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

[SLAM!]

@Hiccup23 @cookie @MCKillswitch123 @Ethan Hunt @YM! @Xillix @Rorschach @4815162342 @Ezen Baklattan @Blankments @lamamama @El Squibbonator

This is the thread to submit films for Year 10 of CAYOM 3.0! The release calendar is below. It's pre-filled with the IMAX films from the Advance Schedule Thread, but you will still need to make posts for those movies with details about them. You can also submit your fillers here. Note that you are not allowed to post movies in this thread until they are completed - with full cast and release info and however complete a plot summary you plan on giving them. Keep in mind that directors are limited to one major film or two small films a year and that actors should be limited to a realistic number of projects as well.

 

To submit a film, make a post in this thread including the relevant information.

Required info includes:

Title:

Director:

Genre:

Release Date:

Major Cast:

Theater Count:

MPA Rating:

Runtime:

Production Budget:

Plot Summary: (Can be as short or detailed as you wish)

 

If you do not have all of this information finalized, you should not post the film in this thread until you do.

 

You can also optionally include other relevant information like producers, composers, the name of the releasing studio (if you are using your own fictional studios), special formats for release (like IMAX or 3D), even custom taglines or posters if you wish. None of this is required to post your film and it can be added after you first post if you so choose.

 

Limited releases are allowed, and they can expand into additional theaters on a week-by-week basis. You will need to specify when the film expands and how many theaters it goes into each week, up until the final expansion that is the widest it will go.

 

I've included some typical midweek release dates around holidays and such. If you want to release a movie on a weekday in some other week, go right ahead and just specify it in the post for that movie. I'll add that day to the release calendar.

 

This post will be updated regularly with new additions. If available, you can click on the title of a film in the release calendar to go straight to its post.

 

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM EST on Monday, October 30th.

 

Titles listed in green are finished.

Spoiler

January 2nd

Sony vs. Nintendo - Documentary - dir. Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky - PG-13 - $10m budget - 2,701 theaters

 

January 9th

Puckshot - Sports/Dramedy - dir. Charles Stone III - PG-13 - $18m budget - 2,879 theaters

The Scavenger Wars: Remastered - Re-release/Sci-Fi/Epic - dir. Matt & Ross Duffer - PG-13 - $5m budget (original budget of $225m) - 3,200 theaters

 

January 16th (MLK 4-day weekend)

Money Heist - Heist/Thriller - dir. Steven Spielberg - PG-13 - $100m budget - 3,877 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

Tailypo - Folk Horror - dir. Alexandre Aja - R - $10m budget - 3,402 theaters

 

January 23rd

Toppings: A Pizza Romance - Coming-of-Age/Romance - dir. Sam Levinson - PG-13 - $30m budget - 2,727 theaters

 

January 30th

Operation Finality - Sci-Fi/Horror - dir. Leigh Whannell - R - $80m budget - 3,340 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

February 6th

Viva Las Vengeance: The Cinematic Experience - Concert Film - dir. Bruce Hendricks - PG-13 - $12m budget - 2,450 theaters

 

February 13th

The Valkyries vs. The Galaxy - Computer Animation/Sci-Fi/Jukebox Musical/Comedy - dir. Ian Jones-Quartery and Jennifer Kluska - PG - $140m budget - 4,062 budget - In IMAX / PLF's

Room 131 - Psychological Thriller - dir. Tate Taylor - R - $12m budget - 2,768 theaters
 

February 20th

The Legend of Hollis Brown - Neo-Western/Drama/Romance - dir. Clint Eastwood - R - $20m budget - 3,180 theaters

 

February 27th

A Ghost Tail - Family/Dramedy - dir. Marielle Heller - PG-13 - $10m budget - 3,235 theaters

 

March 6th

Speed Demon - Thriller/Supervillain - dir. David Yarovesky - R - $17m budget - 3,455 theaters

 

March 13th 

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - Animation - dir. Angus McClane - PG - $150m budget - 4,008 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

March 20th

Gran Turismo 2  - Sports - dir. Jamie Babbit - PG-13 - $60m budget - 3,267 theaters

 

March 27th

Lions and Dragons - Animation/Fantasy - dir. Troy Quane and Nick Bruno - PG - $100m budget - 3,623 theaters
 

April 1st (Wednesday before Easter)

Father vs. Son - Action/Thriller - dir. Antoine Fuqua - R -  $70m budget - In IMAX / PLF's

 

April 3rd (Easter Weekend)

Cruis'n World - Sports - dir. Sebastian Schipper - PG-13 - $60m budget - 3,500 theaters

 

April 10th

The Enormous Radio - Drama/Fantasy/Romance - dir. Christina Choe - PG-13 - $45m budget - 3,321 theaters

 

April 17th

Penpal - Coming-of-Age/Horror/Mystery/Thriller - dir. David Robert Mitchell - R - $25m budget - 3,310 theaters

 

April 24th

Stallions - Nature Documentary - dir. Drew Fellman - G - $5m budget - 2,450 theaters

 

May 1st

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Action/Thriller/Crime - dir. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah - R - $75m budget - 4,002 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

May 8th

Time After Time - Sci-Fi/Romance/Thriller - dir. Tom Harper - PG-13 - $50m budget - 3,658 theaters

 

May 15th

Doraemon - Family/Comedy/Drama - dir. Karyn Kusama - PG - $80m budget - 3,478 theaters

 

May 22nd (Memorial Day Weekend)

The Set-Up - Romantic Dramedy - dir. Claire Scanlon - PG-13 - $17.5m budget - 3,475 theaters

DC’s The Siege of Savage - Superhero - dir. Jeff Fowler - PG-13 - $275m budget - 4,430 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

May 29th

12 Angry Veggies: A VeggieTales Movie - Faith-Based/Animation - dir. Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki - PG - $5m budget - 1,985 theaters

 

June 5th

Old Men Walking - Action/Comedy/Western - dir. Chris Columbus - PG-13 - $40m budget - 3,280 theaters

 

June 12th

Flesh - Sci-Fi/Action/Animation - dir. Harold Kingsley - R - $25m budget - 3,260 theaters

LittleBigPlanet - Animation/Fantasy/Adventure - dir. Erica Milsom - PG - $120m budget - 4,010 theaters

 

June 19th

Berserk: The Golden Age - Animated Epic Medieval Fantasy - dir. Zack Snyder - R - $235m budget - 4,280 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

June 26th

The Secrets That Love Brings - Melodrama/Romance - dir. Castille Landon - PG-13 - $15m budget - 3,078 theaters

 

July 1st

Ping - CGI Animation - dir. Cal Brunker -  PG - $80m budget - 3,830 theaters

 

July 3rd (July 4th weekend)

51 - Found Footage - dir. Jonathan Liebesman - R - $5m budget - 3,218 theaters

Freedom Day - Horror/Thriller/Sci-Fi - dir. Levan Gabriadze - PG-13 - $3m budget - 2,879 theaters

Second Dimension: Battle for North Kingdom - Fantasy/Action - dir. Chloé Zhao - PG-13 - $180m budget - 4,000 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

July 10th 

The Furby Movie - Animation/Comedy/Adventure - dir. Chris Wedge - G - $45m budget - 3,665 theaters

 

July 17th

Lifeguards - Romantic Comedy - dir. Peter Billingsley - R - $25m budget - 3,204 theaters

The Lottery - Drama/Thriller - dir. Sarah Polley - R - $25m budget - 3,270 theaters

 

July 24th

Green Lantern Corps: Evolution - Superhero/Sci-Fi/Epic - dir. Christopher McQuarrie - PG-13 - $275 million budget - 4,405 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

July 31st

Wii Sports Resort: Vacation on Wuhu Island - Family/Comedy - dir. B.J. Novak - PG - $50m budget - 3,125 theaters

 

August 7th

Tornado - Action/Disaster - dir. Ric Roman Waugh - PG-13 - $100m budget - 3,451 theaters

 

August 14th

Tatiana's Journey - Live-Action & Animation Hybrid/Sci-Fi/Action/Comedy/Romance - dir. Mike Owens and Shadi Petosky - PG - $175m budget - 4,002 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

A Walk in the London Rain (Limited Release) - Drama - dir. Emma Seligman - R - $20m budget - 4 theaters

 

August 21st

Six Souls - Horror/Supernatural - dir. Bryce McGuire - R - $5m budget - 2,875 theaters

A Walk in the London Rain (Limited Expansion #1) - Drama - dir. Emma Seligman - R - $20m budget - 10 theaters

 

August 28th

Burnout Revenge - Action - dir. Robert Rodriguez - PG-13 - $42m budget - 3,119 theaters

Coyotes Wild - Nature Documentary - dir. Mark Linfeld - G - $5m budget - 2,450 theaters

A Walk in the London Rain (Limited Expansion #2) - Drama - dir. Emma Seligman - R - $20m budget - 300 theaters

 

September 4th (Labor Day weekend)

Providence - Sci-Fi/Thriller - dir. James Wan - R - $100m budget - 3,761 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

Smile - Animation/Coming-of-Age/Teen Comedy - dir. Kirsten Lester - PG - $80m budget - 3,574 theaters

A Walk in the London Rain (Wide Release) - Drama - dir. Emma Seligman - R - $20m budget - 1,130 theaters

 

September 11th

9/11: Never Forget - Documentary - dir. Keith Maitland - PG-13 - $10m budget - 2,506 theaters

Adam & Cindy ft. Cersei, in: Guinea Piggest - Comedy - dir. Barry Sonnenfeld - PG - $7.5m budget - 3,009 theaters

A Walk in the London Rain (Wide Expansion) - Drama - dir. Emma Seligman - R - $20m budget - 2,342 theaters

 

September 18th

Fishergirls - Fantasy/Animation - dir. Chris Wayan - R - $15m budget - 3,207 theaters

 

September 25th

Kris' Plan - Sci-Fi/Drama/Thriller - dir. Hanelle Culpepper - PG-13 - $80m budget - 3,560 theaters - In IMAX

Sweet Tooth - Horror - dir. Adam Robitel - R - $10m budget - 2,785 theaters

 

October 2nd

Pac-Man - Comedy - dir. Gil Kenan - PG - $30m budget - 3,215 theaters

Paranormal lamronaraP (Limited Release) - Supernatural Horror/Suspense - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $10m budget - 5 theaters

 

October 9th 

The Boy with the Green Eyes - Thriller/Musical/Dark Comedy - dir. Zach Creggers - R - $20m budget - 3,023 theaters

Monster Farm - Comedy/Animation - dir. Henry Midas -  G - $30m budget - 3,337 theaters

Paranormal lamronaraP (Limited Expansion) - Supernatural Horror/Suspense - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $10m budget - 82 theaters

 

October 16th

The Elevator - Horror/Thriller - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $18m budget - 2,986 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

Mouse Hunt - Documentary - dir. John-Paul Davidson - PG-13 - $10m budget - 2,423 theaters

Paranormal lamronaraP (Limited Expansion #2) - Supernatural Horror/Suspense - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $10m budget - 495 theaters

 

October 23rd

Hilda and the Midnight Giant: Remastered - Re-release/Animation/Dark Fantasy - dir. Patrick McHale & Dana Terrace - PG - $5m budget (original budget of $130m) - 3,000 theaters

Paranormal lamronaraP (Wide Release) - Supernatural Horror/Suspense - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $10m budget - 1,189 theaters

Red Flag - Sports/Documentary - dir. Jason Hehir - R - N/A budget - 2,500 theaters

 

October 30th

Life Picture - Drama - dir. Lila Neugebauer - R - $20m budget - 2,975 theaters

Paranormal lamronaraP (Wide Expansion) - Supernatural Horror/Suspense - dir. Scott Derrickson - R - $10m budget - 3,150 theaters

 

November 6th

MBWII: The Second Monster Bug Wars - Action/Thriller/Horror/Sci-Fi - dir. Beth McCarthy-Miller - PG-13 - $100m budget - 3,672 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

The Second Water War - Family Comedy - dir. David Bowers - PG - $35m budget - 3,201 theaters

Soil (Limited Release) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 5 theaters

The Unseen - Drama - dir. Jayro Bustamante - R - $10m budget - 2,457 theaters

 

November 13th

3 Hearts 3 Fires - Action/Thriller/Romance - dir. Natália Grimberg - PG-13 - $25m budget - 3,101 theaters

For Queen and Country - Documentary - dir. Louis Theroux - PG - N/A budget - 2,000 theaters

Let's Eat Dad (Limited Release) - Black Dramedy - dir. Taika Waititi - R - $15m budget - 20 theaters

Soil (Limited Expansion) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 20 theaters

 

November 20th

King of Kings - Historical Epic - dir. Matt Shakman - PG-13 - $175m budget - 3,967 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

Let's Eat Dad (Limited Expansion) - Black Dramedy - dir. Taika Waititi - R - $15m budget - 450 theaters

More Than Just a Residency - Concert Documentary - dir. Sam Wrench - PG-13 - $15m budget - 3,077 theaters

The Quest for Buster’s Bones - Animation/Comedy - dir. Steve Moore - PG - $25m budget - 3,256 theaters

Soil (Limited Expansion #2) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 400 theaters

 

November 25th (5 Day Thanksgiving)

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Sci-Fi/Drama/Epic - dir. Ridley Scott - PG-13 - $200m budget - 3,893 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

Let's Eat Dad (Wide Release) - Black Dramedy - dir. Taika Waititi - R - $15m budget - 2,785 theaters

Soil (Wide Release) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 800 theaters

 

November 27th

Meme Run - Comedy/Adventure - dir. Andy Fickman - PG-13 - $10m budget - 2,857 theaters

 

December 4th

My Winter Retreat - Horror/Supernatural - dir. Rob Zombie - R - $10m budget - 2,831 theaters

Soil (Wide Expansion) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 1,600 theaters

SSX Tricky - Action/Sports - dir. Aaron and Adam Nee - PG-13 - $100m budget - 4,253 theaters

 

December 11th

Happy Together - Romance/Thriller - dir. Adrian Lyne - R - $45m budget - 3,021 theaters

Soil (Wide Expansion #2) - Drama - dir. Charlotte Wells - R - $8m budget - 3,028 theaters

 

December 18th

Gateways: The Empire of Zenith - Animation/Sci-Fi Fantasy/Adventure - dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Adam Muto - PG - $250m budget - 4,238 theaters - In IMAX / PLF's

 

December 23rd (5 Day Christmas weekend)

Hidden Blood - Romance/Dramedy/Thriller - dir. Meera Menon - PG-13 - $25m budget - 3,191 theaters

The Library of Babel - Sci-Fi/Drama - dir. David Semel - PG-13 - $50m budget - 3,110 theaters

 

December 25th

Floodbath: The Play - Filmed Play - dir. Darragh Carey and Bertrand Desrochers - PG-13 - $10m budget - 2,981 theaters

Maniac Magee - Coming-of-Age Dramedy - dir. Robert Zemeckis - PG - $120m budget - 3,822 theaters

 

[YM!]

The Second Water War

Studio: Infinite Studios

Release Date: 11/6/Y10

Genre: Family Comedy

Director: David Bowers

Rating: PG for rude humor and peril involving children

Budget: $35M

Theater Count: 3,201

Runtime: 92 minutes

Cast:

Unknowns 

 

Plot:

The Konner family are heading on a holiday vacation up north to upstate New York for the winter to visit their affluent grandparents. The now 6th grade twins; the brave and bold Kimmy and the intelligent but at times awkward Kenny are excited to see their grandparents and see snow again. Kimmy wants to do a bunch of cool snow activities while Kenny wants to relax. Karen is indifferent, torn that she couldn’t spend the holidays with her new boyfriend, and is too busy texting him back to really care.

 

The grandparents have a cushy house nearby Everest Lodge, a luxurious ski resort in upstate New York, split up into two portions, one that is for tourists and the more expensive portion. The kids decide to explore the neighborhood as Karen slacks off. Kimmy and Kenny meet the neighborhood kids who are all much more affluent than they are, and more snooty. The leader Tammy, a pompous 13 year old, lets them in reluctantly despite the family being middle class out of respect for the grandparents who helped her Fortune-500 grandparents get the Lodge built, even offering to take Kimmy under her wing. Kimmy forms a friendship with Tyson, Tammy’s younger brother who’s her age. 

 

The families go to the lodge as Kimmy convinces Kenny and Tyson to a sled race, away from the stuffy atmosphere. The kids sled down Corpse's Cliff, the biggest mountain of the resort as they wind up, in the public portion of the park. However, despite a few cool attractions, it is not as luxurious or even as well-kept. The kids do bond with the kids there, whose class has won a trip due to strong test scores, coming from a poverty stricken school.  

 

Tammy and the other rich kids go looking for the group, and tease the other kids. Kenny, after his character development from the first, stands up to Tammy, as the two children argue profusely drawing Kimmy and Tyson in the middle. As the sun goes down, they head back to their sites. That evening, Kimmy is confronted and teased by Karen on her apparent crush on Tyson, encouraging her younger sister to follow her heart. Tyson talks to Tammy about being nicer, as Tammy notes that is not what their parents do and intimidates Tyson to back down.

 

Kenny convinces Kimmy to help sneak the campers into the nice side of the Lodge, which Tyson decides to help as well using a spare set of IDs to get the other children in. This succeeds until Tammy catches wind. Tammy manages to get Kenny, Kimmy and the campers in trouble, exposing the plan to the adults, successfully getting the other campers inside for the duration of the vacation as well as Kenny and Kimmy. Tyson calls Tammy out for her snobbery. 

 

Kenny challenges Tammy to a game of capture the flag. Whichever side wins, stays indoors all week but the losers will also be slaves for the rest of the vacation to the winners. Both Tammy and Kenny get their sides to build snow forts, make a large amount of snowballs and plan strategies. Tammy, noting that they know the mountains and resort, demands they do a series of guerilla tactics and “borrowing” a few of the snowmobiles, while Kenny notes they have the numbers advantage and use their side against the rich, like the poorly salted ground and small patches in the ground, dividing two camps one to capture the flag, the other defends the base. Kenny, suspecting Tammy will play dirty, hides the flag inside his jacket. Tyson and Kimmy attempt to talk their siblings out of the war to no luck. 

 

The kids sneak out at night as a massive snowball fight begins. Both sides are evenly matched but injuries pile up. Kenny manages to steal the flag in a hit and run, as Tammy learns that the flag is also on Kenny. Tyson and Kimmy manage to convince the fighting to stop by pointing out similarities between the kids, with Tyson standing up to Tammy. Kenny and the rest of the kids are convinced to share but out of spite, Tammy shoots a flare gun at the peak of the mountain in hopes of causing an avalanche to wipe out the other side’s base. 

 

However, the avalanche grows larger to be a threat, this forces all the children to work together with Kimmy and Tyson taking charge as they sled down the mountain. Most escape but Tammy gets stuck as Kimmy and Tyson go to help her but as the avalanche grows nearer, Tyson sacrifices himself to make sure Tammy and Kimmy make it out okay. As it ends, the kids work together to find Tyson, who is unconscious. Tammy is overcome with guilt as Kimmy revives him.

 

The children decide to squash their arguments and enjoy the vacation, but not before the parents come. Tammy and Tyson’s parents argue not only should the other kids be kicked out but the lodge stay private. Tammy sincerely apologizes for her actions as well as being justly punished by her parents. Both Kimmy and Kenny, and Tyson and Tammy advocate for the park being for everyone, as he explains to the parents and grandparents all the trouble that has happened because of these divisions and class mentalities. The owners of the lodge agree to end the divisions as the kids enjoy the last few days of vacation. Tammy is working at the lodge to make up for her action as she and Kenny make peace. Kimmy and Tyson exchange numbers and a kiss

 

Edited March 4 by YM!

[MCKillswitch123]

C L O U D

C U C K O O

L A N D

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Scott Free Productions

Based On: Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

Director: Ridley Scott

 

Producers: Ridley Scott; Kevin J. Walsh; Jennifer Fox; Nicole Holofcner

Writer: Nicole Holofcner

Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski

Original Score: Harry Gregson-Williams

 

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Drama/Epic

Release Date: November 25, Y10

Theater Count: 3893

Rating: PG-13, for language, disturbing imagery, thematic content and implications of hard drug usage

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

Budget: $200 million

Runtime: 187 minutes

 

Cast:

• Jake T. Austin as Zeno Ninis (older)
• Andrew Bachelor as Corporal Blewitt
• Caitrona Balfe as Bunny
• Jonathan Bailey as Rex Browning
• Raffey Cassidy as Maria
• Julie Delpy as Alma Boydstun
• Fayd Elsayed as Omeir (older)
• Priah Ferguson as Konstance
• Elizabeth Henstridge as Omeir’s mother
• Ashley Johnson as Sybil (voice role)
• Lucy Liu as Mrs. Flowers
• Mena Massoud as Sharif
• Matt Morgan as Hillary
• Tyler Perry as Ethan
• Sadie Sink as Anna (older)
• Finn Wolfhard as Seymour (older)
• Unknown child/teen actors as younger versions of Anna, Konstance, Omeir, Seymour and Zeno

Logline: Tells the story of five different people in different timelines, all bound together by an ancient story called Cloud Cuckoo Land.

 

Note: Thank you to @SLAM! for pre-reading this.

 

Plot Summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14AKwZaxBBnkBdtu8-4cM3SuIMgqgUH8NEpR_BpPvpXg/edit?usp=sharing

[SLAM!]

KLONOA

~ Door to Phantomile ~

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Angus MacLane

based on the franchise by Bandai Namco

Genre: Animation

Release Date: March 13th, Y10

Theater Count: 4,008

MPAA Rating: PG for Mild Action Sequences, Peril, and Thematic Elements

Budget: $150 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 49 min

Original Score Composer: Austin Wintory

 

Cast

Gregory Mann as Klonoa

Keegan Hedley as Huepow

Jean Reno as Grandpa

Tracy Morgan as Balue

Priah Ferguson as Karal

Uzo Aduba as Pamela

Cedric Yarbough as King Seadoph

Rachel House as Granny

Peter Sohn as Moire

Linda Cardellini as The Moon Queen

with Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Joka

and Cillian Murphy as Ghadius

 

Plot Summary (3.1k words)

Spoiler

Fade in; we see the moon against pitch black space. A golden ring passes by the moon as it falls to earth. A blue aura shimmers in the ring’s diamond. A voice narrates:

 

“It’s strange.

Sometimes I can’t remember my dreams,

though I’m sure I saw them.

Where do these dreams go?

But I remember this one dream,

as clearly as if it were reflected in a mirror.”

 

Fade from black to the POV of a figure running through a forest. Cut to the figure hopping over a log; the camera rises, revealing our hero, Klonoa (Mann), an anthropomorphic creature wearing spunky clothes (click for visual). Klonoa gazes around the forest with a big smile.

 

A pink butterfly flies past his face, and he chases after it while giggling. Then in the distance, he sees the golden ring wedged into the earth. (The ring’s bigger than his hands!) Klonoa curiously examines the ring and tries to walk off with it, but the ring’s so stuck that Klonoa can’t pick it up, and he falls. Then he grabs the ring and tries to pull it out, grunting and pulling with all his might, until he finally yanks it out. The blue aura floats outside of its diamond and, right in front of an awestruck Klonoa, forms into a floating blue orb with starry eyes and a crown on its head.

 

This orb is Huepow (Hedley), a ring spirit with a child’s voice.

 

Huepow: Greetings! I’m Huepow!

Klonoa: I’m Klonoa! Nice to meetcha!

Huepow: Do you want to be friends? We can be together, always!

Klonoa: Together, always?

Huepow: Let’s play tag!

Klonoa: …Tag? …YEAH!

Huepow: Betcha can’t catch me!

 

Huepow glides away, and Klonoa runs after him. They run out of the forest, heading toward Klonoa’s home (the Wind Village) and laughing together. Their laughing stops when they spot an airship zooming through the sky. The airship crashes into Bell Hill, which overlooks the village valley. Suddenly the day turns to night, the bell on Bell Hill rings ominously, and purple mist swirls around the village. Klonoa backs away as the mist surges toward him.

 

Klonoa: Aah!

 

Cut to a bedroom as Klonoa springs up from his bed, wearing nap clothes. He collects himself for a moment, realizing that he’d been dreaming. He scans the room and finds Huepow, who waves to Klonoa and says good morning. Klonoa chuckles in relief.

 

Klonoa rushes downstairs in his quaint village home, still in his nap clothes. He greets Grandpa (Reno), who serves him breakfast and asks him what he’s going to do today. Klonoa’s answer is obvious: he’s going out to play with his best friend Huepow! Grandpa guffaws at the answer.

 

Cut back upstairs as Klonoa gets dressed. He’s tying his shoelaces when suddenly—crash—something happens outside. “What was that?” asks Huepow. Klonoa shoves the heavy window open and looks up at Bell Hill. There’s an airship on the hill, meaning part of his dream has come true! Klonoa and Huepow resolve to investigate the crash.

 

Klonoa leaps out the window, does a front flip, and lands stylishly. The otherwise peaceful village is now overrun by Moos (cute round blob creatures that hop around and swipe at the buildings and trees with sharp claws). Huepow tells Klonoa not to worry; Huepow explains that he can possess the diamond on the golden ring, and Klonoa can then use the ring’s energy to shoot Wind Bullets that protect him from the Moos.

 

All the Moos rush to Klonoa at once, so Huepow quickly enters the ring; Klonoa grabs a Moo with a wind bullet and instinctually throws himself upward by tossing the Moo back down. Klonoa doggy paddles in the air and grabs a wooden platform just in time; he hoists himself up and looks down, seeing that the Moos can’t reach him. Klonoa thanks Huepow for the help; then he discovers a path to a nearby tower and leaps back down, running down the path as the group of Moos chase after him.

 

Klonoa makes it into the tower and shuts the door behind him before the Moos can get in. A voice shouts, “who goes there!” and an older yellow creature jumps down from the rafters and scolds Klonoa for sneaking around his tower. He introduces himself as Balue (Morgan) and proceeds to brag about the stone sculpture he built on the side of Bell Hill; it’s in the image of Lephise, a Diva from the mythical moon kingdom, and he’s building this tower to reach the moon kingdom in hopes of meeting Lephise. Klonoa begins to say he doesn’t think the Diva exists, and Balue’s like “SILENCE,” his shout almost blowing Klonoa away. “I think we should keep going,” says Huepow. Balue gives them directions to Bell Hill, and off they go!

 

Klonoa walks outside, and two shady figures are standing on top of Bell Hill. He rushes to the scene, but Huepow tells him to hide, so Klonoa hides behind a rock. Standing on the hill are Joka (Mintz-Plasse), a round masked creature in a jester costume, and Ghadius (Murphy), a tall creature in a pitch-black cloak and a golden bird mask, his purple-skinned, humanlike mouth and chin visible below the mask. Beneath their feet is the Diva Lephise, who’s unconscious.

 

Ghadius thanks Joka for bringing him Lephise; with a shrill voice, Joka says “of course, Your Darkness!” Ghadius tells the unconscious Lephise, “I can’t allow you save the world with your Song of Rebirth. Instead, I shall imprison you in darkness and destroy the world!” Then Ghadius asks Joka for the “pendant,” but Joka nervously tells him that he couldn’t find it.

 

Ghadius spots Klonoa from afar. He makes Lephise levitate using telekinesis and opens his cloak, revealing a galaxy’s worth of starry space underneath, and he encloses the cloak around the girl, officially kidnapping her. “Take care of those mice,” he tells Joka as he flies away.

 

“I guess we have no choice,” says Klonoa. He jumps into view, and Joka cackles, berating Klonoa with silly insults before unleashing a salamander monster and some Moos from a tin can; thinking Klonoa’s no match, Joka hops into the airship and flies off. Klonoa, however, is more than a match; he battles the monster by throwing Moos at its tail, the monster’s weak spot, and defeats it. Klonoa also discovers a “pendant” when it falls from its hiding place inside the bell. (It’s essentially a necklace with a crescent-shaped crystal attached.) Klonoa and Huepow confirm to each other that this is likely the pendant those baddies had been talking about…

 

Klonoa takes the Moon Pendant back to Grandpa, who examines it. “You’ve really done it this time,” bemoans Grandpa, who confirms that it’s a crest of the moon kingdom. Klonoa asks if the moon kingdom exists, and Grandpa, in his rocking chair, says “perhaps there is, but then again, maybe not.” Grandpa is worried because of the kidnapping and the situation in general, so he tells Klonoa to go to Forlock Forest to tell Granny what happened. Klonoa sets off immediately!

 

They go into the forest and discover that the path to Granny’s house is blocked due to a lack of water in the forest—if the trees aren’t healthy enough, they can’t traverse their branches or their hollows. The forest natives, tribal folks, aren’t happy about this, so they’re patrolling the area—but they also have a big, young female fish, Karal (Ferguson) unjustly trapped in a cage. Klonoa rescues Karal and brings them to the shore of a small beach. Karal says she knows how to bring the water back so the heroes can get to Granny!

 

They hop on her back, and she swims them over to Shell Castle in the oceanic area near the forest. (On the way, they see that a waterfall is flowing backwards…) King Seadoph (Yarbough) resides there, but he speaks in an unnaturally deep voice, Huepow surmises aloud that the king’s not in control of himself—and his fish servant Pamela (Aduba) has been corrupted too. “Momma!” shouts Karal. Pamela attacks Klonoa, but Klonoa defeats her. Klonoa’s victory wards off the corruption, returning King Seadoph and Pamela to their normal selves. They exchange notes, and King Seadoph reveals that Ghadius was the one who corrupted him and that he wasn’t aware of his actions; he warns Klonoa that Granny might be in danger because she possesses knowledge about the Moon Kingdom; he then restores the flow of the water from backwards to forwards, which makes the trees healthy again.

 

Karal swims the heroes back to the forest, where Klonoa traverses the forest before running into Granny (House), a leader of the forest’s natives. But Joka’s there too, and he sends out another monster against Klonoa before fleeing, and Klonoa defeats it. They talk to Granny, who tells them more about the Moon Kingdom (it’s a giant mythical kingdom in the sky). They reveal that the Moon Pendant that Klonoa found earlier in the story is a magical key that can summon the Moon Kingdom. Huepow tells Klonoa that if Grandpa’s in possession of the pendant, that means he's in immediate danger, because Ghadius and Joka want that pendant. Granny tells them about a shortcut, and the heroes head out—but Joka had been listening in behind a tree, and he heard everything… He relays it all to Ghadius, who schemes a plan…

 

Klonoa reaches the Wind Village and waves to Grandpa from afar. All of a sudden—“nya ha ha!” It’s Joka on a hovercraft, who fires a beam on Klonoa’s house, steals the pendant, and makes off with it. Klonoa rushes to the ruins of his house to find Grandpa fatally wounded. Grandpa tells Klonoa that his destiny is to bring the Moon Pendant back to that bell before dying in his arms. “Grandpa… Grandpa!”

 

Fade to Klonoa mourning Grandpa. Huepow floats near him.

Huepow: I know how you must feel, Klonoa… But we must get that pendant!

Klonoa: B-but how?

(Something flutters in the sky.)

Huepow: It’s—

—PAMELA, who’s flying in the sky. She parks herself in front of them.

Pamela: King Seadoph and Granny told me everything. Hurry! Climb on my back!

Klonoa: Um… Okay!

Pamela: We’re going… To the Temple of the Sun!

 

Pamela drops them off at a sky temple known as the Temple of the Sun; it’s a mechanical, steampunk style kingdom. They meet Moire (Sohn), the keepe1r of this temple, who tells them that Ghadius has already opened the Moon Gate. This is bad because, as Moire explains, the Moon Kingdom gathers the power to dream, and that power gives shape to the world of Phantomile—but Ghadius wants to use the Moon Kingdom’s power to replace its dream power with nightmare power, which would cast evil on, and destroy the whole world, of Phantomile.

 

Huepow: Don’t give up now! Even if the Moon Kingdom appears, we can still stop Ghadius!

Klonoa: You’re right! We can still make it!

Moire: Ascend this castle and you will find passage to the Moon Kingdom. I leave everything up to you!

 

Klonoa ascends the castle (not without struggle) and finds Ghadius talking with Joka. “What are you scheming?” asks Klonoa, and Ghadius says, “scheming? This is just simple revenge. Fools like you imprisoned me in darkness. I will plunge this strange dream into a sea of nightmares!” He disappears, leaving Klonoa to fight Joka, who transforms into a giant turtle monster, which Klonoa successfully defeats.

 

Klonoa and Huepow look up at the sky, which has turned from sunset orange to nighttime purple, and discover that the Moon Kingdom, a temple made of mostly crystals, has appeared. Pamela gives them a ride to the moon kingdom, where Klonoa manages to find a way in after some sneaking around. They reach a corridor, where a servant runs in yelling “Prince Huepow! Prince Huepow!” and kneels to the orb. He tells them that the kingdom has been taken over by Ghadius. In comes the Moon Queen (Cardellini), who reveals that the Ghadius has trapped the Diva Lephise in the Moon Egg and is now pouring energy from nightmares into the egg as well, and that if the egg is released, it would bring about his evil plan.

 

Huepow floats to who he calls “mother” and pleads for her to stay out of harm’s way. “Wait… Huepow? Who are you?” says Klonoa. “Huepow,” says the mom in a “you better tell him” sort of way. Huepow briefly transforms into a humanoid boy and tells Klonoa that he was the prince of the Moon Kingdom the whole time!

 

Huepow: The ring spirit is a disguise. I had my reasons for treading into the outside world.

Klonoa: What reasons?

Huepow: I’m sorry. I can’t say anything about that now. But I promise, I promise to tell you everything later.

Klonoa: Huepow…

Huepow: I want you to trust me. Can you help us just a little bit more, Klonoa?

Klonoa: Huepow… What are you talking about? We’ve been friends forever, right?!

Huepow: Klonoa… Thank you.

 

Huepow transforms back into the ring spirit, and the heroes set off to find Ghadius. They go to the top of the kingdom and find Ghadius staring out into the night sky, muttering about needing to find that “traveler of foolish dreams.” He whips to them and says, “how amusing. I did not anticipate you following me all the way here.” Huepow tries to talk sense into Ghadius, telling him that when the moon egg’s unleashed, he will also be erased along with Phantomile—but Ghadius doesn’t care. He’s been abandoned by the world, so now he wants to abandon it!

 

They have a legendary battle, and Klonoa defeats Ghadius, with nothing left of him but his weird helmet. After Ghadius dies, they look and see that Balue, Karal, King Seadoph, Pamela, Granny, and Moire have all just then gathered there, ready to help save their world. Balue’s a little disappointed that Ghadius is already defeated. But then Ghadius’s helmet floats in the air, with a purplish haze around it, saying, “hear this, strange dream! The world is finished!”

 

The egg cracks open and unleashes a monster called Nahatomb into the sky. All seems lost until the Moon Queen enters and tells everyone about one final power they can use against the monster. “It’s time to combine the strength of the five tribes! Lend me your hands!”

 

All the friends set off, but Huepow tells Klonoa to wait. He explains that Nahatomb is after him—he, Klonoa, is the “strange dream” Ghadius had alluded to.  Klonoa’s still confused, but there’s no time to explains as the moon kingdom shakes like an earthquake.

 

They follow the friends to a floating arena, where Balue, Seadoph, Granny. Moire, and the Moon Queen each take one of five cannons, and Klonoa runs around the arena, dodging Nahatomb’s attacks, as he must gather Moos for the cannons to fire at the monster. The cannonfire lands, and Nahatomb’s almost dead, but needs one more shot to seal the deal. Huepow volunteers for Klonoa to shoot him at Nahatomb as a wind bullet, and Klonoa is concerned about Huepow because he doesn’t know what will happen to him, but Huepow insists because it needs to be done! Klonoa fires Huepow into the monster, and the monster explodes; we see a freed Diva Lephise floating in the air; she looks Klonoa in the eyes.

 

Diva Lephise: Thank you. All the nightmares have disappeared.

 

All the friends rejoice, but Klonoa hangs his head down…

 

Klonoa: Huepow… Together, always…

Then he screams—

Klonoa: That’s what you said!

 

Then a voice:

 

???: We’re together, Klonoa…

 

Klonoa looks behind him and finds the blue orb Huepow!

 

Huepow: We’ll be together, always!

Klonoa: Huepow!

 

Huepow assumes humanoid form and floats in the air toward Klonoa. They reach out for each other’s hands. As soon as Klonoa grabs the hand, gravity kicks in for Huepow, and he dangles off Klonoa’s ledge in Klonoa’s hand. Huepow says he’s hurt all over from the fight, and he asks Klonoa not to let go. Klonoa tells Huepow that he will never let go.

 

We fade to the Wind Village, where Klonoa and Huepow are sitting together on a path overlooking the village. Klonoa asks Huepow if he’s all right and tells him to take it easy because there’s no more Nahatomb to worry about. He asks Huepow if he’s going back to the Moon Kingdom. Huepow’s just thinking to himself and doesn’t respond. Klonoa thinks his answer’s “yes,” so he asks, “but we can see each other soon, right? We can play together, just like before!” Huepow gulps, and he finally speaks up…

 

Huepow: Klonoa?

Klonoa: Hmm?

Huepow: You’re actually… You’re really… You don’t really exist in this world.

Klonoa: What?

Huepow: I called you from your world so that we could restore the balance of dreams.

Klonoa: Wh-what are you talking about?

Huepow: It’s true! This world is not your reality!

Klonoa: But… No! But I remember everything! The first time I met you. Playing with you!

Huepow: Those are… They’re fake memories that I made… You believed them.

Klonoa: No… You’re lying!

Huepow shakes with guilt.

Klonoa: You’re lying! You’re lying!

Huepow: No, I’m not. It’s the truth. That strange dream Ghadius spoke of… Your presence in this world is like a strange dream…

Klonoa: No… It can’t be!

Huepow: When Lephise sings her song, you won’t be able to stay in this world.

Klonoa: No! I’m not going anywhere! I’m staying!

Huepow: Klonoa… Well, I… But I…

 

Lephise starts singing from the top of the Moon Kingdom. The wind picks up, and a purple vortex appears behind Klonoa. “It’s time for you to go,” says Huepow. “Back to your Phantomile.” Klonoa tries to resist the vortex, but it’s futile. “No… I won’t go! I won’t!” cries Klonoa as he’s pulled away. Cut back to Huepow, he turns to Klonoa with tears in his eyes…

 

…and he sprints to Klonoa, even as Klonoa’s sucked back. They cry out to each other as Huepow runs and Klonoa glides away. The force picks Klonoa off the ground; he reaches out with the golden ring, and Huepow grabs the ring and pulls it as he tries to stop Klonoa from getting sucked into the vortex. They cry out to each other; they both have tears in their eyes; it’s clear their friendship was true. Then Huepow loses his grip, and Klonoa is viscerally whisked away. Klonoa, screaming out for Huepow, disappears into the vortex, and the vortex vanishes. As Lephise sings, the sky becomes a bit brighter, and the once-wilted flowers stand upright, blooming once again. Huepow wipes his tears away, looks at the sky, and smiles.

 

Fade to black.

 

For your Phantomile…

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by SLAM!

[SLAM!]

PAC-MAN

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Gil Kenan

based on the franchise by Bandai Namco

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: October 2nd, Y10

Theater Count: 3,215

MPAA Rating: PG for Mild Humor

Budget: $30 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 28 min

 

Cast

Pete Davidson as Drew Madden

Hong Chau as Mrs. Tan

Taran Killam as Spooky*

(* = denotes voice role)

 

Plot Summary (1.5k words)

Spoiler

Fade in on a suburb and dolly in on a two-story house. Young Drew Madden wakes up at midnight and sneaks downstairs for a late-night snack. He makes it to the first floor but stops and sees that his parents are in the living room, talking about financial woes. Drew sneaks to the fridge and grabs a handful of strawberries but closes the door a smidge too loud and alerts his parents. He turns off all the downstairs lights to make himself less visible. Thinking a burglar’s in the house, the parents grab flashlights and start walking up and down the hallways, trying to find the culprit. He hides behind a dresser while the dad is five feet away shining the flashlight around, and the dad almost catches him, but Drew gets lucky, and the dad walks on.

 

Drew sneaks to the staircase, but right before the first step, he drops every strawberry. He tries picking them up, and that’s when the parents turn the lights on. “Busted,” says the mom. “Nice try,” says the dad. The parents lecture Drew, saying that he could’ve just asked for strawberries, and that in life, you should always help others before yourself. “Okay,” says Drew. They share the strawberries and have a nice family moment.

 

Fast forward about twenty years later as Drew (Davidson), an aimless 20-something, works a part-time job at Pizza Hut (of all places), where his managers and co-workers keep piling on tasks for him to complete, and he goes from making a pizza to mopping to fixing the ice machine, and all the while he’s like “ah guys my hands are a little full here.” At the end of the day, the boss pulls him aside and says, “Sorry Drew but due to poor productivity we have to let you go.” Drew protests but the boss says the decision’s due to corporate policy.

 

Of course, when Drew’s grumbling to himself in the parking lot, the boss runs out and tells him, “Hey listen, we made a mistake and meant to fire someone else.” Drew slowly drives out of the lot because he’s like, “no, you fired me, so I guess I’ll just leave.” They banter back and forth until Drew finally drives away.

 

Drew grumbles to himself as he drives, telling himself he “didn’t really like that job anyway.” He peers out at the restaurants and retail stores on the side of the road and decides to ask for a new part-time job on the fly. He points at each business and says “eenie, meenie, miney, moe” until he gets to “I… Pick… You.” The “you” lands on a grocery store, one of those fancy organic ones akin to Trader Joe’s. Its name is Pac-Mart!

 

Drew walks in, finds the store manager Mrs. Tan (Chau), and asks for a part-time job. Mrs. Tan runs through a list of available positions, but they’re all taken—well, all except one. It’s the late-night security position, and Mrs. Tan warns Drew that she can’t find a reliable worker to keep the job because everyone else abandons it after just one shift. Because of this, Mrs. Tan is now desperate to hire just about anyone in the security position, even if they resemble Mevino from the Spark movies (a jokey dig at Drew’s appearance, to which he replies, “I can see that.”) Drew promises Mrs. Tan that he won’t abandon his post, so she replies, “report back at 10:00 PM!”

 

We get a scene of Drew’s apartment life (his mom calls to check in, and he’s like “everything’s fine Mom” and “I got a new job Mom!”). 10:00 PM comes and Drew arrives back at Pac-Mart, and Mrs. Tan gives him a tour of Pac-Mart and its maze-like corridors. All the late-night workers finish their final tasks and leave for the night… And for the first time, Drew is left alone. He mutters to himself about the job being “easy money” and how the job’s not necessary because “nothing bad’s gonna happen in a Pac-Mart.”

 

Bored, he flips through a tabloid magazine… Until he hears clatter from deep inside the store. Drew shines his flashlight and heads in the direction of the noise. He steps into the cereal aisle and finds Pac-Man opening cereal boxes, looking inside for an item, closing it and putting it back, rinse and repeat. “Hey, dude, we’re closed,” says Drew, who thinks it’s just an exceedingly short and stout customer. Drew walks closer and says “what” because the figure doesn’t even look human—rather, it’s a yellow ball with noodle-y arms and legs, orange mittens, and red shoes. Drew rubs his eyes to make sure he’s not seeing things. Pac-Man then finds a white ball inside one of the boxes and tosses it into his mouth. “You’re supposed to buy that,” says Drew. Pac-Man stares at him blankly—then he does a front flip in the air, becomes a yellow sphere, and bounces to Drew, its mouth snapping up and down; to Drew it’s like Pac-Man wants to eat him!

 

“Uh… Oh no,” says Drew. He runs away from Pac-Man and rushes out a side door, closing it just in time before Pac-Man can catch him. Drew spends a minute pacing around and freaking out. “There’s no way I’m going back in, you couldn’t pay me to!” Then he remembers what his parents told him when he tried to steal the strawberries. “Seriously, that’s the childhood memory coming to my head! Out of all the childhood memories! I know I need this job… Urgh!”

 

Drew reenters Pac-Mart and sneaks around stealthily to avoid being seen. He sees Pac-Man in the fruit stands and hides behind a stand, taking a TikTok video of Pac-Man and whispering, “this way, at least I can show Mrs. Tan what’s up and hopefully go viral before I die.” Then there’s noises behind him, so he turns around and sees Blinky (the red ghost) nearby, hovering toward Pac-Man. “Yup, this place is haunted,” says Drew. Pac-Man sees Blinky and grabs a bunch of grapes, but fumbles the bunch, and it lands near Drew. Blinky closes in on Pac-Man, but Drew sees the fear in Pac-Man’s eyes and has a change of heart. He tosses the grapes to Pac-Man, who becomes blue, and Blinky tries to float away, but Pac-Man eats the ghost.

 

“Wow,” says Drew. Pac-Man flees to the kitchen, and Drew decides to follow him. We see Pac-Man hiding behind an oven, and Drew’s like, “hey dude, I’m not going to hurt you, you’re cool, I’m cool, we’re all cool.” Drew asks for his name, but because Pac-Man speaks with that classic Pac-Man sound effect, Drew’s like “you know what I’m just calling you Pac-Man, that makes sense.” Pac-Man uses crudely drawn diagrams to get Drew up to speed: there’s four ghosts in Pac-Mart and he needs to eat all four of them to draw out their master Spooky and rescue his fiancée Ms. Pac-Man. His mom’s words ring in Drew’s mind: “help others before yourself.” Drew shrugs and says, “welp, I guess we’re ghost hunters now.”

 

Drew devises a plan to draw out Inky (the blue ghost) by riding one of those supermarket buffers—he calls it a Zamboni, but that’s clearly wrong because Zambonis are what you use to clean the ice-skating rink. We cut to him driving the buffer down one of the aisles, and he’s bouncing around in his seat, muttering an impromptu song called “The Zamboni Song” where he’s like “shoobadoobadooba-Zamboni, I’m on a supermarket Zamboni,” and he’s singing with a funny voice—you know it’s great movie trailer fodder. Then Inky appears and starts chasing him, and he’s like, “go away it’s not Halloween yet,” and he swerves into the aisle and knocks it down. “Mrs. Tan will have a bone to pick about this one,” he says. Inky inches toward him, and Drew tries to start the buffer, but it won’t budge. Then Pac-Man comes to the rescue by eating a pair of cherries and then eating Inky. “You’re the man, Pac-Man,” says Drew.

 

There are also some lengthy moments of them trying to catch Pinky and Clyde. They catch Pinky by luring them to the makeup aisle, and then they must make their way to the food stand, but Clyde is throwing pineapples at them. The pineapples rise in the air, and we get 70s style camera zoom-ins on each pineapple as they’re lobbed into the air. Some of them land of Drew’s head and knock him out, but Pac-Man eventually eats Clyde.

 

Pac-Man vomits out ghost orbs and they put the orbs on the corners of a mystical cutting board, and then a huge tornado appears in the middle of the store, destroying the place, and Spooky appears with a levitating cage—Ms. Pac-Man is trapped in the cage. Spooky (voice of former SNL star Taran Killam) threatens to get revenge for the ghosts by killing Pac-Man, but Pac-Man becomes giant Pac-Man, and he Pac-Mans his way to victory, defeating and extinguishing Spooky once and for all.

 

They free Ms. Pac-Man, and they celebrate before Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man disappear through a portal. The next morning, Mrs. Tan comes back and is shocked by how her supermarket just got destroyed. Drew shrugs at the camera and says, “I guess I have to find a new job now” before the iris closes in on him.

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by SLAM!

[Hiccup23]

Room 131 

Date- February 13th, Y10

Genre- Psychological Thriller

Rating- R- strong sexual content including dialogue, unusual behavior and graphic nudity, graphic violence, and strong language 

Theaters- 2,768 theaters

Budget- 12 million

Running Time- 100 minutes or 1 hour and 40 minutes

Studio- O$corp Pictures

Director- Tate Taylor

Producer- Marc Bienstock

Original Score- Herdís Stefánsdóttir

Actors/Actresses

Jordan- Pico Alexander

Zander- Ross Lynch

Amber- Florence Pugh

Chris- Andre Lamoglia

Sam- Tom Glynn-Carney

 

Plot: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GkJHa6IXw9OP9vaj1bJnNVMUKudNz4Ik4jyOvPNvlyI/edit?usp=sharing

Edited August 20, 2023 by Hiccup23

[Hiccup23]

The Boy with the Green Eyes

 

Date- October 9th, Year 10

Genre- Thriller/Musical/Dark Comedy

Rating- R- violence, sexual violence, sexual content, and language 

Theaters- 3,023 theaters

Budget- 20 million

Running Time- 103 minutes or 1 hour and 43 minutes

Studio- O$corp Pictures

Director- Zach Creggers

Original Score- Danny Elfman

Actors/Actresses

Giovanni- James Patrick Daly

Eli- Elliot Fletcher 

Grace- Rachel Zegler 

Jaime- Brandon Flynn

 

Plot: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tBG6tVZ2BcdPSmOO-0YsxYe88LQ0oYM_oQakx0wJCn8/edit

Edited February 12 by Hiccup23

[SLAM!]

@Hiccup23 Thank you for your posts; however, in the future, please refrain from posting film information in the submission thread until your plot summaries are ready to be posted alongside it. This rule was added in order to prevent players from cluttering submissions threads with films that go on to remain unfinished. Films posted without their plots would normally be disqualified, but since you may not have known about the new-ish rule, I will make exceptions for Room 131 and Giovanni as long as all of the posted information (maybe besides the release dates) does not change—so no director switching or recasting beyond this point. And please do not edit the plot summaries once you post them. The other players would likely agree that this was the best place to share this reminder, but I do apologize to all players for choosing to use a submission thread space to share this reminder, as I am now cluttering the submission thread myself. Nevertheless, I will add those films to the calendar soon, but they will not be highlighted green until their plot summaries are posted. And @Hiccup23, please tag me in the Y10 discussion thread when you add the plot summaries. Thank you!

Edited June 6, 2023 by SLAM!

[MCKillswitch123]

ADAM & CINDY ft. CERSEI, in:

GUINEA PIGGEST

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Based On: Characters created by Rich Cornell (Adam & Cindy) and Paul Hoen (Cersei)

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

 

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: September 11, Y10

Theater Count: 3009

Rating: PG, for slapstick, thematic content, cartoony violence and peril

Format: 2D

Budget: $7.5 million

Runtime: 75 minutes

 

Cast:

• Billy Crystal as the voice of Adam the terrier
• Toni Collette as the voice of Cindy the poodle
• Vanessa Bayer as the voice of Cersei the guinea pig

Previous Movies' Box Office:

• Adam & Cindy (06/02/Y7) - $10,220,685 OW / $32,164,875 DOM / $50,105,968 WW
• A Very Adam & Cindy Valentine (02/09/Y8) - $11,451,677 OW / $35,880,668 DOM / $55,228,395 WW
• The Tale of a Guinea Pig (10/18/Y8) - $3,429,336 OW / $10,349,236 DOM / $26,303,497 WW
• Guinea Pigger (10/17/Y9) - $2,503,061 OW / $5,378,242 DOM / $5,713,005 WW

Plot Summary:

 

Spoiler

The epic journey of Adam, Cindy and Cersei began three years ago, when two stray dogs, terrier Adam (Billy Crystal [voice]) and poodle Cindy (Toni Collette [voice]), met by the side of a road after Adam's family abandoned him. They went on an adventure, until they eventually found new human owners - who appropriately avenged Adam by dumping ice cream on his former family. They can speak human language, but no one understands them. In the meantime, Cersei (Vanessa Bayer [voice]), a malefic and bratty talking guinea pig, is adopted by a new human, Joanne Tucker (cameo by Emily Osment), after going on a misadventure of her own. Soon, she finds herself discovering a secret underground society of talking guinea pigs, the Guindans, and she discovers that she's meant to be the Guinea Pigger, the one who will slay humans and raise the animal world to glory.

 

In the very end of the film Guinea Pigger, Cersei had just delivered her epic monologue to save the world... in the middle of the street, where Adam and Cindy were right there listening to her speak, surprised that a guinea pig can talk. They approach her - scaring Cersei at first, who thought the dogs were gonna eat her - and they trade dialogue over the fact that they all talk, although Adam and Cindy can't be understood by humans, unlike Cersei who can. The latter explains to them that while Guindans were experimented on by Soviet and American forces to be able to be intelligent, no explanation can be given to Adam and Cindy - Cindy, however, seems scared. Adam incentives the three to go out and find out, and they sure do - getting a few "you're so cuuuuuuuute" comments in the street along the way.

 

Cersei warns Joanne that she and "her new friends" will take a leave of absence for work reasons, to which Joanne is obviously worried, but nevertheless does not stop the guinea pig, Adam and Cindy from secretly sneaking on a plane to Washington, D.C., where, with the help of lovely casuals walking by who give them some food, they then manage to break into the Capitol Building. Security officers try stopping them, but Cersei takes them out with the power of fresh lettuce (which, if you may remember, is an incredibly complicated process where Cersei eats a bit of lettuce and her brain cells turn into a nuclear explosion turn into a sandwich turn into Super Saiyan-like power and she neutralizes her opponents with a power blast). Adam and Cindy manage to venture into the archives of the Capitol, and discover that in reality, Adam and Cindy's ancestors were the first animals to be experimented on, before the Guindans ever existed, shocking the three lovely pets. Cindy then admits that she had heard of this, but refused to ever acknowledge it, as it would force her to question everything she knew (this was the source of conflict for her earlier in the film). Adam is surprised to see Cindy insecure.

 

The three characters are left at a haste by this revelation, and Adam notices Cindy is sad, so he reveals to her that she saved his life when they met after he had been abandoned. Cersei is touched by their friendship, and says that she does not understand why she could be the Guinea Pigger, when the Guindans aren't even the first talking animals on Earth. But soon, the CIA chases the three heroes across all of Washington and apprehends them, enclosing them in jails. While locked, Adam is able to break inside a sewer, and this leads him to the path of the underground city of the Guindans, where she meets Guinariel (cameo by Kristen Bell [voice]), who tells him that Adam, Cindy and Cersei are the only animals who can bring justice and help all animals on Earth be safe and sound. Meanwhile, Cersei and Cindy discuss (still in jail) what they can do to help. Cindy realizes that she is stronger than she believes, while Cersei comes to the conclusion that she can't be the Guinea Pigger - because she refuses the notion that she is superior than any other animal in the planet. The three heroes converge again.

 

In the third act, the CIA releases Adam, Cindy and Cersei and delivers them to Area 51, where a resident scientist has invited hundreds of other people to watch a live experimentation on the talking animals. However, in the wake of everything, Adam and Cindy break themselves and Cersei out. Then, suddenly, hundreds of other pets - dogs, cats, birds, fish in their pots, pigs, even exotic animals like snakes - appear, and a big fight scene breaks out between humans and pets. The pets all tower over the humans, who even with weapons can't hold a candle to the pets. Cersei announces that even though she is meant to be the Guinea Pigger, she is equal to every other animal, talking or not, on Earth. "WE... are... Guinea Piggest!" The animals celebrate. Adam and Cindy go their own way, but they promise never to forget Cersei. Likewise from the guinea pig.

 

And so, the Guinea Pig franchise finally comes to an end. Thankfully lol. As for the Adam & Cindy one... we'll see.

 

Edited January 8 by MCKillswitch123

[SLAM!]

9/11

NEVER FORGET

 

Studio Groundswell

in association with Minnow Mountain

Director: Keith Maitland

Genre: Documentary

Release Date: September 11th, Y10

Theater Count: 2,506

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Peril, and Thematic Content

Budget: $10 Million

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

 

Plot Summary

In this film commissioned by Studio Groundswell, Tower director Keith Maitland uses rotoscope animation to create a comprehensive portrait of 9/11. The film consists scenes and moments from personal interview accounts of the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers and World Trade Center. The film also includes archival footage, news reel footage, and other footage of 9/11. We get rotoscoped scenes of the planes crashing into the towers, people escaping the towers, firefighters rushing in, and people being stuck under rubble for long periods of time. The film offers a new way of experiencing 9/11 as it places audiences in the midst of the tragedy, as they experience the first-hand accounts of survivors in a way we've never seen it before. The film discusses what it means to be an American, dodging any political discussion or "leaning left or right" and instead functioning as a time capsule, so that audiences all across America will, truly, never forget 9/11.

[MCKillswitch123]

Edited.

Edited June 9, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

SONY vs. Nintendo

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures

Directors: Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky

 

Genre: Documentary

Release Date: January 2, Y10

Theater Count: 2701

Rating: PG-13, for thematic content and language

Format: 2D

Budget: $10 million

Runtime: 118 minutes

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

The filmmakers behind Indie Game: The Movie, and CAYOM films Paddles: The Video Game Story and Out of Order: The Decline of the Arcade, dive into yet another video game-related documentary - their biggest one yet.

 

Pajot and Swirsky interview 72-year-old Ken Kuturagi, the creator of the original Sony PlayStation video game console and lead designer of its follow-up consoles, up until the PlayStation 3. Kuturagi explains that he began experiencing interest in video games in 1989, when seeing his daughter enthusiastically play Famicom (Japan's version of the original Nintendo Entertainment System [NES]), claiming that there was strong potential in the market. Kuturagi worked at Sony, where he had gained experience with the company's hardware innovations since the 70's, quickly gaining a favorable reputation in its ranks.

 

Kuturagi expressed his interest in gaming to the company, who saw video games as a fad and believed its bubble would eventually burst. Nevertheless, fellow Japanese multinational and video game colossus Nintendo - which was in its prime days, its NES system pretty much holding a near-monopoly on the video game market - reached out to Sony for the need of a brand new sound chip for its upcoming 16-bit system, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Kuturagi worked on the chip in secret; Sony CEO Norio Ohga did eventually approve of his work, and Kuturagi was able to finish the job and remain employed. Kuturagi explains his mix of feelings during this time of uncertainty.

 

Nintendo approved of Sony's contribution to the SNES, and Kuturagi was able to yet again convince Ohga to work with Nintendo. The project was for Sony to develop a CD-ROM attachment to the SNES, a device which would then be called the "Nintendo Play Station" (also the "SNES-CD", similar to the then-recently released SEGA CD add-on for the SEGA Genesis console, competitor of the NES and SNES). But, as witnesses interviewed in the film account, the environment in Nintendo was wary. It seemed as if Nintendo was not happy with Sony's licensing agreements for the CD-ROM add-on: the attachment would allow the console to not only play cartridges (as the original design allowed), but also a specific brand of CD's developed by Sony, called the "Super Disc". Because the format would be a new creation, Sony wanted to keep the international rights, as well as any secondary licensing (such as films and music) for the Super Discs, granting them a great amount of power over this new hardware format, one that Nintendo seemed hesitant on giving up.

 

On the first day of the 1991 Consumer Electronics Expo (CES), Sony officially announces to the world that they're aligning with Nintendo to create the Play Station. But, behind the scenes, something was up. At 9AM on the next day, Nintendo stands on the CES stage and tells everyone that, in reality, their partnership with Sony is not going through and they're actually partnering with Philips for the add-on. As witnesses explain, then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who understood Nintendo had less research and development power than a millionaire giant like Sony, wanted to uphold Nintendo's stake in the gaming market by protecting its licensing approach, and knowing that the Super Disc deal would benefit Sony much greatly, he sent his men to Amsterdam to negotiate with Philips... but he did it behind Sony's back, never telling them about it. Kuturagi and Ohga, recognizing what is called at the time as the "greatest ever betrayal in the industry", have their pride hurt. With the honor of samurais, Ohga tells Kuturagi: "Do it". And so, Kuturagi begins working on the Play Station again, but now, as a standalone Sony-branded console that can run CD-ROMs.

 

The stage between development and release for the original console, now called the "PlayStation" - the space in between the words is erased due to copyright issues with the previous console being made with Nintendo - takes three-to-four years. In 1992, after Ohga's decision, Sony officially severs all ties with Nintendo, while shifting many members of his main team, including Kuturagi, to Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ), which had experience manufacturing CD's and a big stake in the music industry, which Ohga saw as a great help for entry in the video game market. Sony (the main company) and SMEJ joint found Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), and in 1993, the PlayStation is officially announced to the world.

 

We hear first-person accounts from Kuturagi himself about what he was feeling during the process. Pajot makes him an acutilating question: "Did you ever consider that, with the amount of money that Sony had, you could ever lose this fight?", to which Kuturagi replies: "All the money in the world was not enough. You need to perservere. Panasonic [a rival electronics giant which had created the 3DO system to compete with Nintendo; the 3DO is widely considered to be a flop] failed. Philips failed. We could've failed too. And if we did, we'd be the laughing stock of the industry. They thought the PlayStation was a toy." Kuturagi understood the consequences. Being a millionaire institution did not put them in an advantage next to Nintendo. Yeah, they had more money, but they were little kids playing in an adult playground here: Nintendo held an iron fist in gaming, while Sony had no experience in that market. The only way they could surprise the world is if they really went out of their way to do the best damn job possible, and that took effort, creativity and resilience. We also hear accounts from Nintendo employees and fans. They never thought Sony could pull off what Panasonic couldn't. Or even Philips, which, during the years Sony spent to create the PlayStation, never actually turned around the original CD-ROM attachment for the SNES, choosing instead to launch their own video game console, the CDi, with official property licensing from Nintendo, which originated some infamous video games, such as Hotel Mario or Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, titles that have been memed for decades now due to their poor quality. These employees felt like Nintendo was walking on a tightrope, but no reason to worry. "There was no real fear that Sony could stand up to us", one of them accounts, "we were on top of the world. SEGA couldn't compete, Atari [American video game hardware/software company] couldn't compete, [Panasonic] 3DO couldn't compete... Sony was just next in line."

 

After years of anticipation, in 1994, in Japan, and 1995 for the remaining world, Sony finally releases the PlayStation, which at this point, had gotten substantial hype and excitement from industry insiders. In 1993, when Sony made the decision to follow the "new trend" and opt for 3D polygon graphics, rather than 2D sprites (inspired by SEGA's arcade hit Virtua Fighter), they started promising third-party renowned facilities, such as major Japanese video game developers Namco, Konami and Capcom, that their system would be the best to make games for. They sustained a massive marketing campaign that even recognized the console as "PlayStation X", in fear that the console would not appeal enough to older audiences, and even acquired some exterior companies to become first-party developers (namely, British developer Psygnosis). In Japan, the PlayStation is an immediate success, selling 100k units in its first day of release, although fellow 32-bit competitor SEGA Saturn (which was launched one day before the PlayStation) outsells it at the beginning. Then, months later, in Summer 1995, Sony is preparing to launch the console in North America. During their rampant campaign to get the public's eyes on the system, the company attends the very first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), where they get to follow SEGA's conference. In the latter, SEGA announces that the launch price of the Saturn in the US and Canada would be of $399. Sony follows this up with this iconic moment:

 

 

Sony launches the PlayStation in America on September 1995, to immediate success. The PlayStation becomes the first console ever to ship over 100 million units worldwide.

 

Meanwhile, Nintendo, due to Philips' set-backs with the development of the CD-ROM attachment that never actually happened, decide that the best way to upstage the new competition is by skipping the 32-bit generation altogether and launch a 64-bit console. Atari had jumped the wagon on this one by releasing their Jaguar console in 1993, but the reception to the console and its games (including its graphics, which were universally doubted as actually being 64-bit) was insufficient all around, and Atari wound up bailing from the hardware market altogether. Nintendo did not commit the same mistake. In 1996, their Nintendo 64 console releases, and while it is a strong player, with some groundbreaking, game-changing titles, such as Super Mario 64, it lags significantly behind the PlayStation in sales. Nintendo has lost a battle for the first time since the rise of the NES. Kuturagi explains how incredible he felt - the giddiness that he had was almost that of his daughter when playing the Famicom, whose developer was ironically now losing to him. "The PlayStation was revolutionary. After what Nintendo did to us in 1991... it feels so good." Nintendo employees show the other side of the story: "Our pride was hurt. Sony stood up to what we did to them and fought back. We were losing. This was something we hadn't felt before."

 

In the following years, Kuturagi remains in charge of SCE's major ventures, including being the lead designer on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable (a handheld variant) and PlayStation 3. In the case of the latter, the PlayStation 2 was an absolute juggernaut, shipping north of 155 million units in the space of over ten years, becoming still to day the highest-selling video game console of all time. Direct competitors lagged behind significantly - the second-ranked console of its generation was Microsoft's first game console, the Xbox, with 24 million units. Nintendo's GameCube console, despite its incredibly popular online reputation, only sold just shy of 22 million. In dead last, SEGA's Dreamcast couldn't even sell 10 million units. SEGA left the hardware market as a consequence. The PlayStation Portable was also a viable contender to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and DS systems.

 

However, the PlayStation 3 had significant development problems and a disastrous marketing campaign, which allowed Nintendo to fight back and resume their old glory with the launch of the Wii, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 sent the PS3 to third place in its category. Former Nintendo CEO and President of America Reggie Fils-Aimé explains that this victory over Sony "brought confidence back to us, and allowed us to look back at what happened and learn from it." Kuturagi announced his retirement from Sony after the PS3. "There's still a part of me that hurts over the PlayStation 3... it was my most ambitious creation. I still think it was a success."

 

Today, Sony and Nintendo remain in a struggle for leadership of the gaming market, with their PlayStation 5 and Switch consoles in a back-and-forth, with Microsoft thrown in there as well. Both companies respect each other as competitors.

 

Sources:

Spoiler

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/farewell-father-article

https://www.engadget.com/2007/04/26/sonys-ken-kutaragi-leaving-sce-chairman-and-ceo-spots-in-june/

https://kotaku.com/5475462/whats-the-father-of-the-playstation-doing-these-days

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/birthday-memories-sony-playstation-turns-15

https://web.archive.org/web/20121104035709/http://www.1up.com/features/15-years-cd-i?pager.offset=1

https://kotaku.com/5876374/the-playstation-you-never-got-to-play/

https://ign.com/articles/1998/08/28/history-of-the-playstation

https://web.archive.org/web/20120516003333/http://www.edge-online.com/features/making-playstation

https://archive.org/details/revolutionariesa00reij

https://archive.org/details/The_PlayStation_Book_2015_UK/mode/2up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles

 

 

 

[MCKillswitch123]

THE QUEST FOR

BUSTER'S BONES

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Phoenix Fire Artstyles

Based On: Don't Take Buster's Bones, by Ideal

Director: Steve Moore

 

Genre: Animation/Comedy

Release Date: November 20, Y10

Theater Count: 3657

Rating: PG, for slapstick, crude humor, mild language, cartoon violence, serious peril and strong thematic content

Format: 2D; 3D

Budget: $25 million

Runtime: 92 minutes

 

Voice Cast:

• Ving Rhames as Buster the dog
• Andy Richter as Darby the cat
• Various renowned voice actors as the neighbor animals

Animation Style: The animation is stylized after high quality classic hand-drawn animated films, cartoons and toy commercials with film-looking grainy resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. These are references:

Spoiler

 

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

This film takes place in a Looney Tunes-esque universe of anthropomorphic animals.

 

Darby (voice of Andy Richter) is a rich, snotty clear blue cat. He owns a huge mansion, his own private jet and limo, and always wears fine clothing. In this universe, he holds a huge monopoly in golf courses - which, by the way, he's also a player in his free times.

 

One day, he discovers that there is a place in the forest, near his mansion, that seems fit for another golf course, and immediately pays a crew of shady-looking construction "entrepreneurs" hundreds of thousands to get work going. But shortly after, his employees tell him that the golf course is unable to proceed - as he furiously asks why, he's directed to a single, small doghouse in the middle of the place that would be the golf course. Surrounded by a square area with kiddy drawings on it, this is the space of Buster (voice of Ving Rhames), a muscled up, smooth-looking bulldog who enjoys resting time, sleeping next to his beloved bones. Darby meets Buster and tells him that he's willing to pay for Buster to reallocate, but Buster refuses, saying that this is his home, because this is where his bones "enjoy being" and always have. Enraged, Darby promises to give Buster Hell.

 

Soon, he begins sending his workers to try to kidnap Buster, in hopes that they can then demolish the doghouse - and in the wake of the many failures of Darby's men (portrayed through all sorts of cartoonish slapstick ala Wile E. Coyote), Darby says he's gonna do it himself. Meanwhile, Buster reads in the newspaper that everyone in the neighborhood is watching Darby try to wreck the place for his own gain, and soon, he gets visitors telling him that he better stand up for all of them in case things go wrong. Buster claims he's only setting him off for himself, not really for anyone else, but a local tells him that "you know you're not really like that, Buster", triggering a flashback sequence where we see Buster with his husband and daughter, both of them now gone, with the daughter only having left bones - which happen to be the bones that Buster holds dear - and the aforementioned drawings on the floor, leaving him pensive.

 

Darby returns to try to disrupt Buster, but to no avail. We see him go through all sorts of slapsticky tricks to get Buster to leave - disgusing himself as a friendly rabbit trying to get help; bungee-jumping from a helicopter; sneaking around with a black cloth - but none work, making Darby suffer in cartoonish ways, with funny facial expressions as he faceplants, flops and gets pinballed around by the much tougher Buster, whom eventually admits feeling sorry for Darby, given all the punishment he's taken. But Darby is a vile cat and does not quit easily, so he sets on constructing a huge forest-busting missile, funded by his fortune. In an eventful night, Darby threatens Buster (and the terrified neighborhood) that he's going to destroy the house somehow, someway, and, fatally, forces his men to move the missile directly to Buster's face, but leaving a trail of destruction afterward, with the neighborhood animals dretched in the afterwake of devastation. Buster still does not give in and laughs in the face of the missile - but then, one of the neighborhood animals sneaks behind him and steals his bones, then throwing them to Darby. Buster, stunned, tries rescuing the bones, but Darby gets a hold of them and then gets his men to apprehend Buster and release him miles away.

 

Fade back into the movie, and Buster is inconsolable, but soon his ache turns into rage. Soon, he confronts the other animals of the region, who all look distraught. He throws his ire at them for stealing his bones. They apologize, but reveal that they were just trying to survive, since Buster's feud with Darby might just get the whole forest destroyed, begging him to sign Darby's deal and leave the would be-golf course happen before more people are affected. Buster, tears in his eyes, says that he doesn't want to abandon the place he lived with his family. "My husband... my daughter.... her bones... our house." The animals retort: "None of us want to leave. But... he's got more power than we do." Buster, after seeing the actual devastation on the forest, reflects and apologizes, admitting that his own stubbornness will lead to more destruction. At the same time, the neighbors admit they've been too harsh on Buster as well, putting it outright that Darby is the full responsible for what's happening. Everyone embraces. Buster says that, if necessary, he'll sign the deal, but then the other animals take a stand and say: "Can't we... do anything? S-surely we can... right?" - Buster, after a pensive beat, nods affirmatively: "This is our home. And we have more power than them!", rallying up the animals.

 

Under a dark, stormy sky, Buster and Darby have one final confrontation. Darby threatens Buster to destroy his house with the giant missile unless he signs the deal. Buster then takes out a pen and signs it. Darby is all smiles, except when he notices what Buster wrote: "Jackass!". Right at that moment, Buster reveals that everyone in the neighborhood has grown tired of Darby and will make him pay for it. An epic moment where about a hundred and so animals and even trees all team up on Darby's henchmen, while Buster wacks Darby around with a lot of slapstick. In a moment of desperation, Darby signals his men to finally launch the missile, but, before he can notice, the missile takes off... directly towards Darby's mansion not too far away. As Darby notices, the missile strikes, and we get a shot of money bills burning up. Buster provokes Darby, telling him: "You're a funny guy. You got tossed around like a pinball, beaten, handcuffed, torched up, ran over, skirmished in every way... and now your house and your money are ruined... and you got up and got beaten up, and got up and beaten up, over and over... and all just because you wanted to make a golf course? You're such a cartoon." Darby, facing total damnation, does not regret any of what he did, and under a loud thunderclap, tries to kill Buster by stealing his daughter's bones, breaking them into smaller pieces with a very sharp ends and attempting to stab Buster with them - only for Buster to be rescued by all the other animals, who unleash "the rage of the forest" on Darby. As he disappears in a big cloud of smoke after everyone gangs up on him, Darby's fate is unknown.

 

In the end, Buster, moved, still takes his daughter's broken bones with him. He turns to his friends: "I'm sorry for... not really getting it until it was late. Now you guys have to rebuild. I wasn't a hero." The neighbors disagree: "Buster... you are all of us' hero. Even her's." Buster cracks a bittersweet smile as the forest unites to comfort each other and reconstruct.

 

Edited January 8 by MCKillswitch123

[SLAM!]

12 ANGRY VEGGIES

a VeggieTales Movie

 

Studio Groundswell

Director: Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki

based on the VeggieTales franchise and the classic film 12 Angry Men

Genre: Faith-Based/Animation

Release Date: May 29th, Y10

Theater Count: 1,985

MPAA Rating: PG for Mild Humor

Budget: $5m

Runtime: 1 hr 20 min

 

VeggieTales characters voiced by original cast members.

 

Plot Summary

Spoiler

Establishing shots of a city with vegetables as its citizens before a troublesome gourd named Gourdon rushes out of the store with a stolen bagel. A pair of french-pea policemen run after the thief. When it's clear he can't outrun them, Gourdon tosses the bagel to a homeless scallion named Charlie Pincher. The peas arrest Charlie, as they've mistaken him for the thief.

 

Fade to the prison interrogation room, where Petunia Rhubarb walks in to have a meeting with Charlie, since she's his public defense attorney. Charlie insists that he didn't steal the bagel, and Petunia believes him, reassuring him that he'll be found not guilty. But as we discover after the meeting, Petunia isn't so sure—the case that the prosecutor's building against Charlie is pretty iron tight. Petunia prays to God, so that he helps Charlie get the "not guilty" verdict.

 

We get a montage where vegetables all across the city get letters informing them that they've been selected for jury duty. This includes Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, a Lead Engineer and Hard-Hat construction worker respectively. Bob gets the letter at the site where they're building something, and sees Larry get a similar letter, and he's like "I might have to go to jury duty with Larry?!"

 

Dad Asparagus gets a jury summons at his house, and Junior Asparagus innocently asks his parents, "what's jury duty?" Mom Asparagus explains jury duty to Junior in a way where it's easy for a movie audience of children to understand. "This won't ruin our plans to go to the zoo, will it?" asks Dad Asparagus. They talk it, saying that hopefully the jury deliberation will be quick and they'll have time for the zoo afterward. "Why don't you come watch the trial, it'll be quite the learning experience," Dad says. The family makes a plan to attend the trial together.

 

We get a fun montage of the jury-pool-to-jury-box process before we get to the trial. The prosecutor is the Peach from the "Where's My Hairbrush" song (the one who tells Larry, "thanks for the hairbrush"), and the Peach has quite the argument for Charlie's guilt, suggesting that it's likely him who stole the bagel because his homeless encampment is in the alleyway just around the block. "Who knows if this is the first time he's stolen bagels from the bakery!" suggests the Peach. Murmurs among the crowd reveal the stigma against poor men like Charlie. Petunia expresses her fear to her assistant in a whisper, stating that because the bakery hasn't installed a security video system yet, there's no evidence to suggest Charlie isn't guilty—that, and whoever did steal the bagel did so in a way where no one saw who actually did it.

 

The judge (played by Mr. Nezzer) calls for jury deliberation, and the jury enters a cramped room. Dad Asparagus handles the proceeding as Juror #1, with the other jury members consisting of the following: Archibald Asparagus, Madame Blueberry, Pa Grape, Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, Scooter the Carrot, Mr. Lunt, two French peas (not the policemen), and of course Bob and Larry. There's a "let's get this over with vibe" in the air, and everyone goes down the line saying "guilty." Bob and Larry argue about how fast the deliberation's going, and when it's their turn, Larry blurts "NOT GUILTY," startling everyone. Bob and Larry have a private chat, where Larry convinces Bob that they can't say guilty now because they haven't considered the whole trial yet. Bob agrees with Larry's reasoning. "I hope you're right about this," says Bob. They return to the room, where Bob also says "not guilty," thus kickstarting a longer deliberation.

 

In the court, Junior whispers to Mom Asparagus that he has to use the bathroom. "Go ahead, but make it quick," says mom. Junior goes to the hallway and passes by Laura Carrot, who's stopped at George's Tailoring Stand where George (the older green onion with the mustache) is busy stitching together Laura's hair-bow. Laura was watching the same court case because it's her dream to be a lawyer one day. "That's pretty neat, well, catch ya later," says Junior.

 

We follow Junior into the men's bathroom, where he finds Gourdon (who's about Junior's age) spilling soap on the floor and snickering about it. When someone else starts to enter, Gourdon ducks into a stall. The two French-pea policemen burst in and accuse Junior of spilling the soap. Junior struggles to stand up for himself, and the policemen take him away.

 

Gourdon bounces past Laura and brags about passing off the blame to Junior. Laura rushes further into the hallway and relays this to the French-peas, effectively saving Junior from any further trouble. Junior thanks Laura and she's like "don't mention it, I only did what Jesus would do." When Junior asks curiously what she means, Laura gives him an explanation.

 

The policemen catch up and corner Gourdon, and after a conversation, they find out that it was Gourdon who stole the bagel. "You may have gotten off easily with a similar shoplifting charge, Gourdon," says Gourdon, "but you won't get off easily this time!" Gourdon leads them on a chase through the hallway, and Junior and Laura get in on trying to chase Gourdon down.

 

We get a long-ish conversation with the jury where Bob improvises in order to tell the jurors why they shouldn't judge Charlie off of appearances. He shares the gospel: all men have fallen from God due to their sin, so God sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for the sins of humanity. Then when Jesus rose from the grave, it meant death was defeated, so that anyone who believes in and trusts Jesus as their Lord and savior will rise with him into everlasting life. So why, Bob argues, do we judge on appearances when God judges on hearts? Are we better at judgement than God? Or if there's not enough evidence to convict, should we offer them grace through benefit of the  doubt instead? In an inspiring moment, Dad Asparagus calls for a revote, and one by one, the jurors say "not guilty, not guilty, not guilty."

 

The jury comes back to the court, and it's declared that Charlie is found to be Not Guilty due to lack of evidence. Petunia's happy, the Peach is brushing his hair in frustration, and Charlie is genuinely grateful. Then the pea police enter with Gourdon apprehended, and Charlie's like, "that's the guy who gave me the bagel," so Gourdon gets arrested. Dad, Mom, and Junior Asparagus head off to the zoo, while Petunia thanks Bob and Larry because it turns out jury members who knew not to make judgements on appearances was the answered prayer she needed. Bob gives Larry a raise, and they decide to become friends. The end.

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by SLAM!

[MCKillswitch123]

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Rockstar Games

Based On: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, by Rockstar North

Directors: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

 

Genre: Action/Thriller/Crime

Release Date: May 1st, Y10

Theater Count: 4002

Rating: R, for copious language, intense sequences of bloody violence, hard drug usage, and strong themes

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

Budget: $75 million

Runtime: 129 minutes

 

Cast:

• Jamie Foxx as Carl "C.J." Johnson
• O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Sweet Johnson
• Craig Robinson as Big Smoke
• Jay Hernandez as Cesar Vialpando
• and Samuel L. Jackson as Frank Tenpenny

Previous Movie's Box Office (though, let's be clear, this should far outdo the first one) :

• Grand Theft Auto (01/31/Y9) - $31,940,156 OW / $89,007,210 DOM / $185,518,025 WW

Logline: A former drug smuggler returns to his childhood neighborhood after the death of his mother, becoming involved in a war of gangs for the soul of his city.

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

We start by seeing an animated opening credits sequence that closely replicates that of the actual game, 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas', in this style:

 

 

Cut to a shot of a man, who is identified as Carl "CJ" Johnson (Jamie Foxx), just arriving from a flight. Text reveals that we're in 1992. CJ looks solemn and pensative. On the background, we hear a phone conversation:

 

 

CJ: "Sup."

 

Sweet (O’Shea Jackson Jr.): "CJ, 'tis Sweet."

CJ: "What's up, Sweet?"

Sweet: "It's mama. She's dead, bro."

 

Silence follows as CJ leaves Los Santos Airport. As he gets in a taxi, we get a sequence of wide shots of Los Santos, San Andreas - the GTA universe's equivalent to Los Angeles, California.

 

 

Shortly after, a police car comes up and intercepts the cab carrying CJ. Officers leave it while raising their guns at the taxi, demanding that CJ come out of the vehicle, and forcing him to get on his knees. They apprehend CJ; the leading officer (Samuel L. Jackson), takes CJ's money forcefully, calling it "drug money", and cockily greets him: "Welcome home, Carl. Glad to be back. You haven't forgotten about us, have you, boy?". CJ tells this officer, Frank Tenpenny, that he hasn't. Tenpenny forces him to get in the police car, and the officers use excessive force to pin him down, to Tenpenny's amusement.

 

 

Inside the police car, we realize that this is a Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (C.R.A.S.H.) campaign. CJ says he’s been clean for the past five years, in which he’s been living in Liberty City (in-universe New York City), and has now returned to bury his mother. Tenpenny, taking the piss, says that CJ has never been clean, even as recently as “today”. He claims that a C.R.A.S.H. officer, Ralph Pendelbury, was murdered ten minutes prior. With a sly smile on his face, Tenpenny tells CJ that they are planning to frame him for that murder, unless he co-operates with them. CJ, furious, remains silent, and Tenpenny laughs his ass off, knowing that CJ will be his bitch from here on out. C.R.A.S.H. dump CJ in the middle of a downtown Santos street, with Tenpenny ominously warning CJ that he'll be watching. CJ flips them off, but looks resigned as the police car drives off. Then, CJ notices where he's actually at, and becomes scared, sighing himself aloud: "Ah shit... here we go again. Worst place in the world. Rollin Heights Balla country. I ain’t represented Grove Street in five years, but the Ballas won't give a shit". He begins to walk back to his street, when a random white guy in a bicycle passes by and nearly runs him over on accident, calling him a "punk ass gangster". CJ, mad, quickly grabs a big rock and throws it straight at the moving white guy's head - comically, it hits, and the guy is knocked off the moving bike. CJ quickly steals the bike and cycles as fast as he can, when a couple of gangsters, the Ballas, notice him. They try to get in a car, but CJ speeds up and quickly vanishes from their sight. CJ finally makes it to the iconic Grove Street, relieved.

 

 

 

Inside his house, we see him holding the portrait of his mother, him and his younger brother, when they were younger. He grits his fists in anger. From behind him comes another man, who introduces himself as Big Smoke (Craig Robinson). Smoke hugs CJ, who is still trying to process the death of his mother. Big Smoke says he's been looking forward to seeing CJ again, like the old days. Caringly, he says that he promises they will find out who was responsible for Beverly’s death. CJ pats Smoke on the shoulder. Later, they drive to Beverly’s funeral, where CJ reencounters Sweet, his younger brother. When Sweet and CJ cross eyes, Sweet’s ire is drawn. He avoids talking to CJ, to the latter’s disappointment, while prayers and farewells are bid to Beverly, who is said to have been killed in a drive-by shooting. CJ bids his emotional goodbye to Beverly, while Sweet and Big Smoke walk off. After the funeral, CJ is angry at Sweet for not talking to him, and Sweet explodes, saying that he abandoned the Grove Street Families gang when he left to Liberty City - that he wasn’t there when mom died and when other members of the gang perished too. CJ calls bullshit, saying that all he’s tried to do is leave behind his old life, but Sweet says that he betrayed them, frustrating CJ.

 

 

Big Smoke tries to calm both down, to no avail as they’re still mad at one another - this moment is quickly interrupted by the Ballas, who commit a drive-by shooting that ends up wrecking Smoke’s car. CJ, using pure instinct, grabs his gun and shoots the Balla who is driving dead, spinning the car away, and then he intercepts a moving car in the middle of the road and carjacks it, kicking the driver dude away and getting inside with Smoke and Sweet, him at the wheel. The Ballas switch drivers, with the dead one thrown out, and they pursue the Grove Street Families. CJ shows tremendous driving skill, while Smoke and Sweet shout directions at him. They manage to sneak through a hidden road by the side of the railroad, and escape the Ballas. The trio is relieved, but CJ is not happy. Later at night, CJ has dreams of the shooting of Beverly, as well as the gaslighting and blackmailing by C.R.A.S.H.. He wakes up in a jolt, muttering “fucking Hell” under his breath. 

 

 

The next day, CJ, sitting by on a bench on Grove Street, gets up, with determination. It’s around 6AM and we see a montage of him doing some jogging, going to the gym and eating at Burger Shot (the in-universe McDonald's) on opening hours (the employee even calls him a grease-seeking sicko, “but thanks for buying a heart attack from us anyway”), before he answers a call from Smoke. Right after, the montage continues, as we see him, Smoke, Sweet and some other members of the Grove Street Families gang infiltrate Ballas territory and doing small jobs, like spraying enemy gang tags, killing crack dealers working for the Ballas and performing drive-bys. They manage to get away with most of these actions, with Smoke saying that “this is the way for the Grove Families to come back to their old glory, taking out those punk Ballas’ reputation and sending them to motherfuckers Hell where they belong!”. CJ nods accordingly, while Sweet, who crosses eyes with his brother again, still avoids talking to CJ, who is visibly bitter and frustrated. The montage ends when CJ, while accompanying Smoke on a drug deal, finds a guy with a blindfold being dragged by Ballas, whom we can hear have “dug him out to die here”. He promptly turns the car on and, without any hesitation, runs over the two Ballas brutally. He gets out and points the gun at the guy who was being victimized (Jay Hernandez), warning him that if he speaks, he’s dead, but the victim says that not only he has no interest in selling CJ out, but killing him would be a big mistake - he presents himself as Cesar Vialpando, the leader of the Hispanic gang Varrios Los Aztecas, who competes with the Ballas. Cesar tells CJ that, in compensation for saving his life, the Varrios and the Groves can form a temporary alliance, splitting all profits between each other. CJ thinks about it. When he returns, Smoke tells CJ that if he really thinks he should go out with the Varrios, then Sweet was right about him betraying his family. CJ defends himself, saying that a partnership would be a great way to retrieve power, but Smoke says he’s out of his mind. CJ is mad.

 

 

After the montage, CJ, who’s in the streets working out, gets another call from Tenpenny. CJ asks him what the fuck he wants - jumpcut to him standing ominously in front of a house, while Tenpenny and another officer watch from afar inside their car. Cut to CJ again, and then we cut to the inside of the house, where we see some Ballas having a meeting with members of the Russian Mafia. We can hear through interception that the Ballas are planning to expand their territory in Los Santos - CJ is told on the speaker by Tenpenny that he’s to stop this from taking place. CJ ughs himself, grabs a grenade from a holster he has, pulls the protection off and promptly throws it through a very precise opening into the inside of the room where the gangsters are talking - when the grenade arrives at its destination, the middle of the room, the Ballas and the Russians comically scream. Cut to a funny shot where CJ is jogging back to the C.R.A.S.H. car, sort of “wiping” his hands on nearby walls, while the Russians and Ballas are ragdolled out of the house on fire by the sheer brutality of the explosion. Gunfire is triggered, and the C.R.A.S.H. officers fire back, while Tenpenny, smile on his face, gives CJ a face mask and nods at him to shoot at them. CJ begrudgingly does. We then cut to the aftermath of the shooting, with Tenpenny saying CJ did a good job. CJ calls C.R.A.S.H. fucking lunatics, and Tenpenny says that his next mission will be to aggregate a major number of Ballas in one location and take as many out as possible. CJ ain’t in it, but Tenpenny says that his reward will be that with a severely weakened enemy gang, there will be no way that the Groves don’t take over. When CJ asks why Tenpenny wants so many Ballas dead, he replies that “our job is to rid Los Santos of as much scum as possible. You one lucky ass motherfucker if we’re letting the Groves slide in exchange for the biggest gang in town being torn apart.” CJ says that he’s one dumb motherfucker, because the Groves are the biggest gang in town. Tenpenny laughs. CJ leaves the car, and walks back home. In the house, he’s still getting no chat from an angry Sweet, to whom he says that, as a younger brother, Sweet should understand what he did. No response, which angers CJ.

 

 

CJ then gets on what he calls a “marketing campaign” for a big fucking fight between the Groves and the Ballas three days from then, under the Mulholland Intersection in downtown Los Santos. He paints graffiti propaganda of this fight over some Ballas tags, which triggers expectation and excitement from the gangsters across both ends. When CJ is done, Sweet finally talks to him, asks what the fucking Hell he’s doing, and CJ says that this is gonna be their coup-de-gràce to take out the Ballas and reinstate Grove dominance. Sweet asks how on Earth he’s going to do that, since the Ballas far outnumber them, and CJ says that he has the help of the Varrios, who coupled with the Groves are enough in numbers to take the Ballas out. Sweet calls him insane - and a traitor, if he thinks he's gonna partner with the Varrios, but CJ pleads with him to trust him. Sweet, begrudgingly, says he better not fail them again. CJ promises he won’t, cheering himself up for finally getting his younger brother’s attention. We see some sunsets go by, with CJ taking himself easy and hanging out with Smoke, the two going to the gym together and eating lunches at Burger Shot. The day of the fight, he cracks his fists and neck, when Tenpenny tells him, by telephone, that they’re ready to take out the Ballas. CJ says he is too, and admits that he hopes this is the last he’ll hear of Tenpenny for now. Tenpenny laughs, saying that it surely, surely will, then hanging up. CJ sighs, feeling prepared. He walks onto Grove Street, only to find that Cesar is waiting for him in his personal car. CJ gets in the car and asks him what the fuck he’s doing here, and Cesar says that he likes going places alone, as CJ saw the other day. He’s also ordered the Varrios to stay away from Mulholland, which immediately makes CJ go mad. However, he then tells CJ why: he’s been doing some investigating on the matter of Beverly Johnson’s death, and, as it turns out, he thinks that the target wasn’t Beverly… it was Sweet. CJ’s jaw drops. Cesar also tells CJ that Ralph Pendelbury was murdered by C.R.A.S.H. themselves, as an effort to keep him from talking about their corruption. CJ is incensed, calling them motherfuckers and assholes. As Cesar and CJ drive off, they spot a car that Cesar says was the one used in the drive-by - and inside are C.R.A.S.H., some Ballas… and Big Smoke. CJ is stunned. Cesar speeds fast and CJ tries to call Sweet, but to no avail. The car reaches Mulholland Intersection and CJ races out of the car, to find a very injured Sweet and many dead Groves. He’s in shock and tries to heal his injured brother. Cesar notices that some Ballas have CJ in their aim; he quickly gets out of the car, grabs a nearby rocket-launcher and blows the Ballas away. Another shootout begins, and CJ is able to wreck most of the Ballas that stand in his way. Cesar takes Sweet to the car, but upon realizing that CJ is about to be shot by one of the last Ballas, he grabs a leftover ammo cartridge and loads it in his gun, only for the gun to jam, making him jump in the way of the shot instead. As Cesar lumps dead to the ground, CJ violently kills the last Ballas, shooting the last one in the head multiple times out of anger. He bemoans Cesar’s death, while Sweet asks CJ if he’s happy with himself for doing this. CJ admits that C.R.A.S.H. coerced him into doing it, which stuns Sweet, but he's still adamant that CJ could've stopped it. CJ kicks the walls in frustration. In the meantime, C.R.A.S.H. arrives and arrests both CJ and Sweet. Sweet is taken to a prison hospital, while CJ is driven outside of Los Santos to Angel Pine, a countryside town in outskirt San Andreas. In the car, one of the officers tells CJ that if he comes back to Los Santos and tries to kill Big Smoke, Sweet will suffer in prison. CJ is left stranding, hopeless.

 

 

Dissolve to black, and then fade in to a few days later. CJ is doing jobs for C.R.A.S.H., by coercion, and we learn through dialogue that they’re under the guise of keeping people investigating Tenpenny silent - mostly murders. CJ is punching himself every time he does this, but he sighs. One day, having returned to his Angel Pine home after a job, he finds that he has a visitor… Cesar. As CJ is befuddled with this information, Cesar tells CJ that the guy who died was actually his twin brother, Jorge; the real Cesar, himself, has always been far more cautioned and reserved than Jorge, who liked to be wild and show off his power, so they faked that Jorge was Cesar in public. No one knew that they, in reality, were two separate people, and that Cesar was running most of the Varrios in the background while his brother lived the high life. CJ is stunned to know. Cesar tells him that even though he got some of his men killed, including his brother, the reality is that CJ worries about him enough that he wants to help him get his revenge. He says that, after some investigation, he found that Sweet is in a prison upstate, technically fine. Cesar also says that in order to return to Los Santos, he needs to come back in a high position. A position where he’s unstoppable, and the corrupt police of San Andreas can’t do anything about him. We cut to CJ and Cesar heading their way to the city of Las Venturas - the in-universe Las Vegas, Nevada - specifically, a massive casino. Cesar introduces CJ to The Loco Casino, which he owns. CJ is wowed by Cesar’s secret possessions, and how he managed to have an empire that broads far beyond Los Santos - Cesar telling him that the Varrios are common in all of San Andreas and have their branches throughout all of the States. Cesar tells CJ that outer San Andreas is usually Triad territory, but because the Triads are stronger in San Fierro (in-universe San Francisco), the Varrios took the Venturas territory, and both sides have been able to work democratically for common goals, one of which being the taking down of enemy gangs, like the Ballas. “The Groves used to be a nuisance for the Varrios, but ever since the Ballas subdued them, we figured that they would accept co-existence if we helped them take out the Ballas.” Cesar says he knows CJ is a man with the best interests of his family and allies at heart, and that he does sympathize with him as a friend. Cesar offers CJ a top position on top of the Varrios hierarchy, and says that if he accepts, he will make the Groves the second richest motherfuckers in Santos - second only to the Varrios, who would only gain power in return. CJ, contemplating the question, says that he's been called a traitor of the Groves for this, but he does think it's okay for gangs to work together. Cesar tells CJ that whatever answer he gets, he fully respects it, because he knows that CJ is a good person and no decision he makes will be made without his heart fully into it. CJ, inhaling deep, says that it’ll be just for now. Cesar smiles, while CJ looks determined.

 

 

In the aftermath, we see CJ dressing up fancy, collecting money from Cesar’s henchmen and clients of the casino, and constructing a powerful collection of settlements, from mansions, to expensive cars, and even his own airstrip, an abandoned military strip in the middle of the San Andreas desert, with access to a stolen F-19 fighter jet. CJ is living the good life - but he seems conflicted and distorted during this time. In the meantime, he is finally able to re-enter Los Santos, under the prime disguise of being a top member of a massive crime establishment, one that not even the Ballas can face. He finds some younger members of the Grove Street Families, hangs out with them for a bit and then, similarly to the beginning of the film, he helps these younger folk make small jobs to reduce the Ballas’ reputation and increase Groves power. Through small deeds, he manages to get the Groves going again - and his fame rises. However, when he sees the Groves' name rise in fame again, as well as the joy of the young gangsters, he begins having a feeling of sorrow. This grows when he visits Grove Street again, and sees the people in it; as well as upon entering his house one more time, and admiring the Johnson family portrait from earlier. He seems evidently conflicted. Afterward, CJ and Cesar are dining in a fancy restaurant, and Cesar asks CJ if he wants to continue their partnership - Cesar says he doesn’t want to pressure CJ at all. CJ says that he’s been feeling somewhat strange, because even though he feels like a friend of Cesar’s, he doesn’t really feel like a member of his family. Cesar understands, saying that, deep down, no gang really wants to partner with an enemy - CJ laughs, and playfully says that he’s a hypocrite, then, to which Cesar says that yeah, he is… “I guess we both are. We all are, at some point.” CJ becomes pensive after hearing that phrase. Cesar asks what CJ is gonna do next, and CJ says that he’s gonna use his influence to do something he should.

 

 

Cut to some time later: CJ is in upstate San Andreas, in the prison that’s holding Sweet. He uses his current influence to buy Sweet’s release from prison, at the cost of a couple thousand dollars and a couple hundred pounds of drugs. Sweet comes out of jail, and CJ, shaken, doesn’t really know what to say the first time he sees him. Sweet begrudgingly thanks CJ for taking him out, and CJ says it’s no problem, to which he then remains silent on a good bunch of the trip back home. Some point later, Sweet breaks the silence by asking CJ why he came back. CJ, wary, tells Sweet he wasn’t gonna let his younger brother rot in the hands of the cops; Sweet says that he was stupid enough to abandon them five years ago, though. CJ, regretful, understands that, and says that he now feels like he was an asshole and that… that he turned his back on his family, and Sweet was right to call him out about it. Sweet makes no expression at first. CJ goes on: “I know that I let you down. I know that I should’ve been there, and mama died and I wasn’t there… I’m sorry, bro.” Sweet slowly turns around to CJ and eyes him intensely, with sorrow. Sweet then says that how can CJ say he ever tried to be clean, and CJ admits he was never clean - he was living off money he would make in drug deals; he just didn’t wanna admit to himself that he’s never letting go of his old life. “But, if that means I’m with my family, then fuck it to Hell.” Sweet breaks a light smile. CJ offers his hand. Sweet shakes it. Sweet then breaks the moment by asking what the fuck is CJ even wearing, and CJ says it’s a long story, but it’s how he was able to save him. Sweet then asks: “What’s next?”, to which we zoom to a confident CJ face.

 

 

Fast cut through a couple of events happening at once: the Groves, the Varrios and the Triads all working together across all major cities of San Andreas - Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas - to not only keep their territory, but expanding on it as well; mainly the Groves and the Varrios, who we can see are taking back a lot of what they lost in Los Santos. This frustrates the Ballas immensely. Also, Tenpenny is finally arrested, after documents released by a secret acquaintance of one of his old partners - Ralph Pendelbury pre-mortem - reveal that he is a corrupt officer. After a while, CJ, Sweet and other members of the coalition raid a known Balla hotspot, and after gunfire galore where CJ and friends kill most Ballas, they manage to interrogate one cowardly Balla and find out where Big Smoke’s Crack Palace is, sparing the guy in return - though he can’t escape before CJ throws a rock at his head and knocks him out, cracking a laugh as a result. Sweet asks CJ just how good his aim is, CJ says “good enough”. Sweet: “Like you player-controlled or somethin’”.

 

 

At night, CJ sleeps and has another dream; this time, he has a dream, where he stops the death of Beverly. He wakes up, and realizes this wasn’t real, but, stoically, he says that he will avenge Beverly once and for all.

 

 

The next day, on television, as CJ and Sweet prepare for the big day ahead of them, news are heard that Tenpenny has been acquitted on lack of charges. Sweet is unamused, but CJ is straight up pissed, saying that he knows that asshole is being protected. Sweet tells him not to sweat it, and then the two go off. When they leave the car, they realize that the whole of Grove Street, as well as pretty much everywhere in Los Santos, people have gone into a citywide riot over the acquittance of Frank Tenpenny. The climate is very unstable in the city, so CJ and Sweet look at each other, and nod. They get in their car and drive across town, only to realize that part of the street is blocked by a bunch of SWAT Team officers forcefully dealing with a rioting crowd - the Johnsons notice that one of the SWAT Team’s battle tanks is isolated from the rest. CJ, with Sweet after, climbs inside the tank, quickly kills the two unsuspecting troopers inside, and hijacks the tank, managing somehow to learn how to drive it quickly. The Johnsons drive to Big Smoke’s Crack Palace, an apartment building that seems heavily guarded by Ballas, Russian Mafias and, surprisingly, C.R.A.S.H. - in the moments before storming in, Sweet says that C.R.A.S.H.’s presence is probably the reason why Tenpenny and the others were working with the Ballas: they just wanted a piece of that drug money. CJ says that he’s gonna take care of them himself, and he and Sweet nod to each other, before CJ finally bulldozes a huge hole into Big Smoke’s Crack Palace. After wrecking a large part of the building, CJ and Sweet take out a few guarding thugs with gunfire, and then they make it to the top floor, where a cowering Big Smoke is hiding. Smoke, upon seeing his former friends, stands up and acts tough. CJ, visibly heartbroken, asks Smoke why he would ever betray his friends and why would he make the mistake of killing CJ and Sweet's mom. Smoke is quick and to the point: for money. The Ballas were bigger, so instead of fighting them, he joined them - a stuck in the moment CJ is flabbergasted, but Smoke accuses him of being a bigger rat, leaving the Groves behind for no real reason, and now siding with the Varrios too. CJ reflects on that for a bit, but retorts: "Yeah… hypocrite, ain't I?... We all are, at some point. But I know my home. I know my people. You knew yours and still stabbed them in the fucking back!". Smoke continues, saying “C.R.A.S.H. were in the big game as well.” He then says that “you motherfuckers gonna pay big time” and quickly draws a gun, but CJ fires first. Smoke falls down, uttering in his dying words: “Everyone will remember the name! Big Smoke!” - after Smoke dies, CJ claims Smoke’s death was a waste. Sweet and CJ say a silent prayer, and CJ whispers: "For you, ma. And for y'all, Groves." They then grab some leftover drug money and leave.

 

 

As they make their way out of the building, they’re intercepted by Tenpenny, who, at gunpoint, orders Sweet to load the drug money they’re taking in his briefcase. CJ looks at Sweet, who finds himself doing it. Tenpenny asks CJ directly how he was able to return to Los Santos without any of his guys being able to do anything, and CJ says that “he had outside help”. Tenpenny disregards it, then saying that it was a pleasure working with CJ. Before he goes, CJ asks Tenpenny if he thinks that C.R.A.S.H., the Ballas, the Russians and all are the biggest “family” in Los Santos. Tenpenny laughs hysterically, saying that no, they are the biggest family in all of San Andreas. CJ calls him a dumb motherfucker again, saying that there’s no bigger family in SA than the Groves. Tenpenny, furious, says we’ll see about that, and shoots at CJ, but it only scratches CJ’s shoulder, not wounding him too badly. Tenpenny hauls ass and runs off into the street. Comically, Sweet, in a rush to get CJ some sugar, inserts a coin into a Sprunk (mock Sprite) vending machine and gets a bottle of whiskey instead. This confuses him, but he gets an idea, then opening the whiskey, bottling some down CJ’s throat, and then dumping the rest on CJ’s wound, burning him but also disinfecting it. Sweet then rushes CJ to fucking go, and the two speed off.

 

 

Outside, it’s getting stormy weather-wise. Sweet finds Tenpenny running away with the money, and catches him stealing a firetruck. Sweet manages to climb up the truck’s ladder, but Tenpenny takes off, and Sweet hangs from the truck’s ladder. CJ, saying aloud that he needs something faster, carjacks a stylish looking hot hatchback and takes off. CJ in his car chases Tenpenny in his firetruck, with Sweet hanging from the ladder above; CJ drives skillfully as to make sure that Sweet has a cushion to stop him from falling to the concrete below. With some cooperation, Sweet manages to jump onto the roof of the car, and then get inside of it, where the brothers greet each other. Then, Sweet gets the wheel of the car, while CJ shoots rogue police officers and rioting enemy gangsters. The action sequence lasts another 2-3 minutes, before coming to a conclusion, when a cocky Tenpenny crashes off the bridge over Grove Street. He manages to crawl out of the truck and monologues, in his dying breaths, about how he was able to rid the trash from the streets, and he’d do it again. As he lets a final, sinister smile, he finally dies; CJ and Sweet watch, saying that he killed himself in an accident - no one to blame. The two brothers walk away as the stormy clouds dissipate.

 

 

Fade to black, and fade back in: on a hot, Sunny day, CJ introduces Sweet to Cesar, who is happy to greet his friend’s brother. Sweet thanks Cesar for helping both of them out, and Cesar says that, ultimately, the two of them are honorary Varrios. CJ then gives a funny look at Sweet, who also smiles snarkily; CJ then says that he's cool with remaining friends with Cesar, but his family… his gang… he ain’t turning his back on them again. “Not even to join the Varrios, amigo.” Cesar, playfully, says he wouldn’t expect anything else, and the trio laughs. CJ then drives both to the airstrip that he bought; he and Sweet shake Cesar’s hand and, as a hopeful Cesar watches, CJ and Sweet take off in the F-19. Sweet asks CJ where he learned to fly this thing, and CJ says “the same place that taught me how to throw perfect shots and drive tanks.” Sweet goes with it, and the two bask in the beautiful sun and sights of San Andreas, and then both funnily take a bite out of their Burger Shot meal, as CJ gives a final monologue: “I’m fittin’ to hit the block, see what’s happening. Who knows now.” The plane flies over Los Santos. Cut to black.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; The New Yorker Studios

Based On: The Enormous Radio, by John Cheever

Director: Christina Choe

 

Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Romance

Release Date: April 10 Y10

Theater Count: 3321

Rating: PG-13, for thematic content, drinking, foul language and implied sexual scenes

Format: 2D

Budget: $45 million

Runtime: 107 minutes

 

Cast:

• Scarlett Johansson as Irene Westcott
• Ben Foster as Jim Westcott
• Bonnie Somerville as Natasha Letterman
• Rob Brown as Louis Letterman

Logline: Jim and Irene Westcott buy a huge radio, but it transmits conversations of other tenants in the apartment building they live.

 

Filmmaking Notes: This film takes cues from the 1940 and 50's romantic melodramas and is purposefully edited as a film from that era.

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

Phoenix Fire Pictures

 

The New Yorker Studios

 

We fade into a suburban apartment in what clearly looks like 1930's New York City, in the neighborhood of Sitton Place. Cut to the arrival of a family - of a man and a woman in their late 30's, and two children (a boy and a girl) at around the ages of 7 and 8 - by car, to an apartment. The adults are Jim (Ben Foster) and Irene Westcott (Scarlett Johansson). The family looks fancily dressed. Irene, who likes to fling her long, brown hair around, is radiant and all smiles; while the formally clothed Jim, low brow smile on his face, entertains the children. The family enters their house, a decently generous apartment. Irene, dazzled, thanks Jim enormously for the family holiday they had just spent, saying she'd "love to live in Westchester one day, but it was cozy enough to visit it already". Jim jokes about how expensive that would be - both laugh. The two kiss, while the children are distracted playing with each other. We pan around the apartment and understand, through the paraphernalia exposed around the house, that Jim and Irene have been married since 1927 - currently, it's the year 1936 - and that Jim is the sole breadwinner of the family.

 

At night, while the kids are left with a babysitter, Jim and Irene take the night out. Irene brings a small, portable radio with her, hidden in her bag. The radio is evidently broken, but they maintain it, particularly by Irene who likes to caress it. As they depart from the house, they cross paths with some of their neighbors. Jim and Irene maintain courteousness, which is returned to them by the neighbors, but upon being asked where they are going, the Westcotts simply say "business attended to Jim's employment". After leaving the house, they listen to the radio in the secrecy of their car and arrive at their destination. It is revealed that they're actually going to a concert by a famous musician. They enjoy the concert, with an expression on their face that clearly describes pride they have in themselves. When they return home, Irene turns on her radio again, with low gain so as to not awake the already bedded children, and her and Jim dance formally around their living room to the sound of their favorite tunes. The two look at each other, Irene enchanted, and Jim, content enough.

Suddenly, however, the radio starts malfunctioning. The two look at each other, surprised and frustrated.

 

Freeze frame to fade title in: THE ENORMOUS RADIO

 

Jim, remaining calm, tells Irene that the time for the little thing has come, but, "luckily", their sorrow over the radio won't last long. Irene asks Jim what he's thinking, and Jim says she will have to wait. Irene smiles, and the two head to bed. The two face one another while laid in bed, and when Irene asks Jim if he loves her, he says he does. Irene asks him how much; Jim says plentifully. The two bid each other good night and sleep - but Jim, while facing opposite Irene, has a look of trepidation and hesitation on his face.

 

The next day, as Irene talks to a friend, Natasha Letterman (Bonnie Somerville), she reveals, upon being asked, that she's still trying to keep her and Jim's passion for music as a secret from their neighbors. Natasha asks why, and Irene says that it's because it tells them apart from the neighbors. "The fellows who live around us... they are exactly like us. They're happy and prosper together. And so are we. We don't need to tell everyone what is the only thing that can set us apart from other absolutely normal, ordinary people." Natasha smiles, telling Irene that she does not have secrets, because she doesn't need to hide anything - she simply is what she shows. Irene is happy for her friend.

 

An hour later, Jim calls home. He tells her that his surprise is coming later this afternoon - a brand new radio. Irene is radiant. Crossfade to noon, when the radio arrives at the apartment. Irene sees that Jim bought an absolutely huge-sized crate, which the handyman places in the kitchen. Irene then brings it to the living room. She removes the enormous radio from the crate and examines the cabinet very carefully, as we cut between her looking at the radio, the radio itself, with its many dials and switches (all of which appear to confuse Irene), and Irene looking at other possessions carefully exposed in the living room, such as furnishings and colors, all of which contrast with the ugliness of the radio cabinet. She ends up making a face of disgust toward the radio, calling it an “intruder” in whispers. Hesitantly, she finally plugs the radio in and powers it on - the soundwave coming from the music playing, that of a piano, is so strong that it knocks an ornament down and breaks it. Irene becomes stressed, and when her two children arrive, she rushes and takes them to the park. Crossfade to later in the day, when she brings the children home, supervises their dining and bathing and as the kids go to bed, she finally settles down to turn on the radio again and listen to it carefully. The sound of a Mozart quintet played on a piano rings. Irene, at first irritated, slowly comes to peace with the lovely sound of the piano.

 

But then, the sound of something akin to gunpowder crackling starts accompanying the singing of the strings. At first, this static-like sound does not please Irene, who quickly gets up and tries to dabble with the dials and switches to turn it off, but to no avail. As the music progresses, Irene realizes that there’s more to this static: she can hear what appear to be rattles coming from what sounds like an apartment elevator, both the opening and closing of the elevator doors; through the Mozart music, she also starts hearing telephone bells, phones ringing, a vacuum cleaner, amidst a variety of other things. At last, with her curiosity spiked up to max, Irene looks shocked at the radio. After a few moments of tension, she gets up, turns the thing off and breathes in disbelief. She heads to the bathroom instead. Later at night, Jim, tired, settles down on the sofa. As he sighs his day off, he turns on the radio, and has a very similar experience to his wife - bedazzlement as to why music is being intrusively interrupted by interference from a variety of other things, mostly that of house or apartment utensils being used. Jim punches the radio cabinet hard, but to no avail. Crossfade to the next morning. Jim and Irene, as the children have breakfast, tell each other in secret that they experienced malfunctioning from the radio. Jim says he’s gonna call the people who sold him the radio to give them Hell; Irene tells him to just forget about it, but Jim says that the radio was a special gift for her, so he ought to make it right. Irene hugs Jim, who hides his hesitation from her.

 

After dropping her children at home, while Jim leaves suspiciously early to work, claiming to go to the radio store where he bought the cabinet, Irene has a date with Natasha, who is frustrated that her husband also left the house too early, without even wishing her a good morning. Irene tells her all about the presumably misworking radio. Irene says she was suspicious that the thing was an intruder from the beginning, but Natasha tells her friend that sometimes, our lives change from things we least expect. Irene, quiet, is returning home and gets a telephone call from Louis (Rob Brown), Natasha’s husband and Jim’s work colleague, who says that he was with Jim and saw him ring the people who had sold the radio to them. They had gone to the Westcotts’ house and fixed it. Irene is radiant and thanks Louis, although she asks why Jim didn't call her himself, and Louis says he was busy. On the other side of the phone, Louis hangs up and we reveal that Jim was watching him call Irene. Jim asks Louis if he thinks it’s the right thing to do, or if he should’ve just sent the radio back. Louis says that he should feel like he’s taking the right decision. Jim, who looks intensely at Louis, says that he bought the radio to try to repair what he feels for Irene. “I still feel terrible for the poor girl… I hope that getting her that humongous piece of junk will be enough for her to be happy, I had to churn out quite the dollar fist for it.” Louis nods, and then asks Jim if he has any financial worries, to which Jim, apprehensively, says he and Irene do not, but it's never easy to let go of money. Louis tells Jim that it would probably be harder to let go of Irene, and Jim breaks into a crocodile smile. Jim and Louis walk out, arms on each other's shoulder.

 

Irene quickly gets herself home and tunes into the radio. At first, the radio finally seems to be functioning normally, as a radio should, and Irene settles down to listen to some music. But shortly after playing a song normally, the interference from other apartments began again, frustrating Irene. Jim and the children arrive home and the family distances itself from the cabinet. The radio is left untouched for a while, until Jim and Irene, bored, bring their attention to it again. A pleasant Chopin Prelude precedes a man’s voice, coming from the radio, breaking into an argument with that of a woman:

 

Male: “For Christ’s sake, Cathy. Do you always have to play the piano when I get home?”
Cathy: “It’s the only option I have! I’m at the office all day!”
Male: “So am I! This Goddamned upright piano-”

The man slams the door shut, and the passionate, melancholic music begins again.

Irene is awestruck. Stunned, she turns to Jim and asks him if he heard that. Jim is somewhat passive; Irene says that she heard a man say something dirty. Jim says it’s probably a play, but Irene claims she thinks otherwise. “Put on another station, darling. Quick, please!”, Irene says. Jim complies.

Male: “Have you seen my garters? Oh man, my garters!”
Female: “Just button me up and I’ll find your garters!”

Jim switches to another station and the couple ends up hearing the voice of a man saying that he hates it when someone leaves the core of an apple in the ashtrays. Jim says he’s starting to think of it as strange, which Irene agrees with. Jim turns the knob once more. “‘On the coast of Coromandel where the early pumpkins blow,’” a woman with a pronounced English accent says, “‘in the middle of the woods lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò. Two old chairs, and half a candle, one old jug without a handle…’”.

 

“My God!” Irene cries. “That’s the Sweeneys’ nurse.” “‘These were all his worldly goods,’” the British voice continues. “Turn that thing off,” an impatient and scared Irene says. ”Maybe they can hear us!” Jim, noticing his wife’s unruliness, switches the radio off.

 

Irene: “That was Miss Armstrong, the Sweeneys’ nurse. She must be reading to the little girl. They live in 17-B. I’ve talked with Miss Armstrong in the Park, I know her voice very well. We… we must be getting other people’s apartments.”
Jim: “That’s impossible!”
Irene (alarmed): “Well, that was the Sweeneys’ nurse. I know her voice. I know it very well. And now…”
Jim: “What?”
Irene: “I’m wondering if they can hear us.”

Jim turns the switch. First from a distance and then nearer, nearer, as if borne on the wind, came the pure accents of the Sweeneys’ nurse again: “‘Lady Jingly! Lady Jingly!’” she says, “‘sitting where the pumpkins blow, will you come and be my wife?’, said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò...” Jim goes over to the radio and says: “Hello!”, loudly into the speaker, to no real avail, apart from the continued mumbles of Miss Armstrong. “‘I am tired of living singly,’” the nurse went on, “‘on this coast so wild and shingly, I’m a-weary of my life; if you’ll come and be my wife, quite serene would be my life…’” “I guess she can’t hear us,” Irene says, sighing with relief. “Try something else.” Jim turned to another station, and the living room was filled with the uproar of a cocktail party that had overshot its mark. Someone was playing the piano and singing the “Whiffenpoof Song,” and the voices that surrounded the piano were vehement and happy. “Eat some more sandwiches,” a woman shrieked. There were screams of laughter and a dish of some sort crashed to the floor. “Those must be the Fullers, in 11-E,” a stunned Irene says. “I knew they were giving a party this afternoon. I saw her in the liquor store. Isn’t this too divine?”, Irene turns to Jim to ask. Jim, with a smile of laughter on his face, giggles, and Irene giggles back. Irene then asks: “Try something else. See if you can get those people in 18-C.”

 

We crossfade to various moments, edited in quick succession, of the Westcotts spying on other people’s evening routines, arguments and spats. By the fourth or so cut, the Westcotts are weak with laughter, Jim turning to Irene and calling the radio “an absolutely ingenious invention”, which Irene, hesitantly at first, then giggles, nods and finally agrees with Jim. They go to bed. Later that night, after getting up to give their son a cup of water and looking at the window - no people to be found outside - Irene goes back to the living room and, with a lower volume, turns the radio on again. She hears some faint coughing, a moan, and then a man speaking: “Are you all right, darling?” he asks. “Yes,” a woman says wearily. “Yes, I’m all right, I guess,” and then she adds with great feeling (at this point, we cut to a slow close-up towards Irene’s increasingly terrified expression), “But, you know, Charlie, I don’t feel like myself any more. Sometimes there are about 15 or 20 minutes in the week when I feel like myself. I don’t like to go to another doctor, because the doctor’s bills are so awful already, but I just don’t feel like myself, Charlie. I just never feel like myself.” Cut to Irene quickly getting up and turning the radio off. She then looks at a portrait of the family, barely lit by the moonlight - herself, Jim and the two children on it. A few tears drop down her face. She then stands firm, nods negatively and whispers: “‘Tis fine… ‘tis fine. They were just… not young… not like…”. She then leaves and goes to bed.

 

The next day, Irene gets up and cooks breakfast for the family, braids her daughter’s hair and waits at the door until the kids leave. She notices Jim has left the house really early again, and starts getting anxious. Right afterwards, she races toward the radio and waves it on once more. Then, she hears a child scream at his parents: “I don’t want to go to school. I hate school. I won’t go to school. I hate school! Hate it!”, to which an enraged woman shouts back: “You will go to school. We paid $800 to get you into that school and you will go to school. And you’ll go even if it kills you!” Irene looks shocked at the early morning dissent in another apartment. She continues to dabble along with the radio’s dials and listening to various demonstrations of anger, carnal desire, luxury and lots of screaming through the various ‘channels’ that she swaps - we can hear various things, from someone having went to Sea Island, to someone overdrawing their bank account, and so forth. As she listens to the audios, she shows preoccupation. One particular audio, of a breakfast gone awry in arguments, makes Irene go grab the same family portrait we saw earlier. She caresses it fondly, while shaking in fear as she listens to the radio. She finally swaps the radio once more, landing at someone pouring an old record of “Missouri Waltz”. The music soothes her, but, silently, she still looks afraid.

 

Cross-dissolve to a fancy restaurant, where Natasha is awaiting Irene to arrive for lunch. Irene makes her way, and as she goes down an elevator, she finds herself waiting in an elevator, surrounded by multiple other women. There, we cut to camera shots of her pov looking at those women, back and forth with shots of her curious, but slightly worried expression, until the elevator makes a stop to catch another woman - this woman is humming Missouri Waltz. Irene discreetly looks at her, until the elevator makes its destination. Back at the restaurant, Natasha looks worried. Irene arrives in a rush, apologizing to Natasha for keeping her waiting, and Natasha excuses any problem. Irene orders a gin. Natasha, nervous, asks Irene if she’s okay, and Irene, while struggling to maintain the lie, says she’s fine. Irene eyes Natasha, who’s distracted for a minute while making her order. Irene is thinking about her, and we listen to what’s going on in her ruminations: the many different conversations she’s heard on the radio, including the arguments and the woman saying she doesn’t feel like herself anymore. Irene stays mostly quiet, until Natasha asks her, suspicious, if she is really alright, and Irene brushes her worries off. After drinking her gin in one chug, Irene asks Natasha if she thinks everyone has a secret. Natasha, befuddled and then worried, says she doesn’t have secrets. Irene, intensely, stares her down, and Natasha, sighing, says she can’t hold it in anymore: she does have a secret. Irene asks her to go on, and Natasha reveals: “I found out that Louis, my husband… is having an affair.” Irene’s jaw drops. Natasha asks her not to say this to anyone else, but that someone in Louis’ job told her that she found Louis kissing someone, but the person wouldn’t tell her who it was with so as to not break Natasha’s heart. Irene can’t believe it. Irene then thinks about Jim, and how he said he loved her. "Can't possibly be," she whispers to herself.

 

Crossfade to Irene arriving at home again, and, knowing that nobody is overwatching, turns the radio on once more. She hears, in the course of the afternoon, the halting conversation of a woman entertaining her aunt, the hysterical conclusion of a luncheon party, and hostess briefing her maid about some cocktail guests. After briefly editing through a good chunk of conversations, we land on a woman talking, with background noise sounding like that of a party: “It’s not a hat, it’s not a hat, it’s a love affair. That’s what Walter Florell said. He said it’s not a hat, it’s a love affair,” and then, in a lower voice, the same woman adds, “Talk to somebody, for Christ’s sake, honey, talk to somebody. If she catches you standing here not talking to anybody, she’ll take us off her invitation list, and I love these parties.” These last conversations trigger Irene more than any other, tempting her to turn off the radio, but when given the chance, she isn't able to do it, and sits down to listen more.

 

At night, Jim comes home, later than supposed to as he and Irene had a dinner scheduled. Irene is dressing up. Jim asks Irene if she paid her clothing bills to the Sitton Place locale of the chain store she bought her clothes from in the Westchester holiday. She says she did, and Jim sits down, only to notice that Irene looks sad and vague, so Jim hugs her. They go out to eat with their friends in the neighborhood, including Natasha and Louis. The tension simmering from Irene and Natasha, as they look at their husbands, is strong. Jim and Louis pay plenty of attention to each other, and Natasha keeps displaying a sad expression, while Irene simply watches down on everyone. On occasion, she interrupts Louis rudely and stares at him, Natasha and Jim intensely, which briefly confuses Jim. The evening, despite that, goes by pleasantly, with the broad night lights of the NYC skyline giving us a pretty panoramic background. As the Westcotts and the Lettermans leave, two men on a corner sing “Jesus is Sweeter”. Irene, assured, draws her husband’s arm and holds him there for a minute, to hear the music. “They are really such nice people, aren’t they?” she says. “They have such nice faces. Actually, they are so much nicer than a lot of the people we know.” Jim is befuddled by that. After tipping the pair, a look of radiant melancholy comes from Irene.

 

When they walk home from the party, Irene looks up at the spring stars. “How far the little candle throws its beams,” she exclaims. “So sine a good deed in a naughty world.” Jim sighs, until he notices that something was left by a table. It seems to be unpaid bills for clothing artifacts. Jim is weary and almost calls Irene, but calms down and brushes it aside for the moment being. Irene waits that night until Jim is asleep, and then goes out into the living room and turns on the radio. Night after night, she does this.

 

One such night, Jim comes home at about 6PM. As he takes off his hat and coat, Irene runs into the hall. Her face is shining with tears and her hair is disordered.

 

Irene: “Go up to 16-C, Jim! Don’t take off your coat, go up to 16-C. Mr. Osborn’s beating his wife. They’ve been quarreling since four o’clock, and now he is hitting her. Go up there and stop him!” 

From the radio in the living room, Jim hears screams, obscenities, and thuds. Jim refuses to go.

Jim: “You know you don’t have to listen to this sort of thing.”

He strides into the living room and turns the device off.

Jim: “It’s indecent. It’s like looking into windows. You know you don’t have to listen to this sort of thing. You can turn it off.”
Irene: “Oh, it’s so terrible, it’s so dreadful… (sobs) I’ve been listening all day, and it’s so depressing!”
Jim: “Well, if it’s so depressing, why do you listen to it? I brought this damned radio to give you some pleasure. I paid a great deal of money for it. I thought it might make you happy. I wanted to make you happy.”
Irene (in emergency): “Oh, darling, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t quarrel with me, please… (lays her head on his shoulder) All the others have been quarreling all day. Everybody’s been quarreling. They’re all worried about money and sex and love affairs and more money. Mrs. Hutchinson’s mother is dying of cancer in Florida and they don’t have enough money to send her to the Mayo Clinic. At least, Mr. Hutchinson says they don’t have enough money. And some woman in this building is having an affair with the handyman - with that hideous handyman. It’s too disgusting. And Mrs. Melville has heart trouble, and Mr. Hendricks is going to lose his job in April, and Mrs. Hendricks is horrid about the whole thing, and that girl that plays the “Missouri Waltz” is a whore, a common whore, and the elevator man has tuberculosis, and Mr. Osborn has been beating his wife! (continues to cry with her palms on her face)
Jim: “Well… why do you have to listen?! Why do you have to listen to this stuff if it makes you miserable?”
Irene: “Oh, don’t, don’t, don’t… life is too terrible, too sordid and awful. But we’ve never been like that, have we, darling? Have we? I mean, we’ve always been good and decent and loving to one another, haven’t we? And we have two children, two beautiful children. Our lives aren’t sordid, are they, darling? Are they? (flings her arms around his neck and draws his face down to hers) We don't need anyone else, we've got money, we've got everything we need, right, darling? We’re happy, aren’t we, darling? We are happy, aren’t we?”
Jim: “(worried, but trying to recompose himself) …of course we’re happy.”

Jim begins to surrender his resentment. “Of course we are happy. (sigh) I’ll have that damned radio fixed or taken away tomorrow.” He strokes her soft hair. “You love me... don’t you?”, Irene asks. “And we’re not hypercritical and full of dishonesty, are we? You love me and me only, right?"; Jim simply stares, without knowing what to say, to Irene’s hurting. She goes to bed, while Jim throws himself on the sofa. Irene goes inside the children’s bedroom to see her kids sleeping. She’s relieved and closes the door again… only for a pan to reveal that both the son and the daughter were awake.

 

A man comes in the morning and fixes the radio. After he leaves, Irene sits in front of the radio in silence. She caresses the family portrait one more time. She starts to cry, and one of her tears falls on the picture, leaving a mark where Irene and Jim are holding hands, fading that part of the picture off. Irene, sad, drops the portrait and waits a few seconds. She recomposes herself. Then, she cautiously gets up and turns on the radio, and is happy to hear a California-wine commercial and a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, including Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”. She keeps the radio on all day (we see crossfade edits of her day going by) and nothing untoward comes from the speaker.

 

A Spanish suite is being played, precisely as Jim comes home, with a pale-looking face. “Is everything all right?” he asked. Irene, despite her apprehensions, is cheerful and says it is. They have some cocktails and go to dinner with the sound of the “Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore, followed by Debussy’s “La Mer”.

 

Jim goes forth: “I paid the bill for the radio today. It cost $400. I hope you’ll get some enjoyment out of it”. “Oh, I’m sure I will”, Irene says. “$400 is a good deal more than I can afford,” he goes on. “I wanted to get something that you’d enjoy. It’s the last extravagance we’ll indulge in this year. I see that you haven’t paid your clothing bills yet. I saw them on your dressing table.” He looks directly at her.

Jim: “Why did you tell me you paid them? Why did you lie to me?”
Irene: “I just didn’t want you to worry, Jim… (drinks some water) I’ll be able to pay my bills out of this month’s allowance. There were the slipcovers last month, and that party, and then Westchester-”;
Jim: “You’ve got to learn to handle the money I give you a little more intelligently, Irene! You’ve got to understand that we don’t have as much money this year as we had last. I had a very sobering talk with Mitchell today. No one is buying anything. We’re spending all of our time promoting new issues, and you know how long that takes. I’m not getting any younger, you know. I’m 37. My hair will be gray next year. I haven’t done as well as I hoped to do. And I don’t suppose things will get any better.”
Irene: “Yes, dear…”
Jim: “(bitter) We’ve got to start cutting down. We’ve got to think of the children. To be perfectly frank with you, I worry about money a great deal."
Irene: "You said you didn't…"
Jim: "I do. I do. I’m not at all sure of the future. No one is. If anything should happen to me, there's insurance, but that won’t go very far today. I’ve worked awfully hard to give you and the children a comfortable life. I don’t like to see all my energies, all my youth, wasted in fur coats and radios and slipcovers and-“
Irene: ”Please, please, please, Jim, please… they’ll hear us.”
Jim: “Who’ll hear us? Our children can’t hear us.”
Irene: “The Radio.”
Jim: “Oh, I’m sick! I’m sick to death of your apprehensiveness. The radio can’t hear us. Nobody can hear us. And what if they can hear us? Who cares?” 

 

Irene got up from the table and went into the living room. Jim went to the door and shouted from there. “Why are you so Christly all of a sudden? What’s turned you overnight into a convent girl? You stole your mother’s jewelry before they probated her will. You never gave your sister a cent of that money that was intended for her - not even when she needed it. You made Grace Howland’s life miserable, and where was all your pity and your virtue when you went to that abortionist?” This sentence makes Irene’s head flop up, and her expression changes from sadness to pure shock. Jim continues. “I’ll never forget how cool you were. You packed your bag and went off to have that child murdered as if you were going to Nassau. If you’d had any reasons, but you didn't! No… I, however, have good reasons to let this end. I'm sick of this marriage, I'm sick of these lies, I'm sick of pretending to be your nurse! You, you-" Irene, shellshocked, stands for a minute before the hideous cabinet, disgraced and sickened, holding her hand on the switch. Jim continued to shout at her from the door. The voice on the radio was suave and noncommittal. “An early-morning railroad disaster in Tokyo,” the loudspeaker said, “killed 29 people. A fire in a Catholic hospital near Buffalo for the care of blind children was extinguished early this morning by nuns. A storm is brewing toward the East Coast, to hit New York in three hours. The temperature is 47ºF. The humidity is 89.” Irene, face wet with tears, turns off the radio. After that storm forecast, she races toward the window to see the outside. Clouds are starting to surface. She turns around - she sees that her son and daughter are standing behind her in the living room, looking aghast at the argument their parents just had. We cut to a shot where we see both Irene’s face and the clouds brewing. As the sound of lightning starts to hit, Irene’s face gradually changes from shocked and saddened to pure rage, her teeth grinding and shaking.

 

Crossfade to the next morning, and it’s pouring rain in Sitton Place. In the Westcotts’ bedroom, Jim, who went to bed early, notices that Irene left the bed. Jim calls for his wife, and finds her nowhere. When he opens the bedroom door and peeks outside, he can only shout in shock: the house’s furniture, ornaments and colors were all turned upside down, broken for the most part. Jim is absolutely furious and calls for Irene, who’s nowhere to be found.

 

Then, he finds a letter, addressed to him, on the kitchen table. Throughout this entire segment, we get a zoom out shot from the Westcotts' house to a woman in heels and two other people walking somewhere in the stormy streets. The letter, with writings front and back of the paper, reads (we hear it from Irene’s voice): 

 

“My darling,

Our quarreling last night was strictly unnecessary and malevolent. I want to offer my sincere apologies for holding back my inner duels, and whatever not so nice things I have done to us, or to you. I thought that we had a perfect life, and I wanted to protect it from any intrusions, but I guess our truths will always find their way home. Nevertheless, I also want to apologize for my forthcoming rudeness, for if our life is not perfect appearing, then you do not deserve to throw your grievances at me, when you are no more than an open door of secrets yourself.

 

You do not need to remind me that I stole my mother’s jewelry and never gave to my sister, when I do not remind you, or even question you, about your sins. I know that you help yourself almost every night. Yes, I know that you’re having an affair with Louis Letterman, and there were others before him. I knew it back then, and I know it now. I hate that, because I love you. And I do not understand your using of my visit to a birth control doctor against me - it's not something that bothers me anyway. But instead of wanting to argue with you about it, I never said anything. To protect our life.

 

But if you don’t love me, and if you think that I’m selfish for making mistakes or committing to things that you simply will never understand, then you don’t deserve me either. How dare you judge me. I never judged you for past life - I chose to understand you instead! But darling, maybe if we break away from avoiding our past, we can find peace again. I’m going away but for a while. Don’t expect me soon, because I know that, deep down, you won’t expect me at all.

 

Goodbye, Jim. I love you. 

 

Sincerely, Irene

 

PS: The children are coming with me. I found out last night that they were being tormented in school, and never told us because they were afraid we would punish them for not wanting to go to school after we paid that money to school them.”

 

The zoom out single take culminates by revealing Irene and the kids as the dissenting people. Back at the apartment, Jim finishes reading and, enraged, looks at the enormous radio (we cut to the radio with a dolly zoom) - the only equipment in the house that isn’t broken. He folds the letter in a paper ball and throws it straight at the radio and then proceeds to wreck the radio. He screams in frustration.

 

As we cut away, “I Travel Alone” by Noel Coward plays as Irene, brown scarf around her neck and shades on her eyes, brings her children with her to a train.

 

THE END

 

PHOENIX FIRE PICTURES | YEAR X

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

S O I L

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; BBC Films; Pastel

Based On: Soil, by Arianna Reiche

Director: Charlotte Wells

Producer: Barry Jenkins

 

Genre: Drama

Release Date:

• November 6, Y10 (limited);
• November 13 (limited expansion);
• November 20 (limited expansion #2)
• November 25 (wide);
• December 4 (wide expansion);
• December 11 (wide expansion #2)

Theater Count:

• 5 (November 6 - limited);
• 20 (November 13 - limited expansion);
• 400 (November 20 - limited expansion #2);
• 800 (November 25 - wide);
• 1600 (December 4 - wide expansion);
• 3028 (December 11 - wide expansion #2)

Rating: R, for strong language, scenes of violence, heavy themes and disturbing imagery

Format: 2D

Budget: $8 million

Runtime: 93 minutes

 

Cast:

• Sabrina Bartlett as Anita
• Riz Ahmed as Danny
• Archie Yates as Kir

Filmmaking Note: The film has three-act narrative elements but takes keynotes from the Slow Cinema genre and has a looser structure than others. Shots are taken at a particularly slow pace.

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

The film starts with a shot that focuses on a very still drain fly, on a white wall. After a moment, we hear a few bangs on the wall - cut to a young woman, Anita (Sabrina Bartlett), to whom the hands belong to. She looks fixedly toward the fly; it won’t move. Anita slowly retracts her hand.

 

Anita slowly makes her way to a door, with lettering by the side that reads: “Room 105”. She knocks once. No response. She knocks again, still no response. She grabs the master-key from her belt, and shyly connects her nose to the door, saying: “Good morning”. She opens the door, and inside, there is an untouched bed and a full, open suitcase, next to a sign that reads: “Soilage Charge £150”. Anita comes inside, with an expression of clear anxiousness, and turns her gaze to the bathroom door: “Excuse me?”, she says. “Excuse me, ma’am?” She hears mumbling and movement inside, and quickly says that she’ll come back later. She hesitantly moves her cart and goes on the business of leaving the room, until, from the bathroom, comes the raspy, groggy voice of a woman apologizing. The woman comes from inside and stumbles through saying that “it’s a funny story”. Anita awkwardly smiles and glances, as the woman explains how she fell asleep inside the bathroom. The woman then says: “You must get this all the fucking time… can you… can you have a word with your manager about that fucking sign, please?” - pointing at the Soilage Charge sign. She repeats it, and Anita, pale as a ghost, nods affirmatively. After she’s done cleaning the room up and leaving it, she drops a bar of chocolate down on the floor, next to the door of the room on the outside hall. She looks in a mist between relieved and scared.

 

On her way out, Anita overhears a man, Danny (Rami Malek), telling a family of four how to get the bus to town. Anita, looking from a distance, stoically breathes a sigh of relief, although she seems worried. We cut to her returning home. It’s a generic-looking apartment. In the living room, 11-year-old Kir (Archie Yates) lies asleep on his bed, which is located right in front of the television. Anita sees the television on and stops to wonder. The TV is on a cable channel for children - we can see invoices stacked underneath the cable box. Anita, silently, tugs Kir. She rubs her forehead - she’s tired. She falls asleep on the couch, little distance away from Kir. We see the content of her dream: a line of women all waiting to, or talking to Anita, asking directions. Some women speak in broken English, with an Eastern European accent. Anita doesn’t know how to speak to them. She’s hesitant, frustrated and anxious.

 

The next morning, in what appears to be a slow movement day, Anita and Danny are doing some chores related to cleaning the place. Danny eyes Anita for a moment and makes a frustrated expression. “Com’ere”, he whisperingly calls her to his office in heavily accented English. Anita seems confused. In the office, Danny asks Anita how she would go about doing it. “Do what?”, she asks - “what you ask me to do”, he says. “I am glad to help… but… I don’t know. I’m just… not sure. Not sure about this”, he concludes. Anita says she doesn’t really know either, but pleads with him to please continue, her saying he has no idea how helpful he has been. Danny nods nervously, but then says they’ve been lucky that triggered cousins and uncles haven’t done anything drastic yet. “Yeah, it’s always cousins or uncles”, Anita nods, saying that they shouldn’t care. She seems confident in her perspective, and Danny jokes about that - there’s a light moment of smiles. Anita looks away. A flicker of worry appears on her face.

 

Later, Anita is doing cleaning duty. She sees some contraption on the floor that contains the mash that some dead flies have turned into. She sighs as one of the other workers says: “One day, you’re gonna have to get rid of that”. “Why me?”, she asks, but she does not get an answer. She stoically continues her duty, only to overhear Danny inside one of the bedrooms. She peeks into a slight opening on the door - we can see “Soilage Char-”, getting the picture immediately. “Your mum is staying here, then?”, he asks… and the voice that responds leaves Anita in shock as to how young she sounds: “Um… I…”; then, Danny continues, with a slightly overloud tone: “S’alright, I’m sure she gave you a confirmation email in her name to check in with.” Anita slowly sneaks inside the bedroom… the girl inside, dark-haired and casual-looking, could be any age… twenty, eighteen, fourteen? The girl tells Danny that her mum is comin’ to meet her later. Danny nods. “I’ll just make a note that she’ll be paying by card when she arrives.” “Um-” “Uuuunless you’ve got cash in you now?” The girl looks at Anita for the moment. Anita dodges sights immediately, becoming nervous. Danny calls her attention again, and the girl drops a large backpack on the floor, saying she has cash now.

 

At night, before leaving the hotel, Anita can see a woman with leaflets standing outside a shop. The woman’s lips are moving but she can’t make out the words… or her age. She might be walking around aimlessly, she might be singing… she might even be crying. Anita can’t tell. She’s worried. Back at her home, Anita finds Kir restlessly playing by himself, with the TV on in the back. Anita asks him: “How have you been?”; Kir asks her when their parents are coming back. Anita stops, looking terrified for the moment. “Um… they… they’re coming… s-soon. Maybe when we’re… I dunno.” Kir is confused, but nods and says he’s excited to see them again. “Can’t wait to tell mum that I spent days alone ‘till night. Makes me look like Tarzan.” Sure enough, Tarzan is airing on television. Anita looks sorrowful. We cut to Anita sleeping. We only see her turning and turning around on her bed. In the morning, she seems more quiet and calm… just about when Kir touches her on her shoulder to wake her up. She kisses Kir on the cheek and we get a close look at her face… she has huge dark circles underneath her eyes. 

 

In the morning, some girls who say they come from the airport approach the desk and start talking before Danny can usher them into the ideal script. Danny still manages to get himself on track, and writes down directions for the girl. Anita looks from atop of the stairs, well distanced from Danny’s immediate line of sight. She cracks a light smile. As she cleans up a back office, Danny is leaning against a wall while hanging out with her. He seems down. She stops working for a minute and tells him: “You’re doing great. I wouldn’t change a thing. Other than your tone, sometimes a bit too loud.” Danny takes a few seconds of silence for himself… before saying: “It never gets easier.” In another slow, long shot, Anita stops, stares at him, slowly nods and then whispers semi-inaudibly, as if talking to herself, but we make out what she’s saying from her lip movement: “I know.” At night, we see the contraption with the dead flies further filled up (but we don’t linger on it). Anita is outside, smoking a cigarette, when she sees a group of three suspicious-looking men enter the hotel, whose name is revealed for the first time through outside lettering: Colomnia Airport Hotel.

 

The men go into the hotel and confront Danny, who is in the lobby. One of them is straightforward and tells Danny: “We know what you’re doing here. We know. My sister was here last week.” Danny remains polite and composed, telling the men that he sees nothing wrong with hosting someone who responsibly chooses to stay; but the men’s leader says that his sister isn’t even old enough to drink, and she shouldn’t have come here. “We know… that you helped her do something.” Danny doesn’t shake: “Yes. We helped her.” The man, angered, tells Danny that it’s him who has the best interests of his sister in mind, but Danny says it seems he only has his own instead. The man twitches his nose in anger. At this moment, Anita comes from behind and asks what’s going on here. She doesn’t back down, but is not particularly confrontational and simply asks the gentlemen not to cause a fuss, as they wouldn’t wanna call the police at this hour. The man in charge suddenly has a sly smile on his face, calling Anita “a babe” and getting up on her, for helping Danny as well. Anita turns her face, while the man shouts: “Pig!” right on her face. Danny says that’s enough and warns the men that authority is coming, but one of the two other men punches Danny in the face, while the other grabs him from the floor and traps his arms. The leader smiles on Anita’s face, as he then turns around and, with complete premeditation, brings out a set of keys. Danny manages to roll over and escape the man’s grip, then withstanding a slash of the keys on his fingers - which become bloodied - and kicking the leader down. Anita races to call the police and an ambulance. The other two men grab Danny, but as they’re about to punch him, Danny headbutts one of them. In one quick shot, one of them manages to land a light punch underneath Danny’s belly button, it doesn’t harm Danny too much.

 

We cut to the aftermath of the fight. In a hospital, Anita is with Danny as he is attended by nurses. His hands are taped. Anita’s palm is over her eyes, and then we see her distraught, baffled expression. Danny looks away, pissed. An ambulance brings them both back to the hotel. Inside, Anita asks Danny if he’ll be alright, and Danny says he is. Anita apologizes to Danny for making him go through this, but Danny, putting on a light smile, says that if anything, what happened motivates him to do it even more. Anita, after a few seconds, breaks a chuckle. “I mean it”, he says and shrugs. “Just… I like to help people.” Anita nods. “I do too”, she says. “I just wish I knew how… and…” she continues, “...nevermind.” Danny stays silent, but ponders over Anita, who looks desolated.

 

She passes by the woman with the leaflets again, remaining curious about her. Then she returns home, where Kir is reading a comic book with the TV on. She apologizes to Kir for taking longer than normal to get home again, and asks Kir why he is up. Kir says that he was curious about the comic that his friend gave him. “Your friend?”, Anita asks, and Kir replies: “Yes. Billy from 2B. His mum let him play with me today. We stayed at his house.” Anita nods, but asks Kir to at least call her first before saying yes or no to strangers. Kir says Billy and his mum are neighbors and not strangers; Anita says that’s not really what she meant, and that her point remains. Kir says: “‘Tis the first comic I have.” Anita gulps, lowly saying she knows. Kir goes: “Do you think mum and dad are gonna buy me another?” Anita closes her eyes in disbelief and pain. “Hum… I… (covers her tears) I don’t know, dear.” Kir sighs: “You need to tell me where they are, Anita.” She silently exhales, not saying a word. Suddenly, she breaks: “Mum and dad… I…”; Kir stops paying attention and returns his attention to the comic. Anita is wordless.

 

The next morning, one of the workers tells Anita that the time has come for her to lay out the fly drainage left on the hallway. Anita cringes in disgust, but manages to bring herself to carry the contraption with the dead fly leftovers on it. It’s turned into mushy water at this point. Anita rolls her eyes, tries not to look at it directly and carries it outside. There, the woman with the leaflets goes right up to her. She’s very direct and asks Anita, with a loud voice and a Russian accent: “Do you know the Shannon flight? When it gets in?”. Anita, anxious, lets out a “what?”, and the woman asks again: “The Shannon flight? Do YOU know when it GETS IN?” Anita starts panicking silently - flashbacks of the women in his dreams play again. The woman shouts at her again, and this catches Anita off-guard as she accidentally drops the fly drainage and spills it all over herself. Both women are shellshocked and the leaflets woman screams out: “What is wrong with YOU?!”. Anita doesn’t know what to say. The leaflet woman runs inside the hotel while complaining left and right about “the stupid worker outside”. Danny comes out and tries to calm her down off-screen, while Anita looks at her white dress and her legs: she’s spilled all over. On the floor, a weird clump that looks like soil. Anita exhales, closes his eyes and clings her fists.

 

Inside, Anita is waiting for Danny. The door opens and the leaflet woman comes out of Danny’s office - she looks at Anita and then runs off. Anita, sorrowful, enters Danny’s office. Danny’s hands are still taped. Anita asks him if it still hurts, Danny chuckles. Danny whispers calmly: “What happened?” Anita tells him that she… she felt uncontrollably afraid. “Of what?”, Danny asks; “I don’t know”, Anita says. “I don’t know. I wish I did. (a beat) I see them come in and out and I just… I don’t know what to say. I just don’t. I… (a beat) I can’t know what to say. I can’t. Because I don’t know how they feel. I could never know.” Danny says that it’s true that everyone’s feelings are unique. Anita nods and continues, while tearing up: “I… don’t know how to tell them that… that I care about them and I’m here for them, even if they don’t know anything about me… or me about them, but I just… I don’t know what to tell them.” Danny says he understands. Anita jokingly remarks that he said it never gets easier; he chuckles, saying it’s also true, but he doesn’t care. He goes: “You know we haven’t been doing this for too long, and that it’s been your incentive. But I… I never realized how… fractured their world might be. When those men came to beat me up… I can only imagine the horror they go through.” Anita nods. “Do you have a secret? T-to talk to them? I-I’m afraid I don’t have the right words.” Danny says: “Sometimes words don’t matter.” A beat. Anita ponders silently.

 

It’s night. Anita returns home. Kir is watching television. Anita stops before addressing her brother. She looks anxious, but she exhales and stays firm. Kir greets her. Anita sits on the couch next to Kir, who asks her how her day was. Anita chuckles, saying that it was… a long one. Kir shrugs, saying Billy was here again. “Billy is a great hugger. He hugs his dog a lot”, he says. “He hugged me too.” Anita asks Kir why did Billy hug him… Kir answers: “Because I still think about mum.” Anita stays there for a moment. Her eyes well up. She gulps and finally speaks: “It’s time you know. (a long beat) Mum… mum and dad… they’re not here.” Kir is surprised. Anita continues: “Dad d-did… bad things to mum. He is alive, but he’s… not here.” Kir sternly asks: “...what about mum?”; Anita, after some brief silence, opens up: “Kir… t-the bad things that dad did… they were too much for mum. (a beat) She became pregnant… but that child would have not lived a life of love. She wanted to let him go… found a place to do it… but the place wasn't safe. She…”; Anita stops, and sobs for a silent moment. Kir, saddened, wipes a tear or two from his eyes. He whispers: “I miss her too.” And then… he hugs Anita. Anita stops, looks to the distance while Kir hugs her and then remembers - all the women in her dreams… all the women that went to the hotel… and then, one last shot, of a woman in her 30’s, holding a young teen Anita’s hand, while carrying a 4-year-old Kir on her arm. The woman shimmers under sunlight. In a shot from Anita’s pov, the woman smiles. Cut back to Anita… she hears Danny again: “Sometimes words don’t matter.” Anita closes her eyes and holds a strong grip onto Kir. We stay on that shot for about 15 seconds.

 

That night, Anita and Kir sleep together on Kir’s floor bed. Anita seems to finally be resting a little bit easier during her sleep. The next morning, she herself lets Billy, a kid Kir’s age, in her house, while greeting Billy’s mum. She thanks her personally for letting Kir not stay alone, while the mum says she’s more than happy to help. She says that, if need be, she’s willing to help Kir be schooled. Anita thanks her. Cut to her making her way to the Colomnia. There, she works while hearing some commotion coming from the lobby. She does the same procedure as we saw her do in the early goings of the film: knocking on a bedroom door and waiting for a response, only to slowly peek her way in. There’s another woman in a bathtub. This time Anita can hear the squeaking the moment she steps into the room. She’s gathering both a towel and sheets that don’t belong to the hotel, as well as toilet paper. Then she’s there, standing in front of her, apologising, giggling without a trace of laughter. “It’s funny,” the woman says, gesturing to the bathroom, wiping her face, tripping over herself to say: “I’ll let you do your job.” Anita, nervously, nods. She starts cleaning the bins around, but the woman inside does not move. Anita tries to distract herself, but can’t. She stops. The woman then goes: “I’m fine… fine on the flight, fine during. But… I didn’t even….” - the following gripping silence is tense, until Anita whispers: “...bleed. You didn’t even bleed.” The woman then stutters to say that her husband is coming and they might be able to pay then, but she stops and finally crumbles to her knees, looking lost. As she begins to quietly cry… Anita kneels down… and hugs the woman. The woman is surprised, but after a moment, she holds onto Anita and cries on her shoulders. We linger on this hug for a bit. They let go… and the woman asks Anita not to judge her. Anita says she will never - “your body, your rules.” The woman cracks a warm, bittersweet smile. Anita says that a wise person once told her that sometimes, words don’t matter. And a much wiser person than her showed her what kind of words do matter. They smile at each other and sit in silence.

 

Anita leaves the bedroom, laying a chocolate bar by the door, while leaving the woman to rest. Danny comes up to her. He can see Anita’s shimmering smile, and nods affirmatively. Anita continues her chores, while hearing Danny attend to more people. She heads into the bathroom. A moment after beginning to clean it up, she stops and looks at herself in the mirror. After another flicker of the flashback containing Anita’s mum, the last shot of the film is Anita… hugging herself.

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[MCKillswitch123]

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Amblin Entertainment; Vancouver Media

Based On: La Casa de Papel (known in America as Money Heist), by Álex Pina

Director: Steven Spielberg

 

Genre: Heist/Thriller/Drama

Release Date: January 16th, Y10

Theater Count: 3877

Rating: PG-13, for language, strong violence, sexual moments, and disturbing imagery

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

Budget: $100 million

Runtime: 150 minutes

 

Cast:

• Lyrica Okano as Tokyo
• Seth Rogen as The Professor
• Cobie Smulders as Rachel Murrell
• Cillian Murphy as Berlin
• Gabriel LaBelle as Rio
• Sofia Boutella as Nairobi
• Algee Smith as Denver
• Hunter Schafer as Monica Gatsby / Stockholm
• Kristofer Hivju as Helsinki
• Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Oslo
• Hannah Rae as Allison Parker
• with Jason Bateman as Arthur Roman
• with Jonathan Banks as William Francis
• and Jeffrey Wright as Moscow

Logline: A group of masked thieves, under the guidance of a mysterious man named the Professor, invades the Bureau of Engraving and Painting.

 

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

Washington, D.C..

 

We open in a typical American coffee shop, where a woman (Cobie Smulders), asks for a latte. She is seen staring at a picture of her baby daughter, silently and longingly. "She's beautiful", she hears... it comes from behind her: a fellow with glasses and formal wear (Seth Rogen). Confused, she thanks him, and they chit chat for a moment. He introduces himself as Matt Lauren, an architect from Nevada, and she introduces herself as Rachel Murrell, a police officer here from D.C.. The two instantly hit it off, with Rachel admitting to Matt that his introduction was a bit sudden and weird, but she's getting accustomed - he jokes that he's bad at flirting, making her laugh.

 

We swiftly transition in a single take, from the coffee shop to the outside of the building of the Bureau of Engraving and Painting (BEP). Outside, we see, from behind (no faces revealed), a group of eight people of diverse physical stature, men and women, wearing orange jumpsuits and Salvador Dalí masks that cover up their whole face, along with the hoodies of their jumpsuits. They are assessing, from the top of a building, the entrance to the BEP of a group of private school kids. One of them, who sounds like an older man (Jeffrey Wright), sees them go inside and breaks it: "She's in", to which, an imposing sounding male voice (Cillian Murphy) nods: "Wonderful. Let's get moving". Then, a female voice (Lyrica Okano) goes: "Now or never, I suppose", to which the previous man chuckles at. After a moment, the leader incites that they move forward with the plan. Sure enough, they get inside a truck parked nearby. Two of them, two young men (by physical stature), immediately leave the truck and enter the BEP building, passing right by the private school teens, including the curious but shy Allison Parker (Hannah Rae), who hesitates in making talk with anyone on the tour. The two people in jumpsuits sneak right past a worker's office, where a woman, Monica Gatsby (Hunter Schaefer), leaves a pregnancy ecography picture on the table of a man, Arthur Roman (Jason Bateman). Arthur is uninterested and waves a disappointed Monica off. One of the men in jumpsuits looks at her and hesitates a little to return. But, right after, the other six jumpsuit people are inside the BEP. When they give the signal by walkie-talkie, one of the two men hacks into a remote lockdown of the BEP. Right after, the other people in jumpsuits reveal firearms - from pistols to rifles and shotguns - and hold everyone, including the teens in the entrance hall, and the workers in their offices, hostage. When everyone is gathered up front, we see the eight different people together again, and the first one is seen taking off her mask: a Japanese American young woman (Okano). She narrates via voice-over: "My name is Tokyo. And I guess there's a lot to explain."

 

We get the credits sequence, which takes heavy inspiration from the original opening of the show, but replacing the Spanish Mint with the BEP building:

 

After the intro, we cut to a medieval castle. We see Tokyo talking to a young man (Gabriel LaBelle). The two are having flirty chat, talking about their hobbies - Tokyo names that watching people dive in chaos is her favorite thing, while “Rio”, the young guy’s chosen identification, says that she is quickly becoming one of his favorite things. Tokyo laughs, saying that her trust is pretty muted towards people in general. "They'd call it bad parenting in school", she says. Rio agrees, saying his parents raised him well and he always dreamt of working as a hacker for authority like in the CSI-type shows, but he feels different now… he too doesn’t feel trust. Tokyo asks if this is the reason why he's doing what he's doing, and Rio retorts by saying all of them have a reason: "Some have kids, some are grieving… some are just dicks. And some of us simply don't fit in", the two then smiling at each other. Tokyo narrates (and we see, inside the castle) how eight of them lived there under the guidance of a leader, preparing them for the heist. The thieves, whose faces are shown, are her, Rio, Nairobi (Sofia Boutella), Moscow (Wright), Denver (Algee Smith) who is actually Moscow’s son, Oslo (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), Helsinki (Kristofer Hijvu), and the #1 in the thieves’ group, Berlin (Murphy).

 

We cut straight away to present time. Berlin, mask off, is preparing the group for a nationwide live stream, while the hostages are panicked. The thieves seem calm, but Tokyo is a little hesitant, with Rio asking her to keep her cold blood. The robbers then put their masks on and go live. Berlin addresses not just the US, but the whole world, saying that they are about to make history, while the seven other thieves stand firm behind him, guarding him and keeping an eye on the hostages. Outside the BEP, a tent is mounted, with Washington PD and FBI officers. In the coffee shop, Rachel gets a call to come immediately to work, and she has to shrug off Matt, both seeming disappointed, but after she leaves, Matt smiles. Rachel is named leader of the police operation to save the hostages, and she is put on a call with Berlin. Berlin’s demands are clear: the hostages leave if they leave. Rachel warns Berlin that they are in no position to negotiate lives, but Berlin says that they have the power here, so Rachel is the one who’s gonna have to think better. The stream ends, Rachel seems hesitant.

 

After the live stream, the thieves take their masks off again. Berlin laughs hysterically, while Nairobi says the party is about to start. Tokyo and Rio, Oslo and Helsinki, and Moscow and Denver all group up in pairs and head toward a room, where they meet in secret, away from the hostages, who try to escape, but to no avail as the whole place is locked down. The thieves all gather, but soon, Berlin and Nairobi fall into an argument, as Berlin brags that he’s the #1, but Nairobi quickly retorts that if he means he gets to stamp over all of them, he’s dead wrong. Denver and Rio talk, with Rio saying he noticed Denver looking at the secretary, and Denver says he better not tell anyone in the group, “but yeah… she bad.” Helsinki tells Oslo that his ex is probably dreaming of having a guy who’s gonna be as stinking rich as he'll be, while Oslo makes a sign of ‘ok’ with a funny face; and Moscow talks to Tokyo, quipping about today's youth, leaving Tokyo slightly at ease. Soon enough, they get a call to an old telephone installed in the room. Berlin answers… and the voice is familiar: it’s the man who called himself “Matt”, but in reality, the thieves know him as “the Professor” (Rogen). The Professor congratulates the team for a good job, and incites them to keep going as planned. Tokyo narrates that the Professor had prepared them for pretty much any situation - we see some rough spots during the heist, which are all well taken care of by the thieves, due to prior advice from the Professor warning them of those exact scenarios beforehand. Tokyo says that this is why he's called the Professor - and even though he couldn't prepare us for every single thing, he still tried.

 

Later, we see the thieves finally take some action, by stepping forward towards the terrified hostages, including Allison Parker, Arthur and Monica - all hostages are now dressed up with their own orange jumpsuits and Dalí masks. Nairobi forces Allison to step forward, which she does, terrified, and brings her inside. Meanwhile, Arthur decides to put on a bravado show and try to scare Berlin. Tokyo and Rio laugh hysterically, and Berlin simply scoffs him off, as Oslo and Helsinki escort him out of the room, Arthur putting on a funny terrified face. Berlin orders the hostages to head down to the paper money mint and start doing two things: one group begins digging a hole, not specifying what the hole is for; and the other starts printing hundreds of thousands of dollar notes. The hostages are obviously scared. Denver notices that Monica is evidently terrified and, sneakily, tries to start talking to her. She does not pay him any attention other than fearing him, but Denver proves charming enough and sincere enough, managing to win Monica’s attention over with some humor, while Arthur, ahead of them, notices and becomes jealous - not before a laughing Helsinki calls Arthur “hot”, admitting to him that he’s gay and finds older men attractive. Arthur, scared, tries to charm Helsinki, but Helsinki brings in Oslo, his best friend, whom he claims likes to work as a barber and is willing to “give Arthur a great look” - the brute Oslo, cheeky, humorous grin on his face, then proceeds to shave Arthur’s hair, making him cry. Meanwhile, Berlin and Nairobi continue to argue with each other, as Berlin says that everything is under control, and Nairobi says that his cockiness will be his downfall; Berlin retorts that this “is a Goddamn patriarchy” and he’s the one in control, because the Professor trusts *him* the most, so she better understand that soon. Nairobi is pissed, saying that her level headedness is far more suitable for leading the squad, but Berlin slaps her in the face and says that “the team should stick together”, while Nairobi is furious.

 

Tokyo and Rio continue hitting it off in secret, discussing their trust not only in each other (Tokyo insists they’re still friends, but cannot really shake off the attraction she feels for Rio, despite him being a few years younger; and vice-versa), but in themselves, as Tokyo suggests that her parents were abusive and negligent toward her. Rio, knowing the contrast with his own life, embraces Tokyo. Moscow watches over the hostages, while secretly gathering other weapons that were snuck inside by the robbers into the back door of the building - it is then shown that the Professor had sketched the plan (and we see Rachel and the remaining members of the police squad figuring it out, thanks to the available video surveillance that one of the FBI’s manages to turn back on after Rio hacked into it) as to prepare to prevent a back door intrusion by the FBI, and also force the hostages to work on dollar note prints that they can then turn into legal money… the biggest heist in US history… if not the world’s history. Rachel is flabbergasted, while FBI Chief Operator William Francis (Jonathan Banks) pressures her to deal with the thieves, the criminals, as soon as possible, which she agrees with, while also getting a text message from the Professor (whom she still knows as “Matt”) to invite her for dinner.

 

Allison is isolated from all the other hostages, and the police - as the Professor had envisioned as well - suspect that they are trying to use her, who is actually the daughter of an important member of the United Kingdom Embassy in the US, as hostage for the negotiation. Rachel gets in contact with Berlin again (may I not forget to mention that the thieves and hostages are always masked on-camera), and she is reassured by him that Allison will be fine, as long as *they* collaborate, then proceeding to bring Allison in front of the camera and putting a knife in front of her neck, as we hear Allison’s panicked crying. Rachel and Francis, visibly disturbed, tell their squad that they need to enter the BEP immediately. Meanwhile, after being brought back to isolation by Berlin, Allison is secretly comforted by Nairobi, who thinks Berlin went too far, even if she knew he would never kill her. Nairobi accompanies Allison to the bathroom, and after that, incentives the young girl to be less shy and stronger, making her say, with a finger gun pointed at the mirror, “my name is Allison Parker and I’m the Goddamn queen”, which Allison, confident and happy, does, as Nairobi calls her “a superfemale”. The two girls get along, while Tokyo was listening to everything. Meanwhile, Denver and Monica, to Arthur’s jealousy, also still hit it off, as Denver projects that Monica really is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. Monica opens up about being transgender, and Denver says he loathes homophobia and transphobia, so there’s nothing there to fear. Monica also opens up about being a mother soon, thanks to a friend’s surrogacy, and after claiming that Arthur is the intended father, she also says that Arthur is still uncommitted to dumping his wife for her. Denver is sensitive, saying that if she prefers Arthur, she’s free; but Monica says that Arthur is an asshole, making him smile. Rio then pulls Denver aside and tells him to stop mingling with the hostage, but Denver says that being a hostage doesn’t mean they can’t create a connection; Rio then warns Denver that his father will almost assuredly disapprove, worrying Denver. Tokyo tells Berlin that Nairobi was seen hanging out with Allison, and Berlin scoffs, saying that Nairobi is a power-seeking bloodsucker and she should trust him instead, but Tokyo says that she won't do that, and that she’s ready to just leave with the money and never see any of them again. Berlin isn’t pleased but doesn’t show it, while Tokyo is a little hesitant, thinking about Rio. Helsinki and Oslo keep “torturing” Arthur with displays of affection from Helsinki and Oslo’s audible taking the piss, and Moscow leads the way in a third, unmentioned room of the BEP: the vault, which Rio had hacked into earlier in the film. There, we see him digging a hole. Outside, Rachel is having a stressful moment, when the Professor calls her. She confirms going on a date with him. We cut to later that evening, when the two are hitting it off. The Professor laments the tragic scenario with the hostages and the robbers, and Rachel admits that being an authority enforcer is never easy. The Professor, hiding his scorn, says: “Yeah, I-I imagine”. But he quickly replaces his scorn for genuine affection, as he stutters for words, which Rachel notices and laughs at, making him blush. She admits that she is going through turmoil in her life, as she has a mother in the hospital with Alzheimer’s, but she can't be there for her as she has to lead one of the biggest operations in America’s history, with the Professor guaranteeing her that he has the utmost empathy for hert, giving her one half of a Yin/Yang pin that his father gave him. She smiles and thanks the Professor. They walk away together, and, in Rachel’s house, they end up kissing and making love. In bed, while Rachel sleeps, the Professor is comically blown away with the experience.

 

Back in the BEP, Tokyo is responsible for guarding the hostages, and she decides to mess with Allison, pressuring her to answer what Nairobi was doing with her. Allison says she was just helping her, but shows nervousness. Tokyo kisses her on a cheek, asking her to chill. This is broken up by Berlin, who was watching and is himself stunned at Tokyo’s “crudeness”, asking her to make out with the hostage again. Tokyo blatantly refuses, since she ain’t a whore, and Berlin does not take it well, feeling that everyone is turning on him and that even “his confidant” isn’t getting along with him now, making Tokyo, who refuses the "confidant" notion, mad. Rio hears the conversation from afar and is very angry at Berlin, but stops himself from interfering. Berlin calls in Helsinki - who dials in that Oslo is taking good care of “their VIP hostage Arthur” (we see another scene of Arthur, Monica and the other hostages as Oslo eyes Arthur dead in the eye with a chuckle, followed up by Arthur peeing himself) -  and asks him to “give her (Tokyo) a good spanking, so that she learns” - Helsinki takes Tokyo forcefully and punches her in the gut, making her bleed from her mouth and leaving her down on the ground. Nairobi sees this happen, as does a tearful Rio, and the two immediately aid Tokyo, who is frustrated and hurt, swearing all of the team members off for good. Meanwhile, Moscow and Denver are talking about love, Moscow telling Denver that his mother was beautiful. Denver says he has a new love now, and Moscow says that he’ll have time to see her outside, but Denver admits to him that she’s in here already. Moscow is baffled, asking Denver if he means Tokyo or Nairobi, and Denver does not answer - Moscow then hyperventilates, swearing his son that he’ll never forgive him if he falls in love with a hostage, a person who could jail him for life: “she’s gonna screw you over, son! Open your damn eyes!” Denver seems more than a little conflicted.

 

Just as this happens, Berlin waves over everyone to get ready for the expected, incoming FBI raid from the back door, as he enters in contact with the outside world again. In the tent, Francis is livid, asking everyone where the Hell Rachel is, and then, he makes short work of the stream with Berlin. The latter continues to insist that they are only keeping the hostages alive if they let them escape through “the hole” they’re digging - one of the FBI officers points towards the first hole that the hostages were forced to dig, unaware of the one on the vault. The FBI says they’re not gonna let that happen, saying that if they don’t clear out in 30 minutes, the FBI will break inside and kill all of the robbers. Rachel and the Professor are still mingling in Rachel’s house, and at this point, the thieves are calling to the Professor’s secret base, but no answer from him. Pure chaos ensues, as Berlin faces the wrath of Rio and Nairobi over what he did to Tokyo, while Tokyo herself refuses to talk to anyone. Moscow and Denver try calming the dissenters down, but it’s not until Helsinki and Oslo step in that Rio and Nairobi cease their rioting, Berlin saying that if they do anything to stop him now, they will be seen as deserters, as Nairobi erupts in anger. Rio meets up with Tokyo, who says that he should stay away from her, and she’s tired of this nonsense. “Screw the Professor, screw Berlin, screw all of you, I’m heading out” - Rio is desperate to not let her leave, but Tokyo points a gun at him, telling him that if he doesn’t let her leave, she’ll mutilate him. A disturbed Rio does as asked, hacking into the opening of the building and letting Tokyo sneak out after telling her that he loves her, Tokyo not answering, and also to the late awareness of the hostages and especially Berlin and the others. Tokyo runs away, steals a bike and speeds off, while the FBI hightail her as soon as they notice.

 

While Francis tells his special ops forces that the break-in will be violent, there is no turning back, since Rachel isn’t there. We then cut to Francis finally getting Rachel to answer the phone, telling her that there’s no way she’ll ever work again if she isn’t here in T-15 minutes. Rachel, desperate, has to work a dazzled Professor out of her home and rush to her vehicle, while the Professor, still recovering, finally has an epiphany: his “students” are waiting for him before the FBI raid. We juxtapose the races of both Rachel and the Professor. The Professor is able to make his base and call the students - but no one answers, as the students are all in utter chaos after Tokyo escaped, making him frustrated. Berlin promises to “execute” Rio, and Rio demands he try, calling him a psychopath. Nairobi, Denver and Moscow try to control the situation, but tension is palpable. At that moment, amidst the hostages, Allison, reeling from the newfound courage that Nairobi helped her to get, begins to encourage the prisoners to use the tools they were given by the robbers to rebel. Arthur smiles, but Monica immediately calls out the fact that they have live guns, which does in fact hold Allison back; Arthur then tries to reinforce the need for their survival and manages to get the hostages on board, saying that they can take their opportunity when the FBI breaks inside, in which the thieves will inevitably be weakened. Everyone lines up for it, despite an excited but adamant Allison, and an outright worried Monica. Arthur questions Monica why she is worried; she won’t budge. Arthur asks her if she really is in love with "that prick" (Denver), and she does not take his shit and turns away from him. Meanwhile, Berlin locks Rio in the meeting room, where he cannot meddle with the operation anymore, but Nairobi, Moscow and Denver grow increasingly wary of Berlin’s authority measures. Nevertheless, Berlin leads the team in preparation for the raid.

 

Rachel drives fast towards the tent, but one of her tires flattens. She exits the car and bangs on her bonnet; not much later… Tokyo crosses paths with her. At this point, Tokyo narrates that the Professor had taught the students not to visit the castle they were living in with him, but she refers that she was so pissed that she was ready to blow up the entire operation just out of spite towards everyone involved. Tokyo runs off to the castle, to everyone's rooms, and exposes pretty much anything that would reveal their identities, except in the case of the Professor. But she also says that when she saw Rachel, whom the students knew was certainly going to be involved in the operation, she knew she had made a mistake. Rachel and Tokyo’s glazes crossover… and sure enough, they are both parked right next to the castle. Rachel tries to chase Tokyo, but she quickly rides off on her bike. The policewoman then decides to enter the castle house; inside, we see some of the personal belongings of the students left behind by Tokyo - Nairobi has a picture of herself and a baby girl, presumably her daughter; Rio, in a layover laptop he owns, has an unlocked video of political arguments with his family, Rio standing for antifascist points of view, opposed to his more conservative family; Helsinki has pictures of himself and his ex-boyfriend, with Oslo hanging out with them as well; Denver and Moscow have a picture together as they stand before Denver’s mother’s grave; Tokyo has multiple pictures, of her, her mother and her stepfather in jail; and Berlin has a paper note that reads that he has a terminal illness. In the Professor’s room, nothing… except something that, as we see in flashback, fell from the Professor’s pocket and he forgot about: another piece of the Yin/Yang pin given to Rachel earlier in the film. Rachel, shocked, connects 1+1 and figures it out, crouching and stuffing herself in rage and disappointment. As she walks over, back to Rio’s unlocked laptop, she realizes that another video has been left unzipped - a video of the students singing an Italian song titled “Bella Ciao”.

 

The FBI finally breaks inside the BEP, and a huge firefight ensues between the robbers and the cops. The cops manage to gain some ground, but Moscow busts out a rocket-launcher and manages to hold them back, but just before they exit, they manage to scratch Denver’s leg with a bullet. Incentivized by Berlin, Moscow takes Denver to a safe place where he can be looked at. Francis blows up, and tries to call Rachel, saying she’ll be fired on the spot, but to no avail. As the thieves are all at a loss, Arthur and Allison lead the hostages in a riot, where they use their weapons to oppress the robbers. While the attempt doesn’t go super well, and Allison is quickly rendered powerless, Arthur is able to use a knife to stab Oslo in the chest. He manages to sneak away with his deed, and despite Helsinki finding him quickly enough, Oslo doesn’t survive long, leaving Helsinki distraught. Monica is the only hostage that does not take a stand against the robbers, instead racing to Denver to aid him, ultimately staying by his side for support while he doesn’t get serious surgery. Denver, caught in the moment of a rollercoaster of emotions, kisses Monica, who is receptive and kisses back - but Arthur and Moscow, who are in a struggle, catch them right at that moment. Denver and Monica are shocked. Arthur, stunned, flees, right when Berlin and Nairobi force the hostages back to submissiveness by shooting some down and inciting fear; and Moscow starts feeling unwell. Monica immediately aids Moscow as well, and calls upon the other robbers to come help the wounded. Berlin and Nairobi storm back inside the meeting room and have a fight, when Rio, who had been kept inside, takes Nairobi’s side and claims Berlin should be removed from power. Him and Nairobi manage to overpower Berlin alone, and Nairobi says: “You called it a patriarchy, right? Well… it’s time for the matriarchy to begin”. The Professor calls precisely at that moment, and Nairobi answers how wrong everything went, saying that she is taking over. However, the Professor stops her right at that moment, saying that the position of power is not an important question. Nairobi is confused, but the Professor says that he has something to tell them, because the last stretch is starting, asking them to bring everyone together. Nairobi says that Tokyo has abandoned them, Oslo was killed, Denver was shot and Moscow had a breakdown - the Professor is disturbed, but Nairobi says they’re gonna reunite all the same.

 

At this moment, Tokyo stops her bike somewhere in Washington. She takes a moment to breathe. We see, through frozen frames, the close relationship she has with Rio, and even the time that Nairobi took to help her after the mishap with Berlin; and then, a flashback, to when the Professor was talking to Tokyo in their home. The Professor tells Tokyo that she is right in her assessment to hate people. “I hate people too… people are bad. I’m not saying we are good either… but we can do good. This is good. This is the beginning of the revolution. You have people who care about you. Believe in them”. She narrates: “And I was like: ‘Shit… maybe he was onto something here’”. Tokyo is emotive thinking about this flashback. Then, Denver and Moscow, both recovering, talk about Denver’s mom and how they may end up seeing her again soon. Denver apologizes to his father, but Moscow asks if there is a chance that the woman (Monica) will help them out. Denver guarantees Moscow that Monica is trustworthy. Monica herself was listening to the conversation and says that, even though they know each other not for long, and even though she is a captive to Denver, they like each other. Monica calls herself: “Stockholm”. Denver and Moscow smile bittersweetly. Rachel is walking away from the castle, looking at her watch - she knows the raid has happened already. Tearful, she rewinds to “Bella Ciao”.

 

The living group of thieves, with a patched Denver and Moscow successfully escorted back inside, with Oslo covered with a black blanket and surrounded by candles, and Stockholm outside listening, are gathered again. The Professor calls them, saying that, after everything has transpired, they need to realize something: they are leading a rebellion against the evil of capitalism. The reason why they’re printing new paper notes instead of taking existing ones is because there is evidence, existing evidence, that capitalists have minted new money notes for themselves in Spain when they needed it, and the people were always forgotten. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair. It can’t be fair.” The Professor also admits that his father, a legendary robber, died at the hands of the Italian fascists, and he taught him that the one thing he could never forget is that, somewhere out there in the world, there are people who believe in good. “Berlin’s position was his because he understood the revolution from the beginning. But if he ever thought that he could be what we are fighting against, he was wrong. That’s fine, humans make mistakes” - Nairobi cuts him and says that he’s been a masochistic tyrant. The Professor understands and does not excuse him - but please, understand that if the revolution is to take place, power must be the same amongst all. “There must not be authority! There must only be… equality.” He begins singing “Bella Ciao” again, and slowly, the students all line up and sing - this includes Tokyo, who is not involved in the moment, but sings on her own. The thieves reembrace, except Berlin, who watches from afar, but evidently emotive and conflicted. “For Oslo”, they whisper. Tokyo, in her own place, grits her fists and speeds away. Rachel is left stranded next to the castle, and flashes back briefly to the fact that she could easily possess the pictures and identities of every one of the robbers and the mastermind.

 

24 Hours Later

 

The robbers are gathered up and prepared to transport the money the hostages printed down to the hole. There’s TNT placed under the hole in the vault, and that hole is expected to break into a sewer connection that leads to an escape, but Nairobi, who has now taken the main initiative of the team, is aware of their biggest fear: presence of police in the escape pod, knowing that Tokyo could have easily just revealed all of their identities. Berlin, visibly concerned, asks Nairobi about the hostages. Nairobi, also concerned, understands that they must be safely escorted out of the building, but they will run the risk of putting the operation in jeopardy. At this point, someone says: “One at a time, while we escape the building through the vault” - it’s Stockholm who says it. Everyone listens and agrees. At this point, Berlin and Nairobi, together, get in contact with the police tent, where Francis is there to send more veiled threats in their direction. Nairobi says that the hostages will be safely delivered to the authorities today, a few hours from then. The live stream concludes, and Rio notices that the authorities did not reveal whether or not they know their identities. Moscow says it might be a fake out, leaving everyone tense. The Professor decides to avoid Rachel, not answering her calls and messages. However, soon, he’s tracked down by her when passing by the same coffee shop from earlier. Rachel subtly points a gun at him and tells him to get in her “new” car (a rented car). The Professor, at a loss, but managing to keep himself in control, stays put. Rachel asks him what is the next step in their plan, and the Professor says that they’re going to escape, with the hostages safe… most of them. “Do they know where?”, she asks; he says yes. When she asks if he knows they have blood in their hands, the Professor defends himself, saying that they never intended to kill any innocents. Rachel, furious, drives away with the Professor still in her sight.

 

Inside the building, the time has come for the hostages to finally be free. One by one, they go… but Francis has ordered his spec ops forces to infiltrate the BEP building when the last hostage has been released, and make sure they can find the escape route. We see the hostages leave. Arthur is the second to last hostage to depart, but not before an emotive Helsinki punches him in the face and calling him “handsome, but evil scum”. Denver’s amused, while Stockholm looks away. Allison is the last hostage to leave. There’s some tension between her and Nairobi, given that Allison’s uproar is what caused the near rupture of the operation, and Allison says: “You were the one who told me to be a queen”. Nairobi, reluctant, motions at her to leave, and Allison, defiant, says: “I am a fucking queen”. She then exits the building and races towards safety. At the same time, the robbers are hiding in the vault, ready to blow the hole further down and reach the sewer system. But the spec ops enter the BEP building at the last minute and slowly approach the robbers. Right then, Moscow activates the TNT, and it works out, but some shrapnel flies in Moscow’s direction. To everyone’s desperation, the spec ops arrive, and a shootout ensues, but Stockholm, even if terrified, covers everyone up as they try to get Moscow past the hole entrance. Berlin takes one step further and stays in the frontline - “I was born to do this”. He tries to Rambo his way through all the guards, but gets shot down and killed rather quickly, to Nairobi’s hesitant disappointment. The robbers get inside the sewer, and then, manage to race off towards a damp boiler room… and in the other side, we can see the shadow of someone holding a gun. Nairobi, up ahead, lifts her hands up… but the shadow is that of Tokyo. They all mournfully celebrate, but recognize the deaths of the previous soldiers, and Moscow soon dies as well, to Denver and Stockholm’s heartbreak. Tearfully, the robbers escape, and everyone goes their way. Finally, Rachel drives the Professor… to the airport, where she tearfully tells him that she respects his intentions, so she’s ready to forego everything she’s ever learned. The Professor, emotive, kisses Rachel, and finishes off with: “There’s one thing I could have never told my students… that love can heal barriers.” The Professor then gives Rachel a note, that reads: “The revolution will never forget you”. He runs off, and soon, takes off to elsewhere.

 

We fade in for one last scene, where Rachel gives the note that the Professor gave her to Esther, her dying elder mother. She watches her funeral from afar, and later, she departs to another country. In the airport, a solemn Rachel is warmly received by a smiling Professor, making the two of them blush in happiness. The last shot of the film: the former police officer and the mastermind of the biggest heist in US history… holding hands.

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by MCKillswitch123

[cookie]

The Scavenger Wars 

- Remastered -

 

Studio: Cookie Pictures

Genre: Re-release / Science-fiction / Epic

Directors: Matt & Ross Duffer

Producer: Sebastian Peters

Music: James Newton Howard

Cinematographer: Steve Yedlin

Budget (re-release): $5m (original budget $225m)

Running Time: 162 minutes (2 hours, 42 minutes)

Release Date: January 9th

Theater Count: 3,200

Formats: 2D (4K HDR), Dolby Cinema

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, drug references, and brief strong language

Original release: July 19th, Y3

 

Plot: A theatrical re-release of the Y3 science-fiction epic The Scavenger Wars, remastered in 4K HDR with updated visual effects. At the tail end of a twenty-year-long war between the last remnants of the human race and an extraterrestrial species called Scavengers, the Scavenger princess Tamara enlists the help of human veteran Joel, his sister Kira, their adoptive father Commander Barks, and the dashing Captain Lucina to stop a plot by the human Grand Admiral, James T. Packer, that would lead to the assured destruction of both species.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SsaPQQBs_mHWwAjSrM4fyrbiJ5JLdthnAX9rgHbLGfQ/edit?usp=sharing (~28,000 words)

[MCKillswitch123]

THE LEGEND OF HOLLIS BROWN

 

Studio: Phoenix Fire Pictures; Malpaso Productions

Loosely Based On: The song Ballad of Hollis Brown by Bob Dylan

Director: Clint Eastwood

 

Genre: Neo-Western/Drama/Romance

Release Date: February 20, Y10

Theater Count: 3180

Rating: R

Format: 2D

Budget: $20 million

Runtime: 110 minutes

 

Cast:

• Clint Eastwood as Hollis Brown
• Angela Bassett as Venice Jackson
• Frances Fisher as Jane

Plot Summary:

Spoiler

The film starts with some awe-inspiring shots of the isolation of the plains and dry lands of South Dakota, before focusing on Hollis Brown (Clint Eastwood). Hollis leads a mostly mundane life: he lives off of his farm plantations, both as income and as bread to feed on, for himself and himself alone. We see that he had a family - a wife, Jane (Frances Fisher), and five children. He dwells on the picture of the family, with his silent contemplation shifting his expression to one of resent. He then sits down in the bedroom of his degraded, broken cabin, wildly decorated by Christian memorabilia. In one single shot accompanied by a slow zoom in on his face, he sits in front of a mirror and starts playing guitar, to then singing to himself the song Ballad of Hollis Brown by Bob Dylan:
 

Quote

Hollis Brown
He lived on the outside of town
Hollis Brown
He lived on the outside of town
With his wife and five children
And his cabin broken down

Oh he looked for work and money
And he walked a ragged mile
Oh he looked for work and money
And he walked a ragged mile
And your children are so hungry
That they don't know how to smile

Your baby's eyes look crazy
They're a-tuggin' at your sleeve
Your baby's eyes look crazy
They're a-tuggin' at your sleeve
You walk the floor and wonder why
With every breath you breathe

Hey, hey!

The rats have got your flour
Bad blood it got your mare
Oh
The rats have got your flour
Bad blood it got your mare
If there's anyone that knows
Is there anyone that cares?

And oh, you prayed to the Lord above
Oh please send you a friend
And oh, you prayed to the Lord above
Oh please send you a friend
Your empty pockets tell you
That you ain't a-got no friend

Your babies' eyes are crying
It's pounding on your brain
Your babies' eyes are crying
It's pounding on your brain
Your wife's screams are stabbin' you
Like the dirty drivin' rain

Your grass it is turning black
There's no water in your well
Your grass is turning black
There's no water in your well
You spent your last lone dollar
On seven shotgun shells

Way out in the wilderness
A cold coyote calls
Way out in the wilderness
A cold coyote calls
Your eyes fix on the shotgun
That's hangin' on the wall

Your brain is a-bleedin'
And your legs can't seem to stand
Your brain is a-bleedin'
And your legs can't seem to stand
Your eyes fix on the shotgun
That you're holdin' in your hand

Woah oh oh oh, oh oh oh, Woah oh oh oh, oh oh oh

There's seven breezes a-blowin'
All around the cabin door
There's seven breezes a-blowin'
All around the cabin door
Seven shots ring out
Like the ocean's pounding roar

There's seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
There's seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
Somewhere in the distance
There's seven new people born

 

After singing this song, he looks absolutely devastated, but his expression remains cold, even if his lips shimmer a bit.

 

We see him spend his days in solemnitude, with the occasional dialogue with nearby-living farmers. It's through these dialogue sequences that we understand that Hollis is okay living away from his old family, knowing that "they're safe".

 

One day, coming in from the nearby urban environment, a USDA agent by the name of Venice Jackson (Angela Bassett) arrives at the town that Hollis lives in. She attentively writes down and takes notes of the conditions people live in - everyone is poor, no one is prosper and little resources remain for people living here to stay self-sufficient. Venice spots Hollis, who looks dire, and tries to appoint him for an interview. Hollis is not interested, but Venice reaffirms him that she's not trying to reallocate him. Later, the interview goes on - Hollis reveals to Venice what was already apparent about the conditions around the scene, but he says that he prefers living in isolation over "threatening his family". When Venice asks him what he means, he says that his wife and him separated and now she lives in the city, as do their children. He claims that he asked to split from his family, and said "God told me to". His wife Jane (Frances Fisher) apparently has a new partner, and his children have forgotten he exists, but "it's good this way". Venice asks Hollis what does "God told me to" mean - Hollis shows her the lyrics to Ballad of Hollis Brown, which Venice recognizes as a Bob Dylan song, and Hollis claims that it was written "about him". Venice assures Hollis that he's not the subject matter of the song, but Hollis is sure that it's no coincidence his name was used in a song about a decaying farmer murdering his whole family because their poverty drove him to the edge, so he told his family to use all their savings and save themselves. Venice, sensitized, is shocked with this story.

 

Venice promises to stay in contact with Hollis, making him a little hesitant to accept her politeness. Nevertheless, she visits him often, to assure that he's doing alright. Venice insists on keeping herself and Hollis close, while Hollis tries to create some distance, but Venice claims Hollis is an "interesting person". Hollis, blushing with the praise, thanks Venice but says he's too dangerous to be around. Venice takes him on a car ride across the plains and mountains of South Dakota - we get some beautiful wide shots of the scenery - and during the ride, they talk about the reason Hollis became so afraid of a song. Hollis says that his parents died shortly after he was born, and he was taken care of by a friend of his family, who always mistreated him as a child. He then wound up running over the adoptive father, putting him on a bed until his slow death. He met Jane shortly after, and she was able to correct him and make him a good, caring person who 'never laid a finger on anyone again' - but then, Hollis' passion for music led to him rediscovering Bob Dylan's incredible repertoir, and hearing the Ballad made him think that it's maybe his fate to be miserable. Venice, emotional, tells Hollis that nothing has to be this way - becoming the monster he thinks he's destined to be is only in his hands, because actions matter where thoughts don't. Hollis and Venice go on a picnic together and have a fun time, despite Hollis' reluctance to be open with someone - he realizes that he's slowly developing feelings for Venice, but nods negatively to himself, resisting them at every turn. Venice also finds herself enjoying the time spent with Hollis, and does not seem to resist her own feelings at this point.

 

Then, Venice takes Hollis to town, to see Jane (surprising Hollis, but Venice justifies by saying she knew Jane's whereabouts, since she works for the government). Hollis and Jane have an honest talk, where Jane blasts Hollis for leaving his family behind for no good reason. Hollis is stubborn, trying to prove that his predestination would never let him be a good husband and father. Jane, heartbroken, says that time will always heal the wounds and she's happy with her new partner now, so maybe, Hollis is still on time to repair his fractures and turn himself around. An emotive Hollis returns home with Venice. In the car ride, Venice tries to stay professional, telling Hollis that the scenery of poverty in South Dakota is far graver than she expected, but then Hollis asks if she'll come to visit. Venice asks Hollis what he means, and Hollis tries changing the topic, and Venice notices that he's flattered around her and does not really know what to say, other than to say, gently: "I will", smiling to herself. Hollis returns home and dwells on his loner life, hauntingly singing Ballad of Hollis Brown to himself in spurts, while kneeling down and praying before a cross, asking God not to punish him for putting everyone he loves in jeopardy. When Venice comes back, they have an elongated night of drinking and gazing at the stars, and the two finally admit to loving each other, But Hollis cries, saying he's afraid of what will happen. Venice, somewhat drunkenly but gentle, tells Hollis that he should not believe that fate will choose his life for him: rather, he be the one to choose it for himself instead. Hollis nods negatively, and Venice lays her hand on Hollis', saying that "everything will be okay", then hugging him until he settles down. Hollis and Venice, holding hands, look before the same cross as earlier and nod their heads, then Venice laying her head on Hollis' shoulder.

 

Hollis readjusts to his new life, going on dates with Venice and enjoying himself. He accompanies Venice as she interviews all the other residents of the town, getting their takes before preparing an official letter to the higher officials at the USDA to help improve the situation specific to South Dakota and other middle America states; and later, he visits Jane one last time, apologizing to her for everything that went wrong in their lives, but Hollis says that he thought he was God's unwanted child... thankfully, God had better plans for him. Jane is happy that Hollis found his way again and they greet each other one last time. In the end, Hollis and Venice seal their relationship with a light kiss, before assisting a live concert of a Bob Dylan tribute act. The film closes on a shot of the hopeful couple singing along to Ballad of Hollis Brown, Hollis with a smile in his face.

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by MCKillswitch123