PR Mega Outline

"PR MEGA (WORKING TITLE)"

by

JS

PR MEGA PROJECT SUMMARY

     THE CORE CONCEPT IS TO TELL A STORY ABOUT  MASS DESTRUCTION, THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT COMES WITH POWER, EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE, SURVIVAL, AND TEAMWORK.

    

    

-PR Mega-

Story Outline (w/some specific dialogue)

WAKE UP

-The year is 20XX, the first operating crew of the new International Lunar Base is making preparations to land on the moon’s surface. As they make their decent, chatter comes in on all language channels about sudden interference. From the landing craft, the crew witnesses the lunar surface fracture and the entire lunar body begin breaking apart. Dust and debris are hurled past the moon's atmosphere and in to the landing craft’s trajectory.

-On the cracked and fractured surface of the moon, an ornate object juts out, half embedded in the newly upturned lunar soil. An ornate arch, with a door sealing it shut. It is almost ten feet in diameter, but barely a foot deep. From a non-existent space within the arch, a woman emerges, as if by illusion; her features are slightly alien and she has two long horns atop her head. A turban covers her head and decorated robes flow gracefully over her in the low gravity. She holds a staff, decorated in much the same way as the arch, from which emanates a small field of atmosphere.

DUEL

TWENTY YEARS LATER...

-A 300-ft horned creature lumbers over a dilapidated shopping mall. The barren ruins of a city peak over the dusty horizon. A figure in strange red armor is standing on a small hill nearby. He charges and severs the creature’s left horn. The creature smashes the attacker into the ground, visibly injuring his arm. The  armor begins patching the wounded arm, but the red armored fighter is left incapacitated. The creature continues on its course.

ARRIVAL

-A rusty red all-terrain motorbike rockets down a dusty street in the ruins of Angel Grove, California. The rider passes a small group of people walking the streets. He hits the brakes, turns to face the crowd and asks them where “the nearest gate” is . Someone shouts “Give us your bike!”, another shouts to get out of Angel Grove. Someone throws a can at him before he finally turns tail and continues on the way he was going.

-Stopping at a large intersection half covered in rubble, the rider takes out a ratty and torn up pocket atlas. He can’t seem to find his bearings for all the missing pages and tosses it over his shoulder. He takes off his helmet and leans forward in his seat, worn out from his journey. He fiddles with a strange object the size of his hand. A gold disk is mounted on the center, it’s design looks elegant and alien.

-that night, still in the same intersection, the rider has made a small fire atop the rubble heap. He sits on a slab of concrete and looks longingly at his cooking meal, wrapped in tin foil sitting in the fire. Looking down the street, he sees a blinking light in the hills a few miles away, he watches it as if hypnotized. As he loses focus, the light stops. His meal has burnt. He lies down and rests, tin foil unwrapped and empty next to the dead fire.

-The rider wakes up the next morning and mounts his bike again, riding along a railway toward the ruins of the old city.  

ON THE ROAD

-An elevated railway stretches across a ruined metropolis,  Angel Grove at dusk. A tram rides the rails, armed and armored, it speeds toward Center, its underground refuge.  Aboard are travellers from a nearby mountain base at Santa Ana. The tramcars carry resources, soldiers, engineers and medics as well as several civilians, mostly the sick and injured in need of better medical care at Center’s facilities.

-In a passenger car, windows boarded over and sides reinforced, a man and his young son rest against massive crates of Penicillin. The boy is asleep on his father’s lap, but the man stirs when the train jostles on the rails for a moment.  The man looks around groggily and whispers some reassuring words to his sleeping son.

-the tram speeds along, approaching a stretch of track that passes close to the ruins of the city. From overhead, barely visible, is a bright streak shining across the sky; an object rapidly descending through the atmosphere.

-A sonic boom echoes across the area, shaking the tram. Stretches of earth are thrown skyward as a line of impact skews the landscape. An enormous swath of the railway is uprooted and spirals into the air. Beyond the distant hills, a creature rises. It faces the slowing tram and begins lumbering forward.

-The creature smashes the railway ahead of the tram and begins devouring the metal rails. A turret opens fire and draws the creature’s attention. The pair make their way through the tramcars to the back, where most of the other civilians have gone. A soldier shouts to everyone that they are going to reverse the tram and retreat until the rails can be repaired, at which point the crowd becomes very antagonistic.

-the tram crawls to a halt and begins reversing direction. A soldier yells to the gunner  to stop shooting, as the gunfire is drawing the creatures attention. Before the gunner can make it back inside, the creature tugs at one of the rails, causing the tram to be flung sideways and tumble down the adjacent  hillside. The creature lets out a low growl denoting curiosity. I leans it’s snout toward the wrecked tramcar and smells blood.

-A soldier breaks a loosened panel on the tram and tumbles out. He raises his weapon at the beast, but thinks better of it and turns to make for cover in a formation of rubble nearby. Halfway there, the creature spots him and hisses. The man fires his weapon blindly to distract the creature from the tram as he runs furiously toward cover. As he is snatched up in a rush of talons and gore, others begin dashing away from the wreckage.

-Several boulders lie next to the tramcar, on the opposite side as the rubble pile. Some survivors have made it behind and out of sight of the creature, but they realize they are not safe for long. Among them are two soldiers, the sick child, and his father. The creature finishes with the first soldier and curiously claws at his gun before he is alerted to the others by their scent.

-the creature approaches the boulders, dropping to all fours and sniffing out its prey. A well-armed soldiers loads a flash grenade and prepares to launch it. He whispers his plan to the light-armored soldier; the grenade will go off several hundred feet away, distracting to creature. The light-armored soldier will use the diversion to run back to the tram wreckage and find the radio and call in for a precision strike from Center’s rail cannon.

-The flash goes off and the soldiers go into action. When he reaches the tram, the light armored-soldier  shuffles around in the wreckage inside, hastily pushing aside the dead and desperately scanning for the radio. The creature, meanwhile, is drawn toward the flash. The great thing stands and lumbers toward the white hot glow. Center responds on the radio, their targeting is obstructed by a landmass.

-Inside the tram, the light-armored soldier calls in the rail gun strike and gives the coordinates according to a paper map from his pack. Over the radio, a faint Okay is heard and the light-armored soldier looks out side.

-The creature is stooped over the boulders. There is brief gunfire from just out of sight behind the rock formations. 

-A beam of red light suddenly tears through the area around the creature, causing visible injury. The creature wails and whips around, clawing the air in pain. In a flurry of motion, something traveling impossibly fast  collides with the sandy hillside from which the tram was thrown. The soldiers assume the rail cannon was able to fire.

-The light-armored soldier gazes at the injured creature, then at a wave of light frozen in the air. The sand, flung upward and turned to glass from the impact, forms a sunburst behind a figure in moulded armor, clenching a blade. His suit a bio-mechanical mesh of flesh tones, metallic reds and scorched black, he moves from the small crater of glass.

- He walks past the survivors of the tram wreck, toward the thrashing creature, ready to finish it. Silvery blood flowing from its wound, the beast howls one last time. The ranger dispatches his prey.

-the survivors approach the ranger, but he vanishes in a display of fading red light.

-the survivors from the tram, including the father and son, walk toward Center on foot after radioing for rescue.

-on the command floor, Comm. Officer Kimberly Hart clears a rescue vehicle to pick up the survivors. Lance Corporal Zack Taylor is among the rescue team as they are dispatched through Center’s main gate.

-The red ranger touches down, he stands alone amongst the dilapidation and rubble. He reaches behind his head, unbuckles his helmet and removes it. Without showing his face, he sits down, leans against a wall and exhales in relief.

BACK INSIDE

-The survivors from the train fly back with a few army troopers, Zack included, aboard a set of Ospreys. The boy and his father are clearly visible among the handful of those left. The survivors only include those able to first survive the crash, and then run to safety before the beast dissected the wreckage.

-The father is seated near Zack and asks him if he’s ever seen one of the monsters. Zack remains stoic, but answers “Once, in New York”. The father responds, saying “You’d have had to been young, there’s nothing but water back east.”. Zack explains that he and his mother fled Manhattan when he was about the son’s age.

-The Ospreys approach Center’s main gate, passing over the construction crews outside, working on a defensive weapon system. The craft follow the runway down a city block and through the gates, into the hanger area. Control stations line the walls, a central hub is stationed above the ground level. The hanger is full of military craft of all kinds and in a wide range of conditions. A few Soldiers and CAG bustle about and maintenance personnel attend to all the hardware. Billy is in the background, fixing up a jeep with a few other mechanics.

-Everyone disembarks the Ospreys as medics rush in to attend to any wounded. Zack walks with the father and son until his squad leader, Commander Oliver, calls him over. Oliver asks if Zack knows them, to which Zack replies he doesn't. Oliver responds, “then don’t make small talk, we’re heading back out, covering the clean-up team.”.  Zack nods, and leaves with the rest of his squad their (osprey is numbered “105”).

-Kimberly stands by her post, leaning on a wall. Her headset is on, but she’s daydreaming. With no one else around, her station is dead. Her screen lights up the dark room. A voice asks for “confirmation on 105, 106 and Io9 groups outgoing for two hours.”. Kimberly confirms and sits back down. She mumbles to herself “long night…” as the main lights overhead turn off, leaving her in the dark.

-Jason walks his bike along the roadway to Center. As he nears the entrance, there are greater and greater numbers of people. The few and far between stragglers out in the desert become near crowds of construction workers, refugees and travellers (both incoming and outgoing).

-A CAG trooper spots Jason and gestures to his squad mate; the two rush him and demand to see his Identification. Jason pulls out a card with his photo and essential info. The CAG troops are unimpressed. The heavier trooper of the pair informs him that he needs a license for his bike, or they will have to confiscate it. The trooper’s tone gets a glare from Jason. The pair walk Jason to the crowded admittance area.

-Out by the wrecked train, Zack and his squad mates keep watch as a few men in HASMAT gear take samples from the carcass of the creature. Zack notes to a squad mate how the beasts are getting closer with each encounter, “testing their boundaries” Zack calls it. His squad mate prefers to say “expanding their territory”.

-As the HAZMAT crew gather samples, one of the beast’s claws twitches, slicing the man across the chest. Zack and his squad mate turn to see what’s happened. The man is on the ground, a large chunk of his suit is torn off across the chest and right shoulder. Both red and silver blood are visible. The rest of the HAZMAT crew respond quickly and load the man into an osprey for evacuation.

-en route to center, the injured man begins to convulse. His exposed skin starts showing blue and purple discoloration, like a long bruise running along his musculature. His shoulder dislocates and his neck fiercely contorts. Snapping bone is heard. His right arm a bruised mass of tumor, stretched muscle, and skin, the man lies dead with blood leaking from his nose.

-The man’s remains are rushed into a contamination chamber adjacent to the hanger upon return to Center. Zack’s entire squad is forced into quarantine under orders from Kimberly’s superior officer, Operations Commander Lorro.

-Kimberly gets off the radio with Cmd. Oliver and the HAZMAT retrieval squad and tells OC Lorro that they are coming in. Fire teams in HAZMAT gear surround the Osprey as it touches down in the hanger, an external apparatus hanging on cables attached to the cargo bay holds the remains of the creature. The remains touch down and the cables are detached. The Osprey hovers forward and lands.

-The two CAGs walk Jason through the crowded admittance area. Jason asks their names, they respond by pointing to the tags on their uniforms: Bulkmeier and Skulovitch. The lights in the admittance area suddenly shut off and the dim back-up system starts up. The crowd starts to look nervous, children crying for their parents, the restless become angry. Jason looks to Bulk and asks if this is normal.

Red

-In the communications center, the comm. officers are reporting  mass power failures. Kimberly announces to Lorro that she has lost communication with the HAZMAT unit and Cmd. Oliver’s quarantined squad. Lorro issues a request for joint military-CAG assistance to recon the HAZMAT area and get Oliver’s squad. “Standard procedure, Army and CAG.”

-Jason, lost in the crowd, pushes his way through to a clear spot behind a steel pillar. Out of sight, he unzips his jacket. Strapped tight against his chest is a small pack. From inside, he removes a palm-sized object. It is shaped something like the body of a Rolex Daytona, it’s circular center housing  a luminous gold emblem. The middle is glowing, emitting a red pulse.

-The CAG troopers in the nearest precinct get the call and gear up for search and rescue in HAZMAT conditions. One trooper in particular stands out from the squad. The only woman in the group, she’s tall, Vietnamese, tanned skin, with long black ponytail under her helmet. She eagerly slings a submachine gun over her shoulder and puts on  a characteristic grin.

- As they exit a lift, the CAG troopers meet up with the military support and head to the HAZMAT containment area. The two teams check in with command and enter the area as the doors open.

-Jason scrambles, sprinting back  through the crowd towards the outside. He takes off his backpack as he runs, tossing it aside and making a mad dash for the closing gate. A CAG squad are holding back a crowd on the outside, all screaming to let them in. The last of the soldiers move back inside, having drawn their weapons to control the crowd. The gate shuts. Jason, only meters away and closing, swears under his breath and holds the pulsing, alien object in his outstretched arms and calls out something inaudible in the din of the crowd. A blast of force knocks over two of the CAGs and a flashing ribbon of red light streaks in a path through the gate.

-the gun mounted lights illuminate the darkened HAZMAT area as the two squads descend a short flight of stairs into the central hub room. Labs and the containment area branch off down several hallways. The area is sterile and hi-tech, but dishevelled. Something is seeping out of one of the lab bay doors. The army unit moves up to clear the door as the CAG look for Cmd. Oliver’s squad. Two soldiers force the lab doors.

-All people outside the safety of the city have taken cover from some impending threat. An alarm drones constantly behind the cries of those left outside. A few soldiers are visible, helping stragglers into fortified structures. Jason emerges outside the gate, red light shining around him. Plates of alien armor shift around his body and close him in a red and gold shell, the pulsing object is integrated into the armor as a buckle around the waist.

-The lab is crowded with malformed creatures, all roughly humanoid and with a skin the texture of wet putty. They swarm toward the open doorway as the soldiers and CAG open fire.

-Over the ruins of the city, the horned monster Jason encountered earlier lumbers forward. Out of the corner of his mouth falls the better part of a 400mw gas turbine. Jason brandishes his sword and taunts the creature.

-The soldiers and the CAG engage the putty creatures in extremely close quarters. After some grotesque hand-to-hand with the putties, the soldiers are overwhelmed and, just as the first human casualty is taken, emergency power kicks up in the HAZMAT area. The lab door automatically closes, sealing in most of the putties and an unfortunate soldier, the putty stragglers are then made short work of. Over the intercom, Cmd. Oliver and his squad shout out for help. Someone yells to torch the lab. A CAG tech rushes to open the quarantine area.

-In the streets of Angel Grove, the horned creature has begun devouring construction vehicles near the causeway. Jason walks toward it as the city block around him is torn apart, his even pace offset by crumbling structures and a terrified fleeing crowd. He shouts again and the creature turns to look at him, midway through biting a crane in two.

-Red light flashes around him as Jason leaps in to the air, sword drawn and flying in for the kill. In much the same manner as before, Jason lands a superficial hit and is smacked to the ground. He tumbles a few hundred feet before standing and muttering “okay, I need help”.

-In Jason’s visor, a map of the area is laid out, as if by real-time satellite imaging. On the map, the creature is highlighted in gold. Jason mutters to himself “Now, how close are ya, boy?” The map then zooms out, revealing several miles of landscape. The gold-marked creature is now a small blip. Another blip then appears on the map, this one bright red, and quite large. “Alright, two minutes.” Jason quips “I can do that.”. He charges in for another hit.

- On the command floor, an officer reports a target, roughly the same size as the horned creature, moving in at 65/mph. Officer Hart calls over commander Lorro, telling him “Sir, it’s Oliver…sir, you have to hear this…”.

-Jason is slammed down again, displacing a large chunk of rock on impact. His armor is showing damage, sparking and letting off smoke. His visor shows the red blip approaching fast. He collapses his sword and points at the creature. Jeering it on, he shouts “okay, ugly. Let’s even it up!”. The red mark overlaps the gold on the visor display as Jason quietly counts down from three…two…one. Behind Jason, a huge dust cloud is kicked in to the air. The ground begins to tremble and, from the thick of the dust, a great roar booms over the causeway.

-The horned creature looks up from chewing on a bulldozer, it’s attention caught by the noise. Out of the falling dust charges a titanic red beast. It’s powerful legs pounding the earth and sending it hurtling towards its target, its razor jaws agape and waiting to tear apart whatever falls in to them. Anatomically, it resembles a great lizard, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but drawn larger than life. It’s body a complex of living systems, mechanical and biological. Armor of the same red as Jason’s lines every inch of it, plates shifting and pistons pumping as it thunders forward. Jason teleports off the ground, into a cockpit inside the base of the rex’s neck.

-Jason pilots the rex in combat against the horned creature. With the first charge, the rex slams into the horned creature and both of them go crashing to the ground, carving a swath through a cluster of buildings. Jason gradually lures the creature away from the crowds of people left outside Center’s gates. The beast is persistent, however, lumbering toward the gates even as Jason wrestles with it.

- The walls are shaking as the two giant creatures battle overhead. The CAG and Oliver’s squad evacuate the area and listen in to the bullhorns ordering emergency evacuation to the deep shelters. When everybody is out of the area, the CAG tech is busy activating the lab computer’s BIOHAZART alert status. Trinh smashes the glass casing next to his head with her weapon and depresses the emergency lockdown button. She quips something smart to him as they leave, Oliver shouting after them “Go, go! Get  out of here”. Suddenly, Oliver is grabbed from behind by a swarm of amorphous limbs and dragged up into the ceiling. Trinh and the Tech are stunned for a second, horrified, as he disappears before they book it out of the area.

-The rex charges at the horned beast again, but is  gored in the leg and crashes down, immobilized. The beast then plants itself near Center’s gate in a squatting position. The beast’s jaws open wide and it’s talons dig into the earth. A large, stinger-like appendage then protrudes from the beast’s throat and drills into the ground. large segments of the ground divide and reveal the first layer of Center’s defensive plating. The stinger begins slowly leaking some kind of acid on to the barrier.

-The comm. center is being evacuated as the attack above continues, visible on the large monitor screens around the room. One of the few personnel still on station turns to OC Lorro and informs him, “Sir, seismic monitors are showing a breach in the first armor layer.  Assuming constant damage, we’re looking at full breach in one hour, ten minutes.” Lorro orders full automatic lockdown and demands all personnel get to the emergency shelters. Kimberly leaves with the comm. officers as squadrons of army and CAG run the opposite direction to man the defensive stations.

-Jason is ejected from the rex’s cockpit and lands in a pile of fluid and wiring. His helmet retracts and reveals his exhausted face and bloodshot eyes. He looks over the injured rex, the frustration visible on his face. The horned beast digs deeper in to Center’s defences, unchallenged by the injured rex and easily able to fight off Jason. More of Jason’s armor retracts and he drops to his knees. He seems desperate, almost scared at the idea of losing Center. He pleads quietly, “Somebody…help me.”. The rest of Jason’s armor retracts in to the buckle and red light begins shining around him. He seems confused, looking at the light building around him and shouting “What am I supposed to do?!? Where are you taking me?!?” He vanishes, leaving Center and the rex behind at the mercy of the horned beast.

-Jason appears on his knees in a cavernous hall, imposing and alien architecture stretches up and outward all around. Twenty feet ahead of him, there is a bright globe projected in three dimensions displaying the Earth, as seen from orbit. Jason shouts out to an unseen listener, “It’s too strong, I can’t stop it. I can’t stop it on my own.” The viewing globe fades away. Farther down the hall, a luminous beam shines up from a sunken ring in the floor and terminates in a matching ring high above. In the beam of light, a face is projected, it’s features wise, weathered with age. The eyes sunken and black, the nose flat and wide and too high on the head. It’s mouth thin and its teeth of inhuman pattern. It is not a human face, but it is empathic toward Jason’s plea. It speaks in plain English, affected only by physical differences from human facial construction. “Four others will help you.”

-Zack and his squad mates are buckling in to an emergency elevator. Trinh and her CAG squad mates are moving down a red-lit corridor.

- Kimberly is following the comm. techs, running down a flight of stairs out of the comm. center. Kim stops suddenly as the crowd passes her. She seems sick for a moment and puts her hand to her head. A rosy light creeps around her as she lifts lightly off the stairs. A tech turns around to look for her and sees as she vanishes. “Kim…”.

-In the hangar bay, mechanic crews are hurriedly locking down armed Humvees and rolling out to attempt short range combat against the attacking creature. One of the mechanics is enveloped in blue light in mid lockdown. A fellow mechanic grabs hold of his arm and tries to hold on, but he vanishes within seconds.

-Trinh is bathed in a harsh yellow light, which turns the red-lit hallway a bright orange as she begins phasing through the wall she is pressed against.

-Zack is locked in to the elevator when a gray light overtakes him. He vanishes in full view of his squad mates.

-The horned beast continues to spurt acid into the dissolved armor plating that protects Center. The rex is collapsed nearby and the few Army Humvees left outside the gates are circling the beast, attempting to distract it with barrages of machine gun fire and anti-aircraft missiles.

-On a ridge above the action, the dust is stirred up as five orbs of chromatic light pulse up in contrast with the rising night behind them. In the cloud of florescence and energy, five figures materialize. Red, black, pink, blue and yellow. Five stand together, armor saturated by the setting sun ahead.

Long Night

-The horned beast smashes a Humvee. Its arm becomes detached at the elbow and falls to the ground. The limb breaks apart into piles of muscle, which then dissolves and pools on the ground. From the liquid, a horde of putties emerge, crawling from the pool as they congeal into humanoid figures.

-Charging in to battle, the rangers arm themselves. Weaponry unfolds from the gauntlets on their armor. Red, black, blue, yellow, pink: a sword, an axe, a spear, twin daggers, a whip.

-Jason carves through the first putty and makes a b-line for the downed rex, breaking off from the others. Zack is quick to adjust to the armor’s capabilities, moving wisely and keeping his eye on the others. Despite Zack’s help, Billy is quickly surrounded, tackled and knocked to the ground. His spear morphs into an automatic weapon, with which he clears a path to Zack, Trinh and Kim. The four circle up and continue the fight.

-The rex, now covered in a swarm of putties, is motionless on the ground. Jason crashes in, thinning the horde. He collapses his sword and equips a firearm, which he uses to blast away the creatures covering the rex’s head. The rex’s eyes seem dead, it lies motionless. Kneeling on the rex’s lifeless flank, Jason fires at the last nearby putty, blasting it into a shower of gray refuse. He uselessly begs the rex to wake up. He stands up, observing the rest of his team.

-The other rangers have by now finished off the last of the putties and are waiting for their leader before they continue. Jason warps down, checks out the situation and orders the others to stand down.

-In unison, all of the ranger’s helmets retract. All of their eyes are closed, save for Jason’s. Kimberly opens her eyes, falling back slightly before catching herself. Jason tells her to try and stand still. Zack and Billy open their eyes, then Trinh, who looks seriously ill. Jason tells them they will be fine in a few minutes, to which Trinh responds by vomiting and falling over. Billy leans down to help her back up. Jason says again, “try and keep still. We have some time.”

-the sun sets and night begins in full. the sky is smoggy, but the stars are visible. Jason stands as the four others rest nearby. Zack kneels, Billy sits down, Trinh is still on all fours feeling ill and Kimberly has passed out.

-Zack approaches Jason, who remains stoic and facing the horned beast as it stands statuesque against the skyline .Zack speaks to Jason, “I couldn’t control myself. I knew what was happening, I knew what to do next, but I couldn't control it.”He asks Jason to let him know what’s happening. Jason responds, “I’m amazed only Pink is getting the side effects. She’ll be fine in a few hours, but keep your eyes on her.” Zack’s impatience with the situation comes to a head and he snaps at Jason “You've got to give me SOMETHING god dammit!” Jason turns to face him, “You get to save the day, that’s what’s happening.”

-The horned beast is still standing, it’s acid-spewing apparatus has retracted and it seems to be recovering from having given up its limb to spawn the putties and defend itself.

-Kimberly wakes up, her vision of the star field distorted through her armor’s visor. Complicated patterns and reticules crowd her field of view. Panicking, she tries to remove her helmet, but it remains fixed.  Zack takes her hands, telling her she’s okay. Jason turns to her, letting her know the armor is fine-tuning itself. She relaxes and the helmet retracts. Zack helps her up and explains that they are waiting for backup, and that the huge creature hasn’t moved in almost four hours.

-As the rangers lie waiting, Jason attempts to explain things and help them to deal with the situation. Choice was random, following certain parameters. The armor is functioning automatically until the wearers adjust to using it. As far as he knows, the armor is not of human origin. After their body goes through a full day/night cycle in the armor, they will be allowed to choose if they want to continue using it to protect human life under Jason’s command, or reject that responsibility.

- Kim drifts in and out of consciousness. She over hears Billy asking Jason “Zord? what’s a Zord?” to which Jason replies, “well, you've got to call it something.”

-Jason is sitting, leaning back on his sword, which is driven into the ground. He carves eyes and teeth on his helmet with the tip of his armored index finger.

 -Jason stands up, collapsing the blade and turning to the others. In his visor, four green lights are visible, like the one seen when the rex approached.

- Behind him, the sun is rising. Jason looks out over the valley and calls the team to action. “It’s time.”

-Billy points out to a shadow in the distance, asking aloud “what is that? It’s huge…”. Jason responds “that one’s yours, blue”. Jason quickly briefs the others. “we’re going to fight again soon. Black, Yellow, face north. Blue, Pink, south and west. You’ll have more control this time. All you have to do is meet me in the middle. Good luck. You can ask questions later, I promise.”. He vanishes, the others following one by one.

-Jason speaks to the others as they find themselves each seated in biomechanical control centers, their armor physically merging with the surrounding technology. “Imagine you’re running, put everything into it!”. Zack’s boot slams down, intercut with the mastodon zord’s foot smashing the ground. Billy pumps his fists forward, intercut with the triceratops zord’s front treads revving. Trinh drops to a sprinting stance (focus on supporting hand), intercut with the saber-tooth zord’s claw digging down. Kim grabs control modules on either wall of her cockpit, intercut with the pterodactyl zord spreading it’s wings.

-The horned beast has spent the night recovering. It has spread a net of vascular tissue around it and is absorbing the wrecked Humvee and the corpses of its crew to replenish the lost mass of its forearm. The creature’s eyes open as it senses the giant machines moving toward it. It rises from its hunched position, standing tall and gathering the relapsed vascular web into a stump, plates of metal and concrete bulge out, forming a grotesque kanabo­ the size of an eighteen-wheeler. The burning orange of the sunrise casts a golden aura over the horned beast as it prepares to fight.

Daybreak

-Jason commands the others to attack from within the immobile rex. Zack charges with the mastodon, smashing buildings aside. Billy looks around the cockpit, curious. He asks, half to himself “can I..? Guns?”. The triceratops’ aft section divides and transforms. An alien canon emerges as Billy takes hold of a control module. The mastodon rams the horned beast. It takes the charge head-on, but is pushed back. Billy’s canon fires an aquamarine projectile ,which hits, knocking the creature over. It catches itself and begins to get back up when Trinh tackles it with the sabertooth. The creature grapples the zord and throws it off. Trinh lands on all fours in an intersection. The creature’s weapon swings laterally after the throw and finds the mastodon’s front right leg, causing it to careen into a building. Zack is hurled into the side of his cockpit.

-Jason struggles to make the rex stand as the others hold off the creature. The sun glints off of Kim’s zord as she makes her approach above the combat.

-As Trinh makes ready to pounce at the beast from behind, Kim dives in from the front and embeds the pterodactyl’s talons in its gut while slashing at its head with her wings. Trinh clings to the back and the creature thrashes while falling forward.

-Billy lines up a clean shot, but waits for Kimberly and Trinh to get out of the way. Zack is struggling to right the mastodon zord and emerge from the rubble. Stray survivors can be seen fleeing the battle and making for cover away from the giant machines.

-The creature grabs the sabertooth by the leg and drags her to the ground. Billy takes his shot, but misses. He is about to charge in, but Jason calls on everyone to hold back.

-The creature holds still, hunching up. It extends its acid-drip again, this time expelling it entirely from its esophagus onto the ground. Acid leaks from it and bores a trench into the land underneath.

-Inside the rex, five crystalline orbs are laid out in front of Jason. Each one is tinted the color of one of the rangers’ armor. He calls out to all the others, “The longer we go on, the less of a chance we have. We can finish this, but it needs to happen now. Are you all with me?”. Trinh’s helmet retracts. Her zord has been tossed to the ground and battered. She speaks her mind before anyone else says a word. “Do we really have a choice?” she lowers her head, closes her eyes. Jason almost seems angry for a passing moment, but then Zack speaks up. “We didn’t choose it, but we have this chance, and things are gonna be bad if we don’t take it. I’m with you.” Kim speaks. “he’s right, if anybody wants to quit, you can do it on your own damn time!” Billy adds in.“I’m with you”.

-Trinh looks up, her confidence renewed. “Alright red guy, but you owe me for this.”

-the creature’s skin has begun to develop an exoskeleton. The acid drip continues dissolving the land and creating a craggy trench where the ground was previously flat.

-Jason calls out to the others, “we’re bringing them all together.” Inside the rex, he gathers all the colored modules. the rangers take hold of their own modules, each one represented in their own cockpit among four white spheres. The lights all drift together as the zords move in to position around the rex.

-The five zords transform, merging together into a massive frame. The triceratops and sabertooth lock on to the rex’s knee joints and fold in their legs. The mastodon’s shoulders divide, its front limbs lower and extend, forming humerus, ulna, radii and hands. It’s head shifts into place behind the left shoulder and it’s spinal column attaches to the rex’s back. The rex’s head and neck fold down and reveal a mechanical humanoid head. The machine resembles a human being, in as much as the ones that comprise it resemble other life forms from Earth’s past. The Megazord begins to stand.

-As the skeletal machine rises, it’s shoulders fill out with armored bulkheads and the mastodon’s cranial section forms a shield on the left forearm. The pterodactyl approaches and layers the sections of its wings across the chest of the figure to create a cuirass. As Kim’s zord finishes, the head is encased in armor resembling a horned kabuto helmet.

-Within Jason’s cockpit, the walls shift and create space enough for five. The other rangers appear in beams of color, arranged around a center point with a sphere of white light in the center.

-The horned beast stirs, turning to gaze across the city at the megazord. It lifts its weapon and charges forward. The two gargantuans collide, the megazord’s shield taking the hit as it is  knocked back. The creature snarls as the megazord draws a blade. The creature lifts for another swing, but the megazord cuts it short with a slash to the chest. The horned beast crashes down with the megazord’s sword stuck between its ribs. The beast lies dead and begins to rapidly decompose.

- behind a wrecked Humvee, a small group of infantry and some civilians look on at the megazord. They are all that remains of those left outside.

-The rangers warp down to the cliff edge over the survivors. The megazord towers above the scene.

-the megazord lumbers away on its own, leaving the rangers on the cliff. The small crowd is waving, cheering in celebration. Trinh waves back.

-Zack asks where the megazord is going. Jason replies “it’ll separate, but each of them will stay close by, in case we need them again. They live out there. Sometimes I forget just how far out of our control all of this is.”

“That creature was the first one that I couldn't handle on my own.” 

“So you draft up four strangers  and throw them into a war zone?”

“That’s better than getting myself killed and leaving 100,000 people in the hands of whatever’s left of the U.S. army.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, we've survived against them since the beginning.”

“Barely. Nobody down there knows  about fighting these things, not on real terms. No one knows how to stop them.”

-Zack retracts his helmet

 “Sure as hell seems like you found a way.”

“I was in the same position you are now. I didn't find it, it found me. I didn't ask, but I did take the chance when it was offered.”

-Billy walks up to Zack and Jason, his helmet off. He responds to Jason.

“So, who offered it?”

Jason-“I’ll show you.”

The Crèche

-The rangers materialize, each of their helmets either collapsed of being carried. They are tiny in comparison to the cavernous, monolithic surroundings. Jason walks ahead, the others follow him through the massive structure. In this strange space, their armor takes on a luminous quality in the absence of any direct light source.

-They reach the top of a large ramp to see the spot Jason had approached before. The ring on the floor glows brightly in the dim, cavernous hall.

Zack-“what is this place?”

Billy-“Big…”

Jason-“very, very important.”

-Jason stands over the ring, looking up to the matching one on the ceiling. Jason calls out, “Are you here?”. Light fills the void between the rings and the alien face appears again. It responds, “Always”.

-Billy, Trinh, Zack and Kim take in the sight in front of them. Billy utters “…what…?”. Kim steps forward.

Kim-“what is it?”

Jason-“Ask him yourself.”

-Jason backs away, leaving Kim alone. She looks it square in the eyes.

Kim-“What are you?”

-the voice that responds is low and quiet, it’s tonality is strange. “I am here to preserve human life on this planet. I study it, monitor it, and when it is threatened, I provide means for it to protect itself.”

Zack-“Who made you? Japan, Russia, China, U.S.?”

“I do not understand.”

-Billy suddenly looks as if he has realized something.

Billy -“Wait…you’re alive, not a recording, not an A.I.?”

 “I am alive.”

Kim -“Are you human?”

“No.”

Zack-“What do you mean…?”

Billy-“Alien life, intelligent alien life.”

“I am here to observe and protect.”

Billy-“What about the prime directive, no interference?”

Zack- “Why are you giving us tools to fight a war?”

“To correct our great mistake.”

-Jason gets a worried look on his face. He looks to the being in the light as if he knows what is coming.

Kim-“Do you mean this is something you let happen?

Trinh-“Is that what all this is, toss the human race a fire extinguisher after you burn our house down?”

“War is unpredictable, but I am offering you a means to fight it.”

-Trinh throws her helmet to the ground.

Trinh-“No. I’m not getting drafted in to this. You can’t force me again. You even make me the yellow one? SCREW YOU!”

-The face in the light looks saddened at Trinh’s outburst.

“You may choose not to protect humankind.”

-Jason steps closer to Trinh.

Jason-“You’ll regret it, believe me. You can’t live out there knowing you could have changed things.”

Trinh-“I can, it’s the only place I’ve ever lived. You said it was random, right? Pull somebody else’s number.”

Jason-“I know this is a lot of weight on your shoulders, but this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't really, truly, the last hope for mankind.”

-Trinh looks at her hands, clad in  armor, and then into the beam of light.

Trinh-“I believe it, that the world is so close to gone. I believe you. There wouldn't be a single living person in Center if you hadn't taken us, thrown us in as fast as possible. But there needs to be choice. There has to be choice.”

 “Life exists so rarely, that it is worth paying any price to protect. I am truly sorry that you all were subject to this without consent. That choice will be given to you now. Intelligent life, human life can now only be preserved with this power, but only if it chooses to preserve itself. In either case, I owe you all an unimaginable debt for what you have done.

-Trinh contemplates those words. She looks to Billy, to Kim and Zack. She reaches down and picks up her helmet. For the first time, we see Jason’s expression leaven into a smile.

Jason-“Are you in for good this time?”

Trinh-“You know, I think I convinced myself.”

-Billy holds his head in his hands “This is too much to process.”

-Jason walks toward the opposite end of the chamber. The holographic globe nearby shows Earth from orbit.

Jason-“It’s almost time.”

Zack-“what do you mean?”

Jason-“The armor’s adapted to you, you can choose now. Do you want to keep fighting?”

Kim-“does it have to be like that, always on the front line?”

-the being in the light speaks and the group turns to face him.

“Only and always when you are needed.”

-All at once, every ranger’s armor retracts into the small buckles around their waists.  Each of them glance to one another. Jason looks to the others and puts out his hand. Zack joins him. Billy  follows suit. Kim puts in her hand. Trinh closes her eyes and puts her hand on top.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

JASON IS FIRST SEEN IN THE RED ARMOR ATTEMPTING TO STOP GOLDAR’S ADVANCE ON THE CITY. HE IS FIRST SEEN UNSUITED RIDING HIS MOTORCYCLE INTO ANGEL GROVE.

KIM IS FIRST HEARD OVER THE COMM. SPEAKING TO THE TRAIN WRECK SURVIVORS. SHE IS FIRST SEEN AT HER POST ON THE COMMAND FLOOR (BEING DEBRIEFED BY O.C. LORRO)

ZACK IS FIRST SEEN IN THE RESCUE OSPREY THAT THE FATHER AND SON BOARD AFTER THE TRAIN WRECK.

BILLY IS FIRST SEEN IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE OSPREY HANGAR AS THE RESCUE CRAFT TOUCHES DOWN. WE FIRST SEE HIM PROPERLY WHEN THE RANGERS ARE GIVEN THE ARMOR.

TRINH IS FIRST SEEN AMONG HER C.A.G. SQUAD DURING THE JOINT C.A.G.-ARMY MISSION.

SYNOPSIS  

WAKE UP

-WE WITNESS THE LUNAR DISASTER FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MOON BASE CREW. THIS SETS THE TONE FOR SCIENCE FICTION AND ACTION WHILE ALSO ESTABLISHING SETTING DETAILS.

DUEL

-WE SEE JASON ATTEMPT TO STOP GOLDAR’S APPROACH ON ANGEL GROVE. THIS INTRODUCES US TO THE SURFACE LANDSCAPE AND INTRODUCES THE RANGERS’ CAPABILITIES AS WELL AS THE THREAT OF GOLDAR APPROACHING THE CITY.

ARRIVAL

-WE FOLLOW JASON AS HE RIDES, UNSUITED, IN TO THE RUINS OF ANGEL GROVE. THIS FAMILIARISES US WITH THE SURFACE AND SHOWS US THE CITIZENS OF ANGEL GROVE WHILE INTRODUCING US TO JASON AS A CHARACTER.  

ON THE ROAD

- WE SEE JASON FEND OFF GOLDAR FROM ATTACKING A MEDICAL TRANSPORT. THIS BUILDS JASON’S FRUSTRATION WITH HIS STRUGGLE TO STOP GOLDAR WHILE GIVING US A CLEAR LOOK AT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SUFFER THE MOST IF JASON FAILS TO PROTECT THE CITY.

INSIDE

-WE SEE THE INNER WORKINGS OF CENTER AS THE SURVIVORS FROM THE TRANSPORT ARRIVE AND HAVE TO BE QUARANTINED.  THIS ESTABLISHES THE BIOHAZARD THREAT AND SHOWS US WHAT CENTER IS, AND HOW IT WORKS.

RED

- WE SEE THE CAG/ARMY SECURE THE QUARANTINE AREA FROM PUTTIES WHILE JASON USES HIS ZORD IN A LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO STOP GOLDAR INSIDE THE CITY. THIS SHOWS THE HUMAN EFFORT TO SURVIVE, AS WELL AS THEIR LIMITS AND THE NECESSITY OF THE RANGERS.

LONG NIGHT

-WE FOLLOW THE FIVE RANGERS AS THEY ARE GIVEN THEIR ARMOR AND ADJUST TO IT OVER THE COURSE OF THE NIGHT AS GOLDAR RECOVERS FROM THEIR ATTACK. THIS SHOWS US THE RANGERS AS CHARACTERS REACTING TO EACH OTHER AND THEIR SITUATION.

DAYBREAK

-WE SEE THE RANGERS BATTLE GOLDAR IN THEIR ZORDS AND DEFEAT HIM THROUGH TEAMWORK USING THE MEGAZORD. THIS SHOWS THE RANGERS WORKING TOGETHER AND REALISING THE SCALE OF THE CONFLICT AND HOW THEY COPE WITH THEIR NEWFOUND RESPONSIBILITY.

THE CRÈCHE

-WE SEE JASON INTRODUCE THE RANGERS TO ZORDON AND THE COMMAND CENTER, AFTER WHICH THEY DECIDE AS A GROUP TO CONTINUE THE FIGHT. THIS GIVES EXPLANATION TO THE ALIEN TECHNOLOGY WHILE ALLOWING EACH CHARACTER TO DEVELOP AND GIVE THEIR ANSWER.

INTRODUCTION

RISING ACTION

CLIMAX

FALLING ACTION

RESOLUTION