PLAYING ANNIE - A First Step-by-Step Outline

Note: A step outline is designed to reveal the plot of the story, the factual stepping stones that make the story progress from beginning to end. If you take the time and read between the lines, you will almost see and hear the whole movie in your mind.

The film opening scene:

Snipers aim at Annie

A large Middle Eastern city sitting between the magnificent blue Mediterranean ocean and eternal snow peaks…

Annie is a feisty 18 year-old school girl. She wants to leave her school, which became the target of kidnappers and snipers, terrorizing the city.

On the phone, her mom implores her to stay put, but Annie’s English teacher was kidnapped inside the school during the night. She can't stay, she wants to come home.

Her mother orders her to stay there until the army sends troops. Annie agrees. But after hanging up, she runs down the stairs and goes outside.

Downhill, the highway called "sniper alley" leads to her house. Many well positioned snipers take aim at drivers. It's 10 kilometers of Russian roulette. Many cars sit on the pavement, like metal coffins.

Annie gets in her Alfa Romeo, and starts the engine. She steps on the gas and takes off. Her school friends tell her to come back. She gets to the access ramp and sees in sight.
She passes one car that is stopped in the middle of the road. It is empty. Another car has crashed on the middle rail. Two bodies lay dead on the front seat.

Annie waltzes around other cars, a truck, a motorcyclist is lying in front of his motorcycle.
Suddenly, a bullet hits her windshield and smashes it. Annie screams and almost loses control.
Another bullet hits the lower part of the door, and her car starts making strange noises.
She hits the side of an abandoned car and spins around at a high speed.

The car stalls in the middle of the highway. Annie's trembling hand turns the key.
The engine roars back to life but Annie can't put the car in first gear. Another bullet whistles by.
Annie ducks down and puts the car in second gear. She releases the clutch and the steps on the gas. The front tire blows up. She hits a truck and stops.

Suddenly, a Mercedes pulls by her side. A young man opens his door. "Jump in!!" he screams.
A bullet hits his windshield too. Annie jumps in his car. The man jumps in and takes off.

Gaining speed, the young man turns to her and smiles. "Hi, remember me? Wael... during the manifestation?" Annie looks at him. "Yes Wael! What are you doing here? - I'm saving your life again! -I don't mind!" Annie says. Wael steals a kiss while a bullet shatters another window.
Flashback: in a riot, Wael and Annie are arrested. At a police station, he is beaten by policemen because he doesn't want to say his name. They learn that he is the son of the head of secret services; they release him and try to repair his bruised face . While leaving , he takes Annie with him, who admires his courage and rebellious spirit.

An intruder is in Annie's bungalow

In a nice Montreal suburban house, Annie is now 32,frantically scrubbing the faucets of her kitchen sink, with an small toothbrush. Listening to ballet music, she starts to dance like a ballerina, turning, jumping… She sees the silhouette of a man crossing the corridor, she stops dancing. She makes a few steps to check who is in the house, and slides on a wet portion of the floor. Her head hits the floor so hard that she loses consciousness.

Annie leaves her body

She begins an out-of-body experience. Below her, she sees herself lying on the ground, and the intruder, a tall slightly hunched-over man, comes near her and checks her pulse. He makes a big sigh of relief. He gently caresses her cheek.
During the process of leaving her physical reality, Annie discovers what is beyond death. She is transported to a huge place, where she feels total goodness, absolute love, and sees moments of her past on a screen too big to see the end of it. Flashbacks are vividly and rapidly produced in front of her:

Annie needs to get married

Annie is now 20, and, according to her father, she must get married, sooner than later.
She wants to marry her first love, Wael, the young man who saved her life on sniper highway. Annie is told by her father that Wael is not on his marrying list. He doesn't want the family to be related to the chief-of-the-secret-services’ son . Too dangerous for the family.

Top of his list is Tarek, a military man with a brilliant future, who just got back from an excellent school in the U.S., the CIA. Annie screams that she will never go out with him.

Annie discovers something about Tarek!

Annie and Tarek are in his car, he talks of their upcoming marriage ceremony , but Annie finds a blond hair on his forehead. He denies he is seeing another woman, but she decides to cancel the marriage

The intruder spies on Annie.

Meanwhile, in the Montreal bungalow, the intruder sifts though files, bank notes, looking for information. He finds Annie’s panties and takes one with him.

Annie chooses Samir, but...

Back in her memories, Annie sees a young man throw a chair at his teacher. This is Samir, and she introduces him to her father, who says "no" since he is not on his marrying list.
She runs away under the shelling of the city. She gives her dad an ultimatum: she will come back to the family only if she is allowed to marry Samir. The father reluctantly accepts. He warns her that Samir is up to no good neither.

Annie & Samir marry under bombs

The day of her marriage ceremony, the civil war has turned the city in chaos, and the newly weds have pray that they will survive the bombs falling all around them.

Annie discovers Calypso music

At the bungalow, Annie's brother, Raed, is parking his car in the driveway, playing loud Caribbean music. He gets out of the car while his wife stays inside, listening to the music. The intruder manages to leave the house unnoticed. Raed finds Annie lying on the kitchen floor, still unconscious, but dreaming . He tries to wake her up. He calls 911.

Annie is a 9 year-old ballerina

In her dream, Annie is now 9 years old. She is a dressed as a ballerina and performs a dance on a stage. The theater is packed with parents and friends. After the show, a teacher tells her parents that she is the school's best dancer, and that she wants to take her to France, to a special school, where they teach academics and dance. But her father says that she won't leave Lebanon and will stop going to dance classes right away, breaking Annie's heart .

Annie wants to live for the music

The "movie" of the memories are finished. The huge space fills with millions of butterflies. She hears an increasingly loud steel-pan music, it is festive and rhythmic, it's Calypso music, the same as the music coming from Raed's car! To her, it seems to be coming from a tunnel of light. The music makes her smile and she flies into the tunnel, back towards physical life, followed by thousands of butterflies.

Annie comes back to life

At the bungalow, she wakes up with her brother Raed and 2 ambulance workers at her side. She loves the music that is playing. He tells her it's Soca music from Trinidad, where he’s going to attend the Carnival in two weeks. As she is put in the ambulance, she tells him she wants to go with him to Trinidad, to the Carnival, and dance as a big butterfly. Raed laughs and reminds her she fell on her head.

ANNIE'S GOAL

She will go to Trinidad and Tobago, dress as a giant butterfly and dance to heavenly steelpan music. Because of her out-of-body experience, she senses that here is no such thing as death. She feels enlightened. She understands that she hasn't been herself since she stopped dancing at 9.

Annie's husband, Samir, hates Calypso music

The days that follow her fall and escape to the non-physical reality open her eyes. When she listens to Calypso music, she is in a happy place, but her husband can't stand the music. He breaks her music records.

Samir turns Annie into a servant

Her husband is obsessed by being served by her. He throws fits when she buys tomatoes, or if he finds some dust on the dinner table. He tells her that if she leaves for Trinidad, he will change the locks. Her 2 kids, an 11 year-old boy and an 8 year-old daughter, are what keeps her in the marriage. She is afraid of losing them if she goes to Trinidad.

Annie falls in love

One night, she manages to "escape" her house with her brother Raed, his wife, and her younger sister Rosha. They end up at Chez Alexandre, a French bistro that has a downstairs disco, where they play Caribbean music. As she is heading back to the house, Annie notices Ian, a Montreal businessman born in Scotland. Annie walks up to him and introduces herself, in front of her flabbergasted sister and brother. Ian and Annie dance together to Caribbean music, even if Ian can only do a Scottish dance. They also share their marriage misfortunes. As they part, Annie tells him that she comes every Saturday to Alexandre's. Ian steals a kiss from her, and gives her the code to his voicemail, so that they can communicate safely. On their way back, Annie gets a bad look from her brother Raed.

Annie finds hope in the music

Annie finds relief from her sufocating husband in the car, while listening to her Caribbean music. She listens to Ian's passionate messages as well as his wife and business messages. They are looking forward to seeing each other at Alexandre's.

Annie feels stalked

She sells her wedding jewels in order to buy her plane tickets to Trinidad. She feels as if someone is following her. She remembers the impression of seeing an intruder in her house, and asks her sister Rosha if she is going crazy . She is rooting for Annie and tells her to leave her husband for good. But Annie shows she is not ready to do that.

Annie and Ian solidify their relationship

Ian gives Annie a message to meet him at a home appliance store, where he needs to buy a new refrigerator. They kiss passionately for the first time. They find a huge freezer, and they both get in... They come out almost undressed. Annie has never lived such intense passion. She will miss him in Trinidad, but she wants to ask her husband one last time if he cares to come with her to Trinidad. Ian is shaken by her willingness to go with her husband. He tells her he can't come, for business reasons. While this is happening, we see that someone is following Annie.

Annie asks Samir one last time

After Annie prepared a full meal with no garlic, no tomatoes in order to please her husband, she asks him if he wants to come with her to Trinidad's Carnival . Her parents can take care of the kids. Without saying a word, he lifts the dinner table and throws all the food on the floor. "You cut my appetite" he answers back to her.

Annie has a pleasant surprise at the airport

Annie arrives at the airport and meets with her little sister Rosha, her brother Raed, his wife France. To everybody surprise, someone else is waiting for her: Ian. Annie jumps of joy but contains her emotions as to not reveal her affair with Ian to her disapproving brother. Her sister tells Raed to cheer up.

On the airplane, the stalker is ...

As the joyous band walks towards the end of the airplane, we notice a familiar face hiding behind sunglasses and a hat: Tarek! The military man who was Annie's fiancé back in Lebanon, and who she refused to marry 2 days before their wedding because she found the blonde hair on him.

Annie discovers a butterfly

As the group walks through Trinidad's airport terminal, Annie discovers a series of spectacular carnival costumes. One is a huge butterfly outfit, with wings fifteen feet tall! Despite a guard warning not to touch it, she not only touches it, but she puts herself in it when he walks away. She notices the creator's name, "Peter Minshall". As the guard returns to their area, Annie gets stuck in the outfit. Tarek, the stalker, distracts the guard by asking him a question. The butterfly's wings fall down, the installation threatens to collapse! Ian, Raed and Rosha help her out of the outfit. Tarek manages to walk away, but Annie notices his hunched-over silhouette. She tells Ian, and she runs to reach him, but Raed vanishes without a trace.

Annie meets the Shark Exterminator

At the hotel's bar, on the beach, Annie and her gang order some drinks. When Annie makes a compliment to the bar tender who posts pictures of scantily-clad women behind his bar, France, her brother’s wife, criticizes Annie for being too overtly sexual. But a nearby customer, Django, a tough-looking handsome black man, buys her a bottle of rum to salute her stance on the goodness of beauty. He quickly mingles with the group, revealing to them that he is a shark exterminator, and that he rents his boat to tourists. Ian rents his boat right away. Annie asks him where she could meet with Peter Minshall, the butterfly's creator. Django tells her that Peter is a friend of his.

Annie and Ian make love on the beach, sorta...

Ian takes Annie for a walk on the beach, late in the night. They find a hammock near a house. They both lie in it and try to make love. After an awkward and intense foreplay, Annie tells Ian to wear a condom, since she doesn't take the pill. Ian doesn't have any, and they end up contemplating the stars, until a old cranky man comes with a shotgun to expel them from his property.

Annie surprises her group

As Raed, France, Ian and Rosha board the shark exterminator boat, Annie and Django stay on shore. As the boat leaves, Annie tells them that she will meet with Peter Minchall, thanks to Django, who will drive her there. She sends kisses to Ian. He ironically tells her to be careful with sharks.

Annie rides in Django's Jeep

Django drives Annie through the streets of the city. He tells her that Peter and him go way back. Annie relates him of her out-of-body experience, with the flashbacks, the music and the butterflies. Django tells her he had the same kind of experience when he was bitten by a shark and had lost a lot of blood. He was drowning but he was rescued by a mermaid… sort of speak.

Annie meets the costume creator and the choreographer

Annie and Django arrive at the costume workshop. Django introduces her to Peter Minshall, one of the world's top costume designer for Carnivals. She sees for herself the costumes : they represent the forces of good and evil, of bondage and freedom, relating to the history of slavery and liberation of the blacks in Trinidad. Annie weeps when she sees a dozen of butterflies outfits. Annie can't believe that they are the ones she saw while she was "dead".

Then Django introduces her to the dancers, who are rehearsing for the competition. That's where Annie realizes that the choreographer IS Django himself, when he tells everybody that she will be part of the band. Some members frown or complain that she is coming 2 days before the show. But he tells them that she has dancing experience and that all will be fine and dandy. Annie is taken by surprise and first resists, but quickly agrees to plunge in the adventure. She tries on a butterfly costume and just manages to stay on her feet, let alone dance with the music.

On the boat, Annie's brother doesn't appreciate Ian

Ian, Raed, France and Rosha are all drinking while trying to catch sharks. It's clear to Ian that he is not welcomed by Raed, who suspects him to be his sister's lover. She should be with her husband, he thinks, even though he knows how Samir can be angry sometimes. When Raed asks Ian if he is her lover, Ian tells the whole group that they are lovers, as Rosha catches a fish. Everybody rush to her rescue. As the fish is brought on board, she hopes it's a premonition to her catching a rich man. But it's not a shark, it's only a small fish, gasping for oxygen. They all feel pity and Rosha and Ian throw the fish back to the sea.

At the workshop, Annie finishes dancing

Annie is struggling to dance in sync with the other 30 dancers, while wearing a huge butterfly costume. The session finishes and a female dancer comes to Django to complain that he is ruining their chances of winning the Carnival contest because of his infatuation with her. Django defends his choice, and tells her that they still have tomorrow to practice the routine. Annie feels she is right and decides to quit. She realizes that she does not have the stamina for wearing a big costume and perform a hectic dance. Django reassures her, she does have what it takes, and even more. Annie tells him that she will go back to Canada on the next flight. She starts walking back to the hotel alone.

The shark exterminator boat returns

When the fishing boat returns, Ian and Raed are looking for Annie: Ian, who wants to make love to her, and Raed, who wants to scold her.

Tarek makes a move…

As Annie walks down the hill, a 4 by 4 stops next to her. The driver comes out. It’s Tarek! The stalker who caused her to fall and be knocked out at the beginning of the story! Tarek says he is with friends to attend the Carnival, his third year in a row. She is happy to see him and she accepts to have a ride from him. Django sees her climbing in the SUV from a distance . Tarek is evasive when asked about his past 10 years, he quit the military to start his own private bodyguard company. He stops at a gas station , and Annie recognizes his typical way of walking, slightly hunched over. Then suddenly, she remembers the silhouette of the man at the airport and at her house when she fell unconscious, he was also typically bent over! She realizes that Tarek was the intruder! When he comes back in the car, she confronts him, he denies, just like he denied sleeping with another woman 2 days before their wedding . "You haven't changed one bit in 10 years!" Annie leaves the car, and Tarek bangs his head on the steering wheel.

Raed confronts Annie

Annie arrives at the hotel and finds her brother Raed and his wife France, waiting for her in the lobby. Raed, drunk from his boat trip, wants Annie to go back to Montreal , back to her husband, to her kids. In the elevator, among a large family, drunken Raed tells her that it's not acceptable to cheat on her husband like that, she should have married Tarek, instead of being a total immoral dishonorable slut. Annie calls him a loser, is wasting his musical career in order to fulfill his wife desires... Raed warns her that he will call their father but Annie says she'll do it herself.

Annie calls her father

Annie finds Ian in their bedroom, and jumps on the phone. She calls up her father and tells him everything: she met the love of her life, and it's not her husband, and she will dance as a butterfly in a carnival. She hangs up.

Annie's father worries

Trying to make sense of what he just heard in the middle of the night, Omar calls Samir, who confirms that Annie is in Trinidad, but he didn't know that she was with a lover! The father, angry, calls him all sorts of names and tells him that they have to do something .

At last, the conditions are right for the love birds...

Ian wants her to stay with him from now on. They start to engage in preliminaries, and Annie asks to put the condom on. Ian admits he forgot, with the boat trip and being drunk, but not to worry, he knows when to withdraw, on time. He's never had condoms and his wife doesn't take the pill, and she hasn't gotten pregnant for years. They engage in love making, but... Unfortunately , Ian didn't withdraw on time. Ian smiles and tells her that he wants a child from her anyway . Annie feels violated and tries to hit Ian in the balls, and rip his head off with a chandelier. Ian keeps apologizing and leaves the room. Annie goes on the balcony, closes her eyes and jumps off. While falling, butterfly wings spring out of her and she starts flying over the ocean. She opens her eyes and notices the dozens of butterflies attracted by the light in her room. Ian knocks at the door, she opens her eyes and tells him to sleep on the couch. "I love you", he says, "I love you too" she answers back.

Annie's father and husband are on the plane

On an airplane , Samir, Annie's husband, and her father, are side by side. The father complains that he was never able to control his daughter, and that's why it was a mistake to marry him. He knew from the beginning that Samir could not make her happy, because he was not on his list. He tells Samir that Tarek was on his list. "Great choice !" Samir answers, " Tarek dropped the military to become a mercenary!"

Annie doesn't give up

While Ian is windsurfing, Annie is rehearsing the dance routine with her band. Django is very happy to see her back. The costume creator makes some changes to her huge butterfly outfit and she is able to move around more freely. She stays on sync with the other dancers, and Django tells her that she is amazing.

Look who's here!

Annie's father and husband confront Annie during the rehearsal, embarrassing her. Her father orders her to go back to Montreal with her husband . She refuses and tells them to leave her alone. Samir finds her butterfly outfit ridiculous . She yanks him with a wing, and the other. The other members of the band become angry hearing that reflection . Django restarts the music, pumps up the volume , and the band begins to dance their routine around them. Annie joins them, dancing full throttle. Nobody can hear what Annie's father and brother are saying, and they leave defeated, for the moment. After the routine, Django gives Annie a big hug.

Ian surprises Annie

Ian shows up with flowers at the workshop, as Annie removes her costume. Ian tries to apologize, but Annie worries that she’s pregnant. He tells her that he found his soul mate in her, and that he will take care of the baby alone if she wants to be free. Annie gets in Django's car, and leaves Ian and his flowers . In the car, Django laughs. "what ? " Annie is smiling with him. "I got an idea, for the choreography."

Annie is in deep ...

Django's car is stuck behind a SUV. Suddenly , Tarek appears and opens Annie's door, pointing a gun at Django. He apologizes and tells Annie to follow him. He needs to borrow her for a while because he's going crazy. Tarek shoots in Django's tires, and takes Annie in his SUV. He handcuffs her to the door, inside the car. He asks her if she has heard of the Stockholm syndrome. "The hostages fall in love with their kidnappers".

He drives on a small rugged rode outside the city . "One thing I've learned in the military is that action speaks louder than anything else, and with you, I've figured it out. A woman like you needs big actions. I will liberate you, Annie"

In the meantime, Django comes back running to his workshops and finds a heart broken Ian. Django tells them that Tarek kidnapped Annie. They call the police.

Annie finds a way to be free

Tarek's SUV is parked by a cliff. Annie is still handcuffed to the car. We hear steel-drum Calypso music coming from the outskirts of the city, as bands everywhere rehearse for the Carnival. Tarek’s goal is to be long enough with Annie so that she starts loving him. But instead of focusing on him, Annie shuts her eyes and starts imagining herself dancing with the entire group. It’s the ultimate freedom: deciding to be free in spirit. Tarek, annoyed by her lack of attention towards him, tries to get her attention. But Annie imagines the entire group of dancers dancing in front of the SUV, by the cliff. She becomes a real butterfly and rises above the earth. "POW!!!" Tarek just fired a shot and Annie comes out of her dream. But not impressed, she returns to her imaginary dance. There, she sees Tarek walking below and looking up at her. And he starts to dance as a classical ballet dancer, reminiscent of the hippopotamus dance in the movie Fantasia. He is not gracious, and ridiculous. She opens her eyes, and makes an offer to her captor: dance with me! Suspicious of her real intentions, Tarek nevertheless agrees.

Tarek handcuffs her to himself, and they start waltzing together. Annie gets on her pointed toes and asks him to make her turn. He tells her that he became her hostage the day she left him, and that the Stockholm syndrome was on him since then. She brings him dangerously close to the cliff, and he playfully tries to dance as a male ballet dancer. She can’t help it but laugh at him. "Shall we jump off the cliff?" he asks. "I’m not afraid, throw me if you want", she says. He stops dancing, looks down at the cliff. Just one step and it’s certain death. "I can fly", she tells him. He frees herself from the handcuffs. She kisses him. "I can tango", he replies, and, to her surprise, he tangoes with her all the way back to the SUV.

Annie arrives at the dance competition

Tarek drives Annie to the stadium, where the band is waiting its turn to perform in front of the crowd and judges. Django knew she would be back. She puts her butterfly outfit as Ian, her father, sister, brother and France arrive by her side, along with a few policemen, relieved to see her unhurt. She excuses herself, she needs to join the group on stage.

She starts dancing, and performs a frenetic dance where male and female butterflies flirt with each other, while scary bats attack them. At the end of the routine, Annie collapses to the ground. A crowd gathers around her; Ian and her relatives run to her. Django comes to her side, saying he is also a doctor. He looks at her eyes, and tells everybody that she is dead. He asks for an ambulance. He gives her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation procedure. She opens her eyes half way. "See, I told you I was a doctor!" Django tells everyone. We start suspecting that it’s a set-up between Django and Annie. She asks her distraught father to take care of her children for a while , because they love them; the father accepts. To her husband, she tells him she needs to be away, but she will come back, and Ian her lover, well, he can go out with her sister. Django accompanies her in the ambulance .

In the ambulance , Django tells her that a boat is waiting for them, as planned. She gets up from the gurney, and tells Django that she wants the ambulance stopped. She thanks him and decides she wants to dance in the streets, alone but with everybody, right in the middle of the carnival. Django opens the doors and Annie climbs down.

In what’s left of her butterfly outfit , she starts dancing on the street, and we lose her in the sea of dancers, all dancing to the heated beats of Caribbean music.

The End

Written by Alex Pierre and Annie Tazbaz - "Playing Annie" all rights reserved by West Island Films