MCKillswitch123 Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 (edited) Based On: Far Cry 3, by Ubisoft Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Release Date: March 22 Y8, with IMAX and Dolby Cinema Genre: Action/Thriller Rating: R, for graphic violence, language, drug use, nudity and depictions of sex Format: 2D, 3D Budget: $130M Theater Count: 3,685 theaters Runtime: 2 hours and 10 minutes Director: Paul Verhoeven Producer: Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt Cinematographer: John Seale Original Music: Cliff Martinez Original Song: Wonderland by Hayley Williams ft. Linkin Park Cast: - Dylan Minnette as Jason Brody - Diego Luna as Vaas Montenegro - Eddie Watson as Dennis Rogers - Simone Missick as Citra - Big E as Virgil King - Madeleine Petsch as Liza Snow - Wyatt Oleff as Riley Brody - Dylan Sprouse as Grant Brody - with Hank Azaria as Albert Brody - and Anna Gunn as Victoria Brody Minor Cast (Spoilers): Spoiler - Michael Mando as man locked in cage with Jason - Faye Kingslee as woman in the cave - Billy Unger as Oliver Carswell Plot Synopsis: After a trip gone wrong to the tropical paradise known as Rook Islands, Jason Brody (Minnette) must become a fighter against the forces of human trafficking and drug lord Vaas Montenegro (Luna) to rescue his family. Plot: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sA_szhazJPoDr3RZ0NVu8vQhVO1zOMEIaN5H542eIWU/edit?usp=sharing Special thanks to @SLAM! and @YourMother the Edgelord. Edited January 24, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 MEG Studio: Infinite Studios Release Date: 3/15/Y8 Genre: Concert Director: Bruce Hendricks Original Song: “Queen Slayz” by Meg Thee Stallion Rating: PG-13 Budget: $7M Theater Count: 2,450 Format: 2D and 3D Runtime: 98 minutes Plot: Meg Thee Stallion does a concert with 3D and stuff. We also learn more about her as well as the debut of her new song. Nuff said. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 19, 2020 Share Posted December 19, 2020 (edited) UP IN THE SKY Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Release Date: April 19th Y8 Director: Hanelle Culpepper Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama Rating: PG, for themes Format: 2D Budget: $35M Theater Count: 3,112 theaters Runtime: 1 hour and 47 minutes Cast: - Priah Ferguson as Love - Issa Rae as Kelly - Raven-Symoné as Love / Kelly (voice) - and Joel Edgerton as The Ethereal (voice) Minor Cast: - Gabriella Pizzolo as Vicky - Michael Jai White as Professor Mann - Laura Bailey as Vicky (voice) - Kevin Michael Richardson as Professor Mann (voice) Note On Special Effects: This movie makes use of CGI, practical macromodels (used for elements such as planets) and Fireborn - Phoenix Fire's own version of Stagecraft, the technology used in The Mandalorian - to produce its visual effects. Plot Synopsis: A young deaf girl is taken to a journey through the beginning of time itself. Plot: Spoiler The film opens with an introduction to Love (Priah Ferguson), a deaf teenager who lives in the outskirts of New Orleans with her mother, Kelly (Issa Rae). She's never heard her own voice - or anyone's, really - before, so we listen to Love's thoughts through her imaginary voice (Raven-Symoné, voice). We learn that she is a middle school student with a knack for arts. And her favorite thing is just staying in her bedroom, imagining a beautiful world around her. A world where there's nothing but peace. We see her imaginations come to life: her bedroom becomes a beautiful garden beaming with color and a happy sunlight, fighting to remove the bedroom of the real grey skyline coming out of the window. And of course, a world where she can hear everything exactly as she imagines. We then see Love and Kelly interact. Kelly talks to her daughter through sign language, and Love imagines Kelly's voice exactly like her own (Raven-Symoné, voice), because her greatest source of inspiration is her mom and she wishes to be like her. Kelly mentions mundane things that a mother would say to her daughter in a regular school day morning, and we understand that she is a bit late for her own work. She, however, does not neglect Love for a second. She drops off Love at school, and wishes her a great day. Love kisses her and heads off. Love meets up with her best friend, Victoria, or Vicky for short, whom she imagines too to have the voice of an older sister (Gabriella Pizzolo; Laura Bailey, voice). Vicky is an older grade student, but she shares the admiration of arts with Love. She decides that she wants to skip her own Math class and wants to attend Love's Art class with her. Love doesn't want her to do that, though, because it's best for Vicky to go out and take care of herself. Vicky doesn't see it that way and she manages to convince Love to let her attend Art class with her. When they get there, Vicky talks to Professor Mann (Michael Jai White), but we don't hear what they're talking about. A few seconds later, the conversation seems over and Vicky goes to sit with Love. The professor then introduces himself to the class, and also talks in sign language, allowing Love to understand him and imagine his voice (Kevin Michael Richardson, voice). Mann tells students that, for their first class, they can do something relatively simple, like... paint their biggest dreams. We fade to some time later, and it's Vicky's turn to show her work: she painted herself as a famous person for her artistic work. We then see Love show what she painted: similarly to her bedroom imaginations, a beautiful garden where everything shines bright and is as colorful as a rainbow. Before Love can explain what she painted, a kid in a front row says something we don't hear, and then leads some (but not all) of the kids to laugh, and we do hear voices laughing as Love can "read" that expression. Mann tells the kids to stop it and reassures Love that it's a perfectly good work, but Love is upset. Out of class, Vicky tries to comfort Love, but she doesn't care. On her trip back home, she notices a visibly upset Kelly, who just skims through the usual mom questions ("how was your day?", etc.), and she asks her mom what is going on. Kelly says everything is fine. Love says that her face and "her voice" says otherwise. Kelly almost asks her how does she know what her voice sound like, but stops herself from doing that and instead kisses her daughter and says she loves her. When they get back home, on the kitchen table, Love finds an empty wine bottle... and a resignation letter signed by Kelly. She is taken aback. Love runs to her bedroom, where she starts weeping (her imaginary voice doesn't cry in this moment - she likes to play strong and pretend like she doesn't "voice cry"). She does imagine her beautiful world around her, but it sort of "rains" in it as well, as she can't overcome her emotions in the moment. She just sits on her bed. Cross dissolve. Some time passes, it's now night. Love is still a little caught in the scene. Suddenly... a soft voice of a male figure calls out to her: "Love? Are you there, Love?" Love is in disbelief. What is happening right now, she wonders? "Can you hear me?" And yes, she can hear the voice. "Who are you?", asks Love's imaginary voice. Suddenly, a white breeze comes into her bedroom. It explodes into a powder of magic right in front of Love's eyes, who is just in awe of what's happening in front of her. "I am like you, Love: I am light like a breeze. You can call me The Ethereal." (Joel Edgerton, voice) Love asks The Ethereal how does he understand her, or even know what she's saying, as she doesn't think she's imagining him right now. The Ethereal simply answers that what matters is that he does understand her, Love thinks she might be going crazy, but The Ethereal reassures her that everything she's seeing is real. The Ethereal then promises her of an adventure unlike anything she's ever experienced. An experience for her to remember all her life, and beyond. As soon as he says that, a portal opens up on the ceiling of Love's bedroom, and Love screams (in her imaginary voice) as the portal sucks her in. She flies away from her bedroom, and heads off into the star-filled skyline. We get a long sequence of Love travelling through the fabric of space itself, witnessing with her eyes everything from the Milky Way to the Andromeda galaxy. She keeps asking The Ethereal where is he taking her, and that she wants to go back home, but The Ethereal promises her that he doesn't wanna hurt her, and he just wants her to go on an adventure. Eventually, Love is stopped. The universe is then "sucked" into her eyes, as if coming back to its home. After a brief moment where we see literally nothing but darkness, a miniature orb, the size of an ant compared to Love, lights up before Love's eyes. It then collides with another orb, coming from the other side of the screen... the two orbs, upon impact, explode - we even get a shot of the reflection of the explosion on Love's eyes - and everything around Love is reshapen. The universe is forming back again in front of her. The Ethereal mentions that, in her culture, this is known as "The Big Bang". From there on out, The Ethereal takes Love through a journey across existance itself. We see the formations of stars, galaxies and planets; and The Ethereal takes her to witness how life as she knows it came to be, flying her back to the planet she would know as Earth, her homeplace. Love asks if there's life beyond Earth, but The Ethereal says that's a question that she has the answer to already. Up in the skies, Love flies and sees from above life beginning to exist on Earth, from the first microscopic creatures to the jurassic age of dinosaurs. The Ethereal explains how all of these creatures came to be, and Love just watches in awe. We also see the demise of dinosaurs after the asteroid lands - which presents itself in a shot where it seems to be on track to hit Love herself, and she tries to get away from its course, but when it hits, it goes right through her. The Ethereal explains that everything she's seen so far... the original creatures, the dinosaurs, the death of dinosaurs... is the functioning forward-going logic of the universe. And logic isn't without its pushing factor. Love doesn't quite grasp the concept at first, but The Ethereal says she will understand eventually. They move towards the first beings that would evolve to become humans. The Ethereal asks Love to consider, for a moment, that this is how you came to be at some point in time. Love has no words. This continues as more and more of the history of Earth is given to her - we witness many historical moments of humanity. The Ethereal banters with Love about how each and one of these moments gave him such a back ache to create. Finally, we hit modern times. And here, The Ethereal invites Love to witness first hand a moment that she will never forget witnessing in her life. In there, The Ethereal "pushes" Love back down to Earth, specifically to New Orleans but when she gets there, New Orleans seems to be in this perpetual neon purple color, almost taken out of a cyberpunk movie. Love notices the people walking are colored like this as well. Then... she sees Kelly, de-aged about 14 years. And she notices a baby inside her belly, glowing in a powerful white color. That baby, as The Ethereal mentions, is Love herself. The Ethereal invites Love to touch herself as a baby, and while Love seems hesitant at first, she does so. Afterwards, Love, Kelly and the baby all fly upwards back into space, and here, Love is turned into a giant while Kelly and baby Love continue to be human-sized. The Ethereal makes Love one question: does she want to change the continuum of time itself? She can do so, by rewriting history. With her bare hands, she can become everything she ever wanted to be, she can live everywhere she wanted to live, see every sight she ever wanted to see... it's all in her hands. Love is then taken to the garden of her dreams, the one we kept visiting throughout the movie. The Ethereal says that this could be your signing of peace, where your dreams come true. Love stands there, taking in awe everything she is experiencing at the moment. She then tells The Ethereal: "I won't do it." The Ethereal asks her why, and Love says that this journey made her understand that everything she is... isn't for no reason. And she doesn't want to change herself, because if she was put here this way, then it's this way that she will continue to be, no matter who or what comes in her way. The Ethereal simply says: "I wouldn't have expected anything other than you, Love." Love is then transported back into her bedroom, and she and The Ethereal say their goodbyes. The Ethereal asks her to promise to never forget her, and Love says she won't. The Ethereal leaves. Love is left on her bedroom wondering what just happened. Kelly walks in, asking Love to come dine with mom, and Love almost asks her if she heard something in her bedroom, but doesn't. Instead, she wants to keep the experience a secret. We cut to some days later, where Love bumps into the same kid that teased her work in Art class. He starts teasing her again, though we don't understand what he's saying since he's not saying in sign language. Vicky tries to defend her, but Love tells her that she doesn't need to, all she'll say to the boy is that he should be proud of himself for what he is, and not for what he wishes he could be. The boy doesn't understand the sign language and laughs at Love, while Love and Vicky just walk away. In the final moments, we witness Love in Art class again, preparing yet another work, as she confidently looks above. In the skies, The Ethereal smiles at her. Belated special thanks to @Ethan Hunt. Edited February 3, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reddroast Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Alpha please take world war z off the schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 (edited) T H E S P I D E R P A T H Based On: Monster Bug Wars, by Beyond International Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Nelson McCormick Release Date: May 17th Y8 Genre: Mockumentary/Horror/Black Comedy Rating: PG, for rude humor and slightly scary sequences Budget: $4M Theater Count: 2,678 theaters Runtime: 1 hour and 45 minutes Previous Movie Grosses: - Monster Bug Wars, Y7 -> $34,230,226 OW / $90,301,685 DOM / $285,966,112 WW (~$43.5 million profit off an $80 million budget) Cast: - Morgan Freeman as the narrator Plot: This is a mockumentary prequel on the wolf spider, one of the more iconic monster bugs from the original Monster Bug Wars. The movie plays out like a nature documentary all the way through, and has small vessels of ironic humor and scenes played out like a horror movie (like the spider jumping on its prey and eating it, played to traditional horror music sounds). It starts by telling the spider's origin story (that of any other wolf spider) and ends with the spider being taken to the Earth colony of Happee by the doctors responsible for the Monster Bug Wars spectacle (or scandal, if you will), and it winning a few fights against other monster bugs, such as against the fire ant and the Hercules beetle, and then breaking out of the control of the doctors and ravaging the gladiator pit and the scientists alongside its arch-rival, the desert scorpion (all of this is still being shown in the "documentary" style of filming, very much like what happened with the actual Monster Bug Wars TV show, with Morgan Freeman still narrating everything non-chalantly as if the spider killing human scientists was a normal procedure of nature). Spoiler Mid credit-sequence, directed by Alex Graves and shot in the traditional cinematic style: The wolf spider, now free from the grasp of the scientists, bonds with a female wolf spider also present in the lab. Romantic music plays out as the two spiders tag along. Cross dissolve, and the spiders are headed towards a direction, when they see humans in doctor suits running around looking for bugs to catch. They catch the female spider, with the male trying to bite the doctors, but he is dispatched. The doctors shoot some sort of gun on the female. The male spider watches on as the shadow of a giant, tower-sized spider emerges on-screen. Post credits sequence: A full-blown trailer for MBW2: Carnage Unleashed demonstrates Happee being completely overtaken by the monster bugs transformed into giant size. Vic (Fran Kranz) and Joanne (Kristen Connolly), the human protagonists of the first movie, put a device that allows them to understand animal language, and they make the wolf spider and the desert scorpion bond over the need to rescue the bugs from the grasp of the scientists again. The final shots of the trailer are two sides of giant bugs at war with each other. Coming Y9. Edited January 12, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 (edited) T H E S C O R P I O N P A T H Based On: Monster Bug Wars, by Beyond International Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Karen Gaviola Release Date: May 17th Y8 Genre: Mockumentary/Horror/Black Comedy Rating: PG, for rude humor and slightly scary sequences Budget: $4M Theater Count: 2,678 theaters Runtime: 1 hour and 45 minutes Previous Movie Grosses: - Monster Bug Wars, Y7 -> $34,230,226 OW / $90,301,685 DOM / $285,966,112 WW (~$43.5 million profit off an $80 million budget) - Monster Bug Wars: The Spider Path, Y8 -> gross tbd Cast: - Morgan Freeman as the narrator Plot: This is a mockumentary prequel on the desert scorpion, one of the more iconic monster bugs from the original Monster Bug Wars. The movie plays out like a nature documentary all the way through, and has small vessels of ironic humor and scenes played out like a horror movie (like the scorpion attacking strangers, humans and animals alike, played to traditional horror music sounds). It starts by telling the scorpion's origin story (that of any other desert scorpion) and ends with the scorpion being taken to the Earth colony of Happee by the doctors responsible for the Monster Bug Wars spectacle (or scandal, if you will), and it winning a few fights against other monster bugs, such as against the horsefly and the honey bee, and then breaking out of the control of the doctors and ravaging the gladiator pit and the scientists alongside its arch-rival, the wolf spider (all of this is still being shown in the "documentary" style of filming, very much like what happened with the actual Monster Bug Wars TV show, with Morgan Freeman still narrating everything non-chalantly as if the scorpion killing human scientists was a normal procedure of nature). Spoiler Mid credits sequence, directed by Alex Graves and shot in the traditional cinematic style: The desert scorpion, now free from capture, hits the deserts of Happee to resume its normal life. It successfully catches local alien prey, it too weak to fight back. It then makes a hiding spot in the dunes. All of a sudden, large shaking forces the scorpion out of its lair. It's the giant female wolf spider from Monster Bug Wars: The Spider Path, being controlled by doctors with a remote. The scorpion squeeks in fear. Post credits sequence: A full-blown trailer for MBW2: Carnage Unleashed demonstrates Happee being completely overtaken by the monster bugs transformed into giant size. Vic (Fran Kranz) and Joanne (Kristen Connolly), the human protagonists of the first movie, put a device that allows them to understand animal language, and they make the wolf spider and the desert scorpion bond over the need to rescue the bugs from the grasp of the scientists again. The final shots of the trailer are two sides of giant bugs at war with each other. Coming Y9. Edited January 12, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 (edited) T H E L O S T E M P I R E Based On: Atlantis: The Lost Empire, by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Release Date: January 12th Y8, with IMAX Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure Rating: PG-13, for violence, language and a brief scene of torture Format: 2D, 3D Budget: $145 million Theater Count: 3.893 Runtime: 2 hours and 10 minutes Director: Julia Hart Producers: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise Screenplay: Ben Edlund, Jordan Horowitz, Julia Hart Cinematography: Michael Fimognari Original Music: Benjamin Wallfisch Cast: - Will Poulter as Milo Thatch - Nathalie Emmanuel as Princess Kidagakash "Kida" - Tommy Lee Jones as Captain Lyle Rourke - Diane Kruger as Helga Sinclair - Isabela Merced as Audrey Ramirez - Winston Duke as Dr. Joshua Sweet - Stefano Accorsi as Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini - with Forest Whitaker as King Kashekim Nedahk - and William Hurt as Preston Whitmore Plot Synopsis: As a child, Milo Thatch (Poulter) recieved a mysterious book, that he believes is the key to find the lost city of Atlantis. Now, he embarks on a journey to find the continent. Plot: (Note: scenes/dialogue in Italic are spoken in the original Atlantean language created specifically for the original movie.) Spoiler On a black screen, the following text fades in: "...in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea." -- Plato, 360 B.C. Invocative music kicks in as we fade in to a clear blue sky, and from then, a pan down towards the landscape of Atlantis, a steampunk-inspired futuristic city: There, we spend some minutes basically learning how life in Atlantis is so much more advanced than life on Earth outside of the continent is, as giant mechanical beasts that look like lobsters (the Leviathans) guard the city, people fly in and out in these weird fish-like ships (called the Aktirak), and the quality of life seems particularly high. We even get a moment where we see a teacher telling her students about how Atlantis stands out in the history of humanity as the one and only hyperpower on Earth, far superior than the Greek and the Romans. The steampunky culture is rich and ahead of its time as well. We then cut to the interior of the Atlantean palace, where King Kashekim Nedahk (Forest Whitaker, de-aged about 40 years), is seen holding a white crystal in his hands. He then talks to the captain of his armada, regarding a test that they are going to execute with the power of the crystal, it referred to as an Atlantean creation. The captain seems reluctant about going about with this test, but Nedahk insists that Atlantis is untouchable and sees no problem with the test ocurring. He says: "Do it." We then cut to soldiers flying away from the continent, above the waters of an unspecificied ocean, and with them, they carry what seems like a powerful, beast-sized weapon that looks like a nuke. Miles away from the city, one of the soldiers goes ahead and powers the weapon. However, the amount of power at hand gets quickly out of control for a measly human, Atlantean or not, and a discharge happens. This leads to an accidental explosion of nuclear weapon proportions, which in turn leads to a gigantic tsunami. The soldiers who survived the explosion rush back to Atlantis, but many of them don't make it, as they're caught in the wave. The sky turns dark as the tsunami approaches Atlantis. Many people are left behind in the disaster. We cut to a scene of the Queen of Atlantis (cameo by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) approaching Nedakh, while their young daughter, Kidagakash, is playing in the background. The Queen confronts Nedakh with his decision to go forward with the weapon test, and says that this will bring the downfall of Atlantis. Nedakh is confident to the very end, and believes that this is the next evolution for the Atlantean people. Not too long after he says that, the wave begins to approach Atlantis, leaving the rulers in absolute terror. Atlantean people start rushing to shelters, but there's not much time. At the very peak of the city's tallest tower is a glowing red rock that sends red lights down to the ground. The Queen runs to the streets of Atlantis, followed by Kidagakash (whom the Queen refers to as "Kida") and Nedakh. The Queen waves one last goodbye to Kida, who doesn't want her mother to go. The Queen then looks directly at the red rock high above, and it lets one of its red signals spot her. When this happens, the red signal and the glowing rock turn white, as do the Queen's eyes, while the crystal that she's wearing as a necklace starts to float. Then, all of the other red lights also turn white, and they all meet up with the Queen, where then they explode into a synergy of white energy coming off the Queen's crystal. The Queen begins to ascend towards the glowing white rock, as Kida screams for her mother. Nedakh tries to shelter Kida from watching. The Queen's actions have a reaction: powered by the white rock, a force shield begins to form itself around Atlantis, while the wave approaches closer and closer to the city. Many Atlantean citizens are left behind the shield, but others get inside. The shield manages to completely cover the city, while the water completely sinks the continent. Beneath a stormy sky, Atlantis is now under the ocean. T H E L O S T E M P I R E We cut to January 1951. The world is still reeling off the end of World War II, despite being six years removed from its conclusion, as no one seems quite psychologically recovered from it yet. We see a young man (Will Poulter), in a veterans' cemetery, putting flowers for a man named Thaddeus Thatch. He asks for his apology, for he will never be able to live up to his legacy. He finishes with: "Sincerely... your grandson, Milo." We see that Milo works on a Ford factory in Washington, and is generally surrounded by capitalist, pro-US and anti-Soviet propaganda and sentiment. While everyone else around him is busy calling out for war, he simply does his job and goes home to his cat. There, we learn that he was actually a strong-performing university student and is well versed into languages and cartography, as he gives his cat an imaginary presentation on the lost continent of Atlantis, Through Milo, we learn details about Atlantean culture, such as that they would eat insects like snails, the meaning of some of the letters and words they wrote (the circular logo that resembles an "a" actually is, in fact, an "a"), and the type of stories they would write - such as their first attempts towards exploring the solar system beyond Earth. Milo also mentions, in his "lesson", that all of this was learned through this mysterious book that he has... We cut to a flashback scene of Milo as a child, him being in the company of his grandfather, Thaddeus (cameo by a de-aged Christopher Lloyd). Thaddeus gives Milo the book, with the Atlantean "a" in its center, and says it is called the Shepherd's Journal, and is apparently not only basically a tourist's guide to Atlantis, but also contains in it a fully formed road map that leads to the sunken continent of Atlantis itself. Thaddeus says that this was given to him by a fellow soldier in Germany, who in turn had said that it had been found in Iceland. Thaddeus tells Milo that the book, and "the dream to one day go on the greatest adventure of them all and find Atlantis", is in his hands. Grandfather and grandson embrace. We cut back to the present, where Milo once again grieves Thaddeus. He "talks" to Thaddeus, asking him why did life have to take him away from him, and why couldn't the duty for him be to go out and find a lost civilization, instead of fighting politics' wars. Milo seems to take the journal very seriously, legitimately believing that Atlantis does exist and that it can be found following this map, but no one around him seems to agree. He then finishes his lesson by mentioning that the journal seems have two pages missing, guessing they must've been lost overtime. One day later, Milo, tired of his job and dreaming of going to the Smithsonian Institution, quits his job. However, when he gets to the Smithsonian and asks for permission to talk to the owners about his knowledge of Atlantis, he gets quickly dismissed "cause Atlantis is nothing but a myth." He returns home, on a stormy night... only to find that someone has broken in. It's an elegant woman named Helga Sinclair (Diane Kruger), who claims she is on behalf of her employer. Milo asks her who her employer is, and we cut to her driving Milo to her employer's house: a huge mansion. We find out that this mansion belongs to Preston Whitmore (William Hurt), who, when we encounter him for the 1st time, is having a yoga session. He quickly makes himself formal, though, and presents himself as a friend of Thaddeus. Whitmore seems caring towards Milo, who explains that, all his life, his dream was to live his grandfather's wish of him finding Atlantis, going on the greatest adventure the world has ever seen and uniting everyone, who not too long ago seemed more split than ever and now continue to seem like they can't get along, in the inner zen of rediscovering history. Whitmore understands, and says that he too has been thinking about Milo's wish, if, for no other reason, for knowing that his father would've wanted someone to look out for him, and because he knows that Milo is a sensational kid. Therefore, he decided to fully finance an expedition to Atlantis, with Milo as the lead linguist and cartographer. He then shows the rapsheets of the other members of the crew, including Audrey Ramirez (Isabela Merced), a teenage mechanist who is quite a strong person despite her young age; Vincenzo Santorini (Stefano Accorsi), an Italian demolitions expert who escaped a Turkish jail; and Dr. Joshua Sweet (Winston Duke), a doctor with enough years of experience to take care of an entire army by himself. Milo is the only one left to accept - unsurprisingly, Milo accepts, with no hesitation. We cut to Milo being nervous but excited in bed the night before the beginning of the expedition, playing around with his kitty. Then, we move to Milo being on his way to the expedition by boat, where he finds out that Helga is actually more than just Whitmore's sidekick - she is the second in-command of the expedition. On the station, Helga takes him to meet up, face-to-face, the submarine that they will embark on, the Ulysses: On the port, Whitmore introduces Milo to Lyle Rourke (Tommy Lee Jones), the captain of the Ulysses. Rourke welcomes Milo with open arms, and says he sort of envies his famed skills of learning what gibberish means. Milo awkwardly thanks, and gets on board, as the Ulysses readies itself to launch, waving one last goodbye to Whitmore. Moments later, we get a montage of the final preparations, and the launch of the Ulysses itself. Now on his way, Milo meets up in the dormitories with some of his crew members, Vinny, Dr. Sweet and Audrey. When Milo asks Vinny what exactly is his job here, Vinny remarks that he's here for whenever Rourke needs a few paper clips to go boom on someone's ass, which frightens Milo a bit, but Vinny kids and says he's here for whenever there's a blockade on the road or something. Sweet says that he's pretty much readied for this his whole life, he knows Vinny readied for this his whole life, he knows Audrey readied for this her whole life, and he knows Milo readied for this his whole life. Audrey asks him not to be so fast, but she does say it's an honor to go on this journey to find this fable country. Milo insists it's no fable, but quickly apologizes for his rude behaviour and remarks that he has zero doubts that all of them are as capable as you can ask for. We cross dissolve, and Milo, who is half asleep, is called upon to the port of the submarine, to indicate directions as to where the ship is supposed to be headed, as it dives further and further to the ground, while the tripulants find that there are many remnants of other destroyed embarcations on the area. The atmosphere gets tense in the port of the Ulysses. Suddenly, a loud bang shakes the entire ship. The Ulysses is being attacked by what appears to be a giant lobster - but Milo quickly determines that it's not a living creature, but rather a machine... a Leviathan. The Leviathan absolutely purges the Ulysses, with laser beams fracturing the system and continually causing imponent damage. Milo asks Rourke if the Ulysses is armed with nuclear weapons, but Rourke replies that due to economical and safety worries, it wasn't. Rourke orders the tripulation to, instead, embark inside small combat pods to fight the Leviathan: The pods' missiles seem to work at first, but then the Leviathan reappears with no damage, and with a couple swift movements and laser beams, destroys many of the pods. Audrey says the ship has no chance of surviving the attack, so Rourke orders all of the remaining tripulants to board pods as well. Vinny and Sweet, who are already on a pod together, continue to fight against the Leviathan, but Rourke tells them and the others to retreat and go to wherever Milo orders them to. Milo and Audrey lead the way, in their own pod (Milo being the one steering, despite his lack of experience - he steers somewhat clumsily, which does to an occasion or two where the Leviathan misses the pod thanks to Milo's awkward steering), to a crater on the ground, thus indicated by the road map in the Shepherd's Journal. Everyone follows, but the Leviathan brutally kills many nameless tripulants. By the end, only the pods of Milo + Audrey, Rourke + Helga and Vinny + Sweet remain. The three pods enter the crater, and go further and further until the Leviathan can't follow them anymore. Finally, they reach an air pocket, which happens to also be the entrance to a cave/tunnel, it being artistically designed after an Atlantean creature: Before the tripulation heads on forth, Rourke has the remaining crew members pay homage to the fallen "soldiers", by asking them to take a moment to respect their bravery for stepping up and giving their lives for the greater good. Milo kneels down and cries next to the parked pods, while Sweet and Audrey comfort him. He says it's his fault that all those people died. Rourke says Milo has nothing to be sorry about, for he is not the one who made any of them go with him - they chose to go with him because they knew it was for a greater cause. Milo hugs Rourke. The remainder of the expedition continues forward with Milo leading the way through his translating of the directions in the Shepherd's Journal. Some pranks are played upon him by other members of the crew, but he consistently gets along better with his closer crewmates as they arrive at a stop for rest. Milo comments that the Shepherd's Journal is missing two pages, which apparently would be about something called "the Heart of Atlantis", the power source of Atlantis. But Vinny, Sweet and Audrey get him to ease off the book for a moment. He comments that he is just so excited about being on such an adventure, away from politics and wars, though the others note they are mainly in it for the money. Milo thought that it was "for the greater good" but for them, it's more about self-survival. Some members of the group share some stories about themselves - Sweet was born in the medical realm, his father was a medic as well in his Kansas tribe; Audrey says that her father was expecting two sons, one of them to be a helper in his mechanics shop and the other to be a boxing champion... instead, he got her and her sister, and yet her sister is 24-0 while Audrey is chief engineer in the tripulation to Atlantis; and Vinny says that he was in a flowers shop, which he hated, when some gas leak explosion blew him right out the door and turned the shop into dust, and "that boom was God's call". Milo then tells them about his wonderful relationship with his grandfather, who took him in after his parents died when he was a kid and was just about the most creative person, making up stories about ice crystals as if they were magical arrowheads. When the group falls asleep, a group of masked individuals appears to spy on them. Milo, who isn't fully asleep, sees one of them go, and is taken aback. During night, a huge submarine is seen hovering around the same area that the Ulysses was when the Leviathan attacked. The Leviathan, in fact, attacks this one submarine as well. However, a group of gasmasked soldiers, who seem ready for it, launch what appears to be a large scale missile against the Leviathan. The explosion not only manages to take out the beast, but also creates a seaquake effect, causing a tsunami on the outer planet. We only see giant waves produce themselves at the heart of the sea surface. The submarine comes out unscathed from the explosion, and heads straight for the crater. It quickly arrives at the air pocket cave, and the masked people in it rush to the tunnel. The next morning, the group of heroes heads past a bridge right next to where they made camp - however, Milo points out that the entrance to Atlantis is actually underneath the bridge, leading Vinny to happily celebrate getting to blow something up again. The bridge goes boom, and the group heads down to another cave in a cave, which Milo suggests is actually a volcano, according to the Shepherd's Journal. A volcano that could go off at any point, with a force sufficiently powerful to activate it. As the others talk, Milo sees the masked individuals again, and decides to stealthily run off after them. He persecutes the masked people, who run off, and ends up falling flat on his face, opening up a gnarly gash on his forehead. The masked group returns, figuring that Milo is not really a threat, and one of them in particular takes off their mask... it's revealed to be a young woman (Nathalie Emmanuel), with an Atlantean white crystal as a necklace. She approaches Milo and uses the crystal to heal his wounds, which awes Milo. The girl smiles, but then the other crew mates are heard and the girl runs off with the other members of the group. Milo goes after them again. This leads Milo to a waterfall, and beyond the waterfall... to a thriving, living city of Atlantis: The masked group returns, armed with spears in their hands, and the girl once again removes her mask. She asks these foreigners for their intentions, and Milo says that they are not here for any reason other than peace. The girl is impressed that Milo understands her language, and asks him to talk more about himself, specifically. Milo, who blushes, tries not to make it about himself, and rather introduces the whole group to her as peaceful members of the outside Earth community looking for nothing but the confirmation that Atlantis did in fact exist. Milo and Kida go off in a couple of different languages. And then Milo asks her, in English, who is she. The girl introduces herself as Kida, and welcomes the group to Atlantis. She then grabs Milo's hand and asks the group to come talk to the King, while the remaining members of Kida's group give crystals to every one of the foreigners. In the back, Helga asks Rourke if the objective of the mission has in any way changed, and Rourke says that it hasn't. Rourke remarks that these seem like lovely people and he wants nothing more than for them to agree that peace is in fact the only solution. Kida takes the group to see Nedahk (Forest Whitaker is now at his current age), who, despite being now blind and weakened, is still strong enough to want the foreigners to leave Atlantis as soon as possible. Milo insists that no part of them is here for power hungry-reasons, but Nedahk knows more than enough to claim that tale is as old as the Atlanteans themselves. Rourke tries to have the King see their way, but the King says that he does not accept Atlantis being "invaded" by greedy foreigners. He lets them stay the night, but orders their departure the next day. Kida, despite being heartbroken over having the foreigners leave soon, asks Milo to go on an adventure over Atlantis, while the others ask Milo to figure out what's going, since he seems to be the only one that can speak with the Atlanteans. Kida says that, because of the downfall of the continent after the great flood, Atlanteans themselves are no longer in line with their own culture, having forgotten how to read or how to fly an Aktirak and things alike - she includes herself in that list. Kida asks Milo if he could find a way to stay in Atlantis, if no other reason than to help the Atlanteans learn their culture again, since she believes that Milo knows plenty about their own culture. Milo says that it would be an honor for him to help teach the Atlantean people. Kida begins by asking Milo to teach her how to read, and Milo says that there's not enough time for that in one day, but he can teach her some of the basics, like the meaning of some of the letters, mainly the "a" letter. We follow along as Milo teaches Kida every letter in the Atlantean alphabet, and also teaches her some written words, like "greetings" or "farewell". Kida then takes Milo throughout the city, and asks him to teach some children about the Atlantean written word, which he does. Kida then asks Milo how to make an Aktirak go on, and Milo says that, according to the Shepherd's Journal, you have to use the white crystal - like the one Kida is using on her neck - to power it on. They do, and they fly around the city a little bit, leaving everyone on the ground in awe, as most people hadn't seen an Aktirak fly in over a thousand years. Kida continues to ask Milo things, about what do the tribal statues mean, and Milo explains that the statues at the tailgate ends of the city are meant to represent Atlantis' most legendary soldiers. They travel across the city, where we see all sorts of different buildings, all inspired by Atlantis' steampunk, futuristic art-style. On the ground, the other members of the group watch Milo and Kida in the air, while they explore by foot the city, particularly its markets and its fishing ways, then being invited to a dinner party by locals. At this point, the gasmasked individuals that destroyed the Leviathan head straight towards the volcano, and then into the waterfall entrance to Atlantis. The other masked individuals that were with Kida find them, and confront them with their spears. The masked people take out assault rifles and massacre them (PG-13 style, obviously). Kida and Milo continue to bond, and Kida then asks Milo about a painting that she knows of that's hidden underwater. Kida and Milo dive deep into a pond, with much written information about the backstory of Atlantis' power, including that of the glowing white rock that took the Queen of Atlantis, Kida's mother, when the tsunami happened. Milo is able to discover that the Atlanteans discovered a new matter of energy and were able to power an entire civilization thousands of years ahead of their time off it. It is, in fact, the Heart of Atlantis. And it, as well as Kida's mother's sacrifice, is the reason why Atlantis still thrives to this day. Milo says he wishes he knew more about it, but the pages in the Shepherd's Journal went missing. We cut to Milo and Kida leaving the pond... only to be found by Rourke, Helga and the masked soldiers all armed, holding Vinny, Sweet and Audrey at gunpoint and seeming like they're about to take over Atlantis. Rourke asks Milo if he and his girlfriend had fun. Milo asks what the Hell is purpose of this, and Rourke explains that his "beloved" missing pages were in his hand all along - them detailing not only the Heart of Atlantis, but also a weapon of mass destruction that can cause almost irreparable damage. Milo reads that page, which depicts the nuke-like that went off and caused the tsunami that flooded Atlantis. Milo says this is distinguishably nuclear weapon-type technology that utilizes a piece of the Heart of Atlantis to power it, and that it would be, in fact, far more powerful than any other nuke in the world. Rourke says that he was the one who found the Shepherd's Journal in Germany that many years ago, and ripped the two pages out of the book after asking a local linguist about their meaning - all he knows is that the weapon can be built with the Heart of Atlantis, which, according to the journal, is "located where the eyes of the King can see". He then showed them to Whitmore as proof that a greater, more powerful nuke that can finally put the Russians in their place can be created, and with that, America will know its place as God's undisputed hyperpower in the world... the exact same motivation that fell the Atlanteans themselves. Milo reprehends Rourke and Whitmore for being war mongering bastards. Rourke apologizes to everyone, saying that his legacy is not one of a mass killer or a traitor, and he genuinely feels for the crew members and the Atlantean people, but he knows that this is for the greater good. It's for America, it's for global peace and it's to put an end to the Soviet soverreign. Milo asks how did the armed men Rourke has by his side even make it to Atlantis in the first place, and Rourke says that he would call Whitmore using an unpatented early model of a mobile phone made for military use in 1950 that never got off the track and Whitmore decided to churn out the big bucks for a usable prototype to give Rourke for this mission, so that whenever Rourke would find something in the way - like the Leviathan - Whitmore would know in advance and make his soldiers aware of what's to come. Hence, they were able to blast off the Leviathan with a weapon almost as powerful as a nuke. Milo questions if this could have created a tsunami, but Rourke dismisses that as overworrying. He once again asks Milo for his understanding, and that this isn't just mere war mongering - this is fighting for truth, justice and the American way against communism and despair. Milo says men like Rourke and Whitmore are of no use to the civilized world, but Rourke disagrees and says that he fights for a civilized world, and doesn't stand for Milo daring to make that kind of accusations against him. Milo angrily retorts that politicians like him are the moral corruption that war thrives off, and Rourke stands him off by saying that the war against the Soviets, to him, is saving the soul of Earth. And the soul of Earth lies in the Heart of Atlantis. Milo says that stealing the Heart of Atlantis will kill Atlantis, because Atlantis can't survive without it, and Rourke retorts that he doesn't want the whole Heart - he just wants a piece of it, enough to power the weapon. Milo, in disgust, tries to attack him, but Rourke punches him in the face and knocks him down. Helga then orders the soldiers to take Kida, who punched off a couple men, but got shot in the leg and cuffed up quickly. Rourke orders his men to point their guns at Kida and demands Milo be complacent. Rourke and Helga take the hostages up to Nedahk and demand to know the whereabouts of the Heart of Atlantis. Kida begs her father not to tell them, and Nedahk, already weakened, orders the Atlantean militia to fight these men, but Rourke says that anyone in their way has probably been dispatched already - nothing personal, just fighting for a more just world. Rourke tries to beat the answer to the riddle out of Nedahk through violence. He says he doesn't want to do this, but the King leaves him no choice. He then continues to beat Nedahk, to Kida, Milo, Vinny, Sweet and Audrey's horror. Nedahk continues to refuse an answer, which forces Rourke into an outburst of anger. He finally threatens to kill the King, leading Kida to scream in horror, while Helga punches her. Rourke, with his finger on the trigger, says: "Time will be up in ten seconds, your royalty.... 10.... 9..... 8..... 7....... 6.......... 5.............. 4............... 3........................ 2.............................. 1...................." Rourke then looks directly at Nedahk's eyes - and he sees the reflection of the pond in the King's place. "The Heart of Atlantis is where the eyes of the King can see." Helga then forces Kida to stand directly in the middle of the pond and do something. Kida seems helpless, but the crystal glows by itself and the steps to a chamber reveal themselves. Rourke, impressed, can only slow clap, while everyone else (except Helga) watch, terrified of what's about to come. Rourke then decides to retrieve something out of his bag... it's a mobile phone, stylized like old fixated mobile phones but using batteries and a radio antenna. He calls up Whitmore with his mobile phone, telling him of the success of the mission, they found the Heart of Atlantis and are now preparing to take the piece of the Heart in order to get the weapon ready to go. Whitmore, from the other side, finds the news excellent. He feels for Milo, since he knows the kid's heart must've been broken when he found out the mission wasn't for his sake, but he still holds a place in his heart nonetheless. "It's time to put those communists in the place where they belong." The call ends, and Rourke looks at Nedahk, who is at the doors of death after the beating he took, with eyes of conviction. Kida, meanwhile, only cries in despair. Rourke, Helga, Milo and Kida descend into the chamber, where the Heart of Atlantis is: Helga then asks how are they going to get a piece of the Heart for the weapon, and Rourke says that, in order for that piece to exist, all you really need is an object to suck in some of the power of the Heart. He is aware of the nuke body that was brought to Atlantis by Whitmore's soldiers, but it is too inconvenient to carry that whole thing down to the chamber, so they would rather have something else. Then, he thinks to himself: what if, not an object, but a person? Milo is horrified at that idea, but Helga says it's not Milo's business to choose what is or isn't horrible. It's all in the good name of saving the soul of the Earth, or has he forgotten that? Rourke forces Kida, at gunpoint, to use herself to carry the Heart of Atlantis. Kida refuses to, at first, but as Rourke turns around in disgust and throws a rock towards the chamber's water in anger, the Heart of Atlantis reacts, and shines glowing red - the same kind of glowing red we saw in the prologue, with the same red lights pointing to the ground. Kida, remembering the great flood tragedy, is fixated by these. She then slowly walks, to the silent reactions of everyone around her, towards the Heart. And then... exactly the same thing that happened to her mother happens to her: she ascends towards the Heart of Atlantis. Then, she blends herself with the Heart. The Heart and her become one and the same. As she drops down to the ground, the rocks hovering around the Heart, with the faces of Atlantean royalties on them, fall down in no grace. Kida is now nothing but a soulless source of energy. She walks by everyone in the chamber, who all react in absolute shock. We then cut to Kida being locked in a cage, as Rourke prepares to take her back to the nuke body, and then, they will shoot the nuke directly from the submarine towards Moscow, in hopes to strike the Soviet government and launch an American invasion of the USSR in the best possible fashion. As Kida is taken away from Atlantis, the city begins to lose its life, as waterfalls stop running and lights stop shining. Milo, who is left behind, confronts Vinny, Audrey and Sweet about this, and they all say that they were caught completely off-guard and had no means to defend themselves. They could only surrender. Milo is angry at himself, because he should've seen this coming. Why else would someone want to go after Atlantis if for nothing else than to find a power source to ruin half the world? Audrey says that it's not his fault. Sweet tells him that when things don't go his way, he certainly doesn't stop short of trying at any point - he goes right after whoever punched him and punches them straight back down. Vinny simply says: "Look, man, I may not be perfect... but I know for a fact that you know better than that son of a bitch Rourke." Milo smiles. Milo meets with the dying King, who explains that the Heart of Atlantis calls upon one with royal blood to bond with to protect itself and the people, heaving developed a consciousness of its own. Because of his arrogance in ruling Atlantis with the crystal, he tried to turn it into a weapon. It lead to the sinking of the city as well as his wife being sacrificed to save them. Milo says that he is forgiven - everyone makes mistakes. Before he dies, Nadehk notes that the crystal needs to be returned not only to save Atlantis, but to prevent Kida from being lost by bonding with the crystal for too long. Milo thanks him. He then closes Nedahk's eyes as the King takes his final breathes. A scene of total silence. Milo then walks out, and asks his crew mates to garner up every adult person they can. He tells them that he made a mistake. He led a bunch of war mongering vandals to the most powerful archeological find in the history of mankind, let them kidnap and/or murder the Atlantean Royal Family and is about to let the entire city die. But, this is a mistake that he can rectify - not the death of the King, but everything else. If Lyle Rourke wants to have a war, he will have it... with him, with Audrey, with Sweet, with Vinny and with the entirety of Atlantis. And that, historically speaking, a war with Atlantis is not a war that he would want to fight. He will not endanger the rest of the world, and he will make sure that every single Atlantean man, woman and child gets to live the thriving life that they deserve! He then tells the adults that they can use their crystals to power the Aktiraks and other flying ships of similar shape, which many do, and rallies them to go after Rourke... to save Kida, to save Atlantis and to save the soul of Earth! The ships fly off! As the ships fly off, Rourke, Helga and the soldiers are about to carry Kida out of the cage and into the body of the nuke. This happens at the volcano that leads to the entrance of Atlantis. However, before they can carry forth, the Aktiraks arrive. A dogfight engages between the Aktiraks and the soldiers in their airplanes. The Aktiraks can fire powerful laser beams out of their mouths, similarly to the Leviathan, and they are capable of destroying many of the airplanes. The soldiers fire back, but nothing seems to stop the rebellion against Rourke. Milo's ship goes off with one objective: rescue Kida. Rourke, in direct collision with him, gets in an airplane on his own right and chases after Milo, with aggressive firing from both sides. Meanwhile, some soldiers finally manage to lock Kida inside the nuke's body, which glows white as a result, very much like the weapon at the beginning of the movie did. Helga, on the ground, remarks that all she could do is lock the crystal on and the nuke would fly off and explode somewhere. Audrey, from below, fires at her and injures her non-critically. Helga then tells Rourke (through a walkie, btw) that they have the nuke ready, all they need to do is put it in the submarine and just move on, let the other people be. But Rourke is now obsessed with killing every single last of these people, saying that they won't give up unless they die, and that he's been waiting for long to fight a war anyway. Helga, against Rourke's wishes, orders for the nuke to be taken back to the submarine. But Rourke overhears this and declares Helga as a traitor, and decides to kill her before killing Milo, steering away from Milo. Just before he fires at her, Vinny's ship fires a blast at the backwing of Rourke's plane, Vinny screaming "boom!" as he does it, and Rourke is shot down. This diversion allows Milo to fly at the soldiers by the nuke and kill them. He then leaves his ship and breaks open the nuke's body, letting Kida out. However, Rourke is still alive, having survived being shot down, and points his gun at Milo and Kida. Milo puts Kida on the Aktirak, but Rourke demands that he fight like a man for his woman. Then, Helga comes back and attacks Rourke out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Milo takes off with Kida in the ship and warns the others that Kida is safe now. The Aktiraks shoot down the last few remaining enemy planes and fly back to Atlantis with Milo and Kida. Helga and Rourke struggle on the ground. In hand-to-hand combat, Rourke has the physical edge over Helga, and wants to kill her not the easy way, but the way that a traitor to the West like her deserves to die. He goes on about how he will be seen as a hero by everyone, and that once the USSR has been taken down, everyone will remember that "the West... is untouchable." He then breaks a crystal that he still had in his possession into many shards and tries to stab Helga with it, but Helga manages to defend herself and cut Rourke with it. Because the shards had elements of the crystal, Rourke's blood is fused with the crystal matter, and Rourke becomes a crystal form himself. Helga carries the crystalized Rourke into the body of the nuke... and, with a tear in her eye, she grabs her own crystal, and, fully aware of what's about to happen, she turns on the nuke. The nuke discharges, and it goes off. Milo and the others are flying back to Atlantis, while the background scenery is an absolute apocalypse, with the volcano being activated in the explosion. It begins to erupt. The Aktiraks rush back to Atlantis, where Kida is taken right back to the center of the city - just like her mother - and rises to the skies. And as what happened with the great flood, her actions with the Heart of Atlantis allow the creation of a force shield around the city. The force shield is flooded with lava, but the lava then dries off with the power of the crystal and is destroyed like rocks. Everyone inside the shield is safe and sound, and Kida finally unbonds from the Heart of Atlantis, dropping down to the ground back in her normal state to the arms of Milo. The Heart has returned to its original place at the very top of the city and Atlantis lives again. Cross dissolve, and Whitmore is heard listening to the news by radio about yet another tsunami that killed thousands. He doesn't seem worried, as he is sure that Rourke has succeeded with his mission, despite the fact that he hasn't answered any calls for some time now. He then decides to call again. This time, there's an answer. In the other side... it's Milo. He found out about Whitmore's secret mobile phone, and just wanted to tell Whitmore that he knows everything about his plans. Rourke isn't going back anytime soon, and his weapon of mass destruction is not going to happen. Atlantis is safe and sound. Whitmore looks in rage. Back in Atlantis, Vinny, Sweet and Audrey wave Milo and the Atlanteans their last goodbyes, as we become aware that Milo is not going back to the surface. Milo has them promise that they will take Whitmore to justice, and while Sweet points out that Whitmore will, if anything, be supported by Americans with his conspiring for an act of war and to have possession of a powerful weapon of war, they can at least rest that the world isn't going to blow up anytime soon. The friends say one last goodbye and leave. Milo and Kida, now the King and Queen of Atlantis, light up one last tribal rock - one with the face of Nedahk - and it floats up with the rest of the Atlantean royals, right next to the one facing the former Queen and mother of Kida. We zoom out with a wide shot of the new Atlantis: Edited January 13, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 3 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 (edited) RETURNING FROM H E L L Based On: 5 Years Later, The Nuclear Revenge on an Abusive Pedophile is so so Sweet, by u/Anonymous-Survivor (on Reddit) Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Niki Caro Release Date: November 1st Y8 (limited) / November 20th Y8 (limited expansion #1) / November 15th Y8 (limited expansion #2) / November 22nd Y8 (limited expansion #3) / November 27th Y8 (limited expansion #4) / December 6th (wide) / December 13th (wide expansion) Genre: Drama Rating: R, for language, violence, smoking, heavy alcohol consuming and depictions of abuse Format: 2D Budget: $6.5 million Theater Count: 5 (November 1st); 20 (November 8th); 50 (November 15th); 100 (November 22nd); 500 (November 27th); 1.112 (December 6th); 2.253 (December 13th) Runtime: 2 hours and 21 minutes Cast: - Awkwafina as Sarah James - Eric Stonestreet as Edward Mann - Michael Dorman as Sam Ritter - Michael Ealy as Frederick Jones - and Piper Curda as Sarah James (teenager) Minor Cast: - Anna Hutchison as Francesca Davidson - Jeff Meacham as Martin Creed - Rosa Blasi as Madeleine James - John Leigh as John James - Kelli Berglund as Kate James Note: All of these character names are completely fictional, as the story is based on unnamed (but supposedly real) people. Plot Synopsis: Sarah James (Awkwafina/Curda) is groomed as a teenager by a much older man (Stonestreet), who is abusive towards her. Years later, she dives into a revenge plan to turn her life around. Plot: Spoiler The movie opens with a handheld-shot sequence of a Korean woman (Awkwafina) looking at herself in a mirror. She stares at herself for a solid 25 seconds. We get a deep look into her eyes. They seem... pained and sorrowful. She just looks, while tears streams down her face. We then get a zoom-in of her clenching her fists, as we overhear the sounds of children playing. Cut to the next scene, where she, as a 5 year old, is being adopted from a South Korean child shelter by an American couple, Madeleine (Rosa Blasi) and John James (John Leigh), who already have a daughter of their own, Kate. At first, they take the girl and seem caring towards her, particularly Madeleine. They name her Sarah, and bring her over to Kansas, where they live. She is treated with care and gets along with her sister as well. As she grows older, we learn that her adoptive parents are actually not that nice towards her. They force her to do labor in the house and are verbally menacing. We spend some time watching pre-pubescent Sarah do housekeeping, and when she takes breaks, teenage Kate (Kelli Berglund) bullies Sarah day in and day out, while Madeleine and John berate her for being a Korean child and for not being good enough for her family. Sarah grows in this environment of constant harassment and without a feeling of reciprocate love. We then get a look at what it's like to be Sarah one day, every year from when she was around 7 to the age of 18 - constant torment, from her family. We're now in the mid-90's, and Sarah (now played by Piper Curda) is herself a teenager, and she still gets bullied by her parents and her sister. We see that she lays in bed most afternoons and nights, as she didn't go to college, The few nights she decides to leave bed, she hangs out with her friends in clubs, smokes a lot and gets wildly drunk, to the harassment of her adoptive family. When she's not drinking, she's effectively lying on bed, just wondering what went wrong in her life. However, she still seems to foster some sort of care for her family, as they are the only family she ever knew. We cut to a night out for Sarah, where she yet again goes out with her friends to a club. As she prepares to start drinking, a blond haired, 200-pound man (Eric Stonestreet, using CGI tech to make him look like a 200lbs man) clumsily walks into the club, and starts eyeing the women around him, all of them looking about the age of Sarah or a bit older. He then introduces himself to Sarah as Edward Mann. He non-chalantly grooms her. When Sarah asks him how old he is, he responds without any sort of shame that he is 32. Sarah's friends try to steer her away from him, but Sarah doesn't seem to mind him. Edward lacks any filter and does everything he can to impress Sarah, like drinking an entire bottle of vodka in one go. Sarah finds his "flirts" cute enough, despite his obvious weirdness and the fact that he seemed much older than her. Afterwards, we get tidbits of more nights with Sarah and Edward spending time together, and eventually, hooking up. Cut to Sarah packing things up, and then telling Madeleine and John that she is going to leave the house. When the parents asks her for what purpose, she says she's going out with a boyfriend. Madeleine congratulates her, because she found someone who thinks she's useful for a change. Sarah swears at her parents for always being abusive, and John says that she only got the treatment she deserved. Sarah asks them why did they adopt her in the first place if they were going to treat her this way, and they stay silent. Kate arrives, finds out about Sarah's destination, and also berates her sister for being drunk trash that follows along an enchanted prince on her first try, instead of staying here and serving the family like she was meant to do. Sarah slaps her straight down to the ground, which shocks the family. Madeleine is sent into an uproar and almost kicks her out, not before Sarah walks out by her own feet. She then leaves Kansas with Edward. The two head towards California. There, Edward continues his erratic behaviour, asking Sarah to come with him as he tries to groom other girls, which she reluctantly does. Edward has absolutely zero trouble talking to other girls of a similar age as Sarah, despite already being with Sarah and despite Sarah herself watching, at his request. Sarah is obviously uncomfortable with this. Edward's non-chalantness continues as Sarah gets in deeper and deeper. We see how Edward and Sarah's toxic relationship unfolds: not only does Edward treat Sarah like she's just there and like he doesn't care, but he spends night after night after night talking to other girls, them also being around 18-19 years old. He shows no real empathy for Sarah, and simply discredits her. Sarah sticks by him for no other reason than because she believes that one day, it'll get better. We're now two years ahead of Sarah leaving Kansas. One night, Sarah finally has the guts to ask Edward if he has no shame. He talks to girls online every single night. He is disrespectful, he is dirty, he is disgusting, she reaffirms. Edward simply tells her that she won't have enough of him despite that. Sarah replies that one day, she might just. Edward looks at her and seethes in rage, screaming and punching a hole in a wall. He then tells her that she is not going away anytime soon, because he doesn't want her to go away, and that will be that. Sarah does not respond, looking somewhat intimidated, but not wanting to show it. She cries after Edward leaves the room. We continue to see tidbits of Sarah and Edward as time continues to pass by. Edward has her move from house to house continuously; arguments over Edward's weird behaviour go on and on, leading to breakdowns from Edward where he breaks furniture and punches holes in walls - we even see how, every time they would have an argument over the girls he keeps talking to during the Holiday season, he would throw the Christmas tree around; against Sarah's wishes, he gropes her, pushing Sarah further down into greater despair (she would cry in the bathroom everytime this would happen); he gets obsessed with food, gaining an extra 200lbs, and Sarah has to run after him cleaning stuff up; he acts like a man-baby, literally shitting himself and leaving drains on the floor of the house, and then has Sarah clean it; and he continues to talk to girls online - even forcing Sarah to say hello to the girls he talks to. One night, he casually references to Sarah that "there was one today at work that really turned me on", which disgusts Sarah, leading her to vomit. 8 years have now passed since the beginning of the relationship, and Sarah (now played again by Awkwafina) is a woman, but still living with Edward. Edward gets a call from a family member of his, who tells him that an uncle of his has passed away. He cries in Sarah's shoulders, showing some sign of human empathy for the first time. Sarah reluctantly holds him. They then visit the funeral of Edward's uncle, and afterwards, we get the will testimony, that certifies that Edward gets an inheritance from his uncle. When they get home, Edward pushes Sarah against the wall and tells her, in ominous fashion, that if she takes his money, he will find her and kill her. He reminds her of the many guns that he owns, and says he has no problem shooting her if she takes his money. Sarah aggressively says she won't, but Edward continues to mumble "if you take the money, I'll kill you" as he goes away. Edward and Sarah then move house yet again, this time to St. Louis, Missouri. The house is a 3k square foot cubicle, and Sarah questions Edward if this really is the place where he wants to live with her. He says this place is perfect - he can keep her under control here. Sarah detests the house. Not too long after they come in, Edward starts making a mess out of everything, and Sarah has to run around and clean. At the same time, she starts doing a part-time job and also college full time. Because of her occupations, as well as Edward leaving the house for weeks on end every now and then, she manages to keep her sanity afloat. But everytime Edward comes back, the violent arguments over the same things - money, girls - restart, and it all ends with Edward stoically staying that "if you take the money, I will kill you." Around this time, Sarah also finds out that a check was cashed off her bank account, likely to have been Edward with a forged signature. Sarah, who now uses the internet not quite as much as Edward but still plenty enough, talks to Edward's ex-wife on Facebook, who writes that Edward is actually a paranoid schizophrenic. Sarah feels like she's no longer surprised at Edward's behaviour during the last, as she says it... "10 years." To her, she feels like it's time to finally find a way out. Later that night, she overhears Edward talking to a girl again. She decides to interrupt, and Edward tells her to be polite at his new "friend". We don't see the girl's face, but Sarah seems worried about something. Edward talks nonsense as usual, and continues to try to seduce the girl. Sarah seems highly suspicious. She leaves the room, but stays behind listening. Eventually, she overhears the age of the girl that Edward is talking to: 16. Sarah is left in absolute shock, and sits on the ground as if the Earth below her has fallen. She doesn't believe it. She then confronts Edward with the information, after he logged off. She asks him incessantly if the girl he talked to was only 16. Edward is sweating, he is stammering, he is pale, he is scared... almost as if someone is pointing a gun at him. Sarah shouts at him with the same type of violence that he would usually throw at her. Edward finally admits that yes, she was only 16, but he refers that he was only talking to her. Sarah looks at him in absolute rage and contempt. She calls him a psychopath and leaves the room. As she leaves, Edward screams at her that if she tells someone, he'll kill her, while he cries like a baby. At this point, she returns to the bathroom. And it's the opening scene all over again: she looks at herself in the mirror, emotionless, while tears stream down her face. "I've had it." She had an epiphany. It's time for this to end. We cut to her going ahead and making copies of her social security card and birth certificate, and then hiding them in the house, waiting for the right time to be used. Coincidentally, the next day, Edward, still kinda shaking from what happened the previous night, tells her that he is going on a trip out of state with a friend, leading to her deciding that that's when she's going to pull the plot. She calls a local shelter in St. Louis, warning them to expect her early that night, and that if she no-showed in 24 to 48 hours, they should call the police. As she prepares to leave, Edward asks her if something's going on. She answers no, she's just going for some air. Edward continuosly asks her questions about if she's okay and if she needs anything, and also if she's going anywhere he should know about. Sarah insists nothing's wrong. When everything seemed settled and Sarah is prepared to leave, Edward tells her to stop. He then calls the friend he was going to a trip with... and decides he's not going with him. This terrifies Sarah. As he calls up, he asks Sarah to come back, he's "all hers now". He then screams at Sarah to come back, while she stays next to the door. Sarah turns her back and opens the door, and Edward runs at her. The two struggle, with Edward violently trying to pull her back into the house, while Sarah does everything she can to get as far away from him as possible. As she's pulled back in to the house, she rakes Edward's eyes, and then breaks a nearby cup of glass on his head, dropping him down to the ground. As he shouts in pain, she runs out of the house. There, we see that she only brings with her the clothes on her, some cigarettes... and her hidden identification copies. She then roams St. Louis at night, walking all the way to the shelter. She walks some solid hours to get there, but she finally arrives. She excuses herself as she was some time late, but she had no choice. She goes to her room, and just lays on her bed, knowing that the nightmare of living with Edward is finally over. She looks at the ceiling. The next day, she cancels all of her former house's utilities, which were all in her name since Edward's credit was poor, and while not every utility was canceled immediately, some fundamental ones were. In the house, Edward reacts to this by breaking furniture. Cutting back to the shelter, Sarah then calls an old friend of hers (Michael Dorman), whom she refers to as Sam Ritter. She asks him if she knows a place to stay in Ohio, and Sam willingly offers her to stay at his place. With no hesitation, Sarah accepts. She then awaits for her last paycheck to hit her bank account, and when it does, she gets a bus ticket and goes to Ohio. When she arrives, she and Sam get quickly acquainted. They catch up on conversation, talking about how each has been doing. Sam's life has kinda stagnated for a while now, he seems just kinda down on his luck, really. While Sarah... she feels like she's lucky to be alive. She tells Sam her whole story, and justifies even taking Edward's hand as that she didn't know what love meant when she was just 18... she was a teenager who had grown up in an abusive household, she was easily impressed with Edward and she thought that whatever it was that he presented, it was love. She found out during 10 years that it wasn't. It was nothing but terror. Sam assures her that everything is okay now. There is hope at the end of the tunnel for her. They hug. Then, Sam asks her to go over everything she - or rather, they - need to go over in order to legally prepare to take on Edward. Sam is a retired law enforcement, and he is well versed in local laws, so much so that he and Sarah agree to finding the right type of attorney for this situation. He also advises Sarah to document not only everything he did to her, but also everything that he will do once he figured where she had gone. We see Sarah and Sam take up a solid year to rally up their legal background, while Edward eventually did find out that Sarah was staying with Sam, and tirelessly stalked the two by continuously sending threatening emails, making phone calls and even sending someone to their house to make them a death threat. By the time Sarah has documentation and a 15 page-typed statement in hand, she calls up a local Missouri attorney, Dr. Frederick Jones (Michael Ealy). Frederick tells her that because Missouri - the last place where she and Edward lived - is a common state law, she needs to legally sever every single thing that she had with Edward. She does so, and Frederick helps her get a judgment against Edward, as well as an arrest warrant on his county, while the documentation on Edward's psychopathic behaviours continued to pile on. As a result, Sarah is, later on, made aware that Edward decided to run back to California, where he apparently got married. Sarah then also has the one attorney that represented her and Edward during the purchase of the Missouri house dropped off the case, and convinces Frederick to tell Edward's 2nd attorney to drop him out, since they are colleagues. That very much happens, and Edward is left with no legal defense. Finally, also with the help of Frederick, she hires a $40.000 judgment lawyer, Dr. Martin Creed (Jeff Meacham), 40k also being the amount of inheritance left that Edward has. After Frederick files a Sister State judgment to move the case to California, where Edward is based, court hearings finally begin. Sarah, Sam, Frederick and Martin testify literally all the evidence that they have on Edward's erratic behaviour, accusing him of, among many things, stalking, death threats, sexual abuse, physical and psychological abuse. Edward, who has no one to defend him, is literally choking on his words. He stutters on and on about how his mother would always tell him that if he didn't fight for his own preservation when he became an adult, no one would, and his father was a big guns enthusiast who taught him to shoot the wolves. He tries to say that every night, he overhears them talking in his head, about how people outside are dangerous and trying to take things away from him, and that he needed to fight. When the hearing is over, we hear people outside laughing at Edward's poor defense. Frederick says that the hearing was very successful and that Sarah has a very good chance of winning this case if things continue down this path, which leaves Sarah ecstatic. Frederick then recommends a friend of his, Francesca Davidson (Anna Hutchison), a private investigator who can further delve deep into Edward's troubles. Sarah and Sam then meet Francesca and tell her all about Edward, and she seems stoic about the idea of busting a psycho abuser. Cut to Francesca going about on her investigation, and then, telling Sarah, Sam and Frederick all she found: she found Edward's personal address information, which was linked to a second court case that Edward is a defendant on in California, for domestic violence on his pregnant wife. And, she also found proof that he had, in fact, forged Sarah's signature and cashed a check from her bank account. Sarah is all too happy to hear this. Cut to Sarah, Sam and Frederick appearing at Edward's domestic violence court hearing, where he's still forging the same excuses he did in the court hearing for Sarah's case. Sarah and the others testify via baillif on Edward's wife's side, leaving Edward numb and disoriented yet again. We get a brief demonstration of other court hearings on Sarah's case, where she and the others continue to drop bombshell after bombshell regarding Edward. Edward has literally zero means of continuously defending himself other than retorting to his old, nonsensical arguments, and finds himself at at dead end. Five years have now passed since Sarah left Edward, and we cut to the final court hearing, where, with every single judgment at hand and every warrant that had been sent against him (and Sarah mentions that she and Frederick were going to file for a second one in California), Edward has no choice but to settle for thousands of dollars. Sarah has stolen all the money Edward had, and Edward, against all of death threats he made at her should she ever take his money, will not be killing her, instead becoming a laughing stock. Edward bawls in court, while Sarah, Sam and Frederick celebrate. Cut to some time later, and Sarah, Sam, Frederick and Martin talk about the success of the case in Frederick's office. Sarah thanks all of them for their hard work, as without them, she wouldn't have been able to give Edward what he deserved. Sam tells Sarah that their work was only secondary to Sarah's heart, determination and courage. She was the one who stepped forward against all the odds, and proved to everyone that you can, in fact, hit the lowest of bottoms and still rise back up from the shadows. Frederick says that often, they say that when you plan out revenge, you need to dig two graves - this time, however, revenge was done right and the only grave they'll be digging anytime soon is Edward's. Enter a man, who introduces himself as a friend of Edward Mann's, and who comes in to deliever the payment of $10.000 that Edward agreed to. Sarah jokes about how Edward is such a coward that he couldn't even bring himself to deliever the payment in person. Outside of the office, as Sarah and Sam leave, they thank each other for everything they did for one another - Sarah thanks Sam for helping her all the way, and Sam thanks her... for re-entering his life. The two hug. Cross dissolve, and Sarah - who now has a ring on her hand - is seen writing a letter, apparently meant to be addressed at her adoptive family. In a voice-over, she reads what she writes: that thanks to the horrible upbringing they gave her, she didn't know what love meant, and that led her to finding and taking in the worst human being she could possibly think of. Hell, he wasn't even a human being, he was just a monster. But while she is truly upset with that man, she is only... disappointed with mom, dad and Kate. But no matter, because now, she is happier than ever. During the voice-over, we see that she and Sam are engaged, get married, renovate their home, buy a pick-up truck and another new car, go on travels around the world, and Sarah gets a Korean Sly Dragon tattoo sleeve. The movie ends with the letter being put in the mail, and the mail truck headed on its way, while Sarah narrates a message of hope: "for anyone out there who finds themselves at the bottom of the pit, don't worry... it is never impossible to return from Hell". Edited December 31, 2020 by MCKillswitch123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) Christmas Shopping Studio: New Journey Pictures Classics Director: Noah Baumbach Genre: Dramedy Release Date: December 6th, Y8 Theater Count: 2,030 MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Brief Strong Language and Sexual References Runtime: 1 hr 31 min Production Budget: $11 Million Original Score Composer: Randy Newman Cast Charlie Plummer as Seth Morgan Turner as Jane Joan Cusack as Angela Clark Gregg as Patrick David Koechner as Gene Fredric Lehne as Uncle Joe Ann Dowd as Aunt Sandy with Mae Whitman as Emily and Adam Driver as Phineas Plot Summary (about 6.7k words) Spoiler Spoiler The living room table’s cover is a rich shade of green. The red-nailed hands of Angela Farrow (Joan Cusack) set a box of ornaments on the table. She rummages through the box while Patrick Farrow (Clark Gregg) wraps silver tinsel around the tree. The tree is artificial, and so is the tinsel. Angela pulls out a flute ornament and a baseball ornament—symbols of her kids’ favorite activities. She sighs and walks up to the tree, telling Patrick that they have to find space for the more knick-knackey ornaments along with the red and green spherical ornaments. Patrick tells her not to worry—they’ll get it done. Angela looks out the window, and Patrick follows her. Angela expresses her excitement to see Seth and Jane, and Patrick tells her that he’s sure they’re excited too. Angela ponders. She steps back to the box of ornaments, and we match cut to Jane Laurier (Morgan Turner) in her bedroom tossing together a duffel bag of clothes. Seth Laurier (Charlie Plummer, but with glasses and a haircut) steps into her room and asks where the gifts they’re taking to Angela’s are. Jane says they’re downstairs before reminding him that he was supposed to help ger wrap the gifts yesterday night. Seth says he must’ve gotten sidetracked. Then she asks him if he has his bag packed. Seth hesitates. “Andelay, Andelay,” she says. “We don’t want to be late.” Cut to Jane downstairs as she sets her bag near the front door. Gene Laurier (David Koechner), the father, sips from a “#1 Dad” coffee mug and prods Jane to help Seth get packed, and Jan begrudgingly hurries back upstairs. She finds Seth staring into his closet because he can’t decide what clothes to pack. Jane helps Seth pick long-sleeved clothes and jackets—as much red and green as possible. Cut to Seth hugging Gene and running outside. She hugs Gene, who tells her to tell Angela he said hello—then he says not to because he doesn’t want to ruin the moment. Jane tells him that Angela isn’t that weird about the divorce. Gene tells her to remember the time Angela argued with her and Seth because they went to the pumpkin patch with high school buddies before they went with her. Jane says it’s water under the bridge. Gene laughs, says he’s just giving her shit, and tells her to have a good time. Jane gets in the car and starts backing out of the driveway. Seth (in the passenger seat) tells her to stop. She does, and he hops out, sprinting to the green garbage bin in front of the garage door while saying he just remembered that it’s Friday. Jane tells him that he doesn’t have to take the garbage bin down there, but it’s too late because he’s already doing it. Seth lugs the bin, sets it next to the mailbox, and runs up the driveway. Jane tells Seth to get in the car, but nope—he goes for the blue recycle bin too, because that bin had also been in front of the garage. Jane tells Seth that he could’ve dragged both of them down to the curb, and Seth shouts that he’ll remember that next time. Jane rolls her eyes. They travel down the snowy suburban roads of New York state. Christmas music plays on the radio while Seth muses about Angela. He tells Jane that he really hopes Angela made Christmas cookies, and Jane tells him he doesn’t have to worry about that because she makes them for every Christmas. Seth then says it might be the last Christmas before they’ll have to learn how to make their own. Jane is confused, so Seth starts muttering about college, and Jane reminds him that no matter what college they’re at, they’d definitely be coming home for Christmas. Seth says that’s right and stares out the window. Jane critiques him saying he thinks about college all the time and should give it a rest. Seth replies with “uh huh.” They arrive at Angela’s house. Angela welcomes them, and so does Patrick. In their greetings, it’s revealed that the day is the 22nd of December, and they’re going to be staying at Angela’s house from then until the middle of Christmas day. Jane notices that the tree has already been decorated. Angela rambles that she has Seth’s flute and Jane’s baseball up on the tree, and the star and tinsel and everything. Seth mutters that they could’ve decorated it together. Angela and Patrick exchange glances. Patrick says that it must’ve slipped their minds, and Angela says it at least gives everyone more time for other activities. Cut to Angela walking with Seth to his room, helping carry his things, and they set everything down on the bed—and that’s when Seth sees the video game covered in wrapping paper. Angela tells him to open it. He does, and it’s a new iteration of some Call of Duty-ish franchise. Angela figured Seth would want some time to play it since he doesn’t have the same game console at Gene’s house. Seth thanks her. Jane is in her room texting friends when Patrick walks in. He asks if she might want to have a snack later. Jane says maybe later. Patrick nods, hesitates, and exits. Cut to Seth, who gets to playing his game. He sits crisscross-applesauce on his bed and mutters that he’ll have to get Angela something even better for Christmas. He pulls out his headphones and joins a school acquaintance’s voice party, and he’s introduced to a gamer he hadn’t known before. He tries to say hello, but the others aren’t hearing him. He fiddles around to see why it isn’t working. Then he figures it out. Seth: Oh. Uh. My microphone wasn’t working. Gamer: Shut up, you ----. Get the fuck out. Seth is kicked from the voice party. He sits in silence. Cut to dinnertime. Angela has cooked spaghetti. Seth, moping about the gamer’s comment, twirls noodles on his fork. Patrick asks what’s wrong, and Seth brushes it off and says he’s fine. Patrick smirks a bit. Jane starts talking about her friend Cassidy and how she’s posting photos of the Bahamas because she’s staying there for the Christmas holiday. Angela says that’s nice; then she changes the subject and asks them how much Christmas shopping they’ve finished. Jane says she has a lot of gifts wrapped already, and that she wants to do a little bit more. Seth hesitates and mumbles that he’s bought “one or two things”—and Patrick’s like, “geez, Seth, it’s getting a little late for it,” and Seth retorts that AP Calculus has been giving him a hard time. Angela tells everyone she’s done most of her shopping already thanks to Amazon, but she’s willing to drive Seth and Jane around tomorrow to help them buy gifts. Seth is excited for it, but Jane doesn’t want to devote a whole day just for Christmas shopping. Angela says she doesn’t know when else they’d be able to go because their aunt, uncle, and cousins are coming on Christmas Eve, meaning they’d want to get gifts before that—and Seth would need Jane’s help. Jane sighs. Cut to Seth brushing his teeth for the night. Jane opens the door and leans against the frame. Seth sees her and stops brushing. Jane asks Seth if he has any idea what he’s going to get Angela for Christmas. Seth shakes his head—“uh-uh.” Jane then tells Seth that he better figure it out because she’s going to find a way to get out of shopping with him and Angela tomorrow. Seth spits into the sink and asks why. Jane says it’s because she has better things to do than tour him around a bunch of strip malls and outlets. Seth furrows his brow and asks Jane how he’d be able to buy something for Angela in a way where she doesn’t know what he’s getting her. Jane shrugs, tells him to figure it out, and walks to her room. Seth frowns and sulks to his room, walking past a hallway where Angela has been standing and listening the whole time. The next morning, Patrick knocks on the door of Seth’s room and asks if he wants to play catch with the baseball and gloves. Seth says that’s more Jane’s thing than his thing. Then Patrick suggests it’ll give him something to do before he goes shopping. Seth indulges him, and they go outside in the front yard. Angela and Jane get to watching Seth and Patrick play catch through a window. Angela asks Jane that if she’s not finishing her shopping today, then when would she finish. Jane says she’ll figure it out. Angela tells Jane she really should help her brother shop for gifts—it’d be a fun thing for the three of them, something they don’t get too often because of how her divorce from Gene played out. And it’s not like Jane has anything better to do today. They stare out as Seth dives for a ball, misses, and lands on his side. Cut to them hovering around the car and getting ready to leave. Angela tells Seth to run and get bottles of water, so he does. Jane tells Angela that she made a list of malls, antique stores, and gift shops that are worth visiting around town, and Angela thanks her. Angela then turns to Patrick and asks him what he’ll do all day without them, and Patrick says he’ll get into something, maybe wrap some gifts, watch a Christmas movie, yada yada. Now Seth and Jane are in the car, and Jane is telling Angela that they’re ready to go, so Angela and Patrick kiss, and Patrick waves while Angela drives out of the driveway. While driving, Angela asks Jane where they should go first, and Jane suggests going to the mall and getting the mall out of the way since that’s probably the busiest place. Angela says it’s a smart idea. Seth tells everyone that he’s hooked up the car radio to his phone’s Bluetooth, and Angela says he should play some Christmas music. Seth: Here’s “Little Drummer Boy”—but specifically the version by the Harry Simeone Choir. Jane: Oh. God no. Mom, no. Angela: Relax, Jane—if Seth wants to listen to it, he can. I mean, it can’t be that bad. [“Little Drummer Boy”] They listen to the song in awkward silence. We cut to Angela pulling into the mall parking lot—it’s packed at Angela’s surprise. They spend a long time scanning for parking spots until Seth points and sees one—the trouble is it’s an extremely tight fit. Jane says they shouldn’t try it, and Seth asks why not. Angela surmises that they won’t find one as close to the mall, so she pulls in—then has to back up, and then pulls back into the space. We see three claustrophobic shots as they all “Houdini” their way out of the car while trying not to let the doors hit the other car. During the final verse of the song, they walk together into the mall—and a sedan pulls out of a space and drives off in one of the closest spaces to the front doors. Jane stops, throws her hands in the air in frustration, and catches up to the others. They walk inside, and the camera follows them as they walk together. Angela: So who do you still need to buy presents for? Seth: Uh. Okay. I want to buy one gift for each of you, one for Dad, one for Patrick, one for Cousin Emily— Jane: Just call her Emily. Seth: Yeah, Cousin Emily—I mean Emily—and then gifts for Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy. Angela: What about Phineas? Seth: Yeah, I got him a chia pet. Jane: What? How do you know if Phineas likes planting things? Seth: It’s a chia based on Aera—you know, the wheel thing from Spark—he likes those movies, right? Jane: Seth, he prefers The Scavenger Wars! Angela: I’m sure he’ll appreciate it. Listen, I need to get something for Aunt Sandy—she’s the last one on my list. What about you, Jane? Jane: I’m getting something for Emily and something for Patrick. Angela: Good. Okay. I’ll run through JCPenny, and you can double team to find something for those two, and I’ll meet back up with you—how about one o’clock in the food court? Jane: Yep. Seth: Okay. Angela: Good. Well, good luck you guys! Call me if you need anything! (Angela walks to the entrance of JCPenny.) Seth: I love you! Jane: (whispers) Seth, don’t… Cut to a kiosk of sports team shirts. Seth walks by, but Jane stops and looks. She tells Seth to come back, so he does. The saleswoman says, “sports tees, $20 dollars.” Jane reminds Seth that Uncle Joe likes the New York Islanders, so he might appreciate a new shirt. Seth says that he shouldn’t buy it because it’s too obvious of a gift for Uncle Joe. Jane retorts that a Christmas gift seeming obvious is an exact reason to get it. The saleswoman repeats, “sports tees $20 dollars.” Seth takes the shirt and examines it; he puts it back and looks at Jane, saying, “I’m sorry, it just doesn’t feel like something special.” He walks off. Jane casts the saleswoman an apologetic glance—this’ll be harder than she thought. Cut to Angela in JCPenny where she chooses a dark green sweater for Aunt Sandy. “Sandy should like this,” she says. She walks to where she thinks the checkout line begins, but one shopper tells her that the line stops “back there.” We get a tracking shot of Angela walking past everyone in the line, most of whom are women around her age—woah, that’s a lot of people—and she finally reaches the back of the line. She checks her watch and sighs. The line steps forward one space—but only one space. Cut to a faraway shot of the Mall Santa as he greets children. Dolly out and pan right to Phineas (Adam Driver) who wears an elf costume and rings a handbell. Phineas: Santa’s come to town kids! Come see Santa, everyone! He sees Seth and Jane and calls out to them. They walk to him and say hi. Phineas: Geez, I remember when you guys were really little, and all of a sudden, you’ve grown from this height to that height! It’s incredible! Seth: Why are you an elf? Phineas: Oh, this. Uh. Well, simply put, this is where a theatre degree gets you in life. (Awkward silence.) Phineas: Nah, I’m just pulling your chain. I just needed some holiday cash. Got a few more gifts to get. Jane: So do we. Phineas: Oh good! Have you bought a gift for Angela yet? Jane: I have. Seth hasn’t. (Seth grits his teeth in worry.) Phineas: Okay. Well, listen up, and I’ll tell you something important. (Seth and Jane come closer.) Phineas: Whatever you do, don’t get her anything related to menstruation—not even as a stocking stuffer. I slipped pain relief pills in her stocking over a decade ago, and I still haven’t heard the end of it. Seth: So that’s what those boxes were. Jane: Yep, our mom still talks about it every Christmas. Phineas: Well, whatever you get her, it can’t ever be worse than that. Capisce? Jane: Yep. Seth: Okay. Phineas: Well, you guys take care. Good luck! Seth and Jane walk off. Phineas goes back to ringing the handbell. Cut to Seth and Jane walking into Palmetto Moon. Jane looks around, and Seth finds a bin of yoga mats. He takes a yoga mat to Jane and asks if it’s a good gift for Angela. Jane says Angela already has one. Then Seth suggests that she might want another one. Jane convinces Seth that Angela doesn’t need it—then as the Yeti cups are on sale, Jane suggests that they could each get one Yeti cup for Emily, and Seth agrees that it’s a good idea. They go into Lifeway, and Jane explains to Seth that this is where they can find something for Patrick since he’s a staunch Christian and likes study books. Seth finds a carton of the Resurrection Eggs that are used to explain the Passion story during Easter and asks if they might come in handy for Patrick. Jane tells Seth to set down the carton. She shows him a Bible cover and a book that critiques the American Dream, telling him she’ll buy one and he’ll buy the other. Seth likes the idea, and they head to checkout. They pass by another gift store that has a lot of sports-themed items. Seth runs in, causing Jane to follow. He finds a throw pillow of the New York Islanders and shows it to Jane, telling her that it’s the type of special item he was looking for and that Uncle Joe might not have something like it yet. Jane takes it, examines it, and tells him it’s a good gift. He’s really happy, and he goes to buy it. Jane smiles. Meanwhile, Angela makes it to the checkout. The cashier scans the bar code—it doesn’t read. She scans it again—it reads, thank goodness. The cashier names the price, and Angela inserts her debit card into the chip reader. It doesn’t read at first. The cashier tells her to try it again. Angela tries it again, and it doesn’t work. The cashier explains that the chip reader acts up sometimes and suggests she try swiping her card. Angela swipes her card, and that doesn’t work, so she tells the cashier she’ll try the chip reader again. Angela tries to be really careful with her card, and lo and behold, it actually reads her card, and she’s able to complete her purchase. Cut to Angela setting a box of Chinese food down on a food court table. She sits with Jane, who’s eating Chinese food, and Seth, who bought himself a Philly sandwich from Charleys instead. Angela shows Jane the sweater she got for Aunt Sandy. Jane agrees that it looks nice and asks her if she bought it in the right side. Angela’s expression changes. She looks at the inside tag and groans upon realizing she bought the sweater in the wrong size. So Jane and Angela resolve to go back to JCPenny and get the correct sweater, telling Seth he can look inside the video game store until they get the correct sweater. Seth nods. Cut to Seth walking into the game store—he freezes at the sight of Gene, who’s staring at the games on the wall. Seth ducks behind the gift card kiosk—Gene notices the sound but doesn’t see him. Seth peers and discovers that Gene is looking at the game Angela already bought for him. Seth cringes at the thought of awkward conversation. Gene leaves the game on the shelf and walks to the cashier to ask him a question—so Seth sneaks over to the shelf, takes the already-owned game and some hidden gem JRPG, swaps their places on the shelf, and sneaks back behind the gift card kiosk. Gene walks back to the shelf and notices that a different game is on the shelf space he was looking at. He examines the game’s front and back cover, nods, and takes it to the cashier. Seth watches their transaction in amazement. Then the cashier puts the JRPG in a bag, and Gene thanks the cashier and walks out of the store. Seth pumps his fist in victory—then a nine-year-old says “excuse me”; Seth stands up and lets the kid look at the cards. Cut to Angela driving down the road. She rants to Seth and Jane about how she can’t believe she picked the wrong sweater for Aunt Sandy—she was standing in line for all that time, and she still managed to get the wrong size. She says she needs a cigarette and rolls down the window. Seth winces. Angela apologizes to Seth because she knows he hates the smoke. Jane looks through her phone and says that hers and Angela’s shopping is all done, and that Seth still needs to buy something for Aunt Sandy, Gene, Jane, and Angela. Seth says that sounds about right. Jane thinks for a moment, then collides her head with the headrest—she thought she got something for Aunt Sandy, but actually hasn’t yet. Angela tells her it’s fine and says she can find something for her in one of the stores they’re going to—speaking of which what’s their next store? Jane answers: a mom and pop antique store with a grab bag of different items. They park at the store and walk in. Angela helps Seth look for a gift he can get Jane; she finds a locally-made flower pot and says, “now, Jane is the one who really likes planting things.” Seth isn’t convinced he should get it because already got Phineas the chia pet and he wants all the gifts he’s giving out to seem varied from one another. Angela convinces Seth by saying that the chia pet only allows Phineas to grow a specific type of plant, but with the flower pot, Jane can grow anything she wants—and it’s a really nice flower pot to boot. Seth is thoroughly convinced, and he buys it. Jane wanders aimlessly through the store, and she finds a pair of wind chimes. She remembers that Aunt Sandy likes hanging things from her front porch. She picks up the wind chimes and examines their sound. Then she calls for Seth, who’s at the cash register. Seth sets the money on the counter and pleads with Angela to not let Jane see the flower pot, and he hurries to Jane. Jane asks Seth, since he’s the musician in the family, if he thinks the chimes sound nice. He does. They’re almost walking out when Seth sees something and rushes to it. It’s a picture frame where the frame looks like the red-stitched cover of a baseball. We see Seth’s frantic reflection in the glass as he examines the picture frame. Then he sets it down and mumbles that he should’ve gotten that for Jane. Jane and Angela say it’s okay—Angela says he got her a good gift—but Seth marches out. Cut to them silent in the car. Seth is fiddling around on his smartphone—he’s in a slump. Jane looks out the window and says to Angela that she passed the last gift shop. Angela throws her hand in the air—her frustration level has increased. She makes a U-turn, and then she makes another U-turn, and she attempts to make it to the gift shop, but somebody cuts her off, and she says “God damn it” because she has to do the two U-turns all over again. They walk into the gift shop. Jane suggests that they split up, so they do. The camera follows Jane for a minute as she looks through the t-shirts and the posters—then she gets a text message from Cassidy. “Hey I’m back in town! Whatcha up to.” “Still chirstmas shopping with my family” “*christmas” “That sucks” Then Jane thinks for a moment and types: “Tell me about it” and she puts her phone back in her pocket. Cut to Seth, who’s still trying to find Christmas gifts. He turns a corner and finds Angela staring at a small sculpture of a nesting bird. He steps behind another shelf to hide. Angela continues to stare, and then she walks off. Seth walks to the bird, picks it up, and examines—and Angela, unnoticed by Seth, walks back to watch Seth examine the bird, hoping Seth will take the hint. But Seth puts the bird back on the shelf and walks further down the aisle. Angela glares in frustration. Cut to a clock—time is passing by. We dolly out and pan to Jane and Angela, who are standing close to checkout. Jane tells Angela that she’s ready to go home after this. Angela tells her that she’s sure Seth will choose his gifts sooner than later. Seth emerges from the back of the store with a big smile on his face. He’s holding a rhino plushie—an expensive one—and he says it’s a great gift for Gene. Jane asks why he thinks Gene would want a rhino plushie. Seth explains that half of the proceeds go to a foundation that helps fight back against poachers who hunt rhinos for their horns. Jane asks if Seth really thinks Gene cares about that, but Angela tells him that’s a fine gift for Gene. Seth is really excited about this gift, and he rushes to the counter to buy it. Jane tells Angela that he only has her and Aunt Sandy left to buy for, and Angela tells Jane that she knows that. Then Seth tells them the rhino is all he wants to buy from this gift shop. Angela begins to sound argumentative, telling him that there’s no more stores on the list. Seth says he’ll think about other stores, and he walks outside. Angela sighs and walks out; Jane follows. Cut to a long shot that captures all three of them. It’s already dark. Angela smokes a cigarette, Jane texts on her phone, and Seth packs the rhino in the car. Seth tells everyone that he’s packed the car. Angela tells him to give her a minute because she’s almost done smoking. Jane tells her that she’s looking up local stores they can visit. Angela says that’s good. They kids get in the car; she throws the cigarette down to the snow, crushes it, and gets inside the car. Angela: Where else should we go, Seth? Seth: I was wanting to ask Jane— Angela: No, what other stores do you think would be good to visit? Seth doesn’t have a clue. Angela: Why don’t I drive around for a little bit. And if you see a place that might have a good gift for me or Aunt Sandy, you tell us, and we’ll stop. Okay? Seth nods. Angela drives Seth and Jane around, driving the speed limit when she’s been slightly speeding throughout the rest of the film. Seth stares out the window, trying to find a store that he might want to visit. In the passenger seat, Jane stares down, knowing she has good answers but sad that she can’t share them. The edit lapses the time, revealing that Seth hasn’t been able to pick out a store for quite a long time. Dissolve to a highway road. Angela glares at the backseat toward Seth. Angela: It’s been thirty minutes, Seth. Seth doesn’t answer. Angela decides to pull over to the side of the road. Angela: Seth, step out, I want to talk you for a minute. Angela and Seth step out of the car. Jane watches from inside the car (and so does the camera); they argue outside, and it appears to be an incredibly one-sided argument. After a moment, Angela storms back to the car, but Seth walks alone down the side of the road. Angela opens her car door, but notices Seth and yells at him to come back. He doesn’t. Angela sits down, and Jane asks her what she told him. Angela hesitates, then tells Jane what he told Seth: if it’s that much trouble to pick out gifts, then it’s like he hardly knows who they are. Jane unbuckles; Angela offers to get him, but Jane says she’ll do it. She gets out of the car and runs to Seth, who we now see is crying. Jane tells Seth not be an idiot and comes back to the car. Seth tells Jane that he failed. Jane tells him he’s fine and that he should come back to the car. Angela slowly pulls into her driveway. As soon as they park, Seth gets out and storms into the house. Patrick runs to Angela and asks what’s wrong. Angela tells him that Seth couldn’t finish his shopping in time. Patrick says that’s a shame, and Angela tells him to help carry stuff in. Jane slams her door to get their attention and yells at Angela—“Time and place, Mom! You’re ridiculous!”—and rushes inside. Cut to Seth brushing his teeth—he’s teary-eyed. Jane sees him from the open bathroom door, but she doesn’t have the heart to interrupt him, so she walks to her room. Seth notices the movement, but decides not to investigate it; he stares down in sadness. We cut to Angela knocking on the door of Seth’s room. She asks if he’s hungry and tells him she made a grilled cheese sandwich. No response. She sets the plate with the grilled cheese and homemade coleslaw down at the door and walks off. Seth opens the door slightly—still teary-eyed—and he takes the plate and closes the door. Near the kitchen, Jane finishes eating her sandwich, and she puts her plate away. Patrick and Angela are sitting in the living room, and Patrick asks Jane if she wants to watch Olive the Other Reindeer with them, as it’s available on Blank+. Jane says she’s tired and wants to go to sleep. Patrick says, “well if you insist.” Then Jane tells them Cassidy is back in town and that she wants to hang out with them before the Christmas Eve party. Angela knows she’s messed up, so she reluctantly tells Jane that it’s fine. Jane walks to her room and closes the door. Then she opens the door and stares across the hall at Seth’s door. Seth’s door is closed. Jane sighs and thinks to herself. Next morning, Patrick makes eggs in a frying pan. Patrick asks Angela how Seth likes his eggs cook. Angela says he likes them cooked over-medium. Patrick says, “shoot, I’ve already scrambled them.” Angela says it’s probably fine, and Patrick serves plate of food—bacon and eggs—to everyone, and he also sets out a plate for Seth, who isn’t there. Jane looks at her plate, then looks up at Patrick and tells him she doesn’t like eggs. Patrick says darn it, and Angela tells him he’ll get it next time. Angela looks at Seth’s empty chair, and we get a shot of the empty chair. We cut to Angela knocking on Seth’s door. Angela: Seth? Breakfast is ready. (Silence.) Angela: Patrick wants us to read the first few chapters of Luke together. If you’re up for it. (More silence.) Angela: Listen. I’m sorry about last night. I was frustrated, and I said some things I shouldn’t have. I hope you’re not mad at me. And hey, maybe you can arrange for someone to help you finish shopping today. I know you’re almost done. (More silence, even still.) Angela: I guess I can give you some time—but at least snap out of it before the Christmas Eve party—I want you to be excited when you’re giving Phineas his chia pet. That’ll be priceless. Okay? Angela doesn’t get a response, so she walks away. And in the same shot, Seth opens his door slightly, then closes it. We see him turning the volume up on his TV, so that the video game music can be heard by people walking up to his room. Then he tiptoes out of his room, hoping not to be seen. Cut to Jane, who’s in the kitchen. She scrapes the eggs from Seth’s plate (and from her own plate) into tupperware. Then she puts Seth’s bacon into the tupperware and closes it. She then tells Angela and Patrick that she’s off to visit Cassidy. Patrick: Okay! Please tell her I said hi. Angela: And be sure to come back before 2:00, okay? Jane: I won’t be long. (Jane winks at Angela.) (Angela sees the wink and lights up.) Cut to Jane walking to her car with the tupperware, some napkins, and a plastic fork. She waves goodbye to Angela and Patrick, and then she enters her car. Seth is sitting in the passenger seat. Jane hands him his food, and Seth thanks her. Seth tells her that he remembers something that Mom was looking at in the gift shop. Jane tells him they’ll head there first. Then Seth asks her if they can stop by Starbucks, and Jane says they can definitely stop by Starbucks. We cut to Angela walking into the living room. She sees the Christmas tree and walks up to it. She plucks a red ball from the tree and examines it. She holds it out in the palm of her hand. Angela: You come one day a year and you bring my family together, drive wedges between us, and patch us back together again. Who gave you that authority, December 25th? Don’t think for a second your place in history is anything more than the luck of the draw. Angela reattaches the ornament and walks out of the room. We cut to an establishing shot of Angela’s house during dusk as a lot of cars pull into the driveway. Cut to Phineas walking in and greeting Angela, Patrick, Seth, and Jane (as the latter two have come back from their excursion). Following Phineas into the house is Aunt Sandy (Ann Dowd), Uncle Joe (Fredric Lehne), and Emily (Mae Whitman). During the greetings, Angela makes a quip about the menstruation pills. They eat food at a dining table, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy get to asking Seth and Jane the college questions like “have you started applying” and “what do you want to major in”—Seth wants to go into computer programming for video game development, and Jane wants to be a nurse, and they both want to stay in the state of New York since in-state tuition is a million times cheaper than out-of-state tuition. Phineas tells them that it’s a good decision because they know how Emily went to Penn State to study journalism and how she’s still paying off loans—then Emily corrects him saying she just finished paying off her loans a few months. Then Seth leans forward and asks if someone can pass him the potato salad. Aunt Sandy says no. And there’s an awkward silence. And then Aunt Sandy starts laughing, says “I gotcha good,” and passes him the potato salad. Then it comes time to give gifts. Uncle Joe opens Seth’s throw pillow and says he likes it. He also likes the coffee mug from Jane, sports tee from Angela, and box of assorted jellies from Patrick. Aunt Sandy likes the sweater Angela got her, and she also likes the wind chimes from Jane—Seth ended up getting her a hairbrush, and I mean a really nice one. Emily opens her Yeti cups, and she stands up because she’s really excited about the Yeti cups. Then Phineas opens the chia pet and he’s like, “oh, it’s based on Aera, that’s cool.” Then Seth opens his first gift, and it turns out that Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy splurged together and bought him a new flute. They ask him to try it out, and Emily suggests that he should play a Christmas song, so Seth plays the melody “Up On the Housetop” with a lot of impressive staccato notes. Everyone applauds him. We cut to the extended family leaving. Phineas is the last one to leave, and before he goes, he places hands on Seth’s shoulder and Jane’s shoulder, and he tells them that he’s not worried about them at all and that there’s no way they’re not going to turn out right, so they don’t have to worry too much about it. Then he says “asta la vista baby” and leaves. Cut to Seth playing his video game in his room. Jane walks in—she’s a little bit emotional, and she’s wiping away tears, and she tells Seth not to play too long because he doesn’t want to be pooped in the morning. Seth asks if there’s anything wrong, and Jane says she’s fine. She tells him that she’s seen everything that he got the family for Christmas, and that he got really good gifts for everyone. Seth says thanks. Jane says good night and closes the door. Seth says good night. Angela and Patrick have a conversation with each other in bed, and they tell each other about the things they got Seth and Jane for Christmas. They got Jane a lot of nice clothes, and they got her a record player too. Then they got Seth a new game controller, some trivia games, and a television. Patrick says that he thinks it’ll be a good Christmas, and Angela says that she thinks it’ll be a good Christmas too. The next morning comes. The alarm wakes Jane up at 7:00, so she gets up groggily and pulls back the curtains of her bedroom window. To her delight, it’s a White Christmas—snow blankets the yards and rooftops. She hurries to Seth’s bedroom, wakes him up, and shows him the snow. He likes the snow, too. Cut to downstairs. Patrick pours the fourth glass of eggnog and sprinkles nutmeg in the glasses. Jane says “Andelay, Andelay” because she’s excited about the gifts (cuz her, Seth, and Angela are already sitting near the Christmas tree), and Patrick says he’s hurrying. He brings the eggnog to everyone there, and Angela hands Seth and Jane one box each. She tells them to open them together; Seth opens a red sweater labeled “Best Sis” and Jane opens a green sweater labeled “Best Bro.” Patrick scratches his head and admits he must’ve switched the boxes by accident. Patrick opens the Bible cover and book from Jane, and Seth gives Patrick another box. He opens it—it’s another chia pet. Patrick: Oh! Is this the fish guy from Can You Imagine? Seth: Yeah! Jane smirks and side-eyes Seth. Patrick examines the box and says it’s cool. Seth tries to hand Angela the gift he got her, but she tells him to opens something of his first. He opens the controller and he’s really excited about it—then Jane opens one of her records before she’s supposed to open it. Angela: Oh! Yeah, Jane, we got you a record player. Jane: Really? That’s awesome! Angela: That was supposed to be the big surprise for you… Patrick: And we’re at it, Seth, we got you a Smart TV. Angela: Patrick… Seth: Really! Angela: Yep. It’s in the big box in the back. Angela reaches for the big box, but Seth insists she open the gift her got her. Angela opens it. It’s the bird she was staring at in the gift shop. She says she likes it! Then Seth looks at Jane and insists that Jane open the gift he got her. She opens the flower pot and is delighted by it. Then Jane gives Seth a present from her. Jane smiles while Seth opens it. She got him the same baseball picture frame that he considered getting for her. Seth asks her why. She says it’s something for him to remember her by. They hug. Cut to a shot of the TV and a shot of the record player. Cut to Jane and Patrick collecting all the wrapping paper into a garbage bag. Jane watches Seth walk down the hall, and she peers. We cut to Seth getting Angela’s attention while she’s getting ready to make breakfast. “I love you,” he says to her. They hug. Jane sees this and smiles. We cut to a montage where the family eats breakfast together (pancakes, corned beef hash, sausage), having a good time together, setting up the TV and record player for the first time—and also, once the time passes noon, Seth and Jane putting on their coats, getting their bags together, saying goodbye, getting in the car, and leaving. Angela and Patrick stand in the driveway and wave goodbye; then Angela stares up at the sky and smiles. Fade to black. The original song "Suburban Santa" by Phoebe Bridgers plays during the end credits. Edited September 22, 2023 by SLAM! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) A VERY ADAM & CINDY VALENTINE Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Eric Dean Seaton Release Date: February 9th Y8 Genre: Romantic Comedy Rating: PG, for some rude humor Format: 2D Budget: $7 million Theater Count: 3.031 Runtime: 1 hour and 32 minutes Previous Movie Grosses: - Adam & Cindy, Y7 -> $10,220,685 OW / $32,164,875 DOM / $50,105,968 WW Cast: - Billy Crystal as Adam (voice) - Toni Collette as Cindy (voice) - Unknowns Plot: After the ending of Adam & Cindy, the terrier Adam (Billy Crystal, voice) and the poodle Cindy (Toni Collette, voice) are now a part of the same family. The two are not only best friends to each other, but they're the closest companions to Billy, the 18 year old son of the couple that adopted Adam and Cindy, accompanying him almost everywhere. Billy has a crush on Echo, a girl from his class, and Adam and Cindy notice that he acts funny next to this girl, assuming correctly that he has a crush on her. The film that follows, almost in its entirety, sees Adam and Cindy on fun shenanigans to try to set up the two together (obviously, nothing unrealistic for dogs, but stuff like barking to Billy to go out to the park when they suspect Echo will be there i.e.). Eventually, Valentine's Day arrives, and with the help of Adam and Cindy - who comfort Billy when he's down on himself for wanting to admit to Echo that he likes her on this very day - Billy admits to Echo that he likes her... and Echo tells him she knew. That shocks him and leaves him embarrassed, and Echo tells him that even his dogs must've noticed that he liked her (to which Adam tells Cindy: "That's kinda rude... but also true"). Billy awkwardly apologizes to Echo, saying that he doesn't want her to think he's a creep or something, but Echo tenderly responds that it's fine. Billy then asks her if she likes him... Echo lowly mumbles: "Maybe". She then gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and leaves, leaving Billy awestruck and Adam and Cindy happy. The final sequence of the film involves Adam and Cindy dialoguing with each other about how love always wins, as Billy heads for school and smiles when he sees Echo, who smiles at him back. The end credits song is a cover of "Love Wins", the original song of Adam & Cindy by Martina McBride (about how love always wins), performed by Amy Wadge. Edited January 24, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 (edited) DAVE-DAY Based On: World War 2 - D-Day (Claymation), by Twin Tales Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment, Phoenix Fire Artstyles Release Date: June 21st Y8 Genre: Claymation/War/Dramedy Rating: R, for cartoon gore and pervasive language Format: 2D Budget: $15 million Theater Count: 2.659 Runtime: 1 hour and 37 minutes Director: Eric Fogel Producers: Twin Tales Screenwriting: Eric Fogel Original Music: Alan Elliot, Eric Perlmutter Voice Cast: - Jake Gyllenhaal as Dave Monday - Bill Hader as Ned Chandlers - Nick Jameson as Sgt. Rogers - Tara Strong as Michelle Monday - and Ralph Garman as Jesus Christ Note On Animation: The animation is done in-house by Phoenix Fire Artstyles. It is entirely animated claymation-style, exactly in line with the short it's based on. Plot Synopsis: Dave Monday (Gyllenhaal, voice) is a new recruit on the American Army in 1943, enrolling as a part of the US troops sent to the European front of World War II. Plot: Spoiler After the Phoenix Fire Entertainment logo, we are presented to the Phoenix Fire Artstyles logo for the very first time, a quick montage of many different animation styles that leads to the still logo of Vixen the phoenix drawn in many different ways and colors. During the opening credits, we hear a voice-over, on top of a montage of how World War II started, narrated by a sensible-sounding male (Jake Gyllenhaal, voice): “The year was 1939. The world wasn’t exactly a stable place at that point in time. (We see Adolf Hitler saying “Scheibe, scheibe, SCHEIBE!!!” while Nazis get rallied up, the Spanish Civil War and Mussolini snoozing in bed while the Blackshirts look over with somewhat creepy eyes.) And then the Nazis decided: “Hey, let’s conquer the world”, and they invaded Poland, which led to the UK stepping in and opening up a world war with those tyrants. (The Nazis do a march inside Poland, and we see Winston Churchill call them “motherfuckers” in his royal British accent.) But as it turns out, the United States were somewhat revelling in peace. Well… until 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened. (We cut from an American flat land with tumbleweeds rolling, to the Pearl Harbor attack, where many Americans are killed by Japanese air forces, the last shot being of the amount of carnage left behind in the attack.) After the Japanese made it clear that they didn’t want America anywhere near control of the Pacific landscape, we became one of the main Allied forces, alongside the UK, France and the USSR, against the Axis forces, led by Germany, Italy and Japan. Of course, we weren’t alone. (We see a world map, where the main Allied countries are in blue, and then the main Axis forces in red, followed by a quick coloring of every other participant country in either blue or red.) But, we were the main ones. We’re now in 1943. And this is the story of how one guy… well, he did the same thing that many others did, but he has a story to tell nonetheless. This is my story!” Cut to a blonde guy in his 30’s showing up in front of the camera, looking confident and with his fist closed, as if he’s about to launch into warfare, while bombastic music plays. Out of nowhere, a female voice (Tara Strong, voice) asks “Dave” to take out the trash. “Uhh, yes, sweetie”, and then Dave walks out of the shot. We see Dave go about his daily routine of doing house chores, reading the newspaper and then doing some exercise in his backyard, which… doesn’t go all that well, he tries to do some pushups, but he never gets them quite done. But he’s still confident that they went well, nonetheless. We then see Dave interact with a blonde woman about of his age, that he refers to as Michelle - this happens to be the person with the voice calling out to him to take out the trash. Michelle and Dave talk about how it seems that Hitler is trying harder and harder to conquer more territory, and Dave says that someone really should put an end to that son of a bitch. Michelle tells him that he’s so hot when he’s that excited about killing Hitler, but she says that she’s still reluctant for him to go to war all the same. Dave tells her that he knows that she doesn’t want him to go, but he knows that this is his calling. War is what he’s made to be a part of. And he won’t let the legacy of Dave Monday be seen as anything else other than that of a legendary soldier who punched the Nazis in the face with his awesome wit and incredible abs, as we pan out to a shot of his physique… which isn’t all that impressive. Michelle laughs, saying that she likes it, which pleases Dave, but then she says that she’s not sure that many people are interested in it, which doesn’t please Dave. Dave still says that he’s doing it, and he’s doing it for her, AND that he will come back to her once everything is over. Michelle smiles, but as Dave kisses her and leaves the shot, she still seems hesitant about letting Dave go. We cut to a shot of Dave saying his farewell to Michelle, both of them saying they hope they see each other again and that Dave lives on, but Dave confidently says that he will, because he’s made to be in war with evil tyrants like the Germans. Michelle shows her preoccupation, but she doesn’t try to stop Dave from leaving. The two kiss one last time, and Dave drives to a nearby city, where he then officially enrolls in the Army, us getting to see him signing all the papers, doing all the exams and stuff like that. It all goes generally alright, nothing special, although he shows some difficulty when it comes to cardio stuff. The higher-ups of his company show some reluctance to let him into battle, but he insists that he’s ready. We are now in Camp Jackson, South Carolina, where we are then introduced to Sgt. Rogers (Nick Jameson, voice), an in-your-face leader that doesn’t hold anything back from his soldiers. Rogers asks these smartasses if they’re here to do anything remotely decent with their lives. The soldiers just look with their heads down, Dave included. Rogers shouts that the only thing they’re doing right now is looking down like a bunch of bratty snobby children who just got their candy stolen! He demands the soldiers do the salute and accept his orders, which commands the soldiers to act up. One of the soldiers (Bill Hader, voice), a guy with brown hair, turns to Dave and another soldier, who’s bald, tells them that if this is gonna continue, they’re probably gonna be turned into mince meat before they’re even launched into battlefield, to which Dave and the bald guy nod in agreement. Rogers notices them mumbling to each other and shouts at them like a crazy person, forcing them to do exercise right in front of the company. Dave, of course, isn’t very good at cardio and can’t quite keep up with the other two and makes a fool out of himself, which only commands Rogers to scream at him even more loudly. Dave tries harder and harder, but still isn’t very good. After the company is dismissed, we cut to Dave talking to the two soldiers from before. The bald one (Ralph Garman, voice) says that his name is Theodore, but all of his friends know him as Jesus Christ because of his long hair, long beard and calm voice. Dave asks him why he does not have long hair or long beard, and Jesus says that it’s because he had to, for the Army, which leads to a “oh yeah, of course” look from Dave. The other one introduces himself as Ned Chandlers, a faithful guy - literally, as he takes out a Christ cross that he keeps with him (and a voice-over saying Hallelujah). Dave makes himself known to the other two. The three bond over things in common, like an appreciation of turkey, and of course, their collective desire to beat up the Germans. They agree that the Russians might not be all that good, though, but whatever, they’ll have to team up this time. Afterwards, we see more of the trio bonding, having long conversations, eating together, showering together (to Dave’s disgust), and training together in camp. Dave gets progressively better at the cardio stuff, slowly making way towards keeping up with Ned and Jesus in push-ups, abdominals, running exercise and other types of exercise, getting more fit as well. This pleases Rogers, who is extra exigent of him, since he’s not of the best or brightest soldiers around. This leads to a scene where the soldiers are training their accuracy, and Dave is tried with a dummy grenade. He decides to let it cook in his hand, but when he throws it, Rogers shouts “Boom!”, indicating that the grenade would have gone off before he even threw it, showing his fury at Dave’s incompetence once again. Dave just mutters “Goddammit”, which leads to Ned punching him in the shoulder, Dave apologizing right after, while Jesus can only laugh. The three grow closer and closer, and eventually, they tell each other their lives. Jesus is from New York, but he moved to South Carolina with his parents, where he then joined the Army. Ned, who’s from Kansas, says his family has always been creedent, he isn’t even close to the most devout member of his household, but he respects God almighty and hopes that he’s there for them when they go to the battlefield - Jesus then says that “he is”, which leads to Dave and Ned laughing. Dave, meanwhile, says that he feels like he was made for war, and that anyone who’s with him, literally or in spirit, has been blessed by being in his life, which Ned says that his cocky attitude seems a bit much for someone who could barely do a push-up. Dave responds that he at least isn’t a virgin, and Ned asks him how he knows that Ned is too? Jesus “ohhhhhhhhs”. Dave shrugs and says that he knows he himself isn’t, as he has a beautiful wife, Michelle, waiting for him back in Michigan. We see him thinking about Michelle, who - after we cut back to the Monday household - is talking to a friend about how she’s worried that Dave thinks he’s untouchable and doesn’t realize that, in war, anyone is expendable. But she hopes that he’s the one who gets to kill Hitler himself, although she notes down that the chances of that happening are slim, cause he’ll probably die on his first mission, which leads to her shedding a tear and receiving a hug from her friend. Sgt. Rogers then tells the soldiers that they will be headed to England, where they will have some work to do while the American, British and Canadian troops prepare an on-land invasion of German-occupied land, through the British Channel. Dave tells Ned and Jesus that he’s excited for this operation, as it could be the beginning of the end for the Axis, while the rest of the Allies take down Italy as well. Jesus reminds him that technically it would only be the end of the European front of the war, as America is fighting Japan as well, and Dave says that’s right, but they have been tasked with fighting the Germans, so that’s all that matters to him. Ned says that he’s worried that they’re going to encounter fierce opposition on the other side, but Dave brushes it off. Aboard the ship that will take them from the US to England, Dave pukes. Jesus asks him if that’s fighting nerves, and Dave rebuffs by saying not in a million years, it’s just general stomach problems… being on the ocean does that to him. Ned asks Dave if he doesn’t feel way too confident about this, and Dave says, again, not in a million years. Jesus on the other hand remarks that he feels somewhat nervous, as if he’s got a feeling that something bad could occur. Ned agrees with Jesus. Sgt. Rogers meanwhile calls down on the members of the company to watch out for any overseas movement that could be intrusive to them. Dave excitedly starts to look around the ship, to see if he can spot enemy surges. “I will set those bastards on fiyah!”, he shouts, which leads to Ned facepalming and Jesus looking at him weird. Then, the ship’s alarms go off and Rogers tells everyone to duck, because a German airplane is rounding the area and apparently has them targeted right down. Everyone goes to hide inside, while Dave complains that he had that plane, but Jesus tells him “no, just no.” The plane tries to bomb the ship, but the soldiers manning the on-board machine guns manage to not only blow up the German missiles mid-air, but they also manage to shoot down the enemy plane in time. Everyone is relieved, one of the soldiers even screaming “FUCK YEAH”, but Dave is bitter that he didn’t get the glory. He does say, however, that as he predicted, he and/or his friends would take care of the Germans. Ned wonders why is he friends with him. The ship arrives in England, and Rogers sends the squad to duty next to the British Army, as they protect civilians and prepare the special operation to attack the Germans through the French beaches. We’re now in March 1944. During a patrolling mission in London, Dave, Ned and Jesus roam the streets, bantering about what they are gonna have for breakfast, and Dave says that they’re gonna have German sausage and eggs! Ned and Jesus look at him weird, Dave doesn’t understand how bad that sounded. Ned says thank everyone above that he’s got God looking down on him, ditching out the Christ cross again (Hallelujah!). Anyways, they continue to walk around and banter a little bit, when, out of nowhere, a German airplane bombs the shit out of the street. Some of the American soldiers are blown to smithereens, while the trio just kinda hides. German soldiers appear, and Dave, Ned and Jesus shoot at them and kill them. The trio runs and guns past some soldiers while German planes bomb London’s streets in the background and the American soldiers all think they’re gonna die. As the gunfire gets more and more intense, Dave and Ned go off to one end of the street while Jesus stays in another. Dave decides to throw a grenade. He removes the pad, and he decides once again to cook the grenade. Ned tells him to throw it already, but he manages to slip and throw it backwards, in Jesus’ direction. Ned tells him that he’s insane and he almost killed their comrade, and Dave apologizes. The grenade explodes far enough away from Jesus, though, and he turns around unharmed. The trio smiles at each other… until Jesus gets bombed by a plane and turned into a bunch of blood and burned flesh. Dave and Ned cry out for him, and then have to dodge more bombings, when the cavalry of American and British air forces finally arrive to dogfight the Germans away. But the damage is done. A lot of loss of life - including that of Jesus. Dave and Ned mourn Jesus. We cut to Dave and Ned sitting together, sad, when Sgt. Rogers shows up to lift their spirits. He says that he was aware of how close the two of them were to Theodore, Dave cutting him out and saying that they called him Jesus. Sgt. Rogers says that it doesn’t matter what they called him, because he will always be looking down from above. Ned agrees. But Dave says that the fact that he actually lost someone who was that close to him taught him a lesson about how he really overestimated his and his friends’ chances of surviving. War really isn’t a joke, and he perhaps took that for granted, Now, a friend of his is gone forever. Rogers tells him that, at the end of the day, a soldier’s life is defined by how much they leave on the battlefield, and if they die in service, they die a hero. Ned pats Dave on the back and says that everything is gonna be alright. Dave pats Ned back and thanks Rogers for comforting them. Rogers then says that, soon enough, they’ll be departing to France for the execution of the big plan: Operation Overlord, the on-land beach landing and invasion of German-occupied France. This is the biggest moment of their military lives, they gotta put it all on the line. Dave and Ned stand up and do the salute, saying “yes sir”, and Rogers leaves. Dave and Ned then hug. Cut to the morning of D-Day. The large vessels approach the beach, under the historic grey skies of the Normandy beach landing. The 4th Infantry Division is now slowly approaching Utah Beach. Dave, taking the final minutes before the landing, admits to Ned that he's a bit anxious, which Ned agrees to, but Dave then relaxes himself by joking that they're going to kill those "sons of a beach". Ned isn't amused at first, while Dave starts to laugh at his own joke. Ned, confused, laughs too, but then, when Dave looks down, he subtly does the Holy Trinity sign while looking side-eyed at Dave. Dave, eyes still looking down, says that this is the day that he and Ned have been preparing for the last few... well, however long it's been, he's lost track of time. And, for all intents and purposes, whatever happens out there... it's been a pleasure to serve America, for his wife... for everyone. And, it's been a pleasure to serve next to Ned. Ned smiles. He too says that it's been an absolute pleasure to serve the US with Dave, and that he hopes that he survives today. And he also hopes that Dave survives today, if for nothing else, to see his wife again in the future. Dave's smile reaches across his entire face. At this point, Captain Rogers tells the soldiers in the ship to group up in front of him. Today's the day that America lands in German-occupied Europe, which means today is the 6th of June of 1944, which means today is Tuesday... which means that it's the day his wife goes shopping. But it's also the day where Americans make history, by telling them Nazis that this isn't their world, this is a free world, and in a free world, dictators don't have a say! Now, the soldiers go out there and take that damn beach, and kill those fucking bastards! The soldiers all cheer on. Shortly afterwards, the ship finally lands. As the soldiers drop down to the beach and head on forward, Rogers screams "AMERICAAAA-" Rogers gets shot in the head, to the shock of the soldiers, including a loud “HOLY SHIT” from Dave. The Germans waste no time and launch a fearsome counterattack against this invasion, and we see American troops take massive casualties (no punches held back, all of it showcased in gorey fashion... claymation-style). Limbs are shot off, limbs are blown off by landmines and the beach becomes a blood pool soon afterwards. Dave and Ned run forward and jump to the dunes as their comrades go down. Finally, however, the Americans slowly make way, and begin to fire back, us seeing some of the Germans get killed as well. Dave banters to Ned that if he survives this, he's gonna make him go to a strip club with him and they'll be taking Jesus with them, and Ned says that he's had enough naked people after having to shower with the rest of the troops in the army. Dave says that the firepower from the other side is too much, and Ned says that all they need... is to have some faith in Christ, as he shows off the cross yet again (Hallelujah!). He insists that they have to go, despite Dave being reluctant. "Forth we go!", Ned shouts off his lungs, as Dave screams for him to hold back, but Ned launches forward, and starts throwing some fire against the Nazi strongpoint, even killing a few soldiers. However, as he runs... a landmine blows up nearby. Dave cries out for him. He crawls to Ned, underneath the firestorm. Ned isn't dead yet, but he lost both his legs. As he cries out in pain, Dave screams out for a medic, but Ned tells him that he’s fine and that Dave needs to go on (all the while another soldier cries “We’re all gonna die! We’re all gonna fucking die!!!” in the background). Ned, hands shaking, gives him his cross and tells him to go on and fight! Dave, finally, grabs the cross, nods, and furiously runs forward, while Ned crawls to a nearby dune, hoping he won’t die from blood loss. Dave unleashes his anger on the Nazis and kills a bunch of them, while he and his comrades manage to get closer and closer to the strongpoint. Eventually, Dave and a few others finally make it to the back of the obstacles and the defending spots of the Germans. The others face the Nazis head-on and get their brains shot off by the machine gun fire, but Dave hides behind some of his fellow trooper’s bodies and successfully returns fire. A Nazi hiding in a strongpoint house almost shoots him, but he manages to dodge and shoot the Nazi’s gun off his hand. The Nazi comes back, with his bone sticking out of his shot hand, and tries to flank him, but Dave punches him down a bunch. Dave then says that “it’s time”, takes a deep breath and snatches a grenade. He then removes the protection… and successfully throws it at the Nazi! He throws it at the German’s eye, who complains in his German accent (“Ow! My eye!”). The grenade goes off, and there’s blood splatter all over where there’s no grenade residue. As the other Americans drive forward, Dave finally sits down, and then lays down, the camera cutting to a low angle wide shot of him to the sound of gun-fire slowing down. Fade to black. It’s now noon, and the main Nazi strongpoint and some extra 1300 yards down south were disabled by the Americans. Dave looks at the American flag planted on the beach, as triumphant music celebrating ‘Murica plays. Dave looks… but he’s not supremely happy. He then goes to visit Ned, who’s still laying down on the conquered strongpoint while he’s being looked at by some fellow soldiers. Ned says that his chances of ever living a normal life again are as slim as anything, and that after what happened today… he’s just glad to still be alive. Dave comments that, at the end of the day, between what happened to him, what happened to Captain Rogers and what happened to all of their comrades… war really doesn’t forgive anyone. Ned comments that war isn’t anyone’s game. “It really isn’t”, Dave says. “As a matter of fact”, he continues, “... fuck war.” Ned nods. “But… fuck the Nazis even more”, Dave concludes. He smiles, with a tear in his eye. We cross-dissolve to a year later, in 1945, already after the conclusion of WWII both on the European and Pacific fronts. We see a vessel landing on an American harbour, as many people, amongst them Michelle, wait. We then see the soldiers leave the ship, one of them being Dave. Dave and Michelle reunite emotionally, and kiss romantically - as a matter of fact, they kiss every single inch of each other’s upper body. As they’re about to kiss more, though, a soldier turns to them and screams “Too much!”, which makes them stop. They then lovingly tell each other promises of love and how much they missed one another. Michelle asks Dave how much did war take of him… Dave responds that it took a part of his soul away. We then hear Dave narrate (via voice-over) how Ned developed serious infections thanks to his leg loss, and eventually perished while in service. We see one shot of Ned’s burial ground in Utah Beach. We crossfade to another Ned grave, this one in America, where then we cut to Dave and Michelle putting flowers next to his grave. Dave sheds a tear, while Michelle embraces his arm. Dave then looks down at the cross that Ned gave him, and leaves the cross by the grave as well. Dave then walks by, and leaves another flower to the grave next to that one as well, and then to the next one, and then to the next one, and so on as we zoom out to reveal an entire graveyard of WWII veterans, the shot culminating in a pan to the right and revealing Captain Rogers’ graveyard. In one final voice-over, we hear the voice of Dave saying: “War… what good comes from it?” We then cut to Hitler’s grave, and he says: “Well, besides that.” Alternative Google Docs link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f3leEzWvGdZL8gmFVKxAlY1pr7EIHzdpSUVUsgVA3Oo/edit?usp=sharing Edited January 6, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 (edited) Endless Animation’s The Un-Title-Able Squirrel Girl Sequel Studio: Endless Animation In Association with Marvel Genre: CG-2D Animation/Superhero/Comedy Director: Lauren MacMullan Producers: Amanda Rydna and Lara Breay, Daron Nefcy (executive), Xavier B Irving (executive), Meg LeFauve (executive) and Chris McKay (executive) Writers: Lauren MacMullan, Amanda Rydna, Seth Grahame-Smith and Ryan North Composers: Ludwig Göransson and Theodore Shapiro Loosely Based off of: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comics (January-October 2019) The character of Squirrel Girl Marvel Comics Anna Kendrick as Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl Vanessa Morgan as Nancy Whitehead Kelly Hu as Melissa Morbeck Taissa Farmiga as Dana Smith Samantha Ireland as Tippy-Toe Lil’ Rel Howery as Monkey Joe Daniel Henney as Robbie Baldwin/Speedball Golshifteh Farahani as Azadeh Ahura/Alchemist with Brian Tee as the noises of Hit-Monkey and Michael C. Hall as Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom Also starring: David Tennant as Bullseye Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Illouise Keith David as Galactus Justin Roiland as MODOK Sophia Taylor Ali as Ms. Marvel Seth MacFarlane as Howard The Duck Scott Menville as Nova Nathon Fillion as Wonder Man Chris Hemsworth as Beta Ray Bill Yara Shahidi as Riri Williams/Ironheart Ronda Rousey as She-Hulk Daniel Radcliffe as Captain Britain Ryan Potter as Amadeus Cho Katey Sagal as Dr. Blank Troy Baker as Morbeck Industries Chairman Spoiler Nick Kroll as Mole Man Joe Manganiello as Kraven the Hunter Release Date: December 20th, Y8 Theater Count: 4,320 (including 100 IMAX theaters) Format: 2D (2.39:1), 3D (2.39:1), and Dolby Cinema (2.39:1) and IMAX 2D (1.44:1) Budget: $135 million Tagline: “Nut Again” MPAA Rating: PG for frequent sequences of animated action violence, mild thematic elements and crude humor Previous Film: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (12/22/Y5) (3 Day OW/5 Day OW/DOM/WW) - $45,176,251/$79,041,512/$308,356,775/$754,626,574 Running Time: 116 minutes Original Song: “Our End Credits Rap” written by The Lonely Island, performed by the cast and The Lonely Island Animation: Done in house by Endless Animation. Worldmeander is used, like in Toons v Reality and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (which combines computer animation with hand-drawn animation similar to that of Paperman, Feast, Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive and Medusa) but is modeled to look more like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse aesthetic but matches The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comics, using a more cartoony style and more smooth in terms of animation. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B6ZK-KqYkZA69sbK5ve_uJ7PV4PMjjJnqOL6C0Hay30/edit?usp=sharing (14,968 words) Special thanks to @MCKillswitch123 @cookie and @4815162342 for pre-reading. I’d also like to thank @Reddroast for letting me use Doctor Doom and Mole Man. As well as @Spaghetti and @Wondy for bouncing an idea or two off them. Edited January 26, 2021 by YourMother the Edgelord 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 The Outback Studio: Creatures Incorporated Release Date: 8/23/Y8 Genre: Nature Documentary Director: Alistair Fothergill Rating: G Budget: $5M Theater Count: 2,450 Runtime: 85 minutes Narrator: Chris Hemsworth Composer: John Williams Plot: We follow the life of the various animals in the outback, from crocodiles, bilbies, kangaroos, insects, platypi and birds. We learn about the animals’ diet, grooming and behavior over the course of this film. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) T H E W A V E H E I S T Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Luiz Enrique Rios Release Date: August 2nd Y8 Genre: Romance/Action/Thriller Rating: PG-13, for violence and some language Format: 2D Budget: $40 million Theater Count: 3.202 Runtime: 1 hour and 51 minutes Cast: - Lakeith Stanfield as Patrick Jameson - Marina Ruy Barbosa as Carolina da Paz - Debby Ryan as Francine - Gabriel Medina as Lázaro Plot: Spoiler We see a brunette woman in her 20's (Debby Ryan), wearing sunglasses... at sunrise, as she stands on a luxurious-looking motorboat, sorta like this one: ...while the wind blows on her hair. You can tell that she's confident. Right behind her is a man of roughly the same age (Gabriel Medina). He comes right behind her and they tongue kiss. She says that the day is coming soon, as things are getting planned. He just stares at her with a smug grin. Cut to daylight, and we're in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (we get a variety of wide shots of the city's most famous iconography, from the Christ the Redeemer statue to the favelas). A man in his 30's (Lakeith Stanfield) is seen surfboarding in the beaches. He happens to share the space with a female surfboarder in her 20's (Marina Ruy Barbosa). Everything is going relatively decently, but then he adventures himself further into the ocean, and he struggles a bit with the brute force of the waves. He falls off his surfboard eventually, but he's not left unconscious. It appears that he'll save himself, but the female surfboarder comes to his rescue nonetheless, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the water. He thanks her, but says it wasn't necessary. The girl, speaking English with a Brazilian accent, scoffs at his tough guy play-acting and walks away, while he insists he could've gotten himself out. He then crosses paths with the couple from the opening scene, who were watching the scene. The woman passes by him with a mocking glare, making him feel uncomfortable, but he decides to ignore it. We then see this man continue his vacation around Rio, and eventually, he bumps again into the female surfboarder. They complain to each other that they seem like they just can't get off each other's backs, and he says that if this is gonna continue, he might as well ask her if she's up for some coffee. She asks him if he does that with every girl he bumps into, and he defends himself saying he's just trying to be nice. We cut to the two at a Starbucks, where they get to know each other. His name is Patrick Jameson, and he's a former law enforcer who quit his job and is now a tech engineer, although he's happy not to be in duty anymore due to the racial climate in the American law enforcement system. He came to spend some vacation in Brazil. Her name is Carolina da Paz - Patrick comically struggles with saying her name as it's supposed to be pronounced. She's a local medicine student who has practiced surfboarding pretty much her whole life - he tries to retort that he's done surfboarding "about half of his life", but she's not easily impressed by that. They talk about their common interest in general safety of the population, despite the difficulties provided by the situations of their respective countries. Carolina raises a point that maybe they were put where they were put exactly because their countries need people like them, and Patrick chuckles, jokingly calling her Supergirl. She is glad he didn't call her Pamela Anderson instead. They continue to go around the city together, visiting landmarks, while she tells him her life story, about how her mother worked very hard to provide for her and her family, a very similar story to his in fact. Time passes, and it's night in Rio, and the two finally say their goodbyes to each other, but Carolina gives Patrick her number, saying he has already beaten almost every single college guy she knows. He fist pumps, making her laugh. Off they go. Meanwhile, we see the couple from the opening scene roaming the streets again. They meet up with a couple of thugs in a less civil corner of the city. The thugs refer to the woman as Francine and the guy as Lázaro, and complain that they are rushing too fast with the heist. Francine says that the plan can't wait any longer than it already has, they have to pull it off as soon as possible. The thugs say that they should be in this together, but Francine says that the time to wait is over, and if they want to wait, then they might as well be out of it. The thugs seem quick to agree, but as they pull guns out, Lázaro immediately disarms one of them, punches the other in the face and then takes the first one down with a judo throw. He then proceeds to beat up the thugs, grab one of their guns and look at Francine, who says that these are of no use to them and walks off. As the thugs scream for their life, Lázaro shoots them, the camera cutting away from the shootings to Francine looking over her shoulder. The next day, Patrick goes back to surfboarding, hoping that Carolina shows up and he doesn't have to call her - so he looks "cool" - but she doesn't show up. At first he seems like he wants to not really care, as he only knows her for a day, she shouldn't be important in his life, but he still can't seem to get her off his head. In an anxious rush, he calls her. She answers, and says she's fine, she just didn't go to the beach today because she's studying for college, while laughing at his obvious nervousness when talking. She raises her eyebrows when he says that he thought something had happened to her, and asks him if it's something else in his head, quickly reminding him that they only know each other since the previous day. He quickly apologizes and says that he shouldn't have called her, but she apologizes back and says she appreciates his concern, saying that maybe they can meet up again later today. He's okay with that, but as they hang up, he once again fights the idea that he may have some feelings for her. Day goes by, and at around 7PM, Patrick and Carolina meet again near the beach. They laugh off the whole phone thing, Carolina playfully remarking that Patrick is a wannabe-tough act but actually rather awkward on the inside, and he says that this doesn't usually happen. She asks him how often does it happen, and he says that it's usually when his stomach wants to tell him something. She asks him what does his stomach want to tell him, and he, desperate to not answer that, dodges the question by saying his stomach wants some food. We cut to the two having dinner in a restaurant nearby, where Patrick asks Carolina how is she single, since she's outgoing, athletic, smart, funny and intelligent. She says that she knows he wanted to say 'pretty' too, and she gives him permission to call her such - which he does, respectfully - then responding that, well, she's just... not a person who opens up quite a lot. She's friends with everyone, but people whom she feels like she can confide to, really only her few closest friends, all of whom are girls. She actually finds it easier to totally open up to a complete stranger, like Patrick, than someone she's acquainted with - Patrick jokingly takes offense in being called a "stranger", and they laugh again. They banter over who gets to pay dinner, ultimately ending with Carolina winning cause she's the one who set the date up and she insists to. As they walk under a full Moon, they agree that it was a fun date, and Carolina asks him if he's gonna stick around Brazil for much longer, to which Patrick says about a week. Carolina says that maybe she can introduce him to her friends, who have been texting her all day asking who's this guy she met out of nowhere. Patrick says he's glad his friends don't gossip over his life like that... he thinks. She chuckles at that, and they keep walking. We then cut to Francine, Lázaro and two other people, all masked up, robbing a bank. It's a cut-throat scene, as Francine barks at the thugs that they need to get this over with as soon as possible, and eventually, they crack the system and rob hundreds of thousands of reais (Brazilian currency), which they will convert to dollars when they get to America. As they're getting away, however, the police shows up, leading to a chase sequence. Lázaro, being a killer at the wheels, manuevers around the road to take the police off their guard, and this succeeds as the police car crashes. However, while the robbers drive away, one of the car's tires blows out, and they too have a crash, albeit a non-violent one. They quickly run away with the bags of cash on foot, and they cross paths with Patrick and Carolina, the former clearly noticing the crime being committed. As they hear more police sirens, Francine orders Lázaro and the other thugs to hold Carolina and Patrick hostage for prevention purposes, which they do, and she breaks into a nearby car to drive herself, her colleagues and the hostages away. Patrick and Carolina look at each other in panic, holding each other's hands while they're at gunpoint. The car drives away and reaches a port in Rio, where the thugs force Patrick and Carolina to give them their possessions (phones, wallets, etc.), and then make them get in the motorboat we saw Francine and Lázaro on in the opening scene. Lázaro gets the motorboat moving, and seems to be headed towards Miami. They encounter some water police along the way and shoot them, to Patrick and Carolina's further horror. Francine then tells Lázaro that she had a change of mind - she wants to go to Europe instead of returning to the US. She's always dreamed of travelling across Europe - plus, this'll give them a better opportunity to get rid of the people onboard. Lázaro nods and Francine happily announces that instead of Miami, they now changed destination to Lisbon, Portugal. Francine gleefully looks at the hostages, knowing that the longer trip will further horrify her hostages even more. Throughout the trip, we hear reports in Brazilian and American televisions of an American woman, a Brazilian man and two other unknown thugs holding an American man and a Brazilian woman hostage on a motorboat in the Pacific, soon to be Atlantic Ocean, where we see the horrified reactions of two older ladies (cameos by Whoopi Goldberg and Fernanda Montenegro), whom we can assume, by the mobilia around them, that they are Patrick and Carolina's mothers respectively. They mention that they don't know where the boat is, but hope to find it soon, and urge anyone who sees it to contact authorities. Francine then tells Patrick and Carolina her life story - she wasn't a very good student in class, and she was quickly seduced by the underlines of crime life, which now is mostly selfish but originally was to provide for her hard-working mother, who is sadly not with us anymore, making Patrick and Carolina somewhat sympathize with her due to their similar stories. Carolina does confront Francine with the fact that she has a similar life story but she didn't follow a life of crime, and Francine asks the two of them not to judge her, or Lázaro - who, God bless him, we will not hear his origin story, because the horror they are going through is big enough as is, even she isn't that bad - for what they're doing. It's a living. They make their way across the Pacific Ocean, and still no sign of the authorities. Patrick and Carolina discuss that if they survive this, they're taking each other to the Louvre, them laughing just a little bit. As this is going on, Lázaro sneaks on the two other thugs' places, and beats them up. Then, he carries them outside. Francine says that she wants to have the fun on this one herself, and she shoots the thugs in the head (PG-13 style), then dumping their bodies in the ocean. The hostages listen to this in horror. The trip continues, with Francine continuously trying to socialize with the hostages, almost in taunting fashion. She jokes that they should enjoy the fresh smell of the ocean while they can, cause they might not have smelling - or tasting, or hearing, or really, any other sense - for much longer. This horrifies Patrick and Carolina. Desperately, Patrick tells Carolina that he needs to come up with something, and he remembers that Francine and Lázaro haven't thrown their phones away. Carolina says that the police are already after them, so what's the point, but Patrick argues that they might not have coordinates. Patrick then mumbles to himself that these goons were stupid enough to not hold tie them up or something despite the fact that they still hold possession of their phones, and manages to sneak into a room of the motorboat where the phones were thrown away, them next to a bunch of surfboards. However, the phones have no battery left, which crushes Patrick. Francine then shows up with a gun in her hand, and further mocks Patrick. Patrick still thinks that Francine and Lázaro are going to be hit by karma, but Francine isn't worried, because they're almost in, uhh, Nazaré. They were aiming for Lisbon, but it seems like they're gonna reach somewhere called Nazaré instead. It's cool because it apparently has some of the biggest waves in the world, and Patrick is such a genius surfboarder - she still remembers that one time when Carolina had to rescue him, him retorting that he didn't need it but that's not the point, the point being that she's gonna get caught. Francine doubts it... she and Lázaro will be fast on the run soon, while Patrick and Carolina will be sunk on the bottom of the ocean. It's the end of the line for them, she gave them enough time. Patrick, at gunpoint, is then led to the edge of the boat, while Lázaro shows up with Carolina at gunpoint. Francine laughs at the two one last time, and orders Lázaro to shoot them. But, Patrick and Carolina eye each other at the nick of the moment, and he elbows Francine, while she bites Lázaro's arm, which causes great and audible pain on the otherwise completely silent goon. They take their guns, but the thugs manage to fight back, and the guns end up in the ocean. Francine and Carolina end up fighting each other roughly, while Patrick and Lázaro stalemate one another in swift hand-to-hand combat for a moment, until Patrick is fatigued out and Lázaro pins him to the ground. Francine also pins Carolina to the ground. The goons try to beat the heroes to death, but the heroes fight back and kick the thugs back to the edge of the boat. As this happens, the boat has arrived at the shore of Nazaré, where massive waves, as high as 50ft, rock the boat like a tsunami. Massive commotion happens in the boat. Then, Patrick tells Carolina that he found some surfboards next to the phones, and this would be a great time to surf these giant waves and get the Hell out of here. Carolina happens to get an idea, but tells Patrick not to go with her, because it's too dangerous. She goes and finds two of these surfboards, and challenges Francine to try to kill her in the waves. Francine, not one to back down from a challenge by a worthy rival, says yes, and follows her. We get a dynamically shot (wide shots, POV shots from the surfboards, GoPro shots, etc.) fight sequence where the two women have hand-to-hand combat while surfing the 50ft waves of Nazaré. Patrick, meanwhile, continues to fight Lázaro on the boat. He then realizes that Lázaro is afraid of these giant waves, and tries to lure him in. It's hard at first, but he manages to punch him hard enough to send him into the ocean, where the waves completely sweep him over. Patrick sighs in relief. Meanwhile, Carolina also gets an advantage on Francine, pushing her off the surfboard and feeling free... however, she trips on her own surfboard and falls into the waves. Patrick goes to grab a surfboard himself and quickly rushes to the scene, despite the incredible danger, and this time, against all odds, he is the one who pulls Carolina from the water. She jokingly says it wasn't necessary, she could've swimmed out of there, and he playfully scolds her for her tough act. The two then get local help quickly. Fade to black. We find that the two heroes are safe. Francine was rescued alive, but had to be taken to the hospital, while Lázaro is missing. Patrick and Carolina banter about how which one was the most heroic during this, what felt like an eternity for them. They laugh at their situation. After being cleared by Portuguese cops, they are flown back to Brazil, where Carolina drops off, and she and Patrick promise that they will see each other again, hopefully for that Louvre date, sealing their final encounter with a brief lip kiss. The plane then flies to the US. We cut between Carolina reencountering her mother, Patrick reencountering his mother, and Francine punching the walls of the prison she's in, apologizing to her mother. The last shot is a split screen moment when Patrick and Carolina both are looking at pictures of the Louvre on their laptops, in their respective homes. Then, both look at a horizon, them facing side to the camera and front to each other, and ask each other: "Are you still thinking about me?" Edited January 14, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) NO MERCY Studio: New Journey Pictures Director: Louis Leterrier based on the Left 4 Dead video game franchise Genre: Action/Horror Release Date: April 19th, Y8 Theater Count: 3,245 MPAA Rating: R for Language, Violence, Gore, and Disturbing Imagery Runtime: 1 hr 45 min Budget: $50 Million Cast Charlie Hunnam as Francis Bel Powley as Zoey Parker Sawyers as Louis Kurt Russell as Bill All of the zombies, with the exception of the Jockey, Charger and Tank (which utilize CGI), are created via makeup and practical effects. Spoiler Openings logos. Title. Fade in on a hand sticking up from a zombie's corpse; the thumb is missing. Rack focus on the four survivors walking through the alleyway--Francis (Charlie Hunnam), Zoey (Bel Powley), Louis (Parker Sawyers), and Bill (Kurt Russell). Louis, the optimist, hears weeping and, thinking it's another survivor, opens a door. Unfortunately, it's not a survivor--it's a zombie called a Witch, one with sharp claws and a loud shriek. Louis shines his flashlight on the Witch, and it lunges toward Louis; he closes the door, but its arms burst through the door and grabs Louis. Francis, the biker, groans and attempts to pull Louis away from the Witch. Zoey, the heedful young woman, aims her gun at the door, and Bill, the war veteran, says, "wait!" Cut, right when the BANG happens, to shots of zombies who, even(perhaps especially) in the dead of night, are alerted by the gunfire. Cut back to Bill, who chastises Zoey for alerting every zombie in the city. Louis says, "at least the Witch is dead," and when fast-running zombies pour into the alleyway from both sides, Francis replies to Louis saying, "save it for when we get out of this mess." They shoot a few zombies to reach an apartment staircase, and it's a little high off the ground, so they have to help each other up to it. The men launch Zoey up, and Zoey pulls up Bill. Then Francis helps Louis reach Zoey's and Bill's hands, and Francis leaps, and the others pull him up just before the zombies rush in. They run up the stairs, but Zoey falls because the zombies have leapt onto the staircase railing and grabbed her by the ankle. Francis grumbles that he always has save everyone, and he frees Zoey. They all hurry up the stairs, and the staircase is in danger falling off the alley wall due to the amount of weight added by the zombies--one of which bites Zoey on the arm. Zoey pushes the zombie off of her, shoots it--headshot--and catches up to the others. Louis helps Bill to the apartment rooftop, and Bill pulls up Louis, and Francis reaches them, and they pull up Francis, and Zoey makes it, but the staircase dislodges, so Zoey jumps for it, and Louis catches her by the hand, and they pull her up to the roof. Phew. "I told you we'd make it," Louis says, catching his breath. "We haven't made it," Bill replies--"we've barely made it across the street." Then they see it--the bite mark on Zoey's arm. Zoey claims it's just a scratch, but Francis pulls a gun on her. Louis tells Francis to calm down because she might be immune, and Francis reminds Louis that the probability of her being immune is slim to none. Bill then lights a cigarette and orders Francis to put the gun down, and that the time to shoot her is when she "goes berserk like the rest of 'em." Francis lowers the gun, and they all stand around, not knowing what to do next. Cut to sunrise. Zoey sits against a wall, slumping. Louis, eating a granola bar, asks her if her arm feels better, and Zoey says it does. Francis stands there with his arms crossed, and Bill motions him away for a private talk. Bill pins Francis against a wall and shows him the mess underneath his eyepatch, and he asks Francis what it looks like. "It looks like shit," he replies. Bill tells him that, in his own opinion, it's a scratch, and he tells Francis, "when they say it's just a scratch, you go along with it," and he says that if he ever threatens anyone in the group again, he's gonna kill him himself. Then he lets go of Francis and walks off. Cut to evening. The survivors have eaten up and rested. They talk to each other about their families, and their uncertainties about seeing the again. Then they hear the distant sound of a helicopter. The helicopter flies over their heads, and the pilot announces that people are being evacuated from the roof of Mercy Hospital, one of the tallest skyscraper buildings in the city. Francis, alerted by the announcement, grabs a pump shotgun he found on the roof and walks into the apartment building. The others tell him to wait, but he goes, so they have no choice but to follow him. Francis finds zombies as he walks through the apartments, and he shoots them. Louis says, "I guess we're going now, and that's better than not going at all," and he follows Francis. Bill laments that the others are going to get themselves killed over the pilot's hearsay. Then Zoey tells him with certainty that if there's even the tiniest chance there's evacuations at the hospital, then they need to take it. Bill tries to argue, but a zombie rushes up behind him, and Zoey shoots it and pulls Bill along, saying, "it's clearly better than staying here." They make it out of the building and into another alleyway. They rush through the alleyway, shooting a few zombies here and there, and make it out to the street. Francis asks aloud, "where do you go now," and Louis suggests the subway tunnels, so they run across the street, shooting zombies here and there. And then a Jockey, a small hunchback zombie, jumps on Francis and pulls him around in circles, and Louis shoots the Jockey off of his body, but Francis, staggering, bumps into the hood of a red car, and the car's alarm blares, and Bill says "bull freakin' horse shit" because the alarm's alerting all the zombies to them. Louis says "GO GO GO," and they run into the subway, which is blocked off by rubble, but they find a storage room that leads to a saferoom with iron doors that can block the zombies from entering. They enter that room and shut the door--safe for now. While in the office, Francis makes a molotov cocktail with gasoline and a bottle of alcohol found from the store. Bill chastises Francis for rushing them through the ordeal but the group as a whole decides that it's for the best they got to the subway tunnels, and that they really need to get to the evacuation shelter--or else they don't have any chance of surviving. Bill tells the group to stock up on the ammo, guns, and first aid kits found in the room--they have a lot more to get through than just that. They go into the subway tunnels, and it's very dark. While in the tunnels, a Boomer, a very fat and grotesque zombie, vomits on Bill, and Louis shoots the Boomer, and its stomach explodes, causing more vomit to drench Zoey. And that means the zombies are coming because they're all attracted by the Boomer's vomit. They make their way through the horde and find their way to the subway's generator room, but they can't get any further until they activate the generator to open a garage door. So they have to shoot a lot of zombies while they wait for the garage door to open, and when they get past the garage door, Bill grabs a gas can, throws it down, and shoots it, igniting a fire that burns the zombies, and the zombies react in pain to being burned by the fire. The survivors run through more alleyways--Louis says he's grateful for the fresh air--and they wade through more zombies to get to a convenience store. Zoey pounds on the door, but the office, another room sealed by iron doors, is closed because a woman inside is refusing to let them in. Zoey tries to convince the woman to let them in, but to no avail. Francis screams "OPEN THE GOD DAMN DOOR" while he shoots oncoming zombies with Bill and Louis--then the door unlocks, and Zoey opens it, but is repulsed by what's inside. Louis runs to the open door, then he sees it, too. The woman, having been bitten, is in the process of turning into a Spitter, which prepares to spit something in the survivor's direction. Louis pulls Zoey out of the way, and its spit lands on a worndown gambling machine. Zoey shoots the Spitter in the head, and it dies. Francis looks at the machine, which is melting and steaming, and says, "great, now they spit acid." They get inside the room just as the zombies are about to swarm them. They gather their bearings a little bit more and they decide to proceed further toward the hospital. They find themselves at a gas station meant for very large trucks. A Hunter, a hooded zombie with predatorial instincts, crawls on the rooftops and watches the survivors on the ground. It locks its eyes onto Bill and pounces on him, pinning him to the ground and mauling him. Louis, frazzled, unleashes the bullets of his assault rifle at the Hunter; he kills it, sure, but he also shoots the gas pumps, which promptly explode. A lot of zombies rush in, alerted by the explosion. The survivors rush into a warehouse, and they run through the warehouse, but find themselves in a claustrophobic corridor with zombies rushing in from both directions. Louis and Zoey shoot the zombies coming in from one direction, while Bill and Francis shoot the ones coming in from the other. Louis and Zoey tell the others that there's an opening, so Bill follows them, but Francis continues shooting the horde of zombies. He continues shooting, and he continues shooting, and he continues shooting. Zoey and Louis pull Bill away, and they run down a flight of stairs without Francis. They reach a boiler room, and Zoey asks them what they're going to do. Bill says they'll have to go through the sewers. Then Francis gets their attention. They turn and face him. Francis stares angrily at them; he has multiple bite marks and scratches on him. Louis says, "thank goodness you're alive," and then he noticed the bites and freezes. Bill confronts him and asks him if he's infected, and Francis says, "you tell me." Zoey becomes the voice of reason, saying that their odds of survival significantly decreases if they lose even one of them, and since they gave her a chance, they need to give Francis a chance. They then go through the sewers, and a Tank, basically a muscular gorilla of a zombie, sees them and chases them. They shoot the Tank and have to run through the sewers to avoid it. At one point, it knocks Bill across a sewer lane, and the impact injures him greatly. Francis throws his molotov cocktail at it, and the Tank loses the ability to see, which allows them to climb up a ladder that leads them out of the sewer. And voila, the climb above the manhole, and Mercy Hospital is right in front of them. Louis rejoices that they made it, but Francis tells him they didn't exactly make it, as the Hospital is now overrun by zombies, which, of course, attack them. Then shoot their way through zombies and almost make it inside the lobby, but Bill gets bitten on the ankle, and Zoey shoot the zombie biting him, but the damage is done. They get inside a room and make a makeshift holdout by blocking the door with shelves and furniture. Then they turn their attention to Bill who insists that the bite is just a scratch. They pull up his cargo pants, and a blue veiny virus is slowly spreading on the skin of his leg. Francis orders the others to place his leg on a chair, and he gets a red fireman's axe and chops Bill's leg off before the virus spreads further. Bill screams in pain. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood. Francis and Louis do what they can to treat Bill, but Zoey's trauma hits its limit, and she cries to herself in the corner of the room. Cut to a stable establishing shot of the city--it's as if it's become a ghost town. Cut to the roof of Mercy Hospital--a voice is speaking through a radio. Cut to the radio inside a room on the roof--the man on the radio is saying, "Mercy Hospital, is there anyone there, please come in" over and over again. Cut back to the Survivors. They're resting for a bit and monitoring Bill. Suddenly, Bill stops breathing. They lay Bill down on the ground. Louis points to a medical cabinet and says, "get the defibrillator." Francis says, "the man is 70, it's useless." Louis shouts, "get the motherfucking god damn defibrillator." Zoey brings it to Louis, and Louis brushes them together, screams "LIVE," and brings Bill back to life on the first try. They realize that they need to find crutches for Bill, so Zoey volunteers to go deeper into the first floor of the hospital to find some. Louis tries to stop her, but she's already out of the room. She sneaks through the dark corridors until she finds a pair of crutches. But a Smoker, a zombie with a tongue he can use like rope, wraps its tongue around Zoey and strangles her. All hope seems lost until gunshots strike the Smoker dead, causing the zombie to dispel literal smoke into the air. The gunshots were from Francis, who's no longer complaining about helping people. They both cough due to the heavy smoke, and Francis leads a shaken Zoey back to the room, shooting incoming zombies with his pistol. They make it back, and Louis comments that Bill is a trooper for surviving after losing his leg. Zoey hands Bill the pair of crutches, but Bill's like, "why two crutches?" and Zoey asks if he'll be able to walk with one crutch. Bill lights a cigarette and says he needs one hand for a single crutch and a free hand to shoot those zombie bastards. Zoey says, "doesn't Bill need more time to heal," and Louis says, "that's time we don't have because we must hurry to the roof." So the group resolves to get to the roof... ...which is not an easy task. They get through the first few floors and then figure out that they need to get inside of an elevator, which of course needs to come down from floor 28 to floor 3. In the meantime, they shoot hoards of zombies. Then they get into the elevator, but a Smoker grabs Louis with its tongue and threatens to pull him out of the elevator right as the doors are closing. Francis still has the axe, though, and he chops the tongue before that can happen. The elevator goes up in peace. All four survivors reload their guns while they're in the elevator. They reach the floor, which is basically an unfinished construction site. They rush through the floor--some walls aren't built yet so they could literally walk off the building if they're not careful--and then a zombie called a Charger charges at Zoey, but Francis pulls her away, and it charges off the building. He says, "look alive, girlie" as she stares aghast, knowing what could've been her split-second fate. We get shots of the group going up stairs, going down one more hallway, crawling up ladders in an elevator shaft--and then they finally make it to the roof. The sound of the man on the radio slowly comes to them, and they walk to it. Zoey helps Bill to the radio room. Francis says, "oh great, it's about to start raining," and Louis tells him, "don't worry Francis--even when it's raining, the sun still shines on the other side of the clouds," and Francis rolls his eyes. Cut to them operating the radio. Zoey tells the man on the radio that they're not infected, and then man tells them that the helicopter is on its way. They go up some stairs to the top of the radio room and see that an improbable amount of zombies starts pouring in from every corner of the roof. Fortunately, there's a sentry gun on top of the radio room, and they let Bill shoot zombies with the sentry. The raining starts pouring down hard, and there's a lot of shots of the group shooting zombies. Zombies start climbing to the radio room roof, andLouis gets knocked off; he lands wrong, and a few of his teeth get knocked out. Francis jumps off and defends Louis while he's in a daze from falling. Then Zoey sees the helicopter, and she practically has to drag Bill away from the sentry because he has a lot of anger directed toward the zombies. The group slowly makes their way to the helipad. Bill loses his crutch, so Zoey and Louis help him get there while Francis shoots a lot of the incoming zombies. Then they see it--another Tank is marching toward them. Francis screams at them to hurry. They all get inside the helicopter, and the helicopter lifts off. The Tank leaps up to grab the helicopter, but the Tank just barely misses it. The survivors look as the zombies run around frantically and the Tank beats its chest in frustration. And their view of Mercy Hospital (and the city in general) becomes smaller and smaller as the helicopter flies further away. The survivors exchanges looks, laugh with one another, and give each other hugs. The helicopter flies off into the horizon. Fade to black. Edited September 22, 2023 by SLAM! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) - E S Q U E Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Directors: Claudia Pond Eyley, Dan Salmon Producer: Taika Waititi Release Date: July 5th Y8 Genre: Documentary/Comedy Rating: PG-13, for language and some crass humor Format: 2D Budget: $2 million Theater Count: 1.564 Runtime: 1 hour and 31 minutes Cast: - Taika Waititi as the narrator Plot: This film is a documentary on the Eight Mile Style v New Zealand National Party court case. It begins by giving us an introduction to Eminem's career, as well as the song Lose Yourself, the single created for the film 8 Mile, considered by some as Eminem's tour-de-force and one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time - we even get a flashback on Eminem's Academy Award victory for Best Original Song, which made Lose Yourself the first rap song to ever win the award. People involved with Eminem and the song are interviewed. Then, we jump to 2014, when we are introduced to the New Zealand National Party and its campaign that year. Later, we see this ad: The song present in the ad is a blatant rip-off of Lose Yourself. Thus, in 2016, Eminem's publishers decide to file a lawsuit with the High Court in Wellington, New Zealand, claiming copyright infringement when the National Party used an instrumental version/cover of the song without their consent. National Party campaign manager Stephen Joyce responds to the accusations by literally saying that he thinks their usage of the song is "pretty legal", citing their acquisition from it from an Australian music library, and the publishers counter-claimed that they never allowed the song for usage in political campaigns. We see John Oliver mocking this in his show Last Week Tonight, joking that if Joyce were a lawyer, he'd probably stand for his defendant as "probably not guilty". The case goes in fact to court, with trail beginning in 2017. We get to witness various recordings of the court hearings, as well as interviews from associated people. We even get to bask in glorious moments such as these: It is revealed that National had actually given this new version of the song a completely different name, and thus, the validity of the case was nulled. However, the name of National's version? Eminem-Esque. The trial started on May 1st 2017 and ended 11 days later, on May 12th 2017, with the revelation of the decision happening on October 25th, where the Wellington High Court ruled that New Zealand National Party had in fact breached copyright and made them pay $600k. The National Party appealed the ruling on grounds that copyright wasn't breached, and if it was, the damages should have been lower, while American companies Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated tried to have damages be increased. Ultimately, the High Court claims that it'll lower the damages to only $225k. In 2019, Eight Mile Style tried to appeal against National's appeal, but this appeal was dismissed and Eight Mile Style was forced to pay $4500. Despite this, at the time of trial, Eight Mile Style seemed happy, with spokesman Joel Martin claiming that it was a good result for the company after a "distasteful" trial; while National Party president Peter Goodfellow said that there was disappointment in the party and they would proceed to go forward with legal action against Labrador and Beatbox, who supplied them with the music. Mike Chunn said in an interview that the ruling was unfair, because sound-alike recordings are routinely used in advertising. Eminem claimed that he wasn't consulted in anything regarding the case, but if he were to recieve any money from it, he'd donate it to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Edited January 14, 2021 by MCKillswitch123 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) Flightless Bird - The Downfall of the Boeing 737 MAX - Studio: Cookie Pictures Genre: Documentary Director: Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg Producer: Sebastian Peters Original Song: "Flightless Bird" by Sting (inspiration) Budget: $10 million Release Date: March 1st Rating: PG-13 Theater Count: 3,015 Running Time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes) Synopsis: Chronicling the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX model aircraft, this documentary examines the history of the aircraft, the technical flaws that brought its prospects to a screeching halt, Boeing's disregard for safety over profits, and the role lax government regulation thanks to lobbying played in one of the biggest and deadliest debacles in any commercial industry, period. Plot (about 6k words): Spoiler Spoiler This film is based on facts and speculation that are up to date as of January 15th, 2021. Any further developments may be covered in a future documentary. "This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys. I'll be shocked if the FAA passes this turd." "I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required to transition from Boeing 737 NG to MAX." "Boeing will not allow that to happen. We'll go face to face with any regulator who tries to make that happen." "Now friggin Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity, I'm scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now! Idiots." "Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't." SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - January 2020 The film opens with shots of Boeing 737 MAX model aircraft sitting at an overflow parking lot at King County International Airport, commonly known as 'Boeing Field' after the company's founder, William E. Boeing. Some of the planes are inspected daily, but many are left collecting dust as their respective airlines have either frozen or cancelled their orders many months ago, even as the planes sit there fully manufactured and ready to be delivered. Less than a month prior, Boeing CEO and Chairman Dennis Muilenburg had been ousted from his position at the company. Even as he received no severence pay, Muilenburg would depart with $62 million worth in compensation and pension benefits, a last sting for those who had for years been criticizing Boeing's corporate culture, an obsession with profit and cutting corners where passenger safety was a secondary concern, that he had cultivated. This wasn't new for Boeing, however. Years prior to Muilenburg's tenure, during the height of the 2008-2010 financial crisis, the company laid off nearly 15,000 workers but increased their executive pay by 31%. Thanks to successful lobbying at both state and federal level, Boeing also paid no taxes despite making profits of over $9 billion in that period. Instead, they recieved rebates of over $178 million. This perhaps is to be expected, as Boeing is the second largest federal contractor in the United States in dollars awarded, behind aerospace competitor Lockheed Martin, totaling over $16 billion in 2015. The company had also been fined for over $615 million back in 2006 for illegally hiring government officials and improper use of confidential records. Incidentally, Boeing's operating profit in 2018, when the issues plaguing the 737 MAX first became public, was the highest on record, totaling over $10 billion. The film then transitions to the history of the aircraft. The Boeing 737, part of a family line of commercial airliners that includes the 747 "Jumbo Jet" and the 787 "Dreamliner", launched in its original form in 1967, and the initial assembly laid just adjacent to the field where its distant offspring sits grounded today. Low demand for narrow-body aircraft at the time caused issues for the 737 to stay afloat, but the passing of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 helped significantly increase demand as low-cost carriers and competitive fares became prevalent in the United States. Multiple generations of the 737 would be introduced over the following decades as the design remained popular with low-cost carriers and international vendors. Entering the new millenium, however, air safety and fuel economy become more important questions than ever before as result from terrorist attacks, unstable tourist economies and environmental concerns, and these models began to be seen as outdated. Boeing would dismiss these concerns initially, believing that their 737 line was already up to date to meet both the new safety standards and the new demands of the market. This belief would briefly persist following the introduction of the Airbus A320neo, a staunch competitor which put emphasis on fuel burn and engine efficency. Airbus, seen as the European equivalent to Boeing, had long been trailing Boeing in sales despite marketing itself as a staunch rival for decades, and had a history of facing numerous challenges when bringing new aircraft to market that would cause them to continue falling behind, thus Boeing felt they had no reason to see them as a threat. When a US airline carrier suddenly ordered over 400 of the A320neo models in 2010, Boeing's belief that their current 737 line was sufficient enough was quickly dropped, and the company greenlit a "clean-sheet" redesign of the 737; akin to their then recently launched Dreamliner, MAX would put emphasis on fuel economy to make it attractive to airliners hesitant to invest in new aircraft even as their current fleets were rapidly aging. During the development of the MAX line, however, the Dreamliner model would itself face problems. In early 2013, several instances of fuel leaks and wiring issues with the plane's main batteries were reported. On January 16th, a Japanese aircraft had to perform an emergency landing due to battery fire, while another Japanese plane parked in Boston suffered a similar incident the same week. In response, per FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) order, all Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the United States were grounded. According to a report issued by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) in 2014, Boeing's engineers had failed to fully test the lithium-ion batteries for worst-case scenario instances, as component flaws stemming from the battery's Japanese manufacturer were all too present. The FAA had itself failed to uncover these issues during inspection, and so all three bodies; the Japanese manufacturer, Boeing, and the FAA, were made at fault. Despite the issues plaguing its cousin, development on the 737 MAX persisted without any public hiccup. Three years after the NTSB report placed blame on Boeing's handling of the lithium-ion batteries on the Dreamliner, the 737 MAX would be launched by a Malaysian airline carrier. The MAX had recieved over 5,000 orders from carriers as of 2018, and over 300 aircraft had already been delivered by the week before Halloween of that year. INDONESIA - October 29th, 2018 A Boeing 737 MAX, leased to Indonesian carrier Lion Air just three months prior, stands parked on the runway in early morning, waiting for takeoff. It's heading from Jakarta to Pankal Pinang on a very short flight, scheduled to only last an hour. 189 passengers are onboard. Less than fifteen minutes after ascending to the skies, the flight crew suddenly requests clearance to return to Jakarta. Moments later, all communications are lost. According to witnesses at an offshore oil platform close to the crash site, the plane had apparently nosedived into the Java Sea with no attempts made to pull up. The speed and angle of attack the plane hit the water made sure it was obliterated in an instant, spreading debris for miles before rescue operations were able to arrive less than an hour later. There were no survivors. Investigations immediately zeroed in on an incident happening just the night prior. Heading from Bali to Jakarta, the plane apparently faced serious mechanical issues, including a sudden drop of over 200 feet, heavy shaking, and smells of burnt rubber that were said to have traumatized passengers onboard. The pilots had emitted an emergency call, which was later retracted as the plane landed safely in Jakarta. Maintenance engineers at Lion Air maintain that, while engine problems were apparent during the previous flight, the issue had been adressed and the plane was cleared for takeoff on the morning of the 29th. An additional report asserts an off-duty pilot trained to operate the 737 MAX was onboard during the Bali to Jakarta flight, and had instructed the captain and co-pilot to cut power to the stabilizer trim motors to solve the issue they were having. It is here that it's important to stress that it was only this off-duty pilot, and not the two pilots actually steering the plane, that was trained to operate on a Boeing 737 MAX. The two on-duty pilots only had training experience with previous models, and thus were not trained to operate the new software that was programmed into the 737 MAX's flight controls. In internal memos, dated between 2013 and 2017 and handed in to the FAA and the House Transportation Commitee days after Dennis Muilenburg's resignation in late 2019, both executives and engineers at Boeing were insisting that no training was necessary whatsoever for the 737 MAX aircraft, and that any attempts by regulators to enforce such training would be challenged and "hopefully" shut down. When numerous airlines, including Lion Air, requested they get access to simulator training when recieving their aircraft and before it went into service, Boeing would deny their request and insist there were no issues. Why would Boeing forgo or even diminish such a crucial measure? Boeing's sale promise with the MAX was that minimal pilot training was required if the pilots already had experience with previous variations of the 737. They had also successfully persuaded the FAA to give the MAX model a nearly identical classification as the MAX's immediate predecessor, the 737 NG (Next Generation) line, which meant that pilots only had to meet the requirements expected to operate the NG model. Even if the MAX had significant differences, which it ended up having, those differences were not required to be accounted for. Unlike previous models, the 737 MAX uses a piece of software dubbed the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or the "MCAS" for short, to adjust positioning during manual flight. The system was implemented because the MAX line makes use of larger and heavier engines compared to the NG that in turn were more powerful and able to consume fuel more efficiently. It had been discovered during the development phase that the weight of these engines, combined with changes to the MAX's overall design which included placing the engines further forward relative to the wings, resulted in the plane having a tendency to "pitch up" moreso than the NG models when ascending. To mitigate the issue and make the MAX perform more in line with the NG, the MCAS was programmed so that should the sensors detect the plane is at a high angle of attack with the flaps up, the system would automatically adjust the horizontal stabilizer trim to provide positive force feedback to the steering stick used by the captain at the controls. The captain would percieve this as the nose "feeling heavy" and thus adjust the plane's angle downwards, preventing the plane from stalling mid-air. However, because Boeing feared it couldn't deliver on its initial sales pitch of minimal training required for experienced 737 pilots due to the unexpectedly complicated nature of the final product, few pilots were ever trained on how to operate the MCAS system, and many pilots were not even made aware of its existence. Delivering on promises made to investors and potential buyers took precedent over safety. When it came to Lion Air, ironically, it was a matter of the perception of safety. Lion Air, a low-cost airline which commenced operations in 2000, had long been criticized for poor operational management when it came to scheduling, maintenance, and safety. While it had maintained a plurality of the Indonesian market since its inception, the low prices being the main draw for most travellers, the company has long been percieved as sketchy by the aviation industry, and a poor safety record backed that assertion up. While the company made attempts to improve their reputation over the years, to the point that a longstanding ban from letting them fly inside the European Union was lifted in 2016, reports of poorly maintained aircraft and inexperienced or unpressional pilot behavior persisted. Even more damningly, the company was caught in a bribery scandal in March of 2019 where it was revealed that monetary promises had been made to transportation safety officials should they allow Lion Air's flights to continue to operate without oversight. Were a company with such poor reputation as Lion Air pushing for additional training measures with the 737 MAX aircraft that Boeing themselves weren't, the manufacturer's own reputation could've been at stake. In one of the previously mentioned internal memos — a lengthy chat log between the 737's Chief Technical Pilot Mark Forkner and an unnamed pilot working within Boeing's confines — Forkner expressed his frustation over Lion Air, calling them "idiots" and blaming their own supposed stupidity for wanting more training on the new aircraft, even as both he and numerous other pilots and engineers at Boeing were both aware and laughing off many of the plane's issues. None of this would be made available during the initial investigation into the Lion Air crash, however, and would only spring up once congressional hearings began after the 737 was grounded the following year. As the investigation continued fixating on the maintenance issues that had been plaguing the plane in the days prior, Boeing would continue to remain silent on the MCAS system to other airline operators and aviation interests for nearly two weeks, instead simply putting out a service bulletin on November 6th, 2018, warning airliners that erronous data from the plane's angle of attack sensors could cause the pitch system to trim the stabilizer nose downwards for up to ten seconds. While this at least somewhat accurately described the function of the MCAS system, Boeing would neglect to mention the system itself and it being the cause of the sudden trim. Boeing up until that point had been treating the MCAS almost like a trade secret, a function whose details had been scrubbed from most pilot manuals during the certification process to make the plane look easier to handle for experienced 737 pilots than it actually was, all while Boeing engineers and pilots were still bashing both the plane and the operators using them behind their backs, as if more lives weren't at stake than the ones already lost in Indonesia. It would take until November 10th for the company to acknowledge the system's existence in public. In numerous messages sent to many different operators, Boeing would inform them of the MCAS and its functions, but the company still maintained that it itself wasn't an issue, even as concerns over its implementation were brought up by various bodies. Among those were the Allied Pilots Accosiation (APA), a labor union representing workers for American Airlines which already had over twenty MAX planes in service and over seventy more on order at that point in time. On November 27th, members of APA would attend a meeting with representatives from Boeing, a meeting that would be described as "unnerving" by the APA members, presumably due to how Boeing would respond to their worries. Two days later, APA would file a Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) request seeking documents and communications between Boeing and the FAA relating to the MAX and the MCAS. The FAA would respond to the request, but as of June 2019 had failed to produce any documentation. The FAA's behavior in general was seen as strange during this time. Any queries or questions about their investigation were immediately dismissed, sometimes aggressively so, and with Boeing's history of lobbying the agency into giving them almost any self-regulatory power they want, the FAA’s conduct came across as very suspiscious to most bodies seeking any information or disclosure from them, including APA. In truth, the FAA would conduct on December 3rd a "Transport Aircraft Risk Assessment Methodology" (TARAM) analysis that concluded, and quote, "if left uncorrected, the MCAS design flaw in the 737 MAX could result in as many as 15 future fatal crashes over the life of the fleet." This conclusion, damning for both Boeing and for the FAA's conduct up until this point, would go unpublished. ETHIOPIA - March 10th, 2019 On an early Spring morning, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX, having been delivered to the airline just four months prior, departs from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. Its flight crew is relatively young for operating such a new plane, with both the captain and the first officer being under thirty years of age. The captain has flown with Ethiopian since he turned twenty, and has been operating the 737 line since 2017, transitioning to the MAX since July 2018. The first officer, meanwhile, had recently graduated from the airline's academy, having flown less than 365 hours total, including just over 200 hours on the 737. While Ethiopian Airlines has been subject to numerous hijackings since its inception in the 60s, including a famous incident in 1996 that resulted in the plane crash landing in the ocean near the Comoros islands once fuel ran out, the airline has a stellar safety record compared to most other African airlines. It's one of the few African carriers that regularly flies in U.S and European airspaces, and it even entered into an alliance with major international carriers such as Lufthansa and United Airlines in 2010. Much unlike Lion Air, Ethiopian Airlines has a lot of trust in the industry. It takes only a minute after take-off for the first officer to report a problem to the nearby control tower. A minute after that, the MCAS system suddenly activates, and the plane suddenly makes a sharp dive. The two young pilots struggle for control over it, and they succeed in rescuing the plane from the ditch, but moments later the MCAS goes off once more, causing another dive. In a desperate move, the pilots disable the electrical trim system which does kill the MCAS finally, but also prevents them from returning the stabilizer trims to a neutral position automatically, forcing them to do it by hand. Because the plane is going at take-off speed and descending rapidly, this is easier said than done. Only three minutes into the flight, the captain tells his first officer to call the air traffic control and request for a return to the airport. Permission is swiftly granted, and the runways of Abbis Adaba Bole International Airport are cleared of planes and other interfering vehicles. The plane turns east so it can loop back around to the airport, and as the turn steepens, the right wing starts to point downwards. Realizing the continued angle of descent means they might not make it back to the airport, the first officer switches the electrical trim system on again in hopes of it neutralizing the trim, but doing so they awaken the MCAS from the dead, and the plane makes a sharp dive for the third and final time. Six minutes into the flight, the plane disappears from radar. In a nearby village, people witness a flightless bird smashing into the ground at nearly 700 miles per hour, obliterating instantly and spreading debris all over a farm field. 157 people were on board, and there were no survivors. Unlike the Lion Air disaster, it did not take long for fingers to start pointing at Boeing. The manufacturer had already spent the winter dodging questions and giving contradicting information to both airlines and the general public, and now the second of their brand new line of planes had fallen from the sky less than two years after the model line was introduced. This simply did not and should not have happened with a line of planes that new and supposedly cutting edge. With findings on the crash site soon revealing similarities with the Lion Air crash, with similar trajectory data uncovered in the black box and the jackscrew controlling the vertical stabilizer being in the "nose down" position upon crash, not only did it become apparent that the two crashes were linked, but that Boeing had been using their time between the two incidents to try and cover up their tracks. On March 11th, China announced that no 737 MAX would be flying in their airspace any longer. Their 96 planes in service would all immediately be grounded, and it didn't take long for European, Indian, Canadian and many other airspaces to join them. The U.S airspace was one of the last to ground the plane, with the FAA initially arguing that they don't see the necessity for such an action, but the organisation caved after pressure from both the industry and the general public mounted. Despite Boeing's attempts to remedy the issue by announcing on March 27th that a software update was on the way to fix errors with the MCAS, which was also the company now admitting that the system was at fault, it quickly became apparent that this wasn't just going to be some bump in the road. On April 3rd, the company announced it would decrease production of the model by one fifth of its pre-crash output, going from 52 planes produced per month down to 42, but by May the company had its deliveries reduced by 56% from the year prior. By summer that year, over 400 orders of the Boeing 737 MAX had been canceled by the airlines ordering them, with an additional 786 orders being removed by Boeing themselves by 2020 since the company by then believed that these orders could not be delivered in certain terms. Some of those orders were due to Boeing recieving word from costumers that they didn't want the MAX planes they ordered anymore, but the cancelations themselves hadn't been made public. Given that Boeing had a production backlog of 1,230 737 MAX planes at the time of the grounding, the combined number of cancelations resulted in a reduction of over ninety percent. At a U.S House of Representatives oversight hearing in June of 2019, months after the 737 MAX had been declared grounded worldwide, Democratic representative Peter A. DeFazio, who at the time chaired the House Transportation Comittee, revealed during a hearing on airline safety standards that Boeing had done more than just not disclose to pilots how the MCAS system worked and the danger it posed, it had asked the FAA themselves to remove mention of its functions in any manuals or instruction materials, explaining the FAA's hesitance to answer any inquires from APA and other concerned bodies when they were seeking answers prior to the Ethiopian crash. The FAA's report, the TARAM analysis that the FAA had swept under the rug the December prior, wouldn't be revealed to the public until December 2019, and the FAA's Administrator Stephen Dickson had to come on and either defend or explain the reason why the report was never published despite the dire warnings included in it. His response was that the decision to withheld it and not immediately either warn pilots or ground the plane entirely before a second crash could occur was "not satisfactory" and "did not achieve the result it was meant to achieve." Dickson would add further context to the report's claim that an additional 15 deadly crashes could occur, however, by stating that, would Boeing not fix the issue with the MCAS by the time thousands of Boeing 737 MAX planes were sailing the skies, as many as 2,900 people could be killed in accidents resulting from it. A death toll equal to the September 11th terrorists attacks, all due to a design flaw the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world decided to keep to itself. Dickson would say this as family members of those killed in the crash stood in the background and watched, with pictures of their dead loved ones on full display. Even with all this damning information out in the open, the U.S political landscape being what it is also resulted in the grounding becoming politicized. Then U.S President Donald Trump, who'd been pushing for deregulation in various areas including air travel (his administration's Department of Transportation budget would see an 18% reduction in 2019), was initially against the grounding in March despite tweeting at the same time that he was distrustful of how "complex" air travel had become. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, whom the film referred to in the opening, had called Trump in the days prior to assure him of the planes' safety. Trump and Muilenberg had been aquiantaces for decades, and Trump's ties with Boeing had gone all the way back to when he operated a failed air shuttle service in the early 1990s. Trump had even been seeking to pressure Boeing into lowering costs for a future version of the Air Force One after he'd complained that the "prices were too high," and it's believed that Trump pressuring the company was due the President believing they owned him a favor after he pressured the Government of Kuwait to approve a long-delayed deal to purchase Boeing-made F/A-18 fighter jets in late 2018. Muilenberg's insistence on the planes' safety to Trump is also believed to have been what motivated the FAA to not ground the planes at the same time as their Canadian and European counterparts, even as they later caved as previously stated. Trump's contradictory stances continued into April, tweeting that Boeing should be fixing the plane "with great new features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name." As to what name the revised model line would take and what these "great new features" were was never specified. In May 2019, Republican congressman Sam Graves, a ranking member on the The House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation, would claim during an early hearing with Boeing and the FAA that the Indonesian and Ethiopian pilots simply weren't trained well enough by their employers and that Boeing couldn't be at fault in the matter, claiming that pilots trained in the U.S would've been able to handle the situation much more swiftly and prevented any fatal crashes. Setting aside the issue that Graves as well as most of his fellow members of the committe, both Republican and Democratic, had received tens of thousands in lobbying money from Boeing in the past, Graves's claims weren't supported by any of the evidence present, and just a month later the FAA would discover yet another issue with the MCAS system and its implementation that further diminished Graves's argument. While performing simulator testing at Boeing's factories in June 2019, the FAA discovered that a microprossessing failure in the 737 MAX's computer systems would trigger the MCAS at random, but most particularly when pilots tried to do a recovery maneuver using the runaway stabilizer trim, making it so difficult for even experienced pilots to recover that crashes were almost inevitable in that situation. The MCAS posed an even greater threat than anyone had realized, and had the grounding not been made even more crashes than the TARAM report had predicted could've occured over the model's lifespan. Wether the fix required a simple software patch or that the entire processing system had to be replaced hasn't been publicly disclosed. Yet, even as orders were canceled left and right, investigations were being held, and executives were forced in front of Congress, the company tried as it could to keep production of the 737 MAX going even at the reduced rate, perhaps in a belief that business would pick up again once the issues had been resolved and the certification to fly was reinstated. While resuming production saw numerous delays due to issues with recertification and the COVID-19 pandemic, by November 2020 Boeing had produced over 450 planes which weren't going to see the skies until regulators gave them the go-ahead, and with no certainty that commercial airliners were interested in buying the revised versions. Producing the planes was costing the company billions in of themselves, and storage costs, software updates, pilot training and victim compensation were costing the company several hundreds of millions more. So why do it? Because the driving force to the entire saga, the reason why Boeing kept the flaws of the plane secret to the pilots using them and tried to slink their way out of having to deal with any consequences even as planes were falling out of the sky killing hundreds.... was money. The 737 MAX model is, or at least at that point was, Boeing's golden goose. With so much of the focus of the plane's design being on cutting costs, the model was costing the company as low as $10-$15 million per plane, most of which was payments to parts suppliers. Boeing were selling the planes at between $90 to $135 million a piece, and the MAX model became the company's largest source of profit only a year after it was introduced. It played a huge role in Boeing's record levels of profit in 2018, and so any issue that could've slowed down production and impact such a huge source of revenue had to be swept under the rug so the company's shareholders could receive record payouts. Even after the issue resulted in hundreds of deaths. Muilenberg would finally testify before Congress on October 30th, 2019. As DeFazio and others grilled him on the safety of the MAX model line, Muilenberg would defend his company's safety culture and deny the internal memos that his chief pilots knew the planes weren't safe. By that point, Muilenberg had already been removed from the position as Chairman and replaced with former GE Aviation executive David L. Calhoun, himself a controversial figure due to how many different positions he was already holding within the company. It would take until December for the board to unaminously vote for Muilenberg's removal from the board entirely, however, and Muilberg resigned as CEO on December 23rd, with Calhoun taking over his position effective January 2020. DeFazio, who led the October testimony, said in response to Muilenberg's ousting that "Based on what we've discovered so far in our investigation into the design, development and certification of the Boeing 737 MAX, it's clear Dennis Muilenburg's ouster was long overdue. Under his watch, a long-admired company made a number of devastating decisions that suggest profit took priority over safety. Furthermore, reports that Muilenburg attempted to pressure FAA into rushing the MAX back into service are highly troubling and I commend Administrator Dickson for making it known that FAA will take as much time as it needs to ensure safety comes first." This takes the film back up to the shots of numerous planes being left to collect dust at Boeing Field in early 2020. As Calhoun took full control of Boeing and led the recertification process going forward, the pandemic further slowed recertification down until the fall of 2020 where, deeming the plane's numerous software issues fixed and the model finally safe to fly again, both the European and American regulation agencies began to advocate for the MAX to return to the skies. Certification would keep seeing delays until December of 2020, when a Brazillian airline became the first to operate the MAX in commercial airspace again. It would take until the 23rd of that month for the plane to fly again in American airspaces, with American Airlines running a flight between Miami and New York City. 87 passengers flew the 172-seat plane to New York, and 151 passengers flew back to Miami. Fortunately, it went without a hitch. Due to the recency of this entire event, it's impossible to know how the grounding has affected the industry, especially with the ongoing pandemic likely having its own level of impact. Wether Boeing's company culture is going to see any significant changes going forward remains to be seen, but just a week prior to the completion of this documentary, on January 7th, 2021, the company settled an agreement with the U.S Department of Justice to pay $2.5 billion after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the FAA. $243.6 million would be paid as a criminal monetary penalty to the federal government, $1.77 billion would be paid as compensation to the airline companies that purchased the 737 MAX, and $500 million would go to establish a crash-victims beneficiary fund that would compensate the heirs, relatives and legal beneficiaries of the 346 people killed in the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes. How these funds will be divided between each victim and their families also remains to be seen, but it at least signals some sort of closure for everyone affected. As for the FAA, it also remains to be seen if the incoming Biden administration, set to be sworn in less than a week after the completion of this documentary, would make any changes to its structure and if efforts would be made to break the agency free of the tight influence Boeing's held on it for decades. During the Trump administration, Trump appointed Boeing veteran Patrick Shanahan as Deputy Secretary of Defense, later promoted to acting Secretary of Defense after James N. Matthis resigned in early 2019. Trump nominated Shanahan to have his position solidified in June of that year, but Shanahan would withdraw following public scrutiny and allegations of domestic violence towards his ex-wife and son. He would be replaced by Mark Esper, Trump's former Secretary of the Army, who himself had his position terminated in late 2020 after reportedly angering Trump for opposing the deployment of active-duty military troops against anti-police brutality protesters. Trump is also reported to have pushed for his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, to join Boeing's board of directors after she stepped down from her position as ambassador. Haley's appointment at Boeing was heavily critized as during her tenure as Governer of South Carolina she reportedly made many decisions in Boeing's favor, and her deep ties with the company has long been reported on. As Boeing board member, she'd have an annual compensation of at least $315,000, and her remaining ties to Trump could've allowed for Boeing to have increased influence in the Trump administration. Despite the criticisms, her tenure was approved, and she would remain on the board until 2020 when she resigned due to disagreements over government bailout during the pandemic. The final scene of the documentary, filmed in December 2020 as the first 737 MAX planes entered U.S skies again after the grounding ended, shows crowded airports filled with passengers rushing to their flights, even as the pandemic is still raging, and a lone 737 MAX leaving one of the terminals at Newark International Airport and heading to the runway. The images of the grounded planes appear as ghosts all over the runaway, and the plane takes off and heads towards a cloudy sunset sky with the spectre of the grounded planes still haunting it, and the plane flies over the landscape as we see hundreds of similar planes parked all over the place, almost covering the entire ground below it as the plane disappears into the horizon. Cut to black. ----- The end credits feature the original song "Flightless Bird" written and performed by Sting. It uses the myth of Icarus and Daedalus as a metaphor for the 737 MAX debacle, telling a story about hubris and arrogance leading to an "avian of wax and metal" dropping from the skies for flying too close to the sun. A "soaring eagle scorched into a flightless bird." (inspired by Sting's "The Last Ship") Sources: Muilenburg's ouster - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737-max-ceo-severance-idUSKBN1Z92DQ Boeing's lobbying efforts, paying no taxes during the financial crisis, and laying off tens of thousands while executives got pay raises - https://web.archive.org/web/20120107173713/http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/264481/20111209/30-major-u-s-corporations-paid-lobby.htm Boeing fined for illegally hiring government officials and improper use of confidential records in 2006 - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-16-fi-boeing16-story.html Boeing's record 2018 profit - https://investors.boeing.com/investors/investor-news/press-release-details/2019/Boeing-Reports-Record-2018-Results-and-Provides-2019-Guidance/default.aspx Internal Boeing memos decrying the state of the MAX aircraft - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/business/boeing-737-messages.html 787 Dreamliner battery problems - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/business/report-on-boeing-787-dreamliner-batteries-assigns-some-blame-for-flaws.html MCAS system and its flaws - https://www.faa.gov/news/media/attachments/Final_JATR_Submittal_to_FAA_Oct_2019.pdf Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines - https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/2/18518176/boeing-737-max-crash-problems-human-error-mcas-faa Lion Air bribing transportation officials - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/world/asia/lion-air-crash-families-lawsuits.html Allied Pilots Association unnerved by Boeing response - https://www.alliedpilots.org/News/ID/7030/Pilot-Union-President-to-Call-for-Accountability-from-Boeing-and-Reassessment-of-FAA-Certification-Process Trump's ties with Boeing - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airlines-trump-idUSKBN1QT2MQ Trump speaking with Muilenberg - https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/12/politics/donald-trump-boeing-ceo-dennis-muilenberg/index.html Trump calling airplanes "too complex" - https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/12/politics/donald-trump-airplane-technology/index.html Peter A. DeFazio's statements - https://defazio.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/chair-defazio-s-statement-from-hearing-on-the-boeing-737-max-airplane / https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/changes-to-flawed-boeing-737-max-were-kept-from-pilots-defazio-says/2019/06/19/553522f0-92bc-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html Stephen Dickson admitting to the FAA's failings and the TARAM report's dire conclusions - https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/12/11/faa-analysis-predicted-many-more-max-crashes-without-a-fix/ Sam Graves blaming pilots - https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/blaming-dead-pilots-brought-to-you-by-boeing/ Microprossessor glitch making it difficult for pilots to recover - https://viewfromthewing.com/faa-discovers-flaw-in-how-boeing-737-max-pilots-are-supposed-to-respond-to-mcas-problems/ Boeing continuing producing planes during grounding - https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/17/business/boeing-737-max-grounding-cost/index.html Nikki Haley's appointment at Boeing - https://www.fitsnews.com/2019/02/26/boeing-board-nikki-haley-cashes-in/ Boeing’s $2.5 billion payout to the U.S government, Boeing’s customers, and victims’ families - https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/boeing-charged-737-max-fraud-conspiracy-and-agrees-pay-over-25-billion American Airlines flight, the 737 MAX returning to the skies - https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-12-29/boeing-max-returns-to-us-skies-with-first-passenger-flight Edited May 6, 2021 by cookie 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) Studio: New Journey Pictures Director: Peter Sollett Genre: Drama Release Date: December 25th, Y8 Theater Count: 2,450 MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Some Language Runtime: 1 hr 32 min Budget: $10 Million Cast Rooney Mara as Elisa Brenda Song as Connie Kate McKinnon as Kathy Aidy Bryant as Suzanna-Anne-Helen Sebastian Stan as Bill with Brad Pitt as The Pizza Guy and Tilda Swinton as The Trainer Plot Summary Elisa (Rooney Mara) breaks up with her boyfriend Bill (Sebastian Stan), and she's depressed, so Connie (Brenda Song) convinces her to attend yoga classes with her. Elisa attends the first class and remarks why there's only a few people there--Kathy (Kate McKinnon) and Suzanna-Anne-Helen (Aidy Bryant) are the only other people there for the yoga class--and Connie admits that the trainer's teaching methods are controversial. The Trainer (Tilda Swinton) comes in and they start doing yoga, but Kathy messes up a lot so The Trainer pelts her with a soccer ball. After the first class, Elisa say hello to The Trainer, and The Trainer tells Elisa that she'll be a fine yoga student indeed. Alone in her bedroom, Elisa resolves to pursue yoga as a hobby. So she goes to another yoga class, and after the preliminary sun salutations, The Trainer tells them to hold the "tree pose" for as long as possible, and Kathy and Suzanna-Anne-Helen fail rather quickly, but Elisa manages to hold it for an impressively long time, which is cool. Then they do hula hooping together, and The Trainer throws hula hoops at them while they're hula-hooping. They also go for a bike ride through a neighborhood, and the bike ride is shot in the style of Terence Malick, and Elisa likes the bike ride a lot. Elisa gets the bright idea to invite everyone to her apartment for a pizza party, and The Trainer admits that she's never tried pizza before because of how dedicated to yoga she is, but Elisa convinces The Trainer that it's worth it to try pizza, at least to check off a bucket list item. So The Trainer and the other pupils gather at her apartment and wait around for a bit, and The Pizza Guy (Brad Pitt) comes and gives them two pizzas--one pepperoni, one ham and pineapple--and Elisa gives him the money and tells him to keep the change. The Pizza Guy grins and tips his hat to Elisa before he leaves. They all enjoy the pizza, and it's interesting because even The Trainer enjoys the pizza. Kathy and Suzanna-Anne-Helen get in a jokey debate about whether parmesan or red pepper is the better pizza condiment, and Connie throws another wrench in the debate because she claims that oregano is the best pizza condiment. They laugh and have a good time, and hopefully audiences decide it's the best pizza party in cinematic history. Then at the next yoga class, Elisa realizes that she's in love with The Trainer, so when everyone else leaves, she admits her love to The Trainer, and they kiss, so they're in a relationship now. Then Elisa tells Connie about the relationship, and Connie's flabbergasted. And then Elisa meets up with Bill, and she tells Bill about the relationship, and he's flabbergasted, too. We see Elisa and The Trainer do stuff like go ice skating and eat more pizza, but the relationship doesn't work out because The Trainer is obsessed with yoga to the point where she prioritizes yoga over the relationship. So Elisa quits going to the yoga classes, and she goes into another slump of depression. But Connie helps her realize that yoga was helping her feel better, so Elisa decides to go back to The Trainer's yoga classes, and during that class, she match The Trainer's yoga moves note for note, and Connie, Kathy, and Suzanna-Anne-Helen all see Elisa and The Trainer still have a bond through yoga. Then Elisa and The Trainer go for a walk, and they don't rekindle their relationship but at least rekindle their friendship. The movie ends with Elisa hiking up a mountain, looking out at the view from the summit, and smiling. Edited January 14, 2021 by SLAM! 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safeno Rdz Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 (edited) I'm new at this, so please tell me if I'm doing this right and what should I do next to help my film 😰 Title: As Fast As I Can Director: Alfonso Cuarón Genre: Family, Sport, Crime Release Date: December 6th, Year 8 Major Cast: Jaeden Martell - Thomas Leonardo DiCaprio - Lewis Dev Patel - Joe Thomasin McKenzie - Ellie Halle Berry - Trainer Taylor Julianne Moore - Katie Theater Count: 3,100 MPA Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 116 mins Production Budget: $30 Million Original Song: Go by Maroon 5 Plot Summary: *Video and picture montage of Thomas family as he is growing up with upbeat music for background, including home recordings of competitions at parks and schools, and of the trophys he has won, and the last one being a clip of them watching TV of the Olympic games and getting excited with it, then the film title appears on screen* Talented young athlete Thomas (Jaeden Martell) has shown a huge love for athleticism since he was a little child and has got an incredible talent, winning most leagues and championships he has participated on, always with the support of his parents Lewis (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Katie (Julianne Moore), and his sister Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), but what he has always dreamed of is going to the Olympic games. "Remember Thomas, this race is really important, you've got this!", the countdown begins, and we see the family cheering and screaming in support, as Thomas races and starts to gain advantage over the other athletes, at first he seems to be struggling a little, but after a few seconds, he goes ahead and wins it, the family goes to a restaurant to celebrate, as all conversation goes towards the race, Ellie tries to talk a little about how she did good on her tests, but she gets little attention from the rest of the family, so she keeps on topic about the race. *Katie is in the hospital, non-explicit mastography scene, then in the waiting room, and then in medical consultation, the doctor is talking to her, then she is driving silently in the car and parks over and starts to cry, when she gets to the house she talks to Lewis, he hugs her hard, so after a long family conversation she gets support from all the family and decides to start chemotherapy. *Lewis goes with Katie to the hospital, as she starts the therapy, he holds her hand and hugs her. Back in the house she is puking in the bathroom.* *Lewis talks to Katie and Thomas that the monetary situation is critical and they talk about what stuff they could sell to get some money, they decide to sell Thomas car* *Another scene of Thomas racing, this time, with the family watching, Katie is looking a little bit more deteriorated, while the race is on, she starts coughing and faints, as soon as Thomas looks, he stops racing and runs towards them and they take her to the hospital.* One day at the hospital, Katie talks to Thomas and tells him how proud she is, and she makes him promise her, that he would keep on doing what he loves the best he can. "I only hope to be alive for the time that you achieve being a worldwide winner". Sadly, she dies a few days later. After her death, Lewis showed support to his kids as a lovely father, but at lonely times during the night he starts drinking until falling asleep. A couple months letter, Thomas receives a letter from the National Olympic Comitee informing him that he got accepted as a candidate for preliminars. He looks at the letter, and then looks at a picture of her mother. Ellie enters the room and takes the letter from his hands, and reads it overwhelmed with joy for his brother. The only problem is he is required to pay for expensive uniforms, a professional trainer and travelling across the country, but the family spent most of their money with Katie's therapy. When he knew about all the money that was required, Lewis told Thomas that they wouldn't be able to afford it, Thomas didn't seem okay with it and they started discussing louder and louder until the screams came in. They all had been through a lot, so they couldn't help to have all of their feeling they had silenced before to come out in that moment, and hurtful things were said by both. Katy tried to control them both, but they wouldn't listen to her, so she started crying, as Thomas went on to his bedroom, and Lewis walked out the house to a bar nearby. So Lewis gets a deal with a criminal drug group leaded by Joe (Dev Patel). As Thomas keeps on winning with the support of his sister Ellie and his trainer Taylor (Halle Berry) he gets closer to the Olympic games, while his father gets more involved with the criminal group, putting Katy and Tom's lifes at risk. Edited January 15, 2021 by Safeno Rdz 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 FLOODBATH Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Leigh Whannell Release Date: September 13th Y8 Genre: Disaster/Thriller/Drama Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of violence and some language Format: 2D Budget: $12 million Theater Count: 3.003 Runtime: 1 hour and 32 minutes Cast: - Annalise Basso as Lauren - Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as Andrew - Brendan Meyer as Louis - Unknown child actor as Victoria Plot: Spoiler In a house within a mountainous region of Alaska, we see a woman in her early 20's (Annalise Basso) taking care of a 2 year old girl. The older woman is very playful and very caring of this child, and she refers to herself as "her mommy". Enter a man in his mid 20's (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), who kisses the woman and asks "Lauren" how things have been with the little girl, Victoria. Lauren tells "Andrew" that they've been the usual, as Victoria is a bright little girl, her mommy's love, but she's a bit uneasy lately because she wants to be with her dad. This leaves some hurt on Andrew, who knows that he may not be Victoria's father, but he loves her like a daughter, and Lauren is pleased to be reassured that Andrew has her back and kisses him. We then see Andrew take care of Victoria, while Lauren texts someone named Louis, who says he is coming to pick up Victoria in about 2 days. Lauren texts him back, asking him to not make things messy again, and Louis texts that he'll try. We see Lauren take care of Victoria on the next late afternoon after arriving from work, letting the babysitter go, while reports are going that analysts are predicting that a massive earthquake will shake the region within a few days, asking locals to evacuate, leaving Lauren a bit uneasy. Andrew and Louis call her immediately at the same time, and she decides to answer Louis (Brendan Meyer) first, who says that he's coming to pick Victoria up tonight, in the wake of the earthquake news. Lauren is ok with this, but once again asks Louis to try to take things easily when he arrives there. He once again says that he will. She then hangs up and answers Andrew, who says that they should evacuate with Victoria, but Lauren tells him that not only she can't just walk out of her job like that, but as far as Victoria is concerned, Louis is picking her up today - which leaves Andrew a bit relieved, but also upset that he doesn't get to spend more time with his girlfriend and step-daughter both in family. Lauren looks conflicted. We cut to Louis arriving at Lauren's house at night, Andrew opening the door to him. They shake hands, but with some tension between the two. Louis then hugs Victoria, who is delighted to see her dad. Lauren tells him that Victoria's been dying to see him, and Louis tells her that he's also happy to see his daughter. He tells Lauren that he's taking her away from town for the week, longer than the extended period they had agreed to, and this upsets Lauren, but Louis tells her that it gives them time to escape the quake, and Lauren should do the same as well. Lauren says that she can't go away, she's got a job here that she can't just leave, but Louis tells her that she's an idiot if she prioritizes her work over her own safety, which causes Lauren to slap him. Louis, grabbing his face and calming himself down, says he knows that this poor paying job really isn't what she wants. Louis then, somewhat sorrowfully, tells her that she always cared more about her job than she did about him or Victoria. At this point, Andrew steps in to ask Louis to calm himself down, and Louis says he's calm and asks Andrew to watch out for Victoria while he has a "calm" talk with Lauren. Lauren nods, saying she can handle this, and Andrew goes away with Victoria. In the next shot, Andrew is playing with Victoria in the kitchen while we hear the muffed sounds of Louis and Lauren screaming at each other. Then, we cut to Louis leaving the house with Victoria, but not without telling Lauren first to remember what he said. Lauren just tells him to go away, which he does. Andrew asks her what did Louis say. She shuts the conversation down, even after some insistence by Andrew who's thinking it might've been something offensive. In bed, as Andrew sleeps, Lauren cries herself to sleep. The next day, thunder and rain are furiously storming outside. Lauren and Andrew are getting ready to go to work, despite their tension regarding the incoming earthquake. Lauren then harkens back to the conversation she had with Louis last night, and tells Andrew that she's had a change of mind - she wants to leave Alaska until the quake has passed. Andrew asks her what made her change her mind so quickly, and Lauren just says that she never thought the idea was bad to begin with, and this rollercoaster of emotions lately simply hasn't made things all that easy for her emotionally. She asks him not to be surprised if she changes her mind again. The two pack things up, tell their bosses in advance that they are evacuating - and, to Lauren's surprise, she finds out she's far from the only one - and say that they are going to Andrew's parents', since it's closer than Lauren's. But before Lauren can walk out the door, Andrew stops her and jokingly asks her if she's still sure to go. As she begins to answer... the quake hits. The two are thrown and rattled around the house and try to escape, but a big piece of furniture falls on Lauren's leg, breaking the leg. Andrew stays behind to try to rescue her, and she begs him to save himself, but Andrew says he's not leaving without her. Andrew tries to carry Lauren in his arms, but then, the roof of the house falls on the two, and they're trapped inside. Beneath them, the floor crumbles, and they fall further down. (This entire paragraph is shot and/or edited as a 40 minute one-take, with the actors having bullet points on the script to improvise on during the entire time, as well as massive technical support to make sure that the stunt that they're trying to pull off, it completely done on practical effects, doesn't go horrendously wrong.) As the rain continues to pour down, Lauren and Andrew, both with some visible bruises and cuts, are trapped under their own house, with only an opening illuminating them (from the direction of the camera) and giving them a little bit of fresh air to breathe. Lauren, still in agony over her broken leg, says that now they're under this rubble and it was all her fault, but Andrew blames himself, as he stopped Lauren from walking out the door five seconds before the quake hit. They hug each other, asking one another not to think about blame, but rather about they fact that they have each other and they're still alive now that the quake has passed. Help should be out here soon. They then talk about whether or not did Louis make it with Victoria out of Alaska, and while Andrew is sure that they escaped, Lauren is skeptical, and super scared that that might've not been case. She's clearly afraid of the prospect of her daughter having been caught in the disaster and being possibly dead, which makes her weep even further than the pain alone. Andrew comforts her. As they talk, the rain pouring from outside is coming in from the entrance, flooding the floor they are on. They don't take note of this at first, still a bit shaken from what just occurred, but eventually, Lauren notices how she, who is on the floor, is quickly getting submerged. They start to panic again, and Andrew does everything in his power to try to lift up the rubble, while he and Lauren scream for help to the response of apparently no one. Lauren tries to get up and aid Andrew in lifting some rubble up, but the pain on her broken leg is too bad and the rubble is too heavy. Andrew tells her not to worry. But Lauren does worry, because they are quickly being overtaken by the water. Time flies as they continuously try to lift and scream for help, but nothing seems to work. As the water is already flooding them up to their chest, Andrew tells Lauren that no matter what happens, she'll always be special to him, and she retorts the same. Suddenly, Andrew feels the rubble above him break, and he tries to lift it up... but instead, it collapses on him. The camera follows Lauren go underwater to try to save him, the "money seconds" of the shot being a low angle perspective on the shadow of Lauren, highlighted by the light coming from the entrance above the water, trying save Andrew. But once again, her pain is too bad and the rubble is too heavy. She can only watch as Andrew drowns in the flooding, helpless with the weight on top of him. Lauren mourns Andrew's death, and thinks to herself that that is it for her too... she's never gonna see Victoria again. Then, as Lauren looks on, defeated, we finally cut away from the shot to flashback to the conversation that Lauren and Louis were having the prior night... ...Louis, after some shouting and arguing over the whole "you cared more about the job than the family" thing, which Lauren vehemently denies, tells Lauren that the quake will probably be devastating, Lauren tells him that she knows, and she still hasn't totally discredited the idea of evacuating with Andrew. Louis then, tears in his eyes, tells Lauren that, deep down, he wants her to escape too because he still has feelings for her. Lauren is in shock with this, and she tells him that a future together seems impossible after everything, but her face tells that she didn't immediately reject this notion. Louis accuses her of being with Andrew as some form of denial over their own breakup, and Lauren aggressively dismisses that, saying that she loves Andrew, prompting Louis to immediately apologize. But he remains firm that he still likes Lauren. While he can't make Lauren choose to go with him or force her to do anything against her will - nor would he ever want to do something like that - and he wants her to be happy above all else, he does wish that she think about that. Victoria would love nothing more than for her parents to be reunited again. Lauren doesn't know how to respond, mumbling to herself that she loves Andrew and her time with Louis is over. We cut back to Lauren in real time, meditating over whether or not Louis' point rings with her, and whether or not is he still someone worth fighting for. She then harkens back to Victoria, and all the times that Lauren and her spent together, and even the good times that Lauren, Louis and Victoria all spent, as well as the good times spent with Victoria and Andrew. She figures out for herself that yes - it's worth fighting to live for those you love. And then, she also thinks about the great times spent with Andrew, and figures that it's also worth fighting to honor those who we love but have perished by fighting to live a great life as they look down on us. She gets up on one leg and with the help of her surroundings, and tries everything in her power to lift the rubble and escape. As her efforts show themselves to be futile, she screams and screams, trying to fight her way out. About a minute or two later, she finally hears sirens coming from outside. She screams for help, urgently. Soon enough, firemen arrive, breaking her out of the rubble and the flooding, and stretchering her out to an ambulance. Fade to black. We fade in to Lauren in a hospital bed, with her broken leg wrapped in plaster. Victoria and Louis arrive, and they both hug Lauren, who hugs them back. Victoria shows clear worry for her mommy, and Lauren, washed away in tears, says she was so worried she would never see Victoria again either. Louis says he's happy that she's alive, although he gives her his condolences over Andrew. Lauren cries, but thanks him. Louis makes no mention of their conversation. We then cut to Lauren, on crutches, Louis and Victoria attending the funeral of Andrew, as well as that of all the other victims of the quake and floodings. Lauren is crushed by this, and cries in Louis' arms, Louis himself shedding some tears and Victoria being confused, but understanding that something happened. Lauren and Louis then talk peacefully over the sorrow of losing someone you love, and Lauren, while visibly upset, says that, at the end of the day, Andrew's memory will live on in their hearts... the ones who live have to fight to not just honor the dead, but continue with the living that still love them. Louis couldn't agree more. They leave. We then jump a few months later, when Lauren, Louis and Victoria are in a restaurant together. Lauren brings up the argument that she and Louis had on the night before the quake, and she says that thinking about him, amongst other things, was what made her not give up altogether on life. Well, technically she was saved by the rescue team, cause if it had been on her own account, she would've died all the same - but, the intention counts. Louis laughs, and says that he's glad that Lauren thinks this way. Lauren says that she's still not over Andrew's death... but, whether or not is there a chance that she'll go back to Louis one day? Maybe. It depends on how Louis behaves himself from here on out. Louis jokes that it depends on her not getting overworked, to which she gives him a death stare, but he says he's joking and the family laugh together, Victoria included. We pan out from the restaurant and the city as it seems the future holds good things for the survivors of the disaster. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
