FADE IN:
EXT. FIELD – NIGHT
It’s calm and quiet, except for the frequent chirping of crickets. A young girl, wearing a cloak, stands in the open field. The grass stretches up to her knees.
Up in the night air, the stars twinkle. The young girl stretches her hand up to the sky, reaching for the stars.
ATOM (V.O.)
He told me to look at my hand,
for a part of it came-
Suddenly, up in the sky, a shooting star appears. The bright blast illuminates the young girls face.
ATOM (V.O.)
-from a star that exploded too
long ago to imagine. This part
of me was formed from a tongue
of fire that screamed through
the heavens until there was-
CUT TO:
EXT. THE SUN
The suns rays stretch out illuminating into the far reaches of the galaxy.
ATOM (V.O.)
-our sun. And this part of me,
this tiny part of me, was on
the sun-
As the sun rotates in space, a little black dot can be seen.
ATOM (V.O.)
-when it itself exploded-
Without reason, the sun explodes, sending the little black dot far out into the galaxy. Billions of fiery balls follow.
ATOM
-and whirled in a great storm
until the planets came to be.
CUT TO:
EXT. GALAXY – NIGHT – ESTABLISHING SHOT
The debris from the sun settles and takes the form of all the planets.
ZOOM TO:
EXT. PLANET EARTH - NIGHT
The planet earth has spots of blue and green covering its surface.
ATOM (V.O.)
And this small part of me was
then a whisper of earth. When
there life, perhaps this-
ZOOM IN TO:
EXT. FOREST – NIGHT
In the darkness, sits one lonely fern tree.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST – DAY
The same fern tree sits lonely. The tree slowly begins to die and decompose. It fades away into the ground.
ATOM (V.O.)
-part of me got lost in a fern
that was crushed and covered-
EXT. FOREST – DAY
A man is digging where the fern tree once stood.
ATOM (V.O.)
-until it was coal.
The man stops digging, sets his shovel down on the ground, and crouches down to the hole.
He moves his hand in towards the hole and brushes the dirt away discovering a big black stone of coal.
ATOM (V.O.)
And then it was a diamond
millions of years later.
CUT TO:
INT. JEWELERY STORE – DAY
A woman carries a HUGE diamond in her hands. It sparkles in the light.
ATOM (V.O.)
It must have been a diamond as
beautiful as the star from which
it had first come.
CUT TO:
EXT. FIELD – NIGHT
The young girl with the cloak still stands in the field looking up at the stars.
ATOM (V.O)
Or perhaps this part of me
became lost in a terrible
beast, or became part-
Suddenly, a big beastly bear steps out of the woods and rushes towards the young girl.
The girl is scared and falls to the ground covering her head.
CUT TO:
EXT. SWAMP – DAY
A little mouse is walking along the edge of the swamp. The mouse stands on its hind legs, scoping out what’s in front of him.
ATOM (V.O)
-of a huge-
Suddenly, a big black bird swoops down and snatches up the mouse with its clawed feet.
ATOM (V.O.)
-bird that flew above the prim-
eval swamps.
The ground where the mouse once played is empty.
ATOM (V.O.)
And he said this thing was so
small, this part of me was so
small it couldn’t even be seen.
But it was there from-
ZOOM OUT TO:
EXT. PLANET EARTH – NIGHT
The earth is now covered by a black cloud.
ATOM (V.O.)
-the beginning of the world.
And he called this bit of me
an atom. And when he wrote the
word, I fell in love with it.
(beat)
Atom.
CUT TO:
EXT. GALAXY – NIGHT
The planets are all aligned and the stars are now brighter than ever.
ATOM (V.O.)
Atom.
FADE TO BLACK
ATOM (V.O.)
What a beautiful word.