In different parts of the country, there lived 8 very different teenagers...
In a wealthy suburb in Ohio there lived a girl named Amy Anderson.....
(camera zooms to a public high school, students walk past...focuses on a girl wearing a classic, preppy flared jeans
and white blouse, a lab coat over it. She is doing some sort of complicated biology or chemistry lab involving lots of
machines and chemicals...pans out....focuses upon an acceptance letter to Harvard...pans out.....Amy looking very
closely at a computer chip....pans out....shows Amy at a gun range shooting yet another bulls-eye in the target)
In Inner-City L.A., California there lived a girl named Mina Angell......
(camera zooms to a run-down church building, a room open to reveal a bunch of kids and teens from various racial
and financial backgrounds sitting around a table listening to a girl wearing cutoff shorts and a tank top. A pregnant
teen girl comes in, crying, and immediately the girl at the table hugs her.....pans out....focuses on her at the peace
corps talking in a foreign language....then an acceptance letter to Berkeley...then the girl doing a high jump-kick)
In a rich but impersonal district in Massachusetts there lived a girl named Raye Warrington.......
(camera zooms to an all-girl's finishing school...standing out in the sea of black pleated skirts and green cardigans
is a defiant-looking girl not in uniform...wearing black leather from top to toe and wiring what looks suspiciously like
a small time bomb...she simply flicks off her teacher...pans out...focuses on an acceptance letter to Vassar...then
focuses on the girl in a full-body-suit standing next to a warhead...then to the girl in kendo dojo swinging a sword)
In a rural town in Nebraska there lived a girl named Lita Woods......
(camera zooms to an open field where a girl wearing denim overalls and a pink polka dot blouse, gently and carefully
examining a patch of wildflowers....pans out to show the same girl fixing a tractor...focuses on an acceptance letter
to Stanford...a tearful good-bye...pans out...shows the girl in safari clothing with a machete and binoculars paddling
a canoe in the rain forest...then her by some complex-looking machine...then zooms on the girl flinging a tomahawk)
In a middle-class suburb of Chicago there lived a boy named Zack Waterhouse.........
(camera zooms to show a public high school......a guy with longish dark blond hair and earrings wearing baggy khakis
and a white t-shirt quickly and efficiently counting a pile of money, separating it, and punching keys on a calculator
at his side...a copy of an acceptance letter to Princeton lay on top of a copy of the Wall Street Journal...pans out
to show the guy shaking hands with CEOs.....then focuses on the guy in fighting stance, a knife held in each hand)
In Inner-city Detroit there lived a boy named Kevin Knighton..........
(camera zooms to show an urban neighborhood....two thuggish guys picking on a small, thin boy. All of the sudden
a complicated pulley system hanging outside a window showers the bullies with ice water, and the boy runs off. The
pulley operator Kevin watches from the window...a letter of acceptance to Duke in his hand...a crime scene where
Kevin, older, investigates...pans out...then Kevin doing kung fu, a chain in one hand, a boomerang in the other)
In the slums of NYC there lived a boy named James Byrne...............
(camera zooms in on a tiny room where a blond boy with a baseball cap sits, busily writing by the light of a bare light
bulb suspended from the ceiling, a tattered philosophy book in his lap. There's an ancient computer, half-dismantled,
by his bed, surrounded by screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, etc...a letter of acceptance to UCLA...the boy, older, typing
rapidly into a huge computer and smiling.....pans out.......then the guy throwing another guy to the ground in dojo)
In the mountains of Colorado there lived a boy named Nicholas Steller.......
(camera zooms in on a boy sitting on the roof of a ski cabin, dressed for warmth, with dark brown hair and cobalt
blue eyes, gazing at the night sky through a telescope...an acceptance letter to Dartmouth....the guy, older, writing
complicated math equations on a board...then, him in an astronaut suit walking from a space shuttle........thumbing
through a huge math text.........pans out.......then shows the guy swinging a wooden staff around with both hands)
Eight different kids grew up in eight different households. Rich, poor, and everything in between. Despite all of their
differences, they all shared some things in common: outstanding intelligence, superior strength, great discipline,
top-notch educations, impressive resourcefulness, admirable courage, and a strong sense of integrity. In the end, the
eight kids would share a common and extraordinary destiny.
In a wealthy suburb in Ohio there lived a girl named Amy Anderson.....
(camera zooms to a public high school, students walk past...focuses on a girl wearing a classic, preppy flared jeans
and white blouse, a lab coat over it. She is doing some sort of complicated biology or chemistry lab involving lots of
machines and chemicals...pans out....focuses upon an acceptance letter to Harvard...pans out.....Amy looking very
closely at a computer chip....pans out....shows Amy at a gun range shooting yet another bulls-eye in the target)
In Inner-City L.A., California there lived a girl named Mina Angell......
(camera zooms to a run-down church building, a room open to reveal a bunch of kids and teens from various racial
and financial backgrounds sitting around a table listening to a girl wearing cutoff shorts and a tank top. A pregnant
teen girl comes in, crying, and immediately the girl at the table hugs her.....pans out....focuses on her at the peace
corps talking in a foreign language....then an acceptance letter to Berkeley...then the girl doing a high jump-kick)
In a rich but impersonal district in Massachusetts there lived a girl named Raye Warrington.......
(camera zooms to an all-girl's finishing school...standing out in the sea of black pleated skirts and green cardigans
is a defiant-looking girl not in uniform...wearing black leather from top to toe and wiring what looks suspiciously like
a small time bomb...she simply flicks off her teacher...pans out...focuses on an acceptance letter to Vassar...then
focuses on the girl in a full-body-suit standing next to a warhead...then to the girl in kendo dojo swinging a sword)
In a rural town in Nebraska there lived a girl named Lita Woods......
(camera zooms to an open field where a girl wearing denim overalls and a pink polka dot blouse, gently and carefully
examining a patch of wildflowers....pans out to show the same girl fixing a tractor...focuses on an acceptance letter
to Stanford...a tearful good-bye...pans out...shows the girl in safari clothing with a machete and binoculars paddling
a canoe in the rain forest...then her by some complex-looking machine...then zooms on the girl flinging a tomahawk)
In a middle-class suburb of Chicago there lived a boy named Zack Waterhouse.........
(camera zooms to show a public high school......a guy with longish dark blond hair and earrings wearing baggy khakis
and a white t-shirt quickly and efficiently counting a pile of money, separating it, and punching keys on a calculator
at his side...a copy of an acceptance letter to Princeton lay on top of a copy of the Wall Street Journal...pans out
to show the guy shaking hands with CEOs.....then focuses on the guy in fighting stance, a knife held in each hand)
In Inner-city Detroit there lived a boy named Kevin Knighton..........
(camera zooms to show an urban neighborhood....two thuggish guys picking on a small, thin boy. All of the sudden
a complicated pulley system hanging outside a window showers the bullies with ice water, and the boy runs off. The
pulley operator Kevin watches from the window...a letter of acceptance to Duke in his hand...a crime scene where
Kevin, older, investigates...pans out...then Kevin doing kung fu, a chain in one hand, a boomerang in the other)
In the slums of NYC there lived a boy named James Byrne...............
(camera zooms in on a tiny room where a blond boy with a baseball cap sits, busily writing by the light of a bare light
bulb suspended from the ceiling, a tattered philosophy book in his lap. There's an ancient computer, half-dismantled,
by his bed, surrounded by screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, etc...a letter of acceptance to UCLA...the boy, older, typing
rapidly into a huge computer and smiling.....pans out.......then the guy throwing another guy to the ground in dojo)
In the mountains of Colorado there lived a boy named Nicholas Steller.......
(camera zooms in on a boy sitting on the roof of a ski cabin, dressed for warmth, with dark brown hair and cobalt
blue eyes, gazing at the night sky through a telescope...an acceptance letter to Dartmouth....the guy, older, writing
complicated math equations on a board...then, him in an astronaut suit walking from a space shuttle........thumbing
through a huge math text.........pans out.......then shows the guy swinging a wooden staff around with both hands)
Eight different kids grew up in eight different households. Rich, poor, and everything in between. Despite all of their
differences, they all shared some things in common: outstanding intelligence, superior strength, great discipline,
top-notch educations, impressive resourcefulness, admirable courage, and a strong sense of integrity. In the end, the
eight kids would share a common and extraordinary destiny.