Dimitri Kourouniotis Portfolio with Storyboarding: March 2012

Dinosaurs on a Train

Original Story

by Dimitri Kourouniotis

CCSF Spring 2012

*note this story is altered from the original submission: our protagonists friends are no longer trying to “mess with him” on his train journey. They are instead replaced by a mad scientist and dinosaurs on the train shifting the genre from romantic comedy to the B-movie realm with FX.

Act 1 – The Break Up

“You are SO self-centered!” echoed as she slammed the bathroom door in Stanley’s face. He stood there, shaken, absorbing the statement, feeling isolated and extremely insecure. He tried to compose a defensive response as usual but hearing her sobs, he decided silence was a better choice. His chest tightened and a panic started setting in. Sitting down, he eventually realized this was the last straw and having nothing to offer, he left her apartment for the last time.

At the office the next day he couldn’t concentrate after losing so much sleep in reflective, anguished thought. His inner voice was full of remorse and self-pity, cursing him for being unable to act or look beyond his own comfort zone. He went out for drinks with his friends to cheer himself up once the break up was official through the social network channels. Though he was glad to see his friends, they were annoying him with sympathy and failing to empathize. They launched into their own version if “I were you…” and started plying him with suggestions and solutions to help him move on. One which made his ears perk was to re-locate, or at least take an adventure out of town the next weekend.

After so much cajoling from his friends, when he got home he started following the advice that took the least effort, such as Facebook status checking and calling and emailing old girlfriends (which yielded nothing but more isolation and dread). However he did reconnect with an old schoolmate who seemed to have experience getting over relationships and lived in Metropolis - only a couple hours’ flight away - and Stanley wrangled a place to stay and some companionship, at least.

At the office the situation deteriorated. He was reprimanded for his sloppy paperwork and poor performance; this was compounded by the issue of his now ex-girlfriend working in the same building. He was at risk of losing his job now (as a root canal bill was due) and was feeling miserable being there.

That night he started shopping for flights but kept being distracted by long-ignored trivial household chores and an airing of “Singing in the Rain” on the TV that now were a good diversion. He was reminded of the multiple times he flew long distance to see female friends who ended up unavailable: they were married, living with their boyfriends, too involved with their work to spend time or just plain weird or suddenly boring. He kept a brave face but did feel increasingly desperate at the turn of events and developed an aversion to airports and flying.

As the weekend got closer, his chance of finding flights he could afford fell to zero and he initiated an attempt to cancel. His attempt at cancelation was rebuffed by the new information that the Metropolis Natural History Museum had a new dinosaur exhibit and he loved dinosaurs since he was a kid. His friend continued to encourage him and suggested the intercity high speed train, which had plenty of seats left.

He packed his bag with his iPad 2 and re-read some of his favorite dinosaur books on his Kindle app with wonderfully illustrated new theories. He asked Siri to remind him to buy souvenirs for his nieces and nephews.

In a dream the night before his departure he finds himself running out of a church into the rain being chased by his mother with his father driving away in the distance. He flees her by grabbing an umbrella from a passerby and she is confused long enough for him to blend away into the crowd.

Act 2 – The Train Ride

After another miserable and ominous day at work the next day, he arrives at the railway station excited about the long, but very fast high speed train ride ahead. As a thunderstorm approaches and he hears the news of very bad weather, hail storms, across the country along his route, he is glad he did not fly after all.

At the train terminus the engineer of the high picks up his prescription renewal from the pharmacy, unbeknownst to him, it’s been tampered with. The pharmacist confirms with a visual nod to a customer in the store who passes on the information to other unseen colleagues via an iPad. The train station monitors have weather warning alerts flashing on them.

His ticket has him at car #7. On the platform he notices large metallic crates being loaded into the luggage car and onto other trains too. He walks down the platform past the restaurant car - he loves the idea of dining on a train. His carriage is just behind the first class car and the engine. Once aboard, he finds his reserved seat and sits down, noticing the other passengers, and rehearses in his head deflective remarks so he will be able to avoid talking to them. Opposite him sit a mother and her 12 year son. Across the aisle sit a Catholic priest and a pretty girl (Pam) with a dog eared copy of Grey’s Anatomy and other textbooks. In seats further down are a well dressed, hurried older woman (the scientist) carrying a clipboard with a stuffed briefcase and her male assistant. Toward the end of the carriage are a man and a woman with sidearms, clearly federal marshals transporting a man, Craig, in handcuffs, who is a computer hacker, convicted of trying to hack into military computers.

Once the train is en route and the chatty conductor comes through and checks the tickets, he makes his way to the dining car - only to find he has to share his dining table with Pam. The waiter and bartender turned out to be characters with tales to tell and a good time was had by all throughout diner. Except for the older woman with her assistant, who were busy scheming on their iPads. Weather reports indicate tornadoes ahead. During the beginning of the journey the Engineer takes his medication, which has been poisoned and is rendered unconscious. The train is now out of control. Ahead on the route a tornado has destroyed part of a bridge and more tornado sightings are begin reported.

Meanwhile a commotion at the back of the train has started causing panic. Some of the crates had been apparently been holding live animals had managed to come open. The animals were part of a secret genetic experiment (by the scientist) to re-introduce dinosaurs and be released and spread but the containment equipment malfunctioned.

The conductor runs through the dining car to the front of the train to get the armed marshals to help. The engine and brakes have been sabotaged and there is radio/cellphone interference affecting the vicinity of the train. The scientist and her assistant run towards the back of the train as the passengers from the rear coaches evacuate to the front and the bartender secures the door between the dining car and the rear of the train.

The tally of casualties is high with several passengers killed or wounded, and the medical student and marshals offering first aid with the priest offering last rites to those that did not survive. The marshals both go to the back of the train but only one survives returning with tales of horror and dinosaurs , the other being ambushed and killed (and eaten).

The conductor, the remaining marshal, Pam, and our hero Stanley go to the back of the train to try to decouple the last cars of the train and rescue the injured passengers, where they discover the scientist and her assistant are trying to release the dinosaurs. Our heroes rescue efforts are thwarted by the scientist and her assistant, Geoff, who is armed, but is injured in the scuffle. The group retreats back to the dining car to report that the dinosaurs have control collars the scientist is using to command the dinosaurs.

Act 3 Arrival

The train computer hacker manages to slow the train down as it reaches the bridge, but some of the cars go over the gap, with the remaining passengers trapped in the suspended car, their only escape now is the mail/baggage car on the bridge. A tornado in the distance touches down and is approaching the stranded train.

Our heroes, Stanley and Pam attempt going along the roof and the marshal and the conductor distracting them through the conventional frontal assault route along the center of the train.

The plan almost succeeds, but the marshal is wounded in the fracas and the scientist’s assistant is killed. The group recovers the scientist’s notes and plans while the scientist escapes back to the luggage compartment to hole up with the dinosaurs. They find that the scientists’ iPad has controls that helped sabotage the engine controls and that the scientist and assistant had placed signal jamming devices throughout the train and with the 12 year old boy’s help they de-activate them and are able to summon help.

They are also able to tamper with and immobilize the dinosaurs temporarily in order to get through and have a last fight with the scientist using the ventilation shaft and cage. The scientist is trying to re-control the dinosaurs with her back-up app on her iPhone 4S. Ultimately Stanley is able to distract the smaller dinosaurs using an open umbrella much like a lion tamer would use a chair and turn them on the scientist. They enlist Craig’s help in disabling the automatic release mechanisms on the other luggage compartments on the other trains and the passengers escape through and out of the back of the train to shelter as the tornado destroys the train. The rescue crew arrives as Siri reminds Stanley to get some souvenirs for his nieces and nephews.

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DIAGRAM- PLAN TRAIN – MAIL/BAGGAGE CAR