
            Lampooning the tendencies of 'reality television' to become ever more shocking, 'Series 7: The Contenders' is a movie of an imagined reality show in which the contestants, tracked by cameramen, must kill to win.Selected at random and seemingly with government approval, the contestants are real people, dropped into a real town, and given weapons with which to wipe each other out. The winner is the last one left alive, and the 'game' is not over until all but one of the contestants are dead.Heavily pregnant Dawn is the current champion, and she is only a few kills awaw from being allowed retire from the show. Pregnancy and the will to get out of the game have made her pragmatic about her modus operandi: kill everybody in her way.Those fighting against her are an elderly gentleman, a female teenage high school student, a cold-hearted middle-aged nurse, and a man recovering from testicular cancer.Dawn's mission is complicated however, by virtue of the fact that cancer-sufferer Jeff is an old flame from high school. Ironically at the start of the contest, Jeff is ready to die, but suicide is against the rules, so he wants Dawn to be the one to bump him off. However, as the game progresses, Jeff's motives change, and this confuses Dawn's situation.The movie builds towards a showdown between the two high-school sweethearts. In this crazy situation, who will be the last one standing?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The movie opens with Dawn walking into a convenience store, coming up behind a man who's buying something at the counter, jamming a 9mm into his back and killing him.Dawn, who is eight months pregnant, is the reigning champion of The Contenders, a reality show where five people are selected at random by government issued ID numbers to face each other and the reigning champion in a no-holds-barred fight to the finish. Contestants are issued firearms and placed into a selected town for their manhunt. Viewers watch the show in episodes like regular reality TV.The town selected for this battle is the sleepy little town of Newton, CT.Dawn and her cameraman, Pat, arrive by plane and drive into town. Facing off against her are Tony, an unemployed, struggling, but still well-to-do family man; Connie, a middle-aged nurse with a heart of ice but who is deeply religious and opposed to killing; Franklin, an elderly retiree who uses a crutch; Lindsey, a teenage girl who's just graduated high school; and Jeff, a married thirtysomething man who's dying of testicular cancer. All five challenger Contenders are residents of the town.Actions scenes are interspersed with continues "interview promos" with each contestant that are meant to build up drama and storyline for each contestant. Breaks for commercial and end-of-episodes are shown with "coming soon" scenes.Tony is in good physical shape and skilled in boxing. Lindsey's parents and boyfriend have supplied her with a generous cache of weapons and a bulletproof vest. Jeff's wife, Doria, dutifully takes care of him as his condition worsens and frets at what is to come. Dawn calls both Tony and Connie to taunt them. Dawn tells Connie that a bomb is in her apartment. Connie runs out screaming, and Dawn fires at her, but misses, and Connie retreats back into her home.Dawn visits her family, who don't want to see her but she confronts her mother and sister in the garage. Although Dawn tries to maintain composure, the bitter argument she wanted to avoid, slams into her head-on. It's shown that the family threw Dawn out after she became pregnant as a teenager and had an abortion. Finally Dawn steals her sister's SUV-- at gunpoint, no less- but as she's settling into the driver's seat, Dawn's little niece runs to her and hugs her proudly, supporting Dawn as champion contender.Dawn is driven to Tony's house and calls him out to fight her. But, rebelling against all the show stands for, Tony takes his baby daughter hostage and drives off. This being a serious violation of the show's rules, show promoters and police cooperate to track Tony's vehicle as it drives down a highway and disable it. There is a tense standoff between Tony and a SWAT officer before the officer manages to take the baby girl from Tony. Tony runs, but several SWAT officers grab them. In the struggle, Tony deals himself a critical wound to his back with his own knife and is paralyzed.Tony is in the hospital when Connie comes into his room and administers a lethal injection. Tony tries to plead with Connie regarding his being helpless to resist, to no avail. Dawn finds her way to Tony's room to find him already dead. Tony's wife, Michelle, lashes out at Dawn, who pleads for understanding, pointing out her own pregnancy-- Dawn is nearly ready to give birth to her baby. An amusing scene shows Dawn getting a checkup with a local physician, and a nurse aide asks Dawn to sign an autograph. The aide gives a big grin as she's presented with the autograph.LIndsey's parents drive her to Franklin's house and get her psyched up to make the kill. She runs to take Franklin down. She chases him into high brush grass and a shot rings out. Lindsey comes stumbling back to her parents' car, wounded but alive, and without her handgun.Dawn calls Jeff and asks to see him. As she arrives at Jeff's house, Dawn promises Doria that she will not harm Jeff; she's just there to talk. The interview promos, complete with re-created re-enactments, show that Dawn and Jeff are old high school flames who did a Gothic video art project together. They still feel close to one another. Jeff tells Dawn that he'd rather die at her hand than one of the other contenders. Still, he's afraid of being killed, and so he tells Dawn how she can acquire some barbiturates; Jeff has needles that she can use to administer a lethal injection.As Lindsey is convalescing, her parents find her making love to her boyfriend, Nathan. Lindsey's father has a letter for her. It's shown that Franklin and Dawn have received similar letters. An unknown benefactor is offering to take them to safety. The contenders accepting the offer should go to a particular concession stand at a nearby mall and wait.Dawn arrives first, concerned about the message being some sort of trap. Franklin goes there hoping to score a kill against one or more of the other contenders. Lindsey arrives, taking the offer at face value and looking to escape, though she still has a 9mm handgun with her. As Dawn hides out of sight but able to see the concession stand, now closed for the night, Franklin arrives. Franklin spots Lindsey coming up a mall escalator and approaching the stand. He hides behind the stand and waits. Dawn spots the intended ambush and shouts a warning, but it's too late. Franklin clobbers the teenage girl with his crutch and begins to beat her savagely in front of her horrified family and onlookers. Lindsey manages to pull her gun, and fires at Franklin, but the gun's safety jams. Franklin knocks the gun out of Lindsey's hand and beats her to death as people must stand by and watch. Franklin begins to make a hateful speech toward everyone, including those who would be watching on TV, when he's killed by a shot from a high-powered rifle. The shooter is Connie, who sent the letters as a trap, just as Dawn had feared. Dawn chases Connie all the way back to her apartment and corners her in the bathroom, but just as Dawn is ready to shoot Connie, her water breaks and she goes into labor.An amusing scene plays out where Dawn must beg for a truce with Connie, and for Connie's help in delivering the baby, who Dawn protests is an innocent life. Connie reluctantly agrees and calls for an ambulance before administering aid. Complications arise as the baby's feet start to come out first; a breech birth that can lead to severe birth injury or even the baby's death. ER workers on the phone manage to talk Connie through a procedure that keeps the baby unharmed until paramedics arrive to complete the delivery.In the meantime, Jeff and Doria have a tender last night over dinner and drinks, holding each other, as Jeff waits for Dawn to return.The next scenes show Dawn at the hospital with her baby, and Jeff waking up from unconsciousness at the same hospital, Doria watching over him. Promo interviews show that in violation of show rules, Jeff prepared his own suicide with Doria assisting him. However, Jeff's cameraman called paramedics who saved Jeff's life. Jeff becomes angry, knowing Doria let them into the house. They fall into an emotional argument where Doria accuses Jeff of still being in love with Dawn-- and yet, at the same time, a closet bisexual, before walking out on him. Doria gives Jeff his gun back and dares him to kill himself.Connie stealthily walks through the hospital to deliver another lethal injection. It's Jeff's room she goes into, but Jeff is ready for her. They wrestle over Jeff's gun, and a shot rings out. Dawn hears the shot and goes to investigate. Jeff has killed Connie, and he stuns Dawn with the announcement that he feels a new lease on life and doesn't want to die anymore. He manages to rush out of the hospital while Dawn struggles with her feelings over him versus her need to kill him as he's the only other contender left. The scene also implies that Jeff is the father of Dawn's first baby, which she had to abort, which in turn got her thrown out of her family's house.After promo interviews, and end-of-show coming attractions, Dawn and Jeff are seen meeting at a local football field to finish the conflict. If Dawn kills Jeff, she'll be able to retire from the show a free woman and reunited with her baby. If Jeff kills Dawn, he'll become the new reigning champion contender to face off against five challengers next season.The two face each other, guns drawn, and suddenly announce their love for each other. They beat their respective cameramen unconscious and escape together. Viewers help police and shot promoters track the two, now wanted fugitives.Dawn and Jeff stage a desperate gambit, taking the audience of a movie theater hostage. Dawn's demands are simple: return of her baby and safe passage out of the country.Show announcers say that all the remaining footage ended up deleted due to technical error but has been painstakingly re-created and re-enacted through actors. A show announcer arrives at the theater to turn Dawn and Jeff against each other. The crying of Dawn's baby is played through the theater's speakers as the announcer says that Dawn can have her baby if she kills Jeff here and now.Jeff suddenly reverts to wanting Dawn to win and to be with her baby. He chooses to give up his life for the sake of the woman he loves. Jeff closes his eyes, and tears roll down Dawn's eyes as she starts to squeeze the trigger.But it's Dawn who falls dead before the movie screen. Jeff wasn't the one who killed her.Doria is seen at the back of the theater holding a smoking gun. She tells Jeff that she still loves him. Jeff looks coldly back at his wife and says it's too late. He puts his gun to his temple and takes his own life, putting himself beyond the reach of the law.End of season finale promos show Dawn's baby in the care of Dawn's sister, and Doria in prison, facing execution for murder without being a registered Contender. She boldly and bitterly accuses the public of being the true killers.The final promo announcement is that five new challengers will soon be selected to face off... against the new reigning champion Contender.The camera pans in on Jeff in the hospital, his head bandaged. He opens his eyes, understands he's still alive, and disgustedly says, "Shit."
    

Mark Woodbury

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