Pearl Harbor Page #21

In the main ward, Evelyn and the other nurses are using the

fly sprayers to spritz cooling antiseptic on the charred

bodies. Evelyn looks up and sees both Rafe and Danny. Her

eyes register relief, but they are the only part of her that

can show emotion now; the rest of her is covered in blood.

Rafe and Danny move to her.

RAFE:

How can we help?

INT. HOSPITAL - PEARL HARBOR - NIGHT

Rafe and Danny sit quietly as Evelyn adjusts the tubes

conducting blood from their arms into sterilized Coke bottles

for transfusion.

RAFE:

What else can we do?

EVELYN:

There's nothing you can do here, they'll

die or they won't, we just --

She stops, afraid if she says more, she'll lose grip on her

emotions. She can see the wreckage out in the harbor.

EVELYN:

There was a sailor, a black man on the

West Virginia, named Dorie Miller. I'd

like to know if he's alive.

She goes back to her work.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - DAY

Rafe and Danny hop from the ambulance in which they've

hitched a ride to the harbor. They see the awful

devastation.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - NIGHT

Rafe and Danny reach the West Virginia's pier, but in the

darkness, they can't find anything. They stop a NAVAL

OFFICER.

DANNY:

Where is the West Virginia?

OFFICER:

There.

He points; the battleship has sunk, its superstructure barely

showing above the water.

It looks hopeless to find a single sailor here; but then they

see a powerful black sailor, pulling to the dock with a

dinghy full of dead men retrieved from the water. As workers

unload the bodies, the black sailor sits down, exhausted

physically and emotionally, his head in his hands. Rafe and

Danny approach him.

DANNY:

We're looking for Dorie Miller.

DORIE:

That's me, Sir.

RAFE:

A friend of ours wanted to be sure you're

alive. Evelyn. A nurse.

DORIE:

How is she?

DANNY:

Like we all are.

Miller nods, and looks out over the harbor, a hellish place

where black smoke still hangs over everything, the shattered

remains of men and ships still in the harbor. It's total

devastation. And yet something about that scene stirs

something else in Dorie Miller.

DORIE:

There's something out there I need to

get. Will you help me?

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - AFTERMATH - NIGHT

Dorie pilots the dinghy through the floating debris. Rafe

and Danny sit with him. He stops over a dangerous pile of

superstructure wreckage.

DORIE:

The Arizona. Hold the dinghy steady, so

it doesn't bust open.

Rafe and Danny brace the dinghy so it doesn't move; but they

still don't see what Dorie is after as he fishes down in the

water, for something barely at the surface; he works for a

moment, then pulls it up.

It's the oil-soaked flag of the Arizona.

EXT. HULL OF OKLAHOMA - NIGHT

Men are working through the night to save the sailors trapped

in the hull.

INT. OKLAHOMA - THE TRAPPED SAILORS

are in total darkness. From it we hear GASPING, then --

SAILOR:

What's that?

The light comes on and sweeps around the faces. The water is

up to their chests, but it's stopped rising.

SAILOR FLASHLIGHT

Just hand on. They'll find us.

SAILOR:

How do you know?

SAILOR FLASHLIGHT

Because we would find them.

He switches the light off again.

EXT. HULL OF OKLAHOMA - NIGHT

The welders are cutting away, the torches sending showers of

sparks everywhere.

INT. OKLAHOMA - THE TRAPPED SAILORS

They are gasping, running out of air.

SAILOR FLASHLIGHT

Breathe easy. Stay calm.

SAILOR:

You hear something?

Something stirs in the ship; a noise...from where? Then a

point of light; sparks fly into the room; somebody's cutting

through the wall. And the sparks illuminate faces suddenly

filled with hope.

But as the cut enlarges, the trapped air, compressed by the

water, starts rushing out -- and the water starts rising

again. The trapped sailors hope turns to terror.

SAILOR:

It's letting out air, and letting in

water!

The steel circle pops out, and they knock the welders down in

their hurry to escape.

Some of the sailors who were trapped are naked. They fight

their way toward the escape hole cut into the hull, assisted

by rescue workers.

EXT. HULL OF OKLAHOMA - NIGHT

The trapped sailors emerge, and they can barely take in the

devastation. Destroyed ships everywhere, the smoking

wreckage... The rescued sailors gaze around them in shock.

They are shivering, and other sailors put blankets around

them.

EXT. WHITE HOUSE - DAY

The entire Washington press corps is waiting, with fresh

bulbs in the flash attachments of cameras that are already as

big as a shoe box. The President is wheeled out of the White

House, and not a single photographer takes a picture...not

yet.

Aides help Roosevelt from the chair, and the press people all

see the President struggle on legs that have no strength, to

the podium. His aides lock the steel clasps at the knees of

his braces into place, and the President stands at the

microphone. And suddenly, from the front, Roosevelt looks

powerful, even majestic.

Now all the bulbs pop and flash. He looks into the cameras.

ROOSEVELT:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date

which will live in infamy -- the United

States of American was suddenly and

deliberately attacked by naval and air

forces of the Empire of Japan.

OVER THIS, we see the bombing, the aftermath, the bodies

being fished from the oil-soaked harbor.

ROOSEVELT:

The distance of Hawaii from Japan makes

it obvious that the attacks was planned

many days or even weeks ago. During the

intervening time the Japanese Government

has deliberately sought to deceive the

United States by false statements and

expressions of hope for continued peace.

EXT. PACIFIC OCEAN - DAY

The Japanese fleet steams back toward Japan. The young

officers are exultant...but Yamamoto is pensive.

ROOSEVELT:

...I regret to tell you that many

American lives have been lost.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - DAY

We see rows of bodies outside the hospital where Evelyn

works.

The mess hall has been converted to a silent morgue, with

bodies on every table.

ROOSEVELT:

Yesterday the Japanese Government also

launched an attack against Malaya. Last

night Japanese forces attacked Hong

Kong... Guam...

OVER THIS, EXT. ISLANDS - NIGHT

We see Japanese planes bombing islands, and soldiers

attacking amphibious landings.

ROOSEVELT:

...the Philippine Islands... Wake

Island... And this morning the Japanese

attacked Midway Island.

EXT. WHITE HOUSE - DAY

ROOSEVELT:

The facts speak for themselves. With

confidence in our armed forces -- with

the unbounding determination of our

people -- we will gain the inevitable

triumph -- so help us God. I ask that

the Congress declare that since the

unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan

on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of

war --

The words echoes out across America --

ROOSEVELT'S VOICE

War...war...war...

It rings through the radios of farm houses, to country boys

gathered round; in the pool halls of big cities; in the fire

houses and high schools...

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