The '49 Indian
GENRE
LGBT ROAD MOVIE
Core Theme
LOVE HAS DIFFERENT FORMS AND SHOULD BE RESPECTED
TIME PERIOD
1980s & '90s
COMPARABLE TITLES
BOYS DON’T CRY; CALL ME BY YOUR NAME; BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CHARACTER LIST
• DUSTIN: 20. LEAD. NAIVE AND CONFLICTED.
• GAUGE: 21. NEW NEIGHBOR AND, THEN, DUSTIN'S SOULMATE. HE'S THE OTHER PROTAGONIST.
• TERESA: 40S. DUSTIN'S CONSERVATIVE MOTHER. ANTAGONIST.
• OFFICER JENKINS: 30-40. A POLICEMAN IN BARSTOW, OPEN-MINDED AND HONEST.
Logline
Intense and beautifully tragic, The ’49 Indian tells a timeless, universal coming-of-age love story, vividly capturing the fierce, uncompromising loyalty of a profound and mighty bond.
Target Audiences
Age: 18-34
Target Gender: Universal
Setting
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, Arizona, Barstow, California, Los Angeles, California
Based on a True Story
No
Publishing Details
Status: Yes: self-published
Year Published: 2017
Starting Description
In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Dustin Thomas’s naive curiosity leads him into the shadows of Fort Lauderdale’s seedy underground, where his innocence is met with violent and traumatic consequences. Despite the dire start, the dreariness of the season is instantly transformed when a handsome
Ending Description
Gauge loses Dustin to a still-developing human health pandemic.
Group Specific
Information not completed
Hard Copy Available
No
ISBN
Information not completed
Mature Audience Themes
Language/Profanity, Sexual Abuse
Plot - Other Elements
Coming of Age, Meaningful Message, Twist
Plot - Premise
Tragedy
Main Character Details
Name: Dustin Thomas
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Role: Emotional
Key Traits: Romantic, Strong Moral Code, Selfless, Adventurous, Clumsy, Faithful, Honorable, Naive, Perseverance
Additional Character Details
Name: Gauge Paulson
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Aspiring, Blunt, Romantic, Charming, Decisive, Heroic, Sexy, Skillful, Faithful, Heartthrob, Honorable, Adventurous, Badass, Beautiful, Complex, Engaging, Selfless, Strong Moral Code, Visionary, Outspoken, Perseverance, Confident, Empathetic, Gracious, Lone Wolf, Masculine
Additional Character Details
Name: Teresa Thomas
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Role: Antagonist
Key Traits: Villainous, Blunt, Complex, Desperate, Religious, Secretive, Aggressive, Leader, Manipulative
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Brief
In 1983, two young men in love ride a motorcycle across the country in search of their Californian dream, but their relationship has to face prejudice, lack of money and a terrifying new health pandemic.
What We Liked
- Diversity;
- Great road movie structure;
- Compelling ‘80s story with a lot of twists and turns;
- Surprising revelation at the end;
- It’s not an overly erotic book, but a passionate one - sex equals love here;
- The film/TV series wouldn’t be restricted to a LGBT audience - it has the potential to
crossover with the right people behind and in front of the cameras;
- Great settings/visuals.
Synopsis
Summer of 1983. DUSTIN is a 20-year-old young man conflicted by his sexuality and haunted by
having being raped. Despite the close watch of his very religious mother, TERESA, he manages to fall
in love and create a bond with his neighbor GAUGE, a boy set on fixing his late dad’s classic
motorcycle, a 1949 Indian. One day, Teresa catches Dustin and Gauge kissing. She loses her mind and
violently attacks her son. After this episode, Dustin and Gauge decide to take the bike and ride away
to Los Angeles, where Dustin could become an actor and fulfill his dream of swimming in the Pacific
Ocean.
The old motorbike gives out for the first time near Atlanta. There, Gauge starts working part-time as a
mechanic, and Dustin housekeeps the motel where they live, while the Indian gets fixed. When Dustin
surprises Gauge with a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant, the waitress won’t serve them. At the
parking lot, the owner and some friends ambush Gauge and brutally beat him up. The couple
manages to escape town with a borrowed truck and get as far as New Mexico, where a mechanic
offers to fix the ‘49 Indian, but asks for sexual favors in return. Saved by a brave Native-American who
also fixes the motorcycle, they get back on the road; Gauge’s wounds, however, get infected and they
have to make a stop in Las Vegas, where they meet a medical student who offers his house and his
services. The night before the lovers are supposed to finally get on their way to Los Angeles, the
sketchy doctor invites some friends over for dinner and they drug Dustin, imposing some involuntary
BDSM experience. Once again, they flee.
Without any money and gas, Dustin and Gauge find themselves in the desert just outside Barstow,
California. Dustin doesn’t seem to recover from whatever drug he took at that fateful dinner. OFFICER
JENKINS, a policeman, helps them. He feeds both and let them stay at his garage. A couple of weeks
later, the nights of happiness under the celestial sky of the desert are interrupted by bad news. A local
doctor suspects Dustin is HIV Positive. Dustin keeps the suspicion from Gauge and they both finally
arrive in Los Angeles. Momentarily, everything is perfect in the world. A few weeks later, however,
Dustin can’t even leave the bed of a private room in a hospice they had to go to, for their lack of health
insurance. He asks the doctors to assist his suicide, but they don’t accept. Then he asks Gauge to
take him to the Pacific Ocean, just like he promised. There, Dustin lets himself go and Gauge
understands. Dustin dies seeing his soulmate from underwater, just like he did in the Atlantic that
bathes Fort Lauderdale, one year before, when he fell in love for the first... and last time.