Movies - Series 7: The Contenders

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	Movies - Series 7: The Contenders

Series 7: The Contenders is a 2001 film directed by Daniel Minahan. The movie is presented as a marathon of the seventh series of an American reality TV game show called The Contenders, and is a highly dark satire on the Reality Television culture. It stars Brooke Smith as Dawn, the reigning champion from the sixth series.

Series 7 has themes in similar with the films Battle Royale
and The Running Man
.

Plot

Five contestants are selected from a city in seemingly random lottery and the winner of the previous series travels to the town to make a total of six contestants. Each series of the show is played within the limits of a chosen city or town. Contestants are provided with a gun, though they may acquire other weapons, and the last one left alive is the winner. The winner of each series must then go on to the next series, only gaining their freedom after surviving 3 series. Participants are followed around by a camera crew and their exploits are broadcast on national television.

Series 7 is set in Newbury, CT which happens to be the hometown of Dawn Lagarto, the current and longest reigning champion, which she had left 15 years previous. Dawn also happens to be pregnant and is due within the week.

The 5 new "contenders" are:

Connie Trabucco - 57 years old, single, emergency room nurse.
Jeffrey Norman - 33 years old, married, artist. He is dying of testicular cancer.
Anthony Reilly - 39 years old, married, unemployed. He had been an asbestos remover however was laid off and has had trouble supporting his family.
Franklin James - 72 years old, retired. He is very distrustful of the government and his home is covered in tin-foil.
Lindsey Berns - 18 years old, student.

The story purposefully leaves many key details unexplained or half-alluded to, because you're supposed to be watching only what the creators of the show actually aired in the fictional TV show, almost certainly after heavy editing. It is not explained how the reality TV show got into such a powerful a position that it could randomly select people to be killed like this, but all of the "contestants" seem to treat it as something they have absolutely no control over, so several are seen simply accepting the finality of the situation. The "show" begins with a recap of the end of Series 6; the openning scene is of the heavily-pregnant Dawn walking into a convenience store, fatally shooting a man in what seems like a shocking random act, then walking out. The credits then role and the rules of the TV show are explained, and the "contenders" are introduced. Anthony tries running away, but with the help of the police he is forcibly brought back and then accepts the finality of "competing". When he's handed his gun Jeffrey tries to shoot himself and has to be restrained. We gradually get to know the characters more, in interview segments interspersed with several of the "contenders" early atempts to attack each other (none succeed). Repeatedly the terminally ill Jeffrey tries to commit suicide, assisted by his wife, to be free of his pain (he tries to just ignore the TV show, as he was already planning to kill himself). It's revealed that Jeffrey and Dawn were high-school sweet hearts, but Dawn got pregnant and had to have an abortion, they broke up, and Dawn dropped out of school and lost contact with her family. Their breakup was also due to the fact that around this time Jeffrey decided that he was a homosexual (though apparently some time before the show takes place he either reversed this realization, or is living in denial, because he's married to a woman now). When Jeffrey sneaks away from the camera crew and with his wife tries to quitely commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, but the camera crew races in and has his stomach pumped to bring him back. Frustrated over this and increasing pressure from the TV show, his wife leaves him.

The first to be killed is Anthony; he is badly injured in an attack and is rushed to a hospital, where he is conscious but is (according to the narration) "bedridden". In fact, he is tied to the bed and Connie is informed of his position. Connie then sneaks into the hospital and ruthlessly poisons his IV bag, while he is screaming at her for killing a helpless unarmed man like a rat in a cage. After Anthony is killed, every contestant gets a mysterious note saying that some unknown party wants to help them escape the game, and that they should meet at the shopping mall. However, it's really just a trick by Connie to lure them all there. Lindsey shows up with her parents, and they split up to search for their mysterious benefactor. Lindsey is standing on a second floor bridge in an open-air area of the mall, while her parents are below, and she signals to them that she sees no one. However, Franklin then sneaks up behind her at hits her over the head with his cane. Franklin proceeds to bludgeon the unconscious Lindsey to death with his cane, as her horrified parents scream below as her blood flies everywhere. After finishing, Franklin shouts to everyone (and the cameras) that he "knows that this whole thing is a lie, they've been tricking us.." but before he can make his revelation, Connie shoots him with a sniper rifle from the other side of the mall. Again, we never find out what he was actually talking about (what aren't they telling us? Is there a resistance movement? Is some even more sinister force controlling the TV show? The film never reveals this.

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