PRODUCTION INTERNAL: Treatment.

The film opening begins with several establishing shots of a quiet suburban neighborhood just as the sun is starting to come up over the rooftops. We see a view of the street, empty except for a single car which passes by. We cut to a dark room. The only thing we can see, which fills the screen, is the red display of a digital alarm clock reading 6.30 AM. A hand reaches out and smacks it off, but we don't see the owner. At this point the music kicks in, "A Well-Respected Man" by The Kinks, just as we cut to a shot of the same hands, still ownerless, pulling open a set of curtains to reveal a view of a neat, suburban backyard complete with planter boxes etc. Next we see the hands again, putting toothpaste on a brush over a sink, and (off-camera) rinsing and spitting. We then have a close-up of the hands opening up a fridge, peering into it for a few seconds, and taking out milk. The fridge swings shut, and spelled out on the door in magnetic alphabet letters is "CROSSFIRE", the film's [working] title. The next thing we see is an overhead shot of a milk being added to a mug of black coffee, cut to toast being buttered, cut to a gun on the table next to the telephone, cut to the newspaper being opened, cut to hands picking up a big brown envelope ominously marked "CONFIDENTIAL." Once the envelope is opened and the contents slid out we see it is a file marked "TARGET." It contains detailed information and candid shots of a young woman, mostly in black and white as if taken from a surveillance van, which in fact they were. The right hand of our as-yet-invisible protagonist runs a finger across a picture of her laughing. We then have a mid-shot finally revealing our protagonist's face- he is an unassuming, mild-mannered looking guy named Elliot (although we haven't been shown this yet, it's just for documentation purposes) who you'd never believe would be a paid assassin for a living. He smiles a little sadly as he looks at the file then tosses it down on a table. We get one more shot of her face, with the word "TARGET" stamped in red across her eyes. Moving back out to a midshot we see Elliot put on a coat and scarf, grab his bag and head out the door as the song finishes. Our final shot is another high-angle showing the whole street as he walks off.