Blink

VERY rough first draft

SCENE ONE

{(All in rewind, so people are moving backwards, etc.) Camera moves through images of a terrible fire. People are running everywhere. Chaos is rampant. Zoom on a young man lying unconscious in the wreckage. Zoom in on face until only the closed eyes are visible. Eyes blink open slowly.}

 

SCENE TWO

{Man sits up slowly and surveys his surroundings. He is sitting in a wooded glade, completely alone. (He is dressed in plain clothes that seem to be from roughly the 12^th century.) Stands and stretches. Touches head gingerly. Still slightly unsure of himself, starts to move further into the clearing. A noise causes him to pause. Moves back to the edge of the woods and conceals himself quickly. A beautiful young woman runs into the clearing, laughing, looking over her shoulder whence she came. Two other young men and another young woman follow her into the glade, also laughing. (All are dressed in 12^th century clothes.) The girls begin to dance, as the other two play instruments. Camera focuses mainly on the first girl, switching back and forth between various shots of her face, bare feet, swirling dress, hair, etc. and the still-hidden young man enraptured by her. The magical moment is broken by her screams as an arrow shot from somewhere in the wood fells one of the musicians. The young man looks on in horror, as arrow after arrow is shot into the glade at the trio. Attempting to escape is useless as more of the arrows find their marks. The young man trying to find the origin of the darts sees a shadowy figure deep on his side of the woods. Weeping angrily, he takes off in pursuit of the shadow. However, as he runs, he does not draw any closer to his unmoving target. He staggers as a blinding white light envelops him slowly, until the camera can see nothing but white.}

 

SCENE THREE

{Camera is still whitewashed as a female voice is heard, as from far away. Camera perspective of eyes slowly opening, looking up into a sunny, blue sky that is semi-blocked by the smiling face of the woman previously seen.}

 

GIRL (laughing): Hey! About time you woke up, sleepy head. I just couldn’t let you nap away the entire trip, not with this beautiful afternoon!

 

{Man sits up and sees that he is on a dock in a lake, wearing swim trunks. The girl is standing over him, playfully teasing. Two other guys and a girl (the same ones as the scene before) are jumping off of the dock and swimming in the lake.}

 

GIRL (to the others): Look who’s finally decided to join the fun!

{The rest of the party shouts joyfully.}

GUY 1: Hurry up and get in!

GUY 2: The water is great!

 

{Girl drags man onto his feet then promptly pushes him off the dock into the water. He comes back up to the surface, spluttering and laughing.}

 

MAN: You liars! This water is freezing!

GIRL 2: Only because you’ve been dreaming in the hot, hot sun for so long.

{Man hurriedly climbs back up onto the dock.}

 

MAN: You know what? Now that I’m back out of the water again, it really wasn’t all that bad!

GIRL (smirking): Oh, really?

MAN (nonchalantly moving towards Girl): No. In fact I think I’ll get back in again!

GIRL: Well good for you!

MAN (Smiling winningly): Mmhmm! I think you would really enjoy it, too. After all, the more the merrier!

 

{Upon saying this, Man grabs Girl, runs to the side of the dock and jumps into the water, bringing the struggling, laughing Girl with him. The group splashes and plays in the water for a while. Cut to Man and Girl lying side by side on the dock in the late afternoon sun. The noises of the other three still enjoying the water can be heard.}

 

GIRL (poking Man): Hey, you’ve been pretty quiet for a while. You’re not sleeping again are you?

MAN (snapping out of a personal reverie): Eh? What’s that?

GIRL (a bit more serious): You alright? You’ve been kinda out of it all day.

MAN: No, no. I’m fine…. I was just thinking.

GIRL: What about?

MAN: So, when I was resting my eyes a little while ago, before being so rudely roused

GIRL (interrupting): Hey, you needed to get up and about!

MAN (hardly noticing the interruption): I was having the strangest dream.

GIRL (playfully): Was I in it?

MAN: Well…In retrospect, yes. But in the dream, you and the others only seemed vaguely familiar. I couldn’t place the reason. I just knew there was something about the scene that seemed like I should have recognized, and couldn’t.

GIRL: Strange.

{Man falls into silence.}

GIRL: But what happened?

MAN (slowly): Everyone died…

{Girl waits patiently for him to explain.}

MAN: It was all so real feeling…. I didn’t even know that I was dreaming until I woke up. Yet, at the same time, there was an air of magic that gave the whole thing an ethereal presence. The scene was so beautiful, so entrancing. Then…everyone was being killed. And I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. All I could do was watch you being killed right in front of me…

GIRL (comforting): Hey, but it was just a dream, right. I’m here. So are the others. We’re all fine. Stop thinking so much!

{She playfully rolls him over onto his back and beams at him. Suddenly a scream breaks the air. It is the other girl who is searching around in the water panicked.}

GIRL 2 (hysterically): I can’t find him!! He never came back up out of the water!

{Guy 2 is searching in the water frantically, as well. Man jumps up and sprinting to the edge of the dock, dives deep into the lake in the direction of Guy 1’s guessed location. It is dark and murky underwater, but still with some visibility. Man sees a shadow moving ahead and swims on towards it. He moves faster still as he recognizes Guy 1 who is unconscious and drifting towards the bottom of the lake. Just as Man is about to grab his arm and return to the surface, a pair of arms reach around Guy 1 and starts to drag him further down. He freezes completely as the bodies drifting into better view reveals the same shadowy figure seen in the woods from the dream. Man starts swimming hysterically after them, confused and panicked. He lets out an inaudible scream as they get farther away. A blinding white light envelops his vision slowly, and the camera sees nothing else.}

 

SCENE FOUR

{Man jerks awake in a cold sweat. He is sitting on what he recognizes to be the couch in his living room. The room is dark and the slow ticking of the clock keeps time with the monotonous tapping of gray rain on the window above him. He shifts stiffly to a sitting position. A faint, unintelligible whisper echoes around him but causes nothing more than very slight curiosity immediately forgotten. He moves off of the couch and dazedly wanders the room, looking at the pictures on the wall (some include him and his friends), and aimlessly browsing through the things on the shelf. (A calendar can be seen briefly. Focus on a circled date with “Dinner at (fancy restaurant)” written in it.) A picture of Girl 1 is prominently displayed in the center of the shelf. As he leans in to look at it closer, running his fingertips down her cheek, the whisper is heard again. This time it is intelligible.}

 

WHISPER: You killed her.

{Man starts away from the picture and looks around him to try to find the voice.}

WHISPER: You killed them all.

{Man stumbles still in a daze out of the living room into a hallway.}

WHISPER: It is all your fault.

{Flash of a fiery scene.}

WHISPER (slightly louder): It is all your fault.

{Another, slightly longer flash of the fiery scene. Man stumbles against the wall clutching his head with one hand.}

MAN (mumbling): It was out of my control

{The voice is no longer whispering now, but talking quietly, but soberly. It is familiar sounding.}

VOICE: Was it really out of your control?

MAN: It all happened so fast…

VOICE: Was it really too fast?

MAN: There was no time…

VOICE: You had time.

MAN (voice rising): I couldn’t do anything!

VOICE: You ran.

MAN (loudly): We all did!

{As he says this, he lurches further down the hall. As he moves, he opens each of the doors he passes, sticking his head in to look briefly for something and moving on when it is not found. He rounds the corner and looks up the flight of stairs looming in front of him. Pictures line the wall going up. As he puts his foot onto the first step, the flash of fire returns again: this time more clearly shown to be the very pictures on the stair wall burning where they hang. As suddenly as it came, it is gone, and he moves again slowly up the stairs. The voice begins once more but the man does not stop.}

VOICE: You should have saved them.

MAN (mumbling again): There was nothing I could do…nothing I could do…

{He continues on his aimless quest; searching for something in all the rooms; not finding it anywhere. His movements are significantly quicker and more alarmed now}

VOICE: It is too late.

MAN (barely audible): I must find them…

VOICE: They are gone.

MAN (whispering): I must save them…

VOICE: You are too late.

{He slumps down slowly into a corner of the last room (his bedroom) across from his dresser (upon which there is a framed picture of the Girl), despondent.}

VOICE (breathing a whisper again): You were too late…

{Man sits with his face in his hands. It is silent and still for a long moment. Then the entire room is suddenly engulfed with flame. He dives across the room towards the burning picture of the Girl and grabs it despite the flame and hugs it close. The flames are gone. He lays unmoving where he dove, still clutching the picture for another long, silent moment.}

VOICE (loudly, harshly): Why did you let her die?!

{Something snaps inside of the man and he throws the picture away from him violently. He rushes out of the room through a wall of fire. The voice pursues him, increasing in intensity as he retraces his steps (through flash after flash of red fire) screaming back at it.}

MAN: What was I supposed to do?!

VOICE: Not let them die, of course!

MAN: It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault!

VOICE: The living is always to blame!

{Man screams hoarsely as he bursts through the worst wall of fire yet into his living room. It is dark and silent as before, the only sounds to be heard: the clock ticking in time with the rain, still beating quietly against the window, and his own labored inhales and exhales. He wipes some sweat off of his brow and straightens up, calm and collected. He is still for a moment.}

MAN (quietly and calmly): I cannot breathe.

{He moves to the front door and opens it wide. As he opens it, he is silhouetted and enveloped by a blinding white light that rushes in rapidly with the noise of a great wind, until all is whitewashed once again.}

 

SCENE FIVE

{The noise of the wind and the brightness of the light subside slightly and he finds himself standing knee-deep in a frozen, open place. The wind whipping past him blows snow into his face and he squints to see. A wind-swept shadow flickers through his peripheral vision in the distance. He wraps his arms around him and trudges forward towards where he saw it. He stumbles and falls, rolling and sliding a ways down a hill. Gasping for breath from the cold, he pulls himself up quickly. A lonely panic starts to overtake him as he circles around looking for something…anything… A flash of color catches his eye and he rushes stumbling towards it. Before he can get to it he trips over something and falls face first into the snow. He works his way into a sitting position to view what he tripped over. A feeling of nausea sweeps through him as recoils from what he recognizes to be a human leg, frozen stiff. Unwillingly, but compelled by a force stronger than him, he brushes the snow away from the body. The frozen face of Girl 2 stares blankly up at him. He falls back, weeping in horror and crashes into another partially snow-covered body. It is another of his friends: Guy 1. In his haste to get away, his slips and once again falls headlong towards the snow. He catches himself with his arms only to find himself staring into the blank face of Guy 2 inches away from his own. Shaking with sobs and gasping for breath, he heaves himself to his feet. His eyes widen as he remembers the flash of color that had brought him to the gruesome find in the first place. He turns slowly to face where it can barely be seen through the blowing snow 15 or 20 feet away. A familiar shadowy wisp of a figure hovers behind it, but only for an instant. A feeling of panic unlike any felt by him before creeps up his spine. Hardly moving at first, then gradually rushing to a sprint, he makes his way through the deep snow to the object of color. He drops to his knees upon arriving as his worst fear is realized. There, lying serenely in the snow is his dead girl. He pulls her stiffly to his chest and lets and few frozen tears onto her face pressed tightly to his. He sits like that for a long moment then throws back his head and screams with all his might.}

 

SCENE SIX

{As he screams the scene around him bursts into flame; huge, roaring, destroying fire. It is the same setting as the opening scene: a building burning into debris. The noise and the chaos of the destruction and the runnings and screams of the people is overpowering. The man still sits cradling to his chest.}

VOICE: You could have stopped all of this…

{No answer from the man; only the surrounding chaos.}

VOICE: She might have avoided death…

{Still no answer.}

VOICE (more firmly): That should have been you in her place.

{Man remains emotionless; face hidden.}

VOICE (Huge): Why did you let them die?!?!

MAN (Screaming): What do you want from me?!

VOICE (quietly): I want what you want…

{The man gently lays the girl down and very slowly stands up. In the meantime, the coloration becomes very faded, like a painting that has seen far too much light, playing off of the shadows. People still run and the destruction continues around him, but the sound has faded away and everything is moving in slow motion. As he assumes a standing position, the familiar shadowy figure fades into view in front of him (camera sees the back of the shadow, the front of the man).}

VOICE: You want to be at peace with yourself.

{Camera is panning around during above line, so that his face is revealed on “yourself”. The shadow is in fact just a shadowy version of the man himself. An expression of confusion, then understanding, mixed with anger and a bit of sadness passes across the man’s face.}

MAN: Why have you been tormenting me?

VOICE: You cannot comprehend fully why I am standing before you, if you raise such questions still. Let me ask you this, instead: Who do you think I am?

MAN: You are myself.

VOICE: That is incorrect. I am merely your subconscious. I rule this world while you remain unmoving in the real. However, I am not you.

MAN: Then you have every ability to explain to me why I am forced to see such horrors. Why do you refuse let me be enlightened?

VOICE (sighing): How can one become enlightened if he cannot face the facts for himself? You demand answers that you already have for problems that you created yourself.

MAN: You speak in riddles.

VOICE: Only because you will not hear the truth in them.

MAN (frustrated): Then what is the truth?

VOICE: You know that better than I…

{Man is silent for a while.}

MAN: I believe I begin to understand this whole nightmare.

VOICE: Then let me ask you again: Who am I?

MAN: You are a memory, or rather an illusion created by my memory.

VOICE: I am your mind, and I created these illusions to prevent you from breaking down entirely. They are images of the life that you so desperately sought to regain when all had been utterly consumed by fire.

MAN: But they were imperfect. They were almost more horrifying than the life you claim to be protecting me from.

VOICE: Almost. However, do you not prefer this fantasy? Knowing that there is that chance to see the ones you love another time, would you choose any other path?

{Man is silent.}

VOICE: And those visions were merely the meek creations of a scattered conscious. The horrors found within were results of your guilt and inability to move on. But it does not need to be that way. You could stay in this fantasy without the pain, without the fear. Death could never touch you again. This is the true power that I offer. The dream without the nightmare.

MAN: Are dreams and fantasies all that are left to me then? Am I so broken that I cannot regain the power to live?

VOICE: You could return to the living world, albeit not the one you knew before. But you would forever wish to change what is impossible to undo, to continue to love what is dead. Would not remaining stationary in fantasy be a wiser decision than stagnating in life? Is it not better to live a lie than the evils of the past?

MAN: I cannot disagree that I long for the relief of the world you offer. And you’re right, it may be better to do so…

VOICE: Then no longer remain indecisive. Give up your guilt. Allow yourself to drift away into sublime subconsciousness.

MAN (slowly): It may indeed be better to remain unmoving in time. But is better enough? Is it not the core of humanity to search instead for what is best? I am broken beyond repair. I will certainly never regain what I have lost. I may not even have the ability to find what I still have. Moving on with life beyond that point will be most difficult of all.

VOICE: Then is the choice not obvious?

MAN: No choice is obvious. That is why decisions are necessarily made. If one knew without thinking which way to go, then there would be no decision to make in the first place. The prerequisite of resolution is a conflict of resolve. Without it, choice becomes instinct. But the ability to select one thing over another is merely what defines us as the human race; the will to do so and the consequences therein are what define us as individuals.

VOICE: But even if you did choose to live, was it not you yourself who said you were broken beyond repair? What can you do with your life that would make it of any more of a relief than the fantasy that you desire?

MAN: I may be shattered in a way that no glue can hold together. But can something ever be too broken to be remade anew? And I do not know what my life might hold for me, or if it will provide me with the healing that I need, but that is what appeals to me. The future is unknown. It is beyond my control to affect until I am standing at that point.

VOICE: So you have made your choice, then. You will not be able to escape yourself. You will be utterly consumed by fire.

MAN: And why not be utterly consumed by fire? In it there is hope.

{As he says that final line the color and noise and chaos of the scene reignites with a fury. Upon the uttering of his last word, a burning chunk hits his head and he falls to the ground. His eyes blink slowly shut as he loses consciousness. The camera slowly zooms away in what SCENE ONE had shown in rewind. Fire overcomes all that can be seen, then blackness.}

 

SCENE SEVEN

{Man’s eyes open. He is lying in his own bed. He stares at the ceiling for a moment, then throws the covers off and gets up. He makes the bed quickly but efficiently, walks to his dresser and pulls out some clothes. He dresses himself and smoothes everything out in the mirror. So far he has been completely emotionless. He then looks at the dresser, sees a picture there that is lying face down, and reaches out to grab it. He hesitates slightly then props it back up to the proper position. It is a beautiful shot of the Girl beaming at him. He smiles a bit as he checks the calendar on the wall, looks at his watch, and rushes out of the door. Camera lingers for a bit. Fade out. Credits roll.}