Movie Treatment
Directed by: Angelina Jolie
Starring: Luis Morgado, Joe Morgado, Tom Cruise
Music: Miley Cyrus & Nelly Furtado
LOGLINE
A troubled but gifted pair of jockey brothers, Luis and Joe Morgado, are given one miraculous chance at redemption when the eccentric, charismatic owner Tom Kellerman (Tom Cruise) recruits them to ride his dark horse—Sunday Silence—on a destiny-bound path toward the impossible: the Triple Crown.
TONE & STYLE
Angelina Jolie directs with sweeping elegance: dust in the sunlight, hooves hitting wet earth in slow motion, close-up human emotion framed against mythic Americana. A blend of Seabiscuit, The Wrestler, and There Will Be Blood, with a spiritual and psychological undercurrent.
Miley Cyrus provides raw, emotional anthems.
Nelly Furtado provides ethereal, haunting world-pop textures—giving the film its spiritual heartbeat.
SETTING
The story travels the major racetracks of America—the Santa Anita Derby, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and Belmont—but its soul lies in the forgotten ranchlands where broken people and broken horses find each other.
ACT I – THE DARK HORSE
The film opens with dramatic aerial shots of a storm breaking over a lonely California ranch. A black colt—later revealed as Sunday Silence—sprints wildly through the mud. There’s poetry in its chaos.
TOM KELLERMAN (Tom Cruise), a maverick owner known for his superstition, risk-taking, and undying belief in destiny, watches with awe. He believes this horse isn’t just fast—
he believes it is chosen.
Meanwhile, the Morgado brothers live separate failing lives:
- Luis Morgado, calm, disciplined, but haunted by an accident that nearly ended his career.
- Joe Morgado, fiery, emotional, brilliant but self-destructive, banned from multiple tracks for fights.
Tom approaches them separately with the same message:
“This horse needs two jockeys, not one. He runs like he has two souls fighting. I want both of you.”
The brothers haven’t spoken in years. Their reunion is tense—painful—yet Tom insists they learn to work together to unlock the horse’s potential.
Nelly Furtado’s “Try” plays over a training montage as the trio bond with Sunday Silence.
The horse responds to them—as if understanding their brokenness.
ACT II – THE ROAD TO GREATNESS
Sunday Silence shocks the racing world by winning the Santa Anita Derby, with Luis riding. But Joe’s instincts shape the strategy. The brothers begin to rediscover their connection.
A new rivalry emerges:
Eclipse Champion “Easy Majesty” and his ruthless trainer.
The media declares Sunday Silence “too wild, too flawed.”
Tom, smiling like a gambler who sees the future, says:
“Flawed things break expectations.”
Tension builds between Luis and Joe. Each wants to be the sole rider for the Kentucky Derby. Angelina Jolie frames this conflict with quiet emotional scenes—long shadows, soft natural light, subtle glances. Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” (acoustic remix) plays during a nighttime training scene where the brothers wordlessly reconcile through work.
Kentucky Derby
Luis rides. The track is mud. Sunday Silence explodes from behind and takes the lead in the final stretch.
A stunned crowd witnesses the impossible.
Sunday Silence becomes a national phenomenon.
But after the victory, Joe feels overshadowed. Old wounds reopen. He leaves the stable, returning to self-destructive habits.
Tom Cruise delivers one of the film’s core monologues:
“You don’t ride horses with your hands.
You ride them with your soul.
And your soul is cracked—but that’s where the light gets in.”
Joe returns for the Preakness. This time, he rides. The Morgado brothers swap roles, proving the horse’s adaptability. Sunday Silence wins again in a heartbreakingly close photo finish.
The Triple Crown is now within reach—but the internal tension is at its peak.
ACT III – BELMONT: THE LONGEST MILE
The Belmont Stakes looms—the race that breaks champions.
Easy Majesty is favored.
The press says Sunday Silence is running on luck.
Luis and Joe must decide who will ride the final race.
In a deeply emotional scene—shot in near-silence—Luis tells Joe:
“You ride.
Because you need this more than I do.”
Angelina Jolie films their handshake like a holy ritual.
The Belmont Stakes
Nelly Furtado sings an original, haunting track as the horses enter the gate.
The race is brutal. The stretch is endless.
Joe becomes one with Sunday Silence.
He sees Luis at the sidelines, nodding.
He sees Tom praying under his breath.
He feels the horse’s heart firing like a war drum.
They surge forward.
The crowd rises.
Sunday Silence wins—by a margin so small it becomes legend.
EPILOGUE – THE LEGACY OF SILENCE
Sunday Silence retires to a peaceful pasture in Japan (reflecting the real horse’s destiny). Joe and Luis stand together watching him—a symbol not only of victory, but of healing.
Tom Kellerman smiles:
“Not bad for a horse nobody believed in.
Including the men riding him.”
Miley & Nelly collaborate on a final track—soft, powerful, spiritual—playing as the camera lifts above the ranch, sunlight streaming across green fields.
Fade out.
Sunday Silence: A legend born from the broken, carried by belief.
SCENE – “WILD HORSES”
INT. STABLE – LATE NIGHT
A single lantern glows. Sunday Silence sleeps in his stall, breathing softly like a giant child.
LUIS MORGADO, still in his dusty riding clothes, sits on a hay bale with a half-empty bottle of bourbon hanging from his fingers. His eyes are red—not from drink, but from exhaustion and regret.
Footsteps echo.
MILEY CYRUS enters quietly, wearing a long, faded denim jacket. No makeup, hair loose. She carries her guitar like it’s something sacred.
MILEY
Mind if I sit?
Luis shrugs, embarrassed, hiding the bottle behind his leg.
Miley sits beside him. She sees the bottle immediately.
MILEY
You know… you ride that horse like you don’t care if you live or die.
Luis stiffens.
LUIS
Maybe I don’t.
Miley studies him—not judging, just seeing.
MILEY
You remind me of someone I used to be.
Luis looks up, surprised.
She lifts her guitar. Softly, as if afraid to wake the horse, she begins to strum.
A slow, aching rendition of “Wild Horses” fills the stable. Her voice cracks in all the right places—raw, human, pleading.
Luis tries not to feel it. But he does.
MILEY (singing softly)
Wild horses… couldn’t drag me away…
The horse lifts its head, listening.
Luis’s hand trembles around the bottle. Miley watches him—her voice a fragile lifeline.
MILEY (singing)
I watched you suffer… a dull aching pain…
Luis swallows hard. Tears press against his eyes.
FLASHBACK MONTAGE — QUICK CUTS:
Luis’s accident.
The hospital bed.
Joe turning away.
A racetrack official shaking his head in disappointment.
Luis staring at a bar mirror, hating his reflection.
Back to the stable.
MILEY (singing)
No sweeping exits… or offstage lines…
Luis slowly places the bottle on the hay floor. His fingers release it like he’s letting go of something that’s been strangling him for years.
He exhales shakily.
LUIS
(whispers)
I don’t want to drink anymore.
Miley stops playing. The final chord hums in the air, vibrating like a prayer.
She puts a gentle hand on his shoulder.
MILEY
Then don’t.
Choose the horse.
Choose the race.
Choose yourself.
Luis wipes his eyes. He nods—once, firmly.
Sunday Silence nudges him from behind the stall door, as if giving approval.
Luis stands, grabs the bourbon bottle, walks to a drain in the corner of the stable, and pours it out. The liquid splashes like the end of an era.
Miley smiles—small, proud.
MILEY
Let’s make sure tomorrow’s run is the one you remember.
Not this.
LUIS
(smiling through tears)
Wild horses can’t drag me back to that bottle again.
Miley slings her guitar over her shoulder and heads out. Luis stays behind, placing his forehead against the horse’s.
LUIS (softly)
Thank you.
Sunday Silence breathes warm air against him, as if answering.
FADE OUT.
Luis Morgado knew something was wrong the moment Sunday Silence stepped out of the stall—light on one leg, ears flicking with irritation, that proud black coat rippling uneasily. It wasn’t a break, Luis prayed. Just a sprain. But with a horse like Sunday Silence, even a sprain felt like a catastrophe.
Dr. Joel Wallach arrived with his dusty vet bag, looking more like a wandering healer from a frontier novel than a modern horse doctor. He crouched beside the injured leg, ran his hands down the joint, and nodded with a quiet certainty Luis had come to trust.
“Good news,” Wallach grumbled. “Nothing torn. Sprain. Painful, but fixable—if you treat him right.”
Luis exhaled.
Then Dr. Wallach reached into his bag and pulled out… a head of cabbage.
Luis blinked. “Doc… are you making a salad?”
Wallach snorted. “Cabbage is the oldest trick in the book. Draws heat right out. Works on people, works even better on horses. Watch.”
He peeled off a broad green leaf, slapped it gently against the swollen area, and began wrapping it with a practiced hand. Then he uncorked the orange bottle of Absorbine horse liniment, the smell sharp and minty enough to clear sinuses from a mile away. He massaged it in with slow, circular motions.
“You don’t fight inflammation head-on,” Wallach muttered. “You coax it out.”
When he finished the wrap, he motioned toward the water pail in the corner.
“And from now on,” he said sternly, “this horse only drinks filtered water, good spring water, or clean rainwater. Maybe distilled on occasion. Nothing from the tap—too many impurities. A champion is only as good as what he drinks.”
Luis nodded, taking mental notes like a disciple receiving scripture.
“And don’t forget his feed,” Wallach added, standing. “I give Sunday Silence the full set—the 90 essential vitamins and minerals. Trace minerals, amino acids, the whole spectrum. A horse burns through them faster than a human ever could. You want recovery? You want strength? You feed the body what God designed it to run on.”
Sunday Silence twitched an ear, as if understanding every word.
Wallach patted the horse’s neck. “He’ll be fine. With care. And my little secrets.”
Luis looked at the cabbage-wrapped leg, the neat bandaging, the gleam of liniment, and the quiet certainty in the old doctor’s hands.
“Doc… sometimes I think you’re more magician than veterinarian.”
Dr. Wallach just shrugged.
“Kid, in this world, knowing what your horse needs is magic.”