steps beyond us

Destini 2022-03-23 09:01:47

Page 0 "Look at yourselves. Unplug from your chairs, get up and look in a mirror. What you see is how God made you. We're not meant to experience the world through a machine." The prophet discourages people from using surrogates .

Right off the bat, this is a science fiction social drama. It is a debate of the pros and cons of a imaginative technology. Very much in the vein of Minority Report. It's a two steps ahead of our current lives (not only robots, but also against robots), also in the spirit of INCEPTION (REVERSING A CLICHE: not only planting ideas instead of stealing, but also dream within a dream).

Page 1The documentary history of the evolution of the surrogates.

Page 3People who are against using surrogates.

Page 4A young man is on his way to opera, but goes to a dancing club instead. Someone ominous is following him.

Page 7The young man is killed and the killer also causes a traffic accident that damages a few units.

Page 8FBI agents come to the scene and investigates the strangeness of the event. (OPPORTUNITY. The EVERYDAY LIFE part is slightly off because it has to introduce the history and current condition of the surrogates instead of the protagonist.)

Page 9The fat male operator is found killed in his apartment. (His surrogate is an attractive young woman. Although the script didn't articulate it at this point, but it must be pretty disgusting for Bruce to find out a fat male guy posing as an attractive young woman to seduce other men. This event is essentially designed to give the protagonist the first emotional exposure of how perverse the technology of surrogate is. But as a cop, he really can't comment on the v ictim of the crime. To make sure the audience knows how a f fected the protagonist is, we let him comment on the unlikable lawyers with the sentiment that has been suppressed inside of him for quite sometime now.)

Page 11Bruce comes back home and meets his real self. He goes to his son's room and he clearly misses him and the happy times.

Page 13Just before he is about to knock on his wife's door, his wife's surrogate comes out. Their distance is palpable but Bruce does his best to connect with her unsuccessfully. (This is another reason why Bruce hates using surrogates because it causes the distance with his wife. This is the second emotional nudge the story gives to the protagonist, causing him to arc.)

Page 15A boy is found killed in college. The police discuss the case and want to prevent the truth leaked to the general public.

Page 16Bruce thinks that a homicide has happened and they also just get the information that the dead boy's father is the inventor of the surrogates.

Page 17Bruce and partner go to visit the inventor. They talk until the inventor realizes that it was him that caused his son's death. (CHANGE OF PLAN because from here on, they realize that the crime is no longer a simple one, and target is actually the inventor of the surrogates.)

Page 20Bruce and partner go to the surrogates manufacturing facility and question the guys in public relations. (This is the first time Bruce clearly articulates his dislike for the surrogates triggered by his hate for lawyers. Bruce starts to hate surrogates now.)

Page 23Bruce and partner go to the engineering (autopsy room of the robots) and are told that similar damage has occurred to the soldiers in the war zone.

Page 25Bruce and partner go to question the general. Although no results, it gives the audience a chance to see firsthand how the solider robots operate in war.

Page 26Partner finds the meetbag by facial match of the footage of the surrogates. And immediately he is spotted by the traffic surveillance camera. Bruce goes to catch the meetbag while Jennifer Peters talks to the guy in the surveillance room.

Page 28Bobby shows Peters how he can control and shut down all the surrogates in the room.

Page 29Meetbag is being chased by Boston PD and Bruce. Meetbag is running to the anti-surrogate zone to seek shelter.

Page 30Meetbag uses the weapon again killing everyone and almost Bruce. (The death of other policemen caused by using the surrogates must be the last straw for Bruce. It can be made clearer if the script lets a policeman close to Bruce die.)

Page 34Bruce chases Meetbag in the restricted anti-surrogacy zone and is shot dead before he can capture meetbag and his weapon.

Page 35Bruce is injured very badly and Peters is reprimanded by the boss for Bruce's invasion of the restricted area.

Page 36Bruce's wife finds him lying on the ground, dying.

Page 37Meetbag is interrogated by the prophet once he is on his turf.

Page 38News flash of the incident and the statement made by the prophet on TV, Bruce is accompanied by his wife in the hospital. TV continues the ad of children' surrogates, which apparently make both of them very uncomfortable, but they are unable to deal with the elephant in the room. (The idea of ​​a dead son wasn't fully explored. It is the reason of the couple's estrangement. Also it is a potential merit for the surrogate because if the son had used one, he wouldn't have died.)

Page 39Boss comes to inform Bruce that he has been suspended and he is out of surrogate. But we can see from Bruce's eyes that he won't let it go.

Page 40Bruce comes out of the hospital in the flesh, but he is no longer used to walking in the streets in the flesh. (PHYSICAL POINT OF NO RETURN because without a surrogate, the stake for the protagonist is much higher;)

Page 41Bruce tries on another surrogate but rejects using it. (PHYSICAL POINT OF NO RETURN IS NOT ENOUGH, it's also the EMOTIONAL POINT OF NO RETURN because from then on, Bruce is no longer willing to use the surrogate as a way of living. We want to make sure to the audience that it is not because Bruce no longer has a surrogatethat he doesn't use one, it is because he has EMOTIONALLY rejected the idea. From the CHARACTER ARC point of view, the story has been trying very hard to make that transition for Bruce: disgusting fat guy posing a woman; distance with his wife and lastly the death of other policeman. )

Page 43Bruce goes to the Human Only zone and watches the Prophet giving a speech about human condition. When Bruce sees real children, his emotion is palpable. (The Prophet is now the antagonist because we know that he now possesses the weapon and the fact that Bruce confronts him directly raises the stake of the story.)

Page 46Bruce meets the Prophet and asks about the weapon. Prophet lies that he doesn't have it. (Face to face with the antagonist.)

Page 48Inventor in his child surrogate meets Bruce and tells him to dig deeper to find out who is behind the murder of his son and the origin of the weapon.

Page 50The friends of Bruce's wife are using surrogates drugs, Bruce disapproves.

Page 51Bruce beats his wife's friend and is forced to say out loud that he wants his real wife and connect with her. But she is scared and walks away. And we see the reason: she is old and ugly now. (Bruce starts to take action to connect with his wife.)

Page 54Bruce goes to the FBI office and investigates.

Page 55Agent Peters is killed and her surrogate is hijacked.

Page 56Bruce goes to the military and forces the general to tell him about the weapon.

Page 57Prophet asks his people to deliver the weapon to Agent Peters.

Page 58Bruce comes to visit his wife, who is working in a surrogate beauty pallor. She retreats again when Bruce is trying to connect. (EVERYTHING IS EMOTIONALLY LOST)

Page 60The military goes to attack the restricted area and finds out that the Prophet is actually a surrogate. And we find out that it was the inventor that has been controlling the Prophet. (EVERYTHING PHYSICAL IS ALSO LOST because we thought if we could capture the Prophet, we can get the weapon, but now because it's a surrogate, we might never get the weapon.)

Page 63After fake Peters tells Bruce that the meetbag was hired by the boss to kill the inventor of surrogates according to the FBI payroll files, Bruce goes to confront and disable his boss and steal his files.

Page 65From the computer file, Bruce figures out why VSI wants the inventor dead: because he wants to destroy surrogates. Fake Peters also has Bruce find the access codes for using the weapon before she tries to kill Bruce and takes the weapon with her. ( Antagonist revealed again to the protagonist and fully engages.)

Page 67Big action sequence where Bruce tries to destroy fake Peters unsuccessfully.

Page 69Bruce calls Bobby but he has already been cuffed by Peters. Bruce realizes that fake Peters tries to kill everybody using surrogates.

Page 70Police boss confronts Fake Peters only to find out that it is the inventor who is operating Peters. Inventor kills police boss with the weapon to revenge for his son.

Page 72Bruce goes to find the inventor at his home while the inventor is using Peters to work on connecting the weapon to the whole surrogate network.

Page 74Inventor and Bruce argue about the solution of the addiction of surrogates until the inventor kills himself. (EVERYTHING IS REALLY LOST.)

Page 76Bruce operates Peters to unplug everybody from their surrogates in the last second.

Page 78Bruce is hesitant about saving the surrogates though. At last, he hits “NO” to disable all the surrogates. Everybody down on the streets.

Page 82Bruce reunites with his wife in the flesh at last.

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Extended Reading
  • Dashawn 2022-03-23 09:01:47

    so so. . . Bruce's old face »

  • Lottie 2022-04-24 07:01:05

    Stay at the end, still have to go out for a walk~

Surrogates quotes

  • Bobby: We just saved about a billion lives there.

  • Peters: That's far enough, Stone. I know who hired you to kill me. I hope my old partners at VSI paid you well. Did you feel any second of remorse when you found out you'd murdered an innocent boy?

    Stone: Canter. I don't believe it. OK... How about you tell me something, doctor. Huh? What did you expect VSI to do? Just stand by while you tore down everything they built? You left us no choice but to take you out. You create this technology, change the world, and now you want to destroy it? So what? So you can take us backwards? So we can all live like dreads?

    Peters: So we can live like human beings.

    Stone: Really, doctor. You should learn how to live with your regrets.