Pearl Harbor Page #16

ANTHONY:

Billy!

Anthony tries to grab him and drag him back to earth but he

misses; Billy gets a few steps before the fire from a

strafing Zero catches up to him; his friends watch in horror

as Billy gets shorter as he runs; the Zero's machine gun fire

is sawing his legs off from the feet up.

Billy falls, legless but still alive; then a bomb falls

almost on top of him, sending body parts over the pilots.

Their innocence, like America's, is gone in that moment.

EXT. ROAD TO MAIN AIRFIELD - DAY

Danny and Rafe are in Danny's Buick, hung over and asleep,

Danny in front, Rafe in back, and they're a miserable sight

-- their shirts ripped, blood dried in a leak trail from one

side of Rafe's nose and the corner of Danny's mouth.

The rumble of planes moving overhead makes them stir; the

rumble grows huge, as the shadows of a massive formation

makes the sunlight flicker. Danny and Rafe squint up, their

heads pounding, and realize what they're seeing. Suddenly

their headaches are gone, and Danny's gunning the Buick down

the road, toward the base.

EXT. AIR BASE - DAY

Danny blasts through the main gate; the guards are too busy

taking cover and haven't even closed the barrier.

He races to the tarmac, where some of the planes are still

undamaged. Rafe is out the door before the car stops

rolling, and Danny's right behind him.

They're running toward a cluster of fighters, when it goes up

with a bomb blast. Rafe and Danny dive at each other; their

first instinct is to cover their best friend with their own

bodies.

They look at each other on the ground. They see machine gun

bullets thudding into the planes on the flight line, and

ripping along the walls of the buildings. It's as if the

whole Japanese airforce is attacking this one base, and not

leaving a single plane airworthy.

RAFE:

Get me into a plane!

DANNY:

Come on!

Danny sprints; Rafe follows. Danny reaches a phone booth,

and digs a dime from his pants.

RAFE:

You're making a phone call?!

Danny dials, as waves of bullets sweep the area, and more

planes blow up on the flight line. Rafe thinks he's lost his

mind.

DANNY:

(into phone)

This is Walker! We're under attack! Get

those planes fueled and armed RIGHT NOW!

He runs back toward the car; Rafe, in the nonsense of battle,

reaches in to hang up the receiver, before Danny grabs him

and leads him on a sprint to the car, as the phone booth

shatters behind them from the strafing.

On the way to the car they dive back to the ground to avoid

strafing -- and see their friends lying nearby, in shock.

ANTHONY:

They got Billy.

DANNY:

Come with us!

He and Rafe jump up and run again. Anthony, Red, and several

other pilots reach the Buick and dive in. Danny drives away,

through the strafing.

RAFE:

Where are we going?

DANNY:

Auxiliary field at Haleiwa, ten miles

north of here.

RAFE:

What's there?

DANNY:

Six P-40's.

As the Zero pilots see the Buick moving, they go after it.

Danny drives like a madman through the strafing, zigzagging

and gunning the Buick's V-8.

EXT. THE OKLAHOMA - STILL AT ANCHOR - DAY

The number of attacking planes seems endless -- and their

strategy flawless. Torpedoes hitting one ship lifts its hull

with a blast, enabling the next wave of torpedoes to rush

under and hit the next ship anchored behind. The American

battleships are bobbing like see-saws.

The OKLAHOMA takes an entire barrage of torpedoes, blowing

thirty foot holes along it's hull; the ship immediately

begins to list.

INT. THE OKLAHOMA - DAY

Doors are wedged shut by the deformation of the structure;

vertical ladders are becoming horizontal, and water is

pouring in. Men fight their way up against the water.

INT. INNER COMPARTMENT OF THE OKLAHOMA - DAY

Water is up to the trapped sailor's waists when they grab a

wrench and start taking turns pounding S.O.S. in Morse code

on the bulkhead.

EXT. DECK OF OKLAHOMA - DAY

As the listing grows more severe, sailors start jumping from

the deck into the water. Still the Marines on deck are

firing back at the planes; some Marines are even using

handguns. But courage does not save them...

THE OKLAHOMA ROLLS OVER

The men still on its deck try to run, but it's not just the

fires and the water they can't escape; the gun turrets' 1400

pound shells break loose with the capsizing of the ship and

tumble through everything like massive wrecking balls.

The sailors and marines, thrown into the water, struggle to

get away from the suction as the giant battleship turns

turtle.

BELOW THE WATER men are sucked down with amazing force, every

hair on their heads streaming behind them as they're snatched

to the depths.

INSIDE THE OKLAHOMA, everyone and everything is spilling

upside down. The ship's generators sputter out and the

lights go out. The flashlights of the few sailors who can

find them cut raggedly through the darkness, and water spills

in. There is no escape.

BELOW THE WATER, the Oklahoma's superstructure hits bottom;

some men are crushed there. For others it's salvation, as

the BACKWASH blows them toward the surface.

ON THE SURFACE the men are launched almost completely out of

the water, before splashing back into the water and burning

oil. A few feet of the steel hull and a portion of the

propeller protrude above the surface, but most of the

Oklahoma is under water.

Men in the water swim toward a medical launch carrying

wounded away from the wreckage. A bomb hits the launch and

blows body parts everywhere.

INT. OKLAHOMA - REAR COMPARTMENT

In one compartment there are a dozen trapped men. They've

survived the roll-over, and are in a chaotic world where the

floor is now the ceiling. The water is up their waists.

Some of the SAILORS are panicking.

One sailor has a flashlight and switches it on, flashing the

light from face to face.

SAILOR WITH THE FLASHLIGHT

Don't panic! Don't panic!

PANICKED SAILOR:

The water's rising! It's coming up,

we're all gonna drown!

SAILOR WITH THE FLASHLIGHT

The air pressure will equalize it!

But the water keeps rising, along with their fears. Several

of the sailors are still screaming...

The water's already to their bellies. One of them grabs a

wrench and starts slamming Morse code against the bulkhead.

One sailor in the middle of the room is particularly

panicked, not just yelling but crying and whimpering --

TERRIFIED SAILOR

Get me out! Get me out!

SAILOR WITH THE FLASHLIGHT

Stop it! Come on! Save your air!

TERRIFIED SAILOR

MY FOOT'S CAUGHT!

He's at the lower end of the compartment, where the water is

deeper -- the ship's nose is lower than her stern. The

water's up to the guy's neck.

The man with the flashlight dives down, and finds the guys

foot wedged together in the pipes of the ships ceiling -- now

their floor.

He pops up again. The water's up to the trapped guy's mouth;

he's already gagging.

SAILOR WITH THE FLASHLIGHT

Is there a hacksaw in that locker?!

They open it; tools spill out -- among them is a hacksaw.

They hand it to him; the sailor dives down and cuts off the

guy's foot.

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