Thread by @Jonathan_Fortin

In another reality, we finally got an AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE / ALICE: MADNESS RETURNS movie. These stills imagine what it could have looked like. 🧵1
#midjourney #midjourneyAi #fakemovies #alternaterealitymovies

OPENING: Down the rabbit hole we go! It's another splendid tea party in wonderland when Alice Liddell suddenly realizes everything's on fire. She awakens in her bedroom to find it ablaze... 🧵2

SETUP: After her parents and her sister Lizzie die in the fire, Alice is condemned to the creepy Rutledge's Asylum. But something isn't quite right there. It's almost like Wonderland has followed her... 🧵3

THEME STATED: The head of Rutledge's, Dr. Angus Bumby, promises Alice: "I'll set you free, Alice. Memory is a curse more often than a blessing." We learn he uses hypnotherapy to make the other orphans imprisoned here forget their trauma. The place is filled with dolls. 🧵4

CATALYST: Time passes as Alice begins Bumby's treatment, her memories slowly growing murkier, until one day Alice is attacked by a warped new version of the Mad Hatter. Alice flees, and finds herself tumbling back into Wonderland...but it isn't the Wonderland she remembers. 🧵5

BREAK INTO TWO: Alice emerges into a strange new Wonderland, where the White Rabbit begs her: "Please don't dawdle, Alice. We're very late indeed!" An Infernal Train is charging through Wonderland, leaving inky Ruin monsters and mutating the world into a nightmarish new form. 🧵6

The White Rabbit takes her to a meeting with the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the Dormouse, and Caterpillar, who beg her: "Save us, Alice." The train, seemingly a manifestation of Alice's trauma, must be stopped. They believe it's controlled by the Queen of Hearts. 🧵7

They ask Alice to overthrow the Queen of Hearts, believing this will stop the Infernal Train.
Alice: "But there's more than one way to skin a cat, if you'll pardon the expression."
Cheshire: "Most unpleasant metaphor. Please avoid it in the future."
White Rabbit: 😬 🧵8

An unexpected guest arrives for tea, breaking up the party. "He's gone quite mad!" The Hatter's teacup comes alive and devours the Dormouse and March Hare, to be taken to his domain and experimented on. Alice escapes, but only to wake up back in the asylum. 🧵9

PROMISE OF THE PREMISE: As Alice begins her journey through the twisted new Wonderland by night, she finds herself having to fight to escape the asylum by day. But as Wonderland begins infecting her reality, the two goals become intertwined. 🧵10

Hatter, too, appears to be jumping between realities, moonlighting as an orderly in the asylum. He challenges Alice to a game of cards, and says: "Forgetting is just forgetting, except when it's not. Then they call it something else." 🧵11

Meanwhile, the Queen of Hearts emerges from a bloodbath and dines. She hears of Alice's return & orders her capture. 🧵12

"I rule Wonderland alone. Her interference will not be tolerated. This realm is for grown-ups; raw, well-ordered, ruthless, careening on the jagged edge of reality. Self-pitying dreamers are not wanted here; they cannot survive here." 🧵13

Meanwhile, Dr. Bumby notices Alice seems "more awake" and tries to hypnotize her into forgetting the trauma of the fire. To make her want to forget, he "reminds" her that the fire was "her fault," gaslighting her with the claim that she once admitted to smelling the smoke. 🧵14

After this upsets Alice grately, he tells her, "There, there, Alice. The past must be paid for." It's better, he says, to forget. Yet as she relives the memory, the fire seems to be caused by something monstrous, and she holds onto the memory. 🧵15

The other children go to bed, Bumby whispering:
"The train is coming with its shiny cars.
With comfy seats and wheels of stars.
So hush my little ones have no fear.
The man in the moon is the engineer."

During this, Alice escapes back into Wonderland using water. 🧵16

The Cheshire Cat leads Alice through the woods to Looking Glass Land, where Alice will be expected to lead what remains of the white queen's army. Alice, still haunted: "I'm not sure I know how to lead."
Cat: "Every adventure requires a first step. Trite but true, even here."🧵17

Alice arrives at Looking Glass Land, where she must team up with the White Queen, who has minimal forces left as the Red Chessmen have teamed up with the Queen of Hearts. The hope is that they can break through the Red forces into Queensland, but they're massively outnumbered🧵18

Worse, Alice remains under the belief that she killed her family and this haunts her. She also realizes in horror that she barely remembers her sister Lizzie, as though the train has destroyed her memories of her. How can anyone place their trust in her as a leader? 🧵19

MIDPOINT: The chess battle begins! Alice leads the few forces they have for an initial battle. Things don't go terribly well at first, but she ends up getting more confident and carving a path to Queensland--only to be captured by the Queen. 🧵21

So the Queen of Hearts is coocoo bananas representing Alice's madness, but when Alice asks about the train she says, "You shouldn't ask questions you know the answer to, it's not polite. And that noise wasn't Lizzie talking in her sleep." What does that mean?! 🧵22

Before Alice can find out, the queen throws her to Hatter to be experimented on.

"Everything's a nail, is it, Miss Hammerhead? Never time for tea. Now we're all mad here and that's a good excuse for going to hell in a teapot, but not for forgetting what your senses saw!" 🧵23

BAD GUYS CLOSE IN: Alice learns Hatter has experimented on the Hare and the Dormouse, turning them into pitiful cyborg slaves for his army. He's working with someone he calls "the Dollmaker," who also was involved with the train, which Hatter calls "the Jabberwock Express!" 🧵24

The Infernal Train arrives, revealing itself to be the Jabberwock. Hatter helped create its new form for the Dollmaker, under the queen's nose. The Jabberwock / Infernal Train gives voice to Alice's doubts as it spawns more Ruin beasts. 🧵25

"You selfish, misbegotten, unnatural child! You smelled the smoke. But you were in dreamland taking tea with your friends. You couldn't be bothered. Your room was protected & spared, while your family roasted in an inferno of incredible horror!" 🧵26 (will post the rest soon)

Alice breaks down into tears, but the Jabberwock leaves to kill the queen of hearts (who is, oddly enough, an important part of her sanity). Alice must fight her way out to keep what remains of her mind before it's all burned away. 🧵27

Cheshire cat: "How fine you look when dressed in rage. Your enemies are fortunate your condition is not permanent. You're lucky, too. Red eyes suit so few."🧵28

As Alice awakens her anger, she has a flash of a memory of Lizzie once being this angry. It was about a man who stalked her and tried coercing her into performing sexual acts. A man who Alice only saw the eyes of in the shadows, but now that she thinks about it... 🧵29

ALL IS LOST: Alice ends up waking back up in the "real" world. She wants to get back but can't. Bumby says she is acting quite hysterical and needs "severe methods" to be stabilized. But Alice remembers him now...she knows what he did to her sister, and he's behind the ruin. 🧵30

"Some insects eat their young, Alice. They have much to teach us, alive or dead." 🧵31

Alice flees, but her perception of Wonderland vs the Real World blurs as she finds herself fleeing through a terrifying dollhouse - the patients in one world and misbegotten dolls in another. All are victims of Bumby! Things get surreal (well, more than usual) 🧵32

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL: still pursued, Alice breaks into Bumby's office & discovers he set the fire that killed her family, then hypnotized her here to cover his tracks. Worse, he's been using the asylum to strip away inmates' memories until they fall into disassociation. 🧵33

All along, the asylum was a front to turn traumatized children into "proud products," commodities to be exploited. Now, his Infernal Train and its Ruin are trying to do that to Alice. But Alice won't let it happen. 🧵34

BREAK INTO THREE: Alice finds a carousel with horses who sing in a melancholy musical number as she gets on one and frees it from its pole. Then she rides it into battle! 🧵35

FINALE: Riding her freed carousel horse, Alice frees the other imprisoned children in the "real" world, while in Wonderland she rides to save the Queen of Hearts. (In the real world it's a hobby horse on a stick.) 🧵36

Alice and her fellow freed "dolls" clash with the orderlies, including Hatter, who is defeated in the commotion. 🧵37

Alice confronts the Train, saving the queen of hearts (and both her sanity and insanity) from being erased. Bumby is terrified of this fearless Alice and flees. Alice chases him to a train station. 🧵38

FINALE: Alice kills the Jabberwock and Bumby both by (ironically enough) pushing Bumby into a train!🧵39

EPILOGUE: Alice leaves the asylum, now with a greater understanding of what happened, and a little more at peace with her madness and trauma. Wonderland is saved! The end 🧵40 (final)

Since this is blowing up, check out my novel LILITU: THE MEMOIRS OF A SUCCUBUS, which also has Victorian Gothic vibes! HorrorAddicts called it "A horror masterpiece"!

Get it here: getbook.at/Lilitu

Read more about it here: jonathanfortin.com/lilitu