EXT. SALINAS GRANDES, SALTA PROVINCE, ARGENTINA - DAY - December 7th, 2024
The sprawling white salt flats of Northern Argentina brighten the already light desert landscape. Red mountains roll in the distance as the tiny white Toyota Etios, dusted in dirt, rolls down the road.
The car slows and pulls to the side of the road.
INT. TOYOTA ETIOS - SAME
ALEX (38, Shane’s best buddy of 15 years) is in the drivers seat as SHANE rides shotgun. Without cell service, they both try to make out the map on their phones and determine their route.
ALEX: The downloaded map says it’s six and a half hours if we retrace our route back to Salta, then down to Cafayate from there.
SHANE: I thought it was only five hours or so?
ALEX: Yeah I think that was if we take this route.
Alex zooms in on his phone to show the highways to Shane.
SHANE: Should we just do that?
ALEX: Yeah I think that’s the move.
He puts the car into drive and continues down the paved highway road.
Billy String’s ‘In The Clear’ plays on the speakers as the friends bop their heads and drum on the door or their laps with the rhythm of the song.
Shane refers to the map on the phone.
SHANE: This is our right up here.
Alex turns the car off the paved road onto the desert track. More of a track than road. More of clearing than a track. The car bounces in rapid succession, every rock, groove, divot or twig throwing the car up-down-left-right as it barrels straight.
The two men start laughing at the absurdity of the “road” this little car can’t handle.
ALEX: How much more was the SUV rental?
Shane rolls his voice superfluously to mimicking the bumping of the vehicle.
SHANE: DooUuubBbllleEe…thhheeEeee…pPpriiicCcee…
ALEX: This is truly absurd. It can’t be like this the whole way, right?
SHANE: No way. It’s a clearly marked road on the map. It must smooth out at some point.
TEXT: Forty Five Minutes Later
Alex leans forward over the steering wheel, concentrating heavily on the still turbulent road.
Shane sits stiff in his seat, one hand on the roof handle, the other on his lap. The music plays but neither of them listen.
ALEX: I have to pee.
SHANE: Want me to drive?
ALEX: Yes.
EXT. DESERT - SAME
The car pulls to the side of the “road”, dust billowing around the car.
Alex gets out of the car and goes around the car to pee. Shane gets out of the car and stretches.
SHANE: We have enough water right?
Alex shouts over his back.
ALEX: I mean, we could probably use more. For when the wheels fall off the car and we get stuck out here.
Shane pours water from a large plastic jug into his water bottle. He pours slowly as to not spill any, knowing, all jokes aside, water is a commodity out here.
He stops pouring and looks up.
SHANE: Look!
They spot a BURROWING OWL flying through the air and landing on a branch of brush in the distance. The owl stares deeply at the two men. Watching them. Alex zips up his pants.
SHANE: Think it’s an omen?
ALEX: Or it’s tracking us to eat when we inevitably become part of the desert.
SHANE: You said you love the desert. Why not become part of it?
ALEX: True.
Shane takes the car keys and gets in the drivers seat.
LATER:
INT. TOYOTA ETIOS - DAY
Shane now stiffly leans over the steering wheel navigating the never-ending rolling groves in the rocky earth. Alex now grips the roof handle. They stare forward not entertained.
Silence except for the rattling parts of the car, made to never encounter such terrain.
Shane squints at something ahead of him and slows the car, then brakes!
A LESSER RHEA (similar to an Ostrich) runs out of the bushes on one side of the “road” and crosses to the other side.
SHANE: Whoa!
ALEX: Oh shit.
SHANE: An ostrich!
Note* They later looked up the bird and discovered it is a Lesser Rhea, not an Ostrich. But at the time, they both agreed it was an Ostrich, not knowing there was anything different, and never having heard of a Lesser Rhea. Also, upon the discovery, they both agreed naming anything ‘Lesser’ is a low-blow move.
The Lesser Rhea runs up to a row of eight baby Lesser Rheas, all lined up running along the “road”.
SHANE: Oh it’s protecting its babies.
ALEX: Yeah Ostriches will fuck you up. You have to be careful around them.
SHANE: Especially when the babies are around.
The Lesser Rhea postures toward the car, then runs off. Far off. Into the desert away from the babies.
SHANE: Oh that’s a fucked up move.
ALEX: Yeah never mind.
The babies waddle along by themselves along the edge of the road. Shane drives off, continuing on their path.
LATER:
The car bounces along the path. In the distance they can make out a small desert town.
SHANE: Is that the town you saw on the map?
ALEX: It better be. Otherwise we have no gas and we die out here.
SHANE: Or we live out here. Set up a little home. Drink the little water we have left and live off trail mix for a day or two. Then we die.
ALEX: Or that.
Shane presses on the gas taking the car into a high speed, making the car rattle and bounce even more. Alex starts laughing.
ALEX: You over it?
SHANE: So over it.
ALEX: I think I can hear the back door falling off.
SHANE: We have rental insurance. We good!
The car cruises for and finally the rhythm of the car changes. Smooths out. Real road under them now.
SHANE: Real road! Real paved road!
ALEX: Praise be!
Mid celebration the car begins to bump again, the road changing back to “road”.
SHANE: Oh for fucks sake!
After a minute, back to smooth road.
ALEX: Don’t say anything. Don’t jinx it.
The car and road remain relatively smooth as they proceed into the tiny town. Only 50% of the small buildings have roofs on them. Everything here bakes in the hot desert sun.
SHANE: And just as the gas approaches empty.
Alex refers to his phone.
ALEX: The gas station should be up here. Make a left.
Shane turns the car left, then stops. The road has been dug up, a mountain of concrete crumbles blocks any car from continuing.
ALEX: Okay maybe not. I think we can go around?
Shane reverses and they continue up the other street. He makes a left. Then another left. Then stops the car.
This road is blocked by three giant concrete blocks.
SHANE: Okay, you were right. We die here.
Once again he pulls the car out. Alex directs.
ALEX: If you go up here. And then left. And then straight. There should be a main road. Should be…
Shane rolls the car up to the “main road”.
SHANE: It exists!
ALEX: And the gas station should be on the left. Should be.
The car moves forward and in fact there is an open dirt lot with two gas pumps sticking out of the ground.
SHANE: We get to live!
EXT. GAS STATION - SAME
The men get out of the car and stretch. At the pumps waiting are a MOTORCYCLIST (20s) playing on his phone, and a GENTLEMAN (40s) listening to an old fashioned WalkMan, wearing an old painters hat.
Alex and Shane look around for someone to pump their gas. The door to the tiny office is closed.
The GENTLEMAN lowers his headphones and responds through the missing teeth in his mouth.
GENTLEMAN (in Spanish): There is nobody here. We’re waiting for somebody.
SHANE: What did he say?
ALEX: No one is here.
SHANE: Are they closed?
ALEX: I guess so?
Shane starts laughing at the doom of it all.
GENTLEMAN (in Spanish): Where are you from?
ALEX: Estados Unidos.
Alex continues to talk to the Gentleman as Shane walks away watching WORKERS on the streets pass bricks to one another across the street as one of them lays down road.
SHANE (sarcastically to himself): Oh good. They are fixing the road.
TEXT: Fifteen Minutes Later
An ATTENDANT (50s, Argentine) slowly walks up to the station, a longer line of motorcycles and cars now formed around them. In no rush he approaches the first pump, filling the motorcycle in line.
ALEX: So that guy said if we take that main road over there it will take us back to Salta. Then from there we just cruise down to Cafayate.
SHANE: Real roads?
ALEX: We’ll see. Maybe. At some point.
LATER:
INT. TOYOTA ETIOS - DAY
With a full tank of gas, the car rolls out of the small desert town and on a smooth, highway road through the rolling hills and mountains.
SHANE: It really humbles you, doesn’t it. Makes you appreciate the little things. Like smooth concrete.
Alex plays on his phone.
ALEX: And cell service. I can play on my phone now and not talk to you anymore.
SHANE: God is good! Gracias Pacha Mama!
The car curls down the winding roads, the sun brightening the desert colors all around them.
