Human Target Page #11

WINSTON (CONT'D)

February 25, 2:
53pm, December 15... What

is this?

A beat, before Guerrero pushes back from the computer.

GUERRERO:

I think I know who hired the hit on

Stephanie Dobbs.

Off Winston-

CUT TO:

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 51.

INT. MONTEREY ONE - 2ND-TO-LAST CAR - DAY

The penultimate car in the train. Passengers are still

shuffling into the rear car, soon to be their lifeboat.

Stephanie has an access panel open in the bulkhead-

STEPHANIE:

The system isn’t online. We’ll have to

cut the hydraulics manually from here to

cut the last car loose.

CHANCE:

Four minutes. Is there time?

STEPHANIE:

We’re fine. Once the hoses are

disconnected, there’ll be about a 20

second delay before the cars separate.

TOM:

Why don’t you let somebody else do that?

STEPHANIE:

I know the guts of this thing better than

anyone.

James looks a little distressed. She smiles warmly for him.

STEPHANIE (CONT’D)

It’s ok. I’ll be ok. Go...

James, Tom and everyone else clear out into the rear-car.

Just Chance and Stephanie remain. She’s shoulder deep in the

access panel, feeling around as she disconnects the hoses.

CHANCE:

Sorry.

STEPHANIE:

For what?

Chance glances around. The train. Her baby.

CHANCE:

Figured somebody should say it.

STEPHANIE:

At least I know what I’ll be doing next

Monday.

CHANCE:

What’s that?

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 52.

CONTINUED:

STEPHANIE:

Building the damn thing all over again.

Chance smiles.

STEPHANIE (CONT’D)

I’m down to the last connection here.

Ready?

Chance nods. Stephanie pulls the hose, and we hear MACHINERY

SHIFTING under the deck. Around them, STEAM HISSES FROM

CONNECTING HOSES behind the walls...

But as Chance and Stephanie get to the door to the rear car,

IT WON’T BUDGE. Chance pulls at it. Nothing.

CHANCE:

I thought you said they don’t lock.

STEPHANIE:

They don’t...

REVEAL THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, where we see that someone

has jammed it shut.

ON CHANCE as he pulls at the door, trying to work it loose.

But as he gives it a pull, he drops to a knee, exhausted.

His wounds have finally become unbearable...

Stephanie pitches in. But as she tries to work the door

loose, A LOUD BANG IS HEARD FROM OUTSIDE, as the flexible

cowling covering the short space between the two cars comes

undone... As the rear car separates, and begins recede away-

STEPHANIE (CONT’D)

(small)

No...

--Stephanie watches helplessly out the window. Chance is on

the floor, bleeding out. Off the two of them, stranded...

END ACT FOUR:

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 53.

ACT FIVE:

INT. MONTEREY ONE - 2ND-TO-LAST TRAIN CAR - DAY

Picked up directly from the end of Act Four.

STEPHANIE:

How much time?

CHANCE:

Two minutes. Give or take.

Chance and Stephanie, stranded, time running out...

STEPHANIE:

Maybe we can strap ourselves in. Hope

the cars are strong enough to hold

together...

CHANCE:

Are they?

Stephanie’s look doesn’t inspire much confidence...

STEPHANIE:

We’re going to die, aren’t we?

Chance looks up at her, and we FLASH AGAIN TO-

--Chance and the Mystery Woman from before. Except this

time, he’s holding her lifeless body... As fast as it

appeared, it’s gone, and we RETURN TO SCENE-

ON CHANCE, the wheels in his head spinning...

CHANCE:

At this speed, wake turbulence off the

tail of the train is gonna run straight

up in the air, right?

Stephanie almost double-takes... How did he know that?

STEPHANIE:

Excuse me?

CHANCE:

Our wake, the air passing over the hull

of the train-

STEPHANIE:

Yeah-- Not straight up, but close to it.

CHANCE:

At least 140, 150 degrees, right?

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 54.

CONTINUED:

STEPHANIE:

Roughly... I thought you said you were

bad at math.

CHANCE:

I said I didn’t like it, I didn’t say I

couldn’t do it.

Chance hoists himself off the deck. A look of purpose to him.

STEPHANIE:

What are you trying to figure out?

CHANCE:

How to get off this train.

(then)

Come with me...

--and he heads up towards the front of the train.

CUT TO:

INT. MONTEREY ONE - CARGO CAR - MOMENTS LATER

Chance unwraps the tarp from the machines it’s covering.

CHANCE:

Take this...

Tosses her the utility knife-

CHANCE (CONT’D)

Seatbelts, two of them. Cut them as

close to the seat as possible.

STEPHANIE:

(catching up to him...)

Wait a minute--No no no no no...

CHANCE:

Ninety seconds. You got a better idea?

A beat, before Stephanie heads off. Off Chance-

CUT TO:

INT. MONTEREY ONE - 2ND-TO-LAST TRAIN CAR - DAY

Chance rigs the seatbelts into the drawstring-cable at the

bottom of the tarp...

STEPHANIE:

This isn’t going to work...

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 55.

CONTINUED:

Chance wraps the seatbelts across his chest in an X.

CHANCE:

I’m open to alternatives. I’d talk fast

though.

Chance holds out his arms. Stephanie crosses herself, before

getting close to him. He wraps his arms around her tightly.

CHANCE (CONT’D)

Exhale. Hard.

Stephanie does. Chance opens the door behind them, fires the

tarp out the back door, holds on to Stephanie with everything

he’s got--A moment, before THEY’RE BOTH YANKED VIOLENTLY

OUT THE BACK DOOR!

CUT TO:

EXT. MONTEREY EXPRESS - DAY

The tarp expands in the train’s backdraft, BECOMING A

MAKESHIFT PARACHUTE, drifting up and away from the speeding

train, which rockets forward away from them...

The trip up is the easy part. As they fall, it becomes clear

that this thing ain’t a parachute. A messy, spiralling (but

non-life-threatening) drop, before--

THEY LAND ROUGHLY in the dirt. Stephanie’s wind is knocked

out of her, she heaves for air. Lifts her head up just in

time to watch as-

THE TRAIN REACHES THE CURVE AHEAD... The lead car starts

around bend, but it can’t hold the track... THE FIRST CAR

CAREENS OFF THE RAILS and into a dusty flatland... THE

TRAILING CARS JACK-KNIFE, piling up behind it, and carrying

the whole mess thundering forward... It’s the biggest damn

wreck you’ve ever seen.

As it finally comes to a rest, things get quiet again...

Stephanie notes that Chance never got up from the fall.

STEPHANIE:

Hey... Hey!

Chance doesn’t answer. Stephanie goes to him, not sure what

to do. Concern turning to panic.

STEPHANIE (CONT’D)

Wake up... Come on...

Lifeless. But after a beat, he coughs. Comes around.

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 56.

CONTINUED:

CHANCE:

(long beat)

Ow...

Stephanie smiles her relief...

We pull back on a tableau of the two of them... The smoking

hulk of the bullet train off in the near distance... The

SAFE CAR rolling by them, appreciably slowed down, and

coasting safely around the curve ahead...

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. TOM’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

A trendy bachelor pad. On a wall-mounted TV, news coverage

drones on about the crash, including footage of the emergency

responders that arrived after the fact...

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