The Scavengers. 2018, Dystopian Sci-Fi, 97 pages
2018 PAGE Award Finalist
2018 Austin Film Fest Second Rounder
LOGLINE: In a decaying future where food is rare, a naïve but strong willed farm girl must work with her overbearing father and mortally wounded brother to escape a bunker that’s surrounded by a starving gang of cannibals.
SYNOPSIS: The future is hot, dry, and starving; the outcome of global warming. A Grower named GIRL (15) lives a relatively idyllic life on her family farm, along with her bullying older brother JUNIOR (25) and her stern, demanding father ADEN (late 40s). Girl is the last female left in her community, the rest taken away in the past by soldiers, including her own mother that Aden still loves dearly. One day a cannibalistic gang of marauders called SCAVENGERS attack, resulting in Junior being mortally wounded. He needs medical treatment of which can only be found in the nearest town of New Eden, far across a treacherous desert. Girl, lacking the nerve to pull the trigger, is helpless but to watch through her gun sight as a dying Scavenger calls for backup. She helps Aden rush Junior to a fortified bunker that contains a freight truck with their whole year’s crop on board. When Aden turns the key, he discovers that Girl has killed the battery while trying to show off for her love interest CHE (20). Now the Growers are stuck. They secure the doors and booby trap the truck inside with a homemade bomb, right as the approaching Scavengers arrive and surround the place.
The Scavengers, led by the intuitive and violent BLACK BOOTS (50s), try multiple tactics to pull the Growers out; executing neighboring farmers (and later eating them), raiding and burning down the Grower’s home, and even pretending to leave. It’s at that moment when a knock at the door claims to be Che and Girl must stand up to her own father before she herself lets the boy in, only to have her expectations ruined upon learning that Che and Junior are actually secret lovers. Tensions heighten when the Scavengers uncover the Grower’s hidden weapons stash and the marauders use these larger caliber guns to shoot through the fortified walls of the bunker, badly wounding Aden and further damaging the escape truck. Girl once again had a chance to shoot one of the Scavengers during this attack, but lost her nerve. Aden, deciding that the Scavengers might leave if the food is gone, tries to destroy it with the bomb, but it turns out to be defective. Out of options, the Growers realize that their only chance now is to take the fight out onto the road. They work together to fix and prep the truck for battle. But Junior and Aden set the pieces in place to enact their own secret plan. When the moment to leave arrives, it’s Aden and Junior alone who drive the truck out from the bunker. They draw the Scavengers away, allowing Girl and Che to escape, clear of danger.
Emotionally distraught from her family’s sacrifice, Girl eventually pulls herself together and leads Che from the bunker as soon as night falls. Not long after they begin the long walk to New Eden, the Scavengers return, chasing Che and Girl into a nearby forest. Girl watches from afar as Black Boots finds Che and is about to execute the boy. She collects the nerves needed to steady her aim and finally shoots and kills Black Boots. The rest of the Scavengers flee. The next morning, Girl and Che continue their perilous journey across the hot, dry Outerlands. Days pass before they are eventually stopped by two Soldiers guarding the road leading into the town of New Eden, a fertile village filled with pregnant women. It’s in this moment when Girl finally learns her real given name, and learns it from none other than one of the guards, which turns out to be her own long lost mother. The film closes on the shot of Girl and her mother embracing, the family reunion long awaited.