I’m writing this to mark the completion and copyright of my first feature length screenplay. This is going to be a rambling late night write-up of the development process, mixed in the philosophical findings of process.
So when you pitch a script or a movie idea, it’s called a logline. Us game developer folks would just probably call this an elevator pitch, or perhaps a gameplay summary. I’ve heard different vocabulary used by certain industry folks.
Writing the logline for this movie, I’ve christened 1981 , was the last thing I did, and it’s still something I’m perfecting. Logline: In an alternate 1981, an infamous superpowered mercenary is forced by the oppressive US government to snuff out a revolutionary group’s terrorist plot, where he finds his humanity in the collapse of western civilization.
It took me a few minutes to really piece that one together, not because the events in the plot are hard to explain, but rather the events aren’t what is important, but rather how they affect our main character.
I’m really just getting ahead of myself in this ramble. I always knew I wanted to write a screenplay, and I’ve had a bunch of different ideas floating around, but 1981 is special to me, because it is the culmination of many creative ideas stitched together into a sick tapestry.
The original thing I did that kickstarted my journey was a drawing I made two or maybe even three years ago at this point. It was a drawing of a 1978 Ford LTD Police Interceptor that I added welded excavator spikes onto the bumper, with metal mesh covering the windows. I wrote the word “run” on the front bumper in blood, and made a graphic on the side that said “riot response”. I don’t know what sick cynical thing was going through my head that day, but all I finished the drawing off with a limp bloodied arm crunched under the front tire, and a spontaneous tagline. “Alternate 1981: Fear and oppression rule; the future is bleak.” I guess I just thought the idea of riot police just running over people was ironic and cynical. Ending violence with more violence. The true irony as I write this, it is the recent anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, where that very thing basically happened. With further irony being the fact that Hong Kong is currently protesting for their freedom as we speak.
That line of irony and cynicism leads me to the next part of this screenwriting puzzle. Sophomore year of college I started drawing this figure while daydreaming in lectures. You can find it in my portfolio, but it evolved into this mix of early 90s superheros; A trench coat and fingerless glove wearing guy with an evil grin and a bleached white featureless head. He just had black angry patches covering the eyes. It reminds me of Venom, Spawn, Gambit, Joker, and Snake Plissken. I can’t comment and say when I made him, or how he evolved. It just did.
Well that’s a lie. I do get how his story evolved. I was actually in shape during the middle of college, and sitting on a bike for 45 minutes every day while your blood pumps through your brain really helped me develop this character. I thought about if his disfigured demonic face was an accident. My Great Uncle Andy, who’s sadly no longer with us, was a grizzled old Vietnam vet who suffered and died at the hands of Agent Orange sprayed on the jungles during the early half of the war. That got me thinking, my character should be a Vietnam vet who was disfigured by some kind of chemical weapon. The character finally had a name. Andrew, or Andy for short, after my Unk. My Uncle Andy was someone I really looked up to growing up, and despite being one of the most cynical men I’ve ever met, who suffered everyday from the service he endured, he had a good heart up until the day he died. I almost admired that kind of will to keep going despite the torment, and I wanted my character to embody that.
That’s when the two ideas connected. This drawing of the murderous riot police car I had with the ominous tagline, and this character, Andy, were born out of the same universe.
I came up with the ending of the whole thing first, and worked backwards. Spoilers from here, I suppose, if this thing ever gets made in the future. I had the idea of Andy having to prevent something terrible from happening. That terrible thing would be those murderous riot police cars barreling into a large government protest. The catch, is this tragic event could spark a much needed revolution in this alternate 1981.
So would he let it happen to spark a much needed uprising, ending the oppressive police state , or prevent it, and save thousands of people?
My idea was admittedly born from my own cynicism and the cost of fundamental difficult choices we have to make everyday. How short sighted is society’s decision making skills? These are just universal things that have happened throughout history, including right now as I type this.
I didn’t want the story to just be about saving other lives though, because that is too heroic. I wanted Andy’s life to be on the chopping block as well, and I wanted my character to be selfish. After all, human nature is selfish, and cynicism can often breed further selfishness; just ask me how I’d know.
That’s the great part about writing an anti-hero character though. You can make them REAL. I don’t necessarily mean how they look or what things they accomplish, but rather how they act and respond to situations, no matter how fantastic or grounded in reality. Those genuine reactions can create genuine character growth.
I wanted Andy to have a shred of humanity left, and come back from the brink of internal collapse. This character ricochets between selfish self preservation and blatant suicidal tendencies.
With that, I needed a background for the character, and I needed to start developing this world where he’d inhabit. This was the most fun I had during this entire screenwriting process. I love history, and admittedly the 70s and 80s are some of the decades I enjoy learning about the most.
So it was entertaining to take that history and twist it into a nightmare. Thankfully if you know your history, the 70s doesn’t need much twisting to become a nightmare. The world wasn’t on the brink of collapse per say, but it is easy to see where everything could go wrong.
I’m a huge automotive fan, and any friends who happen to read this are rolling their eyes as I say that, but that automotive knowledge actually lent itself well to the creative process. You see, we had a major recession in the early 1970s, combined with the 1973 Oil Embargo that drove gasoline prices sky high with shortages. The embargo was due to the Yom Kippur War, and UN/US involvement. I thought, what if this embargo never stopped? What if the war just escalated? Well in the world of 1981, the Yom Kippur war ended in nuclear disaster, laying waste to most of the middle east, and the surrounding countries effected by fallout. In my research, I found that the UN did have major fears of nuclear involvement with this conflict, and it’s almost frightening how fragile the stability of a region could be.
So the war ends, and the gasoline runs dry, and so the recession turns into a depression as goods and services skyrocket to accommodate.
Oh, and for good measure, I decided to have Nixon written in for a third term, and Reagan gets assasinated.
So the future of this alternate history is looking very bleak indeed.
However, I wanted Andy to be a wise character, as cynicism isn’t born in a day. I wanted him to be older, and decided to make him a WW2 veteran. By 1981, most younger vets from the later years of the war would be in their 50s. WW2 veterans always felt like they had that mythic aura around them. LIke they were true heroes fighting for a righteous cause, and everything since has been a cheap imitation. I wanted Andy to have also served in Korea and Vietnam as special forces (MACV-SOG). This would be where Andy’s transformation to a deserter and mercenary occur. Reading and learning about the historical atrocities the US performed to halt the spread of communism really made it easy to have my character’s reasoning and attitude transformation be believable, even with the added science-fiction of a chemical giving him super powers.
However, I didn’t want this to be an origin story. I can’t stand origin stories. Every great piece of superhero media I see usually doesn’t do that too often. The Spider-Man and Batman cartoons of the 90s had a few flashbacks, but it picked up later in the character’s journey. Really the idea of an origin story isn’t limited to the superhero genre, but it seems the most associated with the term, but I digress.
I wanted 1981 to pick up later in Andy’s life as an anti-hero and mercenary for hire. He’s seen the world already, has an infamous reputation, and may have accidentally contributed to the collapse of the oil dependent western civilization. I wanted his past to be told through exchanges in passing, and let the audience imagine who he was and what he may have done. Some of the most beloved characters are often the ones you can construct your own background for. Boba Fett and the Star Wars mercenaries had seconds of screen time, and they garnered a lifetime of fascination by fans. Hell, the entire Star Wars universe is the epitome of using an audience’s imagination to build the world instead of spoon feeding them all of the details.
So the story isn’t necessarily about the world Andy inhabits, but rather Andy’s own personal development as he navigates this world. As I said before, I wanted Andy to symbolize the struggle in all of us at times to make the right decisions, or perhaps even the optimistic view that most people have a sense of morality in them, no matter how misplaced it may seem. Cold blooded cynical mercenaries have a line to draw somewhere, I suppose. In the world today, it’s all about how you conduct yourself outwardly to the public that defines who you are. I could volunteer at a fundraising organization, and walk my pupper every day, but if my long distant friends and folks online just see me ranting like a lunatic, what image do you think that paints? Andy’s past actions and even his demonic outward appearance represent those preconceived notions we deal with on a daily basis in our constantly interconnecting society. I guess it could even be interpreted as the descriminaion and prejudice marginalized folks deal with too, but I admittedly never had that in my head at the time of writing it.
You’ll just have to watch the movie when Netflix makes it in 5 years to see this all for yourself. I think I was pretty good about spoilers too. I don’t think it’s any masterpiece of writing, or any kind of academy award winner. It’s cheeky at times and the dialogue isn’t perfect. I’m still getting used to writing action sequences and perfecting the technicalities of screenwriting structure. I’m not Tarantino, and I don’t have any desire to casually write in the n-word or any foot fetishes. However, I’m happy I just finished this. It’s hard for me to acknowledge my accomplishments at times, but I am aware that writing a screenplay is something not many people get around to finishing. I have copyrighted the screenplay with the Library of Congress, and I have registered it the Writers Guild of America. So now I’m off to start my second screenplay with a much more scoped down plot, so I can perhaps finance the film myself, and recruit my friends and old classmates to help get it made.
We’ll see what the future holds for 1981. It may not be so bleak after all.
