Life Of Pi Page #16

138 EXT. RAFT - DAY 138

A school of dolphins, hundreds of them, pass in the distance,

the blue sea roiling.

PI:

Dolphins, Richard Parker!

Just beyond the school of dolphin, something else catches

Pi's attention on the horizon - a freighter, much like the

Tsimtsum, is within a few miles of their position.

PI (CONT'D)

Hey! HEY!! WE'RE HERE!! OVER HERE!!

Pi scrambles to the storage locker, pulling out the flare

gun. He loads and fires - the flare arcs high up into the

air, a miniature white star leaving a bright trail of fire

and smoke as it falls to the earth.

LATER -

139 EXT. RAFT - SUNSET 139

It's grown noticeably darker. The freighter is far off now.

140 EXT. THE LIFEBOAT - NIGHT 140

It is late now. Pi loads the last flare into his gun and

raises it into the air - then stops. The freighter, now a

fleck on the horizon, hasn't seen them. Pi watches as the

dark form of the boat sinks from view.

56.

Pi fires one last time, staring up at the archways of smoke

and the darkening sky. Pi lowers the flare gun. Richard

Parker yawns and turns away.

PI (WRITING - V.O.)

Above all, don't lose hope...

The flare burns a hole into the night.

141 EXT. THE LIFEBOAT, MONTHS LATER - DAY 141

HIGH ANGLE ("book cover" shot) - looking down on the boat,

adrift in the middle of the ocean. Pi lies curled on the tarp

in the bow; Richard Parker lies in the stern. Beneath the

boat, the ocean swirls with traffic, including an enormous

whale shark. It passes beneath the boat, the creature's form

blotting out the depths.

A141 ONBOARD - A141

A series of shots to show that Pi has grown gaunt, his eyes

wild from exhaustion and endless solitude. The tarp has

faded; the paint on the boat has become sun-bleached and

weather- beaten. Pi's hair has grown long; his skin has

darkened from olive-caramel to cocoa. The shirt has begun to

take on a look of thread-worn transparency.

He taps on the aluminum hull of the boat with his thumb in

time with his recitation:

PI:

...645682948602814931815602496...

EXT. THE LIFEBOAT - NIGHT

Richard Parker gazes into the distance; Pi stares intently

at the tiger.

PI:

What are you looking at...? Tell

me. What do you see?

The tiger turns and looks over the side of the boat into the

water; Pi rises and looks over the side as well, staring into

the depths...

57.

RP'S POV - starting on his own reflection in the water and

traveling downward, through schools of darting tuna, squid

and lantern fish, past fleeting memories of a storm and zoo

animals struggling to survive in churning waters and into the

darkest recesses of the sea, Pi finding a broken ship and

memories of a former life lying dormant on the ocean floor...

OUT OF POV - Richard Parker looks over at Pi as he gazes into

the water.

Cut to an extremely wide shot of the boat floating in a sea

of stars.

PI (WRITING - V.O.) (CONT'D)

Words are all I have left to hang

onto...

147 EXT. LIFEBOAT - DAY 147

Pi's fingers tremble as he writes in his manual, the tiny

cramped letters barely legible, every white surface of the

page covered.

PI (WRITING - V.O.)

Everything mixed up, fragmented.

Can't tell daydreams, night dreams

from reality anym --

The lead in his tiny stub of a pencil runs out, worn to a nub

of wood. Pi slowly puts down his pencil, brooding.

148 EXT. THE LIFEBOAT - DAY 148

Pi lies on the tarp, his position nearly unchanged, beating a

drum rhythm on the hull, a wreck of conflicted thoughts and

frayed nerves.

We hear a distant rumble of thunder. Pi raises his head. Dark

thunderclouds rise up over the horizon blackening the

heavens. Another rumble of thunder, this one closer.

PI:

Storm! Storm, Richard Parker!

149 EXT. LIFEBOAT - DAY 149

Pi takes down the canopy on the raft. Pi begins quickly

stowing his gear in the storage bench, beneath the tarp.

Richard Parker flees to the safety of his den under the tarp.

As Pi stows gear, he remembers his manual and takes it out

from his waistband.

58.

The storm front sweeps across the ocean in a squall line,

high winds and rain striking Pi and the lifeboat with

tremendous force. The manual slips from his hands and Pi is

knocked off his feet and into the water. He lifts his head

out of the water in time to watch the manual flying off into

the storm.

PI:

No!

The manual is gone. Pi ties himself to the lifeboat with a

rope from the raft.

150 EXT. LIFEBOAT - DAY 150

a stunning display of clouds and lightning fills the sky, as

Pi looks on in awe. The sky lights up, a vivid white splinter

of lightning crashing down from the sky, puncturing the water

near the lifeboat. The water is shot through with what looks

like the white roots of an enormous celestial tree; the clap

of thunder is tremendous.

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