Dream XLVI

I was hired to write the screenplay for the fourth "Mission: Impossible" film. I was given a free hand with the story, and decided to write a rather sweeping, thougtful action film in which the fates of millions lay in the balance. I also put in ideas about the nature of the mind and how people create the past in the image of their memories.

I was invited to the first screening, and sat bewhildered as I watched what happened on screen. The story had been changed to reflect a disagreement between two rural family patriarchs, who used flying french-fry containers (from a popular restaurant) to drop small rocks (about the side of a golf ball) on each other. Sometimes, the bombs would be walnuts instead of rocks. The french-fry containers would float slowly over the various paths in the neighborhood.

When the screening ended, I looked around to see if there was anyone I could complain to. Instead, two large studio guards came up to me and silently guided me back to my car, and off the lot.