Resolution

References

• Choose a New Year’s Theme Versus a Resolution
• Hallmark Cards
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Thanos
• Mr. Right
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Mr. Wrong
• Aerosmith – I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
• Armageddon
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
• Don’t Look Up
• These Final Hours
• The Final Cut
• Jim Carrey
• Liar Liar
• Yes Man
• The Monkey’s Paw
• Ravensburger
• Nobody
• “I” Messages or “I” Statements
• Orienteering
• Japanese Bondage
• Home Alone
• Three-act Structure
• Michael Ironside
• Pedro Pascal
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Materialists
• Nicolas Cage
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
• Sydney Sweeney
• Glen Powell
• Capture the Flag
• Armie Hammer
• Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence

Transcript

[Intro music begins]

[Thomas]
Do they stumble into the orgy pit? And they’re like, “What is this room?”

[Shep]
It’s just crates and crates of baby oil.

[Emily]
Ah, wouldn’t it just be pillows in sunken conversation pits?

[Shep]
How many orgies have you been to?

[Emily]
I imagine most orgies take place in rooms filled with conversation pits and pillows.

[Shep]
Because all orgies take place in the 1970s.

[Thomas]
Yes, that’s right.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. That’s right.

[Intro music]

[Thomas]
Hey there, story fans. Welcome to Almost Plausible, the podcast where we take ordinary objects and turn them into movies. As we head into 2026, many of us have resolutions we’ll be aiming for in the new year. On this episode of the show, we’ll be creating a movie plot with Resolution as the central theme. I’m Thomas J. Brown, and hoping we don’t stay up until midnight recording this are Emily-

[Emily]
Hey, guys.

[Thomas]
And F. Paul Shepard.

[Shep]
I resolve to get our recording done on time.

[Thomas]
That’s good news. Now, “Resolution” could mean many things, and I’m interested to see what ideas our pitches hold. Before we get to the pitches, though, do either of you have a New Year’s resolution you’d be willing to share with our listeners?

[Emily]
I was instructed by a mutual friend a while ago that resolutions often fail because they just don’t work.

[Shep]
Oh, yes, yes.

[Emily]
And themes are a much better way to go. You pick a theme for the year. And I have done that the last three years, and I love it.

[Thomas]
How does themes work?

[Emily]
You pick like-

[Shep]
“This is the year of learning.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Mmm.

[Shep]
“This is the year of art.”

[Emily]
Yep, the one year was a year of Journaling for me and I just kept a lot of different journals. Oh, and one year the theme was Reading. I just was gonna read.

[Shep]
That’s my theme every year. It’s kind of a crippling addiction, actually.

[Emily]
Since I made that my theme, I’ve gotten back into being a reader and now I’m slowly wanting to become a writer. Again.

[Thomas]
If only there were somewhere you could practice writing.

[Emily]
I know!

[Thomas]
Well, Emily, you’re pitching first, so let’s see what themes you have in the writing you’ve created for our show.

[Emily]
All right.

[Shep]
No pressure.

[Emily]
None at all. All right. First up, I have Sophia and Dylan have been sent to an HR retreat to manage a recent conflict at work. They are supposed to find a resolution that will allow their department to continue growing a project the company desperately needs to survive in the market. As they go through workshops, team building, and trust exercises, they discover the resolution might just be acknowledging their attraction to one another.

[Shep]
That’s a bad idea. Don’t do that.

[Thomas]
HR is not gonna be happy. They’re gonna be like, “God damn it, this isn’t what was supposed to happen. It worked too well.”

[Shep]
Unless that is what they wanted to happen. You never know with HR’s machinations.

[Thomas]
Mm. Right. HR knows that they’re attracted to each other and they’re like, “How can we fix this?”

[Emily]
Gotta cut the sexual tension, and the only way to do that is for them to have sex, they’ll realize it’s terrible, and then they’ll move on with their lives.

[Shep]
They’ll realize sex is terrible or they’ll realize sex with each other is terrible. Look, the first time you have sex with a new partner is always the worst time. So-

[Emily]
Sex with each other is terrible. I don’t know. I kept thinking, like, resolve to love, love resolution. Anyway, I had titles.

[Shep]
Oh, no, there’s titles too? What do you need us for? It’s just-

[Thomas]
The theme of the year is writing. Don’t yuck her yum.

[Emily]
That’s right.

[Shep]
You’re right. You’re right. I withdraw my objection.

[Emily]
Also, I’m going to point this out. In a real-world experience, yes, that would be a terrible, terrible idea.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
In the world of rom-com, romance novels, it’s 100% perfection.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
So-

[Thomas]
Look, these are the kind of movies that Hallmark is buying. So-

[Emily]
This is right. That’s right.

[Shep]
What was the Tom Cruise sex party movie?

[Thomas]
Eyes Wide Shut?

[Shep]
Eyes Wide Shut. See, that’s what I picture when you talk about this. You know, they’re on a corporate retreat. Everything is structured and organized. It culminates in a mask on orgy, so-

[Thomas]
That could be a funny moment in the film is like, it seems like it’s this normal retreat. Like HR just found it online and didn’t really research it too much. And they get there and like, everything’s normal ropes courses and all that stuff the first day, and blah, blah, blah. And then the last day it culminates in an orgy. And then Sofia and Dylan are like, “Whoa, what?” “This isn’t what we signed on for.” Oh, then they have to use all the skills they learned to escape the camp because everyone’s trying to sleep with them.

[Shep]
It writes itself.

[Emily]
See? It’s perfect!

[Shep]
Why is this movie not exist? All right, you’re really selling me on it now. I’ve come around.

[Thomas]
Emily, strong start, Emily.

[Shep]
I don’t want to follow this.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Don’t worry, at least one of the next two is going to be like, “What the fuck?” Alright, Lydia is the tie-breaking vote on a resolution that could lead to the end of Global Warming, securing the planet’s health for the future. But causing immediate and deadly consequences to the global population. She must navigate her values and the pull of each side.

[Shep]
So she’s Thanos-snapping half the population. It’s gonna end Global Warming. It’ll also end like Global Hunger.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
I’m kind of on board. All right, you’ve convinced me. Let’s murder half the population, Emily.

[Thomas]
In the last episode, she did say she likes killing people, so-

[Emily]
And for my final pitch: Killing People has lost its charm for Daniel. He no longer gets the same thrill when hunting, torturing, and dismembering victims. As the new year approaches, Daniel is feeling more down in the dumps. After watching a marathon of cheesy holiday movies, he decides to make a resolution for the coming year: He will stop killing and find love.

[Shep]
Okay, I want to do this one. I’ve changed my mind.

[Thomas]
Yes, that sounds very fun.

[Shep]
This is the one I want to do. Oh, no, shit.

[Emily]
This is my favorite one.

[Shep]
I’m thinking of Mr. Right. You guys know the movie Mr. Right?

[Thomas]
Oh yeah.

[Emily]
You’ve talked about it, but I haven’t seen it.

[Shep]
It’s a rom-com.

[Emily]
Is that the one with Ellen DeGeneres?

[Shep]
No.

[Shep]
What? No.

[Emily]
Okay, that’s Mr. Wrong. Never mind.

[Shep]
Yeah, that’s the opposite of this.

[Emily]
Yeah. All right, Thomas, what do you have for us?

[Thomas]
A large asteroid previously catalogued as “not a threat” is suddenly discovered to be on an impact trajectory to Earth. Experts determine the impact will bring an end to civilization as we know it, and life for the survivors will be difficult, to say the least.

[Thomas]
News of the impact breaks early in the new year, and Claire abandons her New Year’s resolutions because what’s the point? In the months that follow the announcement, life on Earth shifts radically. The wealthy move to the far side of the planet and start setting up high-tech, high-security survival bunkers. Unfortunately for Claire, she’s not rich, and she won’t be able to escape the effects of the impact.

[Shep]
Has she thought about pulling herself up by her bootstraps?

[Thomas]
Depressed at facing certain death, Claire decides to make the most of her time left on Earth and pursue her resolutions after all.

[Emily]
“I don’t want to close my eyes. I don’t want to fall asleep…”

[Shep]
Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don’t have the rights for that. Shut it down. Shut it all down.

[Emily]
I like that it is a good mix of Armageddon and Day After Tomorrow.

[Shep]
And Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and Don’t Look up and-

[Thomas]
And there’s that Australian one that I can’t remember the name of.

[Emily]
I don’t know the Australian one.

[Thomas]
Everyone dies at the end.

[Shep]
That doesn’t narrow down. It’s Australian movies.

[Thomas]
All right, my other pitch is: A government-funded tech startup develops cutting-edge memory resolution technology to sharpen blurry recollections into actionable evidence. A subcontractor discovers that a high-profile politician’s memories have been subtly edited.

[Thomas]
And restoring the original resolution may ignite a national crisis.

[Emily]
Bum bum BUM! I like that one.

[Thomas]
It does remind me a bit of Final Cut, but-

[Emily]
Yeah, I’m not familiar with that one. I like that use of resolution, though.

[Thomas]
I liked your uses of resolution as well, Emily. Let’s see what uses of resolution Shep has.

[Shep]
Okay, I will overthrow the French monarchy! Wait, that’s a revolution. All right, here’s actual resolutions: I will stop being late. I will finish what I start. I will be more economical. These are regular New Year’s resolutions.

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Shep]
I was thinking Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, where he can’t tell lies anymore, or Jim Carrey in Yes Man, where he has to say yes to what- I guess Jim Carrey did a bunch of these. So what if, like in Liar Liar, magical reality takes over and makes the resolutions have to be fulfilled.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
So “I will stop being late.” A punctuality challenge person makes a resolution to always be on time, but events keep conspiring to keep them just a bit behind their planned schedule. So they start showing up earlier and earlier to the point of absurdity. Imagine showing up like a day before a party because you can’t be late. Or “I will finish what I start.” Like say you have a reputation for always giving up part way with lame excuses. So you resolve to do better, but you can’t control everything. Like you have this 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and it turned out to be missing the last few pieces. And also it’s out of print. So you can’t just buy a second one. So some things can’t be finished even when you want to, right? So, or is that another lame excuse? Or is resolving to always finish everything just the sunk cost fallacy?

[Thomas]
That sounds like a good lesson in that one.

[Shep]
Right. Or alternatively, like these could all be one thing. Let’s say there are friends at a New Year’s party and each one makes a resolution and then they all come true. So instead of like being compelled to show up earlier and earlier so you can’t be late, no matter what happens, you won’t be late. So you’re on your way to a meeting, but there’s an accident in the tunnel and the road is closed and there’s absolutely no way to get there. Coincidentally, you run into an old friend who happened to park next to you and they have a helicopter and they’re rich and they happen to be going to the same building. And so you catch a ride with them. And it’s like, what are the odds of that?

[Thomas]
Oh man, I went dark with it. I thought the person involved in the wreck was the person you were going to supposed to go meet. That was like the client. And so it doesn’t matter because the meeting’s not happening anyway.

[Shep]
Oh, that, you’re right. That is a very dark- That’s a monkey’s paw take on if they don’t show up on time, people die.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Oh, well, that’s what I was gonna ask.

[Thomas]
Oh, no.

[Emily]
What’s the consequence of them not completing the resolution? Is death on the line?

[Shep]
Well, because I said mentioned Liar Liar, he couldn’t tell lies.

[Emily]
Right, right.

[Shep]
Actually, he could say things that weren’t true if he believed they were. So.

[Thomas]
Yeah, it’s interesting because we’re sort of looking at two different possibilities here. Either it is not within their ability to go against their resolution, or if they don’t keep their resolution, the act of them, for example, choosing to not show up on time to something, like, “It’ll be fine” and running behind, changes the universe. So like their actions or inactions are changing the universe.

[Shep]
Yeah, this one won’t be too complicated.

[Emily]
I like it, though.

[Thomas]
I do like it. It’s a great idea.

[Emily]
I really like the puzzle piece one, like they literally have until the end of the year to finish this 5,000-piece puzzle, but it’s out of print, and they have to find maybe an artist that can match it.

[Shep]
Oh, geez.

[Emily]
But the colors are like-

[Thomas]
They have to go find Walter P. Ravensburger and-

[Shep]
Take the box to a printing place, blow up the image on the front of the box, tell it’s the size of the puzzle…

[Emily]
But the resolutions won’t match, and it’s just off a little bit.

[Shep]
Ah, that’s where “Resolution” comes back in. All right, that’s all I have. Which one of these are jumping out at us?

[Thomas]
The killer who wants love, obviously, like.

[Shep]
I really don’t want that one, but it’s kind of Mr. Right, except from the killer’s perspective.

[Thomas]
It is, yeah. Right.

[Shep]
The more I’m thinking about it, the more I like it. Oh, no, that’s Nobody. So I’m thinking like a guy, he resolves not to kill, but like events are conspiring. You know, his new girlfriend gets kidnapped, and he has the ability to go in and absolutely murder every. That’s Mr. Right again. God damn it.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
This is hard.

[Thomas]
I will say now the more that we’re talking about this, that is basically every like reformed assassin movie is like, “Oh, I used to kill people, but now I don’t want to, but now I have to.”

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
So this HR retreat.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Is that the next choice, really?

[Thomas]
I think so.

[Shep]
Yes, yeah.

[Thomas]
It’s funny.

[Shep]
You guys really brought me around on it.

[Thomas]
Well, and regardless of how we do the assassin one, it flirts with storylines that have been told over and over and over again.

[Emily]
This is true.

[Thomas]
So.

[Emily]
There’s no new ideas, people.

[Shep]
I mean, I can’t remember a movie about an HR retreat that turns into an orgy.

[Thomas]
Well, hold on. This HR one seems, yeah.

[Emily]
There’s no orgy in my pitch.

[Shep]
It was between the lines.

[Emily]
Okay, HR one?

[Thomas]
Okay. So are Sophia and Dylan, are they butting heads at work?

[Emily]
Yeah, they have come up with some kind of conflict. I think they each want to run the project in a different direction and are both adamant that this direction is what’s going to make it succeed. And they come to not blows, metaphorical blows over it in the middle of the office.

[Thomas]
Not yet, they don’t.

[Emily]
So they would end up, shouting match in the hall.

[Thomas]
Right, there’s an incident that gets HR involved.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Sure. So I had sort of joked earlier about HR just quickly googling a retreat for these two to go on and not really researching it very much, but I feel like that’s the kind of thing that would happen in a movie that would lead to exactly this situation.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So do we like that idea?

[Emily]
It’s a startup, so they don’t have the greatest HR department, right?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
They’re lucky they have an HR department.

[Thomas]
Are Sophia and Dylan the reason an HR department is being formed?

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
I was thinking it’s a startup, and so one of their investors knows of this team-building retreat and like pushes it on the employees because they get off on it.

[Emily]
So they want all of the employees to go, but they end up sending Dylan and Sophia first to sort of the experiment.

[Shep]
Or they can send more employees. Like, who says it’s got to be just these two that know each other? It could have their supervisors are there.

[Emily]
The development team.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
I like that. So maybe it’s the startup and the investor just wants to send the whole company, and it’s revealed that they have this conflict and people are like, “Well, now we can get to the root of this” rather than their conflict being the inciting incident.

[Shep]
Ah, so they’re going for a team building exercise. The team is going for a team building exercise.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And the rest of the team is like, “Thank goodness, because these two are a problem and we need to work it out.”

[Emily]
“Have problems.” Yes.

[Shep]
And so one of the things they do, they have circle meetings. They’re like, “Does anyone have anything they want to talk about?” And everyone brings up the problem. And they don’t see it as a problem. They know they’re competitive with each other, but that’s just business, baby. You know, it’s no big deal.

[Emily]
And their competition makes them better at what they do.

[Shep]
Yeah, “No, it doesn’t. You guys keep sabotaging each other’s projects. And so we’re hemorrhaging money. You two need to stop.”

[Thomas]
So, like, anytime the retreat organizers are like, “Oh, you need to pair up,” everyone quickly pairs up, leaving only them so they have to work together?

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Do we see a scene early on? Like, does the movie start in the office and there’s a conflict and something happens, we see it has a negative effect on the company. So we establish right away that like, hey, these two, you know, they’re always sort of causing problems for each other and the company.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Maybe there’s an investor who’s coming in and they cause a problem.

[Shep]
They have clients. So one of them was working on a project that the client had requested.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
And then in one of the late meetings, the other one pitches them a different direction to take, and the client agrees. So all of the first project is just wasted time. And they have to start over on the new project. They basically undermined them. And they could have said, they could have pitched that earlier and saved them time, but their goal isn’t to save them time. It’s to set this team behind.

[Thomas]
Right, make the other person look bad.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Yeah, okay.

[Emily]
All right.

[Shep]
And they’re like, “What could I do?” Like, “That’s what the client wanted. So it’s not on me.” So each one thinks they’re doing good and also making the other person look bad, but like they’re actually contributing, but everyone else sees it as hindering everything.

[Thomas]
Now, do they actually fight with each other?

[Emily]
I think at one point it would be nice to see them in like the row of cubicles or conference room or something just having a giant shouting match. Or do we want to save that for like the talking circle at the retreat?

[Thomas]
Yeah, the talking circle’s got to be like some hippie-dippy, you hold a stick and you like calmly, quietly, you know, use your “I statements” or whatever.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And they’re like both yanking the stick back and forth and getting louder and louder. And the hippie like organizer person is like, “Now we need to calm down and” blah, blah, blah.

[Shep]
How do rainsticks work?

[Thomas]
I don’t know. They’re full of stuff.

[Emily]
Yeah, they have like beads/seeds/coffee beans.

[Shep]
Okay, so that’s the speaking tool at the circle.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
It’s you hold the rainstick, and so they’re fighting over it, and it breaks, and whatever those beads or pebbles or whatever goes spilling out onto the floor. Each blames the other, of course, because if the other person had let go, it would not have broken.

[Thomas]
Of course.

[Shep]
They’re both right that if only one of them had let go, it would have been less destructive, but it takes two to tear apart the rainstick.

[Emily]
Right, right.

[Shep]
So they are both at fault.

[Emily]
Do they at some point get locked in a room or closet and aren’t allowed out until ooh, a sauna. They’re locked into a sauna and they’re not allowed out. Yes, this is dangerous and awful. So it’s a sauna and it’s an escape room and they have to work together to get out of it.

[Shep]
I had a very similar thought. It’s like, it’s a “peace box”, but it’s basically those military isolation boxes in the sun.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
And there’s two of them. So each one is in a box by themselves, but they can still talk to each other. So they can yell at each other and resolve to, you know, not settle their dispute till the other one is destroyed.

[Emily]
But they’re gonna bone before the orgy or-

[Shep]
No, they got a bone at the end after the orgy.

[Emily]
At the end after the orgy?

[Thomas]
Yeah, I think escaping the orgy is like what really brings them together. That’s what unites them. They realize they have to work together.

[Emily]
Okay. Okay.

[Shep]
And also, Dylan can be like, “Well, maybe we’ll just go to the orgy. Like, it’s not going to be that bad, is it?”

[Thomas]
What are some of the other exercises that happen at the retreat that they ruin?

[Shep]
You mentioned the ropes course earlier.

[Emily]
Yeah, so how do they spectacularly destroy that?

[Thomas]
Yeah. I mean, I think it probably depends on the course that filming takes place at, but there’s got to be some way of… Oh, you know what? There’s always one of those like rope ladder net things that you got to scramble up.

[Emily]
Oh, yeah.

[Thomas]
And so they’re like, they’re both going up at the same time. They’re trying to cause problems for the other one. And maybe they’re so focused on trying to get each other to fall off that some other person passes them.

[Shep]
Right, it’s tortoise and hare.

[Thomas]
Is there a third team that just like does their fucking job and-

[Shep]
Yeah, it’s the engineers, and they’re all united-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
And that’s where all the nerds are. So, like, any escape room stuff, the engineers solve it in five minutes. So, imagine that. You’re on the ropes course, and you get passed by the engineers. That’s embarrassing.

[Emily]
Especially since Dylan was a like national champion runner or something.

[Thomas]
Dylan and Sophia are both like A-type, athletic, whatever, and the engineers are not like super obese.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
They’re just not athletic. They’re-

[Shep]
They’re skinny. You can be scrawny. You don’t have to be obese to be an engineer.

[Thomas]
My point is they’re not particularly athletic or active or anything. They sit at their desks and work.

[Shep]
Yeah. And yet they are winning all of the outdoor activities.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Okay, how about hiking or what’s it called when you’re like navigating you have a map and a compass?

[Emily]
Orientating?

[Shep]
Orienteering.

[Emily]
Orienteering, yeah.

[Thomas]
There we go.

[Shep]
Yes, yes. Thank you. So the two of them are on a team and they have a map and a compass. One has the map, one has the compass. And they can’t coordinate with each other and they get lost.

[Thomas]
Yeah, is it that sort of thing where like the organizers drop off pairs at various places around camp and you have to navigate your way back?

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And then maybe there’s like a flare that they shoot up to say, “Okay, everyone go.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
He starts going before the flare goes off because he’s a business bro and he’s like, “The rules don’t apply to me.”

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
“I’m in it to win it.”

[Emily]
“No one’s gonna know. how would they know?”

[Thomas]
Yeah, there’s no one around. Is there a scavenger hunt as well?

[Shep]
Yes! Scavenger hunt was going to be my next suggestion. That’s the one where they discover clues about what’s coming up-

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Shep]
Because they’re in places they shouldn’t be in because they think that’s part of the scavenger hunt, but they’ve misunderstood the clues. Like there’s this locked room.

[Thomas]
Do they stumble into the orgy pit? And they’re like, “What is this room?”

[Shep]
It’s just crates and crates of baby oil.

[Emily]
Ah, wouldn’t it just be pillows in sunken conversation pits?

[Shep]
How many orgies have you been to?

[Emily]
I imagine most orgies take place in rooms filled with conversation pits and pillows.

[Shep]
Because all orgies take place in the 1970s.

[Thomas]
Yes, that’s right.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. That’s right.

[Thomas]
Do I get lost doing the scavenger hunt?

[Shep]
Yeah, that’s how they end up in the wrong place.

[Emily]
Do they put together that it’s an orgy room or are they just like, “What the fuck?” and then back away and it’s just a preview for us for later. Because we know, obviously, by looking at it, it’s an orgy room. So then later when the orgy’s there, we’re like, “Ah, see, I knew it.”

[Thomas]
So, like, realistically, no one’s going to send an entire company to go have an orgy with each other.

[Emily]
No.

[Thomas]
So maybe there’s, this is just like a campground, like a large campground area with lots of different structures. And this is a structure at the campground. And there’s another group that is an orgy group, and they’re going to be there the same weekend.

[Shep]
Ah, so this is the Eyes Wide Shut group, and the buildings happen to be next to each other.

[Thomas]
Yes. Well, they’re in the same property. So somehow they end up over the…

[Emily]
They use the same ropes course, and the same sauna escape rooms.

[Shep]
All right.

[Thomas]
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Our camp has a conference room, and their camp has an orgy room.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
That’s where the difference is.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah. Group A is booked into the business center. Group B is booked into the “conversation pit”.

[Shep]
Okay, group B, are they all famous people? Because we’re assuming they’re wealthy Eyes Wide Shut types. So Dylan could like recognize some of the people that are showing up.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Maybe not like celebrities, but they’re like powerful business people.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And Sophia and Dylan, both being aspirational business people themselves, recognize like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so-and-so. He’s a billionaire.”

[Shep]
Maybe this is why they go to that building. They’re like, “We got to sneak in and make contacts with these people.”

[Emily]
Hmm. So they essentially abandoned the scavenger hunt to follow these guys.

[Thomas]
Right, like during the orienteering, they’ve caught sight of like helicopters or something. They’re like, “What is going on? Is there a forest fire?” And they realize, “Oh no, it’s like billionaires arriving.”

[Shep]
So they break in, they discover the orgy pit, and like the rows and rows of cloaks and hoods.

[Thomas]
Yes. Surely there’s a cloakroom, right?

[Shep]
Yeah, and a mask room and a-

[Thomas]
Right. I do like the idea of like, there’s just a locker room, and inside of each locker, there’s a cloak and a mask, you know, a hood and a mask. And they’re like, “What is this?” Oh, maybe one of them puts it in the mask- Dylan puts the mask on. He’s like, “Haha.” And he’s goofing off with it, and then later he’s like, she’s like, “That touched your face.” And he’s like, “Don’t remind me.”

[Emily]
That would be amazing.

[Thomas]
Each mask is a different animal or something like that.

[Shep]
Yes. Traditionally.

[Thomas]
And so there’s some person they see who’s wearing the whatever mask Dylan had. He’s like, “Oh no.”

[Shep]
So they get caught, and these powerful people don’t want their secret rendezvous to get out.

[Thomas]
Hmm. Yes.

[Shep]
And so they tie them up. They’re like, “What are we going to do with them? Let’s have the orgy and then we’ll figure this out.”

[Thomas]
Right, “We’re not going to reschedule the orgy. Well, we only have the room tonight.”

[Shep]
Right. And also, you know, you have that post-nut clarity where you can really think clearly about what you need to do.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, let’s take a break here.

[Shep]
Oh, geez.

[Thomas]
And when we come back, we’ll find out what happens for Sophia and Dylan in our episode about Resolution?

[Shep]
Oh, that’s right. I forgot what the episode was about.

[Thomas]
We’ll have to tie it back when we return.

[Emily]
Conflict resolution.

[Shep]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Conflict resolution. Okay.

[Break]

[Thomas]
All right, we are back. Sophia and Dylan have been captured by the billionaires because they’ve discovered the billionaires are about to have an orgy. Presumably they’re tied up somewhere.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Some of the billionaires might be tied up, but Sophia and Dylan definitely are.

[Shep]
Sophia and Dylan are tied up in the cloakroom.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
Some of the billionaires are handcuffed, but that’s in the orgy room.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So right before they get caught, they are starting to bond. You know how movie structures, you see this in all the movies.

[Thomas]
Totally. Yeah.

[Shep]
They’re like coming together. They are compatible with each other. They’re very similar. And if they could just get on the same wavelength and help each other and boost each other, they would be wildly successful.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And just as that’s happening, they get caught. They get captured. And this causes a fight. But now they are tied up in the cloakroom together, hearing the whole orgy going on right outside. And they have plenty of time to talk to each other and work it out. And I imagine Sophia is the one that gets out of her knots.

[Thomas]
Hmm. Do we, every once in a while, cut back to their teams, like their company employees? And people are like, “Where did they go?” And like their team, both of their teams are doing better for them not being there.

[Shep]
So I had a thought about that too. Thank you for reminding me. This is day two or this is later on in the retreat.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So at the beginning, they’re on separate teams and they’re competing against each other and the people organizing it see who has conflicts and pairs up people for later.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So they are on the same team at this point.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So you can see their former teams are doing much better. So I imagine this was either during the orienteering or the scavenger hunt or those were the same activity.

[Thomas]
Yeah, could be.

[Shep]
But there’s a reason they don’t have their cell phones with them because that would make both of those things too easy. So they’ve confiscated everyone’s cell phones. That explains why they couldn’t just call for help and why they couldn’t just find their way. Anyway, so that’s the situation that they’re in. And so yeah, you can cut back to the rest of the company and how they’re doing. Like they’re really coming together. Like the teams are, I don’t know. Or maybe it would be funnier if the teams are really falling apart without these two being the lightning rods to catch all of the aggression and frustration that everyone else is feeling.

[Thomas]
Other people have just sort of slipped into the antagonist roles.

[Shep]
There’s no reason this company needed this team building exercise, except for the engineers that are just doing spectacularly. So they work out their differences. She gets out of her knots. She unties him. He keeps trying to break the ropes with strength. And it’s like, “That’s not going to-“

[Thomas]
It’s just tightening the knots even further.

[Shep]
Yes. It’s like, “Oh, I can’t feel my fingers.” So.

[Thomas]
Oh, it’s all Shibari that they’ve been tied up with.

[Shep]
That’s funny if you don’t explain it, but like, because it’s an orgy, those are the only knots they know how to tie.

[Thomas]
Yes. Yeah. And like, yeah, don’t explain it. It’s just if you know what Shibari ropes look like, you see it and you’re like, “Oh.”

[Shep]
And Dylan’s kind of into it. Like, this is awakening a whole thing for him. So they have to sneak out. Like, the orgy is winding down. People are passing out. The cocaine’s wearing off. You know how orgies are.

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Shep]
So they got to sneak out without waking people up, or they try to sneak out and they do wake people up. And now they’re being pursued by billionaires in cloaks and masks.

[Thomas]
Yes, perfect.

[Shep]
That’s as far as I got in the break that we were on.

[Thomas]
Okay. So I like the idea that this happened during the orienteering. Perfect excuse for them not to have their phones and get lost and come across this other building that is on the grounds where their retreat is happening. It also gives us something to use to show that they’re working together because they’re going to have to do the orienteering to get back to the camp. So they’ve got to figure out where they are. They’ve got to figure out how to get back. They have to work together. And then, you know, they go through the ropes course and they use the stuff they were sort of taught but didn’t use in the ropes course because they were too busy like trying to screw each other over. They use that to their advantage to escape or maybe ensnare some of the billionaires.

[Shep]
Right, it can be as Kevin McAllister as you want at this point.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Depends on how silly you want to go for it.

[Thomas]
So there needs to be some moment where it seems like they’ve been caught again and can’t escape. Any ideas what that might be?

[Shep]
Oh, they get back to, they get near where their camp is.

[Thomas]
Sure, they can see the lodge building.

[Shep]
Right. And they hear someone go, “There you are!” And it’s one of their team people.

[Thomas]
That feels like… What is the end, I guess, of the movie?

[Shep]
They bone. I’m sorry. What?

[Thomas]
The next day, they sneak off back to the “conversation pit” after all the billionaires have left.

[Emily]
No, no, no, no, no. They don’t know the cleaning service has been there yet.

[Thomas]
That’s a good point. Like, do we see them going back to the office? Do we see the any more of… Like, I guess, does it go past this night?

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Emily]
Well, yeah.

[Shep]
Okay. Here’s an idea. While they were gone, like you said, the teams are doing phenomenally well. And it turned out all the company’s problems were these two people. And once they were separated from them, everything was like a well-oiled machine. I don’t know why that phrasing. So they’re fired. They’re fired.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Like the higher-ups are like, “You guys are the problem.” So they don’t know what to do. And they’re like, “Well, maybe we could go into business together.” And like, “I don’t know about that.” But then one of the billionaires hires them. Like, “Hey, you can come work for me and also keep my secret.”

[Thomas]
Right, the billionaire has the resources to track them down.

[Shep]
Right. So that’s the “happy ending”.

[Thomas]
Do they actually have jobs? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Or is it just being paid to shut up?

[Shep]
I think actual jobs, because they like doing what they do.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I mean, that’s how it seemed in my mind at the beginning.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So then how does that evening end? They escape from the billionaires. Is there like a false success? Like they think they’ve escaped everyone. They can see the lodge and then they are caught one more time. Like what is that lowest low moment?

[Shep]
The lowest low is when they’re tied up in the cloakroom.

[Thomas]
So is the mid-second act turning point discovering the orgy? Is the mid-second act turning point when they get paired up with each other?

[Shep]
I did not put the three-act structure in my brain at all thinking about any of this. So you take your labels and you put them on.

[Emily]
You tell us.

[Shep]
Yeah, you have a degree in this. So I don’t know. If you need a poem repaired, I can help. If you need to figure out where the three-act structure goes, ah, I’m out of my depth.

[Thomas]
Well, it feels like it. It feels like that would be a good turning point for the film where they have to work together.

[Emily]
That makes sense, yeah.

[Thomas]
Previously, they’ve always been like antagonistic, but they’ve had that separation. And then in fact, I like the idea that this is day two. And like you said, the first day, the organizers are assessing, sort of watching what’s going on and assessing. And then day two, they’re like, “And now we’re going to put the problem people together.” And so, yeah, that’s where everything shifts. Their problems escalate further because they’re not just working against each other, but they’re supposed to be working together. So they really can’t get anything done.

[Shep]
Right. So each of them has an assistant. So when they’re at the company, that’s who they’re talking to.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
That’s the kind of audience surrogate. This is how we get some exposition of what’s going on.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that’s good.

[Shep]
It’s not just them on their own. They have an assistant. So when they get paired up, their assistants get paired up. And their assistants work really well together. So that’s like who’s going to fill their slot.

[Emily]
Take their place.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Who do the engineers get paired up with? Because we established that the engineers work well with each other.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So who do they get paired up with, that would be funny? The sales department, the art department.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Yes. Both of those, actually. Because sales is always overpromising, which pisses off engineering.

[Emily]
Uh-huh.

[Thomas]
And the art department, they’re precious about their designs.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And engineering is like, “But that’s not realistic.”

[Shep]
Yep.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Thomas]
But like, it comes out during the like rainstick circle that these are everyone’s frustrations. But like sales and engineering and art are all very like, “Well, you know, we are very frustrated, blah, blah, blah. It upsets me when I feel like my work isn’t appreciated when blah, blah, blah.” And then Sophia and Dylan get the rainstick and start yelling.

[Emily]
Yeah. “You did this, and you…” It’s you, you, you.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Right. “I feel bad that you’re such an idiot.” I feel like we need to see a little bit more with the billionaires.

[Emily]
Hmm. Besides just the orgy and the nudity?

[Thomas]
Yeah, because we want Sophia and Dylan to be excited. Like, at first, they’re…

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Thomas]
It’s not like they’re just immediately spotted by billionaires, and that’s the first interaction. Like, they see them and like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so-and-so.”

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
“That’s so-and-so. They’re so powerful. This is great.”

[Emily]
So, yeah, like you said, why they’re out orienteering, they hear the helicopters come over.

[Thomas]
And so, like, they assume, “Oh, that must be where we’re going.”

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Shep]
There is some event going on there.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah. “If we can get back there, yeah, we’ll figure out how to get back to the lodge. Let’s just get out of the woods.”

[Emily]
“Maybe if we get there first, we get a helicopter tour of the lake or something.”

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So they’re in the building. They’re like with the staff peeking through the doors, like the caterers or whatever. Because, you know, the best orgies are catered. We all know that.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Uh, yeah.

[Shep]
I think they have to talk to one of the billionaires. They try to make contact with one of the billionaires for business purposes.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
And the billionaire is confused. Like, who are these people? Are they on the list? Like, they were invited. Maybe they’re new billionaires. And this is their first time. And he’s going to show them the “ropes”. I’m putting ropes in quotation marks. If you know what I mean. And then they discover that these are just two trespassers. So that’s our billionaire at the end that hires them because they already recognize them. They know who they are.

[Thomas]
Right. And we’ve established that person for the audience.

[Shep]
Right. Plus, you need just one speaking role for the billionaire.

[Thomas]
Right. You get like Michael Ironside or somebody.

[Shep]
No, it’s who’s the guy that’s in everything? He’s in the Fantastic Four movie.

[Emily]
Pedro Pascal?

[Shep]
Pedro Pascal.

[Emily]
He plays a good billionaire.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Yeah, he’d fit that role well. He would have that like half-restrained excitement. “Are you guys excited for the orgy?” You know, like, they’re like, “The what?”

[Emily]
He played a serious version of a billionaire in the Materialists, and he did that role fairly well.

[Shep]
Oh, yeah. Wasn’t he in the Nicholas Cage movie as Nicholas Cage’s biggest fan?

[Emily]
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, that’s right.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Shep]
Wasn’t he a billionaire in that as well?

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So he could do it. So let’s cast this.

[Thomas]
Perfect.

[Shep]
He’s our billionaire guy.

[Thomas]
So who is Sophia and Dylan then?

[Emily]
Not Sidney Sweeney-

[Thomas]
I was just going to say, Emily, we are on the same wavelength tonight.

[Emily]
But maybe Glen Powell. I’m not opposed to Glen Powell.

[Thomas]
Is he too old?

[Emily]
He might be. Yeah.

[Thomas]
I feel like we need like late 20s or somebody who can play late 20s or maybe early 30s.

[Emily]
Late twenties.

[Shep]
Some up-and-coming actors for the orgy movie.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Right. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know young actors.

[Shep]
Right. That’s a problem for the casting director.

[Thomas]
Casting director, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
What are we missing? What story beats do we not have?

[Thomas]
I guess the one thing I don’t have a great sense of is that like escalating danger or conflict or whatever in the third act, or like what really happens in the second half of the second act, which is a common problem when screenwriting. That’s one of the hardest parts to write.

[Shep]
Now again, I don’t know what the parts are. What is the second half of the second act?

[Thomas]
So that’s after, in our structure, the way we’ve set things up, it’s after they are set off to go orienteering together. That’s the mid-second act turning point. And so it would be from that point until they are tied up, which is, we’ve said, is the lowest low. So that would be the end of the second act is them tied up.

[Shep]
Okay, so you have their orienteering misadventures. They can’t coordinate.

[Thomas]
Yep.

[Shep]
One has the map, one has the compass. They won’t communicate with each other. Maybe they even go off separate directions.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Shep]
But then how do they find each other? Oh, each one sees the helicopter. And so they like, “Oh, I know where to go.” And so they run back into each other at that building. And they’re like, “Are we supposed to like sneak in?” Like, it’s a challenge. These are all challenges.

[Thomas]
Ah, yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
So we got to think about this logically because they can see someone’s checking IDs at the gate or something. And so like, “Oh, this is the challenge. Like, they really went, this is way more high budget than the rope course from yesterday. So like, we’re really getting our money’s worth.” And they see the catering van. So they break into the catering van and put on-

[Thomas]
Right. Maybe with the instruction they were given as part of this is that they have to like get back into, they have to sneak into the lodge without being caught by the organizers. And there’s some sort of idol or some something they have to get. It’s a capture the flag type of thing, right? You’re trying to get this thing. If you’re the first team who can get this thing, then you win. And so, yeah, they see the other side of the campground and they think, “Ah, this is part of it.”

[Shep]
Right, this all makes sense that it’s a high security theme if we’re breaking in to get the golden idol.

[Thomas]
And they’re not told, “You’re coming back to the lodge.” They’re just told, “Get back to, you know, the X on your map.” And they don’t know how to read a map. They live in the city.

[Emily]
And they’re Gen Z.

[Shep]
Right, they’re in their 20s.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Who knows how to read a topographical map?

[Shep]
So back in the day, everybody knew how to read maps. It was just standard knowledge before GPS.

[Thomas]
And so when they get there, they think, “Now we know where we are in the map. Here’s the X is where we’re going. We’re obviously here.” So then later, that information comes in handy in the third act.

[Shep]
Oh, because it’s around the same lake. So it’s like the lake is on the map.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
This is next to the lake. This must be the place.

[Thomas]
So then they realize, “Ah, no, the X is the lodge.”

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
“That’s where we’re trying to go. Oh, we’re at this other structure over here on the other side of the lake.”

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
“There’s the ropes course. Okay, now we know where we are and where we need to go.”

[Shep]
So after they’re tied up, after they’re captured, like some of the billionaires, have got to be talking about just icing these two.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
That’ll solve the secrecy problem permanently.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
That’s what inspires them to escape and not just sit there and wait for everything to be over.

[Shep]
Right. Right. “If we stay, we die.”

[Emily]
Do they overhear that conversation or do they make the assumption that, you know, there’s no way they’re going to let us out of here knowing what we know?

[Thomas]
They probably need to hear something. And maybe early in the movie, we establish that one of the billionaires is being investigated because some person disappeared.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
And I don’t know. I don’t know.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
Oh, could we get, could we uncancel Armie Hammer and come back and like lean into the cannibalism? I mean, I think that would be extra funny. That would be really good casting.

[Emily]
It would really be funny.

[Thomas]
I think it’d be very funny. Would he go for it is the question.

[Shep]
No, no, well, I mean, he hasn’t made a movie in a long time, so.

[Emily]
If we offer him enough money, I’m sure he would.

[Shep]
No, no, make him beg to have a role again.

[Thomas]
So yeah, the third act is basically after they escape, it’s just all of the trying to get back, trying to escape. You know, they go through all the stuff that we saw earlier in day one.

[Shep]
Right. Because they’re making their way around the lake, and that’s where all the stuff is.

[Thomas]
Yeah. And so they’re using the knowledge they gained from earlier in the film to help them escape the billionaires, tie up the billionaires, trip up the billionaires, whatever. Elude the billionaires. And then, yeah, just as they’re about to get back to the lodge, “I found you.” And it’s their boss who fires them. They don’t even go back into the lodge.

[Shep]
So, do they get together at the end as a couple or not? I guess I’m not completely clear.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that’s a good question.

[Emily]
This is an excellent question. We established that they start their own thing together. Is that what we decided?

[Shep]
See, I don’t know. I’m hesitant.

[Thomas]
So either they get paid off by the billionaire and then they take that money and start their own business as partners, but not like life partners, or they end up as life partners working for the billionaire, doing kind of whatever they want.

[Emily]
Okay. How would we segue this into romance? Like, I get how we’ve segued them into being able to work together.

[Shep]
You’re right. So, maybe we couldn’t segue it into a romance, and it’s not a rom-com.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
It’s just a com.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
Do we see this cycle restart?

[Shep]
So, each one is now unemployed, but they are friendly with each other. So, they’re keeping in contact. And each one is like, “Oh, I have news.” Like, “Oh, I have news too.” The billionaire has contacted them separately and hired them.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
And then they realize they are again competing at a company. They’re not on the same team. They’re on separate teams. So you can see the glimmer of like, oh, it’s all going to happen again.

[Thomas]
I like that.

[Shep]
Nothing is solved.

[Emily]
I like the idea of them texting and saying, “Oh, I have good news.” “Oh, I do too.” And then they both type, “I got a job!” And then they’re like, “Oh, what do you start?” “Oh, I start next week.” “I start tomorrow.” You know, that thing. And then they show up and see each other there.

[Shep]
Right. They’re making plans to get together for lunch to celebrate their new employment.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And they’re like, “Oh, where are you?” “I’m downtown, Seattle,” or whatever. Like, “Oh, me too. So great. We’ll have lunch.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So they don’t know until they’re at work.

[Emily]
Yeah. Until they get in in the morning and are at the same meeting with the CEO who’s like, “Hey.”

[Shep]
Yeah. “Have you met Dylan?”

[Thomas]
That’s great. Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode about Conflict Resolution, I guess.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
Oh, I had an idea about that during the break and I forgot. Like, one of her New Year’s resolutions was to be more open-minded or to try to get along or whatever. Like you can tie it back in and she’s like trying to work on it, but he is such a jerk. He makes it really hard. So I’m saying you could work it into the, that’s a problem for the writers, but like.

[Emily]
Yeah, well, I think we have conflict resolution in here because they do have to work together in order-

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
The team building works for them, not in the same way it worked for everyone else, but it works.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
And then the actual team has resolution because getting rid of them resolves that problem and they are able to go forward in their company.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Also, the map is too small. It needs to be higher resolution.

[Emily]
Yep, high resolution.

[Shep]
They can complain about that.

[Thomas]
Right, it’s like printed out on a printer, and it’s kind of the lines are all jaggedy and blurry and aliased.

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Emily]
And when the last billionaire cums, the orgy has been resolved.

[Shep]
Oh, wow.

[Thomas]
There we go.

[Shep]
Is that the theme? Is that the tagline for the episode? “When the last billionaire has cum, the orgy is resolved.” — Emily.

[Thomas]
Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode about a Resolution. Did we stick with it? Or was the whole thing a little blurry? Let us know by leaving a comment on our website, reaching out on social media, or sending us an email. Links to all of those can be found at AlmostPlausible.com. Now, if you enjoy Almost Plausible and you have space in your life for one more New Year’s resolution, why not Resolve to help us increase our listenership by telling someone about the podcast? One of our resolutions is to grow the size of our audience, and the most effective way for that to happen is through word of mouth. So thanks in advance for helping us out with that. Emily, Shep, and I do have one more resolution, and that’s to see you in the new year for more episodes of Almost Plausible.

[Outro music]

[Shep]
The more I think about this story, the more I like it, which isn’t always the case.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You know, sometimes we delve into a story and the further we get along, it’s like, “Oh, I don’t like this so much.” This one, the more I’m thinking about it. Yeah, I’m more on board the further we go. I have so many thoughts while we were on break.

[Emily]
Nice.

[Thomas]
Oh, good. I’m glad we’re like making things make more sense and stuff. Because it was very, very silly, and now it’s just very silly.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So.

[Emily]
It was supposed to be very silly in the first place. It wasn’t supposed to be like a aspirational rom-com.

[Thomas]
Right. You’re allowed to want to go to an orgy, Emily. It’s okay.

[Emily]
I never said I didn’t.

[Outro music]