The Smallest Journey

The Smallest Journey (Screenplay)


THE SMALLEST JOURNEY


The journey inward has a value of “0” and stretches the greatest of distances.




WRITTEN BY


Joe Casanovas



STORY BY


Joe Casanovas and Kevin Skarnulis








Joe Casanovas

joecasanovas.com

casanovasjoseph@gmail.com

773.319.6073


Kevin Skarnulis

TcTechCoach.com

skarnuli@gmail.com

231.633.5020






Voice Over


The journey inward has a value of “0” and spans the greatest of distances.



SCENE 1 University Classroom - Elmhurst, Illinois - Today 


Text slowly populates a screen to create a quilt of recognizable science fiction film titles.  


An Elmhurst University Humanities professor teaching, 


HUM 451 - Reason, Logic, Rhetoric, and and the psychology of Group Think 


for those physically present and 1024 remote learners around the world.


PROFESSOR 


Once humans have conceptualized an idea, even a fiction, acceptance as reality is not such a great leap.


Follow me along a timeline for one singular thought. One construct. One premise. In 1938, the average American citizen thought about aliens less than once per year.


Today, 66% believe there is intelligent life on exoplanets. 45% believe UFOs exist and have visited the Earth. In less than one hundred years, society has moved that far, that fast. One idea went from primordial ooze to nearly fully formed truth.


Why is a shift in thinking of this magnitude possible in such a relatively short period of time?  Why is the change so, well, kinetic?


Is it possible that we are being incrementally socialized to accept the existence of aliens? From Farscape to Alien Nation to Star Trek, it all culminates in the unveiling of the premise that aliens exist. 


Classroom Screen


A progression of movie titles plays at the press of a button and we see a barrage of film examples: 


Psychology Department professor Joe Casanovas, creates a class around these themes following the 2016 election and subsequent rise of “Q”.  


He utilizes conspiracy theories and cult behavior to provide a space to analyze the structure of false theories and examine the narcissism that leads to people feeding “the cause” at the expense of their humanity.  

PROFESSOR JOE (Music faintly in the background)


What if aliens really exist? What if we have been given a blueprint for our true reality and the best place to hide it is in plain sight?  


All “it” requires is for you to connect the dots. Do you believe in coincidences? The messages can be divined by the rose petals gifted by the movies playing in your local theater, home, car, mobile device, gym, bar, and nearly everywhere you can imagine. 


What if there was a thoughtful plan designed to slowly socialize us to the existence of aliens and cosmic space travel through the beauty and majesty of film?


Why are we so fascinated by vampires?  We know they don’t exist, yet the gravity of Vampire mythology is all too powerful, constantly drawing us into the symbiotic and even destructive nature of consumption of energy.  Perhaps the vampire myth is a variation of the analogy of harnessing energy from an unsuspecting host.  


Perhaps it represents our relationship with the planet.  At any rate, it is deep inside our identity.


Energy Vampires, for example, could be a vessel or technology.  Is it a ship drawing heat from the passengers like a vampire sucks life from its victims. There were several movies that explore humans as batteries long before the Matrix suggests we are grown in endless fields of human nuclear energy grape vines.  Vampires have been sucking our “life force” since the 50s in movies. Quite literally in my favorite version in the 1980’s classic, Lifeforce. 


The series “V” suggested we were food with all the fashion and panache the 1980s had to offer. 


Jupiter Ascending, a later take on the energy extraction of humans, looks at Earth as a seeded planet with the sole purpose of granting eternal life to the aristocracy of the Universe and their flock.  A base, nestled in the atmosphere of Jupiter, is used to monitor the expansive wealth of energy resting on the third rock from the Sun. 


Dracula folks, has a genesis in our deep seated wondering about our worth as electron capacitors.


(Dracula, Life Force, Jupiter Ascending)


More movie Images


Are we “asleep”?  Are we on a voyage?”  I had a dream one night that I reached for the red button. Did you think of “Lost” as well? I tried pressing the buttons and then went “under” again.  


Are we traveling to a new planet?  Is it a long sleep, hibernation, deep space traveling, water-based, sludge basin spa treatment? What are the tea-leaves telling us?  Are you on a voyage to a new start, a new star, one that is occurring at this very moment? 


Are we luggage? Are movies the means to slowly socialize us to the reality that we are in a vast simulation designed to keep us resting during our prolonged voyage? 


(Interstellar, Passengers, The Matrix)


Joe gestured vaguely to a figure lurking in the back of the auditorium.


Some may say we overestimate our birthright. One may point to the many conflicts that we find ourselves wrestling with on a daily basis, essentially, forever. The struggle with our families, neighbors, coworkers, enemies, and closest friends. We could rattle off the list, but let’s focus for now on the current four horsemen: Environmental Collapse, Guns, Healthcare, and Abortion. 


Existential Nihilism suggests, and I quote from our friends at Wikipedia, ”A single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence.” 


Some of you may recognize this in Dan Harmon’s character, Rick Sanchez, from Rick and Morty. Is it too late for Humans on Earth or elsewhere? 


Whether it’s too late and the Global Warming ship has sailed, or maybe there was never a lifeboat at all? I say, we have the time we are given, today is our birthright. Science fiction calls us to reach out and touch the face of Mars and beyond, with a human hand nonetheless! 


What makes us essentially and uniquely Human if not our drive to solve problems and see what lies over the next ridge? All tenants of science fiction lore.  


What if I told you science fiction was becoming indistinguishable with the belief system of many Americans?  Research suggests that people under 50 align their value system as much with “The Force” from Star Wars than any major religion. 


Alarming, or reassuring we are making progress?


Professor Casanovas (Joe) speaking and then quickly back to more movie Images


Reach up and pull off your mask!  The simulation is upon you in Sphere.  Is it spirits, golems, technology, or our own devices keeping us in this status?  Are we in an altered reality?   


Are you in control?  Is that dream you had one day about reaching for the latch in reality, the true reality?  Did you wake up for a brief moment, and then get pulled back into sleep.  


Are you in your cell serving your penance?  Did you choose to be here or there, I should say. Are you Zhuang Zhou dreaming you are a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming you are Zhuang Zhou?

(Ready Player 1, Sphere)


An image of the Borg from Star Trek Lore


Locutus of Borg, and 7 of 9 show us a world where the collective is paramount. 

 

(In a hushed tone) Shhh… Don't tell anyone, but there is an intense fear of socialism in our country even though our capitalistic system has always been laced with socialist components. The Borg race are one species sharing in all things possible, at the expense of free will. Some see the Borg as a cautionary tale, but also draw parallels to values native peoples celebrate concerning a collective as a whole species, not just tribes. Many Aboriginal people believe we are all part of the same being.  


Literature is also brimming with the idea that we serve a purpose as components of one species. The short story “The Egg” by Andy Weir suggests the entirety of human experience is designed to teach and learn lessons.  


How do these ideas fit into our reality when coupled with Star Trek? Are we being socialized to other civilizations? Do aliens behave like the Borg and celebrate the beliefs of our native peoples?  


We certainly fail to meet this end. But how does science fiction play a part in understanding the vastness of the universe and what is possible inside each of us?


Joe speaking in the small auditorium


Again, why are we slowly and continuously being socialized to the idea that aliens exist, and to what end?  


Let's look to the origins of mass indoctrination of alien life, The War of the Worlds broadcast. It taught us that there could be mayhem with the instantaneous introduction of aliens.  Humans require a systematic introduction and induction to the possibility of aliens.  A slow ever evolving assimilation and orientation to the reality of alien existence, and our own cooperation with them. 


The sudden and rapid introduction could harm the populace and alter our fragile, shared reality that is ever eroded by unshared experiences. 

(The Day the Earth Stood Still, Contact, Arrival, War of the Worlds)


We are already miles away from each other.  People have never felt so isolated, and yet never have so many had so much access to information and technology.


An animation of Moore’s Law on the Screen… Exponential graphs coupled with pictures showing the change in technology per computing capacity.




Continued...