Read the screenplay: FANNIEGATE — $7 trillion. 17 years. The biggest fraud in American capital markets.

A Feature Film Screenplay

THE NEXT GENERATION

Sam Walton's grandson. $30 billion in inherited wealth. And a radical question: can the fortune that paved over America now help save its rivers, oceans, and climate?

Written by Glen Bradford • With AI Assistance (Claude by Anthropic)

Disclaimer: This screenplay is a work of dramatized fiction inspired by publicly available information about Lukas Walton and the Walton family. Dialogue, scenes, and certain events have been invented or embellished for dramatic purposes. This script is not endorsed by or affiliated with Lukas Walton, the Walton family, Walmart Inc., or Builders Vision.

Cast

Timothée Chalamet

as Lukas Walton

Tom Hanks

as Sam Walton (Grandfather)

Nicole Kidman

as Christy Walton (Mother)

Matt Damon

as John T. Walton (Father)

Jeff Bridges

as Rob Walton (Uncle)

ONE

THE NAME

INT. WALMART SUPERCENTER — BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS — 1995 — DAY

A massive Walmart store. SAM WALTON is gone — he died in 1992 — but his portrait hangs near the entrance. JOHN T. WALTON (Sam's youngest son, 40s, rugged, quiet) walks the aisles with his son LUKAS (9). Lukas pushes a cart. An EMPLOYEE recognizes John.

EMPLOYEE

Mr. Walton! Nice to see you, sir.

JOHN T. WALTON

Just doing some shopping, Carol. How's the family?

They chat warmly. Lukas watches. After the employee leaves:

LUKAS

Dad, does everyone know who we are?

JOHN T. WALTON

In Bentonville, yes. Everywhere else, no. And that's a good thing. Your name should open doors for other people, not just for you.

LUKAS (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)

My grandfather built Walmart. The biggest company in the world by revenue. The biggest private employer on Earth. When you're a Walton, you carry that everywhere. Not the money — the weight. Because everyone has an opinion about Walmart. And half of them think your family ruined America.

EXT. JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING — MOUNTAIN TRAIL — 2000 — DAY

John T. Walton and Lukas (14) hike a mountain trail. The Tetons rise around them. John stops at a river crossing, kneeling to drink from the stream.

JOHN T. WALTON

Your grandfather built Walmart in small towns because he loved small towns. But Walmart got so big that some of those towns changed. Not all for the better.

LUKAS

So was it wrong?

JOHN T. WALTON

It wasn't wrong. It was incomplete. He gave people low prices. But the next generation — your generation — needs to think about what else people need. Clean water. Clean air. A planet that still works.

Lukas looks at the pristine river. It will shape everything he does.

INT. WALTON FAMILY HOME — 2005 — NIGHT

JUNE 27, 2005

CHRISTY WALTON (50s, composed, strong) sits in the living room. The phone rings. She answers. Her face drains of color. Lukas (19) enters from the kitchen.

CHRISTY

(holding the phone, trembling) Your father... his plane went down.

Lukas stands frozen. John T. Walton — Green Beret veteran, ultralight aircraft enthusiast — has been killed in a plane crash. He was 58.

LUKAS

(barely audible) No.

Christy puts the phone down and pulls Lukas close. Outside, the Wyoming mountains stand indifferent.

LUKAS (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)

My father died when I was nineteen. He left me his Walmart shares — billions of dollars — and a set of values I was barely old enough to understand. He believed in nature, in conservation, in giving back. He just didn't live long enough to show me how.

CUT TO:

TWO

THE INHERITANCE

INT. COLORADO COLLEGE — DORM ROOM — 2006 — NIGHT

Lukas (20) sits in a modest college dorm room. His roommate has a beer poster on the wall. Lukas has a topographic map of the Colorado River. He studies environmental science textbooks. His phone buzzes — a text from a financial advisor.

LUKAS

(reading the text, to himself) Portfolio update: $16.4 billion.

He sets the phone down and stares at the ceiling. His roommate returns with takeout.

ROOMMATE

You look stressed. What's wrong?

LUKAS

Nothing. Just... homework.

The roommate has no idea he's sharing a dorm with one of the richest people on the planet.

INT. WALTON FAMILY OFFICE — BENTONVILLE — 2010 — DAY

Lukas (24) meets with ROB WALTON (Sam's eldest son, 65, chairman of Walmart's board) and family ADVISORS. The discussion is about what Lukas plans to do with his inheritance.

ROB WALTON

Your father wanted you to be thoughtful about this. There's no rush.

LUKAS

Uncle Rob, I don't want to just give money away. Philanthropy is important, but it's reactive. I want to invest in solutions. Impact investing. Companies that make money AND solve problems.

ADVISOR

The returns on impact investments are typically below market—

LUKAS

Then we need to find investments where impact IS the market. Clean energy. Sustainable agriculture. Ocean health. These aren't charities — they're the biggest business opportunities of the next fifty years.

ROB WALTON

(nodding slowly) Your grandfather would like this. He was always looking for the next big thing.

CUT TO:

THREE

BUILDERS VISION

2019 — LUKAS WALTON LAUNCHES BUILDERS VISION — A $2 BILLION IMPACT PLATFORM

INT. BUILDERS VISION OFFICE — CHICAGO — 2019 — DAY

A modern, light-filled office in Chicago. Not Bentonville — deliberately. Lukas (33) addresses his team. Whiteboards are covered with investment themes: renewable energy, sustainable food systems, ocean conservation.

LUKAS

Builders Vision isn't a foundation. It's not a charity. It's an investment platform. We use every tool available — grants, venture capital, growth equity, public market investing — to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy.

TEAM MEMBER

How do we measure success?

LUKAS

Two metrics. One: financial return. This has to work as business, or it won't scale. Two: environmental impact. Tons of carbon reduced. Gallons of water saved. Acres of ocean protected. Both numbers matter. Neither is optional.

EXT. SOLAR FARM — IOWA — 2020 — DAY

Lukas walks through a massive solar installation. Panels stretch to the horizon. A Builders Vision-backed COMPANY CEO walks beside him.

CEO

This farm generates 200 megawatts. Enough to power 50,000 homes. And the economics are better than coal now.

LUKAS

That's the inflection point. When clean energy is cheaper than dirty energy, you don't need government mandates. You just need capital. And that's what we provide.

LUKAS (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)

People expect a Walton to defend Walmart, or to apologize for Walmart. I do neither. My grandfather built something extraordinary. It also had costs — to small towns, to the environment, to workers. My job isn't to apologize for the past. My job is to invest in the future. And the future has to be cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable than what we inherited.

INT. OCEAN RESEARCH VESSEL — PACIFIC OCEAN — 2022 — DAY

Lukas stands on the deck of a research vessel. MARINE SCIENTISTS collect water samples. Builders Vision has invested heavily in ocean health — sustainable fishing, marine protected areas, ocean-based climate solutions.

MARINE SCIENTIST

Lukas, the coral restoration project is showing results. Sixty percent survival rate on the transplanted coral.

LUKAS

How do we get it to ninety?

MARINE SCIENTIST

More funding. More research. More time.

LUKAS

You've got all three. Let's do it.

CUT TO:

FOUR

REDEFINING WALTON

INT. BUILDERS VISION OFFICE — CHICAGO — PRESENT DAY — EVENING

Lukas works late. His desk has two framed photos: one of his father John T. hiking in the mountains, and one of his grandfather Sam Walton in front of the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas.

LUKAS

(to the photos) You built it. Dad tried to balance it. I'm trying to repurpose it.

He turns back to his laptop. An investment memo for a carbon capture startup. The numbers work.

EXT. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM — BENTONVILLE — DAY

Lukas walks through Crystal Bridges, the art museum built by his aunt Alice Walton. The building sits nestled in Ozark forest. Art and nature intertwine.

LUKAS

(to a friend walking beside him) My grandfather made Bentonville the center of American retail. My aunt is making it the center of American art. Maybe my generation can make it the center of American sustainability.

FRIEND

That's a big ambition for a small town.

LUKAS

My grandfather built the world's biggest company from a small town. Big ambitions from small places — it's kind of our thing.

EXT. JACKSON HOLE — RIVER BANK — SUNSET

Lukas sits on a rock by the same river where his father once knelt to drink. The Tetons glow pink and gold. He dips his hand in the water. It's cold and clean.

LUKAS (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)

I'm a Walton. I'll always be a Walton. That name comes with $30 billion and a hundred million opinions. Some people think we should give it all away. Some people think we should keep building stores. I think we should invest it in a world where my kids can drink from a river, breathe clean air, and know that the fortune that built Walmart also helped save the planet. That's the only inheritance worth leaving.

The river flows on. The mountains stand. The sun sets over Jackson Hole.

Lukas Walton is the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton and the son of John T. Walton, who died in a 2005 ultralight aircraft crash. Lukas inherited a fortune estimated at over $30 billion, primarily in Walmart shares. In 2019, he founded Builders Vision, a $2+ billion impact investment platform focused on renewable energy, sustainable food systems, and ocean health. Builders Vision operates across the full capital spectrum — from venture capital to public equities — seeking both financial returns and measurable environmental impact. Lukas serves on the boards of multiple environmental organizations and is widely regarded as the most environmentally focused member of the Walton family's next generation.

FADE OUT.

Would you watch this movie?

Vote if you think Lukas Walton's story should get produced.

Leave feedback

0/500 characters

Continue Exploring

Return to Lukas Walton's full profile or browse all 102 of the world's wealthiest people.