So, here it is... I'm tentatively calling it, "ADAM" (the main character's name). I'm shooting for, feeling-wise, something dark and mysterious, but sharp and technical. (Something like "Primer." If you have not seen Shane Carruth's excellent homeade film, "
" SEE IT. It will blow your doors off).
Really, these are random notes, so gird they reading loins...
ADAM (40). Once a sharp, good-looking guy... now a bit of a burn-out. Like the guy in Children of Men... but not THAT bad off. Also, not Clive Owen.
He's walking on a city street... sees a guy following him... can't really zero in the guy or ID him... but, no matter. The guy soon disappears.
Adam completes an errand or two... in and out of stores... we see he's a walking ghost, in some ways. Not "all there."
As he's walking out of one shop, he passes an alley.
BANG. He's shot. As he's falling, he sees "the guy" running off.
Adam's vision goes squirrelly. His consciousness is rattled. Flares of white, out of focus, weird sounds... just dizziness, really. But he's going out...
Then, someone helps him. Picks him up and carries him. But, because he's dying... his vision of this guy is hazy and weird. No solid recognition. Then, he's out.
Fade to black.
Open on... months later. He's at home, healing from his wound. Has bounced back pretty well. His apartment/condo is a dark wreck. Lots of books, sketches, the like. We see he's smart, but out of the societal loop.
A FELLOW approaches him, one day. We learn from this FELLOW that Adam was once a military man (Army) and was pretty darn smart. A physicist and taught some at WestPoint. Eventually, for one reason or another, dropped out of all that.
FELLOW (exposition!) lets us all know (including Adam, who, of course, knows because, well, it's HIS LIFE) that Adam just got caught up in Mankind's technological march... learning and doing... with little regard for nature (thank YOU, Mr. Crichton). Eventually resigned himself to the fact that Mankind was it's own worst enemy... not viral strains... not hatred of its own... not some Texas-sized wayward cosmic rock. So, he removed himself from everything... in some ways waiting for the end.
FELLOW, though, has hope in this guy. Thinks he's prophetic, in some ways. Tells him about the
Hadron SuperCollider (with a non-real name, instead of that real one) which is nearing completion in France (it's so big, though, it's in 2 countries). Tells him that there's a cabal of scientists who have been informed by some of Adam's early work. Say they believe this is NOT the "hope for humanity and learning" that it's presented to be. Say that this thing is NOT understood by its creators. Say that it is, in some ways, the
Doomsday Device. The creators are dead wrong about its effects. Say it will be the end of everything. The cracking open of the earth (as Tesla had once stated he could do).
FELLOW: Adam, we need you to "
Force 10 from Navarone" this thing. Kill it dead. Blow it up. Destroy it. Put your money where your mouth is. End it. Be the hope you've always wished for.
Somehow, Adam agrees. Will lead some team (this sounds SO 80s action/war movie-ish... but I think there's a better way to do it) to go destroy this thing.(Side scene... after Adam agrees, FELLOW confronts him. [FELLOW is cutting up an apple with a large and very sharp knife during this] "When the time comes... will you do what is right? Would you be willing to sacrifice the small for the good of the large? Really? If it came to this, would you kill an innocent person to save all of humankind?" Adam: "Sure. I was a military guy." FELLOW: "I need to know you really understand this concept."
FELLOW then pins Adam's hand to the table in front of them. Uses some metal clamp to band Adam's thumb to the table. He can't move. Then, FELLOW sprinkles this fine gray pebble-dust all over Adam's hand and then in a line to the other end of the table. "I need to be sure." Then, he lights a match and drops it on the dust, lighting it on fire. It burns towards Adam's hand. FELLOW lays the knife on the table. "Would you lose your thumb to save your hand?" Then, walks out of the room.
Adam freaks out. Pulls on his hand and thumb. Won't move. Blows on the fire. Nothing. Freaking out, freaking out. Finally, the fire is right up to the edge of his hand... he lifts the knife and brings it down full-hard on his thumb. The knife is dull. Breaks/bruises his thumb. Immediately, FELLOW walks in, calmly, and douses the fire with a fire extinguisher. "I trust you." Then, flicks the knife he had earlier (the sharp one... that looked just like the dull) into the tabletop. Undoes the thumb-band. "Let's go.")
(Yeah, a gimmicky scene, but I'm drawn to it.)
This is where it gets REAL HAZY:Shows up, eventually, at the supercolider. Is about to blow it up, and has some confrontation with a guy (maybe even the FELLOW) who tells him, "Fact is, this thing has already gone off. This thing (the colider) has already operated. They've tried it." Now, try and follow me here... this thing didn't crack the world open... but it sure did some nutso stuff. Like opening the world and our 4 dimensions to other dimensions. TIME GOT JACKED UP. So much so, that the multi-verse has had rifts in it... overlapping itself. Case in point... Adam gets told this: that guy who shot you six months ago? That was you. And that guy who saved your life? Another you.
got. And, what if YOU (the reader... whoever you are... maybe you are this guy--
