"HEAVY METAL" (1981)

A beautiful field of wheat glistens in the morning sun.

As the camera skims overtop, titles start to roll. Ahead

of us an odd-looking service van comes into view, sputtering - along a dirt road. Getting closer, we can see the driver, a thin, bookish man with a neat mustache. This is AUSTIN GRIMALDI.

The truck pulls up to a strange Victorian house in the middle of the wheatfield. The house has several futuristic radar devices on the roof that rotate constantly.

AUSTIN gets out, opens the van's rear doors, and pulls out

~ two large metal boxes.

CUT TO

The curtains part ever so slightly, and a pair of eves peer down.

CUT BACK TO

AUSTIN shuts the van's rear doors, and carries the two metal boxes into the house. The titles stop roiling as we;

CLT 70

INSIDE THE HOUSE

AUSTIN is reading a schematic diagram as he sits in front of the exposed chassis of a complicated futuristic electronic contraption, twice his size. There are strange tools all over the floor.

Putting down the diagram, he opens one of the metal cases and

takes out a sophisticated-looking glass sphere with electronic receptacles mounted in the sides.

% Pg. 2

He places this sphere in a space in the middle of the contraption, clamps it down, and plugs some wires into the globe's receptacles. Then he opens the second box. Inside is a glowing green ball. Using a pair of special tongs, AUSTIN carefully lifts the ball ‘out, and inserts it into an opening at the base of the machine, in the back.

As soon as the ball is inside, the machine hums to life. The glass sphere sparkles, and a holographic picture of a green planet in space appears inside it.

Hmamm

He takes a strange tool, and moves out of frame to make an adjustment underneath the machine. Suddenly a wire comes loose from the sphere and begins to spark.

Uh - oh

As the camera pulls closer to the holograph screen, the green planet begins to silently shake.

CUT TO

With an explosion that rocks the universe, a huge chunk rips out of the green planet and shoots off into space, leaving thousands of glowing particles in its wake.

CUT BACK TO

repairs the sparking connection and returns to his other adjustments.

CUT TO

te

a ¥

Te

reer

ust

Pg. 3

A. FOREST. |

From the forest floor we see the green planetoid fly overhead, dropping balls. We watch as it moves away and disappears beyond a far-off mountain range. The forest rumbles as the planetoid crashes in the distance.

The camera then pans over to-.a forest path, where a beautiful girl approaches, picking mushrooms.

CUT TO

A_GREEN BALL NEAR HER FEET

An ominous note is struck as the girl notices the glowing ball, and is drawn to it. Picking the sphere up, she looks at it. Something inside her warns her of its danger, but, unable to resist, she puts it in her basket and continues on.

DISSOLVE TO

THE GATES OF KRAAN

Night falls over this futuristic chromoid, city as the beautiful girl passes through the glass gates ana heads home.

CUT TO

The girl yawns and gets inte bed as the camera pans over to her basket in the corner. Through its side, the green ball begins to glow brightiy.

Getting closer, we see a slimy silk-like webbing ocze out of the ball and move towards the sleeping girl, pulling the green ball behind it.

The ball starts to glow and pulse as the webbing begins to surround the girl, like a cocoon. Slowly the camera pans

up the wall, and moves out through the window, and beyond

the city gates, rising higher and higher.

CUT TO

I ti

Pg.

o

THE OUTLANDS

’ Flying quickly overtop futuristic villages, the camera’

heads further and further out into the less civilized sectors, where the rusting pipelines and crumbling utility stations of a past civilization have been overgrown by scrub-bush and weeds.

The camera zooms across this strange landscape toward the distant mountains where the huge. planetoid fell.. Finally, from high

‘above the foothills, we begin to come down.

In the hills below us, hundreds of blue humanoid barbarians are moving along, mesmerized, toward a pulsing green glow high in the mountaintops. Suddenly the mountains begin to rumble.

CUT TO

At the front of the line, the largest barbarian - obviously their leader - stops and points.

CUT TO

THE MOUNTAINS ‘

A strange, green, foamy liquid comes pouring duwn the mountains

toward the parbarians.

CUT TQ

THE LINE OF BARBARIANS

The barbarians stand frozen as the foam washes over them and keeps on going. One by one, their eves turn green and they start to change, becoming hairier, uglier, and stronger.

As their transformations are completed, the barbarians gather behind their leader into an ever-growing mob of murderous looking sub-humans.

DISSOLVE TO

THE GATES OF KRAAN

A frightened Kraanian councillor spurs his horse forward through the beautiful glass gates, as in the distance we hear the sound

Pg. 6

~ COUNCILMAN #4

(throwing a parchment before the Elder)

Even the mountains glow green and an evil slime oozes down! COUNCILMAN #1 Elder, we must arm ourselves! We must fight! ELDER Silence! Everyone gets quiet. Looking at the parchment thrown before him, the ancient, withered ELDER rises to his feet. ELDER We are not a race’ of warriors. We are statesmen, and scientists. From our very beginning it was ordained that the warrior-race or Taarak the Defender would aid us in times of need. This was the Pact! COUNCILMAN #1

Taarak the Defender? His race is dead! They cannot defend anyone!

COUNCILMAN #2

Some say that the race is not dead - that one still lives.

COUNCILMAN #1

One? What good is one?

ELDER

One of Taarak's blood can do much.

e a

Pe. 8

Taarna ... Taarnd ...

- As the councilmen take up the.chant;......

CUT TO

As the boy begins to bar the door, it bursts open, flinging him aside. . Standing in the doorway, surrounded by his men, is

the BARBARIAN LEADER.

With a laugh, he raises a Medieval-looking multiple cross-bow and fires a burst of arrows into the boy's chest, as the crazed troops rush in around him.

The chanting continues as we; CUT TO

We look down over this uncivilized wilderness with only decaying pipelines and the occasional jagged rock structure breaking the barren uniformity of the land. As the Council's distant chanting fades out, all is quiet.

Suddenly from behind us, we hear the sound of flapping wings and a huge rush of air. Just above our heads, TAARSA THE

DEFENDER comes flying in, Sitting proudly in the saddle of a giant crimson bird.

CUT TO

She is beautiful, with dark eyes and wild red hair blowing behind her in the wind.

Below her, on the ground, she sees a humanoid running in terror, chased by an ugly, four-legged mutant creature.

Spurring her bird forward, TAARNA sweeps down over the ugly

beast and lassoes it. She then hoists the creature up into the air and, tossing her end of the rope over a tall jagged

Pe. 9

rock, she leaves the snarling beast hanging helplessly.

Flying down to the grateful humanoid, she dismounts. As she approaches we see that he has a barbarian medallion on a Chain around his neck.

HUMANOTD..

I owe vou my life. Let me repay you

He takes off his medallion and places it around her neck. Suddenly he twists the chain tight in his hand, pulling her towards him. His eyes change to a bright green as he forces her. to the ground and starts ripping at her. clothes. As. he. molests her, TAARNA is distracted. She hears something - voices inside her, chanting her name.

Quickly she grabs the chain and rips it apart. Then she powerfully smashes both her hands together around her attacker's ears. As he holds his ringing ears, she gets up, lifts him above her head, and hurls him mercilessly to the ground.

Still hearing the chanting, she Jumps on her bird, pulls out a second rope, and lassoes the barbarian's feet. She then litts him up end leaves hin hanging from the tall, jagged rock, next to the growling creature. As TAARNA flies off, the hanging beast eves the barbarian hungrily.

CUT TO

AUSTIN GRIMALDI

He is still sitting on the floor, working on his machine.

As the camera pulls closer, we see that AUSTIN is reaching

deep inside the machineworks, trying to solder a small orange diode in place with an odd-style soldering iron. The connection breaks, and the diode and some hot solder fali deeper into the machine and start smoking and sputtering. As the smoke grows thicker, the machine starts to buzz loudly.

AUSTIN

Dammit!

(CONTINUES)

Pg. 10

“oO CONTINUED:

4 AUSTIN pulls his face out of the smoking chassis, grabs a pair ‘ _ of needlenose pliers, and reaches back to retrieve the part. The camera follows AUSTIN'S arm into the chassis, where smoke

\s surrounds it and clouds over everything. - The buzzing sound be grows, and changes into the sound of powerful, throbbing

engines. Slowly the smoke begins to clear as.we hear a voice....,

gf | erackling over a radiophone. BOMBARDIER (V.0.)

Where the hell are we?

smoxe dissipates and a formation of B-17 bombers Out into the moonlit night.

Suddenly tn come tearin

CUT TO

The sound of jungle night creatures fills the air. We see palm trees silhouetted ‘against the moon bright sky. The scene is aimost serene. \The camera pans and suddenly the nose of a large parked bomer fills the screen, and as the camera continues panning, wR pass a large red rising sun on the bomber's fuselace. The pen stops at the tail of the aircraft, and we see a Japanese soldier - a guard.

There is a moment of tranquillit\, as jungle sounds fill the air. The soldier almost dozes ...\suddenly the caccphony of

.-. then with an agonizing wail an ahr raid siren shatters

the silence and the guard looks skywaNi, startied.

Instantly all hell bresks loose as we hear pounding feet. Silhouetted figures rush by.

A GUN EMPLACEMENT

Japanese soldiers crank the barrel of an anti-aircrakt gun skyward. We begin to hear the sound of approaching etyines.

CUT TO

—CLOSEUP_OF ANSHELL

It is thrust in a breech.

CUT TO

‘As the bombers press on, the\camera moves ‘in-to the lead.

@ircraft. In the moonlight wA see her name, “Pacific Pearl".

CUT TO

“INT. - THE "PACIFIC PEARL" - + .o..-- JL beg aim) eee oa

Suddenly a cacophony of explosions split the air as anti-aircraft shells explode ahead of the aircraft, Sighting the inside with electric blue flashes..

BOMBARDIER

Gee! Thanks for telling me, Holden. I thought it was Cleveland.

CUT TO

Ackack guns blast shells skyward. The gun blasts light up the palm tree background, causing momentary silhouettes.

CUT TO .

THE BOMBARDIER

BOMBARDIER

For Christ sake, hold her steady!

CUT TO

im

aE

—s

w=.

Pe. 12

THE BELLYGUNNER

‘He can be seen from outside the plane as the shell flashes light up his turret.

CUT BACK TO

THE BOMBARDIER

Left two degrees ... steady steady

CUT TO

THE BELLYGUNNER

Tne flak is severe, with electric blue flashes lighting up the fuselage interior.

. BELLYGUNNER

Hey kid, how va doing back there?

CUT TO

Pg. 14

The co-pilot sags forward, held back only by his’ shoulder - Straps. His eyes stare. Blood runs from under his helmet. We know he is dead. PILOT '. Shit: “ Elkhorn’ just bought it. BELLYGUNNER (V.0.) We took one back here too. C'mon Stepek, blast ‘em!

CUT TO

THE BOMBARDIER

CUT TO

We hear the shriek of descending bombs. The explosions walk across the airfield, and in the light of the expvlosions we see devastation. The last bomb hits a fuel dump, causing

an enormous ball of fire.

Yahoo! Bullseye!

CUT BACK TO

PILOT ° (exhilarated)

Nice shooting Stepek, how are the

ee Test of you guys? ve FLIGHT ENGINEER —

(V.0.)

Flight Engineer okay.

3 RADIO OPERATOR < (V.0.)

Gs Radio okay.

a NAVIGATOR

Ne (V.0.)

Navigator check.

.

een ay wept, fhe

Belly okay.

Ah ... tail okay

There 1§ abdrupt silence.

PILOT

Bellson ... Lewis?

Still silence, no reply from either name.

PILOT

kid, check the waist positions, see if they're okay.

CUT TO

THE TALLGUNNER |

TAILGUNNER |

Yeah ... will do, skipper.

TAILGUANER crosses himself, then exits back into the body of -the machine. ee - a9 * *

CUT TO ine PILOT

-- PILOT (wearily)

Let's go home.

We hear jumbled comments from all positions. Evervone is happy.

' CREW (V.0.) Cheers and whoops.

Tne mood of high spirits is stopped abruptly as the tailgunner reports back.

Skipper, Bellson ard Lewis are both dead.

This is the first time the kid's voice is not scared, just puczied.

qe

CARRY

Pg. 17 CONTINUED: | OO "PILOT Dammit! | BOMBARDIER (VO) Well kid, now you got a real

bombing mission under your belt.

CUT TO

THE BOMBARDIER |

He removes his oxygen mask and takes a long swig from a bottle.

CUT TO

roup. The formation

She rejoins the rest of the ¢ 15 not quite as tight as before. As the formation flies along, puztfs cf cloud pass by, occasionally obscuring @ machine

CUT TO

Under the "Pacific Pearl's" belly, we see the belivgunner suspended in his small glass ped. A red glow brightens up as he drags on a cigar. The rest of the formation arte Visible stretched to the side and behind es puffs of cloud waft past. We begin to feel as if the weather might be changing.

CUT TO

The BOMBARDIER is relaxing inside as he swigs from the bottle and sings raucously. From the front we look in on the pilot with the dead co-pilot sagging in his seat next to him.

ton

. BELLYGUNNER (V.0.)

Sorry about Elkhorn, skip. What happened? .

PILOT.

Pg.

I dunno. The shell exploded and he

collapsed. JI think he took the head.

it in

Are ya sure he's dead, Skipper?

Oh I put my finger in a woodpecker's

hole and the woodpecker said God

bless my soul; take it out, out, take it out, remove it

take it

Hey Stepek, just shut up, okay?

BOMBARDIER

Up vours kid, wassa matter,

like my voice?

you don't

1&

While all this banter has been going on the cloud has been thickening. Suddenly a serious yoice cuts in en the small

talk. It is the NAVIGATOR.

(CONTINUES)

| NAVIGATOR (V.0.)

Something's wrong!

- CUT TO “ THE NAVIGATOR

cs He is frantically tapping the compass.

Me (V.0.)

es You got a problem, Holden?

&

Naw, the kid's the one with the problem. He don't like my voice!

PILOT

Button it up Stepek. What's the problem, Holden?

NAVIGATOR

T must have a malfunction, my compass says we're heading north!

CUT TO >

wae C

PILOT

He looks at his compass.

PILOT

Mine savs east.

Pg. 20

Hey, can you guys see the rest of the squadron? Lo

v i

| BELLYGUNNER (¥.0.) |

Negative, there's too much cloud.

“a A sudden flash of lightning illuminates the whole inside of the plane.

CUT TO |

He reaches forward to tap the compass.

crazy. It's spinning like a son of a bitch!

Mine too, we must have hit a magnetic field or something !1

CUT TO

aye

at

Pg. 21

OUTSIDE THE PLANE

We see a dull glow coming from all crew positions from the ‘on-board lights. Suddeniy a curtain of rain lashes the machine.

- Christ; now thev're all. doing. it!! CUT TG

THE INSTRUMENT PANEL

All the dials are going haywire. Above the instrument ‘Panel we see the windshield is spattered with. rain. oe

I'm trying to sing here! Oh I put my finger in a woodpecker's

Can it Stepek, we got real problems.

Just then through the rain, a strange green glow is seen in the distance. It begins to curve toware the aircraft.

CUT TO

The turret swings as the gunner spots the glow.

BELLYGUNNER

Jesus! Look at that!!

From under the starboard wing, we see the object approaching. PILOT —(V.0.)

Look at what ... look at what!!?

“BELLYGUNNER

It's out there, just look at it

For Christ sake,

give us a position! BELLYGUNNER

It's about four o'clock, just beiow Holy Shit, it's coming right at us!

Tne glow suddenly tooms at the plane with great speed and hits the starbceard inner engine.

CUT TO

PILOT'S F.0.\.

He has to push the dead co-pilet back to peer out the

broken starboard window ... the number three prop is bent and windmilling wildly. It has a strange green luminescenxce about it... the whole machine shakes.

PILOT

Damn.

The PILOT tries to fly the plane and do the co-pilot's job of feathering the bad engine. Suddenly it's too late as the prop wobbles loose and cartwheels over the wing.

CUT TO

sek

Pe. 25

‘The prop flies back and slices a great gash in the aircraft's a

skin, near the TAILGUNNER'S position.

CUT TO

THE PILOT

PILOT

We lost the goddamned prop Did it do any damage? kid, check the tail.

Silence. —

PILOT

Come in kid ... kid are vou okay? Silence.

PILOT

Travis, go check the back.

Will do, skipper. CUT TO

TRAVIS’ turret opens and TRAVIS pulls himself up into the fuselage. CUT TO

THE PILOT

The gauges are now settled except for the oil pressure to No. 2 engine. The pressure drops. The engine heat gauge climbs rapidly. A red warning light begins to flash.

Goddamn it, now what?

He glances out of his: window just in time to see a strange, Cclaw-like feeler coming out of the engine casing. It detaches

‘one of the cooling gills, then another, and another. They blow

away in the slipstream.

CUT TS

THE BELLYGUNNER

He looks in to the kid's reargun compartment. Ali that is left of him is a tattered skeleton.

TRAVIS turns, horror frozem on his face. Quick as a flash, from seemingly nowhere, something flies at him and grabs his

throat. The mask on his face falls off, and we get a split seccend look of abject horror as he fails out of frame.

Travis, what's goin' on back there? CUT TO

TRAVIS

His eves are open but he is obviously dead. Through his helmet headphone, we hear his name.

CUT TO

THE PILOT

“PILOT

Holden, how far to base?

Skip, with everything screwed up here, I'd, I'd guess about two hundred miles. All the time the engine pops and bangs wildly. -- PLLOT For Christ's sake, find us a place J]

can put her down!

CUT TO

NAVIGATOR

ae | a 4 ta

NAVIGATOR

Tet's all ocean down there, skip! CUT TC

THE PILOT

PILOT

Mack, can you get us a radio fix? CUT TO

THE RADIO OPERATOR

RADIO OPERATOR

Negative skip, too much interference.

CUT TO

Pg. 26 THE PILOT

He .is fighting the controls.

PILOT

Shit! I've gotta put her down ! CUT TO

THE BOMBARDIER

BOMBARDIER

Gist

‘Hey Holden:...: ya old- stuff ‘shirt .e.0-: ya wanna snort?

teas

wi StTange scratching ond chirping noise zpove his head. He looks up in time to see shéerp teeth anc claws Start to appear tnreucgh the lining above his head. He blinks in cisbelief anc throws his bottle away as if the image came from the whisker.

a BOMBARDIER / On mv God, there's ... there's ... ahh ... keep away ... keep away ...

(struggles) .». hey no ... hey somebody ... (screams)

a NAVIGATOR

- (V.0.)

Stepex, you stupid sonovabitch, will you lay off the booze, rou've got the Dede’ S «ex

(CONTINUES }

TEPEK is wide-eved and scared silly as the sound now begins under his feet and pincers begin to snip through the floor. He suddenly realizes that the whole floor is giving way beneath him, and he grabs for a handful of cables as the flocr collapses.

CUT TO -

“OUTSIDE THE AIRCRAFT

The lower half of STEPEK is hanging in the slipstream, kicking madly. We see that his legs are covered in wrigsling creatures.

vs STEPEK

He is losing his grip with one hand, put still cesperately 1s g

Ke an ugly pincer cuts the cables and STEPEK into the night.

67 CUT TO

a Suddenly the No. 2 engine begins to backfire, blasting back

me large gobs of orange flame. The oil, heet and manifold cauges

* are off tne dial and red lights frantically flash. Desperately the PILOT looks out of the window.

Pieces begin flving off the engine. The cowling disintegrates revealing the bare engine beneath. Smail figures are frantically busy ripping the engine to pieces.

CUT TO THE PILOT se He is scared. i PILOT { Holden, for God's sake get up

here on the double.

iT 2, Few e

What;s the problem, skip?

rLOS

Just get up here! The NAVIGATOR crimaces as he pushes past the dead co-pilot.

JESUS H. CHRIST!

PILOT

Hold 'em off. I'm taking her down.

z of the creatures ripping plates trom the cowlings.

the hatch docr handle twists

like creatures Swarm in.

§

peers Out at the incredible sig the wing skin and tearing huge camere pans down to his feet a chen bursts open. A dozen hat pt enkee panics and reaches up, lts rack. He screams as the cr right tnrough the creatures, bathing th ruby glow.

FutD Fy

mM +4y OTE aS one hey OD

poing the flare gun ck ane shoct t with a bri

Hh “+

ght

Okay vou little bastarces ... shit... (screams)

CUT TO

THE RADIC OPERATOR

The flare shoots down the fuselage and smashes into him. Wreathed in flames, he falis pack into the fuselage.

CUT TO

ti :

b. &

oat:

e ne, - iw

2 ar he

thas

be h ‘

OUTSIDE THE AIRCRAFT

. Creatures swarm all over the plane. The ball -turret-falls —

off. A wheel suddenly lowers, then falls off. A flap flutters free and blows away. Oil streams back into the slipstream and sections of the skin of the plane come away, revealing the skeleton framework of the fuselage. ;

‘CUT TO

dhe PLLOT

He is fighting the controls. Creatures are now in the cockpit, plucking out the instruments. The PILCT reaches to the throttle only to grab a creature that locks on to his gloved hand.

Flying the piane with his good hand, he strikes and punneis

at the attack King creatures with the’. “other. = -

CUT TO

It is now almost a flying skeleton. For. the first time, see that it is heading for an island. A figure detaches itself from the machine and plummets awar.

CUT TO THE PILOT He falls, terror-stricken, through space. Finally his chute

epens. <A slimy creature still clings to his gloved han. Ke rips off the glove and throws it and the creature awa

Jesus H. Christ!

CUT TO

The approaching smoking plane bellies onto the sea, bounces, then skims along the wave tops, careening up onto the beach, where it twists around crazily before coming to a lopsidec

stop. The machine faces us head-on and we see a glow coming

(CONTINUES)

oa ~

race ayes:

cota eae , =

Pg. 30

‘CONTINUED:

from what's left of No. 3 engine. The camera zooms in rapidly to a green ball stuck in engine No. 3.

CUT TO

THE PILOT

He has landed, and is undeing his parachute harness. He locks around incredulousiy. The island is a junkyard - a veritable graveyard of aircraft. There are many aircraft, both old

wrecks and futuristic-looking ones lying everywhere. Skeletal corpses are still left in some of the wrecks. The camera pans

“to the remains of one machine.: It is ‘an“old American Lockheed

Electra. It glints dull in the half light of dawn. Painted en its side are two names; "Amelia Earhart" and ‘'Fred Noonan".

The camera Continues to move through this panorama of metallic junk until it stops on a long chrome rod sticking up out of a pile of scrap.

Tilting up to the sky we see the clouds part as two gargant metal arms emerge and descend down’ toward the junkpile. Th meta? arms reach the chrome rod, grip it tightly, anc bDegin to

ven e€

lift it up.

The scrap-pile groans and shifts as an enormous crane is hoisted up out of the junkyard, through the mist the cliouds,

a

We follow 2s the cylinder is pulled higher and nigher, final coming to a stop in front of a giant eveball. The camera pu back to reveal that the eveball belongs to AUSTIN GRIMALDI, whe carefully scrutinizes the crange diode held tightiy in his needlenose pliers. AUSTIN Got it. Satisfied that this is the piece he had lost in the machine,

he begins to re-solder it in place. Behind him, a LITTLE GIRL with red hair comes into the room and walks up to him.

LITTLE GIRL

It's broken again, isn't it Daddy?

(CONTINUES)

"AUSTIN {concentrating} Yes.dear. But Daddy's fixing it. (hums) LITTLE .GIRL (watching)

How come it's always breaking?

AUSTIN

I don't know, sweetheart. Mmammhnan.

LITTLE GIRi When it's fixed, will you make more funny pictures for me? AUSTIN Honey, why don't you go piavy with vour tevs and let Daccy finish his work, okav? Mnmm LITTLE GIRL Okay. The LITTLE GIRL wanders around to the other side of the machine, as AUSTIN flips a switch. Once again the glass sphere sparkies anc the nolographic screen lights up. AUSTIN uses a tool to fine-tune the holograph and an image begins to materialize; the glass gates of Kraan. As the image becomes clearer, the camera pulls closer and closer

to the holograph screen.

CUT TO

THE GATES OF KRAAN

The Council's voices still ringing in her head, TAARNA flies in over the demolished gates. Below her, the once-beautiful city lies in ruins.

tf.

Pg. 32

o

Gliding overtop ‘the deserted streets, she sees a column of smoke rising through the wrecked dome of the building -in the town's center. As she watches the smoke rise, she pulls hard on the reins, and heads her bird up.

The camera follows as she rides in threwen the shattered dome down to the Council Chambers below.

Corpses of the Councilmen are strewn everywhere. In the center of the room, a large pile of ancient books and manuscripts lie smouldering. Reaching the floor, TAARNA dismounts and starts to look around. At the head of

the marble table sits the ELDER - dead. In front of hin, a roll of parchment lies on the table. TJAARNA cpens it.

‘Carefully painted on the parchment-is a circle of: mountains,:

their tops glowing green. TAARNA looks at it, and puts it in her sack. Then she notices that the ELDER is clutching something in his hand. Prving his stiff fingers apart, she finds a blood-stained medallion just like the one her attacker wore on nis chain. Looking at the dead ELDER, TAARNA grips ‘the medallion tightly in her hand.

CUT TO

GCUTSIDE THe COUNCIL BUILDING

TAARNA flies back out through the shattered dome and surveys the city delow. All is quiet anc dark, except for @ green glow coming from 2 second-floor window. Curious, she flies over, pulls up beside the window, and climbs in.

CUT TO

GIRL'S BEDROOM

Entering, TAARNA sees the slimy silk-1like cocoon on the bed. The basket of fruit still sits on the floor. From within the webbing, the green ball is glowing brightiy.

TAARNA looks at the parchment in her sack, then at the glow coming from the cocoon. Cautiously, she approaches the cocoon, sword drawn.

Suddenly a hand from within the cocoon grabs the ball and sheets forward, ripping through the webbing and holding the bali up to TAARNA'S face. The hand belongs to a hideously ugly witch, who emerges from the cocoon, cackling through

(CONTINUES)

snake-like fangs.

WITCH

Behold! The Sphere of Uluhtec!

Look upon it, Taarna. Look upon. - it with fear. For in its glow lies the end of heaven - the beginning of hell. Take it Taarna. Feel death in vour hands. For death is upon you. And as you perish ... so dies your race!

The witch's eyes: go-green. .-.°:

Take it !!

She nurls tha ball at TAARNA, who dodges it. The ball sails past her, out the window. Then TAARNA, sword raised, leaps at the WITCH, slicing through her in rapid strokes.

Tne WITCH cackles and crumbles into dust, but her creen eves stay suspended in the air, and her cackle echoes through the room.

TAARNA backs away, climbing out the window, onto her bird. As she flies off, she sees the WITCH'S green ball high acdove her, rising into the clouds and disappearing.

CUT TO

The WITCH'S green ball zooms through space, as Earth appears

in the distance. Then another object comes into sight. Getting closer we see that is is a modern winged rocketplane of no geterminable nationality, soaring high above Earth. The green meteorite passes, briefly bathing the rocketplane in its glow.

The rocketplane banks sharply, then stabilizes. Slowly the hatch-doors in its belly open up, revealing the underside of an automobile suspended in the open hatch.

Hydraulic metal arms emerge, lowering the automobile out from the belly of the cruising rocketplane. We can see now

that the car is a white, '59 Corvette convertible. —

With a "thunk", the metal arms release the car, and

‘as the rocketplane blasts away, the Corvette begins its ’free-fall- to Earth. OO

As the car falls gracefully through space, the driver plays

with the wheel, causing the Corvette. to bank smoothly ¢ one

“Way, then the other.

Once his direction is stable, the driver clicks on the car radio and adjusts it through various channels, until he settles cn one.

With the music plaving, the car falls closer and closer to Earth, entering and emerging from the cloud cover. over the atmosphere. In the heat of entry the vehicle's paint Starts burning up.

As he heads down over a deserted area, the driver begins his approach. Touching down at breakneck speed, the smoking Corvette bounces violently, every part straining at the repeated impact.

The <river’s face is expressionless as he jams the car into high gear and floors it, spinning the wheels in an attempt to translate downward momentum into forward motion. Then he pops his greg chute to help slow ‘down.

This accomplished, the expressionless driver releases the chute, and speeds off down the road in a cloud of dust.

CUT TO

cAT. THE PENTAGON - AERIAL SHOT

From high above the building we see a crowd of reporters and T.V. newsmen waiting on the front steps.

Tne 'S9 Corvette pulls up at the curb below, and seeing it, the reporters all start to run over.

The camera zooms down and into the car. Inside, the driver reaches over, unplugs a rubber hose, and loosens the two large hex-nuts which connect him to the car. As he gets out, the reporters come running up.

(CONTINUES)

CONTINUED: a . an . FEMALE REPORTER (to driver)

Doctor Anrak, six more mutants were

Sighted in Arizona this morning. Do you still. sav this has nothing to do with the green radiation.from space.

The driver walks on without speaking.

Doctor, is it true that the President himself pulled you off the Jupiter Six

Project so that you could investigate those mutations? Doctor, answer me that.

He ignores the ouestion, and walks past the guards into the Pentagon. ;

CUT TO

Around a large table sit the Joint Chiefs of Staff, members of the Cabinet, and a pretty secretary wearing a tight skirt.

An argument is in progress as the expressionless DOCTOR ANRAK enters. The camera follows him as he sits down next to one

of the Generals.

FAT POLITICIAN

well what I wanna know is, what's the Army doing about this? Hell! My constiuents are turning green! They're growing arms on their backs. There's something or someone up there in space and the © voters have a right to know about it!

(CONTINUES)

eel Nes

| CONTINUED:

The room goe

™m

CUTSIDE TH

Pg. 36

GENERAL

Senator, we have no proof that these Mutations: are the result of interference from outer. space. In fact, Doctor Anrak has just come in, so let's hear what he has to. say ... Doctor?.

s silent as the DOCTOR stands up.

DOCTOR

First of all, there is no cause for alarm. As for the theories of interference by alien’ beings, it is mv firm epinion that we on Earth are the only intelligent, technically advanced civilization present in the universe.

CUT TO

An enoarmeus overheac.

round spaceship the sire of Pittsburg hovers

CUT BACK TO

DOCTOR

... and whatever is causing these Mutations is not from outer space. it’s more likely just an isolated biological pheno ... pheno ... ph... ph... ph...

-~ets

Suddenly the DOCTOR'S head starts to jerk from side to side. Evervone looks on, not knowing how to react. As the DOCTOR begins to move in short bursts, like a broken robot, he fixes his gare upen the pretty secretary across the table.

CUT TO

Pg. 37

From the bottom of the huge spacecraft, a metal tube emerges and starts to drill through the roof of the Pentagon.

CUT BACK TO

The DOCTOR starts to shake violently as he stares at the pretty secretary.

As the DOCTOR struggles with the terrified girl, the camera pans up to the ceiling, where the metal tube from the spaceship drilis through. Descending upon them, it sucks them up instantly.

DOCTOR

Aaarrgghh!

SECRETARY

Eeeeeek!

CUT +O

INSIDE THE SPACECRAFT - CONTROL ROOM

A metallic robot holding a clipboard, is standing in front of a large glass receiving jar, as DOCTOR ANRAK comes through the tube and lands in the jar. As soon as the DOCTOR'S feet hit the bottom of the jar, the DOCTOR breaks into a lot of small metallic parts.

Oh, nice job. How am I supposed to fix this guy? He's fucked.

Pe. 38

t Cc «CONTINUED: & a BT ort ; : . . — It ZEKE and EDSEL, two alien space-pilots, are standing nearby, at the control console. They look like big furry orange heads 2 on stilts, with arms coming out of the sides. _ SERE a _(to Edsel} .- ee _ . I guess we turned it up a

a little too high.

back together.

° Suddenly the pretty secretary comes through the tube and lands in the jar. She's a littie mussed up, but okar. GLORIA (gasp) Where am I? ROBOT (staring)

Hey, who's the chick?

GLORIA

Well look at my clothes! Who's gonna pay for the dry cleaning? And where am I? I demand that vou return me to my office immediately.

i. zone around spacecraft. You cannot leave.

rege imei ie)

What?! Is he kidding?

ZEKE and EDSEL try te keep straight faces.

But T have to be at my parents for dinner tonight... And nv gvnecciogist appcintment is en Weonesday,

ROBOT

Not anvmcre. Would vou, 2h, like a drink?

{.eading her away) You'll feel better after a class of

fresh blo-aak.

They disappear down a corridor.

Do vou have any diet soda?

CUT TO

Ah, typical robot. The first.

Earth-chick we see in ten years, and he's gotta make a- play for her.

EDSEL jams the gearshift into 'D' for Drive, and@ the ship lifts away from Earth. ZEKE Hey, do.we have any of that... Plutonian Xyborg left? EDSEL Uh, yeah. Just one bag. Uh, it's in the transmitter compartment. SERS Uh, thanks man. ~EKE opens a hatch and pulls out a double-spouted plastic It is H

bag on wheels the size of a steamer-trunk. white powder.

He pours two fifteen-foot lines of powder onto the floor. Then, he pauses.

~EKE

Good thinking, man.

Pe. 41

-As he resumes pouring, ZEKE begins singing to himself in an

alien tongue. When the lines are poured, thev both stand at the start of the trail of white powder, and part their hair to reveal nostrils hidden in their foreheads.

fEKE & EDSEL.

Nose. dive! |

They both start to criss-cross the room, inhaling the white powder like vaccuum cleaners. As they happily snort the Nvborg, the camera pans back to the glass receiving jar, and moves down through the broken pieces of DOCTOR ANRAK. Reaching his lifeless face, the camera moves around to the back of the

head. Through the shattered’metal we can see a green ball,

glowing inside ANRAK'S skullpiece. DISSOLVE TO

AS the round spaceship moves throug: space, a group ofr asteroids approach and whip past. Up ahead, a red sun turns white and goes Supe r-novel. ‘

Oh, wow ... good Nyborg! CUT 70

INSIDE THE SPACECRAFT - ROBOT'S BEDROO.

GLORIA PEARLMAN and the ROBCT are lying in bed, naked. They have just finished making love. She is smoking a cigarette.

That was incredible. I've never felt anything like it.

Pg. 42

ROBOT

‘so Oh great. I have been programmed to fee be fully proficient in.sexual activities. i _ Do you want to go steady?

. . a GLORIA

- Gee, I don't know. -I already have

. a boyfriend.

te ROBOT ts Cp th gw Ta ae an ‘Ah, what he does not know will not G: hurt him.

CLT TO

EDSEL are sitting at the controls, s

Ba -EKE and taring wide-eved rings and the communicator screen lights up. A sericus officer's a race appears on it. OFFICER CN SCREEN Mothershio calling starcruiser Alpha... - Mothership calling starcruiser Alpha...

ZEKE looks over at the screen and then shouts into it.

Mothership calling Starcruiser Alpha ...

You gotta use the microphone.

oy he

- OFFICER

Byrds lasten, idiot. Do I hare to .il vou eight hundred times? You

geo't call me "man"! You cail me

we.an-Qp Officer Blix''. Now is that

pe efectiy clear?

yeah, sure. Whaddvawant, man?

yo a are to return immediately to

rie Mether Ship and pick up 2

jsmancid civilian. Your orders

are to escort him to the Interplanetary +. ipunal Courtroom so that he can testify 41 the trial of Lincoln Sternn. And make ;1 snappy!

The screen goes by wk.

ZEKE jams the gear-

y+ 'S about time. Hang on, man. Phe re we go.

-hift into hyper-drive.

ie

SPACE

‘The round spaceship blasts forward at ten times the speed

of light. DISSOLVE TO

SPACE - LATER ©

"ZEKE and EDSEL'S round spacecraft looks like an apple

heading toward a freight train as it approaches the enormous mother-ship.

CUT TO

An ashtray full of roaches sits on the console. CEKE is at the controls with 2 joint in his mouth +e swaving back and forth, eves glazed. Beside him, EDssi »ucches the mothership getting closer.

You okay to lane this tning?

SEE

No problem, man.

CUT TO

Huge red arrows point the way through the ten-mile wide landing area as the round spaceship glides in.

(CONTINUES )

Co CONTINUED: |

e | a ee CEKE

: (¥.0.)

eh It's okay, man. If there's one

i 7 thing I know, it's how to drive * when I'm stoned. It's like, you _know your perspective's fucked,

te sO you just, gotta let your hands oe. > ‘work the controls as if you're straight...

The round ship rams directly into a wall, and crashes down, skidding to a stop in front of the loading bay.

Oh, wow, good landing, man.

mM ZEKE

ie . (V.0.) o Thanks.

INSIDE SPACECRAFT - ENTRANCE HATCH

ZEKE ana EDSEL press a butten to open the hatch dccrs. we 'As the doors open we see two metallic Regclian guards oA waiting on the otner side. Between them stands a small, i shabbily-dressed humanoid with a crooked jaw anc cauliflower ears. This is HANOVER FiSTE.

nm #3, clik, Galaxv versus Lincoln Sternn. Thenk vew. Clik.

The guards wheel away.

(CONTINUES)

Pg. 46

“-EKE and EDSEL escort FISTE down the corridor. . + vos EDSEL. ..

(to Fiste) Umm, you're gonna testify at Sternn's trial?

FISTE nods.

-EKE They gotta give him at least, like, life.

PLSie

Lincoln Sternn is a kind and nonourable man.

{camera rulls close to Fiste's face} He will be freed. CUT TO

As the round spacecraft journeys through space it passes through a fantastic space-scape of disembodied rock statues, and past a magnificent graffiti-covered robot chained to an asteroid.

Y'know, I wish they'd clean this place up, Man.

Yeah. It's like pig city out here.

* EDSEL -- (v.0.) Seat. CUT TO

ROBOT'S BEDROOM:

“ GLORIA is getting dressed as the ROBOT re-charges his energy-

paks.

GLORIA

Look, we're different, okey? Let's leave it at that.

CONTRCL ROOM

The hatch opens, and GLORIA and the ROBOT walk through, still talking.

GLORIA

but mixed marriages just don't work. What if you get tired of me and run off with a vibrator or something?

(CONTINUES)

Pg. 4

pass FISTE, who is sitting quietly near the receiving jar, hands folded. Looking around, FISTE notices a green glow

As they move through the room, and out the other side, ther

coming from the bottom of the jar. He gets up, quietly opens

the jar, and pokes EnTODEH the scrap robot parts.

Finding the small green ball in AN 2, pee he ‘pulls it

out ane looks at it.

CUT 70

CONTROL CONSOLE

cEKE. and EDSEL are..sitting .at.the.controls,:driving carefully.

FISTE, carrying the greer ball, comes up and sits down beside

then.

Yeah, well it won't be iong now. Are you sure you're gonna testify for Sternn?

FIST= says nothing. He just clutches the green ball and sta

into space.

ZEKE and EDSEL look at each other and shrug.

fA

CUT TO

OUTSIDE THE SPACESHIP

res

An enormous, brigntly-lit, multi-level space station/courthouse

floats into view, completely filling the screen. ZEKE and

EDSEL'S round spaceship is just a speck as it enters the frame,

approaching the mammoth structure.

CUT TO

Len

Pog”

yt

SNR

Sees

RR

& wea

SPACE- STATION LANDING DOCK

‘The ship locks into the dock, and the exit hatch opens.

GLORIA and the ROBOT come through first, ahead of ZEKE, EDSEL, and FISTE.

you - but on one condition.... I want a Jewish wedding.

Well, find me a robot-rabbi!

ROBOT

Okav, okay:

EDSEL

T give them six months, man.

aoe

Re doesn't even look Jewish!

GLORIA and tne ROBOT disappear around a corner as CEKE and EDSEL escort FISTE through the hatch. FISTE is carrying the small

green ball.

As they lead FISTE away, the camera pulis back, out through a Space-porz, and moves along the outside of the. Slowly rotating space-station. At the top, the camera zooms down through a massive glass-domed ceiling and into a huge

inter-galactic courtroom,

Voices echo below us.

CONTINUED: |

OO PROSECUTOR

Are you Captain Lincoln F. Sternn? ~STERNN

I am.

As we move down, we see square-jawed CAPTAIN STERNN, his

shifty-eved lawyer, and the cold Prosecutor all standing before the Judge.

STERNN is smirking confidently as the Prosecutor reads from

oe a. ong: page: o £ charges oo

PROSECUTOR

Lincoln Sternn - you stand here accused of twelve counts of murder in the first degree ... fourteen

counts of armed theft of Federation property

CUT 70

THE GALLERY

The hostile humanoid and alien faces ail stare at STERNN witn hatezul, accusing eyes.

STERNN'S LAWYER

Mopping his brow, he looks nervously over to STERNN.

ee

Mes

ND.

Pg. $1

_ +. PROSECUTOR (V.0.)

thirty-seven counts of rape, and one moving violation. How do you plead?

CUT TO

CAPTAIN STERNN

Smiling to himself, he nods, then gets serious.

It's okay, Charlie. TI got an

Call the first witness! STERNN and his lawver move to their seats.

But the Prosecutor's gotcha cold!

Yer as guilty as a cat in a goldfish bowl.

CUT TO

‘ZEKE: and :-EDSEL enter with FISTE, front.

- PROSECUTOR

The Prosecution

GUARD #1

Calling Hanover

GUARD #2

-Calkting Hanover

GUARD #5

Calling Hanover

GUARD =4

' Hanover Fiste!

and’ push their way ‘to the

calls Hanover Fiste.

Fiste!

Fiste!

-EXE and EDSEL sit down, while HANOVER FISTE, small and shabby, walks up to the witness stand, nervously clutching

the small green bail in his hand.

his lawyer continue to argue.

Lissen Sternn

As he passes, STERNN and

chenge the plea

to guilty. Throw verself on the mercy of the court.

STERNN

I told you, Charlie. I got an

angle.

HANOVER FISTE is sworn in, as Sternn's lawyer begs.

oe

zy

Pe Tete 0

tos vast

4") va

are

tal

"CONTINUED: LAKYER But the most we can hope for is to get ya buried in secrecy so yer grave don't get violated! Plead guiity! STERNN - Shut up, Charlie. I got an ancle, LANYER What angle? STERNN {pointing to Fiste) Hin! CUT TO Viiness S250 PROSECUTOR State vour name for the record. FISTE (fidgeting nervously with the green bali} I am Hanover Fiste. CUT TO STERNN

J promised him thirty-five thousand zuleks to testify on my behalf.

CUT BACK TO

a a

ai

ut

STERNN AND HIS LAWYER

They look at each other, shocked.

re STERXN § LAKYER Huh? !?

CUT BACK TO

WITNcSS STAND

and he's ah, never done anything

illegal . {turning sharply)

me »s- unless you count all the times

sate he sold dope discuised as a nun?!

ca (reverting to meskness

er He's always been a good, law-abiding citizen

fo (shouting at himself)

ue Awww, gimme a break!!

os (gentle again)

re of the Federation, and, and

{going schi-:o) Shut Up! Shut Up! Shut Up! (gentle, but starting to sweat)

Deir ea

a community-concious individual, ah, ah (rising in crazed anger} STERNN!!! (pointing as he screams}

He's nothin’ but a low-down, double-dealin', back-stabbin’, larcenous, perverted worm! !

i STERNN and his lawyer look on, horrified, as FISTE'S body oT Starts to grow.

ie: (CONTENUES)

te E<*

rer

FISTE

Hangin's too good for him!! New muscles tear through FISTE'S shabby clothes.

FISTE

Burnin's too good for him!! Growing larger, he starts foaming at the mouth.

STERNN

Hanover ...

FISIE

He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!!!

FISTE rams his hands down onto the Witness Stand, shattering it completely.

STERNN

Hanover

He hurls the Prosecutor aside, and moves towards STERNN with thundering footsteps.

Still growing, he rips apart the Judge's bench as he passes it. Finslly he stands towering in rege over the terrified STERNN .

cs H-h-hey, Hanover ir n-now take it easy, Hanover, ae I'm sure we can talk this ov

Instinctively, STERNN leaps back as FISTE'S giant hands come smashing down in the spot where STERNN stood. The gallery scatters screaming as STERNN runs for the door. Slavering, FISTE thunders after him. STERNN runs through the exit, bolting the door behind him. FISTE follows, tearing the door apart, and bringing the entire courtroom wall down in ae the process.

CUT TO

STERNN

Running down a hallway, STERNN passes a group of Regolian cops, who raise thelr weapons in an. attempt to block the rampeging FISTE.

REGOLIAN #1

Halt, clik, in the name of the Federation, clik. Where is vour corridor pass?

amen

(to other Regolians)

Unco-operative humanoid, clik,

Bi blast him.

Ye They open fire, but FISTE is unstoppable. Still growing, i he grabs the Regolians's weapons, crunches them up and eats - then.

Ke REGOLIAN #1

te, You are now in violation of Code

i 103-N-17, clik, paragraph A-64 .. unauthorized. consumption of Federation property. Please come quietly, clik, Pe, ... thenk vew.

tes With a single clap of his enormous hands, FISTE crushes the a Regolian's metal skulls tegether into an accordian the thickness of a dime.

ws cry TO

- Pg. 58 STERKN

Ce He races through a metallic hallway, and ducks into a boiler es room, then down a long dark tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, ee STERNN comes to a dead-end, and stops to rest. Pe STERNN as Oh, this looks good. . FISTE [e (growls) an wow

Oh, duck under here . FISTE ; i I'll get you!! iA STERNN ~ I think I'll turn here! [S (runs, gasping) be Come on feet, don't fail me now! ke FISTE

Sternn!:!

STERNN

Un oh ... {runs) re Ah, gasp, ah whew, lost him! is FISTE

STERNN ! } co STERNN (e Okay, Hanover, you've had this Ey coming! EB (CONTINUES)

Pe. 59

Taking a deep breath, STERNN reaches into his pocket, pulls out a wad of bills, and counts them out as he hands them to FISTE. STERNN Let's see, thirty-three, thirty-

four, thirty-five thousand culeks. Thanks Hanover.

S'nothin, boss.

Counting his money, FISTE starts shrinking back to his normal size.

STERNN

And Hanover

FLUSTE

Yes?

STERNN pulls a lever, which opens up the floor below FISTE, who screams, falling out into szace. As FISTE slides out, STERNN grabs the monev from FISTE'S hand and smiles.

CUT TO

All is quiet across this vast expanse of rusted pipes and barren desert. The silence is broken by a whistling sound which gets louder and louder. Then, thud!

A green ball lands in the dirt in front of us. Fluttering down around it are HANOVER FISTE'S tattered clothes. Then the

burnt ashes of Hanover's body land in a small pile beside his clothes. Panning up we see TAARNA flying on her bird in the

distance. CUT TO

Pe. 60

TAARNA

She swoops down and flies through a maze of rusting pipes and. cables which look like the remnants of an ancient power station. Then she steers her bird through a hidden opening in the rotting floor, and enters a magnificent secret hideaway cut deep into the rock.

CUT TO

Landing her bird on @ circular slab of gleaming marble, TAARNA dismounts and walks over to a shimmering pool. Here she disrobes, and picking uv a small gold pitcher, she pours an ancient oil

over herseiz., It shines and sparkles as it touches her skin.

Then she steps into the water, where her body seems to sparkle even brighter.

Finishing her sacred bath, she steps cut and walks to a stone wall, When she touches it, a rock panel slides away to reveal a gold chest. TAARNA opens it.

Inside the chest lies a glistening set of armoured garments,

so bright that TAARNA must shield her eves for a moment. Then, as she looks down at the armour, the voice of TAARAK THF. DEFENDER comes into her head.

To defend - this is the Pact.

but when life loses its value, and is taken for nought, then

the Pact is ... to avenge!!

Through a series of dissolves we see TAARNA’S hands sensuously fitting the various metallic pieces over her firm body. Finally we pull back to see her fully.

Standing before us, glistening in the torch-light, she looks magnificent. Reaching once more into the chest, TAARNA pulls out a golden sword. As she holds it, it seems to vibrate, almest buzzing in her hands. Suddenly she swings it, slicing cleanly through one of the stone torches on the rock wall. As the burning torch falls to the ground, TAARNA leaves.

CUT TO

OPE rast he Sanit

Pas evs

a

aah

‘

i

&

Sate et

ie ‘.

Pg. 61

TEE SKY

‘From over our heads, TAARNA comes soaring past, her armour

gieaming in the rays of the setting sun. Below her, she sees a metallic holiday-town filled with barbarian soldiers. Drunken blue men fight in the streets, strange animals run around loose, and dead or drunken bodies lie in the gutters.

Looking down, amidst the melee, she sees three winged creatures tied up in front of a bar. The camera zooms in on one of the creature's saddlebags. It has a silver medallion set into the leather, identical to the one which TAARNA pried from the Elder's fingers.

CUT TO

INSIDE THE BARROIM

Barbarian honky-tonk music fills the crowded room, as various barbarian soldiers sit drinking and fondling the bar-girls who are dressed in cheap, flashy metal outfits.

Three of the blue barbarians are particularly drunk and ; rowdy as they push a non-barbarian down, dump a drink on his nead, laugh and kick hin.

CUT TO -

THE BARRCOM DOOR

TAARNA walks in through the swinging silver and plexiglass doors, past the three soldiers kicking their victim. She sits down at the bar. The three brutish blue soldiers finish stomping the man and walk over to the bar, crowding close around TAARNA.

BARBARIAN 1

Hey, look. A new one. {to Taarna) Where you from, baby?

TAARNA ignores hin.

(CONTINUES)

fs te cs

BARBARIAN, #2.

Noesn't talk much, does she ?

BARBARIAN #5-

She doesn't have to talk for what I want to do with her.

CuT To

It slowly moves down to her sword, and unclips the safety strap. CUT BACK TO THE BARBARIANS

C'mon babv, let's see what's under there.

BARBARIAN #1

(starting to undo her breastplate)

Yeah, let's have a look. Taarna slowly stands up, pushes their hands away, and takes a step back. BARBARIAN #2

Heev, She's tough.

BARBARIAN #3 Maybe she wants to fight? They all laugh. BARBARIAN #1

or maybe she wants to take us all on?

Still laughing, they move towards her.

(CONTINUES)

In a blinding flash, TAARNA draws her. golden sword, and wielding it like a Samurai master, slices off all three of their heads. In an instant, the sword is back in its sheath.

Pt The barbarian’s heads stop laughing as they fall to the ground. i " ~ The music stops, and everyone in the bar stares at TAARNA.

Stepping over the bodies, TAARNA walks up to the bartender,

pulis out the parchment picture of the glowing mountains, and

oe shows it to him. The bartender looks at it carefuliv, then points out the window.

BARTENDER

Bevond the oasis.

TAARNA nods and leaves.

CUT BACK TO

ae ' THE BARTENDER

i His eves start to turn green. The camera gets closer and

Be closer to his glowing eves, until the green glow turns into

. the image of a ball, lying in tne ground, in AUSTIN'S holograph. a

bys,

ay CUT TO

pe AUSTIN

AUSTIN is crouched over the machine turning several knobs, trying to make the ball move. Nothing happens.

ee (to himself}

Hmmm ... must be jammed.

Frustrated, AUSTIN picks up a flashlight, opens up a compartment fs underneath the control knobs, and takes a look inside. While i ALSTIN fiddles inside the machine, we see two hands appear on the holograph screen and pick up the green ball. AUSTIN looks over to the holograph and notices.

Cc AUSTIN

Where'd it go? CUT TO

en an Le al 2)

THE HANDS

As the hands cradle the green ball, the camera pulls back

to reveal.a skinny, unco-ordinated boy wearing thick eveglasses, carrying the sphere across his backyard. This is DAN.

oa DAN . ¥.0 Me It all started when I found the green meteorite. I read in Farraday's "Life as of the Planets" that smaller ones like ag this are supposed to burn uv when they enter the atmosphere, but for some reason s this one didn't ... pe Coe

DAN carries the ball into a typical small-town house.

DISSOLVE TO.

we T.V. ANTENNA ON ROOF - STORMY NIGHT

As the narration continues, we follow two red wires down from the T.V. antenna, along, the rocf, anc into BAN'S ati Window. The wires run through a bucket cf water and are up to some electronic parts on DAN'S desk.

Cc coaxed

+ + -

rn

aa

i (V.0.)

»». $0 I] brought it up to my roon, stuck it in my rock collection and

ae with natural electricity ...

The camera pans around the room to show various displays of DAN'S scientific tinkering - blue-ribbon science projects, “transparent models of a man and a woman showing all internal

organs, and many books.

In the corner, the green ball sits in DAN'S rock collecticn.

At his desk, DAN impatiently shuffles through the dusty pages of an old scientific journal.

CONTINUED :

- DAN. (V.0.)

«++. and with the storm warnings up, I. figured maybe tonight I'd hit the

jackpot. Ali I needed was a little juice.

He looks out the window at the gathering storm.

CUT TO

Crackling from the sky, a bolt of lightning strikes the television antenna and surges along the wires into the attic.

CUT TO

1@ lightning flashes into DAN'S apsaratus, lighting it up brightly. DAN It works! Suddenly, an electric arc iumps from the bucket of water

and crosses the room to join with thw ball on his shelf. Caught in the middle, DAN begins to glow green.

The electrical field opens up a shimmering gateway into another universe and DAN de-materializes.

CUT TO

Pe. 66

oo

THE TRANSFORMATION

We. float in darkness for a moment as black shapeless images

zoom past.

I felt like I was nothing - just atoms floating in the -darkness ...

Then, tiny beams of light join to form a glow in the corner

of the screen. The glow gets brighter and starts moving slowly around the screen. Now, we can make out some of the images whipping past - a half-formed hand, pages of a book, a crumbling pyramid, a green ball. ‘

Then, a body started to re-form around me. Only it wasn't my body - this one had muscles.

Sturdy muscular parts begin to materialize around the moving light. They join up with each other to form a powerfully built human figure.

Finally a man’s face takes shape and, a gets brighter and clearer.

Bey

it

fa

crms, everything

It was a great body, but I wasn't too crazy about the face.

The powerful figure, DEN, turns slowly as he ficats and begins to look at his hands and arms. Moving his mouth, he speaks in anew voice - deep and powerful.

Hmmm ... no hair.

Suddenly, the background explodes into fields of radiant colours as the body accelerates away from us and passes through a second shimmering catewar.

CUT TO

Pe. 67

—

THE NEVERWHERE PYRAMID

DEN, strong,’ masculine and hairless; materializes cradled in the hand of a huge stone idol. He is naked and unconscious Above him, the glowing green ball is held in the idol's other hand.

The camera pulls back to show that the idol is Standing on the deck, stop a huge, truncated pyramid. The deck forms a walkway’ around a swirling pool of green water.

Kneeling all around the seething pool, are lizard-men, wearing

riest's rebes. Two of them stand beside a glass coffin. inside the coffin, lies a naked girl, bound and gagged.

Uluhtec, UWluhtec ...

rr _

Directly in fron or the idol, a regal-looking QUEEN, wearing a revealing velvet cloak, is praying to the raging water. QUEEN By the powers of the glowing Loc-Nar placed in your idol's

hand, I demande vou come forth, “Uluhtec!

The waters of the sacrifical pool rage mere violentiy and a low rumbie is heard far below.

CUT TO

THE IDOL'S HANDS

The green ball, (Loc-Narj, glows brightly as DEN opens his eyes, looks down and notices his enormous genitals.

DEN

Hmm... big!

Seeing an animal-skin hanging from the idol, he rips off a piece and wraps it around himself.

"SPAS

fF:

- ~, ra re

re ot

_ DAN There was no way I was gonna

walk around this place with my dork hangin’. out!

Suitably coveted, he survers the ritual taking place below him. DAN (V.0.) Wow! This looked like something Tight out of the Ten Commandments.

CUT TO

The QUEEN is kneeling before the seething water.

N

ti

QUE

Grant me vour strength in return

for a living mortal sacrifice: It

has peen ordained. Come forth Uluhtec! I demand it!

Two lizard priests remove the terrified girl from the glass case and hold her out over the swirling water. The QUEEN nods and the two priests drop her in.

CUT TO

THE IDOL'S HANDS

Seeing the girl struggle in the water, DEN'S eyes grow wide. DAN (V.0.) Khat'd they do that for?

He stands and dives into the raging pool, swimming powerfully towards the drowning girl.

CUT TO

te

‘fe

at

on hey

Pe. 69 UNDER WATER

Reaching her, DEX grabs the girl's bound ankles, hooks. them. over his -head and drags her-through a décayed hole in the underwater wall. Inside a stone tunnel, they are swept along by the current.

Normally, I'd be dead by now. Tf kept thinking I was going to run out of air, but my new body worked great. J just hoped her body was working as good as mine.

CUT TO

DEN and the girl are washed out into a pond at the center of a beautiful fieid of lilies. He pulls her out of the water, unconscious. As he unties her, she begins to stir. GIRL Thank you.

She takes DEN'S hand and lies back in the flowers, her beautiful breasts exposed in the suntignt.

DEN

Are you from around here?

I'm from another world - from a place calied Earth.

“.

PN} ie

Pg. 70

DEN,

Earth? JI too am from Earth. How did you get here?

GIRL.

Mv name is Katherine Wells, and I'm from the British colony of Gibraltar. Time makes no diff- erence here, but there it was

the summer of 1892. It was evening - I'd gone for a walk on the cliffs when suddenly a sphere fell from the sky. Following its giow, I came .to a shining gate made out of light. Unable to resist, I Stepped through it and awoke in this worle. There I was thin and weakly, fit only to stay indoors.

(she stands up)

But here, somehow I am stronger, more alive,

(sne stretches seductively}

... more fully 2 woman. DAN. (V0.3

You're not kidding.

1, too seem better equipped on this world. . (he holds out his arm)

My arms are more powerful. (stretches his fingers)

Even my fingers seem to hold great strength.

nh, KATHERINE walks up close to DEN, takes his hand and touches oOo the fingers to her breast.

. KATHERINE

You saved my life. I have no reward to give you, but if any part of me pleases your senses - I would give it willingly.

She circles her nipple with his baby finger. DAN {V.0.) Wow! This was creat! There was no way I'd get a cnick like this

back-on Earth. --I mean, look at her!

Taking KATHERINE in his arms, DEN lays her down on a bed of flowers and Degins to tenderly make love to her.

weTe, but they sure picked a bad time to show up

The ugly beast-men grab DEN and KATHERINE as we;

DISSOLVE TO

m

bath

ARD'S THRONE ROOM

The beast-Captain keeps his machine gun trained on DEN as the soldiers lead him into. the cavernous room. 7

They split us up and’ took me to this weird castle-type place.

I wanted to find out where they'd _ taken Katherine, but none of these guys seemed to speak English.

In the middle of the room there is a round stone pecestal with a throne carved into it. On the throne sits ARD, a child-like ruler with a sadistic glint in his eye.

the one who dared to steal the female sacrifice from the Queen.

r

DEN

Where is the girl?

the revolution and the next ruler of the world.

The girl!!

Fa +

Ye

rn

-ARD

Well, aren't we fierce?

Tf vou are truly as tough as you seem, then you will serve me well. But first, a test. Guards! Castrate him! .

Uh oh.

Twe vestial guards approach from behind, brandishing curved short-swords. DEN turns instinctively, dodges the first thrust and delivers a bone-shattering elbow to the beast's head, crushing his skull.

Spinning with his own momentum, DEN throws a rock-hard fist into the second guard's chest, snapping his rib-cage and

sending him flying across the roon. Without pausing, the bald muscleman grabs-the nearby beast- Captain and lifts him into the air by his machine-gun. The Captain hangs on as DEN twists the gun, butts it into the creature's groin ané then drives the weapon through the Cactain's jaw. The creature crumples, leaving DEN with the gun. DAN (¥.0.) Boy! I was pretty good at this stuff. ARD Excellent. You are worthy to serve me. DEN

(aiming machine-gun at him)

Give me the girl or die.

i? be

a ef t

my

tel

ree

. ARD - ; ot (taking it lightlv)

Well, if I have a choice, I'll take death. DEN ' So be it. DEN fires, spraying a row of bullets across ARD'S body. The bullets blast big vellow holes in ARD'S chest, but there is ne blood. ARD looks up and laughs. ARD Ha ha ha! You'll have to

do better than that.

As DEN looks on, ARD'S wounds miraculously close up and heal themselves over.

in the girl; I've had her encased in glass.

ARD pulls the velvet covering off of a glass box to reveel KATHERINE, unconscious, sealed inside. DEN

Sne's dead.

ARD

Actually no. She's sleeping, but only 1] can awaken her.

”.

NCRL. a huge gorilia-man, in 2 puro

evervbody dies.

Pe. 76

DEN

What do you want of me?

DEN

What is this Loc-Nar?

ARD

The Queen's glowing sphere, vou fool. The sacrifice to Uluhtec can only be performed by the

possessor ci the sacred Loc-Nar,

(calling out)

Nor]!

b 1] | cu

This is Norl, my bravest warrior. You will go with him to the Queen's castle and steal the Loc-Nar. Then I will give vou the girl.

DEN

If vou refuse, vou die, she dies,

Sounded reasonable to me.

DEN looks down at KATHERINE'’S motionless body.

DISSOLVE TO

In the moonlight, DEN and NORL lead a ‘squad of beast-warriors, armed with automatic weapons, along the river towards the Queen's

ae Ely i

wee

‘ castle. te — NORL -({to Den) ie Ssh. Guard post ahead. We “et must go underground, ig NORL lifts a rock to reveal an underground passageway. DAN (V.0.} ce This guy Norl seemed to know what E he was doing. And, for a gorilla, his English wasn't half bad.

DEN and the warricrs enter the underground passage.

UXDERGROUND TUNNEL

The group, carrving torches, moves along the dark tunnel. They

i pass a bubdble-window with shark-faced eels swimming on the other RE Side. Ee NORL (to Den) i We're underneath the castle moat.

DEX nods. An ugly growl echoes through the tunnel up aheac. the warriors freeze and murmur to each other in their own languages.

What are they saying?

oe (CONTINUED)

a - . NORL

They talk of the savage beast who prowls these catacombs with a fierce hunger and sharp teeth ...

(gestures) six inches long.

A dog-faced warrior snakes his head and says something to NORL.

Suddenly, a savage beast appears and chomps his long, rater-shars teeth into one of the warriors at the end of the line. DEN, NORL, and the remaining warriors run on through the tunnel as, behind them, the monster pulls his victim epart.

CUT TO

DOCREAY IN CATACOMBS

DEN, NORL, and the reméining werriors arrive at a door in the rock wall.

Now we separate. You and korg

take this door into the Queen's quarters. The rest of us will move through the wails and enter her chamber from the other side. Whoever gets the Loc-Nar first will return it to Ard. Good luck, Den.

DEN nods, puts out his torch and carefully ovens the door as NORL moves off.

CUT TO

Pe. 79 DARK ROOM.

DEN and KORG silentiy enter. Across the dark room, the glow of the green ball casts a pale light. ©

ball I dug up in my beck yard.

“They tip-toe towards it: ~

As I saw the Loc-Nar's glow I

had this real funny feeling. All by themselves, my hands reached forward to touch it. But the Loc-Nar moved out of the way. Insteac, mv hands felt something else - warm flesh. Then the lights came on.

In the brightly lit room, DEN is standing before the beautiful semi-clad QUEEN, and holding her firm, naked breasts in his hands. Looking around, he sees that he and KORG are surrounded br 2 brigace of the Queen's ugly guards, swords raised.

As DEN knees one in the groin and swings his gun into another's face, four of the guards surround KORG and club his brains out.

(CONTINUES)

Pg. 80

But DEN, ‘still going strong, throws two guards into the wall and heaves a third out the window. As the QUEEN watches with glee, more guards rush into the room and DEX is finally over- powered and held down. The Captain of the guards places a long knife against Den's throat.

CAPTAIN

Can I slit his throat, vour Majesty?

The QUEEN, eveing Den's magnificient body, Sighs.

' QUEEN

Yes, slit his throat.

CAPTAIN

Thank vou, vour Majesty.

es his ‘knife against Den's flesh, the S her hand.

in mind.

She takes Ren's hand and leads him into an adjoining room, as the guards grumble to one anothe~.

GUARD #1

Jeez, not again.

GUARD #2

This always happens.

CAPTAIN

Look, she's the Queen. She can do whatever she wants.

(CONTINUES)

orga “Swahe &

f :

‘J iio) . (oe Ww

Guard #2.

Yeah, sure.

GUARD #1.

. Sure. CUT TO

THE QUEEN'S BOUDOIR

The QUEEN stands before DEN, hands on her hips and @ funny look.

‘in her eve. °°

QUEEN

If vou please me, I may let you live.

She smiles, and appreaches DEN.

Uh on.

DEN

What must I do?

The QUEEN lets her cloak drop to the floor as she gets closer. She is naked underneath.

and now, twice in one day. What a place!

FCONTTNUES)

by: Ee.

hoe

pee oe gee i,

She

bed.

THE QUEEN'S BED

+

Pg. $2

QUEEN |

Come with me.

DEN

Mmmm.

ware anc takes his hand, leading him towards the

DISSoLVe TO

DEN and the QUEE™ are lying undressed on the enormous bed. The QUEEN has a very contented look on her face. DEN looks

exnausted.

As the Neverwhere moon rises outside the chamber

window, the QUEEN slowly runs her hand over DEN'S bulging

muscles.

The rising moon climaxes our love, Den. Is is a Sign, a new beginning.

DEN

I had no idea what she was talking atout.

Neverwhere is a troubled land, but together we could calm it.

We could rule side by side.

Your strength has brought great peace to my restless body, It could bring great peace to all the troubled people of this land.

“i iy Me:

- DAN” (¥.0.)

I knew I was good, but I didn't know - I was that good. ,

Suddenly the Captain and his guards burst through the door. CAPTAIN

Your Majesty! The Loc-Nar is missing - stolen!

The QUEEN jumps to her feét in a rage ane points to DEN.

Fiend! You make love to me while

your accomplices steal the magic sphere! Guards! Take him:

The guards grab DEN as the QUEEN snatches one of their big spiked clubs

Heaving the guards aside, DEN breaks free and jumps out the chamber window.

CUT TO

DEX fails down, down into the swirling waters of the castle moat.

Pg. 84

THE QUEEN

She is livid. QUEEN Prepare the flying lizards. I want his head!

CUT TO

Pulling himself out of the moat, DEN knocks | a guard off Ais lecpard/horse and rides off: -

CUT TO

ARD is kneeling at the edge of the sacrificial pool. Beside him sits a long glass case wrapped in chains. Through the chains we see KATHERINE trapped inside - fully conscious and terrizied. Ard's bestial warriors stand all around carrying torches and spears.

Above them, the Loc-Nar sits glowing in the stone idol's hand.

placed in your idol's hands, I command vou - come forth Uluhtec!

The green water in the pool immediately begins to churn violently and leap into the air. <A bolt of lightning crackles in the sky.

CUT TO

DEN is racing across the barren desert on his leopard/horse. Visible in the distance is the outline of the huge, truncated pyramid where he first saved KATHERINE.

As he Tides, he sees the green glow of the Loc-Nar, sparkling in the glass surfaces of the coffin in front of it.

(CONTINUES}

ts Ky fee

CONTINUED: |

(to himself)

Katherine!

‘He spurs his leopard/horse on into the night.

* " CuT To

ANOTHER PART OF THE NEVERWHERE DESERT

The QUEEN, riding a flying lizard, leads her army in pursuit of DEN. - mo

There he is, vour Majesty!

CUT TO

GCUEEN'S P.0.\.

Up ahead, silnouetted in the moonlight, she sees DEX, riding up the steps of the pyramid. The camera pans to the green glow atop the torch-lit pyramid.

Tne Loc-Nar!

CUT TO THE QUEEN QUEEN {shouts to her men) Faster! To the pyramid! She whips her lizard harder. CUT TO

aL a

t¢

» io

Poetical yacaoe

7 ay +

a Qc

Pe. 86

THE NEVERWHERE PYRAMID

_ARD is incanting to the raging water while two hooded monks

stand beside him, holding the struggling KATHERINE out over the pool.

Chanting the name “Uluhtec", the two monks start to throw the girl in when suddenly a third monk leaps forward and

. grabs her, kicking the other two monks into, the water.

The intruder's hood falls away and his bald head gleams in the moonlight.

ARD

No! You'll ruin everything!

ARD jumps up and runs toward the Loc-Nar, perched in the stone idol's hand. Grabbing it, ARD holds the glowing ball above him.

kill them! kill them both!

Suddenly, a hand leaps out of the darkness, gripping the Loc-Nar just above Ard's hand - it iS the QUEEN.

QUEEN

The Loc-Kar is mine!

t ir Me

ee

te a

re Ane

R&S.

Stupid bitch! Get away from me!

As ARD and the QUEEN fight over the Loc-Nar, the Queen's troops.

‘pour in and battle with Ard's soidiers. Thunder roars overhead. ©

CUT TO

DEX

Holding KATHERINE in one arm, DEN smashes a nearby soldier ane grabs the beast's spear. With the battle raging all around him, DEN looks up at the sky. «© =. 0. >: ee eh +

CUT TO

THE Shy

Lightning crackles, illuminating the night with electricity.. CUT BACK TO

DEN

DEN reaches down, picks up the long chain that was wrapped around the glass case and attaches one end to his spear. He kicks the other end into the raging water, then heaves the spear

with all his might into the head of the stone idol.

in the same instant, a bolt of lightning fires down from the sky, Striking the idol full force. The lightning bolt travels through the spear and down the chain, into the water. Sudderly, the electrical energy arcs across to join with the Loc-Nar.

Holding onto the Loc-Nar, ARD and the QUEEN begin to glow green, then de-materialize into a shimmering dimensional warp. The

troops stop fighting and look on in amazement, until all that remains is the glowing Loc-Nar, hanging in mid-air.

Where did they go?

Be

Pg. &8& CONTINUED: | , DEN . They are gone. That is all that matters. . DAN - (¥.0.) . They probably went back to Earth. Boy, will Mom be surprised. , @® Suddenly, the Loc-Nar falls to the ground at Den's feet. KATHERINE {looking down) The Loc-Nar ... you could have the

power of Uluhtec. You could be Tuler over all these people.

Forget it.

In a single powerful leap, DEN, carrving KATHERINE, bounds up

onto the Queen's flving lizard and they fly off. The amazed troops

watch for a moment, then shrug and resume fighting.

CUT TO

KATHERINE clings to DEN as they fly.

distance.

a oy einues, Soka Fe

2 DAN “(¥.0.)

On Earth, I'm nobody. But here, I am DEN. CUT TO

The camera pans down the stone statue to the glowing sphere, which lies abandoned on the ground. The soldiers are gone. As we watch, time begins to accelerate and the Neverwhere Pyramid ages and crumoles all around the green ball. The earth heaves and shifts, and dense vegetation grows up through the cracks in the ground.

A prehistoric man walks up and sees the glowing ball under a fern. Fascinated, he picks it up and looks at it, as the foot of a Tyrannosaurus Rex comes down, crushing hin.

Time advances again as the dinosaur becomes a skeleton, and

a Biblical tent-community grows up around the ball. In the fire-light, the Nomadic tribesmen are watering their animals, ; when one of the camels paws at the grounc, uncovering the glowing ball. Scared, the camel struggles and trvs to break its ropes. Out of nowhere a Roman Legion attacks, slaughtering the tribdesmen.

Time accelerates again, and the conquering Romans build a temple, placing the green ball in the head of a golden idol. Then the Romans grow fat and debauched, while slave-girls feed them grapes. As the ball glows, the temple crashes down around the debauched Romans, covering them and the green ball in rubble.

Over the ruins of the temple, a succession of primitive mud and clay huts evolve into the thatched-roof cottages of a Medieval Village.

A Medieval stone-cutter finds the ball, and mortars it in with his stones as he builds a water well in the centre of the village. Satisfied with his work, he lowers the bucket to draw himself

a drink. Behind him, an ox-cart comes roaring around a corner. The axle breaks and a heavy wooden wheel careens along, striking the stone-cutter in the back and knocking him into the well.

Time advances once more as the Medieval village grows and transforms into a Victorian-style town. It is evening, and the stone well now sits under a gazebo at the centre of a gas- lit village green.

A fancy carriage carrying a Victorian gentleman passes by and circles the green.

pes

Moving’ in through a window across the street, we see a-seductive- looking woman dressing herself in black garters and lace. This is intercut with the carriage circling the green, until the woman, who looks like a high-class harlot, finishes dressing and leaves her. room. Crossing the street, she waiks up to the gazebo and leans provocatively up against the well.

The gentleman gets out of his carriage, approaches the woman

and propositions her. She smiles, touches, and teases him. We | pan down their legs to the green ball glowing in the well-wall. Suddenly red blood begins to drip over the bali, and the woman's body falls to the ground. The camera pans up to the well-bucket, where the gentleman is washing the blood from his hands.

As time begins to move forward again, the man ages and hobrles away, aS the well crumbles and cheap turn-of-the-century row- hovsing grows up, Covering the green ball. ‘The’ town becomes dirtier and blacker, and smokestacks blow soot into the morning sky. Almost on cue, the doors of the houses open, and grim coal-miners emerge, shuffling through the filthy streets on their way to work.

The camera pans down to a drain in the gutter. <A rat appears. Panning back up, the street is now empty. A bell is heard ringing, and a horse-drawn Red Cross cart pulls around a corner and into view. Masked workers follow the cart. One rings

the bDeil, while the others pull corpses from the doorways and lead them into the cart. The gutters and windowsilis are now full of rats. Time advances again and the buildings become desertea derelicts. Their decaving timbers green uncer the weight.

A suppert snéeps, and one of the buildings starts to collapse. Falling amidst the crumbling plaster and rotting wood is the glowing green ball. As the ball hits the ¢grounc, it is coverec over by rubble.

The rubble becomes bleached by the hot sun and the landscape grows drier. Sand blows all around, covering over everything. As the sandstorm clears, the entire terrain is nothing but desert. In the distance we can see a group of people walking.

CUT TO

PEOPLE

The people appear to be a band of aboriginal workmen, carrying futuristic laser-shovels over their shoulders. They are led by a goateed archaeologist with an elaborate metal detector. As he walks, his detector starts bleeping. He points to a spot

on the ground, anc the natives start digging with their laser- shovels.

toe ee L-

'D ad

va

One of the workers finds something. WORKER

Kuma!. Kuma! Kuma!

The archaeologist waves the workers away and directs a tread-

Criven shovel-sifter up to the spot. The shovel-sifter digs

‘in and pulls up a latge chunk of desert. When the sand has

siited out, we see the tarnished Loc-Nar in the machine’s grip. It is not glowing. The machine swivels, and a native foreman plucks the Loc-Nar from the shovel-sifter's teeth.

as the foreman touches it, the Loc-Nar starts glowing brightly. The foreman's hands turn green. He looks at his green hands, then he leoks over to the archaeologist. Suddenly the foreman's entire body glows green, and crumbles into dust. The archaeologist and the natives stare in horror at the flowing Loc-Nar, lying in the pile of green dust.

DISSOLVE TO

The camera comes down from high above the city. The general shape and outiine of New York looks familiar, but 4@s we get closer we sénse that semething is different. Fires are

burning in various locations below us, and intermittent gunshots become audible as the narration begins.

Yeah, New York, big deal. cum-centre of the world.

Moving down through the skyscrapers, the city gets dirtier and slummier. We pass a dead man hanging from a tenement clothesline. Below us, scruffy children dodge traffic as they play gyro-bdall in the garbage-filled street.

-.. and now they're talking about letting in low-lifes from other planets, too.

et

iw he. “+

\

‘J

ut Ww ty

Under the-narration,. the camera turns ‘a corner and zooms: down through the roof of a parked taxicab. It stops full frame on the newspaper held in the cabdriver's hands. A-slow pan across the front page reveals that the paper is the New York Times, July 6, 2051

One headline reads: "400,000 Traffic Deaths Over Holiday Weekend".

Another reads: "Venus Declared 75rd State". ee The camera stops on a headline reading: “Professor Discovers Ancient Relic --- to be shown in N.Y. Museum". — © . There is an accompanying photo of the goateed archaeologist and his beautiful daughter standing beside a glass and metal case containing the Loc-Nar. A knocking is heard on the cab's window, and the ¢river throws down. the newspaper. ai*g a> * teorat rem Sg Ma tabe hat tat eben YOUNG MAN (trom outside)

You free?

Yeah. Get in. (V.0.)

My name's Harry Canyon. I drive a cab. He flips a switch which unlocks the rear door.

CUT TO

The young man climbs into the back seat and closes the door. Harry's vellow Checker cab pulls out into traffic. The vehicle looks pretty normal except for some vaguely futuristic chrome panels cut into the sides, and thicker, deeper bumpers.

CUT TO

Harry slides open the plexiglass shield separating him from his passenger.

| HARRY

Where to, pal?

HARRY

The U.N. Building. What a joke. Used to be a nice vlace until they turned it into low rent housing. Now it's a dump. I wouldn't live “there if you: -paid-me. =. ce. ne

He switches on the car radio. The music plavs as Harry's

cab passes Various time-altered New York landmarks; 2 sraffiti -covered Empire State Building - windows all boarded up, a decrepit Lincoln Centre, the marquis reading “Continuous Live Sex Show, Also Inter-Planetary Mud-Wrestling", new ultra-tech buildings crammed between half-destroved Wall Street cffice buildings, garbac=s everywhere.

27 3 Inside the cab, the YOUNG MAN pulls 4a gun cut ¢f his jacket, icks his arm through the opening in the plexi-glass shield,

St anc helds the gun to Harry's head.

YOUNG MAN

Okay sucker, hand over vour cash, now !

This city is really going to the dogs.

Harry's foot stretches forward and pushes a footswitch.

A buzzing is heard, and the voung man's body suddenly dematerializes. The gun which he held at Harry's head

falls to the seat beside HARRY, who picks it up and tosses it into the glove compartment, beside all sorts of other futuristic guns and weapons.

e oc ny ¢

de

et “HARRY (V.0.) Stupid asshole. Nobody touches “me unless I want'tem to.

CUT TO

The camera is close-up on the illuminated banner over the main

entrance. The banner reads; "Treasures of the Loc-Nar - Coming

July &th".

We pan down to the museum doors, as a man's body comes crashing

through the plate glass and sprawls forward, cut and bleeding.

It is the goateed professor from tne desert. His daughter

runs out behind him, ripping her clothes on the broken glass. GIRL

Father!

guns come out and start firing. A fat, evil-looking man (RUDNIChK) bends down and grebs the professor's head, jerking it up.

Harry's cab comes cruising by. She runs alongside, pounding on the window.

Help me, please!!

(CONTINUES)

te wo

A laser shot narrowly misses her and blasts Harry's side-mirror. HARRY flips the switch, unlocking the passenger door, and waves her in.

get involved", but something about this dame got to me.

She dives in the back and HARRY floors it. The cab screams away as Laser-shots land all around.

The Loc-Nar ... they wanted

it... but my father wouldn't tell them ... now I'm the only one CUT TO HARRY HARRY (interupting)

Relax sister. There's a cop station up here. You can

HARRY looks at ner in the rear-view mirror. The girl has fainted. HARRY (V.0.) Just what I needed ... guess I'm a sucker for a pretty face.

CUT TO

The police station is an all-metal building with no windows. A plaque on thr front reads "N.Y. POLICE - 52nd DIVISION".

Pg. 96

Harry's cab pulls up. He gets out, carries the unconscious GIRL up to the front door, and pushes a buzzer. VOCE

{over intercom)

Police. Whaddya want?

So what else is new?

HARRY comes up to the front desk and starts to lay the girl down in a chair.

Before you go any further pal, I gotta tell you, it's cash up front. A thousand bucks a cay for a full investigation. Anether thousand if the assailant is caught. Got it?

oT. Fie? ¥

ee Rite et

tea inte

& “He picks up the girl and turns to leave. ES

o HARRY

: ... fur nuthin'!

[ You think vou can do better? ve Join one of the vigilante groups. There's a list of ‘em outside.

CUT 7O

t Gi EXT. POLICE STATION

(i HARRY, carrying the GIRL, comes out of the police station, as @ patrol car screeches to a halt in front cf him. Two cops emerge, dragging a green alisn with four arms.

~ GREEN: ALTEN ig I tell vou I'm an American citizen. a I just lost my pavers.

awe: rie) a

Goddamn illegal aliens.

HARRY heads toward his cab.

‘

Li ree

So here I was, stuck with this beautiful girl. J knew she was gonna be nuthin’ but trouble ...

He looks around at the sleazy neighbourhood. Every doorway and alley seems to have a rapist or thug lurking.

ke

te:

-- but I didn't feel right just leaving her for the sickos. I

dunno, maybe I'm gettin’ sentimental or something ...

DISSOLVE TO

This futuristic bachelor pad is constructed entirely of brightly coloured molded plastic. Bowling trophies sit on a shelf underneath a neon "Budweiser" clock. The place is a mess.

HARRY carries the GIRL in, pushes the light button to "On",

and lays her down on the sofa. As he takes off his jacket

he looks down at the unconscious figure - her clothes torn in all the right places. She moans and starts to come to.

GIRL

Where am I?

and a machine pours and mixes a drink. He hands the GIRL the glass. She sits up and drinks.

for?

(grabbing his arm)

cC ~They'11 kill me next. I'm the only one who knows where it is. They'l!

Ee She starts to cry.

HARRY

Listen, nobody's gonna find vou here. You can sleep on the couch if you wint. There's blankets in the closet, ani beer in the fridge. So help yourself, vkay?

GIRL

Thank you.

HARRY gets into his bed, leaving the GIRL on the sofa. He

ifs pushes the bedside light button to "Off" and rolls ro face ee, the wall. ie HARRY om (¥.0.) e I didn't know whether to believe So her or not. Something inside me ‘ole me it was a sucker play... ie (CONTINUED)

Pg. 100

In the moonlight, the GIRL gets up and crosses the room. Her tattered clothes fall to the floor, and she stands naked beside Harry's bed.

DISSOLVE TO

In the dim light we see the couple making love.

Sucker play or not, I musta turned her on something fierce, cause this dame was goin' for broke. Or maybe it was her first time with a New Yorker. Anyway, nothin’ can beat good old American know-how, and I was givin' this broad the Stars and Stripes Forever.

FADE UP ON

Sunlight streams in through the window as HARRY rolls over and reaches his arm across toward the GIRL. She's gone. HARRY wakes up. Standing around his bed are the policemen from the S2nd Division Station.

Pg. 101

What girl?

The other cops grab HARRY roughly and hold him up to face z the SERGEANT.

tS

Fi

SERGEANT

es Don't play dumb with me, Cabbie.

You showed up at the station last night with a broad over your shoulder. Where is she?!

I don't know what ver talkin’ about. _ The SERGEANT leans in close and grabs him by his pajamas. ee SERGEANT £3 Listen, Cabbie, vou hear from ea . her, you call us! You don't, you're a dead man. Understand?

SERGEANT out.

SteIh

Don't hold yer breath, pal.

ier eh;

CUT TO

we qEete wie Aa!

tad

Fos Loe

Pe &

HARRY walks. out of this space-age condo block set in the heart

of the lower east side. He is about to unlock his cab when suddenly more hands ‘grab him and spin him around.

VOICE (RUDNICK}

Where is the girl?

HARRY

C’mon. Not again.

A muscular fist hits HARRY in the face. Another figure moves in and knees him in the groin. Harry's legs buckle, but he is held up by the tough-looking henchmen from the museum.

RUDNICK, their obese leader, stands in front of HARRY, cleaning his teeth with a toothpick.

C'mon pal, she took off. I don't know where she went.

RUDNICk

I'll get right to the point, Mr. Canvon. My name is Rudnick. I represent a group of investors from a nearby planet who wish to purchase something from the young lady. Their price is fair, but they're starting to get very restless. When you see her, please tell her that time is running out. Thank you, Mr. Canvon. Good day.

The henchmen throw HARRY to the ground and exit.

DISSOLVE TO

HARRY is driving past the neon-lit Church of Allah, in the

middle of the row of unusual churches and religious billboards that make up Times Square. He has a black eye.

The pain in mv head kept reminding

me that I shouldn'ta got involved.

But for some reason I just couldn't get her off my mind.. It was something about her - an element of danger. And it really turned me on.

As HARRY rounds a corner, we see the two cops in an unmarked

car, following him. Behind them, Rudnick's two henchmen follow, riding body-copters. (These one-man vehicles ride on air-cushions and look like molded midget racing cars.)

Suddenly a biack ellipical satellite, the size cf a cannonball, comes flying through the air toward Harry's windshield. At the last moment, it swerves to the left and hovers alongside Harry's window, bleeping loudly. HARRY lowers the window and lights Start to flash on the device, and a high-pitched computer

voice emerges from its grille.

Yeah. Go ahead.

SATTELITE

Thank you. {long tone sounds)

Meet female acquaintance at Statue of Liberty - four o'clock. Stop. End message,

1s ies ve

rad

re Be: ut

Pg. 104

The satellite rises into the sky and flies away.

The girl. It hadda be her.

The clock on the dash reads 3:45. HARRY shifts the cab into jet-drive and blast out into the express lane. Behind hin, his pursuers also move into the express lane.

But first, I had to ditch the parade.

A mini-rader screen pops out of the dash in front of HARRY.

On it he can see the computer outlines of the pursuing police car and body-copters as they criss-cross behind him, trying

to catch up. HARRY speeds through a red light, causing a Liquifuels truck to swerve into the police car and one of

the body-copters. They explode in a huge ball of flame.

The remaining body-copter flies up over the burning wreckage and hovers over the top ot the speeding cab. Then it shoots a laser beam down through the roof, narrowly missing HARRY.

Suddenly a smoke-bomb shoots up from the cab's roof, enveloping the body-copter. Unable to see, the henchman s sashes into

the front wall of the Holland Tunnel as HARRY passes safely underneath.

I knew that option would come in handy.

CUT TO

Harry's cab tears around a corner. Ahead of him he sees the head and raised torch of the Statue of Liberty, visible above the cluster of modern office buildings which surround it on the filled-in bay.

He pulls up to the base of the deserted, decrepit statue, and

Stops. COONTTNTIEOY

C -. CONTINUED:

Pg. 105

I brought a blaster along in

‘case that asshole Rudnick showed ‘up. I wasn't into violence’ any more

than the next guy, but I'd waste that slob for free. -

Cy, The elevator stops, and the doors open onto the platform ee in the statue's torch. Spread out before us we see the entire city of New York. Harry steps out and looks around.

the floor beside

The GIRL nods.

feo

Menem;

HARRY raises his

The GIRL is waiting. She has a glass and metal case on

her. In it lies the Loc-Nar. HARRY (looking at her)

That's what all the excitement's about?

She takes Harry's hand and clings to it.

three hundred thousand Krono-dollars for it...

eyebrows.

GIRL

but I'm frightened. I don't trust him.

HARRY

Three hundred grand is a lotta dough.

GIRL

Will you help me?

‘ i :

MTP ites tet, Mate

ae ee se ets erent

ars r.

cE .* be

Pg. 106

HARRY © (¥ 20%) When she looked at me like that, I knew I couldn't say no. (to girl):

I'll come along for Fifty percent of the take. a

CUT TO

The light from the modern anti-gray causeway overhead illuminates the rusting skeleton of the now-obsolete Brooklyn Bridge. Driving his cab past a sign reading “Bridge Closed - Use At Own Risk", HARRY pulls onto the creaking metal structure. At the other end of the bridge, a pair of headlights blink three times.

GIRL

There they are.

the approaching figure.

ar,

-t.

oan

Pg. 107

At the: centre. of the bridge the two stop.:- RUDNICK opens his

briefcase, and holds it up. It is full of hundred dollar bills. The GIRL presses a button on top of her metal case, and the métal doors slide back to reveal the Loc-Nar glowing through the protective glass. They exchange cases.

The GIRL returns with the money, and jumps in the back of the cab. HARRY floors it.

A glow appears in Harry's rear-view mirror as RUDNICK pulls

the green ball out of its case. CUT TO RUDNICK He looks at the glowing relic in his hands. Then his hands

start to turn green.

RUDNICK

Oh shit ...

Suddenly, he explodes into green flames, which spread over the bridge and start to melt it.

CUT TO

HARRY

He steers the cab off the bridge and heads uptown.

Well baby, we're rich. Whaddaya say we take a trip ... just the two of us? GIRL I'd like to Harry, but I've made other

plans.

Pg. 108

She shoves a pistol through the opening and holds it to- Harry's head.

GIRL |

I'm taking it all. Pull over. He pulls over.

HARRY

You sure this is what you want?

the floor. A buzzing is heard and the girl's body dematerialices. Her pistol drops on the seat next to HARRY.

f

Pretty, but dumb.

- As HARRY drives away, the green glow from the burning Brooklyn Bridge lights up the sky. i HARRY (V.0.)

2 Y'know, even through she woulda

killed me, I feit kinda sorry for ie her. She was okay - just a little & greedy. As for me, I put it down as ” a two-day ride, with one helluva tip. u The cab disappears into the night traffic. Eo CUT BACK TO

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

. The glowing ball lies in.a pool of smoking green liquid,

in themiddle of the bridge. Suddenly, the ball moves Slightly, then floats upwards. It stops in mid-air for a moment, does a loop-the-loop, then makes a sharp, ninety- degree turn, and heads out over the Hudson River.

The camera pulls back to reveal that we are watching the ball on Austin Grimaldi's holograph. AUSTIN is smiling as he controls the bail by working the knobs on the sides of the

' machine.

That's better ... He flies the ball out into space, then brings it down over

the surface of a planet. As the ball streaks along, we see that it is passing above the outlands beyond kraan.

Suddenly the bell jerks up, then sideways, then spins out of Austin's control. He bangs the side cf the machine and turns the knobs, but it is futile, and the ball falis down towards a beautiful oasis in the middle of the otherwise barren outlands.

AUSTIN

Damn

CUT TO

THE OASTS

-

We follow ae ball as it hits the ground and rolls to a stop. All is quiet for a moment. Then without warning, the roots of a tree grow up and entrap the ball completely. in an instant, only a dull green glow is“visible through the web of roots. We hear a rush of air..ab6éve us aS-the camera pans up and TAARNA

flies in overhead. a ™,.

a arto

Pg. 110 i ~ _ TAARNA

io a \Looking down; she sees the waterfall at the centre of the beautiful garden. She pulls on the reins and her bird swoops a down.

\

R3 : \. . rs 7 THE OASIS‘. 7 a | i.

As Taarna's ‘kird drinks, TAARNA picks some lucscious fruit,

ee then walks over to give some to her bird. While they eat,

bes they don't notice that the roots of the trees are silently growing and ciréling around them with ever-increasing speeding fibrous tentacles\ Suddenly, in a burst of growth the roots spring up over their heads, enclosing then in a large TOOT

~~ Cage. ei As TAARNA and the bird look around them, the roots start to we close in. TAARNA draws\her sword and slices through a row

of roots, but each cut end immediately sprouts into eight new, bx tougher shoots which join’with the roots around them.

The bird squawks as the trap..tightens. Suddenly, Taarna's foot hits a rock protruding from the ground. Looking down, she sees o the rock, then raises her sword, end strikes the rock with the Ge. flat side of the blade.

zt The rock sparks violently, and the: sparks fly in every direction, fe attaching themselves to ‘the surrounding roots. They begin to

; smoulder. TAARNA strikes the rock again, harder. More sparks

te fly, and a branch near Taarna's feet catches on fire. Picking

¥* up the branch, TAARNA lights each corner of the envelope of

os roots closing in around then. *

The trees moan in pain as their roots begin to burn. Climbing up onto her bird, TAARNA sets the roof of the cage aflame,

and as the burning hole widens, the bird flaps its charred wings lifting them put through the flames to freedom.

id They fly along the treetops. Below them, the forest screams as the fire spreads. Coming to the end of the forest, they approach a sheer rock wall, with a huge crack in the centre.

f ‘, Wiping her brow, TAARNA pats her bird, and they fly in. Suddenly, : an enormous net of glowing green webbing catapaults up. in front i of Wa , ensnaring them completely. 4

As she struggles fruitlessly to break out of the strange. webbing,

T NA and her bird are pulled lower and lower. m

CUT TO

Pg. 111

‘Barbarian’ soldiers pull on long ropes attached to the net,

dragging TAARNA and the bird to the ground. One of the barbarians looks closely at TAARNA trapped in the webbing, then reaches in, grabs a handful of her long red hair and

_ pulls it back.

The camera zooms in on-an insignia of-a sword, burnt into the ' back of Taarna's neck. The astonished barbarian lets go of

her hair, and runs over to the BARBARIAN LEADER. BARBARIAN #1 (bowing to leader) A Taarakian! We have captured a Taarakian!! BARBARIAN LEADER

A Taarakian? Are you sure?

BARBARIAN #1

Yes, your Holiness.

BARBARIAN #2 And what of the bird?

ey

THE BARBARIAN THRONE ROOM

Pg. 122

. The BARBARIAN LEADER: sits on a throne ih this Roman decadent- — Style room, surrounded by other barbarians. TAARNA, conscious now, is wheeled in, chained spread-eagle to a metal torture- device, her under-garments ripped and torn.

BARBARIAN LEADER

So this is the Taarakian ...

The barbarians laugh. The LEADER gets

up and walks over to

TAARNA. Slowly, he runs his fingers over her tattered clothes.

LEADER

somehow, I always

thought it

would be more difficult to capture

a Taarakian.

He rips off her top.

My whips!

A slave brings forward a nasty assortment of whips, as the barbarians all laugh and move in around TAARNA. The BARBARIAN LEADER grabs a particularly ugly whip, raises his arm, and brings

it down sadistically.

SUITEH HiEytE AWELE

EXTREME CLOSE-UP - LITTLE GIRL'S FACE

CUT TO (>

-—

WI”

TE aan ‘

She screams in pain, as the camera pulls back to show that we are looking at Austin Grimaldi's LITTLE DAUGHTER, plaving at

the back of the half-assembled machine.

She clutches her shoulder

as AUSTIN comes running around the machine to get to her.

AUSTIN

What is it?

Pg. 115 CONTINUED: | 7 : LITTLE GIRL (crying) My shoulder ... it hurts. |.

She points to a red swelling.

There, there ... it's just a bruise. Daddy will kiss it better.

AUSTIN kisses the LITTLE GIRL, then returns to his machine. Using an odd tool, he focuses the holograph on the green bali trapped among the roots in the oasis. Then he makes one other delicate adjustment at the side. Flexing his fingers, he grasps the control knobs and begins to work them.

The ball on the holograph starts to shake, then rips itself

out of its rooted prison, and flies up through the trees and over the forest.

Austin's face grows serious as he controls the flight of the ball. He starts to bring it down over a snow-covered mountain Tange, finally landing it on a stone shelf jutting out from a cliff. Taking his hands from the control knobs, AUSTIN looks pleased. The camera zooms in on the image in the holograph.

CUT TO

As the ball lies glowing, the camera moves out over the shelf to reveal a barbarian encampment on the plateau below us.

Zooming down, we can see a deep pit located in the middle of the camp, with barbarian guards standing around the upper edge.

( CONTINUED)

fs,

‘The camera continues its descent directly down to the bottom

of the pit, where TAARNA, cut, bruised and covered in whip- marks, sits dazed, surrounded by dead and partly dead humanoids. There are dozens of bodies thrown together, but one hulking figure moves alone through. the bodies, and stands. over TAARNA. This is ZUKUS.

— ZUKUS. —— (in a deep, slow voice)

You're hurt. Let me help you.

He kneels down beside her, and pulls a jar out of his pouch. Opening the jar, he spreads an ointment over Taarna’s wounds.

your eyes. The old women said it was magic ... who knows?

He looks down at Taarna's wounds - they are not healing.

TAARNA struggies to sit up - she hurts.

ZUKUS

Here ... hold still.

As ZUKUS spreads the salve on her back, TAARNA locks around at the sheer rock walls rising on all sides. Blue barbarian soldiers appear at the top, and heave some more humanoids down into the pit.

I killed thirty-nine of them before they threw me in here.

(rubbing her back)

(CONTINUES)

oa t a wre

Pg. 115

THE ANIMAL CAGES —

Four barbarians are holding Taarna's bird by ropes, as it squawks and struggles to get free.

Another barbarian is trying to grab the beautiful gold sword out of the sheath on the bird's saddle. As he finally grips

the sword's handle, the sword starts to smoke and sizzle, burning his flesh. The barbarian screams and lets go.

through his head.

The rope-holders pull on their ropes, as the barbarian faces

-the bird, cross-bow aimed. Just as he shoots, the bird jerks

its head up and the arrow misses, and goes through the abdomen of one of the rope-holders. Another barbarian snatches the

“crossbow out of his hands.

BARBARIAN #1

Idiot! Give me that! (Screams)

This barbarian fires an arrow, which misses the bird, but pierces

the hand of a second rope-holder, nailing him to the side of the Cage.

Suddenly the bird squawks loudly, and rises into the air, pulling the remaining rope-holders with him.

The hanging barbarians scream and yell as the bird flies over

a stone wall, smashing them into it. They fall to the ground, and the bird flies off, ropes dangling.

CUT TO

Pg. 116 THE, PIT FLOOR

ZUKUS is sitting next to TAARNA.. She is asleep. . Suddenly her

-eyes open and her ears perk up. She hears something.

_ CUT TO

THE TOP OF THE PIT

. The crimson bird comes swooping. down into the pit, ropes

hanging from its neck.

CUT BACK TO

As the bird passes over, TAARNA jumps to her feet and grabs onto one of the dangling ropes. ZUKUS grabs onto the other TODEe..

Its powerful wings flapping, the bird lifts them both up into

the air. At the top of the pit, ZUKUS lets go and lands on the ground, while TAARNA continues to ascend.

2UKUS (shouting to her)

Good luck!

He knocks a couple of nearby barbarians to the ground and runs Ont.

CUT TO TAARNA She pulls herself up onto the flying bird's back. Looking Tadiant through her bruises, TAARNA spurs the bird on.

CUT TO

THE BARBARIAN LEADER

From the ground, he watches TAARNA flying off and screams at his men.

Pg. 117

BARBARIAN LEADER

Mount the bats! I want her dead! CUT. .TO TAARNA Her bird lifts her high into the mountains. Looking back,

she sees five barbarians on winged bats chasing her and getting closer.

CUT TO

THE BARBARIANS

They hurl spears and fire their multiple cross-bows as they pursue TAARNA.

CUT BACK TO

TAARNA

The arrows and spears are coming dangerously ciose as TAARNA fluidly draws her sword and throws it back at her closest pursuer. The sword slices through the barbarian, killing him. Then it returns directly into Taarna's hand.

Looking behind her, TAARNA sees the other barbarians closing in. She pulls on the reins, directing her bird upwards toward a large rock overhang. AS She passes underneath she raises her sword, striking the rock and causing a rockslide to fall onto the pursuing barbarians.

CUT TO

ONE OF THE BARBARIANS

Before the rocks crush him into the ground, he manages to get off a lucky shot with his crossbow.

CUT BACK TO

4a, +¢ bee ew

Pg. 118 TAARNA AND HER BIRD

The arrow hits the bird.on the throat. It squawks and starts. to flutter wildly, losing altitude. Struggling, the bird Manages a rough landing on an isolated stone shelf. TAARNA is thrown to the ground. Picking herself up, TAARNA looks at her bird - it is lying on the ground wheezing heavily, blood trickling from the wound to its throat. .

With a tear in her eye, TAARNA pulls out the arrow. Turning, | she looks up into the mountaintops above her. They are glowing

' green.

CUT TO

TH

ri

GROUND AT TAARNA'S FEET

The green ball lies there, glowing. An eerie, musical chord is struck.

TAARNA sees the ball, hesitates, then picks it up. As she looks at it, the WITCH'S voice resounds in her head.

Feel it Taarna. Feel death in your hands. For vou stand at the gateway to hell! And as you perish, so dies your race ... and the soul of all being!

With the witch's laugh echoing in her head, TAARNA looks down below her. Hundreds of barbarian soldiers are making their way up the mountainside towards her. She puts the ball into her Sack and drags her wneezing bird to cover. Then she pulls out her golden sword, and stands ready to fight to the death.

The camera pulls back to reveal two barbarians on a cliff above her. They are aiming their cross-bows, about to shoot.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a spear flies through the air, Skewering both barbarians, killing them instantly. They fall off the cliff, crashing down at Taarna's feet. She looks up.

On a cliff above her, ZUKUS stands tall.

(CONTINUES)

cu i

Po. 119

_2UKUS

Once they're dead, I don't mind them so much.

He leaps down to her level, landing near the dying bird. He

examines the bird, then pulis out his jar and rubs some ointment

“into the bird's wound. Then’ he walks over to TAARNA, and

together they look down at the approaching hordes..

ZUKUS

They look mad. That's good. (to Taarna)

They get careless when they're mad.

Suddenly, he is interrupted by a loud sauawk. CUT TO

He is standing, wound heeled, ready to fly.

ZUKUS

I guess that stuif does work better on beasts.

TAARNA is overjoyed. She runs to her bird and jumps on its ack as barbarian arrows start to land all around them. She motions for ZUKUS to get on behind her.

ZUKUS

No, I think I'll stay here ...

(kicking the skewered pair of blue corpses off the cliff)

. With these two, I'm up to forty-three.

TAARNA pulls out her golden sword, kisses it, and throws it to ZUKUS. He catches it and smiles.

ty s

| ey ae

_ ZUKUS.. Thanks.

Pulling on the reins, TAARNA flies her bird up towards the

‘green glow-in the mountains above.

The camera pulls back and we see the image of TAARNA flying in Austin Grimaldi’s holograph.

Perfect. He reaches up and pulls down the hinged upper section of the machine so that the holograph protrudes through the centre. Now, fully assembled, the machine has the exterior appearance of a large Victorian carousel-toy. Pulling back we see that AUSTIN and his machine are at one end of a child's bedroom. His little red-haired DAUGHTER is looking over his shvuulder.

AUSTIN

All fixed, honey.

DAUGHTER

Thank vou Daddy. {rubbing her eyes) But I'm tired now.

The GIRL reaches over and turns off the strange toy. AUSTIN takes her by the hand, walks her across the room and tucks her into bed.

(CONTINUES)

i: CONTINUED: AUSTIN

Sweet dreams.

He turns out the light and leaves. Re =| . ms Doe CUT TO

THE GIRL

She is fast asleep. The camera dollies around to the back of the electronic machine where the green ball sits inside - glowing.

Slowly, slimy silk-like webbing starts to come out of the ball and move towards the LITILE GIRL:

be The camera pans up to the hologrerh, which sparkles to life on its own. ‘ooming into it, xe see TAARNA flying higher and higher towards the green glow in the mountaintops.

fa af CUT TO k ~ TAARNA oh Strange chanting can he heard echeine in the meuntains Sela: L. ner. is ts VOICES a Uluhtec ... Uluhtec ...

It gets louder and louder as TAARNA rises over a peak and sees spread out before her, the enormous creen planetoid pulsing Mmacnizicently in the middle or the circle of mountains.

She is awe-struck. Below her, massed armies of barbarians are moving slowly up mountain paths towards the green planetcid.

a BARBARIANS Ls (chanting)

Uluhtec ... Uluktec ...

‘o CUT BACK TO

I ON EE EE te A ee ee rebn Ot EN PA. et ee ee

"J i)

| il ta te

THE CHILD'S BEDROOM ~

The slimy silk-like webbing has woven a coccon around the girl's feet and is slowly moving farther up her body. As moves, it pulls the green ball towards her.

bee re et et rt — D

CUT To

“TAARNA

As TAARNA gets closer and closer to the gigantic planetoid, the barbarians’ chanting becomes deafening and the green ball in her saddle-bag begins to glow brighter and brighter, shining right through the leather.

She reaches inside and pulls it out. ‘The witch's incantation pounding in her brain, TAARNA looks at the ball. Its green glow starts to move ominously up her arms and the ball gets bigger

as it pulses in unison with the green planetoid.

Struggling to raise the growing ball over her head, TAARNA heaves it with all her might down towards the gigantic green planetoid.

It hits dead center and the huge cellular sphere starts tc shake

and crack and come apert at the seams.

The barbarians stop chanting and stand frezen in fear, at the overwhelming sight.

mn et ft

With an unearthiy rumble, millions of tiny green spheres pour Out of the pianetoid, popping like bubbies as their colour washes away. The barbarians start to shrivel and die.

CUT TO

The slimy green webbing has now spread up past the girl's neck, surrounding her in its cocoon. Beside her, in the webbing, lies her glowing green ball. Suddenly, a white glow flasnes, Surrounding the cocoon. The webbing begins to recede as its colour washes away.

The green ball disintegrates and the webbing rises up off of the LITTLE GIRL, and floats out the open window. As the GIRL is freed, she turns in her sleep. Her red hair shifts and we see the insignia of the Taarakian sword imprinted on the back of her neck.

The camera pans over to the open window. Outside, silhouetted in the night sky, TAARNA flies past.