Jump to content

Alpha

CAYOM YEAR 9 - PART I - MOVIE SUBMISSION

Recommended Posts

THE MIRAGE

 

Distributor: Studio Groundswell

Director: Fede Alvarez

Genre: Western/Horror

Release Date: July 11th, Y9

Theater Count: 3,664

MPAA Rating: R for Language, Violence, Peril, and Disturbing Imagery and Themes

Runtime: 1 hr 45 min

Budget: $20 Million

Original Score Composer: Daniel Hart

 

Major Cast

Glen Powell as Ralph Thompson

Margaret Qualley as Allison Fletcher

with Parker Sawyers as Lamonte Williams

and Eva Green as Old Ruth

 

Minor & Spoiler Cast

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Parker Saywers as Cyclist #1/Leonard

Eva Green as Cyclist #2/Adeline

Margaret Qualley as Cyclist #3

Unknowns In All Other Roles

 

 

Logline

Eccentric bounty hunter Ralph Thompson searches the American West for a missing girl. Little does he know, something sinister awaits...

 

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of this film.

 

Special thanks to @4815162342 for pre-reading.

 

Plot Summary (about 5.6k words)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DrR_U6Aw9taWzVKOw1NoKy7duwRomERo/edit

 

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Go-Kart Gottlieb

Studio Groundswell

Director: Tom Tykwer

Genre: Drama

Release Date: January 24th

Theater Count: 2,370

Rating: PG-13 for Language and Thematic Elements

Budget: $40 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 36 min

Language: German

 

Major Cast

Matthias Schweighöfer as Gottlieb

Udo Kier as Felix

Numan Acar as Selim

Franka Potente as Marie

David Kross as Karl

August Diehl as Hans

 

Plot Summary

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Black. Engines revving, wheels spinning. We open with a fast-motion first-person POV of a go kart racer as they drive on a track.
 

Cut to fast-cut footage of a Karting World Championship race. But then—the footage cuts back and forth from an audience in the stands to the fast cuts of karts revving across the track. Excited murmurs fill the stands. Then the karts appear, and the crowd cheers as they pass by. An official raises a checkered flag as they cross the finish line.

 

Gottlieb (Schweighöfer) and his wife, Marie (Potente), clap as the first place winner exits their kart and takes off their helmet. It’s Gottlieb—the first place finisher who hugs the fans and crew rushing to him? We cut back to Gottlieb in the stands as he stares with longing. Cut back—Gottlieb had imagined himself as the first place winner, and it’s actually Karl (Kross) pumping his fists in the air.

 

The race being over, Gottlieb and Marie walk around, and he tells her he’ll wait for her while she uses the bathroom. But Gottlieb has other plans. She enters, and he walks off.

 

Karl and his crew walk with victorious swagger while cameramen take pictures. Hans (Diehl) slips into the crowd and yells that he believes Karl’s win is illegitimate because of the technology in his kart that surpasses the other karts. He is told that Karl would not have raced if the racing organization hadn’t given his kart their approval. Hans storms away in anger.

 

Gottlieb searches through the crowds and comes across a garage where Felix (Kier), who triples as a manager, coach, and mechanic, is doing post-race things with his crew. Selim (Acar) is one of the members of his crew. Gottlieb runs in and asks Felix if he has advice on how someone can start a kart racing career from scratch. Felix looks him up and down and essentially tells him to go away.

 

Gottlieb walks out dejected—but Selim runs out to meet him, gives him a business card, and tells him he can help him get in touch with people who can help. Gottlieb thanks him.

 

Gottlieb then goes to find Marie. Suddenly, there are SCREAMS offscreen. He runs through the crowds to find the screams. It takes him a while, and he hears even more screams. Other people are running toward the screams, so he joins the human flow and finds Marie, who is on the ground and bleeding out.

 

Gottlieb kneels to her and asks the crowd what happened. Karl is at the scene and swiftly explains that he was signing autographs when Hans approached him with a knife—it was then that Marie stepped between the two men, trying to stop the attack, and Hans began stabbing her instead. He also tells Gottlieb that Hans ran off, and he gives a description of him.

 

Gottlieb takes off running to find Hans and eventually sees a sketchy man in an alleyway between white tents. He shouts at Hans, who stares at him with crazed eyes before running away. Gottlieb chases after him and loses him—or so Gottlieb thinks, because Hans ambushes him and stabs him in the shoulder. Gottlieb fights back and pins him down just long enough for security officers to rush in and detain Hans. Despite being told to stay by security, Gottlieb stumbles away.

 

From afar, Gottlieb sees paramedics carrying Marie on a stretcher and pushing it into an ambulance. Gottlieb hurries to the ambulance and shouts for Marie. When the ambulance takes off, Gottlieb to the parking lot, while keeping eyes on the ambulance, and jumps into his SUV. We cut to a shot of Felix’s POV as he stands and watches Gottlieb from far off.

 

Cut to Gottlieb driving astonishingly fast down windy roads as he attempts to keep up with the ambulance. He dodges traffic when he needs to and drives with notable skill. Inside the ambulance, the paramedics do what they need to do to keep Marie alive. They ask each other who the car following them might be—but Marie knows who it is.

 

Cut to the paramedics wheeling Marie through the hospital lobby and through the hallways. Gottlieb runs in and is stopped in his tracks by nurses who notice his condition. He asks if paramedics wheeled a woman in, and they confirm that Marie is being taken to the ICU. Gottlieb catches his breath and allows the nurses to take him to another room.

 

Days pass by as Gottlieb and Marie recover in separate rooms. Gottlieb is taken to see Marie. She will recover, but her condition will be critical for weeks, and there will be long-lasting effects. Gottlieb mutters that he’s worried about being able to pay the hospital bills. He is told not to worry about it—but he still worries.

 

One day, Gottlieb and Marie are in the hospital, and they are told that they have a visitor. It’s Felix. Gottlieb meets Felix in the hallway; Felix opens by saying that he tracked down the ambulance’s time of departure and arrival and discovered that because Gottlieb was able to catch up with the ambulance, he actually drove from the track to the hospital in less than ten minutes. Gottlieb nods. Then Felix steps closer and says that his team needs a new kart racer—but if Gottlieb accepts being the racer, then he must promise that he can drive like he did on that day. Gottlieb promises, and they shake hands.

 

But in Marie’s room, she tells Gottlieb that it seems as if he and Felix had seen each other before. Gottlieb admits that he abandoned his watch to find out how to get into kart racing, and Marie calls him childlike, reminds him that she might not have been stabbed if he had been there for her, and forbids him from pursuing the sport. Gottlieb tells her that he thinks he can earn money to help pay medical bills through the sport, and he will pursue it despite what she says.

 

Marie then says she would be better off dead if Gottlieb is speaking to her like that. Gottlieb stares at her before storming out. We cut to a still shot of the hallway; Gottlieb storms down the hallway and thinks, before making a decision and storming back toward the room. Cut back to the room, where Gottlieb bursts in and monologues about how he believes that he can drive for her just as much as he can drive for himself. Marie says she doesn’t believe that.

 

In the parking lot, Gottlieb hits the steering wheel multiple times and screams. He stares out at the hospital before driving away.

 

Two Weeks Later, Gottlieb arrives at an indoor practice track owned by Felix. He shakes hands with Felix and Selim and gets to work practicing right away. He races through the track smoothly, but Felix believes that he can go faster. So Gottlieb goes around again, but Felix again suggests that Gottlieb can go faster. Gottlieb goes around a third time, and Felix reminds him of how he drove for his wife, shouting that he needs channel that energy. Gottlieb then drives fast around the track, and Felix tells him to drive multiple laps around the track. The laps meld within each other as Gottlieb drives around the track a dizzying amount of times.

 

Match cut to Gottlieb driving during a race. We see many karts in front of him during a POV shot. Then he expertly maneuvers around the other racers and clutches second only behind Karl. On the podium, Karl admits that even though he’s younger than him, he feels indebted to Gottlieb because Marie is the reason why he’s still alive today. They share the carton of milk that is given to Karl for winning the race.

 

At his apartment, Gottlieb writes checks to pay the medical bills while Marie silently watches from a corridor. Gottlieb goes to put the envelope in the mailbox, and then goes back into the apartment—but Marie has disappeared. On the coffee table is a note—"You've found a new love, so I will get out of your way."

 

Gottlieb then goes back to the practice facility and tells Felix and Selim that he needs to quit. They try to stop him, but Gottlieb exclaims that he should never have pursued his dream at the expense of his wife—he laments that he can’t race for her anymore because she’s not with him anymore. Then, Selim asks him if he wants to race for himself. The two get Gottlieb to admit that he wants to race for himself—not only this, but the fact that he really just wanted to race for himself. Gottlieb then decides not to quit, and Felix grabs Gottlieb’s shoulder and tells him that he’s proud of him.

 

Another big race comes, but before the race, Karl shows Gottlieb the technology of his specialized kart and says that he’s asked the league to implement the technology in more karts than just his own. He says that it’s an artificial intelligence that allows the kart to analyze the track and vibrate to signal the racer of when to turn and which parts of the track to drive on. Gottlieb thanks Karl and gives him a thumbs up.

 

Gottlieb, Felix, and Selim place the A.I. technology in the go kart, and the kart revs on its own. Felix shouts in triumph because he is finally in a position to see the driver he’s managing win a race. He puts pressure on Gottlieb to win, and Gottlieb says “I won’t let you down.”

 

The AI-adorned karts line up to begin the race, and a girl waves a checkered flag to get them started. Gottlieb and Karl race against each other and are leading the pack. They begin to drive laps over slower racers as well. It all seems like a normal race until…

 

One of the slow karts they’re lapping spins out on its own. Gottlieb and Karl dodge it, but the spinning kart and the detached wheels hit other racers behind them. It is soon clear that all of the racers have lost control of their karts. Some leap out of the karts while others cannot undo their seatbelt. Soon, the karts drive into the pit stops and into the tent areas, running people over and causing all sorts of havoc. One of the karts targets a food stand selling glass bottles of milk. The milk vendor (surprise cameo by Dan Stevens) throws milk bottles at the kart in a crazed attempt to defend himself, but to no avail. The kart crashes into the stand, killing the milk vendor and destroying the glass bottles.

 

Gottlieb and Karl have leapt out of their karts and are running away from the carnage. They catch their breath thinking they’re safe. But then, a herd of karts revs behind them. Gottlieb runs to the left, but Karl keeps running forward. Karl is then run over by the herd of karts, and he dies.

 

Gottlieb rushes into a conference tent and hides behind a table that is leaning on its side. Engines begin revving offscreen; he peeks out and sees the herd of karts circling him. The engines go silent, and one kart drives forward and stops, as if confronting him. Gottlieb sees that it’s the kart given to him by Felix.

 

Fade to white and then to a flashback of Gottlieb and Marie in bed and staring up at the ceiling. Marie asks him what he desires, and Gottlieb snap-answers “you, of course.” Marie says “besides that.” Gottlieb answers that he wants to be successful in something that he enjoys doing. He doesn’t want to live life doing something that doesn’t excite him. Marie then answers that while she knows she’s hypocritical, she’s struggling to say anything other than the fact that she desires Gottlieb. The ceiling fan whirs. Gottlieb asks if the fan is spinning too fast. Marie smokes a cigarette, puffs out smoke,  and tells him to let it spin.

 

Fade to white and then back to the conference tent as Gottlieb cries and says he’s sorry as all of the engines rev as if chanting for his demise. Then Selim runs in and throws a Molotov cocktail at the karts. The karts catch fire and start driving around madly; Felix and Selim grab Gottlieb and take him away from the tent.

 

The three men flee the scene and run far away until they’re on the side of an empty, winding back road. Ambulances and police cars drive by swiftly. They stare at each other before staring directly into the camera. Cut to black.

 

 

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ALAKAZAM!

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Sarah Smith and J.P. Vine

Genre: Animation

Release Date: March 21st, Y9

Theater Count: 3,875

MPAA Rating: PG for Thematic Elements, Crude Humor, and Violence

Budget: $125 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 45 min

Original Score Composer: Christophe Beck

 

Major Cast

Benedict Cumberbatch as Charles Remington

Eddie Redmayne as Houdini

Elizabeth Debicki as Penelope

Gemma Chan as Hildegard

Ralph Ineson as Solomon Iremonger

Nathalie Emmanuel as Laura

Pixie Davies as Susie

Archie Yates as Bart

Kulvinder Ghir as Black Jack

Lennie James as Mr. Banana

Barry Keoghan as Mr. Bonono

with Domhnall Gleeson as The Ace of Spades

and Idris Elba as Leo LuFranc

 

Surprise Cameos/Minor Roles

Spoiler

Henry Golding as Dante the Dove

Patrick Stewart as Old Man

Judi Dench as Old Woman

 

Logline

A stage magician must travel through his top hat the city of Alakazam when he swaps bodies with his talking rabbit partner by accident.

 

Plot Summary (about 13k words)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13-FMi_ez4Vs7XoKRCU5C5swCEF9jISzSdCnREEDQYcM/edit

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



ROCKET HERO

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cinematography: Rob Hardy

 

Genre: Action/Thriller

Release Date: May 23rd Y9

Theater Count: 3657

Rating: PG-13 for scenes of heavy violence, some blood, language and thematic content

Format: 2D, 3D, IMAX, 4DX

Budget: $110 million

Runtime: 105 minutes (1 hour and 45 minutes)

 

Cast:

- Tom Cruise as Jaeden "Rocket Hero" King

- Michael Shannon as Lieutenant Warren Goldfield

- Rami Malek as Chris King

- Josh Keaton as Officer James Brown

- Tara Strong as Janet King

- Unknown child actors as Richie and Tommy King

 

Plot:

Spoiler

We open the film with a black and white montage. Jaeden King (Tom Cruise) narrates how, in the present, America has started developing an actual superhero-style program, directly inspired by patriotic fiction figures such as Captain America. This association, backed by the CIA, was codenamed USHA - United States Hero Association - and started doing experiments on some of its soldiers to give them superhuman/peak physical condition (we see these soldiers going through significant pain in these experiments). The best of the bunch would be trained to intervene in situations that "normal" soldiers would consider unattainable by more traditional methods, and then promoted as a heroic figure for America. This figure was henceforth called "Rocket Hero", and that figure... is him.

 

CHAPTER I
The Hijack

 

(This sequence is entirely edited as a real-time one-take shot.)

 

We then cut, in color, to Jaeden, dressed in a red, white and blue costume with a mask that looks like an exploding rocket, bound to a lifted up bed in the back of a USHA fighter plane. Soldiers come, and unbound him, asking him if he's ready. The Rocket Hero says that he is, although there is some harrow in his voice. From inside comes Lieutenant Warren Goldfield (Michael Shannon), who greets him formally. Goldfield says the Rocket Hero is looking to be on his day today, and the Hero (as he shall be called from here on out) says that he's just had a good breakfast - as good as it can be while he's bound to that thing. Goldfield appreciates the Hero's sense of sarcasm, and starts detailing the mission. The mission is very simple: the Hero will be rocketed (literally) from the fighter plane with enough force to then safely parachute horizontally onto a commercial airplane, a United Airlines Boeing 737, that has been hijacked by terrorists in Cairo, Egypt, in what was a return flight to Washington DC. Once he lands, the Hero must infiltrate into the airplane by the emergency door, take out the terrorists, and find a way to land the plane safely on ground. "What if the pilot or co-pilot are both down?", the Hero asks. "If neither of them are on their senses... well, you've flown jet fighters, how hard can it be to fly a 737?", Goldfield replies. The Hero looks worried. Goldfield says that the fate of over 300 Americans is on the line, and that he insisted to put the USHA on this before any national or international resources were to intervene, so the Hero better not make him look bad - else, he knows the price to pay: his wife and his two sons are both literally written from existence. "Just like that, they'll be gone, and no one will know where they've ever been", he says. The Hero says that he sounds like Stalin everytime he says that, and Goldfield says that, in a weird way, he never disagreed with Stalin's methods to enforce the security of his own country - he only disagreed with the fact that he was anything but a real American. "National security is at stake... are you going to let the millions of US citizens down, Mr. King?", Goldfield asks. "Are you going to leave... Janet, Richie and Tommy down?" He then leaves, while the Hero looks very hesitant, gulping to himself.

 

We see the Hero prepare for the jump. A soldier (Josh Keaton) asks him if there's any pressure on him to be the American hero everyone looks him up to be, and the Hero says that there is none, he knows how to perform for his people and that he will do his absolute best. The soldier is impressed at the Hero's confidence and the Hero, hesitantly, says that's what he's gotta have in order to be there for America. The soldier leaves him and we then see the final moments before a red signal fires off, Goldfield on a speaker asking the Hero to ready for his launch. We witness the Hero walking, getting an oxygen mask put on top of his Rocket Hero mask, and, eventually, getting to the launch area. We see through the window that the USHA plane is at a lower altitude than the 737, which is flying from east, the direction that the rocket the Hero will be launched from is facing. The Hero jumps inside the rocket, and after a countdown, is launched from it, human cannonball-style. We get the full moment of the Hero flying northeast, the sequence lasts about a minute and a half. During this sequence, we listen to the Hero's inner thoughts, where he flashbacks to him vowing to his wife (Tara Strong) and two children that he would come back and make sure they all returned to a normal life. When Richie asks him when he is coming back, the Hero says he doesn't know, but it will be soon. Janet makes him promise that, and he does. They kiss. (Again, all of this internally, while the shot keeps locked on the Hero flying.) Eventually, the Hero overflies the plane, and he turns around, opens his parachute and glides towards the airplane. He finds the emergency door, but is worried that this will cause instant decompression of oxygen in the air and render all people in it unconscious. He hangs from the side of the plane to witness how far apart the emergency door is from the remaining plane, and noticing that it is on a separate cabinet, decides to risk it. With a slicing laser tool, he breaks into the plane.

 

Inside, he breaks into the main cabinets, where people already have their oxygen masks on. He reassures everybody that he's here to save them. He goes through economic class, and eventually, he encounters some of the hijackers, all of them appearing to be Arab men. The hijackers jump at the Hero, one of them trying to stab him with a knife. The Hero pulls out a shield and blocks every one of the shots, knocking them out eventually. The hijackers come back, and double team on the Hero, but the Hero manages to overpower them and take them out again, then pulling out cowboy-style lassoes and tying their hands together. He then slowly makes his way across other classes of the plane, until eventually, he reaches the cockpit, where the pilot happens to be a man he's familiar with: Chris King (Rami Malek). The Hero recognizes Chris, whom notices the Hero (or Jaeden) back. After a few seconds of contemplation, Chris jumps at the Hero, and the Hero counters by not trying to attack him, and rather just letting him swing and miss. Chris unleashes angrily at the Hero but none of his attempts hit, and eventually, the Hero catches Chris' arm, locks him in a hold and tries to choke him out. At the same time, he puts the plane, through luck, on autopilot. But Chris headbutts him and starts pounding away at the Hero. The Hero begs Chris to stop this, and Chris says he never will, regardless of whether or not he is his "brother". "Never forget what they did to mom!", he says. Chris then tries to get back control of the plane, in hopes to put it on a downward trajectory, but the Hero stops him. Eventually, the Hero tries to detain him, but Chris figures that his work here is done and the Hero can try to find out how to stop the plane himself - if he can. Chris runs off with a parachute. In his way, he finds the other terrorists tied down, and upon their requests for him to rescue them, he ignores them and leaves them to be. The Hero is left at cahoots with the plane, and decides to improvise based on his learnings from fighter planes, simulations and video games. He realizes that it's much, much different than any of these. But, something he hadn't noticed were the pilot and co-pilot. He realizes that the pilot is dead, having been stabbed by the terrorists, while the co-pilot is faking his unconsciousness and is actually awake. Together, the Hero and the co-pilot find out a way to get the plane safely landed on a nearby airport. The Hero's landing is particularly jarring, but despite almost overshooting, he manages to stop the plane half-decently, and everyone is both safe and alive. The Hero and the co-pilot hug, while all of the crew and passengers on-board, apart from the pilot and one or other who were assaulted, are alive. This is considered to be a miraculous rescue by the Hero and the USHA, and the Hero is yet again declared America's pride.

 

CHAPTER II
The Hostage

 

(This scene has visible cuts/edits.)

 

We cut to a flashback, when a younger Chris is visiting a grave, belonging to one Abigail King. He leaves flowers down on her grave, and wells up a bit. From behind, a younger Jaeden shows up, and hugs Chris. The two speak of how much they miss mom. Chris misses her so much. Jaeden, who was already working for the USHA, is also emotional at the loss of Abigail. He tries to tell Chris something, but he holds back. Chris says he will make those who killed her pay, whomever they may be. Jaeden looks at Chris with his conscience full. He looks down at Abigail's grave again.

 

We cut back to Jaeden, on his bed in the USHA plane, where it's noticeable that he was thinking about this. Goldfield shows up, asking him if he slept like a baby. Jaeden says that anytime he sleeps thinking about his family, he sleeps like a baby. Goldfield says he knows this very well, which is why he is keeping them very safe... for now. Jaeden is confused. Goldfield says that Jaeden did in fact succeed in rescuing the crew and passengers of the plane, save a few unfortunate casualties, but he didn't stop all of the terrorists. "The Egyptians said that there was one of them, their leader... he left them high and dry, jumped off the plane, God knows where. They say that he probably met you in the cockpit of the plane", he goes. Jaeden says that there was, in fact, one other terrorist, but he had overpowered him and managed to get away. Goldfield cackles, saying that it's literally impossible that a feeble human being would be able to overpower the Rocket "Goddamn" Hero, ironically asking him if that guy was a World's Strongest Man contender. Jaeden doesn't answer, so Goldfield figures he's lying. Goldfield then says that there was a fine detail about that man that the terrorists spoke of: he was American. Jaeden gulps, and doesn't look Goldfield in the eyes, until Goldfield asks him to do so. When he does, Goldfield tells him that just because this guy is from their country, doesn't mean he is one of them. "He's not a true American. He will never be a true American, so you better show his pathetic ass no mercy", he goes on. He threatens at last: "If you so let him escape one more time, ever again, I promise you: your family is not getting away from this clean." He leaves, and Jaeden is upset.

 

(We return to a sequence edited as a real time one-take shot.)

 

We cut to the Rocket Hero, in suit, getting ready for his next assignment. Goldfield tells him what it is: he has to parachute down to an Algerian open field, where the American man that hijacked the plane (Chris) is being held hostage. Goldfield says he was identified recently by "contacts" that they have down there, and that he is under hold by a bunch of thieves, who are trying to buy his rescue. Goldfield wants the Hero to go down there and retrieve the American, and if need be, no leaving any witnesses alive. "If they try to kill ya, shoot 'em", giving the Hero a pistol. "And if he tries to shoot you, don't hesitate in pulling the trigger - we want him, don't matter if dead or alive." The Hero asks if this is the Wild West, and Goldfield says it might as well be, so the Hero can call him the sheriff in town. Goldfield further explains that the reason why they want him is because, despite his color and ethnicity, he happens to have American citizenship, so the officials want to have him in custody. "Remember: no mercy. Or your family is blitzed out." Goldfield leaves.

 

After preparations, where he remains silent and stoic, the Hero is rocketed out. We see the full sequence of his daredevil fall toward Algerian soil. During the fall, he ruminates (and we listen to the dialogue in his head) about conversations he had with Janet about Chris. She asks him what happened to his brother Chris and Jaeden says he has no idea... he had gone missing shortly after Abigail had been killed. Janet asks him if he ever considered knowing anything about him and Jaeden says that  he thinks about his brother often, whether or not it's his whereabouts, how he's doing now or what caused him to leave, although he suspects the reason why. Janet asks if that would be their mother's death, Jaeden saying yes. Jaeden then says that everyday, he feels guilty over their mother's death, what he could have done to help and how he could've stopped Chris from ever losing it, but Janet tells him that it's not his fault, he just did the right thing. Jaeden then stumbles in his words, but admits he might have something to tell Janet, something he should've told her a long time ago. Janet asks what is it, but before we know, the Hero focuses on the mission and lands.

 

Upon landing, the Hero pulls out his pistol, but looks at it and prefers to use his shield and bare hands, Captain America-style (more because he just doesn't want to kill). He methodically approaches the basement where Chris is presumably being held hostage, under the brooding sunshine. He reaches the basement, and when asked if he is the negotiator for Chris, he says he is, on behalf of the United States of America. The ransomers let him in, and he encounters a damp building, with a dark atmosphere. He walks inside and there, he is greeted by a mysterious man, who says he is going to be the translator between the ransomers and the Rocket Hero. The Hero asks if he has any other choice, but before the translator answers, the Hero says it was a rhetorical question. The ransomers then show up with Chris tied up, his mouth taped. The Hero and Chris sit in front of each other on a table. The ransomers take the tape off Chris' mouth and ask the Hero where's the money. The Hero says the money comes after Chris is in the USHA's hands. The ransomer who holds Chris asks the Hero if he honestly thinks they will believe him and the Hero says that, as a real American, they have his word. Chris chuckles to himself. The Hero asks him what is it. Chris asks him to stop lying to these people. The ransomers point a gun to his mouth and tell him to shut up, but the Hero asks them, politely, to let him speak. The ransomers hold the gun down, and Chris starts monologuing about the Hero actually being his half-brother, Jaeden King. "The fact that you, a white man who's brother of an Arab-American and serves a white supremacy organization like the USHA, call yourself 'a real American' is Goddamn hilarious to me", Chris says. The Hero says that he can call out the USHA all he wants and he has a right to do it, but terrorism is not the solution. Chris replies that he may be a terrorist, but he's also an avenger. Chris then reveals the truth, that he's acting against Americans because of what Jaeden had told him shortly after their mother died: it was the USHA, the same organization Jaeden is working for as the Rocket Hero, who killed her, in a violent white supremacy protest where she showed up as an anti-protester and one of the USHA men rammed a truck against the anti-protesters, killing her. The Hero holds his emotions back and says that he told him this because he wanted him to know the truth, not because he wanted him to start exorting terrorism. Chris ironically apologizes, and asks him why he still works for them, since he knows damn well he can't stand them. The Hero stays quiet, still holding his emotions back. The ransomers then chime in and ask them if they're done with their family bonding, and ask for the money yet again, or they kill both Chris and the Hero right here and right now. The Hero says that they can kill Chris for all he cares, since his mission is to bring him either dead or alive - but if they think they're gonna kill him, they're very mistaken. Chris is appalled at the Hero's lack of care for his safety, but the ransomers laugh at the Hero's audacity. One of them says that they can get the money another way and takes the dare, pointing the gun at the Hero, but the Hero quickly flexes up his shield and protects himself. A firefight begins, with the ransomers trying to shoot down the Hero, but the Hero is quick to guard himself and knocks all of the ransomers down in hand-to-hand combat, one by one. The last one, however, is a brute, and has a machine gun. The Hero hides behind a pillar, and the brute is approaching. The Hero has no other choice than pull out his pistol and kill him, looking at it with trepidation. He gets ready to point it at the brute's head and shoot it, but before he does, Chris, who had grabbed one of the dead ransomer's guns despite being bound, shoots him in the head and kills him.

 

The only people left standing are the Hero, Chris and the translator. Chris demands the Hero to take off his mask and tell him, face to face, why he still works for the USHA after they killed their mother. The Hero faces him, reflective, ultimately saying that he never asked for Abigail to die and that he loved her just as much as Chris did. Chris dares the Hero to try to take him to them. The Hero doesn't hold back, but Chris gives him a fight, despite being much weaker than him. The Hero, somewhat hurt, stands over Chris, but Chris low blows him with a kick and grabs his pistol away, then points it at him. Chris doesn't want to shoot him, his hand shaking, but the Hero says that if he's going to do that, he better leave him dead, because he'd rather that than be alive to see his family be hurt. Chris doesn't understand this, and the Hero says that if he doesn't capture Chris, Janet, Richie and Tommy will all be written off existence by the USHA. Chris is shocked, but his surprise quickly fades away: "I shouldn't be surprised. We're talking about a bunch of Nazis. Are you surprised that they would take away your own family if you took away their version of America?" The Hero tries to surprise Chris, but Chris, instinctively, shoots him in the shoulder. The Hero is down, in pain, and Chris immediately regrets what he did, but in a moment of playing tough, says that he doesn't kill him because, deep down, he feels pity for him. Chris runs off. The Hero is miserable at himself, but the translator is quick to help him. The Hero thanks the translator's immediate assistance, who tapes his wound. However, the Hero notices that the translator had a speaker hidden underneath his suit all along - coming through that speaker is Goldfield's voice, who is telling him that he's nearly arriving. The Hero is shocked, asking the translator if he's working for the USHA, and the translator doesn't say a word. Eventually, Goldfield arrives down to the basement with back-up, but the Hero passes out from the pain.

 

CHAPTER III
The Chase

 

(Normal edits/cuts)

 

We fade to Jaeden in a medical bay, where he's being held. His shoulder is taped, and he's gonna stay put for a while until he recovers, which doesn't take too long. During his training to come back to form, he gets a visit from that soldier who greeted him earlier, asking him if the Hero is alright now. Jaeden asks him to call him by his name, and says he is. The soldier thanks Jaeden for letting him call him by his actual name, but he respects him enough to treat him as the Hero. The soldier knows that the last few days have been tough, but he wants to thank Jaeden for everything he's done for the USHA. Jaeden says that the soldier has no idea how much it hurts to be at the USHA, under the believe that you're serving your country and being honorable, but in reality, carrying a great burden with you that just makes you feel helpless sometimes. The soldier says that he doesn't feel helpless, but he understands how serving your country can sometimes cast a dark shadow over you. Jaeden asks him what he means. The soldier admits that once, he did something that was pretty bad, but in his mind, it was the right thing to do, to protect the soul of America. He explains that during a right-wing rally, he got into a truck and rammed someone, who ended up dying. Jaeden is shocked. The soldier says that a real American would never hold back in taking down any traitors to America's heart and soul. Holding himself back, he asks him what the soldier's name is, the soldier revealing it as Officer James Brown, and Jaeden's internal ruminations cast how he heard Officer James Brown considered guilty of the crime of murder of Abigail King, and shortly afterwards, the USHA bailed him out of jail for "good behavior outside of 'one bad skimp'". Jaeden angrily asks the soldier if he regrets what he did, and Brown says that, honestly, he doesn't, because the people who try to stand up to America are people who deserve to be put down like bad dogs. Jaeden slowly seems like he's about to walk out, but then, he turns back around and punches Brown in the face, and starts to beat him up. Brown is crying out, asking him why, and Jaeden doesn't hesitate in shouting that he killed his mother, leaving Brown, amidst the pain of the battering, stunned. Eventually, more USHA soldiers appear to try to stop Jaeden, but he pushes them all away, until one shoots a tranquilizer gun, and Jaeden passes out.

 

(Edited as real-time one-take shot)

 

 

Cut to Jaeden waking up with his Rocket Hero suit on, bound to the same upward bed from earlier in the film. Goldfield walks up to him, evidently pissed. The Hero is no less pissed than him, and Goldfield slaps him in the face. He's quite angry at the Hero, who tells him to call him Jaeden (and we will permanently call him as such from here on out), and Goldfield says he'll call him whatever the Hell he wants. Jaeden says that he calls him Jaeden King, son of Abigail King, the woman that his men murdered. Goldfield says he knows, thanks to the translator's great work, and that he now knows that Chris is his half-brother. "You're the brother of an Arab terrorist. It seems we were very wrong in believing you were a real American." Jaeden nods in wrath. Goldfield also says that Jaeden revealed to the terrorist that the USHA was behind the murder of their mother, making Jaeden a traitor. "The only reason I don't drop your ass in an Afghan pit is that you're still valuable to this association." Goldfield says that he's surprised it took him this long to revolt against the USHA, given how long it's been since it happened, and Jaeden says that he was under the impression that despite one bad egg, there were good people within the USHA, who believed in the greater good for America, but the fact that pretty much everyone in this plane, other than him, is racist scum, proves otherwise. Goldfield says he's not racist - "I even have Arab friends!" He just so happens to feel like America was too kind to the Middle East after 9/11. Goldfield says that either way, Jaeden has no choice but to obey them. Jaeden says the only reason he'll continue to work for them is because they have his family under watch, and Goldfield says that he doesn't need to worry about that anymore, since the reveal that Chris is his brother AND the fact that Jaeden let him escape again, for a second time in a row, even after Goldfield's warning, led to them taking... "security measures". Jaeden asks him what he means, and Goldfield says that they wrote Tommy out of existence. Jaeden says they're bluffing, Goldfield leaves the doubt in his head, daring him to try to find out what'll happen to all his family if he ever tries to one-up them regarding Chris. "You will bring that son of a bitch over us and if you try to be a good brother and save him again... I swear, you and your whole family will disappear off the face of God's green Earth." Jaeden tells him to fuck off and accuses him and everyone in this ship of murdering his mother. Goldfield smiles and says that his mission is to find Chris in an Algerian city, where he is presumably hiding, and bring him over to them. For security measures, they will be bringing Brown, the soldier Jaeden assaulted, with him, although he's not jumping in the same stylish way, Goldfield smugly quips. Jaeden is pissed and tries to break out of his bondage, but soon enough, he's been brought over to the rocket, where, still bound, he is put inside the Rocket. Brown, beat up, but ready, shows up at his side, and doesn't say a word, while Jaeden eyes him bad. Shortly afterwards, Brown jumps off the plane, and Jaeden is rocketed out afterwards.

 

During his fall, Jaeden ruminates about a voice message that he had sent Chris shortly after he went missing. Jaeden, sorrowfully, says that he's sorry for having broken to him about what had happened to mom, but he had to know. He knows that Chris likely won't forgive him for still working for the USHA, but he believes that he's doing something right. After sending it, Richie and Tommy both show up next to him, and ask him if he's doing okay. Jaeden says he is, just worried about their uncle. But he doesn't want them to worry, because everything is gonna be alright, for them and for uncle Chris. They hug.

 

Jaeden lands, and Brown lands a little further down. Brown finally opens conversation about what happened between the two of them, trying to apologize for having murdered Jaeden's mother, but Jaeden tells him to shut the Hell up. The two walk their way through the Algerian town, with plenty of people looking confused at two American military officers, one of them looking ridiculous in red, white and blue spandex and a rocket mask, going by. Brown tells the people not to worry, they are here representing official American diplomacies, while Jaeden stays silent. Jaeden then paces ahead, and thanks to initial coordinates given to him by the USHA, he quickly finds Chris, hiding in a basement. Chris is stunned that Jaeden found him yet again, and it seems this time, he has company. Chris jokes that Jaeden is not good enough at his job and needed help, and Jaeden says that he just wants Chris to come with him so that his family doesn't suffer anymore. Chris asks Jaeden how can he think that his family hasn't suffered enough already. He asks him one last time: "Why the Hell are you still working for those fascists who killed our mother?" Jaeden snaps and admits that it's because he thought he was being good to his country, putting America's interests over his own, allowing his mother to be sacrificed but recognizing that, deep down, the USHA meant good. "Being a 'real American'." He always knew that there was inherent racism in the organization, but he didn't wanna believe that it was ever going to bring the worst of Americans, besides that one tragic incident, given their historical track record of good deeds for America in which he was involved. Chris questions that, saying that Jaeden was likely tortured and experimented on by them, and his family is being held hostage, so they truly never cared about humanity - they just care about their political interests of "making America great again." Jaeden stares, as if he knows this. Brown asks Jaeden what's he waiting for, let's take this son of a bitch down, and Brown jumps at Chris. The two fight for a brief moment, but when it seems Brown has the upper hand, Jaeden turns him around and punches him hard, sending him flying across the room. Jaeden then tells Chris that Brown was the guy who killed their mother, shocking Chris. Brown says, down on the ground, that he did kill their mother, and he should've killed them too, calling Jaeden a traitor to America and Chris a terrorist who was willing to murder hundreds. Chris grabs Jaeden's pistol, which Jaeden allows him to have, and shoots Brown in the head, Jaeden not looking. Chris cries out after killing Brown. Jaeden says that he could have the USHA after him and his wife and sons, so he really needs to bring Chris in if things are to stay normal. Chris says he's only going dead, and they fight one last time. Jaeden ruminates over everything that's transpired while he fights Chris, but he recovers focus and takes Chris down for good. With his pistol pointed at Chris, who demands him to kill him, Jaeden says that with his family on the line and Chris having turned into a terrorist, he should. Chris says that's probably what "real Americans" do. Chris then closes his eyes, but Jaeden puts his gun down, and asks Chris to run as far away as he can, and never come back again. "If you ever try to kill innocent people again, I'll bring you to the law myself." They stare at each other and look as if they're about to head the other way, but turn back around and hug. They hug for a solid moment and then let go. They finally head their way.

 

Cut to black.

 

We fade in to a home in rural America. We see Janet and Richie's face for the first time. They're watching at home as the Rocket Hero is considered having betrayed the USHA and let terrorist Chris King escape. It is revealed that the Rocket Hero is actually Jaeden King, half-brother of Chris King, and that both men are in every federal and military organization's most wanted lists. We hear a knock on the door, Janet walks carefully to answer it. After looking through the door, she realizes that it's Jaeden. She opens the door, and she and Jaeden tearfully hug and kiss. Richie also comes back, and Jaeden emotionally embraces his son and wife. Jaeden says that they need to fly, far away, and to gather their things. Shortly afterwards, Jaeden realizes that Tommy is missing. Janet is unable to bring herself to words about it. Jaeden clenches his fists and face.

 

Edited by MCKillswitch123
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

XenobladeBanner.png

 

THE POWER OF THE MONADO

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Wes Ball

Genre: Sci-Fi/Adventure

Release Date: June 13th, Y9 (IMAX)

Theater Count: 3,850

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Violence and Peril

Budget: $150 Million

Runtime: 2 hr 01 min

Original Score Composers: Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli

 

Main Cast

Tom Holland as Shulk

Harris Dickinson as Reyn

Jessie Mei Li as Sharla

Phoebe Dyvenor as Fiora

Ben Barnes as Dunban

Ralph Fiennes as Dickson

Lennie James as Otharon

with Ralph Ineson as Xord*

and Willem Dafoe as Metal Face*

 

Minor Cast

Amir El-Masry as Gadolt

Maxim Baldry as Alvis

Pilou Asbæk as Mumkhar

 

* = denotes voice role

 

Logline

Shulk and others travel across locations grown on the dead titan Bionis in an effort to save his colony's citizens from being eaten alive by robotic beings known as Mechon.

 

Plot Summary (just shy of 3K)

Spoiler

The camera fades in and sweeps across an ocean, panning up to two gigantic titans in a never-ending battle—Bionis and Mechonis. Their size is massive, truly massive; their height pierces the stratosphere of their planet. A narrator explains that the titans have fought on this never-ending sea for millennia. They duel, and duel, and duel, until one day when their bodies become frozen like statues in the middle of their duel. Then life grows on the frozen bodies of the titans. Organic life forms grow on Bionis; this includes the Homs (who are practically identical to humans) as well as other intelligent life forms. But on Mechonis… Only mechanical beings known as Mechons come from there. And in this day and age, the Homs and the Mechons are at war with one another, with the Mechons steadily advancing through the land on Bionis!

 

We transition to a battle against Hom soldiers and Mechons, with Mechons gaining the upper hand against the Homs. The Homs try to use guns and other weapons against the Mechons, but all of their weapons fail against the Mechon. Dunban (Barnes), Dickson (Fiennes), and Mumkhar (Asbæk) hide behind a rock and discuss what they’re going to do against the Mechon. It looks hopeless—but with the weapon Dunban’s holding, a red laser sword called the Monado, they have a fighting chance! Dunban leaps out and starts using the Monado to defeat many of the Mechons. At one point, Dickson leaps out and takes a hit for Dunban, but he’s very much still alive. Meanwhile, Mumkhar tries to desert them, but he runs into a group of Mechons, and he screams as their red lasers point at him…

 

Dunban uses his sheer willpower to keep the Monado under control. Brandishing the Monado, he runs into a crowd of Mechon. The camera follows a dragon-like “Telethia” as it flies over the battle and flies through shadowy locations on Bionis as the sun’s white light takes over the image.

 

We fade to a blue sky. One Year Later appears, followed by Colony 9 - Bionis’s Right Calf. 

 

Shulk (Holland) lies down in a patch of green grass. A curious fellow, he notices a rock and gets up to look at it. Reyn (Dickinson) runs in and tells him to look out. Shulk jumps back as a crabble stands up (the rock was actually a shell). They defeat the crabble (Shulk using a wooden sword and Reyn using a giant gunblade), and Shulk thanks Reyn for the heads up.

 

They travel back to the main village of Colony 9, where more Homs live. Nopon (a species of small fluffy round things that speak broken English) also inhabit the town. Reyn’s break is over, so he heads back to the colony’s defense force. Shulk, a weapons developer, reports directly to a laboratory and observes the Monado with Dickson. We learn from this scene that the Monado is the open weapon that can make a dent in Mechon armor and that the weapon goes out of control when someone tries to wield it. Shulk’s current goal is to find a way to control the Monado.

 

We cut to Dunban’s house in Colony 9. Dunban lies in his bed, and his younger sister Fiora (Dynevor) brings him a bowl of stew. We learn that Dunban had controlled the Monado out of sheer willpower at the cost of losing his right arm to paralysis. Fiora is about to go find Shulk and eat lunch with him. She wishes Dunban to get well soon as she leaves. Dunban tries to use his right hand to eat, but he drops the spoon and sighs.

 

Shulk and Fiora meet each other at a bench in Outlook Park, which overlooks the town. They eat sandwiches and talk about their friendship, as they’ve known each other since childhood. Fiora wants to see the Monado, so Shulk agrees to sneak her into the laboratory.

 

They go to the lab and find havoc, as Reyn has grabbed the Monado—the sword drags him around the room, and he destroys equipment by accident. He also hits Fiora and knocks her back (though the Monado doesn’t injure humans). Shulk takes the sword from Reyn... Zoom in on Shulk’s pupil, and we cut to a vision—shots of future events in the story, events Shulk can’t recognize yet. Amazed, Shulk drops the sword and huffs. They ask each other if they’re okay. Shulk chastises Reyn for trying to grab the sword because he could have damaged the Monado. Fiora expresses her anger that Shulk is more worried about the weapon than he is about her. Reyn reveals that he came to the lab to ask Shulk to accompany him to Tephra Cave so they can gather Ether Cylinders and bring them to refuel the colony’s mobile artillery unit. (In this world, ether is an energy source.) Shulk, Reyn, and Fiora resolve to go there together.

 

Night falls. We get scenes of Shulk, Reyn, and Fiora traveling through Tephra Cave, defeating monsters, and obtaining ether cylinders. But then… Rumbling can be felt from outside. They exit the cave and look up at the sky as Mechon invade Colony 9. The Mechon destroy the military’s means of defense and start snatching civilians, kidnapping a whole bunch of them. Reyn swears vengeance on his fallen comrades before they head back to the colony. The trio runs through the town in a mad dash to get to the Monado (though Fiora breaks off to go refuel the mobile artillery unit, believing it’ll be of help). Shulk and Reyn see that the entrance to the lab is blocked by debris. They get surrounded by Mechon, and it looks grim… Then Dunban appears with the Monado in hand, as he’s unearthed more willpower to fight with the Monado once more. He takes out waves of Mechon in front of Shulk and Reyn.

 

They head to the main entrance, but Dunban becomes immobilized by sudden pain. He drops the Monado and collapses just as they get surrounded by more Mechon. With no options, Shulk picks up the Monado in an attempt to wield it. Not only can he wield it without pain, but the sword gives him a premonition of a Mechon laser firing at them. With knowledge of the future, Shulk deflects the laser and uses the Monado to slay the Mechon.

 

Shulk and Reyn help Dunban up, and they carry him together. Seeing that most of the Mechon have left, they travel the residential district and try to get him back to his house. But they are stopped by a Faced Mechon known as Metal Face (Dafoe), who miraculously knows how to speak English. They find out that the Monado doesn’t have any effect on a Faced Mechon such as Metal Face.

 

Metal Face knocks them and goes in for the kill. Then Fiora shows up to join the fight; she’s operating the mobile artillery unit (think P-5000 Powered Work Loader). Fiora blasts Metal Face back, diverting his attention to her. Shulk then sees a premonition of Metal Face killing Fiora. Shulk yells at Fiora, telling her not to fight, but Fiora refuses to back down, rushing in and using the artillery unit to fire machine gun bullets at Metal Face. The bullets actually make a dent in his face! But Metal Face fires a laser from his eyes and knocks the unit back. Then he grabs the unit, slams it against a wall, and uses his claws to stab and ultimately kill Fiora. Shulk vows revenge on Metal Face and tries to kill him, but Metal Face escapes with Fiora’s body.

 

After a brief funeral for everyone who died during the chaos, Shulk talks with Dunban and Dickson in Dunban’s room. Dickson believes that the Mechons are most likely taking the kidnapped people to a captured mine in Colony 6. Shulk fights through the emotional pain of losing Fiora, but Dunban tells him to “treasure the gift of life that Fiora has given him.” Then Shulk and Reyn head out to find and rescue the citizens, as well as to fulfill their desires for vengeance. Shulk vows to change the future. Dunban stays behind to heal, but watches them from a window in his house and wishes them luck.

 

Shulk and Reyn through another part of Tephra Cave (the rocks have a dark blue glow to them). They believe this new path will get them to where they need to go. Then Shulk gets a premonition of giant spiders surrounding and killing Reyn in a webbed area but decides not to tell Reyn so as not to worry him. They walk further through the cave, and suddenly, a white webby substance wraps around Reyn and pulls him through the cave’s ceiling. Shulk rushes past an oasis in the middle of the cave, past some beautiful wildlife, until he finally reaches the spider’s nest, where Reyn is getting surrounded. Just before the spider shoves its leg through Reyn’s chest, Shulk activates the shield function of the Monado and covers Reyn with a yellow energy shield. Shulk and Reyn proceed to defeat the spiders.

 

They find an exit and enter a beautiful grassy landscape known as the Gaur Plain, where a lot of monsters reside. They see smoke in the distance and head to the smoke, finding a destroyed buggy. Shulk touches it and gets a vision of a young boy being chased by monsters on the plain. Shulk and Reyn proceed through the plain and find Juju, a young boy who is indeed being chased by monsters. Shulk and Reyn defeat the monsters.

 

Shulk fixes Juju’s buggy, and Juju gives them a ride to his camp, which is hidden in an encampment of Homs that’s surrounded by rocky walls. Shulk and Reyn meet Sharla (Li), who is Juju’s older sister as well as a trained medic. Sharla sees Reyn’s defense force uniform and asks him if he knows where Gadolt, her lover, is. Shulk clarifies that they’re from Colony 9, not Colony 6. Sharla agrees to let Shulk and Reyn rest in the encampment.

 

During the night, Shulk and Reyn go to talk with Sharla, who reveals that her encampment is the last of the Colony 6 citizens. They had to flee Colony 6 a month ago due to Mechon attacks. Sharla believes that Gadolt and a Colony 6 tactician, Otharon, are among the few people still hiding in Colony 6 and fighting against the Mechon. Shulk and Reyn say that they’re headed to Colony 6 to rescue Colony 9 citizens that may have been taken there. Sharla decides that she wants to go with them. Juju overheard them, and he comes out telling them he wants to join them, but Sharla refuses to let him tag along. He runs off, gets in his buggy, and drives off into the plain, forcing Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla to follow him on foot.

 

We cut to the mines of Colony 6 where Mechon have surrounded the kidnapped people from Colony 9. The Mechon pull a citizen out from the group and feeds him to a machine; the man is eaten alive in front of everyone. Otharon (James) watches from afar with a pair of binoculars; he looks down mournfully, not believing he can do anything to stop the Mechons. He sneaks away…

 

Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla find Juju in Spiral Valley, an area past the plain, but Shulk gets a vision of a tentacle Mechon. Sure enough, a tentacle Mechon bursts from the ground and grabs Juju. The group defeats the tentacle monster in an intense struggle, aided by Shulk using the Monado to give everyone the temporary ability to run faster. Sharla helps by using her sniper rifle to shoot bullets, and she also shoots healing lasers at Shulk and Reyn from time to time. They think they’re safe until Shulk tells everyone that he saw another Mechon in his vision. It’s Xord (Ineson), another Faced Mechon who appears hovering in the sky. Xord is bulkier and rounder than Metal Face, and the lights coming from within his body are red in color. Cord tries to kill everyone (with the heroes fighting back) until the light from his body turns green. Then Xord kidnaps Juju and heads off toward Colony 6. Sharla, distraught after seeing Juju being kidnapped, faints, and the others take her back to the encampment.

 

They all get rest, and Sharla wakes up from a nightmare about Juju dying. (We saw flashes of that dream; Gadolt (Masry) was also shown in the dream.) Shulk and Reyn assure Sharla that they will help get Juju back. “We’ll save him,” says Shulk. “I’m really feeling it!” They leave the encampment and travel past Gaur Plain and Spiral Valley, reaching the Colony 6 entrance at the upper level of Bionis’s leg. Sadly, the entrance is guarded by Mechon, forcing them to travel through the mines.

 

They travel through the mines (the rock walls are a darker purple-ish color), and they run into Otharon. Otharon reveals that Gadolt disappeared after a failed surprise attack. We cut to flashes of Gadolt promising Sharla that he will find her, and we cut back to the present as Sharla breaks down. Reyn comforts Sharla, and Shulk suddenly gets a vision of Otharon shooting Xord in a mobile artillery and falling into a pool of liquid ether. Shulk tries to warn Otharon, but Otharon doesn’t believe him. Believing that they are the key to freeing the captive Colony 9 citizens, Otharon impatiently goes ahead.

 

The trio finds a Nopon vendor, who is selling brand new items, and they decide to stock up on gear that will help them out during the battle to come. When Reyn finishes getting his gear, he pounds his fists together and says, “now it’s Reyn time!”

 

After fighting a lot of Mechon, they get to the base of the Mechon and destroy the machine that the Mechon were feeding with the citizens. They free the citizens from their cages. Sharla looks for Juju but cannot find him. Then Xord appears and taunts them, and he reveals a levitating diamond-shaped force field; Juju is trapped inside of the force field, and he’s unconscious. (Xord’s monologue is intercut with Otharon making his way near the base and overhearing everything.)

 

The trio fights Xord, but Xord is too powerful to beat. Then Otharon appears in the mobile artillery and shoots Xord. The force of the artillery’s bullets knocks Xord backward toward the pool of liquid ether (a steaming green lake in which Xord would surely disintegrate). Shulk remembers this from his vision and quickly tells Reyn and Sharla about a plan to save Otharon.

 

Otharon shoots Xord enough so that he falls off his platform. Unfortunately, due to where he was positioned, Otharon falls off his own platform. Shulk maneuvers a mobile crane, and Sharla yells for Otharon to jump out of the artillery unit. Otharon leaps out and tries to land on the crane, but he’s just shy of making it. Reyn catches him just in time, as he ran on the crane onto the crane to catch him while he was falling. Xord finally lands in the ether, and he screams and splashes around as he sinks below the surface.

 

Juju’s force field fades away, and he falls to the ground. Sharla catches him, and he wakes up and embraces Sharla. Otharon sees that Shulk’s vision was right, and he apologizes for not believing him. The trio corales all the citizens onto an elevator (a very wide, very open platform) where they will get out of the mine and head back to Sharla’s refugee camp. But while the elevator slowly ascends upwards diagonally to the surface, Xord reappears, scales the elevator shaft, and makes it onto the platform. Xord is severely damaged, but is hungry for the deaths of the Homs who outsmarted him. His armor being corroded by the ether means that he is defeated easily by the trio. Just before Xord dies, he tells Shulk “you remind me of the time when I…” Shulk demands that he answer, but Xord closes with “You have yet to unlock the full power of the Monado.” Then Xord falls down the elevator shaft and explodes.

 

The elevator reaches the top. Everyone spills out onto the grass, and they rejoice that they’re alive. Then everyone panics as a horde of Faced Mechons shows up; this includes Metal Face. Shulk brandishes the Monado and stands in front of everyone. The Mechons know that Xord is dead; fearing the Monado’s power and not wanting to lose any more of their numbers, they retreat. Shulk calls them cowards and chastises Metal Face for killing Fiora, swearing that he will get revenge one day.

 

Everyone asks each other what they’re going to do now. Sharla offers to lead everyone back to her refugee camp, but many of the Colony 9 citizens are scared since the world outside the colonies is full of monsters. Shulk walks to the front of the pack. He looks back at the people and tells them to follow him. Reyn is the first one to follow, and everyone else follows suit. As the mass of people follows the heroes, the Telethia from the beginning of the film flies higher up Bionis’s body and flies in front of a young man who sits over a cliff. This is Alvis (Baldry). He pets the Telethia’s head. “You did well,” he says. “But what of the boy?” The dragon grunts. Alvis says, “I see… There is much to be done.”

 

The camera dollies out from Alvis and the Telethia. A series of shots fade in and out, going farther and farther from Alvis until finally, we get one last shot of Bionis and Mechonis as they remain frozen. Cut to black.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites



AeroMobil: The Future Is Now

Studio Groundswell

Directors: Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer

Genre: Documentary

Release Date: May 16th, Y9

Theater Count: 2,115

MPAA Rating: PG for Thematic Elements and Peril

Budget: $5 million

Runtime: 91 minutes

 

Plot Summary

AeroMobil: The Future Is Now tracks Slovakian company AeroMobil and its development of the world's first functioning flying car. The documentarians tell the history of the company and its founders and discuss the development of the cars in relation to past attempts to develop flying cars, the history of Slovakia and what AeroMobil means to the country. The first flight of their supercar took place in 2014, and the cars have gained more publicity in the past few months, have been greenlit for flight by the Slovak Transport Authority, and have entered mass production. The documentary has a hopeful tone, with many nods to visions of flying cars from visual media's past, and ultimately states that the arrival of flying cars means that we have finally entered the future, and in the future, who knows what else is possible?

 

(Images of the car:)

Spoiler

1920x1080_cmsv2_6c14752e-81a2-5e2d-8135-

 

76cb1f2008a07f04b31d6699964f173af497c2ff

 

58107651_303.jpg

 

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shadow of the Comet

 

Studio: Fossil Record Animation

Director: Harold Kingsley

Genre: Action, Science-Fiction

Release Date: April 25th Y9

Rating: PG-13 for language, violence

Budget: $25 Million

Runtime: 2 hr 25 min

Format: hand-drawn animation

Theater Count: 2,086

 

Main Cast:

Samuel L. Jackson as Lee Richards

Janet Maheswaran* as Valerie Acharya

John Wilkins* as Michael Schwartz

Peter David Meyers* as Ian Seymour

Andrew Harrow* as Joseph "Big Joe" Creed


Summary:

Spoiler

The film opens on a monologue by protagonist Lee Richards, describing how humanity always considered itself invincible, but was unable to survive the destructive force of nature. This occurs against a backdrop of a comet in space, which is then shown colliding with Earth. Cities are destroyed, clouds of black smoke and dust fill the air. All of this fades out to reveal it is a flashback, and Lee is in fact walking through a devastated North Carolina landscape (the ruins of Charlotte can be seen in the background). 

 

The title is then shown

 

We see a montage of Richards' travels during the opening credits, during which he is barely eking out an existence. No other humans are to be seen. At various times, we focus on a NASA logo on Richards's clothing. 

 

The story proper starts with Richards unsuccessfully attempting to build a fire and cook something over it, when he is distracted by a sound coming from a nearby thicket of dead vegetation. Turning to investigate, he discovers that the source of the sound is another man. The new man does not introduce himself, but instead accosts Richards, who in turn demands to know where he came from and what he wants. 

 

The new man remains cryptic and cagey, but tells Richards he is looking for a place where he believes that his family have survived the disaster that seems to have wiped out the rest of humanity. Gradually, through their conversation, more details of the backstory are revealed. Richards explains that he was a former NASA astronaut on a space mission to deflect the incoming comet with a nuclear bomb. The mission failed, but he was inexplicably one of the few-- if not the only-- people to survive the impact. Richards agrees to help the new man find what he is looking for, but privately distrusts him. 

 

Richards and the new man-- who eventually reveals that his name is Michael Schwartz, and that he is a former firefighter-- arrive at what appears to be an impromptu refugee colony of other people who have survived the impact. Upon his arrival, Richards is captured and interrogated by a group of armed thugs, who seemingly act as the colony's makeshift police force. He is freed, however, by Valerie Acharya, a former mathematics professor who had arrived in the colony several weeks beforehand. Acharya claims that, based on her calculations, the colony is inherently unstable, and this will eventually lead to its collapse. The refugees in the colony also whisper of an "Ark", the nature of which is not elaborated upon.

 

Richards and Schwartz seek an audience with Ian Seymour, a billionaire survivor who exudes an outsized influence over the rest of the survivors in the colony. Seymour comes off as welcoming and friendly, and apologizes-- in a surprisingly sincere manner-- for how his "supporters" acted towards Richards. Richards, however, isn't convinced, and when he is alone with Schwartz, he tells him that he believes Seymour is going to be bad news for the colony. The very next day, Seymour makes a public speech to the rest of the refugee colony, claiming that humanity can "rise again" and will experience a "new golden age". The majority of people in the colony are thrilled by this, and, buoyed by this popularity, Seymour asserts himself as the leader of the colony. 

 

After witnessing this, Richards and Schwartz speak to Acharya again. She explains that she specializes in chaos theory-- the study of things that are inherently unstable and unpredictable. In other words, the exact opposite of Richards's work as an astrophysicist, which focused on very predictable things such as the orbits of satellites and planets. Using the failed mission to deflect the comet as an example, she points out how a complex system never stays stable for long, and why she was worried about the refugee colony. Schwartz asks Acharya if there is any other way for civilization to survive. Hess says she doesn't know. 

 

As the days go by, food and water become ever scarcer in the refugee colony, and Seymour declares that the solution to this is to steal from the other refugee colonies. To that end, he sends his armed supporters--now organized into a militia-- on raids into nearby refuges, where they kill the inhabitants and take their supplies. Lynchings and beatings of survivors who disagree with Seymour become common as well. Meanwhile, Richards, Schwartz, and Acharya decide it is no longer safe in the refugee colony, and make plans to escape. 

 

That night, the three of them sneak out of the refugee colony, only for Schwartz to suddenly confront Richards about how everything from the comet collision to them ending up in a tyrannical refugee colony was his fault. Richards attempts to defend himself, saying he couldn't have predicted any of that, only to realize that Acharya's chaos theory is more true than he gave it credit for being. He asks if either of them blame him for the failure of the comet deflection mission, but they both say they do not. 

 

They arrive the next day at a neighboring refugee colony called New Asheville, where they are greeted by Schwartz's family. Richards recognizes that resources are still poor, but refuses to stoop to Seymour's level of raiding other refugees. He does, however, ask Acharya about the "Ark". She assumes it to be some kind of underground bunker that would have allowed a certain number of people to survive the impact. Richards, however, is unconvinced, and believes it to be something more. He decides to investigate.  During one of his routine explorations of the colony, he discovers a metal door in the ground. The door opens, leading to what seems to be a long mine shaft. He climbs down it, only for it to be revealed that it isn't a mine shaft at all, but something much stranger. 

 

Meanwhile, Seymour's militia are preparing to mount an attack on New Asheville. Seymour declares that it is a matter of pride, not simply of gaining more resources, and that they must be destroyed at all costs. Many of them are well-armed now, with makeshift spears, axes, and a few even have guns. They begin marching towards New Asheville, clearly intending to wipe them out. 

 

As Seymour's militia arrives in New Asheville, Acharya and Schwartz attempt to rally the inhabitants to fight, while Richard continues to investigate the tunnels he has discovered. It turns out the tunnels lead to a huge underground base of some kind, which has been sheltered from the impact, but is completely unoccupied. Richards tries to turn on a computer, but it doesn't work. Instead, he picks up a book, and then slowly looks up, realizing that what he sees illustrated in it is sitting directly in front of him. The underground base is in fact a bunker for a gigantic spacecraft, built before the impact as a last-ditch effort to evacuate Earth. This is the "Ark" he heard about.

 

Richards returns to the surface with this news, only to discover that Seymour's militia is already attacking New Asheville. Many of the refugees then proceed to follow him, Acharya, and Schwartz towards the Ark; Schwartz attempts to hold off the attacking militia but is killed. Once on board the Ark, Seymour confronts Richards directly on the catwalk overlooking the spacecraft, and is about to push him over the edge. Before he can do it, though, he is suddenly seized from behind and thrown down the launch silo by his own bodyguard Big Joe, who angrily declares that Seymour is the reason his brother died. 

 

Richards and Acharya escort the survivors onto the Ark-- which he christens the Michael Schwartz, after his deceased friend-- and prepares the giant spacecraft for launch. The scene then zooms out to reveal the spacecraft rising from its launch silo on a column of nuclear fire, ascending into orbit with the last of the human race on board. As the spacecraft recedes into the sky, Richards gives another monologue, against a backdrop of outer space. This time, he talks about the inherent corruptibility of human society, and whether it will ever be possible to overcome it. He says he doesn't know. 

 

The scene then fades to black, and the credits roll.

 

Edited by El Squibbonator
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



THE BOY WHO HATED BOOKS

 

Based OnO Menino Que Não Gostava de Ler (or Papirofobia: Leopoldo e a Montanha de Livros), by Susanna Tamaro

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment

Director: Thea Sharrock

 

Genre: Family/Drama

Release Date: April 18th Y9
Theater Count: 3356

Rating: PG, for several scenes of peril and strong thematic content 

Format: 2D

Budget: $42 million

Runtime: 89 minutes (1 hour and 29 minutes)

 

Cast:

- Archie Yates as Leopold

- Vicky Kreips as Mum

- Tom Hiddleston as Dad

- Delroy Lindo as the Old Man

 

Plot:

 

Spoiler

Fade into waves crashing on a beach. On that beach, a young boy with glasses named Leopold (Archie Yates) is looking at the sunset. His eyes are watery, but his expression is stoic. In his hand is a book called “The Tramp in the Stars.” We start to hear in the background a birthday party.

 

24 Hours Earlier

 

 

Cut to said birthday party: it's Leopold's 8th anniversary. Mum (Vicky Kreips) and Dad (Tom Hiddleston) are gleefully singing him happy birthday. Leopold claps along and blows the candles. Mum kisses Leopold in the cheek and Dad gives him a good ol' hug. Mum asks Leopold to make a wish, Leopold closes his eyes and does. Dad asks Leopold to reveal his wish but Leopold refuses, as it only works if it's a secret. Mum then says that it's about time they gave Leopold his gift. Dad brings the gift and, eyeing the shape, Leopold gulps. Mum excitedly asks him to open the gift. Leopold unwraps the package: it's a small collection of books. Leopold is not pleased.

 

 

THE BOY WHO HATED BOOKS

 

 

Dad shouts "Yay!" while Mum jumps around goofily. Leopold, however, is pretty unsatisfied, looking down at the floor with sadness in his expression. Dad asks what's wrong. Leopold asks Mum and Dad if they don't tire of giving him the same thing over and over and over again. Mum rolls her eyes, saying Leopold has to start reading books at any point now. Leopold complains that every single time they buy him something, it's books. They already have shelves stockpiled with books, plenty of them bought for him, when he never liked to read. When all of his friends go out on camping holidays, or to the beach, or the river, and when their parents buy them something, it's things like brand new high fashion sneakers, like the High Starr ones he really wants. Mum is uninterested in Leopold's complaining. When he asks her why is it necessary for him to read, she says that he has to read to become a cult and intelligent person, just like her, or Dad. Dad, put on the spot, says he reads because it's good for his health or, err, good for learning things about worlds he never visited, or things like that. Mum makes a puppy face and tries to make Leopold read his new book, which is apparently an adventure book about a pirate traversing the Atlantic Ocean to find a hidden treasure. Leopold tries opening the book, but all he sees - and all we see - is letters dancing around like letter soup. He becomes anxious and drops the book. Mum is shocked, while Dad calmly tries to get Leopold to read the book again, but Leopold says he can't and starts crying. Mum and Dad look at each other worried.

 

 

The next day, Mum walks to work. She works as a librarian in a place that’s relatively close to the family’s home. At work, she meets a close friend of hers and Dad's, a psychologist and she convinces him to help them out with Leopold, since she trusts him better than any other doctors she knows. The friend hesitantly agrees. Dad is snoring on his couch, halfway through a book. He jolts up when he hears a call from Mum, who's asking him if he's available tomorrow to go with Leopold to meet their friend. She says it’s gotta be him - he knows she doesn’t really like going out to the city. Dad sighs and says he is. Meanwhile, Leopold is in school. During class, he is asked to read something out loud and everytime he is, he struggles with the dancing letters. The other children assume that he's taunting the professor and laugh. The teacher does not take Leopold's "mocking" lightly and berates him in public. Later in the day, Leopold has a written text. Leopold is nervous because he's been seeing letters mop around like never before, but a friend reassures him by saying that he's never had bad results in school. Sure enough, cut to the next shot, after the written test was completed and Leopold barely got a positive result, the teacher claiming that his writings were messy and barely legible. Leopold, frustrated, is led to tears. After school, he tells Mum in the car that his test result wasn't great and Mum is upset, but quickly cheers up as she tells Leopold that the next day, they will be seeing their psychologist friend. Mum says that Leopold got his glasses because he couldn't read very well in his early years and she doesn't understand why the problem wasn't fixed already. Leopold doesn't understand it either.

 

 

We cut to Dad, bored, looking at his phone, while Leopold is paying attention to the psychologist friend. The psychologist tells him that it's very likely that he has something called "papyrophobia" - fear of paper or, in this case, fear of books. Leopold is confused, but the psychologist tells him that he simply has to cut down on video games and television. Leopold wants to object, but Dad suddenly wakes up and says that he will make sure Leopold will lose the effect of those bad things. Shortly after, at home, Mum says that this papyrophobia thing needs to be corrected as soon as possible. Leopold says he has no video games at all and Mum says that he must play at school with his friends, little enough to affect his vision and fears. The boy also says that he barely watches television nowadays, but Mum says the little he sees must not be doing him right. She decides to unplug the television from his bedroom and cover it under a blanket with a lock and chain on it to keep it from being taken off. Leopold is shocked. At dinner, Mum asks Dad if he has any say on this and Dad, surprised, says that he will, umm, come up with a "therapeutic solution" for this papyrophobia. He says that by Leopold's age, he had already read half his height in physical books sized up and on his current age, he's read books many, many times his size, so Leopold must be "brought over softly", going from half a book on one session, to one book on another, to maybe two books and so on, until he's become an avid reader. Leopold is hesitant to start this therapy, while Mum is excited.

 

 

At night, Leopold is dreaming about a beast made entirely of books. In his book, the beast runs after him and when it reaches him, it opens its “mouth” (a book), where letters come out of it. The letters are blurry and hard to make anything off. They form a word that Leopold vaguely recognizes as his name, but once they start forming a phrase, (we shift to Leopold’s POV) they become increasingly imperceptible. Leopold has his glasses on and asks why they won’t do anything to help him. The letters do a weird cult-like dance and then grow larger in size, as they approach Leopold. Leopold screams - then, he wakes up on a jolt. Breathing in and out hard, he looks hard at his bedroom, full of shelves littered with books and looks with affirmation forward. He then lays down again, looking pensive. 

 

 

The next morning, he quickly packs his things up in a backpack, dresses up very casually and gets out of the house at around 6:30 AM, before either Mum or Dad are awake. Dad snores loudly, but Mum overheard something. Leopold makes a run for it outside and ends up on a bus, which leads to the center of the town. Mum gets up, startling Dad awake. She visits Leopold’s bedroom and realizes he left. She starts calling for him around the house and doesn’t find him anywhere. She panics, as Dad too realizes what’s going on. Dad runs outside, almost tripping on his way out. On the street, he realizes Leopold is nowhere to be seen. Mum starts crying and asks Dad to call the police, but Dad, looking sideways, says maybe Leopold just went to school early - this is a school day after all. Mum says Dad just wants to go back to bed and him a lazy, self-centered bum, while Dad, using his best (but still weak) energy, tells Mum that she is too scaredy to drive out to find their son. Mum says she’s not, but when Dad challenges her to drive, she refuses. Dad says they’ll drive later, when the sky is clear blue, but Mum wants something to be done asap, since for all they know, Leopold might’ve been kidnapped. Dad stands there, without really knowing what to do.

 

 

Leopold, meanwhile, is in the center of the city. He passes by a closed shopping mall, where he sees the High Starr sneakers he so desperately wanted. He imagines parents buying them for their kids and turns around calling for Mum, but then he realizes he’s alone. He silently weeps. His despair draws the attention of locals passing by, who ask him where his parents are. He says he doesn’t know. When a guy who went out for jogging asks to call his parents, he says he lost his phone and doesn’t know his parents’ number by memory - we cut to a pan shot of the phone buried underneath trash in a trash can nearby. The phone starts vibrating, as “Mum” is ringing. Leopold lies to the jogger, saying he went out shopping with his parents, but the jogger says that it’s way too early to shop and it’s a school day, so Leopold should be getting ready to go to school. The jogger says he’s never seen Leopold around here anyway, so he suspects Leopold must be from another part of the city. He makes a call, but after he’s turned around, Leopold has run away. He runs after the kid, but Leopold hides behind some trees in a public park. Having managed to drive the jogger away, he then notices a bench. He approaches it, only to realize that there’s an old man (Delroy Lindo) sitting on that bench. He then notices the old man wearing black glasses and suspects he’s blind, so he tries to approach the bench silently as for the man not to disturb him. However, as he gets there, the old man asks who it is that’s out there. Leopold tries to stay silent, but the old man knows someone’s there and asks them not to shy away. Leopold reveals himself and the Old Man is surprised that it’s just a young boy. Leopold asks him not to judge him. The Old Man asks Leopold if he ran away from his house. Leopold is taken by surprise and stumbles into saying he did, which encourages the Old Man to reveal that he knows a kid who’s ran away from home, since he ran away from home himself. Leopold is shocked.

 

 

Mum is trying hard to call Leopold, but he won’t answer. She is really anxious now. She yells at Dad, for why he is falling asleep on the couch. Dad jolts back up awake and apologizes, but says that he’s afraid bringing in the police will create a media storm. Mum says she’d rather that than drive around the city to find her boy, especially since it’s the police’s job to find Leopold. Dad, admitting he’s afraid they will draw national attention, finally relents and says that he will drive, even if he’s super sleepy right now. Mum asks him why he is so sleepy all the time if he takes long naps and sleeps enough hours, but Dad says he doesn’t know, it’s just inherent. Dad then retorts and asks Mum why she is so afraid of driving. Mum admits… uncomfort in cars. When Dad gets on the wheel and Mum sits down, Mum shows a face of slight anxiousness. Dad asks Mum if this is why the only car they use on holidays is a cab and then they use public transport; Mum says this is part of the reason, the other being that cars are bad for the environment. Dad doesn’t disagree there, but whispers that this will have to do for now. The car speeds off the house.

 

 

The Old Man shares stories with Leopold, stories of when he was a homeless person. He was very sad and lonely at home, so he decided to head out. Leopold asks him where he slept and the Old Man reveals that, despite not being very tall, he embarked on a sailboat, which wows Leopold. The Old Man then sits down and tells Leopold some of his life story: he had lapped the world around eighteen times and plenty of wonderful things had happened during that time. (We get shots where we see the Old Man doing what he says) He had seen whales of many different colors and kinds; fought the pirates in Malaysia and in the South China Sea, having escaped one of them by jumping and grabbing onto a trunk, on which he had washed ashore on a volcanic island lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; in that island, he had met wild people so tiny that they fit on the palm of his hand. Those locals elected him as the king of the island; yet still, he chose to leave the island eventually, hopping on the back of a dolphin, and traveling all the way to another island, where he had met a beautiful princess. He fell in love with her, but found out the day before they married that if he had married her, she would’ve transformed him into a pig because she was actually a witch. So, he jumped into the sea and swam until he reached a transatlantic cruise ship that was traveling West. From there, he visited Crimea, hopped on a horse and crossed the entirety of Russia and Siberia. One fateful morning, the event that made him blind happened. (Leopold, back in the present time, is completely into the story and is taken aback, but darkly curious to find out how the Old Man became blind.) The Old Man says it happened in Mongolia: a tribe of rebels took sight away from him with an incandescent sword flashing rays into his eyes. (We return to the present.) Leopold says that must’ve been scary, which the Old Man agrees with, but the Old Man says he regrets none of it. The Old Man then sighs to the floor, his hands shaking just a tiny little bit. Leopold notices this and asks the Old Man what is wrong. The Old Man says that deep down, he doesn’t quite know how to feel as his time has passed and life took much away from him. Leopold asks him if he is scared, the Old Man doesn’t directly reply other than turning his head around.

 

 

The Old Man then says that if there is one thing he doesn’t regret, it is that he never found out how a certain book ended. A book titled “The Tramp in the Stars.” It was the story of a man unfairly held in prison. Held in chains and in the dark, the prisoner then started utilizing his imagination as a form of going back in time and living the lives of people in distinct periods of history. It was, according to the Old Man, a fascinating story. One that he never got to finish, as the Mongolians had blinded him when he was about to end it. Leopold, breathing hard but looking bravely, thinks that, maybe, he could find himself a way to finish that book. The Old Man says that there’s only one library in the city that is known to have copies of this book. Leopold suspects it must be the library next to his house, where his mom works, so he says they will be headed there. The Old Man then asks what they are going to do there and Leopold looks down, but says that he is going to rent the book and read the ending to the Old Man. The Old Man appreciates it, but Leopold seems lost in inner rumination.

 

 

Dad and Mum drive around looking for anything remotely close to answers, but as they ask many people, they do not know the whereabouts of Leopold. Some time has passed and school is now open, so Mum calls school. No sign of Leopold there. Mum cries. Dad is worried too and starts asking himself if it isn’t a good time to actually admit they have an emergency and call the police at that point, even if he doesn’t want him or his family to be the center of attention. Mum doesn’t care at this point and asks Dad to drive. On the way back, however, Dad starts dozing off a little bit. At first, not too much of a problem, but eventually, he careers off the road and almost causes an incident with people walking back, scaring everyone around, including Mum. Dad cannot explain what happened, he just started falling asleep again, unexpectedly, which doesn’t usually happen when he’s driving. Mum just yells at him to leave the wheel, she’s driving herself. Dad, seeing everyone looking and wondering if they’re gonna start murmuring about them, closes his eyes and listens to memories of him being bullied in school because he slept too much. He quickly doses back to life and, reluctantly, lets Mum on the wheel, despite knowing she hasn’t taken the wheel of a car for a while now. Mum is at the wheel, but her own anxieties start surfacing, as while she puts the foot on the gas, she starts imagining sharp curves and claustrophobic tunnels, where she can imagine hearing cars spinning out. We jump in quick cuts throughout her driving, Dad imagining what other people might be thinking and Mum trying to keep focused, only to lose herself in her amaxophobia (fear of cars). Eventually, the quick cuts reach a crescendo and Mum just stops the car in a nearby parking lot. The two breathe hard and look at each other, only to hold hands. Dad asks Mum if she can feel what he feels, Mum says she does. Dad asks what it is he feels and Mum says it: “Fear.” They embrace in the car.

 

 

On a bus headed to the library, Leopold and the Old Man talk. Leopold asks the Old Man what it is that makes him go to that public park everyday. The Old Man says that, deep down, it’s because he feels like he has so much more to give to the world when he’s outside than when he’s in. That’s why he liked reading books so much before he lost sight: because he could lose himself in the outside world, or the outside worlds imagined by other people. Leopold asks the Old Man if he ever feels scared of going out and the Old Man admits that at his age, he has nothing to lose, so there’s no reason to fear anything. Leopold says that’s not the case with him, as he wants to live a long, healthy life. The Old Man then finally asks if that has anything to do with him running away from his house. Leopold says it does. The Old Man didn’t wanna ask directly because he didn’t want to judge Leopold, since, as he said it, he had run from his home himself before. Leopold says that he too is scared of… many things. Scared of not understanding why his parents want him to be something that he’s not, or why he does not see things the same way other people see them. He admits being terrified of being a disappointment. The Old Man, empathetic, tells Leopold that life is like reading a book: you can either read it well, semi-well, poorly or not be able to read it at all (like himself), but everyone will be able to tell the same story in a different way. “Isn’t that what makes books special? The fact that they are so different to each person, but so universal in what they are?” Leopold sits in silence, until the Old Man holds his hands to comfort him. Leopold thanks the Old Man.

 

 

The bus reaches Leopold’s neighborhood, where he and the Old Man walk out, Leopold with some anxiety. They make their way to the library. But before they can arrive, Mum and Dad’s car passes by, with Dad back on the wheel, despite the earlier incident. Mum notices Leopold and the car quickly parks on the library’s lot, while Leopold enters in a panic. The Old Man, aware that something’s wrong, tells Leopold that he has it in him. Leopold stares at him and then back at Mum, who runs to hug the boy. Dad slowly makes his way and embraces the two as well. The Old Man asks if they are the child’s parents. Mum is initially hostile towards the Old Man, wondering if he kidnapped him, but Leopold insists that the Old Man is someone he trusts, explaining that he is a blind person he found in a park and came with to the library to read him the ending of a book he never finished. Mum is relieved that the Old Man is not threatening, but then asks Leopold what was wrong with him by running away from their house like that. Leopold admits that he just thought he was a disappointment to them, but Mum says that he will never be a disappointment, he will always be her baby. Dad agrees and tells Leopold that he doesn’t have to worry about reading books ever again. The Old Man realizes that Leopold has some sort of fear of books, to which Leopold explains that everytime he tries to read, he sees a letter soup of sorts and it just frustrates him. The Old Man thinks to himself. He then asks if Leopold wears glasses, to which Leopold says he does, which makes the Old Man even more curious. Leopold then bravely decides he’s still gonna try to read the book anyway, if anything because he wanted to help the Old Man. Mum and Dad tell him that if he needs the help, they’ll give it, but Leopold insists he wants to do it himself. They head inside the library and eventually find a copy of “The Tramp in the Stars.” Leopold starts reading to himself the page in which the Old Man says he stopped, but as he tries to read, words just jump in and out of place, dancing maniacally. He becomes anxious and snaps, throwing the book to the floor, to the surprise of Mum and Dad. He then cries and asks Mum why they want him to read books so badly, since he can’t do it even with glasses. Mum, with a tear on her face, explains that she was always afraid of going out to the city because she went through something bad in the past, and because of that, she would stay inside reading books. Dad followed her suit. Dad intervenes, saying that he’s always felt unbelievable sleepiness and books were always his way of compensating for the free times in which he was actually awake. But deep down, both agree that the reason why they wanted Leopold to read books was because they were afraid that Leopold was not gonna do so well outside. Dad funnily says that they are a family of mess-ups. Mum and Dad then apologize to Leopold for being so protective and Leopold accepts the apology, saying they were just trying to keep him safe. He also apologizes to them for running away and the parents quickly accept his apology. The Old Man finally chimes in and says that if Leopold reads letter soup even with glasses on, that must mean that he has a different problem, something a little bit deeper. Mum then suggests dyslexia. Dad says that indeed might be it. Leopold doesn’t know very well what it is. Dad explains that it is a sight disorder that ran in his side of the family. Leopold asks him why he never suggested this could’ve been his problem and Dad says it was just another fear of his to find out his son had a disorder of this kind, but that reflects bad on his in hindsight. Mum says she just never thought of it before. Leopold looks down, but then smiles and hugs his Mum again. Mum, tears down her face, accepts the hug and embraces him again. Fade to black.

 

 

Leopold starts seeing a doctor and a special education teacher to help him with his dyslexia. Mum, meanwhile, is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and Dad is diagnosed with hypersomnia, a disorder that makes the person overly sleepy. All three joke about being a family of mess-ups and laugh about it, then focusing on getting better overtime. With the help of his guidance, Leopold learns to juggle his literacy skills and is finally able to read the book. It finished with the prisoner, in his last day of life, flying off to the stars, after taking off from a beautiful beach under a sunset. Leopold is there, watching the man take off - we return to the opening scene of the film. The Old Man joins Leopold, as the two embrace in this ethereal moment. After this, we get a montage sequence that shows the family embracing life through their struggles: Dad becoming more active, Mum exposing herself to her fears and Leopold reading more books. In the last scene, Leopold (with his parents nearby) and the Old Man reunite again. The Old Man says that Leopold is a brave young man and Leopold thanks the Old Man for everything he taught him. The Old Man then says Leopold shouldn’t be too happy with him as he lied to him. Leopold asks him how so. The Old Man then explains that he was not a sailor, but rather a night guard who read endless books to not lose himself in tedium. The only sea he saw was on the books he read, but Leopold promises him that those books took him to adventures anyone could only dream of. “They took me too”, he says. The Old Man, smiling, and Leopold, also smiling, look forward, as they see the same beach they saw earlier. The Sun shines down on them as the film fades to black.

 

Edited by MCKillswitch123
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Molly and Emmett

 

Based On: Characters created by Marilyn Hafner 

Studio: The Workshop, Inc.  

Director: Dan Walker 

Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Children's

Release Date: Friday April 4th, Y9
Theater Count: 1500

Rating: G (very mild peril) 

Format: 2D Animation

Budget: $10 million

Runtime: 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes)

 

Cast:

- Annie Jeong* as Molly Park

- Billy Westwood* as Emmett

- Chae-won Yang* as Mrs. Park

- Stanley Miller* as Arthur Z.
- Jane Pearson* as Samantha

- Dee Bradley Baker as Angelina
*fictional

 

Tagline:

Things are about to get fuzzy. 

Synopsis

Spoiler

The movie begins with the title character, Molly Park, introducing herself. Molly is a free-spirited, artistic 10-year-old girl, who lives with her mother in suburban North Carolina. At school, she is an outcast, often struggling to fit in, and the only friend she has is her classmate Samantha, who she fantasizes about one day starting her own art studio with, since they share a keen interest in painting. In Molly's case, this interest is derived from her mother's own skill as a painter. 

While her mother is away on a business trip, Molly explores her study, and stumbles upon a paint set and an easel that she has never seen before. Intrigued, she begins painting a picture of a large orange cat, only to be surprised when the painting comes to life and speaks to her, introducing himself as Emmett. Knowing her mother won't approve of him, Molly insists on having him live in her room, something Emmett does not initially like the idea of. Molly takes Emmett to various places out of the house-- the park, the local ice cream shop, the arcade-- but she warns him not to speak so as not to attract attention. 

Molly invites Samantha over to her house, introduces her to Emmett, and shows her the mysterious paint set. Against Molly and Emmett's protests, Samantha takes a video with her phone and posts it on the internet. 

 

The post is noticed by Arthur Z, a social media influencer who claims to be on the lookout for "the next great artist." He is convinced that Molly is the star he is looking for. Molly and Emmett both admonish Samantha for being irresponsible, but when Molly's mother arrives home shortly afterwards, Samantha lies and says nothing bad happened, angering Molly. Molly goes to Samantha's house and demands she take down the video, but Samantha refuses. Molly is even angrier, and returns home, only to find that Emmett is gone. 

 

Emmett and the paint set, meanwhile, have been taken by Arthur Z, who at first simply sees him as a way to get Molly to agree to a contract, but is shocked when he discovers that Emmett can speak, and that he was created from the magic paint set. Arthur Z makes his announcement public, claiming that the magic paint set was his discovery. Molly notices this, and finally explains to her mother what happened. Her mother is surprised, but understanding. Next, Molly returns to Samantha's house, explaining to Samantha what happened because of what she did. Samantha doesn't apologize, but tells Molly she knows where Arthur Z will be making his next public appearance. 

 

Emmett, meanwhile, is trying to escape from Arthur Z's studio, only to encounter Angelina, Arthur Z's small but very cranky Chihuahua. Emmett tries to speak to Angelina, but can't, since the reason he can talk is because he was brought to life by the magic paint. Angelina chases him out of the studio and into the public reception area, where Emmett proceeds to run across the guests' tables, then climb up the curtains of the stage. Arthur Z notices this, and demands that Emmett come down while apologizing for the "inconvenience". With Angelina still barking at Emmett, Arthur Z assures the viewers that nothing is wrong. 

 

Arthur Z then goes backstage, where he discovers Molly and Samantha trying to sneak inside. The two girls hastily try to explain that they're "huge fans" who "really want to see him, something Arthur Z is skeptical of, pointing out that if they were fans they would have bought tickets. He recognizes Samantha as the girl who posted the video of Emmet, and Molly as the other person in the video whose house Emmet came from. Molly demands to know what he wants with Emmet, and Arthur Z explains that he wants to help Emmet. 

 

Molly is incredulous and asks how Arthur Z could possibly be helping Emmet, but instead of answering, he simply throws them in a closet, before returning to the stage. Inside the closet, Molly tells Samantha that this has all happened because of her. Samantha finally apologizes, and acknowledges that she was wrong for selling Molly out. Molly accepts her apology, and asks if she knows how to get out of the closet. Samantha says she has no idea.

 

Meanwhile, Emmet has escaped from Angelina and hidden backstage ("Dogs. . . I do not like dogs," he remarks), and discovers the closet where Molly and Samantha are being held. He manages to open the closet after several comical failed attempts, most of which involve stacking various objects and climbing on top of them to reach the doorknob. 

 

The door opens, and Molly hugs Emmett, who licks her face affectionately. However, they are discovered by Arthur Z, who demands to know what they are doing with "his" talking cat. He takes Molly and Samantha out to the stage, trying to frame them for "stealing" Emmett from him. Molly stands up to Arthur Z, and explains that the magic paint set works because of creativity, and she says that while he is famous for cultivating the talent and creativity of other artists he finds on the internet, he doesn't have any talent himself. 

 

Molly demonstrates the magic paint set by drawing a picture of a bird, which flies away (though Emmett tries to catch it). Arthur Z is impressed, and tries to do the same, only for nothing to happen. The audience realizes they were hoodwinked, and begin to turn against Arthur Z, while cheering for Molly and Emmett. 

 

As the credits roll, a montage of pictures shows that Molly, Emmett, and Samantha have become famous as artists. 

 

 



 

Edited by El Squibbonator
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



DEVIL BEAN

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Doug Liman

Genre: Action/Comedy

Release Date: April 18th, Y9

Theater Count: 3,361

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Language, Violence, and Crude Humor

Budget: $75 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 49 min

 

Cast

Daniel Henney as Allan

Robert Pattinson as Clark

Mackenzie Davis as Robo-Jojo**

Eiza Gonzalez as Katerina

Jonathan Majors as Richard

Karen Fukuhara as Shuku

Vin Diesel as Hippoman*

Julian Dennison as Jeffrey

Joe Alwyn as Simon

Ken Watanabe as Yoshio

George Lopez as Hugo

Yayan Ruhian as Bambang

Iko Uwais as Rudi

Julia Butters as Zoe

Neal McDonough as Travis

with Bill Nighy as Dr. Schmidt

and Clive Owen as Mallory

 

* = denotes voice role

** = denotes motion-capture role

 

Logline

Powerful entities such as governments, corporations, and underground organizations send their best protégés to Denver, Colorado in search of a mysterious bean, the Devil Bean, a supposedly ancient relic which may or may not bring power or healing once consumed.

 

Flashbacks written in italics.

 

Plot Summary (about 7,000 words)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Z3SUCKjy5qGLASRUN1Wop6kXlLfwsLtC9anyXBGylI/edit?usp=sharing

Edited by SLAM!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raven Island

 

Studio: Fossil Record Animation

Director: Rebecca Daintree

Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Family

Release Date: September 19th Y9

Rating: PG (violence, thematic elements)

Budget: $20 Million

Runtime: 2 hr 19 min

Format: hand-drawn animation

Theater Count: 2,055

 

Main Cast:

Clarissa May Jones* as Jessica Taylor

Mary Waterstone* as Claire Taylor

John Wilkins* as Dohra-Kaa

Stephen Bryce* as The Watcher

Harry Richard Milhouse* as Corax 

 

*fictional


Summary:

Spoiler

The story begins at the Seattle Airport, with 16-year-old Jessica Taylor complaining about having to spend the summer with her Aunt Claire, who she hasn't seen in many years and regards as eccentric and strange. As Jessica travels to Claire's house, it is quickly revealed why she considers Claire to be "weird."

 

Claire lives by herself on an island in Puget Sound, off Seattle, and owns a small seaplane transport service. She also has an extremely close relationship with the ravens that live on her island, leaving food out for them every morning after breakfast. As Jessica sets about exploring Claire's house, she stumbles upon a drawer full of drawings of bizarre-looking creatures. She asks Claire about them, but Claire says nothing. Later that day, she goes out exploring in the nearby forest, and becomes lost. However, she is led back to Claire's house when she follows one of the ravens-- an unusually large one with a patch of gray feathers on its head. 

 

The next day, Claire takes off for another delivery flight in her plane, but disappears. Panicked, Jessica is about to call the Coast Guard, but before she can, she sees the same raven from before. She follows it, and it leads her to a stone tower at the center of the island.  The moment Jessica touches the tower, she and the raven are transported to an alternate universe known as The Deeps. The raven has shape-shifted into a humanoid form, and speaks to Jessica. He tells her his name is Corax, and that Claire is in danger.

 

Corax tells Jessica that most mortal humans cannot leave The Deeps, only enter it. Ravens are the only creatures from the material world that can freely move between it and The Deeps. Jessica insists that she still wants to save her aunt, and she doesn't care what the consequences are. Moments later, Jessica and Corax find themselves attacked by a multi-legged serpentine creature resembling one of Claire's drawings. Jessica manages to overpower and defeat it, but Corax chastises her, telling her that she has been deemed a threat by "The Watcher", who is the one holding Claire captive.

 

Jessica is about to ask who The Watcher is, but Corax silences her. They make their way towards one of The Deep's "cities", which to Jessica feels more like a gathering place for monsters and spirits. As a human, Jessica is a fugitive by her very nature, but Corax insists that this is the only way they have any hope of helping Claire. Jessica and Corax's attempt to blend into the various monsters and spirits in The Deeps is unsuccessful; they are spotted and captured. Corax is imprisoned as a traitor to The Deeps for aiding a human, and Jessica is thrown into an arena of sand-dwelling creatures resembling antlion larvae (again, they bear an uncanny similarity to Claire's drawings). Jessica is able to free herself from the ravenous creatures, picking up a broken wood beam and using it as a weapon. Once she has defeated them, she frees Corax.

 

Determined to rescue her aunt, Jessica demands Corax help her "defeat" The Watcher, but Corax corrects her. He explains that The Watcher is not evil, but simply experiences morality on a different level than humans do. Nevertheless, he does offer to help her. He directs her to a ferryman--or rather, an operator of a flying ship-- named Dohra-Kaa, who resembles a two-headed serpent. Dohra-Kaa is reluctant to take them, for fear of endangering The Deeps, but is moved by Jessica's devotion to her aunt. The three of them travel to a mountain known as the Heart of the Deeps, where the Watcher is said to live. During the flight, the flying ship is attacked by monstrous airborne creatures sent by The Watcher, which prompt the trio to take evasive action. After a narrow escape, they crash-land at the foot of the mountain. As Jessica and Corax leave the flying ship, Dohra-Kaa warns them that The Watcher does not usually like visitors.

 

At the foot of the mountain, they discover the remains of Claire's crashed airplane, which at first convinces Jessica that Claire is dead. However, upon continuing to the top of the mountain, they discover Claire trapped in a hollow crystalline sphere. Claire, surprisingly recognizes Corax. She explains that when she was a teenager, she was lost in the woods, but was saved by a boy with black hair and a cloak of feathers. She tried to thank him, but he turned into a raven and flew away. Ever since then, she has been feeding the local ravens in hopes he will return. 

 

Jessica attempts to free Claire, but is stopped when The Watcher-- a colossal shadowy entity resembling a mass of oily writhing ooze, studded with eyes-- emerges from the depths of the mountain and speaks. The Watcher states that, while he has great power, he envies humans for their ability to shape their world and create works of great beauty. He seeks to use Claire's body as a vessel to become human. Jessica, Corax, Bohra-Kaa, and Claire all protest, but all come to nothing. The Watcher attempts to merge with Claire, only to be stopped when Jessica offers herself to it in Claire's place.

 

The Watcher is stunned by Claire's sacrifice, and frees Claire. It states that Jessica's love for her aunt far exceeds its own selfish desires, and that it regrets having forcibly separated them. Jessica, Claire, and Corax are then returned to the island, with Corax still in his human form. The movie ends with Jessica commenting that while she thought Claire was weird and boring, she turned out to be a lot more interesting.

 

As the credits roll, a photo montage of Jessica, Claire, and Corax's activities over the summer plays. 

 


 

Edited by El Squibbonator
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



KIRBY

AND THE KING'S CAPER

 

Studio Groundswell

in association with the following companies:

 - Horizon Entertainment

 - Nintendo

 - HAL Laboratories

based on the Kirby video games, scenarios from Kirby Super Star, and characters from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!

Director: Pierre Perifel

Genre: Animation

Release Date: May 9th, Y9

Theater Count: 4,042

MPAA Rating: PG for Cartoon Violence and Thematic Elements

Budget: $100 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 41 min

Original Score Composer: Lorne Balfe

 

Major Cast

Terry Crews as King Dedede

Diego Luna as Meta Knight

Kumail Nanjiani as Chef Kawasaki

Elizabeth Banks as Waddle Doo

Andy Samberg as Bandana Waddle Dee

Joe Du Truglio as Escargoon

Donna Jay Fulks as Elfilin

with Nik Dodani as Whispy Woods

and Bobby Moynihan as Marx

 

Kirby noises provided by an unbilled professional.

 

Logline

After finding himself far from home, Kirby journeys across Dream Land to the castle of King Dedede, who stole food from his kingdom's residents.

 

Special thanks to @Reddroast for his willingness to share the rights to Kirby, for pre-reading, and for casting suggestions.

 

For Mom

 

Plot Summary (about 10.85k words)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Eo1faBmVMOnrkbJKrrhAOo87jZMf2Js28OYjRjJmeM/edit

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fore!

Studio Groundswell

Director: Tom Gormican

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: October 3rd, Y9

Theater Count: 3,036

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Thematic Elements and Crude Humor

Budget: $30 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 20 min

 

Cast

Anthony Ramos as Carlos

Jake Johnson as Henry

William Jackson Harper as Russell

Harry Shum Jr. as Warren

Zach Galifianakis as Himself

Jason Sudeikis as Himself

Stephen Park as The Sushi Chef

Blake Shelton as Music Producer #1

Gwen Stefani as Music Producer #2

 

Plot Summary (less than 3k words)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12dOCBBHpdOQtsExFhx4d44R1gcvOPVESEShA7DsSPas/edit

  • ...wtf 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



SMB_2.png?resize=472,316&ssl=1

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn

based on the video game franchise by SEGA

Genre: Animated Comedy

Release Date: January 17th, Y9

Theater Count: 3,770

MPAA Rating: PG for Crude Humor and Cartoon Violence

Budget: $91 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 36 min

 

Cast

Jimmy Tatro as Aiai

Auli'i Cravalho as Meemee

Alan Tudyk as Baby

Brian Tyree Henry as GonGon

Keegan-Michael Key as Dr. Bad-boon

Jordan Peele as The Henchman

Patrick Warburton as Jam

María Cecilia Botero as The Mayor

and Rose Byrne as Jane Goodball

 

Animation

The film is a CG animated film with an expressive style.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13-FMi_ez4Vs7XoKRCU5C5swCEF9jISzSdCnREEDQYcM/edit

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



lXveYi8.png

 

Based On: TV series of the same name

Studio: The Workshop, Inc.  

Director: John M. Carrigan*

Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Children's

Release Date: August 1st, Y9
Theater Count: 3104

Rating: PG (fantasy violence)

Format: CGI Animation

Budget: $45 million

Runtime: 117 minutes (1 hour and 57 minutes)

 

Major Cast: 

Clarissa May Jones* as Sarah Spencer

Brock Armstrong* as Ryan Spencer

Hayden Moss* as David, Bonehead

Jacob Harris* as Paul

John C. Reilly as Allo

Ed Vincent* as Stego, Ankylo

Laura Mallon* as Teryx

James N. Midas* as Stego

Garth Shoemaker* as The Dinosorcerer

Frank Welker as Genghis Rex

Alan Tudyk as The Lord of Dinopolis 

Benedict Wong as General Tarbo

 

Summary:

Spoiler

The movie opens at a summer camp in Montana, where four middle schoolers-- Sarah, her twin brother Ryan, and their friends Paul and David-- are attending a lecture about dinosaurs at a dig site. Sarah, David, and Paul find the lecture fascinating, but Ryan considers it boring and wishes he could actually get to look for fossils. While the guest speaker is distracted, he goads the other three into investigating the fossil dig. Sarah and Paul both object, but Ryan calls them "chicken" for refusing and they reluctantly agree. Shortly after starting their search, they stumble-- quite literally stumble, as in trip over-- upon what looks like a stone sundial. Sarah wants to show it to the camp counselor, but Ryan insists on taking it for himself. As soon as Ryan picks it up, the device begins to glow, and all four of them black out.

 

When they open their eyes again, they aren't at camp anymore. They're in a bizarre city with skyscrapers covered in plants, and strange dinosaur-shaped vehicles flying through the air. Paul tries to pull up the internet on his phone, but it doesn't work. Before they can do anything else, they find themselves surrounded by a group of anthropomorphic dinosaurs-- the Dinosaucers. Allo, the leader and an Allosaurus, accuses them of being spies for "the enemy", but Sarah and David protest that they know nothing about any sort of dinosaur war. Paul is simply giddy with excitement at the idea of seeing live, talking dinosaurs, and begins taking photos on his phone. Ryan, however, is skeptical, both of the idea that what they're experiencing is real and that the Dinosaucers can be trusted. 

 

Allo explains that he and the Dinosaucers-- Teryx, Bonehead, Stego, Tricero, Dimetro, Icthy, and Bronto Thunder-- are a resistance movement against the evil Tyranno Empire, rulers of the planet Reptilon. Ryan angrily asks how he and the other campers were brought to Reptilon, and Teryx says that only the Lord of Dinopolis knows that. Sarah asks why they don't just find him, and Allo says that they're trying to, but no one has seen the Lord of Dinopolis in decades. The campers promise to help the Dinosaucers find the Lord of Dinopolis, in exchange for a chance to return home. 

 

Shortly afterwards, they take off in the Dinosaucer's ship-- the RSS Stegosaur-- to search for the Dinosorcerer, only to be attacked and boarded by a Tyranno ship. A battle between the Dinosaucers and the Tyrannos ensues, and Allo is wounded by a laser blast. Genghis Rex, the Tyranno leader, demands that the Dinosaucers tell him where the Lord of Dinopolis is, as the Tyrannos are also looking for him, but Sarah tells him that they don't know either. This enrages Rex, who shoots Dimetro, the Dinosaucers' Dimetrodon pilot, with a laser gun, injuring him. The Stegosaur enters a steep dive, and the crew of dinosaurs and humans desperately try to prevent it from crashing. Rex declares that if the Dinosaucers do not tell him where the Lord of Dinopolis lives, he will kill them all. Despite Tricero cautioning that Rex will never keep his word, Ryan approaches Rex and tells him he is willing to help him find Dinopolis The others are shocked at Ryan's apparent betrayal, none more so than his sister Sarah, who blames him for trapping them in Reptilon in the first place. As the Tyrannos leave with Ryan, the Dinosaucers are trapped in their crippled ship, but manage to make it to an escape pod before the ship crashes. 

 

Meanwhile, aboard the Tyranno's ship, the Tyranno scientist Plesio (a Plesiosaurus) fits Ryan with an electric collar that will give him a shock if he tries to escape. Ryan asks why they are doing this, and Brachio, Rex's Brachiosaurus thug, tells him that "we can't have any filthy mammals running loose. You might be useful, but you're not our friend." Genghis Rex asks Ryan how he knows where the Dinosorcerer is, and Ryan shows him the stone sundial. Rex is impressed, and activates the stone, which reveals a holographic map to the ancient city of Dinopolis. 

 

By sheer coincidence, the Dinosaucers, upon leaving their crashed escape pod, find themselves attacked by General Tarbo. He is the Lord of Dinopolis's Tarbosaurus military commander, and  is accompanied by his Velociraptor foot soldiers (whose feathers look like samurai armor). While Allo protests that they merely wish to see the Lord of Dinopolis, General Tarbo doesn't believe them, and takes them to the palace to stand trial. We see Dinopolis for the first time; it consists of elaborate East Asian-style architecture with towering pagodas.  The Dinosaucers are brought to a massive golden castle, flanked by dinosaur statues and raptor guards. The campers wonder what kind of dinosaur the Lord of Dinopolis is, but the answer soon reveals itself when the door to the throne room opens, and the Lord of Dinopolis reveals himself to be, not a T. rex or a Brachiosaurus as Paul and Sarah respectively suggest, but a tiny three-foot tall Protoceratops wearing a jeweled crown and holding a large staff. 

 

Allo pleads with the Lord of Dinopolis to give them another chance, and to help their human friends get home, but the Protoceratops grins wickedly and announces that he's already received "a better offer." This "better offer", it turns out, is from the Tyrannos, who have already arrived at the palace and delivered the stone sundial to the Lord of Dinopolis. Accompanying them is Ryan, who is not shocked to see his fellow campers. 

 

With the Tyrannos on his side, Dinopolis's forces easily overwhelm the Dinosaucers. The Dinosaucers retreat, and David asks Tricero if he knows anything about the history of the sundial that might give them an edge in defeating the Tyrannos. Tricero is hesitant, but tells him that long before the Lord of Dinopolis built his palace, the same area was said to be home to "The Dinosorcerer", the sundial's original creator. Armed with this information, they venture underground in search of clues. 

 

Deep in the caverns beneath Dinopolis, the heroes stumble upon an old leather-bound book, titled the "Great Book of Reptilonian Wisdom". Despite Allo's warnings, Sarah opens the book, and this causes the spirit of the Dinosorcerer-- an elderly Therizinosaurus-- to appear. The Dinosorcerer explains that he created the magic sundial as a means of peaceful travel between worlds, but he saw a terrible vision that it would be used for evil. However, he also had another vision that four heroes would arrive to save Reptilon from that evil. Paul asks how there can be four heroes, now that Ryan has betrayed them, but the Dinosorcerer's spirit vanishes. 

 

The Tyrannos ambush the heroes as they attempt to escape through an underground tunnel, and Stego demands to know what the Lord of Dinopolis wants with the sundial. He explains that his true goal is to create a new homeland for dinosaurs. A world where dinosaurs are extinct, as he sees it, would be ripe for colonizing, and the Tyrannos have agreed to help him. Ryan is incredulous, and demands to know why Rex never told him this. Rex snaps at Ryan for disrespecting him, and Ryan angrily states he no longer wants to be on the side of the Tyrannos. General Tarbo, too, is shocked-- he has spent his entire life serving the Lord of Dinopolis, and feels betrayed by his ruler. He defects to the Dinosaucers along with Ryan, only for the Lord of Dinopolis to order the Tyrannos to attack. 

 

With Tarbo aiding them, the Dinosaucers fight back against the Tyrannos, and Allo manages to overpower Genghis Rex in a one-on-one fight. Rex drops the stone sundial, and Ryan picks it up, revealing to the Lord of Dinopolis that he is the fourth hero from the propecy. The Lord of Dinopolis is astonished, and orders his raptor bodyguards to attack them, but they refuse, now that they have sided with the Tarbo and the Dinosaucers. The Lord of Dinopolis surrenders, and the outmatched Tyrannos are forced to stand down. 

 

The Lord of Dinopolis asks if they forgive him, and Allo pauses for a moment. He says that the Lord of Dinopolis will need to be punished for his crimes, and while he may personally forgive him, the populace of Reptilon probably never will. Ryan also asks his friends if they forgive him, and Paul says he does, since he understands how desperate he must have felt. The campers prepare to activate the stone sundial and return home, but Allo cautions them that they can now never return to Reptilon. The sundial must be destroyed, since its potential for abuse is too great even in well-meaning hands. The campers-- now dubbed "Secret Scouts of Reptilon" for their efforts in defeating the Tyrannos-- give a final farewell to their friends. There is a blinding flash of light from the sundial, and the screen goes black.

 

The campers find themselves back at camp, at the exact same moment they left. The sundial, however, is gone. Ryan wonders what they're doing so far from the lecture, and wants to get back, because "dinosaurs are cool!" The other three question his change of attitude towards dinosaurs, but follow him back to camp. As they return, the camera lingers on the Secret Scout badges they were given by Allo. 

 

In a post-credits scene, a shadowed dinosaur is shown reading about Genghis Rex's fate on a computer and laughing to herself. She then turns around, revealing herself to be Princess Dei, a Deinonychus who is Rex's long-time rival. 

 

 

Edited by El Squibbonator
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



RUNAWAY TRAIN

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment

Director: James Mangold

Writer: James Mangold

Producers: Dave Pirner, Marc Abrams, Mike Benson

 

Genre: Biographical Drama

Release Date: November 21st Y9

Theater Count: 3132

Rating: R, for language, drinking and smoking

Format: 2D

Budget: $35 million

Runtime: 120 minutes (2 hours)

 

Major Cast:

- Joaquin Phoenix as Dave Pirner

- Cooper Hoffman as Dan Murphy

- Glen Powell as Grant Young

- Bill Hader as Michael Beinhorn

- Corey Hawkins as Sterling Campbell

- and Jon Hamm as Karl Mueller

 

Plot Summary: A dramatization of Soul Asylum's rise - thanks to one song, Runaway Train - and fall from fame in the early 90's.

 

Note: This is a work of fiction and some of the story beats have been created uproot for this film, but it is based on real events.

 

Plot:

Spoiler

1984

 

The movie begins in a bar, where we witness a bored section of men drinking the night away. To the stage of the bar come in four individuals. They look particularly grungy and irreverent, but don't really capture the audience's attention. One of the clients asks the barman: "Who are these fuckin' jokers?", and the barman says: "Oh... let me tell you, they're gonna be the next frontmen of the decade." The lead man, Dave Pirner (Joaquin Phoenix) introduces the four men as a band called Soul Asylum, and playing next to him - Dave being the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist - are lead guitarist and backing vocalist Dan Murphy (Cooper Hoffman), bassist Karl Mueller (Jon Hamm), and on the drums, Grant Young (Glen Powell). All three band members wave to the crowd, who does not seem particularly enthusiastic for the presence of Soul Asylum. We cut to a zoom in of Karl beating his drumsticks, and cueing the rest of the band for a live performance of the song Dragging Me Down. Dave shows a lot of charisma and swagger on stage, showing off while performing the song, which attracts attention from the previously uninterested crowd.

 

Cut to a montage sequence of Soul Asylum playing other songs of their debut album Say What You Will, Clarence... Karl Sold the Truck, across a myriad of different stages. First, through bars, and then, across various rock festivals, where they act as openers for the headliners, or, later down the line, as headliner acts themselves. They manage to sign with A&M Records in 1988, and are critically acclaimed across the United States and all over the places of the globe they go to. But, their second and third studio albums, backed by A&M - 1989's Clam Dip & Other Heights, and 1990's And the Horse They Rode In On - are commercial flops. In the streets, Dan tries to give away CD's, but no one outside of a few local communities seem to recognize who he is. In a quick cut scene inside the record studio, A&M co-founder Herp Albert and producer Steve Jordan complain to Soul Asylum that nobody gives two shits about them, to their admitted bafflement as they are damn good. Dave, who admits that he's starting to have hearing problems - due to the loud nature of the music they play - and Karl tell them to fuck off, and a fight damn near ensues. Cut to Soul Asylum leaving A&M, and Dave saying that they need to bring themselves down from the heavier tunes due to his hearing. The montage quickly passes by their next two years' worth of acoustic shows, before settling down once Dave and company finally settle down and sign with Columbia Records in 1992. Producer Michael Beinhorn (Bill Hader) asks himself if he did the right thing agreeing stuff with these mofos that haven't made a penny in sales for nearly an entire decade. Dave tells him: "If we make one fucking song that sells well... we're gonna be making this studio thousands." Karl looks pensive, while Dan and Grant are more optimistic.

 

RUNAWAY TRAIN

 

At Columbia, Soul Asylum are gathered with Beinhorn over how are they going to win over an audience. As he chain smokes, Karl stands up and says that they're not gonna stride away from the style that's been making them fans for years. Beinhorn asks them what fans do they have, since they're basically a bunch of flops, and Dan retorts that every community they've been going to has been favorable towards them. Beinhorn reinforces that it matters nothing if they can't sell. Grant says that they'll try their best from here on out, while Dave, after taking a sip from a beer, takes initiative and starts jamming some random sounds. The band doesn't really go along, while Beinhorn just snarks that they won't really catch a break anytime soon unless they come up with something "big." Beinhorn and the band split for the day.

 

At their place, Dave continues to mess with the jams he made. Karl just smokes. Dan reassures them all that Soul Asylum will become popular sooner or later. Grant subscribes on Dan's words, while Dave just nods. Dan then says that he hopes to have enough money one day to start a collection. Grant asks him why does he want a collection, and Dan doesn't answer. Dave just nods them along, the camera zooms in on him while he's pensive.

 

Cut to him still with his guitar, alone now. Finally, the jams come along and start making a sound that he likes. He starts writing lyrics on a melancholic melody about the author's despair. The chorus is lowly sung: "Runaway train, never going back | Wrong way on a one way track | Seems like I should be getting somewhere | Somehow I'm neither here nor there..." - as he sings the last words of the chorus, it all starts making sense to Dave. Dave presents the tune to his bandmates, and later, they send a demo tape to Beinhorn. He does in fact like what he hears, and Soul Asylum start digging deeper into this sound. We jump to when they start recording the single for their next album Grave Dancers Union, titled Runaway Train. The band goes through a bunch of different takes. Grant's performance on the drums is starting to make Beinhorn impatient, him disliking Grant's lack of discernible rhythm and effort. Grant says he's trying his best, but Beinhorn isn't finding it any good. Dave tries to back Grant, but Beinhorn says they better try someone else if Grant keeps fucking it up. Later, the band recording other songs on their album, when Beinhorn finally snaps and tells Dave that he's gonna bring in another drummer to fill in Grant's spot. Grant is very dissatisfied and Dave and Karl try to talk Beinhorn out of it, but it's gonna happen. Cue in the presentation to the band of Sterling Campbell (Corey Hawkins), who comes in blind and has to quickly learn the band's pace and ideas. He grows costumed quickly, and he's the one who performs the final recorded version of Runaway Train on the drums, to the envy of Grant. Dave, Dan and Karl seem pleased with Sterling, but conflicted over Grant's current positioning in the band.

 

After the recording of the song, Beinhorn proposes the single to be turned into a music video. Dave starts drawing ideas on his head. Dan proposes simple things like a romantic affair gone wrong, Karl proposes the same but perhaps a little bit more hardcore, Grant doesn't offer any ideas and just asks why the band seemed cool with Sterling. Karl says they weren't cool, but Grant tells him he saw otherwise in the way they acted. Dave quickly changes conversation as to not ruin the mood, and Grant walks off. Dan goes after him to try to calm him down. Karl tells Dave to ignore them, since they got big things ahead. "Hell, this Runaway Train thing you got, I think will give us money. Give me enough money to give my girlfriend the marriage of her dreams." Dave asks him if he's sure, and Karl just winks and tells him that the best ideas come when you least expect them. Karl leaves. Dave is left to himself. Sometime later, Dave jams Runaway Train to himself, when Sterling comes in. He says that he's sorry if he's caused any trouble between the band, but Dave excuses him, saying Grant's just hot blooded. Cut to when Dave and the rest of the band (including Sterling - whom Grant side eyes) are talking with Tony Kaye, the director of the music video for the song, about ideas. Dave asks Tony to spew out something - anything. Tony says he brainstormed something on the fly: "The kids on the milk cartons... we should try to find them." Karl, Dan, Grant and Sterling look at each other. Dave picks up a newspaper left around and starts reading and hearing about the amount of children gone missing in the streets of America, a report by the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children claiming that a million youth is lost every year. Dave sings the chorus again, to himself: "Runaway train... never going back...... | Wrong way on a... one way track....... | Seems like I should be getting somewhere | Somehow I'm neither here nor there!" Dave looks enthusiastic.

 

1993

 

We cut to real-life footage of MTV in 1993, which contains the premiere of Runaway Train's music video (in its original version, not a replicated version with the actors of this film). It features multiple stories of youth who run away, are snatched or otherwise lost, intercut with shots of Soul Asylum playing the song (in the video, Sterling plays the drums). The chorus plays in the background as we see images of a bunch of children who, at the time, had been missing. The video is played in its entirety.

 

We cut back to Dave watching the video in its finished form, right out of the cutting room, with Tony and Beinhorn. Dave looks proud of what he has in hands. Tony says: "Yeah, we can do some good with this", Beinhorn and Dave agree, but Dave nods along with a smile on his face, looking over the video with some thoughts. He sits down with Karl, who is smoking as usual, and they debate what this will mean for them going forward. Karl thinks that it's good that they made a video about this subject matter, because now, they will grow bigger with something that has powerful things to say. Dave says that the opportunity to do good and the opportunity to be rich came at once - killing two birds in one stone. Karl half-smiles and lowly asks Dave that he'll toast to that, so they do toast. Dan tries to intermediate a conversation between Grant and Sterling. Grant tells Sterling that he don't want any fucking competition if the band becomes more successful thanks to Runaway Train. Sterling says he'll be happy to drop out if things get out of control, but Dan instead tells Grant that if things get out of control, it'll be easy to drop out the trouble kids. Grant says that's a bad way to put things, since trouble kids are what they're trying to go after with the song. He leaves, leaving Dan and Sterling awestruck.

 

The music video for Runaway Train becomes a quick sensation, garnering lots of ratings for MTV and attention on local radios. The song is very well reviewed, and charts strongly across the globe - particularly high in the US, UK and Canada, the latter two countries having gotten their own unique music video versions with missing kids from those territories. It reaches number five on the Billboard Hot 100, tops the chart on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart, and sells up to 600k copies in the US, earning a gold sales certification from the RIAA. The song makes Soul Asylum an instant hit across the world, where they play it endlessly in concerts. A famous live interpretation of the song on MTV Unplugged gains a lot of attention as well.

 

Backstage, Soul Asylum celebrate their success. Grant, who had played the drums on the first live versions of the song, is still with the band, drinking the night away, while the rest of the band parties. Karl and Dave toast, while Dan says that with all the money that they're making, he's gonna finally start doing his desired collection. Karl asks him what he is going to collect, and Dan responds that he's going for pin-ups. Karl finds it a cute idea, while Dave says that if he wants, he could collect Ferraris because they're fuckin' rich, baby. Sterling comes in at this moment, asking if he's allowed in on the party. Grant is not pleased with him, but Dave welcomes Sterling in kindly, since he did a great job with the drums on the recordings. Grant asks Dave if they're gonna let this asshole take his spot; Karl shuts him down for racism. Grant denies being racist, he just doesn't want to lose the spot. Dan asks Grant to calm down again, and Grant starts losing his mind. He shoves Dan and Dave away, confronts Sterling face to face. Sterling wants no problems, but Grant headbutts him. A fight ensues (the shot of the fight and the other band members trying to break it up holds for about 10 seconds). Cut to a day later, when Dave speaks with Beinhorn about Grant's behavior. Beinhorn says it's inacceptable. We cut to Grant packing his stuff and leaving the band's place, but not before the rest of the band hugs him goodbye. Sterling tries to handshake him, but Grant ignores and leaves him be. Grant goes away, and now, Sterling is "officially" a part of Soul Asylum.

 

Dave gives interviews on the success of Runaway Train, claiming that yeah, he was interested in doing good. We then see a reunion between Dave, Beinhorn, Tony Kaye and René Walsh, wife of John Walsh and one of the co-founders of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. René thanks the band enormously for their collaboration with the NCMEC. Beinhorn says that there is nothing to worry about, since it was very much an idea that connected immediately with the rest of the band. Dave nods, with a grin on his face. René says that ever since the video was released, they've been getting a lot of traffic in regards to kids who have either returned home or found. Dave says that it was an honor to do good.

 

Dan starts his pin-up collection, buying old pins from different decades in time. Some of them are worth a lot of money, but Dan has to spare. Karl buys a wedding ring, and finally proposes to his wife, knowing that he'll give her the wedding she wants. Sterling and Dave hang out often, riding high on the success of the song. Karl and his wife marry in a huge celebration featuring the band members as attendees. Soul Asylum continues to be successful into the 90's, and their next album, Let Your Dim Light Shine, featured Misery, a single which reached the top end of the charts. However, this album is not as successful as Grave Dancers Union, mainly because Misery, despite being successful, is nowhere near as big as Runaway Train. This frustrates Dave.

 

While Soul Asylum is touring on the East Coast, Dan, who is still picking up pin-ups from across the States, meets a fireman who is a fan of the band. The fireman then tells his story: "My daughter was in that video that you made." Dan is stunned, and says he feels really sorry. The fireman thanks him, and continues: "She was... I was in a custody battle for her with my wife. She... she didn't run away." Dan asks him if he found her, and the fireman responds: "We found her remains. My wife killed her and buried her in our backyard." Dan is speechless. He tells this story to Dave, Karl and Sterling. The latter two are stunned, but the former, despite obviously disturbed by the story, is more worried about the fact that Let Your Dim Light Shine isn't selling as much. Dan tells him to snap the fuck out of it, because they should be more focused on the good side of what they're doing, regardless of whether they succeed or not. Dave is not having it, and throws jabs at Dan, for not realizing that if they don't sell, their luxuries are gonna go away very quickly. Dan retorts that Dave is a greedy fuck, and Dave nearly punches him the face, but Karl stops him from doing so, Karl asking Dave to calm the fuck down. Dave tells him that his breath stinks of smoke. Sterling imposes himself, and tells Dave that it won't be hard to get rid of him if he keeps acting this way. Dave cries sacrilege, saying there's no way that Beinhorn will fire him, but Dan says that at this rate, they won't need Beinhorn. He leaves. Dave screams at him to come back, but the others ignore him too.

 

In a concert, they're playing the very demanded Runaway Train, and the not-so demanded Misery - Dave whispers to himself "fuck" before he starts playing. Sterling notices that Grant is watching the concert, and loses focus temporarily, only to put on the best show imaginable, even going out of his way to do a cool drum solo, pumping up the crowd. Grant watches, and with a bittersweet expression, leaves. After another well done concert, at backstage, a teenage girl meets up with the band. She's a fan who was allowed in, and hugs them all. She keeps friendly company to the band, telling them, in a somewhat nonchalant note, that she came to the concert with her boyfriend who helped her when she had ran away - in fact, she was one of the runaway girls from the video. This takes the band by utter surprise, including Dave, who looks over to the side with admiration. Karl asks her what happened, and she said that she was in a bad home situation, that she was now forced back into because she saw herself in the video. She laughs as she says: "You ruined my life." The band simulates laughs too, but Karl quickly says that he's sorry they did that to her. The girl says it's okay, because now, she feels alive knowing that someone out there cared for her - other than her boyfriend, at least. Dave looks to her, with an expression of genuine empathy on his face. Karl, Sterling and Dan smile too.

 

1998

 

Soul Asylum releases their next album, Candy from a Stranger. It is unsuccessful at the charts. At concerts, fans just wanna see Runaway Train and don't particularly care for the rest of the output, some of them leaving after the song is played. Dave grows increasingly frustrated. Beinhorn tells them that he feels like their output is really going down. Dave tells him that he has never stopped making good songs, but Beinhorn tells him that the charts say otherwise. Dave, furious, tells Beinhorn that this was the last album they were going to release under Columbia, then. Beinhorn blows up and says that's fine, he'll find himself the next Nirvana or Pearl Jam, because it sure as fuck was never going to be "you guys". Dave screams at him that Soul Asylum made grunge cool before Nirvana were ever a fucking thing. He then says that he once told him something: "If we make one fucking song that sells well... we're gonna be making this studio thousands", and he claims they fucking did. Beinhorn ironically thanks him, but says that Soul Asylum's time is up. Dave is angered, and leaves. He then informs the rest of the band what Beinhorn was telling him, and, ever slowly, Dan and Karl both support Dave's decision to leave Columbia. Sterling, having been brought by Beinhorn, feels conflicted, but ultimately, he supports Dave as well. Dave just feels awful.

 

Soul Asylum disappears from the high success radar, and go back to a more lowkey style of life, without the huge riches. Dan and Sterling meet up with Grant, who asked to be with them for a bit. Sterling tells Grant that there's no need to worry, since he feels just as awkward as he does. Grant laughs. Dan intermediates, saying that it is kinda their thing to find lost kids. Grant jokingly remembers how Dan once said that they could drop out the trouble kids easily, and Dan says that really did not age well, to which the three laugh. Sterling tells Grant that some kids they found were not in great conditions... some died, even. Dan recalls the story of the fireman, as well as that of the teenage girl they met. Others showed up throughout their lives with sad stories of how they disappeared. Grant feels sorry, but he tells them that, at least, they've done good in that the one big hit song they had, happened to be one with such a powerful meaning. Sterling says that he genuinely apologizes to Grant for having taken his spot from the band. Grant laughs and says he's the one who's sorry, because he acted like a spoiled brat back then. He looks over as someone puts up a sign of a missing child on a wall, and says: "Sometimes, we are the ones who behave like children." Dan then reveals to the two of them why he wanted to collect pin-ups. He reveals that it's because he had a passion for something that would bring back memories, nostalgic memories, whether those be for him or for other people, and expresses interest in opening an art gallery in the future. Grant and Sterling pat him in the back, saying that if the day comes, they'll be there to see the gallery open. Dan smiles, saying that when he heard that they were gonna make a music video about missing kids... all he could think of was that: memories. Happy memories... or lost memories. Silence bestows the three.

 

Dave and Karl talk to each other alone. Karl tells Dave that the last few years have been crazy. Dave says that he should've known better than drop out of Columbia, but Karl tells him that he is better off not sucking Beinhorn's dick anymore. Dave gives in, saying that the idea for the Runaway Train video was Tony Kaye's, after all - "He deserves the credit a lot fucking more than I do." Karl laughs. Karl then says that his wife and him are happy, so maybe Dave should consider some time out. Dave says that he has been pondering it, a good break from all of this. He's just not sure if they're ever gonna be the same again. He says it - "I think we were nothing more than what we fear we were." Karl asks him what that is, and Dave replies: "A one-hit wonder." Karl takes a deep breath, takes the cigarette out of his mouth, and tells Dave that if they really are that, they should be grateful that their one hit was... Dave completes the phrase: "Runaway Train." Karl asks Dave why did making money ever mattered to him so much. Dave, bittersweetly, says he just didn't want Soul Asylum to be an opening act forever. Karl asks him if it had anything to do with Beinhorn, Dave just turns his face around and sips his drink. Karl tells him once again that the best ideas were those you least expect, and he happened to come across a great idea which led them to being at the top of the charts for a while. "But," says Karl, "I don't think that's what really matters here, if I'm honest." Dave then harkens back to the conversations with Tony Kaye, René Walsh, the teenage girl telling him that she was happy someone cared, and listening to news of lost kids being found, some of them thanks to Runaway Train making people aware of missing kids. He sings, one more time: "Runaway train, never going.... back | Wrong way.... on a one way track..." - he starts crying. Karl hugs him tight. Karl tells him that he's always gonna be there for him. Dave smiles crying, and says he's sorry for acting like a dick all these years. Karl tells him that he's his favorite dick. Dave ughs and pushes him, while Karl laughs.

 

Soul Asylum decide to take a break from big fame, instead focusing on a smaller scale of artistry.

 

2003

 

Dave, Karl and Sterling gather up with their families to visit Dan's art gallery, the Grapefuit Moon Gallery. The three are impressed with Dan's work, who thanks them. In comes Grant, who visits the group one more time. He and Dan look at each other and smile, without saying a word. The five men all hug. Dave then hugs Grant on his own, while Karl, Dan and Sterling look proud.

 

Outside of the gallery, local music reporters try to interview Soul Asylum. They ask Dave if they ever feel like they will return to their successful days in the 90's. Dave says that maybe they won't, and maybe they are one-hit wonders, but - pointing at the sky - we did something much better than just music. "We made people care." The five walk away, as we cut across the different members of the band.

 

- Dan Murphy retired from Soul Asylum in 2012. He then returned to music in 2020.

- Sterling Campbell had left Soul Asylum in 1998. He's still active in music. In the late 90's and onwards, he began advocating for human rights in China.

- Grant Young owned a resort with his wife after leaving Soul Asylum. Eventually, the two sold the resort. They operated another business, but dropped it too, and eventually divorced. He now lives in Iowa City, his hometown.

- Karl Mueller was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, due to his many years of smoking. He passed away in 2005.

- Dave Pirner continued to play with Soul Asylum. The band is still active today.

 

We cut back to the five men walking away, and then fade to black, to reveal more text in white.

 

- As of 2022, 25 of the 36 missing children from the original version of Runaway Train were found or returned home. Many other children from the UK and Canada were also found. However, many others are still missing.

 

End credits song: Soul Asylum - Making You Care (original song inspired by Rhinestone Cowboy)

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Among_Us.png

Studio Groundswell

Director: James Gunn

based on the video game by InnerSloth LLC

Genre: Comedy/Mystery

Release Date: December 25th, Y9

Theater Count: 3,850

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Blood, Violence, Some Language, and Crude Humor

Budget: $100 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 42 min

Original Score Composer: Jon Brion

 

Secret Cast Members (*SPOILERS*)

Spoiler

As every actor wears an identity-concealing spacesuit, the identities of the actors are kept secret until the very end of the film.

 

This is an experiment to have readers interacting with the film by guessing which actors play which characters.

 

The next drop-down box reveals the cast. Please do not click it if you haven't already read the film and don't want to be spoiled.

 

*This is your final warning.*

 

Spoiler

Sasha Lane as Cyan

Pete Davidson as Lime Green

Aubrey Plaza as Yellow

Daniel Kaluuya as Blue

Steven Yeun as Black

Emma Stone as Pink

Justin Roiland as Orange

Daniela Melchior as White

Michael Rooker as Purple

with Sean Gunn as Brown

and Adam Driver as Red

 

 

 

Note on the Film's Marketing

To maintain the surprise of which actors play which characters, Studio Groundswell made sure that none of the trailers or TV spots had any dialogue in them. Groundswell is aware that the actors' voices give them away, but because of the way Groundswell marketed the film, audiences have to buy tickets and get in the theater in order to hear the voices of the actors.

 

Plot Summary

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LtsB_G3YzamWt3ToHZiBggAx6xcZ-Y21KgqJKkMou5U/edit

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 1
  • Astonished 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Revenge Ex

Infinite Studios

Release Date: 5/23/Y9

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: Will Gluck

Rating: R

Budget: $37m

Theater Count: 3,925

Format: 2D 

Runtime: 108 minutes

Cast:

Zendaya as Emma

Tom Holland as Jonah

Jacob Elrodi as Kyler

Molly Gordon as Bethany

Leslie Grace as Trisssss

Unknowns as Abigail and Tim


 

Spoiler

The confident and driven Emma and extraverted party-dude Kyler were high school sweethearts. Both were polar opposites as Emma came from middle class as Tyler’s family was extra wealthy but fell for each other, having maintained a relationship throughout Emma’s college years while Kyler worked at the docks. Over the years, the relationship went semi-sour with their bits of trials and tribulations, as Emma wants to make more of her degree in business and climb the corporate ladder while working as Kyler had been laid off and is not really pulling his weight, with quarrels intensifying on the eve of Kyler older sister’s and one of Emma’s dear friends, Abigail’s wedding in just a month and a half about where their future is heading.

 

Emma and Kyler head to a surprise trip, in order for Kyler’s word to make things right, saying that he knows she is a huge fan of The Tim Tattler Show (a Jerry Springer Show expy) and arranged a surprise that will fix the relationship. However, upon going on stage with Tim Tattler (J.K. Simmons cameo-ing), it is revealed that Kyler has been cheating on Emma with Bethany, a Instagram-famous life coach since Emma went on to college and intends to dump her. Emma hears about this backstage and is furious and heartbroken as she rushes on the stage to confront this. Kyler explains it was for the best, and that he did her a favor as this is her favorite show and his way of making things right. Emma slaps him as Bethany comes on stage and makes out with Kyler, as Emma almost gets into a scrap with her before the bouncer comes to separate the two. Jonah, Bethany’s mousy boyfriend as well as business partner, comes on stage as Bethany coldly dumps him. Jonah splashes a cup of water on Kyler’s face as the two fight, as Emma, shell-shocked, walks off backstage, takes the car and heads to a bar, texting her friend Trisssss the whole dilemma, all while trying not to break down.

 

Trisssss and Emma have a good time at the club, as Emma drinks out her sorrows, confiding that she knew the relationship was doomed but why does it still hurt her. Trisssss admits it is true that when you have been with someone for so long, even if they were not good it hurts, but as she gives the speech, she is distracted by many notifications. Trisssss is revealed to be a part time influencer working on her own brand but has not had any luck (Trisssss is her social handle). Trisssss says the best way to forget about Kyler is to have a good time, which Emma does as she parties the night away, dancing, doing shots, and smoking pot. She also ends up hooking up with a guy who is also drunk as well, as the camera pans showing it to be Jonah.

 

The next morning, Emma wakes up with a hangover as she finds herself in bed with Jonah. Emma recognizes him from the Tim Tattler show as she attempts to sneak out but trips over what is shown to be a strap-on. Jonah wakes up and recognizes Emma, as he bashfully rambles apologizing about last night, hoping he didn’t take advantage of her. Jonah attempts to get up to find his wrist handcuffed to the bedpost. Emma insists it was consensual, sloppy and B- - range but consensual. In the air of awkward silence, Emma asks who was the strap-on for as she never remembered it being used on her, as Jonah bashfully smiles, revealing it was used on him. Emma attempts to find her car keys as she looks at her phone to see a post from Trisssss, revealing Trisssss took her car (and also in a drunken haze, went to Bethany’s house to key Kyler’s car). Jonah notes if it can’t get more awkward, he could drive her, which Emma accepts but Jonah notes he needs the key first, and not the one to the car. 

 

The two make some small talk as Jonah drives Emma to her house. Emma sympathizes with him being cheated on by his partner as well as their exes cheating on them with each other as the two bond over how shitty their partners were as well as even though they were hurt, both of them miss their ex. Emma then has an idea to fake date, which Jonah is skeptical until Emma explains the logic behind it, noting both of their exes are egotistical narcissists and when no one is sucking them off, they’ll suck up to those who are not sucking them and what better way than if it were their exes. Jonah is briefly confused, asking why she is doing an oral euphemism as Emma responds she still is very hungover.

 

Emma and Jonah agree to pretend to be a fake couple in order to spite their exes and get them to come back begging to their respective partner. Emma plans to rebuff Kyler as Jonah wants Bethany back. Trisssss joins in on the scheme as she could gain clout on social media by helping them become trendsetters, she will obviously run the operation as both have busy lives. The trio plans to have the lead up to Abigail’s wedding in less than 45 days with the meet up in Cancun in just 42 days. By the time Kyler and Bethany see them being happy and doing good, those two will go mad with jealousy, with one of them making a big scene about it. 

 

The few weeks in the experiment is a complete failure. This is due a to a number of failed outings like a date at the movies, amusement park, ice skating and a fancy restaurant due to inability to other couples being a bit too affectionate and rowdy in the theater, neither Emma or Jonah being able to skate or neither of their stomachs being handle the high velocities of a rollercoaster and a complication of the restaurant menus being in French which Emma only can partially read, accidentally causes Jonah’s shellfish allergy to flare up. Work also complicates things as the two have different schedules which makes spending time, fake or real, harder.

 

The trio recoup at a local bar as Emma and Jonah consider quitting the scheme until Trisssss suggest why not just take a day to get to know each other. Jonah asks like a date, as Emma snarks as they went well the last few times, as Trisssss says it does not have to be a date, just hanging out or whatever.

 

Emma and Jonah agree with this planning to meet up the upcoming Friday. However, at the last minute, Emma has some paperwork dumped on her, forcing her to cancel but Jonah offers to help. The two meet up at Emma’s apartment as Emma goes through the paperwork with ease, just acknowledging it’s mainly busy work, thanking Jonah. Jonah notes it is not like he had much better to do on a Friday night, as his American accent suddenly slips to British, which Emma picks up on. Jonah, in an attempt to change the subject, notices blueprints for a pitch.

 

Emma explains that she is working on a pitch for a new cleaning product, these past few weeks and whoever delivers the best slogan receives a sizable bonus. Jonah lights up as he’s passionate about the marketing aspect behind it. Jonah notes that he works as a sales analyst and used to handle Bethany’s marketing affairs of the products she would sell to her followers. Jonah comes up with a few dorky but effective slogans and advice for Emma to deal with her jitters. The two have fun until Jonah’s stomach growls as the two decide to settle on dinner, at a local Mexican restaurant.

 

The two actually strike up a decent conversation, as they learn more about each other, revealing funny stories about themselves, favorites from food to music  to even books as both discover that they are avid readers and even do a bit of karaoke. Jonah also reveals that he is actually from Britain, and that he and his mum moved her during his middle school years. Jonah was picked on but Bethany was one of the first friends he gained here as he struggled with his own confidence and the two also dated during sophomore year of high school. Bethany was the one to convince him to drop the accent as it made him seem off.

 

Emma voices her disapproval of his treatment which Jonah agrees, but overtime he became complacent as he felt for a brief period that without Bethany, he felt not worthy and while he doesn’t feel like that now, he still misses her. Emma advises Jonah to move on as well as pointing out to Jonah that he is not just a good catch but a good guy as Jonah thanks her, eyes and smile glowing. The two head back to Emma’s apartment but both hesitate to say goodbye. Emma asks Jonah if he wants to spend the night over which Jonah smiles. The camera shows shoes knocked all over the place to a couch as it pans up to see the two of them… just watching Netflix and not chilling.

 

After that, the following weeks goes more smoothly. The planned dates are going along well, with a few grand romantic gestures to help sell the deal. Jonah begins to embrace his British accent as Emma even sells her pitch which is a huge success. The next day, Jonah surprises Emma at the office with flowers and Candy to congratulate her, which goes viral. During this, Kyler and Bethany does notice on social media. Bethany comments that it seems kind of phony as Kyler notes it doesn’t matter and the two should just ignore it. Meanwhile as time goes on, Emma and Jonah also begin to slowly fall for each other.

 

On the morning of the Cancun trip, Emma and Jonah show up ready to go, as the two walk through their plan one more time, as the two seem completely in sync. Emma helps fix Jonah’s tie as the two gaze into each other’s eyes for a minute but just as they instinctively lean in for a kiss, Trisssss walks in letting them know they are running late. The three hurry as they hitch a plane there, as Emma and Jonah talk about that moment, Emma insists it was just nerves but that the two of them have this down. Jonah mostly agrees, although secretly a bit disappointed.

 

Upon arriving to Cancun, Jonah, Emma and Trisssss are impressed by the luxurious resort that Abigail is having her reception at. The trio run into Abigail, who unlike Kyler is both down to earth and very sweet as well as her fiancé Tim. Emma and Abigail catch up with Abigail apologizing for how Kyler treated her as Emma insists she found a new guy, introducing them to Jonah.

 

Kyler and Bethany arrive as well, both of whom are condescending towards their exes, happy they got their leftovers. The day proceeds with a bunch of fun activities like interacting with the dolphins and sea turtles or sampling alcohol or dancing as Emma and Jonah at first exaggerate their “love” for one another but the two have so much fun together, it becomes less phony and more cute which gets to Kyler and Bethany, making both seethed and correctly paranoid, it’s a sting to make them look bad.

 

At brunch the next day, Kyler and Bethany challenge Emma and Jonah to some “friendly” competition as a way to blow off some steam. Abigail and Trisssss both see right through Kyler and Bethany’s charade try to talk down Emma and Jonah from accepting, which the duo declines at first until Kyler makes a backhanded statement towards Emma. The couples compete in binge drinking, couples’ bungie jumping, and beach volleyball throughout a montage, as the two couples are tied.

 

This culminates into a competitive jet-ski race on the beach between the couples. Kyler and Bethany take the lead at first, while neither Emma or Jonah have handled a jet ski, narrowly dodging rocks but with their cooperation and quick thinking manage to take back the lead. Kyler and Bethany also manage to comically crash onto the shore, as Bethany’s extensions are ruining due to the water. Kyler and Bethany get into a huge fight and quite publicly break up. 

 

As the day ends, Emma, Trisssss and Jonah head back to the hotel room to celebrate their victory but neither Emma nor Jonah are over the moon about their 45 day plan practically succeeding but over the day they had. Trisssss, noticing the obvious chemistry gives the fake couple some time for themselves as the two decide to go for a walk on the beach, before finding Tim playing a guitar song for Abigail. 

 

Both apologize to Abigail but she accepts it, noting that Kyler and Bethany were both out of line the whole vacation. Jonah compliments Tim guitar playing as he informs Tim he using to be in a band back in middle school, and could provide vocals to heighten the song, The two perform an original love song “Heartbeat” to their partners, who also join in on the singing. When the song ends, Emma embraces Jonah as the two debate how corny it was which results in the two of them sleeping together again but unlike the previous time where it was drunken impulses, it was a unison of pure passion. 

 

The next morning on the day of the wedding, the two wake up joyously next to each other, as Emma freaks out a bit. Jonah confides to Emma that he has fallen for her, for real and would like to begin a real relationship. Emma, conflicted with different emotions of love and fear, doesn’t give Jonah an answer and instead avoids him for the day, even at the wedding between Abigail and Tim which goes off without a hitch.

 

In fact, at one point as she debates with herself on what to say Emma runs into a stall as Trisssss confronts her. Emma confides to Trisssss she has gained feelings for Jonah, as Trisssss is happy for her but confused why it is a problem. Emma is afraid she may just be a rebound for Bethany and is not ready yet for a relationship right now despite her feelings for Jonah. Trisssss encourages Emma to follow her heart and not her head, which Abigail agrees with and overhears. Emma apologizes about all the drama to Abigail who accepts the apology but warns her, that when she and Jonah get married, she jokes that she’ll be petty enough to air out any drama between herself and Tim.

 

Meanwhile, a heartbroken Jonah heads to the bar for a drink, running into Bethany and confides to her (without telling her the obvious truth) about some problems he and Emma had last night. Bethany flirts with Jonah, convincing him to get back together with her, noting that even though she was not the best girlfriend, she could at least be open with her feelings. Emma runs to Jonah, even humorously pushing Kyler aside who gives her a half-hearted apology.

 

Emma attempts to explain but Jonah reveals he had decided to get back with Bethany. The two argue for a bit as a heartbroken Emma, decides to calmly cut ties with Jonah, wishing him the best, just lamenting she thought he was different. A week goes by after the Cancun trip as Jonah despite being with Bethany is clearly unsatisfied. Trisssss confronts Jonah herself and angrily informs Jonah, Emma did love him back but didn’t have the courage to tell him. 

 

Stunned by this, Jonah realizes his mistake and decides to talk to Bethany about it, in order to let her down easy. Bethany notes it doesn’t matter as they are together while also inadvertently revealing the main reason she came back to him was because of business reasons. Jonah coldly dumps Bethany and attempts to reconnect with Emma, meeting back up at the club where they first formally met, finding both her and Trisssss but both are understandably cold to him,

 

Jonah talks to Trisssss alone though and convinces her, he really is sorry and loves Emma as Jonah decides to win her back by performing Heartbeat on the stage of the DJ which hyped up the crowd but Jonah trips over a wire, breaking the equipment causing him to get booed and rushed off stage. Emma, touched by this display, decides to confront Jonah as the two reconicle. A year or so later, the two are a happy couple with healthy lives as the two attempt to make surprise proposals to each other which both of them accepting.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites



GRACE AND MERCY

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Stella Meghie

Genre: Dramedy

Release Date: October 31st, Y9

Theaters: 2,754

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Language and Thematic Elements

Budget: $20 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 27 min

 

Cast

Tiffany Haddish as Tessica Brown

André Holland as Kenan*

Da'vine Joy Randolph as Latoya*

Dominique Fishback as Shanice*

Natasha Rothwell as Arrie*

Samira Wiley as Imani*

Myles Truitt as Sam*

[unknown child actors as the three daughters]

with Mike Colter as Dr. Michael Obeng

and Oprah Winfrey as Marianne*

 

* = denotes a name-change

 

Logline

A loose cinematic retelling of the gorilla glue incident that took place around February 2021 when Louisiana native Tessica Brown, a hard-working single mother, mistakenly used spray-on gorilla glue to style her hair.

 

Tagline

Many black women care deeply about their hair.

Tessica Brown is no exception.

 

Note: This is a work of fiction and some of the story beats have been created uproot for this film, but it is based on real events. (credit to @MCKillswitch123, I copied this note off of what's on Runaway Train 😅)

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c4wfhGis6EI7aicC2O5vXmm_XcAczB8_JB1nrUIffnM/edit

Edited by SLAM!
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites



VIXEN

and the Castle

of Doom

 

Based On: Vixen and the Flaming Feather, by Gianluigi Toccafondo

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment, Phoenix Fire Artstyles, Scott Free Productions

Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman and Gianluigi Toccafondo

Producer: Ridley Scott

 

Genre: Animation/Fantasy

Release Date: December 25th Y9

Theater Count: 2867

Rating: PG, for strong thematic material and sequences of heavy peril

Format: 2D

Budget: $15.8 million

Runtime: 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes)

 

Voice Cast:

- Katherine Langford as Vixen

- Awkwafina as the Castle of Doom

- Ian McShane as Warthog

- Naomi Watts as Flyleaf

- Kevin Michael Richardson as Bigeye

- and James Hong as the Elderly Dragon

 

Note on Animation: The opening prologue is done on the vein of Scott Free Productions' logo, while the remaining film is stylized after Loving Vincent.

 

Previous Films' Box Office:

- Vixen and the Flaming Feather, Y7 - $6,110,765 OW / $25,104,664 DOM / $34,011,795 WW

 

Plot Summary: To rid the Great Land of a presumed deadly threat, Vixen must travel to the Castle of Doom.

 

Plothttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1fr2Pj7oWdfiuUS0OYKtf_qHyEjeSM8KfT2ouPs30VeA/edit?usp=sharing

 

Edited by MCKillswitch123
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Guidelines. Feel free to read our Privacy Policy as well.