I’ve long said that the opening scenes of The Stars my Destination would make a killer opening for a movie. I’ve filmed it in my head many times:
Sudden opening – a stark Chord rivets our attention as a battered space ship appears onscreen in the midst of a starfield. It’s clearly dead. (We don’t know why or how. It’s not important. Clearly something devastating happened to the ship that tore big chunks out of it.) It’s missing big pieces of the ship, the lights are out. The image is tilted slightly askew to help convey the image of it drifting.
The camera moves about the ship, going in through one of the huge gaps in the side to explore the interior. we see broken wires, bashed-in walls and bulkheads. A dessicated body floats by. We see occasional LEDs on panels to show that the power is not completely gone, but there’s no sign of life. We could maybe run credits during this camera exploration of the ship.
The camera approaches a free-standing storage locker head-on, so the audience is clued in that this is significant, for some reason.
The door suddenly bursts open, spilling dust and debris into the ship as the remaining air in the locker blasts out into the vacuum. Gully Foyle in his suit (marked with his name Foyle) emerges, carrying an oxygen bottle. We hear his breathing (a la 2001) which provides the only sound, and which tells or reminds us of his critical need for oxygen. We see him make his way into the ship. He gets to the gas storage area. He checks the gauge on his cylinder. It’s all the way down in the red, marked “Empty”. He stows it in one side and retrieves a cylinder from the other side. He tests the value, and the gauge is in the green. “Full”. We can see there are only so many remaining.
Foyle goes about the shop, checking things, getting more food and water. On a whim, he takes a book from the captain’s cabin. He goes back to the storage locker we saw him emerge from. He closes and seals the door, then cracks open the gas cylinder. An indicator on the wall beeps and turns green with an indication “normal pressure”. Only then does he remove his helmet and take a deep breath.
We see him open the containers and east and drink. It’s a very close and confined space. As he eats, he takes out the book he brought. It contains reports on the personnel. We go past several pages, each with a name and a picture, each indicating a crewmember. All are dead now. We should know this because only Foyle seems to be alive, but maybe he has crossed off their pictures with a pencil. Only his own picture is unmarked. We pan down to the captain’s comments, which indicate that Foyle has potential, but does not fulfill it. He is dull and unmotivated.
Foyle closes the book and continues to eat and drink, mechanically, just staring ahead. It’s clear that, even with imminent death staring him in the face when his oxygen runs out, he is unmotivated.
Blackout
Latyer. Foyle bursts forth from his locker again, as before. He makes his way through the ship and repeats his actions from before. As he’s on his way back, h looks through a breach in the ship’s side and sees something. It’s a ship! It gleams brightly and with the promise of rescue. Foyle clumsaily makes his way to a small storage unit labeled “Flares”. He pulls out a Flare Gun and a couple of Flares. He loads one into the gun, taking several tries to do it as he tries to make his way quickly back to the breach.
The Ship is still there! In fact, it’s closer now, looking the derelict over. Foyle aims his flare out through the side and pulls the trigger. The Flare leaps out and creates a bright and blinding swath of signal that cannot possibly be missed.
The ship has clearly seen it. It suddenly changes course and comes close, inspecting the damaged ship and the place where the flare came from. We see only black ports in the side, no sign of life. The ship stops, We see it reflected in Foyle’s faceplate, and can read the name backwards in the reflection –
Vorga
We see Foyle’s face. He smiles, and starts making his way out. we hear his accelerated breathing as we look from his POV at the ship. He’s about to be rescued!
Suddenly the ship starts, turns away, and accelerates off.
we look back at Foyle from the outside. We see his startled expression as this chance at life is pulled away from him. We don’t hear the implied “No!”
The ship disappears to a point.
We look back through Foyle’s faceplate. He is transformed. He is mouthing words we cannot hear in the vacuum of space. His expression changes from surprise to fear to anger to intense loathing.
Suddenly we’re back inside that helmet. We hear his heightened breathing. He says clearly and with intensity:
“I kill you deadly, Vorga!”
THEN we see him immediately turn to the task of getting the ship moving again, as Bester describes. He tries and fails and uses his ingenuity to get the ship moving. Foyle has found his Purposwe in Life.
THAT’S how you film the opening to grab everyone by the scruff of the neck and keep them watching. I think a skilled writer and director can keep that pace up for the whole movie. It’s not necessary to film every damned detail of the book. You don’t need voice-overs, crawls, and narration. It’s better if you don’t have them.
I’ve had the feeling, by the way, that the film Event Horizon has something to do with The Stars my Destination. Even though the film is utterly different in plot, characters, and tone, you’ve got a derelict ship and you’ve got the image of the Burning Man. I get the feeling that someone wanted to film TSMD, but couldn’t get the backing or the approval or a usable script or something.
