Cliffhanger Page #3

STEWARDESS:

Take this.

(Gabe does)

Afraid of flying?

Gabe shakes his head.

GABE:

Falling.

INT. TERMINAL - DAY

Gabe, with no luggage, is at the small airport's only car

rental counter, doing the paperwork for a RENTAL AGENT.

RENTAL AGENT:

Midsize?

GABE:

Any size, any color, any model.

RENTAL AGENT:

How long will you be needing it?

GABE:

(flat)

Just under six hours.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

You aren't wasting any time, are you?

Gabe turns and looks at

MAGGIE:

who is standing off to the side.

MAGGIE:

I knew you'd be coming by. Today.

Gabe's happy to see her -- but at the same time, he isn't.

She looks too good -- and she brings up quite a mixed bag of

memories. Maggie carves on a smile.

MAGGIE:

If you're in that much of a hurry, why

don't you ride with me?

INT. RESCUE HELICOPTER - DAY

Maggie pilots the copter, heading out toward the mountain

range. Gabe fiddles with some of the equipment inside. Both

grope for a way to start the conversation.

GABE:

This is new...

MAGGIE:

It's a thermal scope -- picks up body

heat of lost hikers --

Gabe flicks it on, looks at the total absence of heat as they

fly over the snow.

GABE:

Still find the dead ones the old

fashioned way, I guess.

So much for small talk. Gabe is clearly uneasy watching these

mountains go by. Maggie breaks an awkward silence --

MAGGIE:

You could have said goodbye.

GABE:

(shakes head)

If I did, I'd have to listen to you

tell me one more time that it wasn't

my fault.

MAGGIE:

(angry)

Today -- especially today -- you get

to hear it again. The harness clip

broke. Cold stress -- one in a

million equipment failure. You and

Hal could have checked it from then

till now and it still would have

happened.

(beat)

You did everything right --

GABE:

-- If I did everything right, Susan

Collins would still be alive.

THE HELICOPTER:

whizzes on to the Ranger station -- a small building by an old

country road. Not much activity outside of some ROOKIE

CLIMBERS working out on a CLIMBING PRACTICE WALL. Maggie

starts to land the copter, and as she does --

INSIDE THE COPTER

GABE:

Do you really believe all that? That

it wasn't our fault?

Maggie slows the rotor, her eyes on the controls. Gabe's eyes

are locked on her.

MAGGIE:

(turns to Gabe)

Yes. Yes, I do.

But she answered a half beat too slow. The helicopter touches

ground.

GABE:

I'm not sure what I wish more, Maggie.

That you meant what you said, just now

-- or that it were really true then.

EXT. RANGER STATION

Hal, wearing Sheriff's garb, storms towards Maggie's side of

the copter as the engine shuts off and the rotor dies.

HAL:

Maggie, where the hell have you been?

I've got two climbers out --

Gabe gets out of the copter, and Hal sees him for the first

time. Unlike the last time we saw them, neither man is glad to

see the other. Hal turns on Maggie.

HAL:

Brett and Evan are up there again to

jump off the spur. Their wives called

twice. I want you in the air and I

want them found before the storm

system moves in.

(Maggie hesitates)

Now.

Maggie takes off as Gabe and Hal step away from the copter.

Gabe eyes Hal's uniform and almost -- not quite but almost --

laughs.

GABE:

Christ. You're in charge of Rescue

now?

HAL:

There was a vacancy. Maybe you heard

about it. The last guy lost his nerve

and lit out of town.

GABE:

Well, you're a better man than I am,

Hal. Nothing rattles you.

The rookie climbers get off the practice wall to watch this

faceoff. Gabe and Hal are one crack away from beating hell out

of each other. Frank heads over to defuse the confrontation.

FRANK:

(steering Gabe away)

Gabe! Long time, son -- why don't you

come meet some of the new guys --

GABE:

Good idea. Say, Hal?

(beat)

Why don't you come with me so we can

show these rookies how to death-rig a

woman properly?

That tears it -- Hal rushes Gabe and they pummel each other

until Frank and the others pull them apart, panting and

bleeding. Hal throws off the men holding him back -- but

instead of going at Gabe again, Hal throws Gabe a set of car

keys.

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