Rules of Rescue
Rules of Rescue
SCAD VSFX Film
2020
Synopsis:
The year is 2045 and society has grown to be completely
dependent upon the excessive use of droids. Humans still hold
hierarchy in terms of government, but droids are the backbone
of a modern world that is in the thick of an environmental
crisis. Weather patterns have changed from both human impact
and the increasing tilt from the Earth’s axis. Subtropical
jet-streams reach further Northward than ever creating
conditions with great potential to create disastrous
supercell storms.
The droids are entirely energy self-sufficient through the
use of solar technology, not at all reliant upon electricity,
or oil and gas, a resource that has been depleted for seven
years. The natural resources to build the droids are rapidly
depleting with the volume of droid manufacturing, so many of
them have been repurposed.
Most individuals find no consequence of this structure, while
some fight it. Then there are the few who choose to leave for
the fear of losing their sense of the human condition amidst
a softening society completely dependent upon droids.
Mark, a prideful, cold and calculated man, chose to leave
society and now resides in isolation beyond the Border Cities
in an area known as the Renewed Frontier. A land that was
known for its untouched beauty, was purchased by an
international corporate oil and gas company that once they
had stripped it of its precious resources, abandoned the
area.
The destruction brought to the ecosystem by the selfish,
profit loving oil and gas company has left game scarce and
Mark’s faulty hunting weapon has just scared off the first
doe he’s seen in weeks. Incoming radio frequencies tell of
the development of a supercell storm that will hit in two
days with Mark’s location directly in its path. In
desperation, he radios in for a supply drop to the Northern
Frontier Survival Base, an outpost run by humans, like Mark.
Mark expects a box of supplies delivered by a human pilot. He
gets the burned wreckage of an aircraft and a very persistent
former rescue droid, repurposed for piloting, whose core
programming is to save humans in distress. The droid is aware
of the distress he has caused Mark and offers his dedicated
rescue hardware to Mark to help him.
Mark’s pride makes him highly reluctant, but he establishes
an advantageous relationship with the droid where he takes
and takes for his own benefit. Slowly, it becomes a caring
companionship, despite Mark trying to keep convincing himself
of his hatred towards the droid.
The last thing the droid gives Mark is his binocular eye to
guarantee Mark won’t miss his hunting target and his power
supply to fix the radio that was destroyed in a fit of
frustration. Mark returns to the cabin, elated from a successful hunt to
find the droid completely shut off. He feels great remorse
for how he treated something that would do anything to save
him. However, Mark gets a second chance.
He realizes the last thing the droid gave him was the power
supply. Mark takes it out of the radio and puts it back in
the droid. The moments while the droid is rebooting, are the
reawakening of a man’s humanity and compassion through the
help of a droid that he always believed was going to be the
end of his humanity.
