Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Act Three - The End Part 1

EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE - MID AFTERNOON
JIM stares at a hole in the ground.  Where the convenience store once stood, there is now nothing but a smoking smoldering crater.  Jim is wearing a pair of slightly burnt jeans, a torn jacket, and a cap.  His right arm is wrapped in a bandage and there's a dried blood splotch on it.   He is about to walk away when he realizes he sees something still intact in the wreckage.  He reaches down and lifts out of the debris a BAG OF ICE CREAM CONES.

He cannot help but smile a bitter sweet smile.

(off camera) PAM
I guess all we need now is ice cream?

Jim turns around to see Pam standing along the sidewalk as well.  Pam has some bandages around her arms. A small bruise is visible on her left cheek.   She has dragged with her a grocery cart, and the cart is filled with boxes of canned goods and stuff.

JIM
You!

PAM (mimicking his voice)
Yes me!

The two freeze.  Once can almost imagine them wanting to reach close and hug each other.  Jim opens his mouth, but rather than say anything, he sees the cart, sees the boxes, then sees Pam is about to say something.  He reaches out and plants his hands over her mouth.

Pam stares at him, eye brows raising.  She obviously is asking, "What the heck are you doing?"  Jim tries to pantomime to her not to say anything.  To stay quiet.  Then slowly removes his hands.  He quickly looks around and sees a small rock to use as a writing instrument, then scrapes onto the ground something for Pam to read.  Pam leans closer to read it.  She mouths the words and we see what is written, "No Words. Each Time we Plan..  Shit happens."

Pam almost breaks into a laugh, but Jim again begs her wordlessly not to make a sound.  Pam slowly nods, deciding to go with him on this.  She too drops to the floor to grab a rock.

Pam writes:  Okay, no words.

Jim writes:  Glad you're alive.

Pam writes: Ditto.

Jim writes: Delivering supplies?  
Jim then points to the grocery cart.  

Pam nods and writes in response:  Yes.  Funny how no looting happened.

Jim: Depends where.

Pam glances at her wrist watch for the time.  Her eyes widen.  She rises to her feet and brushes her pants clean.  She then digs into her pocket and pulls out Jim's cellphone.   Jim looks sad and tries not to accept it.  She rolls her eyes amusedly and pulls out a second phone.  She mimes, "That phone, yours.  This phone mine."

Jim takes the phone.  As he fiddles with it, he looks up to ask something but she stops him by causing the phone to ring.  The ring tone is UNCHAINED MELODY.  He looks at it and the caller is listed as "Date"

She cuts the call.  He mimes and mouths again:  1 p.m.  Tomorrow.
She laughs soundlessly.  With her phone, she punches in an answer.  Jim's phone gets a message.  He looks at what it says:

1:00 p.m.
MEGA MALL
By the Building B
Julia Vargas Entrace

Jim looks up to respond, but Pam is gone.

JIM (under his breath)
Just like Batman.
Frigging cool.

INT.  JIM's ROOM - LATE EVENING
We have a happy montage as Jim preps the things he will use for the date.  We see him choosing among a set of damaged clothes in a half-burnt closet the best looking shirt.  Then underwear, then pants.  We see him then go to the corner of the room that is now the bathroom (wider shot reveals where bathroom used to be is now a gaping hole in the side of the building).  He brushes his teeth, then gargles.  Then heads to bed.

JIM (to himself/viewers)
This is it.

DIRECTOR NOTE:  Treatment of the following sequence is as follows.  The screen will be split into two screens.  The LEFT SCREEN will feature Pam.  The RIGHT SCREEN will feature Jim.  The two screen will be one single long shot from the person's home to the meeting area.  

For the LEFT SCREEN
Pam wakes up in her bedroom, which we see has holes in the walls, posters of M. Night Shyamalan and Nolan movies, and Adventure Time bedsheets.  She goes to the bathroom, takes a quick shower, brushes her teeth while she combs her hair, then gets quickly dressed, heads out to walk a bit, before boarding a cab, occupies herself in the cab by reading her copy of a book called The Gossamer Tower, then finally arrives, pays, and steps down from the cab to stare at Mega Mall.

For the RIGHT SCREEN
Jim wakes up in his bedroom, quickly strips off his clothes and runs to the bathroom and nearly falls through the hole, backs up and goes to the corner where he takes a quick shower, towel dries, brushes his teeth then fusses over his nose black heads, gets dressed, walks out of the house, then crosses some street to get to the stairs to the MRT, waits for the train, boards it, and then smiles at himself as he thinks, this is finally it, before he arrives, gets down from the MRT, sees the Mega Mall building, and curries down the steps to make his way to the entrance.

The two screens then converge into one wide shot as we realize the two are practically in the same location, but due to the number of people, still unaware of each other's presence.  But before they notice each other...

SFX
(MASSIVE MONSTER ROAR)

Everyone in the shot looks upwards...

CUT to POV of crowd looking up towards MEGA MALL  BUILDING.  Rising from behind it, towering far higher than it, is a massive KAIJU MONSTER the likes the world has never seen before.  Imagine if Godzilla somehow had a lovechild with Mothra, Cthulhu, King Kong, and the Kraken and that child was one single monstrous being.

In reply, military helicopters and jet planes emerge to fly by and attack it!

CUT back to EARLIER SHOT
Everyone screams and begins to run.  Pam and Jim are so close, but the crowd separates them as they break away to run for shelter.  We hear the KAIJU MONSTER SCREAMING.


FADE TO BLACK
CUT TO CUE CARD


WHITE TEXT
Five Days Later

EXT. MEGA MALL RUINS. Early Morning
Jim is sitting on the rubble perimeter.  A policeman asks if he is okay, but he does not respond.

CUT to WIDE SHOT of MEGA MALL RUINS
Similar to the opening shot, we see a massive crater.  Only instead of the store, the crater here encompasses the size of Mega Mall.

Jim is distraught.  We see on his phone "Number cannot be reached."  Jim stands up, throws his cellphone into the hole.  Then walks away.

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