FLASHBACK SCENE 1990's, NORTON SIMON MUSEUM - PARKING LOT - DUSK

The rusted BRITISH RACING GREEN FASTBACK idles in a pool of shadow. The exhaust is a rhythmic, metallic cough.

The pristine Volvo wagon stops ten feet away. 

CHARLENE doesn't even put it in park. SARAH (19) is out before the wheels stop. She moves in a blur of linen, head down, bag clutched to  her chest. She yanks the Fastback’s handle. It groans. She dives in and slams the door.

INT. VW FASTBACK - CONTINUOUS

Kai is already shifting into gear. He doesn't look at Charlene. He doesn't look at the museum.

SARAH

(Breathless)

Go. Just go.

INT. DEAN’S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER -

DEAN MILTON (40s) sits behind a glass desk.

DEAN MILTON

Are you happy here, Kai?

KAI (KENDRICK)

(Leaning back) I’m fucking twenty-two years old, Milton. Everybody here wants to be a ‘fucking director.’

KAI (KENDRICK) (CONT’D)

And then there’s Bob, the Lighting teacher. Walks around with his light meter on his belt like it’s his cock. He’s an old washup. I have my whole life in front of me. I told him I’m going to Arizona. He said the equipment doesn't leave the county.

SCENE: USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS - DAY

KAI (21) walks out of the pristine brick complex. He’s carrying a  heavy equipment bag, but his hands are empty of books. He heads toward the parking lot, his pace slow, deliberate.

To his right, the practice field is a blur of cardinal and gold.  The Trojan football team is running wind sprints. The sound of whistles and the rhythmic thud-thud-thud of cleats on turf fill the air.

Kai stops. He sits on a stone bench, the weight of the bag pulling at his shoulder. He watches them. They are running toward a future he just walked away from.

EXT. ST. LOUIS - DOWNTOWN - NIGHT -

The convention center is a storm of blue lights. SARAH (23) sprints down an alleyway, past the America's Center loading docks. She stops in front of a 2026 PORSCHE TAYCAN TURBO S—black, sleek, and electric. 

It belongs to DEAN MILTON. He’s standing by the door, shouting into his phone. 

SARAH

(Rushing past him)

Milton! Reality just started!

She snatches the key fob from his hand before he can react and dives into the driver's seat. 

DEAN MILTON

(Banging on the glass)

Sarah! That’s a two-hundred-thousand-dollar machine!

SARAH BACKSTORY: THE LANAI REDACTION

EXT. DOLE PINEAPPLE FIELDS – LANAI – DAY

(FLASHBACK)

The heat is humid and smells of fermenting sugar. SARAH (early 30s) walks through the sharp, green rows. She is wearing the BLUE BIKINI with the flower print—the dated relic Larry found in a Google search of her youth.

DAVID (early 20s) walks beside her, kicking a rotted pineapple. He has the unaware confidence of a prince who never had to go to class at USC.

SARAH

(Looking at the monocrop stretching to the horizon). Your father thinks this island is a laboratory.

DAVID

My father thinks he can buy the history he missed. He likes the "Legacy" look on you, Sarah. It makes the simulation feel older.

SARAH

(A whisper, touching the dated fabric). It’s a backlot, David. The water is being siphoned from the aquifer to keep the golf courses green. 

You’re building a Riviera on a foundation of radioactive alfalfa.

DAVID

(A dry, clinical smile)

So what?

SARAH

(Voice tight, accelerating)

I’ve been thinking about MALT. The Marin Agricultural Land Trust.  I think the "Next Gen" isn’t about the data, it’s about the soil. The growing times for radishes, the organic salad turnover in Bolinas...  it’s about the actuality of the food chain.

LARRY stares at her. The "Administrative Shrug" is visible in his silence. He was expecting a marketing strategy for a global database; she’s giving him the Hippie Side of the Peninsula.

LARRY

Radishes?

SARAH

If we don't understand the soil, Larry, the data is just a simulation.

LARRY

(Leaning back, a predatory smile)

You’re smart, Sarah. Too smart for radishes.

GEORGE KNAPP

(Voice steady, clinical)

The 1988 PEPCON disaster was primarily caused by the ignition of approximately 8.5 to 12 million pounds of ammonium perchlorate, a powerful solid rocket fuel oxidizer. The explosion was amplified b y combustible polyethylene-lined plastic drums and residue covering the facility.

(He leans into the lens)

But today, we’re seeing the 'Satirical Logical Conclusion' of that negligence. Our sources at the Zzyzx ridge indicate that the siphoned water currently irrigating the Imperial Valley is carrying

radionuclides that act as a catalyst for the PEPCON residue left in the basin. The 'Administrative Shrug' of the eighties has become the chemical warfare of 2026. The new 'Golden Boy' is building a Riviera on a powder keg.

SARAH Who’s that?

PRESTON (Watching from the rim) It's Gavin Newsom. Governor of the great state of California.

SARAH What’s he doing?

PRESTON Hanging on.

KAI He’s had a challenging news cycle.

Kai steps to the edge. He isn't the "Athlete" playing for a trophy anymore; he is using that young elder strength to bridge the gap. He reaches down, his hand—rough from shop, steady from the lens—grabbing Gavin’s wrist in a vise-grip. With one clinical, grounded heave, Kai pulls the Governor over the lip of the embankment. Gavin collapses into the dust, gasping.

THE SHOT: High-fidelity, sun-bleached. A boutique luxury lot. A Frozen Blue Porsche Taycan (The Simulation) sits idling, its digital dash glowing with a "System Update" prompt. Across from it: A 1958 Silver 356 Speedster (The Reality). Mechanical. Oil-cooled.

KAI (V.O. / Kendrick Cadence): "Trade the battery for the fire, the code for the heat, Leaving Larry’s digital footprint on a dead-end street. The Taycan is a cage made of lithium and lies, But the Speedster’s got the heartbeat that the Shrug denies." SARAH (21) stands at the dealership counter, Prada bucket hat tipped back. She’s on her iPhone, the "Administrative Shrug" in human form. 133

SARAH: "Dean Milton? Hi! No, the Taycan is literally in transit. Yeah. The check is in the mail, Dean. Relax."

THE SHOT: Kai (22) takes the heavy, mechanical key. He tosses the plastic Taycan fob into a trash can. THUD. 

FLASHBACK SCENE 1990’s

CUT TO: EXT. MAYFIELD PRIVATE SCHOOL DANCE - NIGHT

MAYFIELD The air is thick with the subsonic rumble of Iron Butterfly. The bass is a blunt instrument.

SARAH (16) and CHARLENE (15) are crouched under a HONEY MESQUITE TREE at the edge of the asphalt. The smell of the bruised pods is sweet and heavy.

MILLER, a security guard in black leather, stands five feet away, his bike idling low.

MILLER (His voice a low rasp) Nixon lost it because of the shadow. The beard. The camera doesn't care about your policy, girls. It only cares about the actuality of the skin. 

INT. ED’S MERCEDES - LATER The interior of the car is a vault of leather. ED (the investment banker) is a silhouette behind the wheel. The "Simulation" of the drive home.

SARAH Dad? Can we give Charlene a ride?

ED (The Administrative Shrug) It’s out of the way, Sarah.

SARAH (Looking at the "Ike" cursor blinking on her digital watch) 139 Drop her off. It’s the right point to make. 

SCENE 13: THE SONIC BREACH / THE FIREWALL LIQUIDATION

THE SHOT:

Inside the Hoover Dam Penstock Vault. KAI (23) wearing a USC Cinema red T shirt anxiously presses his satellite phone against the massive, sweating steel pipe marked "CZ-INT-2026." He bridges the connection between Carlos Nakai, Native flautist, aka Navy Ghost, and the Subterranean Bypass, They are planning an “interruption of service” at Glen Canyon Dam. upstream.

SOUND:

A low, haunting note begins to bleed through the phone. It’s not just a flute; it’s a 432Hz resonant frequency.

SOUND: 

A low, haunting note begins to bleed through the phone. It’s not just a flute; it’s a 432Hz resonant frequency.

SCENE 14: THE ACOUSTIC TSUNAMI / THE SOVEREIGNTY RUN

THE SHOT: 

Macro Close-Up. The cedar flute in CARLOS NAKAI’S hand. As he hits the low G-sharp, the V-Raptor monitor shows the concrete of Glen Canyon beginning to shimmer with resonant frequency.

SOUND: 

A tectonic CRACK that travels through the Oracle/Ellison grid like a virus.

KAI (into the satellite link, screaming over the rumble):

"It’s working, Carlos! The 'Fake Claim' is splitting! Preston! The lower basin tribes... they have to run for it! The water is coming home, but it’s coming as a war!

1. The Liquidation of the Shrug: The Molecular Flaw

The climax of the modern Western requires that the weightless, virtual camouflage of the “Cloud” be violently collided with the raw thermodynamic limits of the physical world. The transition begins at high-altitude Lidar. The Glen Canyon Dam—the concrete “relic” holding back 26 million acre-feet of Lake Powell—glows a blinding violet-white. The Nakai Vibration has found the molecular flaw. As a deep, subterranean groan echoes and the first massive slab of concrete sloughs into the river, the old world of algorithmic management and defense-related IT plays run out of track.

KUSHNER:

"Sheik, the Glen Canyon dam is breaching. The SEC just finalized the blackout. The Skydance/WBD equity is being liquidated to pay for the geologic disaster. The Saudi finder's fee is gone."

INTERCUT: THE GAZA SHORE

A bus of Israeli international guests disembarks at the World Surfing Championships. They are met with plates of grilled lamb and local wine. The Administrative Shrug that once enforced the wall has been replaced by the Sovereignty of the Surf.

Scene: The Zzyzx Ridge

Under a vast, 432Hz hum of the starlit sky, Kai and Sarah have found the only stable ground left after the Mighty Oak radionuclides and the siphoning of the Black Canyon have liquidated their past lives.

The Silver Speedster is silent now, its engine ticking as it yields its heat to the Mojave night. Sarah has shed the "Administrative Shrug" of the Marlborough rules and the Oracle contracts. 

She isn't the girl who wrote the copy for IKE; she is the woman who finally asked for the radishes.

FLASHBACK SCENE: POO-BAH RECORDS - FAIR OAKS

glass, the neon hums.

KAI

Stay. Don’t touch anything. He’s out. He pushes into the shop.

JAY is behind the counter, already watching the rusted green

shape at the curb.

KAI

Jay. Next door. Mateus Rose.

JAY

(Eyeing the cash)

Mateus? You’re a poet now,

KAI

I’m a poet, Sarah. But in Pasadena, a poet is just a mechanic who forgot to fix the car.

SARAH

(Softly)

Fix me, then.

She moves closer. The rusted springs of the VW seat groan. The

“Athlete” posture vanishes. Kai reaches out, his hand—rough

from shop, steady from the pen—tracing the line of her jaw.

KAI

You aren’t broken. You’re just redacted.

He kisses her. It tastes like Mateus and Mung beans and the

absolute refusal of the world below them. He slips his hand up the linen of her blouse. The actuality of her skin is the only thing that matters.

WHAM.

The white-hot spotlight of the cruiser hammers the glass. The

interior of the Fastback is instantly a sterile, blinding cage.

SARAH

(A sharp, terrified breath)

Kai!

Kai doesn’t pull his hand away immediately. He stays in the heat

of the light for three seconds—three seconds of pure, unblinking

sovereignty—before the “Administrative Shrug” in the uniform

starts to bang on the rusted door.

###

WELCOME TO THE **ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT** FOR A WESTERN DUO OF FEATURE FILMS:

‘“RIDING WITH GERONIMO': A HIP HOP WESTERN, AND “BLACK CANYON: A SOVEREIGN PROMISE.”

WRITTEN BY ROBERT LUNDAHL, WITH PRESTON ARROW-WEED, CONTRIBUTING WRITER.

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Emmy® Award-Winning Documentarian Robert Lundahl Launches Definitive Book and Remastered Film Catalog Following Near-Death Recovery

Famed environmental filmmaker out-creates crisis, releasing 5 books and 5 remastered feature documentaries documenting indigenous resilience and corporate extraction across the American West.

LOS ANGELES, CA — May 30, 2026 — Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and author Robert Lundahl has announced the definitive release of his expanded creative catalog: five books and five fully remastered feature documentaries. The monumental rollout marks a staggering artistic triumph, completed entirely during an intensive, 18-month medical recovery following a near-death injury.

When a severe injury left Lundahl temporarily incapacitated, his career was nearly written off by observers. Instead, Lundahl reclaimed his narrative from the hospital bed. He directed his recovery into an explosion of creative output, authoring five new books — including the acclaimed Reclaiming the West series and Me and Joaquin — while systematically restoring and remastering five of his vital independent documentaries, such as the seminal ecosystem restoration film Unconquering the Last Frontier and Who Are My People?.

“Going back to bring all this history to the forefront again gives it an entirely different meaning,” says Lundahl. “These works are blueprints of survival — not just for the indigenous communities and landscapes I document, but as a personal testament to the fact that the human spirit cannot be easily erased.”

The released and restored collection represents over two decades of uncompromising frontline investigative journalism:

• The Literary Catalog: Spanning five books, including Resistance and Redemption and Me and Joaquin: The True Story of Joaquín Murrieta and Its Meaning Today, exploring the deep-seated realities of Western resource extraction, history, and cultural survival.

• The Remastered Films: Five definitive feature-length documentaries brought to pristine modern digital standards, including Unconquering the Last Frontier (chronicling the historic Elwha River dam removal), Song on the Water, and Who Are My People?.

Lundahl’s works are legally safeguarded and fully copyrighted. The entire literary catalog is currently available globally via Amazon Bookstore. The feature films and companion media assets can be explored directly at the official hubs: Robert Lundahl Books Portfolio and Robert Lundahl Feature Documentaries.

About Robert Lundahl:
Robert Lundahl is an Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker, executive producer, and writer. Known for his raw, cinematic verité approach, Lundahl’s work has been broadcast on PBS, featured via the Pacifica Network, and heavily utilized in corporate accountability and environmental justice litigation for over 44 indigenous tribes.

Media Contact:
Robert Lundahl
Agence RLA
Email: robert@studio-rla.com
Websites: robertlundahl.com | robertlundahl-books.com

RACING THE BILLIONAIRES: The Combined Master Screenplay Edition

A modern, box-office Western thriller in the vein of Howard Hawks' El Dorado. this single-volume masterwork binds the full theatrical scripts for Riding with Geronimo and The Black Canyon into an unyielding, high-velocity cinematic package.

Featuring the direct creative authority of Quechan elder and playwright Preston Arrow-weed, with legendary Indigenous Director Chris Eyre attached to direct, this epic tracks the unvarnished material reality of the modern West. The narrative charts a fierce, multi-racial front of outcasts resisting modern feudal decrees, colliding a 32-gigaton environmental dam reclamation with the forensic, calculated liquidation of the technocratic elite.

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NOTE: The scripts, books, and dialogues associated with this project are registered, human-authored intellectual properties. The accompanying visual storyboards are technical concept layouts engineered specifically to map real-world macroeconomic and infrastructure risks. No automated generation replaces the creative authenticity of this work.

Preston-Arrow-weed, Playwright, Actor, Contributing Author