PLANET OF THE APES Written by Sam Hamm FADE IN: 1. EXT. STARFIELD - NIGHT A sprinkling of STARS against the black backdrop of endless space. We TILT DOWN - down, through nothingness and more nothingness, until - BLAZING COLORS - reds, blues, sizzling whites - explode across the sky. A SECOND BURST erupts - then a THIRD - and we continue to TILT DOWN until a familiar sight dominates the screen: 2. THE STATUE OF LIBERTY We're not in outer space after all - just New York City. Another round of FIREWORKS lights up the sky, and off in the distance we hear CHEERING. SUPER TITLE: 4 JULY 1998 3. EXT. TIMES SOUARE - NIGHT Packed streets; the whole city seems to have turned out for the show. Drunken revelers, tourists, hookers and hustlers, cops on horseback - greeting each new pyrotechnic display with WHOOPS of giddy hilarity. 4. EXT. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS - THE PROMENADE - NIGHT Manhattan just across the harbor, Lady Liberty to the south. Young COUPLES in love, FAMILIES with kids - they're all lined up six deep at the Promenade railing, CLAPPING AND CHEERING. 5. >EXT. ROOFTOP - SPANISH HARLEM - NIGHT A dozen or so TEENAGE KIDS up on the roof, necking, smoking, drinking beers, playing loud MUSIC - all GRINNING at the fireworks. One of them LOOKS UPWARD at the sound of a far-off WHISTLING . . .Suddenly, his face is BATHED in RED LIGHT. A SCREAMING comes across the sky. A FIREBALL streaks down from above . . .. . . and it stems to be coming DIRECTLY TOWARD HIM! With a yelp of fear, he dives to the tar-and-gravel surface of the roof. The other kids turn, SEE WHATS COMING, and join him there. 2. 6. EXT. PROMENADE - THAT MOMENT PANIC in the crowd as they see the fireball approaching. It looks as though it's going to slam smack into Manhattan. 7. EXT. TIMES SOUARE - THAT MOMENT CHAOS. PANDEMONIUM. Times Square turns the color of MOLTEN LAVA as the fireball streaks past overhead, so close it almost seems you could reach up and touch it. The cheers have given way to hysteria ... 8. EXT. PROMENADE - THAT MOMENT ALL SPECTATORS have now abandoned the Promenade. The sky's ablaze with light. It's high noon - at midnight. The FIREBALL slices downward from the clouds, clearing the Battery, nearly shaving the top story off the World Trade Center. It slaps into the harbor with the percussive force of an exploding bomb. 9. EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT THE KIDS ON THE ROOF, slackjawed at the light show. A beat - then they begin WHOOPING and APPLAUDING WILDLY. 10. EXT. NEW YORK HARBOR - NIGHT A vast, red-hot cloud of SCALDING STEAM rising from the water . . . and spreading across the night sky until the cityscape of Manhattan is completely obscured behind it. FADE THROUGH TO: 11. EXT. NEW YORK HARBOR - DAY The harbor is congested with ships. COAST GUARD CUTTERS; two oceanographic RESEARCH VESSELS; a CONTAINER SHIP, half again the size of the Exxon Valdez; and a FLOATING CRANE. MILITARY HELICOP- TERS are circling lazily above it all. The decks of the various vessels are swarming with people - not just crewmen, but military observers, government bureaucrats, civilians - and all eyes are on the CRANE as the chain begins to rise. A CHARRED, BLACK MASS breaks the surface of the water. 3. It's no meteorite. It's a MACHINE - of inexplicably baroque design, with ornate curlicues, filigree, nodules and modules protruding in all directions. It looks not unlike a pair of Sherman tanks joined together, Siamese-twin style, at the cannon turrets. Or a flying Rorschach blot. 12. EXT. FISHING BOAT - THAT MOMENT - DAY The disgruntled CAPTAIN of a ramshackle fishing boat is watching the action with binoculars. His crew can't set sail while the harbor's blocked, and they've already lost half a day's catch. CAPTAIN That's a weather satellite? One skeptical crewman is reading the Post. The page-one banner head-line screams: "WEATHER SATELLITE NEARLY FLATTENS MANHATTAN" FISHERMAN #1 They don't close off the whole harbor for no damn weather satellite. 13. EXT. HARBOR - ON FLOATING CRANE The crane hoists its cargo high into the air and PIVOTS - swinging the strange alien craft into position over the deck of the CONTAINER SHIP. 14. INT. HOLD - CONTAINER SKIP - THAT MOMENT TECHNICIANS in airtight SAFE SUITS are preparing a great plasticene SHROUD. Once the craft has been lowered into the ship, the shroud will be sealed around it, forming a sterile tent. No one knows what they'll find inside the craft - but they don't want it getting out prematurely. 15. EXT. DECK - CONTAINER SHIP - THAT MOMENT A twelve-foot wall of SCAFFOLDING has been erected around the hold of the ship. MORE SCIENTIFIC GEAR is mounted on it: an X-ray machine, an ultrasound unit, a heat-sensing device, COAST GUARDSMEN clamber up the scaffolding like monkeys, helping the CRANE OPERATOR guide the craft into the hold. TECHNICIANS stare at their various monitors and telemetric readouts. The ULTRASOUND OPERATOR shouts into the hold . . . 4. ULTRASOUND MAN IT'S HOLLOW. IT'S HOLLOW. Jesus . . . THERE'S SOMETHING MOVING IN THERE! A thermal printer spits out a hard copy of the ultrasound screen. A FUZZY, MANLIKE SILHOUETE is plainly visible within the craft. ULTRASOUND MAN Oh man, Herb - this looks like a - An EXPLOSION interrupts him. A HATCH has BLOWN OPEN just beneath the left wing - and now, dangling from its chain, the whole craft begins to ROTATE. Whatever's inside is about to come out. Several GUARDSMEN dive from the scaffolding to the deck. Others are too scared to move. And a couple reach instinctively for their SIDEARMS . . . VOICES FROM HOLD [o.s.] Don't shoot! DON'T SHOOT!! 16. INT. CRAFT - THAT MOMENT A POV shot from WITHIN the craft - looking THROUGH the open hatch at the frenzy outside. As the craft turns, a GUARDSMAN comes into view - clinging to the scaffolding, WIDE-EYED WITH HORROR. In the foreground, a WHITE-GLOVED HAND rises suddenly into frame . . . and an inhuman voice croaks out something that sounds like: VOICE Plleeeeeeeezzz . . . GUARDSMAN I JESUS! WHATEVER HE SEES drives him into a frenzy. He STARTS SHOOTING. 17. EXT. DECK - OUTSIDE THE CRAFT - ON GUARDSMEN A blur of motion. The PASSENGER of the craft, BLEEDING, pitches forward through the open hatch and hangs there, half in, half out. A SECOND GUARDSMAN lunges at the guy with the gun - 5. GUARDSMAN I YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU - They grapple. The CRAFT, dangling in midair, ROTATES AROUND - and the OPEN HATCH DOOR knocks both GUARDSMAN to the deck! Screaming and confusion all around. The CRANE OPERATOR swings the pod hard left, trying to avoid any further injuries. Like a big wrecking ball, the craft slams into the scaffolding, causing it to COLLAPSE. The CRANE OPERATOR tries to HOIST the pod away from the damage. As it rises, we ZERO IN on the dead PASSENGER dangling out of the open hatch. A TRICKLE OF BLOOD runs down the side of the craft . . . . . . and POOLS on the deck . . . where it SEETHES and CHURNS like a living, tumorous organism . . . . . . until a small quantity of BUBBLING PINK ORGANIC SLOP arises from the puddle of blood, and begins to CRAWL AWAY across the deck!! BOOTS sprint past, SPLATTERING the moist pink crawling goo into several discrete globules. But the globules REGROUP, as if driven by some primordial homing instinct, into a single pulsating mass. The undulating blob squirts out a tendril and DRAGS ITSELF across the deck -- over the railing -- INTO THE HARBOR. 18. EXT. FISHING BOAT -DAY The CAPTAIN lowers his binoculars and snorts in disgust. CAPTAIN Your tax dollars at work. - Stow the goddam nets. Let's go home. He takes a last bite of his sandwich, chucks what's left overboard. A SEAGULL spots breakfast and swoops toward the captain's leftovers. It snags a hunk of meat and lets out a startled SQUAWK. The bird flaps its wings furiously, trying to take flight -- -- but a LONG PINK TENDRIL pulls it downward. The keening gull VANISHES beneath the waves as we CUT TO: 6. 19. INT. HOSPITAL - BIRTHING CENTER - DAY An enormously PREGNANT WOMAN is drinking from a water fountain in the hallway of a modern MATERNITY WARD. SUPER TITLE: 12 APRIL 1999 NINE MONTHS LATER She lets out a little SQUEAK. A helpful NURSE rushes to her side. PREGNANT WOMAN I think I felt another contraction! SPLATTERING NOISES on the tiles. Her water's broken. She looks down, lets out a little exclamation of embarrassment . . . NURSE Don't worry, well take care of that. The birthing room is all ready for you. The PREGNANT WOMAN glances down the hallway, where the corridors intersect. Several DOCTORS appear to be in a big hurry. A guy in a suit uses a KEY to summon the FREIGHT ELEVATOR. The elevator opens - and the DOCTORS push what looks like a CHROME SARCOPHAGUS onboard. It's three feet long. On a rolling cart. With a refrigeration unit beneath it ... PREGNANT WOMAN What in the world is that? NURSE Oh, it's . . . it's for preemies. (swiftly turning her around) This way. A SCREAM echoes in the hospital corridors. Not the scream of a woman in labor - this one's a MAN. The PREGNANT WOMAN glances back over her shoulder - just in time to see an hysterical FATHER at the end of the corridor, with ORDERLIES and DOCTORS swarming around, trying to calm him dawn. NURSE This way. Please. She steers the pregnant mom down the hall, away from the commotion. 7. 20. EXT. HOSPITAL- ROOFTOP A HELICOPTER touches down on the rooftop helipad, and a group of SPECIALISTS from the Centers from Disease Control in Atlanta debark. They carry themselves with the natural authority of young hotshots - the best and brightest in their field. Leader of the pack is DR. SUSAN LANDIS, a handsome woman in her early thirties, with a face full of quick, ironic intelligence, insatiable curiosity, boundless good humor. When she's on the job, though, she takes on a crisp, no-nonsense, almost military demeanor - and just now, she is well and truly on the job. She hits the tarmac moving . . . DR.ENGEL Susan! Thanks for coming so quickly - DR. ENGEL is 64, heavyset, distinguished-looking. He's at the head of a phalanx of doctors and hospital administrators. She gives him a warm smile as the two groups head en masse for the rooftop elevator. SUSAN For you? Black plague couldn't keep me away. - What's the latest? Holding at five? ENGEL It was five yesterday, Susan. Today it's - (grimly) I'll let you see for yourself. 21. INT. HOSPITAL - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY The whole gang's scrubbed down and changed into surgical gear. They're looking through a glass window into a maternity ward lined with CRIBS. The room is sealed - and the obstetric NURSES are wearing SAFE SUITS. ENGEL Now get ready for this. I don't think any of you have ever seen anything like it . . . ENGEL gestures to a NURSE on the other side of the glass. She gingerly lifts an infant from its crib . . . pulls the swaddling back from its face . . . Several of the CDC hotshots jump back in shock. The newborn infant is leathery, wrinkled, with liver spots and rotting yellow teeth. It weighs nine pounds. It looks like an EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD MAN. 8. SUSAN I've seen it. Hutchinson-Gilford . . . CDC HOTSHOT Neonatal progeria, right? Accelerated aging in the womb. SUSAN Kids are usually dead by the time they're ten. ENGEL No, Susan, no. If it was Hutchinson-Gilford I wouldn't have called you up from Atlanta. (gesturing to the NURSE) We've got three neonates here, all born today. This one was 3 PM - just over an hour ago. The NURSE leans over a crib, unwraps a baby. It has a full head of oily hair - the acne-covered face of an adolescent. ENGEL This one was noon. Same routine. Baby #2 looks like a sallow, balding, middle-aged man. ENGEL And this one was 7:45 AM . . . Before the NURSE can pull back the blankets a TINY, CLAWLIKE HAND shoots out from the third crib - waving with knobby, arthritic fingers. SUSAN stares compassionately at the ancient, wizened infant. She knows it's pointless, but she can't stop herself from waving back. ENGEL When they're born they look normal. Within twelve hours . . . they're dead of old age. The CDC crew are already BUZZING among themselves. SUSAN - You've had five of these?? ENGEL I told you, Susan. It was five yesterday. ENGEL raps on another observation window - this one curtained off. 9. Inside, a nurse draws the curtain back, allowing SUSAN to see . . . . . . an entire ROOMFUL of afflicted babies, THIRTY OR FORTY OF THEM, in various stages of disintegration. ALL HEADS TURN at a new round of SHRIEKS and WAILING from anguished parents in the hallway. The CDC crew falls deadly silent - ashen-faced. It's as if they've just seen the end of the human race. ENGEL We haven't had a normal birth today. 22. INT HOSPITAL - CONFERENCE ROOM It's been commandeered by the CDC high command, who have taken over every available phone jack to plug their laptops into the net. There are several open pizza boxes on the central table. ENGEL - and we don't know what to do with the parents. You heard what the maternity ward is like. It's bedlam. SUSAN Forget about containing it. it'll be in all the papers by morning. A CDC WORKER, ALBERT, rushes up to SUSAN with a printout. ALBERT Here's what we've got. Eight in Chicago; eleven in Pittsburgh; four in our beloved home town of Atlanta . . . SUSAN Airline hubs. ALBERT - and Jersey is crawling with 'em. SUSAN Let's hope for a contact vector. If it's airborne we're knee-deep in shit creek. 10. ENGEL it's incomprehensible. Hutchinson-Gilford's a spontaneous mutation. How could it be infectious? SUSAN My guess is it's not. If you isolated the mutagen you could reproduce it - transfect the population by virus. Catch the virus, and the mutagen kicks in . . . ENGEL But that would mean somebody had to - SUSAN Tailor it, yeah. The big question is when. If this stuff's had nine months to spread . . . SUSAN looks up at the sound of a choked SOB from across the table. In the midst of all the frantic activity, one of the CDC team, a young woman named DONNA, has totally lost it. She sits frozen over her laptop screen, face buried in both hands. SUSAN goes over and lays a consoling hand on her shoulder. SUSAN Take a break, Donna. Grab a catnap. We'll get by without you for an hour. DONNA No, no, I'm fine. I'll- Just that quickly, her hands are racing over the keyboard again. SUSAN Whoa. That's no suggestion, that's an order. DONNA looks up at her hollow-eyed, TEARS trickling down her cheeks. DONNA Susan, I'm two months pregnant. There's nothing SUSAN can say. Stunned, she sits down beside her colleague. The two of them embrace. 11. 23. INT. CDC - FOUR MONTHS LATER - DAY SUSAN and ALBERT at an electron microscope. The grainy image from the microscope appears on a large overhead MONITOR. There's a tiny tendriled PINK ORGANISM floating among the red and white corpuscles . . . SUSAN That's our vector. ALBERT Whose blood are we looking at? SUSAN Yours. It doesn't like you. You're not going to get pregnant. It's just loitering around with nothing to do. She nicks a switch. The image on the monitor changes. LOTS OF little pink critters, occasionally SHOOTING OUT pseudopods at passing corpuscles - sometimes actually INGESTING them. SUSAN This is me. It's interested. No action yet, but definite possibilities. And this . . . Flick - another new image. Pink blobs everywhere, FEASTING. ALBERT Jesus, it's an orgy! She gives him a tight little cockeyed smile ... SUSAN Six months pregnant. Work to do. Cells to invade. DNA to ruin . . . ALBERT What is it? It's not a virus, exactly. It - SUSAN Albert, I don't have a bleeding clue what it is. There's nothing like it on the books. All I know is, it's awfully good at what it does. She turns off the monitor. They sit there in glum silence. 12. ALBERT That last sample. Was that Donna? SUSAN nods wearily. ALBERT She's still going to carry the baby to term? SUSAN I guess she's hoping for a breakthrough. I guess she's counting on us to . . . The odds against them are too enormous. She can't even say the words. 24. INT. TELEVISION STUDIO - NIGHT A remote linkup site for ABC Nightline. A CAMERA CREW bustles around a bank of MONITORS on which we see live footage of a) a smug REVEREND; b) a State Dept. TERRORJSM EXPERT; and c) TED KOPPEL, at his desk in foreground, the other two composited behind him. REVEREND [an monitor] The year 2000 is upon us, Ted. We're seeing the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. There's no question the last days are at hand. TERRORISM EXPERT [on monitor] It's a simple failure of policy. We've known for years that the international terror network is heavily invested in biological weapons - The THIRD GUEST is SUSAN, taping live right here in the linkup studio, and she's listened to this stuff long enough. SUSAN No. No. This is not something you can buy from your neighborhood arms broker. This is generations beyond anything we can do - TERRORISM EXPERT Yet somebody did it. If it didn't come out of our labs, then - REVEREND All things are possible with God. 13. SUSAN and the EXPERT roll their eyes, let out snorts of frustration. The REVEREND sits there smiling, Buddha-like in his serenity. KOPPEL Reverend, exactly what are you getting at? REVEREND As a nation, Ted, we've denied the sanctity of human life; we've put our trust in scientists, like the young lady here, instead of in God; and now with this horrible plague our own sins are finally coming back to - SUSAN Oh, come on, Reverend. Is it biblical prophecy or is it my fault? Let's make up our minds. TERRORISM EXPERT We'd all love to hear your explanation. SUSAN [on TV] It's not divine retribution. It's not Islamic fundamentalists. I know this sounds absurd, I know it's ludicrous, but it's the only expla- nation that makes sense. (long pause) This plague did not originate on earth. We've been invaded. 25. INT. SUSAN'S APARTMENT - LATER - NIGHT She opens the door, slams it shut behind her, and lets out a GASP. The lights are on. There's a STRANGE MAN in her favorite reading chair, over by the wall of books. He's fortyish, Jamaican, perpetually bemused. He's smoking a pipe. He's made himself very much at home. SUSAN Who are you? DODGE Dr. Landis? He jumps to his feet, shows her what he's been reading. It's a textbook on viruses. The author is SUSAN herself. 14. DODGE I was just wondering why they don't put the author's photo on textbooks. They'd sell a lot more copies in your case. (extending a hand) Raymond Dodge. I watched you on Nightline. You were terrific. SUSAN ignores his hand. She marches to the phone, dials 911. SUSAN Found the popcorn okay, I hope? (into the phone) Hello, I'd like to report a - She stops in mid-sentence - stares at a pair of SUITCASES standing near the door. Her suitcases. She lowers the phone, GAPES at DODGE. DODGE Our plane's leaving in forty minutes. SUSAN Plane? DODGE I packed a couple of weeks' worth. If you need mare things, we can have them sent. SUSAN You've been in all my stuff? What is this? I don't even know who you are! DODGE (patiently) I'm Raymond Dodge, and I'm here on behalf of Dr. Troy -- SUSAN Dr. Troy? Alexander Troy? DODGE From the JPL. You know him? SUSAN I get PBS. 15. DODGE He wants you to come to New Mexico tonight. He has some . . . information that might be of interest to you. SUSAN About the plague? (off DODGE's nod) Does he know about telephones? SUSAN storms to the front door and opens it to usher DODGE out. SUSAN You know, Mr. Dodge, I'd like to help you out, but the work I'm doing here is actually kind of important. I do appreciate the invitation . . . Wincing, DODGE looks past her into the hallway. SUSAN turns abruptly - and finds herself staring at two FEDS in dark suits and shiny shoes, posted on the landing outside her apartment door. DODGE Well, that's just it, Dr. Landis. It's not exactly what you'd call an invitation. DODGE points to the suitcases. The FEDS barge in and grab one apiece. SUSAN is too bewildered to protest. CUT TO: 26. EXT. DESERT - AIR FORCE BASE - DAY Okay, call it Roswell - a top-secret underground facility hidden in the New Mexico desert. The only signs of it on the surface are a series of PLANE HANGARS carved out of a semicircular CLIFF WALL. A MILITARY HELICOPTER slices through the cloudless skies and descends toward a vast MESA at the foot of the cliffs. Great horizontal PANELS set into the door of the plateau slide back to admit it. 27. ~T. HELICOPTER~PAV A USAF PILOT up front; in the rear are SUSAN and DODGE. She's looking about in amazement as the helicopter descends past SENTRY TOWERS and great swiveling ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS mounted in the sheer cliff walls. 16. DODGE looks bored. He's smoking his pipe, paging through a sheaf of computer printouts. For him it's just another commuter flight. 28. RVT. UNDERGROUND COMPLEX - DAY NORAD would be green with envy. everywhere you turn, there's a research team working at a bank of fantastically expensive equipment. It's the sort of place James Bond villains hang out, when they're plotting to overthrow the world. A glass ELEVATOR CAPSULE disgorges SUSAN and DODGE. SUSAN You think you know where the plague originated? DODGE I'll let Troy tell you about it. (to a TECHNICIAN) Dino! Is Troy up yet? DINO You're just in time for his wake-up call. SUSAN (checking her watch) Dr. Troy believes in getting his beauty sleep. DODGE chuckles enigmatically. He leads SUSAN to a nearby lab area, where DINO is rotating a GLASS-AND-CHROME SARCOPHAGUS, seven feet long and REFRIGERATED, into an upright position. SUSAN almost GASPS as the LID pops open. A hiss of FROSTY AIR comes gushing out . . . DR. ALEXANDER TROY climbs slowly out of the cryo-unit and stretches. He's stiff and extremely cold. He's also STARK NAKED. TROY How long? TECHNICIAN 36 hours. How do you feel? TROY Frosty. Any dermal damage? How do I look? 17. SUSAN You look smaller on TV. TROY looks up, sees SUSAN, realizes he's at a social disadvantage. DINO offers him a bathrobe. He pulls it on hurriedly . . . DODGE We can usually talk him into wearing pants. - Susan Landis? Alexander Troy. TROY Dr. Landis! Your great admirer. I'm glad you could come on such short notice. SUSAN (snidely) I had lots of help. TROY I hope the boys weren't too ... abrupt with you. You see, we're on a very tight schedule - SUSAN I can see a lot of tax money at work. But I still don't know what you're doing or why I'm here. TROY You're here because we need you. SUSAN Who's "we"? TROY The human race. 29. INT. LABORATORV~ DAY SUSAN at a microscope, examining tissue and blood samples. SUSAN Yeah. That's it. This tissue's crawling with the stuff. At her side are TROY, DODGE, and another scientist in a lab coat - WELDON STEWART, thirtyish, slightly pudgy, on the nerdy side. 18. STEWART The pink stuff. The vector. It appears to be some kind of self-replicating organic machine . . . all it does is reproduce and - SUSAN - and attack fetal DNA. Have you figured out the coding yet? Do you know how it's programmed? STEWART shrugs helplessly. SUSAN swivels around on the lab stool and fixes the three men with her steeliest gaze. SUSAN Why don't we all just lay our cards on the table, boys? I don't know where you got that tissue sample I'm looking at . . . but I know it's not human. DODGE We should've gone public a year ago . . . we'd be that much farther ahead . . . SUSAN We thought we had it contained. But there was blood loss - from the wound - SUSAN Stop it! Just tell me. In English - !! TROY Susan, there's someone we'd like you to meet. 30. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY GREEN LIGHT floods a sealed VACUUM CHAMBER , visible through a wall of UNBREAKABLE GLASS. On the other side, suspended from a tangle of wires, hangs the FROZEN CORPSE . . . of an ORANGUTAN. In a spacesuit. A bloodstained spacesuit, with a neat round BULLET HOLE in the abdominal area. TROY We picked him out of New York Harbor. About fourteen months ago. 19. SUSAN Where'd he come from? DODGE Best guess right now is an earth-like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. TROY Poor guy. Traveled almost five light-years to earth - and a 19-year-old coast guardsman shot him on sight. SUSAN'S gaze is riveted on the Orang. His eyes remain open even in death. He seems to be looking right at her ... pleading. SUSAN So someone put a diseased lab animal in a spacecraft - and shot it to earth? The men exchange a look . . . CHUCKLE among themselves. STEWART That's what we thought at first. TROY Then Dodge here started playing with the navigational computers. DODGE The math was driving me crazy at first. We count on our ten fingers - base ten. Well, this baby was all programmed in base twenty. SUSAN . . .Fingers and toes. Grins all around. The boys are warming up to SUSAN. They think alike. TROY That was no lab animal. That was the pilot. CUT TO: 3l. AERIAL POV SHOT - THE CRAHD CANYON - DAY A POV SHOT from the cockpit of a supersonic, infinitely maneuverable AIRCRAFT rocketing THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON. We SWOOP, 20. DIP, ARC RIGHT and LEFT, DO A BARREL ROLL - all at nauseating, vertiginous speed, barely avoiding the sheer rock walls on either side! TECHNICIAN [o.s] Okay, I'm killing your left engine! You're going into a tailspin! PILOT [o.s.] DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!! Suddenly we're SCREAMING DOWN toward the floor of the canyon! 32. INT. FLIGHT-SIMULATOR LAB - DAY We're looking at a guy in a GYROSCOPIC SIMULATOR. He wears a VIRTUAL-REALITY HELMET which gives him the aerial-landscape view we've just seen. As he works the joystick, the HARNESS he's strapped into PITCHES and YAWS just as an aircraft would. The simulator is capable of 360-degree motion in all directions, so he's being swung back- wards, forwards, upside down. It's like being in a milkshake machine. He's a hell-raising hotshot of 26, and his name is CMDR. DAVID ASTOR. VOICES call out from the floor below the simulator: TROY ASTROBOY! DODGE HEY, ASTROBOY! ASTOR shaves a sharp turn just a little too close. He lets out a SCREAM. The gyroscopic harness JERKS, BUCKS, JITTERS . . . and comes to a DEAD HALT. ASTOR pulls off his VR helmet, cursing a blue streak. ASTOR Goddammit, Troy, you pinheaded needle- dicked slide-rule sucking son of a mentally defective monkey, you just made us crash on a alien goddam landscape! TROY Sorry! There's someone I want you to meet. ASTOR unstraps himself, climbs down from the gyro unit. He takes one 21. look at SUSAN and turns on the oily charm. TROY Susan Landis? Cmdr. David Astor. Our pilot. ASTOR The gene queen! My pleasure. I thought you were coming in a couple of weeks ago. SUSAN My invitation was lost in the mail. ASTOR Let me apologize for anything my colleagues may say or do. They come from a distant isle where beautiful women are only a myth. He bows formally, kisses her hand - like an over-the-top parody of Eddie Haskell. TROY Astroboy was in the psychopathic ward. The only way he could get out was to volunteer for this mission. SUSAN . . What mission? ASTOR They haven't shown you yet? Follow me. 38. INT. HANGAR - DAY METAL DOORS roll back. BLINDING SUNLIGHT pours in. Inside the hangar, a FORTY-MAN GROUND CREW of mechanics is swarming around an utterly staggering sight. It's a STARSHIP - the same one we saw dredged out of New York Harbor. It's no longer a charred, blackened mass; it's been restored to its full, pristine, butterfly-winged glory. TECHNICIANS are even now buffing it to a high sheen. It looks ready to lift off. The boys can't help themselves. They break into big grins every time they see it. And SUSAN does likewise. 22. SUSAN Oh my God. - Does it fly? TROY (chuckling) C'mon. I'll let you sit in the captain's chair. 34. INT. SPACECRAFT - DAY as they enter. The interior is divided into a number of cramped compartment. The BRIDGE area has a large observation port - and, beneath it, an instrument console which duplicates the one in ASTOR's simulator. SUSAN wanders around wide-eyed. She's actually standing inside an artifact from another world. TROY I was hoping to reverse-engineer the drive - learn to build one from scratch. But the plague tightened up our schedule. SUSAN You mean . . . ? DODGE It was programmed for a round-trip all along. So as long as we've got our boarding pass . . . ASTOR We're gonna fly this sucker right back where it came from! As she moves from the bridge toward the rear compartments of the ship, she sees a row of five chrome-and-glass SARCOPHAGI - just like the one we saw TROY in. SUSAN Cryogenic tanks. So that's why you were relaxing in the deep-freeze . . . TROY The trip's going to take six years. The ship's not big enough for food and water, so - DODGE Well need a good rest anyway. 23. The five SARCOPHAGI are all labelled with the names of their future occupants. SUSAN traces along with one finger - until she gets to the FIFTH chrome coffin, which bears no name. SUSAN Troy. Stewart. Astor. Dodge . . . (pause; smiling) One berth still open. Who's number five? The others just stare at her. It takes her a good three seconds to get the picture. And off her shell shocked expression we CUT TO: INT. INT. MEXICAN RESTAURANT - NIGHT A six-piece Mexican marimba band supplies the soundtrack; a WAITER brings a fresh pitcher of margaritas over to a table near the outdoor patio, where we find TROY, DODGE, STEWART and ASTOR. There's a fifth place setting - SUSAN's - but she's not in her chair. STEWART, potted, is drawing Minkowski diagrams on cocktail napkins. He's explaining relativity to ASTOR, an unreceptive student. STEWART Now we accelerate for a year - travel at max speed for four - and in the last year, we decelerate. Of course, due to relativistic time dilation, six years for us will be thirty-four on earth. But if we send our findings back by radio, there should still be a handful of fertile pre-menopausal women . . . A gorgeous COCKTAIL WAITRESS slinks past. ASTOR eyes her and claps STEWAWT briskly on the shoulder . . . ASTOR Hold that thought, Stewart. I'm gonna get us a fresh batch of cocktail napkins. He jumps up, dogging the WAITRESS's heels. TROY, meanwhile, is anxiously scanning the restaurant. TROY What happened to Susan? 24. DODGE Ladies' room, I think - TROY That was ten minutes ago. The two of them exchange a nervous look. TROY heads outdoors. 36. EXT. DESERT~ NIGHT She's wandered down from the outdoor patio into the desert. She's out among the cacti, wandering along a dry creek bed, staring at the stars. TROY wanders up behind her. TROY . . . Need a little air? SUSAN I'm sorry. I was just listening to all of you talk about the future ... and I got this awful, clammy sense that the future was all used up. TROY Children are the future. Take them away, and you take away hope. A weird pronouncement, coming from TROY. She looks at him askance. SUSAN You have kids? TROY No. I did, but . . . no. She waits for a further explanation. After a few seconds she realizes there's not going to be one. TROY has some sort of emotional wound that he doesn't want probed; she respects his wishes. SUSAN Why'd you pick on me, Troy? There are others in my field that are at least as qualified. More experienced . . . TROY It's not a flattering answer. 25. SUSAN I'm past caring about politesse. TROY We had three candidates. You were the best - and you had the least to lose. She looks at him as if he's slapped her in the face. TROY The others had families. Obligations, ties . . . reasons to stay behind. SUSAN I had a calico cat once. Till it died. TROY You have a sister in Florida. You've been engaged twice; you broke it off both times. You haven't had a date in seven months - SUSAN Well, Christ, I've been working, haven't I. TROY - which puts you in exactly the same category as the rest of us. We've all had our lives collapse around us. We get on with it. We do our work! Her mood softens a little. SUSAN I don't want the destiny of the race on my shoulders, that's all. (shaking her head) They still line up outside the CDC. Pregnant women, every day. They know there's nothing we can do for them, but they show up anyway -- just wanting to see us, or touch us, or - TROY Susan? If we stay here, we die. If we go there (pointing skyward) - we find an answer, or we fail. But at least we took that one tiny chance we had. 26. SUSAN Which one's ours? TROY turns her around - points tb the southwest corner of the sky. As she searches for the tiny twinkling pinprick of Alpha Centauri, the camera TILTS up - up - upward into the heavens . . . and we DlSSOLVE TO: 37. EXT. OUTER SPACE - NIGHT A BRILLIANT STARFIELD like the one we just left. And in fact we might think we're still back in the New Mexico desert . . . . . except for the BLACK SPACECRAFT~ that appears out of nowhere and comes zooming right at us. The CAMERA WHlP PANS WITH IT as it speeds beyond the ringed splendor of Saturn, vanishing into the icy dark. 38. INT. SPACECRAFT - night TIGHT ON THE INSTRUMENT CONSOLE at the front of the cockpit. Two side-by-side CHRONOMETERS read: SIDEREAL DATE: 11/19/01 21:07:17 EARTH DATE: 07/08/02 11:51:03 Needless to say, the SECOND chronometer is ticking off the minutes at a visibly faster clip than the first. We move back through the ghostly silence of the ship, past lab gear and radio telescopes, to the PASSENGER COMPARTMENT - five frosted-over SARCOPHAGI standing upright in a tow. We see the LABELS on each: ASTOR. STEWART. DODGE. TROY... And, last but not least, LANDIS. 39. EXT. OUTER SPACE - SERIES OF DISSOLVES - THE CRAFT Past the solar system and well on its way to Alpha Centauri. The ship is now at full velocity, and space-time is WARPING around it. The stars look distended, almost liquid ... as if the universe had begun to MELT. 40. INT. SPACECRAFT - COCKPIT - NIGHT Through the observation bay, THREE SUNS burn bright~y. We've entered another solar system. The CHRONOMETERS read: 27. SIDEREAL TIME: 03/29/16 01:94:30 EARTH TIME: 06/21/33 12:02:56 Then: a sudden GRINDING NOISE as gears come to life. LIGHTS flick on in the darkened craft; OXYGEN hisses through ventilation grates . . . TROY's cryo-unit expels a little CLOUD OF CONDENSATlON as the seal breaks. The chrome & glass lid retracts and he floats out, WEIGHTLESS. He grabs an upright, takes a deep breath, and pulls himself down to the floor so his VELCRO SHOES can take hold of the carpet. ASTOR [o.s.] Man, I've woken up with some ugly-ass critters in my time, but this - TROY looks up. ASTOR is floating HORIZONTIALLY two feet overhead. TROY Asshole. I'm even glad to see you. ASTOR lets out a Texas whoop, REVELING in his own weightlessness. He KICKS OFF on a bulkhead, launching himself toward the cockpit up front. DODGE and SUSAN are floating out of their coffins as well . . . DODGE Give me a bagel and a New York Times. This gets a LAUGH out of the boys. SUSAN joins in. But then - SUSAN What the hell's that? SMALL PURPLE GLOBULES the size of a poker chip art floating in the air before her eyes. The men look around; they're all-over the cabin. As ate numerous bits of SHATTERED GLASS . . . SUSAN Stewart? All eyes turn to the fifth coffin. The chrome half of the lid is still in place. But the glass is missing, except for a few ragged shards stuck in the frame. It seems to have exploded outward ... DODGE touches one of the purple poker chips. DODGE Blood. 28. They exchange nervous looks. SUSAN peers around a corner... and the bloodless, bone-white corpse of STEWART floats out to greet her. There's a big open GASH on the back of his left hand. SUSAN He must've cut his hand when the glass blew. DODGE Near-vacuum conditions - his bloodstream would've emptied out in a couple of seconds - TROY And it never coagulated. No oxygen. Till now. Stunned silence - till ASTOR sticks his head in from the cockpit area. ASTOR Save it for later. Man your stations. Now! TROY He's our friend, Astor - he's dead - ASTOR He's probably been dead for a decade or two. The rest of us are one hour to touchdown, and we got us a way funky port stabilizer. DODGE Meaning what? ASTOR Meaning we're damn sure lucky we got a pilot on board. 41. EXT. OUTER SPACE - NIGHT A HUGE, BLUE-GREEN PLANET looms before us as the spacecraft hurtles toward its surface, dwindling down into the tiniest of specks. 42. SERIES OF SHOTS - THE DECENT We break through the clouds into a bleak, beautiful, icy landscape of CANYONS and MOUNTAJN RANGES. The ship swoops, dives, pitches as ASTOR feels out the lay of the land . . . 29. 43. INT. SPACECRAFT - NIGHT Our four surviving spacefarers huddled around the observation port. ASTOR God damn. Come on. Gimme something flat! DODGE (at the radar screen) I'm showing a f]at basin - about six acres - nine klicks west. That room enough for you? ASTOR Stand back and watch me work. 44. EXT. MOUNTAIN BASIN - ON SHIP - NIGHT With VTOL rockets blazing the ship descends to the icy, snow-covered plain below. MOUNTAINS surround it in all directions. 45. INT. CRAFT - NIGHT A soft THUNK and they're down - the first humans to land on anothcr planet. The momentousness of thc occasion doesn't escape them. For a few moments they just sit there, staring at cach other, until . . . DODGE Atmospheric readout says it's safe to breathe. TROY Better wear the excursion suits anyway. Well need to keep warm. 46. EXT. MOUNTAIN BASIN - NIGHT The hatch opens. Hydraulic stcps descend. Our rour spacefarers step out of the craft and into their new environment. There's snow and ice everywhere you ]ook. FOUR MOONS of various sizes shine above. Low on the horizon hangs the tiny red orb of Proxima Centauri, the smallest sun in this triple-star system. Because of the planet's orbital angle, Proxima Centauri NEVER SETS. It burns like a perpetual nightlight, bathing the landscape in a dim, dull neon glow. The group communicates by means of RADIO MIKES in their helmets. 30. TROY [filter] I guess somebody ought to take off his helmet. Any volunteers? LONG SILENCE. They exchange looks. No eager beavers in this group. SUSAN [filter] Astroboy? ASTOR [filter] My mama always taught me ladies first. SUSAN rises to the challenge. She twists TWO KNOBS on eithcr side of her collar, breaking the airtight seal. Then she lifts her helmet off and TAKES A DEEP BREATH. Two breaths. She LAUGHS. The others follow suit. Within moments they're all breathing the rarefied air of a new world, and LAUGHING. PULL BACK TO: 47. POV SHOT - FROM ROCKS - ON MOUNTAIN BASIN Their LAUGHTER echoes in the distance. From this rocky perch high above the basin we can see the whole tableau: the ship, its passengers - - and, as dawn breaks over the mountains, we can see something else as well. The unmistakable silhouette of a crude stone-tipped SPEAR in the foreground ... and clutching it, a HUMAN HAND. 48. EXT. MOUNTAIN BASIN - DAY TROY and DODGE are a short distance uphill from the ship, standing over a man-sized PILE OF ROCKS. DODGE pulls a tiny AMERICAN FLAG from his pocket and PLANTS IT at the head of the grave. They linger there a moment saying their silent farewells to STEWART. ASTOR and SUSAN are unloading gear from the spaceship. In the glare of the triple sun, the snow around thc ship's begun to turn slushy. ASTOR Whoa, little lady. Let me carry that for you. 31. SUSAN Enough with the chivalry, okay? I'm not some delicate nower. Crazy as it sounds, women can lift crates just iike men. ASTOR Landis - I happen to likt women. If it was up to me, we wouldte brought four women. SUSAN And one man? - Who's the man? ASTOR Three guesses. By now, DODGE and TROY have come trudging down to join them. The two scientists take seats on newly-unloaded CRATES. TROY Four women and Astroboy. It's macabre. ASTOR Well, like it or not, gentlemen, the four of us just may be humanity's last chance to perpetuate itself as a species. SUSAN is REELING from this line of discussion. Waving htr hands, shaking her head in disbelief, she wanders back to the ship. SUSAN WHOA-A-A. Check, please! 49. POV SHOT - ON THE FOURSOME Now we're watching them from the vantage of an UNSEEN OBSERVER moving gradualy closer past icy boulders, around trees . . . SUSAN Excuse me - boys - I just put the radio box over by this rock. - And now it's gone. NERVOUS LOOKS all around. They hear a BIRD CALL. From among the boulders - awfully close. Then anothcr - as if answering the first . . . DODGE Let's get back in the ship. 32. No debate necessary. The four of them back cautiously toward the craft, scanning the plain, the surrounding boulders. 50. INT. SPACECRAFT - A MOMENT LATER The moment they're inside with the hatch closed, they hear a series of metallic CLANGS against the outtr skin of the craft. TROY Someone's throwing shit at us .. . ASTOR's way ahead of him on that count. He ignites the VTOL rockets. 51. EXT. PLAIN - ON SPACECRAFT Several ROCKS and a crude SPEAR bounce off the ship. We pan down to the ROCKETS blasting fue onto the snowy plain . . . We hear a strange CREAKING noise - and then, without warning, a great big FISSURE opens up under the spacecraft. 52. INT. CRAFT - THAT MOMENT Suddenly the craft PITCHES SIDEWAYS. Everyone in it is THROWN TO THE FLOOR. TROY drags himself up to the console - stares out the viewport at GREAT SLABS OF ICE breaking up beneath them - TROY Jesus Christ. We're on a lake!!! 53. EXT. PLAIN - ON SPACECRAFT - THAT MOMENT The ship's at a 45-degree angle and SLIDlNG RAPIDLY into the icy waters. The hatch blows; ASTOR and DODGE dive out and tumble across the ice to safety. SUSAN's next - - but when she hits the ice, it GIVES WAY BENEATH HER! TROY sees her disappearing into the freezing water - TROY SUSAN!! - and without hesitation, DIVES IN AFTER HER! 33. 54. UNDERWATER SHOT - BENEATH THE ICE She's sinking like a stone. He grabs her, tries to swim to the surface, but CAN'T - she's too heavy. Another thirty seconds and they're goners. The SHIP continues to slide into the water. TROY drags SUSAN laterally to the ship ... catches hold of the open hatch, and manages to PULL THEM BOTH along the exterior of the hull, toward sunlight . . . 55. EXT. LAKE - A MOMENT LATER They break the surface, GASPING. TROY lifts SUSAN out and they flop on the ice, exhausted and hypothennic, TEETH CHATTERING from the cold. Their suits are full of water. Another minute or two out here on the floe, and their suits will be full of ICE instead. SUSAN Sh-should've . . . sh-should've let me . . . TROY You're the most important cargo wete got. (shuddering) Suits full of water - we'll freeze if we - A SPEAR whizzes between their faces and MBEDS ITSELF in the ice. They look around. DODGE and ASTOR have been taken captive by a HUNTlNG PARTY - two dozen SHAGGY, FUR-CLAD STONE AGE MEN. 55. INT. CAVE - DAY In the deepest pocket of a labyrinthine CAVE DWELLING we find our four heroes seated around a fire. DODGE and ASTOR are still wearing their excursion suits, but TROY and SUSAN are bundled up in borrowed animal furs. They're being guarded by a tight circle of WOMEN and OLD MEN. The women chew hides, the geezers chip flint tools. A CHILD paws at the odd fabric of ASTOR's suit; ASTOR slaps back, makes a facc at him. The CHILD breaks into wild, hyena-like laughter. His mother grunts and whacks him sharply upside the head. ASTOR Hey, Troy:, I forgct. Which one oi these guys was the spaceship designer? 34. TROY Look. They're human. That doesn't make them the dominant species. DODGE They're obviously dominating us. ASTOR A bunch of women, Medicare patients - hell. Why wait? We can take 'em right now. SUSAN's been staring off into the distance through all this. SUSAN The men are down at the mouth of the cave, Astor. They're having a council meeting. TROY Probably deciding whether to worship us, or eat us. DODGE With a nice chi-ant-i. DODGE ASTOR Listen. There's a crate of rifles down by the lake If we can get to 'em - if just one of us can get to 'em . . . DODGE pulls out his pipe and LIGHTS IT with a Zippo. The TRIBESMEN GASP, awed and fascinated at the sight of the tiny FLAME. He holds it out for an old MAN to TOUCH. The old man lets out a YELP, and DODGE quickly snaps the lighter SHUT. Almost at once, THREE OF THEIR GUARDIANS clamber off over the rocks to bring this shocking news to the tribal leaders. TROY LAUGHS . . . TROY That settles it. We're gods. DODGE Hey, I'm the god. You three can be my little elves. The TRIBAL LEADERS come hunying into the rear cavern. DODGE rises boldly to his feet, holds up the lighter and demonstates its use. 35. The TRIBESMEN gasp in unison. They start to move in toward the flame - but the merest gesture from DODGE sends them back, cringing ... ASTOR Man. You got this god shit down. The TRIBESMEN chatter and grunt excitedly among themselves. But then, abruptly, they FREEZE - going absolutely silent. Our four captives stare at one another in confusion. A deathly HUSH in the cave . . . Then they hear it. Distant musical notes - the sound of a HUNTER'S HORN signalling the start of the chase - - and suddeniy the TRIBESPEOPLE are RUNNING OFF in all directions, some toward the back of the cave, some toward the front. Five seconds later TROY and the gang are standing there alone and unguarded. 57. INT. CAVE - NEAR MOUTH - POV TROY There's a huge CAMPFIRE blazing in the large vault at the mouth of the cave, and the TRlBE is running around it in a shrieking panic. Some leap out of the cave; others crawl into cramped nooks and crannies. The HORN sounds again - accompanied by a throbbing, warlike DRUMBEAT. TROY and SUSAN emerge, spot the cave entrance just past the campfire - and find themselves staring out at an unbelievable sight. HOVERlNG just outside the mouth of the cave is a WHIRLYBIRD. And seated in it, aiming what looks like a BAZOOKA directly at us . . . .. . is a GORILLA in full military dress! He fires. A canister of TEAR GAS rattles across the cave floor. An instant later, everyone's choking on NOXIOUS GREEN FUMES. 58. EXT CAVE MOUTH - THAT MOMENT A BlLLOWING GREEN CLOUD pours out of the cave - and with it, MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN, who dive out GASPlNG onto tht steep, rocky slopes below. The cave mouth is flanked by gas-masked GORILLAS with guns and prods. One of them yank's on a CABLE . . . ... and a HUGE NET springs up to snare the humans as they come tumbling head-over-heels fiom the mouth of the cave! 36. 59. INT. CAVE - DEEP TUNNEL - THAT MOMENT In the swirling gas it's aimost impossible to see. DODGE has fallen in with a batch of tribesmen who are tacing DEEPER into the cave. They're clambering up a craggy wall toward an AIRHOLE - just big enough to crawl through. SCREAMS and WAILlNG as the tribespeople climb OVER one another in their panic to get out. DODGE stares up at the airhole. It's as if someone's standing outside, opening and closing a TRAP DOOR, letting one human out at a time . . . VOICE [o.s.] PULL! ! 60. EXT. AIRHOLE - ON THE SLOPES - THAT MOMENT Outside, we can see that TWO GORILLAS are holding a wooden PLANK in place over the AIRHOLE. GORILLA I PULL! On command from their comrade, they lift the plank for a couple of seconds. A HUMAN climbs out and bolts off at a sprint - until GORlLLA I, who's posted a short ways off, takes aim with his rifle and FIRES. Skeet shooting ... with humans. 61. INT. CAVE - TUNNEL - A MOMENT LATER DODGE at the airhole. The plank opens. Two grinning GORILLAS stare down at him. Horrified, he leaps back down over the mass of bodies. The others continue lemming-like toward their fates as he races deeper into the cave, looking for anothcr exit. 57. INT. CAVE MOUTH - A MOMENT LATER The rifle-toting, gas-masked APE GUARDS on either side of the cave entrance. The one on the left leans around to have a peek inside;and the red-hot end of a BIG FLAMING LOG, freshly plucked from the campfire, slams squarely into his gut. Dropping his rifle with a shriek, he LOSES HIS FOOTING and goes bouncing off among the rocks. TROY steps out of the cave and heaves his blazing louisville slugger down the side of the cliffs. The SECOND APE GUARD calls out through 37. the thick greenish smoke ... APE GUARD II Cletus! What was that?? TROY HELP! HELP! APE GUARD II climbs down from his perch to investigate. He starts to cut across the cave mouth, but the instant he steps onto the ledge - ASTORS HAND closes around his collar - and sends him slamming to the cave floor! The last thing this ape ever sees is SUSAN, poised above him with a big nasty BOULDER, about to PULVERIZE his SKULL. Grabbing the dead ape's rifle, ASTOR and SUSAN hook up with TROY on the rocks above the cave. As they scan the landscape they can see that they're in the midst of a truly massive operation: FLEETS of TRUCKS and all-terrain vehicles down below ... a veritable ARMY of gorillas and chimpanzees. And in the skies, FOUR MORE HELICOPrERS, FUMIGATlNG all the nearby caves with tear gas. TROY We've got to go up. It's the only way - ASTOR hands him the rifle, claps him on the shoulder - ASTOR Sorry, I'm heading for that crate of rifles. Meet you back here on New Year's Eve. 63. EXT. SNOWY SLOPE - THAT MOMENT HUMANS scrambling down a big open expanse of perfect powder. TWO APES IN SNOWMOBILES appear over the crest of the hill; a NET stretches between the two vehicles, effortlessly SCOOPING UP HUMANS as the Skidoos whiz past. 64. EXT. ROCKY DEFILE - THAT MOMENT APES ON SKIS converge from several directions, FIRING PISTOLS into the air. They're HERDING a group of frightened humans down through a series of PROGRESSNELY SMALLER OPENINGS in the rocks. An APE swings an AXE - severing a SUPPORT ROPE. The snowy ground 38. beneath the humans' feet suddenly DROPS AWAY, and they plunge headlong into a PITFALL - conveniently lined with netting for easy removal of the day's catch. 65. EXT. ROCKS ABOVE FROZEN LAKE - THAT MOMENT MORE HUMANS making their way downhill - including ASTOR, who sticks out like a sore thumb in his spacesuit. A TRIBESMAN collides with him from behind, knocking him off his feet. He gets up cursing - then hears a metallic SNAP arid a howl of PAIN. The TRIBESMAN is writhing, leg caught in a STEEL BEAR TRAP - as ASTOR surely would've been if he'd kept to the same path! He reaches the campsite and the CRATE OF RIFLES. RIPS OFF THE LID. Reaches down - and feels a BEE STlNG on his neck. It's a TRANQUILIZING DART. He barely has time to yank it out before he topples to the ground in a heap. An APE in sun goggles skis up to thd site, stops on a dimc. He gapes in puzzlement at ASTOR's odd garb, at the crate of rifles. He reaches into his designer parka and pulls out a CELLULAR PHONE. 66. EXT. HIGH GROUND - THAT MOMENT TROY and SUSAN keeping low to the ground, working their way from one hiding place to the next, with GUNSHOTS echoing all around them. They take cover amid a cluster of BOULDERS to do some quick recon. If they can make it across a big flat expanse of snow, they might be able to hide out in the rocky cliffs beyond. Unfortunately, APES ON SKIDOOS are crisscrossing the plain, PICKING OFF stray humans . . . TROY TROY If we could grab one of those things . . . An ENGINE guns behind them. SUSAN peers around the boulder: SUSAN Look out. Thert's one coming up behind us. TROY braces himself against the boulder. At the last instant he swings his RIFLE up into the approaching snowmobile's path. WHAM! - the Skidoo keeps going, but the GORILLA stays behind. 39. TROY and SUSAN race toward the abandoned vehicle and climb aboard. As they take off across the snows, a WHlRLYBIRD swoops into view . . . 67. INT. WHIRLYBIRD - MOVING - THAT MOMENT An APE PILOT and an APE GUNNER staring down in SHEER GLEE at the sight of two humans piloting a SNOWMOBILE. PILOT Get a load of this. They're making a getaway! GUNNER Human see, human do! Chortling, they PEPPER the ground below with MACHINE-GUN FIRE. The engine of the hijacked Skidoo takes a hit. It begins to trail OILY SMOKE as TROY frantically ZIGZAGS among the rocks to evade fire. 68. EXT. SLOPES - ON SKIDOO - MOVING TROY and SUSAN GLIDING over the crest of a hill. Their eyes widen in unison. They SLAM ON THE BRAKES - SKID KARD LEFT - - and stop mere feet away from the edge of a PRECIPICE. They're trapped on the brink of a YASWNING CHASM, a thousand feet deep . . . A SECOND WHIRLYBIRD rises up from the canyon, no more than twenty feet in front of them, and BLANKETS THE SNOWMOBILE in a thick shroud of KNOCKOUT GAS. FADE THROUGH TO: 69. EXT. ROAD - ON TRANSPORT - MOVING - DAY An OVERHEAD VIEW of a TRANSPORT TRUCK driving down a frozen, muddy mountain trail. The back of it's outfitted as a big open CAGE, and it's full of HUMAN BODIES. Dead? Unconscious? Hard to tell. Atop the stack of bodies is ASTOR - still in his excursion suit. He wakes up - reacts in horrar and disgust to the animal stench all around him. 70. EXT. OUTDOOR HOLDING PEN - DAY Bare, muddy ground. SUSAN is sprawled there, a couple of feet away from TROY - who's moaning softly, right on the verge of coming around. 40. ASTORS VOICE [o.s.] TROY! TROY!! TROY sits up slowly, aching all over. He sees the TRANSPORT TRUCK rumbling past, with ASTOR in the back. ASTORS HEY, TROY!! TROY tries to answer, but breaks out into a fit of violent COUGHlNG the after-effect of the gas attack. 71. EXT. ROAD - ON TRUCK - THAT MOMENT The chimp driver, MARCELLUS, looks nervously back over his shoulder and slams on the brakes. He climbs out of the open cab and peers into the CAGE - looking for an ape stowed away among the humans. MARCELLUS Who said that? Who's in there? ASTOR Hey. Open this thing up. Let me out of here. MARCELLUS makes no reply - except for a SQUEAK OF SHOCK. He JUMPS BACK as ASTOR rattles the bars. ASTOR Yeah, you, monkey boy. Let me out! Who the hell's in charge around here? MARCELLUS fires a TASER WEAPON - what the apes call a "stinger" - at ASTOR. The human jerks, twitches, and topples over, unconscious. MARCELLUS Colonel Ursus!! Colonel Ursus!! A burly, uniformed GORlLLA marches over to MARCELLUS' truck. TROY turns - and faces ZAlUS with a gaze of harrowing intensity. 111. ZAIUS You didn't know?? My Grodd, Troy - you're going to be a father!! ZAIUS' LAUGHTER BURNS in TROY's ears as we CUT TO: 173. INT. ZIRA'S APPARTMENT - LATER - NIGHT TROY in his evening clothes, ZIRA in a bathtobe; he's woken her up. ZIRA So he's got Cornelius? TROY Cornelius. And Susan. And my . . . He can't even bring himself to finish the sentence. The pain on his face moves ZIRA. She takes his hand. ZIRA It's different for you, isn't it. On our world human males don't take part in child-rearing. They don't even have the concept of paternity. TROY Not so different. Not so different at all. He chuckles to himself, softly, bitterly. She gives him a quizzical look . . . TROY My boy was thirteen. His mothter and I had divorced. it was his weekend with me - only we had a big launch we had to move up, and (long pause) Anyway, he should have been with me. But instead he went on a rafting trip with the neighbors, and . . . he should've been with me. ZIRA And now . . . after all this time . . . you've got something to lose again. 112. TROY I'm going to bring them back, Zira. I'll bring them back - if I have to rip this world apart to do it. Impulsively she KISSES him. He blinks in disbelief. ZIRA I like you humans. You tough little bastards. CUT TO: 174. INT. HELICOPTER - MOVING - DAY ZAIUS and an ORANG PILOT flying over the Forbidden Zone. In the distance, they see a MAMMOTH FLYNG CRAFT, black and moth-winged, executing acrial maneuvers over the mountains. Tht black craft screams off at ungodly speed - vanishes to a speck on the horizon - and returns just as quickly before settling to the ground a mile or two away. An excitcd ZAIUS chucks his PILOT pn thc shoulder . . . ZAIUS There it is. The Mercy Ship! 174. EXT. LANDING PAD - DAY It's only now, seeing ZAIUS's puny copter landing beside it, that we can appreciate the massive scale of the Mercy Ship - it could blot out half a football field. By the time ZAIUS deplanes, a forty-man crew of ORANGS is already clambering all over the great ship, checking it out . . . ZAIUS How's it coming? We're hoping to launch from the Royal Pavilion - on a holiday, if possible. PROJECT CHIEF First of the month, your Lordship. The original plans were still in the central database. ZAIUS climbs into the gondola of a MONORAIL - which transports him up and over the snowy rocks to his top-secret destination . . . 112. 160. EXT. INSTlTUTE OF SCIENCE - DAY A big official building. NEWS TEAMS are massed on the steps outside. NEWS APE I I'm outside the Institute of Scienct, where Alexander Troy, the talkirrg human, has been undergoing a battery of isolation tests. Early word is that Troy has passed with flying colors - he is for real - and in fact I'm hearing that in certain areas, such as aeronautics, his knowledge may even surpass our own! TROY emerges triumphantly from the building, with ZIRA and a multispecies group of APE SClENTISTS in support. TROY WAVES to the cheering CROWDS and is immediately besieged by NEWS APES. NEWS APE I Dr. Troy! Has your story been verified? NEWS APE II Have you signed a book deal yet? NEWS APE III Do you plan to give up your circus act? TROY I'll be holding a press conference tomorrow at ten. I thank you all for your kindness, but I'm very tired . . . and a long way from home. The crowd mobs him as he makes his way to a waiting taxi. He's gone from zoo attraction to national hero in record time. 161. MONTAGE SEQUENCE - TROY AS A CELEBRITY TV NEWS BROADCASTS intercut with personal appearances by TROY: * An opera house; Rigoletto, with apes. The curtain comes down, then rises again for the assembled cast to take a bow. A SPOTLlGHT SHINES on the ROYAL BOX, where a tuxedoed TROY is snoring Lightly at ZIRA's side. She gives him a sharp elbow to the ribs; he stands, smiles, and takes a discrtet bow. The crowd goes wild. * A TV NEWSCASTER, with the oversized face of TROY smiling from the bluescreen over his shoulder: 112. 176. INT. OLYMPOUS BASE - ESTABLISHING - DAY An enormous PLEXlGLASS DOME caps a SHAE~T almost half a mile wide. 113. A hundred feet below the dome, literally DUG OUT of the surrounding glacial mountain, lies the ancient CITY OF OLYMPUS. This is the last surviving vestige of the human civilization that died out Millenia ago. STATUARY of Greco-Roman design - nobly-proportioned HUMANS in athletic poses - dot the landscape, often half-buried by dirt or ice. The architectute might have servtd as a model for our carth~y ancients as well - but where they used stone, these humans built their forums, artnas, and coliseums out of metal and glass. The wholc tffect of the place is disturbingly anachronistic . . . ZAIUS takes it all in from a transparcnt ELEVATOR POD that lowers him from the dome to ground level. The usual coterie of hangers-on waits down below, ready to escort him into the deeper warrens of the city. 177. INT. LEARNING CENTER - DAY A futuristic LIBRARY: two levels of individual carrels ringing a central open atrium, each niche outfitted with computers and electronic gear. There's an ORANG at every desk - ranging in age from sixteen to sixty. As ZAIUS and co. pass through, we see one ORANG studying a 3-D wireframe AlRPLANE DESlGN on his computer screen; * . . . anather wearing headphones, conducting an invisible orchestra; * . . . a THIRD watching a video screen, taking copious notes on Laurence Oliviet in Henry V; * . . . a FOURTH watching The Brady Bunch, scribbling notes just as furiously as his colleagut. 178. INT. DETENTION CELL - DAY A dank chamber without much sunlight. CORNELIUS - in leg irons, his thigh wound infected and festering - hears the FOOD SLOT in the door rattling, and hobbles over. He lifts out his tin plate ... It's covered with fat, chittering, crawly BUGS. He drops the plate, peers through the slot - and sees ZAIUS chuckling at him. 179. INT. MEDIA CHAMBER - DAY A towering WALL OF VIDEO - 144 screens, in a 12x12 grid, each of them picking up a transmission from a different source. Local news broadcasts, simian soap operas and sitcoms . . . 114. . . . and fmaily, a string of transmissions from EARTH. It's this latter group that interests SUSAN, who's sitting glumly in one of a row of plush chairs. There's a complicated bank of REMOTE CONTROLS on the console at her left - and the other three walls of the room are lined, floor to ceillng, with neatly catalogued VIDEOS, DVDS, AUDIOTAPES, etc. As her gaze moves from one screen to the next, she brings up the appropriate AUDIO CHANNEL. We focus in on individual screens with her - FIRST, aerial footage of a taging FIRE churning black smoke into the skies over Los Angeles. NEWS ANCHOR The famous walled enclave of Beverly Hills went up in names today when a thermite bomb detonated in the sewer system. A rival neighborhood took credit for the attack ... Two screens over: a WAR CORRESPONDENT, speaking rapidly in a Middle Eastern dialect, as SHELLS screech past overhead. Behind him, TROOPS nee from advancing TANKS which threaten to crush them beneath their treads. Befort our eyes, an incoming missile hits the WAR CORRESPONDENT's trench - but before the screen goes blinding white, the CAMERA pans over just enough to show us the EIFFEL TOWER. Just past that, we find the President, ducking terrorist bullets at an Oval Office press conference. AND: armed riot cops rousting homeless squatters in what used to be an elementary school, back when there were still kids. AND: Dick Van Dyke, still bickering with Mary Sler Moore three decades into the 21st Ccntury . . . Human society is disintegrating, bit by bit, before SUSAN's glassy, helpless gaze. Just then, a jolly ZAIUS bursts into the room . . . ZAIUS Channel surfing? (chuckling) Personally I go for the cultural fare. Bravo, A&E, PBS - don't like the pledge breaks, though - and of course, MTV. Doing the twist, he grabs a remote and pulls in MTV - a 2lst-century music video by - "The Militiamen" - so steeped in violence, nudity, and general decadence it would make the most dedicated metalhead blush. 115. ZAIUS We all get the urge to boogie down. And the news is just too depressing, don't you agree? SUSAN hits a master switch, kills the entire bank of TV's. The lights come on automatically. When she stands up, we can set that het LEGS are manacled together. TWO ORANG GUARDS, who've been waiting in the darkness behind her, fasten a leash around her neck. ZAIUS What you're seeing is five yeats old, of course. it takes that long for the transmissions to reach us from earth. - Things are certainly much worse try now. 180. INT. OLYMPUS BASE - CORRlDOR - A MOMENT LATER MORE HUMAN STATUARY on either side of us - and, on the walls themselves, CHANGING HOLOGRAPHIC ARTWORK depicting what could be a rustic Tuscan landscape. Automated SERVO-ROBOTS, tentacled boxes on wheels, roll about perfonning routine maintenance, polishing everything to a high sheen. ZAIUS Human nature, I suppose. Not happy unless you're destroying yourselves. Look at the bunch that built this place. Masters of the universe, every technological marvel you could ask for, and what happens? (a grandiose shrug) Some asshole in a lab cooks up a plague, and PHHFFT! Ta-ta, au revoir, hasta la vista. - I do hope they fired his sorry ass. SUSAN If it wasn't for him, you'd be peeling bananas in a tree. 181. INT. BOILAB - A MOMENT LATER - DAY SUSAN's new lab is a pristine dream, full of futuristic gadgetry - far advanced over anything we've seen. On the downside, her EXPERIMENTAL HUMANS - the ones who survived the attack on the colony - are being kept in a row of tiny, cramped CAGES along one wall. They kick 116. up a fuss at SUSAN's entry; ZAIUS fixes her leash to a long lead. ZAIUS Is there anything you need for your lab work? SUSAN I'd like to know why you're letting me do it. ZAIUS Call me a nice guy. Call me . . . humanitarian. (chucking) Troy attacked me the other night, you know. I told him we had you, and he backed off. But he was still thinking - still trying to work out some sort of angle. She stares at him for a long moment. He chuckles engagingly. ZAIUS But when I tald him about the baby, I crushed him. I could see it in his face. He was absolutely broken . . . like a wild animal when it finally realizes you've tamed it. SUSAN You can't crush Troy, Zaius. You'd better kill him, because you'll never crush him. He strokes her belly. Gently, but with an unmistakable hint of menace. ZAIUS Well discuss it again when the time comes. Is there anything you need in the meantime? SUSAN One of my animals is sick. She may be contagious. I'd like her taken back to Zira . . . In a nearby cage is lOCASTA - the human child we know as JOSIE. ZAIUS I'll tell the guards. They'll take her out and destroy her - 117. SUSAN Let me explain it. Half of my test cultures are based on that child's blood. I want her taken care of and I want her back. Tough talk for a woman on a leash. But ZAIUS decides to humor her. ZAIUS Fine. I'll take her with me in the imperial jet. Fresh linen. Free cocktails. Everything! SUSAN And I have a letter. I'd like you to ste that Alexander gets it. She hands it over. He slips it in his pocket and BOWS. 182. INT. CORRIDOR - OUTSIDE LAB - A MOMENT LATER As he leaves, ZAIUS instructs the two GUARDS posted outside the door: ZAIUS The female child - she'll show you the one. And I want her thoroughly searched. All the obvious cavities. Understood? The GUARDS nod and step inside. As ZAIUS marches off down the hall, he takes SUSAN's letter from his pocket and opens it - begins to read then breaks into GALES OF HEARTY LAUGHTER. 183. INT. LAB - ON SUSAN Behind her, the Orang GUARDS arc loading JOSIE's cage onto a wheeled cart. As she listens to the echo of ZAIUS' laughter in the halls, a strange, bitter, vengeful look crosses her face . . . and OVER this we HEAR: SUSAN [v.o.] "My Dearest Troy . . . The days are long here, and I have nothing to do but work and think of you. Sometimes I can almost feel your touch - heat your voice - and the memory of our time together is all that keeps me sane." 184. ARIAL SHOT - DAY - ON ZAIUS' JET fying over the frozen rocky wastelands of the Forbidden Zone. 118. SUSAN [v.o.] "I realize now well never see earth again. My only hope is that I can save our baby - that you'll be at my side to see him born, and that the two of us will have the chance to watch him graw together." 185. INT. JET - CARGO HOLD - DAY JOSIE cowering in hcr cage, watching luggage sLidt back and forth. SUSAN [v.o.] "The girl is one of my experimental subjects. She has a nasty - virus which I hope Zira can cure. Her name is Josie and she likes to play horsie. I know you do too . . . 186. INT. ZRI LABS - DAY JOSIE'S CAGE Open in the b.g. ZIRA has the edgety child strapped to an examination table and is laoking her over as TROY frowns at the letter: SUSAN [v.o.] I love you, Troy. Yours always . . . Susan. TROY She's never called me Troy. ZIRA Does seem rather formal. The two of you have reproduced. TROY And what's this about me playing 'horsie'? TROY I assumed that was something private - you know - between a man and a woman? (shurgging) Well, there's nothing wrong with the child. Common head cold. It'll be gone in two days. ZIRA unstraps JOSIE and lets her run around the infirmary while TROY shakes his head in puzziement. Then it hits him . . . 119. TROY Oh. Jesus. She sent a horse to Tray. ZIRA - beg your pardon? TROY It's an ancient story, Zira. The Trojan horse! The Greek army couldn't get past the walls of Troy . . . (pause) So they built a giant horse. Left it outside the city as a peace offering - a gift. And when the Trojans rolled it inside their gates, the Greek army burst out of its belly and killed them all. ZIRA Well. it's a repulsive story, all right, but I don't see what it has to do with - TROY She's the horse, Zira! The little girl is a Trojan Horse! ZIRA Talk sense, damn it! You can't put an army of killers inside a little girl! TROY Yes you can. He grins fiendishly. She finally realizes what he's talking about. TROY scoops the flailing JOSlE up into his arms as ZIRA runs to fetch a hypodermic needle. TROY Hold still, darling, itll onfy hurt a bit - ZIRA jabs the syringe into JOSIE's backside, and as it fills with blood we CUT TO: 187. INT. CATHEDRAL - DAY TIGHT ON a bejewelled silver CHALICE full of RED WINE. A chimpanzee ALTAR BOY carries it on an ornate TRAY to the Orang HIGH PRIEST - 120. - who mutters a few words of blessing over it, then conveys it to the robed ORANG ELDERS, so that each in turn can take a sip . . . In the congregation, just behind the Orang pews at the front of the chimp section, we frnd TROY and ZIRA - both taking an unusual interest in the communion ritual. ZIRA's fidgeting like wild, about to jump out of her seat, trying to look anywhere but at the altar. TROY, however, is staring directly at ZAIUS - the ]ast of the' elders to take his sip. The two of them make eye contact; ZAIUS raises the chalice almost imperceptibly - a jaunty private toast. TROY smiles back. The ethereal choir music dies down, and the PRIEST takes his pulpit. HIGH PRIEST Many of you have noticed that we welcome today a most unusual guest - unusual in that he is a human, and in that, if the stories are true, he comes from a distant world. All eyes are on TROY - some ape parents are even hoiding up their toddlers so the kids can get a look at him. He nods his head humbly. HIGH PRIEST Some have called him a living rebuke to the holy dogma of simian divinity. Nothing could be further from the truth. This talklng man has been sent among us as a test of our devotion, and a call to action . . . The old boy goes into a vicious HACKING FIT - so violent he has to turn away from the: pulpit. One of the ELDERS rushes to his side and pours him a glass of water. He gestures that he's okay . . . HIGH PRIEST Where was I - call to action - a call to spread Grodd's message of love and mercy to all the many worlds of the firma-- firmame-- More COUGHING and GAGGING, even worse than before. This time the HIGH PRIEST makes a real show of it - leaning on his staff, bringing up sputum, STAGGERING IN CIRCLES before he finauv hits the carpet. WORRTED MURMURS among the congregation as the ELDERS cluster around the PRIEST. Someone signals the ORGANIST to strike up a tune. 121. TROY glances at ZIRA, but she won't return his gaze. She's staring guiltily at her shoes. 188. INT. PRIEST'S CHAMBERS - DAY The HIGH PRIEST is sprawled on a sofa, covered by a stack of blankets, coughing so hard he's convusing. The ROYAL PHYSIClAN can barely keep him still long enough to shoot him full of antibiotics. ZAIUS (coughing) What the hell is wrong with him? The ROYAL PHYSICLAN shakes his head - not a clue. Meanwhile, the other ELDERS are beginning to hack and quiver as well . . . ELDER I My head's splitting! I must be feverish. ELDER II Are you sure it's a good idea for us to be in here - in the room with - with His Holiness? ZAIUS has lost his voice. He coughs up phlegm into a handkerchief. An Orang in MILITARY GARB peeks in - MESSENGER Lord Zaius, I've just had word from Olympus. There's some kind of epidemic . . . it's swept through the entire (a violent cough) - base. ZAIUS Gtt me the human. Get me Troy! TROY I'm already here. Care to invite me in? ALL EYES TURN to TROY - who's standing in the doorway. ZAIUS (indicating the PRIEST) What do you know about this?? 122. TROY Heli be dead in forty-eight hours. The rest of you are young and strong. You might last an extra day or two. HIGH PRIEST The animal! He poisoned the sacrament! TROY Free lesson, your Holiness. Never underestimate an animal when he's cornered. (to the group) You'll take me to Susan. We'll transmit her research to earth. Those are my demands. ELDER I Demands? From a human? The gall! TROY The water supply is next. ELDER II He's bluffing. ZAIUS Of course he's bluffing! He'd never threaten the lives of his friends - all those innocent chimps and gorillas who admire him so - TROY But Zaius, it doesn't affect chimps or gorillas. No more than it affected the little girl you brought me. ZAIUS realizes he's been played. His CRONIES al] glower at him. TROY . . . It only affects the profaundly stupid. Losing it altogether, ZAIUS takes a swing at TROY. TROY grabs his hand in midair and shoves him backward. ZAIUS Send word to Olympus. Have the woman shot. Immediately. In the belly ... The Conclusion: on Wednesday 123. TROY Then you don't want the antidote? HIGH PRIEST Antidote!? The sickly ELDERS perk up in unison. ZAIUS is immediately overruled. SHOCK CUT TO: 189. AERIAL SHOT - ON PRIVATE JET - ESTABLISHING The imperial plane penetrating into the heart of the Forbidden Zone. 190. INT. PLANE - COCKPIT - THAT MOMENT A GORILLA PlLOT and TROY, who's speaking into the radio. TROY It's Troy, baby. We're coming to get you. Now listen carefully. Do exactly what I tell you. In the rear cabin we find ZIRA, JOSIE, and a collection of bundled-up shuddering ORANGS. The HIGH PRIEST is on a stretcher, IV in his arm. TROY returns, and takes his seat beside ZIRA - who whispers: TROY Is there an antidote? TROY grins and shrugs - beats me. 191. INT. OLYMPUS BASE - DAY ZIRA's EXPERIMENTAL HUMANS - adults and childrcn alike - are romping about in the ruined landscape under the dome, enjoying their new fretdom, frolicking among the columns and statues. 191. INT. OLYMPUS BASE - CORIDOR - DAY A couple of SICK ORANG GUARDS are slumped on the floor, half-dead, Janitorial SERVO-ROBOTS cheerfully tidy up around them. CORNELIUS limps into the corridor. He leans the guards' WEAPONS up carefully against the wal], then begins DRAGGING the guards themselves by the feet, dawn the spotless hallway to: 124. 193. INT. OLYMPUS BASE - INFIRMARY - DAY DYING ORANGS EVERYWHERE. The beds are full. The folding cots are full. Any more patients, and the floor will be full. As CORNELIUS drags the new arrival inside, SUSAN moves from one sick orang to another, administering SHOTS from a hypodennic. CORNELIUS That stuff really work? CORNELIUS They should come around. We won't be here long enough to find out. 194. EXT. OLYMPUS BASE - LANDING FIELD - DAY WIPE TO: CORNELIUS is waiting on the airfield when the imperial jet iands. He's got a big stack of ordnance waiting on the tarmac - stolen from inside. TROY emerges from the plane, followed by ZIRA and JOSIE, then ZAIUS and the delegation of hacking, feverish ORANG ELDERS. CORNELIUS tosses him a rifle from the pile as ZlRA rushes to embrace him. CORNELIUS Susan's on her way out. She's rounding up the humans from the colony. ZAIUS For Grodd's sake, can we get inside? freezing out here. TROY Go on in if you want. We're staying out here. TROY gestures toward the massive MERCY SHIP. The orangs noticc that the BOARDING STAIRWAY is already open and ready for passengers. ELDER The Mercy Ship? You're taking the Mercy Ship? Why, we built that ship at a cost of- 125. CORNELIUS You built nothing. Humans designed that ship. Humans engineered it - like everything else in this place. All you did was steal it! ZAIUS TWhy, Cornelius. You sound bitter. CORNELIUS Susan was right, Zira. There was a race of humans here. And they built a technological paradise . . . which the orangs have spent the last ten thousand years plundering! TROY Go warm up the engines . . . ZAIUS Hold it, Troy. You don't think we're going to let you go without the antidote. ZAlUS nudges the GORILLA PILOT forward. He's got a gun too. But CORNELIUS turns and points to a nearby snowy peak . . . CORNELIUS See that red flag up there? That's where you'll find it. It's a 45-minute hike in good weather. ELDER I 45-minute hikd!? How do we know what we'll find up there? It could be an empty crate! TROY Did you bring the sample like I asked? CORNELIUS tosses TROY a small corked VlAL full of yellow fluid. TROY There's only enough for one. It takes a while to kick in, but if you don't mind waiting . . . ELDER I I suppose we should give it to His Holiness. ZAIUS Are you joking?? 126. ZAIUS grabs at the vial. Laughing, TROY casually pitches it into a SNOWBANK ten or fifteen yards away. The ELDERS dive at the drift,trampling each other in their efforts to get there first. ELDER I barks at the GORILLA PILOT: ELDER I What are you looking at?!? Get up there and find that crate!! The GORILLA trudges off as the Orangs resume their rugby scrum. MOTORS begin to grind overhead; the MONORAIL which runs uphill from the airfield to the dome has started, and the gondolas are in motion. TROY That must be Susan. Rev up the ship. Over at the snowdrift, ZAIUS comes up with the vial. Concealing it in his paw so the others won't see, he pops off the cork and downs its contents. Then he pulls a FOUNTAIN PEN from his pocket - uncaps it to reveal a flashing RED LIGHT and a tiny MICROPHONE . . . ZAIUS Now. 195. EXT. DOME - MONORAIL PLATFORM - THAT MOMENT SUSAN slams the door on a gondola full of FRlGHTENED HUMANS, and sends it off on the long ride down to the airfield. She herds the last batch aboard car #2, then climbs on herself. . . 196. INT. GONDOLA #1 - MOVING The humans in gondoia #1 are petrified as they ride down - the adults more so than the childnn. They take one look at the ground a hundred feet below and SHRIEK. Most of them cower on the floor of the gondola. And ONE brave soul, who's standing up . . . . . . gets himself KILLED - by a sudden burst of MACHINE-GUN FIRE. 197. INT. GONDOLA #2 - MOVING The gunfire seems to be all around them, PINGING off the metal sides of the gondola, making it ROCK laterally. SUSAN can't tell where it's coming from. She pulls her human companions down, out of the range of fire, and then ventures a quick look, poking her head up . . . 127. She can't believe what she sees. The skies are: full of FLYING GORlLLAS . . . at least a dozen of them, wearing JET-PACKS strapped to their backs! The packs come equipped with stabilizer wings which make the gorillas look like a nightmare vision from everyone's childhood . . . the winged monkeys of Oz! SUSAN DUCKS just in time as a flying ape fires a burst at the gondola. 198. EXT. AIRFIELD - THAT MOMENT Down below, TROY is equally agog. He picks up a rifle, begins FlRING at tht flying apes. In three tries he manages to pick one off; the gorilla goes flying in a wild spiral, trailing SMOKE as he hits the snow. Way off in the distance, he sees a couple of TERRIFlED HUMANS in the first gondola DIVING OUT. They plunge a hundred feet to their doom . . . ZlRA reappears on the stairway of the Mercy ship. ZIRA TROY! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!? TROY Take cover. Start shooting!! He tosses her a gun from the pile - then picks out three of the biggest he can find for himself. An empty gondola swings down, makes the turnaround, and starts back uphill toward the dome. TROY jumps aboard and starts the ascent, GUNS BLAZING. ZIRA takes cover beneath the giant mothwing of the Mercy Ship and begins SNIPINO at inroming gorillas. Meanwhile, over at the snowdrift, the ELDERS spot an opportunity. ZIRA's occupied. Which means there's no one watching the PlLE OF GUNS on the tarmac - no one but six-year-old JOSIE. Gesturing silently to one another, they sneak up toward the rifles . . . . . . and stop in their tracks. J0SIE, unattended, has plucked an automatic rifle from tht pile. She sits cross-legged on the tarmac to play with the bolt. She glances over at ZIRA to see how you work these things . . . The Orangs hesitate. Smile. Wave nicely at the little girl. One bold ELDER wanders up closer, gestures for J0SIE to hand over her gun. J0SIE frowns. Mine! She squints at ZIRA one last time . . . 128. . . . and OPENS FIRE, MOWING DOWN TWO OF THE ELDERS IN THEIR TRACKS! The gun jerks and bucks in her grip. JOSIE LAUGHS IN RIOTOUS GLEE and FIRES AGAIN! The second burst leaves only ZAIUS standing. He dives behind a rock . . . 199. INT. GONDOLA #3 - ON TROY Jumping up, ducking down, SHOOTING AT GORILLAS who shoot back. He picks off two more flying gorillas. But it's not enough - the cavalry is about to arrive. TWO ARMORED COPTERS appear on the horizon. A ROCKET whizzes past the gondola - explodes in the snow a half-mile away. A SECOND ROCKET goes off near one of the giant PYLONS which support the monorail. The PYLON buckles - but holds - TROY's at the midpoint of the uphill ride. A few yards away, SUSAN's gondola passes him on the descent. They have just enough time to make eye contact before they have to duck down again. COPTER FIRE strikes the pulley assembly from which TROY's gondola hangs. BOLTS POP. The gondola ROCKS - TILTS - One end drops. It's obviously about to go. TROY shaves his RIFLE over the MONORAIL CABLE - grabs the other end with his free hand - and JUMPS. Hanging on for dear life, he SL~DES DOWN THE CABLE until he reaches the empty gondola BEHIND HIM. He drops inside . . . 200. EXT. AIRFIELD - THAT MOMENT The COPTERS closing in. A ROCKET zips past and detonates near the Mercy ship, the force of it knocking ZIRA into the snow. As she's getting up, she hears the roar of TURBINE ENGINES behind her . . . ZAIUS's IMPERIAL JET is screaming down the runway - TAKING OFF!! 201. INT. IMPERIAL JET - THAT MOMENT The jet lifts off. The HIGH PRlEST smams from the passengcr cabin . . . HIGH PRIEST WHAT IS THIS? WHERE ARE WE GOING? In the cockpit we find not ZAIUS, but CORNELIUS - teeth clenched, fists wrapped around the throttle. An ARMORED COPTER is visible through the canopy - hovering over the dome, DEAD AHEAD. 129. CORNELIUS Straight to hell . . . Your Holiness. 201. ON COPTER - ABOVE THE DOME The jet rams smack into it. ~ A THUNDEROUS EXPLOSION . . . 201. INT. OLYMPOUS BASE - THAT MOMENT . . . sends the flaming wreckage of BOTH CRAFTS CRASHING through the great overhead dome - down the shaft - into the nrins of the ancient city! More explosions follow; the walls of the shaft begin to quake and crumble; SNOW and ICE come toppling in from above . . . 204. EXT. TROY'S GONDOLA - THAT MOMENT The car ROCKS. The good news is, the plane collision took out a couple of flying gorillas with it. The bad news is, there's still one copter to go . . . and the monorail has STOPPED DEAD. TROY's a SITTING DUCK. He peers over the edge - sees the other gondolas STALLED OUT down the slope. They're not far from the airstrip - but they're still thirty or forty feet above the ground, too high to jump out. The COPTER makes another pass. A ROCKET hits a PYLON . . . This time the pylon doesn't hold. It BUCKLES. The monorail CABLE slips a pulley and GOES SLACK. The floor of the gondola drops out from under TROY - then the car STABILIZES, dangling at a weird angle . . . 205. INT. SUSAN'S GONDOLA #2 - THAT MOMENT Same deal. HUMANS scream around her as the gondola falls, then stops - falls, then stops again. The're hanging on for dear life. But, as the pylon buckles and the cable slips, they're getting closer to the ground. Another LURCH leaves them fifteen or twenty feet up. That's good cnough for SUSAN. She GRABS a rouple of her companions by the scruff of the neck and PLUNGES over the side of the gondola . . . . . . landing in a SNOWDRIFT, shaken but intact. She grabs her METAL CASE and herds the other HUMANS downslope, toward the airfield. 130. 206. INT. TROY'S GONDOLA - THAT MOMENT He's just hanging there, a hundred feet up, waiting to drop. GUNSHOTS ping off the gondola He jumps up to return fire - and can't. No ammo. The rifle's useless. He drops it to the floor af the car - where he spies a LONGSHOREMANS HOOK, used to guide the gondola when it stops to let passengers off. He grabs the hook, flattens himself against a wall. A BOLD GORILLA comes flying up. He knows TROY's out of bullets, and he's planning to take him out at point-blank range. Until the HOOK swings up and PLANTS itself in his leg. The GORILLA SHRIEKS as TROY reels him in - simultaneously LEAPING from the gondola and WRAPPING HIS ARMS around the ape's waist. The jet-pack's not designed to carry this much weight . . . . . . and the two of them SPIRAL WILDLY thtough the air, looping the loop, twisting and turning as they grapple . . . They hit the snow with TROY on top, the GORILLA underneath - like a big hairy snowboard. Jets still fuing, they toboggan downhill. Then the APE slams into a rock - head first - and TROY goes flying . . . 207. EXT. AIRFIELD - THAT MOMENT Amid machine fire from the COPTER, TROY sprints aboatd the Mercy ship. The hydraulic stairway retracts behind him. 208. INT. CRAFT - A MOMENT LATER He bursts onto the bridge - finds SUSAN, ZIRA, J0SIE and the surviving HUMANS strapped in and ready to go. SUSAN We're programmed the takeoff ... TROY Then let's blow this pop stand. - Hi! He grins at her. She grins back, The ship begins to LIFT OFF, g-forces SLAMMING the passengers back in their seats . . . . . . but by the time they gain a couple of hundred feet in altitude, the remaining ARMORED COPTER sweeps past in front of thtm, FIRING ANOTHER ROCKET. The rocket explodes just BENEATH them . . . 131. 209. INT. SHIP - BRIDGE - THAT MOMENT The ship is ROCKING, losing altitude fast. ONBOARD COMPUTER VTOL rockets disabled. NERVOUS LOOKS among all the passengers. ONBOARD COMPUTER Auto-rtpair sequence commencing. HOPEFUL LOOKS among all the passengers. ONBOARD COMPUTER Estimated complction time: sixtecn days. DESPERATE LOOKS among all the passengers. The ship is sinking toward the crest of a mountain ridge - only seconds until impact. TROY scans the horizon despetately. SUSAN Troy? What exactly does this mean? TROY It means I sure wish we had a pilot on board this thing. Cliffside dead ahead. TROY hits the rearjets full blast - 210. EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY - ANGLE ON SHIP Sinkng. It clears the peaks by inches. The VTOL engines continue to smoke. COPTERS and FLYNG APES are closing in from all sides. 211. INT. SHIP - THAT MOMENT Here on the far side of the peaks they're dropping toward a great huge BOWL of unobstructed snow - PERFECT POWDER. TROY gets an idea: TROY Strap in. It's going to be a bumpy ride. He kills the sputtering VTOL and fires the aft jets full throttle. The ship's bridge JITTERS from the impact as . . . 132. 212. EXT. SLOPE - ON SHIP The craft slams into the snow! FLAMES SPIT from the aft jets - and the ship picks up speed until it's SCREAMING down the steep, snowy slope like a gatgantuan TOBOGGAN. BOOKMARK 213. INT. SHIP - THAT MOMENT ZIRA stares out the observation window, petrified with horror. ZIRA Aren't we going down - ? TROY Yup. ZIRA Isn't that a - TROY Yup. The "it" ZIRA means is the END of the slope, which looms a couple of kilometers ahead. Beyond it, there's NOTHlNG - a sudden drop into a deep, craggy CANYON. TROY gives it the gas . . . 214. EXT. SLOPE - ON THE CRAFT FLYING GORILLAS watch as the ship roars toward the abyss. But there's an UPTURN just at the edge of the slope - and when they hit it, TROY fires the jets FULL BLAST, using the mountain as a gigantic SKI JUMP!! It works. The ship roars upward into the sky - SPLATTERING the flying apes like bugs on a windshield as it acceleratts into the stratosphere. 215. EXT. AERIAL SHOT - ON SHIP From the edge of outer space we watch as the ship HURTLES UPWARD TOWARD US, leaving the Planet of the Apes behind. 216. INT. BRIDGE - FIVE MINUTES LATER Space looms ahead. The passengers are finally starting to relax . . . TROY Now we've got six years to kill. 133. SUSAN Could be worse. On earth it's thirty-four. (smiling) I knew you'd get us out of there. TROY You gave me the tools to do it. You and Cornelius . . . He glances at ZIRA, who smiles wanly and fights back a tear. Now TROY unstraps himself from his console chair. He floats up toward the roof of the bridge, WEIGHTLESS . . . TROY Come here. SUSAN unstraps too. Floats up toward him. The two of them go into a tight, zero-~avity embrace, rolling around in midair, kissing, laughing. Then: a SHRIEK. JOSIE's just unstrapped too - and she's BUGGING OUT. Everyone laughs - except ZIRA, who's watching the console: ZIRA Troy, something's wrong with our oxygen supply. The auxiliary tank is breached . . . (beat) Make that two auxiliary tanks . . . 217. INT. SHIP - ENGINE ROOMS - A MINUTE LATER TROY scooting weightlessly thtough the ship, pulling himself along horizontally by whatever handholds he can find. When he arrives at the engine room, he gets a downright nasty surprise . . . LORD ZAIUS is disabling the oxygen tanks one by one! ZAIUS Sweetheart. Did you miss me? TROY BRACES BOTH FEET against a bulkhead and LAUNCHES himself at ZAIUS. They COLLIDE - tumbling UPWARD toward the CEILING. ZAlUS hits first. Braces himself. Below him, TROY rears back to throw another punch - but when he connects the FORCE of his own blow sends him hurtling back toward the floor! ZAIUS laughs . . . 134. ZAIUS As Newton said - for every action . . . He PUSHES OFF from the ceiling - lands with BOTH FEET against TROY's throat - and BOUNCES OFF toward a nearby hatch! 218. INT. HYDROPONICS CHAMBER - THAT MOMENT ENOUGH VEGETATlON to feed an army is growing here in the artificially lit hydroponics tanks. TROY bursts in, chasing ZAIUS - - but ZAIUS is BEHIND HIM, hanging upside down OVER THE DOOR. He KICKS TROY into one of the tanks, which SHATTERS - spilling water globules and clumps seaweed UPWARD into the air ... ZAIUS Careful! People are starving in China! TROY Then don't play with your food! TROY grabs a shard of jagged glass and launches himself UPWARD at ZAIUS - who sidesteps him, SOMERSAULTING through the next hatch. 219. INT. AIRLOCK - A MOMENT LATER TROY FOLLOWS. The hatch door hisses ominously shut behind him. in a glass closet he sees a handful of EXCURSlON SUITS - and realizts that ZAIUS has lured him into an AIRLOCK. There's another hatch on the far side of the room, and beyond it lies THE VACUUM OF SPACE. ZAIUS Vaya con dios, amigo . . . ZAIUS has wrapped bimself up in MESH WEBBING strung against one wall. Hanging on tight, he hits a switch - the SPACE HATCH rises- - and in the INSTANT before the air explodes outward from the airlock, TROY leaps up and GRABS onto the mesh webbing. He's stitl got the shard of glass in his hand; he SLASHES WILDLY at the webbing - - which POPS FREE from its mounting on the airlock wall - - and sends TROY and ZAIUS, ENTWINED, tumbling out into the void! 135. 220. EXT. SPACE - OUTSIDE SHIP As they spiral away, a corner of the webbing SNAGS in the airlock door. It's their only lifeline to the ship. But now they're in TOTAL VACUUM - and as studies tell us, a human can sunrive for no more that two minutes in a vacuum. GASPING, they shout imprecations at one another. No words Come out. There's no sound in space. ZAIUS wrestles with TROY, trying to break his hold on the mesh. But TROY has a sudden last-ditch inspiration - a flashback to STEWART, his colleague, who died on the voyage out . . . In SLO-MO, his FINGERNAILS rake across ZAIUS's face, tearing away STRIPS of SlMlAN FLESH - It's like Vesuvius erupting. With a soundless SCREAM, ZAIUS TAKES OFF, ROCKETING AWAY FROM THE SHlP like a punctured balloon as every last drop of blood in his body spews out, GUSHER-LIKE, into the vacuum of space! The orang lord cartwheels off into the void. By now TROY is beginning to drift away from the ship, and in a few seconds the vacuum will claim him as well. In the instant before he loses consciousness . . . . . . a WHITE-SUITED ARM wraps itself around his throat. TROY looks up at the face behind the visor - a chimp's face. It's ZIRA, beautiful ZIRA, in an excursion suit, umbilically connected to the ship - dragging him back to the safety of the airlock. The last thing TROY sees, before the airlock hisses shut, is the eerily beautiful sight of ZAIUSS BLOOD hanging in the blackness before him . . . a thousand tiny globules catching the light of the triple suns like a vast, endless swarm of purple fireflies. FADE THROUGH TO: 221. INT. SPACECRAFT - BRIDGE - NIGHT TROY, bearded and showing some gray at the temples, sits at the pilot's console speaking into a mike. The sun - our sun - is visible through the viewport, the size of a bright yellow marble. 136. TROY . . . and that's our story . . . the same one I've broadcast twice a week for seven years now. With the shipboard computers, my wife devised a mutagen to counteract the plague . . . I'll send the necessary data immediately following this transmission. He inserts a DATA DISK into a slot, hits a button. The rings of Saturn are coming into view outside as he reaches for the mike again. TROY I only hope there's someone left to receive it. This is Dr. Alexander Tray, aboard the ship Bellerophon . . . signing off. CHILDS VOlCE [o.s.] DADDY! I TROY turns. A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY bursts into the cabin and FLINGS HIMSELF into TROY's lap. He's waving a crayoned drawing. JACK Look, Daddy, I drew you a picture. Earth! It's a comically suburban Earth - identical boxy houses with picket fences. One discordant note: the TREES all have purple leaves. TROY It's beautiful. But I should warn you - the trees on earth have green leaves, not purple. JACK That's what Mom said. I like purple ones. Are we there yet? TROY Almost. Almost. Another week or so. Now SUSAN wanders in. She wraps an arm around TROY's waist while JACK spins around in the swiveling PlLOTS CONSOLE. SUSAN Still no rtsponse? 137. TROY No ... we're almost at Saturn. The broadcast would take about ninety minutes to reach us. (staring at their son) I wonder what kind of world we're taking him to. All at once the SPEAKERS begin to CRACKLE. Their eyes turn . . . VOICE ON SPEAKER Calling Bellerophon . . . calling Bellerophon. This is Dr. James Adkins of the SETI Institute in New York . . . They let out a whoop of joy and collapse into one another's arms. VOICE ON SPEAKER Transmission received. The mutagen is a success. Repeat, the mutagen works! Now the two of them are WEEPING in relief. Drawn by the voice on the speakers, another group of passcngers comes sprinting bnathlessly into the bridge - ZIRA and the gifted HUMAN CHILDREN, now adolescents. VOICE ON SPEAKER Send yout coordinates so we can lock on. A hero's welcome awaits you! JOSIE and company are frantically signing to ZIRA . . . ZIRA It's a message. From the place we told you about, Earth. The planet of the humans. The HUMANS leap and chatter in excitement. TROY and SUSAN, meanwhile, are standing at center cabin in a TIGHT EMBRACE, KISSING. They may never come up for air. Their LITTLE BOY dances around them, tugging on their pants legs, trying to muscle in on the action . . . As they stare out the observation port, faces full of new hope and anticipation, we see the CHRONOMETER on the instrument panel: EARTH DATE: 09/17/2073 222. EXT. OUTER SPACE - ON SPACECRAFT HURTLING toward the blue sphere of earth. 138. 223. INT. SPACECRAFT - BRIDGE - NIGHT TROY, SUSAN, JACK and ZIRA strapped into their console chairs, staring out through the viewport. At first, they see nothing but fleecy white CLOUDS. But then, as they descend, the clouds PART . . . . . . revealing a spectacular MANHATTAN SKYLINE, all lit up. SUSAN (to JACK) There it is, honey! That's New York! TROY See all the tall things down below;' Those are the buildings, where the people live and work. VOICE ON SPEAKER Bellerophon. . . we have you on visual. TROY Bellerophon to airstrip. We're on course. We should touch down in about a minute. The ship whizzes over the harbor, past a familiar, iconic figure . . . SUSAN There! The Statue of Liberty! TROY Now we know what they felt like, huh - The immigrants coming into the harbor . . . She clasps his hand. The two of them BEAM at each other. 224. EXT. AIRSTRIP - NIGHT The ship appears on the horizon, SLOWINO ovethead as it shifts into VTOL mode. We're watching from behind a chain-link FENCE at the far end of the airstrip, as the GROUND CREW in their full-body jumpsuits swarm about pteparing for the spactship's dcscent. LANDING LlGHTS bracket either side of the runway. 225. EXT. AIRSTRIP - ON DECENDING SHIP - A MOMENT LATER The big ship touches down gently - a perfect landing. After a moment, a hatch pops, and a big hydraulic STAIRWAY lowers to the tarmac. 139. TROY's the fist one out. The LIGHTS from the tower and the runway are so bright he's practically blinded. But he can still make out the HUGE CROWDS OF SPECTATORS on the other side of the chain-link fences that border the airstrip. And even if he couldn't, he can HEAR the excitement - the laughter, the cheering. Squinting, he raises his arms in a gesture of triumph. The crowd ROARS - and another ROAR greets each new spacefarer who descends the stair. SUSAN, with JACK in her arms; JOSIE; ZIRA . . . FLASHBULBS pop in the distance. A number of spectators seem to be trying to climb OVER the chain-link fence. And it strikes TROY that the crowd noise is beginning to take on an odd, almost savage tone . . . OFFlCIAL VEHlCLES come driving across the tarmac, waved on by the GROUND CREW with their illuminated batons. Disturbingly, all the members of the ground crew share an odd, hunched posture. By the time the VEHICLES arrive, and TROY can make out the faces of the passengers, he understands why cverything has struck him as subtly wrong. They're apes. And they have guns. The blood drains from TROY's face as he pulls his family into a protective embrace. Now FIELD LIGHTS flash on, and he can see the SPECTATORS on the other side of the fence . . . ALL APES. Jumping, chattering, squealing for blood! As ARMED APES surround the landing party, a GORILLA in a general's uniform climbs out of a Jeep and strolls over. Baring his huge white incisors, he extends a hand to TROY . . . GORILLA Dr. Troy. Welcome home. SUSAN lets out a horrible SHRIEK, which echoes over the airfield as we pull up and away - echoes until it's drowned out by the guttural grunts of a thousand onlooking APES. 226. EXT. NEW YORK HARBOR - DAY And the CAMERA continues to rise - up, up, past the skyline of Manhattan to the HARBOR, where it all began. 140. And here again we find our old friend the STATUE OF LIBERTY, standing watch on her island pedestal. Only this time, we're not speeding past from behind. We're staring her full in the face. And time has not been kind to Miss Liberty. in the years since we last saw her, she's undergone radical plastic surgery. For, as we can now see, her once-proud porcelain featurts have been crudely chiseled into the grotesque likeness of a great grinning APE. FADE OUT.