Heavy Metal Page #17

Over the ruins of the temple, a succession of primitive mud and

clay huts evolve into the thatched-roof cottages of a Medieval

village.

A Medieval stone-cutter finds the ball, and mortars it in with

his stones as he builds a water well in the centre of the village.

Satisfied with his work, he lowers the bucket to draw himself

a drink. Behind him, an ox-cart comes roaring around a corner.

The axle breaks and a heavy wooden wheel careens along, striking

the stone-cutter in the back and knocking him into the well.

Time advances once more as the Medieval village grows and

transforms into a Victorian-style town. It is evening, and

the stone well now sits under a gazebo at the centre of a gas-

lit village green.

A fancy carriage carrying a Victorian gentleman passes by and

circles the green.

Moving in through a window across the street, we see a seductive-

looking woman dressing herself in black garters and lace. This

is intercut with the carriage circling the green, until the

woman, who looks like a high-class harlot, finishes dressing and

leaves her room. Crossing the street, she walks up to the gazebo

and leans provocatively up against the well.

The gentleman gets out of his carriage, approaches the woman

and propositions her. She smiles, touches, and teases him. We

pan down their legs to the green ball glowing in the well-wall.

Suddenly red blood begins to drip over the ball, and the woman's

body falls to the ground. The camera pans up to the well-bucket,

where the gentleman is washing the blood from his hands.

As time begins to move forward again, the man ages and hobbles

away, as the well crumbles and cheap turn-of-the-century row-

housing grows up, covering the green ball. The town becomes

dirtier and blacker, and smokestacks blow soot into the morning

sky. Almost on cue, the doors of the houses open, and grim

coal-miners emerge, shuffling through the filthy streets on

their way to work.

The camera pans down to a drain in the gutter. A rat appears.

Panning back up, the street is now empty. A bell is heard

ringing, and a horse-drawn Red Cross cart pulls around a corner

and into view. Masked workers follow the cart. One rings

the bell, while the others pull corpses from the doorways and

load them into the cart. The gutters and windowsills are now

full of rats. Time advances again and the buildings become

deserted derelicts. Their decaying timbers groan under the

weight.

A support snaps, and one of the buildings starts to collapse.

Falling amidst the crumbling plaster and rotting wood is the

glowing green ball. As the ball hits the ground, it is covered

over by rubble.

The rubble becomes bleached by the hot sun and the landscape

grows drier. Sand blows all around, covering over everything.

As the sandstorm clears, the entire terrain is nothing but

desert. In the distance we can see a group of people walking.

CUT TO:

PEOPLE:

The people appears to be a band of aboriginal workmen, carrying

futuristic laser-shovels over their shoulders. They are led by

a goateed archaeologist with an elaborate metal detector. As

he walks, his detector starts bleeping. He points to a spot

on the ground, and the natives start digging with their laser-

shovels.

One of the workers finds something.

WORKER:

Kuma! Kuma! Kuma!

The archaeologist waves the workers away and directs a tread-

driven shovel-sifter up to the spot. The shovel-sifter digs

in and pulls up a large chunk of desert. When the sand has

sifted out, we see the tarnished Loc-Nar in the machine's grip.

It is not glowing. The machine swivels, and a native foreman

plucks the Loc-Nar from the shovel-sifter's teeth.

As the foreman touches it, the Loc-Nar starts glowing brightly.

The foreman's hands turn green. He looks at his green hands,

then he looks over to the archaeologist. Suddenly the foreman's

entire body glows green, and crumbles into dust.

The archaeologist and the natives stare in horror at the

glowing Loc-Nar, lying in the pile of green dust.

DISSOLVE TO:

NEW YORK - AERIAL SHOT - DAY

The camera comes down from high above the city. The general

shape and outline of New York looks familiar, but as we get

closer we sense that something is different. Fires are

burning in various locations below us, and intermittent

gunshots become audible as the narration begins.

HARRY:

(V.O.)

Yeah, New York, big deal. Scum-centre

of the world.

Moving down through the skyscrapers, the city gets dirtier and

slummier. We pass a dead man hanging from a tenement clothesline.

Below us, scruffy children dodge traffic as they play gyro-ball

in the garbage-filled street.

HARRY:

(V.O.)

... and now they're talking about

letting in low-lifes from other planets,

too.

Under the narration, the camera turns a corner and zooms down

through the roof of a parked taxicab. It stops full frame on

the newspaper held in the cabdriver's hands. A slow pan across

the front page reveals that the paper is the New York Times,

July 6, 2031

One headline reads: "400,000 Traffic Deaths Over Holiday Weekend".

Another reads:
"Venus Declared 73rd State".

The camera stops on a headline reading: "Professor Discovers

Ancient Relic --- to be shown in N.Y. Museum".

There is an accompanying photo of the goateed archaeologist and

his beautiful daughter standing beside a glass and metal case

containing the Loc-Nar.

A knocking is heard on the cab's window, and the driver throws

down the newspaper.

YOUNG MAN:

(from outside)

You free?

HARRY:

Yeah. Get in.

(V.O.)

My name's Harry Canyon. I drive

a cab.

He flips a switch which unlocks the rear door.

CUT TO:

OUTSIDE CAB:

The young man climbs into the back seat and closes the door.

Harry's yellow Checker cab pulls out into traffic. The

vehicle looks pretty normal except for some vaguely futuristic

chrome panels cut into the sides, and thicker, deeper bumpers.

CUT TO:

INSIDE CAB:

Harry slides open the plexiglass shields separating him from

his passenger.

HARRY:

Where to, pal?

YOUNG MAN:

The U.N. Building.

HARRY:

The U.N. Building. What a joke.

Used to be a nice place until they

turned it into low rent housing.

Now it's a dump. I wouldn't live

there if you paid me.

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