Flash Gordon

Season #8

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Flash Gordon

teleplay by

Luis Blasini

November 18, 2022

Draft #1

(© copyright 2022)

Based on the original comic strips of Alex Raymond

 

Email:
luis.blasini@yahoo.com

© BlasiniFilms Lmt.

 

FLASH GORDON:

EPISODE 1

A Planet in Peril

 

 

 

A triumphant Wagnerian-like theme plays over OPENING CREDITS. Afterward, a TITLE CARD, white on black, appears:

“CHAPTER ONE:
A PLANET IN PERIL”

FADE IN -

EXT:
SPACE

EARTH reflects off the face of an ASTRONAUT'S HELMET. So close you can almost touch it. The lonely astronaut, attached to the orbiting ISS STATION BY LIFELINE, struggles to replace a piece of the space station’s equipment. It is quiet and serene.

ASTRONAUT:

(with radio squawking)

I am now attempting to relocate the service valve...

A HORRIFYING RUMBLING SOUND. FLAMING SHOTGUN-LIKE PELLETS assault the station. INCANDESCENT SHRAPNEL rips into the fuselage and solar panels tearing it to pieces. The lone astronaut’s lifeline breaks; he spins off, suit leaking from multiple punctures.

EXT. ISS - SPACE

FIERY PELLETS shred through ISS logo, peeling the station down to its ribs. FIERY EXPLOSION.

EXT. SPACE

CLOSE ON THE ASTRONAUT as he twirls away from the space station. His helmet fogging. He gasps for air, retching, eyelids leaking blood. He tries to form words:

ASTRONAUT:

(gasping)

...help...

The astronaut’s SHOULDER-CAM angle spins end-over-end...

EXT. MANHATTAN ISLAND - SUNRISE

Establishing. The sun RISES over the BROOKLYN BRIDGE.

EXT. MANHATTEN - MORNING

CITY TRAFFIC is ground to a halt. CAMERA PANS into a cab. CARLOS, the cabbie, with a suited OFFICE WORKER who's craning his neck out the window.

OFFICE WORKER:

Come on! What's the hold up?

CARLOS:

Well, ya know, it’s a Monday. Could be a shootin', could be a stabbin', could be some junkie schmuck in the middle of the street.. (shrugs)

A FIERY PROJECTILE the size of a school bus SCREAMS through the sky and blasts through THREE HUGE SKYSCRAPERS.

More projectiles EXPLODE in the intersection. People scream and run. Cars get thrown everywhere. Carlos's cab slams upside down into HARRY’S BAR.

ONE BLOCK DOWN. THE ENTIRE TOP FIVE STORIES -- A sheared section topples and hits the street below. Bricks, mortar, and gargoyles cascade everywhere. POV from street looking up - people SCREAMING and FALLING.

EXT. TOKYO – NIGHT

The city of Tokyo spreads off into the horizon. A MILLION LIGHTS glow in the EARLY NIGHT. A COUPLE sits on a street overpass, romantically admiring the city view. TWO HUGE PROJECTILES scream down from the heavens. There is a bright FLASH as the city is DECIMATED.

EXT. LONDON – AFTERNOON

The LONDON BRIDGE is congested with afternoon TRAFFIC. A PROJECTILE the size of a garbage truck falls and smashes into BIG BEN, completely demolishing it. In the distance, TWO OTHER METEORS slam into THE CITYSCAPE in a fiery EXPLOSION of ash and debris.

INT - N.O.R.A.D. - CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN

The U.S.'s Early Warning Air Defense. Two U.S.A.F RADAR TECHNICIANS are hunched over radar screens. They speak excitedly into their headsets.

RADAR TECH 1:

I have confirmation of strikes, one, two, three... twelve bogies...the whole board's lit up! They’re coming down all over the world!

The RADAR TECH 2 hits a KLAXON, and stabs phone line buttons.

EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - PENTAGON - DAY

Establishing, over which we hear a RINGING of PHONES.

EXT. PENTAGON - GENERAL BURTON'S OFFICE – DAY

Chaos in the corridors. GENERAL BURTON, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a stern man of stature, bursts out of his office, met by his SECRETARY.

SECRETARY:

We are receiving confirmed reports of mass destruction as far away as Beijing and parts of the Soviet Union! New York has gone dark! Catastrophic casualties in Kansas City, Miami, Los Angeles...

BURTON:

Get me Professor Gordon.

They rush down the congested hall.

INT. MISSION CONTROL

PROFESSOR RAYMOND GORDON, a stoic-looking man in his late fifties, enters the room and sits down. HIS ASSISTANT hands him a secure phone. Gordon sinks into his chair. In the b.g., a wall of VIDEO MONITORS show twenty live feeds from T.V. news stations across the country. All images are of destruction and chaos.

PROF. GORDON:

...no, Mister President, they’re not missiles. It seems the comet knocked several asteroids out of their orbit when it passed through the belt. I won’t candy coat the situation for you. The Earth is doomed. The comet continues rushing towards us. We estimate twenty-two days before collision. (He nods.) Of course. God’s speed, Mister President.

Burton ENTERS the office.

BURTON:

Professor Gordon. It’s dropping our own damn asteroids on top us. We need to come up with a plan on how to deflect that object from our orbit. Where’s Zarkov? He was all over this project when he first discovered the damn thing.

PROF. GORDON:

(scoffs)

Zarkov? Doctor Hans Zarkov? The man is insane! His theories were absolutely preposterous!

BURTON:

How so?

ASSISTANT:

After the comet passed the orbit of Mars, Zarkov claimed it began to slow down.

BURTON:

(not believing a word)

It...the comet began to slow down?

PROF. GORDON:

So he claimed. Zarkov also said to have received a transmission from the comet itself. One word. Very garbled. “Mongo”.

BURTON:

Mongo? Where’s Zarkov now?

PROF. GORDON:

Disappeared. Went dark. The CIA lost track of him when he entered Austria. (shrugs.) Guess he went back home. We did receive a phone message a few days ago from him. Madness. Ranting. Most of it made no sense. Said he did it. Said he completed his rocket ship.

Gordon’s CELL PHONE chimes a notification. He looks at it. His demeanor becomes melancholy.

PROF. GORDON:

It’s a message from my son, Flash. With the cancellation of the World Triathlon Tournaments in Italy, he’s boarded the next transcontinental flight hoping to be here with me and his mother before the end.

WHIPE TO:

EXT. ESTABLISHING SHOT – SOMEWHERE OVER WEST EUROPE

Dark STORM CLOUDS rumble and lightning FLASHES as a small CHALLENGER 601 jets through the turbulence.

TRAVELING SHOT – CHALLENGER JET

PANNING outside the jet, we see the CAPTAIN and CO-PILOT lit through the cockpit window piloting the plane. The camera TRAVELS along the outside fuselage of the plane from the cockpit windows to the passenger windows where we see FLASH GORDON sitting pensively looking out his window. He is a twenty-two-year-old blond youth. Athletic and handsome.

INT. CHALLENGER JET – PASSENGER CABIN

The cabin is filled with anxious passengers. FLASH sits in the middle of the passenger area. Across the aisle from him is DALE ARDEN, a twenty one-year-old beauty with short, raven hair. She sits typing away on a laptop. He GLANCES at her, checking her out. She completely ignores him as she works away.

FLASH notices the title of her work on her screen. It reads ‘EARTH DOOMED SAYS DR. HANS ZARKOV’.

He leans across the aisle and begins reading what she is writing. Annoyed, she turns the laptop away and scowls at him.

DALE:

Hey, buddy, personal space?

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