Essay About Robert Neville And Chief Engineer

The Protogy
Essay title: The Protogy
I AM LEGEND
John Logan
September 8, 1997
Whats so surprising that I crawl.
I descended from the worm just like you.
Whats so surprising that I eat glass
and dance on fire.
–Felix Morisseau-Leroy
FADE IN:
INT. MOTEL ROOM – DESERT – DAY
Rainfall. Violent and unrelenting.
The rain pounds a fearsome rhythm on the windows of a motel
room.
ROBERT NEVILLE is on the phone, pacing, waiting. Tense.
Neville is a fit, handsome and methodical man. He is also,
as we shall see, a very resourceful man.
As he paces we see he is in a clean motel room, a breakfast
tray is on a table. We see a briefcase open on the desk
to long plastic tubes for blueprints.
Finally:
NEVILLE
(on phone)
Yes, Dr. Madden this is Robert
Neville, I I understand that
my wife, Virginia Neville is
(a flash of concern
crosses his face)
… Ill be there in the morning.
He hangs up.
He hesitates for a moment, unsure of exactly what to do next.
Then he grabs his briefcase and blueprint tubes and goes.
EXT. DESERT CONSTRUCTION SITE – DAY
The almost blinding downpour allows us a strange view of a
large industrial construction site in the desert. Huge
earth-moving machines, cranes and bulldozers dot the sodden
landscape.
TITLE: FALL 1998
We see day laborers and construction workers huddling under
the gigantic machines as they try to stay out of the rain,
packed together like tiny animals in the shadow of the
dinosaurs.
But there is something immediately wrong about this scene.
There should be more workers on a project this big.
INT. CONSTRUCTION SHED – DAY
Neville is standing in the high-tech construction shed. He
is the architect of this project.
Neville stands with a grave expression, his arms folded,
watching TV.
His Chief Engineer, DOMINGO, sits nearby and eats a sandwich.
On the TV:
A LOCAL WASHINGTON REPORTER is standing in front of the White
House, the flag at half mast:
LOCAL WASHINGTON REPORTER
The First Lady was buried in a brief
ceremony at Arlington National
Cemetery and then the President and