“Wait, you mean to say that the crystalline came from outer space?” Chen Chen wanted to confirm it.
“Yes. Even at first glance, the crystalline doesn’t appear to be an object originating from Earth, no?”
Landis waved his hands “Besides, we already know that such substance doesn’t exist on Earth. Also, the crystal only served as a storage device, it’s the foreign plantation inside it that gives the protagonist superpower.”
Chen Chen felt his heart sinking upon receiving the revelation. He had a bad feeling about this but did not attempt to interrupt Landis.
Landis continued explaining, “I was inspired by a certain article. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this before, it’s about this professional interrogator who specialized in the usage of polygraphs. By way of coincidence, he noticed that plants could sense human will.
“The interrogator only intended to find out the time required for water to go from the bottom of a dracaena to the leaves and used the polygraph as a tool. You guys should also be aware that when a person lies or becomes agitated, the readings on the polygraph fluctuates drastically.
“Applied on plants, the reading should first increase before gradually going down due to the electrical resistance on the leaves caused by the built-up moisture. What happened instead was the opposite. The lines slanted downward, occasionally fluctuating at different points. The resulting observation was similar to when a polygraph is used on a person who is afraid.”
Landis went on describing, “After that, he began exploring the emotional response facet of plants by presenting them with a sizable threat. When he came up with the idea of lighting a match to burn the leaves, the readings on the polygraph began to fluctuate sharply even when he hadn’t even committed to the action. All he did was just toy around with the idea of it and yet, the dracaena seemed to have somehow sensed his attention and became consumed with fear.”
Chen Chen listened silently and attentively.
“Next, he lit up a match for real this time and waved it in front of the leaves of the dracaena which caused the reflected reading to take on a volatile pattern. When he put the match down, the reading managed to still itself until it eventually turned into a straight line.
“However, after repeating this bluff many times, the dracaena stopped responding to his threats as if it realized that he didn’t actually mean to harm it…”
Landis smiled. “This was the experiment that inspired me. The alien plant in the story can secrete a substance which is the crystal seen in the movie. This is the method it employs for self-protection. At the same time, it can grant humans superpower, essentially assuming the role of a host in a computer while the three protagonists are the extensions. This way, the three of them could sense each other and the presence of the host.”
Chen Chen’s heart only sank further as he listened to Landis’ explanations. He then inquired, “What’s the principle theory then? Why was the alien plant able to grant humans power? What was the energy theory behind the three protagonists?”
Landis and Trunk both shot a strange look at Chen Chen. Trunk only managed to muster an awkward response. “Sorry, never really considered these factors back then.”
“It’s like with Superman and the Hulk. The audience only cares about the superpower, I doubt they care about the scientific theory behind the superpowers…”
Landis shrugged helplessly as well. “I suppose it makes more sense for us to leave these questions to the scientists.”
There was not much Chen Chen could say about that either. He was aware that their statements were true.
The convention of superpowers had always been dictated by whatever was convenient. Even in the X-men, there was not much canonical explanation of how the X-gene gave superpowers. How was anyone supposed to figure out how the X-gene granted superpowers?
It was at this moment when another possibility came to Chen Chen.
Perhaps it was precisely because the detailed workings were not set up that there were unlimited possibilities?
Just like in Chronicle and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, anyone could recognize that the latter was more of a work of science fiction than the former. However, the USB drive accepted Chronicles but not Rise of the Planet of the Apes, why was that?
In the case of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it was stated that it was an RNA retrovirus, which was technically not scientifically possible in reality. This in turn caused it to be rejected by the USB drive for not adhering to the rules of science?
“Strictly speaking, I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea of the story, it was Trunk’s concept.”
As Chen Chen was pondering the matter, Landis glanced at Trunk and explained.
“That’s right, I got the idea from watching Paranormal Activity. It was more of a daydream which later turned into reality after meeting Landis.”
Trunk began to reminisce on the past when he thought about it. “My initial idea was of a high school boy who attained superpowers he had always dreamt of. Similar to the way bodybuilding works, it grows stronger the more he practices it.”
“And you guys ended up turning the daydream into a nightmare,” Chen Chen teased.
“We never really wanted to shoot a typical superhero film full of cliches. We wanted something… Something with more depth.”
Landis elaborated, “What we intended to do was achieve a dramatic cinematic effect by properly constraining the protagonist’s personality and family background. The finished product would be a tragic, profound film.”
Chen Chen sighed silently upon hearing his remark. “One last question, does the superpower pose any threat to the benefactor? Some sort of effect such as corrupting the human’s heart, being stripped away by the plant, something along these lines.”
“We didn’t consider that many factors when writing the first film since they’re largely unrelated to the plot. We primed our focus on the character building.”
Landis voiced his frustration, “By the second film, I planned to incorporate some darker traits into the plant. Sadly, I was kicked out by the company.”
Chen Chen caught a glimmer of hope. “Which means that you guys didn’t incorporate any form of drawbacks to the plant in the first film?”
“Yes…”
They did not understand the reason for Chen Chen’s persistence in the matter but they nodded anyway.
“Excellent, please give me a moment.”
Chen Chen nodded with pleasure and began typing away on the laptop.
Until ten minutes later, Chen Chen finally blew an air of relief. “In that case, I’ll set the sequel to be ten years into the future.”
Chen Chen began portraying. “The ending of the first film: Andrew was taken by the darkness in his heart so his cousin Matt had to stab him to death. In the end, he embarked on a trip around the world. In that case, we can begin the second film like so–:
The two of them stayed silent all the while, waiting for Chen Chen to continue.
“Over the last ten years, Matt traveled across the world but couldn’t find any clue related to the crystal. They also found out that the original location where the crystal was discovered was sealed away by the police, restricted to commoners.”
Chen Chen spoke in a low voice, “Matt who hasn’t been able to find a single clue over the past ten years decided to sneak into the cave. However, after spending all his efforts to sneak into the cave, he discovered that the government transformed the area into an enormous underground cave…
“Another discovery was that Andrew was not dead. Apparently, despite having his chest shot through, the government saved his life and kept him in a comatose state for them to study his body.
“The government also performed a cutting operation on the crystal and had it cut into thousands of fist-sized crystal pieces. They also extracted the alien plantation within it and later discovered that the crystal pieces only contained a fragment of the plant’s power. The plant itself was what mattered the most.
“However, the plant died very quickly after leaving the crystal as it was unable to adapt to Earth’s climate. As a result, the government lost their means to mass-produce superpower users.
“This also explains why the government kept Andrew alive all these years.”
Chen Chen continued typing as he spoke. At the end of his sentence, he turned the computer screen to face the two men. “After the plant died, the crystals which store part of the plant’s powers essentially became one-time consumable items.
“Using the cut pieces, the government began creating superpowers one after another. However, their radiation exposure was one-to-several hundred of the ones of the original three protagonists, resulting in them only obtaining very weak superpowers. The capacity for growth was minimal as well, far below the ones of the likes of Andrew and the others.
“The only way to attain stronger power was to get their hands on more crystalline…”
Chen Chen took a deep breath and concluded as he got up on his feet, “Here’s my setting for the second film. Please complete the second part according to the settings I provided.
“And wrap up the story of our childhood on a good note.”
