SOLDIER
Written by
David Webb Peoples
REVISED DRAFT
October 2, 1997
INT. HOSPITAL NURSERY - NIGHT
BABIES in bassinets, isolettes, incubators. BABIES sleeping,
BABIES blinking, BABIES cooing, BABIES chirping, BABIES
squalling.
It's the SQUALLING BABIES, the ones with pinched faces and tiny
bunched fists, that seem to interest the TWO ANONYMOUS MEN in
Military Uniforms. (Their anonymity is assured by the angles
from which they are seen; they are hands, they are feet, they are
the backs of heads.)
A lone NURSE watches them grimly as they make their "selections,"
marking the cribs of the most active, noisy BABIES with X's.
CUT TO:
EXT. VAN/HOSPITAL - NIGHT
ANGLE ON VAN DOORS slamming shut on a dozen squalling BABIES in
tiered red cribs.
ANGLE ON THE VAN pulling away from the loading dock of the large
hospital as a date is SUPERED over the scene...
1992
CUT TO:
INT. CAGE/BASEMENT ROOM - DAY OR NIGHT
Vicious teeth, savage snarls, tearing flesh as three fierce
fighting DOGS battle a single WOLVERINE in large steel cage.
The cage is in the middle of a gloomy windowless room surrounded
by twenty TWO-YEAR-OLDS seated on folding chairs and dressed in
identical gray overalls. As the TWO-YEAR-OLDS watch the battle,
amazement on their innocent faces, a date appears SUPERED over
the scene...
1994
WE DISCOVER in the shadows more ANONYMOUS MEN (and WOMEN), some
of them in Military Uniforms, observing the children.
CUT TO:
INT. A WINDOWLESS CEMENT ROOM - DAY OR NIGHT
It's creepy: the same children two years older, milling about a
bare cement room, apparently unsupervised. They ought to look
cute, but somehow these joyless FOUR-YEAR-OLDS look slightly
sinister, all of them wearing drab uniforms and military burr-cut
hair. Again a date is SUPERED over the scene --
1996
-- just as an AGGRESSIVE FOUR-YEAR-OLD approaches a PASSIVE FOUR
YEAR-OLD seated on the floor and kicks him.
It's a harmless child's kick. But then, as the DATE DISAPPEARS,
he kicks the PASSIVE FOUR-YEAR-OLD again. And again.
The servo-motor in a remote video camera mounted high on the wall
WHINES slightly as the camera pans to the record the action.
CUT TO:
INT. WINDOWLESS "CLASSROOM" - DAY OR NIGHT
Puzzles. Fingers fit shapes into holes. The puzzles aren't fun
puzzles; they're obviously tests of intelligence or dexterity or
both. SIX-YEAR-OLDS now, the boys perform in a grim room under
fluorescent lights as more ANONYMOUS MEN and WOMEN in polished
shoes and sharply creased military slacks cruise the aisles,
observing.
As a date appears SUPERED over this scene...
1998
WE NOTICE one of the SIX-YEAR-OLDS is becoming familiar to us.
TODD. We NOTICE his intense eyes as he dexterously manipulates
a puzzle.
CUT TO:
EXT. FIELD - DAY
Behind a cyclone fence topped with curlicues of razor wire, the
boys, now TEN-YEAR-OLDS, are marching in formation under the
supervision of a (faceless) DRILL SERGEANT. Again a date is
SUPERED over the scene...
2002
CUT TO:
INT. GYMNASIUM - DAY
Fourteen-year-old TODD is doing bench presses in shorts while all
around him his FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD COMRADES work out with weights
in a very grim and spartan gym that resembles a sinister
concentration camp more than the yuppie spas of the 20th Century.
The date appears SUPERED over the scene...
2006
CUT TO:
EXT. OBSTACLE COURSE/MONTAGE - DAY
The FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLDS, TODD among them, jump, roll, dive, crawl,
swim, and rappel through a brutal course featuring:
vertical wooden walls,
fast moving rapids,
tangles of barbed wire,
steep rock faces,
and finally a jungle of dangling chains with tiny circular
"platforms" about eight inches in diameter every ten feet.
FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS bloody each other with pugil sticks and padded
cudgels while they swing twenty feet above the ground. One of
them is knocked off, plummets downward. CRUNCH!
CUT TO:
EXT. SNOW COVERED LANDSCAPE - DAY
Long even strides, two inches of snow. Breathing hard, the
SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS now lope through hills and woods in shorts and
T-shirts, their breath coming in steamy blasts as the date is
SUPERED over the scene...
2008
This a brutal cross country run under a grim sky in bitter cold
weather, but the SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS are super-fit, their faces
hard and without expression, their eyes as cold as snake eyes.
Except for the STRAGGLER, a lone boy who's bringing up the rear,
obviously in trouble, gasping for air, struggling, struggling,
struggling to keep his feet...
ANGLE ON A HILL where ANONYMOUS OBSERVERS, all in military dress,
watch.
ANGLE ON THE STRAGGLER, unable to keep his feet, going down,
gasping. With fearful eyes, he looks toward the hill where he
knows the OBSERVERS are.
ANGLE ON THE PACK, sixteen SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS not looking back,
even as a single SHOT rings out. TODD doesn't even blink, just
keeps running.
CUT TO:
EXT. SHOOTING RANGE - DAY
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a scary mechanized pop-up target, a
MILITARY FIGURE, erupts from the long grass, weapon pointing.
Before the weapon can flash a laser bean, AUTOMATIC FIRE ravages
the target and it disappears back into the grass. The boys,
EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLDS now, are wearing combat gear and carrying
automatic weapons as they advance through a sloping field of tall
grass.
Different sophisticated TARGETS pop up urgently, sometimes close,
sometimes far, some MOVING rapidly on tracks.
The EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLDS expertly mow down menacing MILITARY
FIGURES while holding their fire when ANIMAL TARGETS or UNARMED
CIVILIANS and CHILDREN appear.
The eighteen-year-old on point is RILEY, a muscular redhead.
TODD is right behind him as a date is SUPERED over the scene...
2010
Suddenly multiple TARGETS appear, charging.
BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! First TARGET down!
RILEY, panning for the next target, holds fire, passes over two
MOTHERS HOLDING CHILDREN, pans for a nearby SOLDIER TARGET. But
the SOLDIER TARGET zips behind the MOTHERS HOLDING CHILDREN,
taking cover, weapon pointed at RILEY.
For half a second RILEY hesitates!
BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! TODD blazes away, mercilessly blowing away
the MOTHERS HOLDING CHILDREN TARGET and the SOLDIER TARGET.
THE MAIN TITLE APPEARS
as the ROAR OF GUNS gives way to MUSIC...
CUT TO:
INT. PROCESSING ROOM - DAY
Skillful hands operate a tattoo pen, stenciling an insignia and
a number on the left side of RILEY'S face over the cheekbone.
His cheek says RILEY, L.B., his face reveals nothing as...
OPENING CREDITS BEGIN
The next face is TODD. The skillful hands with the tattoo pen go
to work on his face, marking, stenciling the skin as...
OPENING CREDITS CONTINUE
Then the tattoo artist's bands finish with TODD and move on to
the next MAN, leaving TODD staring straight ahead, his cheek
tattooed, his face like carved stone, his eyes as unfathomable as
the eyes of a statue as THE OPENING CREDITS CONCLUDE.
CUT TO:
EXT. JUNGLE - DAY
Machinegun fire, SOLDIERS in cammies moving through lush tropical
growth.
A mortar explodes, a SOLDIER is engulfed in shrapnel. As the
smoke clears, the SOLDIER screams mindlessly like a siren. This
is real war, not training.
A title and date appear on the screen, saying...
2011, THE BOLIVIAN WAR
As the title fades, we glimpse TODD advancing at a crouch through
smoke and enemy fire, blazing away at the unseen enemy. Sweaty
and smudged, his uniform torn and stained with blood, TODD
reveals nothing on his stone face. But he's clearly
unintimidated by the death of his screaming comrade as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. PINE WOODS - DAY
Automatic weapons CHATTER as TODD struggles through thick snowy
woods, half-carrying a bloody comrade barely recognizable as
RILEY. Bullets spatter bark and leaves as TODD and RILEY take
cover behind a fallen log. A date and title appear, SUPERED over
the action...
2012, THE MONTANA "INCIDENT"
RILEY is nearly unconscious. TODD glances at his own wound, a
savage opening in his side. He considers the torn flesh as
dispassionately as a man checking a flea bite.
Bullets whiz around the wounded man as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT, VILLAGE - DAY
Sunbaked landscape, a burning village, ENEMY CORPSES sprawled
here and there, burned or horribly mutilated by artillery fire.
SUPERED over the corpses, a date and title...
2014-2016, THE SAUDI CAMPAIGN
WE DISCOVER TODD, RILEY, and several OTHER SOLDIERS, exhausted,
parched, in torn and bloodied uniforms, sharing a single canteen
under the blazing sun. War is hard work!
CUT TO:
EXT. LAUNCH PAD - DAY
A fury of flames, the THUNDER of ignition as huge rocket engines
lift a space vehicle off the launching pad and propel it skyward.
EXT. OUTER SPACE
Profound SILENCE! The space vehicle that the rocket propelled is
a weathered looking military spaceship gliding through the
blackness of outer space like a huge shark. A date and title
appear SUPERED over the scene...
2017, TANNHAUSER GATE
As the title fades away in the eerie silence, we...
CUT TO:
EXT. ANOTHER PLANET - NIGHT
A huge moon looms in the blackness above a barely visible
landscape...
2020, THE ARGENTINE SECTOR
SIX SOLDIERS stagger through the rough terrain in pressure suits
and plexi helmets, breathing from tanks.
Sudden automatic fire staggers the lead SOLDIER. His helmet is
pierced, air and blood erupt from the hole in his face plate.
The SERGEANT, his futuristic "chevrons" on his helmet, signals
the men to take cover, starts to return fire. As a flare
illuminates the battlefield, we RECOGNIZE the sergeant through
his visor. It's TODD.
CUT TO:
EXT. EXTRATERRESTRIAL CITY - DAY
Bombed out! Buildings turned to rubble, smoking ruins, rain. An
extra-terrestrial city ravaged by war to such a degree that it
bears an uncanny resemblance to Dresden/Earth in 1945 after the
fire-bombing! The architecture, even in ruins, recalls old
Europe, and the streets are narrow, as in before (or after)
automobiles.
Bursts of AUTOMATIC FIRE, occasional MORTAR BLASTS. A spooky
battle between unseen SOLDIERS is taking place in seemingly
deserted streets and alleyways. And SUPERED over the gloomy
scene...
THE THIRD DRESDEN MOON
(1.16 Earth atmos, acceptable oxygen)
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Shots!
Suddenly a terrified MOTHER dashes along the street, a screaming
BABY in her arms, looking for shelter.
A CIVILIAN MAN pops out of a doorway, pulls her to safety.
REVEAL TODD, watching from the shell of a once proud building.
TODD'S POV of four ENEMY SOLDIERS running at a crouch among the
rubble.
ANGLE ON TODD watching them scurry into a cellar door. TODD
turns and gives a hand signal.
ANGLE ON RILEY twenty yards away, hidden behind exposed
machinery, acknowledging the signal and, along with a THIRD
SOLDIER, advancing toward the cellar.
EXT. CELLAR DOOR
TODD, RILEY, and the THIRD SOLDIER converge stealthily,
coordinating with hand signals.
TODD pulls the pin on a grenade, and RILEY and the THIRD SOLDIER
kick in the door.
TODD tosses the grenade in as RILEY fires a withering barrage of
automatic fire through the cellar door.
BAHWHOOM! The grenade EXPLODES.
Then, RILEY, TODD and the THIRD SOLDIER charge in.
INT. CELLAR
HEAVY FIRE as TODD, RILEY and the THIRD SOLDIER spray the room.
ANGLE ON TODD signaling cease fire.
Sudden silence. Drifting smoke. Then...GROANS.
Four ENEMY SOLDIERS are sprawled motionless, horribly
eviscerated. A fifth ENEMY SOLDIER, horribly wounded, is
groaning.
ANGLE ON TODD surveying the scene, stone faced.
TODD'S POV of the enemy dead, and several CIVILIANS equally dead,
as well as the dead BODIES of several CHILDREN.
BANG! RILEY shoots the groaning ENEMY SOLDIER.
Silence again.
CLOSE ON TODD, his stone face. What does he see? What does he
feel? Anything? A mystery!
CUT TO:
INT. BARRACKS - DAY
A spartan room, bare bunk-beds. Rain POUNDS on a window that
looks out into a stormy sky over the godforsaken ruins of the
Third Dresden Moon.
TODD is sitting on a bunk, shirtless. His new rank has been
tattooed on his right cheek; there's a scar under one eye and
another scar that distorts his lip slightly. The names of
various battles have been neatly stenciled down his left arm, an
official record, not a decoration. TODD is silent, staring into
space. The room is full of SOLDIERS in T-shirts, fatigues,
sleepwear. WORDS APPEAR SUPERED OVER THE SCENE...
The WORDS FADE AWAY, the silence continues, the rain BEATS on the
barracks, no one says a word, they just stare into space or watch
the rain beat on the windowpane. They look like robots...used
robots, made individual only by their different scars.
CUT TO:
EXT. BARRACKS - DAY
Rain. Low buildings, boarded windows, slogans painted on the war-
scarred walls, the makeshift barracks in one building, command
quarters in the next.
A lone figure, a MAN IN A PONCHO, hurries through the downpour,
passing the barracks, heading for the command quarters.
INT. COMMAND QUARTERS
Entering, the MAN shakes rain off his poncho. His name is
RUBRICK, he's thirty-five, a lieutenant. He faces the two bored
OFFICERS lounging in the cluttered office where outdated
equipment is strung together by mazes of wire and the desktops
are heaped with printout sheets and styrofoam coffee cups.
The captain, CHURCH, has his feet on the desk. He's fifty years
old, gray and fat and soft. The other officer, SLOAN, also a
lieutenant, is a thirty-five year old woman, dark, moderately
attractive, but not particularly happy.
RUBRICK
Colonel Mekum has his "boys"
unpacked. I think he wants to show
them off.
CHURCH
Hmmmmph.
RUBRICK
They look...impressive.
CUT TO:
INT. "STATION" - DAY
A NEW SOLDIER fills the frame, a perfect-looking man/boy of about
twenty built like a linebacker, powerful looking with sculpted
unscarred musculature. He looks straight ahead, unblinking, and
so does the one next to him, and the next one. Twenty of them
are standing in line in one corner of an enormous space that was
once a station of some sort. They don't seem to respond to the
chill or to the occasional drops of rain from the skylights
leaking sixty feet above them.
Wearing dripping ponchos, CHURCH, SLOAN, and RUBRICK are looking
the robot-like monsters over like so much meat, while a bright-
eyed blond colonel about thirty, named MEKUM, stands proudly by,
glowing with satisfaction.
The vast interior is so large that in spite of clusters of
stacked crates, part of a dismantled spaceship, a rusty
earthmover, numerous large pieces of machinery, and a whole
arrangement of exercise gear, the place has huge open spaces and
a sense of emptiness to it.
SLOAN walks close to the line of NEW SOLDIERS and studies one,
her eyes drifting over their muscular bodies. She breaks the
long silence.
SLOAN
Well, they're...pretty.
CHURCH
(to Mekum)
What's so hot about them?
MEKUM
(proudly)
Very much improved. In every way.
RUBRICK
This is Colonel Mekum from Q. He's
their commanding officer.
CHURCH
(dubious)
Improved...how?
MEKUM
As I said, in every way. Physically
and psychologically. More
endurance, quicker responses, better
hand-eye, improved technical
training. Where the First
Psychology gave you ninety-eight
percent obedience, this bunch gives
you 99.4.
CHURCH
(dubiously)
Mmmmmm. Weeell, you know my old
daddy was in maintenance and he had
a saying...
RUBRICK and SLOAN exchange an eye-rolling private glance that
means they've heard a lot of Daddy's sayings.
CHURCH
...He used to say, "If it ain't
broke, don't fix it."
MEKUM
(patronizing)
I...see. I'm not sure I quite get
your...point...
CHURCH
(indicating the
Veterans)
Well, the soldiers we've got now,
they've been through all kinds of
heavy shit...and they've always got
the job done. Now these new ones,
these "hot shots" of yours...what
kind of action have they seen? They
are battle-tested, aren't they?
MEKUM
That's up to you field guys. H.Q.
wants you to break 'em in when you
do the annual security sweep in
January.
CHURCH
The sweep is just routine, not even
police action. I'd like to see some
sort of...meaningful evidence...
MEKUM
Such as?
CHURCH
Maybe we could run some tests. Kind
of a comparison, the old and the
new...
RUBRICK and SLOAN exchange a startled glance, but MEKUM doesn't
seem fazed as we...
CUT TO:
INT. "STATION" - DAY - LATER
A WEAPON FIRING! BUDDA! BUDDA! BUDDA! The automatic weapon is
being fired by the veteran soldier RILEY. He's blazing away at
an elaborate electronic target a hundred yards away in the huge
space.
TODD is watching with the other VETERAN SOLDIERS. They're seated
on the floor, wearing drab fatigues, directly across from the
twenty NEW SOLDIERS.
As TODD glances at them, the NEW SOLDIERS look back unblinkingly.
(The VETERANS, in spite of their impassive expressions, look very
human compared to the NEW SOLDIERS. Their battle scars mark them
as individuals in sharp contrast to the perfectly-muscled young
giants across from them.)
The firing stops, and RILEY, his weapon empty, leaps to his feet
and salutes RUBRICK, who's been watching the demonstration with
the rest of the officers.
RILEY
Sir!
RUBRICK
Very nice, Riley. Fall away.
RILEY
(another salute)
Sir!
As RILEY joins the VETERANS squatting motionlessly, RUBRICK
glances at the shredded electronic target, glances at his
stopwatch, then looks at Mekum.
RUBRICK
Thirty seconds, 90 percent hits.
MEKUM smirks, picks up the weapon, disassembles it rapidly.
MEKUM
Let's make it more difficult.
RUBRICK, CHURCH and SLOAN exchange glances of disbelief as MEKUM
scatters the disassembled parts onto the concrete floor with a
loud clatter.
TODD watches, unblinking, as MEKUM looks to the NEW SOLDIERS.
MEKUM
Caine Six-Oh-Seven!
A blond Nordic giant is suddenly on his feet among the NEW
SOLDIERS. There is real dignity in his salute; he's like a pro.
CAINE 607
Sir!
MEKUM
Assemble the weapon, load, fire on
the target from various evasive
positions in a thirty-second period.
OFFICERS look at each other again in disbelief.
MEKUM
Starting...now!
MEKUM punches his watch as CAINE 607 gracefully begins to pick up
pieces of weapon, doing it rapidly, yet without apparent haste.
TODD is watching, revealing nothing.
CLACK! KA SHACK! CLICK! CAINE 607 slaps the weapon together,
loading a magazine with a final KA SHUCK, then he dives to the
floor, firing a rapid burst at the electronic target which blinks
wildly...
OFFICERS watch, impressed.
CAINE 607 is firing from another position.
The target goes crazy.
CAINE 607 is rolling and firing at the same time.
The target goes wild.
MEKUM's watch clicks off 27 seconds...28...29...
The firing stops.
TODD stares impassively as CAINE 607 salutes. Beside him, RILEY
watches also.
MEKUM
(to Caine 607)
As you were, soldier.
RUBRICK is looking at the electronic target, grudgingly
impressed.
RUBRICK
Ninety-nine percent...
MEKUM
(smug)
While taking evasive action...
RUBRICK
(amazed)
That's...very good.
CUT TO:
INT. WEIGHT AREA/"STATION" - DAY - A LITTLE LATER
A NEW SOLDIER cleans an awesome weight with what looks like ease
as RUBRICK, CHURCH, and SLOAN again exchange impressed glances
and MEKUM watches smugly.
They're still in the giant warehouse in the gym section among all
sorts of ominous exercise devices. The NEW SOLDIERS and VETERANS
are gathered in separate groups at attention, their faces like
stone.
TODD is watching the big man handle the weight easily.
MEKUM
See? Much stronger.
CHURCH
What about endurance?
CUT TO:
EXT. RUINS - DAY
TODD is loping through sheets of rain. The terrain around him
features ghostly shells of buildings, shards of a city nearly
invisible through the curtains of rain.
His feet slash through flooding gutters and trash filled streets
bordered by ruins as he runs smoothly, evenly, keeping a good
pace, his breath rasping rhythmically, his eyes revealing
nothing as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OFFICER QUARTERS - DAY
SLOAN accepts a cup of hot coffee from RUBRICK as she considers
the plastic "papers" MEKUM has spread on the cluttered desk.
Ponchos have been hung by the door. MEKUM is pointing to various
numbers and paragraphs.
CHURCH has been staring out the window into the pouring rain. He
turns to MEKUM and interrupts.
CHURCH
Our man has been out there fifteen
minutes now. Shouldn't you send one?
MEKUM
(smug grin, to Church)
In a minute.
(turning back to Sloan)
Now, see this test? This shows what
they do under sleep deprivation
conditions. Forty-eight hours awake
and they can...
CUT TO:
EXT. TODD RUNNING/RUINS - DAY
Rain slashes his face as TODD runs, his eyes staring vacantly
into the blinding storm, his legs pumping evenly, his feet
chopping through the thick mud in a wasteland of shelled
apartment buildings where rat-like CREATURES scurry out of his
way as we...
CUT TO:
INT. "STATION" - DAY
Separated by fifteen yards, the two groups of SOLDIERS, the NEW
and the VETERAN, sit on the cold cement floor, staring vacantly
into space as they await orders. Occasionally a VETERAN will rub
his chin, another will scratch his nose, but nobody says
anything, and when their eyes accidentally meet, they look away
deliberately, expressionless. Nobody flinches when a big door
opens and pale light streams in.
MEKUM is standing there in a poncho.
MEKUM
Melton, Eight Five. Forward.
MELTON, one of the husky new soldiers, climbs to his feet and
steps toward MEKUM, saluting.
MELTON
Eight Five, sir.
MEKUM
Ten miles, Melton, on the run.
MELTON's face shows no expression as MEKUM continues.
MEKUM (O.S.)
You've got sixty minutes. Go.
MELTON
Sir!
MELTON heads out into the rain running smoothly and easily as
we...
CUT TO:
EXT. TODD/RUINS - DAY
TODD's breath comes in even rasps as his feet splash over rough
terrain, splash splash splash, hard work but nothing in his
stone face indicates he's not equal to the task. Splash splash
splash!
CUT TO:
INT. OFFICER QUARTERS - DAY
In the cluttered office, RUBRICK, CHURCH, and SLOAN look up from
a conversation as MEKUM enters dripping wet and takes off his
poncho, smiling smugly.
MEKUM
My man left exactly twenty minutes
after yours. Make a note of that.
RUBRICK
What are we supposed to do with the
old soldiers?
MEKUM
(a shrug and a grin)
Old soldiers never die.
CUT TO:
EXT. TODD/RUINS - DAY
Running. Splash splash splash! TODD makes a turn, heading back,
his face like stone, as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OFFICERS QUARTERS - DAY
MEKUM is filling his coffee cup as he speaks.
MEKUM
They'll serve as a labor force. You
can use them for physical stuff...
loading, unloading, repairs, power
lines, that kind of thing.
(a glance around the
office)
Even cleaning...sweeping...,uh,
tidying up.
CUT TO:
EXT. TODD/RUINS - DAY
Breathing steadily, raspily, TODD lopes through the rain.
Something makes him glance back over his shoulder.
Thirty yards back he sees a vague shape, obscured by rain.
TODD looks ahead again, his face revealing nothing, his legs
maintaining the same even pace, running, running, running.
Then he looks back again.
The vague shape is taking form, a GHOSTLY RUNNER getting closer.
TODD continues at the same even place. He doesn't look back
again until he feels closeness. Then he looks.
IT'S MELTON only a few yards behind him, running effortlessly,
keeping a steady pace that's faster than TODD's. The bigger man
moves even with TODD without even looking at him, as though TODD
weren't there, and then he moves ahead like a big machine,
inexorable.
As TODD runs, eyes straight ahead, he can see MELTON becoming
ghostly, disappearing in the curtains of rain ahead as we...
CUT TO:
INT. "STATION" - DAY
The huge doors are open to the rain as SLOAN, CHURCH, RUBRICK,
and MEKUM watch for signs of TODD. Still dripping vet, the
muscular MELTON is standing beside MEKUM, breathing heavily but
not desperately.
MEKUM
Of course, age is a factor, but the
real factor is the training program,
especially the psychological. The
mind controls the body after all,
and we're doing wonderful things
with the mind.
A shape appears in the rain a hundred yards off, moves closer,
takes the form of a runner running. It's TODD, still moving at
the same pace, his face like stone.
TODD lopes into the big warehouse and, breathing hard but evenly,
comes to a halt in front of RUBRICK and salutes.
TODD
Sir.
RUBRICK
At ease, soldier.
CHURCH has been thinking and now he speaks to MEKUM.
CHURCH
What's the price of all that speed?
Is he tired?
MEKUM
Tired?
CHURCH
Todd here ran the pace he's been
taught to run. He's still strong.
Send him up the chain, Rube.
RUBRICK
(to Todd)
Soldier! Up the chain!
TODD
Sir.
TODD salutes and lopes toward ten chains that dangle from the
rafters sixty feet above, grabs one, and starts up it, hand over
hand.
MEKUM watches TODD climb, then looks at CHURCH who is looking at
him expectantly.
MEKUM grins at CHURCH.
Then MEKUM looks back at TODD, not hurrying.
TODD is thirty feet up and climbing, passing the eight inch
circular "platforms" or footholds in the chain every ten feet.
MEKUM
(sharply)
Melton, on the double! Up a chain!
MELTON
(saluting)
Sir!
MELTON takes a few easy strides, gracefully catches a chain mid-
stride, and smarts up, climbing easily and twice as fast as TODD.
CHURCH, SLOAN, and RUBRICK crane their necks as the two men
struggle upward toward the rafters.
Three quarters of the way up, MELTON comes even with TODD, then
passes him.
MEKUM, watching, smirks.
CHURCH is watching too, and he's still not satisfied. His brow
is knit, something's bothering him.
ANGLE HIGH ABOVE, AMONG THE GIRDERS
Stonefaced, MELTON is resting an a "platform" on the chain, sixty
feet up, beneath the girders, swaying gently.
His stony gaze is on the next chain where TODD is arriving at a
"platform" on an adjacent chain...only three feet away.
Their eyes meet, TODD and MELTON alone together sixty feet up,
three feet apart. Neither man blinks, neither man flinches,
neither man reveals anything at all...
LOW ANGLE, LOOKING UP
CHURCH considers the men high above, then to MEKUM.
CHURCH
What about...spirit?
MEKUM
(as in "what's that?")
Spirit?
(...a grin)
Oh! You mean "AQ"..."aggressive
qualities"?
CHURCH
Whatever the latest jargon is.
MEKUM
Much better, much higher. For
example, where your old ones
expressed ninety percent of their
sexual energy in aggressive
physicality, these new ones are
ninety-nine percent without
sexual inclination. It's all
aggression.
SLOAN
(dryly)
Real men!
CHURCH
(sharply, to Sloan)
At ease, Lieutenant.
(turning to Mekum,
serious)
What if they fought?
A sudden silence.
SLOAN raises her eyebrows, gives RUBRICK a look.
Frowning thoughtfully, MEKUM looks up.
MEKUM
You mean up there?
CHURCH
(to Rubrick)
Go ahead, Rube. Tell Todd to take
him.
MEKUM
No!
They all look at MEKUM. Is this the chink in the armor? The new
soldiers can't fight?
CHURCH
"No"?
MEKUM
Not fair. No contest. Send two
more of your old ones up.
Now CHURCH, RUBRICK, and SLOAN are stunned. They exchange a
glance.
MEKUM
Go ahead.
RUBRICK shrugs, turns to the VETERANS still sitting stoically in
a group on the cement floor.
RUBRICK
Romero, A. -- Goines, D.L. -- up
the chains.
Two of the veterans, ROMERO and GOINES, leap immediately to their
feet and climb rapidly.
SLOAN, CHURCH, and RUBRICK exchange a look as MEKUM smirks
confidently.
ANGLE ON TODD AND MELTON ABOVE. They're still facing each other
across the sixty foot drop.
MELTON glances down...without losing sight of TODD.
ROMERO and GOINES are coming up the chains fast, hand over hand.
They're within ten feet, their impassive faces look dangerous.
Nothing shows on MELTON's machine-face, but he starts a slight
motion in his chain so that he spins slowly. That way, as the
veterans surround him, he keeps a continual eye an all three.
TODD, his face impassive, eyes MELTON vigilantly.
ANGLE ON RUBRICK BELOW
For a long moment, RUBRICK looks up at the three men dangling
around the new soldier, then he shouts loudly at them.
RUBRICK
Get him, men!
ANGLE ON TODD as SMASH! TODD is hit hard in the face even as he
starts to swing. WHAM! MELTON hits him again and TODD loses his
grip on the chain, starts to fall, grabs at the chain, clutches,
slides...
ANGLE ON MELTON, CRUNCH!, hit as he swings at MELTON. WHAM!
MELTON hits him again, hard.
GOINES swings against MELTON from behind, smashing at him with
his free hand and with both feet.
MELTON ignores the blows from behind as he grabs ROMERO by the
face with one hand, yanks the face close to his own, and squeezes
mercilessly.
ANGLE ON TODD, TWENTY FEET BELOW. He's managed to get a foothold
on one of the mini-platforms. His face horribly bloody, he looks
up at the action twenty feet above him and sees MELTON suddenly
hurl ROMERO downward.
ROMERO rockets down past TODD...
ANGLE ON THE FLOOR as SMASH! ROMERO's body crunches against the
cement not far from RUBRICK, SLOAN, and CHURCH, splattering them
with blood.
Their eyes are wide with disbelief and horror as they look up
again...
ANGLE ON MELTON in the girders as he turns to face the man who's
been clubbing him from behind...GOINES!
GOINES swings his chain wide and MELTON, eyes merciless, deadly,
swings after him.
ANGLE ON TODD, bloody, struggling up the chain hand over hand.
His eyes follow MELTON above as the new soldier swings and
swings, trying to get a blow at GOINES.
Just then, GOINES lunges at MELTON, SMACK, SMASH, he hits him
hard, and WHAM! MELTON hits him back...
ANGLE ON TODD who has climbed to a "platform" foothold on his
chain five feet above the swinging fighters. TODD looks down
on MELTON's back as the big man swings close, watching, tensing,
then...
TODD dives off his chain and lands on MELTON's back, crooking one
arm around the new soldier's neck and pounding him with one free
hand and strangling him with the other arm.
MELTON gurgles while GOINES hits him in the face.
ANGLE ON MEKUM WATCHING BELOW. For the first time a frown of
concern wrinkles his brow.
ANGLE ON MELTON AND TODD on chains just below the girders.
MELTON slams an elbow back into TODD's ribs hard and TODD gasps
for air, but...
GOINES uses the moment to slam a knee into MELTON's balls and...
MELTON gasps, then grabs GOINES by the neck with one hand, rips
him from the chain, and sends him plunging violently downward
even as...
TODD goes for face with his free hand.
SLAM! MELTON smashes TODD in the ribs with an elbow.
TODD savagely gouges out one of MELTON's eyes.
ANGLE ON MEKUM, sixty feet below, enraged at the sight of
MELTON's injury.
ANGLE ON THE VETERANS watching the brutal fight with blank
impassive faces, RILEY among them.
ANGLE ON THE NEW SOLDIERS watching, robot-like.
ANGLE ON THE STRUGGLE OVERHEAD. SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! MELTON's
elbows drive back into TODD's ribs. The breath knocked out of
him, TODD gasps for air, pain contorting his face.
MELTON manages to get TODD's forearm into his mouth and bites
furiously, drawing blood.
TODD grits his teeth in pain.
WHAM! Another blow to the ribs from MELTON's elbow.
TODD is losing his grip.
RILEY watches below, his face a mask.
MELTON bites and elbows furiously.
TODD loses his grip and grabs at MELTON, rakes flesh as he begins
to fall and then...
Plunging downward, TODD grabs wildly at the chain and catches it
...but he keeps falling, the chain ripping flesh from his hand
for twenty feet until...
He can't hold on any longer! TODD plunges the last thirty feet
to the floor, landing with a terrible crunch right on top of
ROMERO's broken body below.
Sudden silence!
ANGLE ON THE VETERANS watching impassively as TODD lies
motionless, sprawled on ROMERO's body.
ANGLE ON THE NEW SOLDIERS revealing no feelings.
ANGLE ON CHURCH, SLOAN, and RUBRICK looking stunned and shaken.
It's MEKUM who breaks the silence, SCREAMING furiously at the one-
eyed MELTON who's still sixty feet up...
MEKUM
GET DOWN HERE! GET DOWN HERE ON THE
DOUBLE, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE, YOU
MISERABLE PISS ANT STINKING SHIT FOR
BRAINS!
CHURCH, SLOAN, and RUBRICK lift their stunned faces from TODD to
MEKUM who's continuing to rant at MELTON as MELTON comes down the
chain fast...
MELTON
COME ON, DOUBLE IT UP, DOWN, DOWN,
DOWN, YOU MISERABLE THIRD RATE
SHITHEAD INCOMPETENT CLOWN!
MELTON lets go of the chain and drops the last fifteen feet,
landing gracefully on his feet in front of MEKUM and salutes.
MELTON
Sir!
MEKUM
LOOK AT YOU, YOU BIG DUMB SHIT,
YOU'VE LOST AN EYE. WHAT THE HELL
GOOD IS A GODDAMN ONE-EYED SOLDIER?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT COST TO BREED
YOU, YOU BIG MORON? TO TRAIN YOU,
FEED YOU?
As MEKUM turns, including all the NEW SOLDIERS in his continuing
tirade, CHURCH, SLOAN, and RUBRICK confer in low voices.
RUBRICK
They're...fantastic!
CHURCH
(reluctant agreement)
Mmmmmmm...
SLOAN
(worried)
We could have a problem here,
couldn't we? I mean, we just lost
three men...
CHURCH
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that.
"Training accident." Paperwork.
SLOAN
What about the bodies?
CHURCH
(turning away)
Incinerator.
Turning his back on SLOAN and RUBRICK, CHURCH approaches MEKUM
who's still raging, indicating MELTON to the blank-faced NEW
SOLDIERS.
MEKUM
WHAT GOOD IS THIS MAN NOW? WITH ONE
GOOD EYE! HE'S GOT NO DEPTH PERCEPTION!
HE'S CANNON FODDER. ALL HE CAN DO
IS WALK POINT AND TAKE THE FIRST
HIT.
CHURCH
(interrupting)
They're very...impressive.
MEKUM
(fuming)
Yeah, well, the big moron shouldn't
have lost an eye.
CHURCH glances at TODD's corpse dumped over ROMERO's broken body,
tries to assuage him.
CHURCH
It was our best man who got his
eye... Todd, a real tough one.
Survived police action in Montana,
fought in the Argentine Sector, and
in the Saudi Campaign to say nothing
of --
MEKUM
Old news! They're nothing at all!
Wait until you get these new fellas
into some real action. I guarantee
you'll be awed. I guarantee it.
The NEW SOLDIERS sit impassively, the bleeding MELTON among them,
staring right at the VETERANS.
Not far away three dead bodies lie motionless as we...
CUT TO:
INT. FURNACES/FURNACE ROOM - NIGHT
A rage of flame! The mouth of a huge furnace leers with yellow
fury, eight feet high.
Two men, BURNERS, in asbestos fire suits and helmets, appear,
laboriously dragging a tattered sofa leaking stuffing. With
effort they shove it into the blazing furnace where it is quickly
consumed. Slowly the BURNERS turn and trudge back for another
load as we REVEAL A REFUSE BIN, seven feet high, looming in the
shadows not far from the flickering light of the furnace. It's
overflowing with junk, barely distinguishable in the gloom.
The BURNERS grab blindly and haul out the next object.
It's ROMERO's dead body. They haul it out of the bin and let it
flop limply to the floor where ROMERO stares sightlessly at
nothing.
The BURNERS stare at the body, exchange a blank look through
their visors, shrug and start to drag the heavy carcass toward
the flames.
INT. REFUSE BIN/FURNACE ROOM/CLOSE BY
In the near darkness, the faintest flickering light reveals two
tangled BODIES, motionless in the confusion of refuse. But not
quite motionless! A hand opens and closes! A bloody hand!
Fingers twitch.
INT. FURNACE ROOM
ROARING FLAMES as ROMERO's body is tossed unceremoniously into the
fire where the flames begin to consume it.
For half a second the BURNERS watch ROMERO melt into fire, then
they turn their backs and head back for another load.
INT. REFUSE BIN/FURNACE ROOM
BURNERS' hands reach in and haul out another corpse, GOINES,
dragging the body right over TODD's body.
As GOINES' shoe drags over TODD's face, TODD's eyes flicker
stupidly.
Then GOINES' corpse is pulled over the edge of the bin.
TODD blinks, fighting for consciousness. Where is he? He moves
his head...
INT. FURNACE ROOM
The BURNERS, silhouetted by flames, feed GOINES' body to the
furnace.
CLOSE ON THE FLAMES as GOINES' body is consumed by raging
flames.
ANGLE ON THE BURNERS trudging to the bin. They reach in blindly
for whatever's next. Tugging with effort, they struggle the
clumsy object over the rim, and let it fall to the floor. It's a
mattress!
Communicating with a look, the FIRST BURNER drags the mattress
toward the fire while the SECOND BURNER reaches again into the
bin.
The SECOND BURNER frowns through the visor, struggles with
something, frowns, wrestles with it.
Finally, with great effort, he pulls out a big carton that
immediately spills old magazines on him.
Disgusted, he pulls the partially full carton across the refuse-
littered floor toward the furnaces.
ANGLE ON HIS FEET, as the SECOND BURNER struggles toward the
fire, stepping over a trail of blood which is hardly noticeable
in the flickering firelight.
He passes another big corrugated bin with a sign an it. The sign
says NONFLAMMABLE WASTE DISPOSAL...and the trail of blood leads
to that bin!
CUT TO:
EXT. OUTER SPACE - "DAY"
Silence! A vast darkness with only a few tiny lights in the
infinite depths.
A battered rusty spaceship glides slowly and silently into view.
This is a GARBAGE SHIP and it looks it. Awkward and slow and
totally unglamorous, it moves through space like a great clumsy
church made of steel as we...
CUT TO:
INT. HOLD/GARBAGE SHIP - "DAY"
As the massive doors on the underside of the ship open, light
spills in and there is a huge ROAR as tons of debris, including
massive pieces of machinery, huge statues, old vehicles, and
numerous containers, spill out through the open bays and tumble
downward. The one that says "Nonflammable Waste" on the side
careens against the bulkhead with a THUNDEROUS sound, then
hurtles downward.
EXT. JUNK MOUNTAINS/LANDSCAPE
As debris from the ship tumbles down onto one of several huge
mountains of junk that loom 800 hundred feet above a windswept
terrain dimly lit by four pale suns, the bays close, and the
rusty GARBAGE SHIP glides away.
Still the cascade of machines and other bulky junk THUNDERS down
the steep slopes, shattering, breaking into parts, tumbling and
tumbling, settling here and there, while a SCREAMING WIND, very
powerful, picks off the lighter pieces and carries them off like
snow blowing off a mountain.
The familiar-looking container somersaults halfway down the slope
where it bursts open, spilling a confusion of junk.
Above the container, a huge drum smashes into a hunk of machinery
and splits, oozing an awful looking liquid that spills down onto
the contents of the container, sizzling and smoking on steel,
eating it like acid.
Not far from a smoking piece of steel, WE FIND TODD'S foot
protruding from the junk heap! It's motionless! Acid drips and
hisses.
ANGLE ON TODD, sprawled "inside" the mountain of junk, grimacing
in pain as acid hits his exposed foot. Trapped in the debris,
battered and bloody and weak, he struggles to rise, fights the
heavy objects pinning him, fights to avoid the dripping acid. As
the wind SCREAMS furiously, he continues to struggle against the
junk that pins him as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. "INSIDE" AND OUTSIDE THE MOUNTAIN - DAY - A LITTLE LATER
TODD's head, caked with blood, appears from the junk like a man
looking out of a cave. Wind seizes at his hair furiously.
He looks up, sees four pale suns in the sky...just as a huge
steel lathe comes somersaulting down from above like a loose
boulder, and TODD has to duck hastily to avoid certain death.
As the heavy steel tumbles down the slope below him, wind plucks
a twelve-foot I-beam from the slope next to him and whips it off
in a frenzy.
Holding on for dear life, TODD looks down at the ground four
hundred feet below and sees a bleak wasteland strewn with junk
shifting and skittering in the wind.
He notices something and reacts.
Far down on the floor there is a strange pattern of lines...and
moving along one of the lines are four tiny FIGURES...they could
be humans...but maybe not!
For a moment TODD watches them.
Then he starts to climb downward through the labyrinth of junk
"inside" the mountain, and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. LOWER ON "JUNK MOUNTAIN" - DAY - MINUTES LATER
Far down the slope, perhaps forty feet from the foot of the
massive mountain, TODD's head pokes out of the confusion of junk
and he looks down at the FIGURES below.
Seen more closely, the FIGURES are more distinct, but no less
mysterious. Heavy outer garments like huge parkas and hoods blur
their individual shapes as they inch across the landscape,
apparently clutching one of several crisscrossing wires that
stretch tautly for miles across the bleak terrain like "roads"
through the wind.
TODD watches as one of the FIGURES moves off the "road." He's
trailing rope that attaches him to the others as he struggles
through the wind, walking almost on all fours like an ape.
TODD watches the FIGURE moving among bits of junk until he
locates something he wants, picks it up, and starts to struggle
back toward the others, dragging his burden after him.
TODD is watching what would seem to be some sort of scavenging
process by these strange unearthly FIGURES as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. FADING SUNS - DUSK - LATER
The four suns are changing color, dimming in the sky, as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. LANDSCAPE AND "JUNK MOUNTAIN" - DUSK
Tiny in the distance, the four FIGURES are moving together along
a cable, headed away from the junk mountain.
At ground level now, TODD is watching them, crouched behind a
massive transformer that teeters slightly in the wind in spite of
its great bulk.
Peeking around the sheltering transformer, he spots one of the
taut cables lashed to an enormous piece of junk near the foot of
"his" mountain. The cable is twenty yards away in a "canyon" of
junk and he'll have to move across open space partially exposed
to the wind in order to get to it.
He starts out from behind the transformer...
WHOOOOOO! Screaming wind lifts him and hurls him thirty feet,
his arms flailing. He comes down even further from the cable,
struggling to keep on his feet. Gritting his teeth, he fights
the wind, struggles toward the cable.
Suddenly a chunk of steel whips at him and he ducks just in time
as it whistles close to his head.
TODD drops to the ground and starts to crawl "under the wind,"
toward the taut cable, and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. "STEEL HENGE" - DUSK - LATER
Seen by TODD, the four tiny FIGURES are far ahead, disappearing
in the distance and the dusk.
Following them on a taut wire, TODD is passing through a barren
landscape punctuated by strange ruins, great shapes of steel
thrusting out of the ground and looming over and around him,
vaguely recognizable as the wreckage of a space vehicle that must
have crashed long ago.
The mountains of junk squat a mile behind him. He's come a long
way, it's almost dark, he's weak.
He hangs onto the wire, walking with effort.
He can no longer see the creatures ahead of him on the wire.
He notices something thirty yards off the wire to the right.
Steel crosses. Maybe a hundred of them. A cemetery.
Just then, the wind catches TODD, yanks him, but he hangs onto
the wire, holding on desperately, as the wind pulls at him and
makes him flap like a pennant in the breeze.
Then the wind dies enough for him to get both hands on the wire
and get weakly to his feet. For a moment he looks like he might
collapse, but he doesn't, and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. LANDSCAPE - NIGHT
At night the four suns glow darkly like night lights.
TODD is alone on the planet, punished by the savage wind,
struggling along the wire, shivering.
Every stop is an effort, but the eyes stare into the dark and
they reveal no emotion, not even when he suddenly tenses, seeing
something ahead.
In the distance a faint light glows.
TODD considers it as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. WINDOW/SKYLIGHT - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER
The window is detached plexi from some kind of vehicle, embedded
in a low mound of "earth" like a skylight. Whatever is making
the light comes from below in a sort of hut that slopes only
inches above the ground.
TODD is hanging onto the cable only ten yards from the strange
window. He can see more of them glowing all around him, as well
as silhouetted pipes issuing smoke to the wind.
TODD drops to his belly to keep under the wind. He crawls ten
yards to the window and pears through it.
TODD'S POV of a fantastic confusion of color and movement seen
through the thick scratched plexiglass window. The wild blurs of
activity make no sense to him whatsoever, nor do the very FAINT
SQUEALS of sound barely audible over the deafening ROAR of the
wind.
(What he's seeing in the room below is a violent pillow fight
between eight BOYS and GIRLS ranging from four to ten years old.
Wearing cotton shifts dyed red, blue, or yellow they're smacking
each other violently with rag pillows and laughing happily in a
dormitory-style full of stacked bunks.)
ANGLE ON TODD, prone on the "roof," mystified. He's never seen
anything like it. His grease-covered face barely reveals his
puzzlement when he is suddenly distracted by a change in the
wind.
The ROARING WIND that has dominated the environment since he first
arrived has diminished to a strong breeze.
TODD tries sitting up. The breeze doesn't overpower him. He
looks around.
The meaningless SHRIEKS of the pillow fight, though still muffled
by heavy plexiglass, are LOUDER now, but TODD's attention is on
the other window/skylight that glows from this strange "roof" and
on the strange sound that's coming to him, borne on the breeze...
a MUSICAL sound.
Struggling weakly to his feet, TODD staggers toward the next
window. The MUSIC is LOUDER as he approaches -- it's waltz music
played on an accordion.
TODD drops to his knees and peers through the next window.
TODD'S POV through the second "window," another mysterious
vision! The color and movement are more subdued, but TODD is
just as puzzled.
What he's seeing indistinctly through the thick plexiglass is an
OVERHEAD VIEW of a man and a woman gliding across the floor,
moving as one, first this way, then that, in time to a WALTZ. In
the corner, another person is making a strange movement that
seems to initiate the music...
ANGLE ON TODD, flat on the roof. Now that the weak breeze has
given way to a deathly stillness, the mysterious (to him) MUSIC
is clearly audible as TODD peers through the plexiglass at the
warm scene below, as puzzled by the waltzing couple as by the
pillow fights.
Then he gets to his feet again and in the stillness makes his way
past a smoking chimney toward the next window. Halfway there he
freezes...listening!
A strange haunting WHISTLING sound is coming from somewhere...
TODD looks around at the blackness beyond the roof windows.
There's nothing visible...
The mysterious sound is louder now, drowning out the music
ominously, drowning out everything, everything, everything.
Suddenly TODD understands, but he's too late...
ROOOOOOOOOOAAR! It's the WIND, back with renewed fury, more
powerful than ever!
TODD is hurtled into the air, tossed head over heels by the wind,
struggling, clutching at empty air in vain, buffeted, slammed to
the ground, lifted again before he can flatten himself, tossed
violently, somersaulted helplessly...
EXT. INSIDE A TRENCH
WHAM! TODD is slammed face first to the ground. For a long
moment he's motionless, untouched by the HOWLING WIND for reasons
that aren't clear.
Finally he rolls over weakly and looks up.
In the weak light he can just make out the steep earthen walls of
a narrow trench looming eight feet straight up, protecting him
from the wind howling overhead.
TODD tries to get up...but the fall has injured his leg and he
slumps to the floor of the three-foot-wide trench, too weak and
injured even to crawl.
Lying there, barely conscious, gasping for breath, he suddenly
sees something.
Shoes! Less than a foot from his bloody face.
He manages to lift his head a little and look up.
Silhouetted by the light spilling from an open door in the trench
wall are four children...ELLEN, ten, WILL, six, TOMMY, five, and
JOHNNY, eight.
Barely conscious, TODD can just make out the astonishment on
their blurred shadowy faces as they look down at him in
amazement. Then they go OUT OF FOCUS altogether as TODD slumps
unconscious and everything goes BLACK BLACK BLACK, and we...
CUT TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM - NIGHT
VOICES, CONFUSION. About fifty people are jammed into the low-
ceilinged meeting room, all of them talking at once. They are
PIONEERS, men and women of all ages and many races, a hardy,
weathered-looking group dressed in plain clothes of muted color.
Their faces seem to have been etched by the wind with deep lines,
the skin burnished, and even the younger ones have crow's feet
around the eyes from squinting.
As they chatter excitedly, asking each other what happened, who
found him, where, and so on, a sharp-faced fifty-ish woman,
HAWKINS, is standing behind a table in the front of the room,
calling for order.
HAWKINS
Please! Quiet, please!
Just as the hubbub finally dies down, a grizzled pioneer named
SLADE bellows loudly at her.
SLADE
Just tell me one thing! How many of
them are there and are they armed?
HAWKINS stares SLADE down, refusing to speak until she has real
silence. When she finally speaks, her voice is calm and
controlled.
HAWKINS
There in a man...one man. He was
found in the trench by several
children...
A sudden murmur dies away quickly under HAWKINS' hard stare.
HAWKINS
This man was not armed.
A murmur goes through the crowded room, then a woman named ELISE
speaks over the hum of voices...
ELISE
How could there only be one? How
could he get here?
HAWKINS glances toward MACE, a muscular, bearded man, about
thirty.
MACE
He was unconscious. We couldn't ask
him anything. He --
A commotion in the back room causes MACE to break off as JIMMY
PIG, a clean-shaven burly-looking pioneer in his thirties, pushes
his way in, followed by four more PIONEERS. All five of then are
wearing their huge hooded parkas, strange Eskimo-type wind
goggles, and carrying weapons.
JIMMY PIG
Nothin' out there. We couldn't see
nobody, couldn't see no ship, no
vehicles, nothin'...plus the wind's
up again real strong.
An excited hubbub. HAWKINS is trying to restore order when SLADE
shouts over the commotion.
SLADE
They're hiding, I bet.
HAWKINS ignores him as she speaks with firm authority.
HAWKINS
Let's everybody calm down right now!
(beat; silence; then)
We have an injured man among us.
One man. A traveler. Unarmed.
(another pause; then)
We all want to do the decent thing.
The decent thing is to help him.
Mace's wife, Sandra, is looking
after him now. Now, I'd like a vote
of support on this course of action
from all of you.
The way she says it, you know she's used to getting her way, and,
in fact, PIONEERS are exchanging glances and nodding when SLADE
shouts again.
SLADE
You keep an eye on him, Mace! You
watch him!
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
TODD is on his back in a bed in a tiny earth-walled bedroom. He
stares stupidly at the woman bending over him. She is SANDRA, a
woman of twenty-five who is attractive, but not in a glamorous
way. It's a very natural beauty worn with intelligence and
dignity. She's wiping away blood and grease from TODD's face.
TODD's eyes flick around the room even as he lies motionless.
He sees a window high on one wall.
He sees old-fashioned magazine pictures and bits of patterned
material hung here and there for decoration.
Clothing hangs from pegs on the walls.
He doesn't see the look in SANDRA's eyes as she discovers the
savage scar on his forehead or the sergeant's tattoo on his
cheek. Eyeing these telltale marks, SANDRA pours liquid into a
spoon and holds it to his lips.
SANDRA
Want to try some more of this?
TODD swallows weakly.
SANDRA smiles, stands up, moves toward the door.
SANDRA
You rest now. I'll give you more
later.
TODD watches her exit.
He hears her VOICE in the next room...a low murmur.
He's looking around again when a NOISE makes him look back toward
the door.
A two-year-old is crawling into the room on hands and knees. The
baby boy, NATHAN, stops just inside, seeing TODD in the bed.
NATHAN looks into TODD's eyes with childlike interest and wonder.
TODD meets the look with those blank soldier's eyes.
INT. "LIVING ROOM"
A second tiny room next to the bedroom is the rest of the
Mace/Sandra/Nathan living quarters. MACE and SANDRA are deep in
conversation.
MACE
What do you mean he's survived
worse? Did he say something?
SANDRA
No, but he's covered with old
wounds, all sorts of scars. Knife
scars, bullet scars, burns.
MACE
(worried)
A soldier!
SANDRA
There are words on his shoulder.
Tannhauser Gate, the Argentine
Sector, Montana, Bolivia, Shanghai
2012...
MACE
The Tannhauser Gate was a battle...
MACE and SANDRA look into each other's eyes, very worried.
Then...
SANDRA
We'll have to sleep on the floor.
MACE
(suddenly alarmed)
Where's Nathan?
MACE is looking around. He spots the open door to the bedroom,
hurries to it, and disappears.
SANDRA starts after him, looking worried...but before she gets to
the door, MACE reappears with NATHAN safely in his arms.
MACE
If there's any danger to Nathan --
SANDRA
(interrupting grimly)
I won't permit danger to Nathan.
MACE and SANDRA lock eyes in firm understanding as we...
CUT TO:
INT. WAR SHIP - "DAY"
EXPLOSION! SCREAMS! SMOKE! A SIREN! We're in some kind of war
ship in outer space during a battle.
The interior is a lot like the interior of a submarine, cramped
even in the best conditions and right now the conditions are
awful as SOLDIERS in bulky space suits stumble through thick
smoke while a SIREN WHOOPS urgently and wounded SOLDIERS scream
in agony.
WHOOOOM! Another EXPLOSION! SCREAMING METAL!
Part of the bulkhead is shot away and the suction is like wind,
ripping SOLDIERS out of the hole into space..
We FOCUS ON a soldier in a space suit who's wedged himself behind
a cannon. As we look closely at his visor, we recognize TODD
who's firing back at the enemy while all around him SOLDIERS are
screaming and dying as we...
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - MORNING
SUDDEN SILENCE! TODD blinks awake. He looks around.
It's the same bedroom, but morning light is streaming in the high
window.
He can hear SOUNDS...LAUGHTER...coming from beyond the door.
INT. OTHER ROOM
NATHAN is wobbling forward with wide eyes as MACE holds one of
his hands and SANDRA holds the other. They're teaching the child
to walk, encouraging each step. But when they let go, NATHAN
totters forward only one step before landing flat on his ass.
MACE and SANDRA laugh, making the whole thing a game, and NATHAN,
after a moment of confusion, joins in the laughter. It's a warm
moment until SANDRA, sensing a presence, turns toward the
bedroom, suddenly serious.
MACE follows her look.
TODD is standing in the doorway, supporting himself on the door
frame...his soldier's eyes full of unspoken menace... one leg
heavily bandaged.
SANDRA
(nervous)
You must be...you must be feeling
better.
TODD says nothing. His eyes flick to NATHAN.
MACE is watching TODD sharply.
MACE
We're teaching the boy to walk.
SANDRA
(nervously filling silence)
He's late learning. He was sick for
a long time.
TODD says nothing. His eyes follow MACE who's gone to the corner
where he's seizing a heavy metal rod that might be a weapon.
TODD tenses. Ready. Dangerous.
As MACE turns toward him, MACE doesn't notice the danger in
TODD'S eyes.
MACE
I got something for you.
He innocently approaches with the metal rod.
Super alert, TODD watches MACE hold the rod out to him.
MACE
Here.
TODD looks mistrustful.
MACE
Like this.
MACE demonstrates, using the rod like a cane.
MACE
See?
Expressionless, watches MACE use the cane.
MACE
Practice with it. In a day or two
maybe you'll be strong enough to go
out to the garden with Sandra.
MACE never even realizes how much danger he was in.
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY - A LITTLE LATER
TODD's heavy boots come close to NATHAN, the cane clumps down,
just missing him.
NATHAN looks up with open-mouthed innocence and childlike wonder
at TODD who looms past him, walking very cautiously with the help
of a cane.
TODD looks down at NATHAN. Their eyes meet for a moment. TODD
is wearing one of the heavy parkas the pioneers wear.
SANDRA answers a KNOCK at the door, opens it, revealing ELLEN,
the ten-year-old, in the doorway. Behind her are JOHNNY and
WILL, as well as several other CHILDREN of various ages.
ELLEN
I came for Nathan.
But ELLEN's eyes are on TODD and so are the others crowding
behind her to peep over her shoulder. They all want to get a
look at TODD, but when he looks in their direction, they retreat
shyly.
SANDRA is wearing a parka too. She picks up NATHAN from where
he's sitting near TODD's feet and carries him to the door, giving
him a kiss, then handing him to ELLEN.
NATHAN starts to cry and holds his arms out to his mother as
ELLEN hugs him and comforts him.
TODD watches the drama as ELLEN and SANDRA comfort the child and
soothe his fears at being separated from his mother.
Nothing shows in TODD's eyes...but affection seems to fascinate
him.
As ELLEN and her cohorts hurry off with NATHAN, they sneak over-
the-shoulder glances at the strange monster, TODD.
Just then MACE, dressed in a heavy parka also, comes out of the
bedroom and heads for the door.
MACE
Let's go. Come on, Sergeant.
MACE is heading out the door as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH - NIGHT - MINUTES LATER
Single-file, a dozen PIONEERS move along a trench as the wind
SCREAMS overhead.
We DISCOVER the cane and boots of TODD among them. The MAN in
front of TODD glances back at him occasionally, curious, while
MACE and SANDRA walk behind him.
As they pass huts, there are windows high in one sloping wall of
the trench. TODD doesn't notice the distorted faces of the
CHILDREN peering out at him, their noses pressed against the
plexiglass, full of curiosity as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. A JUNCTION OF TRENCHES - DAY
Three trenches meet. Some of the PIONEERS move off to the left,
some to the right. MACE is going left, but SANDRA guides TODD
toward the right with her.
SANDRA
This way...
MACE gives her a wave. He waves at TODD too. TODD looks
confused at the wave, then he salutes.
MACE is startled by that. He sort of grins as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. GARDEN - DAY - LATER
A nasty little snake, a ten-inch VIPER, slithers through the dirt
among the neat rows of seedlings growing there until...
SQUASH! One neat blow from the sharp edge of a trowel
decapitates the VIPER.
SANDRA flips the still wriggling thing aside and wipes her trowel
clean in the dirt as TODD watches with those blank snake eyes of
his.
They're on all fours in a garden. The garden is simply a much
wider trench covered by a trellis so the light can be regulated.
There are already neat rows of vegetables are growing. Behind
them, kneeling PIONEERS are planting new seedlings and weeding
around more mature plants.
SANDRA turns back to place a seedling in the dirt with only an
offhand glance at the dead VIPER.
SANDRA
You have to watch out for them.
They probably wouldn't kill someone
your size, not if you were healthy
anyway. But they'd make you pretty
sick. Someone smaller...like me, or
a child...
Her meaning clear, SANDRA continues to demonstrate to TODD how to
plant the seedling in the earth.
SANDRA
In a month this one will be as big
as those.
TODD follows her look to the other side of the trench where the
plants are already eighteen inches high.
Other PIONEERS, working on their hands and knees also, are
sneaking glances as TODD, among them, a middle-aged woman named
JUDITH and an older woman, EMMA.
SANDRA frowns one of their looks away protectively as she selects
another seedling from a tray and hands it to TODD.
SANDRA
Here. You try one.
TODD looks at it. He doesn't exactly look scared, but he handles
it gingerly, seemingly intimidated by the delicate seedling. He
starts to plant it carefully as we...
CUT TO:
INT. DINING COMMONS - EVENING
Jabbering VOICES, the click of utensils. Heaping plates of food
are being passed the length of long tables set up in communal
style. JOHNNY is kicking ELLEN under the table, WILL flips a
piece of food at TOMMY when his mother, ILONA, isn't looking, and
the outspoken SLADE is lecturing a pioneer named CHESTER.
SLADE
You can't talk to a soldier no more
than you can talk to a...a...bomb!
Or a bullet! They're trained,
they're killing machines. They got
an objective and they go after that
objective and nothing stops them but
killing them.
CHESTER
(a glance over his
shoulder)
Just one? To kill us all?
The conversation gets the attention of JOHNNY and WILL who stop
food-fighting to listen to the adults talk.
SLADE
First off, if there's one, there's
more. That's how it is, soldiers
travel in bunches. Second, they
don't waste soldiers on folks
like us, that's for police! Training
soldiers to kill weaklings like us
is not what they call "cost
effective."
CHESTER
Then who do they fight?
SLADE
Other soldiers! There's a saying,
"Soldiers deserve soldiers."
ANGLE ON ILONA noticing WILL and TOMMY listening.
ILONA
Slade, hush up.
ANGLE ON TOMMY and WILL glancing toward the next table.
ANGLE ON THE NEXT TABLE where TODD, wedged between SANDRA and
MACE, is eating like a machine, looking neither right nor left as
people jabber all around him.
ANGLE ON JUDITH whispering to EMMA at a nearby table as she
watches TODD eat.
JUDITH
You see how much he's eating?
ANGLE ON SLADE who turns now and boldly addresses TODD across the
gap between the tables...
SLADE
I don't see how you can not remember
how you got here, Sergeant.
There's a sudden hush in the noisy room, broken only by a few
urgent whispers and a cough.
TODD looks up from his food and meets SLADE'S look.
SANDRA scowls at SLADE as SLADE persists...
SLADE
You're not a deserter, are you...
Sergeant?
The silence is even more charged than before.
SANDRA looks alarmed. Someone coughs. The tension is
unbearable.
TODD
No, sir.
A sigh of relief from everybody! But SLADE presses on.
SLADE
Then how come you're not with your
unit?
JIMMY PIG
Oh, come on, Slade, let the man eat.
SLADE
It's not an unreasonable question.
(to Todd)
How about it, Sergeant?
ON TODD, actually struggling with the question...
remembering. Suddenly he blurts...
TODD
I was...replaced.
MACE
Replaced?
TODD hesitates for half a second before answering.
TODD
By a better soldier, sir.
There are looks exchanged among the PIONEERS as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. GARDEN - DAY
A little seedling is fitted into the earth gently. TODD's strong
hands pat the earth around it.
TODD reaches for another seedling. He's one of a group of ten
PIONEERS, all on their hands and knees, all working intently,
silently. They seem to have accepted him. Nobody stares.
TODD is carefully patting the next seedling in the ground when
something causes him to look up.
Five ENEMY SOLDIERS in torn and dirty uniforms are looming over
him, weapons pointed at him. All around them is a desert of sand
stretching forever under a baking sun.
One of the soldiers kicks TODD.
ANGLE ON EMMA, JUDITH, and several other PIONEER WOMEN exchanging
nervous glances as they look back to where TODD's kneeling.
There are no soldiers...but somehow, he's trampled several rows
of seedlings.
TODD looks toward them, confused, disoriented by his "memory."
The women look away quickly, frightened, and we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - NIGHT
SANDRA is changing NATHAN's diaper as she chatters, her back to
TODD.
SANDRA
...And it got worse and worse. My
father hadn't had any work in three
months and...also...there were other
things...violence... political
feelings. My father said he'd heard
it was better in the Trinity moons.
A lot of other people must have had
the same idea because the ship was
jammed with people...mostly
families. That's probably why it
broke down... overloaded.
Across the room, TODD, wearing a T-shirt and baggy pants is
sitting on a stool, his face impassive as ever.
As SANDRA talks, her back to him, TODD's eyes are on the contours
of her body against the shift she's wearing. It's very...erotic.
SANDRA
Even after they made the repairs, it
barely got off the ground, it was an
old converted mining transport, a
piece of junk to start with. It
just...dropped. Maybe you saw
what's left of it...out there in the
wind. A lot of people died. And we
couldn't make any radio contact...
So we were stuck here. Nobody was
happy about it. A few years later,
when the dumpers started coming over
and dropping stuff, people tried to
get their attention with explosions
and fires. But it didn't work.
They must be unmanned...or they just
don't care. Maybe they think we're
garbage too!
TODD'S face is as impassive as ever while his eyes caress the
shape of her body...and she, unaware, continues to reminisce.
SANDRA
So there really wasn't any choice.
People had to pull together and make
the best of it. We became a...
community.
As SANDRA maneuvers NATHAN, TODD catches glimpses of her breasts
pushing against the material of the shift. She continues, still
not noticing where his attention is.
SANDRA
One good thing...nobody bothers us.
Who'd want to fight over a
godforsaken place like this?
A wry laugh. She turns to put NATHAN down on the floor and
catches TODD's eyes just as he shifts them quickly from her
breasts.
For a moment it's awkward...she looks at him...then she recovers.
SANDRA
I guess that's what you like! The
fighting, I mean. The wars.
(unsure, a question
really)
You must...you're a soldier...
TODD doesn't answer as we...
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR (AND MEETING ROOM) - DAY
The CHILDREN are peeking around a doorway, watching something in
the meeting room.
HAWKINS, coming along the dirt-walled corridor, spots the
CHILDREN ahead.
HAWKINS
You children are supposed to be
doing lessons.
The CHILDREN barely acknowledge her as she comes even with them.
She looks at what they're looking at.
What they're seeing through the doorway is TODD, shirtless, doing
an eerie sequence of tai chi exercises. His muscular body
ripples, revealing an incredible map of scar tissue that speaks
eloquently of the life he's led...gash marks, long zippers of
stitches, the puckered patches of burns.
HAWKINS watches for a long moment, her eyes worried.
In the midst of a slow graceful movement, TODD suddenly whirls
and delivers a lightning blow to an unseen enemy with amazing
speed and fury, the terrible force contained in the movement all
too obvious.
Even as HAWKINS and the CHILDREN gasp silently, TODD returns to
the graceful, almost balletic movement, even spookier now, that
preceded the deadly thrust.
The CHILDREN's eyes are like saucers, their jaws agape.
HAWKINS shudders...and breaks the hypnotic spell, speaking aloud
to the children.
HAWKINS
Lessons.
CUT TO:
EXT. INSIDE TRENCH - NIGHT
It's dark, the wind's HOWLING just above the trench walls as TODD
peers into a faintly lighted window in the wall of the trench.
TODD'S POV THROUGH THE BEDROOM WINDOW reveals a tender moment
between MACE and SANDRA as they enter the bedroom and kiss. A
flickering candle on a low table, the only light, exaggerates
their shadows.
ANGLE ON TODD, his face revealing no feelings as he turns away.
Light spills from other windows, some more brightly lit, as TODD
begins to jog along the trench, gradually picking up speed, until
he's running hard through intermittent pools of light in the maze
of dark trenches.
CUT TO:
EXT. BARREN WASTE - DAY
Stillness! No wind! Everything is quiet. Bits of junk are
strewn across the landscape under the four suns.
MACE'S VOICE (O.S.)
She's down now, but she'll come up
again. Always does.
EXT. INSIDE A TRENCH
As MACE continues talking to TODD, he loads the pockets of his
heavy parka with miscellaneous hunks of metal.
MACE
(continuing)
That's why we're weighing down. And
that's why we're always on the wire
even when the wind's down, like now.
You don't get much warning. Here,
load up, you'll want the weight, I
promise.
MACE hands heavy hunks of metal to TODD who's wearing a parka
like MACE'S. He pockets the metal obediently.
Behind them a small crowd of PIONEERS are doing the same: JIMMY
PIG, SLADE, CHESTER, RED, a woman named SALLY and several OTHERS.
In addition to the parkas, they wear eskimo-style eye-protectors
and carry canteens, tools, and coils of rope attached to various
parts of their outfits.
ANGLE ON MACE noticing TODD eyeing the rifle JIMMY PIG is
carrying.
MACE
Oh, we're not going to shoot
anything. That's not what we mean
by "hunting."
(then, laughing, to
Jimmy Pig)
Jimmy Pig, you're not going to shoot
anything, are you?
JIMMY PIG
(laughing)
What could I hit?
MACE
(to Todd)
It's how we call for help. Two
shots. There'll be someone on duty,
listening in case we get off the
wire and get lost or something. We
have flares too. Come on.
Other are already climbing the ladder out of the trench to the
surface above as MACE urges TODD to follow.
CUT TO:
EXT. "STEEL HENGE" - DAY
It's very still, no wind. The little group of PIONEERS is moving
along a wire that passes close to the towering ruins of the
wrecked spaceship. They are tiny figures in the vast landscape.
CLOSER ON TODD AND MACE as they plod along in the line of
PIONEERS. MACE indicates the wreck off to the right.
MACE
Sandra said she told you how we
wound up here. Our parents and so
on.
(turning left,
indicating)
Over here, we call these "catcher
trenches."
TODD follows his look to a long open trench leading, apparently,
nowhere.
MACE
(continuing)
Smaller stuff that blows across the
ground, it falls in these trenches,
it works sort of like a filter. We
go through the trenches sometimes
and get some good stuff.
As they pass close along the trench, TODD looks in and observes
the trench is knee deep in muddy water with rusty machine parts
and assorted junk protruding.
MACE chuckles at the sight.
MACE
We try to work 'em when they're dry.
It's lousy going in there when
they're flooded. You can see...
A sudden SHOUT, "HEYYUP! YO!" distracts them.
TODD looks forward, sees RED pointing to a chunk of steel a
hundred yards off the wire.
ANGLE ON JIMMY PIG, already fastening his safety rope and a
second rope to the wire, then heading off toward the piece of
steel, trailing the two ropes.
ANGLE ON MACE, explaining the procedure to TODD.
MACE
Whatever looks useful, if we can get
a rope to it, we'll go for it. But
you can't ever go further than your
safety line because it'll come up on
you with sometimes maybe ten seconds
or even less.
TODD is watching JIMMY PIG as he approaches the piece of steel
and starts to attach his rope to it.
MACE
Like right now. You hear that?
TODD listens.
Nothing at first...then a very faint WHISTLING. The sound he
heard that first night when he was on the settlement "roof."
MACE
It's close when you hear that.
TODD can see JIMMY PIG. He's attached the rope to the steel and
he gives a signal.
As PIONEERS start to haul on the line, pulling the steel toward
them, MACE shouts at JIMMY PIG.
MACE
SHE'S GONNA BLOW, JIMMY.
JIMMY waves, starts back toward them.
MACE indicates for TODD to help haul the steel and the two of
them are just joining in the effort when...
WHOOOOOOOOOO! THE WIND IS SUDDEN AND FEROCIOUS! IT STAGGERS
THEM!
MACE
GRAB ON, SERGEANT!
TODD follows MACE'S example and, like the others, grabs the wire
and hangs on as the wind SCREAMS and tears at them.
One of the pioneers, CHESTER, shouts, points.
They all see JIMMY PIG being blown faster than he can run, his
legs churning desperately to keep up with his wind-propelled
body. To no avail! He's suddenly airborne, his legs still
churning like cartoon legs as he flaps helplessly at the end of
his safety tether like a kite, fifty feet in the air.
An eighty-pound steel barrel blows past, tumbling in the wind.
Bits of junk zip dangerously around like missiles.
ANGLE ON THE PIONEERS, crouched low on their knees against the
wind, clutching the wire with one hand while they pull on JIMMY
PIG'S safety line. But the wind is too strong...until suddenly
TODD is pulling, and TODD'S strength makes the difference...
slowly JIMMY PIG is pulled toward them...and Pioneers exchange
amazed glances at TODD'S strength.
As he pulls, TODD notices what the others don't...
ANGLE ON THE RIFLE dropped by JIMMY PIG, ten yards away.
ANGLE ON JIMMY PIG as he's hauled safely in to the group of
PIONEERS who clap him on the back and hug him. CHESTER is
laughing so hard he can barely stand up as he tries to describe
and mimic JIMMY'S desperate effort to outrun the force of the
wind...
CHESTER
(shouting, guffawing)
JIMMY...RUNNING...CAN'T...HA HA
CAN'T...KEEP UP WITH HIMSELF...
HA HA HA...
CHESTER breaks off, suddenly sober, staring off, and the others
turn to see what he's looking at. Everybody stops laughing.
ANGLE ON TODD, carefully moving away from the wire to retrieve
the rifle!!! The WIND is dropping off some, enough to stand.
ANGLE ON MACE and the other PIONEERS reacting with alarm at the
sight of TODD picking up the rifle.
ANGLE ON TODD as he turns, rifle in hand.
TODD'S POV of the PIONEERS staring at him, the WIND diminishing
further.
ANGLE ON TODD looking toward them. Nothing shows on his face.
ANGLE ON SLADE looking sour. Trouble! Just what he expected.
ANGLE ON MACE, taking a deep breath, smiling as he moves toward
TODD, holding out his free hand for the rifle...
MACE
Uh, thanks, Sergeant. Thanks a
lot...
But MACE breaks off, realizing that TODD'S attention is
elsewhere.
TODD is beyond MACE toward the landscape.
MACE (and the other PIONEERS) turn to see what TODD'S looking at.
ANGLE ON THE "JUNK MOUNTAINS" in the distance, several miles off,
where, hovering high above the junk mountains, an ancient DUMPER
SHIP issues a steady stream of metal and concrete debris onto the
junk heaps far below. The faint THUNDER of the refuse tumbling
onto the steep slopes is just audible over the SOUND of the wind.
CLOSE ON TODD, as realizes how he got here.
ANGLE ON MACE, reacting to TODD'S intense interest.
MACE
Dumpers. They come every twenty or
thirty days.
As TODD turns and looks at MACE, MACE puts out his hand again for
the gun.
TODD seems to notice the weapon in his hand for the first time.
Unhesitatingly, he hands the rifle to MACE...
As MACE casually takes the weapon, the PIONEERS breathe a sigh of
relief, grinning again as the tension eases.
TODD has turned his gaze back to the DUMPER SHIP, fascinated. So
that's what they did to him!
Just then, JIMMY PIG claps TODD heartily on the shoulder.
JIMMY PIG
Thanks, partner. These no-goods
woulda just let me blow away.
TODD, reacting to the smack on his shoulder, looks at JIMMY PIG
like what was that? Are you hitting me?
But all the PIONEERS are gathering around TODD in such a jovial
manner that the puzzled soldier sort of understands this isn't an
attack.
CUT TO:
INT. OFFICE (OTHER WORLD) - NIGHT
A CHRISTMAS TREE! The corny little tree with plastic needles,
blinking lights, and topped with a super cute angel is only a
foot high. It's sitting on CHURCH's cluttered desk next to
framed photographs of CHURCH's wife and children. We can hear
MEKUM's voice badly transmitted...
MEKUM (V.O.)
Sorry to disturb the tranquillity of
outer space on Christmas Eve, but
I'm off to the Caribbean in a few
hours, and I wanted to make sure
you'd got the transmission on the
security sweep.
Glowering at the monitor where MEKUM's badly transmitted VIDEO
IMAGE is quivering and distorting, CHURCH waves the print-out map
he's holding in his hand, a map showing hundreds of little dots
against a vast field, stars and moons in the vast sea of space.
RUBRICK and SLOAN watch as CHURCH addresses MEKUM's image
indignantly.
CHURCH
We got it all right. This is an
outpost here, not the Third Army!
You've got us securing thirty-four
locations and erecting monitor units
in one month and --
MEKUM
(interrupting)
Piece of cake, guys! These are
totally remote, totally uninhabited
territories. All you do is set
down, send out a patrol purely as a
formality, then have those veterans
of yours put up an A-Type unmanned
monitoring unit. You should be on
about number twenty-five by the time
I get back from my vacation...
CHURCH
What if we do run into people...
say squatters or refugees?
MEKUM
(a frown)
Well, you sure as hell don't want to
get involved in evacuating people
and that sort of thing.
(then, meaningfully)
My advice would be to..."avoid
paperwork."
CHURCH
Eliminate them, you mean.
MEKUM
Well, no one's out there, but
officially these are "hostile
zones." Therefore you'd be within
your rights to classify anyone as
"hostile," I think.
But I repeat, you should be worried
about boredom, not action. Any
other questions before I go?
CHURCH hesitates. SLOAN and RUBRICK look at him. Then CHURCH
blurts a question, his voice breaking...
CHURCH
Down there...is it snowing?
MEKUM
(a smirk)
Not in the Caribbean. Have a good
Christmas, guys. See you when I get
back.
MEKUM'S IMAGE disappears and the video screen goes blank, leaving
a glum silence broken only by the DRUMMING of the rain on the
roof.
CHURCH moodily strolls toward his desk, and his eyes go to the
photographs.
His wife and children smile back at him from the pictures.
Just then SLOAN taps him, and be turns to see her handing him a
cup full of amber liquid.
SLOAN
Merry Christmas, Captain.
RUBRICK is pouring another glass from a bottle of Scotch as the
little tree winks on and off, and we...
CUT TO:
INT. BARRACKS - NIGHT
Silence. Darkness. Dim shapes in the darkness, hard to
distinguish.
Rain BEATS on the roof monotonously, relentlessly.
The room is alive with BREATHING.
Then we hear a MUFFLED WHOOP from outside.
The darkness is tense, the BREATHING changes rhythm.
The RATTLE of the door breaks the quiet.
The door swings open, a flashlight stabs the dark.
A woman GIGGLES: SLOAN!
The flashlight beams and wavers in the darkness, catching brief
glimpses of the faces of the NEW SOLDIERS. Their eyes glitter in
the lurching beam, their faces are ghostly like vampires.
RUBRICK switches on a dim overhead lamp as he and SLOAN (holding
the flashlight) and CHURCH stagger drunkenly into the bunkhouse,
carrying a couple of half-empty bottles.
SLOAN
Hi, fellas. At ease!
RUBRICK
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Eyes riveted on the THREE OFFICERS, the NEW SOLDIERS are
unresponsive to Christmas cheer. In fact, they look almost
angry, like big dangerous animals, as the three OFFICERS stagger
stupidly down the row of bunks, every eye following them.
CHURCH
We brought you a little Christmas
tree.
CHURCH almost falls over as he places the tree on the floor
As stone faces watch him without expression, RUBRICK waves a
couple of bottles.
RUBRICK
And some good cheer.
SLOAN, giggling, does a provocative bump and grind.
SLOAN
How about some Christmas pussy,
guys? Anybody for a quick piece?
The NEW SOLDIERS don't react. Stone faces.
RUBRICK
(smirking)
That's "conduct unbecoming," Sloan.
SLOAN
It's Christmas! Haven't you heard
of piece on earth? "Piece on
earth," get it?
CHURCH
(suddenly serious,
sober)
Christ, I wish we were on Earth.
RUBRICK sets three bottles down and indicates them to the NEW
SOLDIERS.
RUBRICK
Eat, drink, and be merry, men. For
tomorrow you go on patrol in the
"hostile zone."
RUBRICK burps stupidly as the NEW SOLDIERS stare back at him from
their bunks, muscles bulging, eyes glittering, nothing but danger
in their stone faces as we...
CUT TO:
INT. PIONEER MEETING ROOM - NIGHT
"JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAY." In sharp
contrast to the gloom of the soldier Christmas, the PIONEERS,
MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN, are SINGING and celebrating.
There's a six-foot carved wooden tree festooned with makeshift
decorations and ringed with heaps of presents in crude wrapping.
There's an appetizing looking buffet and a punchbowl.
ANGLE ON TODD seated against a wall not far from the door. He
stares uncomprehendingly at the merriment all around him. What
on earth is going on? What are they doing?
JIMMY PIG is marching around in a Santa Claus costume, doling out
presents to ELLEN, WILL, TOMMY, JOHNNY and OTHER CHILDREN.
JIMMY PIG
HO HO HO! HO HO HO!
Passing TODD, JIMMY PIG acknowledges him with a wink and a
special "HO HO HO."
TODD'S eyes give away his confusion. What the fuck is this?
JIMMY PIG in a fake beard and a fake stomach? This is the
craziest shit TODD has ever encountered.
ANGLE ON NATHAN, a wrapped present in hand. He hasn't a clue
what it is or what he should do with it.
Laughing, MACE and SANDRA hover over him, showing him how to pull
the wrapping off. Great idea! NATHAN likes pulling wrapping
off! That's fun. SANDRA and MACE watch joyfully as NATHAN tears
at the wrapping enthusiastically.
ANGLE ON TODD getting to his feet.
ANGLE ON NATHAN pulling away the last of the wrapping to expose a
pull toy, a METAL BIRD on crude wheels made of wire and junk.
MACE takes the toy, demonstrates pulling it. The wings flap as
the wheels turn!
NATHAN reacts with delight and amazement! Then grabs it!
A SUDDEN SCREECH...
ANGLE ON TODD looking alarmed. He's on his way to the door, but
EMMA is charging at him, SHRIEKING!!!
Not sure whether this is an attack or not, TODD watches the older
woman scramble onto a stool next to him, still SHRIEKING giddily.
As TODD eyes her (and everybody else) warily, she gives him a
peck on the cheek and points over head.
TODD looks up, sees a strange cloth decoration with a sign on it
that says "MISTLETOE."
Means nothing to TODD. There's a burst of applause as EMMA
scrambles off the stool. Somebody starts to sing "GOD REST YE
MERRY GENTLEMEN."
A MONTAGE OF FACES: JIMMY "SANTA" PIG, MACE, SANDRA, RED,
CHESTER, SALLY, ELLEN, HAWKINS, even SLADE, SINGING.
ANGLE ON THE DOOR. No sign of TODD! Gone!
CUT TO:
EXT. "ROOF" - NIGHT - MINUTES LATER
A low wind MOANS and mingles with strains of "OH, HOLY NIGHT" as
TODD bellies up to the "skylight" and peers down at the scene
below in the Meeting Room.
TODD'S POV THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT. The merriment has evolved into
a more spiritual mood as the PIONEERS join in the solemn hymn.
But TODD spots NATHAN trying to pull his pull toy along so the
wings flap. NATHAN is pretty wobbly and he goes down hard and
starts to cry.
Immediately SANDRA disengages from the adults and rushes to the
sobbing NATHAN and clutches him to her breast, soothing him...and
MACE joins her, hovering over his son.
ANGLE ON TODD, watching. After a moment, TODD scrambles off the
roof and drops into the adjoining trench while "OH, HOLY NIGHT"
continues to blend with the soughing WIND.
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH
Lit by spill from a window in the wall of the trench, TODD starts
doing push-ups. One-two-three-four-five-six-fast-fast-fast-fast.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR AND MEETING ROOM/SETTLEMENT - (ANOTHER) DAY
HAWKINS is walking along the corridor outside the meeting room
when she hears strange SOUNDS. She approaches the door and looks
in.
ELLEN and other CHILDREN (including NATHAN) are playing
children's games on the floor, paying no attention to the source
of the strange noises...JOHNNY and WILL.
JOHNNY and WILL are doing exercises, obviously inspired by TODD's
martial calisthenics, and including the sudden violent movements.
As the two boys make their ritual grunting noises, HAWKlNS frowns
a worried frown, and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. TRENCH GARDEN - DAY
The seedlings have grown to twelve-inch stalks. SANDRA is
pulling some from the ground as TODD imitates her. She shows him
the fat edible root.
SANDRA
We'll eat these.
Other PIONEERS are also harvesting, with occasional glances at
TODD as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY
Cleaning vegetables, SANDRA is separating the roots, shaking the
dirt off, cutting away the excess.
TODD is carefully following her example, cutting the stalks away
with the knife.
NATHAN is tottering across the floor an a beginner's wobbly legs.
SANDRA
It seemed like he was never going to
walk. Then all of a sudden...he's
an expert.
Whump! NATHAN falls on his ass.
SANDRA
(a laugh)
Well, not quite an expert.
TODD watches SANDRA go to NATHAN and hug him affectionately.
Turning back to the vegetables, stone faced, TODD cuts his
finger. Blood flows. He ignores it, continues working...
But SANDRA, returning to the vegetables, notices TODD's cut
finger and immediately grabs a rag and takes his hand.
TODD looks startled is she takes his finger. Then, staunching
the blood with the rag, she looks him in the eye, curious.
SANDRA
Sergeant Todd...what's it
like...what's it like being a
soldier?
What's it like...? TODD stares at her, trying to process the
question. Seeing his difficulty SANDRA tries to help...
SANDRA
What do you think about?
No answer, a stare.
SANDRA
Do you think about food? Or women?
You must think about something.
TODD gulps. His blank stare could pass for stupidity.
SANDRA
What about feelings then? You must
have feelings. You must feel
something.
TODD wets his lips. He seems about to answer...and yet it's
difficult for him. He could kill a person easier.
On the floor NATHAN GOOS happily, oblivious.
TODD
(at last)
Fear.
SANDRA
(startled)
Fear! You mean...you feel afraid?
(as he nods)
That's when you're in battle...
What about other times? Now, for
example?
TODD
Fear.
SANDRA
(amazed)
Now?
TODD
Always.
A stunned silence. Finally SANDRA speaks...
SANDRA
You don't...look afraid. You look
fearless.
TODD looks at her. This is incredibly difficult for him, like
physical labor. He wets his lips and take a breath.
TODD
Fear and...discipline.
SANDRA
(growing horror)
Oh, my God. But there's nothing to
be afraid of here. I can't hurt
you. I wouldn't.
TODD
Always. It makes us...alert.
SANDRA is overwhelmed. She reaches for him, hugs him to her
breast like a little baby, holding him.
But TODD is as tense in her arms as steel. He can't relax. He's
even trembling.
NATHAN, on the floor, looks up, smiles innocently.
SANDRA lets go of TODD and steps back, looking at him, her face
troubled, as we...
CUT TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
ELLEN is supervising block building (babysitting) with several of
the younger children (OMAR, BUCKY, ANGIE and JANICE) while WILL
and TOMMY play their own separate games close by. Then WILL
looks up and sees something disturbing.
WILL
You're not supposed to do that
anymore.
He's speaking to JOHNNY who is doing martial exercises.
JOHNNY
So what? I'm a soldier.
WILL
They're gonna kick him out.
ELLEN looks up from the blocks.
ELLEN
They can't kick him out...
WILL
They're gonna. My father --
ELLEN
(interrupting strongly)
My mother says when someone's sick
or hurt, you have to help them. You
don't have a choice.
JOHNNY
(getting interested)
Yeah, but what if the hurt person
is...evil?
ELLEN
You still have to help them...
because if you don't, you're evil!
WILL
(importantly)
My father says...uh...he says,
"Soldiers deserve soldiers."
TOM
Yeah. That's what my father said
too.
ELLEN
My father's making Sergeant Todd a
scarf because he saved his life one
time. He's knitting it.
WILL
That's dumb. Your father's dumb.
WILL is smirking with satisfaction at having settled that when
out of nowhere ELLEN's little fist hits him hard on the nose.
WILL looks stunned. Blood oozes from his nose. He starts to
cry.
ELLEN looks horrified at what she's done as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY
The scarf! It's been knitted with an elaborate and colorful
design.
JIMMY PIG'S WIFE (O.S.)
Jimmy knitted it himself. He worked
on it for two months.
SANDRA is examining the knitted scarf as JIMMY PIG and his WIFE
stand in the doorway.
SANDRA
It's beautiful, Jimmy. He'll love
it.
JIMMY PIG looks very embarrassed. He shrugs.
JIMMY PIG
He saved my life out there. I guess
Mace told you.
SANDRA
(nods)
You should give it to him yourself.
I think he's in the meeting room...
doing...exercises.
JIMMY PIG nods, takes the knitted scarf back from SANDRA as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. ALLEY/CITY - NIGHT
Frantic CIVILIANS, mostly women and children, are illuminated by
FLASHES from rocket fire overhead as they scramble for cover
amidst heavy CROSSFIRE from automatic weapons.
A terrified LITTLE GIRL, separated from her family, seeks shelter
in a doorway when suddenly she's confronted by THREE SOLDIERS IN
RED UNIFORMS looming over her.
Looking up in abject horror, she sees a RED SOLDIER casually pan
his assault rifle, pointing the muzzle right at her from only a
foot away, unmistakably flexing to fire.
BLAM! Suddenly the RED SOLDIER is blown backwards violently,
shot in the chest.
ANGLE ON TODD, visored, in a torn black uniform, firing again.
BLAM! A SECOND RED SOLDIER goes down.
CLICK! TODD's weapon jams.
As the LITTLE GIRL, amazed to be alive, watches open mouthed,
TODD swings his weapon like a club, attacking the THIRD RED
SOLDIER before he can aim.
Then she runs, leaving TODD savagely beating the THIRD RED
SOLDIER to death.
TODD is delivering a final savage blow to the prone body when a
movement or shadow catches the corner of his eye and he whirls
savagely to defend himself from behind --
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
WHUMP! JIMMY PIG is slammed up against the wall of the meeting
room, TODD's big hand around his neck.
Gurgling desperately, his eyes popping out of his head, JIMMY PIG
stares helplessly into TODD's merciless soldier eyes and his
stone face only inches away.
TODD blinks. He sees he's got a terrified JIMMY PIG pinned to
the wall, his feet dangling two feet off the floor. Slowly he
lowers JIMMY PIG to the floor.
All JIMMY PIG can do is squeak desperately and point to the
floor.
JIMMY PIG
Scarf! Scarf!
TODD looks down. He sees a knit scarf lying on the floor. He
doesn't understand. He looks up.
He sees JIMMY PIG'S WIFE, HAWKINS, SLADE, and several other
PIONEERS standing in the doorway of the meeting room, their
stunned expressions indicating they just saw something
horrifying.
TODD stands there, isolated, bare-chested, his huge muscles
glistening with sweat, decorated with terrible scars and
mysterious tattoos, as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER LIVING QUARTERS - NIGHT
EVA, Johnny's mother, is reacting, horrified.
EVA
What....? What... are...those?
Chester! CHESTER!
CHESTER, Johnny's father, rushes in to see what the commotion's
about.
ANGLE ON JOHNNY in the tin cauldron that serves as a bath tub.
JOHNNY'S bare chest and shoulders are covered with crude
imitations of TODD's tattoos.
JOHNNY
(sullen)
Those are my war marks. From the
battles I fought.
CHESTER and EVA exchange a look.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
MACE and SANDRA are lying awake in the bed in darkness. For a
long moment they're both silent with the silence that comes in a
heavy moment in a conversation. Then MACE speaks, his eyes on
the ceiling.
MACE
There's going to be a meeting.
People are upset about him.
SANDRA
He's not fully recovered.
MACE
That's what scares people. He gets
stronger every day.
They're both silent for a long moment. MACE has something
weighing on his mind that he hesitates to say...but finally he
says it.
MACE
I've caught him..sneaking looks at
you. At your body.
SANDRA
I know.
A heavy silence, then...
SANDRA
Are you afraid of him, Mace?
MACE stares at the ceiling and speaks with difficult honesty.
MACE
Yes.
(pauses, then)
God knows where he's been...or what
he's done.
Another pause before...
MACE
I've never been afraid of anyone
before...not this way. I feel he
could break me in half...with no
real effort and no real...feeling.
SANDRA
He told me he's afraid.
MACE
Maybe he is. It doesn't matter.
MACE is staring grimly at the ceiling as we...
CUT TO:
INT. WINDOWLESS CEMENT ROOM - DAY OR NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
Silent and surreal, the events of 1986 continue with the PASSIVE
FOUR-YEAR-OLD sitting on the floor while the AGGRESSIVE FOUR-YEAR-
OLD looks down at him, and other FOUR-YEAR-OLDS gather ominously.
It's only now, as he gets to his feet, suddenly trading vicious
blows with the AGGRESSIVE FOUR-YEAR-OLD that we realize that this
passive boy is FOUR-YEAR-OLD TODD. The boys don't fight like
children; they don't quit or cry as the blood flows.
Highly-polished shoes, sharply creased trousers, and eyes
glittering from the shadows are all that is visible of the
faceless OBSERVERS who make no move to interrupt the violence.
FOUR-YEAR-OLD TODD, his nose pouring blood, exchanges savage
hurtful blows with his opponent, bloodying him viciously, as
we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY (PRESENT)
Eyes! The adult TODD blinks away the memory, stares straight
ahead...
into NATHAN'S face, only six inches from his own.
They're all alone in the room. It's very quiet.
NATHAN smiles a tentative smile, raises a hand, reaches out to
touch TODD'S face affectionately, curiously, testing their
friendship...
ANGLE ON TODD, his eyes. Dangerous. He draws his face back
enough to avoid being touched.
NATHAN looks unsure. He's used to affection. Then he
realizes... it must be a game! He reaches out again...
Again TODD avoids the touch...and as he does so, something
catches his eye.
TODD sees a VIPER sliding across the floor toward NATHAN.
NATHAN doesn't see it; he's still trying to figure out this game.
TODD pulls off his boot and hands it to NATHAN.
NATHAN accepts it, thinks it's a gift. He's pleased. It's that
kind of game! He gives TODD a friendly "thanks for the boot"
smile.
TODD points to the VIPER which is close to NATHAN now.
NATHAN looks at the VIPER. He doesn't understand what he's
supposed to do.
TODD makes a hitting motion with his hand.
The VIPER is close to NATHAN, coiling.
NATHAN looks from the VIPER to TODD.
TODD indicates the VIPER with his eyes. His look is intense, a
message in his eyes.
The VIPER is like a spring, it strikes...
TODD's hand is like a blur, almost invisible as he catches the
snake and flips it a couple of feet.
NATHAN stares.
The angry VIPER SPITS and HISSES and coils to strike again.
NATHAN looks at TODD.
TODD eyes the boot, then indicates the VIPER with his eyes.
NATHAN frowns; he's getting the idea.
The VIPER is about to strike again...
SQUASH! A heavy boot comes down on the snake, crushing it.
TODD looks up to see MACE standing on the snake, reaching down
for NATHAN. As MACE hugs the boy protectively to his chest, he
glares down at TODD with eyes blazing with fury.
TODD meets the look without blinking. He never blinks.
SANDRA (O.S.)
What happened?
TODD turns to see SANDRA standing in the bedroom door, her eyes
almost as hard as TODD's as we...
CUT TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM - NIGHT
TODD stares impassively as HAWKINS addresses him...
HAWKINS
No one here has any animosity toward
you, Sergeant. None of us here is
your enemy.
TODD is standing in front of the room full of grim-faced
PIONEERS, all looking at him. It's like a court.
HAWKINS is flanked by MACE and SANDRA...
HAWKINS
Moreover, we respect your qualities.
We have no doubt that you are a
very, very good soldier.
As she speaks, TODD's blank stare considers the weathered faces
of the PIONEERS facing him. He sees CHESTER, EVA, RED with his
WIFE, JIMMY PIG and his WIFE, SLADE and MRS. SLADE, JUDITH, EMMA,
SALLY. As HAWKINS continues, TODD's sharp eyes pick out details.
He sees JIMMY PIG opening and closing his hands nervously, he
sees SLADE fingering a barely noticeable rifle barrel. CHESTER
has a weapon too.
HAWKINS (O.S.)
But, because of your training, I
don't think you'll ever be able to
function in a group like this, a
community of vulnerable people, of
families, of children, where the
ability to fight is not the sole
purpose of existence.
The PIONEERS are nervous, ready for trouble, afraid TODD might
take this badly and fly off the handle.
As TODD's huge hand opens...and closes, their eyes are on it. He
could pick up the table and hurl it at them, break men in half
with his bare hands. His face is like stone, his eyes like
diamond chips as he glances toward SANDRA.
TODD sees SANDRA is moved, trying to suppress her emotions,
biting her lip, as HAWKINS goes on...
HAWKINS
You're different from us, Sergeant.
We don't hate you for that, but we
have agreed that to try to include
you would pose an intolerable risk
to the community itself.
MACE
We'll give you any tools you need,
warm clothing, a good knife, boots.
SANDRA
(emotionally)
And if you're ever sick...or you get
hurt...
MACE
You're a friend, Sergeant. It's
just...
MACE doesn't finish. TODD's eyes glance again at the PIONEERS.
They too seem moved, not so ready to shoot.
TODD blinks. Once. And we...
CUT TO:
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH - MORNING (WIND)
TODD is wrapped in a heavy parka, his mouth wrapped with the
scarf JIMMY PIG knit, his eyes covered with eye protectors as
MACE hands him another sack in addition to the one already over
his shoulder.
MACE
If you need us...you can ask us for
help.
TODD glances at the knot of PIONEERS gathered in the trench, all
eyes on him. SANDRA is among then with NATHAN in her arms. For
just a second TODD's eyes go to the cheerful face of NATHAN; then
he turns to MACE.
MACE is startled to see TODD pull the scarf from his mouth to
speak. He's never spoken before unless spoken to.
TODD
It's not true.
(then, with great effort)
I'm not a good soldier.
Then TODD replaces the scarf over his mouth and starts to climb
out of the trench into the wind as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. LANDSCAPE (AND "STEEL HENGE") - DAY - LATER
Four suns glare down from the sky onto the vast, windswept
wasteland.
TODD is a tiny dot in the vastness, traveling like a bug along
one of the long cables that stretches for miles and miles. He's
out by the skeleton of the old ship as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. ANOTHER PLANET - DAY
A low slung armored vehicle on caterpillar treads RUMBLES over a
steep rocky terrain faintly backlit by a cold sun that looms
enormously on the horizon while giving off only a faint glow.
Hanging on to the outside of the insect-like scouting vehicle
(called a "CRAWLER") are two nasty-looking NEW SOLDIERS in space
suits designed for battle, their heavy rocket rifles cradled and
ready, their visors blank and ominous.
INT. CRAWLER
The husky sergeant, CAINE 607, steers the vehicle and speaks into
a radio mike at the same time.
CAINE 607
Crawler, Crawler to Daddy. No
hostiles!
The GUNNER beside him and the NEW SOLDIERS in the back seat stare
stoically out the windows as CAINE 607 replaces the mike.
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY"
RUBRICK is sitting at a console cluttered with coffee cups and
half-finished cheeseburgers, responding to the radio.
RUBRICK
All right, Crawler, Crawler, we got
you. This is Daddy. Continue per,
over.
RUBRICK turns to CHURCH who's standing in the cramped cockpit,
staring out a window at the gloomy planet outside, watching the
CRAWLER creep over the terrain.
RUBRICK
We're clear. We can send a crew
out.
CHURCH
(bored)
Sloan's already on it.
CUT TO:
INT. CREW QUARTERS/"DADDY" - DAY
An oval hatch door swings open and SLOAN enters.
VETERANS in coveralls, slumped or sprawled on steel-tiered bunks,
scramble obediently to their feet, eyes on SLOAM.
SLOAN
Suit up, fellas. Time to go build
another play house.
As VETERANS start to pull space suits from under the bunks, SLOAN
turns her back on them...but hesitates before exiting as though
expecting something. Sure enough, veteran RILEY speaks up.
RILEY
Sir.
SLOAN
Yes, Riley, what is it?
SLOAN says it even before she's turned. She knew who it would
be.
RILEY
We haven't been issued weapons, sir.
SLOAN
(as to a child)
You won't need weapons, Riley.
You're not soldiers anymore.
RILEY
(saluting)
Yes, sir.
SLOAN
You don't even have to salute
anymore. A simple "Yes, sir" will
do.
RILEY swallows hard and with effort keeps his hand from saluting
as he speaks.
RILEY
Y-yes...sir.
SLOAN turns her back and exits.
As the door closes, RILEY, unable to restrain himself any longer,
salutes hastily as we...
CUT TO:
INT./EXT. COCKPIT - DAY - LATER
Through the cockpit window in the bluish glare of a work-light,
VETERANS, dressed in space suits, can be seem erecting a prefab
hut on the harsh moonscape.
SLOAN is watching them through the window while behind her
RUBRICK lounges with his feet on the console and reads a current
magazine on a VDT. CHURCH is partially visible in the
background, poring over charts in the navigator's cubicle. It's
very quiet until SLOAN speaks, almost to herself.
SLOAN
Every time it's time to send them
out, Riley asks about weapons. And
every time I tell him they don't
need weapons anymore, they're not
soldiers anymore.
RUBRICK
(eyes on VDT)
Jesus! It says here Macy's is going
out of business. Can you imagine
that? New York without Macy's?
Silence. SLOAN watches the VETERANS outside through the window.
They're working like a team of ants in space suits, erecting the
hut.
CHURCH gets up noisily from the navigation cubicle and joins
them, shaking his head.
CHURCH
Next one's going to be a real pain
in the ass.
RUBRICK
(reading, not interested)
Yeah? What flavor pain in the ass?
Gravity pain in the ass? Atmosphere
pain in the ass?
CHURCH
How about a "gaseous currents" and
"urgent convections" pain in the ass.
SLOAN
I think you're trying to say a "wind
pain in the ass."
RUBRICK
Wind!
CUT TO:
INT. PIPE - DAY
WIND! As the wind RAGES outside, TODD, wearing his parka,
crouches over a tiny fire inside a huge open-ended pipe twelve
feet in diameter. He stares at the bleak, windy landscape
outside his shelter. He looks primitive, like a caveman, and
very very alone as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. PIPE - DUSK
The fat section of pipe is twenty feet long squatting in the
blowing litter on the grim landscape in the shadow of the junk
mountains. Somehow that inanimate pipe also looks lonely in the
vastness as the four suns overhead darken toward evening.
CUT TO:
EXT. STARS - NIGHT
Stars glitter behind the dimmed suns as the wind HOWLS and we...
CUT TO:
INT. PIPE - DAY
The fire is nothing but coals. TODD sits stoically over the
embers, more alone than ever, chewing on a piece of dried food,
part of his spartan meal.
As he chews, he stares blankly at nothing until...
A single tear crawls down one cheek.
Then another.
TODD looks like a stone statue oozing tears. He reaches up and
touches the strange water with his finger, then studies the
finger, as though a tear were the most remarkable thing he's ever
seen. He cannot remember anything like this; he cannot remember
ever having cried.
And suddenly, without warning, he's convulsed with tears, heaving
with sobs, alone in the big pipe with the pitiful little fire,
bawling like a baby as we...
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - DAY
A VIPER writhes across the floor through the patterns of light
streaming through the window, a sinister presence, full of menace
and evil designs.
The VIPER winds its way toward an object that will prove in a
moment to be a corner of the bad.
SMACK! The VIPER doesn't make it! SMACK! Another blow from
MACE's heavy boot being swung by hand.
The VIPER coils and HISSES angrily, wounded and dangerous.
SMACK! The boot again!
NATHAN wields it awkwardly, hitting bravely at the HISSING VIPER!
SMACK! NATHAN hits again and...
MACE rolls over in the bed.
SMACK! MACE comes awake, looks around.
MACE lunges from the bed.
SMACK! Just as NATHAN gives the damaged VIPER another blow, MACE
snatches the boy in his arms and yanks him away.
SANDRA sits up in bad, looking around, alarmed.
MACE is holding NATHAN, staring down at the VIPER.
The VIPER has up the ghost, lying on the floor.
MACE hugs NATHAN to him and looks toward SANDRA. They both look
at the boot. And at the dead VIPER.
Their eyes meet and, for a long moment, they just look at each
other.
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY - A LITTLE LATER
MACE is wearing his parka, pulling on his eye protectors
hurriedly as he opens the door to the corridor. SANDRA's voice
makes him stop and turn to her.
SANDRA
Mace! What about the vote?
Everybody voted.
Mace glares at her for a moment, knowing she's right. Then he
turns away and starts out defiantly.
MACE
We voted wrong!
SANDRA looks relieved and worried at the same time and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. LANDSCAPE - DAY
This time MACE is the tiny figure struggling along the wire in
the wind, alone on the vast landscape under four suns.
CUT TO:
EXT. OUTER SPACE/"DADDY" - "DAY"
The military ship called "DADDY" (Defend And Attack Deployment
Entity) is a big ugly insect gliding through a black silent void.
On the grimy bulwark of the ship are the letters NAF followed by
serial numbers and the logo of the North American Forces.
CUT TO:
INT. COCKPIT - DAY
CLOSE ON space charts. CHURCH's finger is indicating a tiny dot
on the chart surrounded by a vast sea of space.
CHURCH
It's a dump. Literally.
SLOAN and RUBRICK are looking over CHURCH's shoulder while a NEW
SOLDIER sits stonefaced at the control console flying the ship.
SLOAN
No shit! We're gonna set up a
monitor on a garbage dump! So we
can monitor garbage rusting?
RUBRICK
Will the wind affect the patrol?
CHURCH
The Crawlers are low enough and
heavy enough, they won't blow. The
men should wear armored vests and
carry double weapons and ammo for
the weight. They may have to use
lines too, like mountain climbers.
RUBRICK shakes his head, snorts disgustedly.
CUT TO:
EXT. OUTER SPACE/"DADDY" - "DAY"
As the grimy skin of the ugly military ship looms across our
vision, a tiny orb is visible off the bow in the distance, a
remote world, destination of "DADDY" as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. CABLE/LANDSCAPE - DAY
Alone, MACE is pulling himself along the cable as the wind
buffets him.
Ahead the cable stretches past the skeleton of the ship and the
"catcher trenches" toward the mountains of junk towering over the
flat landscape several miles off.
A heavy barrel blows by, then an old refrigerator tumbles past.
MACE squints into the wind.
Off to the right about a quarter mile away he can see a big piece
of pipe...and a trail of smoke blowing out of the pipe and
disappearing in the wind.
MACE struggles the cable past flooded "catcher trenches" as
we...
CUT TO:
EXT. PIPE/LANDSCAPE - DAY - MINUTES LATER
The pipe lies fifty yards off the cable to the right. As MACE
pulls even with it, he can see right inside.
TODD is standing just inside the mouth of the pipe, looking
straight out at MACE...but the light is behind him and MACE can't
see TODD's face as he SHOUTS at him.
MACE
TODD! TODD!
(pauses, then)
TODD! WE WANT YOU TO COME BACK! WE
MADE A MISTAKE!
MACE starts toward him, letting go of the wire, struggling in the
wind.
TODD watches him come.
MACE stumbles on, dances a few feet, recovers, struggles toward
TODD, SHOUTING....
MACE
TODD! WE'RE SORRY! WE WERE WRONG!
Just then, a sharp gust staggers MACE, driving him several yards
toward a "catcher trench."
He's teetering on the lip of the flooded trench, about to fall
in, when TODD'S strong arms grab him.
They look like a strange four-footed beast as TODD drags him
through the wind in an awkward "embrace" toward the cable.
Once MACE has the cable in his hands, he laughs and gasps...
MACE
Damn! Thank you, Todd. God damn!
I almost took a... a...swim there!
MACE breaks off. Todd isn't listening; he's looking off toward
the horizon.
MACE follows his look.
Five miles away he can see an ugly insect-shaped spacecraft
descending from about ten thousand feet.
MACE
My...God! Someone's landing.
TODD doesn't answer. He's staring at the descending ship with
soldier eyes and a stone face as we...
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDORS/SETTLEMENT - DAY
Excitement, confusion. PIONEERS and CHILDREN are clogging the
narrow, earthen corridors, shouting excitedly, hurrying outside.
SANDRA opens her door into the corridor, concerned...
SANDRA
What's going on?
JUDITH
Someone's landing! Jimmy Pig
spotted a ship!
SANDRA stands there stunned as excited PIONEERS mill past her,
jamming the corridor, and we...
CUT TO:
EXT. CABLE - DAY
TODD is on the cable with MACE, his eyes on the squat beetle-like
object crawling slowly toward then through the junk half a mile
away.
MACE
Look at that. It's some kind of
vehicle. A landing party. HEY!
MACE raises his arm to wave.
Without taking his eyes off the approaching CRAWLER, TODD grabs
MACE's arm and pulls it down.
MACE looks at TODD, sees the grim expression on TODD's stone
face, and suddenly MACE is worried too.
INT. CRAWLER
Peering through binoculars, a soldier in the front passenger
seat, the GUNNER, nudges the DRIVER and indicates something to
the right.
Two tiny FIGURES in the distance on a long cable.
The driver is the beady-eyed giant, CAINE 607. Reacting to what
he see, he adjusts the vehicle to the right.
EXT. CRAWLER/LANDSCAPE
Two ominous NEW SOLDIERS wearing plexi-goggles and bulky armor
under their uniforms hang on the outside of the CRAWLER in the
wind, their waists dangling with weapons and equipment, big
rocket rifles across their chests. They're looking ahead toward
the long cable, as their nasty-looking vehicle grinds slowly
forward through the litter, an evil vision.
EXT. LANDSCAPE
TODD and MACE are running, TODD in the lead, buffeted by wind,
struggling through a clutter of old machinery, diesel engines,
turbines, scattered haphazardly on the flat desert floor.
MACE is running too, not as well, and TODD has to reach back and
grab him, pull him along...
MACE
(gasp)
...maybe...they're...
(gasp)
...friendly...
INT. CRAWLER
The GUNNER works a servomotor, aiming a cannon, as he peers
through a scope.
Through the scope, surrounded by digital readouts, we see two
tiny running FIGURES...
EXT. CRAWLER
BALAAM! BALAAM! The CRAWLER cannon FIRES...
EXT. LANDSCAPE
MACE screams, he's hurled wildly mid-stride, tossed ten yards.
TODD looks back, sees him lying on the sand, screaming in pain.
TODD turns back, sprinting, low, weaving, tossed by the wind.
WHOOOM! Another SHOT. If the wind hadn't hit him, TODD would
have been hit.
MACE is screaming. His right leg is gone.
TODD gets him, drags him, stumbles.
WHOOM! Another SHOT, another miss.
TODD struggles for cover, staggering in the wind with MACE on his
back.
INT. CRAWLER
Through his scope, the GUNNER sees TODD and MACE dive behind a
big turbine.
Unhurriedly the GUNNER flicks a switch on the dash.
CAINE 607 nods approval.
The GUNNER works the servo, bringing the cannon to bear on the
turbine.
EXT. TURBINES
TODD is dragging MACE along behind the cover of the turbine,
glancing back for what he knows will occur.
BAWHOOM! The area where they disappeared EXPLODES, chunks of
steel fly.
TODD keeps pulling MACE, who looks half dead as...
BAWHOOM! The TURBINE is hit again!
INT. CRAWLER
Through the scope, the GUNNER aims again and watches another
chunk of turbine disintegrate.
The GUNNER glances at the robot-faced driver. Their eyes meet.
CAINE 607 nods. Obviously, they've killed the two men.
The GUNNER points to the cable.
CAINE 607 follows the look, nods, and alters the course of the
vehicle in toward the cable as he reaches for the radio mike.
EXT. ABANDONED ENGINES/TERRAIN
TODD is crouched over MACE inside an abandoned diesel engine not
far from the disintegrated turbine. He's making a tourniquet to
stop the bleeding from the stump of MACE's leg. MACE looks
awful, pale, in shock. He speaks weakly.
MACE
Oh, shit, Todd...I'm...dead...
aren't I? I'm not going to make it.
TODD meets his look but doesn't answer. He finishes the
tourniquet and turns his back on MACE to peer out through a gap
in the engine at the CRAWLER.
TODD sees the CRAWLER approach the cable, watches it veer left
and start to travel along the cable...straight toward the colony!
TODD turns and looks into MACE's face. MACE's eyes are clouded
with horror.
MACE
Why? Why?
No answer.
MACE
I'm not..a soldier.
(then...)
A...mistake? Was it...a mistake?
TODD shakes his head no. MACE's eyes fill with new horror.
MACE
Oh, my God. They won't...they
won't...? Not Sandra! Not...
not...Nathan!
TODD turns away from MACE and peers through the machinery.
He can see the CRAWLER is a hundred yards away now, traveling
along the cable toward the colony.
He can see the faces of the NEW SOLDIERS hanging on the outside
of the CRAWLER, hard faces, goggled and ominous.
When TODD turns back to MACE, he finds MACE eyeing him with pure
hatred. MACE sneers weakly.
MACE
Soldiers! Soldiers...
(gasp)
...deserve...soldiers!
His eyes roll back. He's dead.
TODD peers out again at the NEW SOLDIERS. They look invincible
as we..
CUT TO:
EXT. "DADDY"/LANDSCAPE - DAY
The spaceship is squatting on the barren ground a mile from the
junk towers like an ugly insect.
INT. MESS/"DADDY"
RUBRICK sticks his head in the door of the cramped officers mess.
RUBRICK
People. They've spotted people!
Both CHURCH and SLOAN look up in astonishment from the card game
they're playing on a tiny fold-out table.
CHURCH
"People"! "People"? What do you
mean "people"?
RUBRICK
Two civilians. Unarmed. They've
killed both of them. They've
spotted smoke from some kind of camp
and they're going to check it out.
SLOAN
A camp! Jesus Christ!
CHURCH
Damn!
(worried)
Did they ask for assistance?
RUBRICK
Not yet.
CHURCH frowns, considers, then frets...
CHURCH
Like my daddy used to say,
"Nothing's ever as simple as it's
supposed to be...except shit."
SLOAN
(rolling her eyes)
Thank you, "Daddy."
RUBRICK
Who do you think they are?
SLOAN
The civilians?
(a shrug)
Squatters...refugees. I don't think
we want to know, do we?
CHURCH
Good point.
CUT TO:
EXT. GARDEN TRENCH - DAY - A LITTLE LATER
HAWKINS, JIMMY PIG, RED, and other PIONEERS are peering over the
lip of the trench just beneath the trellis.
A half mile off they can see the CRAWLER creeping in their
general direction.
The garden is full of excited PIONEERS with their CHILDREN,
everybody trying not to trample the plants, but trampling them
anyway, as HAWKINS addresses them...
HAWKINS
I'm going to go out and talk to
them. More than likely they're
friendly. If not...
(indicating Jimmy Pig,
others)
...those of you with weapons will be
ready to defend us. The rest of you
go back.
HAWKINS turns abruptly and looks over the rim.
The CRAWLER is closer now, only a quarter mile away, angling to
the left along the wire.
HAWKINS starts to climb out of the trench, boosted by JIMMY PIG
and CHESTER. She's waving her arms, shouting.
HAWKINS
HERE! OVER HERE!
SANDRA looks worried.
INT. CRAWLER
CAINE 607 and the GUNNER both see the tiny figure waving at them
a quarter mile away, trying to get their attention.
As CAINE 607 adjusts their course to the left, the GUNNER's
servomotor WHINES as he aims, peering through the scope at the
helpless figure of HAWKINS.
EXT. SETTLEMENT/LANDSCAPE
ANGLE ON HAWKINS suddenly reacting to the sight of the vicious-
looking CRAWLER coming straight toward her, now only five hundred
yards away. They don't look too friendly! Frightened, she's
lowering her arms and turning when...
BLAAAAM! The cannon flashes, HAWKINS flies backwards!
EXT. INSIDE GARDEN TRENCH
HAWKINS' body flies back onto the PIONEERS in the trench. Panic
erupts as...
CHESTER raises his light rifle and starts FIRING over the lip of
the trench.
BAWHOOM! The whole edge of the trench explodes, dirt flies, and
CHESTER is hurled backwards, dead.
PIONEERS are screaming and running wildly down the trenches...
JIMMY PIG bravely aims his rifle over the lip of the trench.
He sees the CRAWLER is lumbering right at him.
PING! PING! His shots are pitiful. The CRAWLER keeps coming.
ANGLE ON JIMMY PIG. No choice but to retreat. He turns and
hurries down the trench after the others as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OFFICERS MESS/"DADDY"
CHURCH and SLOAN look up from their card game again as RUBRICK
sticks his head in the door to report the latest.
RUBRICK
Report from Crawler One. Everything
under control. No need for
assistance.
CHURCH
There's resistance?
RUBRICK
Ineffectual. About fifty
disorganized people with almost no
fire power. Three men are going in
to clean them out; one man's staying
with the Crawler.
CHURCH
Humph. Sounds reckless, three
against fifty. The old ones, the
veterans, they would have called for
support...just in case.
Again RUBRICK and SLOAN exchange a glance and an eye-roll at the
fretting old fuddy-duddy. Then SLOAN changes the subject
brightly.
SLOAN
Speaking of Riley and his old
soldiers...why don't we let them
start putting up the unit? It's
gonna take forever in this wind.
CUT TO:
INT. CREW QUARTERS/"DADDY" - MOMENTS LATER
RILEY is standing rigidly in front of his bunk in crew quarters,
flanked by the rest of the VETERANS in similar positions, facing
SLOAN.
RILEY
Will we be issued weapons, sir?
SLOAN
(a sneering smile)
No, Riley...no weapons. You're not
a soldier, Riley.
CUT TO:
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCHES - DAY
The NEW SOLDIER comes straight, like some inexorable death
machine, lumbering awkwardly with his burden of weapons, goggled
and blank faced.
A PIONEER is backing away ten yards in front of him, firing
wildly. POW! POW! POW!
The NEW SOLDIER looks at one of his armor-gloved hands, opening
the palm in front of his face. His hand's been hit. He shakes
it, annoyed, like it was a bee sting, then he aims at the
PIONEER.
WHOOOOSH! A tongue of fire from the NEW SOLDIER's flame thrower
engulfs the helpless PIONEER as we...
CUT TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
PIONEERS are crouching in the room when the door bursts open, and
a tongue of flame turns the room into a firestorm and we...
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR - DAY
SANDRA has NATHAN screaming in her arms as she calmly herds
frightened CHILDREN through a corridor, JOHNNY, WILL, and ELLEN
among them.
SANDRA
Keep going, children, don't panic,
don't panic.
But if her demeanor doesn't reveal her fear, her eyes do.
CUT TO:
EXT. INSIDE ANOTHER TRENCH - DAY
Two Pioneers, SALLY and RED, lunge from a doorway into the trench
and fire a rifle and a pistol at a THIRD SOLDIER who's advancing
along the trench.
BANG! BANG! PING! SPLAT!
SALLY and RED dive back in the doorway for cover where a pioneer
named SINGH is crouched, watching with alarm the THIRD SOLDIER
advancing unfazed.
ANGLE ON THE THIRD SOLDIER coming toward them.
ANGLE ON THE PIONEERS huddled in the doorway.
RED
They got armored vests. You got to
aim for exposed parts like the
face...
SINGH
Here goes.
RED and SALLY watch SINGH step out directly in front of the
advancing THIRD SOLDIER and FIRE five shots rapidly...PING!
PIZG! PING! PING! PING!
WHOOOOSH! RED and SALLY see SINGH incinerated before their eyes.
Exchanging a horrified glance, they turn to retreat down the
interior corridor, but before they get two steps, they freeze...
A SOLDIER is in the corridor, not looking at them, but breaking
down a door. They can't go that way!
Trapped, they turn to see the THIRD SOLDIER almost to the
doorway, his flame thrower aimed, his finger on the trigger,
and...
A blur! Something lands on the THIRD SOLDIER from above the
trench, and the THIRD SOLDIER falls over backwards, slamming hard
to the floor of the trench.
But he's a super soldier, so that almost at the same time he hits
the ground he's already lunging upward to regain his feet and
fight except...
A knife blade rips across his throat, opening it wide in one
swift movement, and...
The THIRD SOLDIER's head sags back because not even superman can
fight with no neck and the last thing he sees through his plexi
goggles is...
TODD looming over him with a bloody knife, a face like stone, and
fierce soldier's eyes.
ANGLE ON THE DOORWAY, where RED, SALLY, and another PIONEER peer
around the corner, eyes wide with amazement at the sight of TODD
kneeling over his victim.
ANGLE ON TODD, slipping the utility belt off the dead THIRD
SOLDIER, yanking grenades and ammo from the bulky body, stuffing
a heavy pistol in his own waistband.
RED approaches timidly.
RED
You want help, partner?
TODD glances up at him, and RED sees TODD'S eyes and RED backs
away quickly because...
TODD looks badder even than the new soldiers!
Turning back to the dead man, TODD goes for the last item...the
goggles. Ripping them off he reveals...
A one-eyed soldier. The dead man staring up at him is MELTON.
For just a moment TODD stares into the dead face, revealing
nothing of how he feels, as we...
CUT TO:
INT. OTHER ROOM - DAY
NATHAN is SCREAMING in terror on the floor, ignored as SANDRA and
CHILDREN haul the bed from the bedroom to add to the heap of
obstacles they've placed in front of the door already. The
stove, everything is wedged against the door to the corridor.
As they heave the bed against the mountain of furniture and other
belongings, the door quivers, the heap of furniture shifts.
INT. CORRIDOR
The FIRST SOLDIER, as big as an offensive tackle, shoulders the
door again, and it gives...
INT. ROOM
CHILDREN SCREAM as the mountain of furniture heaves backwards,
and the door opens part way, revealing the FIRST SOLDIER.
SANDRA grabs NATHAN and hands him to one of the children.
SANDRA
Into the bedroom, all of you.
SANDRA picks up a stool to defend herself.
INT. BEDROOM
Dashing into the bedroom, the children are greeted with a
terrifying sight! SMASH! Soldier boots are kicking out the
little window high in the wall, SMASH, SMASH, SMASH, and the
window collapses, a boot sticks through the opening...
INT. OTHER ROOM
Unhurriedly, the giant FIRST SOLDIER bulls through the furniture,
tossing the bed and table aside like sticks.
SANDRA smashes at him with the stool, hitting him twice, hurling
it in his face.
The FIRST SOLDIER shakes off the blow as if he'd been hit by a
feather. But she's got his attention. He turns his goggles at
her, starts to raise his weapon as...
SANDRA turns and disappears into the bedroom...
INT. BEDROOM
As SANDRA dashes into the bedroom in blind retreat she runs smack
into the chest of another soldier!
Helpless and horrified, she looks right into a cruel stone face
and goggled eyes, and she gasps...
SANDRA
Sergeant Todd!
TODD never takes his eyes off the door as he brushes her roughly
aside with one hand, while his other arm aims the heavy rocket
gun right at the door and...
The FIRST SOLDIER comes into the doorway with his flame thrower
raised to torch women and children and what he sees is TODD
looking right at him, aiming the rocket gun, and BAWHOOM, the
FIRST SOLDIER is blown clear back across the other room with a
shot right in the chest.
ANGLE ON SANDRA, still on the floor where he knocked her,
watching TODD exit the room, weapon raised, his utility belt
dangling bandolier style across his chest.
He looks like...one of them! A soldier!
INT. OTHER ROOM
Crossing the next room, TODD moves quickly to the door, flattens,
and peers into the corridor.
He sees the SECOND SOLDIER heading toward him.
BLAM! BLAM! TODD fires twice around the door and sees...
The SECOND SOLDIER staggering back, hit, a pistol from his
hip...
Dirt explodes around the door frame as TODD ducks back. Quick as
a wink, he yanks a grenade from his utility belt, triggers it,
and flips it around the corner as CRACK! a shot rips at his arm.
BAWHOOM, the grenade goes off and, bleeding from his arm, TODD
swings into the corridor and follows the grenade with three quick
rocket shots.
INT. CORRIDOR
Keeping low, TODD charges, his weapon pointed at the fallen
SECOND SOLDIER.
The SECOND SOLDIER is sprawled bloodily in the corridor, the
walkie-talkie on his chest squawking urgently.
WALKIE-TALKIE (V.O.)
Crawler One calling Double Mike.
Give me an "okay," Double Mike.
TODD seizes the walkie-talkie, presses the transmit button, and
snarls a throaty animal growl into the mike...
INT. CRAWLER/LANDSCAPE
CAINE 607 is sitting at the wheel of the motionless vehicle
parked near the trench garden, radio mike in hand, when he hears
the low ANIMAL SNARL come across his speaker.
CAINE 607's robot face reveals nothing as he listens to ANOTHER
GROWL. WIND HOWLS outside.
Then he flicks a switch on the dash and puts the mike to his
mouth, his face expressionless.
CAINE 607
Crawler to Daddy, Crawler to Daddy.
Come in, Daddy!
CUT TO:
PORTHOLE VIEW/EXT./INT. OFFICERS' MESS/"DADDY"
Seen through the thick plexi-porthole, heavily-clothed VETERANS
are struggling with a wall, trying to erect the pre-fab unit
while the wind, inaudible inside the ship, rages around them,
staggering them this way and that. What we hear in the quiet
interior of the mess is CHURCH voicing his disbelief.
CHURCH (O.S.)
A "growl"! He heard a growl?
RUBRICK, looking uneasy, is facing CHURCH who's looking up at him
from a game of solitaire at the little table. SLOAN is biting
her fingernails in the b.g.
RUBRICK
Well, he didn't say the word
"growl." He said a "throat-noise,"
but I asked him to imitate it and it
sounded like a growl to me.
CHURCH
My God! Who are we fighting here!
RUBRICK
(nervous)
I think...I think we have to assume
the missing men are...down.
CHURCH
(getting up, pacing)
I knew Mekum's hotshots were green.
No reinforcements, then they walk
right into an enemy stronghold.
RUBRICK
We could send reinforcements now...
CHURCH
(sharply)
Absolutely not. Those bastards are
just waiting in there for us. No
more of this fancy super-soldier
shit. We do it with the hammer...
RUBRICK and SLOAN exchange a nervous glance as CHURCH paces
agitatedly.
RUBRICK
Uh, what does that mean, "the
hammer"?
CHURCH
(suddenly smug)
My daddy always said, "When you want
to insert a nail in a piece of wood,
you don't do nothing fancy or
glamorous, you don't finesse or play
the hero, you just pick up your damn
hammer and hit that sumbitch till
it's in."
SLOAN
(under her breath)
Christ! Now Daddy's a carpenter!
RUBRICK
(to Church)
I...don't...quite...follow...sir.
CHURCH
(decisive, sharp)
Take the whole unit, both Crawlers,
and tell 'em to pound that place
with rockets, cannons, mortars,
everything we got...from a safe
distance.
RUBRICK
(brightening)
Raw firepower!
CHURCH
It may not be heroic, and we may
waste some ammo, but by God we'll
get the job done.
CUT TO:
EXT. LANDSCAPE - DUSK
The four suns are dimming noticeably, dusk is falling.
The wind HOWLS, junk drifts and shifts.
A corpse turns over in the wind. It's HAWKINS' BODY, ravaged by
the turbulent air, as we...
CUT TO:
INT. EARTHEN CORRIDOR/SETTLEMENT - NIGHT
Someone is dragging a CORPSE down the smoky, lamplit corridor as
little NATHAN watches SANDRA tending to the bloody wounds of a
PIONEER lying on the floor. As the CORPSE is dragged past
NATHAN, the lifeless, vacant eyes stare right at the
uncomprehending little boy.
NATHAN sees the pioneer's seven year old daughter, ANGIE, sobbing
uncontrollably at the sight of her father's wounds. SANDRA is
trying to help with the bandages and console ANGIE at the same
time while all round her in the hellish atmosphere people GROAN
and children CRY OUT.
NATHAN doesn't understand it, it's confusing. MEN and WOMEN loom
past him. He wobbles off down the corridor, toddling away from
the sounds of pain.
SHUK! KA-SHUK! Strange SOUNDS come from a doorway ahead, the
doorway to the meeting room. CHAK! KLAK! SHIK CHIK KA CHIK!
The sound of metal and metal, metal parts CLICKING and SLIDING.
Alone in the corridor, NATHAN toddles innocently forward, toward
the SOUNDS.
INT. MEETING ROOM
NATHAN wobbles into the meeting room doorway and stops there,
staring.
The burnt furniture has been heaped in one corner of the room,
leaving a large open space where TODD, bare-chested, a tourniquet
on one arm, is squatting on the floor, skillfully reassembling a
stripped rifle.
Surrounding him on the floor in neat piles are the rocket rifles,
pistols, ammo clips, utility belts, goggles, torn armor vests,
boots, grenades, knives, and flashlights he salvaged from the
dead soldiers. TODD looks up at NATHAN and their eyes meet.
NATHAN recognizes his "friend," tries a tentative little smile.
But TODD just stares at him, and the unformed smile fades from
NATHAN's face. For a long moment they just look each other in
the eyes very seriously.
SANDRA enters, her dress covered with the wounded man's blood.
Not noticing TODD, she rushes to NATHAN, grabs him...
SANDRA
Nathan, thank God, there you...
Suddenly seeing TODD she breaks off, stares at him.
Squatting on the floor, surrounded by weapons, TODD'S eyes meet
hers for a long moment...then he looks away, goes back to
assembling the weapons with quick sure movements, almost as if he
wanted to avoid her eyes.
SANDRA wets her lips to speak, hesitates, then finally blurts out
what she can hardly bear to ask...
SANDRA
Did he find you?
No answer. TODD finishes with the weapon, starts checking the
next one.
SANDRA
My husband...Mace...he went out to
look for you. He...found you,
didn't he?
TODD looks up at her and nods. Their eyes lock.
SANDRA
They...killed him...didn't they?
TODD nods, turns back to his arsenal.
SANDRA stands there, hugging NATHAN to her chest, holding her
tears in, her lids quivering, fighting to conquer her emotion.
After a long, difficult moment, she wins the battle with herself.
She looks numb, stunned, but she's not crying.
TODD has begun to dress. He straps a sheath knife to one ankle,
pulls on boots. Then he pulls a jersey over his muscular torso,
covering all the old scars, the tattooed names of battles, and
the tourniquet on his arm.
Staring at him with glazed eyes, SANDRA notices a blotch of blood
form on the jersey, leaking through the tourniquet. She speaks
numbly.
SANDRA
Your wound...it's still bleeding.
Stuffing his pockets with ammo and other items, TODD glances at
her with eyes that glitter dangerously.
TODD
I like to bleed, sir.
SANDRA stares at him stupidly as he continues to dress, pulling
on a heavy armored vest.
SANDRA
It doesn't...hurt?
TODD pulls on a second armored vast, one that already has a
ragged hole in it from a rocket.
TODD
Not enough, sir.
SANDRA watches him go to the heap of charred furniture in the
corner and take a blackened stick from it, watches him smear
charcoal under his eyes.
SANDRA
How do you know they'll come back?
TODD looks at her, a savage with blackened eyes.
TODD
They're soldiers, sir. Like me.
SANDRA
What...what do they want?
TODD
Nothing.
SANDRA
Nothing?
TODD
They are obeying orders, sir. It's
their duty.
For a moment SANDRA is silent, then...
SANDRA
You know who they are, don't you?
Do you know how many there'll be?
TODD crosses two utility belts across his armored chest like
bandoliers.
TODD
Seventeen more, sir.
SANDRA
Seventeen! My God!
(suddenly energized)
You can't fight seventeen yourself!
You have to organize the rest of us,
show us what to do. We don't have
your...your skills...but we're not
cowards. We'll do what you tell us,
we'll --
TODD
(interrupting, softly)
No.
His voice is soft as silk but hard as steel. She looks into his
eyes. Does she detect a hint of approval, of respect, in those
flat expressionless snake eyes?
SANDRA
Why not?
TODD turns to go, laden with weapons, a flamethrower on his back,
a rocket rifle on his shoulder, another in one hand.
TODD
Soldiers deserve soldiers, sir.
SANDRA
But...one soldier against seventeen!
He looks back at her, right into her eyes this time.
TODD
I am going to kill them all, sir.
CUT TO:
INT. CREW QUARTERS - NIGHT
The NEW SOLDIERS are putting on their heavy gear in ominous
silence, covering their muscular torsos with armored vests and
utility belts while SLOAN watches from the hatchway.
SLOAN
Double belts, double ammo, double
everything! You've got to be heavy
there or you'll blow away,
fellas...and we wouldn't want that,
would we?
They continue dressing obediently, their eyes the sullen eyes of
robots. But CAINE 607 speaks up, at once respectful and
dignified...
CAINE 607
It's dark now, sir.
SLOAN
You're afraid of the dark, Sergeant
Caine?
CAINE 607
No, sir. But the manual says --
SLOAN
That's what nightscopes are for,
soldier. For the dark.
CAINE 607
Yes, sir. But the sixth rule is
"never give the enemy an advantage
unnecessarily." If they're
expecting us --
SLOAN
(erupting)
Listen, Sergeant, this may come as
news to you, but you're not a real
hot thinker! Your pitiful efforts
at tactics have cost us three men
already. So turn it off, that
little pea brain of yours!
(turning to the others)
That goes for all the rest of you
mental giants too. All you have to
do is go boom-boom. Understand?
Boom-boom! Kill kill! Say it...
Kill...kill...kill...
Draped in battle gear the seventeen NEW SOLDIERS obediently
repeat the words after her, their eyes blank and sullen... "Kill
kill kill..." They look like somber death machines as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. "CONSTRUCTION" SITE - NIGHT
In the harsh blue glare of work-lights RILEY and the crew of
VETERANS, dressed in heavy parkas, are struggling in the wind to
erect the second side of a small hut.
RILEY sees something, reacts.
He sees seventeen NEW SOLDIERS exiting the ship in the fringe of
the work-lights, ominous death machines in their heavy gear and
goggles, partly lost in shadows like some vision from hell.
RILEY stares at them, at the men who carry the weapons he used to
carry, his face like stone, his eyes a mystery as we...
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT
SALLY and RED are guarding a door to the trench when a CLANKING
noise in the corridor behind them makes them turn and look.
Their jaws go slack with amazement.
Clanking toward them is TODD, so armored and laden with fighting
gear he looks almost like a medieval knight! He says nothing as
he looms closer to then, heading for the door. The two of then
shrink hastily out of his way.
EXT. INSIDE TRENCH
Stepping into the trench, TODD hears the wind SCREAM overhead.
He approaches crude steps dug in the side of the trench and
begins to pull himself up into the wind.
As he climbs, the SCREAMING wind changes pitch radically, and by
the time he bellies over the lip of the trench, the wind is only
a breeze.
Getting to his feet and finds even the breeze is dying, replaced
by a terrible stillness.
As TODD looks off into the darkness, a voice calls to him from
the trench behind biz.
SANDRA (O.S.)
Sergeant! Sergeant Todd!
TODD turns back, looking down into the trench, and sees SANDRA
looking up at him.
SANDRA
Sergeant...these soldiers...the ones
you're going to fight... Are these
the "better ones"...the ones who
replaced you?
TODD looks at her for a long moment, his face a mask, before he
nods almost imperceptibly. Her eyes are full of tears.
SANDRA
Sergeant Todd...I think they...I
think...someone made a serious...
mistake.
TODD looks into her eyes. It is impossible to tell if he knows
that she cares about him and that she is blessing him.
After a moment he turns away and lumbers off into the darkness,
the CLANKING of his equipment the only sound in the spooky
stillness.
CUT TO:
EXT. JUNK/TERRAIN - NIGHT
Two CRAWLERS cut through the night fifty yards apart. Four of
the NEW SOLDIERS cling to the outside of one CRAWLER, five on the
other, two on each CRAWLER operating spotlights that pan the
darkness to the sides while the headlights illuminate the
skeleton of the crashed ship and shadowy chunks of machinery
littered across the terrain ahead of them.
It is very still. No wind.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
A DRIVER is at the wheel, a GUNNER beside him, studying the night
through an infrared scope. Behind them, two more NEW SOLDIERS
sit lost in shadows in the back seat, staring impassively out the
window at the spooky spotlights combing the eerie junkyard.
EXT. CRAWLER ONE
The LEFT FRONT SOLDIER sits on the fender seat of CRAWLER ONE,
peering along the beam of his spotlight, scrutinizing the
sinister shapes in the darkness, when...
BLAM! He's shot in the face, slammed back into the windshield of
CRAWLER ONE.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
Vision blocked, the DRIVER is fighting for control of the vehicle
as the GUNNER to his right screams into the radio mike...
GUNNER
CRAWLER ONE, WE ARE RED! RED! WE
ARE RED!
By veering sharply, the DRIVER is able to shake off the body that
was blocking his vision, clearing his shattered windshield.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
Seven of the NEW SOLDIERS -- the three hanging on CRAWLER ONE and
the four from CRAWLER TWO -- drop off into the stillness. One
checks the LEFT FRONT SOLDIER's body while the others, barely
visible in the weak light, fan out, keeping low, taking cover in
the random junk strewn all around them.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER ONE, a corporal, crouched behind a huge
piece of discarded agriculture machinery. He yanks a flare from
his waist band and fires it.
The FLARE bursts overhead, exposing the ghostly terrain to a
bright green light.
ANGLE ON THE JUNK AND THE SKELETON SHIP: a ghostly graveyard. No
wind. Nothing moves. No sign of TODD.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
Maneuvering across the junk-strewn landscape, the DRIVER peers
through the cracked windshield at the green terrain, looking for
TODD as the RADIO crackles...
RADIO
Crawler Two to Crawler One. Do you
have a sitrep?
THE GUNNER and the DRIVER exchange a glance. The GUNNER takes
the mike and speaks into it.
GUNNER
Crawler Two, we are one down,
responding to sniper activity.
INT. CRAWLER TWO
CAINE 607 is at the wheel, speaking into his mike.
CAINE 607
Crawler One, do you require
assistance?
RADIO
That is negative. We will eliminate
the sniper and rendezvous at target.
CAINE 607
Roger, One. We are proceeding to
target.
CAINE 607 accelerates the CRAWLER.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
The flare fades and the near darkness returns.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER ONE peering out into the stillness, then
signaling NEW SOLDIER TWO who's hiding nearby.
As the two NEW SOLDIERS step out from their sheltered positions,
they're joined by NEW SOLDIER THREE. Exchanging hand signals,
the three of them advance, spreading out cautiously.
NEW SOLDIER THREE has moved about thirty yards away when suddenly
he "disappears."
EXT. INSIDE A "CATCM TRENCH"
SPLASH! SOLDIER THREE has tumbled into a flooded trench.
He struggles to his feet, can't figure out where he is. He pulls
a flashlight from his waist and shines it down the trench in both
directions.
The flashlight beam reveals a steep-walled trench knee-deep in
water and littered with rusting junk.
NEW SOLDIER THREE splashes along the trench, looking for a way
out.
His light reveals a piece of a derrick mast leaning against the
trench, a perfect ladder.
He's slogging toward it when he whirls suddenly and splays his
beam down the trench behind him.
NEW SOLDIER THREE'S POV of the flooded trench. Junk and water.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER THREE, turning back and approaching the
ladder. Just as he reaches the ladder he whirls again.
Again his light illuminates the spooky trench. Again, nothing
but water and junk.
Relieved, he's just about to switch off his light when...
TODD rises out of the water only five feet away like a demon.
Before NEW SOLDIER THREE can cry out, TODO lunges at him.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
As he creeps cautiously through the gloom, NEW SOLDIER ONE
stiffens. Was that a stifled CRY? Or not?
NEW SOLDIER ONE signals NEW SOLDIER TWO and the two of them turn
and move cautiously toward where NEW SOLDIER THREE was.
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH
TODD'S light reveals NEW SOLDIER THREE slumped in the water, his
head askew, neck broken, eyes vacant. TODD is hastily rummaging
through the soldier's equipment, looking for something.
He finds it.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
NEW SOLDIERS ONE and TWO are approaching the trench when suddenly
a flare bursts above them.
The NEW SOLDIERS react with amazement as the flare exposes them
in a brightly illuminated landscape. Before they can take
cover...
BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA. Flashes of fire from the lip of the trench.
NEW SOLDIER ONE drops dead, NEW SOLDIER TWO is down and writhing
on the ground, SCREAMING.
ANGLE ON CRAWLER ONE veering sharply toward the trench,
accelerating, FIRING ROCKETS, CANONS, MACHINE GUNS....
ANGLE ON THE OTHER NEW SOLDIERS, prone, firing toward the trench.
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH
Tracers whizzing over the top of the trench illuminate TODD as he
races down the trench, running for his life.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
Still firing, CRAWLER ONE grinds up to the lip of the trench.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIERS charging toward the trench behind the
CRAWLER.
CLOSE ON CRAWLER ONE'S HOOD where a small trap opens and a nozzle
pops out like a little penis and...SQUIRTS a stream of liquid!
The liquid stream arcs fifty yards along the trench and
diminishes backward like a man pissing...
INT. INSIDE THE TRENCH
TODD looks back just before be rounds a corner in the trench,
sees the liquid hitting the water in the trench.
Sheltered from their view by the turn in the trench, TODD tries
to scale the steep wall of the trench.
WHOOOOOOOOOSH! The surface of the water-filled trench bursts
into flame. A fiery river of flammable liquid.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIERS reacting to something!
NEW SOLDIERS' POV of TODD, visible in the firelight as he rolls
over the lip of the trench fifty yards from them.
ANGLE ON THE NEW SOLDIERS firing as they move toward TODD.
They've got him now!
ANGLE ON TODD bellying toward a rusting turbine, disappearing
from view.
ANGLE ON CRAWLER ONE, separated from TODD'S hideout by the
trench, pouring heavy FIRE on the spot where TODD disappeared.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIERS communicating by hand signals as they move
to surround TODD.
EXT. BEHIND THE TURBINE
As rockets and canon shells SLAM into the turbine, TODD hastily
attends to a nasty wound in the flesh his thigh, bandaging it
skillfully, quickly.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
While CRAWLER ONE keeps TODD pinned down, NEW SOLDIERS move to
outflank him.
EXT. BEHIND THE TURBINE
As TODD completes dressing his thigh, the CRAWLER stops firing.
Silence.
TODD peers out, assessing the situation.
TODD'S POV of the terrain. Vague glimpses of NEW SOLDIERS
slipping from cover to cover, never exposing themselves enough
for a shot.
ANGLE ON TODD. He seems to know he's in a tight spot. He's
preparing to fight off an attack, laying out weapons, grenades,
when...he freezes. Listens.
Behind the stillness he can hear the faint WHISTLE that precedes
the wind.
Hastily TODD yanks his belt off.
EXT. TERRAIN
NEW SOLDIER FOUR sticks his head up from behind an old boiler and
signals NEW SOLDIER FIVE.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER FIVE acknowledging from the mouth of an old
storage tank where he's positioned.
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER SIX bellying toward TODD'S position.
EXT. BEHIND THE TURBINE
Using his belt and a carabiner as a safety line, TODD attaches
himself to the heavy turbine...and gathers up his weapons. He
can HEAR the very low WHISTLING building ever so slightly.
EXT. TERRAIN
The WIND SIGHS and a faint breeze stirs. Then a tin can skitters
by in a puff of wind as the NEW SOLDIERS take turns moving
closer to TODD, flanking him from safe vantage points.
NEW SOLDIER FOUR stands to wave the next man forward when...
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! THE WIND ERUPTS, ROARS, BELLOWS...
NEW SOLDIER FOUR is lifted into the air and carried away.
NEW SOLDIER FIVE is trying to stay on his feet, as the wind SLAMS
him into one piece of junk after another.
INT./EXT. CRAWLER
As the wind HOWLS and shakes the CRAWLER, the DRIVER and the
GUNNER stare with amazement as NEW SOLDIER FIVE slams into their
windshield, neck broken, and stares at them with lifeless eyes.
They see NEW SOLDIERS SIX and SEVEN tumble and somersault past.
As NEW SOLDIER SIX disappears, blown off into the night, NEW
SOLDIER SEVEN manages to grab hold of the walking wire.
Gripping the wire for his life, he turns just in time to be
decapitated by a piece of aluminum housing flying through the
air.
EXT. TERRAIN
NEW SOLDIER FOUR, badly battered, is down on his belly trying to
stay "under the wind" when he sees something terrible!
HIS POV of a massive lathe blowing right toward him along the
ground, tumbling, crashing, slamming into things. It looms over
him, unavoidable, the end!
ANGLE ON NEW SOLDIER FOUR reacting to the huge lathe about to
crush him.
EXT. BEHIND THE TURBINE
Held by his safety belt and protected by the turbine, TODD peers
out, and watches the wind destroy the footsoldiers.
TODD'S POV OF NEW SOLDIER FIVE's lifeless body being blown along
the ground like a leaf.
ANGLE ON TODD, reacting. He's seen something important.
TODD'S POV of CRAWLER ONE moving again, rounding the far end of
the trench and, no longer separated by the trench, turning
toward TODD'S position.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
As the DRIVER steers, the GUNNER peers through his scope.
GUNNER'S INFRARED POV of TODD darting behind an overturned vat.
GUNNER
There!
The DRIVER steers toward where TODD disappeared.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
Windborne junk CLATTERS against CRAWLER ONE'S armor plating,
debris flies through the bright swaths of the headlights, as the
vehicle grinds toward the overturned vat.
ANGLE ON CRAWLER ONE coming around the vat, headlights glaring.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
The GUNNER is peering intently through his scope.
GUNNER'S POV through his scope: The infrared view with crosshairs
is especially spooky because of the debris blowing eerily across
the landscape as the gun whips back and forth, looking vainly for
TODD. Suddenly the sight is yanked hard, sweeping violently
over to pin a moving object...
False alarm! Just another piece of blowing junk. No sign of
TODD.
EXT. CRAWLER/JUNK TERRAIN
The CRAWLER grinds slowly past a huge overturned boiler, its
cannon panning right, then left, then right.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
Peering through the scope as he sweeps the terrain, the GUNNER
suddenly stiffens and back-pans to find something...
GUNNER
Tentative at One.
The DRIVER angles right, aiming for one o'clock.
GUNNER
That's negative, no target.
The DRIVER swings the wheel back and they continue slowly through
the darkness.
In the back seat, two NEW SOLDIERS peer into the night with blank
faces. One of them is watching a huge plastic sign cartwheel
past in the wind when --
-- he reacts!
-- as TODD'S face appears is only inches from his, right against
the plexi!
BAM! Before the NEW SOLDIER can do more than look startled, TODD
shoots out the window with a pistol and shoves a live grenade
through the hole.
NEW SOLDIER
RED! RED! RE --
BAWHOOOM! The grenade EXPLODES and...
The DRIVER fights for control of the wheel.
The GUNNER screams and screams and screams like a machine running
at high speed while the two NEW SOLDIERS lie open-eyed with death
in the back seat.
EXT. CRAWLER
No sign of TODD. Disappeared again.
As the wind ROARS furiously, the damaged CRAWLER limps along.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
The dying GUNNER is making awful noises while the DRIVER, eyes
glazed, his face streaming with blood, maneuvers the vehicle
slowly and cautiously, looking for the enemy...
But all he sees through the cracked windshield is a shadowy world
of wind-tossed debris.
EXT. JUNK TERRAIN
Protected by a hunk of pipe, TODD crouches and watches the
CRAWLER, his eyes glittering, his weapon ready. It's clear now
that the tables are turned and he is the hunter as we...
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDORS - NIGHT
EXPLOSIONS! SCREAMS! BAWHOOM! Another shell hits, beams
splinter, dirt walls collapse.
Eight-year old JOHNNY, alone and terrified, comes in to view
around a corner. He's been separated from the others.
JOHNNY
DAD! DAAAAAAD!
No answer.
JOHNNY doesn't know which way to go. The world's falling apart!
WHUMP! The little warren of earthen corridors is shaken by
another BLAST.
Desperate, JOHNNY makes a left, away from the last blast and
hurries down a collapsing corridor past doorways that reveal
rooms with no ceilings where the wind HOWLS. It's obvious the
shelling has been going on for a while.
JOHNNY
DAAAAAAAD!
Just then, JIMMY PIG pops out of a doorway in front of him and
and rushes toward him.
JIMMY PIG
GOTCHA!
BA-WHOOM! Another shell collapses the corridor behind JOHNNY as
JIMMY PIG grabs him and hauls him toward the door he emerged
from, the Dining Commons.
INT. DINING COMMONS
EMMA is ushering CHILDREN through a trap door in the floor into
the root cellar as JIMMY PIG ushers JOHNNY into the room.
JOHNNY
Where's my father? Where's my
father?
JOHNNY looks around urgently.
SANDRA is bandaging TOMMY'S arm while ELLEN, NATHAN, and WILL are
huddling under a table in the most protected corner of the room.
JIMMY PIG and JUDITH exchange a pained look as JIMMY PIG pushes
JOHNNY toward SANDRA and the table.
JIMMY PIG
Johnny, get over under that table
with Miss Sandra and Ellen and the
others. Miss Judith, you better go
on down the root cellar with Emma
and help with the ones down there.
JOHNNY
Where's my mother?
BAH-DOOOM! Another fierce CONCUSSION twenty yards away shakes
dirt from the ceiling. ELLEN beckons from under the table...
ELLEN
Come on, Johnny.
CUT TO:
EXT. SETTLEMENT - NIGHT
MUZZLE FLASH! FFFWHOOOMP! CRAWLER TWO fires another round.
The vehicle is squatting not thirty yards from the trench garden,
pouring round after round into the colony, lighting the night
with bright-colored flowery blasts.
Crouched in the wind not far from the vehicle, the two NEW
SOLDIERS from the back seat have set up a mortar, and they too
are firing away.
INT. CRAWLER TWO/STATlONARY
The GUNNER is looking through his scope, methodically aiming and
firing as CAINE 607 at the wheel watches impassively.
KA-FOOMP! Another shot, the vehicle rocks, and, five hundred
yards away, fire and dirt fountain thirty feet into the air.
BEEP! BEEP! A light on the dash blinks on. CAINE 607 switches
on a radarscope, spots a blip.
The GUNNER takes his eyes off the scope, looks at the blip.
CAINE 607 is already manipulating a spotlight, looking across the
GUNNER out the right window.
The spotlight stabs the darkness, finds a moving vehicle a half
mile of moving toward them. It's CRAWLER ONE with its lights
out.
As CAINE 607 flicks off the spotlight, the GUNNER turns back to
the scope and resumes his deadly barrage. CAINE 607 speaks into
the radio mike.
CAINE 607
Crawler Two to Crawler One. Come
in, One.
RADIO
One.
CAINE 607
Two to one, take your port to our
nine o'clock and commence firing.
RADIO
Copy, Two. Port to your nine and
commence firing.
FOOOMP! The GUNNER fires again, rocking the vehicle.
CAINE 607 looks at the SCOPE.
The blip continues on directly on its course.
CAINE 607 picks up the mike again.
CAINE 607
Crawler Two to Crawler One. Again;
proceed to port nine...
RADIO
Affirmative, Two.
FOOOMP! The GUNNER fires again as CAINE 607 looks at the screen.
The blip on the screen keeps on straight, doesn't alter course!
CAINE 607
(into the mike)
Two to One. You are still on twelve
o'clock. Correct to nine.
RADIO
Roger.
But the blip continues straight, directly at them.
And suddenly CAINE realizes! Dropping the mike he snaps at his
GUNNER urgently.
CAINE 607
Gunner, hard to port, target hard to
port!
As the startled GUNNER starts to obey both of them are bathed in
sudden, blinding white light as CRAWLER ONE suddenly switches on
all lights and...
KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! MUZZLES FLASHES from CRAWLER ONE.
WHUMP! WHUMP! CRAWLER TWO shudders, taking two direct hits.
The GUNNER SCREAMS in pain.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
TODD is at the wheel, speaking into the radio as wind whips at
him through the shattered windshield.
TODD
Roger, Two. Affirmative.
BLAM! BLAM! TODD fires as he drives straight ahead toward
CRAWLER TWO and the two NEW SOLDIERS pinned in his headlight.
EXT. CRAWLER TWO
As shells slam into CRAWLER TWO, the two NEW SOLDIERS outside try
to get clear of the explosions, staggering off into the wind.
INT. CRAWLER ONE
TODD sets his sights on one of the NEW SOLDIERS, cutting him down
with rocket fire, then he glances toward the SECOND NEW SOLDIER
on the right.
The SECOND NEW SOLDIER, ten yards ahead, stops, turns to fire.
TODD yanks the wheel, swerving toward him.
EXT. CRAWLERS
CRAWLER ONE plows into the NEW SOLDIER, crushing him under the
wheels, and continuing to grind toward the crippled CRAWLER TWO.
WHAM! CRAWLER ONE rams CRAWLER TWO and drives it sideways,
pushing it ten yards... twenty yards.... thirty yards...until
suddenly it sprawls into the mouth of the trench garden,
splintering the trellis and wedging itself at a sharply canted
angle over the garden, and we...
CUT TO:
INT. CAPTAIN'S CABIN/"DADDY" - NIGHT
Silence. CHURCH is dozing fully clothed on his bunk in a tiny
stateroom.
BZZZZT. BZZZZT! A buzzer sounds and a light flashes.
CHURCH opens his eyes, sees the light flashing.
Siting up in the bunk, he grabs the receiver of a phone and puts
it to his ear. As he listens, his eyes widen with
incredulity...then they get wider as he hears more.
CHURCH
Whaaaaat?
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDORS/SETTLEMENT - NIGHT
Thick smoke clogs the narrow corridors as RED winds through the
maze of corridors, coughing desperately. He can hear VOICES
ahead.
INT. DINING COMMONS/SETTLEMENT
RED charges into the commons, shouting excitedly.
RED
THEY STOPPED SHOOTING! THEY STOPPED
SHOOTING!
He stops abruptly, seeing...
a blazing fire, whipped by wind from a shel hole in the ceiling,
consuming tables in the far half of the commons...
while JIMMY PIG, SLADE and SANDRA struggle with one end of a huge
beam that's fallen at an angle on top of a trap door in the floor,
the root cellar.
ELLEN, with NATHAN in her arms, TOMMY, WILL, JOHNNY and OTHER
CHILDREN hover behind her, staring at...
a six inch opening between the floor and the trap door where
EMMA, JUDITH and OTHER CHILDREN, unable to squeeze through the
six inch gap, peer out with frightened eyes, trapped.
RED
(dampened)
They stopped shooting!
JIMMY PIG
(to Red)
Give us a hand, dammit!
As RED joins the effort. SLADE snaps at him sarcastically as he
strains against the heavy beam.
SLADE
You think (grunt) that's good they
stopped? It means (grunt) they're
comin' for us! To (grunt) kill us!
That's good news, you think?
SANDRA
(looking for hope)
Sergeant Todd (grunt, cough) said...
SLADE
That he's gonna (grunt) stomp a whole
army? Couldn't if he wanted.
The smoke is getting thicker. EMMA and JUDITH are coughing,
looking scared.
SANDRA
He (grunt) knew them! He said --
SLADE
He's dead! If he isn't (grunt)
dead, he joined 'em. He don't
(grunt) care about us, he's a
soldier. Besides, we threw him out,
remember?
SANDRA pushes at the beam with all her strength, fighting back
tears of despair.
SANDRA
He's not dead!
The massive beam won't budge! Eyes wide with terror, EMMA and
RUTH peer out of their trap.
CUT TO:
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY" - NIGHT
CHURCH is in the cockpit now, hovering behind RUBRICK who's
speaking urging into the radio mike.
RUBRICK
This is Daddy, come in, Number Two.
Daddy calling Number Two...
CHURCH
What about Number One? Try
Number...
RUBRICK
I tried One. I can't get either
one of them.
SLOAN is pacing, looks sick to her stomach with fear.
SLOAN
There was...some kind of...
guerilla action...
RUBRICK
Then we lost them...
Now CHURCH is pacing back and forth, panicky, ranting...
CHURCH
You should have waked me sooner!
This is bad, very bad. I never
should have let that clown Mekum
test his wonder boy army on me. "If
it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Shit! We don't even know what we're
up against. How many...?
SLOAN
We couldn't get any figures on enemy
troop strength.
RUBRICK
Not even estimates...
CHURCH
We're sitting ducks here! There
could be a couple of divisions!
More! We don't even have the
weapons to arm the old soldiers.
RUBRICK
(into the mike,
desperately)
Hello... Hello, One. This is
Daddy...
EXT. ABOVE THE TRENCH GARDEN
The radio in CRAWLER TWO is still SQUAWKING urgently with
RUBRICK'S VOICE as the crippled vehicle lies sprawled at a
violent angle over the trench garden.
RADIO (V.O.)
This is Daddy! Come in, Crawler
Two, come in...
Nearby, A VOICE is crying out in pain in the night.
Limping, TODD keeps his weapon ready as he searches out the
sound.
ANGLE ON THE INJURED SOLDIER, the one TODD crushed under the
treads of the CRAWLER. He's screaming in pain. Looks up.
TODD looms over the INJURED SOLDIER, weapon pointed. Their eyes
meet.
In agony, the SOLDIER looks into TODD'S eyes, nods ever
so slightly.
BLAM! BLAM! TODD fires point blank.
Now the only sound is the ROARING of the WIND and the pathetic
sound of RUBRICK continuing his desperate RADIO BABBLE.
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH GARDEN
As the RADIO CHATTERS, burning debris from the CRAWLER canted
over the garden illuminates the garden...and a BODY sprawled
there, fallen from the CRAWLER above.
BAM! KABAM! ROCKET FIRE!
EXT. ABOVE THE TRENCH
TODD FIRES rockets into the damaged CRAWLER...until the RADIO
CHATTER stops abruptly. RADIO killed dead.
CUT TO:
INT. DINING COMMONS/SETTLEMENT - NIGHT
The gap between the floor and the trap door has increased to ten
inches, enough for EMMA and RUTH to squeeze an INFANT through to
SANDRA'S reaching arms.
Soaked with sweat, gasping and coughing in the thickening smoke,
JIMMY PIG, SLADE and RED continue to strain at the beam...and it
moves. Another inch!
The fire is raging. The INFANT SQUALLS in SANDRA'S arms. SLADE
snaps at her as he pushes on the beam.
SLADE
Get them kids (grunt) hid somewhere!
There's soldiers coming.
ELLEN and the CHILDREN look alarmed as SANDRA gathers them and
ushers them toward the exit, glancing back toward the trap door
as she's leaving.
EMMA and RUTH meet her look with frightened eyes.
Noticing SANDRA'S hesitation, JIMMY PIG reassures her...
JIMMY PIG
Don't worry. Couple more inches and
they're out.
SANDRA and the CHILDREN exit.
And suddenly!!! The beam slips back five inches, almost closing
the opening. EMMA and JUDITH SCREAM!
JIMMY PIG, RED and SLADE look alarmed, defeated.
EXT. ABOVE THE TRENCH GARDEN
TODD walks away from the smoking bulk of the CRAWLER canted over
the garden and drops into a traveling trench.
EXT. INSIDE A PASSAGE TRENCH
Limping slightly, laden with weapons and still wearing his
helmet, TODD starts along the trench in the direction of the
settlement.
EXT. INSIDE THE TRENCH GARDEN
In the shadows six feet below the overturned and smoldering
CRAWLER TWO, the BODY stirs on the floor of the garden, barely
visible in the flickering half light from the flames above.
It's CAINE 607. He groans and stirs again. He's not dead! In
fact, he's rolling over, struggling to his knees.
INT. DINING COMMONS
The frightened eyes of EMMA, RUTH and CHILDREN peer from the four
inch crack.
Whipped by wind from the hole in the ceiling, the fire is
spreading, the smoke is thick. JIMMY PIG, SLADE and RED are
gasping with effort and coughing. SLADE gasps to RED.
SLADE
You know where Thomas keeps those
two axes? Go get the axes.
RED takes off at a run.
JIMMY PIG
(so Emma and Ruth can't
hear)
We can't (cough) chop 'em out. We
don't have time.
SLADE
Just as good (gasp) to die chopping
as fighting.
INT. CORRIDOR
RED rushes through a smoky corridor. Wherever shells have
punctured the roof, the WIND whips debris about.
EXT. INSIDE THE GARDEN TRENCH
Sitting up now, using a flashlight, CAINE 607 is examining a
terrible gash in his thigh that reveals tissue and tendon. The
right side of his face is also badly injured, flesh torn, swollen
and distorted.
He pulls the first aid kit from his utility belt, opens it,
focuses the light on the contents.
Selects a couple of pills. Swallows them. Considers. Takes two
more. Pulls out a hypodermic needle, injects his leg. Takes
another needle, stabs his bloody cheek.
His eyes glitter as he feels the rush from the drug. He looks
dangerous again in spite of his condition.
EXT. INSIDE THE PASSAGE TRENCH
TODD reaches the settlement, enters a half collapsed doorway.
INT. SUPPLY ROOM
RED is urgently rummaging through crowbars, coils of rope, sledge
hammers. At last he finds two axes, grabs them and exits.
INT. CORRIDOR/SETTLEMENT
TODD picks his way among collapsed walls, fallen timbers.
He peers through doorways, sees CORPSES.
Moves on. Searching.
EXT. INSIDE THE PASSAGE TRENCH
Dragging a freshly bandaged leg, CAINE 607 makes his way along
the trench toward the settlement. He's using the wall for
support...but he seems to be getting stronger rather than weaker.
His face is hideous.
INT. JUNCTION OF CORRIDORS
Carrying two axes RED zips around a corner and freezes...
RED'S POV of: A SOLDIER, seen from behind, moving down a smoky
corridor, helmeted, heavily armed, dangerous looking,
unidentifiable.
ANGLE ON RED, terrified, waiting till the SOLDIER (TODD) has
disappeared in the smoke. Then RED hurries on down another
damaged corridor, axes in hand.
INT. OTHER DAMAGED CORRIDOR
RED scoots around another corner and... stops short...an armored
torso a foot in front of his face.
Looking up, RED looks right into the distorted face of CAINE 607.
Before RED can react, CAINE 607'S hand shoots out and snatches
one of the axes.
Astonished, RED backs up a step, and raises the other axe to
defend himself.
RED'S POV OF CAINE 607 looming toward him, axe in hand.
ANGLE ON RED, turning and running.
ANGLE ON CAINE 607 limping along, dragging his leg as RED
disappears around a corner.
CAINE 607 rounds the corner in pursuit... and see only smoke,
no sign of RED.
INT. DINING COMMONS
EMMA and JUDITH peer out from under the heavy metal trap door as
JIMMY PIG and SLADE desperately try to move the beam using a
piece of metal as a lever.
SLADE
This (grunt, cough) ain't gonna
work. Where's them axes? He musta
run into soldiers and got killed.
JIMMY PIG
How do you know there's soldiers coming?
SLADE
'Cause soldiers (gasp) finish what
they start -- unless you stop 'em.
And we're what (gasp) they started,
and we didn't stop 'em!
(shouts to Emma)
WE'RE GONNA GET YOU OUTTA THERE
SOMEHOW! I SWEAR IT!
Just then RED bursts into the room with a single axe, shouting...
RED
SOLDIERS! SOLDIERS!
SLADE
(grabbing the axe)
Only one axe?
RED
They took the other one!
SLADE
(chopping furiously)
Toldja.
JIMMY PIG
(to Red)
How many?
RED
I... I couldn't... I couldn't...
count 'em. Four, I think. Maybe
five.
SLADE
(chopping)
More! Trust me!
JIMMY PIG
(grabbing the axe)
Turns.
JIMMY PIG starts chopping furiously.
SLADE picks up a rifle, hands it to RED.
SLADE
Do what you can.
As RED looks at the rifle, alarmed, SLADE "comforts" him.
SLADE
They're gonna kill us anyhow. No
point in surrendering.
(grabbing the axe)
Turn!
JIMMY PIG gasps for air as SLADE takes over chopping again.
RED exits, worried.
INT. THE MEETING ROOM
Huddled in a makeshift shelter of overturned furniture, with
NATHAN asleep on her lap, SANDRA is reciting to ELLEN, WILL,
TOMMY, JOHNNY, ANGIE, eight year old RAMON.
SANDRA
"-- sailed an a river of crystal
light into a sea of dew. Where are
you going and what do you wish the
old moon asked the three. 'We've
come to fish for herring fish...'"
TOMMY
What's a "moon?"
JOHNNY
I know what a moon is! It's...
SANDRA
(suddenly, urgently)
SHHHHHHH!
SANDRA is reacting to vague movement in the shadows beyond the
door...and sounds.
She puts her hand over the mouth of a whimpering CHILD, hushes
another.
A timber falls outside the door and SANDRA sees a shadowy shape
enter the meeting room, looming in the darkness.
Frightened CHILDREN hold their breath, peer out fearfully.
CRACK! SMASH! The huge shape hurls aside the debris in his way,
switches on a flashlight, probes the darkness.
The light wipes the damaged room.
Suddenly, SANDRA gasps.
SANDRA
Oh, my God! It's... it's you!
TODD maneuvers the flashlight beam, sees the frightened CHILDREN.
SANDRA
Are you...all right?
TODD
We should go, sir.
SANDRA
Go?
INT. CORRIDOR
Peering into the smoke, RED reacts.
RED'S POV of CAINE 607, obscured by smoke, crossing the corridor
ahead, not seeing RED.
ANGLE ON RED, summoning all his courage, raising his rifle,
aiming.
BANG!
ANGLE ON CAINE 607 reacting, looking toward RED.
ANGLE ON RED scared to death, firing again! And again!
ANGLE ON CAINE 607 wrenching a heavy door from its hinges and
holding it in front of him, shielding himself from RED's
continuous shooting, advancing.
ANGLE ON RED, firing again and again...and backing up.
ANGLE ON CAINE 607 holding the door/shield as he advances on RED.
Backing, RED trips, goes down flat on his back.
CAINE 607, only six feet away, hurls the door at him.
RED shoves the door aside, aims his gun up at CAINE 607, as the
huge soldier looms over him.
Before RED can pull the trigger, CAINE 607 snatches the rifle
barrel and yanks the weapon out of RED'S hands.
RED rolls, scrambles to his feet.
And CAINE 607 clubs him to the ground with the butt of the rifle,
crushes his skull with three brutal blows.
INT. ROOM
TODD'S impassive face somehow reveals the alarm and awkwardness
he feels at what's happening to him. TOMMY is seated on his
shoulders, he's got NATHAN in one arm and JOHNNY is nervously
looking up at him as he clutches at TODD'S huge free hand, and
now a little girl, SARAH, clutches at his combat pants as SANDRA
instructs her.
SANDRA
Sarah, you hang on to Sergeant Todd.
No matter what happens!
Clutching TODD's combat pants fiercely, SARAH looks up timidly at
the big stonefaced man as SANDRA turns to ELLEN.
SANDRA
Ellen, go to the Commons. Tell
Jimmy Pig and Mr. Slade that
Sergeant Todd says we have to leave
as soon as they get everybody out of
the root-cellar. Can you do that?
ELLEN
(scared)
Uh, yes, ma'am.
SANDRA
It's all right. The soldiers are
gone for now. But be careful where
you walk. And if it's too smoky,
just come back.
SARAH
(on her way out)
Yes, ma'am.
SANDRA
(calling after her)
Tell them to bring all the food and
clothing they can carry.
(turning to the
children)
Do you all understand that Sergeant
Todd here is going to help us, and
whatever he says to do you must do
immediately, as if he was your
father or your mother.
SARAH
(tears)
He's not my father!
ANGLE ON TODD'S stone face. Unfamiliar territory.
SANDRA
No... but he's our friend. Our good
friend. Do you understand?
Frightened faces look to the awkward "killing machine."
TODD looks like a statue decorated with CHILDREN.
JOHNNY is sobbing as he hangs onto TODD's giant hand obediently.
JOHNNY
I want my father and my mother! Can
he find where my father is? I want
him to find my father!
SANDRA
No. No, he can't do that, but --
A SCREAM! From the corridor!
SANDRA freezes. TODD is alert, tense...and covered with
CHILDREN.
SANDRA turns and runs for the door as TODD starts to put the
CHILDREN down. But he's awkward, slow, not his usual graceful
self, trying to be gentle like a clumsy man handling breakables.
INT. CORRIDOR
Bursting into the corridor, SANDRA sees ELLEN racing toward her,
weaving through broken beams, SCREAMING as CAINE 607 lumbers
after her out of the shadows. CAINE 607 doesn't bother to avoid
obstacles, shoving beams aside like twigs, dragging his bad leg.
SANDRA
Sergeant Todd!
ELLEN dives into SANDRA's arms and SANDRA turns, only three steps
ahead of CAINE 607, and rushes into the meeting room.
INT. MEETING ROOM
TODD is just putting NATHAN gently on the floor when he sees
CAINE 607 arrive in the doorway. For halt a second their eyes
meet, then --
CAINE 607 advances on TODD.
Still encumbered by CHILDREN clutching at him, TODD sees his
weapons, but can't get to them. Then it's too late!
The terrified CHILDREN watch as the giant CAINE 607 clubs TODD
mercilessly with the rifle butt, then hurls him backwards like a
rag doll.
Horrified, SANDRA sees TODD slam into a wall, slump to the floor.
Dismissing TODD, CAINE 607 turns, looms toward the CHILDREN.
SANDRA
THEY'RE JUST CHILDREN!
CAINE 607 ignores her, heads for ELLEN, dragging his bad leg.
Spotting TODD'S weapons, SANDRA snatches a heavy rocket rifle,
brings it up awkwardly, points it, FIRES!
And the kick from the heavy gun sends SANDRA sprawling back, the
weapon trembling from her hands.
But the WHIZZING ROCKET, a near miss, gets CAINE 607's attention.
He turns away from ELLEN, toward SANDRA.
ANGLE ON TODD rising to his knees, blinking stupidly, trying to
focus as blood pours into his eyes from a gash in his forehead.
TODD'S POV, a vague, unfocused image of SANDRA, snatching a
bayonet from TODD'S gear on the floor and lunging courageously at
CAINE 607.
Vaguely, TODD sees CAINE 607 parry her thrust effortlessly and
grab her. As she beats at CAINE 607 bravely with her fists, the
big man slams her into a wall brutally. As she crumples, he hits
her again.
ANGLE ON TODD struggling to his feet, staggering as he shakes his
head to clear it.
His eyes go to SANDRA, slumped against the wall, bloody.
Terrified CHILDREN look up at CAINE 607 as he towers over them.
Suddenly...
SHTUNK! A knife blade suddenly sticks in CAINE 607's neck.
CAINE 607 only flinches... and, as he YANKS the knife from his
neck by the handle, he turns to see who threw the blade...
WHAM! TODD slams into him, tackling him, driving his big
shoulder deep into the new soldier's waist, slamming the big man
hard into a wall.
Air goes out of CAINE 607, the knife drops from his hand.
But that's it for TODD's victory. Six-five, two-sixty, CAINE 607
is bigger and stronger than TODD. His powerful arms rip TODD off
him like he's taking off a Band-Aid.
Terrified, wide-eyed CHILDREN watch TODD hurled back across the
room.
TODD scrambles to his feet, shakes his head clear.
Here comes CAINE 607, dragging his bad leg.
TODD attacks! Combining a martial arts feint and lunge with a
vicious kick!
But 607 counters expertly, brushing aside the attack!
TODD lunges again employing yet another skilled move.
SMACK! CAINE 607 outmaneuvers TODD again, punishing him
brutally.
WHACK! WHAM! SMASH! CRUNCH! This time TODD jolts the bigger
man with a terrible combination of moves, smashing him in the
Adam's apple, kicking him in the knee, driving an elbow into the
jaw.
This time it's CAINE 607 who has to back away to recover. And
now he seems to re-consider TODD, revealing for the first time a
genuine respect.
As their eyes meet, CAINE 607 seems to be saying "All right then,
you're serious, let's do it, fella."
TODD lunges.
SMASH! CAINE 607 creams him.
TODD twists, slams CAINE 607 back.
BASH! A fist to the face!
UMMMMMPH! A knee in a groin!
SLAM! A head against a wall!
CUT TO:
VIDEO SCREEN/COCKPIT/"DADDY" - NIGHT
His face tanned from his Caribbean vacation, his image blurred
and distorted by transmission, MEKUM'S VIDEO IMAGE stares
incredulously from the snowy video monitor in the cockpit.
MEKUM/VIDEO SCREEN
You can't be serious! This is some
kind of a joke...in poor taste.
As SLOAN and RUBRICK look on uneasily, an indignant CHURCH
addresses the image on the screen.
CHURCH
Not only are we apparently out
twenty of your fancy new soldiers,
your supermen, we're out both
crawlers and all the weapons...so we
can't arm the old soldiers, the ones
you "improved" on, to defend
ourselves...
SLOAN
(panicky, blurting at
the screen)
We've got to get out of here,
Colonel Mekum!
CHURCH flashes a scowl at SLOAN as, on the screen, MEKUM erupts
excitedly.
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
Abort? You want to lose twenty top
soldiers to a phantom army and then
abort the mission? Do you know what
that would look like on my record?
Or yours? We'd be explaining it for
the next fifty years from some
goddam assignment in God knows
where, we'd --
CHURCH
(interrupting sharply)
Well, how's it gonna look when we
lose the ship too? How's that gonna
look on the old record? 'Cause
that's what's gonna happen if we
don't get our ass outta here. We
can't defend ourselves with no
weapons and --
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
(fighting his own panic)
Hold on, hold on there, Captain! At
ease! Let's calm down and
remember...remember we're soldiers.
CHURCH
(sarcastic)
Good plan, Colonel.
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
(moving on, improvising)
Now we can't just get the shit
kicked out of us by an unknown
guerilla army... But maybe we
could...alter...our objective...
CHURCH
Meaning?
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
Nuke the joint...and get out!
Delighted with his own genius, MEKUM smiles triumphantly from the
video screen as RUBRICK, SLOAN, and CHURCH exchange stunned looks
and we...
CUT TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM - NIGHT
WHUMP! TODD's bloodied head is slammed on the floor. His eyes
are almost swollen shut as he looks up at CAINE 607 kneeling on
top of him. Both men are bloody and exhausted their breath
coming in gasps, but it's CAINE 607 who's on top, beating the
last bit of resistance out of TODD who struggles desperately one
more time...before he slumps unconscious.
Horrified, NATHAN sees CAINE 607 smash the unconscious TODD with
the last of his strength, "finishing him off." NATHAN can't
stand it.
He toddles toward CAINE 607, who's still on all fours, and
attacks, his tiny fists raining blows on the amazed monster's
bloody face.
The frightened CHILDREN see CAINE 607 ignore NATHAN's ineffectual
blows and struggle with enormous effort to his feet.
Once standing, he looks down at NATHAN beating at his knees. For
a moment he's confused. What's this?
Then he sees the frightened CHILDREN and orients himself. When
he looks down at NATHAN again, tiny NATHAN is an enemy as good as
dead. One blow and...
But just then big hands close around CAINE 607's ankles, tackling
him. As the giant topples, TODD lets go of the ankles and crawls
on top of the fallen man.
As CAINE 607 looks up into TODD's fierce face, the fight goes out
of his eyes. He knows he's beaten, he knows TODD will never
quit. He's helpless as TODD grips him in a terrible hold and as
TODD puts the pressure on, CAINE 607 whispers...
CAINE 607
It hurts!
TODD
(sympathetic)
I know.
SNAP! TODD breaks CAINE 607's neck and watches the life go out
of him.
In the sudden silence as TODD, panting, stares at his defeated
enemy, he hears a VOICE...her VOICE...very weak...
SANDRA
Sergeant...
TODD turns and sees SANDRA slumped against the wall where Caine
607 threw her. There's a trickle of blood coming from a nostril,
more blood in her hair. Her eyes don't look right.
SANDRA
Nathan!
TODD sees NATHAN looking at his mother with fear in his eyes.
Struggling to his feet, TODD picks up NATHAN and puts the boy
down close to his mother.
SANDRA reaches out and takes NATHAN's hand. She holds NATHAN's
hand toward TODD.
TODD looks confused.
There are tears in SANDRA's eyes as she pushes NATHAN's little
hand into TODD's huge left paw.
TODD looks down at the joined hands, then he looks into SANDRA's
flooded eyes.
Does TODD understand her gesture? His face is impassive. Maybe
he doesn't. Just then a hand touches his shoulder.
TODD turns to see JOHNNY face him, trembling but valiant, to ask
the question the others are fearful of asking.
JOHNNY
S-sir...sir, are you our friend?
(indicating Sandra)
Sh-she said you were our friend.
TODD sees all the CHILDREN looking at him, their eyes big with
hope and fear as we...
CUT TO:
INT. DINING COMMONS
Blackened with soot, JIMMY PIG still has the axe in his hand as
SLADE manages, with a supreme effort, to hold the door of the
root cellar up enough to allow EMMA and JUDITH to push the FOUR
CHILDREN out of the cellar and then to scramble after them.
Exhausted, SLADE lets the door fall back, picks up his rifle and
turns toward the exit. And freezes. Dumbfounded.
Standing in the doorway is TODD, laden with CHILDREN, on his
shoulders, in his arms, surrounding him, clutching at his
garments.
SLADE
You!
JIMMY PIG
Thank God!
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR/"DADDY" - NIGHT
CRUDE LETTERS scrawled on the metal skin of the bomb say "LOVE
FROM DADDY."
The heavy bomb is lugged along a long narrow corridor.
SLOAN (O.S.)
Well, Riley, you wanted a weapon,
right? Now you got one! A real
biggee!
We see that RILEY and three other VETERANS -- GREEN, CHESLEY, and
MOORE -- are struggling to maneuver the heavy bomb along the
narrow corridor and down a ladder hatch as SLOAN follows on
their heels and CHURCH and RUBRICK, fretting, follow her.
RUBRICK
What good'll it do just setting it
outside? We don't know where the
enemy is.
CHURCH
Doesn't matter. For once Mekum's on
the ball.
This is a very dirty bomb! That
wind will churn the radioactivity
around like soap in a washing
machine. This is gonna be one clean
place in a very short time...
CUT TO:
INT. BOWELS OF THE SHIP - NIGHT
THE TIMER on the bomb CLICKS into action, ticking off seconds and
blurring off the tenths.
ANGLE ON SLOAN, punching a code into the device as she addresses
the four VETERANS.
SLOAN
Okay, fellas, take it about a
hundred yards, then get back on the
double...unless you wanna fry.
RILEY, his face impassive, opens a hatch, revealing the darkness
outside where the wind SCREAMS.
As RUBRICK and CHURCH watch, the four VETS stagger into the
darkness with the bomb, RUBRICK has to shout to CHURCH to be
heard over the wind outside.
RUBRICK
THIRTY MINUTES IS AWFUL TIGHT! WE
HAVE TO LAUNCH AND GET CLEAR OF THE
ATMOSPHERE.
CHURCH
IT'S ENOUGH. IF WE LEAVE MORE THAN
ENOUGH, THE ENEMY MAY GET CLEAR
SOMEHOW AS WELL.
As SLOAN shuts the hatch, she checks her watch.
EXT. SPACESHIP/"DADDY"
Carrying the heavy bomb in a sling, RILEY, CHESLEY, MOORE, and
GREEN stagger past the work-lights into the darkness while the
wind rages around them. Holding the sling one-handed, GREEN is
illuminating the ground ahead with a flashlight.
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY"
Flick! Flick! Flick! Flick! SLOAN is flicking switches as
RUBRICK reads off a check list and she responds to each item on
the list with "Roger."
CHURCH is punching buttons on the control console, causing lights
to light up reading "Port Power Cluster," "Starboard Power
Cluster," "Vertical Stabilizer Unit," and so on.
EXT. TERRAIN
Darkness! Buffeted by the wind, RILEY and his COMPANIONS lower
the bomb to the ground and release it gently. They're just
turning to go back, fighting the wind, when RILEY senses
something. He takes the light from GREEN and points it.
The four VETERANS axe astonished at what they see.
CRAWLER ONE, battered and motionless, is abandoned only ten yards
away.
The flashlight beam probes the blown out windshield, the scarred
chassis, pans across the back seat...and pans back urgently,
glimpsing tiny EYES.
The EYES disappear behind the back seat.
RILEY, CHESLEY, GREEN and MOORE exchange glances.
The light probes again, this time revealing the frightened faces
of CHILDREN cowering in the back seat, hiding from the wind.
Suddenly RILEY whirls.
Out of the darkness beside him, TODD looms.
RILEY looks into the face of a man he saw killed!
TODD has a CHILD in each arm and another hanging on to his leg
for dear life. He's wearing the scarf Jimmy Pig gave him.
In the shadows behind TODD, JIMMY PIG, SLADE, EMMA, JUDITH and
more CHILDREN are watching anxiously.
RILEY's stone face comes as close to expression as it ever
will...astonishment!
The other VETERANS stare too, amazed.
Suddenly RILEY gives TODD a smart military salute.
ANGLE ON JIMMY PIG and SLADE exchanging a look of wonder. What's
going on here? They haven't a clue! And we...
CUT TO:
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY" - NIGHT
The countdown clock is TICKING away, showing ten minutes, as
CHURCH, RUBRICK, and SLOAN complete their pre-launch prep.
CHURCH
Right horizontal?
RUBRICK
Roger. Right horizontal checks
green.
CHURCH relaxes, looks up at the clock, satisfied.
CHURCH
All right we're "go." I'm allowing
us three minutes to clear the
atmosphere and get out of range.
That means we can wait seven more
minutes.
SLOAN
Fuck 'em! Let's just go!
RUBRICK
She's right! Four more casualties
aren't gonna mean anything to
anybody, especially when they're
already obsolete.
CHURCH considers for a moment, then shrugs.
CHURCH
I guess they wouldn't want to get
old anyway.
(to Sloan)
Go ahead, lock the hatch.
(to Rubrick)
Rube, punch up the port power
cluster and --
SLOAN
(interrupting urgently)
What was that?
CHURCH
Huh? What was what?
SLOAN
Sssshhhh! Listen!
SLOAN is listening intensely.
All they hear is the HUM of the air system and miscellaneous
WHITE NOISE.
CHURCH and RUBRICK exchange a glance and are about to speak when
they all hear it...
A sound like a CHILD CRYING somewhere in the ship!
All three of them stare at each other in utter amazement.
RUBRICK
It sounds...
SLOAN
Like a kid!
Just then they hear it again, closer.
CHURCH frowns. What the fuck?
CUT TO:
INT. BUNKS/"DADDY" - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER
EMMA, JUDITH, SLADE and JIMMY PIG are settling most of the
CHILDREN in the cramped crew quarters, pulling off hats and
coats, when a COMMOTION causes them to look toward the open door
to the corridor in time to see...
a glimpse of RUBRICK being shoved roughly along the corridor by
MOORE, his loud protests clearly audible.
RUBRICK
Are you crazy? You can't do this,
soldier! You're going to be in
trouble.
Then, as RUBRICK is pushed out of view, CHURCH appears, indignant
and panicky, as CHESLEY hustles him past.
CHURCH
I'm your superior officer, don't you
understand that?
ANGLE ON THE PIONEERS, exchanging glances.
INT. CORRIDOR/"DADDY"
As CHESLEY shoves him along, CHURCH continues to protest...
CHURCH
Don't you realize you're violating
the chain of command? I'm giving
you a direct order to...to...to...
CHURCH breaks off, suddenly speechless at the sight ahead of him.
Here comes TODD, laden with more CHILDREN, the tattoo on his
cheek clearly visible. His eyes meet CHURCH'S.
CHURCH
S-sergeant? S-sergeant T-todd?
It... You...! How...? How...?
Weak at the knees, CHURCH is still stammering as CHESLEY shoves
him ahead.
And then SLOAN, in the grip of GREEN, is hustled by. She looks
wide-eyed at TODD and the CHILDREN.
SLOAN
Sergeant Todd!
CUT TO:
INT. BOWELS OF THE SHIP - NIGHT - SECONDS LATER
RUBRICK, CHURCH, and SLOAN are still protesting as the VETERANS
hustle them down the ladder toward the main hatch.
RUBRICK
Listen, you don't understand! That
bomb is triggered! It's on a timer!
CHURCH
We have to get out of here! All of
us! You need us! You need us to
operate the ship...
SLOAN
YOU'RE FUCKING MORONS! CAN'T YOU
DIMWITS GRASP THAT YOU'RE KILLING US
ALL! YOU'RE KILLING YOURSELVES!
THERE'S ONLY A FEW MINUTES LEFT!
RUBRICK
NO! NO! NO!
RUBRICK is shoved out the door into the night!
EXT. SPACESHIP/"DADDY" - NIGHT
RUBRICK desperately clutches at the hatch entrance as the savage
wind tears at him...but he can't hold on.
As SLOAN and CHURCH are shoved out the hatch, they see RUBRICK
blown off into the night, screaming.
CHURCH
DOWN! LIE DOWN! FLAT!
And CHURCH dives for the ground as the wind tumbles him.
SLOAN does the same thing as the hatch door slams behind them,
shutting them out of the ship..
SLOAN
NO! NO! NO! PLEASE! NO!
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY" - NIGHT
The countdown clock shows four minutes and twenty seconds as it
CLICKS off the seconds.
Their soldier faces inscrutable, TODD and RUBRICK consider the
various lights winking on the control panel.
RILEY points to a row of switches and looks at TODD. Their eyes
meet. TODD considers the switches, then nods.
RILEY throws the switches. A row of red lights goes on and the
ship seems to hum with life.
Still communicating wordlessly, TODD points to another switch,
RILEY throws it!
EXT. SPACESHIP/"DADDY"
BLAST OFF! Big engines belch fire, illuminating the bleak
landscape as the ship rises into the night.
Brightly lit by the ignition, SLOAN, still on her belly, sees the
ship taking off.
SLOAN
OH, MY GOD! OH, MY GOD!
CHURCH
THERE IT IS! I SEE IT!
The bomb is clearly visible ten yards away in the dying glow of
the takeoff.
CHURCH bumps madly along the ground on his belly.
EXT. SPACESHIP/"DADDY"
The NAF ship "Daddy" climbs off into space, getting smaller and
smaller, the light from the takeoff diminishing.
EXT. THE BOMB/TERRAIN
The countdown timer on the bomb is faintly visible in the dying
light. It reads twenty seconds.
CHURCH (V.O.)
Twenty seconds. Hurry.
CHURCH and SLOAN are hunched desperately over the bomb in near
darkness, the wind tearing at them. SLOAN tries to punch a code
into the keys...
SLOAN
Oh, my God, I can't remember if it's
six-seven or seven-six...
CHURCH
Try one! Try it!
SLOAN punches the keyboard blindly.
SLOAN
There! I did it! Did it stop? Did
it -- ?
BAHWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Everything is dazzling, blinding light!
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY"
White light from the blast briefly floods the cockpit as TODD and
RILEY stare at the video monitor where MEKUM'S VIDEO IMAGE is
babbling frantically.
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
...I need a report, Captain. It's
not just my ass, it's yours too!
You've got to stand by me on this.
I want you to come in right now...
right now! Do you understand me?
Right now!
RILEY turns to TODD, looking a question at him. TODD meets his
look and no words are necessary.
RILEY reaches for the control switch as MEKUM continues babbling.
MEKUM/VIDEO IMAGE
This is important for all of us, for
our careers. There's going to be a
Board of Inquiry and --
MEKUM'S IMAGE cuts out mid-babble.
SLADE'S VOICE (O.S.)
That was the boss, huh?
TODD and RILEY turn to see SLADE in the entrance to the cockpit
addressing TODD and the VETERANS collectively.
SLADE
Well then, I guess you fellas are
all right. I guess I misjudged you
some. Where I said you were "a
buncha no good killer robots," I
mighta just overspoke myself. As of
now, till it goes otherwise, you got
my sincere approval and support.
With that, SLADE turns and exits.
TODD looks at RILEY, RILEY looks at TODD. What the fuck was
that?
INT. CORRIDOR/"DADDY" - NIGHT
NATHAN wobbles along an empty corridor, stumbles, catches himself
on a wall, keeps going.
He passes a doorway, peers in, sees two SOLDIERS working at a
console like robots. They don't look up.
NATHAN keeps going, toddling toward a hatchway.
INT. COCKPIT/"DADDY"
Entering, NATHAN moves among the legs of big men, VETERANS.
NATHAN keeps going.
Then, backing against a wall, he looks up and VETERANS loom past
him with blank faces. He is alone again.
NATHAN totters onward.
CLOSE ANGLE ON CHARTS, the same ones Church had on Christmas Eve,
showing tiny dots in a vast sea of space.
TODD and RILEY are poring over them, their eyes considering dot
after dot. Finally, TODD points to a dot and looks a question at
RILEY.
RILEY considers the dot for a long moment...then he looks TODD in
the eye.
RILEY
Cold.
TODD looks back at the dot, considers it, looks back at RILEY.
TODD
Air?
RILEY nods a yes.
TODD is thoughtful...finally asks the next question.
TODD
Safe?
RILEY
(nodding yes)
But very cold.
TODD considers the dot on the map again, then looks at RILEY.
TODD
That one.
RILEY
Aye, aye, sir.
RILEY turns toward a console, but something makes him look down
toward his feat. Then he looks back at TODD.
TODD follows the look.
Tiny NATHAN is looking up at TODD who's towering over him.
TODD looks down without expression, the scarf from Jimmy Pig
still wrapped around his neck.
NATHAN puts his arms out to be picked up.
TODD considers the outstretched arms.
RILEY looks from TODD to NATHAN and back to TODD. What's this?
TODD hesitates a half second more, then leans down and picks
NATHAN up in his arms, lifting the boy to his chest.
RILEY looks on. Never seen anything like it.
NATHAN is close to TODD's face, looking right into it, trying a
little smile, a nervous one, looking for a response.
TODD hesitates, takes a breath, moves the muscles of his face.
All he can produce is an awkward grimace, the distortion of a
smile, almost comical.
NATHAN reads the intention successfully. His face collapses into
a huge friendly grin.
TODD tries again, making a clumsy sort of rubbery wince.
RILEY watches. Totally amazed.
TODD turns, takes NATHAN to a porthole, puts his face up to it.
NATHAN stares out at the darkness punctuated by a billion stars,
a sky full of hope.
As NATHAN looks out, TODD works his face again, trying for a
smile the way a weak man might try to lift a heavy weight.
NATHAN looks at the stars outside, TODD looks with him and
suddenly TODD's face relaxes into an awkward grin, almost by
accident.
RILEY watches the two of them for a moment, confounded by what
he's seeing. Then he turns to the console and...
THE CLOSING CREDITS ROLL.
THE END
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