Joseph Cardiff is a young Machiavellian businessman who is quickly rising to the top. Recently having sealed the biggest business deal of his life, he's on his way to signing the money into his hands. After insulting his driver with his 'holier than thou' attitude, Cardiff rudely brushes past a homeless man asking for money before makes his entrance into the building lobby, where he insults secretaries and maintenance workers as he begins his elevator trip up the building. Waiting there to greet him is Jack, an older executive mellowed by age and a humbling understanding of life. It's his signature who Cardiff seeks. Jack's reluctance to sign springs Cardiff on the attack, and the older executive can't compete with the strength and fire of a youthful ambition that had once consumed him as well. As Cardiff triumphantly walks away from the executive boardroom, his destiny unfolds as he steps into an ill-fated elevator ironically made accessible by his own dismissal of a maintenance worker's warnings. When the doors open Cardiff finds himself in a black void, and for once his ever-reliable control turns to unsettling confusion--and eventually fear--as he faces a strange, sassy, cigar smoking receptionist sitting behind an old wooden desk. Cardiff's sense of reality is tested as he realizes there is no means to negotiate his way through the decisiveness of the bottom floor.

Forms: Short
Genres: Drama, Film Noir, Independent, Surreal, Supernatural