Video Title: TIDE OF ASHES Logline: When two seemingly invincible alien scouts land on a California beach to begin the extermination of mankind, a wounded Marine and a resourceful lifeguard must use human ingenuity and sheer grit to turn a peaceful coastline into a battlefield for survival. Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Thriller Setting: Zuma Beach, Malibu, California. A bright, sunny day. Characters: KAITO (30s): A lifeguard, observant, knows the beach and its resources intimately. SGT. MARCUS RIVERA (30s): A Marine on leave, disciplined, tactical, wounded but relentless. THE SCOUTS (The Aliens): Two tall, bipedal, insectoid figures. Their dark, chitinous armor seems to absorb light. They move with unnerving, precise grace. They are silent except for a low, resonant hum. VIDEO SCRIPT SCENE 1 EXT. ZUMA BEACH - DAY SOUND: Waves crash, children laugh, pop music from a radio. The beach is idyllic. Sunbathers, volleyball games, kids splashing in the surf. KAITO sits in the lifeguard tower, sunglasses on, scanning the water. A family points excitedly at the sky. A shimmer, like a heat haze, descends rapidly over the ocean. It's not a plane. It's completely silent. The shimmer touches down just beyond the breakers with no splash, no sound. It's a sleek, obsidian, non-aerodynamic craft, half-submerged. A hatch opens. Two figures emerge, walking on the water's surface as if it's solid ground. They are the ALIEN SCOUTS. Seven feet tall. Impossibly tall and thin. Beachgoers stop. They point, laugh, pull out phones to record. The mood is one of curiosity, not fear. The Scouts raise their arms. Not weapons, but organic-looking appendages that glow with a sickly green energy. SOUND: A building, high-pitched WHINE that drowns out all other sound. The energy erupts. Not lasers, but a wave of vibrational force. The effect is instantaneous and horrific. People in the direct path don't scream—they simply disintegrate into clouds of fine, gray ash. Sunglasses, phones, and metal keys clatter onto the hot sand. Silence for a beat. Then, panic. Screams. A stampede. SCENE 2 EXT. BEACH - DAY - CHAOS Kaito freezes for a second, his training overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of what he's seeing. He grabs his megaphone. KAITO (Into megaphone) Get off the beach! Run to the parking lot! Now! The Scouts advance methodically. Their weapon recharges with a low HUM. They fire again. Another swath of beachgoers vanishes into ash. SGT. MARCUS RIVERA, wearing a Marine Corps t-shirt, is pulling a terrified teenager out of the way. The blast catches the edge of his leg. He cries out, not from a wound, but from a searing, necrotic pain. The flesh on his calf turns black and deadened. He stumbles behind a concrete restroom building. The Scouts are systematic, efficient. They are cleansing the beach. SCENE 3 EXT. BEACH WALK - DAY Kaito has climbed down from his tower. He finds Rivera leaning against the wall, gritting his teeth in pain, trying to fashion a tourniquet from his shirt. KAITO Jesus. Are you hit? RIVERA (Through clenched teeth) Whatever that is, it kills tissue on contact. Not a burn. It's like... accelerated decay. We can't fight that. KAITO We have to try. They're heading for the parking lot. There are kids up there. Rivera looks at Kaito, then at the Scouts. His military mind kicks into gear, assessing, adapting. RIVERA They're tall. Top-heavy. And they walk on water but... look at their feet on the sand. They're sinking a little. They have mass. KAITO Their suits... look like a crab's shell. RIVERA (Nods, a plan forming) Every shell has a weakness. The joints. The eyes. We need a distraction. Something messy. Kaito's eyes dart around, landing on the lifeguard shack. A red warning flag flies atop it. KAITO I've got a distraction. SCENE 4 EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY The Scouts reach the boardwalk. They aim their weapons at a group of people hiding behind cars. Suddenly, a loud, piercing AIR HORN blares. It's Kaito, from the side, waving the flag. The Scouts turn their heads in unison. The one on the right fires. Kaito dives behind a hot dog stand as the force blast vaporizes it, sending boiling water and condiments flying. But the distraction worked. Rivera, ignoring the blinding pain in his leg, has low-crawled through the sand. He’s now behind a lifeguard’s quad bike. SCENE 5 EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY - THE FIGHT As the Scout tracks Kaito, Rivera jams his car keys into the quad bike’s ignition and turns it. The engine ROARS. He revs it hard, aims it, and leaps off, sending the heavy quad bike careening directly into the legs of the nearest Scout. SOUND: A horrific CRACK of chitinous plating. The Scout lets out a sound for the first time—a piercing, insectoid SCREECH of surprise and pain. It topples over, its weapon discharging into the sky. The second Scout turns to engage this new threat. Rivera is exposed, unarmed. Kaito sees his chance. He grabs the fire extinguisher from the melted remains of the hot dog stand. As the standing Scout aims at Rivera, Kaito sprays the thick, white CO2 foam directly into the creature's multi-lensed eye cluster. The Scout stumbles back, blinded, its shots going wild, vaporizing a car. The downed Scout is trying to right itself, its leg bent at a wrong angle. Rivera lunges forward. He doesn't have a weapon. He grabs a piece of rebar from the construction site nearby. The blinded Scout is wiping at its eyes. The downed one is vulnerable. With a raw, guttural scream—a mix of pain, fear, and pure human fury—Rivera drives the sharp end of the rebar into the vulnerable joint between the downed Scout's helmet and chest plate. SOUND: A wet, sickening SQUELCH. The alien's screech cuts off into a gurgle. It spasms and goes still. The second Scout clears its vision. It sees its dead companion. It sees the two humans—one wounded, one unarmed—standing defiantly over the body. For a moment, it hesitates. Its mission of easy extermination has met unexpected, illogical resistance. It raises its weapon, not at the crowds fleeing in the distance, but directly at Rivera and Kaito. They stand their ground, breathing heavily, ready for the end. SOUND: A JET FIGHTER SCREECHING overhead. A missile streaks down from the sky and impacts the second Scout directly. SOUND: A massive EXPLOSION. Sand and alien debris fly everywhere. Kaito and Rivera are thrown back by the blast, landing in the sand. Silence, except for the crackle of fire and the distant wail of sirens. SCENE 6 EXT. BEACH - SUNSET The beach is a war zone. Military vehicles are everywhere. The alien ship is surrounded. Rivera is on a stretcher, medics tending to his leg. Kaito sits beside him, wrapped in a shock blanket, covered in sand and soot. They look at the carnage. The patches of ash on the sand. The dead alien. A Colonel approaches them. COLONEL We got your message from the police scanner. You two... you stopped them. RIVERA (Shakes his head, looking at the dead Scout) We got lucky. We were angry. And we refused to die. KAITO (Quietly, looking at the ocean) They thought this would be easy. They didn't count on that. The Colonel follows his gaze. The sun is setting, painting the sky blood-red and orange. It's a beautiful, terrible sight. FINAL SHOT: A wide shot of the beach. The military presence looks small against the vastness of the ocean. The message is clear: the first battle is won, but the war for Earth has just begun. The human will to survive, however, is now a factor the invaders must calculate. FADE TO BLACK. DIRECTOR'S NOTES: Alien Design: They should feel truly alien. Their movement should be unnervingly smooth. The sound design for their weapon and their screech is crucial for the horror element. Tone: The shift from idyllic paradise to horrific war zone should be jarring and swift. Themes: The core idea is that humanity's strength isn't in superior technology, but in adaptability, courage, and the fierce, often messy, will to fight back against impossible odds.