Form

Feature

Genres

Sci-Fi (high concept), Mystery, Neo-Noir, Drama, Narrative Fiction

Style

In an artistic sense, can be categorized as neo-noir, post-modern, or hypermodern.

Context

Unremembered was made in Portland, Oregon by Greg Kerr for less than $32,000. This independent film features Portland talent Tim Delaney (Indie Fest winner, lead actor) as John Outis and Karla Mason as Tina Plantes with original music by Nan Avant.

Greg Kerr wrote the screenplay which earned an Indie Fest award for original screenplay.

Rating

Unremembered has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. The film contains adult language, violence, adult situations, and complex ideas.

Running time

Theatrical version (thriller cut): 1:36:06

Theatrical version (drama cut): 1:59:49

DVD version (special edition): 2:04:00

Technical Specifications

Media: DVD (NTSC any region), VHS, Blu-Ray, Digital, others upon request.

Created for: Wide screen (16:9), stereo, NTSC, standard definition.

Taglines

Time is not linear.

A physics mystery.

Short Synopsis

A complex thriller in the style of Blue Velvet and Memento, but with a science fiction twist, Unremembered is a story told in non-linear time about a man who has no past and the unconventional physics professor who becomes entangled in the bizarre events.

Short Synopsis (French)

Un mystère de physique.

Medium Synopsis (preferred)

Unremembered (Indie Fest award winner, feature film) is a complex thriller told in non-linear time about a man who has no past. In the style of films like Memento and Jacob's Ladder, but with a unique science fiction twist, this independent film follows the alternate reality journey of John Outis over sixteen days as he tries to restore his fractured life history. But the more his dark past comes into focus, the more the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover are altered.
As his past threatens to end his future, he turns to Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. Drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John's life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching set of truths about dreams, time, and the power of the human will.
Unremembered is a "sinuous and riveting independent film in the tradition of David Lynch" declares A.G. Nigrin, Executive Director, The Rutgers Film Co-op/ New Jersey Media Arts Center.
Unremembered was made in Portland, Oregon by Greg Kerr for less than $32,000. It features Portland talent Tim Delaney (Indie Fest winner, lead actor) as John Outis and Karla Mason as Tina Plantes with original music by Nan Avant.
Greg Kerr also wrote the screenplay which earned an Indie Fest award for original screenplay.

Medium Synopsis (includes reference to Odyssey)

A modern interpretation of the ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, Unremembered (Indie Fest award winner, feature film) is a complex thriller told in non-linear time about a man who has no past. In the style of films like Memento and Jacob's Ladder, but with a unique science fiction twist, this complex thriller follows the alternate reality journey of John Outis over sixteen days as he tries to restore his fractured life history. But the more his dark past comes into focus, the more the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover are altered.
As his past threatens to end his future, he turns to Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. Drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John's life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching set of truths about dreams, time, and the power of the human will.
Unremembered is a "sinuous and riveting independent film in the tradition of David Lynch" declares A.G. Nigrin, Executive Director, The Rutgers Film Co-op/ New Jersey Media Arts Center.
Unremembered was made in Portland, Oregon by Greg Kerr for less than $32,000. It features Portland talent Tim Delaney (Indie Fest winner, lead actor) as John Outis and Karla Mason as Tina Plantes with original music by Nan Avant.
Greg Kerr also wrote the screenplay which earned an Indie Fest award for original screenplay.

Medium Synopsis (no production info)

A complex thriller in the style of Memento and Jacob's Ladder, with a unique science fiction twist, Unremembered is a story told in non-linear time about a man who has no past. As John Outis begins to restore his fractured life history, he radically alters the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover. As his past threatens to end his future, he turns to Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. Drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John's life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching set of truths. Unremembered is "sinuous and riveting" declares A.G. Nigrin, director of the New Jersey Film Festival.

Medium Synopsis (alternate #1, no external references)

John Outis doesn’t have a past. But his life history is being restored in the present and it’s dramatically altering the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover. As he begins to remember more, his past threatens to end his future until he receives the aid and guidance of Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. As she's drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John’s life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching truth: time is not linear.

Medium Synopsis (alternate #2)

(written by A.G. Nigrin for the 2009 New Jersey Film Festival)

A sinuous and riveting independent feature film in the tradition of David Lynch, Unremembered is a story told in non-linear time about a man who has no past. As John Outis begins to restore his fractured life history, he radically alters the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover. As his past threatens to end his future, he turns to Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor.   Drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John's life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching set of truths. 2009; 120 min (drama cut) or 96 minutes (thriller cut).

Medium Synopsis (alternate #3)

(written by Jocelyn Brady)

John Outis doesn’t have a past. At least not one he can remember. But when John reaches a critical breaking point, he begins to realize that the events of his past are growing in reverse and unfolding into the present. If he doesn’t act soon, his past will destroy his future. But who will believe him? Enter Tina Plantes, a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. As she's drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John’s life, she unlocks a disturbing and far-reaching truth about time… and how our lives are not what we think they are.

Medium Synopsis (French)

John Outis n'a pas une histoire de vie. Mais il est reconstitué dans le présent et il change nettement les vies de ses amis, de son épouse, et de son amoureux. Comme il commence à se rappeler plus, son passé menace de finir son futur jusqu'à ce qu'il reçoive l'aide et les conseils d'un professeur de la physique, Tina Plantes, qui est brillant et peu usuel.

Comme Tina devient une partie des événements bizarres de la vie de John, elle découvre une vérité inquiétante avec des conséquences de grande envergure: le temps n'est pas linéaire.

Long Synopsis (spoiler alert)

John Outis looks down at the bloody knife in his hand. He doesn’t remember what he’s done. In fact, he doesn’t remember anything at all. John has no past.

John wanders toward a house that seems familiar. He drops the knife in the yard and it vanishes. John enters the house. Penelope and Anthony, the couple living there, don’t recognize him. They call the police thinking he’s a thief. The police have no idea who he is, nor can they remember why they picked him up in the first place, so they release him. John returns to Penelope’s house the next day to find Anthony moving out. Anthony and Penelope have broken up because of her affair with John. John returns later that day to find Penelope waiting to celebrate their one month anniversary. The next morning she reminds them of their two month anniversary. Later that day, John and Penelope meet her friend Callie in the park. Penelope tells Callie that she’s been seeing John for three months. That evening, Callie calls John to try to put an end to the affair he and Callie have been having for the past six months, much of the duration of his relationship with Penelope. The next day, Callie is jealous of Penny because this has been going on for a year. The next day, Callie wants John to leave Penelope because she views their two year relationship is more serious.

At night, John has disturbing visions of traumatic experiences in his past. The next morning those events have come to pass already and they affect his present reality. It becomes increasing clear to John that his past is growing in reverse, but he finds it impossible to stop it or control the events unfolding in his present. He knows nobody will believe him, so he consults an expert on time problems: physics professor, Tina Plantes. At first, Tina thinks John is suffering from amnesia. She doesn’t believe him. And to make matters worse, she doesn’t remember him from one day to the next, until she begins to experience disturbing dreams and feelings of déjà vu. To her surprise, Tina learns that John has no past history, but that history growing in reverse, from the present backward, affecting everyone around John. After an unusual experiment with her kitchen carving knife, Tina has proof of the temporal anomaly, but she still doesn’t know why it’s happening.

John’s past continues to grow and Callie becomes increasingly obsessive. Their six year relationship has caused her to forgo necessary mental health care she would have sought without John in her life. She is also addicted to drugs that he introduced to her in her past, and that addiction is causing her wild mood swings to spin out of control.

Tina learns that her recent past with John is constantly changing, which is causing her to continuously forget about John and his situation. Feeling helpless over her inability to remember, Tina devises an unorthodox experiment to induce memories of him in her dreams. She contrives a physical fight with John that brings her to the brink of death. The trauma of her near-death experience focuses her concentration on John, and she can now remember aspects of their previous conversations.

Then John remembers that ten years earlier he inadvertently (or not?) caused Anthony’s death in a river accident, a secret he has kept from Penelope.

Meanwhile Tina’s detective work is ended by Callie who kills Tina because she believes Tina and John are having an affair. Callie threatens John, too, but instead of killing him, she blackmails him. She wants him to kill Penelope to get all of Penelope’s money for them. When John refuses, Callie tells Penelope about John’s affair with her, and Penelope ends her relationship with him. John then learns that Anthony was his brother. John feels deeply responsible for Anthony’s death.

With Tina dead and confronted by a bleak future with no hope in sight, John injects himself morphine and walks into the ocean to die. He wakes up on the beach the next day and decides once again to return to Penelope’s house to find her waiting and worried about him. But now he only has eight years of a past with her instead of the ten years he had the day before.

That night Tina returns alive. She has come to his home to tell him about some bizarre dreams she’s been having and she knows that Callie killed her in an alternate reality. Tina and John are both shocked to learn that John’s past is fading away again. First he has only eight years, then suddenly seven years of history. Tina keeps trying to help, but realizes now that this temporal anomaly is his fault: John has removed himself from his own timeline, and Tina probably influenced him to cause this effect.

Tina then gives John a last piece of advice: “you can’t protect the rest of us and still save yourself.” John decides not to stop his separation from time. Instead, he spends his final day using drugs with Callie. Unfortunately, as his past is nearly gone, John forgets everything that has happened. He can only remember to hold on to Callie and find Tina. He finds himself confused and standing in Tina’s house holding her kitchen carving knife in one hand and a frightened Callie in the other hand. Callie and Tina don’t remember John anymore, and Callie fights to get away from him. In the struggle, John fatally stabs Callie with the carving knife, instinctually knowing this trauma may cause them to remember him, and also realizing that he cannot affect her. He releases Callie and she has no wound and then she disappears. Tina witnesses all of the chaos as John disappears from her perception. She only has a vague memory of his name. John wanders off toward Penelope’s house again holding the bloody knife.

The cycle is destined to repeat itself.

 

 

Greg Kerr Productions © 2009