CAYOM YEAR 1 - PART I - Movie Submission - READ THE RULES IN POST 1!!!

[cookie]

Moving Timmy's Winter Vacation to January 13th, The Adventures of Scrooge McDuck to February 10th and The Shadow Entities to May 26th.

Edited August 11, 2017 by cookie

[Hiccup23]

Agents

(Filmed in 3D)

Date- June 30th
Genre- CGI Animation
Rating- PG- some rude humor and mild action
Theaters- 3,835 theaters
Budget- 70 million
Running Time- 92 minutes or 1 hour and 32 minutes
Studio- Barbarian Animation Studio
Director- Chris Renaud
Actors and Actress-
Agent 26/Ryan- Jesse Eisenberg
Agent 25- Hayden Panettiere
Agent 27- Jason Segel
Agent 54- Ellen DeGeneres
Hercules- Jim Carrey
Francine- Cameron Diaz
Plot:

Quote

The film opens in a massive underground auditorium. Thousands of little green aliens cheers and clap wildly. The villain Hercules and his wife Francine appear on stage. Hercules tells the crowd that he has a plan to become the greatest ruler that the world has every known. The crowd cheers and Hercules tells them to shut up. The crowd grows silent as they eagerly listen to Hercules. He tells the crowd that he is going to destroy the entire world leaders when they meet at New York City for the peace councils. Francine tells the crowd that it is a beautiful and brilliant idea. Hercules says that they must build the greatest bomb ever which they will drop on New York. The crowd goes wild and rushes to begin building of the missile. Francine tells Hercules that the bomb could seriously damage the environment. Hercules tells Francine to stop worrying and that they will deal with that after the world leaders are destroyed. The camera zooms out and we see that Hercules’s base is located under Rome, Italy. The camera zooms over Washington D.C, we see traffic and people going busily around. The camera zooms on a young man named Ryan. He walks into the CIA building. He types in a code and the wall slides open and an elevator appears. Ryan smiles to himself and says that this is awesome and walks inside. When the elevator door opens he finds himself at the beginning of a long metal hall. As he walks through he has to stop and get his finger prints scanned by a machine in order for the series of doors to open. Finally, he reaches the end. The door opens and Ryan walks into the secret spy headquarters. As he walks around he is approached by the head agent, Agent 51. She tells him that she will set him up on his first mission. Ryan asks if there is training before. Agent 51 says that her agents learn on the go and there are no training sessions. She tells him that his new name is Agent 26 and he must never ever tell anyone his real name. Ryan/Agent 26 agrees. Agent 51 looks at her laptop and a window pops up. She says that he will be assigned with Agent 25 and Agent 27 to capture a man named Hercules who is planning to destroy New York City. Agent 26 says that he thinks that that is a little to challenging for him on his first spy trip. Agent 51 looks at Agent 26 and tells him that the first rule is that you never question Agent 51 or you will get your butt kicked. Agent 25 and Agent 27 come into the room. Agent 51 tells the two other agents that they will have a new agent helping them on the trip. Agent 27 steps forward and says that he is excited to see Agent 26 die. Agent 25 tells Agent 27 to be nice. Agent 26 says that means that he is not going to die. Agent 25 says no but it is rude to confront people with the obvious truth. Agent 26 shifts around uncomfortably. Agent 51 says that they had better get started. The three agents board a plane. Agent 26 asks how long they have been in the spy agency. Agent 25 says that she was a spy since high school and Agent 27 says that he has been a spy for four years. Agent 26 says that that is a long time. Agent 25 says that she is going to do some research on Hercules until drop off. Agent 26 says what drop off. Agent 27 says that they are going to jump out of the plane. Agent 26 rubs his hand together nervously. A few hours later, Agent 25 says that they are ready to go. She unpacks a bag and gives them a pair of shoes with suctions on the bottom and she also gives them a parachute. Agent 26 asks what these are for. Agent 27 says that they are going to walk on top of the plane and then jump. The top opens on the plane and the three agents climb out on top. The wind blows around them. The plane suddenly takes a noise dive. Agent 26 yells as he is thrust forward but to his surprise he doesn’t fall. He laughs and says that this is actually awesome. Agent 25 laughs as the plane suddenly shoots upward and the three agents begin a fall toward earth. They do fun tricks in the air as they fall to the ground. Agent 27 pulls his parachute. Agent 26 is about to pull his parachute when he see that Agent 25’s parachute is not opening. She quickly begins to fall. Agent 26 dives after her. After a rapid chase, he finally gets his arms around her and pulls his parachute. They land safely. After the land, Agent 26 and Agent 27 ask how they are going to get into Hercules’s base. Agent 25 says that she did research on Hercules while they were on the plane and she discovered that Hercules is very fond of dancing and that he holds competitions among his friends. If they win they get to work for him at his secret base or if they lose they are shot. Agent 26 says that he really doesn’t like that idea. Agent 25 says that it is the only way since the missile will be launched tomorrow morning when the meeting starts. They head off toward Rome. When they reach the city they immediately go and disguise themselves for the dinner. That night they entire the ballroom where tons of people are gathered, Agent 27 points out Hercules and his wife Francine. After a massive dinner, Hercules asks if anyone is willing to take up the challenge to compete. The room is silent. Suddenly, Agent 26 says that he knows how to dance. Agent 25 looks at Agent 26 in surprise. Agent 27 whispers that it is best that they find another way to get into Hercules base. Agent 25 says that she will take Agent 26 up on his request and that they will dance. Agent 26 smiles at Agent 27 who frowns and shakes his head. Hercules says that they have one bold couple who are willing to show off their skills so they can get a private tour of his secret base. Agent 25 says that Agent 26 better dance well if he doesn’t want to die. The spotlight shines on them and they begin the dance. Hercules and the crowd are extremely impressed and Hercules says that they will get a tour of his base. Agent 25 says that they want their friend Agent 27 to come with them. Hercules agrees. The enter Hercules’s base. Hercules gives them a tour. When Agent 26 asks what the little green alien guys are. Francine says they are aliens which Hercules stole from Area 51 and they work to building things. Agent 26 asks if they can join Hercules. Hercules agrees saying that they must not tell anyone and they have to go through training for a year. Agent 26 and Agent 25 agree. Hercules claps and smiles in excitement. Agent 27 takes Hercules aside. They talk and glance at Agent 26 and Agent 25. Hercules turns around furiously and tells the guards take Agent 26 and Agent 25 to the prison. Agent 25 asks what they did. Agent 27 says that he is a secret spy for Hercules and his was successful in defeating Agent 26 and Agent 25. Agent 25 knocks out the guards that hold her and she points a gun at Hercules. Francine and the aliens take off running. Agent 27 says that the missile is ready to launch. Hercules turns and leaves with Agent 27. Agent 26 asks if they should go after them. Agent 25 says that they must stop the missile from launching before they go after Agent 27 whose real name is revealed to be Henry. Agent 25 says they only have 30 seconds before the missile is launched and the base destroyed. Agent 26 and Agent 25 run down the stairs to the center of Hercules’s base. They are attacked by his agents who they quickly dispatch. Agent 26 burst open the door to the missile launching room. He quickly tasers the guards as Agent 25 presses the button to stop the missile. She stops it just in time. She looks at Agent 26 in relief. Outside we see Hercules, Francine, and Henry making a dash for the private jet. Suddenly they are surrounded by US soldiers. The three criminals lift their arms up in the air and surrender. Agent 26 and Agent 25 come out from the underground base and announce that the missile has been stopped. Agent 51 walks up to Agent 26 and Agent 25. She congratulates them on their mission success. She tells them that their next mission is to capture a criminal named Druid who plans to sell nuclear weapons to enemy nations. Agent 26 asks if they ever get a break. Agent 51 says no and bids them good luck on their mission. Agent 25 smiles at Agent 26 and asks if he is ready to roll. Agent 26 winks at Agent 25 and says that he is ready.

 

Edited August 22, 2017 by Hiccup23

[Xillix]

@Hiccup23 Pierre Coffin is already the director for Rabbids: The Big Adventure, which was reserved in the Advance Schedule thread. You'll need to pick someone else.

[Hiccup23]

A Family of Families

 

Date- October 20th

Genre- Christian Drama

Rating- PG

Theaters- 2,568 theaters

Budget- 1.5 million

Running Time- 108 minutes or 1 hour and 48 minutes

Studio- Number 2 Productions

Director- Alex Kendrick

 

Plot: A family goes through a hard time with their finances. They find help in the church and Christian neighbors. Soon the family begins to slowly convert to Christianity. Soon their family becomes tight and close. They become members at the church and find joy in Christ. At the end, they get back on track with their lives, follow God, and find that the church is a family of families.

[Ezen Baklattan]

Me & My Shadow
"Meet Sam. He's having some attachment issues."

 

Director: Chris Williams
Genre: Animation (CGI/2D Blend)/Fantasy/Comedy
Date: June 9th
Theaters: 3,708
Cast: Thomas Middleditch (Sam), Bo Burnham (Shadow Sam), Brie Larson (Frances), Will Arnett (Shadow Hale), Will Forte (Daniel Hale), Allison Janney (Linda), Lucy Liu (Lieutenant Wisp), Alison Brie (Shadow Frances)

Composer: Jon Brion
Runtime: 106min (1hr, 46min)
Rating: PG for comic mischief, mild language, and an alcohol reference
Budget: $145 million
 
NOTE: The shadows in this movie are animated in 2D, reacting with their CGI environment in many ways, such as being projected against walls or in the grass. The scenes of shadows controlling humans are made to look very slapstick and non-frightening at all.

 

OVERVIEW: A college student uncovers a secret world of the shadows connected to all of humanity, thanks to the revelation of his own shadow's personality. Sam's shadow had violated the cardinal rule of shadows in revealing himself, however, and he finds himself in a bizarre new life, eventually determining the fate of shadow and human relations.

 

SPECIAL THANKS TO RUKAIO FOR THE GREAT HELP IN CREATING THIS WONDERFUL FEATURE!

 

ALSO I'M SORRY IT'S SUPER LONG

 

Spoiler

The movie begins at a community park, with several people enjoying the open air and playing. An ice cream truck comes by, and, of course, all of the children flock to the van. In particular, we see one kid, around 9 years old, in brown hair with glasses, Sam, whose parents give him a few dollars for ice cream. We hear his mother, Linda, tell him to give her the change when she gets back. “Thanks, mom!” Sam gleefully says as he runs to the truck. As Sam is about to order, he notices a girl with black hair who dropped her ice cream crying. Sam is about to order, until a voice yells at him, “Hey! Sam! Get her the ice cream!” Sam looks around, confused in the lack of a clear source of the voice. We soon see that Sam’s shadow, a 2-D representation of himself, is talking against the side of the truck, “It’s classic chivalry! She’ll like you!” Sam keeps looking around, annoying those still in line, until he smiles and asks the ice cream truck owner for two popsicles. He takes one and gives her the other. The girl becomes excited and thanks her, introducing herself as Frances. Sam tells her that she has a cute dress, panicking a little, and eventually running off out of shyness. As he runs, his shadow also runs with him, rolling his eyes as Sam keeps running.

 

10 YEARS LATER

 

We see a college campus, Avery University, and several groups of students coming into campus. We see a 19-year old Sam, moving into his sophomore year. Linda is helping him to move into his new dorm room, having comical mood swings as she tries to grapple with her baby surviving at college, even though Sam assures her that he already did so a year ago. Linda and Sam glance at each other, with Linda telling her son to have an awesome year, take new risks, and ensure that she’ll have grandchildren. Sam chuckles, but Linda assures her seriousness. Linda says a quick, “Love you, bye!” and leaves Sam with his new friends. Until Finnegan assures that he is joking. Linda sees that Sam will be just fine with his new friend, although she does cry when outside of the hall. Sam assures some concerned students moving in that she’s often like this whenever they leave each other.

 

The first day of classes arrives, while Sam feels a little lonely with his former best friend having transferred to a new school. His first class The Science and Theory of Urban Legends, taught by a fairly good looking professor, Daniel Hale. A few teenage girls near the front mark for high hotness on a professor rating site, swooning along the way. Hale introduces the class to his topic, where he will discuss how and why urban legends and theories spread, and their effects on people. The first theory they discuss is how a generation of children in the 1950s was coerced into being good by being warned that whenever they disobeyed their parents, their shadows would come to life and take full control of them. The class erupts into laughter, but Hale assures them that children really did listen to this advice. Granted, they are children, and can be easily fooled. “But it’s all true!” a whisper calls out. Several students are confused, especially Sam, as the voice came from beneath him. Sam, feeling in a more awkward spot than ever, looks around. He gets up to look on his seat, finding nothing there. Another student whispers to him, “I don’t know how to put this lightly, but your rear end is able to speak.”

 

Hale asks Sam if there’s something he would like to share with the class. Sam begins to stutter, struggling to find a response for the situation. “It’s true that....kids really do believe everything!” Hale points out his agreement, but asks that he does not interrupt him again. Sam sits back down, feeling embarrassed. After class ends, Sam comes up to Professor Hale, apologizing for his outburst, but asking if he would believe that it didn’t come from him. Hale is unsure, asking why he apologized then. Sam struggles to explain, but someone else tried to speak, and the voice came from his location. Hale suggests that maybe it was his shadow, and the myth is real after all. The two share a laugh, as Sam’s shadow, on the floor and out of sight, sighs in relief.  Later that evening, Sam runs into a group of students in the improv and skit-based comedy troupe, Laugh Attack, which is holding auditions that night. He meets a girl named Frances, one of the players in the Laugh Attack company, who does some humorous PR to get him to sign up for audition. Sam suddenly realizes that this looks a great deal like the Frances he saw as a child, but says nothing. Frances notices Sam in a trance, trying to snap him out, but Sam quickly signs up and runs off.

 

Sam goes him to the audition, while talking to Linda on his cell phone, who is highly for the idea. He questions to himself why he’s doing this, since he would never ever have done this last year, but Linda relaxes him, saying that life’s no fun if you don’t try new things every once in a while. Sam goes along, waiting outside of the place for his audition. He eventually gets to go in, meeting his council of judges. One of which is Frances, who is very happy that he made it. “I told you that last minute PR never fails!” she whispers to another judge. Sam takes a deep breath, and all of the sudden, performs an insanely incredible audition. The judges, including Frances, are amazed at the now out of breath Sam, and they say that they will let him know the feedback in two days. Sam is feeling jazzed, amazed at how well he did. Frances invites Sam to get some bubble tea with some of the cast members, and Sam graciously accepts, saying that he’ll meet them there after he takes a quick break at his dorm room. Sam heads back, still feeling happy and eventually crashing in a chair. Sam takes a quick breather, feeling somewhat tired, until he hears the same voice from the lecture call out, “Hey, Sam!” Sam looks around, eventually turning to the wall. Sam’s shadow, in a 2D representation of him, calls out, “You’re welcome.”

 

Sam freaks out, while his shadow asks him to calm down, saying that when he freaks out, he technically is as well, at least in the physical sense. Sam, almost abruptly calms down. The shadow is happy, saying that he will now release him from his control, only for the real Sam to freak out again. This repeats for a few times. Sam eventually comes to his senses, and his shadow, believing himself to owe Sam an explanation, obliges. As it turns out, shadows are actually fully sentient, and they are always attached to a person, somehow mentally connected. This is going to take a while, to explain, so he persuades Sam to come with him for a walk outside. Sam complies, texting Frances that he’s going to be a while. Sam’s shadow begins to control Sam to walk outside, managing some comically over the top steps along the way. Shadow Sam, as Sam decides to call him confidently, explains a few things by making chalk drawings on the diag. Shadows almost never take control of their human vessels, but they must stay attached at all times. Shadows can also move around freely as long as they remain attached to their humans. At night time, shadows tend to separate from their humans and go out on their own to Shadow Central, a land completely un-viewable by humans. He would describe it, but it would probably cause his mind to bleed. However, Shadow Sam decides to stick with Sam for the night, saying that he probably shouldn’t go out. Shadow Sam eventually confesses that he may have broken the single most important rule for shadows.

 

Sam becomes somewhat confused and furious, asking why he took control of him at the audition if it violated the rule of shadows. Shadow Sam asks for some credit, as he got a great audition, and he recognized Lucy’s face. Sam shakes his head, trying to run into darkness from the lit up diag, but the voice still remains, and even in the darkness, Shadow Sam’s eyes are still on the grass. Sam says that he’s slowly losing his mind, and none of this is happening, wondering if someone slipped something in his coffee. Sam suddenly comes to his senses, realizing that Frances is still waiting for him. Sam tells his shadow to stay by him, but not to cause any (more) chaos. He doesn’t need to have anything more freakish going on. “Speaking of which, I might just go head off to Shadow Central now. See you tomorrow!” Sam, standing in the dark and failing to stop him, witnesses as his shadow disappears into the night. “Sorry, we’re required to go here every night. It’s not really my call, dude.” Sam, still feeling confused, walks to the bubble tea cafe, realizing how late he is. We then find out that Professor Hale was watching from afar, feeling shocked at what he just witnessed. “Did he just...?!?!” We also see his shadow, another 2D representation, whispering in fear, “Whoa, boy, he did,” and slide off into the night.

 

Sam gets to the Bubble Tea joint, a fairly spiffy place decorated with cute Japanese plush toys, and he meets everyone. He apologizes to them for being late, explaining that he’s been having a fairly long day. Frances laughs, saying that they just got here as well. They eventually enjoy some bubble tea, as Sam holds off on explaining things.  Frances smiles and formally introduces herself, going through the basic routine that most college meet and greets seem to go. They also say that they had the chance to talk, and they won’t be sending Sam through callbacks. They’re putting him right in the cast. Sam lets out a cheer of excitement, until Frances tells him that they need to meet them at midnight for a blood oath and initiation. Frances whips out her arm and shows a scar on it. Sam cringes, but Frances laughs at her joke, removing the scar as a fake. They all laugh, but Sam notices Frances’s shadow on the ground looks down in shyness. Sam soon says that he was just zoning out into space, and that the lack of sleep is really getting to him. Frances decides to let him go, saying that they’ll talk later. Sam does go to bed, saying that he just needs a clear head from some sleep. “Who would think that talking shadows are real?”

 

The screen goes to darkness as Shadow Sam, now a grey-purple silhouette, enters from an alleyway to a giant, vibrant town square, Shadow Central. Everything, consisting mainly of cafes, some dark-colored greenery, and a large building near the center for Shadow Control, is in 2-D animation and tinted with blue, gray, and purple, and nothing casts a shadow. It’s so 2D that everything is literally on a 2D plane, as if it were Super Mario Brothers. Shadows walk around, telling crazy stories about what their humans were up to today and the crazy rides they all went on. Sam laughs at various stories, but he tries to stay out of sight, as he’s worried that someone may have witnessed his act. Shadow Sam shrugs it off, deciding not to worry, instead wondering about what some of the improv kids’ shadows look like, immediately jumping back to his plan to flee, and becoming annoyed with his indecisiveness. Meanwhile, at the top floor of Shadow Control, we see a woman in a military uniform, Lt. Wisp, at the top behind her desk. We see Hale’s shadow take an elevator to the top floor, announcing his plan to meet with Lieutenant Wisp, the head of shadow-human relations and a strict enforcer of the human-shadow separation. Wisp turns to her new guest, welcoming Shadow Hale with a scowl.

 

“I frankly have no idea how you got clearance to see me, but you can just make your point and go. I have an entire planet of shadows where one move could mess up the entire system.” Shadow Hale explains that just that could happen, as for the first time in 9 years, a shadow has violated the golden rule. Wisp asks if he’s to believe a shadow who just randomly waltz into her office and tell her that someone would just break the golden rule with no other reports. Hale asks that she at least begin an investigation in Avery University. Wisp pauses for a moment and gets a call that a shadow from Region 241, the area where Avery is located, is behaving fairly suspiciously and has now left the shadow world. Wisp slams the phone down, saying that she may stand corrected. She orders Hale to keep an eye out for Sam, and that she will try to find him at any cost.

 

The next day, Sam wakes up in his dorm room. “Good news, Sam, all of this was a dream! Your life is perfectly fine!” Sam smiles at how excellent that is, only to realize that his shadow said it. Shadow Sam begs for his human to let him control him for just a day, and that he’ll be careful not to get caught. Sam insists that his answer is no, but his shadow begs for just one hour even, making a cute pouty face. Sam rolls his eyes, asking what he has planned. We cut to Sam in fairly vintage clothing, walking down the diag to class and looking fairly cool and classy. “I hate you,” Sam whispers under his breath. Sam arrives to his next class, the same lecture for urban myths, and he wants to speak with Professor Hale afterwards. His shadow asks him not too, saying that he’s heard some pretty scary things about Hale’s shadow, but Sam says that he’s not letting him get the best of him this time. After class ends, we see Sam struggle to get to his professor, pulled back by his shadow but trying to move forward on his own will. Shadow Sam pleads “Just go back up! I can’t talk to him now!” Sam says that he should of thought of that when he spoke up in class. “What, I was just whispering!” Hale, a bit confused by his student’s awkward walk down the lecture hall staircase, greets him, as Shadow Hale is smiling, about to call on Wisp. Sam is then pulled back up the stairs and out the door in a rapid and ridiculous manner, much to the confusion of all witnesses.

 

Sam runs into a bathroom stall and yells at his shadow for preventing him from talking to Hale. Shadow Sam insists that he had no other option, as he realizes that Hale may have witnessed their conversation on the diag last night. He saw him as he was going away to the shadow world, and Lieutenant Wisp is going to find him soon and perform severance. “Wait...wait...who’s Lieutenant Wisp, and why does that name sound so adorable?” Shadow Sam sighs, explaining everything. We cut to a 80s style action montage of Lt. Wisp in action. She is the gatekeeper of shadows and humans, and one of the strictest separatists there is. The one moment she hears of a shadow breaking the golden role, she jumps into action and takes care of it in a flash using a process called severance. No one knows what it is, but no shadow comes out of it alive. Also, as the leader of the shadow world, she has no connection to the shadow world, giving nothing to weigh her down. “The abridged version, you don’t want to mess with her, and I might have done just that. Please just help me out and we’ll be fine.” Sam is still taking all of this in, but he’s still yet to be proven wrong.

 

 

A montage goes by of the day, with the shadows of several students and faculty, while still attached to their real life counterparts, begin to spread the news about Sam and how he broke the golden rule of shadowkind, and that he’ll have to answer to Lieutenant Wisp soon. Wisp, meanwhile, has found Avery University, and she conducts a private investigation around the various walls that border campus, but she struggles to find him still, as the campus is very large, and is already located close to Washington DC, where crowds of people are gathered with their shadows every day. The crowds are big, and shadows often try to step through her. It’s all too much for her to take, but she continues his investigation, deciding to pay Hale a visit.

 

Meanwhile, Sam is off to their first rehearsal for Laugh Attack, excited to see Frances again. At a small black box theater, everyone is already gathered and rehearsing their scenes. Frances, feeling a little more flustered, goes to greet them again. Frances welcomes them, saying that their first show, The Eccentric Blinds of Bowling Lane, is already in three weeks, but the process of rehearsing comedy is fairly odd, as a lot of it happens on the spot. Frances laughs, saying that the idea is just to wing it. First, they need to make sure their comedic timing is right, putting them through a few improv scenarios. Sam begins to falter at first, much to the disappointment of Frances. “Come on, Sam, you can do so much better, I even saw you do it at the audition!” Frances cries out to Sam as he continues to struggle. Sam, eventually coming to his senses, at least thinking that he does, begins to hit the crowd home with a lot of great jokes. “That’s more like it!” Frances smiles. The rehearsal eventually ends, and Sam is given an invitation to Frances’s place the weekend before the show to watch a terrible movie marathon. Sam says yes without even thinking, feeling completely lovestruck, soon coming to his senses and just saying that he would like to go. After Sam leaves, Frances's Shadow whispers to herself, "He does seem nice, but....I don't know. Maybe he's not like Matt."

 

After leaving the rehearsal, Sam looks behind him, wanting to talk to his shadow. “Did you take control of me again?” Shadow Sam nods, “Of course! You've still got some ways to go in your comedy, and I won’t intervene all of the time. You've gotta find a lot of this inside yourself. Just believe, you know? Those messages they taught in, like, every movie you saw as a kid?” Sam rolls his eyes, saying that this isn’t really the place for faux motivation. Shadow Sam, seeing what the situation calls for, initiates a series of training for his comedic routine over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, we see Hale doing work in his office, while his shadow complains that he almost caught Sam and his shadow that day, but his shadow probably saw them. “We’ve gotta find another way to trap him, and emotional wreckage would be a plus as well.” Hale asks what the sound was, but his shadow goes silent, knowing that he won’t play double standards. After Hale decides to take a nap in his chair, we see a shadow slip under the closed door and suddenly stand right up behind Hale, much to the nerve of his shadow. It’s Wisp.

 

Wisp asks how things have been, appearing casual at first, but eventually asking about Sam. “Well, you see, we almost caught him, but I think that his shadow might be on to us, and he’s now probably going to avoid us for a long time.” Wisp becomes annoyed, but admits through clenched teeth that not everyone has what it takes to be a shadow detective. Wisp suddenly gets the idea to look around for someone else as a trap for Sam, as his shadow is surprisingly smart. She then sees a photo of student life on Hale’s computer and notices a picture of the new Laugh Attack Company. In it, Sam is standing close to Frances. Wisp focuses on Frances and gives a sinister smile. “Meet me at Shadow Central tonight, Hale, I think we found Sam’s special someone.”

 

Through a montage, Sam slowly begins to build his skills with the help of his shadow in a variety of situations, including a gym (for physical comedy), the city streets, and even the dining hall. We also see him practice with Sam and Frances, who continue to share some fun experiences and take up increasingly non-sequitur small talk on topics from skit ideas to bizarre fruits. At the end of the montage, Sam thanks his shadow for all of the help, and the two just relax together in his room. “You know, I’ve never met anyone like you,” Sam said with a smile.  “I get the feeling that, well, you understand me better than anyone.” “Well, I technically am you, so take that as you will. We’re all just crazy shadow people, it may seem to you, but there’s a reason we’re with who we are. I don’t know how the connections are made, but it feels like we’re always there.” Sam smiles, wondering if everyone really does have a shadow. They do, it turns out, and even animals have them as well. “It’s pretty crazy, but there’s something that just feels so right about the craziness in the world.” Shadow Sam says, “I’m sorry I’ve been a bit of a pain, but I promise that things are going to get a lot better. We’ll just help each other along.” Sam thanks his shadow, making one last request on what to wear for the movie marathon, which is happening tomorrow.

 

Shadow Sam heads off again for Shadow Central, and he continues to stay out of sight, until he notices something special: the shadow of Frances. Shadow Frances is much shyer and asks to be left alone, but Shadow Sam just wants to talk to her, as their humans may have a little spark of romance. Shadow Frances really doesn’t want to talk, and she just leaves Sam, who sadly gets the memo. Shadow Frances continues to walk along, until he’s spotted by Shadow Hale, who grabs her and takes her to Shadow Control. “Stop! Put me down! I’m not a slave of the system! Et cetera! Et cetera!” Hale then tells her that she did nothing wrong, but she needs to find someone who did. They are taken to Wisp’s office, where she interrogates Frances, demanding to know more about Sam, threatening to sever her if she doesn't tell all she knows. Frances eventually breaks and tells them about the movie party, feeling bad about selling Sam out, but knowing that he broke a vital rule in the shadow world. Wisp is happy with the new information, giving her a special whistle that will get her attention so that she can get to Sam. Frances tries to find a way around it, but Wisp reminds her of her potential punishment. Frances then sighs.

 

The next day comes, and Sam comes to Frances’s movie party, dressed in fairly cool, hipster-esque clothing, which Frances promptly complements. Her place is decorated with Horizon Travelers merchandise, a Star Trek-esque show that Lucy adores. They have a great time watching movies with terrible acting and visual effects, while Sam gets a moment to talk to Frances. Sam knows that this may sound silly, but he remembers her from the ice cream accident all those years ago. Lucy blinks, saying that she has no idea what he’s talking about. Sam suddenly goes blank, but Lucy chuckles, saying that she’s a fresh face, and he appreciates the act of kindness on behalf of whatever over Frances is out there. The two decide to look at the stars and talk a bit, and Frances decides to be honest with Sam about something. “I know I try to act open and extroverted, but, as stupid as it sounds, a part of me really just prefers being alone. I love all of you in the club, but I just feel like this comedy is a good outlet for me to feel not as afraid, but I just don’t always feel up to it.” She goes on to explain that she had a boyfriend in High School, Matt, that she was able to keep thanks to her perky personality, but she always felt like she wasn't being authentic around him. When Matt saw more of her, he dumped her, deciding that it wouldn't work. "I just wish I could be with someone I can be honest to. Maybe that's why we fall in love in the first place." Sam tells her that it’s okay, and says that she doesn't need to let herself be known to the world, but maybe just someone you can trust. Shadow Sam, meanwhile, is trying to get Shadow Frances’s attention, but Frances is being evasive. Shadow Frances eventually sighs, apologizing to Shadow Sam just as the real Sam is about to say that he loves Frances.

 

The whistle sounds, and it is fairly shrill and echoes, almost like a Native American instrument. Wisp soon comes in with a squadron of mysterious “shadow officers,” the shadows of world leaders who work for Wisp, on the force of Shadow Control. Wisp goes up to Sam, grabbing him, which effectively lifts Sam up in the air as well. Wisp looks to Sam and Frances, both of which have their expressions of shock and confusion, and says, “Let this be a lesson, kids, no one who breaks the rules ever makes it out clean.” Wisp rips Sam’s Shadow off of his feet, and the human and shadow are officially separated. “We’ll deal with you two later, but now we’ve got a fairly important matter to attend to with this one. I hope to see you again soon.” The shadows disappear into the night, and Sam and Frances, are left alone in the lit up diag, while Sam realizes that he now has no shadow. Frances’s shadow controls her, and she runs off, with some shadowy tears in her eyes as well. Sam is thrown into a jail cell in Shadow Central, and he is told by Wisp that he better hope that help comes to him, as there’s a 99.9999% chance that his severance will happen in just a few days.

 

 

Sam wakes up the next day in his dorm room, realizing that his shadow is still missing, and he tries to think about what to do, and how crazy his pursuit is going to be. He decides not to do anything, as he’s still not convinced that this was all in his head. The next few days go by, and Sam is low on spirit, affecting his class performance and his improv skills. Frances tries to talk to him, but he never feels like it. Frances asks why he’s acting like this, and perhaps if it is caused by his shadow. Sam nods, but Frances says that she doesn’t know what to say. “We’ve never been in a situation like this, but whatever happens to Sam’s shadow, he’ll still be as okay as he was when he didn’t know him. I’m still just getting over the fact that most of grade school science had been based on a lie.” Frances walks away, feeling disappointed, but Sam is left to his own devices. Sam notices Frances’s shadow say, “I’ll fix this.”

 

Lucy is studying for a French test, using her smartphone as a tool for flash cards. Someone calls out for Frances, but no one is at the door. She looks around the room and eventually finds her shadow on the wall. “Well....looks like my secret’s out.” Frances screams for a moment, but it’s a scream of joy. “This is incredible! It’s like I’m living out some fantastical comedy premise but in the real world! I’m living in a world where I can legitimately talk to myself!” Shadow Frances admires her brief moment of fame, slowly becoming a bit uncomfortable with Frances’s fan-girling. Frances asks how this is even possible, and Shadow Frances takes a deep breath, explaining everything about the shadow world in a quarter of the time that Sam did. Shadow Frances then confesses that she was involved in the removal of Sam’s shadow. Frances tries to wrap her head around this, but her shadow says that they need to do something, as humans aren’t known to function well without their shadows, suddenly knowing what to do.

 

One day, after he turns on his laptop, he sees that Hale is having office hours today, for students who need to study or have any other questions. Sam then realizes that Hale must know something about this. He steps out into the hall and asks a random student if his shadow is missing. “Uh...yeah, it is?” Sam also notices his shadow give a confused look as well. Sam thanks him, and that this was the affirmation he needed. He signs up for office hours with the reason of, “Urban Legend Explanation.” The student is still thoroughly confused. Sam visits the office and says that he wants to talk to Hale. Hale turns around, and his mouth is duct-taped. “That’s funny, I wanted to talk to you as well.” Shadow Hale prompts the real Hale to get out a giant role of tape and put Sam on the wall. Hale profusely apologizes when doing so.

 

Indeed, Hale’s Shadow has completely taken control of him. Shadow Hale tells Sam how unfortunate it is what happened to his shadow, walking around as Professor Hale awkwardly mimics his shadow’s movements, but that it is ultimately for the best. Humans and shadows were meant to stay separate, and Shadow Sam’s involvement in breaking the divide could destroy the conventions of the world as they know it. There’s a reason Hale taught that sentient shadows were just a myth, as his shadow was controlling him the whole time. Sam tries to break free, but the tape is too strong. Hale continues to apologize, but his shadow shuts him up once more. “I’d further explain my plot, but that would just give you a chance to strategize. At least you have the motive!” Shadow Sam says as he steps out, saying that it’s time to set things as they were meant to be. We see Hale’s Shadow depart for the night after tricking Hale into taping himself to the wall as well, in an effort to prevent him from going anywhere. The process is very awkward, and the tape isn’t as neat as it is for Sam. Shadow Hale notes that at least he took the tape off of his mouth.

 

In Shadow Central, Wisp is interrogating Sam about what he did when the real Sam knew he was there. Sam hesitates, but Wisp jokes that it was a rhetorical question, as she can probe into the mind of any shadow and see their thoughts and memories. “What can I say? Being the most powerful shadow in existence has its perks.” Wisp places her hand on Sam’s head and the two are thrown into a bizarre, movie theater like setting, stylistically consistent with the Shadow world. We see Sam through his shadow’s eyes, and he sees their practicing comedy together and general bonding. Shadow Sam gives a look at Wisp, saying that this might have actually been a good thing. Wisps asks, in a quieter, more sincere voice, if anyone else knows about the shadow world because of him, something which Sam promptly denies. We see a flash of light send them back into the real Shadow Central, and Wisp is a bit more reserved. “Guards, send him back to his cell, I need to do some thinking.” Wisp seems fairly stuck by what she just saw. Shadow Sam says to himself, I can just hope that Sam is doing better than me.

 

Meanwhile, Sam and Hale still taped to the wall, trying to find a way out. The tape is surprisingly effective, and he’s still struggling. “This is senior year all over again,” Sam mutters to himself. While looking around Hale’s office, however, he notices a few photos of Hale with his family. His parents are fairly uptight and appear the same in each photo, with Hale’s frustration with the bland clothes he has to wear all of the time. He also notices a drawing on the wall of Hale talking to his shadow when he was a child, clearly made when he was young. He notices his shadow feeling fairly grumpy and sullen, but Hale is much happier. Hale confesses that he knew his shadow as a child, but he was fairly strict and negative, almost like his parents. However, but he slowly began to hide himself. Shadow children who break the rule are supposedly forgiven more easily, as children are often known for imagining things. “Given everything, though, I guess it’s no surprise that my shadow made me teach a class on denying their very existence. Surely there must be some good that shadows and humans can do together.”

 

Given how differently his shadow is now, Sam looks at this drawing in thought, thinking about the bond between him and his shadow. Sam suddenly has some flashbacks to his childhood, when he performed as a comedian in middle school in earlier high school. His father especially loved his act, but after he lost his job, his parents began to fight a lot, leading to a divorce. As a 16-year old Sam goes downstairs to check the mail, he notices his mother crying on the kitchen table. He looks at a brochure for a comedy camp in the summer, but throws it away, instead looking up business programs so that he can support his family with better job security. As he does this, Shadow Sam (from the past) remains on the floor, quietly beginning to tear up. Cutting back to the real world, Sam begins to tear up, saying to himself quietly, “There it is. It all makes sense.” Suddenly, we see someone try to get in, realizing that it’s just a Janitor. Hale gets the Janitor’s attention, although he just looks plain confused. Hale and Sam run out of the hall through sunrise, saying that the janitor is a miracle worker. The janitor says that he really is, smiling at this revelation.

 

Sam gets a text from Frances to meet at her house. Back at her home, Frances is sending a text message on her phone to a friend. Sam calls outside of her home’s window, and he and Hale are standing there, feeling rather exasperated. Frances is confused as to why they are there, until her shadow reveals that she took temporary control of Frances and sent the text message. She confesses everything, but promises that she will help them get Shadow Sam freed. Hale also warns that his shadow hasn’t come back to him yet, but he knows that he’s gone AWOL. They decide to go inside and get some coffee and try to think of what to do. All of the sudden, we see Hale’s shadow come back to him, becoming frustrated that he set himself free. “I should have known you’d get free. I’m not taking that chance any more, though.” Hale’s shadow controls him again, and he throws the now tied-up Sam and Frances in the back of a car, trying to drive off to an unknown location. Sam and Frances are tied up, but Frances’s shadow, feeling fed up with the situation and her failure to help, controls Lucy, giving her the strength to push off the rope around her and wrestle Hale to the front seat, causing a crazy car ride. Sam looks on in horror as a fight begins between the shadows of Frances and Hale, mimicked by their real life counterparts.

 

It goes by very comically, as the two are constrained by seat belts, and they get into accidents several times. However, they eventually arrive safely at the university’s abandoned planetarium. Sam remarks that the most unbelievable thing that happened so far this past month was that he’s still alive after all of that. Hale regains control of Frances and Sam, continuing to apologize for lack of control over his shadow. Shadow Hale takes the whistle from Shadow Frances, blowing on it and summoning Wisp. Wisp arrives on the scene, appearing very large against the top of the planetarium, and she has Sam with him. Hale says that it’s time for Sam to see what happens when shadows break the golden rule, and Wisp is ready to oblige. Hale takes out a device for creating black light, akin to a pistol, the one thing that can kill a shadow. Shadow Sam, being lifted as a tiny shadow against the wall with Wisp carrying him, is lifted down on the ground. Hale is about to get the black light device ready, adjusting the lights in the planetarium to greater darkness, but instead, Wisp kicks Hale to the side, knocking him unconscious, and setting Shadow Sam down next to Sam. Sam is amazed by this change, and he his relieved to see his shadow again.

 

Wisp tells Sam that after what his shadow showed her, that maybe she was wrong about shadows and humans having to be separate. She then takes a shadow needle and “sews” Sam with his shadow again. Sam and his shadow are so happy to reunite, and they go up to a wall and hug. Basically, Sam just spreads his arms out and looks very awkward. Suddenly the light goes out, and we see a device of black light go off, followed by Wisp screaming. Sam quickly rushes to the lights and turns them on. Wisp’s shadow is now shrinking to an incredibly small size, eventually disappearing into thin air, and Hale is armed with his black light device. Sam, Frances, their shadows, and the real Hale gasp after seeing Wisp completely gone. Shadow Hale laughs as he sees the former Prime Shadow dead, and her power now coming to him. Sam leads Frances to a corner, backing away nervously.

 

Shadow Hale then reveals that it was never his contention to kill Shadow Sam, but rather Wisp. He had believed in the myth of shadows since he was a child, but as an adult, his new shadow explained everything to him, including his desire to be the new Prime Shadow. The Prime Shadow has all of the powers that Wisp has, and the only way to become the new Prime Shadow is to kill the former. He was waiting for a chance to reach Wisp and gain her trust, the best way to bring her close to him in the real world where could use the black light on her, and the ruckus that Shadow Sam had caused was the perfect cover-up. Meanwhile, in Shadow Central, the shadow officers working in shadow, all of which are European, where it is currently night time, control receive negative signals of Wisp’s life. They make the proper realization and panic. Sam asks his shadow who is the new Prime Shadow, now that Wisp has been killed. Sam, with great fear, tells her that the shadow who kills the Prime will become the new one. Sam, Frances, and their shadows, after a pause, release a simultaneous, “Oh no!”

 

Indeed, we see Hale’s shadow surround by a shadow of purple light, and Hale begins to laugh. Hale also notices that he is blasted away from his shadow, and the two are now separate. “The new prime....” Frances says in Horror. “Yep, it’s pretty awesome, ain’t it? I’ll assure you that I promise to be the leader Wisp never was. Despite her strong personality, she was always secretly willing to see shadows and humans work together. Why else did she warm up to you so easily? Now, however, I’ve got all the power I want, and I’ll make you forget everything you know about this world, keeping it that way. Also, did I tell you that it’s not just people I preside over?” Sam runs up to get the black light device, but Shadow Hale picks up Sam’s shadow and throws the device through the ceiling before it can be used. The device lands near a cliff on the planetarium, already several feet downward off of an even taller overlook. They know that they need to get to the device, but Shadow Hale has another idea. He lifts several boxes around the room, using their shadows so that the boxes are floating, and cuts them out to look like the shadows of giant monsters, inspired mainly by kaiju such as Godzilla and Mothra. “Well played, I like that kind of thing,” Frances says. Her shadow says that she hopes it’s just as okay when it kills her.

 

We see Frances, Hale, and Sam try to defend themselves from the monsters, all of which are threatening as shadows on a giant screen, but are only small puppets of cardboard in real life. They try to get to the cardboard cut outs, but Shadow Hale is too effective in stopping them. Hale then remembers that he doesn’t have to worry about the shadows, and he can just go up and take the puppets. Hale is still hit by a heavy box, knocking him unconscious, but in the fury, Sam sees the shadow whistle fall to them. Shadow Sam runs up to get it, succeding, and eventually blows on it, wondering if it will summon someone from Shadow Control. We then cut back to Shadow Control, where a large alarm goes off, triggered by the whistle. They then see screens from Shadow Sam’s perspective, showing the evil of Shadow Hale and the realization that he was the one who killed Wisp. They then try to think of what to do, as they cannot leave Shadow Central. One member from Sweden then realizes that there may be some people who can help. They visit the real Sam’s social networking page (“Copyright Free Social Network Site!”) and find his comedy group friends, eventually calling upon their shadows.

 

Sam and Frances continue to struggle, as their Shadows are trapped, but a voice comes from outside. The other students in the comedy club have arrived, and their shadows are ready to fight. One student says, “Get away, Sam and Frances! We’ll take care of these shadows!” The monsters then go after the comedy students, which gives Sam and Frances a window to escape and find the dark light device. They go down and see that it is left on a cliff forty feet below them, which is above a 100 foot drop into a river. Sam asks how he’s going to get it, until his shadow gets an Idea. Shadow Sam tells him to jump down and retrieve the gun. “I’ll make sure you have a good landing! Just trust me!” Sam is scared, but he makes the jump. Shadow Sam, as he is falling, grabs on to the thin ledge left by the shadows of some irregular rocks on the cliff, using them as stones to get down on. Sam lands safely, and he retrieves the Black Light device. He asks Frances to bring out Hale, and she runs off to get him. Back inside, the comedy students are doing fairly well, as a lot of them are as spirited as they were in their real life counterparts. Shadow Hale is struggling to keep up, but Lucy comes up and tells Shadow Hale that Sam has decided to surrender, but he wants to meet him to have a formal handshake. It’s an odd request, but Shadow Hale agrees to it.

 

He sees Sam on the ledge and lifts up his shadow, taking him back up. Sam is careful to hide the light beneath him. Shadow Sam is about to shake his hand, saying that he will do a great job as prime shadow, only to run inside and trap Hale’s shadow. Once he is inside, Frances dims the lights, and Sam sets the light onto Shadow Hale. It looks as though Hale will have easily been defeated, but he grabs Sam’s shadow and throws him across the room, badly injuring him. “No!” Frances yells. Sam is about to get up, but Hale regains consciousness and retrieves a box that looks like the black light device. “Nice try, Hale, but that won’t work at all! You can’t kill your own shadow! Even a child would know –“ Shadow Hale suddenly finds himself shrinking at a ridiculous rate, looking around and finding Lucy with the black light. Shadow Hale begins panicking and yelling crazy warnings, “Don’t do this! Not all shadows are good! Al Capone would have been a ballerina! Genghis Khan loved to knit! These shadows corrupt people! They need to stay separate! They need to –“ but he is now gone. The real Hale turns on the light, and everyone begins to cheer. However, they find that Sam is not in good condition. Shadow Sam begins to panic, but he notices that night time is coming, and he drifts away from Sam sadly, "I hope to see you well tomorrow, buddy." We then see the same light as earlier that surrounded Hale surround Frances's shadow, and the two become separate. "She's the new prime," Sam says, smiling through his pain.

 

Sam is then rushed to a local hospital, where doctors tell him that he will be okay, but needs to be treated overnight. Frances's anxiety begins to lessen, but she is still worried. Meanwhile, we see Shadow Frances and Shadow Sam walk away to Shadow Central together, and Shadow Frances is unsure how people will react when she arrives. She takes a deep breath upon arriving in Shadow Central, only to be greeted by several cheering faces and exuberant signs saying, “Congratulations Frances, Our New Prime!” Frances comes to this realization amidst all of the craziness of her new destiny. Frances, realizing her duties, embraces the crowd, letting her shyness go and realizing what she now needs to do. She then decides that she will repeal the separation of shadows and humans once and for all. This new ruling causes a great deal of applause from the shadow populace, and she also decides to appoint Sam to be her official right hand man. After a night of celebrating, the shadows of Frances and Sam return to the real world. Sam is still in the hospital, but he looks to be able to leave that afternoon with just a cast on. Frances and Hale come to visit him, and they are all relieved that he is doing better. At the same time, the shadows of Sam and Frances return, much to Sam’s delight. Shadow Frances, now free standing, tells Sam that she needs to thank him for everything, and she can’t wait to reveal the truth of shadows to everyone. “I’m not sure you should do that in a hospital, though,” Sam says, and Shadow Frances admits that he’s probably right.

 

Sam eventually leaves, and things are already looking a lot better. He tells his shadow about what a trip all of this was, and Frances notices that people have already begun to notice their shadows, and they are having fairly genial relationships already. Shadow Frances also assures Hale that he’ll have a new shadow reformed and sent to him fairly soon. Sam asks Frances if Shadow Hale was right, and their really may be malicious people transformed by shadows. Shadow Frances confidently replies that if they could deal with Hale, they can deal with anyone. They all laugh, and Shadow Sam eventually pulls Lucy in for a kiss. Shadow Sam comes up to him afterwards, thanking him for going along on this crazier adventure, and that it's certainly going to be a new world we're going to be living in. Sam laughs and tries to give his shadow a hug in the same manner as before, with him putting his arms flat across the wall. "This will never not look awkward." "I know."

 

THE END

 

*The end credits are set to people discovering their shadows in a fairly cartoonish and painted art style, set to “Could You Imagine” by Owl City.*

[cookie]

The Little Engine That Could

 

Studio: Fine Films Inc. Cartoons

Genre: Animation (2D) / Family / Adventure

Director: Jayson Thiessen

Producer: Doe John, Richard Rich

Release Date: September 1

Theater Count: 2,530

Budget: $15 million

Rating: G

Running Time: 80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)

Cast: Miles Bakshi (Richard), Kristen Schall (Little E.), John Goodman (Rusty), Val Kilmer (The Tower), Brad Garrett (The Nightmare Train)

 

Plot:

Little E. wakes the control tower up, so she can start work. She dreams of being a dream hauler. But the control the tower confirms that she is too small to pull her own train. She gets a little help from Rusty, an old and wise Engine. In the Real World, a boy named Richard shows his friend Marcus, his grandfather's watch. Two bullies named, Scott and Stretch, throw a snowball at Richard, which makes him slip and hand the watch over to them. He is worried that his dad would be unhappy if he lost the watch. Marcus tries to help him, but Richard does not want help from him. Richard decides to take a walk in the park, but trips over some train tracks he has never noticed before. He boards a train to take shelter from the cold, and suddenly is whisked away to DreamLand. While passing through the tunnel to DreamLand, the tunnel collapses, trapping Richard and the trains in DreamLand. The Tower demotes Rusty to a track-cleaner. Little E. offers to take Richard home on the rumored tracks that lead over the mountain. The Tower, looking for a way to preoccupy Little E. and Richard while the other trains try to do the important work of clearing the tunnel, agrees, sending them both on their way while also promising to give Rusty his job back afterwards and even throw him a Ticker-Tape Parade. Little E. finds the track leading up the mountain. Along the way, they encounter the Nightmare Train, but trick him into speeding down a side-track, and are able to continue on their way. This shows Richard how to stand up to bullies. Little E., with the help of Richard, also deals with a water leak and a derailment, and eventually makes it over the mountain to the Real World. Little E. returns to DreamLand, tells her story about her trip over the mountain, and is promoted to a dream hauler as a reward for her bravery. Once back, Richard has gained the confidence to confront the bullies and get his watch back.

Edited August 24, 2017 by cookie

[Hiccup23]

Pandemic
Date- November 22nd
Genre- Thriller
Rating- PG-13
Theaters- 3,268 theaters
Budget- 60 million
Running Time- 115 minutes or 1 hour and 55 minutes
Studio- O$corp Pictures
Director- Marc Forster
Cast:
Michael- Tom Glynn Carney
Sam- Nicholas Hoult
Annie- Natalie Dormer
Emily- Cara Delevingne
Dr. Van- Denzel Washington
Dr. Jessica - Nicole Kidman
Plot:

Spoiler

The film opens at a college in Ohio. We see a talking to Michael and Sam about his classes overseas to Mexico. At in the dining hall, we see Michael, Jake, Annie, and Emily sitting at a lunch table. Suddenly a group of students start to shout and rush over to a body lying on the ground. We see it is Jake. They next day they find out that Jake died of an unknown virus and five other students are sick. The school officials decide to cancel classes until further notice.

The films moves to Dr. Van of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who leads an investigation into seventy-eight disease related deaths, all exhibiting similar symptoms. At first, suspicions of a man-made disease are discussed, only to be discredited by Dr. Jessica, who alleges the swine flu has mutated itself to afflict humans on its own. She says that the victims were all tourist from Mexico. She says that the Mexican government has released a statement that there is officially an epidemic of swine flu in Mexico and Central America. They say that the virus has already entered South America and the USA. Investigations into cures via treatment protocols or vaccines prove fruitless. As the flu spreads, hearings are set up to discuss possible solutions, airports within the nation are shut down, and the national guard is deployed to quarantine off the cities where the flu is most prevalent. Cleveland is the central city for the virus. The metro area home to 2.3 million people has an inflected rate of 1.1 million and the rest have fled or are already dead. Around the nation they set up treatment centers and provide general order. We also follow Michael, Sam, Emily, and Annie during this. We see them lock down in A In an effort to quell public fear, Dr. Van appears on a news talk show to discuss the disease; only to find out that the show hypothesizes an over billion people outbreak around the globe. It is an officially pandemic.

Michael, Sam, Emily, and Annie head north from the Canadian line since Canada is free of the disease so far. Arriving at the border, they encounter a choke point manned by National Guard troops preventing anyone from leaving the nation. The four decide to break through by canoeing across. They narrowly reach Canada only to discover that the virus has mutated and gone air born. The virus has entered Canada. At the CDC, the flu is identified as having evolved into an airborne virus and forces the adoption of bio-hazard gear. With the millions of deaths, clean-up efforts are begun to bury the dead. Since there are so many dead, the survivors are forced to burn the bodies in giant pits. The outbreak has eventually crossed Atlantic Ocean where it begins to wipe out the population in East Hemisphere. Order in the Western Hemisphere collapses. Latin America is completely anarchy and the USA and Canada are on the brink. We see Michael, Sam, Emily, and Annie walking through the streets of Toronto. Dead bodies lay everywhere. The air stinks like death. Emily begins to cough and sneeze. She tells them to leave her because she is sick and get to the northern forests where they will be safe. They three say they aren’t going anywhere. Within a few hours Emily is dead and Annie is beginning to experience the flu symptoms. After Annie passes away, Sam and Michael begin to flee to the north. They reach a safe-zone of non-sick survivors. There we see Dr. Van and Dr. Jessica. Michael and Sam are greeted warmly and shown to rooms. Inside of his room, we see Michael beginning to cough and vomit. Sam enters inside. Michael turns to Sam and says he has the flu. Sam looks in fear and shock.

 

[cookie]

DEFENDERS OF THE UNIVERSE

 

Studio: Cookie Pictures

Director: Jon Favreau

Producer: Sebastian Peters

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Release Date: May 26th

Theater Count: 4,080 (including 395 IMAX theaters)

Budget: $190 million

Running Time: 141 minutes (2 hours, 21 minutes)

Composer: Tyler Bates

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, some frightening images and some crude humor

Based on: Voltron: Legendary Defender by Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos. Inspired by the Voltron franchise by World Events Productions.

 

Daniel Henney as Shiro, leader of the Voltron team and the Black Paladin

Jake T. Austin as Lance, the Blue Paladin

Yoo Seung-ho as Keith, the Red Paladin

Taissa Farmiga as Pidge, the Green Paladin

Jay Fe'aunati (made-up actor) as Hunk, the Yellow Paladin

Tessa Thompson as Princess Allura, the last royal of Altea and one of two living Alteans

Damian Lewis as Coran, Allura's advisor and one of two living Alteans

Idris Elba (performance capture) as Emperor Zarkon, leader of the Galra Empire

Elizabeth Banks as Witch Haggar, leader of the Galra Druids and Zarkon's right hand

Dougray Scott (performance capture) as Sendak, a ruthless Galra commander tasked to capture the lions by Zarkon

 

Plot (Warning: REALLY long):

 

We open on Kerberos, one of Pluto's moons. An interplanetary expedition led by Shiro, Samuel Holt (Micheal Shanks) and his son Matthew are drilling through the icy surface and stumble across a small block of ice that seems to contain what looks like a small piece of bacteria. Matthew tells his son to be careful as they bring the block of ice to the surface. Shiro, mentioning that Kerberos is as far out as humanity's been in the universe, congratulates the father-and-son duo of possibly making history by discovering the first signs of extraterrestrial life. Samuel mentions that it's highly unlikely that they'd ever come across extraterrestrials they could have a game of chess with in their lifetime, but it's a start. Suddenly, in an almost poetic sense of irony, a gigantic alien ship appears out of nowhere, startling the humans. The aliens beam a tractor beam at them bringing the three into their ship. One of the aliens, a Galra, removes Shiro's helmet despite his protestations for he believes he'll choke out. Surprised to find that he can breathe normally on the Galra ship, he sees Matthew and Samuel being held captive while he's brought in front of the ship's captain. The captain is in a video call with a person he calls "Emperor Zarkon" and on the video screen we see a shadowy figure taking note of Shiro's presence. Shiro tells the Galra that he and the Holts are unarmed and come from a peaceful planet, but he's knocked up before he can explain further. Zarkon tells the captain to bring Shiro and the Holts to the main fleet for further interrogation.

 

Cookie Pictures Presents

 

A Jon Favreau Film

 

VOLTRON

Defenders of the Universe

 

/ One Year Later /

 

We are introduced to Lance, Pidge and Hunk on a rescue mission to Kerberos. Lance, the pilot, begins his descent. Hunk, the engineer sitting behind him, tells Lance to take it easy unless he wants his vomit all over the ship. Lance tells Hunk to shut it and prepare for landing instead. Pidge, the coordinator, tells Lance that he's lost contact with the landing site, while Lance yells at Hunk to fix the hydraulic stabilizer or the ship is going to continue rocking violently. Hunk stumbles over to the engine compartment before vomiting into it while Pidge tells Lance that it's probably not a wise move to land with no communications and an engine compartment filled with Hunk's breakfast. Lance shoots Pidge down as he descends towards the surface, only to lose the ship's left wing to an overhang approaching the landing site. Pidge sarcastically congratulates Lance for good piloting just before the ship crashes, revealing that the whole thing's a training simulation. The sergeant walks in and drag all three out to scold them in front of their classmates. The sergeant uses the three as an example for the others to learn from, pointing out their all their easily avoidable missteps and most importantly their lack of teamwork. He explains that the Galaxy Garrison exists to turn cadets like them into the next generation of astroexplorers, and compares them to the real mission on Kerberos we saw in the opening, which he claims was a failure for similar reasons. Pidge immediately objects to that claim but Lance pulls him away. The sergeant zeroes in on Lance and reminds him that the only reason he's here is that the best pilot in his class had discipline issues and flunked out. The three are dismissed for the day as they return to their respective dorms.

 

Later that evening just before curfew, Lance and Hunk leave their dorms to go grab Pidge. Hunk thinks they should've just stayed put because they've been in enough trouble already, but Lance thinks hitting the town would make a good "team-building exercise" (in reality Lance just wants to sneak out and meet some girls). They get to Pidge's dorm to find it abandoned. They see Pidge making his way to the roof of the academy with a backpack and a piece of sonar equipment sticking out of it. They sneak up on Pidge, startling him, and try to get him to reveal what he's been up to. Pidge tries to excuse himself by saying he's just looking at the stars, which Lance doesn't buy. Lance threatens to tell the dean that Pidge's out violating the curfew if he doesn't tell them. Pidge, seeing through his ploy, replies that if Lance and Hunk were up here with him they'd be violating the curfew too and all three would get in trouble. Nevertheless, Pidge reveals that he's built a radio scanner that can reach all the way to the edge of the solar system. Lance immediately assumes this has something to do with Kerberos since Pidge flips out whenever it's brought up, and if they're going to work as a team it's best for Pidge to be honest from the outset. Pidge reveals that while scanning the system he picked up alien radio chatter, and since he refuses to believe the official story as to what went down in Kerberos he thinks they're connected. After standing silent and just staring at Pidge Lance dismisses him as crazy and tells Hunk to grab him and take him back to the dorm. Hunk, frightened at the idea that hostile aliens might exist, thinks that maybe they should hear Pidge out. Pidge reveals that among the alien chatter and barrage of numbers he picked up one word which was repeated constantly: "Voltron". They're interrupted by an announcer saying that the entire school is under lockdown, and Hunk looks up to see what appears to be a meteor heading towards them. Pidge grabs the telescope and sees that it's not a meteor, but an alien ship. The ship crashes a few miles away from the school and military personnel are sent out to investigate. Pidge decides to follow them, later to be joined by a now intrigued Lance and hesitant Hunk.

 

They find the crash site and sees that the military has already set up a perimeter around the crashed ship. Hunk thinks they should just leave before they get into even more trouble, but Lance insists that they need to find a way to get within the perimeter. Pidge intercepts a camera feed from the medical bay set up near the crashed ship and we see a video feed of Shiro strapped to a medical table while men in hazmat suits run tests on him. Shiro seems to have had his right arm replaced with a cybernetic one, and he's struggling and screaming about an alien menace coming and that they need to find Voltron. Lance recognizes Shiro as his idol and the captain of the Kerberos mission. But if Shiro's back on Earth, where's the rest of the crew? The head doctor orders for Shiro to be put under until they can figure out what the robot arm does, and to prevent that the team hatches a plan to break him out of there (under Hunk's protest). Suddenly the site is rocked by nearby explosions, which Hunk interprets as the aliens invading, but Pidge sees is a distraction for a cloaked figure sneaking his way into the medical bay. Lance immediately recognizes the intruder as Keith, a guy he claims is always trying to one-up him in class. We see Keith breaking into the medical bay and fight off the doctors before he frees an unconscious Shiro and is confronted by Lance, Hunk and Pidge. Lance tries to grab Shiro for himself saying that Keith won't one-up him this time. Keith seems oblivious as to who Lance is, before recognizing him as a cargo pilot who was upgraded to fighter pilot after Keith flunked out. Pidge asks Lance if there actually exists a rivalry between him and Keith or if it's just another one of his exaggerations, but Lance dismisses him so he can grind his teeth at Keith. The group escape on Keith's hovercraft just as the military returns and chases after them. This leads to a vehicle chase across the mountains which ends in Keith driving the whole gang off a cliff before pulling a manouver that lands them safely on the ground so they can continue driving without the military pursuing them.

 

We cut to sunrise as we see Shiro regaining consciousness in an abandoned farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Keith sits beside him, wondering if he's all right, and Shiro replies that his mind is in a bit of a shatter, but otherwise he's alright. Shiro introduces himself to the rest of the group, and Lance is shown to be a bit apprehensive about Shiro's cybernetic arm. Shiro asks how Keith knew where'd he crash, and Keith asks Hunk to pull off some sheets revealing a map of the entire area. Keith tells the group that after being booted from the Garrison he was drawn out to the wasteland in search of some kind of energy. He can't really explain why, just that he had a "feeling" inside him telling him to go hunting. He shows images of a cave not far from here that he thinks is the source of the energy he's been looking for, as well as ancient markings telling stories about a blue lion. He concocts that the stories were foretelling of an arrival that was set to occur last night, which is when Shiro showed up. Pidge asks since Shiro was the captain of the Kerberos mission if he knew if the rest of the crew made it out alive, but Shiro fails to remember anything. Hunk, meanwhile, reveals that he's been digging through Pidge's stuff without his knowledge. He pulls out a picture of what appears to be Pidge with his girlfriend, which Pidge immediately snatches away from him. Hunk reveals that he's also read Pidge's diary (again without Pidge's knowledge) and found that the sequence of numbers the aliens were rambling resembled a Fraunhofer line - a number describing the emission spectrum of an element - only this element didn't seem to exist on Earth. Lance compliments Hunk on being smarter than he thought, and Hunk replies that unlike Lance he actually paid attention in physics class. Hunk goes on to explain that the element might be from this "Voltron" and he could build a geiger counter that can search for it. Keith sees the wavelength Pidge wrote down in his diary and matches it with a nearby mountain range. While Shiro appreciates Hunk and Pidge's contribution, he warns that if they're going to go out and search for it, it might be very dangerous, so if they want to turn around and go back to the Garrison they should do so now. Lance replies that since going back to the Garrison is only going to get them in more trouble anyway, it's better they stay put.

 

Keith leads them to the cave where he found the markings depicting the blue lion and Hunk's geiger counter goes haywire almost immediately. Lance goes ahead and dusts off one of the markings, a direct depiction of the lion they're looking for, and suddenly all the markings start to light up in a light blue glow. This comes as a special surprise to Keith, who claims he's never seen them light up like that before. Pidge sees one of the markings featuring the lion guarding a flock of antelopes and points out that antelopes have been extinct in the wild for hundreds of years, so this lion has been present on Earth for at least a few centuries if not more. Suddenly the ground below them gives away, sending all five into a dark abyss and presumably their demise. They're flushed into an underground spring where they awaken to find a gigantic blue robot lion awaiting them. They guess that this must be Voltron and Keith correctly assumes that this is the source of all the crazy energy. The lion is surrounded by a force field which appears to be impenetrable. Lance claims that the lion is looking directly at him, which the other's initially dismiss as a figure of his imagination, but Lance proves it by running to the other side of the force field and seeing the lion's eyes pursuing him. He proceeds to place his hand on the force field which immediately causes it to dissipate, letting them approach the lion as it opens itself up for them to climb inside. Once in, Lance calls dibs on the pilot chair but once seated the lion's interior displays activate, revealing to the gang that the blue lion is only one part of a bigger machine called Voltron. Shiro exclaims that this must be what the Galra were looking for, but he's interrupted by Lance who claims that he hears the lion talking back to him in a deep growl. "It wants me to take me to the skies" he says. "That's ridiculous, a lion can't fly!" Pidge responds. Pidge's immediately proven wrong when the lion gets on its feet, lifts off from the ground, breaks the ceiling and flies away with them inside.

 

The blue lion breaks the sound barrier as it leaves Earth and travels into outer space. Keith asks Lance just what the hell he's doing, but Lance claims he's not doing anything, it's like the lion has a mind of its own. What he can tell them is that an alien ship is approaching Earth and the lion wants them to intercept it. "How do you know this?!" Pidge asks. "The lion told me... or more like it's feeding ideas into my brain, kind of..." Lance responds. Hunk shivers, suggesting that maybe they should hand the lion to the aliens and they'll leave Earth alone, but he's rebutted by Shiro. "The Galra spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. You can't bargain with them. They won't stop until they've enslaved everything." A massive Galra ship suddenly appears out of nowhere and fires its many laser cannons at the blue lion. This is where the lion grants full control over to Lance and he knows immediately what to do. Pidge reminds him that this isn't a simulator, which Lance takes as a reassurance since he always wrecks the simulator anyway. He commands the lion to fire a mouth cannon at the ship which seems to do some damage. The captain of the ship contacts Zarkon to let him know that they've found the blue lion, and Zarkon orders him to pursue and trap it. After damaging some of the laser cannons the lion takes back control from Lance and escapes Earth's orbit while the Galra ship pursues. Hunk wonders why the ship isn't firing anymore lasers at them, and he's answered when it launches a tractor beam at them trying to bring it inside the ship. The lion evades the tractor beam as another, different wormhole opens up right in front of it. Lance tells the others that the lion wants them to go through it, and he leaves it up to Shiro to decide since he's the adult in the room. "The lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together" he replies. They lay down a unanimous vote to go through the wormhole, since it's either that or get taken in and probably killed by the Galra. They enter the wormhole which vanishes before the Galra ship could pursue them further.

 

On the other side of the wormhole they see a planet that looks much like earth albeit smaller in size. Shiro fails to recognize any of the constellations surrounding the planet, remarking that they must be very far from their own solar system. The lion enters the planet's atmosphere and descends upon a white alien castle situated on a cliff near a lake. The lion's eyes light up and so does the castle's five spires. The lion lands in the castle courtyard and opens up it's mouth to let the crew out. Hunk panics because they don't know if they can breathe on the planet and they didn't bring any spacesuits, but they quickly find that the planet's atmosphere is virtually identical to Earth's. Shiro tells everyone to be on their guard, saying aliens captured him once and he won't let it happen again. The lion roars and the door in front of them opens up. They enter the castle and are immediately scanned by the castle's computer. Shiro asks what the castle wants from them but gets no answer. The castle lights up and directs them to a chamber further down the hall. They enter some kind of control room where two pods emerge out of the floor. One of the pods open up and Allura, princess of the Alteans, awakens. She trips right into Lance's arms which makes him blush.

 

Allura: Who are you? Where am I?

Lance: I'm Lance. And you're right here in my arms.

Allura: Your ears... What's wrong them?! They're hideous!

[Alteans have elf-like ears compared to other humanoids]

Lance: What?! Nothing's wrong with them! You're the odd one out here, elf... like... lady!

 

Allura grabs Lance by the arm and holds him down, demanding that they tell her what happened to the castle and where her father, King Alfor (John Kani), is. Lance tells her that they came here with the blue lion, and Allura proceeds to inquire what happened to the blue paladin. Shiro, trying to defuse the situation, tells her that they don't know. Allura lets go of Lance and formally introduces herself. She walks over to the control panel and uses it to open up the other pod containing her royal advisor, Coran. Coran immediately tries to attack what he perceives to be intruders but only results of him stumbling around making a fool of himself. Allura asks the castle computer how long she and Coran have been asleep, and in dramatic fashion the computer reveals that they've been asleep for ten thousand years. Allura, devastated by the revelation, collapses. She awakens in a bed with Coran sitting beside her. Coran tells her that the crew of the blue lion have explained everything and they're not hostile. Aware that the humans want answers, Allura tells them about Altea and its people, and how it all was destroyed by the Galra emperor Zarkon. Shiro tenses up when he hears the name, revealing that when he got captured by the Galra he was brought before Zarkon who said he was the key to finding Voltron. Allura finds it impossible that Zarkon could still be alive after all these years, but Shiro swears it's true. "If what you say is true, then that's exactly why we must find Voltron before Zarkon does" Allura says.

 

[The movie uses forced camera perspectives and CGI to make Allura and Coran appear taller than the human cast]

 

We cut to a cluster of Galra ships gathering in the vastness of space with a giant ship situated in the middle. Inside we see Witch Haggar, Zarkon's right hand, using dark crystals to meditate her powers. She starts sensing a resurgence of Altean energy and goes to inform Zarkon, who we see standing in front of a large glass window overlooking the Galra fleet. She informs him that the blue lion has been awakened along with the Altean energy, which to Zarkon confirms what the pilot of the Galra ship approaching Earth saw earlier. He ponders how the princess of Altea could be alive after all these years and orders Haggar to send their best commander to locate the source, wipe out the Alteans once and for all and retrieve Voltron. We cut to a different Galra ship where Commander Sendak, a Galra general with a cyborg arm similar to Shiro's, is ordered by Zarkon to travel to the planet Altea (which is in his sector) and collect Voltron for him. Sendak asks what he should with the Alteans, and Zarkon simply replies "Whatever you please", much to Sendak's delight. Cut back to Altea where the humans are offered green sludge for food. Pidge is revolted by it, but Hunk can't stop eating it. Coran tells Allura that the two are the last Alteans alive, much to Allura's sorrow. She finds however that a group of mice entered her pod and went into hypersleep with her and remarks that they may not be the last after all. Suddenly the castle's warning sirens start blaring and they find out that Sendak's ship has set its tracker towards Altea. Coran estimates that at Sendak's current speed he'll be reaching the planet in a few days tops, which Allura thinks is enough time for them to retrieve the remaining four lions and face Sendak head on. Lance and Keith start arguing as to who's to blame for getting Zarkon's attention, but they're told to knock it off by Shiro who reminds everyone that they need to work as a team from now on.

 

Coran reveals that before King Alfor put him and Allura to hypersleep he connected the lions to Allura's life force, and thus she is the only one who can locate them. Allura uses her energy to create a holographic map of the entire universe. She goes on to explain that each lion shares a special bond with its pilot, or "paladin" in this case, often coordinated with the paladin's own personal strengths. The black lion, the head of Voltron, resides inside the castle and through King Alfor's magic can only be awakened once the other four lions are freed. It needs a pilot who's strength is in leadership, and thus Allura designates it to Shiro. The green lion, hidden in a jungle planet, needs a pilot of intellect, and thus is given to Pidge. The yellow lion, hidden in a mining planet, needs a pilot who puts the needs of others above himself, and thus is given to Hunk. Lance questions that designation, but he digresses. Together, Lance and Hunk will form the legs of Voltron. The red lion is the most temperamental of them all, faster and more skillful than the rest but also more unstable, and needs a pilot that relies on instinct above skill, and thus is given to Keith. Together he and Pidge will form the arms of Voltron. Allura is unable to locate the red lion but hopes they can find it before Sendak arrives. Lance and Hunk are ordered by Shrio to go and retrieve the yellow lion while he and Pidge get the green one. Keith is to stay behind and go retrieve the red lion if they manage to locate it. Allura and Coran get to work on the castle's defenses for the battle ahead.

 

Shiro and Pidge locate the jungle planet and start scouting for the green lion. They come across a tall, sleuth-like creature who tells them to come along for he seems to know where the green lion is. They are then seen traversing on a canoe down a river where all kinds of cute creatures await to greet them and direct them to the green lion. Pidge is nervous about becoming the green paladin, but Shiro reassures him by reciting a quote from Samuel Holt, which seems to affect Pidge. They come across a temple covered in vines where Shiro tells Pidge to go ahead and retrieve the green lion. Soon enough a green light emanates from the temple and the green lion bursts out with Pidge piloting it. Pidge lands back on the ground to the cheers of all the cute creatures.

 

Shiro: This was easier than I thought it'd be.

Pidge: Yeah... I wonder if Hunk and Lance have as much fun as us.

 

Smash cut to a panicking Lance and Hunk being chased by Galra fighters on the mining planet. They're struck by a fighter missile and are downed near the entrance of one of the mining tunnels. Hunk says according to the coordinates they're right on top of the yellow lion, and Lance proceeds to kick him out and tell him to go find it while he battles the Galra. Hunk hijacks a mining elevator and descends into the cave where he finds markings leading him to the yellow lion. The lion is behind a rock wall, so Hunk uses a driller to drill through where he finds it. Meanwhile Lance is out fighting the Galra when one of the fighters strike down Lance and prepares to fire a second missile with the intent to destroy him and the blue lion. Out of the ground bursts the yellow lion who shields the blue lion with its thick, shell-like back. The yellow lion then proceeds to body slam the remaining Galra fighters destroying them. The four return to the castle with three lions in hand and Coran tells them that they've found the red lion.

 

Coran: There's a bit of good news, bad news and worse news. The good news is that the red lion's nearby!

Pidge: And the bad news?

Coran: It's on Sendak's ship.

Hunk: And the worse news?!

Coran: My calculations happened to be a bit off. Sendak's already orbiting Altea.

Shiro: They're here already?!

Coran: Yes!... Finger counting is really more of an art than a science when you get down to it. [nervous chuckle]

Lance: See? I told you all it was Keith's fault!

Keith: Do you ever shut up?!

[They're interrupted by a video transmission being displayed on screen]

Sendak: Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I come here to confiscate the lions. Do not put up any resistance or you and your planet will be destroyed.

[video feed cuts off]

 

Coran analyses Sendak's ship and sees that the ion cannon installed on the ship is more powerful than the ship's defenses could tolerate. Only a few blasts could decimate the castle's shields, and thus they have to act now to stop Sendak from annihilating the castle. Lance and Hunk suggest they abandon the planet with the three lions (with Hunk suggesting they form a snake) that they have and live to fight another day, but are shot down by Pidge who says that the Galra will keep enslaving planets until they're in control of the entire universe and running away will change nothing. Keith seconds that and gets into another argument with Lance. Shiro tells everyone to stop and asks Allura what they should do. "I... I don't know..." she replies. "Perhaps your father knows what to do" Coran replies back. Coran leads Allura into an underground chamber where King Alfor's memories are stored in a holographic depiction of himself. The hologram of King Alfor begins recollecting the story of what happened to Altea. After Allura went into hypersleep, Alfor divided the lions and hid them across the universe. He remarks that it may have been a mistake doing so, since without Voltron Zarkon could conquer the universe unstopped. He tells Allura not to repeat his mistake, and that forming Voltron is the only way to save the universe.

 

Allura returns to her companions, dressed in battle gear, telling them that they are the universe's only hope of defeating Zarkon and that they should get ready for combat. Each paladin is granted a suit of armor, color coded after their lion and sporting a unique for each. Lance acquires a rifle, Hunk a large arm cannon, Pidge a grappling spear and Keith a sword and armor. Allura tells Shiro that his weapon was lost with the previous paladin, and Shiro says he just has to make do. They devise a plan to sneak Keith into Sendak's ship with the help of the green lion (because the Galra know they possess the yellow and blue lion but they don't know they also have the green one) so they can locate the red lion, free it and unlock the black lion so they together can form Voltron. Hunk and Lance act as decoys pretending to give themselves up while trying to find a way to disable Sendak's ion cannon. They execute the plan and Keith, Pidge and Shiro sneak aboard without any trouble. Sendak orders the ship's tractor beam to be fired at Lance and Hunk but they evade. Realizing he's been tricked, Sendak orders fighters to attack the yellow and blue lion while his soldiers locate the newly-discovered intruders. Lance fights off the fighters while Hunk uses his lion's body to slam into the ion cannon. On the ship, Shiro recognizes the layout and claims he was brought on the ship after being abducted on Kerberos. Pidge remarks that if Shiro was brought here, that must mean the other crew members on the Kerberos mission were brought here too, and he wants to go find him. Shiro wants them to stick to the mission, but Pidge reveals that Samuel Holt is his father and he's been searching for him and his brother ever since they went missing. Upon this revelation, Shiro offers to go with Pidge instead, saying he knows where the prisoner's bay is, while assuring Keith that he'll be fine finding the red lion alone.

 

Hunk continues to slam his lion into the ion cannon until it concocts a force field around itself. Pidge and Shiro reach the prisoner's bay and findsa whole bunch of aliens being held captive there, but no sign of Pidge's father or brother, much to Pidge's dismay. The aliens recognize Shiro as "the Champion" and gladly go along with him. They're intercepted by Galra drones and Shiro's cybernetic arm suddenly starts glowing, causing him to cower in pain as all the sound around him starts distorting. He lashes out, smashing the drones to pieces with his one arm before the sound returns to normal and all the Galra drones are destroyed. The aliens take the time to thank Shiro and as they depart on an escape pod vow to spread the word on Voltron's resurgence. Pidge asks Shiro what just happened to him, but Shiro himself says he doesn't know. Hunk remains unable to break through the force field surrounding the ion cannon until the red lion suddenly appears, Keith piloting it, and it uses its mouth beam to weaken the force field enough for Hunk to break through and damage the cannon. The four lions depart while Sendak orders his men to fix the ion cannon as they descend on the castle. Pidge, with Shiro in the passenger seat, flies ahead to awaken the black lion while the remaining lions fight off Sendak's forces. Sendak is informed that the ion cannon is back into operation and he immediately orders the ion cannon to be fired at the green lion. The beam hits it, downing Pidge as Shiro is launched out of it and is sent falling from the sky. Seeing this, Keith turns around tries to grab Shiro before he falls to his death, while Coran and Allura hear the castle making a deep tremble. The black lion appears, rescuing Shiro and with now all five lions awakened the team decide to form Voltron and face Sendak head on... only, they fail to grasp as to how to form Voltron. Hunk tries slamming into the other lions but that yields no results. Suddenly all five feel like they're being drawn towards each other, but that turns out to be Sendak's tractor beam catching them and dragging them into the ship. Sendak sends a message to Zarkon informing him that the battle's been won as he aims the ion cannon towards the castle. The ion beam decimates the castle's force field leaving it defenseless. In a desperate attempt to save themselves, the lions pull one final maneuver, and suddenly the five lions light up before an explosion of dust covers the whole area in smoke.

 

Sendak sees that the five lions have vanished from the tractor beam as he hears the ground trembling. He sees something grab on to the side of the ship, and out of the smoke emerges the combined Voltron. A giant sword forms in Voltron's hand and it proceeds to CLEAVE the Galra ship in half, sending Sendak to his doom. Voltron then grabs the other half of the ship and tears out the ion cannon before lifting the entire ship up and SLAMMING it into the ground setting off a gigantic explosion. Voltron returns to the castle victorious as the five lions disengage. Allura and Coran congratulate the paladins on their good work, but they remain baffled as to how they managed to form Voltron. Coran says there's no time to daddle on that now, for now Zarkon knows the location of Voltron and the castle and will be coming for it, so they should leave immediately. Shiro pledges to a still distraught Pidge that they'll find his father and brother, whatever it takes. Cut to Zarkon's fleet as Zarkon is informed of Sendak's failure as he himself senses the awakening of the black lion. Haggar emerges and tells Zarkon that through her crystals she senses a direct confrontation between him and Voltron in the near future. Zarkon remarks that if the paladins continue to form Voltron they are going to take down his empire piece by piece.

 

Zarkon: If the paladins of Voltron won't face me directly, I'll make them face me.

 

Back on Altea the lions are brought into the castle as Coran informs the paladins that it is time to depart. The paladins wonder how they're supposed to do that when there are no other ships beside the lions. Coran reveals that the castle itself is a ship, and each of the castle's spires are in reality rocket engines. Lance wonders if this isn't something they should have told them earlier, but as Coran said, no time for daddling. Allura uses her energy to light up the castle's thrusters and we see the castle breaking free from the rock it's sitting on and launching into the sky. The castle concocts another wormhole that it proceeds to fly through. Sometime later, the paladins are all seen asleep when the alarm suddenly goes off, with Allura over speakers telling them that an attack by Zarkon is imminent. The paladins respond with mixed results (Keith is up and ready but forgets his suit, Hunk stumbles from room to room, Pidge fell asleep in the control room and is first on the scene albeit without his suit, Shiro gets everything in order and Lance remains in bed unable to hear anything). Once they're all gathered Allura scolds them for being late, saying the siren was a drill and not an actual attack by Zarkon, but reminds them that they must be ready in case they have to fight Zarkon or his Galra forces for real. Coran asks if they've figured out how to form Voltron yet, and the paladins respond that they're as lost on how to do it as before. Coran suggests to Allura that he should be leading an intense training session with the paladins until they manage to form Voltron, and she agrees.

 

The five lions gather outside the ship in the vastness of space and try to form Voltron, without much success. Getting increasingly agitated with each failed attempt (one attempt involves literally building Voltron by stacking the lions on a pyramid shape and it'll work that way) Coran wonders if it wasn't the pressure from being caught in Sendak's tractor beam that basically forced them into forming Voltron the first time, and perhaps he can recreate it by sending out castle drones and attack the lions. He ends up doing this without consulting the paladins and as castle drones start firing at them the paladins think they're being attacked by Galra drones and fight back. It is here where Coran sees where the main problem lies: the paladins aren't fighting together. All the paladins disperse and try to handle the situation on their own. Lance and Keith bump into one another and get into arguments, Hunk fumbles around using his body as a form of offense, Pidge loses control of his lion multiple times and despite Shiro's best efforts he can't keep the group together and through frustrating breaks and fights on his own instead. Once back in the ship Coran explains this to the paladins but outside of Shiro none of them see it as that much of a concern, thinking Voltron can't be that picky and maybe the problem lies somewhere else. Instead Coran brings them to a training room inside the castle and says that since the problem is them and not Voltron, some team-building should do the trick. That turns out about as well as one can expect. The paladins fail pretty much every team-building exercise along the way, and Coran decides that they should try something radical in order to be able to form Voltron.

 

Coran and the paladins depart the castle and land on a nearby planet. Coran explains to them that they're going to try an expert-level drill that's extremely dangerous, but may just do the trick. In order to form Voltron, not only needs there to be a strong bond between the paladins, but also between the paladin and its lion. To test this, the paladins will dive from high up in the sky and pull up just before the lion hits the ground. This isn't something that should be attempted by a paladin who hasn't had years of experience, but since they're in a bit of a rush they're making an exception. The lions begin their dive as Coran activates training helmets with darkened glasses preventing the paladins to see, saying they need to see through their lion's eyes and feel what it feels. Hunk cowers almost immediately and pulls out. Lance and Keith turn it into a competition and rush ahead of the others and end up slamming right into the ground. Hearing the noise of Lance and Keith crash Pidge pulls out as well and slams into a rock wall. Shiro pushes on, trying to connect with his lion and reaches some sort of synergy with it, allowing him to see through the lion's eyes. The other four paladins watch as Shiro flies through canyons and hills without even opening his eyes. Back at the castle Coran congratulates Shiro but scolds the other four paladins for failing to follow his lead. As a last test the five paladins are to perform a sort of "mind-melding" exercise, letting all other thoughts go except the lion and together form Voltron in their mind. Lance, Hunk, Keith and Shiro all succeed in letting their minds go, but Pidge's thoughts are constantly distracted by the image of him and his girlfriend, resulting in the failure of them forming Voltron. When revealed to this by Coran, Pidge denounces the whole exercise as stupid and walks out, inviting the others NOT to follow him.

 

A while later, Pidge is seen in the control room staring out into empty space. The Altean mice are there with him, tucking themselves in next to him. Shiro walks up to him, wondering how he's feeling. Pidge refuses to talk. Shiro sits down next to him and asks if Pidge wants to know about the time Shiro saved Pidge's brother Matthew's life from getting killed in a Galra arena. This immediately catches Pidge's attention, and he asks Shiro to tell the story. We get a flashback where we see Shiro and Samuel (along with several other aliens) being brought before a Galra arena. Shiro explains through narration that while the weaker captives like Pidge's father Samuel were sent to a work camp, the stronger captives like Shiro and Matthew were to fight against in a gladiatorial arena for the Galra's amusement. Shiro and Matthew are seen standing in a line where Matthew panics over the fact that he's unlikely to survive and that he'll never see his father or Pidge again. In a desperate bid to save Matthew Shiro pushes him out of the way and tells the Galra drone that he wants to fight next, even going as far as stealing the drone's sword and cutting a wound in Matthew's leg before tackling him and screaming that he demands blood. Thus, the Galra choose him to fight instead and leave Matthew alone due to his wound. Hearing this, Pidge is nearly brought to tears and hugs Shiro for his sacrifice. Shiro says it was nothing, and remarks that if Samuel and Matthew could see how far Pidge had come they'd be very proud of him. Or rather... her.

 

We get another flashback where an important revelation comes to light: Pidge's real name is Katie. Pidge is not a boy, but actually a girl. The photo from before is actually of Matthew and Katie on the day of the launch of the Kerberos mission. Following the launch and later disappearance of the Kerberos crew, Pidge's mother goes into a deep state of depression and Pidge vows to find out what happened to her brother and and father. We see Pidge breaking into the Garrison general's office and tries to find out more about the Kerberos mission, only to be caught by the general and is swiftly banned from the premises. In response, Katie assumes her "Pidge" identity, cutting her hair and dressing herself to give the appearance of a boy so she can enlist in the Garrison and further use its resources to find out the truth, acquainting with Lance and Hunk along the way. Back to the present, Pidge is startled that Shiro knows who she really is, but he pledges to keep her secret hidden. As Shiro leaves, Pidge is seen smiling. Meanwhile, Sendak emerges in the castle basement. Turns out he survived the destruction of his ship and his crew earlier and snuck into the castle before it departed, tending to his wounds ever since. He makes contact with Zarkon, informing him that the castle has left Altea, and Zarkon replies back telling him to stay low and keep the Galra updated on the castle's position, for Zarkon is setting a trap.

 

The ship keeps on cruising until Allura intercepts a distress signal from a nearby moon. She wonders what it could be since the solar system it's in is uninhabited, but Shiro thinks they should investigate regardless. They locate the source of the distress signal and instead find a low-level Galra port. Lance thinks they should attack it regardless to send a message to Zarkon, but Pidge thinks that instead of attacking it they should maybe break in and retrieve any information they can and perhaps map out the entire Galra empire, the scale of which they're yet to be aware of. Since it is a transport hub, it should have information on all the routes leading to and from it. Allura agrees on Pidge's plan and says she's coming along, since she travelled through the various Galra hubs with her father before the war with the Galra began and thus know those ports better than anyone. Coran thinks it's too dangerous for her to go, but she tells him that she's as much as part of the war against Zarkon as the rest of them and thus, she's going. The paladins are hesitant at first, but decide to let her tag along, much to Coran's dismay.

 

They all hop on the green lion and uses the dark side of a nearby planet to sneak into the port without being seen. Coran uses the gravitational pull between two nearby planets to put himself in an orbit where the castle can't be seen from the port. He also uses the castle to flood the port's sensors with a short-range radiation burst to knock out them out for a minute or two. Thinking it's just galactic interference, the Galra would not investigate once the interference clears. They execute the plan and land near the port's central control tower which they then break into, knocking out the stationed guards and shooting down the drones along the way. Pidge brings with her her computer to hack into the port's central database and download the information from there. Hunk and Pidge had devised a translation system based on what Hunk learned in algorithm class in the Garrison, specifically a joke regarding symbolic logic and innumerably infinite sets, which causes Lance to groan. A Galra ship arrives at the port and the group are forced to hide. A video transmission appears on screen from the ship's captain who's left confused when he sees nobody in the control tower. Hunk concocts the idea to use a downed drone as a puppet, making occasionally weird gestures telling the ship's crew that they're clear for dock. The captain buys the ruse without questioning. The download on Pidge's computer completes and reveals... nothing. Just a schedule on ships going in and out. Not even a map as to where they're heading. Declaring the mission a bust, Lance suggests they should get back to the castle. Allura instead asks Pidge where the ship just docked is heading, and Pidge answers that it's staying at the dock for half an hour before heading back to Central Command. Allura takes it on herself to sneak aboard the ship, which is immediately met with refusal from the paladins. She assures them however that she can sneak on undetected, suddenly growing several feet and turning her skin purple to better resemble a Galra.

 

Hunk: How the heck did you do that?!

Allura: The Alteans are chameleon-like people who can blend in with the local populations. It's the ability that made us great explorers and diplomats throughout our history.

Lance: Again... this is something you guys should have told us earlier but... I digress. Can you turn into, like, a balloon?

Pidge: How many different colors can you be at once?

Hunk: Aren't you afraid you'll rip your pants?!

Allura: No, just one at a time, and I will need a change of costume. [looks over at the knocked out Galra guard] I can use his uniform as a disguise!

Shiro: I can't let you go in there alone!

Allura: Excuse me? I think I can do this alone.

Shiro: But I'm not letting you. I'm coming with you.

Hunk: Unlike her you're gonna stick out real bad...

Pidge: Shiro's cybernetic hand is made from Galra tech. It's the only thing we have that lets us gather intel in there. I can monitor the download remotely from here.

Allura: ...Fine. But we're doing this my way.

Keith: What does that mean, princess?

Shiro: Yeah... what does that mean?

 

Cut to the disguised Allura bringing a trash bin aboard the ship with Shiro huddled in the trash inside while the other four paladins look on from the control tower. The Galra guards clear Allura for boarding while they bring a bunch of tubes off the ship. Keith spots a Galra druid ordering the Galra personnel to hand over the tubes. Curious, Keith decides to go check the druid out, in spite of Lance's protestations. On the ship, Shiro tells Allura that the way he escaped the Galra prison ship was by memorizing the Galra drones' walking patterns, and since most of the crew on the ship are drones the same trick should work here. Keith continues to pursue the druid while Pidge tries to hack into the Galra drone without much success. Hunk jokes to Lance that Allura has an affection for him, which Lance actually takes seriously until he's slapped in the face by Pidge's drone. Keith meanwhile stumbles upon hundreds of similar tubes, one of which is blasted by electricity coming out of the druid's hands until small droplets of purple liquid remain and drip out from it. Back on the Galra ship Shiro takes out a pair of drones using his cybernetic arm and then uses said arm to access the ship's databank while telling Allura to guard the door. A Galra guard almost walks in on them but Allura pushes him back, asking him not to disturb them. Keith sends a feed of what he's seeing to Coran. Wondering what it is, the drone Pidge tried to hack into earlier suddenly tells them that it is a material called quintessence, a dark substance with the highest known energy per unit in the universe. Coran can't believe what he's seeing, remarking that quintessence can only be refined into a usable state through dark energy, and thus Zarkon must have magic on his side. The drone also reveals that the port is only one of many locations in the galaxy where raw quintessence is brought to be refined, and thus Zarkon must have refined quintessence in the thousands. Keith decides to steal some of the quintessence while the Galra ship's computer detects Shiro's intrusion and sounds the alarm. The guard Allura was talking to earlier returns and tries to intervene but is knocked out by Allura. Keith snatches a bottle of refined quintessence but the druid intercepts him and attacks. Keith tries to fight back with his sword but the druid keeps teleporting away. After being blasted by the druid's electricity beam a few times, Keith calls on Pidge to fire up the green lion and get them out of there. Shiro calls on exactly the same as he and Allura are pursued by Galra droids. Keith is cornered by the druid but is saved by the green lion bursting through the roof. While on board the lion, Keith notices his wounds magically healing. The Galra ship departs the dock with Shiro and Allura still on it, so they try to make their way to the escape pod. They attempt to close the door to the escape bay but the Galra drones intervene and try to force it open. Allura sees the escape pod leaving the ship and in a brash move grabs Shiro and throws him into the escape pod, sacrificing herself to save him. Shiro watches on from the escape pod as the drones take Allura prisoner and the Galra ship goes into hyperdrive and vanishes from the scene, leaving him and the escape pod wandering adrift before it's intercepted by the green lion.

 

Shiro tells everyone what happened. Allura had just sacrificed herself to save him and now she's being brought right into Zarkon's hands. Shiro blames himself, saying he should have trusted Allura to be able to handle herself. Coran, distraught, lashes out at everyone, only to be calmed down by the mice who as well are dismayed by Allura's capture. Shiro says they can't sit around and grief now, and orders Pidge to locate Zarkon's central command using the information they downloaded from the Galra ship. Pidge translates the information successfully and pins down the location. The central command is surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of ships equal or greater in size to Sendak's ship, and they still don't even know how to form Voltron. Pidge suggests they maybe should just use one lion for a sneak- and rescue mission. They are interrupted by a video feed appearing on screen from Zarkon himself. With Sendak's aid Zarkon has been tracking the castle the whole time and has even managed to intercept their communication frequency. He reveals to the paladin's that the distress signal was a ruse to lure them to the port, and now that he has Allura, he challenges them to come and rescue her.

 

Zarkon: I expect Voltron to be at my doorstep within the next ten thousand parsecs. Do not think you can fool me. If as much as one lion is missing... she dies.

Hunk: Oh no...

Zarkon: I invite the black paladin to come face me directly. I shall reclaim what is rightfully mine. And soon... Voltron itself.

[video feed cuts off]

Pidge: "Reclaim what is rightfully his"? What does he mean by that, Coran?

Coran: ...

Pidge: Coran?!

Coran: I should have been more honest with all of you from the outset...

Lance: Don't tell me you're keeping more secrets from us!

Coran: We may have insinuated that King Alfor was the original black paladin. He wasn't. Zarkon was.

Keith: You gotta be kidding me!

Pidge: So if the black lion falls into Zarkon's hands... he'll become it's paladin again.

Coran: We can't have Shiro facing Zarkon head on. If Zarkon gets his hands on the black lion, the war is over.

Everyone: ...

 

Cut to the citadel situated in the cluster forming Zarkon's fleet where we see Allura being kept in a dark, daft prison before being approached by Haggar, asking her to come with her. Back in the castle, Pidge uses the information downloaded from the Galra ship to reveal a massive blueprint of the Galra citadel, allowing them to find any entry points where they can get close enough to storm the citadel without a million Galra ships staring down at them. Shiro sees Coran worryingly staring at an overhead view of the Galra fleet, and tries to apologize to him for letting Allura get captured. Coran assures him that it's not his fault. it's just that he's lost so much and he refuses to lose Allura too. Suddenly, his eyes light up as he spots a possible entry point into the Galra citadel: A giant gas planet located in Zarkon's command system. They could use the castle's wormhole capability to jump them into the gas planet and hide them inside. Pidge wonders how they're supposed to do that since Allura's life force is what powers the wormholes, but Corran remarks that there's enough of her residual essence still in the ship for two jumps. One jump in, one jump out. The gas planet will be enough of a cover for them to scan the citadel for Allura's whereabouts and attack Zarkon where he least expects it. The mission comes with a multitude of risks: if Zarkon gets Voltron, game over. If they jump out without Allura, she's trapped there forever and the castle will be endlessly drifting through space without her life force powering it. If any of the paladins get captured or killed, they can no longer form Voltron. Knowing the risks, the paladins unanimously vote on executing the plan anyway, knowing that they have no other option. Shiro tells the team that it's more important than ever that they function as, well, a team. Even if they can't form Voltron, they have to act in unison. Pidge decides to come clean on her real identity, revealing who she is and what she was really doing at the Garrison, and maybe her keeping this secret from everyone is part of the reason why they can't bond as one. Hunk, Keith and Corran all accept her as who she is, while Lance is just baffled over the fact that Pidge was a girl this whole time.

 

Allura is brought before Zarkon where she immediately lashes out at him, blaming him for her father's death and the destruction of her people. Zarkon is undeterred, telling her that she will be bait for the paladins of Voltron to come and rescue her only to be lured right into his grasp. In fact, he knows from what angle they're coming from. Allura asks him how he knows this, and Zarkon tells her that they really should have been more observant on possible stowaways. Cut to Sendak overhearing the paladins' plan and transmitting the info to Zarkon's forces, telling them to gather around the gas planet and attack the castle as soon as it comes into view. Coran opens up the wormhole and takes the ship to the gas planet, where they are immediately intercepted by Galra forces. While Lance wonders how the hell they would know where they'd be entering from, Coran tells him and the other paladins that they must depart with their lions immediately and go grab Allura. The ship's defenses have been upgraded since last time so the ship can hold off a few thousand Galra blasts, but it's best they move as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Zarkon is informed of the paladins' arrival and orders Haggar to begin the ritual. A crapload of refined quintessence is brought into the throne room and Allura is forced to watch as Haggar channels her dark energy to concoct lightning bolts and using them to transfer the energy of the quintessence into Zarkon.

 

Haggar: The dark energy from the quintessence will make you the most powerful being in the universe, my lord. But only for a short time. You must retrieve Voltron or all that I have worked for will be for naught!  Let the quintessence consume you! Let it show you the power of the dark energy! SAY YOUR NAME AS THE DARK ENERGY BECOMES ONE WITH YOU!!

Zarkon: I. AM. ZARKON!!!!

 

Cracks form in the floor as the room becomes engulfed with dark energy. Once the dark energy fades, a fully-powered Zarkon steps out of the shadows. Allura is horrified. Haggar is pleased. Zarkon orders his forces to intercept four of the lions, but leave the black one to him. We cut back to the five paladins who have left for the citadel while Coran does his best to keep the castle's defenses up. The lions battle through hundreds of Galra fighters, each wave nastier than the last. After the fourth or so wave they suddenly come head first with only one fighter.

 

Lance: Uh... was that all of them? Not that they weren't a tough nut to crack, but I honestly expected more.

Keith: This doesn't feel right. This could be a trap.

Hunk: Yeah, I don't like this at all!

Pidge: I detect Allura's essence from the throne room of the citadel. We gotta grab her before more Galra forces arrive!

Shiro: Alright everyone, cover for me! I'll go get Allura!

 

Suddenly, a wave of dark energy start emanating from the lone Galra fighter, creating a giant black hand that swats away the red, yellow, green and blue lions while grabbing hold of the black lion and pulling it towards it. Shiro is trapped as the dark energy starts sipping in to his cybernetic arm causing it to go haywire inside the cockpit. We see into the Galra fighter's cockpit where it turns out Zarkon himself is piloting it. He proceeds to SLAM the black lion right into the side of the citadel before dispatching from his fighter and using his newly acquired dark magic to gently float to the ground (or in this case, the roof of the citadel). Shiro regains consciousness and tries to escape Zarkon's grasp, but Zarkon uses his magic to hold down the black lion as he approaches it. The red lion appears and slams right into Zarkon which frees the black lion. Elsewhere in the fleet Lance, Hunk and Pidge are cornered by hundreds of galra ships who all aim their ion cannon towards them. Lance is suddenly reminded of Hunk's snake idea from way back, and suggest the three should try it for real.

 

Pidge: Are you crazy?! And who do expect to be the head?!

Lance: Me, of course!

Pidge: ...Yeah, I should've figured.

Hunk:  Can't we please just form the snake, like, NOW?!

 

Hunk's lion grabs the tail of Pidge's lion which grab the tail of Lance's, forming the snake and channeling thrice the amount of energy into the blue lion's mouth beam, making it powerful enough to blast a hole in one of the Galra ships. The ship crashes into another ship starting a chain reaction where hundreds of ships are downed at one time allowing the three lions to weasel through. Cut to the citadel, where Haggar continuously feeds Zarkon more dark energy harnessed from the quintessence. Allura realizes that the energy is coming from those purple tubes and she grabs a guard's rifle and fires at one of the tubes, destroying it. Haggar notices and orders for Allura to be executed immediately, but the guards say that's not what the emperor ordered. Haggar tells them to ignore Zarkon's orders if they are to save him and thus the guards begin attacking Allura. She manages to fend for herself while Haggar is too busy feeding Zarkon more dark energy to intervene. Back at the castle, Coran continues to do his best to keep the castle's defenses up, but can't help but wonder how Zarkon would know that they would be appearing inside the gas planet. "Perhaps I can answer that" says a mysterious voice behind him, and out steps a gleeful Sendak. Coran, surprised that Sendak is still alive, tries to intimidate him but fails miserably. Sendak finally gets to use his cybernetic arm as he fires it right at Coran, who evades but Sendak manages to strike and damage the control board, weakening the castle's defenses. In the citadel, Allura continues to decimate the quintessence tanks and Haggar decides she's finally had enough and attacks Allura herself directly. With Haggar distracted, Zarkon is stopped from being fed more dark energy, leaving him only with a temporary surge. He uses the dark energy he has left to down both the red and black lion, trapping Shiro and Keith while Zarkon makes his way towards the black lion.

 

Zarkon: I have heard many stories of this planet called "Earth". How its people sees making it to end of its solar system as some sort of great accomplishment!  How naive they are of the greater picture. Of the thousands of worlds I have already conquered. Of the POWER that lies within the darkest depths of the universe! When I have laid claim to Voltron, when all of you paladins have been destroyed, I shall set my sights ON EARTH ITSELF!

Shiro: NO!!!

Keith: Shiro... I'm sorry... I couldn't...

Shiro: No need too... It's been an honor... fighting alongside you...

Lance: No friend of mine's dying on my watch!

 

Lance, Hunk and Pidge appear, still in their snake form, blasting their energy beam right at Zarkon which launches him back, freeing both Shiro and Keith. The five lions re-group while Zarkon gets back on his feet.

 

Shiro: We can't fight Zarkon in lion form. We need to form Voltron!

Hunk: HOW?! We only managed to form Voltron once, remember?!

Keith: Yeah, but that was under a very tense situation, kind of like NOW!

Pidge: But we haven't been able to recreate it since! How do you expect us to suddenly do it now?!

Lance: ...I have an idea. This is gonna sound a little insane.

Pidge: Oh no.

Hunk: More insane than the snake thing?!

Keith: Lay it out, Lance!

Lance: Remember that diving thing Coran made us do? The one everyone BUT Shiro failed at?!

Pidge: You're saying we should all fly into a wall?!

Lance: NOT INTO A WALL! AT ZARKON!

Hunk: You're right, that IS insane!

Shiro: ...But it might just work. Everyone, follow my lead!

 

The five lions perform a daredevil dive heading straight towards Zarkon. Zarkon charges up his dark energy to snatch all five lions once they get close. Shiro tells his fellow paladins to let go of their minds, become one with their lion and in turn become one with each other. Should they succeed, they will be able to see through the lion's eyes. Keith is the first to succeed, followed by Lance, then followed by Hunk, but Pidge is still struggling, having the image of her and her brother in front of her. Shiro tells her that it's okay. She can let her brother go. Just before Zarkon reaches out to grab them Pidge starts seeing through her lion's eyes and all five become one with each other. They pull out at the last second and we're treated to a slow-motion sequence seen from Zarkon's perspective where the five lion combine into Voltron piece by piece as they fly over him, ending the sequence with Voltron firing an energy beam right at him. Zarkon's power starts fading as Haggar realizes she's been inattentive and feeds Zarkon the last remains of the quintessence she has left, leaving her open to be attacked by Allura. Allura fires her rifle right at Haggar which doesn't kill her but burns her face severely. As Haggar's hood comes down Allura sees that Haggar is an Altean much like her, albeit purple like a Galra. Haggar attacks her with more lightning and she's forced to retreat. At the castle, Coran continues to evade Sendak's attacks but finds very little room left to hide behind. He's directed by the mice to an "evac" button and he presses it while telling the mice to hang on. The castle's computer warns that an airlock has been opened and Sendak is sucked out into the vastness of space where he's presumably killed. Coran closes the hatch and readies the castle for departure but finds that Sendak's attack have thrown the teleportation crystals out of alignment, and he is unable to reach into the control department and fix it. Luckily the mice again come to his aid, crawling into the small hatch and try to put the crystals back in alignment. Meanwhile, the five paladins cheer as they're now in control of Voltron and form their giant sword which they use to cleave through nearby Galra ships while Zarkon receives the last bit of dark energy from Haggar.

 

Haggar: You must retreat into the citadel, my lord. This is the last amount of dark energy I can lend you! It'll be suicide to prolong this battle any further!

Zarkon: NO!! I must have Voltron! All of this will have been for nothing if I don't have Voltron!

Haggar: My lord, I beg you, don't-

 

Zarkon uses his dark energy to concoct a giant creature taller than Voltron itself and collapse it onto them hoping it'll bring down Voltron for good. The paladins are having none of it, as they cleave right through the dark creature and use Voltron's entire body to SLAM right into Zarkon, sending him flying through space. Pidge detects Allura making her way across the citadel, pursued by Galra soldiers, and Shiro makes contact with her, telling her to open a hatch and get sucked into space through it. Allura asks if they're crazy, but Shiro insists she trusts them. With no hatch in sight she blasts a hole right through the side of the citadel and gets sucked out. Without a helmet on she quickly loses consciousness as she starts drifting into space only to be picked up by Voltron and brought back to the castle. The mice manage to realign the crystals and Coran sees Voltron approaching him, slashing through Galra ships along the way. Once the Galra have dispersed Voltron disassembles as Allura is brought into the castle where she can be revived. Once she awakens, Coran tells her that she missed something incredible, but she says she had a feeling that the paladins would make it through. The lions circle around the castle as it prepares to enter the wormhole, but turns out Zarkon's not down for the count yet, as he uses the very last of his dark energy to send a blast of dark energy hurtling right towards the castle in the hopes to destroy it. In the nick of time the black lion leaps into the way of the dark energy and gets struck by it. Zarkon's power fades away as he passes out while drifting aimlessly. The other paladins lose contact with Shiro but with no time to wait for a response they grab the black lion and go through the wormhole.

 

The black lion is brought into the castle and the paladins rush over to try and help Shiro. They open up the lion and find... nothing. The seat is empty. Shiro's gone. Coran fears they might have somehow left him stranded back at the Galra cluster, but Lance swore that he saw Shiro when he was struck by the dark energy. It takes a while for them all to come to the same conclusion: the dark energy may have obliterated Shiro. Pidge starts tearing up as she refuses to believe he's really gone, and Keith is in denial over the whole thing, vowing to go out and find him. Hunk tries to comfort Pidge while Lance does the same to still in denial Keith. Coran says that even if Shiro survived the blast the energy may have taken him to any random part of the universe at any random time, and thus they may never find him... if he even is alive. Since they're now safely out of Zarkon's reach, they decide to hold a funeral vigil for Shiro. Flowers are placed near his lion and Coran plays a sad tune taken from Altean funeral rituals. After the funeral, Keith vists Lance in his room and asks if he can just talk. No arguments, no contests, just talk. He tells Lance that he looked up to Shiro more than any other person in the universe, and now that he may be gone forever he feels adrift. Lance tells him that Shiro did the bravest thing anyone could have done, and his sacrifice will not be in vain. And if Shiro ever were to pop up again, Lance would tell him that Keith did a pretty good job himself back there. For the first time since they met, Keith appreciates Lance's words.

 

Keith: And one more thing... Did you call me "friend" back there? I swore I heard you say "friend"...

Lance: "Friend"? Me? I think you heard... uh... friendly acquaintance. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Keith: Sure, acquaintance. I can roll with that.

 

Keith and Lance shake hands and we cut to Allura gathering the remaining four paladins to tell that team Voltron must press on despite their losses. They shall find a new black paladin while focusing on freeing all the planets in the universe the Galra have enslaved, and they will not rest until the Galra empire is down and out for good. Allura informs them that word has already spread throughout the universe of Voltron's resurgence, and more and more planets are starting to fight back against the Galra's grasp. Hearing them described as the "Defenders of the Universe", Hunk remarks that it's got a nice ring to it while Lance finds it a bit cheesy. Pidge tells Allura that one of Shiro's last pledges was that he would help her find her family, and Allura tells her that they're still committed to that task. Coran meanwhile pulls up a map and locates a nearby planet under Galra control, which he hopes the paladins can free in a timely fashion. And who knows, maybe the new black paladin is waiting for them there. The four paladins get into their lions and launch into the vastness of space while Allura looks over the black lion, pledging to Shiro that she'll never give up, no matter what challenges they may face. In both his name and her father's. We cut back to the Galra citadel as the last scene of the film shows Haggar watching over a sleeping Zarkon, having his body regenerated after the encounter with Voltron. She exists the room and gives out an order to the Galra troops.

 

Haggar: Summon Prince Lotar.

 

ROLL CREDITS

Edited September 12, 2017 by cookie

[ChD]

Life is Strange

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Genre: Drama
Cast:

Ellen Page as Max

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Chloe

Chris Pratt as Mr. Jefferson

Release Date: October 20

Composer: Ludovico Einaudi

Cinematographer: Mihai Malaimare Jr.
Theaters: 3500

Runtime: 144min
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Budget: 75M

Plot: 

 

 

 

The movie starts with the camera moving slowly along the shore of Arcadia Bay, showing us the entire town, with people living their normal everyday lives while the opening credits are being displayed. After the credits end, the camera takes a turn towards the ocean and we see a massive storm approaching.


We cut to Max (Ellen Page), standing in a forest, confused. She is looking around and her eyes land on a lighthouse on a nearby hill. Behind the lighthouse, the sky is black. She starts walking towards the light house. The wind is extremely strong and the ground is muddy. She slips and falls a couple of times before reaching the top of the hill. From there, she can see an enormous tornado approaching Arcadia Bay. Something big hits the lighthouse next to her, smashing it into bits, the debris falling towards Max. Before she gets hit by the falling debris, she wakes up in the middle of her photography class

 

Her teacher, Mark Jefferson (Chris Pratt), a very likeable, charismatic and attractive professor who used to be one of the best photographers in the world, having won numerous awards, notices that Max had been sleeping. He starts talking to Max, telling her how they were talking about selfies and what the first ‘selfie’ was. He asks her to take a selfie and demonstrate what it is. After that, he asks her a few questions to which she doesn’t know the answer to. He laughs and says that next he would prefer that she slept at night rather than in his classes because he still thought he was an entertaining person. He asks other students if they find him boring and nobody says anything. The class ends afterwards and Mark reminds everyone in the class that many of them, Max included, haven’t submitted a picture for the Everyday Hero contest and that they should.


Afterwards, Max goes to the bathroom the relax a little since she is still shaken by how real that dream felt. She reaches the bathroom and washes her face. She then notices a blue butterfly in the corner of the bathroom, behind the bathroom stalls. She takes out her camera to take a picture of it. She goes behind the stalls to get a better view of the butterfly and takes the picture, and that’s when Nathan Prescott, one of her classmates, enters the bathroom. The butterfly flies away from the noise.

 

Nathan starts talking to himself, telling himself to calm down and that everything will be fine. Another person enters the bathroom. She is Max’s age, has some tattoos and blue hair. She taunts Nathan about some exchange they were supposed to do. Nathan loses his temper and pins her against the door, taking out a gun and waving it at her. The girl starts panicking and tells him to put it away or he’ll get in a lot of trouble. Nathan asks her if she wants to make fun of him now. Max is still hidden behind the stalls, not knowing what to do. The girl starts struggling and in the struggle, she causes Nathan to pull the trigger and shoot her in the stomach. He lets go of her and she collapses on the ground, bleeding.

 

At that point, Max wakes up in her photography class again. This time Max is convinced that wasn’t a dream. The fact that everything that happened last time plays out exactly the same way as before proves it to her. As her class ends, she heads straight for the bathroom, intending to save the girl from getting shot. She hides in the same place as before and waits for the two of them to enter the bathroom. Nathan shows up, soon followed by the blue haired girl. They start arguing, at which point Max sets off the fire alarm. Nathan quickly leaves the bathroom, soon followed by the blue haired girl. On her way, Max decides to go to the principal and tell him that Nathan had a gun on him. The principal says he’ll have a talk with Nathan’s parents and then invites Max to leave the building.

 

Later that same day, Max is walking through the car parking lot, heading towards the dorm, when she is approached by Nathan, who accuses her of spying on him. Max denies everything and Nathan becomes quite aggressive, threatening her. At that point, a truck pulls right next to Max. The driver is the blue haired girl that Max saved earlier, who tells her to quickly get in. Max gets in the truck and they drive away. As she keeps driving, they realize they know each other and that they used to be good friends a few years ago. The blue haired girl is Chloe (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In the car they discuss how their relationship fell apart and what they’ve done since. Chloe tells Max that her life has become rather difficult after her father’s dead and her mother’s new marriage. They both head to Chloe’s home, where, after smoking some weed and letting Max choose the music, they both lay in the bed, talking. As Max gets up to change the song, she notices a stack of posters that she saw around her school a lot. It’s for a missing girl – Rachel Amber, who Chloe claims was a really friend of hers.

 

They talk a bit more and Chloe asks Max is she still has that old camera, which Max confirms. Chloe offers Max her father’s old camera, claiming nobody uses it and it’s just collecting dust. Max accepts and thanks her. After a short while, Chloe’s stepfather, David Madsen, who is a security guard at Max’s university, arrives home. He doesn’t stand the loud music, so he starts coming up the stairs. Chloe tells Max to hide since her father hates strangers. Max does, and after a short confrontation between Chloe and her stepfather, Max and Chloe sneak out of the house and head to the lighthouse.

 

There, Max has another vision. It’s the same as before, but this time she finds a newspaper page on the top of the hill. She checks the date – this upcoming Friday. She comes back to reality and tells Chloe everything. She has issues believing Max, but they start talking about the things they could do with Max’s power. Then, suddenly despite it being a really sunny day, it starts snowing.

 

Later that same day, Max is in her dorm, thinking about a possible picture to submit for Mark’s contest. She gets a message from one of her close friends, Warren, if she would like to go out with him and watch a Planet of Apes movie. Max says she does not feel that way about him. He accepts. She goes to bed.

 

The following morning, she goes to the local diner: The Two Whales. On her way there, while sitting in the bus, she notices that there are stranded whales on the beach. Max takes a seat and the barmaid, Joyce, Chloe’s mother, recognizes her as she comes to her table to take her order. The two of them talk a bit, including about Chloe, David, and a few other things. Joyce brings Max her order a few moments later, at which point Chloe also enters the diner. She greets her mother, who is upset at her for having yet another fight with David the previous day. She takes Chloe’s order and returns with what she ordered shortly afterwards.

 

Chloe and Max talk more about Max’s ability. Chloe still has a hard time believing it, so Max asks her to empty out her pockets. Chloe does that. After that, Max rewinds the time and tells Chloe exactly what she has in her pockets. She says she is 90% convinced by that move. They finish eating and Chloe suggests that they head to her hideout. Max agrees.

 

Chloe’s hideout, where she and Rachel used to hang out, is as the junkyard. Chloe reveals she stole David’s gun and suggests that they shoot targets. They gather a few bottles from around the junkyard and line them up for them to be the targets. As Chloe says they are ready to start, Max’s nose starts bleeding and she collapses. She has another vision of the tornado and the light house. After Max comes back to her senses, Chloe helps her on her feet and hands her the gun, but Max says she doesn’t feel like shooting targets anymore. Suddenly, Frank, a homeless looking guy, covered in tattoos and with many piercings, shows up. He tells Chloe he wants the movie she owes him, to which she says no. A heated argument ensues, during which Chloe notices Frank is wearing one of Rachel’s bracelets. She starts accusing him, at which point Frank loses his temper and pulls a knife on Chloe. Max, having the gun in her hand, points the gun at Frank and tells him to leave. Frank ignores Max and he and Chloe keep threatening each other. After a sudden move from Frank, Max pulls the trigger, only to miss Frank and for the bullet to ricochet of a stack of old cars straight into Chloe, who collapses and starts bleeding. Max quickly rewinds the time and this time uses the gun to shoot into the air. This makes Frank think twice before turning around and leaving, calmly.

 

Chloe and Max decide to leave the junkyard after that, splitting up after Max claims she is still shaken by what happened and needs to rest. Chloe accepts that.

 

The following morning, Max goes to her Art class. As she approaches the door, Kate Marsh, a very religious class mate of Max’s, runs out of the classroom, crying. Max enters the classroom to find it empty, apart from Mr. Jefferson, who is sitting behind his desk. Max asks what happened and Mr. Jefferson says that Kate had come to him to ask for help regarding the small incident she was part of. Max asks him what he said, and he explains that he tried helping her comforting her, stating that someone’s sex tape getting leaked on the internet – especially in the state Kate was in that video – is a big deal, but that it would get better eventually. After that, Kate started crying and said her family hates her and that she doesn’t know what to do. Once again, he said he tried to comfort her, for her only to run out of the classroom. Max asks why he didn’t chase her, and he takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. He says Kate should see a professional and that he cannot help her the way she expects to be helped. People start entering the classroom, at which point Max drops the subject and takes a seat

 

During the middle of the class someone enters the room and tells everybody that Kate is on the top of the dorm building, wanting to jump and kill herself. Max quickly runs to the dorm building. There are people gathered around, looking up at Kate. David, Chloe’s stepfather, is trying to talk Kate out of it.

 

Max decides to rewind time in order to save Kate, only to realize she is not able to. Instead, she realizes she can freeze time now, which she does. She runs towards the roof. As she exits onto the roof, her nose starts bleeding and she collapses. Time starts moving again. As her vision is fading, she sees Kate jumping from the roof. After a few moments, she wakes up, her face covered in blood. She craws to the edge and looks down, then starts crying.


We cut to Max sitting on a chair in the principal’s office. Nathan, Mr. Jefferson and David Madsen are there, as well. The principal is talking to Max, but she is staring into space, not paying attention to anything. He finally gets her attention and tells her this is very important. She tells him how she saw Kate running out from Mark Jefferson’s classroom and what she was told by Mr. Jefferson himself. The principal decides to suspect Jefferson’s photo contest due to the potential negative publicity it could gather. Mark Jefferson agrees with that decision, claiming he feels somewhat responsible for what happened.

 

Max exits the office and finds Warren waiting for her. He tells her he wants to make sure she is alright and wants to walk her back to her dorm. Max is walking silently, hugging herself, and Warren walks next to her, not knowing what to say. Suddenly, the light around them dims and they both look up to see a solar eclipse occurring.

 

In the evening of that same day, Max is woken up by a text message from Chloe, who tells her to meet her in front of the dorm. There, Chloe says she managed to steal David’s keys to the main building and that they should break into the principal’s office. After Max uses her powers repeatedly in order to get into his office, they discover files on themselves, as well as Kate, Nathan, Warren and Rachel. Shortly after, Chloe discovers files on the principal’s computer that cover up Nathan’s wavering grades and the incident with the gun. They also find a drawing in Nathan’s folder that reads “Rachel in the Dark Room” all over

 

After a while of searching through his office and finding nothing else important, they decide to leave. Max tries to head straight back to her dorm, but Chloe is set on making her feel better, so she forcefully takes Max with her to the academy’s interior swimming pool. After they play around a while, throwing each other in the water, splashing each other, Max talks about how she feels after having failed to save Kate. Chloe tries to comfort her, saying it wasn’t her fault, but Max feels guilty anyway. Their discussion is interrupted as security shows up and they have to make their escape.

 

Chloe convinces Max to spend the night at her place. The following morning Max wakes up only to find her clothes still wet and smelling of chlorine. Chloe tells her to try on Rachel’s clothes because they should fit her, but after taking a look at them, Max says it’s not her style. Chloe attempts to convince Max, telling her she’s too mellow and never open to trying new things every day. Max argues against that. To prove her point, Chloe dares Max to kiss her. Max does, to Chloe’s surprise.

 

After that, they head downstairs to have breakfast. When Chloe’s mother leaves the table for a moment, Chloe leans towards Max and tells her she just had a bright idea: Max should check David’s computer. She tells Max the password and that she never had the time to look it through properly and that she’s convinced he’s up to something. Max does that. After rewinding time a few times in order to avoid getting caught by Chloe’s mother, Max manages to find files on Rachel, Kate and herself, and she also discovers that Rachel was romantically involved with Frank.

 

She returns to the table and Chloe’s mother starts speaking to both of them. She gives Max a copy of the picture her husband took the same day he died. It’s a picture of young Max and Chloe. After breakfast, they leave, at which point Max tells Chloe what she found. When Chloe hears that Rachel was involved with Frank, she suggests that they get to the bottom of that and break into Frank’s RV to look for proof.

 

First, they have to get the keys to the RV, which Max does by going to the diner and sitting at the table with Frank. They talk, and after rewinding for a few times, she manages to get his keys. They get into RV and find proof regarding his relationship with Rachel. Chloe becomes angry and takes her rage out on Max. She drops Max off without saying a word to her, then leaves.

 

Later that same day, Max is sitting in bed, looking at the photo that Chloe’s mother gave to her. She notices that there are voices coming from that picture: her voice, Chloe’s voice, and her father’s voice. She realizes that if she focuses on the picture, she can travel to that day. She does that and is in her younger body, in the kitchen with Chloe and her father. They are all cooking. Well, Chloe’s father is cooking and Chloe herself and Max are fooling around and having fun.

 

Chloe’s father is very charismatic and fun to be around, and he obviously loves Chloe more than anything, and she loves him too. Max then realizes that she can stop him from leaving, and therefore he wouldn’t die. She finds his car keys and hides them somewhere where he wouldn’t look. He starts looking for his keys and doesn’t find them. At that, time starts changing and Max wakes up in her dorm. She exits her room to find out that everything changed. She is now part of a prestigious group of students from the academy, all of which Max always disliked. Warren is together with another girl and hates Max. Panicking, Max decides to head to Chloe’s house. She knocks on the door and Chloe’s father answers. He is amazed to see Max again and asks her questions about what she’s been up to the past couple of years, also mentioning that Chloe will be incredibly happy to see Max again. He goes back inside to bring Chloe out. Max is shocked to see that Chloe is now a quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair.

 

They take a walk on the beach shore and talk about the time they’ve been apart. Max apologizes to Chloe for not being there when she had the accident, and Chloe accepts her apologies and says that it’s nice to have her around again. We cut to later that same day when they’re at Chloe’s house, preparing to watch a movie. After her father leaves the room, Chloe asks Max to help her overdose on morphine so that she can die because she feels like a burden to her parents and she knows they cannot afford everything at the rate they’re going. Max is speechless, and after a short moment of silence, says she will do it. She turns the dial on Chloe’s morphine drip to its highest setting. A smile appears on Chloe’s face as she says thank you and nods off for the last time.

 

Max uses the photo to travel back to the day Chloe’s father died. This time, she does not do anything with his keys and he leaves the house after saying goodbye to both Max and Chloe and telling them to be good while he’s gone. The timeline returns to its normal self.

 

Max wakes up in Chloe’s room and is extremely happy to have her own Chloe back. Still, she decides not to mention anything about the alternate timeline to Chloe.

 


Next, Chloe suggests that they break into Nathan’s dorm room to examine it. After making sure he’s gone, they break into his room, where Max finds a hidden phone behind the couch. Nathan returns and starts threatening Max, but Warren intervenes and beats Nathan up, leaving him on the floor as other occupants of the dorm come out to check what’s happening.

 

Max struggles to convince Chloe to go to Frank’s and ask for his client list in order to find Rachel. Chloe gives in, and they talk to Frank, who decides to cooperate if it means finding Rachel. He hands them the list and a gun. They head back to Chloe’s place where they start putting down all the clues they’ve gathered, which brings them to an abandoned barn. They head there to examine it, finding hidden stairs that lead to a secured bunker. There, they find a massive door with a keypad. Max manages to come up with the correct combination, and they enter the bunker only to see that it is filled with photo equipment, studio lights and that it has white walls all around.

 

In that same bunker they also find binders with girl names on them, filled with photos. All the girls are drugged and unconscious. There are binders filled with pictures of Kate and even Rachel. There are also empty binders with girl names on them. One photo of Rachel shows her dead in the junkyard. Chloe tries to convince herself Rachel is just posing for the camera. She ends up running to her truck, leaving Max to rush after her. Once they arrive at the junkyard, Chloe goes to the spot from the picture and starts digging with her empty hands, only to find a decomposing body. Chloe knows its Rachel based off of her clothes, and starts crying while Mag hugs her, comforting her as Chloe says Nathan will die for what he did.

 

In an attempt to find Nathan, Chloe and Max head to a party organized by students from the academy. They are greeted by a drunk Warren who asks Max to take a selfie with her, stating that the end of the world is coming and that he wanted pictures with his friends. Max and Chloe proceed to look for Nathan inside, but they can’t find him anywhere. Max talks a bit with Mr. Jefferson, who says he is extremely disappointed that his contest was cancelled and that today he would’ve announced the winner. There are many girls around him, all of them envious of the attention Max gets.

 

They ask people about Nathan, but nobody knows his whereabouts. Then, Chloe receives a message from Nathan that says there will be no evidence of Rachel left when he is done. They both rush back to the junkyard to check on Rachel’s body. Chloe runs ahead and sees that the body is still there. Max is a little bit behind and as she reaches Chloe, she is hit in the neck with a sedative. As she falls unconscious, she tries to warm Chloe. Chloe realizes something’s not right and turns around only to be shot in the head. As Max’s vision is fading, she sees Chloe’s limp body falling to the ground. A figure goes over her to see if she’s dead, and then he turns around to look at Max.

 

It’s Mr. Jefferson.

 

Max awakens from Jefferson’s drug only to find herself strapped to a chair in the bunker: The Dark Room. She shouts for help, to no avail. She looks around for a way to escape. The only thing in reach are the pictures he took of her while she was passed out. She manages to get her hands on them and travels back to the point where she was still being photographed by him. She fidgets and angers Jefferson, who increases her dosage. Max tries to escape and kicks the trolley where he kept the photos he already took and the drugs. His pictures are drenched in the drugs. Max passes out again.

 

She wakes up in the chair again. This time, she sees another pile of pictures. She uses those to travel back to a moment where she was more awake and Jefferson was telling her how Nathan was dead and a scapegoat for all his crimes. Max asks him if she could see her diary one last time before he killed her, but he says no. He throws her diary on the ground and it flips open to reveal the picture he instructed Max to take in his class, at the beginning of the movie. While Jefferson is busy, Max manages to get to the picture and travel back to that day.

 

Back in the classroom, Max immediately texts David about Jefferson and the Dark Room. Time passes and Jefferson is arrested. Max leaves the city to visit an art gallery after winning the photography contest. There, she gets a call from Chloe who tells her that the tornado was a real thing and that it’s headed straight for Arcadia Bay. Max decides to try and fix the current timeline once more, which results in her ending up in the Dark Room again.

 

Max realizes that this time, Jefferson burned her diary and this time she has no escape. Jefferson gets to killing Max, despite her begging and pleading but David enters the room, but Jefferson is ready and takes him out. Max rewinds time and asks Jefferson to take one last picture of her, a proper one. Jefferson smiles and says he agrees with what she wants and how she gives into him. He starts playing cheerful music as he fixes the lighting around her, proceeding to take the camera and look for the best angle. David enters again, this time catching Jefferson off-guard. He neutralizes and captures Jefferson. David sets Max free, asking her if she was alright. Max thanks him and he says she’s got nothing to thank her for since she was the one that brought him there. After that, David asks Max where Chloe is, to which she says she does not know.

 

Max grabs the keys to Jefferson’s car in order to drive to the diner in an attempt to track Warren down and use the picture he took earlier, so she can travel back and save Chloe. A massive storm is going on outside, but despite that, Max is driving at high speeds through the rain. She reaches Arcadia Bay to find it all destroyed. The tornado is quickly approaching. There are trucks on their sides on the street, burning buildings, totally destroyed buildings and even dead bodies on the streets. People are taking shelter in the diner. Max finds Warren there and uses the picture to travel back.

 

Upon seeing Chloe alive and well, Max hugs her. She tells Chloe everything and convinces her they both need to go to the light house because they’d be safe there. On their way there, Max’s nose starts bleeding and she collapses, passing out.

 

 She wakes up in the classroom at the beginning of the movie. She looks down at her desk to see it all covered in blood. Where Kate usually sat is a puddle of blood. As Max stands up, flocks of birds start hitting the windows, leaving huge red blood stains on it. The classroom is empty. She heads out of the classroom to find the whole academy empty. There are posters with her face on them with “Loser” written over her face.

 

Jefferson suddenly appears next to her, wanting to talk to her about her contest entry before she leaves. He then asks her if she’d like to spend the rest of her life in his Dark Room. Max doesn’t reply, at which point Jefferson takes her into his arms and says “Come on, you love me, don’t you?”. He disappears.

 

Max is suddenly in the girl’ dormitory hallway, where people are lighting candles in front of Kate’s door. We can see that Kate is mourning her own death in front of her own door. She notices Max and starts blaming her for her death. Max falls to her knees, closes her eyes and covers her ears, approaching a mental breakdown.

 

She opens her eyes and realizes she’s back in the academy hallway. This time the people move backwards and talk backwards as well. Max enters the bathroom where she first saw Chloe and wakes up in the Dark Room. She is not strapped to her chair, so she runs, trying to escape Jefferson. He keeps appearing in front of her. She evades his attempts to catch her. She eventually falls after she trips and is surrounded by a million of Jefferson’s. She wakes up in the chair as Chloe is doing some sexy poses for Jefferson to photograph. She is doing it willingly. They kiss afterwards, after which Jefferson turns to Max and laughs, saying it’s time for her to die.

 

She then is in the diner. It’s filled with the people who were taking shelter there. They are all looking at Max and begging her not to kill them. She runs out of the diner to see the tornado next to the bay, covering the entire sky. She looks to her left as a car is flying straight at her – and she wakes up next to the light house, with Chloe.

 

Chloe looks at her and smiles. Max asks what’s going on and Chloe says they both know the story and that she’s tried everything to stop this, to no avail. Max asks what she’s talking about and Chloe explains that it all started when she saved her, and that she should simply go back to that day and do nothing about it. Max says no and starts crying, but Chloe insists. She says she would feel selfish for many people to die just so that she could live. She wasn’t important, she wasn’t going to change the world for good if she survived. Max says she is important to her. Chloe kisses her and then rests her forehead against Max’s, begging her to do it.

 

Chloe gets Max’s bag, and takes out the picture of the butterfly Max took in the bathroom. She hands it to Max and tells her to do it. She takes a few steps back and watches Max as she focuses on the picture. She says “I love you” before time starts rewinding.


Back in the bathroom, Max goes behind the stalls. She sits on the ground and starts crying as Nathan enters the bathroom, then Chloe. They argue, and the gun shot follows. We then hear the sound of Chloe’s body hitting the floor and Nathan starting to freak out.

 

From here on, the original song of the movie takes over, no sound coming from the following scene.

 

We cut to everyone attending Chloe’s funeral at the cemetery. Max collapses next to the casket and starts crying. In the distance, we can see Frank standing next to a tree, paying respects to Chloe. As Max looks up at the casket, she sees the blue butterfly on it. It flies away towards the sun. Max smiles.

 

The End.

 
 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by ChD

[ChD]

SOMA

Director: Drew Goddard
Genre: Thriller/Horror/Drama/Science-Fiction
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson as Simon Jarett, Emily Blunt as Catherine

Composer: Clint Mansell
Release date: January 20

Theaters: 3000

Runtime: 96min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Budget: 50M
Plot: 

 

 

 

The movie starts with the opening credits being shown as we see everything from behind a car windshield as it drives around the empty city, at night. We hear a young male and a young female talking about all kinds of stuff. It’s quite obvious they get along really well and like each other. The male voice belongs to Simon Jarett, our main character, and the other voice belongs to Ashley Hall.

The credits eventually come to an end as the car reaches a red stop light. It stops. Simon and Ashley keep talking about things. We don’t see what happens, but we can see the light turn green and the car not moving. After a couple of seconds, Ashley tells Simon that the light is green and he quickly apologizes and starts moving. The car reaches the middle of intersection and we hear a deafening bang from the right. The camera, together with the car, does a few flips before ending upside down. Very slowly, the camera starts fading to black as police sirens are heard faintly in the distance.

A bright flash follows and Simon wakes up in a chair situated in a dark room. Lights around him come on and Simon gets out of his chair. He calls out, but no one answers. On a table, next to a closed door, he sees a strange looking device. The room is futuristic looking, all made of metal. There is no way to open the door manually. Other than that, the room has a few empty lockers and a few air vents that are out of Simon’s reach. After toying around with the device he found on the table, he manages to open the door.

As soon as he gets out of his room, he realizes he is on a weird kind of space station. An abandoned space station, as there is nobody around and it looks really old and unused for a long while. He walks around, looking through rooms. It was clearly populated by someone before since there are posters hanging on walls, old fashioned Mp3 players and even TV’s. Eventually, Simon reaches a big room without windows. In the middle, there’s a long table with numerous computers in it. He sees a slot that seems to be for the device he found earlier, so he puts the device in. The computers come on. They all display errors, apart from one. He approaches that computer just as a female voice is heard.

She asks if anybody is there. Simon quickly says that he’s there. Rather calmly, she introduces herself as Catherine and asks for his name. He says his name is Simon and quickly starts throwing questions at her: Where is he? Why is he here? Where is she? Can she help him?

Catherine says that he is as Upsilon and that she doesn’t know why he’s there. She then says she’s at Lambda and tells him to go there and see her. That’s when the last computer fails, the classic blue screen being displayed. Communications are down.

 Simon starts walking through the station again. He reaches a door that he opens with the device. Behind that door, he is greeted by a long glass corridor that is… underwater. The station is underwater. He walks through the corridor, looking outside to see all kinds of fish, some more terrifying looking than others. After that, he encounters a dismantled robot in a dark corner. He approaches the robot and hears a young female voice speaking. He waves a hand in front of the camera that seems to be the head, but there is no reaction. The head moves around the female voice is talking about all kinds of stuff, some making sense, some not. That’s when he notices that the robot body is being slowly devoured by some kind of black goo coming out of the wall. Suddenly, in one moment of apparent lucidity, the camera turns to him and the female voice, says as seriously as possible, “Please, kill me!” before drifting back into saying random stuff that makes no sense. Simon looks around and notices a weird looking chip inserted around where the heart would be. He grabs the chip and pulls, but the entirely socket comes out with the chip. The circuits are still attached. He places it on the ground and then grabs the first thing that he can and starts smashing it. As soon as he does that, cries of pain start coming out from the robot. Simon panics and keeps doing it harder and harder, until the robot eventually ‘dies’.

Simon sits there, shocked at what just happened. That’s when he hears heavy footsteps coming from the distance. He looks around the corner. The footsteps become louder and louder. Suddenly a giant robot appears from behind the corner. He looks around and notices Simon, at which point he starts charging towards him. Simon starts running through the station, the robot chasing him vehemently. He eventually reaches the room used to leave the station. He locks the door and starts depressurizing it. He escapes.

The ocean is extremely dark. There are two trails of lights, forming some kind of road, going away from the station. He follows them until he reaches a point where the trails split. There’s a sign pointing him towards Lambda. After a short while, he reaches Lambda.

He enters Lambda and is quickly greeted by Catherine, who guides him towards where she is. He reaches her body and quickly realizes that Catherine is not real, but a scan of a human consciousness that was placed in a body. That’s when Simon realizes that he is the same thing, too. Catherine tells him that he’s been dead for almost a hundred years.

Simon starts asking questions about everything, and Catherine says she will answer everything while he transfers her in his Omnitool, the device he found earlier. She starts reading out of his file. Apparently, Simon died two weeks after his car crash, or a few days after he went to David Munshi. Catherine says that David Munshi was the first person to scan person consciousness and Simon was the first person in the world who had that done on him. Simon asks about his car crash. Catherine asks him if he can’t remember, and Simon says that the last thing he remembers happened at the stop light. We see a quick shot of Simon looking at Ashley, who is tapping away on her phone. He clearly loves her, just from the way he looks at her. She looks up and sees the green light, then tells him. He apologizes and drives…

He asks what happened to Ashley. Catherine is quiet for a while, then says that she didn’t make it. She died the following day due to the injuries she sustained.

Simon does not know how to react. He sits down and covers his face with his hands. Catherine says she is sorry after a few moments, and he looks up and says it’s alright. He asks where they are, what this is and why they are there.

Catherine explains that he’s in Lambda right now, a station from PATHOS-2, an underwater facility. They are there because a comet struck and killed everyone on Earth in the year 2103. Only members on PATHOS-2 survived the impact, but the station itself was affected by the impact. People realized they didn’t have much left to live so most of them decided to either move their consciousness into robots or have it scanned for the ARK before killing themselves.

Simon asks about the ARK, and Catherine explains that it is a simulated reality for a collection of human brain scans. Her plan was to launch it into space, but she never got to it. It works on solar power. Simon asks why, and Catherine explains that she does not know. When she was uploaded into the system and activated, her real self was still alive. The brain scan was only two days old and already activated. The real Catherine killed herself the following morning. She doesn’t know why, but she knows that she missed Taiwan, she missed her family, her colleagues. She knew she was probably the last human being alive… She hated that her colleagues killed themselves after scanning their consciousness despite her best efforts to help them, to keep them around. She hated that. She does not know why she never attempted to launch the ARK, even though she clearly wanted to do that.

Simon asks about launching the ARK and where it would be launched. Catherine says it would be launched into space. Simon asks how she plans on doing that since they’re underwater, at which point Catherine starts explaining that PATHOS-2 was built to launch things into space with the help of a Space Gun. It’s a ‘gun’ that reaches from the bottom of the ocean up to the surface. It could launch almost any kind of satellite into space for a really low cost.

Catherine explains that they need to get to Site Tau, where the ARK is located and then go to Phi, from where they could launch the ARK, but it’s situated in the Abyss. As they prepare to leave the station, they encounter more robots glued to walls by that black goo and Catherine explains that the black goo is the WAU. It’s PATHOS-2 artificial intelligence and up to the comet strike, it was docile. After that, it realized it needs to help humanity survived and so it kept uploading consciousness into robots without them knowing what happened, and went as far as creating new robots that went insane and want to kill everything. There was even one case where it forcefully kept a dying person alive until someone killed them so they would get rid of the pain. Catherine explains that Simon was also probably uploaded into his body by the WAU.

Simon asks Catherine what the plan is when they get out of Lambda and she says that originally she wanted to get the deep sea submarine, but that was recently taken over by the WAU and it’s not such a good plan anymore. She says they need to take the elevator into the Abyss, but that means Simon has to get a tougher suit. She suggests they go to Omicron and find a suit there.  They manage to find a Power Suit and Catherine says that in order to change suits, she has to copy his consciousness into the other suit, to which Simon agrees. He sits down in a similar chair to the one he woke up in and a bright flash follows. He wakes up in his new suit and gets out only to hear moaning from the room he initially went in. He goes there to find his old body moaning and moving very slightly, like he is having a nightmare. He asks Catherine what the hell that is about and she explains that she cannot move consciousness, but only copy them, which means the old one stays untouched. She then says she has forcefully put the old copy to sleep in order to let Simon choose. Simon asks what there is to choose from and Catherine explains that he’ll either let his old copy live and he wakes up in two days all alone or he’ll kill him. Simon does not know what to do, but eventually decides to let his old copy live.

They get to the elevator and start it. Since it takes a lot of time for it to move down, Catherine breaks the silence and asks Simon if he loved Ashley. Simon asks why she would ask that, and Catherine says that based on his reaction that’s what she thought. She then says it doesn’t matter and that it’s not her business. He admits he loved her and that, looking back, the most beautiful moments he spent were with her. He then asks Catherine if he misses her real life, and she says yes. He asks what she misses the most, and she explains that when she was young she used to live with her family in an apartment building in Taipei. Late at night, when she couldn’t sleep, she would go up on the rooftop and look at the city below her, the multicolored lights. She would see hundreds of people, roaming the streets, each in their own life, each with their own joys and worries, and then above them, the night sky, a few distant stars visible. It wasn’t amazing, that night sky, but she still adored it. She missed her normal life, she missed dating. She missed having a loved one with her, someone she could hug whenever she felt like it. Simon asks how she ended up in this place. She explains that people knew about the comet 30 years before it struck, before she even was born. She wanted to live, she liked living, so she chose to work here, knowing she’d survive. They reach the bottom.

From here on, Simon has to struggle through pitch black water, fast flowing currents and vicious sea creatures. A long one take shot follows with Simon struggling to walk through the currents, being thrown in all directions, being attacked by sea creatures and having to hide to avoid close encounters. He eventually reaches site Tau, where he finds the ARK guarded by the last living person on Earth, Sarah Lindwall. She is barely alive, food had run out on Tau long ago and she is being kept alive by a life support machine. She grants Simon permission to take the ARK and then asks him to disconnect her from her life support. Simon respects her wish.

Catherine then tells that they need to move the ARK to Phi in order to launch it and that there’s a way to ship the ARK alone, without them. After that, Simon would have to fight his way towards Phi. He ships the ARK towards Phi and then heads there himself. He reaches Phi without disturbances and walks down the corridor. He notices that there are names on each door, and one door says Catherine Chun. He enters the room and finds the body of Catherine on the bed, a gun wound to the chest. Catherine then asks if she’s still there, and Simon says yes. Catherine asks him nicely to leave and close the door, which he does, apologizing.

Simon proceeds to load the ARK into the Space Gun. After that, Catherine instructs him to sit in a chair and plug the Omnitool in a slot in the chair so they could upload themselves into the ARK. Thing is, they have to start the countdown first then start the upload into the ARK. Simon starts the countdown manually, then puts his helmet and Catherine starts the upload into the ARK. We see the progression of the upload. Catherine is finished and just with a second left to launch, Simon is uploaded as well. A bright flash follows and we see the launch of the ARK, with Simon still in the chair.

He is stunned. Soon, he starts yelling at Catherine asking her why the they weren’t on the god damn ARK. Catherine loses her temper and yells back at him that she told him they couldn’t move consciousness, only copy it, and that they basically lost the coin toss. One consciousness gets left behind, the other one moves to the ARK. Simon calls her a liar and says that he struggled so hard just to be left here in the middle of nowhere. Catherine says he’s an imbecile before her critical systems fail, leaving Simon stranded with a broken Omnitool at the bottom of the sea, alone. The emergency alarm starts. Simon is calling out for Catherine and asking her not to leave him alone here. And we fade into the end credits.

A post-credits scene shows the ARK reaching space, the destroyed planet visible underneath. The ARK opens its solar panels and slowly starts moving away from the camera.

We then see Simon waking up in the ARK. He is in the middle of a beautiful forest, completely unaware of the version he left behind. For him, it’s a smooth transition. He starts walking through the forest until he leaves it and reaches the shore of a massive lake. There, at the shore, he sees no other than Catherine. He calls out to her, she turns to him and… the end.

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by ChD

[Xillix]

@ChD Updated SOMA in the first post. Might want to add a running time, though. All the other "completed" films have them and it could theoretically affect box office in terms of number of showtimes per day.

 

I didn't update Life Is Strange because Colin Trevorrow is already booked for Forbidden Love. That movie's not done yet though, so if you get @lamamama to say he won't be finishing that this year and you can use him it's fine. Otherwise you'll need to pick a different director.

[cookie]

12 minutes ago, Xillix said:

I didn't update Life Is Strange because Colin Trevorrow is already booked for Forbidden Love. That movie's not done yet though, so if you get @lamamama to say he won't be finishing that this year and you can use him it's fine. Otherwise you'll need to pick a different director.

Didn't we have an exception that a director could do two medium-budget films a year though? Plus the two are pretty far apart (one in February and one in October). I think they can get by without issue (granted I don't know how big lamamama wants Forbidden Love to be).

Edited August 25, 2017 by cookie

[ChD]

I don't really frequent this forum, so please tag me and let me know if I can use Trevorrow. Otherwise, I'll change him before the game starts.

 

Edit: Also added Runtime to both movies. Thanks for the heads-up.

Edited August 25, 2017 by ChD

[Xillix]

14 hours ago, cookie said:

Didn't we have an exception that a director could do two medium-budget films a year though? Plus the two are pretty far apart (one in February and one in October). I think they can get by without issue (granted I don't know how big lamamama wants Forbidden Love to be).

To me, $75 million is kind of pushing it for low/medium budget. But if a majority of people are okay with it then it's fine.

[Rorschach]

Please remove all my films from the schedule. I did not realize how much limited time I would have to work on my stories outside of my busy schedule. 

[Xillix]

53 minutes ago, Rorschach said:

Please remove all my films from the schedule. I did not realize how much limited time I would have to work on my stories outside of my busy schedule. 

Sure thing. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Xillix]

The Damsel

Release Date: November 3rd

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Rom-Com

Director: Roger Michell

Theater Count: 2,462

Shooting Format: Digital 3.4K (Arri Alexa SXT Plus)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Image Release Format: 2K DCP

Audio Release Format: 5.1

Production Budget: $20 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude humor, language, sexual references, and some action

Running Time: 91 minutes

Major Cast: Lily Collins, Daniel Radcliffe, Grant Gustin

 

Plot Summary: An aspiring actress (Lily Collins) gets her "big break" when she's cast on a popular superhero TV show as the damsel in distress with a crush on her superheroic savior (Grant Gustin). Behind the scenes, both the superhero actor and the actor who plays the show's main supervillain (Daniel Radcliffe) begin courting her. As their flirting, dates, and proclamations of love escalate to ridiculous heights, it becomes increasingly clear that the actor who plays the hero is actually a selfish, sexist jerk. During an appearance at a fan convention, the producers of the show arrange to have the hero actor propose marriage to her as a publicity stunt. She turns him down and instead announces that she and the villain actor are a couple. The hero actor flips out and causes tons of property damage, even injuring some fans. He is fired from the show, and on the following season, the damsel character has been promoted to the show's new lead hero.

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by Xillix

[Ezen Baklattan]

Best Friends

---Forever---

"Can you keep a secret?"

 

Director: James Wan

Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller/Psychological

Release Date: February 17th

Major Cast: Bella Thorne (Kylie), Brianna Hilderband (Jill), Ross Lynch (James), RJ Cyler (Cody)

Theater Count: 2,582

MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content including bloody images and language throughout

Runtime: 105min (1hr, 45min)

Production Budget: $7.5 million

 

Kylie Slater was a normal sixth grader, but she was rather shy and didn't have too many friends. However, a girl moves into her town, Jill, and she is equally shy. However, Jill has lived a difficult life, living with abusive parents and is largely an outcast in society, despite her high intelligence and gifted creativity. Jill becomes picked on by several students, soon sitting alone at everything. Kylie comes to approach her one day, trying to make an offer to become friends. Jill lets her sit near her for that lunch. After it ends, Jill asks if she can sit by her again, and she says yes without hesitation. Throught the next few years of Middle School, the two become very close friends, doing activities together and helping each other out when they needed it. However, Jill was still largely harassed and bullied by her peers, particularly one boy, James. This harassment continues well into their high school career. This boils down to James, now president of the student council, releases drunk videos of Jill acting foolishly. Kylie yells at him, but he laughs it off. Cody, Kylie's boyfriend who is also on the student council, looks at Jill sadly and proceeds to glare at James. At only 16 years old, Jill has had it with the harassment that she has had to cope with for her life, even if Kylie had provided her with lots of true friendship. She begins to stab herself with a knife from her parent's kitchen, but before she does it, she thinks for a minute.

 

A few days later, the high school has entered a state of emotional trauma. James and his parents were killed in a house fire. Most of the students are in a traumatic state, except for Jill. Her largest harasser had gotten what he had deserved. As the news captures the story and the police look for clues in the fire, Jill becomes cold and emotionally distant from Kylie. She tries to visit Jill's house and talk to her, but her father angrily turns her away, telling her that Jill doesn't need any friends. Kylie begins to notice that anyone who has made fun of Jill is having mysterious and horrific tragedies happen, although many of these are imagined by Kylie. After having an anxiety attack in school, she calls Kylie repeatedly and demands a meeting. Later on, Jill and Kylie are seen talking at a special hideout under a nearby bridge. As the guilt slowly creeps upon Jill, she has to confess to Kylie that she started the fire that killed James's family. Kylie is horrified upon hearing this, but she says that she doesn't know what to say. Jill begs her that she won't tell anyone. Kylie was the only friend that she ever had, and she doesn't want to lose her. Kylie says in tears how unfair this is for her, but Jill is still begging her to keep quiet. Kylie runs away, crying. She doesn't know who her best friend is anymore. After meeting with Cody and considering telling her, she declines.

 

That night, Jill returns home to her drunken father aggressively asking her where she went. She just says that she went to talk to a friend, but the father is furious with her for going out without his permission. She pulls out a knife and threatens to stab her with it. This was the same knife that Jill almost uses to commit suicide earlier in the film. Jill's mother intervenes, saying that he's going to far, but the two get into a fight which ultimately ends in the father unintentionally killing his wife. Not realizing what he did, he enters a state of hysterics, begging his daughter for forgiveness. Jill grabs the knife out of his hand, saying bluntly, "You brought this upon youself. Goodbye, daddy." She proceeds to stab him in the back, smiling as she does it, dragging the knife deeper and causing spatters of blood. Kylie has a terrifying nightmare that Jill has brutally murdered several people in their small town, and Kylie must watch as Jill does the killings. As their school is ablaze in a terrible fire, Jill comes up to Kylie's ear and whispers, "best friends forever." Kylie wakes up the next morning in cold sweat.

 

Kylie begins to stop being around Jill, who is becoming even more distant from everyone. Kylie begins to have visions of Jill in the hallways, committing terrible acts to other people. Cody notices this behavior and becomes more and more concerned. Eventually, she has a complete breakdown and calls Cody, confessing everything. Unfortunately, Jill has heard everything, as she hid a microphone in her house a while ago to capture what she would say, desperate to know if she would rat her out. Feeling betrayed, Jill goes on a rampage in her house, knocking things off the table and destroying pictures of her with Kylie. The next day at school, Kylie is extremely nervous to see Jill, and she tries to hide with other students at lunch. Jill, however, has brought in a gun to school hidden in her backpack. She begins to shoot at other students. We don't see the action, but we hear the gunshots and students panicking across the halls. We also see blood splatter onto the doors. The police soon arrives at the school, armed and shielded. The body count was now at 13, with several more injured. The police find Jill in the middle of the hallway, pointing the gun at Kylie, but hesitant to shoot. In angry tears, she demands to know why she sold her out, to which Kylie tells her that she couldn't keep quiet, no matter how hard she tried. In tears, Jill shoots herself, dropping dead on the floor, and Kylie begins to cry. A police officer comforts her, escorting her outside and to her home.

 

At the end, we see Kylie heading off to a summer camp for emotional traumatized teenagers, in order to lift her spirits and make new friends. Before she leaves, she visits Jill's grave, apologizing for everything. As she gets on the bus, we see a shot of it leaving. It seemingly passes right by Jill, who glares at the camera.

[Ezen Baklattan]

A LOVE to DIE FOR

"A match made in hell."

Date: April 21st

Theaters: 3,394

Director: Rawson Marshall-Thurber

Cast: Channing Tatum (Brad Dennison), Jennifer Lawrence (Gloria Mariato), Steve Buscemi (Don Mariato), Chris Pratt (Charlie)

Budget: $50 million

Rating: R for pervasive language including crude sexual humor, some nudity, violence, and drug/alcohol use

Runtime: 110min (1hr, 50min) 

 

Brad Dennison has a good life. He maintains a job as an IT guy for a strong Financial firm, Meridian, and he enjoys spending time with a group of friends, most notably a man named Charlie. They often go out and spend time at clubs, among other things. One day, a much anticipated basketball game comes to town, and there's a huge rush to buy tickets. Dennison and his buddies want to get some, but they sold out too fast. Instead, Brad turns to Craig's List to see if anything comes up, and an offcer for tickets, with some minor fine print that gets overlook, strikes Dennison, and he takes it. The game is epic, as it had been promised, but once everything seems to be over, Dennison is knocked out and thrown into a van without the knowledge of any of his friends.

 

Dennison soon wakes up when a bag is pulled off his head, and he's tied to a chair with three men observing him. One of which is Don Mariato, the leader of one of the most prominent crime families in the area. Dennison is soon told that the fine print he merely glanced over on the Craig's List add had some other stipulations. In exchange for the seats, Dennison would have to win the affections of the daughter of Mariato, Gloria. She comes in wearing a red dress and smoking a cigarette. He would have one month to get Gloria to love her, and if her daughter was still unsatisfied with her man, they would kill him. Dennison quickly becomes nervous, soon moving to ask Gloria how she's been doing. "So...you're just kind of a fucker, ain't ya?" Gloria snaps back. Dennison gulps, and Mariato mouths to him, "Good luck."

 

Indeed, the relationship begins rather shakily. The two go to Dennison's apartment, where Gloria is completely bored, saying that Brad seems like an a#@hole. The next two weeks continue with more conventional bonding tactics that go awry, such as a romantic dinner ruined by food poisoning. However, Brad constantly seeks help from Charlie on what to do, saying that the movies made it seem a lot easier, and this isn't going to end with one of them running at the airport to catch the other. Speaking of Charlie, though, it seems that Gloria enjoys less off the generic 'love' feeding and prefers the more chill activities that they tend to do. Gloria and Brad soon begin to bond over the next week, and Brad becomes relieved that he might not bite the dust at all. Perhaps all would be well in the world.

 

Unfortunately, the Mariato family learns about the financial firm that Dennison works for, and they plan a heist for the ages. One day, as he is working at IT, he receives a phone call that Gloria is with the family again, not at his apartment where she had been staying for much of the last month. The network soon goes haywire and is overtaken by the crime family. Some armed thugs for the crime family enter the building, creating a hostage situation. Gloria asks her father to stop what he is doing, even if all of this crime is pretty badass, when Mariato reveals that this was all just a ploy to get into a major financial firm to do a robbery, stealing the information of an employee.

 

Gloria soon goes to the firm, but her father prevents her from leaving, and he forces her onto a plane headed to New York. The police arrive and try to stop the situation, while Dennison tries to make an escape to find Gloria, soon realizing her current situation. He desperately calls for a taxi to the airport to try and stop her before the flight takes off, soon realizing how wrong he was about not ending up in this situation. He soon arrives, and Gloria is still at the security checkpoint, so he has time. Gloria finds him, but an aggravated Don Mariato threatens to kill him then and there, no doubt creating a crazy situation. Two TSA agents quickly topple him, though, just at the sheer mention of the world "kill" and his beginning to pull out a pistol. The police soon contain the situation at the back and the Mariato family becomes increasingly in trouble with the law. "So, sorry my family tried to kill you," Gloria says to Dennison, who forgives him. The two end up staying together and drive away, unaware that there was still a body in the car they were using.

[Xillix]

@Spaghetti of 1000 Planets

 

Added both films to the schedule. You didn't provide a genre for A Love to Die For so based on the summary I went with "Rom-Com/Crime/Thriller," is that all right?

 

Also keep in mind James Wan is booked for SCP: The Foundation just one week before you've scheduled Best Friends Forever. Since BFFs is such a small film it's probably okay, if a little weird, but depending on how big-budget SCP ends up being (if it's finished at all) @Alpha may take issue with it? You're fine with Rawson Marshall Thurber by me though, two $50 million or less movies seems doable and he's apparently got three projects lined up IRL right now. We'll just imagine one of them was filmed earlier and got delayed a lot. Maybe the Weinsteins had the rights to it originally