Gravity Page #8

MATT:

(on radio)

Ryan do you copy? Do you copy?

An ALARM GOES OFF.

RYAN:

My CO2 alarm went off. My CO2 alarm

went off.

MATT:

You need to board the station. Can you

see the airlock?

She turns, looking for the Station’s Airlock.

MAT:

Do you copy?

(P.O.V shot - beginning to blur)

RYAN:

Yes. Yes. I see it. I see it.

MATT:

(on radio)

Good. That’s where you want to go.

You’re losing focus, right?

RYAN:

Yes.

MATT:

That’s because you’re breathing CO2

and you’re losing consciousness. You

need to board the Station.

Her eyes flutter...

MATT (CONT’D)

(on radio)

Move!

Ryan blinks, TURNS OFF the ALARM, and begins climbing over a

module of the Station.

RYAN:

Ok.

The transmission becomes weaker, filled with STATIC.

MATT:

(on radio)

Now listen to me. That second Soyuz is

too damaged for re-entry,

but it's perfectly fine for a little

Sunday drive.

RYAN:

Sunday drive...?

MATT:

(on radio)

Look to the west... You see that dot

in the distance? That is the Chinese

Station. You’re going to take the

Soyuz and cruise over there. The

Chinese lifeboat is a Shenzou.

RYAN:

I’ve never flown a Shenzhou-

MATT:

(on radio)

That doesn’t matter. Its re-entry

protocol is identical to the Soyuz’s-

She nods, already looking.

RYAN:

Ok.

MATT:

(on radio)

You’ve never flown a Soyuz either.

RYAN:

Only on a simulator.

MATT:

(on radio)

So then you know.

RYAN:

I crashed it. I-

MATT:

(on radio)

It’s a Simulator. That’s what it’s

designed for.

RYAN:

Every time. I crashed the Simulator

every time.

MATT:

(on radio)

It's not rocket science. Just point

the damn thing at earth and

by this time tomorrow you'll be back

in Lake Zurich with one hell of a

story to tell. You copy? Ryan. You

copy?

RYAN:

I’m going to take the Soyuz and come

get you.

MATT:

No you're not. . I have too much of a

head start. That ship already sailed.

RYAN:

No. I’m coming to get you.

MATT:

Ryan, you're going to have to learn to

let go.

RYAN:

But... I...

MATT:

(on radio)

I want to hear you say you're going to

make it.

Ryan is struggling for breath.

MATT (CONT’D)

(on radio)

Ryan! Say it!

RYAN:

I’m... I’m going to make it.

MATT:

Alright. Keep going

Ryan stares at Matt’s tiny figure in the distance.

MATT (CONT’D)

What kind of name is Ryan for a girl?

RYAN:

Dad wanted a boy.

MATT:

Are you close to the airlock?

RYAN:

Not yet.

MATT:

Keep going.

Ryan continues to the Airlock.

MATT (CONT’D)

So, now that we have some distance

between us- you’re attracted to me,

aren’t you?

RYAN:

What?

MATT:

Well, people say I have beautiful blue

eyes.

RYAN:

You... you have beautiful... you have

beautiful blue eyes.

MATT:

I have brown eyes... that hurts.

She looks at Matt’s figure receding.

MATT (CONT’D)

(on radio)

You wanna know the good news?

RYAN:

What?

MATT:

(on radio)

I’m going to break Anatoly’s record,

and I think mine’s going to stand for

a long, long time.

RYAN:

No... I’m coming to get you.

MATT:

You know, Ryan is a nice name for a

girl. Wow, you should see the sun on

the Ganges. It's amazing.

Ryan starts to respond, then falters, watching Matt’s figure

grow ever smaller.

THE SAD CROONING of HANK WILLIAMS crackles through the dying

radio.

RYAN:

(in a daze)

Matt...

Only static hisses...

RYAN (CONT’D)

Matt!

Static again as Matt falls deeper into the distance, becoming

lost in a sea of white specks and

The transmission ends.

SILENCE:

INSIDE THE HELMET-

Ryan is dizzy, sweating, and having trouble focusing. She sees

Matt-

Nothing more than a dot.

She stretches her hand toward him, as if trying to touch him

with the tips of her fingers. But the dot has already vanished

into never-ending darkness.

EVERYTHING IS BLURRED.

Ryan is about to lose consciousness, when-

A new ALARM GOES OFF.

She takes one deep breath as she opens her eyes widely.

If she doesn’t move, she’ll die.

Ryan pulls herself forward, reaching for a handle on the Soyuz.

She grabs it and reaches for another, climbing her way toward

the Station’s airlock.

But she’s losing focus.

As her right hand is reaching for a handle, everything becomes a

blur, and she misses.

INSIDE THE HELMET -

Her brain is shutting down from lack of oxygen. She struggles to

open her eyes and mumbles words that are unintelligible.

She reaches up again, almost blindly. Her hand grips the handle,

and with one huge effort-

She sprints across the Docking Module, swinging from handle to

handle, in one continual push, until she reaches the-

AIRLOCK.

She stops, takes one deep breath and-

She turns the latch and OPENS the re-entry hatch.

The hatch BLOWS OPEN as the air inside the cabin escapes into

the vacuum, almost throwing Ryan back into space, but she holds

tightly onto the latch.

She hangs outside, trying to gasp the last breath of oxygen

inside her life system. She sees her feet dangling against the

emptiness of space and-

With one last effort, she pulls herself into the airlock.

AIRLOCK MODULE. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION. 500 KM ABOVE EARTH.

As she enters she does a 180-degree flip. As soon as her legs

are in, she grabs onto the latch, and-

CLOSES THE HATCH.

She turns the latch and-

THE CABIN IS SEALED OFF.

INSIDE THE HELMET-

Ryan is suffocating. With very little oxygen and her body

intoxicated by the nitrogen in her blood, her breathing is

coarse and painful.

She can hardly keep her eyes open, and she pushes herself

through the cabin, an empty cylinder lit by two circular mercury

lights. She reaches the-

CONTROL PANEL, a small computer with a screen that monitors the

atmospheric and temperature levels inside the airlock.

She presses a button on the panel and-

THE CABIN BEGINS TO PRESSURIZE.

A low hissing sound can be heard as the tanks in the Station

begin pumping pure oxygen into the airlock. The control panel’s

monitor shows the atmospheric levels slowly rising.

INSIDE THE HELMET-

Ryan gasps for air, but there is none.

She stares at the red-orange-green graph on the control panel

showing the atmospheric levels. It reads red. Her pupils begin

to dilate as-

SOUND BEGINS TO SURFACE

In the vacuum of space there was nothing to carry sound waves,

but now sound begins to travel through the oxygen that slowly

fills the cabin.

The sounds are muffled, like the sounds of the outside world

heard from within the womb.

A beeping sound intermittently penetrates the airlock, anxious

and halting.

The Control System’s graph slowly moves from red to orange. The

cabin is still not fully pressurized.

But that will have to do.

With one sharp motion-

SHE TAKES OFF HER HELMET-

And pushes it from her head.

She gasps for air and coughs.

She contorts and shakes, fighting to breath in the thin

atmosphere of the airlock. Her helmet bounces around the walls

of the cabin, floating.

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