Unwirer

So they're running for it (Roscoe puts the hammer down with Marcel's pistol at his head) and the cops chase 'em. Roscoe and the reporter are convinced Marcel's batty, and are even more convinced when he shoots at the cops. Roscoe tries to talk him into stopping and running, and Marcel threatens Roscoe with the pistol.

So the reporter (who has a crowd control spray she got in France that makes everything it hits super-slipery) hits Marcel with the spray and he can't hold the pistol any longer. They stop the truck and run into a warehouse area, and the cops get Marcel (who can't run because he keeps falling down because of the slippery goop on his shoes and hands).

What if Roscoe and Sylvie claim that Marcel was carjacking them? That gives you a convenient ditch for Marcel to be dumped into that allows Roscoe and Sylvie to escape without too much scrutiny.

If *Roscoe* sees the gun, he knows he has to get out fast. He - or his accomplice - can't even point a weapon at a police officer without triggering charges that cause borders to open to cops. Sylvie will know this, too.

Roscoe floors it, mainly to get the gun away from the cops before they see it. Marcel still wants to escalate, and tries to get into position to take a shot out the window - which would still be very bad. Sylvie wrestles him for the gun, in a speeding out of control vehicle. Sylvie is seriously wounded (although well out of earshot of the cops).

Roscoe needs to ditch Marcel and his gun but fast, and get help for Sylvie, so they can't just go to ground. They make a dash for the border - the cops will be somewhat on the lookout but not armed-gang lookout. Roscoe sneaks Sylvie across the border in *her* car, and gets to unwired socialized medicine land (a point already set up).

...or, to keep the Falls in the picture, Roscoe tracks down an inflatable boat, and uses it to ferry Sylvie across the Niagara above the falls - and he ditches Marcel's gun in the river. Once both the bullet and gun are missing, charges will be hard to put together.

Back the scene up a bit:

R & S have exited the truck, leaving M inside, before S spots the (FCC?) van. S knocks R to the ground and engages in surprise snogging, much to R's shock. Explanation becomes readily obvious. While cops are talking to R & S, M starts the truck and drives off at high speed, fishtailing all the way, and putting R & S in a tough, but not inexcusable, spot.

B.

I don't think anything that drastic needs to occur:

* They drive off

* The cops spin out/wipe out

* Roscoe demonstrates his level-headedness by pulling over, ditching the camper-bed and swapping plates

* They now have 48h or so to wrap up the story, during which Marcel is outed and Sylvie uncovers the FCC's provocateur program and has a really juicy story, and Roscoe can flee across the border and thence to France, with Sylvie's help...

And Marcel can't rat Sylvie out to the cops for helping Roscoe, because Sylvie has just discredited the shit out of Marcel by outing him

> The cops spin out/wipe out

...suspension of disbelief...

In my universe, the average cop is trained to be a better driver than the average civilian. Car chases that result in escapes because the cops "just wiped out" don't seem to happen - the cops will call in a helicopter instead.

Yes, that dinged my disbelief-ometer too. Cops have these high-tech gizmos called "radios" and they have occasionally been known to call for backup, or tell other cops that some bad guys are high-tailing it down a road away from a stop and someone might want to get in their way.

I'm still thinking my way through this ...

We've already established that they're on top of a rugged hill, with a badly ploughed road. If the cops spin out and get stuck in a ditch, they can call in air support, but this is BUFFALO (and in the dead of winter, no less) -- by the time a chopper is scrambled, Roscoe can already have pulled off the road, switched plates, ditched the camper-shell, etc.

Yes, this is Buffalo - where the Erie Country Sheriff's Department maintains two helicopters, flies search and rescue from Lake Erie at least as far north the Falls themselves - and is designated first responder helicopter for both the US and Canadian Coast Guard.

http://www.erie.gov/sheriff/police_serv_division.asp#helicopter

Contrary to expectations, it seems to be a top-notch, highly responsive airborne unit.

Why doesn't Roscoe wipe out driving a camper pickup? Does something make him special?

And third, and fourth, thoughts:

Cory, when you've had a car, have you ever had a spare set of false plates to hand? And would you ditch a $500 hardtop happily?

I'm going to have to commit surgery on the previous section. Subtle surgery, but even if Marcel is waving a gun around it's way too early to have the cops involved.

Wouldn't it make sense for Roscoe to carry fake plates around? After all, he is operating on the shady side of the law (I assume Cory is not).

Maybe they only shake the police temporarily. Then they show up again when all kinds of climactic stuff is supposed to go down.

Charlie, he's got spare plates because he's out breaking the law, and he's going to abandon his campber-bed because he's desperate (getting picked up, even without the gun, would send him up for a long stretch, just 'cause of the illegal gear in the truck).

G'head and cut whatever -- the thing I was trying to set up was a climactic (or pre-climactic) chase-scene wherein the nature of Marcel's character can be derived by Sylvie.

Something still bothers me about the "spare plates" thread. Changing from his real plates to fake ones won't solve his problem, and if he changes to fake plates, wouldn't you have to set up that Roscoe installed fake plates before heading out that day? Certainly his every-day plates would be the official ones, or one run light, or speeding stop would send him back to the pokey.

Woops... "If he changes to fake plates..." should read "If he changes FROM fake plates..."