Alas... Presenting "Blue Harvest - A Working Title" (yes, obviously stolen from Jedi...)
Blue Harvest
LOG LINE: As two
men awaken in the middle of a forest with no memory of how they arrived, one of
them begins to notice enough clues to question the reality of his situation –
and perhaps even his entire life. As the psychological impact of entrapment and
distrust begin to take their toll on the men, fear, paranoia, and irrational
action begin to take over. The result of this experience may change both of
their lives forever.
CHARACTERS
Daniel Connor – Hollywood Actor, struggling, but talented. Easily empathizes with the most basic of human nature.
Sherri McKay – Hollywood Actor, Daniel’s girlfriend of a few months. She may be hiding more than one secret.
Mike O’Neil – Hollywood Writer, not very successful, but very determined, and has a skewed concept of sacrifice for art.
Bryan Tannen – Hollywood Director, came from wealthy roots, but has yet to make anything happen of his own accord with respect to the movie business.
PROLOGUE:
DAY 6
As visions of the past week haunt his mind, Daniel Conner
jolts up out of bed, sweating, visibly shaken. He glances over at his
girlfriend sleeping seemingly peacefully beside him. As he sits there, he feels
the isolation, the fear, the anger returning to his body. He feels the
humiliation and embarrassment of his gullibility.
The man walks up to a door in a fairly decent neighborhood.
The rain pours down on him. He glares at the door knocker, sure of his self,
sure of his intent. He pounds the knocker into the door. After a moment, Mike
O’Neil answers the door. He asks Daniel why he has come. Without another
thought Daniel tosses a familiar shaped, small box towards Mike. The box is
roughly the size of a necklace case one might buy at a jeweler. It appears
hastily wrapped in a single twine ribbon.
Mike quickly unties the twine, opening the box. He stares
for a moment, and then looks up at Daniel, horror in his eyes…
ACT 1:
DAY 1
Daniel and Mike are walking through the forest.
As they walk they share a small amount of banter between them. Through this,
they reveal their situation. They awoke in the woods and found each other a few
yards away from the other. Mike had found a bag about halfway between them with
five small bottles of water and a note that said “One Per Day” in it. The only
other interesting note is that Daniel and Mike seem to recall seeing each other
before, but could not remember where or when.
Their navigation seems aimless, as they truly have no idea where
they are, they also don’t know how to leave. Quickly, the conversation turns into
an attempt to recollect the last thing they remember before waking up. Mike
remembers pulling over on his way home from work to let a vehicle pass the
opposite way on a narrow bridge. Daniel recalls having a meeting with a film
director named Bryan Tannen who was discussing an upcoming project. Daniel
remembers going to a small bar in the Wilshire area of Los
Angeles with his girlfriend Sherri to meet Bryan , and that he doesn’t recall anything
after that.
As Daniel visualizes that meeting, his periphery seems to suggest
that perhaps he saw Mike at that bar, leaving shortly after he began meeting
with Bryan… or perhaps only a similar looking person.
After apparently walking for some time, the two reach a ravine.
Across the ravine, they hear what sounds to be a vehicle traveling on a highway
far in the distance. They decide that if there is the sound of traffic coming
from that direction, then there must be civilization that direction, and thus,
answers. As the turn to walk down the ravine, Mike spies a shadow moving on the
far side. As they stare that direction, they hear an unusual whistling noise
followed by a loud crack on a tree next to them. When they realize that it is
an arrow, they turn toward the shadowy figure just in time to see it draw back another
arrow on a bow and let loose. This arrow hits the same tree next to them. Mike
drops down as Daniel calls toward the figure, asking it for help. Help arrives
in the form of another arrow, this one landing at Daniel’s feet. Instantly
realizing the threat, Daniel and Mike run back, away from the ravine, away from
the figure, and away from the sound of civilization.
As they continue to walk for several hours, their conversation
degrades into argument on how that confrontation should have been handled. Mike
insists that running far and fast was appropriate, while Daniel suggests they
should have found a way to confront their attacker.
That night, Mike and Daniel find an open area to sit down,
attempting to sleep. The mosquitoes, gnats, and ticks harass them mercilessly,
and sleep is hard to come by.
ACT 2:
DAY 2
The next morning, Mike and Daniel discover that their water supply
was missing a bottle. They started with five, drank one the previous day, and
now had three. As accusations flew both directions, the trust between the men
began to erode. Eventually, when no evidence could be found to damn either one
of them, they simply and angrily agreed they must have dropped a bottle out of
the sack as they ran from the archer.
As they begin their trek through the woods, still agitated by the
morning events, they are surprised to see the shadowy figure on more than one
occasion appear in the distance between some trees, and then just as quickly,
disappear. Daniel’s intentions to make contact with the figure are equally
offset by Mike’s apparent fear to get any closer to the person that quite
clearly warned them away.
Daniel pressed the issue quite firmly, allowing frustration to take
over, angrily taking it out on Mike. Daniel starts walking separate of Mike,
brooding.
Soon after, Mike starts calling for Daniel, saying something about a
road. Daniel hikes over to Mike’s voice, and sees that in fact, an old logging
road cuts through the forest. From the looks of the road, it appears it may
have even been used recently. After a brief debate on which direction to walk
down the road, Mike finally convinces Daniel to head in what he believed was
the direction of the vehicles and ravine from the day before, insisting that
they had walked far enough to not be near the archer.
After following the logging road for some time, the duo become
convinced that they are heading the wrong direction, though neither can
articulate what would provide evidence to this point. Suddenly Daniel spots a
glimpse of civilization, a sign warning “No Hunting – Private Property” – and
also, the camouflaged figure from the ravine. This time, the figure is not
holding a bow, but a double-barrel shotgun. Daniel insists that they can sneak
around the road and the figure, climbing over a hill and down through the swamp
past the sign. As they discuss, the figure wastes no time in foiling their
plans by shooting toward them, reloading, and advancing.
As Mike and Daniel scurry to cover and retreat, they are separated.
Mike takes cover on the edge of a hill, listening as footsteps crash through
the woods, getting closer and closer, until finally he sees a rugged hiking
boot and familiar camouflaged pants standing on the top of the hill, seemingly
their wearer not noticing him.
Daniel meanwhile crashes into a small clearing of small sapling
trees and shrubbery. He ducks down behind a couple of the smaller trees and
waits and listens, the sound of his breath and heartbeat the loudest echoes in
his ears. He dares not call for Mike and risk being heard by the camouflaged
figure.
That night, Daniel tries as hard as he can to stay awake, on guard
for his own sake – hoping to possibly reunite with Mike… unfortunately, his
hunger and weakness drive him into a state of delusion and memory. His mind
reflects back on several moments within the last couple days. Memories of the
figure, of Bryan
and the bar, of Sherri, of Mike; all these intertwined in an odd absurdist way.
As Daniel tries to keep awake and composed he sees the camouflaged figure
walking toward him in the night. Strangely, he finds he is unable to speak or
cry out. The figure gets closer and closer, directly walking toward Daniel, the
shotgun in his hand. As the figure stands directly above him, he looks up, and
there in front of him is Sherri’s face staring back at his. Suddenly she
screams his name “Daniel!” in a piercing echoing scream….
ACT 3:
DAY 3
Daniel starts, and then quickly realizes that he does hear his name
being called, but it is clearly not Sherri. Mike’s voice carries quite well,
and is actually rather close. Daniel reaches down to grab the sack with the
water in it when he stops short – noticing the obvious track of a hiking boot
in the soft dirt next to where he slept. Daniel opens the sack and quickly
peers in; noticing that only one bottle of water remained. Glancing behind him,
he sees an empty water bottle on the ground close to where he was sleeping.
Even worse, he notices in his front pocket, the twist-off cover.
Not sure how to break the news to Mike, Daniel decides to come as
clean an honest about it as possible. He rushes to where Mike’s voice was
coming from, calling back until they meet up. After short re-acquaintances,
Daniel tells all about the water. Mike immediately disbelieves him, and starts
shouting at him, reiterating the situation and grabbing the sack away from
Daniel, swearing that he’ll never leave Daniel alone with the bag again. During
the argument, Mike thrusts his hand in the bag and pulls out the last bottle,
threatening to simply throw it into the woods if Daniel simply wanted him to
die of thirst. Suddenly, he stops short, and peers into the sack. Noticing
something small at the bottom, Mike pulls out a small box, roughly the size of
a box you would receive a necklace in from a jeweler. The box appears hastily wrapped in a single
twine ribbon. They both notice a strange odor on the box. As Daniel watches, Mike slowly removes the
twine. As he opens the box, a thick red liquid seems to drool out. The two can
only assume it is blood. Inside the box, Daniel and Mike stare in horror at
what appears to be a human ear. In the lobe, a small earring that looks exactly
like a set Daniel bought for Sherri only a short time ago.
Daniel begins to go crazy; he snatches the box from Mike’s hand and
holds it closed, as the oozing blood starts to drip on his hands, his clothes,
and the ground. He demands from Mike to know where the box came from, claiming
he had never seen it in the sack before, so Mike must have put it there. He
breaks down crying, confessing the origin of the earring to Mike. Mike does
what he can to hold Daniel together in between the accusations and the despair.
Daniel finally breaks away, running a short while until he comes to a large
tree, where he sits against it and holds the box in his hands, recalling both
the memory of giving the earrings to Sherri, and the moment in the previous
night’s dream where the camouflaged figure had Sherri’s face. As Mike
approaches Daniel, Daniel suddenly calms, and begins to tell Mike that he
thinks that starvation and dehydration may be affecting his rationale and his
senses, and that he cannot believe what he is seeing or feeling, and that much
of the last few days must have been a delusion or dream.
As Mike sits trying to console Daniel, a shadowy camouflaged figure
walks slowly away from their huddle.
ACT 4:
DAY 4
The next day arrives and Mike and Daniel have seemingly grown more
desperate. After scraping his leg on a sharp rock the day before, Daniel made
Mike use the last of the bottled water to wash the wound, hoping to prevent
infection. Daniel used a part of the water bottle sack to make a makeshift
bandage, and walked with a slight limp, slowing their hiking speed. Although he
never comes out and says it, Mike continuously subtly hints that using the last
of the water for the wound was wasting it – an infection is not a problem if
you have no water and die of dehydration. Daniel notices quite clearly however,
and the tension between the two is growing to be more than the calm that unity
in crisis can provide. Both of them seem to be succumbing to exhaustion as
their days are plagued by conflict, injury, and the sense of being lost, their
nights are plagued by hallucinogenic dream-states and mosquitoes, and Daniel
holds in his pocket evidence that some harm has come to his girlfriend, and
there’s nothing he can do about it.
During the course of the day, Mike starts to ask Daniel about the
ear, and why Daniel insists on keeping it. Daniels responses range from the
irrational “so a doctor can reattach it when I find her” to the absurd
“sentimentality – the only thing I have of her”. Mike quickly realizes that
Daniel’s ability to make decisions are completely impaired due to his current
mental state.
When Mike broaches the topic to Daniel, he doesn’t react well – in
fact, Daniel believes the only reason he is still sane at this point is because
he can in fact make rational decisions. As this argument becomes more and more
heated, the two notice the camouflaged figure standing some hundred yards away,
right out in the middle of a clearing. In an attempt to prove his point, Daniel
raises his hands in surrender and calmly asks the figure for just water – he
concedes to the figure that he has no power or control over the situation, and
that whatever the figure wants, he will get. But to survive, the two need more
water. His arguments go plainly ignored as the figure turns away and walks
towards the woods. Daniel’s calm demeanor quickly degrades to shouting and
cursing, as he starts to hobble-run toward the figure, demanding his return and
Sherri’s safety. Mike catches up from behind and holds him back, reminding him
of the shotgun incident from earlier – saying that pursuit cannot succeed.
Daniel struggles against Mike and eventually, they both fall to the
ground, the box with the ear landing noticeably in front of them. Daniel cries
out for the figure and for Sherri as the figure disappears into the woods.
ACT 5:
DAY 5
It would be inappropriate to say Daniel awoke, as he really
was unable to sleep with the constant noises creaking through the night air.
These are not noises from nature, but rather were strange, out of place noises;
noises that did and didn’t remind him of actual physical things. The sounds of
perhaps guitar strings plucked poorly… metal scraping on metal… a rifle action?
Was he really hearing anything at all, or did his mind merely tell him he was
hearing things?
All night long, Daniel stared in the direction of the sound,
unable to look at, perhaps even acknowledge Mike’s existence. Between the
leaves crashing from wild animals walking through their own backyard and the
constant shadows reminding him of the camouflaged figure from the previous day,
Daniel didn’t know which of his senses were still sharp, and which were eroding
to lack of nutrition and possible dehydration.
Mike rose and left the “camp” area, mumbling something about
looking for food. Daniel could hardly care. He hadn’t had food in four days. He
thinks he hadn’t really slept in three days. All he knows about civilization at
this point is that someone is keeping him from it, from Sherri, from a real
bed.
What truly occupies his thoughts is the ear. Daniel has
finally accepted that the ear belongs to Sherri; the earring was of course, one
he bought her. She is being kept from him; he is being kept from her. The
shadowy figure is keeping his life in constant turmoil.
Mike calls from a distance, screaming about “another box.”
Daniel runs toward the sound of his voice. As he approaches Mike, he glances
the shadowy figure out of the corner of his eye. Determined by the nature of
Mike’s scream, he ignores it. At this point, he knows that the figure is there,
and there’s nothing to be done about it. He truly hates the camouflaged figure
at this point. He realizes that it is an untouchable force preventing him from
returning to normal life. The figure will not kill him unprovoked, Daniel
assumes, but there’s no rhyme or reason why.
When Daniel reaches his partner in the woods, Mike is
holding a small box, this one the same shape and size of the last. Daniel
demands to open this one himself. Mike hands it over and Daniel rips off the
all too familiar twine, opening the box. Again, a pool of blood sits at the
bottom of the box. There, set in the center in a grotesque curved hook shape is
a finger. On the finger is a very distinguishable ring.
As Daniel recalls the memory of the day he gave Sherri the
ring, dizziness and nausea once again set in, as the panic he had experienced
upon his first awakening in the woods returned to him. The memory altered
itself, becoming an absurdist recreation of the event. Sherri appeared in
Daniel’s head, but this time, there was a bloody mess where her ear was, and
she put the ring on a severed finger.
Daniel screamed coming out of this memory. He screamed to
the shadows, screamed to the heavens, demanding to know who and why he is being
subjected to this isolation and horror. He runs back toward the shadow he had
seen on his way to Mike, calling out the figure. Mike runs behind him and
catches him, begging him to relax and take into account their situation, that
useless expenditure of energy will only make things worse.
At this point, Daniel cannot be calmed. His verbal and
physical argument with Mike gets more and more intense, as he relays his
frustration, his isolation, his fears, and his anger. His argument becomes
accusations as he blames Mike for finding the two boxes, finding the water,
finding the road although it was guarded by the figure. Mike pleads for Daniel
to regain his composure and think logically, but the pleas are just agitating
Daniel’s psyche. Daniel shoves Mike back into a tree, where he hits his head
hard. As Daniel looks back to where he shoved Mike, he sees the shadowy figure
some distance behind Mike and the tree. Daniel screams at him, asking what he
wants, he grabs a sharp stone and cuts himself on his arm, asking if that
brings satisfaction to the figure, asking if sacrifice is the answer to why
they were there. The thought in a strange way leads through his head in violent
throes, and finally lands on Mike. He grabs Mike and lifts him to his feet,
asking if the figure wants only to watch them die, or watch them kill each
other. Daniel slams Mike’s head into the tree again, and begins pummeling him
with his fist, asking the figure over and over if this is what he wants. As
Mike falls to the ground under a hail of blows, Daniel grabs his arms and
violently twists it hard. Mike howls a bloodcurdling scream as Daniel falls to
his knees, crying and cursing, blaming Mike, then the figure for what he’s just
done, for degrading him to the basest of human nature: violence toward another
man.
Daniel stands wearily, cursing the figure, calling him out.
When the figure doesn’t respond, he finally charges the figure, pleading with
him to kill him and end this. As Daniel runs toward the figure, Mike stands up
screaming for his return. Exhausted and weary, Daniel is unable to match with
the speed of the figure. As the figure sidesteps Daniel’s charge quite easily,
he quickly turns and grabs Daniel in a choke hold and places a rag over his
nose and mouth. As his senses fail him and his vision goes dark, he hears in
the hollow background Mike pleading for the figure to not hurt him…
ACT 6:
DAY 6 – EARLIER THAT
DAY
Daniel wakes up, head pounding, but unable to see or move
his limbs. He cries out to be released when he hears a familiar voice in the
background. It is Bryan ,
asking him to calm himself, explaining he is only blindfolded and bound to
prevent him from hurting himself when he hears some surprising, shocking
information. He takes off Daniel’s blindfold and asks him to remain calm.
Daniel sees in the background Mike, with a bloodied face and a sling on his
right arm.
He and Mike begin to layout their history, how they were
aspiring movie makers, they were in Hollywood for years, unable to sell a
script, a short film, a treatment to any producer, and the most common
criticism of their submissions was a lack of realism, that their work lacked
any connection to the human condition and no one could relate to the
sensationalism. Being in Hollywood ,
this seemed like a hypocritical statement, which led to more frustration, more
work, and more rejection. They concluded that they need to experience the type
of anxiety and horror they wanted to write about.
Mike, being a writer, developed the idea of creating his
character in the real world, and subjecting him to the subject matter of his
movie. Bryan ,
being a well-off director, agreed to fund the excursion in exchange for
experiencing the event and directing the eventual film when Mike writes it. To
prove the point, Bryan
shows off the camouflage outfit and boots Daniel and Mike had seen in the
woods. As Bryan
explains all the value of the experience from an artistic point of view, he
assures Daniel that the lead part is his for the taking when the film is shot.
Mike expresses gratitude for not being killed, and for
Daniel allowing himself to be subjected to this experience. As Mike explains
that although art demands sacrifice, as evident by the injuries he allowed
Daniel to inflict, they are not monsters. At this point they reveal Sherri,
alive and well. Daniel, nearly silent, almost in shock up to this point, breaks
down, crying angrily, demanding a physical explanation to what he saw, what he
went through. As Sherri consoles him, Bryan explains that in Hollywood, it is
very easy to make realistic prosthetics of body parts, and as Sherri is an
actress as well, and in on the whole thing, she gladly donated her earring and
rings to amplify the effect. Bryan
shows him many boxes of fake fingers and ears he had made for this experiment.
Daniel’s anger has yet to be subsided, as he demands of
Sherri some assurance that their relationship is real, not a part of the
scheme.
As Sherri offers these guarantees, we see her glance at
Bryan and Mike with a look in her eyes that may suggest otherwise…
EPILOGUE:
DAY 6 (Same as
Prologue)
As visions of the past week haunt his mind, Daniel jolts up
out of bed, sweating, visibly shaken. He glances over at his girlfriend Sherri
sleeping seemingly peacefully beside him. As he sits there, he feels the
isolation, the fear, the anger returning to his body. He feels the humiliation
and embarrassment of his gullibility.
The man walks up to a door in a fairly decent neighborhood.
The man walks up to a door in an apartment complex.
The rain pours down on him. He glares at the door knocker,
sure of his self, sure of his intent.
The fluorescent hallway lights beam down on him. He glares
at the apartment number, sure of his self, sure of his intent.
He pounds the knocker into the door. After a moment, Bryan answers the door.
He pounds the apartment door with a clenched fist. After a
moment, Mike answers the door.
Mike asks Daniel why he has come. Without another thought
Daniel tosses a familiar shaped, small box towards Mike. The box is roughly the
size of a necklace case one might buy at a jeweler. It appears hastily wrapped
in a single twine ribbon.
Mike quickly unties the twine, opening the box. He stares
for a moment, and then looks up at Daniel, horror in his eyes…
Daniel holds up his right hand, the blood stains encrusted
on it, still not yet washed off by the rain.
Calmly he says that the item in the necklace sized box is in
fact not a fake, and then shoots (Bryan/Mike) in the face.
THE END
**Note: End Credits to include dialogue of police radio
frequency recordings detailing the discovery of Sherri, Mike, and Bryan ’s bodies, as well
as the chase and take-down of Daniel. Visually, it would be nice to split the
screen, credits on one half, and pages of the police report photos of the
bodies on the other.
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