Post by CrepedCrusader on Aug 9, 2022 1:04:07 GMT
I just read the script after finding a link to it on Reddit, and I figured I'd give the lowdown to anyone interested. Keep in mind that changes might've been made during shooting. In fact, I can tell you some of the characters names are not the same as those listed on the film's IMDb page, and some of the shots we see in the film's trailer do not seem to be in the version of the script that I read. Notably, there is no mention of the Victory Project, which is heavily alluded to in the trailer. With those caveats, here's the story:
Thoughts:
The story starts in 1954 small town America. The main female character (Evelyn in the script, changed to Alice in the movie) is a typical '50s housewife who cooks and cleans and doesn't do much else, while the husband (Clifford in the script, changed to Jack in the movie) works to provide for her. They're supposed to be trying to have a baby, but Evelyn is secretly using a feminine hygiene product that is also used as a contraceptive measure. Clifford finds out and gets angry at Evelyn. Turns out she's not so happy being the perfect housewife. She's been having dreams of being a surgeon and thinks it might be a sign that she should go to nursing school and start a career in the field. Clifford insists that they agreed she'd be a housewife.
Clifford gets an award from his job (at one point, he says his job involves working on computer simulations of board games) and they go to a celebration barbecue at the house of their neighbors, Betsy and Joe, another typical '50s couple who have a couple of kids. Again, it's clear that Evelyn is unhappy playing the part of the perfect little suburban wife.
Another day, after Clifford heads off to work, Evelyn accidentally spills carton of orange juice. She goes to the store to get some more; while waiting at a bus stop, she sees Clifford's car in the parking lot of a nearby motel. She sees Clifford going into Room #1 at the motel. Thinking that he must be cheating on her, she barges into the room. There's a flash of light...
...and she wakes up in a machine that resembles an MRI machine. She notices that her arms and legs are emaciated, as of she hasn't been using them at all. There's an empty machine right next to her. She's in some kind of basement, and she sees a camera in the corner and a staircase leading up to a door. As she tries to walk on her emaciated legs, Clifford appears. He's angry and realizes aloud that she must have followed him into the motel room. He says he'll have to program a new "exit portal". He injects her with a syringe...
...and she wakes back up in her bedroom. Clifford tells her that she was found passed out in the parking lot of motel, and that she'd hit her head. She asks him what he was doing at the motel, and he says he was never there. She runs out of the room and runs back to the motel, but when she barges into Room #1, it's just a normal room. The clerk at the front desk lets her look at the register, and it shows that no one has checked into that room in the last 10 days.
Clifford takes her to Dr. Anderson, who says she's suffering from hysteria and prescribes some tranquilizers.
The next day, Evelyn wakes from a nightmare. Unable to find her husband, she goes into the basement to look for him. She sees some kind of standing tool shed in the basement, but Clifford is nowhere to be seen. Distracted by noise outside the basement window, she turns and is surprised to find Clifford behind her.
Back upstairs, Evelyn questions Clifford on what an "exit portal" is, but he says he's never heard of it. When he's distracted, she hides his car keys. When he tries to have her take her tranquilizer, she doesn't actually swallow it. Unable to find his keys, Clifford decides to take the bus because he's late for work. Evelyn secretly follows him. He goes to the bus stop, but instead of getting on the bus, he continues on. She follows and sees him enter a house with a for sale sign in front of it, the sign saying "Alt-Life Realty" on it. She tries to peep in the windows, but a passerby notices her and she leaves. She goes back home and gets the car keys and starts driving, but doesn't seem she has a real destination in mind. While on the highway, a cop car starts to follow her. Another car almost swipes her, and the cop car stops her. The cop claims he never saw any other car almost hit her, and starts questioning where she's going. It turns out that he knows Clifford, and he suggests that she go back home. While driving home with the cop still following her, Evelyn notices Clifford's briefcase in the car. She opens it and papers fall out. The papers are sexist ads that have been cut out of magazines, showing women as nothing more than cooks, cleaners, and housewives. Clifford has drawn obscene pictures on some of the ads.
When the cop stops following her, Evelyn decides to drive back to the Alt-Life Realty house instead of going home. She climbs through a window. There's a flash of light...
...and she wakes up in the machine again, with an identical empty machine nearby. She manages to crawl up the stairs, but is stopped at the door at the top. There's a keypad that requires four digits to open the door. She guesses the four digits (Clifford's birthday) and goes through the door. She finds her herself in an apartment. Clues in the place let her know that the year is 2050. She looks outside the window and sees a futuristic New York in the distance. She finds a computer and searches on it, finding a folder named "Alt-Life". There's a video in the folder of Dr. Anderson telling the viewer that their application has been accepted to participate in Alt-Life. The program exists for men who are sick of women "pushing them around", and who want to live in a simulation where they can have an old-fashioned life where women know their place. The video includes instructions of how to participate, including advice on how to fake a woman's death and erase her memories so that she can be forced to live in the simulation. Evelyn finds pictures of herself and Clifford that she doesn't recognize, taken in 2050. She finds reports of her being missing and presumed dead, as well as divorce papers that she'd filed against Clifford. She also finds that she was a surgeon in 2050, thus her "dreams" were really memories. Clifford pulls up outside in a hover car. Unsure what to do, Evelyn hurries back downstairs and plugs herself back into the machine.
Another day. Evelyn visits Betsy, and tries to tell her what's going on. Betsy seems to crack a little bit, but then gets angry and kicks Evelyn out. That night, Evelyn tries to dose Clifford with her saved up tranquilizers by putting them in his mashed potatoes. It becomes apparent that Clifford knows what she's up to because Betsy snitched on her. Evelyn makes a break for it, running to the Alt-Life house. She breaks a window and climbs inside, but it's just a regular empty house. Clifford shows up with Dr. Anderson and the cop who'd followed Evelyn earlier. They take her by force to a hospital where she receives shock treatments.
Evelyn returns to her humdrum life of being a housewife. One day, she finds the motel room key in the washing machine. This is proof that she's not crazy, and that Clifford was at that motel. She pretends like she's happy, and asks Betsy to give her some gardening tools. That night, she lulls Clifford into thinking everything is okay, and then she makes her move, stabbing him in the hand with a trowel and knocking him out with a shovel. When he wakes up, he finds that he's been tied to the bed with neckties. He orders Evelyn to let him go, but she says that now she gets to make the rules. She asks about the motel and he says he was never there. When she shows him the key, he tries to say he was there having an affair. She dumps hot coffee on him and shoves a broomstick up his butt. Then she threatens to cut out an eye. At this point, he tells her where the exit portal is: the tool shed in the basement. He says he did what he did because she was going to leave him after her career took off while his stalled, after which he "made some mistakes". Evelyn leaves him there. She finds the tool shed and goes through. There's a flash...
...and she's back in the machine in 2050. This time, she sees Clifford plugged into the nearby machine. In her withered state, she again has to crawl upstairs slowly. Meanwhile, Clifford gets free and give chase. As she crawls across the 2050 apartment to the front door, Clifford catches her. There's a struggle. Clifford smashes her through a glass coffee table, causing serious wounds. He takes her to the kitchen, telling her that he is going to lobotomize her with a screwdriver, after which he'll be able to do anything he wants to her. She manages to stab him, first with a knife and then with the screwdriver after he drops it. Bleeding badly, Evelyn passes out...
...and wakes up in her 1954 kitchen with Betsy screaming over her. Clifford is lying dead nearby. Evelyn is taken to the hospital. Dr. Anderson visits her and tells her that she had a psychotic break, during which she killed Clifford. She insists that this is all fake, they must have put her back in the machine when they realized she'd gotten out. Dr. Anderson asks her what's more likely, that she's really from the future and is living in a simulated reality right now, or that she had a psychotic break? He warns that the authorities will lobotomize her if she keeps claiming to be from the future. She says that he is lying and bites him. She is injected with a syringe.
Later, Evelyn is institutionalized at a mental home. Betsy comes to visit her, giving her flowers. Evelyn is totally uncommunicative. Before she leaves, Betsy whisper to Evelyn that she knows that Evelyn was right, and that there's an exit portal behind a nearby door. Betsy leaves. Evelyn waits until the orderly is distracted and gets up to head for the door Betsy had indicated. She opens it, there is a flash light...
...and the movie ends.
Clifford gets an award from his job (at one point, he says his job involves working on computer simulations of board games) and they go to a celebration barbecue at the house of their neighbors, Betsy and Joe, another typical '50s couple who have a couple of kids. Again, it's clear that Evelyn is unhappy playing the part of the perfect little suburban wife.
Another day, after Clifford heads off to work, Evelyn accidentally spills carton of orange juice. She goes to the store to get some more; while waiting at a bus stop, she sees Clifford's car in the parking lot of a nearby motel. She sees Clifford going into Room #1 at the motel. Thinking that he must be cheating on her, she barges into the room. There's a flash of light...
...and she wakes up in a machine that resembles an MRI machine. She notices that her arms and legs are emaciated, as of she hasn't been using them at all. There's an empty machine right next to her. She's in some kind of basement, and she sees a camera in the corner and a staircase leading up to a door. As she tries to walk on her emaciated legs, Clifford appears. He's angry and realizes aloud that she must have followed him into the motel room. He says he'll have to program a new "exit portal". He injects her with a syringe...
...and she wakes back up in her bedroom. Clifford tells her that she was found passed out in the parking lot of motel, and that she'd hit her head. She asks him what he was doing at the motel, and he says he was never there. She runs out of the room and runs back to the motel, but when she barges into Room #1, it's just a normal room. The clerk at the front desk lets her look at the register, and it shows that no one has checked into that room in the last 10 days.
Clifford takes her to Dr. Anderson, who says she's suffering from hysteria and prescribes some tranquilizers.
The next day, Evelyn wakes from a nightmare. Unable to find her husband, she goes into the basement to look for him. She sees some kind of standing tool shed in the basement, but Clifford is nowhere to be seen. Distracted by noise outside the basement window, she turns and is surprised to find Clifford behind her.
Back upstairs, Evelyn questions Clifford on what an "exit portal" is, but he says he's never heard of it. When he's distracted, she hides his car keys. When he tries to have her take her tranquilizer, she doesn't actually swallow it. Unable to find his keys, Clifford decides to take the bus because he's late for work. Evelyn secretly follows him. He goes to the bus stop, but instead of getting on the bus, he continues on. She follows and sees him enter a house with a for sale sign in front of it, the sign saying "Alt-Life Realty" on it. She tries to peep in the windows, but a passerby notices her and she leaves. She goes back home and gets the car keys and starts driving, but doesn't seem she has a real destination in mind. While on the highway, a cop car starts to follow her. Another car almost swipes her, and the cop car stops her. The cop claims he never saw any other car almost hit her, and starts questioning where she's going. It turns out that he knows Clifford, and he suggests that she go back home. While driving home with the cop still following her, Evelyn notices Clifford's briefcase in the car. She opens it and papers fall out. The papers are sexist ads that have been cut out of magazines, showing women as nothing more than cooks, cleaners, and housewives. Clifford has drawn obscene pictures on some of the ads.
When the cop stops following her, Evelyn decides to drive back to the Alt-Life Realty house instead of going home. She climbs through a window. There's a flash of light...
...and she wakes up in the machine again, with an identical empty machine nearby. She manages to crawl up the stairs, but is stopped at the door at the top. There's a keypad that requires four digits to open the door. She guesses the four digits (Clifford's birthday) and goes through the door. She finds her herself in an apartment. Clues in the place let her know that the year is 2050. She looks outside the window and sees a futuristic New York in the distance. She finds a computer and searches on it, finding a folder named "Alt-Life". There's a video in the folder of Dr. Anderson telling the viewer that their application has been accepted to participate in Alt-Life. The program exists for men who are sick of women "pushing them around", and who want to live in a simulation where they can have an old-fashioned life where women know their place. The video includes instructions of how to participate, including advice on how to fake a woman's death and erase her memories so that she can be forced to live in the simulation. Evelyn finds pictures of herself and Clifford that she doesn't recognize, taken in 2050. She finds reports of her being missing and presumed dead, as well as divorce papers that she'd filed against Clifford. She also finds that she was a surgeon in 2050, thus her "dreams" were really memories. Clifford pulls up outside in a hover car. Unsure what to do, Evelyn hurries back downstairs and plugs herself back into the machine.
Another day. Evelyn visits Betsy, and tries to tell her what's going on. Betsy seems to crack a little bit, but then gets angry and kicks Evelyn out. That night, Evelyn tries to dose Clifford with her saved up tranquilizers by putting them in his mashed potatoes. It becomes apparent that Clifford knows what she's up to because Betsy snitched on her. Evelyn makes a break for it, running to the Alt-Life house. She breaks a window and climbs inside, but it's just a regular empty house. Clifford shows up with Dr. Anderson and the cop who'd followed Evelyn earlier. They take her by force to a hospital where she receives shock treatments.
Evelyn returns to her humdrum life of being a housewife. One day, she finds the motel room key in the washing machine. This is proof that she's not crazy, and that Clifford was at that motel. She pretends like she's happy, and asks Betsy to give her some gardening tools. That night, she lulls Clifford into thinking everything is okay, and then she makes her move, stabbing him in the hand with a trowel and knocking him out with a shovel. When he wakes up, he finds that he's been tied to the bed with neckties. He orders Evelyn to let him go, but she says that now she gets to make the rules. She asks about the motel and he says he was never there. When she shows him the key, he tries to say he was there having an affair. She dumps hot coffee on him and shoves a broomstick up his butt. Then she threatens to cut out an eye. At this point, he tells her where the exit portal is: the tool shed in the basement. He says he did what he did because she was going to leave him after her career took off while his stalled, after which he "made some mistakes". Evelyn leaves him there. She finds the tool shed and goes through. There's a flash...
...and she's back in the machine in 2050. This time, she sees Clifford plugged into the nearby machine. In her withered state, she again has to crawl upstairs slowly. Meanwhile, Clifford gets free and give chase. As she crawls across the 2050 apartment to the front door, Clifford catches her. There's a struggle. Clifford smashes her through a glass coffee table, causing serious wounds. He takes her to the kitchen, telling her that he is going to lobotomize her with a screwdriver, after which he'll be able to do anything he wants to her. She manages to stab him, first with a knife and then with the screwdriver after he drops it. Bleeding badly, Evelyn passes out...
...and wakes up in her 1954 kitchen with Betsy screaming over her. Clifford is lying dead nearby. Evelyn is taken to the hospital. Dr. Anderson visits her and tells her that she had a psychotic break, during which she killed Clifford. She insists that this is all fake, they must have put her back in the machine when they realized she'd gotten out. Dr. Anderson asks her what's more likely, that she's really from the future and is living in a simulated reality right now, or that she had a psychotic break? He warns that the authorities will lobotomize her if she keeps claiming to be from the future. She says that he is lying and bites him. She is injected with a syringe.
Later, Evelyn is institutionalized at a mental home. Betsy comes to visit her, giving her flowers. Evelyn is totally uncommunicative. Before she leaves, Betsy whisper to Evelyn that she knows that Evelyn was right, and that there's an exit portal behind a nearby door. Betsy leaves. Evelyn waits until the orderly is distracted and gets up to head for the door Betsy had indicated. She opens it, there is a flash light...
...and the movie ends.
Thoughts:
What's confusing to me is the question of the other people in the Alt-Life simulation. Are they real people who are all plugged into their own machines, or are they just part of the simulation? The latter theory is given credence by a strange thing that Evelyn witnesses: she sees the neighbor kids playing, and one of them trips over his shoelaces. Shortly thereafter, she sees the kids repeat what just happened exactly, including the kid tripping over his shoelaces, as if it were just a loop repeating itself. Then again, Betsy's nervous reaction the first time Evelyn confronts her, and Betsy later telling Evelyn that she'd found an exit portal, seem to suggest that she's another woman imprisoned in the simulation.
Also, while I think the story clearly leans toward the simulation theory being real, the script ending with a flash of light without showing us Evelyn coming out the other side does give some room for questions. Did she just go crazy? If so, why did Betsy tell her she was right? Perhaps Betsy, secretly unhappy with her own life, began to share in the psychosis?
Also, while I think the story clearly leans toward the simulation theory being real, the script ending with a flash of light without showing us Evelyn coming out the other side does give some room for questions. Did she just go crazy? If so, why did Betsy tell her she was right? Perhaps Betsy, secretly unhappy with her own life, began to share in the psychosis?
