CAYOM YEAR 10 - PART 1 - MOVIE SUBMISSION - Submissions for January-June Closing Monday

[YM!]

Viva Las Vengeance: The Cinematic Experience 

Studio: Infinite Studios 

Release Date: 2/6/Y10

Genre: Concert 

Director: Bruce Hendricks

Rating: PG-13

Budget: $12M

Theater Count: 2,450

Format: 2D and 3D

Runtime: 140 minutes

 

Plot:

Panic! at the Disco reunites to do a concert film of their whole Viva Las Vengeance album as well as singing their greatest hits like High Hopes, Victorious and I Write Sins and Not Tragedies. The band also recounting bits on how they became a band together and how music has strengthened those familial bonds. 

[Rorschach]

 

Studio: Lager Pictures

Companies: Amblin Entertainment

Genre: Coming-of-Age/Horror/Mystery/Thriller

 

Directed by David Robert Mitchell

Written by Dathan Auerbach and David Robert Mitchell

Based on the Novel by Dathan Auerbach

Produced by Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, David Robert Mitchell, Adele Romanski 

Executive Producers: Dathan Auerbach, Alma Har’el,  Christopher Lager, Maria Lager

Director of Photography: Michael Giolaukis

Edited by Julio C. Perez IV

Music by Richard Vreeland and Alex Lasater (credited as Disasterpiece feat. Alicks)

 

MPA Rating: R for disturbing content, some graphic imagery, and language

Running Time: 162 minutes

Budget: $25 million

Release Date: April 17, Y10

Theater Count: 3,310

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (sections with kid Dathan), 1.85:1 (sections with Pre-Teen/Teen Dathan), and 2.35:1 (sections with adult Dathan)

 

Cast:

Owen Teague as Dathan (Adult)

• Jacob Tremblay as Dathan (Teen)
• Julian Hilliard as Dathan (Pre-Teen)
• *Jacob Eggers as Dathan (Kid)

Kate Siegel as Dathan’s Mom

Josh Hartnett as Mr. Lawson

Diesel la Torroca as Josh (Pre-Teen)

• *William Carpenter as Josh (Kid)

Lin Shaye as Mrs. Maggie

Annabelle Wallis as Mrs. Lawson

Millie Gibson as Veronica (Teen)

and Daveed Diggs as Professor Kelley

 

Minor Roles:

Maika Monroe as the Kindergarten Teacher

Riley Keough as Samantha

Rohan Campbell as Adam (Adult)

• Finn Little as Adam (Teen)

Brady Noon as Chris (Teen)

• Robert Capron as Chris (Adult)

Kane Parsons as Ryan (Teen)

• Joel Courtney as Ryan (Adult)

Spike Edmond as Devin

 

*denotes fictional actors 

 

Synopsis: A young man recalls several seemingly unrelated core memories from his childhood, slowly realizing the sinister tissue connecting all of them.

 

Summary (~31.5k words):

Spoiler

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X-V1cGdF5Q973M6yKfsZj7DN0IIdv4X-PGH8VCsvVKE/edit?usp=sharing

 

Special thanks to @4815162342 for your assistance in the production of this film.

[cookie]

- Remastered -

 

Studio: Cookie Pictures Animation (external production aid by Endless Animation)

Genre: Re-release / Animation (Worldmeander) / Fantasy / Adventure / Comedy-Drama

Director: Jill Culton

Producer: Sebastian Peters

Executive Producers: Luke Pearson, Dana Terrace, Xander B. Irving

Composer: Thomas Newman

Original Song: "Brave Giants" (end credits theme) by Smith & Thell (inspiration)

Animation Style: The film adopts the visual style of the original graphic novels (day scenes are in burnt orange and maroon like permanent autumn, and night scenes are icy blue and dark teal) and uses software based on the "Meander" technology that allows hand-drawn animation tools (brushstrokes, thick, emotive lines, drawn to camera) to be employed and rendered in CG animation without sacrifice while including the added depth and stability of the latter.

Based on: Hilda and the Midnight Giant (2011) and the Netflix animated series Hilda (2018 to present) created by Luke Pearson

Budget (re-release): $5m (original budget $130m)

Release Date: October 23rd

Theater Count: 3,000

Rating: PG for sequences of peril, crude humor, and instances of mild language

Running Time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)

Format: 2D, Dolby Cinema

Original Release: April 7th, Y7

 

Plot: 

Re-release of Hilda and the Midnight Giant, remastered for Dolby Cinema with updated animation and visual effects.

 

Quote

 

Hilda has spent her entire life living as a carefree adventurer out in the woods and valleys not far from the city of Trolberg, but when tiny elves attack her and her mother Johanna's house in order to drive them out, Johanna starts having second thoughts about the valley being safe for a young girl like Hilda. Unwilling to give up her home, Hilda embarks on a quest with elven citizen Alfur in order to convince the elf government to let her and Johanna live in peace.

 

A greater conundrum soon emerges in the form of the Midnight Giant, a creature tall as the mountains he wanders past, and now the race is on to uncover the giant's origins while the elf prime minister begins plotting a nefarious scheme.

 

 

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xR9vyYv9UoJpM_IV9QR2tigue04dMbQN3LZEq4Ay_X8/edit?usp=sharing (~22,300 words)

[YM!]

Speed Demon
Studio: Infinite Studios
Release Date - 3/6/Y10
Genre: Thriller/Supervillain
Director: David Yarovesky
Rating: R
Budget: $17m

Runtime: 98 minutes

Format: 2D and Dolby Cinema

Theater Count: 3,455
Cast:
Nicholas Cantu as Jason Michaels/Speed Demon
Sofia Wylie as Saffi
Nick Offerman as Steven Michaels
Maya Rudolph as Diane Michaels
Sarah Chalke as Professor Anderson
 

Plot: 

Spoiler

In 2019, Jason Michaels, son of socialites Steven and Diane Michaels, is a key track sprinter in his junior year of high school. During a decathlon event, Jason engages in a race with four other finalists in the 200km sprint. Jason taunts the other competitors by boasting about how fast he is - mocking Dave, the ganglier one on his right and as the gun fires, the students take off. Jason pushes his way past the students with ease, at ease but Dave manages to keep up. The two are neck and neck, just about to make the finish line but Jason’s legs give out causing him to crash. 

 

As Jason winds up in the ER, Jason learns that he is suffering from a rare muscle disorder, with the doctor estimating that he will lose leg mobility within the next two years, and then all muscle motions within the five years, crushing Jason and his dreams for the Olympics. It also devastates Steven. 3 years later, Jason made it to Empire State University but is now paralyzed from the waist down. 

 

Jason pursues a career in biological sciences, getting great grades and working in Professor Anderson’s biology lab. Jason also forms a budding friendship with his fellow classmate Saffi, with the two having clear chemistry. In the lab, the students are key at work studying mice mobility by using a new fungus they found months ago which seems to have restorative purposes. The students head up to a party for the night, with successful results and everyone but Jason goes, as Jason does not feel in the mood for partying despite being popular amongst his labmates. Jason returns to his mansion home, as he is greeted warmly by Diane but coldly by Steven. Each parent has had a different reaction to Jason’s condition with Diane becoming overprotective and coddling while Steven has grown cold and uncaring because his son’s future is over as far as his eyes. After a miserable dinner with Diane, trying to convince Jason to quit college so he can live in comfort and Steven being unimpressed by his scientific breakthroughs, Jason storms off with Saffi picking him up.

 

The two head to the party and have a great time but Jason gets a hard time from some of the jocks bullying him by spilling some beer on his shorts and mocking him on his disability. However, Saffi tells them off as the two head to the bathroom to clean the stains. During the process, the two confide in their feelings towards each other and start making out, Jason becomes frustrated when his hands start to freeze up. Saffi tells him not to worry about it but Jason notes that he needs some time for himself as he leaves in a huff. Jason heads into the lab and decides to try some of the medicine, taking down a fistful and then heads back home, calling his mother to pick him up.

 

Jason wakes up the next morning with his mobility back, to the shock of his family, friends and classmates with Steven finally taking an interest in his son. Professor Anderson and Saffi confront Jason, though happy for his mobility back and the scientific breakthrough recognizes this is due to him taking the experimental treatment he stole but decides to keep it quiet and warn Jason not to take any more of the medicine until it is fully tested. However, Saffi offers to run tests to make sure Jason is okay, which Jason accepts. 

 

Jason also learns that he has gained superhuman reflexes after using them to try jogging around the field, and learns that he can reach speeds up to 60 miles an hour by doing a morning jog. Jason decides to use his abilities to fight crime, becoming the vigilante Speed Demon. Jason decides to stop a robbery, easily managing to dispatch the criminals with his superspeed, but just as he does the finishing blow to disable the criminal, Jason becomes winded. Learning from Saffi, that the effects of the pill seem temporary but estimates that it will last him for a few months with no signs of deterioration and expresses pride in the person Jason is becoming, noting the heroic feats he has done. The two then decide to become intimate that evening, and the next morning Jason leaves and gets a call from Steven, who invites him and Safi for breakfast with him and Diane. During that breakfast, Steven is aware that Jason is this new Speed Demon to go public and wants his company to be the sole beneficiary whereas Diane is concerned about her son being a vigilante. 

 

Jason refuses though, furious at his dad only wanting him when he has use for him and his mother’s coddling. Steven notes it is a fair observation but warns his son he always has his way. During the next week all is well until it is revealed to the world via exposure that Steven has found out that Jason took the experimental medicine and leaked it to the world. This gets the labs closed down and Professor Anderson fired. Steven also gets to worm his way to being a shareholder of the college due to his affluence. This infuriates Jason but the labmates seem more concerned at Jason for being a lab rat despite him explaining, as Jason accuses them of pitying him and storms off. That night, Steven hires some goons to steal the lab equipment, but they are caught by Jason.

 

Jason brutality beats the goons to death but also drinks their fluids in their body, which not only fills him with vitality but also increases his speeds. Jason confronts Steven for his cruelty and beats him up violently with a series of supersonic punches and kicks. Jason then grabs Steven’s bloodied body and drags him face first along the highway, not before draining his spinal fluid. The next day, as the police try to investigate the disappearance of Steven but come up with no leads as Diane mourns but Jason is oddly relieved and elated, much to Saffi’s concerns. 

 

However, with Steven gone, Diane obtains a stake in his companies and Jason convinces her to let the labs get back at ESU which work. During the next few weeks, Jason continues his crime fighting crusade and feasting off of criminals' vitality but also becomes more aggressive and standoffish, almost verbally lashing out at Saffi in front of the labmates, who disgusted condemn Jason. Saffi does more research, noticing Jason’s mood swings learning from the mice trials, the fungus does improve vitality but also makes the mice more aggressive. However, the mice have no superspeed like Jason.

 

Suspecting something amuck, Saffi contacts an off the grid Professor Anderson, who through her own research found out the fungus is of unknown origins after her own research. Anderson suggests that the fungus’ rate of evolution increases alongside higher organisms and the two decide to get a copy of Jason’s DNA to find out if Jason is okay. Jason manages to find the lab mates out at a bar and decides to warn them to stay out of his business, confronting them in an empty parking lot. Afraid, one of them grabs a gun but before they can shoot, Jason simply crushes the gun and their hand. The lab mates try to fight him hand to hand but Jason kills them one by one, either by running them over, vibrating his hand through their chest until the heart explodes or grabbing the knife of one of them giving them the death of a thousand cuts. The last lab mate, speeds off in their car but Jason keeps up with them and trips the car, sending the lab mate and their car to crash into a tree, impaling them in wood and car parts.

 

When Jason returns home from his “crimefighting”, he is confronted by Diane who figures out he killed Steven and likely others. Diane informs Jason she will call someone to help him, imploring him that what he is doing is not him. Jason refuses to back down and grabs Diane but vibrates his hand to force his hand into her brain in order to make her comatose but is pained doing this. Jason realizes he is losing his stability over his powers despite the vitality draining.

 

Jason heads to Saffi’s apartment to tearfully tell her of his mother’s comatose state. Saffi expresses sympathy but Jason quickly tells her he needs more of the medicine. Saffi attempts to show Jason what it did to the mice and Anderson’s research, suspecting it might be mentally and physically warping him, but they can cure it. Jason goes into a tirade, accusing Anderson of being ungrateful and what is happening, inadvertently letting it slip that he killed Steven and the various criminals. Saffi is horrified by this as Jason calls her ungrateful, and threatens to kill her should she snitch, warning Saffi he is always watching.

 

Saffi manages to get some DNA of his hair and returns to Anderson and through research, confirming Anderson’s hypothesis. Anderson notes that they must stop Jason from hurting himself and suggests freezing him to keep the fungus and his body subdued but Saffi refuses to hurt Jason, but Anderson insists this is the only way. With the materials, the two prepare to head back to the ESU lab but find Jason right behind them. Anderson tries to talk him down but before Jason can do anything, Saffi sneaks up on Jason and splashes some liquid nitrogen on him, making him slow down. The two get into Anderson’s car with the spores and head to the lab in hopes to make a cure but are chased by Jason. Jason slams into the car and attempts to destroy it but thanks to some quick thinking and fast moving, the two lose Jason thanks to some quick thinking into making a liquid nitrogen-based tear gas and get to the lab in time. 

 

Anderson attempts to stay on guard, knowing Jason is close by and informs Saffi what she needs to do, handing her a gun and how to destroy the spores in extreme cold. Once that happens, lower the temperature to freeze Jason. Saffi rushes up the stairs to the lab as Anderson faces off against Jason, using the gas and a gas mask to slow him down and fight back, but Jason gets the upper hand. Though slowed, Jason begins chasing after Saffi. Saffi, trapped, lowers the rate of the laboratory to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. This manages to slow Jason down, but Jason is still fast, rearranging his speed to focus on his punches and keep him warm. Jason tries to kill Saffi, but she defends herself by using a gun to defend herself. Saffi manages to get Jason in his leg, halting him. Jason berates Saffi for her betrayal, but Saffi talks about the crime and monstrosities Jason has done. Jason notes he needs to survive, so he can do it for them, but Saffi tells Jason that she’s not even sure there can be a them unless she cures him but being sympathetic to not just his condition but also the heartache he’s dealt with Steven. Jason, in a moment of lucidity, sobs as he begs Saffi to just end him, pointing out how long it will take and that they won’t let him live.

 

Saffi hesitates but finally gets the follow through, however before she fires the trigger, a barely alive Professor Anderson turns on the gas and lights a match, causing the laboratory to explode. Jason makes it out alive, but Saffi and Professor Anderson dies. Distraught, Jason runs away into the night, never to be seen again. A few days later, the news talks about not just the explosion of the ESU labs but also the gruesome murders in which the victims not just have significant blood loss but have had their spinal fluid drained by what some figures call a Speed Demon.
 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by YM!

[Rorschach]

Tailypo

 

Studio: Lager Pictures

Companies: Ghost House Pictures, The Imaginarium, Fire Axe Pictures, SpectreVision, Parts & Labor 

Genre: Folk Horror

 

Directed by Alexandre Aja

Written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen

Produced by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert,  Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, Alexandre Aja, Elijah Wood, Lisa Whalen, Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller

Executive Producers: Christopher Lager, Maria Lager, Lars Knudsen, Gregory Levasseur

Director of Photography: Maxime Alexandre

Edited by Elliot Greenburg

Music by Mark Korven

 

MPA Rating: R for gruesome violence and some strong language

Running Time: 83 minutes

Budget: $10 million

Release Date: January 17, Y10

Theater Count: 3,402

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

 

Cast:

Andy Serkis as Smitty, the Hermit/Tailypo (voice)

Ólafur Darri Ólafson as The Tradesman

Jonas Bloquet as Jean, the Frenchman

Raoul Max Trujillo as Cicatriz, the lead Huntsman

 

and Introducing:

*Kiri as Calico/“Cali”, the Yellow Labrador

*Ash as Ino, the Black Labrador

*Goose as Uno, the Chocolate Labrador

 

*denotes fictional actors

Summary: A hermit and his three dogs are terrorized by a malignant creature determined to take back its missing tail.

 

Plot: (~5.2k words)

Spoiler

Spoiler

The film ominously opens with the POV shot of an unseen predator stalking its prey, a deer. The creature chases the deer through the woods over steep, bushy hills and rough, thorny terrain. It finally catches up, leaping in for the attack… 

 

…before abruptly cutting away to a group of travelers gathered around a fire, eating, playing card games, shooting the shit, and just having a good ‘ol drunken time. As the night winds down, though, only a handful of men remain at the fire, swapping stories as they continue drinking away. The group collectively laments over the disappointing hunting season, citing how few animals they’ve caught – let alone even seen. They speculate why this might be, though the mood gets tense when one of them theorizes how it could be supernaturally related. Sensing the group’s shift in tone and the unsettling ambiance of the dark forest near them, one of the men, a Tradesman, takes the opportunity to share a story of his own, beginning in earnest.

 

Several years ago, somewhere deep in the southern Appalachian mountains, a middle-aged hermit named Smitty lived in a log cabin with his three labrador retrievers: Uno, Ino, and Calico (or, Cali, for short, as the Tradesman calls her). Smitty was a loner, a former Confederate soldier trying to find some isolated peace after the war left him disillusioned and filled with regret. For the most part, the man and his three dogs got by on their own, hunting animals daily to survive. While Uno and Ino were the more avid retrievers, Cali, a female dog, was far more vigilant and gun-shy, preferring to stay at Smitty’s side to guard him. Though, as far as the Tradesman figured, Smitty was okay with this, describing her as his “little princess.”

 

The rare times Smitty and his mutts ever left his forest area were to go the closest nearby town a few miles away to trade and buy certain supplies, such as traps and a little bit of food, but only for the dogs, never himself. This is how the Tradesman, who owned a shop of his own, came to know Smitty, jokingly claiming that he was one of his few human friends. Though they weren’t close by any means, they’d have a good chat every time Smitty came into town. The Tradesman recalls one particular conversation where Smitty complained extensively about a rival group of hunters in the same woods that he believed were driving away all the animals. A flashback shows the heated confrontation between Smitty and the intimidating lead huntsman of the party, Cicatriz. The situation is diffused by the youngest member of the hunters, Jean, but Cicatriz warns Smitty that the next time they run into each other will not be pretty. As the hunters left, Jean took pity on Smitty, giving him three of his rabbit pellets, which Smitty initially refused but ultimately took when Jean insisted he give them to the dogs. 

 

At the end of the Tradesman’s conversation with Smitty, the hermit told him that he could also sense something else was very off about the woods that particular season. Quoting Smitty’s words, “Something in the air is just not right.”

 

The day after returning home with his trio of mutts, Smitty went out hunting again but only caught a single hare to bring home that night. Biting the bullet, Smitty abstained from eating and cooked the hare for his three dogs instead. Understandably still hungry, Smitty set out by himself, much to Cali’s worry, to find more food. As the forest plunged into darkness, Smitty came across something moving just several yards ahead of him. Through the barely visible darkness, he made out what looked like a creature slightly bigger than a housecat lurking in the bushes. He took his chance and tried to fire his musket at the animal. However, the gun fails to go off. After a tense stand-off where the creature stared Smitty down with bright, glowing eyes, Smitty came to his senses and chucked a small hatchet at the creature, slicing off its tail. The creature howled and took off before he could catch it, though, which left Smitty with nothing but the tail to show for his efforts.

 

Back at the cabin, Smitty cooked the tail and cut it up into four pieces. He contemplated whether or not to share the small amount of food with his dogs, who sat idly by his side as he did, but the film cuts away before he makes his decision.

 

That night, after a harrowing nightmare of a particularly gruesome battle from the war, Smitty woke up to hear strange noises coming from outside his cabin. Restless and unable to go back to sleep, he stayed up reading a book with Cali by his side by the burning fireplace. But the distant rustling coming from outside creeps closer to the house. The noise transformed into slow but distinct clawing along the logs. This woke up Uno and Ino, who growled deeply in a way Smitty had never heard them do before. The clawing persisted, circling the house several times, putting Smitty and all the dogs on edge. Smitty yelled to whoever was out there to show themselves. From outside, a deep, raspy voice echoed around.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… which… one… of you... has got… my Tail-y-po…?

 

As Smitty slowly crept toward the door, ready to sic his mutts on their harasser, the voice continued, each word shown alongside the dogs’ reactions.

 

Eeny… meeny… miny…

 

Smitty quietly wrapped his hand around the handle. A pair of bright glowing eyes slowly open outside the window, narrowing in.

 

You…!

 

…and flung it open. Uno and Ino raced out after the creature and chased after it into the darkness. Cali stayed behind, whimpering next to Smitty, who peered out from the doorway, listening to his dogs' loud barks heading further and further away. 

 

The next morning, after calling for his dogs to come back, only Ino returned. Concerned, Smitty kept searching for Uno, letting Ino and Cali guide him on the path of his scent. After a few hours of searching, finding nothing except Uno’s blood-stained collar on the ground, their trail ran cold at the edge of a thick swamp. With an uneasy feeling about their location and the dogs unwilling to continue forward, Smitty decided it best to return to the cabin. However, Smitty, realizing that who or whatever this thing is might return, decided to take action.

 

Through montage, Smitty spent the rest of the day carefully setting up traps around the perimeter of his cabin, hiding them well for the human or animal assailant stalking him. He also ventures into town, stopping by the Tradesman’s shop to buy some extra ones for good measure. The Tradesman was surprised to see him back so soon but understood why when Smitty relayed what happened to him. The Tradesman offered to throw in some food for free, seeing how exhausted Smitty looked, but Smitty steadfastly refused because he did not appreciate charity from others, claiming he could get by just fine. With that, the Tradesman begrudgingly took his cash and Smitty was on his way.

 

Smitty and the two dogs return to the cabin around sunset. Smitty took advantage of the last bit of light and set up the remaining traps around his home before retiring for the night. After feeding the dogs, he called it an early night and headed for bed.

 

The night passed by without anything of note occurring until an hour before sunrise. Smitty woke up faintly hearing one of the traps going off outside. Up and alert, he finished getting dressed when he heard another trap go off. Quietly, he, along with Cali and Ino, listened as all of the traps went off one by one in quick succession up to the cabin, circling them before stopping right in front of the door. Smitty prepared his musket as the slow scratching on the door and the familiar raspy voice began again.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… I know… one of you’s got… my… Tail-y-po…

 

Smitty yelled at the thing to leave them alone. Ino growled and barked at it, but was immediately shut up at what the thing said next.

 

One down… three to go… ‘til I get… my… Tail-y-po…

 

Smitty’s blood ran cold at the implication. The scratching began again, but this time, the claws slowly cut straight through the door. Smitty regained his composure, warning the thing that he had a loaded gun. The threat failed to dissuade the creature. Smitty stepped forward and kicked the door open, only for his foot to plunge straight into a foothold trap. 

 

He screamed in agony, falling over and firing the gun by accident. Ino bolted out after the creature, chasing it into the woods. Cali stayed back with Smitty, who yelled at her to go after it, but she stayed by his side while he pried his ankle out of the trap. Hobbling up and tightly tying up his wound, Smitty dragged his foot as he and Cali caught up to Ino, who waited for them at the edge of the woods. On Smitty’s command, the two dogs bolted into the forest, tracking the creature’s scent. Fueled with adrenaline, Smitty ignored the pain, keeping pace with the fast-moving dogs.

 

Through the thick forest, Smitty and Cali lost Ino in the bushes. Smitty called out his name multiple times but to no avail. Feeling the pain in his foot creeping back into him, Smitty figured it best to just head back. But suddenly, he and Cali were ambushed by Cicatriz and his men. While the two are two held down, Cicatriz looms over them. He called Smitty a hypocrite, accusing him and his “noisy mutts” of scaring away a group of deer they were about to shoot. He reminded Smitty of his warning, promising to make good on it. As he said this, he pointed a pistol at Cali. Both Smitty and Jean beg him not to do anything, but Cicatriz only cocked back the trigger in response.

 

Smitty broke down, begging him not to punish her for obeying his orders, declaring that the only one who deserved punishment was him. Cicatriz considered this for a moment and put his pistol away. He agreed that it wasn’t her fault, which is why she should watch what’ll happen to her the next time it happens. With that, Cicatriz and his men began beating Smitty, while Jean held Cali back. All Cali could do was bark helplessly and watch her beloved master get beat to a bloody pulp. 

 

After they finished, Cicatriz and his men left Smitty on the ground, but Jean stayed behind and helped him get back to the cabin with Cali leading the way. At the cabin, Jean cleaned him up and stitched his wounds, including his ankle. Smitty told the young man to leave him be, saying he did not need his help. Jean insisted it was the least he could do, seeing as how he was already banged up before they beat him to a pulp. He asked what the deal was with all the traps outside. Smitty growled that it was none of his concern and lied that they were just to ward off unwanted guests. Jean sensed that Smitty was not telling the full truth, but figured it best not to push the old man. He finished closing the wound and went to leave. Smitty stopped him and gave a reluctant “thanks”. He said that he knew that he only did this because that asshole Cicatriz ordered him to. Jean smiled and assured him that was not the case: he did it because he wanted to, simple as that.

 

That night, Cali slept by Smitty’s side in his bed. He experienced another nightmare set in one of his past battles in which he killed his first person, an enemy Union soldier, by driving the blade of his musket into his chest. He watched the light drain from his opponent’s eyes and let the weight of the kill fully sink into him. 

 

When Smitty awoke from his dream, he heard Cali whimpering and staring at something in the corner of the room. Smitty looked over and saw what she was looking at. A flash of his dead opponent’s eyes match cuts with a pair of bright, glowing eyes at the foot of the bed. Both Smitty and Cali were paralyzed with fear as the creature creaked slowly along the room, its narrowed eyes the only things they could see of it in the pitch-black room. 

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… ever… so… close… to my… Tail-y-po…

 

Smitty glared at the eyes and gritted his teeth as his hand slowly reached for something at his side.

 

Oh… so… close… to my… beloved…Tail-y-po…

 

Smitty screamed, chucking his hatchet at the creature. The creature scurried out of the bedroom into the main room. Smitty pursued him out there and found the front door wide open. He turned and stopped, collapsing to his knees at what he saw before him at the foot of the door: Uno and Ino’s lifeless, disemboweled bodies next to each other. Smitty broke down screaming while Shelley stood in a corner, crying and whimpering. Through a break in one of Smitty’s cries, he heard the creature’s voice echo out from beyond in the darkness.

 

Two down… two to go… ‘til I get… my… Tail-y-po…

 

…

 

The next day, after Smitty buried Uno and Ino and said a few solemn words of goodbye to them, Smitty barricaded himself and Cali in the house, completely boarding up the windows and the main door so that nothing could get in or out. Smitty braced himself for the creature’s return as day transitioned into night. He stayed up all night unable to sleep, with Cali by his side. Yet, surprisingly, the creature did not come back. However, Smitty was gripped with paranoia, traumatized over the previous night’s incident. 

 

Another day and night passed by without incident. Smitty fed Cali some spare dog food but had nothing to eat or drink himself. As another day and night passed, slowly but surely, starvation and dehydration started to get to him, which made him quite irritable. He sometimes took his frustration out on Cali, shoving her away when she tried to get near him or yelling mean and spiteful things at her (calling her a “useless bitch”, wondering why she couldn’t be more like her brothers and had gone after that creature). Despite her loyalty to him, Cali purposefully distanced herself from Smitty, sensing he was not all himself. 

 

The next day, Cali woke up to the sound of Smitty trashing the cabin. Cautiously, she approached him. Her foot made a creaking noise on the wooden ground. Smitty whipped around with a crazed look about him, almost possessed by something else entirely. From Smitty’s hallucinatory perspective, she practically looked like the bright, glowing-eyed creature stalking him. The raspy, echoey voice of the creature filled his mind with intense mockery. In a fit of rage, he lunged at her with his hatchet in hand. Cali evaded his attack, barking loudly to snap some sense back into him. He chased her around the cabin and completely turned it upside down trying to catch her.

 

Cali stopped right in front of the door, cornered by Smitty. In one final burst of anger, he barrelled at her like a bull. But Cali was too fast for him, moving out of the way in time. Smitty charged with enough furious force to blast through the airtight wooden door. Fearful for her life, Cali lept out of the doorway over a weakened Smitty, who briefly came to his senses, watching not the creature but his dog run off into the night before he collapsed unconscious. 

 

Cali ran far through the forest, as far as her own weakened state could handle, before finally coming upon Cicatriz’s hunting camp. The group almost shoots her, believing her to be a wild animal, but they recognize her as Smitty’s dog. Jean wondered what she was doing here so far from Smitty’s place, but Cicatriz couldn't care less, saying that the next time he saw the dumb bastard, it would be with a bullet in his head. However, he was in a fairly good mood that night, due to the day’s successful hunt, and allowed Cali to stay under the stipulation that Jean look after her. Of course, Jean was more than content to do so. He fed Cali a nice warm meal and gave her plenty of water to drink. Although he had no idea what she was doing there at their camp, he promised to take her back to Smittey’s place in the early morning before the rest of the camp woke up. But Cali remains on edge, even after Jean and the whole camp head to sleep

 

That night, two watchmen stayed awake, playing cards to pass the time while they guarded the camp. A strange noise – a high-pitched meow – caught their attention. They went to investigate and found a pair of bright, glowing eyes peering out behind a tree. They got a good look at the creature (though the film does not show its full look). The men laughed at the size of the “dumb little pussycat”. One of the men pointed his gun at it and joked that it’d make a nice stew. Suddenly, the creature jumped up and swiftly ripped the man’s jugular straight out of him. The other man watched in disbelief as his buddy choked on his blood. Before he could react, the creature leaped onto the back of his head, clamped a fistful of the man’s long hair in its jaw, and yanked the guy’s scalp clean off. The last thing the man saw before he died was his buddy finally choking to death, involuntarily squeezing the trigger as he fell, the gun pointed right at him.

 

The shot rang throughout the camp, waking everyone up. Cicatriz, Jean, and the others went to investigate and found the bodies, seeing the second man’s front lobe spilling out his brains on the ground. They all freaked out, wondering if they were under attack by other humans, but Cicatriz noticed Cali’s whimpering reaction, realizing that it was something else entirely. Suddenly, the creature fell from a high branch onto Cicatriz, clawing the guy’s face to shreds. The camp descended into complete chaos. One by one, the creature took out every man. Hopping around a hot potato, it tore them all to pieces. Amidst the carnage, Jean tried to escape with Cali, but a bloody-faced Cicatriz held them both at gunpoint, telling them no one was going anywhere until that damn creature was-- 

 

He is cut off mid-sentence by the creature biting into the back of his spine. Jean and Cali took their chance and escaped. Cicatriz screamed in pain and fell back, dropping his gun and falling to the ground. While he lay paralyzed in the dirt, he saw the creature standing on top of his gun, twisting it around with its paw, pointing the barrel directly at his forehead. It curled one of its long nails around the trigger. “Fuck… me…” Cicatriz wheezed.

 

Bang! Jean and Cali heard the shot ring out but kept running. Soon, though, the creature was in hot pursuit, leaping from tree to tree after them. The pair sprinted and sprinted, but it was not nearly fast enough. The creature sprang from one of the trees and landed on Jean, pinning him to the ground. Cali barked helplessly as the creature tore into Jean. He screamed and pleaded with Cali to run home to Smittey before the creature dragged him off into the bushes to finish him off. Cali could do nothing but cower and whimper. Jean’s screams for mercy ranged throughout the forest before he was completely silenced.

 

Several beats of silence passed as Cali stood shaking in her spot… until she saw a pair of glowing, narrow eyes circling her in the darkness. The creature’s mouth curled into a bright, wide smile, showing off its sharp, pearly white jaws.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… do you rest… in poor… pathetic… Cali… my… Tail-y-po…?

 

Slowly, Cali’s shaking and whimpering dissipated as the creature continued taunting her.

 

Poor… pathetic… Cali… can’t save her brothers… can’t save her father… can’t even save… herself…

 

But the creature stopped short, its ears perking up as it caught the low hum of a growl. A growl coming from Cali! Gradually, it built and built upon itself. Cali glared the creature down, gritting her teeth, showing anger for the first time. The creature’s bright eyes widened, genuinely surprised. But once more, they narrowed down, the grin growing wider. 

 

But no matter… nothing… will keep me… from getting you… my… Tailpyo…!

 

The creature leaped toward Cali with jaws open… but Cali caught it in her mouth and shook it violently around. The creature yelped as it was flung all about. 

 

Argh… let me go… you stupid bitch…!

 

Cali did let it go… through the air into a thick tree trunk! The creature slumped to the base, weakly picking itself up. It snarled at Cali, who matched it back with an even more powerful one. The creature snickered uncontrollably.

 

I… will… enjoy this… very much…!

 

The two animals lept towards each other… but the film abruptly cuts to black.

 

In the wee hours of the morning, Smitty weakly hobbled through the forest, calling out for Cali, but got no response. However, his nose caught the undeniable stench of death in the air. He walked some more before finding poor Jean’s crumpled body behind a bush. He looked around the immediate area and found Cali's bloodied collar lying on the ground. Smitty's heart raced as he tracked the pool of blood leading until it ran cold... on the banks of the unsettling foggy swamp.

 

Realizing the worst had come to pass, Smitty collapsed to his knees, burying his face in his hands as he broke into an uncontrollable sob. He cried and mourned for the loss of his three dogs – his only true friends in the entire world. Gone forever. But suddenly, from deep within the swamp, the fast wind carried a whisper that sent fear coursing back through Smitty.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… at last… we will meet again… tonight… my… Tailypo…

 

Smitty returned to his senses, his remorseful sadness replaced with a deep, burning hatred, and he let out a cathartic scream of rage. 

 

Over the subsequent hours, Smitty found and raided Cicatriz’s camp, devouring their food and taking anything of use he could find, wheeling all of it back in a cart. Back at his cabin, Smitty riddled the entire area full of traps and gunpowder. He lined every corner of his house with muskets and axes and hatchets galore. When he finished, he was still not satisfied. He traveled into town and made one last visit with the Tradesman, spending the last of his money on more traps. Concerned, the Tradesman asks what this is all about. Smitty did not tell him much, only that his best friends were all dead and that he was going to confront the thing that did it. The Tradesman offered to help Smitty, telling him whatever this was sounded dangerous. For once, Smitty genuinely thanked the Tradesman, assuring him that he helped him more than he could ever repay. The last thing he told the Tradesman was that if he didn’t come back to town midday the next day, assume the worst had happened.

 

That night, after Smitty finished rigging up the cabin, he enjoyed one last meal: a measly, moldy potato. After his last bite, he heard intense rustling coming closer from the woods. All the bear traps went off one by one, signaling the creature’s location to Smitty. A smile crept onto his face. Finally.

 

The familiar raspy voice of the creature began again, much deeper than before.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… I know now… who’s got… my… Tail-y-po…!

 

The creature banged wildly on the front door. Smitty caressed his fingers on a string leading outside, connected to the trigger of a gun. He pulled and it fired into a line of gunpowder on the ground, setting off a massive blaze that ran around the whole house. The blast knocked the creature back. It raced around the perimeter, setting off more bear traps, and letting Smitty know its location. He heard it leap over the blazing ring of fire onto the roof of his cabin. Smitty smirked and shook his head. Big mistake.

 

He listened to it move above, guestimating its location. His fingers caressed a web of strings attached to several muskets bunched together, aimed directly at the roof. He pulled it and fired off several shots at once, blasting several holes through the rooftop. Smitty could hear the creature scurrying about up there, making its way to the chimney. He moved down a line of strings, pulling and setting them all off, further annihilating the roof. But the creature evaded all the shots, reaching the top of the chimney. Smittey retreated to a corner of the room behind another gun. The creature jumped into the chimney, crawling its way down the bricks. He saw a shadowy figure land at the base of the fireplace. Smittey aimed the gun at the floor of the fireplace… filled with gunpowder. “Got you." He fired and shot at the base, igniting a large blaze. Several seconds before he approached it. Yet, he found no burning corpse in the fire. Just then, the familiar raspy tone rose up from behind him. 

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… once more… we’ll be together again… my… Tail-y-po…

 

Smitty whipped around but the creature attacked his leg, biting into the wound on his ankle. He shrieked in pain and tried to shake it off, but its jaws gripped tighter. Smitty grabbed a nearby hatchet, slashing at the creature and warding it away for only a few seconds before it returned to with its relentless attacks. 

 

The Creature dashed around the cabin's interior, attacking Smitty from every which angle. Smitty used every sharp hatchet at his disposal, chucking and hurling them everywhere, but the creature's blinding speed was too much for him to keep up with. He lost sight of the thing for a brief second, but his eyes caught something moving into the shadows of a dark corner. Slowly, he cornered the spot, boxing the creature in. With careful precision, he flung a hatchet down into the dark corner... onto nothing. Smitty stared wide-eyed in disbelief and a sudden realization dawned on him.

 

From out of nowhere, the creature lept from behind and bit the back of his stitched-up leg. Smitty yelled in agony. He swung the ax down, trying to fling the creature off, but it held on tight, biting in deeper like a tick. Bearing the pain, Smitty raised his hatchet up, ready to strike it. As his arm fell, the creature suddenly detached and dashed into the shadows in a flash. But poor, careless Smitty could not react or readjust in time, and drove the sharp blade straight into his leg.

 

Smitty held it all in as he collapsed to his knees before letting it all out in one long, deeply agonizing scream. Outside the cabin, the flames from the ring of fire caught onto the wood and slowly spread over it. Crawling on the ground, Smitty tried warding the creature away with an axe but to no avail. The roof started to collapse. Debris fell around the fireplace, further spreading the flames into the cabin, and setting it ablaze.

 

Smitty retreated to his bedroom, slamming and barricading the door. The creature banged incessantly on the door. Cracks formed and spread all around the wood until, finally, it broke altogether. Backed into a corner behind the bed, Smitty cowered into a ball as the creature’s shadow slowly approached.

 

Tail-y-po… Tail-y-po… all this time… it was him… you were in… my… Tail-y-po…

 

The words hit Smitty all at once, his eyes widened with a sudden realization. A flashback shows the night he shot the creature’s tail off. He had cooked it and cut it up into four pieces, planning to share the other three with Uno, Ino, and Cali. However, his hunger overpowered him, and he ate all of the pieces. 

 

Smitty broke down crying, admitting that it was him, and him alone, who ate the “Tailypo”. He cursed the creature, but mainly, he cursed himself, saying that none of his dogs deserved to die such horrible deaths for his mistake, wishing it was only him that was killed. He cried and laughed simultaneously, realizing the cruel irony of it all.

 

“I had it all along. You could’ve just killed me first and all of their lives could’ve been spared.”

 

An uncomfortable silence, save for the crackling, blazing fires spreading along the wall, hung in the air. The creature peeked its head around the corner, finally coming in to view out of the shadows. The short feline stepped toward Smitty with its stubby, oversized paws, inspecting him with its narrow, bloodshot eyes. It stopped and formed a large, Cheshire smile across its malicious mouth, extending as wide as its tufted ears. 

 

I know… I’ve always known.

 

Smitty gasped, going white as a ghost. With that, the creature pounced on him. On the shadows cast by the flames on the wall, the creature tore into Smitty’s abdomen, completely gutting him as he screamed and screamed and screamed… before going quiet altogether. Before long, the entire cabin ignited into one giant bonfire, sending smoke high above the trees into the horizon.

 

…

 

The film cuts back to the story’s present day. The small group of men sit with wide eyes at the Tradesman, who stares into the blazing firepit. He continues, saying that the following morning, he found a rather peculiar at the front steps of his shop: none other than a bloodied and scarred Cali. 

 

Remembering his last conversation with Smitty, he and his wife cleaned and stitched up Cali before he headed with a dozen men into the mountains with Cali as their guide. They reached Smitty’s log cabin. What was left of it, anyway. Everything but the chimney’s foundation was gone, with no sign of Smitty’s body. They did discover the massacred hunting party another two miles over, but even after a thorough search of the nearby woods, nobody could find evidence of Smitty anywhere. When they finished, the Tradesman returned to what remained of the cabin where he and Cali stood solemnly and paid their last respects before they left with the rest of the group.

 

After a long pause, seemingly indicating the end of the story, the men burst into laughter. They mockingly compliment the Tradesman for having such a vivid imagination to create an outlandish tale like that. While they laugh, the Tradesman interjects their hysterics to let out a shrill whistle. They become quiet when the Tradesman calls and motions for someone in the darkness to come out. “You hear that girl? These funny men don’t believe your story. What do you think of that, huh?”

 

From out of the darkness steps out an older-looking Cali. The men gawk at her appearance, pointing out the numerous scars lining up and down her body. But she keeps a calm demeanor, lying down next to the Tradesman. He looks back at the men, who sit quietly in their log seats, staring at Cali. She keeps her eyes trained on the dark woods not far from them. “See, I wasn’t quite done yet,” says the Tradesman. He continues.

 

As he, Cali, and the rest of the search party headed back to town, an unusually chill breeze swept down from the mountain and hit them all at once. While they stood still there, they swore they could hear an airy voice between the sharp gusts. The Tradesman leans in towards the fire, a smile curling on his lips.

 

Tail-y-po…

 

Cali slowly lifts her scarred head, emanating a low growl as she gazes into the woods. A chill runs up all of the men’s spines. They all turn their heads to look where Cali’s gazing. 

 

Tail-y-po…

 

The camera slowly zooms into the silhouetted trees. A cold gust of wind weaves and flows through the space between the hundreds upon hundreds of them.

 

I… finally… got… my…………..

 

Cut to black.

 

Tailypo

 

Edited January 16 by Rorschach

[YM!]

Father vs Son

Studio: Infinite Studios

Release Date - 4/1/Y10

Genre: Action/Thriller

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Rating: R

Budget: $70m

Runtime: 115 minutes 

Format: 2D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX

Cast:

Denzel Washington as Bradley Graves

John David Washington as Ash Graves

Vanessa Hudgens as Heather Graves

Aaron Taylor Johnson as Ace

Seth Gabel as Clancy

Florian Munteanu as Bishop

Rosa Salazar as Knight

 

 

Spoiler

Ash Graves, lives a pretty normal life in the suburbs of Sacramento as a middle school mathematics teacher. Ash teaches the students angles based on Fortnite kill shots which seems to interest the students but a troublemaker throws a spitball at him which he catches using a pencil, wowing the students. Ash does send the student to detention but admires the craftsmanship, but notes that his angles were off. 

 

Ash returns home to his wife and aspiring chef Heather and their meek but kindhearted 10-year-old son, Arthur. The family has a nice dinner but Ash notices some bruises on Arthur, who has been getting bullied at school. Ash and Heather console Arthur, who feels weak. Ash talks to his son, and teaches him some basic self defense moves, showing him how to perfectly use his own momentum against a bully as Arthur even manages to flip his own dad. Arthur is amazed at his dad, and asks him how he learned it as Ash notes that he was a martial artist before he met his mother. Arthur asks his dad if he misses his cool job which Ash ferociously denies only to apologize to Arthur for his sharpness.

 

Ash returns back to bed with Heather as the two make love but Ash is interrupted by a phone call. The phone call is from Bradley, Ash’s father and California’s top crime boss, who wants to talk to Ash. Ash steps out of the room, as he grows hostile to Bradley, sharply telling him to leave him alone. Bradley says that he saw the man that Ash paraded to the world as his father and killed him. 

 

Ash asks what he wants as Bradley wants a family reunion. Bradley explains that Ash was once his best hitman and heir to his criminal empire. Bradley simply wants Ash as well as Arthur to join him, as Bradley berates Ash for raising Arthur to be weak but it’s of no manner. Bradley warns Ash that his life will be fundamentally changed within the next few days unless he submits to his demands. Ash tells Bradley to fuck off, which Bradley accepts. Bradley says Ash will sleep well for tonight but be prepared for anything tomorrow as Ash heads back to bed. Heather asks Ash what is wrong as Ash explains that Bradley is sick. 

 

The next day, the family learns from the police that “Bradley” was found dead at his apartment, much to the sadness of the family. Concerned for his family, Ash calls in a favor from his pal, Ace. Ace is not only a family friend, but a notorious arms trafficker and former weapons guy for Ash. Ace asks Ace to escort his family to take them to Ash’s “family” home in Arizona to meet his family (and them safe). Ace agrees as Ash explains it under the guise of having to finish the rest of the work week, as his students need him. 

 

Ash heads to work for business as usual with the school heading on a field trip to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. However, the building is flooded by Pawns, Bradley’s low level mooks who shoot up the museum, being lead by Bishop, one of Bradley’s top hitmen. Forced to flee, Ash escorts the kids out of the building whilst avoiding the Pawns but realizing one of his students is in the washroom, goes back in.

 

Armed with a rifle, Ash steals from a Pawn he killed guarding an exit, he blitzes through the gallery as a firefight breaks out. Ash kills Pawns one by one, either through sharply placed gunshots or through hand to hand combat, using the museum exhibition as blunt tools like using a proton from an atom model to throw and bludgeon or a Roman shield. 

 

Bishop, in the washroom, finds one of Ash’s students, the troublemaker, hiding and uses him as a hostage. Bishop lets Ash know he has a hostage and judging by Ash’s reaction, it’s someone important. Ash puts down his rifle and implores Bishop to let the kid go but Bishop still plans on killing the kid. Ash quick gets the pencil he had from earlier, and unsheaths a small dagger from it and hurls it Bishop’s gun hand, forcing him to let go of the kid in pain. Ash then tackles Bishop, telling the troublemaker to run. 

 

Ash and Bishop get into a brutal fistfight. Bishop has more strength but Ash has more experience. Bishop smashes Ash’s head in a guardrail and sends him down the stairs in a bloody mess. Bishop prepares to curbstomp him by jumping down but Ash weakly gets up and throws a spear at Bishop, impaling the goon. Ash asks Bishop what Bradley is planing but the brute dies before saying anything.

 

Ash then heads to his old hideout in Oakland for clues, being an old safe house in which he keeps his guns and money, fleeing the scene. Meanwhile with Ace, Heather and Arthur, on route to the safe house stop at a diner for food. The waitress (Rosa Salazar) gives them their food but by the time the family takes a bit, Heather collapses from poison. Ace quickly gets Arthur to put down the food and hide in the car, giving him the keys in case he must leave.

 

The waitress reveals herself as Knight, one of Bradley’s hitmen. Knight and Ace duke it out in the kitchen using pots, pans and knives as weapons with Ace getting the upper hand, and cuts Knight’s abdomen. Knight manages to get some blinding powder into Ace’s eyes and then shoves his body into the oven, setting the temperature extremely high. Knight takes the unconscious Heather as the diner explodes and manages to kidnap Arthur.

 

Ash raids his hideout which is being used by his hacker accomplice and underworld banker Clancy. Ash retrieves his money and more of his weaponry, as he asks Clancy for a favor, searching for Bradley’s nightclub, as Ash notes that said nightclub has not only where a large sum of his digital money is but his entire base networks, offering to give Clancy a copy if he helps him get in. 

 

Clancy agrees and the two head to the nightclub, which is full of young people partying and drinking. As they navigate their ways inside to the computer room and hack their way into the mainframe. Ash prepares the download but Clancy puts a gun on him, revealing it to be a setup. Clancy informs Ash that Bradley promised him a stake of the fortune, if he bought Ash to him. Clancy ties Ash up in the basement, and quickly calls Bradley for the pickup. As Clancy leaves, Ash dislocates his wrist to break out and free himself. Ash fights his way out of the basement, dealing with the Pawns there (they kicked the partygoers out) but as he notices the main entrance is filled with goons, noticing the electronic dance floor, Ash gets some rubber from the basement on his soles, and floods the basement causing the floor to discharge, violently electrocuting those on ground floor. 

 

Ash makes his way upstairs to confront Clancy as he takes back the files and kills Clancy, before he gets a call from Bradley about having his son and sending the wife to the ER. Bradley informs Ash where to meet him as he is located in a skyscraper in Silicon Valley. Ash escapes from the rooftops, determined to kill his father. Meanwhile, Bradley shows warmth to Arthur and explains their heritage, but Arthur is disturbed by his grandfather's violence. Bradley hits Arthur for his weakness, and that in this world, all he wants is for his heir to be strong men. Bradley won’t kill Arthur but holds him captive in the basement.

 

Ash finally makes it to Bradley’s building, Sky Enterprises, a booming business which acts as a front to Bradley’s crimes and begins his raid. Ash shoots his way through the building, fighting goons on each floor. Ash makes his way to the doors of Bradley but takes on Knight. With her poisonous arsenal, Knight is able to wear down and get several blows on Ash. However, Ash manages to trick her by doing a slight of hand attack and causes Knight to poison herself with her deadliest poison. Scrambling for the antidote, Ash takes it from a desperate Knight, healing himself. 

 

Ash knocks down Bradley’s door as Bradley is happy to see his son. Bradley gives one last speech about Ash’s heritage and tries to convince him to take his business but Ash violently refuses. The father and son then duke it out to the death, exchanging gunfire, fighting moves and using ordinary objects as weapons. Bradley though is much more ruthless than Ash, aiming for the kill, as he berates Ash on holding back. Ash gets shot in the shoulder but before he continues the fight, remembers having to make it out for his family, so he lures Bradley to the rooftop for one last brawl. This time, Ash manages to get the upper hand, fighting through the pain and shooting Bradley square in the chest. Dying, Bradley warns Ash that this is just the beginning of the empire and just wants Ash to kill him, revealing that his enterprise and deadlier agents across the country, which won't rest until Ash inherits the throne or is dead.

 

Bradley is sent plummeting to his death off the building. Ash heads to the basement, after patching his wound and removing the bullet, reunites with Arthuer, embracing in a hug. Reunited with Arthur, the father and son head to the hospital to reunite with a recovering Heather, who’s made a speedy recovery from the poison attempts. Ash hugs his family one last time, coming clean about everything, before telling them how much he loves them but must go. So long as Bradley’s forces are out there, they are not safe as Ash decides to topple his father’s criminal empire once and for all.

 

 

[YM!]

Stallions

Studio: Creatures Incorporated 

Release Date: 4/22/Y10

Genre: Nature Documentary

Director: Drew Fellman

Narrator: Sam Elliot

Rating: G

Budget: $5M

Theater Count: 2,450

Format: 2D 

Runtime: 100 minutes

 

Plot:

The narrator tells us an informative and fun journey about the variety of different horses living in North America as well as horse facts and the dangers they face.

 

[YM!]

The Valkyries vs The Galaxy
Studio: Endless Animation
Release Date: 2/13/Y10
Director: Ian Jones-Quartery and Jennifer Kluska 
Producers: David Soren and Aphton Corbin
Writers: Ian Jones-Quartery, Shakira Presly and Amanda Rydna
Original Songs by: Alan Menkin (score), Laurence O’Keefe, and Kevin Murphy (lyrics)
Score: John Powell
Genre: Computer Animation/Sci-fi/Jukebox Musical/Comedy
Rating: PG for comic action, crude humor, mild language and peril
Theater Count: 4,062
Format: 2D, 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX
Budget: $140m
Runtime: 106 minutes

 

Cast:

Halle Bailey as Celie
Rachel Zegler as Harmony
Maiteryi Ramakrishnan as Sydney
Seth MacFarlane as Edward King
Kid Cudi as Traxx
Keegan Michael-Key as Cloud
Brandon Urie as Ocho
Sam Elliot as Bud
Dua Lipa as Equisa
with
Olivia Rodrigo as Platinum
and
RuPaul as Emperor Cosma

 

Soundtrack:

 

Spoiler

Original Songs:
Fierce
In The Stars
We’re the Valkyries
Clap Back

 

Pre-existing songs:
Wait Til You See Me Smile by Alicia Keys
Hound Dog by Elvis Presley but with new lyrics from Seth MacFarlane
When I See You by Fantasia
How You Like That by Blackpink
Me and U by Tems
Living For The City by Stevie Wonder
Dirty Work by Steely Dan
Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson
I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty
Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace
Say My Name by Destiny’s Child
DNA by Kendrick Lamar (clean)
That's My Girl by Fifth Harmony

 

Plot: 9075 words

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uAdTHe4fSL5dMWlRYWq6Y0Gye990x2jCDCQnUASkRII/edit?usp=sharing

 

Special thanks to @MCKillswitch123

Edited December 5, 2023 by YM!

[Rorschach]

 

Studio: Lager Pictures

Comapnies: Outerbanks Entertainment

Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance/Thriller

 

Directed by Tom Harper

Written by Nicholas Meyer

Based on the Novel by Karl Alexander

Produced by Nicholas Meyer, Kevin Williamson

Executive Producers: Christopher Lager, Maria Lager 

Music by Steven Price

 

MPA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 118 minutes

Budget: $50 million 

Release Date: May 8, Y10

Theater Count: 3,658 theaters

 

Cast: 

Nicholas Hoult as Herbert George Wells

Matt Smith as John Leslie Stevenson/Jack the Ripper

Haley Lu Richardson as Amy Robbins

 

Summary:

Spoiler

Spoiler

In 1893 London, popular writer Herbert George Wells hosts a dinner party where he displays a real time machine to his skeptical guests. He explains how it works, including having a "non-return key" that keeps the machine at the traveler's destination and a "vaporizing equalizer" that keeps the traveler and machine on equal terms. The police constables suddenly arrive, searching for Wells’ friend and guest, John Leslie Stevenson, a surgeon. A bag with blood-stained gloves belonging to Stevenson leads them to conclude that he may be the infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper (who murders an unsuspecting female victim in the film’s cold open). Wells races to his laboratory but finds that Stevenson and the time machine are gone.

 

Stevenson escapes to the future, though without the "non-return" key, causing the machine to reappear in 1893 automatically. Wells then pursues Stevenson to May 8, Y10, where the machine is now on display at a San Francisco museum. Wells finds the future deeply shocking, having expected an enlightened socialist utopia. Instead, he sees chaos in the form of airplanes, automobiles, and smartphones in a bustling, breakneck city.

 

At a bank, Wells exchanges some British bank notes for present-day currency. Hungry, he enters a McDonald's and is alternately puzzled and pleased with the dining options – particularly the Spicy McChicken and their Sprite, the latter of which he develops a craving for. Reasoning that Stevenson also needs to exchange British money, Wells visits various banks searching for him. At one of the banks, he meets lonely employee Amy Robbins. After a nice conversation with her, Wells learns that she directed Stevenson to the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Smitten with Wells, she gives him her card, telling him to give her a call sometime.

 

Confronted at the Hyatt by Wells, Stevenson confesses that he finds modern society pleasingly violent, using the internet to catch Wells up on a world history full of global war, crime, and bloodshed. At the end, he states: "One hundred and thirty-three years ago, I was a freak. Today, I'm an amateur." Wells demands that he return to 1893 to face justice, but Stevenson instead attempts to wrestle the time machine's key from him. Their struggle is interrupted by a maid and Stevenson flees, getting hit by a car during the frantic chase. Wells follows him to the hospital emergency room and mistakenly believes Stevenson is dead.

 

Wells meets up with Amy again and the two spark a romance. They bond over their shared love of literature and science, as well as their displeasure with the state of the world, which Amy admits feeling increasingly disconnected from. She was disowned by her religious, conservative family for expressing atheistic beliefs, and the demands of working two jobs just to keep up with rent meant zero social life for her. Wells empathizes with her, realizing just how lonely and isolating this advanced, interconnected future truly is.

 

Stevenson returns to the bank to exchange more money. Suspecting that Amy led Wells to him, he frightens her into giving Wells a message and later discovers where she lives. To convince a highly skeptical Amy that he is telling the truth, Wells takes her three days into the future. She is aghast to see an online news headline revealing her own murder as the "San Francisco Ripper's" fifth victim. Wells persuades Amy that they must go back to prevent the fourth victim's murder, and then prevent her own. Upon returning, they are delayed and can do no more than phone the police. Stevenson kills again, and Wells is arrested due to his knowledge about the killing. Amy is left alone, totally defenseless against Stevenson.

 

While Wells unsuccessfully tries to convince the police of Amy's peril, she attempts to hide from Stevenson. When the police finally investigate her apartment, they find a woman's dismembered body. Believing him innocent, the police release a now-heartbroken Wells. But as it turns out, Stevenson had killed Amy's coworker, who was the dead body in Amy's apartment. He contacts Wells that he has taken Amy hostage and wants the time machine key from Wells.

 

Stevenson flees with the key – and Amy as insurance – intending a permanent escape in the time machine. Wells erratically drives Amy's car and follows them to the museum. While Wells bargains for Amy's life, she escapes. As Stevenson starts up the time machine, Wells removes the "vaporizing equalizer", causing Stevenson to vanish while the machine remains there. With this, Stevenson is sent traveling endlessly through time.

 

Wells proclaims that he must return to his own time and destroy the machine, believing it too dangerous for primitive mankind. Amy pleads with him to take her along, saying she has no remaining ties in the 21st century. They share a kiss and resolve to return together to Wells’ time.

 

The film finishes with the captions: 

 

H.G. Wells married Amy Catherine Robbins, who died in 1927. 

 

As a writer, he anticipated socialism, global war, space travel, and women's liberation.

 

He died in 1946.

 

Edited January 26 by Rorschach

[MCKillswitch123]

 

THE SECRETS THAT LOVE BRINGS

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Director: Castille Landon

 

Based On: Amar Después de Amar, by Erika Halvorsen, Micaela Libson and Esteban Garrido

 

Genre: Melodrama/Romance

Release Date: June 26th, Y10

Theater Count: 3078

Rating: PG-13

Format: 2D

Budget: $15 million

Runtime: 97 minutes

 

Cast:

- Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Kathy Johnson

- Glen Powell as Matthew Wyles

 

Plot: A carwreck is found with Amanda Wyles and Shaqueill Johnson, wife and husband to Kathy Johnson (Randolph) and Matthew Wyles (Powell). They are found dead, and this breaks the hearts of both Kathy and Matthew.

 

Soon, however, it's uncovered that Amanda and Shaqueill led a secret life as lovers and have been hiding their affair from their spouses for years now. This saddens Matthew, who was devout to his wife, while Kathy becomes emotionally stoic. The two have thorough conversations about overcoming grief and learning to relaunch life after the passing of someone they so loved. As the film progresses, Kathy breaks through her coldness and admits that, while her heart is broken and she is haunted by her husband cheating on her with her best friend, she at least understands that things like that can happen to human beings. Shaqueill thinks that's terrible and asks Kathy not to excuse Amanda and Shaqueill for their actions. Matthew and Kathy become closer and closer, and Matthew admits starting to create feelings for Kathy. Kathy thinks she's not yet ready to move on from Shaqueill, and when confronted by this, she finally breaks, admitting that she cannot believe her husband cheated on her. At last, they fall in love with each other, and come to terms with the possibility that loving again after loving for the first time is possible.

Edited December 5, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

Doraemon

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Phoenix Fire Artstyles

Director: Karyn Kusama

 

Based On: Doraemon, by Fujiko F. Fujio

 

Genre: Family/Comedy/Drama

Release Date: May 15th, Y10

Theater Count: 3478

Rating: PG

Format: 2D, 3D

Budget: $80 million

Runtime: 96 minutes

 

Cast:

- Gordon Maeda as Nobita Nobi

- Eugene Lee Yang as the voice of Doraemon

- Ryan Potter as Takeshi aka "Giant" (wearing prosthetics to look heavier)

- Kaylee Kaneshiro as Shisuka

- Jordan Nagai as Suneo

- with Carrie Ann Inaba as Mom

- and George Takei as Dad

 

Plot: Nobita Nobi (Maeda) is a young Japanese-American teenager who lives in a local community in San Francisco. He lives with his strict, pushing and hard-working Mom (Inaba), and Dad (Takei), who, when not working, spends his days watching TV and drinking. At school, he has a crush on Shisuka (Kaneshiro), whom he is close friends with, while being bullied by Giant (Potter), a heavy-built loudmouth who is the self-professed king of the neighborhood. Suneo (Nagai), a rich, bratty teen, enjoys to join in on Giant's bullying of Nobita, but evidently hides insecurities of his own, that are brought up every once whenever Giant berates him on public. Nobita, otherwise, is close with Shisuka, who focuses hard on her studies and always tries to be the best student in class, and has no obvious interest in Nobita romantically, although she seems to dig him as a friend. He, on the other hand, while subtle enough with his romantic attraction to her, has no means of keeping up in terms of studies (being lazy, impulsive and easily distractable), is poor socially, awkward and clumsy. While Mom constantly tries to push his best side, it's to no avail, which disappoints her. Nobita himself, aware of his shortcomings, is tired of his life, and wishes, under a star, for things to change.

 

That night, after Nobita goes to sleep... his drawer opens, and, from inside, an interdimensional portal brings inside a massive-sized humanoid cat, Doraemon (Yang). The next day, Nobita shrieks at the presence of the big cat in his bedroom - even more so when it's revealed that Doraemon can talk. Doraemon soon says that he became lost from the future, since a mouse followed him and he had to escape, so he jumped in this timeline. Nobita, shaking off the fear from the surreal sight of Doraemon, and realizing Doraemon is from the future, asks him if he can help change his life. Doraemon shows no evident interest, but upon meeting Mom - who is, obviously, terrified at first - he decides he wants to help Nobita, if, in return, he gets a healthy diet of dorayakis (Japanese chocolate muffins). No soon, Doraemon reveals that he carries a pocket on his waist, but it's no ordinary pocket: it is an infinitely spaced vacuum on the inside, which can carry thousands of different futuristic gadgets. He reveals the Capcopter, a little cap-sized helice that you place on your head and fly with, and the Magic Door, a door that teleports you to any desired location (which Nobita promptly uses to go to the beach, the mountains, or to Shisuka's room, where she is studying - he quickly turns around and goes back, upon realizing what he did, while Shisuka does not notice he is there, but is nonetheless confused about whatever happened there). Soon, Nobita goes outside and starts showing off his capacity to fly and teleport, which impresses all the kids in his neighborhood, including Giant and Suneo, the latter who is wowed by the machinery, and the former who just feels jealous. Soon, Giant wants to try Nobita's newfound gadgets, and forces him to do so, stealing the Capcopter, and singing "I am Giant, the king of the neighborhood" with his completely off-tune voice. Nobita cries for help to Doraemon, who is furious about Nobita's clumsiness, and ends up revealing himself to everyone else, while scaring Giant and getting his gadgets back. Giant, humilliated about his public showing of fear, beats up Suneo (cartoonishly-ish, since it's live-action) and parks outside Nobita's house to do the same to him. Suneo, shattered, runs back home, and Shisuka finds him crying. She is humble and comforts him, while he admits that, if it weren't for his family, no one in town, even Giant - who's always been closer to him - would like him. Shisuka understands, nodding to Suneo being spoilt and bratty, but with a heart of gold. Suneo implies that he always felt he has something to prove because of his Japanese ethnicity too, which Shisuka, melancholic, reflects on. She says that their origins are never anything to be ashamed of, but we see in a flashback that Suneo has largely been somewhat distant from his white child peers even before meeting them, while Shisuka, in a flashback of her own, harkens back likewise.

 

Nobita and Mom have an argument at home about Nobita's wrongdoings with Doraemon's gadgets, with Mom harassing Nobita for still showing no work ethics, while Doraemon panics about big, buffy Giant waiting to beat Nobita outside. Nobita, comically bent between arguing with both Mom and Doraemon, asks the latter for a gadget that can overpower Giant, but Doraemon says he is forbidden from using gadgets that inflict violence. Mom asks Doraemon then to make Nobita smarter, but Doraemon says he cannot alter anyone's brain either, which then makes both shout: "Then what are you useful, for?!", which Doraemon says: "It's not my fault, it's all YOURS!", breaking both of their hearts, while Doraemon immediately regrets. Nobita locks himself in his bedroom, Mom, saddened, returns to chores and Doraemon tries to make up for it, but the house retreats in silence. Meanwhile, Dad, drunk (subtly, as to not provoke the PG rating), comes back home, and Mom does not have the heart to talk to him. Doraemon then has a flashback: it's revealed that, in the future, he's actually supposed to be Nobita's guidance robot who will help him steer towards a future, where he is a responsible, kind-hearted person who can actually be a good friend to Shisuka, a good son to Mom and Dad, and even a reference to Giant and Suneo. Doraemon rejects this notion, claiming he is good enough to be a guide to much better kids, but after that a mouse is strategically placed on his house by Doremi (voice of Hayley Kiyoko, cameo), Doraemon's yellow and pink-colored cat sister, Doraemon is forced to come to Nobita's timeline. There, he reflects on how he can do better for this kid and this family.

 

Doraemon goes back to Nobita's bedroom, and talks to him about Nobita's issues in life. Nobita claims he just... wishes he could be someone different. Doraemon says he suspects Nobita's brain is different, Nobita saying Mom and Dad have always suspected he might have ADHD. However, Nobita is referring to another kind of "different" - the kind where, even if he were like everyone else brain-wise, he still feels different, and he thinks his origins mean he always has something to prove.  We then get images of Giant, tired of waiting for Nobita, going back home, where his Mom, a buff-built merchant lady, who treats him by his name, Takeshi, berates him for being always late, unhelpful and an idiot. She is hurt by having to be mean to her son, but says it's for his good, as he "does not understand what it's like to be a stranger". Giant, hurt and melancholic, understands that his Mom means that her origins, and his as well, have made them the way they are, remembering when some children made fun of him before he bulked up. Shisuka also reflects on what Suneo said, claiming that her Japanese origins have always influenced her family to hope she becomes bigger than she always is, pretty much enticing her to focus way too hard on her studying. Suneo simply looks back at all the bullying he went through in his own life. Doraemon, emotional, says that Nobita should never be ashamed of who he is - whether he's inattentive, clumsy, or, much worse than anything, in belief that his ethnicity is anything but amazing. Nobita is quiet, while Doraemon says: "being who I am... wearing my colors... there's nothing better than that. And I think you should think that way too." Nobita, tearful, understands Doraemon. Meanwhile, Shisuka finds Suneo in his house, and convinces him to try to talk Giant out of beating Nobita. Suneo agrees, but they cannot stop Giant from making a social media post calling out Nobita in public.

 

Nobita, horrified, calls Giant directly, who then tells him that, if he wants to stop being a chicken, "he'll meet him on a cliff by the Golden Gate". Nobita and Doraemon, terrified, decide to comply... not for their own sake, but for Giant's as well. Giant and Nobita confront one last time, and Giant says that, if he's not taking it out on Nobita, who is he going to take it out on? "Everyone is just so nice, until they release that they only don't make fun of a kid because he's bigger than they are." Nobita and Doraemon try to reason with Giant, but Giant says that if Nobita doesn't fight him right there and then, without Doraemon's help, he will jump off. Nobita, hesitantly, steps forward, and predictably, Giant pounces him around. Nobita allows himself to, and when Giant just asks him why he doesn't ask Doraemon for help now, he says that, clearly... it's Giant who needs help the most. Giant, crying, runs and jumps off the cliff... but not before he stalls mid-air, having a Capcopter on his head that's rotating and bringing him back up. Every other character is then teleported, via Magic Door, to the locale, and everyone comforts Nobita (who is injured and needs medical attention) and Giant. Doraemon talks to Shisuka, Suneo, Mom and Dad at that point, and says that if his destiny is to help these kids, then the best thing they can do... is forgive themselves and adore each other for things they cannot control. Everyone converges. At the hospital, Nobita, Mom and a finally sober and worried Dad have a talk, where Nobita pleads apologies to his parents for not being as good as they want him to be, and Dad convinces Mom to apologize for always wanting too much from him, while Dad apologizes for not always being present. Giant and his Mom have an emotional talk as well, where Mom says she didn't mean to make Giant depressed, apologizing him eternally for it and promising she will be understanding of Giant, while Giant just says her love is everything he needs. Shisuka and Suneo agree to have talks with their own families, in the wake of the near-tragedy. 

 

The next day, Doraemon is called by Doremi, from the future, who asks him that, understanding he nearly made a mess and almost wrecked Nobita's future, he may need a timeout from his mission. Doraemon rejects, saying that, right now, all he wants is to be with Nobita. Doraemon and Nobita, radiantly, decide to tackle life differently, as Doraemon agrees to stay with Nobita for as long as possible, while Nobita tries to change his life for the better, concluding the film on a hopeful note. Mom and Dad offer Doraemon as many dorayakis as he wants, but he says: "if Nobita and all of you are doing okay... that's all I need."

[MCKillswitch123]

OLD MEN WALKING

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Happy Madison Productions

Director: Chris Columbus

 

Genre: Action/Comedy/Western

Release Date: June 5th, Y10

Theater Count: 3280

Rating: PG-13

Format: 2D

Budget: $40 million

Runtime: 105 minutes

 

Cast:

- Adam Sandler as Tiff

- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jan

- Katherine Langford as Tiff/Jan

 

Plot: Tiff and Jan (Langford) are two twin sisters who live in the quiet Western city of Riverside, and their personalities couldn't be more opposed - Tiff is more outgoing and fun, while Jan is calmer and more subdued. The issue is that both are arguing all the time over petty things, being distant and apart from one another even when they need it the most. One day, they find a secret temple ruin by a mountain side, and this turns them into two grumpy male cowboys - Tiff (Sandler) and Jan (Schwarzenegger), who reflect their personalities. As they deal with a conspiracy of thieves that want to steal the temple's reality shifting powers (them possible through a MacGuffin known as "The Swapper"), both sisters realize that the Swapper has made them the images of what they really are: Tiff is wacky and fun, but her eccentricity masks her insecurities, while Jan is larger, buffer, and drier, but therein, lies a heart of gold. The two sisters become closer again, while using their male cowboy powers to stop the conspiracy. Everything is thrown for a halt when the Swapper breaks and both Tiff, Jan and their male counterparts become separate from each other, but in the end, the sisters and the cowboy personality avatars work together and beat the thieves. The end.

[cookie]

The Set-Up

 

Genre: Romantic Dramedy

Studio: Nicely Packaged Films

Distributor: Cookie Pictures

Director: Claire Scanlon

Cast: Lana Condor (Monica), Noah Centineo (Kitt), Jordan Fisher (Felix), Israel Broussard (Rick), Bailee Madison (Ophelia), Lily Chee (Alice)

Original Song: ”can't be done” by Olivia Rodrigo

Budget: $17.5m

Release Date: May 22nd

Theater Count: 3,475

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude humor, sexual references, and brief strong language

Running Time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)

 

Plot (5.3k words):

Spoiler

Monica and Kitt have lived next door to each other their whole lives. They were childhood best friends for the longest time, even spending their free time together doing all sorts of children’s activities out in Monica’s front yard. That is until they both joined junior high, where Monica joined the popular crowd while Kitt began to rebel and pull pranks around school, constantly landing him in detention. Kitt’s rebellious behaviour keeps driving the pair apart until senior year where the two act like they barely know each other, despite having been friends their whole lives previously.

 

Nearing the end of their senior year, Monica devotes much of her time and energy to planning their high school's centennial dance. She expects to go to the ball with a hockey player named Rick, but Rick falls in love with a cheerleader from a rival school and ends up asking her to the dance instead of Monica, breaking Monica’s heart and plunging her into a depression. Kitt, meanwhile, is dating Ophelia, though she ultimately leaves him for a socially conscious college student after another one of Kitt’s pranks go one step too far and gets her in trouble as well.

 

While Monica remains brutally shaken by being rejected by Rick, Kitt’s regret over his falling out with Ophelia is a lot more subtle. Monica finds out about Kitt’s quiet treatment towards his breakup and, desperate to make Rick jealous, decides to call Kitt up one night and asks him to the school dance. Kitt is taken aback, asking if Monica is serious, but Monica is honest and tells him that it’s all a ploy to make Rick jealous, and maybe it’ll be enough to get Rick to try and win her back. Kitt agrees to her scheme on the condition that there’s an easy way out should things go south, and they both agree to have a clause in the relationship so that it can end at any time with no hard feelings.

 

Monica gives Kitt a makeover so that he fits in better with her friend group. She takes him to events where he becomes friends with the popular kids, all while he keeps insisting to his fellow pranksters-in-crime, Tom and Felix, that the whole thing is just a scam and that Monica isn’t changing him, though Felix is quick to point out that she just might be. This gets Kitt to wonder if Felix might have a point, and so he starts treating the activities Monica drags him to with a lot more suspicion.

 

While Kitt does all the activities Monica asks him to with little resistance, he eventually points out that everything they've done so far is what she wants and is only to her benefit. Monica replies that “of course it is”, since the whole ploy was to get Rick to notice her, and there’s really nothing in it for Kitt other than having a girl to hang out with. Kitt doesn’t take to this very well, and so he starts demanding that Monica goes along with him with whatever he wants for the next few days, or they’re through. Monica goes “fine,” and Kitt takes her to a club he used to frequent with Ophelia, where Monica is introduced to his friends and whom Monica actually gets along very well with and even start to bond. 

 

During this night out, however, Kitt has a run in with Ophelia and her new boyfriend. When Monica notices that Kitt is growing increasingly jealous of Ophelia smooching with her new guy right in front of him, she runs to his aid and kisses him, which makes Ophelia jealous in return. This kiss turns out to be a mistake on Monica’s end, for it makes her remember the good times she had with Kitt when they were children, and it eventually sparks some real romantic feelings for him within her. Kitt, however, doesn’t seem to reciprocate them.

 

Monica keeps her new feelings secret for Kitt, hoping they’ll go away before she gets the chance to try and win Rick’s attention. Ophelia, however, catches on to the ruse and, sporting a resentment towards Monica, decides she wants to seduce Kitt at a party that same weekend. During this party, after feeling somewhat weirded out by Monica clinging onto him more than what would seem necessary for a ruse, Kitt slips away to the backyard only to run into Tom and Felix, who are in the process of setting up a prank meant to humiliate some trust fund kids who happen to be present. Realising that people are going to assume he was involved in the prank as well, Kitt tells the two to drop the scheme and either leave the party or start behaving like adults, which makes Felix come to the conclusion that Monica did change him, and she’s made him soft. 

 

Kitt, pressured by the accusation, decides to pull off the prank by himself just to prove he’s the same old Kitt, which does succeed in getting the trust fund kids humiliated, but also catches Monica in the crossfire, leaving her embarrassed in front of everyone. Realising Kitt’s behind this, Monica drags Kitt to a back room in order to yell him out, ending up confessing the feelings she had for him that are now gone again because she’s reminded of why they drifted apart in the first place. Kitt, only now realising that Monica’s clingy behaviour earlier was because she was falling for him, gets weirded out even more (“This wasn’t part of the deal!”) and demands they exercise the “way out” clause, dropping the charade and go their separate ways.

 

Monica, already pent up with anger, goes “FINE!” and “breaks up” with Kitt then and there, storming out of both him and the party. She only makes it a few blocks before she starts regretting everything she just said, and against her better judgement she decides to head back to the party, thinking she can talk things over with Kitt so things at least don’t completely end on a sour note. The whole point of the deal was that there weren’t supposed to be any hard feelings between them — although secretly, she hopes she can somehow win him over still.

 

Back at the party, Kitt is approached by Ophelia, who starts seducing him. Thinking she’s doing this because she wants him back, Kitt decides not to tell her that he just “broke up” with Monica and instead plays along. He starts making out with Ophelia just as Monica walks back in, catching them in the act and getting upset all over again. She runs away before Kitt gets a chance to explain anything, and Ophelia suddenly starts laughing at him, revealing her seduction was all a ploy and that she’s gleeful she’s ruined Kitt and Monica’s “relationship”.

 

Kitt is both embarrassed and infuriated. He calls out Ophelia’s manipulative nature and storms off, deciding that since literally everything about his social life’s gone down the toilet in a single night, he might as well spend the rest of it getting completely wasted. He calls Felix to pick him up, since he is too drunk to drive, but Felix is angered over how Kitt’s been acting and reminds him that they used to be his friends and not Monica. This angers Kitt in return, causing him to say in slurry voice; “She’s not my friend? No, you’re not my friend. Fuck you,” and hang up on him. Kitt is then forced to stumble his way home drunk, knocking over several trashcans and getting himself into trouble with the local police along the way.

 

Back at school on Monday, Kitt has a talk with the school principal over his run-in with the local police over the weekend, as well as the prank he pulled on the trust fund kids at the party. The principal tells Kitt that he’s been giving him as many chances as he could for him to better himself, and yet he still reverts to the same old troublemaker. He says it might be time Kitt finally receives repercussions for his actions beyond detention and the occasional letters sent home to his parents, and so he plans to expel him from the school. Kitt is naturally devastated over the news, but he tries to take it in stride in order to prove to the principal he’s willing to atone, and he manages to argue his way to being given one last chance, promising he’ll behave like a saint from now on.

 

Later that day, Kitt learns through school gossip that Rick broke up with his girlfriend at the same party Kitt “broke up” with Monica at. He also learns that Ophelia got into a fight with her new boyfriend over her seducing Kitt, resulting in them breaking up as well, and he expresses amusement over Ophelia’s misfortune.

 

The news of Rick being single again, though, gets him thinking about Monica. He decides to call her, trying to explain to her what happened last weekend and that he still wants to help her out despite everything that got between them, since he too remembers the “no hard feelings” that was supposed to be part of the deal. He expresses hope that getting her together with Rick would somehow smooth things over between them.

 

Monica’s reluctant, tempted to hang up on Kitt since she’s not sure she can push her feelings for him aside. She ultimately errs on the side that if Kitt can help her achieve her original goal (getting her together with Rick), then maybe they can still end things on a way that leaves neither of them unhappy. Monica gets the boyfriend of her dreams, and Kitt gets to walk away without any lingering guilt.

 

The night of the school dance arrives, and in a heist-movie style preparation scene, Monica lays out her plan to Kitt. Together, they will make use of Kitt’s tendency for pranks to pull off a stunt so big that all eyes will be glued onto them for the entire evening, forcing Rick to notice Monica and become jealous. Kitt, realising this’ll get him in trouble with the dean again and result in him getting expelled, tries to sway Monica towards a more subtle approach, forcing Monica to adjust her scheme on the fly.

 

At the dance, Kitt and Monica enter hand in hand, drawing the attention from the other students and start a gossip chain amongst them. Things seem to go well for the first hour or so, as news of Monica being Kitt’s plus one reaches Rick’s ear, who had arrived late the festivities without anyone accompanying him. Kitt decides to spy on Rick for a bit, noticing that he is indeed getting more and more jealous of seeing Kitt together with Monica, and he relays the information to Monica via a whisper that may seem seductive to an outsider—which is the point, since he deliberately does it while Rick’s staring at them. Monica gets all excited, and she loudly proclaims she’s going to step away for a bit to “take care of business”, hoping Rick’ll hear it and follow her.

 

Kitt and Monica separate, and Kitt starts feeling confident things will work out in each of their favors. That’s when he suddenly runs into the principal, who happens to be overseeing the festivities, and he becomes visibly nervous in his presence. The principal wonders why Kitt’s all sweaty, suspecting he might be up to something, and Kitt is forced to confess that the threat of expulsion keeps him up at night, and he’s never felt more pressured than he is now. The principal, seeing the nervous state Kitt’s in, concedes that he may have been hard on him, but he defends it by claiming that Kitt would never have listened otherwise. He still commends Kitt for admitting to the pressure he feels—even if the school dance isn’t the ideal place to do so—since he rarely has students come up to him and actually admit to their faults and willingness to improve. “That alone takes a great deal of strength.”

 

Feeling generous since it’s near the end of the school year, the principal decides to cut a deal with Kitt—if he can keep his record clean until graduation, and work as hard as he can on improving his grades until then, he’ll slip a good word for him to one of the fancier colleges in the state. Kitt is surprised that the principal would do that for him of all people, especially since it’s unlikely they’ll accept him at his current grade level. The principal confesses that he used to be a bit of a rapscallion too when he was younger, but is quick to point out that Kitt shouldn’t think he’s going easy on him because of that. “You’ve still got a long road ahead of you, kid.”

 

The principal leaves Kitt to be by himself. Tom and Felix then come up, saying they overheard what the principal said to him. Felix admits he was being an asshole to Kitt during the party, but Kitt apologizes to him back for telling him to go F himself. The three decide to bury their hatchets and be friends again, and Felix even confesses that he thinks Kitt and Monica would make a great couple.

 

This gives Kitt pause. He asks Felix to clarify, and Felix starts listing off a bunch of stuff he’s seen Kitt and Monica do together over the past few weeks, and how happy it seems to make them both. Kitt reiterates that this whole thing is just a ruse and they aren’t actually a couple and never will be, but Tom starts concuring with Felix that Kitt and Monica actually go great together, and that it may be a mistake to let her slink away with another guy.

 

“Don’t be stupid, Tom,” Kitt again refutes, “Just because a guy and a girl like to hang out together doesn’t make them a couple, it just means they’re good friends—”

 

Kitt suddenly freezes. Finally, his thick skull realises something he should’ve thought of weeks ago. He decides he needs to tell what he realised to Monica, but since she’s busy chasing Rick, now might not be the opportune time. Both Tom and Felix are confused over what it is that’s going on in Kitt’s head, but Kitt is seen deliberating to himself over wether this whole ruse may have done more harm to his relationship with Monica than if they never attempted it at all.

 

Suddenly, the cheerleader that used to date Rick comes up to Kitt, introducing herself as Alice. Kitt asks what Alice wants, and she tells him she’s aware they’ve been eyeing Rick all night, and that Kitt and Monica are doing a con so Monica can win Rick’s attention. Kitt, not wanting to let the game up, tries to pretend he doesn’t know what Alice’s talking about, but Alice tells him that she didn’t come here to start a fight—rather, she came to warn them.

 

Kitt and his friends tilt their heads in confusion. Alice tells them that the reason she and Rick broke up in the first place is because Rick is actually an incredibly toxic person, bordering on abusive, and that Monica is making a big mistake going after him (“If I were her, I’d run away as far away in the other direction as I could.”). Kitt wants to make sure Alice’s not just saying this as a trick to try and scare them away, and Alice shows him numerous texts she received from Rick while they were dating. These texts show Rick making unreasonable demands over when they should hang out, who else she should or shouldn’t be hanging out with, and even what she should be wearing (calling the dress she intended to wear to the dance “too slutty”). Worse yet, near the end of their relationship he began demanding she be sexually available to him even when she can’t or just doesn’t want to. She knew she had to end things with him, but Rick only got worse after the breakup, to the point that he stalked her on numerous occassions. He only stopped after Alice threatened to call the police on him, and now it seems like he’s out to make Monica his next victim. 

 

Realising the danger Monica’s in, Kitt tells Tom and Felix to spread out and find her before Rick does, though given how long it’s been since Kitt and Monica were last seen together, Kitt fears it may already be too late.

 

We cut to Monica, who intentionally bumps into Rick outside the washroom. Monica acts like she didn’t know Rick would show up to the dance, asking why he’s here while secretly hoping he intends to woo her in some fashion. Rick, who’s unsettlingly infatuated with Monica at this point, does exactly that, delivering a few compliments to Monica’s looks in not-so-subtle ways. It only takes a few lines of banter before Rick asks why she’s dating a guy like Kitt, given Kitt is known for being a troublemaker. Monica puts on a lie and says she’s only dating Kitt because she feels sorry for him, especially after he got dumped by Ophelia, and that she’s actually gotten tired of him even before the dance. She intentionally says things in a way so as to gaud Rick into confessing his attraction to her, which a few more double entendres between them helps do the trick.

 

Less than twenty minutes after them meeting, however, Rick suddenly tells Monica she should ditch Kitt and come with him to a party on the other side of town. Monica is actually startled by how fast Rick went from simply flirting with her to then telling her to ditch her plus one, and for the first time, she starts to feel that something’s not quite right. She suggests the two stick around at least until the dance’s over (”Wouldn’t want to embarass Kitt by ditching him right in the middle like that.”), to which Rick suddenly backs away from her and says it’s a limited time offer; he’s heading to the party anyhow, and if she doesn’t want to come with him, that’s on her. Pressured, Monica thinks she should at least tell Kitt about it, but Rick claims it’s better if Kitt’s left in the dark. After all, what if he got jealous?

 

Monica ponders. On the one hand, she still really wants to go with Rick, but on the other hand, she can’t shake the feeling Rick might be taking her someplace she doesn’t actually want to go. She sidesteps the proposal by asking Rick about him and Alice, inquiring on why they broke up so suddenly right before the dance. Rick, visibly frustrated, claims he found out Alice was cheating on him with a football player from her own school, and after he caught her in the act, she immediately ended things with him. The breakup left him questioning the type of relationships he should be pursuing, and after some ”soul searching”, he seemingly realised that Monica should have been the one he asked to the school dance, not Alice. He confesses his attraction to Monica on the spot, assuring her that it’s not because he’s desperately looking for a rebound girl, but that he’s looking for someone he believes he can trust—someone he knows has been into him for a very long time.

 

Monica’s stunned by Rick’s confession, but not because she finds it romantic. Rather, it just accentuates her feeling that something’s off, and that he’s not being honest to her about the breakup with Alice. Rick is giving her increasingly bad vibes, and she realizes she might’ve been chasing the wrong guy this whole time. ”I should get back to Kitt,” she says, picking up her stuff before promptly trying to leave, but Rick suddenly grabs her by the arm and asks where she’s going.

 

“You’ve been crushing on me since freshman year,” Rick says in a threatening voice. ”Do you understand this might just be your one chance at finally getting what you’ve always wanted?”

 

”Do you understand I’m wearing heels?” Monica retorts, right before she STOMPS on Rick’s foot with said heel!

 

Rick suppresses his yelp of pain while still trying to restrain Monica. That’s when Kitt comes running, causing a scared Rick to let go of Monica and act like nothing happened. Kitt, however, quickly notices that Monica is basically standing on one leg, as the heel she’d just stomped on Rick and snapped off, becoming lodged into his shoe. Realising what Rick was trying to do to Monica, he confronts Rick about it, cornering the guy and speaking bluntly to him about the things Alice revealed to him earlier.

 

Rick tries to assert that Alice is making all of her claims up, that she’s trying to get back at him after he broke up with her, calling her a ”crazy chick who just can’t let things go”. This sets off further alarm bells for Monica, and she points out to Kitt that Rick claimed just minutes ago that Alice was the one who broke up with him and not the other way around. Caught in his own lie, Rick starts fumbling his words and folding in on himself, breaking down crying like a toddler. 

 

Monica, more embarrassed by Rick’s behaviour than angry at him at this point, tells Kitt that she’d rather him take her home than them spending another minute in the dance hall. Kitt agrees, and they leave while a wailing Rick is left with Monica’s heel still stuck in his shoe. He pulls it out, seeing it punctured straight through some rather expensive sneakers, and he gets angry.

 

Out in the parking lot, Kitt helps Monica into his car, seeing how she’s basically hopping around on one leg after snapping her heel. Kitt apologises for not being there to help Monica earlier, but Monica says there’s no need for him to say anything, seeing how there’s no way he could’ve known about who Rick really was and that its her own insistence that got them into this mess. If anything, she should be the one apologising to him for this whole fiasco.

 

”I thought I knew what I wanted,” she says, ”But chasing that dream nearly came at the expense of everything I should’ve realised I had all along. I’m sorry.”

 

Kitt is confused as to what Monica means by ”had all along”, fearing that she’s about to confess her love to him and make everything awkward between them again. Monica goes in for a hug, doing little to ease Kitt’s worries. Monica notices Kitt’s uneased expression, and she asks him what’s wrong, forcing Kitt to confess.

 

The pair decide to sit down on the pavement while Kitt explains how he feels, saying that he believes the ruse was a mistake from the start. He says the risk was always there that one was going to fall for the other, and he wasn’t going to reciprocate the feelings Monica would likely develop for him. Monica asks Kitt what it is he really wants then, saying she won’t judge him for it, and Kitt replies that he wants Monica to be his friend, like they used to be. He acknowledges, however, that the past few weeks has probably made that all impossible, especially after they kissed that one time. He admits that he may come across as a jackass for putting his own feelings above Monica’s, and if what he’s saying is breaking her heart all over again, then he’s truly sorry, but he feels like he can’t just sit and pretend everything’s fine. ”Eventually, things would break down between us and I would just hurt you in some other way, and probably way worse. I don’t want that.”

 

Monica’s pensive. She admits to Kitt that, at the moment he stepped in to protect her from Rick, there was a part of her that thought maybe the two could end up walking hand-in-hand away from the dance as a couple, and she’d get the happy ending she wanted still, just in a revised manner. ”Then again… that would be the ending of every rom-com ever, wouldn’t it?”

 

Kitt chuckles, saying it probably would. They both then sit in silence for a bit, before Monica asks what they should do instead. ”Should we just go back to acting like we barely know each other?”

 

Kitt admits he doesn’t know the answer to that, and Monica concurs she doesn’t either. Perhaps it’s something that can’t be answered while sitting out on the parking lot pavement on dance night.

 

”…You know, I’ve got some leftover fireworks in my dad’s garage…” Kitt then says. ”You want to go and light some off at the beach while we think about—”

 

”YES!” Monica responds with haste, surprising Kitt. ”I mean… sure. Let’s do that.”

 

Kitt smiles. He helps Monica back on her feet and into the passenger seat of his car, and he’s about to get into the driver’s seat when Rick suddenly shows up, holding the broken off heel in his hand. 

 

”You owe me for what you did to my Jordans, you bitch!” he yells at Monica, clutching the heel in his hand like he would the grip of a knife. This spurs Kitt into action, and he tackles Rick to the ground before he even comes close to Monica, leading to a brief altercation between the two on the pavement. Tom and Felix come rushing out, saying they had seen Rick leave the dance hall with what looked like a sharp object in his hand, and they help Kitt restrain Rick before he could hurt anyone with the piece of broken heel. Felix throws the heel out onto the street where it’s run over and demolished by a speeding car, though Monica points out to him seconds later that she’d rather have the heel be given back to her than it be launched out onto an open road, where it could’ve easily caused an accident. Felix shrugs off her comment, saying he did what he thought was the right thing at the moment. ”Well, you’re an idiot for thinking that,” Monica replies.

 

Rick is held in place before school staff, including the principal, arrive and ask what the hell’s going on. Police are called, and everyone on the scene are questioned before Rick’s taken into custody. After hearing Kitt and Monica’s side of the story and having it corroborated by Tom, Felix, and later Alice, the principal ends up commending the boys for disarming Rick, but also says to them they really should’ve let school security handle the matter. ”How?! There was no one else around!” Tom yells at him, but Kitt signals to Tom to not get into a fight with the principal over it, at least not out in the school parking lot.

 

Cut to a couple of days later. Kitt and Monica had decided to hold off on their fireworks escapades after the incident with Rick, but now they’re on the beach just after sunset, lighting a few rockets and watching them go boom against a magenta sky. Kitt tells Monica about the deal he made with the principal, and how, if he does well enough to actually get into a good college, there’s a chance he may have to leave town for it. He’s had some time to think in the days since the school dance, and he thinks he might actually try and aim for that, just so he’ll have a chance at a fresh start.

 

Monica wonders if it isn’t so that he can avoid being around her during this strange and awkward phase of their relationship, but Kitt insists it’s nothing like that, for he intends to keep in touch with her as long as she allows it. It’s more that he thinks getting some distance will allow him to figure out what he really wants in life. Monica expresses her doubt that getting some distance will be the solution to all of Kitt’s problems, but she obviously can’t force him to stay either. Kitt makes her a pinky promise that he’ll keep in touch, regardless of where they both end up. Monica accepts it, saying there’s a part of her that’s at least glad he’s trying to grow as a person, even if it’s not in all the ways she would’ve personally preferred.

 

Kitt then flips the question back at Monica, asking her what she’s intending to do now that she’s no longer chasing Rick. ”I’ll probably end up chasing some other creep,” Monica jokingly replies, but then admits that she doesn’t really have a plan going forward. Kitt jokingly suggests that he’d set her up with either Felix or Tom, and Monica retorts that she’d rather be stabbed with her own shoe heels than dating either of them, causing Kitt to burst out laughing. ”You do like them, though,” he then says, forcing Monica to admit that hanging out with them isn't as bad as she first feared it would be. ”Tom needs to work on his odor, though,” she then comments, causing Kitt to laugh once more.

 

Kitt walks Monica home after the fireworks. Arriving at their doorway, Monica admits to Kitt that, had they become a couple, this would’ve been the part where she’d want them to have their big kiss, since it ”would’ve been the right place for it”. Kitt rolls his eyes and sighs, asking Monica if she ever thinks about anything other than boys and relationships, and Monica is forced to try and convince Kitt that she’s got other things going on in her life than just chasing love interests. Kitt teases her a bit, saying he’s not so sure about that, making Monica roll her eyes at him in return.

 

They both laugh, and Kitt then wishes her goodnight before heading back to his car, which he just now realises he stupidly parked back at the beach. He turns back one last time to see Monica give him a longing, loving gaze (as a means of teasing him back), prompting him to yell ”oh, knock it off!” and cause her to laugh once more.

 

Once Kitt leaves for real, though, Monica stands at her porch in silence, wondering if she’s making the right choice letting him just walk away. The camera pulls out, and we hear Monica’s voiceover start narrating about how Kitt was the one boy throughout her life in high school who left her questioning what the point of being in love with someone even was. Not in a defeatist way, but rather reflecting over how it isn’t a one-way street. She tells the audience that she ended up graduating from high school single, and is now on her way to a university upstate. Kitt did end up graduating with better grades than it looked like at first, but he’s having to move out of state for his school, meaning he and Monica will only be keeping in touch via social media for the foreseeable future. She expresses optimism they both find what they’re looking for in life, but she doesn’t regret the short time they spent together as a ”couple”, no matter how messy it got. ”In a way, it’s what high school’s all about. It’s all just one big mess.” 

 

Monica is seen smiling, and she then heads into her home, closing the door on the camera before the film cuts to black.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by cookie

[YM!]

Puckshot 

Studio: Infinite Studios 

Release Date: 1/9/Y10 

Genre: Sports/Dramedy

Director: Charles Stone III

Rating: PG-13 

Budget: $18M

Theater Count: 2,879

Format: 2D

Runtime: 100 minutes
Cast:

Sharon Brown Jr as Houston Biggs
Ryan Reaves as Jackson “IceMan” Trent
 

Houston Biggs is an athletic and hardworking junior, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is struggling academically due to having to help out around the house after the passing of his father.

 

Houston learns of an upcoming hockey tournament that can give him a prize of $1000, which would be enough to cover bills for the month and noticing his talents on the ice in teaching his siblings, decides to give hockey a try but struggles to keep balance but thanks to the tutelage of Jackson Trent, aka IceMan and former NHL player who quit after the death of his younger brother decides to help Houston.
 

Houston deals with family life, balancing his academics and hockey as well as fitting in a new school, but thanks to his determination as well as help and his bond from Jackson, at the end, Houston learns the importance of balance and manages to win the tournament and the money. Jackson also decides to regularly help out Houston’s family, finding new purpose as a big brother mentee.

Edited December 10, 2023 by YM!

[MCKillswitch123]

Life Picture

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; A24; Excellent Cadaver

Director: Lila Neugebauer

 

Genre: Drama

Release Date: October 30th, Y10

Theater Count: 2975

Rating: R

Format: 2D

Budget: $20 million

Runtime: 120 minutes

 

Cast:

- Jennifer Lawrence as Faith Hamm

- Ke Huy Quan as Officer Kim

 

This film is inspired by the real life murder of Beatriz Lebre, a young Portuguese college student who was murdered by a colleague. The film is dedicated to her, all women victims of violence, and all the close ones to these victims.

 

Plot: One year prior to the events of this film, Beatrice Hamm, a young student at Virginia Tech, is brutally murdered by a friend, who then killed himself after being arrested by the police. The school declared a week of mourning for the girl, which is promptly attended and met with widespread grief and revolt from the community at large. Attending the memorial events and rallying crowds in protests, is Faith Hamm (Lawrence), Beatrice's older sister. Faith is abject and unyielding in her protesting, calling for more protection for women, especially in education environments like college campuses.

 

One year passes. Faith lives by herself, as, shortly before, her mother passed of illness. Faith mourns her mother, who is buried next to Beatrice, and tells a psychologist that she suspects that Beatrice's death made their mother's health deteriorate fast. Nevertheless, Faith is forced to move on with her life. She solemnly spends her days alone at home, quietly sitting, staring at pictures of her family, while her phone rests by her side, with one particular shot showing it play Nick Cave's "Into My Arms", while being ignored by Faith. A day comes when Shaun Kim (Quan), a local police officer, visits her at home, as per request of a distant family member who lives outside of town and wanted to check in on Faith, who does not answer their calls. Faith rejects Kim's empathy, but with insistence, the two start talking. Faith, evidently traumatized, is hesitant to lean Kim in on much about her life, but Kim eventually gets her to accept taking the distant family member's calls and allowing him to visit more. Kim's visits become formulaic - comes in, asks Faith if she's okay, she says she is (though, every time, she becomes increasingly apart and accepting of the lack of effort it takes to make Kim good for the day) and that's that. Soon, however, Kim takes a hint that Faith is saying she's okay, but her voice tone indicates otherwise. Faith and Kim share a conversation, where Faith admits that she's not over the death of her sister and her mother, but it seems like the whole world is. "I don't understand... it's like... they all moved on from her... and I... I don't know how to do that." Kim, cautiously, says that our time is too short to spend it suffering. Faith retaliates, saying he does not know what's like to lose a mother and a sister, but Kim says that Eric Frank, the kid who committed suicide after murdering Beatrice, was his adoptive brother. Faith, conflicted, does not know whether to apologize or to kick Kim out, unforgiving for what Kim's brother did to her sister. Kim accepts this and exits.

 

Some time later, Faith visits Kim at the local police station, where she asks him out for some coffee (slightly comical moment). The two, in their noon out, apologize to one another - Kim for hiding the truth from Faith, and Faith for treating Kim so coldly. Kim explains that, unbeknownst to him or anyone in his family, it seems as if Eric had developed an obsession with Beatrice and became dangerous when she rejected him. Faith denounces the vile disrespect to Beatrice's individual rights as a woman, while Kim agrees that Eric's actions ruined his and all of his family's lives, but not as much as the lives of Faith and Beatrice's mom. He does say, though: "That said... I still loved him." Faith, understanding, apologizes to Kim for not having good things to say to him, but Kim says that he hates being selfish and that Faith's suffering is much worse, to which she denies, saying we all have to respect and accommodate each other. Faith, slowly, warms up to Kim's genuine kindness and accepts him into her life. They begin feeling subtle affection for one another, and no time later, a relationship develops. But Faith continues to feel conflict over whether or not she should be dating the brother of the kid who murdered Beatrice. She gets shaming comments from acquaintances and close circle people on social media, who call her easy and a slut for doing this to the memory of Beatrice. One day, she snaps out of her melancholy and makes a call to one of these people, telling them that they have no power over her decisions and no gravity over her life, other than the one she gives, shutting relations down permanently, but confident in herself. Faith and Kim's relationship evolves overtime, but after a few months, Kim begins feeling like Faith is still apart from him, and grows distant from her too. Faith admits that she has grown to love Kim, and that he is the only person she has now, but Kim, after admitting that he does not feel for her that way anymore, breaks up with her, apologizing profoundly, but saying he can't live like that anymore. Faith, shedding some tears, returns to Beatrice and their mother's grave to silently meditate. She mourns them yet again, admitting she has felt lonely for so long, but, in a moment of hope, she says that Kim, ironically, has made her open up to the beauty of the world. And she apologizes to anytime she's ever been cold to them, though saying that "I feel you now as much as I did when you were alive." Courageously, she visits her psychologist again. When asked how much she will let Kim's departure affect her, she says that Kim will always have a place in her mind, but she is happy enough with the memories she has. "It's time to move on."

 

In the last scene of the film, Faith smiles when looking at those same family pictures we saw her with earlier on. The final shot is her putting on headphones and listening to "Into My Arms" with a smile on her face.

Edited December 12, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

FLOODBATH

THE PLAY

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Director: Darragh Carey and Bertrand Desrochers

Playwright: D.C. Moore

Based On: Floodbath, by Leigh Whannell

 

Genre: Filmed Play

Release Date: December 25th, Y10

Theater Count: 2981

Rating: PG-13

Format: 2D

Budget: $10 million

Runtime: 103 minutes

 

Cast:

- Unknown British actors

 

Plot: An adaptation of the Y8 film Floodbath in play version:

Spoiler

In a house within a mountainous region of Alaska, we see a woman in her early 20's (Annalise Basso) taking care of a 2 year old girl. The older woman is very playful and very caring of this child, and she refers to herself as "her mommy". Enter a man in his mid 20's (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), who kisses the woman and asks "Lauren" how things have been with the little girl, Victoria. Lauren tells "Andrew" that they've been the usual, as Victoria is a bright little girl, her mommy's love, but she's a bit uneasy lately because she wants to be with her dad. This leaves some hurt on Andrew, who knows that he may not be Victoria's father, but he loves her like a daughter, and Lauren is pleased to be reassured that Andrew has her back and kisses him. We then see Andrew take care of Victoria, while Lauren texts someone named Louis, who says he is coming to pick up Victoria in about 2 days. Lauren texts him back, asking him to not make things messy again, and Louis texts that he'll try.

 

We see Lauren take care of Victoria on the next late afternoon after arriving from work, letting the babysitter go, while reports are going that analysts are predicting that a massive earthquake will shake the region within a few days, asking locals to evacuate, leaving Lauren a bit uneasy. Andrew and Louis call her immediately at the same time, and she decides to answer Louis (Brendan Meyer) first, who says that he's coming to pick Victoria up tonight, in the wake of the earthquake news. Lauren is ok with this, but once again asks Louis to try to take things easily when he arrives there. He once again says that he will. She then hangs up and answers Andrew, who says that they should evacuate with Victoria, but Lauren tells him that not only she can't just walk out of her job like that, but as far as Victoria is concerned, Louis is picking her up today - which leaves Andrew a bit relieved, but also upset that he doesn't get to spend more time with his girlfriend and step-daughter both in family. Lauren looks conflicted.

 

We cut to Louis arriving at Lauren's house at night, Andrew opening the door to him. They shake hands, but with some tension between the two. Louis then hugs Victoria, who is delighted to see her dad. Lauren tells him that Victoria's been dying to see him, and Louis tells her that he's also happy to see his daughter. He tells Lauren that he's taking her away from town for the week, longer than the extended period they had agreed to, and this upsets Lauren, but Louis tells her that it gives them time to escape the quake, and Lauren should do the same as well. Lauren says that she can't go away, she's got a job here that she can't just leave, but Louis tells her that she's an idiot if she prioritizes her work over her own safety, which causes Lauren to slap him. Louis, grabbing his face and calming himself down, says he knows that this poor paying job really isn't what she wants. Louis then, somewhat sorrowfully, tells her that she always cared more about her job than she did about him or Victoria. At this point, Andrew steps in to ask Louis to calm himself down, and Louis says he's calm and asks Andrew to watch out for Victoria while he has a "calm" talk with Lauren. Lauren nods, saying she can handle this, and Andrew goes away with Victoria. In the next shot, Andrew is playing with Victoria in the kitchen while we hear the muffed sounds of Louis and Lauren screaming at each other. Then, we cut to Louis leaving the house with Victoria, but not without telling Lauren first to remember what he said. Lauren just tells him to go away, which he does. Andrew asks her what did Louis say. She shuts the conversation down, even after some insistence by Andrew who's thinking it might've been something offensive. In bed, as Andrew sleeps, Lauren cries herself to sleep.

 

The next day, thunder and rain are furiously storming outside. Lauren and Andrew are getting ready to go to work, despite their tension regarding the incoming earthquake. Lauren then harkens back to the conversation she had with Louis last night, and tells Andrew that she's had a change of mind - she wants to leave Alaska until the quake has passed. Andrew asks her what made her change her mind so quickly, and Lauren just says that she never thought the idea was bad to begin with, and this rollercoaster of emotions lately simply hasn't made things all that easy for her emotionally. She asks him not to be surprised if she changes her mind again. The two pack things up, tell their bosses in advance that they are evacuating - and, to Lauren's surprise, she finds out she's far from the only one - and say that they are going to Andrew's parents', since it's closer than Lauren's. But before Lauren can walk out the door, Andrew stops her and jokingly asks her if she's still sure to go. As she begins to answer... the quake hits. The two are thrown and rattled around the house and try to escape, but a big piece of furniture falls on Lauren's leg, breaking the leg. Andrew stays behind to try to rescue her, and she begs him to save himself, but Andrew says he's not leaving without her. Andrew tries to carry Lauren in his arms, but then, the roof of the house falls on the two, and they're trapped inside. Beneath them, the floor crumbles, and they fall further down.

 

As the rain continues to pour down, Lauren and Andrew, both with some visible bruises and cuts, are trapped under their own house, with only an opening illuminating them (from the direction of the camera) and giving them a little bit of fresh air to breathe. Lauren, still in agony over her broken leg, says that now they're under this rubble and it was all her fault, but Andrew blames himself, as he stopped Lauren from walking out the door five seconds before the quake hit. They hug each other, asking one another not to think about blame, but rather about they fact that they have each other and they're still alive now that the quake has passed. Help should be out here soon. They then talk about whether or not did Louis make it with Victoria out of Alaska, and while Andrew is sure that they escaped, Lauren is skeptical, and super scared that that might've not been case. She's clearly afraid of the prospect of her daughter having been caught in the disaster and being possibly dead, which makes her weep even further than the pain alone. Andrew comforts her. As they talk, the rain pouring from outside is coming in from the entrance, flooding the floor they are on. They don't take note of this at first, still a bit shaken from what just occurred, but eventually, Lauren notices how she, who is on the floor, is quickly getting submerged. They start to panic again, and Andrew does everything in his power to try to lift up the rubble, while he and Lauren scream for help to the response of apparently no one. Lauren tries to get up and aid Andrew in lifting some rubble up, but the pain on her broken leg is too bad and the rubble is too heavy. Andrew tells her not to worry. But Lauren does worry, because they are quickly being overtaken by the water. Time flies as they continuously try to lift and scream for help, but nothing seems to work. As the water is already flooding them up to their chest, Andrew tells Lauren that no matter what happens, she'll always be special to him, and she retorts the same. Suddenly, Andrew feels the rubble above him break, and he tries to lift it up... but instead, it collapses on him. The camera follows Lauren go underwater to try to save him, the "money seconds" of the shot being a low angle perspective on the shadow of Lauren, highlighted by the light coming from the entrance above the water, trying save Andrew. But once again, her pain is too bad and the rubble is too heavy. She can only watch as Andrew drowns in the flooding, helpless with the weight on top of him. Lauren mourns Andrew's death, and thinks to herself that that is it for her too... she's never gonna see Victoria again. Then, as Lauren looks on, defeated, we finally cut away from the shot to flashback to the conversation that Lauren and Louis were having the prior night...

 

...Louis, after some shouting and arguing over the whole "you cared more about the job than the family" thing, which Lauren vehemently denies, tells Lauren that the quake will probably be devastating, Lauren tells him that she knows, and she still hasn't totally discredited the idea of evacuating with Andrew. Louis then, tears in his eyes, tells Lauren that, deep down, he wants her to escape too because he still has feelings for her. Lauren is in shock with this, and she tells him that a future together seems impossible after everything, but her face tells that she didn't immediately reject this notion. Louis accuses her of being with Andrew as some form of denial over their own breakup, and Lauren aggressively dismisses that, saying that she loves Andrew, prompting Louis to immediately apologize. But he remains firm that he still likes Lauren. While he can't make Lauren choose to go with him or force her to do anything against her will - nor would he ever want to do something like that - and he wants her to be happy above all else, he does wish that she think about that. Victoria would love nothing more than for her parents to be reunited again. Lauren doesn't know how to respond, mumbling to herself that she loves Andrew and her time with Louis is over.

 

We cut back to Lauren in real time, meditating over whether or not Louis' point rings with her, and whether or not is he still someone worth fighting for. She then harkens back to Victoria, and all the times that Lauren and her spent together, and even the good times that Lauren, Louis and Victoria all spent, as well as the good times spent with Victoria and Andrew. She figures out for herself that yes - it's worth fighting to live for those you love. And then, she also thinks about the great times spent with Andrew, and figures that it's also worth fighting to honor those who we love but have perished by fighting to live a great life as they look down on us. She gets up on one leg and with the help of her surroundings, and tries everything in her power to lift the rubble and escape. As her efforts show themselves to be futile, she screams and screams, trying to fight her way out. About a minute or two later, she finally hears sirens coming from outside. She screams for help, urgently. Soon enough, firemen arrive, breaking her out of the rubble and the flooding, and stretchering her out to an ambulance. Fade to black.

 

We fade in to Lauren in a hospital bed, with her broken leg wrapped in plaster. Victoria and Louis arrive, and they both hug Lauren, who hugs them back. Victoria shows clear worry for her mommy, and Lauren, washed away in tears, says she was so worried she would never see Victoria again either. Louis says he's happy that she's alive, although he gives her his condolences over Andrew. Lauren cries, but thanks him. Louis makes no mention of their conversation. We then cut to Lauren, on crutches, Louis and Victoria attending the funeral of Andrew, as well as that of all the other victims of the quake and floodings. Lauren is crushed by this, and cries in Louis' arms, Louis himself shedding some tears and Victoria being confused, but understanding that something happened. Lauren and Louis then talk peacefully over the sorrow of losing someone you love, and Lauren, while visibly upset, says that, at the end of the day, Andrew's memory will live on in their hearts... the ones who live have to fight to not just honor the dead, but continue with the living that still love them. Louis couldn't agree more. They leave.

 

We then jump a few months later, when Lauren, Louis and Victoria are in a restaurant together. Lauren brings up the argument that she and Louis had on the night before the quake, and she says that thinking about him, amongst other things, was what made her not give up altogether on life. Well, technically she was saved by the rescue team, cause if it had been on her own account, she would've died all the same - but, the intention counts. Louis laughs, and says that he's glad that Lauren thinks this way. Lauren says that she's still not over Andrew's death... but, whether or not is there a chance that she'll go back to Louis one day? Maybe. It depends on how Louis behaves himself from here on out. Louis jokes that it depends on her not getting overworked, to which she gives him a death stare, but he says he's joking and the family laugh together, Victoria included. We pan out from the restaurant and the city as it seems the future holds good things for the survivors of the disaster.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; The New Yorker Studios

Based On: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Director/Writer: Sarah Polley

Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister

Composer: Hildur Guðnadóttir

 

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Release Date: July 17th, Y10

Theater Count: 3270

Rating: R

Format: 2D

Budget: $25 million

Runtime: 110 minutes

 

Cast:

- Michaela Coel as Tessie Hutchinson

- Bryan Cranston as Mr. Summers

- Michael Hogan as Old Man Warner

- with Frances McDormand as Mayor Dolores

- and Daveed Diggs as Bill Hutchinson

- Unknowns in the other roles

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

It is a clear, fresh sunny day in an unnamed contemporary middle America small town. Children play happily, townspeople live in harmony and everyone is excited for the day. This includes the Hutchinson family, composed of hard-working construction man Bill Hutchinson (Diggs), leader of building operations for major and mid-major projects in the city; and Tessie (Coel), his modest, simple housewife. Their three children, a baby boy, a 5-year-old boy and the oldest, their 7-year-old daughter, are happily playing and interacting with kids of their age out on the streets. Tessie kisses Bill, as she says: "Today's the day."

 

CHAPTER I: THE LOTTERY

 

We see the day preparations of the town as something special seems to happen. Streets are decorated and everyone is hyping up "tonight". Children, with which are included the middle and oldest children of Tessie and Bill, are gathering rocks and stones in the middle of the street, while Mr. Summers (Cranston), a crumpy town-keeping do-it-all, gathers every inhabitant's names on pieces of wood. There are some people who seem less than happy about having their names taken, while others are buzzing. Mr. Summers talks to Bill and Tessie when getting to the Hutchinson's home. Tessie tells Mr. Summers that she's excited about tonight, but "I've been more in the past". Bill tells her there's nothing to worry about, since luck is gonna be their way. Mr. Summers eyes them sketchily. Summers does tell them that this is something he's been doing ever since Graves died, but it "gives me pleasure to keep the names before the lottery". Bill and Summers shake hands before the latter leaves, and Bill and Tessie share a kiss, as they head on the day. Children have just finished school, a lot of workers are on vacation and the elders are grouped in local gathering houses talking about the procedures. We pan on Old Man Warner (Hogan), who is recognized as the oldest man in the town, socializing with his compatriots, in what is told to us as a "rare moment" for him, usually a hermit.

 

At dawn, we get a shot with Warner leading the elders to the town square, where he, somberly, quotes an old proverb: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." As everyone arrives - about 300 people - we see everyone from the film up to this point, including the Hutchinsons and Mr. Summers, who brings, along with him, a black box with somethings contained in it. The children playfully run around, teasing that they're gonna do"it" to each other and the adults, while Bill and Tessie aren't readily preoccupied despite standing there with their own kids. Old Man Warner hears from someone that "the north village is gonna stop doing the lottery next year"; he is disgusted, understanding that "ending the lottery is the next step to going back to caves... nothing but trouble". Mr. Summers speaks to Bill, saying that "his efforts to change the writing papers to wood has been successful", but when Bill asks him what else he's been trying to change, Summers says that: "it don't matter, they wouldn't want it."

 

Soon, Mr. Summers starts what is considered to be the yearly ritual, the lottery: each person of the town is called upon to recieve a paper, which they cannot open until everyone has drawn one of their own. Once all inhabitants have their papers, they will open and read them. Whoever has the dot will be sent to the second part of the lottery, where their family will see all their individual members redrawn... that person, once drawn again, will be the one. We see generally different reactions to the lottery, as Bill and Tessie begin to show slight worry, but nothing too much. Old Man Warner is stern and rigid, drawing a paper with a smile in his face. Some hours later, the inhabitants all have papers in their hands, and Summers officially grants everyone permission to open their paper. Soon, we see faces of horror in Bill and Tessie... as word quickly spreads that "Bill has got it". Sure, we see the paper on Bill's hand has a dot in it. Tessie quickly revolts, saying that "it's not fair... it's not fair, Bill didn't have time to pick a better paper", but everyone ignores, even if chatter has already began about the inevitable fate of the Hutchinsons. Tessie is terrorized, while Bill, admitedly terrified, tries to remain calm, telling Tessie in cracking fashion that "Mr. Summers wasn't lying when he eyed us that way", while Mr. Summers, somewhat sympathetically, tells them he's sorry. Tessie tries to stop the event from happening, but the locals throw her on the ground, forcing Bill to grab her. "We can't stop it", he tells her, followed by: "It'll be me, I'm sure", to which Tessie, tearful, pleads the Gods above to have mercy on them. Summers says that, because the Hutchinsons have to re-draw as a family. Tessie, Bill and the three kids (Tessie draws for the baby) are forced to draw again, as Tessie shows evident fear. Bill breathes in, as Old Man Warner, sneakily, readies himself and his compadres, with a smile on his face. After some moments of tension... Tessie has drawn the lottery's luck. Aghast, she cannot contain her panic, and starts cursing the lottery, for being unfair.

 

But no one bats an eye. Bill and the kids step back, but Bill tells the two children to run away, while the baby is left by the side. The other kids and everyone else stay in the square... and start grabbing gathered rocks. Tessie says that "it's unfair, it's unfair, it's unfair"... and Bill says, in an apparent future scene: "And they all came on her". Cut back to the lottery scene - every town inhabitant begins stoning Tessie. A gruesome sequence where Tessie's bones are battered by the constant rocks plunged at her. Bill almost throws a rock himself, but stops himself before it, while his and Tessie's baby cries, as do some of the children, while everyone else, including a sadistically happy Old Man Warner, and a dubious Mr. Summers, keep the ritual going by continuously throwing. After a few minutes, Tessie is immobile on the ground. Everyone assumes she's dead. Bill, teary eyed, can't believe it, while Mr. Summers, with a cold tone in his voice, says: "More next year. Thank you." Everyone else ungathers.

 

CHAPTER II: THE SENTENCE

 

Bill has been telling what happened to the two elder children, while the baby sleeps. Bill tells the kids that he's unsure about how he's ever gonna live with himself again. The older daughter says: "But daddy... isn't it what everyone in the town wants?" - Bill, crossed, doesn't know how to answer.

 

We cut back to Bill, followed by Mr. Summers, with some of the old people - including Old Man Warner - watching from the back, dragging Tessie's body away to the graveyard. Bill is horrified at having to bury his wife, but Mr. Summers, even if quietly and in empathetic form, tries to incentivate Bill to do it. Bill almost begins to do it... but can't bring himself to, just yet. Mr. Summers, calmly, tells Bill to come back tomorrow. He went home and now is where we're at.

 

ONE YEAR LATER

 

It's June again, and Bill hasn't been the same ever since what happened to Tessie. The two oldest children, now one year older as well, can't live with themselves after the traumatic events of last year. Bill, tearfully, tells them: "Everything is gonna be okay - we know Mikey is with Aunt Eddie, so he's gonna be fine. He'll never have to see this again." When the daughter asks Bill why they haven't left the town yet, Bill says that: "It's... it can't be done. It just can't." The kids cry, as Bill shows evident conflict over what happened.

 

Mr. Summers, now sterner and with a long beard, but with the same cheery attitude, leads the day of celebration with the exact same ritual happenings as last year, having a long conversation with Bill about the consequences. He tells Bill that they've been over this: "It happens every year, you think you're the only one? Everyone goes through the lottery." Bill tells Summers that "Tessie was saying it was unfair before it happened... do you not think it is?"; Summers stays quiet for a moment, before saying: "...do you?". Bill simply says, after a moment of silence and uncertainty: "I don't." Summers looks down, while Bill remains somber. Meanwhile, Bill's kids run around the house, playing with the other kids, but evidently scared and unable to keep up the same way. They are teased by this, and then told: "Your mom wasn't it. We all could be hit. The lottery hits anyone. It's the luck of the game." The younger boy pushes one of the kids to the ground, and a small fight ensues, forcing Bill to break it away.

 

Old Man Warner has returned from his near-hermitage once again, greeeted happily by all the villagers. He's told that the lottery has now been suspended in the north village - he shakes his head, saying that "their crops are gonna rot... don't they know that Summers are getting hotter? The weather men keep saying more tornadoes are coming. It's gonna be their doom". Some agree with him, others not.

 

At last, night comes. The yearly lottery begins again. Bill, the kids and everyone else attend, with the children looking absolutely horrified. As Mr. Summers speaks, Bill's boy breaks into tears, as do some of the other kids, who are rumored to have also lost loved ones. The inhabitants begin drawing papers again. Hours later, the time has come for them to open them. Bill looks on... as everyone in the village opens their papers, and EVERYONE has a dot on their papers. Widespread confusion goes on, while Old Man Warner cries heresy, saying that: "The tradition cites that only ONE person is drawn! This is an outrage!" Bill, to his end... releases a small smile, while, from behind... Tessie is revealed. She's alive, to the shock of everyone.

 

CHAPTER III: THE REVENANT

 

It's revealed that, after being left to die on the graveyard... Tessie was actually still breathing, despite being concussed, beaten and bloodied. However, somehow, by sheer willpower, she was able to get up and drag her battered body away from the town, taking all the fibers in her body. Bill, when realizing Tessie has disappeared from the graveyard, initially cries, thinking her corpse had been buried by someone else, or stolen. He's distraught. Mr. Summers finds him early on, and tells him that "it's natural." Bill punches Summers in the face, with Bill screaming about how natural it is for him to die the same way his wife did. Summers allows Bill to take it out, but tells him that: "When everything clears... you know we have a reason to do what we did, as do you." Bill asks him what is reason is, Summers says: "Because it's a lifetime's tradition." Bill, hesitant, stops, as Summers says that "can't go on trying to stop the culture of our town. Our elders would never forgive you". Bill looks at him disgusted, saying that he seems happy to be coerced with all of this. Summers says nothing, as Bill runs off.

 

Tessie was nearby and heard the conversation. She drags herself to a road, and is taken away by a worried bypasser who is driving to the north village. There, she has a meeting with a doctor (McDormand), who treats all of her wounds and saves Tessie's life. Tessie, grateful, does not know how to reply to the doctor, who then says that she, as Town Mayor, says she simply was doing her job. Tessie is shocked to find the Mayor, who allows her a conversation. The Mayor seems to know right away that Tessie was victimized by her town's lottery. Tessie says that she tried to stop it from assaulting her family. The Mayor asks her if she's angry, and Tessie says that she is, but deep down, she knows that she can't do anything to stop it. The Mayor then makes a cutting question: "...why?" Tessie doesn't know how to answer. She stutters to say: "Well, because... it's... I don't know, it's been done forever now. It's like Christmas." The Mayor then says: "It hurt me too to stop the lottery in this town. But... (she hesitates a little) When... you have the blood of children, elderly, women, men... in your hands... how is it like Christmas?" The Mayor then asks Tessie if she's ever actually *tried* to stop it. Tessie says that she tried to say that Bill didn't have time to get the right paper, but says that she is afraid everyone would riot if the lottery ended. When asked by the Mayor if she's ever considered empathy or mercy for anyone who's been victimized, Tessie does not respond, conflicted and agonized, with the Mayor cutting through her by saying that "she only started caring when it happened to her". Tessie is hurt by this, but then replies that the Mayor is right. "That said, I just... I just don't know if I'll ever convince them to stop. Especially folk like Old Man Warner. Bloke's a radical". The Mayor tells Tessie to wake up and stand by her suffering. She calls Tessie is a revenant, and that she's already been on the doors of death. If she's survived, that means she has a chance to do what everyone before her hasn't: to remind the villagers just how awful the lottery is. "The way I see it... it's not Christmas. More like a matador fight." Tessie considers this.

 

We then see Tessie recover throughout the remaining months, slowly preparing herself to return to the village, as she begins writing a plan to avenge her near death and fuck with the next year's lottery. She investigates whether or not the lottery is law in the local legislation; it isn't, even though it's usually a local holiday. Tessie begins doing anonymous protesting against the lottery online, and watches as the north village she's staying on officializes their own former lottery holiday as a "memorial day" instead, despite some protesting it, with more conservative elements claiming that "they'll bring it back in a few years".

 

Some time just before Summer of the next year, Bill is tipped to meet with an anonymous person at midnight. He is tipped to do this by believing he's on a dating app, where he's slowly developing chemistry with a woman who also shows anti-lottery affection. Surely, the woman in question is actually Tessie herself utilizing a fake profile (but with no pictures). Bill and Tessie meet again, and Bill cannot believe his wife is alive. Their reencounter is a scene of absolute euphoria for both of them. Tessie explains that she survived the lottery somehow, and now, she's taking a chance to remind the world that it's not impossible for the lottery to end altogether. Bill says he doesn't know if it'll ever happen, but Tessie says that she has a plan... because if the lottery can't be stopped... then they will force them to stop.

 

Back to present day, Tessie reveals herself to the town as alive, and says that she and Bill have secretly worked a plan to screw over every single person who stoned her the year before - by making EVERYONE the victim of the lottery. The elders, mainly Old Man Warner, are outraged by the breaking of tradition, with Warner saying: "You are insane! You have doomed us all! YOU HAVE DOOMED US ALL!" - Tessie then says that there's nothing in the tradition that says that she *can't* do this, because there's no law about the tradition. "Now it actually happened - what are you gonna do about it?" The townsfolk are aghast, before Tessie admits she's only doomed those who "were setting themselves up for it." Everyone is shellshocked... and soon, everyone becomes afraid and horrified, as they realize that one woman has the power in her hands to kill them all. Tessie does also order Bill and her children - who are euphoric to find their mom alive, though also terrified she seems intent on killing them - to stand with the townspeople in the square. When some murmurs begin about rioting against Tessie, she appears outraged and shuts them down by saying: "It's funny how y'all couldn't give a damn about all those people you killed for all these years... but when YOUR backs are against the wall, you'd try too to break the so-called tradition. It doesn't mean as much to you when it's your lives at stake, right?!", sending all the townsfolk on a pensative edge. Warner and Summers look increasingly furious, while Bill and the kids are unsure and hesitant. Tessie goes: "I even remember how my own husband nearly threw a rock at me... but he chose not to. He chose."

 

On the moment of truth, everyone stands, trying to guard themselves, while Tessie, rubbing her hands, prepares herself to plunge rocks at everyone in the town, including her horrified family. But before it happens... Tessie stops, saying she "chooses not to kill my children... I choose not to kill my husband...", and... one by one, she calls every single town inhabitant, except Old Man Warner and Mr. Summers, who are left to the end. She says she chooses not to invoke the lottery on anyone... because she CAN, and everyone CAN, choose, not to follow the lottery. "We can make that choice. Let's make it:" Summers, who appeared cold this whole time, snaps, admitting that Tessie has ruined an eternal tradition, while Old Man Warner tries to grab a rock and throw it at Tessie from behind. Bill, however, loses his mind after noticing Warner's movement, and tackles the man to the ground, but Tessie stops him before he commits an atrocity. Summers is stunned, with Tessie telling him that, as far as she's concerned, the tradition is over. Summers says that she'll regret the day she's turned on the town, but Tessie shows no fear. The scene ends with the townspeople, in a post-trauma moment, gathering all together and spending the night in harmony, even if a very divided harmony, with groups of people split between themselves.

 

Edited January 31 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Based On: The Library of Babel. by Jorge Luis Borges

Director: David Semel

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama

Release Date: December 23, Y10

Theater Count: 3110

Rating: PG-13

Format: 2D, 3D

Budget: $50 million

Runtime: 110 minutes

 

Cast:

- Dev Patel as Omar

 

Plot Summary: Omar, the narrator (Dev Patel), lives in a universe composed of an enormous library. The rooms are hexagonal in shape and each of the walls is exactly identical to the other, with one wall as an entrance, another wall containing all the bare necessities for a human being, and the remaining four walls composed of bookshelves. The library presumably contains all different 410-page books containing every unique combination of 25 basic characters - 22 letters of the alphabet, the period, the comma and the space. Omar works as a librarian in this place. As such, his task is to read all books and identify which contain gibberish content and which are actually readable in any language. Omar is frustrated to the point of suicidal ideation, as mostly everything he is forced to read contains at least one letter or one syllable that immediately renders the book as illegible, but because he cannot quit his job and must feed on the endless walls' survival kits by universal obligation, he constantly ponders refusing to eat and starving to death.

 

One day, he and a group of other librarians talk about the potential existence of a Crimson Hexagon - a magical room in the library that contains high powered, illustrated books and at least one book that details a perfect index of the entirety of the library's contents. Omar engages in this journey, travelling across the library to find the Crimson Hexagon. In his journey, he decides to flashread every single book in every single room that he comes across, where he begins doubting himself as whether or not he's capable of ever escaping his job by finding this Crimson Hexagon, even if, subconsciously, he already is doing his job by reading all the books he can. Throughout the journey, in his madness, he starts envisioning and imagining what would the illegible books' meaning be in a readable language, or whether or not those books have a language of their own that simply hasn't been interpreted yet. That said, he continues to be convinced that the library is finite and the Crimson Hexagon details the perfect index, which would help him find the legible books and quit his job. Eventually, in a certain room, he does find a book that reads "INDEX OF THE LIBRARY OF BABEL" - excited, he begins reading it... but in the second page, one single syllable stands out as incorrectly spelled in English. He reads other books in the bookshelves, with all of them referencing an index of the library, but only one contains a somewhat correct, detailed index. However, as he reads this book, he realizes that none of the books matter anyway, because if the library contains all different 410-page, 25 character combinations, then the books are all meaningless in nature and the index is useless.

 

Depressed, Omar begins a hunger strike and leaves himself to die. But, in a fever dream, he also comes to a conclusion: if the books in the library are language-driven by nature, then it is possible to interpret the books in their own unique way, and even if they are meaningless, they can be repurposed into something that has worth and meaning in its own right. Omar realizes that the beauty of humanity lies in the capacity to turn the meaningless and redundant into the important and useful, because if nothing in life has a true purpose, then it is up to intelligent life to shape the purpose, and human beings are capable of doing that. With a different onset into life, a radiant Omar springs himself back up and restarts his life as a librarian, but he starts an initially underground movement to create his own language and inspire every librarian and person roaming the library to interpret the gibberish books as something with merit and meaning, even if not yet found.

Edited January 8 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

The Elevator

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Blumhouse Productions

Based On: As I got on the elevator, the man getting off whispered something strange to me, by u/WorldAwayTweedy (Reddit, r/NoSleep)

Director: Scott Derrickson

 

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Release Date: October 16, Y10

Theater Count: 2986

Rating: R

Format: 2D, 3D, IMAX

Budget: $18 million

Runtime: 95 minutes

 

Cast:

- Sterling K. Brown as Michael Davis

- Ethan Hawke as the strange man / the boss

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

Michael Davis (Brown) is getting ready for what seems to be an important day, as he prepares for a job interview with Orwell Medicinals Corp., an up-and-coming medicine company. When he arrives at the building, he's whispered by a stunned, grumpy man (Hawke): "Don't get off until you reach the ninth floor. No matter what". Michael explains he has to go to the fifth floor to get his job interview, but the man races off. He gets in the elevator and ignores him completely, heading to the fifth floor.

 

When he gets there, he finds that the receptionist and the workers are all a bit *too* eager to find him, revealing that they know the name of his wife and the age of his baby boy, then congratulating him for his birthday on that day - even though it's not his birthday - and presenting a birthday cake to a giant portrait of him on the room. Creeped out, Michael runs back to the elevator and tries to go back to the ground floor, but the ground floor button is missing on the elevator, forcing him to take the closest floor. But once he gets to the second floor, which looks normal enough at first, he starts hearing echo voices asking him questions, such as: "Are you a loyal worker? What are the days you can't work? How many hours do you expect to put in?". Michael, reluctantly, answers the last one to say that "he's never missed a single hour of work and expects to put in the average", which then leads to the echo voices saying that "he expects you to answer otherwise", which, again, incites fear in him.

 

He returns to the elevator, which unexpectedly, without him pressing any button, rises to the 11th floor. Unexpectedly, an elder lady comes into the elevator, looking for a lift down. She presses the button for the second floor, since the ground floor is still unavailable, despite Michael's reluctance to return there. They make it again to the second floor, which looks ominously different... more like a cave than an office. A stumpy looking guy asks Michael whether he'd prefer to work here than in the fifth floor, to which Michael says he's good. The man then tells him that his pay is $800,000 an hour, to which Michael refuses again, but then the man says that the real pay is Michael gets his eyes gouged out so that he doesn't have to see "him". Afraid, Michael returns to the elevator in a rush, begging for the elevator to work properly - but when the door closes... BANG! BANG! BANG! Loud bangs on the outside of the elevator door. Michael decides to finally press for the ninth floor, but it doesn't work, so he tries the eighth one. But the bangs continue on the outside. A terrified Michael curses as the banging continues, while he rises to the sixth... seventh... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, (Michael is screaming, mortified), 15, 16, 17, 18 (the banging softens), 19, 20, 21, 22 (disappears)... "Now arriving at the 23rd floor".

 

Shaken, Michael exits to the 23rd floor and falls down to the ground once the door opens... but when he scans the new floor, he realizes he's back at the ground floor. Confused but also relieved, Michael is happy that he's free from this nightmare. There... the man he had spoken to before entering the elevator was right there, asking him if he was alright. Michael says he is, as the man reveals that "this is the real safe floor, the 23rd." When Michael claims he was told to go to the fifth, the man says it was a trick, he should be in the 23rd. "You can step out and come to work." Michael realizes this - "step out and come to work." He starts putting all the dots together. When he starts asking the man if this is all some weird hazing trick by the company, the man ominously tells him that "this is just what happens when 'he' wants to see if his new employees are good workers. Good workers get good jobs, bad workers get bad jobs. Are you a good worker... or are you a (demonic voice) BAD BOY?!" - Michael runs the fuck back to the elevator and shuts the door. He gets on his knees and stays sat for a few seconds. Then, he gets up, after recomposing himself, and tries to push a button, but when he does, the elevator door opens again. As it does, a mortified Michael meets the strange man again, who then tells him that "someone really wants to see him". But Michael realizes he can't move a muscle (we see through his expression he's trying, but can't). The man continues: "He’s in the other room. I’m gonna fetch him, okay? All you have to do is look at him. It’ll feel a bit weird at first, but then it’ll all be okay. It’s a permanent position. Great benefits. It is fully onsite, but, no better birthday present than a new job, right?" - Michael whispers it's not his fucking birthday. The man turns back and tells him to relax, "no cussing on the job... we are all a big family, right?!", as he walks back. Michael, shaking, tries to push through his immobility to close the elevator door again, as footsteps approach. He hears whispers, saying: "Today is his birthday! He's celebrating (demonic voice) ON THE JOB." Horrified, he manages to finally push the button and close the elevator doors, where he collapses to the floor again.

 

Outside, he hears commotion, saying: "I'll let you two talk more on the elevator", to which, he looks around, but sees nothing. He exhales lengthily, and lets out a frustrated cry. Then, he notices... the button to the ninth floor is lit-up in crimson red. Michael's phone then rings... it's his wife. As he tries to tell her that he's trapped in an elevator and "weird shit is happening", she says: "Hun... don't go to the ninth floor." Michael sinks:

 

Michael: WHAT?! W-wait, how do you even-

Wife: DON'T. GO. It's a trick, honey. Don't go there. The man was lying to you. It's not safe.
Michael: NONE of this has been safe!!! How do you know everything that's happening?

Wife: You need to trust me, hun.

(a beat)
Michael: So what do you want me to do?

(a long beat)

LOUD Demonic Voice: GO TO YOUR INTERVIEW.

 

MICHAEL PUTS OUT A BLOODCURDLING WAIL. He lets the phone drop and mashes the ninth floor button again. But as he grabs the phone and hangs up the call, he can hear the demonic voice scream at him to go to his interview over and over again. The elevator then starts to shake and go up, at a very, very fast speed. It flings so fast, as Michael ponders that he had just pressed the button for the ninth floor, but the elevator is flying past every floor at insane speed.

 

"Now arriving at the 41st floo-Now arriving at the 78th flo---Now arriving at the 90th floo-"

Michael: WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?!

"at the 141st flo---'rriving at the 401st floor-----at the 840th floor"

Michael stands there stunned... and suddenly...

"Now arriving at (demonic voice) SOMEWHERE NICE."

 

A sudden halt. The elevator stops. The doors don't open though. From outside, what could be best described as the sounds of Hell. Low grunts of pain. Crackling. A dark hymn. Michael then hears: "Welcome to Orwell Medicinals Corporation, the greatest and most worker-friendly company in the world. (static sounds) We-we-we proud oursel--proud oursel----PROUD OURSELVES... of our worker ethic---worker ethic---brain-altering hallucinogenics that make every worker ACCEPT. EVERY. SINGLE. DEMAND. FROM HIM."

 

Static sounds follow. Michael, exhausted, looks down as he then hears: "Can I go home?" - from the voice of a kid. Michael, startled, answers that he does not know. The kid asks him for a trade-off - he gets to go home, while Michael stays in this floor forever. Michael, in tears, says he cannot do that, while asking the kid if he's going to die. The kid tells him that he, like Michael, came here because he wanted to find a job, but as it turns out, "his" team does not like naughty boys who do not work and do not follow orders. "He likes it when his workers do it overtime." Michael is paralyzed in fear. Then, the kid asks: "Why do you not want to work overtime?" Michael says he never said that. The kid then stays silent for a moment... only to break it when asking: "Why do you wanna work here?"; Michael says that he "needed the job... but... now I-I... I'm not sure, anymore." The kid then asks again: "Why do you not want to work overtime?" Michael says he'd rather find another job than have to be forced into crunch. The kid then stays silent again... and breaks it after a beat: "...okay. But... Mr. Davies?" Michael is sent into shivers when he hears the kid pronounce his name, who then continues: "He only wants to wish you a happy birthday." Michael almost mutters it's not his birthday, but goes instead: "Who does?", and the kid: "Him. He wants you to look at the TV". At that moment, Michael, confused, says he never noticed any TV, but when he looks up... he sees one on the corner - and it's airing this exact moment on a live feed. Michael jolts up in fear, In it, he sees... himself... lying down, looking straight up with a smile on his face.

 

And also on the TV, on the ceiling... HIM. A shadowy figure of a man (Hawke), with glowing white eyes and sharp teeth, drawing an eerie wide grin across his face, staring straight at the smiling Michael, who is looking up at him.

 

Suddenly, the lights on the elevator go black and the elevator PLUMMETS down at rapid velocity. Michael watches as the TV footage shows the shadowy figure reaches his hand at the laid down Michael, muttering the words: "Happy birthday, dear collaborator."

 

Then, on a blink of an eye... the elevator stops, the lights return and everything returns to normal. "You have arrived at the ninth floor." Michael, on the fetal position, shaking, waits there for a few moments, as the elevator door opens up. He hears some murmurs from outside: "You coming out or what, you fucking moron?". Michael, shaken, gets up and curses out loud. He gets out, on tiny feet, onto the very much safe-looking, normal-looking ninth floor. There, he approaches a counter, where a receptionist lady looks at him, unimpressed. Michael tries to stutter words out, but the lady only gives him a button. "On the elevator for the ground floor. Single use only." Michael does not understand, but the lady tells him: "All we are legally allowed to tell you is that since the greenhouse is in this floor, the experimental hallucinogenics do not affect us." Michael, slack-jawed for a moment, then nods. The lady then ironically asks: "Do you still want your job interview on the ground floor or--" to which Michael responds: "uhh, I-I think I'm good. Thank you."

 

Michael takes the elevator button, uses it normally, and the elevator reaches the ground floor, no issue. When the door opens, he realizes that the button is missing again. As he exits the elevator, at a loss for words, he sees another woman approach the elevator. He sees her, but does not have the strength to do much... only to gently approach her, tap on the shoulder, and tell her: "Don't get off until you reach the ninth floor. No matter what".

 

The woman answers: "Happy birthday, Michael", smiles and enters the elevator. Michael grits his teeth, runs the fuck out of the building and speeds off, as classical music plays in the background.

 

 

 

Edited February 12 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

KRIS' PLAN

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Director: Hanelle Culpepper

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama/Thriller

Release Date: September 25th, Y10

Theater Count: 3560

Rating: PG-13

Format: 2D, 3D, IMAX

Budget: $80 million

Runtime: 115 minutes

 

Cast:

• Jalyn Hall as Kris Kayne
• Danielle Deadwyler as Amy Kayne
• Brian Michael Smith as Drew Kayne

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

It's February 2100, the level of the sea has grown substantially, partially-to-mostly flooding 50% of all land on Earth. But every living creature has been able to evolve and adapt to the new Earth - humans have now grown gills and can breathe underwater. However, life is much more difficult for those who cannot afford newly constructed houses that filter out pollution in the sea's waters that tends to contaminate food and resources easily, meaning a lot of people die of poisoning. These modern houses are exclusive for the wealthier, while the less rich have to live in flooded houses.

 

Kris Kayne, a youth who's grown in an underwater house all his life, has habituated himself to living in lesser conditions, not really minding it, but also dealing with everyday stress, despite the more advanced filtering systems of his hometown, New Atlantis, making life safer and better. Discreet, unpopular and quiet, he's known as a nice person to the few people who know him, but reserved. Because he's generally hydrophobic, he has trouble exiting his home and co-existing with the other underwater-breathing people in the outside world, making him feel isolated. He lives everyday with his conflictual uncles, Drew Kayne and Amy Kayne, the former who is a depressed trans man and the latter who copes with the grief of losing her sister (Kris' mother).

 

One day, Amy catches Kris writing in a social app that, one day, he will carry forth a plan to defrost enough ice from Antarctica to completely inundate the rest of the Earth, so that everyone is forced to live underwater, potentially come in contact with contaminated resources and die (since the canalization systems of New Atlantis aren't spread out everywhere) - and being incentivized to do so by an echo chamber of like-minded anonymous online people. Amy is appalled by this, and confronts him with it. In a surge of motivation, Kris drags the conversation to the house's living room and admits, in front of both Amy and Drew, that he wants to do it, inviting his uncle and aunt to join him.

 

Amy says that is not happening, while Drew half-heartedly also agrees that it's unviable and extremely dangerous, with both agreeing that the massive loss of life would not make Kris a genocidal maniac and the most wanted man on Earth. Kris comes into this from a perspective of activism: he says that, from the moment everyone is forced to coexist in the same forcibly unreasonable conditions, no one would remain indifferent to their cause anymore and everyone would actively work together to prevent permanent damage. Drew says that it's not worth the effort, cause even though Earth is a mess, man shouldn't try to make it worse, as the rise of sea levels and flooding of land has already killed many, many people on its own. Kris calls Drew a coward and a fight ensues. Drew sleeps on the issue.

 

The next day, Drew asks Kris, during breakfast, to explain how he would go about with his plan. Kris says that it would include stealing a huge rocket from NASA - one of the few vehicles on Earth that still utilizes oil - then steering it in direction of the Antarctic continent and then crashing it straight against the huge icebergs, triggering a massive fire that would quickly melt a huge portion of the continent and balloon sea levels significantly. Amy is terrorized by Kris' sadistic plan, as well as his imagination for something so out of this world and wild, calling it completely impossible for a young adult to achieve that. Drew brings up that on top of flooding the whole world, a huge fire in the ocean deriving from an oil-fueled vehicle crashing would probably cause a spill, which, if not caught on time, would kill ecosystems on its own. Kris is enthusiastic with Drew's imagination, but Amy tells them that if this were to happen, it wouldn't just be the flooding of human-built cities, but also the death of millions of animal species that rely on both ice and the ocean to survive, and with the death of their ecosystem, humanity would soon perish as well. She says that for an eco-terrorist, he does not seem to actually care about the environment, nor about any kind of longevity of the planet. Kris seems conflicted, but does not buckle. Amy then confides with Drew that she still doesn't know whether to take Kris' ideas seriously or not, but reflects on whether his presumed plan mirrors a disturbed mindset she is unaware of, due to Kris keeping to himself. She asks Drew if he thinks she and him have been bad parental figures to Kris, with herself feeling ridden with guilt, on top of the fear of losing another family member she loves, but conflicted on whether or not Kris would actually set his plan in real motion and whether it's worth any intervention.

 

Amy spies on Kris and sneaks in his room when he's not there to read what he's writing, inviting his online friends to adhere to his cult and commit mass suicide before he goes ahead with the plan. She then confronts him again and outright tells him that she's not letting him put real lives in danger, threatening to call the authorities. Kris, demoralized at first, then fights back again, saying that if she doesn't let him do this, then he will never speak to her again and pretend he's not her nephew. Amy says she'd rather this than let anyone die, but Kris says she would be dead to him all the same, hurting Amy in the process. Drew, on the other hand, argues with Amy, saying that Kris should be let dream about whatever he wishes. Amy calls Drew out for taking this in stride, claiming that Kris might have a hint of seriousness in his terrorist ideas, while Kris poisons Drew, saying that he's probably aching to join his plan as well. Drew does not actually answer, but Amy notices he feels some conflicting emotions, believing that Drew might actually be somewhat complacent with Kris' plan, with Drew presuming that Kris is just daydreaming anyway. Drew admits to Amy that, were the plan to actually happen, he might actually start feeling something about the world at large. Amy is heartbroken, saying that Drew and her rebuilt their lives together and he should not see the world in such a cynical way, but Drew says that when the whole world is out for vengeance against you... you start believing a restart would be necessary. Kris agrees, saying that, for the first time, he has friends and he's heard by someone. Amy gets to the bottom of this: Kris doesn't actually want to destroy the planet - he just wants to be accepted by someone, ergo, his online friends. She tells him that her and Drew love Kris, but Kris is adamant that he's gonna carry the plan forth "for the planet".

 

Months pass, and Kris, who spends every day meticulously planning the details of his plan (he would try to intercept a special NASA mission by hijacking the rocket and flying it into the Antarctic 9/11-style), cuts relations with Amy (who deems his plan absolutely impossible but admits she's really starting to, and eventually taking Kris' intentions very seriously regardless), while Drew is divided between nephew and wife. Drew talks to Kris everyday about the friends Kris is making, while Amy tries to come in contact, but is actively ignored by Kris. On the eve of July 7th, Kris hears from "Melissa" that, tomorrow, she and a group of nine other people will commit mass suicide, right before Kris commits his plan to defrost the Antarctic. Kris says that he and her will meet in Valhalla, and ends contact with her, then destroying his PC and hard drive. Kris then tells Drew that, if he weren't onboard with his plan, Kris wouldn't have gotten to live the best five months of his life. Drew, bittersweetly, does not have the courage to try to tell Kris to stop his plan. Drew then confides with Amy that he understands why Kris hates the world, but he realizes that this is about a boy who feels rejected and outcast, and wants to hurt the world in retribution. He thinks it's too late to stop the motions. Amy says it isn't, because even if Kris, somehow, could find a way to actually pull it off, she says she will prevent it, no matter what. She says that, unlike what happened with her sister, she will be capable of saving Kris and their family, and if need be, the world at large.

 

The next day, on July 7th, Kris wakes up and hears on social media that the bodies of ten people, believed to have committed suicide, were found during early in the morning. Kris prepares to make his plan go in motion, even conquering his fear of water, but before he can catch a flight to the new NASA space station, Amy stops him at the airport, saying that he's free to make his plan happen, but she wants him to know that, no matter what happens, he'll always have someone who cares about him - something she wishes she had told his mother. Kris explains that his friends want him to pull through, and Amy allows him to believe that's true, with Kris even adding that he thinks the mass suicide happened, horrifying Amy, but Amy says that it's okay - she forgives him, because all she could ever tell him is that, no matter what happens, she will always love him and he is not as lonely or friendless or voiceless as he thinks he is. Kris hugs Amy and, amidst tears, gives up on the plan and goes with Amy, while Drew, sadly, hugs Kris goodbye on the outside of the airport, as Kris is taken by the police for conspiration to terrorism and genocide. Kris smiles at Amy and Drew, saying that he's not angry at them and loves them all the same.

 

The next day, Amy and Drew, in a much better moment of their relationship, are seen joining a protest in favor of the environment, with Amy admitting that while she could just not let Kris take the lives of so many people... sometimes, she feels like terrorizing the rich herself, to which Drew salutes.

 

Edited February 1 by MCKillswitch123