Script: The Next Starfighter

[jeriendhal]

A little 80's nostalgia, for Ryk Spoor

BLACK SCREEN

S/FX: The old tinny Starfighter video game opening music.

Centauri: (v/o) Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League, to defend the Frontier against Xur, and the Kodan Armada. Get ready. Prepare for blastoff!

FADE IN

Scene: Daytime. Summer. A long empty highway in the Middle of Nowhere (aka Nebraska). A truck appears in the distance.

Gwen Rogan: (v/o) Mom, why did you and Dad divorce?

INTERIOR, TRUCK. GWEN ROGAN, dark and curly haired like her dad, is sitting in the passenger seat next to her mom, MAGGIE ROGAN.

Maggie: Sweetheart, like I said before, Alex and I got together when we were very young. When we got older, we became different people. And we realized that the longer we stayed together, the less happy we were. So we both decided it was more important that we stayed friends and happy, than stayed married and unhappy.

Gwen: I know, I know. It's just… This is going to be the most boring summer in the world.

Maggie: It's just a month. It won't be that bad.

EXTERIOR: Alex's farmhouse. The truck drives off as Gwen looks on forlornly

Alex: It's good to have you here, sweetheart.

Gwen: Thanks, Dad. (she pulls out here phone) So what's your wifi password?

Alex: Don't have wifi.

Gwen: (confused) So what do you use for Internet?

Alex: Don't have Internet.

Gwen: (face falling) Who's your cable provider?

Alex: (walks inside, Gwen following) Don't have cable. It's too expensive.

Gwen: Do you at least have a phone?

Alex: Of course I do. (Points to an 80's era push button phone hanging from the kitchen wall.)

BEAT, as she looks at with growing confusion.

Gwen: Why's the handset wired to the wall?

(Alex facepalms)

SCENE: The nearby town. PROXIMA, old Centauri's successor (played by David Tennant in full Creep Mode) is leaning against a lampost, looking at Gwen, smiling smarmily. Ominous music starts rising over this and the subsequent scenes.

Proxima: You've played the game.

FLASH CUT: Gwen hunched over the original Starfighter game, hidden in Alex's barn.

(cont.) You've beaten the game.

FLASH CUT: Gwen taking out Xur's Command Cruiser.

Gwen: Yes!

Proxima: Which means you're ready.

SCENE: Later that evening, back at the farm.

Gwen: Dad, I met this weird guy in town.

Alex: What kinda weird guy?

Gwen: He said something about recruiting me, like your "old friend" Centauri did with you.

Alex: (Panicking) Oh, God.

Alex pelts out of the house, Gwen following, rushing into the barn to find the Starfighter game on. He yanks out the cord, shutting it down abruptly.

(cont.) What did you think you were doing! I told you never to touch that!

Gwen: It's just an old arcade game!

Alex: No! It isn't! It was never just a game.

SCENE: Midnight. Gwen's bedroom. A strange blue glow is coming through the window. She wakes up, looking out to see the glow is coming from the now open doors of the missile silo.

(cont.) Gwen, sweetheart, this is important.

Gwen walks up to the silo cautiously.

(cont.) there are some things that should be left alone.

Her eyes widen as she looks down.

(cont.) Buried.

SCENE: The camera faces straight down the silo, where Alex's old Gunstar sits, wreathed in steam, waiting for a new Starfighter.

(con't.) Where they can't hurt anyone ever again.

SCENE: Gwen climbing down into the silo, walking carefully along the catwalks.

Gwen: Hello?

Something large, reptilian, stalks behind her, hidden in the steam whirling around the silo. Gwen turns and gasps as a two meter tall WAZAGAN, a reptile with blue skin, claws, and sharp teeth stares back her, lip peeled back, showing off all its fangs. Gwen gasps!

Music cuts abruptly.

Nez the Wazagan: Hi! You must be Gwen! Alex has told me so much about you! (grabs Gwen's hand and shakes.) It's so great to meet you! Don't mind me, I'm just doing some maintenance. I know it's really late so I didn't want to just knock on your front door and wake everyone up. (Laughs).

BEAT, as Gwen stares at Nez in shock.

(cont.) Oh, boy. I'm smiling with my teeth again, aren't I?

(facepalms and turns away, arms waving in agitation)

(cont.) People keep telling me, "Nez, don't smile with your teeth. You scare the herbivores!" Except you humans are omnivores, sorry. But still, that was totally rude of me!

Gwen: You… you… you…

Nez: Yeah?

Gwen: You're an alien!

Nez: What? No, I'm not! Oh, wait. You mean on this planet! Yeah, I'm definitely an alien, sorry.

Gwen: What are you doing here! And what's that spaceship?!

Nez: This ship? It's your dad's old Gunstar.

Grabs Gwen by the shoulder and starts walking her around the ship.

(con't) This is the actual ship that your dad and General Grig flew when they took out Emperor Xur, and the Kodan Armada.

Gwen: What?!

Nez: It's even still equipped with the prototype Death Blossom. They hadn't even had a chance to test it before your dad fired it!

Gwen: What are you talking about? That was from an arcade game!

Alex: (walking into the shot) I told you, Gwen. It was never just a game.

SCENE: Space, near the Frontier. The new Kodan battlefleet, with more than a dozen new Command Carriers and hundreds of fighters, approach. Several of the Advanced Gunstars engage the fleet, fighting against hopeless odds.

Proxima: (v/o, as the Gunstars are wiped out one by one.) She's a Starfighter, Alex Rogan, same as you were.

SCENE: Gwen looking scared out of her wits as she sits in the Super Advanced Prototype Gunstar, Nez in the Navigator's seat behind her, just as they launch from the Star League base.

(cont.) And the Star League needs her.

SCENE: Gwen's Gunstar is being chased by dozens of Kodan fighters.

Alex: (v/o) She's just a kid!

SCENE: Back in the silo, Alex glaring at Proxima in fury.

Proxima: So were you, back then.

Alex: I know! It was wrong then, and it's wrong now!

Proxima: So what are you going to do about it?

(Alex chucks a flight suit into Proxima's arms.)

Alex: (Suiting up) You mean what are we going to do about it.

Proxima: Er, beg your pardon?

Alex: I need a Navigator. You're it.

Proxima: What?!

SCENE: Alex's Gunstar comes behind the fighters menacing Gwen, blasting them out of the sky.

Alex: (v/o) Time to get in the game, Proxima.

Gwen: Dad?

SCENE: The two Gunstars turn in formation to face the whole Kodan fleet.

Alex: Come on, Gwen. We'll finish this together.

CUT TO TITLE CARD.

The Next Starfighter

CUT BACK TO THE SILO.

Alex: Gwen, remember when I said I used to be in the military?

Gwen: Yeah?

Alex: I never mentioned which military.

TITLE CARD.

Coming this summer, to a star system near you.