Enigma follows the story of a man named Derek who has announced to a panel of scientists that he, in fact, knows everything, but that he only has 13 months to live.
Type:
Short
Status:
For sale
Page Count:
21pp
Genre:
Drama
Budget:
Shoestring
Age Rating:
Everyone
Synopsis/Details
Derek has severed all ties to his girlfriend, friends and family as he debates what and how he's going to reveal to a group of questioners (scientists) in the way of his special knowledge of literally everything. His gift to humanity is based on the absolute knowledge that he will in fact be dead within thirteen months. In the interim, he decides to save the life of a woman he meets in a diner by revealing to her knowledge of her immediate future, thereby breaking his own rules for interfering with events which are to come. This was a short story idea I had in 1978, but which sat in my closet until the 1990s when I finally decided that it would be a decent short film. This film short was originally intended to be the vehicle for my directorial debut, but that never quite happened for various reasons. At one point, it was listed on InkTip and 17 different film students and directors showed interest in it. The photo below is a still from a short film by Derek Eaker who asked me for permission to use the script as the basis for his film school project (it later went on to be nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2013 Epidemic Film Festival in San Francisco). A link to the film is here. The director changed the name of the main character to Sky to avoid any confusion, being that they both bore the same name. As a method of explaining how Derek acquired this amazing talent, I attempted to portray that in the photo vignettes over the end cast credits.

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The Writer: Barry A. A. Dillinger

Alaskan husband and papa of 5, proud US Army veteran, screenwriter, novelist. Currently living in Ketchikan, AK, and working on my ninth screenplay and eighth novel. I am the author of the Shadow Ruins series, two of the four-book series already published. Go to bio
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