Genre: Comedy/Drama/Fantasy
Director: Adam McKay
Writer: Jimmy Ellis
Cast: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Sofia Boutella, Asa Butterfield, Alexandra Daddario, J.K. Simmons
Plot: Peter (Steve Carell) is setting up tables and chairs. He prepares sandwiches neatly. His shirt is creased, he also has an eye-patch. He pours snacks for the group. Chris (Asa Butterfield) walks in. Chris is dressed very plainly, and shyly scuttles to his chair. Chris gets his sketchbook out and begins to doodle. Peter puts a hot chocolate in front of Chris, and Chris takes it noticing his eye-patch. Zainab (Sofia Boutella) ‘floats’ in smiling contentedly, she wears floaty hippy clothes. Zainab carries a sheet in one hand. Peter holds out a tea which Zainab grabs and then goes to examine his eye-patch. Amanda (Alexandra Daddario) and Alfie (Paul Rudd) try to walk into the room at the same time, but get stuck in the door together. They fight to get through first, Amanda elbows Alfie and gets into the room first. Alfie looks at the camera grumpily and walks behind her. Amanda throws her leather coat and bag on the floor next to her seat. Peter puts snacks on the table, then stands watching the group. The Boss (J.K. Simmons) appears behind him, a well-dressed man. The boss swears when looking at the eye patch and asks what happened. Peter tells him that he got into a fight. Boss isn’t convinced and laughs, saying he should see the other guy then.
Cut back to what Peter was actually doing. He starts playing a board game of some sort, whilst massaging his head with a claw. He calls out to his ‘friend’ Steve telling him he needs to try. However Peter accidentally pokes himself in the eye. He yells out for Steve to help. Cut to his pet hamster, Steve, looking at him from the cage. Peter swears at him for not caring. Peter is laying on his couch moaning in pain.
The Boss and Peter stand off to the side and look on at the group. Boss asks for progress on the group, Peter says there has been but Boss is sceptical. The Boss pulls out a silver pen and clicks it, he looks over and examines the group. Amanda, holds two fingers to her temple as she looks at Alfie’s cup of coffee. Her face is turning pink whilst trying to move the object with her mind. Amanda looks annoyed. The Boss makes a note on his notebook. Peter then begins explaining to the boss who each of the members of the group are. Amanda is still turning pink whilst looking at Alfie’s cup, it cuts to her perspective and the cup slowly moves towards Alfie. Back to the Boss’ perspective and the cup is dead still, whilst she looks as if she is about to pass out. Peter tells the boss that she has been moved from foster home to foster home for some time now, which has created a need to control things. The Boss looks disinterested and points to Zainab. Zainab is pacing up and down behind the group. She stops and puts a sheet over her head. She moves and takes it off. Zainab begins running up and down. The Boss and Peter look on slightly amused. Peter explains that she’s one of seven siblings, which obviously relates to her issues of going unnoticed... He then points to Alfie He seems to be a peculiar case, he believes he’s.. able to see the fourth wall. The Boss looks at him with disbelief. As Amanda starts chucking the sweet wrappers at Alfie. The boss asks if he thinks it’s a film. Peter nods and says that he believes it could have something to do with childhood trauma. To Alfie’s POV: An iris circles him and his name “Alfie” appears on screen. Back to the Boss’ point of view, and Alfie is looking at nothing and talking to himself. He calls himself a jokester and an absolute ladies man, then says freeze frame, his image freezes. Back to The Boss’ perspective and he is in a “freeze frame” or just still. The Boss points to Chris, Peter explains that Chris has severe anxiety and becomes easily stressed. Cuts to Chris who is quietly doodling. Amanda starts poking Alfie who is still in a “freeze frame”. Alfie get’s annoyed and starts pretending to move things with his mind. The two start hitting each other. Chris notices and looks scared. Peter really seems to believe that this group of people are helping each other through tough times.
Peter and The Boss look back at the group and it is utter chaos. Amanda is still fighting with Alfie, Zainab runs over to help but trips over a chair as she had the sheet on her. Chris, feeling uneasy about the situation runs head first into a wall and falls to the ground. The Boss watches mockingly, and clicks his pen to write some more. The Boss tells him that there will need to be some funding cuts and says that he has three more sessions to sort them out. He jokes about Iron man popping in to see them. The Boss laughs and leaves, and Peter looks back at the wacky group in despair.
Session One – Trust
Peter walks into the support group room to find the group are all arguing, except for Chris who is covering his ears in pain. Peter bangs his coffee flask down, everyone stops to look at him. He tells them that today’s session will be different, no arguing or fighting. Amanda puts away a butterfly knife and listens. Peter tells everyone to stand up. He tells them all they will be doing some trust exercises.
Cut to Amanda attempting to catch Alfie, who is attempting to do a trust exercise of falling backwards. Peter plays along with Alfie and tells him that he needs to stop talking to his ‘audience’. Amanda pokes fun at Alfie. Alfie falls back and Amanda watches him fall with no reaction. Cut to Amanda and Zainab doing the same trust exercise. Peter tells Amanda that she actually has to catch the person and not let them fall. Zainab falls backwards and Amanda catches her.
All four members are standing a large distance away from each other. They are walking closer and closer together as they are divulging their feelings on how comfortable they are. Alfie yells cut as he believes his character isn’t being developed enough, Peter tells him to cut it out, however is met back by Alfie telling him his eye patch is fake and lacks the comical relief he was going for. They move closer again until Chris feels too uneasy and runs at a wall.
Peter is putting a blind fold on Amanda. He tells Alfie that he needs to guide Amanda through some obstacles, he tells Amanda to be calm. Alfie begins confidently, but Amanda starts to use her “powers” to move the objects out of her way (from her P.O.V). Alfie starts to get annoyed and begins to purposefully push her into the objects. A necklace falls out of her pocket and Alfie walks on it. Amanda looks down, and slowly kneels to pick it up. Objects around her start to shake and she begins to get angry, she looks up at Alfie and before she can attack him Peter stands between them. The Boss walks in and watches the group in the distance, the sound of his pen clicking. Peter tells Chris and Zainab they are up now. Chris delicately puts the blindfold on her. She stops moving and disappears from shot, and Chris continues to tie the blindfold in thin air. Zainab re-appears into shot when she moves her arm to hold Chris’ hand. From the Boss’ perspective she’s always there. Zainab tells Chris that running through walls must be fun, Chris thinks having the ability to be invisible is better. Chris looks at her almost lovingly. He starts running, with Zainab in hand. The two of them run completely in sync. Then smack into the wall. Peter face-palms. The Boss’ pen is clicked, as he lets out a little smirk. Alfie makes a sarcastic remark. Amanda smacks him.
Session Two – Discover
Peter looks like he’s had no sleep, he sits down and pulls out 6 red bulls from his bag, and he downs one as the group watch. He says that they are to empty their pockets and talk about what they have inside. Amanda takes out her keys, which are covered in little weapons. A can of spray, a lighter, a weed pipe, and a necklace with a picture in it. Chris looks at the pipe curiously and picks it up. The group chat about the necklace for a long time, Zainab says its pretty, Alfie makes a sarcastic remark and Chris is quiet. Chris asks why she doesn’t wear the necklace. Zainab says she doesn’t want to lose it so she doesn’t lose her parents. Amanda and Zainab share a knowing look. The group is silent, and Chris offers her a biscuit awkwardly.
Alfie empties his pockets to find old sweet wrappers, old receipts, film magazine papers, and a comb. Amanda calls him a mess. He smiles and says that he is a hot mess. Peter asks why he doesn’t take anything seriously. Alfie shyly looks away. Chris pulls out a rubber, some old sketches folded up messily. He opens a sketch of the support group. The group appreciate his sketch. He folds it back away. An alarm goes off and the session is over. Zainab is happy as she has no pockets anyway.
Peter sits at his desk. Flicking aimlessly through comic books. He fiddles with a pen. Cut to Peter checking out his eye in the mirror. Time has passed and on nearly everything in sight, even his hand he has written ‘one session left’. Peter opens his wardrobe and finds a piece of clothing. It is an immaculate superhero costume. He slowly takes out the mask and puts it on. Peter proceeds to sing his own superhero theme tune whilst jumping around the apartment, his balance is very off though.
Session Three – Confess
The group are chatting, when they turn to see Peter fully dressed as a superhero. Alfie laughs and sings the theme tune Peter sang in the previous scene. Peter says that his power is the ability to take away other superpowers. Amanda speaks up and is upset that Peter is making fun of them. Peter apologises as he thought dressing up would make him understand them better, but he was wrong. They all speak up even Chris and say that they think Peter understands them more than they understand themselves. Zainab explains that Chris didn’t even run into a wall when Amanda and Alfie were arguing earlier. Peter smiles at this. The Boss walks in, his menacing footsteps head towards the group who are still in the moment. His clicking pen getting nearer. Peter asks if they are all still superheroes. The Boss notices Peter is wearing a costume. The Boss yells and swears at Peter saying he has fully lost it. Peter has had enough of The Boss’ crap. He stands up for all his friends and says that they aren’t nutters, they just need an escape, he says they don’t need to come here and be judged by a prick like The Boss. Alfie laughs and stands up and applauds, an audience applause can be heard. Everyone looks at Alfie awkwardly until he sits down. Peter tells The Boss he can shove the job, he doesn’t need it. Peter walks out with the group, the boss calls him the real nutter. He says that maybe he is, but he sees the beauty in being ordinary.
Peter is in his flat telling people about what he said to the boss. The camera reveals the group are in his flat, all dressed up as superheroes. They’re watching homemade films of themselves they can each see the superpowers working. They all laugh and smile, even Alfie and Amanda are beginning to get along and Chris is showing off his drawings to Zainab.
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