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6.

FOLLOWING JAKE as he pushes away from his capsule, gliding to

the LOCKERS across the aisle, his paralyzed legs not an

impediment in weightlessness.

CUT TO:

EXT. SPACE

Against the cold infinity of stars glides an INTERSTELLAR

SPACECRAFT -- ISV VENTURE STAR. As it moves past like an

endless train, we realize this thing is ENORMOUS -- over half

a mile long. PAN WITH IT 180 to REVEAL --

A GAS-GIANT PLANET called POLYPHEMUS, ringed with dozens of

moons which cast beauty-mark shadows on its vast face.

The ISV diminishes away from us toward the largest MOON-- a

blue and surprisingly Earth-like world called PANDORA. The

ship dwindles to a speck against the BLUE MOON.

CUT TO:

EXT. PANDORA ORBIT

ISV Venture Star drifts above a spectacular vista -- the

sapphire seas and unfamiliar continents of Pandora.

CLOSE ON ISV -- two massive "VALKYRIE" SHUTTLES are mated to

a DOCKING NODE. One of them separates from the starship and

moves away, its thrusters FIRING in short bursts.

As the shuttle moves away, descending toward Pandora, we hear

the sound of DRUMS, building, louder and louder until we--

CUT TO:

EXT. RAINFOREST - TWILIGHT

FLYING OVER A LANDSCAPE of massive cliffs and towering mesas

carpeted in rainforest. Great scarves of cloud swirl around

the mesa tops. A primeval landscape, vast and forbidding.

The trees are alien, the color too cyan. There are

waterfalls, rivers, and distant flocks of WINGED CREATURES.

Suddenly the carpet of virgin rainforest gives way to --

AN OPEN-PIT MINE. A lifeless crater -- as if a giant cookie-

cutter took a chunk out of the world. Down among the

terraces are EXCAVATORS and TRUCKS the size of three story

buildings.

And beyond the mine is the HUMAN COLONY --

7.

EXT. HELL'S GATE - TWILIGHT

HELL'S GATE is a cluster of squat concrete and steel

structures surrounded by chain-link FENCE 10 meters high,

topped with razor wire.

At the corners are towers with automated SENTRY GUNS

swiveling on servo mounts.

Visible beyond the gun towers, the VALKYRIE SHUTTLE roars in

across the treetops. VECTORING NOZZLES change angle,

bringing the ship to a SLOW HOVER.

EXT. RAIN FOREST - TWILIGHT

Through a screen of jungle canopy, we see the VALKYRIE

thunder overhead. Camera TILTS with it until leaves block

the view.

A BLUE INHUMAN HAND reaches INTO SHOT, parting the foliage to

reveal the shuttle hover-taxiing across the compound.

REVERSE -- ECU of two intense, cat-like golden EYES watching.

INT./EXT. SHUTTLE

The CREW CHIEF stomps down the aisle yelling --

CREW CHIEF:

Exopacks on!

Passengers don their EXO-PACK breathing gear with practiced

moves. Everybody except JAKE, who's turning his this way and

that trying to figure out the straps.

CREW CHIEF:

Remember people, you lose your mask

you're unconscious in 20 seconds and

you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody

be dead today, it looks bad on my report.

The crew chief stops by Jake long enough to bark --

CREW CHIEF:

Exopack on, let's go!

BENEATH THE SHUTTLE air blasts outward for a hundred meter

radius as it settles onto its landing gear.

INSIDE everybody is queued up in the aisles, with duffles

ready. Rows of tense, expectant faces in breathing masks --

and we DIP DOWN to find Jake, wheelchair putting him at the

level of everyone else's WAISTS.

8.

THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine.

CREW CHIEF:

Go directly into the base! Do not stop!

Go straight inside!

HAND-HELD, running with the arriving colonists who double

time down the ramp. They jog across the exposed apron toward

a walkway covered in CHAINLINK which leads to the complex.

Inside the chain-link tunnel are a couple of SEC-OPS

TROOPERS, CORPORAL LYLE WAINFLEET and PRIVATE FIKE. Sec-Ops

is the colony's private security force. These guys are laid

back, hardened, and haggard.

WAINFLEET:

Look at all that new meat.

THEIR POV -- Jake rolls down the ramp.

FIKE:

Check it out, man. Meals on wheels.

WAINFLEET:

That is just wrong.

Jake, pumping his chair, looks around as --

A huge TRACTOR, taller than a house, ROARS past on muddy

wheels. He notices something sticking in the tires --

ARROWS. The neolithic weapons are jarring amid all the

advanced technology.

Beyond the tractor, two VTOL vehicles take off. Armored and

heavily armed, they are AT-99 "SCORPION" GUNSHIPS.

MITSUBISHI MK-6 AMPSUITS -- human operated walking machines 4

meters tall -- patrol the perimeter. They are heavily

armored, and armed with a huge rotary cannon called a GAU-90.

Beyond the outer fence stands a black wall of forest hundreds

of feet high. A SENTRY GUN OPENS FIRE from a tower. TRACERS

light up the twilight. A shadowy SHAPE SHRIEKS and drops off

the fence. It is an armed camp in a state of siege.

WAINFLEET and Fike give Jake and his chair the hairy eyeball

as he approaches.

JAKE:

What're you two limpdicks starin' at?

As Jake rolls past, SOMETHING SWOOPS down behind him and --

9.

K-KRASH! SMASHES against the chain-link right next to his

head.

A vicious AERIAL PREDATOR a meter across gnashes glass fangs

against the steel. It STABS at him through the chain link

with a tail ending in a glistening stiletto. A STINGBAT.

WAINFLEET casually BLASTS IT with his PISTOL. It drops off

the fence, tail still lashing.

WAINFLEET:

Seen a lotta guys leave this place in a

wheelchair. Never seen anybody show up

in one.

Jake stares at the gnashing fangs of the dying alien.

ON A WALKWAY of the OPS CENTER, seen from above, a UNIFORMED

FIGURE grips the railing, watching Jake pump his chair

through the tunnel below.

The hair is clipped short. The scalp is etched by long

parallel SCARS where some Pandoran denizen's claws raked

across it. The bare arms, below tightly rolled sleeves, seem

hewn out of some hard tropical wood. Criss-crossed by scars.

The MAN raises his masked face to look at the sky. He eyes

are an icy steel gray.

HIS POV -- the mighty POLYPHEMUS seems to fill the sky,

beyond the clouds.

MAN (V.O.)

You are not in Kansas any more...

CUT TO:

INT. COMMISSARY - TWILIGHT

THE MAN from the balcony -- COLONEL MILES QUARITCH -- is the

HEAD OF SECURITY for the Hell's Gate colony. A hundred new

arrivals watch raptly as he paces like a panther across the

front of the large cafeteria. He stops, stance wide.

Without his mask, we see that Quaritch's features are rugged

and handsome, except for the SCAR, which runs from scalp to

jaw down one side of his face. On one hip he carries a very

large PISTOL.

QUARITCH:

... You are on Pandora, ladies and

gentlemen. Respect that fact every second

of every day.

10.

JAKE ROLLS IN, watching from the back.

COLONEL QUARITCH raises his hand and points out the window,

toward the dark treeline.

QUARITCH:

Out beyond that fence every living thing

that crawls, flies or squats in the mud

wants to kill you and eat your eyes for

jujubees.

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