O, Niagara! — Day 7

Logline:  The Royal Tenenbaums meets The Right Stuff

Genre: Comedy-Drama

Premise: A man sets out to avenge the deaths of his father and grandfather, and save his family's property from bank foreclosure, by being the first person to travel UP Niagara Falls.

Plot:  28-year old Jimmy Glanton has inherited a hardscrabble life. Raised in the rural country side of New York State, just south of Niagara Falls, his community's economy is one of subsistence ranching and odd-jobs, with none of the tourism dollars or glamour found north of the Falls on the Canadian side. With his wife and three young kids Jimmy ekes out a living as a welder and part-time auto mechanic.

The Falls have robbed two generations of Glanton men of their patriarchs. Jimmy's father died when Jimmy was a young child, attempting to conquer mighty Niagra by going over the falls in a barrel. His father was seeking to avenge Jimmy's Grandfather, who also died attempting the same thrill-seeking stunt when Jimmy's dad was a child. As a result, three generations of Glantons have grown up impoverished, and now the family's hardships have finally caught up with them.

As the bank threatens to foreclose on the small property that has been in Jimmy's family for 100 years, Jimmy realizes he is out of options. He needs to raise money fast—enough to finally pay off the bank, and keep the roof over his family's head. But It's going to take more money than Jimmy could make if he had 20 years to earn it. To make matters worse, Jimmy's youngest child, 3-year-old Melissa, has developed a serious cough, and Jimmy and his wife fear she may have a serious illness that they can't afford to treat.

Drunk one night and completely desperate, Jimmy drives to the falls to stare over the edge. Just as he is about to be swallowed by despair an idea occurs to him:  Jimmy will be the first person to attempt traveling UP Niagara Falls. A stunt like that would be unprecedented, and would be certain to garner him pubic interest, and hopefully sponsorship enough to save his family and home. Jimmy's daredevil dream to save his family and avenge his forefathers is born.

The plan starts with an old jetski sitting in Jimmy's front yard. Jimmy begins the HR&D ("Hillbilly Research and Development") and the fabrication, testing and trial and error necessary to build a contraption that can traverse the flow of the Falls, and hopefully reverse his family's bad luck. As the local community, and then the country start to take notice of Jimmy's hair-brained scheme and follow his progress, the chance to actually make some money from the stunt seems possible. But as he approaches F-Day, Jimmy must wrestle with the ultimate question: if he secures the money but orphans his kids in the process, will it have been worth it? How far must a man go to save his family and himself?