The Memories #2 | Red Collision

ONE LINER

A trafficker of stolen cell phone information is threatened when he ends up with the device of an influential businessman who keeps videos of murders, tortures and crimes, triggering a life or death situation.

STORYLINE

Arturo owns a shop that sells stolen mobile phones. Secretly, together with his best friend, he traffics in the information he extracts from the devices he steals. However, when Arturo receives a mobile phone containing snuff videos (torture and murder), he realises that he has made a serious mistake: he is now the prey of the original owner of the device, an individual no one would want to meet.

SYNOPSIS

Arturo (35), once a respectable citizen, tries to regain contact with his daughter Sara (14), defying the prohibition of his ex-wife Fernanda (35), who despises him for having become a criminal. Sara seems to miss him, but learning of her father’s illegal activities forces her to reject him.

Arturo is the owner of a shop that buys and sells mobile phones in Bogotá. Much of his merchandise is stolen phones, especially those obtained by Miguel (25), his accomplice and best friend. Although this business is lucrative, Arturo’s biggest profits come from his hidden life, in which he is a hacker who traffic in the information he steals from stolen phones: photos, videos, secrets and passwords.

Arturo’s life takes a turn when he discovers that one of the phones he bought from Miguel acts as a key to access a platform for snuff videos, recordings of murders and torture. Out of fear, Arturo orders Miguel to destroy the phone, but Miguel disobeys and asks help from Arturo’s rival hacker, “CARLITOS” (45). Together they discover that the phone belongs to Gustavo Olarte (50), an entertainment businessman, whom they plan to extort. Miguel’s clumsiness allows Olarte to take him hostage, but the boy doesn’t have the phone.

With the help of a hacker known as Taranis, Olarte tracks down Carlitos who, after being threatened with death, confesses that the mobile phone could be in the hands of Arturo, Miguel’s accomplice.

Paula (28), Miguel’s older sister, tells Arturo that Miguel is missing and that, days before his disappearance, she received a mobile phone from him, with the instruction that she should give it to Arturo if anything happens to him. Surprisingly, Carlitos contacts Arturo and proposes a meeting to reveal details of Miguel’s whereabouts, but manages to let him know that it is a trap orchestrated by Olarte and that he needs his help in exchange for what he knows about Miguel. Paula realises that Miguel and Arturo are in more serious trouble than she thought and demands that Arturo show her what is hidden. Arturo agrees and Paula is horrified when she sees a snuff video. Now she fears the worst for her brother.

Aware that he is walking into a trap, Arturo goes to meet Carlitos and, with the help of Paula, who is watching from afar, manages to escape. However, Carlitos does not make it. Days later, Arturo and Paula learn through the media that Carlitos has been murdered and that Arturo is the main suspect in the crime. He is now wanted by the authorities.

In hiding, Arturo and Paula investigate the contents of the mobile phone and discover that the device belongs to Gustavo Olarte. On the web they contact a hacker known as Caronte, who gives them clues to discover that there is a network of snuff videos, whose victims, including the one on Olarte’s phone, are young men and women with acting aspirations. The communication between Arturo and Caronte is terminated when Taranis bursts in, who sends Arturo a recording of Miguel being tortured and demands that he hand over the phone.

The alliance between Arturo and Paula is fractured when he refuses to make the exchange, convinced that Olarte will kill him as soon as he gets his phone back. Paula, terrified by the images of her brother’s torture, betrays Arturo and escapes with Olarte’s phone. Paula contacts Taranis and offers to exchange the phone for her brother, but the hacker also demands that she hand over Arturo. Paula is not capable of sacrificing the life of another person, but when Arturo manages to find her, he asks her to trust him and help him plan a trap in which Arturo will be the bait.

Arturo finds support from several hackers who are tasked with manipulating the traffic, ensuring a smooth escape by car for Arturo and Miguel. Together with other hackers, Paula activates a distraction system based on blinding lights and sonic bombs.

Arturo goes to the meeting place arranged by Paula and Taranis. Miguel also appears and meets with Arturo. Just before one of Olarte’s men retrieves the phone and a sniper shoots Arturo, Paula gives the order and the light and sound distraction is executed. Arturo and Miguel escape in a vehicle, but to their surprise, the driver betrays them, claiming that Taranis has his family under his control. A struggle ensues inside the vehicle, leading to a violent crash from which only Arturo survives.

After being released, Arturo is arrested by the police. Meanwhile, Olarte discovers that the recovered phone is a decoy, unaware that the real one is in the possession of Taranis, after having taken it from Caronte, who was guarding the device at Arturo’s request. Paula, determined to take revenge, pretends to be a novice actress to infiltrate Gustavo Olarte’s world. Meanwhile, Olarte’s conspiracies do not cease and he puts his people to work inside the prison. Arturo has little time left.

SYNOPSIS PER EPISODE

EPISODE 1

Arturo tries to regain contact with his daughter Sara, defying the prohibition of his ex-wife Fernanda, who despises him for having become a criminal. Sara seems to miss him, but learning of her father’s illegal activities forces her to reject him.

At his business, Arturo obtains a mobile phone stolen by Miguel, his accomplice and best friend. While trying to hack the device to sell his information on the illegal market, Arturo discovers that the phone allows access to a snuff video platform. Although Arturo only manages to watch one, in which a young woman is tortured and murdered, the images frighten him, so he orders Miguel to get rid of the phone, but he disobeys and takes the device to Arturo’s rival and former mentor Carlitos, a hacker. Together they discover that the owner is Gustavo Olarte, an influential entertainment businessman. Miguel tries to extort money from Olarte, but is caught by him. Miguel’s sister Paula turns to Arturo, whom she despises for involving her brother in criminal activities. Paula claims that Miguel has disappeared, but before he did, she gave him her mobile phone with instructions to hand it over to Arturo in case anything happened to him. Meanwhile, Miguel, in Olarte’s possession, is about to become the victim of a new snuff video.

EPISODE 2

Miguel is subjected to torture, but manages to withstand it and does not reveal that his sister has the phone. He claims to have destroyed the device after hacking it to see its contents, but Gustavo Olarte warns that Miguel does not have the necessary knowledge to do so, inferring that he had the help of an expert hacker. Arturo concludes the same as Olarte and contacts Carlitos to ask him about Miguel, but the hacker denies having had any contact with the guy. With the help of a hacker known as Taranis, Olarte unleashes a hacker hunt in the city to find Miguel’s accomplice. Finally, Olarte manages to track down and capture Carlitos, whom he threatens with death. Under pressure, Carlitos confesses to having hacked the phone for Miguel, although he claims not to know the whereabouts of the device. To save his life, Carlitos reveals the existence of Arturo and the possibility that he has the phone, the key to access the snuff video platform. Olarte forces Carlitos to collaborate in a trap to catch Arturo.

EPISODE 3

With Olarte’s promise to respect his life, Carlitos contacts Arturo through the digital hacker network and proposes a face-to-face meeting to discuss Miguel’s whereabouts. Fearing that Olarte will not comply, Carlitos manages to make Arturo understand that this is a trap and that he needs his help, in exchange for revealing what he knows about Miguel. Before going to the meeting, Arturo prepares an escape plan with the help of Paula who, from a distance, will have to monitor the security cameras and run the hacking software to generate a distraction manoeuvre. When they meet, Arturo and Carlitos make their escape, but the plan fails when Taranis intervenes and counteracts Arturo’s software. As a result, Carlitos fails to escape and is killed by Olarte’s men. Through the press, Arturo learns that the authorities have identified him as the main suspect in the murder and that he must go into hiding. Finally, Taranis contacts Arturo and sends him images of the torture to which Miguel is being subjected.

EPISODE 4

With the help of a hacker known as Caronte, Arturo and Paula discover that the phone belongs to Gustavo Olarte and that he is part of an international snuff video trafficking network that abducts young men and women to make them victims of the videos. In addition, Caronte reveals that Taranis is involved in the killing of hackers. At that moment, Taranis intervenes in the communication and proposes to Arturo the exchange of Olarte’s phone for Miguel’s life and proof of his innocence in the murder of Carlitos. Arturo fears a new trap and refuses to go to a new meeting, which frustrates Paula, who fears for her brother’s life.

Knowing that his identity has been revealed, Arturo decides to take his daughter Sara by force to protect her from Olarte, but the meeting between father and daughter is complicated when Olarte’s assassins show up and start a shootout from which Arturo and Sara narrowly fail to escape. The tensions with Sara and her subsequent escape become a distraction for Arturo, a situation Paula takes advantage of to leave the hideout with Olarte’s phone and Arturo’s laptop. Meanwhile, Arturo scours the city, on Sara’s search.

EPISODE 5

Years ago, Arturo was a respectable citizen and family man, but his life falls apart when, due to a depressive episode, he loses his job and marriage. In the midst of the debacle, Arturo meets Carlitos, from whom he learns the business of information trafficking and becomes immersed in the world of illegality. Arturo becomes a criminal and when his ex-wife Fernanda finds out, she forbids him to go near Sara, threatening to report him to the police. Eventually, Arturo’s loneliness is completed when he decides to distance himself from Carlitos, the day he refuses to do a hacking that benefits a network of paedophiles.

Back in the present, Arturo manages to find Sara at her best friend’s house. Fernanda also appears on the scene, after being contacted by Sara, affected by what she has just experienced. Arturo convinces Fernanda that their lives are in danger and, aware that it is all his fault, proposes that they stay away from him forever. Fernanda reluctantly accepts the money Arturo has accumulated for Sara over the years and walks away with the girl without looking back.

EPISODE 6

Arturo returns to his hideout and realises that Paula has betrayed him: his laptop and Olarte’s phone are missing. Arturo finds the whereabouts of his laptop using a tracking tool installed on the device and runs in search of Paula. Meanwhile, using Arturo’s laptop, Paula contacts Taranis through the digital hacker network. The woman does not reveal her identity and claims to have Olarte’s phone in her possession. Taranis demands Olarte’s phone number and Arturo himself in exchange for Miguel’s life. Paula is overcome with doubt and finally cuts off communication with Taranis. To her surprise, Arturo appears with her, but does not judge her for having thought of betraying him and manages to convince her that Olarte is not going to leave them alive, as he did with Carlitos. To Paula’s surprise, Arturo asks her to contact Taranis and tell him that she accepts his conditions.

Arturo contacts some surviving hackers and persuades them to participate in his plan to take down Olarte, the man behind the massacre, and save Miguel’s life. In this way, the hackers set up a large-scale hack so that Arturo and Miguel have a free way through the city to escape from the meeting place in a vehicle driven by one of the hackers, while Olarte’s henchmen are trapped in traffic.

EPISODE 7

In the evening, Arturo goes to the meeting place arranged between Paula and Taranis, a lot that houses scrap metal and old vehicles. Unnoticed, Arturo wears discreet earplugs in his ears. Meanwhile, Paula wears the same earplugs and keeps watch, hidden inside an old junked car. Miguel also shows up, full of wounds from the torture he was subjected to, and meets Arturo. Following Arturo’s instructions, one of Olarte’s men searches for the phone, hidden inside the junkyard. From the shadows, a sniper awaits the order to assassinate Arturo and Miguel. As soon as Olarte’s henchman reports that he has found the phone, the sniper is ready to shoot, but a powerful sonic wave neutralises him. A chaos of blinding lights and unbearable sound ensues, allowing Arturo to protect Miguel’s hearing and flee the scene to the street, where a vehicle awaits and they board and get lost down the avenue. The hackers, allied with Arturo, support their escape by manipulating the traffic.

Everything seems to be going according to plan, but to Arturo’s surprise, the driver of the car betrays them, claiming that Taranis is holding his family. The driver allows one of Olarte’s assassins to board the car and point a gun at them. The car starts up, but Miguel struggles with the gunman, causing the gun to go off and kill the driver. As a result, there is a huge crash and the vehicle overturns after spinning in mid-air.

EPISODE 8

Olarte receives the mobile phone recovered by one of his men. Soon the smile of satisfaction is wiped off his face when he discovers that the device is a decoy identical to his phone. The real device is being guarded by Charon, who is killed by Taranis, revealing his face for the first time, as he recovers Olarte’s phone, but conceals from him that he has the device in his possession.

Meanwhile, Arturo wakes up in hospital with the shattering news of Miguel’s death. Paula, for her part, remains in hiding. She is even forced to watch her brother’s funeral from a distance, for fear of being discovered by Olarte’s people. After his release from the hospital, Arturo is placed under arrest for the murder charges against him. In prison, his life is in danger when Olarte learns that he is still alive and hires assassins inside the prison to get him to confess the whereabouts of the phone. Paula, meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that her identity has not yet been discovered, puts her life on the line and begins her infiltration of Olarte’s world.

CHARACTER’S PROFILE

Arturo (35):

Arturo is an intelligent man, skilled with machines and computers, but awkward in his relationships with people. He has a secretive nature and prefers to keep his identity as a hacker in the digital world of information trafficking a secret. Despite his involvement in illegal activities, Arturo has his own code of ethics and ambiguous morals that guide his actions.

Development in the story: Throughout the plot, Arturo’s journey leads him to discover the hidden truths behind the crimes around him, as well as to confront his own inner demons. As the story progresses, Arturo experiences personal growth and an evolution in his character that transforms him from a selfish subject to a sort of accidental hero.

CHARACTER’S PROFILE

Miguel (25):

Personality: He is outgoing and sociable, with a natural gift for connecting with people and gaining their trust. Although he is no longer a child, Miguel is an immature and irresponsible person, a situation that leads him to get into trouble with dangerous individuals such as Carlitos. Miguel is an impulsive and risky individual, always looking to make a better profit as a thief. Despite all this, Miguel is loyal to his friends, including Arturo.

Development in the story: Throughout the plot, Miguel faces the consequences of his recklessness and greed, which lead him to fall into the clutches of Olarte until he dies in the middle of a trap against Arturo.

CHARACTER’S PROFILE

Paula (28):

Personality: Attractive, but reserved in dress. Hard-working and honest. Strong-tempered and prudent; avoids danger.

Development in the story: Paula is Miguel’s half-sister on his mother’s side. Ironically, the fact that she has maintained a distant relationship with her brother for years is what saves her life, since this makes it impossible for Gustavo Olarte’s organisation to know of her existence and use her to subdue Miguel. As the plot progresses, Paula faces challenges that test her determination and inner strength. Her journey leads her to discover a riskier side of herself. The dangers and the urgency to survive bury the cautious Paula, the one who avoids taking risks, and bring out a woman who faces fear with determination and intelligence.

CHARACTER’S PROFILE

Gustavo Olarte (50):

Personality: On the surface, Gustavo Olarte is a respectable soap opera producer. However, his true face is revealed when he gives free rein to his perverse appetites as a consumer of snuff videos. The viewing of these materials is one of the few things that fills and satisfies him.

Development in the story: Throughout the plot, Gustavo becomes the main opponent of the main characters, Arturo, Miguel and Paula. In his eagerness to erase all traces linking him to the snuff video crimes and to protect the identity of all those who belong to this criminal network, Gustavo uses all his influence and resources to crush Arturo and the two brothers.

CHARACTER’S PROFILE

"Carlitos" Manrique (40):

Personality: Carlitos is a cheerful and affable man, typical of Caribbean men, who inspires joy and a sense of humour. However, behind that smile hides a man who is not afraid to get involved in illegal and dangerous affairs.

Development in the story: Throughout the plot, Carlitos becomes a fundamental character. His connection to Arturo is exploited by Gustavo Olarte to set him up. Carlitos is killed by one of Olarte’s men, but Arturo is unjustly framed for this act.

SCREENWRITER’S STATEMENT

The series ‘The Memories’ captivates the viewer from the very first episode, gradually revealing how the digital world in which we are immersed can be a propitious scenario for crime and corruption, launching a powerful warning about the latent dangers in the digital era, emphasising the need to be aware of the ethical and legal limits in an increasingly interconnected society.

Its plots subtly reveal how technology, if used irresponsibly, can facilitate illegal behaviour that undermines people’s privacy and security, highlighting the risks involved in overexposing our information and activities online.

I once saw a short film about a young woman whose stalker remotely activates her laptop’s webcam to watch her sleep. The young woman goes to bed, convinced of the safety of her home, never imagining that this electronic device is the window through which a pervert snoops whenever he feels like it. Since that day, all my devices have had their cameras covered with black tape.

Even from genre stories, I believe that a scriptwriter should talk about himself, not necessarily as an exercise of vanity, but of artistic honesty. With “The Memories” I want to talk about my fears, which I trust can be shared by whoever is reading me right now.

MOODBOARD

Strange days (1995) Dir. Kathryn Bigelow

A confused and lonely man, immersed in a sordid world tinged by the night lights, becomes the prey of a criminal network that overtakes him and only with the help of an honest woman can he overcome the dangers and find his redemption.

MOODBOARD

A technological world whose virtual interactions are represented through digital avatars as an abstraction of what happens inside computers and the computer network.

Kein System ist sicher Who am I (2014) Dir. Baran bo Odar

MOODBOARD

Tesis (1996) Dir. Alejandro Amenábar

Innocent people become mortal victims, while the camera’s eye records their suffering to the delight of the spectators.

MOODREEL

UNIVERSE

‘The memories’ take place in three main spaces. The first is in the commercial area where Arturo runs his business selling mobile phones. This commercial area is inspired by the chaotic informal markets, present in places as far away as Mexico City, Bogotá, Hong Kong or China, but which share that atmosphere where the buyer goes in search of good prices, while bargaining with the seller. This market will be the façade behind which Arturo’s secret life is hidden, but unlike the commercial area, the second space is intangible, as it is the computer network: there, Arturo manifests himself through an avatar, his digital self that trades with the avatars of other hackers. The activities of Gustavo Olarte’s criminal organisation, which deals in snuff videos (recordings of torture and murder), also take place in this digital environment. The last space is the nocturnal, underground city, where Arturo lives a superfluous life, marked by partying and excess, evading the pain of the happiness he lost when his wife and daughter left him when he gave up on life.

SCREENWRITER’S BIOGRAPHY

Colombian director, screenwriter and sound designer with 10 years of experience. He is currently a member of the Red Script Factory, a scriptwriters’ laboratory focused on strengthening projects in development of feature films and series for sale.

ENEMY IN THE MIROR (FEATURE), RED COLLISION ENTERTAINMENT (Postproduction) Screenwriter and director

I CALL THEM “SOULS” (FEATURE), RED COLLISION ENTERTAINMENT (Postproduction) Screenwriter and sound designer
• Prize film screenwriting FDC (2019)
• Winner of the open camera call (2023)

THE TRAIL (FEATURE), RED COLLISION ENTERTAINMENT (Postproduction) Screenwriter and sound designer
• Winner of the open camera call (2023)

TWIST (SHORTFILM), RED COLLISION ENTERTAINMENT (2018) – Screenwriter and director
• Winner best Latin American short film and best edition V International Audiovisual Festival FIAFEST

WINGS AND NEONS (SHORTFILM) (2015)-Screenwriter and director • Official Selection XIV Beijing Film Academy Festival (2015)

Company’s Biography

Red Collision, founded in 2017 is an audiovisual production company with over six years of experience redefining the entertainment landscape with original films and captivating genre series, also offers top-notch production services and has a slateof projects in development for sale.

The Red Collision team has worked on productions for StudioCanal, Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, Discovery, CBS, Max, among others.

In 2020 they produced their first feature film called A CERTAIN ALONSO QUIJANO, directed by LIBIA STELLA GÓMEZ with the support of Dago García Producciones and Caracol Televisión; it premiered in 2021 with a digital strategy, reaching more than 500 thousand viewers.

The feature film THE TRAIL is a crime thriller that won the FDC in the post-production category and will be released in 2024. Four other projects are underway, two in post-production: I CALL THEM “SOULS” and ENEMY IN THE MIRROR. Two are scheduled to be shot in 2024, and all will be released between 2025 and 2026.

In early 2024, Red Collision created “Red Script Factory”, a dynamic writers’ room, a space of constant idea creation where captivating stories and epic scripts are born to revolutionise the world of original content and redefine storytelling.