"MARNUS"

(draft two)
Written By

Dillan Thiagarajah
INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.
Various shots of different plants around the house. The
second to last shot being of a plant sitting on a bench. The
last shot being a photo of 4 cats on a wall.

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY.

MARNUS (male teenage boy, clean look, in his own world,

introverted, quiet, quirky, keeps to himself) sits on a
couch in silence.
The room is very simple: white walls, naturally lit, red
couch and a plant stands tall next to the couch - very
minimalistic.
He switches on the T.V. and changes the channel. As he
relaxes and checks his phone, a female talks in the
background on the T.V. He then looks up and puts his phone
down to listen.

JACINDA
(OS. calm and assuring)
From this Thursday at 12am, New
Zealand as a country will be
entering Level 4. Everyone will be
on lock down over the next four
weeks.
DAY 1: FADE IN AND OUT ON SCREEN

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE/CAR. DAY.

Another set of FPS show Marnus, putting on some shoes,
grabbing his car keys, starting the car. The same clips play
in reverse order and we see bags of groceries being placed
on the kitchen bench at the end.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY.

Marnus is in the kitchen where he now begins to unpack the
hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries he just bulk bought.
JACINDA
(OS. still calm and assuring)
I can tell you all now that
essential services will stay open
over the course of the upcoming
weeks. There is no need at all for
anyone to go out and bulk buy. We
will not run out of products.
 2.

Marnus awkwardly laughs and walks out of frame towards the

cupboard holding cans of food.

EXT. BACKYARD. DAY.

Multiple shots of things outside in the yard (washing line,

plants, birds) swaying gently in the wind, resonating a
peaceful world.

INT. BEDROOM. DAY.

Marnus sits on his bed with a pen in his hand and a
whiteboard laying in front of him.
The room is again very simple. The walls are bare and his
bedside table is next to the bed.
He begins to write something down: ’THINGS TO DO IN
QUARANTINE’. However, he makes a mistake while writing
quarantine but can’t erase it, as he finds out he is using a
permanent marker.

MARNUS
Shit.
He swaps his pen to an actual whiteboard one and continues
to write - not worrying about the spelling error. He writes
down a list of things he will do throughout his 4 weeks in
quarantine (eg. drink 2L water, sleep 8 hours, exercise
daily). His main goal being: GROW SOME PLANTS. Marnus looks
at the list and gives a smile.
Marnus stands up and walks out of frame.

The camera changes focus from Marnus’ body to a plant that

sits on the bedside table.

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.

FPS of Marnus completing his new list of normal daily
activities - drinking water, running on treadmill, cleaning
the kitchen, reading.

EXT. BACKYARD. DAY.

A fence is the only thing in shot with a washing line on the
side moving around in the wind.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 3.

Marnus walks into shot wearing gumboots and gardening

gloves. He places a plant down on the ground then picks up a
shovel and begins to dig a hole.

FPS OF MARNUS DIGGING FEROCIOUSLY.

Marnus scoops up the last of the dirt from the hole he dug
for his plant and places the plant into the hole. He then
hits the dirt around it down with the shovel with an
unnecessarily large amount of force.
He dusts off his hands and walks out of frame.
Marnus walks back in frame, picks up his shovel, then walks
back out of frame.

EXT. BACKYARD. EVENING.

TIME LAPSE OF SUN SETTING.

INT. BEDROOM. MORNING.

DAY 2: FADE IN AND OUT ON SCREEN
Alarm clock goes off and Marnus turns it off. He goes up to
his calendar and crosses off the date.
The same photo of his 4 cats from the start is placed next
to the calendar. One of the cats has a plant in place of it.

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.

FPS of Marnus completing his list of daily activities -
drinking water, doing a core routine, cleaning his room,
drawing.

EXT. BACKYARD. DAY.

Marnus walks in shot and waters his new beloved plant, gives
it a little pat, then takes a seat next to it.

JACINDA
(in Marnus’ head)
I urge you all to stay local.
(the word local echoes)

MARNUS
(positive tone)
You seem a bit lonely, matey.
Here’s an extra friend for ya.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 4.

FPS of Marnus digging a new hole next to his current plant

and placing another plant just like the current one inside
of it. He ferociously smacks the dirt down yet again.
Marnus hangs around with his plants for a while then gets up
and walks out of frame.
FADE TO BLACK

INT. BEDROOM. MORNING.

DAY 7: FADE IN AND OUT ON SCREEN

Alarm clock goes off and Marnus turns it off. He goes up to
his calendar and crosses off the date. Now two of the cats
have plants in place of them.

Marnus now looks slightly run down and has a scruffier look
to him - his hair is messy and his clothes don’t have a
sleek look as before.

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.

FPS of Marnus completing his new list of normal daily
activities - drinking water, doing push ups, cleaning the
garage, playing piano. However he has less spring in his
step than the previous days.

EXT. BACKYARD. DAY.

Marnus walks in shot and waters his new beloved plant, gives
it a little pat, then takes a seat next to it.

MARNUS
(thoughtfully)
It’s weird ya know. I thought this
whole isolation thing would drive
me bonkers, but it’s pretty much
normal for me because I never go
out or do anything in general...
You guys on the other hand...
Here’s another friend for y’all.

FPS of Marnua digging a new hole next to his current plants

and placing another plant just like the current ones inside
of it. He ferociously smacks the dirt down again.
Marnus hangs around with his plants for a while then gets up
and walks out of frame.
 5.

(MATCH CUT TO NEXT DAY)

INT. BEDROOM. MORNING.

DAY 15: FADE IN AND OUT ON SCREEN

Alarm clock goes off and Marnus turns it off. He goes up to

his calendar and crosses off the date. Three of his cats now
have plants in place of them.

Marnus now looks much more run down and looks like a
complete mess.

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.

FPS of Marnus kind of completing daily activities - drinking

coffee out of a jug, slowly walking on the treadmill,
sleeping with a book on his face. Marnus has no energy at
all now and is barely completing them.

EXT. BACKYARD. DAY.

Marnus already sits in frame with his watering pot next to
him. He sits there facing his plants and talking to them.
MARNUS
How’s quarantine treating y’all?
Lucky... I haven’t got to see the
family in over two weeks now...
Kinda wishing this whole thing
would be over so I could go and
see some people.
By the way, I used up all of our
broadband so you’re my only friends
at this point in time. I hope
that’s okay with you lot.
Well, good chat. See ya tomorrow.

INT. BEDROOM. MORNING.

DAY 27: FADE IN AND OUT ON SCREEN

Alarm clock goes off and Marnus hops out of bed without
turning it off. He walks up to the calendar and barely
manages to cross off the date. Marnus now is a a full blown
mess.
 6.

The photo of the cats is back to it’s original state. All

the cats are in the photo, no plants.

INT. AROUND THE HOUSE. DAY.

FPS of Marnus sleeping, eating and drinking coffee. He is

too tired and bored to bother with any of his other
activities.
As the shots go through, the time of day slowly turns into
night.

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Marnus is laying in bed about to fall asleep, when he hears
a loud sound come from downstairs. He gets up to go and
investigate.
He walks back into the kitchen and his 4 cats are on the
kitchen table.

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT.

Marnus rubs his eyes and looks back at the table. His 4 cats
are not there anymore. He rubs his eyes again and only two
of them are there. He rubs eyes again and one more cat
appears. He does this over and over until there is only one
cat sitting on the bench.
MARNUS
(quietly and calmly)
Hiya, Molly...

Marnus creeps towards the cat. As he gets super close to

Molly she jumps away and runs out of the kitchen into the
backyard.

EXT. BACKYARD. NIGHT.

Marnus rapidly follows behind Molly and traps her in a
corner.

We see him standing over her with his hands raised above his
head. As they move down we see a shovel slowly come into
shot.
Marnus smacks Molly dead on the head using the same motion
he used when putting his plants in the ground.

(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 7.

We see FPS of Marnus digging another hole and planting a

plant in it at the end.
Marnus sits in the moonlight with what is now 4 plants in
the yard laughing away on his own.

FADE TO BLACK