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THE WINTER FARMER
By Blake Laitner

GENRE: Sci-fi, Drama
LOGLINE:

In a dystopian future where artificial farming has threatened to monopolize the country, a farmer’s child must do everything in his power to stop a malicious scientific doctor from causing the extinction of traditional farming.

SYNOPSIS:

After 35 years in business, Human Advantage (HA), a Seed and Security Agency is losing its dominance in the field. The war-affected environment has self-corrected which allows farms and farmers to sprout up across the globe. In 2117, DR. PETERSON, HA's new Chief Executive Officer, can't allow that to happen. He disseminates large quantities of stratospheric sulfate aerosols which cause the Earth to experience three years of winter.

One of the post war farmers, DALY NEWTON, is a childhood rival of Dr. Peterson. Daly's first victory against Peterson was in a 5th grade pumpkin growing competition.

TREE NEWTON, Daly's stepfather was raised not to trust an artificial world. He grounds Daly to the farm after Daly draws too much attention. The only activity Daly is allowed off the farm is when he picks up his mother's medications. During those trips he sneaks out to underground grow competitions with his buyer friend, SCRATCHPAD.

Scratchpad is the leader of WTF, a local militant gang and with their sales of Daly's fresh drug Road Head, their cash flow explodes and they become the biggest gang in the Northwest United States.

Daly wants to show off his underground weaving system and soil mixture at the upcoming Human Advantage scholarship competition. At the last second, Tree holds his son's future back yet again, for what appears to be selfish reasons, Tree tells Daly, "Newton Farms has been cultivating a soil that must be kept secret, especially from a seed company like Human Advantage." The next day the grand prize goes to Daly's rival, Peter Peterson.

Seven years into his training, Peter, now Dr. Peterson has finally reached the position of his dreams, HA's new Chief Executive Officer. On the dawn of his promotion, Human Advantage experiences an all time decline in their product line. Dr. Peterson has his hands filled with these renegade farmers. He knows his first order of business is to eliminate farming once and for all. And when he releases his plan of Detox, he brings farming to a halt making it impossible for farmers to put food on the table without HA's seed technology. When the extreme weather hits Newton farms and they can't pay the bills, Daly's mother has a heart attack. Tree is forced off the farm to look for new work. Daly has other plans. He asks Scratchpad and WTF for their help. Daly heads to Norway to steal the strongest seeds on the planet. Daly tells them with his underground weaving system he is confident he can grow food in any condition.

The gang and Daly are successful until they run into a Russian mob boss robot, RED. Luckily, Daly brought his one of a kind freshly grown drug of Roadhead that RED takes as their passport. He also gives the gang a tour guide robot, Boris that can take them all the way to Norway. But,

When Daly makes a poor decision Boris gets captured by HA's soldiers. The robot can't lie, and Dr. Peterson learns about the gang and Daly's plan.

Dr. Peterson counters by setting up Newton Farms as Human Advantage's headquarters. He also convinces Scratchpad that WTF that they will have a future if they set up Daly. When Daly walks out of the Norway vault Scratchpad makes it known that this is where Daly’s dream ends. Peterson orders Daly not to be killed. He wants him tortured by his old rival, by making him burn the seeds. (Humanities only hope to harvest food without machines) Daly is left alone in the cold winter to contemplate what went wrong with his plans. He thinks about suicide. He believes it's over. Daly notices a group of Eurasian wrens, Norway’s smallest bird huddling together, insulating themselves in a group and eating food from hibernation. Daly reminds himself, "Mother Nature is relentless. She was the only one there for me all those years I was alone on the farm." Daly rises with the intention to save Boris and ask for Red's help to cross the Pacific for a showdown with Peterson on Newton Farms.

Daly uses the underground pathways and tunnels his Father showed him on trips all around Oregon to get on the property. It is well guarded. He finds his Mother in critical condition and being forced to stay alive while in great pain by Human Advantage. She tells Daly, "You don't need the seeds. The man you thought was your father wasn't your real father. Tree was a soldier who rescued us from a hospital at the end of the war. He was a foreman on this property. He has been cultivating a radioactive material for 300 years and Tree lead you to develop what is needed to activate it."

Boris leads Daly to the location and sets the plan in motion, cracking HA's protective dome and igniting the soil to connect bio-magnetically to all the underground roots which causes a rapture of instantaneous growth. The snow melts and fresh fruits and flowers begin to grow all over the state. The rebels, countrymen and women defeat Human Advantage. They spread Daly's technology all over the world.

Daly hires Red and Boris to work on Newton Farms. Newton Farms is a success. There is a plaque for his Mother and Tree at the entrance.

Doug Nelson

Blake - send me a pdf copy of the script. Thanx, Doug

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