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Synopsis for
Colorado Lobsters
©
A screenplay by and property of
Gordon Hayes
Genre: Science Fiction/Action.
Brace yourself: this screenplay is a kind of Social Horror, interspersed with Dark Humor and a plot twist reminiscent of a ``Mission Impossible'' episode and, uses an anti-hero as a protagonist. The bad guys do get it in the end.
However--so do a few others....
This is the tale of AARON LUCAS, an outwardly normal and bright, but troubled young man. Upon graduation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and unbeknownst to the audience, Aaron decides to seek revenge on either the Nuclear Generating Statio n where his father worked and died, or SULLEY TATE, Aaron's Father's old friend and ex-boss (and murderer, as is eventually exposed). Tate is the Station Manager/Director.
In the opening scenes, Aaron is missing his graduation day by leaving MIT and heading out for a new job that is beneath his skills. He says good-bye to his favorite Professor by giving him a small, accurate mock-up and working model of a nuclear bomb. Aar on secretly has a second mock-up bomb in his truck, that he is taking with him to his new job.
Aaron has been hired into his Father's old position by Tate, as an act of kindness for the son of an ``old friend''. Aaron quietly acts the Crusader against the Station's (e.g., Tate's) poor management. It turns out that Tate has been cleverly embezzling funds for years, leaving the Station (or ``Plant'') and its employees to suffer. Through ``palm greasing'', the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found all involved to be innocent in the incident of Aaron's Father's death.
Aaron is initially dedicated to fixing up the Plant. His Father died while heroically trying to shut off a faulty valve, thus, saving the plant and the environment.
Here' the ``Monkey-wrench'': Aaron is beginning to fade into occasional bouts of psychosis, and has been hallucinating speaking to his Father. This is a result of the stress he's been putting himself through and over-usage of the drugs he started using to help him cope in the first place. Eventually, Aaron believes his Father is the one seeking revenge, through him.
Unknown to her, Aaron recruits Tate's daughter, MARVA, against her father, allowing him to frame Tate of stealing plutonium, by putting the now ``uploaded'' mock-up nuclear weapon into Tate's car trunk. While Aaron was framing Tate, Tate has figured out w hat a problem Aaron has become. Tate has framed Aaron, who gets caught at home by the law and (here's where the ``Mission: Impossible'' twist comes in) turns the tables by playing ``dumb stooge'' to Tate's ``mastermind''. Therefore, it turns out in the en d that even though Aaron has been falling apart, he has still outwitted and out-smarted everyone, with a few minor exceptions as we shall see.
As the Lawmen are driving Aaron from his home to jail, the bomb goes off in the distance, in Tate's trunk (just as Tate opens the trunk and sees it). The bomb takes out the nearby plant and the Lawmen arresting Aaron are killed in an accident, but Aaron s urvives.
Due to Aaron having planned everything so very well, such as the Plant being located far enough from town, and the nuclear weapon not being very big on purpose, few people are killed. However, it does kill Tate and everyone else that knows anyone is invol ved in anything wrong. After the blast, people are seen walking along the roads (away from the plant location). People can be seen walking past Aaron's house, just to get some more distance from the blast. None of the cars are working due to the EMP (Elec tro-Magnetic Pulse) from the nuclear blast.
Remember Marva? She finally realizes what Aaron has done and (having earlier seen her propensity for firearms) she shoots first Aaron, and then herself. This will eventually support the surviving evidence toward Aaron being clean in the eyes of the Govern ment.
When Marva arrives at Aaron's, he is just beginning to cook two very much alive, lobsters. They are in a big pot on the BBQ out back and the coals are beginning to heat the pot. The critters don't have much time left. Marva comments about them and where h e could have gotten live lobsters at this time, and especially after a nuclear blast. Aaron responds that they are actually just crawdads, and are fresh from the creek that runs through the back of his property (originating somewhere near the plant).
These crawdads serve as a humorous icon for the nuclear plant having secretly poisoned the environment (what can I say, it comes off well in the screenplay). Marva brushes the oddity of it off because of her determined plans to confront Aaron about what h e has done. During her ensuing barrage of bullets, the first spent round strikes one of the BBQ tripod legs, tipping it over and spilling the pot of still cold water and lobsters onto the ground. This allows them to crawl back to their creek, oblivious to all.
Marva's shots from her .357 revolver are successful in three things: spilling the BBQ, wounding Aaron with a non-fatal trauma thus knocking him unconscious, and removing her from any more speaking parts in this screenplay.
Aaron eventually survives his hospital stay, living to work another day; at a similar run-down Plant. The audience is left with Aaron arriving at a new Plant, having caught a ride there from a cute (and interested) woman.
The ``thoughts'' you are left with at the end, are a dichotomy of whether there will be a repeat performance here, like at the last Plant (which is to occur after the screenplay's end), or not. Aaron's ambiguous, Malcolm McDowell insane-type of facial exp ression and perhaps also, body language (while he is walking away from the camera and toward the Plant) are one of ambiguity and twisted humor.
The ending should leave the audience with a twisted smile that they don't realize at first, and that they know they shouldn't be wearing. This type of ending can be experienced by watching the end of ``A Clockwork Orange'' (with Malcolm McDowell in a hosp ital bed). McDowell's psychotic character Alex, makes you smile. You know you shouldn't, but you just can't help it. Then you get kind of worried.
- End of
Colorado Lobsters
Screenplay Synopsis -
Copyright, 1984 & Library of Congress, June 1996
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Gordon Hayes