12 Monkeys

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FADE IN:

INT. CONCOURSE/AIRPORT TERMINAL - BAY

CLOSE ON A FACE. A nine year old boy, YOUNG COLE, his eyes wide

with wonder. watching something intently. We HEAR the sounds of

the P.A. SYSTEM droning Flight Information mingled with the

sounds of urgent SHOUTS, running FEET, EXCLAMATIONS.

YOUNG COLE'S POV: twenty yards away, a BLONDE MAN is sprawled on

the floor, blood oozing from his gaudy Hawaiian shirt.

A BRUNETTE in a tight dress, her face obscured from YOUNG COLE'S

view, rushes to the injured man, kneels beside him, ministering

to his wound.

ANGLE ON YOUNG COLE, flanked by his PARENTS, their faces out of

view, as they steer him away.

FATHER'S VOICE (o.s.)

Come on, Son --this is no place for us.

YOUNG COLE resists momentarily, mesmerized by the drama.

YOUNG COLE'S POV: intermittently visible through a confusion of

FIGURES rushing through the foreground, the BLONDE MAN reaching

up and touching the cheek of the kneeling BRUNETTE in a gesture

of enormous tenderness, a gesture of farewell, while the P.A.

SYSTEM continues its monotonous monotone...

P.A. SYSTEM

Flight 784 for San Francisco is now

ready for boarding at inmate number

66578, Greely.

INT. PRISON DORMITORY/FUTURE - ETERNAL NIGHT

PRISON P.A. SYSTEM

--number 5429, Garcia -- number 87645, Cole...

COLE, late thirties, dark hair, comes awake in a bunk cage, one

of many stacked four high along both sides of a long dim

corridor. He blinks in the near dark, shaken, disoriented.

Then, as he "recovers" from his very vivid dream, WE GET OUR

FIRST LOOK AT HIS ENVIRONMENT...A WINDOWLESS UNDERGROUND WORLD OF

ETERNAL NIGHT SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE...AN ALMOST COLORLESS

"REALITY" OF BLURRED EDGES AND ECHOEY SOUNDS, MUCH MORE

"DREAMLIKE" THAN HIS DREAM.

Flashlights glare. In the half-light, COLE sees spooky figures,

GUARDS, moving among the locked bunk/cages.

COLE turns and whispers to the occupant of the next cage, JOSE...

COLE:

Ssssst! Jose, what's going on?

JOSE's face is almost lost in shadow. What there is of it is

youthful. He's just a scared Puerto Rican kid!

JOSE:

"Volunteers" again.

JOSE immediately rolls over and feigns sleep as SCARFACE, a

menacing guard with a jagged scar running down his cheek, looms

close to COLE's cage and unlocks it.

SCARFACE:

"Volunteer duty".

The PRISONERS in the other cages watch silently with narrowed eyes.

COLE:

I didn't volunteer.

SCARFACE:

You causing trouble again?

COLE:

(controls his temper)

No trouble.

INT. EQUIPMENT ROOM - ETERNAL NIGHT

COLE's alone, struggling to get into what looks like a space suit

in a room where suits hang like ghosts with blank eyes.

TITLES BEGIN SUPERED OVER THE SCENE

COLE has the torso of the suit on now and is trying to close it.

OFFSCREEN VOICE (o.s.)

All openings must be closed.

COLE looks for the source of the voice, a tiny grate in the wall.

OFFSCREEN VOICE (o.s.)

If the integrity of the suit is compromised

in any way, if the fabric is torn or a zipper

not closed, readmittance will be denied.

INT. SEALED CHAMBER - MINUTES LATER (ETERNAL NIGHT)

COLE, wearing the "space suit" and a helmet with a plastic visor,

steps into a tiny chamber, a kind of air lock. The heavy door

clangs shut behind him. He's alone. COLE'S breath comes quicker

now as he sucks oxygen from the air tanks on his back.

On the opposite wall is another door with a huge wheel lock.

COLE turns the heavy wheel, opens the door, steps through It

INT. ELEVATOR - SECONDS LATER (ETERNAL NIGHT)

COLE'S in an ascending elevator that groans and creaks. He looks

down at a crudely drawn map he holds in his gloved hand.

The map shows a series of tunnels and ladders.

INT. SEWER PIPE - MINUTES LATER (NIGHT)

COLE pans a flashlight, probing the filthy sewer he's wading through

RATS flee the blade of light, scurry across islands of rusting junk.

The flashlight beam settles on a ladder mounted in the wall.

Reaching the rusted ladder, COLE starts to climb awkwardly.

EXT. CITY STREET/FUTURE - MOMENTS LATER (NIGHT)

A SCRAPING NOISE as a heavy man-hole cover is pushed up and moved

aside. COLE'S helmeted head emerges from below.

COLE'S POV THROUGH HIS PLASTIC-VISORED HELMET: a city in

moonlight! A surreal image of abandoned buildings. No people

anywhere. The only sounds are the WIND and COLE'S BREATHING.

EXT. ANOTHER CITY STREET - MINUTES LATER (NIGHT)

COLE'S light reveals abandoned vine-covered automobiles.

Moving to the nearest car, COLE searches in the vines for

something. Finds it. An insect.

COLE takes the bug in his gloved hand. As he clumsily inserts it

into a collection tube, something makes him turn.

There's something across the street in the dark. Something alive.

COLE points his flashlight and reveals...a BEAR! Startled by the

light, the animal blinks, then stands on its rear legs and ROARS.

ANGLE ON COLE, staring wide-eyed.

Then, the BEAR sinks down onto all fours and, trying to avoid the

flashlight, it pads quickly down the street.

INT. SUBTERRANEAN PARKING GARAGE - NIGHT

Using the flashlight to see, COLE reaches down to the cracked

floor and gets another specimen. DOGSHIT!

The only sound is COLE'S labored BREATHING.

Then, a different SOUND. GRRRR! A dog. More GRRRRS. More

dogs. Then, a YIP. Then, VICIOUS GROWLS. It's a DOGFIGHT!

EXT. STREET - NIGHT (FIRST LIGHT)

A giant OWL, perched on an overhead traffic light, raises its wings

and lifts off...rising higher and higher into the brightening sky.

Below, on the street, COLE trudges along, passing deserted

buildings, windows broken, rusted signs dangling.

INT. DEPARTMENT STORE - NIGHT (FIRST LIGHT)

COLE'S light reveals a spider web just inside the store. A large

SPIDER tries to hide from the light.

COLE reaches carefully into the web and plucks the spider and

puts it into one of his specimen tubes.

Then, he shines his light all around the once elegant store. There's

nothing but aisle after aisle of moldering consumer goods.

EXT. DEPARTMENT STORE - DAWN

As COLE comes out of the store, the first rays of the sun hit the

building. COLE stops, squints into the light through his visor.

COLE'S POV:
spray-painted on the wall a long time ago is a stenciled

logo of twelve monkeys holding hands in a circle. Over it is

written, "WE DID IT!"

COLE looks up.

COLE'S POV:
high up on a building across the street, a LION

patrols a ledge, pauses, looks out majestically over his world.

TTTLES END:

INT. FIRST UNDERGROUND DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER - ETERNAL NIGHT

ROARING WATER, powerful torrents gushing from nozzles in the

wall, pummel the still-suited COLE.

INT. SECOND UNDERGROUND DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER - ETERNAL NIGHT

Stark naked and shivering, COLE is being scrubbed with brushes on

long poles (like the ones used to wash cars) wielded by two HULKING

FIGURES in bulky decontamination suits, their personas lost in their

windowed masks. It's a grim scene in a grim cement room with damp,

dripping walls. From an unseen source comes an AMPLIFIED VOICE,

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