"JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH" (2025)

Shadows move in the shifting sunlight under dense jungle canopy. A FAMILY OF RED-FACED SPIDER monkeys emerge from the branches, staring out at us with their haunting eyes.

Another CREATURE ROARS nearby, something far bigger, and the monkeys freeze. The trees stir, the monkeys bolt --

-- and a BULLDOZER chews its way through the foliage.

Ile Saint-Hubert 226 miles east of French Guiana 2007

The bulldozer crushes the understory with its front end, and leaves a trail of fresh concrete in its wake. It’s paving over the jungle, to expand --

-- a man-made complex of buildings in a cleared area. There are several two-story buildings, a general store, a gas pump, all built to service a large industrial-looking lab building.

One block-shaped structure is marked GEOTHERMAL, and a series of heavy-duty pipes flow in and out of it, across the village and out into the island. Turbines ROAR inside.

3 AT A HELIPAD, 3

a helicopter with the INGEN logo comes in for a landing.

The helicopter image turns to video, on a screen inside a security bay. Two dozen monitors here cover a number of areas around the island.

Down in a cove, there’s a Coast Guard style boat suspended on a lift, an open motor court with gas pumps, a general store/mini- mart type place, etc.

We settle on a monitor that covers a high-tech laboratory complex, the video image turns real again --

-- and we’re inside the creepy-looking lab. We’re looking through a thick glass wall into a huge clean room, where TECHNICIANS in hazmat suits work at rows of equipment benches.

A large sign encourages the SCIENTISTS working there:

2. 2nd blue rev. 4 September 2024

A WORKER, WILLIAMS, carries a MagJET separation rack of DNA sample tubes to the sealed lab door. He’s eating a SNICKERS bar next to a sign that says “NO FOOD OR DRINK INSIDE COLD ROOM.”

At the door, he pushes a BUZZER and raises a key. ANOTHER WORKER, DESANTO, comes to the other side of the glass, from inside. She raises an identical key.

Needing his free hand, Williams stuffs the last bite of candy bar in his mouth, dropping the WRAPPER in the general direction of a wastebasket.

But the wrapper misses the basket, and Williams doesn’t notice as it wafts to the floor, right in front of the security door.

Williams puts his key in a lock, and DeSanto does the same on the other side of the glass. DeSanto holds up three fingers, counts them down -- two, one -- and when she makes a fist, both Workers turn keys at the same moment.

The door HISSES, a warning BUZZES, and the airlock slides open. As Williams steps through, the change in air pressure sucks the candy bar wrapper inside too.

The wrapper wafts along the floor, blown by the mist and sterilizing steam BILLOWING into the lab from wall vents.

The wrapper floats and hovers in the path of an open glass door, leading to the interior of another sealed room.

We can’t see much inside this SECOND CHAMBER, the steam and mist are thick, but do see a large, oddly-shaped shadow moving in mist, deep inside the room.

TWO SCIENTISTS, flanked by THREE ARMED GUARDS, come out of the room, key the security panel on this side of the door, and another thick glass panel slides shut.

3. 2nd blue rev. 4 September 2024

6 AT FLOOR LEVEL, 6

the door slides shut, pushing the floating candy wrapper up against the frame where it’s meant to seal. For a second, the door panel lights up GREEN to show a seal, and the Scientists and Guards walk off.

But then the light flashes red and the door tries again, opening an inch and closing. The light flashes from GREEN to RED, and back to GREEN again. The wrapper is stuck there now, the distorted word SNICKERS jammed into the door seal.

The light goes SOLID RED, a BUZZER BUZZES --

-- AND THE DOOR SLIDES OPEN ALL THE WAY.

Now, EVERY SINGLE ALARM in the place goes off at once.

This is very bad. A MECHANIZED VOICE announces a containment breach. WORKERS drop what they’re doing and bolt for the exit.

As they move, we get some glimpses of what else is going on in the room, vaguely through the mist and steam --

There’s a BABY-DINO FETUS that has more limbs than it should.

A large, MISSHAPEN DROMAEOSAURID (same genus as a raptor, but malformed) floating in a formaldehyde tank.

A TALL, STUFFED CARCASS of something big and bat-like, its inner organs exposed for study. Nearby, there’s a sign on the wall:

SAFETY FIRST! 9 DAYS WITHOUT INJURIES

4. 2nd green rev. 16 October 2024

7 OUTSIDE THE AIRLOCK DOOR, 7

eight or nine Workers BARREL through the door and it SLAMS shut behind them. But Williams, the one who loves his Snickers bars, reaches the airlock door seconds too late.

He fumbles in his pocket for his key, POUNDING on the door. DeSanto, the Second Worker, now on the outside of the door, rushes over with her key, to coordinate the activation.

DeSanto holds up three fingers, but freezes, staring over Williams’s shoulder.

Williams turns around.

OUT OF THE MIST, something terrible moves toward him. We can’t make out detail, but it’s big, has an overlarge, misshapen head, and moves with the sideways shuffle of a stray.

Williams turns back around, POUNDING on the glass, SHOUTING and BEGGING for DeSanto to put in her key.

But DeSanto can’t. And doesn’t. She lowers her hand, closes her eyes, and turns the other way.

8 INSIDE THE COLD ROOM, 8

the mist and steam swirl, there is a horrible ROARING, SCREAMING, GURGLING and CRUNCHING. The ALARMS become deafening, the sounds of a BIG CITY burst in and we go to --

-- a massive traffic jam. Something is blocking one of the major bridges in and out of Manhattan. HORNS honk, PEOPLE YELL.

PRESENT DAY

We drift down, past another sign, this one A BIG BILLBOARD atop a low building. It shows dinosaurs in the wild, by now a familiar sight, but these dinos are wearing cheesy 3-D glasses.

VIRTUAL DINO 3-D LIVE! Safer for them... Safer for YOU!

Across a corner of the billboard is plastered another message --

ALL TICKETS HALF PRICE

Nobody’s buying. Dinosaur interest ain’t what it used to be.

5. 2nd green rev. 16 October 2024

MARTIN KREBS, fortyish, sober, and dead-eyed, waits impatiently behind the wheel of his car. His RADIO plays, a traffic report:

Krebs, frustrated, gets out of his car to get a look ahead.

11 ON THE STREET, 11

we rise up behind him, to see the crush of cars ahead, and the cause of all the mayhem.

AN ENORMOUS DINOSAUR IS SPRAWLED IN FRONT OF THE BRIDGE.

The traffic report goes on, from Krebs’s car radio:

The prone, wheezing dinosaur is a sad and incongruous sight, but to most of the NEW YORKERS stuck here, it’s just irritating. They YELL at ROAD WORKERS, COPS, and each other.

Krebs gets back in his car --

-- SNAPS off the radio, and SLAMS his door, GRUMBLING.

A VOICE comes from the back seat.

Krebs nearly jumps out of his skin. He turns. ZORA BENNETT, mid-thirties, is now in the back seat of his car, and wasn’t five seconds ago.

6. 2nd green rev. 16 October 2024

7. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Outside, COPS are waving cars around, trying to re-route things. Krebs puts it in gear and they crawl forward, slowly.

They’re passing (slowly) the enormous head of Bronto Billy. It fills the windows on one side of the car. Zora gestures to it.

The car stops abruptly again, gridlock after fifty feet.

8. 2nd green rev. 16 October 2024

She gets out of the car, walks through the traffic, and into a plaza.

We see the reason the car stopped -- a large crane TRUNDLES into view, to be brought to bear on the dinosaur carcass. Krebs gets out and follows Zora.

COP #1 Hey buddy, you can’t leave your car.

Krebs chases after Zora.

Zora stops and looks at the faces around her. But she fights that off.

She turns to go.

She stops. Traffic starts moving, COPS waving, WHISTLES blowing.

9. 2nd green rev. 16 October 2024

COP #1 Let’s move it, back in your car.

Zora and Krebs start back to the car.

That appeals.

The neo-Jurassic hall in a museum is shutting down. It’s closed to the public already, and WORKERS dismantle exhibits, crate up skeletons, and turn off displays.

A big screen on one wall shows video of dinosaurs interacting with the modern world -- in cities, in small towns, and in all sorts of weather. They don’t look like it’s going well.

Zora and Krebs cross the hall to where DR. HENRY LOOMIS, American, mid-thirties, supervises the dismantling and storage of a massive pterosaur skeleton, suspended above them on wires, and attended by WORKERS on scaffolding.

Loomis sees them and hops off the scaffolding.

Loomis nods, and they shake.

The Workers look at Loomis, who is this guy?, but Loomis nods and they take a break.

When they’re out of earshot, Krebs turns to Zora.

11. green rev. 26 June 2024

With growing academic enthusiasm, Dr. Loomis leads them around the hall, pointing to various displays on the walls.

He reaches a large display marked “AGE OF THE COLOSSUS.”

Huge wall screens show images of the three massive species he described, one in the sea, one on land, one avian.

12. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

He points above them, to a pterosaur skeleton with a thirty foot wingspan.

Zora looks at him for a moment, then back up at the images and skeleton of the immense animals.

They’re now in front of a video exhibit called “DINOSAURIA - THE FIRST EXTINCTION.” It shows the Chicxulub Impactor, a comet hitting the earth 65 million years ago, pretty much on a loop.

Krebs turns back to Loomis, trying another tack.

Ouch, that’s a good one. Loomis thinks. He looks around the empty exhibit hall.

He unwraps a mint. His hands are shaking.

Loomis pops the mint in his mouth and CRUNCHES it anxiously.

We soar over the intense blue water of the South Atlantic.

We race toward a port town, its waterfront lined with wooden Dutch colonial buildings, centuries old.

Paramaribo, Suriname 402 miles north of the equator

The heat is blistering. Some DRUNKS are asleep against the walls of the buildings in the shade.

Fishing boats dump the day’s catch on the dock. One net disgorges the enormous, misshaped tail of a creature we haven’t seen before. Another reminder we live in a different world.

We pass over the masts of the boats moored at the shoreline, toward Van Dijk’s, a run-down bar/hotel on the waterfront.

Zora, Krebs, and Dr. Loomis approach the bar.

It’s hot inside Van Dijk’s, the kind of heat where you sweat right through your hat. The stuffed bodies of various prehistoric sea creatures adorn the walls.

The head of one particularly scary marine dinosaur, a PLESIOSAUR, is mounted next to the bar’s corner table, mouth open, as if it’s about to swallow the table whole.

DUNCAN KINCAID, mid-fifties, sits under it. Kincaid doesn’t so much sit at the corner table as preside over it, fussed over by a WAITER who brings him a Bloody Mary. Possibly not his first.

The trio approach. Even before they get to the table:

They sit. Krebs is outraged.

Kincaid notices Dr. Loomis, who is deeply flushed already.

Kincaid sizes him up, then SHOUTS to the Waiter again.

The Waiter returns and sets a large glass of pink in front of Dr. Loomis. Loomis sniffs it.

She turns to Krebs, who is flustered.

Krebs looks from her to Kincaid. Oh.

Kincaid sits back down, immediately all business. As he always planned to be.

Next to them, Loomis is halfway through his Mary Pickford.

Zora moves the glass away from him.

Zora sees someone just entering the bar.

They turn. BOBBY ATWATER, fortyish, well-muscled and sharp- eyed, comes to the table.

She jumps up and throws her arms around him and he bear-hugs her right off her feet.

He gestures, and Krebs looks around. He realizes, perhaps for the first time, that he is sitting almost in the middle of a gigantic, prehistoric plesiosaur mouth.

Loomis takes a gulp of his Mary Pickford.

Krebs sighs.

19. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

The Essex, a 30 meter aluminum-alloy fast patrol craft, knifes through the azure seas off the coast of Suriname, headed south.

188 miles to equator bearing south/southeast

The Essex, a sharp-keeled monohull with open decks fore and aft, can be captained from either an enclosed or flying bridge.

Up top, NINA and LeCLERC, a lithe man and woman in their late twenties, pilot the Essex at top speed from the flying bridge.

The group readies their equipment. Kincaid, Krebs, and Zora are on one side of a navigation table on the open deck, a large ocean map displayed in the tabletop.

Dr. Loomis and Bobby Atwater, each with equipment cases, work on the deck beside them.

The tabletop screen is jammed with data -- ocean depth, currents, speed, direction, and various pulsing dots indicating the location of the boat and other notables.

He points to a flashing blue dot on the tabletop map, some sixty miles south of where they are now. A code is printed next to it -- MSRv.7.2:DOB2/23/2007.

Dr. Loomis, who has been assembling equipment, speaks up.

20. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Atwater SNAPS the latches on a metal case and opens it, revealing an array of lethal-looking darts.

21. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Zora puts a hand on his shoulder. He blushes at the contact.

Kincaid checks the table map, comparing their position with the Mosasaur’s, then checking the sun.

Loomis puts a piece of equipment on the table -- it’s a long red tube, with flanges on each end, and a thick, retractable needle point that delivers into a plexiglass payload tube.

He presses the tube and a quarter-inch needle emerges.

22. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Zora picks up the darting rifle, puts it in Loomis’s hands, and turns him toward the rail of the boat. She leans him over, so they’re out in the sea spray.

They lean back. Loomis hands her the gun.

Loomis looks at her, impressed. And a bit taken.

Zora finds her bag on the foredeck and rummages through it, sorting her equipment. Kincaid sits on a bench beside her.

He smiles. While she works --

She stops for a moment, taking a breath. She adjusts her hat, but her hand is shaking. Kincaid notices.

24. pink rev. 3 June 2024

She looks at him. Delicately --

Pause. Zora tries to pull it out.

25. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Elsewhere --

A perfectly restored 1954 teak Bermudan sloop sails through pristine waters in the late afternoon light.

47 miles due south

The boat’s twin mainsails CRACK in the light evening wind.

REUBEN DELGADO, in his fifties, tanned and fit, is at the tiller. He looks exhausted.

ISABELLA DELGADO, nine or ten, sits on the engine cover nearby, feet kicking. She peels a piece of red licorice off a slab and eats it with gusto.

Reuben looks at her.

He smiles and shakes his head.

She shrugs. So what, I’m a kid. Reuben notices her pockets, which are stuffed with fresh packets of the candy.

TERESA DELGADO, sixteen, comes up from belowdecks.

Reuben seems supremely irritated, but bites his tongue.

Teresa sits near the helm and returns to a rope-splicing chore.

You bet she does. Isabella goes over and plops down next to Teresa, who hands her an unspliced rope.

Isabella tries. Teresa’s hands move fast, practiced, wiring and taping off eight inch sections, twining them together, and moving on to the next. Isabella’s pretty good too.

Reuben watches them, admiring. Teresa senses him watching and smiles back.

They keep wrapping and splicing, without even looking.

A YOUNG MAN comes up from belowdecks. XAVIER DOBBS is seventeen, shirtless, and looks like he was just awakened from a coma. Also, his stomach itches.

Xavier looks around, at the fading light.

Teresa interrupts, to prevent a fight.

Isabella watches the conflict eagerly, the way a youngest does.

Xavier points a finger gun at Reuben, fires it with a wink, and goes back below.

Reuben stares ahead, hands on the wheel. Teresa looks at him. Isabella watches them both, chewing a fresh piece of licorice.

She sets the ropes down and moves to sit beside him. They sail on, as the stars come out above them.

29. buff rev. 24 July 2024

His eyes flicker over to Xavier, in irritation.

She’s looking to port. He follows her gaze.

Reuben squints toward the horizon. It’s hard to see much detail in the fading light, but we can dimly make out three sail-type shapes, cresting three or four feet above the water line.

Isabella joins them, looking at the shapes too.

The sails slip beneath the surface.

Something THUDS against the starboard side of the boat.

And it was BIG. The wood GROANS, the sailboat shudders.

She does. He goes to the starboard rail. He looks out at the dusky seas, sees nothing, grabs hold of a rope, and leans over the side to check the hull. But he can’t get far enough out.

Teresa FLICKS two switches on a motorized unit next to the helm and connects a retractable arm to an autopilot device that clamps onto the wheel. Isabella watches her. Teresa teaches.

She SPINS a dial and FLICKS another switch.

Isabella nods, fast.

She hurries to starboard and slides up behind Reuben, grabs hold of his legs with one arm, and wraps her other arm in a coil of heavy rope. She’s adept.

22 FROM SEA LEVEL, 22

we look up at Reuben as he leans waaaaay out over the edge of the boat, the waves SMACKING up at us as the boat moves.

We tense up as Reuben inspects the hull from this angle, looking for damage. There’s no broken hull, but there is a long dark streak of algae that runs half the length of the boat.

Reuben’s too close to the surface of the water for comfort.

FOOM!

A dark shape moves right through the foreground, fast.

23 BACK ON DECK, 23

Teresa pulls him by the legs and he scrambles back on deck.

THE WHOLE BOAT ROCKS AS SOMETHING HUGE SLAMS INTO THE PORT SIDE.

It’s ferocious this time. They’re all nearly thrown overboard.

The boat heels up to almost forty-five degrees, and anything not tied down goes flying, some of it SLAMMING into them as they cling to the ropes that run along the starboard rail.

AT THE WHEEL,

the tiller autopilot BUZZES and tries to correct, but the boat’s knocked all the way across the wind and the Garmin overcorrects, making the situation worse.

Isabella SCREAMS, sails SNAP and the boom FLIES as the sloop JIBES without warning, throwing it up into an even sharper heel.

We go with the boat as it heels all the way up to ninety degrees, tipping fully onto its side and sending Teresa and Isabella flying into the water.

The sails SLAP flat against the ocean surface, and immediately start puddling with seawater.

The girls are down at water level, hanging on tight, but Reuben looks up, to the hatchway that leads belowdecks --

With superhuman effort, Reuben climbs the now-vertical decking and pulls at the cabin door, but it’s wrenched shut.

24 INSIDE THE CABIN, 24

Xavier’s on the other side of the door, fighting to open it, but the cabin’s half full of water, and more is pouring in.

25 ON DECK, 25

Reuben SMASHES a small cabinet open and takes an emergency kit from inside it, SHOUTING to Xavier.

33. blue rev. 23 May 2024

26 IN THE CABIN, 26

Xavier stops pulling and waits, freaking out as the cabin fills with water. Reuben’s voice comes from the other side.

Xavier looks around, panicky. His eyes fall on a red case mounted on the wall, but the cabin is nearly full of water now, and he has to take a deep breath, maybe his last for a while.

27 DOWN AT SEA LEVEL, 27

the sails PUCKER FULL with ocean water and the boat continues to rotate, toward turtle.

28 ABOVE, 28

Reuben loses his grip and is flung from the tilting deck, just as the cabin door WHOOSHES open, kicked from inside by Xavier, who leaps from the turtling boat.

29 UNDERWATER, 29

we see Reuben from below as he’s thrown into the sea, and we watch in slow-motion horror as the boat turns all the way turtle, its water-filled sails pulling it completely over, till its mast is pointing straight toward the ocean bottom.

Reuben is pushed down by the sails, deeper into the water.

ABOVE THE SURFACE,

Teresa and Isabella half-climb, half-pull each other up onto the hull of the turtled boat, breathing hard.

Reuben pops up on the starboard side of the boat, gulping air.

A moment later, Xavier pops up on the port side.

He raises an arm, SLAMMING something down on the overturned hull of the boat.

It’s the emergency marine radio.

The girls help them both on board and they huddle together, all catching their breath, in shock but alive.

A moment later, a MASSIVE BLACK SHAPE crests the surface, maybe twenty feet away and moves past them, fast. It takes a while.

Because the MOSASAUR is at least sixty feet long.

They stare, wide-eyed, until the Mosasaur slips back below the surface and is gone.

They look at each other, then out at lowering night. They’re on the verge of panic, scared silent.

Xavier hands the radio to Reuben. Reuben puts a hand on his shoulder -- good job.

He checks the radio. He twists a dial on its top and the radio winks to life.

Nearby, the night is peaceful and magnificent.

Zora sits on the rear deck of the Essex as it cuts through calm waters. She stares out at the sea. She seems forlorn. Or maybe she just doesn’t get many moments of peace.

In fact, she seems emotional. We watch her face for a long moment, and yes, there are tears in her eyes.

Dr. Loomis has come out on deck. Zora, surprised, wipes her cheeks. He sees.

He does. She looks out at the water. He looks at her.

She turns, surprised.

She thinks about it. What the hell.

She smiles and changes the subject.

36. salmon rev. 28 July 2024

He smiles. But he was serious.

He thinks about that.

She looks at him. She appreciates that.

She smiles as she gets up.

37. salmon rev. 28 July 2024

She goes below.

The rising sun peeks over the horizon as the Essex speeds south.

On the bridge, the lights on the radio setup blink. The radio CRACKLES, at an extremely low volume. Just barely, we hear a familiar VOICE on it. It’s Reuben Delgado.

Just after Reuben’s faint voice stops, Kincaid comes into the bridge. He finds LECLERC, the crew member, asleep at the wheel, his chin down on his chest.

Kincaid doesn’t like it, but he checks course, heading, and geolocation, and everything seems to be in order.

On the console next to LeClerc is a small Lego T-rex, stuck there with Velcro on its feet. Kincaid picks it up, holds it about five feet off the ground, and drops it.

It SMASHES on the floor. LeClerc sits up sharply, both hands on the wheel.

He turns to the coffee pot and pours a cup.

LeClerc checks the nav screen.

38. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

LeClerc gives him a Gallic shrug. Kincaid takes his coffee and leaves the bridge.

A second after he’s out the door, we again very faintly hear Reuben’s VOICE, coming from the radio.

Outside, Kincaid stops, listening. Did he hear something? He decides he didn’t, starts to leave, passes out of view --

-- and comes right back. To double check.

He goes to the radio, looking down at it. But it’s silent now.

He checks the settings and adjusts one of them.

He turns to leave, satisfied. When he’s almost out the door, Reuben’s full, loud voice comes from the radio --

Kincaid stops. Holy shit.

All hands have been assembled on the rear deck -- Kincaid, Zora, Dr. Loomis, Krebs, Bobby Atwater, Nina, and LeClerc. Tensions are high.

39. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

Zora keeps it on point.

Nina SHOUTS from the flying bridge, where she and LeClerc pilot.

Bobby Atwater tries to say something indelicate delicately.

Nina SHOUTS from the bridge again.

40. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Nina, at the railing with a pair of binoculars, SHOUTS.

They race over and she hands the binoculars to Kincaid, who immediately hands them to Dr. Loomis.

Loomis lifts them and

THROUGH THE BINOCULARS,

we see a massive disturbance in the water, near the surface. As big as a large whale, but different.

ON DECK,

Loomis SHOUTS, half cry, half laugh of wonder.

Kincaid, who has been watching the debate in silence, makes up his mind. He turns and SHOUTS up to the flying bridge.

LeClerc immediately repeats, SHOUTING back as he cranks the wheel hard, turning the boat in a steep 180.

Nina turns and hurries up the ladder to the bridge.

41. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

As the boat ROARS off in the other direction, Krebs confronts Kincaid.

He bounds up the stairs to the bridge.

Loomis catches just a glimpse of the Mosasaur through the binoculars as it disappears back into the sea.

Reuben, Teresa, Isabella, and Xavier are huddled on the slick hull of the turtled sailboat. The boat has held on, but its flotation is slowly being waterlogged. Forty-five feet of hull has become about twelve feet that’s still above the waterline.

They look like hell -- depleted, sleepless and panicked.

Reuben has his arms around both girls, one on each side, holding them tight. Isabella clutches her last two packs of licorice to her chest, her knuckles white, hands shaking with cold.

Xavier hugs his legs to his chest, his head down on his knees.

Reuben studies the horizon. He blinks, and his eyes go wide.

He digs in the emergency pack he brought from the boat and pulls out a handgun. The others look at him, fearful.

But Reuben aims it up in the air and FIRES a flare.

They turn. Now they see what he saw -- the Essex, on the horizon, steaming toward them at full speed.

Inside the bridge of the Essex, Reuben and the kids are in blankets, but still shivering. Kincaid, Zora, Loomis and the Crew Members are with them.

Krebs and Atwater stand on the other side of the bridge, in an open doorway, conferring quietly, eyeing the newcomers.

Dr. Loomis is bent down in front of them.

Kincaid, nearby, is looking at Isabella. He seems angry.

Reuben’s getting pissed, doesn’t understand the cross- examination.

43. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

Kincaid pulls away, enraged, but she’s right.

Krebs comes back inside, impatient.

She looks at LeClerc, who looks at Kincaid, who nods to ask permission. Kincaid nods, go ahead.

LeClerc spins the wheel, and the boat makes a wide turn.

44. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Zora comes over, trying to soft-pedal this.

Isabella’s starting to panic.

ACROSS THE ROOM,

Krebs turns to Nina, at the map table.

Nina throws a few buttons and the map table lights up, changing screens and reflecting new data.

37 NEARBY, 37

Kincaid is watching Reuben, who has calmed the kids. Kincaid softens a bit, maybe at seeing Reuben’s calm and capable manner with them.

Reuben looks up, maybe sensing the look.

45. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Kincaid turns to Loomis, to get him to answer that one.

AT THE MAP TABLE,

Krebs stares down at the illuminated table, confused.

Kincaid TAPS the map, puzzled.

Kincaid points to an illuminated section of map where a flashing blue dot has ESSEX next to it, along with a call sign.

Immediately beside it, almost overlapping, is a red dot, with the familiar code -- MSRv.7.2:DOB2/23/2007. Zora and Loomis join them at the table.

Loomis looks at her and --

-- THE ENTIRE BOAT ROCKS AS FIFTEEN TONS SLAM INTO IT FROM PORT.

46. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Bodies SLAM against walls, people are thrown off their feet, and the boat CREAKS and GROANS from the impact.

Over the SHOUTS and SCREAMS --

REUBEN TERESA

Oh come on, you guys! We just got away from it and

you’re CHASING IT?!

Zora and Loomis are on the floor near Reuben.

REUBEN & TERESA XAVIER & ISABELLA

WHAT?! WHAT?!

Isabella is starting to really lose it.

ISABELLA ATWATER

I hate dinosaurs! They’re You can all stay on the boat huge, and they’re scary -- if you’d feel safer.

47. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Kincaid SHOUTS to Nina --

Zora and Loomis scramble to their feet and run out of the bridge. Kincaid grabs another pair of binoculars --

-- and JUMPS down onto the deck next to Zora and Loomis, who are already at the rail, Loomis with the binoculars up to his eyes.

The boat ROARS along, and the hulking black shape of the Mosasaur keeps pace.

39 THROUGH THE BINOCULARS, 39

we see the gigantic Mosasaur, its twelve-foot snout cresting the waves in a massive snarl as it scoops for fish, or maybe just shows its teeth to the boat that’s invaded its territory.

The animal is moving faster than the boat, and pulling away.

Kincaid lowers his binoculars and SHOUTS up to the bridge.

41 IN THE BRIDGE, 41

Nina SHOUTS back.

Atwater turns and races out, Krebs not far behind him. Reuben and the kids jump up and go to the windows.

48. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

She fights the wheel, as they’re headed into choppier seas.

SMACK!

A metal case SLAPS down on the deck, revealing the long red tranquilizer rifle inside. Dr. Loomis starts assembling it, SHOUTING over the roar of the engine to Zora as he SNAPS the pieces together.

Loomis grabs one of the six pressurized biopsy darts and screws it in the end of the weapon.

He takes off and climbs the double external ladder, toward the flying bridge, which is exposed on the topmost deck of the ship.

49. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Down below, Krebs has come to the rail, where he can see the Mosasaur, moving further away from the boat.

Bobby Atwater opens his own case of equipment -- this one with lethal weapons inside.

Kincaid comes up into the flying bridge and starts SMACKING and SLAPPING buttons and controls, powering up the topmost helm.

He looks over and sees the animal, further off the starboard bow. It’s magnificent, and momentarily takes his breath away.

On the lower bridge, Nina SHOUTS back.

Flying over the water behind them, the boat’s engines ROAR and kick up a rooster tail of seawater in our faces as it speeds up and adjusts course, drawing closer to the Mosasaur again.

Zora, now with the darting rifle in hand, runs along the starboard rail, toward the curved metal bow rail.

Loomis runs to a bank of equipment cases and digs through them, finding a black one so marked. He SNAPS it open and finds a stack of bungee cords, hooks at the ends.

50. salmon rev. 28 July 2024

Nina, at the map table on the enclosed bridge, sees the two dots, the blue Essex dot and the red Mosasaur dot, drawing closer to each other.

Kincaid SHOUTS down to her.

Nina throws a switch and SLAMS a lever.

Now in control of the boat, Kincaid pushes the throttle down and steers closer to the giant beast as it sports and breaches.

Suddenly the Mosasaur veers sharply, right toward the boat.

It SLAMS its bulk into the starboard side.

Krebs is thrown against the port rail and nearly goes overboard.

FURTHER FORWARD,

Dr. Loomis falls but crawls forward, to where Zora has reached the bow rail with the darting rifle.

Reuben and the kids stare out the bridge windows, terrified and fascinated. They watch as Zora lays herself out on the bow rail, which angles away from the boat at thirty degrees.

51. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Zora, gun in hand, is perched precariously on the bow rail, over the roiling water.

He hurries to the front of the boat, finds a bungee cord, and CLICKS one end of it to a railing near her left leg.

He wraps it around her legs and pulls it tight.

He loops it around another time, pulls it tight, and CLIPS the other end to the right side.

She WINCES, but it’s good.

He grabs two more cables.

Krebs and Atwater go to the rail, compelled, eyes shining as the boat draws closer to the Mosasaur.

Nina joins Kincaid on the flying deck.

Kincaid fights the heavier seas.

52. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Zora raises the darting rifle, putting her eye to the scope and sighting it in, but it’s bouncing all over the place.

FOOM! The gun goes off.

A dart SNICKS into the water, far from the animal.

Zora turns and looks at Loomis.

Loomis crawls to the equipment as the boat rocks. He opens the equipment case and grabs another dart.

He gets up and goes back to the bow, grabbing things to steady him along the way.

The Mosasaur, swimming at top speed, leaves its own wake. But behind it, we see two things we hadn’t noticed before.

53. buff rev. 24 July 2024

Fins. Or sails, actually.

On the bridge, Teresa sees them too. She recognizes them.

Atwater, prepping his weapon, looks up.

Loomis returns to the bow rail, Zora RIPS back the bolt on the darting rifle, he drops the fresh dart in, she SMACKS it shut, and turns to aim again. The chamber HISSES as pressure builds.

Kincaid grits his teeth, steering closer to the gigantic creature, and suddenly the Mosasaur SWERVES toward them --

-- and SLAMS into the side of the boat again, hard. Zora’s knocked from the bow rail and flips over it, held only by the bungee cords around her legs.

She’s half upside-down, now looking at the bouncing image of the Mosasaur, not five feet from her, its jaws agape.

Loomis drags her back up over the bow railing, as she struggles to hold onto the darting rifle.

Just as she’s righted, she closes one eye, sights in, and squeezes the trigger.

Foom.

The dart HISSES through the air and SLAMS into the hide of the Mosasaurus with a thick wet SMACK.

The plunger depresses with the loud HISS of released CO2 gas, and a murky red liquid fills the Lucite payload tube.

54. buff rev. 24 July 2024

Krebs SHOUTS in triumph.

Zora closes her eyes and exhales, relieved.

Loomis rolls to the railing, watching the process, fascinated.

On the water, the tube fills quickly, and another BLAST of CO2 comes from the rig --

-- as it self-ejects from the animal.

The payload tube ROCKETS straight up into the blue sky, and the Mosasaur dives beneath the waves.

Loomis is thrilled, watching the payload tube soar.

On the flying deck, Nina looks up, following the trajectory of the sample tube. In midair, its tail cone POPS and a bright yellow parachute billows out. Nina tracks it.

The boat turns, slowing.

The boat drops speed, swerving to intercept the sample tube as it floats back down toward the surface of the water.

On the foredeck, the tube drifts near them. Loomis, leaning far out over the bow rail, catches it in an outstretched hand.

But his feet slip and he starts to tip over it. Zora grabs him by the belt, pulls him back, and he falls into her.

They hold eyes, but Krebs and Atwater hurry over, breaking the moment.

Zora goes to the stack of equipment cases, opens a thin silver one, and nestles the sample tube securely in one of three cut- out spaces, surrounded by foam padding. Two empty slots remain.

Loomis joins her, and watches as she secures the sample. He hesitates, thinking. He looks around, then lowers his voice.

She seals the case shut with a CLICK.

In the bridge, Reuben calms Xavier, who’s having a panic attack.

56. blue rev. 23 May 2024

She’s hyperventilating. Reuben turns his attention to her, a lot on his hands the moment.

Teresa’s distracted, looking at something out the starboard windows.

She has a terrible feeling, but doesn’t say anything for the moment. She moves to the binocular rack, gently lifts the remaining pair off a hook there, and lifts them to her eyes.

As she looks, she speaks quietly.

We move in close to her face, and the lenses of the binoculars suddenly SNAP into focus --

-- revealing the reflection of two FOUR-FOOT SAILS, rising above the surface and swimming beside the Mosasaur.

Reuben and Xavier come to the window.

On the foredeck, Dr. Loomis, Zora, Krebs, and Atwater now see them too.

Loomis stares, wide-eyed. Delighted.

He runs to midships, to get a closer look.

The Mosasaur dives back beneath the waves, and the two SPINOSAURS begin to circle the ship, showing four to six feet of their massive, jagged sail fins.

But none of the rest of their bodies.

57. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Loomis’s delighted smile turns to concern.

The lead Spinosaur LUNGES at the bow of the boat, launching itself out of the sea a good five or six feet, two powerful forelimbs clutching at the rail.

This animal’s like an iceberg, ninety percent of its enormous bulk beneath the surface.

It gets a grip on the bow rail, the metal SHRIEKS, everyone SHOUTS and leaps back, the animal hauls itself halfway out of the water, revealing an enormous, powerful head and mouth --

-- and it RIPS the metal railing right out of the deck, falling back into the sea with it.

Atwater slings his rifle around and takes aim at the Spino.

Both Spinos react, slithering back beneath the waves.

Atwater FIRES, three times, but the toxin bullets HISS harmlessly into the water.

He’s at the port rail, where ONE OF THE SAILS has surfaced and is approaching the boat.

58. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Atwater turns that way and swings his rifle, taking aim where Krebs is pointing --

-- and the first Spinosaur lunges out of the water behind him.

This time its powerful forelimbs find purchase in the hull, it hauls itself up out of the water, and clamps its jaws down on the closest thing to the rail.

That would be BOBBY ATWATER.

The Spino rips him right off the deck and falls back beneath the waves with him in its mouth, his death swift and shocking.

Isabella saw it. She lets loose a FULL-THROATED SCREAM.

the others back away, horrified, and --

-- the Mosasaur surfaces directly beneath the boat.

From a distance, we can see the creature rise out of the water with the boat on its back, completely upending it, lifting it ten feet out of the sea, and the animal dives again --

-- and the ship falls, SLAMMING starboard side into the water.

Reuben and the kids are thrown violently toward the upper starboard rail, and Isabella FLIES RIGHT OVER IT.

She grabs hold before she goes all the way into the water, and as the boat rocks back, the Spinosaur LUNGES at her, SNAPPING its jaws just short of her feet.

The Essex SHUDDERS as it SLAMS back to port.

Everything CREAKS and GROANS, things SPLINTER and SNAP, and the boat suffers terrible damage.

59. buff rev. 24 July 2024

Reuben throws himself at the railing, where Isabella still dangles. As the boat rocks back and forth, Isabella is dangled near the SNAPPING jaws of the Spinosaur.

Reuben slides down to the deck --

-- and hooks his leg through a table that’s bolted down, and catches hold of Isabella.

The boat ROCKS, Reuben’s body is twisted, and we hear a horrible CRUNCHING sound from his wrenched knee. Reuben SCREAMS, but he keeps a firm grip on her.

82B UP ON THE FLYING DECK, 82B

Nina and Kincaid, who were nearly thrown off the flying deck, climb back up over a railing. Nina takes the wheel, looking over the situation quickly.

Reuben, holding Isabella tight in spite of his injured leg, hauls her back up on deck.

The boat stabilizes and the Spinosaur falls back into the sea. Reuben GROANS in pain.

She grabs him by the arm and Reuben struggles to get to his feet. Scared, Isabella backs away, into the metal railing --

-- and a THIRD SPINOSAUR lunges out of the sea behind her, its jaws wide open.

Isabella spins around, comes eye to eye with certain death --

-- AND REUBEN GRABS HER BY THE COLLAR AND YANKS HER BACK.

The jaws SNAP on air, inches from Isabella’s face, and the animal falls back into the sea.

Reuben grabs Isabella by the shoulders. The child’s eyes are like saucers.

60. buff rev. 24 July 2024

Isabella’s shaking, traumatized. She either can’t or won’t speak.

Isabella nods violently.

84 UP ON THE BRIDGE, 84

Kincaid joins Nina on the bridge and looks out to sea, where the Mosasaur is circling around for another pass.

He turns and sees the island, just a mile or two away now, ringed by those forbidding rocky shoals.

He spins the wheel and SLAMS the throttle down, heading for the island. The boat ROARS toward it.

The Mosasaur and now-three Spinosaurs turn and give chase.

On the foredeck, Krebs SHOUTS up to the flying deck.

NEARBY,

Reuben tries to stand but SHOUTS in pain and crumples on his wrenched knee. He turns to Teresa.

61. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

She runs off, toward the bridge. Reuben holds Isabella close. He’s got her now.

Krebs, nearby, sees Teresa go up to the bridge.

He follows her, but stops to grab the thin silver briefcase that holds the sample first.

Zora crawls over to the equipment cases, thinking fast. She looks up, to a bevy of flotation jackets stored just above her.

She pulls a knife from her belt, SNAPS it open, and slits the netting holding the jackets in place. They tumble around her.

He gets it. He starts flipping open equipment cases, pulling things out and using the flotation jackets’ ties to tie them together, tight as he can.

Up on the flying deck, Nina watches as the animals close in from behind.

Kincaid JAMS the throttle down all the way. Up ahead, they’re just a mile from the rocky barrier reef.

Teresa runs to the radio console, FLICKS a couple switches, and keys the mic.

Krebs rushes into the room.

62. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Krebs is clutching the silver briefcase, and this is the closest to panic that we’ve seen him. But it’s not about the animals.

Krebs’ eyes dart, his mind whirs, but he doesn’t have much time to think, as the Mosasaur breaches beneath the boat again.

It rocks up onto its side, and Teresa is flung over the railing of the bridge. She manages to grab hold, and Krebs is thrown into the railing a few feet away from her.

She looks up at him, eyes wide, dangling over the churning water. In two steps, he could be there and pull her up --

-- but he hesitates.

I mean, things would be easier if he let her go.

She sees him hesitate and sees the look in his eye. Her own eyes flash with rage.

Krebs hesitates a moment longer --

-- but no, that’s monstrous, he snaps out of it and rushes toward her, hand extended.

But the boat is ROCKED again, she loses her grip, and falls into the sea.

Teresa falls, SCREAMING, from the upper deck, and SPLASHES into the sea, where she’s immediately swept away on a strong current.

63. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Xavier, one deck down at the starboard rail, sees her and leaps to his feet.

Reuben staggers to his feet and sees it too.

Xavier jumps to his feet. Without a second thought, he runs, leaps, and dives into the ocean after her.

He tries to follow but his injured knee buckles beneath him.

Isabella stares in terror, mute.

In the water, Teresa surfaces, struggling to catch breaths in the choppy seas as the boat ROARS away from her.

The current pulls her under, dragging her toward the island.

Up on the flying deck, Kincaid struggles with the helm as the Mosasaur surfaces and SLAMS into the hull again.

The boat shudders and CRACKS.

He pushes the throttle, but it’s down as far as it can go, and they’re ROARING close to the ring of jagged rocks that form a barrier around the island.

But the Mosasaur keeps pace.

CINCH! Reuben’s tied a flotation device around his waist. He’s already put one on the terrified Isabella. He bends down, holding her by the arms.

64. blue rev. 23 May 2024

She shakes her head no, violently.

More head shaking, even more violent.

He picks her up and staggers to the railing on his bad leg.

Zora sees them --

-- but Reuben jumps into the sea, holding Isabella.

In the water, it turns out Xavier is a powerful swimmer. He covers the distance between himself and Teresa fast, closing with long, strong strokes.

She’s sucked under, but he dives beneath the waves --

-- and surfaces a few seconds later, pulling her up out of the swirling undertow.

She does. Xavier looks ahead.

They’re headed directly for the rocks.

And the pull of the water is picking up strength.

From the bow of the boat, the rocks are less than a hundred yards away, and they’re closing fast.

Zora and Dr. Loomis have a pile of equipment, which they have secured to flotation.

65. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

They start hurling it overboard.

Up on the flying deck, the rocks are fifty yards away, forty.

The boat ROCKS as the Mosasaur BREACHES, coming out of the water alongside the boat. Its jaws CLAMP DOWN on the side of the boat, which SWERVES hard, SCRAPING alongside a rock pinnacle.

The Mosasaur falls back into the water, but it’s ripped away a portion of the boat. It’s now falling apart, but somehow still moving forward.

In the engine room, part of the wall CRACKS OPEN, seawater flows inside, and the engine SCREECHES and SMOKES.

The engine CLANKS and SHRIEKS, but Kincaid shoves the throttle down as far as it’ll go and dares a look back at the Mosasaur, which is now slowing down. Kincaid SCREAMS at it.

And he’s right.

The mighty Mosasaur gives up the chase, turning around and heading back out to open sea.

He turns and sees the rapidly approaching rocky shoreline, just seconds away now, no way to stop the boat. He SHOUTS to the others.

Kincaid struggles at the helm, trying to slow the boat and mitigate the impact, but it’s going to be rough.

Nina SHOUTS.

66. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Zora and Dr. Loomis dive off the side of the boat, into the sea.

Nina jumps into the sea, just before the boat CRASHES into the ring of rocks at full speed.

LeClerc, who was trying to bail the engine room, is SLAMMED up against the bulkhead, hard.

The boat churns on, beaching itself in the shallows just short of the beach. Kincaid SLAMS into the railing hard, then staggers to his feet, still on the bridge. That was one hell of a landfall.

The Mosasaur is gone, back to sea, but the Spinosaurs still circle, just outside the rocks.

Still out at sea, Teresa and Xavier hold onto each other for dear life, now buffeted along in a powerful ocean current that shows no signs of slowing down as it approaches the mountainous, black-rock shore of the island --

-- they SCREAM, a BLACK MAW opens up in front of them --

-- and they’re pulled into the mouth of an open sea cave.

In the cave, they bob to the surface, swept into the island interior on the waters in the sea cave.

67. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Reuben’s voice ECHOES through the cave, and now here he comes, swept toward them as well, clinging to Isabella.

Reuben swims toward them, and the four of them disappear into the inky black of the cave.

Kincaid, Zora, Dr. Loomis, Nina, LeClerc and Krebs stagger out of the surf, toward the beach. They start to slow, but Loomis SHOUTS.

Zora looks at him, about to ask why, but --

Her eyes widen and she turns, just in time to see --

-- one of the Spinosaurs clambers out of the sea.

It’s still half in the surf, but we can see the sails were only a tiny part of the story -- it’s fifteen feet long, with a thick, powerful body, like a gila monster, and four powerful limbs with massive claws.

The group SCREAMS and slogs through the water.

The Spino pounces on NINA, who’s furthest back in the group. It collapses its weight onto her and she falls, her SCREAMING form dragged back into the sea.

In two seconds, she’s gone, pulled under.

101 JUNGLE EDGE, 101

the group staggers to the edge of the jungle, looking back at the sea in horror.

68. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

A wave CRASHES on the beach. It’s blood red.

He starts to run toward the beach, but Zora holds him back, it’s fruitless.

Behind and around them, they hear the STRANGE CRIES of unfamiliar beasts. One by one, the four of them turn and look, into the heart of the island.

Signs are posted all along the edge of the foliage -- OFF LIMITS, ENTRY FORBIDDEN, EXTREME DANGER, and so on.

They’re here now.

Reuben, Teresa, Isabella, and Xavier stagger up out of an ominous cave mouth, somewhere deep in the island interior.

Xavier has an arm around Reuben, helping him over the rocks. Teresa, just ahead, reaches the top and surveys the view.

Reuben and Xavier join her. Isabella clings to Reuben.

Moving behind them, we see what they see. There’s dense jungle on both sides, but a clearing to one side reveals

A MAGNIFICENT, PREHISTORIC-LOOKING VISTA

spread out below. The vivid green of the foliage is intense, and steam rises from a volcanic vent in the distance.

The plain below contains a bubbling central lake, fed by hot springs, and is rimmed by black basalt towers a thousand feet high, the rock cores of ancient volcanoes worn away by time.

A flock of PTEROSAURS SHRIEKS and banks in the sky.

Isabella silently points to the pterosaurs, her hand trembling.

She doesn’t answer. Her face is expressionless.

She shakes her head no.

Teresa goes to her father and wraps her arms around him. He manages to get an arm around her without falling over.

Xavier joins them, and the four of them look out at the view, transfixed. Quiet for a moment, then:

They look at him. Yeah?

Reuben glares at him.

Reuben looks around. The jungle is creased by large, rusted pipes of some kind, maybe six feet in diameter. They run down from the mountain above, and disappear into the overgrowth.

He puts a hand on the side of one of them.

Well, she’s focused.

They look at him.

Indeed, Xavier has the first hint of a smile we’ve seen.

Isabella GASPS suddenly, moves half behind Reuben in horror, and they all turn.

AQUILOPS, a small herbivorous dinosaur with a snub-nosed head dotted with a ring of tiny horns, stands on its back legs at the edge of the jungle. Aquilops is no more than eighteen inches from nose to tail and has a bright red frill that runs along the length of its spine.

Aquilops stares at them, its beaked nose quivering. It is not exactly terrifying. But Isabella’s traumatized now.

Aquilops stares at them and chews, a chunk of bright green leaf sticking out either side of its mouth.

But Isabella’s unconvinced. Teresa steps forward.

She waves her hand a few times, Aquilops drops down to its stubby front legs, and humps it off into the jungle.

Isabella watches it go, warily.

Reuben rummages around and finds a suitable stick in the jungle debris. He breaks it over a rock and tries it out as a support, putting some weight on it.

As they kick around in the foliage to find suitable sticks:

He turns away, finding a good walking stick.

Reuben SIGHS and turns to Teresa.

Newly armed with a stick, Xavier takes point.

He starts ahead of them, knocking foliage from their path.

They take one step into the jungle --

-- and something way bigger than Aquilops RUSTLES through the dense foliage, not more than six feet away from them.

The vines and branches shudder and part, but they can’t make out the thing’s shape. Plus it moves fast.

They all freeze, sucking in their breath, and then it’s gone.

Xavier takes a breath and SMACKS the foliage again, starting over.

He forges on. They follow.

Kincaid, on board the beached Essex, tries in vain to start the damaged engines, but they just GROAN and GRIND METAL.

105 DOWN BELOW, 105

Loomis calls up to him.

105A UP ON THE BRIDGE, 105A

Kincaid gives up. He looks around the bridge. He pulls a small framed picture off a pillar, where it’s affixed with Velcro. The glass of the frame is broken, and he slides the picture out.

It’s a shot of an EIGHT-YEAR-OLD BOY. Kincaid looks at the picture, his expression grief-stricken.

He slips the picture gently into his pocket.

105B DOWN ON THE BEACH, 105B

LeClerc, who’s also up on the boat, tosses a small EQUIPMENT CASE over the side and it THUDS into the sand.

Dr. Loomis scans the waves anxiously as the others pick through the supplies, choosing what they need.

Zora, sorting equipment quickly, is talking to Krebs, aghast.

Kincaid jumps down off the boat.

LeClerc jumps down from the boat with the last of the usable gear. He lands in the sand next to Kincaid.

Loomis hears a strange ANIMAL CRY from the direction of the water. He turns, anxious.

She picks up the silver sample case, the one they put the Mosasaur sample in earlier.

They all look at her. Loomis raises his hand. He would.

She picks up the silver sample case and turns to Dr. Loomis.

77. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Krebs doesn’t like the sound of that, but lets it go for now.

The ANIMAL CRIES from the sea are closer.

Zora slings a backpack over her shoulders and takes the sample case herself.

She sets off. The others grab equipment and follow her. LeClerc turns to Kincaid as they head out.

Nighttime in the jungle. A mist rises from the cooling earth.

Reuben, Teresa, Isabella and Xavier have stopped in the thick of a copse of trees, in a small, open area.

Teresa has fallen asleep on Reuben’s shoulder, but he’s wide awake, one arm around her, his back against a tree. Isabella is on the other side of him, leaning into him, her eyes wide open.

Reuben’s eyes are heavy, and he’s fighting long blinks.

Isabella sees something nearby and tenses. She sits up.

AQUILOPS, the small dinosaur they saw earlier, has followed them. It’s a few feet away from Isabella, its nose twitching.

She looks at it, then up at Reuben. His eyes are closed.

Summoning her nerve, Isabella takes out one of her packs of licorice. She tosses a small chunk to Aquilops.

It gobbles it up and looks to her for more.

Aquilops just looks at her, a melancholy gaze.

She peels off a whole piece this time and tosses it to the animal. Aquilops pecks it up off the ground and darts away with it, to eat in peace.

Isabella nestles into her father’s side and closes her eyes.

Xavier comes and sits beside them. Reuben is startled awake. Neither of them saw the animals.

Reuben looks at him. But really looks at him, for once.

Xavier crosses his legs and settles in, back against the tree.

Xavier seems touched by that. Then again:

Reuben smiles. Xavier is Xavier.

Xavier gets up and takes a couple steps into the foliage -- but no more than two, he’s no dummy.

Behind him, Reuben closes his eyes. Isabella hears a RUSTLING sound and hers pop open.

Aquilops is back.

Summoning her nerve, she pulls off another piece of licorice and just holds it out this time. Aquilops comes and takes it gently from her hand.

It backs away this time, doesn’t run, and eats.

Aquilops finishes, turns in a circle three times, and curls up to sleep beside her. Isabella smiles.

107 IN THE JUNGLE WITH XAVIER, 107

He is peeing, the soft PATTER of drops on foliage. Behind him, something we thought was part of the foliage suddenly moves.

Xavier sees it, his eyes widen, and his pee abruptly stops.

The thing moves low to the ground, SILENTLY, slithering like a salamander. Xavier watches the vines and understory move, pushed aside by the creature’s bulk as it circles around and moves closer to him.

Xavier stands, frozen.

AND THE THING STANDS UP.

It takes its sweet time, rising upward slowly.

Seen mostly in silhouette and dim shafts of moonlight, MUTADON rises one body segment at a time. First it raises a weird, elongated head, then it lifts its forelegs off the ground and stands further upright, then lifts its MID-LEGS off the ground --

-- because yeah, it has SIX LEGS --

-- and STILL RISING --

-- until it stands fully on its bulky rear legs, revealing its entire EIGHT FOOT HEIGHT. It’s hard to make out much detail, but what we do see is GROTESQUE.

Xavier looks up at it, and the thing opens its mouth and HISSES.

Spittle flies into Xavier’s face, but he does not flinch or move. He’s too terrified.

Now, with a papery, CREAKING sound (the only sounds in an otherwise near-silent scene), the Mutadon unfurls TWO ENORMOUS, BAT-LIKE WINGS.

We’ve never seen a dinosaur like this, because there’s never been a dinosaur like this.

The massive, heavily veined wings FLAP and CREAK, blowing a gust of wind into Xavier’s face and whipping his hair as the creature rises straight up into the night air, nearly silent as it flies off into the darkness.

81. pink rev. 3 June 2024

108 BACK AT THE TREE, 108

Xavier returns and drops to the ground beside Reuben and Isabella, who heard and saw nothing. Reuben stirs.

Xavier sits bolt upright, eyes like saucers.

Daylight. Zora, Kincaid, Krebs, and Dr. Loomis make their way alongside a mangrove swamp, sometimes knee-deep in water. Kincaid and Loomis are in front.

LeClerc has fallen a bit behind, but is hanging in there.

BEHIND THEM,

Zora and Krebs are in stride together.

Krebs does so. Zora looks over at him, thinking. She lowers her voice, so they can’t be heard by the others.

82. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Krebs angers, but controls it.

He slips and starts to fall into the swamp, but Zora grabs him by the shirt and yanks him back up onto his feet before he can go under.

They walk on, Krebs trying to regain his cool.

WITH KINCAID AND DR. LOOMIS,

they struggle on through the dense mangroves. It’s hard work, but Loomis is stronger than we’d expected, adept.

83. pink rev. 3 June 2024

BEHIND THEM, WITH ZORA AND KREBS,

they keep their voices low, but tensions are rising.

From ahead, Kincaid hears them and turns.

They look at him.

84. pink rev. 3 June 2024

A long RIPPLE creases the water around them as something under the surface SLITHERS past them.

Loomis climbs through a break in the mangroves up ahead.

The others follow.

110 IN THE BREAK IN THE FOLIAGE, 110

Loomis drops to his stomach, pulls a pair of binoculars around and peers out into a sweeping field of tall grass ahead.

But there’s nothing. Just dozens of acres of tall, waving grass, and a low, persistent series of THUDS that shake the ground.

He plows forward, into the grass. The others follow, but with trepidation.

85. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Zora slings the darting rifle over one shoulder and heads in.

111-114 OMITTED 111-114

Krebs, the last of them, hesitates. He looks up, seeing something up in the canopy at the edge of the grass. He looks up, into a tree --

-- and sees a dangling body.

It’s mostly uniform and bones, but was once a SOLDIER, now hanging upside down from the wreck of a helicopter that crashed in the tree. There are more DEAD SOLDIERS inside, the remains of a Seal team that tried to come here.

Krebs looks up, and sees the glint of a handgun, clutched in the skeletal hand of the upside-down corpse.

He reaches up to pry the gun from the dead man’s fingers. He can’t quite reach, so he grabs a branch to pull himself up.

But the branch breaks with a sharp CRACK, and the ENTIRE CORPSE falls out of the tree with it.

Worse, the helicopter wreckage itself is knocked loose and tips on its side, settling deeper into the tree and dumping THREE MORE CORPSES out as well.

They fall onto Krebs, who’s knocked to the ground under them.

He claws and crawls out from and away from them, grossed out and frantic, but he’s got the gun in his hand now.

He gets up, shoves the gun in the back of his trousers, and takes off after the others.

Dr. Loomis and the others make their way through the very tall grass, so tall it’s up to their heads.

They move through the waving grass -- SWISH, SWISH, SWISH. It’s quiet out here. Really quiet. Distressingly quiet.

They move forward, anxious, eyes searching the grass for signs of predators. A low cloud has settled over the grass, and the mist swirls.

86. blue rev. 23 May 2024

And it’s all soooooo still. SWISH, SWISH, SWISH.

And that low THUDDING sound, almost like the RUMBLING of an earthquake, that’s getting louder all around them. Suddenly --

-- an enormous leg strides by them.

“Enormous” doesn’t really do it justice, this leg is like the trunk of a redwood, and that’s just the very bottom of it.

The group startles, and ANOTHER LEG strides past. They look up as a TITANOSAUR strides past them. The thing is majestic, a hundred feet from the tip of its tail to the top of its neck.

And then it’s gone, into the swirling mist and long grass.

Loomis, exhilarated, pulls the binoculars up again. In the distance, he sees something.

He waves Zora up next to him and points, into the mist.

She looks, and then cranes her neck, looking waaaaay up -- TWO TITANOSAUR NECKS are intertwined, high above the grass, disappearing up into the mist.

Loomis sets off toward them. Zora follows. The others fall back a bit, not quite so enthusiastic.

Bizarre ANIMAL CRIES echo, unlike others we’ve heard.

Dr. Loomis stops again and crouches, looking intently through a gap in the grass. He gets a glimpse of two sets of massive, redwood-like legs not ten yards away.

There are eight legs out here, but only six of them are on the ground, if you know what I mean.

Zora hurries up next to him, catching her breath.

87. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Loomis grabs her arm in excitement and points. Zora looks, as the strange BELLOWS echo around them. Her eyes widen.

Behind them, Krebs, Kincaid, and LeClerc stay a bit back.

Kincaid points.

The BELLOWS grow louder, the STOMPING of the earth more furious. GIANT LEGS move around Loomis and Zora, threatening to stomp them to death.

Zora hesitates, wide-eyed, staring at the dinosaurs.

Kincaid SHOUTS from behind them.

The STOMPING legs move closer to them, the earth shaking.

88. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Zora drops the dart case to the ground, SMACKS it open, and pulls one of the remaining dart canisters out. She CLICKS a switch on the side, SLAPS it into the rifle, and the PSI level starts to rise with a HISS, hitting thirty quickly.

Loomis, dodging the giant, tree-sized legs, is momentarily caught in the middle.

Zora raises the rifle to her shoulder, but the moving animals nearly stomp her too.

Loomis dives out of the way as the STOMPING becomes more furious, and --

-- PHOOM.

118-119 OMITTED 118-119

There is a SHRIEK and a CRY as the dart sinks home.

The dart fills, HISSES, the CO2 FIRES it out of the dinosaur’s hide, and it ROCKETS into the air over the grass.

We see the rocket SOAR into the sky, and with a CRACK of releasing CO2, it pops its nose cone, as the out-of-focus animals below BELLOW up at the skies.

Dr. Loomis runs through the grass, chasing the rocket as it floats back down to earth on its bright yellow parachute.

Zora, Krebs, and Kincaid run up alongside, Kincaid catches the rocket, POPS the sample tube out of it, and tosses it to Zora.

She FLICKS open the sample case, shoves the tube into the second of the three foam slots, and SLAMS it shut. That’s two.

They turn, watching as the animals THUNDER away, disappearing into the grass and mist.

Zora turns. In the distance, she sees a line of cliffs on the horizon. Swooping, swirling shadows soar and dive around the clifftops, and the CRIES of pterosaurs echo over the valley.

Rain has started to fall in the jungle. Reuben limps ahead, one arm around Teresa’s shoulders. They’re following the general path of the big, rusted water pipes.

(Sometimes they walk on the pipes, sometimes they must climb over them.)

Isabella no longer clings to Reuben, she’s walking beside him.

Xavier is ahead of them, THWACKING vines and growth out of the way, opening a path. They’re all covered in sweat.

Xavier looks up, following the path of the pipes, toward a group of structures they can see on a hill in the far distance. He calls back to Reuben.

Isabella dangles a piece of licorice from one hand, and Aquilops trots alongside her, leaping up for it from time to time.

Teresa eyeballs Aquilops and lowers her voice, to Reuben.

The Aquilops CHIRPS excitedly. Isabella picks it up and holds it close to her, SHHHHing and rocking it.

They all turn. She spoke!

Isabella marches on, head up, cradling the dino to her chest.

Behind them, Reuben stumbles, but Teresa’s got him.

She shifts, to give him more support. Reuben looks at her, grateful, and they exchange a smile as they walk.

Xavier looks back over his shoulder, watching them.

Xavier disappears.

It’s the weirdest thing, one moment he’s there, and the next he’s just gone, as if he dropped straight into the earth.

She rushes forward, and she disappears too.

Beneath Reuben and Isabella, the soft dirt cliff erodes fast, here where the dense jungle foliage runs right up to the edge of a precipice.

The bottom goes out and they fall too.

From a distance, we see the group tumble down a steep incline, a sheer canyon wall that ends at a muddy riverbank, where they land with a hard wet SPLAT.

With them, it’s quiet for a moment as they GROAN and collect themselves.

The rain has stopped, but there are two SOUNDS we notice immediately here -- a sort of rhythmic SNUFFLING noise, and a loud, droning BUZZING.

They drag themselves to their feet. They’re standing on a riverbank, with steep canyon walls on both sides. Just ahead and around a bend, the river opens out into a lagoon, maybe fifty yards across and a hundred yards long.

He starts off, toward the bend. They others follow and they’re almost around the corner, when Isabella stops abruptly.

They follow her gaze. She’s looking at Aquilops, which is staring straight ahead, unmoving, just short of the bend in the river. Isabella scoops her up, and Aquilops squirms.

Up ahead, to their right, they can see a small dock, twenty yards away, with a faded green supply shed at the end of it.

Sticking out the front is a broken, decrepit boat.

Reuben nods, accepting the reality of his leg.

Teresa starts ahead, toward the shed. The riverbank is thick with mud, and her foot makes a SHLOOPING sound with every step.

She moves ahead, every step a racket, and rounds the bend. As she nears the corner, she hears a RUSTLING sound and turns.

On the far bank, a JUVENILE T-REX, four or five feet high, has come tentatively out of the jungle, SNIFFING at the edge of a dead HADROSAUR that’s just coming into view.

Teresa freezes, the J-rex looks up sharply, right at her. She bends down slowly, picks up a rock, and CHUCKS it at the thing.

The J-rex darts back into the jungle.

92. blue rev. 23 May 2024

Teresa exhales. That was close. She continues on (SHLOOP, SHLOOP, SHLOOP) and clears the bend in the riverbank. Just as she gets around the corner, she sees, on the other side --

-- a sleeping ADULT TYRANNOSAUR.

It’s sitting upright in the shade of a tree, its hind legs stretched out in front of it. Its eyes are open but it’s not moving, except for its head, which rises and falls gently with each SNUFFLING sound.

The BUZZING comes from the dense CLOUDS OF FLIES that surround the animal, crawling over its face and slack jaws, its bloody fangs, and the haunch of the killed Hadrosaur that’s on its side next to the T-rex.

Teresa looks back, and the others advance a little, enough to see what she sees. They all freeze, paralyzed with fear.

Aquilops trembles in Isabella’s arms.

Reuben and the kids look around -- up the steep, impossible-to- climb canyon walls around them.

Then back upriver, but it’s all rocks and torrents that way.

(The next several minutes play in excruciating near-silence.)

They look ahead, at the equipment shed. Teresa doesn’t wait for permission.

She heads for the shed.

She walks slowly, step by noisy, muddy step. Ten yards away, across the river, the T-rex sleeps.

Each of Teresa’s footsteps comes out of the mud with a thick wet SUCKING sound. She winces each time.

The T-rex raises a forelimb to swipe at the flies BUZZING around its snout, but otherwise doesn’t move.

Teresa reaches the short dock and pulls herself up onto it.

She goes to the equipment shed and opens a door. It CREAKS.

Inside the shed, there are a number of orange life preservers hung on the wooden walls, some rolls of wire-mesh fencing, coils of rope, and two big rubber cubes sitting on the floor.

Her eyes light up at the rubber cubes.

Teresa struggles out of the shed with one of the rubber cubes and sets it on the dock with a soft THUMP.

She looks to the others and waves urgently -- come here.

They start to move toward her, Xavier supporting Reuben. Isabella carries the trembling Aquilops in her arms.

Teresa goes back into the shed and returns with two yellow plastic paddles.

She moves silently to the end of the dock and pulls the rubber cube all the way to the edge, till it’s balancing just above the surface of the river.

She FLICKS a strap on the rubber cube and it falls open at a middle seam. In the center is a metal ring on a chain.

Teresa winces at the sound and they all freeze, waiting.

The T-rex GRUNTS. It raises its hind foot, like a dog, and scratches the side of its massive head.

It yawns, letting out a loud BELCH. But it sleeps on.

Teresa looks back at the others. They’re almost to her.

She wipes her brow, covered in sweat from the tension and exertion.

She closes her fingers around the metal ring on the chain and starts to pull.

Xavier and Reuben, arriving, see what she’s about to do.

They shake their heads urgently -- DON’T. She stops.

Slowly, she starts to pull her fingers from the ring, but she must have exerted some pressure already --

BECAUSE THE THING INFLATES ANYWAY.

The inflation cylinder lets out a loud HISS, and the sudden sound is deafening after all that silence.

With a sharp HISS-WHAP!, the raft pops open, momentarily obscuring Teresa’s view. As it drops into the water with a SPLASH, her view clears again, and when it does --

-- the T-rex is gone.

The spot on the far riverbank beside the hadrosaur is just empty. Teresa gapes, and the others follow her gaze.

Xavier, Reuben, and Isabella slither over the side and into the raft. But Aquilops wriggles and flips out of Isabella’s arms, immediately freezing in fear on the riverbank.

She points to the jungle, urgently.

But the animal is frozen, and Isabella’s not letting it die. She pulls the last of her licorice from her pocket, hurls it into the foliage, and Aquilops takes off after it.

Teresa grabs two plastic oars off the dock and FLOPS into the boat. She shoves a paddle at Xavier, takes the other herself.

127 ON THE RIVER, 127

Teresa and Xavier paddle like hell, out the mouth of the river and into the lagoon. But Isabella suddenly SHRIEKS.

They all turn.

The T-rex is back, standing knee-deep in the water.

Damn, that thing can move.

Behind them, the T-rex wades into the lagoon on three powerful strides.

95. blue rev. 23 May 2024

It ROARS as it goes after them, striding on the bottom, quickly in the lagoon all the way up to its chest, holding its head above the surface.

They dig deep with the paddles, repeating as fast as they can.

But the T-rex is faster.

It’s in the lagoon over its head now, and flattens out, swimming like a crocodile, its massive tail CHURNING back and forth. The hump of its back and the ridges of the tail are all that rise above the surface.

Reuben looks ahead. They’re just twenty yards from the far side of the lagoon, where a narrow rock pass on the shore might be to small for the T-rex to follow. If they can get to it.

The T-rex raises its head, opens its massive jaws, lunges in the water, and the huge skull SLAPS down, just short, the raft rocking away on the crest of the splash.

The T-rex sinks below the surface of the water.

Reuben points to the shore.

Teresa and Xavier paddle furiously.

Behind them, the T-rex is gone, but Reuben sees a stream of bubbles running alongside the boat, his eyes widen, and the bubbles move ahead of them, out front.

And the T-rex rises up out of the water ahead of them, its feet back on lagoon bottom.

96. blue rev. 23 May 2024

It ROARS, deafening, and the raft overturns. They’re all thrown into the water, and swept toward approaching rapids.

Isabella, the furthest back, is sucked underwater.

128 IN THE RAPIDS, 128

Reuben SHOUTS for Isabella, but she’s behind them, and he’s swept away, over some rocks.

129 IN THE WATER, 129

Isabella surfaces, GASPING for air, and as soon as she has enough in her lungs --

-- SHE SCREAMS.

Because the T-rex is in the water, not far behind her. It lunges toward her.

Isabella looks around, and sees the overturned raft. She dives and swims under it.

129A UNDERNEATH THE RAFT, 129A

we see the shadow of the T-rex above, through the thin plastic. It ROARS and lunges down, its jaws hitting the raft, trying to get at Isabella.

129B ON THE SHORE, 129B

Reuben and the kids reach shore and SCREAM back at her.

He tries to run back into the water, but his knee gives out and he falls.

Xavier dives in and swims toward her.

129C IN THE WATER, 129C

the T-rex SNAPS its head down and scoops up the raft in one bite, CHOMPING down on it, POPPING it.

129D ON THE SHORE, 129D

Teresa SCREAMS her sister’s name --

129E IN THE WATER, 129E

and Isabella POPS UP in the foreground, T-rex and raft behind her. She swims like crazy to the shore.

97. blue rev. 23 May 2024

129F ON THE SHORE, 129F

the family drags Isabella onto the shore and they hurl themselves into a narrow rock pass, wedging in as deeply as they can.

The T-rex runs to the edge of the rock and BELLOWS at them, not six feet away, but its head and body far too wide to get inside.

The Rex SLAMS its head against the rocks in frustration. The rock walls shudder and shed a few chunks, but do not give.

Frustrated, the T-rex ROARS again --

-- and a HIGHER-PITCHED ROAR answers from behind it.

They all turn, humans and dinosaur alike.

130 BEHIND THEM, 130

the juvenile T-rex that came out of the jungle earlier is back, crouched over the hadrosaur kill, BELLOWING.

It SLASHES at the carcass, claiming it for its own and ROARING.

131 IN THE RIVER, 131

the adult T-rex immediately ROARS back and LUNGES through the water near the riverbank, heading back to protect its kill.

133 ON THE RIVER BANK, 133

Reuben and the kids take a step out of the rock pass, wiped out.

The raft EXPLODES out of the water in front of them, scaring the hell out of them.

But they’re safe. They turn, looking to the path ahead.

Looking straight down, we see a sheer rock face that drops sharply away from us, its bottom lost in swirling clouds and mist. A waterfall flows over the edge of the cliff at one side.

Zora, Dr. Loomis, Kincaid, Krebs, and LeClerc are at the top. Kincaid has Loomis’ binoculars and is scanning the horizon from this high vantage point.

98. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Kincaid turns on him, angry.

Zora turns, hearing his raised voice.

Krebs drops it.

Zora gears up, harnesses, ropes, and climbing equipment. Her hands move expertly, tying knots and checking belayers while she scans the rock face below them.

She CINCHES a knot to her waist and hoists a large coil of rope over one shoulder.

She tosses another coil to Kincaid and it lands on the ground beside him. He reluctantly lowers the binoculars. He takes the rope and goes to a tree a short distance away.

LeClerc CURSES IN FRENCH and grabs a harness, putting it on.

Loomis nods, no getting out of this, and picks up a harness as well. He’s unfamiliar with it, so Zora helps him.

Kincaid finishes tying an impressive knot around a tree and plays out line to LeClerc’s harness.

He secures the knot there and backs up so his back is against the tree and the belayer in his hands. We notice an odd piece of ancient statuary in the thick foliage next to him.

Kincaid nods to LeClerc.

LeClerc backs up to the edge of the cliff --

-- and LEAPS OUT INTO SPACE.

Zora finishes tying the knot around Loomis’s waist and BANGS him on the shoulder twice.

Loomis nods, but this is terrifying. He tries to talk himself into it, voice shaking.

Kincaid double-wraps the second rope around his free hand and braces his feet against a rock, one rope in each hand.

Loomis nods. He leans over, peers down the sheer rock face --

-- and lowers into frame.

He’s geared up, harness and belayer secured around his waist, wearing a light backpack with a few pieces of equipment.

He lowers himself down to a decent foothold and stops, flattening himself against the rock, toes clinging to a perch.

He looks up.

136 ABOVE HIM, 136

Zora drops sharply into view, WHIZZING past him, bouncing from foothold to foothold. As she passes him --

137 ON THE ROCK FACE, 137

Loomis shudders, just watching her do that almost makes him fall. His foot slips.

He SUCKS IN AIR and re-secures it, inadvertently looking down in the process. They’re still four hundred feet up.

138 BACK UP AT THE TOP OF THE CLIFF, 138

Kincaid belays both LeClerc and Loomis, one rope in each hand.

One of the lines goes slack, there is a SHOUT from below, LeClerc’s voice --

-- and Kincaid lets go of the first rope, leaving it still tied to the tree.

He gets to his feet, backing up for position, and notices the strange statue again. He stumbles, nearly falling, but regains himself.

He turns. He’s parted some of the foliage, revealing a narrow cave opening.

It’s at the top of a NARROW STONE STAIRCASE.

He nods toward it. Krebs comes and checks it out.

The other rope in Kincaid’s hand suddenly tightens, he clamps down on it --

139 AND ON THE CLIFF FACE, 139

-- Loomis loses his foothold and drops ten feet, till the rope pulls him tight.

He clings there, pressing his cheek against the cold rock.

Zora SHOUTS up at him.

Loomis nods, but he’s terrified.

140 DOWN BELOW, 140

Zora looks down. Maybe twenty feet below her is a stone ledge that sticks out a couple feet from the cliffside. LeClerc is already standing on it, waving up at her.

She looks back up at Loomis.

141 WITH LOOMIS, 141

he chooses his footing carefully. But the SHRIEK of a pterosaur comes from somewhere within the clouds. His eyes widen.

Loomis moves.

Maybe he didn’t know what he had in him until this very moment, but he bounces quickly down the cliff as the SHRIEKING PTEROSAUR CRIES ECHO within the clouds that swirl around the rock face.

Zora free climbs as fast as she can, dropping the last six or seven feet, and she and Loomis land at the same time, CRUNCHING onto the stone outcropping halfway down the cliff.

They turn and see

142-143 OMITTED 142-143

144 THE CLIFF TEMPLE. 144

It’s small, maybe just a six foot opening, but some ancient culture has through some miracle carved a temple into the side of this majestic cliff.

LeClerc is already there, staring in amazement.

They move inside and see five DINOSAUR EGGS in the middle of the nest that’s been built inside the cave, eight or nine feet across. The eggs themselves are at least a foot long.

Zora turns to LeClerc, gesturing to the ropes and pitons.

LeClerc starts pulling ropes free, finding new places to pound in pitons for the drop the rest of the way down the cliff.

Zora and Loomis move fast. She unzips his backpack, grabs an extraction dart, and hands it to him.

Loomis SMACKS the pieces together, primes the needle, and drops to the ground beside the nest. He gently SNICKS the needle through the surface of the egg.

He draws back the plunger, slooooowly filling the extraction tube with fluid from the egg.

Behind them, LeClerc works, the TING of his hammer on the pitons echoing over the cliff face.

The pterosaur SHRIEK comes again, closer.

She nods. Anxious.

Another SHRIEK. Closer still. Zora looks at Loomis, who is focused only on his work.

He smiles and keeps drawing the plunger back. Halfway there.

Behind them, LeClerc keeps working. TING. TING. TING.

Zora looks at the egg, and the nearly full syringe.

104. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

The syringe full, Loomis POPS the needle out of the shell.

AND THE PTEROSAUR ATTACKS.

It happens suddenly, first a dark shape in the clouds we’re not even sure that we notice, and then Quetzalcoatlus is HERE, gigantic, its massive wings FLAPPING madly, its six-foot beak CRACKING into the stone around them.

Loomis and Zora roll away, and the sample tube SKITTERS away, across the stone floor of the temple toward the cliff edge.

LeClerc grabs hold of a six foot branch that’s fallen and jabs at the pterosaur in self-defense.

Loomis crawls after the sample tube, but Quetzalcoatlus turns its attack on him. Loomis rolls away, kicking at the thing, but it’s all wings and beak, seemingly everywhere.

Loomis becomes entangled with his rope, and Zora sees him moving toward the edge of the cliff. She claws at the unwinding curl of ropes and manages to WHIP its end around a tree rooted in the cave wall --

-- just before Loomis is driven over the edge of the cliff.

The sample tube rolls off after him, and Zora braces herself and squeezes the rope hard, with both hands.

145 ON THE CLIFF FACE, 145

the sample tube falls and sticks in the branches of a tree sticking out from the side of the cliff.

Loomis falls too, till he’s SNAPPED to a stop by his rope.

105. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

He’s dangling now, but can see the tube, close to him. He reaches for it.

146 BACK UP IN THE TEMPLE, 146

LeClerc SMACKS the pterosaur in the side with the branch and the creature turns on him, SHRIEKING.

Cornered, LeClerc pulls on his own rope, SCREAMING out of the mouth of the temple --

He runs to the cliff edge --

147 ON THE CLIFF FACE, 147

-- and starts to climb up, toward the top of the cliff.

The pterosaur swoops out into the air and takes a pass at him, but LeClerc flattens himself against the stone.

148 UP ON THE TOP OF THE CLIFF, 148

Kincaid feels LeClerc’s line going wild in his hands and starts hauling him in, hand over hand as fast as he can.

Krebs drops to the ground beside him and they both start hauling it in.

148A ON THE CLIFF FACE, 148A

The rope pulls, LeClerc climbs, the pterosaur swoops toward him.

148B ON TOP OF THE CLIFF, 148B

Kincaid and Krebs pull hard, they get LeClerc higher and higher.

They get him closer and closer, they drag him up over the edge of the cliff --

-- but it’s not LeClerc, it’s the pterosaur, with the other end of the rope all the way down its throat.

106. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

It’s already swallowed LeClerc.

But he’s gone, long gone, and Quetzalcoatlus pulls back, SNAPPING its jaws to break the rope. It FLAPS its giant wings, hovering over the cliff edge, preparing to attack them now.

It swoops toward them and Krebs and Kincaid fall back, into the narrow mouth of the stone staircase.

They race down it, safe from the giant creature, which SHRIEKS and PECKS at the entrance to the staircase, but can’t get in.

149 ON THE SIDE OF THE CLIFF, 149

Loomis dangles, upside down, swinging from the rope Zora holds. He stretches for the sample tube, in the branches, he can almost reach it, but he’s swaying back and forth, like a pendulum --

149A UP IN THE TEMPLE, 149A

Zora, her hands bleeding from holding onto Loomis’ rope, is slowly being dragged toward the edge of the cliff.

She digs in her heels and tries to stop, but she’s gaining momentum, she’s going to go over the edge too --

-- when KINCAID bursts in, THUNDERING down the hidden staircase from above and racing out of the back of the temple.

He drops to the ground, skids to a stop beside her, and grabs hold of the rope alongside her. They start to pull, together, but the rope is fraying on the sharp stone edge of the cliff.

149B ON THE CLIFF FACE, 149B

Loomis is being pulled up, right past the sample tube, his fingers close around it --

-- but it BEEPS TWICE --

-- and the tube LAUNCHES itself.

It ROCKETS out of Loomis’ hand, he SHOUTS in pain, and the sample tube SOARS into the air above the cliff. The chute deploys and it starts to fall.

107. yellow rev. 14 June 2024

Quetzalcoatlus, distracted, flies after it, SHRIEKING.

149C UP ON THE LEDGE, 149C

Zora and Kincaid pull together, Loomis is getting closer to the top, but before he gets there the fraying rope --

-- SNAPS.

They fall back on the ground as Loomis is suddenly cut loose.

149D ON THE CLIFF FACE, 149D

Loomis falls. He SCREAMS, plummeting to certain death, he SLAPS through thick leaves and branches --

-- and SPLASHES into the lagoon at the base of the cliff.

He goes deep, then comes up, GASPING for air.

Up above, Zora comes rappelling down the cliff, as fast as she can, bouncing from ledge to ledge, nimble and quick.

On the bank of the lagoon, Zora lands lightly on her feet, disconnects fast, grabs Loomis as he crawls out of the water, and they scramble away into the nearby dense foliage.

Quetzalcoatlus circles once or twice above, but it’s far too big to penetrate the twisted foliage. It gives up, SQUAWKING angrily, and flies back up the cliff to check on the rest of its eggs.

Loomis and Zora gulp air, cut, bleeding, and spent.

A sudden SOUND comes from beside them and they whirl, ready to fight for their lives again.

But it’s Kincaid and Krebs, emerging from the almost-obscured mouth of the carved stone staircase in the side of the cliff.

The parachute cone with the blood sample wafts down and lands softly beside them.

151 MOMENTS LATER, 151

the sample case SMACKS open, the third sample is pushed into the lone remaining empty slot, and Zora SLAMS it shut.

108. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

The sun is about to set on the ocean horizon, visible over the jungle canopy.

Moving down, we see the the river raft with Reuben, Teresa, Xavier, and Isabella on it, as it floats near the terminus of the river.

They come into the lower portion of the VILLAGE COMPLEX, the one we saw at the beginning of the movie. They pass under broken pipes and bridges, before landing at the side of the cement aqueduct. They help each other out of the raft and start off towards the complex.

Rising up above them, we see them inside the complex fence and on a jungle trail, following more pipes to a grouping of two and three-story buildings we saw earlier, in an open area carved out of the heart of the jungle.

There’s a flat cement area, fifteen meters across, in the middle of a reservoir. INGEN is painted on the cement in fading letters.

The helipad.

CLOSE ON the silver metal sample case, carried in Zora’s firm grip. Krebs is close beside her as they make their way uphill, through the jungle.

Kincaid and Dr. Loomis follow behind them.

The lower portion of the village is flooded, and they’re slogging through a foot of water, the tops of the buildings visible up ahead.

They start up a muddy incline. Zora sees something and bends down.

They crowd around. Indeed they are. She gets up and hurries ahead, SHOUTING.

109. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

No answer. Krebs follows, but doesn’t like it.

154 BEHIND THEM, 154

Kincaid and Dr. Loomis aren’t far back. Kincaid climbs onto an old gantry platform to get a better view, and looks through the binoculars again.

154A THROUGH THE BINOCULARS, 154A

he scans the village, up ahead. He sees the laboratory building, and the helipad near it.

154B BACK ON THE GROUND, 154B

He sweeps the binoculars across the village.

110. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

Kincaid jumps off the gantry and forges on.

From far ahead, a VOICE calls back:

They stop, look at each other, and take off, hurrying the rest of the way towards the complex.

All of them except for Krebs, who lingers behind.

The sun is setting as Zora, Dr. Loomis, and Kincaid come out of the trees, into the village clearing.

Reuben, Teresa, Isabella, and Xavier are there already, staggering toward them in the clearing.

Zora takes over support of Reuben from Teresa, who is exhausted.

111. pink rev. 3 June 2024

Kincaid goes directly to Isabella, bending down in front of her, holding her by the arms. He’s emotional.

Isabella nods, and Kincaid blinks back tears.

Teresa looks around, wild-eyed with anger.

They turn. Krebs is behind them. He holds the handgun he took off the dead soldier at the helicopter. Not pointing it, exactly, but for sure making them aware of it.

The group turns, Isabella GASPS, Reuben pulls her close, and Teresa rushes toward Krebs. Now he raises the gun. Kincaid stops Teresa.

112. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

Krebs snatches the sample case from Zora’s hand.

He backs away, now holding the gun on them. He takes the empty handcuff attached to the sample case and SMACKS it onto his own left wrist.

The kids hug each other, saved. Reuben is jubilant.

113. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

The little girl says it with such unaccustomed force and authority that they immediately do as they’re told.

They turn to her and see she’s pointing, her eyes wide again. They follow the direction of her trembling finger and we move around her, till we’re behind her and can see what she sees.

TWO DINOSAURS are crouched twenty feet away.

There’s no mistaking a bi-pedal predator when we see one, and these are big ones, eight feet from nose to tail. They SNARL.

The group freezes, terrified.

The raptors SNARL and HISS. They move to either side of the group and advance.

Krebs raises his gun and points it at them.

At the same time, there is a sudden ROAR, but it’s not another animal, it’s the geothermal power generator in the building nearby, kicking into gear on a rotating timer.

Fluorescent lights and signs flicker on the outside of the nearby buildings.

The raptors freeze, their heads snapping to look into the jungle to the right of them. They let off a tiny WHIMPER.

And run off at top speed.

They disappear into the jungle, leaving the humans alone.

Krebs lowers his gun, pleased with himself.

They were spooked by Krebs? That doesn’t seem right. Loomis looks around, trying to figure it out.

114. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

There is a nearby RUSTLING and AQUILOPS, the little red-frilled dinosaur, scurries out of the jungle, straight over to Isabella. It cowers against her legs, trembling.

She scoops the animal up in her arms, and the others SIGH in relief, even though raptors running away from an Aquilops doesn’t quite add up.

MORE LIGHTS FLICKER ON around the village, the generator running a circuit, cycling through the buildings, and in the general store, a sort of mini-mart with gas pumps out front. There’s a jeep parked in front of it, a charging cable plugged into a charging outlet. MUZAK plays from tinny speakers.

Loomis furrows his brow, then looks up at the dusky sky.

From above them, there is a leathery, papery FLAPPING sound. We’ve heard that sound before. They all look up --

-- and MUTADON, the horrible creature Xavier saw in the jungle, descends from the skies and lands right in the middle of them.

We get a full look at it now. It has a pasty-white, salamander- like body, creased horizontally with pronounced musculature and a protruding spine. Its six clawed legs paw the air, and the muscles of its rippling belly vibrate as it BREATHES.

115. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

But wait, it’s worse -- now a SECOND MUTADON descends from the darkening sky and lands beside the first.

The group is split apart.

LOOMIS and KINCAID, the ones closest to the FIRST MUTADON, back away fast, stumbling in the direction of the large lab building with the geothermal structure adjoining it, the FIRST MUTADON stalking them.

ZORA, KREBS, REUBEN, TERESA, ISABELLA, and XAVIER turn and run up a short stair and across a bridge, toward the mini-mart, visible in the distance.

The SECOND MUTADON stands upright and extends its enormous, papery wings. They FLAP, and it rises into the darkness, SHRIEKING at them.

Reuben, Xavier, Teresa, and Isabella run into an alcove on the side of the mini-mart building, hiding there for a moment, out of view. The Mutadons are nowhere to be seen.

No Mutadons. Silence.

Zora and Krebs arrive.

Krebs runs to the jeep and jumps behind the wheel, pawing for keys, but there’s none in it. He rifles the glove compartment, checks the visor, nothing.

Zora sees a phone that hangs on the outside of the building. She picks it up gently and pushes 911.

IN THE OPEN AREA,

the PAPERY FLAP of giant wings comes from above.

The Mutadons land.

IN THE JEEP,

Krebs ducks down, out of sight.

Zora, too, is frozen and gently hangs up the phone. Silent.

116. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

IN THE OPEN AREA,

the Mutadons, not seeing or sensing any of them, start to flap their wings, to fly off --

-- AND THE PAY PHONE RINGS.

The Mutadons turn, and let out a bloodcurdling SHRIEK.

IN THE JEEP,

Krebs panics and lunges out the passenger side of the jeep, landing hard on the ground just as one of the Mutadons SWOOPS toward him, just missing as he dives out of the jeep.

It WHOOSHES over the jeep, disappearing into the dark sky again.

ON THE GROUND,

Krebs claws and scratches in the dirt, scrabbling under the jeep.

OUTSIDE THE MINI-MART,

Reuben and the kids are frozen, breathless. But the SECOND MUTADON spots them now and SHRIEKS, taking wing toward them.

Zora sees what’s happening and runs out in the open, SHOUTING.

The Mutadon stops, turning on her.

AT THE MINI-MART,

the family takes advantage of the momentary distraction and races toward the doors to the mini-mart.

Zora dives back under the jeep with Krebs and the Mutadons split up, one racing toward the mini-mart, the other toward the jeep. They half-run, half-fly, their claws dragging furrows in the dirt.

UNDER THE JEEP,

She and Krebs get as far under the car as they can as the first Mutadon attacks, SNARLING and DIGGING from one side.

117. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

AT THE MINI-MART,

we race toward Reuben and the kids as they bolt for the front doors of the mini-mart. They reach them just before we do, run inside, SLAM them shut --

-- and the second Mutadon SLAMS into the doors.

Reuben and the kids lock the doors and shove metal racks of food and supplies in front of them.

The Second Mutadon SLAMS into the door again. The glass half- spiderwebs, but the door holds.

The Mutadon turns and half-runs, half-flaps away, disappearing into the darkness again.

Reuben and the kids look at each other, terrified, backing into the place. Quiet again.

Isabella looks around. There’s a small cardboard standee, a FRIENDLY CARTOON DINOSAUR attached to a candy display.

But the Friendly Dinosaur rocks a bit, as if hit by something. Then it rocks again, as a CHUNK OF SOMETHING WHITE falls on it.

Isabella looks around, wondering what’s happening.

ABOVE HER, we can see there’s movement in the ceiling, a hole that’s growing there, and something dark poking its way through.

Isabella looks down and sees dust and plaster on the floor.

Isabella looks up, sees the hole, and now a BLACK CLAW comes through it.

Isabella SCREAMS.

The others whirl and look up. In the ceiling, the MUTADON is frantically clawing a hole through the drywall, and now BOTH CLAWS come out of the hole, then the thing’s head, and it SHRIEKS at them.

Reuben looks around and spots something.

They take off, running toward the back of the store.

118. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

The Mutadon slithers its body through the widening hole in the ceiling and lands hard on the floor, flat on its belly.

The Mutadon SHRIEKS, stands and thrashes around, knocking over shelves and displays, stepping on a sealed pack of some red energy drink that’s fallen to the floor. The bottles EXPLODE under its foot, spraying red everywhere.

The Mutadon senses they’re here, but where? It walks down the rows of old snacks and supplies. We move with it, down the rows, seeing nothing --

-- till Reuben’s head peeks out from behind a stack of boxes at the back of the store, and quickly ducks back again.

Reuben and Isabella hold onto each other. Frozen, silent.

Aquilops shivers in Isabella’s arms, and she holds it tight.

Behind them, Xavier and Teresa are doing the same.

The Mutadon reaches the end of the row and turns back. It SNIFFS the air. It knows they’re here.

IN THE BACK OF THE STORE,

Reuben hears a GURGLING sound and looks down. The red energy drink has run across the raked floor, and is SWIRLING down through a large grate in the floor.

A drain! Reuben gestures to Isabella -- don’t make a sound -- and points down at the grate.

She shakes her head no. He nods yes.

Outside, Kincaid and Dr. Loomis reach the top of an external staircase on the lab building, thirty feet off the ground. They RIP open a door there and run into --

-- the lab building. It’s dark in here, no sound except for their breathing.

Loomis cocks his head to listen. From somewhere outside, they hear the loud, horrible RASPING BREATH of something large.

119. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

Something very large.

Suddenly, the lights cycle on in the building. They’re in a large, empty room, half of its exterior wall crumbled.

Outside, they see the silhouette of SOMETHING MASSIVE as it moves past in the darkness, that RASPY BREATH moving with it.

But then it’s gone. They look around. They’re in the middle of the laboratory from the beginning, where the Worker was killed.

There are drawings and sketches of various dinosaur species, hybrids and experiments, all over the walls. Incubators and hatcheries, long grown over, line the edges of the room.

FAILED EXPERIMENTS are stored in huge transparent jars, filled with formaldehyde. They look around, horrified.

They move to the far side of the room, to a security area. There are security monitors everywhere, showing dozens of views of the island.

Outside, they hear the giant beast SMASH itself against the walls of the lab, SHAKING the entire building.

Kincaid is at the monitors, studying the various views, searching.

159A ON ONE MONITOR, 159A

he sees a camera inside the mini-mart, where Rueben is huddled with the kids and the Mutadon is searching for the family.

Loomis joins him, seeing another monitor.

But Kincaid’s torn up by the monitor, where he sees the Mutadon.

120. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

Suddenly, LIGHTS from outside play across the room, and there’s a familiar ENGINE sound from outside.

They look back down at the monitors. On one, they see the incoming helicopter begin to circle, looking for signs of life.

He takes off, through a smashed wall of the lab, and runs into the night.

Loomis moves to follow him, but that strange RASPING comes again, this time accompanied by a HORRIBLE WAIL of some sort.

A huge shadow passes over the wall of the lab. The thing is just outside.

Loomis freezes, momentarily trapped there.

On the monitor, the lights of the helicopter draw closer. But he’s stuck for the moment.

Back in the clearing, the First Mutadon SNAPS at Zora and Krebs, who are shoved together underneath the car.

The Mutadon is flat on its belly, trying to claw and crawl under the car, but its body is just barely too thick.

The car rocks on its chassis as it claws at them.

Zora and Krebs move away, to the other side of the car, but we watch the Mutadon feet scurry, lizard-quick, around the car to the other side, and SNAP at them from there.

Krebs SCREAMS, rolls over and FIRES the gun at the creature.

He shoots wildly, one shot ricocheting off the ground and SPARKING up into the car’s undercarriage.

Brake fluid sprays over them.

121. cherry rev. 8 August 2024

Krebs grabs hold of the undercarriage with both hands and KICKS at Zora, pushing her halfway out the other side.

The Mutadon scurries around to that side, nearly getting her, but she wraps her arms around a tire and SPINS herself back under the car just in time.

Krebs aims the gun at her --

-- but she KICKS it out of his hand, and it flies out from under the car.

He tries desperately to shove her out, but Zora pushes back, both feet in his chest.

Krebs paws for purchase, but she’s stronger than he is and she pushes him toward the other side. The silver case, handcuffed to his arm, is exposed for a moment --

-- and the Mutadon’s jaws SNAP shut on it.

Krebs SCREAMS as he’s dragged out from under the car, by the case in the Mutadon’s teeth.

Zora sees him pulled all the way out, then lifted up into the air, his feet leaving the ground --

-- and then he SLAMS back onto the ground again.

162 OUTSIDE THE CAR, 162

Krebs, momentarily free, backs up against the side of the car, right next to the open flap for the gas tank --

-- which has the car keys in it.

His eyes light up.

122. tan rev. 16 August 2024

Zora, under the car, hears frantic SHOUTING and SCRAMBLING as Krebs gets to his feet, the Mutadon SHRIEKS and comes in for another pass, and the car rocks.

And then the engine ROARS to life.

The jeep drives away, leaving her exposed.

She grabs the gun Krebs dropped and rolls immediately into the jungle foliage, cutting the hell out of herself as she wriggles in among the sharp-edged ferns.

The Mutadon doesn’t see her. For the moment.

The Mutadon in the mini-mart ROARS and SHRIEKS, running towards the back of the store where Reuben and the kids are hiding.

We look down, and see the heavy metal drainage grate as it’s quickly slid back into place from below.

The Mutadon looks down at it and SHRIEKS.

Several pairs of eyes look back up at it, through the grate.

Mutadon lunges itself at the grate, but can’t get through.

The eyes disappear as Reuben and the kids take off, further into the tunnel. Thwarted, the Mutadon SHRIEKS, turns and flaps back up through the hole in the ceiling, into the night sky.

166 IN THE SKY OVER THE ISLAND, 166

the HELICOPTER approaches.

Loomis bolts out of the lab and runs down the staircase. The helicopter is now circling overhead.

168-9 EXT GANTRY NIGHT 168-9

Loomis runs out onto a large gantry platform that leads to the helipad. He waves his arms, SHOUTING at the helicopter as it draws closer.

123. tan rev. 16 August 2024

They don’t seem to see him. Loomis sees a large crate at the edge of the helipad and flips it open. It’s filled with supplies -- including road flares.

He grabs a couple of them, CRACKS one, it SPITS to life, and he shoves the three others in his back pocket.

He throws the burning flare into the air, revealing --

-- DISTORTUS REX, the source of the horrible RASPING WHEEZE we heard earlier. Distortus was an attempt to cross-breed two upright carnivores that went horribly wrong. It has stiff, bloated legs that sink into the earth when it walks, a colossal, misshapen head that it can barely keep aloft, and a hideous ROAR.

He waves his arms frantically at the sky, SHOUTING and POINTING in the direction of Distortus.

Up in the helicopter, Distortus is hidden by smoke and mist, but the PILOT spots Loomis below.

He banks, circling towards Loomis.

170A IN THE BACK, 170A

two more CREW MEMBERS work fast. One attaches the cable and prepares to slide the cargo door open, and the other CLICKS himself into a harness and rope.

The helicopter hovers in the swirling mist and smoke.

As the cargo door slides open, the helicopter jerks suddenly, throwing both crew members off their feet.

Loomis can’t see anymore, he can only hear the helicopter’s engine, somewhere in the mist and smoke.

He CRACKS open another flare and throws that one too, and for a moment, it looks like the helicopter is coming toward him, and it actually is, it’s just that it’s --

124. tan rev. 16 August 2024

-- held in the jaws of Distortus rex.

Distortus WHIPS its head violently back and forth, as if to break its prey’s neck.

It releases the helicopter, which flies to the side and SMASHES to the ground, EXPLODING in a ball of flame.

Distortus rex ROARS, deafening.

Kincaid runs toward the mini-mart, the helicopter wreckage burning in the distance behind him.

He hears a SOUND from below and whirls, expecting to be attacked, but the sound is HUMAN VOICES.

He turns and sees FINGERS, clawing up through another metal grate. He runs to it, and pulls the metal grating off a drainage tunnel entrance.

Reuben and the kids are down inside it.

But Kincaid looks around, thinking. All around him, there are the ROARS and SHRIEKS of the Mutadons and Distortus.

He looks down into the tunnel, under the family’s feet, water’s running in from other sources, flowing into an underground drainage system.

SOMETHING RUSHES AT HIM and he startles, but it’s Dr. Loomis, breathless and streaked with dirt and soot.

125. 2nd yellow rev. 19 September 2024

Loomis doesn’t ask questions, just climbs down into the open tunnel.

Kincaid jumps down too and, reaching up from down here, he YANKS the metal grating back into place.

He hops down, into the open area beneath the grate, where the others are gathered. He looks around, thinking fast.

Kincaid bends down, taking her by the arms.

She nods, believing him. So do we.

He turns and leads them into the tunnel, which has work lights strung along the length of it.

In the jungle edge near the gas station, Zora lies under the ferns, dug into the earth as far as she can get. Just beyond, the other Mutadon SNIFFS and SCRATCHES, searching for her.

126. 2nd yellow rev. 19 September 2024

Zora backs up, silently, the Mutadon draws closer, it’s just a couple feet away from her --

-- and then it turns, abruptly.

It tilts its head, listening, like a dog hearing a high-pitched sound. And this sound’s coming from a drainage grate near the gas station.

The Mutadon walks over, tears the grate off, and follows the sound of the voices down into the tunnel.

Zora emerges from her hiding place. She also hears VOICES, echoing from underground, and runs over to the grate the Mutadon just entered.

She hears VOICES, faintly, from below. She considers her choices. She does not love them.

Holding the gun in front of her, she climbs down into the tunnel, following the Mutadon.

180-180A OMITTED 180-180A

180B IN THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM, 180B

Zora gets her bearings. No Mutadon. She takes off towards the voices, into the series of interlocking drainage tunnels.

Headlights FLASH out of the jungle, and Krebs’s jeep ROARS into view. This mountain road snakes downward from the village, toward the shimmering ocean water at the island’s edge.

Krebs looks down, at the silver briefcase on the seat beside him. The handcuffs are still attached, but he’s opened the one on his wrist to drive. He permits himself a small LAUGH of excitement.

He’s getting away.

127. tan rev. 16 August 2024

But a shape suddenly LOOMS UP on the road in front of him, his headlights FLASH across a bulky thing, right in the roadway.

It’s a lumbering ANKYLOSAURUS, like a gigantic turtle, crossing the road. This is a turtle you do not want to crash into.

Krebs SWERVES, the car skids and BANGS against a tree, creasing its right side and POPPING a tire, as more BRAKE FLUID sprays from underneath the jeep.

Krebs drives on, fast, the tire THUMP THUMP THUMPING and GRINDING on the road.

That can’t last long.

182-184 OMITTED 182-184

Underground, Loomis, Kincaid, and the others move as fast as they can through the tunnel.

The lights flicker and go out.

Everything goes black. Somebody SCREAMS.

We hear their heavy BREATHING, their hands and feet SCRAPING on the concrete tunnel, as they push themselves forward.

There’s a sudden HISS, a POP, and the lights come back on.

We expect the Mutadon to be RIGHT THERE, right IN FRONT OF US, they even SCREAM in expectation.

But there’s nothing.

They move on, and reach another fork where the tunnel splits.

128. 2nd yellow rev. 19 September 2024

They go that way.

Behind them, Zora is catching up, the gun in one hand. She reaches the first fork and stops.

Up ahead, she hears a VOICE, calling faintly to her from the right side. She goes that way.

Loomis and the others continue, fast.

He moves ahead, faster, and the lights SIZZLE and FLICKER again. They go out for a second time, and when they come back on --

-- Zora is there, in the mouth of an adjoining tunnel.

They SCREAM. She SCREAMS.

Loomis moves on. The others follow through the narrow tunnel, Zora at the rear. They come into

188 AN OPEN SPACE, 188

like a big tunnel interchange, where a number of tunnels branch off in different directions, and at two heights.

They head across the open area to the tunnel on the far side --

-- AND THE MUTADON FLIES OUT OF ANOTHER TUNNEL IN A SHOWER OF WATER AND MUD.

It lands in the open space between Zora and the others.

129. 2nd yellow rev. 19 September 2024

The open area is bad news, as the Mutadon has room to maneuver here. It pulls itself up off its front legs, opens its jaws, the group SCREAMS, fully exposed --

-- and A SERIES OF GUNSHOTS erupts from behind the animal.

It SHRIEKS, its blood SPATTERS on the walls, and it falls to the ground, writhing, more angry than injured.

Zora stands in the tunnel behind it, smoking gun in hand.

The injured Mutadon THRASHES at them, its jaws SNAPPING just an inch short of Dr. Loomis.

The others take off, scrambling away into the tunnel.

The Mutadon turns on Zora, SHRIEKING.

She FIRES two more GUNSHOTS into it before her gun goes dry.

She turns and dives into another open tunnel mouth.

The Mutadon is too big to get through this narrow tunnel mouth. But it flaps its wings once, launching itself up, to another tunnel, above the first one, and wriggles in, pursuing her.

A FLAT TIRE, now rolling completely on exposed rim, SPARKS and SHRIEKS as the runaway jeep careens down the mountain road.

Behind the wheel, Krebs holds on for dear life, trying like hell to stay on the road, but now the brakes have gone useless too.

130. tan rev. 16 August 2024

Up ahead, he can see the moonlight glinting off the sea, and the rough outline of the boat structure.

Down in the drainage tunnel, the group sees light up ahead.

They race toward it, but there’s a large gate down in front of the tunnel exit. They run to it and SLAM against it, shaking the bars, but it’s locked. The bars are wide enough to allow water through, but too close together to pass through.

Beyond the gate, they can see the boat, suspended on a lift beside a dock, just above the surface of the water.

Zora looks around quickly, and sees a handle on the wall next to it, a sign over it -- SEA GATE.

She runs to it and pulls down hard, but the rotted handle SNAPS off in her hand.

From behind them, they hear the SHRIEKS of the wounded Mutadon.

They turn. The creature starts to emerge from the smaller tunnel above, parts of its head and beak poking through. It CLAWS and SQUIRMS, trying to break through and get at the group.

Zora whirls and sees a corresponding sea gate lever on the far side of the bars, about twenty feet away. She hurls herself into the bars and tries to squeeze through, but can’t.

Behind them, the Mutadon SHRIEKS and SCRATCHES, making progress.

The others fall on the bars, they pull and kick, but it’s not going to work.

Isabella sees the situation, she sets down Aquilops --

-- and hurls herself at the bars of the gate.

131. tan rev. 16 August 2024

Too late. Isabella, determined, skinnies herself up as much as she can and pushes forward, forcing herself between the bars.

She CRIES OUT as she drags her head through --

-- the injured Mutadon begins to get the top part of its body through the hole nearby --

-- and Isabella pops through the other side. She gets to the sea handle and gives it a hard pull down. The gate begins to rise, giving off the awful SHRIEK of rusted metal and gears, and lights FLICKER to life.

The gate gets a couple feet off the ground and gets stuck, GROANING and SHUDDERING there.

They all dive to the ground and roll under the gate, Zora pops up on the other side, and runs to the handle. She gives it a hard shove, back into the upright position, and the gate stops GROANING, but doesn’t close.

195 IN THE TUNNEL, 195

the Mutadon finally bursts out of the tunnel, drops and turns to attack the group --

-- and a HIDEOUS ROAR comes from outside. The Mutadon freezes.

196 OUTSIDE THE GATE, 196

Distortus rex strides into frame, directly between the group and the boat.

Isabella SCREAMS.

Distortus ROARS back at her.

And suddenly there is the ROAR of an engine, and headlights play across Distortus. It turns, in time to see Krebs’ runaway jeep, careening straight toward it.

Distortus raises one massive foot, and STOMPS it down on the hood of jeep, stopping it in its tracks and CRUMPLING the front end of the jeep underneath it.

132. tan rev. 16 August 2024

Krebs stands up in the jeep, clutching the silver case, eyes wide, looking up at the thing, in all its terrifying glory.

He SCREAMS.

Distortus SNAPS its head forward, its massive, misshapen head enclosing Krebs completely. It picks him up off the ground and shakes him like a rag doll.

Krebs’s limbs fly in several directions.

While Distortus is distracted, Zora SLAMS the sea gate handle into place one last time, and the gate finally descends.

It SLAMS shut just as the advancing Mutadon CRASHES up against it, SHRIEKING.

The group turns and runs for the boat, as Distortus tosses its head back to get the last of Krebs down its throat.

Running toward the boat, Zora sees a glint of silver in the moonlight -- the sample case, still in the grip of Krebs’s now- severed arm.

She pries his fingers from around the handle, grabs it, and takes off for the boat with the others.

They reach the end of a path that leads to the dock and race out onto it.

Zora reaches the end of the pier first, where the boat is suspended over the water by wires. She shoves the sample case into Loomis’s hands and SHOUTS to Reuben.

She points to a yellow box with controls on it, and Reuben runs over to it, flipping a few switches, trying to get it to work. He hits a series of switches and the lift GRINDS into gear, starting to lower the boat.

But as it lowers, it turns on a SPOTLIGHT on its top --

-- and Distortus returns.

133. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

It wades into the shallow water in an L-shaped part of the dock and BELLOWS, not twenty feet away from them. They’re trapped on the dock, unable to go back without running right past the massive creature.

They will not survive this.

Kincaid, at the rear of the group and closer to shore, looks at the group. And then at Isabella. She turns and looks up at him, terror in her eyes.

Kincaid makes a decision.

He turns and grabs the two remaining flares from Loomis’s back pocket and backs away from the group. Zora turns, seeing what he’s doing, and he SHOUTS to her.

Reuben, still lowering the boat, SHOUTS to Kincaid.

Too late. Kincaid CRACKS open a flare, SHOUTS at Distortus --

-- and dives into the water with the flare.

The Distortus pivots away from the group on the pier and BELLOWS at the now-moving flare, still visible underwater.

134. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

He’s fully committed now, slogging through the waist-high water as fast as he can, toward the mangroves.

It works. Distortus follows him, ROARING.

AT THE END OF THE PIER,

the lift STOPS, grinding to a halt.

He BANGS at the switches, trying to re-start it.

Zora grabs a chunk of steel pipe and starts BANGING on the rusted chain, trying to break it and free the boat.

The chain SNAPS and the boat drops into the water with a tremendous SPLASH. Zora SHOUTS to the others.

Loomis gestures to the darkness, where they can hear Distortus CRASHING after Kincaid, ROARING.

They all jump in. Reuben slides behind the wheel, SHOUTING to Teresa.

Teresa runs to the rear tanks and pumps a priming lever, hard.

Zora helps the others in, working fast. She steals glances into the darkness, hoping to see Kincaid.

In the mangroves, Kincaid sloshes along as fast as he can, burning flare in hand, pushing into the dense growth.

Distortus isn’t far behind him, but the density of the mangroves slows it down, and Kincaid puts some distance between them.

135. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

He stops, GULPING air, and looks behind him. Distortus is gone.

He starts moving again, a different angle from how he came in, pushing back in the direction of the beach, as fast as he can. He’s getting closer to the CLANGS.

He reaches a break in the mangroves, and there are two distinct paths here. One leads left, and the other to the right.

From somewhere nearby, Distortus ROARS, but it seems to come from all around him.

Kincaid hesitates for a second, then makes his choice. He starts down the RIGHT path --

-- then changes his mind, and takes the left one instead.

He CRUNCHES through a dense bunch of mangroves, and comes into a clearing.

Where Distortus rex stands just ten feet in front of him.

It stares down at him.

Kincaid freezes, trapped. He looks up at the gigantic thing.

In his hand, the flare SPUTTERS and dies.

Distortus ROARS and SNAPS its head forward --

-- just as Kincaid dives to the side, into the deep water.

He disappears under the surface, Distortus looks around for him for a moment, then PLUNGES its head into the water after him.

It thrashes violently, RIPPING and TEARING at whatever’s under the surface. Foam, water, and mud fly everywhere.

Mercifully, we don’t see the rest.

Zora, the last one left on the dock, takes one final look back.

Behind the helm, Reuben struggles with the choke and throttle, trying to get the GROANING engine to start.

136. goldenrod rev. 6 July 2024

A ROAR comes from behind them, and Distortus BURSTS back out of the trees, at the shore again.

But Kincaid can’t answer.

Zora, fighting back tears, turns and leaps off the dock, landing in the boat.

Distortus wades into the water after them, ROARING.

Of course, there is no answer. Reuben manages the right combination of choke and throttle, the engine ROARS to life, he turns and looks back, Distortus comes closer --

Reuben shoves the throttle down all the way and the boat ROARS ahead, just beyond the SNAPPING TEETH of Distortus as it makes one last lunge at the boat.

As they ROAR out to open sea, they look back, at the island.

Distortus rex crouches on its hind legs, swings its truck-sized head all the way aloft, and WAILS to the heavens.

The bizarre ROAR echoes over the water.

Under bright moonlight, the boat cruises out to sea, leaving the island behind it.

They are a devastated bunch. Reuben pilots, with Xavier and Teresa on one of the bench seats, completely drained. Xavier has laid down, his head in Teresa’s lap, and she strokes his hair gently.

137. salmon rev. 28 July 2024

Reuben sees this. Teresa looks up and catches eyes with him.

Reuben turns and looks at Isabella, on the seat next to him.

She cradles Aquilops, which is now COOING at her.

He pulls her close.

AT THE REAR OF THE BOAT,

Zora and Dr. Loomis are slumped on the rear bench, depleted.

Zora looks back at the island, receding in the night.

Zora turns back, devastated.

But even she might not believe that. Loomis just nods. No need to argue the point.

Zora looks down at the silver sample case, streaked with Krebs’s blood. She turns to Loomis.

138. green rev. 26 June 2024

Loomis nods.

A POD OF DOLPHINS falls in beside the boat, leaping and sporting in the silver-lit sea, escorting them back to their world.

ALTERNATE ENDING --

Under moonlight, the boat races away from the shore. Reuben pilots, the kids in the front with him. Loomis and Zora are at the back rail, studying the shore for any sign of Kincaid.

But there’s no answer. Loomis looks at her, accepting the worst.

Zora keeps studying the shoreline, refusing to give up.

The boat ROCKS and BANGS down in the water and Loomis and Zora turn to see what’s happening. From the front, Isabella is now the only one looking back at the island as it recedes in the distance.

Tears run down her face.

And then a flickering red light plays off it.

139. buff rev. 24 July 2024

She blinks. The light flickers brighter.

Isabella raises a hand, pointing behind the boat.

Zora whips her head back, and now she sees it too -- a RED FLARE, waving back and forth in the air, just a few feet above the surface of the water a couple hundred yards behind them.

Reuben cranks the wheel and the boat ROARS around, kicking up a rooster tail of water. Zora FLICKS on a spotlight and spins it onto the water ahead of them.

DUNCAN KINCAID is in the water, swimming like hell with one arm, waving the flare over his head with the other.

The light SPLASHES across him.

201 MINUTES LATER, 201

Kincaid drops onto a bench in the boat, soaking wet but alive, as they glide away from the island, for good this time.

They are an utterly depleted bunch.

Kincaid exchanges an exhausted smile with Zora. She smiles back. How the hell did we get out of that one?

Xavier and Teresa fall onto one of the bench seats. Xavier flops over, his head in Teresa’s lap. Reuben sees it and smiles, exhausted. Teresa looks up and catches eyes with him.

She smiles back. Reuben turns and looks at Isabella, on the seat next to him.

140. green rev. 26 June 2024

She cradles Aquilops, which is now COOING at her.

He pulls her close.

AT THE REAR OF THE BOAT,

Kincaid sees Reuben and Isabella together and smiles. It helps.

Zora and Loomis are slumped on the rear bench, wiped out.

Zora looks down at the silver sample case, streaked with Krebs’s blood. She turns to Loomis.

A POD OF DOLPHINS appears beside the boat, leaping and sporting in the silver-lit water, escorting them out to sea.