South of 8

'South of 8' is a crime thriller set in San Diego during a very near dystopian future characterized by mass poverty and intense government surveillance. After a 'Second Great Depression,' unemployment and crime in the United States are at record highs, the nation's farmlands have been crippled by several years of drought, and a massive diaspora to the already-crowded cities created a swell in the enormous homeless population. The vast economic divide eventually spawns numerous subversive groups -- each with their own agenda -- and the police react by launching a brutal "dirty" war against them throughout the city, with drones being used routinely by the police and private companies as urban watchdogs to compensate for their downsized manpower. All the elements that forged the public enemies of the 1930's are coinciding again, and history is set to repeat. The story focuses on three young adults who go into a life of crime, each for their own petty motives. They become known as 'The Vanishers' to the public, and their methods become increasingly more violent as the police close in on them. When the stakes are raised, they enlist the help of other Depression-era criminals who adjust their tactics and augment their robberies, and they sink deeper into the underworld, past the point of redemption.