Marvin
Space. Stars. Mars. (doesn’t have to be Mars) Sweeping, panning shots of the rocky Martian landscape. It is absolutely desolate and dusty. The reddy-pink sky is unbroken, the rocks completely still, casting their sharp dark shadows over each other. The occasional gust of wind moves the dust around, causing drifts against the distant cliffs. The camera settles eventually, at the end of one of it’s pans, framing a solitary shed in the middle of the huge expanse. Closer to the shed now, the rickety wooden door creaks open slowly as a little robot (don’t know how it looks yet) steps gingerly out, carrying some sort of old rusty contraption. He places it down carefully, fiddling with various knobs and switches. Something he does prompts the machine to grip it’s three pincer-like feet to the rocky ground and it visibly tenses up, as if ready to spring into action. It doesn’t. But the windmill-like structure on top does start spinning slowly, getting faster and faster, gaining momentum until it becomes obvious why it’s clinging to the rocks so desperately, the upward force very nearly wrenching it’s grip free. The robot sits back to observe with a certain robot pleasure what he has set in motion. Soon the surrounding dust, both from the muggy atmosphere and what is resting on the ground, is drawn into the vortex created by the machine. A narrow but tall mini tornado shakes the device to its core, static electricity causing occasional flashes of light; puffs of smoke indicating the blown fuses of the decrepit old thing. The robot is so hypnotised by the spectacle in front of him that he momentarily forgets the next stage of this rather odd procedure (and we get the feeling this isn’t the first time such a lapse in concentration has occurred). Something soon snaps him out of his daze though, as he panics and fumbles for the release button. The mechanism instantly relaxes as the whirlwind is set free and the robot falls on his arse. He makes no effort to get up though, and lies back, hands supporting his neck, admiring his work. The windmill fans can be heard winding down, the hum gradually quietening as the tornado winds it’s random way across the rocky desert. An elevated wide shot of the hut and the robot. More sweeping shots, this time with glimpses of the flashing dusty tornados all over the planet. Mars (or wherever)
End with some sort of footage from a space probe witnessing the tornados, like the footage I saw on The Sky At Night?