Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I Can Do This

Ok, how about this...

Claire didn't have the courage to stand up to her friends in school. John walked away from the Saturday detention on a cloud, but come Sunday, doubt started to trickle in. By Monday morning he knows it won't work, but refuses to give up. Claire tries to avoid everyone, including her friends, but her entourage still surrounds her as Bender makes his way towards her in the halls.

Pan out to the future. Claire doesn't have any children contrary to what I had postulated before. She is living the life of someone who has made the wrong choices--all of them. Age has faded her looks, and her eyes are tired and dull. Her husband is a useless drunk who refuses to get a job. He watches football and spouts on about the big game and the winning pass he threw. Claire nods and finishes his sentence for him. She's heard it a thousand times. She comes across her senior yearbook and thumbs through it. She see's a picture of Bender and lightly runs her fingers over it. A tear runs down her face.

She goes online and looks up her high school on Classmates.com, but Bender's name isn't there. Of course, she thinks, why would he put himself on Classmates? Ah, but Brian. There he is. She starts to write him an email. "Hey baby," comes the surly voice of her husband, "how's about getting me another beer!" She rolls her eyes and brings down the browser.

Eventually she does send an email to Brian, who is glad to hear from her, and they get together to have lunch. But she is unable to pay, and Brian notices little things about her that have changed. She's no longer the rich girl, and life has humbled her beyond what is comfortable for him to see.

"Have you seen, you know, the others?" Claire says.

He looks away. "No. You saw to that, didn't you?"

This scene would start from glad-to-see-you-again to you-blew-it-you-bitch. Big argument. Brian is pissed at her, she cries and leaves with her face buried in her hands.

Then it could shift to Brian, who feels bad that he lost his cool. He's done alright for himself, happily married to a woman he ironically met at Niagra falls. If you don't get the irony just ask, or watch the movie again. He gets it in his head that he wants to get the group together, but he doesn't know where anyone is. He'll find Bender last, as he is the most important in my mind, the one who can save Claire. He'll seek out Andrew to help him.

This is just a beginning, but I am thinking that each of them is missing something from their lives that the other can fulfill. They pass each other on city streets and don't see one another as the story switches from character to character. Only at the end do they finally meet in one spot, where they all fall together, hugging and crying. We draw the curtain, and feel for certain, that this time they will do it right.

12 comments:

Bailey Stewart said...

Interesting concept - I vote for them all meeting in the library. (Makes me want to watch the movie again - it's been so long that I don't actually remember all of it.)

Scott said...

I didn't think about that Eve. That's a good idea, as long as the reason leading to the eventual meeting is believable.

Kathleen said...

Hmm, not a bad premise, although why would Clare stay in a shitty marriage? She is a woman of the 90s (and now the 21st century). We don't put up w/crap like that! I think a sad divorcee would be okay or in a loveless marriage with a rich guy. No reason to stay in a crappy marriage w/an unemployed loser.

I still think that to a certain degree the beauty of The Breakfast Club as it stands is that everybody gets to think of their own "ending." You'll upset, annoy, piss off, sadden somebody w/your version, w/o a doubt.

Kathleen said...

And I don't mean to imply that money is a reason to stay in a loveless marriage, but that it's more likely to happen - especially when there aren't kids involved.

I hope my first comment didn't sound negative. After I read it, it seemed judgemental or something, and that's now how I meant it.

Sadie Lou said...

I don't know. I'm with Kathleen, Clare doesn't come from a family that would allow her to be in a shitty marriage.
I see her as being extremely successful in some career but in a loveless, go-nowhere relationship with another career person. Someone who never wants kids because they would get in the way of traveling and because they would ravage Clare's body.
But Clare wants a family.
This is what brings her to thinking about Bender. She starts having those "I wonder if" daydreams.
We could flashback to a time right after the first movie left off when they tried to make a relationship work but Clare was too much of a snob to be proud of her new, budding romance.
What do you think?

Scott said...

Kat and Sadie - You both are spot on about Claire. More later...

Toni Anderson said...

Nice concepts Scott. Claire could be in a loveless marriage for all sorts of reasons. She might have ended up poor, her father could have embezzled and ended up in prison.

Actually forget my ideas, I'm looking forward to hearing more of yours.

Shesawriter said...

I agree with Kathleen. Why would a modern woman stay in a bad marriage?

Scott said...

Ok ladies, I take it all back. Claire is smarter than that. Besides, she wouldn't have married some jock after what she went through that Saturday. After high school she has no idea where Bender has gone to, and she goes to a good college and embarks on a career. Perhaps she is a career woman period, no kids, no man. Quite unhappy. Where they are from is a small town in Illinois I think, so maybe she moves to the nearest big city, where she happens upon Bender.

ProducerClaire said...

Or, if we want them all meeting in the library, perhaps they meet again at their old high school's library. Their small town isn't so small any more, and the old school is getting a new look. That means knocking down the old and building new.

Why they would all be there might take some work...perhaps Brian gave the money to outfit the new library with state of the art technology...Andrew is there picking up his kid from an after school program...Claire is roaming the old haunt, as she is want to do, musing over where life went wrong and how she ended up with a loveless marriage instead of her high school sweetheart...

Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies! One of the few i own on DVD. Keep it up!

Ultra Toast Mosha God said...

I would suggest they all meet at the end, but that is precisely where it ends.
With them all stood together, waiting for someone to speak.

Kathleen said...

I don't think it was a small town. I believe it a pretty toney suburb of Chicago.