A number of you know that I wrote a screenplay a few years back. What a great experience that was! At some point I'll elaborate more on that. But for today, I thought I'd share a pivotal moment from that story. A moment, where the main character, is confronted by his phobia of running water (a result of being waterboarded). It's overcoming this crippling phobia that will lead him into a final showdown with the government/military forces bent on capturing him as a great totemic prize.
HIKING TRAIL
Skylar is once again on his own--and more alone than ever. He doesn't know where he's going. He's just following the trail.
AFTERNOON
Skylar stares ahead, eyes unfocused, shivering underneath a large Ponderosa pine. IT'S RAINING. Sheets and sheets of endless water pouring down as if nature were intent on drowning the whole world in a single hour.
He pays no attention to the cold dampness soaking into his skin. His shivering is a product of memories, not moisture. Memories that lock his lungs and his muscles and his mind in a replay of drowning.
FLASHBACK - THE INTERROGATION CELL
As before, Skylar is strapped to the table, looking up at the faucet through the mask of cellophane and running water. His terror is muted by the water drowning him.
PRESENT TIME
A bright flash of lightning precedes a DEAFENING PEAL of thunder. The resulting salvo triggers a synaptic thaw in his brain. More lightning/thunder. More thaw. And so his eyes slowly regain awareness. An awareness of the raging storm, and the violence of its present and past metaphors.
Then by some internal decision, he stiffly steps away from the umbrella of the pine and crosses over into a realm of furious wind and rain. He stops. Lets it cleanse him of past oppression. The weight of so many incubi. Then he begins his journey anew and is lost in the grey downpour.
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