"EVOLUTION" (2001)

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EVOLUTION

Written

by

Don Jakoby

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APRIL 27, 1998

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A MONTAGE: A hummingbird hovering, an explosion of wild flowers, a hyena on the Serengeti, elephants in Kenya, an eagle soaring over the American Rockies, a lizard in • the Nagev ...Whales in the Pacific, lions, birds, soaring redwoods, a snake in a rain forest, a spider, ants running in an ant hill .. .

A song to life on Earth.. .

The cold glitter of SPACE. An iron meteorite, about to skim by the Earth, catches just enough of the atmosphere to arc down into the lower regions, where it begins to GLOW red and green.

SUPER: DAY 1

United Airlines Flight 118, headed east. The CAPTAIN points out the green-red fireball to his CO-PILOT. They both watch the meteorite headed over Arizona toward New Mexico. The Captain picks up his mike.

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Quite a sight.

seconds later it explodes in mid-air.

A cluster of fireballs arc down over the mesa. Multiple CAMERAS track the fireballs, recording them exactly as they were designed to do.

- AFTERNOON

CAPTAINPERKINS, U.S. Air Force, preparing to brief helicopter searchand rescue TEAMS. Perkins, crisp, 29, on Special Assignment. The base c.o. introduces him:

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c.o. Gentlemen,Captain Perkins, SandiaLabs. •

Perkins steps forward. A search area outlined on the map behind him.

Double-timing itacross the tarmac to their waiting copters.

c.o. People liketo look forthis kind of shit. Don't ask me why.

Four copters in formation-- over the desert like dragon flies -- CLATTERING -- looking-- looking, for something.

ROLL TITLES:

The c.o. looks at Perkins.

They circle right and hover above a dark jagged HOLE punched through the top of the sandy, white mesa.

Two copters land, two hover. They all get out and walk over to the jagged hole, perhaps five feet across.

One of them shines a light down into a vast, dark space. • A cavern. They expected to find a crater, not this.

c.o . Looks like itpunched through into a cave. No telling how far

• down itwent.

The c.o. looks at the setting sun. Fifteen minutes of light, max.

c.o. We're running out of light. Mark the position, Lieutenant. (the Lt. punches it into a hand-held, military GPS.) We'll come back first thing in the morning. We may be able to get in through the cave system.

SUPER: DAY 2 9:00 A.M.

Two SPELUNKERS lead two EIGHT-MAN teams -- Army Special Forces -- and Perkins through a vast underground cave system. Their bright flashlight beams the only source of • illumination in the cavernous darkness. The only SOUND is DRIPPING WATER. They pass through large rooms filled with beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, closing on the position.

COL. MASON BOOKER,35, Afro-American, Army Special Forces is in charge of the teams. His POINT MANshouts back.

They work theirway through, single file.

They enter a huge,underground, natural amphitheatre. Immense. They alllook up at the jagged hole in the ceiling, over 100feet above them. Shafts of sunlight streaming in --partially illuminating the room. Their eyes follow alongan imaginary trajectory to the ground . And then they see it: At the far end of the cavern --

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where the ceilingslopes down and meets the floor an eight-foot-highSHARDfrom the iron meteorite, IMBEDDED,dagger-like, in the floor.

• PERKINS Christ,that's the biggest one I'veever seen. It's huge!

Perkins walks closer,the team following behind him. His bright flashlightbeam illuminating the glistening black meteorite. Waterdrips into a shallow pool nearby.

Perkins steps closer. His flashlight beam picks up some blue-green mold on thesurface of the meteorite shard.

Perkins turns tohis assistant, LT. cox.

PERKINS • Call him.

ALEX DECKER, forty-two, tall with patrician good looks, is having a pleasant breakfast with MAGGIEDALTON -- thirty -- striking-looking. Bagels, lox, good coffee.

A full professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford, Decker's specialty is biodiversity and the origins of life. Media friendly, he's a PBS superstar. He's on the fast track for a Nobel Prize and he knows it.

Maggie could pass for an undergraduate. She's an associate professor of microbiology at Berkeley.

•

She pours him some more coffee.

DECKER

• Maggie, I think it's time to

formalize our relationship -- don't you?

She looks at him. Hesitates. He waits, studying her.

His beeper buzzes-- he checks it. His cell phone rings. He looks at Maggie --

• Maggie starts clearingthe table.

He hangs up -- an intrigued look on his face. Turns and looks out thewindow at the Stanford bell tower.

He's completely forgotten about his semi-proposal. A little hurt but mostly relieved, Maggie changes the subject.

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With a quickpeck on the cheek he heads off to the bedroom to pack. Maggie watches him go.

A military helicoptermoving through a blue New Mexico • sky. Decker beingferried in with SLOAN, thirty-one, an associate professorof microbiology at Stanford and a giant fan of Decker.

They look down atthe site. Military vehicles, copters on the ground.

Decker enters the huge underground amphitheatre and looks up at the jagged hole in the ceiling. Shafts of sunlight coming through.

Decker's attention is already on the meteorite shard at the far end of the room. Big lights have been brought

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in, all directed at the meteorite shard. Decker approaches it as one might approach the Pieta. •

Decker walks around it, staying a distance from it. A thin coating of blue-green moss on it.

Decker kneels down. Looks at the base of the shard.

• Decker climbs into a hooded field bio-suit, slips on some gloves, takessome sterile instruments from Sloan's kit, and begins removingsmall samples of moss -- puts them into sterileglass SPECIMENCASES. He chips off a sample of the meteorite itself. Then he takes samples of soil from around theshard. He puts each of those in separate specimen cases-- then places all of them in a heavy metal BOX -- aircrasn safe. Bio-hazard labels all over it.

Attaching a cableto the box, he nods to Booker. They watch as the box isYANKED up through the hole in the ceiling -- by a hoveringcopter.

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As the box disappears outof the cavern.

The copter carrying the box, racing over the desert, followed by two chase copters.

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The copter lands and is met by waiting TECHNICIANS in bio-suits. Seconds later another copter lands -- Maggie gets out.

THE BOX -- being transported through the bowels of the facility, up to the secure lab.

ZACK, 36, is a virologist/microbiologist; razor-sharp, he loves his work. His BIO-SUIT isolates him from the specimens he's working on. The SOUNDof HISSING air being pumped into his suit through his overhead air hose. He and his ASSISTANT are joined by MAGGIE suited up also. Zack sees her -- nods.

She observes as he opens the box and carefully begins to examine the sealedspecimen cases.

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• microscopyon this.

His assistant setsup the specimen cases. A TV monitor displays a view ofwhat their high-powered microscopes see:

ON SCREEN: In the brightcenter of the optical field are several odd-shaped, single-celled organisms with a nucleus. They're active --moving around, some of them dividing.

Zack's assistant, busy preparing other samples, stops. Maggie looks too.

They watch as one of the single-celled organisms splits down the middle and forms two smaller organisms.

• In the b.g. we see numerous one-celled and multicelled terrestrial organisms -- all dead.

Decker pacing. A two-way satellite video links them to the lab. Zack and Maggie's excited faces suddenly appear. They're buoyant, bursting with information.

•·

Displayed on partof the screen is a direct feed from the high-powered optical microscope. 400X power. The ONE- CELLEDorganisms moving about in the bright field. •

Her VOICE hangs inthe silence. Reverberates. Decker is stunned.

She's pumped.

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• at ground zero of the greatest scientific

discovery of the century -- maybe of all time. (big smile) I'll be there in the morning.

Decker takes some time to savor the moment. Looks around the cathedral-like cavern. He turns, looks at the shard. Brilliant in the filtered afternoon sunlight. Eerie.

Booker approaches him.

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Decker, staringat the shard, turns to Booker.

Booker looks at him,hesitates, looks over at Perkins. Decker sees the look .

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Sloan flips up thescreen of his laptop. It LISTS experts all over theworld.

ABE ROBINSON...UNIV. OF CHICAGO, DEPT. OF BIOLOGY JEROMELEVIN ... UNIV. OF TEXAS, DEPT. OF BIOLOGY ...

Sloan presses a single command key and BEEPERS, bells and whistles -- go off:

Around the world:

ABE ROBINSON,65, Nobel Prize winner and grand old man of biology, is lecturing to a packed class. •

SUPER: ABE ROBINSON, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Robinson has the room in the palm of his hand. Just then, his beeper goes off --

surprised, he looks at the message. stares. Silence. His class waiting.

He looks over at his GRADUATE ASSISTANT.

He steps off the stage and hurries out of the hall.

-- JEROMELEVIN, 36, in his Porsche talking with a colleague on a digital phone.

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SUPER: JEROMELEVIN PROFESSOR OF BOTANY,UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

• His beeper goes off. He checks the message. Stares.

He pulls over to the side of theTexas road and pulls a big u-turn in a cloud ofdust, while neatly avoiding two cars. Driving likehell, he punches in a number.

Sloan looks up from his laptop at Decker.

Long beat. Decker, a pained expression, like someone just put sugar on his eggs.

• (frowns at the laptop)

You can't get him with that thing. Give me a phone.

Someone hands him a phone. Booker watching this exchange.

An ancient, black rotary PHONErings. Next to it, on a window sill, is a stuffed, dried piranha and the bleached white skull of a Neanderthal. An old Royal manual and a pile of handwritten pages on the desk. No answering machine, no computer in sight...

The CAMERA MOVES past an eight-foot RUBBERTREE and some vines to reveal BENJAMIN R. BRIDGES, thirty-four and ruggedly handsome. on sabbatical from Princeton, he's retreated to the country, where he lives alone with his yellow Labrador, SAM. Ignoring the phone, Bridges continues drawing an elaborate ecosystem on a large piece of paper mounted on his wall. WATER, AIR, TREES, ANIMALS

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... with flowingARROWS connecting everything to • everything. Mind blowinglycomplicated -- an Escher , . drawing runningamuck. The winner of a McArthur "genius" award -- he's busytrying to figure something out. The PHONEcontinues toRING ....

ousting the chalkfrom his hands, he grabs the phone.

INTERCUTBRIDGESand DECKER, in the cavern, as NEEDED.

Bridges studies his drawing as he talks.

Bridges looks into the kitchen, at a photo of Maggie on the refrigerator.

Decker hands the phone over to Perkins. He consults a laptop.

Bridges locks up the house and tosses a duffle bag into the front seat of his green pickup truck. He looks around, whistles for his dog.

He smiles as Sam runs up to him, wagging his tail.

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Bridges opens the doorand Sam jumps up onto the front seat. The pickup truckbacks down the long, curved dirt driveway and turns ontothe two-lane road. • Bridges drives a halfmile down the road to his neighbor CHARLEY,60. Charley greetsthem. Bridges crouches down to say goodbye. Sam nuzzleshim.

Bridges gets back in his truck, starts to roll down his window to tell Charley something. Charley walks over.

Bridges smiles. Sam and Charley watch him drive away.

The President's national security advisor, JIM MOYERS, 34, is briefing the President and his advisors. The PRESIDENT is 50, a smart Al Gore.

• extraterrestrial.

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SUPER: DAY 3

Abe Robinson, being helicoptered in with his COLLEAGUES. Peers down at the site. There's an air strip under construction. Other heavy earth-moving equipment is gouging out a ramp allowing access to the cave.

He quickly turnsaround.

Robinson hops outof the copter with Maggie and the others. They aretaken down into the cavern via a recently excavatedaccess shaft.

A buzz of activity. People moving inequipment. Wooden CRATES labeled HEWLETTPACKARD, IBM, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, BECKMAN INSTRUMENTS.

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Robinson looksat a huge, floor-to-ceiling, clear plastic tarp, that sealsthe section with the meteorite shard off from the rest ofthe cavern. Bright spots shine in • through the tarpat what lies beyond. He spots Decker, walks over to him.

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reasons to be jealous.

Decker puts his arm around Maggie. Pride of ownership. She blushes. Then all business:

Bridges, fuming, chases after an AIR FORCECAPTAINas they load heavy equipment into the belly of the C-130. He's looking at his watch .

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Bridges walks over to a payphone, takes out a piece of paper and fumbles for some change.

Slams the phone down.

Zack's watching a number of the one-celled life forms through the microscope. suddenly one of them is engulfed • -- and eaten -- by a larger creature.

On the videoplayback they see a larger, multicellular creature -- amoeba-like-- engulf the smaller creature.

Robinson is standingclose to the tarp, peering in. Decker pointingout something, Maggie looking on.

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• Decker looks athim, goes over. Zack's face appears. Agitated. Excited.

• Robinson's eyes light up.

They suit up -- in full bio-containment suits with self- contained oxygen-packs. Their helmets have two-way radios linking them to each other and to the outside.

They enter through the floor-to-ceiling clear plastic tarp, stretching across the cavern, sealing the shard off from the main cavern. An inflatable airlock allows them to simply part the tarp -- and step into another world.

Light mist. The only illumination coming from the large lights outside the tarp and from the hole in the ceiling

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80 feet up -- also outsidethe tarp. A red LASER beam periodically sweepsthrough the gloom measuring the precise concentrationsof gases.

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Decker and Robinsonmake theirway toward the shard visible now, in the risingmist of low grade sulphuric acid. Their flashlight beams cut through the eerie landscape --

They walk slowly, across the uneven cavern floor -- toward the meteorite shard -- a hundred feet away.

A small TV CAMERA mounted on the side of Decker's hood sends back live video to the people outside.

Robinson approaches the meteorite -- reacts to its size. The way it stabs into the ground like a dagger. Decker smiles.

He kneels and looks at the soil around its base.

The transmitted picture showing hundreds of grey-white FLATWORMSburrowing in the soil at the base of the iron meteorite. Maggie watching outside on the monitors.

Decker and Robinsonkneel down. Decker shines a powerful flashlight on them. He looks more closely --

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of them. How could I have missed them?

Robinson sweeps the light over them again. No response.

Decker tries to collect several of the flatworms in a glass specimen case.

CLOSE

the worms try to wriggle away.

While Decker works, Robinson examines some discolored patches on the meteorite and some nearby cave rocks.

DECKER

• That's the moss I was telling you

about.

Decker looksup, comes over.

EXTREME CLOSE UP

moss-like plant growth -- tiny purple buds.

They do.

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ANGLEON -- Jerome Levin, the guy we saw earlier in his Porsche. He's studying the pictures.

LEVIN • (into mike) Jerry Levin here, Decker.

Maggie checks the laser read-out.

Decker looks at him. A stunning possibility.

CLOSE -- THE SMALL PLANTS.... BUDS ...

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Staggering to contemplate.

Decker takes some samples of the "plants."

Decker and Robinson, perspiring, pulling their suits off.

They watch as the samples are yanked up and out of the cavern by a copter as before.

Maggie, Sloan and Levin join them for a satellite conference with Zack in the LEVEL-4 lab.

ZACK

• Were they grey, flat and half a

centimeter in length?

Alex is startled -- looks at Maggie and Robinson.

Zack shows them a close-up of the specimen CASE in their lab. In acorner of the case they can see a small WORM.

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Decker can't quite believe what he's about to say.

And now it's clear to him. A staggering thought.

Thunderstrucksilence. stunned. Both of them now know it's true.

Robinson looks atthem all.

The thought hangs in the air.

Suddenly, CHIMESgo off in Zack's LAB. His eyes go to the digital output that monitors the BIOMASScontained in all their samples.

Decker and Robinson look at the huge tarp and what's behind it.

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Robinson looksback at the huge tarp.

Decker is uncertainhow to take that.

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Bridges is peeringdown at the SITE. The mesa's been sliced open -- a dirtramp now leading down into thecave system. Tents andequipment all over. They land andhe jumps out.

The place is bustlingwith activity. The Army Corp of Engineers has put ina makeshift, ten-story construction elevator down intothe cavern staging area.

He's headed for theelevator when Maggie sees him.

The look on their faces says it all. She gives him an awkward hug. Bridges steps back, smiles, an admiring look. It's obvious they have a history. They fall in together, talking as they walk.

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MAGGIE • Fine. You know Alex. He's Alex.

Bridges smiles.

They reach theelevator, get on and ride down in the open, chain linkcage. Seconds go by. Bridges turns.

still going down.

She looks at him withsome affection.

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• thing I've ever done.

That gets a smile.

The elevator stops. As they get out.

Bridges walking into the huge cavern with her. Sees the huge tarp all lit up -- and the jagged hole in the ceiling, directly above him, sunlight pouring through. His heart skips a beat.

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Bridges looks surprised,follows her into a large tent set up as a briefingarea.

SIXTY SCIENTISTS --microbiologists, biochemists, zoologists, molecularbiologists, entomologists, evolutionary biologists-- the world's top people, are crammed into thetent.

Decker is in front,about to begin his briefing, when Bridges comes inwith Maggie. Decker's face changes .

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BRIDGES • Alex.

Bridges works his way to the back of the room -- 60 pairs of eyes follow him, he is a superstar. on the way he acknowledges a colleague here, a colleague there and Robinson, his former mentor. Decker begins his briefing. Huge monitors and a chalk board behind him.

Decker surveys the room. Grins.

LATER - MID-BRIEFING -

Bridges listening, excited, jots down notes.

LATER --

Bridges listeningcarefully.

There's stunnedsilence in the room.

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• days to evolve the equivalent of

a flatworm. That process took millions of years here. (quips) I call this "evolution with a bullet."

Laughter.

Heads turn

• where it is.

(addressing their concerns) The cavern offers excellent geological and biologicalcontainment. There are no underground streams anywhere in the area. If you were to pick a location, you couldn't have picked a better one. Plus; their biochemistry is oxygen intolerant.

Decker looks aroundthe room.

There's a ripplein the room. This is a bombshell statement in thissetting.

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Even Bridges laughs. Robinson rises and addresses the room.

ROBINSON • I think we all hear what Ben is saying, but I have to agree with Alex here. This is too important an opportunity. •

He sits down to vocal agreement. Moyers, sitting next to Levin, whispers.

The meeting disbands. Decker and Bridges approach one another and walk away, talking.

ANGLE- BRIDGES AND ALEX

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Vintage Alex. Bridges looks at him

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Moyers catchesup to them. Alex and he are bosom buddies already. He introduceshimself to Bridges.

• Moyers looks at Alex.

Up ahead are people from USAMRID(Army Military Research Institute of Infectious Diseases) and the CDC.

Alex walks him over.

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MARCOTTI, 40, curlyhaired, an MD and FOWLER, 45, Army medical doctor, shakeBridges• hand. •

• ALEX Nobody does.

They walk away. Bridges looks bothered.

Bridges walks over to the tarp, stands a moment, staring through at the other side. The tarp BOWING out now due to the buildup of gases inside. Robinson joins him.

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• They're joinedby Alex.

They look at each other.

An illuminated, eerie landscape. Increasingly populated by new, small species of plants -- their growth being recorded by cameras and sensors.

• In the dark -- one small plant growing -- blossoming -- its small "tendrils" -- feelers -- reach out toward the lights outside.

Alex getting ready to turn in. He looks at Maggie.

Bridges alone. Looks out at the starry sky a while, then parts the entrance to his tent.

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Glass terrariums hold all their samples -- worms, moss,

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plants and othermulticellular organisms -- some barely visible to the naked eye.

Maggie works lateinto the night.

SUPER: DAY 5

Activity continuesto build outside the tarp.

Bridges, Alexand Robinson are talking when Maggie runs up to them breathlessly.

They look at eachother and follow her toward the new mobile BSL-4 facility-- a large inflated lab, airtight and isolated by multiplewalls from the cavern and people outside. They enterthrough a complex airlock-doorway.

Bridges, Alex, Robinsongathered now, looking in at Zack and Maggie throughthick, secure glass windows. •

Maggie and Zack move around insidethe lab, in maximum bio-safety suits attachedto air hoses.

Maggie directs their attention to a magnified view of a small flatworm -- now in a specimen case with dozens of others.

As they watch: a fissure appears down the middle of the worm as it divides -- bisymmetrically -- forming two slightly different and smaller worms. The two new "halves" crawl off on their own. TWOnew individuals. •

• We HEAR the CLICK-CLICK-CLICKof a sensitive geiger- counter.

Alex looks at Bridgesand Robinson.

Bridges looks atRobinson.

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Bridges approachesLevin, who's tossing a football with Marcotti from theCDC.

Levin can scarcely believehis good luck.

Levin, not watching, as the football bounces off his chest.

LATER - STAGING AREA

Robinson, Alex~ Bridges and Levin, suiting up in the new USAMRID BIO-SUITS. Fowler points out their features.

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Gone are the clumsy old Moon Suits with their soft hoods and plastic visors. Mylar-covered, tightly fitted, the new suits have goldfish-bowl helmets of clear lexan plastic with a 360-degree view.

Bridges and the others screw the clear helmets onto the necks of their bio-warfare suits.

Booker joins thegroup.

Bridges walks overand shakes his gloved hand, suit to suit. Booker smiles.

They approach thetarp --and go in. Five men.

A vast, spooky, tented landscape.

Alex leads them past the remotely controlled video CAMERAS and lightswhich record the developing ecosystem.

Bridges, Robinson, Levin and Booker follow. Their flashlight beams cutting through the haze.

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The jagged hole inthe ceilingof the cavern, on the other side of the tarp,adds itsdim, diffuse light. • Bridges and Alex SEE that the strange new alien world has grafted itself onto thenatural features of the cavern. The rocks and stalagmites are now covered with alien vegetation. Some PLANTSnear the tarp are as high as three inches. A haze of poisonous gas hangs just above ground.

Small INSECTS, gnat-like, buzz in the air, flitting around their lights. Alex is startled.

They pass by a bush ... like a coral with leaves -- blossoming, blooming. completely new.

Alex checks back with Mission Control outside the tarp.

ALEX (on his radio)

• You guys getting all of this?

Twenty feet further, they see a TREE. Levin stares. Two-feet high, with tiny blue blossoms and black leaves.

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The tendrils of a four-foot high plant move very • slightly, sway, stretching toward the powerful light on Alex's helmet. Levin looks at it. Did it move or was it his imagination?

Booker takes a step. A CRUNCHING SOUND.

They all freeze, look down.

He lifts his boot slowly to reveal a dead alien BEETLE. The hard shell of the crab-like creature has been crushed. Suddenly TWOmore of the crab-like creatures appear out of nowhere and jump up on Booker's boot.

Their small multiple legs pumping furiously, tearing at the heel of his boot. Booker stomps his foot but they hang on. Booker kicks them off off with his other boot. His men crush them with the butt of their rifles.

They look down atthe creatures. •

One of the "dead"ones suddenly scuttles away.

Bridges chases itdown -- itfreezes and sits motionless. Bridges shines a lighton it. It doesn't respond.

LEVlN They don't respondto light.

As Bridges leans down to pick it up ... it makes a hissing SOUND, jumps up at his glove -- he grabs it and puts it into a specimen case.

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• Maggie and the others are standing around incredulous, watching the monitors and taking all this in. It's like the first moon walk. Enormous excitement in the air.

Something running along the ground. Robinson sees something out of the corner of his eye.

Bridges looks-- sees a four-inch high creature with a gash of a mouthand two slits where it's eyes should be.

It's trapped againsta rock. Bridges catches it in his hands -- puts itin a glass specimen jar.

INSIDE the jarthey can see now -- the small CREATURE has a small, oblonghead and a neck that allows it to turn slightly from sideto side. Its skin dry and fuzzy. Bridges lookscloser. He seals the jar --

• Hands it to Booker who carefullyplaces it into a large metal collectionbox.

LATER

Their powerful flashlightbeams cut through the gloom illuminating themeteorite, imbedded in the floor -- dead ahead. Bridgeswalks toward it, shining his light down at the base of themeteorite. Most of the worms are gone. Robinson ispuzzled.

He kneels at thebase of the shard and starts to dig.

•

•

He takes a sample of the soil and seals it in a jar.

LATER

Headed back. Moving cautiously, laden with samples of alien life forms. Several of Booker's MENare collecting all kinds of creatures -- plucking them from small bushes as they go. Life all over the place.

They've climbed out of their suits. Sitting around, reflecting on where they've they've just seen.

Robinson looking behind him at the tarp.

Bridges walks over to the tarp, stares through it. Maggie joins him.

Bridges --reflecting on where he's just been.

She looks at him withsome affection.

•

•

Alex suddenly interrupts.

Bridges turns.

Alex has a bottle of wine. He puts his arm around Maggie's waist and kisses her.

• Let me guess. This is a non-

smoking cave.

Bridges walks away.

CLOSE: A TV SCREEN-- Niahtline•s on. Maggie, Robinson, Levin, Bridges ... watching. TED KOPPEL, staring straight at the camera, cool, calm and collected.

•

LATER -- a JESUIT on one of Ted's split screens.

• FATHERGIBBS (addressing Koppel) Ted, if you believe in God, he's God of the entire universe -- not just this planet. Since he directs All.life he's directing this life form too.

Alex appears on another split screen -- direct from the cavern.

Bridges walks out. Maggie watches him go.

•

Bridges is working,analyzing the data from all the systems monitoringthe ecosystem.

Alex sticks hishead in. Bridges looks up.

Alex looks at him. Bridges goes back to the screens.

Moyers on the phonewith the President.

•

An entire add-on zoo --built to BIO-LEVEL-4 standards housing the live specimensthey've retrieved from the other world.

Levin is growing a bush fromthe cutting they brought out. It's one foothigh already, growing inside its glass case. They'remonitoring its life signs.

Large, glass terrariums houseplants, the beetle-crab- like creatures and all the other creatures they've collected. They're all breathing the alien atmosphere that floods the room.

Zack and Maggie show Bridges, Alex and Robinson, all wearing bio-suits, through the facility.

As they walk through the zoo -- the can hear the small creatures in the terrariums and metal cages MEWand HISS -- snapping at them as they walk by. Robinson looks at them, gives them a wide berth.

• zero degrees centigrade and at oxygen

concentrations above 5%...

TECHNICIANSare dissecting the creatures, their internal organs displayed.

•

As they follow her to the other side of the room, they pass a case with the small, "cute" creature with fur-like • skin. Alex stops, looks in.

ANGLE

The 4-inch high thing with the small head. It looks emaciated.

CLOSE - THE 4-INCH FURRYCREATURE

Sightless, it'sfacing away from Alex as he leans over the case. We notice a small shaving cut on Alex's face behind his plasticvisor. The cute creature -- we'll call itthe blood-thirsty creature later -- SENSES Alex's presencebehind it -- more precisely the blood. • As Alex movesright, the small head swivels right. As Alex moves tothe left, the head swivels left -- tracking Alex and the cut. Alex steps away. It sits quietly.

Maggie continuesover to a case containing SIXTEEN of the crab-like creatures. They peer in at them. ONE of them sitting very still.

They all lean overthe case.

The one sitting very still suddenly develops a FISSURE running its vertical length. The fissure CRACKSand divides -- producing two new, smaller creatures, each slightly different.

•

Bridges looks at Robinson. They all exchange looks. •

CLOSE -- two discolored spots on the top of the latest crab-BEETLE thing.

Bridges, Robinson and Alex exchange a stunned look.

She shines a strong light at the latest generation BEETLE. It turns and tracks the light.

Levin comes over .

•

They all stare at the crabs. Just then ALARM BELLS SOUND -- SIRENS go off. Zack freezes.

Bio-Level 4 panic. Zack turns, alarmed.

Zack -- thinking.

•

CLOSE -- the SEALSon all the vents and the hose connections.

•

The look on Zack's face is priceless. They all look at their gloves, the air hoses --

Bridges and Alex look at him. What do they do?

In the rush to get out, they KNOCK over two of the glass terrariums. The terrarium with the BEETLE-LIKE things and the one with the small, 4-inch creature. They shatter on the floor.

Bridges looksat Zack -- at Maggie.

oxygen starts surgingin through one-way ducts -- filling • the room.

Bridges staresas the small furry, blood-thirsty creature runs across thefloor and jumps on Alex's leg! It claws and races itsway up his suit to his visor, trying to get at the cut on hisface. Alex panics.

Bridges steps inand knocks it off Alex's helmet hard. It flies acrossthe room and lands hard against a wall. It SCREECHES, rightsitself and starts again toward Alex. As the oxygenhits it, it suddenly chokes and spasms. They watchas it dies in agony.

Bridges looks down at thebroken case of BEETLE-LIKE things, dying too. One ofthem buds as it's dying -- As the two halves separate the edges glow and sparks appear -- then flames.

The oxygen and their high metabolism. Bridges stares looks at Zack. They've never seen anything like this.

•

BRIDGES

• Kill that oxygen before we all

burn to death!

Zack's breathing hard, shaken. They all are.

• She looks at him -- all that oxygen in the air.

SUPER: DAY 10

The tarp's been MOVED BACKand expanded out to accommodate an ecosystem that's grown in size.

They're takingin the full team -- Bridges, Robinson, Alex, Levin,Maggie, Booker -- and SIX of his SPECIAL forces COMMANDOS,all armed with M-16s. Bridges looks at Alex.

•

Alex looks atMaggie.

Maggie looks athim -- at Bridges, unsure.

ANGLESUITING UP

Maggie changes intoa bio-suit along with the guys. Removing most of herclothes and climbing intothe snug bio-suit.

She isn't modest. Bridgescan't help noticing she has a • pretty terrific figure.

Booker briefs his six COMMANDOS.

The helmets screw on and lock down. The safeties come off their M-16s.

•

•

In their bio-suits they move into the vast, spooky tented jungle. Lights blazing through the heavy plastic tarp. Things scuttle, peculiar plants blossoming and budding in the artificial light. A thin haze of poisonous gases hangs over the upper branches of the trees -- now 18-20 feet high, with strange swollen pods and thorns on their bark. An utterly surreal, beautiful alien landscape.

The alien ecosystem has completely grafted itself onto the New Mexico cavern. A jumble of roots and vines criss-cross the cavern floor. The UNDERGROWTH growing rapidly.

Booker looks up through his lexan helmet.

They move forward -- with a perimeter team and POINT MAN. • Alex and Bridges up front with Booker.

The CAMERA MOVES along at ground level ahead of them -- a mist of poison gas wafting through the bushes and root covered ground. UNSEENby Bridges and the team, FOUR- LEGGED-- and EIGHT-LEGGED and TWENTY-LEGGED creatures, move out of the way, hiding in the bushes.

Bridges stops, looks around -- bothered, looks at Alex.

He looks at thetrees, the bushes, the huge ecosystem. All the vegetation.

Alex picks up a handfulof soil. A rock crumbles into dust.

•

ALEX • Look at this -- All the moisture's been extracted.

Alex looks atthe dripping stalactites. More water dripping down fromthe mesa, up top.

ANGLE

Booker, walkingwith Alex and Bridges, stops.

On the cavern floorin front of them is a large, hard shelled, black SPIDER-likething, with a body nearly a foot across and 16 legs. It seems to stare at them -- blocking theirway.

ALEX • (looksat Bridges) That --or the alien equivalent of one ...

Suddenly a larger SPIDER leaps out from the underbrush and attacks the first one. The larger spider kills the first and begins toeat itas it drags the carcass back into the bushes.

The team stares. Bridges exchanges a look with Maggie.

Maggie points to some smaller spiders crawling up the far cave wall -- toward the dark ceiling.

They watch other spider-like things climbing up stalagmites, scuttling away from their lights. Booker's men trap two of them. one of them, LOVETT, a young recruit, prods them into metal boxes with spring doors. Tricky job.

• They move forward --video-taping everything.

An ANIMALSUDDENLY steps out from some bushes. It wobbles on ten, long spindly legs. Everyone stops. Its body, two feet off the ground, is cylindrical, like a log. Six-inch spikes running the length of its back. It has no obvious head or tail end. There's a circular MOUTH on what we'd call its underbelly.

A bizarre extraterrestrialwalking "log.11

Bridges stares -- he has no idea. It looks at them.

Weapons leveled at it. No way to gauge its intentions. No rules of engagement. As they watch it:

Bridges notices a long CURTAINof wet, pearl-like beads, • hanging down from the limb of an alien TREE behind it -- like Spanish moss. The "living curtain" sways slightly.

As the spindly, 10-legged creature starts to trot away it brushes the curtain. suddenly the tendril-like tentacles SPRING to life, grab and wrap themselves around the helpless animal. Enfolding it, they lift the struggling creature off the ground. It makes small BLEATING sounds.

Alex, Bridges and the others look on with a mixture of revulsion and fascination. carried up into the upper branches of the "tree" where the tentacles enfold it completely. The struggle's over. Vicious, violent and final. Seconds later the drained carcass, just skin and bones, drops back onto the floor of the cavern

Small, scuttlingSCAVENGERS, beetles, alien "crabs" and insects coverthe carcass and consume it.

•

•

The tree's curtaindrops back down, ready for a new victim. Bridges andMaggie lookat each other. Suddenly a SOUND -- anda swollenpod on atree breaks open and THREEsmall creatures -- "animals" -- emerge. They watch them scuttleup the trunk.

As they spread out the small tendril-like BRANCHES of one of those "living curtains" -- touch the back of Maggie's bio-suit.

CLOSER: the ends of the tendrils are vibrating at high frequency -- like tuning forks. Maggie doesn't notice.

Bridges looks over -- sees the "curtain" starting to get agitated.

He grabs andpulls her away just as the branches start to clutch and curl. Maggie looks back. Shaken.

They all lookat the tree now. A close call.

Booker -- a saneman looks around the cavern at the sheer diversityof life developing.

•

BOOKER

•

Where areall these new creatures comingfrom anyway?

Booker contemplatesthat mind-bending thought.

• That's nuts.

The move forward cautiously. Approaching ground zero -- the meteorite shard. Dense vegetation growing all around it -- reaching toward the ceiling.

suddenly something that looks like a two-foot long Moray EEL on legs pops out from behind the meteorite shard. It has spikes set into its back and an ugly, teeth filled mouth.

•

The thing turns and races away -- heading for a niche inthe cavern wall, leaps up and disappears inside.

They're allstunned by its speed.

They cautiouslyapproach the dark, gaping hole in the wall. Bookerand TWOof his MEN shine powerful flashlights intothe dark crevice. The thing's wedged itself inside. They HEAR a strange hiss and a growl.

They extend twoanimal snares into the crevice and try to grab it. Itsnaps at the snares -- a CRUNCH and the two men jump back-- the metal snare pole's been bitten off.

The other snare isbent. Looks all around.

Another growl from thedark hole.

• BRIDGES I don'twant to fuck with it.

A quick look -- betweenBridges and Booker. Booker raises his M-16. He motions them back -- away from ricocheting roundsand emptiesa clip into the niche. GUNSHOTS echoing throughthe small jungle. A screeching sound from inside and thensilence. Alex, incensed.

They slip a snare over the carcass and haul it out of the crevice. It lands on the ground, dead. A strange looking thing.

•

Bridges turns back with the others. They head for the • tarp -- and the outside world.

TWOeven larger "eels on legs" that they missed -- stick their heads out of the crevice and stare after the men.

Alex is proudly showing off his zoo of new creatures to Marcotti, Fowler and Moyers. Bridges with them. Some of the creatures are caged, the rest inside their terrariums.

They snap and snarl at Fowler and Marcotti -- intimidating creatures. There are strange alien YELPS and SOUNDS. Moyer looks on, nervous.

Zack points out a peculiar looking plant/animal.

Booker looking on .

•

MARCOTT! (frazzled) This thing's hitting on all cylinders. We're working around theclock to keep up but we can't. Fournew phylla ... 500 new species a week.

Moyers looks uneasy .

•

•

Robinson studyingthe screens that monitor the system. Bridges comes in,stands over Robinson looking at the screen. Robinsonsees the expression on his face.

Bridges looks at him, smiles.

Bridges and Alex, talking with Moyers, having an animated • discussion.

Alex, furious and impatient with Moyers.

Alex looksat Bridges. Bridges hesitates.

•

• BRIDGES

He'sright. It's too valuable.

Maggie's examiningmicroscopic samples. Bridges and Moyers come in together. She looks up at Bridges.

Walks over checksthe data.

• can more or lesstell when it's

running a temperature,Moyers.

Moyers looks _reassured,not that he understands.

She shows him the data -- 2.1, 2.0. 2.11, 2.12 ... Looks up at him.

He looks at her, smiles. Yeah, he did.

SUPER: DAY 14

Alex comes in with Moyers. Bridges and Robinson, sitting analyzing data. Alex looks like the cat that swallowed the canary. •

ALEX • We isolateda protein from one of thosespiders. It kills all high metabolismcells -- ours as well astheirs.

Moyers looks happy.

Bridges looks at him.

ALEX • (toBridges) We're goingto fill in the President. There's plenty of glory togo around. Why don't you come along and say a few words.

Bridges looks at Robinson. Perhaps he should.

The scientific community at work in the cavern has been brought together for an ULTRASECURE BRIEFING by Bridges and Alex. The President and his Cabinet present on closed circuit TV.

Alex is finishing up his presentation. The President and his PEOPLE are impressed.

•

• (witha flourish to Bridges)

They'reall yours.

Maggie, Alex, Zack -- and the others -- settle in to listen. Bridgeshas a huge slide projected behind him. Bridges doesn't likespeaking the way Alex does.

He begins haltingly,then picks up speed.

Bridges throws a compelling SLIDE up. An illustration from a high schooltextbook.

• evolution.

THE SLIDE: depictsthe "Evolution of Life on Earth" as a serpentine, yellow brick roadwith the first single celled creatures, the first sponges and plankton, simple plants, insects, fish ... illustrated with simple drawings showing where, in the scheme of things, they first appeared. The "road" unfolds in ever widening spirals showing ever more complex life forms.

His pointer falls on a section -- the Cambrian Era, the Earth's first crawling creatures, plants and animals.

•

His POINTER passes over pictures of life forms

There's a collective inhale in the room as they see where he's going.

There's a RIPPLE in the crowd as his pointer stops on the last creatureon the yellow brick road -- a figure representing MAN. HOMO SAPIENS.

The President, seeing where he's going with this.

There's SILENCE inthe room.

A moment goes by asthe staggering implications ofwhat he's saying playover the crowd.

•

• being is going to come out of that

jungle. (beat; thinking) What an interesting way for our friend Godot to arrive. It sends its genes and hopes it gets lucky.

Bridges is looking at the tarp. They all are.

Maggie and Bridges, walking, under a New Mexico sky at sunset. Life on Earth with all it's color and vibrancy. High overhead, a HAWK, circling against a red-orange sky.

Maggie follows the hawk with her eyes.

He looks at her. •

•

She looks at him. A long look. Something on her mind.

BRIDGES • So that'swhy you're going to marry him?

That stops Bridges.

She wants to saymore but she can't. She looks at him tenderly.

She walks away,thinking. Bridges watches her go.

Robinson joins him.

•

• (beat)

That girl's in lovewith you. I've been around awhile. (looks outat the mesa) Best sunsetson Earth.

Bridges looks at him.

Bridges wakes up someone shaking him. Maggie. He looks at her.

Bridges looks at her.

Maggie takes him over to the closely monitored biomass sample he brought back. Shows him the read-outs.

• It's now 2.5 to 1 ... and

climbing.

Bridges looks bothered, frowns.

The tent is crammed with equipment -- banks of monitors and Army personnel, zoologists, botanists... all busy.

Military SENSORS-- lasers, u.v., infrared -- peer in through an increasingly dense jungle, monitoring and recording the growth of trees and vegetation and the movement of animals through it.

suddenly -- some fairly large shadowy, green murky shapes on FOUR and SIX legs appear on their infrared scans -- Everyone sits up.

•

Bridges and Maggie enter.

Bridges shakes his head. A set of screens, monitored by Army personnel gives them a complete "eco-picture" of the growing forest system. A 3-dimensional topographic display from a high angle.

Bridges takes Alex aside.

BRIDGES • Isee -- As long as you're getting your fifteen or twenty species a day outof there you don't care what it'sup to.

Bridges looksat him.

•

Bridges glares at him. Alex follows after him .

ALEX

• Ben, there are some fairly large

predators in there. We don't know their patterns of behavior. Benl

Bridges, suiting up. Booker turns to his commandos.

Behind the tarp, the vast jungle now includes the hole in the ceiling. The stars fading into dawn as daylight starts to come in, eerily lighting the jungle. The tarp is now attached to the ceiling near the highest point of the cavern. The ecosystem now taking up roughly a quarter of the huge underground cavern.

• Moyers, alarmedmotions at the opening in the ceiling

ANGLE STAGING AREA- CAVERN

Bridges, Robinsonand Levin finish suitingup.

•

Booker looksup at the ceiling on the other side of the • tarp. Daylight just coming through the opening.

Alex is stayingbehind. Sees them off with Maggie.

Bridges looks athim. Alex smiling. Maggie wishes them all good luck. •

Acid mists swirlingaround the high dark limbs of alien trees. They walk in. The first streaks ofdaylight just bleeding through thehole inthe ceiling, adding a faint half light to the spots and lights outside.

Bridges looks up -- Five or SIX huge SPIDERS are crawling up on the ceiling. Alien COCKROACHES, 6 inches long with large, metallic wings -- cover an entire wall. An alien salamander-like LIZARD, 2 feet long, eats a large roach.

They continue on. The jungle is now so dense they have to hack through sections of it with machetes.

•

The bushes emit hissing, MEWING sounds, as he whacks them.

• A cactus-like alien plant with flowers snaps down on a small, scuttling animal and eats it, Venus Fly Trap style.

Booker comes up on another plant.

• They give the "squash"-- and the "dick-snapper" a wide berth. Booker looksat his navigator, Lovett, with the GPS.

They pass huge trees-- the upper limbs shrouded in darkness and acidmist. They avoid the huge, glistening "curtains" hangingfrom the limbs.

Bridges looks down at the half-formed grotesqueries

•

littering the floorof the jungle. A creature with LEGS • coming out of its mouth-- barely respiring -- being eaten by smaller creatures. Evolutionary dead ends.

As they go on, the limbsand tendrils of the bushes feel their suits. Ahead themeteorite shard. The closerthey get, the denser thevegetation -- almost as if it's being protected. They use theirmachetes to hack through.

ANGLE

Ground zero. Bridgeswalks around the meteorite in his bio-suit.

He looks up at the TREE canopy -- 30 feet overhead and has a strange sensation. The trees -- the forest sensing him -- looking back. Everyone's uneasy.

Bridges kneels down, carefully takes deep soil samples around the shard -- and stores them.

Two of Booker's MEN point an infra-red scanner at the • cavern floor around the meteorite. on the output SCREEN -- in glowing red -- is an outline of thermal activity -- the mass of small worms -- under ground.

Booker and his men keep careful watch in a circle, protecting Bridges. Everyone's uneasy. We sense that this isan alien space. suddenly there's a strange GROWL-- Theyall whirl around.

A spindly creature-- nearly three feet high, on multiple legs -- similarto the "log" creature they saw earlier, approaches.

•

Its cylindrical "log" body does a 180 degree turn• M-16s leveled at it -- six of them.

• Suddenly, a SPIDER-LIKE thingleaps out of the underbrush and hops ontothe back of the "log-like" creature. The spider doesn't "attack" so much as insert a long tube from itsbody into the back of the frantic creature underneath it. It hangs on as the creature whirls and screams -- INJECTINGfluid through the tube into the back of the animal-- a sort of spider-penis at work.

·LEVIN God,are they mating? I thought

Suddenly the spiderleaps off the animal -- and begins to "bud", producingtwo new -- but not "spider-like" creatures. The "log"creature falls on its side and slowly begins tobud also. It splits and fissures, producing two new halves-- completely new species. The team stares.

They start backtoward the tarp. Levin is buzzed by a • huge DRAGONFLY --an nine-inch thing. Jet black, with a long, curved tail-stinger. It flits away from Levin and lands on a large flower. Everyone tracking it.

Levin approachesthe flower cautiously. Fascinated.

LEVIN'S POV: no signof the dragonfly on the two-foot FLOWER. Multicolored, shiny, richly textured, mesmerizing -- Levincomes closer.

Bridges and Levin circle. From every angle they only see the surface of the flower. Bridges looks -- thinks he sees some subtle movement .

•

Levin looks closer -- cocks his helmet. It suddenly • takes flight -- BUZZING up -- off the flower where it was camouflaged. It circles Levin's clear plastic helmet and lands on it! It jumps and lights on Levin's shoulder -- sits there -- doesn't move. Levin uneasy.

Bridges moves toward him. Levin reaches up with his gloved hand. The thing leaps into the air, BUZZES rapidly --lights on the side of Levin's helmet again. Levin staresat it through the helmet. Its tail TAPS at his clear plastic-lexan helmet -- BUZZES obscenely wanting to get in -- at Levin. It suddenly rears its hard ceramic TAIL up and smashes the helmet with its metal stinger-- fracturing it, cracking a two-inch hole in it.

Levin startsto scream -- poison gas licking in through the crack -- andnow the insect, the size of a small bird and all STINGER,is inside his helmet. Levin claws at his helmet -- it'sbuzzing inches from his face -- until it lights onhis cheek -- he can't scratch -- it STINGS • him. His faceand cheek turn black as he continues to scream. Nothingthey can do.

Booker reaches forthe helmet release --

It BUZZES angrily insidethe helmet. Levin collapses, lies still.

Bridges and Booker at his side. The buzzing insect suddenly chokes, convulses and dies.

•

Bridges reaches inthrough the hole -- grabs the dead insect with his fingers-- and pulls it out. Throws it on the ground. Feelsfor a pulse on Levin's neck. • None.

TWO of Booker's men,grab Levin, and place him over a shoulder and double-time it out of the alien jungle. Bridges and the others moving as fast as they can. Past the trees and branches -- the "feeling" tendrils. The entire forest seemingly activated, agitated. Lovett and Booker bring up the rear.

We SEE a black LEECH-LIKE thing clinging to the calf area of Lovett•s bio-suit. He doesn't see it or feel it. As he starts to run he suddenly stops and winces with pain.

Booker stops. Lovett feels down by his calf, desperately • running his gloved hands over the suit. Bridges joins them.

CLOSE: Lovett•s bio-suit•s been penetrated. On his calf, a circular hole in his suit, the size of a quarter.

Lovett starts SCREAMING --

Writhing and screaming he falls to the ground. Booker and Bridges lookat each other. Lovett starts to tear at the leg of his bio-suit. Bridges stops him.

•

REACTION SHOTS OUTSIDE •

Alex, Maggie and the others hearing all this.

Bridges knows. It's a terrible dilemma. Lovett screaming.

Two more of Booker's people help carry a screaming Lovett to the tarp entrance.

Levin andLovett being carried out -- as they all come flying outof the airlock exit in the tarp.

MOVEWITH Bridges and the others. Lovett, screaming inside hishelmet. They pull off his suit as they rush him to the EmergencyMedical Tent. •

Lovett•s in thescanner. A small dark bulge under his skin -- moving. Lovett is terrified and in immense pain, screaming. Bridgeslooks on with the others.

CAT SCAN SCREEN-- shows the shape moving -- inreal time -- under Lovett•sskin, intohis muscle and femur bone.

Think -- alien leech. Lovett isrestrained, tied down.

•

Bridges looks on, desperate. They're all helpless. They can't get to it.

• BRIDGES

(to doctors) Get oxygen in there!

Pandemonium a full medical team stymied, frozen.

suddenly a BUZZINGsound from the inside of Lovett•s thigh as the leech-like thing burrows deeper into Lovett•s leg,near the bone. The surgeon has a surgical scalpel out, poised, but he isn't sure what to do.

• Lovett is screaming-- out of his mind. They can all see the thing workingits way along the bone, eating it, on the CAT scan! They can't do anything -- it's moving too fast. It dividesin two inside Lovett•s body and one of the dark shapesheads for his spinal column. Maggie and Robinson lookaway from the screen.

Lovett screaming,going crazy as itstarts gnawing its way up his spine fromthe insideout. Bridges and Booker -- almost unableto watch. Booker's hand reaches for his

this torture go on.

As one of the dark shapes rushesup his spinal column, Lovett dies. The other shape suddenly exits his leg -- slithering out onto the table and falling onto the floor. The second thing exits under his arm. Two eight-inch long, blood-covered leeches.

They race for Maggie's legs. Booker pins one of them to the floor with a combat knife. It squeals. The other

•

expires before it can attack Maggie, convulsing and thrashing about. The oxygen in the room kills it.

Silence. Lovett dead on the CAT scan table. • They're horrified.

LATER

Robinson approaches Bridges.

Flames soaring into the night sky. They're burning the two bodies. Everyone is gathered. Bridges taking it especially hard.

LATER

Bridges walking away. Alex catches up.

Maggie interceptsBridges.

Big meeting. Everyonethere. Bridges has just presented his case. Moyers, Fowler and Marcotti listening closelywith the others.

Alex looks at Moyers, Fowler andMarcotti.

•

•

we're the custodians of life on this planet. (looksat Alex) Or do you disagree?

Alex looksunconvinced.

Moyers looking backand forth between them. Fowler and Marcotti exchangelooks.

BRIDGES

• I changedmy mind.

Bridges looks at Moyers.

Moyers looks over at Marcotti and Fowler. They look at him, at Alex. Not an easy decision.

Fowler, Marcotti and Moyers go off and huddle. Moyers gets on his satellite phone .

•

LATER

Alex walks up toBridges. He loves being the bearer of bad news.

•

The air goes out ofBridges --he can't believe it.

He looks over at Moyers,Marcotti and Fowler. He and Alex walk over to them. Bridges looks atMoyers.

Bridges looks at them in disbelief.

BRIDGES • I hope you're right.

He starts walking away.

ANGLE

Maggie approaches Alex.

•

•

She walks away.

SUPER: DAY 26 9:00 HOURS

Booker salutes his new c.o. -- BRIGADIER GENERALCARVER • SUSTRAND,Army Special Forces, 48, highly educated.

Bridges watches for a moment. He looks up at the ceiling of the cavern.

ANGLE

the opening inthe ceiling and a blue sky above it.

TREES and plantsgrowing toward the opening -- now only ten feet abovethem. We can almost feel the tops of the trees strainingtowards the opening.

Alien spiders,scorpions, roaches and lizards clinging to the ceiling nearthe OPENING.

High-tech SENSORSscan the ceiling -- sending the images back .

•

Robinson showing Moyers,Alex and Bridges the screens.

• ROBINSON The trees aregrowing 3 feet a day, one and onehalf inches an hour ... (shows them another screen) The sensors are picking up a lot of insects and small reptiles near the opening.

Fowler, from the CDC, looks at Robinson.

Bridges turns to Fowler.

Fowler looks over at Brigadier General Sustrand Carver, in camouflage dress. Sustrand Carver, a quick study, nods.

• COL. FOWLER Okay. Seal it.

Alex turns back, looks at Bridges.

A crane lowersa plexiglass disc into place. Fifteen feet in diameterand one foot thick. It settles with a puff of sand anddust, covering the hole and sealing the cavern off fromthe desert.

The extended tarpis now 80 feet high bowed out by the ecosystem inside-- it's attached to the cavern ceiling at its highestpoint. The ecosystem now takes up nearly half of the hugeunderground cavern.

•

Fowler and Marcottitalking with Alex and Booker . Sustrand looks on.

• ALEX

(meaningthe tarp) This isas far back as it goes. I thinkit may be time to cutback a little.

They target one ofthe tallest trees in the forest. A 55-foot monsterheaded for the translucent plexiglass disc. It's cross-hatchedin green and red on their screens. Robinson lookingon.

A large, military laser (positioned insidethe tarp) is remotely directedat the tree. A brilliant green beam knifes out from it andhits the "bark"of the tree .

WIDE: The trunk explodes and the tree begins to topple. crashing down through other tree branches, it lands with a ROAR. There's almost cheering from themilitary and scientific types.

Their cameras and sensors ZOOMin on the tree lying on the cavern floor. Suddenly the PODS open. A menagerie of horribly misshapen things come pouring out -- and scuttle into the underbrush.

An unnerving sight. A jungle full of encroaching trees, bushes and plants -- now only twenty yards from the tarp. Sustrand looks on. Alex and Bridges both bothered.

•

ANGLE - LATER

Large hoses with heavybrass nozzles, attached to large oxygen canisters, snake intothe tarp.

Booker's commandos intheir bio-suits -- under Bridges• supervison -- set upand direct the nozzles at trees and bushes now some twenty yards away from the tarp. They start the oxygen flow and retreat. oxygen starts FLOWING with a loud HISS.

The invisible cloud of oxygen starts spreading through the ecosystem. Small alien animals run away from the deadly gas. Alien insects twitch and die as they get hit by the oxygen -- just like being hit by insecticide.

OUTSIDE THE TARP -

Bridges and the others -- Moyers too -- watching on monitors, with some satisfaction, as the slow-spreading cloud of oxygen knocks down and kills everything in its path. Grasses and plants WITHER and die. Leaves drop from one TREE, then the next as the oxygen advances into • the jungle ...30 ... 40 yards. smiles on the faces of those watching -- Control at last.

They watch four, five, six .... trees shrivel and die. The seventh T~EE -- an odd looking tree -- with grey- yellow blossoms and small thorns -- doesn't die, It SHUDDERS --and just stands there.

•

All around it, treesand plants are dying but not theten foot tree with blackgnarled branches and grey-yellow flowers. • Bridges' blood runscold. This isthe lastthing he wanted to see.

He ZOOMS the cameras inon the tree.

He's looking at Booker and the botany department.

A cutting of the tree has been planted in a 15-foot high terrarium with a controlled and monitored atmosphere. It's already two feet high and wired six ways from Sunday -- every aspect of its biochemistry monitored. EVANS, the new head of the botany division, is there to assist • them.

Evans nods. The plant/tree is growing up toward a full spectrum light source they've placed above the case.

The black leaves have dark green streaks in them. Bridges looks at Robinson.

•

Evans quickly increasesthe concentration of oxygen in the case -- to 20%. The tree continues to thrive.

BRIDGES • Not onlycan this fucker survive in oxygen-- it likesit -- and sunlight.

He looks at Maggie.

Evans takes another cutting fromthe tree and places it into a pale liquid.

As they watch: the cutting starts to sprout. Black tendrils start growing up toward the light source. It grows so FAST we can see it with the naked eye. Roots

•

start DOWN into the solution as the tree branches grow UP -- spreading at a frightening speed.

Bridges' eyes move to the digital output, monitoring the CONCENTRATIONS of gases in the terrarium. The oxygen level starts dropping and the level of a second gg_§ starts rising.

They look ateach other. Bridges looks alarmed. We've never seenhim this alarmed.

Bridges• eyesturn back to the digital output, watching as the levelof carbon monoxide soars.

•

•

(looksat Maggie and Robinson) Where's Alex? Get him and Moyers to meet me in the conference room --now.

A briefing fora select audience. Moyers, Alex, Robinson, Booker,Maggie and the MILITARY. They're all sitting in a darkenedroom watching:

Full screen -- supercomputervideo monitor: the "tree symbol" -- representingthe new tree.

Displayed at teraflopspeed by the computer -- the "TREE SYMBOL"spreads across the surface of the Earth at an astonishing speed. The numbers on the screen show the gradual change inthe Earth's atmospheric gases. The concentration ofoxygen FALLS and the concentration of carbon monoxideRISES --

BRIDGES (continuing; o.s.)

• In sixmonths it begins to transform

the Earth'satmosphere --appreciably. In a yearthe atmosphere flips -- and becomestheir atmosphere. Carbon-monoxide- laden, suffocatingall life aswe know it here. Their animalsdon't have a problemwith carbon monoxide -- and I'm sure neitherwould Godot -- they can breathe it,but itkills us -- suffocates us. I call thisthing the "suffocater." There's an aquatic form that grows even faster...

They're looking at IMAGESof the oxygen-eating TREE. The lights come up. Alex sits up, pale as a ghost.

•

Bridges and sustrand lookat Booker. Good thought.

BRIDGES • The burrowingworms ... a seed, a spore dispersed by an alien animal. I don•t know -- it's done pretty much what it'swanted to up to now.

Uneasy now, they all lookup at the opening in the cavern ceiling -- inside the tarp and capped only by the translucent cover.

•

Dawning on themfully now. Long silence. •

Long look. They think. Bridges, Alex, Robinson, Booker, • Moyers -- all of them. They all come to the same horrible solution. Sustrand turns to Moyers.

suddenly a nuclear weapon is your best friend.

LOWANGLE

Air Force Technicians carefully load an odd-shaped device into the belly of a C-130 transport.

Maggie walking with Bridges -- wistful.

•

The mesa and thepsychedelic New Mexico desert are achingly beautifulunder a blue sky. The wind plays with Maggie's hair. She looksat the mesa and its breathtaking beauty.

The wind ruffles Bridges'hair. They both know the nuclear weapon's been released and is flying in. She's standing very close tohim.

There's something about his notion that's incredibly romantic. She looks at him.

•

•

She takes his hand, leads him away.

Maggie and Bridges in his tent making love.

The C-130 comes in over the mesa and touches down on the new air strip, followed by two chase planes. The plane is met by two trucks. A device, shrouded in tarps the size of a large filing cabinet, is loaded onto one of the trucks and driven down into the cavern.

CAPTAIN ROBERT ALVINS, U.S.A.F., accompanies the bomb along with two weapons EXPERTS from SANDIA. A FOUR-MAN Air Force security TEAM, well armed, stays with them and the H-bomb at all times. The bomb's "handlers" carry sidearms and keys. Alex and the others watch, somewhat awed. •

This isthe closest any of them has ever been to an H-bomb. Bridgeswatches as it rolls by.

He notices them lookingat the security team.

•

Bridges says nothing. They are contemplating the infinite here.

Alvins touches the warhead.

Bridges is skeptical.

Alvins looks at him like he's nuts. They all do.

•

• We've gotcorners and crevices inhere,

stalagmitesshielding different parts ofthe cavern --the blast front will arrive at differenttimes. (pointedly) Are you§lll:§itwill kill everything, Captain?

Long pause. Col. Alvins• facegoes through many changes. He is, after all, an intelligentman.

Bridges' heart starts to sink.

He doesn't want to finish the thought.

He looks back at a monitor showing a thermal scan of the biomass in red, blossoming out, expanding as they speak.

• ALVINS

I'm 99.5% sure -- yes. (reluctant beat) Of course there'll be collateral damage.

"Collateral damage?" Bridges knew this was coming.

Alvins turns to DR. JORDAN, 40, wire-rimmed glasses.

•

They run a supercomputersimulation on one of the • work stations inthe cavern. Graphic images displayed at teraflop speed. Swirling colors as the bomb flashes, the blast rolls andsends the roof of the cavern up as a vaporized cloud --mushrooming high above the mesa.

They're faced with a horrible -- unthinkable -- decision.

Bridges says nothing, his face a mask of pain.

His eyes return to the racing digital output showing the •

biomass growth. The glowing red sphere on the infra-red • screen spreading out in all directions.

Alvins is right -- they're going to have to pay a price -- and this is it. They all look at Moyers.

As Moyers leaves.

The President with two of his most trusted ADVISORSare being filled inby Moyers. The graphics from the cavern are displayed on screen. INTERCUTas NEEDED:

•

(beat) Even ifI were to take this option seriously-- it's unthinkable.

The President is absolutely frozen -- unable to make •

this decision.

• MOYERS I don't know how to put this to you, sir but in the long run it may be a small price to pay. (beat) You haven't seen what's down there.

The President turns to one of his advisors.

Moyers sags. Seesthe world slipping away.

INTERCUT: thealien ecosystem continuing to grow. The branches and tendrilsgrowing toward the light. •

They're all standingaround waiting for the decision.

Bridges is off ina corner, quietly sketching, scribbling something on a pieceof paper.

Moyers comes in holdinghis satellitephone.

There's an atmosphere of increasing anxiety in the cavern, bordering on desperation. We can practically hear the SECONDS and minutes ticking away. Digital out • puts racing.

In the b.g. a graphic display shows the glowing red bio- mass, a malignant tumor expanding out in all directions. •

Just then -- the heavy plastic COVER, capping the opening up top, comes CRASHING down into the alien jungle with a THUNDEROUS ROAR. Branches snap, trees topple. Sunlight suddenly streaming in through the debris and dust.

SHRIEKS -- SCREAMS coming from the jungle. SOUNDS we've never heard from animals we've never seen. They're all stunned. They look up.

The opening up top is now twice its former size and WIDE OPEN. There's a RUSTLING SOUND as the trees and plants begin to surge, growing toward the sunlight. The tallest one only 10 feet below the opening. The ecosystem bursting at its seams.

Bridges and Alex look at each other.

Booker jumps onto the radio link with the troops up top. •

UP TOP the troops scrambling -- staring at the large hole. LT. ARMSTRONG, 29, Special Forces.

Fuckingfind out!

Armstrong crawlstoward the edge of the hole while everyone waits. He examines the rim of the opening.

It's CRAWLINGwith small worms -- burrowing WORMS.

•

A shocked expression onBridges• face. •

They look at him. Bridges isthinking.

Bridges turns to Alex.

Bridges shoots him a look. Sunlight streaming in.

BRIDGES • They're five times as far out as we thought. God.

Growing alarm in the cavern.

sustrand looksat Booker. Bridges is truly upset.

He looks back attheir extended thermal scan -- the glowing red ballnow extends into the WALLS. It's much larger now -- huge. The worms spreading out inall directions, goingdeep into the walls.

•

• This is a nightmarespinning out of control.

Bridges looks atBooker.

Bridges looks up --toward that wide-open hole to the outside world -- hisheart sinking.

Just then -- a terribleRUSTLING SOUND from the jungle. A FLUTTER~NG, flapping sound --They all look UP.

"Things" -- start to fly out of the upper branches of the trees -- "alien-BIRDS" -- short, stubby wings fluttering -- as they shoot towardthe opening.

•

But it's too late -- they watch, unable to do anything, as some of the "birds" reach the opening and hit the air up top. They rise a few feet into our atmosphere then SHRIEK and spasm -- and burst into smoldering flame. They fall back down into the jungle -- dead. Something close to a CHEER goes up from the people down below.

Bridges looks at them all. A frightening thought.

ANOTHER alien bird flaps up toward the opening and out.

•

It doesn't die --or choke -- it keeps right on going!

• BRIDGES Shit --it•s a flier.

He looks alarmed. Sustrandand Booker on the radio link up top.

The military surroundingthe opening, seethe thing fly up and out.

Waiting COPTERS - hovering -- and small chase planes. They track toward and after the BIRD with a two-foot wingspread and strange beak as it struggles, flying -- headed out across the mesa!

They pursue. They're specially equipped with laser sighted weapons -- small and large caliber -- gattling guns, you name it. A flight of FIGHTER PLANES provides • an umbrella at 10,000 feet; available to be called in.

A PURSUIT -- the copters and military Cessnas chasing down an alien bird -- flapping into the desert. ZIG- ZAGGING, it swoops and dives, flying very fast getting to 4,000 feet -- flying like its life depends on it -- almost possessed. The first alien bird to fly over the Earth and its blue skies.

In the cavern they all wait -- and listen to the pursuit on the open radio.

They close -- zero in on it. In their cross-hairs now, they unleash a murderous stream of bullets. It falls to the ground.

ANGLE

Both copters land. Men in bio-suits jump out -- running forthe bird on the ground. It twitches and flops around,gushing fluids. They point their FLAME THROWERSat thebird and burn it to a crisp. The bird

•

makes SCREECHING SOUNDSas it burns. They spray chemicals over theentire area and burn it all a second time -- sterilizingthe area. •

Their radios squawk andcrackle. Booker gets theword from up top.

Bridges looks at Robinson,at Alex -- Theymay have dodged a bullet.

Bridges looks at her -- Interesting question. They really don't know.

A fine wire mesh in place over the opening. A deep perimeter of military personnel and equipment surrounding it. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. •

Bridges, watching the digital outputs that measure the increasing biomass of the system. still racing -- accelerating.

Robinson looks at his watch, asks the question no one wants to ask.

He turns -- looksat Bridges, who's quietly working something outwith a pencil and some paper.

•·

Bridges looks up. They're all waiting.

He looks at them. There's a long moment.

A flicker of hope. Almost too good to be true.

Bridges looksat his papers. Looks at Robinson -- a Nobel laureate.

CLOSE

He lays out a chart-- the Periodic Table of Elements.

The tip ofhis pencil floats above it -- Alex, Maggie and the others lookon.

•

• like? Lead? They eat lead for

breakfast. (looks at Robinson) Arsenic.. ? That's Miller Time forthem.

The tip ofBridges• pencil passes over Arsenic and points at the box one column over -- labeled SELENIUM already circled.

He looks up atRobinson.

• Brilliant -- dazzlingidea.

•

Christ.

Alex turns to captainAlvins. Alvins doesn't want to even contemplate that.

Bridges isn't through yet.

He has their full attention.

Alex looks startled. "Us?" He starts to object. •

SCREECHES& BLEATING SOUNDScoming from behind the tarp. No one's been in for days.

They all look atthe tarp now -- eighty feet high and

•

only half an inchthick.

BRIDGES

•

(beat,looking around) Nothingbehind that tarp gets outof here alive. (toBooker and Sustrand) You guysare going to have to make sureof that. It's not going to be pretty.

Grim looks all around-- but that's where they're at.

Alex and Bridges --each alone in their respective tents, collecting themselves. Maggie alone, sitting in a canvas backed director'schair staring out over the purple mesa washed in honey yellow-- ULTRA-SLOW pullback fromher and the two tentsframed together .

• Two Air Force C-130 1sfly inand land. They off-load two large industrialtanks containing several tons of yellow powder, industrial selenium -- all they could lay their hands on.

There are two VEHICLESparked in front of the tarp. A heavy PUMP TRUCK with two large tanks and two HUMVEE armored military vehicles.

Bridges SHOUTSto Alex and Maggie over the pump truck's WHOOSHING PUMPS and COMPRESSORS.

•

Bridges indicating the two large tanks.

BRIDGES • It better be. That's all we've got.

Bridges looks at his wrist watch.

Alex shifts -- not eager.

Maggie shows them a four-foot-long cylindrical probe with a long metal tip.

Bridges nods.

An ARMY TECH takes Bridges and Alex through the valve system on the pumps. They're making a LOUDracket.

•

• and you're putting 200 gallons a

minute into the ground.

He demonstrates how to direct the heavy brass nozzles. He looks at Bridges. Bridges nods, "Got it".

Alex and Bridgespull on their bio-suits. Alex turns to Bridges.

The two shake hands. Booker and sustrand come over with EIGHT Special Forcespeople, all in bio-suits.

• BOOKER

(toBridges) I'll rideshotgun with you --

Bridges looks at Booker, armedto the teeth.

A military ANALYST approaches them.

They direct their attention to a monitor they've set up. Their sensor-surveillance screens show in infra-red

•

and u.v. -- strange, large SHAPES moving around in the jungle.

ROBINSON • If you see Godot in there, tell him I said "hello."

Bridges nods. He doesn't want to think about it.

Maggie catches up -- can't even give Bridges or Alex a hug in their suits.

Bridges looks up at the tarp, the truck. Looks back at Maggie and Robinson.

They all jump in the cabin of the pump truck.

They seal up the cabin. Booker turns to Bridges. •

Bridges looksat him. Buckles up.

They start in --men in bio-suits opening the tarp up quickly to let themin.

Driving -- a tripthrough hell. A low SHRIEKING sound, coming from the jungle. Trees -- forty feet high, WEEPING-WILLOW-like, beginto sway, reaching for the vehicles with their long,dangling branches. The heavy

•

branches whacking atthe sides of the vehicles. It's as if the entire ecosystemknows what they're trying to do -- and is determinedto stopthem. As they race through • the passing bushes -- theirtendrils -- "feel" them, measuring them.

The slower, heavier pump truck following TWO humvees up ahead. Ten miles anhour over the roots and vine systems that cover the floor of the cavern. Bridges driving. Booker scanning -- ready for action. Alex looks nervous.

Things, animals, reptiles bouncing off the sides of their vehicle. INSECTS bounce off the windshield -- hard. A thing that looks like Eggs Benedict on four legs drops onto their windshield -- it swims, spreading a white translucent goo over the windshield, making it hard to see. Bridges uses the heavy-duty wipers to knock it off and clear the glass. The GPS system gives them readouts on where they are relative to ground zero -- the meteorite.

• BOUNCE, the truck climbs over some big roots. Something black and hard crashes off their cabin door -- HISSES -- and is gone.

sustrand and his MEN bouncing, leading the way. Their best driver at the wheel.

TWO SPIDER-LIKE things drop down from a tree and land with a CLICK and a THUD on their windshield. Their driver uses the windshield wipers to knock them off. They exchange a look.

-- The humvees moving through brush between the trees, and over roots -- keep moving.

•

Tendrils on the bushesbrush the side oftheir vehicle -- • measuring their position.

CLOSE -- the trunk ofa 35-foottree -- one of the black and yellow "suffocators" -- SHUDDERS -- and hurls an eight-inch SHARD of ceramic-like "bark", at nearly supersonic speed, through the jungle. WIDER -- more trees doing the same --

KAWAAAH-ZING-WHACK another tree sends razor sharp SHARDS over the top of the humvees and ZING-CHINK bounce off the pump truck tanks like directed shrapnel.

More shards thwack zing through the jungle shredding plants and chopping tree limbs off, just missing them.

Their G.P.S. reads ... 10 meters south, 10 meters east.

BRIDGES • We're close. Up ahead!

Through the vines and plant cover, they can see the meteorite ahead. Still pristine, while all around it the cavern has been transformed beyond all recognition. The tall trees growing around it nearly reach the top of the cavern.

All the monitorslit up, giving them u.v., infrared and visual scans ofthe impenetrable jungle. They can track BOGIES like thecombat information center on a carrier. Colored BLIPS --creatures, animals, large flying insects -- all convergingon ground zero.

•

Bridges stops the pump truck as close to the meteorite • shard as he can. Jams a lever forward and TWO wedge shaped NOZZLEShydraulically EXTENDfrom underneath the truck and jam themselves into the floor of the cavern like twin hypodermic needles.

They jump out in their bio-suits. Booker crouched, ready, covering them. Sustrand and his eight guys deploy around them.

They fan out andform a semi-circle. Nothing•s coming through. Bridgesand Alex race to the back of the truck. They jam theprobe into the ground next to the meteorite shard. The SCREAMINGSOUND of the jungle getting louder.

ANGLE

Insects fly atsustrand's men -- buzz their helmets while wedge-shaped lizardsand small rodent-like things snap and bite at theirlegs. Absolutely terrifying. KAAAA- ZING-THWACCK --a sound we'll come to hate -- as another flight of shardswhistles overhead, chopping down trees, cutting them inhalf. Sustrand's men dive for the deck. • One of them, lategetting down, gets hit. He goes down screaming, nearlycut in half. His suit punctured, his red blood gushingout onto the jungle floor. Blood- thirsty creaturesappear out of nowhere -- attacking and devouring his body. A horrifying sight. They firetheir weapons but it'suseless. It's over as quickly as it began ...

Everyone on the decknow with CREATURES coming atthem. Some of the specialforces guys begin to open up --we can hear the pop ofM-16s. A bizarre JO-poundpredator races out of the brush andmakes a run atthem. It's cut down. Special Forcesguys firing calmly, cooly --

Bridges and Alex checkthe probe frantically. They look UP and eyeball thetree canopyoverhead -- alive with things you've never seenbefore. Several crab-like things drop down and scatter. Bridges ignores them.

•

Bridges turns the brass valve and a hissing, pale yellow cloud of selenium begins to spray into the atmosphere. It spreads, killing small insects and animals in its path. Nearby plants wilt -- Leaves start falling off the trees.

ANGLE- THE OPENING UP TOP - 80 FEET UP

The tops of the tallest trees now only a foot short of the opening. Alien-birds WHACK and smash themselves against the wire mesh trying to get out!

ANGLE

Bridges

Alex goes to flick the pump switch. PLINK, a nasty flying INSECT, the size of a SPARROW,caroms off his hand • and the metal valve he's trying to turn -- as if it knows what he's trying to do. It lights on the valve and BUZZES angrily. Alex freezes.

Bridges stepsin and turns the valve, starts the pumps.

The truck's loudCOMPRESSORS/PUMPS start pumping hundreds of gallons ofdeadly selenium deep into the cavern floor.

More insects flockto the metal pumps -- Bridges beats them off.

Maggie, Robinsonand the others watching a THERMAL readout screen. It shows the red bio-mass underground. A smaller, cloud-likeshape appears, flowing down and around it. The digitaloutput measuring the total bio- mass still racingahead.

Sustrand's men undersiege. The entire ecosystem starting to turn againstthem. SOLDIER 2 blasts a "hallucination on legs" --the fangs in its 6-inch mouth just miss puncturinghis suit. It dies in a sea of

•

purple fluid.

SOLDIER 2

• Die! Damn you! 1 Diell

Overhead -- a tree VOMITSa stream of red fluid that hisses and burns the roof of the humvee.

Camouflaged, it explodes at him -- an awful predator, an OCTOPUSwith long arms and two mouths on either side of its large round head. It screams and suddenly sends a stream of hot red fluid at them. They fire and shred it in a hail of bullets. Blood and acid all over, men going down.

• SUSTRAND

Watch your flank, watch your flank! Booker, how much longer?!

Suddenly something flies out of the bushes at one of them -- nearly takes his head off. The man behind him nails it with a burst -- it lands at the first man's feet.

Booker runs over to Bridges.

•

Bridges sees the look in his eyes. If we stay we die.

He opens the valve all the way -- and runs for the 2ND Humvee with Alex and Booker. The pump truck running.

More shards whistle overhead. The cloud of yellow gas spreading wider and wider. Wafting over Booker's men, safe in their suits as they run.

Sustrand's men -- carrying their dead, fall back into their humvee and button up.

Booker, Bridges and Alex jump into the cabin of the second humvee. Bridges starts it up.

Alex grabs a weapon. Bridges tries to back the vehicle out. The engine strains but the vehicle goes nowhere.

• BOOKER Damn --

Booker jumpsout -- races back, covering himself with his M-16. Checks the wheels -- a VINE has wrapped itself around the wheel and axell Booker rips it with a burst from his M-16, jumps back in the cabin.

Bridges revvsthe engine and pops the clutch, sending the vine flying. The humvee moves. He turns it and races back toward thetarp -- all hell breaking loose around them. The jungleis SHRIEKING now, like a wounded animal. Tree limbsreaching for the humvees, slapping, grabbing the sidesof the vehicles.

•

• Driving like hell.

Something the size of a small rhinosaurus, 150 pounds, blindsides the humvee -- CRASH -- it nearly rolls over. Like a rhino bashing a safari jeep. The guys open up with M-16s fired out of sideports.

The "rhino-thing" stumbles and goes down in the bushes. They keep moving.

Alex firing, Booker blasting through the sideport at anything that comes at them. The GPS reads 40 yards to the tarp, 30 yards... They can see it ahead -- lights blazing through it. Bridges drives like hell. • Suddenly -- KA-SMASH, the side, heavy lexan window shatters, part of it falls into the cabin. Small insects start puncturing the windshield. Booker looks at Bridges.

SMASH -- their windshield is fractured by a large animal that drops down onto them. Three-legged, all elbows, tiny head. Their driver is thrown to one side, holds onto the wheel. Something rips the back door of the humvee off. Strong, skinny limbs reach into the interior and grab a man -- pulling him out -- he's gone. They can't stop --they keep moving.

I

As shards slaminto the vehicle a tree limb smashes in the windshield. The humvee caroms off a tree, lifts up over a large setof roots, hits another tree, spins and comes to rest. The doors fly open.

Bridges skidshis humvee to avoid theirs. catches the side of a tree. Bridges, Booker and Alex scramble,

•

stumble out.

Booker and Sustrand cover as Bridges and Alex help some of Booker's wounded men out of their hwnvee. They all • run -- SHARDS whistling overhead cutting down foliage ripping through the tarp scattering people outside.

Deadly dragonfly insects, the size of birds, zip overhead.

Bridges trips and falls, Booker helps him to the tarp opening. They're ready to go through together when Bridges looks back at his antagonist -- an entire jungle.

He hesitates.

They're buttoning up the cavern:

a) They place a heavy metal plate at the mouth of the

ramp leading to the outside blocking any exit. Two layers of wire link fence are put up in front of the metal plate.

b) Army Corp of Engineers earth movers with large metal

• blades pull up, facing the tarp -- creating a metal barrier 20 yards outside the tarp.

c) HUNDREDS of Special Forces/commandos in full desert-

green camouflage fatigues and full combat gear move into position setting up flame throwers and machine guns to create a KILLING ZONE in front of the tarp. They wear respirators and oxygen packs.

ANGLE

Booker and sustrandwalk over to Maggie, Bridges and Robinson. Alexthere too.

•

Booker's men hand them some M-16s and respirators.

BOOKER

• When they do -- the shit's going

to hit the fan.

They take the respirators, put them on. Maggie tries the action on the 9mm Booker's given her. Alex, Bridges and Robinson heft their M-16s.

Activity growing more frenetic -- some of the animals are starving, racing about, others are poisoned already. Panic and pandemonium in the jungle. Insects and birds begin bouncing off the tarp -- flying in erratic patterns. SCREAMS from inside -- a CACOPHONY of BLEATING ROARS. The tarp bulging out -- the ecosystem pushing against it.

The noise on the other side of the tarp reaches a crescendo. The troops tense.

Metallic insectssuddenly blast through the tarp -- • followed by birds and a tidal wave of crazed, starving creatures. They hit the oxygen and begin choking, convulsing. Wild, they lash out and try to leap the metal barriers. A tidal wave from hell. The troops open up with everything -- flame throwers send arcs of flaming petroleum intothe killing zone.

Snapshots fromhell:

a) TWO SpecialForces guys empty their M-80s into a four

foot longalien lizard. As they do, a creature the size of aboar, with six legs, rushes at them.

b) A variation on the "it's all legs" thing, only twice

the size --lunges out of the tarp and climbs the steel barriers,striking terror into the troops. They pointtheir flame throwers at it -- it goes arcing backand dies in the flames.

c) SOUNDS-- likerifle shots -- as the tarp is pierced

by hordes oflarge, deadly insects. They crash into the lights -- knocking them down. This becomes a battle foughtin SEMI-DARKNESS .

•

d) Men going down,attacked by forms of life never seen before. Bridgesfiring, taking out his share of them. Alex,next to him, firing.

•

e) Up top -- onthe mesa -- tank mounted flame throwers arc rivers of fireonto the wire mesh covering the opening. Burningcreatures, their wings beating at the wire mesh --struggle and fall back.

f) A large green spider,3 feet across, skitters and careens aroundthe walls of the cave -- crazed, trying to find away OUT!! Booker swiveling, tracking it withhis M-60 firing, pinning it in a bright spotlight, firing,nails it, tearing it in two. It slides downthe cavern wall.

g) Three-foot-long FERRET things at the wire mesh trying to desperately dig theirway out of the cave. Bridges and Booker empty their M-16s, killing them just short of digging through.

Maggie and Robinson, watching the screens. outside -- the SOUNDS of hell -- gunfire, shrieking.

A large spider crab -- 2 feet across -- sneaks into the tent. It focuses on Maggie, starts advancing across the floor, CLATTERING. Goes straight for her. She aims the 9mm and drills it. It goes straight up the tent pole, • caroms off the ceiling and drops to the floor dead.

outside the sounds die down. As suddenly as it began it's over.

Carnage, blood, dying creatures -- gasping, drowning in oxygen. Bridges and Booker survey the dying ecosystem. Take their respirators off. Alex with them. Only some occasional SOUNDS from the jungle ... The tarp shredded and hanging in tatters.

Bridges isn't so sure.

Bridges' eyes locked -- with everyone else now -- on the thermal screenshowing the glowing red bio-mass below the cavern floor. It's shrunk but it refuses to disappear entirely. Bridgeslooks worried -- stares. Maggie looks

•

at him. Something.' swrong .

MOYERS

• What's the matter?

Frustrated, Bridges slams his hand on the table.

Bridges starts pacing. Moyers isn't exactly sure what's going on.

Bridges is desperate. Looks at the computer output data screens. Suddenly. •

Bridges, nearly crazed,looks at Booker.

•

He holds her look a moment, then follows Booker out.

Booker and Bridges -- driving through the dead and dying landscape --their eyes scanning a wrecked ecosystem. Creatures feedingon dead and dying creatures. Alien trees still sheddingtheir leaves.

Ahead inthe wasteland -- the meteorite imbedded in the ground and thepump truck parked next to it. They pull up. Stop. Bridgesjumps out -- checks the gauge on the pump truck, whileBooker covers for him.

He fishes around inthe pump motor, shining his flashlight in --dead and dying insects, still BUZZING, have jammed up themechanism. Bridges reaches in, clears them, getting stungby some of them. He doesn't care. He tries to restartthe pumps. Nothing. He slams it • with his hand, hitsit with a wrench, hammers on the mechanism --

The shards whistleby -- clanging off the metal truck, thrown by dying trees-- the last gasp of adying system. Booker ducking, lookingthis way and that. Bridges keeps working. CLANG anothershard --

A final whack by Bridgesand the PUMPS and COMPRESSORS ROARback to life. Bridges gives the thumbs-up sign to Booker.

They take off -- dodging shards that whistle through the forest.

Booker driving. Bridges catching his breath -- when he sees a figure -- something moving, fifty yards away.

•

Booker slowsdown, stops the humvee . Bridges gets out. He starts slowlywalking toward it Booker now trailing behind him --both carrying M-16s. • Half kneeling --the FIGURE stands up in the center of the ruined jungle,on two legs. It has a presence about it unlike any ofthe creatures we've seen. An attitude. Not human, it hasa bird-like head. Their opposite number. Godot. It points in Bridges direction.

Bridges walks towardthe figure. Godot twenty yards away.

ANGLE

Everyone watchingthis now through the tattered, torn tarp. Alex, Maggie,Robinson, Moyers -- the troops.

If he hears her, hedoesn't acknowledge her. He reaches the decimated forestclearing. The two-legged creature facing him.

• Booker doesn't likethis but he stays calm, not wanting to break the spell ofthe moment. Bridges moves toward it, slowly. It watches.

Dead and dying creatures,vegetation all around them.

Bridges mesmerized,moving slowly. Closer ... closer

A moment. Extended time. Bridges' eyes on Godot. Godot looking back at him, sees him, with a visual system that is more complex than ours -- multiple eyes of different shapes and sizes. Behind those eyes there's light -- an eerie intelligence, raw. Godot makes what appears to be a universal gesture -- open "palms" open arms -- an gesture of vulnerability. Bridges matches the gesture. An ineffable moment between them -- non verbal and way more -- it lasts -- and then, in a split second, it screams in rage and fury! It knows what's being done to it, to its world. It charges -- it's on Bridges before he can raise his gun. Godot explodes onto him.

•

Immensely strong, it knocks Bridges back -- ten feet with • a single blow. Helpless, Bridges crashes to the ground.

Booker takes a step forward, with his M-16, aims. Godot charges again.

Booker screams with every fiber of his being.

Booker opens up -- unleashes a stream of bullets -- full automatic bullets tear into the thing. It goes down, collapses on the jungle floor. Booker throws the gun down.

A stillness comes over the forest as Booker rushes forward. He reaches Bridges, alive, but in pretty bad shape.

Bridges looks at Booker. He has tears in his eyes.

Booker carries him back to the truck and races out --

Booker drives through the tattered tarp and pulls up in front of the Diagnostics tent.

Bridges propped up on a cot, badly injured. The doctors trying to work on him

Bridges looksup at the screens with the others.

The glowing redbiomass on the screen, the complete object of theirattention.

Bridges can barelysee the screen -- his vision impaired bywhatever•s racing through his blood system.

Moyers slowlywalks over to the surveillance screens The thermal scanshows the hot, glowing red biomass

•

beginning to change.

MAGGIE

• Yes -- It's working...

on the video screen the red, swirling bio-mass, the malignant tumor, begins to shrink, drawing back on itself from all directions.

They can all see now -- worms and microbes coming back from all directions, shrinking the ball.

CUT TO: the floor of the jungle. Thousands of worms coming up to feed on the remains of the dead and poisoned • animals. Their last supper. There's quiet applause and now cheering in the room.

Maggie has tears in her eyes. She looks at the doctors. She looks at Bridges. The corners of his mouth turn up in a smile. Crying, she pushes some of his hair back off his forehead.

The glowing red ball on the screen continues to shrink. Down... down ...approaching zero.

She holds hishand.

The troops cleaningup. Removing the carnage. Alex, his bandaged arm ina very attractive sling, walks over to Maggie. Moyerswaiting in the b.g. for him .

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Moyers and the press, waiting for him. She watches him walk away.

Bridges• truck comes up the road, pulls into the driveway of Bridges' neighbor Charley. Maggie gets out.

Charley's waiting there for her with Sam, the dog. Maggie looksup at the blue sky, the green rolling hills • of Vermont. She approaches. Sam comes running and jumps up on her. She kneelsdown and says hello to Sam.

She looks up atCharley, takes Sam's head in her hands. Sam looks intoher eyes.

Charley walksher to Bridge's truck. Sam jumps in beside her.

The truck comesup the driveway. Sam bolts out of the truck and comesracing across the yard to the house. Looking for Bridges. Maggie follows him up the steps, into the house.

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Sam going fromroom to room -- looking for Ben. Not in • the kitchen, not in the dining room, not in the living room. He turns and looks at Maggie, starts to whine, goes up to a closeddoor, starts scratching.

Maggie opensthe door to the bedroom and there's Bridges --propped up inbed, on the mend. Sam jumps up on the bed with him.

Bridges roughhouseswith Sam. Looks at Maggie.

• Bridges pulls backthe covers, pats the bed. Maggie smiles. Sam gets outof the way.

Bridges reflective, sitsquietly staring out into the deep green Vermontwoods. Maggie stands watching him.

Bridges looks at her, tries to find a way to communicate what is not communicable. He can't. He looks at her.

FADEOUT

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TWONATIVE AMERICANS, a little stoned -- have stopped by the side of the roadin their pickup truck to take a • leak. One of them looksup intothe azure blue sky and sees a hawk spiralingover head. He admires it. Suddenly it divides intwo -- and the separate "halves" fly off. He does a doubletake.

His buddy blinks andgoes on peeing.

SUPER: DAY 1

The Land of Enchantment.

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