People of the earth, get ready, Because the big saucer motherships are here And surprise! They are huge theaters -in-the-round!
< HREF=#Script> Click HERE to read the Saucer Season script. ScriptRichard Bliss, author
PART ONE: SAUCER IN THE ROUND
SOUND 1: ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL WAILING WASH GUITARS INTRO, ALSO ECHO OF TRAIN REPT ROLLING
SOUND 2: BEGIN GLENN BRANCA'S "GLORIA," LOW ON TRACK, HARMONICSERIES 1 127, gradually built throughout "Act 1."
FADE IN
DEEP SPACE. Out of an "opening" in space zooms a huge flying saucer craft enormous 1160 ft in diameter detailed 360 spiral in on: VIEWPORT, control module, top of the saucer IN through the window to the MAIN CONTROL BRANCA, the Alien Master," (ALIEN MASTER MAGICIAN) reclines in a travel couch, viewing a soudwave monitor. An AIDE in a control; chair adjusts controls. WE DO NOT SEE BRANCA'S FACE... JUST A THIN ARM HELD UP IN DIRECTING THE AIDE. AIDE adjusts a monitor: sound ("Rockabilly") emerges. AIDE It's the same three chords. BRANCA USE IT. That will be the music of the Earth Jingle. EXT. SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO (THE LARGE ARRAY) Huge dish antennas turn. The image is like quizzical dog's ears,: cocked to hear a sound (the alien jingle). SOUND The Earth Jingle: zARE YOU READY?" INT. THE TV CONTROL CENTRAL DAY Microwave, satellite, and other pickup forequencies are sorted and rerouted here. INT. BARRY AND SHIELA'S. SHIELA Where have you been all morning we're ready to GO! BARRY runs upstairs, rubbing the wrist that his watch is already on. He rummages through the drawer in the bedroom, making racket. BARRY HERE IT IS! He runs to the bathroom, brushes his teeth. Another TV SET on the sink counter plays the SPOT to the sound of brushing. BARRY watches as he brushes quickly, gargles. VO It's time for you to come up. Transformed to a symbol of unity, the ideogram of Purpose. Vo In the saucer, you wit play on a cosmic scale. You will reach the next stage of evolution. BARRY looks at himself in the mirror. Are you ready? BARRY VO You will never be the same again. BARRY Never be the same again my ass. BARRY reaches under the counter, takes a "7" bottle out and swigs a mouthful, swallowing, spitting the rest in the sink. BARRY runs downstairs. The SOUNDTRACK of the saucer SPOT becomes louder, as though pursuing him down the stairs, out the door. In the car, as BARRY jumps in next to his wife and children. The dashboard TV set is on, playing THE SPOT. Vo ARE YOU READY? SHIELA Are you ready now? INT. ALL NIGHT NEWS NETWORK STUDIO. TEDDY, the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR and TECHNICIANS scurry through the area, as the monitors fill with saucer imagery. EXT. DENVER MOUNTAINS/ THE MICROWAVE NEXUS The dishes adjust their orientation to broadcast the saucer signals around the globe. INT. TV CENTRAL DAY The monitors play out the seventeen spots of the saucers. JINGLE (O.S.) "ARE YOU READY?" ASSISTANT Special code patch through satellite to Pentagon the saucer media demo.. TEDDY HUH? ASST The aliens have agreed to let the brass review the media plan... TEDDY Great. Let's monitor it. Run a reference tape in case they black it out later. There is communications chatter, avails are placed in cart' machines, the payment code comes through. FULL SCREEN A long row of placement avails comes onto the extended screen there are 7,992 listings, multi columns, running down the side of the screen. Close, FACES, glassy eyed, tired, bleary, look at the ALIEN COMMERCIAL SPOT. TRAFFIC (O.S.) That's 17 days, all media. TEDDY runs down the line of workers at their consoles. TEDDY Hook up that main frequency. TV media equipment stutters, comes on. The JINGLE grows louder. The SAUCER appears_on the screen, dwarfing the earth sattelite :ation. is HUGE. A "stadium saucer" with flattened sides, canted like e Coleseum. This IS big! TEDDY Cut that for now. ANGLE fades . DIRECTOR They're coming in on the main channel now. ASSISTANT notices a secondary monitor. VIEW OF MONITOR: The saucer theater moves closer to the earth. AST Hey, look at this. They're coming in on ALL channels now. DIRECTOR Let it through. TEDDY We can't help but let it through. They're pre empting everything even the President's speech. EXT. THE PENTAGON DAY Federral top Generals sit contemplating the screen they have set . As they watch the images, their eyes glaze over and begin to dilate slightly. FULL SCREEN balletic display of the contours, design and configuration of the saucer in computer wireframe and full 3D modeling and color. are treated to a guided tour of the design of the saucer, Wing the interior, corridors (flashing lights), display sceens, conveyor ramps, entrance, red seats, blue carpet, access way, parking lots, surrounding midway village, exterior escaping (moat, formal gardens, parks, fields) plus detail of stage/lighting arena, the cell magnet, the superseats, the sting wedges, the configurations of the central mechanism, the area atop tne saucer interior, tne pllCRI * I ters with couches and instrumentation, the power supplies of the saucer, the perimeter accelerator, the markee display, the chlorophyl and other food based storage area, the tanks which hold the sensory conducting fluid, the moveable walls and ceilings, the laser light projection points, etc. The CELL MAGNET form flashes as the saucer interior divides into exploded view and reassembles in computer "real time." WASHINGTON, THE WHITE HOUSE. LS Flags fly: American flag, Peace symbol, Dove. UNITED ORDER OF BORN AGAIN symbol, flapping in the forboding breeze, overcast. A JIM BAKKER Fundamentalist type President, in white suit, white shirt, sits watching a monitor screen, his eyes glazed THE SCREEN COMPUTERGRAPHICS DISPLAY THE SAUCER "CALLING CARD" CONTINUED Graphic display of the interior, exterior design elements of "saucers," rotating through three dimensions, with color, is displayed on the small monitor. CUT TO: STUDIO DIRECTOR Patch it up to the projection screen. ASSISTANT patches through. The sequence is projected now on a sixty foot screen. FULL SCREEN CHARACTER GENERATION "ARE YOU READY?" TEDDY I don't know. Are we ready7 Code "yes." See what happens. three character generations. AIDE It's a media buy. Look. AGENCY: SAUCERMAGE AVAILS: ALL DURATION: 17 DAYS COMMISSION: STANDARD 158 AE: BRANCA Fast crawl at screen bottom O.S. NUMERICAL SEQUENCE 00000000001 1100010010 * MUST BE FOLLOWED WITHOUT VARIANCE. THIS IS A TIMED, ACCELERATED CAMPAIGN. FOR FULL SATURATION, ANY VARIANCE FROM THIS NUMERICAL SEQUENCE WILL BE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE MAKE GOODS OR THERE WILL BE NO PAYMENT. THESE WILL BE MONITORED BY SAUCERMAGE. DIR Whew! IMAGISTIC SEQUENCE DETAIL "through the ground" fiber optic, speeding through the strands, the images to the (circles) eye a flight through electronic media space the entry into the planet MEDIA GRID NETWORK TO: INT. VIDEO CONTROL ROOM DAY Two technicians RODNEY (24) and ALTON (29) monitor the signal with bored resignation. RODNEY Code says its coming through Socorro satellite relay through the main carrier wave. ALTON That's Denver, right? That's it RODNEY EXT. SPACE GLOBAL SATELLITE received the (laser) beam from the ground, retransmits it to the other satellites around the world ALTON If they got the money and the code, they get the avails. EXT. PEORIA MEGALOPOLIS. STRAGGLERS hitchhike along the freeway road. A sign held by one says: ANYWHERE. Behind, the huge pyramid of skyscrapers which is PEORIA, 2011. TEDDY You want it? I'11 give you the assignment. WILLARD I don't know . TEDDY You could do an alien slice of life. ASS I STANT Then they have this pro jector around the rim like a markee they spell out some kind of messages it ' s pretty strange stuf f . Maybe it should be reviewed like a movie . WILLARD OK. I ' 11 take the assignment. TEDDY Aliens of the absurd. WILLARD Or: ' saucer in the round. ' Off world music tent, summer circuit. Hey look, just what is it? TEDDY We don't know. CITY EDITOR Do your best. Call intermission. I ' 11 give next to the wire service saucers in flight. Call me if they have an it a first page lead in, pickups we have of the -- COPY BOY Like Dodger Stadium (on a home game) without the ground. INT . TEDDY'S OFFICE. RODNEY and ALTON come in to TEDDY' s office. TEDDY These saucers get a story. Get the remote I ' 11 come. One landed here in Peoria. And also this new company Marong Stewart check it out they ' ve got a new software, or greyware, they call it. Get some inf ormation f or me . RODNEY Is this first priority? TEDDY Yes, delegate the avails. ALTON Where you hoing? TEDDY I got to go to the hospital. RODNEY You sick? TEDDY No Gwen is. Miscarriage. INT. GWEN'S HOSPITAL ROOM DUSK TEDDY sits by the side of the bed. The clouds move past rapidly in the background. GWEN I WAS EXHAUSTED SO TIRED. TEDDY Yea. The one chance we have to have a baby you blow it. GWEN I can't help it it was a an accident. The clouds move fast, behind them, foreboding change. The large TV plays the MARONG STEWART spot. TEDDY watches it, as he talks. So . . . So what? TEDDY GWEN TEDDY So that's it. GWEN It happens. TEDDY We'll never get a child. GWEN Maybe it's these saucers -- INT. BILL EVANS PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE. BILL Whew I'd like to have the billing on that. TEDDY Yea it's a saturation campaign. They'll be household word overnight. BILL Before the audience knows it they're hooked. TEDDY Look at that. BILL EVANS What beautiful production. ASSISTANT It's a calling card. BILL What do you mean? ASSISTANT It's like they're announcing their arrival. TEDDY And a spot. They're teasing us. With seventeen days of spots on all channels I'd say it's a saucer season. They watch, rapt. The saucer shows itself off, the same basic configuration repeated through 1280 saucers. LATER. THE CONTROL ROOM. RODNEY and ALTON watch: THE SHOW SPOT RUNS. RODNEY Wow. You want to take a shot at it? ALTON Yes, let's grab the gear and go. RODNEY You think you'll go to this Show? ALTON Nah it's a status thing. INT. TV CONTROL DAY Teddy watches the MARONG STEWART interview, puzzled. The INTERVIEW is patched onto another large screen projection. As the saucer goes through its paces, the INTERVIEW is delivered with sound alongside the "saucer spots." A DR. FOSS, "ecopsycologist" sits with an interviewer. INT You at Marong Stewart almost literally appeared on the scene overnight. FOSS The computer field is fast and volatile. The company has been here for ten years to appear 'overnight.' SOUND: "THE SHOW" SPOT FULL SCREEN SPINNING CRT SCREEN: FRONT PAGE LAYOUT. "TICKETS GO ON SALE FOR SAUCER SHOW" INT. NEWS OFFICE CITY ROOM OF CABLE NEWS NETWORK. REPORTERS stand around looking at the monitors. SPOT ON TV MONITOR. THE SAUCER IS YOURSELF THE SHOW: $500 PER EARTH PERSON PENTAGON, OTHER LOCATIONS SPOT of WE CHALLENGE YOU! as groups of faces watching, glued. CUT TO: ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT STEP IN EVOLUTION? SWIRL OF COLORS/ HEADLINE CRAWL UNDER THE SCREEN THROUGH THE NEXT FEW SCENES, EVOKING AN "ON SCREEN" TICKER TAPE NEWS SERVICE. CUT TO: a crowd watching the SPOTS from a city street. BACKGROUND: A department store, with a sign saying: LOST LEASE, LAST DAYS SALE: 208 OFF EVERYTHING! People in line drink. VO We want to give you a minute to think about the saucer experience... EXT. VIDEO. The saucer in a field, larger than life... The hub door inches upward as light pours from the interior...a slope of long steps is revealed. EXT. KANSAS DINER NIGHT Two REGULARS sit in the Hopper like surroundings of the diner. ADELLE pours coffee. THEY WATCH A TV hung on the wall. ADELLE looks out the window. ADELLE The only flying saucers around here are when I get mad at the customers. The room shakes. Overhead, at low altitude, a huge stadium saucer passes by, lights flashing. The lights in the diner flash off and on, then off. ADELLE lights an amber safety light. REGS run to the window, watching. ADELLE takes off her apron, watching the saucer recede, and walks out of the diner. EXT. NIGHT KANSAS A huge saucer ship floats in over the pasture, lifting a large heifer up into the air. The saucer moves along, the heifer falls to the ground. CLOSE: two farm hands, out baling hay, dust stirred up around them, watch the stadium saucer pass, amazed. INT. ADELLE'S HOUSE NIGHT ADELLE WHEAT watching in her farmhouse Kansas. An old black and white TV displays the multi window TV image of the future, with text, graphics, shows, and other distractions (ads, etc.) sharing VO Do you know how others see you? Do you feel afraid? Are you suspicious of others' motives, success, problems? ADELLE runs out onto the porch, sees the saucer in the distance. It comes toward the house, very brilliant, high up, the herd of cows following darkly across the plain. She runs to the family truck. DETAIL: a bumper sticker which reads TOTO I DON'T THINK WE'RE IN KANSAS ANYMORE. ADELLE Mom? Mom? Dad? EXT. MARONG STEWART WAREHOUSE MORN SAX and EGO are seen close, in non specific setting at first. PULL BACK during their cut shows the cavernous SAN LOUIS OBISPO WAREHOUSE with a huge Macy's like rubber figure floating in the background. ANGLES CLOSEUP on the eyes. The circular motif of the retina, iris, cornea is a paradigm of the saucer interior.