SLAM! Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 TUMBLEWEED Studio Groundswell Director: Gus Van Sant Genre: Western/Slow Cinema Release Date: September 12th, Y9 Theater Count: 2,545 MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Blood and Violence Budget: $10m Runtime: 1 hr 37m Original Score Composer: Carter Burwell - Cast members are unknowns/C-listers. - Filmed in a slow style a la Last Days. - Dialogue is rarely (if ever) front-and-center. - Racially-blind casting, despite the setting. Plot Summary Spoiler Fade in on the landscape of the American desert. We begin with a collection of still landscape shots. These shots gradually get closer to a ball of tumbleweed until we see the tumbleweed up close. We stay on the tumbleweed for a while. Then the wind picks up. The tumbleweed fidgets a bit, and then the wind carries the tumbleweed off the dirt. The tumbleweed 'tumbles' across the landscape, and a variety of shot types capture the movement of the tumbleweed. There's a dolly shot that tracks it as it barrels forward, and then there's a shot where the camera pans with the tumbleweed as it travels across the American west. Nevertheless, the tumbleweed keeps going. Morning gives way to afternoon as the tumbleweed tumbles to a stereotypical Western town, one with the inn, the saloon, the jail, the town hall, the candy store. It's got everything you'd want in your imagined smattering of Western-era buildings. People go about their business, and the tumbleweed observes as the town's people go to and fro. The wind pushes the tumbleweed into the town, with no one noticing it. The tumbleweed gets pinned under the elevated floor of a building and watches from behind the wooden staircase. A stagecoach pulls up in the road, and the tumbleweed watches as interesting caricatures like a man in a tuxedo and bowling hat, women in dresses, and cowboys step out of the stagecoach. We focus on one particular cowboy; he has a checkered red scarf, so let's call him Red. Red casually mentions (as we hear from a distance) that he's dropping in for the night and that he'll continue on to where he's headed when the next morning comes. The Tumbleweed wants to continue on as well, but it's stuck underneath the floorboard. Time passes by as we get a lengthy shot of the tumbleweed stuck under the floorboard as it watches people go to and fro. Then a young man, one who's seen the tumbleweed, walks up to it. He tries to grab it, but he yanks his hand back as the tumbleweed has prickly thorns in it. The young man squints his eyes and reaches again, as he's found a new approach to grabbing. The young man grabs it and walks off, carrying the tumbleweed in his hands. The young man enters a horse stable and throws the tumbleweed to a stack of hay barrels. The young man starts taking hay and putting it in stables for the horses to eat. From the tumbleweed's point of view, we see horses staring at it from the stables. We get prolonged shots of these horses; they are different breeds of horses, some Clydesdale, some Stallion. An older man storms in, finds the tumbleweed near the hay barrels, and picks up. This older man isn't no pushover; he grabs the thorny tumbleweed without moaning or groaning. The older man, probably the owner, argues with the young man, probably an apprentice, because the horses aren't supposed to eat tumbleweed, they're supposed to eat hay. The stable owner throws the tumbleweed outside and storms back into the stables. The tumbleweed sits there for a moment before the wind picks it up again. This time, the tumbleweed gets stuck underneath the staircase of the candy store. There's kids bouncing up and down on the wooden stairs of the candy store. At one point, the camera watches them bounce on the stairs from beneath the stairs. A motherly voice tells the kids to stop bouncing up and down, and to rush in and pick the candies they want. We get a long unbroken shot of the tumbleweed underneath the stairs as the kids, the mother, and the store owner interact in the store before they leave. Across the town, at the jail, there's a repetitive banging on the bars of the window. The wind picks up, and the tumbleweed isn't stuck anymore. The tumbleweed rolls closer and closer to the jail, and the banging keeps up and gets louder and louder as we get closer. Upon a closer look, we see that the banging is from a prisoner who's been throwing a metal cup at the window over and over again. The sheriff not too kindly asks the prisoner to stop. And so it stops. Then a bumbling deputy steps in the tumbleweed, attaching it to his foot. This means the tumbleweed goes inside of the jail with him. The deputy finally notices and kicks the tumbleweed off toward the corner. The tumbleweed sits there as the deputy goes about his business, and the prisoner sits in his cell, curled up in a ball and ravaged by defeat, while the sheriff leans back at his desk and watches the prisoner like a hawk. At one point, the prisoner locks eyes with the tumbleweed, and they have a moment as they stare at each other. The sheriff walks over and grabs the tumbleweed. "This gets to leave," says the sheriff to the prisoner. The sheriff throws the tumbleweed out of the jail and walks back in, leaving the tumbleweed alone again. We get long unbroken shots of the tumbleweed just sitting there as the people of the town go about their business. Night falls. We hear some activity coming from the saloon as the tumbleweed watches from afar. The wind picks up, and the tumbleweed tumbles closer and gets stuck in a place where it can practically see the entirety of the saloon. Men are laughing and drinking beer. There's a man playing the piano. Then men and women dance with one another, with others clapping along to the music. The saloon radiates with ravishing energy. We spend a while in this moment. Later, at a moment when things have quieted down, we see Red inside the saloon. We had seen him in other saloon shots; in fact, we've seen him dancing with a particular woman. And now, we see him asking that woman upstairs. We see the woman trying to refuse. Red pressures her into coming with him. The woman reluctantly follows him upstairs as the tumbleweed watches. A night breeze carries the tumbleweed around the saloon. The tumbleweed slowly tumbles until it stops below a second story window. The tumbleweed watches as something goes on inside of that room. There's a light repetitive thumping noise and some gasping. We listen to the whole thing, it takes many minutes. After that, silence. The tumbleweed sits in its own silence. It's a cold night, with a black sky and no more breeze. The tumbleweed sits in the discomfort of the moment for a while. Hours pass. The tumbleweed continues sitting there. Suddenly, the sky rises over the horizon, coloring the town in orange shades. We watch the sunrise color the town in real time. The sun manages to make the tumbleweed glisten in its sunlight. The tumbleweed continues watching the sun's rising as the score swells. It's morning now. There's a strange amount of hustle and bustle. The wind picks up, meaning the tumbleweed gets to follow the crowd. the tumbleweed settles behind the crowd and sees what the crowd sees: the prisoner from before is on a wooden stage about to be hanged for his crimes. For some reason, the deputy isn't there. The sheriff and the town's authorities go through the motions of their pre-hanging ceremony and ask the prisoner if he has any last words. The prisoner shakes his head. The authorities say the final phrases and make their final preparations. Meanwhile, the prisoner looks up, and his expression lights up as he sees the tumbleweed staring at him from afar. The other men cover the prisoner's head in a bag, and the prisoner gets the barrel kicked out from under him. We dolly in on the tumbleweed as the prisoner chokes until he's dead. Someone gasps and shouts "duel!" All the townsfolk scramble in a frenzy (even while the tumbleweed stays still). We get shots of the townsfolk running around and running inside their safe spaces, shutting the doors and windows of each and every building. Even the sheriff scrambles back to the jail. The tumbleweed has a front row seat as it sees two men who are about to have a classic cowboy gunslinger duel. It's Red and the bumbling deputy. We get many shots of Red, the deputy, and the tumbleweed as they each wait to see who'll make the first move. The scene takes its sweet time since both Red and the deputy are taking their time. Then, it happens in a flash as both cowboys pull out their guns. BANG. The tumbleweed watches as the two cowboys stand still, huffing and puffing. Then the deputy slowly looks down at his chest and sees the trickle of blood streaming down his clothes and staining his badge. The deputy looks up in disbelief as a few drops of blood trickle out of his mouth. Red twirls his gun and holsters it. The deputy falls to one knee before resting on both. The deputy looks up at the sky, perhaps at heaven. The deputy lets out a small laugh and falls face-first to the ground as the last of his life squeezes out of him. The tumbleweed watches as Red slowly marches to the deputy's body. Red stands over the deputy's body and says nothing. Windows on the saloon's second story burst open as the woman looks down at the carnage. We get a high-angle shot looking down at Red and the deputy's dead body. The woman gasps and rushes away. We hear the offscreen stomping of the woman hurrying down the saloon's staircase. After a moment, the woman bursts out of the saloon and rushes to the carnage. Red steps back as the woman falls down at the deputy's body. She realizes that the deputy's dead, and she cries over the body as the tumbleweed watches. The woman finishes crying and glares at Red. Red fixes his belt and grabs the woman by the arm, but the woman wrestles away and stares angrily at Red. Red, confused, tries to grab the woman again, but the woman keeps wrestling and eventually slaps Red. They stare at each other, and it sets in for Red: winning the duel doesn't mean he gets her. The woman stoops back down and continues to mourn the deputy's death. Red stands there for a minute, as he accepts his defeat. He turns around to go elsewhere, but he freezes. The sheriff is there. The sheriff raises his pistol and shoots Red. Red gasps; he looks down and sees that blood is gushing out of a wound on his chest. Red realizes that he's going to die as well. The tumbleweed watches as Red falls down. Red chooses to lay down facing the woman so the woman and the deputy are the last things he sees before he, too, passes away. The dejected sheriff holsters and walks across the town. He steps over Red's body and kneels down next to the woman, joining her in mourning the deputy's death. The tumbleweed watches them mourn for a bit. Then a wind, the strongest gust of wind we've seen, pushes the tumbleweed away. The score swells, and the camera stays on the tumbleweed as it tumbles away from the sheriff and the woman. The tumbleweed also tumbles over Red's dead body. The tumbleweed tumbles and tumbles and tumbles, and it even tumbles outside of the town. The camera watches as the tumbleweed goes back into the desert, leaving the town behind. We end with more landscape shots before fading to black. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 GRAN TURISMO Based On: Gran Turismo, by Polyphony Digital Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment, PlayStation Studios Director: Jamie Babbit Genre: Sports Release Date: August 8th Y9 Theater Count: 3462 Rating: PG-13, for some scenes of language and drinking Format: 2D, 3D Budget: $60 million Runtime: 110 minutes (1 hour and 50 minutes) Cast: - Ken Watanabe as B-spec - Unknowns Plot: Spoiler B-spec (Ken Watanabe), a former racing driver and now current co-pilot, leads Team Evolution, a brand new force in motorsport, which is assembling ahead of the biggest competition in the world, the Gran Turismo World Championship. Hanna, a 19 year old college student from Minnesota, is one of the best eSports racing drivers in the world, and she is recruited by B-spec to be part of Team Evolution. Hanna agrees, and she becomes a part of the team. She struggles with the racing driver license tests, but no soon, she learns to dick around with the car optimizations and manages to improve her actual real driving skills just enough, right on time before Team Evolution buys a bunch of new cars to participate in some rookie competitions. Throughout the movie, Hanna competes in a number of different, increasingly more difficult race trophies and championships, and does well in a few of them, winning money and new cars for Team Evolution. By halfway through the movie, they already own a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR, an Opel Speedster, a Buick Special and a Toyota GT-One, the latter which Hanna uses as her go to car, after having earned enough money to buy it. But B-spec is not pleased with the fact that she still commits some rookie mistakes on the track, and becomes condescending toward her. Their relationship sours, as Team Evolution is finally allowed to compete in the Gran Turismo World Championship. In the first few races of the Gran Turismo World Championship, Hanna does pretty well at first, but by the fourth, B-spec's aggressive directions drive her to lose focus and, eventually, the race as well. Hanna and B-spec are angry at each other. Later, they have a conversation: B-spec admits that he's trepidatious about Hanna because she has little experience as a racing driver, and he simply wants to not lose his reputation as a legend in the business. Hanna admits that yeah, she's a rookie, but she's got too much to give and feels like B-spec has become too overbearing on her, subtly asking him to let it down a bit. B-spec gets the note and the two make mends. (The final race is shot as a legitimate racing sequence. The entire story of the movie was molded after this scene, where every actor in the castings/tryouts raced in different cars. The winner would be the leading star of the film.) In the final race, held in Circuit de La Sarthe - the race track where the 24 Hour Le Mans competition occurs anually - Hanna messes up initially, but by the third and final lap, she squeezes tightly between some of her rivals, and manages to sneak away with the win on her Toyota GT-One. As a reward, Team Evolution win the Gran Turismo World Championship trophy, a lot of money and, as a reward car, a Ferrari F40. Hanna and B-spec hug, as we fade to black to the sound of Moon Over the Castle. The end credits play to Panama by Van Halen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted July 3, 2022 Share Posted July 3, 2022 Heart of The Amazon Studio: Creatures Incorporated Release Date: 4/11/Y9 Genre: Nature Documentary Director: Drew Fellman Rating: G Budget: $5M Theater Count: 2,491 Runtime: 82 minutes Narrator: Sofia Vergera Composer: George Fenton Plot: We follow the life of the various fauna of the Amazon Rainforest split up throughout the narrative, like Namor the Amazaon River Dolphin attempting to attract a mate, Pepa the Jaguar attempting to raise her cubs, Manuel the baby Howler Monkey attempting to find his pack and Cassie the Capybara trying to get food. The documentary also focuses how the deforestation and interference by man has made it harder for these animals to live there. The animals overcome their hardships at the end of the story but also point out that it’s up to us to do our part to make sure the rainforest stays thriving. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted July 5, 2022 Share Posted July 5, 2022 (edited) THE LAST VICTIM Studio Groundswell Director: André Øvredal Genre: Horror Release Date: March 14th, Y9 Theater Count: 3,150 MPAA Rating: R for Language, Violence, Blood, and Disturbing Imagery and Themes Budget: $30 Million Runtime: 1 hr 55 min Original Score Composer: Marco Beltrami Cast Skyler Gisondo as Ollie Rachel Sennott as Sarah Keann Johnson as James Madison Iseman as Lisa Henry Hunter Hall as Frank Piper Curda as Annie and Caleb Landry Jones as Killer Bee Logline A college student helps his friends survive against a masked serial killer after their cabin-in-the-woods Spring Break trip goes awry. - Flashbacks in italics. - No animals were harmed in the making of this film. Plot Summary (shy of 8k) Spoiler Fade in as the camera floats past rows of trees. Behind the trees, there’s a sedan with a kayak tied to its roof. It’s headed down the road, further into the woods. Inside, in the right side of the backseat, sandwiched between the door and the three others to his left, is Ollie (Gisondo), a reserved young man who’s quietly playing sudoku while the others chit-chat. In front of him in the shotgun seat sits Sarah (Sennott), the girl he’s crushing on. Ollie looks up as Sarah presses her hands against the ceiling and, to stretch, slides her hands backward toward Ollie. Ollie lifts a hand up, but he hesitates, and Sarah pulls her hands back, bumming Ollie out. The car parks in front of a secluded two-story lodge. There’s an outdoor calico cat named Mittens who scurries away at the sight of the car. James (Johnson), the camo-hat guy who drove them there, stares at the lodge with Sarah—they’re brother and sister. They’re happy they pulled off a spring break trip to their family cabin. Lisa (Iseman) and Annie (Curda) exchange some banter while Frank (Hall) opens the car’s trunk. When they all go to the trunk, Ollie grabs Sarah’s bag and hands it to her in front of everyone. Ollie’s crushing is obvious to everyone, but he's oblivious to them knowing about it. Sarah takes her bag and says “thanks Ollie” with a wink. They head inside, take their shoes off at the front entrance, and pick bedrooms (but not before James and Lisa confirm their plan to stay in the same room, as they’re boyfriend and girlfriend). We get some moments in each room; Annie crashes onto bed to read a book, and Frank rummages through drawers, finding a wooden yo-yo. Lisa sets up picture frames in her room, one of them being a group photo of this friend group, where they’re all at a nighttime party and holding red cups. In the living room, Sarah sets up a canvas and easel while James admires the hunting rifle hanging next to deer busts on the wall. We get to Ollie’s room where he opens his bag. He gasps and pulls a bouquet of roses out of his bag. He’d stuffed the bouquet inside last minute, and now the roses are dead. He hears footsteps, throws the bouquet under the bed, and stands at attention as Sarah walks in to tell him everyone’s headed downstairs. Ollie nods. She asks if he’s alright, and Ollie answers “peachy keen.” Sarah comes back with “peachy come down soon, okay?” and walks off. Ollie gets the flowers back and examines them; then he drops them and buries his hands in his face. Cut to the first floor as Ollie heads downstairs and slowly walks to the kitchen. He heads through the hall and overhears everyone else’s small talk (about Mittens and about Frank’s yo-yo). He turns the corner and sees that James has set a clear time lock container on the island table. James explains that he wants everyone to lock their smartphones in the container so they can “unplug” during their week at the lodge. Annie thinks it’s a dumb idea, but Frank’s in support of it. Sarah says, “what about emergencies” and James explains that he knows how to force it open if something happens. Ollie is the first one to put their phone in, and the others follows. Lisa tries charming James into let her keep hers for music, but James insists, so she hands it over. Everyone watches as James locks the container. Cut to a nearby lake. Sarah dives off a floating dock, where everyone’s currently sitting and chatting. Well, all except for Ollie, who’s sitting on a wooden dock a little further away. Sarah swims up and asks if he wants to join the others, but Ollie forgot his bathing suit at home, so he’ll sit by himself. Sarah starts to swim away. But Ollie reconsiders. He stands up, thinks for a moment, and jumps into the water fully clothed. He dips below the water and resurfaces, and he rubs the water from his eyes and sees Sarah in the water; she’s smiling at him. Cut to later in the day after they’ve all changed outfits. They’re outside playing cornhole. Ollie and Frank at one board, Sarah and James at the other—it’s Ollie and Sarah versus James and Frank, with Lisa and Annie explaining the rules and keeping score, respectively. While Sarah and James throw their bean bags, Frank whispers to Ollie if he should pretend to lose so Ollie can impress Sarah. Ollie thinks for a moment, and he pushes up his glasses and tells Frank it won’t be necessary. When it’s his turn, Ollie throws all four bean bags into the hole. Everyone goes crazy, with Lisa and Annie running to give Ollie high fives while an amazed James pretends to pass out from getting beat so bad. Sarah also approaches Ollie and says “don’t get too cocky, we still have a whole game left”—with another wink, of course. Cut to a campfire scene as everyone roasts marshmallows together. The conversation turns from “man that was a crazy cornhole match” to “where do you think you’ll be in five years.” Answers vary; Lisa wants to be a nurse, James wants to start a business, Frank wants to coach baseball, and Annie wants to be an author. Sarah wants to be the kind of painter that sells a collection of paintings in coffee shops. They get to Ollie, who tells them that he doesn’t know, and that he tries to imagine his future, but it’s all hazy and undefined. Everyone encourages him, and they tell him there’s plenty of time for him to figure things out. Ollie looks at Sarah, then at the fire. That night, James and Frank tiptoe to the outside of one of the girls’ rooms. They press their ears against the door. Inside, Sarah, Lisa, and Annie are doing girl stuff like nails and braiding hair, and they’re talking about how it’s obvious Ollie’s crushing on Sarah. “You like him, don’t you?” Lisa asks. Sarah says it doesn’t matter whether she does if Ollie’s too afraid to tell her how he feels; she confirms to the girls that she’s waiting for Ollie to say something before she acts. James and Frank, having heard it all, sneak over to Ollie’s room and tell him he’s running out of time to tell Sarah how he feels. Ollie’s nervous about it, so Frank reminds him that he’s been putting in some work, like getting her the bag, jumping into the water, out-cornholing James, so all the preparations are in place. Ollie’s still nervous, so James suggests that tomorrow, he should go for a walk in the woods alone, and he can think about how to tell Sarah while he’s on his walk. Ollie likes this idea. As they turn to leave, James looks back and shouts “break a leg, ya lovestruck varmint!” causing Ollie to throw a pillow as James and Frank snicker. Smash cut to the woods at night. A mouse scurries around and stops for a moment to examine some acorns. Mittens jump from the bush and snatches the mouse. The mouse squeaks and squirms as Mittens’ jaws clamp down on it. Mittens runs back into the bushes to feast in private. The sun rises and its sunshine spills across the woods. We cut back to the lodge, where everyone’s waking up for a new day. Frank, playing with his yo-yo, walks down the hallway and into the kitchen. Annie’s seated at the island table reading a book, Lisa’s cooking, and Ollie’s leaning against a counter sipping coffee and looking out at the room. Annie says about Frank’s yo-yo, “be careful where you fling that thing,” and Frank jokes saying, “that’s what she said.” Then James comes in, yawns, gravitates to Lisa, and stands behind her as she cooks, flirting in a way that makes her laugh. After watching, Ollie sets the mug in the sink and quietly slips out. Ollie puts on flip-flops at the front entrance. Next to him is the living room, where Sarah’s setting up to paint. Ollie says, “hey Sarah,” and when she looks at him, he sort of shrivels up. He tells her that he has something important to tell her when he gets back from his walk. Sarah says she’ll be there when he gets back; she goes back to setting up. After a moment, Ollie walks out. We get fading shots of Ollie as he walks out of the lodge and heads into the woods on his own. He talks to himself about the words he’ll say to Sarah. Then it happens: he finds a path in the woods, and the path leads to a field. He walks to the field and sees that it’s covered in flowers. He starts picking flowers from the field so he can make a new bouquet. Then he looks up with a doe-eyed gaze and sees a man (Jones) lying down on top of the hill. This man is Killer Bee. Ollie stands up to get a better look. Killer Bee’s dressed in all black and wears a hornet mask. (He never takes off the mask.) Suddenly, he rises, and Ollie flinches. The man stands up without touching his hands to the ground, bending his upper body backward before coiling it forward into a hunch. He says to Ollie, his voice reeking of evil, “it’s a beautiful day. Don’t you agree?” Ollie, in shock, asks him what the mask is for. He doesn’t reply to that and instead tells him that the flowers belong to him. Ollie apologizes and stammers that he must go, but Killer Bee lunges in front of him and leans in, and Ollie freezes. Killer Bee: What is your name? Ollie: Uh… Ollie. Killer Bee: Hmm… Ollie… Ollie stammers trying to excuse himself, but Killer Bee asks him why he’s taking his flowers. Ollie reveals that it’s for a girl. This piques Killer Bee’s interest. He asks Ollie what flower she is, catching Ollie off guard. Killer Bee keeps asking this over and over, getting right in front of Ollie and towering over him as Ollie backs away. Ollie falls on his back and, remembering the bouquet, says that she’s a rose. Killer Bee likes this answer; he steps around Ollie and heads down the path. Ollie, realizing something’s gone very bad, gets up and runs to him. As they’re going down the path, Ollie yells at Killer Bee to wait, but Killer Bee keeps going. Ollie listens in as Killer Bee rambles about a man named Dandelion Dave. About pollinating. About plucking each petal from her. About this being his turn to give nectar. About making her his queen. Ending with a quote: “we’re just pollen in the breeze. That’s all we are. That’s all we ever will be.” Ollie gets in front of Killer Bee, which stops him in his tracks, and he tells the killer that if he wants to touch his girl, “you’ll have to get through me.” And that’s when Killer Bee brandishes a black dagger and tells Ollie he has no problem getting through him. Finally realizing the danger he’s in, Ollie runs away as Killer Bee follows. Ollie, who should not have worn flip-flops, gets to the path’s end and tries to make a turn, but slips on pine straw and falls to the ground. Ollie groans in pain as he discovers that his ankle’s twisted. Ollie stands to his feet and sees that Killer Bee is too close for comfort. Ollie tries to limp away, but he trips on tree roots and falls. Ollie desperately crawls backward while Killer Bee steps over the tree roots with ease. Ollie tries to stand up again, but Killer Bee steps on his twisted ankle to stop him. Killer Bee gets on top of Ollie and raises the knife. “Hey, wait!” says Ollie. Then Killer Bee plunges the knife. Schunk. Ollie looks down and sees the blade in his lower chest. Killer Bee pulls the dagger out. Ollie slowly walks away, but he leans against another tree and stops to examine the wound as blood pours out of it. Killer Bee grabs him and throws him to the ground. Ollie crawls away from Killer Bee on all fours before Killer Bee kicks him onto his back. Killer Bee pins him down again and stabs him repeatedly. At one point, the dagger gets stuck between two of Ollie’s ribs, and Killer Bee yanks it out to continue stabbing. Ollie coughs blood and flails around, grasping at pine straw and looking for a way out (but he doesn’t find it). Killer Bee stabs him for a final time and stands up as the life fades away from Ollie. Then Killer Bee slings the body over his shoulder and carries him away. Ollie steps into frame as a ghost, looking fully-human without any bloodstains, and no one can see him or hear him. He monologues as Killer Bee walks away, saying things like “that’s not me” or “this is a dream” or “I’ll be back in my body soon.” But Killer Bee walks away, leaving Ollie’s ghost alone, and it dawns on Ollie that it’s all over. Ollie kicks some pine straw. Then we get a shot of an invisible presence kicking pine straw. After a scene where Ollie walks to the edge of the lake to see his reflection (which doesn’t appear), Ollie spends time alone in the woods. He gets angry and kicks pine straw and throws pine straw around. Then he shouts at an empty space, attempting to bargain with any entity at all, since if he’s dead then he just wants to move on to the afterlife. But nothing responds to him. We get a shot of Ollie lying down under a tree, and he thinks for a moment and says “I wish I could tell you how I really felt. But I can’t. That’s because I’m not alive anymore.” He waits for a moment, for something to happen. Then a white light shines from about twenty feet away. Ollie stands up and examines the light. And it’s a stereotypical gateway of light in the middle of the woods, with the light’s rays shining on Ollie. Ollie is happy to see this. But then, he looks back in the direction of the lodge. He thinks for a moment, about his friends and about the killer; on his face, we see him make a decision. He looks at the light, and the light dims and brightens as if nodding ‘yes.’ Then Ollie turns away from the light and runs back to the lodge. We get a shot of Killer Bee as he walks through the woods, and suddenly, a circle of pine straw gets kicked into the air by an invisible presence. Killer Bee considers this and keeps walking. Fade back to the lodge as Ollie’s friends are talking about where Ollie is, since he’s been gone for a few hours. After some discussion and arguments, they decide to try and search for Ollie, but they split up. Here’s the lowdown: James and Lisa are headed to a private cabin near the lodge, Frank and Annie are headed to the lake, and Sarah’s going to stay behind to paint. When asked why, Sarah explains that she told Ollie she’d be at the lodge when he gets back, so she has no reason to go against that. So after some goodbyes, the groups head off, leaving Sarah alone. Sarah gets to painting, and we see that she’s making a Jackson Pollock style painting, and she’s starting by coating the canvas in olive-colored paint for a background. She reaches for another color when an invisible presence scoops blue paint out of a can and chucks it at the canvas. Sarah yelps and backs away from the canvas, and she watches as the presence playfully spreads the paint around. Spurred by creativity, Sarah watches the ghost in awe before rushing back to the canvas and chucking paint of another color onto the canvas. Sarah and the ghost spend a montage’s worth of time creating a messy piece of artwork. Sarah muses aloud that she hopes she’s not losing her mind. And that’s when the ghost takes a thick paintbrush and dips it in dark red paint. Sarah watches as it spells the letter “R”. She stands up in fear as the ghost spells more letters, and we cut to the painting to see that the ghost has spelled “RUN.” And that’s when Killer Bee jumps through the window. Sarah backs away as Killer Bee glares at her through his mask. Sarah rushes out of the room and runs down the hallway. We get a shot of all the hallway’s country décor getting knocked down at once to block Killer Bee from getting to Sarah. Sarah escapes by rushing out of the back door, and she runs barefoot to get away from the cabin. Inside the lodge, Killer Bee finds the container of cell phones. He smashes the glass container on the island table and destroys the smartphones. Then he trudges upstairs and searches for other people to kill, and he finds the group photo in Lisa room. He scans the photo and sees that Ollie and Sarah are in the group, and it’s a group of six young folks. Killer Bee vows to kill everyone in the photo, and while he’s at it—he points to Sarah—he vows to make Sarah his Queen (!!). Sarah, bewildered, walks through the forest, slumps down under a tree and sobs. Ghost Ollie walks up and stoops to Sarah, telling her not to cry, and he monologues about how he’s going to helps the others, ending with “you’re going to live. Even if I can’t.” Then he turns as he hears the rustling of leaves. Sarah looks up, and we get a long shot showing that Ollie is gone. We cut to the private cabin where James and Lisa go to search for Ollie. They walk in and examine the cabin and see that Ollie isn’t there. James tells Lisa that he doesn’t think Ollie is ‘missing’ missing and that it’s much ado about nothing. “Well, where do you think he is,” says Lisa. “Well, he’s not here to see us…” says James. Then they start making out. Cut from that to a shot of Killer Bee marching toward the cabin, then back to a shot of James and Lisa. They look through a window and notice Killer Bee, and they realize that he’s a killer and that their lives are in danger. “We need weapons,” says James. There’s really nothing in the cabin so James grabs a steel pole and Lisa grabs a ping pong paddle. They plan to ambush Killer Bee, push him behind them, and make a run for it. Killer Bee forces his way in, and James attacks him. Lisa’s watching the situation unfold in shock. We get shots of Ollie sprinting to the cabin from the woods, and then he enters and sees that James and Killer Bee are in an intense struggle. Ollie, poltergeist-style, throws a flowerpot at Killer Bee. James runs out of the cabin, but Killer Bee is still standing between Lisa and the exit. Lisa calls out to James, but James runs away like a coward. Killer Bee composes himself, and we get a Ollie stands in front of Lisa protectively. Lisa turns and finds a small hole in the wall. She tries to crawl through the small hole, but Killer Bee drags her back in, picking her up by her feet as she drags her through the cabin, and Lisa screams as Killer Bee drags her around. The invisible ghost tugs at Killer Bee’s shirt, just enough to distract Killer Bee, and he drops Lisa. Lisa looks up at Killer Bee, and the camera zooms in on her as she’s filled with dread. Cut to a shot of Lisa sitting in the middle of a long mess hall table surrounded by sorority sisters. Lisa looks unhappy. Cut back to Lisa, who stares up at Killer Bee before being filled with determination. She crawls to Killer Bee and bites down on his ankle. Killer Bee yells out in pain. Lisa gets up and gets around Killer Bee. Killer Bee brandishes the black dagger and swings it once, but Lisa dodges the blade and kicks him in the balls, and Killer Bee groans and falls to his knees. Killer Bee says stuff like “damn you” and “I’ll get you” as Lisa runs away. Lisa smiles; she’s happy to be alive. Cut to Sarah in the woods as James runs up to her and rambles about the killer. “Where’s Lisa?” says Sarah. Before he can answer, they hear footsteps, and they hide in a bush. They watch from the bush as Killer Bee stands over them and searches for a victim. They hear his hum; his hum is akin to a bee’s buzzing. Seeing nothing, Killer Bee trudges away. Sarah tells James that they need to find Lisa, but James, believing Lisa’s dead, wants to go back to the lodge. Sarah refuses to go to the lodge with James and runs off to find Lisa. Cut to Ollie alone in the woods, not sure where to go next. He sees Mittens roaming around the woods, and he has eye contact with the cat. The cat goes in a certain direction, and Ollie decides to follow it. The cat leads Ollie to the entrance of a dark cave. Mittens meows and hisses at the cave before scurrying away. Ollie, however, decides to go inside. He examines strange papers on the rocky wall, news clippings about the disappearances of teenagers as well as the arrest of a fugitive kidnapper named Dandelion Dave and the search for his victim, a little boy named Nathan Abbott. Ollie looks at all the clippings, and he sees something that fills him with fear. It’s his own body, hanging by its neck via rope. Ollie runs out and sees that Killer Bee’s black dagger has been shoved into a tree. He turns to the cave as Killer Bee slowly emerges from the darkness with a bow and arrows. Ollie stares at him in fear. He reaches for the dagger, and the image shows that Ollie and Killer Bee are reaching for it at the same time. Killer Bee takes the dagger and walks off, as his physical body overrides Ollie’s ghostly presence. Ollie says, “time’s moving faster. I’m running out of time.” We follow him as he sprints through the woods. Cut to Frank and Annie as they reach the lake. Annie asks Frank if he’s sure he wants to take the canoe onto the lake, and Frank believes that if they’re on the canoe, they’d have an advantage of seeing the whole woods. Annie agrees to this but only if she gets to use the binoculars. They row out onto the lake (sunlight shimmering on the lake surface) and they look around at the lake’s edges for any sign of Ollie. Frank jokingly asks Annie if she’s getting inspiration for her books, and Annie laughs it off at first. But then, she tells Frank that he has a point. She monologues a bit while looking around with the binoculars, saying that her books need suspense, and that the tension from someone being missing is helping her know true suspense as well as the sense of mystery unresolved questions can present. Splash, splash, splash. Annie looks in the direction of the splashes. She sees splashes on the lake, in rapid succession as if they’re footsteps. Frank and Annie look in that direction. We get a shot of what they don’t see: Ollie running on the surface of the lake, shouting at them and telling them to look out (though of course they don’t hear). Frank and Annie look and see Killer Bee at the edge of the lake, drawing and arrow. “Get down!” says Frank. Killer Bee fires arrows at them, and Frank and Annie hide in the canoe for a while. Killer Bee keeps firing arrows. We see Ollie run up to the canoe; he assesses the situation and decides to overturn the canoe. Frank and Annie fall into the water, and Killer Bee watches the canoe seemingly overturn itself, and he lowers his aim in confusion. The camera goes under the surface as we see Frank and Annie struggle under the water, and we get a shot of the surface from underwater as Ollie stands over them and stares through the water. Frank swims up and breaks through the surface (as does the camera), and he calls out for Annie. The canoe overturns itself, and Frank swims to it and grabs onto the canoe, and the canoe rows itself away from the area. Frank catches his breath. Cut to Annie, who swims to the dock and crawls underneath it to hide from Killer Bee. She takes a few breathes and realizes something. She looks at her leg and sees that Frank’s yo-yo is wrapped around her leg. She uncoils it and examines it. Then the dock creaks. She realizes that someone’s above her, walking on the dock. She holds her breath. The person walks closer, standing right above her, and says “I know you’re down there.” Then he says, “I’m going to kill you. Come out so I can kill you quickly.” Annie holds her breath, and Killer Bee pacing up and down the dock, says, “you’ll try to escape one way or another. You’ll get hungry or thirsty. Don’t worry, bud. I’ll satisfy you. You won’t hunger or thirst no more.” Annie thinks to herself. Cut to a shot of Annie doing homework in a library. She looks unhappy. Cut back to Annie, who’s filled with determination. She pushes the yo-yo through a crack with one hand and holds the wet string with the other hand. Killer Bee walks up and trips on the string and falls down. Annie takes this chance to crawl out from underneath. Killer Bee, having landed on his forehead pretty hard, is immobilized and groaning in pain. Annie stands up and turns toward Killer Bee. There’s a gash in Killer Bee’s mask, and we can see one of his eyes, and he looks CRAZED. He asks Annie to look at his dagger and if he can still see the boy’s blood on it. Annie, knowing exactly what Killer Bee means, runs away as Killer Bee laughs maniacally. Cut to the woods. Frank is wandering around, catching his breath, and he doesn’t know where to go. He stumbles and falls into a steep valley. He lands at the bottom, and he’s hurt. Ollie stands at the top of the valley, looking down at him, and says “I don’t think I can help you. I’m sorry.” Then Ollie goes somewhere else, leaving Frank alone. Frank looks at the sheer verticality of the incline and looks defeated. Cut to an image of Frank sitting in a baseball dugout, looking sullen.Cut back to Frank, who decides to crawl up the incline despite being in pain after falling. The score swells as he climbs, and he says to himself, “this isn’t Darkness Dwells Deep, I’m not stuck down here, I’m not gonna die, I’m not gonna die.” He gets closer, and the incline gets steeper, and he starts scream guttural primal screams as he exerts every drop of energy he has. He reaches the edge of the valley’s top and grip the ground trying to find leverage to pull himself up, and he finds it, and he pulls himself out of the valley, and he rolls onto his back, and he yells out in joy, grateful to have gotten out of the valley. He rests there for a while. Cut to Sarah hurrying through the woods, searching for Ollie, for Lisa—for any one of her friends, really. She searches and searches, and she bumps into Lisa. They freak out for a minute, each of them thinking the other’s the killer, but they snap out of it and embrace each other, confirming to each other that they’ve both encountered the killer. Sarah tells Lisa that James told [Sarah] that [Lisa] was dead. Lisa is stunned to hear this and tells Sarah that James abandoned her in the private cabin. Sarah says that if they all survive, she’ll punch her brother in the face. Lisa squeezes Sarah’s shoulder and demands that she be the one to punch James. Rustling. Sarah and Lisa look over and see that Annie’s emerging from the woods. Annie runs over to them and embraces them, and Annie recounts her story of getting away from Killer Bee, saying there was a gash in his mask and the man underneath was Caucasian with blue eyes. Annie also says she thinks the killer murdered Ollie. Lisa asks how she knows, and Annie answers, “he asked if I could see the boy’s blood on his knife. I was with Frank, and I know it wasn’t Frank’s, because he escaped. So it was Ollie’s blood. It had to be Ollie’s.” Sarah’s heart practically stops. She’s stunned. She stumbles away from the others. She leans against a tree and, on her face, we see she’s wrapping her head around the fact that Ollie’s dead. Lisa and Annie rush to her and console her, and they help Sarah to a tree stump where Sarah sits, and Lisa and Annie stoop next to her. Lisa and Annie are basically apologizing because they know Ollie and Sarah meant a lot to each other. Sarah takes a moment and says, “it was him. He painted with me. And it was messy on that canvas, but we didn’t care. And I couldn’t see him. Any sane girl would’ve run away. We fear the unknown, after all. But I didn’t. I felt his presence, and it was warm. It was wholesome. So I sat there in front of that canvas and we created something together. And then the killer came, and Ollie helped me get away. He wanted—wants. He wants me to live. And… He was such as sweetheart. He must’ve been so scared. Scared when… When he…” Overwhelmed by emotion, Sarah starts crying, and the other girls hug her, and they cry together. Ollie, who had emerged from the woods’ darkness during Sarah’s monologue, and who had been watching Sarah and the girls up to this point, hurries away. Cut to Killer Bee as he ambles through the woods with a strange gait. He stops as Mittens stands in his path. The cat meows and hisses at him. Killer Bee calls her a nuisance and pulls out his bow and arrow. Mittens stands her ground, her tail twitching, her hair standing up. Cut back to Killer Bee, who fires his arrow. Schunk. Mittens lets out a final noise and dies after the arrow impales her offscreen. Killer Bee retrieves the arrow, saying, “It was unavoidable, kitty. It was your destiny to die.” Killer Bee ambles on, leaving the cat’s corpse behind. Cut back to the lodge. James, the coward that he is, sits in his car, turning the ignition, planning to drive away to get the police. (He’d be abandoning the others by doing this, however briefly.) He tries driving off, but the car’s not going anywhere. He gets out and discovers that all four of his tires have been slashed. “Okay, plan B,” he stammers. He storms into the lodge and is surprised to see all the wreckage and carnage inside. He grabs the hunting rifle from the living room wall and, realizing it needs ammo, heads to the basement. The basement is shrouded in rusty, murky darkness, and the wooden stairs creak with each step. He reaches the basement room, gets the ammo, and starts loading. Then knick-knacks start knocking themselves to the ground. James points the gun around and asks who’s there as more knick-knacks fall. James lowers the gun after realizing it’s a ghost, and he’s like, “ah shit.” Then he looks down and sees that the ghost knocked down a box of old arts and crafts things made by Sarah when she was little. James instinctively stoops to clean up the mess, and then he pauses to think. Cut to James sitting down during his part-time job at a diner, looking worn out. James sits against the water heater and cries a bit, beating himself up for even thinking of leaving the others behind. We get a shot where Ollie appears and puts a hand on James’s shoulder. In this shot, there’s a thud appears, and Ollie whips his head toward the noise. Cut back to James (Ollie no longer appearing) as he listens in to the footsteps coming from upstairs. He sneaks over to the staircase but pauses to think. “These steps,” he says. “They creak. They make noise. I go slow, I’m a dead man. Aah… Fuck it.” James rushes up the basement stairs and bursts into the hallway. There’s a shot where he’s aiming his gun toward the camera and Killer Bee’s storming up from behind him. James whips around and aims the gun at Killer Bee, stopping Killer Bee in his tracks. They stare at each other for a tension-filled moment. Killer Bee asks him what he’s waiting for and tells him to pull the trigger. James, knowledgeable of the implications of murder, hesitates. Killer Bee tells him to end the nightmare, or else, he’ll continue it. Then there’s voices coming from outside. Female voices. Killer Bee shoves the gun’s barrel away from his body, causing James to miss when he fires, and Killer Bee pushes James to the side and sprints down the hallway. Killer Bee bursts out of the lodge and sees Sarah, Lisa, and Annie trying to walk to the lodge together. Killer Bee brandishes his knife and storms to the girls. Sarah says “RUN” and they split off into the woods, and in different directions. Killer Bee runs after them. At the front porch of the lodge, we see James trying get his gun together, and he aims it at Killer Bee but can’t get the shot in time. “Damn it,” says James, and he runs into the fray. We get shots of the girls running around the woods and Killer Bee running after them, with the chasing, hiding, and searching culminating in Killer Bee cornering Lisa, but Sarah throwing a pinecone at Killer Bee’s head and drawing his attention to her. Killer Bee chases Sarah and knocks her out cold, and he carries her off toward his cave. Ollie appears and chases after Killer Bee, yelling “Sarah” and trying to stop Killer Bee from taking Sarah. Then glowing hands and glowing arms come out from the ground and grab Ollie and pull him down into the earth. Voices whisper, “you’re out of time, you’re out of time.” Ollie screams for Sarah but it’s futile. The hands pull Ollie below the earth. We see a glowing young woman dressed in a white baptism gown staring down and telling Ollie that this is the fate of everyone, in their place, and in their time. She says that as Ollie’s hand sinks down into the dirt. After that, there’s silence. The camera moves through the woods slowly, establishing dread. We get to the cave. Inside the cave, Sarah wakes up and finds her arms and legs tied down, and she’s lying on a bed of flowers. The first thing she sees is Ollie’s body hanging behind her. Then, she sees Killer Bee, who’s pacing around in front of her in the dimly lit cave, and he’s preparing for something. He rambles on about Dandelion Dave and how he’s the man who brought him here all those years ago, and how he’s the one who taught him how to give nectar, and how his purpose in life and in the world is to sting and to claim his flowers for his own and to serve his queen. (All the while, Sarah’s looking around at the newspaper clippings.) Killer Bee stands above Sarah and stoops over her and gets ready to do something. Zoom in on Sarah… Cut to Sarah dressed in black, outdoors at a graveyard, where there’s a funeral and people are mourning. Her makeup’s running because of her tears. Cut back to Sarah, who tells Killer Bee, to his face, that he doesn’t have to do this, that Dandelion Dave brainwashed him, that he’s a boy named Nathan Abbott. “Every girl you’ve killed, that’s been your choice. You make a new choice. Not Dandelion Dave’s choice. You decide what happens next.” Killer Bee pounds the ground; he stands up and paces around and has a psychotic breakdown, screaming about how Dandelion Dave told him Killer Bees don’t make choices, they just be, they just do, they just sting, they just give nectar. Sarah grits her teeth and demands, as Killer Bee’s queen, for him to unchain her from his bindings. Killer Bee pounds the wall and screams, yelling about how all his queens need his nectar, and about how he must make them blossom and how he must make them bloom, or else they can’t be satisfied. Sarah yells once again for Killer Bee to let her go. Killer Bee screams and runs out of the cave. With Killer Bee, Sarah gets to work trying to escape. She manages to get her right hand free and starts clawing at the dried honeycomb superglued to the cave wall, hoping in vain that there’s something beneath it. Cut back to the cave entrance and dolly away from it… Then we fade to more shots of the woods, and we get to the spot where Ollie was pulled into the ground. The camera dollies in low to the ground, and it keeps dollying for a moment… And an out-of-focus, too-close-to-the-screen Ollie, zombified with one eye bulging and the other hanging from its socket, bursts out of the soil in a surprise jump-scare that didn’t come with any musical cues. Zombified Ollie looks up at the sky and roars hoarsely. He gets himself out of the dirt and shambles through the woods, roaming around aimlessly, until he comes across an open space. He claws at the dirt, and in a montage, he keeps digging and digging until he uncovers the skeletal remains of five people. Thinking it’s all five of his friends, Ollie falls to his knees and roars out in anguish. For a moment, it’s an “all is lost” type of feeling. Then white-robed girl from before walks up and tells him that it’s not his five friends. Rather, it’s the five other victims of Killer Bee so far. She gives brief explanations of who they are and shares their names. Three girls, two boys, all around Ollie’s age. She asks Ollie if he wants to meet the others, and he says yes. So Ollie follows the girl to a lake shore where the other white-robed victims, all fully human, are standing in the shallow part of the lake, waiting for Ollie. The girl steps into the water and holds out a hand. And Ollie takes her hand, and she leads him into the water. The other victims surround him and put a white robe him. The girl gives a short speech about how the light has chosen him for a reason, and that due to his actions, he will surely be the last of those slain by Killer Bee. Then the others dip him into the water, and we cut to shots of Ollie underneath the water and he finds himself alone, and he swims back up to the surface. Cut to a restored, fully human Ollie as he breaks the surface! He touches his face and realizes that he isn’t zombified anymore! He lifts his eyes and looks at the shore! He mutters, “I’m coming, Sarah!” And he wades through the water toward the shore! Cut to James hurrying through the woods until he comes across Lisa and Annie. “Hey,” says James. Lisa punches James in the face, and James backs away with his nose bleeding. “We’re breaking up,” says Lisa. “That’s fair,” says James. They turn to Annie and ask her why she’s so dirty. Annie says she’ll tell the story in detail later. Then something rustles in the woods, and a familiar figure saunters out. Frank: This man needs to learn how to mind his own beeswax. Annie: Frank! You’re alive! They rush to Frank. Lisa tells Frank to take it easy. Annie gives the yo-yo back to Frank and says she doesn’t know why she had it, but it saved her life. Then James looks around and asks where Sarah is. Annie tells him that Killer Bee took Sarah. James starts to freak out after hearing this news. Everyone is silent, and James says that they need to find Sarah because he doesn’t want his sister to die. Frank asks how they’re going to get her back without losing anyone else to the killer, and Lisa and Annie answer by telling them Ollie is the ghost that’s been helping everyone. Frank and James are astonished, and James looks around and says, “Ollie, if you’re here, I’m sorry for what happened, but right now we need your help. Sarah needs your help.” Then they hear crunches on the pine straw below their feet. They look in the direction of the noise and see that a ghost is making obvious footsteps toward a certain direction. The group decides that they need to follow those footsteps, and they run in that direction. We cut back and forth between Sarah in the cave as she tries to free herself, and then to the group as they’re running together and following the footsteps. The group finally reaches the cave. James volunteers to go in (as he’ll be bringing in the hunting rifle) and tells the others to hide in case Killer Bee’s somewhere outside. Lisa, seeing that James is making up for his past cowardice, kisses him and wishes him luck. They run to hide, with Frank telling imitating James by telling him, “break a leg, ya lovestruck varmint!” Then they all run off, and James walks to the cave entrance. He stares into the darkness, and he freezes as he begins to have second thoughts. And in slow motion shots, Ollie comes out and walks up to James, and he pushes James, but the push registers as a breeze, and the breeze gets James going toward the cave. We cut to a shot from within the darkness of the cave as James’s silhouette stands there, and he calls out for Sarah. Cut to Sarah, who hears James, and she yells James’s name, telling him the coast is clear and that he needs to hurry. James rushes through the cave, gets to Sarah, and frees her from her bindings. “Let’s get you out of here,” he says. Then they look out, and Killer Bee’s standing there blocking their way out, and he’s holding his black dagger. “Your rose is mine,” says Killer Bee. James tells Sarah to get back, and he aims his hunting rifle at Killer Bee. Killer Bee storms forward. James fires but misses. Killer Bee swings, and James uses the butt of the rifle to knock the dagger out of his hand. James and Killer Bee struggle for control of the hunting rifle… And we cut to Sarah as she watches. Then she realizes that the dagger is one the ground nearby. Sarah grabs the dagger and shoves it into Killer Bee’s side. Killer Bee screams. Sarah takes James’s hands, and they run out as Killer Be wails in pain. James and Sarah flee into the darkness as the camera stays near Killer Bee, who spins around and freaks out saying “get it out of me, get it out of me” before he tears the dagger out and lunges after James and Sarah. Killer Bee emerges from the darkness of the cave to find that he’s surrounded by the whole group. James has the hunting rifle pointed at the killer. Killer Bee stumbles around, and he slashes his knife as if it’s threatening, but the group stands their ground. Killer Bee points the dagger at Sarah, who gives Killer Bee a death stare. Killer Bee yells that she will die. Then he runs forward, but he trips on a rock, falls to the ground, and schunk. The group walks closer and see that Killer Bee’s dagger has fallen into his chest. Killer Bee rolls onto his back and tries to pull out the knife and can’t quite reach it. The group stares at him and watches him slowly die. Killer Bee heaves, and he reaches to the sky as the glowing hands and arms reach through the earth and wraps themselves around Killer Bee. We cut to the sky and then… The final breath. We cut back to the lifeless body of Killer Bee. The group waits for a moment before Frank bursts into emotion, shouting in celebration that he’s alive. Pretty soon, they all begin to celebrate. After their celebration, they quiet down and remember that Ollie didn’t make it. They engage in a moment of silence. Then Ollie steps into frame. Miraculously, everyone can see him. There’s no dialogue, and they stare at each other for a moment. We see that Ollie is filled with a sense of pure joy. He walks up and gives all of them a hug. Sarah’s hug is the last one and the longest. During this hug, the gateway of light appears behind him, and the other five victims walk past them and enter the gateway. Ollie lets go and steps back. His friends wave goodbye (with Sarah crying as she waves). And in the final shot, a slow-motion shot, Ollie waves, turns away, and walks into the gateway of light and disappears into it. The light envelopes the frame. Fade to black. Edited September 23, 2023 by SLAM! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 The First Water War Studio: Infinite Studios Release Date: 8/31/Y9 Genre: Family Comedy Director: David Bowers Rating: PG for rude humor Budget: $20M Theater Count: 3,201 Runtime: 88 minutes Cast: Unknowns Plot: A drought has hit Los Angles hard on the last week of August. Just as kids are about to back to school in just a week, incoming 5th graders twins; the brave and bold Kimmy and the intelligent but nervous Kenny are taking a bike ride with their friends attempting to find a place to cool down. To their surprise, they find a secret lake, perfect to cool down in. With their newfound discovery, the kids claim the terrority. Unfortunately, the good times get complicated when more children discover and want the territory including; the brutish and sporty 7th graders, their bratty 10th grade older sister Karen and her teenage friends and crushes and a militant and resourceful group of kindergarteners. Kimmy decides to settle this once and for all as she declares a Water War where they settle the score with water balloons and water guns; last one dry wins the lake for their group. Rules are added such as no human shielding, no cars for the teens, and that they can add as many recruitments as they went. The leaders agree as Kenny feels frustrated that his friends don’t takes him seriously and would rather listen to Kimmy, and is hurt when his sister notes he’s her second in command instead of equals. The next day, the Water War begins as brutal water fight breaks out as balloons burst and guns spray. Each group has a strategy: the kindergartners act as mini-ninjas in the trees with balloons to have with element of surprise, 7th graders using skateboards as the teens do divide and conquer tactics as the fifth graders stay as a group. Many are eliminated including friends, enemies and Karen until it’s just five kids; Kimmy, Kenny, a teen and two 7th graders. Kenny has a good plan but Kimmy would rather use brute force, the two argue as Kenny accidentally throws a balloon at Kimmy, eliminating her as he then gets spotted and eliminated. The teen wins as Kenny is chewed out by his friends and Kimmy is hurt by her brother/best friend’s betrayal. The next day, the kids learn that a snooty rich frat bro has secluded the spot, as Kenny rouses up all the groups for one last stand as they all know what it’s like to be pushed around by someone older and at the end of the day, it’s there time. The children and teens unite and bombard the frat brothers into leaving with their water weapons. A treaty is made to share the lake, as Kimmy and Kenny make up. The group relaxes in their new place, as they celebrate the last day of summer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 (edited) The Talons of the Hawk Studio Groundswell Director: Gareth Edwards Genre: Horror/Thriller Release Date: August 22nd, Y9 Theater Count: 3,170 MPAA Rating: R for Language, Violence, and Disturbing Imagery Budget: $50 million Runtime: 1 hr 48 min Cast Jonathan Majors as Jasper Travers David Dastmalchian as Tony Dixon Melissa Barrera as Michaela Suarez Kyra Sedgwick as Lynn Witt David Mazouz as Donovan Hume Famke Janssen as Katja Hume Miles Teller as Woodrow Nash Brenda Song as Bobbie Nash Marwan Kenzari as Varun Fakhoury Logline An embattled airline pilot makes a decision that endangers the lives of his passengers and crew. Spoiler Fade in; camera’s inside an airplane, staring out a window as the plane lands on the runway. The plane lands, and the two flight attendants, Michaela Suarez (Barrera) and Lynn Witt (Sedgwick) get to work preparing for the passengers to depart the aircraft. Cut to the cockpit, where pilot Jasper Travers (Majors) finishes up his “we’ve landed at the airport” speech, while the co-pilot, Tony Dixon (Dastmalchian), stares down in anxious sorrow. Jasper excitedly rants to Tony about how they only have one more flight (from LaGuardia to Hartsfield-Jackson) and then they get some time off. Jasper is eager to see his family. Tony thinks for a moment and tells Jasper he’s taking a phone call outside. Jasper jokingly tells him to get back before the plane takes off. Cut inside the terminal where Donovan Hume (Mazouz), an autistic young man obsessed with the texture of physical objects, sits with his mom Katja Hume (Janssen) as they wait to board. Donovan likes how smooth yet bumpy the armrest is. We get a closeup of his hand as he feels it, and the sound of him rubbing the armrest is accentuated. Finally, the plane starts boarding, and they get in line. This is Donovan’s first time flying first class, and he’s pumped. Cut to Michaela and Lynn setting up before the next flight, and they ask each other and end up talking about which food items are the most popular among the passengers. They’re united by their love for the job. Cut to Tony’s phone call, where he’s calling his ex-wife; essentially, Tony wants more custody days of the kids, but his busy schedule as a pilot makes that difficult enough as to where the ex-wife gets a lot more custody. The call doesn’t end too well for either of them, and the ex-wife hangs up on him. Tony stares down in sadness. Passengers start boarding. Donovan and Katja get in their first-class seats, and Donovan’s impressed by the texture of the plane’s wall. Also boarding is Varun Fakhoury (Kenzari), a YouTuber and a survival enthusiast. He mentions to the guy next to him, “I’m a survivalist,” and the other guy’s like “that’s pretty neat” and puts on his headphones and Tempur-Pedic eye mask. Meanwhile, Tony gets back inside the cockpit with Jasper, and they start preparing for the flight. Running through the terminal with smiles on their faces are Woodrow Nash (Teller) and Bobbie Nash (Song), a newlywed couple making it in the nick of time for their flight to Atlanta, where they’ve decided to have their honeymoon. “Still boarding?” asks the mustache-clad Woodrow to the front worker, who checks them in, and Woodrow and Bobbie rush onto the plane. Jasper gives the “ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking” speech. The airport tarmac workers get the plane ready, and we get shots of the plane as it rolls to the runway. As the pilots gear up for take-off, we get quick shots of the various characters inside the plane. The film makes a scene of the airplane taking off, and off it goes into the sky. We cut to shots of passengers for a moment and see that they’re all expecting a normal flight. But the first chance he gets, Tony gets up to go to the bathroom. “Don’t fall in,” Lynn teases. Tony enters it and spends some time thinking. He digs into his pocket and pulls out a mysterious vial of green liquid that he snuck onto the plan. He spends a moment to consider if he should, and then opens it, drinks its contents, and throws the vial away. Then he returns to the cockpit. Tony passes by the flight attendants. When Tony closes the cockpit door behind him, Michaela whispers to Lynn that she thinks there’s something sketchy going on with Tony. In their conversation, Lynn essentially waves off the possibility of something going on with Tony, and Lynn sends Michaela on her way to offer the passengers food and snacks. We get small moments with the passengers (especially Donovan, Katja, and Varun), and we also get a moment with Woodrow and Bobbie, who talk about their plans for their honeymoon. We cut back to the cockpit, they’re doing their job and everything’s going well. Then… Tap. Tap. Tap. Jasper looks over at Tony, who’s poking his lips; he’s wide-eyed, staring into space, and when he taps his mouth, it’s making a strange clinking noise like it’s harder than flesh. Jasper asks him if he’s all right, and Tony, still looking forward, says “yeah.” Jasper tells him his lips looked chapped and asks if he needs some Chapstick. “I don’t think it’ll help,” says Tony. Jasper thinks for a moment and gets up, telling Tony he’ll be right back. Jasper peeks out of the cockpit door and asks Lynn if she has Chapstick. Lynn doesn’t, but they agree to ask the passengers if they have any Chapstick they’re willing to let Tony borrow. Lynn uses the plane’s intercom to ask for Chapstick, and Katja gives Chapstick from her purse to Lynn (but not before Donovan puts some on his own lips). Varun talks out loud, joking “what’s the use asking for an item that everyone loses all the time?” Lynn gives Jasper the Chapstick, and he goes to give it to Tony. But he notices something. He rummages through a supplies box and pulls out a miniature flashlight, and he points it at Tony’s eyes. Tony’s eyes now have a large black pupil and a burnt orange iris. “Did you have orange eyes before, Tony?” says Jasper. Tony looks confused because that’s not his natural eye color. Jasper hands Tony a small mirror, and Tony sees his eyes, and he also sees that his mouth and nose both look… harder… different. Tony paces around the open space… Jasper: Tony? Talk to me, what’s going on? Tony: I… Drank something… Jasper: What? What do you mean? What was it? Tony: The man called it Dew From The Heavens… Jasper: Tell me what that is, Tony! Now! Crunch, crunch. The lower parts of Tony’s legs snap back. Jasper covers his mouth. Tony’s still in shock, and he stumbles around and falls. Jasper stoops for a closer look at Tony, and there’s something growing on Tony’s skin. It looks natural like hair, but… It’s feathers. Jasper laughs nervously as he realizes what’s happening to Tony. He promises to keep Tony safe. Then there’s a knock on the door. It’s Michaela, who heard Tony collapse, and she’s asking if Tony’s all right, but Jasper adamantly tells Michaela that the situation is under control, but he does ask for water to give to Tony. Jasper then uses the radio to tell [whoever a pilot would tell in this situation] that Tony is… Jasper uses the word ‘sick’… [The next ten minutes ping-pong between Jasper trying to keep Tony’s transformation a secret, the passengers slowly discovering that something’s going on, and Lynn calming people down, with Michaela understandably forced to calm down passengers.] Eventually, a monstrous and even more bird-like Tony throws Jasper out of the cockpit and locks the cockpit’s door from the inside, causing more panic among the crew and passengers. Inside the cockpit, Tony sets the plane on course to crash into the Appalachian Mountains. Then his body grows and morphs, tearing all his clothes, and in a lengthy, distressing, and grotesque transformation sequence, he fully transforms into a giant hawk monster. Tony bursts out of the cockpit, with all the passengers screaming at the sight of him, and he opens one of the plane’s doors. Michaela got into a seat with her seat beat, but Lynn gets sucked out of the plane. An unrecognizable Tony, after a stare down with Jasper, leaps out of the plane. Jasper heroically drags himself back to the cockpit, where he prevents the plane from crashing into a mountain, but the bottom of the plane scrapes the mountaintop, forcing Jasper to crash land in the forest—so yeah, it’s a plane crash, and many of the passengers are injured or killed. Tony perches on a tree and observes the wreckage from above… Cut to Donovan, who’s just waking up from being unconscious, and he sees other people get torn apart and eaten by Tony. Donovan wakes up Katja and helps her out of her seat, and they follow Varun out of the plane. The “that’s pretty neat” guy tries to follow Varun but gets dragged away by Tony. Woodrow and Bobbie escape together, and Michaela helps a barely conscious Jasper get away from the plane (and from Tony). We cut around those three groups as they try to navigate the woods and evade Tony. In one scene, Jasper expresses to Michaela that it was his fault that the plane crashed, and Michaela tells him that it wasn’t his fault and that there’s nothing he could’ve done. Jasper gets emotional because he was friends with Tony. Michaela tells him that he needs to focus on getting back to his family, with Jasper nodding his head in agreement. Woodrow and Bobbie get rescued after being spotted by first responders, and they sit in the backseat of a police car. Then Tony comes and attacks the first responders while the couple hides in the car. Tony stalks the car trying to find a way in so he can eat Woodrow and Bobbie, but something distracts him and he flies away. Varun leads Donovan, Katja, and others through the forest, and the mother and son watch Varun make a makeshift bow and arrow with sticks and a string. The bird comes, and he fires it at Tony, who, safe to say, is unamused by the arrow, and he ends up killing Varun. Donovan and Katja run away from Tony, and they come across Jasper and Michaela, who join them in the act of running away. Jasper leads Tony away from the others, thus sacrificing his life to save them. Tony tries to attack Michaela, Donovan, and Katja, but Donovan protects the others by firing an arrow (with Varun’s bow) into Tony’s eye. Tony stumbles around and shrieks. Then an offscreen sniper shoots Tony down, and first responders surround him. Tony dies, and the survivors celebrate. Then Donovan walks around and takes in the sight of the forest, touching the grass, touching the trees, and gazing at all the branches, with the camera framing him to look gigantic. Edited July 9, 2022 by SLAM! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 (edited) Based On: American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment, ARRAY Releasing, Harpo Films, Participant Media Director: Ava DuVernay Producer: Ava DuVernay Executive Producers: Ava DuVernay, Jonathan King, Jane Rosenthal, Jeff Skoll, Oprah Winfrey Writer: Ava DuVernay Cinematography: Bradford Young Genre: Spy Thriller/Romance Release Date: March 28th Y9 Theater Count: 3289 Rating: PG-13, for sequences of violence, language, drinking and strong themes Format: 2D Budget: $45 million Runtime: 125 minutes (2 hours and 5 minutes) Cast: - Jurnee Smollett as Marie Mitchell - Omar Sy as Thomas Sankara - Francis Faison as Pop Mitchell - Juliette Binoche as Agathe Mitchell - Dean Norris as Rick Gold - with Matthew McConaughey as Ed Ross - and Matt Damon as Daniel Slater Plot Summary: An African American counterintelligence officer working for the FBI (Smollett) is tasked with spying on an African Communist leader (Sy). Plot: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17cvxU-th9iFvUZDlSn_BLCqVfjeWjlk4hmkt2YOdgzY/edit?usp=sharing Note: Special thanks to @SLAM! and @YourMother for pre-reading this picture. Edited July 10, 2022 by MCKillswitch123 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 Someone's Grace Film Distributor: Studio Groundswell Production Studio: Hope Films Director: Roxann Dawson Genre: Faith-Based Release Date: August 15th, Y9 Theater Count: 2,824 MPAA Rating: PG for Thematic Elements Budget: $10 Million Runtime: 1 hr 40 min Cast Chrissy Metz as [the protagonist] Sean Astin as Cecil Abigail Cowen as Kellie unknowns/c-listers in other roles Note Posting this film is an experiment. A friend from a church circle sent this to me with the idea that this would be a movie/script, but in my opinion, it reads more like a novella, to the point where my mind was like, "what if this were in Cayom?" And when I asked her if they wanted the story posted here for feedback, and they gave me a very enthusiastic yes. This is more authentic of a faith-based film then anything I could write at this stage in my life, so I'm curious to see how it does. Please imagine this as a feature film, and don't be afraid to be honest in your reviews. I will remove the link to this film after Y9's review stage. Plot Summary (posted as Google Drive link, let me know if it doesn't work) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ExN-GhdPFhIHfSJQ739RJdMelMmMYVpm/view 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 (edited) HOOOOOPs Infinite Studios Release Date: 7/18/Y9 Tagline: It’s More Than Just A Game Genre: Sports Comedy Director: Charles Stone III Rating: PG-13 Budget: $25m Theater Count: 3,392 Format: 2D and Dolby Cinema Runtime: 115 minutes Cast: Xochitl Gomez as Bailey Rosario Scarlet Estavez as Harley Alex R Hibbert as Jake Tamara Smart as Lexi Pivett Giannis Antetokounmpo as Troy Johnson with LeBron James as Jayson Jameson and Brett Goldstein as Jeremy Pivett Unknowns play Bianca Rosario, Freddy Rosario and Diego Rosario. Bailey Buckets: A Hoops Story (Y8) OW/DOM/WW - $12,317,913/$35,497,285/$45,122,984 Hoops 3 (Y7) OW/DOM/WW - $11,006,972/$39,011,442/$45,066,913 Hoops 2 (Y6) OW/DOM/WW - $7,682,970/$27,002,111 / $41,760,120 Hoops (Y4) OW/DOM/WW - $10,398,377/$34,590,068/$49,340,227 Plot: About a year after the events of Bailey Buckets: A Hoops Story, high school junior Bailey Rosario is the star player of Arrowhead High’s basketball team, earning the nickname “Bailey Buckets” for how many points she scores as well as finding her place in the school, becoming famous in her school for her witty nature and sports skills. Through the opening credits, Bailey and her team play and win Wisconsin's final game (held on the last day of school) for the high school basketball championship. Bailey still loves basketball by watching or playing but is worried if the sport is the only thing that defines her. In addition to her school life in Whitefish Bay, Bailey also visits Milwaukee on weekends to help out with her community and spend time with her friends and family. Bailey heads home for the weekend as she's greeted by her overbearing and well-meaning father Freddy, her down-to-earth mother Bianca, and her troublemaking but basketball-loving 10-year-old younger brother Diego. The family lavishes Bailey with praises as Freddy notes the family restaurant has made an entire special menu in her honor, noting while their town doesn’t care for gringos, they love Bailey. Bianca asks Bailey what she wants to do for the summer as Bailey wants to take it easy. Bailey’s best friend Harley arrives, and the two decide to spend the day together and hang out. Bianca allows this but tells Bailey to be here at 7:00 pm on the dot, which the teens agree to. Bailey and Harley spend the day goofing off and having fun like the old days in the mall. Harley and Bailey catch up as Harley has been working on her own startup company for designing shoes. Bailey, meanwhile, is engrossed in her world; she hasn't even had the time to think about her plan, even though her grades and ACT scores are stellar. The two head back to Bailey’s house as a surprise party full of Bailey’s family and friends arrive to celebrate her accomplishments. Bailey’s mentor, the Milwaukee Bucks legend Troy Johnson comes, happily greeting his pupil as the two play a friendly game of one v one basketball, which the guests watch. Bailey holds her own, but Troy wins with ease. Troy pulls Bailey aside to talk to her in private. Troy reveals that he has been asked to coach the Youth Olympics Basketball this summer and notes that during the past few months, he’s been watching auditions of young Americans showing their skills. Troy said they had chosen 11 students so far, and he and the panelists have chosen Bailey. This catches Bailey off guard. Bailey is flattered but uncertain; she has a lot she wants to do this summer. Bailey also confides that she is nervous about her future, not just the game but who she wants to be in life. Troy notes this is a great opportunity but understands Bailey needs a break, saying the choice is up to her. Troy admits that while he always knew he wanted basketball, Troy admits he does know what it feels like to make your mark. Troy promises regardless; he’ll always be in Bailey’s corner. Bailey accepts as Troy announces the news, which causes Bailey’s family and friends to celebrate. Bailey is allowed to bring three guests, so she gets Harley (as you need your bestie), Bianca (as Freddy must operate the restaurant), and Diego (as Diego did well in school this year). Bailey spends the next two weeks training and practicing during a humorous montage (Bailey even tries the raw eggs method, which she then promptly gags). The gang meets up with Troy as they fly in first class on a private jet to London, alongside her team, as Bailey meets with her fellow teammates and starts a rivalry with Atlanta-native and egotistical Jake. Jayson is also on the trip to boost his new snack food company. When the group arrives in London, the group arrives at the Olympics stadium as everyone there is in awe. The team and their families go to the Olympics hotel and housing as the team decides to converse with others (Jake sees it as an excellent opportunity to brag, flex and intimidate). Bailey meets Lexi, a shy but friendly youth basketball player for England. Sparks immediately fly between the two as they discuss similar favorite players and plays. Before they can continue to converse, they are met by the rest of their England players and their coach, former Britain basketball legend Jeremy Pivett. Jeremy reminds his players not to associate with the competition as they don’t want to catch losing them. Troy takes offense from this, noting Jeremy should focus more on the layups than the trash talking. Jeremy sarcastically comments he didn’t mean to offend; it’s just that his team is just statistically better, having led five teams to victory. Jeremy notes that everyone here is from the best schools in England with the best coaches, gear, etc., like his niece-in-law Lexi. Jeremy wishes them luck as he leads his team away as Lexi sheepishly waves goodbye to Bailey. Troy reminds his team not to let anyone get in their heads. The units rest up for the night as the ceremony begins. The first game against Australia was a success at 78-75 but combined with the plates clashing personalities, egos, and playstyles, and Troy's lack of coaching multiple students makes things too close for comfort. Meanwhile, London demolishes Brazil at 95-59. Troy spends the next two days retraining the team, helping them coordinate their different playstyles and try various team-building exercises which seem to work a little. Bailey suggests a day off to loosen up, which most of the teammates but Jake agree to, as he decides to keep up the training. The American teens take the day off to explore London and bond with each other; Lexi even sneaks out to tag along with them, as it becomes pretty clear to everyone Bailey and Lexi like each other. Troy decides to switch between the two point guards, offering the team the choice between Bailey and Jake, the team's best players. While Jake is a bit more skilled, Bailey is more liked and a better team player, making her the best choice for the rest of the team, to Jake’s dismay. In the next few games, America beats out its competition, but Jake and Bailey’s rivalry worsens as the two almost come to blows over Jake not listening. Later that night, Jake challenges Bailey to a one v one competition for the point guard title, which Bailey accepts. During a heart-to-heart conversation as Bailey and Jake compete for the title of point guard, Jake reveals his insecurities to Bailey. Jake has had to work his ass off; he didn't have a fancy school, NBA icon, or the best home to help him; Jake worries if he isn’t the best, who is he. Bailey stops and consoles Jake, admitting while she did have the help, Bailey confides that she is unsure if she has what it takes. Jake is bewildered by this but understands the sentiment. Bailey notes despite their differences, the two have a lot in common as she offers a fresh start with Jake. Jake accepts this offers as the two continue playing for fun. The semi-finals arrive, with America facing off against Germany as England faces off against South Africa. America wins against Germany (75-65), mainly due to Jake and Bailey's improved teamwork. England also beat South Africa 82-75. With two days until the final, the teams take various interviews as Bailey is hounded by what her plan is after the game, as she starts to have an anxiety attack and flees. Jeremy makes a smart-ass remark that Troy’s students are cracking already. Troy notes that for all Jeremy's skills, Jeremy lacks any heart as he searches for Bailey. Troy finds Bailey as Bailey confesses she doesn’t have a plan as she’s torn between basketball and trying to do something else. Troy notes Bailey can do both as Bailey says she knows but looks at everyone else and worries if she loses what she has to accomplish compared to her peers. Troy notes this reminds him of when they first meet and reminds Bailey that she became a superstar overnight, was able to thrive and dominate in a world against her, and all while not conforming. Troy notes if Bailey didn’t have what it takes, she wouldn’t be his pupil. The two hug as Troy leads her out. We cut to the day just before the big game as Harley comes up with an idea to invite the England team to go to a local beach to spend a day being teens. The England team agrees as the teens ditch their last batch of practice, as the groups grow respect towards one another. Bailey also takes the opportunity to get closer to Lexi. Lexi is also under a lot of pressure from her step-uncle. Bailey knows the feeling but notes how far they’ve come. The two gaze into each other eyes and share a kiss, but before they can respond, Jeremy arrives and chews out his players for fraternizing with their enemies, especially Bailey. Jeremy tells Bailey to stay away from Lexi as he takes the players back to the hotel. The day of the finals has come as America vs. England begins with the two starting evenly matched. However, Lexi is less talkative and more ruthless in her plays but stops this standoffish attitude during halftime as Bailey tells her how she feels, encouraging Lexi to set her own path. Lexi drops the act and stands up to Jeremy, chewing him out for his focus on just winning. The team continued the match as Bailey’s team lost 82-79 to Lexi’s team. Even though America lost, Bailey and her team's sportsmanship and teamwork have made them loved. Bailey and Lexi confess their feelings for one another and decide to have a long-distance relationship. Jeremy admits to Troy that his team went the distance and sincerely apologizes for his behavior, which Troy accepts. Bailey acknowledges while she always loves basketball and will continue playing when she gets to college, she is not afraid of the future anymore. Whatever she decides to enter, it’ll be because she wanted it. Post Credit Scene: Jayson gives his pitch to London snack companies which ends with them asking who is Jayson. Edited August 6, 2022 by YM! 3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 Seals of Honor Studio: Creatures Incorporated Release Date: 9/5/Y9 Genre: Nature Documentary Director: Drew Fellman Rating: G Budget: $5M Theater Count: 2,491 Runtime: 82 minutes Narrator: Ken Jeong Composer: George Fenton Plot: We document the different habits of seals and sea lions living on our planet: from the brutal leopard seals, the brawny elephant seals and the adorable harp seals. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4815162342 Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) Red Rabbit Genre: Spy/Drama/Thriller Cast: Joe Keery (Jack Ryan), Elizabeth Olsen (Mary Foley), Andrew Garfield (Ed Foley), Tom Wlaschiha (Oleg Zaitzev), Paddy Considine (Simon Harding), Charles Dance (Yuriy Andropov), Andre Braugher (Admiral James Greer), Claes Bang (Boris Strokov) and Paul Bettany (Sir Basil Charleston) Directed By: John Madden Screenplay By: Dennis Lehane Adapted from the novel Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy Original Music by: Mychael Danna Release Date: October 24, Year 9 Theater Count: 3544 Budget: $60 million Running Time: 130 Minutes MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, sensuality, and brief strong language Setting: The film takes place in the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. Plot Summary (about 4.9k words) Spoiler Yuriy Andropov (Dance), the head of the KGB, receives information concerning potential plans by Pope John Paul II to speak out about Poland to and potentially visit his home country. The Solidarity movement in the country is causing the Communist leadership headaches and Andropov believes that if Pope John Paul II takes active measures to stoke support for Solidarity, it could cause unrest in Poland that might topple the government, which if that happens, could cause a domino effect in Eastern Europe. Consulting with staff, Andropov believes that if he can nip the Poland problem in the bud, he’ll set himself up as the next leader of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the CIA’s leadership is discussing the developing political climate in Poland and believe that the growing discontent there is a crack in the Soviet Union’s foundations. One of them, Admiral James Greer (Braugher), is confident that any wedge that can be forced into the Soviet Union is something that should be looked into. Along those general lines, the discussion then turns to a certain young CIA analyst who is a protégé of Greer’s. That analyst is Jack Ryan (Keery), who is about 30 and has been assigned to joint intelligence service station in London to cooperate with MI6. He, his wife Cathy and his two young children have just begun settling into their new apartment there. There is some light humor over adjusting to the British way of living. The intelligence office Jack works for is run by Sir Basil Charleston (Bettany) with MI6. Most of the staff is MI6 but there are a few Americans. Basil runs a tight ship but is fair-minded and willing to listen to any ideas a subordinate brings to attention. Jack gets settled into his job and immediately begins working on analyzing the looming conflict in Poland that is being amplified by the human rights efforts of the Pope, who has publicly threatened to resign his position and return home to Poland. Jack and Basil discuss this and Jack believes that if the Pope follows through on the threat, and the Polish communist government forcibly takes actions against him, it could start a revolution in the predominantly Catholic country. Ed (Garfield) and Mary (Olsen) Foley are Americans, husband and wife, who have just moved to Moscow due to Ed’s position at the U.S. Embassy as a deputy administration official. Ed’s consular position is a cover for his status as the CIA Moscow Station Chief. Mary, his wife, who outwardly has the appearance of being the happy, supporting, organizing wife of a diplomat, is in fact one of the best asset handlers in the CIA. We learn that they met as a graduate assistant and college student, and were recruited together into the Agency. Ed’s job is to appear dull, boring, bland, and shamelessly political, basically the last person anyone would suspect to be the CIA’s spy chief in the heart of Communism. Ed and Mary discuss their respective duties, with Mary’s job being to handle some of the CIA informants and top agents in Moscow. Her most important agent to handle is code-named “CARDINAL,” a military man secretly working for the CIA for decades. One thing that frustrates the couple is that they know their apartment is bugged by the KGB but in order to maintain their cover they cannot dispose of any of them except the extremely obvious ones that are usually placed by the KGB specifically to be discovered and then thought to be the only ones. When discussing sensitive information they use sign language while talking verbally about boring daily stuff or going about chores and tasks around their home (subtitles provided for the sign language). Captain Oleg Zaitzev (Wlaschiha) is a middle-aged KGB operative in Moscow who handles intelligence reports from Soviet agents overseas, one of them being a mole in the U.S. government codenamed “CASSIUS”. On the subway trip to work he and Ed end up sitting near one another and Oleg strikes up a conversation with the American and they talk about hockey. Neither suspects that the other is actually a spy, though both are cautious. Meanwhile Andropov decides that there is no good way to dissuade the Pope from carrying out his promise, so the only thing to do is an assassination. Andropov immediately begins to sketch out a rudimentary plan for such a mission. Jack is assigned by Basil to work with Simon Harding (Considine), the top Russia expert in Basil’s unit. Harding gives Jack advice on how to think like a Russian, so Jack can better analyze the intelligence brought in from the Soviet Union. Jack is also advised by Admiral Greer that the CIA believes there could be a possible threat on the Pope’s life, so that is something that needs to take priority. Back at home, Jack has help Cathy deal with some chaos caused by their kids and they talk about Cathy’s concerns over being able to practice medicine well in the UK, and Jack reassures her, while working through some stress at his job, since this is his first major assignment as an intelligence analyst, and what he does here will reflect on those who put faith in him. Meanwhile the Foleys receive a coded message through the US Embassy that an important task is for them to see if they can dig up information about if the threat on the Pope is a real one. Zaitzev is ordered by his superior to transmit secret communications to the Rome station chief asking about the Pope’s security measures, such as how to get physically close to him. The inquiries confuse Zaitzev since he doesn’t know why someone would want to do that. The following day he receives the reply, which confirms a suspicion that someone in the KGB wants the Pope dead. Meanwhile Zaitzev’s superior delivers the reply, which advises against physical action, to Andropov, who says he understands the risks of backlash. In the course of discussions they decide that the operation has to be structured carefully to avoid any connection with the Soviet Union, which means no Soviet agents for the key elements of the assassination. After some consultation, Andropov decides to outsource the kill to the Bulgarian Secret Police, which can find a suitable Muslim Turkish shooter to make it look like a religiously-motivated killing. Ed in his cover job has a meeting with a Russian journalist who he suspects is a KGB agent and plays dumb and naïve in the meeting. Later he meets with the American ambassador and other staff and goes over some of the preliminary data his station has dug up about routine Soviet actions. He jokes that contrary to spy films, 2/3 of CIA work is writing reports you hope someone might read but they almost never do. Meanwhile Mary takes walks around Moscow with her and Ed’s young son to familiarize herself with the city and also to lull her KGB tail into thinking she is just a simple housewife so it will eventually be canceled. Afterwards she talks with Ed and says that once the KGB gets tired of shadowing her she can begin her work of running the CIA’s secret agents in the city. Ed warns Mary to not take unnecessary risks, and through discussion we learn that she has a personal grudge against the Soviet Union, as her family was forced to emigrate from there some decades earlier when her parents were young and a number of relatives were killed or imprisoned. Jack and Harding analyze how a possible assassination of the Pope would be organized and figure that unless they get a good warning of the details, it’d be hard for them to stop. They also talk a bit about their backgrounds, and we learn that Jack was originally in the US Naval Academy, but in his junior year he was a passenger on a helicopter that crashed while on a training exercise, and he broke his back. He spent almost a year in a hospital or in physical therapy, and while he was able to graduate, he was physically disqualified from entering the Navy. Meanwhile Admiral Greet has a phone conversation with Basil and the two talk about the need to coordinate intelligence on the possible threat to the Pope. Zaitzev handles the KGB transmissions to their main stations in Rome and Sofia, Bulgaria. At home, though he can’t talk about his work with his wife, he does express some vague concerns about his career, brooding over vodka. Later we see him have a dream where he sees Andropov and other Soviet bigshots looking at a parade led by the Pope and Andropov shoots at the Pope, missing and hitting children before finally shooting the Pope repeatedly, the Pope asking Zaitzev why he did nothing to help before dying. Meanwhile Andropov meets with his Bulgarian Station Chief and agrees the man to outsource the killing to should be Boris Strokov, the deadliest operative the Bulgarians have. Zaitzev, looking guilt-ridden, writes a note in Russian asking the recipient to wear a green tie the next day and goes onto the subway where Ed is doing his daily ride. Though Zaitzev has no idea if Ed is a spy, let alone even an American, he slips the note into Ed’s jacket pocket. Ed doesn’t notice the note until after he gets home. He shows it to Mary who wordlessly goes to get him a green tie. The couple talks out loud about routine family stuff while they use sign language to convey their thoughts. Mary is gung-ho about this being an opportunity whereas Ed thinks it might be a trap to catch an American spy. Mary via sign-language points out that the method is far too clumsy to be a trap. Andropov goes to a meeting of the Soviet Politburo and presents his plan to assassinate the Pope. After some discussion of the logistics and risks, Andropov is able to persuade the Politburo to agree to the plan, since if the Pope does abdicate and return to Poland, and this causes the Polish Communist government to topple, it could cause a domino effect that could unravel the whole Warsaw Pact. Zaitzev is tasked by his superior to transmit a message to Bulgaria’s Station Chief that the mission is approved. On the subway ride home he sees Ed wearing a green tie and slips another pre-written note into Ed’s jacket. The note requests that the flag at the American embassy be briefly flown upside-down the following day. Ed returns to the embassy to make the arrangements, having to explain to the embassy grounds chief why he needs it done without actually explaining any details or things that could give anything away. That night he and Mary talk in sign language about the note-giver and Ed notes that it looks like Mary is going to have her first mission here as a case officer. Zaitzev’s wife notices his unease and tries to talk with him a bit but he shuts her out, lying that everything is fine, since her knowing anything is dangerous. The next day he sees that the American Embassy flag is raised upside down and slightly smiles. Mary visits Ed at the Embassy afterwards and they talk about CIA business. They decide against contacting their top agent CARDINAL to give instructions about looking into anything specific, since if he learns something or great or immediate importance, he knows to get it to them without unnecessary communication. Again, Ed and Zaitzev are on the evening subway home and Zaitzev leaves a third note that sets up a meeting place and time. Ed tells Mary that now’s the time for her to enter the picture. Hundreds of miles away in Budapest, Hungary, a CIA agent is executing a dead-drop with an informant, but the informant is sloppy in leaving the drop material behind so a Hungarian police agent notices. This causes an incident where he intervenes. The CIA agent has diplomatic cover so he stays put but the informant flees and a running gunfight between him and police occurs that eventually ends with the informant being killed. The CIA agent is briefly detained, then let go with a notice that he must be deported from the country immediately, which temporarily shuts down the CIA’s station in the country. The meet between Zaitzev and the Foleys happens at a department store, with Mary approaching him under cover of asking his advice on buying a fur hat. After some cautious verbal dancing where Zaitzev has to be persuaded that Mary is not a KGB agent but is affiliated with Ed, they get into business, with Zaitzev saying that he has valuable information but he wants transit to the West for himself and his family. Mary agrees to his terms, provided that the information is both satisfactory and is true, and they set a time for a second physical meeting. Afterwards Ed composes a message to be sent to his boss at Langley via a diplomatic courier. They talk about how, if Zaitzev’s information is noteworthy, they’re able to get him and his family out of the country. Mary proposes that they should fake the death of Zaitzev and his family so the Russians never suspect he defected. They give Zaitzev the codename “Rabbit.” Mary arranges the second meeting with Zaitzev to be in a park. She brings her 4-year old son Eddie and he brings his 3-year old daughter Svetlana so it looks like two parents bumping into one another. As Eddie and Svetlana play, they talk in Russian about preliminary plans to extract him and his family. Zaitzev says he will only give key information once he and his family are safe but warns Mary that some CIA communications are compromised by the KGB. Mary asks Zaitzev why he is doing this and Zaitzev replies that an innocent man is in danger. Mary goes over this later with Ed and they decide to use Hungary as the extraction point, since the Austrian border is easier to use as a transit point. Andropov after some delay finally learns that the Bulgarian Politburo has approved the operation on their end, and has formally assigned Strokov to oversee it. Andropov is pleased that things are finally moving forward. At this point we are introduced to Strokov (Bang), who we first see leading a sting operation by the Bulgarian Secret Police that uncovers a nest of political dissidents. One of the dissidents talks back, so Strokov executes him. Strokov is then informed of the plan and that his role is to ensure the Pope’s shooter doesn’t survive the assassination. Secure info about the “Rabbit” is sent to CIA Headquarters, so CIA leadership, including Admiral Greer have to discuss how to best handle the extraction in light of the Budapest shooting. They decide the best thing to do is ask from some help from the British. Later, Greer suggests that Jack be sent with the British team to Budapest as the CIA’s man. The Foleys learn of the Budapest troubles, so Ed reaches out to a neighbor, Nigel, in the foreigner’s compound that he knows is a British spy since British communications are still totally secure. Nigel promises to help coordinate British resources on the ground to help with the extraction. In London, Jack and Harding are both summoned to meet with Basil. At the meeting they learn about the “Rabbit”. Jack learns about his role as the CIA watchman for the British extraction and is a bit concerned over his lack of field experience. Basil assures him his role will be minimal and that he’ll have diplomatic cover in case things go a bit screwy. Afterwards Jack and Harding talk and Harding says he knows the top British guy in Budapest and Jack will be in good hands. Basil starts to set up the operation parameters and we learn that as part of the Foleys’ extraction plan they need to find three human bodies, an adult couple and a young girl. In Moscow, Foley and Zaitzev sit on their usual subway train and Zaitzev plants a note from Foley’s jacket pocket containing information about a new meeting. When Zaitzev comes home the strain of the secret shows in his frustrated conversations with his wife. At home Jack has to give a cover story to Cathy about his upcoming operation and he is able to make it sound convincing. Cathy is a bit concerned since she knows it involves CIA business and thought Jack was just supposed to be an analyst. Jack says it will be fine, he’s just going to basically watch other people do their job The following day Harding briefs Jack on new details for the extraction, codenamed Operation Beatrix, after the Peter Rabbit author. Some of the grisly details for faking the defector’s death unnerves Jack, so Harding jokes he should keep a plastic bag from the airplane flight. Zaitzev and Mary meet again at the same department store from the original meeting, again with their children. At the meeting she tells Zaitzev that he should immediately schedule a vacation for his family to Budapest and gives him additional details. When Zaitzev goes to work the next day he arranges for travel to Budapest based on the details Mary gave him. It turns out that the hotel is across the street from the KGB’s main station in the city. Afterwards Zaitzev follows the pre-arranged signal to Ed that the trip is a go. Ed then has Mary pass the word on to Nigel with the timetable. Meanwhile Zaitzev springs news of the trip to his wife; she is surprised but welcomes the chance to get away. That night Andropov learns that Mikhail Suslov, the second-most powerful man in the Soviet Union, has finally died. Andropov quickly begins political maneuvers to put a key ally of his, Alexandrov, into Suslov’s position so that when the Soviet leader Brezhnev dies Andropov will be in prime position to take over. He confides in his assistant that if the Pope assassination is successful it will guarantee his future ascension. In London, Jack and Harding work overtime to try and process how the political fallout from Suslov’s death will affect Soviet politics and policy. Meanwhile we see Strokov beat up some Turkish thugs to get information about a skilled gun-for-hire. He then tracks down the man, a Turkish immigrant to Bulgaria, and hires him to kill the Pope for a large sum of money. Strokov promises to make all necessary arrangements. The following day Zaitzev and his family get on a train that will take a couple day trip to get to Budapest. His wife and daughter are excited but Zaitzev is very nervous. At the station Nigel covertly takes photographs of the family that he forwards to Budapest so the team will recognize the three. At the American Embassy Ed and Mary speculate about the information Zaitzev might know and how if the extraction works it’ll be their first major success in Moscow. And with Zaitzev and family on the move, Basil summons Jack and gives him the details of when he’ll leave for Budapest with a small team and meet with the British station chief, Hudson. Zaitzev’s train crosses into Hungary and his nervousness amplifies even as his daughter is more and more pleased by the “adventure”. They get to their hotel and Zaitzev nervously watches out the window for signs of KGB officers. In London Ryan with a couple British agents get on a plane to Budapest after being wished luck by Harding and Basil. He gets to Budapest and is taken to meet Hudson who tells Jack the details of first observing and then extracting Zaitzev’s family. We see Zaitzev take his family shopping and Jack with a couple other agents following them to get a feel for the family’s behavior. Jack and Hudson talk about how the KGB office across the street from the hotel is a minor complication. The plan is to approach Zaitzev the following night at a Hungarian Symphony concert. Back in Moscow, the Politburo meets to confirm Alexandrov as Suslov’s successor. Details at the meeting show that Andropov now wields close to total power. Afterwards Andropov and Alexandrov talk and Andropov says that the Pope will be gone in a matter of days. Alexandrov tells his comrade that if this works, the sky is the limit for Andropov. We see the British agents making the final preparations on the ground for the hotel ruse and then it’s time for the concert. The Zaitzevs go to their seats while Jack and British agents go to theirs. We see some of the concert, Jack cautiously observing Zaitzev. After some time Zaitzev goes to the bathroom and Hudson goes in as well and at the urinals talks to Zaitzev in Russian about the impending “trip.” Zaitzev receives the time of extraction and then leaves. Zaitzev and family return to their hotel, with his wife in a happy, dreamy state but Zaitzev’s nerves fried. Jack and Hudson go to the hotel room and alert Zaitzev that the time has come. Zaitzev immediately rouses his family from sleep and with Jack’s guidance follows the spies down a back staircase to a waiting truck. After they leave British agents enter the room with the smuggled dead bodies and stage things to create a small fire that will ensure the bodies are never identified. Jack and another agent drive the truck to near the Austrian border where they meet with a smuggler on MI6’s payroll. The smuggler has paid off the border guards to ignore his truck but there is still some tense moments at the border crossing. Shortly after the border they meet with another British team which takes Jack and the Zaitzevs to a local airport where they are blended into a group of British tourists on a flight back to England. On the plane Jack and Zaitzev talk, with Zaitzev in disbelief that his defection was actually pulled off successfully. Later Zaitzev finally unloads everything on his wife, who is naturally upset that her husband didn’t entrust her with information about his plans to defect. At the airport in Manchester Jack and the Zaitzevs are met by MI6 and whisked away to a safehouse. Jack and a senior MI6 officer talk with Zaitzev. Zaitzev describes exactly what his job for the KGB was, the fact that the KGB has some high-level agents in the US and UK, such as “CASSIUS,” and says the reason he defected was because the KGB wants to assassinate the Pope. Zaitzev tells them all the details he knows, including Strokov’s involvement. Strokov is known to the British as a suspected murderer of multiple people in England. News of the planned assassination is forwarded to the heads of MI6 and the CIA. Jack is unsure of how they can best foil the plan without tipping the Soviets off that Zaitzev isn’t dead but a defector. The problem Jack learns is that the CIA can’t intervene actively to save the Pope if it will compromise its source of information. In Moscow Ed and Mary learn that the extraction was a success, which relieves them both and they celebrate with some wine and some adult private time. At Langley Admiral Greer discusses with his bosses their options in protecting the Pope covertly. They learn that the Pope is exposed every Wednesday when he goes out into the Piazza San Pietro. Basil meets with the British Prime Minister, who tells him to do everything he can to prevent the assassination within reason and which would not expose any intelligence operations. In consultations with Harding and other subordinates, Basil realizes the only thing he can do is send some people to be quiet lookouts but intervene only if absolutely necessary. Since it is a technically a CIA operation that the British are providing manpower for, Basil asks Jack to go along as the CIA’s man on site. Jack protests that Budapest was one thing, but he has no field experience for something like this. Basil and Harding sympathize but say given the timeframe, there’s no other quick option, since the CIA can’t use its assets in Rome since their cover has to be maintained. In Rome, Strokov and the hired killer arrive separately but rendezvous for Strokov to give the killer a pistol and the time and place of the shooting: Wednesday at the Piazza San Pietro. Jack arrives in Rome and is met by Sharp, the head British agent in the city. Jack fills Sharp in on the details, including Strokov being the man to look for. The two recon the plaza where the Pope will be out in public on the Wednesday to look for probable shooter positions, with a close-range attempt being the likely angle to make it look less professional. The agents get pictures of Strokov so they can ID him at the plaza. Meanwhile Zaitzev and his wife have another heart-to-heart now that the excitement for them has died down and they talk about how their lives will change now being in the West and how it is the best thing for their daughter. It is Wednesday and Jack, Sharp, and several other agents go to the plaza to begin their surveillance before the crowds come in. They use ear microphones to communicate and are armed. The tension builds as people steadily fill up the plaza as the agents mill around, with one observing from a rooftop. The rooftop agent alerts Jack about a suspect and Jack moves closer and confirms it is Strokov, who is waiting for the Pope to emerge. Jack goes right behind and puts a gun to Strokov’s back and warns him to not move. Strokov is still, the Pope (in his Pope-mobile) comes out into the plaza and suddenly someone else opens fire on the Pope. The crowd goes nuts and Strokov is able to slip away, but Jack pursues him to an alley and the two fight hand-to-hand before Jack is able to subdue him. Over the radio he learns that the Pope was shot and is being taken away for medical attention and the gunman was tackled by the crowd. Sharp reaches Jack and the two quietly take Strokov away. At the safehouse Sharp says he and his men will handle interrogating Strokov and Jack is booked at the next flight back to London. Jack gets back to London and learns he has to get back to D.C. for a meeting with the CIA leadership. First though he is able to go home and hug Cathy and apologize for having to leave again on short notice. He says he was in Rome and Cathy understands the context and says she knows he did his best. It is arranged that Jack leaves on the same flight to America as Zaitzev and his family. On the flight Jack tells Zaitzev that they got Strokov but he had a second shooter and the Pope’s condition is fifty-fifty. Zaitzev, though concerned, is happy that his information gave the Pope a chance. In Moscow Andropov is annoyed to learn that the Pope has a good chance of surviving and that Strokov failed to eliminate the gunman, but is satisfied enough that even if the Pope lives he won’t be in a condition to travel to Poland for some time, which kicks down the road any potential issue with that country. That partial success is enough to keep him at the top of the pack to succeed Leonid Brezhnev as Soviet leader. We learn in a conversation with an assistant that Zaitzev and his family are believed dead from the hotel fire. Meanwhile in Rome, a policeman finds Strokov lying in an alleyway, apparently dead of a “heart attack.” Jack and Zaitzev’s family are taken to Langley. Jack shakes Zaitzev’s hand and then the “Rabbit” and his family are ushered away to begin their new life in America. Jack then meets with Greer. He learns that the Pope made it through surgery and should live. They talk about Zaitzev’s ability to give info on KGB agents in the government and Greer says this will be an ongoing concern to look into. Greer that tells Jack that he is proving himself to be a great agent, and he knew Jack had potential ever since he saw how Jack pushed himself through recovery at the Naval Academy. Jack thanks Greer for having faith in him. Ed and Mary wake up and talk in sign language about how this is a big day for Mary since she is scheduled to meet with CARDINAL, their top agent, for the first time. Mary kisses Ed for luck and goes with her son to a big park in Moscow where she sits and waits as we see an old man (from the back) approach her. We see Zaitzev and his family in a new safehouse in the countryside, his daughter playing outside. For the first time in weeks, Zaitzev is happy and at peace. Jack returns to England to find Cathy and his children waiting for him. He gives Cathy a hug and the four settle down for some calm, overdue family time. Edited July 19, 2022 by 4815162342 5 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xillix Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) Ultraman: Dark Future Release Date: November 26th, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Superhero/Sci-Fi Director: Jonathan Liebesman Production Companies: Platinum Dunes, Dentsu, Tsubaraya Productions Executive Producers: Michael Bay, Brad Fuller & Andrew Form Theater Count: 3,973 Premium Format: 3D, IMAX 2D+3D & Dolby Cinema Shooting Format: Digital 4.3K (Arri Alexa LF) (Post-converted to 3D) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 / 1.90:1 (Select scenes in IMAX) Release Image Formats: 4K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 2K IMAX Digital DCP, 2K IMAX 3D Digital DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser DCP, 4K IMAX 3D with Laser DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel Production Budget: $110 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 116 minutes Major Cast: Aaron/Ultraman (Michael B. Jordan), Fred Tatasciore (Belial) Prior Film: Distant sequel to Y2’s Ultraman, which opened on Wednesday, July 4th. It made $79,077,185 on its 5-day opening weekend, $47,889,144 on its first Fri-Sun weekend. Domestic total was $178,905,238, plus an overseas gross of $522,540,825 for a worldwide total of $701,446,063. Plot Summary: The film is set in the future, roughly 100 years after the events of the first film. An animated opening sequence catches the audience up on the first movie’s plot. Over the decades, the Zetton Empire’s failures on Earth and in other conquests led to the collapse of the warmongering society, with the Space Garrison dealing the final blow some 70 years after the failed takeover of Earth. By then, Earth’s original Ultraman had died naturally of old age after a long and fulfilling life, releasing the being bonded to him, who returned to his home planet. Earth has not seen another alien threat since, though the SSSP remains vigilant. Unfortunately, a new series of monster attacks begins from an unknown source. At first the SSSP, equipped with technology far superior to what it had a century ago, holds out; giant remote-controlled battle mechs are able to destroy the earliest monsters. But more and more beasts arrive, and they seem to learn the weaknesses of the SSSP forces. Soon the tide is turning and entire cities are being destroyed. An ordinary career man, Aaron (Michael B. Jordan), is fleeing his destroyed home city with his family when he comes across a glowing blue gem that seems to call out to him telepathically. Like the protagonist of the first film he bonds with the being in the gem, who turns out to be the same one from before. Together they transform into a new Ultraman with an updated design. The new Ultraman destroys the monster that leveled his home. Aaron is swiftly recruited by the SSSP to help fight against the alien attacks. As the being who he’s bonded with – called “Ultra” for convenience – informs Aaron, the attacks are being directed by Belial, a former member of the Space Garrison who bonded with an alien who had too much evil in his heart. Now Belial is essentially an evil Ultraman who seeks to destroy the Space Garrison and conquer the universe. He’s selected Earth to become the capital of his evil empire. Aaron requests help from the rest of the Garrison, but is informed that there are too many other threats throughout the universe being fought. There are many more monster battles of increasing difficulty. In the end Belial (a CG creation voiced by Fred Tatasciore) arrives on Earth personally to fight Ultraman and the SSSP forces. Belial is too powerful and is about to destroy Ultraman, but at the last minute backup arrives in the form of several more Ultraman-like heroes from other galaxies – the Space Garrison has finally acknowledged Belial is a threat to the entire universe and thus must be stopped here before he can establish a stronghold. Together they defeat Belial, who turns to stone as happens to any bonded “Ultraman” who is killed or runs out of energy in combat. The other heroes retrieve the petrified Belial and take him back to the planet housing the Garrison’s base of operations to be sealed away. Aaron chooses to leave Earth with them and become a full-time member of the Garrison, traveling the universe to defend those in need – so long as his family can come along with him. Edited July 11, 2022 by Xillix 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xillix Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) Fatal Error Release Date: May 30, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi Director: M.J. Bassett Theater Count: 2,842 Shooting Format: Digital 5K (Red Gemini) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 2K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1 Production Budget: $15 million MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 89 minutes Major Cast: Unknowns and TV actors Plot Summary: Basically a ripoff of The Ring that goes off in a different direction. It opens with a mysterious masked hacker unleashing a computer virus onto the internet and committing ritual suicide. The virus can’t spread itself and has to be shared by people. If your computer, phone, or other device becomes infected, you begin seeing weird “glitchy” visions of the hacker and demonic creatures around said devices. If you don’t spread the virus within four days, or you try to destroy the infected device or otherwise remove the infection, the apparitions kill you. The first two acts of the film are typical Ring style with a chain of pretty young adults and teens becoming infected and cursed, figuring out how to survive by spreading it after several of them die terribly, and working to trace it back to its source. Some of the visions – which don’t cease even after ensuring your own survival by sharing the virus – provide helpful clues. By the end of act two they discover the hacker and the fact he’d made a pact with demon-like beings that apparently exist on another level of reality. The virus is their way into our world, and the more systems it infects, the more processing power it possesses and the more the barrier between realities breaks down. The third act consists of reality beginning to distort and glitch like a corrupted, infected simulation. Demons and the digital “ghost” of the hacker appear everywhere, large disasters occur when odd reality glitches happen – including an elevated train suddenly “clipping through” a rail bridge and crashing down into a heavily-populated portion of a city – and it’s basically turning into the apocalypse. Our remaining heroes try to survive the film that has now turned into a Pulse ripoff instead. There are hints that either the world the film takes place in is itself a computer simulation that has actually been infected by a virus, or that the demon-things come from a digital dimension of some sort and are “corrupting” our reality to be hospitable to them, but the question of which is the case is never definitively answered. One of the two last remaining protagonists is killed when the glitching of reality causes him to suddenly swap places with a vision of the hacker, which the other survivor, crazed and desperate, attacks – accidentally killing her friend instead. Despondent, and resigned to her fate, she suffers a mental breakdown and follows apparitions of the hacker, who leads her to a large data center full of infected servers around which the glitchy supernatural phenomenon are concentrated. The hacker disappears into a portal from which more and more of the demon-things are emerging – a huge conduit leading, presumably, to their world, the view of which is distorted and unclear. She tries to follow him in, but just as she begins to glimpse what’s on the other side – which is hidden from the viewer – she is torn apart by the demons. Edited July 11, 2022 by Xillix 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xillix Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Deep Sixed Release Date: March 7, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Action Director: Patrick Hughes Theater Count: 3,432 Shooting Format: Digital 4.5K (Arri Alexa 35) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 4K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos Production Budget: $30 million MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 102 minutes Major Cast: Jason Statham (Carter), Liam Neeson (Cochran) Plot Summary: Carter (Jason Statham) is an enforcer for a rapidly-expanding crime family filling a power void left in Boston following the arrest of key figures in the prior dominant crime family. The leader of the new organization is an old Irish mobster, Cochran (Liam Neeson), known for his ruthlessness and paranoia. During a raid on a hideout filled with remnants of the fallen crime family, Carter shows mercy and allows a man with a family to escape alive. For this transgression, Cochran declares him disloyal and orders him “deep-sixed” – assassinated. The first hitman sent after Carter shoots him several times and inflicts near-fatal wounds, and Carter is dumped into the ocean where he’s left for dead. But Carter washes up on shore and recovers, and uses the fact Cochran and the gang believe he is dead to his advantage. Teaming up with the man he spared and a few other former members of the previously-dominant gang, he breaks into Cochran’s headquarters to take his revenge. There’s lots of action and violent bloody shootouts and it all comes down to a one-on-one showdown between Carter and the surprisingly spry Cochran while the others guard the door to his office from Cochran’s lackeys. Carter ultimately kills Cochran and makes his escape, swearing off his life of crime and letting the cards fall where they may as another power vacuum opens up. He moves to another state to start a new life. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xillix Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) #Spooked Release Date: October 24, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Horror/Comedy Director: Jeff Wadlow Theater Count: 2,874 Shooting Format: Digital 4.5K (Arri Alexa 35 anamorphic) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 2K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1 Production Budget: $10 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 91 minutes Major Cast: Jack Dylan Grazer (Chad) and a bunch of unknowns Plot Summary: A group of teenage social media influencer wannabes, led by the spoiled rich kid Chad (Jack Dylan Grazer), decide to break into an allegedly-haunted house in their hometown for Halloween and livestream their escapades inside. The abandoned old mansion was built inside of the town’s old graveyard, and rumor has it the headstones on the plot of land it occupies were moved without the bodies moving alongside them. Also the first homeowner’s first wife was hanged for witchcraft. Also also said homeowner was a collector of antiquities from around the world, including a lot of precious artifacts stolen from Egyptian tombs. Also also also he killed all of his twelve subsequent wives in various gruesome ways and kept their skeletons hidden in the basement. The teens are all expecting a night of harmless fun scaring each other but things get serious when the rotting floorboards of the old condemned building give way, sending one of them falling from the top floor all the way down into the basement and killing them in the fall. When the group tries to leave they find themselves locked in by ghostly forces, and are forced to contend with the spirits of the thirteen dead wives, the reanimated corpses of the dead who were buried underneath the house, the mummy of a pharaoh empowered by the god Anubis, and even a werewolf that appears out of nowhere for some reason. During the ordeal none of them stop streaming, even when they die, and they actually do pretty great numbers. Their online pleas for help, however, are ignored by everyone because all of the viewers think it’s fake. Chad is the last survivor, and he’s ultimately surrounded by the various monsters and then dragged down to hell by demonic hands emerging from beneath the basement. The movie ends by pulling back to reveal someone watching the livestream as Chad’s feed goes dead, shrugging, and switching tabs to watch a cat video instead. Edited July 11, 2022 by Xillix 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xillix Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Interceptors Release Date: January 17, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Sci-Fi/Action Director: Simon West Theater Count: 3,625 Shooting Format: Digital 8K (Red Monstro) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 / 1.90:1 (Entire film in IMAX) Premium Release Formats: IMAX, Dolby Cinema Release Image Formats: 4K DCP, 2K IMAX Digital DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel Production Budget: $100 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 104 minutes Major Cast: Nicolas Cage, Milla Jovovich, Antonio Banderas, Angelababy, Jiang Wen Plot Summary: A US-Chinese co-production. In the not-to-distant future, small meteorites begin impacting all over Earth, leading to major disasters. It’s discovered that they are harbingers of a huge asteroid on a collision course with earth, which will cause an extinction level event if it hits. The governments of the United States and China are forced to cooperate and launch an experimental spaceship crewed by some of the greatest astronauts from each nation’s space program. They will intercept the asteroid, destroying the smaller space rocks around it on the way, and plant special high-powered rockets on it that are designed to redirect it off of its collision course. When the ship lands on the asteroid, however, the astronauts discover that it is actually occupied by a civilization of alien scavengers. The aliens already have tech in place which they use to direct the asteroid’s movements and aren’t planning to actually crash into Earth, but to settle the asteroid into orbit around the Earth and let the calamities the gravitational disruption causes wipe out the human race. Then they will take whatever natural resources they can scavenge from the planet and move on. The astronauts are led by a pair of equally-ranked commanders (Nicolas Cage and Jiang Wen), who disagree on how to proceed and cannot get along. Communication is cut off with Earth, and so they cannot get orders from their superiors. Ultimately the two split up, each taking the crew members under their own command, and try to find a way to stop the aliens. Attempts to plant their own rockets and to re-establish communications with Earth both fail. The two groups are both confronted by the aliens and narrowly escape, forced back together. Begrudgingly the commanders work in tandem, and with the people under their command, devise a plan to infiltrate the control center for the alien’s operations and “hijack” the asteroid, directing it away from Earth and into the sun. The attempt is fraught with peril and low-gravity action, but the plan ultimately succeeds. In the end, everything is all set but both of the commanders decide they must remain on the asteroid while the people under their command escape on a stolen alien ship. They can’t risk something going wrong or the aliens breaking in and retaking control. The lower-ranked astronauts escape just in time, and the commanders sacrifice themselves holding off the aliens as long as they can. By the time the aliens retake the control center, their course is irreversible. The asteroid crashes into the sun and burns up, and Earth is saved. A mid-credits scene, however, reveals that several ships full of aliens managed to evacuate the asteroid just before it was too late, and the surviving extraterrestrials swear revenge on humanity! A brilliant setup for a sequel that will absolutely happen when this modern masterpiece inevitably breaks every box office record. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YM! Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Endless Animation’s Matilda and the Night Children Studio: Endless Animation Genre: Computer Animation/Fantasy/Musical Director: Aphton Corbin and Everett Downing Writers: Aphton Corbin, Everett Downing, and Ian Jones-Quartery Composer: Ludwig Goransson Original Songs by: Rihanna, Brenda Russell, and Stephen Bray Main Voice Cast: Anika Noni Rose as Matilda Boyce Issac Ryan Brown as Needles Ynairaly Simo as Screech Priah Ferguson as Chill Zeno Robinson as Victor Boyce Cree Summer as Patricia Boyce Ncuti Gutwa as Ian Regina Hall as Claire with Keith David as Mr. Verity and Hofu and Kevin Michael Richardson as Michael Boyce Release Date: June 6th, Y9 Theater Count: 4,239 Format: 2D (2.39:1), 3D (2.39:1), Dolby Cinema (2.39:1) and IMAX Budget: $135 million MPAA Rating: PG for thematic material, rude humor, and scary images Running Time: 104 minutes Animation: Worldmeander is used once again, blending computer animation with traditional hand-drawn animation techniques. The humans and the environments of Barbados are computer-animated but have a storybook-like aesthetic to them, while the ghosts and duppies also are computer-animated but cel-shaded and have slower frame rates, at times almost glitchy to emphasize the otherworldly nature. Notes: Keith David alternates between two distinct voices for the characters Hofu and Mr. Verity. Mr. Verity has a more refined way of speaking, as Hofu’s Bajan accent is more present but also Hofu’s voice is more guttural. Plot: (7,123 words) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-70pe-zpqkcbg22RSOC0gdc6cUDkdvsRxMBymvZC7RM/edit Special thanks to @SLAM!, @cookie and @MCKillswitch123 for feedback and advice on this project. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4815162342 Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) The Queen Who Never Was Cast (in Alphabetical Order): Tom Bateman (Corlys Velaryon), Kenneth Branagh (Jaehaerys I Targaryen), Jim Broadbent (Septon Barth), Jessie Buckley (Saera Targaryen), Michelle Dockery (Maegelle Targaryen), Romola Garai (Jocelyn Baratheon), Jack Huston (Baelon Targaryen), Barry Keoghan (Viserys Targaryen), Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Cameron Tarth), James McAvoy (Aemon Targaryen), Josh O’Connor (Braxton Beesbury), Alistair Petrie (Ryam Redwine), Ella Purnell (Aemma Arryn), Paul Ready (Otto Hightower), Eliza Scanlen (Viserra Targaryen), Toby Stephens (Boremund Baratheon), Connor Swindells (Daemon Targaryen), Emma Thompson (Alysanne Targaryen), Harry Treadaway (Jonah Mooton) with Domhnall Gleeson (Vaegon Targaryen) and Samara Weaving (Rhaenys Targaryen) Genre: Fantasy Drama Directed By: Michelle McLaren Based on Characters Created by George R.R. Martin Screenplay By: Peter Morgan Original Music by: Ramin Djwadi Release Date: December 19, Year 9 Theater Count: 4,013 Budget: $200 million Running Time: 200 Minutes MPAA Rating: R for scenes of intense war violence and gore, disturbing images, strong language, sexual content, and nudity The movie takes place over the course of a number of years, and in some cases flashes back even further. Therefore, much of the cast plays their roles with a mix of makeup and digital aging/de-aging unless otherwise indicated. Setting: This film is set on the fantasy continent of Westeros, the same location as the Game of Thrones television show. The film is set approximately 200 years before the events of that show. Plot Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NQFLyP2JwdQhbjl4we3S3YyF8LcS1y6kLqb3-BicCYA/edit?usp=sharing Edited July 13, 2022 by 4815162342 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAM! Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 (edited) THE CRUMMY SHINDIG Studio Groundswell Director: Ol Parker Genre: Comedy/Musical Release Date: February 7th, Y9 Theater Count: 3,317 MPAA: PG for Thematic Elements and Adult Content Budget: $30 Million Runtime: 1 hr 28 min Cast Mike Faist as Jared Lily James as Claire William Jackson Harper as Rowland Colman Domingo as Xander Brian D'Arcy James as The Mayor Vincent Rodriguez III as Terry Brittany Snow as Paula Setlist (in order of appearance) "New Coworker" "Dancing Man" "Make It Happen" "Marilyn" "Dance Like This" "Who's That Dame" "Dancing Man (Reprise)" "Limitations" "Make It Happen (Reprise)" "Who's That Dame (Reprise)" Plot Summary Spoiler Opening logos as an electric guitar fades in to set the tone. We get MTV-style camerawork and fast cuts that pretend like our setting, a small town of 1,000-ish people is stylish and cool (it isn’t). A young woman named Claire (James) drives through the town, kinda speeding, to get to her office job, as she’s an accountant working at a factory. She sings the first verse and chorus of “New Coworker” because today, they’re getting a new coworker! The song culminates in a song and dance scene on the second floor of the factory (as well as the first floor since the ‘new coworker’ intrigue spilled to the construction crews as well). Questions are raised like what their hobbies are, what are their interests, will they be my friend, yada yada. Then Jared (Faist) bursts in and gets a flashy solo dance number and sings the end of the song. He holds out his arms and does jazz hands, but everyone goes back to work because they find him disappointing (or he’s not what they expected). But Rowland (Harper) is the first coworker to introduce himself to Jared; he’s the one that’s giving him the tour. (But as they walk away, we see Claire peeking out of her cubicle, her eyes locked onto Jared…) Rowland gives Jared the tour, and Jared’s giddy with the first day jitters. Jared says he’s from New York city and says he’s ready for a change of pace. Rowland asks him why he moved from New York to a place like the small town, and Jared cringes. Rowland says, “oh, something bad happened…” Jared says, “is there a bar where we can talk over drinks?” Rowland says, “yeah.” So cut to the bar that night, where Rowland watches in amazement as Jared chugs down a beer. Rowland says “don’t leave me hangin’ man” and Jared tells him his story about how he wrote a 1950s-style original musical for Broadway, but the committee rejected it; Jared banked on success a little too much, and he didn’t have enough money for rent, which forced him to move out. Jared flamboyantly declares that he’s had it with Broadway and that he was too good, too creative, and too exciting of a playwright for those “money-grubbing revival sellouts” anyway. Rowland tries to say something, but Jared sees Claire from across the bar. Claire sits down at the other end with a group of friends. Jared recognizes Claire from work and raises his eyebrows, telling Rowland “you wanna see how theatre geeks woo the women, check this out.” He saunters over to Claire and her friends, doing a hackneyed Elvis impersonation at first like “hey baby what’s shakin’” before clarifying that he’s kidding about being Elvis and tells Claire, “I wanna buy you a drink. I’m not asking for anything else, you just caught my eye from across the bar, and you look like you could use one.” Rowland watches in amazement as Jared successfully buys Claire a drink. Jared strides back to Rowland like a total boss and tells him, “that’s called playing the long game, sport.” Rowland finally gets around to what he was going to say, and he tells Jared about the very small theater scene in town, and that there’s a black box theater that hosts very small productions. “It’s a downgrade from what I’m used to, but it’s somethin’,” says Jared. Then Rowland suggests that he put on his rejected Broadway show for the community, and Jared’s eyes light up, and he tells Rowland that the idea’s not half bad. Some of the other bar patrons, mostly muscular men and biker dudes, start yelling and getting rowdy. Rowland tells Jared that it’s getting that time of night where the crazies come out, and Jared says, “let’s make like a butternut squash and book it.” They head for the door, and a bearded man blocks their way to the exit. He’s a real douchebag with aggressive phrases like “where do you think you’re going, stranger” and “I overheard you talking about theater” and “you want outta this bar, it’ll cost some dough!” Cue the song “Dancing Man” where Jared evades the rowdy muscular men and sings about how theater guys have more physical attributes than meets the eye, and that superficial “strong men” types underestimate them. Jared’s doing Gene Kelly style dancing on pool tables and on the bar, and we get shots of Claire and Rowland as they watch him go. Jared also sings and dances on the karaoke stage. We get fun choreography of Jared eluding the strong men’s grasp, and they eventually corner him, but Claire steps in front of him and tells the strong men that if they mess with Jared, they’ll be in trouble with her father, who happens to be the town’s mayor. Jared escapes with Claire through the backdoor. Jared and Claire go on a walk together and get to know each other, and their scene culminates in a dance scene where they dance through the streets of the small town while they’re alone. Claire assures Jared that she would see his musical and that if he wants to produce it in town, she’d support him simply because she wants to see it happen! Rowland rolls up in his car (as he was Jared’s ride to the bar), so Claire walks to her place and Jared hops into Rowland’s car, where he decisively tells Rowland that he’s making it a mission to show his musical to the townsfolk. “Well first, you’ll need permission to stage it from the theater owner,” says Rowland. “Who’s he?” asks Jared. “My older brother,” says Rowland. Cut to the black box as Jared walks in and asks to talk to Xander. The secretary points him to the black box, where he sees Xander (Domingo) as he’s leading a rehearsal for a small production of Of Mice and Men (one with both men and women in the ensemble since a small town’s gotta take what it can get). Xander’s going in hard on his notes telling the actors exactly what needs fixing. Xander tells them to take five, and Jared takes the chance to ask him about putting on his musical, which is titled The Crummy Shindig, set in the 50s, and about a romance between a stagehand and showgirl. Xander’s like, “look at this cube thing, you really think we can run that here?” Jared somehow charms his way to getting Xander to read the script. To test Jared’s willpower, Xander forces him to wait until after the rehearsal. So Jared waits through the rehearsal, and he waits anxiously for Xander’s thoughts. Xander says he the script, and that’s it’s very adventurous—“you’re not playing whiffle ball, that’s for sure.” But there’s just not enough space in the black box for the scale that Jared’s going for—though Xander has another idea. They cut to the town square, where Xander offers the square as a place to set up a stage, a set, and seats for the audience, but warns Jared that he must make it happen or no one else will, and that using the town square will require him to jump through hoops. Xander also wants to partner with Jared on this because it might bring more attention to the town’s theater scene. Things move quickly as we cut straight into an extended montage that’s paired with “Make It Happen,” an ensemble song about, well, making it happen. Jared gets the word out by posting fliers on power line poles and public bulletins while Claire gets permission from her father, the mayor (James), for Jared to host a public performance in the town square, and she advertises the musical on social media. Included in the montage is Jared sitting at a desk in a small apartment throwing balls of paper in a garbage bin because he’s trying to rewrite the musical around some new limitations, and he’s happy about it when he succeeds. Then it’s time for casting, and Jared drags Rowland into helping with casting because of his rationality. A variety of people come out of the woodworks for the auditions, with Jared becoming a little nervous from the high volume of wannabes. Luckily, they do find a handful of talent, including their leading man Terry (Rodriguez III) who just nails the cocky 50s attitude. But the audition that really captures Jared’s attention is from Paula (Snow). Paula is a waitress at a diner; she’s bubbly and manic who’s obsessed with old starlets, particularly Marilyn Monroe, and she makes her hair like Marilyn’s and tries to dress like her too. She sings a few lines for them, and we can tell she’s nervous, but she’s not too shabby. She gets the lead! Paula had been in her apartment when Jared called her to give the news. She jumps for joy and calls her mom, telling her that she’s going to act onstage—that, for a time, she’s going to be Marilyn! After the call, she looks up toward God with a heartfelt look of gratitude. She goes to her bathroom, putting on makeup, and she sings the song “Marilyn,” a song about how Marilyn Monroe is her idol and that she’s going to do what she did, acting and singing in a musical, for the very first time. Finally, all that dreaming’s paying off! The song continues with her going into the town center, showing ravishing solo dancing to everyone willing to watch. Xander sets up rehearsals in the black box, and Jared gets to work with directing. This is the toughest part because Terry and Paula gave a lot in the audition… But they don’t quite grasp what Jared’s going for. In back-and-forths, Jared tells them to do something, and Terry and Paula fumble. Bless their hearts, cuz they’re trying, but they’re understudies. The scene morphs into a song called “Dance Like This” where Jared does a dance move, and the actors try to copy it. During the song, Terry tries to add his own flair to the dancing, so Jared and Terry start arguing, and Jared’s like, “come on, let’s take it outside.” Everyone goes outside, and Jared and Terry have a dance-off, but the dance-off ends in a tie. “You keep those embellishments,” says Jared, who’s out of breath. They shake hands, and everyone cheers. Jared and Claire hang out at Claire’s place that night and get to know each other more. They ask each other what their favorite musicals are, with Jared answering Bye Bye Birdie. Claire’s only seen one, an obscure one, called Who’s That Dame (a made-up musical that exists in the film’s world). Surprisingly, Jared’s never heard of it. He asks her what it’s about, and Claire decides she’s going to tell him the musical’s whole story. And in the song “Who’s That Dame,” Claire tells this story, and the all the lights around her dim down, and she tells a story about two lowers from the same small town, with the girl going off to star in musicals and the boy getting trapped in his part-time jobs. The long-distance relationship doesn’t work, and the girl becomes someone that the boy doesn’t recognize. It’s tragic. The song ends and they gaze at each other. Cut to another rehearsal day, and Jared and Xander get into some arguments because Jared’s rehearsals are cutting into Xander’s rehearsal time. Jared tries to argue that his group of rambunctious kooks need some wiggle room to be able to hone it in. “This may be a small town, but your musical isn’t the only production going on,” says Xander. Their conversation doesn’t end well. More trouble arises as the mayor tells Claire that renovations in the town square might postpone or outright cancel Jared’s musical, and Claire pleads with him to do something about it, but the mayor doesn’t want to overpromise, so he tells her his hands are tied. Claire tells Jared, who’s disheartened by the news. On one rehearsal, the actors are dancing, and Jared says “stahp the music” and tells them that they’re doing something wrong. They get into another argument, but they hush up when Xander walks up from the back row. “Frankly, I’ve had enough of this clownery,” says Xander. “For my productions, and because you’ve shown you can’t work together, I’ll have to kick you out.” Jared lets out a nervous laugh and says he was just having a little argument, but Xander’s not having it, as he lists a bunch of reasons why they shouldn’t rehearse in the black box as well as why Jared’s vision is too big to happen considering the resources he has (he decides to be mean and gesture at some cast members, implying that they’re the “resources” in question; Paula takes offense to this). Jared tries to plead to Xander, but Xander says he’s sorry and walks away. They start packing up, and Paula storms up to Jared, telling him that they must put on his musical somehow because she wants to prove Xander wrong; she’s not just a crummy resource, she’s a starlet, and she knows she can nail the part with just a little more work. Jared assures her that the play’s still happening, and that the rehearsals will continue as soon as they find another place, but when Paula walks off, we see on Jared’s face that he’s not so sure about that himself. Fade to Jared in his cubicle at work, tapping his pencil and unable to focus on the job. Rowland asks what’s up, and Jared tells him he’s as flustered as the mustard because the musical’s hit some serious roadblocks (and he describes all the problems to Rowland). Rowland encourages him not to give up and reminds him about all the people who are excited for the musical and want to see him succeed. Jared thanks him. Later, he’s driving around the small town in his car; anxiety builds up, and he parks in a secluded parking lot. He bangs the steering wheel in frustration. Then he gets out of the car and sings and dances to “Dancing Man (Reprise)” to a brief musical sequence that motivates him. Then he looks around at the empty parking lot and thinks to himself, “this is it. We can rehearse here!” He goes back to the black box theater to tell Xander that he’s found another place to rehearse. Xander thinks for a moment and tells Jared congrats. Then Jared asks Xander what his deal is, because he’s letting the size of his theater make him unambitious. Xander laughs to himself, telling Jared that he’s only being realistic about what can and can’t be achieved. Their conversation turns into the song “Limitations,” where Xander leads the first verse of it, and they have a back and forth on whether the limitations around them should be considered or if they can really shoot for the moon without abandon. Jared makes some solid points, and Xander says that he can’t do more than putting on small Shakespeare stuff and the like, but if Jared wants to keep shooting for the moon, it’ll do the town a whole lot of good. They hug. The mayor tells Claire that the renovations in the town square were postponed and that Jared’s free to put on his musical. Claire relays this to Jared, and we get an extended montage sequence of Jared and his cast and crew preparing for opening night over the course of the next month. Rowland helps advertise the show by spreading fliers around in the office cubicles. We get to opening night, and Jared’s crew has set up curtains and many chairs in the town square, but so many people have come that there’s not enough chairs to go around. Backstage, Jared finds Paula, who’s having a panic attack and tells him she’s not sure if she can truly be like Marilyn. Jared tells her that she doesn’t have to be Marilyn for the audience and that she only needs to be Paula—and as Paula, she can pay homage to Marilyn while still being the best she can be. Paula thanks Jared profusely for the motivation. The play goes on, and get to watch many of the songs and performances of The Crummy Shindig. Rowland and Xander (who jokingly claim to have dragged each other to see it) love the play, while The Mayor also appreciates it as well. The editing glides through most of the play, and at the end the cast takes a bow and Jared comes up and starts to give a thank you speech, but he locks his eyes on Claire and starts singing “Make It Happen (Reprise).” Claire runs to him and sings it with him, and all the cast members and the audience get in on the singing and dancing as well—because all the townsfolk share the joy of making Jared’s play happen. While everyone’s going home, Jared and Claire run to each other and hug. Then Rowland comes and tells Jared that someone wants to talk to him. It’s a scout from Broadway, who offers a spot in Off-Broadway for Jared’s musical. Jared thanks the scout for the offer but ultimately declines. Jared and Claire walk off together, singing “Who’s That Dame (Reprise),” a version of the song with different lyrics about a guy and a girl who never let anything come between them. The way they walk off down the road, alone but together, it’s like an old cinema classic. Fade to black; in a sequence playing during the credits, all the characters dance and sing to “Make It Happen (Reprise)” in the bar from the first act. This time, the bearded bar guys respect the theatrics, and some even dance along as well! Edited September 23, 2023 by SLAM! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCKillswitch123 Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 Socksucker Studio: Phoenix Fire Entertainment Director: Paul Feig Genre: Romantic Comedy Release Date: January 10th Y9 Theater Count: 3278 Rating: R, for scenes of nudity, language, drinking and smoking Format: 2D Budget: $25 million Runtime: 100 minutes (1 hour and 40 minutes) Cast: - Emma Watson as Olivia - John Boyega as Matt - Unknowns Based on a true story. Plot: Olivia (Emma Watson) and Matt (John Boyega) met on a dating app and started going out on Christmas 2021. On a night out, Olivia's cousin, Sarah, reveals to Matt that Olivia sucks on dirty socks. Olivia is incredibly embarrassed and angry at her cousin, but Matt finds it funny. At home, Matt reveals that he didn't take that seriously at all, so Olivia is relieved, maintaining that it's a lie. A couple months later, on Spring 2022, Matt wakes up in the middle of the night and finds Olivia playfully sucking on a dirty sock. Matt and Olivia trade weird eyes and then quickly move on, but Matt doesn't forget that. Matt talks with his friends about finding Olivia sucking on a sock. He thinks it's very weird. During sex night, Matt tries to avoid kissing Olivia, which pisses Olivia off. Soon enough, Olivia starts talking to her friends about Matt becoming judgmental. She believes that if they love each other, they shouldn't avoid each other. She begins to think that Matt doesn't like her. Matt meanwhile ponders day in and day out about Olivia's vices, until one night, he sleepwalks and starts licking and sucking an old sucker that he keeps in a drawer as a memento of when he was a kid. Olivia is shocked at this, and wonders if she should tell Matt about this. The next day, Olivia tells Matt that if he doesn't stop avoiding her, she will reveal his secret to everyone. Matt doesn't know what she's talking about, and Olivia reveals she found him with an old sucker. Matt, appalled and embarrassed, argues that it's just as unhygienic as sucking on a dirty shoe. The two go back and forth and then walk out on each other. The relationship seems troubled, and Olivia blames Sarah for starting all this. Sarah apologizes but then throws back at Olivia that she needs to trust her lover more. Matt has a similar conversation with a friend of his, and the two conversations are interwoven, leading to the couple realizing that they have trust issues, and that they need to openly talk about secrets that could compromise trust in each other. Olivia and Matt, nervously, meet up again. Matt admits that he thinks OIivia's sock-sucking hobbie is weird and that if he's going to be her boyfriend, he should know where she's putting her mouth. Olivia says she puts her mouth wherever the fuck she wants, and it ain't gonna be him bossing him around, especially when he also has a weird habit of putting things in his mouth. Matt doesn't care that Olivia reveals his secret, so long as she trusts him enough to tell him about it. Olivia admits that this is something she's always done and just asks Matt not to judge her. Matt, realizing Olivia thinks the same about him and the old sucker, apologizes to Olivia. The two agree to trust each other more. They make up, kiss and have a full on one night stand afterwards. Later, they're enjoying vacation in the Caribbean. At night, Olivia sneaks out bed, and "menacingly" closes her open mouth in on a worn sock. Cut to Matt, when she's about to put the mouth on it, who realizes Olivia isn't there, and goes to find the sucker that he happened to bring with him. The two find each other sucking on their respective items, then kiss and go back to sucking. Cut to black. 1 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
