Once Upon A Time Pilot Page #7

Season #1 Episode #1

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CONTINUED:

He pulls her in and kisses her deeply. It’s more than sweet. This is the proclamation of a man who believes in EPIC LOVE. The music swells. A triumphant sense of hope fills the room. And then -- Snow quickly pulls away. Her face ASHEN.

CHARMING What is it?

Snow doubles over. CLUTCHING her stomach. Looks up. Her face a ball of agony.

WHITE She’s coming...

OFF SNOW, freaking out at this wrench

EXT. CASTLE - NIGHT - FAIRY TALE LAND

in their plans --

vast field leading to a

UP ON THE GUARD TOWER. Overlooking a

forest in the distance. Grumpy keeps watch with two KNIGHTS. Beside him is another DWARF, eyes closed and snoring. Yeah, this is SLEEPY.

ON GRUMPY. Glances around. Sleepy’s out. No one sees him so -- he pulls out a FLASK. Takes a swig. Then puts it away as he resumes staring out into the forest. He squints in the moonlight. He sees something that panics him. BLINKS. Then turns quickly to Sleepy, ROUSES HIM.

GRUMPY Get up. WAKE UP.

Sleepy rubs his eyes. Stands.

SLEEPY (yawning)

What is it? Grumpy points out --

GRUMPY:

At the tree line... are you seeing

this...

Sleepy looks out. The knights join them and they see -- THE DISTANT TREE LINE of the FOREST.

Animals -- squirrels. A wolf. A deer. One after another, a steady stream of woodland creatures race out. A STAMPEDE. And if we Tivo-paused... we might see a UNICORN in the middle. But what we can see is that, on their animal faces, is an unmistakable look --

(CONTINUED)

38.

CONTINUED:

FEAR. For following the animals? Is a BLACK CARRIAGE surrounded by BLACK KNIGHTS. Riding in the carriage is THE EVIL QUEEN. And then, behind the carriage... seeping out of the forest is a SHEET of GREEN MIST. Like a FOG that envelopes everything it passes over and swallowing it up.

BACK ON THE GUARD TOWER.

Grumpy sucks in his breath. Getting it. He turns toward a BELL. And rings it LOUDLY. Shouting --

GRUMPY:

The curse. IT’S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

END OF ACT THREE

CUT TO BLACK.

39.

ACT FOUR:

INT. ANNA’S ROOM - STORYBROOKE - MORNING

OVER BLACK. We hear... BANGBANG. Someone is pounding on a door. FADE UP ON Anna. Sound asleep. BANGBANG. She stirs awake. Hops out of bed, in gym clothes. She opens the door to see Regina. Amped. Eyes wild.

REGINA:

Where is he?!? Henry? HENRY!?!

She doesn’t wait for an answer and blows by into the room. Standing behind her is the sheriff. Anna looks at him.

40.

Again?

ANNA:

GRAHAM:

Regina strides over to Anna, controlled fury. And worry.

REGINA:

Did he contact you? Have you heard

from him at all?

Anna shakes her head. Regina grows more worried, frustrated.

REGINA:

He wasn’t in his room this morning.

ANNA:

I don’t know what to say. I’m

sorry.

Regina collects herself. Tries to stay calm.

REGINA:

No, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to

keep bothering you. I know you have a long drive back to Boston.

(to the sheriff) Graham. Let’s go.

As they move out, we hold on Anna. Her face filled with emotion. Yeah, that’s GUILT. She knows this, however unintentionally, is her fault. She wants to help. SO --

ANNA:

Have you tried any of his friends?

REGINA:

He doesn’t really have any. He’s

kind of a loner.

Afraid so.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

OUCH. That sure as hell strikes a chord with Anna. That’s something she and Henry have in common.

ANNA:

Every kid has friends.

checked his computer? anyone he’s close to. emailing them. That’s should start.

GRAHAM:

And you know this how?

ANNA Finding people is what

Have you If there’s He’d be where you

I do.

INT. HENRY’S ROOM - REGINA’S HOUSE - MORNING

CLOSE ON a HOOKAH SMOKING CATERPILLAR. WIDEN TO SEE -- it’s a COMPUTER SCREEN SAVER. Anna moves the mouse, revealing a web browser as we see we’re in Henry’s room. On the wall are shelves filled with BOOKS and a large collection of CUCKOO CLOCKS. Pictures and drawings are everywhere. This is a boy who wants to live any world but this one. ANNA taps away at the keyboard. Regina watches, anxious, by Graham.

ANNA:

Kid’s smart. He cleared his inbox.

All his emails are gone.

Anna pulls out a USB card on her keychain. Plugs it in.

ANNA:

Luckily, I’m smart too. Little

hard disk recovery utility I like to use. When you delete something, all you’re doing is telling the computer to ignore the data. Doesn’t mean it’s gone yet.

SHERIFF:

I’m a bit more old fashioned in my

techniques. Pounding the pavement. Knocking on doors. That sort of thing.

ANNA:

Well, you’re on salary. I get paid

for delivery. Pounding the pavement isn’t a luxury I get.

ON THE SCREEN -- the INBOX reforms. Email after email reappears. Anna raises her eyebrow at one.

(CONTINUED)

41.

CONTINUED:

ANNA:

Huh. A receipt from a website.

(she clicks on it) “Who’s your mommy dot com?”

She shakes her head in disbelief --

ANNA:

Guess we know how he found me.

Her fingers fly through. She explores the site.

ANNA:

Expensive. Does he have a credit

card?

REGINA He’s ten.

ANNA:

Well he used one... let’s see if I

can get a transaction record... (taps the keys, then --)

Who’s Mary Margaret Blanchard?

Regina’s face tightens. She KNOWS and doesn’t like her.

REGINA Henry’s teacher.

Her the tone says it all -- Regina doesn’t like this woman.

REGINA:

Thank you for the help, Ms. Swan.

But I’ve got it from here.

And that’s when GRAHAM shocks them both, nods at Anna --

42.

What?

GRAHAM Anna should go.

ANNA REGINA What?

GRAHAM:

This falls under pounding the

pavement. My area. (to Regina)

If Mary Margaret helped him find her...

(nods at Anna)

Then she’s the only way to get him to stop running.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

Before Regina can protest, Anna sighs.

ANNA:

He’s right. I’ll go.

REGINA:

But we’ve troubled you enough --

But Anna -- knows what must be done --

ANNA:

All due respect, it’s on me. Don’t

worry, I’ll bring him back.

OFF ANNA, wanting to close the book on this, but maybe, just maybe, a little bit WORRIED too, we CUT TO --

INT. CATHOLIC SCHOOL - CLASSROOM - DAY

ON a roomful of fourth graders. Sitting at their desks, listening raptly to a SWEET VOICE as they work on an art project. Building small houses --

SWEET VOICE:

As we build our bird houses,

remember that what you’re making is a home, not a cage. A bird is free and will do what it will. This is for them, not us.

REVEAL -- SISTER MARY MARGARET BLANCHARD. A nun and their teacher. And the first thing we notice -- she looks EXACTLY like SNOW WHITE. Now we know for sure, Henry is casting real people from his life in his stories. She’s holding a small BLUEBIRD. And demonstrates her point. She lets it go by the window sill. It flies outside the window and... right to a bird house perched on a tree.

MARY MARGARET:

They’re loyal creatures. If you

love them and they love you, they will always find you.

The BELL RINGS.

MARY MARGARET:

We’ll pick this up after recess.

No running...

The kids file out the door and past Anna. Who enters. Mary Margaret sees her. Is puzzled. But there is NO RECOGNITION.

(CONTINUED)

43.

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