Remembered another interesting thing from that class.
Another script I wrote (here in abridged form) was an episode of a Twilight Zone-esque show, where some indeterminate amount of time in the future, the beings that evolved from humans in the aftermath of whatever led to the downfall of American civilization (if not all human civilizations) mount an expedition to excavate an ancient locked tomb expected to be filled with riches. Because that always ends well, right?
The expedition leaves from a town on the west coast of modern America, and from the landmarks they pass you see that the town is near San Francisco/Oakland, and they pass by other recognizable landmarks (Half Dome in Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, etc) on the way to their destination.
They get there, one member of the expedition, I believe it was the cook, sees the symbol above the locked doors and refuses to enter. They are dismissed as superstitions, and the leaders of the expedition say the symbol is rare, and marks the place as one of great importance. They enter find nothing of any obvious or particular value, though they do take some of what they found, and return home to far less fanfare than when they left. And one by one, they die over the next few years, most of them wasting away. Except for the cook, who did not enter and was spared. It is explained away as a curse laid on the expedition for entering a holy place.
In the epilogue, the cook, now old and weathered, reminisces about the expedition, and thanks their lucky stars they didn't pass under the symbol above the doors, as they believe the sin was entry--not theft.
As we fade out, the symbol above the door is finally shown.
☢
All in all, it's the Carter Expedition to Tut's Tomb in the Valley of Kings meets the "THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR" project. The "tomb" they went to was the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility (though I know it hasn't actually been used to store materials yet--allow past me some artistic license).
My professor had two interesting things to say about my script.
1. He liked my descriptions of the landmarks, as that area of the American Southwest is where he was from, and he appreciated that he could identify them by description alone
2. As a professor of semiotics in addition to his work in the English department, he had actually worked/consulted for the "This is not a place of honor" project
