Gloria By Joe Wilkowski

Joe.Wilkowski@gmail.com (419)277-5996

INT. LIVING ROOM - EVENING From just above a ceiling fan, we watch A MAN as he watches the news. He is in his late forties, but looks a decade or two older. He INHALES low, raspy, difficult breaths. A creeping fan blade blanketed with dust obstructs our view. On the table next to him sits an empty glass of wine and half-eaten plate of food. A lottery ticket. ball number 34. The numbers read 11,23,58,13,21. Power

Behind the meal, a photograph of A WOMAN in her thirties. Shes dressed in new-age clothing, bracelets, and a smile. Hot air balloons take off behind her. She points up at them. The sound of the television newscast becomes audible. FORECASTER (muffled) The visibility of NGC 6705 will continue to increase... (clearer) ...as Gloria approaches. FORECASTER #2 And we- weve seen this pattern before. Looking at the ancestry of male honeybees, tropical cyclones, pineappleThe broadcast cuts out- to a noisy STATIC. Then the electricity goes. We push in on the black television screen, until all we see is darkness. An EXPLOSION of white emerges from the middle of the screen, accompanied by a chaos of NOISE. It only lasts a moment. But The Man saw it. He stares at the television, afraid to take his eyes off of it. He takes a large breath. His eyes open wide.

Light pours in from behind closed window shades.

2. IN THE DARKNESS The Mans hand loosens the valve of a cylindrical tank. tank HISSES as compressed oxygen pours out. The Man fits an oxygen mask over his face. Tightens the straps. He removes the glass top of an old oil lamp. STRIKES a match and lights the wick. Replaces the glass. The

He stares into the flickering blue flame. Something unseen reveals itself to him. Each flicker like a few words of a story that unfolds in the lamps light. CUT TO: EXT. DEEP SPACE - STAR FIELD Blue stars erupt into being. Accompanied by the SOUND OF A STRIKING MATCH, they light up. The stars interact. Large stars eat up smaller stars.

We push in on one small blue star in particular, this is COMPANION STAR. Companion rattles and shakes. Jitters around untilIt shoots straight upward, away from the other stars. CUT BACK TO: INT. BATHROOM The candle now burns on the edge of a sink, along with many others placed around the room. The photograph of The Woman is there too. Though the window shade remains drawn, its edges are defined by a strong exterior light. The Man stands in front of a full sink. dry with a towel. He pats his face

He pushes down the sinks drain lever. The drain opens and drinks in the pool of water, creating a vortex. The Man puts his fingertips near the swirling water, daringly close to its potentially overpowering suction. The pipe GROWLS loudly as it swallows, frightening him. He retracts his hand. (CONTINUED)

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The Man looks in the vanity mirror. quicken.

His breathing begins to Moves as if a

He STRETCHES his fingers. CRACKS his neck. psychoactive is taking hold.

Now only slow, steady DROPS of water fall into the sinks bowl. With every drop The Man becomes more aware. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually aware. The Man looks deep into his reflection. builds to panicked inhalations. His breathing

His eye is cosmic. Its pupil dilates outward. Its iris flows inward. EXT. BACKYARD The Man steps outside. He wears his oxygen mask. Carries the accompanying tank in one hand and the photograph of The Woman in the other. Overhead, a rapidly collapsing black hole dominates the night sky. Celestial objects that move toward its center illuminate the Earth in an ominous blue light. Shadows pass as foreign planets swing by. The Man keeps his head down, unable to face the event. He walks down a few steps. Moves past a fallen telescope. The telescopes lens, cracked from impact, distorts the image of black hole. The Man sets the photo of The Woman on a picnic table. We slowly push in on her. We are given a chance to see her features. CUT TO: DEEP SPACE A large red sun, PRIMARY STAR, burns with fierce energy. throws off solar flares. It

CUT BACK TO:

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BACKYARD The Womans photograph. photo. We finish our slow push in on the

The Man takes a seat at the table. AT THE END OF RELATIVE TIME The Man holds the photo of The Woman. approaching storm. She points up at the

He carefully disassembles the frame and pulls the photograph out. He flips it over. On the back, an old note is written. "There are no ends, only new beginnings. On night as bright as day, I will find you." - Gloria. He looks back at The Womans photograph. words. Gathers his courage. Considers those

He shifts his eyes confidently upward. Stares into the eye of darkness. And immediately his confidence is broken. He whimpers and trembles. As The Man rises to his feet, time stretches and movements slow. BEGIN SLOW-MOTION SEQUENCE His palm hits the table. He knocks the glass from the picture frame. It falls to the ground. From the ground, we see The Man extending his arm down at us, reaching out. We are looking straight through the glass panel, which becomes apparent as it slowly rotates and reveals its edges. The man makes a grab for the glass, but is unable to reach it in time. It hits the ground and SHATTERS, but does not make a sound. Gloria breaks all of the rules. She tears apart everything that comes near. Consumes their broken fragments. She destroys everything.

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THE EVENT HORIZON (TIMELESS) As fear overcomes all, things are nearly motionless. The Man climbs over the bench of the picnic table. He tries to run away, but is met with undeniable gravity. The tubing of his oxygen mask gets caught on a large splinter of the wooden table. It stretches until its breaking point and keeps stretching. It thins as it expands. Then snaps. The ball of his foot launches him forward. His foot disappears, leaving an imprint in the snow. We linger on this imprint for a moment. The time between his foot leaving the ground and the hairs on his head being broken into their quantum bits is indistinguishable. He hangs upside down, suspended in the air, reaching for the ground. He is taken away. In his inability to escape, he becomes one with every earthly thing. The blue light becomes blinding. drowns the Earth, and thenEND SUPER SLOW-MOTION SEQUENCE BLACK EXT. NEW SPACE - NEW DAWN - BEGINNING OF RELATIVE TIME Space. Dark, empty, cold space. It It grows and consumes and

Then a small hiccup. Something trying to push through. sends out a single disruptive pulse.

A white hole bursts into existence. A big bang. Same as the explosion of white and chaos of noise we saw on the television screen in The Mans home. A geyser of elements spews out from the tear in space. Universal beginnings fly by. in seconds. As does time. Millennia pass

Dark blue gases cloud together. inside the dense clusters.

Electrical storms ROAR

Nebulae settle into form. GEARS TURN and METAL BENDS as the elements come together.

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BLEEDING HEART NEBULA One nebulae in particular, the Bleeding Heart Nebula, draws us in. Inside the Bleeding Heart, through an expanse of rock and dust, shines Primary, our red sun. As we approach Primary, she slowly dislodges from her position, moving like an impossibly heavy train leaving the station. She finds her momentum and takes off. Primary passes by neighboring galaxies and stars, each involved in their own transformation. She finds her way to the edge of the Bleeding Heart Nebula. The gases that line the edge cave in towards its center. A violent, thunderous process which, from this distance, looks fluid and smooth. Primary passes through the edge and exits the Bleeding Heart. She flies away with determination, leaving her home behind. BLUE STAR FIELD Same as The Man saw in the candle flame, blue stars ignite into being. Like before we push in on Companion, our blue star. He shoots away from the self-destructive group. And flies into space. He moves erratically, jumping direction. We move with him, as if attached by an invisible arm, as he jars left and right. At every turn there is a galaxy or star cloud. dodges them. Companion

He finds a gap of empty space, pitch black, and flies toward it. And for a moment all is calm. In the distance small specs form. They rapidly grow in size, rocketing at us. In almost an instant we are crashing straight into a massive rock field. Unattached from Companion now, we see the scale of the rock field he has entered. He is a speck of light fighting upward against an onslaught of down-falling asteroids.

(CONTINUED)

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Off to side, another speck of light enters the field, running perpendicular to Companion. It is Primary. Primary makes her way across the field, on a collision course with Companion. They get closer and closer. their impact. An explosion is immanent on Primary They set off

When they meet, they miss every so slightly passing over top of Companion. Though they miss, their gravities intertwine. at a new angle, spinning around each other.

The two balls of light break free from the rock field, bringing with them a trail of asteroids in all shapes and sizes. As Primary and Companion move away from the field, a more defined rotation begins to take shape. They start to rotate around a central point. They form a binary star system. Harmonious. Non-threatening. They drift through space.

Inside the system, planets and moons form from the asteroid debris. They take orbit around Primary and Companion. The planets and suns align, and we get a good look at this new solar system. On one planet, we see familiar colors - blue and green. EXT. MEADOW - 100 MILLION YEARS LATER - DAY Blue skies with lumpy white clouds. breeze. The sound of a summer

The flash of a young GIRLs face. It flies from right to left. Then another. This one a BOY.

The Girl again. Then the Boy. They alternate. Each time they pass their speed increases. They build to a blurry, dizzying speed, leaving an imprint of their faces in the empty space between them. The Boy and The Girl grip each others hands tightly as they spin in circles. They fight the force that pushes them apart as they swing around one another.

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ON A STEEP GRASSY HILLSIDE The two children run to the top. The Boy drags behind. run ahead. AT THE TOP The Girl reaches the peak. She wins the race, and throws up her finger in celebration. The Boy, not far behind now, pauses in a moment of faded recognition. For a moment, hot air balloons fill the sky behind her. HILLTOP - 4 MINUTES LATER The children look out at the setting suns. THE GIRL You think if the wind blows hard enough, it would justThe Girl lifts her hands, palms facing, and moves them apart. The Boy watches. As the space between her hands grows, so does the concern on his face. She clasps her hands together tightly. CUT TO TITLE CARD: GLORIA THE END He watches as the Girl continues to