Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Outline

Wow. This was heart wrenching in a way that pissed me off but still had plenty of lessons attached. More info on next page... 

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ETERNAL SUNSHINE


- Meet JOEL. Faking an excuse to miss work.


- Joel journals about an ex named Namoi. Spots Clementine but doesn’t make eye contact.


- Joel at a diner. Clementine enters. Eye contact.


- Train later. She’s there. They don’t talk. Then she says hi.


- They talk mostly about hair color. It’s a “we have chemistry” and are indie interesting conversation. It is implied visually that she might have a drinking problem.


Note: Great suspense and intrigue here. Them not talking. Good build that keeps you reading early.


Note: Clementine dialogue is v much in a style Ch likes and is kind of a short cut tone to people think you’re doing a really smart script.


Great Action Line: “They smile at each other. Joel drops the gaze first.”


- LATER, after the convo, he’s drawing her


- LATER he gives her a ride home. She asks if he wants to go in for a drink.


NOTE: the scene does not end on the question (which would have been good). It’s actually better than that. It ends on her rescinding the invitation. Then in the next scene he is in her living room as she prepares drinks.


- At her place. They talk. It ends as she tells him to call her and he agrees to call that night.


- Joel goes home. A van trails him.


- Joel spots neighbor with yellow envelope. We get the sense it’s been a while or is a different year or something.


- Joel tries Clem on the phone and the number has changed. He goes to her work and she doesn’t recognize him.


- With friends ROB and CARRIE. Rob tells Joel that Clem has had Joel erased from her memory. The issuance is in the same yellow envelope Joel saw with his neighbor.


- Joel at LACUNA offices. There to see a doctor. Asks what happened with Clem. Cut to…


- Joel repeated the doctor’s info to rob and carrie. They say she was impulsive and did it as a lark.


NOTE: This is a great cut. He is shameless about doing this. And it’s much better to see this with his friends because it furthers their marital problem story and also helps us see Joel’s real reaction after he’s processed a bit and is no longer in a strange/clinical setting.


- Joel cries at a drive in.


- Joel goes to Lacuna and asks for Clem to be erased. They give him instructions on how to start the process. As that occurs in V.O. we see him do the stuff (gather what reminds him of her etc.).


- The clinical process begins. Joel has an “out of body” experience.


- Process continues at Joel’s apartment. It is pointed out that we saw technician PATRICK earlier with Clem at the bookstore…


- we see a memory of Joel and Clem fighting.


- as the techs wipe Joel’s mind, Patrick admits he fell in love with Clem when they wiped her last week.


- We see snap shots of memories throughout this sequence. Them falling out of love.


- Joel in his dream state maybe starts to piece together what happened with Patrick stealing Clem.


- Patrick gets a call from Clem and leaves the scrubbing. It’s odd.


- Joel is unconscious on the bed. But he wants to keep the memories. he thinks he’s screaming to keep them.


- Stan the Tech asks Mary the Tech if she loves Howard the creator of the tech. She says no.


- Patrick calls off work to be with Clem because she’s upset and feels lost.


- Joel really tries to call it off but he’s not moving during hte procedure.


- Patrick uses the gift Joel got Clem to seduce her.


- The slacker stoner techs fuck next to Joel’s bed as the automatic process keeps rolling on


- Dream Clem tries to coach Joel to wake up or fix this. Says to take her somewhere in his mind where she can’t be found. He goes to a memory of his mommy.


- The techs realize it stopped erasing Joel’s memory. They call Howard to come fix it.


- Back in Joel’s mind he’s with Clem.


- IRL Clem  is with Patrick and she feels like something is wrong with her.


- Howard finds them in another memory. Fixes it.


- IRL the techs are grateful to Howard.


- Intercut memories and IRL. Howard thinks he got a memroy but it popped back.


- Clem tells Joel to hide her in his humiliation.


- Clem starts to fade, even after he takes her to a deep place.


- Joel goes from memory to memory. Howard gets the hang of tracking him down.


- IRL Mary the tech makes a pass at boss Howard and he shuts her down.


- Stan smokes outside. INSIDE Mary and Howard start to kiss. OUTSIE a woman shows up. Is it Howard’s wife?


- OUTSIDE Howard rushes out. His wife confronts him. Mary comes out and says it was a one time thing. Howard then tells Mary… No. This has happened before but then I wiped your memory.


- Clem and Patrick have an eh date in Boston.


- In the apartment the two male techs work on Joel again, all quiet.


- Memory: their first date second acting a show. They discuss what they did thaty night and how they were feeling.


- Mary at the Lacuna labs. Listening the the interview of getting Howard erased.


- MEMORY Joel with Clementine. Talking about how he ended it with Naomi.


- JOEL WITH NAOMI: breaking up.


- AT BOOKSTORE: Joel looking for Clem. She says she’s not a concept. Break up with Naomi first. Etc. Joel says he wants another shot with her.


- The JOEL NAOMI break up again. They fight. he heads out for train. This is the day he met Clem and it’s being erased.


- BEACH we see the scene where they met and then go into an empty house and then it all fades away.


- BACK IN APT: it’s coming to an end.


- AT LAB tape reveals Howard had Mary get an abortion.


- TRAIN Pat and Clem head back. She’s not feeling it at all.


- LAB Mary leaving as Stan gets there. She’s gone. He swears he didn’t know. Describes the one time he saw them for her, giving her the details of that memory pretty much.


- NEXT MORNING Joel awakens. intercut with Mary crying in her car.


- JOEL AT WORK he calls Naomi.


- MARY’S APT. she has the files and doesn’t want to give them back


- JOEL WITH NAOMI says he’s been alone these 2 years. but she’s with someone.


- CLEM’S PLACE she’s not happy


- INTERCUTS joel not going ahead with naomi. cut forward to that first scene ending. he gets home and calls Naomi.


- ON THE ICE scene where they lay on it. it’s the night they had sex on the ice.


- PATRICK NEAR CLEMS. Joel is there but doesn’t know why. Patrick questions him but plays it off like he wanted a cig.


- AT CLEMS she’s in there hearing a message from patrick trying to see what’s up wit her.


- JOEL WITH CLEM i guess he got her back or something? then she gets mail. it’s the tape of her erasing joel.


then it ends and i think it’s the future after the erasing and they might have a hope going forward??? i read it really fast.