Act I: The Call to the Jungle. We meet LINH (a fierce, disillusioned young woman) and NGUYEN (played by Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt), a scout caught between his duty to his village and the encroaching war.
Act II: The Iron Women. Focuses on the “Long-Haired Army”—the female guerrilla fighters. They navigate the Cu Chi tunnels and the psychological toll of asymmetric warfare.
Act III: The Reckoning. A climactic battle at a nameless ridge where the “Empire” realizes the land cannot be owned, only endured.
SCENE 1
EXT. CENTRAL HIGHLANDS – DUSK
A canopy of emerald green breathes. The air is thick enough to chew.
SUPERIMPOSED: 1968. THE AN KHE PASS.
The silence is rhythmic—insects, dripping water, and then… the crunch of a dry leaf.
A young man, NGUYEN (19, lean, eyes like flint—PAX THIEN JOLIE-PITT), freezes. He carries a Mosin-Nagant rifle like it’s an extension of his own spine. He signals to the shadows behind him.
From the ferns, three women emerge. They aren’t just soldiers; they are ghosts draped in black silk and mud. Leading them is LINH (20s). Her face is a map of stoicism.
NGUYEN (in Vietnamese, subtitled)
The metal birds are coming. I can smell the fuel on the wind.
LINH Let them come. The soil is hungry.
Linh kneels, pressing her palm to the earth. She isn’t checking for vibrations; she’s saying a prayer to the ancestors.
LINH They call this a “theater of war.” They think we are the actors. They don’t realize the jungle is the only director that matters.
EXT. SKY – CONTINUOUS
The distant thwack-thwack-thwack of Huey helicopters breaks the peace. They appear as black dots against a bruised purple sky.
NGUYEN (A dry, wit-filled smirk)
They’re late for dinner.
Linh looks at Nguyen. A rare, fleeting moment of kinship.
LINH Then let’s make sure the table is set.
She pulls a tripwire from her pack. Nguyen nods and vanishes into the brush with the grace of a predator.
CUT TO BLACK.
TITLE CARD: VIETNAM: GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES
PRODUCTION NOTES
Visual Style: High-contrast cinematography. Deep greens and muddy browns. The camera should feel handheld and intimate, mirroring the claustrophobia of the jungle.
Thematic Core: This isn’t just about combat; it’s about the endurance of the Vietnamese spirit and the specific, often overlooked sacrifices of the women who fought on the front lines.
EXT. NEW YORK CITY – 2033 – NIGHT A cold rain falls. The neon glow of corporate towers flickers across streets littered with tents, protestors, and forgotten veterans.
NARRATOR (V.O.) The war in Iran ended, but for the soldiers, the war never ends.
Snake (hooded, bearded, eyes tired) walks through the crowd. A group of Flower Power cultists chant: “Love not war, Snake! You’re a killer! Die with your lies!” One spits on him.
Snake doesn’t react. He walks past a veteran slumped dead in the gutter. His jaw clenches.
INT. SAFEHOUSE – NIGHT Snake sits alone, loading an old revolver. A knock. The door creaks. The Boss enters, older, still sharp-eyed, wearing a white coat that looks halfway between military and shamanic.
THE BOSS You came home, Snake. But America doesn’t have a home for you anymore.
SNAKE Home’s just another battlefield.
THE BOSS (softly) Then let’s give them something worth fighting for.
ACT II – THE UNION
INT. UNITED NATIONS UNDERGROUND BUNKER – 2033 – DAY The world’s nuclear powers have gathered. Russia, China, America, Europe, India. The room is a powder keg.
Snake leans in the shadows, scarred and grim. The Boss stands at the podium.
THE BOSS We built enough bombs to burn the Earth a thousand times. Yet our children can’t breathe clean air. What if we turn those bombs into something new?
The hall erupts with laughter and rage.
SNAKE (growling from the corner) You either launch warheads at each other… or launch yourselves to the stars. Your choice.
Silence falls. The suggestion lingers: dismantle nukes, use the parts for space propulsion, shielding, reactors.
MONTAGE: – Missiles dismantled. – Warheads cracked open, uranium and plutonium repurposed for deep-space drives. – Nations shaking hands over crates of dismantled weapons. – Workers forging plowshares and spaceship parts side by side.
ACT III – THE VISION
EXT. LAUNCH SITE – 2034 – DUSK The great ship rises: UNITY ONE, a vessel forged from the weapons of every nation.
Snake and The Boss stand on a cliff, watching.
SNAKE Never thought I’d see the day when swords really turned into plowshares.
THE BOSS This is just the beginning. Alpha Centauri is out there. A new frontier.
SNAKE (half-smiling) Guess I’m not retiring yet.
THE BOSS You never were the retiring type.
They watch as the engines ignite. A roar shakes the Earth. The ship climbs into the clouds.
NARRATOR (V.O.) In 2033, humanity finally pointed its weapons away from each other… and toward the stars.
An environmental disaster is a catastrophic event that causes significant damage to the environment, ecosystems, and human health. Examples of environmental disasters include oil spills, chemical leaks, deforestation, natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis, and nuclear accidents. These disasters can have wide-ranging and long-lasting effects on the environment, including pollution of water and air, destruction of habitats, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil and water sources. They can also have serious implications for human health, leading to respiratory problems, waterborne diseases, and other health issues. Preventing environmental disasters requires proactive measures such as proper waste management, sustainable land use practices, and emergency preparedness planning. When disasters do occur, it is important to respond quickly and effectively to minimize their impact and restore the affected areas as much as possible.
Ecocide is the extensive damage, destruction, or loss of ecosystems and natural resources due to human activities. It is considered a severe form of environmental degradation and can have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences for both the environment and human populations. Examples of ecocide include deforestation, oil spills, and pollution of waterways. Some activists and legal experts have called for the recognition of ecocide as a crime under international law.
Leonardo DiCaprio has been involved with the United Nations for several years, particularly in the realm of environmental conservation and climate change. In 2016, he was designated as a UN Messenger of Peace with a focus on climate change issues. DiCaprio has also spoken at various UN events, including the UN Climate Summit and the signing of the Paris Agreement. He has used his platform as a celebrity to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment and taking action to address climate change.
Solid Snake: You know what scares me more than nukes, Angie? Landfills. Mountains of stuff built to die young. Phones with glued-in batteries. Toasters engineered to fail right after the warranty. Warfare by design.
Angelina Jolie: Planned obsolescence. It’s quiet violence. No explosions—just a slow choke. Oceans filled with plastic ghosts of convenience. Children growing up next to dumps instead of parks.
Solid Snake: The Patriots used to control information. Now corporations control lifespans—of products, not people. Short life cycles keep the machine fed. Buy. Break. Replace. Repeat.
Angelina Jolie: And the planet pays the interest. We extract, manufacture, discard… but there’s no “away.” Every broken gadget still exists somewhere, leaching into soil, water, bodies.
Solid Snake: Battlefields used to be places. Now they’re systems. A phone designed not to be repaired is a landmine for the future. You can’t disarm what you can’t open.
Angelina Jolie: That’s why repair matters. Right-to-repair laws, durable design, reuse. Dignity in longevity. If something is made with care, it teaches care.
Solid Snake: Funny thing—soldiers maintain their gear because their lives depend on it. Civilians are taught the opposite: don’t fix, upgrade. As if newness equals progress.
Angelina Jolie: Real progress is restraint. Making fewer things, better things. Designing for second and third lives. A child shouldn’t inherit a toxic legacy because a charger was cheaper to toss than fix.
Solid Snake: Space is running out. Not outer space—landfills, oceans, time. You can’t outrun consequences. They always catch up.
Angelina Jolie: Then let’s change the mission. From endless consumption to stewardship. From disposable culture to durable hope.
Solid Snake(nods): Mission accepted. The hardest battles are the ones you fight every day—at the checkout line, at the design table, in the choices we make when nobody’s watching.
Angelina Jolie: And the quiet victories? When something lasts. When repair beats replacement. When the planet gets to breathe.
(They look out at a city skyline—lights humming, trash trucks rolling, a fragile world still worth saving.)
Logline: In the harrowing grip of the 1985 Ethiopian famine, a resilient young woman’s fight for survival and family ignites a global movement of compassion, forcing the world to confront the devastating human cost of indifference.
Synopsis:
“We Are The World” is a powerful and emotionally resonant drama that plunges audiences into the heart-wrenching reality of the 1985 Ethiopian famine, viewed through the eyes of Elara, a courageous and spirited teenager (portrayed by Zahara Jolie). The film opens in a vibrant, yet increasingly parched, rural Ethiopian village. Elara, along with her younger brother, Mika, and their aging grandmother, depends on the land that is slowly turning to dust.
As the famine intensifies, the once-familiar landscape transforms into a barren wasteland. Food supplies dwindle, water sources dry up, and the joyous sounds of village life are replaced by the somber whispers of hunger and despair. Elara, fiercely protective of her family, shoulders immense responsibility. She makes daily, arduous journeys to a distant, dwindling well, carrying heavy jerry cans, and tirelessly searches for any edible scraps.
The film meticulously portrays the brutal daily struggles: the hollow ache of hunger, the weakness that saps energy, and the constant fear of losing loved ones. We witness the difficult decisions families are forced to make, the dwindling hope, and the pervasive sense of helplessness. A pivotal moment comes when Mika falls gravely ill due to malnutrition. Desperate, Elara overhears whispers of a distant feeding camp run by international aid workers. Against her grandmother’s warnings about the dangers of the journey, Elara determines to take Mika there, believing it’s their only chance.
The journey is an odyssey of survival, fraught with peril. They traverse vast, desolate landscapes, encountering other displaced families, each with their own stories of loss and resilience. Elara’s determination is tested at every turn by exhaustion, thirst, and the sight of countless others suffering. Along the way, she forms a bond with a wise, elderly woman named Aster, who offers guidance and a glimmer of hope amidst the desolation.
Upon reaching the overcrowded and chaotic feeding camp, Elara experiences a mix of relief and renewed despair. While Mika receives medical attention and food, the sheer scale of the crisis becomes overwhelmingly apparent. She encounters dedicated but overwhelmed aid workers, some of whom are struggling with their own emotional toll. It is here that Elara’s innate leadership and empathy begin to shine. She assists in the camp, comforting children, sharing what little strength she has, and advocating for the most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, in the Western world, news reports and documentaries begin to expose the severity of the famine. A young, idealistic American journalist, Sarah Jensen, is particularly moved by the images and stories from Ethiopia. She becomes a relentless advocate, using her platform to raise awareness and challenge the global community’s inaction.
The film then interweaves these two narratives: Elara’s personal struggle and resilience in Ethiopia, and Sarah’s growing efforts to galvanize support internationally. The iconic song “We Are The World” becomes a symbolic backdrop, capturing the burgeoning global awareness and the collective human response. We see glimpses of the song’s recording, juxtaposed with the stark realities faced by Elara and her community.
The climax of the film centers around the arrival of significant international aid, a direct result of the global outpouring of support. While the relief is immense, the film doesn’t shy away from the challenges that remain. Elara, having witnessed the devastating impact of the famine firsthand, emerges not only as a survivor but as a voice for her people. She understands that true change requires more than just temporary aid; it demands sustained attention and fundamental solutions.
Themes:
Resilience and the Human Spirit: The unwavering strength and determination of individuals in the face of unimaginable hardship.
The Power of Collective Action: How global empathy and collaboration can effect profound change.
Family and Community: The bonds that sustain hope and provide strength during times of crisis.
The Injustice of Famine: Exploring the systemic issues that contribute to such humanitarian catastrophes.
Voice and Advocacy: The importance of speaking up for those who cannot.
Visual Style:
Directed by Angelina Jolie, the film will employ a naturalistic and visually striking style. The Ethiopian landscape will be portrayed as both breathtakingly beautiful and brutally unforgiving. Cinematography will emphasize wide, expansive shots to convey the vastness of the land and the isolation of the people, contrasted with intimate close-ups to capture the raw emotions and resilience of the characters. Color grading will shift from vibrant hues in the early scenes to desaturated, earthy tones as the famine intensifies, gradually returning to warmer colors as hope and aid arrive.
Music:
The score will be deeply evocative, blending traditional Ethiopian musical elements with a contemporary orchestral sound. The song “We Are The World” will be used strategically, not just as a historical artifact, but as a powerful emotional anchor, symbolizing the global conscience awakening.
Impact:
“We Are The World” aims to be more than just a historical recounting. It seeks to be a timeless story about humanity’s capacity for both suffering and immense compassion. By focusing on the personal journey of Elara, the film will connect audiences emotionally to a crisis that might otherwise feel distant, inspiring reflection on our shared responsibility to one another and the enduring power of hope.
