Carpenter
Genre: Drama/Mystery
Director: Richard Kelly
Writer: Roy Horne
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Melissa George, Zackary Arthur, Ever Anderson, Matthew Lillard, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Plot: Spring. Joel Carpenter (Nicolas Cage) wakes up in a sweat from a nightmare where he and his entire family was drowning. He looks over to his wife, Zelda (Melissa George), but she is still fast asleep. He tosses and turns, trying to fall back asleep, to no avail. Finally, Joel gets out of bed and walks out to the garage as if in a trance. He begins collecting every piece of lumber he has and setting it all in the middle of the garage. He hammers two pieces of wood together, calming his mind for a moment. He continues working away in the garage building - something - until the sun starts to rise over the house. The alarm clock in the bedroom begins going off. Zelda wakes up to find the bed empty next to her. She gets out of bed and wakes their two teenage children, Elena (Ever Anderson) and Josh (Zackary Arthur). Joel comes in from the garage, covered in dust and dirt, to join his family at the breakfast table. Zelda asks what he's been up to out in the garage, but Joel is silent. Josh starts talking about a project he's been working on at school about the atomic bomb, but the topic appears to anger Joel. He throws down his fork, pushes back his chair and stands up. He chugs his glass of orange juice and heads back out to the garage. The kids ask Zelda why their father is so bothered. She says she isn't sure, although perhaps the topic of bombs and wars may have triggered some thoughts about his time in the war.
[1] Carpenter probably sticks out compared to most of my filmography. Most of my writing projects can be easily defined in terms of genre, but this one was a bit different and less decipherable. It comes from a much wider array of influences than most of my work. Carpenter started out as a weird recurring dream I had where I was building a boat but didn't know why. I'm not a boat person, so it wasn't about a love of boats. Another major influence was the film Take Shelter where Michael Shannon who begins building a storm shelter when he has apocalyptic visions - but he might be crazy. And finally I was inspired by an old Philip K. Dick story with a similar story thread, but it was less moody and apocalyptic than what I was picturing.
Joel walks through the yard to the garage when he sees a strange white glow near the garage door. He stands there gazing at it until it slowly vanishes. Joel then enters the garage. Zelda knocks on the garage door to tell Joel he is late for work. Joel doesn't open the door, but yells through it that he took a personal day. Zelda is confused because Joel never misses work. Zelda watches as Joel drives away in his pickup truck around lunch time. He returns after the kids have come home and dinner is about ready with a truck loaded with lumber. Over dinner, the family all wants to know what Joel is building out in the garage. Joel finally confesses that he has decided to build a boat. They are all confused since Joel has never once mentioned any affinity for water or boating and they live hours away from a suitable body of water. Joel quietly eats before finally saying that he knew they wouldn't understand what he's doing. [2]
[2] I wanted to write something for Nicolas Cage ever since I started writing in LRF, but he never felt quite right for the types of projects I tend to write and had written by this point. Writing the end of writing the afirst few scenes, I knew Cage was the only man for the role and starting tailoring the writing towards some of his acting strengths.
The boat begins to be too big for the garage, so Joel uses his truck to drag the base of the boat out into the driveway so he can continue building. He takes more and more time off of work to continue working on it. Zelda has her mother Edith (Mary McDonnell) over for tea. The very idea that Joel is neglecting work and family in order to build some gargantuan boat seems appalling to Edith. She volunteers to go out and have a talk with him about it. Zelda doesn't think that's a very good idea, but Edith ignores Zelda and marches out to the driveway where Joel is hard at work. Edith demands to know why the boat is so important to Joel. He isn't able to answer her question though. Edith is frustrated with the lack of response and tells Zelda that she should do something about her crazy husband. After the outburst, Edith leaves and Zelda goes back inside. Joel sits next to the large boat, which is progressing nicely, taking a break. [3]
[3] Speaking of talent decisions, arguably the biggest decision other than Cage as Carpenter was figuring out what director could bring my vision to life. In the end, it came down to Richard Kelly and Panos Cosmatos. Panos helped deliver one of Cage's best roles and films in years with Mandy, but in the end I felt like the story wasn't nearly "metal" enough to make good enough use of Panos' sensibilities. This made Kelly the frontrunner, despite not having released a film since 2009.
Summer. The next door neighbor Nick Mullen (Matthew Lillard) walks over with a couple of beers and tells Joel the boat is looking good. Nick hands Joel one of the beers. Nick asks Joel what kind of boat he's building. Joel says he isn't sure exactly. Nick laughs and wishes him luck on the project. [4]
[4] Matthew Lillard is one of those actors that I have wanted to use and had considered for multiple other projects prior to this one.
Zelda is excited to see that Joel is dressed for work. She tells him that she is proud of him. The compliment makes him uneasy though. Joel drives to work and sits at his desk processing claims for the insurance company he works for. Once lunch hour hits, all of his co-workers are chatty but he feels disconnected from them. He looks at the clock but begins sweating when he notices that he still has four more hours to work. His phone starts to ring. Joel begins to panic as he looks at the phone. He begins hyperventilating, eventually passing out and falling from his office chair. He hits his head on the corner of his cubicle on his way down. Blood begins to drip from his head. Zelda receives a call from the office that Joel was taken to the hospital. She asks her mother to watch the kids and she rushes to the hospital. There she talks to Dr. Randolph (Holmes Osborne). [5] He tells her that there doesn't appear to be anything seriously wrong with her husband. Joel apparently had a fainting spell of some sort and fell, nothing serious. He suggests that Zelda take him home and help him take it easy for a while.
[5] Speaking of Kelly, once he was hired to direct I knew I had to give Holmes Osborne a role considering he'd already had major roles in Kelly's previous three films.
Joel informs the family that he has officially taken leave from work. Zelda is stunned not only that Joel would request it but that his bosses would allow it as well. Joel says that he thinks they are worried about a lawsuit from his fall so they said he can have as much time as he needs. Elena and Josh ask what he is going to do with his extra time. Joel says he is going to finish the boat before winter. Zelda is upset by this and excuses herself from the dinner table. She heads to the bedroom and begins crying. [6]
[6] I wanted to take a moment to talk about the soundtrack to Carpenter for a moment. All of the music are songs from German electronic band Tangerine Dream. This was decided upon at the very start of the writing process and I wrote the entire story while listening to a massive Tangerine Dream playlist I had compiled. I then whittled that playlist down to the soundtrack that was released.
Fall. Joel goes into the garage and begins dragging lumber and tools out onto the lawn next to the boat on the driveway. He gazes up at it. It is big and square, like an enormous crate. Twice the height of the one-story house - at least. There is a covered cabin with a big window. He uses a huge ladder to reach the top of the boat and begins tarring it. As he works, Zelda comes out of the house and silently crosses the yard. Joel comes down from the boat and begins looking through his tools for some large nails. Zelda folds her arms and finally asks the question that has been troubling her for months: Why? She asks what the boat is for, why he spends his entire days working on it. Joel murmurs that it's almost done. She demands to know what he plans on doing with it once it is done. She promises to try to understand if he will just try to answer why he's building it. Joel becomes frustrated and begins hammering random nails into the side of the boat. Joel tells Zelda that he can't answer her question because he doesn't know the answer - maybe he's building the boat for no reason at all. Zelda asks Joel to come inside. He refuses, saying he wants to finish the boat. Zelda gives Joel an ultimatum: he needs to give up on the boat and come inside with her or she's going to lock him out of the house from now on. Zelda walks back toward the house, expecting Joel to be following her. As soon as she hears Joel back at work on the boat, Zelda goes inside, locking the door behind her. [7]
[7] Zelda's ultimatum is where the tension starts to really build as Joel - for reasons even he does not understand - has chosen to continue building. I like the idea of uncertain characters making decisions for uncertain reasons and this kind of covers that concept to the nth degree.
Joel is sleeping in the garage now as he comes close to finishing the boat. Josh comes home from school one day and asks his father if he needs any help. Joel smiles at the question and asks Josh to climb aboard and look for any boards on the deck of the boat that aren't nailed down all the way. When it starts getting dark, Zelda calls for Josh to come inside for dinner. Joel gives his son and hug and thanks him for the help. The next day after school, Josh goes right back to checking on the boards. Elena decides to join in by asking her father what color the cabin should be painted. Joel tells her that there are some cans of outdoor paint in the garage, she can pick from the colors that are there. A while later Elena comes back with a can of blue paint. Joel says that you can never go wrong with blue and helps Elena board the boat to paint the cabin. Over dinner, Zelda asks Josh and Elena why they have decided to help their father with the boat now after all these months. Josh tells his mother that they just want to help finish the boat so that their family can go back to normal. [8]
[8] I was honestly having trouble coming up with stuff for the kids to do to remain active in the story by this point, and thought: what if they wanted to help their father? That question I posed to myself was a bit of a game changer for the story. The mysterious boat has gone from a point of conflict between husband and wife to a bonding element between father and children.
Nick comes over again with beers and starts chatting Joel up about the boat again. Nick asks how the boat will run. Joel seems confused by the question. Nick then points out that there is no motor or a logical place to put one. There are no sails or boilers or turbines. It's impressive in size, but more of a giant wooden box than a real boat. Joel bites his lip, admitting that he never thought of that part. Joel asks Nick to excuse him. Joel goes into the garage and begins tearing the place apart in frustration. [9]
[9] It was important for me that it was clear that Joel was acting on pure instinct with his boat construction rather than from an actual "carpenter" standpoint. A major crux in the story is that Joel doesn't know why or even what he's doing other than that it is of the utmost importance to his psyche and soul.
Winter. The boat, or whatever it is, sits in front of the house, complete. Joel is allowed back in the house now, but things are still a little tense between him and Zelda. Joel is uneasy because he still doesn't know why he built the boat or what he is supposed to do with it now. Zelda is just happy that he is done working on it though. Joel gets ready for work as all has more or less returned to normal in the Carpenter household. [10]
[10] I consider this scene the calm before the storm. Almost a false ending where things have mellowed and gone back to (mostly) normal.
A massive storm rolls into town, resulting in a torrential downpour. After several days, the rain has still not let up, resulting in all the roads in the neighborhood being flooded. [11] Joel realizes what the boat was all about now. He tells Zelda about a nightmare he had in the spring - right before he started building the boat - where they all drowned. [12] Zelda rolls her eyes at Joel's claim, but one look in his eyes and she can tell that he is being absolutely serious. She asks him what they need to do. He says they need to begin gathering supplies for the trip. Zelda and the kids walk to the store in water higher than their knees while Joel begins inspecting the boat to make sure there are no leaks from the water on the interior. When Zelda and the kids arrive at the local grocery store, they find it flooded with police on hand to start evacuating citizens to higher ground. Zelda tells Josh and Elena that they need to quickly grab as many canned goods. While they are filling baskets with canned food, Zelda goes to the garden section and begins grabbing packages of seeds. When they three get to the register, they are told they need to leave the store and cannot buy the items. Zelda tells the kids to run home as fast as they can. The family runs through the deepening water. The store manager calls out for the police that they stole the items. [13]
[11] I wanted the storm as it starts here to be threatening enough for the family to believe Joel at least a bit, but not so suddenly giant that it is completely clear Joel's vision was true.
[12] Joel connecting the dream to the flooding is the closest thing the story has to an explanation. Even then, it’s not framed as certainty—just realization. I still wanted there to be some element of uncertainty for the audience and Joel's family still.
[13] This grocery store scene with the family is where I wanted things to escalate a little more quickly and become more intense. The grocery store scene shows how quickly normal systems stop functioning - and it is what pushed Zelda to belief. Zelda collecting soil and seeds specifically marks her transition from skepticism to belief. It’s the moment she fully commits to Joel’s perspective and starts thinking about survival.
Zelda and the kids arrive back at the house. Joel tells them to climb aboard the boat. Zelda has never been on the boat before and is immediately impressed by the cabin, which Joel has designed to resemble the family's living room. Zelda gives Joel a hug and apologizes for not believing in him earlier. Zelda then remembers that she has to grab one thing. She climbs down from the boat and begins filling buckets with soil from potted plants that are floating in front of the house. Elena asks what she is doing. Zelda says that she got seeds at the store, but if they are going to be able to grow food wherever they end up they will need soil. Joel and Josh help Zelda bring aboard the buckets of soil. Once they have everything aboard, Zelda asks Joel what the plan is. He says that they will stay on the boat. The water will continue to rise, but they will be safe. The family huddles together in the cabin to sleep. [14]
[14] Like I said earlier, one of the instigating ideas or kernels for this film was the Jeff Nichols film Take Shelter, but pushing it drastically past its ending point into the apocalyptic storms.
In the morning, Joel wakes up and goes out to the deck of the boat. The rain is somehow coming down even stronger than before. He looks out and sees that the entire neighborhood is now flooded under over 20 feet of water. Only the tops of the taller houses and buildings stick out from the surface of the brown waters. Joel also realizes that the boat is now floating in the water. Zelda joins her husband on the deck and puts her arms around him. [15]
[15] And we end the film with the Carpenter family floating above their entire neighborhood - and the world beyond it - who do not have their own ark to survive on. Thanks for re-watching Carpenter with me. I know it's not one of my most talked about projects, but I think it fits in a unique little corner on my resume.
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