Film Idea - "Atlas Island"

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Atlas Island
Write-Up by Cathcon (R-MI) with assistance from Matt from VT (R-VT) and associated others. Thanks to Martin Scorsese, Leonardo Di Caprio, and Geoffrey Brown

The year is 1947. Jeff Bush is a "duly appointed Oklahoma Marshall" dispatched to a rather suspicious insane asylum on the infamous Atlas Island, founded by the Massachusetts native David Leip in 1896. Jeff's career as a "duly appointed Oklahoma Marshall" is an oft repeated statement, punctuated by his brandishing of credentials containing a photo ID and a red picture of Oklahoma on it. The opening scene involves the dropping of a large drop of frosting from his face/donut to his oxford shirt and splotchy tie. It zooms out to show him on the ferry en route to the island underneath a stormy sky--unusual for Oklahoma. Accompanying him is a rather quiet partner with a closely cropped beard who cautions Jeff against his excesses.  

Bush's assignment is in response to the escape of a prisoner, little of whom is known. As Jeff begins wandering the halls of the asylum, led by the warden, Charles Inks, several of the strangers strike him as rather suspicious. After having formally met with Inks in the warden's study--filled with various maps, of the county, Oklahoma, and the country, as well as a framed photograph of Inks with John W. Bricker--Jeff begins interviewing the inmates. Despite the inmates acting like complete assholes to the "duly appointed Oklahoma Marshall", Jeff begins talking to the inmates about his various problems in life, often straying altogether from his assigned task. Among the inmates is one who goes merely by the nickname "Grumpy Gramps", a wheelchair bound World War I veteran who likes the ladies and spits senselessly in Jeff's face as he speaks. Others include an elderly gentleman from California who was placed there due to homosexual and marijuana smoking tendencies, A "sex addict" from Missouri who often refers to the asylum as "the bad place" and is very cynical about what's going on there. As well, there is a doctor referred to only as Nathan that is often the voice of good sense in Jeff's meandering conversations and whom Jeff's partner, Josh, seems to agree with more often than not.

As conversations with the inmates continue, the audience sees more and more of Jeff's past, background, and personality. Rather than probing for information on how the prisoner may have escaped, Jeff continues probing more and more deeply into himself; discussing things such as gluttony, lust, dependence on his parents, his time fighting in Kenya during World War II--he served but three weeks before he was sent home with an injured ankle--and animal abuse. However, Jeff's own self-exploration is not noticed by him as he sees little wrong with his situation, but moreso by the audience, which should, if they're well-adjusted, continually lose sympathy with him as the film goes on. At some point, looking for advice to a mundane question, Jeff turns to his partner Joshua to find that Joshua is no longer standing behind him to his left, being instead gone. While this worries Jeff, it is not enough to keep him from his "assignment". With Nathan, warden Inks, and the inmates continually offering harsh, if not sound, advice to Jeff as he lays his problems before them, he begins to react violently and erratically, accusing them of conspiring to change him, muttering about the emotionless Godlessness prevalent in academia and suspecting that those that question him are in fact non-believers in Jeff's beloved Jesus (whom Jeff refers to continuously).

Finally, out of fear, Jeff flees the asylum, rushing towards the lighthouse on the cliff of the island for solace. Thinking frantically, sweating, and struggling to his rather large size and lack of regular exercise, Jeff climbs the lighthouse, thinking that at the top, he will either see a way off the island, or signal for help. However, it is up there that he confronts Inks, who sits in a large velvet arm chair with a cat in his lap, and Dr. Nathan, standing behind him. Here, the truth is revealed: Jeff is in fact not a "duly appointed Oklahoma Marshall", he is an inmate at Leip Asylum. After suffering a stroke while serving in Africa in 1943, Jeff arrived home babbling nonsense, forced to move in with his parents due to tremendous disability and caving even more to his desire for food as a way to fill the hole in his soul. Insane, insatiable, abusive, and worst of all delusional, Jeff was sent to Atlas Island to hopefully recuperate. However, once arrived, Jeff rejected all help, insisting that his life was back on track and that he was losing weight and learning to walk again. Facing the possibility of the electric chair for their patient, Inks and Nathan resorted to drastic measures, enacting one of Jeff's delusional fantasies so that he himself would realize his own insanity. However, it obviously has not worked and, should he not reform his ways, he will die. Jeff, confronted with the awful truth, is forced to stop and think. Considering his options--the thought of a life without food--he at last says "I would rather die in comfort than live the Godless half-life you would hand me."

In the final scene, Jeff is being seen strapped into the electric chair. As the camera zooms in on his face and the audience hears an electric buzzing sound, Jeff sees his old partner, Joshua, striding through the crowd, unnoticed. As he walks, the background and his clothing transform, until Josh is robed in light with eyes of fire, standing on clouds. Joshua--no, Jesus--begins to speak. "Yea, though you walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I abandoned you. It is not out of hatred. Nay, I loved you until the end. However, you, bestowed with some of the greatest of gifts, have chosen to forsake that which you were blessed with in the name of hedonistic short-term fulfillment. Where I gave you parents to shelter and clothe you, you saw only those that would support you as a worn out armchair the rest of your life. Where I gave you nourishment, you saw only a path to satisfaction, bereft of faith, hope, or love. Where you were given boundless opportunity like few before had known, you chose the easiest and least productive of paths, giving yourself only to yourself, and not to others. And the greatest of all. You have been born in a time where faith in My redemption has seen little rival. Instead, you used it as a shield against accusation, sinning in My name and relishing in it. That is why I left you to pursue your goals to their own ends, and that is why I leave you now. Between Me and you, a chasm of your own creation has been set in place, so that even now, should you want to cross from there to here, you can not, and I have obliged you. If you have not listened to Moses and the Prophets, you will not listen to Me." The movie ends with Jeff's terrified face, a flash of fire, and credits.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

As is only natural, more allegories, symbolism, metaphors, and details will be added as discussion grows. Already I've seen suggestions to add Duke, WalterMitty, and possibly Lief as inmates, and I'll try to see how they can fit in.

[Lief 🗽]

As is only natural, more allegories, symbolism, metaphors, and details will be added as discussion grows. Already I've seen suggestions to add Duke, WalterMitty, and possibly Lief as inmates, and I'll try to see how they can fit in.

yesssss

Also I really liked Shutter Island, I don't care what people say.

[Sopranos Republican]

Awesome, I'm glad to be an assistant on this!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

As is only natural, more allegories, symbolism, metaphors, and details will be added as discussion grows. Already I've seen suggestions to add Duke, WalterMitty, and possibly Lief as inmates, and I'll try to see how they can fit in.

yesssss

Also I really liked Shutter Island, I don't care what people say.

Great film.

Also, as a script will at some point be put together for this once the idea is fully realized, I'll need help from some update regulars--a number of which may themselves make appearances as themselves (or rather allegories of themselves) in the film--for help in making Jeff Bush's speaking flow as his real life version does.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Shutter Island is one of my favorite films ever.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Fun fact: The Given Day, which like the book of Shutter Island is by Dennis Lehane, is set partially in Oklahoma.

[Zanas]

Shutter Island is one of my favorite films ever.

[Torie]

I'll volunteer for the sex scenes.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'll volunteer for the sex scenes.

I don't think our main character is getting any, and I'm not sure if we're gonna do inmate scenes, Torie.

[Dr. Cynic]

As an actor I'm deeply offended that I was not offered a role in this film!

[Oldiesfreak1854]

This is an awesome idea!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

As an actor I'm deeply offended that I was not offered a role in this film!

Whoa there, Brother Cynic. We haven't even begun casting yet. This is its first pitch and we still have nowhere near a script. When casting begins, you'll be the first one called.

This is an awesome idea!

Thank you, Mr. Freak. I'm hoping we'll be able to fully realize this idea and work towards a script and then get to production. I'm thinking the cast, crew, and executives can shoot for three weeks in Oklahoma.

[Sopranos Republican]

This is an awesome idea!

Thank you, Mr. Freak. I'm hoping we'll be able to fully realize this idea and work towards a script and then get to production. I'm thinking the cast, crew, and executives can shoot for three weeks in Oklahoma.

By crew and executives, he means me with a cell phone camera, and him with a "budget" megaphone, (empty paper towel roll).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

This is an awesome idea!

Thank you, Mr. Freak. I'm hoping we'll be able to fully realize this idea and work towards a script and then get to production. I'm thinking the cast, crew, and executives can shoot for three weeks in Oklahoma.

By crew and executives, he means me with a cell phone camera, and him with a "budget" megaphone, (empty paper towel roll).

The most expensive item there will be the chair from which I yell at the cast.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Atlas Island
ACT I
SCENE I

Opening Shot: A badge with a red Oklahoma icon and the statement "Oklahoma Marshall" is shown, zoomed in on. Suddenly, a piece of chocolate frosting dribbles on it and the camera pans to see duly licensed Oklahoma Marshall JEFF BUSH is shown. The badge and frosting are on his left lapel and the frosting came from a chocolate topped doughnut he is munching on. He is on a ferry against gray waters and a gray sky. A few feet away from our hero is his partner, JOSH CHRISTENSEN, who stands watching JEFF.

JOSH:
You can't live on doughnuts alone, Jeff.

JEFF:
(Laughs) Luckily I have a big dinner waiting for me at home.

JOSH:
You cook that for yourself?

JEFF:
No, my mom and dad are preparing something. Anyway, what're we looking at again?

JOSH:
At the island we're approaching--Atlas Island--is Leip Asylum, founded by the 'mysterious" Dave Leip in 1896. A convict escaped only recently, and we've to track him down. We'll be speaking with the warden, Charles Inks, first thing when we get there.

JEFF opens a can of beer he took from a pocket on his trench coat and begins smoking a cigarette.

JOSH:
Whoa... Don't go overboard Jeff. You want to be sober when you talk to Inks.

JEFF:
*Belch* Don't worry Josh, I've only had a few. Plus, I've got God on my side.

JOSH:
(muttering) Well He's trying to be.

The camera zooms away from the deck of the ferry and shows JEFF, JOSH, and the ferry growing closer to the looming tower of rock known as Atlas Island.