Bucket Ball

Bucket Ball
Release dates	16 September 2017 (2017-09-16)
Running time	96 minutes, 12 seconds
Countries	Garetolia United States
Languages	English Garetolian
Budget	£94 million
Box office	£180 million

Bucket Ball is a 2017 Garetolian comedy-drama film, starring Kevin Williams and Luke Marion. It was featured in the 2017 Garetolian Film Festival, where it narrowly lost the Garetolia Film Festival Award for Best Comedy, beaten out by Admiral by a mere 16 votes.

Plot

The film follows the story of Ethan (Kevin Williams), a 12-year old who, through a series of "unexplained scientific discoveries", was able to build his own time machine. In reality, the "time machine" is similar to the one in Calvin and Hobbes– simply a cardboard box with two empty toilet paper rolls attached to the back to mimic rocket boosters. As much as he loves his time machine, he also loves Lucky-O's, a cereal invented by Robert Cadlin, to whom Ethan has a small shrine built in his bedroom.

One afternoon, Ethan invites his best friend Jacob (Luke Marion) to travel back in time to San Francisco in the 1930s, where Lucky-O's were created. When they land in Crissy Field, their focus changes suddenly. The time machine's main engine breaks down and they realize they have no way of getting back home if they don't fix it. Noting that this is the 1930's, Jacob states that a toilet paper roll whould cost next to nothing, and Ethan concurs.

Ethan and Jacob try setting up a many small stands for carnival-style games, but none are popular. In their final attempt, the two create a game called bucket ball, one in which the player has to bounce a ball into a small tin bucket to gain points. Charging US$0.02 a round, the game is a smashing success. Using the money they gathered, amounting to US$1.46, they are able to buy a "rocket booster" and return home. As Ethan walks back into his bedroom where the film began, he notices his shrine to Robert Cadlin is different. His name is instead Bob, and the pictures of him are of himself playing the sport Ethan and Jacob created. Upon realizing that his game drastically changed the future, he also realizes that Bob Cadlin spent most of his life playing bucket ball, now a national pastime, thus Lucky-O's do not exist.

Ethan quickly alerts Jacob about this and they fly back to San Francisco, cautiously landing in Crissy Field to avoid another accident. Ethan, using his knowledge gathered from several sci-fi films, explains that the two need not do anything else but travel home, stating that their own presence was enough to create an alternate timeline in itself. When Ethan and Jacob get back to the present day, Lucky-O's exist, but several things about their personal lives are different, such as the school that they attend. Ethan and Jacob put aside these differences and rejoice over the existence of Lucky-O's.