Project Extremis, a feature screenplay by Captain Robert C. Powers, USN (Ret.)

Project Extremis is a feature screenplay about ordinary people doing their jobs in an extreme, life-or-death moment, and the trauma that surfaces years and decades later, in living rooms, at kitchen tables, in marriages and in silences.

It is inspired by a true story. The specifics have been fictionalized out of respect for the men and families it draws from. But the emotional truth, the impossible choices, the survivor's guilt, the long aftermath, is real, and it belongs to far more veterans than the public ever sees.

The heart of the film

This is not a war story in the usual sense. It is a story about what happens after the moment passes, when the medals are in a drawer and the cameras are gone, and a man is alone in the dark trying to make sense of why he is still here when others are not.

Survivor guilt is one of the least-spoken-about consequences of service. Few movies about veterans with PTSD sit with it long enough to matter. Project Extremis puts it on screen with the dignity it deserves, and uses the screen to start a conversation that veterans have been waiting decades to be invited into.

For festivals, investors, and partners

The screenplay is being developed by a Navy captain who lived adjacent to the events that inspired it, and produced by a filmmaker whose entire body of work centers veteran mental health. We are actively raising $250,000 to bring the script to a studio-ready level: rewrites, table reads, attached creative talent, and the materials required to take it into production.

• · Logline: A horrendous collision between cruiser SAMAR and aircraft carrier JEFFERSON. Without orders, a young destroyer captain hazards his ship to save the cruiser. He faces an investigation. His girlfriend urges him to leave the Navy. Truth, and personal integrity collide, courage rises.
• · Genre / tone: THRILLER · INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY · READY FOR PRODUCTION
• · Comparable titles: MASTER AND COMMANDER · A FEW GOOD MEN · THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER · GREYHOUND (2020)
• · Specs: 112 PAGES · 4 LEADS, 11 SUPPORTING, 23 MINOR
• · Coverage: STRONGLY RECOMMEND (Screenwriting Staffing) · ScreenCraft Quarterfinalist
• · Stage: ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT