MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
SCIENCE FICTION AND RESEARCH
Whether you're writing a science fiction
script that takes place hundreds of years in the future or a sci-fi kids film like SPY KIDS 3D or something that takes place in the near future like THE ISLAND,
nobody really knows what the future is going to look like, except maybe
Miss Cleo, and she's not telling. I mean, for all we know the
damned dirty apes might have taken over, or maybe we'll be eating
Soylent Green, hey - what if they killed everybody over 30? So
the future could be anything, right? So why even research? I
mean, how CAN you research the future? Can't you just make
everything up?
That depends on how much "sci" is in your sci-fi.
The STAR WARS movies are basically fantasy films. There
really isn't much in the way of science in them at all.
Princesses and Queens and Cowboys! No matter what planet they
land on, it has the Earth's gravity. Light sabers are a dumb
idea, if you think about it. Why would Jaba want scantily clad
babes in chains (the must look UGLY to him)?
The closer you get to "reality" the more science you need to
consider.
Your future world didn't just appear out of the blue, it's the
result of inventions and changes in society. The reason why
people eat Soylent Green in the future is because of over
population - there isn't enough food for everybody. When
I was a kid we had to shoo away the horses to play softball in the
fields... now there aren't any fields in my home town! When I moved to Los
Angeles a decade ago, there was one farm left in town... now that
farm is wall-to-wall condominiums! The food that farm used to
produce has been replaced by people... Fifty years from now all
of the farms might be replaced by people - that's a logical
possibility based on the events that are happening today. You can
get there from here. And if fifty years from now all of the
farmland is covered with people, the secret ingredient in Soylent
Green won't be all the surprising.
The idea of cloning humans as spare parts, as in the THE ISLAND isn't exacactly new - there was an old film called CLONUS
with the same basic plot, and my HBO flick GRID RUNNERS was all about cloning spare parts. One of the major problems with THE ISLAND is that
the technology doesn't make ny sense. We are shown that trains are now monorails that hover on mag-rals in a couple of scenes...
then there is a big car chase where train wheels are tossed off the back of a truck just to smash cars to pieces. Problem is - trains don't have wheels
in this future, so how can they be on the back of a truck? Are they being transported to the Train Wheel Museum in Las Vegas? If so, why do we need so many train wheels?
The whole train wheel action scene is at odds with the future created in the story - making the story "unrealistic" and false. That action scene *destroys* the movie.
Another technology problem are those jet-bikes. In the future, cars are exactly the same as they are now... but *motorcycles* have
made this huge technological leap and can now fly. How is it possible that one vehicle is trapped in 2005
technology while another type of vehicle is something out of STAR WARS? This doesn't make any sense at all!
Sure, it makes for a great chase scene, but (again) it destroys the credibility of the story. One more reason for the audience to reject the film. The lesson
we can learn from this is: You may have a cool idea for a sci-fi gadget, but it still has to fit the reality of the story that you've created.
The four things that proably sunk THE ISLAND at the box office were:
1) Uncharismtic leads (not only were the actors kind of bland - their *characters* were bland - sure, they're clones, but they need to be people we want to hang out with for 2 hours, too), Ewan and Scarlett aren't strong enough personalities to carry a film like this, and their characters are underwritten. If Ewan is supposed to be the rebel-clone, why not cast someone who would push the authorities buttons? Someone with an attitude?
2) A plot that made no sense: If Scarlet was so valuable that they couldn't let her get away (the person she's a clone of is dying in a hospital waiting for replacement parts), then why are they trying to kill her? Why use lethal force, if all they want to do is capture her? And if
the theory is that they need to kill her to keep the clone-thing secret - is blowing stuff up and destroying office buildings a good way to keep a secret? The action part of the plot is too big for the story. It just makes no sense.
3) The train wheel scene.
4) The jet-bike scene.
All of this adds up to a film that doesn't make sense - it breaks its own scientific and technological rules. It is fake. We want the audience to believe the futures we create are real.
In my GRID RUNNERS I had a scientist develop a method to clone
replacement body parts from computerized DNA information. This is
probably impossible, but I read some non-fiction books and a
stack of magazine articles on cloning and figured out a way that
didn't seem completely impossible.
The future world in GRID RUNNERS was fun to create... but it
took research!
At the time I wrote the script, "State's rights" was a big
issue, with a movement going on to decentralize the government...
so in the future all 57 states have different laws and heavily
guarded borders. Conservative government was popular when I wrote
the script, so the Southern California Grid (state) is like
Singapore. You can't chew gum, you can't swear, you can't play
violent or sexy video games, and police with X-ray guns are
constantly checking you for weapons and potential weapons. But
Nevada is still wide open. Land of gambling, hookers, violent and
sexy virtual reality games. Borders around Nevada are heavily
guarded, because people keep trying to smuggle out contraband.
The FBI has evolved into Grid Runners - cops who can cross state
lines to pursue a criminal. These cops are often "cowboys" who
don't believe in following the laws of whatever Grid (state) they
end up in. (The hero!)
Smog? Thing of the past! All cars are electric, now. (FACT:
California has laws on the books which require a certain
percentage of cars be electric, and this percentage escalates as
the years go on.)
Water? You have to swipe your credit card to use a drinking
fountain! (FACT: Southern California is in a desert, and must
buy water from outside sources... water will get more expensive
as demand increases.)
Gadgets? Everyone has a Pippin Pocket Computer. Fits in your
shirt pocket. No buttons - voice activated. There's a "valet" on
the monitor that you interface with (more comfortable than
talking to a piece of plastic). When I wrote the script back in
1994, we didn't have Palm Pilots and all of the pocket computer
devices we have now. I'd like to say I invented them, but they
were inevitable. Computers were getting smaller every year, and
it was obvious that portable pocket sized computers were right
around the corner. Apple had announced their Newton (the size of
a notepad) so it didn't take a genius to figure out we'd have
shirt pocket computers by the time my script took place.
I came up with magnetic handcuffs, too, but the director
changed this into a neck pressure band gizmo (stolen from the
movie DEADLOCK - ah, the imagination of directors!). A
combination freezer/microwave oven that's like a mini jukebox
that sits on your table - make a selection, ZAP, it's a meal.
Flat wall sized TV screens (we have these now). An X-ray
door-frame that shows if you're carrying a weapon when you enter
a room, sounds an alarm if you're packing. I basically took
everything we have now, and took it up a couple of notches.
I think these small things are what makes a sci-fi film/script
cool. All it takes is a little imagination to take the world as
we know it and skip the next few steps to the world of tomorrow.
Just because your script is science fiction doesn't mean it takes
place in a future without rules and conventions. That future
world is the result of scientific discovery and societal changes.
You may think nothing of writing a scene where Dominos FAXes a
pizza to your hero, but that's completely impossible today and
will probably be impossible in the future as well. Hey, if you
think Dominos pizza tastes like cardboard now, imagine what it
would taste like after it was transmitted over the phone lines!
You know what's gonna be big in about 15 years? Hoverchairs.
Like wheel chairs, but without the stairs/ramp problems. Ricardo Montalban has one in SPY KIDS 2, and it makes sense that they'll be on the market in our lifetime. We have
hovercrafts now - the Marines have a vehicle called the L-CAC
that's a hover ship capable of transporting tanks, troops, and
trucks! It's only a matter of time before someone adapts that
technology to the private sector to aid mobility for people who
are wheelchair bound. That's a logical and scientifically sound
use for existing technology... unlike FAXed pizzas!
Because there's a certain amount of SCI in all Sci-fi you need
to research your future by looking at what's possible now.
The 2001 London Class on 8 CDs! Recorded *live* the morning after the Raindance Film Festival
wrapped. The two day class on 8 CDs, plus a workbook, plus a bonus CD with over 300 screenplay PDFs - all 3 BOURNE movies, all 3 MATRIX movies, all 3
Indiana Jones movies, plus all kinds of action and thriller and scripts from Hitchcock films.
Yeah, I threw in some Charlie Kauffman and rom-com scripts and some National Lampoon Vacation movie scripts,
too. Plus, an orginal brochure for the class. All for one reasonable price: $99.95.
(If you had taken the class in London it would have cost you $450... plus airfare, plus hotel, plus you'd have to eat "mushy peas" for dinner.)
