Alternative storylines for “The Titan”
How to float the direct-to-Netflix sci-fi film
The Mess
With a lack of clarity, characterization and connection, The Titan sadly fell short on convincing us to pack our bags, go through gene-therapy and head for the ice-moon of Saturn for the future of humanity.
Read all about it here.
The concept of adapting humans to the hostile conditions of the few good rocks in our solar system, is fairly unexplored in movie format.
The Expanse uses a variation of it, with their Martians and the Belters. The long-running German sci-fi series Perry Rhodan works a lot with the expansion of the human species over the vastness of space, and the catalysing factors for change.
I’m proposing a few changes myself, to the very DNA of The Titan.
The Fix
Four easy steps to pry this double helix wide open:
- Connect to Outside Setting
- Humanize Characters
- Refine Creature Design
- Create a Momentous Plot Twist
Step 1 : Connect to Outside Setting
Alternative Introduction
We’re opening on the streets of some city we know the scope of and put it in an usual state of disarray. May it be snow in the desert or sand winds in Vancouver, make your pick and assemble the montage.
We’re looking at torn campaign posters/displays for terraforming. People have sprayed the words “STOP LYING! WE’RE DYING!” on them.
A convoy struggles to move through a a rally of protesters, that is quickly escalating. A car is tipped over and immediately pumped for gas. While the passengers try to avoid being pummeled to death, we cut away to earlier this morning:
Abi Janssen teaches her son how to make care packages. He wants to eat one of the cookies herself, but she explains how this will make another kid very happy. Rick carries their luggage to the car that has been sent for them. They live in a very small place in an occupied high rise.
Abi carries her son through rows of beggars in their hallway. The mood is quiet and tired. She gives one of the women her key card to her apartment. The Janssens are leaving everything behind.
Back in the street rally, the lead truck of the convoy is spilling out armed personell.
Inside the middle car, Rick Janssen tells his crying son to look at his star charts. He has put a blanket over them and turned on a portable projector.
Abi opens the bag with the care packages. While people are screaming at her through the window, she shows them the plastic bags of food.
Outside, shots are being fired. A bullet cuts through the windshield and kills the driver.
Rick is taking over the steering wheel. Abi is yelling at him to open the roof. She hands out the bags, as the wave of people washes over the car and away from the military.
Rick drives the car to safety. Abi and him look at each other, relieved, but tense, as they pass through security checks. The convoy has arrived in a hangar and drives on, into the open mouth of a huge aircraft or sea carrier.
Abi and Rick stare through the windshield, as the shadow of a closing gate falls on it.
Step 2: Humanize Characters
Alternative Reactions:
- Excitement and Trust:
The couples are freaking out at how luxurious the places are, in contrast to the outside world.
Abi takes her first bath in a year. Rick has a whole platter of cookies with his son, as they stare at the projection of the galaxy.
They trust the program with their lives, as they have left behind what little they possessed. - Gratitude and Caution:
The families constantly affirm each other how lucky they are to be here. They only cautiously exchange doubts and talk about difficulties with the treatment.
These points set the group up for feelings of betrayal and disappointment over exploitation.
- Shock of Change:
The changes in their spouses’ physique and psyche must come gradually at first, but amp up the shock quickly enough to give us time to explore the reactions.
Rick loses his ability to speak in the middle of a fight with Abi. - Differentiating and Stacking Consequences:
The family dynamics must change too, to reflect the difficult situation. Either Abi or her son have to show a reaction that is uncomfortable, to be a credible reference point.
While the soldiers may stick to trusting the medical team out of emotional necessity, their partners might question the methods sooner.
Different couple dynamics can be explored.
By exploring the other couples’ reactions, we offer a broader picture of the situation before, during and after the changes are initiated. We present more sources for credibility.
Rick and Abi have to stand out as the ones who behave differently, to push them through as the ones the audience invests their hopes in.
Step 3: Refine Creature Design
Alternative Advancement
The creature design should be able to distinct itself more clearly from Species, Splice and Prometheus. Maybe less creature, more humanoid?
It’s difficult, I respect that. Star Trek, famous for its obligation to human actors, has had over 50 years to develop hundreds of variations of slightly different humanoids.
Amidst everything that has been done, you have to find that one unique feature your design will be remembered for. Sugar glider membranes were a good start, but we’re very distracted by clothes becoming obsolete, so maybe give Rick and Tally something nice to wear, too?
The point is to gradually work towards your design and not implement the most drastic changes with a traumatizing surgery. The idea was to stimulate spontaneous change, yes?
A cocoon is always a good choice for that kind of advancement.
Step 4: Create a Momentous Plot Twist
Alternative Plots
To implement this most important step, I can think of three solid alternatives:
A– The catalyst for change is alien.
B– Titan is being terraformed — a lie!
C– There is no Titan. There is only Earth.
A
The plot advances as before, but Abi uncovers something really shocking. There is actually something “living inside” her husband and the other test subjects. As their personalities change and they exhibit patterns of behavior, that are too complex to be justified by stimulation alone, Abi identifies Rick’s impulses as literally alien.
The medical team never made the huge advances they claimed. The drastic changes are only possible, because they have found something in the primordial soup of Titan and utilized it with a virus, to rewrite human DNA in a live subject.
NASA and the NATO march in on the unsanctioned project to shut it down.
Abi has to make the difficult decision to help her newly made enemy, the professor, to complete the procedure on Rick to save his now Titan life.
Consequence: Tally gets out and spreads the virus.
We are left with the question, if Earth’s population is going to survive the virus and make the exodus to Titan, as all members of the medical team collapse, showing symptoms.
B
The Janssens believe they are going to a terraformed space colony. The soldiers are being trained for maintaining the grounds on Titan first, while the partners believe to be next.
Little do they know, that terraforming had to be abandoned years ago. In secret, resources are directed at genetically changing humans, but this is not being advertised. It is the dark truth to be uncovered.
Abi is suspicious of the “vitamins” and investigates beyond restrictions. She uncovers a series of failed experiments with prison inmates. Soldiers are now the next target group to be repurposed as a lower caste for space colonization.
The genetic changes set in suddenly and alienate the subjects from their families. Before everything ends in a blood bath, they come together to make peace with their situation and prove to the medical team, that Homo Titanius is not an animal and needs to be treated with even more care and respect.
Abi is the one who discovers how to communicate with her husband, as the galaxy projector of her son reacts to the high frequency of Ricks “voice”.
As a happy end, the spouses are trained to be the Titans handlers. They may be forever separated by the walls of the colony, as the transformed will be working outside, and their families have to be shielded from radiation, but they will be partners in colonizing Titan. Together, they are the Titans.
C
The families arriving on the premises believe to have been selected for an exodus program. The plot advances as before. The medical team informs the subjects about the risks. The injections and trainings proceed, as well as the family BBQs.
When Abi finds out the durability tests are extreme, she digs deeper. What she finds is a forecast of ecological disasters on earth. Several terrains are marked for resettlement. They are not on land.
Titan is a lie.
Her husband is selected to survive on Earth. Under the sea. She is not.
Rick steals from the laboratory to get Abi and his son the same treatment, but fails.
The military shuts down the project.
No longer to be able to breathe on land, Tally and Rick flee from the island. They are merpeople, now.
Years later, senior Abi, who lives back in the abandoned high rise in the now flooded city, stares out at the sea, as her son returns home through acid fog.
After he comes through decon, he hands her a deep-sea package of fresh algae and fish. Best regards from Tally.
Your Choice
Which alternative do you like best?
Are you willing to escalate towards total disaster? Or do you prefer the more hopeful outlook on colonisation? What about deep water sushi with Tally?
Let me know here.
Respectfully,
Eve
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