"MOON" (2009)

MOON

An original screenplay by

Nathan Parker

Story by Duncan Jones

Draft: 11th November 2007

Liberty Films © Copyright 2007

Helium3 is a gas ejected from the surface of the sun and blown through space by solar winds.

It plays an essential role in Cold Fusion, often toted as the solution to humanity’s future energy needs.

There is one major problem...

Helium3 is extremely scarce on Earth. The gas does, however, exist in abundance on the Earth’s only natural satellite:

The Moon.

Should we turn to Cold Fusion in the future, it is conceivable that man will mine the Moon for Helium3 and bring the precious gas back to Earth…

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IN THE BLACK:

We hear something -- a machine -- CHURNING and POUNDING. Constant. Rhythmic. Though the sound is slightly familiar, we’re not sure what it is yet. Hold for a few seconds and then

The sound belongs to a regular old TREADMILL like you see in most gyms across the world. Running on it: SAM BELL, mid thirties, thick beard, handsome, striking blue eyes.

Sam’s face is flushed and glistening with sweat. He lunges for a towel draped over the treadmill’s bar, dabs his face as he runs.

We see OUTSIDE THE WINDOW: A gray, powdery landscape stretching beneath a BLACK SKY.

Aerial view of the Earth’s only natural satellite, the camera roaming about a hundred feet off the surface.

Desolation. Serious, uncompromising, desolation. This place makes Antarctica look like Tokyo.

And utter silence.

Eventually the camera arrives at a moon base, DIVING DOWN towards it --

TITLE CARD: “MINING BASE SELENE. CREW: 1.”

Sam takes a shower, treading in a tight circle beneath the nozzle, eyes closed, hot water blasting his face.

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His hair still wet from the shower, Sam sits before a COMMS UNIT, dressed in a “Lunar Industries” boiler suit, a zip up the front, colorful patches sewn into the arms. He begins to record a message.

As Sam continues his message, we are given a TOUR of the mining base. Beginning with:

This is where you want to be if the shit hits the fan. The base’s equivalent of HQ. A wall of computers and flickering digital displays.

A small space craft attached to the base. It is essentially a tiny room with a coffin like, sealed bed in the middle of it: a cryogenic POD with an array of complicated controls surrounding it.

Sam spends most of his time here. It is kitchen and play room combined. We PICK OUT a television set, an armchair, a Ping-Pong table, the treadmill.

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DETAIL: A WOODEN MODEL

On a table, we also PICK OUT a LARGE MODEL carved out of BOLSER WOOD. It’s a TOWN. Intricately done down to the tiniest details.

We go even CLOSER to the model, seeing that there are actual people, actual characters in the little town; actual buildings: a CHURCH, a TOWN HALL, etc. Clearly someone has put a ton of work into this thing.

And the tour of the base continues. Onto a new room. A dark * storage area Sam has repurposed to grow a handful of * plants. They sit surrounded by darkness, glowing under * pools of artificial light. *

A strange angular room, obviously purposeful, but its * design more geared to a computer than a human being. A * single bed dominates. *

The empty terrain surrounding the mining base, as viewed from the Monitoring Station window. Across the landscape a mountain rises from the morning shadows.

CLOSE UP -- A HAND TOOL

Some kind of rake or shovel half buried in the powdery soil, like a child’s toy abandoned in a sand box.

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From up here it is easy to see why the Earth is sometimes referred to as “the blue marble.” A swirl of color.

Sam’s bed -- A New York Jets poster on the wall -- a few knickknacks bedside, rock samples in jars, a lucky tambourine Sam got in Mexico some years ago -- a red stress ball -- a photograph by the bed in a frame --

We MOVE CLOSER to the PHOTO by the bed.

PHOTOGRAPH

Of a slightly younger and clean-shaven Sam with his arms wrapped around his wife of four years, TESS BELL.

Tess is a far cry from the stereotypical Astronaut’s Wife of the 1960’s/70’s with the plastic smile and beehive hairdo.

Tess is modern, sophisticated, and jaw-droppingly beautiful. She looks like she’d be a hard woman to leave behind.

Note: In the photograph Tess is visibly PREGNANT.

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Back with Sam at the Comms Unit as he wraps up the message.

And he sends the message.

The main corridor connecting the different rooms. We’ve seen everything there is to see now. The base is small. Confined. Claustrophobic. It is easy to imagine how someone could crack up here.

Sam leaves the Comms Room and heads down the corridor.

A state of the art robot, a GERTY 3000 -- known simply as “GERTY” -- is preparing Sam’s breakfast.

Gerty is in three sections and moves along a horizontal rail that runs throughout the base. He has a readout screen that perpetually spews data. His hands resemble pincers, but are perfectly nimble.

For the purposes of helping run the base and looking after Sam, Gerty is as good as human, if not better.

Sam enters.

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Sam treats Gerty more like a person than a robot. Whether this is down to Gerty’s intelligence or Sam’s desperation for company isn’t clear just yet.

Note: Gerty talks like a well-educated older man. His language doesn’t have a great deal of inflection (i.e. Monotone) but he is friendly enough.

Sam switches a dial on a radio but gets nothing but static - - he sticks in a mini cd and skips the first few tracks. We hear brief clips of talk radio and shuttle through it before he allows it to play on, on some random American station -- an old weather report:

They zip around the tiny kitchen, together preparing Sam’s breakfast, working as a team.

We take in the whole Moon at once. Gray, colorless, eerie. From this distance the surface resembling Plaster of Paris.

Sam sits before Selene’s main computer, known as THE OLD MAN. Data flickering off Sam’s face. He is making a log entry. A CLOCK is running on the monitor.

Sam continues with his entry while we

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Gerty is selecting food for the up-coming week, stacking ready-meals on a small fork-lift buggy.

A RED LIGHT

Pulsing rapidly. The “ping-ping-ping” of an alarm.

BOARD

Sam stands before the Big Board. The names of the four Harvesters (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) in a collum. The red light is flashing next to Matthew.

Sam presses an INTERCOM BUTTON, dips down, speaks into it.

GERTY’S VOICE Okay, Sam.

Sam heads off.

A SPACE SUIT

Resembling an unmanned puppet. Sam begins to insinuate his body into the suit.

Three Rovers (moon buggies) parked in their separate bays. The Rovers are caked in lunar soil, as though sand blasted.

In his space suit Sam bends into one of the Rovers, starts the engine.

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Sam drives along, dwarfed by an enormous lunar bolder and the rising slopes of the valley beyond. A toy car in this vast and alien terrain.

The second in a fleet of four Harvesters (this one known as Mark) collecting lunar soil. The Harvester resembles a tank and kicks up clouds of dust. Booming, hulking, efficient.

Sam catches up in his Rover and accelerates into the back of the Harvester up a couple of ramps. An intricate and dangerous maneuver he executes deftly.

Sam is in an area of the Harvester -- a kind of hatch -- not dissimilar to a garage and known as THE BELLY. Once safely inside Sam closes the door. He is able to breathe in the Belly without his helmet, which he duly removes.

Sam steps up to a wall of computers. A light is flashing to indicate one of the pods is filled with Helium3.

Sam does his thing, eventually removing a keg-size pod of Helium3. He hauls it over to the Rover and sticks it in a special slot in the equivalent of the Rover’s trunk.

A new pod -- an empty -- replaces the pod Sam just removed.

Sam puts his helmet back on, returns to the Rover, reverses out of the Harvester carefully.

Sam snakes through the soil on his way back to base, the tracks of the Rover as sharp as if they had been made through talcum powder. The Harvester churns into the distance.

Sam loads the filled pod into a CARGO CONTAINER. The Cargo Container is about the size of a fridge and can take a maximum of five pods. There are four pods already inside, Sam’s new pod taking up the fifth and final slot.

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Sam is seated at the Comms Unit recording a message for his superiors back on Earth.

Sam desperately wants to talk but has nothing very important to say. Then he remembers something.

Sam concentrates, getting a grip on his temper.

Two weeks. Two weeks. (beat) Hey. Three years is a long haul. If you guys want to run some psych evals on me when I get back, I’m happy to do it. It ain’t Disney World up here. (a beat) That’s it. Over and out.

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Sam reaches forward, sends the message.

Sam is loading the Cargo Container into the base’s MAGLEV LAUNCHER. He works with a sense of routine, far away, preoccupied.

All of a sudden Sam STOPS. He has the feeling someone is standing behind him. He slowly turns.

A GIRL is standing in the doorway watching him. She is perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old. A yellow dress. Long, wheat-colored hair. Freckles. At once beautiful and haunting.

Sam gets the FRIGHT of his life. He FLIES against the wall.

WIDEN to reveal Sam and the Girl facing off. Sam POP-EYED and SHAKING. The Girl IMMOBILE, arms at her sides, head tilted ever so slightly to one side.

The Cargo Container is sent hurtling through space. A * TERRIFIC BLAST. It distracts Sam’s attention, breaks his * stare... *

And just like that, the Girl is gone. Sam is just staring at an empty doorway. Nothing there.

Sam is baffled. Had to be his imagination. Had to be. After a few seconds he shakes his head dismissively and continues working. *

Gerty is cutting Sam’s hair.

Sam sitting back in a chair, barber shop style, while the robot snip-snip-snips away with a pair of scissors. Sam is gently squeezing a STRESS BALL in his right hand.

For a moment there is no sound but the snipping scissors, reminiscent of keys snapping on a typewriter. Then:

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Sam frowns, contemplative. For a moment we think he is going to tell Gerty about the Girl he saw earlier -- or imagined he saw. But he goes with something different.

Gerty stops cutting, lowers the scissors.

A beat. Sam’s fingers twitching around the red stress ball, squeezing harder.

Sam decides to come clean.

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Sam is really having a go at the stress ball now.

Sam is slightly alarmed that Gerty knows this and he doesn’t.

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Sam looks perturbed. For a few seconds he’d eased up on the stress ball. He starts up on it again now.

A pause. Sam still looks troubled.

Gerty resumes cutting Sam’s hair, and stops again, sensing Sam is going to say something more.

The scissors freeze.

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The scissors start up again.

Sam with a HAIRCUT and a neatly TRIMMED BEARD is sitting before the Bolser Wood model of the little town.

He is arched over working away with an EXACTO BLADE -- SQUINTING -- whittling a figure out of wood. This is difficult and complicated work, and over three years Sam has become highly skilled at it.

Sam can carve an actual person out of wood -- actual cheekbones, actual throats, actual hands -- it’s fascinating to watch.

From another room Sam hears the “ping-ping-ping” of an alarm.

CLOSE UP -- COMMS UNIT

Flashing on the comms unit monitor: “NEW TRANSMISSION.” There is a small icon of a telephone.

ON SAM

He carefully puts down the wooden figure and the exacto blade -- stands and leaves the Rec Room.

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Sam sits at the comms unit watching a message from his superiors, OVERMEYERS and THOMPSON, a purposeful looking woman in charge and her earnest second.

The two talk RAPIDLY and trade off like a tag team. At times their tone can be almost bizarrely whimsical.

Overmeyers and Thompson seem to have known Sam for a while, but even so, there is a practised casualness to the repartee. It’s a professional friendliness on Overmeyers part, no more and for Thompson it’s merely an eagerness to be involved.

Sam curses to himself. *

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Sam shuts off the message before Overmeyers can pipe out his last line.

Sam sits before the dead screen -- eyes closed -- taking a succession of DEEP BREATHS.

Sam playing Ping-Pong. He has folded up the second half of the table and is using it as a wall. The sound is rapid and rhythmic: ca-cluck ca-cluck ca-cluck. Sam taking his FRUSTRATION out on the little white ball.

Sam stands before the toilet urinating. Rather ironically he is whistling I’m Walking on Sunshine --focussed ahead at his reflection in the mirror -- angling his face, admiring his haircut, his beard.

Then he looks down to flush the toilet and his WHISTLING abruptly STOPS.

It looks like someone just poured a glass of CRANBERRY JUICE into the toilet bowl. Literally. The red urine clouding the water like a squirt of octopus ink. Yeah, Sam just pissed blood.

There is a “PING!” and Gerty’s voice crackles from the intercom.

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GERTY’S VOICE Sam, a transmission has arrived from your wife.

Sam reaches over and presses the INTERCOM BUTTON.

And he flushes the toilet.

Sam sitting before the monitor. He hits the “PLAY” button, begins watching the message.

ON THE MONITOR: Tess is sitting in a living room talking to Sam. Tess has a sweet voice, she sounds grounded, like she’s got a head on her shoulders.

A WOMAN, possibly a nanny or some form of hired help, swings a LITTLE GIRL into Tess’s arms. This is EVE, Sam and Tess’s daughter.

Eve just stares. Tess whispers to her (”Remember what we practiced”, etc.) Finally Eve attempts:

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Tess laughs. So does Sam.

Eve fidgets, rubs her nose, distracted.

The Maid steps in, hoists Eve away. Tess waits until they’re out of earshot.

A pause. Tess just stares into the camera. She is hundreds and thousands of miles away, but for a second it feels like she’s right there in the Comms Room with Sam. It’s intimate.

She finally shakes her head, self-conscious, shy.

And the message ends.

ON SAM: smiling, on the brink of tears.

The Earth at night, illuminated by a glittering spider’s web of artificial lighting. From the Moon this is one of the most beautiful sights you’ll ever see.

Sam is in improved spirits. He pours himself a glass of juice as Gerty prepares dinner.

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It might be baby back ribs with french fries and spinach, but it’s made from a packet by adding hot water. Nasty.

Sam sits down with the packet. Digs in with a fork.

Sam eating ravenously.

Sam is in the Greenhouse pruning plants with a pair of secateurs. He treads up the aisles slowly, taking time with each of the plants. CLASSICAL MUSIC plays over the sound system, Brahms, Beethoven, Bartok, one of the B’s.

Sam HUMS along to the music. A man at peace.

Sam is working on his wooden model of the town. Across the room the Ed Sullivan Showis on TV. Ed’s guest is a very young Goldie Hawn.

Note: Whenever any TV is watched in the film, it is always a show from 1970’s America. (Mash, Six Million Dollar Man, Laugh-In, etc.) No explanation is given for this.

Sam is half-watching the TV, but his focus is chiefly on the SMALL HOUSE he is carving. And carving beautifully.

After a few seconds he stands and snaps off the TV with a remote. He crosses to the kitchen section of the Rec Room to make some tea. The water has just boiled.

As Sam is about to pour the boiling water, tea kettle in hand, he glances across the Rec Room and sees:

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The Girl. She’s taken Sam’s chair before the model. She is motionless, staring down at the model like she recognizes one of the little figures walking the tiny streets.

Sam calmly puts the tea kettle down and begins to move towards the Girl, slowly, cautiously, like he wants to sneak up on her.

Sam walks right up to the Girl and reaches out his hand...

SAM

And then we CUT to Sam standing in the kitchen. Over by the model there is no sign of the Girl. The chair is empty. She’s gone. Her sitting there, Sam’s walk across the room -- apparently he imagined it all.

Sam looks down. The tea kettle is dangling at an angle and BOILING WATER is DRIBBLING onto his left hand.

Simultaneously: Sam SNAPS his hand AWAY, Sam SCREAMS. The tea kettle CLATTERS to the floor.

Sam HURRIES to the sink and jerks his hand under a stream of cold water. Cursing under his breath the whole time: “Shit, piss, fuck...”

Sam sits in a chair as Gerty tends to his scolded left hand. It’s a nasty burn.

Gerty applies a translucent balm to the burn.

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A pause. Gerty is wrapping Sam’s hand with a bandage.

Gerty has caught him out. Sam knows it.

Gerty has hit the nail on the head, in a way that makes Sam feel a little uneasy. Is there something Gerty knows that Sam doesn’t?

Sam asleep in bed.

44 SAM’S DREAM 44

Sam making love to Tess. We remain very close to their bodies in bed. The background a blur. No sound. It’s all flesh and white sheets. Sensual, delicate, intense. We feel almost intrusive watching.

Sam wakes up and lunges across the bed to shut off his alarm clock. We notice a WHITE BANDAGE on the hand that he scolded.

Afterwards: Sam lies back, watching the ceiling, groggy, reflective, still surfacing from his dream.

And then OVER THIS: The sound from the opening of the film, THE TREADMILL, and we

Sam on his morning run.

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Gerty is making breakfast. Sam enters, fresh from the shower.

Gerty pops the radio on. Just another morning on Selene.

Sam sitting before The Old Man doing his daily log entry. A CLOCK is running on the monitor.

Suddenly the monitor BLIPS -- a BLAST of STATIC -- and Sam SEES himself talking on the monitor. It appears to be a previous log entry.

But bizarrely, the Sam talking on the monitor has long hair pulled back into a ponytail -- and no beard --

And then another BLIP -- another BLAST of STATIC -- and the screen turns completely BLACK.

A single word begins to flash in the center of the screen: “ERROR.”

The word flashes three times -- before the screen returns to normal, the CLOCK running again.

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It all happened so quickly Sam wonders if he didn’t just imagine it. After an awkward pause he simply continues the original log entry.

CLOSE UP -- RED LIGHT

Pulsing. Going “ping-ping-ping.”

Sam stands across the room with a mug of coffee, peers up at the Big Board, sees that the alarm belongs to Matthew.

He crosses to the INTERCOM, speaks into it.

GERTY’S VOICE Okay, Sam.

Sam at the wheel in his space suit, speeding towards the first of the Harvesters, known as MATTHEW.

HARVESTER/MATTHEW

As Sam gets closer to the Harvester, he suddenly sees something:

The Girl.

She is standing maybe a hundred yards away in her yellow dress, resembling a FLAME or a FLOWER in the barren and colorless landscape. She appears to be staring directly at Sam’s rover.

SAM

His face unfolding with panic, alarm, curiosity. An intense, yearning, curiosity.

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He drives closer.

But like in a dream, Sam can’t seem to make up any distance between the Rover and the Girl. He CRUSHES the accelerator peddle.

For a moment Sam drives right alongside the Harvester, clouds of lunar dust being kicked up, cascading against the side window. But Sam is looking away from the Harvester, focussed on the Girl.

ON SAM: He doesn’t notice Matthew (The Harvester) suddenly veer RIGHT, slamming into the side of the Rover and causing Sam to lose control.

The steering wheel swings left and right as Sam desperately tries to STRAIGHTEN the path of the vehicle, but a split second later the Rover is FLIPPED like a matchbox, and SPUN into the path of the Harvester -- a HIDEOUS SCREECH of MANGLED METAL -- the Rover gobbled up by the front of the Harvester, DEVOURED.

The Rover is JAMMED under the Harvester’s monstrous AXLE, resembling a crushed beer can in a fist -- and with a BIG, BOOMING GROAN the Harvester slides to a STANDSTILL.

WIDE SHOT: Silence. The Harvester stationary. The Rover caught beneath it.

No sign of the Girl.

Silence. Hold it for five seconds and then

51 A BLUR 51

Eyelids fluttering, bright light, at first broken up, filtered, as if viewed through a Kaleidoscope. Slowly shapes and impressions begin to form and we know where we are.

It’s the Infirmary.

A CLEAN SHAVEN and drugged-up Sam is sitting up in bed, propped with a pillow. Sam doesn’t have a scratch on his face, but has clearly been through a terrifying ordeal.

Gerty is bedside.

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Sam looks bewildered -- he desperately racks his brain, trying to locate the memory.

Sam just stares back at Gerty, not so much as a flicker of recognition.

A pause. Sam taking it all in. Eventually:

Sam closes his eyes, sinking deeper into his pillow.

Sam asleep in bed. Gerty is scanning his head with a small instrument resembling a camcorder.

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There are READOUTS on a monitor showing blood flow, oxygen levels and glucose metabolism in the tissues of Sam’s brain.

LUKE, one of the Harvesters, crossing the lunar landscape at HALF SPEED.

Sam wakes up from an extended nap. He thrusts his fists into his eyes like a child, yawns ferociously.

No sign of the robot. Sam is feeling well enough to walk. He swings his legs out of bed, begins to plod around the room. He is tentative at first, slow, as if walking is something he is having to learn from scratch.

Eventually when he is moving fluidly he goes to the door and pokes his head out into the corridor.

Sam peers around. From another room he can hear the faint drone of VOICES. One of these voices belongs to Gerty. The other voices are deeper, faster, human.

The voices continue. Intrigued, Sam PRESSES ON down the corridor.

ON SAM

As he walks up the corridor in the direction of the Comms Room. Sam is close enough now that he can actually hear the conversation.

Sam arrives at the door of the Comms Room and peers in.

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Gerty is installed at the Comms Unit. Thompson and Overmeyers are on the screen.

The moment Gerty sees Sam he shuts off the monitor and the screen fizzes to black, Thompson and Overmeyers vanishing.

Strange: Gerty appeared to have a live feed.

Sam nods vaguely, turns around and heads back to the Infirmary slowly.

Sam watching TV --The Muppet Show, the “Pigs in Space” sketch -- and eating dinner. He’s not laughing.

Sam hunched over the infirmary’s stainless steel wash basin giving himself a shave. He hits the razor on the side of the basin -- tap tap tap -- like a conductor with a baton.

Sam is seated at a table. Frankly he looks better now than he did before the accident.

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Perhaps it’s the rosy hue of his freshly shaven face. He certainly looks younger. A man revitalized, a man mended.

Gerty is giving Sam something very similar to an IQ Test. Sam has just arranged a series of blocks into an L-shaped tower.

Sam’s face taught with irritation. He isn’t happy.

Gerty gives him the next puzzle to solve. WE MOVE IN ON SAM’S LEFT HAND as he takes the puzzle, the same hand he scolded in an earlier scene.

The BANDAGE is GONE and the BURN appears to have completely HEALED.

Sam walking down the corridor in the direction of the Sleeping Quarters. He stops at a RED LIGHT on the corridor wall, beneath it the word, “EXIT DOORS.”

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He’s locked inside the base.

Sam pulls a face, disgruntled, continues down the corridor.

Sam takes in the New York Jets poster on the wall and walks over to the bed -- studies his lucky tambourine and the glass jar of lunar rock samples -- like he’s trying to reacquaint himself with his own belongings.

His eyes arrive on the red stress ball. Sam scoops up the ball and PITCHES it at the wall like he expects the thing to bounce back to him. The stress ball doesn’t bounce back, simply hits the wall with a dull THUD and DROPS to the FLOOR.

A desolation special. The blacker than black sky above. None of the ingredients of life. On Earth we have rainforests, and flowers, and birds. We have color. Up here we realize how lucky we are. The base is lit by large halogen comfort lights, alone in the lunar desert. This is a lunar night.

Sam sitting before The Old Man doing a few innocuous tasks, collecting readouts, slurping a cup of coffee. Gerty is within ear shot. *

Sam sees something that pulls him CLOSER to the monitor.

SAM * Gerty, do you know about this?

Gerty approaches. Sam taps the screen.

Sam gives Gerty a look. That’s not good.

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Sam is recording a message for Central.

Sam really frustrated now. He feels cooped up, stir crazy, idle.

Sam sends the message.

Sam enters the Rec Room, looks around, his eyes settling on the model of the town.

Sam sits down in front of the model, staring -- he picks up the HOUSE he was carving earlier -- studies it carefully.

Sam and Gerty are seated at the Comms Unit watching a video message from Central. Sam is holding a carved HOUSE, examining it as he listens to the video.

The familiar faces of Overmeyers and Thompson on the screen, shoulder to shoulder, the two looking more like vultures right now than lizards.

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The message ends. Sam turns to Gerty, irate, the message as good as a kick in the balls.

Sam stares at Gerty.

Sam throws the half completed wood carving in his hand at the other end of the room, breaking it. He FLIES to his feet -- growling with frustration -- STORMS out of the room.

Sam asleep in bed.

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69 SAM’S TROUBLED DREAM 69 *

Sam and Tess making love. We remain very close to their bodies in bed. The background a blur. It’s the same dream we saw earlier.

Something is different though. *

We drift past Sam and Tess, and under the sheets of the * bed. *

Down between their entwined feet huddles a bearded, wide- * eyed Sam, staring directly at us from under the sheets at * the end of the bed! *

Sam is quietly eating breakfast, lost in thought. Gerty * puttering around in the background. The radio drones away.

Sam is seated at the Comms Unit watching a message from Tess.

We assume this is an old message since Tess is heavily PREGNANT.

Her slender hands are spread over her prodigious belly as she beams at the camera.

A POP and Tess is gone -- the monitor filled with STATIC. Sam sits staring into space. Tess’ message seems to have agitated him.

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He JUMPS from his chair and HEADS OUT of the Comms Room at pace.

Sam strides in -- swipes a KNIFE from beside the wooden model -- strides out again.

Sam glances left and right -- making sure there’s no sign of Gerty -- then begins to PRY open a VENT with the knife.

Once the vent is removed he reaches deep inside and YANKS out a bundle of interwoven WIRES -- Sam bends the wires around the BLADE of the knife -- and CUTS.

GAS ISSUES from the cut wires. An ALARM sounds.

Sam hides the knife away, shouts down the corridor:

Gerty comes out of the Monitoring Station and SHUTTLES down the corridor.

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The robot takes an inordinate amount of time to think this through. The syrupy gas distorts the light as it collects at Sam’s ankles. Gerty’s arms work away as they speedily repair the damage Sam has done. Finally:

The “Exit Doors” LIGHT turns from RED to GREEN. For Sam this is like the BLAST of a STARTING PISTOL -- he immediately takes off down the corridor --

Sam finds his space suit is gone, so grabs the spare suit and scrambles into it.

Two Rovers parked side by side. One of the parking bays is EMPTY. Sam stands before the empty bay for a moment --why is one of the Rovers missing?

If Sam suspected something was wrong before, he is certain of it now. He climbs into one of the two remaining Rovers.

Sam speeding along in the Rover. He has Matthew’s coordinates plugged into his Navigation System and is following a MAP on a small monitor.

Sam heading towards the stalled Harvester. It soon becomes apparent that there is something STUCK under the front of the Harvester’s AXLE. A second later it is apparent what that something is: inevitably, it’s the MISSING ROVER.

Sam slows his Rover down, approaching the scene with CAUTION. He parks a few feet away from the wreck and opens the door of his Rover, stepping outside gingerly.

ONE SIXTH GRAVITY is like walking on a trampoline. Sam takes long strides, bobbing over to the front of the Harvester to take a closer look, his boots leaving deep FOOTPRINTS in the lunar soil.

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THE FRONT OF THE HARVESTER

The crashed Rover is exactly as we left it after the accident, mangled, crushed, captured beneath the trundles of the Harvester. Sam peers closer and sees that there is an UNCONSCIOUS MAN in a Lunar Industries space suit trapped inside.

Sam can’t see the man’s face -- he has his back to Sam, his body sprawled across the passenger seat like he’s searching for loose change on the floor of the vehicle.

With great effort Sam manages to prize the Rover’s door open. He reaches inside and begins to pull the man out -- Sam’s sheer ADRENALINE giving him the strength of a YETI.

Sam DRAGS the unconscious man away from the crashed Rover, his body leaving a big TRACK MARK in the gray soil. Sam takes a second to catch his breath, then leans down and turns the unconscious man onto his back.

He BRUSHES DUST from the glass of the man’s HELMET, leans down even closer.

CLOSE UP -- THE MAN

Through his helmet we see a BLOODY and BEARDED SAM. Sam as we remember him. The Sam from the opening twenty minutes of the film.

Sam’s face as the PANIC, the ALARM, the SHOCK, the REALIZATION hit him like a wrecking ball: this man he has just pulled out of the crashed Rover is himself.

WIDE SHOT -- THE STALLED HARVESTER

Sam gathers his wits and manages to lift the unconscious Sam up over his shoulder, fireman’s lift style, taking him to the parked Rover.

Sam drives the Rover into the Dock, flies out and removes his space helmet, screaming:

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He reaches into the Rover, lifting out the unconscious Sam. He carries him in both arms, staggering across the dock -- back arched, arms beginning to sag -- and into the corridor.

Sam promptly collapses and DROPS the unconscious Sam onto the floor.

Gerty approaches, gliding along his rail. Sam is freaking out big time, exhausted, panic-stricken, bewildered.

A pause. Gerty literally seems lost for words.

Sam SCOOPS the unconscious Sam up off the ground and lifts him towards the INFIRMARY -- staggering -- stumbling -- going:

Sounding like some deranged homeless man. Gerty gliding alongside him.

Lying in the Infirmary bed, propped on a pillow, is the first Sam, the bearded Sam, who we will now refer to as SAM

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He has a wicked black eye and a purple bruise on the right side of his face, looks like he was on the losing end of a brawl.

He has a DRIP stuck in his arm and a tangle of WIRES attached to his bare chest. A MACHINE is BEEPING away.

Gerty hovers over him, redressing the BANDAGE on Sam 1’s left hand, the one he scolded a while back.

Sam 1’s eyes pop open, he is awake, staring directly at Gerty.

For a second this is playing out like the other Infirmary scene. A case of deja-vu.

Sam 1’s eyes twitch as he catalogues through his memory. Yes he remembers the crash. He remembers something else, too.

Just then Sam 1 notices the other Sam -- the more current, clean-shaven Sam -- who we will now refer to as SAM 2. He is standing against the wall watching Sam 1.

Sam 1 continues to stare at Sam 2, hardly believing his eyes.

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As he says this Sam 2 crosses slowly from one side of the room to the other, never taking his eyes off Sam 1. It’s like Sam 2 is purposefully keeping his distance, reluctant, afraid even, to approach any closer.

Meanwhile Sam 1 is beginning to look spooked.

But Sam 1 knows exactly who it is. He’s seen that face every morning of his life in the bathroom mirror.

Sam 2 wordlessly walks out of the room.

Sam 1’s eyes shift to Gerty, the spooked expression yet to leave his face.

Sam 1 hobbling along, in addition to his facial injuries he injured his knee in the crash and is walking with a slight LIMP. The camera TRACKING behind Sam 1 as he swings along and stops at

Sam 1 in the doorway, he peers in.

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Seated before the TV watchingThe Newlywed Game, Sam 2. He turns from the TV and shares a LONG LOOK with Sam 1. Finally:

Sam 2 just nods. He turns back to the TV.

Sam 1 continues on down the corridor.

Gerty is studying lunar rock samples through a microscope. Sam 1 enters.

Sam 1 is perplexed, but not freaking out, not yet anyway.

Sam 1 is officially FREAKING OUT now.

A long pause. Sam 1 at the point of tears.

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Sam 1 merely nods at this, turning and plodding out of the room, seemingly in a DAZE.

Sam 1 comes out of the Monitoring Station, passes the Rec Room without looking in.

Sam 2 has taken over the room. The same belongings, of course, but there’s a different energy. For one thing it’s very untidy; looks like the bedroom of an unruly teenager.

Sam 1 stands in the doorway, taking it in.

Wordlessly Sam 1 begins to tidy the room. He seems almost RELIEVED to be able to lose himself temporarily in this physical activity -- making the bed, folding clothes, etc.

Sam 2 has stopped watching TV and is now seated at a table playing solitaire. Sam 1 appears in the doorway.

Sam 2 looks up. The energy bristling with tension.

Sam 2 doesn’t answer, goes back to his cards.

Sam 1 enters with CAUTION, takes a seat across the room, purposefully keeping his distance.

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Sam 1 nods. A beat.

Sam 2 slapping down cards. Sam 1 desperately attempts to put together a coherent thought.

For a second we don’t think Sam 2 is going to respond. Then:

A beat.

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The two Sam’s are inspecting plants.

Sam 2 hesitates, eventually shakes Sam 1’s hand. Meanwhile Sam 1 is staring at his clone, astonished.

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This final line intended as a kind of truce.

Sam 1 and Sam 2 are folding the Ping-Pong table down so they can have a real game.

PING-PONG

The two Sams playing Ping-Pong. It’s slightly competitive, but mainly they are just happy to take their minds off their situation for half an hour.

SAM 2 * Fuck! *

Sam 2 slaps his paddle on his thigh, his temper creeping up * on him. He catches Sam’s eye. Gets a grip. Sam 1 is a * better player than Sam 2. He’s been up here longer. He’s had more practice.

After the game, the two Sams are sprawled in their seats, sweaty, flushed, energized. They sit before the model of the town.

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The mention of their wife has stopped the conversation in its tracks. Sam 2 immediately drops into deep melancholy.

It is obvious from Sam 2’s expression that he doesn’t.

Sam 1 nods.

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Sam 2 doesn’t know what to do with the news: on the one hand he is jubilant, on the other he’s a clone, the baby technically isn’t even his.

All of a sudden there is a “PING!” From the Intercom speaker:

GERTY’S VOICE Sam, a message has arrived from Central.

Sam 1 and Sam 2 share a look, then together SPRING from their chairs.

Sam 1 and Sam 2 seated before the Comms Unit. Sam 1 hits the “Play” button. Overmeyers and Thompson appear on the screen.

A SHOT/STILL PHOTO of Rescue Unit ELIZA. A meaner group of sons-of-bitches you have never seen. These guys make the rescue team from Apocalypse Nowlook like The New Kids on the Block.

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Now back on Overmeyers and Thompson.

And the screen pops to black. A pause.

For a moment there is silence, neither of the Sams knowing how to react -- going by the message Thompson and Overmeyers don’t know anything about there being two Sams on the base now.

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Sam 2 gives Sam 1 a perplexed look.

Sam 2 is shaking his head slowly.

At once Sam 1 and Sam 2 ROCKET to their feet -- right in each others faces, on the BRINK of BLOWS.

Sam 1 turns around, heads out of the room. Sam 2 STORMS after him, TALKING the whole time --

Gerty shuttles along after them.

Sam 1 presses down the corridor, Sam 2 tailing right behind him.

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Sam 1, stress ball pumping away in his hand, spots Gety and angrily faces him.

Gerty doesn’t know which way to look.

Sam 1 ducks in the Rec Room, Sam 2 in tow.

Sam 1 takes his old seat before the model. Sam 2 stands over him.

“Other clones?” Sam 1 just stares back.

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SAM 1 * (losing his cool) * You’re the one who’s lost the plot! I’ve been here for three years. I know every inch of this base. I know how many dust fibres are between those wall panels over there -- why would they do * that?! *

SAM 2 * Look. It’s a company, right? * They have investors, shareholders * -- shit like that. What’s * cheaper? Spending time and money * training new personnel or just * have a couple of spares here to * do the job. If they make it * through their contract, great. * If they don’t, hallelujah! No * contract completion fees, no * retirement package. Just thaw out * the spare, and keep the profits * rolling in. It’s the far side of * the Moon, Sam! The tight fuck’s * haven’t even fixed our * communications satellite. *

SAM 1 * Tess would know. *

SAM 2 * Do you really think they give a * shit about us? They’re laughing * all the way to the bank! *

SAM 1 * Tess would know what’s going on! * She wouldn’t let that happen! *

SAM 2 * (exhasperated) * There’s some area we don’t know * about. I’m going to find it. *

Sam 1 shakes his head dismissively, picks up the wooden house, starts whittling.

Meanwhile Sam 2 has left the room.

Sam 2 in the Monitoring Station checking wall panels, reaching his hand inside cubbies and feeling around deep inside, SEARCHING.

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Sam 2 moving along the corridor, pressing his ear against panels, tapping with his finger --

Sam 2 RAMPAGES through the Sleeping Quarters, pushes the bed aside, lifts the mattress, goes tearing through a closet, ripping clothes from hangers, checks the back panel.

Sam 2 has come full circle. He shifts the ping pong table, goes through cabinets in the kitchen, feels inside --

Sam 1 half-whittling, half-watching.

Finally Sam 2 arrives before the model.

Sam 1 stands, keeps his ground.

Sam 1 is still holding the knife. Though he’s not about to use it, both Sams are aware that it’s there.

Suddenly Sam 2 LUNGES for the knife; an INTENSE STRUGGLE ensues -- TEETH CLENCHED, sputtering BREATHS -- the two Sams less clones right now than ANIMALS.

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Sam 2 is able to loosen Sam 1’s grip on the knife -- flinging the weapon across the room -- and SWINGS Sam 1 up against the wall.

Now Sam 2 turns to face the model. Using BOTH HANDS he lifts the model up HIGH over his HEAD and PUSHES the entire thing UPSIDE DOWN. A massive CRASH.

There is nothing there but the bare table.

Sam 1 comes up behind Sam 2 with his nose SPEWING BLOOD, wraps both arms around Sam 2’s neck. Sam 2 elbows him in the ribs -- a quick, controlled jab -- SPINS around, manages to secure Sam 1 in an arm lock.

But suddenly there is no struggle coming from Sam 1: he’s stopped fighting. Sam 2 removes him from the headlock -- notices his arm is SMUDGED with Sam 1’s BLOOD --

Sam 1 has remained bent over, like he’s cast in stone, blood RAINING from his face and POOLING at his feet thick and fast.

Sam 2 just staring, as freaked as he is baffled.

Now he tries to help Sam 1.

Sam 1 tears away from him. He looks up, his face a MESS of blood -- the WHITES of his eyes unnaturally bright, shouts:

Sam 1 holds his face with his outstretched hand, as if holding it in place -- STUMBLES from the room -- leaking BLOOD the whole way.

A concerned Sam 2 watches him go.

Sam 1 spills in and locks the door. He RAPIDLY turns on the faucet and cups his hand to transfer water up to his face -- this going on for a few seconds.

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MIRROR

Sam 1 stares at his reflection in the mirror, holding a MOUND of TOILET PAPER against his NOSE. The blood flow has subsided

Suddenly Sam 1 sees the GIRL in the mirror. It gives him a hell of a FRIGHT.

The Girl remains in the mirror looking at Sam 1. A neutral expression, impassive. Sam 1 takes a deep breath, lowers the toilet paper from his nose.

No answer.

Sam 1 swings around to confront the Girl...but she’s not there, she’s vanished. Her reflection has vanished from the mirror also.

Sam 2 snaps on the TV with the remote, starts watching Laugh-In, turns, sees Sam 1 wander by in the corridor. Sam 2 considers calling out to him, opts against it, gives the TV his full attention.

Gerty is stationed at the Old Man collecting data. Sam 1 enters.

Sam 1 sits. A pause. Gerty turns from the monitor, faces of with an EXHAUSTED and DRAINED Sam 1.

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A beat.

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A pause.

A long pause. Finally Gerty repeats:

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Sam 1 nods at this. He’s broken-hearted. He begins to leave.

Sam 1 exits.

Sam 1 enters the sleeping quarters -- straightens the bed and lies down. He picks up the picture of the pregnant TESS, stares at it long and hard.

The TV is off. Sam 2 is sitting, arms folded, entrenched in GLOOM.

Sam 1 enters and heads for the kitchen, prepares himself a snack. Sam 2 is aware that Sam 1 is there, but keeps his eyes focussed forward, as immobile as a statue.

Eventually Sam 1 tentatively comes over.

Sam 1 does get it. He smiles to be polite, sits.

A beat.

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A pause.

A pause. Sam 1 thinking it over.

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Sam 2 feels himself losing his temper a little here. He reigns himself in.

A pause. Sam 1 staring forward, concentrating. Sam 2 concentrating on Sam 1.

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As if reading each others minds, the two Sams’ heads turn to the window -- a slow, perfectly synchronized movement.

The lunar landscape, as black and vast as ever. The view almost cruel in its emptiness. It’s not giving them any answers, not yet.

Sam 1 speeding along in one of the Rovers. He wears his space suit and resembles a cosmic racing driver -- shifts up a gear, the vehicle flirting with peak speed.

He flies past one of the Harvesters, speaks through a microphone inside his helmet.

All of this against the ROAR of the Rover’s engine.

Driving away from base in a different direction, Sam 2. He also wears a space suit. He also guns the engine. He also has a microphone inside his helmet. The two clones are able to talk back and forth with no delay.

We INTERCUT between the two Sams in their Rovers.

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ANOTHER ANGLE -- SECOND ROVER

Viewed from far away, the Rover’s speed less impressive from a distance.

As the Sams continue to drive.

Through the glass of Sam 1’s helmet we see his FACE suddenly SHIFT.

Sam 1 squints and leans closer towards the windshield, like he’s trying to decipher a road sign --

SAM 1’S POV

About a hundred feet away -- appearing from thin air -- a massive metal pole stretches up into the black sky.

Sam 1 getting closer.

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Sam 2 is indeed approaching something similar.

Sam 1 stops his Rover about twenty feet from the Jammer. He opens the Rover’s door and steps out to take a closer look.

WIDE SHOT -- SAM 1/ROVER

Taking in the Jammer and the adjacent Rover. Sam 1 loping towards the Jammer, seemingly in slow motion.

The JAMMER is GIGANTIC --An intimidating, stark pole stabbed into the lunar landscape, like the worlds biggest caber. Next to it Sam 1 is tiny, a white dot, as insignificant as a pin prick.

Sam 1 and Sam 2

We cut back and forth between the two Sams as they both investigate the separate but identical-looking Jammers.

Their voices ENERGIZED -- they are excited to have made this discovery -- they aren’t dealing with the negatives yet.

Suddenly Sam 1 doubles over. He vomits thick, viscous blood and sick into his helmet. Revolting.

The noise is AUDIBLE over the microphone.

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No answer from Sam 1. He COLLAPSES backwards onto the ground. His chest LURCHES like he’s been punched at from the inside -- he spins over onto his front --

Sam 1 manages to climb to his feet -- heads slowly back to the Rover -- he dips in, closes the door.

Sam 1 pulls a U-turn and begins his journey back to base.

Sam 2 remains out by his Jammer, investigating further.

Sam 1 at the wheel. He has pulled his helmet off within the safe pocket of the rovers cabin. He’s a grizzly mess of splashed sick and blood all over his face and chest.

Sam 1 screams out with confusion, frustration, terror.

He seizes the steering wheel, shakes it FIERCELY -- beginning to really LOSE IT --

Sam 1 drives his Rover into the Dock -- not with his customary precision -- parks at an angle, grazes the wall.

The Rover’s door JERKS opens and Sam 1 steps out unsteadily, his face visibly PALE through the glass of his helmet.

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He STAGGERS across the dock -- doesn’t even close the Rover’s door behind him -- heads into the corridor.

Sam 1 goes swerving up the corridor like a drunkard -- BANGING into walls -- he finally reaches the bathroom and ducks in --

Sam 1 sinks to his knees before the toilet bowl. With great effort he is able to remove his helmet, placing it on the floor next to him. He stares into the toilet.

For a moment all is calm. The gentle “ping-ping-ping” of a computer somewhere inside the base. Sam breathing steadily. Spots of sweat on his upper lip.

And then he VOMITS. He vomits LOUD, he vomits VIOLENTLY. His whole body THRUSTS forward in the process, taught, tense, like a dog being YANKED on a CHAIN.

Sam 1 vomits again. And again. And again. And stops.

ANGLE FROM ABOVE -- SAM 1

Sam 1’s vomit is DARK RED -- he’s thrown up BLOOD -- but that’s not all -- we can clearly see two or three TEETH floating in the vomit --

THE MIRROR

Sam 1 stands, moves to the mirror, opening his mouth wide to look for the missing teeth -- he uses his thumbs, shows his gums -- revealing: yes, he’s lost at least a couple of teeth.

He flushes the toilet.

Sam 2 driving along in his Rover. He comes across another one of these JAMMERS. He drives right up, ducks down, peering up through the windshield -- this new Jammer is as tall as the others, in fact, it is identical in every way.

How many of these things are there?

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Sam 2 circles the Jammer in the Rover, drives on.

Sam 1 enters and sits down at The Old Man. Frantically he starts typing in numbers.

An array of Log Entries appear ON THE SCREEN. Sam watches one of them.

These are just his log entries. What’s he looking for?

Sam 1 starts scrolling BACK through the log entries, like he’s REWINDING chapters on a DVD, showing himself at various stages of his time on Selene -- his beard essentially growing in REVERSE as the messages stretch further back -- eventually Sam 1 is clean shaven --

Sam 1 keeps typing in numbers.

ON THE SCREEN: “RESTRICTED. PASSWORD REQUIRED.”

No go. He tries to hack his way in, but is having no luck.

One of Gerty’s long spindly ARMS slides into the room.Sam backs away from the intimidating piece of machinery, but it stops within reach of the computer.

Sam 1 watches as the arm reaches forward and taps the password in for him. It leaves the room the way it came in.

Sam 1 continues to go further and further back -- and suddenly he POPS up on the screen again -- or is it him? -- this Sam up on the screen has stubble -- no beard -- and looks seriously ILL --

He is barely able to talk -- in fact he’s SLURRING --

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The SEQUENCE becomes a FAST-PACED and NIGHTMARISH MONTAGE -- continuing to BACKTRACK through the log entries -- showing yet more SAMS -- one has a MOUSTACHE -- one has a SHAVED HEAD -- one has grown out his hair and has a PONY TAIL, we’ve seen this particular Sam before in an earlier scene.

But all the Sams have one thing in common: towards the latter end of their log entries they all appear to be in very bad physical shape --

Sam 1 searches even DEEPER into the COMPUTER and uncovers yet more footage.

We see the others Sams returning to Earth -- yet they don’t seem to go anywhere -- when they blast off the RETURN VEHICLE remains in its bay --

Sam 1 views different Sams blasting back to earth in the return vehicle -- always with the same result -- the return vehicle remaining in its bay, the Sams seemingly VANISHING.

In one particularly GRAINY SEQUENCE Sam 1 views Gerty opening the lid to the cryo pod in the return vehicle and beginning to VACUUM what appears to be DUST or DEBRIS --

Sam 1 understands now that the Return Vehicle is not a spacecraft, but some kind of INCINERATOR.

Sam 1 heads into the Return Vehicle. Its dominated by the cryo pod, used to hold astronauts in a state of cryogenic sleep on their way back to Earth. Sam 1 pops open the lid and starts frantically searching the chamber for TRACES of the previous Sams, eventually finding particles of DUST in the cracks --

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He closes the lid. A video showing a TECHNICIAN in a white lab coat begins to play on a screen aimed at the glass lid of the pod. It’s mute, but we can hear a tinny version of the audio coming from the cryo pod. Sam 1 pushes a button on the monitor and we hear the audio properly.

Relaxing music begins to play. After a moment the music stops. There is a pause. Then an almighty pulse of light from the cryo pod. This is how Sams past have met their end. Nuked to ash like microwave meals in the cryo pod.

Sam 1 inspects the controls of the spacecraft to see if it really is a vehicle -- in the process of his search he finds himself down on his knees checking out the wiring.

Suddenly Sam 1’s attention is on the floor BENEATH HIM. He appears to be kneeling on some kind of PANEL -- like a tablet in the return vehicle’s floor -- he presses his ear against the panel -- KNOCKS --

The panel sounds HOLLOW.

CUBBY

Sam 1 opens a cubby, swipes something similar to a CROW BAR, heads out of the frame --

RETURN VEHICLE

Back in the Return Vehicle, Sam 1 stands over the panel in the floor. He uses the CROW BAR to prize the panel open -- this takes an extraordinary effort -- the panel eventually LIFTING like a manhole cover.

Sam 1 can’t believe his eyes. At the top of the OPEN PANEL, leading down into darkness...there’s A LADDER.

Sam 2 returns from his tour of the perimeter of the base; pulls up alongside Sam 1’s Rover, having to compensate for his clone’s poor parking job.

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Sam 2 exits the Parking Bay and removes his helmet. Down the corridor he sees Sam 1 standing outside the Return Vehicle: facing him, waiting.

Sam 2 begins to remove a piece of paper from his pocket, but suddenly stops. He can tell by Sam 1’s expression that something has happened.

Standing over the Open Panel, an anxious Sam 1 and Sam 2 stare down.

Sam 1 wordlessly takes the lead, crouching slightly to seize the ladder and twist his body down into the hole. He begins to DESCEND. When he is roughly half way down Sam 2 follows.

Sam 1 reaches the bottom of the ladder. He’s in a dark room, a kind of CHAMBER -- if NASA did crypts, it would look like this. *

The only light source right now is the coming from the Return Vehicle up above. Sam 2 hops down beside Sam 1, squints into the darkness.

Both Sams FUMBLE along opposing walls -- Sam 1 eventually finding a SWITCH, snaps it on.

An array of overhead fluorescent bulbs begin to STUTTER and FLASH before ILLUMINATING the chamber completely --

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The two Sams can hardly believe their eyes: stretching back maybe fifty feet are rows and rows of PODS -- like upright glass coffins -- and standing inside each pod, an as-of-yet UNAWAKENED CLONE. It’s like an ENTIRE ARMY of Sam Bells...

Spooky as hell.

For a few moments Sam 1 and 2 are too stunned to speak. They walk to the end of the chamber and back again, looking at each clone one at a time -- all the clones are bare chested and wear some kind of white cloth to cover their genitals, like a diaper.

Of course they all look the same, that’s why they’re clones, but this piece of scientific wizardry is mind- boggling to Sam 1 and 2 -- they MARVEL at how each of the clones is identical in every way, and down to the minutest of details -- same length of hair, same skin tone, same fingernails --

Sam 2 reacts with appropriate shock.

Sam 2 absorbing this. Then:

SAM 1 * (beat) * I hacked into the Old Man. Actually, Gerty did. I saw footage. You’re right, there have been other clones before us.

A pause.

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Sam 1 doesn’t respond, he’s in his own world.

All of a sudden Sam 1 makes a beeline for the ladder, starts heading back up.

Sam 1 is digging in drawers, removes some equipment, some wires; a radio, a small machine called a VIDEO PHONE, referred to as a VP.

He is watched by Gerty.

Gerty begins to slide out of the room. Sam calls after * him. *

GERTY * Helping you is what I do. *

Gerty leaves. *

Sam 1 goes on picking up equipment, shoves it all into a backpack he swiped from a peg.

Now Sam 2 appears in the doorway.

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Sam 1 brushes by Sam 2 on his way out.

Sam 1 marches up to his Rover, tosses in the backpack and dips inside without his helmet, closes the door and backs out into the black day.

Sam 1 at the wheel, flooring the Rover -- he looks possessed, determined -- a man on a mission --

WIDE SHOT

Sam’s Rover approaches one of the many Jammers that we now know circle the perimeter of the base.

Sam 1 stops the Rover on the other side of the Jammer. Here, outside the range of the Jammers, he figures he might be able to get a signal through to Earth.

ON SAM as he removes his equipment from the backpack and starts to uncoil wires -- inserts a small BATTERY PACK onto the back of the VP, sits the VP on his lap. The VP resembles a Play Station Portable with its small but nonetheless high-quality screen.

Sam isn’t sure who to contact at first...finally he enters some numbers from memory. The VP shaking in his hands. He is nervous, scared. He disables the video mode on his end, * so he is only sending audio. *

A moment of silence. The VP seems dead.

Then the VP BEEPS -- the monitor BLIPS -- the message seems to have gone through.

And suddenly a GIRL appears on the screen.

Sam 1 can’t believe it. It’s the same Girl from his hallucinations. Same wheat-colored hair. Same freckles dotting her cheek bones. Same yellow dress.

The moment Sam 1 sees the Girl he thinks -- naturally -- that he’s imagining things again. But then she speaks:

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That’s never happened before. Sam 1 finally manages to respond:

The conversation has a very slight delay, maybe a second or two, and the Girl isn’t completely clear on the monitor. We assume that these minor technical glitches are the same on the Girl’s end.

The Girl is sweet, chirpy -- nothing like the haunting, ghost-like figure from Sam 1’s hallucinations.

The girl’s expression shifts -- now somewhere between melancholy and curiosity --

Sam 1 GASPS. He literally gasps. Like someone just plunged a paring knife into his belly.

The girl just stares.

And astonishingly, the news of Tess’s death actually takes a back seat as Sam 1 is forced to confront this new revelation.

The girl is EVE BELL. Sam 1 is talking to his DAUGHTER.

Sam 1 tilts his head, a smile twitches on his face.

Sam 1 can’t believe it. She’s beautiful. She’s beautiful.

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A moment. Eve looking more closely, trying to decipher Sam 1’s face. Tears glistening in his eyes.

For a second Eve is embarrassed -- she blushes slightly -- but is still pulled in, intrigued.

Now Eve is beginning to look spooked. She turns away from the screen and calls to someone in another room:

And then we hear a voice. Sam’s voice.

SAM’S VOICE (O.S.) What!

Sam’s voice sounds CLOSER, more SUCCINCT, as he comes into the room -- but we don’t see him yet -- he sounds, OLDER. *

SAM’S VOICE Who’s asking about mom?

Sam 1 hurriedly shuts off the VP.

He sits there in the Rover, on the Moon, the middle of nowhere -- hundreds and thousands of miles from Earth -- Sam 1 has never felt more alone than he does right now.

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The Rover viewed from outside. We can’t hear a thing. Just the endless and unrelenting MOON SILENCE.

Inside the Rover we are able to make out Sam 1, quivering at the wheel as he sobs.

CLOSE UP -- THE OLD MAN

The “ping-ping-ping” of an alarm.

Appearing on The Old Man’s monitor: “RESCUE UNIT ELIZA: ARRIVAL TIME, 12 HOURS and 22 MINUTES.”

Sam 2 is sitting before the model. He’s flipped it back over and returned it to the table top. Now he is attempting to fix some of the demolished pieces. At this moment he’s gluing the spire back on the church.

Sam 2 hears a sound from the corridor. Moments later Sam 1 appears in the doorway wearing the backpack.

Sam 1 is beginning to look alarmingly ILL. His depleting health has been evident throughout the film, but now it seems to have jumped to a new level.

He watches Sam 2 for a little while.

Sam 2 shifts over to give Sam 1 the adjacent chair. Sam 1 walks over, sits down. Together they work on gluing the church back together.

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Sam 2 nods, remembering. A pause.

Sam 2 nods. Sam 1 picks up a block of wood, grabs an exacto blade. Demonstrates.

Sam 2 isn’t kidding. Though he is carving the block of wood, Sam 1 can’t keep it steady.

Sam 1 hands the wood and exacto blade to Sam 2.

Sam 2 attempts to whittle. He smiles, a little embarrassed.

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Suddenly Sam 1 turns around and has a vicious coughing fit. It actually seems to propel Sam 1 out of his chair and up onto his feet. Sam 2 watches with concern. Eventually the coughing subsides.

Sam 1 averts his gaze.

Sam 1 tells the truth.

Sam 2 stares back at him.

Suddenly Sam 1 closes his eyes -- SWAYS -- looks like he’s going to pass out.

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Sam 2 stands and moves to Sam 1. Holds him up, checks his temperature.

Sam 1 manages a nod.

Sam 2 hooks his arm around Sam 1’s shoulder, helps him from the room.

Sam 2 deposits Sam 1 onto the bed. He removes Sam 1’s backpack, eases a pillow under his head. Sam 1 is instantly asleep. Sam 2 pulls the comforter over him.

Sam 2 begins to leave the room, sees Sam 1’s backpack on the floor, the VP sticking out of it. Curious, Sam 2 grabs the VP.

FLASHING on the VP’s SCREEN: “Last Transmission: 15:14pm.”

Sam 2 enters the Rec Room and shuts the door. He moves to one of the tables and sits down, POPS on the VP.

ON THE VP MONITOR we begin to re-watch the conversation between Eve Bell and Sam 1. Obviously we are only seeing Eve’s face on the screen, but WE HEAR Sam 1’s voice in the background.

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Sam 2 and Sam 1 have exactly the same reaction at the same time.

SAM 1 (O.S.) SAM 2

No...no way. No...no way.

I’m her daughter. A couple of days ago Sam 2 didn’t know he had a daughter, and now he’s seeing her as a teenager, a young woman. He is stunned.

Sam 2 continues to watch the message but we

Sam 1 fast asleep. Sam 2 watches him from the doorway.

Gerty is just continuing with his tasks like nothing is happening. Right now he’s STACKING ready-meals and miscellaneous lunar snacks into neat columns.

Sam 2 walks up.

A long pause. Then:

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A beat.

A beat.

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Sam 2 waits for a response. And waits.

CLOSE UP -- THE OLD MAN

The “ping-ping-ping” of an alarm.

Appearing on The Old Man’s monitor: “RESCUE UNIT ELIZA: ARRIVAL TIME, 6 HOURS and 19 MINUTES.”

Sam 1 fast asleep in bed.

129 SAM 1’S DREAM 129

A stretch of green grass dissected by a dirt path. A light breeze. Endless blue sky above. No clouds. No visible sun.

Back on the sleeping Sam 1. Deep breaths. Eyelids twitching slightly.

131 SAM 1’S DREAM -- CONTINUED 131

In the distance, sitting beneath a tree on a blanket, we see TESS BELL. She is removing items from a picnic basket.

Sam enters the frame, his back to the camera. He watches his wife for a few moments, maintaining his distance.

Tess looks up and sees Sam. She lifts her hand, waves.

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ON SAM -- IN THE DREAM

Sam’s expression is blank at first, but then he smiles at Tess, waves back.

Sam 1’s eyes open slowly. He’s awake.

Was his dream a memory? A premonition? Or was it simply made up?

ANOTHER ANGLE -- SAM 1

A BLEARY Sam 1 yawns and stretches his arms over his head. He reaches across the bed and rips a couple of tissues from a box of Kleenex, blows his nose.

Afterwards he checks the tissues: a thick RED GOO came out of his nose, the color and consistency of tomato purée. Yeah, gross.

Sam 1 rolls out of bed, plants his feet on the ground.

The base seems eerily quiet. Too quiet. Sam 1 stands and crosses to the door.

Sam 1 begins to walk left, down towards the Rec Room and the Monitoring Station, but hesitates -- he turns the other way, towards the Infirmary, heads that way instead.

Lying in one of the Infirmary beds, eyes closed, a NETWORK of WIRES attached to his chest...Sam. We don’t know which Sam it is yet. He is clean shaven. He looks like any one of the clones down in the secret chamber; then again he could just as easily be Sam 2.

And that’s what Sam 1 naturally assumes as he enters the Infirmary and sees him lying there. Sam 1 moves closer, curious, until he is standing right at the edge of the bed.

Sam 1 reaches out his hand to wake him up when there is a voice from the doorway behind:

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Our suspicions are now confirmed. The Sam in the Infirmary bed is a new clone. We will call him SAM 3.

Sam 1 is not even remotely on the same page.

Sam 2 puts his finger to his lips. Then:

Sam 2 turns and leaves. Sam 1 follows slowly, one or two glances at the sleeping clone along the way.

We cut straight to the Rec Room and the conversation between Sam 1 and Sam 2.

Sam 2 nods.

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Sam 1 simply digesting the gravity of Sam 2’s plan.

Sam 1 wasn’t expecting that.

A beat.

Sam 1 realizes that Sam 2 knows everything. There are no secrets between them now.

They both absorb the impact of knowing Tess is dead. Finally:

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The two Sams sitting together, UNITED by their grief.

Shot of Selene from across the lunar plane. The base looks almost peaceful. No evidence of the DRAMA going on inside.

The two Sams are testing out the CARGO CONTAINER to see if their plan is going to work and Sam 1 can actually fit inside.

These containers were designed to carry cannisters of Helium 3, not to accommodate human beings.

Sam 1 looks in increasingly bad shape. Blanket draped around his shoulders -- gaunt, bobbing, shivering.

Sam 1 hunches and slowly insinuates himself into the container -- yes, he fits, but it’s tight, like really tight -- Sam 1 can anticipate one hell of a stiff neck by the time he steps out onto terra firma.

Sam 2 chuckles.

With a HEAVE Sam 2 PULLS Sam 1 from the container.

Gerty is running tests on the unconscious Sam 3.

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Sam 1 and Sam 2 stand on opposite sides of the room. Both clones seem uneasy. They can’t look at each other. They can’t look at Sam 3. Their eyes roam every inch of the room just about before finally settling on Gerty.

Regardless of Sam 3 being unconscious, are they really going to kill him?

Sam 2 sits at the comms unit recording the message, a smile plastered on his face, as WIDE as it is FAKE.

Sam 2 sends the message, his SMILE instantly COLLAPSING. He mutters under his breath:

Sam 1 is sitting on the edge of his bed holding the photograph of the pregnant Tess -- staring with great concentration -- almost penetrative -- like he’s trying to will himself into the photograph.

We find out what’s running through his head, cutting to:

141 SAM 1’S DREAM 141

Sam 1 has gone back to his dream -- or his vision -- of Tess sitting on the picnic blanket beneath the tree.

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Sam and Tess continue to wave to one another. Sam hasn’t moved. Tess calls out:

Suddenly we hear a voice.

Sam 2 is standing at the door. Sam 1 looks up at him.

Sam 1 stares back at Sam 2 with defiance.

Sam 2 isn’t following.

Sam 2 keeps quiet.

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Sam 1 seems to have it all figured out. Although Sam 2 should in some ways be relieved by Sam 1’s decision, he looks closer to distraught.

Both Sams struggle to hold in their emotions; Sam 1 morose, Sam 2 angry.

Sam 1 looks concerned. Sam 2 reads his mind.

Sam 1 smiles wearily, watching his old self.

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Driving to the crash site. Sam 2 at the wheel, Sam 1 riding shotgun. Both men staring ahead in silence.

MATTHEW

Where all the trouble really started. Matthew, the stalled Harvester, with the crashed Rover still trapped beneath it. The crash site is beginning to resemble some old underwater shipwreck.

The Rover enters the frame, beginning to slow down as it approaches the crash site. Sam 2 rolls the Rover to a standstill about ten feet from the front of the Harvester.

Sam 2 keeps the engine running as Sam 1 takes a handful of TRANQUILIZERS one by one, washing down each pill with a swig from a bottle of water.

Afterwards: a long pause. The two Sams sitting side by side, staring across the bleak landscape. Neither of them wants to say good-bye particularly.

Sam 2 is nodding away. Of course he remembers.

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Sam 1 has dropped off to sleep. The back and forth exchange is now essentially Sam 2’s monologue.

Sam 2 finally turns and looks at Sam 1. Sam 1’s head cocked to one side, eyes closed.

Sam 2 lifts the helmet off Sam 1’s lap -- carefully lowers the helmet onto Sam 1’s head.

Sam 2 LOPES towards the crashed rover holding Sam 1 in both arms like a bride. He places Sam 1 on the ground and PRIZES open the rover door -- he slowly slides Sam 1 inside.

Inside the Rover Sam 1 lies with his head jammed awkwardly against the passenger side door. At once he looks peaceful and wretchedly uncomfortable.

Sam 2 can barely bring himself to look at Sam 1. With both hands he FORCES the door CLOSED, pivots around and slowly BOBS back to his rover.

Sam 2 driving back to base. He has removed his helmet and is brushing tears from his eyes with his glove.

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CLOSE UP -- THE OLD MAN

The “ping-ping-ping” of an alarm.

Appearing on The Old Man’s monitor: “RESCUE UNIT ELIZA: ARRIVAL TIME, 1 HOUR and 40 MINUTES.”

Gerty is continuing to run tests on Sam 3. Sam 2 enters. He carries the freighted exhaustion of a man who has just completed a long and difficult journey.

Sam 2 leaves.

Sam 2 is loading OXYGEN CANISTERS into the CARGO CONTAINER in preparation for his trip back to Earth.

Sam 2 working FAST, a sense of URGENCY. Eliza will be there in a mere 90 minutes! It’s coming down to the wire.

Gerty glides in as he works.

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Now Sam 2 loads food into the cargo container -- moon snacks, rations, etc. -- and bottles of water. His final addition is a 5 kilo load of precious Helium3; A good 15 million dollars worth!

Sam 2 straightens up, giving Gerty his full attention now. This is serious. It could ruin everything.

The fact that Gerty has brought it up indicates that the robot’s loyalties lie ultimately with Sam.

SAM 2 * So that’s what we’re going to have to do. (beat) * Are you ok with that? *

Sam 2 continues his work.

Sam 3 asleep in bed, very close to consciousness.

Sam 1 inside the crashed rover, resembling a wild animal pinned in a trap. He’s still breathing.

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SAM 1’S DREAM

Once again we see Tess beneath the tree sitting on the blanket. She looks over at Sam, continuing to wave.

Sam begins to walk towards Tess.

Back on Sam 1. The glass of his helmet is beginning to MIST with blood. Sam sees a sliver of the sun as he dawns on his side of the moon. He closes his eyes for the last time.

Sam 2 stands before Gerty.

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Gerty doesn’t respond. Sam 2 seems troubled.

Sam 2 leans forward and activates the Memory Erase button. Gerty’s READOUT SCREEN begins to TWITCH and FLASH with RANDOM DATA -- then slowly FADES TO BLACK.

The Robot has been officially SHUT DOWN.

Gerty just stands there. Completely still. As lifeless as a toy.

Sam 2 heads out of the room at top speed.

Shot of LUKE, the third of the Harvesters, heading across the lunar plane.

Sam 2 pauses at the window...looking for Eliza. The Rescue Unit is so close Sam 2 might actually be able to pick out their spacecraft.

And he can! It’s tiny, but nevertheless it’s there -- a metallic spacecraft, glinting like a jewel -- and heading steadily towards the Moon.

There isn’t a moment to lose. Sam 2 swings around, heads for the CARGO CONTAINER.

We remain inside the Monitoring Station as Sam 2 climbs inside the Cargo Container He readies himself. Says a little prayer and... he cant do it! Cursing at himself and glancing at the time ticking away before Eliza lands, he jumps back out of the CARGO CONTAINER and runs back into the base.

Sam 2 sits down before the Old Man. Eliza’s imminent arrival causing increased STRESS and TENSION.

Sam 2 takes out the piece of paper on which the COORDINATES of the Jammers are printed out.

He starts to frantically type, altering the PATH of the HARVESTERS. *

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Mark trundling along at half-speed. The Harvester suddenly changes direction -- veering sharply to the left and heading up over a steep slope.

Back on Sam 2 as he RAPIDLY types, makes an error, screams:

Pounds the delete button, continuing to type coordinates into the Old Man -- He’s done! He leaps out of his chair and tears off through the base towards the cargo container.

As Eliza’s spacecraft sets its sights on Selene, we see the Cargo Container ROCKET through the sky in the opposite direction.

For a few moments all is quiet inside the base.

The “PING-PING-PING” of the Old Man.

The grinding GURGLE of a computer readout.

This sequence echoes the tour at the very start of the film, but the base has a decidedly different feel to it now. It’s like an abandoned house.

CUT TO: *

CLOSE UP -- THE OLD MAN

On the monitor: “RESCUE UNIT ELIZA: ARRIVED.”

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A box shaped spacecraft, all menace and angles, slowly DESCENDING towards the lunar surface.

Gerty sits lifeless. *

We hear the sounds of pressure doors opening. Unrecognized * voices as the landing crew enters the base, calling for * Sam. *

Gerty comes to life. *

His principal monitor POPS ON and his pincer-like HANDS * begin to TWITCH. His READOUT SCREEN streams with DATA. *

Gerty’s head begins to swivel left and right -- as if he’s * awoken with a stiff neck -- eventually he SEES Sam 3, * crosses to him. *

Just like that, Gerty continues his routine checks of Sam 3 * -- studying Sam 3’s heartbeat, his brain activity -- the * robot literally picking up where he left off. *

And then Sam 3’s eyes open. He is awake. He blinks at * Gerty, cloudy, groggy. *

SAM 3 * Where am I? *

GERTY * Sam, you’re in the Infirmary. You * had an accident. *

Sam 3 staring ahead, trying to dig up the memory. *

SAM 3 * No, Gerty. * (a beat) * I don’t remember a thing. *

We hear heavy footsteps and voices closer now, just outside * the infirmary. *

CUT TO: *

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A CLOSE UP of MARK as the Harvester churns along and SLAMS into an JAMMER with full force.

The Jammer wobbles unsteadily from the IMPACT, before finally TOPPLING over, HAZING the air with lunar dust. *

The Cargo Container BULLETING through space, fire blasting from its jets like the petals of an exotic flower. *

CUT TO: *

Sam 2 is seriously cramped inside one of the Helium 3 containers, about as comfortable as a pony in a dog kennel, but nonetheless WHOOPING RAUCOUSLY at the sheer velocity of the container -- as well as, and perhaps even more so, the fact that he has successfully escaped the base.

He’s going home.

Sam 1 has stopped breathing. The sun shines on his face.

168 SAM’S DREAM 168

Sam walks towards Tess. He sits down in front of her on the blanket.

A beautiful picnic is spread out before them. Tess has never looked so radiant, so beautiful. Light from the sky pours into her upturned face.

Sam just smiles back at her. She hands him a bottle of wine and a corkscrew.

CAMERA PANS UPWARD -- not a cloud in sight -- but we are just able to pick out the chalky outline of the MOON, resembling a white thumb print in the blue sky.

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HOLD THIS shot of the Moon for a few seconds before we

FADE TO BLACK. *

On the Comms Unit monitor there is a BLAST of STATIC, * followed by a FLASHING MESSAGE: *

“LIVE FEED AVAILABLE.” *