"RED DAWN" (1984)

TEN SOLDIERS

A DEEP ELECTRONIC NOTE followed by another forming a slow, inevitable march. The following statements FLASH on in deep reds and oranges -- FADE SLOWLY.

-- El Salvador Militarily Untenable. President Reagan blames congressional restraints.

-- Labor and Food Riots in Poland. Communist Party declares emergency. Soviet troops invade.

-- Economic Boycotts upon Soviet Regime. Western Europe wavers.

-- Cuba and Nicaragua Reach Troop Strength Goals of 500,000 Men Combined.

-- Greens Party Gains Control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil.

-- France Signs Non-Aggression Pact with Soviets.

-- Cuban and Sandinista Governments Form CAPA (Central American Peoples Alliance). Revolution in Mexico.

-- Japan and European Common Market Sign Trade Agreements with Moscow. NATO dissolves.

-- Soviet Union suffers Worst Wheat Harvest in 55 Years.

-- Cuban Advisors Sent to Mexican Civil War. Moscow and CAPA recognize Revolutionary Provisional Government of Mexico.

-- United States Stands Alone.

-- towering peaks and dark canyons of them. We glide past, around, through them.

TITLES.

The exhilarating flight is almost soundless; only a distant WHINE left behind. We descend -- grey dark, then through a break below stretches a great green plain with distant purple mountains. They rush towards us, descending still. A town appears in the distance -- a sparkle or two and soon we are upon it -- hurtling over and gone.

Except for the McDonald's it's been the same for forty years. A caution light blinks above the intersection. A dog crosses the road, looks up -- the WHINING ROAR of a JET overhead, streaking by.

next to a cafe. Customers look up from their break- fast. The station manager, JED ECKERT, looks up. He stands next to a pickup truck with three kids in it. Jed is about twenty. In the truck is his kid brother, MATT, a pretty ranch girl, SANDY, and AARDVARK (ARTURO) -- all 16 or 17. They all look up.

He looks back.

Sandy waves at Jed who doesn't notice.

Normal stucco 1950's construction. One side windowed, parking lot full of cars -- mostly pickups -- gymnas- ium, track with large sign -- "Calumet Wolverines." Matt pulls up. Sandy and Aardvark are already getting out.

Another jet streaks over, turns towards the mountains and is gone.

Jed and Arturo slouch at their desks -- another day. In front of them sit Sandy and DARYL BATES, handsome, student body president. He winks at her, she throws a piece of chalk at him. If you were listening, you'd hear the THROB OF PLANES overhead, then pass. The teacher, MR. TEASDALE, speaks.

We now see the whole class. Teasdale is in his mid- thirties, with thick hair and trimmed beard, ecolog- ically sound, amateur rock climber, etc.

Behind him outside the windows parachutes start drop- ping into view. Dozens of them, floating down lazily. Dozens more -- the sky is filled with parachutes.

He sees them, nobody else does. Sandy looks at him then out the window.

Everyone turns.

Armed men in battle fatigues. Floating to the field beside the school. Running to open supply cannisters. They move urgently.

Enthralled, they crowd to the windows. Teasdale frumps out the door. AD LIB:

Teasdale exits the building and waddles toward the soldiers.

Arturo mocks him.

The kids laugh.

Teasdale approaches a soldier from behind, seeking an explanation. The man's unbuckling his chute.

Startled, the soldier whirls and SHOOTS Teasdale dead.

Dumbstruck. DOLLY IN AND ZOOM OUT. A girl screams.

He nervously jerks in their direction, sees the horri- fied faces at the window, and FIRES a long burst from his RIFLE.

The kids duck as GLASS SHOWERS over them. Recovering, they rush toward the door, screaming and shouting. Books and desks fly.

Boy #1 stares blankly out the window at the scurrying soldiers, chin on the windowsill, a bullet through his head.

Students of all ages pour from the place as more para- chutists land in b.g. Sandy, Matt, and Daryl run for the parking lot.

Matt and Daryl leap in. Matt gets it started as the others pile in back. Arturo pulls Sandy over the side. There is a tremendous EXPLOSION in the distance down the street. They pull out -- two younger boys, ROBERT and DANNY, jump in. Matt spins out of the parking lot.

The truck blares through town. GUNFIRE and EXPLOSIONS erupt all around. Confused people run from houses, a few with guns.

A sheriff's car sits stalled in the street, bullet- riddled, lights flashing. A deputy's sprawled outside the driver's door.

Everywhere you look -- soldiers landing.

The pickup wheels around the corner. Smoke is belching from the gas station. Jed runs out, pulls open the driver's door, pushes Matt over and takes the wheel, almost crashing up onto the sidewalk in the process.

The boys crouch in terror. Some peer over the sides as Jed takes a corner on two wheels, speeds down a resi- dential street.

as the pickup rounds a curve... Paratroopers are moving up the street, arms at the ready. The lead soldier raises his hand for the truck to halt.

Dumb with shock. A split second -- Jed moves.

He slams on the brakes, spins around on the lawn, speeds between two houses.

The soldies open FIRE, blasting a wall.

A fifteen-year-old Chicano with a long face and longer nose, "Aardvark" looks fearfully over the side of the speeding truck as it wheels down main street. People dart in all directions. Amid the pandemonium, a tall Chicano MAN trots aimlessly down the sidewalk with a dazed expression.

The Man sees Aardvark racing away.

Aardvark scrambles over the others to beat on the cab window.

The pickup pulls away as he runs after it, waving his arms.

The boys pull Aardvark down behind the protective sides. He stares back at the tiny figure on the road.

"Calumet, Colorado. Pop. 1012. 'Gateway to the Rockies'." The pickup flashes past.

Jed's pickup races up a winding mountain highway, the only vehicle in sight.

The boys lean forward, watching the road and hills apprehensively. Suddenly, Jed goes white -- and brakes to a stop.

Ant-sized figures in camouflage battle dress spread concertina wire a thousand yards ahead... A roadblock. Parachutes dangle in the trees.

Jed downshifts the truck's old gears, eases off the highway. Slowly, quietly, he heads cross-country, away from the road.

slumps beside the truck. Pale and trembling, the other boys join him, staring numbly at the valley far below.

In the midst of a vast pastoral scene, columns of smoke rise from Calumet. GUNFIRE echoes off the distant hills.

Jed, Sandy, Daryl, Matt, Aardvark, and three others:

DANNY -- Thirteen. Small, meek... a worrier.

ROBERT -- Fourteen. Your basic kid.

RAYMOND -- Fifteen. A dunce.

Sandy takes off her jacket and wraps it around Danny -- He's shivering.

They stare some more.

Jed wipes at his nose, surveys the open mountainside.

He gets to his feet and heads toward the truck. The younger boys follow like frightened quail. Robert stumbles backwards, gazing down at the valley.

Getting no response, he hurries to catch up.

The boys huddle miserably beneath the boughs of a giant fir tree. A gray drizzle falls. Overhead, an unseen jet SHRIEKS past at tree top level. It's awesome.

Danny drops his hand and stands up, swept away by the grandeur of parliamentary procedure.

Jed isn't listening to the others.

A beat. Jed sees the frightened young faces.

Matt nods.

Sandy leans close.

He turns to the others.

He starts off down the slope, towards the truck.

trots beside Matt, sporting a remindful look.

Matt walks backwards, staring incredulously at him.

The low afternoon sun breaks a cloud, and sad light paints the four boys wading downhill.

Jed waves back. The brush swallows them.

A ROCKET launches right at CAMERA.

The soldier who fired it kneels in the middle of the street, shouldering his weapon. Other troops scurry by. EXPLOSIONS, HONKING HORNS, JET AIRCRAFT.

An officer rushes up. The soldier answers his question by pointing in the air. Suddenly, they dash for cover.

Soldiers dive in all directions as withering MACHINE GUN FIRE chews up the street.

They SHOOT back as the flaming afterburner of the jet climbs into the night.

Then the troops move into the street again, carrying off the dead and wounded. A convoy of military and commandeered vehicles pushes through the flaming rub- ble.

Cupped hands hold a house on the peeling stucco: "You're in Good Hands With Allstate."

TILT UP -- On the roof, Jed and other frightened faces peer at the scene below -- firelit phantoms.

No one answers. The boys scuttle backward from the edge -- into darkness.

A cat creeps beside a fence, stalking something. Sud- denly running FEET THUMP down the alley. The cat crou- ches defensively... Five shadows rush by.

slip from bush to shadow. They halt, gasping quietly. Somewhere a GUN CHATTERS.

Aardvark springs away. They follow across dark lawns. No street lights, no house lights -- only the moon. Running low, they hug the familiar houses.

drops to the ground, taking Robert with him. He mo- tions frantically. Everybody flattens in the grass.

Jed slaps a hand on Robert's mouth, raises a finger to his lips. Urging quiet, he points ahead.

lean on the roof of a curbside car. Cigarettes glow -- Soldiers. Twenty yards away. Silent as dead men. Then one drags on his smoke and chuckles in Spanish.

They have seen nothing.

breathes.

He hoists himself over the fence for a look, fellow faces appearing on either side.

Very middle class. Very foreboding. Very void of light or life.

looks around the neighborhood.

leaps the fence and slinks to the back door. A look over his shoulder, and he grabs the doorknob -- it won't turn. He wrestles with it, shouts a whisper.

Jed jumps the fence and joins him.

He does... Silence. He knocks a little louder.

A tomb. In the eerie darkness his silhouette bangs discreetly at the opaque door glass. Cereal boxes and coffee sit on the table -- Yesterday's breakfast.

Aardvark stops knocking. He swallows.

Sure. Aardvark nods... can't speak.

They slink through overgrown grass. Aardvark trips on something, falling like lead. He dusts himself off and looks to see what caught his foot -- a bulky thing. Something stiff. Aardvark turns it over -- A DEAD WOMAN.

Horrified. He pushes away from the corpse.

Jed sees the body.

He waits for an answer, some movement.

Her dull, dead eyes stare skyward. JETS SHRIEK.

Jed feels for a heartbeat, sees the dead hand clutching the bloody splotch on her nightclothes. He pulls his hand away, unconsciously rubs it on his jeans to wipe off the feel.

The boys stare at the mannequin. Aardvark is trans- fixed. Matt pulls him away.

From an upstairs bedroom window, it looks haunted. Barbeque grill and sprinklers on the patio. The bed- room is dark, the curtained window closed. A little girl hugs a dog in the picture on the window sill. Someone KNOCKS on a door downstairs.

Jed backs away from the house. He bends down, throws gravel at the window.

Nothing. Four other figures follow Jed into the night.

The back door. Jed and company come to a halt, breath- ing hard.

Robert monkeys with the lock. They're inside in seconds.

Robert closes the door... Safe at last.

Aisles of groceries stretch to the glassed-in store front. Past that -- main street. Fires and headlights illuminate at random.

stretches a hand at the groceries.

The boys fall on the nearest packages. It's kinda fun.

destroys a sack of potato chips. He can't eat fast enough.

gnaws TV dinner chicken (frozen). Jed appears.

He tosses Matt an apple and moves on, fashioning cold cuts and Roman Meal into a sandwich. A WHIMPER --

sits by the cereal section, tears streaming. One hand hols a bottle of grape juice. The other is plunged in Sugar Crisp.

Jed sticks a wad of meat and bread at him.

Robert can't help but laugh.

GLASS CRASHES on the other side of the store.

He hears it, stops, and looks in the window. Butcher paper signs frame his face: "Tongue, $1.49/lb."... "California Navels, 4 lbs/$1."

Everything that is not in shadows appears in order.

A SHOUT pulls him away.

Jed and Robert ease from the dark.

Shattered olive jars cover the floor. Jed and Robert round the corner and nearly slip on the mess. They look up.

is on a top shelf, clutching more teetering jars.

Matt turns the corner. Jed pushes Aardvark and Robert together.

"Anderson's" is painted on the window. TILT UP as Jed sticks his head through the ceiling panel hole and looks around.

is a shadow slipping from shelf to shelf.

Jed drops onto the checkout counter, joins him. Matt stuffing mess kits, blankets, etc. into knapsacks. Jed punches him.

The gun cabinet. A 22 cal. rifle and a pump shotgun are in the open, the other rifles are in a cabinet with a chain going through the trigger guards. Jed breaks the cabinet door. They hear FOOTSTEPS outside, drop.

He reaches into a counter and takes a .22 automatic pistol and a .357 revolver -- all that's there. The footsteps recede. Jed pulls at the chain, begins grab- bing boxes of ammo.

Packs drop from the hole in the ceiling, spilling fish hooks, bows and arrows. Jed and Matt land beside their booty.

Surrounded by bulging sacks, they sit by the back door eating fudgesicles. They jump when Jed and Matt sud- denly appear.

Jed drops knapsacks on the floor.

Robert and Aardvark start transferring chips, cookies, six packs of coke and beer, other junk. Jed is appal- led. He picks up a bag of marshmallows.

He starts separating the junk from what they need, tossing a roll of toilet paper into the "unacceptable" pile. Robert snatches it back.

Jed adjusts a pack on Matt's back. Each boy has a full knapsack and carries an archery set or other items, including comic books and gum.

Matt opens the back door, peers out cautiously. All clear. He races into the dark.

Jed holds Robert back until Matt has made it to the woods. Then it's Aardvark's turn. Jed spots something in his pack. He stops him, pulls a box of Kotex from the knapsack.

Jed considers the logic for a moment, grins, then shoves Aardvark and his Kotex out the door, grabs cigarettes off a shelf, and dashes after him.

The sun has just begun its climb, leaving the forest dim and gray. VOICES can be heard. CAMERA MOVES DOWN THROUGH the pines and finds the boys reunited in a clearing, huddled around packs, clutching at food.

Jed, Matt, Robert, and Aardvark sit to one side watch- ing the others eat. They're haggard and sleepy. Jed smokes a cigarette.

Robert nods tearfully.

A beat.

He tosses a package of food in the air.

Daryl takes a deep breath.

The kids are shocked.

Crying, Danny gets to his feet.

Daryl looks around -- no one's joining him. Frustra- ted, he flings juice from his can at Jed.

He starts filling a knapsack with provisions.

He jumps to join his brother.

An especially loud EXPLOSION rumbles in the distance.

A chipmunk nibbles seeds in front of a National Park sign: "Arapaho National Forest." Chipmunk jerks his head up, alert to something. Two battered arrows and a steel ball THUD into the wood and ground around him. Chipmunk heads for the hills. Three pairs of dusty feet stumble INTO FRAME. TILT UP --

grubby. They retrieve their missiles, slouch against the redwood sign.

A beat. She looks at him. He smiles.

Jed gives him a look.

Jed shakes his head, sighs, as a jeep suddenly appears around a bend down the road in b.g. Four soldiers are in it.

Sandy hears the motor and peeks around the sign. She makes a strangled sound.

poke their heads around Sandy for a look. They jerk back, pale. Jed points to the roadside where it drops away in a steep, wooded embankment.

scurry over the edge, clutching tree roots and bushes. In his haste, Jed drops an arrow, but doesn't notice.

passes the sign -- and stops. The soldiers back up and get out. Dressed in combat fatigues, they saunter over to the sign, talking among themselves in Russian, ad- miring the scenery. They're young and smiling, carry- ing machine guns. While three of them try to decipher the sign, the fourth studies the countryside through a camera.

The soldier with the camera answers.

Yuri steps over, studies the words which speak of the creation of the forest in 1922, its former use as an Indian hunting ground, its 35,000 acres, its five day camp areas, etc. He clears his throat hesitantly.

Soldier #1 whistles.

While his comrades pose beside the sign, Yuri backs up with his camera for the proper distance.

cautiously raises up for a peek. Yuri's boots are a foot from his face.

lies on the ground in front of Yuri.

ducks back down and points to his arrows, indicating that he lost one. Matt and Sandy turn white.

snaps the picture and is rewinding the camera when he sees the battered arrow at his feet. He snatches it up.

looks to see what the shouting's about. He drops down again and mouths: "They found it!" to Matt and Sandy. Terrified, they pull their hunting knives. Jed pulls the .22 pistol.

examine the arrow intently. One touches the steel tip.

Soldier #2 notices the white plastic notch at the feathered end of the arrow.

Yuri jerks the arrow away and looks closely at the notch with a learned expression.

His comrades glance at one another -- "Sure, Yuri."

He gestures toward the surrounding forest.

They jump in the jeep and drive off, with Yuri still insisting on the arrow's authenticity.

The boys slowly raise up -- scared, amazed -- and watch the jeep disappear.

Aardvark squats in front of a "tin-foil" mirror, squeezing a zit. Robert lounges nearby, picking his toes and re-reading a tattered comic book.

Jed barges in.

Aardvark jumps.

Aardvark whirls, yells out toward Danny/Daryl/Raymond in their football game.

Jed rolls his eyes as they make a bee-line for him.

He means it.

Robert streaks away. The others wait for some explana- tion.

Jed slings a daypack across shoulder.

Robert screeches to a halt wearing an "E.T." baseball cap. His hair's still wet. He's pulling tennis shoes on muddy feet.

He and Robert walk into the forest.

watch them go.

They fly to their lean-tos, whooping gleefully.

Daryl starts after them.

Calumet. Sandbagged machine guns flank the highway that runs through town. Armed soldiers stroll past shell craters and blasted store fronts. Here and there -- a civilian. A boy steps into "Proctor's Feed and Grain."

lie side by side in the grass. Robert's gazing through the binoculars. Jed's staring at the ground.

Robert lowers the binoculars.

Robert does.

The civilians hurry past the soldiers, avoiding their gazes. The troops are equally wary.

lowers the binoculars, confused.

A Russian flag flutters above the golden arches of McDonald's. At the tables below, uniformed officers enjoy burgers in the same spirit as Germans at a 1940 Paris cafe.

Across the street, Jed and Robert gawk in astonishment. Their stares are returned. They quickly look away.

An attractive high school girl flirts and "fraternizes" with a table of officers. She sips her coke seduc- tively.

Alicia drips coke from her straw onto a soldiers wait- ing tongue. They laugh.

Robert and Jed make their way through the shattered town. It's hard to act inconspicuous.

On a bullet-pocked wall, a poster announces a general curfew and rules for civilians. Jed and Robert read it nonchalantly.

Behind them, a gold Convertible weaves through the street rubbble -- two officers chaffeured by a corporal. The only car in sight.

LEWIS CHANDLER exits the feed store nearby and heads down the sidewalk. Jed discreetly hails him.

Lewis turns and sees them -- shocked. He whirls and walks away, never looking back.

Jed and Robert round a corner and try to come to a casual stop.

Across the street, a lone soldier guards the front of "Taylor's Supermarket" -- Robert's father's store. "CLOSED" signs in the windows. A notice is tacked on the door.

pretend to examine the sparse wares in the drugstore window.

Jed spots something in the drugstore.

stands behind the pharmacy counter, helping a customer.

gives Robert a nudge.

Pitifully stocked shelves. Grinning uneasily, the boys steer past them toward the counter. WOODY has his back turned. Soldiers are in the store, so Jed keeps his voice low as he puts down a carton of cigarettes.

Woody reaches for a couple of toothbrushes.

They just stare at him.

They shake their heads. Woody's making them nervous.

A beat.

Woody eyes Robert a moment, then a Russian officer in dirty combat dress enters the store and starts brows- ing. Woody bends back to his inventory sheet.

Jed grabs the cigarettes and toothbrushes.

Woody anxiously gestures "It's all right." Robert leans close.

Jed yanks him away. Woody doesn't look up.

Jed ducks in a phone booth, dials a number.

Robert nervously waits outside.

The PHONE RINGS at the other end and is answered.

A PATROLLING SOLDIER stops across the street and stares at him. A gun is slung over his shoulder.

The soldier crosses the street. Robert taps the booth. Jed looks up, sees him shaking, sees the soldier.

The soldier approaches, squinting curiously at the boys.

Jed hangs up on her, and watches helplessly as Robert backs away from the soldier, pressing against the phone booth door.

The soldier pinches his "E.T." baseball cap.

A lone ranch house sits on the edge of the forest. Smoke curls from the chimney. It's quiet here. Jed and Robert trudge to the door and knock.

opens a crack. MASON, a rugged old man, peers out.

The place is simply furnished, warm and comfortable. MRS. MASON, a thin old woman, nervously wipes her hands on an apron by the stove.

She stares at Jed's bow. He takes it off. Robert looks around.

He guides the boys to the kitchen table.

Jed kicks him under the table. Mason smiles.

A beat.

Mason and his wife exchange a glance.

stunned. Mrs. Mason puts meager soup and cornbread before them.

They just stare.

Troubled, Mason gets up and opens the refrigerator. (It's almost empty.) He pulls a transistor radio and a bottle from the crisper bin and pushes it across the table to the dazed pair.

Mason takes a pull on the bottle.

Jed and Robert blanch.

Mason plugs the bottle.

Robert falls back in his chair as the old lady rushes to comfort him.

Robert cries like he's on fire.

Mason's gaze is steady. The old man is pale.

He studies Jed for a moment, then pulls the table away from the wall.

Mason opens the trapdoor in the floor, looks up at Jed.

Jed nods. The old man lifts two teenage girls from their hiding place.

Mason hugs the girls in his powerful old arms, then pushes the younger one toward Jed.

Robert's wailing surges up.

An oasis in the dark. Robert's wailing continues as Aardvark holds a gentle arm around him. Firelight flickers on shocked faces -- hopeless faces. Bundles expectantly packed beside them.

Across the campfire, Toni watches blankly, not sharing the grief. Beside her, Erica turns on her grand- father's radio and thumbs the dial. A STRANGE NEW WAVE TUNE RUDELY BLARES from a powerful station.

The song fades. A bureaucratic monotone replaces it:

The most stirring rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" ever recorded BLASTS from the tiny RADIO.

stare at Erica.

Her eyes are vacant... cold.

dances over rifles and bows, Robert's crying stops.

A military jeep hurries up the winding road TOWARD CAMERA and comes to a sudden stop. Yuri and two other soldiers stare ahead.

A tree blocking the highway.

reach for their rifles and get out to move the log.

A pair of perspiring hands holds a bow and arrow at the ready. TILT UP -- Jed and the other boys. Armed. Scared.

reports the incident on the radio, glancing around at the dark woods. His friends struggle with the tree. Talking, looking, Yuri suddenly sees...

A blur. Eight figures rise. Eight arrows fly and FIRE from .22's.

ducking for cover, quickly reloading. Ashen faces. Jed nods. They rise in unison and FIRE again.

His face is already frozen in lifeless surprise.

One lies dead by the highway center stripe. The other young man twists in agony, trying to scream, with arrows through his chest and throat. His eyes are wild.

slowly emerge, weapons ready.

Unconsciousness overcomes him.

skulk closer through a misty haze that rapidly grows dark.

are trembling. STRANGLED BREATHING O.S.

The soldier convulses violently... dies.

struggles for composure.

No one moves.

Jed forces himself to begin stripping the bodies of their hardware.

stares INTO CAMERA, dead. In b.g., the boys flee to- ward the woods.

Sandy, Toni and Erica tend to steaming pots. A RATTLE O.S. They look up.

The boys trudge out of the woods adorned with grenades and ammo belts -- dirty, grim, silent. Robert clutches a machine gun vengefully.

They fall out and sprawl on the ground. Nobody speaks.

Silence.

stands watching them. A spoon drips in her hand.

Daryl gets up.

Raymond and Aardvark follow him. Daryl leans toward Danny as he passes.

appears, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

She stalks toward the fire. Sandy snorts in amazement.

Erica whirls on him, eyes flaming.

She storms away.

Jed pulls off his crossbow, slumps by a boulder. He takes out a mashed pack of Marlboros.

Danny quietly cries over a plate of stew while Aardvark watches Daryl guzzle from the pot.

In a lean-to, Robert huddles, aiming his new AKM. Then he starts fooling with it, takes the magazine out, unlatches the top-cover revealing springs and bolt. Sandy sees him.

Robert continues, parts falling into his lap.

He picks another gun up.

He hands it to her.

Raymond crouches over. The two of them look at Robert laying out the pieces.

Suddenly the gun in Raymond's hand comes to life -- a SHORT BURST. Everybody drops, a cooking pan is hit.

sheepishly holds the smoking gun at arm's length, like it's dirty. Jed strides up and yanks it away.

Jed stares. Matt stands up in b.g., looking lost and lonely.

FLIES BUZZ over a bloated face -- Yuri's face. The insects scatter as a blanket's draped over his corpse. A heavily armed Russian/Cuban detail removes the body from the jeep.

As they work, a Cuban Colonel, ERNESTO BELLA, grimly surveys the scene. Bella is a twenty-year veteran of insurgency warfare. Trained in the Vietnam War and having served in Angola, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico, he is a living catalogue of late twentieth century wars of national liberation.

The Colonel watches bodies loaded on the truck -- like cordwood.

CLOSE -- hands expertly assemble the AKM rifles, snap- ping on covers and slamming magazines into wells. REVEAL it is Toni, Erica and Sandy who hold the rifles. Robert sits next to them with a stopwatch.

Jed sits on a rock in front of all of them, an AKM in his hand.

Jed sits by the fire -- alone -- staring at the coals.

Danny walks out of the dark, carrying a bundle of be- longings. His eyes are still red.

Danny blinks, can't think of anything else to say. He walks toward looming pines.

Raymond's awake, listening. His eyes jerk as a TWIG CRACKS, a cooking POT BANGS. Raymond spins around in his blanket.

crawls in the lean-to with a hang dog look and finds himself a blanket. Raymond grins.

A heavily armed patrol marches past a peeling roadside billboard: "Remember, only you can prevent forest fires." "Forest fires" is crossed out and "Red Scum" scrawled above it. Smokey the Bear rests his shovel on a crudely drawn grave with a hammer and sickle marker. The troops pay no attention.

Telephone lines snaking over the rugged terrain.

The Russian lieutenant in command follows them through binoculars. He studies where the wire passes through a tree.

clambers up the tree, parting the thick foliage. He shouts to the lieutenant in Spanish.

The line has been cut, the ends tied to branches to conceal the break. The lieutenant smiles, calls for the radio (subtitles).

A squirrel dashes away.

The march back. "Miller time." Fatigued, a few troops carry rifles on their shoulders. The dark woods press in... Abandoned caterpillars just ahead.

concealed by leaves and shadow. The gaze is hard, predatory.

They draw even with the earth movers. MACHINE GUN BLAST.

The radio operator dies instantly, his set shot off his back.

The soldiers jump for cover in a high-banked ditch.

The lieutenant calls for radio (cracked voice), then sees it lying shattered in the trail. Crouching he signals two men: "Move out. Outflank the gunners in the caterpillars."

They scurry down the ditch in opposite directions, but don't get far... One gets an arrow in the chest. The other, shot in the forehead with a .22.

Unaware of their comrade's fate, the troops FIRE back at anything.

Three hands push three grenades over the embankment behind them. EXPLOSIONS rip the forest... then si- lence.

rush from hiding, strip the bodies of weaponry... and vanish.

It's under new management.

MAYOR BATES, Daryl's father, sits on a chair in the middle of a room, smiling too big, trying to ingratiate himself with his interrogators.

Bella's not laughing.

A beat. The Mayor leans close, discreetly jerks a thumb toward the door.

The Mayor stands, hurriedly heads for the door.

A guard opens the door and Mayor steps out to shake hands, offer subtle encouragement to a row of seated, waiting fathers.

Aardvark's father is ushered in. A working man. Honest. Tough. He takes his seat before Bella.

Bella is riding sternly in a jeep. Gun-toting troops ring the square. The jeep pulls up in their midst and Bella gets out, wearing "formal" combat fatigues. A CUBAN CAPTAIN salutes him.

The Captain turns crisply. He hesitates, then nods O.S.

A LOUD CLANG... The Captain winces. Bella remains staunch.

Bella steps in the jeep.

He signals his driver and they're off. PAN with the jeep to reveal denim and leisure suited legs twitching, twisting beneath a scaffold. A sign on the brick wall behind the hanged men reads: "Things Go Better With Coke."

Matt emerges from the forest, shaking. A row of sil- houettes waits for him.

Sandy looks at Aardvark.

The shock is too great. Aardvark mutters feebly, wan- ders away. Erica goes after him.

Matt's gaze falls on Raymond.

Raymond makes terrible choking sounds. Danny tries to comfort him.

Danny and Ramond comfort each other. Matt eyes Sandy.

Matt nods yes.

She chokes and cries, holds her stomach and doubles up. Jed leans down and puts his arm around her.

He starts to crack up, tears roll down his face.

He's totally come apart; so has Jed. He just shakes and cries.

The two brothers crumple into each other's arms, sob- bing. Sandy gets up and puts her arms around both of them, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Jed sits before them, a crumpled note in his hand. His voice breaks occasionally as he starts.

He reads.

He breaks down again. Shocked, zombie-like, Daryl takes the letter from Jed's limp hand.

Matt grips his brother's arm.

Robert perches on a rock. Roosting.

A lone troop carrier maneuvers the curves.

Twenty tired Mexicans ride in back, swaying under the canvas cover.

In the cab, a DRIVER peers sleepily at the dark road. The soldier riding "SHOTGUN" yawns.

rounds a curve -- two stationary headlights block the road ahead.

Aardvark's muffled voice answers in Spanish.

"Shotgun" smiles, pulls his hat down over his eyes. He's relieved.

The Driver gets out, lights a smoke, strolls toward the headlights.

His smile disappears as he advances -- Two powerful lamps have been set on stands to resemble headlights. Behind the Driver, figures run from the gloom at road- side and toss something in the truck. Driver whirls as it EXPLODES. Turning a frightened circle, he runs towards the flaming truck, away from the shadows.

Robert materializes in black face, banshee-like, and coolly SHOOTS him.

On its side, crudely painted: "Wolverines."

A corral fence runs beside an ancient feed and grain store. Twenty blindfolded men kneel there... smiling. One has a plastic pen and pencil holder in his shirt pocket. Another, a mechanic, hasn't even had time to wash his grease-blackened hands.

Thirty feet in front of them, two ranks of soldiers aim rifles.

The civilians are mowed down. As the GUNFIRE melts to ECHOES, shrieking women rush to their dead men.

A dingy, roadside store/gas station. There's a Russian tank out front, gassing up. Full of soldiers. Headed somewhere.

From up the road, Sandy appears, walking her bicycle past the store. The soldiers start whistling and cat- calling. A couple jump down from the tank to hassle her -- laughing, looking her over, stealing the basket off her handlebars. She doesn't resist. Finally, they let her go and she pushes on, TOWARD CAMERA, as they clamber back into the tank.

nervously walks up the road INTO CLOSEUP... and the TANK EXPLODES.

She drops the bike and darts O.S. into the woods as a crazed tank survivor dashes after her, splattered with pieces of a friend. He's got a gun.

Sandy flies -- falters -- looks quickly -- changes direction. SHOTS TWANG off a tree.

The crazy man is gaining on her, ferociously.

barely touch the forest floor. Adrenalin owns her. Eyes flicking, she corrects her flight, cutting down a subtle trail.

He crashes closer, not slowing to shoot. Little angry sounds gurgle out of him.

Sandy jumps it, races on, and as the soldier leaps to follow, Jed suddenly sits up from the pile and BLOWS him away with a SHOTGUN...

Crouching, listening, Jed scans the forest for more pursuers, vanishes after her.

Smoking in the snow, "Wolverines" on its side.

A defiant OLD MAN spits at CAMERA. ZOOM OUT -- Two dozen hostages lined up beside him on the guard rail. Their hands are tied.

Terrible GUNFIRE ERUPTS IN AN UNCOORDINATED ROAR. The confused hostages throw themselves to the ground. CAMERA SWINGS WILDLY in documentary fashion -- some- thing's gone wrong.

The SHOOTING STOPS, the hostages tumble to their feet... cheering wildly.

lies dead on the ground. In b.g. the kids race for the forest, making good their escape.

turns and raises a fist in defiant salute.

NOTE: The preceding scenes should be edited to create a rising "Ping-Pong" of feverish vengeance between the Kids wiping out the firing squad.

Sandbags and machine guns protect the Post Office -- A place of importance. Headquarters. General's insignia on the jeep out front.

Bella and his visitor -- GENERAL BRATCHENKO -- stroll out of the building toward the vehicle.

Bella indicates the few soldiers on the street.

As they reach the jeep the entire front of the post office EXPLODES into the street, flattening everybody and everything.

The smoke clears. Soldiers run and shout. Bratchenko's dazed.

Sagebrush desert -- the Wolverines move in column, weapons held at the ready. Sparse snow covers the ground, a solitary wind blows. The purple mountains rise in the distance as the group crests a rise. They spread out, keeping low; smoke emanates from a distant settlement. Throughout the above is heard the persis- tent rolling report of distant field GUNS.

He raises his binoculars. Like the others, he is well camouflaged -- enemy uniforms stripped of hated insig- nia, tied pieces of colored burlap giving a rugged sage appearance, faces painted. Jed sees:

Much smaller than Calumet -- a strip-mining settlement and flashes of what seem to be heavy field artillery (120 mm).

PAN to reveal dust and smoke far in the distant direc- tion of their fire.

He puts down the glasses. Robert is looking in the other direction. He grabs Jed, points. They all look. They see:

Not any tank, but a U.S. Army Abrams M-1. It is moving at high speed and FIRES silently. It disappears behind a ridge as another briefly appears. The SHELL WHISTLES by in the distance and impacts downrange.

They laugh and scream.

Suddenly a SCREAMING JET WHINES low overhead -- an F-4 Phantom which banks from side to side as it whistles towards the distant town. It disappears.

There is a moment of calm, then a tremendous silent expanding fireball of napalm in the area of the artil- lery. It grows and grows, turning black, dwarfing the settlement. The NOISE and concussion finally are felt. The kids stare in awe. Robert points to a Russian tank (T-72's) in a faraway gulley, moving slowly. Without warning, a tremendous CLANKING, ROARING NOISE. The kids drop, looking behind them.

T-72's ROAR over the ridge they were standing on. The kids drop into the snow and try to become sagebrush. The first TANK ROARS on; the second assumes the classic hull-down position of tank battle on their ridge. Sandy, Danny and Toni are almost under the treads. The turret pivots in the direction the Americans went.

He looks up at the steel monster which GROANS and shakes. He is in front and below the enormous 120 mm gun -- the most powerful tank in the world. The barrel steadies. He throws his hand over his ears as the thing goes off. Everything is lost in blast and dirt.

Jed looks up again, the other tank FIRES -- tremendous NOISE, followed quickly by this one.

Raymond and Erica lay in the f.g. terrified beyond belief. The tank looms before them. Suddenly, counter-battery FIRE WHINES in. High-velocity, low- trajectory tearing up a great gouge in the earth as it impacts. Another showers white phosphorus; a third takes off part of the ridge. The Russians FIRE back.

Burning phosphorus has landed around around him. Tre- mendous NOISE OF HEAT SHELLS ripping into the earth with their shaped charges.

A shrieking WAIL as a wire-guided anti-tank MISSILE glances off the T-72's turret without detonating. Jed looks at Robert -- Daryl -- Toni; they all look at him. He leaps to his feet, running. They are right behind him. Shells streak in, the Russian GUN FIRES. They bolt, gasping air in headlong flight.

running as fast as they can, propelled by sheer terror. The SHRIEKING, GROWLING of war disappearing behind them.

They've run for miles -- the war is distant, just smoke and faraway NOISE. They clamber over a rocky escarp- ment and Jed falls down. The others fall beside him. They gasp and gasp like winded dogs, staring at each other and back in the direction of the real war. They can say nothing.

All is silent, primeval. Then an F-15 FIGHTER SCREAMS out of nowhere and goes into a ninety-degree climb from treetop level. Two MIG's are right on his tail.

Cannon fire rakes the American fighter and it bursts into flame. The pilot ejects, parachutes toward the forest below.

The pilot thumps heavily in a clearing, hides his chute, and scrambles for cover. The MIG'S SHRIEK by looking for his orange flight suit.

MAJOR ANDREW TANNER digs out his survival kit and finds the directional rescue radio smashed. Disgusted, he grabs the service .45 and takes a compass heading.

Andrew Tanner wanders through massive pines, unsure of where he's going. He looks up from his compass and freezes.

sits in a tree, calmly holding a machine gun on him. She looks different now. Short hair. Sports coat. Running shoes. Harder.

He does. Erica looks him over.

Andy turns and shows her the flag sewn on his shoulder.

Silence.

Erica points over his head in the direction he came from.

Andy tosses the compass away.

Andy laughs.

Erica cocks her gun.

Erica lowers her weapon, swings down from the tree. She pulls a pack from under some leaves.

She tosses him an onion, chomps into one herself before hiking off. Andy just stands there, dumbfounded.

A crude American flag hangs from a sapling. Below it, there's a "lived-in" look. The kids are veterans. Rugged. Long hair tied back Apache style. Some sport meager beards. Their dress is functional -- T-shirts, long johns, camouflage hunting hats. Meat smokes over the fire.

Andy follows Erica into camp.

The kids crowd around.

Long-haired as well, Jed emerges like a young chief- tain. Andy raises his palm.

He tousles Jed's hair, looking around for some author- ity.

Jed knocks his hand away.

Andy stops grinning, points at his name patch.

She pulls off her cap and for the first time Andy realizes she's a girl.

A stick diagrams in the dirt on a crude drawing of the U.S.

The kids are listening, watching Andy.

Andy looks up.

He lifts a pint of Wild Turkey from his flight suit, takes a pull.

He produces a wallet photo -- a young woman and two small girls.

Andy takes another slug and tosses the bottle to Jed.

A beat. Andy figures out his angle, shakes his head.

Cradling guns, Matt and Toni escort Andy down a narrow trail. Matt's hair catches on a branch.

Toni hurries past Andy, eyes to the ground.

A bush moves furtively through the tall grass -- Andy, Jed and company slip through the undergrowth beside, him, guns ready. They come to an embankment, peer cautiously over the top. VOICES AND LAUGHTER O.S.

Beneath the skeletal movie screen, troops stripped to "shirts" and "skins" play soccer. Others picnic on rations in the shade. Two trucks wait nearby. A RADIO BLARES: "Radio Jolla... La musica en su maxima expres- sion!"

Jed signals the kids with his hands and they fan out along the ravine to take up positions. Jed points at Robert, who eagerly slithers forward through the brush, cradling his shotgun.

While his comrades lunch and play, a driver sits behind the wheel of his vehicle, wolfing down a wad of food and writing a letter. A FIELD RADIO CRACKLES on the dash -- irrelevant traffic conversing.

pauses at the edge of the brush (still unseen), crawls under the truck.

looks up from his letter as Robert coolly rolls out from under the cab. He grabs for the radio. Robert puts his gun against the windshield and FIRES.

They barely have time to react. A murderous BARRAGE cuts into them. Some dive for weapons.

Sandy puts an RPG ROUND into a truck. It blows up.

A few bleeding soldiers take cover behind the movie screen, wild with fright. Robert SHOOTS them.

The dust settles. Bodies twitch.

A beat.

He summons Toni and points at Andy.

The kids ease toward the trucks at a crouch. Andy shakes his head.

The kids cautiously move past bodies to where Robert waits.

stops to gently brush dirt from a dead face.

He jumps at the SOUND OF A GUNBLAST.

is SHOTGUNNING the corpses. He shoots them to pieces, then looks up.

are stunned silent.

Robert eyes them dispassionately, wanders around the truck reloading. Sandy pokes her head from the vehicle.

She lifts a tarp, revealing crates of ammo and gre- nades; and holds up a putty-like bar as Jed and Andy arrive.

The kids hop to it.

He watches Aardvark strip Mexican bodies.

adjusts his gear by the burning truck. Jed rushes over, jerks his hand up -- it's bloodied. Robert doesn't protest as Jed roughly searches him, rips his shirt open, retrieves some unrecognizable object, and hurls it to the ground.

Jed storms past Andy and into the brush.

stomps dirt over his battle trophy.

A pot of grass and pine needles simmers on the fire. With a stick, Andy dips his flight suit in and out of the crude dye. He nurses his bottle, stares vacantly at the flames. Jed pokes the fire, watching him.

No response.

Jed fumes quietly.

Andy looks up, hard.

A beat. Jed blinks.

Jed tries to comprehend.

Andy makes his way toward his lean-to. The bottle in his hand is nearly empty. He spots Danny lighting up in a nest of leaves.

Andy walks on. At the edge of the clearing, he finds Robert huddled by his private campfire, carving five small figures on a boulder. Soldiers... scratched beside lots of others.

Robert smiles.

Bella exits his new headquarters, anxiously watching a truck with armed escort approach up the street.

The vehicle stops, the tailgate drops -- the bodies of his slaughtered men lie stiff and bloody. The soldiers around the truck swear angrily and throw looks at the Colonel.

nervously runs his fingers through his hair and goes back inside.

Andy asleep. BIRDS CHIRP. Grizzled, he wakes up, notices the Firewheel flower stuck in his buttonhole.

Andy wanders around a boulder, zipping up his now-green flight suit pants -- and stops.

carved on a cliffside... Father names. Brother names. In different handwritings. It's not graffiti.

Jed crouches by a bush, squinting. Matt waits at his side.

Around them, the kids are spread out in ambush posi- tions, watching a serpentine highway below.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jed throws a wary look at:

Andy lies prone by a rock, twirling the Firewheel in his buttonhole.

Toni steals a peek at him from her position. A Fire- wheel's stuck in her hair.

Andy winks at her.

Toni blushes, looks away.

Andy turns, sees Danny behind a log, behind a gun.

Andy. You don't have to spell it out for him.

In b.g., a convoy of trucks, tanks and troop carriers appears around a bend and starts moving toward the kids.

A beat. Quickly, quietly, they gather their weapons and move up the hill past Andy. He grabs Jed's arm, a little excited.

Every soldier has his gun at the ready, watching the hills, looking for trouble. Expecting it.

Jed lies on a ridgetop looking through binoculars. Sandy and Daryl stand watch as Matt/Andy/Tony approach up the incline.

Jed hands him the binoculars and points.

Andy does.

Strange-looking aircraft sit concealed beneath trees and camouflaged hangars. Uniformed soldiers scurry to attend them.

A Yak alights like a helicopter and scoots under the trees.

Andy looks at him.

He turns back to the binoculars, eyes wide with sudden realization, then yanks them down.

He turns to Jed.

Andy thinks it over... suddenly shakes his head.

Andy starts to laugh, can't help himself.

Andy looks around, no one is laughing.

A wooden pointer traces trees and barbed wire on a crude replica of the Russian airbase.

It's embarrassingly simple.

He points again at the model camp.

Raymond raises his hand.

Andy looks sick.

We DROP DOWN toward the forest floor, dipping beneath the growth and a vast camouflaged net to find a blaze of lights and activity. It's an excellent job of con- cealment.

In a remote foxhole ringed with sandbags, a young guard lounges -- bored. An ANIMAL NOISE in the dark catches his ear. He peers over the top of the sandbags, past the wire -- an instant too long.

His head snaps back and he falls lifeless against the other side of the foxhole. An arrow in his forehead dribbles blood.

A form stirs in the dark, leaps the concertina wire, and silently races across the short free fire zone. Diving headfirst over the inner wire, he tumbles into the foxhole. It's Robert. Face smudged black, he signals to the darkness he came from.

Side by side, Jed and Sandy worm their way forward, cutting through the wire with pliers. They push the slinky-like sections aside as the others crawl behind them, blackfaced, carrying weapons and satchels. Quickly they reach Robert and fan out to their posi- tions.

Sandy, Andy, Aardvark, Toni and Matt cluster around him, readying themselves. Jed grabs Raymond, points out a hiding place for him.

Satisifed, Jed slips over the sandbags followed by his team.

Andy pauses to grab Raymond.

Crates and trees slip by him. VOICES laugh softly in the night... Stop... a sentry... No -- A mechanic saunters past carrying tools.

Jed follows him.

Danny slithers along the wire. A Claymore directional mine appears in f.g., on stilts, like a tiny deer blind. Danny gingerly turns it to point toward a sentry post several yards away. He crawls on, grin- ning.

A shaking fist raps loudly at a guard post.

A guard casually opens up... Jed's knife slashes his throat.

Aardvark yanks him outside and jambs the door. He watches the shocked teenager slide to the ground, gur- gling his life away. The boy's eyes fix on Aardvark and glaze over.

Jed and the others rush from the dark.

Aardvark is frozen.

Posting her as guard, they collect themselves, then burst through the gate to a large tent.

The kids leap in, guns leveled.

There's about ten of them. Some freeze. Some run.

The men stop. Their hands go up.

Two Russians arguing behind sandbags spot the commo- tion. One dives for a telephone -- freezes when Sandy steps out. Andy strolls in.

Danny continues along the wire, carefully turning mines toward shadowy forms and voices in another post.

Intently at his position across the wire, Raymond grips his rifle and stares down the long curve of the peri- meter in the direction Danny will come from.

His back is to her. He doesn't move.

Erica worms toward him, but the cut section of wire blocks her way. She tries to go under it and gets stuck -- a pile of leaves with barbed wire on its back. She struggles, it gets worse. Erica drags herself toward the cut and gets tangled in the hole, blocking it completely.

Jed glares at Andy. Behind them the Yak fighters sit waiting. The ground personnel are covered by Matt, Sandy and Aardvark.

Aardvark looks ill. Jed grabs him, jerks a thumb at Andy.

Aardvark shrugs him off, approaches the Cuban crew chief.

Erica is hopelessly caught. She tosses pebbles at Raymond but the barbs have her sleeve. Her throws go wide.

In b.g., a figure leaves the laughter of another post and heads toward the kids' position. He finds his way with a flashlight.

hears him, peeks over the sandbags where he waits with the dead sentry. He spots something wiggling in the wire where the hole used to be -- Erica. He leaps out of the post and scurries to her head. (Her legs are on the other side.)

He throws leaves on her head, scuttles back to the sandbags, and presses against them.

Erica scrunches down. The WIRE CREAKS.

He shines his light at the sound -- Just a bunch of branches washed against the wire. He calls to the post.

No answer. He walks over and flashes the light inside. An arm snatches him down. A blade plunges... Not a sound. Robert's black face eases up, coolly looks around, sinks back into the pit.

where the aircraft are parked. Sandy and Jed stick satchel charges in the air intakes and cockpits of two of the three aircraft. Andy has crawled up into the cockpit of the other.

Aardvark and the Cuban stand below.

He does.

He does. The Cuban answers terrified.

Andy whips out his knife and grabs the Cuban by the hair. The Cuban gurgles out compliance and reaches down into the aircraft.

There is a heavy thud as the bomb falls.

It has split apart and ten orange submunition "bomblets" have spilled out.

Shoves the Cuban off the aircraft. He pitches down to the ground hard. Andy pulls a grenade and fixes it to the seat with a heavy rubber band, then he lowers the canopy enough so that he can fix another rubber band to the grenades pin. He then unslings a satchel charge and stuffs it through the remaining opening along with two bottles of gasoline.

He jumps down, pushes the outside buttons that lower the canopy completely and raises the step back into the fuselage.

Daryl tugs at the tangle on Erica. The CREAKING seems deafening.

Daryl whirls.

Yards away, across the obstructing wire, Raymond crouches with his back turned.

Daryl's face goes white.

Alert to the slightest movement in the front of him, Raymond has white tufts poking from his ears.

Danny methodically works his way forward. An endless curve of turned mines follows in his wake.

Jed and Sandy rush over. Andy and Aardvark look at it.

Andy kneels down and picks up one of the bomblets. He grabs the front and turns it hard it unlocks into two pieces.

He puts the two pieces in Jed's pack. Jed holds another satchel.

He looks at the guards who are terrified by Jed's new cargo. Sandy rushes to the Yak and stuffs the satchel in an air intake and unreels wire from it back to the other two wires. Jed, Matt, Andy roll plastic fuel cells up under the aircraft.

carefully places an old alarm clock on one of the clus- tered fuel drums -- the main fuse. Other fuses are strung like spider web from primacord behind the clock to the other planes.

Andy runs up.

Jed gently turns the switch... the CLOCK starts TICK- ING. They run.

Jed and the group escort the ground crew towards the perimeter. They walk casually, guns at their sides. In the distance lights illuminate more soldiers and maintenance personnel. They approach the cut in the fence.

Aardvark points to the gun pit.

Robert sits behind the heavy machine gun, the gun crew slumped over dead.

He looks around.

Aardvark tells them. They stand uneasily, mutter some- thing.

They rush for the fence.

crawls past the last post, turning the mines as he goes. He's dirty, tired -- and thrilled with himself.

nervously fingers the trigger of his gun.

sits with the dead at his post, glancing between the wire and a group of soldiers in the open area Jed's group must cross on their way back.

His hands are bloody.

whispers a plea at the figure worming toward him.

They stand there terrified, moving from foot to foot -- sure that they will die one way or another. A voice calls out from the far side of the perimeter in Russian. The voice is obviously drunk.

The ALARM goes off.

They scream and run.

can't miss. Danny is crawling right into his sights.

tears the concertina apart. He dives through and knocks Raymond over.

The SHOT kicks dirt in Danny's face.

and company tumble into the sandbag post. The clothing torn from her back, Erica rushes over and plants a kiss on the first one of them she can grab -- Aardvark.

The two aircraft go up -- small EXPLOSIONS inside the air intake which start the fuel underneath. When the aircraft are engulfed in flames, they really go.

break apart, scattering gas submunitions which start to go off.

The searchlight comes up again, catching Raymond and Daryl in the beam.

A hand hits a red switch.

The entire perimeter EXPLODES in a ring of fire.

The kids freeze in the flash, awed by Danny's handi- work. They are perfect targets.

But there is no one to shoot them. The sentry posts are just smoking pits in a circle of total destruction.

The kids are celebrating savagely. Wads of cotton have been glued all over Raymond's head. Tonight he doesn't care. Tonight he grins like a drunken loon.

Erica gets up to put her giggling sister to bed. From across the fire, Aardvark secretly watches her every move.

Andy picks at Robert.

He smiles when he says it. Even he seems like a kid again.

He holds up a bottle of Mezcal. It's been drained. Jed turns away and sees Daryl standing by himself. He goes over.

Daryl looks down.

He walks away. Jed doesn't know what to do.

He turns, she's there.

He looks at her -- she's framed by the distant fire. Her eyes are liquid.

She leans in, they embrace. The embrace turns into a kiss, long and hard. He pulls back.

He pulls her to him; they walk away into the darkness.

lying in each other's arms in Jed's sleeping bag. Jed looks up at the stars.

Stars, bright and clear.

A new snow covers the burnt out wreckage of the base. Tractors and BMP's move about. Men inspect the debris in hideous skull-like gas masks and N.B.C. suits. Decontamination units spray everywhere. Corpses in horrible, grotesque positions adorn the burnt-out gun pits. The one Yak stands untouched. The wires being carefully removed. Col. Bella strides into the f.g. in his gas mask, watches as a man climbs up the steps of the aircraft, pushes the button and opens the canopy. Bella turns. Next to him stands Bratchenko.

Bella isn't listening.

A blast rips out the cockpit of the Yak and sends the body of the unfortunate soldier through the air. People rush for cover. Bella stands.

Main street in front of the Russian headquarters. Troops line the street on either side. Wary civilians stand behind them. Some wave Central American Alliance banners; others look on, solemn.

DRUMS BEAT an ominous cadence as a company of specially camouflaged soldiers goosestep down the street. The troops wear green and white winter smocks similar to those worn by crack S.S. troops in W.W.II. They are followed by BTR 60's carrying more troops. All are camouflaged green and white. In the forefront standing in the lead BTR is Col. Strelnikov. He turns his head and salutes as he passes. His face is lean and expres- sionless, his eyes covered by dark glasses, but were it not for his beret -- smock -- medals -- he would look like an intellectual. He snaps the salute and faces forward again.

As they pass, a beautiful blonde woman officer is seen on the next BTR. Her face is exquisite but cruel.

They walk forward to meet Strelnikov as he climbs down from his BTR. He glances at the woman officer who glances back, then looks out at the town, his eyes bright and anxious. He turns to see the two officers and salutes.

A train loaded with winter camouflaged armored vehicles rushes by, headed north.

He offers them.

Andy is running -- fleeing -- across the open field. Desperate, legs flying, he looks over his shoulder, cuts in a different direction, then reaches out and snags a beautifully thrown pass from the air. Before he can tuck the football, Matt flashes in from nowhere, lowering his shoulder. It's a bone cruncher. Matt pounces on the fumble as Andy writhes, gasping for breath. The other sweaty players appear. In the back- ground looms Mason's farmhouse -- a Christmas tree and wreath outside the door.

Andy can only grunt. Toni and Erica help him off the field.

He turns.

He thinks.

Andy sits, sighs pleasantly.

He smiles to himself.

Andy looks at her surprised. Erica ducks her eyes.

Andy laughs, sweeps her up. He whirls her, waltzes her around the field (breaking up the game), through the trees, humming an off-key tune.

Enchanted, she tries to keep up.

The kids stare.

The kids sit around as Mason plays the hammered dul- cimer. He plays a beautiful, plaintive Appalachian song.

The song is rich in the sad grandeur of an American past.

Far away in the gathering dusk Robert sits on a rock looking out at the distant mountains and the plains beyond. Cradled in his arms is an RPG, defense against helicopters. He listens to the MUSIC drifting through a light snow that begins to fall. A tear rolls down his eye.

Mason sits with Jed and Andy. The kids listen to CHRISTMAS CAROLS on the RADIO. Some hum softly to themselves. Beef ribs turn on a spit.

Danny moves over. He looks up at Andy and then over at Toni.

Danny nods yes.

He looks over at Toni who's singing to herself.

Groaning with fatigue, Andy pulls off his boots and covers himself with a blanket. Campfire LAUGHTER can still be heard. He stares skyward for a moment, then pulls out the wrinkled picture of his wife and tries to remember the face.

A shadow falls across him.

Erica has on her best flannel shirt. She's done what she can with her hair.

She kneels, studies his face.

Silence.

Another silence.

Erica laughs bitterly.

A beat.

A tear rolls off her cheek.

Her mouth begins to quiver.

Erica falls in his arms, sobbing. Andy rocks her like a baby. His eyes are so tired.

Endless, rolling, grassy slopes stretch toward the mountains in b.g. Making their way TOWARD CAMERA, Matt, Paul, Aardvark, Erica, and Andy stop beneath a large and lonely tree. It's late. Almost Golden Hour.

Andy has all of his gear. There's a firewheel in his lapel.

Jed points ahead.

A wide plain lies beyond the few remaining hills. A river shimmers in the distance. It's beautiful.

Jed shrugs, grins.

A beat.

He leads Jed off to one side, where the others can't hear, and looks him earnestly in the eye.

Jed blinks...

... and barely shakes his head.

He jiggles -- the two parts of the bomblet in his pack.

Andy looks past to the kids, to their silent, trusting faces.

Tears pour from his eyes.

Andy hugs Jed.

He moves down the line, shaking hands, chucking chins. He takes off his flight cap and puts it on Matt.

Her eyes are brimming. Andy wipes them with his thumb, kisses her forehead... starts down the slope.

Jed calls out, waving his rifle.

Andy turns.

Andy grins.

looms over the rise behind him speeding silently ahead of its own sound.

There's no time to point.

whirls. The FIGHTER SCREAMS toward him, barely off the ground... it's a Yak. Two long cannisters release from the wings and tumble end over end. No chance for escape.

smiles blankly.

Jed, Matt, and Sandy dive to one side.

Erica runs to Andy.

The cannisters hit. A wave of flaming napalm swallows Andy, Erica.

Matt's jacket catches fire. Jed beats it out while Matt looks around in terror.

runs to the wall of fire, looking for life, finds noth- ing but Andy's smouldering pack... the bomblets. As he picks it up the incredible heat beats him back.

The campfire is a smaller inferno. Toni cries beside it. Offering strange comfort, Robert puts an arm around her shoulder.

A beat.

Sandy pulls him close with her bandaged hand.

Aghast, Raymond looks across to two little piles of belongings Danny has gathered. Two little...

A few extra clothes, a hairbrush, a tattered copy of "Seventeen" magazine -- Erica. Andy is an empty liquor bottle with a flight cap on it.

Danny is the center of attention.

Two new names are carved beside the earlier ones. A wind comes up, dancing sparks away like fireflies. The PINES MOAN overhead.

Danny draws a breath, closes his eyes.

[missing from source: printed page 96 (scenes 295-298 and the start of scene 299) is not in the scan; printed 97 follows printed 95; PDF page 98, printed page 97]

The sergeant looks coldly at her, butt strokes the board from her hands. The trinkets are scattered into the snow; the woman looks at him with an expression of deep misunderstanding and hurt. He goes on about his business.

A trooper smashes the color TV, looking over the family that were serving the kids. He doesn't trust them; they know something but he leaves.

The troops pile quickly back into the BTR's. The ve- hicles pull out and roar up the winding, snow-clogged road towards the mountains. Suddenly, all is quiet again. The Indians slowly come out of their adobes. The woman with the jewelry is trying to pick it all out of the snow.

The BTR's chug up the steep road towards heavily tim- bered mountains. Everything is fresh white with new snow. The last vehicle slows and stops. The back doors open. Two figures clad completely in white jump out. The BTR goes on catching up with the others as the two figures quickly don cross-country skis and packs, one carrying a white-shrouded rifle. The fig- ures ski expertly and gracefully off the road back towards the pueblo.

They glide with each graceful stroke like Olympic bia- thalon competitors, which they probably were. Silent- ly, they descend on the pueblo coming to a graceful stop on a ridge about 400 yards away. They fluff into the snow.

Shrouded completely in white they quickly unpack a large, white spotting scope with night vision capabili- ties and uncase a Dragunov-scoped SVD sniper rifle painted white. The team leader props the rifle in the snow, pulls back the white parka hood to reveal a beau- tiful blonde woman of extremely strong Nordic features. The same woman we saw when Strelnikov entered Calumet. She is Master-Sniper BERGANOV -- sixty kills in Afghanistan, eighty or more in Poland. Her ASSISTANT is a man.

She dials it in on her range finding trajectory comput- ing scope, and pulls the bolt back chambering a round.

Jed and others are brushing snow off their ragged clothing. Sandy has a new blanket wrapped around her. Aardvark stands in a doorway thanking the Indians in Spanish.

Tense in firing position, snow packed on rifle and parka hood up, only one beautiful eye shows.

She FIRES.

People are screaming, blood is spattered on the door- way. Aardvark lies in the snow on his back. People run everywhere. Aardvark's steamy breath billows from his mouth two, three times, then stops.

She squints, FIRES.

The woman who was searching for her jewelry lies dark in the snow -- outstretched before her the turquoise and silver sparkle where they fell; blood stains the white.

sits back and begins casing the rifle, slinging it. Her companion packs up expertly.

They get up and ski away.

Sandy wades through a sea of grass undulating in the wind.

A form thrusts up from a wave beside him. Sandy jumps.

He sinks into the grass. She sits with him.

A beat.

A look. Sandy flicks her smoke away.

He holds her.

could care less.

The fire has died to embers. Dark lean-tos. Every- one's asleep.

The moon hangs lower now, just above the waving grass. Suddenly, a face BLOCKS the FRAME, darts its eyes, then slinks on... followed by three more faces.

They slip through the field, into the trees with un- nerving stealth. Green Beret types. Silent. Fierce. Single file, they move up the slope toward camp.

Passing between two trees, he freezes in mid-step -- looks down.

presses against a trip wire - PAN -- attached to a trail-side grenade.

Commando #1 eases back, indicates the wire, and steps over it. The others do the same, squinting ahead.

Faint, distant outlines of the kids' camp.

He checks the luminous dial of a device hanging from his web belt -- a compass-like needle points straight ahead. The Commando hand-signals instructions. Synch- ronizing their watches, the soldiers move out.

When the last man has passed, what looked like foliage beside the trail comes alive. The knife blade glints, a figure emerges... The Commandos are followed.

stops beside a tree to ease back his gun belt. It CLICKS softly. He hears another CLICK... freezes.

They shudder as we hear the BLOW.

advances toward the camp at a crouch.

Trees slip by. The camp looks ghostly. It gets closer... closer... THUD. The SCREEN GOES BLACK.

From the treetops, he looks like a beetle sneaking across the forest floor. He does not see another beetle scuttling to catch him.

The two forms meet, struggle in silence -- one scurries away.

The yellow-green numbers glow in the dark. The second hand sweeps past "12."

Poised at the edge of camp, he watches the seconds tick down.

The second hand passes "12."

looks up in anticipation.

The camp looks haunted. Not a shadow moves.

He grows anxious -- looks to his left, his right... What the -- ? A gun action PUMPS loudly. He whirls.

holds a shotgun two feet from his face.

The Commando sits crosslegged and stoic in the dirt, his elbows tied behind him. He's nineteen.

Sandy and Matt question him -- nervously. Half-dressed kids madly grab belongings in b.g.

Danny warily eyes the forest.

Matt holds the compass device up to the Commando's face.

No answer. Sandy slaps the prisoner. Robert holds up a cigarette.

Sandy is scared, so she does. The Commando yells, flails at the pain.

Jed runs over and grabs his sweaty shirt.

He's scared, but he's been trained.

Jed slugs him.

The prisoner locks his face.

Robert kicks him in the stomach as hard as he can.

He kicks him again... and again... and again...

She moves to stop Robert -- Jed holds her back, waits a few more blows to pull Robert away.

An ELECTRONIC SQUEAL makes them jump.

looks up from the Commando's device. He's finally turned it on.

Matt points toward the group.

Looking down, he follows the arrow toward them, through them -- stops.

His direction changes... narrows -- every eye watching -- and finally he halts.

looks up from the arrow into Daryl's odd face.

Eight gazes pierce him. He turns white as Jed runs over and turns his pockets out, rips his shirt open.

You could hear a pin drop.

Faces jerk toward Jed.

Daryl looks at Jed in tearful disbelief.

Silence.

Daryl shakes his head.

Silence. Jed goes eye-to-eye with Daryl.

Daryl swallows.

Two stark trees in a cloudy clearing. Yards away, captors and captives stand apart.

They're tied at the ankles and wrists.

Robert approaches with a knife. He whirls the Russian around, cuts the ropes binding his feet.

falls to the ground, shaking and beginning to cry softly.

Robert unties Daryl's feet, glaring at him. Finished, he stands, gazes at the pink horizon.

Robert heads across the clearing.

Two groups of three, side by side. Jed, Sandy and Robert face the Russian. Raymond, Danny and Matt will shoot Daryl. Toni can't do it and leans against a tree mumbling.

He backs away.

Robert points.

The Russian begins to cry softly.

Daryl nods numbly. The Commando faces the executioners and squeezes his eyes shut.

They move like robots.

holds his breath.

It's a RAGGED VOLLEY.

The Russian's body dances with bullets. Bark flies. Branches are clipped...

Daryl is untouched.

They look at each other. Danny throws down his gun.

His eyes are wild -- hopeful.

Robert strides up, cold as stone.

He raises the pistol to Daryl's face and cocks it.

His mind shattered, Daryl slowly faces the mannequins across the clearing and the ghostly mountains beyond.

The SHOT CRACKS... Robert walks away from the tree.

A flight of helicopters crosses the setting sun.

Surrounded by fierce-looking troops, Strelnikov scans the countryside from the aircraft door.

Strelnikov doesn't even acknowledge him.

are cradled in Jed's arms as he makes his way up the rugged slope. The others follow him, looking back wearily, worriedly.

The helicopters skim over the valley far below like dragonflies.

Jed offers Matt a hand up. He refuses it.

A bolt of lightning flashes.

Total darkness.

Somewhere, RAIN DRIZZLES.

A match is lit in Raymond's face.

Jed hands Raymond his gear and gives him a push.

Jed raises his gun... and FIRES at Raymond's feet.

Raymond runs.

Exhausted, the kids straggle along the open area where high plains and foothills meet. Scrub grows as far as the eye can see -- bleak country.

Jed stops.

A wooden cabin rises above the scrub a hundred yards ahead. The dark windows are foreboding.

One window frames the kids in the distance. A weathered SHUTTER CREAKS.

Jed looks nervous. He taps the RPG on Matt's shoulder.

Matt looks at him.

Reluctantly, Matt pulls the trigger -- The WEAPON FIRES. The rocket passes through the flimsy structure without detonating.

Jed raises his rifle and FIRES a long burst into the cabin.

Dozens of quail explode from the surrounding scrub... Silence descends again.

The SHUTTER still CREAKS.

They give the cabin a wide berth.

Bathed in twilight, the strange little building watches over the prairie. A NIGHTBIRD WHISTLES.

A cathedral of pines. A far off THROB gets louder as HELICOPTERS suddenly appear -- searching, probing above the woods. One chopper hovers a moment, then OPENS FIRE on the forest floor. A group of snow-covered trees leap up and run in all directions.

Canisters fall from the helicopters, spewing gas.

The "trees" SCREAM and writhe.

Skull-faced soldiers in gas masks rappel down ropes from the aircraft to finish the "bushes" off.

One of the skull-faces wears colonel's insignia. He rolls a "bush" over with his boot.

The man is in his thirties, his face twisted in agony. He wears rags for clothes. His ancient gun is taped in many places. He's been fighting in the forest a long time.

runs up to the Colonel.

The bodies are hoisted into the sky.

Rubble that was once a house. A light snow falls.

cautiously moves through the ruined backyard garden, brushing off frozen vegetables, eating them.

searches a frozen body, looking for something the living can use. He finds cigarettes.

survey the scene. Their eyes flick nervously.

He steps through the blasted walls. A SCURRYING NOISE erupts under the rubble. Jed jumps. Six guns are turned on the SOUND...

Behind a broken cellar door, someone is BABBLING softly.

pushes the door open.

is living like a rat.

WIDEN to include Jed. Jed is speechless. He reaches in his pack, puts a wad of something on the cellar floor, and points.

The Girl's eyes fix on the morsel, but she doesn't move. Jed backs out of her hold. She scurries, snatches the thing, vanishes into the dark.

Gently, Jed closes the door behind him.

Matt is pleading privately with Jed. In b.g., the others roast moldy potatoes over the fire.

Jed's eyes are vacant, zombie-like.

A TWIG SNAPS. Robert whirls toward the forest, rifle ready.

stumbles from the trees -- gaunt, filthy, pathetic. The kids can't believe it.

Jed looks at him, points a finger at the forest.

No one moves... Then Matt puts a blanket around Raymond and leads him, blubbering, to the fire.

Matt walks up to his brother in angry disbelief.

Jed sits in the snow looking off at the mountains and valleys stretched below. He wears a captured white parka and is bathed in moonlight. He reaches into his pocket and removes a matchbox.

Something's neatly folded inside.

takes it out, fans it apart, lights a lighter to see it.

It's a picture. The creases are deep.

Robert and Daryl in Little League outfits, arms around each other's shoulders. Their smiling fathers stand behind them. The rest of the team looks familiar.

weeps.

Winter.

At a roadside park, a Russian truck has stopped. The driver and armed escort are eating breakfast on the picnic tables.

On the slope above, the kids wait in ambush, horses tied behind them.

Bundled in white, he watches a hawk soar overhead.

The bird glides effortlessly over a snow-bound peak... and disappears.

Jed turns, watches them prepare to attack. They barely resemble teenagers anymore. Only Raymond looks happy to be there.

Matt wrestles with the worn R.P.G. as Robert breaks a cigarette and gives him half.

Matt lifts a pack. Two rockets lie in the grass.

They turn.

A beat.

The words don't come easy.

A lonely BIRD CHIPS. Jed takes off the backpack and places it on the ground.

There is silence.

Matt picks up the pack.

A TRUCK MOTOR RUMBLES TO LIFE O.S.

veers over on the shoulder a little, hits a bump, and the supply crate slides out from under the canvas cover. It hits the road, spilling a feast... and the truck keeps right on going.

Eyes locked on food. Raymond's STOMACH GROWLS. Matt looks at Jed.

Any other day he'd say "no." Now, Jed reasons with a smile.

Another STOMACH MOANS.

Jed's too tired to fight.

Jubilant cackles. Toni whips out the frazzled cotton dress from under her pack and puts it on -- a picture of innocence. She hands Jed her gun.

With a nod, she's down the slope, dancing through the brush, as the others select their entrees.

comes out of the roadside brush a hundred yards from the crate and casually moves toward it as if she always walks this highway. Closer... Closer... HEELS CLICKING on the pavement.

watching anxiously, STOMACHS ROARING.

Toni eases closer, glancing around for trouble, then stoops to fetch a wayward apple. Ever cautious, ever discreet, she circles the crate and then climbs atop it, marveling at the fruit in her hand. Toni takes a bite. The juice runs down her trembling chin. She looks toward the boys... and laughs.

go crazy. Whooping, yelling, they plunge down the mountain, giving themselves up to relief. Some of them cry.

Giggling, watching them draw near, she reaches for another morsel -- then stops. Listens.

A DULL THROB BECOMES A ROAR.

Four helicopters appear from nowhere, swooping straight for the kids.

Strelnikov -- a cold smile.

The pilot salvos some rockets; smoke whips by.

and the others wheel their horses -- three ripping explosions as the rockets find the range. Toni runs screaming, Jed tries to pick her up. A ROCKET goes off under him, blasting his horse. Jed and the animal crash down into a gulley; the horse is dead, having taken most of the blast.

Now in range with mini guns, they splatter Robert's horse out from him as he FIRES back with his AKM. He goes down but is up quickly, pulling an R.P.G. from the dying animal. Matt covers him with his AKM.

Danny grabs Toni and makes the trees, which are soon cut to kindling by a GUN pass. They keep going.

He pulls himself from under the downed horse and pulls an R.P.G. free. He practically aims from the hip as the NOISE OF THE ROTORS throbs over the edge of the gulley.

Suddenly, both the helicopter and Sandy appear to come over the ridge together, the huge, beating machine at her back. The door gunner swings out. Jed FIRES -- the R.P.G. goes right in the door, blowing everything out the other side. The chopper sweeps away, turning wildly, pouring smoke and fire. Sandy never breaks and gallops down upon Jed who leaps up behind her. Just as he does, she is hit by a BURST from another door GUN. She slumps in front of him. The horse staggers; he kicks it up the steep-sided ravine. The helicopter flashes overhead.

keep working their way up into the trees. A helicopter suddenly comes over in front of them -- a nose-to-nose confrontation. Tony and Danny scream and spin their horses but Raymond pulls down his AKM. There is a moment -- the throbbing helicopter facing the mounted boy. Raymond FIRES. The canopy shatters -- the heli- copter spins -- the door gunner falls out -- the for- ward GUNS BLAST. Raymond goes down in a hail of lead, FIRING as he goes.

He aims up and FIRES his R.P.G. as a copter goes right over him.

Strelnikov braces a wounded pilot who slumps over the controls. Smoke is everywhere, the plexiglass is shattered. Suddenly the beast crashes down hard, the rotors still spinning wildly. Strelnikov unhooks his belt and drags the pilot free. The other crewmen stagger out, smoking, wounded. One is dead at his gun. A BURST rips into the ground and across one of the wounded who staggers. Strelnikov looks up, pulls up his Jati submachine gun.

FIRES as he breaks for the trees. He turns back and sees Robert standing fast, advancing on the helicopter.

He braces himself, holding the AKM at his hip. He slams in a new magazine, walks forward. Strelnikov walks out of the smoke; they both FIRE, but Robert is literally BLASTED away. Strelnikov looks over his shoulder. One of his men crouches behind the smoking mini-gun in the door. Strelnikov looks almost frus- trated as if somehow he's missed something.

Jed and Sandy gallop the horse further up the deep ravine whose vertical walls rise hundreds of feet above them. The horse stumbles and goes down. Jed pulls Sandy up over his shoulder, grabs the RPG and heads up the narrowing gorge. The SOUND OF ROTORS is far off.

crouched in some trees looking out over the valley and buttes. A lone helicopter circles in the distance.

They hold each other.

The sun comes barely through a crack where the walls of the canyon seem to meet above. A stream runs softly through the bottom of the gorge. Jed has lain Sandy down and wipes her face with a piece of clothing. Her side and one leg is soaked in blood. She is pale and trembling.

She presses a pistol into his hand.

He kisses her, puts the pistol to her head -- cries out.

He fumbles and places it in her hand.

He gets up, the SOUND OF ROTORS in the distance.

She sees him back up slowly OUT OF FRAME, tears pouring down his face.

She looks up serenely, pulls the pin of the grenade. With her hand she shoves it under her back so her weight holds the spoon down, then exhales. Her hand falls limply into foreground.

looking down at her from the side of the gorge. Matt stands beside him.

Far below, Strelnikov steps over to his helicopter and points at the pilot lying next to the shattered cockpit.

The troops drag two torn rag dolls into a pile -- Raymond, Robert. Their weapons are stacked beside them.

A soldier with a movie camera films the spectacle from various angles, then turns the camera on Strelnikov.

The picture is reframed to avoid the dead pilot in b.g.

Using the boot, Strelnikov lifts Raymond's head for a closeup.

There is a distant, DULL EXPLOSION. They all look in the direction of:

Peaceful, dead, the ruin sits on a hillside overlooking a cluster of lights -- Calumet.

Matt stares through a hole at Calumet, blank, unblink- ing.

Toni huddles in the dark behind him. Danny whispers at his side.

Matt picks up a piece of charcoal and starts blacking his face.

He holds out the pack. Danny swallows.

Danny grabs him gently.

A beat.

Matt smiles, shakes his head. He holds out his crudely bandaged arm.

Toni re-wraps the rag... buries her face in his shirt.

Matt smiles again.

The last rays of light show Jed at the sacred rock. All the names are there -- Andy, Raymond, Robert, Sandy. Jed looks at it and moves away. We can see two more names -- Jed and Matt.

A figure leans against the grandstand, another comes across the football field. As they draw close --

They turn and head for the gym.

Shattered basketball court, the Wolverine symbol on the floor, moonlight pouring in, snow in some places. The two boys kneel in the center, loading magazines, hooking on grenades, etc.

Jed gets up, walks over to where a shaft of moonlight falls upon a picture of a football team -- one row kneeling, one standing -- two girls with pom-poms.

He stops, Jed turns, hoists an R.P.G.

The colonel sits at his desk, looks out the window. He sees Strelnikov and his sniper, Berganov, walking up some stairs to his room. Bella smiles, looks back at his desk.

A BLAST blows in the windows, GUNFIRE in the streets. Bella rushes to a window, throws it open.

Bella's window opens as a figure scurries below. The figure turns and FIRES. Bella staggers back.

Behind him a BTR-40 burns in the street. An ALARM goes off. Figures burst from doorways -- two Russians SHOOT each other. Jed moves quickly. A door opens -- beyond it the green light of a computer-control center. Jed looks up and sees lots of antennae. Soldiers rush around the corner. Matt BLASTS them from the shadows. Jed raises the R.P.G. A door opens behind him; Bratchenko steps out. Jed FIRES. Bratchenko is doubled up, burning from the back blast. The ROCKET tears into the surveillance center. Matt heaves in a satchel charge. Jed moves into the street -- a BURST takes him down as he loads the R.P.G. Strelnikov is rushing for him, pistol in hand -- FIRES. Jed lurches, FIRES another rocket into the flaming building, falls.

He, too, is shot off his feet as he rushes to his brother. He crawls and collapses next to Jed. Russians approach warily.

Toni and Danny look back at the town -- smoke and fires -- the distant RATTLE OF SMALL ARMS -- a fiery gasoline EXPLOSION -- SIRENS WAIL.

lying on his back, looking up at Strelnikov.

A wide plain stretches away from the edge of the Rockies. The Platte River shimmers in the distance -- The Free Zone.

Toni and Danny walk OVER CAMERA, toward the vista, the backpack is slung over Danny's shoulder. In her frazzled dress, Toni stops to pick a Firewheel in f.g... and takes one last look at where we've been.

She turns away from it, and Danny takes her hand.

Weathered, older -- spring or summer. The names are not as clear as they once were, but they can still be read. They're all there but something's different. A railing surrounds a viewing platform next to the rock. Beyond the rock the land stretches forever. A sign stands before the rock -- it reads:

PARTISAN ROCK

In the early days of World War III guerrilas, mostly children, placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here and died alone "so that this nation shall not perish from the earth."

THE END