A Feature Film Project

Mad Rocket is seeking strategic partners to help finance and produce LAPSE, a Cold War-era psychological noir thriller set in 1963 Los Angeles. While it is essentially a single-location film specifically engineered to be made on a low budget with a tight, highly disciplined 15-day shooting schedule, the project was written from the ground up with a premium, high-production-value mindset. By pairing the intense, claustrophobic suspense of a character-driven "premium cage" thriller with jaw-dropping, high-altitude military spy plane flashbacks, the narrative offers an expansive cinematic scope without the massive logistical footprint.

Driven by the sheer strength of the script and its highly original, historically grounded concept, our goal is to attract notable name talent to the project. Because the entire film features a tight, ensemble cast of only five actors, we can focus our casting resources on securing top-tier talent for every single role. The comfort of a premier, centralized Beverly Hills location and a rapid three-week shoot makes the project exceptionally actor-friendly, allowing us to leverage prestige performances at an indie scale. Through this combination of meticulous pre-production planning, cutting-edge virtual production, and high-caliber acting, we are positioned to turn this optimized sub-$1.5M budget into a commercial, elevated genre film that looks and feels many times its actual cost.

THE FEATURE

Logline

After an inexplicable mid-flight anomaly at 90,000 feet, a top-secret 1960s CIA test pilot undergoes an off-the-books truth serum interrogation by his closest friends — only to realize the terrifying truth of what he encountered at the edge of space is still in the room with them.

Principal Location

While LAPSE unfolds on the isolated cliffs of 1963 Malibu, production plans to film at a stunning mid-century modern estate in Beverly Hills. Designed in 1956 by renowned architect Howard Frank, this 5,000-square-foot architectural gem sits on a secluded, one-acre lot. With its sharp lines, 10-foot ceilings, and cold, clinical luxury, the property perfectly establishes the film’s "premium cage" atmosphere. Facing southwest with sweeping ocean views, the estate features a striking entry pond with floating steps, a large pool, and a lava rock fireplace, providing a visually rich, cinematic canvas.

Filming within the Los Angeles studio zone eliminates the logistical overhead of company moves and complex set builds, keeping production exceptionally efficient. The estate boasts extensive interior space to house wardrobe, makeup, and production offices, completely removing the need for costly motorhome rentals. Furthermore, the home comes furnished with a wealth of authentic, period-friendly pieces and retains its original 1950s kitchen. Paired with massive sliding glass doors in every room for seamless equipment tracking, the location delivers a flawless, historically accurate 1960s aesthetic right out of the box while slashing art department and furniture rental costs.

Story Synopsis

Act I:  The Dinner Party

Set against the polished backdrop of 1963 Cold War tension, the entire film unfolds over the course of one single, suffocating night. It has been two weeks since Captain David Minor, an elite test pilot for the US Air Force — and now the CIA — operating at the absolute edge of military aviation secrecy, suffered a traumatic flight incident that left him severely shaken and placed on mandatory medical leave. Though his wife, Betty, has spent the last fortnight desperately trying to comfort him and bring him back to normalcy, David remains vacant, hyper-vigilant, and deeply unstable. Seeking a desperate return to routine, the couple hosts an intimate dinner party for David’s most trusted friends: Ken Dillard, an Air Force psychologist, and Dr. Marcus Alston, a high-ranking Air Force doctor. But as the evening progresses, David’s erratic behavior warps the domestic comfort of their modern Malibu estate into a psychological pressure cooker.

Act II: The Sessions

Desperate to help their drowning friend, Ken and Marcus convince a hesitant David to undergo a radical, off-the-books solution using a vial of Sodium Pentothal. The home quickly transforms into a sterile interrogation cell as the truth serum fractures David's conscious mind, forcing him to recount a terrifying, reality-bending encounter high above the clouds. The horror escalates from psychological to physical when Marcus discovers a strange anomaly beneath David's skin and uses his surgical tools to extract a mysterious black object embedded in his shoulder. But when the procedure triggers a catastrophic medical emergency, the night shatters permanently. Paralyzed by the fear of a court-martial, a botched cover-up ensues, forcing Betty, Ken, and Marcus into a desperate alliance of survival as they race to erase the evidence before the sun comes up.

Act III: The Trap

Just as they finish scrubbing the blood away and prepare to align their alibis, the sudden ring of the front doorbell cuts through the silence. Standing on the threshold is Agent Tom Hollis, a calculating CIA operative who reveals a chilling truth: the Agency has had the entire estate under 24-hour surveillance for the past two weeks. Trapped in a psychological fishbowl while technical crews sweep the rooms, the trio is presented with a cold, ruthless ultimatum from the government. As they frantically debate their options, the cosmic implications of what David brought back from the sky finally crash down on them. They are forced to realize that the most terrifying threat isn't just the federal agents occupying the living room, but the haunting, reality-warping truth waiting for Betty inside the very walls of her home.

Characters

Captain David Minor (30s) | The Fractured Pilot

An elite, hyper-disciplined US Air Force test pilot recruited into the CIA’s most secretive aerospace program. David is a man defined by rigid military composure, making his current psychological unraveling all the more terrifying. Returning from a classified flight at 90,000 feet, he is vacant, intensely paranoid, and missing a massive block of his memory. As the truth serum pulls him back into the cockpit, his performance shifts from a quiet, suffocating trauma to a breathless, reality-bending panic.

Betty Minor (20s/30s) | The Grounded Heart

Elegant, deeply perceptive, and fiercely loyal, Betty is the anchor of the film. For two weeks, she has walked on eggshells trying to piece her shattered husband back together, navigating a wall of military secrecy. When the cozy dinner party transforms into an interrogation cell and a subsequent cover-up, Betty is thrown into an impossible nightmare. Her arc is the emotional engine of the story, evolving from a protective, mid-century housewife into a desperate survivor facing down the United States government.

Ken Dillard (30s) | The Empathetic Scientist

An Air Force psychologist and David's close friend. Ken represents the intellectual, analytical side of the military apparatus. He is inherently empathetic and genuinely wants to treat David’s apparent PTSD, which is why he suggests employing the Sodium Pentothal. However, when things go horribly wrong, Ken’s analytical mind goes into overdrive. He becomes a calculated co-conspirator, balancing overwhelming guilt with a ruthless instinct for self-preservation to avoid a court-martial.

Dr. Marcus Alston (30s/40s) | The Driven Pragmatist

A high-ranking Air Force doctor and department head. Marcus is a man of status and precision who tends to view David through more a physical, medical lens rather than Ken’s psychological approach. Because of his background, he is the only one capable of performing the impromptu, rogue surgical extraction when the anomaly is discovered under David’s skin. When the procedure takes a disastrous turn, Marcus’s clinical detachment becomes a vital asset for the group; he pivots into survival mode to help orchestrate an airtight cover-up alongside Ken and Betty to protect their shared future.

Agent Tom Hollis (40s to 60s) | The Unseen Apparatus

A calculating, deeply unsettling CIA operative who arrives like a ghost in the third act. Carrying a black attaché case, Hollis is the human embodiment of Cold War surveillance and state power. He plays a polite, agonizing game of cat-and-mouse, dripping with artificial charm, before completely dropping the axe on the trio. It’s a powerhouse, prestige role that demands a commanding screen presence—a character who controls the room without ever having to raise his voice.

Visual Tone & Atmosphere

LAPSE unfolds entirely under the cover of a single, suffocating night, transforming a sun-drenched Malibu mid-century modern home into a high-end psychological cage. The visual style is a sleek, clinical fusion of 1960s neo-noir and modern existential dread, utilizing sharp architectural lines, cold glass reflections, and deep, ink-black shadows to create an immediate sense of geographic and psychological isolation. From the very first frame, the atmosphere is laced with an ambient, unshakeable wrongness, signaling to the audience that reality itself is subtly warping just out of frame.

Bathed in the harsh, clinical luminescence of the pool deck and the moonlight cutting across the property, the film weaponizes light as an instrument of surveillance rather than comfort. The premium location becomes a beautifully staged fishbowl where every pristine window feels like a lens looking in. As David's psychological state unravels, the camera work transitions from steady, locked-in architectural compositions to a tight, intensely intimate, and claustrophobic perspective. The darkness beyond the property lines is treated not just as an absence of light, but as a living, encroaching entity, holding the terrifying weight of the unseen flight trauma and the looming government apparatus closing in on the house.

project oxcart

Historical Context

During the early 1960s, the CIA initiated Project Oxcart — a top-secret aerospace program developed by Lockheed’s legendary "Skunk Works" division. Operating under absolute government secrecy, its mission was to build a reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying at 90,000 feet and Mach 3.2 to safely penetrate Soviet airspace and gather intelligence on enemy nuclear capabilities. The result was the A-12 Oxcart, a sleek titanium marvel that pushed the boundaries of human flight.

The Anomaly

As a test pilot chosen for this black project, David is bound by a strict military oath and sworn to absolute secrecy under penalty of treason. When his latest high-altitude flight goes terribly, inexplicably wrong, he is trapped in a profound state of isolation. After questioning by the CIA about what happened to him, they conclude he passed out during flight. He’s doubtful of their conclusion, yet cannot utter a single word about any of it to his deeply concerned wife, Betty.

Compounding his torment is a terrifying cognitive lapse: David cannot remember the core events of the flight, yet his subconscious is violently plagued by the trauma of whatever happened to him at the edge of space. Desperate for answers and drowning in paranoia, he covertly reaches out to his inner circle: Marcus, a high-ranking Air Force doctor, and Ken, a trusted Air Force psychiatrist. By inviting them to his Malibu under the guise of a routine dinner gathering, David initiates a rogue, off-the-books investigation into his own mind, unwittingly setting a trap that will snap shut on all of them.

The A-12 Oxcart Sequence

While LAPSE is a tightly contained "premium cage" thriller set predominantly in a single Malibu estate, the film's inciting incident unfolds at 90,000 feet, experienced by the audience through David’s harrowing, reality-fracturing recollection of his top-secret test flight while under the effects of Sodium Pentathol. To execute this high-concept sequence with total cinematic scope while keeping overhead exceptionally low, we have designed a highly efficient, cutting-edge physical production and VFX strategy.

The Cockpit Architecture

For the aircraft itself, we are partnering with Scroggins Aviation in Las Vegas to utilize their premium SR-71 Blackbird cockpit and nose mockup. Because the legendary SR-71 was the immediate, direct successor to the CIA's classified A-12 Oxcart program, the cockpit layouts and exterior silhouettes are virtually identical, ensuring historical accuracy for 1963 military aviation. While the SR-71 was traditionally a dual-seat aircraft and the A-12 was a single-seat plane, our production will easily mask the mockup's rear cockpit simply by blacking out and covering the rear canopy windows, flawlessly maintaining the illusion of David's solitary flight.

Virtual Production & LED Technology

Scroggins Aviation's cockpit mockup is entirely mobile and purpose-built for travel. It will be trucked directly from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where the entirety of the flight sequence will be shot over a highly efficient, rapid two-day schedule. Rather than relying on traditional green screen, we will utilize a state-of-the-art, wrap-around LED Volume studio. By placing the physical cockpit inside the LED stage, we achieve perfect, photo-real interactive lighting on David’s flight visor and the aircraft’s metallic hull in real-time.

For a look at the Scroggins Aviation SR-71 Blackbird mockup, watch the video clip below:

Financial Strategy & Budget Overview

LAPSE has been meticulously engineered from the page up to be a high-yield, low-risk commercial asset, with a target production budget optimized at $1,250,000. By leaning heavily into the highly efficient "premium cage" model, we maximize every dollar on screen while keeping logistical overhead exceptionally low. This disciplined budget is achievable because the entire narrative is set at a single estate within the Los Angeles studio zone, completely eliminating costly company moves, travel expenses, and complex set construction.

Furthermore, writer, director, and producer Sean Skelton is deeply committed to the project’s commercial viability and is deferring the vast majority of his upfront fees to protect the film's bottom line. Given the immense character-driven strength of the script, its tight 15-day shooting schedule, and the premium comfort of a centralized Beverly Hills location, we are highly confident in attracting notable name talent willing to work for reduced upfront rates in exchange for a sophisticated, actor-first production environment.

Fiscal Incentives & Risk Mitigation

To further protect investor capital and de-risk the financing structure, the production plans to leverage state-backed fiscal incentives. By maintaining a target budget safely within the independent tier, the project perfectly positions itself to qualify for the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program for independent films. Upon securing 60% of our target funding ($750,000) by August 10th, 2026, we will formally apply for the program, which yields a 35% tax rebate on all qualified expenditures spent within the state of California. This substantial financial cushion significantly lowers the project’s ultimate break-even point, providing a secure and accelerated timeline for investor ROI.

Market Comparisons

LAPSE is strategically engineered to capture the massive cultural and commercial momentum of recent industry-defining hits like Obsession (2026) and A24’s The Backrooms (2026). By utilizing a hyper-contained, single-location setting to generate overwhelming suspense, Lapse mirrors the lucrative, ultra-low-overhead financial model currently dominating the box office — most notably showcased by Obsession (2026), which turned its sub-$1 million micro-budget into an unprecedented global phenomenon. However, where those films lean heavily into analog horror, Lapse elevates the formula into a premium, prestige package, swapping traditional horror tropes for the sophisticated, mind-bending paranoia of a 1960s Cold War conspiracy.

Two other comparisons would be The Vast of Night (2020) and Leave the World Behind (2023). Like the legendary indie success story The Vast of Night (2020) — which proved that a riveting, period-piece sci-fi mystery could be brilliantly executed on a self-financed $700,000 budget — Lapse relies on a creeping sense of dread, rich atmosphere, and sharp dialogue. Combined with the "premium cage" template of the global phenomenon Leave the World Behind (2023), Lapse weaponizes a beautiful, isolated modernist home as a high-end psychological pressure cooker, building crushing suspense around an external menace that remains tantalizingly unseen just beyond the property line. This structure provides investors with the explosive ROI potential of a contained, micro-budget genre hit, combined with the elite, award-season upside of an A24 or Focus Features release.

SEAN SKELTON, the writer, producer, and director of Lapse, brings a multi-faceted pedigree to the project through his production entity, Mad Rocket. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara’s film program, Skelton’s foundational experience includes starring in the Student Academy Award-nominated short Oblivion and a Silver Clio-winning campaign. His early career featured performances opposite Oscar winner Nicolas Cage in The Rock and Liam Neeson in the Oscar-nominated Kinsey—an immersion in high-stakes studio environments that informs his collaborative, actor-centric approach to directing.

Upon moving to New York City, Skelton co-created, produced, and directed the MOJO HD documentary series Wall Street Warriors. The program ran for three seasons and became the most downloaded docu-series on iTunes during its tenure. His versatility continued with the Webby-nominated series Financially Fit for Yahoo! Studios and the documentary short Biosphere 2 for Retro Report and The New York Times.

Skelton’s narrative work has garnered top-tier industry recognition, including Best TV Drama and Best Writing honors at the New York and Independent Television Festivals. He has helmed award-winning projects featuring veteran talent such as Richard Kind and Craig Bierko, while his broader creative slate has been shortlisted for co-development by Lionsgate and AMC-Channel 4. Notably, another of his feature scripts entitled Your Grace holds the highest script score in the history of the Slated platform. Skelton is now bringing this synthesis of narrative precision and award-winning pedigree to the helm of the LAPSE production.

CONTACT

We hope the information above provides valuable insight into LAPSE, and we would be excited to discuss the project further with any interested parties.

Contact: Sean Skelton at sean@madrocketfilms.com