CAYOM YEAR 4 - PART I - MOVIE SUBMISSION

[YM!]

Replace Dragon Ball with Celestial 3000 (Sci-fi/Adventure/Comedy - Directed by David Leitch - 5/1/Y4 - in 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX 2D+3D)

[Xillix]

Rock & Roll Heart Attack

Release Date: January 31st, Y4

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Supervillain/Romantic Dramadey/Music

Director: Bill Condon

Theater Count: 3,669

Premium Formats: 3D
Shooting Format: Super 35 film (3-perf) (Post-converted to 3D)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP
Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1
Production Budget: $50 million
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language, drugs and alcohol, and sexual content
Running Time: TBD
Major Cast: James Zeph [fictional actor] (Patrice Xavier/Scaleface), Scott Evans (Leo Rey/Reverb), more TBA

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by Xillix

[Blankments]

Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson vs. the Loch Ness Monster

Director: Clark Gregg

Genre: Action

Release Date: May 29

Major Cast:

Chuck Norris as Chuck Norris

Liam Neeson as Liam Neeson

Salma Hayek as Salma Hayek

Samuel L. Jackson as Samuel L. Jackson

Clark Gregg as Clark Gregg

with John Cena as the voice of the Loch Ness Monster

 

Theater Count: 2,632

MPAA Rating: R for graphic sexual content, strong scenes of action violence, drug use, strong language, nudity, and smoking.

Runtime: 90 min

Production Budget: $5 million

Music by: Bear McCreary

Additional Formats: 3D

 

Plot: The movie begins with Clark Gregg pitching an idea for a serious character drama set in Scotland to Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris decides to make the film in order to finish off his career with a more dramatic film. Liam Neeson and Salma Hayek are cast as well, and then the four of them take a private plane to Loch Ness, where their crew is awaiting them. However, when they arrive, the crew has become zombies, a side effect of being attacked by the Loch Ness Monster, which has suddenly reemerged. The zombies are also led by a brainwashed actor turned assassin, Samuel L. Jackson. Clark Gregg and Salma Hayek are kidnapped by Samuel L. Jackson and are taken up into the mountains. Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson then team up to fight the zombies, rescue Clark Gregg and Salma Hayek, free Samuel L. Jackson from his brainwashing, and defeat the Loch Ness Monster.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Blankments

[YM!]

3 minutes ago, Blankments said:

Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson vs. the Loch Ness Monster

Director: Clark Gregg

Genre: Action

Release Date: April 3

Major Cast:

Chuck Norris as Chuck Norris

Liam Neeson as Liam Neeson

Salma Hayek as Salma Hayek

Samuel L. Jackson as Samuel L. Jackson

Clark Gregg as Clark Gregg

with John Cena as the voice of the Loch Ness Monster

 

Theater Count: 2,632

MPAA Rating: R for graphic sexual content, strong scenes of action violence, drug use, strong language, nudity, and smoking.

Runtime: 90 min

Production Budget: $5 million

Music by: Bear McCreary

Additional Formats: 3D

 

Plot: The movie begins with Clark Gregg pitching an idea for a serious character drama set in Scotland to Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris decides to make the film in order to finish off his career with a more dramatic film. Liam Neeson and Salma Hayek are cast as well, and then the four of them take a private plane to Loch Ness, where their crew is awaiting them. However, when they arrive, the crew has become zombies, a side effect of being attacked by the Loch Ness Monster, which has suddenly reemerged. The zombies are also led by a brainwashed actor turned assassin, Samuel L. Jackson. Clark Gregg and Salma Hayek are kidnapped by Samuel L. Jackson and are taken up into the mountains. Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson then team up to fight the zombies, rescue Clark Gregg and Salma Hayek, free Samuel L. Jackson from his brainwashing, and defeat the Loch Ness Monster.

The greatness has returned. Also, how will the sequels be done now with new CAYOM movies.

[Blankments]

2 minutes ago, YourMother the Edgelord said:

The greatness has returned. Also, how will the sequels be done now with new CAYOM movies.

this isn't the thread for it, but likely the sequels as planned will play out as written but when time comes for the grand six-film finale (which I never wrote) CAYOM 3.0 films will be implemented as the main narrative focus

[Blankments]

The Dogs of Babel

 

Writer-Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Genre: Drama/Mystery

Release Date: December 11

Major Cast:

Sterling K. Brown as Paul Iverson

Rosario Dawson as Lexy Ransome

Brie Larson as Wendy Hollis

John Gallagher Jr. as Monsieur Arabelle

with Gael Garcia Bernal as Diego Ransome

 

and Christopher Plummer as the Dean

 

Theater Count: 3,353

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, disturbing images, and thematic content.

Runtime: 127 min

Production Budget: $30 million

Music by: Joel P. West

 

Plot Summary: Thinking his wife's death was more than a freak accident, a linguist tries to learn the language of the only witness to the death: his wife's dog.
 

Plot: 

 

The movie opens with Paul Iverson and Lexy Ransome waking up. Paul looks at the clock, and kisses his wife good-bye. Their dog, Lorelei, runs up to him, wagging his tail, but Paul just pushes past her. Lexy says he should to be nicer to Lorelei, but Paul says regardless of how he treats the dog, he’ll be late for work. Lexy looks at him sadly, but she lets Paul leave. Paul drives to the University of Pennsylvania, as he is a linguist professor there. He walks into the class, and we see him get ready for class. His cell phone rings, and he sees that it’s Lexy. He is about to pick it up, when the students start coming in. He ignores the call, and turns his phone off.

 

 

Cut ahead to his class being over, and Paul turns on his phone. He sees he has ten missed calls, all from home. Wondering what could be wrong, he calls home, and a police officer answers. Paul asks what’s going on, and if he can talk to Lexy. The officer answers by saying Paul should come home. Paul runs out of the college, and drives home, seeing there are three police cars and an ambulance in his driveway. He runs out, and a police officer walks up to him, telling him he is sorry.

THE DOGS OF BABEL

Paul sits silently, as one of the officers explain it to him. A neighbor called them about an hour ago, who went outside her house and found Lexy’s body under the apple tree. The policemen say that they, along with the emergency response team that came along with them, have declared it an accident, and say that she died of a broken neck. Paul is in shock, and Lorelei runs up to him and begins licking his legs. Paul lightly kicks her off, and the policemen jokingly say to be careful, the dog is the only witness.

The policemen leave, and Paul walks into the house silently. He sees some steak on a pan, which he looks at oddly first, but then shrugs it off. Paul crawls into bed, alone, and then Lorelei jumps up into bed to sleep where Lexy used to. Paul tries to push her off, but Lorelei won’t budge. Paul rolls over then, and sleeps away from Lorelei. We then go through a montage of the funeral preparations, the people who give Paul their condolences, and the funeral itself, during all of which Paul feels distant. Something is bothering him about it.

A week later, Paul wakes up. It is the day he is supposed to go back to work. Lorelei begins wagging her tail at Paul, and nods her head toward the door. Paul doesn’t notice the sign that she’s supposed to go for a walk, and he heads off to work anyway. The day passes and Paul gets several more condolences at work. The dean offers to give Paul some paid time off, but Paul refuses, saying that moving on is the best thing to do. Paul goes home, and steps in some dog poop as soon as he opens the door. A flashback occurs, showing Paul, five years younger, at a garage sale in Florida. He finds a hardboiled egg mold, which he decides to buy. He walks over the grass to buy this, but steps in dog poop. He is shocked, and almost leaves, but then he hears a girl, Lexy, yell over that it says to keep off the grass for a reason. Paul turns to Lexy, who he looks at oddly. Lexy asks if he’s going to buy the egg mold, and Paul says sure. While the purchase is going on, Lexy asks if he likes eggs, and Paul answers that they are his favorite food. Lexy smiles, and says there’s a new breakfast place that opened, and she asks Paul if she wants to go there for breakfast sometime to get to know each other. Paul smiles, and says sure. Snapping out of the flashback, Paul is annoyed by the dog poop, and yells at Lorelei. Realizing that he’s going to actually have to take care of Lorelei, he takes her for a walk.

As he walks her, they pass by the apple tree. Paul stops for a minute and realizes something: why was Lexy up in the apple tree anyway? Paul runs back to the house with Lorelei and calls the police with this question. The man who answers says the case is closed, and if Paul doesn’t know why she was up in the apple tree, how would the police know? Paul hangs up, dejected, believing his wife didn’t die from an accident, but he remembers something the officer said earlier. Lorelei was the only witness to Lexy’s death. Paul then comes up with an idea; perhaps a crazy idea, but the only way to find out if his wife died. He is going to teach Lorelei how to speak English.

Paul figures that if you can teach a dog to understand “sit” or “stay,” there’s no reason you can’t take that to the point that a dog can speak. He goes on the computer, and we see his wallpaper, a picture of him and Lexy at Disney World. Another flashback occurs, showing Paul and Lexy arriving at Disney World four years earlier. They go on Splash Mountain, and after the ride, when they are soaked, Paul proposes to Lexy. Lexy says yes. The flashback ends and Paul begins searching to see if anyone else has done it yet. Naturally, going through pages and pages of search engines, he can’t find a single person who has been able to teach a dog to talk. He is about to give up when he finds a website for something called the Cerebus Society. Led by a woman named Wendy Hollis, they managed to surgically alter a dog, Dog J, so he could make human noises. Paul isn’t convinced surgery is necessary, but he takes this as proof that a dog speaking is possible.

The next day, he goes to the dean’s office to tell him of his mission. The dean tells Paul he’s crazy, but Paul says he believes that it is possible to teach a dog to talk. The dean says he’s going to give Paul two weeks off, but then he needs to move on, and then maybe get rid of Lorelei, since she seems like she is preventing Paul’s natural grief to move on. Paul leaves the university, thinking about what the dean has said, but he shrugs it off, believing that Lorelei is the only thing he truly has left from Lexy.

He drives home, and begins to try to teach Lorelei. He takes Lorelei out to the apple tree, and says “tree” to her repeatedly while pointing to it. Lorelei doesn’t know what is going, and is ignoring Paul. Paul breaks down in tears, and goes back inside with Lorelei. Lorelei then barks at him, and Paul ignores her. She begins scratching at a hidden door that Paul notices. Paul opens the door, and a bunch of mask fall on him. Paul smiles, and remembers the time when he had to help his wife with her job. It was a wedding on Halloween two years ago, and the couple wanted individual masks for every guest. Lexy worked up to the last minute on the masks, and she asked Paul to drive her to the wedding. They made to the wedding just in time, and they were able to dance at the reception as thanks for their services.

Paul then remembers their own wedding, which was before the masked wedding. The actual wedding went well but then Lexy’s brother, Diego, got drunk at the reception and he got in a fight with Paul. Lexy asked Paul not to hurt Diego, and Paul relented, and allowed Diego to leave without a fist-fight. That night, on their honeymoon, Lexy revealed that she didn’t have the best relationship with Diego as a young child, and they often got into fights. Paul asked if that had to do with her depression as a teen, and Lexy says she thinks it was a major cause, but she’s no longer depressed now that she’s with Paul. The two kissed.

Paul picks up the mask on top, a mask made to look like Lorelei. He tosses it on his bedstand, and goes to bed, still in depression. Lorelei jumps up onto Lexy’s old spot, and for the first time, Paul doesn’t try to push her off. He pets Lorelei for a bit, and then falls asleep. A flashback occurs, showing the couple in Florida in their apartment six months after their honeymoon. Paul came home and told Lexy the good news. He has gotten a job at the University of Pennsylvania. Lexy was overjoyed, but then said she’s not sure she wanted to leave Florida so soon. Paul said to her that this is the chance of a lifetime, and if he turned down this job, it’d be a huge mistake. Lexy eventually agrees to for Paul to take the job. Paul then awakes the next morning late, and when he looks at the clock, he jumps up and panics, seeing he is late for work. He gets up immediately but then sees Lorelei asleep in Lexy’s spot. He remembers what has happened. He sighs, and goes into the shower.

After his shower, he wakes up Lorelei, and takes her on her walk. On their way back, they stop at the apple tree, which Paul stares at for a few seconds, and then they continue back to the house. Paul decides to e-mail Wendell Hollis about his quest. Paul sends the e-mail and goes back to trying to teach Lorelei. He decides to make flash cards for the dog. He remembers back to the time he and Lexy read books together, specifically ballads. Paul loved ballads and their language, and Lexy loved the epic stories of them. Paul snaps out of the flashback. He goes out and takes a picture of the apple tree, and then makes a flash card with the word “tree” on it. Paul tries it with Lorelei, pointing at the picture and then at the word underneath while saying “tree.” Lorelei growls and Paul sighs, remarking it’s a start.

Paul then goes to check his e-mail, seeing that Hollis has replied. Hollis says that he understands his problem, and he will actually be in Pittsburgh tomorrow. Hollis says that if Paul would like, he can meet Dog J. Paul replies that yes, he will be there and to bring Dog J. Paul then tries to find a hotel with vacancies for that night and allows dogs, and he finds only one. He quickly books a reservation, and loads Lorelei into his car.

Paul drives to Pittsburgh, and checks into the hotel. He leaves Lorelei some food and water, and then heads off to a club to meet Wendy Hollis. He goes in and finds the club empty except for a bartender. Paul tells the bartender he’s here to meet with Wendy, and the bartender takes him into the backroom, where Hollis is surrounded by several other people. Hollis smiles at Paul, and asks him if he wants to know how to speak to a dog. Paul explains that he needs to know. Hollis then asks Paul where he is spending the night, and Paul answers with the hotel name. Hollis smiles, and then begins speaking to Paul.

Hollis explains that she too has always wished to speak to a canine. She remarks that humans are like dogs anyway, always chasing their own tails and digging up old bones. Paul doesn’t follow the metaphor, but he nods anyway. Hollis continues, saying she has spent his entire life researching how to speak to a dog, and then she finally figured it out. Paul asks how, and then Hollis brings out Dog J. Hollis then explains what she did. In order to get Dog J to speak English, first she removed the dog’s larynx, saying that a dog cannot speak with a dog’s larynx, and it needs to have a human larynx to speak the language of humans, so after removing the dog’s larynx, she surgically put in a human larynx. Paul is disgusted, but then asks if it worked. Hollis shrugs, saying it obviously didn’t work immediately, and they had to teach the dog to speak like you would to a child. Hollis then asks Paul if he’d like to speak to Dog J, and Paul says yes.

One of Hollis’s assistants brings out Dog J, a dog who is clearly starving to death. Hollis asks Dog J how he is doing, and Dog J answers with a bizarre bunch of screeches and whines that sound like a dying cat. Paul’s eyes widen, and we see him slowly reach for his phone, which is on, and he dials 911 with the phone still in his phone still in his pocket. Hollis doesn’t notice and replies that Dog J sounds lovely, and Paul looks at her like she’s insane. Hollis responds that, yes, the dog does sound a little hoarse, but that is only natural, thanks to the surgical operation. Paul says he can’t understand a single thing the dog is saying.

Hollis is furious for a brief second, but then smiles, saying maybe it is not satisfactory for Paul since it isn’t his own dog. Paul is confused, but then freaks out when he sees two of Hollis’s assistants carrying in Lorelei, who is muzzled. Hollis says that she took the liberty of assuming that Paul would want the operation as soon as possible. Paul tries to stop Hollis, but he is restrained by two more of Hollis’s assistants. They roll out an operating table, and treat with Lorelei with some knockout gas. We watch Paul’s reaction to watching Lorelei’s larynx is removed in front of his very eyes. We then cut to Hollis, who has the larynx wrapped up. She then says darkly that she will need a human larynx to transfer into Lorelei, saying that Paul could still communicate with Lorelei through writing. Paul struggles to get himself free but Hollis simply tightens his restraints as she grabs an surgical instrument.


Suddenly, the door opens, and in rushes ten cops. Hollis realizes that the jig is up, and she runs away into another secret passage. Nine of the cops follow Hollis and her cult members, while one cop helps Paul. Paul sees Lorelei with her wound still open, and begs the cop to take him to the local veterinary hospital. They arrive at the Greenfield Veterinary Hospital, and Paul waits in the waiting room for news. The nurse comes out and gives Paul good news and bad news. The good news is they were able to save Lorelei’s life just in time, but the bad news is that she will never bark again, as they were unable to retrieve her larynx. Paul realizes he’ll never achieve his goal of having Lorelei speak English.

Paul waits at the veterinary hospital for two days, and then Lorelei is released from the hospital. Lorelei is overjoyed to see Paul, and she tries to bark at him, but fails. Paul drives home with Lorelei, and then immediately walks Lorelei. They pass by the apple tree, which Paul ignores. Paul then sits down, and begins watching TV with Lorelei. He continues watching TV over the next week, only getting up from the couch to feed himself and Lorelei, and to use the bathroom.

While watching a late show, he sees an ad for a Psychic Hotline. About to switch channel’s, he stops when he sees a familiar face under the actual customers: Lexy. Lexy in the commercial says that the person she talked to, Monsieur Arabelle, was a great help to her. He begins calling the Hotline to try to reach Monsieur Arabelle. After thirty calls, he finally gets Monsieur Arabelle. He asks her about Lexy, and Monsieur Arabelle says he is not allowed to reveal his reading of Lexy. Paul explains the situation to him, and begs Arabelle to tell him what happened. Monsieur Arabelle relents and tells him that Lexy called to ask him about her baby’s future. Paul finds this odd, but says he already knew that Lexy was pregnant. Monsieur Arabelle pulls up Lexy’s file and goes through the reading, which says the child shall carry quite a load or none at all. Paul realizes the two meanings of this. Monsieur Arabelle says he hopes that he was not the one who called the death of Lexy. Paul hangs up, refusing to acknowledge the implications.

Paul then turns off the TV, and calls Lorelei to him. He begins petting Lorelei, trying to figure out what to do next. When he pets over her stitches, he grimaces, and then walks away. He looks at the mask, which is still on his bedstand. He picks it up, and throws it to the ground in agony. He runs outside, and looks at the apple tree. Determined, he goes into his garage, and grabs an axe. He chops the tree down, every swing giving him a memory of Lexy. Finally, when the tree is down, he goes inside, and hugs Lorelei, crying into her fur. Lorelei struggles and escapes from Paul. Paul follows Lorelei, and finds her sniffing the remains of the mask. He notices a small strip of paper by the mask, one that must have been left there for a while.

He picks it up and reads a note in Lexy’s handwriting that says, “third shelf down, five books to the right.” He realizes what this means. He goes to the bookshelf in their living room, the first time since Lexy’s death. Lorelei follows him, as he picks up the book that is on the third shelf down, and five books to the right, “Tam Lin,” the legendary Scottish ballad. He sits down on the couch, and Lorelei jumps up next to him. He opens the book up, and finds a note in the front, telling him to turn to page 34. He does and he finds a passage highlighted. He reads it out loud. “Had I known but yesterday what I know today, I’d have taken out your two gray eyes and put in eyes of clay; and had I known but yesterday you’d be no more my own, I’d have taken out your heart of flesh and put in one of stone."

Paul finally realizes that Lexy had a miscarriage and, unwilling to face the tragedy, committed suicide. Paul puts the book back, and heads into bed. Lorelei jumps up next to him, and he begins petting her, and then, unable to hold himself together, begins crying into her fur again. Lorelei lets him do this, and licks his ear.

The next morning Paul wakes up. He is still mourning Lexy’s death, but when he sees Lorelei, he smiles and starts playing fetch with her, the first time he’s ever played with Lorelei. He calls up a landscaper to quickly remove the fallen apple tree. After giving Lorelei a hug good-bye, He heads back to work, and the dean says that he seems to have moved on. That night, when he returns home, he takes Lorelei for a walk. They walk by where the apple tree used to be, and Paul walks up and plants an apple seed where it used to be. Paul has a single teardrop, but then moves on back into the house with Lorelei, both of them finally receiving closure from Lexy’s death.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Blankments

[YM!]

Add Cinerama to both Can You Imagine? and Treasure Planet: Gauntlet of Midas @Xillix

[YM!]

Hoops

Studio: Infinite Studios 

Release Date: 7/3/Y4

Genre: Sports Drama

Director: Charles Stone III

Rating: PG-13 

Budget: $5M

Theater Count: 2,879

Format: 2D

Runtime: 100 minutes

Cast: 

Unknowns

 

A group of high school basketball players take on a land hungry millionaire after the community park by challenging him to a basketball game. The millionaire hires some of the best players around the world but the high school team barely wins and the park is saved.

Edited October 1, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Ezen Baklattan]

THE EPSILON SYNDICATE

(est. 1596)

 

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson and Gia Coppola

Original Score Composed by Alexandre Desplat

Filmed by Robert Yeoman

 

THE PLAYERS

Maisie Williams is Nadine Hallon - The Apprentice Thief     |    Emily Blunt as Madame Y - The Righteous Mastermind

Letita Wright as Lulu G. - The Genius Codebreaker    |    Toni Revolori as Fabien I. - The Swift Agent         

Edward Norton is Richard Buxley - The Surrogate Father     |     Kristen Wiig is Sally Buxley - The Surrogate Mother      

     Greta Gerwig is Athena - The Technical Genius     |    Jeff Goldbum is Sir Z. - The Dignified Ringleader

  Tilda Swinton is The Diamond Lady - The Criminal Mastermind    |     Demian Bichir is Flores - The Social Worker                              

             Angelica Huston as AH - The Artificial Intelligence     |     Steve Buscemi is Antonovich - The Devious Industrialist 

               Bill Murray as Frankfort - The US President     |      Kimiko Glenn as Hyaki - The Determined Reporter

and Ken Watanabe as Houston - The Ring Keeper

 

Genre: Dramedy/Thriller/Adventure

Budget: $35 million

Rating: PG-13 for action including violent and distrubing images, some thematic material, and brief strong language

Runtime: TBD

Release Date: May 22nd

Theaters: 4 (5/22), 31 (5/29), 145 (6/5), 480 (6/12), 1,455 (6/19), 2,405 (6/26)

 

[Xillix]

 

The Amityville Nightmare Part II

Release Date: October 23, Y4

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Horror

Director: Mike Flanagan
Theater Count: 3,373

Premium Formats: Dolby Cinema

Shooting Format: Digital 4.4K (Arri Alexa LF) in anamorphic Technovision

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Image Release Formats: 2K DCP, 4K DCP, 4K Dolby Cinema DCP
Audio Release Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos

Production Budget: $25 million

MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence, frightening images, language, and suggestive content

Running Time: 125 minutes

Major Cast: Lee Pace (Lt. Jerome Steinberg), Joel Edgerton (Jay G. Stern), Armand Assante (Father Chiraldi), Matt Battaglia (Silvio Damiani), Tony Goldwyn (Chief Carr), Amy Jo Johnson (Diane Montelli), Katee Sackhoff (Tess Baxter), Shannyn Sossamon (Margot Ryan), Stephan James (Jason Freeman), Henry Thomas (Tony Young), Anne Heche (Alice May Chambers)

 

Previous Movie Gross: $107.5m domestic / $112.5m international / $220m worldwide

 

Plot Summary: Sequel to the Y2 film The Amityville Nightmare, which was based on the novel Amityville: The Nightmare Continues by Robin Karl Largent, though this sequel is an original story. All of the Amityville films and books, this one included, are inspired loosely by true events.

 

Spoiler

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2018
It has been eleven months since Roy Chambers was killed in his home in Amityville. His two children, fourteen-year-old Ellen and twelve-year-old Lester, are now living with his sister in her home in Buffalo, New York. It is a dark, rainy autumn evening, the suburban street on which her small home sits lit in the orange glow of the streetlamps. Lester's aunt comes into his bedroom to inform him dinner will be ready in ten minutes. As she returns to the kitchen, she is startled by someone knocking on her front door. Entering the front hall, she opens to door to find a priest she has never seen before. The audience, though, will recognize him as Father Joseph Bellini - who disappeared a year earlier in Amityville. He asks if her nephew is home. "He did me a great favor," he explains, "and I've been meaning to thank him." She asks who he is, and there's a pregnant pause between the pair.

Cut to Ellen, sitting in her bedroom texting on her cell phone. Her room is nearer to the kitchen than Lester's, and she is able to hear the beeping of the oven's timer; ten minutes have passed. The oven keeps on beeping, and she calls out for her aunt. But there's no reply, and the incessant beeping of the timer continues. Annoyed, Ellen puts down her phone and enters the kitchen. Her aunt is nowhere to be seen. She turns off the oven, calling out again, asking if she should take the food out. When there's no reply, she simply shrugs and opens the oven door. Inside is her aunt's burnt corpse, crushed to fit inside, bones broken in several places. She stares in terror and disbelief, backing away from the oven - and right into a maniacally-grinning Father Bellini.

 

The sound of Ellen's shriek echoes down the hall into Lester's room. The boy runs out into the hallway to find Ellen running away from Bellini, whose skin is peeling off, dropping to the floor in chunks coated in black goo. The demonic priest catches up to the teen girl, grabbing her shoulders. As his face splits open to reveal a monstrous serpentine visage, he sinks his enormous fangs into her neck, killing her. A terrified Lester returns to his bedroom, slamming the door shut and locking it. He runs over to his window, throwing it open and pushing out the screen. The demon's claws begin to tear through the door behind him. Lester tries to crawl through the window, but it slams itself down hard on his back, pushed by some evil invisible force, audibly cracking his spine. We watch from outside as Lester screams in pain before being yanked back into his bedroom. The window slams shut, the camera zooming in on its rain-streaked exterior. After several seconds, a huge burst of Lester's blood coats the inside of the glass.

THE AMITYVILLE NIGHTMARE

PART II

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2018
The opening credits play out over an early morning scene, just before sunrise. Amityville police lieutenant Jerome Steinberg (Lee Pace) arrives at a three-story brick building - the Brunswick Hall Psychiatric Hospital. Lt. Steinberg enters the front office and speaks briefly with a nurse. It's before normal visiting hours, but given the situation, an exception is being made. The nurse accompanies Steinberg to the room of long-term patient Alice May Chambers (Anne Heche) - the widow of Roy Chambers, and Ellen and Lester's stepmother. She had originally been arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband, however, forensic evidence exonerated her. When first taken into custody, she had claimed it was a demon from the old abandoned house on 112 Ocean Avenue which had killed Roy. That was enough to have her admitted here. As the nurse reminds Lt. Steinberg, shortly after her admission, Alice repressed all memories of the incident and the events which had led up to it. The nurse isn't sure how she will respond to the news Steinberg has come to give her, or if she will at all. Still, the lieutenant insists, she deserves to know.

 

Arriving in her room, Lt. Steinberg finds Alice humming an old Catholic hymn to herself. She does not acknowledge his presence until he speaks.

"Hello, Miss Chambers. Do you remember me?"

"Hm?" Alice turns and looks at him, confused. "No... I'm sorry, have we met?"

"...It's been a while," Steinberg states, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I'm Lt. Jerome Steinberg of the Amityville Police Department."

"Well," Alice responds, suddenly cheery, as if excited to have any sort of company. "Pleased to make your acquaintance again, Lt. Steinberg."

"I'm afraid this isn't a social visit, Miss Chambers. It's about your stepchildren."

"Oh, yes! They're so sweet. Though... I do wish Roy would be a bit less harsh on Lester," she exclaims. "I don't know what it is. He's always seemed to have something against him."

"Miss Chambers, your husband is..."

"Oh!" A look of frightened realization crosses Alice's face. For an instant Steinberg thinks she may have remembered the truth.

"Did Roy do something to him? Please tell me he's all right. He can get so angry..."

Steinberg's shoulders sink. His voice is low and gentle.

"I'm afraid, Miss Chambers... both of your stepchildren are dead. They and their aunt were found murdered last night in Buffalo."

Alice seems to go into a near-catatonic state, clearly in shock. She is silent and motionless, barely breathing. After a few moments, Steinberg continues.

"...the police up there are looking into it, but so far there aren't any leads. No sign of a break-in, no witnesses. I know this comes as a shock, but... if you know anything, or remember anything that might help... let the staff here know. They'll put you in touch with me."

 

After several more seconds of silence, Alice screams, violently shaking her head, collapsing onto her bed in some sort of panic attack. The nurse rushes into the room, and a doctor comes running, along with another nurse who escorts Lt. Steinberg out of the room.

 

Later that day, Steinberg meets with Father Chiraldi (Armand Assante), a local Catholic priest who'd helped him investigate the events surrounding Alice and the old house the year before. He informs Chiraldi of the murders, and the priest seems shocked and frightened, but not terribly surprised.

 

"When Father Cannon and I examined the house after Roy Chambers was killed, we sensed no presence. Yet soon after, Monsignor McConnell was killed in a similar fashion. I believe that the evil which was in that house was freed when those remains were uncovered in the basement."

 

"The deformed child?"

 

"Not just deformed. Unnatural. Demonic. It was not entirely human. An unclean spirit made incarnate, then sealed within the house when its body died. You encountered it yourself on multiple occasions. What Alice Chambers described as the thing that killed her husband... that, I suspect, is its true form. And that is what killed her children. It is free to roam now. Unshackled."

Whereas most policemen might laugh off such suggestions, Lt. Steinberg hangs on every word. It's true that he had experienced the terrifying phenomena of last year's incidents first-hand. He had been one of the lucky ones - in the span of three weeks, there had been eight deaths and three disappearances tied to the case. In the intervening months, neither he nor anyone else in the department had turned up any sort of explanation for what had happened that seemed to fit better than Chiraldi's. None of the three missing people - Father Joseph Bellini, young Donald Webster, and his great aunt Candace - had been found since. All were last seen at 112 Ocean Avenue, save for Bellini, who had been reported visiting Monsignor McConnell in the hospital just before he was found murdered.

"Do you think it will come for Alice?"

Father Chiraldi sighs. "I cannot say. It had ample opportunity to kill her the night it took her husband. But it could have killed the children then, too. I'm afraid the motives of demons are not always comprehensible."

"I'll tell the hospital to keep a close eye on her. She... reacted badly to the news. Hopefully they'll understand my request on those grounds. Thank you for your time, Father."

Chiraldi speaks up just as Steinberg moves to depart. "One more thing, Lieutenant. That house... is it still under control of the police department?"

"No," Steinberg says. "As soon as the investigation was closed it was no longer formally a crime scene. We can't seize a property because of... this sort of thing," he explains solemnly. "And the town government wants nothing to do with it. The bank still owns it. It's back on the market where it's been for... oh, almost 43 years now."

"I see," the priest responds solemnly.

"I doubt anyone would be crazy enough to buy the thing. It's barely standing. I tried to get it condemned, but everyone in town hall just wants to pretend it isn't there. Besides, if the demon is gone, then what does it matter?"

Chiraldi answers Steinberg with another question. "Are you aware, Lieutenant, of what happened to the last family to live in that house?"

"Of course," Steinberg replies. "The Lutzes. They said all sorts of crazy things happened in there. There was a movie about it. I never believed any of it until last fall. Thought it was some kind of hoax for publicity."

"But did you know that after they moved out, the Lutzes claimed the evil followed them to their new home as well?"

Steinberg shakes his head. "I guess I just stopped paying it any attention after a while."

"I didn't realize it either, until recently. But now I wonder - if whatever tormented them really did leave the house with the Lutzes decades ago, then it couldn't have been the same force that was still trapped there last year. That would mean the house has a history of multiple demons."

"But the bones we found... they'd been there over a century," Steinberg says, a hint of fear creeping into his voice. "And you said there was nothing there after we took them out. It must have been the last one left."

"That I believe," Chiraldi states with a nod. "But if there was a separate power there as well, then it must have found a way in. And we don't know what that was, or if it's still open. A house that's been empty for 40 years makes for a poor hunting ground, Lieutenant. When those boys trespassed, they encountered something that was already trapped there. But this case has brought it renewed attention, as will these murders. And if there is still a connection there to an infernal place... we humans may not be the only ones taking notice."

 

FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2019
A small line of people waits in line at a downtown bookstore in New York City. Seated at a table next to promotional standee is horror author Jay G. Stern (Joel Edgerton), who is doing a book-signing event to celebrate the release of his latest novel, Don't Stay Inside. He is obviously disappointed by the turnout. The small line is finished very quickly, and he can see that copies of his book aren't exactly flying off the shelves. He winds up sitting alone at his table for almost an hour before giving up and leaving early.

Back in his apartment, Jay receives a call from his publisher. It's not good news. Early sales numbers from online sellers are low - dangerously low. Not helping is the recent publication of the first critics' reviews in the press, which are savagely panning the work as a lazy, unoriginal piece of pulpy trash. His publisher is disappointed the Friday the 13th release gimmick hasn't paid off. He'd signed a multi-book publishing contract based on the huge success of his debut novel, but sales have been declining with each successive book, and he has only one more book left in the contract. He's warned his next book will need to be a tremendous hit for the publisher to continue doing business with him.

Jay's big first bestseller had been heavily inspired by a real-life case; a triple homicide in a small New England town with a rumored history of witchcraft back in colonial times. He'd managed to spin that into a fictionalized account of a murderous coven to great commercial success, though many critics had found it in poor taste. His follow-ups had been works of pure fiction, and he'd gradually built up a favorable reputation among critics even as his sales began sliding. But this was the first time he'd struck out totally on both fronts. His publisher suggests he should go back to basics and look for inspiration "ripped from the headlines."

The suggestion reminds him of the recent resurgence of activity at that old house in Amityville, just 30 miles east of Manhattan. There had been books and movies made about the events there in the 70s, and they'd been blockbusters. Why not try something similar with this new round of mysterious phenomena? The publisher likes the sound of it. But just using the setting might not be enough. They need a gimmick, a publicity stunt, something to really get people's attention.

 

"Why don't I visit the house," Jay proposes, "see what all the fuss is about. Do a photo op or two, say it's for some kind of research. That oughta get us some free publicity." The publisher agrees this is a good idea. Jay calls his agent to have him look into the possibility.


MONDAY, JULY 16, 2019
Jay arrives at the De Laurentiis Italian Restaurant in Manhattan for a lunch meeting with his agent, a constantly-anxious middle-aged man from Little Italy, Silvio Damiani (Matt Battaglia). He's got bad news. The house is owned by the bank, which is not interested in further advertising its sordid history. Further, the local media and businesses in Amityville are, in his words, "very firmly" against the idea of a famous horror author doing a publicity stop in town. The plans for a promotional press event, it seems, are up in flames. But there is one possible alternative. The house is still for sale. The bank's been trying to unload it for decades. If he were to express interest in purchasing it, Silvio suggests, perhaps he'd be allowed to tour the property, and sneak in a few photos that way.

"And what if they still don't let me in? It's a rotted-out husk, isn't it? They could say they're keeping me out for my own safety."

"That's a concern, yes," Silvio admits. "But I don't see how else anyone would let you get near the place."

 

Jay pauses, thinking for a moment. "How much do they want for the place," he asks, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"W-well... not much. Practically nothing, actually. Why?"

 

"How much is 'practically nothing?'"

"I think it was listed for... eighty thousand? Something like that. In that neighborhood, just the land should be worth triple that, at least. But nobody wants it."

"Until now," Jay says. Silvio looks equal parts shocked and confused.

"What the hell do you want that dump for? It's unlivable. You'd sink more money into renovating and rebuilding than it costs you to buy. The whole town would hate you. Look, Jay, if you need to move, there's other places I can-"

Jay cuts him off, shaking his head. "I don't want to actually LIVE there. But if I buy the property, they have to let me in. Maybe I slap a fresh coat of paint on it to pretty up the neighborhood, raise the property values, get a few people on my side. Mostly I just tour the place for inspiration or whatever, invite the press along."

"And you're willing to spend eighty thousand dollars of your own money for that?" Silvio is obviously still skeptical.

"That house is a goddamn legend, Silvio. It's a steal. I guarantee you. You saw all the papers a couple years ago. Nothing happened at that house for an eternity and as soon as it did it was all over the news. Every website, every magazine in the country. Just like back in the 70s, but back then there was a book, and it was a bestseller. I looked it up. Ten million copies!"

He stabs the pasta in front of him with his fork as if to emphasize the point. "And this time around there's all this same hysteria in the media, people still talking about it, and there's no book. If I do this and I own the house, and I can claim some sort of insight - it'll send this into the stratosphere!"

"But what will it be about? If you write about those people who died, those kids especially-"

"Of course I won't. Not by name. It's just inspiration." He shrugs, taking a sip of water, his mouth dry from all the excited talking. "Fuck it, if I buy that house, go inside, I can say whatever I want about what's in there and someone will believe it. It hardly matters what the story is. It's all about the house."

Silvio still has concerns, but Jay's mind is firmly made up. He's convinced this scheme is the best way to return himself to the bestseller lists and save his career. So what if it's expensive? In his mind, sitting on his considerable savings from his prior successes isn't enough. If he loses his deal with his publisher, he won't have enough to maintain his lifestyle for very long. But if he spends a good chunk of it now, "invests" it in the house, he's sure he can get an exponential return. Hell, as long as he has the house, he can keep inventing new stories about it and milk the damn thing til it bleeds dry. Reluctantly, Silvio agrees to help get the offer in motion.
 

 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
Though the sale had closed well before, Jay has scheduled his first visit to 112 Ocean Avenue for another Friday the 13th, hoping the date will help boost press coverage. As he pulls his luxury car into the neglected house's driveway, several members of the press are already waiting for him. Also waiting is Lt. Steinberg, his own car parked across the street. The people living on the street are all making a point of staying in their homes, though a few peer out through their windows, glaring at the big-city author as he rolls in.

Lt. Steinberg interrupts Jay's meeting with the gathered press, asking for a word. As cameras flash and reporters take notes, Steinberg informs Jay that, technically, what he's doing may be legal - but that he finds it all in very poor taste. He warns him that the people in this town have had more than enough trouble with the events surrounding the house, and the attention paid to it, and that if the event "gets out of hand" the police force is ready to disperse it for disturbing the peace. Jay sarcastically replies he will make sure to tell everyone to behave themselves - no loud music, no underage drinking. Steinberg is not amused, but, with a final disapproving scowl, retreats back to his car as Jay and the press enter the old house.

The tour of the first floor is largely uneventful, and, to Jay's frustration, the photographers are paying far more attention to the house itself than to him. When the time comes for him to take the tour up to the second floor, several of the reporters are unwilling to climb the rotted-looking old staircase. Though he playfully chides them for being afraid, he does take the opportunity to mention he'll be paying to fix up the place a bit and make the neighborhood "somewhat less imposing."

 

The mood is light until Jay reaches the top step of the first flight of stairs. The old wood gives way beneath his foot, sending his leg crashing down through up to his knee. One of the reporters helps to free him as the others snap photos. Though he tries to play it off, an embarrassed Jay is forced to end the tour early. As the press disperses, he poses for a few shots in front of the house, taken from a low angle to show the building's famous quarter-moon windows looming over him.

Jay sighs while the last of the reporters leave, disappointed at how things went. But as he's walking back to his car, he hears a faint, indecipherable whisper coming from the still-open front door of the house. He walks inside, calling out to see if there's anyone left behind. More whispering down the hall. He follows the sound. It's coming from the open door down to the basement. Open? He does a double take. Was it open before? He can't remember. Especially observant viewers, though, may realize that it was not.

"Hello?" he calls down into the darkness. "The event's over. Everyone's gone." No reply. He leans his head through the doorframe. "I'm not sure if it's safe down there," he says. He hears movement in the basement, but no one speaks. Slowly, nervously, he steps through the doorway. The door slams shut behind him. Cut to black.


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019
The repair and renovation of the infamous death house is in full swing. The sounds of drills and hammers and beeping construction equipment fill the street as the long-neglected old Dutch Colonial finally gets the attention it's needed for decades. It's a total gut-job, most of the structure being gradually replaced room by room and floor-by-floor. The battered old brown siding is being traded out for a bright, inviting white. Every once in a while a curious neighbor or tourist stops nearby to watch for a moment. But really, there's not much to see. No unexplained accidents, no corpses hidden in the walls.

Jay and Silvio are headed to an Amityville restaurant for another lunch meeting when Jay decides to stop by and show his agent the progress being made. While Silvio's impressed at the speed and extent of the job being done, he's still uneasy about how much money is being sunk into the old place - especially given the recent increase in the scope of work.

"Y'know Jay, what ever happened to painting the outside and letting it rot in there? That was a good plan. I liked it."

"I almost lost a leg in there," Jay responds in an amused tone that makes it clear he's exaggerating a bit. "If I'm gonna get any use out of it without being sued into oblivion, it's gotta be safe."

"Use? What use? You got your photos, your headlines. That was the use, wasn't it?"

"Well, this is what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh, lord," Silvio says, sighing and rolling his eyes.

"No, no, hear me out. While I was in there, I felt inspired. It sounds silly, but really. All sorts of ideas just came rushing into my mind. GOOD ideas, Silvio. This started as a crass gimmick, but I think I might really be onto something here. Something about the ambiance of the place. They're the best ideas I've had in years!"

Silvio can see where this is going, and he's not happy about it. "So you mean to tell me you actually want to live here now."

"Well, only while I'm writing."

Silvio opens his mouth to respond but Jay cuts him off.

"This is a good thing, trust me. The book will sell based on the publicity, but if it's trash people won't keep buying it. But if I can actually make something good, something scary - that has staying power. That means more money down the line for you too, you know."

"I know, I know, I just... I'm not sure it's smart to spend so much time there."

"You haven't been in there. I have. I can guarantee you, there's nothing dangerous about the place but the damn stairs." He gestures across the street at the work being done. "And soon that won't be an issue."

The camera slowly zooms up and away from the pair's conversation, across the street to the front of the house, where a new quarter-moon window is being installed into the facade on the third floor.

 

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019
At an Amityville police station, Lt. Steinberg is discussing 112 Ocean Avenue with his boss, Chief Carr (Tony Goldwyn). After a month or so if intense, nearly-round-the-clock work, the renovations are complete, and the results of the state inspection have come back. To Steinberg's disappointment, the house has passed with flying colors. As Carr points out, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it physically. Steinberg had hoped the work would uncover the bodies of Donald and Candace Webster, who'd last been seen in the house almost two years ago, but there had been no such luck.

Steinberg tells Carr what Father Chiraldi said about the possibility of a new demonic infestation taking root in the house - but, while Carr is sympathetic to Steinberg's concern, having also experienced frightening phenomena in that house, he remarks that nothing can be done without evidence that something criminal has actually happened. He says that for now, they can at least hope the trouble at 112 Ocean Avenue is well and truly over.

 

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019

Just past midnight, a pair of high school boys - Alex Sandburg and Kyle Garrett, both 17 - are drinking and driving on the way back from a party. They drive past 112 Ocean Avenue, and Alex dares Kyle to break in. He says he'll only do it if Alex goes with him, and the pair proceed to park their car along the side of the road around the corner of the block - so as to avoid attracting attention - and sneak in.

 

Alex is prepared to try and pick the lock to the house's back door, but, to their surprise, Kyle finds that it's unlocked. The two enter, whispering to one another excitedly. The house is finished - painted, restored, all in very good condition - but empty. Unoccupied, unfurnished. The pair wander around for a while on the ground floor. In a long shot they explore the front hall and the rooms along its side. The camera moves in such a way as to always keep the door to the basement just barely in frame, slightly out of focus. As they enter the first room, the door cracks open silently. A few seconds later a pair of small, glowing, red disembodied eyes flick open, staring at them from the pitch blackness. The unblinking gaze remains fixated on them for the duration of the shot.

 

Finally, Kyle seems to sense they are being watched. With a nervous shiver he turns around, toward the basement door. The eyes snap shut, disappearing into the darkness. But he caught a glimpse of them, only for a split second. Alex didn't see them, but he soon notices his friend's sudden frightened fixation on the door. Teasingly, he walks over and swings it wide open. It's too dark to see anything. 

"Alex, come on, let's go."

"What, you think there's a monster in the basement?"

"No, but-"

With a drunken laugh, Alex pulls out his smartphone and switches on its flashlight. He turns to shine it down the stairs into the basement. There's nothing there. He laughs at his friend's expense, closing the door and putting his phone back away. Having had his fun, he agrees to leave, saying the house is boring now that it's all fixed up. The pair make their way back to the door they came in. As they step outside, they at first fail to notice that the window beside the door is now open, the screen lifted out of the way as if someone had climbed through. It's not until they're outside, shutting the door behind them, that Kyle's attention is drawn to the window by a large black feather floating out through it on a silent breeze.

"Hey," he asks, "was this open when we went in?"

"What, you trying to scare me now?" Alex shakes his head in amusement at what he assumes is Kyle's attempt at a joke.

"No, I just don't remember. We gotta make sure we don't leave a trace."

"Well I didn't touch it."

"But why would it be open?"

Alex shrugs, uninterested, and begins to walk away. But Kyle has convinced himself that it must have been closed. Maybe it was just Alex being a dick again. He must have opened it while his back was turned. Cautiously, Kyle reaches out. Slowly, quietly, he pulls down the window, then the screen. The screen latches into place with an audible click, which slightly startles him. He smirks at his own nervousness.

 

The two sneak back into their car, and Kyle tries to confront Alex about his "prank." But as they pull back onto the road and begin driving away, Alex again denies having touched the window. Alex's eyes aren't on the road as he speeds down the suburban streets, his drunken argument with Kyle taking most of his attention. They are interrupted by the sharp, sudden sound of cracking glass. A large raven has flown right out of the midnight murk and into the windshield. Startled, Alex instinctively swerves to the right. The car smashes into a tree along the side of the street. A thick, heavy, weak branch from the old oak breaks free and crashes down onto the roof of the car, crushing the teens.

About an hour later, Lieutenant Steinberg arrives on the scene of the crash. He's not supposed to be on duty at this hour, and in any case, he's in the homicide department, so the policemen on scene are surprised to see him. He explains he hasn't been sleeping well lately, and claims he got a "strange feeling" when he heard about the accident. The cops say there's nothing strange about it - just a couple of dumb kids who were driving drunk in the middle of the night. It's lucky that no one else was hurt, they say. Steinberg quickly runs out of reasonable questions, but something still doesn't feel right to him. He thanks the officers for their time, but as he gets back in his car, he finds himself taking a detour on the way home.

 

Driving past 112 Ocean Avenue, Steinberg is surprised to see a moving truck in the driveway. He pulls over and approaches the house, and Jay Stern emerges from within. He's moving some of his smaller furniture and possessions into the house. Stern is just as surprised to see Steinberg as the lieutenant is to see him, but Steinberg brushes it off.

"We had a couple drunk teens crash their car nearby," he explains.

"Where?"

"Oh... five or six blocks down the road."

"That doesn't sound very nearby to me," Stern says suspiciously.

"Well... we want to know what they were up to before the accident," Steinberg lies. "I figured, all the publicity around this place recently, two kids up to no good at night might have some bad ideas about it. How long have you been here?"

"Only about twenty minutes. I didn't see any kids."

"No, you wouldn't have... the crash was an hour ago. When you arrived - did you notice anything strange? Any signs of a break-in, something out of place?"

Stern shakes his head and smirks. "Not a thing. Just as empty and locked up as I left it. Forgive me lieutenant, but... I think you might be a bit paranoid about this place. It's awful that those kids died, but-"

 

"I didn't say they were dead," Steinberg interrupts. "How would you know that?"

Startled, Jay begins to stammer, shaking his head. "W-well, I mean, I don't. I guess I assumed they must have, if there's this whole investigation, and if you bothered to come here. Are you accusing me of something?"

Steinberg sighs, collecting himself. No use making himself look like a crazy person and having Stern file a report with Chief Carr. "No, I just - I drove past and saw you were here with your truck. I thought maybe you saw something."

"Well I didn't. Just a big empty house that needs filling. Could I get back to that, if you don't mind?"

"Yeah, just... why are you here doing this in the middle of the night, anyway?"

"You've made it clear you don't want me to draw too much attention to myself," Stern reminds him. "I thought moving what I could in during the night might make you happy. No crowds or spectacles or reporters."

Though he's clearly still confused and suspicious, Steinberg can't think of much else to say. Reluctantly, he lets Stern get back to his work, giving him a card with his phone number and telling him to call if anything strange happens.


MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019
Back at their favorite eatery, the De Laurentiis in Manhattan, Stern and Silvio are having a meeting that also serves as a sort of going-away party. Jay is finally about to move into the house in Amityville permanently for however long it takes him to write his new book. Silvio is still unsure of this plan, but Jay insists that it's for the best. He feels genuinely inspired when he's there, he says. In fact, he's already finished the book's prologue. Silvio asks if he can read it, and Jay says he'd be glad to give him a preview - if he comes over to the house for dinner the following night. They'll be able to celebrate the completion of his move-in over champagne and look over what's been written. Silvio seems uncomfortable with the idea, but he can't explain why. Ultimately, he agrees to the proposal.

 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019
Around 5:30 PM, Silvio arrives at the house and is greeted and let inside by Jay. The house is now fully-furnished, though it still looks and feels a bit sterile, staged, not yet lived-in. Silvio's a bit early, and dinner is not quite ready. Jay offers him a tour of the house, but Silvio refuses politely. He's really just interested in reading what Jay's come up with so far. The author obliges, producing - to his agent's surprise - a small black journal filled with meticulously hand-written cursive script. Jay explains he's taken to writing with a quill and ink, and shows off the quill - made from a large raven's feather. He claims it makes him feel a bit like Edgar Allen Poe.

Jay pours Silvio a glass of champagne as he begins to read the prologue of the new book. Silvio becomes immediately entranced, commenting that it's Jay's best work in years - maybe ever. Jay serves dinner, but Silvio hardly seems to notice. He's transfixed by what he's reading, and finishes all that's been put on paper before he even glances at the food. He declares that, despite his prior doubts, he is now a believer in Jay's strategy.

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019

From his cramped New York City apartment, Silvio is making the final preparations over the phone for a promotional event. Jay, he says to the reporter on the other end of the line, has nearly finished his new book already. According to Silvio, it's "phenomenal" - to the extent that just having read a small portion has given him nightmares all week. The plan is for a private party in the house on Halloween night - the following Thursday. Only a handful of members of the press and literary community are being invited for what he describes as an "intimate" affair. Jay will provide interviews, tour the refurbished house with the guests, and offer a sneak preview of the book - the content of which, until now, has been kept completely secret to everyone but he and Stern. The person on the other end seems to happily agree, and Silvio thanks them for their time.

 

As soon as he hangs up, Silvio's facade breaks. He's exhausted, not just from all the work of putting together this event, but from sleep deprivation. He hadn't been exaggerating about the nightmares. He has a pot of coffee brewing, but with an anxious sigh, he switches the coffee maker off. It is barely twilight, but he has been up since the same time yesterday. It is finally time to try and get some sleep. As he leaves his small kitchenette and heads into the bedroom, astute viewers will notice a shape behind him in the background. It is out of focus and silhouetted against the soft, reddish evening glow from his bedroom window, but it is huge and black, vaguely humanoid in form, with the blurry, jagged shapes along its sides suggesting ruffled feathers.

 

Silvio enters his tiny bathroom and brushes his teeth, a nightly routine interrupted by the sound of the bathroom door creaking behind him, swaying gently as if in a light breeze despite the stillness of the air. The man pauses, his breath frozen in his chest. He does not dare to look behind the door. He spits out his toothpaste and rinses off his brush, leaning down over the sink and exposing the mirror on his medicine cabinet to the audience. Nothing there.

 

Silvio slowly, nervously turns and exits the bathroom, but can find nothing amiss. The silhouette in the window is gone, and Silvio enters his bedroom and closes the window shade. As the room quickly darkens, a pair of glowing red eyes seems to materialize in the corner. There is the faint sound of a raven's cry, almost inaudible. Silvio is not even sure he's heard it. He hesitates, unwilling to look for the source of the sound.

 

Another caw, louder this time, from the same spot. It can no longer be ignored. Silvio turns his head, and his eyes lock with the luminous crimson orbs. His mouth falls open silently. He backs away slowly, unsteadily. The eyes follow, gliding through the shadows, coasting on the frozen air. The milliseconds pass painfully as the distance between the two closes. Against a faint splash of light from the display on Silvio's alarm clock, the outline of a raven's beak becomes visible beneath the fiery eyes. It splits open, as if to cry out once more -

 

BANG!

 

In the hallway of the apartment building where Silvio lives, the body of a middle-aged woman collapses to the floor, blood gushing out of the bullet hole in her neck and staining the dirty old carpet. Screams echo through the corridors as the camera pans up to reveal Silvio holding a handgun, aimed at the space where the woman stood a split second earlier. As if waking from a nightmare, he gasps and recoils, his eyes rapidly darting around the hall. How did he get here? Where was his bedroom? Where was that - that thing that had been staring into his soul? He notices the gun in his hand and drops it to the floor. Panicked, he turns the other way. Behind him are two more corpses bleeding out on the floor. Shot to death. With his gun. By his hand.

 

The sirens of cops cars draw near. Silvio runs to the end of the hall, to a grimy old window overlooking the street. The officers slam their brakes and come to a sudden stop in front of the apartment building. Silvio doesn't know what's happened, doesn't know what to do. He watches the cops run toward the entrance to the building a few floors below, the sounds of screams and the heavy, running footsteps of the policemen growing louder and drowning out his scattered thoughts until abruptly, all at once, they fall silent. For a second there is a total calm, an unnatural absence of sound.

 

CAW!

 

Silvio's body sails through the old window, shattering the cloudy glass and the brittle wooden frame. He lands headfirst on the sidewalk below, cracking open his skull and breaking his neck. As his body twitches and spasms, a small raven, feathers dark as sin, flies into frame and perches on top of his smashed head.

 

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019

Word of the murders and apparent suicide committed by Silvio in New York City have reached Steinberg. Obviously, it's well out of his jurisdiction. He's only interested at all because the news is playing up the fact he was Jay G. Stern's agent, and had recently been the first person to read a section of his new book. This has only generated more publicity for the book and the Halloween night press party inside the house on Ocean Avenue.

 

Steinberg meets with Chief Carr in the morning, trying to convince him to stop the party from happening. But it is a private function on private property, and while Carr is sympathetic to Steinberg's concerns - even willing to believe something supernatural is going on, given his prior experiences in the house - he says there is nothing that can be done. There's no way to prove the killings were the fault of some demonic influence, and the house itself is not a crime scene. If the party is to be stopped, Carr points out, it's not him who needs to be convinced - it's Jay G. Stern.

 

Before heading off to the house on Ocean Avenue to meet with Stern, Lieutenant Steinberg places a call to Father Chiraldi. The priest is aware of the news out of New York and has been following the story. At Steinberg's request, Chiraldi agrees to look into the matter unofficially. Father Cannon, who assisted in the investigation into the house two years earlier, is away on a visit to the Vatican. But Chiraldi says this offers him more flexibility, as Cannon was always more a stickler for strict adherence to rules and protocol and church hierarchy. Steinberg suggests Chiraldi try to find some of the people who worked on the restoration of the house, to see if they've had any strange experiences since.

 

Steinberg arrives at 112 Ocean Avenue just before noon. He hesitates as he approaches the front door, but is surprised when Stern opens it from inside.

"Good morning, lieutenant," the author says. He has bags under his eyes. He clearly hasn't gotten much sleep lately. "To what do I owe the visit?"

"You're surprisingly cheery considering what happened last night," Steinberg points out, standing in place several yards away from the door.

 

"Ah," Stern replies, his expression turning dour. "Silvio. I never would have guessed he was capable of something like that. The police from the city have called me about it, asked a few questions. Not nearly as many as the reporters. Normally I like publicity, but..." he trails off unnaturally. There's an insincerity to his words, an apparent lack of concern.

 

"If you need to discuss it with me, lieutenant, you're welcome to come inside."

Steinberg quickly, urgently shakes his head no. "We're not investigating the murders," he notes. "I just came by to see if I could convince you to call off your plans for Halloween night. Considering what's happened, I'm worried it... well, it might spiral out of control. You said yourself the reporters have been hounding you."

"All of the people that Silvio and I invited are people I know personally," Stern replies. "I can trust them completely. There won't be an issue."

"You just told me you never thought Silvio could do something like this. You knew him well, didn't you?"

Stern hesitates, sighing. "You may have a point, lieutenant."

"So, respectfully, Mr. Stern, I think it might be better if you-"

"I can't cancel the party," Stern interrupts. "It's too important to my publisher. And I've been working too hard on this book to just drop it. But, given what's happened... maybe everyone might feel a bit better about it if there were someone there to provide a sense of security. Would you like to attend, lieutenant?"

The already-tense Steinberg freezes like a deer in the headlights. No, he would not like to attend. However nice it may look now, he never wants to go into that house again. But if he says no, he'll have no control over what happens. He can't stop the event from happening, but if he's there... he's just proud enough to hope he might be able to avert disaster, to protect people. And isn't that his responsibility?

 

"I'll think about it," Steinberg responds.

 

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2019

After morning mass, Father Chiraldi heads to the modest Amityville home of one Jason Freeman (Stephan James), one of the men who worked construction on the restoration of 112 Ocean Avenue. Though not a part of Chiraldi's parish, Jason is a friend of someone from the church choir, who has been rather worried about him lately. When Jason comes to the door, he seems at once relieved and apprehensive to see the priest.

 

"Mr. Freeman? Father Chiraldi. We spoke on the phone."

"O-of course, Father," Jason replies. "Come in, if you like..."

The two sit down in Jason's living room. Jason offers the priest a cup of coffee, which he politely refuses. Chiraldi becomes visibly uncomfortable after just a few moments inside the house. There is an unholy energy here.

"I never believed any of the things they said about that place," Jason confides in Chiraldi. "The only thing that scared me about working there was the mold. But ever since that job, I..."

"Since the job? You didn't feel or experience anything inside the house?"

"Not that I noticed. It was good work, paid well. But I've been having these nightmares, and I feel-"

Jason's explanation is interrupted by a sudden coughing fit. He tries to suppress it with a swig of his own cup of coffee.

"Are you all right?" Chiraldi asks, concerned, even though he can easily sense that this man is far from okay.

 

"I just," Jason continues after recomposing himself, "I've been feeling kind of sick. And anxious, and the nightmares..."

"What sort of nightmares?"

"Birds," he replies. "Big, black birds, with glowing red eyes. Following me around. Into my house. Just... staring at me."

He pauses to cough again. The fit lasts a bit longer this time. He spills a bit of his coffee trying to clear it.

 

"They're not just birds, are they, Father?"

"I'm afraid they're not just nightmares either, Mr. Freeman."

 

Another fit leaves Jason wheezing, gasping for air. Chiraldi tries to help, but Jason pulls away, choking out words of protest. "It - it's angry. Worse. You - you shouldn't be here-"

"Please," Chiraldi pleads, "Come with me to the church. We can-"

 

"GET OUT," Jason screams. He glares at the priest with a burning anger, his muscles tensing, eyes bloodshot. Chiraldi obliges, walking slowly back to the front door.

 

"Please, Jason - when you can, I think you should give me a call. I think I can help you."

"You couldn't help Vito and Carolyn," Jason replies. "The serpent took them down to Hell."

Vito and Carolyn Messato, a parapsychologist and his spirit medium wife. Friends of Chiraldi's. They had been involved in the investigation into 112 Ocean Avenue two years earlier. Both had died soon after visiting the house.

 

"How do you know them?" Chiraldi asks, trying to keep up a brave face.

 

"It showed me last night. In my dream, after you called. Her skin peeling off. The blade slicing into his throat. It told me you gave them to the serpent. And now the serpent is free."

"Vito and Carolyn were faithful. They are with the Lord in hea-"

"Not after what they saw in that house, Father. You sent them there and you broke their faith, and now they burn. You can't help me. The serpent is free and the bird will be free."

"We can still-"

"GET! OUT!"

Jason hurls his mug across the room, missing Chiraldi's head by inches. It shatters against the wall, the hot brown liquid staining the white paint, streaking down to the floor. Wordlessly, Chiraldi exits out the front door. As the priest leaves, Jason's coughing returns, worsening. He stumbles into the kitchen, turning on the faucet, reaching into the cabinet for a glass. He wheezes and shakes, dropping the glass onto the hard, tiled floor where it breaks into a thousand jagged pieces. As Jason leans over in pain, his endless coughing finally forces something out of his throat. A raven's feather falls out of his mouth, floating gently to the floor.

 

CAW!

 

The bird's call echoes inside his head. He grabs his temples and hunches over, the sound burrowing into his brain. Out the window, we see Chiraldi's car speeding out of the driveway.

 

CAW!

 

Jason screams, a trail of blood running down from his left eye like a crimson teardrop. The pupil dilates, his vision blurring.

 

CAW!

 

Jason's left eye pops out of its socket, blood gushing from the open wound. Slowly, the fleshy orb slides off of the dark, curved thing that has impaled it from within - a raven's pointed beak. As the ruined eye splats down onto the tiles, the beak withdraws back into Jason's skull. The sound of flapping wings is deafening. The man shrieks and slams himself against the kitchen counter. He shakes his head vigorously as if trying to force the raven out, sprinkling drops of his blood all over the room. When it is all too much to bear, he pulls a chef's knife from the block of cutlery on his counter.

 

CAW!

 

Jason slams the knife into his empty eye socket. With one final convulsion, he collapses to the ground as the blade pierces his brain. His dead body lands on top of his own eyeball, squishing it.

 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019

In the police station, Chief Carr is interviewing Father Chiraldi - the last person to see Jason Freeman alive. A neighbor had found his mutilated body shortly after Chiraldi's visit. While his death appeared to be a suicide, the police need the details of the encounter between him and the priest - especially given the shattered coffee mug in the living room suggesting some sort of altercation.

 

Steinberg watches the interrogation from behind a two-way mirror. Carr is professional and calm, and carefully avoids directly mentioning anything supernatural - though of course, the reason for Chiraldi's visit comes to light rather quickly, along with the fact Steinberg had been tangentially involved. Still, the priest is cooperative and likewise avoids saying anything too outlandish during the recorded interview, explaining only that Jason had quickly become agitated at his presence, detailing his claims of nightmares and his persistent cough, and how he was forced to leave after Jason threw the mug at him.

 

After Father Chiraldi is released, he and Steinberg return to Steinberg's house for a private, off-the-record discussion. Here Chiraldi is more candid, explaining how Jason knew about the Messatos, and the powerful sense of a demonic presence he felt within Jason's house.

 

"Do you think he was possessed? Like Silvio Damiani when he killed those people?"

 

"I believe Mr. Damiani may have been possessed, but I never met him, so I cannot say for certain. Mr. Freeman, on the other hand..." Father Chiraldi shakes his head. "He was angry, and panicked. But he was still human. The man I spoke to was under tremendous pressure from an unclean spirit, but he was in control of his own body. If he did kill himself, it was because he could not handle the torment."

 

"If he did?"

 

"Demons are masters of deception," Chiraldi notes. "It is possible he was attacked. In either case, that evil entity was responsible for his death. When I entered that house, it reacted violently." Chiraldi shakes his head mournfully and sighs. "I apologize if any of this still sounds unbelievable to you, lieutenant."

 

"Not at all," Steinberg responds. "I've seen it for myself. Felt it. There's only one thing that doesn't make sense to me," he says. "The reports say Silvio Damiani only went into the house once, for dinner with Stern a few days before the murders. He was there for a couple of hours. Jason Freeman was there almost every day for weeks. Why is it Silvio was possessed, but not Jason?"

Chiraldi considers the question solemnly for a moment before responding. "Possession is an act of demonic will. It is not like a germ, an illness you catch simply from exposure. The evil spirit must choose to possess you. For whatever reason, it seems the demon found Mr. Damiani a more tempting vessel. If, that is, he was possessed."

 

"Well how else do you explain what he did?"

"Demons have other ways of spreading their influence," Chiraldi explains. "Most can only inhabit one body at a time. In order to exert their will over others, they may resort to more indirect methods. Do you remember how, two years ago, many of the victims never set foot in the house on Ocean Avenue? They were cursed by the items those young boys stole from inside. In that case, the curse was fatal. But it is possible that a dominating influence could be spread in a similar fashion."

 

Steinberg's heart skips a beat. "The book."

"What?" Chiraldi asks.

 

"The book that Stern is writing. Damiani read it. Part of it, anyway. He's the only one we know has seen it except for Stern."

 

"That could be it," Chiraldi confirms. "Words have great power. If Stern is under the influence of a demon - possessed, even - this book he's writing could be a way to invoke the demon. An unholy prayer."

 

"He's going to have it published," Steinberg says with a panicked sense of realization. "He's hosting a party in the house on Halloween night with reporters and book critics. This whole thing has been about publicity, and it's working. Millions of people are waiting to read this goddamn book!"

"We cannot allow that to happen," Chiraldi warns. "We need to find a way to-"

"He invited me," Steinberg points out. "He invited me to the party. It's the only way in. We'll never get a warrant based on this. They'll laugh us out of the court. But he invited me in."

"Then it is a trap."

"I know that! But what the hell else are we supposed to do!? Wait until the fucking thing's on the bestseller list?"

Chiraldi is stunned into silence. After a moment of collecting himself, Steinberg bows his head low and apologizes.

 

"Forgive me father. I-"

 

"No. You're right. You have to go. Find the book and destroy it."

 

"And Stern? Father, I'm not an exorcist, I can't-"

 

"We'll find a way to deal with him later. But no one else can be allowed to read what this demon has made him write."

 

Steinberg remains silent, the gravity of the situation sinking in. Every part of him instinctively wants, demands, to stay as far from that house as possible. But he can't know what's going on and just allow it to happen.

 

"You must understand the great risk you are taking, lieutenant," Chiraldi continues. "We only have a few days to prepare. I will do all I can, but I cannot guarantee your safety."

 

"Chief Carr's seen this sort of thing too," Steinberg finally replies. "He's been in there with me. I'll talk to him. Have him monitor the situation from outside. If things go south, he can come in. Bring the rest of the force."

 

"I hope so," Chiraldi says, visibly unconvinced. "But... do you remember what made that house infamous to begin with?"

"The DeFeo murders," Steinberg replies matter-of-factly. "November 1974. Kid killed his family in that house."

Chiraldi nods. "Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot six people dead with a rifle at 3:15 AM on a calm, clear night, on a suburban street. He didn't use a silencer. The victims weren't drugged. Yet none of the neighbors heard the shots, and none of the victims fled the house. Their bodies weren't found until 6:30 that evening."

 

"...you mean Carr won't know anything is wrong."

"I cannot be sure," Father Chiraldi acknowledges. "The family that lived in the house after the DeFeos claimed that particular demon left Amityville with them. This is a different force we are dealing with. But it would not be without precedent. I could not allow you to walk into this situation without knowing the risks."

 

"And I can't let myself ignore this chance," Steinberg confirms.


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019
It is 6:00 PM on Halloween night in Amityville. The sun has only just set, and the first of the trick-or-treaters are scampering up and down the dark streets with their parents, going from house to decorated house in search of candy. Though a few children glance over to the house on 112 Ocean Avenue, its windows faintly aglow, the quarter-moon "eyes" on its third floor glaring down at the street below, they are directed away by the adults. The house's garage and driveway are filled with the cars of Jay Stern's guests. A block down the street, Chief Carr sits in an unmarked police vehicle, keeping a watchful eye on the house. Lieutenant Steinberg and the others have just gone inside.

 

The front door closes shut behind Steinberg and the other guests with an unusually loud bang. Jay G. Stern descends down the central stairwell in the front hall with a mischievous glint in his eye. He is dressed casually in a black sweater and black jeans. His guests are similarly dressed-down, per his instructions; Steinberg's sporting jeans, a dark t-shirt, and a long leather jacket. At Stern's bidding the group convenes in the living room, sitting around the fireplace for introductions. Aside from Stern and Steinberg, also present are Margot Ryan (Shannyn Sossamon), a newspaper reporter from the city, Diane Montelli (Amy Jo Johnson), a literary critic, Tony Young (Henry Thomas), a writer for a national horror magazine, and Tess Baxter (Katee Sackhoff), the co-host of a regional morning show. Generic pleasantries are exchanged in front of the warm, glowing fire, but it's clear all the guests are anxiously awaiting the main event.

 

Stern serves all the guests wine - except for Steinberg, who politely insists on a glass of water instead. Before getting down to business, Stern leads the group in a toast.

"I'd like to take a moment to remember my agent, Silvio Damiani," he says, the mention of the name making most of the guests obviously uncomfortable. "I've known him since before I published my first book. We're all well aware of the... unfortunate circumstances of his passing. I can't claim to know what could have driven him to do such a thing, and, of course, my sympathies lie with the loved ones of the three people he killed."

"But I choose to remember the Silvio I knew before that. He worked tirelessly to help me realize my ambitions. When I told him my crazy plan to buy this place, well, it took him a while to come around. But after I showed him what I was working on, he was a believer. I like to think that, in some way, the success of this book could redeem him. So, for Silvio's sake, I promise that what happens here tonight will be the biggest story in the country tomorrow. We can make that happen, can't we?"

The other guests clink their glasses and politely nod and clap. They may be somewhat uncomfortable, but only Steinberg senses the threat in Stern's words. There is a bit more idle chatter, though Steinberg doesn't engage in it. No matter. The others don't seem terribly interested in the opinions of a small-town cop anyhow. Finally, Diane asks the million-dollar question.

 

"So when do we get to see this new book?"

 

The others concur, mumbling and nodding. With a delighted, unsettling smile, Stern relents. "All right, all right. I suppose we can skip ahead a bit. The night is young. There will be plenty of time for festivities afterwards. If you would all follow me, please."

Stern leads the group back into the front hall and up the stairwell. Along the way, Steinberg glances around the building, going over the floorplan in his head, memorizing the locations of the exits. There are only two doors on the ground floor leading to the outside, but plenty of windows. His hand slides down into his left pants pocket, and he glances down as he pulls out a small crucifix and a vial of holy water. The best Chiraldi could do on such short notice. He recites the words to that prayer the priest had taught him in his head, his lips forming them silently as he ascends the stairs. They're in Latin, hard to remember, but if he thinks of them like a song he can just about-

 

Before he knows it, he and the others have arrived on the third floor. The door to the room facing the street hangs open, and Stern beckons them inside. Once a bedroom, the room is now an office where Stern does his writing. Against the far wall, between the quarter-moon windows, sits his writing desk. The little black journal is on top of it, the raven-feather quill in an inkwell to the side. The entire room is cast in an eerie glow by at least a dozen candles arranged around the perimeter on shelves and the floor.

 

"It's finished," Stern declares proudly as he walks over to the desk. "As of this morning. I'd say it's the quickest I've ever written a book, but to be honest, I'm not sure. I lost track of time completely. I was so focused, I'd spend entire days and nights at this desk writing. I'd look up and wonder where the sun or the moon went."

"So are we taking turns with it, or...?" Tony Young asks curiously.

 

Stern smiled and shook his head. "That's hardly fair. Besides, I'm not sure you'd all be able to read my chicken scratch. Get comfortable, everyone," he says, picking up the book and opening to the front page. "It's story time."

 

"Shit," Steinberg mutters to himself. He can't let Stern read a word of that book out loud. Swiftly and smoothly, he reaches down under his jacket and pulls out a concealed pistol, aiming it at Stern. "Drop it!"

In an instant there's a flurry of activity. Tess Baxter shrieks. Diane and Margot back away slowly. But Stern just smiles as Tony Young tackles Steinberg to the ground, wrestling for control of the firearm.

"That wasn't very smart, lieutenant," Stern says, calmly placing the book back on the desk. "You've made my friend angry."

Before anyone can fully process what's going on, all of the candles in the room blow out at once. The room is consumed by pitch black darkness. Margot pulls out her phone and turns on the flashlight, aiming it at the spot where Jay was standing. He is gone. Diane and Tess quickly follow suit, shining their beams on the two men on the floor. Steinberg escapes Tony's grip and yanks his gun away, standing up and scanning the room for Stern as he reaches down to help Tony to his feet.

"What the fuck was that!?" exclaims a terrified Tess.

"Calm down," Steinberg orders. "This party was a trap. Stern is-"

Before Steinberg can find a reasonable-sounding explanation to blurt out, he's interrupted by a deafening sound from inside the room. A raven's cry.

"Oh my god," Diane whispers. "Who is that?"

 

A pair of glowing red eyes are watching the guests from the corner of the room, low to the floor. Staring. Unblinking. Tess begins to turn her flashlight's beam in their direction. "Don't," Diane pleads too late.

 

CAW!

 

The beam illuminates the figure, a black, contorted man-bird-thing, hunched down in the corner of the room. It is visible for only a split second as it leaps to its feet and rushes toward the group. Steinberg fires a shot, missing. A chorus of screams erupts all at once, the panicked guests fleeing the room. Steinberg helps the women out, calling to Tony - but Tony stumbles, disappearing into the darkness. The sound of ripping flesh and snapping bones is enough to drive Steinberg back out into the hall.

 

As the guests rush down the stairwell, dimly-illuminated by candles still lit in the halls and other rooms of the house, they are chased downward by the sound of something heavy slamming against the steps above them. As they reach the bottom of the stairwell and run into the front hall, Steinberg turns around to see Tony's severed head rolling down the steps, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

 

Tess tries to yank the front door open, but it's jammed. She fiddles with the lock, but no matter which way she turns it, the door refuses to open. Margot flicks the light switches on and off, but they won't work. Steinberg pulls a two-way radio out of his jacket pocket, calling for Chief Carr. There's no reply, only static. Diane's attempts to dial 911 on her phone meet with similar failure. Margot calls out to the others as she runs into the next room, the dining room, heading for the back door. Steinberg follows after her. As she turns the corner toward the kitchen, Jay Stern leaps into view, blocking the doorway. He's wielding a large, heavy wood-cutting axe. Before Margot can react, Jay slams the blade down on the top of her skull, splitting her head in two.

 

As Margot's lifeless body crumples down onto the floor, Steinberg pulls the crucifix from his pocket, holding it out toward the possessed author, aiming his gun with his other hand. Jay - or the thing using Jay's body - just shakes his head and laughs. "Go ahead," he says. "I don't need him. I live in the words now."

With a rapid, jerky motion, he pulls the axe out of Margot's head, raising it back up as he lunges forward toward the lieutenant. Steinberg fires off two shots in rapid succession. The first misses, but the second connects. Right between the eyes. Jay's corpse collapses on top of Margot's, the axe head burying itself in the wooden floor.

 

Meanwhile, Diane and Tess have run around the house in the other direction, cutting through the living room to reach the back door. The sound of their useless pounding on the jammed exit alerts Steinberg to their location, and he rushes over to them. Diane tries to yell some question at him, but he ignores her, shooting out the glass of the window next to the door. As the windowpane shatters and Steinberg gazes out, he suddenly realizes that he cannot see anything outside of the house. No neighboring houses, no streetlamps or trick-or-treaters. Just an inky, pure, infinite blackness. Diane and Tess rush over to his side and gaze out into the abyss.

 

One by one, sets of luminous red eyes snap open, staring back at the trapped party guests. Soon there are dozens, then hundreds - not just in this window, but peering in through every window all around the house. Surrounding it. The unblinking eyes glare into the house silently, unmoving, seemingly hovering in the impenetrable darkness.

 

"Oh my god," Tess chokes out in a strained, terrified whisper.

 

CAW!

 

With a piercing cry, one pair of eyes zooms toward the broken window, flying at Steinberg with incredible speed. As the raven shoots through the window, the lieutenant clubs it out of the air with the butt of his gun. The bird shrieks, a chillingly human wail of pain erupting from its beak as it collides with the floor. Steinberg stomps on its head, killing it. When he looks back up, only one pair of eyes remains in the void. They are directly in front of Steinberg, yet far off in the distance. Their gaze is locked on to his own. We see from his point of view, and then the raven's, leering in past the jagged shards of glass. Steinberg raises his pistol, taking aim directly at the eyes - at the camera, the audience. He slides his finger over the trigger.

 

CAW!

From below the bottom of the window frame, inside the house, beneath Steinberg, the raven-thing leaps into view. The lieutenant fires his weapon, with no apparent effect. Tess and Diane flee back into the living room as the beast raises up a leg, its huge, obsidian talons slashing into Steinberg's torso. The lieutenant screams and drops his gun, reaching down into his pocket for the vial of holy water as he thrusts the crucifix forward with his other hand. The monster's attack becomes more desperate and frenzied. Steinberg's fingers slip, dropping the vial as he slides it out of his pocket. It crashes to the floor and shatters, water spilling out. With a sharp cry, the raven-thing disappears.

 

Steinberg nearly falls down, his feet slipping on the wet floor as he glances down at the deep wounds on his chest and stomach. He stumbles out into the living room. Tess is sitting in front of the fireplace, curled up almost into a ball, rocking back and forth in shock as she stares into the flickering flames. Diane has grabbed a sharp metal fire iron to use as a weapon, and instinctively raises it toward Steinberg as he enters the room. He raises a hand to halt her, choking out a plea.

 

"We have to find the book," he says.

 

"What the FUCK is going on!?" Diane demands.

 

"Jay's dead," the lieutenant replies. "The demon - it lives in the book... we need to-"

 

Tess screams as the cacophony of beating wings echoes out from the fireplace. A flock of ravens shoots down the chimney, flying through the flames and into the living room. The demonic birds swarm around Tess, talons digging into her skin, ripping her clothes to shreds. The flames burning away their feathers spread to their victim, and as Tess tries to struggle to her feet, batting away at the ravens pecking hungrily at her eyes, she is overcome by the smoke and fire. Steinberg drags a mortified Diane out of the room as Tess drops down dead, the ravens feasting on her boiling flesh even as they themselves burn down to the skeletons.

 

Back in his car a block down the road from 112 Ocean Avenue, Chief Carr cannot see or hear anything amiss. But he hasn't heard from Steinberg in some time, and the lieutenant isn't answering his radio. After a final attempt to make contact, the concerned chief of police exits his vehicle and marches over to the infamous horror house.

 

Lieutenant Steinberg and Diane rush up the stairwell, nearly tripping over the steps on several occasions. "Where are we going?" Diane demands.

 

"The office," Steinberg responds with a pained grunt. "He left the book on his desk. We need to destroy it!"

Diane isn't sure if that makes sense, but nothing makes much sense right now anyway. She follows the lieutenant back up to the third floor. As they step off of the stairwell onto the final landing, the raven-thing smashes through the wooden door to the other room, the one overlooking the backyard. It wraps Diane in its huge, ragged wings, pinning her to the floor. Steinberg whirls back around at the sound, readying his crucifix.

 

Outside, Carr arrives at the front door, knocking loudly and quickly. "Police, open up," he shouts. No response. He peers in through the window next to the front door, seeing nothing odd. Just the soft glow of candlelight. He can't see anyone inside, so he opens the unlocked door and lets himself in.

 

Holding the holy artifact out towards the creature, Steinberg struggles to recite the Latin words Chiraldi had taught him. But he fumbles over his speech, unable to remember the pronunciation, the order of the phrases. The demon stares at him with its glowing red eyes, almost mockingly, before rearing back its head and then slamming the tip of its beak down into Diane's chest, impaling her through the heart. The terrified Steinberg mutters an apology as he turns and runs into the office, the thing pulling its bloody beak back out of the woman's corpse.

 

Carr glances around the front hall and peeks into the adjacent rooms. No sign of trouble. No sign of anyone. Everything is silent and calm. He calls out Steinberg's name as he steps onto the stairwell, heading up.

 

Steinberg rushes over to the desk, stumbling through the dark, snatching the small black journal. He can hear the demon entering the office behind him. Frantically he flings the book open, ripping out the pages and tearing them to pieces. The raven-thing approaches slowly, steadily, its talons scraping loudly against the hardwood floor, red eyes bobbing up and down with each step, drawing nearer and nearer to the lieutenant.

 

He's nearly through the book when the creature strikes, jabbing its beak into his back. Steinberg screams, blindly clawing at the pages, desperate to finish his work. The thing sinks its blood-soaked beak into his back over and over, a new spot each time, yanking his innards out of his body. As the lieutenant's entrails spill onto the floor, he tears the last page of the book in two. Coughing up blood, he collapses onto the desk, dead. With a demonic wail, the creature retreats, disappearing into the darkness.

 

As Chief Carr reaches the top floor, he finds Diane Montelli's dead body waiting for him. "Oh Jesus," he says, reaching for his radio. He calls for backup, receiving a swift response. The transmission is flawless. Drawing his weapon, he proceeds through the open door into the office. He switches on the lights, revealing the horrific tableau. In one corner of the room is Tony Young's headless body, slumped against the wall. And draped over the desk is the lifeless corpse of Lieutenant Steinberg, his intestines unspooled on the floor behind him. Carr unsteadily approaches his friend's body. Coated in blood, underneath the lieutenant's head, is the destroyed book. Bits and pieces of torn paper litter the desk. His task is complete.

 

The sound of approaching sirens lures Chief Carr back downstairs. As he descends the stairwell, he notices a trail of blood he had not seen on the way up. At the bottom he finds Tony's head. The smell of burning flesh overwhelms him, and a glance around the ground floor now reveals the remains of Tess, Margot, and Jay. As his backup rushes into the house, he has no idea what to tell them.

 

Cut to a Halloween party later that night, in the New York City office of a publishing company. The head of the company has had a bit too much to drink, and is bidding his employees an early goodnight. As he stumbles out of the building onto the street, waiting for the taxi he's called, he pulls out his smartphone to check his e-mail. He has one new message marked urgent.

 

The sender: Jay G. Stern.
The subject line: Novel Transcription - Final.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by Xillix

[Xillix]

Carnosaur

Release Date: March 27th, Y4

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror

Director: Steven Quale

Theater Count: 2,860

Premium Format: 3D
Shooting Format: Digital 3.4K (Arri Alexa SXT Plus) (In native 3D)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Image Release Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP
Audio Release Formats: 5.1, 7.1
Production Budget: $40 million

MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence, blood and gore, language, and sexual content

Running Time: 93 minutes

Major Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (David Pascal), Richard Armitage (Darren Penward), Rachel Weisz (Suzanne Penward), Zooey Deschanel (Jenny Stamper)
 

Plot Summary: Based on the 1984 novel of the same name by John Brosnan (writing under the pen name Harry Adam Knight).

 

Spoiler

 

Freelance reporter David Pascal (Jake Gyllenhaal) hasn't been doing well lately. The Cheyenne-based newspaper that had been his most frequent employer had recently shut down, forcing him to write for online content aggregators to scrape by. The work is underpaid and mindless, and he's close to convincing himself to pack up and move out of Wyoming, where he'd lived his entire life, to try and find work in New York or LA. Not that he can really afford to. His girlfriend Jenny Stamper (Zooey Deschanel), also a reporter who'd frequently written for the same paper, had beat him out for a staff writer job at a magazine, and the conflict and tension created by that situation had resulted in a messy breakup.

 

David is searching for a story that will sell when he comes across scattered reports of animal attacks in the nearby countryside on social media. Slaughtered livestock, missing or killed pets, that sort of thing. The locations of the reports all seem to come from the general area around the High Plains estate of one Darren Penward. Penward, a rich but secretive and eccentric member of a fabulously wealthy old British family, had immigrated to Wyoming and established his estate there a few years earlier. There had been much gossip and speculation at the time - some of it written by David and Jenny themselves - about what exactly had prompted the move. The other Penwards back in England had refused to make any official statements and denied the family had "exiled" him, though none seemed especially sad to see him and his wife, the "lower-class" Suzanne, go.

 

It is well-known that, among his other eccentricities, Darren Penward maintains a large private zoo on his estate. Though no members of the public or media have been allowed inside, speculation as to what exactly he keeps there has run rampant. People discussing the animal attacks online are already speculating that it could be the work of some escaped exotic beast - a lion, perhaps, or a Siberian tiger. No one, it seems, has actually sighted the creature in question. David decides this sort of thing is worth looking into - if nothing else, he could easily sensationalize the reports and sell the story to some sort of clickbait site.

At a chicken farm about twenty-five miles southwest of Penward's estate, an old farmer hears some sort of predator in one of the chicken pens. He grabs his shotgun and goes to confront the animal. He finds his entire flock slaughtered and partially-eaten, bloody feathers still floating in the air. He is startled by the sound of movement behind him. He turns, taking a shot. Then another. We see from the creature's point of view as it runs up to the farmer with incredible speed, leaping onto him and pinning him to the ground. The farmer's wife hears his screams and runs out of their small house. Shrieking in terror, she attracts the attention of the creature. Once again we see from its point of view as it climbs off of the bloody, mangled corpse of the farmer and races towards the woman, the scene cutting away as it leaps at her.

The next morning both David and Jenny arrive at the scene around the same time. Jenny tries to talk to David, to compare notes, but he refuses to cooperate thinking she will simply steal "his" story. In any case, there isn't much to see. The bodies have been bagged up and are being taken away, and the slaughtered chickens - while a grisly sight - don't seem to provide any obvious clues as to what exactly killed them. There are no handy claws or clumps of fur, no distinct footprints in the dry, grass-covered land. Some of the feathers mixed in with the chickens' seem different - bigger, darker - but the police reason they could belong to scavenger birds feeding on the dead livestock after the attack. The police on-scene have few other details. There are no surviving witnesses - and why would there be, when this was the only house for miles?  David and Jenny depart having learned very little.

That night, David is listening to his long-range police radio scanner when he hears an officer being called to a possible dangerous animal attack at a ranch relatively close by. He rushes out on his own to the scene of the attack. We see the attack in progress - a family of three, a man, a woman, and their eight-year-old son are hiding in an empty compartment in their horse stable, the mother having called for help on her satellite phone. The creature - which we catch only the briefest, darkest glimpses of - is rampaging through the building, slaughtering the horses. The equines are panicking, ramming into the gates of their compartments, trying to jump over the walls.

Suddenly the creature jumps onto the dividing wall between the compartment where the family is hiding and the one next to them. In the beam of the father's flashlight we get our first real, if fleeting, looks at it. It's a small, agile creature, covered in feathers, with a pair of small winglike arms. It stands on two legs, which end in three-clawed talons, the largest claw on each curved like a scythe. It has a long, stiff tail for balance, and its head is long and reptilian, with a scaly snout and a set of huge, blood-coated, razor-sharp teeth. Head to toe it stands, at most, four feet tall.

 

The raptor spots the people cowering beneath it, and jumps down into the compartment. The parents push their son away, toward the gate, and he manages to escape. The mother and father aren't so lucky. The ancient predator tears into them viciously, slicing open their torsos and feasting on their innards as the traumatized boy runs into the farmhouse.

 

By the time David arrives, someone else is already there - but not the police. It's an obviously well-funded private taskforce of some kind. They're sweeping the stables, covering up evidence, from the look of it - he spots and photographs a few men picking up feathers, covering up animal tracks and the like. What really gets his attention, though, is the large flatbed truck. Something, covered in a tarp, screeching and crying out like a frightened eagle, is chained down to the bed, being driven away into the darkness.

 

David waits for the last of these people to leave the scene before going to examine it himself. He's followed into the stables by the young boy, returning now that the strangers and the beast are gone, checking on his parents. He finds their bodies before David, and quickly collapses into a babbling, terrified, inconsolable mess. David tries his best to comfort the boy as they wait for the police to arrive. He's incoherent, ranting and raving about a "feathered monster."

 

The police, when they do show up, are highly skeptical both of the boy's description of the animal and David's story about the cleanup team that captured it. There are tire tracks in the soil, but they're surrounded and criss-crossed by the tracks from the normal ranch vehicles and equipment. David tries repeatedly to insist to the officers, over a long night of questioning, that it was some kind of horrible exotic creature that had escaped from the Penward zoo - but without any hard evidence, it all sounds like a bunch of nonsense to them. Some members of the force, familiar with his work as a journalist, even accuse him of trying to spin up a hoax.

 

When he's released from questioning, David decides to drive out to Penward's estate himself. Unsurprisingly, he isn't exactly given a warm welcome. The entire estate is gated and fenced-off, and he is not allowed through. However, driving around the perimeter, he eventually discovers a hole torn in the fence - presumably where the creature escaped. There's a single guard stationed nearby, who stops his car and demands he leave. However, being very brave, extremely stupid, or both, David runs the guard over with his car when he threatens him with a gun. The guard isn't dead, but is severely injured - enough for David to steal his weapon, uniform, and I.D. badge, and sneak inside the estate.

 

Penward's property is enormous and labyrinthine, and while David is at first able to blend in among the huge support staff the compound employs, he eventually gets lost and is spotted by none other than the lady of the estate, Suzanne Penward (Rachel Weisz). Drunk, lonely, and bored, she calls him aside and takes him back to her private quarters. At first she plays along with him when he claims he's new on the job, but before long, he finds himself cornered when she reveals that she knows for certain he's an intruder. In her inebriated, depressed state, though, she confides in him that she's grown alienated from and bitter towards her husband ever since he moved them to the States and "started playing God."

It quickly becomes clear that Suzanne is trying to seduce David. The reporter plays along with her flirtations and advances in order to try and get more information out of her. The zoo, he learns, is filled not with exotic animals from around the world, but with "his damn science projects," genetic creations of some sort, which she feels he now loves more than her. David asks to see it, and, while reluctant at first, Suzanne is eventually brought around by David's crass suggestion they make love in the zoo.

Suzanne leads David into the enclosed zoo, and, indeed, it's full of animals not seen on the face of the Earth for dozens of millions of years. Reanimated dinosaurs and prehistoric saurians in cages and pools and artificial habitats abound. Most, it seems, are carnivorous. Specimens include a long-necked aquatic plesiosaur, which David likens to the Loch Ness monster, an entire flock of raptors - deinonychus, as the sign on their enclosure states - of the same type that had caused chaos in the countryside, a crested dilophosaurus, and, the centerpiece, a massive twenty-foot predator which David immediately recognizes as a T. rex.

"Actually," an accented voice corrects him from behind, "this particular specimen is a tarbosaurus." It's Darren Penward (Richard Armitage) himself, flanked by a pair of armed guards. While the security personnel ready their weapons, Penward stares up at the intimidating creature with an unfailing look of pride and fascination. "Over one hundred million years ago his kind were the apex predators of Asia. Forty feet from nose to tail when fully-grown. A close relative of the tyrannosaurus. Another of the great and mighty carnosaurs."

Suzanne panics and begins trying desperately to explain herself to her husband, who refuses to hear her out. He sends one of the guards to restrain her, the other keeping his weapon trained on David. The shocked and furious reporter accuses Darren of causing the deaths of innocent people, but the lord of the estate seems unconcerned. "The deaths were unfortunate, but I did all I could to avoid them. I built my estate out here in the middle of nowhere, fenced in and closed off. Dropped off the map, vanished from the public eye. But you see, we are dealing with a chaotic natural force. It's inevitable that there will be... unforseen challenges."

David asks how he did it and why he bothered, and while Darren doesn't elaborate much on the "how" - saying only that he has "some very intelligent, resourceful contacts" - he does admit that he did not merely have the dinosaurs bred to keep in a zoo for his own amusement. "If anything, you see, I'm a lover of nature. A lover of the rare and the beautiful. Do you realize how quickly we are destroying the diversity of life on this planet? How many species go extinct each year? How much the world will change as the climate continues to shift, the forests burn, the air thickens?"

 

Penward explains that the resurrected dinosaurs are intended to be his legacy, and his contribution to the continuation of life on Earth. He plans to release them gradually into the remote, sparsely-populated regions of the world, the ones hit hard by pollution, deforestation and climate change, allowing them to repopulate these troubled areas. His wife echoes David's thoughts that Penward is insane, but he refuses to see his plan as anything but brilliant. He orders the guard to take Suzanne back to her quarters.

 

Just then, he and the guards receive an emergency alert over their radios - a second intruder has been spotted on the security cameras. The distraction is enough for Suzanne to break free from her captor, and she tries to wrestle his gun away from him. Reflexively, the guard fires, landing a mortal wound at point-blank range. She collapses to the floor, bleeding out. Penward tells the guard to leave her there to die and go help with the response to the other intruder. Penward himself departs, informing the guard holding David captive that his is to be "kept out of the way."

The guard is escorting David to parts unknown within the compound when, unbeknownst to anyone else, the still-alive Suzanne struggles back onto her feet. Intoxicated, enraged, and just clinging to life, she decides to get revenge on her husband by ruining his legacy. She makes her way to the zoo control room, unguarded since all hands are searching for the intruder, and shuts the systems down. An alarm blares all throughout the estate as the dinosaurs are released. David breaks out of his guard's grip, stealing his gun and shooting him. He makes a break for it, searching for an exit.

 

Swift and voracious raptors race out of the zoo into the compound at large, slaughtering staff left and right. The dilophosaurus enters the control room and eats Suzanne alive, the woman too weak to fight back. Amid the chaos David stumbles upon the other intruder - it's Jenny, chasing the same story he was. The pair blindly race around the halls and corridors in search of a way out, surrounded by gunfire, shrieks, and half-eaten bodies. Their path eventually leads them to a large garage, where guards and other employees of Penward are entering various vehicles and attempting to flee. They manage to steal a truck and race out of the main building, but as they pass the zoo, they see that a huge hole has been knocked out of the outer wall. The tarbosaurus is loose.

The vehicles, including David and Jenny's, race towards the main gate. Along the way they pass a group of guards at the hole in the fence where they had entered; one guard, dead, is stuck in the hole with his legs missing. The group behind him, their escape blocked, is being picked off en masse by raptors as they try to climb over the fence. The main gate begins to open, just wide enough for a single vehicle, and in the distance they can see Penward in an armored limousine approaching the exit. He never makes it. From around the corner of an outbuilding comes the tarbosaurus, and it sees the limousine as prey. Guards inside the vehicle fire their weapons at it uselessly, but the gigantic carnosaur plants a mighty foot on the roof, and its enormous weight crushes the limo like an insect.

Darren Penward leaps out of his door in the rear of the vehicle, intending to make a run for the gate. But the tarbosaurus kicks the limo over onto its roof, instinctively trying to expose its victim's underbelly. Penward is crushed underneath it, only his head, arms, and shoulders remaining exposed. The gate, on some sort of timer, begins to close automatically. The guard trucks at the front of the pack accelerate and slam into the huge titanium doors just as they close shut. No one escapes. After several moments of biting at the tires and axles of the limousine, the tarbosaurus finally bends over and snaps its jaws shut around Penward, ripping his upper torso off of the rest of his body and swallowing it whole.

 

The group of remaining vehicles is quickly surrounded by hungry dinosaurs. A few cars try to drive through the crowds of prehistoric beasts, only to be swarmed, raptors smashing the windows and climbing inside, feasting on the soft humans within. It's not long before the hungry animals converge on the truck Jenny and David are in. David has Jenny get down as low as she can, arming herself with a gun and crouching down under the glove compartment. As the raptors smash in the windows and front screen, David fires his own gun rapidly, flailing his fists, making as obvious a target of himself as he can in an attempt to keep the dinosaurs from noticing Jenny. He's rapidly torn apart, his right hand bit off - gun and all - before his whole arm is ripped off. He keeps fighting with his remaining arm even as the raptors begin to bite off his face and slash into his torso, spilling his guts.

 

Finally, he dies. Jenny cowers down below, covering her mouth to silence her cries as she watches her ex-boyfriend stripped of his flesh in front of her. Just as it seems the raptors are finishing with their meal, beginning to glance around the rest of the truck, the sounds of helicopter rotors and thundering machine guns drown out the cacophony of carnage. The raptors leap out of the vehicle and run for it. Jenny stays down low as she hears bullets and bombs rain down all around her, pained shrieks and roars echoing across the landscape as the dinosaurs are slaughtered. After what feels like forever, things finally begin to quiet down. The helicopters land, the rotors slowing as their engines shut off.

 

Cautiously, a sobbing Jenny gets up and opens the door of the truck, tumbling out onto the ground. All around her is utter carnage and devastation - mangled bodies of men and beasts alike, fires raging through the vegetation. The tarbosaurus is still alive, but captured in some massive net, being shot endlessly with tranquilizers. Men in biohazard suits and body armor are storming the estate, covering the grounds and streaming into the buildings. The army? The national guard?

Jenny screams out for help, and a pair of heavily-armed men approach her. She begs to be saved, to be taken away, but her apparent rescuers say nothing. They offer her some sort of mask - oxygen? Medication? - and when she hesitates, forcefully strap it onto her face. Sedative fills her lungs and her muscles weaken, vision going blurry, hearing becoming muffled. A stretcher is brought out, she doesn't see from where. She's loaded onto it and strapped down. The men carry her over to one of the helicopters. Emblazoned on its side is not the logo of any sort of military branch, or the state police, or even the FBI. Instead, it's a corporate trademark - a blue infinity symbol inside a white horizontal oval, one that's a bit narrower on one side, almost like an egg. Beneath it is the company's name - Eunice Corporation. She takes one last blurry, bright, indistinct look at the controlled chaos around her as she finally blacks out.

 

Roll credits.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by Xillix

[YM!]

St. Claire and The Bermuda Affair 

Studio: Endless Entertainment
Release Date: 9/4/Y4

Genre: Action/Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy

Director: Mark Andrews

Writers: Nicole Perlman, Henry Gayden, Darren Lemke

Composer: Tyler Bates

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action violence, peril, scary images, language, and a intense crash sequence

Budget: $180M

Theater Count: 4,293
Format: 2D, 3D, IMAX, IMAX 3D and Dolby Cinema
Runtime: 135 minutes

 

Cast:

Margot Robbie as Claudia St. Claire

Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Nathaniel Ivo

Marsai Martin as Nia Barton

John Boyega as Duncan Eastmond

Jason Momoa as Scaley Smith

Constance Wu as Bailey Underwood/COTA Commander

Lars Mikkelsen as Jonas Petrov

Anthony Mackie as Dr. Xavier Barton

Taraji P Henson as Dr. Francine Barton

 

featuring

Kylie Rogers as Lois

Jacob Tremblay as Richard

Melissa McCarthy as Ms. Farley

Kathryn Newton as May Madeline

Michael Peña as Mano de Noche

Mark Strong as Terrence Harrison

 

 

Spoiler

We open in the jungles of the Amazon as we see a huge ancient temple (think a pyramid mixed with ancient Mayan architecture). We then see a green Jeep zooms down the jungle and park near the temple. We then see two people walk out of the car, Claudia St. Claire, sporting a fedora and a whip and Duncan Eastmond, sporting glasses and a backpack strapped to his back. Duncan takes the map out of his pocket and confirms they’re at the Temple of Golden Crest. The two walk inside and Claudia is especially excited but ready. Duncan then tells Claudia, they should be ready for anything, as the place is probably rigged with all sorts of deadly booby traps. Claudia then goes through a checklist with Duncan such as weapons like guns, torches, repellents, antidotes for poisons (courtesy of Duncan), food, water, and finally her phone and speakers much to Duncan’s chargin, reminding her that now is not the time for music but Claudia insists that it’s to help them get a boost of energy and fun. Duncan then retorts that they will lose focus but Claudia ignores him and instead asks what kind of music he wants. Duncan sighs and says he feels like an old song. Claudia finds the perfect song as the two brave the temple.

 

https://youtu.be/cnNyxy7XPfs

 

 

(The song Street Life by Randy Crawford plays as the opening credits reveal themselves. We see Claudia skillfully and swiftly enter the temple while dancing her way through as Duncan takes a more practical approach. Claudia helps Duncan navigate the tile puzzle by dancing with him, much to the latter’s shock, hitting the right tiles to not activate the darts (a lone dart does hit Duncan but he quickly uses the antidote for the poison). Claudia dances with her whip before tossing the tip to the ceiling, grabbing Duncan, and swinging over an alligator pit. Claudia then faces a maze which Duncan navigates finding them the exit, although Duncan is a bit alarmed by the dead skeletons in their with them. Claudia, still dancing and singing, avoids the swinging axes in the room while Duncan stumbles making many close calls but the two make it the last room. We see a gold encrusted bird on a pedestal, Duncan goes to approach, only to realize the space between it and the exit, crumbling causing him to grab Claudia out of the way. Using her whip as a tightrope, the two carefully cross it. Duncan quickly swaps the treasure (a bird/snake like creature made out of gold) with a equally weighted bag of sand but even though it works for a second, the temple starts to come apart. The two then make a quick and hasty escape.)

 

 

The two then run outside of the temple, out of breath. Claudia quickly points out that she was right about the music, but Duncan rolls his eyes. Duncan though is happy that the two have finally gotten the Golden Crest. Duncan and Claudia quickly get to the car and drive away but notices the ground shaking. Claudia suddenly turns around to notice a 20 foot tall stone like creature that’s part bird and part snake with two piercing ruby like eyes, a splitting image of the creature in The Golden Crest. Claudia tells Duncan to step on it and Claudia pulls out a crossbow from the back and aims to shoot the beast. However, each shot misses or doesn’t do much and Claudia runs out of ammo. Claudia then tells Duncan to perform evasive maneuvers and Duncan drives further into the jungle, but blanketed by big trees but the stone monster knocks the trees over like mere weeds with its tail. The two then head into a dark cave, and to attempt to throw the beast off, Duncan throws some dynamite, creating a cave in, blocking the beast from entering. The two think they’re safe for a while until Claudia hears noises and double checks behind them. Suddenly the ground starts to open a bit and the stone monster pops right out of the ground, revealing it was digging after them. The two make it out of the cave with the beast hot on their trail. The two notices a giant waterfall blocking their way. Cornered by the beast and the plunging cascade of water behind them, the two gets out of the car with the Golden Crest in hand. Claudia warns Duncan that she has a really bad idea. Claudia tells Duncan to hold onto something as she takes control of the Jeep and ignites the dynamite inside as the Jeep charges near the stone serpentine. Duncan grabs his backpack and Claudia secures the treasure. The two then roll out of the Jeep, barely avoiding the waterfall behind them as the Jeep rams into the monster, exploding. Claudia celebrates as Duncan takes a moment to breathe, reminding her they almost died. The two then see a pile of rubble left of the serpentine suddenly reassembling much to their horror. Duncan suggests Claudia give back the treasure but Claudia has one more idea, noticing the jewels in the serpents eyes are damaged. Claudia grabs Duncan and jumps off the cliff and the serpentine does the same as it crashes into the river below. The camera pans up to see Claudia and Duncan hanging from a ledge. Duncan admits that they may be alive but what about the serpent, Claudia reveals from her pocket the two rubies that were the serpents eyes and crushes them, saying that the serpent won’t come back for a while. Claudia and Duncan get back to the land as Duncan presses a button on his watch. We then see the silhouette of what’s supposed to be this cool high tech jet is actually run down, barely functional yellow plane. We then see the pilot, the muscular yet not the sharpest dagger of the bunch, Scaley Smith, bedazzled in tattoos, walks out of the plane with a big cigar in his mouth. Scaley comments he would’ve been here sooner but the jungle is so big, he then asks what took them so long. The three hop into the plane and sloppily soar off into the sky. We then see the stones of the serpent/bird stone creature float off into the river and wash ashore on land. We then see a masked figure take a piece of stone and places it inside a briefcase, commenting someone will be mighty pleased getting this. The figure then walks away towards a plane as it soars the opposite direction.

 

 

St. Claire and The Bermuda Affair

 

 

 

We then cut to the bust streets of New York City, the streets like always in a movie, are severely busy. We then show a busy boardwalk in Coney Island, and we see a throng of people outside near some kind of attraction. We then see that a young teenage orphan, Nia Barton doing card tricks with the help of her two friends, Richard and Lois, as she explains to guest that she’d guess the card the person has in if she gets it right, she gets $5 but if they get it right she loses $10. It shows she has a huge pile of cash on the table. The customer loses and gives up his $5 but notices something and quickly points out that Nia is counting cards. Nia denies the accusation but Richard accidentally spills the beans. The crowd closes in on them, Nia quickly puts the money in a sack, and the three to run away, as the police are called after them, and the three run around the city avoiding wet cement from construction, throngs of tourists and other stuff. The three are almost home free and are about to head down the subway using shortcuts but have to climb the fence, which Lois and Nia make it across but Richard gets stuck. Nia sacrifices herself to help Richard across the fence and gets arrested as a result. Nia is taken down to a holding cell but a police man talks to her guardian is here, we then see Ms. Farley happily greeting Nia, commenting on how worried she didn’t come back, but Nia is visible nervous. Ma. Farley tells the police all about it claiming they lost the money. The police say since this is a first offense, they’ll let her off with a warning. Nia asks is there anything else like juvy or something but Farley cuts off Nia with a hug.

 

 

 

The two leave the station as Ms. Farley drives to the house, and scolds Nia for getting caught. The two then go back to a somewhat run down house. It is revealed that Ms. Farley has been training Nia, Richard and Lois to be thieves for her. She praises Richard and Lois for getting her the money, saying they get to eat tonight as they earned their keep. Farley barks at Nia to make dinner which she complies to. We see Nia in the kitchen as Richard thanks her for helping him, which Nia replies it was no problem at all. Lois promises to save some food for her. Nia serves everyone dinner (which is spaghetti with a lobster meat sauce, with veggies and for dessert, apple cinnamon cake). Farley takes the majority and gives Lois and Richard two small but barely filling portions. Farley admits Nia did a great job on the meal, and it’s too bad she won’t be eating but that there’s always tomorrow. After the dinner, Farley says goodnight to the kids and demands by the morning the house clean as well. Lois and Richard give Nia some of their food which she thanks her friends for and the three clean up the house using Mr. Bean like contraptions Richard made and manage to get the house clean at midnight. The three get ready for bed but Richard and Lois then shows Nia her surprise, revealing they didn’t eat their cake as well but the two small pieces mushed together have a small candle on top of it, with Happy Birthday Nia in ketchup on the plate. Nia is touched by the kind action, thanking her friends and blows out the candles. Richard asks what did she wish for, Nia says to see her parents again which causes her mood to sour rapidly. Nia sheds a tear commenting how much she misses them. Lois comforts Nia saying that her parents are always with her and the three go to bed, which is three sleeping bags for them. As the others are asleep, Nia takes out a photo of her parents with her as a younger child, she sheds a tear. We see 2D animated flashbacks which reveal her parents were scientists and went to somewhere and never came back. Nia, however snaps out of her funk when she sees Loia. Nia asks her how much of that did she hear, Lois comments definitely not the crying but assures her that her parents may still be there, which inspires Nia filling her with vigor, saying that eventually she’ll be the one to find them. The two friends hug and then go to bed.

 

 

We then cut to Smith’s plane landing at a manor near the forest in Chicago. Claudia celebrates their success, praising herself, Duncan and Smith. Duncan is somewhat happy as they will certainly impress at The Archeologist Convention. The three enter the manor which is nice with loads of treasure. Smith has finished dinner for the three, which is very unappealing looking, Smith says he was making a new recipe by combing the savoriness of shrimp and the tangy of a apple pie with a hit of feta. Both Claudia and Duncan attempt to hide their disgust by swallowing the inedible mess, and both claim they love it. Duncan proposes a toast to their success and the three happily drink. Claudia retires to her quarters after dinner but is somewhat disappointed. Duncan accidentally walks in on her sulking and asks what’s her problem. Claudia says that next year though they’ll double it but Duncan admits it’s be tough to do even for them but Claudia reminds them she’s a St. Claire, the famous family of the best archeologists but she’s also the one with the less success. Duncan says she’s doing great and that tomorrow will be great and that besides May Madeline, Claudia’s nemesis/rival, won’t one up them again after many, many, many, many (Claudia stops Duncan, annoyed). Duncan points out no one has heard of May’s discoveries recently, as she took an off year. Duncan also says as far as he’s concerned, she’s the best St. Claire which gets her to smile as he holds her hand. We see Smith eating popcorn watching this, yelling “Kiss!”, which embarrasses the two. Duncan asks how long has Smith been watching them. Smith said since the conversation started, and since they didn’t say anything he just was quiet until it got to the juicy romantic drama. Smith also reminds them he used to be a secret agent and the art of stealth was necessary for him to master. Claudia quickly changes the topic that they should get some sleep as they need to get up early. Duncan agrees as they want to show up looking good at the meeting tomorrow. Claudia then whispers that and to stop and get breakfast somewhere as Smith’s cooking is horrible. Smith quickly shouts he heard that. The three then get ready for bed and sleep.

 

 

We then cut back to the Farley house in the morning as Nia has prepared breakfast for Ms. Farley. Farley then says the next thing and biggest task yet for the kids is to go do some pickpocketing but reminds them to be quick in doing so and rely on distraction for effectiveness. Farley warns them to be careful and if they’re caught do not mention her name. The three kids then hit the subway and get ready. We then cut to the St. Claire Manor as our heroes get ready to leave, but not before enjoying a fast food breakfast which Claudia loves but Duncan complains about the crudeness of it and Smith insists his cooking is far better. Smith then fires up the plane as Duncan and Claudia haul the treasure inside and strap in as the plane soars in the sky.

 

 

The three children then are about to proceed to do the crime, but Nia notices a sign for the convention in the distance which reads “bringing unseen wonders to the people”. Nia decides to go off on her own, telling she’ll meet up with them later. Nia decides to sneak in under the guise of a child of a archeologist. Nia is somewhat amazed by the sights and sounds, as we then see Claudia, wearing a wonderful teal dress, and Duncan and Smith in dapper jet black suits. After a meet and greet with colleagues, Claudia heads backstage to present as Duncan and Smith get in their seats. Smith manages to meet Nia and the two bond a bit, Smith asks who’s daughter is she and Nia is forced to come up with a fake name and goes with Smurgwemajenkin, which Smith buys, surprisingly. We then see the host, Terrence Harrison thanks everyone from coming and that today not only do we look to the future but would like to take a moment to honor some of the greats in the past, like Dr. Ivo who passed a year ago. Nia decides to watch some of the presentations there as we see numerous archeologists giving presentations about their discoveries from all around the world, one archeologist found gold in Barbados, another found a full sized fossil of a T-Rex in a island in Oceania, and we finally get to Claudia’s presentation as she explains that she and her colleagues found the much rumored and many thought imaginary Golden Crest in the Amazon. The crowd is most impressed by the last photo and after a brief intermission, Harrison goes to present the traditional award, and announces Claudia as the winner. Duncan and Smith cheer loudly over the traditional clapping of the other archeologists. Claudia happily steps on the stage and prepares to give a speech but Mary Madeline and her bombastic and chauvinistic sidekick/hype man, Mano de Noche comes in and shows her findings; ancient Egypt gold along with a live mummy, Atlanean armor that she found deep sea diving, and last but not least, that next month she plans to go to the Himalayas to track down yetis. This manage to impress the audience (baring Duncan and Smith) along with Harrison much to Claudia’s chargin and anger. Harrison then says due to the clear applause, that Madeline is actually the true victor. Madeline and Noche step onto the the stage, as Madeline gloats that Claudia almost won but assures that she’ll win eventually, not before Noche bursts out laughing. The two then get into a fierce fight of insults but Madeline ends it quickly commenting no matter how hard Claudia tries, she’ll always be the worst St. Claire. Furious and dismayed, Claudia storms off in a hurry with Duncan and Smith after her. Madeline then finishes up her speech and the convention ends.

 

 

As everyone leaves as Nia heads back to the corner, Lois and Richard were only to realizes they’re gone. Nia then heads home to see a pissed off Ms. Farley waiting for her, saying she knows that she left Lois and Richard by themselves, revealing the two were picked up by policeman and she had to bail them out. Farley then demands what Nia was doing, and Nia reluctantly reveals she was at the convention. Farley smacks Nia and in anger. Farley warns that if Nia lets her down again, that her punishment will be much more severe. Lois and Richard try to comfort Nia and apologize but Nia understands, takes a minute to cry and hugs the photo of her parents, wishing to go home, but the photo accidentally slips out of her hand into the dust. Picking up the photo, Nia finds a message (written on back in some kind of invisible ink that became clear when it hit the dusty floor), from her parents that was at first unclear, revealing they were going to the Bermuda Triangle along with coordinates, hinting they might still be there and alive. After a night of chores, Nia decides to run away to find her parents, and tries to convince Lois and Richard to the same and help her. Out of fear, the latter two refuses but wishes Nia good luck but they do help buy giving her some of the money they never gave to Ms. Farley. Nia hugs her friends goodbye and hopes their lives will become better as well. Nia sneaks out the window and runs off into the city. Nia roams the city throughout the night before becoming hungry but sees Claudia, Duncan and Smith in the distance heading to a restaurant. Gaining an idea, Nia quickly follows them inside.

 

 

We then cut to Claudia, Duncan, and Smith inside a restaurant. Claudia is in an unusual funk and both Duncan and Smith try to snap her out of it. Duncan assures her they’ll win next year but Claudia considers quitting. Smith says everyone has their time to shine and that hertime is around the corner but Claudia admits in some ways Madeline was right, and that compared to her family’s accomplishments she pales. However, the three are greeted by Nia. Smith recognizes Nia from the convention earlier and asks what is she doing here. Nia reveals she that she shocking wasn’t the daughter of Dr. Smurgwemajenkin, and actually an orphan but her parents were actually famous scientists and ask if any of them knows the Bartons. Duncan’s eyes immediately light up, saying the Bartons were some of the most famous genetic scientists. Nia explains that they went missing in the Bermuda Triangle, 5 years ago. Claudia asks why is she coming to them and Nia explains she needs their help and that she was impressed with them finding the Golden Crest. Nia then puts out the contents of money she has left which is $150. Claudia then gives Nia her money back saying they’ll take it for free. Claudia, re-energized once more, and proudly announces they’re going to the Bermuda Triangle. Duncan, although happy for Claudia reminds her that no one has made it back from the Bermuda Triangle, at least not to tell the tale, which Claudia remarks is even better and they’ll have done something no one, not even Madeline has done. Both Duncan and Smith considers not going but Claudia assures them they’ll make it back in one piece, and convinces the scientific curiosity of Duncan about all the species and discoveries they can make, which appeals to Duncan. Claudia then says all three of them have survived much worse things, commenting how a few days ago, they were chased by a living statue and that Smith is the best damn pilot, remembering the time they flew through a hurricane unscathed. Claudia’s speech inspires her friends but although they’re still unsure, they agree to go. Nia then shows the three, the photo of her parents with the message on back, showing them their precise coordinates, which Duncan quickly scribes down. Nia asks if she can tag along as well, as not only does she have anywhere else to go but she wants to help save her parents. Claudia, Duncan and Smith refuse at first but Nia lists of her skills, saying she’s a fast runner, expert pickpocketer (she shows off by holding Duncan’s wallet in her hand, claiming she took it from him the second she introduced herself which irritates the later), and a fantastic chef (Smith comments not as good as him though but Claudia and Duncan shake their heads no rapidly at the comment.). Nia also reveals that her parents taught her some things as well in the science field. Claudia agrees to let her go as long as she stays safe and lets Nia stay at the Manor for the night. Nia thanks Claudia, Duncan and Smith but Smith notices her stomach growling and offers Nia the rest of his food as he wants to go home to cook some real food which Nia thanks Smith for as well. After leaving the building, we see a camera watching them as we then cut to a mysterious room as an unknown figure watches intrigued.

 

 

The four then fly back to St. Claire Manor and Nia is in awe at the sights and sounds of the manor, asking typical questions for those uninvolved in their world (like what’s this, is that object cursed, how did you get this) that humorously wear Duncan out. Claudia reminds them to get a good night sleep and tomorrow they go where no man has gone before. Nia gets ready to sleep on the floor but Claudia asks why is she sleeping on the floor. Nia explains at an old foster home she had to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag, and with the heated floor she’ll be all right. Claudia refuses to let a guest sleep on a floor and lets her sleep in the spare guest room, which is a nice lavender room with a big comfy bed and TV. Nia is wowed (Claudia remarks she should see her room) and hugs Claudia with thanks. Claudia smiles sweetly like a proud big sibling and tells her to get a good night’s rest. We then cut to Claudia’s lavish if not a bit over the top room as she snores smelling something good, which she comments is strange. She gets ready to go and see Duncan down the hallway both wowed at the smell and head downstairs to the kitchen to see Nia cooking breakfast for them, saying she had to cook for her old foster mom and got good at it and tells them to sit down fast, making them chocolate chip pancakes with a hazelnut syrup, eggs with a nacho cheese sauce and of course bacon. Duncan takes a bite and immediately starts wolfing it down, commenting how good the food is. Claudia takes a bit and nearly does the same. Smith then walks in saying he made sure the plane was ready to go and that he’s sorry he didn’t make breakfast. Nia says don’t worry and made him breakfast. Smith thanks her and says he’ll try it. Smith takes a bite and has the same reaction as Claudia and Duncan commenting Nia is almost a good chef as him. The four then finish their breakfast, start packing their gear, hop on the plane, as the plane takes to the skies (9 to 5 plays in the background https://youtu.be/nMQmYcYksVs )

 

 

The four take a nice easy flight. Smith says it’ll take about 5 hours to get the triangle, and Claudia and Duncan double check their stock and equipment. Deciding they’re nothing else to do, Claudia listens to some music, Duncan reads some books about investigation, Nia goes to sleep, and Smith is tediously flying the plane. After a few hours, Claudia wakes up and asks Smith are they there yet. Smith says no but they’re close though. However, we see a violent thunderstorm brew, right in front of the plane. Smith tells everyone to hang on as it’s going to get real bumpy and attempts to fly through the storm, narrowly avoiding vicious thunder bolts. Duncan is humorously terrified yet Nia is somewhat calm. Claudia is impressed that Nia is so calm, but Nia assures Claudia she’s terrified but she doesn’t want to show like Duncan. Nia asks are all your adventures like this, Claudia remarks this is somewhere in the middle of the road. Suddenly, a huge thud hits the plane, revealing a giant chunk of hail hit the plane. Smith takes evasive maneuvers avoiding both thunderbolts and giant chunk of hail with some luck, but the plane does face a bit of damage. Suddenly the storm becomes much more violent and the three get stuck in a hurricane, severely damaging the plane. Smith is forced to make a bad crash landing but the plane gets more damage on the way down, as we hear the four screaming but Smith makes a rough landing on the ground.

 

 

 

We see the three trembling as Smith announces they’re here. We see a huge tropical island filled with lush and vibrant plant life and huge jungle filled with greens, purples, blues and a bit of pink. We see a group of 10 feet tall bird like creatures fly over the jungle. There’s also a giant mountain at the far end from the other side of the island. The four get out of the plane and Smith says it’s going to take a good day or two to fix the plane as it severely damaged. Claudia grabs some supplies and tells that she and Duncan will take a roam around while Nia and Smith stay back to fix the plane. Nia is dismayed as she wanted to help but both Duncan and Claudia agree that it’s safer for her. But just as Claudia and Duncan are about to leave. The four are then confronted by a group of soldiers at gunpoint, (think Cobra Troopers from GI Joe with a more appropriate jungle flair, sporting green and yellow colors). Their commander (armed with a double edged staff and more armored but still very slender suit), Bailey Underwood, in an affable sort of manner, introduces herself and asks the four why are they here. Claudia explains herself as one of the St. Claire, which impresses Bailey, who was a fan of the St. Claire Family long ago. Duncan explains they mean no harm and are just here on a sort of rescue mission for the Bartons. Nia asks if they’ve seen the Bartons who she reveals to them as her parents. Bailey admits they have and will gladly take them to the Bartons saying they need more of a bargaining chip anyway, much to the confusion of Claudia. Bailey explains they kidnapped the Bartons and need them to help them with something. Bailey offers a deal offering to let Claudia, Duncan and Smith leave, as they have no use to them, before “something bad” happens to them and they’ll take Nia, promising no harm will come to the child. Claudia refuses to Bailey’s plan and prepares for a fight with the soldiers, Claudia tells Smith to protect Nia and she and Duncan will fight the soldiers. Claudia pulls out her whip, Smith pulls a machete and Duncan pulls out a AK-47 and the brawl begins. Bailey screams at the soldiers to get Nia at all costs but alive, and the others depend on the mod they’re feeling. The soldiers begin shooting at the four as they all dodge blasts of energy. Bailey charges at Smith as the two engage in an intense sword fight, both coming very close to fatal blows. Many soldiers try to reason with Nia but she fights back, and runs away and manages to get a few good hits in on some the soldiers. Claudia and Duncan attempt to plow through the soldiers using their whip and AK-47. A sniper shoots a blue blast at Claudia but Duncan runs in front of it taking the shot for Claudia, humorously stuck in a lying position, only being able to speak and move his head. Claudia asks Duncan if he’s okay and Duncan snarks he’s perfectly fine and that he moving swiftly as a tiger right now. The soldiers and Bailey get the upper hand as a group captures Nia as the soldiers and Bailey prepare to kill Claudia, Duncan and Smith.

 

 

 

 

Suddenly, Nia notices the sand moving, and a 30 foot tall crab tunnels from down under and destroys the plane along with killing most of the soldiers. The soldiers out of fear, drop Nia and attempt to run away. Bailey orders them to retreat and the soldiers run off into the jungle, leaving our heroes to fend for themselves. Pulling out a gun, Duncan, regaining some mobility, attempts to shoot at the crab but the bullets bounce of it’s thick carapace. The four attempt to run away (the three carry Duncan as he limps his way into the jungle a bit too slowly) into the jungle, but the crab blocks them with it’s spiked claw. The four brace for anything but suddenly a high pitched call distracts the crab. The crab turns around to see a British man with a scraggly beard and a Russian man with a grenade launcher. The Russian fires the grenade launcher fires three shots at the crab as it explodes from the impact. Claudia thanks the men for saving them, and the British man accepts their thanks. The man introducing himself as Dr. Ivo and the Russian man, is his bodyguard, Jonas Petrov. Claudia immediately recognizes Dr. Ivo and she is starstruck, and immediately start geeking out. Duncan is confused as he thought he was dead, but Ivo reveals he and Jonas came here to study and research but went south and the two became stranded here. Ivo then asks what are you three doing here and whose child is it. Nia explains that her parents were the Bartons and they were stranded here. Ivo immediately recognizes the name, and those two were legends and that he has seen both of them but they were taken. Nia is confused but Ivo promises to explain everything on the way. Ivo tells the others to follow him but for some reason Duncan thinks something is up.

 

 

 

The six walk into the jungle as we get the camera to show all the different kinds of wildlife, such as monitor lizards like reptiles with small wings, jackalopes, deer with one horn in addition to their antlers which are tinted pink, beetles, the size of an SUV, and miniature lions, the size of a regular house cat. We also see some prehistoric creatures as well such as mammoths without their fur and pterodactyls (revealed to be the giant birds from earlier). While walking through the jungle, Ivo explains that this island in the Bermuda Triangle was originally part of Pangea. However, after the continents split, it was left adrift and wound up in a strange area, some say enchanted by the gods, and was the only thing not totally affected by major changes, explaining the dinosaurs, mammoths and insane weather above. Ivo then says that humans did live on the island, but all cultures have something unique. A great treasure was here on the island, Esmeralda de la Dioses (Emerald Of The Gods), that has the power to give the user immeasurable powers. Ivo explains that the an evil organization called COTA (Children of The Ancient) wanted this gem to strengthen their armies and take over the world. COTA came here and wiped out the natives but the natives hid the Emerald somewhere no man could find it. Ivo then says that when he first arrived here he and Jonas came here, they were looking for the Emerald, but they did met both the Bolton’s (much to Nia’s delight) living on the island but they were caught by COTA for nefarious purposes. Ivo and Jonas have been fueled to find the Emerald before COTA.

 

 

Back at COTA Headquarters, which is actually stationed in an island right next to the Bermuda Triangle, Bailey chastises the soldiers for failing her and that their boss will be pissed off, but Bailey notices the giant screen behind her becoming active which shows a message from her boss, telling her to “stay calm and follow this”. We then show that Claudia and her group are now being tracked by COTA. Bailey and a small elite team of COTA soldiers prepare to leave but not before Bailey goes downstairs to the prison cell as we see Dr. Xavier Barton in chains as she asks Barton how is progress going. Xavier spits in her face in response. Bailey snaps her fingers and guard goes to beat up Xavier, causing the latter to reluctantly reveal everything is on schedule and should be finished within the next two days. Xavier demands to see his wife but Bailey refuses as he needs to work twice as hard as they need it to be ready sooner. Bailey then orders the guard to cut the rations for Xavier by half for his lackluster performance and then another half for his rudeness. Bailey leaves as we see Xavier looking down in sorrow as he sulks in his cell.

 

 

The four agree to help Ivo much to the his delight. Ivo explains that they must be careful as COTA agents are all over the island. Claudia asks if Ivo has any idea on how to find the Emerald as he has been stranded on the triangle for over a year but Ivo sadly reveals he doesn’t. Nia pulls out the picture of her parents had. Ivo analyzes the note and realizes the coordinates (18-91-36) are for a location on the island which Claudia guesses it might be a clue to where the jewel is. Duncan using a highly advanced compass, types in the coordinates to get the directions, and the six follow deeper into the jungle. Nia looks out at the scenery and notices a slender like object moving but when she takes a further look, its gone. Nia then decides to ignore her suspicions but as the camera notices the slender object inching towards the heroes. Nia then sees and points out the vast variety of the vibrant plants around them. The plants are almost half as tall as the giant trees inside the jungle, all coated with blue and yellow pigments with green stalks and a pink stem in the middle. Ivo, realizing where they are tells everyone to stay still, slowly move forward, and at all costs avoid the flowers. Smith asks why and Duncan quickly notices the skeletal remains of animals, both big and small, figures out that the plants are indeed carnivorous. The six slowly inch their way out of the garden of killer plants but Smith accidentally steps on a twig. The twig then quickly retracts and the plants spring to life. Jonas tells everyone to run as fast as they can, but two of the plants block the way, creating a thick wall of thorny vines. Smith, Duncan and Claudia attempt to cut through the vines but the more they cut the vines, the faster the plants regrow their replacement. A vine quickly grabs Claudia and Ivo and the biggest of the plants reveals its Venus flytrap like head and attempts to swallow them whole. Smith and Jonas attempt to fight the plants using their weapons but are two quickly swallowed inside different plants, leaving only Nia and Duncan left. Duncan attempts to protect Nia by shooting at the plant which throws out a flare into the plants mouth, which much to Duncan’s chargin and in his words was supposed to fire hot lead. However, the plant belches smokes and spew ups a half eaten deer. Realizing that fire is the plants weakness, Nia tells Duncan to use the flare gun as she creates a fire by snapping off two small twigs that were shedded by the plant and sparks a small fire creating makeshift torches. Duncan and Nia attempts to fight the plants with the fire but it does minimal damage to the plants. Duncan quickly realizes that they have to damage them on the inside. Duncan aims for the biggest plant’s mouth and barfs up Claudia and Ivo. Claudia is happy to be saved but slightly disgusted since she’s covered in plant vomit. Nia informs Claudia and Ivo how to free the others and the two get torches and hurl them in the plants mouth and Smith and Jonas are barfed out. The six then hurl flaming objects inside the carnivorous plants causing them to spew smoke and some to explode. The six then make a hasty getaway. Claudia praises Duncan and Nia for their help against the killer plants. Duncan also comments that if it weren’t for Nia, they may have died. Ivo wraps up the praise festival and points out they’re here. The six then see a dead end but surrounded by lush vegetation and huge moss coated boulders. Nia is confused as they’re where the coordinates said. Claudia immediately recognizes their may be a hidden entrance and tells everyone to start looking for one. The six search among the area but find nothing, Ivo does find a lever amongst a patch of berries and a giant hole appears from the ground. The six then head down the hole but it’s pitch black, but Nia brings out a flashlight to illuminate their pathway. They roam around the empty cavern for a bit until the see a hole with light bursting through. Using her rope to latch onto a ledge above ground, Claudia creates a way for them to get out and they climb the rope to the outside.

 

 

The six are amazed to figure out what they are seeing. We see an abandoned house coated with vines and shielded by the blue canopy trees. There is a lake filled with water next to the house, and small rodent like mammals with golden fur roam free. There’s no sign of dangerous creatures at all as well. The six walk inside the abandoned house and search for signs, but to no avail but Ivo finds a journal inside. The journal, revealed to be the one of Mrs. Barton is dated back about one year before COTA took the Bartons. Ivo thoroughly reads through the book and finds an interesting page and shows everyone.

 

 

We then see traditionally animated flashbacks in the vein of The Three Brothers scene from Deathly Hallows. The journal reveals that they have been study the wildlife while both trying to find a way back home and avoiding COTA, revealing many close calls and both the Bartons learned about their nefarious plot to make a machine to fuse the Emerald to a person. The Bartons also has stolen vehicle parts of COTA to make an escape vehicle of sorts and run back home, once they found and destroyed the Emerald, after finding an old map discarded presumably by the natives on a hike for food. The two ultimately came close but where followed and ambushed by COTA but manage to burn the maps remains and escape back to their sanctuary.

 

 

Ivo reveals to the group that was one of the last pages, hypothesizing that the day after was the day the Bartons were kidnapped, but Duncan notices a page left, revealing a hand drawn replica of the map in the journal much to the surprise of everyone. However, the sun sets gently and the night comes to life. With nowhere else to go right now, Smith suggests they camp here for the night as it’s the safest place. Ivo agrees to the idea and tells someone to cook something (Smith volunteers but Nia offers to help (much to the thanks of Duncan and Claudia)), as the rest of them set up camp for the night. After setting up camp, Jonas creates a fire, everyone settles in for a stew that Nia and Smith made, consisting of forest herbs and berries with the meat of the rodent like mammals from earlier. Everyone loves the stew even the stoic Jonas makes a favorable reaction to it. As the fire blazes, Ivo tells stories from his old days as an archeologist, some of which Claudia fangirls about such as Ivo and Jonas’s raid of the arctic, facing walrus men and ferocious flying penguins to retrieve the Sack Of Wisdom, or his discovery of the Kraken, which he and Jonas had to face off, after accidentally breaking one of its eggs. Ivo yawns out of fatigue and suggests they should head in for the night which Jonas agrees as well but the rest decide to stay up a bit.

 

 

Nia announces she has a deck of cards and they could play, Duncan declines but Smith eagerly plays. Claudia also begs Duncan to play as well who eventually comes around. The four then play a game of poker and all three have a great time playing together, which turns into a game of truth and dare. The four start to bond a bit as we learn about the main heroes, Duncan, was a part of a boy band back in his teenage years, Smith was a former CIA agent but was fired due to his failure on an important mission (Claudia asks what mission but Smith still says he can’t tell as it’s so classified, that they planted a bomb under his skin that’ll explode if he tell, the group laughs at first but Smith deadpan stare, makes them question if he was kidding. Smith changes the subject on a lighter note that each tattoo on his body represents an important event in his life. Nia notices a tattoo of Spongebob and Smith explains he just likes Spongebob, and when the first movie came out, he stop a musician/terrorist from unleashing a flesh eating pesticide on New York.), and Nia reveals her depressing life as a orphan which earns the sympathy of her new friends. Nia also reveals she’s worried if they don’t find her parents or if they’re dead. Claudia, in the way of a big sister comforting a younger sibling, that they’ll find them and even if they don’t, they’ll be there for her and wouldn’t hesitate at adopting her, causing Nia to smile a bit. Claudia also reveals her parents vanished in her teenage years as well, and was the youngest sibling in the St. Claire field and that she was a lot like Nia and was resilient. Claudia also wants the respect of not only in the archaeologist's field but also wants to add onto to her family’s legacy. Duncan assures her she will noting some of the awesome stuff they trio has done together, and it then becomes Duncan’s turn and Smith dates him to kiss Claudia much to the two’s shock. Smith snickers now is their only time to admit their obvious feelings feelings (Nia bets $5 they won’t do it despite how obvious it is) but Claudia says it’s the only way to shut Smith up but as the two lean in for the kiss, Duncan notices someone in the distance, talking to something, which the others immediately think is an excuse much to Claudia’s relief. Duncan then goes to follow the figure who is revealed to be Ivo. Duncan asks Ivo who is he talking too but Ivo dismisses it as excitement. Duncan doesn’t totally buy it though but Ivo assures him everything is alright and suggest he should get a rest before his own stress kills him in a somewhat ominous yet very friendly tone. The four then settle in for the night and go to sleep.

 

 

The next morning, Claudia awakes ready to take on the day as she sees Nia and Smith whipping up a breakfast of a pterodactyl egg omelet for the crew. Duncan who is somewhat in between sleepwalking and half awake, asks for his coffee only to remember he’s in the jungle, sloppily walking into the lake of water, leaving him drenched and awake. Ivo and Jonas also join in the breakfast, with Ivo complimenting Smith and Nia for nailing it. The six then pack up their gear and leave the sanctuary. Claudia says the first must cross a gigantic chasm on the other side of the jungle, which will lead the a series of catacombs underground, where the Emerald is hidden somewhere inside there. The six then carefully trek the jungle, avoiding potential dangers inside, until they reach the chasm.

 

 

We then see the chasm in all it’s glory as we see a Grand Canyon like area shrouded in a thick fog. Using ropes to tie each other, the six climb down the chasm. The six are unable to visibly see each other as to how thick the fog is having to rely on each other’s voices. The camera shows the perspective of each of the six as they slowly but surely descend down the chasm. As they descend, Duncan senses something wrong and double checks his vine harness to see that it’s near the point of breaking. Duncan suddenly slips and is about to plummet as he dangles from his harness. Duncan begs for help as the others hear as they carefully act as one to find Duncan, climbing vertically to the left. Eventually the five start to see each other and Duncan which Claudia is right next to. Claudia tells Duncan to grab her hand but as Duncan tries but his rope snaps causing him to fall. Claudia quickly loosens her harness to dive after Duncan, barely catching him from hitting the ground just in time.

 

 

The six then finally reach the bottom of the chasm as the fog has lifted from below and everyone can now see each other. The six then find the entrance to the catacombs, but before they get inside, COTA soldiers and Bailey ambush them, much to the gang’s surprise forcing them into the catacombs as they’re being pursued. Using a flare gun, Duncan creates a cave in to seal the entrance to prevent the COTA soldiers and Bailey from coming inside. Duncan immediately assumes Ivo and Jonas have set them up and are COTA soldiers, as not only was Ivo in charge of the vines but was suspiciously talking to someone last night and threatened him about it. Ivo dismisses this by pointing out something on Duncan’s backpack, showing that Duncan has a tracker placed on him and that they were being followed the whole time. Claudia chastises Duncan for blaming others but Smith sort of believes Duncan as well, recalling it wasn’t Duncan or even noticed until now. Duncan takes the map and suggest they all head back home now and that it’s become too dangerous. Ivo refuses as he thinks it is best to stop COTA now rather than later. Claudia also agrees but slips out it’s her shot as well. Duncan storms off in a huff towards one entrance as Smith and Nia goes after him. Claudia attempts to get them to come back as well but Ivo tells her Jonas will convince them to come back and that the two of them would be able to make it and the others would be safer, and Claudia reluctantly goes through the opposite entrance with Ivo.

 

 

Meanwhile, Nia and Smith tries to convince Duncan to come back but Duncan refuses as he is done with this and is going home and if either of them wants to join him, he’ll be finding a way out. Smith points out that if it’s true they show go back and help Claudia but Duncan, hurt at Claudia not believing him, refuses still searching for the exit. Nia stops him by saying that Claudia is their friend and they should go back with her and that Duncan shouldn’t let his heartache get in the way and if Ivo’s the traitor she’s in danger. Duncan, pausing for a second, realizing he may have made a mistake and agrees to go back for her. The three then reach a dead end with a chasm down below with Jonas appearing right behind them. Smith tells Jonas they’ll be going back and he didn’t need to come after them but Jonas assured them he did. Jonas pulls out a gun and tells them to surrender, confirming Duncan’s suspicions. Duncan does a small bit of floating he was right but Nia reminds him now is not the time.

 

 

 

Jonas calls Bailey on his phone telling her, he successfully apprehended Nia, Duncan and Smith. Bailey tells him to bring them in and Jonas assures her Ivo is taking care of Claudia as they speak, but before Bailey can say something back to Jonas, Duncan tackles Jonas, causing him to knock the phone and gun out of his hand and Nia rushes to grab it. The two then tussle and fall down below and Nia and Smith jump after the two. We see Duncan and Jonas get into a brutal fist fight, with Jonas tending to get the upper hand on a grey stone platform with tiny little holes on the side creating a wall of 10 foot tall spikes every thirty seconds with a pit of fire down below. Smith and Nia try to find their way inside the wall but are unable to get to them due to bad timing, Smith tells Nia to stay here while he tries something crazy as he attempts to jump barely avoiding the giant spikes. Jonas then back Duncan near the edge of the platform and prepares to toss him off but Smith delivers a strong roundhouse kick that sends Jonas flying. Jonas is about to fall into the pit of fire but Duncan offers to help him up. Jonas struggles to grab Duncan’s hand attempting to bring Duncan down with him but misses and falls into the fiery hole below. The two then get back on the platform with Nia, as they realize they have to go back to help Claudia now.

 

 

 

We then cut back to Claudia and Ivo in the catacombs, reaching the first room which is the exit is in plane sight. Claudia is still down about Duncan and Smith leaving, even though she doesn’t believe Duncan about Ivo being a traitor but Ivo assures her that everything is alright. Ivo attempts to reach out but Claudia stops him as she tells him to listen. We then hear a noise similar to a swarm of insects buzzing. Four red piercing eyes appear out of the hole as we see two 8 foot tall mantis with a slender barbed snake like tail, grimacing menacing at them. (Staying Alive plays in the background during the scene) The mantis attempt to slash the archaeologists into two with their razor sharp tail which both Claudia and Ivo dodge. The other mantis attempts to swipe at Claudia but Ivo pushes her out of the way. The two then make a run for the exit but are grabbed by one of the mantises while the other mantis uses its tail to finish the two but using her whip, Claudia wraps it around the tail, which they use the momentum to ricochet out as the claw hits the other mantis, causing the two mantises to brawl with each other, providing an escape route for them, carefully and quietly sneaking by. The two then reach another room, which consists of a giant hall with sand replacing the floor. Claudia immediately suspects the sand below as quicksand. The two attempts to use Claudia’s whip to lasso their way across but the two are too heavy and they fall into the quicksand, with the whip landing on the other side. The two then slowly wade their out of the quicksand but slowly start to sink, Ivo gets to the other side and grabs the whip, as Claudia slowly starts to drown as she begs for help. Ivo is about to leave her for dead but accidentally hits a button which drains the quicksand, freeing Claudia much to his displeasure but fakes happiness for saving her. The last room they face is a giant rotating room with the final door above similar to a M. C. Escher painting mixed with a Rubix Cube and Aztec building. Claudia and Ivo are forced to used their wits to escape matching signs in the correct order to bring them to the right spot but Ivo accidentally messes up part of it which causes the pattern to change of the door to change as well as both doors closing, about to seal off the exit, but Claudia eventually figures it out just in time causing it to bring the exit to them and stop the door from closing. The two finally see the Emerald in all of it’s glory on a pedestal with a stone statue of a man kneeling with the Emerald in his hand. Claudia and Ivo prepare for booby traps but there is none. Claudia goes up to take the Emerald replace it with a stone of the same size. Ivo is extremely happy and tells her to bring it back to him which Claudia does but stops and questions to destroy it much to Ivo’s refusal. Ivo tempts her by reminding her of all the fame they could obtain with it and that it’d be safer back on the states. Claudia is hesitant and that it’s better that it’s destroyed. Ivo then reminds her it’s her chance of being the most well known and beloved St. Claire and that for once she won’t feel lesser, and that it’s her moment to seize. Claudia is about to walk to Ivo but questions weren’t they here to destroy it. Ivo tries to come up with an excuse but Claudia also asks how does he know of her insecurity as he was asleep during Truth and Dare. Ivo demands she brings him the Emerald but suspicious, Claudia hangs on to the Emerald, Ivo walks up to Claudia, telling her to stop messing around but Claudia realizes quickly that Duncan was right. Ivo rushes up to Claudia but Smith disarms him with a sucker punch.

 

 

Duncan, Smith and Nia burst in at the last moment, finding a secret entrance, to stop Claudia from giving the Emerald to Ivo, showing further proof that Ivo was working for COTA all along, showing the files on Jonas’s phone to Claudia. Angered, Ivo pulls out a blaster and betrays the four, revealing himself as the true commander of COTA, and that he always was a part of COTA even from the beginning but his lust for power and archeology allowed him to ride to the top until he eventually found out about the Emerald. Seeing it as his chance to rule everything, COTA stationed near the triangle in pursuits the get the Emerald. Ivo explains that he also planted a fake tracker on Duncan to avoid suspicion when he got caught and that he himself couldn’t have found it without their help. Suddenly the COTA soldiers and Bailey burst inside having caught up with the heroes. Ivo offers Claudia a chance to join him but Claudia refuses without question. Ivo then orders Bailey to get the Emerald from Claudia but the four run away. The four attempt to escape the catacombs with COTA agents, Bailey and Ivo hot on their tale. Gaining an idea, Claudia tells Duncan, Smith and Nia to trigger the booby traps to help them escape, killing some of the COTA soldiers in the crossfire but some of them along with Bailey and Ivo remain unscathed. The four then reach four separate exits after gaining enough distance from the villains, Claudia says to the four, she’ll take the Emerald while the others try to find a way out but Duncan refuses to leave her but Claudia reminds them if they split up, odds are it’ll be harder for them to find all of them and she doesn’t want her friends to get hurt. Reluctantly, the four part ways forcing the COTA soldiers to split up. Claudia runs, triggering booby traps along the way, finally getting outside but reaches a dead end along with a giant waterfall down below, Claudia is about to toss the Emerald hoping it’ll break but Ivo tells her to stop. Claudia turns around to see Duncan, Smith and Nia held at gunpoint captured. Ivo threatens to kill them if Claudia doesn’t give up the Emerald forcing her to give up but Claudia attempts to pull a fake out but Ivo knowing that take the Emerald and kicks Ivo Claudia off the cliff, sending her falling down a waterfall as the audience hears a loud splash. Duncan mourns the loudest for Claudia attempting to go after Ivo but is restrained from doing so. Ivo then orders the four the be imprisoned but tells everyone that tonight they celebrate their accomplishment and tomorrow the world. The camera then shows Claudia hangs from a ledge in a waterfall unconscious and it was her backpack that dropped, and we see two hands pull her inside the ledge.

 

 

We then cut to Duncan, Smith and Nia in chains in the COTA compound prison (the prison is similar to one of the medieval holding cells as all three sport chains tied to their legs), as the three mourn the loss of Claudia. Duncan beats himself up the most, but Smith assures him that it wasn’t his fault and that for all they know Claudia can still be out there alive. Nia apologizes for roping everyone in this mess and also starts to cry saying she misses her family. Duncan snaps out of his funk to help comfort Nia, saying although they’re aren’t her family by blood, in a way they’re are like a family, promising they’ll find a way out and stop Ivo and COTA once and for the Bartons, Claudia, and the rest of the world. Duncan starts to formulate a plan but the three then focus their attention on a guard bringing in a prisoner, who turns out to be Dr. Xavier Barton and throws him into their cell, quickly latching on a chain. The guard thanks Xavier for his part, but Xavier replies they forced him too and yells where is his wife. The guard assures him he’ll see her eventually but Xavier demands to see her now but the guard punches Xavier square in the jaw, commenting as long as that they disposed of his wife, and that soon he’ll be next. The guard then leaves the room. Xavier looks across the room to see Nia in the corner, Xavier calls out to Nia happy to see his daughter with the mutual feeling for Nia and the two embrace in a hug. Xavier asks what she’s doing her, and Nia explains she was looking for him and her mom and found the message on the back and that she got Claudia, Duncan and Smith to help her, as well as introducing the latter and explaining that the former was a St. Claire but she died on the adventure. Xavier apologizes to everyone revealing he and his wife were forced to work on a machine that’ll fuse the gem with Ivo after they were kidnapped but Xavier admits he was always a fighter and eventually refuses along with his wife and they tried to escape but Ivo took his wife elsewhere to force his cooperation. Xavier said if he had known they killed Francine, he would’ve never helped. Duncan asks if there’s any way they can stop Ivo. Xavier says that he designed a fail safe to the fusion machine, and that if he can get to the machine he can stop it but they’ll need a way out. Smith remembers that Nia was a good locksmith and could possibly find a way out. (Confused, Xavier asks who taught his daughter to pick locks and Nia replies a fat Ms. Hannigan from Annie). Nia asks if they have anything to use, and Smith takes off his boot and a paper clip falls out, saying he always carries one around him at all times. Duncan comments that it stinks incredibly bad and Smith snarkily replies it was in his boot for about a year now, so it obviously would. Nia successfully picks their locks and frees them.

 

 

The four then sneak out, ascending the stairs, but are caught by a guard but Smith gets into a fistfight with the guard and knocks him out cold. Xavier grabs the guards key, and says they should stop at the weapons room. The four sneak around and then quickly walk inside and grabs things like their high tech stun blasters, but Xavier refuses to let Nia have a weapon as he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Nia says through the whole adventure she’s faced worse but Xavier assures Nia, he’ll protect them. Duncan says he and Smith will stop Ivo and Bailey and destroy the gem and asks Xavier is can find a escape vehicle which Xavier replies there is a bunker downstairs full of planes. The four wish each other luck and leave.

 

 

We open with Claudia covered in bruises in some kind of bed, Claudia attempts to get up only to be greeted by a native. Claudia asks where is she, and although mute, the native helps her up and shows her where she is. It is revealed that the surviving natives have been hiding in a crevice inside the waterfall, which leads to a huge village in a cavern with a little hole for sunlight to come in. The natives then show them to their chief, which is revealed to be Dr. Francine Barton. Francine explains that she and her husband tried to escape Ivo’s clutches, but only she got away and ended up meeting the natives. She took over as leader to help them fight back against Ivo and when Claudia fell from the waterfall, she got the stuck in the entrance to the village and the natives brought her back and took care of her. Claudia tells Francine that Ivo has stolen the Emerald much to Francine’s shock. Claudia also reveals that Ivo took her friends including her daughter as well, revealing her daughter hired them to look for her and Nia’s father. Francine is angered and rallies the native to help stop Ivo and save everyone, despite of how risky it is. Claudia is unsure of herself especially after her screwing up in trusting Ivo, leading him to the Emerald and that it’s her fault for dooming her friends, lamenting that she’s the worst St. Claire. Francine says they can still stop her and reminds her now is not the time to feel sorry for themselves as the world is at sake and besides they still have time to fix things and that her crew wouldn’t be with her if she was the worst. Claudia agrees and reinvigorated decides to join in, not before Francine gives Claudia her whip and music player. (I’m Still Standing plays in the background of the scene https://youtu.be/N1L2eAX944o ) Francine reveals she’s been tinkering around with things since she came here. Francine shows Claudia her pterodactyl fleet armed with weapons, such as explosive berries which Francine shows by throwing one at a target. Claudia explains that half of the natives will create a diversion and she, Francine and the rest will take on Ivo. They all fly out of the cave and head off to COTA’s headquarters (Claudia struggles a bit but Francine says it’s like riding a flying bike).

 

 

We see Duncan and Smith blast their way their the COTA guards, knocking them out one by one, as they push their way through. We then cut to Ivo with Bailey by his side a typical villain speech in front of his legion of soldiers but an alarm blaring interrupts his monologue and a soldier reveals the prisoners have escaped. Angered, Ivo tells his soldiers to fan out and take care of it and Bailey to hook him and the gem up to the machine. The two then rush to his upstairs laboratory. We see a big grey chamber with two columns attached to its side, with an armor like harness inside. Ivo walks in, puts the gem in the chest plate and tells Bailey to start the fusion. Bailey pulls a lever from the control panel and the machine flares with life, and from the inside Ivo is blasted with green rays, that cause him to scream in pain as he and the gem fuse. Assuming something is wrong, Bailey attempts to stop it but Ivo refuses. We then cut to Xavier and Nia sneak into a cargo plane but are surrounded by guards and the exit is sealed, Xavier attempts to fight his way through but a COTA guard grabs Nia threatening to kill her if Xavier doesn’t surround but Nia, using her pickpocket grabs a mini sticky bomb and attaches it to the guard causing him to let go and try to get it off of him which he manages to toss at the sealed exit giving them a exit. Nia and Xavier then manage to get to a plane and try to ram the guards out of the way but they duck or dodge at the last moment getting out but giant cannons fire at the plane damaging and stopping it as guards burst through the plane, causing Xavier to hurt his hand forcing Nia to take control assuring her father she’s got this and activates the planes self defense system and destroys the cannons, however a group of COTA fighter planes attempt to stop them as Nia gets into a fierce dogfight with the fighters and is outnumbered and ultimately comes close to losing but suddenly a lone screech is heard in the air, the guards see Claudia, Francine, and the natives flying pterodactyls. The natives throw the explosive berries sending the guards flying back and destroying some of the fighter planes, and some are snatched by the pterodactyls and eaten. Claudia and Francine help save Nia and Xavier, the latter which reunited with the rest of her family as they share a hug happy to see each other, Nia tells Claudia to get in on this as well, happy to see she’s alive and well. Xavier explains to his wife Duncan’s plan and Francine tells Claudia to get inside and they’ll handle the rest. Claudia nods and on her pterodactyl flies inside of the building fighting the leftover CATO guards as she searches for Ivo.

 

 

 

We then see Smith and Duncan inside the laboratory armed telling Bailey they have her surrounded. Bailey says they’re too late, pulls out her double edged staff and take on the two of them. Despite the two outnumbering Bailey, Bailey manages to knock the blasters out of their hands leaving them defenseless but they manage to hold their own and deal in a few good punches while dodging Bailey’s staff. Eventually the two deliver one good punch and send Bailey flying as she drops her staff. Bailey attempts to escape but Duncan catches her at spearpoint. Suddenly, the chamber bursts open and we see Dr. Ivo with the harness and gem attached as his eyes glow an emerald green. Duncan says he’ll try to activate the failsafe as Smith goes to fight the superpowered Ivo. Duncan rushes to the control panel but Ivo levitates Duncan flings him around saying he’s just getting started. We then cut back to the Barton family and the natives take on the COTA guards as they are many close calls for both side and it’s so evenly matched, it’s hard to tell who will win. Duncan manages to grab his blaster to fire shoots at the gem which does some damage as Ivo is engaged in fight with Smith as he dodges the green blasts of energy Ivo spews out, attempting to swipe at hit with the staff. Ivo then punches Smith sending him back as Smith gets up again to charge at Ivo, Duncan then fires a few shots at things in the ceiling to come crash down to distract Ivo as Smith gets a few good punches in and attempts to pry the gem from the harness. However although it seem like they could do it, Ivo is fed up and destroys both the staff and the blaster and levitates both Duncan and Smith into the air choking them out, as he uses his powers to compress their organs but Claudia comes barging in on her pterodactyl slamming right into Ivo, causing an explosion which kills the pterodactyl but breaking the gem which weakens Ivo. Furious, a weakened but still powerful Ivo charges at Claudia firing bolts of weakened but still powerful green energy at the three as Bailey slinks off elsewhere.

 

 

 

The three manage to fight Ivo in a brutal fight as they dodge blasts of energy but get hit by Ivo anyway. Smith tackles Ivo as Claudia then uses her whip to tangles Ivo and whip him to the ground. Duncan then grab a big piece of debris to knock out Ivo, barely defeating him. The three celebrate and manage to pry the shattered gem remnants out of Ivo. Bailey then walks to a control room where she triggers a detonation of the headquarters which would trigger an explosion to kill the rest, as she and a few numbers of COTA guards escape on another cargo plane as she tells the rest of the guards via an intercom to fall back and retreat. The guards stop their assault against the Boltons and the natives and run away. However everyone is halted by a loud explosion as the ground starts to shake and the headquarters starts to crumble. Smith grabs the tied up and powerless Ivo as they try to escape as they rush out of the building narrowly dodging the falling debris and flames as they make it outside and rush inside the Barton’s cargo plane as Smith takes the wheel. The natives also take flight on their pterodactyls as the COTA headquarters and island explodes in a massive fireball. After heading back to the triangle, our heroes celebrate as they say goodbye to the natives and head back home. Xavier thanks Claudia, Duncan and Smith for reuniting his family, which the three accept. Claudia then goes to Nia, claiming she is also one of the real heroes here and offers a chance for Nia to join them but she declines for now, wanting to spend some much overdue time with her parents.

 

 

We then cut back to a title card that says 2 weeks later as the camera sets in at the Barton’s new home in upstate New York as Nia rushes her parents as they have two very important things to do today. We then cut to Ms. Farley’s house as you see her barking orders at Richard and Lois as the doorbell rings, and Ms Farley gets up to see Nia at the door. Ms. Farley enraged, tells Nia to get inside now and that’s she has been preparing a special punishment for her as she attempts to grab Nia but Xavier stops her and Ms. Farley flinches in fear. We then see Xavier and Francine introduce themselves as Nia’s parents and they’ve heard all about her and told a few friends. The police arrive as well to arrest Ms. Farley for child abuse and other felonies, take both Lois and Richard who are happy to be freed and see their old friends. The police apologizes for the mess and promise Ms. Farley won’t go anywhere anymore but comments that both Lois and Richard will go to much better homes. Lois and Richard thank Nia and hug her goodbye. Nia then checks her watch to remind her parents they’re late. We then see Archeologist Convention from before as Claudia gives her presentation of what she calls the Bermuda Affair with the Barton family, as well as Dr. Ivo is in prison. The crowd of archeologists give a complete standing ovation (all except for an annoyed May Madeline, Mano de Noche claps too only to be shut up by an icy glare from Madeline as she drags Noche and angrily storms off into a huff). Harrison then gives Claudia her long awaited trophy. Claudia thanks her family for their influence to her not just her biological one but also Duncan, Scaley Smith, and the Barton family who see also considers a huge part of her family. The audience roars in applause as Duncan asks Claudia out which she snarks what took him so long as the two share a kiss. Smith elbows Nia saying he called it forcing Nia to give him $5. As the camera ascends away from the the convention to a new family photo of the Bartons with Claudia, Duncan and Smith.

 

 

We see the credits similar to Johnny Quest style animation as we hear a tribal like beat in the background.

 

 

Mid Credit Scene: Nia brought home a pet from the Triangle which is revealed to be a baby pterodactyl which she clumsily attempts to hide from her parents.

 

 

Post Credit Scene: We see Dr. Ivo in a maximum security government prison for attempted treason. Dr. Ivo then says ominously he’s in. We then see Bailey watching on a computer, with a dastardly smile on her face.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[YM!]

@Xillix

 

St Claire will take Celestial 3000’s spot along with claiming IMAX 2D+3D

Celestial 3000’s will take Barry Brookshire’s spot

Barry Brookshire can be removed from the schedule.

[Xillix]

Extreme Dinosaurs II

Release Date: October 9, Y4

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Comedy

Director: Dave Green

Theater Count: 3,650

Premium Formats: 3D, Dolby Cinema & IMAX 3D
Shooting Format: Digital 6.4K (Arri Alexa 65 IMAX edition) / Digital 8K (Red DSMC2 Monstro VV for select scenes requiring a smaller camera) (Post-converted to 3D)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 / 1.90:1 (Select scenes in IMAX)
Image Release Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 4K Dolby Cinema DCP, 2K IMAX 3D Digital DCP, 4K IMAX 3D with Laser DCP
Audio Release Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-channel

Production Budget: $110 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence, mild language, rude humor, and some suggestive content

Running Time: 102 minutes

Major Cast: Dwayne Johnson (T-Bone), Karl Urban (Bad Rap), Nina Dobrev (Chedra), Jackie Earle Haley (Argor), Johnny Yong Bosch (voice of Spike), David Kaye (voice of Stegz), Nolan North (voice of Bullzeye), Charlie Adler (voice of Spittor), Bumper Robinson (voice of Haxx), Danny Trejo (Pork), Kate Beckinsale (Dr. Scarwell)

Previous Film Gross: $79.9m domestic / $183.7m foreign / $263.7m worldwide

 

Plot Summary:

Sequel to the Y1 film Extreme Dinosaurs, based on the 90s cartoon of the same name.

 

Note the dinos and raptors have received a bit of a makeover; in the first film they were purely CG characters created from motion capture, but here extensive use is made of bodysuits, prosthetics, and animatronics enhanced with CG (especially for the heads) a la the heroes of Street Sharks.

Scenes in RED TEXT are expanded to the 1.90:1 ratio in IMAX.

 

Spoiler

 

Chaos in Area 51! Scientists and security guards are overwhelmed by throngs of formerly-captive alien specimens, laser blasts and unearthly shrieks all around. Amid the havoc, Dr. Scarwell (Kate Beckinsale), one of the head researchers at the infamous government facility, is desperately searching for a specific group of escapees. She has a pretty good idea where they're headed - the armory, where confiscated alien weapons are kept for study and reverse-engineering. Indeed, upon arrival she discovers that the guards have all been incapacitated and the large blast doors are wide open. Inside are exactly the troublemakers she expected to find - a trio of extraterrestrial terrorists from a planet filled with dinosaur-like reptilian lifeforms: dumb brute Haxx (voice of Bumper Robinson, body by some stuntguy), a brown raptor with a spiky mechanical tail, savage evil genius Spittor (voice of Charlie Adler), colored purple and white, and their leader, the ruthless orange Bad Rap (Karl Urban, performing in body as well as voice) with his reinforced steel jaws.

Carefully avoiding the raptors' attention, Dr. Scarwell radios for assistance, but receives no reply. Out of the shadows of the large, dark room steps a fourth alien, this one human-looking, but with light blue skin and pointed, elf-like ears - Argor Zardok (Jackie Earle Haley), she realizes, an interdimensional warlord. He aims an unknown alien rifle-like weapon at her, and says she has one chance to turn back around and let them leave. With no other choice, Dr. Scarwell complies, returning to the main facility. A triumphant Argor joins the raptors, who have located his impounded spacecraft, and together the four of them zoom out of the underground base with the ship's handy-dandy ability to phase through solid matter.

 

MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE

In the kitchen of an old, little-visited dinosaur museum in the desert not too far from Area 51, the owner, live-in-caretaker, and sole employee, an elderly man who calls himself Pork (Danny Trejo), is cooking up a comically oversized pot of chili. He's adding more spices to his mixture when the door to the kitchen flies open, startling him so that he drops the entire container into the pot. The intruder is Stegz (voice of David Kaye, body by Bowflex some other stunt guy), a bright green alien resembling a humanoid stegosaurus. He's carrying a portable communications device of his own design, on which he's receiving and decoding the distress transmission from Area 51. Stegz asks where the others are, and Pork says he sent them to the grocery store to pick up some more tomato paste.

 

"Really?" Stegz asks, concerned. "But won't they be quite conspicuous as patrons of a human shopping establishment?"

"For an alien super-genius you sure are an idiot," Pork replies. "Don't they have sarcasm on your planet?"

It turns out that the other three members of the intergalactic crime-fighting team calling themselves the Extreme Dinosaurs are out back in the scrapyard of old, broken exhibits, having a training session. Their leader, the tyrannosaurus-esque T-Bone (Dwayne Johnson, body and voice), is putting the red pteranodon Bullzeye (voice of Nolan North) and the blue triceratops Spike (voice of Johnny Yong Bosch) through a makeshift obstacle course. Stegz once again barges loudly onto the scene, the sudden noise causing Bullzeye and Spike to fumble and bring the entire course crashing down around them. Stegz alerts his teammates to the breakout at Area 51, which the transmission says is now being controlled - with the exception of four escaped specimens, referred to only by code names that the heroes can't decipher. The team immediately suspect that the raptors have gotten out, but are clueless as to who the fourth escapee could be.

 

Meanwhile, the raptors and Argor are flying high up in the Nevada skies, discussing evil plans and such. Argor is a Quadranian, an alien species from not another planet but a parallel dimension. He had led an attempted coup in his home dimension, attempting to overthrow the Grand Council that governed his society with an army of mutant soldiers. When his plot failed, he'd barely managed to escape through a dimensional barrier, crash-landing on Earth and eventually being captured and brought to Area 51. The raptors briefly explain their backstory for the benefit of Argon (and anyone who didn't see the first movie) - they come from a planet of dinosaurian reptiles and belong to a group of raptor supremacists who sought to establish their own kind as the ruling class on their home planet, but had been captured. They'd hijacked a prison ship and brought it here to Earth, similarly crash-landing, pursued by a multi-species team of law enforcement agents from their planet.

 

The raptors want to take over Earth, using it as a new homeworld for raptorkind. Argor, though, doesn't have any particular interest in taking over anything in this dimension. As such, he proposes a temporary partnership - he will aid the raptors in the conquest of Earth, as he had already aided their escape from confinement, and once they are the masters of this planet, they will lend him an army to return to his home dimension with in order to re-attempt his coup. The raptors, believing above all in the dominance and superiority of their kind, aren't about to send a bunch of fellow raptors into another dimension as cannon fodder - but for now, Argor doesn't need to know that, and so they accept the deal with every intent to betray him whenever it's convenient.

The group's discussion is interrupted by the sudden appearance of another Quadranian ship through a glowing tear in the dimensional barrier! Argon recognizes it as a police vessel, realizing that reactivating his own ship must have allowed the authorities to trace him to this dimension. The raptors, Bad Rap especially, aren't terribly impressed by this lapse in his judgment.

 

A dogfight ensues between the two spacecraft, laser blasts zooming to and fro, in and out of the screen. Both vehicles repeatedly phase through towering rock formations to avoid crashes. Spittor takes control of the laser blasters on Argor's ship, and manages to tweak the system to boost the power and rate of fire dramatically. This finally allows him to land several devastating hits on the police ship, knocking its phasing ability offline. It smashes into a pillar of rock, crashing to the ground, and the villains make their escape.

 

Stegz' scanner picks up Area 51 chatter about the crashed ship, and the Extreme Dinosaurs decide they should try to get there before the government does. They race to the crash site on a set of new super-fast hoverbikes that Stegz has built from various salvaged materials from the museum junkyard and other dumps around the desert. Bullzeye complains it's not as fun as just flying, but admits it's a lot faster than he can go on his own. Still, he asks if Stegz could make him some kind of jet-pack next time instead.

 

Argor is monitoring the crashed vessel from his own ship to confirm the pilot was killed in the crash. Just as he's about to switch off the monitor, though, the raptors see the Extreme Dinosaurs arrive on the scene. An argument ensues between the evil allies - the raptors demand to turn back to confront the heroes and exact their revenge, while Argor says it'd be foolish to rush right into battle before making preparations. Before things can come to blows, though, Argor sees the pilot has survived and is climbing out of the wrecked ship. Begrudgingly, he agrees it is best to try and finish the job now before their respective enemies can join forces.

 

The Extreme Dinosaurs prepare for battle, expecting that the raptors are on this ship. However, the figure that emerges is a stranger - Quadranian law enforcement officer Chedra Bodzak (Nina Dobrev). There's some comedic banter as Chedra pulls out a small codebook from a pocket on her uniform, trying to find the specific first contact protocol for sentient reptilian life forms in parallel dimensions and shushing the dinos whenever they try to speak, insisting that this has to be done "by the book." Ultimately, though, it turns out the relevant section is only included in the full-size codebook, which burned up in the crash.

 

Stegz, being the brainiest of the dinosaurs, takes the lead in the discussion with her, and there's a passing mention of how fortunate it is she was able to access the language database for this world before her ship crashed, to which Chedra replies that she is always prepared. At first Chedra refuses any assistance from our heroes, and refuses to explain her mission, as a matter of protocol. However, once they are able to identify themselves as law officers from their own planet, her codebook evidently allows her to initiate a joint operation. She explains to them her pursuit of Argor Zardok, and the dinosaurs in turn explain their presence on Earth in pursuit of the raptors.

 

The exchange of information is brought to a halt with the return of Argor's ship. Argor returns the raptor's weapons, retrieved from the Area 51 armory - Haxx's green wrist-mounted holo-blades and Spittor's back-strapped tanks and tubes, leading to nozzles on his wrists and in his mouth which allowed him to "spit" out liquid ammunition. The tanks had been emptied for storage, and so Argor has refilled them with a noxious chemical of Quadranian origin. Bad Rap's original weapon could not be located in time, and so Argor instead offers him a large, powerful Quadranian laser-shotgun. He equips himself with the same alien rifle he'd wielded during his escape from Area 51.

 

The villains land the ship and rush out to confront our heroes, the raptors going after the dinosaurs while Argor tries to shoot and kill Chedra. Thankfully, Argor's aim is not especially good. At first the battle is reasonably structured - Argor blasts away at an unarmed Chedra, dodging retaliatory attacks from Stegz; Haxx faces off against Spike in melee combat; Spittor blasts his steaming green toxic gunk at a flying Bullzeye, who dive-bombs him to attack; and Bad Rap goes straight for T-Bone, switching between melee attacks and laser blasts. Things begin to fall apart for our heroes, though, when a blast of Spittor's goop is dodged by Bullzeye only to land on Spike. The triceratops gags and wheezes, the toxic vapors sapping his strength, stinging his eyes and blinding him.

 

Chedra tells Stegz that she can handle herself and that he should go help Spike. He obliges, charging in just in time to block what would have been a devastating slash by Haxx. Chedra proves to be an extremely adept martial artist, quickly closing the distance between herself and Argor and disarming him, overwhelming him in hand-to-hand combat. Argor calls out to the raptors for help, but they ignore him - in fact, Bad Rap openly laughs at the Quadranian warlord, calling him a "useless weakling." It's not long before the warlord is restrained in a pair of holo-cuffs.

 

Spike is still out of commission, and while that makes it a three-on-three match between the Extreme Dinosaurs and the raptors, the heroes are at a disadvantage because they must defend Spike in addition to themselves. Haxx and Spittor have Bullzeye and Stegz on the ropes, but Bad Rap and T-Bone are at an impasse. The leader of the raptors is frustrated by his weapon, which is powerful but slow, firing narrow beams that take a while to recharge. He begins tinkering with it, against the advice of Spittor, who can tell it's a rather delicate piece of equipment. Bad Rap succeeds at overcharging the device, and when he pulls the trigger, it unleashes an enormous, wide blast of energy that destroys the weapon entirely.

 

Still, the final blast is devastating. All of the Extreme Dinosaurs are hit by the massive cone of energy discharge. Bullzeye is knocked out of the sky, and the others are all pushed back several feet. But T-Bone, near the center of the cone, takes the brunt of its impact. Badly bruised and burned, most of his scales charred black, the leader of the Extreme Dinosaurs is knocked out cold. A stunned Chedra acts impulsively for once, grabbing the blaster she'd knocked out of Argor's hand and landing an expertly-aimed shot on Spittor's tanks. They burst, spreading the noxious fumes into a cloud all around the raptors, and Chedra continues to fire into the shroud. The raptors are forced to retreat back into Argor's ship, though Bad Rap boasts of his triumph between coughs and wheezes as they enter the spacecraft and take off.

 

Chedra, shocked she'd taken such swift and decisive action, drops the blaster and returns to the restrained Argor. Stegz, Bullzeye, and Spike - the effects of the chemical wearing off - get to their feet, and rush over to check on their fallen leader. None can rouse him. Stegz runs over to Chedra, asking for help, but she shakes her head no. She's already broken protocol for their sake, and she's paranoid that the results will be disastrous. Standard operating procedure is for her to return the fugitive as soon as he's captured. She needs to get back to her own dimension. Stegz asks how she plans to do that with her ship wrecked and Argor's in the possession of the raptors, but she assures him there's equipment on board for her to repair the rift generator.

"I've interacted with you and this dimension more than I should have already," she explains. "Protocol Z-96 Delta states that once my primary mission is accomplished, the joint operation ends and contact with extra-dimensional law enforcement must cease immediately. I can't help you."

She advises the dinosaurs tend to their injuries and leave her be. Once she's back in her home dimension, a team will be sent back to retrieve Argor's ship from the raptors. She warns them not to interfere with the stolen Quadranian tech, which would of course be a violation of Quadranian law. Then she drags Argor back into her wrecked ship, seals the door, and refuses to acknowledge any further attempts by the dinosaurs to communicate.

 

The dinosaurs are forced the flee the scene as agents from Area 51 approach, leaving one of the hoverbikes behind - T-Bone is slung across the front of Spike's bike, still unconscious as the Extreme Dinosaurs zoom off into the distance. By the time they return to the dinosaur museum, Pork is in a panic. His chili is ruined, and WORSE, the raptors have flown the stolen Quadranian spaceship to Las Vegas and launched an attack! His mood is only worsened when he sees the sorry state that T-Bone is in. The tyrannosaurus has finally regained consciousness, but he's in a great deal of pain and badly weakened.

Pork and the dinosaurs move T-Bone into the makeshift living room in the back of the museum, laying him down on the couch to recuperate. The others ask for more details on the raptor attack and Pork explains it's all over the TV, on every channel. To demonstrate, he picks up the remote and flicks on the dusty old 90s-era CRT in front of the couch, flicking through stations. The local networks are all covering the story of a UFO piloted by dinosaur-like aliens invading Las Vegas. So are CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox News too - with the headline "OBAMA'S COMMIE RAPTOR THUGS STRIKE VEGAS."

We cut to the Las Vegas strip, where the raptors, in Argor's craft, are hovering over the tallest building in the city - the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower. Laser cannon fire is blasting out in all directions, incinerating various city landmarks. Using an alien transmitter aboard the ship, Spittor is beaming a broadcast of Bad Rap's face onto every screen in the city - from tourist's smartphones to the giant electric billboards lining the strip. "Pathetic hairless mammals of Earth," the raptor bellows, "Your time as the dominant species on this planet is over! Witness our might as we raze your gaudy utopia to the ground, and tremble in the face of your new master!" Fighter jets zoom into the city, but are easily blasted out of the sky by the Quadranian craft's weapons.

 

The Extreme Dinosaurs know at once that they need to intervene. But T-Bone is definitely not in fighting shape. Still, he refuses to lay around doing nothing while the raptors are on a rampage. While the other three dinos head out to Vegas on their hoverbikes, T-Bone and Pork decide to head back out to the site of Chedra's crash in Pork's old beat-up Jeep. Most of the Area 51 agents who had chased them away have now left in order to respond to the Las Vegas attack. However, Dr. Scarwell is still there with a small group of soldiers. They're attempting to break into the wrecked ship, as Chedra works furiously to repair her rift generator.

 

Pork and T-Bone's arrival is loudly announced when the Jeep's engine begins backfiring. Recognizing the alien tyrannosaurus from the first film, Dr. Scarwell redirects her agents to him and away from the crashed ship - which, as far as they know, is empty. As the agents surround Pork's Jeep, he and T-Bone are forced to surrender. Meanwhile, Chedra completes her repairs and activates the rift generator, her broken spaceship returning to her home dimension in a swirl of shimmering colors.

Stegz, Spike, and Bullzeye arrive in Las Vegas, but aren't really of much use. Their hoverbikes can only rise a few feet off of the ground, and Bullzeye's wings are too injured from the earlier battle to fly up to the stolen spaceship. The raptors notice their arrival with the monitoring equipment on the ship, and begin focusing their laser fire on the heroes, forcing them to race wildly up and down the strip, dodging blasts and zooming past local landmarks like Ceasars Palace, the replica Statue of Liberty, the Big Apple Coaster, and the giant sphinx outside the Luxor Hotel - many of which are blown to smithereens. Stegz gets an idea though, and directs his teammates to turn around and ride back TOWARDS the base of the Stratosphere Tower.

 

T-Bone and Pork are restrained and loaded into a transport truck to be brought to Area 51. T-Bone tries to convince Dr. Scarwell to take him to Vegas so he can help his team, but she's of the opinion that the fewer aliens running around the better, no matter which side they're on. She radios ahead to the base to tell them to prepare a maximum-security holding cell. But suddenly, another, intact Quadranian police ship appears out of a dimensional rift in front of the truck! Chedra's at the controls, and with a series of carefully-targeted laser blasts in front of and around the vehicle, she forces it to stop before blasting the roof off of the back! A tractor beam proceeds to lift T-Bone and Pork out of confinement, prompting Pork to freak out, having flashbacks to his previous alien abduction.

 

Still, he calms down once aboard. T-Bone wonders what changed Chedra's mind, but she says that nothing did - the Quadranian authorities are just big on efficiency. When she returned to incarcerate Argor, she suggested that she could rendezvous with an existing law enforcement team to retrieve his ship without dedicating additional Quadranian officers to the task, and she received expedited approval through protocol XDT-LF331-

T-Bone cuts her off mid-explanation, insisting they just get to Vegas as quickly as possible. He asks to teleport there, but Chedra explains the ship can only jump between different dimensions, which takes a while to set up. It'll be best to just follow strategic protocol Z-S1, which translates roughly to "floor it." The trio zoom off towards Vegas at hyperspeed, the sun beginning to set.

 

Stegz, Spike, and Bullzeye have reached the top of the Stratosphere Tower the old-fashioned way - the elevator. The raptors lost track of them at some point as they wound through the city streets, and now optimistically assume the heroes have been scared off. But in fact, Stegz had remembered something he learned about Las Vegas during one of his late-night internet research binges - on top of the Stratosphere Tower is the Big Shot amusement ride, a steel tower which stretches an additional 160 feet above the top of the building itself. The others point out that the top of the ride is still a few dozen feet below the bottom of the spaceship, but Stegz says the plan was never to CLIMB it.

 

Spike hotwires the ride's controls, and the three dinos grab onto the passenger car wrapped around the ride tower. With a blast of compressed air, the car is shot up the tower at a speed more than twice what it was designed for. The car flies off the top of the tower (and out of the screen into the audience, at least in 3D), and with a propelled leap, our heroes jump off of the car and grab onto the various alien doodads protruding from the bottom of the spaceship! As the ride car begins its 1,100-foot drop to the streets below, the dangling dinosaurs realize... there's no way into the ship from down here.

 

"THIS was your big plan?" Bullzeye asks.

"I got us up to the ship, didn't I?" Stegz retorts.

 

Thankfully, Chedra's ship arrives just in time! As it slows down for its approach to the stolen spaceship, the raptors open fire - but Chedra dodges the blasts with skillful flying, doing barrel rolls and other evasive maneuvers, phasing through towering hotels along the way. T-Bone spots the other members of the team hanging from the stolen ship, and Chedra turns her own spacecraft upside-down, zooming under the raptors' craft and just above the top of the Big Shot, activating the tractor beam to suck Stegz, Spike and Bullzeye down into her ship!

 

With all our heroes reunited, Chedra goes on the attack, trying to drive the raptors out of the city. With their craft taking damage from repeated laser blasts - courtesy of an overly-excited Pork at the cannon controls - the raptors are forced to fly away from the tower and out of the city. They try to engage Chedra and the Extreme Dinosaurs in a dogfight, but while Spittor has mastered the weapons systems, none of them have really gotten the hang of piloting the ship, and they haven't even found the phasing controls.

 

After a volley of blasts knocks out their engines, the raptors realize their craft is headed straight down into Lake Mead! But a furious Bad Rap refuses to give up. He finds the tractor beam and has Spittor remove its power limiter, then blasts it at Chedra's ship! The gambit works, and the heroes' ship is dragged down along with the raptors', both splashing down into the lake, shattering its reflection of the twilight sky and showering the coastline with thousands of gallons of water!

 

As the crippled pair of alien vessels sink to the bottom of the lake, both teams abandon ship. Chedra, it turns out, can't swim - but a helpful Pork comes to her rescue, grabbing her and swimming her up to the surface. Meanwhile, the Extreme Dinosaurs engage the raptors in a brief underwater fight, the whole thing seeming to move in slow motion as their muscular bodies claw and thrash at one another, most of the dinosaurs using their tails to propel themselves while Bullzeye uses his wings as a pair of fins. But soon they all need to come up for air, and so all seven of the alien beasts emerge onto the drenched lakeshore. Pork and Chedra, meanwhile, have surfaced further from shore and climb onto the top of one of the rapidly-sinking ships so that Pork can catch his breath.

 

Both teams are exhausted, but the Extreme Dinosaurs - still nursing their injuries from the earlier battle in the desert - are visibly more weary. Bad Rap tries to talk them into surrendering, saying that when raptors rule the Earth, the other dinosaurs will at least be given a higher standing than the "worthless humans." Naturally, the heroes refuse the offer. Spittor's tanks have yet to be replaced, and Haxx's holo-blades have been shorted out by the submersion in the lake. So with no weapons, the two teams of vicious reptiles charge at each other.

 

There is an extended, savage melee fight between the raptors and the Extreme Dinosaurs. This time there are no clear matchups - it's chaos, a tempest of swinging tails and slashing claws and biting mouths. Bullzeye still can't fly, but uses his powerful sonic screech to try and blast the raptors away from him. Spike tries to gore them with his horns and use his shield to block their attacks. Stegz flails his spiked tail about wildly. T-Bone, still more heavily injured than the others, attempts to hold back and strike at critical moments. But despite the heroes' superior numbers, the raptors, fighting very dirty, begin to get the upper hand. Haxx' spiked metal tail rakes across Bullzeye's body, tearing open his wing. Spittor loops his tubes around Stegz' neck, strangling him. Bad Rap pins Spike to the ground, biting into his arm. When T-Bone charges in, Bad Rap flicks him away almost effortlessly with a swing of his tail.

 

But then comes an angry shout from the center of the lake. Chedra and Pork have managed to pry one of the sinking ships' laser cannons off of the vehicle, and Chedra's rigged it for manual fire. The two blast away at the raptors, Chedra's excellent aim very much a necessity with them so entangled with the other heroes. She lands all three shots in a slow-motion sequence, sending the screaming raptors flying away from the Extreme Dinosaurs, into the woods surrounding the lake.

 

As the ship finally disappears entirely beneath the surface, the pair drop the cannon and swim ashore, Pork once again keeping Chedra afloat. By the time our heroes have recovered enough to regain their footing, there is no sign of the raptors in the woods - though they do find stray scales, traces of their blood, and even a charred, broken piece of Bad Rap's metal jaw brace. Though the villains are still at large, the heroes decide to chalk this up as a win for now. Area 51 vehicles begin converging on the lake, late as usual, but Chedra, Pork, and the Extreme Dinosaurs are able to escape into the woods and avoid capture while the agents focus on salvaging technology from the wrecked ships in the lake.

 

Once they've finally made it back to the dinosaur museum, our heroes realize they and Chedra are now proverbially in the same boat - the ships they came in lost or destroyed, no contact with their home planets or any way to return to where they came from. The dinosaurs' mission is still incomplete - they were sent to capture the raptors and return them to their planet. But Chedra's mission is done, or at least as done as it can be, given that the stolen ship she was supposed to retrieve is now lost.

 

Stegz offers to pause work on his transmission device, which he's been trying to get working well enough to contact the dinosaurs' home planet, and help Chedra build a rift generator to get back home. But Chedra refuses the offer, saying that if she's REALLY needed back home, the Quadranian authorities will send someone to pick her up. Besides - the raptors stole the ship from a Quadranian citizen, criminal warlord fugitive though he was. That means they've violated civil code GTA-37XT, and thus it is her duty to capture them and bring them to justice as well. For the time being, she's going to stick around and try to help get them. That suits the dinosaurs and Pork just fine - especially since it means they get to introduce her to their favorite thing about Earth, Mexican food!

MID-CREDITS SCENE:
The raptors have established a high-tech secret lair in the warm caverns inside an active volcano. Spittor is finishing setting up his equipment, including a complicated-looking retro-futuristic supercomputer. As he bats away Haxx's hand to keep him from messing anything up, Bad Rap steps into the foreground, locking a new metal jaw brace into place around his mouth before snapping his teeth menacingly at the camera.

 

POST-CREDITS SCENE:
Chedra tries Pork's spicy chili for the first time. She immediately spits it out, wondering what sort of barbaric society would willingly serve and consume food that causes pain. She threatens to arrest Pork for assaulting a Quadranian police officer with harmful or tainted foodstuffs, a violation of Code PZA-FF22. No one can tell if she is joking.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Xillix

[YM!]

Home Invasion

Studio: Infinite Studios 

Release Date: 12/4/Y4

Genre: Action/Sci-fi/Thriller

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Rating: PG-13 

Budget: $30M

Theater Count: 3,029

Format: 2D and 3D

Runtime: 110 minutes

Cast:

Liam Nesson as Steve Lewis

The rest are unknowns

 

Steve Lewis was a former Navy Seal but retired to be with his family, in a secluded farm upstate in New England. However, one night, 8 feet tall aggressive reptilian like aliens searching to reproduce and dominate and invade Steve’s home. Steve is then forced to use his brains and brains to protect his family by killing all the aliens.

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Sears]

How do I enter?

[YM!]

4 minutes ago, Sears said:

How do I enter?

Just make a studio and post films, it’s not to late to join, as there’s still time left. Happy to have a new player and excited to see your work.

 

The rules for the game are here:

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Sears]

Alright, I'll start posting shortly

[Sears]

Outside Man

Writer-Director: Spike Lee

Genre: Action

Release Date: 9/18/Y4

Major Cast:

Denzel Washington as Russell Lewis

Channing Tatum as Andrew Carter

... and no one else really

Studio: Hot Shot Productions

Theater Count: 3,508

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes

Production Budget: $100 million

Music by: a unknown

Plot Summary: A spiritual successor to 2006's Inside Man, sort of, but instead it involves Denzel's character coming out of retirement to help Tatum's character with stealing $150 million from The Chicago Bank & Trust(a fictional bank by the way).

Edited August 30, 2018 by Sears

[Xillix]

@Sears Welcome! Just be sure to let me know when your films are finished so I can add them to the schedule in the first post