Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade Page #11

INDY:

Three, seven and ten.

He climbs a spiral staircase leading up to a LOFT and looks

down at Brody and Elsa. The floor beneath their feet is an

elaborate tile design containing a huge "X" -- visible only

from this higher angle.

INDY:

Ten.

(wryly; to himself)

"X" marks the spot.

Indy rushes down the staircase and goes to the CENTER TILE

where the two sides of the X intersect. He blows dust away

from the tile and tries to pry it up, but cannot.

Indy rushes past Brody to a cordon held in place by a brass

stand underneath the stained-glass window.

Indy raises the brass stand and timing his actions, hits the

tile precisely as the Librarian stamps a book. The Librarian

regards the stamper curiously.

Indy continues to pound at the tile as the Librarian resumes

his stamping, still puzzled by the SOUND ECHOING through the

library.

Finally Indy breaks the tile. As he bends to remove the pieces

of broken tile, a TWO-FOOT SQUARE HOLE IS REVEALED.

Cold air and a wet, rancid smell escape from the hole.

INDY:

Bingo.

ELSA:

You don't disappoint, Doctor Jones.

You're a great deal like your father.

INDY:

Except he's lost, and I'm not.

ELSA:

Lower me down.

Indy is impressed with Elsa's spirit, and cooperates agreeably --

holding her by the hands and lowering her into the hole.

When her feet finally touch ground below, Indy releases his

grip on her and slips the Grail Diary to Brody.

INDY:

Look after this for me, will you?

Then Indy disappears into the hole.

INT. CATACOMBS BELOW LIBRARY - DAY

Indy jumps down a steep step. He reaches back to help Elsa.

INDY:

Come on.

Indy and Elsa glance around. This is really a horrid place.

Dark and dank. Foul smelling. Elsa turns. She removes a

cigarette lighter with a unique ivory four-leaf clover design.

Indy and Elsa inspect markings carved onto the walls.

ELSA:

Pagan symbols. Fourth or Fifth

Century.

INDY:

Right. Six hundred years before the

Crusades.

ELSA:

The Christians would have dug their

own passages and burial chambers

centuries later.

Indy takes the lighter from her and lights their way down a

dark passageway.

INDY:

That's right. If there's a Knight of

the First Crusade entombed down here,

that's where we'll find him.

INT. LIBRARY - DAY

THREE MEN carrying guns make their way down the spiral

staircase toward an unsuspecting Brody. One of the Men, KAZIM,

raises his gun and brings it down hard on Brody's head.

BRODY:

Ohhhh...

Kazim gestures with his gun toward the now-unconscious Brody.

The other two men take Brody's hands and drag him into one

of the book-lined aisles.

INT. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS - DAY

DECOMPOSING CORPSES rest in niches carved into the stone

walls. Grotesque skeletal remains with rotting linen stretched

across blackened bones.

Indy holds the lighter up as he and Elsa inspect symbols

carved into the walls.

Elsa spots a symbol cut into the wall that she doesn't

recognize. As she blows away some cobwebs:

ELSA:

What's this one?

Indy only has to give it a quick glance to know.

INDY:

The Ark of the Covenant.

ELSA:

Are you sure?

INDY:

(deadpan)

Pretty sure.

Indy holds the lighter up and he and Elsa enter another dark

passageway.

ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS

Indy steps to the wall and runs his hand over the stone. He

scrapes the cobwebs away to reveal the ROMAN NUMERAL "X."

INDY:

Watch out.

Elsa now holds the lighter as Indy rams his shoulder into

the wall. The wall collapses on impact and Indy falls through

into another room.

ANOTHER ROOM - THE CATACOMBS

As Indy falls through the hole in the wall onto rocks

surrounded by bubbling, green, slimy liquid. More skeletons

surround him, resting in their carved niches. Elsa holds the

lighter as she peers in at him through the hole in the wall.

INDY:

Petroleum. I could sink a well down

here and retire.

Indy reaches up and tears a piece of cloth from one of the

skeletons, which breaks apart and falls into the oil-slick

water.

Indy uses the scrap of cloth and a bone to fashion a crude

torch, which he then dips into the oily water.

INDY:

Give me the lighter.

ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS

Using the cloth-wrapped bone torch to guide their way, Indy

and Elsa come upon a NARROW PASSAGEWAY. The water is knee-

deep and TEEMING WITH RATS. Thousands of them crawling on

one another's backs. SQUEALING. Squirming. Thrashing in the

water.

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