Murder of a Different Kind

Salina Delcorte has been homeless for 10 years. After a short but severe stint in a mental hospital due to her husbands death, she escaped to live on the streets.

Her fastidious nature enables her to develop a routine and circle of friends, who are disturbed in their own right, that help her survive in the streets. The mental illness somewhat distorts her sense of reality and causes her to harmlessly hallucinate strange and unusual things, although it is quite clear that she is able to reason. We come to discover that she and her compatriots can sometimes share hallucinations. Her best friend is Emma, the most normal seeming person around her, but Emma is very nervous. She helps Salina with reality and takes care of her. Her other friends are of the most sorry types we see on the streets. Disgusting and dirty, the kind of people most of us instantly write off. Bagel, a black man who shuffles along wearing layers of ripped dirty cast off clothes. He constantly mumbles to himself about food and money. Farnow, a young man who became a victim of the system and then abandoned by it. He smokes constantly, picking up cigarette butts from the street or where ever he can find them. Patty, a young teenager who has suffered extreme mental and physical abuse and lives in a fantasy world that suits her own idea of reality, constantly mimic playing different fantasy ‘scenes’; a tea party, an elegant dinner, shopping in an expensive store. Tilson or Tilly as he’s called has a thick heavy beard and a split personality. One pretends to be a very erudite type while the other personality battles against him.

The horrors of the world become more and more apparent to Salina. Some of her friends die cruelly and their bodies and lives treated insensitively by the establishment. The constant media bombardment dealing with race tension, gang shootings, child abuse, wife abuse, ect,ect. come heavily to bare on Salina. Her health also begins to deteriorate as she looks for solace and hope in a lonely world.

One morning while Salina is recovering from one of her now more frequent convulsions with the help of her friend Emma, she has a hallucination in which a being appears to her promising salvation for her and those close to her, if she only has faith. Emma also sees the hallucination/vision, but no one else outside of Salina's world can.

Salina and Emma find an abandoned building one night to sleep in. When they wake up the morning, small new things appear, food for them to eat, hot water where there shouldn't be any. The two women are baffled, but thankful for the small comfort. They take up an illegal type of residence, reminiscent of "Midnight Cowboy".

Slowly more improvements start appearing in the apartment, Emma's health improves. The hallucination/vision returns and speaks to them again. Salina and Emma ask what they can do in return. The vision says simply pass the word and they do‑like many homeless people do, from the street corners and in the subways. They bring their closest friends in need into the building, apartments that were once gutted are now habitable. The newcomers are allowed to share the hallucination/vision. Salina assures them that their combined strength and faith will keep them/it (the vision and good will) alive. With winter coming, this miracle will see them through.

One day a team of executives, accompanied by a protective group of police visits the building. The group is led by Dr. Peter Whitland, owner of Whitland Care, a giant HMO. They have just purchased the property and plan to tear it down to build another giant HMO. The suits climb up to the floor where Salina and her group are living. Upon opening the door to one of the apartments, they find the homeless people sleeping on the floor of a gutted apartment. Salina and Emma are not there at the time, Dr. Whitland is outraged and demands the police throw them out of the building and seal it. As they are being shuffled out, Salina and Emma return. Salina has a face to face encounter with Dr.Whitland. Their eyes lock in some kind of recognition. Whitland thinks he knows this woman, but she scurries away to take care of her flock. Salina admits that was her doctor from the mental hospital. The group hide in the shadows and discuss what they are going to do. Salina assures them that together their faith will see them through. Every one expresses concern about Whitland and being out in the cold again. Salina assures them that everything will be okay and she succeeds in finding new quarters. 

Salina admits to Emma that Whitland was her doctor and that he drove her to this state in order to get her money. She is afraid that he will come back and find her.

In Whitland's office, he realizes who Salina was after running across an old picture of her. He sets out to find her again.

Salina and her group have found new quarters in another abandoned building and by this point it’s obvious that there is a marked improvement in the members of the group. They seem more sane and rational. Bagel manages to find a job. Patty stops playing her fantasy games and begins reading books. Farnow does not fair so well, however. Salina asks the vision for help with him, but the vision tells her that some cannot be saved. Farnow dies a tragic death.

Whitland begins searching the streets himself for Salina, but somehow she is always protected and just as he is about to find her she escapes. He treats the other homeless people he encounters cruelly.

In his home, Whitland begins to have strange things happen. A rat scurries across his bed while he sleeps. His wife wets the bed and in a hallucination, she appears to him as a disheveled bag lady. Whitland puts his people on finding Salina as he feels she’s responsible for what is going on around him.

They succeed in finding her and have her brought to the hospital where Whitland has her locked in a room. He comes in and confronts her threatening her with the similar type of treatment she had before she escaped to the streets. Salina successfully causes Whitland to hallucinate and experience some of things she has on the streets. Whitland is able to snap out of it and punishes Salina w/ electroshock.

Emma, Patty, Tilly and Bagel now resemble more normal type of people and hatch a plot to free Salina from the hospital.

The group proceeds to free Salina in an adventurous scheme in which Whitland is held hostage and Tilly sacrifices himself and kills Whitland also so that the rest of them may escape in a car.

On the road, Emma directs Tilly to drive to her old home. Salina is dying. She asks to be driven to the grave of her husband so she can place flowers on his grave. They arrive at the cemetery, but Salina is to ill to get out of the car. The three of them go to place the wreath on the grave of her husband and discover a headstone with Salina's name next to it. They go back to the car, but Salina is gone. They get in the car and drive off.

Salina awakes to bright fluorescent lights over her. She has been dreaming, or has she. Whitland leans over her with electrodes and attaches them to the side of her head. Emma, the nurse, leans in and tries to comfort Salina. She talks to Salina as if there is some kind of plan brewing and looks disparagingly at Whitland. Bagel and Farnow, who are orderlies, also lean in to comfort Salina. Whitland exits for a moment and Bagel, Emma and Farnow whisper to each other. They talk about Tilly and Patty waiting for them. Whitland reenters and when his back is turned, Bagel and Farnow grab him and stuff the bite plate in his mouth. Emma releases Salina from the table and they strap Whitland down. They put the electrodes on the sides of his head. They all go to the door and prepare to leave as Bagel prepares to turn on the machine. At the last moment, Salina stops him they all leave the room.

Outside the building, Tilly and Patty are waiting in a car. The rest of them pile in and the car leaves driving off into the distance.