2005 Screenplay

 

Paradigm Shift: Transient

 

INT. CAR - NIGHT

WILLARD MORVEN (21) drives through the night, the dark road
barely visible ahead.

The car seems to speed up and slow down irregularly, and
Will's hands tremble and skip around the edge of the steering
wheel.

Blinking his eyes, feeling uncomfortable, Will turns on the
radio and distorted voices echo inside the car and through
the road. He closes his eyes for long moments while driving.

The car comes to a stop at a traffic light. The car comes to
a stop again at a traffic light. The light is green and turns
red and flickers back to green.

Will frowns, nauseated. He pumps the accelerator slightly,
the car moves backwards for some reason - the car comes to a
stop at a traffic light. The light is green.

Will closes his eyes again, and drowsily begins to drive
forward.

SMASHED inward, the driver's window crumbles in a large
bubble of convulsing metal and glass.

The car comes to a stop at a traffic light, Will accelerates
past the red light, it flickers to green then to red, the car
stops in the middle of the intersection, another car
approaches at top speed from the perpendicular street. They
are about to crash. CAR HORN.

FADE OUT.

 

INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY

A group of 6 youth enters the room, agitated, joking around
noisily, and gather at a table next to a glass window.

EMITT
(impatient)
Alright guys, can we start?

They quiet down. LAPSE and MEMO give each other high-fives,
FRAG and NOTCH whisper, EMITT is still impatient. The
quietest of the group, known as DR. AWKWARD, sits cross-armed
and serious.

FRAG
Notch over here was just telling me
how it's ironic that our meetings
always have to start at a certain
time.

EMITT
Yeah and they also have to end a
certain time, so let's get going.

LAPSE
How else would we meet, Frag? All
we have as a reference is time.

MEMO
Maybe in our dreams or something.

FRAG
What do you mean?

MEMO
We could meet in our dreams.
There's no time in dreams. Don't
you know that?

EMITT
Guys. There's definitely no time
for this. Let's go.

NOTCH
Okay, I'll start. Here's the
subject we're looking at, age 21,
Willard Morven. This is the only
way we found to describe his
condition: a glitch in the space
time continuum.

Everyone is silent and taking notes now.

EMITT
That's when we know this is big
guys, there's no words for him yet.

FRAG
We should give him a name. C'mon we
all got nicknames.

EMITT
Next slide, Notch?

FRAG
Call him Glitch or something.

MEMO
I think his nickname is Will.

NOTCH
Mr. Morven lost his perception of
time, his "sense" of time, if you
will, sometime during the past
year. His condition worsened until
it affected his coordination,
causing him to crash into another
car while driving.

LAPSE
What does it mean to lose your
sense of time? You can't understand
what's happening?

MEMO
Maybe you can't retain your memory
of immediate events.

LAPSE
How is that different from short
term memory loss?

EMITT
No, no, it means you can't maintain
a linear experience of events and
moments - you start mixing them up.

DR. AWKWARD
It's like everything is happening
at once.

NOTCH
That's terrible.

FRAG
You mean he can't tell the friggin'
difference between something he's
doing, something he already did and
something he's still going to do?

MEMO
He can see into the future then?

EMITT
We can't tell yet. He may think he
does, but it's really just his mind
on a desperate attempt to organize
incoherent stimulus.

NOTCH
Alright, so what can the Rain Tents
do for this poor guy?

EMITT
The Rain Tents have been asked to
fix the problem.
We pay him a visit. We knock him
unconscious, we do a Reversal
Dispersal and hope he wakes up a
normal human being...

FRAG
Woah... Emitt, wait a second -

There is commotion in the room, except on the part of Lapse
and Dr. Awkward.

LAPSE
Guys, listen. I feel like whatever
is happening to Willard Morven is
more of a gift than a mistake.

FRAG
Right. So, God says to him: I give
you the Gift of Perpetual
Multitasking...!

NOTCH
Yeah, Lapse how could he possibly
benefit from that? It's obviously
been tragic so far.

LAPSE
Well, it's more like... when your
parents give you a bike, you know,
you have to learn to ride it first.

FRAG
She's got a point.

The group is silent for a moment.

LAPSE
(gesturing)
It's like he's got this third eye
opening in the middle of his
forehead that lets him see into the
fourth dimension or something.

MEMO
The fourth dimension being time.

LAPSE
Yes. Can you imagine what it would
mean to be able to control that?

FRAG
(nodding, in awe)
No time restrictions.

EMITT
You're saying we should help him
get used to this freak phenomenon?

LAPSE
Help him develop it. Have him
explain to us how he got it. Show
us how to use it. We just need to
be cautious and persuasive.

FRAG
(to Dr. Awkward)
It's all you, Doc.

They all turn to the quietest one at the table.

NOTCH
Alright. Dr. Awkward. I recommend
that while the rest of us work to
locate Willard's Time Coordinates,
you can explain to him what the
hell is happening to the world.
Just don't let him know that he is
probably the most significant
disturbance in recent history,
certainly the most significant our
little insignificant group has
witnessed.

FRAG
Hey, man. We're not here for any
small reason. We're the Rain Tents.

DR. AWKWARD
If you remember what that stands
for you'd also remember we're not
here for long. If you don't mind,
I'll get to work now.

Dr. Awkward stands and everyone follows.

 

INT. WILLARD MORVEN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Will sits at a table, still with a bruise on the side of his
head. He looks tormented by something that sits on his desk.
A pencil.

Carefully, he places the pencil on top of a binder. It rolls
down the inclined binder and onto the table, then off the
edge of the table. But there is no sound of it hitting the
floor.

Will bends over to look at the floor but the pencil is not
there. It is still on the table. He places the pencil on the
notebook again, it starts rolling, then another pencil starts
rolling, following the first one. They both roll onto the
table but before falling off they merge into each other and
fade away.

Catching a glimpse of something in the corner of the room,
Will glances over and is startled by someone sitting there
that looks like HIMSELF. He jumps up. Now somehow he is
standing in the corner of the room looking at the table.

A KNOCK on the door. Barely able to walk, he heads to the
door. Suddenly he is opening the door, walking towards the
door, and talking to someone at the same time.

It is Dr. Awkward.

DR. AWKWARD
(inches away)
Heh, this is awkward.

WILL
Yes? What- what are you doing here?

DR. AWKWARD
You have no idea what I'm saying to
you, do you?

Will just shakes his head, and bumps into the wall
accidentally while trying to go into the other room. He tries
to hang Dr. Awkward's jacket but just drops it on the floor.

WILL
Are you selling me drugs? I mean,
have you been? I think I've been
taking drugs and I don't know it.

DR. AWKWARD
No. You're not taking drugs. What's
happening to you is natural.

WILL
So I don't owe you money or
anything.

DR. AWKWARD
Unfortunately.

WILL
How are you talking to me?

DR. AWKWARD
There's a reason they call me Dr.
Awkward. Right now I'm identifying
how your time lapses work, then
adjusting the way I talk, based on
that. It involves skipping around a
lot in the middle of sentences but,
nothing I couldn't learn from just
listening to some of my college
professors. Heh.

WILL
Dr. Awkward?

DR. AWKWARD
I'm probably the only one who is
going to be able to have a
conversation with you. I have this
weird thing... I can memorize a
very particular sequence of events
to the tiniest detail, and then
repeat it exactly, to the second.
Forwards or backwards.

WILL
It's a palindrome. Dr. Awkward.

DR. AWKWARD
That's right! See you're not so out
of it.

WILL
(solemn)
Am I dying?

DR. AWKWARD
You have acquired a defect -
something that is not supposed to
happen in the physical construct -
something that I can't undo, but I
am here to help you.

WILL
(daydreaming)
You... And who are those people...
under the ground?

DR. AWKWARD
Yes. There have been groups at
different times... watching you.

 

INTERCUT - EXT. CITY STREETS - INT. WILL'S APARTMENT

LATER - Will jogs down the sidewalk, glancing down nervously
at a small piece of paper he is holding.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
You are a threat. To those who
believe that all of us - human
beings - are moving toward a new
evolutionary stage, that we are
experiencing a fundamental shift of
consciousness - you may be the very
first manifestation of what that is
going to look like.

APARTMENT - EARLIER

WILL
Evolution? This is evolution? We're
all going to be bumbling idiots
like me?

DR. AWKWARD
Not if we learn to use this power.

WILL
(holding his head)
I don't want to use it, I want to
stop it!

DR. AWKWARD
The only way to stop it is to let
it take over. Let it win--

STREETS - LATER

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
The group that I belong to has sent
me detailed instructions.
Coordinates. You must follow them
carefully.

Running down the street, Will cannot handle the stimulus that
other people impose on him. He feels attacked by a mob,
although people are merely walking along.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
By arriving at these specific
points in time and space, almost
like 4-dimensional addresses, and
essentially passing through these -
quote-unquote - "gates"...

Will pulls through the mass of people and runs into an area
underneath a tree. The space immediately around him distorts.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
What you will do is accelerate
through stages of germination...

WILL (V.O.)
What is happening to me?

A breath of something exits from Will's face, like energy.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
... Each time you arrive at a
coordinate, getting closer and
closer to your most advanced state.

Rushing through the streets, through traffic and numerous
alleyways, Will arrives at the next point on the list.

WILL (V.O.)
What's supposed to happen then?

When he steps through an archway, all the street and traffic
noises come to a HALT.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
A sensory breakdown.

APARTMENT - EARLIER

DR. AWKWARD
Your senses need to dissipate from
you, one by one.

WILL
(skeptical)
Why would I want to submit myself
to this?

DR. AWKWARD
Will, you have no choice.

STREET - LATER

Will has stepped into a silent war zone, running through
hostile grounds while being extricated from his nerves.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
What you need to do is force your
mind to catch up to the new ultra
capacity of your being, and this is
the only way to do it. Otherwise
there will be a sensory overcharge
so damaging that you will never
recover, your body will want to
cease to exist!

Arriving at a place high above other buildings, Will walks up
to a clearing where bright light invades the screen. He
shields his eyes.

APARTMENT - EARLIER

Dr. Awkward is standing over Will, and pulls out the list of
coordinates.

WILL
I don't understand anything! Why do
I have to do all this, what did I
do?!

DR. AWKWARD
If only you knew the greatness of
your circumstances. We can't
imagine what you are going through,
we know, it must be very difficult.
But before any grand
transformation, Mr. Morven, there
must be a crisis. And yours, we
consider a microcosm for a much
greater crisis...

STREET - LATER

Will pushes BLINDLY past a gate and into a busy area.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
... one that is affecting us all.

Everything around him is flickering, negative. Flashing away,
fading to black, his vision is being taken from him. The
people around him are oblivious and continue to walk.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
And you must never give up. Willard
Morven... There is nothing that can
counteract the oppression of the
universe more powerfully than your
own desire.

Will lifts his head, feeling the air with the tips of his
fingers - stern and determined.

DR. AWKWARD (V.O.)
Your desire to live.

The space around him skipping and parting in a hundred
directions, Will darts onto a ledge and LEAPS to the ground
below, suddenly everything at his command. He sees the next
coordinate ahead, the last one - a STATUE in the park - as
described by the piece of paper. He drops the paper to the
ground and starts heading to the coordinate.

 

INT. MEETING ROOM - FOLLOWING NIGHT

Dr. Awkward lifts the piece of paper with Will's Time
Coordinates above his head, showing it to the other group
members convening here: Notch, Lapse, Memo and Frag.

LAPSE
He did it!

NOTCH
With a lot difficulty, I'm sure.

FRAG
The guy's crazy. It's almost like
natural selection, man.

MEMO
This is nothing like that.

FRAG
No, think about it. We started as
some kind of species and evolved
into what we are now...

MEMO
We can't evolve any further, can
we?

FRAG
Says who?!

MEMO
I thought it was scientifically
proven.

NOTCH
Even if we can...

LAPSE
Morven would be the first of his
species?!

NOTCH
Even if he is... there is a whole
legion of resistance that will not
tolerate that. In the past they
have opposed what they determined
to be inferior races... I'm sure
they could not tolerate any
superior ones. Willard is going to
have the whole world against him.

DR. AWKWARD
You're right. That is precisely the
reason why Emitt is not with us
today...

The others look at Dr. Awkward, surprised.

 

EXT. CITY STREETS - PREVIOUS DAY

EMITT emerges from an alleyway, intersecting Will before he
arrives at his next coordinate, initiating a CONFRONTATION
that soon becomes some kind of extra-dimensional fist-fight.

They chase each other, throwing kicks and punches from a
distance, which then carry through the air like a wind,
FRAGMENTING the environment. Dodging, sliding against brick
walls to escape throws, rolling onto ledges and pushing
themselves onto each other but barely touching.

Will takes a leap to try and reach the next gate, the STATUE,
Emitt thrusts an arm out and the air BURSTS like a vacuum,
slamming Will away and onto the ground.

 

INT. MEETING ROOM - FOLLOWING NIGHT

Memo types at a LAPTOP, everyone crowds around the screen.

MEMO
Emitt has been on assignment for an
underground group--

FRAG
I knew it!

MEMO
A group who name themselves the
Chronos.

LAPSE
I've heard of them. Their motto is
basically a weird version of
Segal's Law.

FRAG
What would that be?

LAPSE
(quoting)
A man with a watch knows the right
time. A man with two watches is
never sure.

MEMO
The prime function of the Chronos
is to keep everything under
control, make sure everyone abides
by the logical universe, and smash
any signs of relativistic
insurgences.

DR. AWKWARD
That's ridiculous. They are trying
to bring order to an unavoidable
chaos...

FRAG
So how the hell was our buddy Will
supposed to get out of this one?

DR. AWKWARD
At this point he'd been stripped of
almost all his connections to the
physical plain, left only with that
tiniest fraction of character, the
only testament to his individual
consciousness, the freedom of
choice - which, ironically... he is
meant to ultimately surrender... to
a greater force.

SMASHCUT TO:

 

EXT. CITY STREETS - PREVIOUS DAY

Rolling over his shoulder and onto one knee, Will recovers
from a blow, LEAPS off the edge of a tall structure, Emitt
close behind him. They block each other's moves swiftly,
Emitt DISTORTS THE SPACE around Will and SMASHES him into a
wall - Will dashes towards him in a fraction of a second, a
blurry form, tripping him from behind - Emitt jumps again to
escape -

Will SPLITS into different flickering, indiscernible forms,
defying gravity, interrupting time. Emitt somehow COLLAPSES
to the ground, overwhelmed with blows that hit him
unexpectedly, defeated.

Will appears inside the gate, underneath the STATUE in the
park.

Having arrived at his last coordinate, he lifts an arm, to
which the space around him responds by skipping around in
time and taking him forward, past the city streets, through
his apartment, then into the --

 

INT. MEETING ROOM - FOLLOWING NIGHT

A marker rolls across the table and gently onto Will's hand.
The others around the room watch, amazed. Will writes on the
board, very slowly.

INSERT

On the board: RAIN TENTS.

BACK TO SCENE

WILL
(quietly)
What do I do now?

No one in the room knows how to respond. They watch curiously
as Will plays around with the letters on the board.

NOTCH
To be honest, we were quite
unprepared for your appearance.

LAPSE
And Emitt's betrayal.

FRAG
That jerk.

Lapse glares at Frag.

WILL (O.S.)
It's an anagram isn't it?

Will has made a number of lines on the board, reordering each
letter of the title RAIN TENTS to form a new word underneath--

WILL
TRANSIENT. What does it mean?

Everyone exchanges glances, waiting for someone else to
speak.

MEMO
Lasting for a short time, and
quickly coming to an end,
disappearing, or changing.
(points at the screen)
Dictionary definition.

WILL
Yes. But why?

DR. AWKWARD
It is the reason we exist.

NOTCH
It also means an oscillation or
brief disturbance in a system...

WILL
The reason we exist? The Rain
Tents? To be temporary, to
disappear, to create change?

DR. AWKWARD
Not the Rain Tents... us!

WILL
To be part of this fleeting crisis
that is happening to me, that is
happening to everyone...

DR. AWKWARD
The reason for all this, your
abilities that come unbidden, these
worldly structures of organization
that are emerging precariously:
These are mysterious powers working
against each other to resolve the
greatest mystery of all...

WILL
What comes next?

DR. AWKWARD
Exactly. What comes next. When our
time is done. Because this is only
the beginning Will; the world is a
battleground of ideologies, efforts
and decisions - all in fierce
contradiction - all in order for us
to prepare ourselves to eventually
break free and exist in a spaceless
absolute, a void of total
timelessness!

Everyone in the room looks as though they are hearing this
for the first time.

WILL
Where there is no time... then what
is there?

There is a long pause.

DR. AWKWARD
(the answer is obvious)
Eternity.

Everyone stands in place, letting the words sink in. Will
places the marker carefully on the table. Memo closes his
laptop. Dr. Awkward finally sits. No one knows what to do
next.

WILL
It's nice to know one thing...

Will points at the marker he placed on the table. It is
slowly rolling toward the edge.

WILL
Without us... the universe still
shifts...

The members of the Rain Tents spread apart, looking at
different corners of the room. The marker drops on the floor.

FADE TO BLACK.

back to writing