The Open Blue

Pitch: Reclusive man wakes up to find ocean has risen hundreds of feet in sea level. The world and its cities have drowned. Boats filled with survivors converge on the man's mountain home as everyone struggles to find their humanity and remember the laws that bind us together.

Richard is 40 years old and very very reclusive. He's got a past, and he now lives high, high in the mountains in a very remote cabin from which he rarely leaves. To minimize contact, he orders food, clothes, and other essentials online. A FedEx employee delivers a stock of groceries once a month.

But one day wakes up and the groceries don't come. They don't come the next day either. Richard starts to panic as his supplies grow lower and lower. On the third day, he leaves his cabin. He packs what he has and steps outside. As he opens the door, he can't believe what he sees. It must be a dream, and he heads down the mountain to make sure. The Ocean. The sea level is hundreds of feet higher than normal. The world appears to have drowned.

And then the boats come. At first just a single small dot on the horizon, it soon multiplies, getting closer and closer to the mountain turned island. There is nowhere for Richard to hide.

As the new arrivals get to the island, Richard's curiousity wins over his reclusivity. He asks what has happened, what has made the water level rise, but nobody seems to know. It was sudden, it was quick, and it was merciless. All survivors were already on boats when it occured. The survivors wait and pray for the water to recede.

Richard is seen as the leader on the mountain/island, and for awhile, things are organized and contained. He comes out of his shell, and begins to fall in love with Hannah, one of the survivors.

But the food supply is very limited, and with an ever increasing number of boats coming in the low food supply starts to be the cause of violence and murders. Richard struggles to keep the peace, as the other survivors regress and become more and more animal.

Boats continue to converge on the mountain/island, and as they do the violence escaltes. There's not enough room. There's not enough food. The island/mountain's survivors are divided on whether or not to attack new boats as they come in, and this leads to a huge, bloody war. The war in turn, ignites a fire that begins to consume the island. Food supplies are burned, and bodies lie everywhere. Richard and Hannah decide to sail away from the island, but Hannah is killed during their plight. The film closes with the boat sailing away from the smoldering island, and Richard huddled up in the boat. There is no one else. He has achieved the solitude he once desired and has found it empty and cruel.