ISLAND OF CRIMINALS
by Ricardo Matias

THE BEGINNING

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The story begins in 1443, during the era of maritime discoveries. When a Portuguese sailor João Fernandes and his crew discover a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  On this island there lived a highly advanced population surrounded by various types of unique never before seen species of crocodiles, gorillas, deers, giant birds — and a very special enormous white tiger.

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Years later, during World War II, the Nazis came across the manuscript written by João explaining what happened in the Portuguese expedition. They had found out that on that island lived a group of priests capable of predicting the future. And if these priests performed a ritual and killed the white tiger, they would maximize their powers and see way ahead in the future.

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Now Friedrich Schubert, an important Nazi commander for Hitler, decides to create an expedition to go to the island to obtain the powers of foresight to win the war. When the Nazis reach the island, they end up killing the entire population living there. But a boy from the island was able to survive, escaping by boat to the United States.

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One white tiger is captured and one of the priests is taken back to Germany to be tortured and forced to reveal information about the future. The priest finally ends up speaking, revealing that on the island there is a book with all the predictions. However, the Americans enter the torture room and annihilate the Nazis. The priest eventually dies, dropping a key needed to open the book of predictions, which the American’s kept.

 

JASON

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Jason Peterson is a 24-year-old from New York who always tries to do good and hates crime. He is one of the top students at his university, and his life is going well. However, one day, after returning home, he discovers that his mother, with whom he lived, had been murdered. He loved her so much, and now that he no longer has her, his mindset has change to one of revenge. 

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During his mother's funeral, Jason receives a call from a stranger who tells him that if he steals a certain key from a museum in NYC and brings it to him in Berlin, Germany, he will reveal who killed his mother. Initially, Jason hesitates to accept because it involves committing a crime. However, after some thought, he ultimately agrees, accepting himself as a criminal, which he despises.

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Jason spends two weeks planning, and finally, the day comes to steal the key. He enters the museum at night, sneaking and lurking through the building successfully retrieving the key, but before escaping he is discovered and a security guard ends up dying by Jason’s hand in self-defense. Jason now a murderer feels even more nervous and anxious about everything and heads quickly to the airport and a flight to Berlin. 

 

50 CRIMINALS CHALLENGE

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In 1975, the government of the United States decided to implement an annual challenge that would continue until today. It involves placing 50 prisoners convicted of the worst crimes in America on an empty island that belongs to the United States. A hidden nuclear bomb is placed on the island, set to explode in three days. If the criminals discover and deactivate the bomb, their crimes are forgiven, and they can return freely to society. If they fail, the bomb explodes, destroying the island and killing everyone. The challenge aims to instill fear in people to prevent them from committing serious crimes.

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In most years, the bomb exploded, except in the first challenge in 1975, in 1993 and the last four years in a row. The U.S. government now became suspicious and tried to understand how the well-hidden bomb had been discovered four years in a row. However, they had no information since one of the rules of the challenge was that there could be no cameras on the island, so no one knew what was happening there. Traps were also set on the island and in the sea to prevent criminals from escaping. Various weapons were placed on the island, and prisoners could collaborate if they wished. But it seemed that for the past four years, almost all were surviving.

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THE ISLAND

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Jason was in the middle of the Atlantic during the early hours of January 5th when a storm struck, destroying the plane and crashing it onto an island in the middle of the ocean. This was the island of the 50 Criminals Challenge. Jason was the only survivor of the crash. 

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As Jason enters the island's jungle, he encounters two prisoners dressed in orange (prison clothes). One of them is about to kill him thinking he doesn't belong there because of his different clothes. However, the other prisoner intervenes, saying that Jason is the savior of the challenge, named William, who is rumored to have powers that allow him to know where the bomb is. Jason decides to go along with the charade, not understanding why he is being mistaken for the real savior, who has yet to appear.

Jason is taken to a coliseum where all the criminals have gathered, and as he enters he immediately sees a large poster of his face and is very confused. He also notices that everyone is worshiping and shouting the name "Will, the Savior." 

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As he begins to realize he is mistaken for Will, Jason is forced to give a speech by the leaders. He ends up lying, saying that he knows where the bomb is and that he will find it. Jason is further turning into a criminal. 

In an effort to keep the criminals engaged and distracted, so he could buy time to escape, Jason creates a gladiator style combat between a masked disfigured man, who they just captured on the island, and the islands various unique animals. The criminals knew the bomb would be found, since they thought William was found, so they weren't worried and enjoyed the combat. 

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While setting up the combats Jason is given, by another prisoner, the book of prophecies. This prisoner stole the book from another outsider that was on the island, called Lucas Schubert, a Brazilian man who came to the island before the challenge began, searching for the book. Lucas it turns out was the grandson of Friedrich Schubert, and wanted to fulfill his grandfather's dream.

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Jason saw that the book had a lock similar to the key he stole in the museum. He decides to try using it and the book suddenly opens, revealing everything that will happen on the island including on the last page, where he sees a massive explosion. He assumes that the bomb will explode, and everyone will die. 

After a few hours of capturing the animals in the jungle, the combat begins. The Masked Man is  quite athletic and manages to kill all his opponents, and then tries to flee the coliseum with the help of Lucas, when Jason orders the others to go after him and kill him.

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The Masked Man offers a deal to Lucas, that if he helps him kill the other prisoners and Jason, he would help him steal the book. They head back to the colosseum again, where more fights  ensue with both animals and prisoners, killing a lot of them, but the masked man betrays Lucas while Jason tries to escape from them.

At some point the masked man finds Jason and fights him. But when he sees Jason's face he then reveals his true identity to Jason, that he is the twin brother Jason never knew he had.  His real name was Friedrich Cooper, and he is “Will, the Savior,” but in reality he has no special powers and it was a hacker who told him about the coordinates of the bomb every time. But this time while Friedrich was fighting the white tiger, who disfigured him, he lost his communication device with the hacker in a hole and the map of the coordinates.

The other prisoners couldn't recognize Will, the Savior anymore since his face is not the same as before. Jason's twin brother wanted revenge for not recognizing him, and so he decided to kill everyone on the island. After their conversation, Jason and his brother then decided to team up to make it easier to find the nuclear bomb.

 

​So, while Jason and his brother were heading back to the hole, Jason started to realize that he actually had the prediction powers from the book, however they were not powerful as he had not killed a white tiger yet, so his visions were only small ones. Jason learned that the boy that escaped off the island during the Nazi attack was Jason's grandfather, who unknown to Jason passed the powers onto him, which did help them be successful in fighting with the criminals and dangerous animals.

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Jason and his twin brother finally reached the hole, which was a trap made by the US military, and they found the walkie talkie and the map, and headed to the cave to disarm the bomb. During all the search, Jason and his brother fought many prisoners.

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In the cave, Friedrich tells Jason he murdered their mother, seeking revenge for her abandoning him and staying with Jason. Friedrich spent his life hateful as a murderous criminal and hence selected to enter the challenge, but escaping and deciding to invent “Will, the Savior” in revenge to become the "King of the Challenge.” Jason, his brother, being there was just a great coincidence. After hearing his story Jason attacks Friedrich and ultimately kills his brother. 

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The bomb was now about to explode, but in the last second, Lucas deactivated the bomb and both of them survived. Lucas knew where the bomb was because he saw the American military hiding it when they were creating the challenge. The bomb was hidden all this time below the coliseum. The cave was a false information.

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The US military arrives and brings Jason back to the US, while Lucas escapes and stays hidden on the island.

 

BACK IN THE UNITED STATES

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The criminals who survived the challenge would be free, but this was a special case. The hacker who always knew the bombs coordinates was in a coma but had already told everything to the police including who Friedrich was, and the FBI then questioned Jason.

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But the FBI and the military thought Jason was Friedrich because they believed Jason died in the airplane crash. They were looking for Jason for killing the security guard in the museum, and Jason would go to prison if he said he was indeed Jason Peterson. Jason then lied and said he was Friedrich Cooper, as they thought. Now he was living with his brother's identity, with his brothers criminal money in his beautiful house in Miami. 

 

BACK ON THE ISLAND

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We find Lucas trying to find the book but just as he discovers it, the volcano on the island starts to erupt and destroys the island, killing him and every animal. The final book page of the destruction was about volcano’s eruption and not about the bomb exploding. The powers were real, and Jason had those powers. However, he was never able to maximize his powers as he needed to kill the white tiger, which the Nazis had captured a long time ago...

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