What if DAVID GOYER wrote Westworld?

Back in 2005, the word “reboot” entered the everyday lexicon when Christopher Nolan “rebooted” Batman. His brother Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer were in charge of writing this new “Dark Knight” universe. Now that Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer have gone their separate ways, we can see exactly what kind of screenplay they can craft on their own merits.

Jonathan Nolan has gone on to craft the critically acclaimed Interstellar, Person of Interest, and Westworld.

David Goyer has gone on to craft the critically panned “DCEU” movies (Man of Steel & Batman vs. Superman) and failed Blade TV series.

I recently got done watching Westworld Season 1 and it blew me away how creatively Jonathan Nolan took the concept from the 70s movies in a totally new direction and gave a really complex set of new characters and scenarios. So I began thinking, how would it have turned out if Goyer and his writing partner from Batman vs. Superman were in charge of this series, INSTEAD of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy?

What would a “Westworld” created by the likes of David Goyer look like? Imagine HBO greenlit the same 10 episode format and kept JJ Abrams production team in place, but NEVER hired Jonathan Nolan and INSTEAD gave David Goyer their blessing to write whatever he wanted?

Well, we’d probably get something like this:

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“DELOS: Where Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong”

STORY BY DAVID S. GOYER
TELEPLAY BY DAVID S. GOYER & CHRIS TERRIO

EPISODE 1
In the "future year" of 2026, a high-tech, highly realistic adults only amusement park called Delos features three themed "worlds"—West World (which is shown as ugly, humorless, ultra-serious, bleak, and desaturated), Samauri World (which is shown as ugly, humorless, ultra-serious, bleak, and desaturated), and Egypt World (which is shown as ugly, humorless, ultra-serious, bleak, and desaturated). The resort's three "worlds" are filled with "lifelike androids" (90% of which is done in the television show by really fake video game like CGI) and the human guests may indulge in any fantasy they wish for $10,000 a day, including sexual encounters and even a fight to the death. We meet The Gunslinger (Ed Harris) an "evil robot character" that the guests sadistically murder in increasingly graphic ways during the episode. We're also treated to random, out of order flashbacks of The Gunslinger being murdered by past guests over the decades.

EPISODE 2
Peter Martin (Jimmi Simpson), a first-time Delos visitor, and his friend, John Blane (Ben Barnes), an long-time guest, go to Westworld. One of their first encounters is with The Gunslinger (Ed Harris). They discover their firearms are equipped with a "codex" that allows the robots to regenerate, and that The Gunslinger is equipped with a "world engine" that allows the theme park personnel to use him for their backup files to rebuild parts of West World that the guests destroy. This is depicted by numerous scenes involving CGI destruction porn. In the climactic scene, they blow The Gunslinger apart piece by piece, only to discover that his body parts reform and he begins to shoot back and murder the guests in retaliation (with tons of CGI blood shown in slow motion).

EPISODE 3
The technicians running Delos (Jeffrey Wright, Simon Quarterman, Shannon Woodward, and Sidse Babett Knudsen) realize the robot characters are beginning to murder guests, when they see a Samurai Robot graphically torture and kill a guest in Samurai World. This leads to random flashbacks showing hosting how the guests tortured the Samurai robot over the decades until he couldn’t take it anymore and went on a killing spree. Soon, breakdowns and systemic failures occur throughout all three parks, and the house of ill repute Madame (Thandie Newton) begins to join The Gunslinger on his killing spree.

EPISODE 4
Supervising computer scientist Bernard (Jeffery Wright) scoffs at the "analogy of an infectious disease," he is told by the chief supervisor (Anthony Hopkins), "We aren't dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment, almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they've been designed by other computers. We don't know exactly how they work." After Bernard fails to get the park under control, the chief supervisor murders Bernard in retaliation, but makes it look like an accident and blames the death on The Gunslinger.

EPISODE 5
The malfunctions become more serious when hundreds of robotic rattlesnakes murder guests in a scene filled with lots of CGI “snakes” on the attack. Blane (Ben Barnes) spends most of the episode fighting back and is finally able to blow apart all the snakes that have descended on West World. But just when the guests think they getting the park back under control, The Black Samurai Guardian (Clifton Collins Jr.) come to life and follows the pattern of the Gunslinger and the Madame in systematically murdering guests in Samurai World.

EPISODE 6
The resort's supervisors (Anthony Hopkins and Luke Hemsworth) try to regain control by shutting down power to the entire park. However, the shutdown traps them in central control when the doors automatically lock, unable to turn the power back on and escape. Hemsworth’s character is killed in an extremely graphic and pointless scene, and some random flashbacks about him are shown throughout the episode. Meanwhile, the robots in all three worlds run amok, operating on reserve power.

EPISODE 7
Martin and Blane (Jimmi Simpson and Ben Barnes), recovering from a drunken bar-room brawl, wake up in Westworld's bordello, unaware that The Gunslinger and The Madame are on a killing spree. When the Gunslinger challenges the men to a showdown, Blane treats the confrontation as an amusement until the robot tortures and murders him with hundreds of CGI bullets. Martin runs for his life and the robot implacably follows.

EPISODE 8
Martin flees to the other areas of the park, but finds only dead guests, damaged robots, and a panicked technician attempting to escape Delos who is shortly thereafter shot by the Gunslinger. Martin climbs down through a manhole in Samurai World into the underground control complex and discovers that the resort's computer technicians murdered each other out of frustration from being unable to shut down the resort, and that they are trying to get the codex back so the robots won’t regenerate.

EPISODE 9
The Gunslinger stalks Martin through the underground corridors so he runs away until he enters a robot-repair lab. When the Gunslinger comes into the room, Martin pretends to be a robot, until he is able to subdue the Gunslinger’s partner, the Madame, by snapping her neck with his bare hands. Martin cries out in anguish having killed the Madame in front of her robot daughter.

EPISODE 10
With its optical inputs damaged by acid, the Gunslinger is unable to track Martin visually and tries to find Martin using its infra-red scanners. Martin stands beneath the flaming torches of the Great Hall to mask his presence from the robot, before getting a brutal fistfight with the robot where they beat each other to a bloody pulp. Martin finally knocks The Gunslinger out and escapes into Egypt World, only to discover the Pharaoh robot is still running amok and killing. Martin stands there in a state of near-exhaustion and shock, as the irony of Delos's slogan resonates: "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!" booms over the loudspeakers. FADE TO BLACK.


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And there you have it, how Season 1 of “Westworld” would have unfolded if the “talent” of David Goyer & Chris Terrio were running this series!