"Secret Agent" Inspiration? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

todd · 06-13-2009, 09:08 AM

Hey guys,

I'm about to enter an animation contest with the theme of 'secret agent' and am brainstorming ideas for a short story (~ 2 minutes). A 30 second film style trailer is the other half of the challenge, which will be cut from the full length piece.

Other than the numerous James Bond films, do you guys know of any good short stories that might serve as a good starting point? Or perhaps an action writer or online bank of short action/mystery stories I should check out? Maybe something you've even written yourself?

I'm just looking for inspiration beyond the typical 007 business. I'm really interested in exploring an era that might not be immediately associated with secret agents. Right now my main consideration is something along the lines of a spy in the medieval ages maybe infiltrating a castle.

I know I haven't given much to go on, but what do you think?

Jetée · 06-13-2009, 09:21 AM

I'm having a bit of a mind-block retrieving the various espionage stories and mystery classics I have consumed, so I may or may not have further commentary to offer later on. But based upon your initial consideration of "spy's infiltration of a castle", and my own encounters with such, I recalled a game plot in which the similarity to that of your scenario "plays" out quite nicely as a basis (not for the spy itself, but it provides an impetus and spark to the protoganists' journey conquering the pervading evil sweeping their continent).

This is the story of the spy Leila andher efforts to gain intelligence and succeed within the realm of Fire Emblem.

ring · 06-13-2009, 09:51 AM

This author has written well, on the subject.

John le Carré - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

inBOIL · 06-13-2009, 10:09 AM

You could do something with a man infiltrating the secret world of women, or vice versa.

Slims · 06-13-2009, 02:04 PM

The Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton. You can get them for about $2 each used on Amazon.

squeeeb · 06-13-2009, 04:08 PM

we are at war with the martians, the secret agent has to get the martian attack plans.

Martian · 06-13-2009, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by squeeeb

we are at war with the martians, the secret agent has to get the martian attack plans.

He won't succeed. They're safely tucked away in my Fortress of Doom.

I like the idea of turning the concept on it's head. Know anything about how cuckoos are raised? Look it up and learn something.

pan6467 · 06-15-2009, 09:08 PM

Wild Wild West (the series)

Get Smart (if you want to do satire and funny)

Kind of spy like: The Saint (Simon Templar) either the tv series with Roger Moore, the movie with Val Kilmer or the books by Leslie Charteris. I prefer the books.

John le Carré - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The link above doesn't work.

Those are the big ones I'm familiar with.

Kingruv · 06-16-2009, 10:15 PM

resource notes

Pascali's Island a movie
Interesting perspective of a forgotten agent in a remote outpost before WWI.

Vlad Dracul
The storied life of Vlad the Impaler and Societi Ordo Draconis. While Vlad was known for impaling at least 100,000 Ottoman soldiers and 10's of thousands of others including many of his own people, less is written of his direction of the Society of the Dragon. In league with other kingdoms and principalities in the region, Vlad used spies to help him check and finally stop the Muslim advance into eastern Europe. While he is considered noble by modern Romanians, his personal motives and real grievances against the Ottoman Turks show he learned from his former captors.

James Jesus Angleton

William Donovan

Enter the Past Tense, by Roland Haas
The dismal account of life and double life for one former agent. Contemporary Insight into Cold War operators
Short book

Hasan bin Sabbah
The man behind the “Old Man in the Mountain” Some say he was a tall tale. Some serious modern day students have another look.
In similar fashion there was a great deal of espionage performed in ancient Japan and pre-China inter dynastic kingdoms.
Really until the modern era most craft trained spies were of a paramilitary nature.

Igor Orlov 1930's to 1960's
Able to thwart US counter iintelligence for 2 decades in Washington pretending to become a normalized American. Deep background cover prepared for years before coming to America.

The Roman Catholic Church 400 AD to present
There was an almost continuous thread of espionage from the end of the Roman Empire in the Catholic Church hitting peaks during the Crusades (not just with the Templars who had their own thing going) and again during the Reformation. The Catholic Church doesn't see their activities as espionage but their activities have all the hallmarks of it. Some of the activities involved almost all aspects of checking on kings and courts under their control. A broad target was any anabaptist group that pressed open preaching native language scriptures and Gospel for the common man. The used more than the inquisition to suppress groups like this
A high tempo of espionage/counter-espionage began with Henry VIII splitting with the Pope over his divorce. This was a primer for what became 400 years of British Intelligence.
Out of the mix of this, between Britain and France spying on one another, evolved American Intelligence in its truly nascent state.

The Byzantine Empire 4th Century to 15th Century
During the latter period of the empire, a heavy reliance on espionage became standard. Whole networks were established to assist in retaking lands lost to the Muslims.

Ian Fleming
I believe some of the background Fleming had for JB was based on his travels and spying on the US for Britain during WWII in Washington DC.

For online resources check the public pages at the CI Centre here in Northern Va.
Most is geared towards current trends and operations in counterintelligence.
In particular: cicentre.com/podcasts.html
(Put the above in with appropriate header or put it in google for proper formatting and you're good to go.
I guarantee this is a safe site.

todd · 07-09-2009, 02:28 PM

Hey guys, thanks a lot for your ideas and reference insight! I skimmed through it and have been crafting a rough script. Here's what I have come up with to this point, and would love any feedback you might have.

If you do read through it and have any modifications in mind that would make it more compelling, I'm all ears! Also keep in mind that this is being written for a 3D animation.

Quote:

Germany, July 1370

It's just before dusk and the skies are clear. A beautiful woman is seen loitering along the upper wall of a massive castle. She does not appear to be of noble descent, but is healthy and dressed well. She folds up a small piece of paper and stuffs it into a bottle. She corks the bottle and tosses it over the wall into a river. A guard appears, startling her enough to make her stumble to the ground. He demands to know what her business is up on the wall. "Nothing" she mumbles. The guard angerly asks what she tossed over the wall as he peeks over to investigate. She doesn't respond. "Well what was it!?" he yells as she recoils. "N-nothing...It was nothing. Just garbage." she replies. The guard grunts, and with one swift motion knocks her unconscious with the butt of his crossbow.

Two years later, England.

The bottle is seen washing up on the shore, half buried in sand. A man in armor picks up the bottle and sees there is something within. He removes the paper and unfolds it with the contents out of view.

A knight and cloaked figure stand alone in a well lit room surrounded by tapestries and other royal decor. The knight hands over a freshly rolled scroll, sealed with the letter of the lord. Upon unrolling it, the man reads his mission will be to infiltrate an enemy castle to secure sensitive strategic documents. A small folded piece of paper is also tucked within the scroll.

Germany

It's 4:00 in the morning in May of 1372. Thick fog and heavy rain limit visibility to a mere feet, with thunder and lightning distracting the guards on watch. A spy floats down a stream in a small covered boat preparing for his mission of espionage. The river wraps around the castle forming a moat, and is harvested as kinetic energy by a waterwheel protruding from the side of a wall. These thick walls tower nearly 100 feet above, and are lined with a hollow wooden structure used by archers. Slits in the walls and hatches in the floor of this hoarding allow them to defend from all angles of attack.

The spy makes landfall at the base of the castle just feet from the waterwheel and steps out onto shore. He readies his crossbow and harpoon, and prepares a system that will hoist him up the wall. A custom arrow is fitted with a pulley to feed a rope, which has a handle on one end and a grappling hook on the other. Timing his shot with a flash of lightning, he fires the harpoon straight up into the hoarding, masking the sound of impact with a crack of thunder. He latches the grappling hook onto the waterwheel, and holds onto the handle as he is hoisted up using the wheel as a winch.

As the spy reaches the top of the wall, he hangs silently beneath the floorboards of the hoarding. He listens for activity, and waits as footsteps pass overhead. He uses his dagger to pry open the hatch, and swiftly heaves himself up. Now inside the castle, he creeps down the hall and ducks into a corner stairwell where a single candle hangs from the wall. He unfolds a piece of paper revealing a hand drawn map, and briefly studies it under the light. It shows that he must travel through the courtyard and gain access to the treasury through a window. Several guard posts and other critical information is marked on the map, clearly the work of an insider who knows the castle well.

The spy slides to the end of the hall, and uses his dagger as a mirror to peek around the corner. He waits for a guard to pass, and makes a run for a set of stairs going down into the courtyard. He slides down into the darkness and slips behind a building.

His access to the treasury is through a window positioned above a private garden. Approaching a guard on patrol, the spy pulls out a veil of poison. He removes the cork and applies some liquid to a rag. Hiding in a dark crevis, he swiftly reaches out behind the guard as he passes and firmly applies the rag to his face. The guard goes limp without a sound, and the spy pulls his body into the shadows.

He sneaks past a snoozing guard and enters the walled garden. It's filled with a variety of herbs and littered with tools and equipment. Quickly fashioning a ladder by embedding trowels into a tall wooden plank, the spy leans it against the wall and climbs up to the window. He pulls out a metal device reminiscent of an engineers compass. This one is tipped with diamond blades and is used to cut a circular hole in the stained glass window. He reaches through the hole, unlocks the window, and slips inside.

Finally inside the treasury, he is surrounded by gold and riches. After a quick once-over of the room, his map leads him to a locked chest. He kneels down and picks the lock with ease. Inside he finds the documents he is looking for and secures the paper in his satchel. As he begins to exit, he pauses suddenly as something catches his eye. A large pile of gold coins is sitting exposed on a table, gleaming in the candle light. The spy walks over and stuffs a handful into his pocket before leaving the room through a wooden door.

The rain has eased, and early morning light casts a blue gloom over the courtyard. A guard is rounding the corner just as the spy exits, and the clank of the door latch catches his attention. As the guard walks to investigate, the spy darts into the kitchen and scrambles up into the storage rafters, just barely out of plain sight. The guard wanders in and looks around curiously, standing directly below the spy. Just as the guard turns to leave, a single coin falls from the spys pocket. It hits the wooden floor and bounces at the guards feet. By the time the guard looks up, the spy is already jumping down wielding his dagger. The kill is messy, with no time for elegant precision, both the guard and spy topple over a table of pans and dishes. The commotion alerts other guards, who rush in as the spy exits through the opposite door. They see the body and run after the culprit.

The spy darts back up a set of stairs to the wall, but his planned exit is cut off by a herd of guards running towards him. He turns and cuts down a hallway, and spots a stash of spears. He grabs one and slips around a corner just out of sight. As the guards approach, he leaps out and stabs the leading guard with full force, pushing him out a window and over the edge of the castle wall. He manages to save the spear and uses it to fend off a following guard.

The spy continues along the wall until he finds himself surrounded. He has no option but to jump off the interior side of the wall, crashing through a thatch roof and landing in a pile of hay.

At the opposite end of the castle, the front gate is opening as traders and water collectors exit for the morning.

He stands up and gets his bearings, realizing he is in the stables. As he grabs a settle and throws it over a horse, a frail voice calls out from the shadows. He grabs his dagger and stands guard as a woman withdraws from the shadows. She's wearing tattered clothes and is shackled to a stone. "I beg of you to take me from these savages" she whimpers, "my allegiance to your lord is true, I can show you the way out!" Guards are heard shouting just outside, and the spy moves to mount the horse. "Please!" the woman pleads as she falls to her knees and grabs his wrist, "...I will die here." After a few moments hesitation, the spy grabs an axe and cuts the shackled chain. He lifts her onto the horse, and they lurch forward out of the stable.

She points to the right as guards rush from the left. The horse's trot is powerful as they dart through the inner workings of the castle. A watchman at the front hears yelling and signals to close the gate, and the gatekeeper slams the trigger with a hammer. The couple duck low as they just barely squeeze through as the gate slams shut, trapping the guards inside.

Dawn breaks as the horse leaps from the drawbridge and rides off into the mist.

Did you understand that the woman at the end is the same woman who delivered the note in the bottle two years eariler? She will of course have a physical resemblance in the animation. Her dialogue is still pretty rough, I'm hoping to come up with something a bit stronger.

Thanks guys!

fast1 · 07-10-2009, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slims

The Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton. You can get them for about $2 each used on Amazon.

that is pretty cheap

telekinetic · 07-10-2009, 09:08 AM

Why is the spy stealing gold coins? Have him steal documents or the king's seal or something instead.

06-13-2009, 09:08 AM	#1 (permalink)
todd Addict Location: Chicago	"Secret Agent" Inspiration? Hey guys, I'm about to enter an animation contest with the theme of 'secret agent' and am brainstorming ideas for a short story (~ 2 minutes). A 30 second film style trailer is the other half of the challenge, which will be cut from the full length piece. Other than the numerous James Bond films, do you guys know of any good short stories that might serve as a good starting point? Or perhaps an action writer or online bank of short action/mystery stories I should check out? Maybe something you've even written yourself? I'm just looking for inspiration beyond the typical 007 business. I'm really interested in exploring an era that might not be immediately associated with secret agents. Right now my main consideration is something along the lines of a spy in the medieval ages maybe infiltrating a castle. I know I haven't given much to go on, but what do you think?

06-13-2009, 09:21 AM	#2 (permalink)
Jetée The Reforms Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition	I'm having a bit of a mind-block retrieving the various espionage stories and mystery classics I have consumed, so I may or may not have further commentary to offer later on. But based upon your initial consideration of "spy's infiltration of a castle", and my own encounters with such, I recalled a game plot in which the similarity to that of your scenario "plays" out quite nicely as a basis (not for the spy itself, but it provides an impetus and spark to the protoganists' journey conquering the pervading evil sweeping their continent). This is the story of the spy Leila andher efforts to gain intelligence and succeed within the realm of Fire Emblem. __________________ As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi

06-13-2009, 09:51 AM	#3 (permalink)
ring ░ Location: ❤	This author has written well, on the subject. John le Carré - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Last edited by ring; 06-13-2009 at 09:54 AM..

06-13-2009, 10:09 AM	#4 (permalink)
inBOIL I have eaten the slaw	You could do something with a man infiltrating the secret world of women, or vice versa. __________________ And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

06-13-2009, 02:04 PM	#5 (permalink)
Slims Eccentric insomniac Location: North Carolina	The Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton. You can get them for about $2 each used on Amazon. __________________ "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence

06-13-2009, 04:08 PM	#6 (permalink)
squeeeb part of the problem Location: hic et ubique	we are at war with the martians, the secret agent has to get the martian attack plans. __________________ onward to mayhem!

06-15-2009, 09:08 PM	#8 (permalink)
pan6467 Lennonite Priest Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA	Wild Wild West (the series) Get Smart (if you want to do satire and funny) Kind of spy like: The Saint (Simon Templar) either the tv series with Roger Moore, the movie with Val Kilmer or the books by Leslie Charteris. I prefer the books. John le Carré - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The link above doesn't work. Those are the big ones I'm familiar with. __________________ I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

06-16-2009, 10:15 PM	#9 (permalink)
Kingruv Upright Location: NoVa	resource notes Pascali's Island a movie Interesting perspective of a forgotten agent in a remote outpost before WWI. Vlad Dracul The storied life of Vlad the Impaler and Societi Ordo Draconis. While Vlad was known for impaling at least 100,000 Ottoman soldiers and 10's of thousands of others including many of his own people, less is written of his direction of the Society of the Dragon. In league with other kingdoms and principalities in the region, Vlad used spies to help him check and finally stop the Muslim advance into eastern Europe. While he is considered noble by modern Romanians, his personal motives and real grievances against the Ottoman Turks show he learned from his former captors. James Jesus Angleton William Donovan Enter the Past Tense, by Roland Haas The dismal account of life and double life for one former agent. Contemporary Insight into Cold War operators Short book Hasan bin Sabbah The man behind the “Old Man in the Mountain” Some say he was a tall tale. Some serious modern day students have another look. In similar fashion there was a great deal of espionage performed in ancient Japan and pre-China inter dynastic kingdoms. Really until the modern era most craft trained spies were of a paramilitary nature. Igor Orlov 1930's to 1960's Able to thwart US counter iintelligence for 2 decades in Washington pretending to become a normalized American. Deep background cover prepared for years before coming to America. The Roman Catholic Church 400 AD to present There was an almost continuous thread of espionage from the end of the Roman Empire in the Catholic Church hitting peaks during the Crusades (not just with the Templars who had their own thing going) and again during the Reformation. The Catholic Church doesn't see their activities as espionage but their activities have all the hallmarks of it. Some of the activities involved almost all aspects of checking on kings and courts under their control. A broad target was any anabaptist group that pressed open preaching native language scriptures and Gospel for the common man. The used more than the inquisition to suppress groups like this A high tempo of espionage/counter-espionage began with Henry VIII splitting with the Pope over his divorce. This was a primer for what became 400 years of British Intelligence. Out of the mix of this, between Britain and France spying on one another, evolved American Intelligence in its truly nascent state. The Byzantine Empire 4th Century to 15th Century During the latter period of the empire, a heavy reliance on espionage became standard. Whole networks were established to assist in retaking lands lost to the Muslims. Ian Fleming I believe some of the background Fleming had for JB was based on his travels and spying on the US for Britain during WWII in Washington DC. For online resources check the public pages at the CI Centre here in Northern Va. Most is geared towards current trends and operations in counterintelligence. In particular: cicentre.com/podcasts.html (Put the above in with appropriate header or put it in google for proper formatting and you're good to go. I guarantee this is a safe site. Last edited by Kingruv; 06-16-2009 at 10:18 PM..

07-10-2009, 09:08 AM	#12 (permalink)
telekinetic zomgomgomgomgomgomg Location: Fauxenix, Azerona	Why is the spy stealing gold coins? Have him steal documents or the king's seal or something instead. __________________ twisted no more