Page 0 The protagonist is ironing his shirt. We can see from his hand and face that he has been burned before.
Page 1 A reporter hears the police communication about a violent crime taking place, so he rushes to the scene to get the scoop. Instead, his car is crashed by the criminal and the police are just too busy with the chase to notice. Then a stranger shows up and gives him a brand new Jaguar out of the blue. The reporter is freaked out about the generosity. (TEASER)
Page 5 4 months earlier. A school with metal detectors at the entrance. The students are not strangers to sex and violence. Trevor saves a little kid from the bullies who try to bring knives into the school without triggering the metal detector.
Page 6 The students enter the classroom while the teacher is working on his map. When he turns to the students, they are silenced by the burn scars on his face. The teacher introduces himself and he is the social study teacher. He talks about the truth of why the kids don’t have to think about the world. And why the kids should do something to change the world before they are face to face with the huge disappointment. Trevor is inspired when he learns that the teacher changes the world by passing knowledge to the students. (EMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR TREVOR. THE TEACHER HAS THE IDEA BUT NOT THE COURAGE AS HE HAS BEEN SERIOUSLY INJURED BEFORE)
Page 12 Trevor rides bicycle in the desert and back to his neighborhood. He rides to the place where homeless people are gathering. (PHYSICAL OPPORTUNITY FOR TREVOR)
Page 15 The stripper club. The waitress refuses to drink as she has promised her kid and she turns down sexual offers on the ground of marriage. She turns out to be Trevor’s mother who calls to check on him, not knowing that he has brought a homeless guy home, eating with him. There is obviously some communication issue between the mother and son.
Page 18 The mother gets off work and takes the bus home. When she gets home, Trevor is already asleep. She goes to the garage and thinks for a while. Finally he finds a bottle of alcohol from the washing machine and drinks with great satisfaction. Not knowing that the homeless guy is sleeping in the back of the truck. But in the middle of the night, Trevor still finds out about the empty bottle.
Page 22 The next morning, Trevor expresses his anger about her sneaking of the alcohol. Just when they are arguing, the homeless guy appears asking for toilet paper. The mother is so shocked that she kicks the guy out, which makes the son even angrier and tells his mother that she won’t understand the assignment from the teacher.
Page 24 The mother goes to see the teacher angrily. The teacher sees through the communication issue between mother and son right away. The mother is so frustrated that she attacks the scar on his face. The teacher takes the insult in. The mother looks up the words she doesn’t understand in the dictionary.
Page 27 The reporter comes to see the stranger who is a senior partner at a law firm asking about what is going on with “pay it forward”. So the lawyer talks about his story: when he was in the hospital with his daughter without any doctor taking care of them, he had an argument with the nurse. A black patient is angry about the situation and fires his gun to get the nurse’s attention, which the lawyer appreciates very much. That’s how he learned about “paying it forward.”
Page 30 The mother is woken up by the noises in the garage. It turns out to the homeless guy again who has fixed his truck. He talks about how Trevor gave him hope, how he knows the value of the opportunity and what is at stake. He also talks about the concept of “paying it forward”, which piques his mother’s interest. (CHANGE OF PLAN: PAY IT FORWARD STARTS TO TAKE EFFECT IN PEOPLE’S LIVES)
Page 33 Trevor explains the concept to the class. At the same time, the homeless guy explains it to the mother, who is emotionally connected with him. The teacher is impressed by the idea and calls it admirable. For the first time, Trevor comes to the teacher personally and asks him about his true opinion of his idea. He also asks him about his face. But the teacher thought it was just a prank played by the class until he sees that Trevor walks away alone.
Page 38 Trevor goes to knock on the door of the homeless guy, who is too weak to come out to see Trevor as he is back to drugs again. He crosses Jerry out from his notebook. He writes down his teacher’s name on his notebook as the next person he is going to help. (COMPLICATIONS FROM THE HOMELESS GUY)
Page 41 Trevor gives his teacher a note nervously. He tries to setup a date between his teacher and his mother, successfully. He lies to them individually and even lights a candle to nudge them to have dinner together. Everything is doing well until the sponsor comes to interrupt. (PROGRESS WITH THE TEACHER. THIS IS UNIQUE AS THE TEACHER INSPIRES THE KID INADVERTANTLY TO HELP HIMSELF.)
Page 46 Trevor is angry that his mother messes the date up and deep down, she is still waiting for his father to come back. When Trevor starts to doubt her love, she slaps his son on the face and begins to look for alcohol everywhere until she finds one bottle from the lamp. When she comes back to her senses, she discovers that Trevor is missing. (EMOTIONAL COMPLICATIONS WITH THE MOTHER)
Page 50 After she has called the police with no result, she has no choice but to call the teacher to look for him, as she doesn’t have a car. She becomes very honest with the teacher admitting that all of her friends are drunks, including herself. Finally they find Trevor in a bus station where a pedophile tries to seduce him. The teacher is so angry that he beats the shit out of the pedophile. The mother apologizes to Trevor from the bottom of her heart and admits to Trevor her big problem. The mother is very appreciative and asks the teacher to have dinner with her later. But the teacher doesn’t think it will be appropriate. (PROGRESS WITH THE TEACHER AND MOTHER BECAUSE OF TREVOR’S MISSING)
Page 55 The reporter goes to the jail asking the black patient about “paying it forward”. He claims that it was his idea. (PROGRESS FOR THE REPORTER)
Page 57 The teacher selects a shirt so that he can go to see the mother. He is like a teenage boy checking his hair before meeting her. He pretends that he bumps into the mother by pure accident and tries to invite her to dinner, very awkwardly. (THE TEACHER IS INSPIRED BY TREVOR)
Page 59 The reporter comes to see his friend who works for the governor about pushing the parole date for the black patient.
Page 60 The mother comes home late and it drives Trevor crazy. He picks dresses for his mother and makes her ready as soon as possible, fearing that lateness will be interpreted by the teacher as lack of respect. Meanwhile, the teacher is impatient about the time. The mother is so happy that his son has called a cab for her already. The mother arrives just before the teacher walks away. (POINT OF NO RETURN: DATE BETWEEN THE TEACHER AND THE MOTHER)
Page 63 The reporter goes to jail again asking the black patient about his story. He was stealing a store and then helped by an old woman to escape from the police. When she tells him that he is not good enough to pay it forward, he insists on doing it. (POINT OF NO RETURN FOR THE REPORTER)
Page 67 Trevor goes to play in the amusement park with his mother and sponsor. The mother is still trying to deny she is seeing the teacher. But the talk with the sponsor makes her realize the connection between them. When she asks the teacher to spend the night, although the teacher struggles really hard internally, he kisses her passionately until he snaps out of it. (RISE OF THE EMOTIONAL ANTAGONIST FROM THE TEACHER)
Page 70 The reporter decides to look for the old lady, even though his girlfriend doesn’t understand the rationality behind it. (HIGHER EMOTIONAL STAKE FOR THE REPORTER)
Page 71 At home, the teacher arranges his pictures with nice music on. Suddenly the mother rushes in and asks him if he looks down upon her. The teacher uses big words to compensate for his scars on the face. Although the mother tells him that she doesn’t care about the burns, the teacher still freaks out and is reluctant to step out of his comfort zone, which saddens the mother. (RISE OF THE EMOTIONAL ANTAGONIST FROM THE MOTHER)
Page 74 The little kid is bullied by the rogue kids again. When Trevor sees it, he is lack of the courage to help. So the little kid is thrown into the garbage bin by the rogue kids in the end. Trevor is so sad that he crosses the name “Adam” from the notebook where the teacher’s name has already been crossed out.
Page 76 The teacher comes to Trevor as he has cut his class. But Trevor is very disappointed in the teacher as he stops calling his mother. Trevor tells the teacher that paying it forward doesn’t work and pushes him to call his mother before his father comes back. Trevor is profoundly disappointed that he couldn’t change the world. (RISE OF THE ANTAGONIST FROM TREVOR)
Page 80 As the mother is cleaning the refrigerator, the teacher comes to knock on the door and makes love to her. He reluctantly shows her scars on the body. The next morning, when Trevor finds out that the teacher has spent the night, he is so happy that he asks the teacher to pay it forward. (HIGHER STAKES)
Page 83 The reporter drives his new Jaguar to seek his story. Meanwhile, the homeless guy saves a lady’s life on a bridge when he asks the lady to save his life.
Page 86 Trevor is having the time of his life with his teacher and mother watching wresting until his father comes back. He promises to his mother that he is sober now. The teacher has no choice but to leave. Trevor is devastated. (EVERYTHING IS LOST)
Page 90 The mother comes to see the teacher explaining that she wants to give the father a chance. The teacher is so angry at her decision that he tells her the story about how his father abused his mother and burned him for life. (FINAL EMOTIONAL PUSH FROM THE TEACHER)
Page 95 Trevor and the reporter meet for a second by accident. The father is very angry about the fact that Trevor’s not talking to him and he has been drinking. So his mother admits that she has made a mistake and kicks him out of the house. Meanwhile, the report goes around the town, doing his investigations. (FINAL PUSH FROM THE MOTHER)
Page 98 Trevor is angry that the teacher is not paying it forward to his mother. But the teacher refuses to do that as he is mad at her for making the wrong decision no matter how hard Trevor begs. (FINAL PUSH FROM TREVOR)
Page 102 The reporter finds the homeless old lady, who tells him that she got the idea from his daughter. It turns out that she is Trevor’s grandma and the mother came to find her and forgive what the grandma has done according to Trevor’s wishes. (FINAL PUSH FROM THE REPORTER)
Page 106 Trevor’s 12 year old birthday party. He is disappointed that the teacher is not here. The reporter finds the boy at home and tells him that the movement has reached LA. (EVERYTHING IS TRULY LOST)
Page 108 The reporter takes the boy to the school so that he can conduct the interview. During the interview, Trevor talks about how much he has failed because some people are just too scared to make changes and makes the world a shitty place.
Page 110 The teacher suddenly wakes up and doesn’t want to be one of those scared people Trevor was talking about. He kisses the mother with passion. Meanwhile, Trevor sees his friend being beat up again. This time he musters enough courage to help. But before the teacher can intervene, the boy is stabbed by the bad boys to death. (FINAL PUSH BY THE TEACHER; RESCUE AND SACRIFICE FROM TREVOR)
Page 115 After his death, the news celebrates what Trevor has done for the world. In the middle of the night, the mother and teacher wake up and are stunned to see how people line up to celebrate Trevor’s life.
Page 120 Directed by Mimi Ledger
