Castaways dying of thirst mass-hallucinate an alternative reality to save themselves, only to discover that the conditions of their entry and the world's own "laws of nature"  make for experiences that range from quirky to uncomfortable to disturbing.

SYNOPSIS:

THE THIRST

A screenplay by David Tell (adapted)

Synopsis

Eight castaways, survivors of a sunk gun-running ship, are dying of thirst in a lifeboat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. They draw lots to see whom to sacrifice to save the rest. KINROSS, the brooding ship’s engineer, loses. But, as he’s about to be dispatched by his shipmates, KRUGER, the mysterious radio operator, intervenes.

Kruger’s got a way out: a collective “hallucination,” but real: a green world of life, redemption—and fresh water. It can be reached via guided visualization, mass hypnosis, and a certain “unnamable act” of will, he argues. The men gradually buy into it—even Kinross, the skeptic.

Kruger chants the vision, conjures the world, sets up “the act.” The men have to want it bad—be willing “to drink the blood of their fathers and their children” if it would assuage their agonizing thirst. They would. They perform “the act”—and cross over, Kinross dragging Kruger with them, into a lush, tropical (and somewhat uncanny) world centered around a valley with a glittering, clear, cold, fresh stream running through it.

The men are saved, but Kruger’s body lies inanimate in “his valley.” Because he had to lead the others into the trance, Kruger remained normally conscious, and therefore unable to join the trance; thus his “dreamed body” is unable to fully participate in the experiences and relief the trance world offers. As an unseen, Godlike “force of nature,” however, he animates the much of the basic, conjured-up aspect of the world—and “rules” it, meting out punishment and reward.

Kinross and his friend Garcia explore the valley and discover some of the world’s rules. One: Don’t look too closely at anything­—lest, trying to examine objects in a detailed realism, one fatally tests the fabric of the conjured-up “reality,” strains Kruger’s capabilities in maintaining it. Two: Walk too far in any direction and you’re back where you came from—unless Kruger lets you through the “re-entry barrier,” to an eerie terrain that connects this world to other alternative realities (and back to our own). Three: To maintain the world and alleviate his personal agony, Kruger needs certain gestures of worship from the populace, especially from Kinross, who begrudges them.

Kruger lets Kinross through the barrier, in order to talk: He wants them to psychically “merge” so he can tap the engineer’s mind—and, using Kinross’ body, abate his unrelenting thirst. But despite the blood-debt between them, Kinross won’t yield his individuality to Kruger. Kruger, enraged, reveals that he sabotaged their ship to set up the conditions to create this world, an opportunity he had long imagined trying and finally set up the conditions for.

The world adds to its population by “sucking up” other desperate seekers and misfits from our world, and by disintegrating some of the crew members into primeval nature spirits. Kinross falls in love with one of the new inhabitants, a headstrong Aussie named MARY; however, indifferent to him, she succumbs to the valley’s magical-mythical metaphysics and becomes a kind of goddess, a protector of birds. In the meantime, VON LANKENAU, a seeker with an affinity for “world-building” who reveres “Herr Kruger,” organizes “Krugertown” around primitive religious practices.

In his frustration, Kinross eventually sacrifices some of Mary’s birds to Kruger, instead of the usual fruit. This blood sacrifice assuages Kruger’s thirst, at last! Kruger, like a pagan god, unleashes blood-letting violence among the villagers. Crewmembers representing good and evil do battle as iconic forces, the “good one” seeking to kill Kruger’s body.

With Kruger distracted, Mary and Kinross escape through the re-entry barrier—but Mary won’t leave her birds; she returns. Forlorn, Kinross passes back to our world—where he is consumed by a thirst even worse than when they left it. For him, too, now, undead—only blood will slake his consuming thirst. In monstrous (vampire-like) form now, he falls upon a pair of unsuspecting victims. Black out.