User:The wanksta36/sandbox

= Survivor (feature adaptation) =

Survivor is a prospective dark comedy, action screenplay, adapted by Andrew Wankier. It is based on Chuck Palahniuk's 1999 novel of the same name. The story chronicles religious death cult surivor Tender Branson from his early days in Nebraska to his rise as an American religious superstar.

This movie version will be updated from 1999 to present day in order to explore how current societal expectations and media both influence and shape performative identities, specifically its impact on sexual repression and individualism. Many of the story's technologies are made further relevent through a modern take on Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, a favorite of Wankier.

Plot Overview
ACT I

Like the novel, the film plans to open In medias res but starts a few scene earlier, as Tender and Feclity are attempting to sneaking an gun through airport security. We then flash forward to Tender in the cockpit as he begins the counttown until the plane crashes.

We go back to Tender, roughly a year prior, working as a house manager at a Beveriy Hills estate. He lives his life off the internet's grid, with no phone besides his flip phone provided by his unseen boss. While he performs well with domestic economics and household tasks, his private life brims withisolation and shame. He feels immense disconnect with from others, due to his upbringing and how people never look up anymore - they only seem to look at screens. At home, he's addiction to masturbation as he still retains his virginity. From his small studio apartment, he's bombarded with phone calls from suicial people, telling each one to kill themselves. Weeks earlier, his phone number was incorrectly listed on a non-profit's website. He answers again, but this time, it's his case worker, Nancy Weaver, from the Suicide Retention Program. She adivses him to lock his doors and that she will come to his apartment first thing in the morning. Tender shrugs it off.

The next day, Nancy imposes at Tender's place of employment to discuss the details of a mysterious killer dubbed The Pale Horse, who's murdering the surviving members from the Creedish Cult. But she's seems more fascinated with Tender's knowledge of domestic responsibilites. As Preston teaches her how to ____, he spies her file, reading that there are only a small number of survivors alive. When he's forced on an errand to purchase flowers for his boss' wife, he recieves a call from someone who calls himself The Agent, wanting Tender to capitalize on his background and turn him into a media sensation. Suspsicous, Tender dismisses the call.

Tender arrives at Hollywood Forever Cemetery to snatch some flowers from the graves. He takes the time to puruse the mausoleums, climbing up and down the ladders, explaining to the janitor that he listens for any signs of life or zombies. Moments later, he's at a new marker, "Ezra Hollis". From below him, a female voice asks him to climb a few steps so she can leave flowers at her brother's crypt. He looks down to see Felicity Hollis. She recognizes him from last week. Together, they stroll through the cemetery grounds, where she talks of classical art and how they represent some of the earliest forms of media. They admits that she and her brother shared a special psychic bond, literally.

That night, Tender fraudulently fields more calls for the suicide hotline, until he gets a call from The Agent again. Tender isn't interested. The phone rings once more, but this time he recognizes the voice as Felicity's. She called the number because she's debating suicide after the death of her younger brother, telling her about her meeting with the guy at the cemetery and wonders if he's gay or straight.

The next day, Tender sluffs off work as he and Feclity head to an abandoned apartment above a bakery. A fire blazes. Fecility urges Tender to stay put, as she knows that they'll be rescued in time. At the last minute, with the building collapsing, the fire is put out. Fecility tells Tender that she has dream syncing capabilites, being able to synthesize other people's collective dreams into glimpses of the future. He says he didn't dream of this, to which she responds the bakery owner staged the fire for insurance. She warns him that someone close to him is going to die. Lucky for Tender, everyone close to him already died years ago.

But when Tender heads back to the mansion, he sees the caseworker dead. He takes this moment to call The Agent. He agrees.

ACT II

Tender is flown to New York City and meets with The Agent. In the limo he learns many secrets.

Structure

 * 1) The structure of the film is nonlinear, with flashcuts and flashbacks utlities to incorprate Tender's upbringing in the Creedish Cult. These intercuts become increasingly prominent within the second act.
 * 2) Unlike other adaptation's of Palahniuk's work, this script does not feature a prominent voice over from its protagonist. Instead, Chuck's signature stream-of-counciousness is revealed through Tender's dialogue to various characters serving as audience surrogates, primarily Fetertility and the Case Worker.
 * 3) As the novel features a reverse page count from page 289 to page 1, the movie accounts for this with Tender's confessions into the airplane's little black box and a "real time" countdown. For example, when Tender announces that the plane only has 60 minutes until impact, 60 minutes remain in the feature's runtime.

Story Themes and Commentary
Sexuality – The script concerns several aspects of repressed sexuality, with an audience interpretation of Tender's sexual orientation. His rise to online fame only further contributes to his distorted views of sexuality and his self-perception. Online porn serves as Tender's only outlet, although we are never made privvy to the type of porn he prefers. Although he has intercourse with Fetility, she comments on his sexual desires, hinting that he has not yet come to terms with himself due to his religious oppression.

Media – Social media and the internet is the primary means of communication with Tender's relegious audience. Its unspoken influence on viewer manipulation will be a core tenat. It also comments on celebirty culture and influencers with minor notes on self-help culture.

Indivisualism – Tender's sermons often provide hot takes on individuality versus community, with emphasis on [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1012690211413838#:~:text=We%20define%20the%20dark%20side,or%20for%20society%20at%20large. dark social capital.]

Religion – The Creedish Cult serves as a metaphor for the American civil religion, its affects and manipulation on the public.

Principle Characters
Tender Branson – A 33 years old Millennial, Tender was born in Nebraska to the Creedish Community. Tender enjoyed his childhood and grows frustrated with the misinformation the public has on his religious upbringing. He longs to connect with others, but his psychology and his being off the grid, he feels unable to do so. To pass his spare time, he often reads philosophy and psychological texts, including Freud. He later includes these in his religious sermons, under the assigned pseudonym Branson Cash.

Felicity Hollis – Known by the name of Fertility on the novel, Felicity possess psychic abilities, with her dreams forecasting local distasters. Her only family was her late brother, Ezra. While she's originally suspcious of Tender's motivations when meeting him at Ezra's crypt, she discovers that her limited psychic abilities expand soon after meeting him, and she begins to accurately predict the future for friends coworkers. This creates a quasi trauma bond for the both of them, which they often misinterpret as romantic ties. Her own motives toward Tender remain dubious throughout the script and cumulate with her pregnancy as possible justice since she may covertly hold Tender responsible for her brother's death.

Adam Branson –

The Agent –

Nancy Weaver/Caseworker –

About the Screenwriter

 * Raised in a religious community that he feels ioften misrepresented in media, and only became known to more truths later in life.
 * Taught courses in Media and Literature