[Fanfic] TMNT Movie Script

[ZariusTwo]

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Poster courtesy of the talented and supportful Blossombrooks

After reading the TANT script, I decided to pretty much begin writing a feature-length TMNT movie script of my own.

This is strictly for fun, but if someone WANTS to do something with it, it'll be here for thier use.

I will be using this thread to share snippets from the script, details about the plot, and even supplying you with some of the songs from the "soundtrack" I'm putting together for it. I've also written two original songs (there just lyrics though, no music) for the movie.

Give me your thoughts on the snippets I'll provide over the next few weeks

Keep in mind that, as an experiment, and just for the sake of debate, I will be taking SLIGHT liberties, TMNT has always been about reinvention, so I won't be 100% faithful to the comics

THE PREMISE

"Magic Monday" is the day a city-renowned building meets it's final curtain call....but what will cause it's downfall? What has been at the center of so many recent demolition jobs, ones that involve no explosives? Journalist April O'Neil is determined to uncover the truth, but as she peers into the rabbit hole, she, her good friend Irma Langestien, and April's boyfriend Casey Jones are swept into an altogether more sinister, warped version of wonderland. Saved from near-death by four strange creatures highly skilled in an ancient art of combat yet heavily influenced by the modern world and the odd hormone or two, April and Casey embark on a wondrous journey, discovering a secret lair beneath the streets, bonding with new friends, and uncovering another wild and eccentric world that must stay hidden. To most of contemporary civilisation, they are shadows, to others, they are guardian angels, to others like the ruthless Saki and his underlings, they are a target. For April and Casey, they're just too weird for words.

They are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Read the Novelization here

SCRIPT SAMPLES

SAMPLE ONE

Spoiler:

CROOK ONE:
What is that thing?

BEBOP:
Dunno…looks like something from Power Rangers

(The Turtle snaps back at them)

TURTLE:
Hey! I’m not THAT old

SAMPLE TWO

Spoiler:

(April comes to her half-senses, slightly unnerved, a combination of anxiety and enthusiasm)

APRIL
…Giant…my god, Casey, there were…giant Turtles, well, ok , they were about the same size as you and me, but they were all over the place. Casey they saved me.

CASEY:
Something seemed to scare those bums off. Wonder if it was a bunch of homeless war vets, you get them a lot in these places…

APRIL:
I’m not joking Casey, there were GIANT TURTLES IN THE PARK

CASEY:
…Have to admit, it’s less forced a meme than Alligators in the Sewer…

SAMPLE THREE

Spoiler:

(We take a peek inside a THE CENTER OF A HIVE OF SEWER TUNNELS, and QUICKLY ZOOM IN, we go DOWN A RIVER OF PURE SEWAGE AND TURN RIGHT TOWARDS A BARRICADED ENTRANCEWAY, we seep through the wooden barricade and enter a COMPACT, BUT LIVELY MAKESHIFT HOMESTEAD. THERE IS A SKATEBOARD RAMP, A MOULDY, SPRING-RIDDEN COUCH, AND A WORN-OUT SHEET OF CARPET FLOORING.. This is the home of the four highly-skilled Turtles who came to the aid of April

Here we see the Turtles engaged in different activities. Michelangelo is riding his skateboard across the length and bridth of the lair, not just the ramp. Donatello is quietly seated at the couch, staring at an I-PAD TABLET)

Two of the Turtles, Leonardo and Raphael, are engaged in a training session, pitted against each other in battle. Leonardo DEFLECTS SEVERAL ERRATIC ATTACKS BY RAPH, armed with his Sais, with his two kitana blades. He frequently critiques Raph for his perceived slowness)


LEONARDO:
Faster Raphael!

(Raphael does his best to oblige Leonardo, throwing his feet forwards, wildly throwing his sais in the multiple directions aimed at Leonardo’s body, hoping to prod it and score a “hit”, and thus bring the conflict to an end, but Leonardo continues to put up a fight, countering the erratic combative skills of Raph. AGAIN he criticises him for dragging in battle)

LEONARDO:
FASTER

RAPHAEL:
You’re getting most of me!

LEONARDO:
I want all …or Nothing.

(Raph lets out a scream of rage and desperation and pours his aggresion into a final strike, but opens himself up for a hit, Leonardo twists his body around, and, in a tornado-like way, deflects one of Raph’s sais with one kitana, and delicately “stabs” Raph in the stomach with the second. Raph throws his sais down, forfeiting the battle)

LEONARDO:
Game. Set.

RAPHAEL:
…Match?

LEONARDO:
…You weren’t one

RAPHAEL:
I don’t need to prove anything to you, I can hold it together in proper combat, just turn me loose up top and you’ll see what kind of damage I can do.

LEONARDO:
We’re not out to “cause damage”. We’re here to…

RAPHAEL:
…Here to what? What ARE we doing Leo? While we’re here playing “tag”, people are getting hurt up there. Everytime I walk the streets I see muggings, assault, and worse…hell look at what we prevented last night

LEONARDO:
That was meant to be a meditative retreat and it escalated into something else. We are not heroes, we are students

RAPHAEL:
Wake up already Leo….SCHOOL. IS. OUT.

(A sharp voice rings out)

VOICE:
RAPHAEL! COME HERE AT ONCE

(Leonardo folds his arms and shakes his head)

LEONARDO:
…Never say that when the TEACHER is present

(Raphael gives Leonardo a disproving stare and heads towards a tunnel entranceway, heading towards the source of the voice. Leonardo looks over to the couch, and then to Michelangelo, who is trying out all sorts of freestyle moves on his skateboard)

LEONARDO:
Donatello? You and Mike are up next.

(Donatello remains fixated on the I-Pad)

LEONARDO:
DONATELLO?

DONATELLO:
In a sec Leo.

(He is constantly refreshing the CHANNEL 6 BLOGSPOT HOMEPAGE, waiting for an update from April. Michelangelo pulls up his skateboard, leaps off of it and crashes down onto the couch, putting his feet up atop the sofa while hanging upside down. Donatello ignores the bravado on display and remains transfixed…finally, a NEW UPDATE APPEARS. Donatello becomes ecstatic)

DONATELLO:
THIS IS IT! THIS IS IT GUYS

MICHELANGELO:
…Donny boy, finally looking up girls are we?

DONATELLO:
Not just any girl Mike

(Michelangelo takes a peek at the I-Pad and instantly gets giggidy at the sight of April’s new tout)

MICHELANGELO:
SWEET DUDE!

LEONARDO:
I knew we shouldn’t have picked up that I-Pad….maintenance crews down here should have them on some kind of chain-link…

MICHELANGELO:
What are you waiting for dude? Switch the video on

(Donatello clicks “play” on the tout. April can be seen talking from what appears to be a DERELICT ALLEYWAY)

APRIL:
Hey Five O’Clock Shadows, this is April O’Neil with the promised exclusive you’ve been waiting for. Months away from “Magic Monday”, Channel 6 can exclusively reveal the secrets of it’s inevitable success. What causes the destruction of these proud historical relics without explosives? Suffice to say…

(she produces the robot and parades it up close to the camera)

APRIL:
…It’s because of THESE Perly whites

(Michelangelo seems more interested in April than what she has in her hand, but Donatello reacts differently to the LOGO on the right of the robot, which appears to resemble an IMPRINT OF THE HUMAN EYE)

DONATELLO:
…Hold everything. HOLD. EVERYTHING.

(He pauses the video, which annoys Michelangelo. Donatello gets up, taking the I-tablet with him)

DONATELLO:
I gotta go check something

(Michelangelo despairs at the lack of the I-Pad)

MICHELANGELO:
The least you can do is leave her with me

(Donatello races off through another tunnel leading out of the main chamber. Leonardo sighs and pulls his blades out)

LEONARDO:
Guess I’ve got double duty today. Ok Mike, you’re up. You and me. Come on.

(Michelangelo puts his hands on his face)

MICHELANGELO:
I do not wanna talk about fight club.

THE SOUNDTRACK
1. "I Try So Hard" by Tribal Ink
2. "Life Again" by Decypher Down
3. "World On Fire" by Sarah McLachlan
4. "We Are Shadows" by David Blyth (Original song)
5. "Towards The Day" by David Blyth (Original Song)
6. "These Days Are Ours" by Emma Hewitt
7. "Secrets From The Underground" by The Offspring
8. When You're Young By 3 Doors Down (Leo's theme)
9. Something New by Girls Aloud (April's theme)

PROMOTIONAL ARTWORK

Art by Blossombrooks[/center]

[ZariusTwo]

Updated with a new script sample

SAMPLE FOUR

Spoiler:

SHREDDER:
You are alone

LEONARDO
Maybe…but My brothers, my mentor, guide me in spirit

SHREDDER:
I was, until a few days ago…a rational man. I did not believe in the supernatural, I did not believe that the great warriors of the past, ny ancestors, were driven by anything other than their own superstition and self-confidence…but your kind? You are like the great reptilian delusion come to life. A bane sent from the Otherworld. It must fall to me to cleanse this planet of it before it overwhelms us all.

LEONARDO:
We do not come to tip the balance of power, merely to sustain it’s harmonious flux. Your “voiceless” intend to make this city scream until you are heard, to restore balance, we have had to silence it

SHREDDER:
And now you are here…to silence me

LEONARDO:
I do not kill in cold blood. You can surrender peacefully, avoid conflict, end this pointless war

SHREDDER:
History will be written by the victor . You are the demon’s head. If I remove it, the remainder of the body will wither and die.

LEONARDO:
If that is your choice, let us settle this with honour

(Leonardo bows his head in respect to his opponent. Shredder does not return the courtesy)

SHREDDER:
LOOK at me

(Leonardo obliges, he raises his head, he looks into Shredder’s cold, merciless, unemotional eyes, he looks for something, anything, to justify holding back)

SHREDDER:
What do you see?

LEONARDO:
If evil had a form, a face, it would be yours.

SHREDDER:
A judgement. From one who is so used to be judged himself by the ignorant world he foolishly protects.

LEONARDO:
I have seen the world, and while it can be grey, even black, I need only look at those noble souls I have seen in action this last week, I need only look at the country in and outside of the city. The truth is this land, this world, is altogether very GREEN.

SHREDDER:
Then I will ensure you join your lush green country…six feet beneath it

(With nothing left to say, the two give in to their conflictive impulses and CHARGE towards one another, their swords CLASH, THE BATTLE IS JOINED).

[Azrael Macool]

All right, not trying to be too nitpicky here.... Bit all your references to the IPad app they have? I think you mean IPad tablet. An app is an application. At first I thought you were just using the term awkwardly, but when you started saying things like hand me that app... Yeah, I think Inigo Montoya said of best: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means"

Beyond that, it looks okay enough, I guess, but something seems a little... Off about the dialogue. I wish I could be more specific, nothing sucks more than vague criticism, but a lot of of just doesnt seem very... Natural, I guess. I find it sometimes helps to by a friend or two to read the parts like you're rehearsing a play. If there's something wrong with it, one of you will notice. Course, I could be wrong anyway, I've done very little in the way of screenplay writing (Stan few scenes of a Mega Man X movie, and a pilot for a proposed Teen Titans revamp. Neither were seen by anyone worth mentioning), so I may very well.be talking out my ass.

But it looks promising, keep at it.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Azrael Macool

All right, not trying to be too nitpicky here.... Bit all your references to the IPad app they have? I think you mean IPad tablet. An app is an application. At first I thought you were just using the term awkwardly, but when you started saying things like hand me that app... Yeah, I think Inigo Montoya said of best: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means" .

I'm not a savy person in that area, thanks for the corrections there.

I guess the dialouge could be a little more...loose and fluent, at least on the human side. I'll look up some examples just to get a better feel. A lot of comics I've read have this sort of dialouge (including TMNT books)

Thanks for the interest, always appreciate help.

[Azrael Macool]

Another thing hat helps me and my friend, who both write on occasion, is for us to edit each others work. It's not only good for spelling and grammar, its great for continuity and clarity. Sometimes something that makes sense to you won't to someone else. That may help, just in general. Of course, my sister writes probably more than both of us, and doesn't use an editor, so again, different strokes, different folks, etc.

[ZariusTwo]

Beleive me, there's going to be things in this that will only make sense to me and that's half the fun of sharing it.

[ZariusTwo]

Added plot synopsis

Added new samples

SAMPLE FIVE

Spoiler:

INT: APRIL’S HOME
(SCROLLING TEXT READS “FIVE HOURS LATER”)

(April returns home to find the place RANSACKED, TABLES HAVE BEEN TURNED OVER, DRAWERS AND CABINETS ARE OPENED, Casey is in the living area, sitting on the rim of a TITLED-OVER SOFA. April is NOT pleased)


APRIL:
…What the hell is this?

CASEY:
April, they had authority


APRIL:
…Why didn’t you stop them?

CASEY:
I’m in enough ****, you think assaulting a federal officer is gonna clean up the dirt?

APRIL:
So you let them turn my Home INTO ****?…Wait…federal?

(a figure appears in the hallway, it is the mystery man who was talking with April a few hours earlier)

MYSTERY MAN:
I guess that’s my cue

APRIL:
You’re the asshole who was on the phone right?

MYSTERY MAN:
I do apologize for the mess Miss O’Neil, we were taking precautions

APRIL:
Precautions? Listen you horses ass,,,

CASEY:
April, calm down, they didn’t find anything.

MYSTERY MAN:
Not yet.

(another “man in black” joins him)

MYSTERY MAN:
Check her car

OTHER MAN:
Yes sir.



MYSTERY MAN:
Give him the keys. Now. Or Mr Jones comes with us.

(April reluctantly hands over her keys to the man, he walks out of the front door)

APRIL:
Sir?

MYSTERY MAN:
Agent Bishop. F.B.I

APRIL:
“Frightened Bastards Incorporated” to the average truth seeker

AGENT BISHOP:
And just what is the truth to you Miss O’Neil? The trigger to a much-needed revolution? Or a promising start to a life of mass media privileges? People like you are all the same, you use truth as a catapult, to launch yourselves into the stratosphere with no consideration for what goes on to keep the concerns of this city, the fears of this country, at rest and allow life as we all know it to go by just a little more peacefully

APRIL:
Your Big Brother attitude doesn’t scare me

AGENT BISHOP:
I was told specifically not to scare you Miss O’Neil, and I think I’ll keep to that promise.

(looks at Casey)

AGENT BISHOP:
…You I WILL scare.

CASEY:
Hey, I’ve been co-operating, but hey, you want to talk tough, I’ll show you tough

AGENT BISHOP:
Casey Jones. 28. High School drop-out. Went off the grid for four months before resurfacing in Detroit engaged in vigilante operations

CASEY:
Hey, some guys were messing up my aunt’s neighbourhood, the cops were doing nothi…

(Bishop cuts him off)

AGENT BISHOP:
…NOT Finished.

(continues)

AGENT BISHOP:
…Police in the area didn’t approve but they took a strong shine to you ‘cause you gave them a few weeks off dealing with the scum it was THEIR job to take out, so despite their better judgement they booked you for a mere two week stretch in jail in exchange for an immediate cease-and-desist upon release. Desist you did, but you couldn’t quite quit the knack to make a difference, you got more than desperate for release, you got drunk ,started bar brawls with as many unsavoury souls as you could meet thinking noone was watching, but I ASSURE you Mr. Jones, you were watched.

You Impressed a girl around the same time...Her name was Gabrielle. A few drinks later, you two were flying, got serious, but for you and your attitudes, a month was an eternity too long. You ended things with her, but left your mark in more ways than one. She comes back a month later scarred with that mark, the scar’s gotten pretty big since then…in a few more months, it’s clawing it’s way out of that body, and it’ll be wondering just what kind of man etched it’s form into flesh?

(Bishop turns to April)

BISHOP:
…Your next exclusive is to tell the enlightening story of how a punk like this was able to walk the straight and narrow long enough to see his legacy come into the light…failure to keep your eyes solely on HIM and NOTHING ELSE will lead your man directly into the darkness on the charges I brought up earlier as well as a hell lot more. .

(Bishop’s fellow agent walks back into the front door and hands Bishop the robot)

BISHOP:
Thanks Berger.

(Bishop makes his exit, Berger following him)

BISHOP:
Have a nice life Miss O’Neil

(They leave. April is distraught, she is trying to keep her cool, but the events of the day, coupled with the tiring hours she spent driving back home, begin to take their tolls. Casey tries to settle her down)

CASEY:
April..I…

APRIL:
…I had it. I had it all. The perfect story. The perfect moment…,my god Casey…what did I do?

CASEY:
It’s ok, you can let it out

APRIL:
LET IT OUT? Casey, I…just wanted people to know how a few dumb buildings were coming down, I didn’t expect THIS. ANY of this. And now he’s going to do stuff to YOU if I press further with…with

(April finally looses it, she grabs the nearest thing she can find, a lamp, raises it above her head, and savagely drops it to the floor. Rattled, she starts to get teary-eyed. Casey walks over and embraces her. April breaks down. The phone suddenly starts ringing)

APRIL:
Who is that?

CASEY:
Nobody. Nothing. It’s just you and me right now. Ok? Don’t let the world into your life just yet. C’mon.

SAMPLE SIX

Spoiler:

THE TURTLES LAIR

(We journey into another part of the Turtles’ lair, into a DARKENED TUNNEL, ALIGHT WITH SCENTED CANDLES, Leonardo can be seen seated on a TORN VELVET CARPET, locked in a MEDATATIVE POSE, HIS EYES CLOSED. A CALM, ANCIENT, AND EMPOWERING VOICE, SPEAKS TO HIM FROM THE SHADOWS, it is the Turtles teacher, their MASTER)

MASTER (VOICE):
Speak your mind Leonardo. What do you possess this day? Knowledge…or concern

LEONARDO:
Concern master

MASTER (VOICE):
It is always concern, you are letting it cloud your learning.

LEONARDO:
My brothers grow curiouser by each passing month Master, curious about the world, about how humans thrive up there, they are developing traits shared by humans, traits that you have not taught us.

MASTER (VOICE):
There is more to the mighty current than just the simple stream

LEONARDO:
…I am afraid my brothers will be swept from the stream and head down the mightiest of waterfalls. I cannot embrace my more crucial lessons until I am confident all will join me in learning them

MASTER (VOICE):
Perhaps it is you that needs to join THEM

LEONARDO:
…I…I cannot Master. I feel we belong in the dark. We are shadows.

MASTER (VOICE):
All shadows have some shape, all shadows have the same colour. All shadows move in silence, but some shadows can be clearly seen, some even wish to be. There will come a time where all of my sons will give shape to theirs

LEONARDO:
But when is the right time?

MASTER (VOICE):
The time has come for time itself to wait as patiently as you have

I should point out that these samples arent neccersarily in chronological order.