Bezpłatny fragment - The Betrayed

To whom do I dedicate this project?

I dedicate this book, or rather the script, to…

Everything I do, I do for the Father, so everything is automatically dedicated to Him. The same is true for His beloved Son, in whom He finds His delight.
From the Father, I have received several people who are important to me and whom I love: M, S, G, G, D. And I dedicate this project to you as well.

But…

This script was created out of love for the artistic world I dreamed of, to which I was drawn, yet it was so distant, so…

I dedicate this project to…
Sylvester Stallone
Bruce Lee
Marilyn Monroe
Michael Jackson
Jim Carrey

BEGINNING

Introduction

I will begin by saying that “The Betrayed” was created out of love for cinema, and in particular for action cinema, on which I was truly raised. From a very young age my parents bought me films on DVD with Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, Bruce Lee, instilling in me at the same time what is good and what is bad. There is a belief that if instead of cartoons we serve children films such as Fist of Fury, Today You Die, or First Blood, nothing good will come of such a child, but that is not true. I of course started with cartoons such as Winnie the Pooh, The Smurfs, Reksio, Bolek and Lolek, Superman, The Enchanted Pencil, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, as well as Teddy Bear Uszatek and many others. In the early period of my life I was apparently a huge fan of game shows (that explains a lot 😀). But with age, my parents decided on increasingly bold, so to speak, productions, thanks to which already as a child I was a huge fan of Bruce Lee and Sylvester Stallone. They did not turn me into a beast, but quite the opposite — it was they who led me to all the impulses that the heroes of films possessed: compassion, love, proper behavior. I understood that loneliness or being different is not something bad, and that the heroes struggle with the same things.

The Betrayed was created out of inspiration and being inspired and is not something groundbreaking that has never existed before. It is something that has already existed many times, but told differently. Mine is made in such a way that it would be for me a complete film without the flaws that I noticed in film productions.

Of course, it is not plagiarism, but inspiration and a tribute to action cinema.

It was difficult for me to live in this world, but writing this screenplay gave me a semblance of a chance to go through it as I would like or as would be best possible for me. After these 10 years, do I live from what I wanted to?

Unfortunately not, but the Father still feeds me and leads me through this world as He considers best. I don’t discredit His will. I live by what He places on my path. I accept everything He gives; sometimes it is hard for me, every day is a duel and a reconciliation with myself, while searching for a way to survive and for peace in every situation.

I was in a hurry to go Home and I still dream of returning, but as Michael Jackson said in his song: Heaven Can Wait.

Someone completely beyond the scale of importance said to me words very important to me: “Live, and it will be good.” By living what is, what comes to us, not analyzing, not worrying, but simply living the given moment, we go in the right direction. And that is what I try to do.

On January 29, 2025, He placed on my path this wonderful publishing house, thanks to which I can reveal and share what I have written.

I believe that the Father has a plan in this and there is a reason why He placed this publishing house on my path.

This screenplay may not carry too much good, but it gives entertainment, so important for the peace of being.

About Me

As I mentioned earlier, from the youngest years I have been a fan of films and of the entire process of film production. I remember very well the times when during illness one didn’t go to school and lay in bed for whole days watching films on DVD, of course with breaks for learning English.

I will explain… when my sister and I were attending early primary school, my mother decided to invest quite a lot of money for those times in our learning of English. And so from time to time a package would come to our house with one book and a DVD for language learning. My mother collected the entire collection for us and because of that I have guilt to this day, because most of those books and discs were not even touched.

I truly have great guilt because of this, but it was difficult to find time for additional learning when one went to school 5 times a week for about 8 hours. After so many hours of learning a person is tired, and additionally one had to do a lot of homework and study for quizzes, tests, dictations, etc. Saturdays and Sundays as well as holidays and time of illness remained. During the holidays, I remember how once my mother was sending us to study and my dad was stopping her saying something in the style of “let them rest a little, school has just finished recently.” And so time of illness remained, and then I used it for pleasure and learning.

It looked like this… Rambo: First Blood, and then one English disc and book, Rambo 2 and an English disc with a book, Rambo 3 and again English (in those times there was not yet Rambo 4 and part 5, that is the title Last Blood).

My dad, a carpenter by education (by the way excellent in his profession), to the corner wardrobe bought for my communion money made himself a shelf for the television, below it another shelf for the DVD player, and additionally below it a cabinet for school books. A piece of good work which contributed to the creation of my childhood.

Next to it, where in the attached photograph I am sitting, I placed a stool also made by my father and on it the discs with films which I intended to watch.

In the times of living in that room with my sister, I spent wonderful moments, mainly periods of illness with wonderful films which shaped me and inspired me, and in some cases I found parts of myself, kindred characters with whom I identified.

The Rambo and Rocky series, Lock Up, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, The Big Boss, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, The Truman Show, Bruce Almighty, Rumble in the Bronx, Around the World in 80 Days, Armour of God, Spider-Man, various kinds of nature films (to this day I love the irreplaceable David Attenborough), Some Like It Hot, The Beast, Today You Die, many animated films such as Cars, Shrek, Ice Age and others. But my favorites anyway were action films, like Rambo or Fist of Fury.

I remember the times of primary school, before my grandfather walked me to school I ate breakfast and together we watched How I Unleashed World War II, The Samis (Sami Swoi), or the unforgettable series watched again in 2025 thanks to the AXN Black station and for the first time in full — Renegade with Lorenzo Lamas in the main role. And after school, before dinner, together with my dad we watched the series The New Adventures of Superman. Of course the one, exceptional and forever in my heart will remain the series watched from early childhood entitled Superman with Christopher Reeve.

The last production in these film memories is TITANIC. This film was the only one that evoked my emotion. I remember how in primary school I talked with my friend about this film and we said:

— and do you get emotional watching this film? — I asked my friend

— yes, I do — he answered

— I also get emotional, tears don’t fall from my eyes, but I’m moved — I added

I feel emotionally connected with this film and the events presented in it. At one time I wanted to know everything about this catastrophe, I even collected so-called cards which I kept in a binder. I love it therefore I watch it so rarely.

In this way my fascination with films and the entire film production was born.

Watching films aroused my curiosity regarding how these images are created, how it happens that we can watch them on the screen. I began to analyze films, and then in the era of the internet all behind-the-scenes materials and I fell in love with film realization.

Until now I have worked in 11 places in 11 different positions, not because I am lazy or was fired, but because nowhere did I find my place. I felt that the only thing I want to do, which doesn’t cause sadness but pleasure, is writing screenplays and in the future directing films.

At the beginning of 2015 I wrote three short action film screenplays, which together with my sister we realized. And in this way I fell in love with filming and writing, which resulted in beginning, at the turn of September and October 2015, writing my first full-length feature action film screenplay entitled THE BETRAYED.

After this project I began further ideas, I developed only 2 into full screenplays and one into the form of a treatment.

From the end of September 2018 for a few months I undertook the “managing” of a certain cult band. Its hits were known by all of Poland, however the cooperation ended rather unpleasantly, but already in 2019 something moved. In the spring I received a reply from famous Polish actor Mr. Artur Barciś that the idea for a film with his participation, which I had sent him, appealed to him and he encouraged me to write the entire screenplay and at that moment I began work on the screenplay of a multi-genre comedy entitled Am I a Dealer…!? I was incredibly happy that the actor of my childhood was interested in appearing in a film written by me. And so I began writing the screenplay.

During the writing process I searched for a producer and another thing happened. I FOUND ONE!.

For me it was a miracle. “I have a main actor and I have a producer.”

At the beginning of February 2019, with motivation from Mr. Artur, I began writing the screenplay. On April 27 of the same year the screenplay was completed.

Unfortunately the final project disappointed the producer and the actor, who quickly withdrew from the project, without giving me a chance to improve the screenplay. The story was very good, however the stress connected with the chasing deadline and searching for a producer, and later again with the chasing deadline of submitting the project into their hands caused that the project disappointed them. And I was also disappointed that it was given up on so quickly without giving me a chance and time to improve it since the entire story from beginning to end was good.

But what can I say… evidently it was meant to be.

I didn’t give up and continued doing my own thing, trying to “live normally” in this world.

The year 2020 brought a short film competition realized in the surroundings of one’s home due to pandemic restrictions. The competition was organized by the legendary American producer, director and actor Roger Corman.

It was another opportunity to try my strength as a director, actor, screenwriter, editor and set designer in one. Of course I was not them, I only performed such “positions”, because I don’t recognize titles given by people. They only cause divisions into better and worse. I am only Marcin, a child of God.

And so in the spring of 2020, with the help of my sister, I shot my first two-minute silent film entitled In Search Of…, which is available on my YT channel.

Unfortunately, I wasn't among the winners of that competition. Over two thousand people felt the same way I did. But after four years of rejection, I felt somewhat immune.

However on August 29, 2020, late in the evening on the day of my sister’s birthday something changed, a place became available for being an extra in a series produced for the Netflix platform entitled Open Your Eyes, by the way surprisingly very good.

I was to appear early in the morning on the set, in elegant clothing, and play a music high school student. In the first scene I walked on the stairs from top to bottom and back for two takes, to pass along the entire corridor upstairs returning quickly for a repetition of the take. The realization of this shot lasted four hours in 40-degree heat, being quite warmly dressed in a jacket, shirt and jeans. Honestly speaking, I was furious at the “million” repetitions of the same shot and exhausted, but it was worth it. The next shot was for the same scene. I was chosen to walk down the corridor, but I proposed a change of style by taking off the jacket and throwing it over my back.

Another scene in which I appeared was a scene of a music competition. I was one of the members of the audience. It was for me a distinction that I could appear in so many scenes. The shooting day lasted about 12 hours, but despite exhaustion it was worth it.

Some time later I appeared again on the set of this series, this time as a member of the technical crew. Dressed only in black jeans and a black T-shirt.

The scene with me and the lady accompanying me, who played with me, was unfortunately cut, and it is a pity because I would have been quite clearly visible in that scene. But the production decided to choose a shot filmed even before the appearance of the extras. The two of us were to walk in that scene and analyze the operation of the screens in the lobby of the concert hall and note the malfunction of one of them. I will never see it, but the memories remain.

At the end of the year I appeared in several shots of one final scene (which was ultimately shortened) of a classical music competition in the film entitled Sonata. It was a long, exhausting, nearly 14-hour day. When the extras were let onto the set, everyone began to be seated appropriately. When I already had my assigned seat, I was called and told to move closer. Everything was already buttoned up to the last detail, and the main actors entered the set and directly next to me sat: Małgorzata Foremniak, Łukasz Simlat, Lech Dyblik and the son of the main characters, Konrad Kąkol.

When the shooting began, Jerzy Stuhr himself entered the stage. My task was to react to the performances of the artists. A wonderful feeling to be in the center of the most important actors of the film and the plot.

Wonderful and unforgettable memories, such as a conversation during the break with Mr. Dyblik, or rather reacting to his stories, pulling back my legs during the scene when Ms. Foremniak walks to her place touching, slightly moving and leaning on my knee, or when the shooting is about to begin after the break and Mr. Dyblik wants to sit down and realizes at that moment:

— d…, I forgot my mustache

and goes back to get it. I wanted to laugh so much then that I could barely restrain myself.

In that one several-minute scene I was chosen for several shots as a viewer. Hence so many hours.

Exhausted, but happy.

In 2021 another success, which unfortunately didn’t materialize. My screenplay entitled TATRY found a producer and a studio, however after several years it was not realized, because the project turned out to be too expensive and demanding for Polish realities and budget. Fortunately I published the book and I still hope that someday someone will realize this project and put it on cinema screens.

Still in 2024 my image appeared in a certain exceptional project. On the occasion of the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s birth, a Chinese space station decided to display on one of its external monitors from an artificial satellite a video material with dancing fans of MJ from all over the world. I sent my film in which I do the moonwalk and I qualified for the project. I am happy that I could dance for Michael and that in space :)

I was one of 107 people from 11 countries, but fortunately I’m quite well visible in the material on YT around the first minute of its duration and at the very end. It was an honor for me.

For me all of this are “successes”, although people by this word understand fame, money, or status. By this word I understand fulfillment.

I know that the introduction was long, but I wanted even so briefly to tell my story connected with what I love to do.

I don’t like and don’t understand work in this world that I must do, but I love to work and to do what gives me pleasure and can give somethink important.

About the project

It was the turn of September and October 2015 when I made the decision to develop into a full screenplay the idea that I had come up with some time earlier. I wrote it until nearly the middle of 2016. It was created at a time when I still looked at certain matters somewhat differently. I ate animals, used products of their origin, ate sugar, bread, didn’t practice intermittent fasting and many other things. But it was already a time of my greater mental-spiritual forming (psyche in Greek means soul, and nous means mind).
When I began writing I felt that I had to do something more, and I chose preparing meals for my loved ones. In the evening I asked Mom, Dad and Sister what to make for dinner, for breakfast and for second breakfast. And that is how it looked for some time. Meals and writing. However after some time I decided to focus only on writing, when I noticed that for them it was something completely normal.
Only Mom and Sister knew about the creation of the screenplay, and after some time Grandma also found out. Women are more understanding, therefore neither my Dad nor my Grandfather for several years knew what I was doing privately.
To achieve something, whatever that means, one has to act in that direction, and that is how I have been acting for 10 years. I have written relatively few projects, because I don’t want to write something senseless just for it to exist. A text must have value, it must carry a message. And I desire that my texts be parables… but about that in the spring of 2026.
When somewhere at the end of June, it is possible that it was June 23, 2016, because that is when the date of the last changes in the project appears, I finished writing, I began sending the screenplay by email, but also traditionally, to producers and film studios in the USA, including to Sylvester Stallone himself (why to him, I will explain later).
The letters were costly, and the result was zero.
For 10 years the screenplay waited for someone to respond, but the lack of response caused that on the occasion of the 10th anniversary I decided to publish it.
And so in the summer of 2025 I began rereading it and introducing small corrections. These seemingly small modifications, which took really quite a lot of time, are meant to help the reader of books better feel this content. I tried nevertheless to leave it as screenplay-like as possible and in the state in which it was when I finished it. Today for me many expressions or behaviors are no longer current, but to change something that was created a decade ago, and additionally was my first full-length project? Of course if I were writing this screenplay now I would do, write, define many things differently, more precisely, but these corrections are to be only a dot over the long-ago written “i”. What bothers me most is the term which one of the characters uses for his parent, namely Father. I believe that on earth there is for me a human being who is dad, and in eternity there is a being who is Father. Father does not define an older gentleman, a man, but Father is a term for a Being, for a figure without a figure, eternity being in eternity and the creator of the eternal creation of being and everything that can only ever be always and for a moment, for the all-encompassing love being in love.
The screenplay in the form of a book unfortunately is not the same as in it’s original form. It loses its unique and original format through limitations connected with arranging the book for print, but the content counts.

Returning after so many years to this project is something exceptional for me, and the feelings that accompanied me were almost mystical, because all the memories from the period of writing came back. At one moment I even became emotional. Maybe I will not reveal exactly at which moment of the plot, but there is a scene connected with the driving of the main character’s car, whom you must choose for yourselves from among all the actors in the world that you know, and his wife (a similar situation). During the drive a certain song plays from the radio. This scene, with that song, triggered a wave of memories. Seemingly nothing special, but it is nice to return in memories to ordinary moments. At the moment of writing this scene my mother was wiping the hallway floor, my sister was taking care of her school matters, and my father was not at home at that time. Seemingly nothing, but these images appearing in my head caused emotion.

Now, in 2026, to mark the 10th anniversary of completing the screenplay, I’ve decided to finish what my sister once tried to do with the original script. In the process, I’m fulfilling a dream I had a decade ago: translating this story into English, an international language (I apologize for any mistakes, but I’m not an English expert. I hope you understand the context of the sentences and the entire plot). I’m doing this for the people I met as a teenager on the Mornings With Michael podcast, hosted by my namesake, whom we called Marty (a wonderful person). They were, and are, a group of incredibly kind people who were among the few who were kind to me back then, and are still kind to me to this day. I miss Marty’s Show and the contact with the MJ Family.
The second reason is that I still believe that someone will read this book who decides to adapt the story from the script for the big or small screen.
I still believe in that.
Let’s move on.

A screenplay has this characteristic that it doesn’t contain too many details. Details belong, among others, to the director, who creates his vision of the final work.
And so I want you, the reader, to sit in the director’s chair of the project THE BETRAYED.
All details belong to you, or perhaps a significant part of them.
I will only explain that each scene begins with a heading marked “EXT” or “INT”.
EXT — from the English word exterior, which means outside.
INT — also from the English word interior, means inside.
The same applies to indicating time: “AM” means morning, and “PM” evening.
In the screenplay there appear terms such as FADE OUT / FADE IN. These are terms for the transition from one scene to another. It is nothing other than darkening and brightening. Many professional terms don’t appear in this screenplay, because I was not meant to be the director.

Now I will present to you my guidelines regarding this project:

Locations:

The main part of the plot takes place in Los Angeles, but there is also Lakeport, as well as other parts of California, and there is also Europe in a seaside climate.

My casting:

Michael “Michał” Sonowski — the only thing I can suggest is that the character has a kind face with short hair.

Rose Branston — Michael’s wife is a young woman with delicate facial features and a slightly dark shade of skin. Her parents have white skin but her grandparents on her mother’s side are dark-skinned. The idea for the name came from the name of Sylvester Stallone’s daughter… SOPHIA ROSE.

Elizabeth Branston — as for whom I would cast in the role of Rose’s mother, I came up with it only this year and it is Jane Seymour. Her appearance and manner suited very well the traits that the character Elizabeth possesses.

Bill and Linda — Rose’s mother’s parents. When I wrote these characters 10 years ago I immediately thought of them, that is Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad. The married couple from the cult series The Cosby Show seemed to me ideal. In my screenplay they aren’t characters from the series, therefore their personalities differ somewhat from the serial ones.

I will now explain the discrepancy regarding the color of this family’s skin. Linda’s father was a white man who married a dark-skinned woman, yet their child, that is Linda, was born with dark skin. One could say that Linda’s father caused Elizabeth to be born white. This woman married a white man, yet their daughter, due to her grandparents, was born with a dark complexion.

I’m explaining this now, because in the screenplay itself I didn’t find space to tell this thread, and it is very important for understanding this element of the plot.

The waitress in the “forest” bar- I wrote the waitress with my sister in mind, I came up with the idea when she was translating my script into English about 2015 year.

Eric — I wrote this supporting character for myself. I thought that if a film based on my script was made, I’d love to appear, but as an extra, not the main character.