Working Title: Aurora Writers names: Brandon Moncada (pogifilipino94@yahoo.com), Erica Hill (ericahill51@webster.edu), Kasey Morris (kmorris6955@yahoo.

com) Logline: A young graduate student, having earned top honors in his neuroscience degree, inexplicably decides to commit one of the biggest mass shootings in U.S. history at the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO on July 20, 2012. [Open] The starry summer night is warm with a calm breeze. Moviegoers are watching The Dark Knight Rises midnight showing at the Century 16 movie theater. People are happily enjoying the movie, snuggling together, excited, even tense from the films surprises. Without putting direct focus on him, we see a man with distinctive orange, curly hair buy a ticket, enter the theater, and sit in the front row. Moments later, the man retreats to the dark parking lot, and readies himself with a mass array of weaponry including a handgun, a semi-automatic rifle, and shotgun. Visual is focused on his hands preparing the guns and what appears to be a smoke bomb. Slow rise towards his head, his face is revealed, but instead of a cold, menacing face, we see his gas mask, shrouded with poorly dyed, curly, orange hair pointing in all directions. The man makes his way back to the screen room without any impediment. He enters during a quieter dialogue scene, so he is easily noticed when he stands in front of the audience. He grips the smoke bomb as he observes the calm, yet slightly confused faces. He deploys the smoke bomb, and the crowd cheers, thinking this is a stunt in honor of opening night. The man scans the audience and is taken aback by their more than happy response. Finally he grabs his guns, and begins shooting at the audience, receiving the screams that he expected. He walks further into the theater and up the stairs, aiming towards the back

rows first. Focusing mainly on the gas mask on the man, and the firing of his bullets out of his guns, the main terror came just from the sounds of the audience and the piercing noise of the fire alarm that just started ringing. People are trying to leave, but are instead shot down in the aisles. Others, particularly the men, cover their loved ones bodies to protect them. After several minutes or terror pass, the gunman exits the theater swiftly and makes it to his car before he is apprehended by police. He puts forth no struggle. They rip off his mask to reveal the smiling, painted face of James Eagan Holmes. The scene outside the theater is chaos. There are dozens of squad cars. Some of them leave with victims to go to the hospital, unable to wait for ambulances. The officers covering the gunman are visibly furious. They are screaming at him, demanding answers about how and, more importantly, why. Still displaying a deranged and satisfied smile, he says, Im an agent of chaos. Im The Joker. [Transition] -2010Wide shot of a lecture hall at UCR. James is sitting in the front row, positioned similarly to where we saw him sitting in the theater, but now with normal, short, brown hair. He is actively listening to a lecture about the nervous system. Cut to a group of students work together in a lab. James is seen playing an active, if not a leading role in this setting. His face is serious. The others listen to him. Cut to James walking across campus. A car drives by with a dog chasing and barking at it (Reference: Jokers quote: Do I really look like a guy with a

plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just... do things.) Cut to graduation day, where we see James in a cap and highly decorated gown, shaking the hand of the dean as he accepts his degree. He smiles with his lips close, and looks down frequently after he looks to the audience. His parents hug and congratulate him. A little glint of anxiety is visible on his mothers face. [Transition] Long Shot, swat team dressed in black, rushing to Holmes apartment. Detective Gordon Kane is yelling orders into a walkie talkie from the parking lot. He is telling them there are booby traps, and to send in a robot as the front line. Bomb technicians worked their way through a series of deadly traps. There is a trip wire hooked to the front door. Kane walks in after detonations are disassembled. He rummages through papers with threats on them. There are bombs that were not assembled, artillery shells, homemade bombs, and bottles with strange liquids. Also in the apartment the windows are blacked out and there is a poster; "Soldiers of Misfortune" hanging on a closet door. [Transition] -Fall 2011Establishing shot of the Rocky Mountains to illustrate the peaceful Colorado setting. Tracking camera follows James, at first from the front, and then to his back, as he walks into a large building. Camera tilts up to reveal a sign that reads University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Cut to James jogging up the stairs and entering his one-bedroom apartment. A desk with three lap top computers is at the center of his living space. The

walls around it are decorated with posters of various comic book heroes. James sits and browses, but all we can see is his emotionless face, lit by the glow of the screen. [Transition] Close up on a laptop (there are a few laptops) left open on a Match.com a dating site. Kane mumbles, You got to be kidding me, he was looking for tail on the internet? He picks up, and looks through the receipts for James gun purchases. Kane reviews some documents illustrating his academic prestige, including an application to UIUC with a picture of James and a llama attached. [Transition] -Spring 2012We see more activity on campus. James is working hard, but working alone. We begin to see some distress in his face. Cut to James sitting down in front of Dr. Lynne Fenton (The director of student mental health services at The University of Colorado, and James psychiatrist). This is not his first visit with her; he refers to his previous psychiatrist. He is not coping well with his new home, and he mentions he is having violent fantasies while daydreaming in class. Cut to a dialogue scene between James and a female classmate, lets call her Frances (Harley Quinns middle name). They connect when she notices him doodling a cartoon which resembles Alex Delarge from A Clockwork Orange. (Reference: According to IMDb, Heath Ledger drew inspiration from this character when developing the psychotic mannerisms for the Joker character). [Transition]

Glenn Rotkovich looks uncomfortable and sad. Detective Kane is standing while Glenn is sitting in his office chair. Scattered signage and merchandise display the name of the gun club which Rotkovich owns. He is reading some questions from a small notebook. Glenn answers and shakes his head during the interview. I called to see if he could come down for an orientation, and I got his answering machine. The message was just bizarre, freaky. I thought it was strange. I called a couple more times and then decided not to call again because of the nature of his answering message. Kane is listening intently, jotting notes into his notebook. I gave my staff his name, James Holmes, and told everyone here to get me if he shows up at the range. I wanted to know who he was before we considered doing anything with him, let alone make him a member. He was flagged. He explains he initially thought the gunman was drunk on the answering message because he was slurring his words, but on subsequent listens, he realized the creepy voice was deliberate. Kane has a copy of Holmes application to the gun range. [Transition] Cut to James face, which is riddled with a quiet anger. In his hands is a paper which displays a C grade on a comprehensive exam. He looks at Frances to see if shes paying attention, and quickly averts his gaze when he sees her eye line meet his. Cut to Dr. Fentons office, where James is ranting about how much he hates it here, and how he hates his teachers, and how he is bored out of his mind. Fenton struggles to calm him down. That night, he and Frances go to a movie at the Century 16 theater. Their body language is mostly closed off. They do not know each other that well. The next day, James makes a phone call to his mother. He tells her nothing of his stress, but explains that hes been doing research and is considering purchasing a gun. He explains that hes always had excellent hand-eye

coordination, he is bored with biology, and he wants to get better acquainted with machinery. His mother has only confusion in her voice and her responses. [Transition] Cut to Holmes sitting down in jail. After Kane finds some curious evidence in his investigation, Kane wants to know what happened, so he asks the man himself. Holmes gives only confusing psychobabble as answers. Kane gets frustrated, but stays calm. He repeatedly asks why he said he is the Joker. He also asks why he dyed his hair to look like a god damn clown. Holmes smirks the entire time, staying quiet and still. [Transition] -Summer 2012Back to a close up of James face, this time painted with a visible spectrum of emotions ranging from embarrassment to rage to senility. Wide shot reveals that James is standing in front of his class. After his professor addresses his silence, we learn he is bombing his oral exam. After a brief, awkward moment, he walks calmly out of the room. On his drive home, he texts Frances. He asks her if she has ever heard of dysphoric mania. She replies, Yes, why? He responds with a warning to stay away from him because he is bad news. He returns to his apartment and begins to frantically clean his small collection of guns. He takes a break to put a notebook into an envelope, and addresses it to Dr. Lynne Fenton. [Transition] Cut to Kane sitting in Dr. Fentons chair, holding the notebook Holmes had sent her. He is grilling her about her lack of action upon receiving the notebook. In the notebook are some words describing his plans to kill people,

as well as some disturbing drawings. He questions Dr. Fenton, referring to a telephone number for the hospital switchboard, Are you aware that James Holmes called this number nine minutes before the shooting started? Dr. Fenton says she did not know. [Transition] The next few scenes are composed of quick cuts and slowly building suspenseful music. We see James building his arsenal, little by little, as the pieces come in the mail (vest, gas mask, etc). We see him constructing the various booby-traps and explosives in his apartment. We see him dying his hair, and then painting his face. Then, we see some repeat shots from the opening, as he readies himself in the parking lot of the Century 16 theater. The music builds as he walks toward the emergency exit door he propped open. He enters the building, returns to the theater screening TDKR, and, right as the door opens, everything cuts to black, and the music stops. Roll credits.