Vancouver Courthouse – 222 Main Street

Overview

It might seem self-fulfilling, but I wrote a screenplay in 1978 that was supposed to be projected into the future (1996). I had to wait another 20 years for some of the more outlandish ideas to actually occur. Some of the other ideas are partially correct, or perhaps misinterpreted by me (after all, the internet was a long way off at that time). Here is a list of a few of them.

Psyche-Scan

The police in the opening scene view a tape of the protagonist’s thoughts on a television monitor. It was recorded during a random psyche-scan. The thoughts are recorded as images. Doesn’t that sound a lot like digital surveillance? And these days, people create YouTube videos to share their thoughts with others. I think this one is a near-hit.

Digital Implants

The protagonist, Thomas Benjamin, has a discussion with Joe, a seeming outcast from the ‘System’. Joe shows him that he has a digital implant in his right hand. This means Joe could have been in the ‘System’ if he had so chosen. He just prefers to sleep under the stars. This is a direct hit, in my opinion.

Community

While I lived in England, I watched the UK enter the European Union gradually over time. That sense of the inevitable stayed with me, until Brexit this spring. We were in Ireland on the day of the referendum, and it was fascinating to see the ‘common man’ take control again. The same could be said for electing Donald Trump as the new US President. When I created the concept of COMMUNITY, I combined Communism with Unity. The world really has moved on since then, but the rich want a World Government so that they can control the masses. This is a near-miss, I think.

ITS CLAWS

Using the poem My Satanic Struggle I thought of the idea of encoding a hidden clue in the words. Utilizing the rhyme scheme, I concocted a ‘message’ which only made sense if I changed some of the letters. the substituted letters formed a phrase by themselves. The poem was written long before this screenplay, so it was completely random. However, I then decided to name the feminist resistance group this phrase. The recent events have reminded us all that sexual harassment and suppression are still rampant. The feelings that have been stirred up are as sharp as ever. This is a hit.

Henry Evergreen

The story needed a nasty antagonist, so I created one: Henry Evergreen is the head of Community. He is an egomaniac who is not above tackling dissidents directly. In the end, he tortures and kills Thomas Benjamin. Other than Adolph Hitler, I cannot think of anyone who could even come close to the megalomania that it would take to be like Evergreen, until now. The United States now has a new President that could rival this character. This is a direct-hit that I didn’t think could or would really happen.

Conclusion

When I wrote this screenplay, it was science fiction. Now it’s a reality. When it was shared with some agents in Hollywood, I was considered either crazy, or way ahead of the times. Funny how the times have caught up.