Morgan Akana
Travis Clark
Sam Woodruff
Scene 1: INT. PLANE TO USA - NIGHT(?)
BORIS and VLADIMIR both Russian Spies are flying a spy plane that is currently over the pacific ocean bound for Texas and eventually NASA headquarters. The chimpanzee JOHN WAYNE rides in back behind them.
BORIS
Don’t you think the name John Wayne
is trying too hard?
VLADIMIR
Who cares the Americans will never
suspect a thing either way.
BORIS
Yes, the Americans are idiots.
Vladimir
Yes, they are!
(Both Laugh)
BORIS
I suppose the real question is if
John is an idiot.
VLADIMIR
He can understand you Boris.
BORIS
You always say that, how do you know?
VLADIMIR
Think of all that we have trained him to do. He knows how not to get caught with his eyebrow camera. He knows how to identify key components to photograph.
BORIS
Vladimir you read to much into that stupid monkey. He only does those things because we electroshock him if he doesn’t.
VLADIMIR
Don’t remind me. If you look into his eyes he knows what is going on.
Scene 2: INT. NASA HQ - DAY
Boris and Vladimir, now in american business coats, stand in front of a NASA officials desk with John Wayne. The NASA official looks over their credentials.
NASA OFFICIAL
So, Mr… uh… Rodgers and Mr. Francis? Is that right?
VLADIMIR
Yes, that is right.
NASA OFFICIAL
Well Mr. Rodgers, I hope you understand that there is no guarantee that your chimp will make it into the Mercury rocketship.
BORIS
What do you mean?
NASA OFFICIAL
There are currently two other chimps, Ham and Enos, who have been extensively trained to use the rockets. Your chimp is years behind them.
VLADIMIR
But you will take him, yes?
NASA OFFICIAL
Of course. If he isn’t used in Project Mercury there is bound to be something else on the horizon like Project Gemini or Apollo.
(The NASA Official walks out of the room.)
VLADIMIR
Sh*t what do we do?
BORIS
We have to get rid of one of those chimps.
VLADIMIR
What do you mean?
BORIS
You know what we must do, you never had the stomach to do what is necessary. At the end of the day we have a job to do and we cannot fail.
Scene 3: INT. SUPER SECRET SURVEILLANCE ROOM - DAY
In a control room two americans sit and chat while watching screens with John Wayne, Boris, and Vladimir shown. General walks in.
GENERAL
How could we have let this happen?
GUARD 1
Sir?
GENERAL
The soviets have killed Enos.
GUARD 2
(under his breath) Probably better for him anyway.
GENERAL
What was that?
GUARD 2
Nothing sir.
GUARD 1
When did this happen sir! We have been watching them non stop.
GENERAL
Obviously not
GUARD 1
Well where do we go from here?
GENERAL
The plan was to keep this Russian chimp around longer. But we will have to put him on this mission. We’ll leak the false photos to the Russian’s now.
GUARD 1
Do they suspect us sir?
GENERAL
All indications say no. Maybe this will turn out alright.
(General leaves)
GUARD 2
Wait what is going on?
GUARD 1
The handlers of that new chimp are Russian spies. We intercepted information that they are going to try to get photos back to Russia from a secret camera the chimp has.
GUARD 2
Photos of what?
GUARD 1
The cockpit the Russian’s have been trying to get some key cockpit configurations ever since NASA was organized. I guess they figured if they couldn’t get a Russian person in to get photos they could send a chimp. What they don’t know is the chimp, John Wayne I think they call him, is going to a fake cockpit tomorrow. Russians ain’t gonna know what hit em.
Scene 4: INT. NASA HQ - NIGHT
BORIS
Why is he not back yet?
VLADIMIR
Relax. As I said the Americans don’t suspect a thing.
BORIS
Okay John’s tracker says he’s back in his cage. We go get the photos and we are out of here.
Scene 5:
The fake photos are sent to Russia and they construct their key cockpit components based on these specs. John Wayne is left in the US as the Russians had to make an escape unnoticed and they could not with the monkey.
In the chimp’s habitat at NASA John Wayne listens to a couple of NASA scientists.
NASA SCIENTIST #1
What do you mean it just blew up?
NASA SCIENTIST #2
That’s what they say in the New York Times. A Soviet Rocket blew up during preparations killing three of their top officials and who knows how many of their scientists. I even heard there were a couple of chimps aboard.
NASA SCIENTIST #1
The poor sods. I can’t think of a worse way to g- wait, what is wrong with the chimp?
The scientists leap to their feet and look into the habitat and see John is howling and repeatedly running into the glass in hysterics.
(FIN)
We originally wrote this script as light, fun, humorous, spy story about a double-agent chimp. We were researching historical facts about the early stages of the space race and found funny facts and cool espionage gadgets. But as our research continued we found devastating catastrophes from both sides of the space race. One we chose to use was a devastating accident known as The Nedelin Catastrophe, the worst rocket related accident in history. We also found reports of the mistreatment of the chimps, Ham and Enos. Accordingly our story was changed to fit more closely with real events. Our light comedic story of a chimp being a double agent suddenly became a dark, only slightly humorous look into the past. The maturation of the story was indicative of our actual development in understanding this historical event. Through the process our empathy towards those involved increased. Looking at these events from a personal perspective changed them completely.
Along similar lines of thought, reading Satrapi’s “The Veil” shows that any news story heard on the television, read on the internet, or paper are accompanied and built upon thousands of micro stories. Simply reading a news story at face value is an injustice to all the people affected by it. How people react, or don’t react, says more about society than maybe the story itself. It’s not just a wild fire, robbery, political scandal, or a school shooting. The events are details in a bigger narrative. As we created this historical piece, it was important that although it was contrived, it made us think about how the people and, for our narrative especially, chimps may have reacted or felt in this moment in human history. Before we never thought about these individuals only the big events. The forces of Red vs Blue locked in an epic struggle of technological dominance, not the individuals involved, the lives they led, or the burdens they carried.
We have a tendency to overlook the individual in a broad context. Robert Burn’s poem To A Mouse, in an incredibly moving way, helps us to gain some of that perspective of the importance of the individual back. In the poem he discusses a time, when plowing his field, he turns up a mouse and it’s winter burrow. By doing so he leaves the mouse for dead with no winter home. Addressing the mouse, Burn’s says:
“I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!”
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!”
Burn’s sympathy for this mouse is touching. Many of us probably wouldn’t even notice this event or would react negatively toward a mouse in our field. Burn instead, stops to talk to this mouse. That is what writing this historical fiction piece did for us, and does in general. It helped us to realize more than just the event, but the effects upon those involved down to the smallest creature and “fellow-mortal” in this case chimpanzees.
Work Cited:
The Nedelin Catastrophe (Soviet Rocket Explosion)
Rockets and People: Creating a Rocket Industry by Boris Chertok http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol2.pdf pg. 597-633
Robert Burns To A Mouse: http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml
Satrapi The Veil: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Lc1sVyYWa1VzlJNU5wNDJLc3c/edit
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