"TREMORS" (1990)

The high desert -~ absolutely silent -- a vast, hard land- scape Stretching away to distant mountains. The silence is broken by hoof-beats.~ PAN TO ESTABLISH:

It's a simple cabin dwarfed by a big, ramshackle barn. EDGAR DEEMS (60s), a weathered desert rat of a hermit, is walking his donkey around in circles.

Now, rattling toward them down an endless dirt road, comes an old, sun-bleached Buick. It stops and out leans OLD FRED (708) wearing a sweat-stained fedora. The two friends nod.

EDGAR a She wants to lay down. I‘ma little worried. :

Old Pred climbs out with a bushel basket of carrots.

OLD PRED

Porget it. I got vegetables coming out my ears. Usually the varmints eat up half my crop, but lately I ain't so much as seen a gopher or a jack-rabbit nowheres.

Edgar takes the carrots and feeds one to the donkey.

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2 CONTINUED:

The men nod, and Old Pred drives off.

CLOSE=-GP of the donkey's hooves thumping along as Edgar leads her to the barn.

He ushers her inside, shuts the door, then heads for a water trough, calling back: .

'

But, suddenly, we hear the donkey restlessly stomping its hooves and braying. Edgar turns, concerned. Now we hear an odd sound. Distant thunder? The wind? The donkey gets more and more frantic.

The barn shudders violently. Frightened birds explode from the eaves. Dust puffs from every old seam. Roof shingles rain down. Edgar stares in amazement.

Then another sound -- the donkey starts screeching in wild panic.

; EDGAR (cont'd) Justine, hang on! I'm coming!

Edgar races back to the barn and flings open the doors.

Dust swirls through the air. But -=- the barn is empty. No Gonkey. Now Edgar is hit by a ghastly stench. He staggers back, and covers his nose with a handkerchief. Then he sees, splattered across the walls -=- blood!

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He raises his arms above the door frame. When he lowers them he's holding a 12 gauge shotgun. He races outside, ready to shoot, but there's nothing -- as far as the eye can see.

The sun lights up spectacular sheer cliffs which plunge 1000 feet from a ruggedly beautiful high-desert plateau. At the top of the cliffs, silhouetted against the dawn, a lone cow- boy seems to gaze in deep contemplation at the sunrise. As we MOVE IN, we realize he's actually peeing over the cliff.

This is VALENTINE McKEE (25). Smart and good looking, Val has nevertheless managed to underachieve brilliantly. He coasts through life, following the path of least resistance -- which has brought him to this dubious rustic existence on the edge of civilization. But lately he's beginning to wonder why he hasn't accomplished more in his 25 years.

As a few sleepy cows gaze at him, sleepy Val shuffles over to his battered old pickup truck. A hand-painted sign on the . door reads: "V & E == All Type's of Job's.* Indeed, the. pick-up bed is jumbled with tools and supplies for every conceivable odd job -=- and the noisily snoring form of his partner huddled in a dirty sleeping bag. Val raps on the side of the truck.

No response from the sleeping bag. Val stares at the cows chewing their cud -- and perks up as he gets an idea. He gently steps onto the truck's running board, then suddenly starts jumping up and down as hard as he can, rocking the truck violently.

. VAL (cont‘d) STAMPEDE! EARL, GET OUT OF THE WAY}

The sleeping bag tries to get up and run for it. It tumbles out of the back of the pickup. While Val laughs uproar- iously, EARL BASSET (43) claws his way out of the bag, looks around wildly, and finds himself staring at three motionless cows.

CONTINUED ©

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Earl is a good-ol' boy who has lived his life just like Val, drifting from job to job. He knows why he hasn't accom- plished anything, and often tries to impart his hard-won wisdom to Val, but the last thing the younger man wants is advice.

Earl stretches. The men begin a silent ritual: Earl gropes through his pockets for a cigarette, but only finds a lighter. Meanwhile, Val digs in his pockets, coming up with cigarettes, but no lighter. Typical of these two, each guy always has half of what he needs. Eventually they sort it out, trading the necessary implements.

Earl reaches for a coffee-pot on a battered Coleman stove on the tailgate. But it's cold.

Earl raises his fist. This is The Challenge, and it instantly triggers the partners’ conflict=-resolution technique. They solve all disputes using the children's game of “scissors, rock, paper.” Earl raises his fist in response. The game is played swiftly and silently -- one, two, three. On three, Val mimes “paper” (open hand). Earl mimes “scissors® (two extended fingers). Scissors cuts paper. Val has lost. He shrugs and starts pumping up the stove fuel tank.

Val and Earl are restringing a dilapidated, and seemingly endless, barbed wire fence. <A few bored cows watch then.

CONTINUED.

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I was in one. A bolt of lightning blew up a cottonwood tree. Three hundred head going hell-bent for

the horizon.

Wasn't so damn funny,

I can tell you.

Earl's hand slips and the fence snags him right enous? his

thick glove.

EARL (cont'd) .

Ow! God damniI Is this a job for intelligent men?!

VAL

If there was one nearby I'd probably ask hia.

EARL

I keep thinking, if we were. but half serious about money, we should guit being hired hands and...

Handymen, Earl. We're handymen.

EARL

Whatever the hell we are, we should quit and go get ourselves some real

‘employment.

Val gestures to the vastness around ther.

VAL

What, and give up all this personal

freedom?

Val guides the truck down a tortuous, rocky, almost impas- sable trail. It takes full concentration as he fights the steering wheel, shifts, rides the brake and leans out trying

to pick a decent route.

Earl braces his feet on the dash and

munches breakfast, a raw hot dog right out of the package.

Had a lot of rain.

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5 CONTINUED:

Earl pulls a box of Hershey bars from under the seat. There's only one bar left. He sets the box down between them. val glances at it -- and raises his fist: The Challenge. One, two, three. Val mimes “paper;" Earl mimes "rock." Earl: loses. Val takes the bar.

THWONK! The truck lurches to a stop, its frame caught on a big rock. Val glares at Earl.

The pick-up turns from a dirt road onto an old paved road.

Earl consults a crumpled list pulled from inside his hat.

Burt and Heather's place is closer. Let's do their kitchen today. Do Nestor tomorrow.

(squints dubiously at his schedule) It is Monday, right?

But Val is peering at the desert up ahead. Off the road a ways is a small Toyota pick-up truck and, beside it, a lone figure trying to flag them down.

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Earl braces himself, knowing what Val will do. Val swerves the truck wildly off the road, barreling across the desert.

You will have long blonde hair, big green eyes, nice full breasts that stand up and say hello, ass that won't quit. And legs, legs that go all the way up! ; oy Earl shakes his head, mildly bemused as they slide to a stop in a cloud of dust.

Val looks out hopefully. The dust clears. He sees her -- RHONDA LeBECK, (25). Val‘s eyes do an expert vertical scan: short brown hair, small brown eyes, so-so chest, legs hidden in baggy dungarees.

Laden with a portable computer, notebdoks, and some seismograph printouts, she stares at him through tilted glasses. Her little pick-up truck is loaded with geology field equipment. She shakes Val's hand firmly.

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' 8 “CONTINUED: Rhonda smiles.

RHONDA ~ Well, I'm supposed monitor these seismographs. You know, they measure vibrations...

Rhonda unhappily turns back to her equipment as Val and Earl drive off.

Earl glances over at Val with a gleam in his eye.

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Val flips down the truck's sunvisor. Taped to it are snap- shots of nearly identical blonde bimbos. Val points to one.

val rolls his eyes <- "Give me a break."

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The pick-up rattles toward a tiny, utterly isolated high desert hamlet -- a few dozen houses and mobile homes fighting for shade in the vast landscape. Its most prominent feature is an aging wood-frame water tower, perhaps 25 feet high, near the center of town. A sign PANS into view -=- "PERFECTION -=- Pop. 14."

Val and Earl head past the water tower for Pham Van's General Store, Perfection's main gossip stop and only business. The store's sign, in English and Vietnamese, reads: "Groceries, Haircuts, Post Office, Town Hall, VIDEOS!" Val and Earl park next to a camouflage-painted, large-tired Blazer.

Just then they spot MELVIN, the town's surly teen-aged pain- in-the-ass, coming toward them, mindlessly bouncing a basketball off the hoods of parked cars. As he nears their truck: EARL Melvin, touch that truck. and die.

But he steers clear of their truck.

Inside, the energetic Vietnamese owner, PHAM VAN, presides over his all-purpose establishment: part general store, part barber shop, part saloon.

At the bar are BURT GUMMER and his wife HEATHER, two no- nonsense survivalists who have settled in Perfection to await the coming apocalypse -- a nice enough couple, but there's a hint of paranoia around the edges. Burt is shoving a box of

- cartridges across to Pham.

: BURT No, Pham, they're not hollow points. I ordered hollow points and that's what I want.

When Val and Earl enter, Pham automatically pops the tops on two cold beers and has them in place before the cowboys reach - the bar. Everyone exchanges nods.

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Rhonda. Rhonda LeBeck. She's getting some kind of strange readings on her things.

; BREATHER Down, honey, down.

Heather and Pham laugh. Burt smiles patiently. Just then the compressor in Pham's ice cream freezer comes on. It's a loud chug=-chug-chug sound mixed with a high-pitched squeal.

He starts toward the compressor, but Earl heads him off.

. VAL Right. We plan ahead. That way we don't do anything right now. Earl explained it to me.

As they turn to go, Val does a take, amazed, as he spots a decorative bleached-out cattle skull displayed on the counter -- with a $29.95 price tag.

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2 CONTINUED: (2)

Burt races out and shouts at Melvin who backs guiltily away from Burt's camouflage Blazer.

' BURT Melvin, you little pain-in-the-ass!

Burt angrily switches off the alarm. Val and Earl laugh as they climb into their truck.

.- EARL . You gotta ask that?

At one end of town, Earl maneuvers a huge bulldozer with a scoop-loader blade through a choking cloud of dust, scouring out a shallow pit to serve as a watering hole. Val sights down a row of stakes which mark one end of the pit. The job _ is done. He signals Earl to cut his engine. Both men have Kerchiefs covering their faces and are totally encrusted with ust. .

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“15

ANGLE - TRUCK TRAILER = DAY 15

Nearby is an old battered truck trailer -- the massive, solid steel kind used for heavy rock hauling. Tires flat, mired in dried mud and weeds, it hasn't been used in years. Now it provides welcome shade as the men sit sipping some coffee.

NESTOR CUNNINGHAM drives up, surveying the pit with approval.

Earl and Val start fishing in their pockets for pen and paper. Earl comes up with various pieces of paper, Val with three or four pens. It's a moment before they realize each has the other needed implement. Earl writes out the bill

during:

Val and Earl exchange pained looks.

They amble over to their truck. Earl takes the driver's side -~- and starts fishing in his pockets for the key.

Val realizes he has the key and hands it over.

CONTINUED |

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VAL ~ Yeah, sure. Go ahead and plan it...for a year or two.

CLOSE ON a stencilled sign: PHAM VAN'S U-RENT -- CESSPOOL, SEPTIC TANKS. PULL OUT to see Val and Earl have rented a portable septic pump (perhaps trailer mounted). The aged machine reeks of and drips with its ignoble cargo. The intake hose has been rereetee so often it looks to be more tape than hose. Grimacing Val threads the slimy hose down through the open top of Viola's cesspool.

Beside them is Viola's well-kept mobile home on a low hill not far from Pham Van's store. Well-kept flower gardens

surround the place. VIOLA, a sweet little old lady, watches

the men work while straining to hold the leash of her tiny but ferocious dog. The dog yaps continuously, lunging at Val and Earl. . ,

God almighty, my mama sure didn't raise me for this.

Val gets up and starts the pump's gas engine. VAL Well, you're the one won't work in

the car wash. You're the one's gotta have a plan.

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Earl angrily throws the pump valve and starts the pump

_mechanism. He and Val stand on either side of the intake

hose as it gurgles happily.

POW! GOOOOSH! The gurgling intake hose ruptures, showering them with -- well you know. They react as if they'd been shot; gagging, staggering, screaming obscenities.

Val and Earl's beat-up mobile home is just down the street from Pham Van's store. Val and Earl, now in cleaner clothes, march out resolutely. Val has a portable TV in one hand and a framed COORS beer sign in the other. Earl unhooks the Clothes line and dumps it, clothes and all, into the back of their truck, on top of the rest of their belongings.

They stare at each other for a moment. This is it. No going back. The leap into the truck. As they drive off, Val leans out and yanks their wooden nameplate ("E. Basset -- V. McKee”) off the mailbox. :

They haven't gone fifty yards when they spot NANCY STERNGOOD (408) working in front of her house. The guys pull their hats low over their faces. Earl swerves to the far side of the street. ;

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Nancy spots them and beckons excitedly.

They stop beside Nancy. While they talk, Nancy's daughter, MINDY (9), comes bouncing along on her pogo-stick, listening to her Walkman and slowly circling the truck.

NANCY ; . Mindy, honey, don't pogo in the street. Hey, guys, I've got a job for you...

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CONTINUED: (2)

Val and Earl glance at each other -- five hundred dollars!

The truck roars toward the "Leaving Perfection® sign. Val and Earl are elated, downright giddy.

VAL

Damn straight! Now there's nothing

between us and Bixby but nothing!

They zoom past the sign.

They laugh, then are thrown half out of their seats as Earl accidentally hits a big pothole.

As the truck streaks across the landscape. Val and Earl merrily continue their good-byes to whatever is visible.

Adios, bridge!

On its way down from the high desert, the lonely road now winds through a twisting, narrow canyon. A county highway maintenance truck is parked to one side and two road workers, CARMINE and HOWARD, repair a slide-damaged section of the

road, Carmine breaking up asphalt with a jackhammer. Val and Earl pull up, hand them each a beer, and speed away, shouting:

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‘21.0 CONTINUED: VAL

Last time down this damn twisty road!

The pick-up speeds past a small shack. val and Earl

automatically roll up their windows. In a moment we see why:

a monster, ferocious dog comes galloping out to chase their truck. Earl gives the dog the finger.

Old Fred latches the gate on his corral filled with sheep. He looks up as Val and Earl's truck speeds past. Val and

Earl honk their horn and wave happily. Old Fred waves back.

® : , '

The pick-up zooms along, the road now paralleling a line of tall high-tension electrical towers.

The guys have calmed down, but each is still dreaming of a new life. ,

Val points up ahead -- a man is sitting near the top of a distant electrical tower.

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But as they pass the tower:

Earl pulls over. They climb out and peer up at the tower. Edgar is hard to see through the criss-crossing girders. . h - (impressed) Man, oh, man. He must've really been drunk this time. (shouts) Edgar! What the hell you doing? Get on down from there!

Edgar doesn't move. Val and Earl shift about uncomfortably. Val finally speaks for both:

They stare at each other. Someone's got to climb up. Val raises his fist in The Challenge. Their fingers fly. Rock breaks scissors. Val loses.

Valentine unhappily climbs the tall tower while Earl watches from below. .

Higher and higher Val climbs. He tries not to look down. He's approaching Edgar from below and behind. As he gets nearer he begins to notice forboding details: one of Edgar's shoes is missing, half the trouser leg is torn off. Edgar is

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CONPINUED:

strapped to a girder by his belt, his shotgun gripped in his hands. A swarm of flies buzzes away.

He edges around to where he can see Edgar's face -=- the eyes are wide open, staring. He's dead.

Old Fred is now hoeing his garden. He glances up as Val and Earl's pick-up roars back toward Perfection.

A big station wagon is parked between a small mobile home and a half-finished house being built by JIM and MEGAN WALLACE, an out-going, energetic older couple. Lumber, cinder blocks, and tools are scattered around the yard. so

Jim examines Edgar's body in the bed of Val and Earl's picke- up truck. Val, Earl and Megan talk in subdued tones.

hard part. Sure sorry you're leaving.

Jim climbs out of the pick-up.

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Jim shrugs. Everyone is mystified.

Fred is still hoeing. In the nearby pen his sheep start acting restless. He eyes them. What's up? We hear a , strange muffled sound. Unseen, behind him, at the far end of the garden, his scarecrow mysteriously tilts.

Old Pred keeps hoeing. He stops, his foot is caught in the dirt. Suddenly he is yanked knee-deep into the ground!

Val and Earl's truck, again headed for Bixby, and gcing way too fast, zooms past the two workers still repairing the road. The workers glance up, annoyed.

Val and Earl, sobered and deep in thought, drive past the: shack where the ferocious dog lives. They automatically roll up their windows during:

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31 CONTINUED:

Val has no answer. It‘s too weird.

They are passing the shack. EZarl suddenly realizes:

. VAL . I°11 go with that plan.

CLOSE ON the pick-up's tires skidding to a stop. PULL OUT to see we're back at Old Fred's.

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Earl is staring wide-eyed. Val follows Earl's gaze and is aghast when he sees -~-

The sheep pen -~ it's a ghastly, bloody mess. Scattered on . the churned up ground a few dismembered sheep legs and heads are all that remain of the flock.

Val and Earl leap out of the truck to investigate.

Earl dashes into Fred's house. Val checks around outside. Earl comes back out.

Then they spot something lying in the middle of the garden _ Old Fred's hat.

Still looking all around, Val squats distewctediz to pick up the hat. He and Earl stumble backward in shock.

OLD FRED IS STILL WEARING HIS HAT!! His mangled face stares up at them, eyes and mouth frozen open in a death grimace.

Carmine and Howard continue repairing the road, Carmine still using the noisy jackhammer. Val and Earl drive up.

Carmine stops jackhammering to listen.

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Val and Earl speed away.

‘HOWARD Yeah eee

But he edges over to the truck and takes out a heavy steel pry-bar to keep within easy reach.

Carmine goes back to work, pounding the asphalt with the jackhammer. Suddenly the blade strikes something beneath the road, something soft. We hear a strange, unearthly shriek from underground. A weird orange goo gushes up around the blade. Then the jackhammer takes off by itself like a harpocn stuck in a whale! Carmine gets tangled in the jack-

-hammer's air-hose and is dragged along, shouting for help.

Howard chases him down the embankment and into the scrub- brush. He hears Carmine screaming.

But now there is only silence. Howard crashes through the brush. All he finds is the torn end of the air-hose -- which suddenly sucks down into the ground. He's momentarily staggered by an awful smell, but forces himself to keep looking. He lets. the pry-bar drag on the ground. Then something -- it looks like a mouth or a horrid beak -- shoots out of the ground and grips the pry-bar with uncanny strength! Howard drops his weapon and scrambles madly away.

He clambers back onto the road. But almost immediately cracks form in the pavement around him. More beak-things break through the asphalt between him and his truck.

He dashes across the road, scrambling up the embankment. He clings precariously to a tree root, looking down -- where'd they go? Suddenly the dirt around him begins to "bubble.* Several hungry beaks break through and grab him, yanking him head first into the embankment. Then the embankment gives way, crashing down onto the road, taking with it a nearby telephone pole and snapping the lines.

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Pham Van is talking to MIGUEL, a local rancher. They both jump as the doors burst open. Val and Earl race in, trailed by Nestor and Melvin. Val heads for the payphone during:

Val grabs the phone and digs in his pocket for change.

Earl comes up with change and hands it to Val, who dials.

Val stares at the phone. VAL I don't believe this. The phone is out! Pham, your phone is out!

Val and Earl rush out.

Trailed by the others Val and Earl march out and leap into their truck, Val driving now. He searches for the key.

Earl hands Val the key.

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Again the pick-up barrels through the canyon.

Earl points ahead and screams:

Val brings the truck to a squealing stop. Ahead: the collapsed embankment completely blocks the road. It's totally impassable. The cowboys are dumbfounded.

But Val is in no mood for philosophy. He leaps out and peers into the highway maintenance truck which sits undisturbed, emergency lights still flashing. There's nobody in it. He starts looking around.

Val looks where he's pointing -- Howard's bloodstained hardhat lies at the edge of the landslide. Val gets the point. Looking around for the unknown assailant, he eases back into the truck. Earl already has a pistol in his lap and is digging through the glove compartment.

EARL (cont'd)

Where are the bullets? Don't we have any goddamn bullets?

mye

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Val quickly jockeys the truck to turn it around on the narrow road. But as he backs into the hillside, we hear a strange grating clunk from underneath. When he tries to pull forward, the truck won't move. The engine stalls.

They both lean out. The rear tires are clear. Val restarts the truck and tries to pull forward, rocking the truck against some unseen pull. Smoke wells up from the clutch.

Val slams the truck into low-range four-wheel-drive and revs: it. The tires dig in, fighting for traction -- and suddenly the truck lurches free. We hear an eerie shriek mingled with gear and engine noise as Val angrily roars away.

that. VAL Fuck youl! we EARL Hey, I don't want spend the night out here!

The word has spread. Everybody in town is gathered at Pham Van's. They.rush out to meet Val and Earl as they drive up.

VAL

You're never gonna believe this, but the canyon road...we were on it: not two hours ago...well, it's completely...

CONTINUED —

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But he stops because they're all staring wide-eyed at the rear of the truck.

NANCY

Val and Earl jump out and look where everyone else is looking. Their jaws drop. REVEAL: hanging from the rear axle of their truck and trailing out behind like a nightmare wedding decoration -- a six foot long, grotesque, fleshy, tentacle. The end gripping the axle. looks like a vicious, Tazor-sharp beak or hook. The trailing end is mutilated, oozing orange goo -- as though the creature was torn in half.

. VIOLA Looks like...an eel.

Burt, more daring than the others, pries the thing off the axle with a shovel.

’ PHAM VAN - Don't touch, don't touch.

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CONTINUED: (2)

, BURT Stalled out your truck? Have to be one strong son of a bitch.

Pham Van leaps over to them.

Val and Earl square their shoulders. This time they're ready for hin.

PHAM VAN. an Okay, ten dollars,

PHAM VAN

Okay, fifteen.

Burt is deep in thought.

A cold chill spreads through the group. They stare out at the vast, forbidding desert. They suddenly feel alone =-- very alone.

CLOSE on Rhonda's hat lying on the ground. We think the worst. Then she reaches in, picks it up and puts it on. REVEAL she's in a lonely corner of the valley working with a seismograph. She pounds a marking stake into the dirt.

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INSERT =- CLOSE ON SEISMOGRAPH 39

The needle responds to each blow on the stake. We hear Rhonda stop pounding. The needle stops. All is silent -- but the needle starts moving again!"

BACK TO SCENE 40

LOW CAMERA is MOVING in Rhonda's general direction. She starts to pound another stake. CAMERA REACTS so it is moving straight toward her. As it passes a burrow, a rabbit suddenly shoots out. CAMERA WHIP PANS to watch the rabbit scamper into the distance, then TURNS BACK to move toward Rhonda, who still pounding her stake.

CAMERA passes Rhonda's seismograph. The machine tilts Slightly as the ground bulges up beneath it.

Rhonda finishes pounding. She heads for her truck, noisily tossing in her tools and slamming the tailgate. CAMERA CLOSES IN on her, faster and faster. It is right on her heels as she climbs into the cab!

ANGLE - RHONDA'S TRUCK Al

A beak-thing thrusts out of the ground, groping where Rhonda's boot just was. Rhonda drives off, unknowingly running right over the thing. We hear a shriek of pain as the tentacle writhes and sucks back under the ground.

Mindy Sterngood poses cautiously with the bizarre hook tentacle. A camera PLASHES and we REVEAL Pham Van taking her photo beside a sign: "Photographs -- You and the Snake Monster -- $2.00." Viola and Miguel, wait in line.

We now see the store is crowded with concerned townsfolk debating what to do, and how to protect themselves. Val and Earl sit on the sidelines, sipping beer, gazing in awe at enterprising Pham Van:

Dominating the discussion are Burt and Heather now armed with scoped, magnum hunting rifles. Heather stands guard ata. window, peering out into the night.

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HEATHER , Phone's out. Road's out. We're on our own.

. NANCY (sarcastic) And you two just love it, don't you?

7 HEATHER Come on, Nancy, don‘t let's get personal. We need to do something.

Burt steps over to a faded topographic map on the wall and points out details during:

. BURT Damn right. You folks gotta analyze the situation. With that road out we're completely cut off. Got the cliffs to the north, mountains east and west. That's

. why Heather and me settied here in

the first place, geographic

isolation.

VIOLA

Yes, that’s what I say.

»

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CONTINUED: (2)

All heads turn toward Pham Van. PHAM VAN .

You're welcome to them. Does anybody know how to ride?

All heads turn toward Val and Earl.

In the vast desert night a single floodlight illuminates Jim and Megan's partially finished house. Their station wagon is

parked out front. A country and western tune. drifts to us from its radio. .

As we MOVE CLOSER, we see the floodlight is powered by a

‘small, softly purring generator set maybe fifty feet away.

Jim and Megan, both exhausted, unload a big stack of roofing shingles from their station wagon. Jim starts to lift a package of shingles but gives up and sits on the tailgate.

(grins devilishly) The concrete blocks are in.

; JIM - The con...! Oh my God.

MEGAN

Just keep looking at that beautiful

sky. JIM

What? MEGAN

That's the sky that's going to be

over our roof every night, when

we ‘re“aodne. :

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Just then the whirring of the generator becomes strangely muffled. The floodlight flickers. Now the generator dies. Darkness engulfs them. The car radio music drones on incongruously.

Jim digs out a powerful flashlight and heads over toward the generator. Megan lies back, taking a welcome breather. After a moment:

ANGLE - JIM . 44

Baffled, he sweeps the whole area with the flashlight. Megan joins hia.

The severed electric Cable stops at the edge of a cone-shaped

‘depression in the dirt where the generator sat. He hands her

the flashlight and kneels. We watch tensely as he probes the loose earth with his hands. JIM (cont'd) Maybe the ground caved in. There's a lot of old mines and stuff around here.

Megan grabs his shirt, trying to pull him back.

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WE. GRBS, . (06/21/88) 34.

Suddenly, about ten feet away -- WHOOMP!! The generator shoots up out of the ground! Jim and Megan dive for cover as it sails through the air, and crashes to earth. They stare, transfixed. The generator is dented and bent almost beyond recognition =~ and covered with oozing slime.

JIM

.

What the...? But Megan is all action. She yanks him back.

We again hear that mysterious rumbling sound. . Jim stops, sweeping the flashlight around thea.

please! She hustles him bodily toward the car during:

Suddenly he drops knee-deep into the ground! Megan is thrown off balance and tumbles to one side. The flashlight falls, lighting them at an eerie low angle.

We hear sickening CRUNCHES from below the earth. He SCREAMS in excruciating agony.

CONTINUED ©

W/M

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CONTINUED: (2)

He struggles wildly, but just sinks further down! Megan slides a 2x4 over to Jim. He grabs it like a drowning man, trying to keep himself from being pulled down. But he's pulled with such power the 2x4 snaps!

His head is going under. Megan desperately tries to dig the smothering earth away, but she's losing. Now only his arms are above ground. She pulls with all her might, but he sinks inexorably down, down. She's pulled flat onto the ground. He’s gone.

The next instant, a vicious hook-tentacle erupts through the earth, missing Megan's face by inches. She scrambles back frantically.

ANGLE - STATION WAGON 45

LOW CAMERA pursues Megan toward the car, just missing her as she dives in through the open tailgate. She slams it after her. The talons rake across the car, scratching the glass.

Megan tumbles into the front seat. Thank God the keys are in the ignition. She starts the engine. But outside the “snake things" attack the car ina frenzy, slashing blindly. A rear tire is totally shredded just as:

Megan floors it. The car lurches forward but the mutilated tire falls apart. The wheel rim digs into the loose earth and the car is stuck. With no other recourse, Megan locks the doors,. rolls up the windows and cowers in the middle of the car, panting, sobbing. The radio is still playing a happy cowboy tune. She peeks out. They gave up? She's safe? Nothing happens for a moment, then --

The car starts to shake and shudder! Oust wells up around the windows.

Outside we see a bizarre sight. The earth around the rear of the car is "boiling,® dirt flying in all directions -- and the car starts to sink into the ground!!

Megan wildly honks the horn! The car looks just like a ship going down by the stern, hood tilting up gracefully. fhe back windows shatter, dirt pouring in! Megan smashes the windshield with a small fire extinguisher and scrambles out on the hood. But there's no hope. The car keeps sinking, tilting now almost ninety degrees, forcing her onto a precarious perch on the grille -- sinking, sinking.

Out of her mind with terror, she keeps softly murmuring the same hopeless phrases:

AWM

1 46

wd6.2 GRBS. . (06/21/88) 36.

The headlights are two ironic beacons sending their beams skyward through the roiling dust into the night sky. The sound of the radio becomes muffled. The headlights sink from view ~- and then Megan's scream floats across the desert.

Out front of Pham Van's, nervous Val and Earl saddle up the horses while Pham loads their saddle bags with food. Every- one has gathered to see them off. There's an air of tension.

Pham, we don't want to be stuck on a couple of canners. They better be fast.

VAL

Screw you. For all you know they could fly. . . Earl pulls their old Smith and Wesson revolver and battered Winchester rifle. out of the pick-up truck.

So does Earl. He raises his hand. They swiftly do a round of scissors-rock-paper. Earl loses. He hands Val the rifle. Just then, Burt and Heather pull up in their Blazer, climbing out with their hunting rifles.

, BURT - You guys all set?

CONTINUED —

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wd6.2 GRBS. (06/21/88) 37.

Val and Earl mount up.

HEATHER

Hold on. You guys oughta take something that packs more punch than that thirty-thirty. Take one of our Browning autos, or even my model seventy...

(offers her hunting rifle) It's three-seventy~five H and H mag.

Ear! takes the awesome-looking gun with a smug glance at Val.

Heather unhooks a box of cartridges from her belt and hands

it to Earl. Suddenly there's a blood-curdling SCREAM! The

door to Pham Van's flies open. Out staggers Melvin, wrapped in Pham Van's hook-tentacle, writhing in apparent agony.

People scatter like sheep. Burt and Heather have guns trained on him in an instant. Then everyone realizes it’s a sick joke. Melvin collapses with laughter. Burt is livid. He almost shot Melvin. He charges over and yanks the kid to his feet, screaming:

Pham rushes over and grabs his precious tentacle. As people Calm down, Val and Earl gaze nervously at the vast desert before then.

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CONTINUED: (2)

They ride out to an adlib chorus: “Keep your heads down;" "Go careful, boys;" “Keep a sharp lookout;” etc.

Val and Earl ride along, very tiny in the vast, lonely landscape, and very on edge. Constantly looking all around.

Val doesn't want to hear that. EARL (cont'd) That means we're gonna be out nares like, in the dark. : ' VAL (resentfully) Great. Thank you.

Faint Country and Western radio music drifts to them.

They're nearing Jim and Megan's house.

Val knocks on the door to the mobile home.

. VAL Hey, doctor, anybody here?

No answer. He opens the door and peers inside. Behind him Earl steps out of the half-finished house and shrugs. Nobody around. Wind rustles the plastic sheeting over the windows. Strangely they can still hear the muffled radio clearly.

They walk briskly to their horses. Earl snatches Heather's rifle from its saddle scabbard. Val pulls out the Winchester. Earl tries to reassure himself.

woo. . GRBS.. > (06/21/88) 39.

They focus on the sound and walk gingerly toward it, keeping constant watch in every direction. The ground here is all torn up like the sheep pen -- and the music is coming from underneath! What the hell is going on?

Val scrapes at the dirt with his boot -=- and finds the headlight of Jim and Megan's station wagon, still on, glaring up at him. He drops down and wildly sweeps away more dirt, revealing more of the car's grille and hood -=- and blood=- soaked dirt which sticks to his hand. He leaps away, frantically rubbing the blood off on his pants.

Val and Earl are riding at full gallop. They race alongside a concrete-lined flood=-control ditch and veer off to follow a barbed wire fence which crosses the ditch.

They ride along the fence during:

Suddenly the horses stop short. Ina frenzy they wheel around, rear up, refusing to go on. The cowboys fight to control then.

VAL

I knew it! Pham Van wouldn't know a decent horse if...!

y

W/M wd6.2 a ‘GRBS.. (06/21/88) 40.

$1

But Earl's already drawing his rifle.

He draws his rifle. They look wildly in all directions at once -~ but there's nothing, only empty desert.

They keep staring. The horses keep pacing nervously. Then -- Earl's horse rears wildly and falis! Earl goes flying. Val wheels around wildly, dismounts and runs to Earl, who's bruised and winded but basically unhurt. They think Earl's horse just tripped.

Their eyes bulge. Several “snake things” have engulfed the horse's head, sucking, crushing, slurping. Val's horse goes berserk and gallops for the horizon.

Suddenly they realize what that means -~- the things could come up under them!! The cowboys scramble frantically away. But nothing pursues them. They pause, glancing back nervously.

Val raises his rifle and takes a well-aimed shot, hitting one

of them. Orange goo spurts out. We hear a deafening shriek as all the “snake things" instantly zip back underground.

- W/M wa6.2 | GRBS. (06/21/88) al.

* 521

CONTINUED: (2)

Then -- A HUGE MOUND OF EARTH RISES UP UNDER VAL AND EARL!! The cowboys tumble down its side, Val losing his rifle. They roll over and stare dumbfounded at the mound.

The mound of earth turns toward them. The ground splits open and out rises -- a huge head! EARL (awestruck) Nope...just one.

The monster is a horrendous thirty-foot long eating machine! Its head is eyeless, utterly alien, covered with tough boney plates which close together to form a cork-screw point.

The cowboys stumble back toward the fence in speechless terror. The creature slides toward them, pushing through the earth like a whale through water. Now it opens its mouth -- but it's like a grotesque flower, boney plates spreading opeh like petals, revealing a huge, slimy, fleshy, oozing orifice! And inside the mouth, a ghastly multi-tentacled tongue!

These are the "snake things,” not snakes at all but actually the horrid hook-tentacles that can shoot out six feet to snag their prey!

The monster snorts and snuffs, throwing up plumes of dust, sounding like a horrendous pig. It sinks into the earth and charges! We see the hump of earth move toward them faster and faster but then it disappears as the creature goes deeper.

Val and Earl leap sideways and run along the fence. The creature goes straight and slams into a fencepost from below. All we see is the fencepost knocked at a crazy angle.

The cowboys keep running. The creature regroups and charges after them, hitting each fencepost in turn, sending weird sinuous shock waves along the barbed wire, making almost musical twanging sounds. Val looks back.

And as if that weren't enough, Earl points to more trouble ahead.

The fence runs straight to the edge of the ditch, an eight foot wide gap yawning dead ahead. The creature churns like

W/M wd6.2 GRBS. (06/21/88) 42.

a locomotive behind. They'll have to try to jump! They strain desperately for every last fraction of speed.

They leap and ~~ they don't do it!! They smack into the opposite side of the ditch, clawing frantically at the lip, only to tumble to its sloping bottom. A split second later the charging creature slams like a wrecking ball into the foot-thick concrete wall! The wall-CRACKS AND BULGES OUT! A hook=-tentacle flops out through one of the cracks! Terrified Val and Earl scramble away. But the wall holds together.

And then, strangely, all is quiet. The tentacle lays dead still. Eventually, the cowering cowboys dare to creep back a little closer, still panting, exhausted, jumpy.

And now orange slime begins to ooze through the ‘cracks an the concrete.

VAL ; Cold, my ass! It's dead! We killed the bastard! ‘

He suddenly shakes his fist at the dead beast.

They allow themselves a small wheeze of nervous laughter, only to jump like rabbits as some pebbles rattle loudly down the concrete wall behind them. They whirl to see Rhonda, up on the opposite side of the ditch, staring down at then. She's lugging a bunch of her equipment, including a small folding shovel.

Val and Earl look at each other, then burst out laughing. Rhonda spots the cracked wall.

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The shattered concrete has been pulled away to fully reveal the creature's horrendous head. Start CLOSE on it: oozing

blood, Slavering mouth plates hanging open, hook-tentacles

lolling out. WIDEN to see Earl and Rhonda, sweating, dusty and tired, staring in awe and cringing at the stench.

RHONDA : , “4 (shudders) . Yeah, I‘m lucky it didn’t find me. (overwhelmed)

This is important, you know. This is like, well, let's say it, it's probably the biggest zoological discovery of the century. The century? Forget it. History.

We can hear a shovel digging up above, and now Val shouts:

Earl] and Rhonda climb up. CRANE UP with them to REVEAL the whole animal! Val, digging excitedly with Rhonda's shovel, is just scraping away the last loose dirt from the creature's tail. The whole length of the immense thirty foot beast is partially uncovered, in king-sized bas-relief.

She nods, stepping down to study the creature. The body is stream-lined, cigar-shaped, maybe eight feet in diameter at its thickest. It's covered with hundreds of short, rear-

CONTINUED —

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wd6.3 = . GRBS. . (06/21/88) 44.

pointing, retractable spikes. Rhonda gingerly jiggles one. It can be pushed in and out of its socket like a plunger.

RHONDA (cont'd)

It must push itself along with

these. Hundreds of them pushing at

once. That's how it can move so

fast. I mean this thing was

tripping sensors all over the

valley. No wonder I couldn't... A chilling thought stops her in mid-sentence. She springs down into the drainage ditch to get her backpack, pulling out her seismograph printouts. She studies them frantically during:

The guys look at each other. One thought immediately springs to their minds..

While they bask in their fame-to-be, Rhonda continues to study the print-outs, coming to a terrifying conclusion.

‘ EARL - Here's the plan: we'll get a...a flatbed, I guess, with a big winch, figure a five ton anyway.

But Rhonda interrupts <-- now really scared.

W/M- wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 45.

$4

CONTINUED: (2)

Val and Earl shut right up. Earl edges up a fencepost. val sidles up onto a rock during:

The men leap from their perches and hustle her in the direction she came from.

‘The other side of that dome.

She indicates what to most of us would be a hill, dotted with huge boulders thrusting out of the sandy desert soil like big mushrooms. The trio jogs toward the hill.

En route to the truck, they pass near one of Rhonda's seismographs. Suddenly Earl stumbles as one leg drops knee- Geep into the ground! He screams. Val wheels and bodily yanks him up. They back away from the small hole in the ground, calming a little as they realize:

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wa6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 46.

Rhonda tenses as she hears a sound she knows well -- the soft seratching of the seismograph needle across its paper cylinder. She whacks Val on the shoulder and points speechlessly at it. .

INSERT - SEISMOGRAPH 55

The needle is going wild!!

BACK TO SCENE 56

She doesn't have to explain. All three of them dash dash for:

The remains of an old rail fence lay beside one of the boulders. Val, Earl, and Rhonda scramble over the wood, up onto the rock and stand there tensely.

In a moment, the creature gently rusties the earth at the base of the rock. The monster's slimy hook-tentacles slither out, searching the rock base. Shuddering, the humans move as high as they can, well out of reach. The tentacles slip back beneath the earth. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

Rhonda points. They can see the roof of her truck, maybe a hundred yards away through the boulders. Val and Earl think about it.

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wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) ~~ 47,

It's hours later. Stiff and uncomfortable, they have nothing to do but theorize.

RHONDA

There's nothing like them in the fossil record, I'm sure...Okay, so they predate the fossil record...

{not buying it herself) That'd make them a couple of billion years old...and we've just never seen one till now. Right.

There's a long pause. Earl stares at the dirt around the rock.

Val gets an idea. He grabs a post from the dilapidated fence and cautiously slips down near the boulder's edge.

, EARL Watch yourself! It’s got a good six foot reach.

Val nods. Dead silence as he reaches way out with the post and scrapes it on the ground. Almost instantly the creature roars up, grabbing the post in a flurry of flying dirt and lashing tentacles, nearly hooking Val's hand. Val practically falls over himself scrambling back to safety.

—_ — > ee

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“58

58A

wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 48.

~

Rhonda stares at Val, impressed.

They all settle back, having no idea what to do next. Rhonda gazes out at the desert that surrounds them like an ocean.

Our heroes are silhouetted against a huge, spectacular, desert night sky. After a very long pause:

Same here.

The silhouettes shift, Val and Earl moving down one side of the rock, and Rhonda down the other. We can no longer see them. We just hear zippers zipping down <-- then soft sighs of relief from Val and Earl. Then:

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58A

wd6.3 . GRBS. (06/21/88) 49.

Rich orange sunlight creeps silently across the deathly still desert. Earl is already awake. Val is curled up without his jacket, shivering. He wakes with a start. Where the hell's his jacket? :

Rhonda wakes slowly. She's surprised to find herself wrapped in Val's jacket. Touched by his chivalry, she embarrassedly hands it to baffled Val.

Val glances at Earl, who looks away. Who, me?

Earl gropes through his pockets, coming up with only cigarettes. Val fishes in his own pockets, finding only their lighter. They exchange items and light up during:.

: VAL First let‘s see if Stumpy’s still out there.

This time he tosses a piece of wood out onto the sand. With soft rustling, a bulge forms in the earth, moves over to the wood, then subsides. Rhonda starts looking around during:

wh wao.d GRBS. (06/21/88) 50.

59 CONTINUED: (2)

VAL

Well, let’s just run for it. We outran that one yesterday, at least on a sprint.

Rhonda gives up on them. She goes over and pulls a long cross rail from the fence during:

They watch in surprise as she hefts her pole, checks the balance, eyeballs the distance to the nearest boulder. Then she charges between them, plants her pole and vaults smoothly over to the next boulder, maybe fifteen feet away. The ‘creature surfaces where her pole touched down, but too late -- a hook tentacle vainly sweeps the area, then disappears into the ground. Val and Earl glance at each other,

impressed.

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wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) Si.

CONTINUED: (3) Earl rushes to grad a couple more fence rails.

Val just stands staring across at Rhonda -- his horizons are broadening. Earl stuffs a fence rail into his hands.

Earl takes a deep breath and goes for it, vaulting across to Rhonda. Val follows.

Through the shimmering heat in the distance we see the strange sight of the three figures vaniting from boulder to boulder. to.

Val, Earl and Rhonda pole-vault their way toward the truck. Finally they're at the nearest boulder, but the truck is still ten feet away.

Rhonda and Val nod. Rhonda grips her car keys in her teeth.

They all vault in unison, landing in the truck bed. Rhonda scrambles up, slides open the cab's rear window, and begins wriggling through headfirst.

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wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) S2.

Dust explodes around the rear of the truck! Hook-tentacles snake up on all sides, narrowly missing Val. He and Earl grab whatever's handy, pounding at the tentacles with expensive instruments.

VAL ~ GO! GO! GO!

Rhonda's only half way through the cab window, still hanging headfirst into the cab. She frantically starts the truck, dives down and punches the accelerator with her fist.

As the truck roars away, one tentacle manages to tear off the the muffler. The engine thunders like a tank. Val and Earl sit back, sighing with relief, then react when they see Rhonda is driving upside down and blind.

e

Rhonda skids her noisy truck to a halt in front of Pham Van's.

Val leaps out and jumps into his pick-up truck. He searches for the key.

Val holds out his hand for the key. Earl tosses it to him. Val drives off. We FOLLOW Rhonda and Earl as they drive the other way, toward Viola's.

RHONDA

Well, I'm scared, but I'm not sorry.

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wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 53.

Rhonda sees straight through Earl's clumsy attempt at match- making. She can't help but smile. ‘Earl grins sheepishly.

MOVE IN on Rhonda -- her and Val?

, 63

Nestor, Viola, Nancy, and Miguel nervously crowd around Val, Earl, and Rhonda. Viola holds her yappy dog which perioc- dically snarls and snaps at people. Pham Van is on his CB radio trying to contact Burt and Heather. MIGUEL You serious, Val? You think we're not even safe here in town? VAL Ask me that after you meet one. I think we- should all get the hell out while the getting'’s good. NESTOR Why not just take a Number Ten pick axe and give it one good whack...? , : VAL

“Nestor, damn it, these things are bigger than an Airstream trailer!

Nancy rushes out.

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PHAM VAN — Can't reach outside the valley. You know, because of the mountains.

higher then...so they mutated...and

they got so big they just sank tight into the ground and fell asleep... But now continental drift has brought them to the surface, ready to be harvested by the ancient alien meat growers who planted them here.

Everybody stares at her, then they smile, realizing she's pulling their legs.

w/M wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 55.

63 CONTINUED: (2)

. VIOLA My goodness, Valentine, once they see the road is out and the phone lines are down, someone will be along to look in on us. Don't you think?

We see the utility truck still parked near the landslide blocking the road. REVEAL, on the far side, a telephone maintenance truck is now parked, emergency lights flashing -- and nearby, amid phoneworkers' climbing and repair gear, two more hard hats lying on blood-soaked ground.

The crowd is still jabbering away. Rhonda speaks over them:

Val shakes his head, and marches over to the topographic map on the wall.

The spots he indicates describe a line leading along the valley straight toward town.

a

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65 CONTINUED:

We hear an a eerie SHRIEK from outside. Something shoots in through the window, striking Earl in the chest!! Earl flails frantically at it -= but it’s only Melvin's basketball. We glimpse Melvin outside, doubled over with laughter. Earl grabs the ball and hurls it viciously back, but Melvin easily dodges it.

; (off their blank looks) »eethe dirt...the loose soil that makes up the valley floor. But they can’t move through solid rock. I think we should travel west to the mountains.

Nancy rushes back toward Pham Van's, still looking.

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We're CLOSE on Melvin as he circles around the back of Pham Van's, bouncing his basketball, mischief in his eyes. We can hear the townsfolk inside.

Then, to Melvin's astonishment, the steady rhythm of his bouncing basketball suddenly stops. The ball just goes flup and doesn't bounce back up to him. He looks down. No ball! Just swirling dust at his feet. .

Everyone jumps as we once more hear an ear-shattering SHRIEK from Melvin. Earl snarls and heads for the door, Val right behind hia.

Val and Earl are well ahead of the other townsfolk as they march around to the side of Pham Van's. But where's Melvin? Nothing out here but the oppressive, hot desert silence. Then they hear a soft shuddering whimper -- from above. There's terrified Melvin, halfway up a telephone pole, clinging to.it desperately.

Val and Earl freeze in their tracks and glance at each

other, realizing instantly what's up. Without a word they leap desperately in opposite directions. Like a breaching whale, a creature roars up through the earth right where they were standing, great mouth gaping open, slimy tentacles lashing in all directions.

he vew GRBS. (06/21/88) 58.

The townsfolk scatter, some heading for their homes, including Viola and Nestor. Others scramble over each other as they pile back into Pham Van's. The telephone pole shudders. Melvin falls and scampers for the nearest hiding place, a corrugated tin storage shed near Pham Van's.

Val, Earl, Rhonda, Miguel, and Pham Van rush in.

Quiet! QUIETI!

Miguel and Pham shut up. Then we hear something new -- the building itself creaking and groaning like a ship. The liquor bottles behind Pham Van's bar vibrate and clink. The creature is moving beneath the building. The people freeze like mannequins. Now we can hear its pig-like snorting. Pham Van and Miguel react as the awful smell percolates up through the floorboards. Val signals them to keep quiet. Finally, the creaking stops.

Rhonda addresses the group in an intense whisper:

Everyone stands stock still -- and sweats. But, then, slowly we become aware of a faint, yet oddly familiar sound.

Squeak, squeak, squeak -- Mindy on her pogo stick! They all scramble to the windows.

There she is, a€lone in the vacant street, Walkman blaring in her ears, merrily bouncing along to a rock 'n-’ roll beat.

ANGLE - PHAM VAN'S STORE 72 Thoughts of personal safety vanish as the horrified people

lean way out the doors and window; and shout with one voice: ° CONTINUED —

. 75

se = GRBS. (06/21/88) 59.

MINDY!

Get off your pogo stick!

Get in here, girl!

Run, Mindy! ANGLE - MINDY 73

She can't hear them over her Walkman. A tell-tale puff of dust spurts up not fifty feet from her!

ANGLE ~ PHAM VAN'S STORE 74

Val sees Mindy has only seconds left! He vaults straight out the window and charges toward her! Right behind him come Earl and Rhonda.

ANGLE - NANCY . 4 75

As she rounds a corner at the opposite end of town. She spots Mindy, then sees Val running. She starts running.

ANGLE - MINDY | 76

She's lazily bouncing in circles -- squeak, squeak, squeak. She goes wide-eyed 4s she rotates to see Val coming at her like a mad bull, arms outstretched. The asphalt under her pogo stick cracks and -=-

Val tackles her, both of them tumbling head over heels. She scrambles up, rubbing her skinned elbow and yelling:

Val claps his hand over her mouth. She goes wide eyed as she sees: her pogo stick standing straight up in the cracked asphalt! Then it is sucked down like so much spaghetti!

Nancy rushes into frame, hugging Mindy. Val signals her to be quiet. They sit uneasily. Where's the creature? Suddenly the pogo stick erupts out of the earth right in their midst!

Val runs one way, Nancy and Mindy the other, heading up the street toward their house. Val scrambles up onto his pick~up

wy ee

truck! The creature rams the truck, rupturing a tire. As it shakes the truck violently, Val spots Rhonda and Earl, now standing uncertainly halfway between him and Pham Van's.

Rhonda and Earl hesitate.

But Earl now hears something behind them! Down the street, a little wall of cinder blocks framing Viola's driveway suddenly topples over.

ANGLE - LOW CAMERA - RHONDA AND EARL . my _ 77

CAMERA charges toward them. Earl swerves toward Pham Van's, but’ Rhonda ia cut off! She heads toward the next nearest , haven:

The storage shed where Melvin is hiding. It sits in a vacant, weed-choked lot. Crashing through the weeds, Rhonda has almost reached the shed when she is suddenly brought up short and slams face down in a cloud of dust!

She can't get up!! Something's got her! She's caught in an old rusted barbed wire fence, lying almost flat, hidden in the weeds. Some strands have come loose and are curled up like vicious concertina wire.

Barely has she taken this in when -- the ground caves in under her! She rolls wildly to one side as hook-tentacles snake up, missing her by inches! She keeps rolling-crawling- scrambling -- anything to get away from the awful maw -- but gets her legs hopelessly tangled in the barbed wire. She freezes. The creature feels around where she was.

She calms herself, pulling gingerly at the wire, working tensely to free herself but -=-

The creature's mouth slams shut on the fence. Like a spider sensing something caught in its web, the monster knows it's on to something. Its hook-tentacles shoot forward to snare three feet of fence, then the creature lunges up and out,

swallowing that three feet in a big "gulp" and yanking Rhonda violently toward it! She screams, pants ripped, legs slashed and bleeding! GULP! She's dragged even closer.

The truck shakes and shimmies as Val‘s creature tries to pull it down. Val sees that Rhonda's in trouble. He searches frantically for a weapon -- and finds one -- a CHAIN SAW! He leaps as far from the truck as he can and hits the ground running, yanking furiously on the saw's starter cord.

Rhonda is in a dead panic, thrashing helplessly in the barbed wire. The beast takes another gulp of fence, wrenching her within inches of a probing hook-tentacle! Suddenly we hear a nasty ROAR as Val's chain saw swings in, slicing the squirm ing tentacle in half, spraying gore everywhere! The creature unleashes an unearthly shriek, and the other tentacles recoil. The severed one writhes like a beheaded snake.

Val yanks off Rhonda's boots.

She frantically. claws at her belt. But in mere seconds:

Tentacles snake out to regain their grip on the fence. Val grabs the saw and starts slashing wildly, but this time the hook=-tentacles snag it and wrench it from his grasp. It slams to the ground, motor dying. The monster readies itself for the lunge that will suck Rhonda in. Val grabs her under the arms and pulls. Rhonda wriggles wildly to get out of her wire enmeshed pants.

The creature lunges! Rhonda pulls free! She and Val tumble backward. The creature gets only a mouthful of Rhonda's jeans.

The next instant the second creature explodes up through the ground right next to fallen Val and Rhonda! They roll sideways, come up running, and sprint for Pham Van's along an old wooden sidewalk.

-~ — a —- 5 - « — me ee a

| 83 ~~ ,

. UAB. (06/21/88) 62.

Earl flings open the front door. Val and Rhonda race toward the porch. Right on their heels the creature ripples the boards like an ocean wave!

They dive through the open door of Pham Van's. The rippling boards zoom on past it. Earl quickly eases the door shut.

.

Earl turns to breathless Rhonda.

It's a tense, edgy group. Every movement made is in slow motion, every word is a whisper. They gaze grimly out the windows at the silent, deserted, heat-shimmering main street.

Val gingerly dabs iodine onto the cuts on Rhonda's legs. She doesn't even wince. —

She smiles at hia.

She gazes at him. He looks away. Over at the bar, Pham holds up a new pair of pants for Rhonda.

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* 84

wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 63.

Grateful for something to do, Val eases over to get the pants. Rhonda looks after him. Then she becomes aware of someone staring at her. It's Earl, giving her a big Cheshire cat grin that says "What did I tell you?"

Pham hands the pants to Val. Then Pham and Miguel reach Simultaneously for a soda bottle and -= knock it over! It rolls all the way down the bar as a flurry of desperate hands try to stop it. No good. It rolls off the end and -=- CRASH!

Everyone freezes. Sure enough the building shudders. Floor boards creak and bend as searching tentacles thump and scrape along under the floor. People close their eyes, not even breathing. Finally the noise subsides. Everyone relaxes -- a little.

‘EARL

(shakes his head). oy They got the patience of Job. They just sit and goddamn wait til they hear something that sounds like lunch. We need a plan.

RHONDA

Well, we can take my truck then.

They all shut up when they hear Viola's dog yapping in the distance.

Up the hill across from Pham Van's, the old trailer looks

perfectly peaceful. Except Viola's dog keeps yapping. Then we hear panicked Viola. ,

CONTINUED ©

w/e

wd6.3 GRBS. (06/21/88) 64.

Everyone gazes out the windows tensely.

We hear a loud whap! The dog's bark simply changes to piercing yelps. It would be funny except --

The trailer suddenly bucks upward, hit fron below as though by a pile driver! Again and again the unseen creatures slam into the frail structure.

The trailer is finally knocked right off its foundation! I[t tips over and tumbles all the way down the hill! As the dust

Clears, all is silent. A huge hole is torn in the trailer'‘s floor. Viola's possessions are scattered everywhere.

Everyone stares in shock.

. VAL

Gotta do something. Gotta get the bastards!

Man, what the hell can we do to those things?

CONTINUED |

ns M4

wdo.d GRBS. (06/21/88) 65.

. EARL Well, we're sure as hell not going to sit here being quiet for God knows how long. . Are we?

a

(pause) We can do it. I mean, if we have to, right?

Everyone turns away from the windows, gingerly sitting down, glumly pondering this possibility. There is a long silence.

Then suddenly -- ROAR! The silence is shattered as Pham Van's big freezer compressor suddenly comes on.

Pham runs to the freezer. Its on/off switch is buried behind stacks of soft-drink cases. He tears at‘ them like a madman, toppling them this way and that. Earl and Val join hia.

But right behind Pham, the floor BUCKLES UP, a monster's snout BURSTING THROUGH and engulfing one of his legs! The creature starts. to back down into the jagged hole, dragging screaming Pham with it. Val, Earl, Rhonda, and Miguel grab Pham’s arms but are no match for the monster. It shakes and spins him like some gigantic dog, effortlessly throwing them off, relentlessly pulling Pham down. ~ The hole in the floor is too small for Pham to fit through! As one leg goes down, the other is bent hideously backward. Pham screams and screams as jagged wood tears into him, bones snap, ribs crack. The others grab him again but are utterly helpless. With vicious, powerful jerks the creature yanks his mangied body down. The last thing we see is his foot, now folded back past his head, and he's gone.

Val is wild with helpless anger.

The floor bulges up in another place! A second creature! Then a third, coming RIGHT UP UNDER THEM! Earl sprawls onto the bar. Rhonda springs onto the shelves in the middle of the store, knocking groceries everywhere. Val and Miguel climb up shelves which cover the rear wall of the store.

wao.s GRBS. (06/21/88) 66.

CONTINUED: (2)

The whole building shakes and shudders, dust powdering down from the ceiling. Flailing tentacles are everywhere, slashing open food packages; clouds of flour fill the air!

Val spots a hatch in the ceiling.

Earl leaps from the bar to the rear shelves. Val and Miguel Slide sideways till they're beneath the hatch, then use the shelves as a ladder, climbing up to the hatch. Val pounds on it frantically.

In the middle of the store, Rhonda leaps from shelf to shelf, trying to get closer to where Val is. Soon she reaches the last one, balancing precariously. But a creature tips over the first one! The shelves topple like dominoes, crashing. - toward Rhonda. She is half catapulted, half jumps right through an open window, ripping through the screen.

Val sees what's happened. With maniacal strength he smashes open the hatch and climbs out onto --

Val rushes to the edge of the roof shouting:

He looks down where Rhonda fell. She's not there. He hears a whistle and is relieved to see:

Rhonda is perched as high as she can get on the water tower. near Pham Van's. It's maybe twenty-five feet tall, a simple wood frame holding a big galvanized tank. The wooden legs stand on big concrete anchors buried in the ground.

Melvin peers terrified out the shed door, up at the guys on Pham Van's roof.

necee GRBS. (06/21/88) 67.

It's too late. Wham! A creature strikes. The little shed shudders, dust puffing from every old seam. Ina split second Melvin has climbed to the shed roof.

Nancy and Mindy peer to the window, surprised to see the men on Pham Van's roof.

We hear Val shouting to the remaining townsfolk.

VAL ; Get up on your roof! On your roof! 7 They can come through the floor! The store shakes and shimmies. We hear the monster's thunderous crashing from below.

Burt and Heather's place, about a mile from town, is no- nonsense, functional, ugly -- unpainted concrete walls, no yard, chain-link fence. Burt and Heather drive up in their big Blazer and park right beside the house. Hot and tired, they climb out, each carrying a heavy, scoped hunting rifle. Burt peers toward Perfection through binoculars during:

‘ HEATHER ’ I can't believe it. No tracks, no sign, no spoor.

Ce - - =- - - « -~ ~- -— = = me we

a2

wao.364 GRBS. (06/21/88) 68.

The town is a very strange sight. It's as though an invisible flood were in progress, driving people to high ground. We see: Rhonda perched on the water tower; Val, Earl and Miguel on the store roof; Nancy and Mindy on their roof; Melvin on the storage shed; Nestor on his roof.

Val, Earl and Miguel gaze out at thé town, trying to concoct a plan. Suddenly Earl perks up. The men speak softly.

Val stares at hia, incredulous.

por borate down in the store, Pham Van's CB radio squawks oudly.

The building shudders as the creatures again smash through the floor inside, looking for the source of the noise. Val, Earl and Miguel scramble to the edge of the roof.

The CB radio sits on a shelf near an open window. Tentacles are feeling along the wall just below it. Val appears out- side the window -- upside-down. He snatches the radio and is hauled straight up out of frame.

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Miguel and Earl haul Val by the feet back up onto the roof. Val quickly turns down the CB volume. VAL (whispers into mic) Burt, now listen. We found out what's been killing people. Over?

A peculiar cross between bomb shelter and blue-collar den, Burt's wood=paneled basement has all the comforts for post- Apocalypse living. Burt talks on his CB.

A few feet away Heather works at their ammunition reloading bench. She dumps a few hundred empty cartridge cases into a

case cleaner and switches it on. It HUMS loudly as it vibrates.

The groping tentacles swiftly suck back below the floor. TILT UP to see out the window some distance away, a couple of old trash cans topple over as the creature streaks past beneath them, making a bee-line for Burt's.

Miguel points frantically at the trash cans. MIGUEL Oh man, they're going, man! I think they're going for Burt!

Val talks a little louder into the mic. INTERCUT as needed.

W/M wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 70.

Hearing that warning, Burt and Heather go into a well-honed drill. They grab their hunting rifles and take positions at basement windows. Burt scans with the binoculars. He sees nothing. He glances at Heather. She shrugs. Nobody coming.

Val is frantic. How do you explain these things?

CONTINUED -

wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/68) 71.

Burt and Heather exchange looks. Has Val gone nuts? Then they hear a low RUMBLE, growing louder and louder. Tools hanging over the work bench start to shake; the decorative cow skulls on the wall rattle; the overhead lights sway -- and then -- everything stops. Dead silence, except for the humming of the case cleaner.

THEN THE WALL MOVES! The wood paneling bulges slightly. Nails pop out. The wall is pushed again; the paneling cracks. A cow skull] falls. Burt and Heather level their rifles and --

A huge creature pushes right through the wall! Fully half its bulbous, spiked body writhes into the center of the room, great multi-part jaws drooling open, hook-tentacles lashing out.

The three men can hear the chaos over the CB. BURT (V.0.). a Jesus Chri...!

The CB goes dead. The men stare numbly. Then, drifting

across the desert, a soft popping sound. The men perk up;

they know what it is -- distant gunfire.

The gunfire ig DEAFENING as Burt and Heather blast away. Gloppy blood spurts from a dozen wounds, and the creature

’ pulls back a little. The couple keeps firing until magazines

are empty. The creature lunges forward again.

PAN with Burt and Heather to REVEAL a wall of the basement we haven't seen until now -- a wall covered with guns -- hand guns, long guns, riot guns, flare guns, antique guns, military guns, elephant guns.

Heather grabs an HK-91 assault rifle, slams in two magazines, bottoms taped end to end, and opens fire! A hook-tentacle snags her boot, yanking her right off her feet. Burt pumps out eight devastating blasts from a twelve-gauge riot gun, severing the tentacle. Heather is on her feet in an instant. She expertly flops her double magazine over, loading the full one taped upside-down to it, and opens fire again. Burt grabs an AR-15 semi-auto and joins her. They lay down massive fire, virtually disappearing in muzzle flash and smoke. Ejected shell cases clatter and clang all around the room. .

W/M

wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 72.

The guns are empty. THE CREATURE IS STILL COMING! They back down the wall, desperately grabbing weapons one after another: a lever-action, a magnum handgun, even a flare gun which Heather fires right into the creature's mouth. Shrieking in pain, the horrid thing thing KEEPS WRIGGLING TOWARD THEM!

Burt and Heather scramble up over a desk to keep something between them and it. Burt smashes open a fancy glass case holding a huge four-gauge elephant gun. He slams in two gigantic cartridges nearly an inch tn diameter. He fires. The concussion literally shakes the building. The recoil slams Burt back against the wall.

The monster bullets tear monster holes in the monster. Great gouts of curdled blood spew from it -= Burt hit an artery or something. The beast convulses grotesquely, then collapses, deflating like a beached whale. Burt and Heather stagger together and hug each other fervently. They stare dumbfounded at the massive dead horror. Burt suddenly shouts vehemently:

BURT ; . Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room, didn’t you, you BASTARD!

Val, Earl and Miguel listen to the silence hoping for some sign that their friends are alive. Suddenly:

It takes a moment for this to sink in, then the men CHEER -- as guietly as possible.

_ congratulations. Uh, be advised, however, there are four more, repeat, four more motherfuckers. Come back.

Burt and Heather dash out onto the roof, laden with weapons,

ammo boxes and their CBiradio. They hit the deck, assorted rifles and the elephant gun the ready.

W/M

lil

wa6.4 | GRBS. (06/21/88) 73.

Val shouts to everyone:

. VAL They got one! They killed one of the sons of bitches!

Melvin pumps his fist in the air. MELVIN Way to go, dudes!

Nancy and Mindy hug each other.

Perched on his Spanish tile roof, Nestor pours coffee from his thermos and raises his cup in a toast.

Rhonda lets out a WHOOP.

The men sit, temporarily jubilant.

Burt, any chance you can get the rest of them?

Burt and Heather peer from their fortress-like roof. Burt spots earth bulging up near the foundation of his house.

One second, Val.

CONTINUED.

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 74.

He grabs the elephant gun and takes two well-aimed shots -- two deafening BOOMS which echo off the distant mountains. But the bullets bury themselves harmlessly in the dirt. The bulge in the dirt moves calmly away and sinks from view. Heather shakes her head.

BURT * Damn! (into CB) Val, we can't get them. Never figured on having to shoot through dirt! Best goddamn bullet stop there is. Come back. .

The men are disappointed. That's not what they wanted to hear from Burt. Then Earl perks up and grabs tHe CB mic.

But Rhonda interrupts, pointing urgently from the water

Val, Earl and Miguel rush to the edge of the roof and look

' down where she's pointing --

A creature is running its tentacles along the building's foundation. It's a strange, more studied movement than we've seen before.

W/M

wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 75.

They all stare nervously down as the tentacles feel their way along the wall, moving toward a corner of the building. Suddenly Miguel spots something down the next wall.

Another set of tentacles is feeling along the adjacent wall, The two creatures meet at the corner, their tentacles touch- ing rather like ants’ antennae. Then they submerge; tenta- cles zipping into the earth. Nothing happens for a moment.

Then the corner of the building suddenly heaves up a couple of feet. Clapboard siding splits. A warped window shatters. (We don't see the creatures, only the effect of their shoving from below). The men nearly lose their balance. Then the corner sinks back down.

Nancy and Mindy are still huddled on the roof. They don't make a sound. They're startled when the house suddenly groans and tilts as creatures. give it a tentative shove. Nancy and Mindy frantically cling to the peak of the smooth roof. The picture windows shatters. We hear beams POP and CRACK, dishes CRASH off shelves. The front screen door swings open. At last the house slowly settles back down.

The men are watching Nancy's house tensely. MIGUEL They weren't making no noise. Why they bothering them for? VAL (mind racing) They're studying the buildings... trying to figure them out. Rhonda chimes in from the water tower.

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LL5

wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 76.

Straddling the peak of his steeply sloping roof, Nestor

grabs on in panic as the creatures lift the place up slowly!

The roof warps, Spanish tiles shatter and rain down on the ground.

This causes a flurry of activity. Tentacles snake around where the tiles fell. We hear creatures crash through inside, snorting and huffing. They attack the house in earnest, shaking it violently, pushing the front wall out till it falls flat. The roof collapses on that side! Nestor can‘t hang on! He slides all the way down, landing across a window on the flattened wall. The next instant he's grabbed and pulled through the window, right into the ground. He SCREAMS !

DOLLY along the ground, heading toward the storage shed where Melvin is. All we can see is dirt, but we can can still hear Nestor screaming UNDERGROUND! His screams get more and more

faint as DOLLY ENDS on:

CLOSE ON horrified Melvin as he rocks back and forth autistically. ‘

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88)

Nancy comforts Mindy.

Rhonda turns away.

Val, Earl and Miguel stare in horror and disbelief.

Miguel

crosses himself. They're in worse trouble than they thought.

Burt and Heather's truck is parked in. foreground.

The couple

is up on the roof in background. Burt prowls along the edge of the roof with the elephant gun. Heather mans the C.B.

VAL (V.0.)

We're in deep shit over here. Let's change that plan.

A hump of dirt rises near the base of the house.

the rifle to his shoulder and squeezes off a shot.

moves away from the house.

Burt jerks The hump

Still moving away, the hump of dirt passes under the side-

walk, rippling the flagstones gently.

w/mM wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 78.

121 CONTINUED:

The hump of dirt passes under Burt and Heather's truck, rocking the vehicle slightly.

The truck's security alarm starts BOOPING! Burt and Heather Stare down helplessly as the noisy truck is furiously attacked by the frenzied creatures. Dust flies as metal rips and tires shred.

Val, Earl and Miguel listen in disbelief to the distant truck alarm. It finally sputters and dies.

They've hit rock-bottom. They sit in helpless, desperate silence.

Over on the storage shed roof, Melvin is losing it: MELVIN ' Hey, you better think of something, man! You gotta do something!

Miguel nods in agreement. Val and Earl stare at him, incredulous.

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 79.

Val just stares at her.

Then -- CRASH! The store shudders, creaks, and groans. The creatures are back. One corner of the store lifts up, beams splintering. Then another corner lifts up! The roof tilts like the deck of a storm-tossed ship. From now on the monsters shake and ram the building almost constantly. Hanging on tight, the men peer over the edge.

Meanwhile, Rhonda tries her desperate best to be logical:

RHONDA

Look, the situation hasn't changed. We still have to get to solid rock. There must be some way!

. MIGUEL Hey, Val, quiet, man!

Jesus. It's slower than hell.

w/M wd6.4 : GRBS. (06/21/88) 80.

122 CONTINUED: (2)

But Val is warming to the idea.

~

They stare grimly, momentarily stuck for an idea. Then:

W/M

wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 81.

CONTINUED: (3)

Miguel grabs Earl and points down at little garden tractor in a jumble of Pham Van's equipment and tools near the side of the store.

The store takes a heavy hit. The front porch collapses with a terrific crash.

Val scrambles to the highest point of the sagging roof and

shouts to Nancy.

W/M wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 82.

Earl grabs the CB mic.

Val and Earl have lowered Miguel down to a window sill right above the garden tractor. He has used his kerchief to tie the steering wheel to keep the front wheels straight. He

jams the throttle open and signals thumbs-up to Val and Earl above. :

Val and Earl stride purposefully toward the opposite end of the roof. Realizing they have the same idea, each one tries to edge ahead of the other.

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Earl raises a fist: The Challenge. They do scissors-rock- paper. One, two, three. Val loses.

Val glares at him. Earl's obviously determined.

Miguel leans out precariously and pulls the tractor's starter cord. Nothing. On the second try it starts. He slams it

into gear and sends it out toward open desert. The store

shakes under Miguel, almost knocking him off the window sill,

as two humps of dirt pursue the noisy tractor.

A “spout” of dust erupts near the foundation as the creature

beneath zooms away toward the new sound. Nancy whispers:

The CB radio squawks:

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 84.

Earl is poised to leap. Val steps up and slaps him on the back.

EARL “= Don't worry about me, jerkoff.

Val instantly elbows Ear] hard in the stomach. As Earl doubles over, Val springs off the edge of the roof.

LOW CAMERA pursues the garden tractor as it bounces along.

Val charges across the vast open area that separates him from

the bulldozer. We can hear the tractor droning along in the background.

The tractor suddenly takes a bad bounce and flips over! The engine dies. Total silence.

Earl, Rhonda and Miguel have seen the tractor take a header.

W/M

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Val's crunching boots seem incredibly loud in the sudden silence. He hesitates, glancing over his shoulder. He's totally out in the open, halfway to the bulldozer. Should he run back or go forward? He decides to go for the bulldozer.

All four creatures are now heading for Val. INTERCUT four Slightly different LOW CAMERA ANGLES. speeding over the

ground, racing after him. He strains to the limit, breaths coming in painful rasps -=- but the creatures are closing in

on him with chilling ease.

Everyone watches in horror.

Val hears her and stops dead. So do the creatures. Maybe twenty feet away, their giant snouts poke up out of the ground: one, two, three, four. Val stands trembling. The creatures softly shuffle back and forth, searching blindly for him, hook-tentacles feeling everywhere. One tentacle sweeps toward Val's boot. He manages to lift his foot just in time, letting the tentacle pass beneath. He balances precariously like a flamingo.

EARL It worked! They can't find him! (pause)

Okay, okay...uh...we gotta make some noise...a lot of noise! HEY, YOU SORRY SONS OF BITCHES, COME AND GET ME...11!!

He starts jumping noisily up and down. Miguel joins in, cursing the monsters in Spanish.

W/M

139A

143°

wd6.4 . GRBS. (06/21/88) 86.

Rnonda kicks and shouts. But it's obvious they need some-

thing louder. She spots the aging outlet pipe coming from

the water tank. Bracing herself, she kicks at it with both feet. It finally gives way at a rusted joint. A torrent of water blasts out, thundering into the dirt.

All the creatures wheel about in the dirt and zoom off toward

town. Val breathes a big sigh of relief and sprints to the bulldozer.

EARL That did it, girl! Goddamn good thinking!

A mass of tentacles and snouts swirl through the big puddle

where the water is falling. The creatures’ breathing throws up spouts of muddy water. Rhonda looks down nervously. Earl calls reassuringly from Pham Van's:

EARL

Don't worry. No way they can lift

that tower. I mean it's really

heavy. INSERT - CONCRETE POOTING 143 The dirt begins to cave in around the tower's footing. The creatures are digging the dirt away! BACK TO SCENE ) 144

The water tower tilts ever so slightly, creaking and groaning! Rhonda frantically grabs a handhold. —

Val lands in the driver's seat and turns the engine over -- it doesn’t start!

Sete & oes

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 87.

The old machine starts. Val slams it into reverse and backs up toward the semi trailer.

The water tower is starting to tilt seriously. Water spills over the top edge of the tank, drenching Rhonda.

Val has used heavy chains on the back of the bulldozer to jerry-rig a hitch to the semi trailer. Now he scrambles back into the driver's seat. He guns the engine, wrenching the old semi trailer from years of dried mud and tumbleweeds. Ancient tires disintegrate. Rusted wheels screech and complain -- but it moves. Val lets out a whoop and heads full-tilt for town. He's suddenly shacked as he, sees:

Rhonda's in big trouble. She scrambles to the high side of the tower platform. The tower's going to tip over at any moment! It's roof slides off and crashes into the street!

On Pham Van's, Miguel and Earl are tearing apart the swamp cooler, throwing pieces of it off the roof, trying to distract the creatures, but they can't compete with the noise from the water.

In BG the bulldozer rumbles toward the tower at top speed -- an excruciatingly slow eight miles per hour.

The tremendously heavy water tank suddenly tears loose, Sliding off its platform, nearly carrying Rhonda with it. She ends up hanging from a cross beam as the water tank Splatters like an enormous egg below, sending a small tidal wave down the street.

The remains of the tower tilt crazily nearly forty-five degrees. The bulldozer grinds closer and closer. Rhonda tries to climb up, but the jostling and shuddering of the tower keeps her dangling precariously. Suddenly she falls!

And lands in the dirt. The creatures zero in on her! She turns wildly and leaps for the blade of the approaching bulldozer. The blade is only inches off the ground but val swiftly raises it, lifting Rhonda high into the air just above the grasping tentacles! ;

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wd6.4 GRBS. (06/21/88) 88.

As Rhonda climbs down into the cab, Val heads the bulldozer over to Pham Van's and stops. Almost as soon he does, creatures attack, a frenzy of tentacles grabbing at all sides of the massive earth-moving machine, slithering into the treads. Val and Rhonda watch this nervously as Earl] and Miguel quickly clamber from the roof down into the protective steel belly of the semi trailer.

Val mentally crosses his fingers and sends the bulldozer roaring forward. It effortlessly tears loose from the tentacles, grinding one to pulp in its treads. The creature shrieks in pain. The humans cheer! At last they've got the upper hand!

Melvin dances merrily, and noisily, on the metal rooftop.

As the unseen creature thrashes around inside the shed, the walls topple outward and the roof drops to the ground like a pancake. Melvin has lost all self control and just keeps screaming. Val pulls along side, jumps down onto the tread, and reaches out to Melvin. But just as they join hands, the creature hits the roof from beneath, dragging it several feet. Val is yanked off the bulldozer and lands with Melvin on the roof!

The creature slams into the roof repeatedly, but the corrugated metal is both light and resilient. It bends, but the frustrated monster can't get enough “bite” to tear through it. Val and Melvin straddle the peak of the roof,

prying desperately to hang on as it heaves up, bucking like a ronco.

Earl scrambles into the bulldozer driver's seat and heads after them at full throttle, the big diesel roaring.

Melvin and Val prepare to jump onto the bulldozer, but just before it reaches them the roof suddenly starts to slide like some mad flying carpet, carried from beneath by a creature! Val hangs on like a rodeo rider, struggling to keep fear- crazed Melvin from tumbling off.

W/M wd6.4&5 GRBS. (06/21/88) ° 89.

The roof zigs and zags, spins and twists. Melvin and Val won't be shaken loose. Earl does his best to head it off, but it's hard to predict which way the roof will scoot next.

The roof careens alongside the edge of a dirt-walled drainage ditch, then suddenly skitters sideways and plunges over the edge. Melvin and Val tumble to the bottom. As they jump to their feet:

val sees, almost right above them, an exposed pipe which

Spans the ditch. He shoves Melvin toward it. They leap up and grab the pipe, pulling their legs up as high as they can. An instant later, the creature blasts through one wall of the ditch, roars past beneath them and burrows into the opposite wall! a

Earl brings the bulldozer to a thundering stop next to them.

Nancy and Mindy huddle together on their roof. The upraised scoop blade of the bulldozer comes INTO SHOT with Val riding it. He helps them step across into it.

Burt is using a hacksaw to cut lengths from a heavy vertical Pipe to which his TV antenna was anchored. Heather works with the sections Burt has already cut off. She is filling them with gunpowder from reloading cannisters and hammering the ends shut -~ they're making bombs.

Then they hear rumbling. What is it, more Creatures? They're surprised by the odd sight of the strange contraption approaching.

Val climbs up on the bulldozer roll cage so he's about even with Heather and Burt. A creature occasionally slams into the underside of the bulldozer or the semi trailer, rocking them slightly, throwing up clouds of dust.

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wd6.5 GRBS, (06/21/88) 90.

. BURT In a minute.

He grabs a coil of blackpowder cannon fuse. He cuts off a length and stuffs it in the end of one of the pipe bombs during: VAL Come on, Burt, we can‘t hold still long. They're damn smart and getting smarter by the minute.

Burt hefts the finished bomb.

Just then the bulldozer starts to tilt sideways, creatures digging dirt away beneath it. Earl guns it forward out of the depression they're making.

Burt and Heather are impressed. They rush around the rooftop, gathering food, ammo, guns, the finished bombs, handing them to impatient Val who hands them down to people in the semi trailer during:

He holds up two rifles to Heather, the HK91 assault rifle and another elephant gun.

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wd6.5 GRBS. (06/21/88) 91.

CONTINUED: (2)

Burt nods. Everyone on the bulldozer and semi trailer shouts:

Oust flies up. The bulldozer tilts. Earl guns it forward again. Heather and Burt grab a few more things and leap down into the semi trailer.

BURT . rn I wouldn't give you a gun if it was World War Three.

Earl pilots the strange looking contraption out into the desert. Burt and Heather watch their fortress-home recede.

Heather puts a consoling arm around him.

The bulldozer easily lumbers along the really rough road we saw Val and Earl's truck struggle over the other morning.

As they come closer we see Burt and Heather riding “shotgun,” he sitting out in the bulldozer's scoop, she on the rear of the semi trailer, elephant guns at the ready. Val, Earl and Rhonda are in the cab.

It's late afternoon, sun casting dramatic shadows across the beautiful desert. We are WIDE on the bizarre vehicle, .

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wd6.5 GRBS.. (06/21/88) 92.

resolutely grinding along not far from the cliffs, nearing the mountains ahead.

As they scan the desert, the people are feeling like they may get out of this after all. Earl calls back to the people in the semi trailer.

As they top a gentle rise, Burt excitedly points ahead.

Everyone cheers. But then Heather points up ahead to one side.

Perhaps two hundred yards from them, a huge cloud of dust

wells up from behind big boulders.

. MIGUEL What else could it be?

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Earl shoves the throttle all the way. The engine screams.

We MOVE IN through the cloud of dust. Dirt is flying by the ton out of an eight foot diameter hole in the ground. A huge mound of the tunneled-out dirt is already piled high. The creatures are digging a tunnel -=- but why?

We watch the bulldozer rumbling along. It seems unstop- able. The mountains and safety are barely a mile away --

when the EARTH CAVES INI! THE BULLDOZER PLUNGES NOSE FIRST INTO AN UNSEEN PIT DUG JUST BENEATH THE SURFACE!

The machine ends up half-buried at a steep angle. The semi’ trailer is right on the edge of the pit. Everyone is shaken, bruised, bloodied. Val, Earl and Rhonda look frantically for Burt, who was riding out front in the scoop. They're relieved to see him clawing his way out of pit. Val hauls him up and all four of them now leap into the semi trailer. As they come to rest, Val slowly realizes what's happened.

The idling bulldozer engine coughs and dies. There is a moment's crushing silence.

Then the dreaded digging begins. Dust boils up around the semi trailer -- creatures digging from below! The semi trailer shakes and shudders, slowly sinking. The people huddle together in sheer panic. Val and Earl grab the

nearest of Burt and Heather's guns and fire wildly, hope- lessly, down at the dirt. Ricochets whine into the distance.

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Burt grimly digs in an overloaded knapsack for one of his pipe bombs. He leaps up between Val and Earl and lights the fuse, looking for a target.

He tosses the bomb at some churning earth and dives back into the semi trailer.

KABOOM! The explosion throws up a big plume pain fr and rocks. We hear a new, very strange sound of pain from the creatures. The semi mi trai er nstantly stops shaking. The creatures have stopped digging. All is quiet.

The people peer up over the edge of the semi trailer, looking all around. Then:

P.O.V. THE GROUP ~- DISTANT CREATURES 161

Numerous spurts of dust mark their paths as they race madly away, fanning out from the semi trailer.

BACK TO SCENE “ 162

Earl's already staring down at the bulldozer.

Val looks around.

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163 P.O.V. WAL = ROCK OUTCROP 163

Toward the cliffs he sees a big rock outcrop.

164 BACK TO SCENE 164

Rhonda points in the opposite direction from where Val is looking. RHONDA Here they come! They're coming

back!

Heather unexpectedly fires two deafening blasts from her elephant gun at the approaching creatures, then shakes her head, frustrated. They're still coming.

. EARL Jesus, Val, it‘s pretty far.

_ Then, when the explosion happens... if it drives them away again...we all run like goddamn bastards! —

(to Earl) Pardon my French.

Wham! With a jolt the semi trailer begins shaking and shuddering again -- sinking, sinking.

MELVIN

What if it doesn't scare them? What if they don't run?

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164 CONTINUED:

Glances all around.

ready. Val squats in front of tear-streaked Mindy.

(off her nod)

And don‘t worry, they can't get us. once we're on those rocks.

MELVIN ‘ I don't know, man. They're too fast! You can't outrun them, no way!

As Burt readies another bomb, he pauses to hand bug~eyed Melvin a huge Ruger Super Redhawk 44 magnum handgun.

Melvin's eyes bug out further. Burt lights his bomb.

' BURT (cont'd) Heads down!!!

He hurls the bomb. Wait. Wait. WHOOOM! Again we hear the creatures' unearthly shriek of pain. Rhonda's on her feet before the rocks stop falling. She spots the creatures.

Earl lets out a wild war WHOOP. It's infectious. CRANE UP with them as everyone piles out of the semi trailer like soldiers out of a trench -- they charge across no-man's-land.

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Melvin runs like a demon. He tries to shoot at the first thing he sees but the gun just clicks over and over -- empty.

Enraged, he doubles his speed, trying to overtake Burt.

Mindy can't keep up. Nancy tries to pull her along. Val and Earl swoop in, grab Mindy under either arm, and carry her between them. .

ANGLE - THE CREATURES . 165 The ground heaves violently as the retreating monsters

angrily wheel about and charge back after the humans.

Big slabs jutting this way and that -- a rock.iceberg ina . sand ocean. The people scramble onto it amid whoops of joy

and relief. Melvin charges up to Burt:

. MELVIN You asshole! There's no bullets in this gun! BURT

Got you moving, didn't it?

Burt's line gets a laugh from people, but then tentacles burst up on all sides of the rock, probing, feeling. The effect is instantly sobering. Burt swiftly grabs out his remaining bombs =~ six of them -- and holds one ready. But they're in no immediate danger.

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ry WE ed

166 CONTINUED:

: HEATHER What's the matter with you? What are you talking about?!

As this sinks in, Burt loses his cool, igniting an argument.

BURT _ You two jackasses hauled us way the hell out here...!?

Burt! Those animals would have killed you!

Everyone stares in surprise at normally quiet Nancy.

There's a long, grim silence. Everyone sits glumly. Finally, Burt picks up a bomb and contemplates it:

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CONTINUED: (2)

Heather puts a soothing hand on his shoulder.

But now Earl brightens a little.

The others react. Is Earl nuts?

In the open desert, a rock lands. Then another. Val and Rhonda are throwing them from the rock outcrop.

Val, Earl, Rhonda, and Burt have moved away from the main group to another section of the rock outcrop where intervening boulders will protect everyone from an explosion.

Earl has tied a bomb to some nylon rope from one of Burt's knapsacks. Burt places the other bombs safely out of the way behind a ledge. Meanwhile, Val and Rhonda keep throwing rocks. Soon, the ground shifts.

Burt has his coil of fuse.

EARL

I don't know... They're pretty quick...fifteen seconds?

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Burt nods, expertly eyeballing a fifteen second length and snipping it off. As he stuffs it into the bomb:

EARL

What the hell is that, anyway? BURT

Cannon fuse. EARL

~

What do you use it for?

The bomb is ready -- it's moment of truth. Earl digs in his pocket for the lighter -=- but Val has it. Val nervously leans over to light the fuse, but then frowns as he sees how Earl is holding the rope.

: VAL . Come on, you're not going to do your lasso thing...?

Val shakes his head and lights the fuse. Earl whirls the bomb on the end of its rope like a lasso, and lets it fly out as far as he can. Then he starts pulling it back in along the ground like a fishing lure. Rhonda stares at her watch as they all sink down behind the protective boulder.

Suddenly a snout subtly surfaces and gulps down the bomb. A tense two seconds later -- KABOOOM! Bullseye! It's a volcano of gory creature parts. They splatter all over! The remaining creatures shriek and race away again. The people cheer wildly.

cut TO:

Val, Earl, Rhonda, and Burt prepare to try again. This time Val has the rope and a new bomb. Rhonda stands by him, ready with the lighter. Earl lobs rocks out into the desert.

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Rhonda shakily lights the fuse. Val heaves the bomb out and Starts trolling. The creature swallows it. Everyone drops down behind the boulder, Val impulsively grabbing a second bomb. They tense with anticipatory glee -- but the creature suddenly spits its bomb back out!. It sails back right over their heads. It strikes the rocks above them, skittering down a crevice and landing in -~ BURT'S PILE OF BOMBS!

Val, Earl, and Rhonda scatter. Burt dives backward over a rock ledge.

BABABAMMM!! All the bombs explode, throwing rocks every- where. The creatures streak away. Val, Earl and Rhonda sprawl into the dirt, half stunned... 4

When the panic is over, Val and Earl realize where they are -- fifty yards out in open desert! So is Rhonda, off at an angle from them! Only Burt is safe on the rock outcrop.

And the creatures are coming back fast!

The stranded trio starts back for the outcrop, but the Creatures burst up ahead of them -- one blocking Rhonda's path, the other two cutting Val and Earl off! The creatures roar toward their easy prey!

Val and Earl freeze. The ground bulges as the creatures *skid" to a nalt not ten feet from them. Rhonda stands stock still some fifty feet away, eyeing her own creature.

Over on the outcrop with the main (group of people Heather sizea up the situation.

; HEATHER ‘Make noise. Everybody! COME ON!

Everyone starts hopping up and down, yelling, screaming, and Clapping. Burt even runs a few feet out from the rocks, firing a pistol into the dirt.

The crowd keeps up the ruckus. The creatures are distracted by the noise, but this time they don't automatically go after

CONTINUED ©

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it. Their big snouts turn uncertainly this way and that. But they just stay where they are. Their hook-tentacles slide out, feeling all around. Earl whispers:

Heather takes careful aim with her elephant gun.

But before she can fire, the creatures mysteriously sink from view. Val, Rhonda, and Earl remain frozen. What the hell is going on? Nothing happens <-- then =

A HUGE HOMP OF EARTH suddenly wells up near Rhonda. It sinks back down as fast as it appeared. It's like the creature suddenly lifted its whole body almost to the surface then submerged again. Another hump rises and falls right near val and Earl. There's a pause as the men whisper:

The creatures try another random “barrage” of humps, some coming perilously close. They know they'll eventually topple their prey. One comes so close to Val and Earl that pebbles roll down its sides onto their boots!

More humps rise and fall. Val gives in. He signals Rhonda, gesturing with the bomb. She understands. He'll set it off, ot poor away the creatures, and they'll all run back to the outcrop.

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CONTINUED: (3)

Val digs for the lighter. Doesn‘t have it. Earl digs for it, too. But he doesn't have it either! They go dead pale. How can that be? They look across fifty feet of deadly open ground -- trembling Rhonda holds up the lighter!

Over on the outcrop, Burt shouts:

Val signals to Rhonda to throw the lighter. She nods. But just before she does, A HUMP STARTS RISING DIRECTLY UNDER HER! She fights to keep her balance =-- struggling to keep from taking that single step which will instantly tell he creatures where she is.

But there's no hope. The hump jerks higher. Her boots slip down the gravelly side! Instantly the creature twists toward her, its hungry mouth erupting out of the dirt. She screams and dashes for Val and Earl. They run to meet her. The other creatures surface. The trio is cut off. from the rock outcrop! ,

Val and Earl link up with Rhonda and they all run madly while Rhonda tries to light Val‘’s bomb fuse. But suddenly val yanks the bomb away.

He veers off in a new direction. Startled Earl and Rhonda. have no choice but to follow. As they desperately try to catch up to Val:

Earl looks up ahead. They're headed right for --

The massive cliffs. Earl's eyes bug out. In seconds they'll be right at the brink with nowhere to run.

CONTINUED -

nw

.As they skid to a stop at the very brink, val breaks off the bomb fuse, leaving only one inch of it. He whirls to check the progress of the advancing creatures.

He holds the bomb out to Rhonda. She instantly tries to light it. He grabs her wrist so hard it hurts.

The charging creatures are almost underfoot. Finally Vai pulls Rhonda's hand over to light the fuse. Instantly he hurls the bomb as far as he can, behind the creatures.

The ground opens under their feet! Tentacles snake toward Val and Earl. A horrid mouth clamps onto Rhonda's boot. She screams as it starts to pull her down.

WHOOOM!! The bomb explodes! The creatures shriek in pain, instantly releasing their prey and racing away from the painful shock wave in the only direction they can --

Right out through the face of the cliffs!i! The huge, shrieking Creatures seem to hang in mid-air for a moment, their grotesque bodies undulating in pain. And then they fall! And fall and fall -- a thousand feet!

The creatures land on massive jagged rocks, exploding like immense, horrid watermelons. Multi-colored gore festoons the whole cliff face.

ie to see three tiny figures standing at the top of the c .

Val peers down at the distant creatures for a long time. Then he notices Farl and Rhonda are staring at him. Where the hell did he get an idea like that? After a moment: —

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172 CONTINUED:

They turn and head back toward the others. They laugh as they realize how stealthily they are walking. Val starts taking big, exaggerated stomping steps. Rhonda and Earl follow suit. The trio goes off arm in arm, stomping merrily, hopping like frogs, etc.

. DISSOLVE TO:

val and Earl roll two scavenged truck wheels down the street toward their own truck; which is up on jacks, two wheels missing.

Mindy races past excitedly.

A highway maintenance truck is rolling into town followed by a police car. The townsfolk happily swarm around the MAINTENANCE MEN and POLICE OFFICER who gape at the destroyed town. .

Val and Earl eagerly start bolting on one of their new wheels.

, EARL - People? Hell, National Geographic. VAL

Sell the movie rights. We're going straight from blue-collar to white- collar.

CONTINUED -

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173. CONTINUED:

Rhonda pulls up in her truck, leans out and snaps their picture with a top-of-the-line Nikon.

Well, yeah! There's going to be major research up here. First thing is to get some pictures of that one we dug up. ‘ oy

An awkward pause. Finally she extends her hand to them. Val just gives it a quick shake.

She gazes at him, just a hint of something in her eyes. Earl springs to attention. Is the boy blind? Then Rhonda snaps out o Ce

. RHONDA . Well...see ya.

They nod. She. drives off. Earl stares at Val who starts putting the second wheel on the truck.

CONTINUED.

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173 CONTINUED: (2)

Earl freezes as a bell goes off in his head.

Val glares at Earl for a moment.

VAL , Earl, get real. What does she need with a guy like me?

Earl is dumbfounded.

EARL ; What was that? All this time she's not good enough for you. Now, suddenly, you're not good enough for her? God, my work is never done. You don't decide if you're worthless, she does. But you gotta give her a Chance!

Val lowers the jack letting the truck down.

Earl stands there fuming, mind racing. A last ditch idea hits home -- we see a devilish glint in his eye.

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173 CONTINUED: (3)

Earl hops into the truck.

happen?

Earl starts to drive off. Val springs into the passenger seat. Through the truck's rear window we see Val raise his hand in The Challenge. They do a round of scissors-rock=- paper -- but it's a tie. They go again. Another tie. They keep playing and tying as they drive off into the distance and we --