CAYOM Year 8: Part 1 (TAKE TWO) (Fourth Quarter) (4/13 Deadline)

[rukaio101]

Numbers always steals the best dates.....

 

Name: Mushishi
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Date: December 19th
Cast: Colin Ferrell (Ginko), Ty Simpkins (Shinra), Thomas Gibson (Jin), Morena Baccarin (Chihiko), Sean Maher (Mujika), Rose Byrne (Aki), Asa Butterfield (Yoki), Sigourney Weaver (Nui)

Plot: 

 

Note: This film takes place in a fantasy world, near identical to our own, which is mostly overgrown forests, with smallish human villages scattered everywhere. The villages/cultures are a mix of medieval England and Feudal Japan. 

 

We begin with a slow camera scroll through a great, misty, mountainous forest, overgrown with plant life, as narration and music plays. The forest seems almost untouched by human life. We scroll through a variety of locations, a misty ocean shore, the remains of a burnt down log cabin with plant life growing on the ruins and finally a small lake at night, impossibly calm, with what looks like floating balls of cotton gently wafting through air. 

 

Narration: "They dwell unseen in the shadows. A host of creatures completely different from the flora and fauna familiar to us. An invisible world of life within our own. Since the dawn of humanity, these phantoms have inspired fear in those who could not understand and have, over the ages, come to be known as Mushi."

 

We eventually arrive at a small house in the middle of the forest where a young boy, Shinra is drawing an odd, buglike creature with his left hand. As soon as he is finished, he stares expectantly at his drawing, as if expecting something to happen. When nothing does, he lets out a pleased grin. However, when he looks away to reach for another sheet of paper, his drawing comes to life, tears itself off the paper and begins floating away. Shinra notices and, panicked, attempts to catch the drawing but it escapes through an open window. We follow it as it is blown across the forest before eventually floating down in front of a traveller with white hair and green eyes named Ginko (who wears much more modern clothing compared to everyone else in the film and constantly smokes), who carefully catches it in his hand where it immediately turns back to ink, much to his confusion. He shrugs it off and continues through the forest, towards Shinra's house. As he approaches, the ghostly figure of a young girl watches him from behind a tree but she vanishes when he turns her way. Ginko shrugs and continues to the house. He knocks on the front door but gets no answer. He goes around the back to see if anyone's in and finds one of the doors open.

 

He enters and, finding no one about, decides to wait inside for the owners to return. While he's waiting, he begins to boil a cup of tea using a small china teapot he brought with him. As he's pouring his tea, he hears a sound behind him and turns to see Shinra watching him nervously. Ginko introduces himself and tells Shinra he means no harm and was simply looking for a place to stay the night. Shinra is still nervous but warms up to Ginko when the latter offers him some tea. Ginko asks where Shinra's parents are and Shinra tells him they died a long time ago and that he lived here with his grandmother, Renzu, until she died as well. Shinra asks Ginko what he does and Ginko explains that he's a 'Mushishi' or 'Mushi Master', a traveller who deals with Mushi related problems. Shinra asks what a Mushi is. Ginko describes them as the 'creatures formed from essence of life'. Shinra doesn't understand. Ginko explains by holding out his hand. The middle finger, the point furthest from the heart, represents humanity. The other fingers and thumb represent animals, birds, fish, etc. The hands and wrist represent things like microbes, bacteria, microorganisms, etc. As you travel further and further down the arm and closer to the heart, the more devolved and simplistic things become. Mushi are creatures represented by the spot closest to the heart, more primal and mysterious than anything else in existence. Shinra still doesn't really understand and asks what Mushi look like. Ginko explains there are a lot of different types of Mushi, most of which are invisible to normal people but describes some of them as looking 'bug-like'. This strikes a chord with Shinra who pulls some drawings out of his pockets and shows them to Ginko, asking if any Mushi look like them. Ginko, surprised, asks where he got the drawings. Shinra explains that he drew them himself based on weird creatures he occasionally saw, that no-one else seemed able to see. He then accidentally lets slip that he's not allowed to draw them with his left hand, prompting Ginko to ask why. Deciding to trust Ginko, Shinra reveals that anything he draws with his left hand comes to life for a few minutes. However, his grandmother told Shinra to keep it a secret since people might want to use it for their own purposes. Ginko agrees it should probably be kept a secret but tells Shinra he has a rare gift. Shinra asks if he's ever seen something as strange as his abilities on his travels. Ginko tells him he has and offers tell him the story about it.

 

We flashback to several years ago where Ginko is walking along the shore of a misty beach, heading towards a small fishing village in search of a ferry to a nearby island. He walks past a man, Jin sitting on a rock and asks him for directions. After Jin helps him, Ginko asks what he's doing here in this seemingly inconspicuous stretch of beach. Jin tells him that nearly all things lost in the nearby sea end up washing up on this beach. Ginko assumes he is a scavenger, but Jin tells him he's waiting for something specific to wash up. Ginko asks him about it and Jin tells him his tale.

 

Several years previous, Jin and his wife, Chihiko moved to the fishing village after Jin lost his job working for his father-in-law. Rather than stay with her richer father, Chihiko chose to follow Jin, much to his confusion. One day, on a particularly misty morning, the two were set to go out on the fishing boats, but they had an argument beforehand and, annoyed at each other, set off on different boats. Once they got deep into the mist, however, the rudder on Chihiko's boat got stuck and began drifting deeper into the mist. The sailors swam over to Jin's boat, but Chihiko refused to do so, claiming the water was filled with snakes, much to everyone's confusion. Jin is about to swim over to help his wife when suddenly, he sees thousands of white snakes in the water. When he closes his eyes, they've all vanished, but so has Chihiko's boat, swallowed up by the mist. Jin tells her to sail for shore, but Chihiko tells him she can’t see the shore anymore. Jin’s boat returns to shore, but, despite multiple searches, Chihiko’s boat is never found. Now he spends all his time waiting at the beach for any sign of her to wash up.

 

Ginko listens to the island and offers to help Jin, after he’s finished his business on the island. He should return in about a month. During that month, Jin helps a couple of nearby fisherman from being ripped off by an asshole trader and earns the respect of the village. He also starts to become close to the daughter of one of the fishermen. However, he still finds himself looking out to the shore in search of any trace of his wife. Ginko returns and the two take a boat out into the misty sea. After a short while searching, they manage to find Chihiko’s boat and, to Jin’s shock, she is still onboard, alive and well and looking no different from when she disappeared. However, she seems to believe that she’s only been at sea for three days. Just then, the sea begins to fill up with white snakes like the ones Jin saw before. Jin is about to bring his wife aboard when Ginko stops him. He reveals that the thing he is seeing is not his wife, but a Mushi that has taken her form and that, if he lets it aboard, they will never be able to find their way back to shore, just like Chihiko. Jin, unwillingly, agrees to leave his wife behind and she immediately vanishes, leaving only her clothes behind. The sea of snakes gets more and more stormy and the two desperately sail their way back through the sea, avoiding huge waves of white snakes.

 

Eventually the snakes vanish and they arrive back to the shock of everyone in the village as apparently it has been a month since they set off. The next morning, Ginko sets off to his next destination and Jin thanks him for helping him find out what happened to his wife, even if the results weren’t what he wanted to hear. Meanwhile, Chihiko’s boat has washed ashore, along with her empty clothes.

 

Back at Shinra’s house, Ginko has finished telling his tale but Shinra has fallen asleep. Ginko helps him to bed. However, when Ginko is making his way back to his own room, he sees the ghostly figure of a young girl who threatens him and tells him to leave, before vanishing into thin air. However, as she leaves, Ginko notices her accidentally drop half of a green broken wine cup. The next morning, Ginko is taking a bath in a nearby hot spring, when Shinra appears. Ginko asks Shinra about the ghostly girl, but he doesn’t know anything about it. Shinra notices a nasty scar on Ginko’s shoulder and asks him how he got it. Ginko tells him the story about it.

 

Several years ago, Ginko is visiting a small secluded village to help solve an infection caused by mushi, when he approached by a man, Mujika who wants him to help cure his eldest son who has a different kind of sickness. Ginko follows him to an old log cabin, isolated from the rest of the village and meets his wife, Aki, and their children who can be often heard playing and having fun but, whenever Ginko/the camera sees them, they freeze up and just stare at him. (The children will be created with high-quality CG to create an ‘uncanny valley’ effect). Ginko is taken to the eldest son who is bedridden, with green splotches growing all over his skin. Ginko suspects the infection is indeed Mushi-caused, but can’t figure exactly what kind is responsible. He questions the parents about anything suspicious or unusual having happened recently, but they can’t think of anything. However, when he asks about the birth of their children, they noticeably react, even though they claim nothing odd happened. Deciding he can’t help if they don’t let him, Ginko leaves.

 

A year later, Ginko returns to the village to check on the Mushi infection and is once again approached by Mujika. He reveals that their eldest son died of his infection, but now their second eldest seems to be suffering from the same symptoms. Ginko states he can’t help unless they tell him their secret and Mujika and Aki agree to tell him how their children were born. Whenever Aki gives birth, instead of a baby, some kind of abnormal green mess comes out and leaks through the floorboards. One week later, they hear sounds under the floorboard and lift it up to find a fully formed baby. Ginko tells them that the Mushi responsible is a rare spore-like mushi that infects pregnant women and replaces their own unborn babies with their own mushi offspring for them to raise, much like a cuckoo tricks other birds into raising its young. All of their children are actually mushi and, since this kind of mushi has a shorter lifespan than humans, they will all eventually die like the eldest son. Mujika and Aki ask what they can do. Ginko tells them to open up the floorboards and burn the ground beneath to kill the mushi and stop it from infecting Aki again. However, this will kill all of the mushi children. The two are uncertain about this, but Ginko convinces them into doing it.

 

The mushi children meanwhile, try to stop it, first by trying to murder Ginko, then by attempting to manipulate their parents into stopping it. Eventually, just as everything has finally been prepared and Ginko has locked the children outside, their constant audible pleasing causes Aki to go mad with guilt and try to stop the ritual, stabbing Ginko in the shoulder when he tries to start it anyway. In the scuffle, the house in set on fire, Mujika is killed and Aki is trapped under the flaming wreckage. Ginko, injured, manages to barely escape as the children, to his surprise, go to comfort the mother and end up burning to death along with her. Shinra is disturbed by this tale and Ginko admits that, internally, he’s always wondered whether he should’ve just left the family to their short, but happy lives instead of forcibly trying to fix things.

 

Later, when Ginko is returning to his room, he is confronted by the ghostly young girl again who angrily tells him to leave or she’ll kill him. However, he subdues her with a mushi repellent smoke from his cigarette, confirming his suspicion that she’s actually a mushi. He also tells her he’s worked out the mystery behind Shinra’s bizarre abilities, thanks to having seen the broken wine cup she left behind. The ghostly girl is Shinra’s grandmother Renzu and, when she was very young, she partook of a special mushi ritual. Renzu admits it and we flash back to her as a young girl, gathering berries in the wood late in the evening. However, she spots several tall ghostly figures moving through the woods in a procession carrying lanterns. She finds herself psychically bidden to follow them and they offer her a strange liquid in a green wine cup. She drinks half of it but is snapped out of her funk by the calls of her mother, causing her to accidentally drop the wine cup where it breaks in two. The ghostly figures vanish and Renzu returns home, with only half of the broken wine cup left to remind her of the incident. Ginko reveals that the liquid was a special drink that turns one into a mushi and that, by drinking half of it, she became half mushi, which gave Shinra his special powers as a result. Now that her human side is dead, only her mushi side remains, unable to fully cross over to the world of the mushi and unable to be seen by Shinra, who can only see full mushi. However, Ginko has a plan to fix that. He already knows how to replicate the liquid Renzu drank and, by using Shinra’s powers, they can restore the other half of the wine cup so Renzu can drink from it and become a full mushi.

 

While Ginko and Shinra are preparing for the ritual to turn Renzu into a full mushi, Shinra asks Ginko how he became a Mushi Master. Ginko says it’s complicated to explain but offers to tell Shinra a story he heard about another Mushi Master instead.

 

Many years ago, a woman named Nui, with the same white hair and green eyes as Ginko, was walking down a mountain pass which had recently been caught in a landslide after a great storm. She hears a sound and manages to dig out a young boy named Yoki, who had been caught in the landslide with his parent, who were both killed. Yoki’s leg is broken so Nui takes him back to her home, a small lakehouse where she lives alone, to treat him. Yoki asks her what she does and she tells him she’s a Mushi Master. When he asks her what mushi are, she explains it in the same way that Ginko explained it to Shinra. She is surprised to find that Yoki is able to see mushi and agrees to help teach him about the many different types of mushi while his leg heals. The two become close but one day, after Yoki’s leg has healed, he finds a diary with sketches of a strange shadowy mushi and another fish-like mushi that appears to be entirely made of light. Nui finds him looking at it and, angrily, kicks him out of her house telling him that, now his leg is healed, he can go live in a nearby human village.

 

Yoki is hurt and confused and refuses to leave, camping outside Nui’s cabin for several days. One night, while he is looking out over the lake, he spots several cotton-like mushi floating towards the sky. More and more appear until the lake is alight with the mushi gently floating away. Nui emerges from the cabin and tells Yoki that they’re a special mushi that grow among cotton fields before, once they’re grown up enough, floating away to become one with the stars. She also tells him about her past. She used to study mushi along with her family but she became too interested in a certain kind of fish-like Mushi named the Ginko (which Yoki saw in the diary) that dwell inside rare shadow mushi that devour people who stumble into them. One night, while trying to lure out a Ginko, she was devoured by a shadow mushi and managed to briefly glance at one of the Ginko swimming in it. When she woke up, her hair had turned white, her eyes green and she had lost all her memories of her family and life before that moment (although her mushi knowledge remained intact) as a result of being exposed to the Ginko’s light. Now she only has a limited time alive before she too turns into a Ginko. Since being around her family would only kill them when she turns, she decided to travel before settling down at the lakehouse when she sensed she only had a short time left. She begs Yoki to leave before she turns and the same fate befalls him. He reluctantly agrees.

 

However, on his way to the village, Yoki changes his mind and decides to stay with Nui. When he arrives back though, Nui has already begun to change and he becomes swallowed up by a shadow mushi, briefly glimpsing Nui’s new form as a Ginko before everything goes black. When he wakes, he has white hair, green eyes and has little memory of his life beforehand. He manages to piece some things together from notes left at Nui’s home and decides to spend what little remains of his life as a travelling Mushi Master, taking on the name ‘Ginko’.

 

Shinra is devastated upon hearing this story and refuses to do the ritual, claiming that all mushi are evil, before running away. Despite Renzu’s urging to just let him go, Ginko refuses to back away and tracks him down to a small lake, not unlike the one he used to live by. Ginko tells Shinra that, while some bad things may be caused by mushi, they’re not naturally evil and can bring great beauty and happiness as well as great pain. Just then, cotton mushi appear over the lake, just like in Ginko’s story. The two watch them for a while before Shinra agrees to return and complete the ritual.

 

Back at Shinra's house, he draws the other half of the winecup, Ginko fits the two halves together and Renzu drinks from the cup. At first nothing seems to happen, and Ginko wonders whether it worked or not but, soon, Renzu begins to become visible to Shinra, showing she has become a full mushi. The two tearfully reuinte and Renzue promises to look after Shinra for the rest of his life. The next morning, Shinra wakes up to find Ginko gone, feeling there is nothing left he needs to do here. Shinra is upset but Renzu tells him to let him go. Suddenly, she notices that the green winecup is missing.

 

We cut to Ginko looking at the green winecup with a smile, before pocketing it and continuing on with his travels.

Theaters: 3907
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Budget: $190 mil

Edited April 20, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[Blankments]

The Thin, The Fat, and The Felon

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Genre: Western Comedy
Date: December 21
Studio: Badass Films
Ratio: 1.85:1 for scenes in the present; 2.40:1 for the Wild West
Cast: Nick Frost as Martin, Simon Pegg as Tom, David Tennant as Flint Westwood, Nathan Fillion as Sheriff Bob Woody, Benedict Cumberbatch as Snake Eyes, Maggie Smith as Martin’s mother, Martin Freeman as the Bartender, Bill Nighy as the Guard, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan as Snake Eyes’ gunmen and Rafe Spall as the Director. Unknowns as kid versions of Tom and Martin.
Music by: Ennio Morricone.
Runtime: TBA
Tagline: From the director of Miserable Fans

Plot: 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

 

 

Theaters: 3,793
MPAA Rating: R for violence, harsh language, and some drinking
Budget: $50 million

[rukaio101]

No-one seemed to object to this when I brought it up on the discussion thread, so I'm gonna do it.

 

Name: Freddy vs Jason vs Ash
Director: Drake Brando (made-up)
Genre: Horror
Date: Oct 31th (Wednesday) 
Cast: Bruce Cambell (Ash), Robert Englund (Freddy), Ken Kirzinger (Jason), Willa Holland (Clarisse), Jesse Moss (John)

Plot:

We begin with a quick summation via montage of previous films in Nightmare on Elm Street/Friday the 13^th/Evil Dead for those not in the know about said series.

 

We then open for real with a young girl, Clarisse, being chased through the classic boiler room by Freddy Kruger. Eventually she is cornered by Freddy who tries to slash her throat, but she vanishes before he can, having woken up, much to Freddy’s frustration. Freddy reveals that after his fight with Jason in ‘Freddy vs Jason’ he was restored back to his old, nightmare-haunting state, but Jason stole a large chunk of his power and he is no longer strong enough to kill someone in their dreams. And, due to said power, he can’t infiltrate Jason’s dreams to get him to take it back. To regain his power, he must find some way to kill Jason, once and for all. Obviously he can’t do it himself so he has to find someone else capable enough kill Jason…

 

We cut to Ash on a date with an attractive young woman at a fancy restaurant. The two have a nice chat and he tells her about his past experiences involving the Necronomicon, including the loss of his hand, which has been replaced by a prosthetic, and that, ever since returning to his own time he has been near constantly plagued by Deadites. While he’s telling her this, he notices several oddities in his food, including eyeballs in his soup, blood in his wine and a tattoo on his steak. Fed up, he excuses himself, saying he’s going to the bathroom, but instead heads to the kitchen where he finds the entire kitchen staff who have been turned into Deadites. After an epic fight using kitchen equipment, including cookers, he manages to kill all the Deadites and returns to his date. However, it is revealed to the audience that Ash has been in a dream the whole time and that the girl is just an illusion created by Freddy. Freddy suggests to him that he should visit Crystal Lake Camp, giving him a leaflet, and kill Jason, who appears as an illusion to attack Ash but, before he can, Ash wakes up with the leaflet still in his hand.

 

Ash decides to visit Crystal Lake Camp and see if Jason really exists. He grabs his favourite weapons and boards a bus along with a small group of teenagers, including the girl Freddy was chasing in the opening, Clarisse, a security guard and a group of nuns. He gets into a fight with one of the teenagers, John, and gets tasered. He wakes up handcuffed to a seat at the back of the bus, near the nuns. The nuns slowly begin to get closer and Ash notices that they’re Deadites (“Nuns. Why is it always the nuns?”). While, by detaching his prosthetic hand, he is able to free himself from the handcuffs, he is still trapped by the deadites, his bag of weapons is out of reach  and his attempts to get the attention of the others fall upon deaf ears. However, one of the teenagers, Anna, who is currently asleep and under the control of Freddy, kicks it over to him. Ash begins to fight off the deadites, who attack everyone else on the bus, killing the security guard and the bus driver. The bus crashes, just outside of Crystal Lake Camp. Ash finishes off the last of the Deadites and leads the survivors of the group (John, Clarisse, Anna, Alex, Damian, Jenna, Kyle and Pete) to the camp. However, unbeknownst to everyone, John was bitten in the chaos and has become a deadite himself. He turns another teen, Damian, while no-one is looking.

 

The group haul up in a cabin for the night and Ash explains about the deadites. The other teens are sceptical and Damian calls him crazy or a liar, before suggesting they all head out into the woods to go find help. Clarisse, not being a complete moron, correctly guesses he’s a deadite and shoots him in the kneecap to get him to reveal himself. Before Ash can finish him off, deadite Damian escapes into the woods and runs into Jason, who splits him in two. The group decides, rather than letting Damian pick them off one by one and sabotage any attempts to get help, they should hunt him down and kill him. They split into two teams of four, Ash, Clarisse, Anna and Jenna on one team (the fact that all except Ash are female is ‘obviously’ a coincidence) and John, Alex, Kyle and Pete on the other team.

 

While Ash’s team are exploring, Clarisse tells Ash about the weird dreams she’s been having recently, involving Freddy, and Anna and Jenna mention having the same dreams. Ash blows it off as just ‘something in the water’. Meanwhile, with the other team, they find Damian’s dead body (and blow it full of holes to be safe and to alert Ash’s team). John lures Alex away to turn him into a deadite but, while he’s gone, Kyle and Pete are attacked by Jason, who shrugs off their gunfire and kills them in very gory ways. Ash’s group turns up and begin fighting Jason. During the fight, Jenna is killed, Clarisse and Anna are both knocked unconscious and Jason chops off Ash’s prosthetic hand. However, Jason makes the mistake of kicking Ash into an old shed which has a chainsaw in it. One ‘groovy’ montage later and chainsaw-handed Ash is ready to fight again. After an epic fight, Ash finally manages to kill Jason by chainsawing his arm off and setting him on fire. As he does, Freddy’s laughter can be heard.

 

Meanwhile, Anna appears to have regained consciousness but, as she quickly finds out, she is still dreaming and is brutally killed by Freddy as a demonstration of his regained power. He then uses the unconscious Clarisse as a puppet to give Ash some drugged water to make him go to sleep. Ash does so and is attacked by Freddy. Meanwhile, deadites John and Alex go to Jason’s corpse to try and turn him into a deadite as well. They’re successful in restoring him to life, but he doesn’t turn into a full deadite and rips Alex’s head off, before heading to the cabin where Clarisse and Ash are sleeping. Ash meanwhile, is trying to fight Freddy but is horribly outmatched, especially after Freddy replaces Ash’s chainsaw hand with his own claw hand and uses to to try and claw Ash’s eye out. However, Ash is awoken by Jason breaking into the cabin, inadvertently dragging Freddy into the real world with him. The three have a standoff before they start an epic epic fight all over Camp Crystal Lake. Eventually Ash manages to apparently defeat the other two by tricking them onto a boat filled with explosives and blowing it up with his ‘boomstick’ (shotgun for those who haven’t seen Evil Dead).

 

Ash awakens the sleeping Clarisse and the two leave Camp Crystal Lake, Ash shooting the deadite John as he tries to attack them. Ash returns to his home and settles down to relax before receiving a call from a friend about ‘some kind of giant killer shark terrorising beaches’. Ash grabs his chainsaw and boomstick.

 

In a post credits scene Jason is seen emerging from Camp Crystal Lake carrying Freddy’s severed head. Said severed head rolls its eyes and mutters ‘Not again…’

 

Theaters: 3382
MPAA Rating: R
Budget: $22 mil

Edited April 18, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[Blankments]

Pączki są trupy Zbyt Wraz z Dominujących Morsów (Donuts Are Zombies Too Along With the Dominant Walruses)

 

Director: David Lynch and Baz Luhrrman (Half-way through the film, the director suddenly switches to Luhrman thanks to schedule conflicts)

Genre: Foreign Surrealism

Date: October 5 (4 theaters); October 12 (15 theaters); October 19 (122 theaters); October 26 (254 theaters); November 2 (421 theaters); November 9 (633 theaters); November 16 (1,245 theaters); November 30 (2,046 theaters)

Studio: Alpha Films

Cast: Jack Nicholson as Donut Joe, Vin Diesel as the walrus, Judi Dench as the police captain, Jim Carrey as the orthodontist and archive footage of Marilyn Monroe voiced over by Zach Galifanikis as the donut rights activist.

Format: Blitzering technocolor 3D with subtitles that pop up with the musical score

Music by: Skrillex

Runtime: 142 min

Note: Even though there is completely Hollywood stars, they all speak Polish in the movie for no discernable reason.

Tagline: An Orthodontic Adventure!!!!

 

Plot: Our only named character, Donut Joe, speaks of a time long past. He remembers when donuts were popular. Until the Walrus Invasion. Through a freak disease called the Namese Dankusha, every living organism died out except for a few lower-class humans and walruses. Over the past fourteen milennia, the walruses have taken over the planet and become a dominant species. The walrus overlords were alright except for one thing: they outlawed donuts, citing them as the cause of laziness in all human creatures. Donut Joe works now in the underground, as a donut dealer. He doesn't like his work, but it brings in the cash. However, a day is about to arrive when the world will change.

 

FAST AND FURIOUS INTO DARKNESS

 

Donut Joe has a job to get to. The local orthodontist wants a Boston Creme donut, which is possibly the most illegal donut around. Alas, Donut Joe believes that it is his moral obligation to bring in the donut, as the orthodontist said he will murder Joe's wife and kids. However, the orthodontist doesn't know that Donut Joe already killed his wife and kids and made them into a donut! We then cut to the orthodontist who laughing maniacally. He murmurs that business is booming since the new rage for the walrus elite is for them to get their teeth fixed. A walrus comes into the office, and demands his teeth fixed. The orthodontist laughs maniacally and begins putting on the braces in a disturbing, violent way that lasts a few minutes. The door knocks, and we see Donut Joe is there with the Donuts. The walrus screams like this: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=OtUFiDlN1oo, which signals in a police chief. Donut Joe is panicking since it's a drug bust, but suddenly a donuts rights activist comes in through the roof. The activist screams that donuts are zombies too and deserve legal rights. The walrus tackles Donut Joe to the ground but Donut Joe, in a bizarre twist, reveals he's a zombie and eats the walruses brains.The police chief shoots both the walrus and Joe dead while the activist continues preaching about donut rights. In fact, he gets a speech.

 

"After hearing this speech, you will never again be able to trust Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut and you will see with crystal clarity the way that that statement can be most easily defended since it is not quantitative but qualitative. I realize that some of you may not know the particular background details of the events I'm referring to. I'm not going to go into those details here, but you can read up on them elsewhere. If one dares to criticize even a single tenet of his false-flag operations, one is promptly condemned as acrasial, unscrupulous, insidious, or whatever epithet he deems most appropriate, usually without much explanation. He wants to prevent us from improving the lot of humankind. If he manages to do that, he'll have plenty of time to focus on his core mission: aiding and abetting meretricious propagandists in their efforts to silence truth-tellers like me. Please don't misread my words here; Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut likes protecting undeserved privilege, which puts him somewhere between a spineless purveyor of malice and hatred and an irresponsible mountebank on the heathenism org chart.

 

If I have a bias, it is only against wily saboteurs who push all of us to the brink of insanity. If Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut honestly believes that some of my points are not valid, I would love to get some specific feedback from him. He, already oppressive with his eccentric histrionics, will perhaps be the ultimate exterminator of our human species—if separate species we be—for his reserve of unguessed horrors could never be borne by mortal brains if loosed upon the world. If you think that that's a frightening thought then consider that Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut preys on the rebellious and disenfranchised, tricking them into joining his gang. Their first assignment usually involves perpetuating the nonsense known technically as the analytic/synthetic dichotomy. The lesson to draw from this is that what we're involved in with Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut is not a game. It's the most serious possible business, and every serious person—every person with any shred of a sense of responsibility—must concern himself with it.

 

No one can deny that no clear-thinking individual would have the temerity to replace love and understanding with insurrectionism and propagandism, yet Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut keeps repeating over and over again that his plunderbund consists entirely of lovable, cuddly people who would never dream of poisoning the relationship between teacher and student. This verbigeration is symptomatic of an excessive love of fascism and indicates to me that if I hear Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's eulogists say, "Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's decisions are based on reason" one more time, I'm indisputably going to throw up. He appears to have a problem with common sense and logic. At the risk of sounding a tad redundant, let me add that the point is that if everyone spent just five minutes a day thinking about ways to address a number of important issues, we'd all be a lot better off. Is five minutes a day too much to ask for the promise of a better tomorrow? I sure hope not, but then again, I once managed to get Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut to agree that he manifests a most insupportable superbity. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, he did a volte-face and denied that he had ever said that.

 

As you may have noticed, I routinely use some rather impolite words to convey what I think of Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut. But how would you describe a person who is intent on supporting international crime while purporting to oppose it? If you can think of a better label for such a person than "superficial heartless-type" I'll consider using it in future speeches. Trampling into the mud all that is fine and noble and beautiful is a hallmark of a totalitarian regime. I will now cite the proof of that statement. The proof begins with the observation that knowledge is the key that unlocks the shackles of bondage. That's why it's important for you to know that Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut has never been a big fan of freedom of speech. He supports pogroms on speech, thought, academic license, scientific perspective, journalistic integrity, and any other form of expression that gives people the freedom to state that Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's favorite buzzword these days is "crisis". He likes to tell us that we have a crisis on our hands. He then argues that the only reasonable approach to combat this crisis is for him to give lunatics control of the asylum. In my opinion, the real crisis is the dearth of people who understand that Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut is trying to guarantee the destruction of anything that looks like a vital community. His mission? To pollute the great canon of English literature with references to his immature expostulations.

 

There is a problem here. A very large, homophobic, scrofulous problem. In the blink of an eye, Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's shenanigans will degenerate into hotbeds of rumor and innuendo, to put it mildly. My current plan is to snap Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's operatives out of their trance. Yes, he will draw upon the most powerful fires of Hell to tear that plan asunder, but given the amount of misinformation that he is circulating, I must point out that he has been making a ham-handed effort to show that children should get into cars with strangers who wave lots of yummy candy at them. I'm guessing that most people are starting to realize that such claims are a distortion of the truth and that we desperately need to combat these lies by getting people to sign a petition to limit Mr. Walrus Who Hateth the Donut's ability to cause trouble."

 

(at this point, the film switches directors to Baz Luhrmann)

 

Everyone in the room breaks down crying, and the police officer shoots the walrus in reply. The police officer declares they will rebel to get their donuts back, but first, they should have a donut party. The activist screams with delight as confetti falls from the ceiling continuously for the rest of the film. The bass drops and dubstep rocks out. Donuts dance across the screen when we get a guest appearance from Prince Poppycock who graciously performs this: http://www.youtube.c...tailpage#t=101s. Everyone cheers to the dubstep and Donut Joe gets on with the dead walrus for the heck of it. They dance.

 

And dance.

 

And dance.

 

We get a monologue done by Donut Joe while he grinds with the police officer about how a woman l who is warm and humanly during the day, a classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee, a girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes, a girl with that kind of twist is what he likes in life and that's what the police officer gives him. They get drunk and the music gets faster and faster with the bangarang and deep philosphicalness. The film ends with another monologue from the activist, speaking to the world:

 

"Thank you. I am truly donuty. Getting through life with your donuts intact can be a bit donutty. Sometimes all you need to keep you on track is a few donuts. I don't know if this qualifies, but right now, my fight for donuts rights is over. I owe a great debt my friends here. My donuty Donut Joe, and my donuty police chief. And of course this dead walrus and the orthodontist who I forgot was here, two other men who helped me with my donut eating. Finally, I'd like to thank the future world where all will eat donuts."

 

Theaters: 2,968

MPAA Rating: R for thematic content, violence, nudity, language, graphic sexual content, and disturbing images..

Budget: $90 million

Edited October 12, 2014 by Blankments

[Blankments]

Edited September 28, 2014 by Blankments

[rukaio101]

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Movie the Third

 

Previous Films Grosses: OW/DOM/WW

A Series of Unfortunate Events: 42.0/173.5/286.5

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Movie the Second: 44.5/186.5/317.8

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Movie the Third: 51.9/190.4/450.2

Wishful thinking or do you know something I don't?

 

Also, Black Ship has been delayed to Q1 next year.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Za Rukaio!

[4815162342]

Numbers always steals the best dates.....

Not really. The two 11/2 films were scheduled there back prior to the original Year 8 attempt. Anyone could look at the old Year 8 Advance Schedule thread to see what films were intended to be made

[Hiccup]

Dracula

 

Date- December 7th 

Genre- Period Horror

Rating- PG-13

Theaters- 3,523 theaters

Budget- 125 million

Running Time- 134 minutes or 2 hours and 14 minutes

Studio- O$corp Pictures

Director- Joe Johnston

Jonathan Harker- Chris Pine

Count Dracula- Ralph Fiennes

Wilhelmina (Mina) Harker- Natalie Portman

Lucy Westenra- Kristin Kreuk

Arthur Holmwood- Tom Hardy

Jack Seward- Adam Brody

Van Helsing- Tom Cruise

 

Plot: The film begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's crumbling, remote castle (situated in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Moldavia). The purpose of his mission is to provide legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer, Peter Hawkins, of Exeter in England. At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manner, Harker soon discovers that he has become a prisoner in the castle. He also begins to see disquieting facets of Dracula's nocturnal life. One night while searching for a way out of the castle, and against Dracula's strict admonition not to venture outside his room at night, Harker falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, "the Sisters". He is saved at the last second by the Count, because he wants to keep Harker alive just long enough to obtain needed legal advice and teachings about England and London (Dracula's planned travel destination so as to be among the "teeming millions"). Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.

 

Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs aground on the shores of Whitby, England, during a fierce tempest. All of the crew are missing and presumed dead, and only one body is found, that of the captain tied to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. These events led to the gradual disappearance of the entire crew apparently owing to a malevolent presence on board the ill-fated ship. An animal described as a large dog is seen on the ship leaping ashore. The ship's cargo is described as silver sand and boxes of "mould", or earth, from Transylvania. Soon Dracula is tracking Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy receives three marriage proposals in one day, from Dr. John Seward; Quincey Morris; and the Hon. Arthur Holmwood (later Lord Godalming). Lucy accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends. Dracula has a notable encounter with Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who means to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures — in ascending order of size — in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a motion sensor, detecting Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously. All of her suitors fret, and Seward calls in his old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam. Van Helsing immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition but refuses to disclose it, knowing that Seward's faith in him will be shaken if he starts to speak of vampires. Van Helsing tries multiple blood transfusions, but they are clearly losing ground. On a night when Van Helsing must return to Amsterdam (and his message to Seward asking him to watch the Westenra household is delayed), Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf. Mrs. Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy apparently dies soon after.

Lucy is buried, but soon afterward the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by, in their words, a "bloofer lady" (i.e., "beautiful lady").[2] Van Helsing, knowing that this means Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris. The suitors and Van Helsing track her down, and after a disturbing confrontation between her vampiric self and Arthur, they stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives home from recuperation in Budapest (where Mina joined and married him after his escape from the castle); he and Mina also join the coalition, who turn their attentions to dealing with Dracula. After Dracula learns of Van Helsing's and the others' plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting – and feeding from – Mina at least three times. Dracula also feeds Mina his blood, creating a spiritual bond between them to control her. The only way to forestall this is to kill Dracula first. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. This telepathic connection is established to be two-way, in that the Count can influence Mina, but in doing so betrays to her awareness of his surroundings. After the group sterilizes all of his lairs in London by putting pieces of consecrated host in each box of earth, Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania, transported in a box with transfer and portage instructions forwarded, pursued by Van Helsing's group, who themselves are aided by Van Helsing hypnotizing Mina and questioning her about the Count. The group splits in three directions. Van Helsing goes to the Count's castle and kills his trio of brides, and shortly afterwards all converge on the Count just at sundown under the shadow of the castle. Harker and Quincey rush to Dracula's box, which is being transported by Gypsies. Harker shears Dracula through the throat with a Kukri while the mortally wounded Quincey, slashed by one of the crew, stabs the Count in the heart with a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, and Mina is freed from his curse.

[Hiccup]

The Creators(In 3D and IMAX)Date- November 2nd, 8Genre- AnimatedRating- PGTheaters- 3,925 theatersBudget- 130 millionRunning Time- 98 minutes or 1 hour and 38 minutesStudio- O$corp PicturesDirector- Kirk DeMiccoActors and ActressesNick- Ryan ReynoldsFrank- Chris PineJoseph- Jay BaruchelKatie- Emma StonePlot:Three teenagers (Nick, Frank, and Joseph) making a science project accidently create a universe inside of a large box. At first they are kind to the people who view them as The Creators and share the role of The Creators. They often intervene in the affairs of the inhabitants and earn the worship of the inhabitants. They often humorously rescue the box from dangerous like dogs, other people, and the garbage. Eventually Nick and Joseph team up against Frank and try to exclude him from the rapidly evolving universe when the people prefer Frank was their main deity. They begin to argue who really created the universe. Frank ends up trying to sabotage Nick’s and Joseph’s plan of the world they created. He makes attempts to destroy it. After gravely destroying part of the universe, Frank then becomes known to the inhabitants as the “Evil One”. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the universe rapidly evolve and create a machine that sucks Frank’s girlfriend, Katie into the universe. Katie was oblivious about their creation and is alarmed when she enters the universe and learns about it. Frank is frantic to save her so he asks Nick and Joseph to help him. After fighting a bit, they settle their differences and get sucked into the universe. They are immediately worshiped as gods. Frank however is treated with fear and disgust. They learn that Katie is imprisoned in a remote tower in a dangerous forest. She is imprisoned because she is viewed as Frank’s wicked wife and helper. After a dangerous and bounding journey, the reach Katie and rescue her. The film ends with them leaving the universe. Frank and Katie are no longer viewed as wicked by the inhabitants of the universe. Frank, Nick, and Joseph plan on leaving the universe to its own and not to intervene in the affairs of the inhabitants.During the film we learn about all three boys home life and about the universe they created and how it parallels Earth. The film is filled with comedic moments to keep up the humor for children.

[Hiccup]

BehemothDate- October 19th, 8Genre- AdventureRating- PG-13Theaters- 3,607Budget- 135 millionRunning Time- 128 minutes or 2 hours and 8 minutesStudio- O$corp PicturesDirector- Guy RitchieActors and Actresses-Deryn- Emma WatsonPrince Alek- Nicholas HoultWildcount Volger- Chris CooperDr. Nora Darwin Barlow- Pauley PerrettePrevious Film: Leviathan: 25.6M/82.3M/210.4MPlot: The story starts on the Leviathan sights two German ironclads and decides to attack them, thinking that the sea ships are defenseless. Klopp and Alek are controlling the engines, with Mr. Hirst, the Leviathan's chief engineer, observing. However, they discover that one of the ships, the Goebon, is preparing a threatening Tesla cannon, a lightning generator. Klopp puts the engines on full retreat without permission. Mr. Hirst attempts to interfere and tries to shoot Klopp with a compressed air pistol. However, Alek leaps at Mr. Hirst and ends up getting shot in the ribs, yet not fatally. The lightning still hit, and Newkirk, who was flying in a Huxley above the Leviathan, is almost killed, but is saved by Deryn. After the escape, Deryn and Dr. Barlow visit Alek, and he explains what happened on the ship. When Deryn was delivering a message to Count Volger, he learns that Alek had told her that he is a prince. After landing in Constantinople, Aleksandar plots an escape from the Leviathan. While Alek is taking watching over Dr. Barlow's eggs, one egg hatches, revealing a perspicacious loris, as identified later in the story by Dr. Barlow, that seems to understand and repeat various sounds and words, seemingly usefully. The creature then latches onto Alek and flees with him. In their escape Volger and Hoffman remain behind in order to allow Alek and the others to flee. The group manages to head into the city of Constantinople, where they try to remain hidden among the commoners. Alek and Corporal Bauer leave the hotel after laying low for a while with Klopp, one of the masters of mechaniks. Alek discovers a very nosy American reporter by the name of Eddie Malone, in which he discovers some information about the Leviathan that he finds interesting, at that point, a few German soldiers walk in, searching for Bauer. They make a hasty escape only to be caught by Zaven, a leader of one of the resistance against the sultan's rule. Deryn is assigned a secret mission to plant a fabricated barnacle that destroys metal into the Ottoman Empire's kraken net in order for Britain to attack once the Ottoman Empire joins sides with Germany. The mission was successful, but she was the only one to remain free out of the four-member group. Deryn also enters Ottoman territory, curious to find Alek. Meanwhile, a revolution is being prepared in the Ottoman Empire led by the Committee of Union and Progress. Alek then agrees to join the Committee as an ally, wishing to strike a blow at the Germans. He meets Lilit, Zaven's daughter. He also meets Nene, their grandmother, who lies on a mechanical bed. They then stage a revolt, using a gold bar Alek has saved. They buy up parts and lots of spice at the advice of Deryn, who used it as a weapon against a German agent trying to hijack the British embassy's walker. They prepare the Committee's walkers for throwing spice. Because Deryn reveals that the Behemoth, a massive fabricated sea creature of Britain, will eliminate the ironclads with the guidance of the Leviathan, the Committee executes a mission unknown to much of the group to destroy the Tesla cannon in Istanbul/Constantinople. While the revolt is successful, Zaven is killed destroying the Tesla cannon. Like Deryn said, the British invade and use the Behemoth to obliterate the Goebon and the Breslau, the two ironclads. Before leaving the cliffs by body kite to continue fighting in the revolution, Lilit kisses Dylan/Deryn, not knowing that Deryn is a girl. Then they all escape aboard the Leviathan. When all of the people on the ship discover that Alek is a prince from Eddie Malone's newspaper, they treat him with great respect. A sequel is set in motion when they find out they are going to the Far East.

[Blankments]

Wishful thinking or do you know something I don't?

 

 

CRAP IT'S THE FOURTH MOVIE lol

[Ezen Baklattan]

Moments of SilenceGenre: DramaDirector: Gas Van SantTheaters: 4 (11/30), 50 (12/7), 219 (12/14), 1,022 (12/21), 1,705 (12/25)Cast: Ben Foster, Garrett Hedlund, Alice Eve, Rene Russo, Aaron Paul, Cobie Smulders, Bill PaxtonRating: RBudget: $25 millionRuntime: TBDPlot: Coming Soon

[Alpha]

The Mansion
Director: James Wan
Composer: Charlie Clouser
Genre: Horror Thriller
Date: October 26
Studio: Alpha Pictures
Format: 35mm film
Budget: $10 million
Theaters: 2,737
MPAA Rating: R for intense graphic horror violence and some frightening images
Runtime: 92 min
Tagline: Be Forewarned

 

Cast:
Gavin Kent as Adam
Ethan Hawke as Caleb Johnson
Amy Acker as Bailey Johnson
Paul Walker as Michael Bachelor
Dylan O’Brien as Sam Johnson
Peyton List as Sally Johnson
Mackenzie Foy as April Johnson
Lucy Hutchinson as Hailey Johnson
Amber Heard as the business partner

 

Plot Summary: A family finds a mysterious orphaned child, who possesses strange and supernatural abilities.

 

Plot:

In the suburbs of a city in California lives the Johnson family. They consist of 2 adults (Caleb and Bailey, husband and wife) and 4 children (Caleb Jr., Sally, Sam, April). They are a very successful and rich family. Caleb is a CEO of Johnson-July Industries, and Bailey is an acclaimed children's author. All of the children have straight A's in all of their classes in school. However, Caleb Jr. is suffering from osteosarcoma, and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

 

Unfortunately, the recent limb-salvage surgery has failed, and he only has days to live. 5 days after the failure, Caleb Jr. dies. The Johnsons mourn his death, and go to his funeral. Various family members are there, and it stretches into the night. After the ceremony by the graveside, the family leaves. Bailey is carrying a box of tissues, due to her excessive crying. When they get home, they notice a basket by the door. Caleb looks at the basket, and sees a baby, that looks about 3 months old. The family take inside the baby, and Bailey says she will try and find who left the baby and return it.

 

SEVEN YEARS LATER

 

The family has grown over the course of these seven years. Caleb has recently purchased an independent food company, and Bailey has written many more books. Sam has graduated from high school and is leaving for college in a few weeks, Sally and April are currently in middle school, and there is a 9 year old girl named Hailey. The baby left on the doorstep has also grown up to be 7 years old, and the family has named him Adam.

 

Adam was diagnosed at an early age with Asperger syndrome, and does not seem to show much interaction with kids his age. He rarely speaks, and is always daydreaming during school. One night, a business partner of Caleb comes to the house to stay for the night. Adam hugs him before he goes to sleep, and says, “Good night,” in a cute manner. The business partner sleeps in the guest house, and suddenly he begins to get night terrors. He suddenly begins to stop breathing, and after he dies, he disappears. The family wakes up in the morning and finds the partner’s stuff gone. Bailey assumes that he just left in the wee hours of the morning.

Adam begins to develop an interest in Hailey. Hailey and Adam become friends inside the family, and they play with each other. The parents find this as a sign of progress in social development, and report it to his school case manager to try and encourage him more in interactions at school.

 

One day, Adam and Hailey are playing when Hailey begins to make googly faces at Adam, taunting him. The two insue in play fighting, and after the fight Hailey is beaten. Hailey giggles, saying “You beat me!” Adam gets up, and claps his hands. Suddenly, Hailey disappears, along with all her personal belongings. Adam then walks into the kitchen, and Bailey asks where Hailey is. Adam says, "She went to a friend’s house." Bailey walks back into the kitchen, where there is a missing chair.

 

The people in the family begin to act strange around Adam. Being experienced at computers, Sam takes pictures of random people, and edits their photos so their eyes are left with white holes. Bailey becomes more prolific in writing children’s books, but hides disturbing pictures in them.

 

One night, the Johnson family has a party at their mansion. Everyone in the neighborhood comes, and they all have a rapturous time. However, Adam begins to ruin the mood with his odd events. Taking his plate to the dishwater, he breaks it. He tries to watch TV but immediately after seeing the screen, the TV glass breaks. Adam tries to go to the bathroom, but on every occasion, clogs the toilet. As the night goes on, neighbors leave one by one until there is only one guest left, a friend of Caleb’s named Michael Bachelor. They both have drinks, discussing life, when Michael needs to go get some things from his car.

 

When he goes out there, he sees Adam, crossing his arms, standing in the grass in the light of the moon. Michael is creeped out, and asks Adam where his parents are. Adam says, “Be forewarned.” Suddenly, he attacks Michael, but after defeating him, he does not clap his hands, but instead places his hand on Michael’s skin, turning it white. Adam says, “They will come soon,” before Adam faints.

 

The next day, Michael goes over to the Johnson’s mansion. Bailey greets him, but immediately Michael attacks her, knife in hand. Under his eyes Michael is crying blood, with his skin extremely pale. Michael eventually stabs the knife through Bailey’s throat, blood gushing everywhere. Bailey dies, and her body disappears, along with another dining room chair, and her personal belongings. Adam comes downstairs in his pajamas, and sees Michael with the knife. Adam smiles. The two hug, and in a demonic voice, Michael says, “Come on child. There is a lot of work to be done.” They both leave the house, holding hands.

 

Caleb comes home from work, and sees that Bailey is gone. Caleb begins to get suspicious. Bailey is gone and Hailey is gone. He also thinks about how all their personal belongings disappeared as they died. He then realizes; it’s a serial killer. Caleb immediately calls the police, saying his wife and daughter were murdered.

 

Police begin an investigation of the murders. Apparently, children in the neighborhood have been murdered. Some eyewitnesses say that the murderer had extremely pale skin and blood under his eyes. Others see a child walking around a house before a murder took place.

 

At night, Caleb gets a snack, crying over the loss of his family. Suddenly, Adam shows up. Caleb looks behind him, and hugs Adam, happy to see him alive. Adam says, “You shouldn’t have taken me in.” Caleb blinks twice, bewildered at this statement. Adam then states, “My work here is done. And I know what must be done.”

 

Suddenly, Adam’s head explodes into a million pieces, and Caleb is shocked. Blood is everywhere in the kitchen, and soon enough fire begins to come out of where Adam’s head originally was. The fire spreads, and begins to set the house on fire. Caleb grabs a fire extinguisher from a special room, but is unable to stop the fire. The rest of the family is in a panic, and Caleb tells them to come to the panic room. They all huddle in one room, and suddenly, the panic room explodes from a gas leak, killing them all.

 

Firemen come to the house, and try to put out the fire. However, it does not work, and hours later the house collapses. What’s left is a blood-red pentagram on a black plot of land. The firemen discover the burned bodies in the remains of the house. One of them seems to see the shadow of a boy in the remains of the kitchen.

 

THE END

 

In a post-credits scene, a screenwriter finishes his latest movie script, about a demonic boy who begins to cause terror on his family. He gets up from his seat when he hears a doorbell, and sees a baby in a basket, about 3 months old. The screenwriter then takes the baby inside.

[Alpha]

Flowers for Algernon
Director: Tim Burton
Composer: Danny Elfman
Genre: Drama
Date: November 21 (limited), December 21 (wide)
Studio: Alpha Pictures
Format: 70mm film
Budget: $50 million
Theaters: 4 (11/21), 16 (11/30), 178 (12/7), 465 (12/14), 932 (12/21), 1,745 (12/28), 2,244 (1/4)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, some sexual content and language
Running Time: 138 minutes
Tagline: We Are All Human

 

Cast:
Jared Leto as Charlie Gordon
Isla Fisher as Alice Kinnian
Johnny Depp as Professor Nemur
Helena Bonham Carter as Professor Strauss

 

Plot Summary: A mentally disabled bakery worker takes part in an experiment to increase human intelligence.

 

Plot:

In a dark room with only a lamp, the protagonist Charlie Gordon begins writing his first “progris riport.” We learn through Charlie’s words that he has an IQ of sixty-eight and is a poor speller. He is thirty-two years old, he has a job at Donner’s Bakery, and takes Miss Alice Kinnian’s literacy class three times a week at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults. Dr. Strauss, who along with Professor Nemur is a director of the experiment, has instructed Charlie to write everything he thinks and feels in these progress reports. Throughout his narration, he speaks in childish manner. After he finishes writing, he turns off his lamp.

 

FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON

 

Through the opening credits, at a playground at a public recreation park, Charlie swings around and plays with the younger children with delight. It’s almost as if he fits perfectly with the children. We cut to a class full of adults, where a woman named Alice Kinnian is teaching them basic math. Charlie, who’s in this class, looks at Alice and narrates how much he likes Alice, calling her eyes “beautiful.” After class is dismissed, Alice looks at Charlie, who waves her goodbye and strolls out the door.

 

We cut to Charlie waiting outside a clinic, narrating that this is where his story begins. He gets called in by a nurse, and he stumbles out his chair, where some people laugh and grin. In a medical room, Dr. Nemur explains to Charlie that he and Professor Strauss have tested an intelligence-building procedure on animals and are now looking for a human subject. Charlie’s teacher Alice has recommended Charlie because of the eagerness to learn he has displayed in her literacy class. When Nemur questions Charlie about this eagerness, Charlie mentions that his mother encouraged his education as a child. The doctors tell Charlie that they need permission from his family to go ahead with the operation, but Charlie is not sure where they live or whether they are still alive.

 

At Charlie’s bakery job, Charlie is bullied by his co-workers. While his boss Joe Carp and the rest of the employees mock him, Charlie does not understand that he is the butt of their jokes. We see examples of their rude behavior, where his coworkers sometimes refer to doing something stupid and out of nowhere as “pull[ing] a Charlie Gordon,” and one worker named Gimpy uses the phrase to describe a new employee’s misplacement of a birthday cake. Ever eager to improve himself, Charlie asks Mr. Donner if he can learn to be an apprentice baker, but Donner tells him that he should focus on his cleaning.

 

We see a woman named Professor Strauss give Charlie a test in which she shows him pictures of people he has never seen and asks him to invent stories about them. As with the “raw shok” (Rorschach) test, Charlie does not understand the point of making up stories and tells the woman that as a child he would be hit if he lied. Professor Nemur then takes Charlie to a psychology laboratory, where he shows Charlie a mouse named Algernon who has already undergone Strauss and Nemur’s experimental surgery. Nemur has Charlie compete with Algernon by attempting to solve a maze on paper while Algernon runs through an identical maze. Algernon beats Charlie every time, to Nemur’s amusement.

 

At Charlie’s desk, Charlie writes and narrates that the scientists have located his sister and have received her permission to proceed with the operation. He listens to a conversation between Strauss and Nemur. Though Nemur fears that dramatically increasing Charlie’s IQ will make him sick, Strauss argues that Charlie’s motivation to learn is a great advantage. Nemur tries to explain to Charlie that the operation is experimental and that they cannot be certain that it will succeed in making Charlie smarter. There is even the potential that the operation will succeed temporarily but ultimately leave Charlie worse off than he is now. Charlie is not worried, however, as he is thrilled to have been chosen and vows to “try awful hard” to become smarter.

We see Charlie in the hospital awaiting his operation. Alice visits him, and Charlie senses that she is concerned. He is nervous but still excited by the prospect of becoming smarter, and he cannot wait to beat Algernon in a maze race. Charlie also looks forward to being as intelligent as other people so that he can make friends.

 

Three days after the operation, and Charlie does not feel any change. A nurse named Hilda tells him how to spell “progress report,” so he diligently begins to correct his misspellings. Hilda also suggests to Charlie that God did not make him smart to begin with and that perhaps Nemur and Strauss should not be tampering with God’s will. The next day, Hilda is replaced. When Charlie asks the new nurse how babies are made, she is embarrassed and does not answer. One day, Alice comes to visit. When Charlie expresses disappointment that the operation has not made him smart right away, she reassures Charlie that she has faith in him.

Another day, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur bring Charlie an odd television-like machine that plays images and speaks to him while he sleeps to help him “get smart.” Charlie is skeptical; he complains that the machine keeps him awake and makes him tired at work. Charlie begins attending therapy sessions with Dr. Strauss, though he is not sure what purpose they serve. Dr. Strauss explains to Charlie the concept of the conscious and subconscious mind, and says that the television-like device is designed to teach Charlie’s subconscious while he sleeps. Dr. Strauss also gives Charlie a dictionary.

 

After work one day, Charlie’s coworkers Frank and Joe take Charlie to a bar, where they urge him to dance like a buffoon and then abandon him. Not comprehending that he is being made fun of, Charlie laughs along. Back at the lab, Charlie finally beats Algernon in a maze race. Alice comes to teach Charlie in the laboratory. They begin to read Robinson Crusoe, the hardest book Charlie has ever encountered, and together they work on his spelling skills. This is when Alice and Charlie’s relationship begins to start.

Charlie shocks everyone in the bakery by proving that he is capable of working the dough mixer, and he gets promoted by Joe. He finishes Robinson Crusoe and, wanting to know what happens to the characters after the novel ends, becomes frustrated when Alice tells him that the story does not continue beyond the end of the novel.

 

Alice begins to teach Charlie about grammar and punctuation. He does not immediately grasp the concepts, but one night something clicks in his mind. He soon masters punctuation, literally overnight. Frank and Joe take Charlie out again and make him dance with a girl, but this time Charlie realizes that they are mocking him, and he suddenly experiences anger and confusion. He dreams about the girl who had danced with him and wakes up with the sheets “wet and messy.”

 

When Charlie is writing his next progress report, it’s clear that Charlie’s reading, writing, and ability to retain information show sharp daily improvements. His narration is also easier to understand. He takes another Rorschach test, and he gets angry when he remembers his first “raw shok” experience. Charlie insists that during the first administration of the test Dr. Strauss told him to find specific secret pictures hidden in the inkblots, not simply to imagine his own pictures. Nemur plays back a tape recording of the first administration of the test, and Charlie is shocked to learn that he is wrong: Strauss gave Charlie identical instructions in both sessions, but Charlie lacked the mental capacity to understand them the first time. Charlie is stunned to hear the childishness of his own voice in the tape recording. He decides that he wants to keep some of his progress reports private, though he does not entirely understand why he feels such a need.

 

Charlie reconfigures the machines at the bakery to increase productivity, which earns him another raise. He remembers a time when Gimpy tried to teach him to make rolls but he was unable to get it right. Charlie notices that his increased intelligence does not make his acquaintances proud of him; instead, they are uncomfortable and upset by his presence. Charlie decides to ask Alice out to a movie to celebrate his raise. Strauss and Nemur agree to let Charlie keep some reports private, and this makes him more comfortable writing about personal matters. Meanwhile, Nemur and Strauss argue about whether to present their preliminary findings at an upcoming convention in Chicago. Strauss thinks it is premature, but as the senior member of the research team, Nemur overrides Strauss’s objections.

 

One night, Charlie has a dream that triggers a flashback of his mother crying out, “He’s normal! He’s normal!” when he was six years old. He also remembers his father’s attempts to force his mother to accept her son’s retardation. Charlie remembers his mother hysterically spanking him for defecating in his pants.

 

Charlie confesses his attraction to Alice over dinner. She replies that it would be inappropriate, for the sake of the experiment, for them to develop a romance. Charlie is upset that the books he reads do not offer solutions to the emotional turmoil he is experiencing.

 

Charlie is distraught to discover that Gimpy has been stealing from the bakery, undercharging customers in exchange for kickbacks. Charlie agonizes over whether he should tell Mr. Donner, and he asks both Nemur and Strauss for advice. Strauss insists that Charlie has a moral obligation to tell, but Nemur argues that he should not become involved. Nemur states that Charlie was practically an “inanimate object” before the operation and thus not accountable. This idea angers Charlie immensely, and he feels that Nemur does not understand that he was a person even in his original disabled condition. Charlie asks Alice for advice about the dilemma, and she tells him that he must feel his own decision from within.

 

Charlie suddenly understands that he is capable of making moral judgments himself. He decides to confront Gimpy and give him the opportunity to mend his ways before he goes to Donner with his concerns. Trapped, Gimpy grudgingly agrees, clearly disconcerted by Charlie’s inexplicable intelligence. Thinking about Alice’s role in his newfound independence, Charlie decides that he is in love with her. Meanwhile, Charlie’s intellectual pursuits advance far beyond an average level.

 

Charlie takes Alice to a folk concert in Central Park. Shortly after putting his arm around her, he sees a teenage boy watching them, his pants undone. Charlie chases after the boy but cannot find him. Later, he decides that the boy must have been a hallucination, which he thinks arose because his intellectual growth has outpaced his emotional growth.

 

Pressured by his other employees, Donner fires Charlie from the bakery. Charlie is surprised at how much he misses the job, realizing for the first time how much it meant to him. Fanny, a kindly coworker, feels sorry for Charlie, but she also fears his sudden change. Later, Charlie goes to Alice’s apartment. They approach intimacy, but Charlie panics when he thinks about kissing Alice. Alice kisses Charlie, but he seizes with terror and cries himself to sleep.

 

Charlie writes that his relationship with Nemur is growing increasingly strained, as Nemur continues to treat him more as a laboratory specimen than a human being. Nemur is upset that Charlie has fallen behind on writing his progress reports. Charlie argues that the reports are too time-consuming and that he does not have enough time to learn about the outside world if he has to engage in constant self-analysis. Strauss suggests that Charlie learn to type, so he does.

 

Charlie has nightmares for three nights after his panic in Alice’s apartment. He has a recurring image of a bakery window and of his former mentally retarded self on the other side of the pane, watching him. He remembers a childhood incident in which Norma, who had gotten an A on a test, asked their mother for a dog that she had promised if Norma did well in school. Charlie had offered to help take care of the dog if their parents bought one for Norma, but Norma had demanded that the dog be hers alone. Charlie and Norma’s father had declared that if Norma was going to be so selfish about it, there would be no dog, despite Rose’s promise. Norma resentfully threatened to “forget” everything she knew and be a “dummy” like Charlie if her good work would not be rewarded. Angrily, Charlie now wishes he could tell Norma that he never intended to hurt or annoy her, but that he only wanted her to like him and play with him.

 

Charlie goes to visit Alice in her classroom at the Center for Retarded Adults and sees many of the mentally disabled people with whom he had once attended the school. Alice is upset that Charlie has come into the classroom and tells him that he is no longer the warm, open person she once knew, that he has grown cold and aggressive. Charlie insists that he has merely learned to defend himself. Alice replies that she now feels insecure around Charlie because of his clear intellectual superiority. He drops Alice off at her apartment, feeling sad, angry, and very distant from her. His love, he thinks, has cooled into fondness.

Charlie picks up the habit of wandering through the streets of New York at night. One night, he meets a strange and sad woman in Central Park who tells him about her problems and then offers to have sex with him. Charlie almost goes home with the woman, until she reveals that she is pregnant. Charlie flashes back to an image of his mother pregnant with his sister, which he associates with his mother beginning to give up on him and placing her hopes in Norma instead. Cursing the woman in the park, Charlie grabs her shoulder. She screams, and a group of people runs toward them. Charlie runs away, and he hears the woman tell the group that he tried to attack her. Part of Charlie longs to be caught and beaten. He wants to be punished, though he cannot say why or for what.

 

Charlie begins dictating his progress reports to a tape recorder. The first part of this report is recorded on a flight to Chicago, where Nemur and Strauss are scheduled to reveal their preliminary findings at a scientific convention. Charlie and Algernon will be the star exhibits of the presentation. As the plane takes off, Charlie is uncomfortable putting his seat belt on because he dislikes the feeling of confinement. Trying to remember why, he flashes back to a time in childhood when his mother took him to a quack doctor named Guarino, who promised to increase Charlie’s intelligence to a normal level. This visit took place before Norma was born, when Rose’s energies were still primarily focused on making Charlie normal. Though Charlie’s father was skeptical, Rose insisted that Charlie go through with Guarino’s regimen, which included being strapped onto a table. This claustrophobic procedure instilled in Charlie a fear of confinement. Though Guarino was a crook and his process a sham, Charlie bears him no ill will—Guarino was always kind to him and never made him feel inferior for his disability. Charlie also remembers that his father harbored bitterness about the expensive therapy sessions, as they forced him to continue working as a barbershop-supply salesman, postponing his longtime dream of opening his own barbershop. By the time the plane lands, Charlie no longer feels uncomfortable in his seat belt.

At the hotel before the conference, Charlie meets many curious scientists and students who have heard about him. They engage him on a wide variety of topics, and his vast range of knowledge enables him to discuss with ease everything from contemporary economic theory to obscure linguistics and mathematics. When Charlie hears Nemur discussing the experiment with a student, he asks Nemur about an article recently published in the Hindu Journal of Psychopathology on related scientific matters. Charlie is shocked to learn that Nemur did not read the article because he does not speak Hindi. Charlie is further stunned to learn that Strauss does not speak Hindi either. Strauss claims to speak six different languages, but that number is unimpressive to Charlie, who has learned more languages than that in just the past two months. Charlie realizes that he now understands more about the experiment than Nemur and Strauss, and he storms away, angrily declaring that they are frauds. Strauss catches Charlie and urges him to be more tolerant of others’ shortcomings, especially since Nemur and Strauss have never claimed to be all-knowing. Charlie understands that he has been impatient and realizes that his quest to take in all of the world’s knowledge is an impossible one.

Charlie sits on the stage during Nemur and Strauss’s presentation. Listening to Burt deliver his paper about Algernon, Charlie learns that Algernon’s behavior grew erratic and self-destructive at the height of his intelligence. Charlie is annoyed that this information has been withheld from him. He also grows increasingly frustrated at hearing the scientists suggest that he was subhuman prior to their operation and feels like a debased carnival sideshow act. Charlie privately toys with the idea of creating havoc in the convention by letting Algernon out of his cage.

 

During Nemur’s remarks, Charlie suddenly realizes that there is a scientific flaw in the experiment: Nemur and Strauss have miscalculated the amount of observation time necessary to determine whether or not Algernon’s increased intelligence will be permanent. Charlie realizes that he may yet lose his intelligence. Angry with Nemur now both for his patronizing attitude and for his lack of scientific thoroughness, Charlie succumbs to his urge to free Algernon from his cage. As the mouse scampers away, the auditorium descends into chaos. Charlie is able to catch Algernon, and he runs away from the conference with the mouse in his pocket. He catches a flight back to New York, where he plans to find an apartment and hide from Strauss and Nemur for a while. A new sense of urgency falls upon Charlie with the knowledge that his intelligence may desert him.

 

Charlie moves into an apartment in the city. He builds Algernon an elaborate maze to solve and meets his neighbor Fay Lillman, a free-spirited and flirtatious artist. Fay is appalled by the neatness of Charlie’s apartment, saying she cannot stand straight lines and that she drinks to make the lines go blurry. Charlie finds Fay strange but undeniably attractive.

 

Charlie visits his father at his barbershop. Matt does not recognize his son, and treats him as a customer. Too nervous to say anything, Charlie gets a haircut. He remembers the night that his father took him to live with his Uncle Herman after Rose had become hysterical, threatening that she would kill Charlie with a carving knife if he were not shipped out to the Warren State Home immediately. Charlie attempts to reveal his identity to Matt, but after an awkward and inconclusive exchange, he gives up and leaves the shop.

 

Algernon performs well in Charlie’s new mazes but sometimes appears to be angry or depressed, frenetically throwing himself against the walls. Fay buys Algernon a female companion mouse named Minnie. Fay stays in Charlie’s apartment one night. They have drinks together and Charlie passes out. The next morning, naked in bed together, Fay says that they have not made love and wonders whether Charlie is gay. She tells him that he acted like a little kid while he was drunk. Charlie realizes that the old, mentally retarded Charlie has not left him and that his former self still exists within his mind.

 

Charlie spends a day in movie theaters and wandering the streets, just to be among other people. He eats at the diner where he took Alice after their movie date. A mentally disabled busboy accidentally breaks some dishes, and as he sweeps up the mess, the customers taunt him cruelly. Not comprehending that he is the target of the customers’ mockery, the busboy smiles along with their insults. Charlie is infuriated and screams to the crowd that the busboy is human and deserves respect.

 

Charlie visits Alice and talks over his feelings with her. He worries that he has become emotionally detached from everyone around him, and he yearns to reconnect with humanity. Charlie wonders if the inner, mentally retarded Charlie would allow him to make love to Alice if he pretended that she were Fay. He hypothesizes that since he cares for Fay less deeply than he does for Alice, his inner self might not panic at the notion of sex with Fay. Charlie turns out the lights and begins kissing Alice but is unable to trick himself into believing that she is Fay, and he feels guilty for trying to use her in an emotional experiment.

 

Charlie goes home and waits for Fay to return from dancing. When she arrives, he is sexually aggressive. They make love, and he senses the “other” Charlie watching them but not panicking. Charlie and Fay begin an affair, and he soon loses the sense of the other Charlie’s surveillance. Charlie decides to go back to the lab and take over research on the experiment. One day Algernon attacks Minnie and bites Fay. Charlie is concerned by Algernon’s hostility.

 

Alice visits Charlie’s apartment one night, and Fay unexpectedly shows up. To Charlie’s surprise, the two women get along favorably, and they all stay up late talking and drinking. Alice tells Charlie that she understands why he is enamored with Fay’s lightheartedness and spontaneity but worries that Fay and her drinking habits are detrimental to Charlie’s important work. Charlie makes love to Fay, thinking all along about Alice. He immerses himself increasingly in his work, often sleeping at the lab. Fay moves on to another boyfriend, but Charlie cannot be distracted, and he is exhilarated by the intensity of his own concentration. Algernon’s condition continues to deteriorate, and Charlie knows that if he can figure out the cause, he will give the world knowledge that could be invaluable to future research.

 

Charlie attends a party in honor of the Welberg Foundation. He overhears Strauss explaining to a foundation board member that even failed experiments are scientifically valuable, for they are often as educational as successes. Somewhat drunk, Charlie starts to interject a rude comment, but Strauss cuts him off. Charlie continues to alienate the guests, and when the party is over, Nemur accuses Charlie of being ungrateful for all that the operation has given him. Charlie argues that he has little for which to be grateful, since he feels that the greatest lesson he has learned with his intelligence is that people scorn him whether he is a moron or a genius.

 

Nemur accuses Charlie of becoming cynical and self-centered. In his drunken and emotional state, Charlie senses himself starting to act like the mentally retarded Charlie. He hurries to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, and he feels that he is looking directly at the other Charlie. He tells the other Charlie that they are enemies and that he will fight to keep the retarded Charlie from regaining control of his body. He goes home miserable, deciding that Nemur’s accusations have been correct.

 

Charlie soon has a massive intellectual breakthrough and writes a paper on his findings. In a letter to Nemur, he explains that he has uncovered a phenomenon he deems the “Algernon-Gordon Effect,” which argues that the more artificially induced intelligence one gains, the quicker it will deteriorate. Charlie tries to reassure Nemur and Strauss, as well as a distraught Alice, that they could not have foreseen this effect and should not feel guilty. Charlie senses that he is becoming absentminded, the first hint of the onset of his decline. Algernon soon dies, and Charlie buries him in the backyard, putting flowers on the grave.

 

Charlie goes to see his mother. Rose panics, and Charlie tries to win her trust, frantically telling her as much as he can about what has happened to him. He quickly realizes that his mother is delusional: though at one moment she seems to understand that he is her son, the next she asks him if he is a bill collector. Charlie patiently tries to explain his recent progress, telling Rose that he has fulfilled her dreams and become a success. He gives her the paper he has written in an attempt to make her happy. Rose is proud and feels vindicated. Norma, now an adult caring for Rose, arrives home. To Charlie’s surprise, she is delighted to see him. They have a long talk, and Norma apologizes for having been cruel to Charlie when they were children. The peace is suddenly broken when Rose comes at Charlie with a knife, telling him to keep away from Norma with his sexual thoughts. Charlie leaves in tears. As he walks away, he looks back at the house and sees the face of his boyhood self peering through the window.

 

Charlie contemplates suicide but decides he must keep writing his reports for the sake of science. At a therapy session with Strauss, Charlie has a hallucination in which he seems to fly into the center of his own unconscious, represented by a red, pulsing flower, and then imagines himself being battered against the walls of a cave.

 

Strauss tries to visit Charlie at his apartment, but Charlie refuses to let him in. Charlie picks up his copy of Paradise Lost, and though he knows he loved the book only a few months before, he is now unable to understand it.

 

Alice comes to stay with Charlie. She says she wants to spend as much time as possible with him before the effects of the operation recede completely. She holds him, and for once he does not feel the old inner panic. They make love for the first time, and it is a transcendent, spiritual experience, unlike the purely physical sex Charlie has had with Fay. Despite their happiness, Charlie cannot bear the thought of Alice witnessing his descent. He tells Alice that he will probably ask her to leave soon, and he makes her promise that when she does leave, she will never come back.

 

Charlie picks up his paper on the Algernon-Gordon Effect and is unable to understand it. He can no longer remember the languages he taught himself. His motor control begins to deteriorate, and he finds himself watching television all day. Alice tries to help by tidying up Charlie’s apartment, but her actions anger him because he wants everything left as it is, “to remind me of what I’m leaving behind.” Charlie also gets upset at Alice for trying to encourage him to pursue intellectual activities in which he is no longer interested. Alice’s denial of Charlie’s condition reminds him of his mother. He asks Alice to leave and, devastated, she does.

Charlie wonders if he can stall his deterioration. He knows that he cannot keep himself from forgetting things, but wonders if he can still learn and retain new things, thus maintaining a steady level of intelligence. However, in his entry of November 1, Charlie’s punctuation is flawed, and soon he loses accuracy in grammar and spelling as well. He describes voyeuristically watching a woman bathing in the apartment across the courtyard. Alice comes to see Charlie but he refuses to let her in.

 

Having regressed almost completely to his original state, Charlie returns to the Donner’s Bakery and gets his old job back. He refuses to accept money from Alice and Strauss. When a new employee named Meyer Klaus picks on Charlie and threatens to break his arm, Joe, Frank, and Gimpy come to Charlie’s rescue. They tell him that he should come to them for help if anyone ever gives him trouble. Charlie is grateful for his friends.

 

Charlie forgets that he is no longer enrolled in Alice’s class at the Center for Retarded Adults and shows up for one of the meetings. When Alice sees Charlie has reverted entirely to his original state, she runs from the room weeping. Charlie senses that people feel sorry for him, and he decides to go live at the Warren Home. In his final note, he says that he is glad he got to be smart for a short time and that he got to learn about his family. He has a vague memory of himself as a genius: “he looks different and he walks different but I dont think its me because its like I see him from the window.” He writes goodbye to Alice and Dr. Strauss, and advises Professor Nemur that he will have more friends if he does not get so upset when people laugh at him. Finally, Charlie leaves a postscript requesting “please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.”

 

THE END

 

The indie-rock song “Everybody Needs A Home” by Skylar Grey plays during the end credits.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Alpha

[Alpha]

The Giver
Director: David Lynch
Composer: Angelo Badalamenti
Genre: Sci-Fi Drama
Date: November 16
Studio: Alpha Pictures
Format: 35/70mm film, black and white
Budget: $45 million
Theaters: 3,032
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, including disturbing images, sexual content, and one scene involving war violence
Running Time: 114 minutes
Tagline: Snow. Love. War. Memory.

 

Cast:
Preston Bailey as Jonas
Jeff Bridges as The Giver
Joel Edgerton as Father
Rose Byrne as Mother
Sadie Sandler as Lily
Jared Gilmore as Asher
Emily Hahn as Fiona
Kate Capshaw as The Chief Elder

 

Plot Summary: In the distant future, a young boy is chosen to receive memories of the past.

 

NOTE: The film is shot in black in white, however there are notable exceptions, in the first scene and when Jonas is gathering memories of the past. For example, when the memory of the color red is discovered, anything colored red is seen in the color red instead of black and white.

 

Plot:

We see a blizzard of snow, blowing at the screen, in color (the POV of a sled rider). We hear movement, similar to a sled, and the camera begins a descent. As the sled rolls down the hill, it begins to slow down. Before the sled stops, the camera cuts to black.

 

DAVID LYNCH’S THE GIVER

 

We see a bike, riding down a paved street. We are introduced to Jonas, as he narrates about his struggles to find the right word to describe his feelings as he approaches an important milestone. He rejects “frightened” as too strong a word. Jonas decides he is apprehensive, not frightened, about the important thing that is going to happen in December.

 

At dinner that night, Jonas’s family—his father, mother, and seven-year-old sister Lily—participate in a nightly ritual called “the telling of feelings.” Each person describes an emotion that he or she experienced during the day and discusses it with the others. Lily says she was angry at a child visiting from a nearby community who did not observe her childcare group’s play area rules (making a fist in anger). Her parents help her to understand that the boy probably felt out of place, and she becomes less angry.

Jonas’s father, who is a Nurturer (he takes care of the community’s babies, or newchildren), describes his struggles with a slowly developing baby whose weakness makes it a candidate for release. The family considers taking care of the baby for a while (the night crew would take care instead, but the crew is not as experienced, which is a problem), though they are not allowed to adopt him—every household is allowed only one male and one female child.

 

Jonas’s mother explains her feeling of sadness, about how she needed to assign a man for release (the biggest punishment anyone in the community for release), even after he had given the criminal a second chance. The criminal was released from jail a while ago, and it was “heartbreaking” to see him be punished once again.

 

Jonas explains his apprehensiveness about the coming Ceremony of Twelve—the time when he will be assigned a career and begin life as an adult. The parents ask Lily to go to her room; this is a private conversation.

 

Jonas’s father explains that he has nothing to worry about. Everything will go as the Ceremonies usually proceed. Every December, all of the children in the community are promoted to the next age group—for example, all four-year-old children become Fives, regardless of the time of year when they were actually born. Fifty children are born every year. The ceremonies are different for each age group. At the Ceremony of One newchildren, who have spent their first year at the Nurturing Center, are assigned to family units and given a name to use in addition to the number they were given at birth. Jonas’s father confesses to his family that he has peeked at the struggling newchild’s name—Gabriel—in the hopes that calling him a name will help the child develop more quickly. Jonas is surprised that his father would break any kind of rule, though the members of the community seem to bend rules once in a while. For instance, older siblings often teach younger siblings to ride bicycles before the Ceremony of Nine, when they receive their first official bicycles.

 

Jonas’s parents reassure him that the Committee of Elders, the ruling group of the community, will choose a career for him that will suit him. The Committee members observe the Elevens all year, at school and play and at the volunteer work they are required to do after school, and consider each child’s abilities and interests when they make their selection. Jonas’s father tells him that when he was eleven, he knew he would be assigned the role of Nurturer, because it was clear that he loved newchildren and he spent all his volunteer hours in the Nurturing Center. When Jonas expresses concern about his friend Asher’s Assignment—he worries that Asher does not have any serious interests—his parents tell him not to worry, but remind him that after Twelve, he might lose touch with many of his childhood friends, since he will be spending his time with a new group, training for his job. Then Jonas’s sister Lily appears, asking for her “comfort object”—a community-issued stuffed elephant. The narrator refers to the comfort objects as imaginary creatures. Jonas’s had been called a bear.

 

The following night, Jonas’s father brings the struggling newchild Gabriel home to spend nights with Jonas’s family. Lily remarks that Gabriel has “funny eyes” like Jonas—both boys have light eyes, while most people in the community have darker eyes. Lily is being slightly rude. In their society it is inappropriate to call attention to the ways in which people are different. Lily also says she hopes she will be assigned to be a Birthmother when she grows up, since she likes newchildren so much, but her mother tells her that the position of Birthmother carries very little honor—Birthmothers are pampered for three years while they produce children, but then do hard labor afterwards and never get to see their biological children.

 

The next day, Jonas meets Asher so that they can do their mandatory volunteer hours together. Children from eight to eleven volunteer at different locations daily to develop skills and get a sense of their occupational interests. Jonas enjoys volunteer hours because they are less regulated than other hours of his day—he gets to choose where he spends them. He volunteers at a variety of places, enjoying the different experiences, but Jonas has no idea what his Assignment will be. Today, he goes to the House of the Old, where he notices Asher’s bike is parked. In the bathing room, he finds Asher and Fiona. He appreciates the sense of safety and trust he gets from Fiona—it is against the rules to look at other people naked in any situation, but Jonas does not realize this. They discuss the release of one of the Old, a man named Roberto. Fiona describes the release as a wonderful celebration—the man’s life story was narrated, he was toasted by the other residents of the House of the Old, he made a farewell speech, and then walked blissfully through a special door to be released. Fiona does not know what actually happens when someone is released, but she assumes it is wonderful. Jonas then takes off his clothes, and gets into the pool. The two stare at each other, and smile.

 

Just as the family practices a telling of feelings at night, they tell their dreams in the morning. Jonas usually does not have a dream to tell, but this morning he tells the one we witnessed. He was in the steamy bathing room at the House of the Old with Fiona, when he felt a strong “wanting.” After sending Lily off to school, Jonas’s mother tells him that the feelings he is having are his first Stirrings, something that happens to everyone when they get to be Jonas’s age. She gives him a small pill as “treatment” and reminds him to take his pill every morning. Jonas recalls that his parents take the same pill every morning, as do some of his friends. Jonas is pleased to have grown up enough to have to take the pills, but he tries to remember the dream—he liked the feelings it gave him. However, the pill works quickly, and the pleasures of the dream are gone. Soon enough, it is time for Jonas to go to school. He says “bye” to his mother, and he leaves for his bike, which he rides to school.

 

Soon enough, the big day in December comes; the Ceremonies. These Ceremonies last two days in total, beginning with the Ceremony of Ones, where newchildren are named, and the Ceremony of Twelves, where Elevens like Jonas are given Assignments (jobs), which they will be trained in and become an active citizen in their profession. The town hall is very crowded.

On the first morning of the Ceremony, Jonas and his mother and Lily discuss some of the milestones that children achieve each year—at age seven they get a jacket that they can button themselves, at Eight they begin to volunteer, at nine they get bikes and girls no longer need to wear hair ribbons. At the first Ceremony, the Naming, Jonas’s father sits with the other Nurturers, holding the newchildren to be named that year. Gabriel, although he does not weigh enough or sleep through the night well enough to be assigned to a family, has not been released yet—Jonas’s father has gotten a year’s reprieve for him because their family is taking care of the faltering newchild. In order to do this, each member of the family signed a statement promising not to get attached to Gabriel.

 

One of the newchildren named at the Ceremony is a “replacement child” named Caleb. He has been given to a family whose four-year-old son Caleb was “lost” in the river. When he died, the community performed the Ceremony of Loss, chanting his name more and more softly until it seemed to fade away. Now, welcoming the new baby, they chant it louder and louder in the Murmur-of-Replacement Ceremony, which is performed only if a child is lost, not if it is released. The other ceremonies proceed—on the second and final day of the Ceremony, the Nines get their bicycles (everyone cringes when a clumsy child knocks his into the podium, since his clumsiness reflects on his parents’ guidance), the Tens’ hair is cut. At lunch the Elevens discuss their upcoming Assignments, speculating on what they will do if they get an unsatisfactory Assignment. If a citizen feels that he or she does not fit in with the community, that citizen can apply for release and disappear into Elsewhere, but Jonas cannot imagine a person feeling that he or she did not fit in, because the community is so well ordered. The Committee of Elders weighs each decision carefully, painstakingly matching adults who applied for spouses to the appropriate spouse and placing newchildren with the appropriate families. Jonas trusts the Committee to give him an appropriate Assignment.

 

Just before the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas and the other Elevens line up by number—in addition to his or her name, each child has a number that was assigned at birth, showing the order in which he or she was born. Jonas is Nineteen; his friend Fiona is Eighteen. The Chief Elder, the elected leader of the community, gives a speech before the Ceremony, noting that it is the one time the community recognizes the differences between the children rather than ignoring them as is customary and polite. Jonas watches and listens as his classmates receive their Assignments. His friend Asher is assigned the position of Assistant Director of Recreation after the Chief Elder gives a long and humorous speech about Asher’s pleasant, fun-loving nature and the trouble he has had in using precise language. She recalls a time when Asher confused the words “snack” and “smack” at the Childcare Center, and received a smack with the discipline wand every time. She laughs as she remembers that for a while, three-year-old Asher refused to talk at all, but that “he learned . . . and now his lapses are very few.” Jonas is relieved that Asher has received a wonderful Assignment and happy to see that his other classmates are pleased with their Assignments too.

 

But when Jonas’s turn comes, the Chief Elder skips over him, moving from Eighteen to Twenty without acknowledging him. Jonas endures the rest of the Ceremony in horrible embarrassment and worry, wondering what he has done wrong. The audience is concerned too—they are unused to disorder and mistakes. At the end of the Ceremony, the Chief Elder apologizes for causing the audience concern and causing Jonas anguish. She tells him that he has been selected for a very special position, that of Receiver of Memory. The community has only one Receiver at a time, and the current one—a bearded man with pale eyes like Jonas’s, sitting with the Committee of Elders—is very old and needs to train a successor. The Chief Elder explains that ten years ago, a new Receiver had been selected, but the selection had been a terrible failure. After Jonas was identified as a possible Receiver, the Elders watched him very carefully and made a unanimous decision to select him, despite the strict selection criteria. To begin with, the candidate for Receiver can be rejected if any of the Elders so much as dreams that he might not be the best selection. The Receiver also needs to possess intelligence, integrity, and courage, as well as the ability to acquire wisdom. Courage is especially important, because as the Receiver, Jonas will experience real pain, something no one else in the community experiences. The job also requires the “Capacity to See Beyond.” Jonas does not believe he has this capacity, but then he looks out at the crowd and sees their faces change, a shade of red, the color on the cheeks. The Chief Elder thanks him for his childhood, and the crowd accepts him as the new Receiver by chanting his name louder and louder. Jonas feels gratitude, pride, and fear at the same time.

Although his training, which will keep him apart from other members of the community, has not yet begun, Jonas immediately begins to feel isolated from his friends and family, who treat him differently from before, though very respectfully. At home, his family is quieter than usual, though his parents tell him that they are very honored that he has been selected as Receiver. When he asks about the previous, failed selection, they reluctantly tell him that the name of the female selected ten years ago is Not-to-Be-Spoken, indicating the highest degree of disgrace.

 

Before bed, Jonas looks over the single sheet of paper in his Assignment folder. He learns that he is exempted from rules governing rudeness—he can ask anyone any question he likes and expect an answer—that he is not allowed to discuss his training with anyone, that he is not allowed to tell his dreams to anyone, that he cannot apply for medication unless it is for an illness unrelated to his training, that he cannot apply for release, and that he is allowed to lie. He also learns that he will have very little time for recreation and wonders what will happen to his friendships. The other instructions disturb him too—he cannot imagine being rude, nor can he imagine not having access to medication. In his community, medicine is always instantly delivered to stop pain of any kind, and the idea that his training involves excruciating pain is almost incomprehensible. He cannot imagine lying, either, having been trained since childhood to speak with total precision and accuracy, even avoiding exaggeration and figures of speech. He wonders if anyone else in his community is allowed to lie too.

 

Jonas reports to the Annex of the House of the Old for his first day of training. An Attendant admits him to the Receiver’s living area, which is locked to ensure the Receiver’s privacy, even though no one else in the community locks their doors. The living area is more luxurious than average, and its walls are lined with hundreds of thick, beautifully bound books, very different from the three reference volumes (dictionary, community volume, Book of Rules) available in every other household. Jonas cannot imagine what could be inside them. He meets the Receiver, who greets him as the new Receiver of Memory and tells him that although he, the old Receiver, is not as old as he looks (his job has aged him, giving him features of white hair, dried skin and a long beard), he will need to use the last of his strength to train Jonas. He says that the process involves transmitting all of the memories he has of the past to Jonas. The Receiver continues that the memories he will give Jonas the memories of the entire world, going back through generations and generations of Receivers. These memories of communities and worlds before Jonas’s community bring wisdom and help the community to shape its future. The Receiver feels weighed down by so many memories and compares the feeling to a sled slowing down as it has to push against more and more accumulated snow.

 

Jonas does not understand the comparison, because he has never seen snow or a sled. The Receiver decides to transmit the memory of snow to him. He instructs Jonas to take off his tunic and lie face-down on the bed. Then he goes to the speaker, which is just like the speaker that transmits announcements in every house, and turns it off, something that no one else in the community can do. He places his hands on Jonas’s back, and Jonas begins to feel the sensation of cold air, then of snowflakes touching his face. He experiences the wonderful sensation of going downhill on a sled (in color), feeling the exhilaration of movement and speed even though he has never felt snow or strong wind or even a hill. In his community, all hills have been leveled to make transportation easier, and snow disappeared with the onset of climate control that made agriculture more efficient. When the experience is over, the Receiver tells Jonas that the memory is a very distant one, from before the time when “we went to Sameness.” Jonas says that he wishes snow and hills still existed, and asks the Receiver why he does not use his great power to bring them back. The Receiver answers that great honor is not the same thing as great power. He then gives Jonas the memory of sunshine, and Jonas perceives the word for “sunshine” at the same time that he perceives the sensation of it. Afterward he asks about the pain he will experience, and the Receiver gives him the mild pain of a sunburn in order to get him used to the idea. Jonas finds the experience interesting, if not pleasant. When he leaves, he asks the Receiver what he should call him now that he, Jonas, is the new Receiver. The Receiver, drained from their day’s work, says to call him “The Giver.”

 

After Jonas receives his first memory, he finds that it is not too hard to obey the rules that come with his position. His family is used to his not dreaming frequently, so they do not question him much at dream-telling time. His friends are so busy describing their own training experiences that he can just sit still and listen, knowing that he could not even begin to explain what happens in his training. As they bicycle to the House of the Old together, he talks with his friend Fiona about her training as a Caretaker of the Old and notices her hair change the way the apple changed (the color red), but only a glimpse. At the Giver’s living space, Jonas tells him about the changes, wondering if that is what the Giver means by seeing beyond. The Giver says that for him, his first experiences with seeing beyond took a different form, one that Jonas would not understand yet. He asks Jonas to remember the sled from yesterday, and Jonas notices that the sled has the same strange quality as Fiona’s hair—it does not change as they did, it just has the quality. The Giver tells Jonas that he is beginning to see the color red, explaining that at one time everything in the world had color as well as shape and size. The reason that the sled is just red, instead of turning red, is that it is a memory from a time when color existed. Jonas remarks that red is beautiful and wonders why his community got rid of it, and the Giver tells him that in order to gain control of certain things, the society had to let go of others. Jonas says that they should not have done so, and the Giver tells Jonas that he is quickly acquiring wisdom.

 

As Jonas’s training progresses, he learns about all the different colors and begins to see glimpses of them in his daily life. He decides that it is unfair that nothing in his society has color—he wants to have the freedom to choose between things that are different. Then he realizes that if people had the power to make choices, they might make the wrong choices. It would be unsafe to allow people to choose their spouse or their job, but he still feels frustrated. He wishes his friends and family could see the world the way he sees it. He makes Asher stare at a flowerbed, hoping Asher will notice the colors, but Asher becomes uncomfortable when Jonas tries to transmit the memories through his touch. Another time, after the Giver transmits a memory of an elephant mourning the death of another elephant that was brutally killed by poachers, he tries to give the memory to Lily, hoping that she will understand that her toy elephant is a representation of something that was once real and majestic and awe-inspiring. It does not work, as Lily struggles from the touch of his hand, saying Jonas is hurting her. Jonas says sorry, and Lily responds, “‘Cept your apology,” to which her father reminds her of precision of language as he unties her ribbons.

 

After a few sessions, Jonas’s training makes him curious. He asks if the Giver is allowed to have a spouse, and the Giver says that he did have a spouse once—now she lives with the Childless Adults, as almost all adults do when their children are grown and their family units have dissolved. The Giver tells him that being the Receiver makes family life difficult—Jonas will not be able to share his memories or books with his spouse or children. The Giver tells Jonas that his whole life will be nothing more than the memories he possesses. He occasionally will appear before the Committee of Elders to give them advice, but his primary function is to contain all the painful memories that the community cannot endure. When the new Receiver who was selected ten years before failed, all the memories she had received returned to the community, and the whole community suffered until the memories were assimilated. The Giver tells Jonas that his instructors know nothing, despite their scientific knowledge, because all of their knowledge is meaningless without the memories the Giver carries. Jonas notices that the Giver’s memories give him pain, and he wonders what causes it. He also wonders what lies Elsewhere, beyond his community. The Giver decides to give Jonas a memory of another sled ride.

 

The Giver transmits the memory of another ride on a sled, only this time the sled loses control and Jonas experiences pain and nausea from a badly broken leg. The pain lingers after the experience is over, but the Giver is not allowed to give him relief-of-pain, and Jonas limps home and goes to bed early. Forbidden to share his feelings with his family, he feels isolated, realizing that they have never known intense pain. Over the next days, the Giver transmits more and more painful memories, always ending the day with a memory of pleasure. After experiencing starvation, Jonas asks why these horrible memories need to be preserved, and the Giver explains that they bring wisdom. Once, for example, the community wanted to increase the number of children allowed to each family, but the Giver remembered the hunger that overpopulation brings and advised against it. Jonas wonders why the whole community cannot share the pain of these important memories, and the Giver tells him that this is the reason the position of Receiver is so honored—the community does not want to be burdened and pained by memories. Jonas wants to change things, but the Giver reminds him that the situation has been the same for generations, and that there is very little hope for change.

Meanwhile, the newchild Gabriel is developing well, but still cannot sleep through the night. Jonas’s father worries that he will have to be released after all. He mentions that the Nurturing Center will probably have to make another release first, though: a Birthmother is expecting twin males, and if they are identical, one will have to be released. Jonas wonders what happens to children who are released. Is someone waiting for them Elsewhere to bring them up and take care of them? He asks his parents to let Gabriel sleep in his room that night so that he can share the responsibility of caring for him. When Gabriel wakes up crying, Jonas pats his back while remembering a wonderful sail on a lake transmitted to him by the Giver. He realizes that he is unwittingly transmitting the memory to Gabriel and stops himself. Later, he transmits the whole memory and Gabriel stops crying and sleeps. Jonas wonders if he has done the right thing.

 

The next day, Jonas finds the Giver in incredible pain, and the Giver asks him to take some of the pain away. The Giver transmits the terrible memory of a battlefield covered with groaning, dying men and horses. Jonas, himself horribly wounded, gives water to a young soldier and then watches him die. After this memory, Jonas never wants to go back to the Annex for more wisdom and pain, but he does, and the Giver transmits beautiful memories—birthday parties, art museums, horseback riding, camping—that celebrate individuality, brilliant colors, the bond between people and animals, and solitude, all things absent from Jonas’s society. He asks the Giver what his favorite memory is, and the Giver transmits a memory of a family—grandparents, parents, young children—opening presents at Christmas. Jonas has never heard of grandparents. In his community, parents cease to be a part of children’s lives once the children have grown up—children do not even know when their parents are released. He understands that his organized society works well, but he felt a feeling in the room that he liked. The Giver tells him that the feeling is love, and Jonas says that he wishes his own family could be like the family in the memory and that the Giver could be his grandparent. At home that evening, he asks his parents if they love him. They laugh and tell him to use more precise language: the word “love” is so general that it is almost meaningless. They enjoy him, and they are proud of him, but they cannot say they love him. Jonas pretends to agree with them, but secretly he does not understand. That night, he tells little Gabriel—who can only sleep through the night when Jonas gives him memories—that if things were different in the community, there could be colors and grandparents and love. The next morning, Jonas decides to stop taking his morning pill, getting a feeling from the memories to throw the pill away. Jonas dumps the pills into the sink.

 

Four weeks after Jonas stops taking his pills, an unscheduled holiday is declared in the community. He can now see in full color (the black and white style is gone, now the film is in full color). His Stirrings have returned, and he has pleasurable dreams that make him feel a little guilty, but he refuses to give up the heightened feelings that the Stirrings and his wonderful memories have given him. The Stirrings have become more sexually charged, and in one Jonas and Fiona and naked holding hands on a sunny beach. Jonas realizes that he now experiences a new depth of feeling. He understands that the feelings his family and friends call anger and sadness and happiness are nothing like the feelings of rage and despair and joy he knows through his memories. On this particular holiday, Jonas refuses to participate with his friends in a game of good guys and bad guys, because he recognizes it as a war game. He tries to explain to his friends that the game is a cruel mockery of a horrible reality, but they are only puzzled and annoyed. He leaves his friends, knowing that they cannot understand his feelings or even return the strong love that he feels for them. At home, he feels better when he sees Gabe, who has learned to walk and to say his own name. His father talks about the upcoming release of one of the identical twins that will be born the next day. Jonas asks his father if he will actually take the newchild Elsewhere, and his father says no. He will only select the child with the lowest birthweight, perform a Ceremony of Release, and wave goodbye. Someone else will come and get him from Elsewhere. Lily speculates about two identical twins growing up with the same name, one here and one Elsewhere. She rattles on and on about the idea, and the family finds this amusing.

 

The next day, Jonas asks the Giver if he thinks about release. The Giver says he thinks of his own when he is in great pain, but that he cannot apply for release until Jonas is trained. Jonas cannot ask for release either, a rule that was created after the failure of the new Receiver ten years ago. At Jonas’s insistence, the Giver tells him what happened. The failed Receiver was intelligent and eager to learn, and her name was Rosemary. The Giver tells Jonas that he loved her, and that he loves Jonas in the same way. When Rosemary’s training began, she loved experiencing new things, and the Giver started with happy memories that would make her laugh. But she wanted more difficult memories. The Giver could not bring himself to give her physical pain, but at her insistence he gave her loneliness, loss, poverty, and fear. After a very hard session, she kissed the Giver’s cheek and left. He never saw her again. Later, he learned that she had applied for release that day. Jonas knows that he cannot apply for release, but he asks the Giver what would happen if he accidentally drowned in the river, carrying a year’s worth of memories with him. The Giver tells him it would be a disaster: his memories would not be lost, but instead all of the people in the community would have them, and they would not be able to deal with them. The Giver becomes thoughtful and says that if that happened, perhaps he could help the community to deal with the memories in the same way that he helps Jonas, but that he would need more time to think about it. He warns Jonas to stay away from the river, just in case.

 

Jonas explains that he is curious about release because his father released a newchild that day. The Giver says that he wishes that newchildren were not released, and Jonas reminds him that it would be confusing to have two identical people walking around. The Giver tells Jonas that, as Receiver, he is allowed to have access to any information he wants and that if he wants to watch a release, he can. Since all private ceremonies are recorded, Jonas can even watch his father’s release of the newchild that morning. Jonas agrees to watch it, and the Giver calls the recording up on a video screen. Jonas watches as his father weighs the twins, then gently injects something into a vein in the smaller one’s head. The newchild twitches and lies still, and Jonas realizes that it is dead. He recognizes the gestures and posture of the boy that he saw die on the battlefield. Horrified, he watches his father place the body in a garbage chute and wave goodbye. The Giver tells Jonas that he watched the recording of Rosemary’s release. She had been told to roll up her sleeve, but she chose to inject herself.

 

Jonas is overcome by pain and horror when he realizes what release really is. He starts crying and refuses to go home to his family, knowing that his father lied to him about what would happen to the newchild. He cannot believe that his friend Fiona efficiently kills the Old when they are released. The Giver allows Jonas to spend the night with him and tries to explain that the people of his community do not feel things the way that he and Jonas do. He tells Jonas that Jonas has helped him to decide that things have to change, that the memories have to be shared.

 

The Giver and Jonas come up with a plan: Jonas will escape from the community, leaving all his memories for the people of the community. When Rosemary was released, Jonas begs the Giver to come with him, but the Giver explains that someone needs to stay to help the others deal with those memories, or the community will be thrown into utter chaos. Jonas says that he does not want to care about the other people, but he knows that the only reason he and the Giver devised the plan is because they do care about the others. The Giver tells Jonas that he himself is too weak to make the journey anyway. He cannot even see colors anymore. Jonas asks the Giver about his early experiences with seeing beyond, how they were different from Jonas’s own, and the Giver tells him that he heard beyond. He heard music, something Jonas would not understand because the Giver has kept music to himself. Jonas says the Giver should keep the memory of music, and Jonas will leave without it.

 

For the next two weeks, the Giver plans to transmit memories of courage and strength to help Jonas with his journey. At midnight on the night before the Ceremony, Jonas will slip out of his house with an extra set of clothing, which he will hide by the riverbank next to his bicycle. The next day, the Giver will order a vehicle for a visit to another community, hide Jonas in the storage area, and give him a head start on his journey to Elsewhere. The Giver will tell the community that Jonas has been lost in the river, they will perform the Ceremony of Loss, and he will help them bear Jonas’s memories. The Giver tells Jonas that afterward, he will be with his daughter, Rosemary.

 

At the evening meal, his father tells the family that he tried to see if Gabriel could sleep through the night at the Nurturing Center, and that the newchild had cried all night. The staff, including Jonas’s father, voted to release him the next day. Jonas cannot allow this to happen, and he is forced to leave two weeks earlier than he and the Giver had planned. Before making his way out of the community, Jonas takes some leftover food and his father’s bicycle, which has a child seat, and leaves, relying on his own courage and strength instead of on the memories that the Giver had promised. Jonas has broken serious rules against leaving his dwelling at night and taking food. After riding all night, he and Gabe rest during the day, hiding from the planes that fly overhead searching for them. He transmits memories of exhaustion to Gabriel in order to make him sleep during the day, and in order to avoid the heat-seeking technology of the planes, he transmits memory of intense cold to both of them so that their body heat does not show up on the planes’ devices. After several days, when Jonas and Gabriel have left all communities far behind, the planes come less frequently.

 

The landscape around them begins to change: the terrain becomes bumpy and irregular, and Jonas falls and twists his ankle. He sees waterfalls and wildlife, all new things to him after a life of Sameness. He is happy to see beautiful things, but worries that he and Gabe might starve, since there is no sign of cultivated land anywhere around. He catches some fish in a makeshift net and gathers some berries, but they are only just enough. If he had stayed in the community, he would have had enough to eat, and he realizes that in choosing to leave, he chose to starve. But in the community he would have been hungry for feelings and color, and Gabriel would have died. The weather changes, and Jonas feels cold and hunger and pain from his twisted ankle. But he suspects that Elsewhere is not far away and hopes that he will be able to keep Gabriel alive.

 

One day, it begins to snow, and Jonas’s bicycle cannot climb the steep hill that rises before them. Jonas and Gabriel are very cold, and Jonas tries to transmit the feeling of sunshine to Gabriel. Both recalling the memory and passing it to Gabriel helps them make it up the hill on foot, despite the intense cold and hunger they feel. When he can no longer remember sunshine, and is almost totally numb with cold, Jonas remembers his friends and family and the Giver, and the happiness their memories give him helps him to reach the top. He recognizes the snow-covered summit of the hill, and somehow finds a sled waiting for him there. He gets in the sled and steers himself and Gabe to the bottom, toward warm, twinkling lights that glow from the windows of houses. He feels certain that the families in those houses, where they kept memories and celebrated love, were waiting for him and Gabe. Ahead of him, he hears singing for the first time in his life, and he thinks that he hears the music behind him too. The film ends with Jonas muttering the line, as he rides down the hill; “Perhaps it’s only an echo.”

 

THE END

Edited March 28, 2014 by Alpha

[Hiccup]

Origin

 

 

Tagline: “The Fate Of Our World Begins With Theirs”

 

Date- November 16th 
Genre- Sci-Fi
Rating- PG-13
Theaters- 3,898 theaters
Budget- 130 million
Running Time- 132 minutes or 2 hours and 12 minutes
Studio- O$corp Pictures
Director- Tarsem
Actors and Actresses
Corporal Ben Jones- Sam Clafin
Cyra- Emily Browning
Valentin- Dylan McDermott

Plot: In 2155 AD, humans scientists  discover a distant planet and call it Europa. They also discover what appears to be a warp hole that allows humans to quickly travel to this world, they see that the planet has more natural resources and Earth desperately needs and also could be used to repopulate the growing human population. They also discover a human-like population living on the planet with cities and towns. There is one ruler of the planet named Valentin. Human leaders trick Valentin into allowing humans to settle on the planet and use its natural resources. Finally humans grow tired of being restricted by the native population and its rules so world leaders back on Earth plan to wide out the inhabitants and that the planet for themselves. Ben Jones a British soldier is sent to this distant planet to conquer it in the name of Earth. With no ties back home to Earth he seeks a new life so he agrees to go to Europa. While on the planet he falls in love with a beautiful princess named Cyra. Ben soon discovers that he is suppose to drive out the native population including Cyra and her father Valentin. Discovering that he must kill Cyra and her father since he is the only human who can access the royal city where they live. (The royal city is considered sacred.) He refuses to kill them and flees with Cyra from the city as the human army takes the city and levels it to the ground. Valentin is killed defending the city. During the destruction of the city, Ben notices that when humans kill the natives several humans crumple away into ash. He tells Cyra about this and she says that an oracle who lives on Mt. Oros can explain this. After traveling many miles to Mt. Oros they meet the oracle who refuses to tell Ben and Cyra anything except for the phrase, "The fate of the Earth begins with Gaea (the natives call their world Gaea not Europa)." Cyra and Ben leave the oracle annoyed and puzzled. Meanwhile the humans are continuing their conquest of the planet and destroying all natives that stand in their way. Back on Earth, humans are beginning to disappear and vanish causing panic. Ben looks more into way humans are disappearing and discovers that the warp hole humans are traveling through is not a warp hole but actually a time travel hole. Europa is actually Earth in the past. When the humans kill the natives, they are destroying their ancestors. Ben shares this with Cyra and they race to stop the slaughter. Ben and Cyra allow themselves to be taken prisoner so they can share this information with the military leaders. Ben and Cyra fail to win the leaders over with their argument. After a battle they finally win and stop the conflict. The remaining humans travel back to the much less populated Earth. Ben however remains with Cyra in the past. 

Edited April 19, 2014 by Hiccup

[4815162342]

Numbers TheoryPOSTPONED Edited April 22, 2014 by Numbers of House Stark

[Electric]

Everworld

 

Format: 3D IMAXGenre: Fantasy/Action/Sci-FiCast: Jay Baruchel (David Levin), Chris Evans (Christopher Hitchcock), Michael B. Jordan (Jalil Sherman), Alison Brie (April O'Brien) , Blake Lively (Senna Wales), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Hugh Jackman (Thorolf, Viking), More Minor roles still need castingDirected By: Zac SnyderRelease Date: 11/8

Theater Count: 3,592 TheatersBudget: $75 millionRunning Time: 139 minutesMPAA Rating: R for strong pervasive violence, language, brief nudity, sexual innuendos

Plot Summary: Four teenagers find themselves in an alternate world where various ancient gods, civilizations, and alien species battle one another.

 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

 

Will have some tie in to Marvel Universe in term

[Electric]

Hollywood Nerd

 

Format: 2D regular live actionGenre: Farce/Spoof/SatireCast: Ryan Gosling (Zack), DJ Qualls (Melvin)Directed By: Chuck LorreRelease Date: 10/5

Theater Count: 2,209 TheeatehersBudget: $20 millionRunning Time: 86 minutesMPAA Rating: PG-13 for  brief strong language and drug references

Plot Summary: Melvin wants to write a movie about what nerds really do, but his screenplay is turned into something with Zack being dressed in "geekface".

 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Edited March 29, 2014 by Electric

[Films]

The ship of dreams- Cancelled

Edited April 14, 2014 by FrozenFilms