It's All In The Past
This is a short script for a screenplay that I wrote for my Creative Writing class. Scripts are written different than a normal novel because they do not include internal thoughts. The only dialogue that is shown on a script is what is supposed to be spoken during the play or movie.
A script is also supposed to be written in present tense and has information such as facial expressions and actions that the actor has to know when preforming.
For this particular assignment I had to keep the setting very minimal with few scene changes and characters. This is what I came up with. (The numbers within the script are the page numbers)
IT’S ALL IN THE PAST
FADE IN
Two teenage boys hide behind a fence while watching a car
pull out of the driveway from the house next to them.
As the black 1969 Ferrari Dino GT drives past, they see a
brown haired man wearing aviators and an outback hat. His
arm is hanging out of the open window with a cigar between
his fingertips.
The car drives off and disappears down the suburban street.
JEREMY
Now’s our time, he should be out
for a while.
NICK
(Looking into the closed
window of the house)
What’s in there?
JEREMY
(Prying the window open with
a screwdriver he took out of
his back jean pocket)
Who knows, probably all of his
artifacts.
The window screeches open. Jeremy climbs in first
without hesitation while Nick guards the outside.
NICK
(Chuckling)
I hope he doesn’t have a dog in
there.
Jeremy disappears within the house for a few seconds before
poking his head outside the widow.
JEREMY
Clear!
Jeremy smiles while motioning for Nick to hurry up.
As Nick scrambles through the window and into the house he
looks around in disappointment.
NICK
(Disappointed)
What is this, I thought he’s a
world traveler;I don’t want any of
this crap.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.
The boys stand in the middle of a dining room. There is a
generic wooden table with six matching chairs. The floor is
carpeted with grey and ends when it hits the egg shell white
of the walls.
There are no pictures hanging on the walls; no loose papers
anywhere in sight.
Everything is perfectly clean; sterile.
JEREMY
He has to keep his stuff somewhere,
maybe he hides it.
NICK
Or maybe he doesn’t really travel
at all.
The two boys look at each other
JEREMY
Well we’re already here, let’s just
look around and see what we can
find.
They look in his basement which has a bar with a TV and a
black leather couch.
They come back onto the main floor to find his bedroom. They
look through it and are not surprised to see another
perfectly clean room.
It consists of a queen sized bed, covered in garnet covers
and a dresser filled with dark denim and
various coloured flannel shirts.
They walk back into the living room.
NICK
(Bitter)
What a waste of time, there
is absolutely nothing interesting
about this guy...Lets get out of
here.
JEREMY
(Points to the staircase
leading upstairs )
Hold on lets check up here before
we go. Then we can say we searched
his entire house.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 3.
NICK
(Annoyed, rolls his eyes)
Fine.
The two walk up the wooden staircase. The sun is shinning
through the window above the stairs.
When they reach the top of the stairs (which takes longer to
climb than they had expected) they see a single door.
Attached to the door is a sign that reads "Do Not Enter."
JEREMY
(Smiling)
Well Well lookey here. I think
we’ve finally found something.
NICK
What are you waiting for? Open it.
They stare at the mahogany door for a few moments before
Jeremy slowly grasps the doorknob and twists it open.
The door swings open, revealing a large dimly lit room. The
only source of light comes from a window at the far end of
the room. Rays of sunlight struggle to pierce through the
heavy curtain.
Nick walks towards the light and pulls the curtain aside.
Sunlight fills the room revealing shelves
of foreign artifacts.
The air is thick and full of dust, making it hard for them
to breath.
JEREMY
I knew it!
As Jeremy walks into the room, the door behind him slowly
swings shut but is unnoticed by the two boys looking though
the shelves.
NICK
(Holding an old stethoscope)
This is amazing! I wonder where he
got this.
The two of them sift through the room looking at items such
as maps, fossils, rare stones, and historic weapons.
JEREMY
(Pulling out his cell phone
from the back pocket of his
jeans to look at the time)
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 4.
Holy it’s already been an hour!
Lets start packing up and get out
of here before he comes back.
Nick and Jeremy take their backpacks off and frantically
start piling items inside.
Within a few minutes, both Nick and Jeremy are ready to
leave.
Nick twists open the doorknob and rushes out of the room.
Before Jeremy steps out, he takes one last look at the
emptied room.
He sees the empty spaces outlined by ringlets of dust where
the precious artifacts had been. The room no longer holds
it’s charm.
He turns and rushes to catch up to Nick.
He feels exhausted but doesn’t understand why. When he
reaches the window that they had entered, Nick is nowhere in
sight and the window is closed shut.
He suddenly hears a rustling in the other room. He stops and
crouches low to the ground; pressing himself against the
wall.
Jeremy feels his back ache but he ignores it. He peaks
around the corner to see an old man shuffling through the
kitchen.
Jeremy inhales deeply and slowly steps towards the back
door.
The rustling continues in the kitchen as he slips through
the exit.
The sun has almost set and the trees rustle from above.
The neighborhood seems slightly different; the trees
seem slightly larger and the houses slightly weathered.
Jeremy sighs in relief and heads towards his house.
The bag feels almost unbearably heavy as he walks past the
fence he hid behind earlier.
He feels extremely exhausted so he places the bag at his
feet.
Jeremy catches a glimpse of his hands. They are not his
hands; they are brittle and wrinkled with age.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 5.
JEREMY
(Gasps in horror and
disbelief)
The wrinkled hands move towards his face to feel the thin
loose skin around his sunken eyes.
FADE TO BLACK