Sean Murphy

Note to the reader: this movie will use an extensive amount of classical music in places where classical music may not be appropriate. This is done to promote the dreamlike sequence of events that happen between the two main characters.

This is a satire of the jesus story. It is not sad. It is at most reflective and at parts meditative.

It is 1999, 6 months before the new millennium, in a small ocean side town in New England. Here lives our main character:

Sean Murphy- 38 years old. A failing screenwriter, part time English teacher, sailing enthusiast. Sean has spent most of his career trying to write a work that will change people or change the world or at least do something important and memorable. 

Sean is a quiet person. Most of his silence is filled with thought or reflection, but some people find it off-putting. He’s not shy, he just doesn’t open his mouth at every moment.

The story starts off with Sean getting a rejection to his RFP to a studio for one of his screenplays—his biggest work yet. Sean had intentions of making this piece his kickoff into the new millennium. He often sets his sights high for things like this.

Sean is approached by Death. Death is a fisherman who docks his boat across the pier from where Sean keeps his sailboat. Death has a hard to distinguish raspy voice, no beard and a beat-up captains hat.

Death instigates Sean because of his solemn face. Death is a salty old man, no concern for the feelings of others, says what’s on his mind. Death invites Sean onto his boat. He opens up a cooler and shows Sean a hideous snakehead that he had caught for the day. He invites Sean to eat it with him on the grill onboard. This man, Death seems surreal to Sean, almost unbelievable.

From land, a boy, 19, comes flying down the dock the dock at full speed on a bicycle.

He speeds past Sean and Death, continuing toward the end of the dock. Sean abruptly leans out of the boat, taken back by what he’s seeing. At the end of the dock is a 4 foot tall wooden ramp. The boy grits his teeth and launches off the ramp. Sean watches in amazement as he exits from the bike, opens up into a massive swan dive, almost flying through the air, then over-rotating and falling into the freezing water.

Sean jumps from Death’s boat and sprints down the dock. Death follows Sean with an eerie gaze. As sean reaches the end of the dock, up from the ladder on the end comes,

Nathaniel a 19 year old boy with a half grown out beard, a soaked, old leather jacket. He stands facing the sea on the end of the dock, leans his neck left and right cracking it. Nate sighs to himself: “What a shitty dismount.” Sean stands there in amazment, not moving. Nate turns, passes Sean saying sarcastically: “G’day” as he walks past, Sean turns. Nate turns back saying: : “Don’t slip there. Decks wicked slick today”

So the long and short of this story, is that Nate is dying from a serious disease with an unknown amount of weeks to live. Nate is unconcerned with the amount of time, almost ignoring it completely. He’s more concerned with using his time wisely, however he has seemingly no list of things to accomplish. Nate has a terrible family—paying for his medical bills but hardly offering him any support for his disease. He is more-or-less alone.

Sean comes in and for one reason or another becomes the facilitator of Nate’s ridiculous ideas. Sean begins to realize that many of these ideas are beneficiary and that Nate’s biggest goal is similar to seans—to change people, or move people, or help people, or figure out how to (as nate puts it bluntly) do magic.

In the end, Nate dies a not-very romantic death. Sean his stricken by this like he has just woken up from a 2 week long dream. From this experience he writes a movie about Nate, that goes on to be regarded as one of the best ever, it propels Nate into being a legacy and in effect doing his magic thing vicariously through Sean.

Sean and this boy go to his parents house.