A mockumentary exploring office isolation, corporate culture, and dark humor through a month-long indoor survival bet.
Story Structure — 4 Plot Phases
The Indoor Wager
Office colleagues establish a month-long bet to survive without stepping outside, utilizing Calgary's plus-15 system. The premise sets a claustrophobic yet comedic tone for the group's isolation.
Key Events
The Month-Long Wager — Colleagues bet a month's pay on surviving indoors via plus-15 system.
Location: Calgary Office
Plus-15 Network Navigation — The group relies entirely on interconnected indoor pathways to avoid outside.
Location: Covered Walkways
The Plus-15 Gauntlet
The group navigates the interconnected indoor walkways, relying on each other to maintain the streak. Daily routines adapt to the artificial environment, building tension as the month progresses.
Key Events
Day 24 Lunch Hour — The narrative compresses into a single lunch break on the final stretch.
Location: Office Break Room
Day 24 Complications
The story compresses into a single lunch hour on day 24. As the retirement party for the founder approaches, logistical and interpersonal conflicts begin to surface within the group.
Key Events
Day 24 Lunch Hour — The narrative compresses into a single lunch break on the final stretch.
Location: Office Break Room
Retirement Party Planning — Colleagues coordinate logistics for the company founder's farewell event.
Location: Office
Marble Bottle Discovery — A character reveals a bottle filled with marbles intended for window smashing.
Location: Office Desk
The Marble Revelation
A dark subplot emerges as a character reveals a bottle of marbles meant for smashing an office window. The group confronts the grim humor of the title while finalizing party preparations.
Key Events
Marble Bottle Discovery — A character reveals a bottle filled with marbles intended for window smashing.
Location: Office Desk
Waydowntown Dark Joke — The group references the film's title origin regarding suicide via marbles.
Location: Office
Party Preparation Chaos — Final preparations for the retirement party create internal complications.
Location: Office
Lunch Hour Conclusion — The competition and party plans reach their narrative endpoint.
Location: Office
Story Breakdown
The Central Wager — The foundational bet that drives the entire narrative and isolates the characters.
Salary Stakes — A month's pay is risked to raise the personal stakes for each colleague.
Indoor Survival Rule — Strict prohibition against stepping outside defines the competition parameters.
The Plus-15 System — Calgary's covered walkway network serves as both setting and narrative constraint.
Architectural Isolation — Buildings are physically connected, creating a self-contained urban ecosystem.
Daily Navigation — Characters adapt their routines to move seamlessly between office floors.
Retirement Party Arc — A secondary plotline involving corporate obligations that clashes with the bet.
Founder Farewell — The company leader's departure triggers mandatory event coordination.
Logistical Conflicts — Party preparations create friction and distract from the survival streak.
The Marble Bottle — A dark subplot referencing the film's title and exploring extreme coping mechanisms.
Bottle Collection — A character accumulates marbles in a pop bottle for a specific purpose.
Window Smashing Intent — The marbles are intended to break a high-rise window, referencing suicide.
Lunch Hour Frame — The narrative timeline compresses into a single lunch break on day 24.
Temporal Compression — The month-long bet is observed through a concentrated single-hour window.
Real-Time Tension — Events unfold sequentially during the break, heightening immediate stakes.
Dark Humor Theme — The film uses morbid jokes and ironic situations to critique corporate life.
Title Origin Joke — A bus takes you downtown, but marbles take you way downtown.
Cynical Workplace Tone — Characters use gallows humor to cope with monotony and isolation.
Four young office workers have a bet going to see who can last the longest without going outside. In the maze that is the downtown core of a large city, glass skywalks connect apartment buildings, office towers and shopping malls. Its day 28 of the bet and over the lunch hour, as the office prepares for the company founder's retirement party, things start to seriously unravel.
