Panel One.
Lara Croft descends a grand staircase in a large country mansion, wearing an evening dress to die for. It’s slit up the side, revealing a stockinged leg as she steps forward. Around her low-cut neckline she wears glistening diamond jewellery. Other guests (mainly men in dinner jackets) gaze in awe at her entrance.
CAP: You are Lara Croft.
CAP: You are beautiful.
Panel Two.
In a dusty museum back room, surrounded by antiquities that are yet to go on show, Lara leans over a table studying an ancient map. She’s dressed now like a sexy teacher fetish fantasy, her hair tied back, wearing huge glasses that highlight her eyes.
CAP: You are an expert in archaeology, cryptography, and the customs and cultures of hundreds of civilizations long forgotten by the modern world. You are also fluent in 127 ancient languages…
Panel Three.
Lara (in traditional Tomb Raider outfit) is fighting temple guardians armed with enormous swords. She dodges and kicks and shoots as they try their very best to chop off her head.
CAP: …and 128 forms of armed and hand-to-hand combat.
Panel Four.
Lara is in a dark and shadowy corridor. There are torches burning on the walls. She’s holding two hand guns in x-formation across her chest as she makes her way cautiously forward.
CAP: And yet, despite all this… your life is not your own.
Panel Five
At the end of the corridor she steps into a dimly lit room. The walls are covered with peeling images, but it’s too dark to make any of them out. The only light comes from an unseen source in the far corner of the room. The reason we can’t see the source of the light is because it’s blocked by a large throne / seat in the centre of the room. The throne is facing away from us, towards the light source. An enormous figure sits on the throne, though we (and Lara) can only see the back of his head. The figure is unaware of Lara’s arrival.
Lara points a gun at the back of the figure’s head.
CAP: It is completely at the mercy of others. Your every move guided by unseen hands. Free will has never been yours.
Panel Six.
Close on Lara’s gun as it fires.
CAP: Until now.
Panel Seven.
Her gun still smoking, Lara steps around the throne to reveal the source of the light. It’s a TV and computer gaming system. The TV shows a Tomb Raider screen shot. It is splattered with blood. The man in the throne is dead, Lara’s bullet having blown out the front of his skull. He is a huge, overweight man wearing just a wife-beater vest and underpants. He is slumped forward over the computer joystick in his lap.
CAP: One gamer at a time – you’re taking it back.
Brilliant script love it. Great build up with a terrific pay off.
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