LOG LINE

"Ray Was Here” is a 1990s-set psychological sci-fi thriller about a beloved high school mentor who mysteriously returns… as a series of fractured clones.

In a Bucks County, Pennsylvania town where memory defines identity, Ray’s departure and otherworldly, unexpected return forces a group of teens to confront who they are — and what happens when the people who shaped us come back broken.

SYNOPSIS

Set in 1990s Doylestown, Bucks County, Ray Was Here is a psychological sci-fi thriller that follows a diverse group of high schoolers still reeling from the loss of their beloved mentor — Coach Ray — who was declared dead after his military aircraft was shot down over the South China Sea.But months later, Ray returns. Or at least, someone who looks like him does. And then… more versions show up. Each one slightly different — fractured memories, broken, often violent personalities, disconnected timelines.

The group must confront the truth: Ray has been "copied" by an adversarial nation experimenting with military biotechnology to forge a new kind of army. The students are forced into a psychological, emotional and physical battle, where identity, memory, trauma, and loyalty blur.Ray Was Here explores what happens when the people who shaped us — the adults we looked up to — come back broken, and how the bonds we form in youth are tested under the weight of truth and terror.

CHARACTERS

A diverse group of students drawn together by fate, struggling to remain friends, fractured by memory, and fighting to uncover the truth about Ray, who has touched each of their lives in meaningful ways.

Jamal Carter

The skeptic whose instincts keep everyone alive.

Jamal is a transfer student from Queens, NY, hardened by the streets and the quiet grief of losing his older brother. Sharp and skeptical, he doesn’t believe in ghosts—until Ray appears. While others spiral into fear or nostalgia, Jamal stays grounded, tracking Ray’s appearances and anomalies like a scientist. His tension with Tim runs deep: Jamal analyzes while Tim charges ahead. With Wilma, he shares a bond of observation and insight. But with Lacie, things are complicated—he’s silently in love with her, convinced she feels the same, even as social lines and her relationship with Tim keep them apart.

Lacie Whitaker

The golden girl caught in a slow-motion unraveling—facing truth, loyalty, and impossible love.

Lacie is an gifted intellect who feels she must strive for the social crown. Dating Tim Dalton, admired by teachers, envied by classmates — but privately unraveling. Ray was the only one who saw past the image and encouraged her to think deeper, feel harder. His fractured return jolts her out of her curated life. Torn between loyalty to Tim and a bond with Jamal that’s deeper than she's ready to admit, she becomes the heart of a group that shouldn’t work, but does.

Tim Dalton

The high school king haunted by the cracks only he can see.

Tim is the hometown hero — football captain, student body leader, dating Lacie, living the life every kid could possibly want. But inside, he’s fraying. Ray was his mentor, his moral compass, and when Ray returns… wrong, Tim spirals. He wants to believe, to protect everyone, but fear eats at him. His rivalry with Jamal masks his fear of being replaced. Tim’s fall from grace mirrors Ray’s — both trying to be who they were, and failing.

Wilma Reyes

She sees the oddities — and knows it’s not random.

Wilma thrives in the margins — drama club, goth loner, razor-sharp wit. She clocked something was wrong with Ray before the others even admitted he was back. For Wilma, mystery is oxygen. Her bond with Jamal is built on logic and late-night theories. But Ray’s return unearths personal trauma she’s buried deep, and as the story unfolds, her mask of irony fractures. She doesn’t just want the truth — she needs it to survive.

Coach Ray Braddock

The mentor who helped them stay together… and might unmake them.

Ray Braddock was the guide who changed lives — especially theirs. But now, after his tragic death, he’s returned… fractured. Each version of Ray remembers something different. Some are kind, others violent. The teens must confront whether these Rays are ghosts, clones, or something worse. For Ray himself, memory is slipping — but one version is starting to remember everything. And he may not want to leave again.

SETTING

Doylestown, 1992 – Where the Suburbs Hide Secrets

The pressure of perfection, the nostalgia of the 90s, and the secrets we bury under quiet streets.

Doylestown, Pennsylvania. 1992.
A picture-perfect town on the surface—tree-lined streets, tidy colonial homes, Friday night lights at War Memorial Field, and teenagers trading CDs under the bleachers. But just beneath the manicured lawns and milk-crate stereo speakers, something strange is happening.Ray’s return fractures the comfortable silence of Bucks County, where suburban normalcy hides emotional repression, and the ghosts of the past wear Starter jackets and ride BMX bikes.

The town itself becomes a character—a living time capsule with layers of memory and meaning. Every hall pass, every cassette tape, every trapper keeper becomes a breadcrumb in a larger mystery.Here, the ’90s aren’t just nostalgia—they’re the battleground for truth, identity, and survival.

BACKGROUND

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Why this story?

We grew up in Bucks County in the early ’90s—one of the only kids of color in a quiet, predominantly white suburb where the air was always thick with something unspoken. “Ray Was Here” is a love letter to that strange era—caught between analog and digital, between being a kid and being something else entirely.

Why this place?

Bucks County isn’t just the backdrop—it’s a character itself. From overcast cul-de-sacs to the haunting quiet of fall football games, it’s a place where ghosts feel like they might actually live. The town is rooted in a kind of stillness that makes anything out of place—like Ray—feel cosmically loud.

Why 1992?

1992 is the perfect fracture point—where big ideas like identity, memory, race, and truth were still analog, still malleable. Before cell phones, before social media. If something strange happened to you, you had to live with it. No internet to explain it away. Just you and your friends, trying to survive it together.

Why does it matter now?

In a post-truth era, “Ray Was Here” speaks to what happens when memory is your only proof, and community is your only defense. It’s genre storytelling with horror, heart—and a purpose.