"Missed You"

Tagline – “One Man’s Quest To Find What He's Missing”

“25 words or less” – A New York City man goes through elaborate means to find a woman he met on a subway platform after accidentally losing her phone number

Full Summary:

Ben Farmer is a New York City commercial real estate broker in his early-thirties who’s lucky in business but unlucky in love.  After a series of disastrous relationships, each worse than the previous one, Ben finds himself at his wit’s end with his personal life.  Worst of all, his frustrations have reached a tipping point where he’s totally soured on the opposite sex.  

This all changes on the night of a heavy snowstorm with a chance encounter on a Union Square station subway platform.  While snaking his way through the crowd of people waiting too long for the next subway to Brooklyn, Ben accidentally bumps into Stephanie, a pretty girl also in her early-thirties, who was too busy checking her email to notice she was walking right into someone.

After mutual apologies, the two quickly strike up a conversation as they wait for their respective trains to come.  Wanting to continue their talk, Stephanie decides to skip her train when it comes into the station opting instead to wait for Ben’s train which she can take as well.  When the train finally comes, their conversation extends all the way to Stephanie’s stop in Brooklyn.  After a few awkward moments, she offers Ben her cell phone number which he takes down just as the doors close.

Elated, Ben breaks into song once he gets out of the subway in his Bay Ridge neighborhood.  In an homage to Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” Ben sings and dances down the street during the heavy snowstorm.  As he sings, he also playfully throws snowballs, high-fives and hugs strangers, swings around a streetlight pole, helps an old lady cross the street, twirls an umbrella over his head, stomps through puddles of slush and makes a snow angel on the sidewalk; all while professing his love for his new love, Stephanie.  

But there’s one major problem that suddenly tempers his overwhelming excitement, Ben makes a shocking discovery as he checks his phone when he gets to his apartment building…he never saved Stephanie’s number.

Undeterred, Ben decides to use the power of internet search the next morning to find Stephanie based on the scant information he was able to pick up during their conversation. He combs through countless Facebook profiles and checks LinkedIn but comes up with nothing.  He even goes so far as to create a “missed connections” post on Craigslist but this doesn’t get him closer to finding Stephanie either.

He decides that more elaborate methods are in order so he enlists one of his best friends, and co-workers, to help him stakeout Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square where she works for the company as a buyer.  This also doesn’t create any tangible leads.

While Ben conducts his seemingly fruitless search both on- & offline, Stephanie laments to her younger sister, Kate, that Ben never called or even bothered to text her.  This leads to a wider conversation where she expresses her frustrations over finding that one true gentleman that she’s looking for within a city of millions.  After a long night at a club, she even goes so far as to break into song at a late night pizza joint about her desire to find “the one.”   

After nothing else works, Ben decides to make one last ditch effort to find Stephanie against the advice of his friends and co-workers who think it’s best for him to finally move on.  This time he goes to Williamsburg on a Sunday afternoon to explore the coffee shops, brunch hot spots and laundromats that line the busy streets in her neighborhood.  He admits it’s a “Hail Mary” attempt but in his mind he’s all out of options and he doesn’t want to give up on finding who he believes is his one true love.

Will Ben eventually find Stephanie?  If so, what will her reaction to him be?  Will they ever go on that elusive first date that both have wanted since the day they met each other?  These questions and more will be answered in this romantic comedy / musical hybrid which aims to tell an inspirational story of hope, desire, dream fulfillment and the power of persistence.
Missed You Screenplay