EXT. THE GASWURKS NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT
The chef and a few waiters notice Hal's bus in the alley as
they come out back door for a puff.
INT. BUS
Hal sits at the wheel caught in the horns of a dilemma.
HAL
Prime directive number two, it ain't my
responsibility. Just some creepy little
dude. Probably not even an alien. That's
it; just some kid what eats too much pot.
That'll make you glow.
The OLD DRUNK approaches his open window.
DRUNK
Spare change?
HAL
Sure, why not?
As he reaches into a pocket the old man wanders off giggling
to himself. Someone starts BANGING ON THE BUS DOOR.
CHEF
Hey Lighter, choo in dere? The band's
been lookin all over.
BACK OF THE BUS
Hal comes around, rolls out the bike and grudgingly starts
unloading gear.
HAL
Yeah, yeah. I'm on it.
A joint falls from his pocket as he bends over.
ANGLE ON GLOWING JOINT
HAL - O.S.
Hello? Where did you come from? Oh
yeah...it's from that green-dudes stash.
He sits down on the bumper and pulls out Mr. Zippo while
continuing his conversation with himself.
HAL
Gotta feel sorry for the little dude. Not
sure how I'd feel crashing on some weird
ass planet.
ANGLE ON
Homeless and dumpster divers mixed with punks, kids with
spiked purple hair and body piercing, people in suits, etc.
HAL - O.S.
And this is about as weird as it gets.
He fires up Mr. Zippo, but again stops short.
HAL
Whoa, what am I thinking? That dude was a
major violation of both prime directives.
Duh, good riddance.
The Zippo finds its mark. As Hal holds his breath, his eyes
roll back and he collapses, his consciousness exiting to the
sound of TEARING VELCRO and floating away from his body
below. After a BEAT, he's floating in a sea of BLACK. Spots
of sparkling light appear, swirling to the point of vertigo.
HAL'S POV
Shooting into space with an overwhelming speed, he stops
suddenly. Hanging suspended, he gazes down on Earth then
descends into a TUNNEL, falling faster and faster, surrounded
by stars blurring into horizontal streaks of light, then a
cylinder of energy. Like traveling through a tube of neon he
falls. At blinding speed the sides of the tunnel dance by
hypnotically until
ANGLE ON
his astral body lands with a belly-flop on a membrane-like
substance. Hearing strange sounds through the sticky haze, he
collects himself. Somewhere in time and space he bounces
through rocks and forest as if in low gravity towards what he
finally makes out as a lame Sonny and Cher tune.
ASTRAL HAL
Dude, you'd think I'd at least trip to
descent tunage.
He recognizes he's back at Mikey's. Some marines have a sound
system mercilessly blasting at the now closed mine entrance.
ASTRAL HAL (CONT'D)
Poor Mikey. Nobody can stand that kinda
torture for long.
Spotting some smoke, he moves to find marines feeding the
flames engulfing what was Mikey's cabin. Helicopters and a
makeshift camp are barely visible through the haze.
ASTRAL HAL (CONT'D)
Damn, if there's a hell, this is it. All
that's missing is the devil himself.
He spots Marion.
HAL
Marion? No way. This must be a dream.
Marion squints at the strange apparition.
MARION
Hal? No way.
SERGEANT TROY
This shit's getting us nothing but
migraines. Where's my intel order?
As Hal floats toward Marion the scene turns ominous, mushing
into a swirl of lights that morph into ghoulish faces. Loud
BUMPS and MANIACAL LAUGHTER replaces all other sounds. The
faces continue morphing into horrible zombies, then merge
into a singular, terrifying DEVILISH SPECTRE - THE DWELLER ON
THE THRESHOLD.
DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
You are in my domain now.
Hal freaks, trying to pull back with nowhere to go.
HAL
What do you want?
DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
You brought an enemy. It must be
destroyed. You must be destroyed.
HAL
What the hell are you on about, dude?
The Dweller lunges, sending Hal twirling into the void,
disoriented. The Dweller presses.
DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD
Hell...yes, it must be hell! More
suffering. Fear. More death!
Hal shakes violently as he's surrounded by the lunging
spectre.
HAL
Go away. Leave me, aaaargh!
EXT. GASWURKS NIGHTCLUB/CONTINUOUS
Hal's on the ground behind the bus in a state of frenzied
delusion, the old drunk trying to bring him around.
HAL
...stay away...
DRUNK
Hey buddy, nobodies gonna hurt ya.
Hal sits up groggily holding his head.
HAL
I'm seriously losing it. I just had this
weird-ass dream. Mikey's place surrounded
by army dudes. Marion locked in a pen.
DRUNK
I think you need a drink.
Hal accepts the drunk's old whiskey flask.
HAL
You're the bum keeps askin for change.
The old man pulls a handful of gold coins from his pocket.
DRUNK
Giggle, I'm not asking for change, I'm
asking if you want it. Here, take it all.
HAL
You're not making sense. What should I
expect from an old drunk?
DRUNK
If'n more people helped each other, we'd
all be better off. People gotta learn to
trust in their hearts.
Hal takes a drink from the bottle.
HAL
Hey, this's water...
DRUNK
Giggle, haven't touched a drop in years.
Gettin rid of my attachments.
HAL
Attachments? That's what that dumpster
diver dude was on about.
DRUNK
Attachments keep pullin ya back to this
crazy place. Gotta give'm up. Hee-hee,
all I got left is this ol body, and it
ain't got much time left.
HAL
Attachments. Damn dude, my boat sunk,
this weird-ass glow-in-the-dark dude ran
off, and Marion...
This is Hal's moment of truth and it hits hard.
DRUNK
Still so sure it was a dream?
HAL
Marion. I think she needs help. It's like
I can feel her calling out to me.
FREDDIE - O.S.
What the fuck do you think you're doin
Lighter?
Freddie and Barton storm out of the club.
BARTON
The label's going to be here any minute
and he's napping in the fucking lane.
Hal gets up, dusts himself off and help the old man up.
HAL
Thank you old dude. You may just have
saved me from a fate worse than death.
Hal turns to the band members.
HAL (CONT'D)
Gosh Freddie, I'm real sorry. If you want
your gear setup...
Hal gets on his motorcycle.
HAL (CONT'D)
...fill your boots. I got a damsel in
distress to rescue.
The bike starts on the first try and he's off.
EXT. MIKEY'S MOUNTAIN TOP - NIGHT
REALLY BAD MUSIC blares as Marion huddles alone, cold, hurt
and afraid. She tries to get Butts attention as he walks by.
MARION
Sorry about the ape crack. And the moron
one. Come on let me go please.
BUTTS
Not on your life sister. We got a score
to settle. Sides, Serge promised I could
have you after he's done.
MARION
Have me for what?
Butts makes a smooching gesture and laughs as he goes on with
his business.
MARION (CONT'D)
This is all Hal's fault. I'd turn him in
if I knew where he was. No, kill him
first, then turn him in.
Even though the Marines either hold their ears or wear ear
muffs, the noise is getting to everyone; short attention
spans, snapping at the slightest provocation, etc.
SERGEANT TROY
Where the hell is my intel order?
LIEUTENANT BALDWIN
Time to change the tune? Play a little
HAARP?
SERGEANT TROY
Harp music will help exactly how?
LIEUTENANT BALDWIN
That's HAARP, High Frequency Active
Auroral Research Program. The world's
largest radio transmitter just north of
here in Alaska.
SERGEANT TROY
Do we pipe in the movie-of-the-week while
we're at it?
LIEUTENANT BALDWIN
You're missing it Troy. We use it for all
sorts of things;
starting tornadoes, earthquakes, it sees
into underground bunkers. It can scramble
people's brains or make anyone, from a
single person to whole nation, do
anything we want.
SERGEANT TROY
Of course. How else could Jr. get
reelected?
LIEUTENANT BALDWIN
Exactly. Coming from Alaska, we don't
need the intel order. We bounce a sub
space beam through the sat array and
focus it into the sound system here...
SERGEANT TROY
You heard the man, put in the call!
Johnson runs off to the Giant Chinook.
LIEUTENANT BALDWIN
...scan the bunker for life signs, lock
in and with a bit of luck, shut down
their equipment and fry their brains.
EXT. LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO MILITARY BASE - ESTABLISHING
The President travels with his Secretary's of State and
Defense, Brother Ignatius, an aide and a couple of ARMED
GUARDS through a high-tech complex to a high-speed, tube
train with MJ-12 ID on the side.
SECRETARY OF STATE
...one more time. A race of ET's landed
on Earth about 400,000 years ago. They
come from a planet called tAzoonia that
does a 3,600-year orbit of the Sun.
PRESIDENT
That's where you're losing me. How do
they survive? If they go that far from
the sun their planet must be like ice.
SECRETARY OF STATE
That's where you have to do a rethink.
Heat comes from inside the planet, not
the sun. All it does is draw the heat out
where it gets trapped under the ozone
layer. As long as they're in sight of the
sun, they have heat.
Once boarded, everyone buckles up. The door slides shut and
with a jolt the train travels out of Los Alamos. Military
personnel are seen doing their business through the windows.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Their ozone got a hole, like ours. After
some experiments they found powdered gold
plugs it. When they ran out of their own,
they set up a mining colony here. Gold
gets ferried to a way-station on Mars,
then to their planet when it comes close.
The train breaks into a brightly lit tunnel, picking up a
tremendous speed.
PRESIDENT
And where are these gold miners now?
SOLDIER
In a way, they're everywhere sir. They
needed mine slaves so they cloned an
indigenous Earth being with themselves.
Humans and Grays are what's left. The
tAzoonians themselves evacuated 500 BC.
PRESIDENT
And they're due back?
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
In about a thousand years.
SECRETARY OF STATE
That's what 9-11 was all about. Our
shuttle program fell back so the Grays
used one of theirs to pick up the last
gold shipment. 9-11 was the only way we
could shut down all air traffic and
guarantee they went undetected.
EXT. SEATTLE CITY PARK - NIGHT
Mona leads oKee, dressed in DOLL CLOTHING with a Mona makeup
job, to a park bench. He glows only a little now. People rush
by, ignoring him as they do all homeless. The SANDWICH GUY
stands close with a white plastic bag dangling between hands
held in prayer, muttering with eyes closed.
MONA
Wait right here. I won't be long.
The plastic bag swaying back and forth mesmerizes oKee.
MONA (CONT'D)
Don't bother about him. He can't talk.
A well-dressed lady, leash and white plastic bag in hand,
stands in the middle of the park. oKee watches intently as a
dog at the business end busily makes a steaming pile. When
done, she picks the do up with her bag. oKee switches focus
from her bag to the Sandwich Guy's. They are identical.
The Sandwich Guy sits beside oKee. Carefully opening a loaf
of white bread, he removes two pieces. He pulls out a package
of processed cheese, putting a slice on the bread and
returning the wrapper and remaining cheese to his bag. He
opens a bag of potato chips, neatly placing some on top of
the cheese before finishing his sandwich with the top slice
of bread. He stops short of taking a bite when he notices
oKee staring transfixed. He fiddles in his bag, pulling out a
large pickle that is offered to oKee. oKee glances to the
lady with the dog, then to the pickle. Sandwich Guy shrugs,
proceeds to eat the pickle and sandwich.
OKEE
Confused everything here is. I'm
forgetting something must do.
A couple walks past having a "disagreement."
GIRLFRIEND
If you really loved me you wouldn't have
anything to do with her anymore.
BOYFRIEND
But honey, she's my grandmother.
OKEE
Love, yes that's it.
The dog speaks telepathically as it walks by.
DOG
You want love?
OKEE
Huh?
DOG
Love is having someone to pick up your
shit for ya. Now if you'll excuse me, I
gotta finish walking my human.
The dog drags its master on through the park.
OKEE
Love is here wrong. I am crazy going.
What to do?
SANDWICH GUY - O.S.
Follow your heart.
OKEE
Heart? Yes, something about heart...
Sandwich Guy gestures down an alley to a glimmer of light.
OKEE (CONT'D)
Diamond heart! Yes, follow I must.
MONA - O.S.
Beebee my love, Mona's got a big
surprise...
FAVOURING MONA
The Sandwich Guy eats alone as Mona approaches with a few
weltering roses. Sandwich Guy shies away as she proceeds to
pound on him with the flowers then a flurry of bony fists.
MONA
Beebee? What have you done with my
beebee!
| |
