==Intro== ==Scene 1== ==Scene X-1 -- Off to the Jungle== Our Dawkins character (Dr. Solomon Markus?) and the promising young graduate student (Maribeth -- a lady!) fly to the South American jungle to study a biological phenomenon that may help them prove evolution and win the wager. ===Notes=== #I hate to sound like the affirmative action crusader, but we have an opportunity here to show women as part of the scientific debate. If you think women aren't inclined to be philosophical, visit with my wife and her Regent friends. Here we can have our Jodie Foster/''Contact''-type character. And we don't have to focus on finding a sexy Hollywood box-office type. We could find an actress who looks like a real woman -- no pouty lip implants, no super-sexy cropped tank-top shots in camp, just a genuine grad student, a woman more concerned about science and truth than her appearance. Plus, an older male as the mentor and the younger female as the rising star represent the old and new faces of science and academia. ==Scene X -- First Encounter with an ET== While scouting the area, Maribeth hears an explosion and then strange cries of distress. The cries sound part human, part animal. She rushes toward the sounds and finds burned wreckage and remains and a surviving alien. Maribeth manages some first aid, radios Dr. Markus to bring the jeep. Markus arrives, helps bring the alien back to their own camp. ===Notes=== #First aid: we're lucky there are some similarities between the general physiology of the creators and our own. #I'm curious to see how we fit a giant, wounded alien in a jeep. Perhaps moving the alien will be impossible, or just too hazardous given the alien's wounds, and Maribeth will stay with the alien while Markus brings the humans' gear, tents, instruments, etc. to the alien site. #Coincidence? What coincidence?: Problem solved! It makes perfect sense that the aliens and the lead challengers of the wager would come together. The alien biologists would be just as interested in this unusual biological phenomenon in the jungle as our heroes! The aliens probably got there first and were collecting specimens for a week or more when Markus and Maribeth arrived. This point can come out in a later conversation between Maribeth and the alien, although we don't want it to sound to stilted, too much like we are trying to cover all the holes in our narrative. ==Scene X+1 -- Gathering Evidence== While alien is unconscious, Markus and Maribeth discuss what they have found. Markus is convinced the alien will help prove evolution, decides to gather the remains and start testing DNA, etc. ==Scene X+2 -- First conversation with alien== Alien awakens, speaks with Maribeth, who is constantly at the alien's bedside. Alien asks about fellow crew members; Maribeth says no sign of any other survivors. Alien is very concerned about the treatment of the bodies, says they must be protected so they can be buried with proper rites by her people. Alien explains that some malfunction in their equipment led to an explosion of their power generator. Alien admits she is from another planet, says mothership is on its way, will arrive in a week to remove all evidence of their presence. ===Notes=== #We may be able to keep Maribeth at the alien's bedside almost constantly: she may have to rig up and monitor some crude life support device to keep the alien stable. #Alien can speak rough English: the aliens understand our language from monitoring our culture, but naturally, they don't get a lot of practice conversing with native speakers. The alien struggles to express herself, and this linguistic difficulty could lend itself to some misunderstandings about the funeral rites, the sacredness of the body, etc. ==Scene X+3 -- Keeping Secrets== The alien asks that her presence be kept secret. While the alien rests, Maribeth and Markus discuss this point. Markus is inclined to radio an announcement, but Maribeth is concerned that media, government, etc. would flood the site and endanger the surviving alien's life. Markus agrees, less out of concern for the alien's well-being and more out of his desire to control the finding, to have unlimited access, at least until the alien mothership arrives, to the remains. Markus has enough equipment, brought originally to study the unusual terrestrial biology of the region, to run useful analyses on the alien remains. Maribeth reminds Markus of the alien's concern that the remains not be disturbed. Markus persuades Maribeth to engage in subterfuge: the alien must be kept in the tent, on the life support device. Maribeth must keep her engaged in conversation, find out everything she can about the aliens' science and culture (and Maribeth is quite eager to interview the alien). She will tell the alien that Markus is protecting the remains, making sure scavengers don't tear them up, while actually Markus will be in his own tent dissecting and ===Notes=== #Staying in South America: This makes sense beyond helping the alien. We may not even be able to move the alien from the aliens' wrecked campsite in the jeep; how would we ever get her on a plane? How would we get an alien past US Customs? ("Do you have anything other than the hairy, 11-foot-tall hominid to declare?") Try leaving the jungle with the alien, and the secret is blown. Also, it makes sense to remain near the aliens' campsite, since the mothership will start looking there, the alien team's last reported position. It will be easier for the rescue team to find their missing alien near their original position rather than having to scour the planet for her. #scavengers: would wolves, rats, even maggots find alien flesh palatable? ==Scene X+4 -- Conversations== The alien and Maribeth interact throughout the week. Maribeth learns the aliens have a very old culture, older than the Earth. They discuss the limits of technology -- light speed, computing power, communications -- and the advances of philosophy and society. The alien culture has developed a profound trust that allows them to set off on interstellar journeys with confidence that their fellow beings back home will preserve and protect their culture so they have a planet to come home to. The alien culture also has a profound respect for life. Far from abandoning religion in favor of classical rationalism and materialism, they believe very strongly in God. When Maribeth turns the discussion to the origins of life on Earth and the alien world, the alien again hesitates. The alien cannot reveal our origins, moves carefully around this point without offering any direct lies. The alien does her share of questioning. A scientist as well, the alien doesn't want to let this opportunity for direct interaction go by without gaining some useful information. Since her cover is already blown and she trusts Maribeth to keep the encounter quiet, the alien asks questions about human science, culture, and philosophy. The alien asks rather bluntly if Maribeth and Markus are mates, a suggestion that nonplusses Maribeth, since she and Markus have never considered such a relationship. ===Notes=== #Discussing belief systems: here the language difficulties will become apparent. The alien will hesitate to go very far into alien theology, simply because the language that they have developed to discuss such concepts is too complex to translate into our primitive communications, and the alien does not want to create any misunderstandings. #"Are you mates?" I don't want to introduce a bunch of romantic hogwash. Let Markus and Maribeth's relationship be purely professional. Let everyone wonder why these two go jetting off to South America alone without any concern about hanky-panky. Let the alien's question be a surprise, the first mention of any such possibility. We can decide if at that point we want to introduce any tension in that direction -- Maribeth wondering about possibilities and motives now that the alien has brought it up. ==Scene X+5 -- Discoveries== Markus, hard at work in his own tent, preserving the remains as best he can with the resources available, continues to dismember the alien corpses. He finds clear similarities in the DNA, organ systems, etc., interprets these similarities as a sign that the same evolutionary processes at work on Earth must have been at work on the alien planet. He immediately concludes that the process of DNA combination and biological development must be universal. He is enough of a scientist to know that he can't publish results yet, and he wants to do more work and keep the remains to himself for as long as possible to shore up his conclusions. But he considers the wager, a very unscientific game set up by the billionaire, and he sees his chance to convince the billionaire face to face that the billionaire has lost. Markus contacts the billionaire (Gary Dunkirk?) and invites him to come down to South America to see "something amazing, something extremely important to the wager." ===Notes=== #Contact: satellite phone and Internet hookup. Perhaps voice contact will make for better cinematic interaction. But an e-mail might work as well. Markus could gleefully type up a taunting message, hit, then camera quick cuts to Dunkirk in his office or study slamming down the lid of his laptop in disgust at such taunting and immediately making arrangements to fly to South America.
==Scene X+6 -- Invitation==
The mothership arrives; our alien survivor confirms this with a jerry-rigged connection through the humans' communication equipment. The rescue team will arrive in thrity minutes. In gratitude for their assistance, the alien invites Maribeth and Markus to the mothership to see "something important" [language can parallel what Markus says to Dunkirk in his invitation]. Maribeth and Markus discuss the invitation. Markus is a bit wary, but Maribeth is more trusting.
==Scene X+7 -- Desecration==
Markus hurriedly prepares to return the remains to the alien rescue team. He lays out the remains near the wreckage. In anticipation of the alien arrival, he has burned the remains further to erase evidence of his own dissection and analysis. He also removes several tissue and organ samples for further research and hides them among the terrestrial samples he has gathered in the region.
===Notes===
#Parts of this scene may appear before the invitation. Markus is smart enough to do some of this work ahead of time. The alien tells them well ahead of time the scheduled arrival time of the mothership. Markus may burn some of the remains the night before, just so the aliens don't arrive to find the remains still oven fresh ("Hey, smells like fried chicken.")
==Scene X+8 -- Alien Arrival==
Alien rescue squad swoops down in a stealth ship, an intact version of the wrecked shuttle in the alien campground. They are stunned to find humans there, but the alien survivor explains the situation, requests permission to bring her friends to the mothership. Aliens warily accept their comrade's argument, and while an alien team remains on the ground to clean up the wreckage, the stealth ship carries the wounded alien, Maribeth, and Markus up to the mothership.
==Scene X+9 -- Revelation==
Maribeth and Markus receive a tour of the alien ship. Nice views of Earth, then the mothership bioengineering lab, complete with trilobites, T-rexes, eohippi, and other members of Earth's phylogenic tree, all creations of the aliens.
==Scene X+10 -- Farewell==
The survivor alien bids her friends farewell on the mothership. The aliens return the stunned humans to Earth, gather all the remains, and zoom away.
==Scecne X+11 -- Confrontation 1==
Dunkirk arrives just minutes after the aliens depart. Markus, still blown away by what he has heard, can't communicate right away. Maribeth, not previously informed that Dunkirk was on the way, isn't sure how to handle the story. Finally, Markus comes around, shows Dunkirk his evidence. Dunkirk is incredulous at first ("How can I tell that's an alien tissue sample and not just snot from a tree sloth?"). Maribeth jumps in, but she adds what the aliens have shown and told them. Markus is furious, rejects the intelligent design explanation, insists on his point that he can win the wager with these tissue samples. The argument rages into the night; Dunkirk, hesitant to drive back in the dark, camps for the night with Markus and Maribeth.
===Notes===
#Travel arrangements: how does Dunkirk find the camp? It seems unlikely he will come alone; how does a billionaire playboy find his way through unfamiliar jungle? He may be that resourceful, and it certainly makes these final scenes easier if he can arrive by himself in a jeep with a good GPS unit. But we should discuss character further, see what makes the most sense.
==Scene X+12 -- Confrontation 2==
At the crack of dawn, the humans are awakened by the return of the alien lander. The enraged aliens, the survivor included, have discovered Dr. Markus's violation of the bodies of their comrades and his subterfuge in keeping samples. They demand the return of the samples, confiscate every bit of equipment at the site, reclaim the remains (and do so with some serious wailing, demonstrations of reverence and regret for the poorly treated portions of their fallen comrades), and lay down some serious moral critique of the humans. Markus argues, the aliens rebut, then leave.
Alternative (if we need more excitement): Markus recognizes that they need to break camp and get the alien biosamples back to America as quickly as possible, just in case the aliens catch on to his trick. Dunkirk actually agrees, recognizing the value of these biological samples. They rush to pack everything up and hit the road, intending to race out of the country on Dunkirk's jet. The aliens perhaps intercept the jet in mid-air -- a remarkable demonstration to prove Markus and Maribeth's story -- and the confrontation takes place at 30,000 feet.
===Notes===
#The survivor alien is quickly patched up by her comrades. She returns with the recovery crew the next morning because of her relative facility in communicating with the humans and because she feels a great personal betrayal by the humans she thought were her friends.
#We can gin this conversation up as intensely as we wish. The aliens might just come down, ignore us, take their remains and leave without any explanation, but that wouldn't be very interesting. These aliens are emotional creatures -- not irrational, just keenly emotional and moral. The survivor wants to have a conversation, wants to make clear her disappointment.
#Abandoning us because of Markus's weakness: I've resolved the problem I had with aliens forming a hasty generalization about our entire species solely on the basis of Markus's deception. In this final confrontation, Markus, or better Maribeth, may mount exactly that defense. The alien will rebut by saying that Markus and Maribeth, as scientists, represent the best and brightest of the species. If anyone should be able to behave honestly, trustworthily, morally, openmindedly, it's those scientists. If even Earth's brightest scientists can behave so primitively, mankind as a whole is certainly not ready to interact with its creators and become a part of the galactic community. Our progenitors have a responsibility to keep us in the Petri dish, to not let us get out and damage the cosmos.
==Scene X+13 -- Denouement==
Dunkirk, Markus, and Maribeth are left to sort it all out.
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Dbergan/WagerSceneOutlines
Dbergan/WagerSceneOutlines
==Intro== ==Scene 1== ==Scene X-1 -- Off to the Jungle== Our Dawkins character (Dr. Solomon Markus?) and the promising young graduate student (Maribeth -- a lady!) fly to the South American jungle to study a biological phenomenon that may help them prove evolution and win the wager. ===Notes=== #I hate to sound like the affirmative action crusader, but we have an opportunity here to show women as part of the scientific debate. If you think women aren't inclined to be philosophical, visit with my wife and her Regent friends. Here we can have our Jodie Foster/''Contact''-type character. And we don't have to focus on finding a sexy Hollywood box-office type. We could find an actress who looks like a real woman -- no pouty lip implants, no super-sexy cropped tank-top shots in camp, just a genuine grad student, a woman more concerned about science and truth than her appearance. Plus, an older male as the mentor and the younger female as the rising star represent the old and new faces of science and academia. ==Scene X -- First Encounter with an ET== While scouting the area, Maribeth hears an explosion and then strange cries of distress. The cries sound part human, part animal. She rushes toward the sounds and finds burned wreckage and remains and a surviving alien. Maribeth manages some first aid, radios Dr. Markus to bring the jeep. Markus arrives, helps bring the alien back to their own camp. ===Notes=== #First aid: we're lucky there are some similarities between the general physiology of the creators and our own. #I'm curious to see how we fit a giant, wounded alien in a jeep. Perhaps moving the alien will be impossible, or just too hazardous given the alien's wounds, and Maribeth will stay with the alien while Markus brings the humans' gear, tents, instruments, etc. to the alien site. #Coincidence? What coincidence?: Problem solved! It makes perfect sense that the aliens and the lead challengers of the wager would come together. The alien biologists would be just as interested in this unusual biological phenomenon in the jungle as our heroes! The aliens probably got there first and were collecting specimens for a week or more when Markus and Maribeth arrived. This point can come out in a later conversation between Maribeth and the alien, although we don't want it to sound to stilted, too much like we are trying to cover all the holes in our narrative. ==Scene X+1 -- Gathering Evidence== While alien is unconscious, Markus and Maribeth discuss what they have found. Markus is convinced the alien will help prove evolution, decides to gather the remains and start testing DNA, etc. ==Scene X+2 -- First conversation with alien== Alien awakens, speaks with Maribeth, who is constantly at the alien's bedside. Alien asks about fellow crew members; Maribeth says no sign of any other survivors. Alien is very concerned about the treatment of the bodies, says they must be protected so they can be buried with proper rites by her people. Alien explains that some malfunction in their equipment led to an explosion of their power generator. Alien admits she is from another planet, says mothership is on its way, will arrive in a week to remove all evidence of their presence. ===Notes=== #We may be able to keep Maribeth at the alien's bedside almost constantly: she may have to rig up and monitor some crude life support device to keep the alien stable. #Alien can speak rough English: the aliens understand our language from monitoring our culture, but naturally, they don't get a lot of practice conversing with native speakers. The alien struggles to express herself, and this linguistic difficulty could lend itself to some misunderstandings about the funeral rites, the sacredness of the body, etc. ==Scene X+3 -- Keeping Secrets== The alien asks that her presence be kept secret. While the alien rests, Maribeth and Markus discuss this point. Markus is inclined to radio an announcement, but Maribeth is concerned that media, government, etc. would flood the site and endanger the surviving alien's life. Markus agrees, less out of concern for the alien's well-being and more out of his desire to control the finding, to have unlimited access, at least until the alien mothership arrives, to the remains. Markus has enough equipment, brought originally to study the unusual terrestrial biology of the region, to run useful analyses on the alien remains. Maribeth reminds Markus of the alien's concern that the remains not be disturbed. Markus persuades Maribeth to engage in subterfuge: the alien must be kept in the tent, on the life support device. Maribeth must keep her engaged in conversation, find out everything she can about the aliens' science and culture (and Maribeth is quite eager to interview the alien). She will tell the alien that Markus is protecting the remains, making sure scavengers don't tear them up, while actually Markus will be in his own tent dissecting and ===Notes=== #Staying in South America: This makes sense beyond helping the alien. We may not even be able to move the alien from the aliens' wrecked campsite in the jeep; how would we ever get her on a plane? How would we get an alien past US Customs? ("Do you have anything other than the hairy, 11-foot-tall hominid to declare?") Try leaving the jungle with the alien, and the secret is blown. Also, it makes sense to remain near the aliens' campsite, since the mothership will start looking there, the alien team's last reported position. It will be easier for the rescue team to find their missing alien near their original position rather than having to scour the planet for her. #scavengers: would wolves, rats, even maggots find alien flesh palatable? ==Scene X+4 -- Conversations== The alien and Maribeth interact throughout the week. Maribeth learns the aliens have a very old culture, older than the Earth. They discuss the limits of technology -- light speed, computing power, communications -- and the advances of philosophy and society. The alien culture has developed a profound trust that allows them to set off on interstellar journeys with confidence that their fellow beings back home will preserve and protect their culture so they have a planet to come home to. The alien culture also has a profound respect for life. Far from abandoning religion in favor of classical rationalism and materialism, they believe very strongly in God. When Maribeth turns the discussion to the origins of life on Earth and the alien world, the alien again hesitates. The alien cannot reveal our origins, moves carefully around this point without offering any direct lies. The alien does her share of questioning. A scientist as well, the alien doesn't want to let this opportunity for direct interaction go by without gaining some useful information. Since her cover is already blown and she trusts Maribeth to keep the encounter quiet, the alien asks questions about human science, culture, and philosophy. The alien asks rather bluntly if Maribeth and Markus are mates, a suggestion that nonplusses Maribeth, since she and Markus have never considered such a relationship. ===Notes=== #Discussing belief systems: here the language difficulties will become apparent. The alien will hesitate to go very far into alien theology, simply because the language that they have developed to discuss such concepts is too complex to translate into our primitive communications, and the alien does not want to create any misunderstandings. #"Are you mates?" I don't want to introduce a bunch of romantic hogwash. Let Markus and Maribeth's relationship be purely professional. Let everyone wonder why these two go jetting off to South America alone without any concern about hanky-panky. Let the alien's question be a surprise, the first mention of any such possibility. We can decide if at that point we want to introduce any tension in that direction -- Maribeth wondering about possibilities and motives now that the alien has brought it up. ==Scene X+5 -- Discoveries== Markus, hard at work in his own tent, preserving the remains as best he can with the resources available, continues to dismember the alien corpses. He finds clear similarities in the DNA, organ systems, etc., interprets these similarities as a sign that the same evolutionary processes at work on Earth must have been at work on the alien planet. He immediately concludes that the process of DNA combination and biological development must be universal. He is enough of a scientist to know that he can't publish results yet, and he wants to do more work and keep the remains to himself for as long as possible to shore up his conclusions. But he considers the wager, a very unscientific game set up by the billionaire, and he sees his chance to convince the billionaire face to face that the billionaire has lost. Markus contacts the billionaire (Gary Dunkirk?) and invites him to come down to South America to see "something amazing, something extremely important to the wager." ===Notes=== #Contact: satellite phone and Internet hookup. Perhaps voice contact will make for better cinematic interaction. But an e-mail might work as well. Markus could gleefully type up a taunting message, hit
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