Dark City Page #9

Stranger 2 SWINGS his dagger at Walker.

Walker falls backwards, dropping the gun. Stranger 2 advances,

smiling - kicks the gun across the wooden floor.

Walker notices a loose board in the floor. Clutching at straws, he

lifts his foot, kicks down hard. The board flies up, pivoting

against Walkerís heel, and catches Stranger 2 with a CRACK in the

leg.

Walker runs at the off-balance man, tackles him around the waist.

Stranger 2 recoils, canít stop, steps off backwards into space,

PLUMMETS INTO DARKNESS towards the street below.

Walker turns, leans down to pick up his gun...

Behind him SOMETHING is rising.

Stranger 2 is LEVITATING HIMSELF back up to the bell-tower. He

lands behind Walker, lifts his dagger, steps closer and closer.

Walker looks around.

The Stranger lunges, driving Walker towards the shaft beneath the

swinging bells. Walker FALLS, dangles over dark space. Stranger 2

stands above him.

WALKER:

What do you want?

The Stranger says nothing, just looks at Walker with his black

eyes...

The bells are swinging like crazy now, VERY CLOSE to the Stranger.

Walker stares at the man, who is hesitating for some reason. TIGHT

ON the Stranger's feet - he takes a small step BACKWARDS - enough

to put him in the path of the bell.

The shiny rim of a bell CLIPS the Stranger's head and SLAMS it

against a low wooden beam in the ceiling.

The Stranger slumps to the ground, his head crushed beyond

recognition.

Walker pulls himself up - stands over the manís body, utterly

perplexed by what just happened. He's trying to decide what to do

when A MOVEMENT catches his eye.

TIGHT ON the dead man's ear - something moves inside. A BLACK

INSECT, half-dead, crawls out of his crushed head.

Revolted, Walker SQUASHES the insect under his shoe.

EXT./INT. VARIOUS - MONTAGE

Electricity ARCS between electrodes.

A building against the sky. The windows crack and then BURST OUT -

raining glass down on the street.

A wall SPLITS OPEN. Slime oozes through the crack.

A toad cracks open.

OVER THESE IMAGES - a high pitched sound BUILDS IN LEVEL, like

many people screaming - it gets VERY LOUD...

EXT. BUMSTEAD'S BUILDING - NIGHT

TIGHT ON - a wristwatch spinning backwards crazily - completely

haywire.

BUMSTEAD stands on a street corner staring blankly at his watch.

Taps it several times, annoyed.

A DISTANT RUMBLE builds and the pavement he is standing on trembles

like a mini earthquake. Then everything is still again.

Bumstead looks up and walks rapidly towards a dilapidated three

story building across the street.

INT. BUMSTEAD'S BULDING - NIGHT

The inspector climbs stairs to a top floor. He walks past a woman

smoking in an open doorway. This is HELEN - Bumstead's neighbour.

HELEN:

Long night at the office?

Bumstead smiles, but keeps moving past the wooman.

BUMSTEAD:

'Evening, Helen.

Bumstead takes his keys from his coat pocket, steps up to the door

of his apartment, stops for a moment and looks back over his

shoulder.

BUMSTEAD:

(Cont.)

Say, know what time it is?

HELEN:

Sure...

(looks at her watch)

...that's strange. My watch is

nuts.

She looks at him and smiles.

HELEN:

(Cont.)

Oh, well. That'll teach me to buy

cheap crap...

Bumstead smiles.

BUMSTEAD:

Goodnight.

Puzzled, he enters his room and shuts the door with a soft click.

INT. BUMSTEAD'S APARTMENT

Bumstead puts down his bulging briefcase, takes off his coat and

hat.

Everything is extremely neat and organised, covering on all the

furniture.

TIGHT ON - a kettle being put on a stove - TILT UP to Bumstead

looking ever more perplexed.

HIS P.O.V. reveals a wall clock also spinning backwards.

ANGLE ON - a footstool in the lounge room. Bumstead steps INTO

FRAME, carrying a massive PIANO ACCORDION. He sits, places the

instrument on his knee and starts to play.

TIGHT ON HIS FINGERS dancing skilfully across the keyboard. The

instrument itself is beautiful - ornate and sparkling. The music

Bumstead makes is sad and hauntingly beautiful.

INT. BLACKNESS

As our eyes adjust to the gloom... THE CAMERA DESCENDS past pipes

and soil, foundations and sewers - rapidly gaining speed until it

is hurtling into the bowels of the city...

INT. UNDERWORLD - NIGHT

...THE CAMERA FINALLY STOPS ON A SILHOUETTED FIGURE sitting at a

polished black table.

A phone rings.

FIGURE 1 picks up the receiver and listens attentively, then hangs

up and writes something down, drops the note into A CHUTE.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT

The note falls from a slot in the wall before FIGURE 2 (in shadow

again). He reads from the note then takes a long stick and moves

forward into the light. We see he is a STRANGER.

He uses the stick to push two small cut-out figures of men across a

board, away from a large grouping of similar cut-outs. The board

resembles a planning table in a war-room.

A HIGH ANGLE as the CAMERA PULLS BACK on the grouping of cut-out

figures. More and more of them. Ten. Twenty. A hundred. A

sinister army.

INT. DARK CHAMBER - NIGHT

TIGHT ON - A METAL ARM sweeping THROUGH FRAME in jerky increments.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL - it's the second hand on A MASSIVE RUSTED

METAL CLOCK.

CRANE DOWN from the clock TO:

DARK SILHOUETTES filing into a bunker-like room. SILENCE except for

echoic ticking.

MISTER HAND walks in and sits near the front of the crowd.

The STRANGERS have gathered.

ONE MAN remains standing at the back of the room.

STRANGER 1

What is going to be done? This

situation is dangerous, yes...

A RUMBLING NOISE O.S. cuts him off. Everyone looks UP:

TO A PORTAL high on a wall. The noise gets louder. SEVERAL

FIGURES on stilts run past outside the opening - then the noise

subsides.

While this spectacle is occurring, STRANGER 1 starts to tremble

violently, seized with a kind of convulsion, he froths at the mouth

and throws his head about.

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