Writer/Director’s Statement from

Ryan Northcott

The idea for Going Down’s script started innocently. As a condo dweller it feels natural to have that little voice in the back of your mind wondering if this is the day the elevator gets stuck. Is this the day you spent hours stuck with a person you don’t know, in a not-well-ventilated 4×6 box, dangling by cables, with no cell service, and the urge to go to the bathroom? That never happened, but it spawned an idea to write a film set almost entirely in an Elevator…but maybe not the bathroom part.

When I sat down to put the words on paper, a high-stakes revenge plot came through and I coupled it with an infuriating trend I saw day-in, day-out playing out on the news. Another corporation gets a slap on the wrist for an egregious act.

I admit to a healthy disdain for how corporate power has come to control so much – politics, policy, wages suppression, the list goes on. The corporation was never a citizen, but there was a time when it acted like one. It’s not an anti-business statement, heck I run one myself, but rather how the corporation has lost its place in society and increasingly its become clear that everyday people don’t have the power to overcome what some corporations have been guilty of:

Wage Suppression
Gender Gap
Racial Biases
Environmental Issues

So when it came to the plot of Going Down (set in 1985), I created a story where an everyday person takes her power back and gets some sweet, sweet revenge. The delicious satisfaction of bringing to its knees the entity that held the power. Enter Michelle Lucas.

Michelle’s daughter dies at the hand of a Dairy Conglomerate and they are hell-bent on not accepting any responsibility. Something we’ve seen play out on numerous occasions…because profit is king and they face little to no ramifications other than fines that might even be worth the egregious act.

To personify the corporation we have Robert Kimball. A lawyer for the Dairy Conglomerate and all around smarmy man, the perfect representation of a corporation gone immoral.

As the story began to unfold an element came to my mind as a result of the countless histories and present day injustices that I’ve been reading about. Pure, evil, and vile racism in the justice system. It infuriates me. So I could think of no more satisfying story than Michelle, a black woman, as the one to take back control of her own narrative and get the revenge we so desperately want to watch play out.

While Michelle’s underlying story is tragic and her struggle to get justice is sadly so common, the film has you cheering for her as she executes her revenge in a twisty and satisfying way.