Concept EXCELLENT SYNOPSIS: BEYOND THE RED PLANET Somewhere within Earth’s solar system, a massive gleaming space ship in the form of a perfect sphere discovers a conventional looking Earth vessel named ARGO, drifting dead in space. An inhabitant of the gigantic sphere emerges, its features obscured completely by a glowing halo of eerie red light. Looking quite at home in the deadly vacuum of space, it soars over to investigate the derelict Earth craft. Once aboard, the unseen entity locates a single human passenger preserved in a cryogenic stasis pod. Its motives a mystery, it activates the pod and departs. Some time later, Captain Will Nissen, sole survivor of a disastrous Mars mission, awakes from cryogenic hibernation. Frail and alone, he spends several harrowing hours trapped aboard his ailing ship, unable to establish contact with the outside world. With power failing and oxygen running low, Will is mercilessly haunted by vivid memories of his mission and fears that he will soon join his six dead crew mates currently interred in the ship’s morgue. But he’s rescued from the brink of madness by a polite knock and a friendly “Hello” heard faintly through the outer hull of his sealed ship. Once free, Will steps into a primordial looking jungle where he is greeted by a good-natured group of scientists and their remarkable robot prototype, Ruby. Standing seven feet tall and molded in seamless ruby red from head to toe, the pleasantly child-like robot is far more advanced than anything Will has ever seen. The group’s elderly but charismatic leader, Avery, introduces the rest of his team as Slim, Westy, and Celeste. Will quickly forms a trusting bond with Celeste as she quietly attends to his medical needs. Will is relieved when Avery tells him the year is 2029, but dismayed when he learns his ship has somehow landed in New Guinea, half a world away from where it was supposed to. His irritation grows when he’s told his only means of contacting civilization lies in an arduous journey upriver - weather permitting. With his every suggestion for contacting the outside world innocently denied, Will quickly loses his temper with the smooth talking Avery, only to collapse suddenly, blacking out from exhaustion. Will awakens hours later in the comfortable confines of Avery’s jungle cabin, where as a reluctant guest, he agrees to join his curious hosts for a fine meal. Always eager to impress, Avery encourages Ruby to demonstrate some cutting edge nanotechnology based on his own techniques. She effortlessly transforms a small Banzai tree into a living, breathing Superb Bird of Paradise. During dinner Avery grandly reveals his ultimate scientific goals - to redesign the human race and unlock the secret of eternal life. He issues Will the challenge: “You’re an explorer, aren’t you Will?” Impressed, but undeterred from his all-consuming desire to get home, Will deftly turns the conversation back to planning for his departure. He balks at the notion of waiting for torrential rains to let up before leaving, stressing the need to remove the bodies aboard his ship from the intense jungle heat as soon as possible. Dinner ends in a shouting match when Avery calmly confesses that he and his team, excluding Celeste, have already retrieved the bodies and stored them safely in his lab - behind the only locked door in his cabin. Outraged by their trespass, Will stubbornly shuns Avery’s hospitality to return to the Argo in search of salvageable communication equipment. His disposition toward his hosts grows darker still when he finds their plundering was not limited strictly to bodies, but to equipment as well. After painstakingly constructing a makeshift power generator, he makes a chilling discovery on his ship’s flight recorder that contradicts everything Avery and the others have told him about his impromptu landing and rescue. His worst fears are realized when Ruby shows up, glowing red in the midst of a fierce tropical storm, to interfere with his investigations. In a tense showdown he manages to disable the enigmatic robot with an electric shock. Will flees into the jungle, confused and terrified to find an enraged Avery already hot on his trail. The once charming old man and his team now exhibit superhuman strength, making Will’s bid to escape their wrath all the more desperate. Doubling back to Avery’s cabin, he’s startled to find Celeste lying inexplicably collapsed on the floor in a cataleptic state, just as incapacitated as he left Ruby earlier. Unable to help her, he gains entry into Avery’s secret lab where he discovers the remains of his dead crew mates on grisly display in strange vats destined for some unknown purpose. To his horror, he sees an empty vat in their midst which he quickly surmises can only be meant for him. When Avery and the others return to the cabin, Will’s fate seems all but sealed until he finds a hidden staircase in the back of the lab and follows it upward. Within the span of several hundred rough-hewn steps, he miraculously emerges in the middle of a congested city inhabited by mindless automatons that treat him as though he doesn’t exist. Will soon finds himself trapped in another nightmare world, this time haunted by someone else’s memories far more vivid and terrifying than any of his own. COMMENTS : This script has everything you’d ever want in a Sci Fi film. It’s smart and relatable while being scary, incredibly inventive and if this wasn’t enough, full of juicy shocks and surprises. It engages you from the very start and only gets stronger as you move along, especially later in the script as things become climatic. Would make a first rate high end Sci-Fi movie! TO CONTACT WRITER DIRECTLY-- russ.zitaruk@gmail.com
|