LOGLINE

Three desperate friends who work in the city morgue find a way out of their dead-end lives by selling unclaimed human remains on the black market.

SYNOPSIS

Though Harry witnesses strange and gruesome scenes everyday as an attendant in the city morgue, nothing disturbs him more than his mother’s struggles with terminal lung cancer. To make matters worse, her medical bills threaten to drown him.

One night at the morgue, a funeral director named Vince teases Harry with a glimpse of the money that can be made in the underground black market for body parts. Plastic surgeons, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies all need human specimens for research or training, and they are not concerned about where the pieces come from. When Harry hatches a plan to tap into this lucrative market, he enlists his reckless best friend, Otto, and his tough-as-nails co-worker, Alfonso, to sell body parts from the unclaimed dead in the morgue.

The money pours in. But soon, the gruesome work takes a psychological toll on each of them, testing their ideals of friendship, loyalty, and duty. Otto’s cavalier attitude towards the serious consequences of their work sets Alfonso’s teeth on edge. The money and respect Harry garners from his new work enamors him, and he begins to neglect not only his friendship with Otto, but also his ill mother who begins to suspect his illegal activities.

When Harry is invited to become involved in more lucrative realms of the business, Alfonso feels betrayed and decides to strike out on his own and steal Vince’s business. Alfonso soon sets off a chain reaction that threatens everyone with exposure, and Vince decides that he must be eliminated. Caught in the middle, Harry struggles to avert a disaster, but soon finds himself on a path that will lead to a more tragic outcome than he could have imagined.

Set against the backdrop of a negligent death industry and an apathetic health care system, Why We Pull the Trigger is an unflinching look at the corrosive choices people make in order to survive, even as they are pushed deeper into the cracks of society.

AWARDS & HONORS:

• Richard Vague Production Award, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
• Film Independent Directors Lab
• Film Independent Fast Track Program
• Netflix Find Your Voice Competition—Semifinalist
• Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting (AMPAS)—Semifinalist