The Kessler Effect

This is a script written to be made as a TV movie production but can be altered to become a blockbuster.

Alex, her husband Duane, and daughter Lilly (15) board a tourist spaceplane that will take them on a trip into Earth’s orbit using the engine designed by Alex. A collision of two satellites causes a storm of screw-sized derbies that hits the plane, promoting an emergency landing taking Duane’s life. Three years later and Alex is heading a rally picketing the company (Nebula Inc.) and her once close friend and ex-employer (Marc) launching a satellite constellation so that he can monitor his spaceplanes and return tourism to low-earth-orbit despite the threat of the overcrowded satellite network. Lilly and her friends execute their own activism and hang a banner across the launch tower delaying its launch and getting her arrested. Delayed, the launch goes ahead and as the final satellite moves into place it malfunctions and hits another satellite creating a debris field and starting the runaway chain reaction known as the Kessler Effect.

Alex attempts to reconnect with her daughter who has grown further apart each year. She sets up a childhood telescope and invites Lilly to stargaze with her. Lilly delines and goes back to a video call with friends. Alex looks through the telescope and sees the collisions of satellites. She bursts into Nebula Inc. headquarters and sees the hard data herself. She declares that the only option is for them to run. The President releases a statement for all the population to take shelter at the nearest military bunker. Satellite downfall cashes in a mad city escape as Alex, Lilly, and family friend Ryan use an SUV to outrun falling buildings, rioting hooligans, and collapsing bridges. Along a country road, they stop for hitchhikers needing help and discover that it is Marc and Nebula Inc. scientist Gary. Alex is convinced to let Marc join her when he shows remorse for the part he played in starting the Kessler Effect.

After having their car crushed by a satellite, the group takes cover from satellite downfall in a mineshaft. On their accent, they climb through a narrow gap left by a cave in. All make it out apart from Gary who is crushed by another cave-in. Alex decides to fight back and creates a plan to stop the Kessler Effect by turning the satellites into electro-magnets using an electromagnetic pulse set off by converting her spaceplane engines into an electrical bomb. The group head back to Nebula Inc.’s Launch sight. Burning satellites create a bush fire separating Ryan and Lilly from Alex. Ryan and Lilly fall from a cliff. Alex assumes they are dead and continues onwards on with grief blaming herself and Marc for the death. However, Lilly and Ryan were caught on a ledge and climb up the cliff.

Alex and Marc arrive at the launch site to discover that the mission control building and the equipment they needed inside have been destroyed. Lilly and Ryan also arrive, and new hope is given when Ryan notices that the signal tower still stands. Alex works with Ryan to convert the fourteen spaceplanes engines into Electro-magnetic pulses which will blow in an hour due to their unstable elements. It is vital that the explosions feed off each other’s energy and spread across the entire satellite network, therefore a minimum of eight evenly spread spaceplanes must explode in synchronization. This means that it is extremely important for Lilly and Marc to get the antenna on the signal realigned. Lilly and Marc put out a fire at the tower’s base. Marc stops Lilly from climbing the tower claiming that he will take the risk and begin to repay the debt from the damage he has caused. He climbs the tower and goes to cross a platform when he and the platform are hit by a satellite. Alex and Ryan have launched all spaceplanes which are moving into position across the globe. Lilly fights off a panic attack and bad memories of her father’s death when she is given courage by Alex to jump the platform’s gap and realign the antenna.

Spaceplanes are destroyed in orbit by the Kessler Effect. As the final spaceplane moves into position Alex hits the command button, exploding all engines with seconds left on the countdown. The Electro-magnetic pulse spreads across the satellite network and slowly the satellites, now turned into electro-magnets, repel each other and form an evenly spaced network once again. Alex and Lilly apologize to each other for their shortcomings and hung under the sky alight with the electromagnetic energy.