Maker

Initial Description
EUCLID steps out from the trees carrying something the size of a large car muffler wrapped in a DIRTY GREEN BLANKET.

He lays it on the ground and they crowd around. He peels back the corners of the blanket to reveal a RUGGED BLACK MACHINE. This is the MAKER.

Tray
The maker has a spring-loaded TRAY that slides in and out. It ejects with a JOLT. The tray is known to eject of it's own accord.

Rod
There is a ROD that juts out from the maker. The Rod has a YELLOW BUTTON on its end.

Fuel
The maker requires a power source in order to function. It is not revealed how the maker is powered. In scene 189, Albert & Marcus try sifting SOIL into a GRATING built into the top of the Maker but this doesn't refuel it. They also try Cereal, rice & flour, but to no avail.

Later on in the script, Scene 193 Albert & Marcus announce: We know what to feed it. It's not revealed what they feed it with, but they use this as a bargaining tool. The Maker is described as having a grating, and it's presumed that this is where the fuel enters the maker.

In scene 205, Euclid discovers evidence that it could be powered by sawdust: Euclid finds BUCKETS of SAWDUST on a table near different kinds of power saws. He sifts through one of the buckets with his hand. CUT TO: He finds the Maker under a sheet. He listens to it purr. He checks the grating with his finger and wipes away sawdust. He has to smile...and then after a thought the smile disappears.

Much later into the story, it is revealed that the maker is fuelled by sawdust: Marcus has his ear to the original Frond. It's silent. MARCUS Needs more sawdust. He and Javier are there alone. Javier quits his work on their Chorus (now in a WOODEN CAGE) and retrieves a Tupperware container from his backpack, taking caution: JAVIER Watch the door. He uses a SCOOPER to scrape the insides of the container but comes up with less than a tablespoon of sawdust. ...having run out of saw dust, they fill the maker with... ....Detritus from the Orange Bucket. He looks to Marcus for any last words. He sifts the Detritus over the Frond Leaves. This appears to make the maker produce flat discs faster, but the increased in which the discs get generates raises suspicion.

Purpose
The machine's purpose is to create discs. The maker creates two types of disc:
 * Flat Disc

Later on in the script, scene 193, shortly after Marcus & Albert announce that they know how to refuel the maker, it ejects a Funnel rather than a Flat Disc: The Maker ejects. A Funnel is in the tray.
 * Controller

Operation
Euclid discovers how to use the Maker, and subsequently teaches Vaughn & Albert: The operation of the Maker is vaguely described as follows:
 * Ensure that the ejector tray is not ejected


 * Push button on rod

We learn later in the screenplay that the rod and button control a set of six man-made spikes: Euclid operates the Rod and Button which everyone now sees are linked to SIX MANMADE METAL SPIKES that pierce the six leafs of the Circle Frond
 * Pull rod out

...so it is the action of of spikes leaving the six leafs of the Circle Frond inside the maker, via the button and rod, that triggers the Maker to create a flat-disc. The Spikes come out of the Circle Frond. The quiet sound of the Frond CHURNING starts up.

When the spikes return into the Frond, the maker stops: Another operation of the Rod and Button and the Spikes go back in. The Churning stops.

Construction
After many failed attempts to open the maker, the boys realise that the strength of a disc, strategically wedged into a groove of the maker, and then transformed into a funnel, provides enough force to prise open the maker. Once open, it is revealed that the maker contains a circle frond.

The container is later referred to as The Governor.

Disposal
In scene 264, After the plywood_chorus is seen to murder someone, the boys dispose of both the Chorus, and the Governor, down the hole. Vaughn kicks the Governor over the edge. FROM DIRECTLY ABOVE THE HOLE: We see the kids at the edges, watching everything fall into the bottomless chasm. The Governor bounces off some scaffolding before quickly falling into blackness. FROM DIRECTLY BELOW: Same framing but now we see the darkening sky above. For the next 10 seconds we quietly watch the sunlight dim that hits the edge of the hole. The sky goes BLACK.

Retrieval
Later still, the script implies that some of the boys attempt to retrieve the maker from the hole. EUCLID No one could drag it up from way down there, anyways. Everyone saw it drop to the bottom. I saw it. You saw it, right? You saw it drop?