happens to be Gudrun, who's now a psychiatrist. When she takes the antidote herself to experience its effects, Joe notices how she changes – she's now less anxious and depressed, totally placid, no sex drive or fight in her. Joe is a hearty male who doesn't want anybody messing with his sex drive, not to mention altering his young daughter's future love life. So he teams with a remarkable young Burmese woman, Thaka, to undermine the team's plans.
The plot also entangles the President and especially his aide assigned to deal with the emerging pandemic – and all the usual thriller ingredients are included. We went all out with Bliss Twist – in the climax delivering wild plane chases and raw hand-to-hand fights and all the rest. And Joe makes a great if reluctant and flawed hero. Pushed to break beyond his inherited prejudices, and also to transcend all the PTSD violence in his past, he finally leaps into an action climax.
But the film is intelligent and provocative as well as thrilling. We've embedded enough of the deeper stuff to stimulate heated discussions and realizations among our viewers.
It's of course fun to entertain one's audience – and equally fulfilling to get people thinking about their own future related to urgent universal themes. There are always two sides to every argument – and in our scripts we make sure both sides are honored. But in the climax our main characters act viscerally to preserve human integrity and the uplifting virtues that underlie all civilizations. Bliss Twist will fully satisfy NCIS and DON'T LOOK UP fans – and also elicit cheers from viewers seeking enrichment and insight.