A One-Hour Drama Series. Request the script!
Set in the early 1990’s at the dawn of the BBS underground, a bullied teenager drags his friends into the new and dangerous world of computer hacking. What begins as a search for belonging spirals into a war with rival hackers and a government crackdown, forcing them to navigate first love, betrayal, and the price of freedom in the digital age’s earliest days.
Does everyone have an insta? Threads? TikTok? (But Facebook’s old, right?) Well, in the early 1990’s we had none of that. Sure, we had computers, but the internet hadn’t really happened yet. But kids like me were getting online. We’d connect on Bulletin Board System. And for some of us, we opened doors that shouldn’t be opened.
My story is about a group of those kids, who pushed it too far.
The series is an Amblin-inspired mix of Stand by Me and Mr. Robot set in Texas. Our hero is a bullied teen named Alan who drags his friends into the hidden world of online hackers, where he finds a world he understands and through hacking, a power he never had. Power to get revenge on his bullies, and a power that grows as he goes deeper and his ego gets away with him. His counterpart is Stephanie, a young black teen who goes by the handle Strider. A fellow hacker, and smarter than him, Strider is cool when Alan is hot.
Together they join a legendary hacker group, lead their friends through adventures online and offline, and navigate a first love that’s put to the test when their hacker group splits and they join opposing, warring sides.
On the edges is Glen, a Secret Service agent who’s an older version of our heroes, just working for the man. He gets on the trail of Alan and Strider's increasingly daring hacks, building his case and waiting for his chance to swoop in and take Alan and his friends down.
It’s a coming of age story of friendship, betrayals, and the thrill of not getting caught, when going online was new and pure, and connections were not just virtual, they were real.