Getting Ready to Find a Literary Agent - Synopsis for HATE
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Late October 2005 in an upscale San Diego neighborhood, two men kill Jewish elementary school students and Craig and Cate Winter’s two teen children in a planned hate crime shooting.
Craig and Cate Winter are mid-forties, methodical, successful, well-healed business professionals whose idyllic life is shattered with their loss.
One of the shooters, Drake, is arrested and extradited to San Diego. At the arraignment, Drake defiantly mocks Craig and Cate. Drake is set free because the DA loses their lone eyewitness who recants her testimony after receiving death threats from white supremacists.
Craig conducts intensive research on hate groups and uncovers a blog from Drake reveling in the death of his daughter. He shows Cate the blog and Cate’s emotions turn from terror to anger and hate in an instant. After debating their course of action, the pair agree to hunt, abduct and kill Drake.
With the help of Craig’s best friend and attorney Gregory, they meticulously layout a step by step airtight plan to exact their revenge. Craig and Cate abduct Drake take him to an abandoned mine and torture him, revealing his accomplice and the backers of the hate shooting. Upon completion of Drake’s confessions, Cate shoots and kills Drake. The pair remove and dispose of Drake’s identification.
Cate and Craig stalk the second hate crime shooter and kills him. The pair’s revenge rings hollow as they know the backers are still at large. They embark on a morally ambivalent course planning to kill all the backers. With help from Gregory, they are introduced to Pembrook, a retired MI6 operative. Pembrook trains Craig and Cate mercilessly to become methodical, patient killers. The pair kills 12 neo-Nazis living in the compound in Idaho.
As expected, the media blows this event up giving way to a national debate of free speech vs hate speech. Craig and Cate seek to further the media coverage with the assassination of the Grand Wizard of the KKK.
Shortly after killing the head of the KKK, a copycat killer, an ex-Army Ranger with PTSD kills another higher profile white supremacist, before taking his own life. The Ranger, Eddie Smith, penned and delivered to the press a manifesto outlining his views on how hate speech should be regulated.
After the assassinations and the release of the manifesto, Senator Sarah Roxbury, Craig’s sister, is tapped to head a panel on possible First Amendment reform and new laws curtailing hate speech.
The FBI ties all the shootings and assassinations together. They now have pictures of Craig and Cate near the scene of the KKK shooting just days before. They only have circumstantial evidence and not enough for an arrest. Finally, the FBI catches a break. Blood is found in the abandoned mine and reveals Drake’s DNA. An eyewitness comes forward positively identifying Craig and Cate walking near the mine at the time of Drake’s disappearance. They are arrested and held pending arraignment. Sarah Roxbury works a deal with the DOJ to quietly exonerate and deport the pair, after their faked deaths. The U.S. government does not want more copycat killings or martyrs.
Roxbury gives an impassioned speech on her panel’s findings on the Senate floor, outlining possible changes to how hate speech could be regulated.
Now living in Australia under alias Dover, the pair get a surprise visit from Pembrook. He asks if they would take a meeting with a lifelong friend who needs help. Help from the pair who have unique skills.