Breaking Reality
Breaking Reality… Dan Hilton is a normal, British 16 year old who is studying his AS levels at a normal British school. After getting outstanding GCSE results, his parents force him into studying maths, further maths and physics. However, being the really creative person he is, he was allowed to take art. It’s the only lesson where he can express his feelings and be himself, unlike his other more acedemic subjects which he hates with a passion! His over creative mind is forever working not just with the practical stuff in art, but also in his other lessons in a sub-conscience state of uncontrollable daydreams. In these daydreams he exaggerates reality by creating little dream worlds using parts of reality (people, technology, objects, etc). However, it isn’t only in his ‘boring’ lessons that he daydreams… When performing normal day-to-day activities appear to be like a blank canvas for Dans mind as he preserves normal situations which are then converted into over the top situations in his daydreams in an adrenaline-fulled way.
A few days into the school year, Dan bumps into this absolutely stunning girl named Lucy who he instantly falls in love with. He tries to talk to Lucy with every chance he gets but finds his opposition, captain Kev, the captain of the lower sixth football team standing in his way.
With Dans constant situation with talking to Lucy, his mind ends up kicking in thinking of little schemes to actually be able to socialise with Lucy without Kev knowing. In a particular physics lesson Dan comes up with what he thinks is a foolproof plan. This plan is to get Lucys number by taking her mobile from out of her handbag and texting himself and then return the phone without anyone knowing. Yet again, his imagination takes hold during his attempt of doing his plan. As a result of this Dan turns ‘ninja mode’ on and finds himself attempting to break into a high security, heavily guarded facility. He had to make his way to the central computer and send top-secret information back to his own computer and manage to escape without setting off any alarms. However, in reality? He’s just texting himself a simple (!). He succeeds and all of a sudden, he’s back to reality. He rushes to check his phone and there it is, a message from a number he didn’t recognise.
As well as this challenge, he has also been trying to have his subjects changed. He checks the time and a surge of panic goes through Dans mind, he’s late for his meeting to discuss his subjects. In turn, he begins to run towards the common room in search of the head of sixth form, and yet again, his imagination kicks in. This time, as he’s running towards the common room, it turns into a war scene. He can hear a bomb ticking and he realises hes the one to turn it off, but is quickly running out of time. He eventually finds the bomb and defuses it.
Later on that week, Dan’s sat with his friends on the field, its lunch time. He’s sat watching some other students play football while others sit doing work and chatting. One of his friends decides to grab his bag and run off with it. He shoots up and runs after his friend, like any other teenager would do. Running along the field, Dan suddenly finds himself in a plane, flying over London chasing a German helicopter. Zooming between the buildings he eventually manages to catch up. Then, all the other students see a strange child tearing round a field with his arms open wide and making aeroplane noises. All of a sudden, things come to a halt, Dan’s crashed into a barrage balloon, or should i say, Captain Kev.
This quickly brings Dan back down to reality to find Captain Kev towering over him. Then Lucy pokes her head round Kev and gives Dan a little sympathetic wave to say goodbye. Dan picks himself up off of the floor and takes a step back. He raises to full height keeping his eyes fixated on Kev. Yet again, reality appears to make a rush for the exit… the surrounding grass turns brown and seems to disappear beneath Dan’s feet. The only things left? Dan and Kev, stood face to face, in a derelict, western town atmosphere. Kev throws a punch but Dan sees him drawing and evades his attack in a matrix style, he quickly draws and shoots Kev. The single bullet flies towards Kev and hits him between the eyes. As Kev slowly falls and hits the floor, reality zooms back. The grass turns green, the surrounding buildings re-appear and a crowed of students blurred back into view. Dan looks down to find Kev laying unconscious with a broken nose, Lucy by his side. Mesmerised with the crowds reaction on cheering and clapping, Dan’s unable to hear the insults Lucy was shouting at him.
From that moment on, Lucy ignored Dan but surprisingly, he wasn’t bothered. At the end of that lunch he got rewarded with a new timetable featuring art, music, media and theatre.
After exceeding the national average for both AS and A2, Dan got into the University of Art, London. He went on to get a degree and became a world famous, extremely wealthy, film making ladies man.
Moral of the story? Do what you want, do whats best for you. Make your own decisions. No matter what, don’t let anyone else’s opinion change yours. Because of the hybrid genre of this film, action/comedy, the film inspiring the action side of things and oart of the storyline is Sucker Punch and the film inspiring the childish humor and the entire genre idea is Hot Fuzz.
Kelli Ackerman 