The Hum of Burnt Wires
In a city governed by verified 'truth streams,' a data scavenger discovers a fragment of forbidden history. Hunted by a relentless Compliance Officer, he must risk everything to broadcast a truth that could either liberate the city or burn it to the ground.
# The Hum of Burnt Wires
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
In a dystopian city where history is a state-controlled narrative, a data scavenger uncovers video proof of a government massacre and must race against a relentless, networked enforcer to broadcast the truth before he is permanently deleted.
## Themes
* **Truth vs. Sanctioned History:** The core conflict between an objective, suppressed historical fact and the carefully constructed narrative used by the state to maintain order and legitimacy.
* **Technology as Oppression:** The story explores how a totally networked society (The Stream) becomes the ultimate tool for surveillance and control, eliminating privacy and instantly identifying dissent.
* **The Individual vs. The System:** The classic struggle of one ordinary person, armed only with a dangerous piece of information, against an omniscient and all-powerful state apparatus.
* **Sacrifice for an Idea:** The choice to risk one's life not for personal gain, but to release a world-changing truth, forcing a confrontation between a comfortable lie and a painful reality.
## Stakes
The protagonist's life is at stake, along with the fate of a society built on a lie, which could either be liberated by the truth or consumed by the chaos it ignites.
## Synopsis
COREY, a cynical data scavenger, accidentally discovers a forbidden video file while salvaging a decommissioned drone. The file contains footage of the "Great Reconciliation," a foundational event in their society's history, revealing it not as a peaceful unification but as a brutal massacre of protestors by state Enforcers.
The moment he views the file, the system flags him. The all-encompassing network, The Stream, knows what he has seen. Forced to flee his habitation pod, Corey is hunted through the sprawling Undermarket by PAULA, a hyper-efficient Compliance Officer who perceives the world as a flow of data to be managed.
Using his intimate knowledge of the city's forgotten underbelly, Corey evades Paula's initial pursuit, using electromagnetic interference from decaying infrastructure to mask his presence. His only hope is to find a "ghost-node"—an offline terminal from before The Stream—to upload the file to the public.
He finds a derelict relay station and begins the slow, painstaking upload. Just as the transfer nears completion, Paula corners him. She presents him with the state's logic: the file is chaos, while the official narrative, however false, is order. With her weapon aimed at his chest, Corey must make the final choice between his own survival and releasing a truth that could burn their world down.
## Character Breakdown
* **COREY (Scavenger 73B)** (20s-30s): Lean, resourceful, and deeply cynical. A product of the Undermarket, he lives by his wits, trusting no one. He is not a revolutionary by nature, but a survivor pushed into an impossible position.
* **Psychological Arc:** Corey begins as a self-interested scavenger, driven solely by survival and the potential for profit. Upon discovering the truth of the massacre, he is transformed from a passive bystander into an active dissident, ultimately willing to sacrifice his life to expose the lie that underpins his society.
* **PAULA (Compliance Officer)** (30s): Calm, efficient, and detached. She is the perfect instrument of the Consensus. She doesn't see herself as evil, but as a guardian of order and stability. Through her augmented reality display, she sees people not as individuals, but as data points and probability vectors to be managed or neutralized.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE DISCOVERY:** In his cramped pod, Corey decrypts the file. We see the shocking footage: peaceful protestors, banners, and the brutal arrival of the Enforcers. The official history is a lie.
2. **THE NET TIGHTENS:** The pod's power flickers. A system-wide alert. They know. Corey grabs his data slate and an emergency kit, bolting into the Undermarket.
3. **THE HUNTED:** From a high gantry, Corey spots two Compliance Officers, including Paula, sweeping the market below. Their movements are unnaturally synchronized. He makes eye contact with Paula for a split second before he runs.
4. **THE CHASE:** Corey plunges into the warren of the Undermarket, using his knowledge to navigate the maze. Paula pursues with relentless, machine-like efficiency, flowing through the environment.
5. **GHOST IN THE MACHINE:** Corey slides into a sewer conduit and presses himself against a leaking power line. The electromagnetic interference scrambles his heat signature. Paula's sensors fail to find him, and she moves past, a terrifyingly close call.
6. **THE RELIC:** Corey reaches the derelict relay station—a concrete bunker filled with dusty, obsolete servers. He finds the prize: a pre-Stream terminal with a physical keyboard. An island of digital safety.
7. **THE UPLOAD:** He plugs in the slate and initiates the transfer. A progress bar crawls across the green monochrome screen. It's his ticking clock.
8. **THE CONFRONTATION:** A soft click. Paula stands in the doorway, weapon levelled. She explains how she found him by tracking the terminal's power draw. She demands the slate, arguing that truth is chaos and the lie is order. As the progress bar hits 70%, her weapon hums, charging. The final, silent standoff.
## Visual Style & Tone
The film will employ a high-contrast, dualistic aesthetic. The world of the Consensus is sterile, minimalist, and bathed in cold, blue-white light. The Undermarket is the opposite: a chaotic, rain-slicked, and claustrophobic labyrinth of rust, exposed wiring, and flickering neon, reminiscent of *Blade Runner*.
A key visual device will be POV shots from Paula's helmet, showing the world as a shimmering augmented reality overlay of data streams, heat signatures, and probability vectors. This will visually contrast her cold, analytical worldview with Corey's raw, terrified, human perspective.
The tone is tense, paranoid, and philosophical. It aligns with the techno-dystopian paranoia of **Black Mirror**, the theme of forbidden knowledge from **Fahrenheit 451**, and the gritty, lived-in sci-fi aesthetic of **Children of Men**. The score will be minimalist and electronic, using ambient hums and digital noise to build tension, punctuated by percussive, heart-pounding tracks during the chase sequences.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
In a dystopian city where history is a state-controlled narrative, a data scavenger uncovers video proof of a government massacre and must race against a relentless, networked enforcer to broadcast the truth before he is permanently deleted.
## Themes
* **Truth vs. Sanctioned History:** The core conflict between an objective, suppressed historical fact and the carefully constructed narrative used by the state to maintain order and legitimacy.
* **Technology as Oppression:** The story explores how a totally networked society (The Stream) becomes the ultimate tool for surveillance and control, eliminating privacy and instantly identifying dissent.
* **The Individual vs. The System:** The classic struggle of one ordinary person, armed only with a dangerous piece of information, against an omniscient and all-powerful state apparatus.
* **Sacrifice for an Idea:** The choice to risk one's life not for personal gain, but to release a world-changing truth, forcing a confrontation between a comfortable lie and a painful reality.
## Stakes
The protagonist's life is at stake, along with the fate of a society built on a lie, which could either be liberated by the truth or consumed by the chaos it ignites.
## Synopsis
COREY, a cynical data scavenger, accidentally discovers a forbidden video file while salvaging a decommissioned drone. The file contains footage of the "Great Reconciliation," a foundational event in their society's history, revealing it not as a peaceful unification but as a brutal massacre of protestors by state Enforcers.
The moment he views the file, the system flags him. The all-encompassing network, The Stream, knows what he has seen. Forced to flee his habitation pod, Corey is hunted through the sprawling Undermarket by PAULA, a hyper-efficient Compliance Officer who perceives the world as a flow of data to be managed.
Using his intimate knowledge of the city's forgotten underbelly, Corey evades Paula's initial pursuit, using electromagnetic interference from decaying infrastructure to mask his presence. His only hope is to find a "ghost-node"—an offline terminal from before The Stream—to upload the file to the public.
He finds a derelict relay station and begins the slow, painstaking upload. Just as the transfer nears completion, Paula corners him. She presents him with the state's logic: the file is chaos, while the official narrative, however false, is order. With her weapon aimed at his chest, Corey must make the final choice between his own survival and releasing a truth that could burn their world down.
## Character Breakdown
* **COREY (Scavenger 73B)** (20s-30s): Lean, resourceful, and deeply cynical. A product of the Undermarket, he lives by his wits, trusting no one. He is not a revolutionary by nature, but a survivor pushed into an impossible position.
* **Psychological Arc:** Corey begins as a self-interested scavenger, driven solely by survival and the potential for profit. Upon discovering the truth of the massacre, he is transformed from a passive bystander into an active dissident, ultimately willing to sacrifice his life to expose the lie that underpins his society.
* **PAULA (Compliance Officer)** (30s): Calm, efficient, and detached. She is the perfect instrument of the Consensus. She doesn't see herself as evil, but as a guardian of order and stability. Through her augmented reality display, she sees people not as individuals, but as data points and probability vectors to be managed or neutralized.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE DISCOVERY:** In his cramped pod, Corey decrypts the file. We see the shocking footage: peaceful protestors, banners, and the brutal arrival of the Enforcers. The official history is a lie.
2. **THE NET TIGHTENS:** The pod's power flickers. A system-wide alert. They know. Corey grabs his data slate and an emergency kit, bolting into the Undermarket.
3. **THE HUNTED:** From a high gantry, Corey spots two Compliance Officers, including Paula, sweeping the market below. Their movements are unnaturally synchronized. He makes eye contact with Paula for a split second before he runs.
4. **THE CHASE:** Corey plunges into the warren of the Undermarket, using his knowledge to navigate the maze. Paula pursues with relentless, machine-like efficiency, flowing through the environment.
5. **GHOST IN THE MACHINE:** Corey slides into a sewer conduit and presses himself against a leaking power line. The electromagnetic interference scrambles his heat signature. Paula's sensors fail to find him, and she moves past, a terrifyingly close call.
6. **THE RELIC:** Corey reaches the derelict relay station—a concrete bunker filled with dusty, obsolete servers. He finds the prize: a pre-Stream terminal with a physical keyboard. An island of digital safety.
7. **THE UPLOAD:** He plugs in the slate and initiates the transfer. A progress bar crawls across the green monochrome screen. It's his ticking clock.
8. **THE CONFRONTATION:** A soft click. Paula stands in the doorway, weapon levelled. She explains how she found him by tracking the terminal's power draw. She demands the slate, arguing that truth is chaos and the lie is order. As the progress bar hits 70%, her weapon hums, charging. The final, silent standoff.
## Visual Style & Tone
The film will employ a high-contrast, dualistic aesthetic. The world of the Consensus is sterile, minimalist, and bathed in cold, blue-white light. The Undermarket is the opposite: a chaotic, rain-slicked, and claustrophobic labyrinth of rust, exposed wiring, and flickering neon, reminiscent of *Blade Runner*.
A key visual device will be POV shots from Paula's helmet, showing the world as a shimmering augmented reality overlay of data streams, heat signatures, and probability vectors. This will visually contrast her cold, analytical worldview with Corey's raw, terrified, human perspective.
The tone is tense, paranoid, and philosophical. It aligns with the techno-dystopian paranoia of **Black Mirror**, the theme of forbidden knowledge from **Fahrenheit 451**, and the gritty, lived-in sci-fi aesthetic of **Children of Men**. The score will be minimalist and electronic, using ambient hums and digital noise to build tension, punctuated by percussive, heart-pounding tracks during the chase sequences.