A reclusive math savant has been sitting on a Unified Field Theory for 20+ years, paranoid it will only make the rich richer. A Chinese astronaut on the hook for treason helps him confront his rancorous past so he can recall where he hid the final equation, the one thing that can save her life. Based on a true story.
SYNOPSIS
A lady astronaut CHEN JUAN was almost killed in an explosion on the launch pad of the China Space Agency. She’s on the run, accused of sabotaging the rocket.
Chen Juan stumbles upon W.H. “TRUCK” Clark’s website, an elaborate Ph.D. dissertation on the “NASA Cult.” He’s a 100% disabled veteran who was expelled with extreme malice 20 years ago, a semester short of a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. She visits his isolated home in the Smokey Mountains.
Truck’s believes the military-space-industrial complex, alias the “Space Mafia,” sabotaged the NASA space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, causing the U.S. space effort to transition into the private sector, alias SpaceX, Boeing, et al. He convinces Chen Juan that Big Tech is now trying to do the same thing to China’s space effort. Her life depends on finding the guilty party because the charge against her is treason, a capital offense.
Truck’s research online has extensive documentation supporting his case against the “Space Nazis,” but there’s one big problem: he’s schizophrenic.
Their only hope is to validate his scientific acumen by proving he’s still capable of keen technical insights. He worked on the Unified Field Theory years ago and has since nailed the key equation that completes the Theory. However, he wrote the final equation down somewhere – but doesn’t recall where!
Chen Juan and Truck have the rest of the night before the authorities show up to haul her away for treason – and Truck to an institution for the criminally insane. There’s just one problem: There are thousands of books and literally millions of places to hide one single sheet of paper in his house.
It’s up to Chen Juan, an M.D. psychologist, to help Truck recall the hiding place.
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The screenplay. (As CRASHDOWN.)