Gravity and the Rogers Pass
A high-speed drive through the treacherous Rocky Mountains at night becomes a terrifying reliving of past trauma, as one friend's recklessness forces a confrontation about a long-buried secret from their youth.
# Gravity and the Rogers Pass
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
On a treacherous late-night drive through the mountains, a passenger must force his reckless driver to confront the decade-old car crash that secretly haunts them before they repeat it with fatal consequences.
## Themes
* **Unresolved Guilt:** Exploring how past trauma, when left unaddressed, manifests in self-destructive behavior and a compulsive need to relive the moment of failure.
* **The Corrosive Nature of Secrets:** A single, long-held secret about culpability has poisoned a friendship from the inside out, creating a dynamic of unspoken resentment and misunderstanding.
* **Control vs. Chaos:** The act of driving at dangerous speeds becomes a metaphor for the desperate attempt to assert control over past events, only to flirt with the very chaos one is trying to escape.
* **Confrontation as Catharsis:** True healing and release can only be achieved not by outrunning the past, but by facing it head-on, even at the risk of complete emotional collapse.
## Stakes
The characters risk not only a fatal crash on the treacherous mountain road but also the complete shattering of their lifelong friendship under the weight of a long-buried secret.
## Synopsis
MIKA drives his beat-up Civic at a suicidal speed through the winding, pitch-black roads of the Rogers Pass. His friend, CONNOR, sits terrified in the passenger seat, his pleas to slow down met with clipped, tense denials. The speed and the smell of hot rubber trigger a traumatic memory for Connor: a decade ago, a sixteen-year-old Mika, drunk and newly licensed, crashed his father's car after swerving to avoid a deer, clipping another vehicle in the process.
Back in the present, Connor confronts Mika, accusing him of reliving that night. The accusation hits a nerve, and Connor pushes further, mentioning MARK, the driver of the other car who was injured in the accident. This breaks Mika's composure. He confesses the secret he's held for ten years: Connor had only had two beers that night, while Mika was dangerously drunk. He took the blame, but also the full weight of the guilt, believing he could have killed them all. His reckless driving isn't bravado; it's a desperate, repeated attempt to regain the control he lost in that single, terrifying moment.
As the confession hangs in the air, a massive elk suddenly appears in the headlights. Mika slams on the brakes. The car fishtails violently, narrowly avoiding the animal and the sheer drop-off. They screech to a halt, stalled across the centre line. The near-death experience shatters Mika completely. He pulls the car over, kills the engine and the lights, and in the profound, absolute silence of the mountains, breaks down into ragged, heartbroken sobs.
## Character Breakdown
* **MIKA (26):** The driver. Haunted and brittle beneath a veneer of reckless confidence. He is trapped in a compulsive loop, using speed and danger as a way to punish himself and simultaneously attempt to master the trauma that has defined his adult life. He carries the immense weight of a secret that has isolated him even from his closest friend.
* **Psychological Arc:**
* **State at start:** He is trapped in a cycle of self-punishment and denial, using reckless behavior to feel a sense of control over a past trauma for which he feels solely responsible.
* **State at end:** Stripped of his bravado by a near-death experience, he finally confronts his guilt and vulnerability, allowing for the possibility of healing and genuine reconciliation.
* **CONNOR (26):** The passenger. More grounded and perceptive. He is the anchor to the present reality, trying to pull his friend back from the edge. While he carries his own version of the trauma, he is able to see Mika's actions for what they are: a cry for help. He serves as the catalyst, forcing the painful confrontation that is necessary for any hope of resolution.
## Scene Beats
1. **HIGH-STAKES DRIVING:** The car speeds through the dark mountain pass. Connor is white-knuckled, begging Mika to slow down. Mika ignores him, pushing the car faster into a curve.
2. **THE TRIGGER:** The tires squeal and the back end drifts, a moment of weightlessness that throws Connor back in time.
3. **FLASHBACK:** Quick, visceral shots—a younger Mika at the wheel, cheap beer, the sudden appearance of a deer, the screech of metal, and the spiderwebbing of a windscreen. A single headlight from another car points crazily at the sky.
4. **THE ACCUSATION:** Back in the present, Connor accuses Mika of trying to prove something, of being stuck in the past.
5. **THE WOUND:** Connor says Mark's name. Mika flinches as if struck, warning him to stop.
6. **THE CONFRONTATION:** Connor refuses to back down, pointing out they never talk about the accident and that Mika never moved on.
7. **THE CONFESSION:** Mika's emotional dam breaks. He reveals the truth: he was the one who was hammered that night, not Connor. He has lived with the guilt of nearly killing them for a decade. Every time he drives, he relives the moment he lost control.
8. **THE SPECTER:** At the height of the emotional confession, an elk appears, frozen in the headlights—a ghost of the deer from ten years ago.
9. **THE CRASH (AVERTED):** Mika slams on the brakes. The car slides sideways in a terrifying squeal of rubber, anti-lock brakes firing like a machine gun. It's a violent, chaotic dance on the edge of a cliff.
10. **THE AFTERMATH:** The car stops. Silence. Mika is trembling, slumped over the wheel.
11. **THE SURRENDER:** Mika pulls over to a gravel turnout and kills the engine and lights. The car is plunged into an immense, silent darkness.
12. **THE RELEASE:** In the vast, uncaring silence of the mountains, Mika finally breaks down, his quiet, broken sobs the only sound in the world.
## Visual Style & Tone
The style will be claustrophobic and immersive, trapping the audience inside the car with the characters. The primary lighting will be the cold, green glow of the dashboard instruments, occasionally punctuated by the fleeting sweep of headlights across rock faces and terrifying black voids. Handheld or gimbal shots will enhance the sense of instability and kinetic danger. The flashback will be rendered in sharp, fragmented cuts, focusing on sensory details—shattered glass, the texture of the steering wheel, the smell of coolant.
The tone is one of escalating tension and raw, psychological intimacy. It begins with the physical anxiety of a dangerous drive and deepens into the emotional horror of a buried trauma being unearthed. The final moments shift from high-octane terror to a profound, quiet melancholy.
**Tonal Comparisons:** The contained, character-driven tension of *Locke* meets the psychological dread and exploration of past trauma found in episodes of *The Haunting of Hill House*. The focus on a single, intense event echoes the structure of a *Black Mirror* vignette.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
On a treacherous late-night drive through the mountains, a passenger must force his reckless driver to confront the decade-old car crash that secretly haunts them before they repeat it with fatal consequences.
## Themes
* **Unresolved Guilt:** Exploring how past trauma, when left unaddressed, manifests in self-destructive behavior and a compulsive need to relive the moment of failure.
* **The Corrosive Nature of Secrets:** A single, long-held secret about culpability has poisoned a friendship from the inside out, creating a dynamic of unspoken resentment and misunderstanding.
* **Control vs. Chaos:** The act of driving at dangerous speeds becomes a metaphor for the desperate attempt to assert control over past events, only to flirt with the very chaos one is trying to escape.
* **Confrontation as Catharsis:** True healing and release can only be achieved not by outrunning the past, but by facing it head-on, even at the risk of complete emotional collapse.
## Stakes
The characters risk not only a fatal crash on the treacherous mountain road but also the complete shattering of their lifelong friendship under the weight of a long-buried secret.
## Synopsis
MIKA drives his beat-up Civic at a suicidal speed through the winding, pitch-black roads of the Rogers Pass. His friend, CONNOR, sits terrified in the passenger seat, his pleas to slow down met with clipped, tense denials. The speed and the smell of hot rubber trigger a traumatic memory for Connor: a decade ago, a sixteen-year-old Mika, drunk and newly licensed, crashed his father's car after swerving to avoid a deer, clipping another vehicle in the process.
Back in the present, Connor confronts Mika, accusing him of reliving that night. The accusation hits a nerve, and Connor pushes further, mentioning MARK, the driver of the other car who was injured in the accident. This breaks Mika's composure. He confesses the secret he's held for ten years: Connor had only had two beers that night, while Mika was dangerously drunk. He took the blame, but also the full weight of the guilt, believing he could have killed them all. His reckless driving isn't bravado; it's a desperate, repeated attempt to regain the control he lost in that single, terrifying moment.
As the confession hangs in the air, a massive elk suddenly appears in the headlights. Mika slams on the brakes. The car fishtails violently, narrowly avoiding the animal and the sheer drop-off. They screech to a halt, stalled across the centre line. The near-death experience shatters Mika completely. He pulls the car over, kills the engine and the lights, and in the profound, absolute silence of the mountains, breaks down into ragged, heartbroken sobs.
## Character Breakdown
* **MIKA (26):** The driver. Haunted and brittle beneath a veneer of reckless confidence. He is trapped in a compulsive loop, using speed and danger as a way to punish himself and simultaneously attempt to master the trauma that has defined his adult life. He carries the immense weight of a secret that has isolated him even from his closest friend.
* **Psychological Arc:**
* **State at start:** He is trapped in a cycle of self-punishment and denial, using reckless behavior to feel a sense of control over a past trauma for which he feels solely responsible.
* **State at end:** Stripped of his bravado by a near-death experience, he finally confronts his guilt and vulnerability, allowing for the possibility of healing and genuine reconciliation.
* **CONNOR (26):** The passenger. More grounded and perceptive. He is the anchor to the present reality, trying to pull his friend back from the edge. While he carries his own version of the trauma, he is able to see Mika's actions for what they are: a cry for help. He serves as the catalyst, forcing the painful confrontation that is necessary for any hope of resolution.
## Scene Beats
1. **HIGH-STAKES DRIVING:** The car speeds through the dark mountain pass. Connor is white-knuckled, begging Mika to slow down. Mika ignores him, pushing the car faster into a curve.
2. **THE TRIGGER:** The tires squeal and the back end drifts, a moment of weightlessness that throws Connor back in time.
3. **FLASHBACK:** Quick, visceral shots—a younger Mika at the wheel, cheap beer, the sudden appearance of a deer, the screech of metal, and the spiderwebbing of a windscreen. A single headlight from another car points crazily at the sky.
4. **THE ACCUSATION:** Back in the present, Connor accuses Mika of trying to prove something, of being stuck in the past.
5. **THE WOUND:** Connor says Mark's name. Mika flinches as if struck, warning him to stop.
6. **THE CONFRONTATION:** Connor refuses to back down, pointing out they never talk about the accident and that Mika never moved on.
7. **THE CONFESSION:** Mika's emotional dam breaks. He reveals the truth: he was the one who was hammered that night, not Connor. He has lived with the guilt of nearly killing them for a decade. Every time he drives, he relives the moment he lost control.
8. **THE SPECTER:** At the height of the emotional confession, an elk appears, frozen in the headlights—a ghost of the deer from ten years ago.
9. **THE CRASH (AVERTED):** Mika slams on the brakes. The car slides sideways in a terrifying squeal of rubber, anti-lock brakes firing like a machine gun. It's a violent, chaotic dance on the edge of a cliff.
10. **THE AFTERMATH:** The car stops. Silence. Mika is trembling, slumped over the wheel.
11. **THE SURRENDER:** Mika pulls over to a gravel turnout and kills the engine and lights. The car is plunged into an immense, silent darkness.
12. **THE RELEASE:** In the vast, uncaring silence of the mountains, Mika finally breaks down, his quiet, broken sobs the only sound in the world.
## Visual Style & Tone
The style will be claustrophobic and immersive, trapping the audience inside the car with the characters. The primary lighting will be the cold, green glow of the dashboard instruments, occasionally punctuated by the fleeting sweep of headlights across rock faces and terrifying black voids. Handheld or gimbal shots will enhance the sense of instability and kinetic danger. The flashback will be rendered in sharp, fragmented cuts, focusing on sensory details—shattered glass, the texture of the steering wheel, the smell of coolant.
The tone is one of escalating tension and raw, psychological intimacy. It begins with the physical anxiety of a dangerous drive and deepens into the emotional horror of a buried trauma being unearthed. The final moments shift from high-octane terror to a profound, quiet melancholy.
**Tonal Comparisons:** The contained, character-driven tension of *Locke* meets the psychological dread and exploration of past trauma found in episodes of *The Haunting of Hill House*. The focus on a single, intense event echoes the structure of a *Black Mirror* vignette.