Cliffhanger Page #15

Travers digests this, and motions Hal to move on as we --

CUT TO:

CLOSE SHOT - GABE'S FACE

is torn in pain. In spite of the cold and wind, he's drenched

in sweat, half exertion, half fear. We pull back to take in

THE EAST WALL - LONG SHOT

Envision a wall. A really big wall. A really, really big wall.

A wall that's as wide as it is high -- five thousand feet by

five thousand feet -- narrowing to a domed peak at the summit.

Now picture the same wall, checkered with ice. If this were

horizontal, you or I couldn't walk on it without falling.

Now picture the same wall with an orange dot, two-thirds of

the way up it. The orange dot is

GABE:

and he barely has the strength to hold on, much less go up.

Gabe holds himself steady with one hand, gets a foothold, and

swings another hand up to SLAM it against the wall.

He's improvised gear -- he's tied a crampon to one hand. But

it's as awkward as it sounds. Gabe moves up only a foot or so

-- then pulls out the crampon, reaches up, and SLAMS it into

the wall, starting the painful process over again.

CUT TO;

INT. DENVER MINT - WRIGHT'S OFFICE - DAY

Wright's pacing around, trying to figure out what in his

office he should break first. Davis shows up at the door.

WRIGHT:

(furious)

Okay -- I know it's not in San

Francisco. I know it's not here. I

know it's not in any f***ing airport

from here to Montana. Where it's

not - we got that covered. Now, do

you have any ideas on where it is?

DAVIS:

(walking to a map)

There's no radio contact, sir. At all.

We're not receiving the tracer signal

from the cockpit's flight recorder.

Radar lost it after it went low here.

He points to a huge part of Colorado. Hundreds of square

miles.

DAVIS:

We have to assume it went down in the

storm.

WRIGHT:

Air search?

DAVIS:

(shakes head)

That storm hasn't quit yet. Weather

service says we've got it until

tomorrow morning at least. Even if we

could get a plane up now, it'd be

impossible to see anything on the

ground. And --

Wright slumps into a chair.

WRIGHT:

-- The roads are shut down, right?

DAVIS:

Most of this area doesn't even have

roads.

WRIGHT:

(rubs his eyes)

Keep two copters on full standby. And

let me know the second that storm

starts to wind down.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE EAST FACE - WIDE SHOT - DAY - GABE

is clearly exhausted and freezing -- his lips are blue, his

eyebrows encrusted with snow. Wind still threatens to knock

him off the wall -- but he forces himself on.

GABE:

(teeth chattering)

A steambath.

(spikes himself up)

A steambath -- and a bottle of

whiskey.

(new foothold)

A steambath with a bottle of

Glenlivet. And a fire.

(new handhold)

A steambath -- with a bottle of

Glenlivet -- and a steak.

(new foothold)

A steak soaked with Glenlivet, cooking

over a steambath on fire.

WIDER ON MOUNTAIN

Gabe finally reaches the top of the wall, where it meets an

enormous overhang of ice.

GABE:

is right underneath where the ice flows over the wall. Gabe

takes his handheld crampon and hammers it into the ice

overhead with more force than usual. This one is going to have

to hold.

Gabe steels himself for a tough move -- with one hand gripping

that crampon, he swings out, away from the wall.

Only the crampon spikes jammed into the ice above his hand

are keeping Gabe from falling. Gabe needs the second crampon

to make the move up -- but that's not going to be easy to get.

It's attached to his boot.

As Gabe clings to the upper crampon, his body swaying, he

reaches down with his free hand to loosen the other crampon.

GABE'S POV - DOWN

The ground is one slip and five thousand feet away. Gabe

fumbles desperately with the buckles on the crampons -- but

both his fingers, and the buckles, are frozen stiff --

GABE'S FACE

shows real, solid terror for the first time --

GABE'S POV - DOWN

Gabe gets the first buckle off -- then the second. The crampon

is off his boot.

GABE:

still swinging from one hand, takes the now-freed crampon and

slams it into the ice. It doesn't hold -- but the force of

Gabe's swing, pushing him away, has loosened the other

crampon. Gabe only gets one more shot at this -- he swings

the free crampon up with all his might -- it catches in the

same split second as the other dislodges.

But the hard part is over -- with the two crayons, Gabe

quickly manages to climb up over the lip of

THE ICE OVERHANG

This is a field of ice sloping up to the top. Gabe pulls

himself a few feet away from the edge, and puts the crampons

back on his feet where they belong. It's now pretty simple for

Gabe to run up the ice slope three hundred yards to

THE SUMMIT:

which is a rocky, wooded area. Gabe seems to have a second

wind now -- he runs to the other side of the summit. The other

side is obviously the route Hal and the others will be

taking -- beneath the summit is a winding, well-beaten path.

Gabe finally arrives at a small shack with a sign nearby

commemorating the "DOUGLAS EXPEDITION - 1933".

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