"CONTACT" (1997)

CONTACT

by

Menno Meyjes,

Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan,

Michael Goldenberg,

Jim V. Hart

Rewrite by

Michael Goldenberg

Based on the Novel by

Carl Sagan

September 8, 1995

UNIVERSE - EIGHT BILLION LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH

The cosmos on the grandest scale we know. Clusters of galaxies strewn like sea froth; whorls and smudges of light representing hundreds of billions of stars each.

MILKY WAY GALAXY

A view from the edge. We DRIFT ABOVE the majestic, spiraling disk, tens of thousands of light years across.

RING NEBULA (M57) - CONSTELLATION LYRA

A local group of stars, the brightest of which is a point of hot, blue-white light...

VEGA

Rings of glowing gas and debris surround the giant, blue- white star... and then we notice something ahead of us in polar orbit.

CLOSER

An immense, world-sized construct gleams in Vega's blue light. Far too big to be artificial, by human standards --but this wasn't built to human standards.

Bowl-shaped transmitters cover the quicksilver gel-like surface of the polyhedron, forming then vanishing again. We DESCEND INTO one vast bowl as it deepens--

--then silently convulses. A lost chord. We SWING AROUND, assuming a breathtaking, MOVING POV--

A message begins its journey.

SUBTERRANEAN DARKNESS

Shadows appear, dark and murky. Slowly we become aware of a MUFFLED, PULSING sound; like a DISTANT, BOOMING HEARTBEAT.

Suddenly a bright light unzips the amniotic darkness; two great hands reach in to assist what we now realize is a

Caesarean birth.

ELLIE ARROWAY

age five seconds, opens her eyes wide. In the b.g., we can see a nurse methodically giving CPR to the unseen mother; the decor beyond tells us we are in a small-town doctor's office. The DOCTOR holds Ellie as he calls softly to the nurse.

TED ARROWAY stands watching through the window in the office door. Numb.

BABY'S TINY HAND

clasps its mother's finger.

WIDE TABLEAU

Ted, holding his newborn daughter, sitting quietly next to the bed where his sheet-covered wife still lies.

Ted, carefully holding little Ellie, walks down the empty street, his FOOTSTEPS ECHOING...

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

rockets through a black dust cloud where young stars are just beginning to glow. An icy worldlet evaporates, releasing gasses which blow away in spectral bursts of iridescent color...

SURFACE OF ALIEN WORLD

We are MOVING OVER an exotic, technological landscape; strange ALIEN SQUELCHES and SQUEALS become audible--

--and then a child's hand reaches in and twists a giant dial on what we now see is an old shortwave RADIO.

SIX-YEAR OLD ELLIE leans in towards a large microphone.

Ted joins his daughter at the workbench where she sits in front of the short-wave, her feet dangling from the stool. He puts his hands on her shoulders.

Ellie bites her lip, tries again. Her little hand slowly turns the dial--suddenly--

Ellie tentatively reaches out and grasps the microphone.

MAP OF WORLD

above the work area is dotted with colored pins; Ellie's finger traces the Gulf of Mexico, stopping at Pensacola.

Ellie, breathless with wonder. Contact.

The house in the woods dwarfed under the immense dome of night.

Now in her pajamas, Ellie sits hunched over in bed, working intently on her latest masterpiece. A crayon behind her ear.

She hands Ted the drawing. As he holds it up to the lamp we see it shows an idealized beach, palm trees. It glows in the light.

He carefully pins the drawing on the wall, turns out the light. As he starts out she says softly--

Ted pauses, smiles at his daughter's inexhaustible curiosity. He returns, sits on the edge of her bed, now lit by starlight.

He tenderly brushes a stray lock of her hair behind her ear.

He kisses her again, rises, goes to leave, stopping at the door to watch her. Ellie looks out the window at the stars...

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

A comet blows by. We chase it, riding its luminous tail of evaporating ice...

TED'S CALLUSED HAND

careful as a safecracker, slowly TURNS the DIAL on an ancient A.M. RADIO--finally landing on an old HANK WILLIAMS TUNE.

Ted sits up, smiles in satisfaction.

The old red Ford trundles through the pines along a

mountain road.

NINE-YEAR OLD ELLIE throws her schoolbooks on the table and goes to the refrigerator. As she starts to take out items we see her hand-drawn chart taped to the side of the fridge; Mondays and Thursdays say "Ellie Cooks!"

A fawn is feeding. CUT WIDE to reveal it standing in the middle of an empty road, nibbling at the grass growing out of the old blacktop. The TWITTER of a BIRD; the wind in the trees... and then, far in the distance, we hear an ENGINE STRAINING.

LOGGING TRUCK

heads up the mountain road, its driver humming along to the same HANK WILLIAMS TUNE.

A stew of some sort bubbles on the stove. Ellie hums as she experiments with every spice on the rack.

SERIES OF SHOTS

A) Ted sings to the RADIO as he eases off the gas to take a bend in the road--

B) The fawn continues to graze, oblivious. We can now hear the RADIO in the DISTANCE.

C) Ted look up as he rounds the bend--sees the deer--

D) The logging TRUCK ROARS around a blind curve--

E) Ted swerves onto the wrong side of the road, misses the deer, sighs in relief--

F) The truck driver looks up, sees the Ford coming at him, Ted still looking over his shoulder at--

FAWN

who suddenly looks up at the O.S. sound of a HORRIBLE CRASH--

--then bounds off into the woods.

The table is set. A stubby candle and some wildflowers in a peanut-butter jar.

Ellie sits at her place, frowning. She glances up at the wall clock--and then slowly stands as she sees something else THROUGH the kitchen window:

A sheriffs' car is pulling up, lights going, siren silent. The sheriff looks up--their eyes meet--PUSH IN ON Ellie--

Little cones of light illuminate the darkness as NEIGHBORS search with their flashlights, calling:

The sheriff stands in front of the house, shaking his head as he talks to a MINISTER. VOICES continue to CALL.

We start to CRANE UP, HIGHER and HIGHER until we clear the house--REVEALING Ellie lying on the roof, staring up at the stars. Her fingers grip the shingles...

The Minister kneels next to Ellie, watching her knead another piece of bread into a ball before tossing it into a small fish pond. In the b.g. we see the sheriff and several relatives watching.

Ellie keeps watching the pond. The clouds overhead are reflected in the patches of water between the lily pads.

The Minister frowns. Gently:

OFF the astonished Minister--

Relatives, townspeople, the Minister and sheriff mingle quietly. The kitchen table and counters are covered with a sea of casseroles.

Ellie watches the gathered from a doorway, then slips away.

Ellie slowly approaches the darkened bench area where the SHORTWAVE is set up; the pin-dotted map above it. She TURNS it ON; the dial glows.

She reaches out for the microphone, holding it tightly in both hands. Pushes the button.

Tiny Ellie is visible THROUGH the window, and as we begin to PULL UP and AWAY her emotion-choked voice continues, small and faraway...

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

--rockets through the Rosette Nebula, a vast cloud of glowing red hydrogen illuminated by young hot stars a hundred times brighter than the sun. Their solar wind is blowing out an immense cavity in the interstellar gas and dust.

PALM LEAF

lies on the streetlamp-lit sidewalk.

We hear the sound of a BUS PULLING UP, its door opening. After a moment a pair of sneakered feet tentatively step INTO FRAME. A suitcase is set down next to them as we hear the BUS WHEEZE OFF into the night. A hand reaches down, picks up the palm leaf.

22-YEAR-OLD ELLIE examines it, then looks up in apprehension at the old prewar Spanish structure of Cal Tech.

Ellie's FOOTSTEPS ECHO as she walks down a corridor, its walls hung with portraits of Galileo, Copernicus, Hubble. She pauses at a photograph of Einstein standing outside the entrance we just saw. Sound up cut: THE RAMONES' "I Wanna Be Sedated"--

An altogether different sort of hallway, reflecting the imagination and individuality of its occupants. The walls are covered with whimsical graffiti ("anthropocentrism is a 17 letter word;" "WATCH FOR FLYING POTATOES") and 3 A.M. paintings of alien sunsets; the MUSIC is coming from behind a door covered in Tolkien and comic book art.

As Ellie enters this strange new world she begins to hear animated voices coming from a room at the end of the hall.

VOICE #1 (V.O.) ...radio luminosity?

VOICE #2 (V.O.) I dunno, maybe a post-spectral starburst or something.

VOICE #3 (V.O.) E+A is an elliptical? How can you tell it's being lensed? Pass me the Fruity Pebbles.

VOICE #4 (V.O.) Well I guess you'd have to check other elliptical galaxies, Mr. Wizard--

As Ellie peers around the corner we see six or seven STUDENTS, mostly male, of mixed nationality and race, passing around cereal which they eat from the box. A primitive (circa 1980) home-built personal computer glows in the b.g.; a door opens onto a terrace and the California night beyond. They stop, look up at Ellie--

Ellie takes the box, and as she tentatively enters the room--nibbles on the cereal--she slowly sits. Smiles. The argument rages on. She's home.

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

We ROAR by a rapidly rotating, flashing pulsar. Cosmic dust filters the light into the shifting spectrum of colors...

DAVID DRUMLIN, 42, fit, sardonic--and the world's foremost radio astronomer--leads a group of grad students past the first Jet Propulsion Lab radio telescopes at Goldstone. Ellie lags behind talking to PETER VALERIAN, who is about as good-looking as an astronomer should be allowed to be.

In the b.g. we can see the majestic twin dishes tilted up toward the hard blue sky. An awkward moment, which Ellie fills by extending her hand.

He pronounces it "tackos" in his distinctive Montana twang.

A brief but electric moment between them. They both feel it. Drumlin calls back from the head of the group:

The other students laugh good-naturedly. Ellie and Peter, rather than being embarrassed, seem to be considering the idea.

A dusky orange sun hangs over the mountains, the Goldstone telescopes visible in the distance. Ellie and Peter walk along a windswept cliff overlooking a vast desert lake.

A moment... and then Peter takes her hand like it's the most natural thing in the world.

Ellie stops, looks at him--and then slowly, carefully leans in and kisses him. A pleasantly awkward beat.

Peter laughs.

A million stares blaze overhead as Peter and Ellie make love on an Indian blanket in the middle of the desert. Ellie looks searchingly up into Peter's face... and then her gaze drifts upwards to the canopy above...

SQUIRREL

gnaws on a beechnut as two enormous pair of feet walk by.

Ellie and Drumlin walk briskly, in heated discussion.

By this point they've gathered a small crowd. Drumlin regards her for a moment; then, softly:

Body blow. Ellie just stares, stunned. Finally:

Flushed, overwhelmed... Ellie nods. Enough.

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

Approaching a backwater area of the galaxy. A small, unspectacular yellow star comes INTO VIEW.

PAIR OF HEADLIGHTS

cuts through the night. A Jeep negotiates an overgrown mountain road.

The two tiny beams from high above as we DESCEND OVER a mountainous jungle range, a hot-house of life that drops away to reveal an enormous white thousand-foot radio telescope, cradled in the natural bowl of the mountain valley.

SUPERIMPOSE: ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO - 1992

The mud-spattered Jeep pulls up in front of the living quarters of the primitive installation. Peter Valerian climbs out, looks up at the crude facilities in dismay.

ELLIE

lies asleep in bed. Peter sits quietly next to her, gently touches her face. Her eyes slowly open. She smiles.

SAME - FEW MINUTES LATER

Ellie is in the shower. Peter looks around her quarters; peeling paint, a few steps down from your average dorm room.

Peter is silent.

Ellie and Peter walk along the periphery of the vast concave dish. A gentle breeze blows.

Ellie pauses; looks out at the endless ocean of green. Quietly:

There's nothing left to say. He rises, starts to make his way down. OFF Ellie, stunned--

DEEP SPACE - MESSAGE

The yellow star is now definitely brighter than the rest.

A 1967 T-Bird travels swiftly along a dirt road through the moonlit desert. The VIEW CLIMBS, WIDENS to include a huge radio telescope, and as we come around we see an even more stunning sight: 30 more of them.

SUPERIMPOSE: SAPPORO, NEW MEXICO - 1993

The T-Bird pulls up in front of a bland, institutional building. Ellie climbs out, stretches, then pulls a

single small suitcase from the back seat.

Over an ancient Mr. Coffee machine some hysteric has scribbled: "Someone has been drinking the coffee without leaving the .10c in the cup and WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE." Ellie drops her dime in. As she pours she hears a strange sound: a steady repetitive SSSHHH... SSSHHH... She follows the noise down the hall.

The lights are off; the large room is illuminated solely by the night sky and glowing banks of electronic equipment. Through the large panorama window we can see the silhouettes of the enormous radio telescopes in the moonlight. We make out a shape sitting in the darkness listening to the sounds, louder now: SSSHHH... SSSHHH... And then a voice calls out:

VOICE (O.S.) Light's behind you, to the left.

Ellie finds the switch, flips on the lights, revealing KENT CULLERS, 30's, wearing Raybans.

Kent types in a few commands and the computer screen

lights up. It reads "Radio Sky" and it looks nothing like the ordinary optical sky; more like an elaborate oriental rug. Pointing:

Ellie raises a hand in greeting to the two men in the doorway, they wave awkwardly back.

As he rises MILLINGTON and CURTAIN move to take his place at the controls. They maneuver shyly around Ellie.

MILLINGTON/CURTAIN (way too fast) No, no, no--have a seat.

Kent smiles, exits. Ellie sits, looks over the control console, rubs her hands...

In the daylight we see the sad truth of the place: a character-free cinderblock box filled with a mishmash of equipment, aging and jerry-rigged alongside the spoils of the odd successful grant application. Through a wall of windows we can see the cafeteria/lounge area; an ancient Ping-Pong table.

Ellie again sits at the main console, but time has clearly dissipated some of her initial enthusiasm. She frowns as she peers at the telescope THROUGH the windows...

PAIR OF HANDS

pick up a thin coil of cable.

DUSTY PAIR OF SNEAKERS

trek through the moonlit scrub desert, trailing cable behind them...

Ellie sits cross-legged on the hard earth, hunched over with her fingers barely touching the pair of headphones she wears. We hear the faint arrhythmic pulsing of STATIC... Ellie's eyes are closed; she leans forward, an expression of peculiar intensity on her face...

Ellie's tiny hunched-over figure is sitting about a thousand yards away from the main building, rocking slowly back and forth under the vast desert sky, back and forth, listening...

A government sedan travels the dusty road to the VLA.

The sedan pulls up. WILLIE climbs out of the driver's side and comes around to get the bags as David Drumlin emerges, formidable and patrician as ever. Kent, Fisher, Millington, Curtain and a number of other scientists are there to greet him.

Kent and Fisher lead Drumlin through the complex; his conservative suit out of place among the jeans and T-shirts; other scientists either smile obsequiously or avert their gaze.

Across a barren patch of desert lies a weathered residential outbuilding, something between a dormitory and a Motel Six.

Home. Painted cinderblock, a single star map up on the wall. An old lumpy couch, several monitors along a shelf on one wall that connects her to the control room. Headphones, listening equipment. Ellie is at the fridge.

He sits on the corner of the unmade bed. Ellie pops open a soda, unselfconscious.

He leaves. Ellie just stands there in the window, fighting back the emotion, watching the telescopes in the falling light...

approaches the out regions of our solar system; Neptune-- an austere, deep blue gas world with swirling clouds of methane.

The message shoots by more worlds at the speed of light. Saturn. Jupiter. Closer.

MESSAGE - TO EARTH - DESCENDING VIEWS

Approaching the big blue and white marble, breathtaking against a backdrop of stars.

We PLUNGE PAST the outer satellites, the Hubble telescope --Space Station Mir. We ENTER the atmosphere, DESCENDING THROUGH layers of clouds, DOWN farther and farther, FASTER AND FASTER--

We RUSH DOWN TOWARD North America, the Southwest U.S., SMASHING DOWN TOWARD the tiny dot of the VLA, TOWARD the westernmost dish and INTO the antenna at its center--

INSERT - TV - LARRY KING LIVE

The famous host's familiar features, pixilated in EXTREME CLOSEUP.

Our first glimpse of Palmer Joss. He has a rumpled, rugged charm that has become just the slightest bit

polished. No bullshit, agreeably ironic, he's ridden the wave of the New Spiritualism farther than even he ever imagined.

WIDEN SLOWLY to reveal:

Willie and Fisher sit at the command console, battling the ennui of their watch. BOB MARLEY plays on a battered BOOMBOX; Fisher watches Joss on a Watchman.

Fisher eats a Baby Ruth and sips a Coke as he watches. Willie, heavy into his Gameboy, has a sudden epiphany.

Ellie lies crashed out on the couch, headphones on. All we hear is STATIC...

...and then, beneath the static, we begin to hear another sound, barely audible but definitely there...

A faint irregular PULSING, FADING IN AND OUT of reception.

Ellie slowly swims up to consciousness. After a moment her eyes open. She sits up--

TIGHT ON BOOMBOX

still playing REGGAE. A hand reaches in and turns it OFF.

Willie and Fisher look up in surprise as Ellie goes to the main console, starts checking instrument readings.

Fisher and Willie look at each other significantly.

They start typing in coordinates.

THROUGH WINDOW - GIANT RADIO TELESCOPES

turn one by one, fixing on the same point in the sky.

Willie puts on headsets, flips a switch, twists a dial.

He punches a button. An eerie, PULSING METALLIC SOUND. Willie and Fisher run their routine checks with a practiced calm--

WILLIE FISHER

Could be AWACS from Glitch in number Kirtland; verifying seventeen. intensity. Wasn't Monochromatic, strong seventeen where we found too. That was twenty- that owl's nest last three, besides I got month? signal across the

board.

Around the room a few night owls are watching with growing interest. Ellie types rapidly on a keyboard, watching a monitor above her: SEARCH)STAR FIELD ORIGIN OF SIGNAL)

Another display shows all satellites and major debris in orbit; "darks" glow in red.

Ellie fights to stay calm--but the excitement rippling through the gathered is palpable--

On another monitor a sound spike leaps with each pulse.

Ellie puts on headsets, shuts her eyes in fierce concentration as she listens--for a moment only a signal echoes through the control room--

Now with each pulse, long strings of zeros and ones appear. On the monitor: PROMPT: CONVERTING TO BASE 10) OPERATION COMPLETED

MAIN DISPLAY

With each pulse a number appears: 59 61 67 71 79 83 89 91--

The room ignites. Ellie shouts over the din--

Kent stands sleepily in the doorway, wearing Kermit the Frog pajamas and an old robe. Willie punches up a screen:

ELLIE WILLIE

Maybe they didn't grow up Constellation Lyra, there, maybe they're just brightest star Vega, visiting. A-zero main sequence

dwarf, estimate several KENT million years old.

The system's full of debris Distance 26 light years --any spacecraft that accretion disk, no stayed for long would get known planets. clobbered.

Willie picks up the phone and dials. All eyes on Ellie.

Silence. Willie on the phone--

He looks up at Ellie. She looks back--

IAN BRODERICK, head of SETI down under, reaches across a star map surrounded by other excited technicians--

As his finger hits the map--

Outside the sun is coming up. They all look to the windows. The telescopes are silhouetted against the pale light.

Ellie goes. They watch her--then turn to look out at the rows of mechanical flowers pointing up at the new dawn.

Ellie shuts the door behind her. She sinks to the floor, looks up, breathless--

ELLIE'S E-MAIL

as it types out on various screens at radio telescopes in exotic locations around the world; various teams gather round--

ANOMALOUS INTERMITTENT RADIO SOURCE AT RIGHT

ASCENSION 18 34m, DECLINATION PLUS 38 DEGREES 41 MINUTES, DISCOVERED BY VLA SYSTEMATIC SKY SURVEY. FREQUENCY 4458.8 GIGAHERTZ, LYRA/VEGA SYSTEM. 174 AND 179 JANSKYS. EVIDENCE AMPLITUDES ENCODE SEQUENCE OF PRIME NUMBERS. FULL LONGITUDE COVERAGE URGENTLY NEEDED. E. ARROWAY, DIRECTOR, PROJECT ARGUS, SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A.

Sound upcut: a JET ENGINE ROARS--

AIR FORCE 2 lands with a SCREECH as Government Motor Pool cars speed toward it across the tarmac.

National Security Advisor MICHAEL KITZ--very sharp and serious as death--steps out of the plane... followed momentarily by David Drumlin. He doesn't look happy.

Security guards stonewall two mobile TV news trucks. A handful of protesters picket the entrance carrying signs; "JUSTICE," "STOP THE COVERUP," "ROSWELL."

As Kitz, Drumlin and a small VIP delegation make their way in, Local News Reporters thrust microphones in their faces --"Mr. Kitz, Dr. Drumlin--"

Fisher leads Kitz, Drumlin and the rest of the delegation around the room. Coffee cups and cigarettes abound. Drumlin crosses over to Willie's console, studies the display. In the b.g. we hear the constant BEEPING of the MESSAGE.

Kitz and others look at the main display as the primes continue to scroll.

All eyes turn to Ellie; she hasn't slept but you'd hardly notice.

Drumlin frowns, effectively neutralized for the moment.

Kitz pauses--then gives a signal to dismiss the Berets.

Drumlin warns her with a look, which she conveniently avoids.

Suddenly the steady BEEPING of the MESSAGE STOPS, replaced by terrible STATIC. On the various displays the prime numbers start to scramble.

Media choppers circle like buzzards: CNN, ABC, WGH Santa Fe, freelance weather choppers on the lookout for "Hard Copy"--

The DRONE of the CHOPPERS continues in the b.g.

Kitz allows himself the barest hint of a smile--then switches on his radio and speaks calmly into it.

In the extreme f.g. a heavy-duty aluminum post is thrust into the earth--a fence is being erected.

Kitz stands in the former lounge/cafeteria; an improvised command center has been set up on the ping-pong table. Aides continue to hook up equipment as he talks on a red phone:

STEPHEN LUNACHARSKY, a high-strung Russian scientist, chain smokes as he types. Ellie and Drumlin stand over him, Kent next to him, others nearby.

Ellie hesitates. Drumlin looks at her. Whoops.

He type in a series of commands. Something begins to happen on the main display--

POV - THROUGH WINDOW

Kitz, on the phone, sees the activity around the console.

BACK TO SCENE

Lunacharsky types in commands as he talks.

JURYRIGGED 35-INCH MONITOR

Strings of zeros and ones fill the screen as the group assembles around it.

Willie types. Ellie moves closer, studying it. Intuitively:

A pattern begins to emerge.

Willie enters commands. All are mesmerized by the shadows taking form on the screen.

On the screen a distinct black and white moving image forms; grays define it even further. The group is transfixed. Kitz whispers to an aide who makes a call in a hand radio.

An otherworldly RUMBLING GLISSANDO of sounds joins the image, sliding up and down the spectrum... and then the faint SWELLING MUSIC is heard. Ellie reaches over Willie and types more commands. The picture rotates, rectifies, focuses--

Other reactions range from astonishment to nervous laughter. Ellie and Peter stare in utter amazement.

ON SCREEN

A grainy black and white image of a massive reviewing stand adorned with an immense Art Deco eagle.

Clutched in the eagle's concrete talons is a swastika.

Adolph Hitler salutes a rhythmically chanting crowd.

The deep baritone voice of an ANNOUNCER, scratchy but unmistakably GERMAN, BOOMS through the room. The dark absurdity of the moment plays over Ellie's face; helpless:

Kent tilts his head, closes his eyes.

Hitler's face fills the screen. The crowd roars its approval.

TELEVISED RIOT

in Berlin. Police with hoses try to keep a mob of skinheads under control.

Slowly WIDEN to reveal a monitor wall.

A kaleidoscopic display of global news coverage of the event. Demonstrations in a dozen cities, commentary from pundits, Aryan leaders and Auschwitz survivors. A single figure sits before the monitors, taking in the cacophony.

A huddle of figures sweeps down a dark corridor, charged with power and purpose.

The huddle bursts through a door and out into the dazzling New Mexico morning, revealing the PRESIDENT and her entourage: Drumlin, Kitz, Secret Service, and fighting to keep up, Ellie.

A sea of press awaits them as they move toward the podium, which has been set up with the 31 enormous radio antennas in the b.g. As the CHIEF OF STAFF takes the podium Ellie looks over her note cards, then nervously out at the crowd.

President Helen Lasker addresses the crowd. She's an American version of Margaret Thatcher.

Ellie looks up in surprise. Drumlin doesn't miss a beat as he strides to the podium.

As Drumlin continues we see Fisher ease onto the dais from behind, approach Ellie and surreptitiously hand her a note.

Ellie reads it, looks up at Fisher in surprise--then quietly slips away. A murmur among the press as they notice; the President and then Drumlin as well--

Ellie hurries into the control room--then stops dead.

POV - MAIN MONITOR

The incredibly complex geometric pattern we see flashing on the screen will be referred to as hieroglyphics--but they are like no hieroglyphics ever seen before; chillingly otherworldly, they are the first visual artifact of an alien civilization. The scientists stand stunned and silent.

BACK TO SCENE

A phalanx of officials led by Drumlin, Kitz and the President hurry in... and also stop at the sight of the hieroglyphs.

The President looks up at the screen and involuntarily shivers.

MONITOR WALL (LOCATION UNKNOWN) - DAY

More global news coverage, private surveillance camera feeds; also some disturbing pornographic images.

On one monitor, a moment from the President's VLA press conference plays over and over--the moment when Drumlin stepped up to the podium in front of Ellie. A gnarled hand pushes a button on a console and the image enlarges --we see Ellie's expression of shock and hurt, over and over. Over and over.

On the next monitor over is live CNN coverage of the scene outside the VLA--we begin to PUSH IN ON it--

The road leading to the VLA is jammed with vehicles, RVs, vans, busses, as far as the eye can see. More people walk on the side of the road.

The VIEW CLIMBS, REVEALING campfires, BBQs, tents of all shapes and sizes littering the plains surrounding the telescope array. Signs and banners reading "Watch the Skies" and "There are Aliens Among Us." Woodstock 1998.

VOICE (O.S.) ...I know you're angry--we're all angry. About the lies. The corruption. About the cancer of despair spreading through every aspect of our lives. But Rome will fall, my friends; everywhere now are the signs of closure. Even now the end begins.

Various preachers and new age gurus speak to gatherings all along the new cyclone fence surrounding the VLA. We become aware of a crowd concentrated around a young man speaking on a small stage: JOSEPH. He has the appeal of a rock star, albeit a compelling well-spoken one. His AMPLIFIED VOICE RINGS OUT:

Beyond Joseph we can see through the shiny new cyclone fence to the VLA building, now surrounded by tents and temporary structures.

Outside, the panorama window searchlights fan, CROWDS CHANT frightening rhythms. Inside, the numbing, never- ending pulses of the signal and scrolling numbers.

The former lounge/cafeteria has been turned into decryption central: dozens of personal workstations, populated with Silicon Valley's finest assortment of techno-wizards, crashed out on cots in a 'round-the-clock effort to break the code.

Ellie sips her coffee as she walks briskly through the chaos; Drumlin matches her stride for stride.

Ellie looks at him in surprise as he grabs her by the elbow.

Ellie stops as she notices through the windows, Lunacharsky stepping out of the decryption area. He's looking right at her.

ANGLE

As Ellie approaches Lunacharsky, something in his eyes tells her there's more to his weary look than just fatigue.

Ellie stares at him--turns to look at Drumlin--then walks out of the room.

Bleary-eyed, three days with no sleep, Ellie sits at her terminal, staring at the hieroglyphics, more impenetrable then ever. In the corner, the TV DRONES.

A CNN special report logo--"The Message," dazzlingly vulgar with its own graphics and there.

A COMMERCIAL CONTINUES in the b.g.:

Ellie, chin on forearms, stares at her screen, willing herself to find a pattern.

Suddenly she blinks--something is changing. A dot

appears in the middle of the screen. It begins to grow, revealing a complex fractal shape. It splits, enlarges, splits again, the shapes finally revealing themselves as... English letters. Which read:

"TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER"

Ellie stares--

She quickly type in: "Who are you?"

The fractals reform" "I'VE GOT A SECRET."

Ellie types again: "WHO ARE YOU?"

The fractals reform: "YOUR PLACE OR MINE?"

Ellie stares--more fractals form as she grabs a pen and paper--

National Guardsmen have established a perimeter around the compound; soldiers are posted on the main road as well. As Ellie ROARS through the gate in her 1967 T-BIRD, our VIEW RISES: the new Woodstock nation is, for the moment, asleep.

Ellie's tense face lit by the dash. She picks up a piece of paper with scribbled directions on it. Turns onto a dirt road.

of Ellie's CAR ROARING by SWINGS to reveal a jackrabbit sitting at the side of the road, its nose twitching.

Ellie's car approaches a small, private airstrip; a black,

unmarked helicopter is waiting.

HIGH ABOVE UTAH - DAWN

The strange rock formations of southeastern Utah almost resemble another planet.

As the helicopter sets down, we see two Lear jets and another Helicopter... service vehicles for the enormous Russian transport plane that sits beyond them.

A dark-suited Japanese MAJOR DOMO helps Ellie out of the helicopter.

The Major Domo leads Ellie down a corridor of the plane's custom interior. Through one door we can see into a room where several very beautiful, very young women sit watching TV with vacant eyes. Ellie only catches a glimpse before the Major Domo nods for her to enter the main room and takes his post outside.

Ellie cautiously enters the interior of what appears to be a flying Dacha; dark, heavy on the chintz. Bookshelves, an exercise machine... and a wall of monitors, filled top to bottom with scrolling hieroglyphics. Ellie reaches out to them--

Ellie turns to see S.R. HADDEN. Thick glasses, wearing a cardigan, he stands by a silver samovar.

As he speaks, he slowly and with great effort raises a glass to the samovar, fills it with tea.

The lights dim. The wall monitors take center stage.

Hadden pulls on a pair of gloves for an imaginary VR keyboard. He gestures for Ellie to sit beside him, facing the monitors. He begins to type as the monitors scroll hieroglyphics--

Hadden ghost-types a series of commands. The monitor wall syncs into a giant vidscreen--

The hieroglyphics begin to enlarge. An almost invisible dot in the lower right corner of the screen--the page- break signal--grows larger and larger, until it reveals a level of complexity and detail greater than that of the hieroglyphics themselves.

These new symbols begin to mutate change... something is happening, Hadden leans in to Ellie.

ON SCREEN

The symbols metamorphose into strange, fractal shapes; like crystals, they begin to grow and shift, interacting in a stunningly beautiful and intricate ballet--

Ellie pulls herself away from the hypnotic display.

Ellie turns to watch the screens as the fractals continue to coalesce. Dazzled--

The snow-covered Presidential retreat in its forest setting.

Charts display a decoded periodic table, the slice of circuitry; monitors scroll through hundreds of decoded pages.

All heads turn to RICHARD RANK, a surprisingly young and well-spoken spokesman for the religious right.

Drumlin shoots her a warning look; Rank ignores her.

Palmer Joss sits forward in his chair.

Ellie looks at him, impressed in spite of herself.

That's the cue; most of the gathered begin to rise, make their way to the door. As Ellie collects her things Drumlin accompanies her out--then starts to shut the door behind her--

As Ellie looks beyond she sees that Kitz, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Joss still remain.

But it's too late. The door closes on the inner circle.

Captains of industry, social editors, minority leaders. At least for tonight, scientists are the hottest show in town.

Ellie stands with a group of dignitaries, straining to make small talk. As she glances up a familiar face catches her eye: Peter Valerian.

He looks up, sees her too. A beat... he whispers something to the young woman he's standing with; she looks up too. They excuse themselves to Drumlin, make their way over.

Peter extends his hand. They shake.

ELLIE/LAURA Nice to meet you.

Peter and Laura laugh. Some of the tension is diffused. Some.

She manages a smile, quickly hurries away.

AT THE BAR

Ellie has never needed a drink more in her life.

Ellie turns to find Joss, looking terrific in his tux.

A long, extremely complex pause, then--

Their voices and FOOTSTEPS ECHO as they walk past old spacecraft. They sip their champagne.

Joss looks at her--challenged, intrigued. Slowly:

They approach a circular brass railing surrounding a circular mosaic below; at its center is a Foucault pendulum; a basketball-sized iron sphere suspended from the ceiling. They lean on the railing.

He takes her champagne glass, sets it down on the floor alongside his, then climbs under the rail. At her surprise--

He offers her his hand. She takes it, climbs under the railing. Joss helps her down into the circular space below.

Joss places his arms around the metal ball and walks it over to the outer rim of the circle, right in front of Ellie's nose.

Ellie pauses. Then, almost curiously.

Joss lets go. We see the ball fall away and reach the opposite railing. As it slows and then reverses direction it appears to approach much faster than we expected.

As it careens towards her, the ball grows alarmingly in size. We understand completely when the pendulum almost reaches her and she instinctively moves. But Ellie can't believe it.

Stars shine down as Ellie and Joss walk along the portico. The party continues inside. The mood is subdued, intimate.

Ellie stops and looks at him, truly disarmed.

And then, inside, a COMMOTION is heard.

The party is suddenly and dramatically breaking up; Senators on cell-phones, getting their coats. Something has happened. Ellie finds Drumlin in the chaos, also on a cell-phone; he hangs up as she approaches.

As Ellie stares at him--

Media, onlookers, crowd control--and delegates from over

100 countries swarm as the World Machine Consortium is called to session. TV lights and demonstrations. Huge banners read "DON'T BUILD SATAN'S CHARIOT!" and "WHO WILL SPEAK FOR EARTH?"

Full house. From various HEADSETS and MONITORS we hear the POLYPHONY of a hundred simultaneous TRANSLATIONS. On a large screen behind the SECRETARY GENERAL'S podium and on monitors all over the darkened room we see a single, striking image: A human figure inside a rotating dodecahedron.

In the darkened hall we FIND the U.S. delegation: Kitz, Joss, Drumlin--and Ellie. We begin to PUSH IN ON her--

We see it in her eyes--she wants to go, more than anything.

An INDIAN DELEGATE concludes her remarks. In the audience Ellie, deep in thought, isn't paying attention.

ELLIE

looks up in surprise. The applause grows, becoming deafening. People motion for her to stand. Dazed, she does so. The ovation continues. Ellie leans over to speak into her mike.

A big laugh, more applause. Ellie squints into the lights.

Floodlights illuminate the building; if anything, there are now more onlookers and media. The woman BBC Reporter and her camera crew try to shoot their report amid the noise and chaos.

She holds--

VOICE (O.S.) We're clear.

And the Reporter instantly sags.

The event is breaking up; people making their way out. Ellie waits for Drumlin to come out; goes after him--

Drumlin reluctantly stops; Ellie takes a deep breath.

Ellie's eyes open wide as the depth of his betrayal dawns.

He turns and walks away, leaving Ellie to stare after him.

Packed to the rafters. President Lasker makes the speech of her lifetime, her booming, amplified voice going out to the world.

In the darkened hall the American delegation sits watching. PUSH IN ON Ellie. Drumlin. The crowd roars.

THREE APACHE HELICOPTERS

fly low over the endless Texas landscape, blue-gray in the light of pre-dawn. Below a convoy of military vehicles moves down an empty road.

The CROWD ROARS LOUDER in VOICE OVER.

MOVING WITH the convoy...

AFS Berets sit stone-faced, barely visible. UP ahead the twinkling lights of an installation becomes visible.

The convoy passes through a security gate in the first perimeter. AFS officers check I.D. and cargo. As the convoy continues our VIEW begins to RISE, REVEALING three more checkpoints beyond--

Our VIEW continues to CLIMB, REVEALING an immense sprawl of lights and buildings. Concentric electric fences surround the rambling facility; new roads are still being added to old ones. Encircling the installation is a vast graveyard of discarded aircraft--the detritus of Twentieth Century war-making. And in the center of it all lies an enormous open area, its very emptiness full of danger and promise. Orange surveying FLAGS RUFFLE in the BREEZE.

The ROAR of the CROWD is deafening.

The sun begins to rise over the new Los Alamos.

An enormous multi-tiered room bustling with activity. The main floor consists of tables devoted to various constituents of the international selection committee; each area devoted to a different discipline: medical, psychological, philosophical, religious, diplomatic/political, and military/communications.

The room is dominated by ten enormous overhead viewscreens, each monitoring the activity of one of the ten machine candidates while also displaying telemetry readouts of their vital signs. One candidate is undergoing a psychological evaluation, another is visible via infrared camera in a sensory deprivation tank; another

on a treadmill, another sleeping (EEG displayed); we also catch brief glimpses of Ellie and Drumlin. All are watched with great interest by the committee members swarming on the floor.

A level above the floor and looking out over it THROUGH large floor to ceiling windows is the pool media area; a group of REPORTERS and camera crews allowed limited access, with blue-badged MACHINE SECURITY carefully monitoring their every word. As we MOVE THROUGH the maelstrom we COME ACROSS a familiar face...

INSERT - TV MONITOR

We begin to WIDEN REVEALING our location in the back of a news van, crammed with broadcasting equipment. An

engineer monitors the signal.

We have continued to WIDEN, finally PULLING OUT the back of the van and CRANING UP to reveal--

A vast encampment of vans, tents, reporters and satellite dishes; print and video journalists from every nation.

Competing twenty-foot high skyboxes from various networks overlook the action. Our VIEW continues to CLIMB until finally in the distance, wavy and hard to make out THROUGH the LONG LENS, we can see a structure beginning to rise. Our first glimpse of the machine.

President Lasker leans back, watching the same wavy image on the television. Also visible are a number of closed-

circuit monitors showing candidates. Kitz standing behind her, also watching.

Bulldozers break earth as the human-designed support structure continues to rise.

Trucks emerge from huge transport planes, carrying enormous curved reflectors.

Two robotic arms holding flasks of liquid are maneuvered over a petri dish. Scientists watch THROUGH the safe- chamber window as a drop from each flask is carefully placed in the dish. Another robot arm takes the dish and slides it under an electron microscope.

ELECTRON MICROSCOPE VIEW

Tiny crystals are forming in familiar, unearthly fractal patterns. Something is growing.

An enormous high-tech crucible has been erected; gantries and support structures rise above it.

From behind a series of protective plastic veils we see the same chemicals we saw in the lab again being carefully mixed together, this time in much larger proportions.

WIDE SHOT - MACHINE SUPERSTRUCTURE - DAY

PULL BACK to reveal Ellie standing at the window of her quarters, wearing a white jumpsuit. She slowly folds her street clothes as she looks out at the machine.

One by one the candidates are whipped around the centrifuge, subjected to higher and higher G-forces. A hard-eyed NASA COMMANDER watches carefully, checks the control panel.

The two hundred members of the ISC watch each of the candidates' reactions. FEATURE Joss, studying the screens intently--

For CAPTAIN JOHN RUSSELL, a classic chiseled Astronaut type, this is as easy as breathing.

For Drumlin it's not quite that, but he takes it, stoically.

A flaxen-haired male candidate--the French semioticist (JEAN-CLAUDE)--looks like he's about to throw up.

Ellie seems to be enjoying herself tremendously.

Ellie, Drumlin and the eight other candidates, several still a bit wobbly, follow the Commander down a corridor. Jean-Claude wipes his face with a towel as he sounds off.

The Commander turns to him.

Jean-Claude raises an amused eyebrow, smokes his Gauloises.

HUGE MULTI-TENTACLED BEING

flashes on the screen, followed immediately by another and another--a rapid series of images of creatures waving grotesque stalked appendages, horrific and bizarre.

ANGLE ON ELLIE

sitting alone in a single chair, watching the images flash on an enormous screen. Hardened.

A panel of PSYCHOLOGISTS closely monitor Ellie's reaction on the monitors. A PROJECT OFFICIAL approaches, watches the monitors as he sips from a Styrofoam cup.

We MOVE AWAY FROM them to find another figure, standing silently watching the screens. Joss.

as we CIRCLE the table, CONDENSING MONTHS of arguments and discussions. Trays of uneaten food pile up, whiteboards become colored with scribbled questions--

INTERCUT WITH:

The members of the philosophical committee watch, make notes, argue passionately. The discussion continue on screen:

SAME - REAL TIME

Before anyone can reply an out-of-breath ASSISTANT enters.

The vast hanger serves as home for a series of new labs and testing areas--state of the art, gleaming and high- tech. Engineers, scientists, security, and technicians wearing blue jumpsuits and security badges are everywhere.

We FIND Ellie. Drumlin and the rest huddled around a large monitor. Also present is TEAM LEADER--cool, level-headed, solid. The ultimate line producer.

He presses play. The monitor shows a large, apparently empty lucite chamber. A clock showing tenths and hundredths of a second is inset into the screen.

A Japanese technician places his hand inside a waldo, picks up a REVOLVER. He aims it into the chamber, FIRES--

--as then we see the bullet slow, coming to a dead stop

in mid-air. We see the same thing again, this time in slow motion. As we watch, the air in the chamber seems to thicken around the bullet, changing from a gas to liquid, from gel-like colloidal to diamond-hard solid in a tenth of a second.

The Team Leader pushes play. We see the action as he describes it:

We see the technician as his fall slows--and then he suddenly convulses--and then stops, suspended at an odd angle slightly above the ground. He doesn't move. Ellie, Drumlin and the other candidates watch in horror.

She looks again to the eerie sight of the suspended dead technician. Team Leader snaps off the monitor.

They all take this in... then instinctively look out the hanger doors at the structure taking shape in the field beyond, now rising to a height of twelve stories. We PUSH IN ON it...

CLOSE ON WHITE TABLETOP

A very sleek, low profile helmet is set down; four tiny lenses visible near the temples.

Ellie, Drumlin sit around a table with other candidates.

A Project Official at the back of the room steps forward.

The members of the committee intently study the candidate's reaction on the monitors; Drumlin, Ellie. Captain Russell frowns.

A hand holds a small, unassuming object. It looks a

little like a car alarm beeper you'd find on a key chain.

Project Leader points the DEVICE at a six-inch thick steel target five hundred yards away. FIRES.

The target is instantly and efficiently vaporized. Project Leader turns to the assembled candidates.

Ellie walks out of the bathroom in her robe, brushing her teeth. She sees an envelope slipped under the door. She picks it up and opens it, glances over the typed agenda. Her eye comes to something that stops her.

Dark, windowless, a single lamp on. Ellie waits at a small table, not sure what to expect.

After a moment the door opens as a PHYSICIAN enters, 50's, paternal.

He sits down opposite her. Looks her over for a moment... then carefully removes a small pillbox from his jacket pocket. He opens it, removes a small red pill and sets it down on the table. Ellie looks up at him.

Joss and the other members of the committee all study Ellie's reaction intently on the monitor. The same scene is playing out simultaneously with the other nine candidates on other monitors.

BACK TO ROOM

BACK TO MONITORS

Joss. Watching. We LEAVE him and onscreen Ellie and MOVE TO Captain Russell's monitor. He is also looking at the pill--

Scores of REPORTERS around a back yard swingset where Russell holds his LITTLE GIRL.

Ellie sits on her bed watching the replay of the Russell interview on TV. Studies the Little Girl's smiling face as she hugs her dad.

Ellie pulls out in her T-Bird. As she drives toward the perimeter she sees a figure walking toward her. Joss. He sticks out a thumb.

Ellie tears down the highway, wind whipping her hair. Joss is pushed back in his seat, enjoying himself immensely. He yells over the WIND'S ROAR:

Ellie nods. Floors it.

A beautiful meadow, a trickling stream. Ellie and Joss walk.

They sit under a tree, pick at the grass.

Ellie looks up at him.

She looks away. A beat, then:

Now it's Joss' turn to be disarmed. He looks at her; softly:

She stares at him--Joss, instantly regretting his words--

She stands and starts walking briskly down the hill.

The skyboxes lit up, the satellite dishes aimed at the stars. Grips smoke, play cards. Up in a skybox a reporter vamps.

Ellie is seated alone at a long table, opposite the entire ISC. The atmosphere is formal and tense.

Ellie is smiling grimly to herself, shaking her head.

OFF Joss--

SAME SCENE - LATER

Ellie is making her final, prepared remarks to the committee.

Her eyes suddenly fall on Joss, looking at her from his seat on the panel. A timeless beat--

The words are spoken with passion and conviction, but

something tells us this isn't playing in Peoria. Ellie looks uncertain.

SAME SCENE - LATER

Drumlin in the chair. Reassuring, smooth--statesman- like.

The President, watching Drumlin on closed circuit. An aide hands her a cup of coffee. She sips it, her eyes never leaving the screen.

BACK TO AUDITORIUM - TIGHT ON DRUMLIN

A murmur of assent from the ISC. Drumlin continues.

Ellie walks out. She stands looking at the machine in the distance. It is almost complete; the enormous gantries partly obscuring the gigantic sphere that is the machine's outer benzel. Another figure stands nearby, smoking in the shadows.

Ellie steps closer. The Frenchman smiles at Ellie, offers her a cigarette. She shakes her head.

Air Force One sits on the tarmac. The lights inside are burning.

President Lasker, Kitz, Joss and Valerian sit around a table.

The President taps her cigarette, turns to Peter.

The President frowns. Turns to Joss. Slowly.

Peter watches Joss as he speaks, and as he listens, we hear too: There's more than simple admiration for Ellie in Joss' voice.

The President. Unreadable.

The SRO press conference/media event--the Superbowl, Olympics and Oscar night all rolled into one. Government officials, diplomats, ISC. The seven remaining candidates (the Frenchman conspicuously absent) sit in the front row. Ellie. Drumlin.

The SECRETARY GENERAL of the U.N. at the podium.

Drumlin closes his eyes in triumph, a long, deep breath.

Ellie. Expressionless.

Joss.

Ellie is packing. A discreet KNOCK at the door. Drumlin

enters. An awkward beat. He notices the suitcase.

Drumlin pauses. Nods, starts to go... then stops at the door.

And he turns and goes, closing the door behind him.

Local residents and children watch in awe as a huge convoy of super-human scale passes through the one-street town.

The convoy heads through the gates and arrives at the machine site. Enormous winches are wheeled in place; cables attached.

Ellie packs the last of her things in the back of her T-Bird. She notices the activity at the machine site, keeps packing.

Large windows, monitors look out on the machine superstructure. Drumlin is surrounded by technicians; Team Leader is at the main console; several of the ex- candidates chat, smoke in back. Kent sucking on a lollipop.

Ellie ROARS down the deserted highway, her hair blowing. She floors it.

The enormous erbium dowels are hoisted into place.

Positioned at the side of the outer benzel and aligned for insertion.

Finally in place, an ALARM SOUNDS; all workers begin to leave the area of the superstructure.

The technicians fit Drumlin with a high-tech video headset.

Somewhere in West Texas. Ellie pulls up in cloud a of dust.

We see a technician in a hard-hat walking towards one of the superstructure's elevators. As he approaches, we recognize Joseph, now clean-shaven, wearing spectacles.

HANK WILLIAMS ON the JUKEBOX. Ellie sits on a barstool. The BARTENDER approaches, recognizes her--she sees he sees--and then he nods, treats her like any other customer.

Joseph rides the elevator up the gantry. Under his vest

we can see his body wrapped with plastic explosives.

Business as usual. Reporters nap under flapping tents.

Everyone watches as the enormous dowel is positioned beside a giant sphere of the machine and prepared for insertion. Then Team Leader spots something on one of the monitors--he enlarges the image--Joseph climbing onto one of the dowels. Team Leader pushes the abort button. ALARMS SOUND as the controllers panic--Drumlin looks around in confusion--

JOSEPH

stands next to the sphere, puts a hand out to touch it. A last look up to heaven--and then he EXPLODES in a BALL of FLAME--

Everyone freezes--a timeless moment... and then, as the smoke begins to clear, we see the damage to the machine is minimal. Drumlin exhales. Everyone breathes a nervous sigh of relief--

--and then one of the MONITORS begins to RATTLE.

The entire SUPERSTRUCTURE begins to RUMBLE. A giant erbium dowel shudders downwards, crashing into the sphere and ripping a hole in the machine. The controllers stare as another EXPLOSION rents the bottom of the machine, weakening the support structure. Gantries begin to collapse around it as the giant sphere falls off its support--

Workers stare in amazement--and then start running--

Reporters look up at the SOUNDS of DESTRUCTION--

The SPHERE IMPLODES in a blinding flash of light. Time and gravity seem suspended as debris gets sucked into an eerily vacuole of nothingness--as if for a moment, the space around the machine is turning inside out--and then the VACUOLE EXPLODES in a unearthly FIREBALL of nuclear proportions.

WIDE SHOT

The fireball begins to expand, the shockwave spreading out to envelop the entire facility. Bodies are tossed through the air like rag dolls. The blast wave approaches the control tower--

The occupants stare in horror as the shock wave approaches --Team Leader--Drumlin--it hits--

A TV above the bar plays an afternoon talk show ("Intergalactic Fashions--today on Geraldo") as Ellie nurses her second beer.

Suddenly a LOW RUMBLE is heard, barely on the threshold of sound. GLASSES RATTLE in their racks--and then the TV GOES OFF, followed by the lights and the JUKEBOX. PUSH IN ON Ellie as she looks up at the frightened Bartender--

SERIES OF SHOTS - AFTERMATH

An eerie silence. The remains of the superstructure burns quietly.

Media city lays in ruins; the toppled skyboxes blaze. Dozens of flaming satellite dishes point impotently at the sky.

...And, nearby, Drumlin's video headset, quietly smoldering.

FADE IN:

A light drizzle falls. President Lasker reaches down to a large marble slab and ignites an eternal flame that wavers in the wind and drizzle before burning fiercely.

ANGLE

MUFFLED DRUMS ROLL. A state funeral for all who perished in the machine disaster. Peter, his wife beside him; Joss, quietly praying. Ellie stands alone.

HADDEN'S MONITOR WALL (LOCATION UNKNOWN)

CNN coverage of the funeral continues. As we SLOWLY WIDEN, the next monitor over shows footage of the destruction at Machine, Texas; FBI sharpshooters and police firing into a run-down motel; an amateur video of Joseph's suicide note. He is spookily well-spoken, calm:

We CONTINUE TO WIDEN as a pair of familiar glasses float INTO VIEW; a gnarled hand plucks them from mid-air as Hadden turns to look out a panorama window showing a breathtaking view of Earth from 250 miles out in space.

A privatized space shuttle breaks through the atmosphere

and heads towards the Russian space station Mir--which now bears the Hadden Industries logo.

The shuttle nestles with a CLANK against the station. Air floods the chamber and the locked door opens.

The Japanese Major Domo we saw at Hadden's plane appears in the hatchway; Ellie a moment later. He points toward the other end of the airlock. Ellie starts to glide-walk through, glancing back to see the Major Domo gesturing to three, very young, very beautiful women with empty eyes. Ellie keeps moving...

Compact but luxurious. Earth is visible through a panorama window. Hadden floats before it, curled up with arthritis like a dying insect. Ellie moves beside him.

The sun begins to set. They watch the stunning transition as night comes on. The Boston-New York corridor appears as a glittering necklace of light; a tropical storm brews

in the Caribbean. Ellie points to a sparkling glow in the Pacific.

Ellie traces the magical glow with her finger on the window.

He reaches up to the ceiling, punches a button. A large display appears, showing the Earth. He enlarges the display until only Japan is visible, then only a large island to the north--

The display enlarges still further, revealing more and more detail--until it comes to rest on a familiar gantry-enveloped sphere, surrounded by hundreds of ant- like technicians...

A second machine.

Ellie is nonplussed. Hadden smiles dazzlingly.

The sun rises over the Earth like a dazzling jewel.

Hadden glide-walks Ellie to the airlock. They share one last look at the magnificent view of Earth--then she turns to him:

He raises an eyebrow. Ellie smiles, then steps into the airlock. They face each other. Hadden pauses before closing it.

ELLIE'S POV FROM SHUTTLE - MINUTES LATER

The umbilicals release; the shuttle drifts away. Hadden watches from his panorama window, small, motionless, as Mir recedes and the shuttle retros back towards Earth.

We RUSH DOWN THROUGH the clouds to Hokkaido Island, DESCENDING PAST the snow-covered peaks of Saporro TO...

A shimmering vision of the machine sits in the middle of the square; after a moment we realize it is made of ice. Japanese artisans chip and grind, putting the finishing touches on the enormous sculpture.

The promenade, decorated with colorful banners for the Winter Festival, is alive with activity; street vendors and film crews abound. We BOOM DOWN to include the REPORTER in the f.g.:

Madhouse. CAMERA WHIR and CLICK, REPORTERS shout questions. Ellie squints in the glare of the lights, overwhelmed.

An ancient, elegant structure. Security posted outside.

Cherry wood and rice paper; candles, orchids... and a jumpsuit hanging in the corner.

Ellie paces restlessly.

Tries to read a book.

Tries to write a letter... crumples it up.

Ellie lays down on the bed. A goldfish bowl sits on the nightstand. Ellie peers at it THROUGH the glass.

And then she hears a sound; the CRUNCHING of FOOTSTEPS on PEBBLES. Ellie sits up: a silhouette is visible THROUGH the rice paper wall. She goes to the door, slides it open--

--revealing Palmer Joss, rumpled and jetlagged, holding a sorry-looking bouquet of airport flowers.

A long moment... and then she embraces him.

He smiles, grateful. A moment.

From his jacket he produces a small palm frond, presents it to her. She takes it, looks at him quizzically.

Joss takes her hand.

She looks up at him, utterly vulnerable. He raises his hand to her cheek... then leans in and kisses her.

It's a very good kiss.

They kiss again, more passionately... and then Ellie pulls away.

And suddenly she's crying, trying desperately to stop-- Joss puts his hands on her shoulders--

She pulls away from him, leaving the room. Joss stands looking after her... then goes to the door... exits. Ellie watches from the doorway...

The bed is made. The jumpsuit is gone. PUSH IN ON the palm frond, sitting on the nightstand, next to the goldfish bowl.

Floodlights illuminate the machine superstructure with intense light. Technicians in blue jumpsuits, many of them, Japanese, swarm around the instrument/camera bleachers.

While the Hokkaido machine differs somewhat from the one in Texas in the details of its human-designed superstructure, the eerie uniformity of the giant sphere, here bathed in soft lavender light, is the same.

Elaborate instrument and camera bleachers surround it; in the distance we can make out a control tower similar to the one we saw vaporized in Texas.

The Female Assistant Team Leader from Texas runs the console, more technicians at their various stations. Peter hovers nearby. Standing in the back we notice a number of poker-faced officials, some wearing U.S. military uniforms. Joss stands at the window looking out; he puts his hand to the glass.

REPORTER #1 (V.O.) --The security here in Hokkaido has been incredibly tight; for obvious reasons only a single pool feed has been allowed at the machine site. Through the eye of the camera world...

A sea of Asian faces transfixed by a giant outdoor screen.

REPORTER #2 (overlapping) ...watches, holding its breath for that moment, now less than ten (MORE)

REPORTER #2 (CONT’D) minutes away, when a single human being--

A van pulls up. Out steps Ellie, composed, wearing her jumpsuit and holding her video helmet. Two Japanese technicians accompany her as she heads toward the main gantry elevator.

REPORTER #2 (V.O.) --boarding a machine of unknown origin and unknown function, will step into history...

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) (overlapping on "history") ...the question that's on everyone's mind: will history repeat itself?

The street is deserted. Televisions glow in every window.

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) With a piece of engineering this complex, this unprecedented--

The receipt-strewn floor lies deserted.

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) --with so many unknown variables--

The elevator gates open; Ellie and the technicians step in.

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) --could the unthinkable occur? Could what happened in Texas happen again?

Hundreds of reporters doing stand-ups. A cacophony of voices.

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) Cutting to the feed now.

INSERT TELEVISION

The elevator rises, finally arriving in position halfway up the great sphere.

ANGLE - LASKER AND KITZ

watch from Camp David.

ELEVATOR GATES

open, revealing Ellie flanked by the two technicians.

She looks down the long narrow walkway that leads to the machine.

She puts on her helmet.

She begins her long walk.

WIDE SHOT - MACHINE

Ellie's tiny figure approaches the blazingly lit sphere.

Commuters stand stock still, watching the big screen.

Chinese peasants crowd the front of an appliance store; jockeying to see the televisions.

On the monitors Ellie walks toward the machine.

ELLIE

approaches the alien fractal-embossed surface of the machine.

She pauses. Looks around--her last glimpse of Earth...?

She takes a step--and as she does the panel before her loses its solidity, becoming an opaque gray mist. Darkness beyond.

Ellis is on the threshold.

A million people hold their breath--

Peter. Joss--

TIGHT ON ELLIE'S FACE

as she steps into the unknown.

WIDE SHOT - MACHINE

Tiny Ellie disappears into the machine.

As Ellie enters, the panel silently resolidifies behind her.

Darkness. A dim glow ahead shows through similar openings in two more spherical benzels. The surface beneath Ellie's feet seems almost liquid. She continues...

The enormous chamber is webbed with delicate organosilicate implanted pattern. An inner dodecahedron marks the core of the machine. Ellie steps through, staring in wonder.

INTERCUT WITH:

Hesitates...

A deep RUMBLING is heard--everyone jumps--

They all look out the windows.

FULL SHOT - MACHINE - DUSK

The mighty benzels slowly begin to move. It is an awesome sight.

The BENZELS have begun to generate a HARMONIC HUM, each generating a DIFFERENT TONE. It grows LOUDER as they continue to pick up speed--

Peter stares at the spinning benzels, rapidly gaining speed. Palmer Joss closes his eyes and quietly starts to pray.

Something is happening inside the machine; a shimmering, almost as if the air itself was changing...

The shimmering amber-lit gas surrounds Ellie, in some places remaining gaseous (for breathing); in others aqueous, in others a gel-like colloidal, supporting her. Nervously:

The MACHINE SHUDDERS.

FROM TWO MILES OUT AT SEA

We see clouds gather; an ominous microclimate forming over Hokkaido. Strange violet-hued lights in the sky--

The HUM of BENZELS is deafening, like a galactic choir--

Fisher, Willie and the team are glued to the set.

President Lasker and Kitz watch the same coverage.

Hadden floating, silhouetted against his TV wall.

The lower support structure begins to withdraw but the enormous sphere remains spinning freely in space--the clouds part--

ELLIE

whirls around in terror as the light grows dazzlingly bright.

FULL SHOT - MACHINE

Suddenly the benzels flicker--go transparent-- everything is visible for a millisecond as a blinding flash of light illuminates the superstructure and surrounding countryside brighter than the brightest day--

Monitors whiteout in a blaze of blinding light.

Hadden's TV wall whites out as he dies smiling--

The sense of acceleration is tremendous, as if dropping through the center of the earth. The fluid has become more gel-like solid, supporting Ellie's body. The front panel is now opaque, the left and right panels semi- transparent.

A bright blue-white light up ahead, illuminating what seems not so much to be a tunnel as a sense of space warping around us; like being inside a fisheye lens as it dolly/zooms. Ellie speaks breathlessly into her mike...

Now the front panel becomes transparent: Ahead is a dazzlingly bright blue-white object with dimmer copies of it surrounding it.

As speed increases the subsidiary images become fainter, moving in a transverse circle. Behind Ellie, though she doesn't see it, the panels show similar images of the

launch site at Hokkaido. The blue-white light from up ahead becomes blinding as the Dodec erupts into space.

A great mass passing above eclipses Vega's light, throwing the Dodec into shadow. The immense polyhedron construct from the opening of the film, dappled with its millions of transmitters, drifts overhead. It's easily 100 miles across. Staring in awe:

The machine suddenly makes a hard left; an object appears ahead, an impossible inside-out sphere in space; four dazzling lights seem to be embedded within it.

The Dodec plunges down it as Ellie struggles to contain her wildly fluctuating emotions. The surrounding gas begins to shift color, modulate--

The Dodec erupts into a quadruple star system. A pair of red and blue stars orbit each other while a pair of yellow-green dwarfs orbit them.

Ellie swallows hard, hyperventilating--

Ellie growing woozy; trying to snap out of it.

Ellie is overwhelmed with emotion--we think she's about to cry but then she bursts out laughing--

Now Ellie is crying, sobbing uncontrollably.

The Dodec plunges into another inside-out sphere, this one larger and glowing blood red--

SERIES OF SHOTS

A) A GIANT RED STAR

As it engulfs an Earthlike planet. We watch the planet's oceans boil away; the surface chars, sears dead--

B) SUPERNOVA

Tidal waves of gas clouds rush away from the exploding sun--shock waves tumble debris AT us. At the center of the cataclysm a rapidly rotating neutron star flashes like a lighthouse, ten times a second.

C) LARGE BLUE GAS GIANT

Circling an emerald green star. On the night side of the planet are huge glowing jellyfish-like shapes, the floating cities of an alien civilization. Millions of glowing gold particles connect them in elaborate swirling patterns, a dance of golden glitter...

D) LAST WORMHOLE

choked with multicolored pinprick flares--a sense of tremendous acceleration, finally erupting into--

CENTER OF GALAXY

So many dazzling multicolored stars they almost touch. Millions more stars than are visible from Earth on the clearest night.

An immense, spiraling river of gas and dust, millions of miles long, pours into the maw of a black hole of staggering dimensions. Flashes of radiation leap from the center like summer lightning--

The Dodec suddenly rotates. Swimming INTO OUR FIELD OF VIEW...

GALACTIC GRAND CENTER STATION

It fills half the sky. A vast, vast, artificial planet;

immeasurably immense liquid clouds drift in its atmosphere, punctuated by planet-size holes, columns of mist thousands of mile high.

The Dodec gently plunges into an atmosphere of blue night; below we can make out thousands of yellow-lit openings in the gel-like surface, each a different geometric shape.

As the Dodec continues to lower toward a hexagonal receptor the panels grow opaque, blocking out all light. Ellie fights to remain conscious as it grows dimmer and dimmer:

She passes out.

IN BLACK

Nothing. Still nothing. Finally, a gentle, familiar SOUND...

FADE IN:

ELLIE

lies in a fetal position. After a long moment she opens her eyes. The familiar RHYTHMIC sound is LOUDER. Her eyes widen...

Ellie sits up on a pristine white beach. Huge ranges of cumulus lit red/gold by the dawn silhouette clusters of palm trees; the sound of gently ROLLING SURF, SQUAWKING GULLS.

Ellie stands. The Dodec is nowhere to be seen. She looks around in disbelief.

She takes a few halting steps, like a child learning to walk. She kneels, scoops up some sand. Frowns in confusion...

Ellie digs her hand into the sea, almost loses her balance again. She tastes the water. Normal. Her confusion grows...

She steps further into the water; letting its warmth soothe her, wipes the furrows from her brow. Closes her eyes as she lets the water take her.

The sun is higher now. The SURF CRASHES.

Ellie sits against a palm tree, looking out at the sea. She seems a little more cogent.

A distant figure becomes visible down the beach. As it approaches Ellie continues, unaware:

Ellie stops, as if sensing something. The figure grows closer, now clearly humanoid. Ellie turns to look--

--and stares in utter disbelief. She rises to her feet...

ELLIE'S POV

Ted Arroway is walking easily toward her. He smiles.

ELLIE

Tears come to her eyes... she approaches, staring... He takes her hand--

It's too much. Ellie throws herself into his arms, holds him tight.

She sobs. He holds her.

Ellie recovers a bit, wiping away her tears--

Reality returns like a cloud passing over the sun. Softly:

And in the blink of an eye they are no longer standing on a beach but on the rim of the Grand Canyon, looking out at a spectacular sunset.

Ellie tries hard to swallow her amazement as Ted begins to stroll along the rim; she walks with him.

And now they are walking through a familiar forest. Sunlight streams through the tall trees.

He seems momentarily overcome with a terrible sadness... and then he recovers, smiles.

Ted hesitates. They are now standing in the middle of a vast alien desert, stretching to the horizon. The dome of the sky darkens revealing a view from outside the galaxy; the Milky Way hangs like a pinwheel in the blackness of intergalactic night.

CLOSE ON TED

He turns to Ellie, puts a loving hand to her face. Softly:

And suddenly Ellie is standing on the sun-dappled Cal Tech campus. She turns to find herself standing opposite David Drumlin.

Ellie stares at him--instinctively backs away, turning around--

--to find herself high atop the radio dish at Arecibo looking into Peter Valerian's face--

Peter shakes his head--then begins to melt, morph into Palmer Joss--

--the Texas meadow instantly dissolves behind him to become the darkness of the Hokkaido night--

Ellie stares at him; he slowly morphs back into Ted as he and the space around them become infused with an unearthly golden light; his voice ECHOING and resonating into infinity--

Ellie moves closer, staring into his eyes... and catches a glimpse of infinity. She holds her breath--

We begin to MOVE THROUGH them, INTO--

ANOTHER DIMENSION

We are lost inside an unimaginable realm, an infinity of nested realities turning inside and within each other in a staggering visual paradox that dazzles and overwhelms, that builds and soars until--

--the soft CRASHING of the SURF...

Ellie is back, standing with her father on a perfect beach in the glow of twilight. A gentle breeze blows. Ellis is overcome.

He tenderly brushes a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

She looks at him pleadingly... and as the part of him that is her father look into his daughter's eyes, he hesitates--

A breeze blows, stronger now.

A WHOOSH of AIR--Ellie spins around--

The Dodec sits incongruously on the beach.

She turns back. Ted has vanished.

And as Ellie finally and fully mourns her lost father, we leave her, crying, alone on an empty beach, 30,000 light

years from home...

FADE IN:

The HUM DIES as the benzels slowly come to rest.

Ellie emerges from the machine. Her expression composed. The opening solidifies behind her--

--and then we hear a sudden BURST of STATIC, followed by a cacophonous BARRAGE of VOICES--Ellie instinctively puts her hands to her helmet--

Peter stands at the command console, just as we left him.

A team of physicians examine Ellie, hooked up to various medical equipment--

The DOCTOR checks a series of monitors, turns to an official.

Peter enters the room, briefly confers with the official --then approaches Ellie, who sighs in grateful relief.

And as Ellie realizes with sickening certainty--

STATIC-FILLED MONITOR

Colored snow. Nothing.

Kitz turns off the monitor, turns to Ellie, still in her hospital gown and robe. Peter stands nearby, as do a group of frighteningly expressionless I.S.C. and Pentagon officials.

Kitz pauses... and then he turns to her, his intensity increasing as we PUSH IN ON him--

Ellie, surrounded by a phalanx of security, moves quickly through the nightmarish mob scene. Disorienting TV lights glare, illuminating a flurry of drift snow--

As Ellie is hustled toward a van she glimpses a figure-- an oasis of stillness in the mob, watching her--Joss. Their eyes meet for the briefest of moments--and then Ellie is swept into the van and away. Joss watches her go --looks at the chaos, the madness around him--then slowly looks up to the sky...

A hard rain falls. We FIND a government sedan, FOLLOW it THROUGH burned-out slums--

The sedan approaches the Capitol Building. The steps are mobbed with a surreal menagerie of the fanatical and the dispossessed. A huge bonfire has been built; images of Ellie on the cross...

The rain pours down. The President slowly hangs up the phone.

Ellie looks out the window at the mob descending on the car, all fighting desperately to catch a glimpse of her-- faces filled with hope, hate, desperation--Ellie shrinks back--

The CLOCK TICKING on the wall reads five to nine.

Ellie sits alone in the small room. Waiting.

A KNOCK on the door. Ellie looks up nervously--

Palmer Joss stands in the doorway. A moment... and then Ellie slowly rises and goes to him. Embraces him. He holds her.

Ellie finally pulling away, wiping her eyes.

She takes his hand, kisses it. He touches her face.

The CLOCK TICKS.

Ellie looks up at him--and then the door opens and an AIDE enters.

Every corner of the cavernous Senate Chamber is jammed with media, politicians, onlookers. The world stage. The big show.

The International Committee is composed of eight men and two women, including Kitz. Occupying the center seat is the COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, An Asian American Senator in his sixties.

Sitting all by herself at a long table opposite them, Ellie looks very small and alone.

Ellie hesitates. Looks up at Joss in the gallery. Then:

Palmer Joss, sitting in the gallery, closes his eyes.

SAME SCENE - LATER

The Chairman flips slowly through a file as he questions Ellie.

Joss leans forward in his chair.

Ellie is silent.

The crowd murmurs. Committee members exchange glances.

The word rings out like a shot. Silence.

JOSS

Holding his breath.

ELLIE

Closes her eyes. Finally, almost inaudibly:

The room is silent. Almost gently:

The crowd reacts.

Ellie looks up to the gallery... and finds Joss.

As she speaks with great emotion and restraint, she seems to be talking directly to him.

The room grows quiet.

JOSS

Moved beyond words.

ELLIE

looks lovingly at Palmer... then shifts her gaze to Michael Kitz. Softly:

The emotion in her voice compels the room to silence.

Kitz.

Joss.

Ellie.

Spilling out; reporters closing in. As Kitz emerges he sees Ellie--she meets his gaze.

A moment... and then he nods, walks briskly off. Ellie turns--to find Joss standing by the door, waiting for her. A timeless moment...

...and then she silently crosses to him and lets him fold her into his arms.

The rain lashes down unabated. A sea of press crushing in on Ellie and Joss as they grimly make their way through, police clearing the way--A ZEALOT intones in the b.g.--

As Ellie moves through the crowd PEOPLE in wheelchairs fight to approach, people with terrible deformities-- they call to her:

Ellie, torn between wanting to help these suffering souls and not wanting to lie, whispers:

And then the reporters descend, shouting out questions-- one in particular rings out--

Joss stops. He turns to the crowd; slowly:

He puts his arm around Ellie and hurries away. The crowds, the media watch as the Messiah who failed disappears into the rainy night.

SERIES OF SHOTS

A) HOKKAIDO

The entombment of the machine has begun. Scaffolding on all sides, swarming with workers in quarantine suits. Helicopters fly overhead, dumping load after load of concrete.

B) VLA

boarded up, deserted. Weeds springing up around the now-rusting cyclone fence; the desert moving in to reclaim what it had briefly lost. The radio dishes waiting, silent.

C) SMALL COUNTRY CEMETERY

a familiar fishpond in the b.g. Ellie, holding a small bunch of wildflowers, kneels to gently place them on her father's grave.

The small figures of Ellie and Joss walk along the beautiful lake under the forested slopes of Mt. Hood.

They stop, look out at the water.

She takes his hand... and then they look up at the sky, where the first stars are coming out.

REPORTER #1 (V.O.) (overlapping) ...thousands of starving refugees fled the area as the bloody fighting continued...

REPORTER #2 (V.O.) ...a massive book burning took place in downtown Berlin today...

REPORTER #3 (V.O.) ...and on this last night of the old millennium and the eve of the new one, looking back on a past racked by violence and chaos, we of the human race look ahead to an uncertain future--a future which, at least for now, seems to promise only more of the same...

The VOICES FADE into oblivion.

The machine stands entombed; silent, inscrutable.

All is still.

Then, the first sign: small insects crawl from cracks in the pavement.

A stirring. A slight breeze. A subtle HUMMING sound--

A monk stirs in his bed in the nearby monastery; if not awakened by the strange vibration then by the SHRIEKING MONKEYS outside.

A vibration. Something is happening at the core of the concrete edifice--it begins to crack--

From inside comes a sound, a terrible, otherworldly ROAR--

The next transformation has begun.

FROM TWO MILES OUT AT SEA

The island of Hokkaido is shrouded by an ominous microclimate... a vortex out of which radiates an awful vibration like the shockwave of a bomb. A Japanese fisherman smoking a cigarette on his shrimpboat looks up in awe.

MACHINE

is lifting, spinning--dissolving into itself--leaving only the vortex of a prodigious wormhole--

DOWNTOWN TOKYO

A thousand neon signs go dark. New Year’s revelers look up in fear.

and the keepers have never known the animals to be so disturbed.

VIRGINIA SUBURB

Peter Valerian steps out of his front door and stares up at the sky. His wife joins him; he silently puts his arm around her--

WASHINGTON OFFICE

Michael Kitz turns to look out the window at the D.C. skyline--fear on his face as he looks down at a picture of his family, wife and two kids--

BALKANS

Guerrillas look up at the terrifying sky as the GUNFIRE DIES.

ON SERENGETI

Stampeding wildebeest wheel around seemingly to form a vast circle.

SOMEWHERE IN PACIFIC

Great swirling pod of dolphin swim in a frenzied circle.

INDIA

A circle of dung beetles in the dust.

EARTH

from Hadden's darkened viewport. The land obscured by a rapidly growing cloud that fills the ecosphere.

ELLIE AND JOSS

stand outside a lakeside cabin, transfixed.

A wind picks up. Grows stronger.

A deep RUMBLING sound, felt more than heard: a sound too vast to be any sound at all. The wind grows stronger. The LIGHTNING CRACKLES, flushing birds from trees--

And then everything becomes perfectly still--the RUMBLING STOPS--

--a deafening silence--then--

SOUNDLESS CONCUSSION OF VIOLET LIGHT

high over Times Square--Kitz's office--a solitary farmhouse under the Nebraska sky--downtown Tokyo--a

lonely freighter in the middle of the Pacific-- EVERYWHERE--

Looking toward the Earth past the deserted Mir Station-- the brilliant violet flash--

EGYPT

The Valley of the Kings. The faces of the long dead Pharaohs bathed in the violet light.

SAHARA

Children stare up in wonder at the same light.

TIME SQUARE/PICCADILLY CIRCUS

People stand frozen in awe.

WASHINGTON D.C.

At the Lincoln Memorial the great man looks down as the homeless crawl out from their cardboard shelters, bathed in the brilliant light...

ELLIE AND JOSS

stare up at the sky at an impossible view.

It is the view from the center of the galaxy. THROUGH the mouth of the enormous wormhole, we can see the machine returning to Grand Central Station as a dazzling Aurora Borealis fills the sky--

VARIOUS SHOTS - ALL OVER THE WORLD

All over the world faces of every race and ethnicity stare up at a billion blazing multicolored suns lighting up the heavens, brighter than the brightest day.

The citizens of the Earth look up and wonder as the CHIMES of MIDNIGHT RING OUT all over the world--

ELLIE

Her eyes filled with tears of wonder and joy, smiles. She's found what she's been searching for.

BLACK CARD

BRING ON THE MILLENNIUM