Yesterday, we talked about the new Brian K Vaughan spec script, “The Vault,” a high concept heist movie that’s currently being shopped around to the major studios. And today we have a script review, because that’s how we roll.
For those of you not familiar with Mr. Vaughan’s work, he’s a comic book luminary who has overseen wonderful series for major publishers like Marvel’s “Runaways” (which we hear is going to be one of the first big Disney/Marvel properties out of the gate) as well turning in smaller, more personal work for imprints like Vertigo (his seminal, 60-issue “Y: The Last Man”) and Wildstorm (his still-ongoing political superhero tale “Ex Machina”). Even when he’s handed one of the big guns, he’s able to turn in something lyrical and emotionally resonant, like “Logan,” a three-issue miniseries that is what “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” would have been if Terrence Malick had directed it.
He was a screenwriter and executive producer on “Lost” for a couple of seasons and sold a cracking original script during that time, called “Roundtable,” a kind of modern day Knights of the Round Table thing with a wicked sense of humor. Word at the time was that Dream Works paid a shitload of money for it and it’s baffling why it hasn’t been developed further, especially since Sir Michael Caine is a character in the script and, well, he’s getting kind of old. Considering the seemingly stalled nature of that project, however, “The Vault” may beat it to the screen. It’s got that electric, zeitgeist-capturing feeling to it that should be struck upon now. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
“The Vault” is positioned around the very terrifyingly real Doomsday Vault, which is the ominous-sounding name for the less-ominous sounding Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It’s a internationally funded seed vault, located on a tiny, snowy Norwegian island, that is supposed to protect a giant database of seeds should any global catastrophe happen. Built into the side of a craggy mountain, it’s protected around the clock. Essentially, it’s the Fort Knox (dramatic pause) of seeds. And it turns out it’s a humdinger of a place to set a heist movie.
The script opens with a prologue, as two marines and an assembly of army guys make their way towards the Vault. The charming female marine, Maxine, shares playful dialogue with a superior, who begs her to eat some outdated army food (the label says January 2009). She refuses. That’s when it’s revealed that the setting of “The Vault” is 2050. Or, as it it says in the script, “That’s right, we’re FORTY YEARS IN THE FUTURE.” (Vaughn’s witty asides make the script a blast to read.) Calamity befalls the army guys, and it’s clear that there are some very treacherous folks who have taken over The Vault, led by a huge African anarchist named Baron. He spares Maxine.
We then cut to America, three months later, and are introduced to our main character, Sebastian Card, the “King of Thieves,” who is mounting a daring heist inside the actual Fort Knox. We see him communicating with the ghostly Gloria, who is a former lover and someone only Sebastian can see. These early sequences are eerie and engaging, as we still don’t know if she’s just a fractured part of his psyche, if she’s actually there (which would add a supernatural element to the script but one that Vaughan isn’t above evoking), or if she’s some kind of next-generation technological hallucination, not unlike the relationship between Gaius Baltar and Six on the revamped “Battlestar Galactica.”
When Sebastian gets into the vault, we learn that gold is no longer stored here but that it’s now filled with food. Sebastian lingers over a particularly fine wedge of cheese when – wouldn’t you know it? – he’s busted by Crowfoot, an intrepid FBI Agent and the Tommy Lee Jones to his Harrison Ford. Soon Sebastian, now shackled and denied his cheese, is meeting with a slimy American bureaucrat named Heinrich who offers him the proverbial “one last score.”
What’s the score? Well, if you haven’t guessed by now, it’s inside the Vault. It’s a rare seed called the Bloody Butcher that, if retrieved, could revive life as we know it on earth. Sebastian will be accompanied by Maxine, who made it away from The Vault alive, as well as Dock, a crusty mechanic type who will pilot them to the icy island on a prototype space craft. If anybody can steal the seeds from this bloodthirsty warlord and his pack of ideologically like-minded goons, it’s the King of Thieves.
And that’s the basic plot of “The Vault.” And it’s kind of awesome. What’s really great is that the actual theft inside The Vault only occupies the last act of the movie. Instead, we get a surprisingly varied view of this post apocalyptic world (everything was wiped out in a mysterious event called The Blight). We get to see a tornado ravaged Hollywood, where some bored film students have constructed a lifesize replica of The Vault, as well as Tokyo, which has been protected by a giant plastic bubble (like the one described in the recent Stephen King novel “Under the Dome”).
Along the way we’re treated to some breathlessly described action sequences (all the stuff in the giant, technologically-embellished, oversexed Tokyo is priceless), including one set piece that is knowingly described in the script as thus: “The next two minutes of SILENT ACTION are why 3D was invented.” (Gee, I wonder how they’ll shoot “The Vault?”)
Vaughan knows that glossy entertainments like this are supposed to be BIG and LOUD but he also knows that they don’t have to be DUMB. While early reports compared the story to a cross between “Ocean’s 11” and “Children of Men,” we also got the feeling, at different points, of Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” (Vaughan wrote for a stint on the Whedon-supervised “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Season 8 comic book), what with the wise-cracking, pop culture-obsessed, Han Solo-like rogue at the heart of the story. We also got occasional (but strong) hints of Japanese anime throughout. From the sleek, next generation technology littered throughout the script, to a sequence that involves samurai sword wielding robo-babes, there are definitely similarities.
Is it a perfect script? No. Some of the descriptions of technology, like a gaudy bracelet that does all sorts of neat stuff, is kind of clunky and, in lesser hands, could be rendered laughable on screen. And the banter, while generally quite enjoyable (Sebastian quips: “It’s a mind-your-own-business machine”), sometimes sags under the weight of its own wink-wink, nudge-nudge self reference (apparently Sebastian is the only one with a working knowledge of 20th and 21st century cinema). But this stuff could be smoothed out in later drafts (this thing is marked January 2010). As it stands now, “The Vault” is a twisty, turny sci-fi actioner that doesn’t feel the need to dumb itself down to appeal to a huge audience. This thing is going to be absolutely huge, lacking the bleak cynicism that most post-apocalyptic fare contain. It may be the end of the world as we know it, but after reading or seeing “The Vault,” you’ll feel fine. There may even be a sequel…
