PAGE ONE
EXTERIOR. space. low earth orbit – DAYBREAK
A geo-stationary military satellite orbits low over an arc of dark planetary horizon: an unidentifiable land-mass spreads below. The sun’s corona clears the planet’s rim: light spills across the landscape, flares up, glistens on a rack of cruise missiles extended from the satellite.
Meanwhile, in the EradiCare defense manufacturing plant sprawled in a deep urban valley of Narcopolis, GRAY NEIGHBOR works the cruise-missile production line with his fellow worker/technicians; feels strange, disoriented.
1:1 – The world looms large and dark below: a glimpse of shadowed FOREGROUND SATELLITE.
CAPTION
“We stand alone in a dark and dangerous world.”
1:2 – The sun breaks the planetary horizon, illuminates the satellite (showing Narcopolis insignia – an iconic representation of an angelic mother sheltering children under her wings) : the missile-rack extends from its body.
CAPTION
“Fear surrounds our sanctuary. Horror infects our dream.”
1:3 – Up-shot: a missile drops from the rack, vertiginous, into our foreground.
CAPTION
“Our survival can be insured only by vigilance–“
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Interior. defense plant – DAY
1:4 – Tight close on the sweating brow and eyes of GRAY NEIGHBOR – good-looking in a hawkish “loner” sort of way: he concentrates on an intricate manual task off-panel below.
Public address (off)
“–diligence–“
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EXTERIOR. airborne. High-altitude cloud – DAY
1:5 – We follow the missile. its motor ignites: it accelerates downwards through thin cloud.
CAPTION
“–and strength.”
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PAGE TWO
EXTERIOR. airborne over rainforest landscape – CONTINUOUS
The missile breaches thin cloud, flies low over Rainforest, picks up the track of a river below, follows it upstream towards distant mountains. A bend in the river; an overgrown “Mayan” pyramid – the missile dips, turns, burns on into the “interior”, a few feet above the forest canopy.
Ahead somewhere: A forest clearing contains an “Amazonian” Indian village. “traditional” thatched long-houses on pontoons, hammocks, nakedness and body-piercings of bone and feather, etc.. But instances of “21st Century” fashion sportswear too, here and there; and other glimpses of technology – a satellite dish – a hut roofed with solar panels – a bone-pierced shaman sits in the shade tripping out with a “brain-wave” visor – a hunter returns with a brace of dead monkeys in one hand and a carbon-fiber crossbow equipped with laser sighting in the other. Relaxed people go about their business: headphone-wearing kids in a thatched shelter attend to a video-teacher (world-map onscreen), laptops perched on their knees.
GRAY NEIGHBOR struggles to work on while his reality warps.
2:1 – Wide angle: rain-forest dawn panorama. A river runs through it. In the mid-distance, the missile levels at the end of its descending smoke-trail – tracks towards us above the river.
CAPTION
“As brand leader in specialist quarantine enforcement and precision sterilisation–“
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INTERIOR. DEFENSE PLANT – DAY
2:2 – A line of worker/technicians wear hygienic coveralls – name-tags on breast – operate delicate hi-tech tools, manipulate the guts of a line of gleaming white missiles through tiny inspection hatches. All the workers are heads-down in concentration, except GRAY NEIGHBOR who wipes sweat from his brow, frowns up at a large videoscreen wall-mounted at the end of the production line. The screen shows a text graphic: work well: sleep safe – and the “angel wings” Narcopolis insignia, again.
PUBLIC ADDRESS (screen)
“–tasked to monitor the Lost Territories for outbreaks of BadEvil–“
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EXTERIOR. airborne over rainforest landscape – DAY
2:3 – The missile turns over a bend in the river, banks inland across forest canopy.
CAPTION
“–EradiCare continues to defend the inalienable right of our civilization to peace–“
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INFRARED MISSILE POV
2:4 – Infrared missile guidance system shows cool spread of forest, warm clearing ahead and below, huts glow with human heatsource, bright smoke rises from fires.
CAPTION
“–pleasure–”
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EXTERIOR. “AMAZONIAN” VILLAGE – CONTINUOUS
2:5 – In the forest-clearing village: cookfire smoke rises slow, sunlight filters, the shaman dreams, the kids watch the video lesson.
CAPTION
“–and prosperity.”
PAGE THREE
In the village, the schoolkids learn; the Hunter delivers his kill to a fire; the Shaman senses the missile’s approach, takes off his visor, looks up.
Contemporaneous in the defense plant, GRAY NEIGHBOR experiences a growing tension headache, drops his tool, claps hands to his head, dizzy in a spinning world.
3:1 – Close on the shaman: he lifts and cocks his head, curious. The village – schoolkids, hunter, etc. – are reflected, distorted, in the black glass of his “brain-wave” visor
CAPTION
“Our discriminating systems accurately target the victims of malignant instigation. While our advanced outreach capability–
3:2 – The shaman stands, steps out to scan the tree-ringed patch of sky, visor still in place.
CAPTION
“–encourages cultural re-orientation–“
3:3 – Mid-close angled down on the shaman as he looks up at us, hands starting to move up to remove the visor.
CAPTION
“–through the judicious application–“
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INTERIOR. DEFENSE PLANT – DAY
3:4 – GRAY NEIGHBOR reels from the line, hands raised, clapped hard to his temples, brow sweating, face contorted in confusion.
PUBLIC ADDRESS
“–of swift–“
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EXTERIOR. AMAZONIAN VILLAGE – DAY
3:5 – Close on upturned face of the shaman, hands raised to remove the visor from his face – caught in that action, strange bloodshot eyes peering at us over the optical device, tattooed forehead furrowed in a frown.
Caption
“–uncompromising –“
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PAGE FOUR
EXTERIOR. AIRBORNE OVER RAINFOREST CLEARING – DAY
4:1 – The village clearing is now ground-zero for the missile strike: it erupts in fire, the shockwave chops back trees.
Caption
“–violence.”
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EXTERIOR. RAINFOREST CLEARING – DAY
4:2 – Pull down through dispersing smoke and subsiding fire towards the deep impact-crater that obliterates the village location.
Silent
4:3 – Down at ground-level crater-edge, among shattered tree-stumps hung with gobbets of explosively dismembered body parts, we peer in: Nothing much to see here – smoking soil, splintered building frames, an occasional bright tatter of artificial fabric; a glitter.
Silent
4:4 – Zoom down on the glitter in the bottom of the smoking crater: we identify the shaman’s “brain-wave” visor. In its black glass is now reflected the face and eyes of GRAY NEIGHBOR, as he sprawls on the defense-plant floor.
Silent
.