Dislodged
A Summary
Logline: Seven years after a rogue nuclear blast and ensuing conflict renders a 25 mile radius from New York contaminated with radiation and abandoned, Army veteran Colin Hyde returns to his former home within the zone and battles demons real and imagined in a final attempt to free himself from the traumatic memories of war and his haunted civilian life. Unable to achieve his goal of living peacefully in the present, Hyde leans on a newfound friend, Sasha, who teaches him the best way to put the past in the past is by creating a present with a future. Now, if they can just live to enjoy it.
Colin Hyde is a tormented man. Returning in 2016 from service with the Army as a sniper, he is diagnosed with PTSD during the early years of his marriage to Ellen and begins to suffer nightmares. Five years later, tragedy strikes when his four year old daughter accidentally drowns in the family swimming pool while Ellen is visiting friends. She blames Hyde’s medicated state for the carelessness that resulted in the death of little Emily, and Hyde slips further away from reality as his marriage crumbles. When Ellen cannot get a handle on her resentment, she leaves their suburban New Jersey home to spend some time with her sister in New York City. Two days later, she is killed when a terrorist dirty bomb detonates, rendering mass destruction in the city and toxic contamination within a twenty five mile radius. All residents within the radius are forced to evacuate and the area is fenced off until such a time as the government deems it safe.
Our story begins in the Summer of 2028 on the seventh anniversary of the blast. Colin has determined the only way he has a chance at putting his haunted memories behind him is to visit the family home in the forbidden zone and confront the past. He leaves his home in the Midwest accompanied by his 8 year old Swissneese dog, Steely, and they drive cross country to North Haledon, New Jersey. As Hyde draws nearer to the forbidden zone, the bad memories increase. He stops at a bar in Totowa, the last town before the fenced off forbidden zone, and finds a sympathetic soul in the form of Sasha, a late twenties bartender.
After a few drinks and a nice meal, Hyde walks Steely in a nearby park and receives a call from his step-sister, Meghan, who is troubled to learn of his whereabouts and his plan to return to the home that holds so many bad memories for him. Hyde reassures Meghan and promises to touch base with her when he can.
Hyde’s military status as an ex-Army Ranger helps gain him entry into the forbidden zone and he proceeds to the family home. Once inside the zone, it becomes apparent that the drone police are failing at enforcing the law as crime is rampant among the few souls inhabiting the region. Hyde and Steely find the family home in reasonable shape but evidence in the form of a rotted human skeleton suggests someone lived in the home at some point after the explosion.
One bad memory after another confronts Hyde as he struggles to maintain his sanity. Objects in the home move randomly and unexpected noises keep him on edge. A visit to his daughter’s grave only makes matters worse. In a bid to find comfort in the one person who seems to care, Hyde drives back to Totowa. Along the way, he has a shootout with a man who attempts to hijack his truck, and arrives at the bar in a pretty sorry state.
Sasha finds herself committed to saving this lost soul she has come to care about, and invites herself along on the return trip to the family home. When Hyde resists, she shows him she can take care of herself by pinning him down using her advanced martial arts training. On their return trip, they are nearly run off the road by a car of thieves, and further pursuit results in Hyde and Sasha shooting and killing 3 of the 4 occupants of the car.
Once back at the home in North Haledon, Sasha tries to soften the environment with candles and wine, and engages Hyde in hours of conversation in an attempt to fill his head with more good memories than bad. They fall for each other and, despite continued noises and unexplained events, Hyde begins to find his way back to normalcy. He struggles with the memory of his wife and his feelings of guilt and betrayal even though it’s been seven years since the tragic spring of 2021 that took his wife and daughter. More conversations, and the bond between Sasha and Hyde grows stronger.
An unexpected visitor in the form of Hyde’s childhood friend, Jude, brings a whole new dimension of Hyde’s past to light, and things quickly go south when Jude turns out to be the surviving member of the car gang from the day before who is bent on killing Hyde and taking his possessions for his own vigilante empire. Jude levels a gun on Hyde and Sasha, and the couple’s demise appears imminent, but Steely the dog comes to the rescue, turning the tables back on Jude. He is cuffed and put in the truck.
In a show of mercy, Hyde and Sasha take Jude into town and drop him off, warning him to never mess with them again. Wild dogs attack, killing Jude and seriously wounding Hyde before they are silenced by his marksmanship.
Returning to the house, Hyde and Sasha experience a heightened series of unexplained events, hauntings that leave them on edge. Hyde hears his daughter’s cries for help only to find it is all in his head. Or is it? More cries are heard, this time by Sasha as well, and the two rush to the child’s bedroom and discover the source of the hauntings – a demon hell bent on killing them both. The couple work to dispense with the demon, performing an exorcism that takes hold at the last possible moment and frees the house and Hyde from the hauntings.
Hyde, Sasha and Steely load the truck for an immediate departure and, as they drive away, the home is blown to bits by dynamite Hyde wired in place. He smiles as he looks back, satisfied the demon is gone once and for all, but then his smile fades and, as a dark storm rolls in from nowhere, the truck suddenly goes freezing cold inside. Unfinished business remains in the next installment.