A Flicker in the Crystalline Wastes
Trapped in a frozen world, a teenage boy named Jesse clings to the faint glow of memory and resilience, navigating a landscape consumed by an alien winter while haunted by the echoes of past Christmases.
### **A Flicker in the Crystalline Wastes**
**Film / TV Treatment**
**1. LOGLINE**
In a desolate, frozen future where an alien entity has turned the world to ice, a grieving survivor's discovery of a Christmas ornament from the past reignites a flicker of hope, forcing him and his pragmatic partner to confront the ghosts of a lost world.
**2. SYNOPSIS**
In the perpetual twilight of a world consumed by the "Scourge"—an alien terraforming agent that turns everything into crystalline ice—survivors JESSE and ANNIE flee a collapsing city block. The environment itself is hostile, and they are hunted by "shard-kin," sentient ice constructs drawn to life. As they navigate the glittering, treacherous ruins, Jesse spots a string of old Christmas lights frozen within a wall of ice. The sight triggers a powerful, painful memory of a warm, vibrant family Christmas from his childhood, a stark contrast to their bleak existence. His pragmatic partner, Annie, pulls him back to reality, warning him against such distractions.
Seeking shelter in a ruined shopping complex, Jesse discovers a small, plastic reindeer ornament amidst the debris. This second, more tangible artifact unleashes an even more profound memory of family, connection, and joy. The emotional weight of the moment prompts the usually guarded Annie to share a rare, vulnerable memory of her own. In this quiet moment of shared grief, the two find a fragile understanding. Jesse keeps the reindeer as a talisman, a secret spark of warmth against the encroaching cold. As they prepare to move on, he spots a new, unexplained flicker of light in the far distance—a single, coloured dot in the endless blue—suggesting they may not be as alone as they thought.
**3. CHARACTER BREAKDOWN**
* **JESSE (30s):** Soul-weary and physically sluggish, Jesse is haunted by the loss of the world that was. He is the heart of the story, carrying the emotional weight of the past. His journey is one of rediscovering a reason to push forward, not just for survival, but for the memory of what was lost.
* **ANNIE (30s):** A hardened pragmatist. Quick, efficient, and hyper-focused on the mechanics of survival. She treats emotion as a liability and the past as a dangerous distraction. Beneath her tough exterior lies a deep well of her own grief, which she keeps ruthlessly suppressed until a moment of shared humanity cracks the facade.
**4. SCENE BEATS**
* **FLIGHT AND COLLAPSE:** We open in motion. Jesse and Annie run through a street of frozen, crystalline rubble. Behind them, a massive office tower groans, shedding sheets of glowing blue ice before it collapses. The immediate danger of the Scourge and the environment is established.
* **THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST:** Catching his breath, Jesse’s eye is caught by a faint, multi-coloured glow. Embedded deep within a translucent wall of alien ice is a string of old fairy lights, impossibly preserved.
* **A PAINFUL MEMORY:** The lights trigger a sensory flashback for Jesse. We see a warm, soft-focus memory of him as a child helping his father decorate a Christmas tree. The smell of pine, the glow of the lights, the sound of his mother humming. It is a world of profound warmth and safety.
* **PRAGMATISM VS. NOSTALGIA:** Annie pulls him out of his reverie. Her tone is sharp but not cruel. For her, the past is a trap. They need to keep moving before the collapse draws the shard-kin.
* **SHELTER IN THE RUINS:** They find refuge inside a collapsed, ice-choked shopping complex. The atmosphere is still and tomb-like. A massive, frozen banner advertising a long-forgotten sale hangs over them, its smiling models a grotesque mockery of their plight.
* **THE RED-NOSED REINDEER:** Jesse spots a flash of red in a pile of debris. He unearths a small, cheap plastic reindeer ornament. He holds it in his palm, a tangible link to the world he just remembered.
* **THE SYMPHONY OF MEMORY:** The ornament triggers a second, more powerful flashback. This time it’s the full scene: the entire family gathered, the warmth of the fire, the cacophony of cheerful noise, the feeling of absolute belonging as his young cousin hangs that same type of reindeer on the tree. The emotional weight is immense.
* **A SHARED GHOST:** Seeing his state, Annie kneels beside him. In a quiet, halting voice, she shares a memory of her own—her mother folding tiny paper stars to "keep the dark out." It is a moment of profound, unspoken connection, two survivors acknowledging their shared ghosts.
* **THE COLD PRESENT:** They rest. Jesse checks his comms unit. It's dead, reinforcing their complete isolation. He eats a tasteless ration bar, the silence punctuated only by the distant groaning of the Scourge. He tucks the reindeer into an inner pocket. It is now a secret talisman.
* **A SPARK IN THE DARK:** Jesse looks out at the terrible beauty of the frozen city. He feels a tear escape, a moment of catharsis. He accepts the memory not as a weakness, but as a source of strength—a tiny protest against the desolation.
* **A FLICKER OF HOPE:** Annie announces it’s time to move. As Jesse stands, he scans the horizon one last time. In the extreme distance, dwarfed by the endless blue glow of the Scourge, he sees it: a single, tiny, persistent flicker of orange-red light. It could be anything, but it’s not blue. He doesn’t say a word, just stares, a question hanging in the frozen air.
**5. VISUAL STYLE**
* **Palette & Light:** The present-day world is defined by a monochromatic, oppressive palette of blues, greys, and whites. The only light source is the perpetual twilight and the cold, internal, bioluminescent blue of the Scourge ice and the shard-kin. This is violently contrasted with the memory sequences, which are shot with a warm, soft-focus, almost dreamlike quality, rich with reds, greens, and golds—a saturated, nostalgic glow.
* **Environment:** The setting is a character. A "crystal desert" of a ruined metropolis. We emphasize scale: massive, skeletal skyscrapers turned into glittering ice cathedrals. The design of the Scourge should be both beautiful and terrifying—like a lethal, alien coral reef consuming a city. Influences: *The Road* meets the crystalline visuals of *Annihilation*.
* **Camera Work:** Action sequences will be tense and handheld, putting the audience in the characters' frantic headspace. In contrast, the moments of reflection and memory will be slow, deliberate, and intimate, using shallow depth of field to isolate Jesse from his surroundings and draw us into his internal world. Extreme wide shots will constantly reinforce the characters' profound isolation.
* **Sound Design:** A crucial element will be the contrast between the two worlds. The present is dominated by the howling wind, the deep, resonant groaning of shifting ice, and the unsettling, high-frequency hum of the Scourge. The shard-kin move in near-total silence. The flashbacks are filled with the rich, layered sounds of life: crackling fire, distant carols, overlapping family chatter, the clinking of glasses. The absence of these sounds in the present makes the silence all the more profound.
**Film / TV Treatment**
**1. LOGLINE**
In a desolate, frozen future where an alien entity has turned the world to ice, a grieving survivor's discovery of a Christmas ornament from the past reignites a flicker of hope, forcing him and his pragmatic partner to confront the ghosts of a lost world.
**2. SYNOPSIS**
In the perpetual twilight of a world consumed by the "Scourge"—an alien terraforming agent that turns everything into crystalline ice—survivors JESSE and ANNIE flee a collapsing city block. The environment itself is hostile, and they are hunted by "shard-kin," sentient ice constructs drawn to life. As they navigate the glittering, treacherous ruins, Jesse spots a string of old Christmas lights frozen within a wall of ice. The sight triggers a powerful, painful memory of a warm, vibrant family Christmas from his childhood, a stark contrast to their bleak existence. His pragmatic partner, Annie, pulls him back to reality, warning him against such distractions.
Seeking shelter in a ruined shopping complex, Jesse discovers a small, plastic reindeer ornament amidst the debris. This second, more tangible artifact unleashes an even more profound memory of family, connection, and joy. The emotional weight of the moment prompts the usually guarded Annie to share a rare, vulnerable memory of her own. In this quiet moment of shared grief, the two find a fragile understanding. Jesse keeps the reindeer as a talisman, a secret spark of warmth against the encroaching cold. As they prepare to move on, he spots a new, unexplained flicker of light in the far distance—a single, coloured dot in the endless blue—suggesting they may not be as alone as they thought.
**3. CHARACTER BREAKDOWN**
* **JESSE (30s):** Soul-weary and physically sluggish, Jesse is haunted by the loss of the world that was. He is the heart of the story, carrying the emotional weight of the past. His journey is one of rediscovering a reason to push forward, not just for survival, but for the memory of what was lost.
* **ANNIE (30s):** A hardened pragmatist. Quick, efficient, and hyper-focused on the mechanics of survival. She treats emotion as a liability and the past as a dangerous distraction. Beneath her tough exterior lies a deep well of her own grief, which she keeps ruthlessly suppressed until a moment of shared humanity cracks the facade.
**4. SCENE BEATS**
* **FLIGHT AND COLLAPSE:** We open in motion. Jesse and Annie run through a street of frozen, crystalline rubble. Behind them, a massive office tower groans, shedding sheets of glowing blue ice before it collapses. The immediate danger of the Scourge and the environment is established.
* **THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST:** Catching his breath, Jesse’s eye is caught by a faint, multi-coloured glow. Embedded deep within a translucent wall of alien ice is a string of old fairy lights, impossibly preserved.
* **A PAINFUL MEMORY:** The lights trigger a sensory flashback for Jesse. We see a warm, soft-focus memory of him as a child helping his father decorate a Christmas tree. The smell of pine, the glow of the lights, the sound of his mother humming. It is a world of profound warmth and safety.
* **PRAGMATISM VS. NOSTALGIA:** Annie pulls him out of his reverie. Her tone is sharp but not cruel. For her, the past is a trap. They need to keep moving before the collapse draws the shard-kin.
* **SHELTER IN THE RUINS:** They find refuge inside a collapsed, ice-choked shopping complex. The atmosphere is still and tomb-like. A massive, frozen banner advertising a long-forgotten sale hangs over them, its smiling models a grotesque mockery of their plight.
* **THE RED-NOSED REINDEER:** Jesse spots a flash of red in a pile of debris. He unearths a small, cheap plastic reindeer ornament. He holds it in his palm, a tangible link to the world he just remembered.
* **THE SYMPHONY OF MEMORY:** The ornament triggers a second, more powerful flashback. This time it’s the full scene: the entire family gathered, the warmth of the fire, the cacophony of cheerful noise, the feeling of absolute belonging as his young cousin hangs that same type of reindeer on the tree. The emotional weight is immense.
* **A SHARED GHOST:** Seeing his state, Annie kneels beside him. In a quiet, halting voice, she shares a memory of her own—her mother folding tiny paper stars to "keep the dark out." It is a moment of profound, unspoken connection, two survivors acknowledging their shared ghosts.
* **THE COLD PRESENT:** They rest. Jesse checks his comms unit. It's dead, reinforcing their complete isolation. He eats a tasteless ration bar, the silence punctuated only by the distant groaning of the Scourge. He tucks the reindeer into an inner pocket. It is now a secret talisman.
* **A SPARK IN THE DARK:** Jesse looks out at the terrible beauty of the frozen city. He feels a tear escape, a moment of catharsis. He accepts the memory not as a weakness, but as a source of strength—a tiny protest against the desolation.
* **A FLICKER OF HOPE:** Annie announces it’s time to move. As Jesse stands, he scans the horizon one last time. In the extreme distance, dwarfed by the endless blue glow of the Scourge, he sees it: a single, tiny, persistent flicker of orange-red light. It could be anything, but it’s not blue. He doesn’t say a word, just stares, a question hanging in the frozen air.
**5. VISUAL STYLE**
* **Palette & Light:** The present-day world is defined by a monochromatic, oppressive palette of blues, greys, and whites. The only light source is the perpetual twilight and the cold, internal, bioluminescent blue of the Scourge ice and the shard-kin. This is violently contrasted with the memory sequences, which are shot with a warm, soft-focus, almost dreamlike quality, rich with reds, greens, and golds—a saturated, nostalgic glow.
* **Environment:** The setting is a character. A "crystal desert" of a ruined metropolis. We emphasize scale: massive, skeletal skyscrapers turned into glittering ice cathedrals. The design of the Scourge should be both beautiful and terrifying—like a lethal, alien coral reef consuming a city. Influences: *The Road* meets the crystalline visuals of *Annihilation*.
* **Camera Work:** Action sequences will be tense and handheld, putting the audience in the characters' frantic headspace. In contrast, the moments of reflection and memory will be slow, deliberate, and intimate, using shallow depth of field to isolate Jesse from his surroundings and draw us into his internal world. Extreme wide shots will constantly reinforce the characters' profound isolation.
* **Sound Design:** A crucial element will be the contrast between the two worlds. The present is dominated by the howling wind, the deep, resonant groaning of shifting ice, and the unsettling, high-frequency hum of the Scourge. The shard-kin move in near-total silence. The flashbacks are filled with the rich, layered sounds of life: crackling fire, distant carols, overlapping family chatter, the clinking of glasses. The absence of these sounds in the present makes the silence all the more profound.