Life as I Know it

For the longest time, I've been wanting to make a full length movie on my own. I've always been involved with film in some way or another. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to make any old movie that anyone can do. I'm the kind of person who thinks out of the box and into the question, "what if?". I always think about, what if things were this way or what if this or that was different. All these questions were rambling in my head. It was then that my friend Matt asked me, "what if [I] didn't exist? What if everything was all in my imagination?" That got me to think a lot. I did plenty of research to find such an existence of that idea. There is an idea, called Solipsism, which means that there is no evidence to show that everything outside of the mind is real. Basically, we see what our mind wants us to see, but we have no control over life. It's kinda like a dream. In our dreams, we see, we hear, and we can sometimes feel, but even though it is in our mind we have no control over a dream whatsoever. There are people who actually think like this and it truly is a scary thought. Usually, solipsism can occur if something horrendous had just happened, like a nuclear war. That's when my idea of a movie came to mind. I looked into the events that are currently happening right now and the events that could occur in the near future and I put it all together. I also used my life to depict two of the main characters in the film.

Basically, the movie takes place in the year 2013, a year after the legendary "Doomsday" of 2012. After a nuclear holocaust, a boy by the name of Riley, is somehow still alive and is the only person left on earth. To not lose his sanity, he quickly re-creates the earth as it once was only by using his memory of the past. Every little thing looks the same as it once was, but nothing can ever change due to the fact that he only knows what he knew from the past. Riley continues on with his life, pretty much repressing his thoughts of the war, and seems like everything is okay. He has the same friends, is in the same grade, and has the same love interest, Abbey. For as long as Riley can remember, he has been in love with Abbey, who just happens to be one of his best friends. However, Abbey has a boyfriend and only sees Riley as a friend. Being persistent, Riley is determined to tell Abbey how he truly feels about her. However, weird things begin to happen in Riley's life. Riley has been having reoccurring dreams where it's always sunny, but then lights shoot up into the sky eventually falling back down and destroying everything. Also, Things begin to disappear before his very eyes. At first, little things like a spoon disappears while he is making breakfast and then during school his eraser disappears, which causes him to accuse another classmate of stealing his eraser. The longer he is without physically being around real objects and people, his mind begins to forget about them. Because everything vanishes, everything no longer exists. With that in mind, Riley fears that he may lose the memory of Abbey forever. This makes him more persistent to see Abbey and talk to her as much as he can in order to keep her as a memory. Riley then arranges to meet with Abbey at a local restaurant to explain to her everything that has been happening. After they are done eating, they exit the restaurant and Abbey's boyfriend calls her, which makes Riley somewhat depressed. After she's done talking to her boyfriend, Riley tells Abbey that he loves her. Unfortunately, Abbey responds by saying, "I love you too. I'm glad we're best friends". The thing is is that Riley soon forgets that everything is fake and believes that his whole life is real. Soon, important things like time begin to vanish, which can only mean that the most important things in life are soon to be gone forever, including Abbey. Riley rushes to her house to see her and make sure that she will not disappear. While at Abbey's house, Riley turns on the TV only to witness a newscast that was broacasted ten years ago. Newspapers around her house have similar stories that have already occurred in the past. Later, Abbey goes to bed while Riley stays up thinking about his life. Knowing that everything will eventually disappear, Riley goes into Abbey's room to talk to her while she is asleep. Abbey wakes up, but pretends to be sleeping while Riley is confessing his love to her. Riley then falls asleep on her floor next to her bed. The next morning, Riley wakes up and notices that Abbey is gone from her bed. He begins to panic and calls out to Abbey. Abbey then responds from the kitchen, making Riley feel relieved. She runs up to Riley to tell him that she love him so much. This makes Riley very confused. Abbey admits that she was awake when Riley was talking to her. Riley begins to freak out, because he fears what he said to her will now change their friendship. Also, Abbey will continue to date her boyfriend which also makes Riley upset. Being upset and slightly embarrassed, Riley runs out of her house. As he is running, images of the nuclear war flash into his head, which can only mean that reality is catching up to him. He eventually reaches a park where everything is peaceful and full of life. He lays down under a tree thinking that the time is near. Abbey soon lays next to him under the tree. They both finally hold each others hands and Riley asks Abbey to make a promise that she will still be there when he wakes up. Abbey accepts the promise and finally tells Riley that she truly loves him. Riley eventually falls asleep, but when he wakes up Abbey is gone. His entire memory is gone, which causes Riley to panic because he has no idea where he's at or who he is. He wakes up in a dirt field in the exact same place the park used to be. As he is screaming for help, he realizes that there is something in his pocket. He pulls is out and looks at it trying to figure out who it is. It turns out to be a picture of Abbey, but Riley has no memory of her. He turns the picture over and reads the letter that Abbey wrote a year ago to him. Riley begins to make himself remember who Abbey was, but can't. He finally remembers every memory of Abbey. The final scene of the movie shows a hand grabbing a hold of Riley's hand from behind. The next thing we hear is a voice saying, "Hey, Riley". We never see the face, but we assume that it's Abbey. During the entire final scene, "Love Remains the Same", by Gavin Rossdale, is played. The song plays a major part for the movie. The lyrics goes like this; "Make me want to run til I find you/ I shut the world away from here/ drift to you, you're all I hear/ Everything we know fades to black/ half the time the world is ending/truth is that I am done pretending/ I never thought that I had anymore to give/ pushing me so far/ here I am without you/ drink to all that we have lost/ mistakes that we have made/ everything will change/ but love remains the same."