Chris Fritz's Blog - Posts Tagged "sci-fi"
I re-wrote Star Wars episode 9
Last December I went to the theatre and watched Star Wars episode 9: the Rise of Skywalker. The so called epic conclusion to the Star Wars franchise. After thinking about it for a long time I realized I dislike this movie quite a lot. It was disappointing to me because I really liked episode eight and wondered how the story would end. I never thought I would be the kind of person to flat out hate a Star Wars movie but it happened. So instead of complaining about it I took a couple of pages and wrote a short summary of how I thought the story for episode 9 should have went. Please read it over and think about what could have been.
In our new version a year as passed after the events of the last Jedi. Rey has grown more powerful with the force as well as dismantled her staff to build a double bladed Jedi lightsaber. We open with a scene on endors forest moon where the resistance has set up a base and gathered a few meager ships to help their cause. The first order attack the base in a relentless onslaught lead by Kylo Ren. The resistance fight honorably but they cannot win. They can only get away as general Leia sacrifices herself to give the resistance ships enough time to get off the planet and warp away to safety. Leia is given the opportunity to talk to her son one last time before Kylo Ren shoves his lightsaber through her heart. The resistance is sent into mourning over the death of Leia. They can barely fight on with what little they have left. They have no choice but to find some more resources to fight the fight. While the resistance brainstorms battle strategies Rey can’t help but recall some stories that she read about the clone wars and how the separatists fought with an army of battle droids. Poe remembers vague rumors of battle droids and droid armies still bouncing around the galaxy. If the resistance could get their hands on a droid army then it would put them back in the game. So their new goal is to see if these droid army rumors have any merit. This puts Poe, Rey and BB 8 on a mission to find Babu Frik and Zori Bliss Poe old pals from his spice running days. Babu and Zori have heard rumors of such an army and the rumors point them in the direction of the junk planet called Kuat. An entire planet that functions as a giant scrap pile filled with droids, robots, weapons and broken ships. Not a soul around that isn’t made of metal. Poe, Rey, BB-8, Zori and Babu travel to this planet and poke around until they find a battalion of functioning battle droids. The battle droids capture the group and they take them to the leader of the droid army a Junker named Frich Dayson. He controls hundreds of thousands of droids and ships electronically. A proper droid army that the resistance needs to continue the war. The group tries to convince the commander of the army to help their cause in the war. It takes some persuading but Frich agrees to help them fight if they pay him 100,000,000 credits. War is an extreme commitment and he could lose a lot more than that. The group doesn’t have the money they need so they have to find a way to get it. So the group hatch a plan and go to Kanto byte the casino planet that is swimming in money. They spend a few days rigging slot machines and hacking gambling computers in order to raise enough money for the army. Their trip ends when they decide to hold up a big time war profiteer who sold weapons to the first order. A really bad guy named Koren the Hutt who made millions. With some of Rey’s force mind tricks they get him to hand over 100,000,000 credits as well as the keys to a hangar full of weapons and ships on an off world moon. Stealing from the bad guys to help the good guys. The group leave Kanto byte and go back to Kuat where they pay Frich Dayson the money. With that the resistance now has a droid army under their command. Meanwhile Finn, Rose and Chewy take the porg infested millennium falcon and go on a mission to find Lando Calrissian. They think he might be able to help out the cause as he was a famous hero from the rebellion. They have a need to sway public opinion in the galaxy about the resistance and try to get more systems to join their cause. They’ve heard chatter that Lando is on Pasaana. Once the group reaches Pasaana the hunt takes them to a local bar where in a cosmic one in a million coincidence they find an old enemy named Dee Jay. The last time Finn and Rose saw Dee Jay he had almost helped them out but betrayed them to the first order. Finn confronts him only to find he still has a nonchalant attitude about everything and refuses to join a side in any fight. Eventually Finn picks a fight with him and starts a bar brawl. The group gets kicked out of the bar and the get arrested by a first order patrol. It isn’t long until the Stormtroopers that arrested them as Finn the first order traitor while the imprison Rose and Chewy the make an example out of Finn. A big platoon of stormtroopers gather in a group and beat him up. Things look hopeless for Finn but with a few good punches and an inspiring speech he convinces some the stormtroopers that they don’t have to listen to the first order. They don’t have to be faceless, nameless, murdering dogs of an unjust regime. The troopers spare his life and release his friends and Finn has recruited a platoon of new troops to the resistance. Finn tells his new recruits that he is on a mission to find Lando and the recruits tell him they had the same mission. The first order sent them on a mission to find Lando and kill him they got so far as discovering his location. He’s hold up in Pasaana’s marshlands with a pack of resistance sympathizers. Those marshlands are nearly impossible to traverse and harder still to flush out an enemy. So Finn, Rose, Chewy and the traitor troopers go into the marshlands waving a flag of peace. They are received by Lando’s men and meet with Lando. They find an old, world weary Lando who has no real will to join this fight. After some inspiring words from Chewy Lando gets the gumption to help out the young whipper snappers. With that Lando and his small group of resistance sympathizers join the fight. Meanwhile Kylo Ren’s spirit has been torn into pieces. He is compelled by the force to destroy the resistance but killing his mother was too far. He starts seeing visions someone or something reaches out to him. It’s the force ghost of Darth Sidious. Telling him to travel to Exegol the ancient home of the sith. He shows Ren where to find a sith way finder the only thing in the galaxy that shows the way to Exegol. Kylo and the knights of Ren go on their campaign to get the way finder and take a ship to Exegol once there Kylo is greeted by the force ghost of Darth Sidious. Sidious guides him around the ancient home of the sith, shares his ancient evil wisdom, and gives him a gift. A counsel of four regents who served lord Sidious in the days of the empire and will serve Kylo Ren as the one supreme ruler of the sith. Sidious also gives Kylo a fleet of star destroyers equipped with weapons that can blow up entire planets in one shot as well as an army of sith troopers. Kylo sends coordinates to general Hux and orders every single ship in the first order fleet to fly to exegol and every single first order troop to join them. Kylo Ren gathers all of his forces for the final battle. Unfortunately general Hux doesn’t like the way Kylo has been running things and when he gets to exegol he tries to assassinate Kylo. Ren is too powerful and sees the attempt on his life coming from a mile away. He kills Hux before Hux can kill him and any whisper of insurrection with in the first order dies with Hux. Kylo is missing something though. The Sith always have the law of two. Kylo needs an apprentice to join him in the ways of the sith. He wants Rey. He still has the ability to communicate with her using the force. He invades her mind on multiple occasions to try to convince her to turn to the dark side. Threatening to kill her and the rest of the resistance if she won’t turn. With his army and his mastery of the force Kylo Ren is the most powerful threat in the galaxy. He will not be denied. Rey tries to reach out to the Jedi of the past for guidance but she finds nothing. Kylo in his ultimate threat shows Rey how to get to exegol using the force so she can join him on the throne of the sith. It’s an obvious trap but the entire galaxy is in danger if Kylo isn’t defeated. Rey shares what Kylo has told her with the resistance. The power he’s gained and the location of exegol. With that the resistance put a plan into motion. They send out a signal that hacks every single hollow viewer in the know galaxy and plays a message on it. The play a heartfelt speech given by Lando about the sacrifices that were made in the past and how the future will be taken from them if they don’t fight the first order. This inspires countless ships from all across the galaxy to join the resistance. The freedom fighters forces grow from maybe a couple dozen ships to hundreds of thousands of ships. A fighting force of that might just be able to stand up against the over whelming might of the first order. They take their droid army, their ships, and everybody else who wants to fight to exegol for the final battle for the soul of the galaxy. The ships engage the fleet of sith star destroyers in the air while Frich Dayson lands his droid army on the ground and starts the ground attack. Battle droids versus storm troopers in an epic battle. Finn and Rey lead the ground battle while Poe fights in the air piloting an X-wing. At a point in the battle Rey and Finn are able to break off from the fight and storm the sith temple. They are met by the Knights of Ren. Skilled warriors who fight for the dark side and they are quite the match for Rey and Finn. Eeventually Kylo Ren shows up. Rey goes off to fight him while Finn takes care of the knights. Rey is determined to defeat Kylo and they start to most epic lightsaber fight imaginable. Their battle with their lightsabers is so epic that the entire planet is rocked by their fight. The two of them use their force abilities to such extreme that at the height of their battle both of them pass out and are mentally transported inside the force itself. In here the Jedi and the sith of the past reveal the true secrets of the force. The jedi of the past try to sway Kylo to the light side of the force and the Sith of the past try to pull Rey to the dark side of the force. The epic lightsaber fight continues inside the force. It only comes to a conclusion when Kylo threatens to kill Rey and convince Finn to join the dark side instead. He can tell that the former storm trooper is force sensitive and things if Rey won’t turn to the sith them perhaps he will. In an overwhelming fit of corrupting anger Rey chops off Kylo’s right hand leaving him crippled and the battle ended. Kylo encourages Rey to kill him. But she does not. Instead Kylo gives up his body to the force and disappears into it. Unable to fight anymore. He spent his life being torn apart by the need to do the right thing until he finally couldn’t fight anymore and he dies. Meanwhile back on the battlefield Babu Frik and Frich Dayson have concocted a virus that will allow Frich to control one of the sith star destroyers. They just need to get BB-8 on to the hull of one of the destroyers to allow Frich to hack into it. A squadron of resistance fighters lands a ship on one of the star destroyers with BB-8 in toe. BB-8 hacks into the star destroyers controls and gives Frich access. The resistance then orders a full retreat. Finn is able to finish of the last of the knights of Ren and adhere to the retreat after grabbing Reys unconscious body. Rey wakes up on a speeder bike being driven by Finn as fast as he can away from any fighting. He gets on a departing ship with the rest of the resistance ground troops and takes off away from the planet. Every resistance ship light speeds away from exegol as Frich Dayson uses his sith star destroyer to blow up the entire planet of exegol. Destroying every trace of the sith and the first order. The resistance has won against the first order. Good has won against evil. Poe Dameron and Lando Calrissian get to work setting up a democratic governing body to govern the galaxy. While Finn tells Rey that he is force sensitive and wants to learn the ways of the Jedi from her. He also admits that he has fallen in love with her and she admits that she feels the same way. The two of them kiss. The End.
In our new version a year as passed after the events of the last Jedi. Rey has grown more powerful with the force as well as dismantled her staff to build a double bladed Jedi lightsaber. We open with a scene on endors forest moon where the resistance has set up a base and gathered a few meager ships to help their cause. The first order attack the base in a relentless onslaught lead by Kylo Ren. The resistance fight honorably but they cannot win. They can only get away as general Leia sacrifices herself to give the resistance ships enough time to get off the planet and warp away to safety. Leia is given the opportunity to talk to her son one last time before Kylo Ren shoves his lightsaber through her heart. The resistance is sent into mourning over the death of Leia. They can barely fight on with what little they have left. They have no choice but to find some more resources to fight the fight. While the resistance brainstorms battle strategies Rey can’t help but recall some stories that she read about the clone wars and how the separatists fought with an army of battle droids. Poe remembers vague rumors of battle droids and droid armies still bouncing around the galaxy. If the resistance could get their hands on a droid army then it would put them back in the game. So their new goal is to see if these droid army rumors have any merit. This puts Poe, Rey and BB 8 on a mission to find Babu Frik and Zori Bliss Poe old pals from his spice running days. Babu and Zori have heard rumors of such an army and the rumors point them in the direction of the junk planet called Kuat. An entire planet that functions as a giant scrap pile filled with droids, robots, weapons and broken ships. Not a soul around that isn’t made of metal. Poe, Rey, BB-8, Zori and Babu travel to this planet and poke around until they find a battalion of functioning battle droids. The battle droids capture the group and they take them to the leader of the droid army a Junker named Frich Dayson. He controls hundreds of thousands of droids and ships electronically. A proper droid army that the resistance needs to continue the war. The group tries to convince the commander of the army to help their cause in the war. It takes some persuading but Frich agrees to help them fight if they pay him 100,000,000 credits. War is an extreme commitment and he could lose a lot more than that. The group doesn’t have the money they need so they have to find a way to get it. So the group hatch a plan and go to Kanto byte the casino planet that is swimming in money. They spend a few days rigging slot machines and hacking gambling computers in order to raise enough money for the army. Their trip ends when they decide to hold up a big time war profiteer who sold weapons to the first order. A really bad guy named Koren the Hutt who made millions. With some of Rey’s force mind tricks they get him to hand over 100,000,000 credits as well as the keys to a hangar full of weapons and ships on an off world moon. Stealing from the bad guys to help the good guys. The group leave Kanto byte and go back to Kuat where they pay Frich Dayson the money. With that the resistance now has a droid army under their command. Meanwhile Finn, Rose and Chewy take the porg infested millennium falcon and go on a mission to find Lando Calrissian. They think he might be able to help out the cause as he was a famous hero from the rebellion. They have a need to sway public opinion in the galaxy about the resistance and try to get more systems to join their cause. They’ve heard chatter that Lando is on Pasaana. Once the group reaches Pasaana the hunt takes them to a local bar where in a cosmic one in a million coincidence they find an old enemy named Dee Jay. The last time Finn and Rose saw Dee Jay he had almost helped them out but betrayed them to the first order. Finn confronts him only to find he still has a nonchalant attitude about everything and refuses to join a side in any fight. Eventually Finn picks a fight with him and starts a bar brawl. The group gets kicked out of the bar and the get arrested by a first order patrol. It isn’t long until the Stormtroopers that arrested them as Finn the first order traitor while the imprison Rose and Chewy the make an example out of Finn. A big platoon of stormtroopers gather in a group and beat him up. Things look hopeless for Finn but with a few good punches and an inspiring speech he convinces some the stormtroopers that they don’t have to listen to the first order. They don’t have to be faceless, nameless, murdering dogs of an unjust regime. The troopers spare his life and release his friends and Finn has recruited a platoon of new troops to the resistance. Finn tells his new recruits that he is on a mission to find Lando and the recruits tell him they had the same mission. The first order sent them on a mission to find Lando and kill him they got so far as discovering his location. He’s hold up in Pasaana’s marshlands with a pack of resistance sympathizers. Those marshlands are nearly impossible to traverse and harder still to flush out an enemy. So Finn, Rose, Chewy and the traitor troopers go into the marshlands waving a flag of peace. They are received by Lando’s men and meet with Lando. They find an old, world weary Lando who has no real will to join this fight. After some inspiring words from Chewy Lando gets the gumption to help out the young whipper snappers. With that Lando and his small group of resistance sympathizers join the fight. Meanwhile Kylo Ren’s spirit has been torn into pieces. He is compelled by the force to destroy the resistance but killing his mother was too far. He starts seeing visions someone or something reaches out to him. It’s the force ghost of Darth Sidious. Telling him to travel to Exegol the ancient home of the sith. He shows Ren where to find a sith way finder the only thing in the galaxy that shows the way to Exegol. Kylo and the knights of Ren go on their campaign to get the way finder and take a ship to Exegol once there Kylo is greeted by the force ghost of Darth Sidious. Sidious guides him around the ancient home of the sith, shares his ancient evil wisdom, and gives him a gift. A counsel of four regents who served lord Sidious in the days of the empire and will serve Kylo Ren as the one supreme ruler of the sith. Sidious also gives Kylo a fleet of star destroyers equipped with weapons that can blow up entire planets in one shot as well as an army of sith troopers. Kylo sends coordinates to general Hux and orders every single ship in the first order fleet to fly to exegol and every single first order troop to join them. Kylo Ren gathers all of his forces for the final battle. Unfortunately general Hux doesn’t like the way Kylo has been running things and when he gets to exegol he tries to assassinate Kylo. Ren is too powerful and sees the attempt on his life coming from a mile away. He kills Hux before Hux can kill him and any whisper of insurrection with in the first order dies with Hux. Kylo is missing something though. The Sith always have the law of two. Kylo needs an apprentice to join him in the ways of the sith. He wants Rey. He still has the ability to communicate with her using the force. He invades her mind on multiple occasions to try to convince her to turn to the dark side. Threatening to kill her and the rest of the resistance if she won’t turn. With his army and his mastery of the force Kylo Ren is the most powerful threat in the galaxy. He will not be denied. Rey tries to reach out to the Jedi of the past for guidance but she finds nothing. Kylo in his ultimate threat shows Rey how to get to exegol using the force so she can join him on the throne of the sith. It’s an obvious trap but the entire galaxy is in danger if Kylo isn’t defeated. Rey shares what Kylo has told her with the resistance. The power he’s gained and the location of exegol. With that the resistance put a plan into motion. They send out a signal that hacks every single hollow viewer in the know galaxy and plays a message on it. The play a heartfelt speech given by Lando about the sacrifices that were made in the past and how the future will be taken from them if they don’t fight the first order. This inspires countless ships from all across the galaxy to join the resistance. The freedom fighters forces grow from maybe a couple dozen ships to hundreds of thousands of ships. A fighting force of that might just be able to stand up against the over whelming might of the first order. They take their droid army, their ships, and everybody else who wants to fight to exegol for the final battle for the soul of the galaxy. The ships engage the fleet of sith star destroyers in the air while Frich Dayson lands his droid army on the ground and starts the ground attack. Battle droids versus storm troopers in an epic battle. Finn and Rey lead the ground battle while Poe fights in the air piloting an X-wing. At a point in the battle Rey and Finn are able to break off from the fight and storm the sith temple. They are met by the Knights of Ren. Skilled warriors who fight for the dark side and they are quite the match for Rey and Finn. Eeventually Kylo Ren shows up. Rey goes off to fight him while Finn takes care of the knights. Rey is determined to defeat Kylo and they start to most epic lightsaber fight imaginable. Their battle with their lightsabers is so epic that the entire planet is rocked by their fight. The two of them use their force abilities to such extreme that at the height of their battle both of them pass out and are mentally transported inside the force itself. In here the Jedi and the sith of the past reveal the true secrets of the force. The jedi of the past try to sway Kylo to the light side of the force and the Sith of the past try to pull Rey to the dark side of the force. The epic lightsaber fight continues inside the force. It only comes to a conclusion when Kylo threatens to kill Rey and convince Finn to join the dark side instead. He can tell that the former storm trooper is force sensitive and things if Rey won’t turn to the sith them perhaps he will. In an overwhelming fit of corrupting anger Rey chops off Kylo’s right hand leaving him crippled and the battle ended. Kylo encourages Rey to kill him. But she does not. Instead Kylo gives up his body to the force and disappears into it. Unable to fight anymore. He spent his life being torn apart by the need to do the right thing until he finally couldn’t fight anymore and he dies. Meanwhile back on the battlefield Babu Frik and Frich Dayson have concocted a virus that will allow Frich to control one of the sith star destroyers. They just need to get BB-8 on to the hull of one of the destroyers to allow Frich to hack into it. A squadron of resistance fighters lands a ship on one of the star destroyers with BB-8 in toe. BB-8 hacks into the star destroyers controls and gives Frich access. The resistance then orders a full retreat. Finn is able to finish of the last of the knights of Ren and adhere to the retreat after grabbing Reys unconscious body. Rey wakes up on a speeder bike being driven by Finn as fast as he can away from any fighting. He gets on a departing ship with the rest of the resistance ground troops and takes off away from the planet. Every resistance ship light speeds away from exegol as Frich Dayson uses his sith star destroyer to blow up the entire planet of exegol. Destroying every trace of the sith and the first order. The resistance has won against the first order. Good has won against evil. Poe Dameron and Lando Calrissian get to work setting up a democratic governing body to govern the galaxy. While Finn tells Rey that he is force sensitive and wants to learn the ways of the Jedi from her. He also admits that he has fallen in love with her and she admits that she feels the same way. The two of them kiss. The End.
The Suit
There's one writing project that I've started and never finished that I kind of regret abandoning. It was a science fiction screenplay about an army ranger and a mad scientist who team up to steal a prototype, high tech, battle exoskeleton from the army and use it to fight crime on the dystopic crime infested streets of Los Angeles.
If you read that description and think it's a good story then thank you. I got half way through writing it and then gave up for two reasons I think. One was I was in college when I was writing it and when I graduated college I just got sucked into the havoc of finding a job and a place to live and actually making something out of my post grad life. Some of my time for writing screenplays had to go out the window and this screenplay was the one who had to suffer.
The second reason is I don't think the over all premise for this screenplay was very good. I think the way I wrote it was kind of a misstep and a misdirection for me and I just couldn't put myself into the world of the characters I made or go along with the plot I wanted. I think it wasn't very original and my insecurities got the better of me. So in a way I'll dispel some of my insecurities and post some chunks of my abandoned screenplay here on my blog. The title for this story was just called "The Suit" and who knows maybe I'll rewrite it someday in some incarnation if I can muster up the courage but for now here's a blast from the past of me in my college days. I can't assure the quality on this so read at your own risk.
ext. Los angeles streets - day
It is a hot summer day on the crime riddled streets of Los Angeles. Major street gangs commit crimes in broad daylight because they aren't afraid of any police and if they did encounter any they would just have a shoot out with them.
Damien(v.o.)
LA. Most people know as the city of angels where anybody can make it and become a star. I know it as some place completely different. A place where gangs and crime have turned the city into a war zone. I joined the army to help people. little did I know I would be shipped off to the middle east to police people who didn't need to be policed. Who am I? I'm Damien James and I am lost.
int. gym - night
Colonel MARK WILLIAMS enters the gym. He is wearing a formal army uniform and holding a manila folder. He looks very out of place as he crosses the gym floor and approaches DAMIEN JAMES who is finishing a set of cross legged pull ups.
mark Williams
Damien James.
DAMIEN
Hi colonel.
James gets up form the machine and the two shake hands.
DAMIEN
What brings you here?
MARK WILLIAMS
Your transfer request came through.
Williams hands him the folder and he opens it up and looks through it.
MARK WILLIAMS
It's an experimental weapons testing project. Its codename is project S.
DAMIEN
Excellent I'll do it.
Damien trys to hand the folder back to mark.
MARK WILLIAMS
Keep it. You sure you don't want to think about it? You know a lot of good men have passed on this.
DAMIEN
I don't need to think about I want to do it.
MARK WILLIAMS
You know when you asked me to find you something like this I was shocked. Didn't your first tour of duty go well?
DAMIEN JAMES
It did, I just need a change if pace.
MARK WILLIAMS
Well I hope you find it.
DAMIEN
Thanks.
The two shake hands and Mark walks away.
ext. street - night
Damien is walking back home to his apartment after a long day. He almost makes it to the door of his apartment building when he hears something. That something sounds like a struggle coming from just around the block. Damien turns away from his apartment and runs towards the sound of the struggle. He turns the street corner to find a WOMAN in her mid 50's who has been knocked on the ground and a MUGGER running away from her. Damien goes over and helps the woman up.
woman
That man stole my purse!
Damien starts running after the mugger. He starts gaining on him and their foot chase is on. After a while the mugger turns a corner and runs into an alleyway. Once he's there he runs into three gang member friends of his. He stops running once he meets up with them.
mugger
Hey guys can you help me out!
gang member #1
Oh no, what did you do this time?
MUGGER
I was trying get a payday and some loser thinks he could stop me.
gang member #2
Do you really get off on purse grabbing?
MUGGER
Hey don't judge my hobbies.
GANG MEMBER #1
Alright we'll help you this once.
Just then Damien rounds the corner into the alley way and them four of them are right there waiting with an ambush. They start a classic fist fight and Damien is eager to fight back. They all trade punches but of course with it being four on one the fight isn't very fair. Eventually they knock Damien down to his knees and one of the gang members pulls out a gun and puts it to Damiens head. This discourages him from getting back up.
Gang member #3
You got guts man. But whatever you think you're doing here isn't worth getting shot in the head. But like I said, you have guts. If you ever decide you want to do something with your life, join the 11 five mob. We can give you some much needed focus.
The gang member takes the gun away from his head. The other two members punch him in the face and throw him down into a pile of trash bags. The four criminals run off and away from their defeated opponent. Damien tries to pick himself up out of his defeat as he watches his opponents run away.
ext. desert - day
A helicopter is flying through the air across the baron desert. Damien is inside the chopper as it makes its way to the secluded testing facility.
int. army base - day
General ARMOND DIXON and Colonel Williams are walking through the halls of the facility.
MARK WILLIAMS
He arrives today. I'm sure you're anxious to get the testing under way.
Armond
Anxious is not the word I would use, I want to see the result of the millions of dollars that went into making this debacle. That doctor promised us a revolution in weaponry and so far I haven't seen anything explode.
MARK WILLIAMS
Well I'm sure we will change that today.
ARMOND
And tell me why do we have only one test subject? We can speed this whole thing up if we get more guinea pigs to test the equipment.
MARK WILLIAMS
Doctor Jordan was very adamant that as few personnel as possible were involved in the testing.
ARMOND
Yeah whatever I just hope we can finally get some results.
The two get to the door to doctor Jordans laboratory. They enter.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
The General and the colonel enter the room it is filled with desks computer terminals. DR.DONALD JORDAN is sitting at one of the computers typing away. He doesn't greet the two as they enter.
ARMOND
Dr. Jordan.
The doctor doesn't respond.
ARMOND
Dr. Jordan!
Jordan turns.
donald
Wah! Oh general it's only you. You scared me there.
ARMOND
Working hard doctor?
DONALD
Hey I'm just going over some calculations and command protocols for the tests.
ARMOND
Well the test subject should be arriving soon. We should meet him at the helipad.
DONALD
Yes of course, let me just log out of here.
Donald turns back to the computer and logs himself out. He grabs a couple of his things and gets out of the chair.
DONALD
Okay lets go.
Donald walks over to the general and the three walk out of the room.
INT. ARMY BASE - DAY
The trio walk down the hall.
DONALD
We are going to change the world.
ARMOND
Doctor I have a serious question for you. I gave you a dozen suitable candidates for testing and you only approved one of them, why is that?
DONALD
Well I had to be very picky when it came to things like psychological profiles, health, risk factors, plus I really think we need to be cautious when dealing with experimental technologies. I mean it's not like we are driving around tanks here.
ARMOND
Yes well you've spent a lot of taxpayers money and the government does not like wasting it.
DONALD
Well depending on how the tests go we might need to wast a little bit more.
Armond flashes a strange look at Donald.
DONALD
Or everything could be perfect we'll see.
The trio reach a door. Armond opens it and lets Jordan and Williams through. It leads outside.
ext. army base - day
The fenced off base is in the middle of the desert. It is the only thing around for a hundred miles in any direction. Damiens helicopter approaches the bases airspace. It stops and hovers above a helipad. It slowly lands on the helipad. As the propellers wined down Armond and Donald approach the helipad area. The propellers stop and the door to the helicopter opens. Damien steps out and down on to the helipad. He walks up to the general and the doctor and they meet half way.
ARMOND
Damien James, my name is General Armond Dixon and this is doctor Donald Jordan.
Damien shakes Armonds hand then shakes Jordans.
DONALD
Its good to meet you.
DAMIEN
The same.
ARMOND
Come this way we'll show you what you'll be working with.
Armond leads Damien inside one of the facilities.
DAMIEN
Getting right down to business?
ARMOND
Yeah you don't have a problem with that do yah?
DAMIEN
No sir.
DONALD
You're going to love what we've cooked up for you.
They aproach the door to the testing lab. Armond opens the door and lets Donald inside.
ARMOND
Yes we will be jumping in with both feet so I hope you recover from jetlag quickly.
DAMIEN
What jetlag?
Damien enters and Armond follows right behind him.
INT. testing hangar - DAY
Jordan, Damien and Armond cross the wide open hangar making their way to the center of the room.
DONALD
So Damien I'm sure you've done the required reading.
DAMIEN
Yeah that was a really thick instruction manual.
DONALD
But you read it right?
DAMIEN
Uh yeah.
The trio make it to the center of the hangar where there is a high tech pedestal with the XY-10,000 exo-suit standing up right on top of it. Around it are two engineers, one on a computer and one moving around checking the suit and making final preparations. The trio approach the pedestal
DONALD
Well here she is the XY-10,000 exo-suit.
ARMOND
The guys around the base just call it the suit.
DONALD
I never approved of that name.
DAMIEN
So what does the suit do?
DONALD
Well it's supposed to increase your agility, speed, strength, and fighting ability several thousand percent. But we will find out the full potential of this thing when we start testing.
ARMOND
So let these eggheads strap you in and we will monitor you progress in there.
Armond points to a large window that leads to Jordans monitoring computer lab.
DAMIEN
Alright.
Damien steps up on the pedestal, Jordan and Armond walk over to an entrance to the monitoring lab.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
There is a person at every single computer terminal. They are facing the wall sized window looking out to the the testing hangar where Damien is getting the suit on. Donald and Armond enter the room. Donald puts on a head set.
DONALD
(into head set)
Okay Damien can you hear me?
INT. TESTING HANGAR - continuous
Damien has one part of the suit on. The head apparatus that allows him to talk to Dr. Jordan in the lab. The two engineers are helping him put on the rest of the suit.
DAMIEN
(into head set)
Yeah doc I hear you.
DONALD
Alright we will be able to talk to each other through the suit. I'll be giving you instructions.
As the engineers attach the metal appendages to his limbs Damien moves around a little bit testing his own flexibility.
DONALD
We'll also be able to monitor all your actions and reactions with the equipment. This is important if you are ever in pain at anytime speak up.
DAMIEN
(sarcasm)
Really because whenever I'm in pain I'm usually as silent as possible.
The engineers finally finish putting Damien in the suit. He takes a few steps forward.
DONALD
Okay the suits on you, how are you feeling?
DAMIEN
So far so good.
DONALD
Okay we are going to take things slowly.
Damien jumps off of the platform and on to the ground. When he comes down a small crater is made at the point of impact and some of the equipment is knocked over.
DAMIEN
(startled)
Oh my god I'm so sorry.
DONALD
Um it's fine just walk yourself to the south side of the hangar.
Damien slowly walks over to the south side of the hangar. He walks a little awkwardly because he is still getting used to the suit. As he walks, the south side entrance wall opens up pretty soon the entire wall has reseated away just to reveal miles of open desert. Damien makes his way to the opening.
DONALD
Okay that's good enough.
Damien stops short of the desert.
DONALD
Right now we will test your speed. So when ever you're ready just run out into the desert as fast as you can.
DAMIEN
Okay.
Damien gets down into a runners stance.
DONALD
Just whenever you're ready.
DAMIEN
Count down.
DONALD
What?
DAMIEN
Can you just count down from three. I need to get ready.
DONALD
Okay. One. Two. Three.
Damien bursts through the opening with great speed. He runs through the open desert at an inhuman speed.
DAMIEN
WOOOOOOAAAAHHHH!!!!
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
The screens in the room light up with figures and data from the suits use. The scientists in the room are a flutter with excitement
scientist#1
He just hit ninety miles per hour.
scientist#2
Vitals are normal.
scientist#3
Suit integrity at one hundred percent.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
Damien keeps running at a break neck pace when he trips on a rock. He trips a little but does not fall down. He slows down and catches himself for a moment. As soon as he realizes he is fine he gets back to his running.
DONALD
You okay Damien?
DAMIEN
Yeah I'm fine just a little slip up.
DONALD
Do you know how fast you are going?
Damien looks at the speed icon on his headset display.
DAMIEN
Uh yeah 96 miles an hour.
DONALD
That's right, do you think you can go faster?
DAMIEN
Oh I definitely can.
Damien braces himself and starts to run even faster.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
SCIENTIST#1
He just ramped it up to 120 miles per hour.
DONALD
(into mouthpiece)
Nice job Damien, this is a very successful test.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
DAMIEN
No I got more.
Damien jumps up in to the air he goes really high up and clears a long distance. He comes down and jumps a second time. He goes up higher and farther.
DONALD
Whoa wait a minute there hot shot we haven't cleared jumping yet.
DAMIEN
Trust me.
He jumps one more time and he goes up higher and farther then before. He flies through the air and lands on top of a large desert mesa. He crashes down on it and gets his footing back.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
DONALD
Alright talk to me people, give me some stats.
SCIENTIST#1
Him and the suit are both in in good condition.
SCIENTIST#3
His top speed was 126 miles per hour and his top height was 512 feet.
DONALD
(into mouthpiece)
Congratulations Damien you just broke the human land speed record.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
DAMIEN
Isn't it cheating if I'm wearing this suit?
DONALD
We'll let the Olympic committee figure that out. For now you just come back to base so we can start the next test.
DAMIEN
Roger that.
Damien jumps of the large rock back in the direction of the base.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
Jordan takes off his head set as Armond walks up to him and pats him on the back.
ARMOND
Looks like we have a success.
Armond walks away from him.
EXT. ARMY BASE - DAY
Jordan and Damien are walking across the base. Damien is still wearing the suit.
DONALD
So what do you think of the suit so far?
DAMIEN
This thing is awesome. When I signed up for this I never would have dreamed that this is what I'd be working with.
DONALD
Yeah this suit is definitely going to be a game changer. That last exercise was to test your speed this next one is to test your agility.
The two arrive at their destination which is a large obstacle course in the center of the base. The course is tremendous. It is filled with a wide array of stupendous and possibly deadly obstacles. General Dixon is stands in front of the course admiring it. He turns around and walks up to Donald and Damien.
ARMOND
Pretty impressive huh? I designed this course myself. Made it especially for these tests.
DAMIEN
It's alright. Let me guess I have to go through this course before the clock runs out.
ARMOND
Actually there isn't a clock but we can get one of you think it's too easy.
DAMIEN
Forget about it. Lets just get going.
ARMOND
Very well I'll show you to the starting gate.
Donald walks off and Damien follows Armond to the obstacle course starting gate.
DAMIEN
So just in case what is the best time for this course.
ARMOND
I don't know you're the first one to run it. Made it just these tests remember.
DAMIEN
I'm honored.
ARMOND
Yeah I can't wait until the test phase is over. I really want to use one of those suits in the field.
The two come up to the starting line.
ARMOND
Alright James good luck and don't damage the suit.
Armond walks off to the observation area.
DAMIEN
Thanks I guess.
Damien goes up to the starting line and starts stretching. Armond enters the observation area and goes up to Donald who is behind a computer terminal looking at some statistics.
ARMOND
Your first test went over pretty well lets hope this test goes over just as good.
DONALD
Yeah I hope so.
Donald goes over to a microphone on a desk and holds down a button on it.
DONALD
(into mic)
Alright Damien are you ready?
His voice comes out of speakers so Damien can hear him on the obstacle course. Damien looks over to the observation area and gives Donald a thumbs up.
DONALD
Okay we'll start on go. Ready...go!
The gate goes up and Damien gets into the obstacle course. The first obstacle is a rope jungle. He jumps up and swings from one rope to another across the area on to a platform on the other side. The next obstacle is a large swinging bar. Damien grabs the bar and swings over the gap and on to the next platform.
DONALD
Looks like he's beating your course general.
ARMOND
Those were the easy parts lets see how good he is when he has to climb over a twenty foot wall.
Damien comes up to the aforementioned twenty foot wall. When he sees it he speeds up, leads with his shoulder, and crashes through it.
DONALD
Oh ho wow.
Armond goes over to Donald's desk microphone and talks in to it.
ARMOND
You were supposed to go over the wall.
DONALD
Um you got to press the button. If you want him to hear you.
ARMOND
Oh.
Armond holds down the microphone button.
ARMOND
You were supposed to go over the wall not through it.
Damien stops running the course and turns to look at the guys in the observation area.
DAMIEN
I'm sorry I thought I had to smash through the wall! I'm gonna keep going!
Damien goes back to running the course.
ARMOND
What ever this next part is one of my favorites. The crusher.
Damien comes to the next obstacle which consists of three sections of two parallel walls that crash in to each other at random intervals. Damien runs through the first pair of walls untouched. He gets in to the second pair of walls. As the walls start to crash in on him, Damien puts his arms out to his sides catching the walls and stopping them. After a moment the machinery controlling the walls starts to spark and smoke. The machinery breaks leaving the walls wear they are. Damien walks through to the final pair of walls. He does the same thing to those walls. He holds out his arms and breaks them. He made it through the obstacle. His next obstacle is a high wire between two platforms twenty feet over a pool of water.
ARMOND
Lets see how he gets that clunky suit across that thin wire.
Damien take a running start and jumps from one platform to the next with out even using the high wire.
DONALD
That's how he does it.
Damien comes up to his last obstacle which appears to just be a large field of dirt and barbed wire.
ARMOND
Yeah, yeah.
Armond turns to his left to yell at one of his subordinates.
ARMOND
Que the land mines!
DONALD
Land mines?
Damien enters the muddy part of the obstacle course and as soon as he does land mines start going off all across the field at random intervals. He quickly runs across the field as explosions erupt at his feet. As he runs he ends up stepping on one of the land mines. It blows up under his foot and he is thrown in to the air. Donald gasps as he watches from the observation area. Damien does three flips in the air and lands right back down on his feet. As soon as he hits the ground he starts running through the mud field again. The explosions keep going off but the begin to die down as Damien exits the field. With that he has completed the obstacle course and crosses the finish line. He takes a moment to catch his breath as Donald and Armond come out from the observation area and meet him in the finish area.
DONALD
Way to go Damien you did fantastic!
ARMOND
You weren't that great.
DONALD
Oh don't mind him he's just butt hurt because you beat his course. You did great.
DAMIEN
Thanks that was one of the more difficult courses I've seen. Didn't expect the mines.
DONALD
Yeah you can thank general butt hurt for that.
ARMOND
Hey land mines are an imminent threat to anyone operating the suit. We needed to test for them.
DAMIEN
Yeah I'm sure. What was my time?
DONALD
Two minutes and twenty seconds. I got to tell ya, you had me worried at times.
Armond walks off.
DAMIEN
Oh really?
DONALD
Yeah I spent a lot of time making that suit and I would hate to see it damaged.
Donald walks off and after a moment Damien follows him.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien is standing in the middle of the hanger wearing the suit. Jordan is in a smaller room in the hangar with all of the computer terminals watching Damien from behind a glass window. He pushes a button on his headset to talk to Damien.
DONALD
Okay Damien the next thing we want to test is the suits capacity to improve your fighting ability. Now do you think you are good at hand to hand combat?
DAMIEN
Yeah I think I've had my fair share of knockouts.
DONALD
Well if correct this suit should give you the martial arts skills of Bruce lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan combined.
DAMIEN
Thats a lot of martial arts skills.
DONALD
Yes it is.
As he says that several ropes start to fall down from the hangar ceiling. Damien notices this and looks up to find their origin. Finds a group of ninjas wearing all black pajamas and masks sliding down the ropes and landing on the ground. Some have weapons like nun chucks and sai, and some have only their fists. Soon enough Damien is completely surrounded in ninjas. He takes up a fighting stance and readies himself for attack.
DAMIEN
Who are these guys?
DONALD
They are the shoalin tigers martial arts fighting team. You're going to be testing your fighting abilities on them.
DAMIEN
Do they have health insurance?
DONALD
They all signed wavers so just go crazy.
DAMIEN
Cool.
Donald walks over to a microphone on a desk that goes out to the entire hangar. He presses the button and speaks in to the microphone.
DONALD
And ..... begin!
One by one the ninjas attack Damien and one by one he knocks them down and dish out attacks of his own. Pretty soon he is fighting like a martial arts master. In a desperate attempt some of the ninjas start to dog pile on top of Damien and his suit. Damien is quickly covered in ninjas. The pile starts to pulsate and Damien shakes off all the ninjas with an explosive move.
DONALD
Woh.
The fighters keep coming. One ninja attacks Damien with some nun chucks. Damien quickly knocks him on his back and takes the nun chucks from him. He uses his newly attained weapon to knock out three more ninjas. He wields the nun chucks with masterful precision. Finally he throws the nun chucks across the room at the last ninja standing. The nun chucks fly through the air and hit the ninja square in the face knocking him to the ground. With that all of the ninjas from the fighting team are either knocked out unconscious or writhing on the floor in pain.
DONALD
Well I think this test is a success.
DAMIEN
Yeah me too.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien and Dr. Jordan are walking through the hangar towards the next test for the suit.
DAMIEN
Wow I can not believe this suit. I couldn't fight that well before I put it on. How does it do that?
DONALD
It's a special fighting command protocol. I designed it myself. It'll activate whenever the user needs it.
DAMIEN
Hopefully it'll come in handy for the field. So what's the next thing we are going to test.
DONALD
The next test is right here.
The two approach a green army jeep that is parked in the hangar.
DONALD
You see this car?
DAMIEN
Yeah.
DONALD
It weighs 3,156 pounds. You are going to lift it.
DAMIEN
Lift it?
DONALD
Yes. This exercise is to test to suits ability to increase your strength. So for all intensive purposes I want you to lift it.
DAMIEN
Okay I'll see what I can do.
Damien goes over to the jeep. He bends down and gets his hands on it. He gets a good grip on the jeep and starts to lift up. Just like the doctor said the suit allows him to starts lifting the jeep up off the ground. The doctor takes a few steps back as Damien starts to lift the vehicle higher over his head.
DAMIEN
Holy crap you were right this thing does increase my strength.
Damien starts to lose his balance. He starts to trip up and start wobbling form side to side.
DAMIEN
Oh oh no!
DONALD
Ah be careful!
Damien tries to keep his balance while holding the jeep but he does not succeed. Donald runs away as Damien falls to the ground dropping the jeep on the ground crushing it.
DAMIEN
Don't worry I'm okay. Oh man. was this test successful?
DONALD
Yes but not in the conventional sense.
DAMIEN
It means you broke the jeep.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
All the damage from the previous test has been cleaned up. Damien is wearing the suit and Donald is ready for more testing.
DAMIEN
Sorry I kind of bonked up that other test doc. What's next?
DONALD
Oh I think you are going to like this next test very much.
Donald turns to some other scientists in the hanger.
DONALD
Okay bring em in.
Some of the other scientists come up to Damien and start attaching something to the suit.
DAMIEN
What are these guys doing?
DONALD
They are giving you some fire power.
The scientists attach two gauntlet like machines to the forearms on Damiens suit. They attach some wires and make sure every thing in the suit is running well. As soon as the gauntlets are fully attached to the suit the scientists step away. Damien marvels at what they added to the suit.
DAMIEN
What are these things?
DONALD
These gauntlets are the XY-10,000's primary weapon systems.
DAMIEN
What do they do?
DONALD
We're about to find out.
Just as he says that two other scientists start wheeling in a large concrete wall with a a red target spray painted on it. They bring it in and stop it about forty yards away from Damien.
DONALD
The first weapon in the gauntlet is a new form of electro-sonic cannon. You are going to use that to destroy that wall.
DAMIEN
Great. How do I do that?
DONALD
The controls for the gauntlet are simple. First make fist.
Damien makes a fist with his right hand. The gauntlet on his right arm starts to make a whirring noise like it is powering up.
DONALD
Next point your gauntlet towards the wall.
Damien aims his right gauntlet at the wall. Donald gets out of the way between Damien and the wall.
DONALD
If you're having trouble aiming there's a targeting program that's on your display.
Without a doubt a circle with some cross hairs show up on Damiens display. As he moves his right arm the cross hairs move with it showing what exactly he's aiming at. He aims at the concrete wall.
DAMIEN
How do I fire?
DONALD
Uh right firing. Just push your four fingers in to your palm.
DAMIEN
Alright.
Damien does what the doctor told him and all of a sudden a beam of purple energy is fired out of a cylindrical barrel of the gauntlet. The shot of energy flies across the room and hits the concrete wall. The wall is shattered in to pieces.
DAMIEN
Wow!
DONALD
That's exactly what I said when I discovered it.
DAMIEN
What did I just fire?
DONALD
It's electricity bombarded with the right sonic frequency. If it's built up and aimed in the right direction it does ... well that. (points to shattered wall) I stumbled upon it back when I was in college.
DAMIEN
That's a game changer.
DONALD
That's the idea. Now I think we have enough data we need. But just to be safe would you mind testing it a couple more times?
As he says that some more scientists bring in three more concrete walls with targets on them similar to the one Damien just destroyed. In addition some concrete slabs with targets on them start repelling down from the ceiling on wires.
DAMIEN
I do not mind one bit.
DONALD
Good just let me get out of your way.
Donald moves about a hundred feet away from him and gets behind some bullet proof glass in a safety zone.
DONALD
Okay go!
Damien starts charging up the cannons on his gauntlets. He aims and fires the same purple energy as before right at the other concrete walls. He takes a couple shots and all the concrete walls shatter just like before. With those gone he moves on to shoot at the suspended targets in the air. He fires in quick succession and the targets all shatter and fall to the ground. With almost all of the targets gone Damien sees one last concrete target and it is directly above him. With out hesitation he fires at it. The target shatters and the concrete bits starts to fall down on top of him. Damien quickly does a tuck and roll out of the way. The concrete pieces fall to the ground with out hitting Damien.
DAMIEN
Whoa that was close.
DONALD
No kidding but good dodge. That really shows off the suits maneuverability.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien is admiring the gauntlets on his suit. Donald and some other scientists are around him supervising and doing calculations.
DAMIEN
Wow these weapon systems sure are something. You made a really impressive suit here doc.
DONALD
Yeah it took me quite a while to perfect this beauty. But thanks to you I think we've finally got it right. There's more to those gauntlets. If you press each individual finger in to your palm it will give you a new tool.
DAMIEN
Like what kind of tools?
DONALD
Well see for yourself.
Damien presses his right index finger in to his palm. Out from the gauntlet pops a device with two metal nubs and electricity running through the two nubs.
DAMIEN
A taser?
DONALD
Yes we wanted something non lethal.
DAMIEN
Great how do I turn it off?
DONALD
Press your index finger to your palm a second time.
Damien does so and the taser recedes back in to the gauntlet. Damien presses his middle finger in to his palm and a long blade pops out of the gauntlet.
DONALD
And this one is something lethal.
Damien presses his middle finger to his palm again and the blade goes back in to the gauntlet. Damien then tuns his arm sideways.
DAMIEN
What else is in here?
Damien presses his ring finger in to his palm and out from the gauntlet comes a grappling cable. The cable shoots across the room and the three pronged end of it grabs hold of a leg of one of the other scientists in the room. That scientist falls and screams in pain.
DAMIEN
(panic)
Oh my god, oh my god!
DONALD
(panic)
Oh no!
DAMIEN
How do I stop it?
DONALD
Just push your ring finger in to your palm again.
Damien presses his ring finger in to his palm and the cable comes unhooked from the scientists leg. The cable recedes back in to the gauntlet. The scientist gets up from the ground.
DAMIEN
Sorry!
DONALD
Are you okay?
The scientist gives Damien and Donald the finger then limps away.
DAMIEN
How many gadgets are in these gauntlets?
DONALD
There's only one more.
DAMIEN
One more, so you only put four extra things in here?
DONALD
Oh I'm sorry. Did you need a whole Swiss army knife? Do you want a wine opener in there as well?
DAMIEN
Well that could come in handy if I'm hosting a diner party in the suit and don't to rummage through all my drawers to find the wine opener.
DONALD
Just shut up and press your pinky finger in to your palm.
Damien holds up his right hand and presses his pinky finger in to his palm. When he does this two large rectangular shields pop out of both sides of the gauntlet. Damien looks at the transformation that has occurred.
DAMIEN
What are these?
DONALD
Those are blast shields. They should be bullet proof. But just to test.
One of Donald's assistants wheel up a lectern to him. On top of it are a revolver, some ammunition, some eye protectors, and some ear protection. Donald puts on the eye and ear protection and starts loading up the gun.
DONALD
Hold your arm up. We're going to test the shield.
DAMIEN
Okay.
Damien holds his right arm shield towards the doctor. Donald takes aim and fires his gun at the shield. He shoots three bullets and all of them hit the shield and are repelled off.
DONALD
Now one potential problem with a shield like this is that the users arm would brake under the force. Do you feel like your arm is broken Damien?
DAMIEN
No I don't think it is.
DONALD
Good.
Donald continues to fire three more bullets in to the shield and the metal repels all of the bullets. Not one bullet makes a dent in the shield. From out of the blue general Dixon comes up to the doctor and his gun.
ARMOND
Doctor.
DONALD
Oh hi general Dixon.
ARMOND
I heard gun fire and I had to inspect it.
DONALD
Oh well we're just testing the shield system on the XY-10,000. Say you wouldn't happen to have firearm on you by any chance?
ARMOND
Are you kidding I always have my trusty 1911 on me.
DONALD
Well would you like to help us out by firing at the shield right there?
ARMOND
Well that sounds delightful.
Armond takes his gun out of it's holster and aims at the shield.
DAMIEN
Now hold on are just going to let anybody come up and shoot at me?
Armond starts firing his gun at the shield. The bullets ricochet of the shield without leaving a dent.
DAMIEN
Okay I see what we're doing now.
INT. LABORATORY - night
It is a dark night in the laboratory where doctor Jordan is entering some data in to the computer. Damien enters the lab. He is not wearing the suit as they are not doing any testing at the time. He goes up to the doctor at the computer.
DAMIEN
Hey doc.
DONALD
Hey Damien. Couldn't sleep?
DAMIEN
No, not after all the crazy tests we did this week.
DONALD
Well I hope you'll be happy to know that our testing phase is over and the results you gave us were overwhelmingly successful.
DAMIEN
Great. I just can't wait to use this in the field.
DONALD
Oh I'm sorry but you won't be using this in the field.
DAMIEN
What?
DONALD
You see what happens from now is I present my findings and give my blueprints to the army. They're going to make their own version of the XY-10,000 and send them to their military bases over seas.
DAMIEN
So we won't get to use them?
DONALD
No but you will be compensated for your service this week.
DAMIEN
That's not good enough.
DONALD
What did you think we were going to do?
DAMIEN
I thought we were going to change something. Listen I'm from Los Angeles and LA has just been filled to the brim with gang violence and street crime. Have you ever been to LA?
DONALD
Yes actually I was born in LA.
DAMIEN
Then you know, you've seen it. The city is just drowning in crime and gang violence. But we can change that.
DONALD
How?
DAMIEN
With your suit. We can take it in to the city and start fighting the gangs.
DONALD
The XY-10,000 is the property of the government. We can't just take it and do whatever we wanted with it.
DAMIEN
That suit is yours. You should be able to do some good with it.
DONALD
If we take the suit and do what you proposed. Start fighting crime like some kind of superhero. The government will come after us and they'll just kill us for committing treason. We won't even get a trial.
(beat)
DAMIEN
When I was ten years old my dad was killed. In a mugging. Gunned down for nothing more then the fifty dollars he had in his wallet. It's like he died for no reason. And it hasn't gotten better since then. I joined the army so I could help people but what I ended up doing was traveling half way across the world to police a bunch of people that didn't need to be policed. I thought I was making a difference but i wasn't changing anything.
DONALD
I know how you feel. My mom was killed when I was twelve. She was coming home and she just happened to get in the middle of two gangs shooting at each other. A stray bullet hit her temple and it killed her.
DAMIEN
That's why, that's the reason. That's the reason we need to do this. This suit, your invention is our chance to make a change. To help people. To stop LA from burning to the ground. You know I'm right.
DONALD
Fine, you're right. my invention can be used to help those people.
DAMIEN
We can save LA but we got to do it together.
DONALD
What like partners?
DAMIEN
Exactly like partners. You're the brains and I'm the brawn. What do you say?
Damien holds his hand out like he wants the doc to shake it.
DONALD
Okay, partners.
Donald shakes Damiens hand.
DONALD
So what's your plan for getting the XY-10,000 off of this base.
DAMIEN
I don't really have one.
DONALD
What?!
DAMIEN
Like I said you're the brains I'm the brawn. You're the smart one. I thought you could find a way to work this out.
DONALD
In order to work this out we would need a way to get all of my sensitive and experimental equipment out of a highly secure army base.
DAMIEN
Do you have any ideas?
DONALD
No but give me some time I'll think of something.
ext. warehouse - day
Damiens car drives through the streets of LA and up to a large white warehouse. He drives up through the gates and on to the warehouse property. There are no other cars there and the property looks to be almost empty. Damien gets out of his car and looks around. He sees an entrance to the warehouse. He walks up to it and enters the ware house.
int. warehouse - continuous
Inside the ware house it appears to be very barren. The only thing Damien sees is a large tractor trailer truck on the other end of the house. He goes over to it to find doctor Jordan come out from the other side of it.
DONALD
Hey Damien!
The two go up to each other meet and shake hands.
DAMIEN
Wow It's been a week since our little chat and you come up with all this.
DONALD
Yeah I was quite lucky to find this property.
DAMIEN
Wait, did you buy this place?
DONALD
Uh yes but the truck is rental.
DAMIEN
How much does the government pay you?
DONALD
Well without going in to actual figures I can say that the military does love their experimental scientists.
DAMIEN
So did you come up with a plan for getting the suit?
DONALD
Yes I did and like all the great plans it is simple and brilliant.
Donald hands Damien a couple pages of paper work.
DONALD
This is a list of all the hardware and components that go along with the operations of the XY-10,000. They are all still at the army base in the desert. This is an order signed by general Dixon to have all of those items transported to a facility in San Fransisco.
Donald hands Damien an official looking document with general Dixon's signature at the bottom.
DAMIEN
How did you get him to sign off on this?
int. general Dixon's office - day
General Dixon is in his office filling out some paperwork when doctor Jordan enters the room with some papers.
DONALD
Excuse me general Dixon.
ARMOND
Please don't tell me I have some more paper work to sign. If I have to sign one more thing I think I'm going to throw up.
DONALD
Well sorry to bring the bad news because I just have on more thing for you to sign.
Donald puts an official looking document on his desk.
ARMOND
Oh my god.
Armond quickly signs the document with out even looking at it. He hands the document back to the doctor.
ARMOND
Here. Now I'm going to throw up.
int. warehouse - day
DONALD
It wasn't that hard. Now the rest of the plan is simple. You drive on to the base and get them to load all this equipment in to the truck. If anybody gives you trouble just wave this document in their face.
EXT. ARMY BASE - night
Damien drives the big tractor trailer truck through the desert and up to the gate of the army base. He gets stopped at a checkpoint at the gate. Damien is wearing a baseball hat and some glasses so that nobody on the base recognizes him. A gate guard goes up to the truck and Damien rolls down his window to talk to him.
gate guard
What's your purpose here?
DAMIEN
(disguised voice)
Transporting some equipment.
GATE GUARD
I'm going to need some ID.
DAMIEN
Well I'm sorry I don't have any ID on me.
GATE GUARD
With out any ID I can't let you in.
DAMIEN
Look all I know is that I have to transport some stuff I don't even know what I'm supposed to get but here's the order I got for it.
Damien takes out the document signed by general Dixon and hands it to the gate guard. The guard looks the document over and sees the generals signature on the bottom.
GATE GUARD
Okay this will do. Go on in.
DAMIEN
Thank you. Can I get that back it's my only copy.
The guard hands the paper back to Damien. The gate opens up and Damien drives the truck on to the base. He drives up to one of the testing hangers he recognizes. He pulls his truck up and parks right beside the hanger. He opens his door and gets out of the truck. Just as he gets out two army officers come up to him and the truck.
officer #1
Can we help you?
DAMIEN
Yes you can. I need to get everything on this list on this truck so I can ship it out.
Damien hands his equipment list to the officers. The officers look it over.
officer #2
This is some really sensitive stuff. Where are you taking it?
DAMIEN
Some base in San Francisco.
OFFICER #1
Look this is some experimental we can't just give it to you.
DAMIEN
Look all I know is that I got to get the things on that list in the truck and drive all night to San Francisco. I don't even know what half the things on that list are. Look I got this order signed by some general.
Damien takes out the signed document he showed at the gate and shows it to the officers. The officers look at the document.
DAMIEN
So unless you want to wake up this general in the middle of the night with some stuff that he already knows. Then you better just start loading up my truck.
EXT. ARMY BASE - NIGHT
The tractor trailer truck is filled to the brim with all of doctor Jordan's equipment. Damien is inside of it checking to make sure all of the stuff on the list is there. The two army officers and some others are outside of the trailer. They just helped him load the stuff on to it.
OFFICER #2
Is that everything?
DAMIEN
Yeah I think that will do it.
Damien comes down to the end and steps down and out of the trailer.
DAMIEN
Well thanks guys for getting everything on there. Now I got to drive all through the night to make it to San Francisco.
OFFICER #1
Take it easy.
The officers disperse and Damien goes up and gets in the drivers seat of the truck. He starts up the truck and drives it off of the base.
EXT. WAREHOUSE - DAY
Doctor Jordan is waiting outside of his warehouse on a nice sunny day. When he sees his large tractor trailer truck drive up the street.
The truck turns on to the street and up to the warehouse. Jordan pulls open a large door on the warehouse making a big enough entrance way for the truck to come in.
The truck makes it's way up to the warehouse and goes through the large warehouse door. The truck full enters the warehouse followed by doctor Jordan who closes the door behind him.
If you read that description and think it's a good story then thank you. I got half way through writing it and then gave up for two reasons I think. One was I was in college when I was writing it and when I graduated college I just got sucked into the havoc of finding a job and a place to live and actually making something out of my post grad life. Some of my time for writing screenplays had to go out the window and this screenplay was the one who had to suffer.
The second reason is I don't think the over all premise for this screenplay was very good. I think the way I wrote it was kind of a misstep and a misdirection for me and I just couldn't put myself into the world of the characters I made or go along with the plot I wanted. I think it wasn't very original and my insecurities got the better of me. So in a way I'll dispel some of my insecurities and post some chunks of my abandoned screenplay here on my blog. The title for this story was just called "The Suit" and who knows maybe I'll rewrite it someday in some incarnation if I can muster up the courage but for now here's a blast from the past of me in my college days. I can't assure the quality on this so read at your own risk.
ext. Los angeles streets - day
It is a hot summer day on the crime riddled streets of Los Angeles. Major street gangs commit crimes in broad daylight because they aren't afraid of any police and if they did encounter any they would just have a shoot out with them.
Damien(v.o.)
LA. Most people know as the city of angels where anybody can make it and become a star. I know it as some place completely different. A place where gangs and crime have turned the city into a war zone. I joined the army to help people. little did I know I would be shipped off to the middle east to police people who didn't need to be policed. Who am I? I'm Damien James and I am lost.
int. gym - night
Colonel MARK WILLIAMS enters the gym. He is wearing a formal army uniform and holding a manila folder. He looks very out of place as he crosses the gym floor and approaches DAMIEN JAMES who is finishing a set of cross legged pull ups.
mark Williams
Damien James.
DAMIEN
Hi colonel.
James gets up form the machine and the two shake hands.
DAMIEN
What brings you here?
MARK WILLIAMS
Your transfer request came through.
Williams hands him the folder and he opens it up and looks through it.
MARK WILLIAMS
It's an experimental weapons testing project. Its codename is project S.
DAMIEN
Excellent I'll do it.
Damien trys to hand the folder back to mark.
MARK WILLIAMS
Keep it. You sure you don't want to think about it? You know a lot of good men have passed on this.
DAMIEN
I don't need to think about I want to do it.
MARK WILLIAMS
You know when you asked me to find you something like this I was shocked. Didn't your first tour of duty go well?
DAMIEN JAMES
It did, I just need a change if pace.
MARK WILLIAMS
Well I hope you find it.
DAMIEN
Thanks.
The two shake hands and Mark walks away.
ext. street - night
Damien is walking back home to his apartment after a long day. He almost makes it to the door of his apartment building when he hears something. That something sounds like a struggle coming from just around the block. Damien turns away from his apartment and runs towards the sound of the struggle. He turns the street corner to find a WOMAN in her mid 50's who has been knocked on the ground and a MUGGER running away from her. Damien goes over and helps the woman up.
woman
That man stole my purse!
Damien starts running after the mugger. He starts gaining on him and their foot chase is on. After a while the mugger turns a corner and runs into an alleyway. Once he's there he runs into three gang member friends of his. He stops running once he meets up with them.
mugger
Hey guys can you help me out!
gang member #1
Oh no, what did you do this time?
MUGGER
I was trying get a payday and some loser thinks he could stop me.
gang member #2
Do you really get off on purse grabbing?
MUGGER
Hey don't judge my hobbies.
GANG MEMBER #1
Alright we'll help you this once.
Just then Damien rounds the corner into the alley way and them four of them are right there waiting with an ambush. They start a classic fist fight and Damien is eager to fight back. They all trade punches but of course with it being four on one the fight isn't very fair. Eventually they knock Damien down to his knees and one of the gang members pulls out a gun and puts it to Damiens head. This discourages him from getting back up.
Gang member #3
You got guts man. But whatever you think you're doing here isn't worth getting shot in the head. But like I said, you have guts. If you ever decide you want to do something with your life, join the 11 five mob. We can give you some much needed focus.
The gang member takes the gun away from his head. The other two members punch him in the face and throw him down into a pile of trash bags. The four criminals run off and away from their defeated opponent. Damien tries to pick himself up out of his defeat as he watches his opponents run away.
ext. desert - day
A helicopter is flying through the air across the baron desert. Damien is inside the chopper as it makes its way to the secluded testing facility.
int. army base - day
General ARMOND DIXON and Colonel Williams are walking through the halls of the facility.
MARK WILLIAMS
He arrives today. I'm sure you're anxious to get the testing under way.
Armond
Anxious is not the word I would use, I want to see the result of the millions of dollars that went into making this debacle. That doctor promised us a revolution in weaponry and so far I haven't seen anything explode.
MARK WILLIAMS
Well I'm sure we will change that today.
ARMOND
And tell me why do we have only one test subject? We can speed this whole thing up if we get more guinea pigs to test the equipment.
MARK WILLIAMS
Doctor Jordan was very adamant that as few personnel as possible were involved in the testing.
ARMOND
Yeah whatever I just hope we can finally get some results.
The two get to the door to doctor Jordans laboratory. They enter.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
The General and the colonel enter the room it is filled with desks computer terminals. DR.DONALD JORDAN is sitting at one of the computers typing away. He doesn't greet the two as they enter.
ARMOND
Dr. Jordan.
The doctor doesn't respond.
ARMOND
Dr. Jordan!
Jordan turns.
donald
Wah! Oh general it's only you. You scared me there.
ARMOND
Working hard doctor?
DONALD
Hey I'm just going over some calculations and command protocols for the tests.
ARMOND
Well the test subject should be arriving soon. We should meet him at the helipad.
DONALD
Yes of course, let me just log out of here.
Donald turns back to the computer and logs himself out. He grabs a couple of his things and gets out of the chair.
DONALD
Okay lets go.
Donald walks over to the general and the three walk out of the room.
INT. ARMY BASE - DAY
The trio walk down the hall.
DONALD
We are going to change the world.
ARMOND
Doctor I have a serious question for you. I gave you a dozen suitable candidates for testing and you only approved one of them, why is that?
DONALD
Well I had to be very picky when it came to things like psychological profiles, health, risk factors, plus I really think we need to be cautious when dealing with experimental technologies. I mean it's not like we are driving around tanks here.
ARMOND
Yes well you've spent a lot of taxpayers money and the government does not like wasting it.
DONALD
Well depending on how the tests go we might need to wast a little bit more.
Armond flashes a strange look at Donald.
DONALD
Or everything could be perfect we'll see.
The trio reach a door. Armond opens it and lets Jordan and Williams through. It leads outside.
ext. army base - day
The fenced off base is in the middle of the desert. It is the only thing around for a hundred miles in any direction. Damiens helicopter approaches the bases airspace. It stops and hovers above a helipad. It slowly lands on the helipad. As the propellers wined down Armond and Donald approach the helipad area. The propellers stop and the door to the helicopter opens. Damien steps out and down on to the helipad. He walks up to the general and the doctor and they meet half way.
ARMOND
Damien James, my name is General Armond Dixon and this is doctor Donald Jordan.
Damien shakes Armonds hand then shakes Jordans.
DONALD
Its good to meet you.
DAMIEN
The same.
ARMOND
Come this way we'll show you what you'll be working with.
Armond leads Damien inside one of the facilities.
DAMIEN
Getting right down to business?
ARMOND
Yeah you don't have a problem with that do yah?
DAMIEN
No sir.
DONALD
You're going to love what we've cooked up for you.
They aproach the door to the testing lab. Armond opens the door and lets Donald inside.
ARMOND
Yes we will be jumping in with both feet so I hope you recover from jetlag quickly.
DAMIEN
What jetlag?
Damien enters and Armond follows right behind him.
INT. testing hangar - DAY
Jordan, Damien and Armond cross the wide open hangar making their way to the center of the room.
DONALD
So Damien I'm sure you've done the required reading.
DAMIEN
Yeah that was a really thick instruction manual.
DONALD
But you read it right?
DAMIEN
Uh yeah.
The trio make it to the center of the hangar where there is a high tech pedestal with the XY-10,000 exo-suit standing up right on top of it. Around it are two engineers, one on a computer and one moving around checking the suit and making final preparations. The trio approach the pedestal
DONALD
Well here she is the XY-10,000 exo-suit.
ARMOND
The guys around the base just call it the suit.
DONALD
I never approved of that name.
DAMIEN
So what does the suit do?
DONALD
Well it's supposed to increase your agility, speed, strength, and fighting ability several thousand percent. But we will find out the full potential of this thing when we start testing.
ARMOND
So let these eggheads strap you in and we will monitor you progress in there.
Armond points to a large window that leads to Jordans monitoring computer lab.
DAMIEN
Alright.
Damien steps up on the pedestal, Jordan and Armond walk over to an entrance to the monitoring lab.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
There is a person at every single computer terminal. They are facing the wall sized window looking out to the the testing hangar where Damien is getting the suit on. Donald and Armond enter the room. Donald puts on a head set.
DONALD
(into head set)
Okay Damien can you hear me?
INT. TESTING HANGAR - continuous
Damien has one part of the suit on. The head apparatus that allows him to talk to Dr. Jordan in the lab. The two engineers are helping him put on the rest of the suit.
DAMIEN
(into head set)
Yeah doc I hear you.
DONALD
Alright we will be able to talk to each other through the suit. I'll be giving you instructions.
As the engineers attach the metal appendages to his limbs Damien moves around a little bit testing his own flexibility.
DONALD
We'll also be able to monitor all your actions and reactions with the equipment. This is important if you are ever in pain at anytime speak up.
DAMIEN
(sarcasm)
Really because whenever I'm in pain I'm usually as silent as possible.
The engineers finally finish putting Damien in the suit. He takes a few steps forward.
DONALD
Okay the suits on you, how are you feeling?
DAMIEN
So far so good.
DONALD
Okay we are going to take things slowly.
Damien jumps off of the platform and on to the ground. When he comes down a small crater is made at the point of impact and some of the equipment is knocked over.
DAMIEN
(startled)
Oh my god I'm so sorry.
DONALD
Um it's fine just walk yourself to the south side of the hangar.
Damien slowly walks over to the south side of the hangar. He walks a little awkwardly because he is still getting used to the suit. As he walks, the south side entrance wall opens up pretty soon the entire wall has reseated away just to reveal miles of open desert. Damien makes his way to the opening.
DONALD
Okay that's good enough.
Damien stops short of the desert.
DONALD
Right now we will test your speed. So when ever you're ready just run out into the desert as fast as you can.
DAMIEN
Okay.
Damien gets down into a runners stance.
DONALD
Just whenever you're ready.
DAMIEN
Count down.
DONALD
What?
DAMIEN
Can you just count down from three. I need to get ready.
DONALD
Okay. One. Two. Three.
Damien bursts through the opening with great speed. He runs through the open desert at an inhuman speed.
DAMIEN
WOOOOOOAAAAHHHH!!!!
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
The screens in the room light up with figures and data from the suits use. The scientists in the room are a flutter with excitement
scientist#1
He just hit ninety miles per hour.
scientist#2
Vitals are normal.
scientist#3
Suit integrity at one hundred percent.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
Damien keeps running at a break neck pace when he trips on a rock. He trips a little but does not fall down. He slows down and catches himself for a moment. As soon as he realizes he is fine he gets back to his running.
DONALD
You okay Damien?
DAMIEN
Yeah I'm fine just a little slip up.
DONALD
Do you know how fast you are going?
Damien looks at the speed icon on his headset display.
DAMIEN
Uh yeah 96 miles an hour.
DONALD
That's right, do you think you can go faster?
DAMIEN
Oh I definitely can.
Damien braces himself and starts to run even faster.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
SCIENTIST#1
He just ramped it up to 120 miles per hour.
DONALD
(into mouthpiece)
Nice job Damien, this is a very successful test.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
DAMIEN
No I got more.
Damien jumps up in to the air he goes really high up and clears a long distance. He comes down and jumps a second time. He goes up higher and farther.
DONALD
Whoa wait a minute there hot shot we haven't cleared jumping yet.
DAMIEN
Trust me.
He jumps one more time and he goes up higher and farther then before. He flies through the air and lands on top of a large desert mesa. He crashes down on it and gets his footing back.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
DONALD
Alright talk to me people, give me some stats.
SCIENTIST#1
Him and the suit are both in in good condition.
SCIENTIST#3
His top speed was 126 miles per hour and his top height was 512 feet.
DONALD
(into mouthpiece)
Congratulations Damien you just broke the human land speed record.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
DAMIEN
Isn't it cheating if I'm wearing this suit?
DONALD
We'll let the Olympic committee figure that out. For now you just come back to base so we can start the next test.
DAMIEN
Roger that.
Damien jumps of the large rock back in the direction of the base.
INT. LABORATORY - DAY
Jordan takes off his head set as Armond walks up to him and pats him on the back.
ARMOND
Looks like we have a success.
Armond walks away from him.
EXT. ARMY BASE - DAY
Jordan and Damien are walking across the base. Damien is still wearing the suit.
DONALD
So what do you think of the suit so far?
DAMIEN
This thing is awesome. When I signed up for this I never would have dreamed that this is what I'd be working with.
DONALD
Yeah this suit is definitely going to be a game changer. That last exercise was to test your speed this next one is to test your agility.
The two arrive at their destination which is a large obstacle course in the center of the base. The course is tremendous. It is filled with a wide array of stupendous and possibly deadly obstacles. General Dixon is stands in front of the course admiring it. He turns around and walks up to Donald and Damien.
ARMOND
Pretty impressive huh? I designed this course myself. Made it especially for these tests.
DAMIEN
It's alright. Let me guess I have to go through this course before the clock runs out.
ARMOND
Actually there isn't a clock but we can get one of you think it's too easy.
DAMIEN
Forget about it. Lets just get going.
ARMOND
Very well I'll show you to the starting gate.
Donald walks off and Damien follows Armond to the obstacle course starting gate.
DAMIEN
So just in case what is the best time for this course.
ARMOND
I don't know you're the first one to run it. Made it just these tests remember.
DAMIEN
I'm honored.
ARMOND
Yeah I can't wait until the test phase is over. I really want to use one of those suits in the field.
The two come up to the starting line.
ARMOND
Alright James good luck and don't damage the suit.
Armond walks off to the observation area.
DAMIEN
Thanks I guess.
Damien goes up to the starting line and starts stretching. Armond enters the observation area and goes up to Donald who is behind a computer terminal looking at some statistics.
ARMOND
Your first test went over pretty well lets hope this test goes over just as good.
DONALD
Yeah I hope so.
Donald goes over to a microphone on a desk and holds down a button on it.
DONALD
(into mic)
Alright Damien are you ready?
His voice comes out of speakers so Damien can hear him on the obstacle course. Damien looks over to the observation area and gives Donald a thumbs up.
DONALD
Okay we'll start on go. Ready...go!
The gate goes up and Damien gets into the obstacle course. The first obstacle is a rope jungle. He jumps up and swings from one rope to another across the area on to a platform on the other side. The next obstacle is a large swinging bar. Damien grabs the bar and swings over the gap and on to the next platform.
DONALD
Looks like he's beating your course general.
ARMOND
Those were the easy parts lets see how good he is when he has to climb over a twenty foot wall.
Damien comes up to the aforementioned twenty foot wall. When he sees it he speeds up, leads with his shoulder, and crashes through it.
DONALD
Oh ho wow.
Armond goes over to Donald's desk microphone and talks in to it.
ARMOND
You were supposed to go over the wall.
DONALD
Um you got to press the button. If you want him to hear you.
ARMOND
Oh.
Armond holds down the microphone button.
ARMOND
You were supposed to go over the wall not through it.
Damien stops running the course and turns to look at the guys in the observation area.
DAMIEN
I'm sorry I thought I had to smash through the wall! I'm gonna keep going!
Damien goes back to running the course.
ARMOND
What ever this next part is one of my favorites. The crusher.
Damien comes to the next obstacle which consists of three sections of two parallel walls that crash in to each other at random intervals. Damien runs through the first pair of walls untouched. He gets in to the second pair of walls. As the walls start to crash in on him, Damien puts his arms out to his sides catching the walls and stopping them. After a moment the machinery controlling the walls starts to spark and smoke. The machinery breaks leaving the walls wear they are. Damien walks through to the final pair of walls. He does the same thing to those walls. He holds out his arms and breaks them. He made it through the obstacle. His next obstacle is a high wire between two platforms twenty feet over a pool of water.
ARMOND
Lets see how he gets that clunky suit across that thin wire.
Damien take a running start and jumps from one platform to the next with out even using the high wire.
DONALD
That's how he does it.
Damien comes up to his last obstacle which appears to just be a large field of dirt and barbed wire.
ARMOND
Yeah, yeah.
Armond turns to his left to yell at one of his subordinates.
ARMOND
Que the land mines!
DONALD
Land mines?
Damien enters the muddy part of the obstacle course and as soon as he does land mines start going off all across the field at random intervals. He quickly runs across the field as explosions erupt at his feet. As he runs he ends up stepping on one of the land mines. It blows up under his foot and he is thrown in to the air. Donald gasps as he watches from the observation area. Damien does three flips in the air and lands right back down on his feet. As soon as he hits the ground he starts running through the mud field again. The explosions keep going off but the begin to die down as Damien exits the field. With that he has completed the obstacle course and crosses the finish line. He takes a moment to catch his breath as Donald and Armond come out from the observation area and meet him in the finish area.
DONALD
Way to go Damien you did fantastic!
ARMOND
You weren't that great.
DONALD
Oh don't mind him he's just butt hurt because you beat his course. You did great.
DAMIEN
Thanks that was one of the more difficult courses I've seen. Didn't expect the mines.
DONALD
Yeah you can thank general butt hurt for that.
ARMOND
Hey land mines are an imminent threat to anyone operating the suit. We needed to test for them.
DAMIEN
Yeah I'm sure. What was my time?
DONALD
Two minutes and twenty seconds. I got to tell ya, you had me worried at times.
Armond walks off.
DAMIEN
Oh really?
DONALD
Yeah I spent a lot of time making that suit and I would hate to see it damaged.
Donald walks off and after a moment Damien follows him.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien is standing in the middle of the hanger wearing the suit. Jordan is in a smaller room in the hangar with all of the computer terminals watching Damien from behind a glass window. He pushes a button on his headset to talk to Damien.
DONALD
Okay Damien the next thing we want to test is the suits capacity to improve your fighting ability. Now do you think you are good at hand to hand combat?
DAMIEN
Yeah I think I've had my fair share of knockouts.
DONALD
Well if correct this suit should give you the martial arts skills of Bruce lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan combined.
DAMIEN
Thats a lot of martial arts skills.
DONALD
Yes it is.
As he says that several ropes start to fall down from the hangar ceiling. Damien notices this and looks up to find their origin. Finds a group of ninjas wearing all black pajamas and masks sliding down the ropes and landing on the ground. Some have weapons like nun chucks and sai, and some have only their fists. Soon enough Damien is completely surrounded in ninjas. He takes up a fighting stance and readies himself for attack.
DAMIEN
Who are these guys?
DONALD
They are the shoalin tigers martial arts fighting team. You're going to be testing your fighting abilities on them.
DAMIEN
Do they have health insurance?
DONALD
They all signed wavers so just go crazy.
DAMIEN
Cool.
Donald walks over to a microphone on a desk that goes out to the entire hangar. He presses the button and speaks in to the microphone.
DONALD
And ..... begin!
One by one the ninjas attack Damien and one by one he knocks them down and dish out attacks of his own. Pretty soon he is fighting like a martial arts master. In a desperate attempt some of the ninjas start to dog pile on top of Damien and his suit. Damien is quickly covered in ninjas. The pile starts to pulsate and Damien shakes off all the ninjas with an explosive move.
DONALD
Woh.
The fighters keep coming. One ninja attacks Damien with some nun chucks. Damien quickly knocks him on his back and takes the nun chucks from him. He uses his newly attained weapon to knock out three more ninjas. He wields the nun chucks with masterful precision. Finally he throws the nun chucks across the room at the last ninja standing. The nun chucks fly through the air and hit the ninja square in the face knocking him to the ground. With that all of the ninjas from the fighting team are either knocked out unconscious or writhing on the floor in pain.
DONALD
Well I think this test is a success.
DAMIEN
Yeah me too.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien and Dr. Jordan are walking through the hangar towards the next test for the suit.
DAMIEN
Wow I can not believe this suit. I couldn't fight that well before I put it on. How does it do that?
DONALD
It's a special fighting command protocol. I designed it myself. It'll activate whenever the user needs it.
DAMIEN
Hopefully it'll come in handy for the field. So what's the next thing we are going to test.
DONALD
The next test is right here.
The two approach a green army jeep that is parked in the hangar.
DONALD
You see this car?
DAMIEN
Yeah.
DONALD
It weighs 3,156 pounds. You are going to lift it.
DAMIEN
Lift it?
DONALD
Yes. This exercise is to test to suits ability to increase your strength. So for all intensive purposes I want you to lift it.
DAMIEN
Okay I'll see what I can do.
Damien goes over to the jeep. He bends down and gets his hands on it. He gets a good grip on the jeep and starts to lift up. Just like the doctor said the suit allows him to starts lifting the jeep up off the ground. The doctor takes a few steps back as Damien starts to lift the vehicle higher over his head.
DAMIEN
Holy crap you were right this thing does increase my strength.
Damien starts to lose his balance. He starts to trip up and start wobbling form side to side.
DAMIEN
Oh oh no!
DONALD
Ah be careful!
Damien tries to keep his balance while holding the jeep but he does not succeed. Donald runs away as Damien falls to the ground dropping the jeep on the ground crushing it.
DAMIEN
Don't worry I'm okay. Oh man. was this test successful?
DONALD
Yes but not in the conventional sense.
DAMIEN
It means you broke the jeep.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
All the damage from the previous test has been cleaned up. Damien is wearing the suit and Donald is ready for more testing.
DAMIEN
Sorry I kind of bonked up that other test doc. What's next?
DONALD
Oh I think you are going to like this next test very much.
Donald turns to some other scientists in the hanger.
DONALD
Okay bring em in.
Some of the other scientists come up to Damien and start attaching something to the suit.
DAMIEN
What are these guys doing?
DONALD
They are giving you some fire power.
The scientists attach two gauntlet like machines to the forearms on Damiens suit. They attach some wires and make sure every thing in the suit is running well. As soon as the gauntlets are fully attached to the suit the scientists step away. Damien marvels at what they added to the suit.
DAMIEN
What are these things?
DONALD
These gauntlets are the XY-10,000's primary weapon systems.
DAMIEN
What do they do?
DONALD
We're about to find out.
Just as he says that two other scientists start wheeling in a large concrete wall with a a red target spray painted on it. They bring it in and stop it about forty yards away from Damien.
DONALD
The first weapon in the gauntlet is a new form of electro-sonic cannon. You are going to use that to destroy that wall.
DAMIEN
Great. How do I do that?
DONALD
The controls for the gauntlet are simple. First make fist.
Damien makes a fist with his right hand. The gauntlet on his right arm starts to make a whirring noise like it is powering up.
DONALD
Next point your gauntlet towards the wall.
Damien aims his right gauntlet at the wall. Donald gets out of the way between Damien and the wall.
DONALD
If you're having trouble aiming there's a targeting program that's on your display.
Without a doubt a circle with some cross hairs show up on Damiens display. As he moves his right arm the cross hairs move with it showing what exactly he's aiming at. He aims at the concrete wall.
DAMIEN
How do I fire?
DONALD
Uh right firing. Just push your four fingers in to your palm.
DAMIEN
Alright.
Damien does what the doctor told him and all of a sudden a beam of purple energy is fired out of a cylindrical barrel of the gauntlet. The shot of energy flies across the room and hits the concrete wall. The wall is shattered in to pieces.
DAMIEN
Wow!
DONALD
That's exactly what I said when I discovered it.
DAMIEN
What did I just fire?
DONALD
It's electricity bombarded with the right sonic frequency. If it's built up and aimed in the right direction it does ... well that. (points to shattered wall) I stumbled upon it back when I was in college.
DAMIEN
That's a game changer.
DONALD
That's the idea. Now I think we have enough data we need. But just to be safe would you mind testing it a couple more times?
As he says that some more scientists bring in three more concrete walls with targets on them similar to the one Damien just destroyed. In addition some concrete slabs with targets on them start repelling down from the ceiling on wires.
DAMIEN
I do not mind one bit.
DONALD
Good just let me get out of your way.
Donald moves about a hundred feet away from him and gets behind some bullet proof glass in a safety zone.
DONALD
Okay go!
Damien starts charging up the cannons on his gauntlets. He aims and fires the same purple energy as before right at the other concrete walls. He takes a couple shots and all the concrete walls shatter just like before. With those gone he moves on to shoot at the suspended targets in the air. He fires in quick succession and the targets all shatter and fall to the ground. With almost all of the targets gone Damien sees one last concrete target and it is directly above him. With out hesitation he fires at it. The target shatters and the concrete bits starts to fall down on top of him. Damien quickly does a tuck and roll out of the way. The concrete pieces fall to the ground with out hitting Damien.
DAMIEN
Whoa that was close.
DONALD
No kidding but good dodge. That really shows off the suits maneuverability.
INT. TESTING HANGAR - DAY
Damien is admiring the gauntlets on his suit. Donald and some other scientists are around him supervising and doing calculations.
DAMIEN
Wow these weapon systems sure are something. You made a really impressive suit here doc.
DONALD
Yeah it took me quite a while to perfect this beauty. But thanks to you I think we've finally got it right. There's more to those gauntlets. If you press each individual finger in to your palm it will give you a new tool.
DAMIEN
Like what kind of tools?
DONALD
Well see for yourself.
Damien presses his right index finger in to his palm. Out from the gauntlet pops a device with two metal nubs and electricity running through the two nubs.
DAMIEN
A taser?
DONALD
Yes we wanted something non lethal.
DAMIEN
Great how do I turn it off?
DONALD
Press your index finger to your palm a second time.
Damien does so and the taser recedes back in to the gauntlet. Damien presses his middle finger in to his palm and a long blade pops out of the gauntlet.
DONALD
And this one is something lethal.
Damien presses his middle finger to his palm again and the blade goes back in to the gauntlet. Damien then tuns his arm sideways.
DAMIEN
What else is in here?
Damien presses his ring finger in to his palm and out from the gauntlet comes a grappling cable. The cable shoots across the room and the three pronged end of it grabs hold of a leg of one of the other scientists in the room. That scientist falls and screams in pain.
DAMIEN
(panic)
Oh my god, oh my god!
DONALD
(panic)
Oh no!
DAMIEN
How do I stop it?
DONALD
Just push your ring finger in to your palm again.
Damien presses his ring finger in to his palm and the cable comes unhooked from the scientists leg. The cable recedes back in to the gauntlet. The scientist gets up from the ground.
DAMIEN
Sorry!
DONALD
Are you okay?
The scientist gives Damien and Donald the finger then limps away.
DAMIEN
How many gadgets are in these gauntlets?
DONALD
There's only one more.
DAMIEN
One more, so you only put four extra things in here?
DONALD
Oh I'm sorry. Did you need a whole Swiss army knife? Do you want a wine opener in there as well?
DAMIEN
Well that could come in handy if I'm hosting a diner party in the suit and don't to rummage through all my drawers to find the wine opener.
DONALD
Just shut up and press your pinky finger in to your palm.
Damien holds up his right hand and presses his pinky finger in to his palm. When he does this two large rectangular shields pop out of both sides of the gauntlet. Damien looks at the transformation that has occurred.
DAMIEN
What are these?
DONALD
Those are blast shields. They should be bullet proof. But just to test.
One of Donald's assistants wheel up a lectern to him. On top of it are a revolver, some ammunition, some eye protectors, and some ear protection. Donald puts on the eye and ear protection and starts loading up the gun.
DONALD
Hold your arm up. We're going to test the shield.
DAMIEN
Okay.
Damien holds his right arm shield towards the doctor. Donald takes aim and fires his gun at the shield. He shoots three bullets and all of them hit the shield and are repelled off.
DONALD
Now one potential problem with a shield like this is that the users arm would brake under the force. Do you feel like your arm is broken Damien?
DAMIEN
No I don't think it is.
DONALD
Good.
Donald continues to fire three more bullets in to the shield and the metal repels all of the bullets. Not one bullet makes a dent in the shield. From out of the blue general Dixon comes up to the doctor and his gun.
ARMOND
Doctor.
DONALD
Oh hi general Dixon.
ARMOND
I heard gun fire and I had to inspect it.
DONALD
Oh well we're just testing the shield system on the XY-10,000. Say you wouldn't happen to have firearm on you by any chance?
ARMOND
Are you kidding I always have my trusty 1911 on me.
DONALD
Well would you like to help us out by firing at the shield right there?
ARMOND
Well that sounds delightful.
Armond takes his gun out of it's holster and aims at the shield.
DAMIEN
Now hold on are just going to let anybody come up and shoot at me?
Armond starts firing his gun at the shield. The bullets ricochet of the shield without leaving a dent.
DAMIEN
Okay I see what we're doing now.
INT. LABORATORY - night
It is a dark night in the laboratory where doctor Jordan is entering some data in to the computer. Damien enters the lab. He is not wearing the suit as they are not doing any testing at the time. He goes up to the doctor at the computer.
DAMIEN
Hey doc.
DONALD
Hey Damien. Couldn't sleep?
DAMIEN
No, not after all the crazy tests we did this week.
DONALD
Well I hope you'll be happy to know that our testing phase is over and the results you gave us were overwhelmingly successful.
DAMIEN
Great. I just can't wait to use this in the field.
DONALD
Oh I'm sorry but you won't be using this in the field.
DAMIEN
What?
DONALD
You see what happens from now is I present my findings and give my blueprints to the army. They're going to make their own version of the XY-10,000 and send them to their military bases over seas.
DAMIEN
So we won't get to use them?
DONALD
No but you will be compensated for your service this week.
DAMIEN
That's not good enough.
DONALD
What did you think we were going to do?
DAMIEN
I thought we were going to change something. Listen I'm from Los Angeles and LA has just been filled to the brim with gang violence and street crime. Have you ever been to LA?
DONALD
Yes actually I was born in LA.
DAMIEN
Then you know, you've seen it. The city is just drowning in crime and gang violence. But we can change that.
DONALD
How?
DAMIEN
With your suit. We can take it in to the city and start fighting the gangs.
DONALD
The XY-10,000 is the property of the government. We can't just take it and do whatever we wanted with it.
DAMIEN
That suit is yours. You should be able to do some good with it.
DONALD
If we take the suit and do what you proposed. Start fighting crime like some kind of superhero. The government will come after us and they'll just kill us for committing treason. We won't even get a trial.
(beat)
DAMIEN
When I was ten years old my dad was killed. In a mugging. Gunned down for nothing more then the fifty dollars he had in his wallet. It's like he died for no reason. And it hasn't gotten better since then. I joined the army so I could help people but what I ended up doing was traveling half way across the world to police a bunch of people that didn't need to be policed. I thought I was making a difference but i wasn't changing anything.
DONALD
I know how you feel. My mom was killed when I was twelve. She was coming home and she just happened to get in the middle of two gangs shooting at each other. A stray bullet hit her temple and it killed her.
DAMIEN
That's why, that's the reason. That's the reason we need to do this. This suit, your invention is our chance to make a change. To help people. To stop LA from burning to the ground. You know I'm right.
DONALD
Fine, you're right. my invention can be used to help those people.
DAMIEN
We can save LA but we got to do it together.
DONALD
What like partners?
DAMIEN
Exactly like partners. You're the brains and I'm the brawn. What do you say?
Damien holds his hand out like he wants the doc to shake it.
DONALD
Okay, partners.
Donald shakes Damiens hand.
DONALD
So what's your plan for getting the XY-10,000 off of this base.
DAMIEN
I don't really have one.
DONALD
What?!
DAMIEN
Like I said you're the brains I'm the brawn. You're the smart one. I thought you could find a way to work this out.
DONALD
In order to work this out we would need a way to get all of my sensitive and experimental equipment out of a highly secure army base.
DAMIEN
Do you have any ideas?
DONALD
No but give me some time I'll think of something.
ext. warehouse - day
Damiens car drives through the streets of LA and up to a large white warehouse. He drives up through the gates and on to the warehouse property. There are no other cars there and the property looks to be almost empty. Damien gets out of his car and looks around. He sees an entrance to the warehouse. He walks up to it and enters the ware house.
int. warehouse - continuous
Inside the ware house it appears to be very barren. The only thing Damien sees is a large tractor trailer truck on the other end of the house. He goes over to it to find doctor Jordan come out from the other side of it.
DONALD
Hey Damien!
The two go up to each other meet and shake hands.
DAMIEN
Wow It's been a week since our little chat and you come up with all this.
DONALD
Yeah I was quite lucky to find this property.
DAMIEN
Wait, did you buy this place?
DONALD
Uh yes but the truck is rental.
DAMIEN
How much does the government pay you?
DONALD
Well without going in to actual figures I can say that the military does love their experimental scientists.
DAMIEN
So did you come up with a plan for getting the suit?
DONALD
Yes I did and like all the great plans it is simple and brilliant.
Donald hands Damien a couple pages of paper work.
DONALD
This is a list of all the hardware and components that go along with the operations of the XY-10,000. They are all still at the army base in the desert. This is an order signed by general Dixon to have all of those items transported to a facility in San Fransisco.
Donald hands Damien an official looking document with general Dixon's signature at the bottom.
DAMIEN
How did you get him to sign off on this?
int. general Dixon's office - day
General Dixon is in his office filling out some paperwork when doctor Jordan enters the room with some papers.
DONALD
Excuse me general Dixon.
ARMOND
Please don't tell me I have some more paper work to sign. If I have to sign one more thing I think I'm going to throw up.
DONALD
Well sorry to bring the bad news because I just have on more thing for you to sign.
Donald puts an official looking document on his desk.
ARMOND
Oh my god.
Armond quickly signs the document with out even looking at it. He hands the document back to the doctor.
ARMOND
Here. Now I'm going to throw up.
int. warehouse - day
DONALD
It wasn't that hard. Now the rest of the plan is simple. You drive on to the base and get them to load all this equipment in to the truck. If anybody gives you trouble just wave this document in their face.
EXT. ARMY BASE - night
Damien drives the big tractor trailer truck through the desert and up to the gate of the army base. He gets stopped at a checkpoint at the gate. Damien is wearing a baseball hat and some glasses so that nobody on the base recognizes him. A gate guard goes up to the truck and Damien rolls down his window to talk to him.
gate guard
What's your purpose here?
DAMIEN
(disguised voice)
Transporting some equipment.
GATE GUARD
I'm going to need some ID.
DAMIEN
Well I'm sorry I don't have any ID on me.
GATE GUARD
With out any ID I can't let you in.
DAMIEN
Look all I know is that I have to transport some stuff I don't even know what I'm supposed to get but here's the order I got for it.
Damien takes out the document signed by general Dixon and hands it to the gate guard. The guard looks the document over and sees the generals signature on the bottom.
GATE GUARD
Okay this will do. Go on in.
DAMIEN
Thank you. Can I get that back it's my only copy.
The guard hands the paper back to Damien. The gate opens up and Damien drives the truck on to the base. He drives up to one of the testing hangers he recognizes. He pulls his truck up and parks right beside the hanger. He opens his door and gets out of the truck. Just as he gets out two army officers come up to him and the truck.
officer #1
Can we help you?
DAMIEN
Yes you can. I need to get everything on this list on this truck so I can ship it out.
Damien hands his equipment list to the officers. The officers look it over.
officer #2
This is some really sensitive stuff. Where are you taking it?
DAMIEN
Some base in San Francisco.
OFFICER #1
Look this is some experimental we can't just give it to you.
DAMIEN
Look all I know is that I got to get the things on that list in the truck and drive all night to San Francisco. I don't even know what half the things on that list are. Look I got this order signed by some general.
Damien takes out the signed document he showed at the gate and shows it to the officers. The officers look at the document.
DAMIEN
So unless you want to wake up this general in the middle of the night with some stuff that he already knows. Then you better just start loading up my truck.
EXT. ARMY BASE - NIGHT
The tractor trailer truck is filled to the brim with all of doctor Jordan's equipment. Damien is inside of it checking to make sure all of the stuff on the list is there. The two army officers and some others are outside of the trailer. They just helped him load the stuff on to it.
OFFICER #2
Is that everything?
DAMIEN
Yeah I think that will do it.
Damien comes down to the end and steps down and out of the trailer.
DAMIEN
Well thanks guys for getting everything on there. Now I got to drive all through the night to make it to San Francisco.
OFFICER #1
Take it easy.
The officers disperse and Damien goes up and gets in the drivers seat of the truck. He starts up the truck and drives it off of the base.
EXT. WAREHOUSE - DAY
Doctor Jordan is waiting outside of his warehouse on a nice sunny day. When he sees his large tractor trailer truck drive up the street.
The truck turns on to the street and up to the warehouse. Jordan pulls open a large door on the warehouse making a big enough entrance way for the truck to come in.
The truck makes it's way up to the warehouse and goes through the large warehouse door. The truck full enters the warehouse followed by doctor Jordan who closes the door behind him.
Publishing AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
The road I went down to publish my debut fantasy novel the Universe Key was an arduous and confusing one. At first I tried the obvious route of traditional publishing. This lead to an extremely long and painful list of rejection emails from companies and literary agents. Oh for months it was just rejections as far as the eye could see. Mountains on mountains of rejections. If I had a dollar for every rejection I received then I could just skip publishing and finance a movie based on my novel. I think it could have been for the better though. I don't want just any run of the mill literary agent. I need an agent that understands my visions and wants me to achieve my goals. An agent almost as unique as me. That is just something that money can't buy. I also did talk to some vanity publishers with hilarious results. I swear all those vanity presses should be shut down, they're scams one and all. I did have the chance to show them how I really felt though. Any sleazy con artist who sent me an email or called me on the phone got a permanent headache worth of tolling from yours truly. So watch out for scams guys. Two companies I'll name are Dorrance publishing and Fulton books. Avoid them like they just tested positive for COVID 19. So with all my options seemingly exhausted where was I to go? It seemed like my last hope was indie publishing. I started off as a true novice in the indie publishing world. I only stumbled head first into how I could self publish on amazon. But the moment I hit the button and published the Universe Key I realized something. I absolutely love indie publishing. I love editing down and formatting what I wrote. I love designing my own covers and once I published the Universe Key I had this calming peaceful feeling wash over me. A feeling that told me now I can publish anything I want whenever I want to. That is the feeling of freedom. Now to end this blog post I have a message to the literary agents of the world. Get off your 15% taking butt and sign me already. So I can finally bring excitement, prosperity and wonder into your short meaningless life.
Little side note I'll give you guys an update of what I'm working on. I'm 80k words into the sequel to the Universe Key. I still have a lot to write so I think I'm going to hit 100k words.
Little side note I'll give you guys an update of what I'm working on. I'm 80k words into the sequel to the Universe Key. I still have a lot to write so I think I'm going to hit 100k words.
The ultimate guide to writing strong female characters
Like most of you guys out there I’m a big fan of the Marvel cinematic universe. They’ve given us so many different female characters with exciting backstories and personalities. Like Black Widow who was captured at a young age and forced to be a badass fighter, or Captain Marvel who was captured at a young age and forced to be a badass fighter, or Gamora who was captured at a young age and forced to be a badass fighter, or Scarlet Witch who was captured at a young age and forced to be a badass fighter. Wait a minute. Oh my god they just made the same character four different times! So with repetition like this I asked myself a truly deep question. How can someone create a strong female character and actually have it be a strong female character? More specifically can a strong female character be strong not in spite of being female but because she’s female? In my contemplation on this subject three characters came to mind. They are all from the same TV show and that show is Avatar: the Last Airbender.
As fans of the show know it is filled with really good female characters but right now I just want to focus on three. They are Toph, Katara, and Azula. Three character that got a lot of screen time and were flushed out the most. Let’s start out with talking about Toph. Toph is a twelve year old blind girl and her character is truly a unique departure in the evolution of female characters and comes at writing female characters from a completely new angle. For Tophs character the writers took masculine traits and mapped them on to her. This makes Toph relate to the boys more because she doesn’t play into feminine stereotypes. She rejects things like putting on makeup, doing her hair, and bathing regularly in favor of getting dirty, laughing at bodily functions, using rude language. She rejects the feminine activities and replaces them with masculine actives. Also rejecting traditionally feminine traits in favor of traditionally masculine ones. This is the way I generally see most of the stereotypical strong female characters and it can be an easy path to go down from a writing stand point. At a certain point I do think the strong female character with masculine traits becomes a parody of itself. I can probably think of dozens of strong female characters that fall into this category so if you want an easy way of writing strong female characters this is probably the way to go.
But some people demand more from their strong female characters so let’s move on and talk about Katara. Katara is a unique strong female character because her strength comes from a place that most people wouldn’t see as a place to draw strength from, your mom. Katara displays the strength of a mother. She acts like a den mother to everyone in the group. So much so that Sokka almost forgot the face of his real mother and whenever he tries to think of her he can just see Katara. At some of her most powerful moments she cries out like she is scolding her opponents. In the first episode the inciting incident for the entire series happens because she scolds Sokka. Sounding very much like a mother disciplining her child. At times when the group is mentally and physically exhausted Katara is the only one to hold them together. Like a mother guiding her children. Also in the last episode of season two there’s this one shot where she’s holding Aangs dead body and it invokes the image of Michelangelo’s pieta statue where Katara would be the Virgin Mary the mother of Jesus. Just as Mary was the mother of Jesus so is Katara the mother figure of this group. She is a good example of being strong not in spite of her femininity but because of her femininity. Being a mother is a feminine role and it’s where she draws her strength. I’ve seen very few characters like this so in Katara I find something very unique.
Now let’s take a trip over to the dark side and talk about Azula. Azulas character is an interesting development in strong female characters and it comes from a very dark place. You see in a general sense women have a high capacity for emotional intelligence than men. This means that generally women can recognize their emotions and even control them better than men. In the show we see Katara as a very emotionally conscious character for example. But what if that emotional consciousness turns into emotional manipulation. That is the strength of Azula. There is a time in the show when she gets into a fight with Zuko and doesn’t have to through a single punch. She just dodges and hurls emotionally scarring insults at him until he tires himself out. She repeats this strategy multiple times throughout the show when fighting. She manipulates the emotions of her opponents. Wasting their time, wasting their energy and throwing them out of whack without even touching them. She uses her higher emotional intelligence to manipulate her enemies and her allies. It’s a generally feminine trait that has devastating consequences in this instance. Once again she is not strong in spite of her femininity but because of her femininity.
So what’s the lesson here? I think it’s this. A female character doesn’t have to give up female traits in order to be strong. If you really want to step things up make a female character that’s strength and femininity intertwine with one another. Because women can be feminine and strong at the same time they don’t have to choose between the two. I’ll end this by saying call your mom, she misses you.
As fans of the show know it is filled with really good female characters but right now I just want to focus on three. They are Toph, Katara, and Azula. Three character that got a lot of screen time and were flushed out the most. Let’s start out with talking about Toph. Toph is a twelve year old blind girl and her character is truly a unique departure in the evolution of female characters and comes at writing female characters from a completely new angle. For Tophs character the writers took masculine traits and mapped them on to her. This makes Toph relate to the boys more because she doesn’t play into feminine stereotypes. She rejects things like putting on makeup, doing her hair, and bathing regularly in favor of getting dirty, laughing at bodily functions, using rude language. She rejects the feminine activities and replaces them with masculine actives. Also rejecting traditionally feminine traits in favor of traditionally masculine ones. This is the way I generally see most of the stereotypical strong female characters and it can be an easy path to go down from a writing stand point. At a certain point I do think the strong female character with masculine traits becomes a parody of itself. I can probably think of dozens of strong female characters that fall into this category so if you want an easy way of writing strong female characters this is probably the way to go.
But some people demand more from their strong female characters so let’s move on and talk about Katara. Katara is a unique strong female character because her strength comes from a place that most people wouldn’t see as a place to draw strength from, your mom. Katara displays the strength of a mother. She acts like a den mother to everyone in the group. So much so that Sokka almost forgot the face of his real mother and whenever he tries to think of her he can just see Katara. At some of her most powerful moments she cries out like she is scolding her opponents. In the first episode the inciting incident for the entire series happens because she scolds Sokka. Sounding very much like a mother disciplining her child. At times when the group is mentally and physically exhausted Katara is the only one to hold them together. Like a mother guiding her children. Also in the last episode of season two there’s this one shot where she’s holding Aangs dead body and it invokes the image of Michelangelo’s pieta statue where Katara would be the Virgin Mary the mother of Jesus. Just as Mary was the mother of Jesus so is Katara the mother figure of this group. She is a good example of being strong not in spite of her femininity but because of her femininity. Being a mother is a feminine role and it’s where she draws her strength. I’ve seen very few characters like this so in Katara I find something very unique.
Now let’s take a trip over to the dark side and talk about Azula. Azulas character is an interesting development in strong female characters and it comes from a very dark place. You see in a general sense women have a high capacity for emotional intelligence than men. This means that generally women can recognize their emotions and even control them better than men. In the show we see Katara as a very emotionally conscious character for example. But what if that emotional consciousness turns into emotional manipulation. That is the strength of Azula. There is a time in the show when she gets into a fight with Zuko and doesn’t have to through a single punch. She just dodges and hurls emotionally scarring insults at him until he tires himself out. She repeats this strategy multiple times throughout the show when fighting. She manipulates the emotions of her opponents. Wasting their time, wasting their energy and throwing them out of whack without even touching them. She uses her higher emotional intelligence to manipulate her enemies and her allies. It’s a generally feminine trait that has devastating consequences in this instance. Once again she is not strong in spite of her femininity but because of her femininity.
So what’s the lesson here? I think it’s this. A female character doesn’t have to give up female traits in order to be strong. If you really want to step things up make a female character that’s strength and femininity intertwine with one another. Because women can be feminine and strong at the same time they don’t have to choose between the two. I’ll end this by saying call your mom, she misses you.
How Star Wars Grew Up
I’ve written a lot about Star Wars. I admire how it’s been around for so long and how many lives it’s touched throughout the generations. A series that has been going on for so many years has had to change in so many ways. Now there’s one way it has changed that evolves one of the ideas that is at the stories very core and that transformation comes in the form of the Mandalorian. Now the basic story of the Mandalorian follows a bounty hunter named Din Djarin who has taken it upon himself to to care for a small child that the fans have affectionately named baby yoda. I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that this Mandalorian bounty hunter has adopted this little baby and acts as a father to the child. This is contextually significant to the over all story of Star Wars. Now let’s go back to the original trilogy. The plot of the first three movies can boiled down to the relationship between our main character Luke sky walker and his father Darth Vader. The audience can live through and relate to the story through Luke as he grapples with his father. He specifically has to grapple with the sins of his father how Darth Vader committed evils acts the son doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of the father and go down a righteous path.
The father also tries to corrupt the son as if it were destiny that they were meant to walk the same path. The son ends up redeeming the father and proves that even the most corrupted people can choose to come to the good side. A story as old as time and a good lesson learned by all. Now lets fast forward fourth years in our time but five years in their time and we are given the story of the Mandalorian bounty hunter and his child. The audience is made to relate to Din Djarin as he goes on his adventures and raises his baby. We love to watch the bounty hunter make his way in the world trying to make good choices and mold the child into a good adult. Now on an essential level the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader is the same relationship between Mando and baby yoda. A relationship between father and son but here’s where the evolution is. The viewpoint character has changed from son to father. Luke portrays the son as a protagonist and Mando portrays the father in his own story. In the old days the Star Wars audience was mostly made up of children who could relate to Luke. Identify with this young man and his troubles with his father. They relate to the son.
But time passed and those fans grew up. The fans became more mature and maybe even some of them became parents themselves. So they are in a prime situation to relate to a character that goes through parental drama. So star wars was in a prime position to oblige. Now a perfect character to through into the show is Boba Fett. From what little we’ve seen Boba’s relationship to his father is very vital to him. He follows his father’s path becoming a mandalorian bounty hunter. He wears his fathers armor, flies his fathers ship and does his fathers job. There are even points when he tries to avenge his father’s death. The relationship between Boba and his father is very static and stagnant. Boba tries to be exactly like his father not doing better or taking a different path. Boba and Jango take the same path and their path even ends the same way. They both die fighting. This relationship acts as a foil to the main father son relationships in Star Wars. Boba is not like Luke because he doesn’t feel conflict to change his path. Jango isn’t like Din Djarin because he doesn’t want to radically change his ways for the betterment of his son. One could even say that relationship is the worst case scenario of what a father son relationship can be. Patterns of behavior are repeated throughout the generations. The cycle of violence that encapsulated them both keeps turning and swallowing them up. The end result is degradation and stagnation. Luke and Din Djarin break the cycle of violence that has tried to swallow them up and do damage to their family members. Luke succeeded in this and maybe as the show goes on the Mandalorian will succeed and save baby yoda. This story tells as that a relationship between a father and a son is important. This is the way.
Just as an addition I thought I'd give you guys an update. I've just started my third book in the magic metal war saga. I'm really excited to write this third instalment but some things might get in the way. The Covid 19 pandemic is coming to an end as more people get vaccinated. Things are opening up and getting better. Also my day job has me going back into the office full time so that is definitely going to put a damper on my writing. I'm also getting more opportunities to do stand up so that's also going to take a big chunk of my time. With all this starting up I do have some concerns about being able to finish writing my third book. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how it's going but as many of us have learned the hard way recently the future is impossible to predict.
The father also tries to corrupt the son as if it were destiny that they were meant to walk the same path. The son ends up redeeming the father and proves that even the most corrupted people can choose to come to the good side. A story as old as time and a good lesson learned by all. Now lets fast forward fourth years in our time but five years in their time and we are given the story of the Mandalorian bounty hunter and his child. The audience is made to relate to Din Djarin as he goes on his adventures and raises his baby. We love to watch the bounty hunter make his way in the world trying to make good choices and mold the child into a good adult. Now on an essential level the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader is the same relationship between Mando and baby yoda. A relationship between father and son but here’s where the evolution is. The viewpoint character has changed from son to father. Luke portrays the son as a protagonist and Mando portrays the father in his own story. In the old days the Star Wars audience was mostly made up of children who could relate to Luke. Identify with this young man and his troubles with his father. They relate to the son.
But time passed and those fans grew up. The fans became more mature and maybe even some of them became parents themselves. So they are in a prime situation to relate to a character that goes through parental drama. So star wars was in a prime position to oblige. Now a perfect character to through into the show is Boba Fett. From what little we’ve seen Boba’s relationship to his father is very vital to him. He follows his father’s path becoming a mandalorian bounty hunter. He wears his fathers armor, flies his fathers ship and does his fathers job. There are even points when he tries to avenge his father’s death. The relationship between Boba and his father is very static and stagnant. Boba tries to be exactly like his father not doing better or taking a different path. Boba and Jango take the same path and their path even ends the same way. They both die fighting. This relationship acts as a foil to the main father son relationships in Star Wars. Boba is not like Luke because he doesn’t feel conflict to change his path. Jango isn’t like Din Djarin because he doesn’t want to radically change his ways for the betterment of his son. One could even say that relationship is the worst case scenario of what a father son relationship can be. Patterns of behavior are repeated throughout the generations. The cycle of violence that encapsulated them both keeps turning and swallowing them up. The end result is degradation and stagnation. Luke and Din Djarin break the cycle of violence that has tried to swallow them up and do damage to their family members. Luke succeeded in this and maybe as the show goes on the Mandalorian will succeed and save baby yoda. This story tells as that a relationship between a father and a son is important. This is the way.
Just as an addition I thought I'd give you guys an update. I've just started my third book in the magic metal war saga. I'm really excited to write this third instalment but some things might get in the way. The Covid 19 pandemic is coming to an end as more people get vaccinated. Things are opening up and getting better. Also my day job has me going back into the office full time so that is definitely going to put a damper on my writing. I'm also getting more opportunities to do stand up so that's also going to take a big chunk of my time. With all this starting up I do have some concerns about being able to finish writing my third book. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how it's going but as many of us have learned the hard way recently the future is impossible to predict.
