"Mission: Impossible 2", shooting draft, by Robert Towne
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2
By
Robert Towne
Revised. 12/4/99
NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS
AND SOME "SCENE OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR
THIS SOFT COPY.
FADE IN:
A WORN SATCHEL (MOVING - DAY)
is being carried by a world weary middle European wearing a black
armband. VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH exits a gleaming building, pausing
for a moment, under a motto clearly visible above his head,
'Where the future is now'. He checks the time.
INSERT - WATCH
set in Countdown Mode. It's at 19 hours forty-seven minutes and
sixteen seconds and dropping, 19:37.15, :14, :13, :12 etc.
O.S. children are singing:
Ring a ring a rosy/a pocketful of posy/
a tissue a tissue/we all fall down.
Nekhorvich looks to see children at play outside the adjacent
Natural History Museum. They are moving in and around an odd
freeform sculpture.
POV - SCULPTURE AND CHILDREN
a blur where the sculpture seems to be distorting the children,
almost like mirrors in a fun house.
NEKHORVICH
wipes his eyes, a horn honks. He looks toward the sound.
MOVING SHOT - SATCHEL (INT. AIRPORT SECURITY - DAY)
on the belt that takes it thru X-Ray. On the other side a guard
opens the satchel and pokes thru a few toilet articles, personal
items, books, a battleship gray digital camera and - in a small
plastic container marked 'S.G.' - a small, square shiny object,
hi-tech and at odds with the other items. She pulls out an urn-
shaped vessel.
GUARD
What's this, then?
NEKHORVICH
(handing her documents)
The ashes of a colleague, I'm taking them
to his family. If you wish to open it,
please be careful.
COMPUTERIZED SCREEN DISPLAY (INT. PLANE - MOVING - DAY)
on the cabin wall displays a colorful map showing the flight
point of departure in Sydney, continuously updating distance,
direction and time to its ultimate destination, Atlanta, Georgia.
CAPTAIN'S VOICE
- folks, we're a little over two and a
half hours from touchdown in Atlanta, but
if you look out your windows on either
side of the aircraft, we'll soon be
crossing the southern section of the Rocky
Mountains, a range which includes more
than 50 peaks rising above 14,000 feet.
The chain's loftiest point, Mount Elbert,
at 14, 433 feet should be coming into view
as we pass over central Colorado shortly..
NEKHORVICH (INT. CABIN - DAY)
seems intent on the map, its changing times and distance. He
checks his watch - the countdown has gone from 20 to three hours
and 32 minutes as Nekhorvich is mesmerized by the descending
seconds whipping by.
ETHAN HUNT sits into shot on the vacant first class aisle seat
beside Nekhorvich.
ETHAN
You keep staring at that watch as if your
life depended on it, Doctor..
NEKHORVICH
Well, yes. I suppose I am a bit anxious.
ETHAN
They're ready and waiting. You'll soon be
with old friends.
NEKHORVICH
(meaning Ethan)
I'm with an old friend now, Dmitri.
ETHAN
Sorry it couldn't be under happier
circumstances.
NEKHORVICH
Yes, I'm sorry too.. 'You're sorry and I'm
sorry..'
(bemused laughter, then looks at Ethan)
- you do know Gradski thought the world of you.
Nekhorvich is overcome. Ethan puts a comforting hand on his
shoulder:
ETHAN
He was quite a man. Did he know before
the end you two had succeeded?
NEKHORVICH
Yes, he knew. Just..
ETHAN
..not in time to save him.
NEKHORVICH
No. After you've lived with Chimera for
twenty hours, nothing can save you. Not
even...Bellerophon.
Nekhorvich pats the satchel.
ETHAN
You carry them together? Safely?
With an almost impish grin and a wink:
NEKHORVICH
Yes, and you'll get us to a safe place
with them, thank god!..left to my own
devices, I'm an old fart too inept to read
a railroad timetable!..
Good-natured laughter. Cut off by a flight steward who passes
by, giving a sidelong silence in Ethan and Nekhorvich's direction.
Oxygen masks suddenly deploy from the ceiling. Passengers are
puzzled and alarmed.
CAPTAIN'S VOICE
You Captain again. We've experienced a
slight but abrupt drop in cabin pressure..
A passenger struggling with his mask. As Nekhorvich fumbles with
the strap on his mask he notes that the display screen shows
their altitude is below 30,000 feet and dropping. He checks the
countdown time on his watch again. Nekhorvich looks around him.
The flight attendants are conspicuously absent and all the
passengers who have on oxygen masks are passed out.
INT - COCKPIT
The flight crew now wearing their oxygen masks.
CAPTAIN
(into radio)
Pan, pan, pan, Denver Center. This is
Trans Pac Flight two-two-zero-seven, 747
heavy. We are not reading you. We're
unable to maintain cabin pressurization.
We have initiated a descent to one six
thousand.
The Co-pilot is working on the plane's altitude when his hands
slip off the controls. His eyes flutter, then:
CO-PILOT
Captain, I don't..can't..
He passes out. The Captain, HUGH STAMP, turns to verify that the
relief pilot is also unconscious at the controls.
He then removes his oxygen mask, sets the auto pilot, inputting
numbers to slow the plane and descend. As the craft titles
downward...
INT - GALLERY
The flight attendants are pulling on jump suits. Stamp emerges
from the cockpit.
INT - CABIN
Ethan returns. Nekhorvich beckons to him. Ethan sits. Grinning
around, Nekhorvich conspiratorially:
NEKHORVICH
..it seems we have a problem, Dmitri.
ETHAN
(in the same tone)
You keep calling me Dmitri. You really
shouldn't.
Nekhorvich's eyes narrow.
NEKHORVICH
You're not Dmitri?
With a lightning swift move Ethan breaks Nekhorvich's neck.
ETHAN
- no.
He grabs the satchel.
ETHAN (cont'd)
(to Wallis)
Wallis, hold onto it.
Wallis slashes the satchel handle open, takes the satchel for
Ambrose. He peels off the latex mask, revealing SEAN AMBROSE.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Ulrich, pull the -
He tears off the vocal oscillator at his adam's apple, clears his
throat, now as Ambrose:
AMBROSE
- pull the NO2 tank and dump it, it's potential evidence..
STAMP
(the 'captain' into shot)
All done, chief..
AMBROSE
(what else)
- right -
(kidding)
- don't go too far ahead of me now -
STAMP
Not possible..
Ulrich has rolled back the carpet over an access panel just
beneath them that leads to the belly of the plane. Stamp pulls
back the panel, hops into the compartment below which is four
walls of electronic equipment. Stamp kneels and slides back the
floor hatch. The wind howls, puffs of cloud zip by beneath them.
As they descend into the belly:
WALLIS
Checkpoint Charlie plus 30, altitude minus
two-zero-thousand. Airspeed one-seven-
niner knots..
AMBROSE
It's that time. Go.
They don goggles and, with Ambrose in the lead,
the team leaps, one after another from the hatch, sailing off
into the sky.
INT - COCKPIT (DAY)
An automated voice repeats in an ominous monotone:
VOICE
Terrain, terrain. Pull up, pull up.
The co-pilot stirs. He blearily rouses himself just in time to
see:
A mountain rushing toward him. As mountain meets airplane, the
frame is filled with fire, but when camera pulls back from the
fireball, it is in fact no more than a match head filling frame,
which ignited, lights a fuse..
The MI theme music kicks in, the main credits roll to:
EXT - FACE OF MOUNTAIN (DAY)
For a moment it might be thought part of the same range when the
plane crashed but when Ethan Hunt climbs into frame the angle
widen and titles down, revealing more of where he's come from
than where he's going. Aside from the fact that he's in the
midst of free-climbing what is easily a sheer rock face of at
least a thousand feet, there's the sunny picture-postcard view of
a lovely valley and pellucid lake thousands of feet below. Ethan
climbs out of shot.
WIDE UP ANGLE (DAY)
revealing the summit, a light breeze hitting the lichen and
whatever growth has a slender purchase on the rocky mountainside,
fluffy clouds overhead.
Ethan into shot. Despite the spectacularly precarious handholds
he's using to hang onto the mountain and his life, he appears
relaxed, engaged - for him - in the equivalent of busman's
holiday. It's leisurely danger for Ethan; one might almost
expect to hear Julie Andrews trilling 'Climb Every Mountain' on
the soundtrack.
Then a rock he's been grasping crumbles and Ethan drops about six
inches before he grabs onto the mountain again. As he hangs by
five fingers thousands of feet above the earth he doesn't seem
terribly concerned until he spots a helicopter.
It's materialized behind the summit and passes surprisingly close
just overhead, casting its shadow downward over Ethan.
Instinctively, Ethan flattens himself against the rock surface,
as if the copter poses some sort of threat to him. But when
its rotors whir it into the distance Ethan relaxes and resumes his
climb.
A HAIRY OVERHANG (EXT. MOUNTAIN - DAY)
near the summit Ethan departing from the vertical and is now
traversing the mountain with more of his back than his feet
exposed to the earth far below. He's clinging to the mountain
almost like a fly walking on the ceiling. When he reaches for a
handhold that will restore him to the vertical, he dislodges a
lizard - and manages to catch it before it plunges thousand of
feet to oblivion.
ETHAN
Whoaa..
He pockets the lizard, climbs the overhang.
REVERSE ANGLE - SUMMIT
with Ethan's hand, then Ethan coming into view and making the
summit. He reaches into his pocket and releases the lizard who
favors Ethan with a stern reptilian stare by way of gratitude. To
lizard:
ETHAN
You're welcome.
The lizard scampers off, then a low beeping sound at his back
attracts his attention. He turns to see the source of the
beeping, a small package in day-glo colors with a day-glo
streamer. Ethan looks to the sky where the helicopter is now
ominously circling back.
Ethan lifts the day-glo package and waves it in the direction of
the copter. With a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
The helicopter once again turns, banks and disappears. Ethan has
opened the beeping package and finds a pair of sunglasses.
ETHAN'S POV SUNGLASSES
First, a retinal scan.
ELECTRONIC VOICE
Identity confirmed.
SWANBECK
Good morning, Mr. Hunt.
Swanbeck's face flashes onscreen. Over his introduction of Nyah
is a series of satellite photographs whose subject is so elusive
she never seems to give the camera a clean shot.
SWANBECK'S VOICE
Your mission, should you choose to accept
it, requires you to recover a stolen item,
designated Chimera. Essential to the
mission is the recruitment of a civilian --
a Miss Nyah Nordoff-Hall. She is a highly
capable professional thief currently
active in Spain.
A series of Nyah's 'accomplishments', i.e., warrants, complaints,
Interpol summaries of her various criminal activities, as well as
glimpses of the elusive Nyah circulating about Seville.
SWANBECK'S VOICE (cont'd)
Her dossier's available on I-COM 3. You
have 48 hours to recruit Ms. Nordoff-Hall
and meet me in Seville to receive further
details. Should you or any member of your
IM force be caught or killed, the
Secretary will disavow all knowledge of
your actions.
Swanbeck's face reappears on screen:
SWANBECK'S VOICE (cont'd)
And Mr. Hunt - the next time you go on
vacation, please be good enough to let us
know where you're going. This message will
self-destruct in five seconds.
Ethan removes the glasses, then tosses them into space.
ETHAN
If I let you know where I'm going -
The glasses explode in a puff of smoke.
ETHAN (cont'd)
- won't be on holiday.
Ethan, with a fair amount of disgust, gets to his feet and jumps
off the mountain, in, what for a moment looks like a suicidal
snit. Then, somewhere hundreds of feet below camera, there's a
little puff of color as the tulip-shaped chute pops out of his
back-pack. Begin the sound of a castanets and the animal-like cries
of flamenco dancers.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (EVE)
Bustling in the activity of a large private party, with arriving
guests and attentive valets, as a young woman, her face unseen,
exits her car and enters the villa.
A FLASH OF SKIRT AND LACE (INT-EXT. VILLA - FLAMENCO DANCERS - EVE)
where to the cries of dancers add graceful feminine hands
wielding the castanets. The dancers perform on a raised platform
and NYAH NORDOFF-HALL'S face can be glimpsed thru the swirling
skirts and pounding heels, looking thru, not at them.
REVERSE ANGLE - ETHAN
looking back in a similar way to Nyah; surreal lighting and the
relentless chorus of pounding heels seem to isolate them in the
crowed party. Nyah continues to look at Ethan over the shoulder
over her wanna-be escort, a very attentive gentleman. Nyah
offers up her empty glass, and the gentleman eagerly takes it to
the bar for a refill, leaving Nyah and Ethan looking at one
another. Ethan approaches her.
ETHAN
Do you know me?
NYAH
No. Should I?
ETHAN
No. You just looked as if you did.
NYAH
No. Just as if I'd like to.
ETHAN
Oh. Well. I think that can be arranged.
NYAH
Not tonight. Bad timing. Sorry -
ETHAN
There's not enough time in the world for
any of it to be bad.
This stops her. Nyah moves closer to him, until they're nose
to nose. Whispered but breezy:
NYAH
Look, it's either you or the rent and I
don't mind telling you it's not an easy
choice.
ETHAN
What if I pay the rent?
NYAH
Uh-huh.
ETHAN
Uh-huh?
Glancing at the gentleman making his way back with her drink
then:
NYAH
Go find the wealthy lady you came with and
next time we meet - I'll pay your rent.
(kissing him, sweetly)
Now bugger off.
And purposeful creature that she is, she takes her frustrated
desire upstairs, timing her footsteps so as to use the sound of
the dancer's steps to cover her own. Once upstairs, a security
guard near the master bedroom can be seen eagerly following her
down the hall, both moving past a pair of windows, visible to
Ethan. In a few moments, Nyah can be seen past the
windows in the opposite direction, without the guard following.
In another moment or two, a very puzzled looking security guard
can be glimpsed in the first window, looking up and down the
hall, clearly having lost sight of Nyah. Ethan smiles, moves out
of shot.
INT - MASTER BEDROOM (EVE)
Nyah has opened the door and moves swiftly thru the bedroom.
INT - BATH (EVE)
A decadent looking affair with suggestive lighting, mirrored
walls. The tub has a tray across it which includes a wine cooler
chilling a bottle of Crystal and a mound of caviar on a bed of
ice. Nyah can't resist. She spoons a dollop of the caviar and
downs it before she moves along the frescoed walls of the tub to
its back. There, she pulls out her compact and removes the puff,
revealing an electronic density meter. She turns it on and holds
it at the rear of the tub. Its sweep gauge jumps sharply from
green thru yellow and into red.
NYAH
(her fondest hopes confirmed)
Mmmm.
She now steps into the tub and focuses on the grout between the
tiles just above the sop dish. Her knee eyes search for any
cracks in the grout and she spots one. Using a tweezers she
pulls the silver of the grout out from between the tiles, revealing
something that looks like a credit card wedged between the tiles.
She slips the card into a narrow opening under the sop dish.
There's the sound of hydraulics and two arms move the marble
casing out from the rear of the tub. Nyah breathes a sigh of
relief and anticipation: kneeling in the tub she finds herself
looking down at an open safe, revealing some half-dozen locked
compartments. As she studies them:
ETHAN
Decisions, decisions.
Nyah looks up to see Ethan's reflection in the bathroom
mirrors, looking down at her kneeling in the tub.
NYAH
What are you doing here?
ETHAN
Think you're the only one who can pick a
lock?
NYAH
(not altogether pleased)
I see. You're not just another pretty face..
Before Ethan can answer, a voice can be heard coming from the
bedroom warbling Granada in Spanish, and with considerable gusto.
NYAH (cont'd)
Oh god. A bloody baritone.
Nyah catches a reflection behind Ethan's in the bathroom mirror.
She reaches up and grabs Ethan by the lapel, yanking him into the
tub, pulling him down on top of her. Once again they're nose to
nose.
ETHAN
I take it you prefer tenors.
She glances up at the mirror. In it is the reflection of SENOR
AUGUSTO DE L'ARENA, a big amiable Castilian in his fifties who's
changing a white dinner jacket that's had wine split on it. He
breaks into a heavily accented version of 'Now or Never', and
disappears from the dressing room mirror.
NYAH
Would you mind if I'm on top?
ETHAN
Oh, either way works for me.
With a jaundiced look she rolls over on top of Ethan and begins
working on one of the safe compartments, using a tiny torque
wrench from a tube of lipstick and a carbide pick from a mascara
brush. She glances down and is rather disconcerted. Continues
working with the pick and wrench.
ETHAN'S VOICE
You're never gonna find it there.
NYAH
(she jumps, dropping the torque wrench)
Damn it! Find what?
ETHAN
His ex-wife's Bulgari necklace that goes
up for auction Tuesday.
Looking down to Ethan, a touch of indignation:
LOOKING UP
more or less, hands locked behind his neck as he rests against
the raked back of the tub, his eyes and nose inches from Nyah's
lower pelvic region as she straddles him. Not exactly in the mood
to move:
She stiffens - he knows too damn much.
NYAH
- right..where is it?
ETHAN
Far right.
She immediately switches her efforts from top left to the
bottom right compartment. She's utterly nonplussed:
NYAH
Where's the bloody -
ETHAN
(plucking it off his chest,
offering it up like a mechanic
under the chassis)
- torque wrench.
NYAH
- this is very disconerting..
ETHAN
Hey, you put me here. I just do what I'm
told.
NYAH
- right..
She unstraddles him and, with a few deft moves with the torque
wrench and carbide pick - and it's open. She withdraws a velvet
pouch and opens the pouch. Out spills the spectacular necklace.
NYAH (cont'd)
Lovely.
(starting to close the safe)
Who are you and what's it going to cost me?
ETHAN
(having sat up)
I wouldn't do that.
NYAH
Do what?
The alarm goes off.
ETHAN
That.
The bathroom is suddenly filled with security guards, gun drawn
Senor de l'Arena, looking highly upset, pops in.
SENOR DE L'ARENA
Oh, Senor Keyes, thank God it is you!
(in Spanish to security guards,
annoyed)
It's Senor Keyes, the security engineer.
ETHAN
Well, Senor de l'Arena the goods news is
that the heat sensors were activated. But
Miss Nordoff-Hall, my associate -
Senor de l'Arena kisses Nyah's hand.
SENOR DE L'ARENA
Mucho gusto, senorita.
ETHAN
- did feel that she had rather too long to
work on the safe before they triggered the
alarm, isn't that right Miss Hall?
NYAH
Oh yes. Absolutely. Much too long I
should yes.
Nyah's initial shock and panic slowly gives way to a wary,
intensified curiosity - about Ethan.
ETHAN
Under the circumstances I think we would
recommend re-setting the senors to
respond to a lighter load. How do you
feel about forty kilos, Miss Hall?
NYAH
Indeed.
ETHAN
Well, Senor de l'Arena, there's no reason
to disrupt your party any longer. we have
some further concerns about the disposition
of your security guards, which you'll
receive in our written report by fax in the
morning, hard copy to follow. Shall we?
He offers Nyah his arm. They start out. Ethan immediately stops.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Miss Hall. Haven't you forgotten
something?
Nyah looking genuinely puzzled.
NYAH
The necklace?
Nyah slowly reaches into her dress and withdraws the glittering
string of diamonds and rubies from her bust.
SENOR DE L'ARENA
(a great kidder)
What are you trying to do, senorita? Rob
me.
They all laugh, and Ethan's got her out the door.
EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (LATE NIGHT - PRE DAWN)
The stars dimming, the sky a gun metal blue. Ethan and Nyah
emerge from the villa, walking slowly. Nyah's clearly
preoccupied.
NYAH
I'm missing something here, aside from a
500,000 pound necklace. Even after I
botched the job, I could've walked out of
there with the bloody thing.
ETHAN
At least you walked.
NYAH
If you weren't going to let me get away
with it, why did you let me go thru with
it?
ETHAN
Wanted to see how good you were.
I'm hoping we might work together.
NYAH
May I say something, no offence? You
look like a gigolo, you sound like a
thief, you act like a cop - what the
bloody hell do you have in mind?
ETHAN
Working under adverse conditions. Highly
adverse conditions.
NYAH
Sounds smashing. I'm in. Muchacho, mi
carro, por favor! Now be serious. You
couldn't possibly want me off tonight's
performance..
ETHAN
You didn't do that badly.
Her car arrives.
NYAH
(as she moves to her car)
You're apologizing for me? Quite the
gentleman..
ETHAN
(opening the car door)
Not really. I triggered the alarm..
One foot on the floorboard she freezes, back to Ethan.
ETHAN
Hey, the Bulgari job last week was
flawless. And I've always been partial to
pale yellows.
She slides behind the wheel.
NYAH
(as he leads on the car)
I don't do laundry, or put up with
cheeky bastards who set me up on their
territory so they can poach on mine.
She takes off, spewing bits of gravel and dust in her wake.
Ethan smiles and shakes his head.
ON THE ROAD - NYAH (MOVING)
around curves, hair flying, she's free. Her car phone rings.
Perplexed, she lets it ring once or twice picks it up:
NYAH
(tentatively)
Hola..
ETHAN
Hi. Would you mind slowing down?
NYAH
Where did you get this number? I don't
even have it!
ETHAN' VOICE
Would you like it?
She hits the End button and disconnects. The phone immediately
rings again. She refuses to pick up. Ethan pulls alongside hers.
She looks at him. They speak through the open cars.
ETHAN
Pull over and listen to me, will you?
Just listen..
NYAH
Listen to what?
ETHAN
I need your help and I thin you can use
mine.
NYAH
Your help? What are you talking about?
ETHAN
Scotland Yard, Interpol, every Dutch
authority. I can make them go away.
NYAH
Oh bloody hell. You're a spy.
She floors it and shoots ahead of Ethan, nicking his car as she takes off.
ETHAN
(to himself)
I deserved that.
SERIES OF DRIVING SHOTS - NYAH AND ETHAN
Ethan rings her again. And keeps ringing. Her face becomes
grim, her flight progressively more desperate and with Ethan's
pursuit progressively more determined. They are reaching the
limits of adhesion around blind curves.
MORE SHOTS DRIVING (DAWN)
The sky's battleship gray; Ethan pursues Nyah around hairpin
turns high above the Costa del Sol; they rip thru patches of
marine fog drifting on the road, obscuring it.
Both are appalled by the other's willingness to escalate risk in
this game of flight and pursuit until Ethan tears thru a fogbank
and sees on his GPS what Nyah can't see thru the fog -
less than four hundred meters ahead is a turn she can't possibly
negotiate and if she can't she'll plunge off the road hundreds of
feet to rock and sea below. Ringing her number again:
ETHAN
(half to himself)
Slow down, slow down.
She turns up a mound and loses control. She spins out and heads
toward the edge of the cliff.
NYAH
(realizing she's in trouble)
Uh-oh.
Ethan cuts her off and sends them both into a 540 degree spin.
Her car stops just at the cliff's edge.
Furious she wrenches open the car door and gets out.
ETHAN
No!
Suddenly there's no Nyah. Ethan leaps over to Nyah's car and
sees Nyah dangling over the ocean and rocks hundreds of feet
below, holding the door handle.
NYAH
Oh..oh..
Taking a firm grip on her wrist.
ETHAN
Don't look down. Just..look at me.
That's it..that's it..
He pulls Nyah up to the car, across the seat and half into
his arms. For a long moment it looks like she's in shock. Then:
NYAH
What's you name?
ETHAN
Ethan Hunt.
NYAH
Well, Ethan Hunt, what is it you want to
talk to me about?
Thru the veil of morning fog, Nyah looks at Ethan. Her dark eyes
suggest wit, and willingness, and longing.
ETHAN
...more than I thought..
They scarcely to move to bring their lips together:
NYAH
Awfully short notice..
ETHAN
Care to wait a decent interval?
NYAH
Who wants to be decent?..
DISSOLVE:
CLOSE - ETHAN (INT-EXT. SAFEHOUSE - SEVILLE - DAY-EVE)
sleeping. His eyes open slowly. He comes to full consciousness,
his head still on the pillow. Something approaching serious
anxiety informs his features. He lifts his head and looks at his
left, angle widening. Nyah lies on her side facing him,
sleeping serenely. Anxiety on the order of oh-God-this-isn't-
approved-recruiting-technique, confirmed. He lets his head flop
back on the pillow. Then he turns so he and Nyah are profile to-
profile. As he looks at her sleeping his anxiety fades, replaced
by curiosity and even wonder. He lifts his hand and just
brushes her cheek. Her eyes open. She knows where she is.
ETHAN
So what've you got against spooks?
Nyah smiles.
NYAH
When they've got your recruiting
technique? Not a thing.
ETHAN
Oh. Well..this isn't exactly by the book.
NYAH
They've got a book for this?
ETHAN
They've got a book for everything.
NYAH
The only other spook I knew was a liar.
Charming but absolutely incapable of
telling the truth. He'd lie about his
favorite color. But then I reckon it's an
occupational hazard. All spies really do
is conceal the truth and tell lies.
ETHAN
Not revealing information doesn't
necessarily make someone a liar.
NYAH
That's not the point. In the end what
spies rely on is the one thing they think
they know that you don't.
ETHAN
Which is?
NYAH
That they're lying.
Ethan laughs.
NYAH (cont'd)
..once they know that they can
get very very..crosee..
Nyah shoulder and moves into Ethan.
ETHAN
So where did I got right?
NYAH
You're not a liar. Or you're an awfully
good one..
(then)
..this thing these blokes pinched..
ETHAN
I don't know that they 'pinched' it.
Don't even know that they're blokes.
Nyah stops to think about this.
NYAH
Well, then, what I am I doing here? I assume
I'm meant to be some sort of thief-to
catch-a-thief..
ETHAN
So do I. Sort of.
Nyah looks at Ethan, a little worried.
NYAH
Spoken like a spook..you ever afraid?
ETHAN
Of what?
Nyah laughs.
NYAH
Ask a question, you get an answer!..
ETHAN
Damn, you're beautiful.
NYAH
That's because I'm on my back.
Quick as a cat Ethan flips Nyah over so she's looking down
at him.
ETHAN
I don't think so.
She sinks into his arms.
EXT-INT - STREET - SEVILLE (VALENCIA FESTIVAL) (EVE)
Ethan's step is unusually jaunty as he bounces along, making his
way thru the festive and jostling crowds preparing for the Crema
portion of the Fallas de Valencia. On this night great papier
mache effigies, some serious, some comic, are placed all thru the
city and torched in great bonfires. Outside the bar Ethan's
looking for there's a street vendor, hawking Fallas mementos and
flowers. He starts past the vendor, and it hits him - he's going
to buy some flowers.
He chooses a colorful spring bouquet so fresh the dew can be
seen on the petals. Ethan pays the vendor, starts into the bar,
and thinks better of walking into Swanbeck with the bouquet.
Turns back to the vendor.
ETHAN
Are you gonna be here a while?
VENDOR
Si, senor.
ETHAN
I'll pick'em up on my way out, okay?
Ethan enter the bar and goes upstairs to the second floor where
he passes security at a pair of double doors.
INT - IMF BRIEFING ROOM
Swanbeck stands looking out the window. Noisy crowds from the
festival provides a constant walla, and during the sequence, the
first effigies are lit, and smoke and flame provide a vivid
background thru briefing room's window.
SWANBECK
Fetival's a pain in the ass. Honoring
saint by setting'em on fire.
(turning to Ethan)
Sit down, sit down.
Ethan sits.
SWANBECK (cont'd)
Let's you know what they think of saints,
doesn't it? Damn near set me on fire on
my way over here. As if I haven't been
burned enough today.
A moment where it's impossible to tell which way the wind is
going to blow between these two. Then civilly:
SWANBECK (cont'd)
Sorry I barged in on your vacation.
ETHAN
Sorry I didn't let you know where I was.
SWANBECK
Don't be. Wouldn't be on vacation if you did.
ETHAN
Well. You're sorry and I'm sorry.
SWANBECK
Why did you phrase it like that?
ETHAN
Like what?
SWANBECK
'You're sorry and I'm sorry.'
ETHAN
You gotta be kidding.
Swanbeck turns to his computer and begins play on a DVD, and
projected onto a computer screen staring back at Ethan is:
VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH
NEKHORVICH
(with exaggerate brio)
Well, Dmitri! How are you?..
Nekhorvich pauses as if waiting for reply. Ethan smiles.
ETHAN
..I'm fine..and you?
NEKHORVICH
I'm fine..
Ethan laughs.
ETHAN
I'm fine and you're fine..
With Ethan simultaneously whispering:
NEKHORVICH
I'm fine too.. I'm fine and you're fine - do
you remember, dear fried, how you got
Sergei and I to repeat those lines from Dr.
Strangelove and we gave you the name of that
silly Soviet Premier because we didn't know
your name?..In those days, you not only
saved our lives, you saved our sanity. 'Now,
then Dmitri - we have this little problem':
Every search for a hero must begin with
something that every hero requires; a
villain. Therefore, in a search for our
hero, Bellerophon, we created a monster
Chimera. I beg you, Dmitri, come to Sydney
and accompany me to Atlanta immediately.
However we travel, I must arrive at me
destination, within 20 hours of departure.
Forgive this fanciful explanation, but for
now prudence dictates that I communicate
nothing but the gravest urgency.
I fear I can entrust this to no one but
you, Dmitri. as we say, 'I'm sorry and
you're sorry'..
Swanbeck stops the DVD.
SWANBECK
Let me ask you something. You have any
idea what the hell he's talking about?
Ethan smiles.
ETHAN
An idea, yeah.
SWANBECK
Like?
ETHAN
Like it's a good idea to pick him up in a
hurry. And a bad idea to fly him on a
commercial carrier. So let's get on with
it. He's still in Sydney?
SWANBECK
Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich is dead. So is his
colleague, Gradski, but that happened
earlier. We had Nekhorvich on a flight
from Sydney that crashed in the Rockies..
Ethan sits back, heavily.
SWANBECK (cont'd)
- Hunt, are you listening?..
Slowly looking up:
ETHAN
If he didn't want to go anywhere without
me, how did you get him on the flight?
SWANBECK
You were there.
Swanbeck clears his throat. He turns back to the computer and
punches in: MISSION DOUBLE IMAGE. File open to computer scans
of AMBROSE, SEAN, and HUNT, ETHAN, the computer scanning and
comparing their features, millimeter by millimeter, stat by stat,
as the computer then imposes, with the help of the physiognomy
scan, Ethan's face on Ambrose: hence, mission double image.
ETHAN
slowly looks up at Swanbeck.
SWANBECK
When I couldn't find you, I had to replace
you. Sean Ambrose was the obvious choice.
He double you, what? Two, three times?
ETHAN
Twice.
SWANBECK
What did you think of him?
ETHAN
You know we had reservations about each
other. Isn't it a little late in the day
to be asking me that?
SWANBECK
Not necessarily.
Swanbeck shows Ethan a photo of airline Captain.
SWANBECK
Airline record list Captain Harold
Macintosh as the pilot for Flt 2207. as
far as the media and all governmental
agencies are concerned, Captain Macintosh
died on the flight, but in fact he missed
it. He did, however make the next flight -
in cargo, stuffed into a rather small
suitcase considering his size.
Another photo of an open suitcase, the body in it partially
obscured by a ring of police and customs officers.
SWANBECK (cont'd)
Someone on that flight planned an
operation designed to down the plane and
make it look like an accident. Someone
skillful enough to bring the whole thing
off without a hitch but - they don't
always get your luggage on the plane, even
when you fly first class.
ETHAN
So there's one thing we know Ambrose
doesn't.
SWANBECK
Then you do think it was Ambrose.
Ethan barely nods.
SWANBECK (cont'd)
And you're not surprised.
Ethan gives Swanbeck a look.
ETHAN
Whatever Nekhorvich was carrying Sean
wanted and he wanted to conceal the fact
that he took it.
SWANBECK
Enough to kill Nekhorvich and two hundred
innocent passengers?
Ethan smiles.
ETHAN
Sean feels he hasn't done the job unless
he leaves a lot of hats on the ground.
SWANBECK
The question is why? What was this
Chimera Nekhorvich was carrying?
Ethan rises and moves to the window.
ETHAN
Right now only Ambrose knows that.
SWANBECK
In any case, you've got to recover Chimera
and bring it to us.
ETHAN
In order to do that, I've got to figure
out how he plans to make money with it.
SWANBECK
- right. In fact since the plane went
down our banking sources have confirmed a
marked increase in the stock pilling of
cash in terrorists accounts.
ETHAN
'Terrorists?'
SWANBECK
Well you know Nekhorvich's history.
You're the one who got him out of the
Soviet Union was it still in bio-
weapon business.
ETHAN
If that's what you're thinking Ambrose
would have set up a bidding situation with
any number of buyers before he got on the
plane. Locating him in time to stop
something like that -
SWANBECK
- is where Miss Hall comes in.
ETHAN
(blindsided)
Excuse me?
SWANBECK
Miss Hall and Ambrose had a relationship
which he took very seriously. She walked
away and he's wanting her back ever
since. We believe she's our surest and
quickest way of location him.
ETHAN
(acidly)
And then what?
SWANBECK
Then makes sure she continues to see him.
Gets him confide in her and report to
you.
ETHAN
You made it sound as if I was recruiting
her for her skills as a thief.
SWANBECK
Well, then I mislead you. Or you made the
wrong assumption. Either way we're asking
her to resume a prior relationship, not do
anything she hasn't already done.
ETHAN
She's got no training for this kind of
thing.
SWANBECK
Go to bed with a man and lie to him?
She's a woman. She's got all the training
she needs.
Ethan's anger flashes but does his best to contain it.
ETHAN
I don't think I can get her to do it.
SWANBECK
You mean it'll be difficult.
ETHAN
Very.
SWANBECK
Well it's not mission difficult, Hunt.
It's mission impossible. Difficult should
be a walk in the park for you. If you can
think of a quicker way to get to Ambrose,
you're welcome to try. Oh, by the way, you
might want to take a look at these..if you
have any further qualms about getting her
to do the job.
He pulls out a little Minolta digital camera (identical to the
one in Nekhorvich's bag at airport security). Swanbeck sets it on
the table. Ethan picks it up the tiny camera and puts it to his eye.
EXT - BAR (NIGHT)
A grim Ethan, starring fixedly ahead of him emerges to an ever
more lively crowd. as he does:
STREET VENDOR
Senor, senor! Your flowers.
The vendor holds up the spring bouquet. Ethan seems genuinely
surprised by them.
ETHAN
Yes. They're very nice..
And he's lost in the crowd, leaving a very puzzled vendor holding
the bouquet.
STILL OF CRASH SITE IN ROCKIES (THRU MINOLTA STILL CAMERA)
One after the other flashing by. They are more evocative than
specific in their suggestion of an abrupt, fiery, ending, where
the lives of hundred are literally and figuratively torn apart
and strewn over a desolate landscape.
NYAH
carefully places the little Minolta on a glass-topped coffee
table. She's beautifully pulled together, the safehouse has the
lights low, flamenco music playing, and when she walks out onto
the balcony Ethan sees the candlelit table and a bottle of
champagne chilling. There's a light breeze the fire from the
burning effigies throwing smoke and flame all over the city.
NYAH
What's the population of Seville any
idea?
ETHAN
Five, six-hundred thousand.
NYAH
There's nearly 2 million in London.
ETHAN
And six billion in the world.
NYAH
That's lot of people out there..how many
of them, I wonder, are capable of
something like that?
ETHAN
Sean Ambrose, for one.
A long shocked moment. Nyah laughs.
NYAH
Right...
INT - SAFEHOUSE (EVE - LATER)
The pounding beat of the flamenco music seems to fill the room
Nyah's back to Ethan:
NYAH
(grimly amused)
Not that it matter much but..I seem to
recall you staying something like, 'I was
hoping we could work together.'
ETHAN
This wasn't what I had in mind, Nyah.
NYAH
But it is what you'd like me to do.
so tell me to do it..
She approaches Ethan. They're inches apart.
NYAH (cont'd)
Come on, out with it. Tell me to go and
insinuate myself back into Sean's life.
ETHAN
Go and insinuate yourself back into Sean's
life.
NYAH
I'd like a little more conviction..
ETHAN
So would I. But it's not mine to give.
NYAH
(archness there)
You've either got it or you don't. Let
your conscience be your guide?
ETHAN
Something like that.
With a smile and a wink.
NYAH
But I don't have a conscience. I'm a
bloody thief.
ETHAN
You can be a thief and have a conscience.
NYAH
No. You can be a thief and have a
conscience: Not me. Why did you have to
tell me about this!
(pouring herself a drink)
What do I have to do to get away from this
guy? When you're with him, he messes
about with your head every waking
moment..even now I'll be at some out-of-
the-way-place, a tin of caviar and a
bottle of Crystal shows up at the table,
with two glass, God knows how he finds
out at any given moment where I am in the
world but he does. And it looks like he's
done it again. You know his definition of
a true paranoid?
ETHAN
I don't.
NYAH
Someone in possession of all the facts.
(she turns away, pauses)
Are you telling me I have to do this?
ETHAN
Generally, I don't favor coercing someone.
Not when there's a chance my life could
end up in their hands.
NYAH
And that's the only reason?
ETHAN
Can you think of a better one?
NYAH
Not me. I was just hoping you might..or
that..somehow in the course of business
this got personal as well as physical.
ETHAN
Look, would it make you feel better if I
didn't want you to do this?
NYAH
Much.
ETHAN
Then feel better!..
Long moment while she looks at him.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Well. That made all the difference in the
world, didn't it?
Ethan walks out onto the balcony. She looks at his back.
NYAH
Sean will never be anything but suspicious
if he picks up some sort of 'yoo-hoo-I'm-
not-nad' message. Not after the way we
broke up.
ETHAN
What wouldn't make him suspicious?
NYAH
Probably that I needed him in some urgent
way..destitute - in serious trouble..the
kind I couldn't possible sort out myself..
Ethan's been smiling slightly.
ETHAN
Serious trouble, Nyah, is something I can
always arrange..
NYAH IN A SPANISH JAIL
standing for front and side mug shot. O.S. sound of teletype
continues. SUPERIMPOSE: Ethan holding up something the size of
a dime:
ETHAN
This little chip sends a coded signal that
can be picked up only by our computer.
On the screen of the GPS computer, a little yellow blip appears
pulsating on the screen.
ETHAN'S VOICE
When it's in your ankle we can track you
within three feet of anywhere in the
world.
OVER ETHAN AND ONTO COMPUTER SCREEN
He types a small Interpol bulletin stating that Nyah Nordoff
Hall, apprehended March 13 in Seville, is awaiting extradition
while the authorities in London, Paris, and Amsterdam squabble
over where she's going to be tried first, for the various thefts
and burglaries she's committed in the three cities.
COMPUTER SCREEN (AMBROSE TENT ANNEX - DAY)
Ambrose picking up on a version of the Interpol bulletin Ethan's
put out. He leans over the screen for a moment, then moves to
the window, and stares out thoughtful at the bay, almost as if
he were watching...
EXT - NYAH IN JAIL COURTYARD
From a beautiful blue sky, pan down to the courtyard of the jail
where Nyah is allowed out for an airing, seemingly alone but
being watched by:
ETHAN AND COMPUTER SCREEN
His attention fixed on the screen, Ethan stares at satellite
shot of Nyah in the jail courtyard.
INT - PRISON - NYAH
being allowed a phone call, a prison guard visible b.g. Cross
cut with Ethan.
ETHAN
Look, I can't run your arrest in CNN, but
I guarantee he's monitoring every law
enforcement agency in the world, for what
they might be saying about him, if nothing
else - he's got the ability and, we
assume, the desire to get you out of
there.
NYAH
This doesn't seem to be accomplishing
much.
ETHAN
Well, I mean it's not a total loss. It is
keeping a very capable thief off the
street..
NYAH
Very funny..maybe he has heard and
doesn't want to know. Maybe he's lost
interest.
Her guard, b.g. is handed a note.
GUARD
(to Nyah)
Your lawyer to see you.
NYAH
What lawyer?
ETHAN AND COMPUTER SCREEN
ETHAN
Well, here we go.
SECTOR: AUSTRALIA, moving into NEW SOUTH WALES, and then to:
Sydney. Here Ethan pulls up names, photos and profiles of
potential candidates. They scroll past, one face morphing into
another. Ethan punches in on WILLIAM A. BAIRD. EXPERTISE:
Qualified in virtually every mode of transport, land, sea, air.
ORDINANCES: Small arms and automatic weapons authority, edged and
impact weapons. PROCUREMENT: Resourceful. EXPLOSIVES: Precision
detonation, diffusion.
Ethan punches: Request immediate availability.
EXT - GOVERNMENT BUILDING - SEVILLE (DAY)
Nyah emerges from the entrance to the jail.
ETHAN
Stop and look for something in you
purse..kneel down..
She does. They're effectively blocked from the street.
NYAH
Limo's waiting.
Ethan hands her a key chain with what appear to be a car-key.
ETHAN
- Ambrose will have counter-surveillance
second to no one's. When and if he
contacts you, push this button
before you actually end up under his roof
it'll scramble your transmission to us.
She takes the key chain. Her hands are shaking.
NYAH
When will you be there?
ETHAN
Before you are.
NYAH
How can you possibly? I've got to get
right on the plane. I'm leaving now.
ETHAN
You don't trust me.
NYAH
Oh, I do. But as we know I'm a very poor
judge of character.
ETHAN
He's got you on Qantas flight 2735. It's
going to be delayed.
NYAH
Yes?
ETHAN
You'll be fine. I'm going to lose
you.
NYAH
Ethan, you take care of yourself, I'll
take care of myself because if push comes
to shove, I'm gonna bail - and without
giving two week notice.
ETHAN
Well, forewarned is forearmed. And while
we're at it, be especially sensitive to
any sudden change in Ambrose's plans,
especially any involving you..
They rise. A quick squeeze of her hand and he's gone. A look of
something like longing replaces the toughness as she gazes after
him, then starts across the street toward the limo and driver. MI
music theme kicks in and continues over:
POV HELICOPTER (MOVING - SYDNEY - DAY)
over the Harbor Bridge, sails dotting the bay like confetti.
EXT - FARM (DAY)
pans of sheep are bleating and looking for sort of cover in
response to the sound of a helicopter touching down.
EXT - COPTER (DAY)
Billy and Luther emerge, Luther with computer looking acutely
uncomfortable in a wrinkled suit.
ETHAN'S VOICE
Welcome to Australia, mate.
They look up to a smiling Ethan who points to the ground beneath
Luther's feet. Luther looks down to see that he is standing in a
pile of sheep-shit.
LUTHER
Thanks - mate.
Both men laugh and all three move to:
INT - FARMHOUSE (DAY)
Luther and Billy with Ethan setting up their operation. There's
a blip on one of the screens.
LUTHER
It's the transponder.
ETHAN
Put in the coordinates and let's get a
visual. The visuals aren't coming up.
LUTHER
The satellite doesn't work as fast as I
do.
BILLY
Yeah, I've heard about you, Luther, and I
just want to tell you it's an honor and a
pleasure to be working with you blokes,
whoaa! That's some transponder!
As Billy speaks, the visual come on line and Nyah has become
visible.
LUTHER
(a jaundiced eye, to Ethan)
It certainly is. How did we get so lucky?
Ethan pointedly ignore the question.
POV - MOVING (PALM BEACH - DAY)
rounding the tip of the bay's crescent, revealing the beach and
dock at Ambrose's palm-lined residence.
NYAH
The speedboat's engine's are cut. Nyah looks momentarily
stricken.
POV NYAH (MOVING)
a lone slender figure silhouetted at the end of the dock, still
as the piling besides which it stands. But the features remain
obscured by the sun at his back.
ETHAN
leans forward as the slender figure grows larger,
BILLY
(to Ethan)
Is it him, then?
POV - MOVING
The tide is too low for the boat to dock, making it necessary for
he boat to approach the shore. The slender figure moves off the
end of the dock and onto the beach.
THE CIGARETTE
idles into shadow water but the props start chewing into the
sand - the boatman grumbles he can't get any closer. The slender
figure has moved to the shoreline and the angle of the light
changes - Ambrose is waiting.
Nyah hesitates only a flicker of an instant, slips over the side
into thigh-high water without taking her eyes off Ambrose.
Ambrose strides right on into the bay. as they are just an arm's
length apart:
NYAH
takes a deep breath, presses the button to scramble the
transponder.
WITH ETHAN (INT. SHEEPFARM SAFEHOUSE)
The picture abruptly goes dead.
BILLY
Damn. Just when it was about to get
interesting.
ETHAN
It's okay. She scrambled the
transmission. Luther, continue feeding
the GPS her position.
Luther punches in. The signal - and the global coordinates are
given. They wait.
INT - SPACE
The satellite positions itself.
WITH THE THREE
ETHAN
Can't we speed this up.
Luther shoots him a disgusted look.
LUTHER
With what? This is the only computer
that'll do this.
THE SIGNALS AND PHOTOS
start to bounce back, growing larger and larger on the screen,
until: Nyah can be seen, water up to her thighs, lingering in
Ambrose's arms with each blow-up, and linger. And lingering.
BILLY
- right. Now there's a bloke who knows
how to deliver a proper welcome. Don't
get me wrong, mate. You were quite
hospitable. Is it him, then?
Ethan's look suggests he's worried about lapse in recruiting
judgment.
LUTHER
It is, Billy.
BILLY
Then we got'em!
ETHAN
We don't know what we've got because we
don't know what he's got, where he's got
it or what he's doing in Sydney with it.
Ethan strides away from the screen, the edge in his voice and the
move not altogether lost on either Luther or Billy.
INT - THE BAY (EXT. PALM BEACH - DAY)
Perfectly poised, still loosely in his arms, Nyah returns
Ambrose's penetrating gaze with a pleasant, clear eyed one.
AMBROSE
Not much luggage.
NYAH
I left in a bit of a hurry. I'm terribly
grateful, Sean.
AMBROSE
How grateful?
NYAH
Well that depends.
AMBROSE
On what.
NYAH
How hard you had to work to get me out of
there..how in the world did you ever find me?
AMBROSE
(stopping)
How I usually find you, Nyah.
NYAH
How do you that.
AMBROSE
Magic...
NYAH
Ahh..
POV THRU TENT ANNEX WINDOW (AMBROSE COMPOUND)
looking down the length of the dock. Ambrose, his arm around
Nyah and carrying her suitcase, moves up the dock toward the
house and camera.
Stamp steps into the annex and looks over to Wallis, who watches
Nyah on the monitors.
WALLIS
No flies on her.
(checking her on a scanner
screen)
No bugs either. She's clean.
STAMP
(drily)
All cats are.
INT - ETHAN - SAFEHOUSE (SHEEP FARM - DAY)
Ethan watches the Nekhorvich video on the computer screen.
NEKHORVICH
...therefore in a search for our hero,
Bellerophon, we created a monster,
Chimera.
Ethan then flips through a series of pictures on the computer
depicting the myth of Bellerophon attacking Chimera.
Billy moves up behind him.
BILLY
What you got there, mate?
ETHAN
A myth..just a myth...shouldn't you be
checking out their countersurveillance?
BILLY
Well you know his blokes'll place the
OSCOR in his annex, where else if you're
pinpointing transmitters, video signals,
covert chip cameras, anything radiating,
oscillating..
ETHAN
..or hard wired..
BILLY
(please)
- or hard wired, right. First line of
perimeter defence'll run from the back of
the dock to the front of the house.
Whatever moves burps or bleep is gonna be
picked up to a height of twenty feet.
Basically impenetrable, I'd say.
LUTHER
Ethan, here's Nekhorvich, and here's his
boss
Luther scans an entry from the IMF database with newspaper
clippings, sidebars of still of McCloy and Nekhorvich.
LUTHER (cont'd)
McCloy, Jon Chaddick, CEO Biocyte
Pharmaceuticals..D.O.B. September 30,
1952, Manchester, England.
BILLY
(a little lost)
Well do you disagree with that?
ETHAN
Not at all. But how about going into town
and confirming your intuitions on site?
BILLY
Oh well, if that's how you feel about it.
Billy leaves.
LUTHER
..then Cambridge..Harvard..entrepreneurial
efforts..in efforts..in 1989, acquired Biocyte in
hostile takeover..
As Luther transfer info to Ethan's computer:
LUTHER (cont'd)
Ethan, have a look at this.
On Ethan's screen appears the Biocyte website; where among he
various icons one offer McCloy's proud detailing of Biocyte's
philanthropic efforts:
MCCLOY'S VOICE
We at out state-of-the-art solar powered
Biocyte building recognized that eternal
vigilance is the price of health.. whether
it's funding the teaching center at the
Royal Prince Edward Hospital, removing
aerosol products from the marker or
braving the influenza quarantine at Bruny
island late last month..at Biocyte your
life..is our life's work..
ETHAN
(quietly)
..Biocyte workers at Bruny Island.
INT - AMBROSE'S (DAY)
They've reached the head of the stairs. Ambrose opens a door.
It's a large bedroom opening onto a veranda with a view of the
tent annex and the beach, and a very large bed.
NYAH
Your room.
AMBROSE
(yes)
Mmmm.
NYAH
And my room?
A long moment. Ambrose walks to a mirrored wall. The mirrors
are sliding doors. With a sweeping gesture, he slides one of the
mirrors back and reveals a wardrobe of beautiful designer
clothes.
AMBROSE
Thought you could use a little something
to wear.
Nyah stares at the spectacular wardrobe. Ambrose pulls out a
slinky Armani and drapes it on the bed.
AMBROSE ( cont'd)
Try it on..
Nyah hesitates.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Go ahead. I'm dying to see if I
remembered your size..
Nyah picks it up.
NYAH
No changing room?
Ambrose sits on a chair by the window and waits. Her blouse,
belt, skirt, fall on the bed. As her slender arm reaches down to
pick up the Armani:
AMBROSE
grips her wrist, the flimsy Armani dangling in the air.
CLOSE - NYAH
meeting Ambrose's look.
NYAH
You're not interested in seeing how it
looks.
AMBROSE
Oh, I am. Later..
The Armani falls in a fragile heap on the floor.
CLOSE - ETHAN (DUSK)
standing off to one side, listening to Nekhorvich's voice.
NEKHORVICH
..therefore in a search for our hero,
Bellerophon, we created a monster,
Chimera.
LUTHER
Why's Nekhorvich going on about an old Greek myth?
ETHAN
Nekhorvich specialized in recombining DNA
molecules. In the myth, Bellerophon killed
Chimera, a recombinant monster with the head
of a lion and the tail of a serpent who
plagued the ancient world. I think Nekhorvich
has created a monster virus in Chimera and
apparently the means to kill it in
Bellerophon.
LUTHER
That simple, huh?
ETHAN
Why not?
CLOSE - NYAH (INT. AMBROSE BEDROOM - DUSK)
lying back on a pillow, looking and off into space to right
off camera. She hears Ambrose's voice, with Ethan's voice
AMBROSE'S VOICE/ETHAN'S VOICE
Damn, you're beautiful..
Nyah reacts as if she'd been rapped on the nose, her eyes
moist. She turns abruptly to camera.
NYAH
Did you say something?
AMBROSE
leaning on an elbow, looking down.
AMBROSE
I said you're beautiful, Nyah.
NYAH
Only because..it's spring..chalk it up
(looking him dead in the eye)
- to spring fever.
Ambrose, amused, lights a cigarette and inhaling:
AMBROSE
Won't do, love. It's not spring. It's
nearly autumn..You're in Oz. everything's
upside down and backwards here.
NYAH
(more direct)
Maybe that's it, then. Everything's upside
down and backwards...
CLOSE - ETHAN (SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE - DUSK)
ETHAN
Luther..get us everything you can on the
outbreak of influenza on Bruny Island last
month, including photos of the victims.
LUTHER
Right. I guess there aren't many flu
epidemics in the middle of summer.
Luther resumes working on his computer and sees Ethan is locked
on Ambrose's compound on his computer screen, thinking of Nyah.
LUTHER (cont'd)
She did it, Ethan. Nyah's in the
compound.
ETHAN
Yeah? I've just rolled up a snowball and
tosses it into hell.
Ethan stands.
OUTSIDE THE SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE
A brooding Ethan exits the sheep farm safehouse under a setting
sun.
ETHAN'S VOICE
Now we'll see what chance it has.
Ethan stops, looking out over the broken plain. His voice is
heard overlapping into the next scene.
ETHAN'S VOICE (cont'd)
(softly)
Damn, You're beautiful.
CLOSE - NYAH (NIGHT)
lying in bed, obviously hearing Ethan's voice again, and feeling
very much alone. She stares out into the night, a gaze that in
its bemused intensity is an exact match to Ethan's.
FADE:
CLOSE - PHOTO - HONG KONG TIMES (INT. AMBROSE STUDY - EARLY DAWN)
its front page, except for the headlines and date, covered with
stacks of paper money, banded bundled dollars piled high as a
cord of wood. The amount $24 millions is written in ink over the
money.
AMBROSE
Twenty-four mil..
Ambrose's hands shift to another photo of another newspaper, the
LONDON TIMES, this one piled high with English pounds and the
written amount: 37 million pounds.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
Thirty-seven million pounds. That's a
promising bid.
The third photo is of the AFTERNOON ARUBAN, with $14 million
packaged on it.
Ambrose, wearing a robe and seated at a glass-topped table, sets
this last photo on the table on top the others. He picks up
Nekhorvich's digital camera, removes the film disk, and snaps it
into its plastic case. He places the case into an envelope
(NOTE: The same envelope seen at the track) and hands it to
Stamp.
AMBROSE
We'll need this at the track. Well then.
Sorted.
Stamp is seated near him. Glances toward Ambrose's bedroom and
Nyah asleep in Ambrose's bed.
STAMP
(pointedly)
Not everything. Why do you think she's
really here?
AMBROSE
From her point of view or mine?
STAMP
Wasn't exactly gagging for it when she
left you six months ago..The question is,
do you trust her?
As he speaks, Ambrose pulls a cigar case and a cutter out of his
robe. Takes a cigar out of the case and clips the end of the
cigar; the razor-sharp cutter decapitates the tip of the cigar
like a guillotine.
AMBROSE
One considers her timing, of course -
getting nicked within a week of the plane
going down. Suggestive, even borderline
suspicious, but hardly conclusive.
STAMP
Well, you've thorough about it, at any
rate.
Ambrose opens the cutter again to clean off the fragments of
tobacco trapped by the cut.
AMBROSE
Tell me, Hugh. You don't exactly hang on
Nyah's every word and gesture, do you?
Fairly ratty nail, that.
Sean touches the nail of Stamp's left pinkie finger. Stamp
reacts by slightly withdrawing his hand.
STAMP
Sean..
With his left hand Ambrose grabs Stamp's left wrist.
AMBROSE
You're not scrutinizing any casual shrug
for some hair-splitting nuance, are you?
STAMP
Sean, please..
Sean pulls Stamp's hand closer.
AMBROSE
Suppose she is some sort of Trojan horse
sent in by IMF to spy in us, why should I
deny myself the pleasure of a ride or two?
Or don't you think I can learn more from
her than she can from me?
Ambrose twists Stamp's wrist so that Stamp drops to one knee
trying to alleviate the pain.
STAMP
(in pain)
I do!..
Ambrose leans in close to Stamp's face as he places the cutter
around Stamp's pinkie.
AMBROSE
Now Hugh, you must realize that some of us
have the burden of sex to deal with..and
my dear chap. I may or may not know why
she thinks she's here, but I'm willing to
take the risk, because Hugh, I am gaging
for it..
Ambrose closes the cutter on Stamp's finger and cuts the nail,
just nicking the top of the finger and drawing blood. Stamp
cries out. Ambrose tosses Stamp a napkin, light his cigar and
exhale.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Don't ever question my judgment again.
DISSOLVE:
EMPTY FRAME (EXT. RANDWICK RACE TRACK - DAY)
with no sound, the back stretch an unrecognizable blur until
horses at high speed burst into the frame bringing with them the
sight and sound of their great nostrils snorting and gasping for
jostling and going to the whip, the sound of the crowd
overwhelming all but the announcer's voice carrying everyone
around the far turn and into the home stretch with a ringing,
controlled frenzy.
EXT - PRIVATE BLEACHER (DAY)
Nyah and Ambrose rising as the horses cross the finish.
AMBROSE
(surprised)
You won.
NYAH
(looking at her ticket)
I suppose I did.
AMBROSE
What made you pick that nag? She'd never
won a bloody thing.
NYAH
'Thief in the Night?'
AMBROSE
Say no more. I'm off to grab a drink.
Still favor Bellinis?
She smiles, a little shakily. Ambrose leaves.
A VOICE
Naturally Vain..
It's Billy passing behind her.
NYAH
Pardon me?
BILLY
'Naturally Vain.' In the fourth.
Check her out. She's due.
Billy hands her a chest sheet and moves on. She opens it to the
fourth race. Taped onto 'Naturally Vain' is a small plastic
piece with the note. she regards the note, places the plastic
piece in her ear.
ETHAN'S VOICE
You can speak as if I'm right by your
side.
NYAH
(picking up binoculars)
Where are you?
ETHAN'S VOICE
At the mounting enclosure, just off the
tracks at two o'clock.
THRU BINOCULARS - NYAH'S POV - MOVING
thru the crowd onto the track over to the pre-post paddock where
an animated gaggle of owners, heavy batters and investerace touts
surround it. Only Ethan is stock still - and looking up at Nyah.
CLOSE - NYAH
a swift intake of breath as she see him.
ETHAN
How's it going? Everything okay?
NYAH
Just like old times.
ETHAN
Just like old times?
NYAH
Just about..
She appears to be the picture of unruffled sang-froid.
ETHAN
Tell me who you've run into at Ambrose's.
ETHAN'S POV (THRU GLASSES)
moving from Nyah to the champagne bar just behind where Ambrose
is seen greeting someone in the crowd and they sit at a corner
table in front of the window overlooking the track.
NYAH
(a breath, then:)
Near as I can tell, there's at least a
half-dozen other blokes about the place.
Maybe more. Hugh Stamp, an old mate of
Sean's, is the only one I recognize, bit
of a creep and then some..
POV ETHAN
Stamp, stands a pillar, his finger bandages, looking
glum and looking down at Nyah.
ETHAN
We know him. He's over your left
shoulder, looking right at you as you go on..
NYAH
- Michael, his driver's an Aussie, new to
me. Then there's the blokes in the
annex at the back of the house.
ETHAN
Have you met them?
NYAH
Annex is strictly off limits to me and
they never come to the main house,
Michael even takes their meals to them
all but shoves them under the door.
ETHAN
(looking into Champagne Bar)
I've no doubt.
ETHAN'S POV MONOCULAR VIDEO RANGE FINDER
of Ambrose sitting with someone whose face is obscured from his
angle by bar patrons.
BILLY
is also looking.
POV RANGE FINDER BILLY
and from his point of view it can be seen that Ambrose is talking
with John McCloy, the head Biocyte. Ambrose takes an envelope
out of his inner left jacket pocket and from it pulls out a small
plastic container marked 'S.G.' (Identical to the object first
seen in Nekhorvich's satchel at airport security.) He opens it
and removes a small shiny object about the size of a quarter. He
turns to the window and gestures. Stamp enters the bar.
BILLY
Ambrose is meeting some bloke in the bar.
Big bloke, ginger hair. They're into
something.
ETHAN'S POV
ETHAN
I'll be damned. It's McCloy, the Biocyte
CEO.
LUTHER
Nekhorvich's boss?
ETHAN
Yep.
NYAH
Ambrose has photographs of newspapers with
loads of money piled on them -- thirty-
seven million on the London Times. What's
that about?
ETHAN
Bids from possible Chimera buyers -- to
prove that as of the date on the newspaper
those bids are back up by earnest money --
INT - VAN - LUTHER
is monitoring both cameras. All see Ambrose give the little
wafer-like object to Stamp who places it in a small camera, hands
it back to Ambrose and exits, waiting just outside the glass
door. Ambrose hands the camera to McCloy who looks puzzled.
LUTHER
Looks like Ambrose is showing McCloy how
to use a digital camera..
McCloy puts it to his eye, fumbles, then with Ambrose's
direction:
ETHAN
Whatever McCloy's looking at, he's not
happy about.
McCloy puts the camera down. The two men have words. McCloy
shakily leave the table. Ambrose opens the camera.
LUTHER
Ambrose just pulled the memory card out of
the digital camera and put it into an
envelope, put it in his inner left jacket
pocket...
ETHAN
Left jacket pocket?
LUTHER
Roger that.
ETHAN
Confirm. Left jacket pocket.
LUTHER
Left jacket pocket confirmed.
ETHAN BY THE MOUNTING ENCLOSURE
ETHAN
Nyah, Ambrose is heading back. There's an
enveloped inside --
NYAH
-- his left jacket pocket.
ETHAN
Affirmative.
AMBROSE
passes by Stamp on his way back, hands him the camera.
NYAH
(after a brief pause)
Where do I meet you?
ETHAN
Betting table twelve off the paddock.
Nyah, are you up to this?
NYAH
I'll muddle through.
WIDE ANGLE - BLEACHER (DAY)
Ambrose arriving with a pair of drinks. Nyah rises.
AMBROSE
See anything you like?
NYAH
Yeah. Naturally vain -- but they're about
to close the betting table and I haven't a
sou..
While Ambrose is still juggling the drinks, Nyah reaches into his
trouser pockets, and rummages around.
AMBROSE
(laughing)
Nyah!
ETHAN
Billy, make sure Nyah's not followed.
BILLY
No worries, mate.
She pulls out a fifty-dollar note.
NYAH
Would you mind terribly?
AMBROSE (cont'd)
(amused and turned on)
- not at all. But you'll pay for that
and with interest..
NYAH
I've no doubt..
She heads up the stairs.
AMBROSE
(reaching into his pocket for
money)
Hold on.
Ambrose grabs her arm, and she almost drops the envelope she's
just lifted. (NOTE: It is important not to see her actually lift
it). She's holding it, pinned between her right arm and side. As
it's slipping, she notes Stamp above her, looking down and has to
conceal what she's holding from him as well:
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Put down a couple of hundred for.
NYAH
To win?
AMBROSE
What else?
She takes it and as she does the envelope falls, but she manages
to catch it with her left hand, blocking the move with her body
as she does.
WIDER ANGLE - NYAH
moves along the aisle.
ETHAN'S VOICE
Luther, smallest digital you got. Ready
to transmit. Betting table twelve.
EXT - VAN (DAY)
designated as NEW SOUTH WALES DELIVERIES, 'anytime, anywhere.'
Luther bursts out of the van, carrying the tiny camera and begins
to thread his way thru cars and foot traffic.
BILLY
in dramatic contrast ambles at a conspicuously leisurely pace.
NYAH
passes Stamp, not seeing him standing just a row above, blocked
from her by one of the pillars. Stamp idly regards her and then
decides: he follows.
LUTHER
perspiring, approaches the betting table thru the last of the
parked cars.
STAMP
approaches the door thru which Nyah had gone and starts to open
it - only to have the door slammed in his face and on his
bandaged finger by Billy, in a track usher's uniforms.
BILLY
(very solicitous)
Sorry about that, mate, that must've
really - aggrhh!..
Even as Stamp winces in pain his arm has shot out and Billy finds
himself pinned to the wall gasping for air. If he'd been welded
there by a band of steal he'd have more room to maneuver.
STAMP
Say again?
BILLY
Aggrhh-aggrhh-aggrhh...
STAMP
Whatever you're about in future, watch
your step. Never know who you might run
into...
Stamp looks around, Nyah's nowhere in sight. He's lost her. Sees
his hand's bleeding and lets Billy go, who nearly drops to the
floor.
STAMP
Where's the loo then?
BILLY
(pointing up)
- aggrhh-aggrhh-aggrhh...
Stamp heads up the men's room.
BILLY
(croaking it out)
...
Shakes his head, feeling lucky to escape with his life.
EXT - PADDOCK - BETTING TABLE TWELVE
Nyah into shot. Stands in line. She looks around.
ETHAN'S VOICE
How'd you do? Don't turn around.
Nyah turns and looks Ethan dead in the eye.
NYAH
I managed.
ETHAN
You noticed. What're you going to do?
Spank me?
She slips Ethan the envelope. Ethan himself returns the look,
holding it in spite of:
BILLY'S VOICE
Stamp's out of the loo.
Luther arrives, with the camera, opening for Ethan. Nyah turns
away. Ethan pulls out the tiny memory card, slips it in the
camera.
ETHAN (CONT'D)
(looking into camera)
This is going to take a couple of
minutes..
LUTHER
is racing back to the van.
LUTHER
There in twenty, Ethan..
NYAH AND ETHAN (IN LINE)
edge toward the window.
BILLY'S VOICE
Stamp's a little shaky, but headed your
way, mate.
ETHAN
Copy that.
(to Nyah)
Who do you like? In the race?
NYAH
(nervous, she's heard Billy
too)
What race are we talking about?
INT - VAN (DAY)
A sweaty Luther:
LUTHER
I'm booted up. Go, Ethan.
BILLY'S VOICE
He's heading down the stairs, now..
Ethan places the digital camera on play and begins to go thru the
stills. As they cliff off, Ethan is visibly affected.
LUTHER IN THE VAN
watches the stills as well. He's no less affected.
ETHAN WITH NYAH
He mutters some expletive under his breath, then, evenly:
ETHAN
I want you out of Ambrose's place.
BILLY'S VOICE
He's one tier from the bottom.
Ethan glances over to the bottom of the stairs.
NYAH
What are you talking about?
As he lowers camera and removes the memory card.
ETHAN
I want you out of there.
NYAH
Why? What's happened. What did you see?
BILLY
Thirty steps..
Slipping card back into envelope.
ETHAN
Nyah, you've done more than enough. Even
the best of snake charmers get bit.
NYAH
Ethan, tell me -
BILLY'S VOICE
Twenty, nineteen..
Ethan's been talking to someone he's been urging to walk, not run
to the nearest exit. Now he drops all pretence:
ETHAN
I want you out of Australia!
(more quickly)
..I don't know how much more plainly I can
put it.
NYAH
How do you suggest I go about it?
ETHAN
He's touched your heart. You're
overwhelmed. You need to think it over.
You'll meet him somewhere in a month. If
You're not out in 48 hours I'm coming in
and getting you out. Give me the ear
piece.
She just gets it out of her hear and gives it to Ethan when she
reaches the bookie who warns her to get down her bet. She gives
him her money and gets the tickets just as the buzzer goes off -
no more bets. Flustered by it she picks up her tickets but drops
the envelope. She quickly kneels and scrambles to recover it,
tucking it away and looking up - to see Stamp standing over her.
almost exactly where Ethan had stood when she looked away.
NYAH
tries not to register alarm while she gauges how much Stamp had
seen.
STAMP
Get your bet down?
NYAH
Just..
She rises. Stamp waits only a moment then follows.
AT THE PRIVATE BLEACHERS (DAY)
everyone's on their feet, the horses are in the backstretch.
Ambrose is watching the race through binoculars. Nyah comes up
behind and puts her arms around him. With her left hand she puts
the envelope into his right jacket pocket.
AMBROSE
Your nag is making a run for it on the
outside!
(lowering binoculars)
Bloody hell, Nyah!
She's momentarily startled. Then:
AMBROSE (CONT'D)
You picked another winner!
NYAH
Well, that's good, isn't?
A BLOW UP (INT. SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE - DAY)
of a shot from a digital camera card.
ETHAN'S VOICE
Dr. Segi Gradski, Nekhorvich's
colleague and lifelong friend..
The photos is coded with the data in the lower left hand corner,
01.27.99, the time in the right, 10:02:56 A.M. Burned into the
photo is '20 hours, 03 minutes after exposure.'
Ethan paunches in.
ETHAN'S VOICE (cont'd)
Twenty hours and three minutes after
exposure.
(sotto voce)
Twenty hours.
Ethan doesn't say anything for a moment, then goes on to the next
photo on the card: '25 hours, 40 minutes after exposure.' It's
Gradski again. Gradski's eyes are darkly circled, his skull look
mottled.
ETHAN
Six hours later.
Another photo: '31 hours, 30 minutes after exposure.' Gradski's
bleeding from nose, mouth and ears, the skin eruptions are
pervasive, his body an open wound.
ETHAN ( cont'd)
Six more hours.
The next photo. '34 hours, 25 minutes after exposure.' Gradski's
body at rest.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Three hours after that, Gradski was dead..
LUTHER
Here's a victim from the Bruny Island
outbreak.
The victim's face shows a devastation undeniably like Gradski's.
A long, long moment as Ethan, Luther, and Billy sit in silence.
BILLY
Oh, happy day.
Ethan looks again at the first photo of Gradski.
ETHAN
Nekhorvich said 'However we travel, I
must arrive at my destination within 20 hours
hours of departure.'
CLOSE - NYAH (EXT. AMBROSE VERANDA - LATE AFTERNOON)
Nyah is on the balcony. Ambrose enters with two glasses of
champagne.
AMBROSE
To Australia. It's made so many convicts
feel at home. Here's hoping it does the
same for you..
He laughs. She doesn't.
NYAH
Sean, there's something I've been meaning
to talk to you about... Isn't going to be
easy for me to say.
AMBROSE
(jocular)
Then don't say it.
NYAH
I don't know what to do about you, Sean.
I'm more than a bit muddled. I need time.
AMBROSE
To do what?
NYAH
Sort it all out.
AMBROSE
And you're going to have time. There's
been a change of plans.
NYAH
A change of plans?
AMBROSE
Yes. We won't be able to have dinner
tonight. Something's come up. I hope you
don't mind.
NYAH
Oh, no, not at all. Maybe just a bit.
AMBROSE
Ulrich will be about. He'll look after
you.
NYAH
Lovely.
INT - AMBROSE STUDY (LATE AFTERNOON)
Ambrose enters, slips off his jacket and hangs it over a chair.
He walks to a desk and brings up a computer the Biocyte website
and McCloy infomercial. Stamp notes that Ambrose is
on the computer and moves to the desk.
STAMP
I thought you were going to dinner.
AMBROSE
(pulling up something on the
computer)
Hugh, take care of the Nekhorvich memory
card.
STAMP
Where is it?
AMBROSE
In the envelope in my pocket. My
right.. jacket..pocket..
Stamp leans over and pulls out the envelope. As he does he sees
Ambrose has pulled up and started to play McCloy's informercial.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
(calmly)
We've got an opportunity here. I'm not
going to miss it..
CAMERA CARD PHOTOS (INT. SHEEP FARM - ETHAN & CREW)
a microscopic view of myriads of ugly green spiky objects amid
exploding red ones..
ETHAN
Chimera attacking human blood..
One more shot. A lavender stained group of spiky objects amid
exploding the green ones.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Bellerophon attacking Chimera..
On an adjacent screen is a frozen frame of McCloy looking thru
the digital camera at the racetrack.
BILLY
Ambrose obviously got these from
Nekhorvich on the plane.
LUTHER
What manic invents disease like that in
the first place? Why would he do it?
ETHAN
I don't know, but Nekhorvich was not a
manic. Get me a twenty on Nyah.
LUTHER
She must still be on the property.
ETHAN
I told her to get outta there.
EXT - LIMO (EVE)
McCloy gets in the rear of the limo and lights up a cigar. The
limo takes off. another car pulls out and tags along behind the
limo.
INT - OTHER CAR (MOVING)
Michael at the wheel.
INT - LIMO - MOVING (EVE)
McCloy doesn't like the taste of the cigar, goes to toss it out
but the electronic window button doesn't work. He notices the
evening paper partially open on the seat. His name leaps out. He
opens the paper
THE HEADLINES
announce that John C. McCloy, CEO of Biocyte, Inc., one of the
world's leading pharmaceutical companies, has died of a straight
and terrible strain of influenza
Shocked, McCloy drops the paper, calling out:
MCCLOY
George. George. George.
The drover doesn't turn around. McCloy can't believe it. He
bangs on chauffeur window. The driver turns on the air
conditioning in the rear of the limo. McCloy clutches his throat
and passes out.
MCCLOY (INT. ICU UNIT - NIGHT)
regains consciousness. He's got tubes coming out of every
orifice and is contained in the equivalent of a plastic bubble.
Drenched in perspiration and he looks around for a call button.
He grips the side of the bed.
MCCLOY
Bloody room..just..shut your eyes, shut
your eyes.
He can't resist. Opens them to look up thru the plastic to see:
NEKHORVICH
a shimmering blur coming in and out of focus.
MCCLOY (cont'd)
I'll be buggered!..What's this then?
NEKHORVICH
A visit from an old friend.
MCCLOY
What's happening here? You're dead!
NEKHORVICH
Fatigued, certainly. But dead is a little
extreme. On the other hand, when me dear
Gradski had your pulse and blood pressure
he has less than ten hours to live.
MCCLOY
(confused)
It was in the bloody papers, on the
telly..what's this about Gradski?
NEKHORVICH
You are infected with Chimera, my friend.
INT - AMBROSE BEDROOM (NIGHT) NYAH
is on the phone.
NYAH
International, please. I'd like to make a
reservation on the next available flight tonight.
OPERATOR
Where to?
NYAH
Where is next available flight going?
The operator answers.
NYAH
Fine. I'll take it.
She hangs up, goes to the door. The house is eerily silent.
POV - STAIRWELL (NIGHT)
a play of shadows, the sound of the kitchen fridge.
CLOSE - NYAH
Moves softly downstairs & hesitates at bottom, glancing about.
NYAH
Ulrich?..Ulrich!...
Silence. she goes into the kitchen. No one. She goes out the door.
OVER NYAH'S SHOULDER - MOVING (EXT. SYDNEY - NIGHT)
running pell-mell down to the shore. Stops. Looks outside the
small skiff moored at the end of the dock. It's dark and she
decides to chance it. She moves onto the pier, trying to glide
by the boathouse. A figure darts out and grabs her. She tries to
scream but can't. The figure whips her around and she sees:
ETHAN
Easy, easy, easy, shhh!
NYAH
Oh Ethan!..
She throws her arms around him.
ETHAN
Are you okay?
NYAH
I am now. Get me out of here. Just get
me out of here.
ETHAN
It's going to be okay.
He holds her.
INT - HOSPITAL ROOM
McCloy's strapped down, but manages to reach the call button and
push it. Again and again.
NEKHORVICH
No use, my friend. The medical staff
wants no part of this. Doctors don't
fancy the idea of dying any more than
anybody else.
McCloy stares at Nekhorvich for a long moment.
MCCLOY
How could I possibly be infected?
Nekhorvich shrugs.
NEKHORVICH
That's exactly what Gradski said - 27
hours before he died. With Chimera, the
most minute exposure can be fatal.
McCloy again looks at his vital sign on the monitor. He grips
the edge of the hospital bed.
NEKHORVICH
But then you shouldn't be feeling to ill.
not for another three of four hours
anyway.
McCloy breaks a fresh sweat in a sudden spasm of anxiety.
MCCLOY
You have Bellerophon.
NEKHORVICH
(mildly)
Do I?
MCCLOY
You took it! All of it! And what if I need
it?
NEKHORVICH
(amused)
'If?' My, my, my...the five hundred
people on Bruny Island that you
deliberately infected with Chimera needed
it as well.
MCCLOY
Oh, please! How was I to know they had to
be treated with Bellerophon within twenty
hours?
NEKHORVICH
By asking me.
MCCLOY
You still don't get it, do you? You want
to make an omelet, you break a few eggs -
I needed to know just how bad the disease
was - in the real world, not the lab. And
you never know til you try. You thought
you were genetically splicing together
strains of influenza to create a
cure for all influenzas. But I saw you
creating a disease so terrible in Chimera
that the cure would be priceless.
NEKHORVICH
You wanted the disease in order to peddle
the cure.
MCCLOY
Well, the thought had occurred to me. I needed
Chimera in order to peddle Bellerophon. For
hero to be appreciated, you need a monster.
Now that's not so difficult to understand, is
it? Look, time was a shot of penicillin could
knock off every bloody bug in the zoo! Not
anymore!..have you any idea the R&D money it
takes to float one little pissy boutique
antibiotic that's barely effective against one
strain of one bacterium? If I couldn't makes
money killing the microscopic little shits that
are out there, you'd help me put one out there
I can make on!..there it is. I've
confessed. I, John C. McCloy, am in business
to make money. Lilly's making billions feeding
Prozac to depressed dogs. Pfizer doesn't even
know where to put the money they're making on
Viagra, and let me tell you that shit didn't do
a thing for me even at twice the recommended
dose, Jesus, who do I have to screw to get a
a break!..now get me out of here, get me treated
and let's go back to work!..
NEKHORVICH
You know, I think it's a little late for
that. Do give my regards to Gradski if
you see him.
INT - HALLWAY (OUTSIDE MCCLOY'S ROOM)
Nekhorvich heaves a sigh and rips off a latex mask, and the vocal
oscillator, revealing an exhausted Ethan. Angle widens to
include Luther and Billy in hospital greens.
Luther and Billy nod in disgusted assent.
EXT - ANNEX (NIGHT) NYAH
holds tight in her embrace with Ethan.
NYAH
Ethan, you know what frightens me most
when I'm with him?..the thought of never
seeing you..how are we getting out of here?
ETHAN
Nyah, it's very important not do
anything to alarm Ambrose..
NYAH
What? You told me to get out of here. I
thought you were here to collect me. I
was so relieved.
ETHAN
(with growing urgency)
No time to explain. You've done well,
and we're so close. So close. It's
critical that you do whatever Ambrose
asks. Don't worry - it'll be over soon..
That's a promise.. Come on, now off you
go!
He gives her an affectionate smile and she reluctantly heads back
to the house, her expression troubled, even suspicious.
INT - HALLWAY (OUTSIDE MCCLOY'S ROOM)
Having just taken off the mask, Ethan stands with Luther and Billy.
LUTHER
(disgusted by what he's heard)
So Ambrose has Bellerophon and McCloy's
got Chimera.
BILLY
There guys are walking around with
different halves of the same dollar bill?
ETHAN
Ambrose got Bellerophon from Nekhorvich
on the plane, but he didn't get the Chimera
virus.
LUTHER
Yeah. Why else would he come back to
Australia? If he had them both, he could
sell them anywhere.
ETHAN
I kill Chimera at Biocyte and he's sitting
on a cure without a disease.
LUTHER
You've got the voice print, I'll get us in..
EXT - AMBROSE HOUSE (NIGHT)
Ethan enters and tears off his mask, revealing Ambrose filled
with implacable rage. He looks up to see Stamp who's been
obviously waiting for him. Tearing the voice oscillator.
Leaning with both hands on a counter-surveillance monitor table
he stares at the floor, his face rictus of hateful intensity.
STAMP
You were right. Hunt stung McCloy
tonight. He knows. They'll be going into
Biocyte...
Ambrose looks up slowly to Stamp who's been standing by.
AMBROSE
Good..then we go where he'll be, don't
we? Well done, Hugh. Well done.
CHAUFFEUR'S WINDOW (INT. LIMO - EVE)
being rapped on by the driver.
MCCLOY
wakes with a start. The window's lowered -- Billy's in livery.
BILLY
You're home, guv'ner. Home..
It's taking time to register. Then:
MCCLOY
- where's George. My regular driver.
Where is he?
BILLY
Took ill, guv'. Touch of the flu. They
say it's going around. Nasty business.
Mind you don't catch a chill now.
Still dazed, McCloy manages to nod and exit the limo. Billy
drives off.
CLOSE - COMPUTER SCREEN - BIOCYTE BUILDING BLUEPRINTS
(INT. SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE)
including all specifications.
ETHAN
Luther, do you have the building up and
running?
Luther punches in and up comes a squat little island a hundred
yards off shore, connected to the mainland by a wooden bridge.
ETHAN (cont'd)
That's not exactly it.
LUTHER
Sorry, that it a Biocyte facility, their
storage structure..
ETHAN
Nyah still on the property?
BILLY
She hasn't left it.
Then:
LUTHER
Okay, here you go -
As Luther speaks, the building - on his computer graphics, one
with the BIOCYTE PHARMACEUTICALS ELEVATORS AND RENDERINGS, is
being rapidly morphed to three dimension existence off the
rendering specifications by Luther, as if the building itself
were being constructed at a madly rapid pace, from its foundation
to its reinforced steel structure, to its honeycombing of floors,
to its outer skin. Luther's reconstitution of the building lot
static, but moving around and above it even as he proceeds.
ETHAN
Let's start from the inside out.
LUTHER
All storage and production of Chimera is
done here, in this lab on the forty-second
floor, the heart of the building.
BIOCYTE LAB
Only about eight personnel -- chemists in lab coats, workers in
bio-containment suits, etc. -- populate the lab, passing through
security door and air locks, monitoring the virus stock, pading
the injection gun, etc.
LUTHER'S VOICE
Chimera itself is kept in two places: in
production vials in an incubation room and
housed in a small airtight chamber - inside
three injection guns.
BILLY'S VOICE
Mate, you kill it in both places, we're
laughin' and we go home.
WITH LUTHER AND ETHAN
ETHAN
Now how to get in there.
LUTHER
No garage entrance. Lobby's protected by
five guards on rotating patrol.
Ethan watches the rendition of the Biocyte lobby on screen
CLOSE - AMBROSE (NIGHT)
in overhead light, his eyes are dark pits, somehow underlying her
saturnine intensity:
AMBROSE
If you look at Hunt's operational history, he
invariably favors misdirection and deception.
For a start he won't go into Biocyte from the
ground where he has to risk confrontation
with security.
ETHAN
Not going in from the ground. Show me the
atrium.
INT - BIOCYTE ATRIUM SHAFT
The height and extent of the atrium are revealed, as well as its
conclusion in a glass floor in the ceiling of the lab.
LUTHER'S VOICE
(unhappily)
The atrium? One of a kind. Runs down the
center of the building. Provides 24-hour
natural light via mirrors and daylight
storage cells. Optimal growing conditions
for the virus. Ends in a glass floor which
doubles as part of the lab's ceiling.
WITH LUTHER AND ETHAN
Luther sees the glint growing in Ethan's eye.
LUTHER
Hey, atrium roof closes at sundown.
EXT - BIOCYTE ATRIUM SHAFT
As the sun sets, the louvers of the atrium roof begin closing.
LUTHER'S VOICE
And if the louvers are open for more than
thirty seconds at night, the Civil
Emergency alarms are tipped. Those even I
can't stop. Thirty seconds total to get
you in and the cable out.
ETHAN
Security?
LUTHER
Thirty-second opening in the roof and a
250-foot drop.
ETHAN
I'm not waiting 48 hours. When we're done
at Biocyte, if she's not out of Ambrose's,
I'm going in and getting her out.
CLOSE - AMBROSE (NIGHT)
AMBROSE
No, Hunt will prefer to engage in some
sort of acrobatic insanity to enter
Biocyte somewhere through the atrium where
security is minimal..
Suddenly there's the roar of helicopter rotors.
ETHAN (EXT. SYDNEY - NIGHT)
is poised, upside down, on cable against the Sydney skyline.
THE ATRIUM LOUVERS
begin to open.
WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN)
hurriedly working the atrium's controls, hitting 'ENTER',
repeatedly.
INT - COPTER (HOVERING)
BILLY
Package away in five..four..three..
two..one...
LUTHER
I'm not ready!
ETHAN
I'm gone..
Ethan plummets towards the atrium.
WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN - NIGHT)
LUTHER
(frantically working controls)
C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!
ETHAN'S DESCENT
is so swift it appears as though he's going to hit the atrium
louvers but as he reaches roof level they crack open just enough
for him to dart thru like thread thru a needle
Luther begins the countdown. His countdown continues, running
under the action and dialogue below.
LUTHER'S VOICE
..nineteen..eighteen..seventeen...
ETHAN IN MID-DESCENT (MOVING)
moves down the shaft of bluish light, past the building's walls.
LUTHER'S VOICE
(low)
..sixteen..fifteen..
Ethan streaks thru the beams of light toward the atrium floor.
INT - ATRIUM FLOOR - ETHAN
reaches the end of the cord, slows himself to a stop and sees
the security guard through the window. The guard starts as he
catches a glimpse of Ethan's reflection in the control panels.
ETHAN
Luther, I'm looking at security.
CLOSE - LUTHER
LUTHER
(utterly shocked)
Oh. Uh. Commencing diversion.
(sotto voce, typing swiftly)
Alarm in cosmetics.
INT - ATRIUM FLOOR
Ethan swings himself up to the ledge above the guard's window,
putting himself out of the puzzled guard's sight.
LUTHER'S VOICE
Gotta get that cable out.
Ethan unhooks the cord and flips to the atrium floor. An alarm
goes off.
LUTHER'S VOICE (cont'd)
There it goes..
Still confused and concerned, the guard doesn't immediately react
to the alarm or the ringing phone. He finally answers the phone.
GUARD #2'S VOICE
(on phone)
AY! what's the matter with you? Can't you
hear the alarm's gone off in cosmetics?
The first guard gives up what's confused him.
GUARD
(sarcastic)
Right. Then I guess I'll have to trot off
to see who's pinching eyeliner, won't I.
(exits, grumbling)
I'll even check the stairwell on the way.
UP ANGLE - CABLE
being swiftly retracted toward the atrium's opening as it closes.
BILLY
Retracting cable.
LUTHER'S VOICE
(low)
Three..two..one..
UP ANGLE - ATRIUM
The cable just makes it thru the atrium as the louvers close.
BILLY'S VOICE
Cable's clear.
INT - ATRIUM FLOOR - ETHAN
reaches down and presses a silent beeper.
WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN)
sees a little red diamond-shaped light pop on his screen
LUTHER
Transponder activated..Reading package and
Cable is clean.
(exhaling, relieved)
He's on his way.
Staring at the buildings control panels.
ETHAN (INT. ATRIUM)
hugs the floor just out of sight of the befuddled security guard.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
He'll make the attempt at the only possible time
for both of us, 11 P.M. - when the guards rotate
and the buildings air-filtration generators go
active, covering the sound of his break-in..
WITH LUTHER
LUTHER
Ethan, the generators are about to go active.
We'll be out of contact for eleven minutes.
CLOSE - GENERATORS
dark and silent.
GENERATORS
turn over and roar to life.
ETHAN AT BOTTOM OF ATRIUM
cuts into the glass floor, pops it out, and drops thru the
opening. None of it's heard under the generators..
Ethan drops onto the lab floor and heads across the lab and up
the ramp to the hot zone.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
The frequency of the generators operate to
our advantage - cutting radio
communication from his team for the next
eleven minutes..
INT - BIOCYTE LOBBY (NIGHT)
Stamp, flanked by several of his team in Biocyte security guard
uniform, crosses the lobby toward a pair of actual Biocyte
security guards who appear more puzzled than alarmed at this
unexpected influx.
ONE OF THE GUARDS
What's this, then? Reinforcements?
STAMP
Not exactly, mate.
WITH LUTHER (INT. CONSTRUCTION VAN - NIGHT)
His attention in drawn to a spot on the grid where Nyah's
transponder blip, a circular yellow one in contrast to Ethan's,
is moving. Troubled:
LUTHER
Billy. I think we got a problem. Nyah's
on the wing. Up early. Billy, do you
copy?
INT - CHOPPER
BILLY
Exactly where is she?
LUTHER
..in the building...
BILLY'S VOICE
Say again. Sounds like you're saying
'she's in the building.'
LUTHER
I am. She is.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
Ethan does it the hard way to avoid
confrontation. Neutralizing security
guards is simply too distasteful to him..
INT - BIOCYTE LOBBY
The two guards who had greeted Stamp and his arriving team lie
inert on the lobby floor.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
I've never found that a problem...
WITH BILLY (INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT)
Billy's so surprised he momentarily gets loose with the copter
and it banks off. As it and he recover:
BILLY
Right. Well, then. She's not likely to
be alone. is she?
LUTHER'S VOICE
The question Is 'how many of 'em?' I
can't get thru to Ethan. Not 'til the
generators go off.
BILLY
When's that?
LUTHER'S VOICE
Not for another eight and a half minutes.
WITH LUTHER
staring at the red and yellow blips in vertical alignment, the
Yellow one, Nyah, considerably below the red one, Ethan.
INT - HOT ZONE ENTRANCE (NIGHT)
The door reads. DANGER: LIVE VIRUS: INCUBATION ZONE. EXPOSURE IS
FATAL. Ethan pulls on a protective mask from his pack and puts a
miniaturized recorder up to the voice print activator:
MCCLOY'S VOICE
John C. McCloy..
Ethan's buzzed into the hot zone. He steps into the air locks.
INT - SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE
A small bomb is placed by the dark gloves of someone unseen.
EXT - CONSTRUCTION VAN - NIGHT
a shadow falls across the dirt in front of the bumper.
A SMALL OBJECT
with a digital clock face, its red LED illuminating descending
numbers, is carefully placed inside the bumper. The magnet on it
doesn't quite catch. It's then placed more carefully.
INT - CONSTRUCTION VAN
Luther doesn't pick up on the faint metallic sound just outside.
He's concentrating on the flashes on the screen showing the
transponder rising in the building. Increasingly desperate:
LUTHER
It looks like Nyah's headed toward an
elevator.
ETHAN
working meticulously an a computer monitor.
DOWN ANGLE - ELEVATOR DOORS
and a security guard's body lying in the corridor. A pair of
trousered legs step over the body and into the elevator joining
Nyah's legs and feet, and other pairs of trousered legs. The
elevator doors close.
AMBROSE'S VOICE
If Hunt actually manages to squeak thru
the atrium he's liable to make it to
Chimera before we will..
CLOSE LUTHER
On his computer screen the yellow dot continues its ascent, the
two dots growing ever closer.
LUTHER
She's in the elevator heading toward Ethan.
BILLY'S VOICE
How much longer before you can reach him?
LUTHER
Five and a half minutes.
(looking at his chronometer)
He's breached the hot zone..
AMBROSE'S VOICE
On the other hand we know where Hunt will
be and he doesn't know we're coming..
INT - INCUBATION ZONE
In front of each of three large television monitors is a vial
shaped roughly like a sealed beaker somewhere between one and two
liters in size. Each one is contained behind Plexiglas and each
one pale yellow, one sunset red. Behind them are monitors marked,
respectively: WORKING SEED STOCK, MASTER SEED STOCK, IN VITRO
VIRUS. Behind these is a monitor screen with a blow-up of the
contents of the vials & the magnitude of the blow-up - 950,000x.
These are X-Ray microscope blow-ups, i.e., allowing the viewer to
see the motility of the virus and its metabolism, not dissimilar
to an MRI this of Chimera in its three different cultures..
Ethan's on the computer controls, racing thru to WORKING SEED
STOCK, which calls for optimal levels of 6.9 pH and 11
degrees Celsius. He drops the pH to zero and punches up the
temperature to a hundred. The effect on the greenish hue in
the bottle is subtle but immediate - not so subtle is the
effect on the virus seeds viewed microscopically - they
immediately appear agitated, their microscopic DNA innards
contracting and expanding.
Ethan moves on to the Master Seed Stock and the In Vitro Virus
panels on the computer. The changes he makes are reflected on
the digital monitoring panels before each viral container.
THE WORKING SEED
vial has begun to change colors from sea green to a paler pea-
green. The liquid itself begins to thicken:
COMPUTER VOICE
(female)
Alert. Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-and-
temperature-level-outside-optimal range.
As the liquid grows more viscous the X-Ray have a progressively
more difficult time penetrating the individual cells, resulting
in a low humming sound which grows as the liquid gels.
ETHAN
at the control panels for maintaining the virus.
ANOTHER COMPUTER VOICE
Alert. Chimera-master-seed-stock-pH-and-
temperature-level-outside-optimal range.
FIRST COMPUTER VOICE
Alert. Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-at-
unacceptable-level..
THIRD COMPUTER VOICE
Alert. Chimera-in-vitro-pH-and-
temperature-level-outside-optimal range..
FIRST COMPUTER VOICE
Alert. Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-at-
critical-level. Alert. Stock-life
threatened. Alert.
The X-Ray microscope shows the individual seed-cells sticking
together, some exploding, then all movement ceasing. The Liquid
itself is suddenly shod thru fluorescent sparks before it
congeals to an opaque mush.
FIRST COMPUTER VOICE (cont'd)
Alert. Chimera stock life..terminated..
Simultaneously with the seed stock, Ethan's damaging both the
working seed in-vitro virus.
WIDE ANGLE - HOT ZONE
Ethan places a little plastique on a timer and runs up a ramp to
the decontaminant air lock at the back entrance to the hot zone.
BILLY'S VOICE
How're we doin', then?
LUTHER
He should've have killed the virus in the
incubation area..Nyah's exited the
elevator on the same level as the lab.
BILLY'S VOICE
What can we do' mate?
LUTHER
(staring at them)
Hope he kills all the bugs before the
yellow dot gets to the red one.
CLOSE - LUTHER'S SCREEN
The read and yellow blips are now on the same plane. The yellow
dot moves toward the red one as if drawn by a slow motion magnet.
DOWN ANGLE - ETHAN
looking up as his entire body is hit with air like he's a wind
tunnel. When the air flow ceases, a green light goes on.
COMPUTER VOICE
Subject is contaminate free. Zero contaminate
factor. Subject contaminate free.
ETHAN - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM
heads up a ramp to the three injection guns. Hands in gloves he
reaches into the chamber for one of the injection guns.
LUTHER'S VOICE
He's still got three injection guns in the
test lab..They're loaded with doses of
Chimera which he'll destroy by firing
into a hyper-thermal chamber.
He places the barrel of the gun, seals the chamber, and fires.
There's a tiny flash of light. Ethan withdraws the gun.
INT - CONSTRUCTION VAN
Luther's sweating it as the clock counts down: :30, :29, :28..
LUTHER
- twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five,
come on, Ethan we're almost there! I-I'm
off sensitive for this..
In a spasm of anxiety Luther bolts to his feet, wipes his brow.
LUTHER (cont'd)
- eighteen seconds, the generators'll be
off and Ethan's back on line..
Luther glances thru the van window only to see reflected in the
van side mirror:
MIRROR REFLECTION - CHROME BUMPER (EXT. CONSTRUCTION VAN)
reflected in it is the face of a digital clock, its red LED
illuminating the clock's numbers fourteen - thirteen - twelve -
WITH LUTHER
LUTHER
(realizing what he's in for)
Oh - oh - oh -
Even as he moans he's frantically ripping out the computer and
cords dangling, hotfoots toward the van exit.
INT - HOT ZONE - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM
Ethan fires the second injection gun. Picks up the third and
last. He pauses as he's about to fire it, staring intently
suddenly the gun is held by:
NEKHORVICH
who turns the barrel from the hyper-thermal chamber and releases
into his wrist.
BACK TO ETHAN - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM
whose vision of of Nekhorvich fades. Still thinking of Nekhorvich he
continues to stare at the gun for another moment and before he can fire:
INT - SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE
The bomb's LED readout shows 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. As it reaches 0
a small light on the bomb suddenly stops its incessant blinking.
EXT - VAN
explodes. Saw horses and dirt fly.
INT - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM - ETHAN
looks up just in time to see Ambrose and team arrive at the far
end of the lab. They immediately open fire, shattering the
room's walls and the glass injection gun chamber. As the
injection gun begins falling to the lab floor below, one of
Ambrose's team runs to grab it, but before he can reach it he is
shot by Ethan, who's falling to the floor below.
AMBROSE
(to Ulrich)
Get it.
As Ethan hits and dives for cover, Ulrich goes for the gun
Ethan shoots Ulrich in the leg. Ulrich hops back in pain.
AMBROSE
Those were two explosions, your van and
your safehouse, in case you didn't hear
them both -- I believe that means you've
also lost a friend.
Ethan's crouching on the ground protected behind a series of
vertical metal sheets.
ETHAN
And you couldn't walk to tell me about it.
Ethan moves to pick up the injection gun which lies in the
shattered glass on the floor. Ambrose, Wallis, and a couple of
other Ambrose team members fire, kicking up broken glass. Ethan
backs off.
AMBROSE
(yelling)
Hold your fire, dammit!
The two spot one another in a mirror on the far wall of the hot
zone..
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Well, Hunt. How've you been?
ETHAN
(smiling)
Fight a bit of a cold..
AMBROSE
And you're happy about that?
ETHAN
Beats fighting the flu, I'm here to tell
you.
AMBROSE
You know, that was the hardest part of
having to portray you. Grinning like an
idiot every fifteen minutes.
ETHAN
I would've thought the hardest part was
exercising restraint. Curbing that
pressing need of your to get your gun
off. You were in such a hurry to knock
off that 747, you never figured out where
the virus really was.
AMBROSE
I knew where it was.
ETHAN
Oh. then you knew the only way
could smuggle the live virus to the CDC
scientists in Atlanta was by injecting
himself and using his own bloodstream as a
Petri dish, doing it inside of twenty
hours so he could take the anti-virus and
still have it be effective. You knew that
while you were knocking him off and
destroying the very thing you came for.
Ethan has been using this exchange to ease a fresh seventeen
round clip into his weapon and he punctuates this last with a
spray of gunfire, attempting to cover his own effort to the reach
the injection gun. The return fire nearly hits the injection
gun, kicking up glass and dust and making it move around on the
floor.
AMBROSE
Stop! Put a sock in it! Hit that bloody
gun and you'll spray the bloody virus all
over the place!
Everybody's regained cover but the injection gun remains out of
everybody's reach.
ETHAN
There it is, guys, the last of it.
AMBROSE
Yep. You've provided us with a golden
opportunity to have both the bug and the
bug killer.
ETHAN
What was the top bid?
AMBROSE
Why, you going to make me a better offer?
ETHAN
Than thirty-seven million pounds? Not
really.
AMBROSE
(not amused)
Somebody's been slipping you our mail.
Come on out here, you bad girl.
Nyah walks out into view on her own. Ethan sees her reflection in
the mirror. Enraged, but trying to control it.
ETHAN
She doesn't belong here, Sean. Let her go.
AMBROSE
She wouldn't be here if it wasn't for
you, Hunt. from this moment you're
responsible for what happens to her, and
if you're looking out for her well-being,
I suggest you advise her to pick up the
gun and bring it to me. Ball's in your
court, Hunt. What've you got to say?
Nyah's waiting for your answer.
A pregnant pause.
LUTHER'S VOICE
(breaking through the static)
Ethan, Nyah's in the building! Do you
copy?
WITH LUTHER (EXT. BIOCYTE)
a mess amid the rubble of the construction van.
ETHAN
ETHAN
(dryly)
Thank you.
ETHAN (cont'd)
Sure he won't shoot you the minute he's
got it?
AMBROSE
Oh, Hunt, please! One can't hold Nyah
responsible for her actions..
ETHAN
In other words, you're calling her a
flake.
CLOSE - NYAH
listening.
AMBROSE
You know women, mate. Like monkeys, they
are. Won't let go of one branch til
they've got a grip on the next...get it,
Nyah. I'll cover you.
Ambrose cocks his weapon.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
I'm waiting.
NYAH
(not much more than body
length from Ethan)
This isn't exactly working out the way you
thought it would, Ethan. Sorry.
Finger on the injection trigger, she rises and turns the barrel
on her arm, firing. The sound of the air pressure pushing the
virus into her is unmistakable, as is the circle of tiny puncture
wounds on her skin. Nyah moves in front of Ethan, covering him,
as she turns to face Ambrose.
ETHAN
shocked by Nyah's gesture but as she addresses Ambrose he
resets the 'Countdown' on his chronometer to twenty hours. As
it drops into the nineteen:
AMBROSE
(frustrated in the extreme)
You..bitch!
She's been laughing away with Ethan:
NYAH
You're not going to shoot, Sean. Not
this bitch. She's worth thirty-seven
million pounds.
CLOSE - ETHAN'S HANDS
fingers press a red button on a tiny detonator. There's a bright
heat flash from the hot zone and an explosion of gas and water --
the plastique killing any airborne virus.
Ethan uses the diversion to grab Nyah and run with her to the far
side of the lab, behind a stock of horizontal cylinders.
INT - LAB
Ambrose and team recover from the explosion and begin firing on
the tanks protecting Ethan and Nyah, surrounding the two with
fire and jets of released steam.
INT - LAB - ETHAN AND NYAH
behind the stack of tanks. Ethan launches an explosive down a
short hallway, blowing a hole in the building's exterior wall.
INT - ENTRANCES TO THE LAB
A group of Biocyte security guards enter from behind Ambrose and
team and catch them off-guard. All hell breaks loose.
INT - LAB - ETHAN AND NYAH
ETHAN
(outraged)
What did you think you were doing!
NYAH
I wasn't thinking! Just..trying to keep
you from getting hurt, that's all.
This hits Ethan with the force of a blow.
ETHAN
- you who don't have a conscience.
NYAH
(something of surprise to
her)
I guess I lied..You can't get both of us
out of here, can you?
ETHAN
No.
NYAH
Then you'll have to kill me before it's
too late. Before I start killing people.
ETHAN
No.
NYAH
I'm infected with Chimera. You know you
don't have a choice. Just do it now.
She puts Ethan's gun to her forehead.
NYAH (cont'd)
For god's sake, get it over with.
THE HAMMER
pulls back.
CLOSE - ETHAN
He can't fire, lower the hammer.
ETHAN
We've got 19 hours and 57 minutes before
you start killing anybody. I'll get
Bellerophon into your system by then.
Just stay alive. I'm not gonna lose you.
Ethan runs from the cover of the tanks toward the exploded wall
once in the open, he exchanges direct gunfire with Ambrose's
team, wounding a couple men. He reaches the wall and dives thru,
camera with him as he drops 25 stories, the sound of gunfire in
the air all around him.
Less than a hundred feet from the ground a small dark chute
deploys and Ethan is lost from view beneath it.
PANNING SHOT - PAINTINGS (INT. CULTURAL ARTIFACT CENTER)
of Aborigine paintings, eerie patterns made of man and nature
phantasmagorical, like the patterns that form under the eyelids
shortly before sleep. B.G. the haunting notes of didgeridoo
insure they're not being overheard.
SWANBECK
(reading the paintings titles)
'Dreaming of Birds and Flying Fox,'
'Bushfire Dreaming,' 'Wind Dreaming,' --
oddly appropriate -
Swanbeck breaks off and turns to a somewhat battered and battle
weary Ethan:
SWANBECK (cont'd)
- since it appears that Chimera, the
mother of all nightmares is on the loose
somewhere around here - is there any way
this disaster can be viewed as a qualified
one?
ETHAN
(tight-lipped)
Not yet. We did manage to pull any
sensitive equipment and material out of
our safehouse wreckage.
SWANBECK
We could lock down passport control and
all ports of authority, but that won't
stop Ambrose, and beyond him, we don't
know who else we're looking for -- all
terrorist bank accounts of which we're
aware are stable. No deposits, no
withdrawals. Therefore no suspects.
ETHAN
We think we've got our finger on the
buyer.
SWANBECK
Do you? Even assuming you're able to
prevent Ambrose selling Chimera, you've
now got an additional problem. You
destroyed all of Chimera at Biocyte. If
Ambrose is going to sell Chimera now,
he'll have to do it by taking a pint or so
of Miss Hall's blood to market.
ETHAN
Yes, I believe that's right.
SWANBECK
But that leaves another seven or eight
pints of Chimera.
ETHAN
You mean that leaves Miss Hall.
SWANBECK
Yes, I believe that's right. Now my
understanding is that 20 hours after
exposure, the victim becomes infectious.
Highly infectious.
Ethan glances at his chronometer. Swanbeck sees it.
SWANBECK (CONT'D)
You noted the time of exposure?
Ethan nods.
SWANBECK (CONT'D)
- good. Then if you manage to get hold of
Ambrose, and obtain what he's got, you've
got -
(glancing at the chronometer)
- 8 hours 57 minutes and twenty-three
seconds to destroy the largest remaining
source of Chimera on earth.
ETHAN
She sacrificed herself..
SWANBECK
Brave girl. If you can get hold of
Bellerophon with the time limit, you may
spare her the ultimate sacrifice. But in
either case you've got less than nine
hours to kill her or cure her. After that
it's out of our hands and a matter of
worldwide material law. And Hunt. However
you obtain it, we want you to preserve a
sample of Chimera. Bring it back alive.
Ethan's staring at Swanbeck.
SWANBECK (CONT'D)
Something else?
ETHAN
Aren't you even curious? About why she
did it?
SWANBECK
No. I can't afford to be curious. And
neither can you, Hunt..
As the eerie wail of the didgeridoo seems to mount in volume and
intensity, the overcast sky filtering into the loft seems
particularly oppressive. Ethan's up against it and he knows it.
A VIEW OF SYDNEY
from harbors to skyline in all its sunlight splendor.
Nyah sits for a moment, looking steadily at Ambrose. Ambrose pats
the cannister he's carrying.
AMBROSE
Feel like pleading for your life?
NYAH
(with an edge)
Not as much as you feel like hearing it.
Ambrose slaps her. With scarcely a flicker of hesitation she
slaps him back.
AMBROSE
God damn it, Nyah! Why did you do it? Why
did you save that bastard?
NYAH
If it'll make you feel any better I won't
do it again.
It doesn't. Full of pain and rage, he gets out of the car.
AMBROSE
If it'll make you feel any better, you're
going to take a lot of Aussies with you
and make me a lot of money.
NYAH
What are you talking about?
AMBROSE
In just a few hours you can be assured of
going down in history as the typhoid Mary
of Oz. G'day.
A nameless guard from Michael's car idling nearby gets into the
back seat with Nyah. Ambrose shuts the car door in Nyah's face,
gets in Michael's car takes off.
EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - BLUFF
ETHAN
Luther?..Luther.
Luther drops a tiny part into his computer board and, as he tries
to fish it out with the aid of a magnifying glass:
LUTHER
Ethan, I keep telling you there's not a
chance of locating Nyah til I access the
satellite and there's not a chance of
doing that til I get this thing booted up
and running! How much time does she have left?
ETHAN
Ninety-seven minutes, twenty-seven
seconds.
BILLY
Before we kill her or cure her..
LUTHER
Right.
ETHAN
Wrong. All we've got to worry about is
Ambrose. Nyah will take care of Nyah.
BILLY
What are you talking about?
ETHAN
Unless we dose her with Bellerophon on the
next ninety-seven minutes, Nyah will kill
herself. So, first things, first.
Swanbeck said there's no cash movement
from any monitored terrorist accounts.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND CAR PARK
McCloy's black limousine is in the car park.
ETHAN'S VOICE
Confirms what Ambrose is gonna do -
INT - TUNNEL - BEAR ISLAND
Barrels of toxic materials line the walls, as an armed guard
patrols the corridor, leading into the main chamber, where we
follow McCloy into
INT - SLABHOUSE
McCloy enters and begins pacing.
ETHAN'S VOICE (CONT'D)
- who he's doing it with, and where he's
gonna do it.
EXT - MOTORCYCLE AND LINE OF VEHICLES (DAY)
speed along an isolated road in close formation before turning
onto a side road, revealed as leading to a bridge across a small
strip of water to a small island.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND - LANDWARD SIDE (DAY)
As the cycles and vehicles cross the bridge and approach the
front gate, the camera swings around the side of the island
establishing the geography and the six cannon emplacements
before coming to a stop on
EXT - BEAR ISLAND - SEAWARD CLIFF - ETHAN
scaling the seaward side of the island with minimal gear
EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - BLUFF
resting like a giant locust, half hidden by a cluster of trees on
the bluff overlooking Bear Island.
Billy's at the controls, with binoculars, maintaining
surveillance of the island and environs.
In the back, Luther is at Work on his GPS computer.
BILLY'S VOICE
Ethan's out from under the bridge and on
the south-east face..
EXT - CLIFF/VIEW OF TUNNEL
Ethan climbs the side of the cliff.
BILLY'S VOICE
Ethan, Ambrose and his tem have
over the bridge -
ETHAN
Copy that.
Ethan reaches the clifftop and sees armed guards patrolling.
BILLY'S VOICE
You all right, mate? From here it looks
like very security. What's it look like
like from there?
ETHAN
Risky.
He's over the top and moves swiftly to cover.
Ethan surprises and kills a perimeter guard, then runs to a
length of grating and lifts one of the panels.
Ethan climbs down through the grating in the roof of the tunnel.
Using a bar to swing down, he breaks a second guard's neck and
drops to the floor.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND - ENTRANCE (DAY)
Ambrose and team drive through the entry gate -- passing its
BIOCYTE PHARMACEUTICALS sign and various no-nonsense warnings of
'No Trespassing,' etc. -- before Biocyte security guards close it
behind them.
INT - TUNNEL - NEAR THE GRATING
ETHAN
Breached the structure at the ten o'clock
grating. In the tunnel moving toward the
target.
Ethan begins heading down the tunnel.
INT - SLABHOUSE BUILDING
Ambrose and team enter, where McCloy and his CHEMIST and
ACCOUNTANT are waiting. As Stamp stands back, observing, and
Wallis sets up a laptop, Ambrose walks up to a refectory-like
table and stands opposite McCloy. Ambrose reaches into his coat
and puts two cannisters on the table in front of McCloy. McCloy's
chemist picks up the cannisters and inserts them into two
chambers connected to his microscope.
CHEMIST
It's a DNA match. The blood's loaded with
Chimera.
An insert of the microscope plate shows the two samples, as
Bellerophen destroys Chimera.
The chemist presses a button on the chamber and there's a heat
flash. The chamber red light moves to green, and there's a
mechanical voice: 'Substance destroyed.'
CHEMIST (cont'd)
And they certainly have Bellerophen.
The Kev cannister is out on the table.
MCCLOY
Well, then. You've got both the virus and
the anti-virus, Chimera and Bellerophen.
Which means I've thirty million for
you
Ambrose doesn't respond.
MCCLOY (cont'd)
That's all the cash I can come up with
AMBROSE
Not exactly. Wallis?
WALLIS
(off Biocyte figures on laptop)
More like two-two point two million.
AMBROSE
In any case we don't want your cash.
MCCLOY
Then what do you want?
Ambrose picks up a mobile phone and dials.
AMBROSE
Stock, Mr. McCloy. Stock options, to be a
little more precise..
(into the phone)
- cut her loose..right in the center of
town..the more crowded the better..
(punching off, to McCloy)
How quickly can you manufacture more of
the antivirus.
INT - TUNNEL - CAVITY IN THE WALL
As he moves along the tunnel, Ethan suddenly flattens himself
against a wall as he receives a transmission from Luther.
LUTHER'S VOICE
Ethan, just picked up an Ambrose call -
Nyah's been dropped off. I think she's
alive.
ETHAN
Where is she?
EXT - HELICOPTER - BLUFF
LUTHER
Somewhere in Sydney.
INT - TUNNEL - CAVITY IN THE WALL
Ethan hears something and ducks into a nearby cavity in the
tunnel wall. As a guard approaches, Ethan steps out of the
cavity and knocks the guard out, then throws him into the
opposite wall.
LUTHER'S VOICE
Ethan? Do you copy?
ETHAN'S VOICE
'Somewhere in Sydney?' Care to harden the
target?
LUTHER'S VOICE
Can't. Until I can get the GPS up on our
computer..it's still down..
ETHAN
The clock is ticking..
Back to the matter at hand, Ethan completes the move on the
guard and knocks him out.
INT - SLABHOUSE
MCCLOY
Bellerophen? No time at all once I've got it.
AMBROSE
Good. Biocyte stock is just a week or two
away from going through the roof.
MCCLOY
(alarmed)
What are you talking about?
AMBROSE
An outbreak of Chimera.
MCCLOY
Where?
AMBROSE
In downtown Sydney for a start.
McCloy is stunned.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
You create the supply, Mr. McCloy, we've
just created the demand. Three million
people in Sydney and 17 million people in
Australia are going to need Bellerophen
within a matter of days..not to mention
the rest of the world..
INT - TUNNEL - OPEN AREA - ETHAN'S FEET
stealthily approach a couple dozen jittery pigeons, cooing
and pecking. The intensity of their noise-making increases
as Ethan reaches them.
INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE OF THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS
Hearing the disruption of the pigeons, one of Ambrose's
guards leaves his post at the double doors and head the
tunnel toward the birds to investigate.
INT - TUNNEL - OPEN AREA
Ambrose's guard draws his gun and continues approaching the
pigeons. Before the guard can see him, Ethan runs forward, and
sends the pigeons into scattered flight, blinding the guard.
Ethan jumps into a back flip and double kicks -- first knocking
away the guard's gun and then knocking him out and flat on his
back. Ethan continues his flip and lands right back on his feet.
INT - SLABHOUSE
AMBROSE
-- now here's the way it's going to
work..Wallis, the shares outstanding are..
WALLIS
Ninety-three point four million.
AMBROSE
Which means, Mr. McCloy, we have to get
our hands on four hundred and eighty
thousand options. We'll borrow your
thirty million to buy those options. Your
stock's never sold above thirty-one
dollars a share. We'll agree to buy at
fifty.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
When your stock goes north of two hundred,
and it will, those options will be worth
billions. We can borrow whatever we need
to buy the 48,000,000 shares, fifty-one
percent of Biocyte.
MCCLOY
Outrageous. I won't let you take control
of my company.
AMBROSE
Sit down. You'll be a billionaire. Better
than being broke. I've got terrorists and
other pharmaceutical companies standing in
line. Ball's in your court, Mr. McCloy.
INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS
Ethan pulls a can of explosive material form his pack. He
rolls it towards the double doors, and it stops just before
reaching them. Then, pointing his gun to the ceiling, he
fires into the air.
INT - SLABHOUSE ROOM - AMBROSE
hears a noise and looks to Stamp, who heard it as well.
Stamp nods to two guards to check it out. They head across
the room to the double doors.
INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS - ETHAN
waits for the right moment before raising his and firing
at the can of explosives. Just as it ignites, the guards
open the doors and are blown back by force of the explosion.
INT - SLABHOUSE ROOM - AMBROSE
reacts and turns toward the explosion. Amidst the flames and
debris, a single white dove comes flying into the room. And
beyond it, Ambrose can see Ethan Hunt in silhouette walking
slowly past the doorway.
AMBROSE
Run that bastard down.
Orders are shouted, and guards, along with Stamp, hotfoot it down
the tunnel-corridor in the direction of the explosion.
INT - TUNNEL - STAMP AND GUARDS
run down the tunnel. The guards move commando-style, directed
by Stamp's hand signals.
INT - SLABHOUSE - MCCLOY AND AMBROSE
Ambrose loads his gun and drags the tip of the barrel along the
table.
AMBROSE
We're running short on time, Mr. McCloy.
We've got to conclude our business.
McCloy pauses only a moment before nodding to his accountant.
MCCLOY
Yes, start the transfer.
The accountant begins working on his laptop.
AMBROSE
(to Wallis)
Follow it. Let me know.
INT - TUNNEL - STAMP AND GUARDS
pass a couple of doorways. A pigeon flies past Stamp's face and
he stops. As he turn, Ethan Lowers himself from a hiding place
in the ceiling. Stamp and Ethan pull their guns on one another.
They're in a face-off until they both agree to drop their guns,
but Stamp catches his in mid-air and points it back at Ethan.
ETHAN
You broke our deal.
STAMP
You're too trusting. Raise your hands
slowly.
As Ethan raises his hands, he pulls the pin on a grenade and then
kicks it between Stamp's legs. The handle flies off: It's live.
When Stamp looks down in surprise at the grenade, Ethan kicks out
his gun.
Trying to escape the grenade, Stamp smashes into Ethan and seems
to have hit him in the jaw. Both hit the ground as the grenade
explodes, with Stamp appearing to have the upper hand.
INT - SLABHOUSE
As everyone waits for the transfer to complete, the grenade
explodes out in the tunnel. McCloy and his accountant freeze
with alarm as a sprinkling of dust settles on the room.
AMBROSE
(to the accountant)
Keep it going.
STAMP'S VOICE
Sean, this rat's reached the end of the
maze.
AMBROSE
(into walkie-talkie)
Is he alive?
STAMP'S VOICE
More or less.
AMBROSE
Bring him to me.
INT - HELICOPTER - BILLY AND LUTHER
Luther has the GPS computer starting to access the satellite.
BILLY
(nervously)
We're due to take off.
LUTHER
Not for seven more minutes.
INT - SLABHOUSE - WALLIS
checking his computer screen, which shows the transfer has
finished successfully.
WALLIS
Sean. Transfer complete.
Stamp drags Ethan in, arms pinned with heavy tape. Stamp
Ethan look grimy as sandbags after a busy day of tunneling.
Ambrose rises to examine his prize.
MCCLOY
(apprehensive)
What exactly do you intend to do with him?
Ambrose walks behind Ethan and kicks his knees out from under
him. Ethan falls to the floor.
INT - HELICOPTER - BILLY AND LUTHER
LUTHER
Ethan? Ethan? Do you copy?
Luther hears nothing in response but while noise. He looks to
Billy and indicates there's no answer.
ETHAN
Well, mate, maybe this is one of those
times we shouldn't follow orders.
EXT - HELICOPTER (DAY)
the rotor blades turn over.
INT - SLABHOUSE BUILDING (DAY)
AMBROSE
(to Ethan)
What have you got to say for yourself.
Hunt? Any last words?
Ethan appears as if he wants to respond, but can't. Ambrose
kicks him again.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Stop mumbling.
STAMP
Afraid he's got no choice. I believe I
broke his jaw.
AMBROSE
Hugh, I'm impressed..
Ambrose has picked up a pair of Berettas, and is proceeding to
load both full seventeen round clips.
MCCLOY
(anxiety mounting)
What do you intend to do?
Ambrose favors McCloy with a glance of genial exacerbation.
AMBROSE
You needn't watch.
FULL SHOT - HELICOPTER (DAY)
rising off the golf green, and banking toward the island.
INT - SLABHOUSE (DAY)
Ambrose standing before Hunt with a pair of fully loaded
Berettas. The sound of the helicopter grows.
AMBROSE
- right. We don't have a lot of time,
Hunt. whatever you've got to say, say it
now.
Ethan indeed makes some considerable effort to speak but can only
manage a few guttural, progressively desperate sounds which
continue as:
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Sorry mate, I can't understand a bloody
word. How about giving us a big smile to
remember you by?
(hearing the helicopter)
No? Well, then. This is what's known as
getting your gun off.
With that Ambrose empties thirty four rounds from the two
Berettas into Ethan whose body jerks crazily on the floor.
McCloy nearly faints, and Ambrose laughs at his squeamishness
until something on Ethan's body catches his eye: the top of the
little finger on the right hand is bleeding. Ambrose grabs
Ethan's face, and rips off a latex mask: revealing Stamp, eyes
wide open and thoroughly lifeless. His jaw, under the mask had
been taped carefully close with the same heavy tape Ethan has
used to mount the drain-pipe shotgun on the tunnel wall.
AMBROSE (cont'd)
Bloody hell!
He looks around, but Stamp is gone. So is the cannister and
kevlar vest that had been on the table moments before.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND
Ethan's on the motorcycle, heading toward the gates, which a pair
of security guards are frantically trying to close.
Billy and Luther in the copter are over the island, and bank so
Luther can fire a grenade launcher and blow the back of Ambrose's
boat.
The guards close the gate, Ethan runs the motorcycle up the
hillock and jumps the gate, over onto the bridge. Ambrose follows
in the SUV, crashing thru the gate.
They race across the bridge and the road, onto the huge
greensward opposite to and similar in shape to Bare Island.
There, with the helicopter hovering, Ambrose manages to corner
Ethan and after they expend whatever ammunition their weapons
hold, they move into each other bare handed and engage in
ferocious, no-holds-barred combat, the helicopter hovering low
enough to keep away whatever's left of Ambrose's henchmen, the
chopper's downdraft hitting them and flattening the grass around
them. Ethan prevails.
A SPECTACULAR VIEW OF SYDNEY
on bluffs overlooking the city. Camera moves slowly to the top
of the bluff.
EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER (DAY)
With Billy flying and Luther at the door, machine gun in
hand, the copter nears the Bare Island gun pit and Ethan.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND GUN PIT - ETHAN
runs into the central 'hole' area, guns in both hands and
wearing the kevlar vest. He runs toward the walled edge of
the enclosure and jumps. As he pulls himself up the top of
the wall, he sees the IMF helicopter approaching.
A gunman appears from the tunnel entrance and opens fire, the
bullets exploding into the wall around Ethan, who jumps out
of the way to avoid them.
EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER
is under fire as well, bullets spraying the windshield,
driving Luther back inside and causing Billy to turn the
chopper around.
BILLY
Man at your six.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND GUN PIT - ETHAN
who rolls and returns fire at the gunman. Ethan first hits
the gunman in the leg, and then shoots and explodes the
canisters behind the gunman, killing him.
ETHAN
(to Billy)
The field of fire is too heavy. Back off
and pinpoint their positions.
BEAR ISLAND HILL - MOTORCYCLE
bearing down on him as he stands up. Ethan just manages to
dive out of its path before a second motorcycle comes up over
the hill. Ethan flips backwards and fires his pistol,
shooting the second cyclist off his bike.
The motorcycle flies over Ethan, who runs after it and jumps
on, revving the throttle and taking off.
BEAR ISLAND - PARKING AREA - AMBROSE
deploys some of his men via walkie-talkie while others
scramble into their cars.
AMBROSE
(into walkie-talkie)
Hunt's heading for the bridge. Coming in
at twelve o'clock high.
BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE
A Gold Falcon with several of Ambrose's men inside enters the
bridge from the mainland and speeds toward the island.
EXT - BEAR ISLAND COMPLEX
Ambrose's men exit the complex and get into their cars.
BEAR ISLAND HILL - ETHAN
crests a hill aboard the cycle, the IMF chopper in b.g.
ETHAN
Clear that bridge for me.
LUTHER' VOICE
Roger that.
BILLY'S VOICE
They're tracking you on the left, Ethan.
Prepare for some fire.
BEAR ISLAND ROADWAY
Michael's SUV and Wallis' sedan speed along as a gunman from the
SUV fires on Ethan up the hill, spraying bullets around him.
BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE - GOLD FALCON
approaches the island. Luther fires his grenade launcher. It
hits the Falcon's trunk, lifting its back wheel off the ground,
but the Falcon keeps coming, its trunk ablaze. Luther reloads as
a gunman leans out the window, firing up at Ethan on the hill.
BEAR ISLAND HILL - ETHAN
lays on the cycle's throttle, accelerates down the hill and
propels the bike into the air and off the island, just as
EXT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER
again fires his grenade launcher, this time at the front of the
BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE - GOLD FALCON
on the bridge. The grenade explodes at the front of the car
and hurls the Falcon into the air and off the bridge.
BEAR ISLAND - HILL/BRIDGE - ETHAN
is in mid-air on the cycle, heading down toward the bridge. Just
as he lands, the Gold Falcon flies off the bridge, and Ethan
speeds through the flames and off onto the mainland.
BEAR ISLAND - BRIDGE
Michael's SUV arrives and tears through the gate and flames,
followed by Wallis' sedan and then Ambrose, riding a motorcycle.
ROAD LEADING FROM BRIDGE - ETHAN
races up the road to find a white Falcon approaching.
The IMF chopper arrives and gunfire's exchanged. Luther takes a
hit in the shoulder and drops his gun as the chopper banks away.
INT - HELICOPTER - LUTHER
Luther grips his shoulder in pain and falls back into his seat,
jarring the GPS computer. It responds by beeping and coming to
life. Nyah's yellow dot pops up on the screen.
GPS COMPUTER
The target is located.
LUTHER
Ethan, the computer's up. I've got Nyah.
She's moved out of the city.
ETHAN
Luther, say again.
LUTHER
She's on the North Head Bluff -
approaching the cliffs. One klick away.
EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN
ETHAN
(over increasing static)
Copy. She's only got twenty-eight minutes
left. Track ahead and pick her up.
INT - IMF HELICOPTER
Luther bands his shoulder wound and monitors his GPS laptop.
LUTHER
We won't be able to cover you.
EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN
slightly slows the bike to concentrate over the static.
ETHAN
You're breaking up. Track ahead and pick her
up. You've got me on GPS. Bring her to me.
Ethan pulls out and throws away the earpiece.
INT - IMF HELICOPTER
LUTHER
Billy, North Head. Haul ass.
EXT - ROADWAY
Ethan heads downhill as the SUV approaches on an adjacent road.
He pulls out in front of it, immediately drawing fire. Without
slowing, Ethan drops to the side his cycle for cover.
INT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER
watches the GPS laptop as the chopper speeds over Sydney.
EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN AND WALLIS' SEDAN
Wallis' sedan appears from an adjoining road and pulls in behind
Ethan, who climbs back aboard his cycle. Cut off, the SUV turns
onto a side road to intercept Ethan.
WALLIS
Get him.
ULRICH
I can't get a good shot.
Before an intersection, Ethan both revs and brakes, spinning the
bike and creating a smoke screen. Wallis' car enters the smoke.
ULRICH (cont'd)
I can't see him, mate. Slow down!
WALLIS
Shut up. I know what I'm doing.
Wallis breaks hard, but not hard enough: he stops just in the
path of an oncoming 18-wheeler. His car's demolished.
EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN AND SUV
Ethan pulls out of the smoke as the SUV bursts out of the scrub
behind him, striking the rear of the cycle. Ethan puts his bike
into a spin and pulls his gun, ending up alongside the SUV
passenger window. He fires through the window, shooting both
Michael and the bodyguard.
The SUV veers off, crashing into a line of parked cars. It hits
the first car and flips up and over, landing upside down on
several more parked cars. Ethan speeds off on his smoking cycle.
Ambrose arrives and then takes a side road.
INT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER
working on his GPS laptop. The range -- ie, the distance from
the moving copter to the yellow dot, Nyah, on the edge of the
screen -- is reduced to about two kilometers.
LUTHER
(to Billy)
Range is two kay.
BILLY
I hope there's a place to land.
Luther looks up from the screen to see the bluff of North Head at
the entrance to Sydney's harbor.
EXT - THREE-LINED ROADWAY - ETHAN
tearing down the road, when suddenly from a side trail Ambrose
pulls out behind him and begins firing. Ethan weaves to avoid
Ambrose's fire and passes a car, pulling in front of it for
cover. The car skids, forcing Ambrose to veer around it.
FROM COPTER TO GROUND (MOVING)
rapidly approaching the North Head bluff.
BILLY
There she is. I got visual.
LUTHER
We're down to seven minutes 23 seconds..
HIGH ANGLE - NORTH HEAD
moving up behind Nyah who is walking purposefully to the edge of
the bluff and a precipitous drop to rocks and surf a hundred and
fifty feet below.
Camera drops to Nyah's shoulder level and moves with her to the
bluff's edge. As she's just a few steps away from stepping
off, there's a roar and the helicopter rises into the shot,
before her wild-eyed Billy gesturing, 'Stop! Stop!' to Nyah.
EXT - ROADWAY
Ethan passes narrowly between a car and oncoming truck. Ambrose
follows as soon as the truck clears. Ethan fires backward using
his side-view mirror to aim, exploding Ambrose's windscreen.
Ambrose skids until his wheel clips a rock, knocking him upright.
Ethan turns into a side road and speeds through open scrub. Back
on the main road, Ambrose roars off to intercept Ethan.
EXT - CLIFFTOP - ROCK LEDGE
On a clifftop clearing, Ethan races along as Ambrose moves to cut
him off. They head toward one another.
LUTHER'S VOICE
Ethan, we've got her. Tracking to you now.
We're reading 5 minutes 19 seconds.
EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING
Ethan and Ambrose round a bend and face one another. Without
hesitating, they charge towards each other. As they near one
another, each leaps forward and off his bike, and they collide
hard in mid-air. They fall to the ground fighting as their bikes
skid and Ethan's explodes, raining debris upon them.
Ethan and Ambrose rush towards one another. Ethan flips Ambrose
to the ground. Ambrose pulls a gun from his ankle holster. As
Ethan knocks it away, he loses his own gun and they both fall off
a 30-foot cliff.
INT - IMF HELICOPTER
at top speed over Sydney. Nyah appears weak and shivers.
LUTHER
(to Billy)
Bearing two one zero. About 3 klicks.
(into microphone)
Ethan, we're moments away..
EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING - FIGHT
Ethan and Ambrose rise from the fall. Ethan jumps up and sweeps
Ambrose, dropping him to the ground. Ethan begins strangling
Ambrose but gets knocked off, and when they both stand, Ambrose
gets Ethan in a choke hold.
Ambrose hits him and grabs a rock and hits Ethan in the
midsection and the face. Ethan kicks it out of his hand and
connects with several punches, knocking Ambrose to the ground.
Kneeling, Ambrose pulls a knife from a boot holster and cuts
Ethan across the back and face. Ambrose dives on Ethan and the
knife is poised above Ethan's eye before Ethan grabs the knife
and clears, holding it out toward Ambrose.
AMBROSE
Go ahead. Use it Hunt. It's not a bad
way to go. A lot better than the way that
bitch is going to die.
Ambrose swings again and misses, and Ethan delivers a series of
kicks, leaving Ambrose stunned and barely standing. Ethan steps
back, and with a running start, strikes Ambrose with a leaping
kick that drops him to the ground and knock the knife out of his
hand.
EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - CLIFFTOP
As they approach in the distance, Billy, Luther and Nyah finally
gain sight of Ethan in hand-to-hand combat.
EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING - FIGHT
Ethan turns and walks away from Ambrose toward the cliff edge.
The copter lands and Luther runs toward Ethan but pulls up,
looking over Ethan's shoulder. Ambrose has a gun aimed at
Ethan's back.
AMBROSE
Hunt. You should have killed me.
Near Hunt's feet is his own gun, obscured from Ambrose's view by
dust from the copter. Ethan tosses the canister to Luther and
then kicks his gun up out of the dirt and into the air. He
catches it, drops down and fires, killing Ambrose.
EXT/ INT - HELICOPTER ON CLIFFTOP
Ethan reaches Nyah at the copter. Inches apart, they can only
stare silently at one another.
INT - CULTURAL MUSEUM
Didgeridoo music. A child admires a painting. Swanbeck and Ethan
face one another. A long, long pause. For a moment it appears as
if Swanbeck has lost awareness of Ethan's presence.
SWANBECK
Sorry, Ethan. I don't quite know where to
begin. Any suggestions?
ETHAN
You'd like me to conduct my own
debriefing.
SWANBECK
Why not? You've done just about
everything else on this operation.
ETHAN
I'd thank you -- but I'm not sure that was
a compliment.
SWANBECK
Of course it was. Anyone whose operations
requires the level of disinformation that
yours do, is bound to get a little flak
here and there. You try flogging the
stories on CNN I've had to come up with
about what's been going on around here the
last few days. At any rate, it's been
most instructive -- what they'll swallow,
or what they'll broadcast with a straight
face.
(picking up a file)
Miss Hall's blood, it appears, has
absolutely no elements of the Chimera
virus. Not even antibodies.
ETHAN
Yes, I gathered as much.
SWANBECK
And the only other remaining sample was in
the canister you recover from Ambrose.
ETHAN
Yes.
SWANBECK
And that appears to have been destroyed.
It also contained the anti-virus,
Bellerophon.
ETHAN
Well, Bellerophon, it turns out, was only
really effective against Chimera.
SWANBECK
But you were under specific instructions
to bring back a living sample of the
Chimera virus. I'd be very interested to
know how, after you'd managed its recovery
intact, it subsequently got destroyed.
ETHAN
By fire. That's the best way, really.
SWANBECK
So you didn't fail mission, you simply
changed it.
Ethan doesn't respond.
SWANBECK (cont'd)
It's no longer enough for you to execute
and implement IMF policy, you now wish to
go in the business of creating it?
ETHAN
No, I don't. But in this case -
SWANBECK
In this case, it wasn't a bad idea. In
face, it was a pretty damn good idea.
Just don't make a habit of it. And, as for
Ms. Hall, in light of her efforts, her
criminal records will certainly be
expunged. I'm assuming you approve.
ETHAN
I do.
SWANBECK
Where is she now, by the way? Do you
know?
ETHAN
I don't. No exactly.
SWANBECK
Well, Hunt, what are your plans?
ETHAN
Not sure. Some sort of vacation. I'll
let you know where I'm going.
SWANBECK
Oh, you don't have to do that. Wouldn't
be a vacation if you did.
Ethan and Swanbeck exchange one final, knowing glance.
SKY NEWSCASTER
This incident in the wake of rumors
suddenly surfacing about Mr. McCloy and
Biocyte's financial difficulties --
including criminal allegations of insider
trading, embezzlement, conspiracy to
commit fraud, and stock parking -- have,
understandably, sent stock prices of the
pharmaceutical company plummeting.
EXT - SYDNEY (DAY)
Ethan emerges to a very crowded street. Billy and Luther are
waiting. Both look to Ethan.
LUTHER
(worried)
So what did he say?
ETHAN
Good job. And thanks.
BILLY
(incredulous)
That's it? That's it? That's it?
LUTHER
(dryly, looking at Billy)
And the check's in the mall.
BILLY
Right. Just remember, mates. Billy
Baird's the name. Anything you need to
get, move or watch, I'm your man.
And Billy's gone. Ethan and Luther remain alone, both reluctant
to say anything, both reluctant to leave.
One quick bear hug, then:
LUTHER
Always nice hearing from you man. Stay in
touch..
And Luther's off. Ethan looks after him, a bit wistfully. Then,
curiously tentative he moves off into the crowd. After a half-
dozen steps, something catches his eyes. He stops.
One quick bear hug, then:
NYAH
(a tad wary)
Do you know me?
NYAH
is inches from him. Without batting an eye.
ETHAN
No. Should I?
NYAH
No. You just looked as if you did.
ETHAN
No...
She wraps her arms around him and kisses him with considerable
conviction.
ETHAN (cont'd)
...just as if I'd like to.
NYAH
Oh. Well..
He kisses her with a conviction that is more than a match for
hers.
NYAH (cont'd)
..I think that can be arranged.
Looks around at the swirling crowd:
ETHAN
Let's get lost.
And in a moment they've vanished from the frame and into the
crowd. Camera begins to pull back, the bustling crowd ever
filling the frame - and in the distance, perhaps, just a splash
of a bouquet of flowers can be seen, appearing to bounce along on
its own, the rising beat of the MI theme:
BEGIN CREDITS: IMF II - CHIMERA
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