Outbreak Page #4

SALT:

Yes, sir, Izzy, sir.

The plane surges forward and taxis down the runway.

GILLESPIE:

I want to know just one thing.

Can you read electron micrographs

as well as you can run?

SALT:

I'm not sure how to assess the

question -

IZZY:

-- Just say 'yes, sir,' Captain.

Whatever the Colonel asks, you

just say 'yes, sir.' That's how

we keep him under control.

GILLESPIE:

Have you ever seen filovirus

infection in a human being?

SALT:

No, sir.

GILLESPIE:

It's about as pretty as goin'

naked up the middle against the

Dallas Cowboys.

(CONTINUED)

19.

CONTINUED:

SALT:

I grew up on the South Side of

Chicago, sir. Whatever it is,

I can handle it.

GILLESPIE:

I hope so, because if you can't,

you'll make a mistake. You'll

be holding a needle and it'll

slip. Or your glove will have

a crack in it and you won't notice.

You work with filoviruses, it's

like working with plutonium. A

single drop of blood can hold

six billion... That's more

filoviruses than there are people

in the world. You get a single

one of those inside you, you're

infected. Say you're lucky and

it's one of the few filoviruses

we have antiserum for. Then we

can treat you and you'll probably

live. But say you're unlucky.

And you get one of those

filoviruses we don't have an

antiserum for, which is most of

them. There's no medicine, no

cure, nothing we can do to help

you. Your body gets so hot, your

liver, your kidney, all your

vital organs melt, and your skin

turns into tapioca pudding.

Stunned silence.

IZZY:

(smiles)

He means chocolate pudding.

Salt smiles slowly. He likes Izzy.

The WHEELS come up with a THUMP. The giant jet shakes

and rattles and soars into the air.

SHOCK CUT TO:

TWO U.S. ARMY HUEY HELICOPTERS - DAY

flying low over the rain forest. The first carries

Gillespie and his crew, the second is a gunship flying

escort. They pass over the wide Motaba River that

snakes for miles.

(CONTINUED)

20.

CONTINUED:

On the river:
a Zairean Army patrol boat cruises downstream,

looking for guerrillas. The machine gunner

swivels his cannon around at the two choppers.

The machine gunner looks up at the U.S. Army insignia

and waves.

INT. BACK OF CHOPPER

Izzy slips the clear helmet over General Ford's head.

PULL BACK to reveal:

The General covered from head to toe in BL-4 biosafety

suit. Salt, dressed the same, looks on, amused.

FORD:

(panicking)

How do you breath in here?

IZZY:

(laughs)

With a respirator. Positive

pressure's what you want. Keep

those buggers out.

Izzy flips the switch on Ford's respirator, which sucks

air out of the atmosphere, filters it, and pumps it

into the suit. Ford starts to swell up like the

Pillsbury doughboy.

FORD:

And I thought it was a hassle

wearin' a tie all day.

INT. FRONT OF CHOPPER - A LITTLE LATER

Gillespie, now suited up in full biosafety gear, but

holding his helmet in his hands, sits beside the

CHOPPER PILOT. In the distance, we see a village in

which numerous huts are burning.

GILLESPIE:

We got a lot of equipment.

You're gonna have to get us in

close.

PILOT:

I... I don't want to get no

disease, sir.

GILLESPIE:

Then don't kiss me, Sergeant.

CUT TO:

21.

CHOPPERS:

throwing up a storm of dust as they sweep down to the

ground on the perimeter of the village.

INT. CHOPPER

Gillespie, Salt, Berman and Ford stand by the door,

ready to get out as soon as the chopper puts down.

Gillespie has to shout at Salt over the sound of the

WHIRLING CHOPPER BLADES:

GILLESPIE:

Captain Salt, if you fail to

observe strict decontamination

protocol, three things can happen.

First, you can be court-martialed.

Second, you can die from this

horrible disease. Third, and

worst of all, you can incur my

displeasure. You got it?

SALT:

Yes, sir.

GILLESPIE:

If one of us gets sick, we all get

sick.

(turns to Ford)

And I didn't come here to die.

BURNING HUTS - WIDE ANGLE SHOT

juxtaposed against the U.S. Army choppers disgorging

the U.S. Army Infectious Disease Team -- blue space-

suited figures with the U.S. flag emblazoned on their

arms and helmets.

The ju-ju man remains high on the cliff above the

village, chanting and wailing, burning an offering to

the gods.

The U.S. Army Team approaches the village through the

smoky haze, and we see -

Two different worlds juxtaposed -- men in spacesuits

and a man in a loincloth.

Gillespie, followed by Berman, Salt and Ford, moves

across the village which now looks devastated and

deserted except for a few remaining huts and a small

cinder block building with an old Volkswagen van,

marked with a red cross, parked out front.

(CONTINUED)

22.

CONTINUED:

Ford walks slower taking everything in, appalled at

what he sees.

The U.S. Army team enters the cinder block hut.

INT. CINDER BLOCK HUT

A short, slender, bespectacled black man in his late

forties -- DR. IWABI -- head of the Zaire Infectious

Disease Heath Agency -- and his NURSE, protected only

by a smock, a surgical mask, and gloves, gives comfort

to a young woman who's dying.

GILLESPIE:

Doctor Iwabi? I brought blood,

plasma -

DR. IWABI

-- You're too late.

GILLESPIE:

I came as soon as I could.

DR. IWABI

It wouldn't have mattered when you

came. This one is different -worse

than Lassa, worse even than

Ebola. It strikes and kills so

fast. The young, the healthy,

everybody.

GILLESPIE:

Who was the index case?

DR. IWABI

A road construction worker.

IZZY:

How did he get it?

DR. IWABI

We don't know. He died three days

ago.

Salt moves ahead to the next bed and pulls aside the

thin mosquito curtain to inspect the patient. Ford

is right behind him.

SALT:

God...

(CONTINUED)

23.

CONTINUED:

The corpse's eyes are yellow and his flesh, speckled

with hemmorrhages, looks like pulp. Blood oozes from

his nose and his nipples. Ford turns away in horror.

SALT:

(retches)

I'm gonna be sick.

He starts to rip off his mask. Gillespie grabs his

arms.

GILLESPIE:

Keep you helmet on, Goddamit!

SALT:

I can't breath.

Salt vomits in his helmet. Rips it off. He rushes

out. Izzy moves after him.

GILLESPIE:

Put him in quarantine. Now!

DR. IWABI

You don't need to.

GILLESPIE:

Why?

DR. IWABI

It's not spread in the air.

GILLESPIE:

How do you know?

DR. IWABI

(pulls down his mask)

There's no cough. Or we'd all be

dead. For days we've been working

with only these masks. They can't

keep out a particle as small as a

virus.

GILLESPIE:

Could any infected person have

gotten out of this village and

spread it?

DR. IWABI

The incubation period is only one

or two days. The mortality is one

hundred percent.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

24.

CONTINUED:

DR. IWABI (CONT'D)

If anyone got out, they are dead,

or will be soon. And if they have

spread the disease, we will know

rather quickly.

GILLESPIE:

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