Is this the script Christopher Nolan should’ve directed instead of Interstellar?
Genre: Sci-Fi
Premise: After NASA sends a crew of astronauts into deep space to find another habitable planet, the crew is unexpectedly woken up from hyper-sleep and must survive a mysterious new threat that comes from the one place they never expected – Earth.
About: This script appeared on last year’s Black List. The writers, John and Thomas Sonntag, are repped by Gersh. About five years ago, they sold a show called “Blackmail” with Aaron Paul attached to NBC but it never went to pilot. They’re still looking for that big produced credit break we all are!
Writers: The Sonntag Brothers
Details: 100 pages even
You still have a month and a half to finish your script. You should be writing every single day.
After finishing Generation Leap, I thought to myself, “Would this script win Sci-Fi Showdown?” I came to the conclusion that the answer is yes. It’s not a great script. But it’s got an interesting premise. It’s got a plot that moves fast. And I haven’t seen this movie before.
Some of it is sloppy but that’s the case with almost every script. So, if you’re entering Sci-Fi Showdown, read this screenplay (someone from the Comments section should be able to send it to you). Cause this script is the bar you’re trying to beat. Let’s take a look at it…
At the beginning of our story, our heroine, Morgan, explains the Wait Calculation to us. “Imagine a nest of birds and they’re out of worms. Dire stuff. So one brave bird volunteers to fly out across the land and save the nest. But while she’s out on her perilous journey, the R&D department back in the nest creates a jetpack. They strap that sucker on a second bird, and suddenly the second bird passes the first bird, gets the worm, and returns to the nest a hero.”
She continues with the foreshadowing monologue: “How long should someone wait to leave so they won’t get lapped by something better? It’s the hardest question for an explorer to get right because there is no answer.”
Cut to 120 years later where Morgan, along with former surgeon Isaiah Wilkins and elder statesman Leland Wong, are the three astronauts tasked with traveling to the planet of Meliora to see if it can sustain life. NASA wants another planet to go to when the ozone completely collapses. We’re currently in the middle of the 300 year journey.
But the three are woken up from hyper-sleep by a giant ship that engulfs them. Inside that new ship, they meet Hunter, Yuri, and Alyx, also from NASA. Hunter, the captain, explains that they left earth just *twenty* years ago, also to fly to Meliora, and part of their mission was to pick these three up. Had they not, by the time Morgan, Isaiah, and Leland made it to Meliora, it would’ve already been settled.
Hunter is a bit hoity-toity about the whole thing. And when Morgan and Isaiah attempt to give their opinions on matters, the “future” group rolls their eyes. Morgan and her crew are from a lost generation. It’d be like someone from 1930 telling you how to handle stress.
While the two teams butt heads, they’re alerted by the ship’s A.I. to an object up ahead. It turns out there’s a *third* clunky-looking ship ahead of them. As they come up on it, they learn it was a ship sent to Meliora from the Reagan era! Our ship has just overcome THIS ship via the Wait Calculation. Unfortunately, the technology of that ship is so dated that when they try to de-thaw the pilots, the entire ship malfunctions and the astronauts die!
Back on the big ship, the two 3-person generations get to talking and realize that, if the Wait Calculation has already been met twice, it will surely be met again. Which means a fourth ship is coming! Lo and behold, that’s what happens. The group go back into hyper-sleep but a few years later, get woken up and boarded by the fatest of the Wait Calculation ships yet.
The big difference is that these new astronauts are angry and militaristic. It turns out that after the third group left earth, there was a world war. Which has shaped this latest mission by NASA, which is more territorial in nature. The two original teams will have to unite to take on the military team. But it may be for nothing. Because even if they defeat them, who says another ship isn’t coming?
What a weird script that’s also kind of a good script.
First off, I’ve never heard of this principle before. But as soon as it was explained to me, I thought, “Huh, that’s cool.” I like sci-fi ideas that make you think. And this one kept me thinking.
Let’s go through it together. You can get in a shuttle now in order to reach another planet in 300 years. However, if you wait 50 years, the technology could theoretically advance to a point whereby you make it to the planet in 200 years. Even with a 50 year head start, you would still beat the first ship to the planet by 50 years. But it gets better. If you wait 100 years, the technology might advance to the point where it only takes you 50 years to make it to the planet, in which case you beat the first ship by 150 years and the second by 100 years.
If that’s the case, why leave now? Why not wait until technology advances and you can get there faster? But if technology is always advancing, you should technically never leave (since waiting is always going to get you there faster).
Ugh, my head hurts.
The Wait Principle isn’t the only neat idea in Generation Leap. The script also poses the question of how generations 100 years apart would work together. The ideologies that defined each generation would be night and day. Imagine the mindset of someone who risked their lives to defeat Germany in World War 2 working with someone whose entire existence has been defined by social media posts. Could those two vastly different mindsets work together effectively? I find that an interesting question.
Unfortunately, the script doesn’t have enough time to get into those deeper questions. The first generation is basically about being the first humans to visit another planet. They want all the glory. The second generation doesn’t care about prestige. They just want to get the job done. And the third generation is hardcore militaristic.
As a result, with a few fleeting exceptions, the debates are surface level.
Despite this, the script’s relentless plotting keeps it entertaining. We’re woken up from hyper-sleep by something mysterious. It’s the next generation ship, swallowing them up. After they come to terms with this new team, they discover another ship. It’s the ship that left before them. As soon as that’s over and they go back to sleep, we cut to the military ship showing up. These guys are so combustible that they create enough problems to keep the plot firing on all cylinders until the end.
This is the kind of script I could see becoming a movie. That’s why I’m making it the bar for Sci-Fi Showdown. Yes, it’s messy. Yes, it doesn’t explore its premise as intelligently as I would’ve hoped. But there’s more good here than bad. And when you have more good than bad, you have the foundation for a movie. Generation Leap was a fun, if imperfect, script.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I Learned: I’m putting an end to one of the most overused science-fiction tropes out there right now. You cannot use it anymore. I’m talking about when the ship (or base) doesn’t have enough oxygen to keep everyone alive for the remainder of the mission, so now they have to decide who to get rid of. I’ve read this in maybe 50 science-fiction scripts. I’ve written it before in my own science-fiction script. Science-fiction is one of those genres where you don’t want to pick the low-hanging fruit. The way to stand out with science-fiction is to dream up things that we haven’t seen before. So no more ‘oxygen is running out’ subplots. Every time you think of that as an option, remember that the reader has probably encountered it a dozen times.
