Quasi-Screenplay: Scenes from the Thargoid War
10 Nov 2024Jack Remiet
SCENE Drone shot–into the belly of a Corialis station, the grand concourse, into a particular establishment. “Jelly’s.” Looks like a fern bar, plenty of space, tables, a few different rooms–more of a lounge side and a bar/club side connected by a corridor with bathrooms.
We enter, one continuous shot, the lounge side first. Lots of spacers, mix of races and sexes, but oddly segregated. We come in on a group of three young men near the bar, BIG SAM holding court, we hear him from behind others' heads before we see him.
BIG SAM:
No control. Flat spin straight into the Medusa’s hot zone. Distributor offline. I’m pissing myself. Somehow my sister–
We see him now. He’s early-twenties, six-and-a-half feet tall, well-built, long curly hair and full beard, but baby-faced nonetheless. He’s telling his story to two other young men, HARRICK and CRUNCH. We only see the back of their heads. BIG SAM continues as the camera pans around him.
BIG SAM: he looks around for his sister, and not seeing her, keeps talking, eyes wide.
Somehow my sister Bug gets the distributor back online. My dad just screams all shields which was fucking scarier than the Goid. We were right in front of the fucker’s last heart, and my dad just boosts into it–he rams it–and it rips the fucking thing off and then leaves me the perfect gauss shot, uh, it was like unbelievable, and then nothing but green everywhere. Like dead to total victory in less than a second!
HARRICK/CRUNCH:
Various “no way” “you’re dad is insane” “Bug can fix anything” etc. suggesting familiarity.
Now we see all their faces, and we realize the laughs aren’t friendly backslapping. Their eyes are looking at nothing. These men are shell-shocked. They cannot believe they’re alive. We think one may cry for a moment, but it doesn’t come.
BIG SAM:
I seriously thought we were dead. I thought the ship was gonna explode right after that, but she held together. After it blew up! I thought we’d go right after. It was so fucking scary. I have never been that scared in my life.
The camera moves on, into the corridor, to the bathroom line (there’s only one, ends in a series of 4 doors, unisex). We hear the YEOH sisters, CLAIRE (mid-30s) and CAMERON (late-20s), again before we see them, over other hushed conversations.
CAMERON:
Toby says the pulse neutralizer works the same as the field one. The money they’re offering is pretty hard to ignore. Plus being first in? On a Titan?
CLAIRE:
Betty needs some love. Maybe.
We see them. CLAIRE is petite, nebbish, bangs and glasses type with gravitas, presence. CAMERON is taller (maybe feels she’s too tall and is self-conscious about it), more striking, much longer hair, her body language deferential to her older sister. Both are looking at their handhelds.
CAMERON:
They’re putting the wing together now, Claire. Betty’s fine and we can swap out the field for the pulse neutralizer on the way. There’s two fleet carriers ready. We have to decide.
CLAIRE:
Give me a fucking minute.
They move up in line as the camera moves on into the Club. There’s a small stage on one end, a dance floor in front with the usual lighting. It’s kind of a sad little place. Music is muted–post-modern jazz? The stage is empty. Small groups are talking. This isn’t a celebration.
The camera fixes on a man near the back, sitting in a leather easy-chair next to a similar couch, his feet propped on a small table, sipping a beer. We close in on him. It’s JACK REMIET, BIG SAM’s father. He’s 50’s, graying, long-haired and bearded like his son but not unkempt, tall and athletic but, again, not nearly as much as his son, and he looks tired. As the camera approaches, he smiles warmly, and the camera turns to see what he’s smiling at–a young woman, mid-20’s, short-haired, cute, solid like an athlete, and autistic–his daughter BUG, BIG SAM’s big sister, approaching him and shaking her head disapprovingly.
BUG: laughing at him, sitting down on the couch
Why are you still here, dad? All the other, uh, you know, people your age, they left an hour ago.
JACK:
I haven’t finished my beer yet?
BUG:
That’s the same one?
JACK:
I can’t drink like I used to. You okay?
BUG:
Well. We are not going to the Titan.
JACK: laughs
You saw that? No, we are not. I already told them they can find someone else for the wing. Well. Y’all can crew up with somebody I guess, but Unrest is getting some dock time, and me with it.
BUG:
You’d let us crew on another ship?
JACK:
You’re grownups.
BUG:
You know what I mean.
JACK:
I barely let you crew on mine.
BUG: laughing
Touche
BUG: Then, after a beat.
To be fair it’s yours and Uncle Adam’s.
JACK: ignores the correction
Seriously, Bug, you and Sam should get away for a while. Let us old people do this shit.
BUG: with her autistic flamboyance
May I remind you: you’re the one who used a frickin’ Python with your kids inside to ram a Medusa heart. Just saying.
JACK: archly
You know what I meant.
BUG just shrugs at him.
JACK:
Today was the first time I didn’t think we were coming back.
BUG:
Every day’s like that. Well, to me, every day’s like that still. I don’t make those kinds of choices. I have to rely on you.
JACK: after a beat
So what? You just trust me?
BUG:
You’re our dad? It doesn’t mean we come home. It’s a different choice.
JACK:
So I should trust you, is what you’re saying.
BUG: shrugs
You should go to bed, and let us young people “do this shit”?
JACK: laughing back at his daughter and throwing back the rest of his beer; he rises to leave
Touche.