Date: 5/31/10 Submitted by: T.J. QUINN Pages: 96 Time: DISTANT FUTURE Locale: SPACE Genre: Sci Fi Comedy Analyst: Hollywoodscript.com Premise: Yesterday meets tomorrow as the military industrial complex tries to impose itself on a cloned society of the future that lives in the spirit of the 60's. Concept VERY GOOD Characterization VERY GOOD Dialogue VERY GOOD Story Line VERY GOOD Setting/Prod. Values EXCELLENT Freshness of Story EXCELLENT
SYNOPSIS: It is the future, and our journey begins with passengers boarding a cruise-liner built for sea and space. These are retired folk off to enjoy the "Maiden Voyage of the Galaxy Majestic," traveling to a satellite planet of Jupiter. This is Chairman of the Board D.T. Galaxy's new venture with "hotels and casinos in the sky." The story's hero, Staff Captain Bjorn Buckrum, is a well-trained oceanic and celestial mariner. A stoic type, he takes his job very seriously. The passengers consist of a group from the "Star Gazers Club." These elderly ladies wear high-tech, combat-grade night vision goggles to facilitate their hobby. Others aboard just enjoy the "ambiance" of the WWII theme along with Big Band era music and food - vintage melodies from Benny Goodman, Andrew Sisters, etc. Everyone is happy, but what they don't see are the effects of an explosion that an on-board saboteur has just triggered, which puts the ship off course and moments later causes a total loss of gravity. With things slowly falling out of control, the Ship's Captain attempts to soothe the passengers' concerns by diverting their attention to a beautiful black hole that has appeared off the port bow. The wonder of it makes them oooh and aaah. The Science Lieutenant takes it in as well, from her screen on the Bridge - and she is the first to spot the hole's collapsing walls, and the fighter craft that begin to emerge from this celestial rouse, fabricated by an as-yet unknown enemy. The Star Gazers see the fast-issuing fighters a moment later, and flak begins to slam the ship's observation glass. Hysteria mounts. Passengers in the dining area who were viewing the black hole bolt for the interior of the ship. Staff Captain Buckrum takes a spring-loaded center-punch and hits the glass wall in the center. This shatters the glass wall between the dining area and the hallway and passengers pour out to safer ground. Panic also builds on the Captain's Bridge. They've lost control of the ship, and out of nowhere an unknown lunatic named Hal Burton is yelling at them through a bull-horn to surrender. The Captain has the Science Lt. send out a "May-Day." The crew worries that they're too far out in space to be heard when, all of a sudden, a vortex opens and pulls them through and into another dimension, and at least temporarily out of harm's way. The vortex swallows the ship in swirling psychedelic colors. The cruise-liner is finally laid down in calm waters in an unknown place. The landscape seems beautiful, but there are natives about in strange outfits. Seemingly stuck in this strange new world, Staff Captain Buckrum oversees the evacuation of the passengers and crew, who use life-vest jet-packs to jet to the near shore. Buckrum, along with Lydia, the ship's principal entertainer (and for whom he has feelings), is dispatched to meet the person who pulled the ship through the vortex and everyone to safety. His name is Abbie and he informs them they've landed on Planet Woodstock. Buckrum solicits his help in the cruise ship's ongoing calamity. A chilled out Abbie seems to be agreeable, but informs them that they must first to go a concert, which will be more conducive to discussion. Perplexed, Buckrum and Lydia follow their new compatriot. The three of them enter a vortex, which spits them out at an outdoor stadium called the "Fillmore Amphitheatre." A very confused Buckrum can only listen and observe while the music plays and people in the audience pass wine sacs and finger food up and down the aisles. He has never seen anything like this before. His sensibilities are in total turmoil, but Lydia seems to be grooving along just fine. After the show ends, Buckrum wants to finally get down to business, so the three of them take another vortex trip. They exit to find themselves standing at a split-rail fence, with a pond in the near distance. A sign reads "Max Yasger's Farm." Abbie tries to pressure Buckrum into skinny-dipping, to no avail. Then in the distance we see small puffs of smoke as other vortexes open, and our strangely inspired senior women with walkers are racing to the pond in various stages of disrobement - the Star Gazers are enjoying this new trip. Things feel out of control, just like the 1960s! Meanwhile, the evil enemies of Woodstock are planning an attack on the planet. They are a committee known as the "Gang of Five”: Mao, Nikita, Fidel, Lyndon and their leader Tricky-Dick. They decide to attack at dawn. The following morning, as their bomber ships approach Planet Woodstock, the Ship's Captain from the cruise-liner sends an early warning to Buckrum, which he passes on to Abbie. Instead of panicking, Abbie shouts to the hippies surrounding him and they all jump for joy. A wooden ship is sent airborne and fires out a shield that envelops the planet. As the bombs fall and hit the shield they turn into flower petals and rain down on the cheering hippies. Tricky Dick has a meltdown. He sends down "General Johnny-Boy" (a John Wayne clone) to handle the hippies, who are now lined up in an open field, lighting incense sticks to create a huge vortex. When the soldiers attack, they are pulled into this vortex and come out the other side with daises in their rifle barrels and peace signs painted on their faces. This just enrages Johnny Boy, who launches a solo attack atop his steed. But he gets pulled into the vortex too, and comes out the other side riding a pig. Flustered by the psychedelic weirdness, he promptly begins having a nervous breakdown. Tricky Dick now goes ballistic. In response he sends down an army of clones of himself to arrest all the hippies. In the process, Buckrum's love Lydia is taken prisoner. And as the hippies are being rounded-up by the Tricky Dick clones, Abbie finally realizes the seriousness of the situation. He decides to send our hero Buckrum on a mission, through a vortex and into Planet Disco, to find "The One" (a John Lennon-type character). It's promised that he will have the answer. But much will happen until that answer is found - and until Lydia and Planet Woodstock can be saved - in this intriguing and quirky send-up of an iconic era, juxtaposed with the distant future.
COMMENTS: This is a tale of conflicting cultures told through the sci/fi-comedy genre. Bouncy, funny, action packed and easy to enjoy, Space Cruise is a very entertaining piece of work. A deft combo of the very old and very new as we romp through the 60's and 70's with intricate weavings of popular icons and influential, larger than life, personalities that became part of American 20th century history. It's both hip and corny at the same time, retro and futuristic. It wears well. Also wonderfully big, cinematic and relatable. Would make a very entertaining quirky Tim Burton type movie.
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