A middle-aged gay couple’s attempt to rekindle their relationship turns into an absurd, hormone-fueled quest to defeat alien invaders and save a new LGBTQ society.

SYNOPSIS:

Alvy Han and Tim Randolph, a 40-something married couple living in Los Angeles, meet Ron and Michelle, who recruit them to attend a lecture that has something to do with their “bed death” problem. The lecture itself turns out to be unhelpful, but two people in the audience catch their attention: a man in a black hat, Jones, and a gorgeous blond, Anders. Jones insists on meeting them later, so they rendezvous in a shadowy parking deck. Jones directs them to yet another meeting, warns them about “Iks,” and shows them the extra eye growing out of his bald head.

The next meeting occurs at a speakeasy with scantily clad, naughty clientele. Mrs. Martha, a drag queen, gives Tim and Alvy card keys and instructions to go to the Port of Los Angeles the next day. Intrigued, they follow up… and find themselves on a queer cruise. At first, thanks to their adorable server Ford Garcia, the observation deck for watching nearly nude youngsters, and the pool for more mature naked mingling, the cruise seems like the perfect cure for bed death. Alvy and Tim have incredible sex. However, having spotted aliens disguised as humans, the Iks, they know something else is afoot. They narrowly escape an Ik attack, and Anders points them toward the ship within the ship, a network of people, such as the server Winnie Morgan, who know about the alien threat as well as a secret island destination. Tim and Alvy don’t know why, but somehow they’re essential to a plan, so they go along with Ron, Michelle, Ford, Winnie, Anders, and others to the island.

At the tropical island’s Welcome Center, Jones explains that the island has three factions: all men, all women, and a mix. Alvy and Tim, newly dressed in palm frond loincloths, decide to spend the day and night with the men’s faction, eating, dancing, and smoking something whacky. The next morning, though, they’re off: scientists populate the island’s other side, and they have a shuttle ready to take Tim, Alvy, and others to Amourica, an LGBTQ colony on Mars.

They land on Mars and learn that Iks are attacking the colony. All the machinations to get Alvy and Tim to Amourica resulted from a computer naming them as the most likely people to resist the Iks’ new pheromone weapon. When the weapon goes off, the whole colony breaks into a massive orgy, ripe for invasion because everyone wants everyone else—except Tim and Alvy only want each other. They are therefore able to repel the Iks, save the colony, and make way for an LGBTQ utopia to thrive. They return to Earth as heroes, more in love and more alive.

For a reading of the first 20 pages, see LGBT Festival 1st Scenes Script Reading: COME ALIVE, by L. Andrew Cooper – LGBT Toronto Film Festival.

In addition to winning the reading from the LGBT Toronto FF, COME ALIVE was a finalist in the South Carolina Underground FF (2020) and a semi-finalist in the RAINBOW Cinema Awards (2020). It is also a selection in the 2020 AOF Megafest, results pending.