Intended Use By Lauren Guiteras

Lauren Guiteras 1420 Chicago Ave., Apt. 3B Evanston, IL 60201 (954) 326-2003

EXT. POOL - DAY 4-year-old TIMOTHY, wearing GOGGLES, swims toward a small, shiny ROBOTIC POOL CLEANER attached to a PLASTIC HOSE. Little flaps that resemble fins protrude from its sides, and a flashy label appears on its right: KLEENMASTER 5000. Timothy is perhaps a little more precocious than is convenient for his parents. He taps at the front of the pool cleaner. He likes it. He wonders how it works. Timothy drifts around in the water as the cleaner scuttles along the pool floor. TITLE CARD: INTENDED USE The pool occupies most of the space in the backyard of a yellow, suburban house by the coast. Dripping a trail of watery footprints behind him, Timothy emerges from the pool and carries the cleaner in his arms. His MOTHER, watching from inside the house, dashes outside to stop him. MOTHER Timothy, what are you doing? Dont take that outside the pool! TIMOTHY But Mommy His mother wrestles the cleaner out of Timothys grasp, plugs it back into the hose, and drops it into the pool. MOTHER He belongs in there. Okay? EXT. POOL - DUSK Several LEAVES lie on the placid surface of the water. Waiting for them to sink, the pool cleaner makes lazy figure eights along the floor. Finally, a leaf begins to drift down. He looks at it for a little while before consuming it without enthusiasm. He glances around, lacking anything at all to do. With one of his flaps, the cleaner begins to pick at his KLEENMASTER 5000 label as though it were a scab.

(CONTINUED)

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Just as one of the labels corners starts to curl over, the NOISE OF A TELEVISION punctures the silent atmosphere. A WEATHER REPORT. A CRYING WOMAN. An INFOMERCIAL. Finally, an Attenborough-like NARRATOR: TELEVISION VOICE (O.S.) Beneath the surface, however, lies a whole other world. Intrigued, the cleaner slowly ascends, just poking his eyes out of the water. Through a SLIDING GLASS DOOR, he can see Timothy, his mother, and his FATHER watching a nature documentary in the living room. The television produces images the cleaner has never dreamed of before. Swirling, neon COLORS imbue the screen; WAVES crash with white FOAM, twisting and extending underneath the ocean as though they are tentacles hurdling forth to envelop the cleaner and pull him through the glass door. Swaying, breathing CORAL REEFS encircle a perfectly orchestrated symphony of life, appearing to birth dozens of STINGRAYS, DOLPHINS, and ANGELFISH with every exhale. It ends as quickly as it started. The colors retreat into the rapidly dimming screen, releasing the pool cleaner behind the glass door. He races forward, desperate for more, but Timothys father has already turned off the television. FATHER Off to bed now, Timothy. The family vacates the room. Defeated, the cleaner turns to go back to the pool when he realizes hes passing the cardboard box that used to contain him. He squints at a line of text along the bottom edge: CAUTION: NOT INTENDED FOR USE OUTSIDE OF POOL. The cleaner moves back to the pool. He glares at the box, mental gears furiously turning, until he reaches the edge and descends. EXT. POOL - DAY Timothys mother gathers a COOLER, SUNSCREEN, HATS, and several TOWELS into a pile on a table. Timothy defiantly sits in the pool. TIMOTHY Mommy, I dont want to go to the beach. I want to stay here.

(CONTINUED)

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MOTHER Thats too bad, sweetie. Were going now. TIMOTHY Well, why do we even have a pool then? MOTHER Theyre different. Lets go, come on. TIMOTHY No, theyre not! The oceans the same thing, its just bigger. MOTHER Timothy. Your fathers waiting. Now. She collects her things and leaves. Timothy reluctantly gets up and follows his mother, who has joined his father walking toward the coast in the near distance. Slowly, the pool cleaner ascends. He hops out of the pool, still attached to the hose, and starts to travel. He only makes it a few feet away, however, before the hose becomes taut and prevents him from moving any further. The cleaner pauses, grimaces, and then pulls as hard as he can, wheels vigorously spinning in place, until the hose finally pops off. He shoots forward, not expecting to have broken free so quickly, and hastily stops himself just before hitting the edge of the patio. He turns around. The end of the hose lies powerless over the edge of the pool, no longer tethered to anything. The cleaner scuttles to the edge of the backyard and sets off. MONTAGE: A) He travels on grassy terrain. B) Over dirt. C) Across a road. D) Along a sandy beach. END MONTAGE.

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EXT. BEACH - DAY Both of Timothys parents are distracted by the BOOKS theyre reading, and Timothy is preoccupied with perfecting a SANDCASTLE. The cleaner watches them from a distance. He takes a deep breath, approaches the shore, and plunges into the beckoning waves. EXT. OCEAN - CONTINUOUS The dust clears from the crashing swells, revealing the underwater world to the pool cleaner. His face falls. The ocean bustles with life, but the animals here appear rougher, sharper than the ones on the television. The only CORAL REEFS with color are muted, and many are brittle and dying. They have the majestic but sad quality of a grand, old mansion overtaken by the elements after its owner has passed. Two graceful but tired DOLPHINS swim over the cleaner. He notices the scars on their fins. Dozens of FISH swim and banter with each other, effortlessly making their way through the vast metropolis, but they look puzzled when they notice the pool cleaner among their company. Some point at him and whisper to each other. The cleaner clumsily tries to slip into the flow of travel, but quickly gets knocked onto his back and lands in the path of TWO EELS. They circle him. EEL 1 Hey, kid, what planet are you from? One of the eels brushes the cleaners KLEENMASTER label with its tail while the other bites at the cleaner. He tries to ignore them and angrily pulls at the peeling label, but it doesnt budge very much. The eels laugh, baring their saber-like, yellow teeth, until an enormous SHADOW falls over them. They look up in fear, eyes fixated above the pool cleaner, and dart away. Still picking at the label, the cleaner doesnt notice the shadow until after the eels have left. Confused, he turns around to discover a colossal WHALE SHARK hovering over and staring directly down at him. The cleaner recoils in fright and frantically scuttles off without realizing that he is about to enter a CURRENT.

5. The current immediately sends him hurdling forward, and the force of the water begins to peel the KLEENMASTER label even further back. Flailing uncontrollably, the cleaner struggles to right himself, and within seconds is released from the current as the label finally detaches and whips away. EXT. SEA FLOOR - DUSK - CONTINUOUS The cleaner crashes into the sand, brushes himself off, and realizes that his label is still caught in the current. With growing desperation, he watches the label fly farther and farther away. He suddenly decides to chase after it, scuttling with all possible speed over the sand, but the current is too fast for him. Dejected, he slows down and watches the jet stream carry the label away until it becomes a dot in the distance. In all the commotion, the pool cleaner has entirely lost track of where hes gone. He looks around. The landscape is desolate - nothing but barren sea floor extends in every direction. A piece of SEAWEED drifts toward the sand. The pool cleaner looks at it, but does not try to clean it up. At night, the deserted ocean looks strangely like the pool. The cleaner circles in vain for a hint as to where he should go, helplessly setting off into the darkness. EXT. SEA FLOOR - DAY The exhausted pool cleaner barely continues to push onward. Out of breath for the moment, he pauses before swimming up to peek his head out of the water. The cleaners old home is visible in the near distance - he can even see Timothy approaching the shore. He descends and continues in the direction of the house. Suddenly, a large, gray FLASH sweeps over the pool cleaner. A tiny REMORA FISH falls from above and bounces on the sand, landing on its back a few feet away from the cleaner. The cleaner pauses, looking toward the house, then hesitantly approaches the remora, offering the fish a flap to right himself. Just as the remora moves to respond, an enormous FIGURE swims out from the shadows. Its the whale shark. The shark comes forward to reclaim the fish, then slowly turns to gaze at the pool cleaner. It looks even larger and more powerful than it did yesterday. (CONTINUED)

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Fear paralyzes the pool cleaner as the shark curiously examines him. The shark eyes the CIRCULAR SCRUBBERS poking out from underneath the cleaner, and then looks at the SUCTION CUPS of the remoras sticking to his fins. He offers the pool cleaner his tail fin, inviting him to hop on and join the remora fish. A beat. Relieved and surprised, the cleaner turns around to internally deliberate and suddenly ends up face-to-face with Timothy, wearing a MASK and a SNORKEL. Timothy gently picks the pool cleaner up, places it on the sharks tail, and backs away. The pool cleaner looks to the shark and then to Timothy again. Another beat. The cleaner gives a small smile and waves a flap at Timothy to say goodbye. He glances toward the house once more before turning to crawl up the sharks tail, taking a spot among dozens of remoras along its back. The ocean seems calmer now than it did at first. Several dead coral reefs still litter the sand, but as the whale shark and the pool cleaner swim onward, the cleaner spots a few small, vibrant polyps growing from the rubble beneath. FADE TO BLACK.