Written by Matt Redd and directed by Ryan Andrew Hooper, Tollbooth is set to be released in the U.S. on VOD and Cable on March 18th 2022. It stars Michael Smiley, Annes Elwy, Iwan Rheon, Gary Beadle, Steve Oram, Evelyn Mok, Darren Evans, Gwyneth Keyworth, Dewi Morris, Paul Kaye, and Julian Glover.
Pembrokeshire. Where English people come to die.
A single toll booth on a road in the middle of nowhere. A lone wolf HOWLS in the distance. Actually, it’s probably a stray dog, but you get what I’m going for.
BRENDAN (56) works solo shifts in the toll booth, and has done since he arrived here twenty-nine years ago. He passes the time reading American academic novels (an underrated genre) and persisting with eating cheese despite a mild lactose intolerancesetting in. What none of the handful of locals know about Brendan is that he moved down this way for a reason – a reason he’s managed to hide until today.
The unassuming, slightly unfriendly and somewhat belligerent man working in the loneliest toll booth in the remotest part of west Wales has been hiding from his criminal past in a place where no-one ever thought to look. Pembrokeshire.
But today, a former COLLEAGUE has got lost on his way to the Irish ferry, and Brendan has finally been fingered. The word is out, and Brendan’s enemies are heading west. Brendan’s got a choice. Of course, he could go on the run again and set up a new life, but starting all over again at his age is going to be hard, and it will only be a matter of time before he’s found again. Or he could make a stand. He’s read a lot in the last couple of decades, and some sage advice pops into his head:
“The expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Good old Sun Tzu.
It’s time to lay a trap, and thus begins the formulation and then execution of an elaborate plan that will have to be tweaked along the way as most of it will invariably go wrong. At this stage, I should probably mention that Brendan hasn’t been keeping his hands entirely clean while he’s been down here, as there’s a few LOCALS that he’s been doing some intermediary work for, and this is Brendan’s chance to get one over on them while he’s getting out of toll booth jail.
Throw in a set of TRIPLET SISTERS (18) with access to their FARMER DAD’s shotguns and a flagrant disregard for the law, and we’re heading for a Mexican standoff in which everyone’s going to end up dead…Except Brendan, who’s left in his booth with CATRIN (28), a traffic cop who’s never seen anything like this in her life, and who’s going to have to do the right thing and bring Brendan in, despite being completely out of her depth, and having to deal with problems of her own.
What she doesn’t know is that Brendan’s got one of those shotguns in his booth, and an itchy trigger finger to go with it.
Over a quarter of a century after making a decision that changed the course of his life forever, Brendan has another decision to make. Does he shoot Catrin and run? Or face the rest of his life in a box even smaller than the one he’s been in for the last twenty-nine years? Or maybe has one last trick up his sleeve. One of them will have to finally pay the toll.
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