Genre: Sci-Fi
Premise: In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a dying man programs a robot to take care of his dog when he dies.
About: Talk about an 80s film package! This was a spec script that got a lot of heat at the end of last year, eventually landing Tom Hanks (presumably for the role of the robot). It’s being produced by Robert Zemeckis and Keven Misher AND Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. The film will be directed by Game of Thrones director, Miguel Sapochnik. The script went on to finish in the bottom third of last year’s Black List.
Writers: Craig Luck and Ivor Powell.
Details: 110 pages
It always makes me happy to see a spec script muscle its way through a system that’s become increasingly resistant to specs. I’m hearing that Amblin is ramping up again. So between them and Bad Robot, we have two companies open to high-concept (reasonably priced) specs in the mould of today’s story.
Bios is part of the new “man and dog” sub-genre. We have the novel, “The Dog Stars,” which seems to have partly inspired this script. We have the ex-Navy SEAL stranded with his dog script, Heart of the Beast, that I reviewed a few months ago. And now we have Bios. Let’s find out where it ranks.
Two months is all it took for society to implode. That’s how long it was before the food disappeared. We’re a few years north of that now, and while there are survivors, they’re few and far between. One of those survivors is Finch, a 30-something former robotics engineer who’s been savvy enough to build a bunker into a hill.
Finch lives for his dog, scavenging a decaying wasteland for any food he can find for it. In his spare time, he puts together “Jeff,” a robot with a special direction – to take care of his dog when he dies. Oh yeah, there’s that too. Finch is dying.
His plan is anything but airtight. The robot’s programming is barebones. It’s never walked before. And worst of all, the dog hates him (their first interaction has the dog pissing on its leg).
When an unexpected super-storm rolls in (these seem common in the post apocalypse – although it’s not explained how they’re tied to all the food going bad) Finch realizes that if they don’t flee, his place will be leveled.
So he grabs Jeff and has dog, jumps in his Winnebago, and starts driving West. On the way, he teaches Jeff as much as he can about humanity and the world, hoping he’ll be ready to protect when he dies. Eventually, Jeff starts becoming interested in consciousness, hoping that one day he’ll be human too.
The group runs into a series of obstacles along the way (crashes, pursuers), each setback potentially deadly since their lives depend on outrunning the storm. (spoiler) Eventually, Finch dies, and Jeff’s schooling is put to the test. But when we realize he’s woefully underprepared, it’s only a matter of time before Finch’s dog is in major danger.
This started out great. How great? I was preparing a pre-post to announce a new Top 25 script. The first act is flawless. Luck and Powell paint a picture of a post-apocalypse that is both familiar yet unique. We’ve seen these scenes before and yet the level of detail used to describe scavenging a Walmart feels altogether fresh.
It doesn’t hurt that they have “Save The Cat” (Dog) built right into the concept. The second Finch gets home, we realize he’s out there specifically to find food for his dog. And when he feeds the starving dog with the food he found, we fall in love with him immediately. As I always say here on Scriptshadow: Make us love your hero immediately and we’re yours.
Once we realize how sick Finch is, the potential of this story levels up considerably. Finch is going to die, this robot he is going to have to travel with this dog that hates him, all in the hope of getting across country to safety.
How daring is that. Focusing a story solely on a robot and a dog. I’d never seen anything like it and was dying to see how they’d make it work. But then Finch not only comes with them, but is alive for most of the screenplay. This turned a smart and simple two-hander into an unnecessarily complex three-way relationship. Once Jeff’s “Pinocchio” storyline entered the picture, I was no longer clear what story the writers were trying to tell.
There’s still a lot to like here though. For example, I’m a big fan of adding chases to narratives. When you have something pursuing your heroes, it adds an urgency to the proceedings that gives the script energy. Usually, the chase comes in the form of cops, or the villain (Darth Vader in Star Wars). Using.a storm felt like a fresh way to incorporate the chase aspect.
Also, the script was clever in the way it dispensed exposition. Throughout the first act, I was wondering what year it was. In your average newbie sci-fi spec, that exposition would come in the form of a character clumsily saying, “Ever since the Food Wars of 2031, nothing’s been the same.”
Instead, Finch is fine-tuning Jeff, attempting to get him acting like a human. “So tell me something interesting,” Finch asks him. “Giraffes can go longer without water than a camel.” Finch chuckles. “Is that fact?” “Yes.” Finch turns to his dog. “I bet you didn’t know that.” The robot continues. “In February 2031, over 13 million people searched “interesting facts” on Google.” “Tell me something interesting about you,” Jeff replies.
There. Did you catch it? In the midst of him and this robot calibrating, we learned that it’s at least past the year 2031. This was achieved in an organic invisible way, within the context of the conversation. Remember, exposition is only bad when it draws attention to itself. As long as information is given within context, the reader won’t notice it.
But yeah, I think they missed opportunities here. Finch should’ve died at the end of the first act. They should’ve traveled on foot, not within the safety of a Winnebago. The movie should’ve been about the unresolved relationship between Jeff and the dog. And Finch needed to give the robot his own voice. That way the actor gets to play both parts.
I don’t throw these opinions out arbitrarily. All of them make the story simpler, which is what that first act promised, then deviated from.
With that said, I still enjoyed the script. I want big prodcos like Amblin to make more movies like this – give us a superhero breather every once in awhile. That makes me Team Bios, warts and all.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ]wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: A neat little screenwriting trick is to upgrade a problem from bad to worse. In Bios, we learn that a superstorm is coming in and will obliterate everything within an 800 mile radius. A day later, as they’re putting together an impossible escape plan, they learn that two other storms are colliding with this storm, increasing the deadly diameter to 2000 miles. Within the span of 15 pages, we go from worried to terrified. It’s a simple tool, but very effective
