The Regulator
In a steam-choked, frozen Winnipeg, a teenager navigates the brutal cold and his own scattered thoughts to trade a piece of scrap that might save his winter.
# The Regulator
## Logline
In a perpetually frozen, steampunk metropolis, a resourceful teenager must sell a scavenged machine part to save his family from the cold, but when a sudden breakdown and an act of compassion threaten his mission, he discovers that true value lies not in metal, but in human connection.
## Synopsis
In the brutal, sub-zero landscape of a steampunk Winnipeg, CALEB (17) makes a desperate run for the 11-B Steam-Tram. The city is a "frostpunk" world of riveted iron and hissing steam pipes, and the cold is a lethal, ever-present threat. In his pocket is his only hope: a pristine brass regulator valve he scavenged, the sale of which will fund a new heating coil for his family's freezing apartment. His own failing hydraulic knee-brace is a constant, painful reminder of their precarious existence.
He barely makes it onto the packed, grimy tram, a microcosm of this society of survivors. His reckless friend, JULES (17), makes a much grander entrance, jumping from a skywalk onto the tram's roof with his clunky exosuit and dropping in through an emergency hatch. Jules, ever the optimist, tries to lift Caleb's spirits but also casually dismisses the value of the regulator, heightening Caleb's anxiety. On the tram, Caleb spots SASHA (17), a quiet musician from his history class, clutching an old wooden violin case. He's captivated but too insecure to speak to her.
Disaster strikes when the tram's boiler blows, grinding the behemoth to a halt in the middle of a worsening storm. Stranded and with the buyer's shop closing soon, Caleb and Jules decide to brave the blizzard on foot. Their journey is a desperate struggle against the elements. On their way, they discover an OLD WOMAN collapsed in the snow, her bare hands frozen white as she fumbles to collect apples spilled from a torn bag. Faced with a choice between his mission and a stranger's life, Caleb doesn't hesitate. They help the woman, guiding her to the heated vestibule of a nearby bank and painstakingly warming her frozen fingers, sacrificing precious time.
They finally arrive at the buyer's shop only to find it closed early due to the storm. Caleb is devastated. All his effort—the run, the risk, helping the woman—seems to have been for nothing. His family will spend another night in the dangerous cold. As he slumps in defeat, Sasha appears. She saw them get off the tram and witnessed their act of kindness. In a moment of serendipity, she reveals that the latch on her precious violin case is broken and requires the exact Type-4 regulator he holds in his hand.
Sasha can't offer cash, but she has something else: a transit pass with a week of credit. For Caleb, this is a lifeline—worth more than the coil, it represents warmth, mobility, and security. He eagerly makes the trade. The brief exchange is charged with unspoken connection, and for the first time, Caleb feels seen.
As Sasha leaves, Caleb and Jules are left in the snow, no longer defeated but triumphant. The transit pass can be traded for the coil with credits to spare. The city is still grey and cold, but as the streetlights flicker on, it feels less hostile. It feels manageable. Caleb, who started the day as a desperate scavenger, has succeeded not through ruthlessness but through empathy. He has secured his family's warmth and forged a potential connection, finding a small piece of summer in a world of endless winter.
## Character Breakdown
**CALEB (17):** A pragmatic and resourceful scavenger burdened by the weight of his family's survival. He is mechanically gifted but socially withdrawn and insecure, viewing himself as invisible. His leaking hydraulic knee-brace is a constant reminder of his family's make-do-and-mend existence. Beneath his cynical exterior is a deep well of compassion.
**JULES (17):** Caleb's best and only friend. A kinetic, fast-talking daredevil who navigates the icy city with a worn-down, hydraulic exosuit and a reckless grin. He is the optimistic and impulsive foil to Caleb's cautious anxiety, providing both comic relief and the push Caleb often needs.
**SASHA (17):** A quiet, observant musician in Caleb's class. She seems to belong to a more refined world of art and culture that feels inaccessible to Caleb. She is perceptive and kind, noticing the good in others when they are at their lowest. Her violin is her most prized possession.
**THE OLD WOMAN (70s):** A frail but proud woman who represents the city's most vulnerable citizens. Her simple quest to buy apples for a pie becomes the catalyst for Caleb's central moral choice, forcing him to prioritize humanity over profit.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE SHOVEL OF WIND:** Caleb races through the frozen streets of steampunk Winnipeg, the wind a physical force. He clutches the regulator in his pocket, his goal clear: sell it to fix his family's heater.
2. **CATCHING THE BEHEMOTH:** Caleb makes a last-second leap onto the screeching 11-B Steam-Tram, a crowded, hissing vessel of iron and frosted glass.
3. **ROOFTOP ARRIVAL:** Jules makes a chaotic entrance, dropping through the tram's ceiling hatch after a parkour jump. His breezy attitude contrasts with Caleb's tension.
4. **A GLIMPSE OF SASHA:** Caleb sees Sasha, the girl from his class, holding her violin case. He is immediately intimidated and looks away, feeling invisible.
5. **METAL SCREECH:** The tram lurches to a violent halt. The boiler has blown. The conductor announces they are stranded indefinitely. Panic and frustration fill the car.
6. **INTO THE BLIZZARD:** With time running out, Caleb and Jules decide to walk. They step out of the tram into a blinding, horizontal snowstorm.
7. **APPLES IN THE SNOW:** They find an Old Woman collapsed, her bare hands waxy and white, trying to gather spilled apples from the slush.
8. **THE WARMTH OF A VESTIBULE:** They carry the woman to a bank vestibule. Caleb chafes her frozen hands, watching in agony and relief as the painful, life-affirming pink returns to her fingers.
9. **THE CLOSED SIGN:** They finally reach Miller's shop. A "CLOSED" sign hangs in the door. Caleb's hope plummets. He hammers on the glass, but the shop is empty.
10. **A FAMILIAR VOICE:** Defeated, Caleb is startled by a voice. It's Sasha. She saw them help the old woman.
11. **THE PERFECT PART:** Sasha points to the regulator in Caleb's hand. It's the exact part she needs to fix her broken violin case latch before the cold warps the instrument.
12. **THE TRADE:** Sasha offers her weekly transit pass. Caleb accepts instantly. Their hands touch as they exchange the items—a small, warm moment in the biting cold.
13. **A PROMISE OF TOMORROW:** Sasha thanks him by name and says she'll see him in class. For the first time, Caleb feels a flicker of real hope for something beyond mere survival.
14. **VICTORY BUNS:** Holding the pass—his family's salvation—Caleb and Jules race towards the warm, sweet smell of a nearby bakery, their laughter cutting through the howl of the wind.
## Visual Style
The film's aesthetic is **Frostpunk**—a subgenre of Steampunk defined by a world locked in a new ice age.
* **Palette:** A desaturated world of cold blues, industrial greys, and soot-stained whites. This is punctuated by intense, warm pockets of light: the amber glow from inside buildings, the orange glare of boiler fireboxes, the yellow buzz of old-fashioned streetlights. Brass, copper, and rusted iron are the dominant metallic textures.
* **Environment:** Winnipeg is a vertical city built for survival. Massive, insulated steam pipes run like arteries along the sides of brick buildings, constantly hissing and venting. Skywalks connect towers to keep citizens out of the wind-choked streets below. Everything is worn, retrofitted, and utilitarian. Frost patterns—natural fractals—creep across every pane of glass.
* **Technology:** Analog and tactile. Machinery is heavy, riveted, and loud. Gears grind, pneumatics hiss, and steam is a constant atmospheric element. Caleb's knee-brace and Jules' exosuit are not sleek sci-fi gadgets but clunky, greasy contraptions of pistons, hydraulics, and exposed wiring.
* **Atmosphere:** The cold is a tangible character. The audience should feel it through the sound design (the constant, high-pitched scream of the wind) and visuals (characters' breath freezing instantly, swirling ground-level snow, the shimmer of heat rising from sewer grates). The mood is one of gritty endurance, where small acts of warmth and kindness feel like grand, heroic gestures.
## Logline
In a perpetually frozen, steampunk metropolis, a resourceful teenager must sell a scavenged machine part to save his family from the cold, but when a sudden breakdown and an act of compassion threaten his mission, he discovers that true value lies not in metal, but in human connection.
## Synopsis
In the brutal, sub-zero landscape of a steampunk Winnipeg, CALEB (17) makes a desperate run for the 11-B Steam-Tram. The city is a "frostpunk" world of riveted iron and hissing steam pipes, and the cold is a lethal, ever-present threat. In his pocket is his only hope: a pristine brass regulator valve he scavenged, the sale of which will fund a new heating coil for his family's freezing apartment. His own failing hydraulic knee-brace is a constant, painful reminder of their precarious existence.
He barely makes it onto the packed, grimy tram, a microcosm of this society of survivors. His reckless friend, JULES (17), makes a much grander entrance, jumping from a skywalk onto the tram's roof with his clunky exosuit and dropping in through an emergency hatch. Jules, ever the optimist, tries to lift Caleb's spirits but also casually dismisses the value of the regulator, heightening Caleb's anxiety. On the tram, Caleb spots SASHA (17), a quiet musician from his history class, clutching an old wooden violin case. He's captivated but too insecure to speak to her.
Disaster strikes when the tram's boiler blows, grinding the behemoth to a halt in the middle of a worsening storm. Stranded and with the buyer's shop closing soon, Caleb and Jules decide to brave the blizzard on foot. Their journey is a desperate struggle against the elements. On their way, they discover an OLD WOMAN collapsed in the snow, her bare hands frozen white as she fumbles to collect apples spilled from a torn bag. Faced with a choice between his mission and a stranger's life, Caleb doesn't hesitate. They help the woman, guiding her to the heated vestibule of a nearby bank and painstakingly warming her frozen fingers, sacrificing precious time.
They finally arrive at the buyer's shop only to find it closed early due to the storm. Caleb is devastated. All his effort—the run, the risk, helping the woman—seems to have been for nothing. His family will spend another night in the dangerous cold. As he slumps in defeat, Sasha appears. She saw them get off the tram and witnessed their act of kindness. In a moment of serendipity, she reveals that the latch on her precious violin case is broken and requires the exact Type-4 regulator he holds in his hand.
Sasha can't offer cash, but she has something else: a transit pass with a week of credit. For Caleb, this is a lifeline—worth more than the coil, it represents warmth, mobility, and security. He eagerly makes the trade. The brief exchange is charged with unspoken connection, and for the first time, Caleb feels seen.
As Sasha leaves, Caleb and Jules are left in the snow, no longer defeated but triumphant. The transit pass can be traded for the coil with credits to spare. The city is still grey and cold, but as the streetlights flicker on, it feels less hostile. It feels manageable. Caleb, who started the day as a desperate scavenger, has succeeded not through ruthlessness but through empathy. He has secured his family's warmth and forged a potential connection, finding a small piece of summer in a world of endless winter.
## Character Breakdown
**CALEB (17):** A pragmatic and resourceful scavenger burdened by the weight of his family's survival. He is mechanically gifted but socially withdrawn and insecure, viewing himself as invisible. His leaking hydraulic knee-brace is a constant reminder of his family's make-do-and-mend existence. Beneath his cynical exterior is a deep well of compassion.
**JULES (17):** Caleb's best and only friend. A kinetic, fast-talking daredevil who navigates the icy city with a worn-down, hydraulic exosuit and a reckless grin. He is the optimistic and impulsive foil to Caleb's cautious anxiety, providing both comic relief and the push Caleb often needs.
**SASHA (17):** A quiet, observant musician in Caleb's class. She seems to belong to a more refined world of art and culture that feels inaccessible to Caleb. She is perceptive and kind, noticing the good in others when they are at their lowest. Her violin is her most prized possession.
**THE OLD WOMAN (70s):** A frail but proud woman who represents the city's most vulnerable citizens. Her simple quest to buy apples for a pie becomes the catalyst for Caleb's central moral choice, forcing him to prioritize humanity over profit.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE SHOVEL OF WIND:** Caleb races through the frozen streets of steampunk Winnipeg, the wind a physical force. He clutches the regulator in his pocket, his goal clear: sell it to fix his family's heater.
2. **CATCHING THE BEHEMOTH:** Caleb makes a last-second leap onto the screeching 11-B Steam-Tram, a crowded, hissing vessel of iron and frosted glass.
3. **ROOFTOP ARRIVAL:** Jules makes a chaotic entrance, dropping through the tram's ceiling hatch after a parkour jump. His breezy attitude contrasts with Caleb's tension.
4. **A GLIMPSE OF SASHA:** Caleb sees Sasha, the girl from his class, holding her violin case. He is immediately intimidated and looks away, feeling invisible.
5. **METAL SCREECH:** The tram lurches to a violent halt. The boiler has blown. The conductor announces they are stranded indefinitely. Panic and frustration fill the car.
6. **INTO THE BLIZZARD:** With time running out, Caleb and Jules decide to walk. They step out of the tram into a blinding, horizontal snowstorm.
7. **APPLES IN THE SNOW:** They find an Old Woman collapsed, her bare hands waxy and white, trying to gather spilled apples from the slush.
8. **THE WARMTH OF A VESTIBULE:** They carry the woman to a bank vestibule. Caleb chafes her frozen hands, watching in agony and relief as the painful, life-affirming pink returns to her fingers.
9. **THE CLOSED SIGN:** They finally reach Miller's shop. A "CLOSED" sign hangs in the door. Caleb's hope plummets. He hammers on the glass, but the shop is empty.
10. **A FAMILIAR VOICE:** Defeated, Caleb is startled by a voice. It's Sasha. She saw them help the old woman.
11. **THE PERFECT PART:** Sasha points to the regulator in Caleb's hand. It's the exact part she needs to fix her broken violin case latch before the cold warps the instrument.
12. **THE TRADE:** Sasha offers her weekly transit pass. Caleb accepts instantly. Their hands touch as they exchange the items—a small, warm moment in the biting cold.
13. **A PROMISE OF TOMORROW:** Sasha thanks him by name and says she'll see him in class. For the first time, Caleb feels a flicker of real hope for something beyond mere survival.
14. **VICTORY BUNS:** Holding the pass—his family's salvation—Caleb and Jules race towards the warm, sweet smell of a nearby bakery, their laughter cutting through the howl of the wind.
## Visual Style
The film's aesthetic is **Frostpunk**—a subgenre of Steampunk defined by a world locked in a new ice age.
* **Palette:** A desaturated world of cold blues, industrial greys, and soot-stained whites. This is punctuated by intense, warm pockets of light: the amber glow from inside buildings, the orange glare of boiler fireboxes, the yellow buzz of old-fashioned streetlights. Brass, copper, and rusted iron are the dominant metallic textures.
* **Environment:** Winnipeg is a vertical city built for survival. Massive, insulated steam pipes run like arteries along the sides of brick buildings, constantly hissing and venting. Skywalks connect towers to keep citizens out of the wind-choked streets below. Everything is worn, retrofitted, and utilitarian. Frost patterns—natural fractals—creep across every pane of glass.
* **Technology:** Analog and tactile. Machinery is heavy, riveted, and loud. Gears grind, pneumatics hiss, and steam is a constant atmospheric element. Caleb's knee-brace and Jules' exosuit are not sleek sci-fi gadgets but clunky, greasy contraptions of pistons, hydraulics, and exposed wiring.
* **Atmosphere:** The cold is a tangible character. The audience should feel it through the sound design (the constant, high-pitched scream of the wind) and visuals (characters' breath freezing instantly, swirling ground-level snow, the shimmer of heat rising from sewer grates). The mood is one of gritty endurance, where small acts of warmth and kindness feel like grand, heroic gestures.