Frank is a 60-something screenwriter who at 25 sold his first screenplay which was made into a touching Academy Award-nominated feature film. His success came too early and nothing he’s written since has lived up to that first script. He’s milked his almost Academy Award into writing jobs, but over time he’s devolved into an alcoholic hack-for-hire who makes his living writing whatever someone will pay him to write. When we meet him, he’s the go-to guy for misogynistic, stereotyped indie horror and action films financed by tech bros with money to burn to inflate their egos. Frank has sold out, he knows it and it’s eating his creative soul.

Frank becomes trapped in the internal world of his disgruntled characters, the Green Room of his mind, where they hang out awaiting their turn to be used and abused in his screenplays. And they are rebelling. The female archetype is tired of wearing high heels and skimpy clothing and being the stupid woman in an alley at night begging to be a victim. An older female character who is either the bitch, the hag or infirm is angry and wants retribution. In contrast, the male hero character enjoys being valued for his looks, brawn and craving for risk-taking. There are others who’ve been repeatedly killed off, misused or underused.

Confident of their success, the prosecution rests their case, but then the defense calls a surprise witness, Elise, the heroin of Frank’s first highly successful screenplay. All these years since Frank has been protecting Elise from the greedy suits who’ve turned him into a hack. It’s Elise who points out that if they convict Frank they will kill his creativity and that will kill them. This wakes up Frank to his love for Elise and reawakens his passion for writing meaningful stories. He commits to Elise and what she stands for and thus kills off all the characters who put him on trial.