Jynt0

                Ice Bucket Challenge
                             By
                      Jonty Levine
                   (working script)
1 EXT. GARDEN - DAY
We open on a handheld camera shot of the back garden. The shed door is vaguely visible, as is the washing line. JONTY stands beside an EMPTY BUCKET on a CHAIR.
         JONTY:
         You recording?
         ZAK:
         Yeah.
         JONTY:
         Okay, so this is my ice bucket challenge. I was nominated by... nevermind who nominated me. Let’s just get to the challenge. Aaand first thing’s first.
(holds up the bucket and shows it to the camera)

Nottingham, England, 6 November 2064. A news broadcast blares out of a TV screen in the Portland Building lobby, except no one hears it, because it's on mute. But the subtitles, generated in real-time to match the news reporter's speech, tell us she is discussing a controversial new proposal from the shadow education secretary that's really blown up in the news lately. This proposal would make university attendance compulsory by 2070.
The University of Nottingham still prides itself as a truly international university, with campuses on four continents. But it’s far from special in this regard. In this day and age, many similar institutions have taken to expanding overseas, thanks to the miracle of universal translation.
Right now a loose group students, a mix of Chinese, British and Brazilian, are milling around, chatting about the usual student things - exams, lectures, coursework, last night's Campus 23 - all in their native tongues. Anyone with a Google Glass or Apple iPatch c

“I’m telling you, it works!”
“That is such bullshit,” said Luke.
“What’s bullshit?” asked Hana as she scooted her chair over to them.
Luke picked up the book and showed it to her.
“Chad says he can ‘change the real world’ by writing in this book,” he sneered holding something that looked like everyone else’s textbook, somewhat frayed about the edges and open at the world map page. “Like he’s the fucking Death Note of geography or some—”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” Chad interjected. “That’s why I changed the name of Rafaranda.”
“To what?”
Chad took advantage of Luke’s temporary confusion to snatch back the book.
“Well I...”
“Is that even a real place?” Hana asked again.
“Yes— well, not anymore.”
Luke’s expression changed to fear, which was not a good look for him.
“Don

It was unusually warm for winter. The glaciers had retreated more than ever, causing untold ecological damage to the fragile northern tundra, and disturbing the migration routes of the legendary white whales. But more importantly, it was turning the tide of the battle to the enemy's advantage. They fought well on open land, preferably free from ice. Their forces rushed in to claim ground from the retreating glaciers, and they had enough resources that they could stare us down for long enough, and we'd most likely starve to death before they did.
"This isn't war. This is a slaughter," muttered General Ragnar, while his officer paced slowly around the Device. Their breath condensing into the air around it.
"But sir, if we turn this thing on, it would advance the permafrost, restoring nearly a thousand square kilometres of battlefield into prime arctic wilderness."
"I know," said the general "But what are the advantages?”
The officer sighed. "War is hell."
"War is hell," Ragnar agre

Everyone was saying this’d be the best thing to happen to humanity since opposable thumbs, or some other huge milestone. This 'update' was going to carry us to a new plane of existence. Or possibly destroy us, we just didn't know. I personally didn't buy all the hype - "It's just a point update," I'd say when someone brought up the topic.
Don't get me wrong - it was a big deal. I can see why the news channels were covering it 24/7, despite there being nothing new to cover. Of course people took to the internet to speculate. And I saw an interesting essay about how a benevolent god might have planned the update to remove all prejudice from our minds. But most every other comment seemed to be someone's wishlist of the awesome superpowers they wish we all had.
And yes, it was all of us. 7 billion people saw the progress bar at the exact same time, in the corners of their eyes, at 1% and counting. Alongside it were a few words telling them they would soon be updated to Version 1.1 of

Two planets, hitherto sharing an orbit around 90 million miles from the young sun, had been edging ever closer over the last epoch. They shared a mutual twirling dance while comets rained down upon their parched surfaces, peppering them both with holes and coating them with a thin film of water. Eventually however they got too close, and gravity pulled them inexorably towards a collision, every atom of one planet tugging on every atom of the other one. They hit. Though the smaller of the two bodies crumbled first, the impact tore them both nearly to pieces, churning their centres to the surface and burying parts of their surfaces in the centre of the new merged planet. This planet, not like the two that came before it, was spinning rapidly, so that within mere hours, it had shown its entire surface to the parent star. This was the first full rotation of the planet that beings on its surface would later decide to call the Earth. And though its rotation has slowed down a lot since those