Ares Page #14

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CHLOE:

DROP IT, EVAN! OR HE’LL SHOOT US NOW!

Evan realizes she’s right. It’s hopeless. He drops the gun.

Puts his hands up. Chloe follows suit.

The COP throws FLEXCUFFS around Evan. Danny, yelling inAmharic, tries to stop him. Grabbing the Cop from the back.

The COP PISTOL WHIPS him in the face. Chloe SCREAMS.

EVAN:

STOP!

An ETHIOPIAN POLICE CAR pulls up. COP #2 jumps out from behindthe wheel, gun drawn. They put flexcuffs on Chloe and Danny -

EVAN:

LET THEM GO! You don’t need them!

Chloe never stops yelling in Amharic as the Police violentlyshove them into the car.

EVAN:

I have valuable information! Please --

just take us go to the Embassy! TheAmerican government will reward --

72.

The Cops root through Evan’s bundle, talking among themselves.

DANNY:

(listening; translating)

They’re looking for something, Dad.

They’re saying you stole something...

Evan blanches as they pull his LEAD BOX from the stolen purse.

EVAN:

Don’t touch that! We don’t know what

it is -

The First Cop removes a FLYER from his pocket. Identical tothe one Novak gave the Saba tribe, it reads “WANTED: STOLEN

MINING EQUIPMENT”. They see the locked box in their hands

matches the ones on the flyer.

The Cops share an excited look as Evan continues yelling -

SMASH CUT TO:

EXT. “NEW COLONY” SLUM - MINUTES LATER

The COP CAR speeds past lepers, donkeys, and shacks. It pullsup to a DILAPIDATED BUILDING with pineapples painted on theside and the words “TAFARA PRODUCE.”

The Cops drag the family, now gagged, still in flexcuffs, into

INT. TAFARA PRODUCE STORE - CONTINUOUS

It’s dank. Lamp-lit. The air is thick with flies, sucking onthe overripe pineapples that fill the store.

The TAFARA TWINS (28), one a MAN, one a WOMAN with a shavedhead, sit behind an old cash register. Both are shitfaced. Butin a really creepy, numb kind of way.

There’s instant trouble -

Seeing the Cops, the Tafaras raise GUNS from behind thecounter. The Cops throw up their hands. Screaming at them.

The Cops offer the Tafaras the LEAD BOX. The TAFARA SISTERtakes it. Opens it. She stares at it quietly.

Evan tries to shout from behind his gag, but is too muffled.

The Tafara Brother opens a door behind the register. Inside, astaircase seems to lead down into total darkness.

73.

As the Tafaras and Cops force the family down the stairs -

MATCH TO:

Evan, in a pressure suit, descending the ladder onto

THE HELLAS PLANITIA CRATER ON MARS -FLASHBACK

The two other astronauts, YURI GERSHKOVICH (late-40s, Russian)

and KEIJU SASAKI (early-50s), follow him onto the Martiansurface in their pressure suits.

A tiny, misshapen moon, Deimos, casts the scene in pale light.

The astronauts appear ghostly as they take their first buoyantsteps. Dancing as much as walking. A magic moment.

The first human shoe-prints in the red dust.

They look around in awe.

YURI:

By eighteen, I was already 194centimeters. Too big to fit in theSoyuz. I went to the surgeon. Hesawed through my shin. Cut two inchesof bone out. Otherwise I would have

had no hope of becoming an astronaut.

(taking it in, lookingaround)

This was all I ever wanted.

From Evan’s face, we know it’s all he ever wanted too.

BACK TO:

DARKNESS. The Tafaras turn on a generator and lights flickeron. Evan sees they’re in

A STRANGE BASEMENT LAB. Full of rusting equipment.

The Sister says a word to the Cops, who pull the family behindpiles of equipment and rotting fruit.

The Tafaras don lead-lined smocks plus breathing masks. Theyexamine the LEAD BOX. See the strange, complicated lock on it.

They remove WELDING EQUIPMENT from their cabinets.

Evan screams at them -- but is unintelligibly from behind his

gag.

He signals for his family to get down... Chloe and Dannyhuddle with their heads down as Evan peers out -

The Tafaras are WELDING OFF the lock from the box.

74.

They carefully open it. From it, they pour onto a sample plate

A strange DUST. It seems to absorb all light.

Touching the warm air, the DUST starts to move.

The Tafaras gasp.

TAFARA BROTHER:

Yihe mindin new?

Evan’s face -- holy sh*t, is it alive?

The dust is melting as it touches the warm air. It now looks

like a LIQUID MIRROR. Highly reflective though it’s still

pitch black.

The Tafaras quickly pour the element onto a spectrometer. Theyset the dials. And the numbers on the device’s gauges RACE UP.

The oozing element SPARKS as it reacts to the air. Bubbling.

There’s loud POPPING noises -- as if it’s about to combust.

Evan is screaming from behind the gag. The frightened Copsyell at the Tafaras to put the material away -- but theTafaras eyes are glued on the spectrometer’s readings: its

dials are still RACING UP.

Even Chloe and Danny are staring with horror now as -The

spectrometer itself begins rattling. Louder and louder -TAFARA

SISTER:

Temelket!

Just when it seems like the whole place is about to explode -The

Tafaras hurriedly pull the MELTED DUST out of the device.

They pour it into another LEAD SAMPLE BOX and seal it shut...

The Tafaras can’t believe what they’ve just seen.

But Evan’s awe is turning to panic. The Sister approaches him

and pulls down his gag. Stunned, he blurts out.

EVAN:

What is it?

The Tafaras are taken aback by his question. They have theBritish inflected-accents of African university graduates.

TAFARA SISTER:

You tell us.

75.

EVAN:

What did your readings show?

TAFARA BROTHER:

That it’s denser than osmium, heavier

than francium... and more radioactive

than uranium...

(this catches Evan totally

off guard --)

Even though it’s unrefined. It could

be the most dangerous thing on Earth.

TAFARA SISTER:

How did you make it?

Evan is reeling. What the hell have I brought back?

EVAN:

Please -- just take us to theAmerican Embassy. I can help you sellit to our government -

TAFARA BROTHER:

How’d you make the dust?

EVAN:

I didn’t. I found it.

TAFARA SISTER:

You’re lying.

TAFARA BROTHER:

(hard and fast)

What is it?

Evan gathers himself.

EVAN:

It doesn’t have a name yet.

CUT TO:

EXT. HELLAS PLANITIA - CAVE’S MOUTH

Evan, Keiju, an Yuri descend in pressure suits into

A VERTICAL CAVE SHAFT

They collecting samples and carefully store them in leadboxes. It’s frightening work. When Evan beams his powerful

light down, the cave appears bottomless.

As he climbs further down, he suddenly hits -

76.

SOLID GROUND. So pitch black that it looked like vacant space.

The white “shoes” of his pressure suit are now covered in theblack DUST.

He pushes a button on his fishbowl’s touchscreen. It picks upwavelengths that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

In his helmet’s display, the DUST now appears freckled with

green fluorescence.

EVAN:

(amazed)

Yuri! What is this?

Yuri struggles down to where Evan is. Sees the strange dustbelow them that seems to absorb all light.

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