Mike Allen

Mr. McCarthy
Intermediate Digital Cinema Production
9 September 2014
Three Story Ideas
1. Timid Girl and Car Thief. Lucy walks along a country road. One of her shoes gets
stuck in the mud. She gets frustrated and decides to hitchhike. A young man in a beat up
car picks her up. They talk. She recognizes him from; they used to go to school together
when they were kids. She asks him what hes up to, and he laughs and says hes a car
thief. In fact, he stole this car theyre in right now. She figures its a joke and laughs it
off. They arrive at her parents house and they wrap up their conversation, she reveals
her dream of one day going west and getting away from this small little country town.
He scoffs at her dreams, and goes to use the bathroom inside. She stays outside, and
searches the car for signs that he stole it. She looks in the spare tire compartment and
finds a briefcase full of money. Meanwhile inside, the car thief leaves the bathroom and
steals money off a bookshelf in the living room. While pocketing the money he notices
an old yearbook, and flips through the pages. He finds Lucy in the yearbook and lingers
on the page. He leaves the house and they say their goodbyes. He drives away. Lucy
goes to her room, briefcase in hand, and takes the money out. She dances around and
goes to sleep on top of the cash. She wakes up to the sound of banging on the front door.
Its the car thief and hes been shot. She patches him up, and he describes what
happened. When he went to drop the car off, two guys searched the spare tire
compartment, and when it was empty they pulled guns on him so he ran, and was shot as
he fled. After he recounts his story she goes to her room to hide the money. The car thief
walks in on her hiding the money, and puts two and two together. He figures out that the
briefcase is what the guys were looking for, and begins to argue with Lucy. Their
argument is cut short by the sound of a car coming up the driveway to the house. Jack
grabs a gun from his belt, and makes his way down the stairs. He tells Lucy to stay
inside until the shooting stops. Jack bursts out the front door, shooting. From inside she
hears the sound of gunshots and screaming. She walks outside to find two dead bodies
covered in blood. The car thief lies on the ground as well; hes been shot again. He tells
Lucy to come over and help him up. Instead she grabs his gun off the ground and points
it at him. She doesnt shoot him, but she takes the assailants car and drives off with the
briefcase of money riding shotgun. The car thief yells after her. His verbal tirade is cut
short as he coughs up blood. He lies down to die.
2. Pulling the plug. Pure cathartic melodrama. Jacob says goodbye to friends as they
leave his house. He tells them that they have let his wife stay at home now, since she is
close to the end. He apologizes that she wasnt awake to talk with them. These days
shes too weak to make conversation. He mentions that she would never want to go out
like this, slowly and painfully. The friends comfort him and depart. Jake goes inside to
where his wife lays in bed, hooked up to a heart rate monitor and other medical machines.
He sits with her for a few moments, looking over her pale and frail looking face. He
looks to a picture of the two of them from happier times. In the picture she looks full of
life and energy. He looks away from the picture, and sees the plug to the machines that

keep her alive. He tries to look away, but the idea is in his head. He begins to lean
toward the plug, extending his hand forward. He places his hand around the plug and
becomes frozen in time, unable to decide. After a beat he pulls back and looks relieved
and ashamed. He looks back to his wife and notices shes been awake. She looks sad,
and he feels even more ashamed. He puts his head down in his hands, and she reaches
over slowly and caresses his cheek gently. He looks up into her eyes. She appears
desperate. She drops her hand from her husbands head and gestures back toward the
plug. He puts it together, and places her hand back on the bed. He leans in and kisses her
one last time. He reaches out towards the plug, and once again struggles to pull the plug,
he hesitates and time seems to slow down and the sounds of the room are put on mute. A
beat before he hears the sound of his wifes heart rate monitor flat-lining. He recoils
from the plug and looks to where his wife rests peacefully on the bed. He puts his head
down on the side of the bed and weeps tears of both relief and intense sadness. The
picture of the two in happier times is shown. We hear his sobbing and the heart rate
monitor flat-lining. Fade out. Sad song plays over somber credits.
3. Sci-fi, bottle drama. An explosion is heard, and an alarm starts. An emergency
recording is heard telling all personnel to evacuate the ship via escape pods. Inside an
escape pod a space soldier is hurriedly prepping to detach the pod from the mother ship.
An onboard computer is attempting to walk him through the procedure, but he already
seems to have it memorized. The computer speaks to him through a headset that he
wears and warns him that the escape pod was designed to hold more personnel than are
currently aboard, and it advises that they stay so that more can come aboard. The soldier
overrides this command, and continues to prepare for launch. The computer notifies him
that he has detached from the mother ship, and is propelling away from the blast zone.
The soldier slumps back in his seat, but jumps as a voice asks whether or not they are
safe. The soldier realizes that he is not alone in the escape pod and that a member of the
ships kitchen staff has joined him. The two introduce themselves. During their
conversation they are interrupted by the onboard computer informing the soldier that the
pods life support has taken damage in the explosion, and that they will completely run
out of oxygen in 10 minutes.
The soldier attempts to contact an allied base on a nearby moon, but is having no
luck. The kitchen worker starts to panic, so the soldier talks to him to calm him down.
The kitchen worker asks the soldier about his past, and the soldier flashes back to a time
when he was forced to execute prisoners during a rebel uprising on a far off planet. The
soldier then asks of the workers story, and the worker admits to having no family of his
own either. The moon base calls back and informs the soldier that a rescue team is
inbound, but will not arrive for another 15 minutes. The soldier informs the moon base
operator that they have less than 6 minutes before they run out of air in the pod. The
moon base operator informs the soldier that there should be an oxygen tank and a
breathing apparatus in the pod. The soldier finds the oxygen tank and apparatus. The
moon base operator states that the tank will only last 13 minutes, half that if he shares it
with the kitchen worker. Due to the soldiers headphones the worker is unaware of the
imminent peril. The moon base operator advises the soldier not to share the oxygen with
the worker and reassures the soldier that help is on the way before signing off. The
soldier sits in silence contemplating what he is about to do. He unplugs the headphones,

and the computer speaks its warning aloud to both of the pods passengers. They have
two minutes until the oxygen runs out.
The worker is confused so he looks to the soldier. The soldier grabs the oxygen
tank and mask, and hands it to the worker. The worker is still confused. The soldier
explains that a rescue mission is on the way and that the tank will provide him with
enough oxygen for him to survive the wait. The worker nods, and then he notices that the
soldier does not have a breathing mask. The soldier explains that he is going to die. The
worker refuses to accept the oxygen unless they both can survive, but the soldier explains
that his life is one of constant killing and backstabbing until eventually he will die or be
stabbed in the back himself. He explains that there exists an infinite number of futures
for the worker that never could exist for the soldier. A red warning light starts flashing as
the last of the oxygen dissipates. Finally the soldier straps the breathing mask onto the
worker, and then lies down to die. The lights go out in the pod. The light returns minutes
later as the pod door is opened by the rescue team revealing the kitchen worker still alive
and holding the dead soldier in his arms. The End.