Bootstrap

WW2 TRENCHES, BELGIUM, 1944

Explosions and chaos engulf the dark grey landscape. Soldiers in the trenches cower from the German bombardment. A whistle blows, signaling an impersonal command to charge. Among the obedient throng is CORPORAL PIKE, a young American. In his haste, he slips and face-plants in the mud, narrowly escaping the carnage above as blood and body parts rain down around him. Pike screams in horror. This was one of many brutal skirmishes the Allies barely won in 1944. Unbeknownst to Pike, his survival marked him for a fate intertwined with a mysterious sphere he found in the mud.

PRESENT DAY: PIKE HOLDINGS 

Pike Holdings stands tall, its logo prominently displayed.

PIKE HOLDINGS, RESEARCH LAB 

CAMILLA PIKE, a determined young scientist, gains access to the ‘inner sanctum’ where a mysterious, perfect sphere defies all scientific analysis. Despite their efforts, the team finds nothing—no electromagnetic activity, no explanations, just a blank.

PIKE MANSION, STUDY 

OLD PIKE, now a frail man, slumps into a leather chair. Camilla, his granddaughter, reports the continued failure to understand the sphere that saved his life. Old Pike, obsessed with the sphere’s significance and his survival, demands answers. Camilla suggests a bootstrap paradox—a loop in time where cause and effect create each other. 

Old Pike, grappling with the idea, realizes he can’t bear the thought of being the only survivor, doomed to an eternal cycle of futile knowledge. Despairing, he takes his own life.

Camilla, staring at her grandfather’s body, vows to find a way to break the cycle. The screen fades to white as she resolves to be quicker next time.