Antz Page #20

INT. EARLY MEGA-TUNNEL - DAY

Everyone turns to hear the rumbling sound coming down the

tunnel --

AZTECA:

Listen!

WORKER #1

He's right!!!

From here, we can see deep into the tunnel, at the point

where it levels out...and the torrent can be seen rushing

down at them...

Z:

LET'S MOVE IT!

All of a sudden there's panic as every ant tries to scramble

away from the oncoming water...in the confusion, the Queen's

bearers drop her and scramble over her.

QUEEN:

You there! Stop! I say!

The Queen turns, and for a brief moment is silhouetted

against the white-capped torrent of water...

...and then she picks her abdomen up like a skirt and high

tails it away from the torrent, running so fast that she

passes some of her bearers on the way...

And then the torrent spits out of the mouth of the

Megatunnel, quickly filling up the chamber and branching into

all of its side tunnels, as we see:

A group of workers RUNNING up a side tunnel and getting

consumed by a wave, which crashes down on them like a hand

slapping a table...

Another group, the members of which are getting swallowed up

one by one; one of the ants runs up on the ceiling of the

tunnel and keeps on going, upside-down...it works for a while

but eventually he, too is swallowed up...

-- In the Nursery, nurses are evacuating stacks of crying ant

babies...

In one of the larger access-tunnels, down which thousands of

workers are fleeing, a group of ants turns and decides to

make a stand for it -- they link up in a mass and form a

LIVING DAM. It holds for a while but then BURSTS scattering

and smashing ants along the sides of the tunnel before eating

them up...

And we...

CUT TO:

INT. TOWN CENTER - DAY

The huge main chamber of the colony, where most of the

workers -- as well as Z, Bala, Weaver, Azteca, and the

Queen -- have run to.

The chamber is rapidly flooding from all sides. Water flows

out of every escape tunnel the workers try...and the crowd is

becoming more and more closely packed together as the waters

rise around them.

AZTECA:

There's no way out!

QUEEN:

We're all going to drown!!!

BALA:

Z...what can we do?

Z clenches his fist...he feels utterly powerless...then he

shouts...

Z:

Dig!

The workers turn to look at him questioningly.

Z:

We've got to dig a trench around us!

-- But one of the workers raises his hands.

WORKER #1

Uh...we don't dig any more. We're

individuals.

WORKER #2

Yeah. We're too important to dig.

You taught us that, Z. You hate

digging!

Z:

(at his wits end)

Yeah, but I hate drowning more! Now

dig!

WEAVER:

You heard the ant -- DIG!!!

The workers start to dig a circular moat around themselves,

passing the dirt back into the middle of what remains of the

dry ground.

-- But they seems to be making little headway against the

water as it continues to rush in...

The ant labor we saw up to now were nothing compared to

this. As the moat gets deeper, the pile grows higher and

higher...Weaver is digging up huge chunks of earth...nearby,

Azteca is digging like crazy too...Z runs around, directing

traffic and encouraging the workers...

Z:

That's it! Pass the dirt back to the

center! Go on!

Nearby the Queen stands there, looking squeamish.

Z:

Your highness...time to get your

hands dirty!

Gingerly, the Queen reaches out for a clod of dirt...and

passes it along. Next thing you know, she's practically

crushed by a huge load thrown up by Weaver.

The water keeps rushing in...but now we notice that...

...the pile of dirt in the middle of the "island" created by

the digging of the moat is growing higher and higher,

reaching up towards the ceiling of the chamber...

...And the water is getting swallowed up by the moat,

swirling around angrily.

Now Z looks up, and sees that with a little more effort they

can reach the top --

Z:

We need to form a scaffolding around

this mound -- let's DO IT!

The workers start to cluster around the mound, covering it,

forming a tight network of living bodies around the mound up

towards the ceiling...

Z:

Now climb!

The ants start to scale the scaffolding, up towards the top

of the chamber...it's a swarming mass of ants, hauling each

other up, giving each other legs up, climbing ever and ever

higher towards the top...

Where they start to dig through the very ceiling...

...as, at the bottom of the mound, Z starts to organize the

hauling away of the Queen, as though she were a big cargo

container...

Z:

Okay boys -- take her up!

Z slaps the Queen on the butt, and she's winched away on a

cable composed entirely of ants linked arm in arm like those

plastic toy monkeys...

EXT. ANT MOUND - DAY

...And Azteca's head pokes through the ground...she hauls

herself up, and hundreds of ants pour up from the ground,

widening the hole...

INT. TOWN CENTER - DAY

The water is rising...but almost all of the ants have

escaped...Z clambers up the mound, as the scaffolding of ants

rolls up from the bottom....

And the rushing water finally wears down the earthen core of

the structure. As Z hauls himself through the hole in the

ceiling.

The entire structure collapses into the angry waters below,

which seem furious to have missed their prey...

EXT. ANT MOUND - DAY

WORKER:

He did it! Z! Z! Z! Z! Z!

The "Z" cheer goes up, with everyone joining in. But the

jubilation is short-lived, for, appearing on the ridge,

surrounding the workers, is FORMICA'S ARMY, circling the mass

of workers, backing them in towards the roiling water behind

them. Formica himself appears in the front lines, with

Carpenter and Mandible at his side.

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