BENEATH
THE STARS: A TRAGIC MOMENT FROM ABRAMS’ “DARKNESS”
by
Bennett Campbell Ferguson
Left: Benedict Cumberbatch stars in "Trek"
An alarm clock blares. Almost immediately, a man’s hand slams across
it, silencing the sound. Then, he slowly
stands, staring out the window at the coolly shiny city in the distance.
Later,
the man drives his wife away from their home while Michael Giacchino’s score
lapses into a quiet, mournful piano solo that doesn’t end until they reach
their destination—the London Royal Children’s Hospital. Inside, a doctor tells the man and the woman something
we cannot hear, but their reaction suggests that it’s not good news.
We
soon find out why. As the couple enters
a small room, we see their daughter asleep, looking painfully frail. Gently, her mother places a stuffed animal in
her hands. But after that, her composure
dissolves. She falls across her
daughter, sobbing while her husband watches.
And though he remains motionless, the rising music and the camera’s
head-on zoom toward his face tell you exactly what you need to know—that he
feels angry and powerless.
Apparently, the feeling is too much for him. Via a steep overhead shot, we see the man
walk outside to the concrete railing that surrounds the hospital. But his reverie in interrupted by footsteps—someone
is standing there, not far from his back.
And as the interrupter begins to speak in a tone of rich metallic menace,
we understand that the journey into darkness has begun.
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