The Ray Gun is a solid screenplay. The story in it of itself is very good with a grounded approach to sci-if that works really well. As far as protagonists go, Milton is a very good one. He has a motive for using the weapon, he wants to help his sisters. He develops over the course of the movie becoming less timid and more headstrong, going straight after his problems. Finally, we can really see the negative effects of the ray gun in Milton as he compromises on some of his values and becomes more aggressive and violent. The two other characters that are really well done are the government agents Knox and Duncan. Knox is a spiteful independent contractor for the government who is angry that he has lost his steady income and pension. Knox is tough and, at times borderline psychopathic, but he never feels like a cliche and feels human through his relationship with Duncan, who feels like a new year try to learn everything he can from a veteran. Knox’s dialogue is the best part of the screenplay because every time he talks about the dangers of the ray gun, or his unfamiliarity with technology he could become a caricature or cliche, but the dialogue remains engaging and realistic. However, some characters do feel like cliches, mainly Angie’s boyfriend Steve and the mob boss known only as the Big Boss. Steve is the dumb, enabling boyfriend that the brother doesn’t approve of. He is a dunce and his hatred for Milton goes zero-to-hundred in his most important scene. Steve doesn’t really serve much of a purpose aside from giving us a reason to sympathize with Angie and is just a two-dimensional bully, although he has a couple funny moments. By far the worst character is the Big Boss. He’s a stereotypical mob boss and speaks as such. Everything he says has been said before in Godfather knock-offs. You can even see how hollow he is by him not even having a real name. The Big Boss is an unnecessary side villain, whereas making Hector last a little linger would’ve sufficed and given more time to make Knox a true villain, and having more of the best character couldn’t hurt. There is a scene is the script in which Milton dreams of an alien using the ray gun and that’s unnecessary. With no other inclusions of aliens in the story this dream felt misplaced. The action seems we’re well written and intense. I enjoyed the endings and thought the characters stories ended in the right ways, especially Knox, Duncan, and Angie. I thought Angie’s relapse while being away from Milton and having to deal with the incident was perfect. The only thing that didn’t make much sense to me was the significance of the orb at the end or Milton eating it. Maybe, that’s something others would understand but I think it could have been elaborated in more earlier. Overall, a very entertaining script with a lot of potential, maybe a couple tweaks to characters like the Big Boss and Steve.
