T.V. Script Breakdown - Glee 2.07 "The Substitute"

Glee 2.07 - "The Substitute"

"When Mr Schuester gets sick, a substitute teacher takes over his Spanish class and the glee club, and winds up winning over the whole New Directions clan. Meanwhile, when Sue fills in for Principal Figgins as McKinley's top dog, she tries to flex her power on campus."

Official "Glee" website.

Writers: Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan

Main Characters:

Will Shuester
Sue Sylvester
Holly Holliday
Quinn Fabray
Kurt Hummel
Terri Shuester
Artie Abrams
Rachel Berry
Finn Hudson
Brittany S. Pierce
Mercedes Jones
Santana Lopez
Noah "Puck" Puckerman
Tina Cohen-Chang
Mike Chang
Principal Figgins
Becky Jackson (Sue's assistant)
Blaine (Kurt's crush)
Dave Karofsky (bullies Kurt)


TEASER

INT. McKINLEY HIGH - HALLWAYS - SUE informs WILL that she in the substitute principal while PRINCIPAL FIGGINS is out sick. Flashback - Sue steers a sick student into sneezing on Figgins. Sue says her first order of business is to destroy glee club. The sick student sneezes in Will's face.


ACT 1

INT. CHOIR ROOM - Sick Will wonders if he has a fever. Hallucinates young children versions of the glee club members. "Okay, I definitely have a fever."

INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - TERRI babies sick Will. Will kicks her out.

INT. McKINLEY HIGH - CAFETERIA/INT. CHOIR ROOM - KURT is angry because Rachel is taking over the club. Flashback - RACHEL being obnoxious. Kurt blows off plans with MERCEDES so he can hang out with Blaine. Mercedes butts into the lunch line so she can get tater tots. Kurt has a plan to deal with Rachel - the substitute Spanish teacher.

INT. McKINLEY HIGH - SPANISH CLASS/INT. ENGLISH CLASS- The substitute, HOLLY HOLLIDAY, gets the Spanish class to pay attention by talking about Lindsey Lohan. Kurt asks her to substitute the glee club as well - she subbed English recently and Kurt loved it. Flashback - Holly leads a quick musical number about conjunctions in English class. Holly agrees to sub glee club.

INT. CHOIR ROOM - Holly wins students over (except sulky Rachel) by asking what music they want to do. Flashback - Will denies PUCK'S song request. Holly leads the group in Cee-Lo's "Forget You".


ACT TWO

INT. LOCKER ROOM - Sue informs COACH BIESTE that the football team is cut. Coach Bieste asks then who are Sue's Cheerios going to cheer for?

INT. SUE'S OFFICE - Sue, frustrated at being beaten by Coach Bieste, vents in her diary. She needs a cause in which she can exercise her substitute principal powers. She spots overweight students exchanging junk food. She decides to ban tater tots.

INT. AUDITORIUM - MIKE CHANG tells Will he's glad he's back, the club can't win sectionals without him. Muscial number - Will and Mike - "Make 'Em Laugh".

INT. WILL'S APARTMENT - Will wakes up, he was dreaming the "Make 'Em Laugh" segment. Rachel comes to complain about Holly taking over glee club. Will isn't concerned about her taking over, the kids love him. Rachel - "But Sue doesn't." Flashback - Rachel sees Sue and Holly having fun together. Rachel thinks that the longer Holly stays, the more likely Will is the one who will become the substitute.

INT. CAFETERIA - Kurt blows off Mercedes again for Blaine. The Cheerios throw out all the tater tots, according to Sue's orders.

INT. SUE'S OFFICE - Mercedes tell Sue that she's going to get her tater tots back.


ACT 3

INT. McKINLEY HALLWAYS/INT. CHOIR ROOM - Holly makes friends with Rachel. Tells Rachel to loosen up a little and have some fun. Rachel says she's tried but Will shut her down. Flashback - Will denies Rachel's request to do a fun, upbeat number.

INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - Terri seduces Will.

INT. CAFETERIA - Mercedes rages about the healthy food. Kurt has set her up on a date. Mercedes starts a student chant for tater tots. Sue witnesses the chant, says the tot wars have begun.

INT. AUDITORIUM - Musical number - Rachel and Holly perform "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag".

INT. HALLWAYS - Will, still sick, staggers in. Sue informs him that Figgins isn't coming back, she is now the official principal. Her first act as principal is to fire Will.


ACT 4

INT. RESTAURANT - Mercedes is bored by Kurt and BLAINE'S gay-centric talk. She orders tots.

INT. CHOIR ROOM - Will confronts Holly, they argue. Will thinks being a teacher means setting guidelines. Holly thinks you have to go with the students' flow to get them to pay attention and learn anything. She apologizes but she's not going to turn down the job.

INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE - Mercedes is in trouble for sabotaging Sue's car with tots, and Holly is in trouble for not stopping her. Flashback - Mercedes asks permission to go out and sabotage Sue's car, Holly says sure. Holly admits to Sue that she doesn't know what she's doing.


ACT 5 

INT. WILL'S APARTMENT - Holly admits to Will that she doesn't know how to be a good teacher. Flashback - a more straight-laced Holly gets knocked out by an unruly student. Ever since then she's been non-committal to everything in her life. it works for her, but not for the kids, Mercedes is facing criminal charges. Holly is going to resign her position, go back to being a sub. Terri enters with soup for Will, mistakes Holly as Will's girlfriend. Will tells Terri to leave and not come back.

INT. McKINLEY HIGH HALLWAYS - Mercedes has snuck in tots. Kurt tells her she's substituting food for love, and him for a real boyfriend. Mercedes goes to talk to the guy Kurt set her up with. DAVE KAROFSKY tells Kurt that if Kurt tells anyone they kissed, he'll kill him.


ACT 6

INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE - Sue gives Will his job back - Holly wasn't good for the kids. Flashbacks - various glee club members tell Sue why Will should get his job back. The club will have to return Sue's car to mint condition in return for her not pressing charges on Mercedes.

INT. CHOIR ROOM - The kids welcome Will back. They're less than thrilled with his selection of the old song "Singin' In The Rain".

INT. HISTORY CLASS - Holly is subbing for the class. Will asks her to help him modernize "Singin' In the Rain".

INT. AUDITORIUM - Musical number - the glee club, Will, and Holly perform a mash-up of the old "Singin' In the Rain" and the modern "Umbrella".

END OF SHOW

Movie Script Breakdown - The Blob (1988)

The Blob (1988)

Written by: Chuck Russell, Frank Darabont
                    Based on the 1958 screenplay by Theodore Simonson, Kay Linaker (as Kay Phillips), 
                    Irvine Milgate (story)


Watch "The Blob" (1988) online.

Watch "The Blob" (1958) online.

"The Blob" (1988) imdb page.

Main characters:

Brian Flagg
Meg Penny
Paul Taylor
Scott Jeske
Sheriff Herb Geller
Deputy Bill Briggs
Fran Hewitt
Dr. Meddows
Reverend Meeker
Kevin Penny (Meg's little brother)

EXT. HIGH-SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD - PAUL TAYLOR is goaded by his buddy SCOTT into asking pretty cheerleader MEG PENNY out on a date.

EXT. WOODS - Town rebel BRIAN FLAGG attempts to jump a broken bridge on his motorcycle. He wipes out. He's applauded by a homeless man, CAN MAN, who is out collecting empty cans.

INT. DINER - SHERIFF HERB GELLER works up the nerve to ask the diner's owner FRAN HEWITT out on a date. She slips him a note that she gets off work at 11:00 p.m.

EXT. TOWN - Brian Flagg gets a ride into town. Sees the Sheriff, tries to hide from him. The Sheriff spots Brian anyway and tells Brian that since he's soon turning eighteen, his crimes will no longer be considered juvenile misdemeanors.

INT. AUTOBODY SHOP - Brian borrows tools to fix his bike from his friend MOSS WOODLEY. They mention snow-maker trucks parked there in the garage.

EXT. WOODS - A fireball zooms over Can Man's head, impacts near-by. Can Man grabs his small kindling axe and goes to investigate.

INT. PHARMACY - Scott goes to buy condoms. REVEREND MEEKER comes up to chat with him. Scott tells the priest and the PHARMACIST that he's buying the condoms for his pal Paul, who is too irresponsible to buy them himself. The pharmacist is not impressed.

EXT. WOODS - Can Man investigates the fireball's crash site. Sees something pulsing, pokes it with a stick. The baby blob jumps up and wraps itself around his hand.

INT. PENNY HOUSE - Meg's younger brother KEVIN PENNY and his buddy EDDIE plan on going to see a horror movie, but his mother MRS PENNY forbids it. Paul arrives to pick up Meg for their date. Kevin and Eddie head out for a sleep-over at Eddie's. Meg brings Paul in to meet her father MR PENNY, who turns out to be the pharmacist - he's not happy to see Paul.

EXT. WOODS - Brian is fixing his motorcycle, hears something. He's startled by the Can Man who crashes out of the woods, waving his kindling axe. But instead of attacking Brian with the axe he starts chopping off his own hand. The baby blob jumps the cut, moving further up Can Man's arm. When Brian tries to stop the Can Man from hacking at himself the Can Man runs off. Brian chases.

EXT. ROAD/INT. PAUL'S CAR - The car runs into the Can Man who comes running out of the woods. Brian runs out after him.  Paul blames Brian - why are you chasing this old man? They get Can Man into the car, Brian comes along to make sure Paul doesn't blame him for everything.

INT. HOSPITAL - They hustle the Can Man in, are ignored by the NURSE at first. Finally they hand over the Can Man. Paul is given a bunch of forms to fill out. Meg notices when rebel Brian tries to comfort Can Man. Brian leaves - he knows that none of the adults are going to care about their explanations.

INT. HOSPITAL - Later. Paul is still filling out forms. Goes in search of soda. Notices that the blanket covering Can Man is moving in a weird way. Investigates, see that Can Man's neck and face are distorted. Gets a DOCTOR. They pull back the blanket - Can Man's body has been dissolved. Paul runs to the doctor's office, calls the Sheriff's office. In the reception area, Meg wonders what's keeping Paul. In the doctor's office, Paul tells the Sheriff on the phone about Can Man and that Brian was involved. The Blob, bigger now that it's eaten Can Man, attacks Paul. Meg hears Paul's scream, runs in to see Paul being eaten. She grabs Paul's arm to help him but the arm pulls off. Meg stumbles back, hits her head and passes out.

EXT. HOSPITAL - Meg's parents take her home, not listening to her. The Sheriff doesn't listen either, he thinks Meg is hysterical. Brian is brought around in the back of a police car.

EXT. WOODS/INT. SCOTT'S CAR - Scott puts the moves on his date. The Blob noms them both.

INT. PENNY HOUSE - Meg overhears her father blaming Brian. She fakes taking a sleeping pill and sneaks out.

EXT. WOODS - The Blob oozes into a storm drain - it's now in the town's sewer system.

INT. SHERIFF'S STATION - The Sheriff and DEPUTY BILL BRIGGS are getting nowhere in their interrogation of Brian. They have to let him go.

EXT. SHERIFF'S STATION/INT. DINER - Meg catches up with Brian, she wants to talk to him. He's not interested, heads into the diner to get something to eat. Meg comes in after him, she needs his help - nobody will believe her story. Brian doesn't believe her either. Meg storms off, telling Brian he's just like everyone else. Brian calls her back and gives her half of his sandwich.

EXT. TOWN/INT. SHERIFF'S STATION - Deputy Briggs radios in from his patrol car, wondering if he should search the woods. The Sheriff tells him to keep patrolling the town, they'll wait until daylight to search the woods. The Sheriff remembers the note from Fran saying she'll get off at 11:00 p.m. He exits, concerned about her.



EXT. TOWN - The Blob covers the phone booth. Fran sees the Sheriff being digested by the Blob. The Blob bursts in.

INT. DINER - Meg and Brian leave the freezer, make their way out of the diner.

EXT. DINER - Reverend Meeker hears strange Blob noises. Sees the Blob oozing into a storm drain.

INT. DINER - The Reverend investigates the destroyed diner. He finds the Blob crystals in the freezer, puts them into a seal-top jar.

INT. SHERIFF'S STATION - Meg and Brian enter, looking for the Sheriff or Deputy. The ON-CALL LADY hasn't been able to raise either of them. Last she heard the Deputy was out near where Brian found Can Man.

EXT. WOODS - Brian and Meg find the Deputy's deserted car. They head into the woods. They hear strange noises, see strange lights, a wind kicks up. They run into a bunch of SOLDIERS in hazmat suits - the ruckus was caused by their helicopter over the crash site. Kindly DR MEDDOWS has the soldiers lower their guns - finally someone who will listen.

EXT. WOODS - Medics question them about their health. Brian breaks free to demand answers from Dr Meddows. Meddows explains they're a government-sanctioned bio-containment team. The Deputy is there working with the soldiers. Dr Meddows explains that the crash site was caused by a meteorite which might have brought a germ. Brian tells him the germ is "the biggest son of a bitch you've ever seen."

INT. MOVIE THEATRE - Meg's little brother Kevin and his pal Eddie are watching the slasher movie Mrs Penny forbid Kevin from seeing. A MOVIE PATRON keeps talking out loud.

INT PROJECTIONIST'S BOOTH - The PROJECTIONIST checks to see why the air conditioning isn't working. The Blob attacks. Another THEATRE EMPLOYEE, looking for the projectionist, is also attacked.

EXT. WOODS - Dr Meddows thanks Meg and Brian for their information. But then they're forced into a truck to head to town for quarantine.

INT. TRUCK - Brian tries to convince Meg to hop out of the truck with him. She refuses, she has to go back to town for her family. She accuses Brian of only looking out for himself. Brian busts open the back door and jumps.

EXT. TOWN - Soldiers herd the town-folk. Meg returns to her family, learns Kevin must have gone to that movie. Meg's father runs interference with a soldier so Meg can slip away.

INT. MOVIE THEATRE/EXT. ALLEYWAY - The Blob attacks the movie-watching crowd. Meg pushes in against the fleeing crowd, finds Kevin and Eddie. Blocked from the front doors by the Blob, they run out the back into a dead-end alley. They head down a manhole and begin to wade through the sewers.

EXT. WOODS - Brian has returned to get his motorcycle. Hiding, he sees a man-made satellite pulled from the impact site. Overhears that Dr Meddows created the Blob as a bio-weapon. Meddows is sure the Blob can be contained. Says the town folk are expendable. Brian overhears a radio call from soldiers in town that the Blob was spotted going down into the sewers after Meg, Kevin, and Eddie. Brian is noticed, he escapes by jumping his back over that broken bridge where he failed earlier. He finds a sewage culvert big enough to fight his motorcycle.

EXT. TOWN - Meddows arrives in town to coordinate a plan to trap the Blob in the sewers by shutting down certain valves - which will trap Meg and Kevin and Eddie down there with it.

INT. SEWERS - Meg, Kevin, and Eddie wade through the sewers. Soldiers move through the sewers in their way to shut the valves. Meg, Kevin, and Eddie are attacked. They climb pipes to get up to a storm drain. Eddie is killed. Meg gets Kevin through the grate but she can't fit. The soldiers find them, the Blob attacks them instead. Using the distraction, Meg jumps back down into the water. two of the three soldiers are killed. Meg tries to climb a ramp but it's too slippery. Just as the Blob is about to grab her Brian appears at the top of the ramp and pulls Meg up onto his motorcycle. The motorcycle gets wrecked during the chase. On foot, they run into the remaining soldier. They find a ladder leading up but Dr Meddows orders the manhole closed and a truck parked on top of it. The Blob is coming. Brian uses the soldier's r.p.g. to blow the truck off the manhole. They climb up.

EXT. TOWN - Brian snatches a gun, targets Meddows. A stand-off with soldiers. Brian tries to get the Deputy to listen to him s he explains what the Blob really is. Meddows grabs a gun to kill Brian but the Blob drags him down the manhole. The soldiers shoot at, then drop a satchel charge down the manhole. This just angers the Blob which smashes up through the street and starts gobbling people. The Reverend, preaching, is set on fire by a flame-thrower explosion. While putting him out Meg discovers the Blob doesn't like the cold of the extinguisher. Everyone retreats into the town hall.

INT. TOWN HALL - Everyone barricades the doors. Meg uses the extinguisher to keep Blob tentacles from slithering in under the doors.

EXT. AUTOBODY SHOP - Brian rams a snow-maker truck out through the roll-up door.

INT. TOWN HALL - Another extinguisher is found as Meg's runs dry.

EXT. TOWN - Brian rams the snow-maker truck through the soldiers' barricade of parked cars.

INT. TOWN HALL - The Reverend is ranting. The second extinguisher runs dry. The Deputy gets snatched by the Blob.

EXT. TOWN - Brian arrives at the town hall. He blasts the Blob with the snow-maker. He tries to ram the Blob with the truck's snow-plow but the truck is over-turned and breaks in half - the can with Brian in it goes one way, the snow-maker container goes the other. Meg sees that Brian's half of the truck is being covered by the Blob. She grabs a satchel charge and a gun. She gets on top of the snow-maker part of the truck, lures the Blob to her by shooting it, then sets the satchel charge. But as she jumps off her boot gets stuck. Brian frees himself from the truck's cab, runs over and frees Meg, they run clear. The satchel explodes, shooting snow everywhere. The Blob freezers into crystal form. Moss suggests they get a dump-truck and gather up the crystals so they can dump them in "the ice-house" before dawn.

EXT. FIELDS/INT. TENT - The fire-scarred Reverend preaches the Doomsday in a revival-style tent. He still has those couple of Blob crystals from the diner in the jar, and he's looking forward to releasing them.

T.V. Script Breakdown - Modern Family 2.04 "Strangers On A Treadmill"

Modern Family 2.04 - "Strangers On A Treadmill"

"Mitchell and Claire agree to break some embarrassing news to each other's significant others, Jay makes a fool of himself at what he thinks is a quinceanera, and Haley helps Alex try to make a popular friend."

Official website.

Written by: Danny Zuker

Main characters:

Phil Dunphy
Claire Dunphy
Haley Dunphy
Alex Dunphy
Luke Dunphy

Jay Pritchett
Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
Manny Delgado

Cameron Tucker
Mitchell Pritchett

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - PHIL DUNPHY and LUKE DUNPHY enter laughing over a joke Phil has written. He tries out the joke on CLAIRE DUNPHY.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEADS - Phil says he's preparing jokes for a real estate banquet. Claire acts totally supportive.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Claire alone. She fears Phil is going to bomb - he's fun, not funny. Claire blames herself for always laughing at his jokes... with her mouth, not with her eyes.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEADS - Phil reads off one of his lame jokes. Claire laughs with her mouth.

INT. DELGADO-PRITCHETT HOUSE - JAY PRITCHETT wants to go play golf but GLORIA DELGADO-PRITCHETT thinks he should go to the quinceanera (a kind of coming-out-to-society party) for the daughter of one of his employees. Jay agrees to go to show that he doesn't think he's above his employees, he's close to them.

INT. CAMERON AND MITCHELL'S HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - MITCHELL PRITCHETT is worried because CAMERON TUCKER has started working out, which means wearing revealing bike shorts. (Cut-away of Cameron going through Mitchell's work-place, wearing his clingy bike shorts and drawing looks.) Mitchell can't tell Cameron about the shorts because Cameron is sensitive about comments about his physique. (Two cut-aways of Cameron getting upset over nothing.)

OPENING CREDITS

INT. HEALTH CLUB - Claire is worked up because she can't tell Phil his jokes stink. Mitchell is going through something similar with Cameron and the bike shorts. They agree to switch - they'll drop the bombs on each other's significant other.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - HALEY DUNPHY overhears ALEX DUNPHY being all needy during a phone call to a popular girl at school, Mackenzie.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Haley can't have this Mackenzie making Ale jump through hoops like that, it's "bad for the family".

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Haley grabs Alex's phone away. Asks if Alex wants to be popular or not. Haley has Alex tell Mackenzie she's too busy to talk right now and to call back later.

INT. CAMERON AND MITCHELL'S HOUSE - Claire arrives bearing baby clothes for Lily. Cam is wearing those bike shorts.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Mitchell arrives to do his part with Phil.

INT. CAMERON AND MITCHELL'S HOUSE - Claire works up to telling Cam about the bike shorts, but Cam thinks she's asking him to dress her. he's delighted until she tells him he has to lose the shorts. Cam goes to his bedroom to cry.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Mitchell wusses out on his end of the deal, he can't bring himself to tell Phil his jokes are lame.

INT. EVENT HALL - Gloria thinks Jay doesn't even know any of the people there. Jay call out "Hey Carlos!" and waves back to the guy who waves.

INT. DELGADO-PRITCHETT HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Jay confides he's lucky only one Carlos turned around to wave.

INT. EVENT HALL - Jay pays Manny to get the names of people without Gloria knowing. Over at the bar Gloria learns that the quinceanera is actually next door, they're in an engagement party. Jay calls out to her to stop being a snob and to come over to meet one of his friends.

INT. CAMERON AND MITCHELL'S HOUSE - A supposedly outraged Mitchell agrees with Cameron that Claire had no right telling Cameron to lose the bike shorts.  Claire calls and chews out Mitchell for not living up to his end of the bargain. Mitchell thinks Cameron has left the house and says the deal was for Claire to get Cameron to stop wearing the bike shorts, but Cameron is still wearing them. Cameron overhears and goes to his bedroom to cry.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Claire says she's just going to tell Phil, there's tough moments in every marriage. (Cut-away to the banquet hall where Claire spots Phil's cue cards and steals them.) She'd decided to "go another way."

INT. CAMERON AND MITCHELL'S HOUSE - Mitchell tells Cameron he thinks their relationship is strong enough for candor. Cameron tells Mitchell he doesn't like his beard. Mitchell goes to shave off the beard, Cameron stops him - it's enough that Mitchell was willing to do it. They make up. Cameron says Mitchell can make it up to him by doing his shoulders. Mitchell goes to shave Cameron's shoulders, Cameron meant a massage. Oops.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Hayley is proud of how Alex handles the latest call from Mackenzie until Alex slips up and mentions the reason she can't stay on the pone is because she's doing homework - the call snowballs into a disaster from there.

INT. BANQUET HALL - Phil panics over the loss of his notes. Claire encourages him to just go up there and be himself.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Phil says that without his jokes he had no choice but to "play it straight."

INT. BANQUET HALL - Phil starts off dry, but lands an improvised joke.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Phil - "But Phil Dunphy is no straight guy."

INT. BANQUET HALL - Phil kills the room with his off-the-cuff jokes. Claire is surprised by how good he is.

INT. EVENT HALLquinceanera he thinks he's at. Jay is outraged when the bride and groom, whom Jay thinks are a father and daughter, start dancing a little too closely.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Claire raves about how good Phil was. Phil knows Claire took his cards - he's not angry - but maybe it's not Claire's job to keep the Dunphys from falling, but to pick them up after. They come across an upset Alex - "I have no friends." Claire goes to work.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - Luke is cracking up over Claire's impression of a woman at the supermarket. She does the impression, Phil laughs.

INT. DUNPHY HOUSE - TALKING HEAD - Phil - "That's not what she sounds like."

END OF SHOW

Movie Script Breakdown - Monsters Inc.

Monsters Inc.

Written by: Pete Docter (story), Jill Culton (story), Jeff Pidgeon (story), Ralph Eggleston(story), Andrew Stanton (screenplay), Daniel Gerson (screenplay), Robert Baird (additional screenplay material), Rhett Reese (additional screenplay material), Johnathan Roberts (additional screenplay material).

Pixar Studios home-page.


Main characters:

James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
Mike Wazowski
Boo/Mary
Randall Boggs
Henry J. Waternoose
Celia
Roz
Fungus (Randall's sidekick)

MONSTER TRAINING ROOM - A STUDENT MONSTER fails miserably at a child-scaring test. The C.E.O. of Monsters Inc., MR. WATERNOOSE, enters and explains why they need to scare children - they collect the screams of children to power the city. And nobody is better at scaring kids than James P. "Sulley" Sullivan.

MIKE AND SULLEY'S APARTMENT - MIKE WIZOWSKI runs SULLY through his morning work-out, part physical work-out, part scare work-out. They're confident they're going to set the all-time scare-record today.

MONSTROPOLIS - The guys have to walk to work. Since there's a power shortage they can't take Mike's car. They pass a wide variety of monsters all starting their day.

MONSTERS INC. FOYER - In the building's entrance area they meet Mike's fiancee, the company's receptionist, CELIA. Sulley is the object of hero-worship by JANITORS.

LOCKER-ROOM - Getting ready for their shift. Mike talks about how he's going to propose to Celia. Mocked by RANDALL BOGGS, their main competition in the company for the scare record.

THE SCARE FLOOR - The various monsters commence their work day. We see how the operation works - closet doors are lowered to stands. The scare-monsters go through the doors which lead to the bedrooms of sleeping children around the world. They gather the screams of the children in a machine. Sulley rocks the all-time record.

A monster returns from a closet door not knowing that he has a child's sock stuck on his back. The monster's partner freaks out and calls out a "23-19!". A hazmat-suit suit wearing team from the CDA (Child Detection Agency) comes storming in from every direction - children, and children's items, are feared by the monsters' world as toxic. The monster is quarantined and his fur is all shaved off, the sock detonated.

FOYER - At the end of the day Mike is about to head out with Celia to take her out to dinner where he can propose. But he's stopped by the accounting department's ROZ who reminds Mike that she needs Mike's paperwork for the day. Sulley covers for Mike and says he'll do the paperwork.

THE SCARE FLOOR - On his way to do the paperwork Sulley notices a single child's door is still out on the scare floor. He looks in the door, sees nothing. But when he comes out he finds the child, a little girl named BOO, has followed him out. Sulley freaks and tries to get rid of her. He fails.

HARRYHAUSEN'S RESTAURANT - Mike is about to propose to Celia when Sulley shows up, looking for help. He's brought Boo in a bag. Boo escapes, causing pandemonium. Mike and Sulley just manage to evade the C.D.A. but Celia get caught.

MIKE AND SULLEY'S APARTMENT - Terrified by the tiny girl, the monsters come up with and discard plans about what they should do with this human child. Boo yawns.

SULLEY'S BEDROOM - Sulley makes up a pet bed for Boo but she's taken over his own bed. She's scared to go to sleep because of the closet. She shows Sulley a picture of Randall that she drew - Randall is her particular closet monster. Sulley stays with her until she falls asleep.

MIKE AND SULLEY'S APARTMENT - Mike is still trying to come up with plans to get rid of their little problem. Sulley thinks maybe Boo isn't entirely awful, she's even kind of cute. Mike is less than convinced. Sulley notices the fabric of the back of a chair, plus some odds and ends around the apartment - he comes up with a plan to get Boo back to her door.

FOYER - They work the plan - they've made a little monster outfit for Boo. They bring her inside to find the place crawling with C.D.A. agents. Boo sneaks away and goes right up to Mr. Waternoose. Sulley feeds Mike's cynicism by being a horrible liar.

LOCKER ROOM/ACCOUNTING AREA - While Mike goes off to get the paperwork on Boo'sdoor Sulley takes Boo for a potty break. Sulley and Boo end up playing hide-and-seek -Sulley is getting to like the little girl. Mike fails to get the paperwork from Roz.

Mike, Sulley, and Boo, hiding in a bathroom stall, overhear Randall talking with his side-kick FUNGUS. Randall is the reason Boo's door was out, and he wants that kid back.

THE SCARE FLOOR - Sulley gets Boo to the Scare Floor, but finds that Mike has the wrong door. Mike doesn't care, just toss the kid in and let's be done with it.

HALLWAYS - Randall sees in a newspaper photo from the Harryhausen restaurant that Mike was there - Mike must have the kid. Randall corners Mike and threatens him into making sure Boo gets back through her proper door.

Meanwhile Boo has gotten away from them. Sulley thinks Boo got caught in the trash and watches in horror as the building's trash compactor smashes the trash. The find Boo with a bunch of other monster children. When they grab her Boo laughs, causing a fluctuation in the power grid - a child's laugh effects the monster world's power just like their screams.

THE SCARE FLOOR - Mike has the right door this time. But he lets it slip that Randall knows they have Boo and got them the right door. Sulley is suspicious and doesn't want to send Boo through. Mike runs through the door to demonstrate that it's safe and is ambushed and captured by Randall in Boo's bedroom. Sulley and Boo hide as Randall carts Mike away.

HALLWAYS/SECRET ROOM - Sulley and Boo lose Randall at a dead end. Boo finds a lever that opens a secret door. They find Randall and Fungus in a secret room, hooking Mike up to a machine they call the Scream Extractor - works like the usual scream processing machines on the scare floor, but in a much more drastic fashion, possibly harming or killing the children that get strapped into it. Randall exits. Sulley rescues Mike from the machine, leaving Fungus strapped in the chair.

MONSTER TRAINING ROOM - Another child-scaring class is in session. Sulley keeps trying to tell Mr. Waternoose about Randall's Scream Extractor plan, but Mr. Waternoosekeeps insisting that Sulley show the student monsters how it's done - so Sulley roars at the dummy child, scaring Boo. Boo runs away from him. The monster students gone, Mr.Waternoose reveals that he's in on the Scream Extractor plan. He sends Mike and Sulleythrough a door, banishing them, then destroys the door. He takes Boo away.

SNOWY MOUNTAIN/CAVE - They're met by the ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN who is another banished monster. Sulley is desperate to get back but Mike has had enough - they've lost everything on account of a human child. The duo split. Sulley rides an ad-hoc sleigh down the mountain to find a closet door in the village below.

SECRET ROOM - Sulley rescues Boo from the Scream Extractor, fights Randall. Mike returns to help.

HALLWAYS/THE SCARE FLOOR - On the run, they're slowed by an angry Celia who wants to know what the heck is going on. But just as Randall is about to catch up with them they're aided by Celia who announces that Randall just set the new scare record - Randall is slowed by all the monsters rushing up to congratulate him.

DOOR WAREHOUSE - The chase continues into the door warehouse where all the millions of doors of all the children of the world are stored. As they fight off Randall they search forBoo's door. Boo helps fight off Randall - she's no longer scared of her own personal monster. They send Randall through a door, the door is destroyed - Randall is banished.

MONSTER TRAINING ROOM - They trick Mr. Waternoose into admitting his plan into the cameras of the training room. He's taken away by the C.D.A. The head of the C.D.A. is revealed to be Roz.

THE SCARE FLOOR - Mike and Sulley say good-bye to Boo and take her home through her proper door. Boo's door is sent through the chipper.

THE LAUGH FLOOR - Boo's laughter gave the monsters the idea that a child's laughter is a more powerful source of energy than their screams. So the floor has been changed - instead of scaring children the monsters now go through the doors and make them laugh. Mike is the new star. Sulley is bummed and misses Boo.

Mike reveals that he put Boo's door back together piece by piece. Now all they need is the final piece that Sulley has been holding on to as a souvenir. Sulley is reunited with Boo.

Theme - Aliens - Life, Death, and Something In Between

Aliens – Life, Death, and Something In Between

Story by James Cameron, David Giler, and Walter Hill.

Based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.

Screenplay by James Cameron.

One of my favourite go-to movies when thinking about theme is Aliens, written by the gentlemen named above. Every major plot point in the movie revolves around the theme – or in other words, what happens revolves around what it’s about.

In other other words, the plot revolves around the theme.

That theme? Life, death, and something between the two.

That thing in the middle is the twilight zone where someone exists, but isn’t alive. It’s where real-life zombies trudge through their non-lives, acting not with purpose, but just for the sake of acting.

Awake, asleep, or dead.

In an interview James Cameron talks about how he wrote the story about vets returning from war to find that they could not exist back in the peacetime world.

Aliens is about Ellen Ripley being forced to choose one of those three options. Wait and see how often how one of those three choices comes into play during the movie.

Breaking it down.

The very first time we see Ripley, she’s asleep in the hypersleep chamber, her heart and vital functions presumably reduced to a crawl. She’s not alive, she’s not dead, she’s existing in that twilight zone between the two.

She has her nightmare (by the way, this is the only scene for the first at least half hour that even vaguely resembles an action scene – the fact that we stay gripped by the story for that long in an action movie is quite the feat unto itself), and when she wakes the nurse asks her if she needs a sedative. Ripley replies, “No thanks, I’ve slept enough.”

We’ve just heard Ripley’s underlying mission – to wake up.

Unfortunately the company she works for is no help. They strip her of her flight status, not believing her story. She has no family left after being away for so long. The job she ends up with, working a loader, is ridiculously far beneath her qualifications, and can’t possibly satisfy her in any way other than to pay the bills and keep busy for the sake of keeping busy.

When we see her apartment, it’s devoid of anything personal, the walls blank. It’s a casket.

She’s existing, but not living.

Another nightmare is what propels her to finally accept that she has to make a choice – she can’t just go on existing. She’s going back out there to face her own war and choose – life or death.

More emerging from sleep, this time with the Marines. She flips right out when she realizes not who Bishop is, but what. Aside from the fact that an android caused a wee spot of trouble in “Alien”, there’s something else going on here – she subconsciously recognizes that she and Bishop are the same thing. Bishop is something that exists but is not alive, just like Ripley. And it freaks her right out.

The Marines have their meeting about the mission. They make jokes, they don’t take the threat seriously – “It’s a bug hunt.” They’re asleep to the threat of what they’re going to encounter. Ripley tries to explain it to them, but try explaining the horror of your own nightmare to someone else – it can’t be done. When she doesn’t get through to them, she loses her cool, yelling at them to WAKE UP! But they all still ignore her.

Hicks might be the only one who actually sleeps on the way down, but they’re all in dreamland – Hudson rattles off how badass they all are, and how they’re going to kick butt.

The Marines move in. Ripley watches over monitors – passive, not part of the action. Finally the Lieutenant calls the area secure – he’s living his own dream of everything going by the book.

And that’s where everyone besides Ripley gets their first eyeful of the aliens – the face huggers in sample tubes – looking somewhat like the hypersleep chambers. One of them comes alive and darts and Carter’s face when the humans come close – a mirror image of what’s about to happen with Ripley.

Up until now, Ripley has been passive. She let the Marines shoo her aside when she was trying to get them to wake up to the threat? Why? Because she took the wrong choice as her reason for coming out here – “to kill, not to study, not to bring back.”

That choice changes in a heartbeat when she lays eyes on Newt. In that moment, Ripley chooses life, living, and for the first time ignores the commands of the Marines and takes charge, grabbing a light and diving headfirst into potential danger in order to take Newt into her care.

Newt has also only been existing, barely surviving, more animal than child. She doesn’t respond to anyone until Ripley treats her like a little girl instead of a thing to be interrogated or poked and prodded, earning her the little girl’s confidence enough to tell her her name, and that only her brother calls her Rebecca.

Hudson finds the locators implanted in the colonists. They tell where the colonists are (that they still exist), but not whether they’re alive.

The Marines move in. They’re warned not to use their ammo. But Vasquez and Drake live for their guns, and sneak ammo despite the order – although it’s not entirely their fault (the order wasn’t explained), they choose death both literally (the ammunition) and figuratively.

They find the colonists. They seem to be all dead – but they’re not – they’re alive, for the moment. And then hey-o! we have a little visitor – the aliens’ way to life (being born) is through the death of another.

All hell breaks lose. Just like the colonists, what was thought dead comes alive – the walls aren’t just walls, they’re aliens, and they’re not happy with one of their babies getting roasted.

The Lieutenant’s dream of is shattered and he’s woken up by a nightmare – life, waking life, doesn’t happen just like you want it to. To expect “by the books,” to expect pure order in life is to court death. I think every writer knows a person or two who dreams big but never does anything about it – and life passes them by.

Ripley, now awake, now fighting for life, takes over. The Lieutenant fights with her, wanting to go back to sleep where everything was a nice ordered dream. It’s here that we get the other half of the mirror image of the facehugger lunging at Carter’s face – an alien smashes through the vehicle’s windshield and Ripley is face to face with her nightmare.

She slams on the brakes, causing it to tumble, then hits the gas, speeding forward to crush it. Metaphor much? J

Ripley is the reason any of the Marines make it out alive. Some of the other Marines’ monitors show them as still alive – but it’s hopeless, they’re existing as hosts for the next batch of baby aliens, and that’s it.

The Lieutenant has been knocked unconscious – another state of being somewhere between alive and dead.

They choose death again – nuke the entire site from orbit. It is, after all, the only way to be sure.

Unfortunately the aliens had the same idea – dealing out death, and they kill pilots Ferro and Spunkmeyer. The aircraft nearly squishes the survivors, leaving them stranded and with very few supplies. “This ain’t happening man! This ain’t happening!” Dream on, Hudson.

Ripley and the others make two choices, one life and one death.

The life – Bishop will go alone for the spare dropship.

The death – the sentry guns.

I suppose we could really stretch a point here and say the way the survivors seal themselves off in one small life-giving (well, life-retaining, anyway) area is kind of womblike. And the shaft Bishop crawls along is vaguely umbilical. Does this work? I don’t know – what do you think?

The Lieutenant wakes up – repentant. He hasn’t just woken from his being unconscious, he’s woken from his dream of life being orderly and by the books. He’s conscious of this, and gives an apologetic nod.

Ripley puts Newt down for a nap. Newt is worried about bad dreams. Ripley looks in Newt’s dolls head and says there’s no bad dreams in there, but Newt corrects her saying the doll isn’t real. Newt knows dreams from reality – something all the Marines had to learn the hard way.

It’s right around here that Ripley confronts Carter about what she learned – that he chose to send colonists out to the alien ship without a proper warning. He chose death to make a buck, which makes him far lower than the aliens in Ripley’s (and our) eyes.

And then Ripley makes a big (thematically speaking) mistake. Carter traps Ripley and Newt in with the face-huggers when? When they’re taking a nap – when they’re asleep.

“Wake up Newt, we’re in trouble.”

Carter turns off the cameras to the med-bay – the Marines are asleep to the threat to Ripley and Newt. She has to wake them up with the alarm. They make it just in time to save Ripley from death by face-hugger snu-snu.

Ripley explains how Carter would have gotten away with it – the Marines’ wouldn’t have been able to alert authorities about Ripley and Newt being impregnated because Carter would have arranged accidents for them where? In their hyper-sleep chambers.

The aliens attack. If we’re using our womb metaphor – then the calm of dream of pre-birth is pierced, really rather rudely, by the aliens. Hudson finally wakes up that this is happening, man, and goes out fighting like a beast.

Carter, that stinker, is still in his own dream of getting away with it all. In his panic he does just about the worst thing he possibly could – he locks the Marines out, the only people who could accuse him, but also the only people who could defend him. And he pays for it.

It’s time to go. Newt leads them through air shafts, making for the drop ship which Bishop has nearly brought all the way down.

V

asquez goes down. Does she suffer from a dream too? She did share the communal Marine dream of there not being anything they couldn’t handle. Maybe she’s the epitome of this dream – maybe she thought above all the others she had the most chance to survive, just because she’s a warrior, and warriors win.

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, she goes out, the Lieutenant finally earning a bro-shake from her as they grab hands around the grenade.

Newt is lost in the sewers. Ripley loses her life-choice cool at that moment, trying to dive down into the sewers after the girl without any caution, Hicks hauling her back. She threatens to kill him. 

But he shows her the tracker for the locator that he gave to Ripley, and that Ripley in turn gave to Newt. But in order to help Newt they have to save themselves from the alien onslaught first – life is the right choice in order to be able to save Newt.

Ripley’s delay, her moment of choosing death over life, of threatening Hicks, has consequences – he eats a face full of acid. Ripley’s alone now in her quest to fight for life – Newt’s life, and through Newt, her own.

Ripley gears up, heads down into alien-palooza. There’s a couple of bits of irony at play here – the atmosphere generator, the thing that allows humans to live on the planet, is the thing that’s going to blow them up real good. On top of that, the inorganic, dead walls of the generator plant are covered with alien resin walls – organic interior décor, life, but it represents a world of death for humans.

Speaking of death, Newt’s about to get introduced to the working end of a face-hugger (another life/death thing here – eggs are life, except in this case eggs are death for humans). But Ripley saves the day! Hooray!

Until she runs them right into a room full of leathery death/life eggs. And, oh yeah, Mom.

A face-off. My baby or yours. Ripley was going to back off, everyone back to their corners, she didn’t want to fight in here.

But the alien Queen, she is nothing but death. There’s no choice here, she’s death all the way. And so she tries to have some of her warriors try a rush on Ripley. And that gets all of her eggs blown up – face-hugger omelets for everyone!

Run run run, chase chase chase – Bishop saves them, zoom zoom zoom, up and away – safe! Alive!

Ripley, now fully alive, thanks Bishop. Up there in the Sulako, they’re a right old nuclear family – Hicks the dad, Ripley the mom, Newt the child, and Bishop the dog.

And who is the first that the Queen attacks? Bishop. She rips the existing but not living android literally in two. His dead legs go one way, his alive top the other. The Queen is telling Ripley – no more in between. It’s either life or death for you.

The Queen of course is pure death. Even if she spoke the good Queen’s English she could not be argued with, dissuaded – she’s there to kill. And she goes after not Ripley, but after Ripley’s source of life – Newt.

“Get away from her you bitch!”

Ripley was actually safe in the bay that she locked herself into, where she’s gearing up with the walker. She could have stayed in there (well, I suppose there’s potential future starving issues, but you get the idea), but that would mean losing Newt.

And losing Newt, but being physically alive, would have put her right back where she started – existing but not living.

S0!

Fight fight fight, punch bite whip-tail, and they topple over into where? The airlock - that twilight zone that exists between the life inside the ship and the death in outer space.

At the end, the Queen, being pure death, doesn’t try to save herself. She only tries to kill Ripley by dragging her out into space. But Ripley clings (literally) to life (in this case a ladder rung). 

Newt is sucked towards that same death but the alive half of Bishop saves her.

And at the end, in the final moments, Ripley is able to finally go to sleep in the hyper-sleep chamber, because this time she knows she’s going to wake up to live again.

Unless of course the sequel shits all over this perfect ending.