Aberrant: In the Beginning - Nate Underwood

[Mr. Underwood]

In a back lot Hollywood trailer Nathan Underwood awakes to a banging on his door. He shakes his head to clear his mind. Bang! Bang! Bang! “I’m sleeping in here!”

An angry female voice form the other side of the door. “You have 5 minutes to get your ass to make up! Don’t make come in there and haul your black out here!”

Nathan gets out of bed and takes a quick shower and heads off to the chair. With coffee in hand he sits and gets his face done over looking the story board for the day. He thinks to himself “The fans better like this!”

[Titan]

As the make-up artist finishes his face, and starts working on his right leg, a process which experience has told him will take about 2 hours, the director enters the make up trailer.

"Hey Nate, did you see the storyboard for the day?"

"Yeah, Bryan. I don't really understand shot 42a. Am I supposed to swing with Halle, or kiss her, then swing?"

"Ah, yeah, um...it is a bit unclear. No, you kiss her, then swing away. At that point, she is going to fly above the Statue of Liberty and hit it with a lightning bolt. See, it's made of copper, which is a great conductor of electricity."

"Ok, ok, that's cool. I just- Man, Bryan, I don't really do much in this movie. I'm not complaining, it's just...I feel like I'm just Storm's boyfriend."

"I know, I know. And you are an action guy. That's actually what I came to talk to you about. Er, Liz, could you give us a minute? ... Look, Nathan, I like you, and you're great in the role, but the producers don't like the role. They are giving me a bunch of crap about 'no one knows who the hell Forge is', and 'the cast is too big already'. So..."

"They're cutting me."

"...Yeah. Man, I'm really sorry, and you still get paid. I reminded them of that, but they insist. I think they want to leave the option open for Storm and Wolverine to have a relationship."

"No shit?"

"Well... not in my movie, but... producers, you know?"

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"Cool?"

"Fuck no... but, yeah, we're cool."

"I'm really sorry, Nate."

[Mr. Underwood]

Nathan stands up and starts to think to himself “What the hell. As if people don’t know who Forge is” As the now angry actor start to go out side he gives a pissed off look at any of the key grips that come near him. As he finds himself outside he kicks over a garbage can. Starts to curse up a storm and tosses his coffee mug at the wall shattering it into a million pieces.

After a few moments of this he comes too and looking at the mess of broken stuff around him. “That’s it what if I get killed that way every one s happy” He walks back in and start to look for Bryan.

“Hey you! Bryan what if I don’t make the jump and Forge hits the statue as Storm zips it and fries both? Wouldn’t that work?”

[Mr Fox]

Suppressing an exasperated sigh Bryan turned at the sound of his name. He looked doubtful. "I don't know Nate, sure they aren't loosing any money since they are already paying you, but you know how the studios work, we kill him off now and then they can't change their minds later and bring Forge in. On the other hand killing off a super has some box office appeal and adds some drama. I'll run it past them, but don't get your hopes up. Hey, take off and have a good time, and I'll call you later with what they say." He didn't wait but turned back to his conversation with one of the grips.

There wasn't much that Nathan could do but accept it. Bryan was as decent as it got in Hollywood and if he said he'd try then he would. The afternoon passed slowly. Eons past as Nate sat nursing a drink trying not to fixate on his career. Didn't do him any good though several years later, or so it seemed, his phone rang. "Yo Nate! it's Brian. I've got some good news buddy. They bought it. You are back in even if only for the one scene. The down side is you don't get to kiss Halle, on the upside she's going have the chance to get all dramatic and glowy over your dead corpse and kick some villian ass. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, there is another down side. The exec says you have to do your own stunt for the scene. They aren't happy about paying you for the whole picture but only getting one scene out of you. No, don't even start, the logic of that doesn't register with them, no point in bitching about it. So anyway, they refuse to pay for a stuntman when they are already paying you. So that's the deal. You still wanna do it?"

[Mr. Underwood]

“Well when you pay for Nathan Underwood you get the whole nine yards. So set up the time get me the new story board and I am in. At some point during the death I would like the camera to zoom in on me, the sound go blank so you can see me mouth the words I love you. What do you think?” Nathan stops talking for a second just long enough for Bryan to think can start to talk again, than Nathan goes on “I know you love it I will be on set first thing tomorrow. Who loves you? I do! Got to go my drink is here.”

[Mr Fox]

Bryan didn't have the time to get a word in edgewise before the phone was hung up. "Nate's gonna regret that. Hanging up on me! See how he likes some itch powder in his costume during a dramatic scene..."

The next day found Nate on set and actually in makeup this time. About half-way through the hour long process Bryan walked in. "Yo, Nate, congrats on getting back in. As for the scene, you know the studio will milk it for every ounce of drama. Just don't play it up too big ok? Try to remember you may be dying but the studio wants the spotlight on Halle. You owe me on this by the way, I had to use some influence to get you back in."

All Nate could do was make a grunt of what could be taken as acknowledgment since Ian the makeup guy was busy working around Nate's mouth at that moment. It was a perfect day for the shoot, a rare cloudy day that was actually providing great lighting. The director was nearly frantic to get the scene shot before they either lost the light or the skies opened up with actual rain. Now that would be an irony. Thanks to trying to save a few bucks the studio was using an actual water tower on the back lot rather than build a set. Nate had actually had a chance to chat with Halle before they strapped her into her harness and lifted her 60' in the air with a crane. During the short conversation she had invited him to a party being given by one of the studio execs on Friday night. It wasn't a date, just an invite to Marmelstein's that he wouldn't have been able to land otherwise. Nothing lights up an actor's eyes in Hollywood like the chance to network and that had Nate pretty juiced. So much so in fact that he didn't pay as much attention to his own rigging as he normally would have. He did give it a good yank though before climbing the water tower and it seemed sturdy.

Once on the very top of the tower Nate clipped his safety line to the specially welded steel ring on the tower. Then he was artfully hosed down somehow wetting him without messing up the hour of makeup he'd already endured. The surface of the tower had a specially roughed up surface texture to prevent falls but after running a couple practice shoots of the scene to get the physicality down to the directors satisfaction, and walking through the scene another three times to nail the timing it was starting to look very much like it would be a rain out.

When the director finally called action, Halle was starting to get bitchy, it was just about to rain, and the light was going in an out thanks to the wind picking up and sending the clouds scudding across the sky.

[Mr. Underwood]

Nathan is all hyped about going to the after party. After all he’s been to a few but this was the first time that he was going to be the nobody at the place and Nate loves a party.

“Clear set! Tower terror, take one! Three! Two! One! Action go!”

At that Nathan trys to focus. Forge runs for the side of the tower and jumps. As he falls says “I Love You!” …

[Mr Fox]

The director was getting antsy he could see that the rain was just about to start. There might just be enough time for one take before SAG and Osha and every other group with the power to poke their noses into his set were going to shut him down for the day. That wasn't going to happen. He was going to get one take at this and damn if it wouldn't be a good one. Lighting was perfect, there was real rain and weather in the background and it looked perfect for the shot; no need to green screen this scene. Halle would probably pitch a fit for being up in that harness and not being down before the rain started, but that was nothing new.

Seeing that everything was in place he yelled, “Clear set! Tower terror, take one! Three! Two! One! Action go!”

Just as Nate made his run preparing for the big leap off the tower and to the airbag four stories below the sky unleashed with a gust of wind that nearly knocked Nate sideways and off the tower. Nate staggered but adjusted and ran on despite the weather, not much choice now anyway if he didn't jump he might fall instead and that might hurt, a lot. Just as his feet were leaving the tower and he was dramatically posed in the fall, with one camera getting a wide angle shot taking in the whole tower with Halle hanging in the background and two others got close ups of Nate from different angles a tremendous bolt of lightning blasted into the top of the tower and arced into the flying actor. It was perfectly caught on film by multiple cameras.

[Mr. Underwood]

As Nathan fell. The harness that held him melted away from the force of the lightning and the look on his face became that of real pain not the over acting that was there a moment ago. He reached out for any thing he could get a hold of his hand stuck to the near bear surface of the wall. As he hung there looking at himself in amassment the water tower came down on him. Nathan was now under tones of wood steel and brick.

[Mr Fox]

It wasn't just the harness that melted away. In fact it didn't so much melt away as attempt to melt into Nate. The molten nylon and kevlar of the harness was very nearly as painful as the lightning that had blasted both him and the tower. Perhaps it was the bolt electricity that raged through his body but Nate's head was very suddenly and very violently hurting. Worse he was trapped beneath thousands of pounds of crumpled steel. The headache let him know he was all too alive though.

Meanwhile Nate wasn't the only person effected. On the ground the entire stunt crew was either dead severely injured since they were directly below the crane manning the airbag and prepared to assist Nate should he have had any problems with his stunt. Now of course they were the ones needing rescue some of them at least. Nearby the crane operator was killed instantly from being electrocuted as yet another fork of the lightning bolt traveled through the boom down to the cab and through a heart weakened from years of long shifts and poor eating habits.

Ironically the director who allowed everyone to be put at such risk remained completely unharmed as several pieces of steel whizzed past his chair.

Not that Nate knew it of course from his vantage point of a face full of collapsed water tower, but his was not the only miracle survival. Perched at the end of a steel cable over a hundred feet off the ground Halle received more of the lightning than any other individual there. Halle had three cameras rolling on her as well. Like the shots of Nate the flash of the lightnings were so bright that the cameras were blind for the critical miliseconds.