Pearl Harbor Page #20

The lead pilot in the next squad of Japanese planes spots the

moving battleship, and leads his squadron on it.

They come whipping in over the waves, dropping torpedoes and

bombs.

INT. THE NEVADA'S BRIDGE - DAY

The Nevada's Captain feels the ship shudder as it takes hits

amidships.

CAPTAIN OF THE NEVADA

We're not gonna make it -- and if we go

down here we block the channel... Beach

her, there!

His officers relay the order to the helm, and the ship's

rudder turns as more blasts rip her hull.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - DAY

The Nevada swings off its course and runs aground.

INT. THE NEVADA'S DYNAMO ROOM - DAY

The impact jolts the boilers, already bursting with the steam

pressure; gouts of steam from rupturing pipes scalds and

blinds the engine room crew.

EXT. THE NEVADA - DAY

The Nevada, run aground at the shoreline, is now like a beast

cut from the herd; the predators swarm after it with

torpedoes and bombs.

One torpedo, missing the Nevada, skims right up the beach

itself and blasts a house on the shore to fragments.

Bombs detonate along the Nevada, engulfing the entire upper

deck in flames, ravaging the sailors.

EXT. HOSPITAL - DAY

The Nevada is grounded near the hospital; from the doorway

Evelyn can see the whole ship on fire, burning sailors

leaping off the decks. Her hearing, her presence of mind,

returns; she lets Betty go, and grabs an ORDERLY.

EVELYN:

Go to the base hardware store and get

some of those canister spray things they

use for killing bugs.

ORDERLY:

Insecticide?...

EVELYN:

No, just the sprayers. We'll fill them

with tannic acid, it'll sterilize them

and cool the burns! GO!

The orderly races away. They can still hear the bombs

falling outside.

A sailor staggers toward the hospital from the Nevada. He is

completely gray. Everyone stares at him, and then realizes

he is nude, burned gray, his skin ash.

Evelyn rushes to help him, shouting back over her shoulder to

the other nurses --

EVELYN:

We're gonna need every bed. If they can

breathe, make 'em get up and move

someplace else!

EXT. JAPANESE CARRIER - FLIGHT DECK - DAY

The first wave of planes lands on the carrier. The flight

leader rushes to the bridge.

INT. JAPANESE CARRIER - BRIDGE - DAY

Yamamoto's advisors are exultant.

GENDA:

We have achieved complete surprise! The

first wave is returning, the second is

attacking now, and we have lost only a

few planes. We can launch a third wave,

Admiral.

YAMAMOTO:

The second wave has not returned. And we

have no idea where their carriers are.

What is the damage report?

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

We have Commander Fuchida on the radio

now, Admiral.

Yamamoto nods and Fuchida's voice comes over the intercom.

FUCHIDA'S VOICE

I am over the harbor now...

EXT. SKIES ABOVE PEARL HARBOR - DAY

Fuchida is in a scout plane, high over Pearl. His vision is

hampered by the thick black smoke, but he can tell there has

been awesome devastation. He uses a diagram of the ships at

anchor to note the damage to each ship.

FUCHIDA:

(into radio)

We have a tremendous victory. Many ships

damaged, some totally destroyed. But the

Second Wave's attack is being hindered by

the smoke.

INT. WAR ROOM OF THE AKAGI - DAY

YAMAMOTO:

The more we attack, the harder it is to

find targets. And we no longer have

surprise.

GENDA:

If we launch the third wave and

annihilate their fuel depots, we destroy

their ability to operate in the Pacific

for at least a year!

YAMAMOTO:

And if we fail, and lose our carriers, we

destroy our ability to fight them at all.

(beat)

As soon as the second wave returns, we

will withdraw.

EXT. JAPANESE CARRIER AKAGI - DAY

The last planes touch down, and the lead carrier and the

other ships in the Japanese assault fleet turn back toward

home.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - AFTERMATH - DAY

The harbor is a place of shattered bodies and shattered

ships. Blood, body parts, debris everywhere, and all of it

made more hellish by the oil fires on the water and the

choking black smoke those fires produce.

Every survivor has become an emergency fireman, stretcher

bearer, medic, iron worker. They fish men from the water,

extract them from the tangled wreckage of the ships.

Everyone is screaming and yelling -- the wounded for help,

the helpers for more help.

Local firemen and civilians battle heroically too; the water

mains are ruptured, so they put pump water from the base

swimming pool toward the burning ships.

The PHOTOGRAPHER records this with his black-and-white film

camera. He is shaken, and yet he understands the magnitude

of what he is recording -- the loss of America's innocence.

EXT. ARMY BASE - AFTERMATH - DAY

In one place, outside a barracks, soldiers hit by the bombs

are just becoming conscious. One of them comes to.

CONSCIOUS SOLDIER

Sarge?! Where are you, Sarge?

He's crawling around toward the bushes; his legs are

shattered, but he's spotted a body. He reaches it, turns it

over -- and it's headless.

He turns away in horror...and finds himself staring at the

severed head.

The medics appear.

MEDIC:

We've got two more over here!

EXT. GENERAL SHORT'S OFFICE - DAY

The Western Union messenger, Tadao Fuchikami, delivers the

telegram from Washington.

INT. GENERAL SHORT'S OFFICE - DAY

Short and his staff are assessing damage.

SHORT:

I want lookouts and sentries everywhere,

with orders to shoot first and ask

questions later.

COLONEL:

You think an invasion possible, General?

SHORT:

After this morning, we better not

consider anything impossible.

An aide hands Short the telegram. He reads it --

SHORT:

From Washington. "Intelligence reports

an ultimatum from Japan to be given

precisely at one p.m. Washington time.

Just what significance the hour set may

have we do not know, but be on alert

accordingly."

The irony is bitter in his throat.

EXT. JAPANESE EMBASSY - OAHU - DAY

The Honolulu police roar up to the embassy in squad cars, and

burst through the doors.

INT. JAPANESE EMBASSY - OAHU - DAY

The police storm through the embassy and find the Japanese

there burning documents.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - AFTERMATH - DAY

Divers are going down, trying to save the trapped men. But

the tangle of the Arizona is horrific. One diver gets

trapped, and another tries to extricate him, and the steel

shifts and falls on them both.

ON THE DECK OF BOMB-SHATTERED BATTLESHIP, a naval CAPTAIN

oversees rescue efforts. The 17-year-old sailor he sent off

for ammo now approaches him, with great concern.

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAILOR

Sir, I...I lost the dinghy.

The captain looks out over the wreckage, great battleships

devastated in every direction.

CAPTAIN:

Well, son, we won't worry about the

dinghy today.

EXT. HOSPITAL - PEARL HARBOR - NIGHT

Danny and Rafe arrive at the hospital. Their fears of what

they might find aren't helped when they see the stairs into

the hospital covered in blood.

INT. HOSPITAL - PEARL HARBOR - NIGHT

Rafe and Danny enter. It's a scene from hell. Doctors are

doing amputations in the hallway. The once-pristine hospital

is now all red, with blood dripping through the mattresses,

onto the floor...

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