Wednesday, 17 November 2004
Babe, I Dream in Better-Than-Color
I have a pretty weird/amazing mind. Things have gotten to the point where not only do I dream in cinema - replete with pans, zooms, cutaways and more - but now my dreams result in pretty decent script treatments.
I wrote down everything below not long after I woke up this morning (or rather yesterday morning, technically speaking), so it should be fairly complete. I've now edited it, so it should also be clear.
Take a gander. Mind, if you pitch it or turn it into a film, I want my pound of flesh.
John's Cinematic Dream, 16 November 2004
Most everything is seen first-person, so I (and you, the "viewer") must be the main character.
Voice-over: "It all started out when [some guy, named] finally broke up with his wife." Short scene of wife and kids leaving, as if from memory; viewer only sees lower half of guy's body.
He gives (sells, more likely) his house to some group.
The group moves in, it's a team of some sort. It's understood that they work together, but not exactly explained how.
The guy (from whose view this started) is often out on trips. Apparently, he's a part of this group working out of his former home. Sometimes return after having spent time in hospital.
Time passes, more trips. (Some events happen in my dream, but not important enough to describe here - just filler.)
The guy and a woman team member (one of several, or only one? - it's not clear) go on a trip. There's a voice-over during some establishing shot(s), which blends into viewer seeing her talking to him. She's telling him that it's good to go on vacation once in a while. The guy says it's been a long time, he can't remember when last time was (or is that me coming up with that while transcribing this?). There on a ferry, on the way to somewhere.
Her voice (a flashback? - it's definitely not her talking in the here and now), worrying that he might notice that it's ten days later than he thinks it is.
Back on the ferry, she mentions something (nervously?) to him about how it would be weird if it took so long (the ferry is slow) that days had passed by the time they arrived. The guy is puzzled, but things are sort of fuzzy - like he has a headache all of a sudden, and things spin a bit.
It's now known that they're on a ferry over the English Channel to get into England from France. The ferry is small, but nearly empty, so there's plenty of room. Apparently its return trips are packed with French tourists, so there's some discussion of getting back early. Maybe there was another guy from the group on the trip (?), because it's a male voice saying that; maybe it's just another passenger.
The main character and the woman walk up some street on a slight incline, to metro (tube), chatting whole time.
They are now in the system, apparently have just boarded the train.
Suddenly, a terrible accident: she gets killed by some beam that comes into car. Others are hurt as well.
The guy staggers out, we go back to a first-person view.
He's walking slowly, hands on his head (though we don't necessarily see this). The few people who glance at him do a double take, then back off. Some say things like "no, not me" or "I didn't do it" (or is that me adding the latter when I transcribed this?). As the guy continues to move along, more and more people look, stare, and back off - until he's got a totally clear path through a crowd of people. (I guess it's the kind of crowd that always forms around accidents?)
The guy, perhaps stunned by accident, is making way back to ferry, back down the road. No one really seems to notice him, but there's not much traffic anyway.
Approaching bridge, he sees police (at least two, maybe a few more in background) checking people. As he walks on by, one cop yells, "That's him!" Immediately, in the exact same space of time, the second cop grabs the guy, the guy feels puzzled (you can feel as well as see in dreams) and perhaps utters a confused "huh?"
A split second later, might as well be simultaneous, the first cop knocks him out with a strong right hook (again, all seen first-person through the guy's eyes).
He (you) realizes that they think he was the one who caused the accident/killed the woman, that they're out sweeping for him. The police must recognize him. (Once awake, I realized that he must've been walking slowly, else why were there so many police, so fast? Or maybe they were already investigating his reported entry - but even if so, neither the viewer nor the guy would know that.)
He wakes up to find himself laying on table, surrounded by small medical team (including some members of the original team?). The view is now from above, and we see some video screens. Someone says something to the effect that they're ready, and now they'll find out what really had gone on.
A video monitor (view sweeps in to it) starts playing. It's the beginning of this "movie" (the one I'm describing), including narration.
Voice-over: "It all started out with [guy's name, this time different] finally dumping his wife..."
The scene is slightly different, and it's obvious that guy isn't nice. There's a shot of wife and kids crying, leaving with baggage.
Voice-over continues: "...so that he could set up shop." (Or something to that effect, I'm putting it into words here, but was originally spoken in some way I don't remember.)
The scene (that is, the modified version of the opening scene) at first doesn't seem to be played out from first person - at least, not from the same view. In fact, the viewer is looking out the (re)named guy's eyes, who is (in the "real" present) the guy lying on the table.
In this revised flashback, the viewer sees him in a full-length view - or at least enough to make the connection that the lower half seen before was the same guy. This view is perhaps in mirror, since the viewer is looking through his eyes (my explanation now that I'm awake).
The shots progress, including several as-yet unseen scenes. It turns out there are missing moments in his past trips (the dream doesn't show them, but the viewer knows that they're the same as before). Familiar moments frame new events: killings, violence, maimings, the guy getting dragged out of a mess (of a fight? explosion? lots of flames and smoke) and being rushed to a hospital.
These new moments are a bit disorienting, then it all snaps into place.
In the present (on the table), the guy (and the viewer) has a sudden realization that the guy had been a big-time killer, perhaps political, and that he's screwed now: The British government has him, some of his team (may) have crossed over (that is, if indeed some of them are present, it's not clear).
He's going down.
Prologue
Immediate post-dream realization, upon waking up: The woman may have set him up. She's not really dead; it was just a way to create necessary confusion and get the police sweep. Maybe she's crossed over?
Later (and cooler) realization: The guy was on his way to another mission. The accident was actually just that - unexpected and shot the mission to hell. No one defected, and if there are any familiar faces in the final scene(s), they may be double-agents.
Addendum to the last item, something I thought about when I first wrote this: The guy realizes that he's actually a cold-blooded killer, that it's not the memory losses that make him good.
That is, it's not as if he were coerced then lost memory of those moments. In fact, he's willingly gone along with memory wipes - perhaps to get rid of bad memories. In return, he becomes a killer (or a more frequent one?) and gets those images wiped as well in the deal.
Comments
Very interesting - I am rather impressed that you remembered all that.
At first I was confused about the "team" but then it made a little more sense as you went along.
So, what is his motive (other than being crazy)?
BTW - I think you should have Sean Penn play the leading role!
VB