Script application for a series in the historical noir thriller genre, 8 episodes.
LOGLINE Summer 1890. Vladivostok is paralyzed by fear - a headless horseman appears in the fog, killing people associated with mysterious gold. The local police are powerless, and an official on special assignments, Andrei Suvorov, arrives from Khabarovsk, the administrative capital of the Far East. His accidental assistant is Anton Chekhov, a doctor and writer stuck in cholera quarantine. Together, they uncover the long-ago murder of a state inspector on Askold Island. The prime suspect is the brilliant Colonel Tugarikov, Suvorov's senior comrade and former mentor, a man he always admired.
CHARACTERS Andrei Suvorov (40) is a special assignment official for the Amur Governor-General, based in Khabarovsk. He was sent to Vladivostok because the local police were either unable to cope or (worse) were complicit in a cover-up. Suvorov is a career officer in the past, having served in the Caucasus under Tugarikov. They share a past and friendship. After the Caucasus, he was transferred to the Far East, where he worked for a long time in the apparatus, but retained his investigative acumen. A man of duty, who has experienced personal drama (PTSD after the Caucasus), but believes in the law. But in Vladivostok, the law is lost in fog. Anton Chekhov (30 years old) - a doctor and writer, on his way to Sakhalin, got stuck in Vladivostok due to the cholera quarantine. While waiting for a ship, he studies the city's customs, and when the murders begin, he turns out to be the only one who can professionally examine the bodies and notice medical details. He sees the world through pince-nez and irony. His notes record everything that will later become the basis for future stories. Pyotr Tugarikov (45 years old) - a colonel, an influential official in Vladivostok, the right hand of the governor-general. In the past, he was Suvorov's mentor in the Caucasus, his idol. 15 years ago, as a lieutenant on Askold Island, he killed an inspector investigating the theft of gold. Since then, he has lived in fear of exposure. When fragments of a gold shipment confiscated by the inspector surface in the city, he realizes that one of the witnesses to the tragedy is alive, and begins a brutal purge, disguising the murders under the legend of the Horseman. Evgeny Stroyev (60 years old) is a quiet archivist official, a former subordinate of Tugarikov in Askold. He witnessed the murder of the inspector and, taking advantage of the confusion, stole a box containing the inspector's "cursed" gold. All these years, he has been slowly selling off gold crumbs to treat his seriously ill wife. His wife has died, he himself is dying, and his daughter Vera sits on the remains of the treasure, unaware of the danger. Vera Stroyeva (22 years old) is Stroyev's daughter. She finds fragments of gold and tries to sell them to leave the city. She doesn't know that she's lighting a signal fire for the killer. Merchant Solodovnikov is a wealthy gold miner, a false trail. He bought stolen gold from Askold in the 1970s, now he behaves suspiciously, but he's not a killer, but a cowardly businessman who, in the finale, will testify against Tugarikov to save himself.
PLOT SETTING: THE FIRST MURDERS AND THE ARRIVAL OF SUVOROV
The first murder occurs before Suvorov's arrival. The decapitated body of a small-time fence is found at the port, and a strange yellow shard, crumbling in his fingers, is found in his pocket. The police are at a loss, and rumors of a headless horseman are circulating.
Chekhov is in cholera quarantine and has nothing better to do. They turn to him, as a doctor, for advice. He examines the body and notices an unusual garlicky smell from a splinter. Soon a second murder occurs: a pharmacist is beheaded. Chekhov records the details, but is not officially involved in the investigation.
Suvorov arrives in Vladivostok from Khabarovsk with a mandate to restore order. The local police greet him with caution: they have something to hide, and Suvorov quickly senses this. He meets Chekhov, who turns out to be the only one who can clearly explain the medical details. Thus, their duet is formed.
SUVOROV AND CHEKHOV
Suvorov moves up the chain of command, interviewing officials, military personnel, merchants, and the police. His task is to find the killer and restore order. He sees in the legend of the horseman only a criminal instrument.
Chekhov's line is the horizontal of the city. He moves along the bottom: pharmacists, sailors, prostitutes, Chinese doctors, port taverns. He observes how a myth is born and lives, and records medical evidence that the police do not look for. He sees the end of an empire and the birth of modernity.
The points of connection are murders, shards of gold, witnesses. Suvorov collects facts, Chekhov interprets them through science and human nature. Together they piece together the puzzle.
DETECTIVE ENGINE "FRAGILE GOLD"
In 1875, Inspector von Shtil came to Askold Island to investigate thefts in which the entire local administration, including Tugarikov, was implicated. He confiscates illegal gold, but realizes he won't leave the island alive. Wanting to outwit the killers, he locks himself in the Askold mine laboratory, melts the gold into bars, and before dying, adds an arsenic alloy to the melt. The gold becomes brittle. When struck, it shatters into sharp shards, and when heated, it emits a characteristic smell of garlic. This is the signature of the dead Inspector - no shop or fence will buy it without questions. It can only be cleared in the capital. Tugarikov kills von Shtil - beheads him. And hides the marked gold until better times. However, his subordinate, Yevgeny Stroyev, who accidentally discovered the cache location, hides the gold. For the next fifteen years, he lives like a stingy knight, not risking selling the bars whole. He crushed them with a hammer and sold the "crumbs" for half price to dealers, jewelers, and pharmacists. In the process, he himself was poisoned with arsenic, which slowly killed him.
Any fragment of this gold is evidence. Chekhov, having smelled it or carried out a simple test, understands: this is not ordinary gold, it is connected with murder.
THREE LAYERS OF THE LEGEND OF THE HORSEMAN
1. The Chinese "spirit with a lantern". The first murders were committed with Chinese cleavers, the victims' blood contained opium. The version leads to Millionka, to the Honghuzi, and turns out to be a false trail planted by the killer. Tugarikov and his loyal Cossacks follow the trail of gold and behead the first victim to hide the bullet hole. They chop the dao with a Chinese cleaver to blame it on the Honghuzi. 2. The Irish Dullahan - an Irish sailor's legend about a messenger of death who is afraid of gold resurfaces. It explains why the killer takes gold from bodies and suggests an image to Tugarikov. He begins to use this image consciously, causing chaos. 3. The Cossack legend - old Cossacks recall that similar rumors circulated in Askold after the murder of the inspector. Chekhov determines from the cross-sections of the vertebrae that the blow was inflicted by a Cossack saber, not a cleaver. This leads to Tugarikov.
TUGARikov's Psychology
Tugarikov believed that the gold had disappeared forever. When he sees a shard with a garlicky smell, he realizes his stolen gold has surfaced, meaning a witness to the inspector's murder may also be alive. He can't ignore this gold—the murder of a government official won't be forgiven, unlike theft. He begins a purge with a handful of loyal Cossacks, his fellow soldiers from Askold, bound to him by long-standing ties of corruption. He believes he is creating the Horseman legend to mislead the investigation, paralyze the remaining witnesses with terror, and hide the bullet holes (he fires an officer's revolver). And the cutting off of heads is both a way to hide the bullet, and an imitation of the handwriting of the Honghuzi, and a ritual repetition of the first sin. But in fact, a new myth is beginning to be created through it.
FINALE
Suvorov contacts Tugarikov. He confesses, but explains the murder of the inspector as an "inevitable evil." Suvorov arrests his mentor. Tugarikov asks for time to say goodbye to his family and disappears. A chase occurs on the Tokarev Spit. A horseman appears in the fog. Suvorov shoots. The horse comes ashore without a rider. There is no body—a strong current carried it away. The tracks lead out to sea and end.
In the epilogue, Chekhov sails to Sakhalin. In his notebook, there is a sketch of a plot about a man who lost his head over gold. The last shot shows an empty road, fog, the clatter of hooves. The Headless Horseman stands with a gold bar in his hand.
VLADIVOSTOK AS A SETTING
Vladivostok in 1890 is a young port on the edge of an empire, where different worlds collide. Here are Russian officials and Cossacks, the Chinese quarters of Millionka, Japanese traders, Korean fishermen, and sailors from all over the world. This is a frontier where the law is still trying to take root. Here rumors spread faster than orders, and power does not always belong to the empire. Misty hills, a wooden port city, opium dens, gold from Askold Island. In this space, the myth of the headless horseman is born. At its core is the Irish dullahan, a messenger of death who fears gold. But in a multilingual city, the legend takes on a life of its own, merging with Chinese legends and Cossack tales from Askold. The killer created the myth as a cover—and didn't notice how he himself had become one.
PROJECT BASIS
· Real historical events. Chekhov in Vladivostok (October 1890), Askold Island with its gold rush, the Honghuzi, the Umaltinsky robbery. · Double helix of narrative. The lines of action (Suvorov) and observation (Chekhov) intertwine, creating volume. · Three mythological layers that work for the plot, not just the atmosphere. · A detective engine with "fragile gold" - a chemical clue that connects all the murders. · Chekhov within the framework of facts. doctor, writer, witness - without fiction about his detective exploits.