Netflix Prize 2

One of the teams midway down in the ratings will die in a tragic plane crash two months before the deadline. The children of the deceased, and one of the grievously wounded survivors, will band together to keep the entry alive, in their honor, but are unable (despite the efforts of the previously retired, curmudgeonly expert hired by their friends and neighbors, after holding a bake sale) to climb higher than 3rd place. Finally, the day before the deadline, a kitten-- a kitten, mind you-- meows frantically and leads a 7-year-old, tow-headed descendent to a closet where a shoebox is found, containing a scrap of paper, with a scribble mathematical formula, which when added, puts the team over the top. (Naturally, there's a thunderstorm at the time, so the power goes out 20 minutes before the deadline, but the team is able to use their ingenuity and good, American stick-to-it-iveness to rig a generator out of spare parts they find in the garage in order to upload the winning entry in the nick of time.)