I’m late to the Twilight party. A decade late actually. Although my friend Kui is a fan of the books and told me how much she loved them ages ago, I only got around to watching the movies and reading the books two weeks ago. And what a ride it’s been.
I fail to understand where all the vitriol about Twilight comes from. The books are a riveting read. True, a little editing would have reduced Bella’s endless descriptions of the minutiae of her life, but that doesn’t detract from the story. I watched the movies first – the first three, then read the books, finishing one each day. Yeah, I’m a binge reader. Once I’m hooked, I find it hard to put a book down till the story ends.
Since then I’ve been obsessed with all things Twilight. I’m not likely to read the books again; once was enough for me, unlike so many people who read them over and over. But I can’t get enough of the movies, which are way better than the books. That almost never happens as movies hardly do justice to the books they are based on. Case in point – Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, his best book in my opinion.
Twilight is pure fantasy so Stephenie Meyer can get away with a lot. I couldn’t wrap my head around a couple of things though, like Bella and Edward consummating their relationship. His skin is like marble so how on earth could they make love? She really should have left out that bit (stone skin) and still have the vamps every bit as unbreakable.
The pregnancy is another thing. In what universe is that possible? The kiss with Jacob, two days after Bella said yes to Edward’s proposal just pissed me off. Not to mention Jacob imprinting on Renesmee. Like seriously? Six billion people on the planet and he just had to fall for a baby? She probably needed a reason to ensure the wolves allied with the Cullens in the non-existent fight with the Volturi in book 4, but still, messy…very messy.
The idea of a 108-year old vampire attending high school beggars belief. If she wanted to create a setting where the two main characters meet, there are lots of alternatives in a small town like Forks. The mall, bookstore, even on the street.
Anyway, enough of the plot holes. Like most Twilight fans, I’d love to see another movie. So I started thinking about it and the plot started writing itself in my head. So here goes, my two cents…
Movie No 6
It all starts with something Aro said in that non-battle in the fifth movie. That humans have the technology to develop weapons that could kill vampires, hence the need for absolute secrecy about their existence.
The story picks up from there, a decade…or five…later when Aro’s worst fears have indeed come to pass and the humans discover the existence of vampires. Fuelled by fear about this hitherto unknown predator, whose awesome powers makes them difficult to capture, let alone kill, humans launch an all-out war to eradicate the vamps.
The war is kept top secret of course, to avoid triggering hysteria in the human population about this “new” threat. The top world powers (USA, Russia, UK, Germany, France and China) combine forces and create a secret army to launch attacks against the vamps. The army is led by a US marine, played by Theo James (who else? Did you see him in Divergent? Dude is a great actor and drop dead gorgeous).
Members of the black ops unit are recruited from the US marines, Britain’s Special Air Services (SAS) and Special Boat Services (SBS), as well as Israel’s lethal stealth warriors, the Sayeret Matkal. The unit also has intelligence sleuths recruited from the CIA, Mossad, Scotland Yard and the KGB.
The humans quickly discover just how flammable the venom in the vamps’ bodies is and design special hand held rocket launchers, which incinerate vampires on the spot, leaving a pile of ashes. The mini rocket launchers have a range of 5km and once they lock onto the target, the vampire is pretty much toast.
As the war escalates, both sides suffer heavy casualties, but the humans have actually began to decimate the vampire numbers. Vampires band together and also start creating newborn armies in their fight for survival. The humans respond by using intelligence to track down the locations of these new covens and then launch air missiles, taking out entire vampire families in huge explosions. Then Theo’s unit moves in to ensure any remaining body parts are burnt to ashes.
Human technology has progressed to the point where the accuracy of the missiles is such that collateral damage (hitting neighbouring houses) is minimal, which helps to limit human casualties (innocents). The explosions are blamed on terrorist attacks, which were common before the war against vampires began.
Vampires the world over are on the run including the Cullen family, which flees Forks after Alice gets a vision of a missile taking out the entire Denali family, their closest relatives in Alaska. The vision came to her mere minutes before the attack, so there was no time to warn their cousins. Carlisle’s sacred respect for human life, ingrained over 400 years, will not allow him to take revenge on the humans and so he opts to hide his family instead, deep in the Amazon jungle where they are offered refuge by Zafrina, Kachiri, and Senna.
Meanwhile, the Volturi is on the run too, having narrowly escaped death in a missile attack on Volterra, an ancient town in Tuscany, Italy, which served as their headquarters. The Volturi escape to Africa and hide deep in the Congo forest, living in a network of underground caves. The Congo rainforest is the world’s second largest rainforest, behind the Amazon. Although the Congo cuts through Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Central African Republic, two thirds of it is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
DRC is the perfect hiding place. It has been ravaged by civil war for decades and the resulting breakdown in law and order makes it difficult to get the assistance of the state to help track down the Volturi and launch an attack. To compound the problem, the Volturi has created a newborns army from the hundreds of guerrilla fighters in the forest. These battle hardened soldiers were dangerous while human, what with their unparalleled knowledge of the terrain. Now with all the added vampire powers, they are absolutely lethal (to quote Laurent’s words in the first movie. Pity he got killed. It would have been nice to include the only Kenyan – Edi Gathegi – in the Twilight movies in my story).
The humans strategise on how to deal with the Volturi, whose newborns army is wrecking devastation in the DRC, wiping out entire villages in vicious bloodthirsty rampages, before retreating to the forest. It’s becoming harder to hide the crisis from the media, which no longer buys the fiction that these are terrorist attacks.
The black ops unit is unable to pinpoint the location of their hideout in the vast rainforest. As vicious as the newborns army is, its retreat is just as fast, leaving no traces or evidence behind, almost as if the humans were killed by ghosts. In frustration, some members of the advisory council in the war against the vampires – comprising the presidents of the USA, Russia, UK, Germany, France and China, propose launching several bombs simultaneously on different parts of the rainforest, to smoke out the Volturi.
Cooler heads prevail however, arguing that such an action would destroy vast tracts of the forest, a world heritage protected site. The Congo rainforest is home to animals like the pygmy chimpanzee, the forest elephant, gorillas, the Congo peacock, the white rhino, the okapi and the ground pangolin. The loss of so many animals and fauna, many only found in that region, would create an environmental disaster that would bring UNEP down on their heads, not to mention the media attention it would generate.
Help for the black ops unit, comes from a most unexpected source. Several vampires have found their way to the Cullens’ hideout in the Amazon. The writing is on the wall and these vamps can clearly see that they are living on borrowed time. They want a truce with the humans. All have heard about the Cullen’s alternative lifestyle. “We want to live in peace with the humans,” their spokesman pleads. “We’re ready to do whatever it takes, even become vegetarians.” That means not hunting humans and living on the blood of animals instead, a huge sacrifice for a vampire. Jasper is still struggling with this one, decades after he joined the Cullen family.
Carlisle knows only one person can help them broker a peace treaty. Jacob Black and his family, the Quileute tribe. He sneaks back into the US and goes to La Push, the home of the werewolf pack, accompanied by Alice and Jasper. He is relying on Alice’s visions to keep them safe and Jasper’s knowledge of human military manoeuvres, which might prove useful should they have to fight for their lives. His ability to control emotions may also be needed should they find themselves in a volatile situation with the humans.
The trio find Leah, a former member of the werewolf pack at home visiting her brother Seth, also a member of the pack. Leah is happy and content. She imprinted on a US marine while on a trip to Hawaii to visit her sister. With the connection to Sam now broken, Leah is like a different person. Open, warm and friendly, not the bitter Leah the Cullens remember.
Leah proves to be the key to getting the peace treaty the surviving vampires want so badly. Once Carlisle explains the situation, she says her husband Jack can help. Leah has told him everything about her past, so he already knows vampires exist. Alice describes Theo James, the leader of the black ops unit, who she had seen in her vision of the Denali family massacre.
Jack realises he knows him. He hasn’t seen Theo in more than a year and suspected that he was on a top secret mission for the US government. Now he knows what his buddy has been up to. Jack has no idea where Theo is, but knows the best place to get information. He has a friend at the CIA headquarters at Langley who may know something. He immediately flies out to Virginia to track down Theo.
Days pass before they get word that he has not only found Theo, but the latter has agreed to a meeting with Jacob Black. The Cullens retreat to the forests in Forks to hide while the meeting takes place, accompanied by Seth, who will provide a connection to the pack to keep tabs on what’s going on.
Theo is visibly stunned by the tale the Quileute leaders tell him. He knows about vampires but has no idea that some have lived peacefully with humans for centuries. He is even more stunned to know about werewolves and the phasing, which Jacob is happy to demonstrate. “How sure are you that they can be trusted,” he asks suspiciously, when told the vampires want a truce with the humans.
Jacob tells him about the peace treaty that his tribe forged with the Cullens more than a century before and how they have always protected humans from attacks from their own kind. He shakes his head in disbelief, seemingly confused by everything he’s heard. But when Jack tells him his wife Leah is a werewolf and he’s lived with her for years without any harm coming to him, that seems to sway him. It is obvious that he has a lot of respect for Jack, who he fought with in the marines.
He agrees to meet the Cullens and listen to their proposal. They offer to help the black ops unit defeat the Volturi currently holed up in the Congo, in exchange for amnesty for their family and allies, vampires who have promised not to hunt humans anymore.
“What will they eat?” Theo asks, looking at Carlisle suspiciously.
“They will survive on animal blood, like us,” Carlisle replies.
“What if that is not enough to satisfy the craving?”
Carlisle sighs. “There is one other alternative we can consider.”
“I’m listening,” says Theo, still tense.
“We’ve told you how we saved Bella’s life while she was pregnant by giving her donated blood.” Theo winces but stays silent. “We won’t force anyone to become a vegetarian. Instead, we will set up blood banks where humans can donate blood for a fee. Everything in your world has become a commodity, including blood, sperm and ova (eggs). If we offer higher prices than existing blood banks, that will ensure we have a steady supply of donors. Humans buy their food. There is no reason why our kind shouldn’t.”
A tiny smile touches Theo’s lips. “That could work,” he says thoughtfully. “Especially if you locate your blood banks in poor neighbourhoods with lots of homeless people. The money will improve their economic circumstances. Your kind doesn’t have preferences when it comes to human blood, do you?”
It is Carlisle’s turn to smile. “Believe me, it doesn’t matter how rich or poor the person is, as long as it is human blood.”
“Anyone who bites a human for any reason, whether to drink their blood or change them, dies instantly. No mercy. No exceptions.” Theo’s voice is hard, like granite.
“Agreed. Human life is sacred, to be protected.” There is no hesitation in Carlisle’s voice. After some more discussion where the group debates the finer points of the peace treaty, Theo calls his bosses in DC, who he has kept in the loop about his trip to Forks, and the Cullen family is granted safe passage to the capital to conclude and sign the final agreement.
Things move quickly after that. The Cullen family starts putting together a database of all vampires willing to sign the peace treaty. Emissaries are sent all over the world with that message and a call to come to DC to register in the special vampire database being set up that will only be available to the advisory council on vampire affairs, a very small group.
The council is determined to keep knowledge of vampires from becoming widespread. There are many idiots like Bella who would gladly choose immortality, thereby swelling their numbers. Information about vampires will be ruthlessly suppressed. It will be an automatic death sentence for any vamp who bites a human. Both he and his victim/lover will be incinerated on the spot.
Jasper joins the black ops unit as the vampire liaison and recruits new members for the upcoming battle against the Volturi. On this one issue, the humans and the vamps who want peace are on the same page. The Volturi has done enough damage. They will not be allowed to live.
Focus shifts to the final combat in a war that started out with humans against vampires and now pits the Cullens and their vampire allies, the werewolves and black ops unit against the Volturi, with their newborns army. The black ops and their allies travel to Nairobi where the final planning for the battle takes place.
Nairobi is the logical choice. Kenya has long played an important role as peacekeeper in the region, an ally of the western powers. It allowed Israel’s covert Sayeret Matkal, to mount an attack from its soil against Palestinian and German terrorists holed up in neighbouring Uganda’s Entebbe airport, after hijacking an Air France jetliner with 106 Jewish and French hostages on board. The mission on July 4, 1976 dubbed Operation Thunderbolt, was a resounding success as the commandos secured the release of all the hostages.
More important however, Nairobi is home to the UNEP headquarters, which oversees the Congo rainforest, the venue for the final rematch between the Cullens/werewolves and the Volturi, a scene reminiscent of that long ago battle that aborted at the last minute when the Volturi backed down. There will be no backing down in this battle, for either side.
It will be a fight to the death, with the potential for destroying the entire rainforest in the process. The advisory council is keen to keep the damage to a minimum and preserve as much of the habitat as it can. Hence their decision to rope in UNEP’s top decision makers, and also prevent media leaks. UNEP’s headquarters in Gigiri is a fortress, safe from prying eyes and electronic surveillance.
The long awaited battle finally comes to pass… I’ll let the Hollywood studios take over at this point (Of course we expect the black ops/werewolves/Cullens and their vampire allies to win. Oh and put a compelling love story in the movie so the teenage girls are happy).
Just a final point or two…
The surviving vampires continue to live in peace with the humans. The blood banks work well and human kills by vampires reduce drastically…
However…centuries and in some cases millennia of hunting instincts cannot be erased in a few decades just because a vamp has signed a peace treaty. A few can’t resist the urge to hunt humans and when caught, pay the price (instant incineration).
Jasper survives the battle with the Volturi and continues to work in the black ops unit as the vampire liaison, effectively serving as Theo’s Number 2, or deputy commander. His job entails recruiting vamps willing to protect humans from both vampire and human predators (rapists, serial killers, terrorists and the like).
A shadowy outfit emerges among vampire survivors who still want to hunt humans. They bribe prison and state officials charged with executing prisoners condemned to death. The prisoners are merely sedated and fake funerals held afterwards for the families. The prisoners are then spirited to a secret location and held by the shadowy vampire secret society.
Twice a year, these prisoners are let loose in a forest (always a different location every time) and hunted to the death by vamps for sport. The black ops unit discovers what these vamps were doing. At first they turn a blind eye to the group’s activities. These are the dregs of human society. Condemned for committing horrible crimes against fellow humans. The advisory council is happy to get rid of them.
But then the vamps get greedy. Want to play more. Want more victims. So they start bribing crooked judges and lawyers to botch trials to increase the numbers of condemned prisoners. Innocent people are sentenced to execution for crimes they haven’t committed. Hmm… I’ll just leave that there.
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Have you read my second novel Duel in the Savanna? What are you waiting for? Click here to download the Pdf or read the chapters online. Feel free to share the link with all your friends and family. Happy reading!