The Final Scene

The Final Scene is a fifth game in the Nancy Drew computer game series. The game is somewhat based on the book bearing the same name and features Nancy Drew and her friend Maya Nguyen. Nancy meets Maya at the Royal Palladium theater to go to the opening of a new movie, Vanishing Destiny. As Maya goes into the dressing room to interview the movie's star Brady Armstrong, she is kidnapped. The player, as Nancy Drew, has to race against time to find Maya and the kidnapper before the theater is demolished in three days. This game takes place in St.Louis.

Plot
The prologue as written by Nancy in a letter to her friend, Bess Marvin, saying she is going to St. Louis with a friend from high school, Maya Nguyen, to see the new Brady Armstrong movie Vanishing Destiny, the last screening ever at the Royal Palladium, which has been a landmark since 1901. Due to its failing structure it is scheduled to be demolished in three days. In the 1920s great magicians from the likes of Harry Houdini performed there. With local protests and rioting, the theater will be closed but Maya and Nancy will be interviewing Brady Armstrong about the controversy.

While there though, Nancy decides to check out the snacks and with a scream, Maya is kidnapped. Nancy receives a threatening phone call from the kidnapper, telling her:

Listen carefully, if they knock the theater down the girl goes with it.

On the first day, Nancy explores the theater and meets the star of Vanishing Destiny, Brady Armstrong, his agent, Simone Mueller, the theaters caretaker, Joseph Hughes, and protesting group HADIT's (which is protesting against the demolition) leader, Nicolas Falcone. After Nancy calls the police, the police refuse to get involved with the kidnapping unless Maya has been missing for twenty four hours. Nancy is then determined to find evidence of Maya's kidnapping and you, as Nancy, search the theater. At the end of day 1, Brady discovers Maya's press pass, and gives it to Joseph, who gives it to Nancy. Nancy calls the police to tell them of the evidence-however, the police still refuse to get involved because they aren't convinced that Maya was really kidnapped. Nancy then goes to the hotel she is staying at, and the game progresses to Day 2.

Day 2 begins with Nancy seeing a funeral wreath that the kidnapper sent. The funeral wreath says that planning a funeral is so hard, wouldn't Nancy rather stop the demolition. Nancy then finds out that Simone and Brady posted missing flyers of Maya all over the place, but it is really just a publicity stunt so it can make it look like Brady is using all his power to find Maya-although he's not. The day progresses as Nancy-you-find the magician's room, and see Maya's feet for a second before Maya is moved to another location. Nancy finds the magicians room and finds Maya's shoe and empty pizza boxes and blankets. Nancy, in her excitement, blurts out the fact that she found much evidence to everyone in the magician's room. Nancy calls the police, only to find out they won't be there until morning, so Nancy goes to the hotel to try and sleep. The game progresses to Day 3.

Day 3 begins with Joseph explaining that the police searched the magicians room, but they never found any of the pizza boxes, or Maya's shoe. Everyone starts to convince Nancy that she had dreamed up the pizza boxes. The day progresses when Nancy finds out the theater may not belong to the man who wants to demolish it. At the end of the day, Nancy is in the projector room to watch a slide that contains a letter saying who the theater really belongs too. Nancy finds out that the theater belongs to Nicolas's grandmother and she starts to leave and runs into the culprit, who she finds out is the kidnapper. He/she locks Nancy into the projection room and she then has to escape. Nancy finds a secret passageway on the light socket, which when opened, has a switch and a ladder comes down from the ceiling. Nancy then goes into a secret room where Maya is sealed behind a glass door, even after attempting to break it open with a hammer, it is uesless. she blinds the culprit, turns on the marque which is how the wrecking ball crew knows there is someone still in the building.

According to Nancy in the epilogue, the culprit planned to hold Brady hostage in an alliance to Simone's Hollywood contacts to save the theater. However, when Maya entered Brady's dressing room, he moved too soon and grabbed her instead. As a Plan B to stall the demolition long enough for the National Register of Historic Places to have the building declared as an official landmark. "I guess he's been at the Royal Palladium for so long, he just couldn't imagine his life without it" Nancy writes "But desperation aside. Poor old Joseph wasn't cut out for a life of crime, and pretty soon things were spinning out of his control. (Simone's publicity stunts didn't help!)" Needless to say, he was kind to Maya during her captivity. With the Royal Palladium still standing, Nicholas inherits his grandmother Luisa's 50% of the theater in association with Brady's half. For Simone's stunt with the funeral wreath she receives an official reprimand from the National Press Corps. And so ends the longest 3 days of Nancy's life. In spite that the premiere of Vanishing Destiny is back on, Nancy decides to wait for it to come out on videotape

Characters
Maya Nguyen - Maya is Nancy's reporter friend that she came with to see the premiere of Vanishing Destiny before the theater will be demolished. She was scheduled to interview the star, Brady Armstrong, for her college newspaper before she was kidnapped.

Brady Armstrong - Brady is the star of the movie Vanishing Destiny that Maya and Nancy have gone to interview. Maya was kidnapped from his dressing room. His life and appearance are often in control of his agent. Is he really as dependent as he seems?

Simone Mueller - Simone is Brady's self-centered agent who is always on the phone in the woman's dressing room. When Maya disappears she decides to cancel "Vanishing Destiny" and make it look as though Brady is trying to save her. Is she just trying to rake in the publicity, or did she cause it in the first place?

Joseph Hughes - Joseph is the caretaker of the Royal Palladium who works in the projector room. He is very open and friendly but is he really that ok with the theater demolition?

Nicholas Falcone - Nicholas is the leader of "H.A.D I.T" or "Humans Against the Destruction of Illustrious Theaters". They are leading a protest against the demolition of The Royal Palladium. He acts like he's innocent and only wants to help but the police say they have found him faking a kidnapping before to save a theater....is he doing an encore performance?

Eustacia Andrapov - Harry Houdini's cousin by marriage whom Nancy talks to about the Royal Palladium. You can only speak to her by phone.

Cast

 * Nancy Drew -- Lani Minella
 * Joseph Hughes/Sergeant Mac Ramsey -- Bob Heath
 * Brady Armstrong -- David S. Hogan
 * Nicholas Falcone/Construction Worker -- Alan Smythe
 * Simone Mueller -- Keri Healey
 * Bess Marvin -- Punchy LaRue
 * George Fayne -- Maureen Nelson
 * Ned Nickerson/Sherman Trout -- Scott Carty
 * The Amazing Monty -- David S. Hogan
 * Eustacia Andrapov -- Alena Saunders

Deaths
''Deaths in the Nancy Drew games are mistakes that don't always lead to death, but are serious enough to get Nancy off the case. In the Nancy Drew games, fatal errors can be done over through the second chance option.''
 * Attempting to get the gear on the second level without the wand and falling.
 * Not pulling the box above the trap door up high enough, so that it falls and kills you when you try to go to the basement
 * Punching in the gate's code without wearing the rubber gloves.
 * Getting hit by the falling lamp.
 * Not hiding from the police in the wardrobe in time and getting caught.
 * Not stopping the demolition in time.

Trivia

 * Simone Muller suggests that Nancy's stage name be 'Samantha Quick'. Samantha Quick is later mentioned in The Phantom of Venice, and she actually calls Nancy in that game.


 * Brady Armstrong is mentioned in the Curse of Blackmoor Manor, and his face appears in the game "Model Match" from Jane's Game Portal in Danger By Design.


 * When you are in the ladies dressing room (where Simone Muller is) you can find a Her Interactive cup.


 * In a later Nancy drew computer game, Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, Eustacia Andropov is someone that you may speak with on the phone after you have spoken with Mickey Malone's old girlfriend.


 * At the end of the game, it shows a magazine with a newsflash on the cover, describing thefts involving a scarlet hand. This is a reference to the next Nancy Drew game, Secret of the Scarlet Hand
 * First game to include the timer feature, and still is the only one to have it.
 * Punchy LaRue is mentioned again in The Phantom of Venice when Nancy must acquire a costume by dancing, the director tells her her stagename is "Punchy LaRue".
 * In the hallway that wraps around the theater, one of the pictures advertises the American musical Nebraska, by Rogers & Cumberstum. This may be a tribute to the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!.