Balancing Act by Mike Murphy | Script Revolution

Balancing Act

The aliens' rule: One death for one life.

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Page Count: 
73pp

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Based On: 
My audio script.
Synopsis/Details: 

The Frennatti, slug-like aliens, arrive on Earth. Their plan is to colonize. However, in the interest of the environment, they will kill one human for every Frennatti who arrives to maintain balance.

Colin Backus, 17, decides to ignore his summons, partly for the love of his girlfriend, Riley. The Frennatti plan to kill every person on Earth as an example to never defy them. The President convinces their leader, Klorn, to give him 48 hours to find Colin.

After trying to escape, a very-injured Colin is located and brought aboard the aliens' flagship - where he is healed. The Frennatti want to understand what made him run before exterminating him. A scan of his mind introduces them to the emotion of love. It worries them. It is illogical and affects everyone differently. Will others defy them? Could it poison their own race?

To see the emotion firsthand, they put Riley in danger and give Colin the opportunity to save her. At the risk of his own life, he does.

The Frennatti realize they cannot stay on Earth because of love. They leave. However, as a warning to other travelers who might become infected by love, they set up a warning buoy and decide that any Earthlings who venture beyond the moon must be destroyed to prevent further infection.

Submitted: August 30, 2022
Last Updated: October 16, 2024

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The Writer: Mike Murphy

Mike, a four-time Parsec Awards finalist, has had over 150 audio plays produced in the U.S. and overseas. He’s won a dozen Moondance International Film Festival Awards (winner, finalist, and semi-finalist) in their TV pilot, audio play, short screenplay, and short story categories. A more complete list of awards is presented below by year. In 2020, his screenplay Die Laughing was a semi-finalist in the Unique Voices Screenplay Competition from Creative Screenwriting magazine. The following year, his TV pilot script “The Bullying Squad” was a quarter-finalist in the Emerging Screenwriters Genre Screenplay Competition. His prose has appeared in many magazines and two dozen anthologies. In... Go to bio

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