The air-lock doors CLOSE with a HISS. Harrigan is yanked to
a stop, the coat removed from his head. He looks around him
in bewilderment, finding himself in the strange, high-tech
command center.
At the consul, Peter Keyes, wearing a white coat over his
suit, looks up from a monitor and then walks to Harrigan. He
gestures to the handcuffs.
KEYES
You can remove them.
One of Harrigan's abductors removes the cuffs. Harrigan rubs
his wrists, his body shivering s.lightly.
KEYES
Sixty-five degrees. Computers like it cool.
(stunned)
What is this?
Keyes studies Harrigan, looking slightly amused.
KEYES
I told you, Harrigan, you don't know what you're dealing with...
Keyes ponders the situation a moment, then leads Harrigan
towards the console.
KEYES
But since we're going to be keeping you out of circulation for awhile ••• I think you'll find this interesting.
At the consul, Keyes punches in some commands on a keyboard.
On one of the SCREENS, a tape begins to run, static, code
nwn.bersand then an IMAGE of the PREDATOR, seen in a gaseous,
wraith-like state, undulating, moving, wisps of energy
dis~ppearing, reappearing.
Harrigan stares at the strange image, Keyes studying his
reaction.
KEYES
(proudly)
That, Lieutenant, is your killer. Remarkable, isn't it?
(more)
Third Draft 01/16/90 79.
KEYES (Cont'd)
(beat)
What you're seeing is an image constructed from the pheromone signature left by his body. Scent molecules. We taped this earlier today. We have hundreds of sensors placed around the city. It's the only way he's visible.
Keyes punches up another screen, this one showing a tape of
the BLASTED LANDSCAPE of the jungle clearing, the site of the
final confrontation with Dutch Schaeffer and the first
Predator. Teams of MEN in environmental suits, comb through
the scorched, blasted earth with a variety of INSTRUMENTS.
KEYES
Ten years ago, one of his kind stalked and eliminated an elite Special Forces team on a secret mission in Central America for the C.I.A.
(beat)
The explosion vaporized two hundred acres of rain forest. The effect of a low-yield nuclear blast, with no radioactive fallout. A remarkable weapon.
The image changes to that of ANNA, the Central American rebel,
in her debriefing.
ANNA
(emotional; voice quavering)
.•• It used the jungle to move. Very fast, powerful. It was colored like the chameleon, invisible ••• It was hunting the men, like a game •••
Keyes looks up from the console.
KEYES
Several weeks ago we determined that another of his species had returned to Earth. To Los Angeles. Picked a wonderful time, insane violence in the streets, hottest year on record, perfect hunting ground.
A NEW IMAGE appears, that of Ramon's GIRLFRIEND, also in a
debriefing.
Third Draft 01/16/90 so.
COLOMBIAN GIRL
(sedated)
El Diablo, a demon ...He came from nowhere... He was everywhere...
(begins to cry)
He killed them all.
Harrigan looks around the room, humming in technical activity,
and then to Keyes. He's beginning to understand.
KEYES
(quietly)
That's right, Lieutenant. An o.w.L.F. -- other worldly life form.
Keyes punches a button. On the MONITORS we SEE, newsreel
footage of violence, streetfighting in the Middle East, Viet
Nam, Iwo Jima, South America, all locations of sweltering
heat.
KEYES
Iwo Jima, Caml:)odia,Negev Desert, Beirut, Central America ••• Records of strange, unexplained deaths, dating back as far as seven hundred years ago. He's drawn by heat and conflict. Heat is his environment, conflict his passion. He's a being of pure hostility...
HARRIGAN
But with a sense of sport. Takes only the most dangerous -- tropies. That's the game, isn't it Keyes?
KEYES
Yes. Because of our intelligence and violent nature. You're a hunter of men, like him. That makes you worthy, a first-rate trophy. He likes you. A lot.
HARRIGAN
Why can't we see him?
KEYES
His defensive adaptations are astounding, apparently possessing the ability to bend light around him, a perfect camouflage. A craft capable of interstellar travel, weaponry so far evolved as to make us seem Stone Age in comparison.
(more)
Third Draft 01/16/90 81.
KEYES (Cont'd)
(beat)
As you've seen, the problems of getting close to one are astounding. They are fearless, yet in the event of compromise or capture, apparently will not hesitate to destroy themselves.
HARRIGAN
Ycu admire this son-of-a-bitch.
KEYES
Not what he does, Lieutenant, but what he is. For what he can give us. To control such powers would be the greatest military and scientific achievement in the history of mankind. More potential than the atomic bomb. I've waited a lifetime for this.
One of the TECHNICIANS turns, calling out to Keyes.
TECHNICIAN
Mr. Keyes, we're getting something on the pheromone scanners.
Keyes approaches the monitors, SEEING the faint image of the
wraith-like presence of the Predator.
TECHNICIAN
Target-one has entered the outer ring at six hundred meters. Keeping to the normal track. He's stopped.
KEYES
It's taken us over two weeks to determine his point of origin, his lair. We know his ship is very close. The samples from the warehouse led us to the packing house, where he comes to feed. Seems he has a taste for beef.
HARRIGAN
(wry)
What else?
TECHNICIAN
Target-one is moving again, sir.
Third Draft 01/16/90 82,
166 CONTINUED: (4 ) 166
KEYES
We've prepared a little trap for him in the packing house.
Keyes punches up a large MONITOR where we SEE in the forward
section of the trailer, SEVEN MEN, dressed in flat-black,
refrigerated ENVIRONMENTAL SUITS, are making last minute
checks to their equipment, a VIDEO CAMERA, and a wonderfully
strange looking WEAPON, a long barreled matt finished RIFLE,
a ventilated SHIELD covering most of the barrel and breech.
At the moment, one of the men is charging the gun from a
larger CYLINDER labeled: LIQUID NITROGEN.
HARRIGAN
Nitrogen? You're not going to kill this thing, you plan to freeze him.
As Keyes continues, he too begins to pull on a similar SUIT,
colored silver for I.D ••
KEYES
Until we can get him into a cryogenics chamber. We have to capture him alive, isolate that self-destruct device of his. A nuclear sized blast in the jung.le is one thing, in LA it's quite another. The cost of life would be staggering.
HARRIGAN
(bitterly)
Don't you think you've let enough people die already, Keyes?
KEYES
Harrigan, to gain the insight into this kind of knowledge is worthy of a few sacrifices.
HARRIGAN
Sacrifice. The thought of what people like you would do with weapons like that scares the shit out of me.
(beat)
Tell me, if he camouflages so well, how can you see him?
KEYES
We've concluded he must see in the infra-red spectrum. He finds us by our heat register.
(more)
Third Draft 01/16/90 8 3.
KEYES (Cont'd)
Block the body's heat, and he's blind.
(beat)
Those suits are constructed to insulate all body heat, making 11s invisible to him.
In the cool room, the OWLF team begins to put on HOODS,
covering their heads, pulling into place oblong-shaped
G-OGGLES,electrical cables running to their back packs.
KEYES
(continuing} We've flooded the packing house with microscopic, radioactive dust, sensitive to ultra-violet light -- cold light. The dust will adhere to his body, making him visible to the ultra-violet goggles our team is wearing.
TECHNICIAN
He's coming in. Two blocks away.
Keyes hits a BUTTON on the console.
KEYES
He's on his way. This is go. Load up and prepare for infiltration. As soon as he's in, we roll.
(beat)
Enjoy the show, Lieutenant. This is history.
Keyes pulls on his hood, disappearing into an airlock. On
the monitor, in the cool room, a door opens, revealing the
inside of a VAN. Keyes and the OWLF team begins transferring
from the room into the van.