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The Cellar
Year - 2020
Studio - Amblin Television
Stars - Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Micah Stock, Sasha Alexander, Gabriel Olds, Cullen Douglas
Director - Chris Long
Writing Credits - Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jessica Sharzer, Chinaka Hodge
Music - NIcholas Pike
Synopsis
Sam Taylor (Dylan O'Brien) and his brother Jake (Micah Stock) are restoring an old Iowa farmhouse for a client. Sam discovers a box hidden in a fireplace mantle, containing a portrait of a lovely young bride, as well as old matchbook, with the word "cabbage" penciled inside. When a sudden and violent windstorm starts, the electric power goes out, and Sam rushes to the cellar to reset the circuit breaker. Touching it, he is suddenly knocked to the floor, clutching his head in pain.
He revives and runs back upstairs, calling for his brother. But Jake isn't there, and the house interior has changed to a beautifully furnished and decorated home. He hears a female voice singing and finds her at the piano in a parlor. Frightened, she picks up a rifle and screams at him to leave her house. He leaves and finds himself in a small town in the year 1919.
The woman, Evelyn Porter (Victoria Petretti) later listens to a favorite record on her Victrola, but her mother (Sasha Alexander) admonishes her, reminding her that she is to soon marry the wealthy William (Gabriel Olds), who does not approve of such frivolities. She demands Evelyn relinquish her records, but Sam appears and claims they are actually his, adding that he was a friend of Evelyn's recently deceased brother. Evelyn is grateful and two go for walk, where Sam confides that he is from the future, showing her the (not yet taken) photograph of her in a wedding gown. Dubious, she nevertheless invites him to attend her engagement party that evening.
At the party, William is suspicious of this strange young man. Evelyn and Sam go outside, and she tells him that she has heard that a secret speakeasy, where modern music is performed, exists in the back of the local drugstore, but that a password is required. They enter the store and Sam says "cabbage" to the clerk,who directs them a door, behind which they find a large crowd or revelers drinking, dancing, and listening to a jazz singer. At Sam's urging, Evelyn performs one of her songs for the appreciative audience.
Sam takes a job with a local farmer, Henry Barrett (Cullen Douglas) who is an expert on weather phenomena and explains that the windstorm event that Sam had experienced must have been a rare "derecho". He tells Sam that it is likely that the barometric event will occur again soon. Sam tells Evelyn that, when that occurs, he can return to his present. He asks her to go with him, where her musical love will be better appreciated.
When the barometric pressure begins dropping, he and Evelyn run to the old cellar. But William and his buddies arrive, beat Sam and take Evelyn away. Just then, Sam is thrust back to his time. But, determined to return to Evelyn, he repeats the process, only to arrive in the year 1934. A poster on the wall reveals that Evelyn is a a successful singer, and he silently observes her talking to her young child in the bedroom.
He is again able to return to 1919, where a great storm is in progress. He finds Evelyn and they return to the cellar, which is rapidly flooding. A beam falls on Sam and he is unable to free himself. He tells Evelyn to go to the future without him, knowing that she will find her happiness there. When she arrives, Sam's brother, Jake, is stunned to realize that Sam's obsession, about the past and Evelyn, was truthful. Meanwhile, Sam was actually saved, and he lived out his life as a building contractor.
Trailer
"The Cellar" is Episode 1 of Season One of the Apple TV reboot of Amazing Stories.