Intrigue

In 1920s Los Angeles, a bedridden patient in a hospital captivates a young girl with a fantastic tale of heroes, myths, and villains on a desert island.

At a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s, Alexandria is a child recovering from a broken arm. She befriends Roy Walker, a movie stunt man with legs paralyzed after a fall. At her request, Roy tells her an elaborate story about six men of widely varied backgrounds who are on a quest to kill a corrupt provincial governor. Between chapters of the story, Roy inveigles Alexandria to scout the hospital's pharmacy for morphine. As Roy's fantastic tale nears its end, Death seems close at hand.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, in the pediatric wing of a hospital in Los Angeles, the talkative girl Alexandria is recovering from a broken arm. Alexandria works with her family of immigrants in the harvest of oranges and she has just lost her father. When she meets the injured stuntman Roy Walker recovering from a fall and also brokenhearted with the loss of his girlfriend to the lead actor, he begins to tell a fantastic tale about six heroes and their common enemy, the hideous Governor Odious. Black Bandit who has lost his brother Blue Bandit who was killed by Odious' men; the explosives expert Luigi who was cast out of his town by Odious; the Indian who lost his gorgeous wife who was abducted by Odious; the former slave Otta Benga who lost his twin brother in the fields of Odious; Charles Darwin who receives a rare butterfly of the species Americana Exotica killed by Odious; and a Mystic who hates Odious for having destroyed the fauna and flora of his lands, join forces to defeat the evil Odious. While Alexandria imagines the story projecting the images of her acquaintances on the characters, the heartsick Roy uses her innocence to ask the girl to steal morphine and medicines from the dispensary for him to commit suicide.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

While young Alexandria is recuperating from a fractured arm in a Los Angeles Hospital, she befriends another patient, Roy Walker, who tells a variety of tales, including one about Emperor Alexander, and the second story of six men: Luigi - an explosions expert; a Native American Indian; A runaway slave; an East Indian swordsman; a masked bandit; and Charles Darwin - all on a quest to kill oppressive Spanish Governor Odious for individually inflicting atrocities on each and every one of them. She soon becomes embroiled in this tale and starts mixing fiction with reality not realizing that Roy is using her to procure a drug for him.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

A silent film production is interrupted by an accident involving a stunt on a bridge; a dead horse is raised from the water.

At a Los Angeles hospital, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a cherubic young girl of Romanian descent, wanders the grounds; her arm is suspended in a cast following an accident in the orange grove where she and her family work. Alexandria writes a note for a friendly nun, Nurse Evelyn (Justine Waddell), but the note floats on the wind into a stranger's room.

Alexandria chases after the note and meets another patient, Roy (Lee Pace), a Hollywood stunt man paralyzed from the waist down by a botched stunt. Roy is in love with an actress from the film, but the actress is involved with the leading man. Roy's colleague, a fellow actor with a prosthetic leg (Robin Smith), urges Roy to accept a settlement from the studio and scolds Roy for attempting the dangerous stunt to impress the actress.

Roy befriends Alexandria, telling her a story to capture her imagination: a tale of her legendary namesake, Alexander the Great, lost in the desert with his men, dying of thirst. A messenger informs the leader all is lost due to his empire's lust for water; the only remaining water barely fills a single helmet. Alexander the Great dumps the water from the helmet into the sand, as Alexandria protests: "Why?" Roy tries to explain it in westernized terms, but it does not make sense to Alexandria. The doctor visits and Roy tells Alexandria to come back the next day, for a new epic story.

The next day, Roy and Alexandria begin a quid-pro-quo arrangement: Roy will regale Alexandria with stories, if she steals morphine pills from the hospital infirmary. Alexandria hides from the hospital's scary X-ray technicians, dressed in lead uniforms and iron masks (shielding them from radiation). Alexandria is very close to Nurse Evelyn, who comforts Alexandria when she is scared. Nurse Evelyn is secretly having an affair with the lead doctor in the children's ward.

Roy begins his epic story: under a starry sky, an Indian man swims to a tiny sand bar in a calm sea, reporting back to four other men - all of them united by a hatred of Governor Odious (imagined as the silent film's smug leading man), who has marooned them on the island.

The first man is an ex-slave, Otta Benga, whom Alexandria imagines as the hospital's friendly ice delivery man. Otta was one of Governor Odious's field workers; when his brother died in the heat, Otta rebelled, led an uprising, and swore revenge against Governor Odious.

The second prisoner is an Indian man, whom Alexandria pictures as a friendly worker from her family's orange grove. The Indian was a man of means who married the most beautiful woman in the land; when Governor Odious fell in love with the woman and kidnapped her, leading to her suicide, the Indian, too, swore his revenge.

The third man is Luigi, an explosives expert, whom Alexandria envisions as Roy's one-legged actor colleague. Governor Odious feared the strength of Luigi's bombs and had him publicly exiled. Ostracized and alone, Luigi similarly swore revenge against Governor Odious.

The fourth man is famed naturalist Charles Darwin, admirer of all living things, who had sought a rare beautiful butterfly species. Governor Odious mocked Darwin by sending him a dead specimen, pinned inside a box; horrified, Darwin swore revenge against Governor Odious.

The final man is the Black Bandit, personified in Alexandria's imagination by her father. The Black Bandit's twin brother, the Blue Bandit, has been captured by Odious and set for execution; the Black Bandit is determined to conceive an escape plan and rescue his brother.

Darwin confers with his loyal monkey, Wallace, and realizes elephants can swim -- the group follows a lone swimming elephant back to shore.

On the mainland, the group encounters the Mystic, a holy man emerging from a charred tree. The Mystic represents indigenous people and seeks revenge against Governor Odious for burning down the lush, forested land. Together, the group storms the castle where the Blue Bandit is held; the Mystic wields otherworldly skills and overpowers many guards. But the group arrives too late: the Blue Bandit and his men have been tortured, murdered, and hung from the ceiling in a gruesome display.

Alexandria confesses that her father died in an attack on their home, killed by horse thieves. Sympathetic, Roy alters the story and Alexandria imagines Roy himself in the Black Bandit's role. Alexandria is mesmerized by the tale but Roy interrupts it for a favor, asking Alexandria to touch his toes, to test his paralysis. A fellow patient -- a wealthy, grumpy hypochondriac -- starts an argument with a doctor and disapproves of Roy's wild storytelling. Alexandria meets an affectionate elderly man with dentures, who plays with her and calms her down when Alexandria grows upset.

Roy's tale continues - the bandits leave in search of Governor Odious but struggle to find him. The Mystic swallows Darwin's useless bug-eaten map and leads the team deep into a lush garden hidden in the desert hills. Other indigenous people dance over the Mystic's body and a tattooed map appears on his skin; Darwin sketches out the route across multiple continents and landmarks.

The group tracks down a caravan flying Odious's flag, pulled by slaves. At Otta's insistence, the group frees the slaves and surrounds the caravan, demanding Odious's surrender. A Princess emerges instead (whom Alexandria imagines as Nurse Evelyn) and the group kidnaps her away.

Roy pauses the story and asks Alexandria for help: he needs morphine pills and won't continue the story without them. Roy asks Alexandria to steal medicine from the hypochondriac's locked bedside cabinet and Alexandria does so. Roy continues the story but makes Alexandria promise to leave when he falls asleep, and not come back the next day -- Roy expects to be dead.

The Black Bandit falls for the Princess, but before learning the awful truth: she is the fiancée of Governor Odious. The group plans to execute the Princess, but the Black Bandit's bullet is stopped by the locket around the Princess's neck. The locket contains a message from the Princess's father: she must follow her heart and not marry for power or riches.

The Princess and the Black Bandit are subsequently married but betrayed by the officiating priest and captured by Odious's men. The heroes are chained in the desert, left to die, but rescued by the Black Bandit's young ally -- Alexandria -- who has been hiding inside their traveling packs all along. Alexandria encourages Roy to continue the tale but Roy passes out and Alexandria leaves him to sleep.

The next day, Alexandria returns to find Roy alive; Roy is devastated by his failed suicide attempt (the hypochondriac's pills were placebos) and causes an angry scene, lashing out at the doctors. Upset, Alexandria sneaks into the infirmary to steal more pills for Roy but slips and falls, suffering severe head trauma. Alexandria reels from surreal nightmares involving her father's death, her fears of the hospital, and other childhood fantasies.

When Alexandria wakes up, she finds Roy sitting beside her, drunk, scolded for tricking Alexandria into stealing medicine. Roy agrees to finish the story and describes the team's siege on Governor Odious fortress. The team learns the Princess has returned to Odious -- she never loved the Black Bandit -- and infiltrates the fortress, risks be damned.

Overpowered and outnumbered, the heroes are killed one-by-one, as Roy ignores Alexandria's protests. The Black Bandit and his young ally finally confront Odious alone, but the Black Bandit can't put up a fight and nearly dies at Odious's hands. Emotional, Alexandria begs Roy to let the Black Bandit live, and Roy agrees to change the story, choosing life over death. The Black Bandit punches Odious and leaves with his ally; Odious falls back on his own sword, skewered. The Princess returns to the Black Bandit, apologetic, but Roy doesn't buy it and sends her off.

The hospital's young patients gather to watch a cut of Roy's silent film. When her arm heals, Alexandria returns to the orange groves and misses Roy, but sees him later onscreen: whenever Alexandria watches a silent film with exciting stunts, she will know Roy is there.