Plastic Island

A “Big Jobs Productions” FILM
WRITTEN BY Barnie Duncan

Simon is 34, born and bred in Levin. He drives a delivery truck for a bottled water company. He lives alone, but has a pet turtle called Michelle. He loves the radio and sings along constantly in his truck. He doesn’t mind his solitude much, and regularly visits his mother, who is the owner of a massage parlour. He would be fairly content with his lot, if it wasn’t for one thing. Simon is convinced he lives under a rain cloud. Not an actual rain cloud, rather one filled with ill luck, one that hovers over him constantly, drizzling on him wherever he goes. The cloud has been with him for the last 9 months, and produces a trickle of bad luck each day. Nothing catastrophic, just a constant stream of parking tickets, colds, missing clothing, bird shit... the list goes on and on, each day. His mother is concerned. Simon wants out, but he doesn’t know where to go. He spends weekends sitting in the dunes of Himitangi beach, gazing at the sea, as Michelle frolics in the sand.

One day in the truck Simon hears a piece on the radio about an enormous floating island of plastic, twice the size of Texas, in the remotest part of the Pacific Ocean. Something clicks in his head. He knows that if he makes it to this island, he would be able to shake the cloud, and set up his own kingdom. He becomes obsessed with the idea. He talks about it with Elitia, an employee of his mothers, and she becomes swept up in the idea too. But as the whirlwind of planning and boat wrangling escalates, so too do the small town forces keeping Simon from finding his kingdom amongst the debris.