The following is an adaptation of the script for Prometheus in Five Directions, a short film written and directed by Pixie Cram. Currently in post-production, the film was inspired by the myth of Prometheus, the ancient Greek Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humanity. In return, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains, where a great eagle would appear daily to eat his liver, only for the liver to grow back each night.

In a modern version of the Prometheus myth from the book The Cybernetic Imagination in Science-Fiction by Patricia Warrick, roles are assigned differently: an artificial intelligence receives the gift of fire from a human being.  

Prologue

Profile of woman's face.
She is blowing air into something invisible.
Condensation in the cold air makes her breath appear.  

Hear a sound effect 

One

The bark of a tree; deep dark grooves.  
Down from sky to earth, from branches to the roots, slowly tracing it.

The woods. Tree trunks. Snow visible on the ground.

A small farmhouse in the midst of a wide field of snow.  
The house is white with a green trim.  
Across the driveway is a barn where there are goats and a paddock with horses.  
In the distance are the woods.

Two

The woman's hands placing logs inside a wood burning stove.  
She strikes a match and lights the logs.  
A flame grows inside the stove.
She closes the door to the grate.            

Spoon inside soup pot.

She stirs some soup on the stove.     

One bowl and one spoon are set out on the kitchen table.  

The door to the outside.

Something heavy has fallen to the ground.   

She looks over at the door from where she stands at the stove.  


Three

She approaches the door and steps outside.  
The sound of a bird in the distance.
The woman does not notice it.

The woman looks at the horizon.   
Horizon is silent. Nothing appears.   

Woman looks down at her feet.    
Woman's boot.  
Next to it is a stone wrapped in a piece of paper with string.

    
Woman's hand reaches down to pick it up.

Woman's hands untying the string and removing the piece of paper.  

Woman's face as she reads the paper.
Written on the paper in calligraphy is: Thou Shalt Not Create Artificial Intelligence

She looks in the direction of the woods, then closes the door to the house.   


Four

Carrying a lit candle in a candlestick, she opens the door to her bedroom.  
Inside, there is a bed and a small side table.   
She sets the candlestick on the table.      
She climbs into bed, under the covers.    
She is facing the opposite wall.
    
The shadows.  
They move amorphously, independently from the woman.       

From the diffuse shapes, a shadow hand emerges, defined on the wall.      
The woman watches with fascination.

Hear a sound effect 

Five

The eye of the goat with its rectangular iris.                  
Along the body of the goat.

The woman is feeding the goats.  
The sound of a bird cry.
This time she hears it.   
The woman stops and looks into the sky, squinting into the light.

The bird as it flies overhead.  
Its shadow as it moves across the snow.  

A stone is dropped.      
She approaches and picks it up, unfurling the paper.
She reads the message: Thou Shalt Not Liberate Artificial Intelligence.


Six

The woman in bed, watching the wall.  
Candlelight beside her.           

The shadow on the wall, first the hands, then the silhouette of a human face, more defined this time, androgynous.       

The shadow seems to be speaking to her, though it makes no sound.  

Woman watching.

Shadow figure, face in profile.


Seven

The woman is chopping wood with an axe.   
The bird passes overhead.  
Its shadow in the snow.         
She stares up at the sky.  

Another message dropped in the snow.
She drops the axe and bends down to pick it up.
She unfurls the note in her hands, the message reads:
Thou Shalt Obliterate Artificial Intelligence.

Bird wings flutter.       
The bird landing in the walkway ten feet away.  

It caws menacingly.    

She turns slowly and walks inside the house.   


Eight

Woman climbs into bed.  
She strikes the match and lights the candle on the bedside table.  
The shadows are quiet this time.   

She waits, then blows the candle out.
The room is instantly filled with gentle moonlight from the window.   
A deep black shadow, like a void, in the corner of the room.   
She notices it immediately.  

From out of the shadow, a boy.
His eyes closed as he steps into the light.  
He stands at the edge of the shadow from where he came, half visible in the light cast by the moon.  
He slowly opens his eyes and takes in the room around him.
 
The boy's face, beginning with his forehead, down his nose, his mouth, across his neck and shoulder, down his arm, to his hand.


Nine

She awakens in bed, sits up and looks around her.          
She is alone. 

The door to the hallway is ajar.      
The woman goes to the bedroom window and sees something outside in the field below.    


Ten

The woman is walking, the barn behind her.  
A look of intent on her face.

Hear a sound effect 

In the field of snow that stretches in front of the house is a ring of fire, suspended vertically in mid-air.  

The woman watches the ring.  

 
Eleven

Trees moving in the wind.                  
Small grasses in the snow field blowing.         
A frozen pond in the field.  
The sky in the background.  
Stars in the night sky.     


Twelve

A fire burns in the wood stove.     
The woman stirring some soup on the stove.   
Two bowls and two spoons set out on the kitchen table. 

Hear a sound effect 

A sound from outside.  
Like a bird screeching and cawing, but mechanical at the same time, like the squeak of a crosswalk signal.

The door.    

She goes to the door and opens it.    


Thirteen

The bird standing in the walkway, ten feet from the woman.  
Its body is made of bones and feathers, but assembled oddly.  
Its beak is made of two pieces of metal that open and close.  
It is pecking at something that lies in the walkway.
            
Pecking at the liver of a small animal, a cat or raccoon.  
The movements are repetitive suggesting a short cycle.

The woman watching.

The bird stops pecking at the liver and lifts its head.  
Looks in the direction of  the house.
Watching the bird now is the boy.  
He is laughing.        


Fourteen

Tree trunk. From roots to branches.        

____________________

Prometheus in Five Directions

Crew
Carmelo Zucco: Director of photography
Petr Maur: Camera assistant
Kate Kechnie: Sound recordist
Jean-Claude Batista: Assistant sound recordist
Adam Belanger: Grip
Ashley Parsons: Costumes

Cast
Alix Sideris: Woman
Halla Trineer: Boy

Production stills courtesy of Pixie Cram. For more on Cram, visit her web site.