This isn't a perfect interpetation, I've not got the soundtrack handy
![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png)
nor a photographic memory, but this is the general idea of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.
You start with the Storyteller. What's he telling? The story of Earth. The torches are for the nice "sitting around the fire" effect as he mentions, but then being the nifty storyteller he is (Who else tells stories with fireworks?) he blows out the torches and the lights and even the big Epcot wand.
So, now we have darkness. Or, to quote Ellen from her Energy Adventure "You brought me all the way back here to show me... nothing?"
Welcome to the pre-big bang. All is quiet and still. Unstable tough.
Movement begins in the void, though unseen as of yet. The rumble begins distant and then grows as more and more is happening just beyond our sight in the void. We are building toward something immense.
Then suddenly a single spark escapes the darkness and streams across the sky and just as it flitters out unremarkably the true hidden power is unleashed in a massive explosion. The big bang
Cause and effect, the first explosion leads to a second series closer to the water and then the Inferno barge errupts. It is a massive outpouring of energy. Things are fierce and chaotic, explosions happen suddenly and without warning. Fire and smoke is interjected with sparks and ash.
The fire momentarily calms but the worst is not over yet and the Inferno barge erupts in a final explosion expelling all its energy and causing itself to be spent. All is quiet and a starfield forms in the now occupied void. Order now ordains the happenings.
The fountains gush and shimmer cooler colors. Everything in the Universe is cooling and becoming hospitable. A form takes focus covered in shades of blue as massive oceans are begining to take form upon it.
The life blood of water leads first to aquatic inhabitence and then to the first signs of greenery on land. Then many terrestrial life forms become apparent. A group of horses gallop across a plain and then suddenly are frozen in time in a cave painting as seen through the eyes of Man. We stay focused through the eyes of man and start wandering toward the end of the cave and into the light. We begin to explore the world around us. We stake out new claims, countries and civilizations are formed as lights illumninate their represenatives around the lagoon. We then see the earth as a distinct place, images give way to forms, and we recognize it as our home.
Having satisfied the need to seek out and find, man begins to create. Sparks of inspiration fly as the world of art comes into being. We begin to leave a grand heritage and history, we leave our mark on Earth. We are no longer merely its inhabitants but rather a thriving part of its dynamic, having a profound effect upon it. This, we celebrate.
Once the celebration of Today concludes, we pause for a moment and then light a candle of hope and begin to spread it across the world. The torches come back to life as the music soars, one candle lit for each century which has passed giving hope to the next until we reach the finale - the final candle is lit. The hope for tomarrow and it is bigger and brither than all those which have come before it as it stems directly from the Earth itself and its inhabitants.
We Go On.
-Rob